001I used to get sitting the last game. >> Good weekend to go out tomorrow. But there's >> need the recording. >> Audio on. >> We're good. All right. >> Call the order at 7:02. Start and welcome any comments from the audience tonight. >> Um, remarks from the chair. Not a lot to say tonight. uh here at the school uh year is off to a great start. Thank you to all the teachers, administration for all your efforts and um I think the only other thing I want to comment on is um Dr. Harvey and I had a meeting with uh the superintendent from Georgetown and the chair from the Georgetown school committee uh la this past Friday. um they're having some struggles in terms of admissions and finances and sort of a common theme that we've
002heard from across the state and the nation. We uh we listen to them in terms of their let's say perspective ideas around um you know coming to Masco in some capacity. I'd say the discussions are very very very early. We just listened. It was a first discussion and they've got a lot to think about in Georgetown. Um they've got some listening sessions going on, some surveys going on and I would just say we're on standby if and when they're ready to talk to us some more about this. So with that, I think that's all I have uh for comments. >> Um do you know if they're engaging with other communities as well? I'll just say that they've got a few different options on the table at this point. I think that I'll let them control
003that message and share what they want to say. Um, but they're they're looking at a few different options and mascul would be one of them. >> While we're on the topic, how many um school choice students do we have that are from Georgetown? Do we know >> this year? I don't know. We haven't done our >> reporting yet. Yeah, >> that happens next month. >> Got to leave this high. 15 out of 20, I think. But don't hold me to that. We haven't done we haven't really done the number yet. >> Thank you. >> Um, next on the agenda, we have we have uh Jean, but do we want to do S? >> You have a report. I think I'm >> You don't have a report tonight, right? >> What? >> You have a report
004tonight? >> I do. >> Oh, you do? >> Okay, >> great. >> I'm gonna squeeze you into the agenda then. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It's a short one. >> Hello everyone. I'm Ethan Swan. I'm the current SAB at large. I am a sophomore from Oxford. And here are my updates since our last meeting. Some upcoming events are that we have a final date for homecoming which is October 23rd. Masco football has their first home game against PED next Friday. So the stand should be packed and the Taj Fair is coming up so there's some excitement around the school for it. Um some current events are all mascul sports been doing great with the girls soccer having a record of 4-2, boys soccer having a record of 7-2, varsity football with an undefeated record of 3-0.
005Girls field hockey with seven wins and one tied game and golf with a record of six wins and one tied game. That's all I have. Great questions, comments. Right. Well, as always, you're welcome to stick around and uh hear our deliberation or if you have other priorities tonight, by all means. time. All right. Thank you very much. >> Um, Jean, thank you very much for coming tonight and with us. >> Thank you for having me here tonight. Happy to be here. Um, grateful for the opportunity to speak to you about the world language department. Um, so I've been at Masco for 21 years, 14 years in the middle school teaching Spanish and EL, seven years uh as department chair, uh, multilingual learner coordinator and teacher. Uh, and as you know, I'm uh, retiring as of
006October 1st. So, you got me in right right before uh before I'm leaving, and again, I'm I'm grateful for that. Um so as part of the cuts from last year's budget season of course it was decided that my position uh would be left vacant for the rest of the year uh which allowed us to keep our department intact and not have any teaching positions which of course we we were very grateful for. Uh but this brings me to our number one budget priority uh for next year. So the impact of the department chair on teaching and learning. I'd like to speak to that for for a moment. Department chairs play a crucial role in teaching and learning that occurs here every day. Of course, we have our own classes to teach and we value this
007opportunity to uh interact with our students and with their families. Outside of our own classes, we are a constant source of support for every teacher in our departments. Research tells us that it is the teacher who impacts student learning outcomes more than any other aspect. The support that the department chairs offer allows our teachers to focus all of their energy on their students and on teaching and learning. The support we give takes different forms. It can be professional and it can be personal. Among many other things, the department chairs order materials and supplies. We give advice uh and answer questions on a variety of topics. We create a vision for the department and program goals to be achieved. and we advocate for our programs. We hold our departments together and we keep the focus on
008maintaining the use of best practices and on striving to be our best for our students and for each other. In my absence for the rest of the year, everything I do will be added to someone else's responsibilities. the principles, assistant principles and the director of teaching and learning will have even more demands placed on their time when world language department issues and needs arise. So that's our top priority. Uh the second budget priority is having continued or perhaps increased funding for department specific proficiency testing and other cultural uh events that we do. Uh so we do proficiency testing for all eighth grade world language students and also all level five students. The cost of proficiency testing accounts for about half of our entire budget. Having this data for student uh on the student profici uh
009levels in speaking, reading, writing and listening is very valuable to our students because they get to see what they can do with the language at that particular time and they know what they should work on. And of course, it it allows teachers to reflect on instructional strategies and make changes to better meet student needs. Regarding cultural activities, currently we rely on the generosity of the Mascanama Educational Foundation uh for funding activities such as Culture Connect, which involves uh professional musicians from Spanish speaking countries uh French speaking countries and China. Uh and they do culture presentations via Zoom for our students. and we did some last year and it was wonderful. Um, we also have done Latin uh dancing lessons for two years in a row which have been really great. So, we would love to
010be able to add things like this into our regular budget so they could be consistent every year and not have to, you know, apply for for grants and we are so grateful for the Masconomic Education Foundation. They've been very generous to to our department. Our third budget uh priority is um regarding adding sections um for heritage learned Spanish and heritage learned Portuguese courses. So we have a growing number of students who come to Masco uh with Spanish and Portuguese as their home languages and many would love to be able to advance their proficiency in their home language. We created uh heritage learner classes in Spanish and Portuguese uh but um did not have quite enough enrollment. had a a good turnout but not quite enough enrollment um to run the the courses this year. Even
011if we had the necessary enrollment, we would have had to add additional sections of teaching which of course would have increased our salary cost. So that wasn't possible. We do believe it is important to offer these courses because the traditional Spanish class is not the best fit for these students. A heritage language course is designed for native speakers so that they can advance their speaking and writing abilities and learn more about their culture. Uh and the next slide I have some comments about focus areas and bright spots. So a couple of important issues for us. Uh first maintaining high standards while um operating without a department chair uh for the remainder of the year. We take so much pride in our global diploma program and the wonderful participation of our students in our clubs and
012in our travel opportunities. Uh since 2013, we've had 131 students graduate with a global competency diploma. Uh and we have many candidates currently participating in the program in each of the high school grades. Also, the French and Spanish exchanges are running this year, which we're very happy about. This year marks the 40th anniversary of our partnership with our sister school in France which is just incredible. In October we will welcome students and teachers from Ren France and Spain to Masco just a couple of weeks. The students will visit middle school French and Spanish classes and we'll be giving presentations in some English and social studies classes in the high school. Masco students will go to France and Spain later this year. We are looking to resume the Chinese exchange program as soon as possible. In
013the meantime, we are in conversation with the school in Shanghai to establish penal exchanges and virtual meetings with their students. Running successful programs such as these along with administering annual proficiency testing to all eighth grade students and senior students requires the support of a department chair. The next issue continu continuing our efforts to complete vertical and horizontal alignment with a focus on thematic units and from performance assessments. It is essential that the world language faculty continue to collaborate on our curriculum development and provide uh promote world language study through the senior year. We would love to see more and more students achieve the seal of biiteracy at graduation. Since two uh 2022, 109 seniors have graduated earning the seal of biiteracy award in French, Spanish, Mandarin, and eight other languages. And we are just we
014are so so happy about that. Recent successes, um getting back to the proficiency testing results again, we are very happy with the proficiency scores that our students have been achieving. The vast majority of our eighth grade students earn scores that meet and in many cases exceed the targeted proficiency level for their grade in all four sections in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. So, we're very happy about that. Um, we're also happy, of course, this time of year to be um having lots of really great activities happening um celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Um students are um learning about notable Latinos and um their contributions to the US and the world. Uh Spanish two and three students are writing thank you letters to first responders from the tri town in Spanish and English. So doing lots of
015really great activities um this month. And of course I've also I've already mentioned the French and Spanish exchanges which um we we just it's a very successful program. However, I feel every day is a success in world language classes. As we facilitate student progress along the path to proficiency, we strive to share a love of language and culture with our students. Success is when we see our students become more and more confident in their ability to express themselves in the target language. Uh next, I'd like to speak on collaboration, planning, and growth. Uh so um regarding opportunities for collaboration and professional development, the department has made effective use of the Wednesday PD time as we continue to work on curriculum alignment, common thematic units and performance assessments. um regarding interdicciplinary collaboration in the past we
016have collaborated with other departments uh for example the art department and um the media class from the English department but uh more PD opportunities are needed to create interdisciplinary learning. So I would love to see more Wednesday PD time uh devoted solely for departments to get together and brainstorm uh interdisciplinary activities that we could do. It takes time and we we would need more time to do that. Uh but we love collaborating with other departments for the plan for the next few years. We appreciate the continued support of the district so that we can continue to run our three strong programs. Two years ago, we cut one Spanish teacher and lost five sections of Spanish in the high school. Normally, the department chair teaches one or two Spanish classes, but this couldn't happen this year
017uh because um I'm leaving. So we are actually down seven Spanish sections this year and uh that is the cause for large class sizes in some levels in the high school. So um another reason again to have a department chair who could teach two two Spanish classes and really help out with the class sizes >> is the current you know what the current class sizes. >> Sorry. >> Um yeah I speak up please. I don't hear that. Well, >> story of my life. >> Yell at me, I think. >> Okay. Um, next. Yes. And so, like, as I said, adding back the department share would add back two sections of Spanish and and would help that would make a big difference. Okay. So, yes, program and enrollment trends. A review of the data compiled since
0182013 shows that enrollment in Spanish, French, and Chinese classes has been steady. Enrollment in ELLL classes varies from year to year. Of course, uh within the last few years, we have seen an increase in the number of families requesting translation and interpreter services uh for meetings. We've also seen an increase in the number of former English learners coming up from the elementary schools. Um and um former English learners, we u monitor their academic progress for four years. Um, regarding efficient use of resources, the world language department is run efficiently and uh and effectively as possible and our annual budget of 15,900 is significantly less than other departments. So, we make that work with with that budget. Uh, it's um we do a lot of great things with that budget and the teachers are very creative
019and and resourceful uh with with our budget. Um so regarding the class sizes which I think Matt was what what you're yeah asking. So uh there's some information here lots more data and of course some details but uh for the smallest Spanish size of 11 happens to be a Spanish two honors class in the high school. Uh the French class is the AP class. The Chinese class is that happens to be the four honors class. For the largest classes, uh, the 27 is a Spanish three honors class. And there actually 20% of all the high school Spanish classes have between 24 and 27 students. So that's what I'm talking about. That that's that's where the loss of my two sections is really being felt. Uh, the French class of 27 is the middle school class.
