001all right we're going to call the meeting to order of the Dudley Charlton Regional School District School Committee we're meeting today at the Shepherd Hill Library on Wednesday September 24th at what is it 7 0 4 p.m okay um we are what uh Mr Earl you said we are just recording on Vimeo we're not live streaming that there was a change in the Vimeo platform that you are working on testing a new product and that streaming will hopefully come in the future hopefully in October and that if anybody is in the audience recording that they need to just notify the chair and there is no one in the audience recording and we're gonna move to the Pledge of Allegiance moment of silence And then on to consent agenda items, which is the approval of the
002warrants, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of September 10, 2025, and approval of the out-of-state field trip to Narragansett, Rhode Island for DMS. Anybody have any need to pull out anything from the consent agenda items? Pull out the meeting minutes. I did not watch the meeting. Okay, you didn't. Because I'm going to abstain. So unless you want me to abstain from all three. So I can't vote on the minutes. Did you read the meeting minutes? No. Because I didn't watch the meeting. Madam Chair, even if you're not in attendance, you can still vote on things. I have before, but I didn't review them. So that's why I'm saying I don't feel comfortable voting on the minutes. Okay. Yeah, we can separate the meeting minutes. We'll just pull them out. Can you pull out
003the field trip? I have a question about the field trip. Okay, we'll just take them all separately. Yeah. Okay. Let's see. So, sure. We approve the warrants. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Moving on to the minutes of the regular meeting of September 10th. Entertain a motion. Second. Kelly and Anthony. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. I already know that there are no no's so abstention okay one abstention that would be Caitlin okay and then as to the field trip for DMS entertain a motion Anthony a second Kelly any discussion I do I just had a question and the it just seems that we're getting these a little bit late like this field trip is today Was it today? Am I reading it wrong that the filter was September
00424th? Madam Chair, if you crawl through the school committee policy, the administration could, because of timing, could approve things tentatively until it comes to the full committee. But part of the reason why this was delayed is because they did not have the vote until recently, and then they had to go pick it up. Great. That's all I had a question about. All right, so no more discussions. So all those in favor? Unanimous. So moving on to communications, did anyone have any communications? I do. Madam chair, I would just like to bring to the public's attention that the charlin fire department substation construction Will be performing excavation and sewer tie-in work on September 30th from 7 a.m. To 7 p.m While the work is only expected to last one day. It will impact local traffic for
005that specific day In response Charlton Police Department will have four officers on road detail um during that time to ensure traffic impact is kept to a minimum but i would suggest keeping that in mind when planning timing for student pickup and transfer student pick up and drop off uh mr desantis is that something that principals can convey uh through messaging to the families i think it'd just be prudent definitely appreciate that thank you Madam Chair, just to reinforce the message we received today. So that's why it's coming under communication, and the principals were on that communication. Wonderful. So, yeah, okay. Just to reinforce that. Very much appreciate it. I'm sure the families would be appreciative as well. I'm sure it's always a sprint to the morning to get the kids jumped on. I'm sorry, Madam
006Chair. It's all the streets around it. It's not just the driveway to the child and middle school. It's that whole intersection, and every street is involved in the construction work. And to your point, so it will also affect the heritage as well. Yes, correct. Local and school traffic. I appreciate the communication. Anything else? I did miss one communication last meeting because I was not here and I wanted to get it out which was the trunk or treat event here at Shepherd Hill for October 5th the school committee was invited to participate again I wanted to ask if we wanted to do that again does anybody want to I know it's I know it's late I'm already doing it for CPAC yeah I might be at a meeting can we could we donate some some candy
007to the like with support with CPAC that's fine we've done that in the past too I think I know I think I think we did that you did that with CPAC like three years ago yeah yeah so so I'll have I'll put Kenny in on the loop as chair of the CPAC and he can send something out And then with no other communications, we get to move on to my favorite thing of the night, which is the superintendent's report. With that opening, I thought you were skipping it. Madam Chair and school committee, I do have a couple of items to share with you this evening. The first one is, as an email notification went out, and I know there was a broken link in it, or the link went to tick-borne diseases versus... mosquito-borne diseases.
008So I have something in here again on West Nile virus and Triple E. Triple E is less right now, but West Nile virus is definitely targeted in our area. We are continuing to work on the precautions. I know Principal Alwell is working with all outdoor activities, those that are leading those areas, to ensure that people have access to bug spray. We're not forcing anyone to use bug spray, but if they want access to it that's there, we also support people bringing their own bug spray. If they would like, this is homecoming week, there are a number of events happening this week. So we do support that. So I thought it would be important to repeat this in my report this evening. And this time I just added the precautions that are in there. Some of
009the precautions that the community should really take a look at is avoiding peak activity hours. I know that's not always possible. That's the opening one. So the others that follow are in the event that you are within the peak activity hours. Keep in mind that the peak activity hours for mosquitoes is dusk or dawn. I know that we do have a number of events during dusk. We have not been provided any direction from the health agents or health departments to change our current programming. So we do have good open communication with both communities for that. They do ask for people to wear protective clothing, long-sleeve pants, long-sleeve shirts, use repellents, secure living spaces, keep mosquitoes out of homes, and eliminate standing water. This will be the first time in a long time that we've had
010standing water because we had rain. Not for the first time in a long time, but it looks like it's going to rain for the next couple of days. So I think it will be important for people to try to eliminate some standing water that's around as well. And once again, as I shared, I appreciate the ongoing collaboration with the health director and health boards and health agents. The next item I have is for the homecoming football game this Saturday. It is being played in memory of A.J. A.J. Congdon, a beloved young member of our community who was lost to cancer. This tribute is especially meaningful as the date falls just two days after A.J.'s birthday, which I believe was today. Tomorrow? Tomorrow. I think tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow the evening will include several special recognitions to
011honor AJ spirit Bella his sister will serve as an honorary captain for the game Which I think is awesome symbolizing the strength and love that has surrounded this family throughout their journey in addition the Charlton Delta youth football program will be present to recognize AJ's former teammates Ensuring his memory continues to inspire both players and families AJ would have been in fourth grade this school year We invite the community to join us as we celebrate AJ's 10th birthday with Sheppard Hill football team during homecoming. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday the 26th. Family, friends, and teammates will gather to watch a great game and honor AJ's memory. AJ's strong t-shirts and stickers will also be available at the game, with all proceeds supporting the Anthony Congdon Memorial Scholarship here at Sheppard Hill Regional
012High School. I want to thank Mr. Eide, Steve Eide, Mr. O'Donnell, Chris O'Donnell, and Mr. Darren Elwell for working with AJ's family to thoughtfully organize this event. most importantly i extend my heartfelt gratitude to aj's mother jamie and james jj congan his father for allowing our district and community to share and honoring his life this gathering will be a powerful reminder of the strength compassion and connection that define the dudley chalton community as a whole the next item i have is with the deep appreciation this is in conclusion now i share that on sunday september 14 2025 the dudley child regional school district hosted the first ever shepherd hill school student-led tackle the stigma 5k walk run What began as an idea from our Sheppard Hill Regional High School cheerleaders and student leaders grew into
013a powerful community movement to shine a light on mental health, loss, and suicide prevention. With the support of our partners Break the Silence and the Jackal Foundation, more than 200 registered participants came together for a morning of hope, conversation, and solidarity. This was not just another 5K. It was a day where students, families, educators, and community members took meaningful steps towards breaking down stigma and building a culture of care. The event drew multiple vendors, parent volunteers, and supporters from across the district and beyond. Blessed with a beautiful September day, it was truly a celebration of compassion, connection, and student leadership in action. I extend my deepest gratitude to Loretta Andrade, the Sheppard Hill Regional High School Cheerleading Squad Coach, and our dedicated parent volunteers whose steadfast efforts made this inaugural event possible. A special recognition
014goes to student leaders Paige Warner, Maggie Blake, and Lucy Treba. along with cheerleaders Savannah Lachance, Delaney Navin, and Amelia Westbury, who joined me at Sneak-O-Rama one Thursday afternoon to visit the running club down in Worcester to spread the word. Their initiative and courage embody the very best of what Shepherd Hill offers in our student body. Thanks to the vision tackle the stigma will now become an annual tradition with year two already in the planning for next September We will have a date on the calendar in the coming weeks and I look forward to seeing this event grow as a beacon of awareness support and student driven advocacy for mental health loss and suicide prevention and that concludes the superintendent's report this evening any questions for Superintendent Lomarche? Like, Loretta's infectious with her spirit. She's full
015of spirit. I know, right? Okay. And, of course, with only Frank in attendance, no public comment. So moving on to new business. Which brings us to Mr. DeSantis. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a brief transportation update for the start of this school year. As most of you know, First Student launched their new app, FirstView 1.0, over the summer, and it took effect starting the beginning of this school year. Students and families can now view their route information on this platform. The first week of school had illustrated several issues with linking the correct route information. with the correct student it appears that first student has corrected the vast majority of these issues we are really not seeing too many at this point one or two may trickle in over the course of you know the last
016week or two but we've seen that the first view app appears to be functioning correctly and pulling the correct information for student rooting and addition additionally and in response to the concern brought to school committee during the september 10th meeting We have removed the DCRSD route information from our webpage and it is now only available through the Firstview 1.0 app. Again, we invite anybody or any family that may have any question on the process itself or their route information. We do have help contact information on the transportation website, so we can refer them to that. Or feel free to contact myself and Cheryl Koza if there are any further questions. We'll move to our... AHERA notification. The Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act requires DCRSD annually to report on our educational facilities that has been confirmed
