MRSD School Committee Meeting | 2/26/2025

001e e e you um so I will call this meeting to order at 7:02 um and I have no comments um as the chair I'll be presiding over this meeting will be joining us on Zoom as well as um Eric over Zoom so that leads us to our comments from the the audience um just to show our hands how many people think about okay so we have 15 minutes designated for it so if you guys want to take up that time I saw five of you so conscious of that um just a reminder this isn't a discussion or debate it's just a time where we get to listen to your comments yeah so whoever wants to go first just remember to sign your name on the clipboard um right there so a recording secretary can

002um put that in the minutes evening Dr Christian the blank and I'm a s grade English teacher here at masomi this is my 21st year teaching Public School in Massachusetts this is my 18th year at masom prior to this I thought for three years at the swamp Scott Middle School when it was time to leave swamp Scott I applied to other districts and I was lucky enough to get an interview with the Middle School principal Kate Cain I still remember in late May 2007 when I interviewed in that Middle School principal's office when I met Kate as well as the head of the English Department Dave donville and Mary Mahoney an English teacher I asked Kate how she a principal thought of the environment here at mascow Kate said she had worked in other districts

003and she knew Masco is a healthy supportive and positive environment I still remember when I was told I got the job at masom I was in the swamp Scott teachers room it was an exciting moment for me but naturally there was a little anxiety too every teacher in that break room told me the same thing I am lucky to be working at masconomet masanom is a great place to teach teachers want to teach at masom that kind of reputation doesn't exist without a school committee supporting its teachers tonight we look at substantial Cuts Cuts in teaching nursing and guidance on the board and to the people who have the power to make decision I urge you to consider the impact that these Cuts will have the reputation of mass gomic is on the line you

004have the power to determine the direction of this District make the choices that built that reputation for n Masonic 18 years ago make the choices that made those teachers in swamp Scott tell me I am lucky to be working at Masonic momic is a great place to teach teachers want to teach at masconomet I believe in this District I believe in our students and I believe in this committee please do not make those cuts thank you anyone else wish to speak uh my name is Melissa Stanley I'm in the I'm a teacher in the English Department 11th grade this is my 27th year here at massonet last year during the budget discussions the superintendent recommended teaching positions while creating a new administrative role the director of teaching and learning expanded Administration but took away Direct

005Care from students now we again find ourselves in the same position trying to balance the financial burden on our community with our commitment to variet the best possible education for our students yet again the proposed solution disproportionately targets those who most directly impact students the Educators while preserving non- student facing Administration I trust the superintendent will explain the savings of cutting each of the proposed full-time positions is only an estimate because it does not accurately reflect our reduction in Workforce procedure however the salaries in tonight's presentations are the salaries of individual Educators people who have served Mas gomit for years they are seasoned professionals invested in their student successes educated with families of their own who come to work each day to teach guide and protect their students Masco has always been an Innovative school

006that puts students first it is our teachers who have pioneered programs like Deca and first responder certification design classes like forensic science American studies and media Communications organized and led student foreign exchanges and advised clubs like rocketry and psychology these invaluable experiences which enrich students High School journey and shape their lives we disappear as our student numbers sorry as our staff numbers dwindle and we lose the people who have built and sustained these programs yes Staffing is a school's largest exper expense but it's also its most vital investment for Student Success every cut to our teaching staff diminishes opportunities for students today and is a fundamental loss for Mass gom's future we must remember why we are here for our students for their education and for their future I urge you to make a decision

007that reflects that commitment thank you thank you good evening everyone my name is Michael Kelson and I am a high school English teacher and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Nico zorus president of the Mason teachers union who is ill and cannot be here this evening I want to start by apologizing for not being able to make it this evening I've had the privilege of working at masconomet for 20 years in that time I've been honored to work with thousands of students helping them develop as young adults and to prepare them for the world ahead of them hundreds of our T other talented teachers at masad do the same thing every day we work long hours we lose sleep wondering how our students are going to do on our assignments or how they will cope

008with what life has thrown at them we meet with guidance counselors develop plans to ensure that everything they need is available to them to find success and to know that they're cared for teaching is not a job it's a calling I was fortunate enough to sit across the table from many of you during our most recent contract negotiations during that time I felt heard and I believe that we were able to come together as a community to settle a contract that made sense for everyone now I sit dismayed at what is to be considered this evening cutting more teaching positions for the purpose of cost savings I hate to be blunt but allow me to be for a moment good schools cost money good teachers cost money good buildings and grounds cost money we are

009blessed to live in an affluent area and I am blessed to work for an affluent School Joe you mentioned that at the top of the most recent school committee meeting and I agree with your assessment I understand the position that you are all being put into by the taxpayers in your towns however cutting more teaching positions simply doesn't make sense students need more individualized instruction than ever before and the after effects of covid are still being felt in our classrooms we cut five teaching positions last year and added an administrator to make the cut suggested here will lead to a career Masco Educators being let go this will have an immense impact across both schools and it will be felt by every student here at masad it will fundamentally change what makes Masco Masco a

010great school that prepares students for their future and whatever that may hold I beg you to reconsider this move and invite you to meet me at any time to discuss the wonderful things that are happening at these schools every single day I appreciate the opportunity to be heard and thank you for your consideration you for those who don't know me I'm Megan hilderbrand The English Department chair here at Masco and I've worked in this district for 20 years I'm here tonight to speak to you on behalf of the larger Department chair and assistant principal group who all joined me here tonight since we are not given the opportunity to come to the table with you directly around the budget process and implications we felt it imperative to come to speak to you about the proposed

011budget cuts to be presented tonight and what it will mean for the Masco Community what makes this District special are the people here teachers administrators support staff and every human being that works here has a positive impact on kids every single day strong adult student relationships are a Hallmark at masconomet we say in our vision statement after all last year that impact was diminished when we cut five core teachers one from each department to put that into perspective every teacher that was cut last year had directly impacted on average 85 students a day over the past 10 years we have cut 23 teacher school teacher and school counselor positions I want to be very clear any further reductions to student facing roles will have a devastating impact on our school community and our students if

012we continue to cut student facing roles specifically and once again in the high school in favor of both keeping and adding non- student facing roles the very kids that we are all here to serve suffer when Cuts Like These are proposed obviously with financial considerations in mind these actions send a broader message about what this District values or does not value when it comes to the educational experience provided to the students and by the teachers when the only perceived option is to cut positions that truly and positively impact student experience and success we are whittling away at the Integrity of the quality of Education we are providing if we make these Cuts our already diminishing electives clubs and advisor roles will be non-existent say goodbye to NHS student council class advisers Club advisers and coaching

013positions that we have already struggled to fill in the past years Asis if we make these Cuts say goodbye to the Masco that we have claimed to be for decades we watch every single SCH committee meeting and the common Trend this year has been how to keep students here at Masco you keep going round and round asking why do students leave what else are they looking for what can we do to keep them here I can tell you why it's because in recent years we have stopped prioritizing everything that used to make Masco bold standard to our surrounding communities what made people pay the astronomical housing prices to move here the district no longer seems to Value communication collaboration and support from the ground level up we beg you stop the bleeding stop the mass

014Exodus of students and staff alike and take a stand to prioritize education again in this community and that's why I'm here that's why we're all here we're here to advocate for the students and for the good people that directly service them and work with them on a daily basis we cannot further reduce student facing roles the cost is too high too high for the very people we are here to serve and as you review tonight's revised proposals we want you to remember why we are all here who we are truly here for and what we owe them thank you thank you anyone else wish to speak tonight yep kathina yeah and just I hadn't raised my hand before just to ass sign your name thank you hi I'm Kathleen scado from Topsfield and i' I

015just like to lend my voice as a parent um I am concerned that it seems every time we are faced with um a budget crisis um or Cuts it's always the teachers guidance counselors and as so many have already said the individuals that actually deal with our students on a daily basis that are cut as a parent I would ask that you add some scenarios in which Administration is looked at as well in consideration for cuts so that we don't have to keep repeatedly taking it out on our students and our parents I would also request that you allow parents and community members um to hear what those additional scenarios are and I know that you do that every year but I'd like you to hear their perspectives and their support before you end up

016voting on the budget which they prefer administrative Cuts or teachers guidance counselors and nurses thank you thank you all right is that it for public comment no one else I will close public comment I just to remind everyone I appreciate everyone coming out here and letting us hear thoughts and concerns but the administration's recommendation was from the presentation on the 22nd um the document provided tonight is not the recommendation of the administration it is to guide this committee's discussion and give us a picture of what something could look like if um the committee wanted to go in that direction but just wanted to clarify that it is not the administration's recommendation okay and seeing um I don't see our Sab here so we will continue on and jump right into our budget deliberations um and

