001So she can leave. I'm not technically the chair so I can't actually change the agenda. Reorganized, right? But okay. All right. I call the meeting order at 701 and 36 seconds. Um, good. Whoever succeeds may try to be more precise. So, we have a motion to move up the SAB report to the beginning. Does anyone have a problem with that? Okay, please go ahead. Hi, I'm Genevie. I'm the 2026 SAB representative. Um, Masco students are very excited. There's only about two weeks of school left. Um, but before then, there are some exciting events. Last week, we had our Memorial Day assembly where we were fortunate to have eight veterans attend. Before the assembly, student council members were given the opportunity to have lunch with those veterans, which they all truly look forward to every year.
002It's a great experience for everyone. We always have so much fun. At the assembly, we had Greg Sturdivant, I think I'm pronouncing that right, as our guest speaker, and it was perfect in honoring the true meaning of Memorial Day. Last week, we also had our cultural fair, which was a group project, one of the open projects from student council, which was also a great success, where attendees got to learn about different types of cultures from their tra traditions, foods, and more. And the last previous event hosted was Junior Prom at Seaglass, which was super fun, and we're also thankful for all the chaplons who made it possible. Next, upcoming, we're happy to have the seniors back this week. Graduation's this Friday, so they're in preparation for that. And for those still in school, freshmen will
003be having MCCAST next week. This Friday, the freshman walk is hosted by Air Leading, which has so far helped raise I think they're way over this now, but over $6,000 for the Home for Little Wanderers, which is a nonprofit organization for family and children in Boston. And finals will be happening in two weeks. That's pretty much all we have going on for the rest of the school year. And the SABS just want to thank you all for allowing us to continue speaking here and out for all of our students. And we hope everyone has a great summer. and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you next year. Any questions? My line, but thank you. Any questions? All right, you're free to take off. Thank you. You too. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh first
004on the agenda, nominations for the chair for uh the coming year. Has everyone read through the guidelines? Um so we go around and I ask for a nomination. There's no need to second uh any nomination. What's not on here, and I think it makes sense, is is for um the person who gets nominated to accept or decline. I think that's something that we should have or else we're going to end up just nominating 11 people if we're not careful. I think this could get ugly, right? Um and then other than that, um we'll finish the nominations. We'll have a quick discussion as needed and then we'll move on to voting. Okay. So, with that said, do I have any nominations? Jeff, nominate Trevor. Trevor. Um thank you, Jeff, and thank you everyone for a great
005year. I think we've been very successful um over the last two weeks and especially after the election. It's a lot of reflection time and thinking back and looking forward. Um as many of you know, I accepted a job out of state. Um so it's going to be pretty um a pretty good commute every day. Uh and I want to make sure I have capacity to succeed in the professional world as I've succeeded here, I think. And I think we've all had a great year with our overrides passing convincingly. Um, so with that ensure trying to ensure that I have enough capacity to do both, well, I'm going to have to decline the nomination and I would like to nominate Matt Alexander to be chair. Okay, Matt, do you accept? I'll accept. Are there any other
006nominations? My time is coming to an end. Have to do a roll call vote. Um I'll go around. You don't need a second. You don't need a second. No seconds. Three minute attention span on that one. Um my last joke is chair. Um Bill. Yes. We have to actually state the person's name. I think because there's only one nomination. Okay. So a yes or a no is fine. Bill. Yeah. Lisa. Yes. Um Matt. Yes. Chris. Yes. Excuse me. Jeff. Kendra. Yes. Erica. Yes. Trevor. Yes. And I'm a yes. So 11 nothing. Congratulations. Matt, buddy. Can we thank you Joe at this time? Thank you, Joe. It's been an awesome year. Your leadership has been really fantastic and I know I speak for everyone that we deeply appreciate your partnership and advocacy during a really difficult
007year and a trying um budget process. So, thank you for everything. Thank you. Yeah, it's been fun. Guys, got to switch name tags. Fun enough. I'm going to be Joe for the night just in case you want to revert back or something. Got to get rid of the chair part, too. You get to sit with me and all the candy. So, I guess we have to pick up with vice chair. Okay. Do we have any nominations for vice chair, Melissa? I'm going to nominate Adrien Deani as vice chair. Have any other nominations? Say out loud. Yeah. Adrian, couple rounds. Bill, yes. Yes. Adrien, yes. Lisa, yes. Joe. Yes. Andra. Yes. Erica. Yes. Yes. That likeism. on the other side. Yep. Done. Unless you have chair or comments from the audience. Yep. But yes, we're done
008with this part. All right. With that, we'll uh we'll go to comments from the audience. Anybody have any comments tonight? Thank you all for your hard work and getting done that right fast. As a parent, I was extremely frustrated and I am so grateful for all of the hard work that you guys put out there particularly in Middleton because I really did not think it was going to pass. So I just want to thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Name. Oh, we need a name. name Stacy. Stacy, thanks. Um, remarks from the chair. Well, I don't have much since I didn't get a chance to prepare, but um, I would like to echo what Chris started to say and just thank you, Joe, and thank you, Trevor, uh, for your service. I
009witnessed firsthand how hard you guys worked time that you put in and the sacrifice you guys put in and big shoes to fill. So hopefully I'll be able to fill you as Joe and I'm sure Adrian will do just great. So So thank you guys. Um there were a couple other things that were on my mind tonight that I just wanted to share. Um as Stacy Smith mentioned, I wanted to uh thank all of our colleagues here for their efforts in getting the budget passed. But moreover, I wanted to thank the towns. um just want to make sure that they understand that, you know, we did it, we could do, but the only way to pass is if they voted. And they voted and they spoke and it passed in all three towns. And so,
010you know, thank you to the folks that are in the audience who I know played a role in helping get it passed. Uh thank you to all the groups that helped get it passed, the teachers and administration that helped get it passed. Uh it was a it was an amazing community effort and um I'm really happy that we're not having more difficult discussions tonight. Thank you. And last I just wanted to share just a note that I got um I don't know at least maybe uh Kendra about a month ago about special ed. And I think Trevor said it really well at the Middleton town meeting. um you know there's kind of a negative connotation around some of the special ed and the cost of the special ed that we were facing this year. I'd
011just like to foot stomp real quick that you know I believe and I think many on the school committee share the perspective that not only do we have a legal obligation to fund the special education students um and out of district uh students um but we have a moral obligation as well to make sure that they get a a great education in an environment where they can learn. Um, so I just want to make sure that I say that out loud is it again it got a pretty got we got some negative feedback through the through the budget season on that. So, so with that I think that's all I have to share tonight and we took care of the student advisory board update and so I will proudly say that we are about 45
012minutes ahead of schedule. Um, no pressure, Stantech, but uh, yes, please. So, I'd like to welcome the Stantech team. Uh, we've got Ananda Berser on, uh, Mike Stoaltz, and Tony Mora. So, they're going to give a u kind of an overview of a status update and then talk about uh some some options for moving forward, pros and cons associated with that. So, I'll hand it to you guys and do your thing. Uh yeah, it's nice to see everybody again. If you recall, I was here I don't know, I think it was in January. January. Okay. Yeah, it was much darker out. Um, so what I wanted to do was just give you guys an update on where we stand with the permitting process for the school field project. Um, and then take your questions um,
013after that. Um, so just real quick, I'll keep this short. Uh, we submitted the notice of intent for the project on January 22nd. Uh we received comments from the commission based on that application uh on January 30th and then we followed that with a submission of the response to those comments on February 4th. The notice of intent hearing opened on February 6th and was continued. Um we had another hearing held on February 20th and that was also continued. Uh following that we had a a April 17th hearing um wherein we uh submitted to the commission uh to allow another um a period of time after receiving the peer review comments uh from the commission's peer reviewer on the application. So that applica or that response to comments was developed and it was submitted on April
01424th. Um following that we had another hearing on May 1st and uh that was the last hearing that we had uh with the commission. Um and and prior to that there was also a site visit that was done on April 30th I believe. Um so at this point we have submitted a response to the comments that their peer reviewer had sent to us. Uh we feel that the response to comments was complete as submitted. Um, we have not to date received a u a follow-on response indicating that they were satisfied with our response. Um, but uh we're anticipating that uh the peer reviewer had you know a significant amount of material to cover. So in the interim between May 1st and now uh we're expecting that their review should be pretty much complete. The next
015uh potential hearing with the commission is on June 5th. Uh so at this point we are at a stage where um the commission on on June 5th uh could present us with additional questions or a request for additional information. Um we are hoping to receive comments from the peer reviewer on our response package. Um and there could be additional questions from them uh based on our response. Uh but we wanted to you know get in front of you guys and just talk about the you know the kind of path forward uh what we're anticipating. I know this has been a super long process and I know a lot a lot of you are probably feeling like um you know it's spinning we're spinning wheels with the conservation commission. Um unfortunately that's somewhat the process that
016um has been playing out with this follow-on application. Um but I feel like it is uh proceeding in a more uh organized manner in terms of their uh peer reviewer actually providing us with a um you know comments on the application this time. Could I interrupt you for a second? Sure. Hey, I just noticed that the microphones end here. Do we have any idea whether this is being picked up or not? I mean normally they go all the way down to the end of the table, but You're you're catching his voice. Um yeah, the I mean I I can't um listen to it back, but I am getting sick. Okay. I just hate for not being audible. Okay. Thank you. No worries. No worries. As long as I don't have to start over again. Wait
017for my chance. Yeah. So, does anybody have any questions on like how we've gotten to this point and you know the process? uh to date. Yeah. When did this originally start? You started at January is this process but when how long has fant been on this project for? Uh the first application was submitted in January of 2024. What you s two years just to get through? Uh it was a long process last year that had uh a lot of different challenges to it. Um I don't know if you were part of the last meeting that I was here at but uh we were just you know kind of going through a transition in our team and the approach that we were following. Um so I was brought on uh as well as Ananda as part
018of this new application process. So it's bad. That's kind of where it's going. Finally, we spent a lot of time stayed a fall reset this year and all the private previous work was just kind of thrown away, right? I'm sorry. It's not thrown away. No, a lot of actually the um I think a lot of probably most of the design hasn't really changed significantly. It was because of the uh process and the feedback that we got last year and the opposition from some of the members there. We were able to enhance our application this time to more fully, you know, prepare for those same comments to come again, which they did. I mean it raid it's a pointy question but I called into some of these concom meetings and it really seemed like that didn't
019have the information they needing right delineations and things that they were expecting to start this year well last year I mean that's what oh probably started 24 right they weren't actually getting what they needed until this year you know it's clock's ticking this has been a very long project as people are used to me ranting about this I just feel like you know progress is slow and painful It's inexpensive. So it's it's hard to sit here. And I'd also like to add the the better part of the first year. So we started in July of 2023, right? So the better part of the first year was all about design, engineering, and the architecture around the stadium field as well as the engineering work, the storm water work, all of those kinds of things. It wasn't
020until, you know, January of 2024 that we got into the work around permitting. So, um, and we made tremendous progress in that first year until we kind of get into the permitting, um, sequencing. So, I don't want to lose sight of all of that work that, you know, was extensive and very much still, you know, in play for us. So, um, I attended the last Conscom meeting and I'm sorry, but faces online versus here. Were you guys at that one or were there other people? Cuz I thought there was like a younger guy there and there was an environmental expert, Michelle. Michelle, they did all the all the speaking, right? Correct. Yeah. Um, Michelle works for for Mike. Okay. George, who is the um the civil engineer, he's he's out of the country on vacation.