017for having asbestos materials. There were no changes from last year or year over year. It's still Shepherd Hill Regional High School and Charlton Elementary School. The district does have an asbestos management plan in our school administrative office for review. If anybody would like to take a look at that, you're more than welcome to come in during business hours, and we will pull a copy for you to review. Additionally, we're required on an every three-year basis to re-inspect to determine if there are any more asbestos-containing building materials, which is scheduled for next year. That concludes my finance and operations report. Thank you so much. No questions for Joe? No? I know, right? Fantastic job for Joe. All right, so moving on to Frank for the FY 2024 audit presentation. Beautiful, happy, thick. Sorry, I'm happy to
018introduce Mr. Ceretti. Mr. Frank Ceretti is a managing director for CBiz, our audit partners. We work with Powers & Sullivan, who was then acquired by Markham, who was then acquired by CBiz. Mr. Ceretti has been a staple mark in our audit process through each of those entities and has a strong working knowledge of the district as a whole. So I will allow Mr. Ceretti to speak further on the results of the FY24 audit. Thank you, Joe. Thanks for having me. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. Present the results of the audit. I'd just like to start off by thanking the superintendent, director of finance and operations, the treasurer, rest of the finance team for all the cooperation and assistance that we received during the course of the audit. Everybody was great about getting the information
019together that we needed and requested for the audit. We use a secure portal that the information gets uploaded to, and we put our requests out there. So no issues with getting the information that we needed, getting answers to our questions. We have very good cooperation throughout the whole audit, so our team and myself really appreciate that. One of the issues that was noted in the prior audit was that there was a significant deficiency, and it was related to the timeliness of the audit. The district's audit had become later and later, like over the last, I would say, like three years prior to that, so maybe around 20 to 23. So we just felt, you know, we tried to work with the previous team and we felt as though it rose to the level over time
020that it was something that should be reported. And, you know, really happy to see that the district took the steps that were necessary to correct that and to kind of right the ship and get things back on course. I know you had a consultant in here in 24 to help get things caught up. And, you know, the audit, by the time we got in here for the 24 audit, things were in great shape we didn't have any issues so we consider that significant deficiency to be resolved so that's really good to see that you know that was taken care of right away timely was taken seriously and addressed the report in front of you is a draft report as far as the district being late for a few years our firm powers and sullivan merged
021as As you know, and we merged back in February of 24. We had a couple partners retire. And then we merged again in November of 24. So we went from Powers & Sullivan to Markham to CBiz. So that's been a lot of change for us. And as a result, we're a bit behind ourselves this year. So you might want to give us a significant deficiency. But we're working our way through that. And, you know, CBiz. is, you know, they've acquired our firm, they acquired another local firm like a year before they acquired us. They have a government practice that's also in Rhode Island, and there's another group in Florida, and so this is an area of their practice that they really want to develop and build, but pulling, you know, separate organizations together like that,
022it takes a little bit of time, but I feel like we're going in the right direction, and, you know, we expect to... you know, get back to where we were in the past and, you know, get back to issuing our reports timely and all of that. So I apologize for the delays with the reporting this year. That's on us. That's not on your team. Like I said, they got us what we needed when we asked for it. But we do expect to wrap up and be able to finalize the report, I would say, in the next week or two tops. And if anything significant comes out of our internal review process, which is what we have to go through before we can finalize, I can speak with Joe and set up another meeting or something
023to talk to you about it. But I'm not anticipating that there will be anything, any significant changes to it. All of that said, there's some required communications that I would like to share with you related to the audit. The first is just about our responsibilities as the auditor. Our primary responsibility with the audit is to express an opinion on the financial statements as to whether they're fairly stated in all material respects in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. And as part of the planning of the audit, we're required to... consider different things as to whether there is a significant risk of material misstatement in the financial statements and it can be you know the revenue sources that you have or accounts payable practices and those types of things and the only significant risk of material
024misstatement that we identified was management override of controls and that has to be considered a significant risk of material misstatement in all the audits that we do so that's not anything that's unique or you know an indication that there's any kind of weakness in internal controls or anything like that for the district but as auditors that means that management has the authority in the discretion to override controls and it also creates a potential for fraud and it also makes it difficult to detect and identify misstatements in the financial statements and so because of that being a significant risk in all audits essentially As the auditors, we're required to perform procedures to respond to that risk. And one of the procedures that we do is incorporate an element of unpredictability into our audit. And that means
025that we don't perform the same procedures every year for the audit because we don't want the team to know what we're going to do and know what we're going to be looking at. And so that's something that we do every year is incorporate an element of unpredictability. We also test journal entries. And we have a data service center where we can basically give them your general ledger and we can tell them you know different criteria to look for that these things would be unusual or these are things that are you know exceptionally risky that in the data service center can run queries on the transactions in the ledger in the journal entries and pull up entries that hit those criteria and so then we get the supporting documentation for those entries. And we make sure
026that there's a sound reason for the entries and that there's sufficient documentation. No issues with any of that testing. Nothing came up that was inappropriate. We also assign experienced staff to the engagement because they're more likely to be able to identify these types of things. We review estimates for bias and we evaluate the rationale for any significant or unusual transactions that might have occurred. Based on all of that... There was nothing that came to our attention that would indicate that there was any kind of management override of controls. Part of management's responsibility is the selection and use of appropriate accounting policies. The accounting policies can be found in note one of the financial statements. There were no new accounting policies adopted during the year, and the application of existing policies was not changed. Accounting estimates
027are an integral part of the preparation of the financial statements. and they're based on management's knowledge and experience about past and current events as well as assumptions about future events. The most significant estimates in the financial statements relate to the net pension liability, the net OPEB liability, and depreciation on fixed assets. We reviewed the underlying assumptions that were used to develop the estimates, and we found them to be reasonable in relation to the financial statements as a whole. Difficulties encountered in performing the audit, as I said, everybody was very cooperative and we had no difficulties in dealing with management while performing the audit. As part of the audit engagement, we were engaged to perform non-attest services. This includes preparation of the financial statements in their entirety. consolidating the funds into governmental activities and converting the
028financial statements to the accrual basis of accounting. We reviewed those procedures and we found that we would still be independent and able to perform those procedures without jeopardizing our independence. Corrected and uncorrected misstatements, we're required to accumulate all known and likely misstatements. communicate them to the appropriate levels of management. Happy to report that we didn't identify any misstatements during the course of the audit, so the books and records were in very good shape. Disagreements with management, this is defined as a financial accounting, reporting, or auditing matter. Whether or not resolved to our satisfaction, that could be significant to the financial statements of the auditor's report. And again, I'm happy to report no such disagreements with management occurred during the course of the audit. And management consultations with other independent accountants. In some cases, management might
029decide to go and get an opinion about an accounting or auditing matter similar to getting a second opinion. And there's nothing wrong with that, but our standards require that other accountant to consult with us to make sure that they have all the relevant facts. If that does in fact occur, to my knowledge, there were no such instances of consultations with other auditors. And so those are the required communications. I also have some financial highlights that I could go over with you. So general fund fund balance totaled $3.7 million. Of that, $1.4 million was assigned, $318 of that related to encumbrances. And another $1.1 million is E&D that was voted to fund the next year's budget because you typically vote some E&D to fund your budgets. And that resulted in an unassigned fund balance of $2.3
030million, which is about 6% of expenditures. That unassigned fund balance is the starting point for your E&D calculation. Excuse me. The DOR ended up certifying your E&D at the end of 630, 630-24 at $2.1 million. That was up from the prior year of $1.2 million. So you were able to build up some E&D, which we always see as a good thing as auditors. We're conservative. We like to see reserves. And if something unexpected comes up, then you have the ability to be able to fund that without having to borrow or something like that. So that was good. Good to see your operating results. Your operations resulted in an increase of $1.2 million in the general fund. Revenues came in over budget by $589,000. Most of that was related to intergovernmental revenues and investment income. And
031your expenditures also came in $1.7 million under budget. And from what I understand, there was a spending freeze that was put on. And that helped a lot to build up that fund balance. The surpluses were mainly in your instructional support, preschool, and special education lines. And those were offset by the use of $1.1 million. Those results indicate that you have a sound budget process and effective budgetary controls in place. Health insurance trust, not much change there. Balance is about $3.5 million. You had some investment income in there, and that was really about it. The OPEB liability totaled $22.2 million. That was a decrease of $560,000 from the prior year, and that decrease was just related to the change in the discount rate. The discount rate went from 3.54% to 3.96%. When does that become mature?