017our administrators are going to take over from here yeah so I'll kick it off um so there's two parts to the bud budget presentation tonight I'll provide a h brief update on the final health and dental insurance premiums for FY 26 and impacts uh on the budget recommendation and then we'll move into kind of what everybody's here for is a uh a response to a request from the committee at the last meeting for the District administration uh the leadership team to provide scenarios um again in response to their requests um that total anywhere from $700,000 in reductions to a million dollar in reductions uh we've got the full um uh executive leadership team here with us tonight uh Katie Phil Kevin and Brad will all make uh presentations um on various positions and um so

018with that said I'll just jump into the part I guess and then um hand it over to M and to take the lead on the the Staffing stuff so uh our recommendation was presented on the 202nd of January um Trevor thank you for providing that context but I'll provide it again our recommendation uh from the leaders team's perspective was a level Service uh budget recommendation for FY 26 uh that amounted to roughly a 99.5% increase in operating assessment which is uh very significant um recently I received um final health and dental insurance premium data from our insurance provider uh which was an increase as compared to what I had incorporated into the budget recommendation so as you can see here um the the final uh premium increases increase our operating assessment by almost 173,000 so

019it takes it from an increase of 3124 million to 3297 million which is just shy of a 10% increase year-over-year year uh which is by far the highest increase uh in my six years with the district um so the district we received notification uh health insurance premiums will increase by almost 15% uh and dental insurance premiums will increase by a little over 6% U my initial placeholder based on advice I had gotten from Maya was a 10% increase for health and a 5% increase for dental uh a little bit of context over the last uh six years including this year's data health and dental premiums have increased on average uh 5.26% and a little less than 1% per year respectively um so this is an outlier and certainly um increases the the average increase over

020the past six years substantially are there any questions on health and dental from the committee before move on okay so that's the last point of data that I was waiting on to what I would call finalize our recommendation uh so we you flip to the next slide this is and of how how that all shakes out from a um from Member Town's perspective so as you can see in the bottom right hand corner um the final recommended operating assessment number for the district again is a little less than 3.3 million or 99.9% and then following the um you know the allocation methodology that's outlined in uh the regional uh agreement um you can see in the at the top to the right boxford's operating assessment is increasing by a little over 1.2 million 99.7% Middleton's

021operating assessment is increasing by of 143,000 or 6.7% and tops Fields operating assessment is increasing by 3.35 million or 13.9% so moving on to the scenar sorry 1.35 million what did I say 3.35 oh 1.35 million 3.3 uh so if there are no further discussion there hand it off kind of tee up the salary or the cost reduction discussion so yeah thank you for saying that earlier Trevor but I'll say it again the administration's recommendation was a level service budget uh we do understand it's it's a lot um in terms of an increase um but you know I think we all felt very comfortable that it was definitely worth it um we do have uh our principles and uh other members of the executive leadership team are here they're going to talk about these positions

022uh one by one you know and and as we talked about in our last meeting when we talked about the possibility of doing this presentation there will be impacts and there is no way around that um you know there are a lot of things we will'll talk about those impacts in the context of what it would have done to this year's schedule um just because we're not done with course selections for next year yet so really get into what next year would look like but it would give you you know there were some there were as we looked through the the course table there were things that popped up that said well if we had fewer sections we'd have to think about this um so I do want to kind of frame that for everyone

023um we uh put these together uh as two scenarios um scenario one uh total $649,000 in reductions uh it's seven positions uh and then scenario two is an additional $374,000 uh and an additional three positions um so I don't know I think we're probably ready kind of let get Katie up to all and he actually you sort of the idea here before we get going on this the scenarios uh this would be the reduction uh to the assessments for scenario one anything El want to talk about uh no so the the impact of a $650,000 reduction would reduce again in the bottom right hand corner uh increase in total operating assessment by about 2% 10% %. if if you add scenario one and scenario two together which is a little over a million dollars um

024then that would reduce um that would reduce the total oper op ating assessment by 3.1% as compared to the final recommendation that I talked about a little earlier yeah you can stay there for one second um so I do want to go over a couple things reiterating what people have already said but as we're going into this presentation I do want to let everyone know that you might not know we are currently going into the scheduling process um we are trying to elim study halls in the fall so reducing staff eliminating study halls makes it your class sizes will go up higher than the numbers that are going to be shown here tonight because we're also only working on this year's coures um so losing these positions will add an increase the class sizes students

025will have less options um we're really proud of Masco we're really unique we have so many classes that are unique courses and each department has created new classes for next year that are even more unique and you will see some of those this evening and that is what makes us amazing that is what makes us Masco so in making these Cuts you're asking us to make the curriculum back to almost a static curriculum losing some of these amazing individual classes the forensics the documentary film making our TV studio you're also asking us to get rid of the helpers every member on this list works with kids and as they referenced earlier kids are struggling with mental health still that's not going away kids are struggling with academics that's not going away so you're taking away

026these people who have built amazing relationships um whether it's your nurse whether it's your history teacher they are the helpers in the building they are the safe spaces so losing this amount of faculty and staff also doesn't align with our strategic plan um currently we do have some small classes which allows for The Unique courses and is better preparing the students for the future so what we're going to do now is show you the impact that we can see on paper and what we do know so some of it is anecdotal because you can't put data on a lot of the stuff that that all these teachers um and all these humans that are going to be affected do um so we just want to really show you what is unique about Masco and the

027impacts that this would have yes just one quick question before you start stud Hall different than mblock I'm sorry Ste Hall is different than mblock yes mblock is staying so talking for a couple years now that we have the N block up and running drop the study hall and have everyone fully scheduled which would also in what you looked at this year some lower classes that'll make those classes go up because you won't have 20 30 kids sitting in study halls they're going to be in these classes so that's the goal I'm not going to say it'll be 100% but that's the goal next year is to really get everyone fully scheduled so this will also make a bigger impact on that all right so first slide um wait yes can I just make a

028point of order sure I feel a tone in the room that it's us and them and I'm pretty positive I speak for the entire school committee and it please jump in and correct me if I'm wrong that we all want to keep the status quo also we don't want to cut any teachers we don't want to we want more programs we want this place to be the best school district the Commonwealth has ever seen and we know it's expensive this Administration doesn't want to cut any of you either we rung our hands over this in the negotiations right we said to all of you we agree to this we're going to have to cut teachers I can't get blood from a stone right and so but the finance committees the board of Selectmen we're all

029meeting with them on the weekends in the in the mornings before work late at night because the taxpayers are saying we can't live here anymore and people are fleeing the schools right so I just wanted to make a point of order that we're all fighting for the same thing for the kids for the families for the communities we're not saying cut everything cut the programs ruin Mass gr destroy the culture that made you accept a job here to begin with so let's just all try to not say to to address the tone in the room that we're all in this together and that we all want the most amazing School District possible for our kids who are struggling postco for our teachers who are struggling postco for an Administration that keeps getting slammed with fewer

030resources and holes in the ceiling and hbac blowing up and an open building that needs repairs and taxpayers who are saying I can't afford to live here anymore we're all on the same same team so let's just all all of us on the committee in the room at the podium understand it's not us and them we're all in this together and I'm just sensing this tone in the room and we're feeling defensive and attacked and we want all we care about all of you and we care about the kids so I just had to say that so that we can move forward all in this together as we navigate these next few difficult weeks thank you no and I appreciate that um and I hear you just working in it we just want to make

031sure that we're presenting the impacts yeah that people like so help and all those watching that people just see we know to your point you can't get water from a stone you can't get blood PR Stone we just want people to know we understand that the the cost is ridiculously high but maybe we look at some some other stuff or figure things out and just with what we were asked to do we just want to show what the impacts will be throughout the building thank you thank you um so I'm not going to read the slides our concerns regarding faculty and staff I kind of just said a lot of this students are going to be affected um some of the courses um won't run critical support roles which we'll go into more with the

032slides when we do each individual um on how they affect the students um and always the biggest concern is once something's cut it's very difficult to get back um so we're just trying to figure out if we can be creative and rework some other stuff um because you always know when you lose a position it's many many years before you can think you know you can get it back so um if there's other stuff that we can think about or other ways um and really the biggest thing to your point is the individualized attention to the students when you have less adults picking up more kids they're going to have less individualized attention so um but yes we can go into the the slides and this is just you've all seen the this is based

033on this year so it's not 100% accurate right now you're looking at like a two two student increase for classes but again taking away study halls adding more kids in the classes that would change probably to about five um an increase in five students in most of the subjects so okay so a lot of these will cover a lot of the same points but I do want people to see some of the courses that could be affected um English as I mentioned has lost a position their average class size will probably go up to over 20 students um we've created some new courses for this year from or excuse me for the fall Criminal Minds dystopian literature we have amazing uh creative writing the media Communications and then you you will see throughout these presentations