021Uh George works for Tony. We have the we have all the senior members of the team here tonight. So, I found those two to be pretty impressive to be on, you know, that's my impression. Um, and you know, can't go back in time, but I really wish we had those two on, you know, from the beginning doing the presentations and maybe we would have wrapped this up a while ago perhaps. Who knows, right? But my question is, um, you know, and and there's obviously some push back coming from some people on that committee. Um my question is because what everyone knows here is that one fall back is just go with a one field solution instead of two fields, right? My question is you're still going to have that um storm water or drain water
022issue no matter what. So what is your opinion in terms of addressing concerns there? Um, you know, I I mean, give me your thoughts on, you know, what the law says versus what you think is going to need to be done to plate people on that committee. We need to get a majority to vote in favor of of of passing this, right? Or or issuing the permit, whatever it is they have to do. So, what are your thoughts on that? Uh so the scenario would be uh dropping field two from the application right. So in that scenario you would remove the application portions that deal with the wetlands protection act as well as the town uh wetlands regulations and wetlands bylaw. Right. So it would be strictly reviewed under the stormwater bylaw for the tent
023and speak that's why Tonyy's here. He's a stormwater designer, but he would be able to I guess speak to how the application can or uh may potentially be held up uh through that review process. Yeah. And I think in that scenario, you're eliminating a few of the hurdles with the conservation commission because you're removing projects out of that jurisdiction. You're still going to be subject to the jurisdiction of the stormwater bylaw. A lot of the same questions or things or barbs they might throw at you, per se. You'd have to still face those uh on that application. So, it's not a silver bullet per se to just make that one switch and you got clean smooth sailing. You could still face hurdles in that path because they you know a lot of the same questions
024that they uh you know th hurdled at us for that portion of the project. They could still hurdle on that side of the project. They may feel even more emboldened. Oh, we've backed them down off of that. Now let's see what we can accomplish on this side of the project. So it's really difficult to say which direction that could go but you know all possibilities are on the table I guess is what we're trying to without getting too technical. Can you summarize what their issues are with the storm water if it was just the one field? My understanding is they don't want the artificial turf. Oh, that's big. Yeah, that I mean that's what they and you if you listened in on the meeting you heard I mean that's what they continue to bring up
025their concern um not just that there's POS but then but that little particles of plastic will you know come detached and drain into the river um so that's the one and and I don't think there's any laws for that right so it's not something that um you know we're trying as engineers we try to you know meet the code and follow the rules but this is something that's this is sort of beyond that. Yeah, it is above and beyond that. Okay. Um so is it common to only have um and I'm sure you guys have done just fine at those meetings, but is it also common to have legal representation there to kind of go through those hurdles with them and make sure they understand that they really don't have a say about PAS and
026all that whole arena? see it go both ways. Especially at a conservation commission hearing, it isn't typical to have um council present when it gets difficult and contentious. Sometimes having legal representation there to remind the commission members of what the law says, what their authority is in various arenas is helpful. As designers, all we can do is speak to what you know the code says from a design standpoint. the lawyer being present could remind the commission members of what their role is and sometimes commissioners feel emboldened to overstep and we are eager to get an approval and sometimes make concessions to try to grease the skids and get through that process. Uh you know having legal counsel present can sometimes hold the line and say you know you're not allowed to ask for that you
027know respectfully you're not allowed to ask those things. So yeah, and when uh and I think I brought up this um during the last time, but I live in Hamilton and I was on the conservation commission. That town is going through the same process, though maybe like three years ahead of you. Uh they're actually in construction, but throughout this entire process, it's been a battle with opposition groups in the town. And uh the school district there had brought in town council to the commission hearings to better direct the commission on what they can and can't do and you know you know what they should be doing in terms of statutory requirements. Thank you. They bring was that Hamilton Town Council or was that the district's council? that's happen law. That's something you think it's something
028we should look into for hurt because we don't use it at all. That is where the where these meetings are going. They're all over the place if you go watch them. I mean there's there's not a lot of organization. There's not a lot of, you know, adherence to what their actual role is. It's everywhere. Um, you've Joe's Joe Joe's watched them too. There's not a lot about what will be covered at the next meeting and no kind of future structure. It's just kind of a what about what about what about and like really come on you've been at this months. Another question I have is I spoke to someone in Hamilton Wenham about their project and one of the things I said was get the water tested essentially. Have we done any water testing at
029all? Looking for what kind of chemicals are going into that river now? Because one of the things I'm thinking is, you know, they're working towards some kind of absolutely perfect system that nothing ever comes out of those storm water pipes, but what if it's just better than what it is now? You know, I mean, wouldn't you want to make an improvement? So, I'm curious. The other thing I think about is there's a highway right next to it, right upstream, which there's got to be stuff coming off of that road, right? So, at some point, if I'm going to make an argument, I I would like to test the water before the bridge, after the bridge, and then look at what's coming in off the pipe and say, "Look, folks, you know, we're holding you harmless
030relative to what's there now." You know? So my question now that I'm there though is how much does it cost to test water like that? What's do you know? I mean, it's trivial, but I will say like Hamilton required water testing prior to the start of construction and with that same intent to show that there was nothing there to begin with and then if there was anything afterwards, they would draw some type of, you know, cause and effect conclusion based on that. But the results of the preconstruction testing showed um significant levels of PAS in the water bodies right upstream of where we would have been discharging anyway. So it it was kind of a you know I think it took the wind out of uh the sales of of that argument because um and
031and you know just being you know having a background science you know one data point does not prove a you know cause and effect. So u I am opposed generally to the pre-esting and post- testing because I I feel like there is just so much uh PAS in our environment nowadays that it's hard to really pinpoint where it's coming from and I think more likely than not you're going to find it, you know, one way or the other. So I guess but isn't a misunderstanding? I think that's your point that my point is if if there's there now and if we showed that you know later on that there was no significant increase in it in fact maybe it's even better that that would be a good thing I guess other chemicals that would maybe
032less right because you're doing less fertilizing less and it might depend on what day you go out there too you might go out there today get one reading go out there two weeks get another reading and it's it's higher or lower, but you don't know why, right? And then they want more testing to kind of solve that problem, and before you know it, you're doing testing like every month for the lifetime of a project, right? But there's a difference between testing that what's coming out of that pipe right now and seeing that it's absolutely pristine and crystal clear and drinkable versus it's a super fun site that really needs to be cleaned up. Right. Right. And I know it's going to be somewhere between us two, but it would be nice to know um you
033know, it's already a problem. It it it needs to be addressed. This is one way to address it is as part of this project and you're throwing a bone to the ONSCOM, the people that really want to see the environment get better. You can make we can make an honest argument that this is making it better, folks. I know that some people on that committee will never agree to that. at least one person I can tell but in their own testing because they wouldn't trust any you know like a third party test. That's okay though as long as we we have results from a reputable place. Right. I mean, I will I I did look into because the Ipsswitch River does feed water supply further downstream to um it goes into Wenham Lake with which
034I know is a drinking water supply for the area and as part of their annual testing requirements. Um I think it was from 2023 that they had identified PAS in the water supply. I think it was like six parts per trillion, which is, you know, the new EPA standard is four parts per trillion. So, it's it's it's already documented, you know, in the in that watershed area. What's up? So, can we clarify? So, we're waiting I need to clarify the process. We're waiting for the peer reviewers to res the prayer reviewer to respond to your your response and at that time you anticipate them rather than continuing every whenever the consum meets you'll have a hearing when they'll make a final. So the plan would be the way I see it right now is that
035we would request that the uh conservation commission agent uh let us know when the peer reviewer has response to our response to comments and whether or not there are any additional questions. We would take that information. We would decide you know based on the volume of com comments received and you know what was involved based on that to u you know see how uh this would have to play out in terms of cost and additional studies etc. Um at that point I would suggest you know if it is significant and you were still um you know thinking about the idea of just dropping down to just field one then you know make that decision at that point. Mike, they they also talked about they being the the cons conservation commission talked about waiting several months
036to have the peer peer review come back out out to the site for another site visit another site fit to to to make a determination another determination around the mean annual high water line. Yeah, they were saying May. Um, I would probably think that it would be best to go in June or so because the the vegetation will be fully out. But yeah, you're right. They which is what we did on August 16th last year with it once. So I guess my point is is that, you know, back to our earlier comments, it's just never ending. It's several more steps before, this is my sense, before they'll make or potentially make a ruling, right? It's responses to the response. It's the peer reviewer completing their scope of work and then another site visit for the
037peer reviewer months down the road, however many months. Is that what is that what you guys heard as well? Yeah. They also asked for things like um evaluating a a storm water collection that holds all of the runoff, right? Nothing flows into the river. Um so they they are asking for that analysis and this is all, you know, just verbally through the meetings. Nothing's been submitted to us on paper um beyond the peerreview comments. But they haven't closed the meeting and they there's no there's no what they're supposed to do is if they have no further comments or questions are supposed to close the public hearing. So but then but then they have to give you then you're forcing them to give you a decision within 30 10 days within two weeks I guess. But
038they also asked for a ton of additional information around the specifications of the field materials. And they also asked for a ton of additional information on the alternative of converting field 2 into a grass field as opposed to a turf field as currently designed. So at the last meeting they asked for literally a ton of information. So they're asking you to decide chicken or egg and that's sort of an impossibility for a public project. Yeah. I know Trevor was trying to get in. Trevor, um, no worries. Um, thinking back to last meeting, I know you talked about the possibility of like us submitting those scenario options where like if they I if I'm remembering correctly like there is a possibility they could pick like option B which would be say drop a field is is
039that we submitted the alternatives analysis that thing. Yeah. Yeah. Um that that went in with our notice of intent. Um, is there a way for us doing a a thesis type of alternatives analysis? Is there a way for us to say like if you're going to pick an alternative, pick this one? I don't I don't think it's really up to them to pick it. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's submit. What are what have we also considerated our options? Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. Typically, we explain the reasons why we didn't go with one of the alternatives and instead pick the preferred alternative. Okay. document the reasons why if there's a choice to go just use one field then it would be this committee's decision and can you explain a little bit on what that process would look