032When does it have to be paid up by OPEB? There's no legal requirement to fund the OPEB. Like the pension has to be funded as a law, you know for that but OPEB does not and you the district hasn't started funding it yet You haven't established a trust yet to do that Honestly, I would say that you're kind of falling behind other districts now because most Have started there's still a few out there that haven't started funding it and even like the cities and towns Most of them have started funding it If I had to guess, and it's a complete guess, I'd say you're maybe in the lower 20% or so that haven't started to fund it yet. And part of that discount rate, that discount rate really has a huge impact on the liability.
033When you're not funding, the discount rate just follows the 20-year AA municipal bond rate, so as that goes up and down, your discount rate goes up and down, and that can make your liability fluctuate. This year, it reduced your liability because it went up, which is good, but a 1% change in that discount rate can cause your liability to change by about $4 million. And when you start funding, as you build up money in your trust, You start getting away from just that double a municipal bond rate. They call it a blended rate until you get to a fully funded level So, you know if the municipal bond rate was three point nine six and you had a significant amount of money in your trust You might get a rate of like, you know four
034point five or five It just depends on how funded you are and then how your assets are invested and you know Yeah, and if your assets are invested to earn like, you know six and a half seven percent When you're considered to be fully funded, have enough money in the trust, then you're actually getting a discount rate. So as your discount rate goes up, your liability goes down. It's helping you to become fully funded. So it is a good thing if you can fit that into your budget. Even if you start small, like that's what we see, is that a lot of the districts, you get the trust established, you get that set up, and then just start with a small amount. Put $20,000 in or $40,000, and then you start to see it grow,
035and hopefully you can increase that appropriation a little bit each year, and then next thing you know, you've got a million dollars in there or something. We've seen people that were some of the first ones to start doing it in the state and they've got some pretty significant balances now. The other thing is your pension liability is required to be funded and once that is fully funded, a lot of the communities and schools are thinking, okay, we're going to take some of that money and we're going to use that to start funding the OPEB once the pension is paid down. THE PENSION, THERE IS A LEGAL REQUIREMENT TO FUND THAT, SO DEFINITELY THE MORE IMPORTANT TO FUND THAT ONE RIGHT NOW. BUT I THINK YOU DON'T WANT TO GET TOO FAR BEHIND THE OTHER SCHOOLS
036EITHER. something to put on the radar yeah and net pension liability this is with the Worcester regional retirement system for any people that are members of Worcester that liability totaled 17.4 million that's on the district's financial statements it increased by 348 thousand during the year Worcester is about 50% funded that's an increase of about 2% from the prior year and They actually lowered this discount rate from 7.25 down to 7.15, which is what we're seeing, like 7.25 is a little bit on the high side. A lot of them are getting down to 7, maybe even a little bit below, so they're still a little high, but we've seen some that are higher than that. So overall results of the audit, we were able to issue an unmodified opinion. That's a clean opinion, best you can
037get. It means your financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects. information we received was accurate no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in the current year and as I said all our interactions were professional and courteous there's also an audit of federal awards that's required for any entity that expends over 750,000 a year in federal funds the district expended four million dollars 1.3 million of that relates to the school lunch program and then the rest of it is just educational grants We were required to audit the child nutrition cluster in the education stabilization fund grants. And to this point, we have no findings or question costs related to that. So that's going to be a clean report unless something comes up in our final review. But like I said, I don't expect there to
038be. And that's everything. Yep. So great to hear yet again. Another wonderful year. of the administration doing another fantastic job with the auditors. Especially this time, you know, with the, everything was on time. You know, didn't have to, on time and awesome. It is an awesome combination. It's fantastic. Does anyone have any questions? Other than Anthony. And Anthony, you'll have to tell me all your questions again because I can't hear you when you're talking to your chest away from... I was just asking about the OPEB. Being a municipal employee, I'm familiar with it. We funded it in the municipality I work in, and so I was just inquiring a little bit about it since we haven't participated yet. But I read the entire draft. I'll admittedly do it. I did it in several pieces because
039it's pretty dry. I'm glad it was welcome news to see that it was so much more expediently closed than the previous years, and so that was a credit to our staff. And I think I appreciated your feedback on the report. Thank you. I think this was the fifth one I've read that didn't have... You do good work, but it doesn't come quick enough to us. Or you do good work, but we still want you to do this one little thing that puts you in the 21st century. So it was really nice to just have, like, you do good work. So I know you guys don't hear it enough, but you do awesome, so thank you. So the only question I'd have is you were mentioning, Corey, you were doing random polls for the audit purposes
040in a ballpark. How many Corys do you do or do you request from the administration for the audit process? Did you say Corey? Well, so you do audits and you say randomly, I want this. You mean queries? Queries, thank you. Randomly, how many do you think you pull from the administration for that? Are you saying query checks? No, no. Queries. Queries, oh, okay, I'm sorry. Random queries. Like how many transactions are we lost? You know, is it 100, 300? In a typical audit, how many do you randomly pull? Well, not all of our testing is done that way, but we... We do, you know, sample for internal control. I don't know. I'm going to say close to 100. That seems pretty significant to me. And to be able to get that information from the administration
041in a timely fashion for your auditing. Oh, yeah. I think that speaks volumes to the teamwork between the two parties. I just asked the question because I'm not sure if the public often knows what it involves and how much lifting in an audit. Yeah, there's a lot of work to pull all that. There's other testing we do, too, like looking at census data for the OPEB liability and looking at the employee files and making sure that all the census data is correct because that's what the liability is based on. Sure. Audit the revenue sources. It's a very thorough audit. definitely very much appreciate it so thank you very much my pleasure all right so thank you again all right and then moving on to director Harriman following that high note I know perfect timing for
042a request so we We did start the year we had several students move in over the summer as we always do Some of the students that moved in did require paraprofessional support We worked as an administrative team over the summer to really make sure that we maximize the paraprofessionals that we had You know there were transfers between buildings one, you know one school might have had Power professionals they didn't need so they were able to provide that to another school But at this time we are short one paraprofessional at Charlton Elementary School and that's in order to meet the services on IPs. And we have gone across the district again, and every paraprofessional is maxed. Their schedules have been maximized to make sure that the services are being provided to all students, but there are
043no additional paraprofessionals in the district that can be moved over to Charlottel at this time. Funding services? We have additional funds in Circuit Breaker. So are you looking for a motion that way? We add on a paraprofessional. Yes. For the budget. Entertaining a motion, please. Motion to add. Add on the position of a paraprofessional to the district. That is correct. Any more discussion? All those in favor? It's unanimous. Moving on to school committee policy, IHBH, a new policy. And I believe Mr. LaMarche will be speaking on this policy. I will, Madam Chair and School Committee. The policy sub we work with as policy sub, this is a required policy this year. It is actually due November 1st. I've been working on a waiver to extend it just in case we don't make it by November
0441st because of our... policy adoption processes but this is a middle school pathway exploration policy we're required to have this on the books this is for us to ensure that we provide opportunities for our students to attend a continuing technical education program and so we do we already do these things but this is still a requirement for us to put in place so this meets all the requirements that were in the guidance as i shared with policy sub i did email masc to see if they had a because the DASI provided us guidelines. They did not provide us with a model. It's not their responsibility, but MASC usually provides us with a model or at least something MASC did not. They felt it was too much of a variance between districts. So this has been
045reviewed and this is to meet the requirements of the guidelines from DESE for our students to have access to CTE programs or continuing education programs, which they do at Bay Path. And it also includes for you'll see Southern Worcester County Regional Vocational Technical High School but also includes agricultural agricultural high schools as well so this is distribution day for this to be distributed and I'll take any questions that may come from this but we will distribute this out after this evening to the community for feedback the goals of the middle school pathway exploration policy are to those from DESE those are from the guidelines yes okay I understand that we need to put this so that we can get it in by November 1st but I do see like providing structured opportunities for students to
046learn about career pathways in alignment with their future academic and career goals you know I don't see that as just the admission process into Bay Path and other schools like I think that's something that we need to work on overall as a district like I feel like The conversation I don't know what it's like in trouble, but at least in Dudley it doesn't feel like there's a conversation about Bay Path until it's like November until they start coming for admissions and Or even just what career pathways are possible at both Shepherd Hill and like I think more information needs to come out to middle school kids earlier and families and I don't necessarily think it has to be within this policy but I think as a goal like that would be a good thing I
047would respectfully agree that provide structure opportunities is somewhat vague yeah but we do meet some of that criteria by not only allowing Bay Path to come into our schools on those schools and present but also supporting our students heading on tours to visit Bay Path as well but I understand So there's no action by the committee this evening on the system for distribution? If worse comes to worse, like for that deadline, I mean, we can always override it with a two-thirds vote and put it in before the deadline and still wait for distribution and then amend it later. Right, but they do have a pathway for a waiver to extend it. You just have to put the data in. I'm just saying. Their system wasn't working when I was trying to submit the waiver. I'm