034you will see some AP courses on here because right now they're low and so if we have to move kids to other other classes we're not going to be able to run the a some of these APS at 10 13 14 students and that is a detriment as well as the um some of the semester or the kind of more creative classes um so in English you'd go up to about 22 um 22 students per class and as much as you say or everybody says you know these are high school it will have a trickle down to the middle school it's not just one building that's effective um so I just want to not point that on every slide but just kind of make that note too as you're moving people around certain courses being

035offered or not offered will also sometimes evitably trickle down to the middle school so um for the math math um we're looking at a new sports analytics class for our upper classman we're looking at Game Theory again with some staff Cuts our AP BC calculus probably wouldn't run that is 13 students some years in the past we have had to combine um ab and BC calculus does always it's not in the best interest of the students to put them all together and you will see that as a theme in some of the other slides as well um because based certifications based on what people can teach not everybody I mean I know I could never go teach BC Cal so not everyone can go teach BC calculus um so you'll see that the individualized attention

036for the students um is the theme throughout that we'll be losing some of that and math also would go up by about five students based on courses being offered and we wouldn't necessarily right away say we're going to take out these new courses obviously we're about to do course selection next week um and if we have an abundance of students teaching them or excuse me requesting them we're going to run them but that inevitably with one less teacher will mean the other classes will be higher um so it's not just an all or none it's not saying all these new classes will disappear it's saying you know kids are looking for this we would love to offer these classes we'd love to run them but some of your stats classes might be a little bit

037higher because these are all third level classes so you can't it's it looks like it's a black and white on course um on class size it's not until we see what people are requesting and then we'll make the determination whether or not we can even run it or not based on how many students have requested it okay next the social studies um is the same a it's a mostly elective um course we're looking at offering an AP African-American studies class that we really love to offer this year we're bringing back American studies um for those who don't know what American studies is it is a TW block class it is a history English class sorry I shouldn't not an English slide too um so it's a two block class so we need over 40 kids

038to be in it to make it worthwhile because it is two periods um and it's two teachers a history teacher an English teacher are co- teing it it's an amazing class we had for many years did not run this year um losing a staff member that would that would have to come off the table probably um just to to make sure we can get all the other core classes going on um and some of our other APS again are low enrolled again AP is a certified you need have gone to AP school um so not everybody can teach the AP classes so that's why they're also sometimes on the topping block because not everyone in the department is AP certified to go to the special programs and stuff to get that taken care of um

039so that's why you'll see AP throughout as well um World Language this is another group that would combine classes um yes we have three languages yes they are not equal Spanish classes are higher than French classes and higher than the Chinese classes but losing a teacher is going to change that um you'll see in foreign language um and in some other subjects like I was just referencing with the aps most people aren't certified in multiple languages so if you're moving one person in their CT if you're you know taking out a French your French Classes might get a little bit bigger or we're going to have to combine CP and honors together honors and AP together um and depending upon the number of students and able to teach the classes um you might also get

040French two and three together um that is not the best for child's learning is they really should um be separated out and that also would have a trickle down effect to the seala by literacy because we do have kudos to the World Language Department we have a lot of students who do get the seala by literacy but if we all start combining classes for their three four years here they're not going to have as robust speaking when you have multiple levels in the class and that'll definitely have a trickle down onto the onto that test as um and also World Language is small it does trickle into the into the trips as well so if you're losing people who speak the language getting others to go um to different countries not everyone bilingual or trilingual

041so that has a trickle down effect to us being able to offer International experiences as well so a lot of people I know you guys all are aware but also to the public watching the trickle down of what these humans it's not just Stand and Deliver a curriculum and that's kind of what we're trying to say um and you go into the business um business departments really tricky they run so they run so much um their Staffing is a lot of you know we've got over a hundred students going out to the sea port for Deca tomorrow um the way this is written is we would take um our digital learn we have two digital learning Specialists seate them out back into the classroom they do all the software in the buing they do all

042the behind the scenes they do all the programing um I the list was exhaustive of what is you know between the Blackboard and the Power School parent integration grade books things that I don't even know Cammy defit EXL canva they're doing so much software that the concern is pulling them out of the digital learning in a digital learning era we're going to slow down on that um there're also spearheading the AI um PSATs sats mcast are all digital and they do the Yen's work of setting up the Chromebooks making sure that those are all ready to go working with the state or working with college board um again so it's more the trickle down effect the business classes wouldn't be affected because it's somebody replacing somebody but the back end is really the concern is

043all the coordination with the staff and students of all the software that we are offering um they make sure that all works it department does all their amazing stuff with the hardware our digital learning is keeping us moving forward um in the age of Technology a break I get a break it's all you I'll be back thank you yeah I probably um first I want to take Kaitlyn thank you I appreciate that sort of you know tone setting for everybody I think it's important to sort of acknowledge that um and I want to something that Katie mentioned also that caught my ear is like none of this is black and white um I know like dealing with numbers and balancing budgets and things that's black and white but none of this stuff is is black

044and white so it's hard to make them kind of reconcile um the impact of cutting a school nurse um currently the district has three School nurses um and 1.6 you can read here FTE assistance for both buildings so the high school operates with two School nurses and a point6 assistant and the Middle School operates with one school nurse and one assistant reducing by a school nurse and going to one FTE school nurse in the middle school and then one in the high school each with an assistant um that's that's the proposal just to to clarify that based on um the Mass Department of Public Health this recommendation I think this is what people you know maybe they Google it and they see this as something and and wonder why um this recommendation strikes me on

045interesting on two parts um one there seems to be a variance of about 250 students where if you had a school of 250 you'd have one school nurse you had a school of 500 you'd have one school nurse that's swing like somebody could make a case that we should probably add nurses if we went with the low number I'm not doing that but I think um there is some variation here which we should really um take into account uh the other factor I found interesting was this these recommendations were first published in 1998 um and they've seemed to carry over at different points when this has been republished but 1998 just for context Tom Brady was a sophomore at Michigan um Mark Zuckerberg was in eth grade Amazon only sold books so we we need

046to I think probably um look at this with a little bit of um you know skepticism about what we're what we're thinking um impacts of it obviously um everything that the nurses do will take twice as long so the screenings that they do um in both buildings that will take twice as long um in the high school it will essentially feel my office is right next to the nurse so I feel like I have a pretty close understanding of what happens there it will feel like a constant emergency sort of triage situation with only one nurse and an assistant and when there's you know an emergency or something that takes the nurse away and then the assistant is left there with you know if it's lunchtime it could be several students coming in for medication

047it could be another emergency is not uncommon it could be a meeting it's it's going to create a lot of Chaos in an area that um you know really shouldn't I don't feel like experience or or display chaos you know kids are coming there to to feel safe and it should feel like a safe place um the nurses um you know as I've said they're they're front and center and keeping Kids Safe which you know I feel like this should be priority number one is priority number one for everybody so um parents I know parents rely on them um teachers rely on them students rely on them it it just seems like a really difficult place um to to make um next uh a school counselor um you know these these these both of these

048positions I feel like are really um you know we talked about student facing but they're also really unique in the sense that there's only three School nurses in The District in the high school there's only you know five counselors the counselors are the also the only position in the district who were with the student for four years nowhere else through their High School experience do they have to be with them sort of every step of the way who knows them you know who builds relationships with parents relationships with kids I mean they're really um really important so when we look at our current case loads um this year school counselors 184 students each um if we reduce by one that's projected to go to 250 again you know there is a you know dat uh

049Association that says 1 to 250 is the the recommended number okay um but if we reduce from what we're currently doing then we're going to experience you know students are the kids are going to experience longer wait times and less time overall with their school counselor which will result in less time in building relationships um possibly more referrals to our adjustment counselors I think um somebody who's going are kind of almost at the end of it um the college in career counseling um process will be a little bit more hectic for our kids because there's just going to be um less time right each counselor is going to now have probably 70 seniors so that's a lot of um a lot of time that uh they're required to work on so um also our counselors

050I know people who've been here familiar with um I don't think Julie s yet but Irene had presented a few times on the the three-pronged approach to school counseling where they focusing you know on the academics they're focusing on the social emotional side and they're focusing on the College and Career planning side each of those areas you know are addressed for each kid when we reduce that there's just more opport for some of these things to fall through the cracks and as somebody who's um you know pretty familiar with guidance counselors experiencing it myself with my own kids right now I'd be really nervous to um you know not have guidance counsel availability to students or even to parents when they need it so um yeah and I I I know you guys aren't proposing

051so like I'm just hopefully this is giving you some ammo or some you know notes that take back to fincom and say hey I I know what you're trying to do but this this probably isn't the best way to do it um good Sor um so for administrative assistance um for those who don't know the we have an administrative assistant who is in her retirement um on each floor there are administrative assistants they are the face of the floor um somebody said like their welcoming committee they where the staff go they where the kids go how's the copier work how does this work how does that work so what the impact for us would be is we would have to redeploy others who are doing other student facing positions within the building we cannot by