040like if we did decide to go with one field is that you know re-engineering this whole project like what work is would have to go in to be able to get to say where we are now with a one field design so we would have to modify the application as it currently stands right to drop that field we would have to update the the plans to reflect you know no work associated with that field it wouldn't be u just a very simple uh process but it would be less than what you know the original application was involved so would but would that be redesigning and re like because I'm assuming the storm waters yeah you'd have to redesign the portions of the application that have changed. All the calculations associated with all of our storm
041water modeling that have to get changed. All the tables and the all the uh stormwater standards that we have to, you know, certify that we're adhering to, we have to do all the calculations to support with the new design. We would obviously keep whatever portions of the design intact that we could keep intact, but all the portions that are changed would have to get updated in all of the calculations and studies. everything associated with the weapons protection act and town wetlands laws would that would all drop away. So just if you just said the second field is going to be built but it's going to be natural grass instead of turf, right? How much of a redesign is that? The field itself is a complete redesign. I mean, we're going to be replacing the field
042with a new grass field. It's probably a complete redesign, but with a grass field. The storm water calculations are, you know, also a redesign. Um, the rest of it we, like I said, we could reuse balance of whatever is unchanged. We could reuse all of that. Just thinking out of the box here. That's all. So, I mean, if you get an approval to build two turf field or two fields and you decide not to build the second one, then only build one of them, right? Is that allowed or do you have to go back and get approval to only do part of the project? Well, typically the certificate certificate of conditions would have a condition in it that all work has to be in in accordance with the approved plans. So at some point during
043the after approval we would have to let them know that we would be modifying the plans. Um so at that point they would have to make a decision as to whether or not that modification justifies a new application or not. Yeah. sound like there's you know sort of three issues at the concom microp plastics and waste water and then orange right those are delimations those are three hangups at this point most of the deliation right there still could you speak up just a little I understand there's three major issues right there's microplastics storm the drain there's pas and there's the the high water delineation or whatever that is right yeah there's there's a few more with the storm water they're wanting us to look at the tank they're also wanting ing us to make improvements
044at the outfall in the wetland. Right. There's those are I think there was some other stuff. There's actually two features on field two that are structures that are I mean that's the light post and our retaining wall that they're in the walkway. Yeah. Not thrilled about minor plan. I guess my question is you know are there solvable? You know do we have a probability of success getting through all these issues or not not those ones. No, we're we're not getting the light poles and we're not getting that uh seating wall, the retaining wall. Yeah. I mean, is this is the path we're going down be fruitful? I I don't want to spend another year just to keep fighting over the same five issues for those two that are no goes that are never going to
045pass regardless. You know, it's either modify the plan or do something else, right? I mean, if there's if they dug in on something, it's just not going to is never going to get to yes. our time now. I think the concern though is if we modify the plans and eliminate turf field two or field two as a turf field, they're still going to, you know, that's my big question is like and they have the storm water review that they get they still have you on the storm water review and they could dig their heels in on that review. So I guess in your impression or your your expertise is this is can we solve for these concerns with the current I think at that point it becomes like a a town cancel situation where um
046the the legal aspects of what the commission is allowed to do um regardless of what we say to them. If they disagree, then that's their discretion. Yeah. It becomes a legal matter at that point. It stops being a technical matter. It becomes more legal. If if they if we've addressed all of their comments, we think, you know, per the code, but they're still not willing to accept what we're saying and they deny the project, then there's a legal recourse. How do you appeal that decisions where actually the laws are actually on our side as schools? I guess that's where I'm going. If you know if we're heading that path anyways, why don't we just get on that train and start going that direction instead of spending another year that can be a very long it's
047a lot of money and prolonged cost decision before you can they have to they have to say no before we do before we could do anything. And what they're doing right now I think is attrition. They're just trying to drag us out and not have to say no. Adrian um boxer folks is there any angle with community support? Well, the community's not the vocal people. The vocal people are show the few people that are opposed to it that come to every single meeting. They speak in every single meeting. They come to our meetings and they speak here. Um but in general, if this came to a vote, it would pass easily in Boxard. Y there are a lot of athletes whether in school or out. So I think that would carry the day. I was
048I was recommending that before like the the current application. I mean, just speaking from experience in my town, there was just a strong um group within the town that was for the fields and would show up to the conservation commission meetings and they definitely had an impact on the direction of the conversation. Yeah. If you have if you have a lot of people show up at the meetings with the letters and read the letters into the record that they're for the project and the quantity of those letters overwhelmingly sort of outnumbers the opposition, it does put the conservation division on a little bit of a defensive stance now that they have to, you know, they have to be the ones reacting that kind of that pressure. So, it it certainly couldn't hurt our case if
049we could mobilize that kind of a movement. Sounds like we have a plan. Melissa, is it helpful at this point in the process to engage legal counsel to sort of steer the decision making process? It wouldn't hurt. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And the earlier that they're involved, the better if for no other reason, just to help to organize the meetings a little bit better and again keep everything on task and remind them of what their obligations are. Our council, ours or town, that would be our council. Town council though, Mike. Right. It should be someone advocating for this in that instance. They would be have to advocate for us which would be our we'd have to retain counsel for special counsel. We don't have counsel because our no can handle that. Our council is
050an employment lawyer not may refer us to KP law. I don't know who town council is. Middleton's KP but I don't Yeah. Yeah. We can figure that out. But it seems like something that we can do now is to mobilize public support in in Boxford to show up at the at these meetings. And I know it's been asked for, but you know, we just I think we should take uh take heart in what we just accomplished with our budget and mobilizing public support for that both at town meeting and and um on election day. um and do the same thing for this project. I do think it's, you know, it's kid hands though. We have a few very aggressive pro fields people and I don't want to cause the conservation commission to dig their heels
051in because, you know, we're not I don't want people go screaming at these folks. You know, they're they're doing their job the best way they think they're doing it. I think part of the issue is that I've heard is that they felt like they were not looked in early enough. So, they're being a little difficult now. So I I don't want a bunch of screaming, you know. Yeah. Showing up. So rightcom is saying that they weren't looped in early enough. I think they felt the process wasn't handled well the first year. Um reading between the Yeah. It's a it's a tough group. You know box concom's always been known to be overly rigorous. So I guess what's a recommended path forward now? Yeah. In your opinion. So, I mean, just from my perspective, I would
052say let's get to the point where we get a response about our recent submission and see if they have additional questions or requests for information. Depending on what that entails, we make a decision based on, you know, whether to drop field two based on that. Yeah, it would be great to get a clean letter from the peer reviewer if if the town's if the con peer reviewer gives you a clean letter. Um, again, it's one of those things that sort of is helps us because you know your own reviewer has reviewed it and has no comments. That's generally accepting of our design and sort of that's expected soon, correct? This summer. What's that? That's expected soon, right? Uh it's we haven't heard as to when that's coming, but it's been a month. So I would
053expect that a consultant would uh be able to respond within a month or so. We're paying for that peer review though, right? Yes. So we're paying for the peer review. Yeah. They they commissioned it, but we're paying for it. Can we ask them to hurry up or Right. Yeah. So they work for the they work for the town. They work for the couch. Yeah. See how that review is going and that uh when we should expect to have additional requests, but they they've also made it very clear, I'm just going to say it again, right, that that they want the peer reviewer to visit the site again and then opine on the meanual the mean annual high watermark. Right? So that's part of their looking forward in addition to all those other things that they
054asked for and I don't think we can ignore those requests, right? I mean we stand by the application that it's submitted. So I mean if they they have the right to review the information that we've submitted that is new which part of that is the mean annual high water line delineation even though that was done in August right was not submitted as part of the previous application. Was the peer reviewer engaged yet in August when they did that site visit? Yes. uh he he was here um but that was his first level of engagement in the project um at all. Um he he didn't have an active role in my opinion until we engaged him in the parking lot when they came and then when they came back Yeah. Michelle took the peer reviewer through
055the process on the how they determined the the line but eight months had passed. Right. Yeah. But they did go through they she she reviewed the methodology with the peer reviewer from what I understand. Yeah. So when he met us out there in the field, we went over the methodology with the commission and with the peer reviewer and come came to a headnot agreement that this was going to be the way we did things. Then we followed that up with Michelle and and my other colleague Josh doing the delineation. And then that information was submitted as part of the current application. So, and because that delineation method relied on changes in the vegetative composition, u we can't have them go out there and review it until things have, you know, greened up. And one of
056the me one of the members contends that the first site visit with the peer reviewer in August related to the first NOI submission and that the most recent site visit and and isn't admissible information. Right. That's incorrect. But that's that's their position. Right. That was their contention. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Typically they're done before the permits are submitted. Um but then you know they the April 30th site right the recent one that was to look at their methodology right because the the the water they were anticipating the actual water level was high but that's not statutoily how you delineate meaning high which again was not their not their opinion on it. I guess I'm trying to wrap my mind around we've been working towards a capital project and last year we started including the fields
057as part of that capital project and this year we're going to make a lot of progress and hopefully put that capital project that includes the roof with BMC and HVAC in front of the towns 12 months from now and we've talked about including the fields as part of that and I guess I don't see a path an obvious path to getting there right now. And Adrian kind of whispered over that we need some sort of a milestone chart that shows a path to get there with timelines and like we need to know by, you know, 6 months from now if we're doing this or not, right? Probably sooner. Yeah. That's been the frustrating part of this whole thing, right? Cuz I've been in it for two years and the whole thing has been unpredictable, right?