048just saying, just in case. Yeah, understood. Okay, and then... Do we need to take a vote to have it go through distribution? No. No. Right, because it's just the first read kind of a thing. Yep. All right, and then moving on to the next one. I should miss my place. There we go. The update of school committee policy KE. Again, Mr. LaMarche. So, Madam Chair, school committee, this actually came to you for distribution in May. Unfortunately, I never distributed it out to the community for feedback, so that's why it's coming back for distribution. We reviewed it again as a policy subcommittee to prepare this for. distribution out to the community so we did incorporate the feedback we received in May from school committee but there wasn't anything else beyond that I don't know if anyone
049had anything the question on this as well before we distribute it out to the community and cross that he's and daughter eyes on it future planning by the hand over schools I'm sorry it states under number six it says last bullet As you know, we take a lot of policies to review them and try to incorporate them. I understand. Before we distribute them, that's really good to catch. Right. They have to handle their own. And then I guess I do actually have one additional question under number seven. So if the concern, should there, I'm just asking, should there be another bullet under it if the concern is still unresolved? Would they come to you after the director if personnel isn't, like should there be another? outlet for them to go to if they don't feel
050their problems being solved by the director of pupil personnel services? The easy answer is yes. Okay. I mean, maybe that just goes without saying because it's the chain of communication. Well, yeah, that's what I was... It was just trying to guide them in a certain concern in an uncertain area. That's fine. I just wasn't sure because then I started thinking that, sure, it could go to any... All things could go to you at the end of the day under all of these things. No? Can I ask a question, too? Like, everything from 1 to 6 seems like they're people, but then 7 is, like, programming and services. Like, it seems like a category where it should be this. I don't know. Do you see what I mean by that? Because it talks about, like, here,
051you know, for the most appropriate person. Right. Through the chair, I think the reason why 7 is designed that way is because 7 is very individualized. Where all the others are like if you look at matters pertaining to district-wide policy transportation matters They may be individualized coming from an individual but there are within the general sense of that where special education programming services is very complex I think it also looks like that weird part as well. Like you know, it's got that extra layer Which should have its own legal like should it be separated apart from one to six? Do you know what I mean? so that it's not part of that you should contact these and then just put like okay for special education programs and services here is your here's your procedure if
052you want to be I don't I don't care I just I didn't know if it if you see any other policies or not There are very few policies that break it apart like this. Yeah. But we felt that this would be a good approach for Dudley Charlton as a policy subcommittee to break it apart so people, if they did have a question regarding policies regarding transportation or co-curricular programs, who to go to for those types of concerns. And again, special education programming services is a very complex department for us. But if you want, we can take a look at that to try to either fit it in with the 1 through 6 or separate it out. No, I think you're right to separate it. I'm just wondering if you just put, like, in front of
053special education programs, you just put, like, concerns with special education programming and services or something like that. I don't know. I just don't want it to be confusing to a parent. I get what you're saying. You're saying that 1 through 6 is really designated as a person. Special education is not. person but again I go back to that how complex it is it's there isn't one person that you can go to for special education there's many layers sorry are you putting in the superintendent in after number four number seven after the director of people personnel services because I don't want people to come to us before they go to you well again if I put it there I could put it for everything right yeah Right. It just reads different. Respectfully, I'd ask you to
054kick it back to Policy Sub and let us take a look at it again and bring it back in. Yeah. Could you do that, I guess? Sorry. All right. Can't wait. Thank you. Special ed is a different vibe. It's a very complex department for us. Maureen, I guess we know what we're looking at next. That's right. Thank you, guys. So we think we're not going to see it anymore. Alright, so then moving on to old business, which would be the superintendent's 2025-2026 goals. Madam Chair and School Committee, I did take the feedback that I received when I presented these, the draft presentation at the September 10th meeting. I did incorporate that feedback that I received. So if you look at standard one, I added the fourth bullet, conduct a SWOT analysis of curriculum instruction and
055professional learning systems to identify district strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and use findings to refine curriculum adoption in PD, I should probably just say professional development priorities instead of PD. I mean I do see the spell out SWAT leader. Yep. Okay. And then for the goal three, the feedback, excuse me, goal two, the bullet, it's the fourth bullet, maintaining consistent district office presence in schools and at key events to reinforce accessibility, support, and connection between district administration, principals, school staff, students, and families as well. And then with the goal three. I put in that with the expectation of achieving at least 80% completion by June 2026. Hopefully I can hit the ground running on that. You're going to make a motion that we can discuss. How about this? Because I missed last meeting. I really
056want to say something. Well, I think we have to make a motion. But I am going to say. entertain a motion to accept the goals to like what to move the goals as written someone make a motion for that just start discussion please thank you Anthony like for discussion so you moved it you want to speak first then I was very delighted to see some of the incorporated elements that Mr. LaMarche had put in after the feedback session, and I think they're valuable and some of them are very measurable. I think they will benefit greatly the student experience when we progress through these outcomes. So I was very happy to see that. Thank you. Thank you. You want to go first? Yeah, do you mind? No, I'm sorry. All right, so I've... I think I
057watched the Vimeo like three times. I think I've read through this probably six times. I think I've bugged Steve at least twice. And the more I go through this and the more I listen to it and I read it, the more they are meaty. There's a lot in there. There's a lot in here that can end up being deep dives. I really think at least one, goal one and goal three, I really think should be at least two-year goals. But number one on goal three, even though it doesn't explicitly state that it's a two-year goal. kind of conveys that by saying that at least 80% would be completed the first within this cycle so that would leave a remnant for a future year so it's not it's not explicitly stated but I think I think
058it's pretty I know it's not explicitly stated but I would really hate to have it be where June comes around and then it's Then it's you know just tackled by it and the job is so large and it's 60% and then he's not getting a green mark You know where it's just I I just can I make a suggestion about that goal? I felt really uncomfortable about that one as well not not I just think it's a lot a lot to do and I would rather see I agree I would rather see you make it into a two-year goal and have year one be like to for the updating of job descriptions just even year one is take stock Go through start your conversations with the committee's if you get further you get further and
059that's great But I wouldn't put it on your plate to get done with 80% of them because I don't know that We don't know what the budget season is gonna hold. We don't even know if we have time and you know, you're one person and In plus we don't know, you know That's a lot of coordination with all the different with all the different yeah the entities like I think year one should be about taking stock figuring things out making a plan a roadmap and then year two can be okay now that we know what we're doing here now you can lay out when you're gonna be able to do everything and if you get some done like I said early great or maybe like year one might be plugging the emergency hole like The
060job description you definitely need. Sure, but I think that's part of what he can do in his roadmap. But that's part of the roadmap. Right. So through the chair, I think professionally most organizations do a mid-year review, and this would be one of those things I'd pay close attention to in a mid-year review to see where we stand and where Mr. LaMarche has been able to make some headway so we can gauge adequately what, where we are and how much we have how much more we have to go and we can address in part that as well at the mid year so if mr. O'Marsh is able to get 40% great and if he's not because we have other circumstances budget or otherwise we we should be addressing that anyway we shouldn't wait till the
061only near the end of the year to do this we should but that's one that would be a heavy focus yeah but I don't even think we should have him complete job I don't think year one should be about him even having a goal to complete job descriptions if he does great year one should really just it's a huge it's a big undertaking huge undertaking and I just don't I don't want to attach a percentage that is so huge that like we're gonna have to go and like no you didn't make it I don't know and with that said like I just don't think you can really do the third bullet if you haven't updated job descriptions like I feel like that is a year two goal within this goal I think you can start
062to to do your AI guidance work but you know I think you could definitely establish an AI working group this year I'm very comfortable with this being a two-year the job description part alone being the two-year to your goal I'm very comfortable with that the more you're talking about it kind of reminds me of my first year as being a superintendent I set 13 goals in my first year and I did not meet them all. But I thought I was going to. So I think the job description, again, the more, I think if I reword this in such a way that it is, it's the as needed now in planning, and then the process, establish the process and plan moving forward would be the first year kind of goal, and then work on the rest
063for the following second year. I think that makes really good sense. More progress? Terrific. I think to their point, a fair expectation is what is needed. And I voiced that last meeting that I was concerned about, are you really going to be able to fight that much? Sure, I want this by June. That would be great. because it also wants you to survive till July that would be awesome too okay you know yeah so through the chair the reason why this is here and it's probably it does feel aggressive is because I've wanted this since the day I got here I wanted to try to work on this as a project but as you as you explained even finances budget capital planning you know there are things that bubble up and consume a lot of