020Uh, and then the Chinese uh, class of 13 is the level three. And then you see the median uh numbers there for the influence. And like I said though, I've looked at the numbers since 2013 and the numbers are steady. Okay. And I believe the next slide is culture and communication. Okay. Uh department chairs meet with the director of teaching and learning every Friday to discuss topics such as professional development, teacher evaluation and department goals. Department chairs also meet in our own PLC every Wednesday. Uh this time has been invaluable um for uh any new department chair coming on board. You know, we have a couple of new department chairs this year. So, it's really really helpful to to have that time together uh to help each other out, mentor each other, just share ideas.
021Once per month, uh the full leadership team meets to discuss district-wide events uh and programs. And so, I know I haven't really answered the questions posed on this slide exactly, but I I'm imagining that the other department chairs uh will be able to elaborate or, you know, give you some feedback on on those questions. Uh finally, the open response So um as I say here the department chairs of course are the content area experts. We know the minutia of what happens in our departments every day. We have a unique perspective to share. We want to work with the executive leadership team and collaborate on both everyday items and and the big picture u items. We love to talk about our departments. We are here for you. If you need any information, all you have to
022do is it. So, I really appreciate your time tonight uh and your support of world images. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Go back to the slide with the classical. >> Sure. So, I see a decline in um Chinese uh class enrollment specifically and I'm wondering so that's is that across 7 through 12 the numbers there >> if you if you'd like I have all of the data on the enrollments and I'm happy to share that with you. >> Okay. I want to know do you see a trend on fewer students? >> No. Like I said, I I looked across since 2013, the percentage of the total enrollment in the school and how many are studying each and it's it's steady. >> Okay. Because it I know it was something that when we were looking at
023like we have to cut something somewhere, you know, we talked about >> um because it it's very hard to uh learn Mandarin. It's a hard class to teach. >> It's amazing what the teachers do. It >> Yeah. But it's incredible. >> It's um I've been kind of anecdotally talking to graduates and seeing like who has continued it in college, who's been able to achieve fluency later or work abroad or and um there's a lot of uh interesting stories and anecdotes about the Mandarin program here. So I'm wondering if are we seeing a decline in is it something that we should be looking into? >> The numbers are small. I mean that's that's the >> the issue that we've been talking about for six years that I've been here like how do we get those numbers
024up because you can see those you know the largest class 13 you know those those averages are not very large. >> Yeah. >> Um you know and so that's a it's a resource question that we're trying to figure out. That's something we >> and we have tried we've done visits to the sixth graders all excited and um and I our Spanish teacher oh yeah sorry Chinese teacher is trying to get a program started with sixth grade to go out and give them Chinese lessons uh to get them excited and I know in the past the elementary schools have had world language I think before school uh or maybe after school. So we we would love to see that so that the children could get a taste of all three languages. Um, you know, normally that's
025done in in sixth grade. Uh, you know, so we think that will help. >> It might be something for us to consider during budget season. We look into a little bit. >> You have the p you have the percentages though versus enrollment like >> that's that's how I got >> and you you'll share those. Thank you. >> Thank you. And just another thing on the Chinese class discussion, our policy says that there as a guideline there should be no fewer than 14 students. And when our highest is 13, I think that definitely requires >> it's a ceiling too. Our ceiling for class size >> 24 as a guideline. So, >> and I think maybe a way, and we can talk about this during project season, but instead of offering, and I think the heritage classes
026are a great idea, um, I'm wondering if maybe that would be a great opportunity for a club and instead offering a course that would maybe pull down the Spanish numbers and be kind of an equal class like Italian. We have a lot of students with Italian heritage that might appreciate the opportunity to take an Italian class and it might help our Spanish numbers and even French is pretty high. So I think those are kind of some discussions that maybe down the road. >> I was actually going to ask back on that. Has it always been these three languages that have been taught or have you guys ever taught >> German? German. Yeah. >> Latin like those were offerings in my high school. >> German was here until 2013 >> and Chinese started in 2012. >>
027So it's just been German. No other >> Spanish and French and then yeah Chinese took took those. So I I would just say um you know I think it's really uh a great aspect of this district that we offer the three languages. We are the world language department not the Spanish department. we offer this uh this variety to our students and you know for for various reasons I think that the Chinese program with everything going on in the world and you know covid and everything I I know it's it's had a lot of a lot of uh tough tough times having our students be interested in Chinese um and also with the exchange I mean we would love to do the exchange again uh and and you know missley is in touch with the with
028the school in Shanghai all the time trying to see you know when that will be possible. So, um and I I would just say although I will not be here, I I truly hope when these discussions happen, please speak to the teachers. >> Um you know, they they're realistic. They know what the situation is, but they they can really really speak to the program and give you a lot more information that than I could really. I can give you some numbers, but they tell you more about the the program and help you make uh you know better decisions. >> Yeah. >> Question I have is um these class sizes uh in Chinese can they be combined to be larger classes? Do we have these class sizes because we have the teaching bandwidth to have 10
029sections or five sections, whatever it is, and can we combine them down to fewer if we were to say get a program where we were sharing a Chinese teacher with another district for instance? Yeah, I I think all of all of those conversations should happen and can happen and but I'm just >> But from a from a teaching perspective, do you think they could be combined or do you think these are >> ideally ideally now we you know ideally the way we have it >> those students are able to >> achieve so much and it's because of uh the the attention the individualized attention they're getting and and the the amount of practice they're getting every day. you know, it's it's really it is amazing what they're able to do. >> One of the questions
030I had was I'm creeping up just so I can hear. >> Okay. Oh, sorry. I'll speak louder. >> Louder. Um, when the kids are choosing their classes, they often have to give a first choice and a second choice. >> And so, my daughter chose French and then Mandarin. >> Now, she's probably in one of these bigger classes of the French. Where do you guys have a tipping point where you say >> too many kids are requesting French, not enough for prioritizing Mandarin? We're going to scrape some of those French and Spanish kids into those Mandarin classes and balance it out, >> right? >> How do you guys manage that? We we've talked to Dr. for McManus and I talked about that that you know when when the uh size of 24 is reached then you
031start out their second choice and they're they're able to choose um Spanish in the high school you know so they right very often okay got it thank you >> thank you for your leadership over the past years and good luck on my retirement before I forget to say that um the Masco the world language department at Mascow's unique in that we have so many students participating the level four. Is that accurate? >> Level five, sorry. >> Which really is level six because they have two years in the middle school. Yeah. >> Which are just were counted as level one. But any >> and and there's not and and thing our world language department I'm presuming helps Masco stand out like to colleges particularly because of the biiteracy and even our global diplomas. So I I
032I had the privilege of taking Russian when I was here. So I took French and Russian and that stood out back then because like the same textbook I used in two years of Russian I actually took in college. >> Right. >> So I feel like that actually still happens. So I just wanted to make sure that you could talk to >> Right. And I know that um teachers that come here from other districts are are blown away at at what our students can can do. Our teachers are amazing and and departments. >> Thank you. Um on one of the first slides you talked about the prof proficiency testing and that it was almost half of the budget. I'm assuming that's not including salaries or is that increas? >> Oh yeah. No, just our operating budget.
033Yeah. >> Supplies and materials. Yeah. >> Say, wow. >> 15,000. >> Yeah. The It's about 7,000 something. >> Okay. >> Wonderful that we can do all eighth grade and all seniors. It's really great. >> And that's something we added recently years ago. >> Yes. >> The funding for that was historically through a grant >> and um Jean requested that through the budget process and we were able to incorporate it's either eight or $9,000. >> Yeah. and profic proficiency testing expense that you said I think two years ago >> do that for eighth graders and who else >> the seniors yeah because seniors are the students that can actually earn the award but the eighth graders it's more kind of for their portfolio so they can have a starting >> explain a little bit more for
034them what the seal of bi literacy is there probably some people around the table >> uh it's it's a national uh assessment and Massachusetts is kind of late in adopting it but um it actual or national um board uh that does our frameworks and our standards uh in developed the proficiency levels. So the eighth graders are uh what we call novice so the beginning and then it goes intermediate, advanced, superior etc etc. So um the assessment is given in uh during the school day and it has the four sections. uh the listening and the reading are multiple choice and the reading and this writing I'm sorry the speaking and the writing have three prompts and they have to just speak about the the topic and they just have to write about the topic so there's
035no way to prepare for it just it gives a it's it's the proficiency so it's what they can do with the language uh and it actually gives a recording of their uh their answers for speaking and you get the text of what they wrote so the teachers can see uh how they answered and use that uh to give the students feedback back um after the tests. So, seniors that score u at uh it's called intermediate high uh earn the award and it's a very high level uh of of proficiency uh that they have to um they have to demonstrate and many schools in the uh in Massachusetts now give u credits and I know UMass Empire gives something like 12 credits for seal awardies. It's really um it's a it's a great thing and uh
036the students should feel very proud of themselves when they earn it. And I love seeing our students with different home languages earn uh we have uh a current junior who already earned it in Korean. So when she graduates next year, she got to pursue bilit. So >> great. Two quick things. One, thank you again for coming tonight. Um, as a reminder to the school committee and everybody watching at home, right, this was the first of our department heads coming in to visit us in an attempt to communicate a little bit more directly with with the department heads. So, thank you for breaking the ice uh and test test driving our our format. >> Yeah, test driving them. >> Um, and so that's first. And then second, um, thank you for, as Melissa started to mention,
037all your service. >> That's been a 21 years for me. >> We're very proud of the world language department. I expect you are very proud too and so >> so >> thank you >> and I please remember my my words tonight and um the department will be reaching out to you and giving you updates about what they're doing during the year. Uh you'll hear from them and uh any uh any information or details you can think of in the next few days. Let me know and I promise I will I will send you what I have. >> Thank you. Congratulations >> very much. >> Okay. Uh, next turf field permitting update. >> Yep. Amanda Berseron and Mike Sto are here from Stantech. Give us everybody doing tonight? >> So, want to kick it off? >>
038I don't know. You want to bring us up to speed on what happened last Thursday? >> Oh, yeah. That's fun. probably we start with just like talking about like since the last time we were here, you know, what we've been doing and where we've uh come so far. So, you know, the last time we were here, we were talking about continuing the the hearings with the conservation commission, uh, going through the peer review process, and he went through four rounds of, uh, comment responses with the peer reviewer. Um and they were I think you know I I think they started off with like 80 or 90 questions for us. Um I would say probably 80 90% of those had to do with the storm water management system and the design and the calcs and and
039that fun stuff. And uh the the remainder had to do with some uh of the questions revolving around um you know the mean annual high water line which we had talked about last time when we were here and um reviewing alternatives analysis etc. So in the interim period um since the last time we talked uh we also conducted a site visit with the conservation commission to review the uh mean annual high water line and the delineation of the resource areas. uh they had a couple minor tweaks to the mean annual high water line uh as a result of that review, but overall I would say that they were pretty pleased with like you know the delineation itself and it was just very minor tweaks here and there that ended up shifting some of the riverfront
040area onto the site a little bit but from a permitting perspective it wasn't any difference other and where the lines were on the map. Um, do you want to talk about the storm water? >> Well, I'll just say with the review process, it started with, like you said, 80, then it went down to what, 40, then >> it just got lower and lower, and I think we've satisfied all their comments. Um, we've given them all the responses, >> um, added, you know, done the an additional analysis that they've requested. Um and with that extra site visit um and we actually continued to last Thursday which was is that the 18th now just because um we kept on going forward with comments and responses and I don't know if you know but you have to have
041all communication submitted to them a week ahead of time. So, we wanted to make sure we went to the hearing with, you know, all the latest information and coordination. So, we kind of continued to get to get through those comments and responses um instead of just showing up at at all the hearings with with nothing really to talk about. So, we attended that on Thursday um with Mike and and Crystal um the council who was very helpful with moving the meeting along. Yeah, Crystal helped kind of keep them within the guard rails to the extent that that they could. Um, and I I feel that uh we made some really good progress during the last hearing. Um, we we actually started talking about issuing orders of conditions and what that was going to look like