058So, and I think it's impossible for our team to predict how this thing will play out whether we stick with the current design inclusive of field one and field two or if we change course and go with just field one. I I think it's impossible for us to predict how this is going to play out over the next six months. Yeah, I don't think we need to predict it. I'm wondering what we can do differently with the cons far to be able to get something out of them, right? I mean, or the peer reviewer, and we don't we don't have a date on the peer reviewer that we're paying right now. Um, did I hear you say the next Cons meeting is June 5th? Correct. Okay. So, we could solicit the community and say, "Send
059some testimony in, send some letters, let them know that this is a real problem and that your kids need safe fields to participate in these athletic events." That's a step we can take now. And maybe it has the the effect of changing the conversation a little bit on June 5th, but then from there, like what's the ideal path? If everything went perfect, what does it look like? The peer reviewer comes back and says, "This is beautiful, great." And the consum hears from the community and says, "Geez, I guess people really do want this." The conversation starts to shift. What is that? If all things go perfectly, is that three months from now there's a stamp on it? Is it six months? Is it So once the commission decides that they have all the information they
060need to make a decision on the project, they can close the public hearing at any of their regular hearings. Okay. Uh once they do that, then they will take a vote on the application to on whether or not to order uh or issue an order of conditions and then they have two weeks to issue that order of conditions. So they could wrap it up in 30 to 45 days if they wanted to. They could wrap it up next or it could be in front of us next year, which I think is more likely. Yeah. So, one thing that I think could help us get there is like me and Melissa were saying is um obtaining legal representation. What's that process look like? Does that have to be an agenda item on a future agenda? So,
061so the path forward in my mind is we have to reach so we're out of money, right? We're out of scope. We're we've expended all the funds in the original contract. I've sent you all an update. We have three change orders. We're kind of done with all three change orders. So, we need to provide the team with some direction around a way forward and then they need to get back to me with a change order that kind of summarizes that in words and in money. And then the committee needs to authorize some funding out of the stabilization account to pay for all these things. Concurrently, we can work with our council to identify a a yeah a council that does this kind of work and we can get an engagement letter with that firm from
062which the whatever is authorized by the committee will have to come out of the stabilization account, right? because we have no funds left in the contract, the change orders in the FY25 operating budget or the FY26 operating budget. So, um we we need some direction around th all of those things to these guys can't even show up to the June 5th meeting right now because they're not going to get paid. Yeah, I have no money to pay them. U remind me how much is in the stabilization fund now? uh almost a million dollars and we're not prepared to to vote tonight. So, we would like I don't know how you guys want to proceed. There's a lot to take in here. Who's going to the meeting on the 5th? Are you? No one's going to
063the meeting on the on the 5th. It's been continued and then we would just have it continued again if we're not Usually someone's there to make sure it's continued. So that's my concern because my concern would be that they decide to close the hearing, but I I know they can't, but in the past there's been contact before prior to the meeting to the the agent to say we'd like to continue to the next meeting. We would nobody's going on the 5th. That's what would happen. We would suggest that they continue past June 5th because we have not received received anything. Right. Right. You're supposed to give and and you're supposed to give them week a week ahead which would my answer and and we don't want to just attend hearings just for them to voice
064their right right grievances about the project uh we want to have a constructive conversation about the application so tomorrow we'll probably send a communication that asking for a continuence right because it's a week out from the 5th yeah I would recommend that we also just ask them what the status of the reviewer I'll answer questions. I think this might be outside the box or outside the realm of possibility, but are we bumping up an issue bumping up against an issue with the cons that no matter what they're going to continue to vote this down that the comm's con is of the opinion that turf in no way, shape or form should be installed here? could if if this and that's why this is dragging on that's why something new always that's why I was saying
065the laws are actually on our side there is a state law that says a local agency cannot stop a school from constructing something that's according to its mission as long as it's not it's not violating a state law there's no state laws that say you cannot put down artificial turf and so this is if you go back and look at Martha's vineyard and through other places. When you go to Lancor, you win, you know, even when the KSCOM says no. Is are the is the consom of the opinion though that we're not going to take it to that? Like is there another conversation? Like do we invite them to this meeting and say, can we just have a conversation rather than dragging this out? It's a battle of wills right now. We want to move
066forward. like is is there a conversation like that that needs to happen? Is is that a conversation that your experience has ever you know have you ever encountered? Well, I I hazard to try to predict what they would say. Um but I would imagine that they would say, "Well, why don't you go grass turf on both fields? just get rid of the artificial turf entirely. Who would say that the comp? Yeah, I mean that's that's their ultimate goal is to remove the artificial turf from the equation, but it doesn't work. So that's fine. My my concern with with kind of bringing up the heavy heavy guns is you got to get the thing approved, but then you have to get the funding approved, you know, at the next town meeting. And so if you really
067piss off a lot of people, good luck getting the funding for it, unless Sarah can pull a million dollars out of her back pocket with her team. Right. So there's a concern there. And then when you say we have money and we need to dip into stabilization, well, do we have some estimates? Do we have a budget? We need to talk to another talk to a firm and get a quote. This is our this is our firm. I think what we need from the committee is some direction around how you would like us to first off does the committee want to keep going. That's I think the first that the number question. I think that's the first question. I mean it's we've spent everything that we've had. We you know it's not done yet. Does
068the committee want to keep doing keep moving forward on this is the first question and then we would get you know estimates and things like that to actually tell you how much. Yeah. We we would just get we would have some agreement around how far we would like them to go based on their recommendation and then they would provide me with a change order. It's as simple as that. I guess my concern is that we still don't really know what the ask is from the confcom. It feels like the shift exams every time you you go to them and I don't know if we're not taking our own notes. We're waiting for them to supply notes but it'd be really nice if we had you know minutes or something we were tracking on our side
069to to find this to have a little granularity. But that is a frustrating part about this Jeeoff. I mean, we could there's no reason. Yeah. Stant could be taking notes during these meetings and we do. Okay. We don't issue the right minutes. But you have a running list of all the asks, right? Yeah. We we keep a a tally of all the, you know, comments and general concerns uh for and our response to comments actually did address a number of those items towards the end. you know, above and beyond what the peer reviewer had identified. I mean, that's a good tool to stop the swirl a lot, right? You say that's a good way to stop the swirl every time they bring new questions say we trust this. This has been decided, you know, that
070common understanding. But as far as strategy, you know, I think they seem to come up with new stuff every or they don't decide anything. It just going around and Jeff at the last meeting there was a long list of new requests, right? Call out on that. That's fair. You know, you called him out on that. That's that's fair, right? you know, just strategy wise, my opinion is I don't know if that's fair. I don't know, right? You know, but you know, my thoughts are you get the peer review, see if there's a path forward and at that point, you know, decide if we're just throwing, you know, good money after bad at that point. you know, if there's no path forward, you know, if the peer review does support us, I think, you know, we
071times on the engineering side, you know, it's common for us as engineers to talk one-on-one with the peer reviewer to say, you know, hey, before you write your letter, if you have any major issues, call me. We'll work through them out. I'll tell you if I can address what you're, you know, we're happy to do that as well. Um, but oftentimes, you know, they might be getting something in their ear from the concom, hey, make sure you, you know, pay attention to these things. Peer reviewer is only going to do what they can do within the confines of the of the code and the law. They're not going to overstep. They can't um, you know, but you know, what they're going to do is say, you know, we're going to write our letter. The con
072is then going to advise you on how to proceed forward. Could I make a recommendation on a way forward? Could we ask Stantech to provide us with a change order quote to attend no more than four meetings and spend no more than 100 hours to attend those meetings and prepare additional materials and responses to the peer reviewers responses and then I can take that back to the committee. How much is the $100? They would have to give us a quote. What would the quote be for $100? Do you know the ballpark? We have to figure out. They'd have to figure it out and get back. Get back to you. We're meeting next week. I have another question, too. Um, so you said continuing the June 5 hearing. How often does the comms con meet? Like
073every two weeks two weeks. The first and third Thursday of every month. might be different in the summertime. Sometimes it can change a little bit in the summer, sometimes once a month in the summer, but depends on the time. Adrian, I like the idea of asking for the continuation and trying to get a firm date on when the peer reviewer is going to get us an answer and then based on what we hear there, maybe we can figure out what we do next because otherwise we're just kind of like it's all in the ether. Exact. Uh that's twice my Okay. Um I think for um for me it's kind of about like we've seen it seems like there's a lot of time that's gone by that maybe was a little bit maybe wasted on in
074other people's areas. So for me it's like about efficiency and I think if you did have even all three towns where it seems like for me the communication pieces there's a lot of people in the towns that are wondering what's going on, what's going on? What is is it happening? what's happening. So, I think that having students or families or from all three towns go and not necessarily be be negative or mean, but just explain what having a great field, what having these facilities would do for them and how much it would mean to them and having that impact of getting First Step, getting the communication, getting the large groups of all three towns in front just to to see and to say because it makes an impact like with all the other things that
075we've had here with music department and all of that. it it does does resonate and make an impact. And I think for me having I don't know if it's town council or a legal avenue to be with you or to be there to stop the the dragging on or the sort of lagging where if we can if we can do that that seems very efficient to me to have someone there to be able to say when they come up with new things every time to somehow if there is in the law to say this has gone is there a is there a a limit to the deadline of how far you can drag this on without real evidence or real results kind of thing. Maybe I'm not saying that right, but just to have somebody
076who knows legally we're going to say this is enough. We're at this point it has to be. I think a big issue and I think that would definitely be helpful and getting you know members of the school would be helpful but I think some of them see it as I mean they think they're saving the public from P yeah plastic and pas right they think that they have like a moral obligation to not allow the synthetic turf. So I don't know where the balance that's great, right? But there needs to be a path to making that decision. We'll say like already. So far we've only had 14 I think comment letters submitted on this application and six of those were in opposition and the balance was in in favor of the project. So, it's not
