MRSD School Committee Meeting 06/21/23

001very very good evening everybody and welcome to the Wednesday June 21st 2000 2023. um school committee meeting um I'm opening it at 6 33 pm and um at this time we are going to enter into executive session to hear grievance from the mass economic Teachers Association executive session purpose number two and the school committee will return to open session at the conclusion of the executive session and at this point we're going to take a roll call vote I'm starting that corner with Bill all right Trevor yes yes oh yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes great okay foreign congratulations to the Masco economic Community happy summer and um I hope everybody if they've actually got some rest relaxation over the summer um at this time I'm gonna open it up to see

002if there's any public comments so I've seen one person so when you um this is not a dialogue it's just a statement and if you step to the mic in if you could say you're your name and where you're from address so my name is Renee Leon 40 I'm from Middleton um for those of you oh man I'm sure many of you heard on more than one occasion um I have five kids in the school system uh three have come through Masco one just graduated and I have two more coming through so um you know I just try to stay on top of things that are happening um one of the first things I wanted to just chat about tonight is the safety of Vasco students and stuff and I feel like it needs to

003priority which I hope the committee feels the same way um after the incident um with the active shooter hoax at St John's Prep this year um I started to listen to some of the St John parents talk about their kids hiding in bathrooms um closets in the woods around the school and the kids actually texting and calling their families to update them and let them know what was going on in this situation now thank God it was a hoax it wasn't a real active shooter situation but it got me thinking about Masco in our situation and one of the things that's concerning to me here at Masco is that our middle school has no Wi-Fi access for our kids and if something like this happened at Masco and God forbid was a true catastrophe or

004emergency our middle school kids have no way to call out for help so yes they can use the phone in the main office yes you might be able to get cell service at the library but if our kids were locked in a bathroom stall in a closet had to go out into the field away from the school they have no way to call the police they have no way to call their families they have no way to get in contact with anybody our high school every kid in the high school has access to the Wi-Fi anybody with the high schooler will tell you your kid can get in contact with you through the day our middle schoolers can't I've had to call the main office for my middle schooler if I've had like dismissal changes

005so my older daughter drives my middle schooler to school one day my older daughter went home sick I had to call the office to say Hey you know Lily needs to get on the bus they had just gotten back from a field trip and I was told that um they believe they were in the field house having lunch they're not sure they could locate her to give her the message and I thought to myself huh that's interesting my seventh grade is in the school one I'm concerned you can't be located but two I needed to get on the bus to get home I have no other way to get her I work my husband works my daughter's home sick I ended up emailing Mr monagle he went to the field house physically found her told

006her to get on the bus but the thought that these kids can't even get a message sent to them via text email until they're off campus to me is concerning and I feel like in 2023 this is something that we need to address do I want the kids to have the phones in the classroom and have them on their desks no could they be tucked in a bag could they be in their pocket could they be unseen absolutely I'm all for rules um all for teachers being able to enforce the rules if the kids are using the phones to text friends or SnapChat or whatever it is they do the phone can be put in the front of the room parents can be contacted but I feel like these middle school kids need a way

007to be able to reach out to look you know parents in an emergency law enforcement they need a way just to connect with outside and and I feel like being told that they could go to the front office or to the library has Wi-Fi sometimes just isn't cutting it so that's one of my main concerns the other thing I wanted to talk to you guys about tonight and compared to school safety it's a little different but um one of the things that got me at senior graduation was that Masco does not acknowledge their valedictorian and to me this is mind-blowing so we acknowledge so many other things here so Arch pop female athlete Greta mowers acknowledged our Top Male athlete Matt Richardson acknowledged in an award ceremony we acknowledge our president vice president secretary but

008we do not acknowledge the person who ranks top in the senior class now I don't have a pony in the race my kid was not top in the senior class but to know that this kid worked so hard to get the grades that he did and wasn't acknowledged by anybody he was not in the awards program he was not in the graduation program as valedictorian he was able to speak this year and the students I talked to or my daughter her friends other people said that he was told he couldn't tell people he was the valedictorian he put it into a speech in his classmates and families applauded but I feel like you know we're a top-notch school district and we push our academics that our students especially our students that are excelling at academics