052any stretch in the mean leave a floor on a attended there has to be a face that the students know they can go to there has to be a face for all the staff whether it's Gradebook time um whether they need an assistant principal right away that's the person who can find them knows their schedule knows everything so the impact to this is more adult I guess because it's a redeployment of Staff um but I just want to be for those who don't really know how the building is set up um there has to be somebody on each flooor because they are the point person like I said they are the assistant principles go to and the students they can't find their AP they know um the administrative assistant can find them and knows everything

053and they are literally they know everything around this building um so that would just the impact would be redeployment of current staff and how that would change um the area where they currently are we'd have to figure that out so you're on okay hi everyone uh thank you for having us here tonight to discuss the impacts of the possible staff reductions on Mas andom at the middle school and the high school um before I get into the middle school Liberian um position I just want to say that any reductions that are made are impacting the campus and the dist districtwide um although you see mainly High School staff reductions uh given that we're a 7 through 12 district and our departments are 7 through 12 any staff reductions could make an effect on the middle

054school as well in the shifting of teachers and and people between the two buildings um so for the Middle School librarian uh this position is you heard Brad talk about unique positions um this is one of the most unique on campus Because we only have two Librarians we have one in the high school and one in the Middle School um this position is is a position that works with all students in the building um seventh and eth graders on projects on research on uh checking out books it's not someone that is just in the library all day they are actively going into classrooms to uh teach lessons to support research to support digital learning uh to work with students um evaluating resources citing uh Works in their in their projects and things like that so

055they work cross-curricular they work with all teachers they work with all students so this is it's a it's a big position they they do a lot whereas most teachers in the Middle School just work with one grade this this person works with with all students in in both grades um so uh you know with this with this reduction it would be on the high school librarian to support two libraries to take care of budgeting and um ordering and material supply and things like that so that that would be a lot for one person um it would definitely reduce the teaching and support in CL in classes with research research and projects um and all of these things I just mentioned um and then there would be reduced support in the library we would keep the

056library open but it would be with our two part-time par professionals that we have um in the library and they wouldn't have that um content expert and that person that can help them um not only find a novel or a free reading book but somebody that can help with an assignment help with homework help with research whatever it might be so that this position would would be a significant cut to the Middle School to not have a librari in at all thank you so this one mean so going to one assistant principal at the high school I did not pull up averages um but I can tell you it's not one to 1,000 um so having one being that I've wasn't this principal for 17 years this is where you're going to worry about student

057safety um they can't respond they can't build relationships which is what makes them good at their jobs the bathrooms the hallways the cafeteras one person cannot do that um yes we have security they are not Educators they are amazing human beings who help us and our extra eyes and ears around the building but but having gone through being an educator is a little bit different than being um a police officer and you know in our building you have to treat students differently outside so they not demeaning our security but one assist principle is not ever in the best interest um we currently have three they each handle about 500 students um they each also have other jobs coordinating MC coordinating graduation coordinating internship that's where you'd see you you would see impact um and you'd

058really see impact with with the students um it's just not attainable like I this one um they're all not attainable they're all student facing and and I know you hear us we just want everybody that's watching to hear um that all of these positions affect our students and we are here to keep them safe we are here to have relationships with them every year we ask all the kids is there somebody safe in the building somebody you can go to some that might be their social studies teacher it might be their math teacher it might not be their school counselor or it could be five other people or it could be you know somebody who has touch points with them on other things um Masco in the 13 years I've been here is very good

059at figuring it out you give us a problem we'll figure it out if this is where we go we'll figure it out it will be to the detriment of our students um our staff are great they will teach your curriculum our curriculum they will get stuff done but as we always just want to really point out the impact we probably could have cut every slide out and just said the impact is to the students to to their mental health to their relationships with this with the adults in the building and when we give them more when we're giving the adults way more children to look after the individualized attention that we've bu that we've worked so hard to get is really what's going to be impacted curriculum will always be taught um but that's really

060the detriment is to the reason we're here is detriment is to the kids um and then APS I'm going to put safety as numberers on that too I think that's thank you thanks are you guys open to questions if anyone any of the members have any questions I'll ask so thank you all of you for the presentation I think I have a better understanding of the impact I mean I understand the the general impact on the students I think I have a little bit better understanding of the Tactical impact at a more detailed level where I can go talk to the Middleton representative Katie you mentioned a couple times other stuff other knobs that we could turn right and I not going to put you on the spot in the public setting here to ask

061about what those knobs might be but have you had an opportunity or Bill have you had an opportunity as the executives of your respective schools you had an opportunity to share what you might think those other knobs might be with the administration a little bit yes we haven't I'm not going to share anything out here but there has been conversation about a few other different things okay thank you and at anytime if you have questions walk out of here and say oh whatever you know feel free to reach out to us or go through Dr Harvey and can help you out thank you I just wanted to make a comment that as school committee members there job to balance the delivery of Education with our taxpayers needs and I think this discussion really shows that

062we are listening to our towns um we had to have this we had to have this scenario we asked for it last week um but I think that the concerns of the school committee over the past several months have been to keep KS keep kids at Mass school to keep good faculty and um to try to have the least amount of impact on our communities through our budget process and we're really working hard um I do want to say that it's my belief and I don't that there's not a direct correlation at this time between the we can't directly correlate reduction in enrollment and reduction in staff because the delivery of Education I believe in the past 10 years has changed an immense amount as we respond to things like covid we respond to meeting

063technology in our classrooms and teaching our children to become students for the world that they're going to be entering into which is much different than it was 30 years ago when I was at mascow and we had different things um and Co in my opinion really showed us the weaknesses in our education system the weaknesses in our society it also showed us how much we rely as a society on public education because we were basically fighting every ounce of our energy from the teachers to the administrators to the school committee to keep education running while at the same time being yelled at and however else we had like we were you felt it you felt it that how much Society is relying on public education but I do want to emphasize because the question that

064we get so often is why has enrollment gone down but there hasn't been an equal percentage of Staff going around because I can't that's not how we deliver education anymore um and I personally don't think it's time at the time to cut teachers and staff I wasn't comfortable cutting it last year we we've had this conversation since 2020 I didn't think 2020 was the time to cut staff we didn't we had to do it last year for very various reasons but I don't think now is the time when we have students entering Masco that were really affected by covid um they were affected by learning losses I think we need to do whatever we can to keep students at Masco to keep students um in our you know in our special education programs um and

065because that we've had so many conversations like an hour long last meeting I think it was about the delivery of of special education services so I I apologize to our taxpayers but this is a reality this is how we're keeping Masco Masco it's how we're keeping our property values high and it's how we're attracting still attracting residents to our towns and we're not dying communities so I just want to give us all that little bit of a perspective because I really believe in Masco I believe that I got a good education here I believe that my children have gotten wonderful education and they're going on to do great things because of the um education that they received the Hands-On learning the opportunities they've had to travel to have extracurricular to have music to have engineering

066classes like four or five engineering classes Over a four-year you know high school program is amazing um and I just want us to keep our eye on that and just keep that in the back of our head because I believe in Masco and I will do whatever I need to do as a school Committee Member to bring our budget to our towns and let them know that I stand with Masco I stand with our teachers and I thank every one of them I thank our administrators and I thank everyone here at the table because we all believe in education for our students and we all believe in doing what's best so I just wanted to say that yeah for sure um I also want to just communicate that this is phenomenally complex situation and it's

067really diff and as a newer member in my first budget cycle I really put in a lot of work while I was recovering from the flu might not be my best word but um to look across the budget book what's being proposed what went on last year what are we getting from the towns all of that and think where is their opportunity look at over expense categories for our our district the biggest expense we have is obviously our Educators because the signal from the towns is make sure the people in the building are fantastic for our kids so we're doing that we're investing and attracting the best talent and we're getting that signal from the towns and we're continuing to bring people to the towns because as is known as a great School District so

068great we're doing our job there fantastic one of the other biggest expenses is maintenance because we have an aging campus that is in desperate need of modernization and no one has made that investment in a very long time so we're spending more money than we should probably for years now because we haven't made a financial investment that strategically supports our campus and that's another thing we're looking at another idea is you know we're we're a regional district like are Creative Solutions we're doing all of them to the credit of the administration we're partnering on our busing we're reducing bus routes we we made strategic Cuts in in faculty last year even though no one wanted to do it we knew enrollment was going to go down again we knew people were going to point to

069that and so even though we could have waited and done it this year it was done last year so we're thinking strategically about everything I think there are enormous Creative Solutions already deployed across our budget and I always invite the conversations when people say things like well you know there's probably savings you can make with like you know reduce the amount of paper if you look at the amount that we're spending on supplies in this District it's less than 2% of our entire budget I don't know how you guys are doing it less than 2% is amazing you should get an award for there should be some budget award or something that is phenomenal there's like no room there I I don't maybe you guys are bringing in from home I don't know but you