042and what the requirements would be. Um, as it stands right now, the the action items that we took out from last week's hearing were to provide them with uh some specifications for the materials that would be used on the field. um they would like to review those to see, you know, I guess how environmentally friendly they are and also to do their own research on, you know, what those materials are so that they can get a good sense of comfort with like what what's going to be proposed which is completely reasonable. Um, we had the discussion about um not being able to specify a certain brand or manufacturer because of the um the open bid requirements. Um but um so that was one of the action items. Um, another action item was they're asking us
043to uh develop their order of conditions and some of some of the specifications which uh I think we the way that Crystal was trying to frame it was that we wanted to work with them to develop those conditions because in in my experience at least it's it's always been the conservation commission's responsibility to develop their order of conditions. So, um, so that's kind of where we're at right now. So, the next step is to, uh, provide those specifications, generate a draft set of conditions, and, um, and present those to the conservation commission for their, I guess, approval and review. So the peer review process is complete. It took four or five months to get through but it's now complete just for the benefit of the committee. >> That is the way I understand. >> There
044can always be another >> series of >> could they give the the material specs to the to the peer reviewer? They're allowed to, you know, basically look for outside guidance and materials that are presented to them that they don't feel they're qualified to review, >> which would trigger a change order for the peer review. >> So, they'd come back to us for more money, >> for more if if that happened in that instance. >> What Mike said too, one thing they did request, I mean, they want physical samples of this material. So, we're gonna we're trying to work with the different suppliers to see if we can get some actual samples sent over. Um, >> again, for the benefit of the committee, that's very difficult to do. So, we can provide specifications. We cannot specify
045a manufacturer or a product. We can't do that. You're the chief procurement officer won't allow that to happen because the procurement laws don't allow that to happen. When a product is widely available in the marketplace, you can't say I want to buy XYZ turf. You can't say that. But you can say we want to buy turf that meets these 15ations, right? So there was a long conversation about that which they couldn't get their heads around >> Thursday night because they wanted a manufacturer's name, right? They had been asking for that from >> and they said they want five a list of five We can give them we can give them examples specifications and five examples that meet those specifications but we can't say that we're going to use the XYZ infill. We just simply can't
046do that. >> I was yeah sorry I did not raise my hand but they could by the time we get a project budgeted and built they could not even be available. So like then our order >> there could be 10 or there could be new ones. Right. >> Yeah. Or then we're not even compliance with the order of conditions which is problematic. 10 years from now. But anyway, sorry, I had to >> Yep. >> Yeah. I don't want to pretend that I understand what's going on in in the I feel like they want to see some examples to get kind of a, you know, a a good understanding of what options are available and that there are environmentally friendly options and uh to basically do their own research and just be comfortable with like whatever
047ends up being on there. you know, these are the options that are actually commercially available in the marketplace and they can feel good about that, you know, solution. I >> I think what we got to at the end of that very long conversation is the right answer. It's develop the specifications for the for the turf and the specifications for the infill without naming names and going and then going from there. I believe we actually did provide them, but it was probably not or it was probably overlooked and we'll do do what we can to pull those specifics out to present them as separate. >> Yeah. I mean, they one thing they focused on was the natural fill material rather than rubber tires. You see, >> we we had to keep it broad because there's all
048kinds of things. Um, coconut, which I knew, but olive pits, all sorts of other things which I didn't know >> they used. So, >> we need to keep that open. >> So, I mean, that was going to be my question. I was surprised that we hadn't yet conveyed to them anything about the material specifications that we would be using. >> We had given them. It sounds like it sounds like we have. >> Yeah, we've always specified it would be as some kind of natural material. From the start of this, we said no crown rubber. I mean, it's been that way for seven years now. >> So, now they're asking us to go back and reiterate what the what this stuff is. >> To us, >> the specifications and add a lot of the things that
049they're asking to see now. Um, I mean, we always had the no added pas. Um, that's something that I see continuing to be a concern because I don't think we can say POS free because a bottle or something that has POS could touch the turf and suddenly, you know, it could have some kind of contamination. So, I think that the best language that we get from a legal perspective and Crystal would talk more about this, but it's, you know, no intentionally added POS. Um, so that's something they really don't like. They want us to say POS free. >> Why can't you say no Pas used in the manufacturing material? >> No PAS used in the manufacturing. I think we do. I think that's >> Would that be better than no added, right? >> Yeah. >>
050Well, not according to them apparently according to Boxford. I mean that's the problem. We've been saying the same thing all along and you know our whatever answers we're giving them aren't sufficient. No, I I I understand that, Bill. I think I thought she was talking about the conditions that we're going to write up now as opposed to what was originally put in there. >> We sat in a we sat in the basement of the central admin building >> two years ago, a team of us. Yeah. And we went through with Josh and >> different >> Sean and the group different samples and every single thing that we chose was >> natural >> um and that was included in this documents that we provided to them almost two years ago is my recollection any >> is
051it within their jurisdiction to actually deny us based on materials. So there is kind of a catchall for concerns about uh a project having an effect on water quality or habitat or wildlife. uh you know species um I guess they could draw a conclusion whether or not it's valid or not that you know the water quality associated with the materials if they were not convinced that it didn't contain PAS um that those uh those results would be you know harmful in those aspects. But I think in that situation, they would have to have some type of evidence to to back that up. Um or it could potentially be, you know, subject for an appeal. So, >> yep. >> So, aren't we going to have to when the final materials are selected go get an approval
052again anyway? Isn't that going to have to happen when the actual We not have to go back before anyone in Boxford again once these guys say it's okay. >> You have a permit to >> choose any material we want. >> You have a permit. You're free to choose any. Well, that's that's the thing. The order of condition specifications. So, you would have to meet that specification in the order of conditions. >> There's really a catch 220. >> They might add want to add something in there that it has to go back to them for approval. >> Yeah. So I mean like I can speak from experience in my township like um inton we we are going through the process and we had a permit and I was on the conservation commission and this was prior
053to my time there but they had built-in conditions that required the material to be tested to show that it was pestfree um you know a sample of the actual material that's going to be installed. Um and then to also include water qualities of the the project area before and after installation. >> So I would anticipate something like that in the order of conditions. >> Um how how long do you need to get this done? What's the next meeting we're looking at? Are we thinking that this would be it after this step they'll close the meeting? Is that the next step after this is they'll close the meeting and rule >> how fast do we think this is going to happen? >> So the next next hearing is October 9th. So as long as we can
054get >> you actually asked them to be on for the 16th. >> Yeah the 16th. So the 9th is when we need to have them all of our materials. >> Right. So, as long as we can get all that together, then we can present that to the to the commission. >> I don't know if we can say we expect that will be the last one. >> I if I was a bet man, >> I would not bet on that. But uh in the I guess the pool of uh questions is diminishing hopefully here. And >> last week did feel like progress from finally it did. Yeah, and I think Bristol has uh helped quite a bit um in terms of focusing their attention and I think adding a little weight to the conversation uh with
055respect to you know what what is required and what can and can't be Um so any other questions? So, we asked um Stantech to prepare a change order number five um that reflected all of the things that Ananda and Mike just talked about, including um participation in the hearings, preparation of all the documentations, a lot of material that needs to be um developed and submitted. Um and we have that change order here >> um for the committee's consideration. >> So with the change order, it says one additional conservation commission hearing. Sounds like that's not possibly not going to do it. >> But we don't we don't know. We know at the next conservation commission we're going to talk about the specifications that Stantech develops and we submit and we'll talk about that and then we'll
056talk about what's next. >> If anything we could close the hearing at that point like I I don't have any other I guess remaining questions that I've heard from them other than two items. So >> the change order is for the known scope, >> right? The change is for the known scope which Mike, Ananda, and Crystal I think did a really nice job at the end of the hearing. I don't know how many of you were listening or watched it after like I did of honing down exactly what they want from us and these guys reduced it to writing and put a number to it, >> right? which I think is the right next step and then if we have to have them come back again we have them come back again but we don't
057it doesn't make sense to me to go beyond October 16th and what we know >> because we don't know >> and just for everybody's benefit right the numbers that who hasn't seen the number the number is 30 >> 294 >> right and that would need to come from our stabilization account much like the last change order number four which was in June that was 258 And at the last meeting we talked about additional monies for >> the peer review. The committee I believe authorized 10. We've used 7500 and change of that. >> Y >> and now we're here with number five for Stantech. >> Joe, >> are we done talking about storm water uh designs? Is that complete now? And now we're just on the materials. Yeah, the peer reviewer we resolved all response to
058everything. >> Yeah, the peer reviewer responded but no no no further issues their so >> they closed every single one. It was over 80. It was like there was hundreds of it. >> Yeah. >> That in progress celebrate that. So I just you had said they also wanted you to issue the order for conditions but then said they don't work. So are you or are you not? >> Yeah I mean it's really on them to issue it isn't it but I think we would build conditions into our performance specs is kind of how I see it in our >> doc. Well, a typical order of conditions that I've seen has a set that is pretty standard coming from uh the D and it relates to the wetlands protection act and it's already built into the
059order of conditions and then there's a separate section that is for special conditions from the conservation commission where they go through all of their you know maybe bylaw specific conditions or just extra stuff that they feel like they need to uh specify for the project that is being approved. Um so them asking us to develop the order of conditions obviously is kind of awkward because we're going >> or we can do it >> actually attorney >> very straightforward with our conditions and I mean that's still asked the conservation agent to work with to together to develop them and he said no >> they didn't want to have anything to do with it but I I feel like once they see you know what we are proposing that they'll be you know convinced that they'll be
060put into any conditions that they have. So yeah, >> if we contemplate that they get notification that the school committee did not approve more budget for this process knowing that the peer review portion of it has been satisfied that specifications had been communicated previously on pages whatever whatever and whatever and the order of conditions is certainly on the board that is issuing the order of conditions. What are their grounds there? Do they have to close the hearing? Do they? Because it seems like we have satisfied the requirements. I remember reading the specifications for what you guys proposed and it was all natural and there were even examples of what natural fill was. I listened to the cons meeting. I think everything that they asked for is either on them or already documented to sign off
061on 30K to make it explicit for them and to give them a draft to react to when we know they're just going to go after it and say this isn't right. This isn't good enough. This isn't what we want. Clearly, it's not because you didn't write it. H this is like I don't I I don't know how to get past this but I'm having a real hard time I'm having a real hard time getting past this knowing that we have satisfied every requirement and now we have to pay 30k to just make sure that they understand what pages it's on and elevate it for them. I can't I can't I can't go there. Yeah, I think that's a legal discussion with >> I agree. >> That's a strategy call. >> Uh I can totally see
062your point. >> Yeah. >> Is there anything we haven't satisfied? >> Not according to that last meeting. >> They haven't communicated but they are also specifying that they would like to uh avoid all of the unknowns associated with the project as well. So >> I I I understand they're in a difficult position too, right? This is, you know, that conservation area. They have a job to do. It's hard to know. They're going to be on the hook and there are a lot of people who are very vocal. I understand that. But man, this is like is getting >> I think we've come so far in the last couple of months. I would hate to see this thing get denied and then get propelled into the courts because we didn't invest another 29 grand. That's just
063my opinion. Having been the person that's been alongside of these folks from the very beginning, I I think we're really close with this is my is my take I think to this council. too. >> I still think so too. >> Yes. That >> was a breakthrough meeting for me. >> When we say really close, we mean you mean really close to a decision. >> Yep. >> It's not really close to a yes. It's really close to a decision. >> I have no idea what they're going to say. They always tell me what they're going to say, right? >> I believe that we're really close. I don't think it's at the next meeting, but I think it's the one after that that they're going to close the hearing. That's my That's what I think. >> Right.