077a whole lot of public comment to date on this project and it's definitely not, you know, one-sided. So, before we move off that topic, Joe, like it's a Oxford cons. What is the role that Middleton Hopsfield residents can play in this? Is there one? I don't know. Um, anybody criminal meetings, anybody feels anybody from what? So, do they weigh our comments if we're from the other towns? It's up to them. It's up to one of the most vocal, outspoken person is from not from Boxford, right? I mean, Sarah goes to the meetings. She's not from Oxford. She's she's at a lot of them. So yeah, that's the other thing. They do Zoom. Yeah, if they were in person, then it would be, I think, more effective to have everybody showing up, but when they're virtual,
078it's like they just turn everybody's mic off and just a bunch of dark screen and there's not a lot to it. So, sorry, Joe. Sorry. Um, Jeff, so do you think what you listed out would be enough to get us to a point where we wouldn't have to go back to the left. Like I don't No, I personally No, but I think it keeps the ball moving cuz we're at a dead stop right now. Cuz we're at a dead stop right now. Yeah. So, I think it keeps the ball moving. To Mike's point, I think the longer we stay in it, the more we're going to know, right? So, that gets us through hopefully the next few meetings. I don't know exactly. I will tell you that um just the the first peer reviewer report
079was 20 pages long, single spaced. There were like 75 issues that they responded to with 400 pages of documentation and it must it took a long time for them to prepare that response. So, but it it'll keep this thing moving. So I'm completely fine with everything you listed out. So if the committee wants to give that directive, I'm supportive of it. Is that a motion or we just go? I want to make a comment. I don't want to spend any more money on design until we know what the peer reviewer is saying. So let's not go and react to and go find a bigger tank, for instance. I know you wouldn't do that without letting us know, but none of that stuff. Just keep moving until we get to an answer and then we can
080react accordingly at that point. Just to summarize, it sounds like the proposed path forward that Jeff articulated was to get the peer review and in parallel ask Stantech to provide a quote back to us so that we can after we get the peer review make a decision to fund them. So actually that would come first, Matt. So they you're an engineer. You know how it works, right? So we've got to we've got to authorize some funds based on some scope for change order number four to get them continue to have them engaged so that they can do look at that report the things that you just talked about and attend the next hearing. We have to we have to fund them to to receive the peer review. Correct. Review it. communications with the conscom all
081of those things and we can write at all time and material so if we right yeah it all yeah from this point forward as I said in my communication yesterday it's all Tina um your other question was whether or not this committee wanted to keep pushing to go forward with this project I guess maybe we should make sure that all of us are on board and want to keep making make sure that this is what we're planning on and this is what we want to I would just remind everyone that this project was approved by all three town meetings in May of 2023. So, while I I respect the committee's position. No, I'm I'm in complete support of it. I just want to make sure that this is, you know, that we're all standing here
082as one and going, "Yes, we're going to keep pushing and we're going to keep pushing Boxford to that to to pass this and pass the the stadium that we want, the fields that we want." For me, it goes beyond the committee because because I understand. Yeah. You have a motion. I have a motion. Sorry. I was I was just going to say that I'm I'm in support of a solution for the fields, but right now I don't I don't see the path to get there. I don't know what I don't see the path which is really hard for me to make a decision about spending money after what we just went through and what we just asked all the towns for. It's really hard. I don't see any of that. It's really hard to you
083know your point is that it's it's just a wall. It seems like it's a wall. But as Jeff said the all three towns how many years ago voted to say this is what I mean I was at town meeting and there was some opposition too. So I'm not gonna say it passed with flying colors. I was at I think that the vote what we approved as a tri town was to allocate funds to perform the study and engineering and give us the permit. They didn't they didn't tell us to go beyond the funds that they allocated to us. Right. Right. So that's what we are talking about here. Melissa, I'm going to I want to make a motion to allow Jeff to solicit change order number four in the parameters that he spoke about to
084keep the project moving forward because I think it would be a disservice and a waste of the $449,000 if we just stop now. So second ch second uh I can just do a any other discussion or any other discussion I think the scope is a little too broad at this point. I'd much rather have them review the peer review meet with the cons and come back with a risk assessment for us. We they don't have any money to I'm asking to amend yours because you're you want four meetings up to four meetings and conclude the review of the peer reviewers conference. I just don't want this to blow up and spend three more months. I think getting this peer review in and you know probably another concom interaction is probably enough to get a gut
085feel for where things are. But it is key enough as four separate tasks that have authorizes as we go. We feel it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And again like the idea with the hearings is not to go there without you know a plan to address comments and concerns. So we are going to reach out to them to ask them when we can expect additional comments wait for those comments to come back prepare that response and then attempt hearing. Right now I feel like you're in the dark. We're in the dark until that peer review comes in and that's going to be really kind of pivotal. Can we request a continuation until the peer review is in? Yes. Well, that's what we're going to do. I'm sorry. So, tomorrow we're going to request a meetings then
086if we're going to just request a continuation till the period. Why do we need four meetings? Not have meetings this summer to authorize the spending. Right. So, they So, it's a week a week out as of tomorrow, right? We haven't they haven't gotten the response to the response, but they also have the requirement to provide their response within 7 days of the next hearing. So that will have expired by tomorrow. So we'll ask for a continuence until the June 19th meeting, which won't happen on the 19th because it's now a federal holiday. I don't know when it'll happen. Probably June 26th, right? So we'll ask it for it continuates to then. In the meantime, I'll work with Ananda based on whatever you guys authorize. Hopefully, she'll provide me with a change order by next Wednesday
087that I can share with the committee and you can authorize the funding, right? But you said earlier that someone at the last meeting said the peer reviewer has got to come back out to the site in June and look at it. Right. Well, my point that's why I said we're waiting for right now from the peer reviewer. Doesn't sound like it's the last word. Sounds like there's more coming. Can we request a continuation that says we'll come back when your peer reviewer's got all the information that you guys think they need? Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean that would be the idea and I think that would line up with you know not attending June 5th. It probably being continued to the end of June. They should have adequate time to go out there and do
088their sight walk in the in the time before. U would it make sense for us to go on the sitewalk with them? Yes. It it would be up to the commission as to whether or not they wanted us to attend those those site visits. I think someone should put me in that. So folks, we we have a motion on the table in a second. Melissa, do you want to comment on your motion? I actually want to withdraw my motion and make an amendment. I don't know if I can make an amendment because it's already been seconded. So I don't really know. Second. So um also like what I said first but also for our administration to start the process of engaging special legal counsel to steer the project that I probably won't have for next
089meeting but we could we can do that too. Okay. I just think that's going to be very important to getting us where we need to right to start making capital decisions. We have a second. Seconded. Any more discussion? One one clarifying question. So if we get the changeable order, we look at it next meeting and we're like, "Oh, whoa. This is more than any of us feel like we want to bite into, we can change the scope of that in the next discussion." Sure. But then that just for the delays and everything, you know how it works. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just making sure. We just need to make sure we have money in June if we want based on what Mike just said for them to continue their work. And then we only have
090two meetings. One on the 4th, one on the 18th. Can I do uh you just do a voice? Voice vote. Okay. All in favor? Any discuss? I against you abstain. Can I I just have one more question for you. Um when we get to the end of this, right, and we go out and find someone who's actually going to do the construction work, right? You guys are out of the game at that point. Is that correct? I thought, Or are you still in it? How does that work? stick through it throughout construction plan. We do have an obligation whether it's us or someone else but someone have to be obligated to Joe if you may recall the the original quote included all the way through construction and closeout and the quote was too high. This
091this is going on two and a half years ago. So what I I recommended only through permitting which brought the original quote down to the 449 which is what we're working on. So working on now. So we're working on the final phase of the approved scope of services in the current contract. If we get through permitting, then we we we would we would re-engage them in a quote to go procurement, bidding, work with me on that kind of stuff. Construction, construction management, and closeout. Those are the next phases. Okay. So, I just it's so the rest of the question, right? Um because there was a I don't know it was a year ago, maybe there was a rumor that Stantech wasn't going to do turf field work anymore. Um, if you decided you wanted to
092disengage, can you take all of your work and hand it off to another firm easily? I don't know what easily would be, but yes, we can. There's usually some agreements in place where liability or there's some exchange and how you exchange documents. Contractually, we have to look at whatever our contract allows. So, I wrote our contract. Our contract, we own the materials. Yeah. It's on your standpoint. It's whatever the contractual term. I don't want to like I've spoken to a couple people in Boxford on this and you know I had one person tell me I just don't like Stantech. I mean, it's it could be that in the end that dumb of a response is what I'm worrying about, you know, from the I don't know. I'm going to leave it at that. I'm not
093going to say who and and specifically, but it's just I'm scratching my head wondering, all right, well, if this is going to be the dead end in the end, how do we overcome that? Right. Well, all I can say is like we're committed to helping you build a successful project. If that does not entail us past permitting, then so be it. Yeah. Okay. That's a good answer. So, we would understand. I would just add that things didn't go great last fall. I reached out to this the senior partner on the project in December and I made our expectations crystal clear. They inserted you you as our new team and you guys have done a great job for us in my opinion. You've been responsive. You've been collaborative. We've had weekly phone calls. We were on
094the phone for an hour and a half yesterday again. Um, so we're on we we have the right team and they're working hard on our behalf in my opinion. No, I I agree with that. I I think you guys have been doing fine since the uh the new team came on board, but the original team really kind of All right, folks. I'd like to unfortunately I'd like to wrap this one up if we can press on. So, thank you guys for joining us tonight. Appreciate the hard work. Thank you. Thank you. is not. So, all right. Review of school committee. 25 minutes ahead. We're caught up. We're there. Right there. 8:25. We're right on time. Yeah. We're getting our money. You guys voted for me to sit here. Um, okay. Review of school committee protocols.