009should be acknowledged we acknowledge our athletes we acknowledge our art students we acknowledge our student body president but we're not acknowledging our valedictorian and I got thinking and I asked some of the other you know communities around if they acknowledge their valedictorian and many of the other towns do I know North Andover does Linfield does Danvers does so I feel like Masco needs to step up and acknowledge the students that are doing well I've been told a number of things that you know they want everybody to cut it they don't want anybody's feelings hurt or you know our ranking system isn't good and I don't disagree with that because our AP classes and our honest classes rank the same even though the AP classes can be a little more difficult more time consuming and more

010work involved but if it's a ranking issue then fix it let's fix the issue and let's you know give the kids some credit that are working hard so again I don't have a pony in the race but it just bothered me that someone worked so hard and it wasn't even like his name anywhere like in the awards book in the graduation booklet so if those are two things that you guys could get on your agenda at some point I would appreciate it thank you yeah thank you for our public comments have you seen them move on to their student advisory report Greta are telling us here um and welcome Happy Summer and I'll give you a report after you're done your first day or go enjoy for summer evenings yeah um I'm Greta and I

011don't really have much to say today [Laughter] finals week was stressful but students were happy that the school is now over and um the like finals week schedule worked out great there was like plenty of time to see teachers and finish all the final products everything um and I'm happy to be done in school um all that we really have like upcoming is that student council is going to have a homecoming dance but that's like in the fall so I don't know if they'll have a student wrap in August but our next meeting is August 9th um but louder oh our next meeting is August 9th I usually never have that problem um so have a good summer enjoy your Rising Junior yeah okay so um we'll see you guys back in for reports when

012school gets underway yeah I'm sorry I forgot to ask the project 351 student I don't know not really okay I thought I saw you there I was gonna ask if that's been anything in the summer but what else have questions okay what are you saying weigh in on some of our our items um or you can go good night all right so we have our Festival year 2022 audit report next and Jeff would you like to introduce that'd be great thank you so I'd like to introduce um Sam justy he's our independent auditor and Laurie zawiak she is our district accountant Jim is uh as you all know Jim is set to retire after many years of hard work uh this is a second to last audit presentation I think his last one's tomorrow night

013so oh that's a very good feeling I'm just thinking we're going to reschedule this because of what had to go through I was going to say well July August and September I'm busy sorry maybe later maybe not I'm gonna do this a lot quicker than you would I know you're already late it's got a lot to do and you know the thing I want you to know is that what that we do financial statements and I just want you to know I'm not saying this just because self is sitting right there and Larry's standing here you know this school does a really good job on their financials in the business office and throughout and you know I've been doing this for one time I was at a board of selected meeting and I said I'm

014not quite sure how long I want to say I've been doing this he said why don't you say 25 plus years that sounds good so I've been doing this 25 plus years plus quite a few I've had I've done a lot of audits I work for the state department of revenue for four years for another Secret for a while and I'm just very pleased coming here but because the records are very good so I want you to know that and so when we prepare this report it's it's like a 68-page report and um we do an audit of this report but we do an audit called a financial statement audit like an internal control audit or compliance audit even though we do look at the internal controls but we only look at those so that

015we can determine that the controls are in place to create the numbers in the journal Ledger that are daily presented you know so I had a few notes here to go over the table of contents but I've done that before I think if you want to look at this report and if you really do want to know how to read it and look at it if you look at the first couple of pages the table of contents is really very descriptive of what's in the report because it's so and so if you want to look at it I would say look at the table of contents especially the second page talking all about the federal grants and the federal Awards um because there are a few sections right there on the second page of the

016table of contents that would show where the federal grants and the federal awards are listed um the other thing is if you're looking at the report on stage one it's it's so the opinion letter is where we actually Express an opinion when I talk to my insurance agent I said listen I'm not going to be doing audits anymore he says that means you're not going to be expressing any more opinions no he said good your insurance will go way down because when you're expressing an opinion this report goes to the federal government goes to the state government goes to bonding agencies and you know you actually press an opinion whether or not these financial statements are presented fairly and in this case you know the most important part states that the report says that they