064So, it's I think it'll be before the holidays. >> So, I think let's play this out for a second, right? And this was a discussion that Dr. Harvey and I had a while ago, >> right? You either on Stantech to continue and maybe we get to a decision meetings. Jeff's optimistic about that. U maybe the decision's yes, maybe the decision's no. If the decision is no, then we may want to take different actions from there. So that will be more money. If the answer is yes, great. We got our permit. And then we go back to last year's discussion of what are we really what are we really going to do? Are we going to do two fields now for 18 million? Is it >> probably more now since it's a year later, right? or
065maybe the estimate was a little conservative. I don't know, right? But nothing >> and that's almost two years old. >> So there was a discussion >> last year about us going to a single field, right? Which would mean we're going back to the drawing board anyways, right? So the question I think in my mind, the way that I think about this, way I process this is, do we want to go spend another 30,000 minimum to get to a maybe to to maybe get a permit that the school committee may choose to not even use because we want to go to a single field at some point? >> Use the permit >> for a single field. >> Sure. wouldn't you wouldn't construct the second field yet if hypothetically >> sorry you use the permit you'd still
066have to go back to the drawing board in terms of the redesign of certain aspects of the plan >> it would just be this >> phase >> your phase project you would do phase one which would be field one stadium field first assuming that the full permit was approved >> I ask Mike if that's possible >> right I I thought Yeah, >> things we're going to have to change to the rain water. >> Does the storm water plant have to be redone if if we That's >> what I was just asking. >> Yeah, >> I thought question. >> I thought we had talked about that as an option. >> We decided to nick field two. >> I'm not saying Nick's field too. I'm saying >> saying like an interrog saying >> get the full project
067as presented permitted and then do it in phases >> and would be allowed to do that. My understanding is yes. >> You have what three years you have three years with the you have three years for the you can you have to substantially you have to substantially start the project within the three years then you ask for extension right? I think the answer as a permanent condition is no, but I can you know as an interim condition that >> so if you could get the permit start the field one field >> one big one >> the big one main one that we talked about that we didn't vote on right but we talked about you could start that and then if the community at some point had an appetite to field the second one we
068could continue into phase I'm sure there were a lot a lot you know has to be done within the >> time frame >> permitting time frame and I'm sure there are other matters but >> yeah and if we don't do it within way >> if we don't the second field within the time frame then the permit just expires and we're we're done to Mike >> if we don't execute on the second field within a certain time period then the permit just expires and we're stuck with one field. >> Yeah. So, the end uh the the last action after you've received the order of conditions, you've done the construction. Usually, if you finished construction as proposed, then you would request a certificate of compliance that the commission would just like, you know, review the project, make
069sure you did everything you said you were going to do, and then just close out the permit. So I think if you didn't do field two then there would be a discussion at that point about the certificate of compliance. >> That's the thing that we want to go out I mean >> and you would think there would be an order of condition that with respect to that >> respect to >> field two that they would possibly incorporate into the deal. >> Oh to tie it to you may >> would do something with it. Make some sort of a condition on the permit. >> That's who is the one they'd like the least. So, >> right. Right. >> Just want to make sure if we only do we only end up getting funded for one field
070that we're not going back for a new permit. >> Yeah. So I think there's a little bit of discussion that has to happen just in terms of you know with the idea that we're phasing that there aren't any uh things from the stormwater design that need to be addressed as part of um you know the specs. So but we could definitely look into that. Well, you sort of went down the path that I want to go down, but just had a comment. I mean, you could get halfway down the the road of building Field One and then just say, "We've decided we don't want to put Turk on the other field." I can't imagine the Conscom's going to say, "No, we don't want you using our regular real grass." You know, I mean, that's when
071I would go to them with a change uh request, right? So anyway, >> I agree. >> Yeah, >> I try to go next and then do >> you end up, it's my understanding, you end up modifying the field somehow, but still you but they've still approved storm water that you likely take over a modification of your permit or your orders of condition. I don't know necessarily know it's going back to the drawing board fully, but especially if the town of Oxford doesn't really love Field 2 anyway and it's the same storm like we're I think when I looked at initially everything was tied into the existing storm water I thought but maybe that's a question for Stantech like we're incorporating existing storm water management systems into our into this plan and fields. >> Yeah, I
072believe it's standalone for the fields though. >> Okay. >> It's not We didn't I don't believe we tied into the existing system to the point that, you know, we're modifying the existing system. >> Okay. I thought that was the issue with field two. That's maybe I misunderstood that it tied into the storm water that's in that area. I mean it it does tie into those 24 inch pipes that run >> under field two to the outlets. >> I'm looking for the cumulative effect >> together and whether or not our new project would uh create a a a worse situation at the outfall. Show them that it doesn't. But our storm water plan currently under field two proposes that we would replace those pipes that are 25 years old. So I would think at a minimum
073we would have to do that right and then work at the would you call them outfalls? Those two outfalls. Yeah. >> So I mean >> but George is the expert. >> Yeah. Yeah. We have to do it at a minimum. Let's let's just be honest like you know uh not every project that is permitted actually goes all the way through you know there are all kinds of things that pop up either funding issues uh you know change in like I guess goals uh of the applicant. So I'll just leave it at that. I move that we approve and appropriate the amount listed in change order five listed in the agenda from our stabilization. >> I'll second discussion. Okay, I start with Erica online. Eric, >> yes. Bill, >> yes. I feel like Boxford is uh
074the reason for this and since I'm from Oxford, I'm voting yes. >> Thanks, John. >> Just because we're the ones creating the problem. So, >> yes. Yes. >> No. Right. Lisa. >> Yes. Melissa. Yes. Adrien. >> Yes. >> I'm actually a no. >> 8 to2. >> 82 guys. Thank you. Well, I just wanted to say thank you guys for being patient and continuing to to trust us to help guide you through this process as best as we can. And I think we're getting uh pretty far down the path here and things are looking at this point, I think. >> I'll just I'll just share real quick with the school committee if we've gotten some some great feedback on the work that you guys have done. >> Oh, great. uh and so thank you for everything
075you're doing. >> Any frustration that you hear from us isn't you guys others. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh Jeff, where are you? Summer projects update. Oh, great. Great. >> So, I'll try to be brief. uh appreciate the opportunity to do this uh particularly from the perspective um the folks that work pretty tirelessly over the summer. Um are usually not named publicly. Um they work hard behind the scenes. Uh they grind it. Um and uh I appreciate everything that they do um on your behalf and my behalf. So um so first slide uh real briefly. So, the May to August time frame is is typically by far the busiest time for my team. Everybody thinks it's the the budget season. It it's not. Um the 12 to 16 week period during the late
076spring into the summer is absolutely insane and that's when people want to take time off to be with their families and often times we can't do that. Um because we're uh trying to close out one school year and get ready for the next school year. um in all of the areas that kind of fall under my purview. So, uh those include finance, accounting, and HR, that's the business office, information technology, and then fields, grounds, and operations. Um so, real quick, so um I've got a very small team, a team of three, uh Lori, Becca, and Carrie. Um, they produce more work than any three people I have ever worked with in my career. And I spent 20 years at Price Waterhouse Coopers and these I'll match these three with anybody. So, they're awesome. >> Um,
077our information technology group, uh, the seven full-time staff led by Vin. You all know Vin. Uh Rob, Travis, Matt, Rachel who's behind the screen, uh Stephen and David uh do a great job for us. Um it's the strongest IT team that we've had in place since I've been here in my seven years. Uh facilities, grounds, and operations covers a lot of territory. Uh Tony's our director of um facilities and grounds. Uh Taes is our new um facilities coordinator and operations person. Um, we've got five MPFTs. You all probably know most of them. Sean, Peter, and Bill are on the day shift. And then John and Elton who were just out there buzzing around on the second shift. And then we have Keith. Uh, Keith is our HVAC technician. Keith's way more than that. Um, Keith's
078in charge of uh all of our mechanical equipment. And without Keith, um, we would not be in a good place. Um he does amazing work and I'll showcase some of that in a few minutes. Um so that my team of employees again they all do an unbelievably outstanding job. And then we've got a team of vendors that we use to supplement all of our work when we need to bring in expertise. Uh we just entered a new um a new 5-year contract uh for janitorial services with complete cleaning company. They do an outstanding job. Uh Gary Viva just runs a terrific operation. Uh Witson's Col Culinary Group um is in year two of a new 5-year contract. They do a great job in food service for us. um led by Melissa and then other numerous
079vendors including electricians, plumbers, HVAC, uh wastewater treatment folks, roofing, um and other specialties. So shifting to the second slide, I won't go through every bullet. Uh so I'll just highlight like if you could sorry uh so oh sorry um so the list is illustrative it's not intended to be a full and complete list in the three areas uh I'll just cherrypick a couple on each slide um so on the finance accounting and HR slide uh we completed the FY year and close process that takes about 3 months Um I sent some communications on that in July uh and the end of the year in a great place. uh we immediately initiated work on the FY25 annual audit which takes the better part of nine months to complete and then we're uh working hard uh on