070must be counting toilet paper L than once educational suppli is less than one high school and middle school it's like it's not a lot it's not a lot 018 I rounded it to but it's it's there's like there's nothing left to claw out of this unless we want to reduce the quality of Education that we're delivering to the students at this point so I get it too I'm attack payer here I I I hear everybody's concerns but at what point is it time for us as a community to make an investment in the school district that we all came here for this is an investment in our kids in our communities in our real estate properties in our community as a whole and I think people look at it as a bill they don't want

071to pay instead of putting money into the 401K you know what I mean it there's a difference and there are a lot of other ways you can spend money poorly this is not one of them and so I did some due diligence and I'll do more but I just wanted to call out that there's already Creative Solutions being deployed there's a phenomenal amount of great budgeting going on in general in terms of how things are are utilized across the the district and I mean I did a tour a couple weeks ago that showed me every piece of infrastructure in this building and I got to tell you our heating system that's running on Window XP is a real concern for me okay Windows anybody have Window XP in their home still I I guarantee no

072one has Windows XP in their house still we have it at Masco and that's why it's a little warm in here right now because no one's able to adjust that temperature because we don't have a sophisticated enough system to do that today and so I get that the bills are big but they're big for a reason and I think there's going to be there's going to be some tough conversations that have to happen because of it we just really want to thank you for listening um you all see numbers in black and white and are not in the day-to-day and our goal today was to kind of give you the dayto day um and we just really appreciate you taking the time to hear us of the impact of not the N class sizes okay

073that's not what we're here for we're him but I really just thank you for for listening on the impact of the students and the staff question question um Joe you can go first if you want is thank you yeah I'm here can you hear me I can hear you see you oh there he is just a a quick question for Katie you mentioned that you're going into the um scheduling process I guess my question is what's the drop dead date where you know you know where you can make adjustments based on what our final decision making is here right are we right I mean are are are we handcuffing you forever or is it 3 weeks from now when becomes a a an insolvable problem for you so um right now we're okay so we're

074we're just going into it the students are going to see their assemblies on Friday to remind them or learn how to pick their courses and in looking at um the timeline and our timeline if you make a decision at what's already on paper we'll be okay um because we don't roll out to the students what their school schedules are anyway until June so the students will select their courses that gives us a requ a number of requests for every course then the process goes to assigning sections to those courses based on the number of requests so at that point we need to know how that point we need to know how many what we have for staff to do so once we have all the requests we'll see if thank you I didn't have that

075we should be fine based on the March 19th okay all right yes thank you um I had a question about the school counselors were you able to look at comparable districts and what their ratios were in high schools I did not okay I did run it just by quickly by some school counselors I do know and they they were shocked by the 148 number they thought that was low 184 184 yeah but my question back is do they offer the same stuff we offer a good question what's a level of service so yeah I mean there there are schools who are our size that have lower case Loops but don't offer what we offer from our school counseling department me higher Cas yeah um yeah so I mean we they do so so much curriculum

076individualize attention they're in the classrooms and a lot of schools I mean I was a school counselor many moons ago and we didn't do any of this stuff again many moons ago so times have changed but a lot of those districts I'd be curious if they offer the same that we offer and the community has expectations for the services that our counselors are going to provide and that was just counselors not you just were asking about there's not adjustment counsel Joe sorry um my second question is is has the change in the mcast requirement um impacted how you're planning for the coming year um I know we have a number of support people that are dedicated to helping kids achieve that goal do you see that changing in any way no um and I'll say

077that emphatically no because those students need help across the board not just for mcass so the the supports they're getting are helping them in all of their classes it's not teach to the test support and I guess a follow on to that would be obviously there's the supply side and the demand side of things right you guys are the supply side do you um do you see any possibility for you know I could see parents saying I mean not not many parents but I suppose there are probably some parents that might say well you don't need the mcast to graduate any longer so rather than take these extra you know take extra courses or extra time to address your weakness maybe you should be practicing volleyball more you know you don't see any of that

078happening do you I do not do not fore that happening at all not in this District maybe in some other districts but not here all right thank you I'll just add to for the Middle School the state's adding tests for us we have the Civics exam now our eighth graders take four MCAS tests our seventh graders take two so um even though they don't need it to graduate they're still being tested at a very high rate by the state and that's required so we need to make sure those kids are well supported and well prepared for test and we'll still be giving them mcast which is my next presentation it out all right thank you any more questions maybe just a question to the committee and to the administration I mean I think what Melissa

079and Adrian shared was bought on from my perspective as well so thank you what does that mean tangibly for our next steps right I mean we got guidance from the towns and we're at 10.7% tops failed at 14.6% we're way out of the box way out of the box like not even close maybe I can answer that by can you pull up the presentation and I'll put up a slide and speak to the slide a little bit and this is where our real challenge lies all the way to towards the back which one after the pie chair after that one so to me this this slide kind of puts things in perspective and then nutshell and basically what it's telling us is that um let me we're showing a $3.9 million doll increase in our

080operating expenses right we've recommended a level service budget for all the reasons that we've discussed in the last couple of months right this year is really unique in that and it's kind of like a I'll describe it as a perfect storm that middle section is all of the expenses that have uniquely High increases that are not controllable these are fixed costs y right it's $2.4 million of fixed costs from fy2 to FY 26 right so it consists of and I'll group um you know special education the items that's $1.3 million right then you've got health and dental benefits we talked about them a little earlier it's $600,000 that is such an outlier in my 15 years doing this right so now we're at $1.9 million right then you add the Essex retirement appropriation I won't

081bore you all with what that is but it's a bill and it's $112,000 increase we have to pay it right and then we've got a transportation contract that is contractually increasing by $78,000 we already reduced three bus routes right from the contractual by Watermark we can't go any further I don't know if Alysa is still here she's not she might be yeah so you know Alysa and I spent a lot of time on this we went to 24 Roots last year they were issues so we brought it up as we discussed with the committee to 25 Roots we don't there's no there's nothing there there's no wiggle your point is six out of the 10% I want to keep going right keep going but six out of the 10% removable somewhere around 70% is seven

082out of the 10% isable is immovable it is fixed we have to pay those bills right so if you look at remaining increase it's $1.5 million of which $1.3 million is salaries we just negotiated a new teachers contract we all sit at the table all in good faith we all agree to that including a representative from the towns never spoke against what we agreed to that's 1 million of the $1.3 million that leaves $200,000 left there's no wiggle room here guys so if we're going to make changes it's the only place we can make changes is in Staffing right and that's why we made the presentation that we made tonight okay right and it was at the request of the committee and the committee is doing its due diligence this is a process no decisions

083have been made this is my 35th year doing this stuff yeah it's every year is the same right we go through a pro we make a recommendation no matter if you're working for Price Waterhouse groupers where I spent the majority of my career we're now at mascow you go through a process you start with a recommendation and then you work with your board and you figure it out we have have to figure it out I think we can all acknowledge the fact that a 10% increase is not a sustainable level of increase so we need to figure it out we need to go through this process we need Phil to come next week to talk about Middle School at the request of the chair and the and the vice chair um and we need to

084keep going through this process to figure out what the right next steps are but this is why this year is a real unique struggle for so wrap that thought up real quick so the the tangible step that we're going to go take coming out of this as we're all started to talk with our town Representatives the tangible step is to take piece of this story that you and and represent that story to the town if that's how you feel right you need eight right you need eight out of 11 members to pass a budget whatever that budget looks like right so I I think the committee has to come at some point to some consensus right and represent the committee's consensus whatever that might be right whether it's cutting 10 heads or not we're sticking

085with our recommendation that we made on the 22nd that's the process right right so I think we have to navigate that and it's not going to be easy okay Adrian question so theoretically let's say okay we say no cuts we're going to bring this forward it obviously triggers an override that's our recommendation yes yes the override doesn't pass we don't get the funding we need we have to cut anyway no there's there's a process yeah there's a process you have 45 days to review and resubmit you can resubmit the same budget right try to make a even more compelling story to the voters okay or you can go back to the table and try to figure it out again but there's a process another town meeting yeah be a special town meeting after and election

086yep because it has to pass that town meeting and ballot right but remember that it's for the operating budget if two towns pass then it then third town is stuck with it regardless of what it does let's just remember that the operating budget is inclusive of the $690,000 capital that's part of our operating budget that is not what we tried what we attempted to do last year right with the debt exclusion and the capital projects and all that that's different and we're not going down until next year I think towns are if Town fails it they're obligated to pay for it through the amount that was already appropriated at town meeting so it would be coming out of every other department basically so not a good scenario for them yes but that um I did