064time so I'm very comfortable with it being a two-year So I was thinking that, you know, I think it was just last year you had four goals. There was one that took a little bit more priority. There was a heavier focus on one of your goals. So I can see having three big goals and at the end, you know, and as you mentioned, mid-year is saying, you know, this is obviously going to have to take a back burner for now and making that aware earlier on rather than at the end of the year. In my experience, I feel like, like you just said, this has been a big goal of yours right along. And after our audit that we had done in 2024, this was mentioned. And I do feel like the assistant superintendent has
065already probably started some of this work ahead of time in some ways. I mean, this was an undertaking that she had planned on doing even before she took on that role. From what I... remember so I think that there is already possibly some work going on on this and maybe that's why he was so eager to get it done but through the chair you mean job descriptions I think so negotiations we only worked on what the curriculum facilitated description would be no I think I'm not talking about job descriptions but more so like some of the team leads and stuff like that like there was mention of you know defining what so many different stipend positions and not you know that type of stuff so I think there was a lot of discussion regarding that
066and definitely some work to be done that has already been in discussion for years that this was on pie in the sky type of item so I can see why it's now being placed in black and white on paper so that I can finally get underway but I I mean the more you discuss it it does seem like a big undertaking it's not like you're starting from scratch though they're definite the chair keep my job descriptions need to be approved any update need to be approved by school committees like it's like it's a policy so those haven't come to you as a committee no but I'm sure there's I think it was superintendent assistant superintendent Mars did some yeah can job descriptions for district office but they weren't yeah they weren't adopted by the committee
067no we did we did one with Brian Ackerman yeah we actually because for a principal principal job yeah we haven't done one in a long time and through the chair you did one for the director of public facilities as well but there had been one here and there so I'm just curious when we post jobs isn't that the description you go off of Like when we posted a hiring of some of these positions there must already be a job description and through the chair if we have it Yes, okay I think to like I mean I know that there's a lot of districts that are talking about this and that it's It's gonna be harder and harder to get qualified people to your district and if you don't have a clearly set Job description they're
068going to go to other places If it's too vague, they're not going to know what they're coming into. Because there's plenty of options for educators nowadays to shop for a job. Do you have job descriptions you have to review? Do you have a rough estimate of a total amount that you are looking to tackle? All of them. How many is that? I don't even know how many that is. So I'm just going to give you a quick, because they're on our website, what we have. On our website, I'm just giving, I didn't really tally it, but it's close to 50. But that doesn't include everyone we employ. Is that just like the teacher's contract job descriptions? These have all been in place for a very long time. No, this is food service. Oh, it is?
069Okay. Yep. Occupational therapist, benefits coordinator. I know school committee approved director of HR, too. I don't see it on our website. So that's what I mean. This is a project that needs some undertaking. It's honestly a project that you should get a Nichols College student intern to come help you with. Someone from our, like in the business classes here. So again, Medicare and school committee, I'm very comfortable with goal number three being a two-year goal. And goal number one, it makes sense because it's not, the SWOT analysis could take the year to do just the SWOT analysis. I was thinking you could even break that SWOT into two years depending on which areas you tackle. So I stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Can I throw something at, like, we had said that we
070were doing your evaluation as a one-year evaluation. I mean, should we really be, we're talking about this in a two-year cycle at this point, should we be changing it to a two-year cycle and have him write, like, his goals as like okay year one this is what I want to do year two this is what I want to do so that we're doing a formative assessment of him at the end of year one which is really when it's better to do it we could do it in May or you could do it in April and then you could do the final assessment the following year instead of having it be I think that makes more sense actually like if we just turned it into a two-year you know a two-year goals and then yeah could
071do that it's just not typical well I think it's you know as the more I went back to the MASC website the other day and it's like for more experienced superintendents you should look at the option of a two-year evaluation cycle and I think because that's what we also had at the workshop right as well I mean, he's only been doing this for like a dozen years. I mean, why not just do it every year? I think with the amount of work that we have that you have and the limited number of staff that you have working for you, I think that it just makes sense to put it out in a two-year cycle, and it allows you to almost like prepare it in a two-year cycle, too. through the chair even go even go
072to could be is has beginnings of that too because it talks about Klee and then getting more principles involved in year two of Klee so that that could lend itself for that as well for leadership and education equity and education is what Klee stands for I will be honest education equity I struggle with the word equity in that there but it's not really about equity it's really about leadership but that's that's the time of that organization So through the chair, if the committee would like, I have no problem going back one more time, redrafting these for two-year goals and for the next meeting. I think that's fine. Do we as a committee, just Jean, tell us, do we have to make a motion to change his evaluation cycle to a two-year cycle? Or should we
073make that, should we do that? No, because we can make that when we accept the goals as a two-year. And because once we accept the goals as a two-year cycle, that's when we can also change it. Because if we accept it as a one-year, then we're putting it in that way. But if we, for an evaluation as a one-year, but if we accept the goals as a two-year cycle, then we can do it as a formative, as a one-year formative, kind of like a check and then a two-year evaluation. But they just seemed way too meaty to be like, yeah, see what you can do in 180 days, Steve. So through the chair, so what I'll do is I'll create an introductory paragraph as well on the goal sheet that talks about the two-year process.
074So when you adopt my goals, you're adopting that narrative as well. Does that make sense? Yeah. Thank you. Just one quick one. For the mid-year review, would that be April? Can you speak up, please? So for a mid-cycle review, would that be April? Yeah. When we typically did it, we did our summative in April because it was before the election. Correct. You know, we can look at that, too, like if he's only passing them. I don't know. I mean, I think we just look at where the cycle is of, like, if we're comfortable with April. I think because of... Because the election cycle April makes me I think it gives you us at least a good status update April is fine Because when we when the two-year cycle comes we're gonna have to have the
075evaluation finished for April prior to the election anyway So every April seems to be them. We don't have to but it's not a bad It's a better. It's a better practice. Yeah, I don't have a brand new member Doing the evaluation. Yeah, and I think The end of the year tends to be crazy. So we're all good with Steve's goals? Can I go back to goal two for a second? Sorry, spoke too soon. On that maintaining consistent district office presence in schools and at key events. Yes. I just. I'm going to try to quantify that. Yeah, I just don't want to set an expectation that we all have different quantifications on. Do you know what I mean? There you go. so what like what does that mean to people we had talked about surveys we
076talked like to figure out like what is our baseline I'm on the number them gold to it's on the back And it's district office. When you raise that question, which is a great question because it's consistent, it could be different for everyone. In my eyes, I was looking at, you know, at least once a week a district administrator would be in a school for the entire school year. Not necessarily me. It could be Heather. It could be me. It could be Kelly. It could be Joe. At least weekly. You're sharing the district office. Yeah. And I think that people need to just understand and obviously people get that things happen in a week and you might not get there. Madam Chair, is it clear? Yes to withdraw the motion? Yeah. Or table it? Table it.
077Table it. Well, it'll be a new motion anyways, right? Yeah. So just withdraw it? Just withdraw it. Kelly, do you mind withdrawing your second? Sure. Thank you. All right, so moving on to school committee's goals. did I what did you start a draft I kind of started a draft okay from from the Vimeo although thankfully in the minutes we approved earlier this session there's a little synopsis however before we get into that I thought it might be good to go over the goals that we had already from last year. So to see what we did because we're always talking about Steve's goals and we're always evaluating Steve's goals and we're always picking apart his and talking about them and we make ours which is awesome because we never really made goals before and this is
078a going to be our third year doing it. But we never really seem to do a look back to see how we've been So I thought we probably should take a look back and see how we've been with our goals right so I'm just gonna throw this out here. So please tell me right just kind of as a consensus on how we've done right so our 2024 2025 school committee goals we had fiscal responsibility so We'll vote to improve a revised 10-year capital plan to reflect the needs identified in the 2024 architectural review of all seven schools. Did we do that? Okay, that should be a resounding yes. We did that. Okay. All right. All right. All right. So we'll incorporate completed and forthcoming reports, reviews, and evaluations, such as the Education Resource Strategies Facility
079Conditions Report, into long-range planning. All right, and the planning will guide the development of the fiscal year 2026 budget structure to preserve the integrity of existing programs and prioritizing expenditures to provide a comprehensive and educational experience for all students. Did we do that? And, Maureen, that's why I love having you here, okay? All right. Enhance educational excellence. All right. So, DCRSD school committee will support hiring, developing, and utilizing staff that drive positive school culture and help create a unified district. I love the emphaticness of the feel here. Okay. The pride and unity just comes screaming from this table. All right. We will support professional development opportunities that align with the district mission for exceptional teaching and learning for all students. I think we've supported the Professional Development Act. We've definitely supported that, you know? Yeah.