080um completing the FY25 endofear report for the Department of Education which will be submitted uh on or before September 30th and then concurrently working um on the FY25 excess and deficiency certification package that we'll submit to the mass do um no later than October 31st, but we'll probably have that submitted by the first week of October. Um as I spoke a few minutes ago, uh we um put a new 5-year uh service contract for janitorial services out to bid in the spring. uh went through a competitive process, sealed bids, um complete cleaning, won the um won the bid, and we I awarded uh them the contract. Um as you all know, they came in in year one, $27,000 favorable to budget, which was great news. Uh we also executed a new three-year service contract for
081solid waste and recycling services. Our timing was really impeccable. Um because we were had previously been contracted with Republic Services. >> Yeah. So uh I put it out to bid in May and June. Um got some great pricing and responses back from uh multiple vendors and I awarded the contract to Innovative Waste System. So, we've had kind of a seamless summer and start to the new school year, which has been great. Uh, it could have literally been pretty messy, but so, um, and then, uh, I'll skip a couple of the other ones. You guys can read them. Uh, at the bottom of the slide, um, the committee and the community approved funding for two feasibility studies. Those are rolling fast. I kicked off the uh softball and track and field feasibilility study third week of
082August. Uh Mike and John Delanus are working with me and the vendor on that. Uh and then the first week of September, we kicked off the HVAC electrification study uh with CMTA. Um the engineering firm um had a great kickoff meeting. uh we've gotten them tons of uh information they need to compile their analysis and I have the uh on-site site visit with the engineering team and the architectural team scheduled for next Wednesday. Uh so we're really moving quickly on that. Uh the goal is to uh have them pres present their final report to um Joe and the capital subcommittee team the first week of um January. Some more to come on that. So shifting gears to facilities and grounds. Um lots of preventative maintenance and work to keep the uh the place going. Uh
083we installed a uh a replacement heat pump system for RTU11 which provides heat and uh cooling to house offices B and D on the um south side of the high school building. We'll talk a little bit I'll show you some pictures uh on that work in a few minutes. Uh we installed the new walk-in refrigerator and walk-in freezer uh in the kitchen area. If you recall, that was capital funding that was approved a year ago. Um, there were extremely long lead times for uh the the the box. Um, and the vendor um delivered it and installed it exactly when they said they would, which was the day after school uh ended in June. And then uh Keith uh did his thing with um with all the HVAC equipment. Um and it really came out great.
084And I've got some pictures on that as well. Um we replaced mixing valves in the high school and the middle school. They were failing. We replaced some uh water mane check valves. Um, I'm sure you all saw it uh earlier this summer because you walked over it coming in through door 29, but we replaced the ADA ramp and concrete sidewalk entrance at door 29. That was a disgrace. Uh, it was unsafe. Uh, it was inaccessible for uh for people with disabilities. uh and the the vendor did a really outstanding job and completed all required life safety inspections and necessary repairs of all those systems. Uh and then we conducted uh required building and fire inspections with town officials um before the beginning of school. That's a statute and a requirement. So all that's taken care
085of. Um earlier in the summer, we identified a very what we believe to be a very small leak uh on the north section of the middle school roof uh on one of the drains that collects the water from the roof that drains out to our storm water drainage system. Uh well, that didn't turn out to be a little leak. Uh it turned out that the roof 5,000 square ft of our roof membrane had come free from the structure. So, I had to put that out to bid. Uh, get prices from very reputable firms that ranged from $25,000 to $85,000 and awarded the contract to a very reputable um roofing company out of uh North Broka who did an outstanding job. I used the money from um that was favorable from the janitorial services contract to
086cover the roof work uh that specifically budgeted for uh in by 25. So it turned out good. Uh it's a good thing we checked it out because in a serious windstorm that roof could have come off could have failed. So it's but it's fixed. So, did they have to replace a membrane or did they just glue it down? I >> They anchored it down. Hundreds of anchors into the concrete slab on the roof and then they have methodologies, right? I'm not a roofer, but they go through and they make it watertight. It's perfect. >> Uh 248. Yeah. The high bid was 85. I think he was, you know, probably too busy and he was just trying to Yeah. win a big job. >> 85. >> Yeah, exactly. busy. >> The town liaison. Let's >> Yeah.
087So, good good stuff. >> Next page. >> There are no leaks. >> Um, we won't go through all these things on the next page. Um, we won't talk about the scaffolding towers. Those are up. Um, so the one thing I would like to highlight here is the ongoing tremendous amount of work we're putting into our athletic fields. Um, I've been here 7 years and they look they're in the best shape of that since I've been here and in fact the athletic director who I I believe is going on 15 years, he said the other day that he's never seen the fields look this good. So, we're going to continue doing our thing and putting a lot of time and effort and resources into the fields. Uh, and I think our investment is paying off information
088technology. Uh, again, this group is led by Vin. Vin does a great job. Um, he's a great planner, which I I appreciate. Uh, a ton of preventative maintenance work uh happens in the summertime. You can see here that uh they literally go through every client-f facing device, 300 laptops, 1500 Chromebooks, 46 Chromebook carts, and they fix and maintain and repair all of these things uh in the span of 10 weeks. Um they go through all of our software and all of our systems um account maintenance, directory maintenance to get prepared for um the the new school year. It's it's an unbelievable amount of work that we have to do. Uh Travis uh is our data data expert. Um the amount of data and data submissions that we have to make to the Department of Education
089would blow your mind. Um Joe, the next round of that data goes back to your question from earlier. Uh we submit it's called SIMS student data. It's based on October one enrollment. That's when we'll do a deep dive into the enrollment. We'll make a student present uh data presentation in either late October or early November uh based on that uh that data point. So >> you get the reports as of October 1st. >> Yep. We'll look at all the data, take a snapshot of all the data. Uh we'll work closely with Brad and his team. Um make sure all the data is correct, including school choice data, every imaginable data point, and then >> hundreds of data points per kid. >> We'll submit that to the Department of Education. I'll extract the data that we
090need to share the data with the towns, for example, for aortionment purposes. We'll use that data to talk about >> I just want to make sure you understand when I ask how many kids are here, how many kids are there, I'm not looking for 100% accuracy. I'm just looking for estimates when I when I ask these questions. So just rough numbers are >> Yeah, I appreciate that. But I mean I don't look at this data until October 1st. >> Okay. >> Um >> someone must be looking though. I mean we got these kids in and they're all paying. >> Yeah, you can ask the principal. They might. >> Yeah. I said anecdotally, I talked to the registars and they said, you know, a lot of those kids were from Georgetown. Surprise. Yeah. >> Yeah. All
091right. >> Um we installed 20 upgraded uh network switches uh in the high school and the central office. Uh each year we um we make improvements to our network. So two years ago we ran new fiber lines around campus. Last year we um we ran all new interior cabling and installed uh 210 new wireless access points. This year um we used money that we received from a f federal rebate u to to fund the purchase of these 20 networks switches which will improve network performance and increase bandwidth. So, we're continuously working together to make improvements to our infrastructure without having to do it all at one time. And then we migrated the district website to a new adaptive platform hosted by Final Site, which I'm sure you've all seen. So, if you go to the
092last couple of slides, um I know some of you over the years have asked for pictures. So, it's in there. So this this set of two pictures on the left is the um the rooftop units that replaced our TU11. So those are heat pump units and Keith did all that work by himself. He's a star >> like his what he can do is just unbelievable. So those are the heat pumps that replace the RTU 11 that was installed 25 26 years ago. And the picture on the right is that's called a um a ceiling cassette. It's one of several that you know the either the hot air or the cold air depending upon what what's being called for comes out of that um that rooftop that ceiling cassette. Uh the next set of pictures is
093our new walk-in refrigerator and freezer on the left. So, in the corner, it's all stainless steel. It's beautiful. Um, we found a date when they were demolishing the old. It was um uh October 1991 was written on the side of the the old box. Uh so, this was replaced uh on on the left side of the left picture in the corner, that's the walk-in refrigerator. And then closer where Mike's swirling his thing for me there. I appreciate that. Uh that's the freezer. Uh and then on the right hand side, those are the HVAC units that provide cooling to those two spaces and Keith did all that work as well. Um so that that came out awesome. Uh and again, it was funded by that 400 grand that uh we secured uh during the FY25 process.
094the kitchen staff enjoy. >> Oh, yeah. If you recall last year in that same 400 grand, we had funding for four new convection ovens. So, we've got the new convection ovens. We have a new walk-in refrigerator, walk-in freezer. I'm sure you saw in the list. Um, a grease trap. I'll talk a little bit about the grease trap. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. But a 50y old >> in flooror grease trap >> that probably held 50 gallons worth of stuff. >> 50 years. Yeah. >> Did you see 50 years old? >> 50 years old. So this thing failed. So I had to have it replaced. >> New grease strap is disgusting. Never mind. >> Yeah, but you've never seen a grease strap this big. >> Oh, >> it was wrong. But anyway,
095so um it's fist. It's repaired. And so the kitchen staff are just really in a good place. Um, next picture. >> So on the left are the new high school mixing valves. So our 25 plus year old um mixing valves in the high school not mixing and the water temp was just it was all over the place. It was mostly too hot which is not okay. So, we replaced the mixing valves um in both the high school and in the middle school uh locker room and bathroom area. That's a picture on the right hand side from town meeting Mike. >> Yeah, maybe. >> Yeah, >> I think so. >> Oh, some someone said the water was warm. >> Somebody said the the toilet water was warm. >> Yeah. So, that's a mixing valve. >> Okay.