087want to just add some color when like we're looking at Middleton we all know what happened in Middleton last year they failed our override but they also failed every single other override also Middleton just feels really spent I think after the large investment in our Municipal campus so I want everyone to remember that and I know we only need two out of the three but hey if we can get three out of the three let's get three out of the three yep um and I just want us to be cognizant of that as we're making these decisions and also knowing that we're going to be seeking a major capital investment the following year and we're going to need another um a debt a debt exclusion article for that one which we'll need three out of

088three so I would just keep that in the back of our minds as we're looking at these numbers and if we can help this year to help next year it might be worth looking into but that's all I had anyone else have anything I had a question um I heard someone allude to this earlier just that next um week we' be talking you know they'll be presenting about middle school and I'm just wondering if during that presentation or another time we could hear more I think Katie kind of shared there was some discussion too after a question about other positions or other solutions that have been discussed I'm just thinking about some of the roles that were shared last year that aren't part of this proposal um Andor just other creative ideas that aren't student

089facing I'm mainly asking um one just curiosity there since those were put on the table last year but two looking at slide 19 around um the class averages I'll ask this question maybe offline about how those were calculated but in just my professional experience seeing a number above 20 um is really concerning given the individualized instruction that we want to see given the social emotional learning support that teachers and instructors offer in classrooms so I'd just be really interested to hear what other Solutions or potential proposed Cuts were discussed or could be that don't impact that direct interfacing with students is that a part of the plan for next meeting or could it be um I don't think that was necessarily on our list for next meeting we could do that either like on the

09010th or the 12th right not the next meeting but we could certainly add it to the list if that's what the committee wants us to I don't I mean I leave it to others to chime in but I would really appreciate that knowing that we're in a really tight bind knowing that you know we don't want to you know seeing AP History or sorry AP liit being cut um and some of those course offerings is really concerning and so I think you know I would really like to do my due diligence and understanding what some of the other potential Cuts could be before then really going back to our towns to explain the what and why around where we hope to land just to be frank we we haven't talked about a whole lot of

091other areas other than um the middle middle school team structure um which we're going to do a presentation on next next meeting we'll go back and revisit that but I'm not exactly sure what Ken meant no it bounc things everything stood facing So when you say non- student everything stood in facing so I don't don't know how it would change the conversations anyone else I actually Dida so I just realized I didn't ask this earlier but there were three like non student facing cuts on that scenario planning only amount up to $85,000 speak to those briefly if not so the first one um is if you recall the um we brought in the independent auditor last May um who presented his management letter and there were were two assessments that they recommended one was a

092fraud assessment so typically what I did with the auditor your auditor recommendations I try to implement them right so I worked with another audit firm I got a quote for a fraud assessment it was 15K I Incorporated it into the budget recommendation it's something we can hold off of on so I put the deferral of that um into uh this scenario planning the second item is um as you may not may or may not know uh state law requires that Student Activity accounts be audited from time to time um next year the high school student activity accounts were due to be audited um so that's the fee that would that I can defer a year I was gonna say is their time frame yeah three years kind of but we would still have to do

093it we're kicking gonna have to do it next year right so that's another 15 grand that was a quote from our current auditor okay and then the last piece uh comes from the high school math department um several of their resources for algebra one and two and geometry uh were under a six-year subscription which is currently expiring in fy2 uh Sarah and her team worked to get a quote on a replacement subscription subscription uh for six years it was um $75,000 estimate which I incorporated into the budget recommendation right because it's not a change it's level service um and Sarah also got a quote for a single year of the subscription so I replaced the six year with a one year and save $55,000 so that's a explanation of those three items so something like

094math resources is there ever any like grant funding for that that the the Departments apply for or I'll I'll I'll defer to the new guy cost yeah I mean the opportunities aren't like they were um you know a lot of that is drying up but there's always Avenues you can pursue certainly doing that in science now yeah I'll be honest with you it was nice to have the sr3 grant kind of in my back pocket we used that for a lot of different things particularly um the digital learning uh online resources over the last three or four years you know as we all know that you know closed on September 30th 2024 and that's not available anymore so everything comes through our operating budget with the exception of small grandf funded projects yeah I mean

095I think they probably defer our the audits but the math resources just becomes an annual bill yeah yeah and there is some cost savings to having I'd rather pay 12,000 a year than 20,000 a year but maybe we can do it for a year yeah okay Erica I see you have your hand thanks when we say math resources do we mean like a Delta mathl like a subscription to like a program that could remediate for students individualize or we talking more about like coursework and curriculum I'll defer to Ka Kevin oh there Sarah Sarah's here Sarah's right there textbooks the online resources that go with it that see provide sources um extra videos for student support extra instruction materials um materials in other languages online homework uh components where students have problems directly related to

096the content being taught with immediate feedback so they can see how they're doing try different problems get some supplementary help rather than needing to maybe do a bunch of problems wrong wait until they see the teacher next um before getting that additional support so it's the whole package of all those components got it thank you sure all right any other questions Joe that's Joe yeah so um probably sound like a broken record here to some people but one of the frustrations we have here is is that we work year to year um I feel like you know if we playing cross country trip and I use the method by which we set and approv budgets I would make a decision to go to the next gas station only and then wait till I got there

097to figure out whether I got enough money to go to the gas station down the road it's it's frustrating in that we you know we have an inability to um look longer term on some of these things certainly from the school committee perspective it's very difficult because we're dealing with with budgets and guidance that we're getting year-to year um I do think when we when Jeff was speaking to the things that are out of our control they are out of our control um but longer term um some of it might be within our control uh and I'm referring here to out of District placements we've brought this up last meeting talking about what can we do to try and keep kids from leaving um kids that we think we can address with our our in

098school um services and I just want to emphasize that it's it's not part of this year's budget discussion but it'll be part of next year's and the year after and the year after on occas Case by case basis so I I would just um reiterate what other people have already said in the past which is we're hoping that members of the um Administration are thinking about this and we're open to ideas um supporting ideas for whatever we can do to try and keep our sixth graders um within District as much as possible uh second thing I just wanted to say is is um we're looking at at the educational part of this really we're not looking at extracurriculars that closely and we're not looking at sports at all and you know we're not anywhere near

099a final decision here on where we're heading but I do think uh from a sense of fairness we ought to be examining you know if we're cutting uh offerings uh academically we ought to be looking at increasing feed for sports and for clubs in order to minimize the cuts we are making academically and it has to be a balance I'm not saying let's double fees or something like that but it should be on the table it's something we should think about if it helps us keep one more position that addresses every student in the building it's it's something we we should uh at least look at so I just want to make that comment thanks all right is that it all right then we are moving on to Katie before we go what are we

100getting for the ne what are we doing at the next meeting we're having the Middle School the you're right we're gonna go over structure we have a public hearing that'll take an hour um I met with the town administrators earlier this week they've asked to have members of their boards come and speak with the committee directly after uh the outside of the public hearing they want to be you know kind of sit at the table and talk to all of the committee about what the town's okay finances look like um and then we'll continue with some of the topics that we talked about today we we to take another take a deep dive into the up a couple of already that'll be the center point of the of the budget deliberation is the middle school

101right um and then we'll have um a discussion around the statement of interest for the msba um there's lots of administrative um details so um Mike and I will make a presentation of the materials um at some point the committee will need to vote all these things so that Mike can make the submission and I think it's March 21st so there's a lot of work we're done with the SOI pretty much um but this administ committee the committee has to vote to approve the SOI um as part of the process and actually I have to go get the vote language off of mba's website did you say I apologize if I missed a slide on that on what was so no we didn't have one okay all right we didn't have one was did the

102town administrators want to seat at the table they I believe it was members of their boards multiple boards yeah oh the finance committee select Bo they reached out to Topsfield yeah so I I was just under the impression there was each Town Administrator was requesting to come and there was going to be three people not no I don't think six additional people at our table the conversation I had was not around the town administrators joing this the boards I I'll clarify that with tomorrow voice what I was going to email them okay all right Katie all are you again this should be very straightforward I think but I been doing it every day so as you know the mcast composes termination is now no longer a high school requirement to or excuse me a graduation

103requirement all students will still be sitting for the mcast whether it's the science the the English or the math um it will still be a data point for every school um in Massachusetts it is just not a graduation requirement to come out with a proficient score um or meeting the needs um so the change is that's the biggest change but what we will do um some changes to our um course selection program as we're going over course selection with the students they still need to pass the courses that were the mcast courses so um when we work on getting our new course course selection program out it'll have sorry I'm totally out of order on slides um killing me Katie where are you that's okay you can go my my apologies so the mcast like

104I said even though it's no longer needed to go um for graduation all students will still sit for it transfer students all of our students um you're still gonna see it's a great data point it helps our curriculum helps us know find out learning gaps things like that um so everybody will the one thing that we're still unclear about is free tests that we have an answer from whether stud have to sit for a retest I thought there weren't yeah I heard no you heard definitely no they were tossing it I don't think they were going to do it because it's because it's pointless GNA cost money cost money um one thing the mcast still will sorry next slide scholarships and awards so through the mcast you can um you can depending upon your score