095So, I think if we, if I remember correctly, we need these out loud. Um, we have in the past. It's more of sound. There we go. This is something the committee does every year to kind of review this and see if there's any recommendations on changes. And then at um next week or at a subsequent meeting, we would have everybody sign off on the document. Um Rachel's bringing it up there. Anybody can actually see it. Can we zoom in a little? Yeah, resent. Zoom all the way. All the way in. There we go. Some eyes tonight. I mean, in the past, you've read them out loud, but you don't need to. Um, it's really a question of, you know, was everybody comfortable with the document as it currently stands. Of course, I can't edit this
096one because we're Yes, Joe. Weren't we all on the committee last year? And Yeah, I was going to say everybody was here. So, so unless anybody's passionate about wanting to read them all out loud, I'm going to suggest no one is passionate about reading them out loud. And uh funny, you know, maybe I want to hear. Yeah, we don't have a hard copy. We didn't We didn't know the internet wasn't working until Yep. Too late. Look, we all sign it next week. Yeah. For our next meeting. Yep. Okay. All right. Great. Look at that. We're ahead. I got it. This first time, this first time I can remember it, but it's an entirely returning committee. The last couple years at least. So, yeah, resign that to the chair. Okay. Uh, subcommittee preferences. This one we
097do have part copies of. This one we do have five copies of. Do we need to read through these or are we all familiar again everybody's returning um these mission statements or whatever are probably dated. I'm sure things have changed since uh this they're actually the document I started with from last year so and I didn't have the new ones all at my fingertips but um these are the the subcommittees as they currently stand. Um and I think uh what the process would be is that um people take some time, you know, before we leave tonight to fill this out. Uh indicate your preferences, give them to the chair, and then the next week the chair will come back with an assignment slate that we can vote on. How did Sorry, real quick. How did
098we settle on these subcommittees? How do we know we have all? It's really kind of it's up to the committee to make the make the decisions on this and sometimes we've actually gotten to the retreat in August and said, you know what, we need to change these. So it's you can change them at any time. Okay. Um I think the policies the chair creates and appoints people to them. Okay. So So it's however people want to want to do this. Okay. One thing I think this is missing is the building subcommittee because that still exists capital budget the separate folks. No, I think he's talking about the the building committee. Is that a subcommittee of the DCI? Where's all it? DCI. We were trying to avoid making another subcommittee because then you have to have
099postings and minutes and all of those things. So I did realize it was the same membership. Yeah, it has been inactive since we don't have a project right now, but um been trying to keep them informed on any progress or major milestones we've hit. So Okay. Well, I think in addition to giving your feedback on your preferences for these subcommittees, um I would like to know if there are if these are the right subcommittees so if you have views on that, please share them with me right now or I don't think we want to take the time right now to have that deliberation, but I just like to get your feedback. Okay. Uh update on processor superintendent evaluation. So we had a a quick little get together uh this weekend and talked about um kind
100of doing this as a triumate I guess. So Melissa, me and the new chair would kind of collect the inputs from everyone and uh consolidate them and um bring them in and and talk to Mike. It's got to be you know that the review has to be given in public. We cannot meet privately to talk about this stuff. So the idea is we'll solicit um feedback and inputs. The idea being that I would ask Oxford people to put get our Boxford inputs. We do the same thing in Middleton and in in Toppsfield. Then the three people would get together and consolidate it. That's that's the plan. Um that's about as far as we got. We spent the rest of the time talking about uh elections and some other issues to be honest. Right. So it's
101on the agenda for next Wednesday. I don't know how far we'll be able to get by then. When's the next meeting after next Wednesday, Mike? June, sorry. 18th. So, fairly regular. There's two meetings in June, but in the 18th, so so I think probably the 18th would be the target to try to complete up um I'm not the chair any longer. So, this would be certainly support that occur with that. It's a great idea. Yeah. But I would ask if the committee's okay with that with that basically that the you know the the last two chairs and the current chair basically coordinating and getting everyone's inputs and then coming in. You know that's great. Makes sense. Joe, you'd have boxer you'd have tops. I'd have Middleton. Yeah. We try to gather inputs by next Wednesday.
102we could physically hand them to the three um prospective collectors and then we'd have two weeks to to do what we need to with that. Right. You're going to give him like a rubric like last time. So, there's a rubric um that I only have hard copies of, so we'll have to scan it and send it out to everyone, take a look. Um yeah, we do. Do you mind doing that? Mind doing that? No, I don't mind. I'll get try to get it out before Friday. How about that? Great. Thank you, Chris. I haven't been part of this. I haven't done one since I've been on the committee. Um, and the last time I did this was 10 years ago. So is it will the rubric will be is the rubric based on our impressions?
103Are we given anything like climate surveys or are there other other inputs? I think it's it's really much just very much a desi process. It just has a series of things to rate on, right? You know, I think it's um I have it with me. I'm sorry. I brought it on Saturday morning. Yeah. Yeah. You can call this out for educator evaluation, right? So, it's probably very similar process. It's the same. And the last review was I think Melissa is looking at it right now. It was pages long or something like that. Well, I have 22. I saw when we did the last one, right? And that right there. Okay. Oh, so that was before I Yeah. So, I can I can send a copy of that to everyone. I I didn't have the ability
104to scan it. Well, I could, but it takes forever to scan on my home scanner. So, I could do it at work, but it's posted publicly, so you can actually pull it up and read it if you want to look at the Masco website. And I think the Desi rubric is also on their site. If you don't want to scan it, just link it. You want to send the links out to everybody? Huh? Can you send the links? I I mean I don't have them at my fingertips, but if if it's easier to just send a link to everybody to say download PDF, fill it in or print it out and do whatever you want. Yeah. All right. I have it that the links that I have are via text message. So I have to
105then take the text. You know what I mean? Last time it was geared toward it was like the the rubric was sort of geared towards Dr. Harvey. It was it wasn't just a blank rubric. So yeah, Lilly did put additional Yeah. work in based off our which I which Joe you and I could work together as the if the committee wants because I have all that stuff too. Okay. That's okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I don't I don't want to constrain anybody from providing feedback that may or may not fall outside of a rubric, but if you think there's guidance we can we can give that would be helpful, let's do that. Okay. And just one more. So Christine, your question like are we getting feedback from the staff to consider
106like do they get I don't know do we get any feedback from the people that No. No. I don't think we're allowed to. So, yeah, we ran into the same issue last year where we wanted to solicit that, but we we can't. Did we ask the I don't know who did we ask the teachers union? The We have to ask our legal counsel before doing that. Is that a function? I don't know. I mean, I guess I'd kind of like to hear what other I mean I don't know. I I've never done this, but it's like, you know, for my own review, it's like based on other people I work with, they tell my boss that, hey, this is how she's doing. This is what she needs to improve on. So, it's weird. I know
107it is. It's a weird process. I know. But you know what I'm saying? It's like I understand what you're saying, but technically like for this process, the committee evaluates me, not other people. That's No, I I understand we evaluate you, but it wouldn't it be based on the people that you work with. We see you. I see you a couple hours to every two months. We can try to lift under that rock, but I think we did that last time and the answer was no. So, we can try again, but I think that answer is no. Just get clarification. put the question out there just to put to bed what's in scope scope or what's I don't know if that and I don't I hear you but I don't think it is necessarily fair because
108you're going to get a different input based off of who you talk to and we're all going to survey you're going to get the most positive and the most negative it's just input well I think I think what you're saying may be different versus like asking someone hi Hey staff member, tell me what you think about, you know, Dr. Harvey versus like a I think Christiey's like a climate survey. Yeah. That's like districtwide. That's like more general. It's it's, you know, here's the questions. Do some, you know, input that's not emotional and, you know, personal. It's just, you know, what what does this look like in your dayto-day? So, we know. Have you reviewed the Desi uh guidelines at all? Have you looked at it? Not in a not in a while. I did it
109probably I don't know last summer when I thought maybe this was going to happen like in in the the fall time frame, but not since then. So, not fresh in my mind. I think we should probably look at them first and then decide if these other things are appropriate or not, right? Instead of talking right now, for all we know, it's all written out and spelled, you know, A through Z. This is exactly what you have to I mean, if I had Wi-Fi, I'd be I'd be pulling I was asking. I didn't know if anybody knew the process. Realistically, if [Music] um if this is something we're looking to accomplish between now and the end of June, there isn't any climate survey that I'm aware of that's been done. So, it's not really a lot
110very useful to talk about integrating that into the process because it doesn't exist. Um, and I'm not sure to what extent we could get meaningful input from his direct reports or the wider staff um, in a matter of weeks. So, that's just that's just the the harsh reality of the calendar. Now if we wanted to change how quickly we do this to enable us or to give us some flexibility about getting additional input that's another you know we certainly could do that but it's not happening between now and the end of June contractually we have to use the elevator the educator evaluation so unless we negotiate with with Mike to do another type review. Is there a reason we do it at this time of year instead of a different time of year or can
111we change when we do it for it to be to be able to get, you know, if if that's the avenue we take? Is language in the contract is actually um not as specific as I thought it would be. So, I thought that there was a requirement to do it every two years. I read the contract, Mike, and it says you can have a semiannual review and then you can meet with them every year essentially, right? It doesn't say you have to do it exactly on this date exactly when. It just says semiannual's okay for feedback and then annually you can review, but it doesn't there's nothing beyond that. There's no timing. But I would think you'd want to do it at the end of the year, right? because you're reviewing what has just occurred,
112right? And it's Yeah, the I think this probably should have been like our last meeting last time, but we just ran out of time with budget stuff, but we have the same committee, so it's not like people left. Last time I was here for a month or two before I had to participate in it. How much did I know in a month or two? Not that much. I think that's more what I was going for is like before the the town election time frame. So, it's the people that were a part of the process to be able to be doing the evaluation. I think that's where my brain was at. I should have said that. Sorry. We're on the committee. Maybe what I'd suggest is we just do our own review over the next one
113to three weeks and if we feel like there's big gaps in our review that would warrant input from others then we can explore that and have a midyear review in December. statement. We we do have a decision to make this year, right? Contractually, we have to notify by a certain date of extensions or renewals or whatever the language is. Okay. October. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, just to summarize, uh, you mind sending the link out to everybody? I can. It sounds like there was other stuff that you guys wanted to add into that rubric, though. So, maybe it's not helpful to send the link because you're going to use the old We just have it for the current there's in it. Yeah. Okay. You guys have the link? You guys can find it. Hey, Adrian. I