096>> Problem solved. >> Okay. No, I have it. See what you mean the >> water look? >> Literally the mixing valves controlled. >> Who's fixing it? It was so warm. >> We do not have a bedet here. >> Boilent. >> We were trying to go with the Japanese toilets. That's what we want. >> Old water lines are supposed to go to the toilet. So I mean the mixing valves are wrong. There's a check valve and a mixing valve that needs to be fixed at the same time, which was the case this year, >> and you're going to have warm water in the toilet, which is not a good thing. >> Everything's been fixed. So, the best part of all of this stuff that that I'm talking about, all of the HVAC and all of the
097plumbing work that I'm highlighting here came at the cost of $0 to the taxpayer because it was all funded by the rebate that I received from National Grid Massave for 160K. All of this stuff was done for free. So to me a little um >> and then >> free it's a rebate. >> Free is fake. >> Free is free >> communication sub subcommittee. >> So this picture here is a picture of the um the ADA ramp and sidewalk work that we did. Um and then do I have more? >> Yeah. >> Oh here's four pictures of of the field. Uh on the left is Bunker Stadium. Uh that's a picture from one of the scaffold towers. That field just looks like a carpet. Looks awesome. Uh field six is our field hockey field um to
098the north >> and east of the central office. Um it's very lightly used at the moment. Uh but it really that's our best field in my opinion. That's just an unbelievably outstanding condition. The next two fields were the is the fields that we had issues with a couple years ago during that um really hot summer. If you recall, we've pumped a ton of resources into the soccer fields, fields seven, eight, and nine, and they really look great. >> So, that is my update. Questions? >> It's amazing. >> Um, have you gotten any feedback from the coaches on the field conditions and surveying? Yeah. >> Yeah, they're happy too. Yeah, >> some coaches. >> Yeah, some I guess the my approach to this is if no news is good news, right? If >> often times you
099hear when things aren't great and you don't hear when things are great. >> Um, but there have been some coaches that have get really given some positive feedback which has been which has been nice. >> Okay. And I might have missed this, but I thought we did some emergency repairs to the track. >> Yeah. So, in um let's see, last November, I contacted uh Capen Islands uh track and tennis and I was put on a repair list and they finally came out the first week of May and made repairs to the track. Uh particularly the um the jump areas. Uh, so, um, those are in pretty good place. We We simply put, we need to replace the track. Yeah. >> Or resurface the track, >> but we'll talk about that in the future. >> Band-aids
100are holding. >> Huh? >> The band-aids are holding. >> Yeah. Yeah. I was out there the other day checking it out. Um and then uh during the end of tennis season, one of the repairs to the first court that closest to the school um one of the repairs that had been done 10 years ago kind of let go. Um so I had that same company come back in and repair um the repair. Um but the tennis courts are really in a state of disrepair. Um, and I think I've shared some information with the subcommittee on that. I got a quote to repair the repairs and any new cracks, and there's a lot. I think that was 58 grand. Uh, to replace all four to replace all four quarts, it' probably be about a half a
101million dollars. >> It's probably a conversation for a different day, but do we use all four constantly? >> We do use all four. Ideally, you want five. >> Yeah. um for tennis matches, high school tennis and college tennis matches. I'm not a tennis player, so I don't know about it, but >> So you onboarded 20 staff positions. What were the 20 positions? >> Half are admin uh and teachers and the other half are Paris in rough numbers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. seemed like a high number to me with the Paris. >> Yeah, we have 40 Paris. So, you know, typically there's, you know, easily there's five that turn this year. I think there was 10 that turned. >> Anything else, folks? Lisa, >> real quick, the scaffolding, does that seem to be working or >> Sure.
102>> They haven't had to use it yet. >> Yeah, they have. We've been using it since the end of >> using but they're not we haven't hosted a home game. >> Yeah, we've been JB and JB too. Yeah, we've been using it since the end of August. >> We like it. >> No complaints. >> That's progress. >> So, wait for the first home game. >> Um, what do we have for bacon positions right now? We have four power possessions. So that's it. Everything else has been filled. >> I thought we were still waiting on the bartenders a 6. >> You think that has been difficult to fill because it's a 6 and uh without a doubt in my opinion as your head of HR. And is that common to have like a 6 nurse in
103a school district or is it more common to have just >> So as we discussed during the budget process, it's a 1.0 position. We have somebody that's a point4 that works two days a week and the other side of that is open. It's a 6. That's very difficult to find. But I did speak to somebody that might be interested in it today just coincidentally. Say that person ends up not being interested. What are our mechanisms if we wanted to fill that with another full time instead of a 6 and the point4? >> Do you want me to be frank? >> Yeah, sure please. Yeah. >> Yeah. So I mean if hypothetically you have a conversation with the point4 and say we need you to be a 1.0. It's a 1.0 position. >> Um and then
104>> go from there. >> You go from there. >> Okay. And if that's a deal breaker then theoretically you have a one 1.0 to fill. >> Yes. >> Sure. Yeah. Which is a lot easier than a 6. >> Yes. >> Yeah. because most people are looking for full-time work. >> Agreed. >> Yeah. >> The number. So what's the price differential that point4 between that 6K point a full FTE budgeted? It's it's budgeted as a 1.0. >> Yeah. >> Just happens >> just hasn't been filled. Yeah. >> Yeah. It just hadn't been filled. So the team decided to hire. It was posted as a 1.0. The team decided to hire a part-time person and it's been unfilled for some time now. It was originally filled as a 6 with a point4 open. Now it's a point4
105filled with a 6 open. >> I guess it's a simple question. So what's the what's the 1.0 rate? >> 35 grand. >> So give or take4 of that. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. It's not a it's not a nurse position. It's a nurse assistant position which gets paid on an hourly basis a little less than 30 bucks a Jew. >> That's massive body of work that all these people did. Massive body of work for you to oversee and cost out and so we know >> you had a brutal summer. We really appreciate it and it really shows what a difference it made on the campus when you get here and so thank you. Thank you for >> it's unbelievable. It's fantastic. It's a great update. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Hopefully we
106all can get a bigger pot of money someday and make bigger improvements. >> No, but I know it's even harder to do this work when you're working with a very limited pool of money and I know you always make it work for us. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, John. >> Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, TSC. >> All right, Mike, I uh I emailed you the assignment changes just ago. >> Great. So, in light of uh us having to go out and look for a new superintendent uh next year, um I've chatted with one or two of you and um I'd like to making a a suggested um move to establish a new subcommittee. uh search for new superintendent subcommittee. Um it's down at the bottom. >> Yeah. So the only the only changes I've
107made to any of the other subcommittees is I've taken Chris off of her two current assignments. Um, in my discussion with Chris, I think that we're going to, she has a lot of experience in this area, having helped with the tritown uh, superintendent search and, you know, I've asked if she could play a significant role in this search. So for that I've I've uh I've taken her off the other two subcommittees that she was previously on which is a DCI and negotiations which still leaves the DCI and negotiation subcommittees with with three members each. Uh other than that all I've done is I've um put names on the under the superintendent search committee. So I do have to limit it to five because six would be a quorum for the school committee. Any questions, comments?
108Sorry. I guess maybe just a little bit sorry Trevor after I said that. Right. Just a little bit more context. Right. I I think and of course this is the decision of the school committee, but I think what will end up happening is we'll establish the superintendent search committee and their initial jobs will likely be to go off and a figure out the process that they're going to recommend to the full school committee uh for the search and second look at what the body what the entire body of the search committee might look like extending it out to um you know members of the community uh members of the fincom or select boards, members of the teachers union, whoever right whatever dimensions they want to explore and come back to the school committee for re
109with a recommendation for so now I'll pause and cher so I think legally you could still have a subcommittee with six people on it. So I So what I'm getting at is I think this subcommittee is going to be very popular amongst the school committee. I think a lot of people are going to be interested in it and have vested, you know, they want to know what's happening. So we're going to probably have a quorum at those meetings anyways. So I I don't know how much of a difference it would make to have, you know, six people because I don't know. I there's two people from every town besides Middleton. So that's kind of where I'm >> Is it a quorum if if people show up and don't participate in the deliberation? >> They can't.