017are in fact presented purely and it also says that you know uh in internal accounting controls analysis so that's a very important part on page one and two um some reports real quick on page 12 of the report it's called balance this is all these reports are um the governmental steps you know the format the presentation what they look like so it's the same throughout the state throughout the country but the balance use to me along with the report just after it is the most important reports balance sheet has a general fund column a non-mage fund column that has all the grants and capital project funds and things like that and you know the balance sheet shows accounts like assets and liabilities but it also shows fund Equity so if anybody is so inclined to

018want to look at this report I wanted to point out that on this page 12 Down Below on the fund Equity section there's an account called unassigned fund balance three million 750 people that's in the general fund column but just in case you're looking at it and you have some awareness of the numbers that they make if you uh on a normal basis that includes about 1.1 million of the stabilization fund because the governmental Accounting Standards what some reason has taken something that's in another fund and adding it to the general fund so for whatever reason that's just something I want to point out that the unassigned fund balance of 3.7 million includes a stabilization fund of about 1.1 million the other thing is when you look at page bottom oh pretty much the bottom

019row where it says total fund balances General funds 4.6 million non-major funds 2.5 million you look at the next page the next report on the next two pages which is the statement of revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance um just one of the things about fund accounting which is how the system is set up all these reports are set up and fund accounting so the general fund the one column non-major funds and the other call well the bottom line on this report shows the same exact total fund balance amount and so that's like what we call Gap generally accepted accounting principles so the iconic system that Laurie posts to have to resort in these numbers that tie out when they do but one very important part on page 14 is the statement of Revenue

020expenditure changes and fund balance um about five lines up from the bottom it showed the excess of the current year revenues and expenditures and other financing sources which is things like transfers in and out over the expenditures and so it shows the current year how to access favorable variance of about a million dollars so you know whatever you're doing as far as looking at budgeted Revenue budget expenditures It Was a Very Good Year where the beginning of the year the fund balance was 3.6 million at the end of the year it was 4.6 million so you know a very good job we spent not only in recording things but budgeting the way you budget and the way it works so so that's really about it on on this report which is 68 pages but I've

021tried to narrow it down as much as I could unless someone has questions about the report um I most wanted to try to answer those um if not I'll just go to the management letter which is really just a four-page report that really it's another one of these things that the governmental Accounting Standards require that it be worded in a certain way it talks about the fact that in doing our financial statement audit we look at the internal controls but only to the point where we're trying to figure out if systems are in place to create numbers that are useful to create a report that's fairly presented um so like I said a report that talks about um those things fourth paragraph on page one says we do not consider the following matters that are

022in this management letter a significant deficiencies so that's that's really the main thing that uh you know I've been places where they did have significant deficiencies and material weaknesses there's a qualifying but you know the last few years I've been doing the sauce if there have been no significant deficiencies or material weapons so I think that's a it's a really good thing so look you know the business part of the entity is being run really well so I'll just go over a couple quick things on page one relates to Gatsby state number 87 about Lisa's you know the governmental iconic status board called gas we you know later on in this management letter it's about eight or ten of them that you know they want you to like Implement and so it's up to large

023through that because I'm not going to be doing it anymore so she can call me and she needs to but this thing about uh Lisa is called gas me 87 requires recognition of certain to assets the liabilities and so you know we implemented that if you look in this report you'll see information on the leases um on page two of this management letter uh relating to Lisa that I'm saying here that we recommend that the district prepare a lease spreadsheet that includes a description of any leases the district has entered into the affected dates of the leases payment terms and amounts security dates and interest rates any other important information so basically that's the gas that came into effect this year that is incorporated into these financial statements and then the next two comments of

024phase two collects the federal grants the single audit act and I just put that in there again it's almost the same as last year because for about six or seven years when I was doing this audit you didn't have enough money in federal grants to have a single audit so you know if there was an audit that's called a single audit they're talking about all the federal grants get audited as one audit so that's why they're calling a single audit and there's this uniform guidance that um is in place that whoever is administering the grants has to be well aware of all the requirements and so this year 22 in the prior year we looked at all the federal grants and all the requirements and there were no findings to report but I just put