114can send it to you if it makes life easier, but I have it. Got it. Okay. All right. All right. So then one one of you guys will send it out to the rest of the school committee. School committee will get inputs to Joe, Melissa, and I in a week. That will give us two weeks to write a 15page performance appraisal. That's the base of the last one was easy. It's hot. Welcome to summer. Write this document. Um, all right. Where are we? Sorry. Can I ask a question? When's the next meeting after the 18th at our retreat? Uh, no. We have a end of July, I think. We haven't said anything. I think we had it on the next agenda to look at the calendar for next year. We can adjust accordingly. I think
115there's something like last week of July is the next in that time frame. Just going to see if I can find it. Okay. Yeah, we haven't we haven't published anything yet. That's it was it was an agenda item for for the fourth to look at the calendar for the year. Yeah. open question. I can't get it open. We'll revisit next week. We press on to vocal. Yeah, I can't get it open. Uh vocal committee report. We did Jeff Adrian. So this beginning of April, but it didn't quite happen. So this might be a little dated. Also, I have slides, but I don't know. I have a pretty big computer. Maybe I can just I think I think it downloaded. I think Do you have them? I don't think she has them. We can we can
116Y. Okay. Right. So just a reminder on what vocal is to um we want to serve as advocates for the students, elevate data for impact and observe and advocate through coalition partnerships. So that's just when we hear stuff from the community, we want to follow it up, chase it down, make sure it's not just anecdotal, you know, get some data. Um and we want to be proactive about data. So when we're making budget decisions and other things and then um partner with potentially student groups and um other coalition partners in the community to make sure that we're all working together and this is an example of some of the elevate data for impact that we want to bring forward. So, if you guys hear this tonight and go, it'll be really great to know X,
117Y, or Z, shout it out. And if we can chase it down and do that work, then or whoever ends up on vocal, I guess, at this point, we'll see. Okay, next slide, please. Um, so we looked at MCAST trends because it's something we hear anecdotally from the community, but we don't we don't always get tangible stuff. So this is my analysis with Jeff and Lisa kind of, you know, looking at it and saying like, "Yeah, okay. Makes sense." Um, next slide. So just how are we doing overall? We hear a lot about, you know, Masco's reputation. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it declining? Overall, we're doing pretty well. Um, especially considering that MCCAST is just one input for measuring progress and achievement. Um, and it's a good reminder that Massachusetts leads the
118nation in education and Masco students are leading Massachusetts. So, that on its face says a lot of really great things. Um, in terms of our 10th graders, I just took high school because that tends to be the most critical MCCAST test that they take. Um, our students are meeting or exceeding expectations at 68 to 72% versus the state, which is 48 to 57%. So, that's pretty good. We're doing really well. I think that says a lot. Any questions before I jump to the next one? I'm going to try and make this quick for you guys. Do we do we know what I don't know how to say this similar districts how similar districts are performing about the same roughly the same. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that's what makes them similar. It's really it's it's tough
119to find an apples to apples comparison for Masco too. There aren't a ton of like 7 to 12 regional districts. I think like K there are no there are no 7 to 12 regional districts that have two superintendent or K to 12 union and regact. Exactly. So there isn't an apples to apple but there's kind of an apples to orange in a couple of cases. Um so just you know generally that's that and then the next couple of slides look at seven eight and 10 kind of a deep dive so you can see some of the trend lines. So reminder that this each data point on these trend lines is a different cohort of students. So these are seventh graders over time but those seventh graders move on to eighth grade, nth grade, whatever. Um,
120so this is what it looks like when students arrive at Masco. We know we have an uphill climb to kind of get them on board with, you know, cohesive curriculum coming from three different towns. So, um, you know, they're they're doing okay, but it's it's work to kind of improve over time. And if you look at this, so the second data point is 2021. Those kids are going to be our 2024 10th graders when we get to the third slide. So, keep an eye on them. You can go to the next slide. So in eighth grade we start to see some upward trends which is good news which we still have you know um some downward trends in things like ELA and science. But we know that literacy is a challenge right now across the
121board for everybody. But if you check in on our 2021 class of seventh graders, now it's 2022. They're eighth graders and they held steady in their ELA. They gained ground in math and they performed especially well in science. So there's the meeting or exceeding percentages down the bottom there. 58 56 and 66%. Um because I can't see the the years on it's the third graph. Is it does the initial downward that's postco is is that inco that's 2021. That's the first year the kids took it after CO. Yeah. And remind me the two different the So the top line is general education students and the bottom line is the special education students. Thank you. Okay. So next slide we go to 10th grade. So some downward trends across 10th grade. And that you could look
122at that and go oh that's disappointing downward trends. But if we check in on our 2021 class of 7th graders, they're now in 10th grade at 2024 and they've gained considerable ground in ELA and math and they held steady in science. So they started out with 58% now they're up to 72% meeting or exceeding. Math up to 68% from 56 and in science they held pretty steady 66 to 68%. And I didn't didn't want to cram too much on here, but the special education students also had some pretty remarkable jumps as well. The ELA cohort went from, I think, 16% starting in um 7th grade and got up to 30% by the time they were in 10th grade, which I think is impressive considering that literacy is a challenge. We know special education students are
123moving out of district for that reason. I said something too. I think that also aligns with the switch in MCCAST from the legacy to next generation text test which extremely upped the level of rigor and so across the state Massachusetts in all content areas saw test scores really dip. So to have any gain in that time is like really great really great yeah good stuff and so in the notes of these slides I put the the special education details so that they're available for you guys to look at but I just you know didn't want to go too crazy. Um okay next slide. So takeaway, we know needs are changing. We know delivery is changing. Looks like our district is making really great investments to support the unique needs across all the cohorts of our
124students. And despite challenges right now, we're doing it in a way that results in measurable growth and achievement, which I think is fantastic. And the downward trends around across all the cohort show us that we have more work to do to keep that growth and achievement in place. Right? This isn't going to happen on its own. So, we have we kind of have a a maring order to really stay on top of it and make sure that we're being smart with our budget investments um going forward. Um okay. And then the next section I think was about student wellness because that was super interesting at the time like there was a lot of discussion in the budget around do we invest in certain people or or not. Um so you can flip to the next
125one. 80% of districts added um mental health support in 2018 and 33% um increase in support for mental health statewide since 2018. So those are pretty big numbers. If you go to the next slide, you see the trend lines. This is across the state. So you can see it's very much up and to the right. These are calling out things like counselors, nurses, adjustment counselors, um social workers, psychologists, um all the academic success support. Um so the numbers in Massachusetts have definitely been trending in one specific direction. Um if you go to the next slide, the next slide shows on the left is the state trend lines and on the right is Masco's trend lines. This is what DESIE reports. So, the numbers might be like one or two off and that matters because these
126numbers are pretty low anyway. Um, but as you can see, we're actually not following the state lines, you know, super closely. We're trending downward on guidance, nurses, and social workers. So, we're observing that needs are changing and we're adjusting to that um pretty regularly. and we're pretty much following the trend lines on adjustment counselors and psychologists as compared to the state. So, we're not leading these investments. We're we're also not lagging too far behind, but you know, you can see our trend lines kind of bouncing up and down depending on needs. So, it looks like there's been a lot of really great discussion around these things and and reactions to them appropriately. I think that was it. Okay. I know that was really fast, but questions. Is it Wait, hold on. I was going to
127say, can you send it to us, but that might have been what you sent to Jeff and I? I think it's going to be it should it'll be linked in the agenda maybe. I need you to send it to me. Okay. And I can link it tomorrow. Okay, sounds good. Yeah, I like this data approach. I think yeah. Yeah, I mean budget season could be really helpful for decision making. Maybe tighten up our scroll a little bit. Nice. Some just some and this is all desi data. It's all publicly available. This is just trying to, you know, I feel like it's really hard to talk about supply when you don't understand demand. And that's really hard to get at in education. And I think it's also important for us to be data driven because perception
128is reality and there's a big wide social media world out there where people can just say whatever they want and unless somebody's out there to swat it down with facts, it gets messy really fast. So be promoting this and have conversations like this. Yeah. Because I think you know like like you said social media something just make a statement that's totally unfounded and people believe it. Yeah. So that's part of the vocal mission. So when we one of our at our last meeting when we were meeting with Brad he mentioned that there used to be a class that taught specifically to MCCAST that they no longer teach here anymore too which shows you know the reason our MCCAST scores were so high was because they were teaching to the test which were not and we're
129not doing that anymore. Yeah. There was a decision made to not teach to the test and be more holistic so that the kids weren't successful at MCCAST. They were successful postgraduation and that's I think a a sound approach and they're still holding their own on MCCAST. So that's great too. Anything else? We do have uh to approve the May 5th minutes. Do you want to do it now or you want to do it uh in the subcommittee? Um, yeah. So, yeah, we don't have the link, but we had a meeting after the budget season with Brad to meet posted. So, I guess there's a motion to just approve those. Are you a motion? Second. Second. Yeah. Okay. Just the three. That should just be the vote. Great. Yes. Yay. Yeah. Just few more. We had
130a really good meet up, Brad. um identify a few areas to kind of collaborate a little stronger next year. So I think it's uh you know trending the right direction. So really appreciate them coming in as well and spend some time with us. Great. Thank you guys. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Superintendent report. Okay. Actually was able to find it. All right. So I want to thank uh the residents of Boxford, Middleton, and Topsville for supporting our FY2026 operating budget. Um, as we all know, the top field approved at town meeting on May 6th and at the ballot on May 8th, uh, and in Boxford and Middleton town meeting approved the budget on May 13th. And both towns approved at their town elections on May 20th. And so we're appreciate the support of our communities. Uh,
131this week we'll also we'll be celebrating the graduation of Masanameit High School's class of 2025. Uh, senior week activities began uh, Tuesday evening with the balorate ceremony. Uh this afternoon our parent activities committee held a barbecue for students uh and then students went to visit their elementary schools and do their uh clap out at each of their elementary schools which is cool. Um tomorrow morning uh we will hold our awards ceremony. Uh we're moving indoors because of the predicted weather. So we'll be indoors at uh 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. Uh and then the graduation itself will be at 6 o'clock on Friday, May 30th uh outside of Bunker Stadium. So, we want to congratulate all of our graduates uh and their families. Where is it? We moved to tomorrow. Tomorrow's in the auditorium. Just we're inside.