110>> Yeah, >> they can't. >> Which happened during the >> Yeah, last year a couple times. Yeah. >> Yeah. People didn't talk. I couldn't talk >> and Jeff too >> we had that joint meeting we >> and they don't talk then okay right >> they can't be part of the deliberation >> right you go back to being just a citizen not a >> which is why when we had that joint meeting with DCI and community relations we posted as a full school committee meeting so I I think there's a still a way you could operate this if you just made it a full school committee. If you post it as a full school committee meeting >> at sex and post it that way. >> Chris, >> what if I'm sorry? >> So, should I give
111a little context of like the last time I participated in search like this? Um, >> can I wait let me just jump in before you do that because it's just directly related to that. If you make it a full spoke committee meeting and sick people don't show up, does that mean you can't have the meeting? >> You got to think about that, right? >> And the thing about the thing about running one of these searches, it's a it's a big process and you want to bring as many people under the tent as possible. um because you want the whole community to feel like they're a part in this and you will all be updated and involved in how we go about it, informed of what's going on with it. The first thing we're going to
112need to do is decide what kind of a search we're doing because we're we're going to need to talk about do we want to do do we want to fill Mike's seat with an interim and then do a full search because we know that the community here is a little unsettled and we may want to have a period of an intro. That's um a move that a lot of school districts will do. We may not want to do that. We may want to see what the candidate pool is like and if this is a good year for casting a really wide net and hiring somebody in. So these are like exercises. We're all going to be a part of the conversation. Um we also need to act fast because these searches are happening right now
113and this is it's you generally something you want to get started in July. Um, so you have your best pick of the candidates who are actively in the market. Um, I would also advise we do what we did nine and a half years ago now when we u did the search that resulted in Scott Morrison is we cast a nationwide search and we made it we had candidates from 15 different states when we did it that way. So that we had a really interesting applicant pool to consider. Our two finalists ended up being someone who was a Boxford resident and someone who taught or someone who was an assistant superintendent in uh uh Manchester Essex, but we cast a really wide net. Uh so we felt like we left no stone unturned. Um the actual
114search committee will be broader than this group. It'll include people and equal representation from parents um from all three towns, select board or other committee members like fincoms from all three towns. You can't make it too big that you can never meet and that you can never get anything done in the meetings, but you want to make it big enough so that the community is part of the process. And um this committee will >> What about teachers? Yep. Teachers like it it's a big it's a big wide net. I'm actually the computer that I had all the material on I lost in the fire and I'm trying to chase one of the other people from the committee to get all the materials because we did not hire a search firm. We had budgeted $25,000 because
115we knew Bernie Cedon was retiring. We we gave that money back to the budget and we did it like a search firm ourselves. Did not hire a search firm. We did not hire MASC which you also pay to use their services. We built our own website. We wrote our own job description. We wrote our own questions as a committee. We did it our own way. And everybody was 100% happy with the process and the outcome. And I think we want to try to do it in a very similar fashion. Um it's a different situation here and it's a different search but um everyone will come under the 10. I you know I hear your point about it being lopsided where it shouldn't be should feel under represented on the committee. So we could talk about
116having a subcommittee that's three people to start but I don't think we can do six. So, um I think you know Christine makes uh some valid points, but I but I suspect that um following that path almost forces us to go the interim route because that's what you described as a very time consuming and lengthy process. You know, given that it's, you know, nearly the end of September, you know, we're we're not going to get all that done. um in a matter of months and that's that's going to require you know >> you can it's >> I'm not sure how but okay I'm not why would you think that how long did it take you back then >> we it was drawn out >> we could have done it in four months >> okay I'm
117just it's it's certainly seems like it would be a challenge to make it happen that quickly. >> It'd be great to have it done before we're really in the throws of the budget process. It would be great even if the interim or the new superintendent isn't starting till next summer. It would be great for them to have eyes on our budget process as it is happening. >> I totally agree. I'm just saying I don't I I I think it's going to be a challenge to do that. It's a search. The interim is a process. Also, >> I think the one thing that's nice about this from what I understanding is from my understanding is that we can we can make the process what we want it to be. >> Right. >> Don't want to shortcut
118anything, but we can there's nothing constraining us from moving fast either. >> Yeah. It's ambitious but it's selfly necessary. >> And I think Joe raised a good point about the quorum piece. Um but the other point too is I don't want this committee's voice to be lost in that process. So if we do go down only to three and we have all these affin from each other. So like whatever you were saying that's a a lot of people and not a lot of us. So, I know they just make recommendations to us, but I mean if we get a recommendation, I I think it's likely that this body is going to trust the recommendation of subcommittee. So, I just want to make sure we're not losing this. I would rather five than three. Put it
119that >> I'd rather six. and the c the the committee will recommend candidates and will do the preliminary uh interviewing but this committee does the final interview. >> Okay. >> Understand the committee is going to do all the all the work in the back in the back >> and then we we as a school committee get to make decisions. >> I just want to say like the the process that we are doing with DCI and budget is very similar. We're going to focus efforts, create teams that can do real work, get it done, elevate it so that we know that, you know, we have people doing this work and not taking everybody with absolutely everything across the board because we have a lot on our plate this year. We've got we've got a lot to
120do and we're going to need everybody to be, you know, pretty evenly spread. >> So So I'm not against a sixth person, right? I think that the mechanics of it are going to be a little bit weird and you're going to have to really know for sure three days in advance who's showing up and who's not showing up, right? Because if it's going to be a if the sixth person shows up, then it's going to have to be a post as a whole school committee meeting. If it's not going to be a sixth person, you only get five. Then you you can only have five show, right? So I mean if we're going to go to a sixp person group, we absolutely have to have commitments 3 days out. >> It's probably safer. >> Joe
121was first and then Melissa and Jeff. >> You have a sub a committee a subcommittee >> and you schedule them both at the same time and the day before you figure out who's actually going to show up and you cancel the other one. >> I think that's way more harder than it already is going. We there's five. I I sorry I don't know who had their hand raised. I think five is a good number, especially if we're going to probably follow Christine's suggestion because we didn't budget for a superintendent search. So, it's going to follow fall on us to do this. So, I think five is a good number. I I understand what you're saying that Middleton kind of gets the short end, but I can't. I mean, I feel like Adrienne needs to be
122there as the vice chair. Melissa, she's been here. She's probably done this before. Christine's done this before. Erica knows what she's looking for. I I can't not You can't It It just feels like this is a good group. Like I said, I 100% I think all of you are qualified to sit on that committee. I trust you'll do a great job looking out for Middleton. Do I think Middleton's underrepresented and Topsfield's perhaps over represented? Yes. But like I said, I would rather five people than three. Would I rather six people than five? Yes. So I I will be happy to settle at five. But I just thought I'd raise that point and I'd be happy to serve as the six member. But if the committee doesn't want to go that way, that's completely fine. >>
123Yeah, I actually go up. I go, you know, four. So I think to Chris's point, this is not the search. This is not the evaluation committee. This is the the governance committee. they're going to set the stage, do the groundwork, and set the direction. And I'm my biggest concern is when you add more people, I think it's bogged down. So I, you know, with the time considerations, you know, small and nimble is where I would go. But overall, I'd be against expanding it just because I think it's going to cause a lot of logistical issues. And I, you know, I'm fully full faith that we're going to be involved in this from the from the start. This is more just getting it done, getting pieces operationally. And um just I think, you know, people you
124select I think are the right people. Um I think it was just it's it was bigger than I expected but I I can live with that. Um yeah so >> motion to approve just committee assignments as presented by our school committee chair. >> I can you got a comment? >> My only point I was going to make which is still appropriate that if you we can always start with five and if that doesn't seem to work we can make adjustments to >> augment it again. That's a great point. Let's vote yes and move up. Uh, >> we go. We're going to start with you. >> Yes. >> Bill. >> Yes. >> No. >> Yes. >> And yes. Um, let's get running. >> Let's get running. >> Announcement. >> You guys are on the You guys
125are on the agenda. Next next meeting. >> Every meeting. Yeah. >> All right. And and thank you to those that are going to serve on this. It's going to be a It's going to be somewhere. Can you circulate that document? Or >> can doesn't have to be the second, but it wasn't in the material. >> I need to put it in there. >> In that bill, >> is that good enough if you just add it to the agenda link? >> Thank you everybody. Um, memorandum of agreement with MTA regarding educator evaluation. >> Okay. Uh so this is the work of uh the joint labor management committee that came out of uh our last uh collective bargaining sessions with the teachers association. Uh we've been working meeting basically since last uh October, November to actually come
126up with uh these changes to the ad valuation system. Um the teachers association has agreed to it. Uh and so we're looking for the school committee to approve it and we'd be putting this into effect actually next week um for this year. So know we're going to replace uh the old uh standards and indicators of effective teaching with the 2024 DESIE rubric. Uh we uh have implemented revised power standards which are focus areas uh within that rubric. Uh we're going to update all of our forms uh to reflect those changes to the rubrics. power standards. Um, as you can see in self- assessment, feedback, uh, teacher observation and evidence submission. Any discussion? >> Great. >> Move that we accept it. We accept it. Great. Thank you. We have a second. A second. >> Any other
127discussion? All right. >> Great development. Long time coming. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Melissa. >> Yes. >> Sorry. Yes. >> Chris. >> Yes. >> Joe. >> Yeah. Bill. >> Yes. >> Erica. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mike. >> Can she vote on that? >> Yes. The guidance I was given was yes is there's no financial like direct budgetary financial salary impact. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Uh superintendent report. >> All right. Uh so we have a couple of programs from the Tritown Council we want to make sure we advertise. Um the first one they are doing is called well creativity workshops which are a guided youth program exploring the connections between creativity and wellness. Uh this is a new workshop series which is being piloted this fall in conjunction with the photo voice program.
128Uh workshops are for middle or high school youth and we'll meet on four Wednesdays after school uh from 1:30 to 3:30 at the Tritown Council. The first meeting is October 1st. Um and and so the actually the first session would be October 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd, and the second session is November 5th, 12th, the 19th, and December 3rd. Uh also from the Chrytown Council on Thursday, October 9th at 7. Uh they're going to present speaker John Mattelman, uh who does the Secret Lives of Teens and Tween, and that'll be in the Mascan Auditorium. Uh this is a parent or caring adult program. Uh his pres Mr. Melman's presentation will provide insight into what's going on in adolescent brains, the complexity of their lives, including anxiety, depression, and suicide, uh what they do and say,
129and why, and how caring adults can better support. Also going along with that program on the same evening, uh the Tritown Council will host an open gym in the Masanomic Fieldhouse um from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Uh this will be open to middle and high school youth and it's a chance to get together and shoot hoops, play games, or just hang out. So as parents, come over and drop your kids off at the gym and come over to the uh John Melman's talk. uh turf field update. I'm going to put in my blog for uh for the community, but uh as we all talked about, the application for a permit to construct two artificial turf fields uh was reviewed at the Boxford Conservation Commission uh on September 18th. Um Stantech is our our designer on
130the project to all the questions in the peerreview study conducted at the conservation commission's request. Uh the conservation commission will now like us to document its requires requirements for PAS free materials in the artificial turf. Uh the project is due back due to be back before the conservation commission uh at its October 16th meeting. Uh and then our middle school parent coffee this month will be held this Friday, September 26th, from 8:30 to 9:30 in the middle school library. Uh as always, we've been hosting a series of parent coffees on Friday mornings uh at 8:30. And these are an opportunity for members of the public to meet with school principles, members of the district administrative team, and with me to ask questions and discuss issues that concern the Masanomic District. And I've got a couple
131other plugs here. Um the Masanomid Education Foundation is looking for parent volunteers. Uh if you're looking for a way to get to uh to get to know Masco and make a difference in your child's school experience, uh please consider getting involved with MEF. Uh through MEF, you'll have the opportunity to work directly with teachers, department heads, principles, the superintendent, and other administrators to raise funds that directly benefit our students. Uh these funds support enriching experiences like field trips, guest speakers, and new technology that enhances student learning. Uh MEF is always seeking new volunteers and would love to share more about the incredible programs they've supported over the years. For more information on MEF, please go to um www.mmascof.org. Fix your typo. Uh if you'd like to get involved, you can send an email to info@
132masconomic education foundation all one word.org. And finally, um, we ask, uh, parents to please consider joining the masconomic parent activities committee, uh, or PAC. Uh, PAC is the high school and middle school's parent organization designed to sponsor activities and events that will enhance the educational and extracurricular needs of our students by helping the teachers and faculty with various activities. PAC provides Tritown families the option to be involved by donating and/or volunteering at pack sponsored events throughout the academic year. Uh we can't operate unless you get we get more parents to join. PAC is currently looking to fill the following positions on its board. Uh president, vice president, and secretary. >> Oh wow. >> Uh PAC also needs a middle school parent rep and a grade 11 parent rep. Uh as well as parent volunteers during
133the various events throughout the year. And if you're interested in learning more about PAC, uh, please re reach out to the freshman class rep, uh, Tara Donnell, and her email address will be in my blog, or senior class rep, Kathleen Scarpata, and her email will be there as well. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, subcommittee reports, community relations. >> Um, I'm presenting on Kendra's behalf tonight. Uh we had a community dialogue session tonight. Um we had uh one person come our high school school nurse Sander Moan. Um she's concerned about the nursing resources in the school. um the situation in her opinion is unsafe um with the level of acuity that she's dealing with across the student body um the incidents that occur daily and um the help that is available. So it's her right now
134with a part-time nurse assistant. So, not a nurse, nurse assistant. Uh, two days. Um, and we have that three-day vacancy that we just talked about. Um, so she's responsible for plan writing, prepping all the field trips, um, you know, helping the kids who have maintenance medications and and other medical concerns throughout the day. Um, we do have a nurse in the middle school who has a 5-day um assistant, but um they obviously need them over there, too. So, um she shared her concerns. There were many and they were concerning. Um I don't know how we move this forward or or maybe correct the situation, but it probably warrants more discussion. Um, so I just wanted to highlight that tonight. And then we also had Evan Sano who was waiting for his brother Ethan who was
135doing the SAB report and we picked his brain on what's going on at Masco, what's on your mind. Um, and he said that we really need more school spirit. Um he's a little bummed out that uh homecoming's on a weekday which I was also bummed out about because I don't never heard of that. But um you know Friday night dance is way better than a Thursday night dance. >> Nobody will chaperon it. Well >> chaperon >> Adrian >> there you go. >> Let's go. >> Chaper I get Yeah. I I do the all night grad party. This would be a piece of cake. Like, can I influence the DJ playlist? Like, what do we got? >> Yeah. >> Um, so that's that's um I don't know if there's any chaperons out there listening, reach out.