105you become eligible for the John and ab Abigail Adams scholarship the copi and the seale by literacy um so that is also it's to me I for students who are like well what does that mean I said it's kind of like PSATs for National Honor Society or or National Merit you're gonna you want to take these you want to take them seriously because you could get money off your tuition if you would like to go to college um John and Abigail Adams depending upon your score you're automatically um eligible for it the Copic there is an application process and the seala by literacy goes along with you need to be proficient in English as well as the other language that you're going to take the examine um so you need to be for seal by

106literacy proficient in two languages um so those School matter um for the students and we always want every student to take a standardized test um to the best of their ability we've all SAT form our entire lives it's just what are they called each each state you live in or um so MK still does have purposes for students and for the school so the scholarship Awards will continue those will not disappear so again just restating that mcast scores are an evaluative tool they help with District performance they go on um des's website how we do it is still a measurement of growth for Masonic um so it is still a data point we will use it to change our curriculum assess our curriculum how are students doing um they have been taking the mcast since

107elementary school how are they growing um have they you know hate keeping using covid but are they are the learning gaps closing how are we doing um you know we're the end point but we do have their other data points as well and all transfers if you've been in a public school in Massachusetts those data points follow them so we do use we will still use all of it so so the big change is this is directly from des's website we are still certifying that the students have met the skills the competencies and the knowledge that these that are the academic standards Masco has always held high academic standards for our students we will continue to do that we've always said you need four years of English three years of math we're going to lay

108out that you need science n you will need biology you will need algebra one and two or two in Geometry um depending upon whether you're in accelerated math or not and you'll need your your four years of the ELA so you'll need nine and 10 um as those are all mcast courses so and showing that all of our students and it also aligns with our strategic plan that we've been going over that the students are following everything we're teaching them all the standards they can assess that they know all the standards so that's a big change this is will they provide a list of courses no but um it's yest science and it's what they were testing on so and just so um this is for the students currently 25 26 27 um class 28

109hasn't sat for a test yet um so we are also for those who are staying in tuned our science curriculum is changing so for the current students who have sat for science it includes the science 9 and the biology um we're going to go all biology for a freshman next year so for them it would be a biology task because science n were phasing out and going to the biology so we'll have bio for nine and 10 next year um and so their graduation requirement we would eventually erase the science n once they go through but that's why be science N9 and biology depending upon which exam they sat for um because we ought to make sure we give them credit for what they're doing and they've all taken and passed these exams and we've

110gone through all the current seniors whether or not they've passed the mcast they have passed all of these courses they have met all the competencies of the courses um with flying colors and um have done the science n and or biology the 910 the mathematics depending upon the track they're on um whether it's algebra one and geometry geometry and Algebra 2 and then sometimes we do have those students who for one reason or another might be taking something a little bit different um principal have the determination to say that that course meets these requirements we've talked in the past some grad Alliance classes or some other guided learning or some other things but they will meet the competencies of these courses so when they are going further on in their career they can say they

111have taken and passed a bio an algebra geometry things like that anybody have questions on mcast yeah so we actually need the com so this was all part of Desi's guidance to districts um and it's constantly changing they actually the State Board of Education changed stuff every changed things yesterday uh however this is still consistent with what what they came out with uh the committee has to approve the competency determination standards um and so what we're saying here is that um all students have uh successfully completed and achieved the passing grade in either science 9 or biology English n and English 10 and two years of mathematics which is either algebra one and geometry or geometry and Algebra 2 which is our normal sequence for ninth and 10th graders uh and then or other equivalent

112courses as determined by the principal and this covers the cases where a student moves in as a junior and doesn't you know from out of state and doesn't necessarily have the same names so the principal can look at the transcript and say yes this course equivalent to algebra one and it counts um so moved have a second then we can talk about it second okay Alissa so this then gets put into the student handbook it'll go in the handbook and in the course selection once you approve okay because the graduation requirements for the school Our obligation is just to what's in the handbook right so this would we just see you're okay to change it and then as I said it was funny this came out was it December 11th that the state said everybody's

113got to go do their own and people started doing their own and they didn't like that until the Board of Ed actually put in their own list yesterday but the board of Ed's list is one year of science two years of English two years of math and so we're there weren't our graduation requirements more strict than this like we have four years of English yeah yeah we still will but this is meeing this is the the idea was if you passed the 10th grade mcast it was a it signified that you had successfully achieved the competencies of the two years of okay English two years of math and not taking away the four years L to three years and that stuff's not changing gotta yeah but that was the big change of the referendum it

114changed the competency determination from cast to a locally determined measure which is and our neighboring this is what they're all using okay any more questions Lisa so we'll still require the four years yes four years of yeah it's not this is not for this this is the competency determination that the state is talking about in the state law but we still have local graduation requirements that exceed these so our graduation requirements are not changing right okay this is just getting more specific okay I just wanted to make sure yep no we're not amending I have a more philos philosophical question you know now that the mcats are started being deprioritized are we expecting scores to Trend differently if kids don't feel they're as critical no so be a compare historical versus current theory I mean

115maybe next year I don't I'm not gonna it doesn't affect this I just yeah I don't know right I mean there are kids who are gonna blow it up because it doesn't matter exactly whether that's 100 kids or whether that's 20 kids I don't know we're not going to have the exact same rigor scores because yeah but it's never it's it's never been a graduation requirement for everything outside of high school so you know seven sitting for seventh and eighth graders take multiple tests every year and and we don't have anybody standing up and refusing on the desk you know oap to my captain and saying I'm not doing this so that was the first year so used to sitting for it's just part of their life they've been doing it since second grade all

116right after do have one one right I guess in a similar vein does change how the teachers teach yes I mean that was that was one of sorry that was one of the arguments I heard as I was asking teachers about mcast whether they supported that the change and the argument was know especially the younger grades they can't teach a kid how to read a clock because it's not on the mcast right and they were only teaching to the test so I'm curious to hear I'm not saying you guys are saying I'm saying I spoke to right I'm curious to hear I've teachers I love that question so Tammy Fay I've been here 28 years this year I've been here pre mcast through all this ending of it I've always prided the fact that Masco

117always taught higher at a higher level than any mcast test that we would ever see with our kids and that's something that was always sort of part of the fabric of what we were doing I do think though that the release of the mcast will allow us to focus more on I can speak specifically to science skills and practices that our students really need to develop across the all the disciplines they actually reinforce one another so I am looking forward to that freedom and I'm looking forward to the freedom from those teachers that may struggle with going those mcast scores are linked to me right that was really hard to break that feeling and at one point evaluation was tied to all this we were a hot master around mcast and then how it was

118going to play out but I'm I'm actually feeling like this is a it won't change I think it actually make what we do better even though we were already pushing down was that that was a good summary any more questions for Katie all right Katie you are let go for the night are you sure thank you take that right we have a motion from Bill and a second from Chris and we have to do a roll call I'll start with Chris yes Melissa yes Adrien yes Matt yes Bill yes Lisa yes Jeff KRA yes Joe I didn't hear the motion what was it to accept the competency standards as presented yes thank you and Erica yes okay so that and I am a yes so that passes unanimous okay moving on I will hand it

119over to Melissa for the second reading of the policies okay second reading of policy ADF um we're losing everybody it's a 2024 the rting polic and it is the oh where am I um kbg the removal of EA and the adoption of ECF with the change those are what I'm presenting so no changes since last meeting um so again we are accepting ADF all the Title Nine policies um kbg ECF and not and um striking ebaa moved Adrian moved Matt seconded is any discussion I did have a quick comment um about changes to the title 9 policies um as we've seen in the news um other districts are moving in a different direction um with their policy manuals other states are moving in a different direction um states are being threatened their Federal funding and

120I'll will just say um the school would not operate without Federal funding and we also need Federal funding and it would be a huge burden on our taxpayers and it I think this vote is irresponsible to that after we just had our budget discussion and know the daunting piter we're facing so but I'll leave it at that unless anyone else has any comments just one that um I think it's responsible to ad adopt this now where we are things change in the future we have the opportunity to revisit it certainly right yeah any committee can revisit any policy they okay I just want to make sure I'm not missing something and these are policies we already have on our books they were um there changes to federal law and Massachusetts law last year and these

121are the recommendations changes um from M from masc and I we specifically asked about that our last meeting or when we were talking with Alicia melon they re masc was recommending we adopt these and while they take steps to um figure out what's going on thank you just to be clear there's no current threat of lost funding no no did I'm not going to get into it but there I think there is a threat I feel like there is going to be that was my question is when would we see that if there was going to be a threat to taking the funding if we don't correct change this to how many federal funds we don't get title one and we filter is filtered to 240 Grant the id8 but but Dy will let us