132Um we also want to thank uh the Masanomic Parent Activities Committee, the pack uh for their contributions during teacher appreciation week this year. Uh on May 7th, the pack provided gift baskets and desserts at our annual teacher appreciation lunchon. Uh it was a big hit. the uh they had a lot of uh raffles going on for teachers. So, it's a great afternoon. Uh also throughout the month of May, uh Masanat Middle School hosted a series of meetings for parents of incoming seventh grade students. Uh these meetings were attended by uh principal McManis, assistant superintendent Brad Denton, uh director of teaching and learning Kevin Seir, and me. Uh parents were able to learn from administration about how the middle school operates and have their questions answered about how to best approach the transition to middle school.
133Uh these meetings were a new initiative for this year that we're excited to continue in the coming years. It was great. We had a really good turnout for them as well. Uh on May 13th, we had 15 current members of the class of 2025 uh recognized for their commitment to continuing their careers as scholar athletes in college. Uh the following students uh their their families and friends were invited to a ceremony held in the mascam gym. Uh Tyson Arnold uh is going to Bentley University and going to participate in track. Uh Riley Bvard uh Ithaca College for soccer. Uh Merary Brandt uh University of Nebraska for gymnastics. Uh Will Carry Endicott College for lacrosse. Jack Feedler uh College of the Holy Cross for soccer. Uh, Greta Hartung, uh, Sen Anselum for track. Uh, Abby Hoover,
134the University of Delaware for rowing. Uh, Jackson McGee, uh, University of New England for football. Uh, Amanda Schneider, um, Kobby College for soccer and track. Uh, Nicole Schneider, uh, soccer at St. Anselum. Uh, Tagen Scully, uh, Connecticut College for tennis. Uh, Adam Stafir, uh, Marrist for track and field. Uh, Jake Ta, Roger Williams for track, uh, Piper Ta, uh, Marramac College for track and field, and Lilia Thomas uh, Maris for rowing. So, congratulations. It's a great list. And so, we uh, started doing this all, we used to do it once a season. Now, it's all together at the end of the year. um now that the uh the NCAA used to have a a national letter of intent which they kind of all went away in the last couple years. So we're um just getting
135everybody together for for photos and um you know with parents and and the community. So it's a good good ceremony. Uh on Wednesday, May 21st, uh we had the members of the class of 2025 Dennis de demonstrate their readiness for college and career at our annual senior internship fair. Uh students presented on their internship experience to their families and to students from both the middle and high schools. Uh Masanomics seniors spend the majority of the fourth quarter participating in their internships. Uh and I want to thank uh senior internship coordinator Madison Marurell uh for her work with our seniors this year. So it's a actually a good good event and the fieldhouse. Uh students have all kinds of poster boards and props and everything else to show what they did during their internship and uh
136are always willing to talk about what they did, learn a lot about different careers that are out there. Uh on May 21st, our middle school course and band held their annual spring concert. Uh the night was filled with great performances and our students found out the meaning of the expression the show must go on. Uh when the power went out in the middle of one of the songs. Um, congratulations to our students and the faculty of the middle school performing arts department for a great show. Yeah, we're just pitch black in that auditorium and they kept singing. It was great. Uh, on this past Thursday, May 22nd, the Masanomit High School peer leaders welcomed our current eighth graders uh to Masanamit High School. Uh, the peer leader program is designed to orient our incoming 9th
137grade students to to Masanamit High School. Uh the peer leaders kicked off the program with a meeting in the auditorium uh where they met with new adisees and heard from the peer leader captains and the faculty adviser, Mr. Kelson. Uh the peer leaders then led their groups on tours of the high school and met with their advises to answer their questions. Uh these groups will again meet uh with their ninth grade on on our 9th grade orientation day on August 26th. and point out this is one of the things that actually changing our schedule so that the middle school and high school are aligned has allowed us to do now. Uh we couldn't do it before because the schedules just work didn't work out u because the schools are on different schedules. So um starting
138the peer leaders early uh is is a great benefit there. You heard this a little earlier but last week uh we observed the Memorial Day holiday with two ceremonies to honor our veterans. Uh on Thursday, May 22nd, Masanovic Middle School held an all school assembly uh to commemorate the sacrifices of the servicemen and women from our communities. Uh and Amasan High School held its ceremony on Friday, May 23rd. Uh both ceremonies uh featured speeches from students and faculty and performances by our chorus and band students. Uh each ceremony was well attended by veterans from the Tritown community, and we want to thank all of our veterans for their service. Um, she didn't mention this the speaker for the high school was a two-star general. Um, so there was a lot of Yeah, there was a
139lot of brass there from that marine. So, um, it's great. Uh, and our last middle school parent coffee will be held this Friday morning, uh, May 30th in the middle school library at 8:30. So, winding down. Mr. Lisa, two questions. Okay. Um, first I heard that there was a third incident. Yep. And I haven't heard anything since. Uh, I have to see what Dr. McManus is going to do. He was again consulting with the Lapin Foundation. Um, I probably can talk to you a little bit more offline about Okay. about what what's going on there. Okay. Um, and then my other question was I'm assuming the rest of the committee also got this email asking about the fieldhouse and the use of the athletics over the summer from the football team. So the fieldhouse weight
140the weight room I'm sorry the weight room. I don't I didn't get any such things. I'm not aware of what they're asking about. Yeah, I don't know if it went everybody. I know the Middleton folks got it cuz it was forwarded from somebody. Yeah, it was forwarded from somebody. But I think the problem is the football team's been told they can't use the wait room between certain days because of projects happening in school. Jeff would have been the one to answer that. I I don't It says no access June 16 to July 30 and then restricted access July 1 to August 7. And it's only Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 am to 9:00 am. And so they're wondering why. Yeah, it's I don't know. I haven't seen it. So Oh, I You want me to
141just forward it to everybody? Just forward it to me. Huh? I had a meeting with a a Talson resident that reached out something similar and they were told that there were too many projects going on at that time. But there's a lot of work going on this summer. I mean, that's part of the woodwork. Yeah. I I mean let's let's get the the list of projects out there though so people understand maybe yeah I mean there's a stuff like stuff stuff that was approved at town meeting a lot of that's ramping up and then other things like the walk-in cooler I know that was approved two years ago was getting done this one so right the stuff at town meeting can't start at least till July 1 though right right so the black the blackout
142is until July one which is I think it's catching our attention and you Maybe you provided that would be Yeah, I just need just need some prompts on it, right? Yeah. Yeah, I just sent it. So, thanks. Yep. Um, is the decision to host graduation outside final? And if not, when would As of right now, we're staying outside. So, that's the plan. Expected to stay. I think so. Yeah. Given the forecast, the last time I looked, we're expecting to be outside. Um, looks like the rain's got supposed last I saw was supposed to hold off until after midnight. Partly partly sunny. Yeah. So, I think we're good. I mean, two years ago, the real factor was lightning. That was it was supposed to be thunderstorms. That's why we we moved inside and it we were
143lucky. It was the right call. Um, I mean, if we get a shower, we we're all going to get wet. I think that's Yeah, that's right. That's the thing. Um, you know, but I think as I said, lightning was one of the ones was one of the things we looked at and said, "Yeah, we got to bring this inside." I think forecast right now looks okay. Okay. Uh, subcommittee reports, community relations. So, we just I think we have to approve our uh, meeting minutes. I don't know if you guys had a chance to look at the link. It was I don't have it now, but it was our community dialogue uh meeting and it was it was right before budget season. So, a lot of the discussion was about, you know, what's going to happen
144with the elections with budget process. Um there was also discussion similar to what we had tonight about the evaluations for superintendent and administration and and could we move it away from right at election time and do it a little bit before like beginning of May or April. same discussion that we had um and that was primarily it it was mostly budget talks um for the community dialogue. So I think we need to approve that. You guys are sure all set with that we can approve those minutes. Yes. Motion to approve. Okay. Approved. I'll second it. That's it. That's all we got. Uh DCI budget. We don't have any updates. We have not met since uh budget passed. I suspect the new group will meet shortly. I thought Chris was telling me no that we weren't
145going to meet shortly. Uh vocal earlier. Good policy. Um we have to approve our March 10th, 2025 meeting minutes. Lisa and Erica have a motion to approve those minutes. Melissa is yes for me. Anything else? You guys good, Melissa? Oh, no, nothing. Sorry. That's okay. Uh, leazison updates. Um, I'd like to thank the um, Middleton Select Board and Finance Committee for coming around and supporting our override. I think this year was a big year in moving in the right direction and kind of building up those relationships. Is there a lot of work to do? Yes. But um I think this year was a good step in that direction. Who's on with cops field time? So we can Yeah. months months even there's not yet anybody introduce myself uh back channeling and hearing about it but
146yeah got there so okay there we got there uh negotiations yes um well since we last met um we have met with the associ Association of Professional Administrators twice actually, May 5th and May 19th. Um, and we're scheduled for next Monday at uh at 3:00 in the central office. Um, I would say that we are very close um to coming to agreement. Uh there remains one curiously sticking point. Um and I I there's no issue with me being explicit about that, right? Uh Mike, uh probably want to hold off on Okay. All right. Well, I won't go into the details. the sort of thing that um um it's a language clarification. Yeah, that's a great way to characterize it. I thank you for that. Yes, clarifying some language in the current contract. Um so I,
147as I said, I think we're I think we're just about there. So, um I am hopeful. Um, and I and I would say my expectation is that we wrap this up at the next meeting on Monday. Um, we got a couple others. So, we settled with uh the MPFTs, the maintenance staff. So, Jeff sent that out to everybody. So, uh we'll be voting on that contract um next at our next meeting next week um to ratify. No language changes. It's the celebrity we wanted. So, uh, and support staff, we are meeting again next Wednesday afternoon. We're still working. I think we've had this will be our third meeting coming up. Great. Joe's on is Joe on the negotiations team as the chair three. Yeah. able to make [Music] is on too. Yes, I'm here when
148I remember to log in. Sometimes a little late. All right, we'll get this wrapped up. Uh consent agenda. So, approval of April 18, April 30, 2025 meeting minutes warrants in the amount of 1,158,119.95. [Music] accept Rotary gift uh Rotary Club gift for $1,000. So moved. Second, Melissa second. All in favor? I anybody abstain? We have a motion to adjurnn. Billing