025these two just so that whoever has any inclination to want to look at it it's a good reminder of what has to be done and how it has to be done and it's talking about the implementation of new Gatsby since those are about eight or ten of those gaspies that have to be implemented allowing to be busy doing all that but I won't be because that's it I'm done unless I wanted to make it clear I know you you're late already and you've got a lot to do you do a very good job here in this school you know the school committee does a very good job the business office superintendent the accountant really you really do a good job I mean I've been doing this for a week and I've seen a lot of

026places that you know were good and then they lose personnel and it was horribly bad and you know one time I was like a messenger and they were shooting the messenger I said wasn't me so it can change quick so it's important to keep up with it this year and the new audit is you guys are getting are very good Auditors they've worked with them a lot of Sullivan I'll be giving them all my artwork I'll be going over that Lorry too so unless you have any other questions that's it I do um because you know I just love this yet yeah it's my thing um the mentioning here that if we expend more than under the single audit 750 000 yeah so have we yeah during 22 to 21 you did okay and so

027if you look in here like I said in the very beginning part of the report the table of contents the second page of the very very beginning talks all about the federal grants right right right three sections that talk all about everything and anything to do with the Federal grant so there's one page like page 62. it's called the sifa schedule of expenditures the federal Awards and it showed all of federal grants and how much was expended okay and then there's another report like the very last page of the whole thing that talks about whether or not they're of any finding and whether they're called material programs and that kind of thing but it's all in there and it was audited and there were no finders at all right so you're not asking us to

028do something that we're not doing no no you're already okay okay that's what I was out there about players just sort of the last two years and prior to that you didn't have federal grants for many years so I think you probably will have the 23. yes are the Esther grants kind of tips over the scale great thank you great welcome any other questions yeah thank you Jim and we wish you a best of luck in your retirement yeah I I'm asking my little tax practice goal and Jeff would appreciate that he works for big a text it's a national tax guy or whatever I have a tiny little tax practice and I'm hoping my insurance guy says right likely no but it's been my pleasure really all these years you know I think you're

029a very same National Organization and you know I always am on my toes when I come here because I consider you know this group one of the best of I've done like over a hundred places probably you know over the years and I think you guys do a really good job and so thank you thank you happy retirement welcome yeah thanks Laurie right nice expression Fishman hello um I'm Gretchen Fishman from Boxford on behalf of the Triton CPAC for our first ever year-end report and uh so we have given you just a brief outline which I'll go over quickly hopefully um but do expect a more in-depth report when we have it done and I'm not going to promise a timeline on that so I'm off the welcome to the new school committee members um

030for anybody that doesn't know the CPAC is a special education parent advisory Council every District in Massachusetts has to have one um as defined by uh chapter 71b that's under Massachusetts special education law and we're assigned two functions both in advisory and particip participatory function and those uh include advising the school committee on matters that pertain to the education and Safety assistance with disabilities regularly with school officials to participate in the Planning Development and evaluation of the district's special education programs and cooperating with the district their annual workshop on the rights of students parents and Guardians under state federal law um of course we do a lot more than that our CPAC is um pretty passionate about keeping parents and Community informed and um and lots of other things too so um which I'll go

031into a little bit now our board for the 2023-2024 school year is as follows our president is Jackie Dubois vice president is Candice Snyder secretary secretary is Adeline Natali and then we have two uh oh our Treasurer uh positioned open uh I guess fortunately we don't have very much money so it's not that big of a deal we have two members at large myself and uh Stephanie bonapan this year um we uh collaborated with a lot of different people and organizations the Federation for children with special needs Watson Regional CPAC which I'll talk about a little bit more we did a presentation with them King's day out which is a a children's book TTC Zoomies the tiered focused monitoring monitoring process masspac is the Massachusetts organization of cpacs we're active in that we hosted uh

032our legislators we've been involved in the transitions task force the shot committee strategic planning committee and we also uh participated with the Moscow Pac for teacher appreciation I'm sure there's other things we did too but that captures the big ones and for speakers and events um we kicked off the year in the fall by taking a field trip some of the board members we went to the state house to celebrate uh 50 years of special education law in Massachusetts which is pretty significant it's Massachusetts really led the the country in special education lock um we did recognition gifts for uh tri-town and masconomic we were part of of the Moscow incoming seventh grade or seventh graders student night panel parent University we did coffee and pastries to staff again we had our legislators which was