080Yes, by approving that budget and teaching and learning subcommittee. All right. Let's see. We'll ensure that all students have access to innovative platforms and technologies. No. No, we have not. DCRSD school committee will continue their oversight of the implementation of policy IGA curriculum evaluation development and adoption to review revise or adapt high quality instructional material for all students I think it's a work in progress like from teaching and learning to me it's a work in progress and I think you need to add the oversight of the implementation of the high quality instructional materials the follow-through right yeah like just the fidelity of how they're actually used in the schools so if we continue with our Ted lasso theme from the year before it's a work in Prague mess right yeah all right so enhance community
081outreach and shake shake and I bought new glasses for Calvin and not for me okay I have to wait my turn. All right, enhance community outreach and stakeholder engagement. All right, the DCRSD school committee will continue to evolve their roles as community liaisons to strengthen relationships with local boards and organizations. Did we do a good job with that? Did we do better than the year before? Yes. Yes, okay. Are we going to do better this year? Yeah, I think we are. Okay. There was something about this that I saw in other committees. Around that I've done like like I just wonder like if we had Like listening sessions for before the budget or something like if we kind of split up by Not that not that we could have all four of the Charlton people
082be at the library at the same time. But like maybe just be able to get out to like senior centers and things like that. Like have like some office hours kind of like maybe like get out there a bit more? Just as a thought. So we also have established school council and they discuss individual school budgets and strategic plans and so that's just a portion of where we can go on our listening tour. Yeah just a thought. So and then And what you guys were talking about when I couldn't make that meeting is that you guys had talked about developing a comprehensive orientation guide for new school committee members, right? Upholding the fiscal responsibility when working with budget, finance, and capital goals. So, like, we have some carryover from before. Ensuring all students have access
083to innovative platforms and technology. All right. support the implementation of the current SEL work being done, enhance community outreach and stakeholder engagement, and a school committee events calendar. And what I thought about as I was trying to, like, go through some of what you guys were talking about on... the meeting when I was watching it and then some of the things about like how that could possibly be implemented in a way right it's like some of our goals that we were talking about some of it to actually do other than supporting in a way is that we'd have to really lean on the district to do it for us And I thought maybe kind of like shaping our goals more into things that we can do ourselves that is under the governance of what we
084do. Like what you're talking about, like having more of those, trying to get out and doing those listening. Right. Like doing the listening or doing, you know. Yeah, that's the kind of thing we could do ourselves, but there are certain things that we do have to rely. No, that's true. You know, in work, you know, working through. There are some things, but. Yeah, like with curriculum adoption like we can't be in there monitoring curriculum adoption No, but I mean we can we can definitely prioritize focus on prioritizing and supporting budget choices Yeah for fiscal responsibility of What was like? Like what like one of the things we talked about in teaching and learning when if you're if we're talking about Putting our money into high quality instructional materials is ensuring that It's being implemented with
085fidelity for the fiscal responsibility of it But I will say one more thing and then I'll leave it for the floor because Kelly I did hear you Okay, on the school committee handbook. So this is, so because I was the one who first came up with that, you know, and it was like my thing, like what I wanted to do, and I have been working on it, but I haven't put it through for policy sub yet. So for that goal, I did write one up. I haven't put it in yet, but it's, so I put on the idea of governance and... So the goal is by the end of the year, the school committee will create, review, and adopt a school committee member handbook to provide consistent guidance for new members. And the benchmark would
086be to draft a handbook completed by February 2026 that the committee would review and have the edits finalized by May of 2026, and the handbook could be formally adopted and distributed to members by June of 2026. would that just be for new members or like would it be like would it have things in it for for all of us that would have like the norms and all that yeah but it would frequently ask questions but it's kind of like I'm a school committee member now what you know right and it would be like okay and then have it done that's a good one intended outcome would be to increase capacity of members to govern effectively and collaboratively And if you don't like it, you can let me know. I'm okay. I'm not married to it.
087I'm not thin-skinned. If you don't like it, you can let me know. I liked how we did it. I thought last year how we had our goals brought into those categories, I thought was really nicely written. Yeah, I did like that, too. Yeah. So do we want to continue with the ones that we felt like we were kind of still a work in progress? Absolutely. And use those as our goals for next year as well? Great. makes sense to do all the rest of we kind of checked off but we had two that were kind of like a work in progress so should focus on those change them up a little bit to miss point I think anything that's a work in progress needs to be continued fruition that's what you're saying and I concur
088I think with without question we need to continue down that road and I was making I was feverishly writing down my notes that the chair was mentioning I think I definitely put an asterisk next to a handbook for new school new school committee members but I think it'd be good for a refresher because sometimes we get really wrapped up in certain things and it wouldn't be bad to circle back and refresh ourselves in certain materials and policies so I think those would be strong goals that we need to move forward on I mean I think we're definitely keeping the enhanced community outreach and stakeholder agreement I think absolutely changes within it what we're doing we're growing it out yeah I think on the goal for under enhanced educational excellence I think we have to talk
089about you know increasing the fidelity of the like just the oversight of the high quality instructional materials and then that goes to the budget where we have you know I think we have to look at you have to look and analyze you know from the teaching and learning committee met this past week or last week and we talked We had made a motion to ask the Budget and Finance Committee to look at the possibility to budget for a curriculum director to support in this role. Through the Chair, I was going through my notes that I wrote down when Mr. LaMarche was going over his goals, and I posed this to the committee about how job descriptions come back to the school committee for final approvals, should that coincide as a goal with his goals. so
090that there's parity between you know his objective his a goal to get through certain job to go through job descriptions and modernize them and make them appropriate and we will be reviewing and proving those I mean I think you could under enhanced educational excellence you could trolley change will support the hiring process including like including yep description like some some kind of tie-in is what I'm looking for because I think there should be some type of dotted line between our goals and administration schools for the to move forward and improve education educational excellence for the students do you know I'm saying that we're trying to get parity between our goals and administration schools give us what we're doing by supporting hiring to like that is one way we support hiring we review the job description
091so it's a much clearer path for everyone community to see what our role is as a school committee member I feel like if we kept these three areas we could you know park that under enhanced educational excellence but the handbook for school committee members can go under enhancing community outreach and stakeholder engagement because as we improve our roles, like that is only supporting the community and how we reach them. They're doing the descriptions of the jobs. We're going to go over that. Well, you and I are in Policy Sub because we review it in Policy Sub anyway, and then we get to review it again as a full committee. You have to think of it as a policy. Yeah. Oh cool. Can I criticize your punctuation? I was just looking for that pairing between our
092work and administration. They're not on separate islands. We work together and I was just trying to make that dotted line. We didn't talk about SEL implementation and you know we also have like least restrictive environment like supporting professional development I don't know like I don't want to lose the fact that we need to keep our focus as a committee to on making sure that we're like in that maybe go under fiscal like that we're supporting programs that you know target our special populations just as much as our regular populations of students I don't know how to write that nicely enhance educational like support professional development and opportunities you can just kind of change that around to align with our mission and learning for all students yeah I mean in this year we really be talking
093about SEL implementation in the professional learning you could talk a bit about whatever like targeted things they were gonna do enhance educational excellence ensuring all students have access to innovative platforms and technologies we need to maybe move that up to a fiscal responsibility because we always get to that point we agree that it's a priority but then we never have the money so if we put more and more in fiscal i agree with you even the hqmi i feel that one i feel like we had a great road map of what we've done where we're heading with the timeline that kelly true made for us So I feel like we have a much bigger picture of, you know, where the district is aiming to meet for this grade level and this subject matter. Right. But
094we need to then budget for it. And we had somewhat started talking about the 10-year plan. Was it 10-year for the Amazon money? Yeah. And maybe designating some of that. So I feel like that might fit better under the fiscal topic a little bit better this year. I don't think all of four goes under fiscal but yeah there are parts of it like I think the reason why we can't do all of the that the program that Kelly was talking about or sorry this is the superintendent true was talking about is because we've run into the issue of like we just don't have the staffing to be able to go in and support the people being able to implement the high quality instruction materials so you can't really start a next cycle if you haven't
095ensured that the cycle you have is actually happening but yes there's definitely a fiscal component to that I just feel like our roadblocks to those have always fallen back to budget so that's why I don't know if we need to change you know it's not that we haven't focused on that we just haven't prioritized that maybe in our budget cycle Well, I feel like maybe we don't have a fit like maybe everything is Tied in fiscally as well because everything is fiscal right like you can't support hiring if you don't budget for them But I think it's some Certain years maybe some things. Yeah, you know become the priority. Yeah to get the ball rolling So we've let that kind of fall by the wayside the last few years. So if we keep putting this
096as a goal, we have to do something different to achieve it. Right. Okay, so you're thinking like move three. The only thing about four moving is maybe making that ten, like prioritizing coming up with a ten-year plan in the budget subcommittee and bringing it to the full committee. With like a roadmap to the ten years that we were talking about with the Amazon money to support the HQMI I think we would have to I would hope like that we would do that in in concert with like the teaching and learning subcommittee Sure, right. Yeah But yeah, and I think you're right like even just like when we talked about the curriculum adoption and materials like it should go up in a fiscal because it's You're going to need to provide the staffing to support those.