122know um oh yeah yeah and like to the when question I mean we saw what happened with the governor of Maine and the conversation she had with the president so I think changes will come and they will come swiftly but I think there is a motion and a second on the T on the um approval of these policies so if we are ready can take that vote and I will start with Chris yes Melissa yes Adrien yes Matt yes Bill yes Lisa yes yeah yes Kendra I'm a no for this one Joe yes Erica yes I am a no okay um so then moving on to the superintendent report right uh so first up um actually just before break on February 10th our girls soccer team uh visited the state house uh to be recognized

123uh for their division 2 State Championship uh the visit was hosted by Senator Bruce tar and state representative Sally kierin and Kristen kassner and BR Jones uh additionally state representatives tram WN and Adrien Ramos each sent a staff member to the state house to assist with honoring the team during the visit the team was given a tour of the state house and was presented with individual citations by Senator tar uh who spoke at the informal Senate session where he thanked the team for representing masanam the team also received citations from their respective state representatives uh also during the team the team was invite they were invited onto the senate floor for photo opportunities uh they went out to the balcony which is pretty cool and they uh to wave it passers by on Boston Common

124they also had this honor of singing uh seeing King Abdullah II of Jordan who was visiting uh Governor Healey that day and they actually it's one of the few times they opened the front doors so the uh kids got to see that which was pretty cool uh it's the first time the our girl soccer has won a state championship since 1989 uh the team had a 220 And1 record throughout the season ranking first in their division uh and won the state championship five to nothing over ducksbury um throughout the season the team had 19 shutouts and outscored opponents 101 to6 uh the seniors on this team will leave masanam with career record of 74 wins five losses and five ties with three undefeated regular seasons uh pretty amazing so we want to make sure um

125we recognize um uh coach Allison less uh assistant varsity coach Dan biglia uh jv1 coach Christen marier and junior varsity 2 coach Scott marier and congratulate all in a great season and a great visit to the State House on uh last week also right before vacation on February 13th uh Debbie fton from the Lapin Foundation led a powerful all school assembly at masanam Middle School to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day uh Holocaust M day occurred at the end of January um this day marks the day that allly forces liberated the awis concentration camp in Germany uh Colton showed a video clip of Holocaust Survivor Sonia whites who lived locally on the North Shore before her passing uh where she describes her experience as a child in various concentration camps in Germany and we'll have a link

126to the videos uh Dr McMan sent those out uh and some poems um that Mr whites also wrote um we also budget the masava school committee will hold a public hearing on the district's proposed uh 2025 26 FY 26 budget uh at 7:00 P p.m on Wednesday March 5th uh the hearing will be held here in the masom library uh the public hearing is an opportunity for members of the public to be heard on any part of the budget also going on uh next week uh momic High School will have its course selection night and that's for parents and caregivers and students uh in GR grades eight current grades 8 through 11 they're all welcome to attend they're join the department heads for a conversation regarding next year's course offerings um as I said that's

127next Thursday March 6th it'll be six o'clock and they start in the auditorium and then our next uh Middle School Parent coffee uh with with the administration will be uh this Friday February 28th in the Middle School library at 8:30 in the morning uh and our next High School parent coffee will be held on Friday March 21st in the high school library also at 8:30 and um has basketball playoffs started yet I don't know and Brad just left I know lost today playing tomorrow thought Brad said they were playing playf game tomorrow night I have to find question is that is that public forum is thata via webcast or Zoom as well or just just live public hearing yes it'll just it'll it'll just like this and we'll we have to we'll open the floor

128up for roughly the first half hour but if members of the public want to comment they have to be here have to here to comment but yes it'll be it'll be streamed thanks y any other questions for Mike okay hearing none we'll keep on moving to sub commmittee reports community relations right so we had our Community dialogue tonight it was great we had a good group there we had some teachers we had some firsttime community members um you know a big concern was was what similar to what we've been talking about lower enrollment and is that going to affect Staffing how does that balance into the budget and how do we you know take into effect that getting rid of frontf facing teachers and the teachers that are on the front lines you know that

129might not be the best idea and we did get um a lot of teachers that were here tonight talking to us about you know wanting to welcome Us in to show us firsthand what their experiences and get that bridge that communication gap from what they're seeing what they're feeling to what we see as a school committee so we you know we understood that there was a great discussion about wanting to be better about promoting the good stuff that we do here and we've talked about that a lot um you know losing kids to S6 Tech and we were having a a great discussion on some of the awesome experiences and classes that I just learned about which I'm embarrassed to say but in a few of the meetings that we were talking about I think

130Chris you had mentioned a few of the the programs specifically and I uh both Adrian and I have gone on tours so we were able to share that with the group that we've seen the opportunities that are here we just have to get better at highlighting some of those specialized classes if that's if that's a reason why people maybe weren't choosing Masco in the past but to keep in mind that we're not six Tech we are different and that we should really be better at our PR and promoting the great stuff that we do so and we're going to keep working on that um as far as community relations goes we do have um a working meeting coming up on Friday via Zoom at 3:30 um and then we have we're to try to have

131them be at 3:30 on Fridays 27th April 10th April 24th all at 3:30 via Zoom um if anybody would like to and we're going to work on um finalizing the first round of communication for the budget going out to all the the tround community um adrianne's done a great job organizing some of the slides that we're going to get out visuals taking what we've already done here obviously and just sort of slimming it down layman's terms the state of mascow making it um more up to date and last thing I've I was also talking with Jackie and I believe we have way in to organize a little tab on the website to kind of group together all of the budget stuff it's not done yet just working out on the Masco website creating a tab

132that would either be whatever the school committee ends up approving like modernized Masco or budget or something you know just so that if you're a tri toown Community member go to masom.com right up front taking what we already have and just making it as visual as we can for everybody and Adrian if you have anything else I miss anything I think that's everything I will just add just so we don't forget if we do get that up and running by the time warrants go out might be a good idea to get like a QR code in the warrant for our free cash that's the goal I think get people there so if it is ready just so we don't forget about that we're on it thank you thank you Kendra uh d budget no big

133updates uh we haven't met and we don't have one SCH but we'll probably meet in March uh the vocal subcommittee um we're going to meet probably next few weeks we just lining on schedules and policy U we have a meeting scheduled for Monday at 12:30 via zoom and we're hoping to have um all of the policies approved to in one format so that we can approve the entire manual at once so it can be uploaded to the mask hosting site the Aon um we have at least one meeting uh this coming Monday perhaps to um we're currently scheduled to meet with the chairs of the select board and fincom Topsfield at 5:30 and subsequently with uh with the entire fincom at 630 so um these requests came in within several minutes of each other so

134I'm not entirely sure whether they were coordinated or not um but we're clarifying whether we need to do both but we're certainly welcome to do both so we'll be uh spending quite a bit of time with our uh counterparts in Topsfield on Monday um Middleton we have our budget Saturday coming up um we're scheduled for 12:30 and usually there's one for our operating and one for our Capital this year where we were asked to not come to the operating and do them together this weekend instead so we are scheduled for full hour um 12:30 to 1:30 the last one's to go we last I think so um be so we'll be there till 4 no I can't be so um anything happening box word we have been invited to a meeting on uh March 11th

135a joint uh joint school committee meeting between the local school committee and and well a joint school committee budget update meeting I should say uh so it's Tuesday March 11th at 6:30 pm um I'm not sure what kind of numbers we're going to be able to give to them at that point we'll see where where we are here with our our discussions but um that's the only thing I know of I know about Kyoto but that's about it are all the elementary schools looking at overrides I know Middleton is yes yes yeah yeah yeah with similar numbers to yeah I this is not is all big numbers this is not unique to us in the TR Town georgetown's looking million Middleton we just haven't had an operating override Georg at North Handover is looking closing

136elementary elementary school Asbury was on the front page of the new last year similar issues today okay negotiations uh just the only news is that we're looking for dates uh to begin discussions with the administrators Union so as soon as we have one or more let everybody know can I add to that please um Mike and I um reached out respectively I reached out to the mpft um team and proposed a couple of dates in early April to begin negotiations with the mpfs and Mike reached out to this sport staff team and proposed some dates around that same time frame so uh the ball is rolling right all right so moving on to our consent agenda we have the approval of the February 5th meeting minutes and the approval of warrants in the amount of

1372,334 3243 no moved I have a motion from Chris second second from Bill and we have to do a roll call Chris yes sorry oh just one correction um I was a no vote for the policy just it's one correction on the good catch okay so do we have to vote on them separately as long as are okay as amended as amended so the motion was as amended and we had a second on that so Chris yes Melissa yes Adrien yes Matt yes Bill yes Lisa yes Jeff yes Andra yes Joe yes Erica yes and I'm a yes okay I will entertain a motion during the meeting have to do a roll nope okay later 96 yeah job night everyone good night good morning here he can hear us now