136We need you. Volunteerism is an all-time low as you just heard with MEF, um, Masco Pac, Tritown Council, like all the organizations that do all this amazing work for our kids in the community are all struggling to find volunteers. And this is yet another example of our kids being like, "Hey, who's going to show up for us?" So, um, just thought that was an anecdote worth sharing, too. Um, and our community relations team met. Um, we formalized our communication plan, some of the templates that we want to use so that we can get communications out faster. Um, so we have a lot of great work going on there and we have an ask out to I believe it was Jackie to see if we could get like a community relations folder on the Google Drive
137uh the district's Google Drive just so that we could have a central place and everybody could get to stuff. I don't have to want to share it back and forth. But that's that. >> Thank you. Can we push this issue of um point4.6? >> What do you mean? >> And if if we like can we say if after x number of days or weeks we no longer have any applications for a part-time person, we approach the part-time person and say it needs to be a part-time ro a full-time role. Are you willing to come full-time? I guess my reaction is we could discuss as a a leadership team because we manage staffing issues. It's been this way for a couple years now. >> So the only change is it went from a 6 to a
138point 4. They hired a part-time person which I had issue with just to be honest. So >> didn't we get rid of another nurse that last budget seems >> we eliminated a nursing position that had been added a few years ago during co So historically, historically it was a nurse and a nurse assistant in the high school and a nurse and a nurse assistant in the middle school until we added the nurse >> during co >> in the high school. But that's not what you're talking about. So yeah, we can re we can have that conversation. Yeah. And I think that to be clear, the request was ideally it would be two full-time nurses in the high school. get rid of the part-time nurse assistant roles that are we're trying to piece together and make
139it two nurses because a lot of acuity in the population right now is challenging uh for one nurse and a nurse assistant can't really help with those things >> which is one of the options that we discussed back in March. >> Yes. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Right. I think I threw it. >> I think if we understood the population a little better, I don't know. It might have been a different conversation. >> Since I oversee the nurses, there's a difference in what a nurse assistant can do and what a nurse can do and what's weighing down. The nurses, they can't a nurse, right? Yeah. >> I I don't know. >> Okay. Thank you, President. Thank you, Adrian. >> Yeah. Um DCI >> meeting >> Friday at 10 a.m. We're going to settle on our
140goals to bring to the committee. See where that heads. That's it. And I guess we have one fewer member now. So makes it easier to get a quorum. >> Still need two. >> Needed three when there's four of us. didn't uh roll call. >> U we met prior to the the retreat and sort our goals but we haven't met since then. We have a pretty robust list of things to attack. So >> you guys have a date or a date? >> I've been kind of out with sick family members. I'm gonna move back around probably by next week or so. Thank you. Policy. >> We are also meeting on Friday at the same time as budget 10 a.m. Uh we're on Zoom so more accessible to all of you. Feel free to join us. Um
141we're going to be just start checking off our goals. We got our career and technical education policy up for consideration and our um competency determination policy up for consideration. So I think Katie worked on the competency one and Phil worked on the um career and technical education. Can you invite if he wants to come? I >> you did. >> Okay. I think I forgot to send him the agenda. Um, and then we'll also be I'll just be providing the subcommittee with an update on kind of where the subcommittee has got to with the recall discussion like all the all all those documents that we had started to produce in the years prior just to try to get everyone up to speed on that conversation. >> Uh, leazison updates. Um, so I don't think I have
142any updates from the Middleton perspective. I did send out the invite for the November meeting like what's that? >> You're the boxer leazison, correct? Yeah. So, we have to do that. I'll send you the email that he sent to Middleton and the two of us can send that out to our respective crew. I'll include all the details. >> I think I heard you. Yeah. Okay. >> You're ahead of me. >> Yeah. silence starts right here. Um, we had a meeting with the Boxford reps from the Boxford Incom select board Sunday morning, lunch, brunch, breakfast, whatever it was. Um, I mean, we just discussed generally speaking what was ahead for the year. We asked about budget guidelines, what they're going to look like from them. They're they haven't really discussed it yet. They said it's probably
143going to come down where it always does in the 2 and a half% to 3% range. You know, not much else. Um they're of course they brought up the building committee. So we'll talk about that on on Friday. Um that's about it. I don't think there's anything too substantial. It was mostly just catching up after not having been together for four or five months. Did they indicate if that 2 and a half% is based on historically how we've done it or this new way that cost that came up of this year? >> Fuzzy math. >> Is it based off the prop two and a half? Right. >> Well, whatever we had last year, >> right? But they were also saying there's a lot of other things coming down the pipe in Boxford right now that
144they're worried about, but their main concern is mascot and they care a lot about making sure the building gets the investment it needs. We did talk to them about the Georgetown thing, right? um and just were kind of wondering where where this all could go long term and they were very curious about um you know the idea of K through 12 again came up you know it's been discussed more than a few times right so there was a lot of discussion in that area just in terms of what could potentially happen and I would say that they're all for anything that is more efficient and and saves cost But we all know that already. So it's available information. >> We're talking to the right talking to the chair of the DCI. >> So >> but
145we don't decide >> recommend. Yeah. >> It's nice though like it's before building. It's like we try do it every year every six weeks and All right. >> Yeah, we had a listening session on Saturday. They're generally not well attended by the community, but they're well attended by the town officials. So, some select board folks were there. Um, got to catch up with them a little bit. Um, no hard questions, no deep conversations, but again, just connecting after not really seeing each other for a while. Um, so I'll be sending the invite to select board fincom talent administrator >> y >> for the November 4th meeting. And Joe, that's what I was talking about was you and I have to send the invite. It's deep in our inbox somewhere. >> Um, and there's multiple versions
146floating around in our inbox. So I'll send you the details which is >> Yeah. So that you don't have to dig. Um, >> I think what I did was I I think back I think I invited select board and copy at the time to make sure that they were in the loop. >> In the loop. Okay. >> They wanted to listen in. >> Great. I think that's what we had decided before was to come select board >> and CPAC >> CPAC uh CPAC leaders updates. Yeah, >> did we have anybody meeting with CPAC? >> I can do that. Um, unfortunately they met this morning at my man. Uh, so I could not be there, but I did reach out to Jackie and ask her to let me know when the next meeting would be. And
147then she also said to reach out to her to see what other questions or what it is that we need from them and um, whatever we need. So once I have the new date, I will let you know. But unfortunately 9:00 on a Wednesday was not for me. >> Did try to reach out to through their website like their their email but never got a response. I'm not sure if it's active or not. >> What's that? I'm sorry. >> Yeah. Email just popped a note. Never heard anything back either. So I know some of their web pages are down. >> I can forward you Jackie's email. She's pretty responsive. That's how she's been. She and I have been communic. >> Yeah. Well, she said it had to do with all the open houses that the
148schools had. It was a hard time to find a time for our fights. >> Yep. >> Updates. We're good. >> Oh, yeah. Negotiations there as well. >> Um consent agenda. So, is that in the next agenda? Will that be replaced with the superintendent search? >> I don't think I would replace it, but I would add superintendent search and give the negotiation subcommittee a chance to speak if they felt like they hit something aside. But, but yes, we will be adding the if not a super a subcommittee report, a deliberate item on the agenda for next meeting on the superintendent search. Okay. Consent agenda. Am I reading it? >> Yep. >> All right. Approval of September 10, 2025 minutes meeting minutes warrants the amount of 1,916,814.11. Accept Spanish Spanish exchange field trip MEF grants. Approve overnight
149field trip to Quebec. >> So move. Definitely >> question. Do we have chapron signs for the field trip? >> We know who they are. >> Wait for the one for the Quebec trip or the >> one isn't there >> cuz the the Quebec trip did say two female and one male. >> Understand the other one. It's fine. >> Um those were dangerous. It's not a trip. That's just a grant. >> It's a grant. >> Yep. Got it. Thanks. >> Any else? So, I think you moved. Jeff, did you second or >> uh Erica? Uh any other discussion? >> We can't discuss concern. >> That's the whole point. >> Yes. >> Thanks, Erica. All right. Bill, >> yes. >> Lisa, >> Yes. Adrien. >> Yes. And we finished uh two minutes in advance. >> Motion to
150adjurnn. [Music] >> Was that char was first to a second? >> Second. >> Oh, Adrian. Thanks, Erica. >> Yes. >> Bill. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. What are we doing? >> Yes. >> Oh, jeez. >> Yes. Please. Yes, >> I'm Yes. >> Thank you. >> Please. >> Good to see you. >> I'm gonna I'll follow up with that sucks. >> Y sticker in here. There are kids at my house to seek in the judge.