097I don't know. I just think if we keep it there, next year we're going to say it's a work in progress again. So you think three and four move it up to fiscal as a priority? And then add in the Amazon? Because I think that was Jamie DeLivo's idea to have a 10-year plan over time. Do you think that that could be done in year one? I mean, I think we could. I think getting something started so do you and I don't know how that would work if you had to the subcommittees like working together how that would work well I don't think you can do this at the same time because that's a quorum but yeah I honestly think you're getting a little kind of stuck in a weedy moment here like okay for
098a goal yeah it gets like It's a goal. It's kind of like a bit of an archy kind of thing. I enjoy that you're telling me I'm getting weedy, so this is good. Sorry. But also, you know, I mean, you kind of get a little stuck in semantics because HQIM is education, but the fidelity part of it is fiscal. Right. Right? Yeah. So you can always just break it out. Yeah, that's fine. Sure. Yeah. So do we feel like we want to, do you think that you want to throw that? Can you, I just don't want to have it be like, oh, it's November, we haven't got a goal yet. No, no, no. Because if we don't have, I mean, no. If we don't have a goal, if we don't have, all right, how about
099this? We have at least one goal tonight because I'm doing that handbook, ma'am. Okay? Well, we know that that's it. That handbook is going to get done this year. We have a goal. It's going to get done. End of story. Okay? By June of 2026, we're voting on a handbook. It's going to be glorious. Okay? I promise you. All right? All right. Because if not, Maureen's going to get me. Okay? Don't unleash that wrath. Oh, trust me. It's going to be fine. Well, I'm just wondering, like, I want to make sure that we can vote on it, like, at the next meeting. The other thing is that we could probably nail out, like, enhanced community outreach and stakeholder engagement. Well, we know that will be it. Yeah. Right? Because we already know, like, other things
100that were talked about was setting up a school committee calendar. Right? We've already had that. Asked about we can talk you know have that be you know kind of wordsmith out something You know that we can easily vote on to next to be a goal though But like or can that be as part of like like part of get there part of it there how we get there? Yes, yes, so it doesn't need to be weeding right no doesn't need to be we but it's just an example of how to get there Yeah, same as doing being a like school council liaison having a tool in the box showing up as a you know a couple school committee members at an event where they're having vendors and people to learn about school right and we
101have school nights and we have we have representation and somebody wrote something awesome on his goal to on the second bullet or something or goal you know a district office personnel that we can copy right in so So just so that we can be done. Right. So under fiscal responsibility, we want something about beginning to develop a plan for the Amazon funds, right? We don't need to say which. Well, I guess we do have pathways of where we're going in the next 10 years, but it's hard to say if we have a need that will arise in year seven that we're. Well, part of the plan could just be like, yep, we're going to set $30,000 aside every year for special projects or something. That could be part of the plan. I don't know. And
102if we think like, oh, you know, $50,000 every year is going right into technology for the kids, something like that. But now I feel like, right now it feels like we've been using it as a budget. how about that's fine no go ahead through the chair no who's designated because of the discussion was doesn't get it for HQ I am at this point okay yeah absolutely for this year or for going forward oh okay well we already have that plan the planning I think would be every year this bucket goes to this part this this grade level or this instruction for height quality instructional materials we haven't we haven't flushed that out in a 10-year frame but we have allocated that we want the money go to that cause because I was the one who
103came in opposed to being an offset right really said no yes and so I think Caitlin was really the drive one of the drivers for it and said we really need to use that money it's unique money that we got to work not typical money so it needs to be in the new user community so it's dedicated towards HQIM. It's a finite amount of money it's not recurring funds that are they're gonna exhaust in ten years so we need to use them. Can't you really only use that on HQIM that involves STEM related everything involves not English? Well you could still make a case for it. There are plenty of opportunities. You can make a case for it. There are plenty of opportunities. I definitely think under fiscal we need that access to innovative technologies.
104Okay, so we have that one. Just move it up. Personally, and you can, you know, by all means, is I would like us to have, and I know it might be, you know, I know it feels selfish in a way, but I would like us to have a goal in budget planning where we could take the time to actually workshop and as a committee learn more about planning, budgeting, workshopping it out, doing actual discussions out of being on the camera, like having the conversations of actually planning it out so that way we have those actual conversations about if, like remember when we had Jim? It was like, what if, you know, where we could have those conversations about what if we didn't have the constraints? Where would we put the money? What if, you know,
105like start in the pie in the sky and have those conversations about where we could and then kind of think about those priorities of where we would want to be and really have those more in-depth conversations about and really... think about as a district where would we want to go so that way when administration is actually looking for the direction we have we have that direction I find this is and I'm not talking like that would be but you know multiple like kind of work you know I know I'm not explaining it right but three days my brain will work it'll like kick start do we have the school committee calendar has that been made we discussed it has been made okay it's not up yet I'm sorry I did not share it and I
106should share it I shared it with you and I'm doing for the sky I hate I know I know but like it's the house and the have-nots we don't even we're at the have-nots we just want to get a little bit right and to have less not like Right, but you already know right now that you would like to have some form of curriculum director right to get into right Yeah, but I've asked me for what I really think we need it's far more than that Right, okay, but you already you already know right what of what we need yeah, and you could give a list right? I'm sure I could probably think of six other things But then how are we having the conversation later when we're talking about budget, and then we you
107know it doesn't We never seem to talk about it that way. There's a difference between what we need as a district and then what we can financially try to have and what we have. Because there's no way we're going to get what we need. But we can start inching our way over. I would start with what we've lost yeah we lost librarians so I don't like work some of these things things that we had that we yeah I mean obviously we want pie in the sky thing but I feel like but I'm just saying like if we never actually start here talking about it and and saying it and labeling it what about to both you your points we got pie in the sky what we need or we can acquire and then what Kelly's
108basically saying is restoration. And that's been the thing in my brain is we've cut so deep past the bone that we can't, we couldn't go any lower, we tripped. We have to build back. And one of the things I think we need to take as an initiative as a committee is restoration of critical positions that are missing for the educational experience for the student. I don't know any other way to say it, but I think that is going to be our objective this year. And throughout all these goals, that's going to be on my mind all year long, of how we restore the experience that the students need in the classroom. And that would be a combination of personnel or instructional material or curricula. It could be PD for faculty. There's a whole magnitude of
109different options in Swiss Army to accomplish this. we need to restore what we've lost so in order to do that like these are the kind of conversations that I definitely think you want at a school committee like budget conversation yes well that's what I'm talking about like having all of the conversations you have to have it like I think you gotta have it in time for capital like well for budget and finance to be able to handle I'd like to see how we're gonna line the dominoes up one by one that accomplished this. Or this was my favorite question. That would be for capital L. How many librarians do we have in the district? One. One. We have 3,400 kids, seven buildings, and we have one librarian. The person is here. The person is here.
110At Sheppard Hill. Yes. All of the schools have a library. Sheppard Hill has to because it's part of their requirement for accreditation. Our elementary schools share a library assistant part-time, meaning that they're part-time in each building. Meaning when do they get the kids are able to go to the library? They alternate days in the elementary schools. it's a happy libraries are open for all well we were just in Dublin Middle School the other night that was I don't think Mary's in the middle that's not like a reading that's divided into classrooms now yeah the Charlton Middle School's not being used in the library sense either except we had Charlton Library come in I have one great teacher she had her own library back sure back in the room West Manor Street in Dunlap I think
111it speaks volumes to that all in the NCAA books that's when we got to get back to rest that's what I'm saying like we need we need to have these conversations I would like personally I would like that to be part of a fiscal goal in some way like I just bring a point that brings me back to my first year on the school committee when I went to the MASC conference down in the Cape I remember someone talking about like what some of their goals entailed was like the portrait of a graduate. And I think. you know as I have kids that are nearing graduation in just a couple years I think about all the things that I'm gonna use Algonquin because I know that's where you work but like I look at some
112of these graduates that come up and are presented and I am blown away by what they accomplished here in this district and even though we might not have all the personnel in the central office or in the libraries and throughout the district these kids are accomplishing great things still. So I think that we focus so much on what we don't have, but we really need to look at what are we, what's walking across the stage come June, here versus there versus all these other places that may have all these nice-to-have things, and how is it affecting them? Because as wonderful as it is to have a librarian, I still think that the children are graduating and able to learn and read and do all these things. And yes, we may have bumps along the way,
113but we've filled in the gaps in a lot of different ways. And so I would love to restore everything, but I also wonder how much time are we spending on focusing on things that we don't need to because our children are reaching those goals. And of course we can look at MCAS and all that other stuff too, but I just wonder, I've heard from other districts, right next door, we can throw all the money we want, we're still not fixing the problem. When a state takes over a district and they have all the funds in the world, they still aren't meeting their benchmarks. It's not always just about money. So I think we sometimes lose sight of what we expect from K through 12 by focusing so much on what we don't have. Understood. We've
114also identified areas that we need some help. We can't continue in some cases doing what we've done year after year. We have to make some strides in certain areas. And I think that's where a combination of SWOT analysis in certain areas, our strategic plan, listening to our school councils, our principals, our administrators, the faculty, doing professional development, doing social-emotional learning. I think we're going to elevate the students by going and trying to... round out the whole student. I think we have some rough edges and there's some demographics that are probably more underserved than others and we need to lift all of them up and I'm not saying you're not I'm not suggesting you're saying that but it's a concern of mine and I want to make sure that we do our due diligence on it.
115I think that's why we need to focus what fiscally do we want to focus on this year specifically what is going to rise to the top and we're going to throw what we can at that goal to make it achievable for this school year because there's so many but we need to really focus on what this year is going to be our goal fiscally I'm going to think back to a few meetings ago we had all the SIPS presented to the committee from the school councils and the principals and the recurring theme I saw on every SIP on almost every page was social emotional learning we have to we have to tackle that head-on we can't tiptoe around we have a lot of needs but that has to be a primary focus and sometimes it
116presents it can be tackled in different ways whether it's providing the support for extracurriculars and I don't just mean sports it could be theater it could be music I mean we do a heavy lift in this district but maybe we need to do strengthening in certain areas maybe it's after school programs like after the bell And we're going to need that feedback from administrators and things like our SWAT analysis to see where those are. And perhaps in due time this year with our due diligence as a group and as a collaboration, we'll have those answers. And with the mindset of we need to focus on certain things, but I'm not sure we have the data in hand at the moment. And that's my perspective. I'm not speaking for the committee. Personally, when I think of
117social and emotional, I see the damage. You know, going back to we will have access to innovative platforms and technology, almost every kid has a cell phone in their hand, and I just see so much damage to it. And it's funny because now kids are being asked to use their own cell phone to take a test because we don't have enough technology for every student in the room to take a test on. but you also just said that I know but if the reason why we're doing that is because we don't have enough technology for the students so they are getting their own phones where they can access other things during the school day and that's where I think we need to do a deep dive on our subcommittees with capital and budget because then
118if we identify an area of concentration then we can start to make those rolling implementations. Okay, year one we're going to tackle 10%, 20%, 30%, year two and we can start that process because we need a plan. We've been kind of in some ways playing whack-a-mole because there's so many needs. But we need... We need an implementation, a rolling room implementation plan. There's not an engineer or a data center that does a full wipe replacement. It's all incremental. Understood, yeah. But I really want to make sure that, like, during that meeting, I feel like it can't just be us looking at that. No, it's not. Like, it needs to be the industry team. We need the data. Like, the principals need to be there to really talk about what their experiences are. You know, I'd
119love to see like the. union representative there to like talk about what their experiences are like just so that we get and every step of the way it's infrastructure as well as you very well know you know do we have do we have the WAP capacity for that many clients do we have the server capacity do we have the switch capacity do we have the backbone capacity do we have the electrical supply in some of these old classrooms the infrastructure the HVAC you know how many BTU load are we going to generate with that much electricity on that That's all part of the conversation, and so we can't put the cart before the horse. We identify the issue, and then we will strategize. We have to strategize what the needs are to support that goal.
120And we can accomplish it. We're just going to have to do a deep dive. Back to the goals. Are we going to have a budget? Like, we're going to have a goal for a budget? Here like budget workshop. I think so. Yeah, I think so because it seems like there's still yeah some so I think having a Having a goal for that would be would be good so we can hash it out Yeah, what would best? Give us the ability to vote on this next week next. I mean the next time we meet Like do you want? I don't want to get into any improprieties about, like, can we throw something out there and we each direct information to you of something that might be missed? Is that in violation of open meeting law? We
121can send it to the chair for consolidation. We just cannot deliberate. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for the words, Anthony. So should we? We can each individually send for her to compile, and then as we reconvene, we can go through the list. Okay. So if you have a way of writing out something, send it to her, we can put all the different ways there. Correct. And then we can kind of choose which way we like. In open session. In open session. Correct. Do we want to set, like do you want to set a target date that you want us to set that to you? Oh, yeah. So you want all of us to go through and create goals and then we're going to decide which wording we like? I think we just really need to think
122about what the fiscal responsibility goal would look like, right? Because I feel like we're kind of okay with the other ones. Yeah, it's just the fiscal responsibility. Unless you think that you have a goal that you wanted to add that. I think we've covered what we need to cover. And I think I'd want to take a stab at writing the. number four on the enhanced educational excellence under that goal and then also putting something about it in the fiscal goal but we were slated to because the next meeting is October 8th right yeah yeah like next Friday no no I would say the first because then I'll get it into the yeah yeah October 1st If you don't have it in by October 1st, you trust me. Thank you. Do you guys want me to
123send it? You'll send it. Everything's getting sent to you, and then you're going to send it out, or we're just going to discuss it? Just send it to me. And then you'll compile it. And then I'll compile it, and then I'll stick it in the folder. Okay, perfect. Do you want me to send you guys out a calendar invite on the day before that, just to remind you to get them in? Would that be helpful? Or just send us an email as a reminder. I'll do a delayed send. Yes, go for it. To the chair, to the committee, this might be a good idea. First of all, I appreciate the... budget discussion one of the things I have not been able to do here and I don't find the space for it and I'm probably
124leaning more towards what member Kaminani is saying is that we've never asked principals to give me your pie in the sky budget because we just anything that they want they have to identify what they're going to trade off that's that's been the budget process since I got here Can I maybe suggest or recommend the second meeting in October just be a budget workshop and we invite all the principals and just sit around a big table and just talk about it and try to clear the air on those types of things? And just more of a workshop format, not a formal meeting? Yes. Yeah, not a formal meeting. Not a formal meeting, just a budget workshop? Members of each individual school. Council? Yeah, council. Should they be invited to listen to you? Well, it's an open
125meeting. It's a workshop. It's an open meeting. But I think it would be helpful to have the principals sitting at a table with you as a committee and just let's talk this out. And then you can ask pointed questions. Because what I do worry about is that there could be an imbalance. There could be that my school, I want four instructional coaches. My school, I don't really want instructional coaches. But so having everyone at the table at once, we can really kind of balance that out as we prepare for the budget this year. And really explore that rich discussion with the principals of the school and district office administrators as well. I would personally value getting that boots on the ground hash out for what they feel their high priorities are. And let's just get
126it in the open and discuss it. Okay, so once you're proposing, I'm going to call the 15th. And through the chair, I could set it up as a restoration addition project for them. to be prepared for that conversation from restoration to adding. I think that that's the first optics to look at it. That would be the 22nd. That would be the 22nd meeting in October. The 22nd would be turned into a workshop. What time are the meetings? Are they back to 7 p.m. or was that just today? That was just today because of the... Okay, so they're still 6.30. And are we back to doing two each month? The 7th of November and December. I think no, we're only going to, well, November and December. It's two as needed. It's always it had been two
127and then I cut down to one and I needed we would have a second but like that's why I didn't know about our last one and so Or because I didn't really mean today. No the second one in September because we had been only I think the second one in August we only had one I guess and I didn't make that one Kelly did I think it was this one this one kind of threw us off yeah maybe it was this one it was it was just because I don't know I'm already in October like before I think the the goals went on until like a long time and then I think the first year we put on goals it was I think I think we approved them in December or January and I'm just
128like ah so that would so that the 22nd would that be back at the hill Yes. Yes. Yeah. Oh, does that work? But you have that calendar made. You're going to send that out? That works, yeah. Okay. Yeah, because I'm going to finish the calendar out this weekend and send it out. Okay. Let's start it then. Because I'm putting it on Google and setting it up. Okay. Paper calendar, but an actual calendar calendar. So are you looking for a motion to adjourn? I am. All right. I would love it. Motion to adjourn? Second. Second. Oh, awesome. Thank you, Anthony. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. It's unanimous.