033really fantastic and this year um actually the end of last year we established for the first time uh body Bullard scholarship and uh it as a way to honor Patty when she left last year and so we were intending tonight to recognize those individuals and one of them was actually here but she left so um I did give her her certificate so I'm just going to read quickly to acknowledge those winners um and so our first winner was Christine Gagnon the the Masco speech and language pathologist she was recognized as a professional who encompasses compassion equity and really works to help our students achieve agency and become owners of their own Futures she demonstrates this by creating a dignified learning space honoring the first person relationships with many students who are neurodivergent and consistently supporting

034her colleagues in the work that she does thank her very much for her great work and our second recipient was Mike koloski and he was recognized as a role as a middle school paraprofessional who stepped up to provide intensive support caring guidance and commitments this year he came to work each day with a positive attitude and growth mindset and exemplifies a true professional who has been open and is willing to do whatever the middle school team needs so thank you to him as well um okay could Applause be appropriate um we did several workshops this year those included um the MCAS access and achievement basic rights and so that's what the district actually has to provide every year for parents that's we did a basic rights for evaluation and eligibility we did extremity inclusion initiative

035with merge Consulting training active bystanders navigating vocational rehab with the mass office of disability and we hosted Jordan Zimmerman who is a non-speaking autistic self-advocate and um she presented virtually and that's what we collaborated with wachus at CPAC with and we had a in almost all of these presentations we just had a great representation with administrators and staff and so thank you so much to everybody who participated um we meet monthly for business meetings um and then meet throughout the year um with both Matt LaCava and Lynn Bennett Matt is Lynn's counterpart in the Triton School Union and we currently have two subcommittees the literacy subcommittee and fundraising and so for the next bit sort of like the challenges this is like the meat of of the heavy stuff of the CPAC um and this

036list is probably not comprehensive and I'm gonna sort of be very brief about everything but stop me if you have questions um and these are uh really challenges that either we've identified as a as a council or we've heard from parents in the district um so if you know me you won't be surprised that literacy tops the list and so we've had a lot of conversations about our literacy concerns and screening tools and um I do just want to mention that as we spend a lot of time talking about literacy we can't forget about math and um right now in Boxford at least our math MCAS scores are much worse than our literacy scores and so uh last year the third graders the third grade class only 44 of the students were proficient in math

037and so those are now um fourth grade students they'll be here in two years so as we think about strategic planning right and and we know our literacy needs um there's there's math needs too um so academics are important right um transition planning has always been a huge area of concern for the CPAC and that means both from um tri-town up to Masco middle school as well as post High School planning and um a great example of um illustrates uh some of our concern is uh last year the governor signed the higher education bill in Massachusetts which was um allows students with intellectual disability and developmental disabilities access to our state universities and colleges even if they can't pass MCAS and that was just such a huge win for students in the Commonwealth but we

038haven't seen that drive intervention and practice and so it's that type of knowledge that we're trying to bring to the district both to parents and to teachers and staff so that we are moving kids and and planning for their transition appropriately um another great example is uh it on average it takes students with disabilities seven years that their college degree and um so when we talk about transition planning we don't just mean our kids in sub-separate programs getting life skills we mean a lot of our college students also or prospective college students and um having had two now go through I can tell you no one's telling us parents right that this could be the path right so how do you financially plan for seven years of college how do you do everything else around

039that and that's the reality for a lot of our students so we just have to consider that in our intervention um so uh inclusion is next on the list and creating an inclusive culture for all of our students um and of course authentic conclusion doesn't mean just friendships or sports or clubs it means academic inclusion as well and um and knowing that we're sending uh you know we can send really anybody to college at this point um academic proficiency is is um it's so incredibly important this is our push behind literacy um it's literally the the path to freedom and safety and so um academic inclusion uh for all of our kids is something we'd like to see more of and I know that um there's a lot of great work um happening around diversity

040Equity inclusion and um I was listening to the principal principal's report from last week and I would just like to add when we talk about culturally sensitive um uh classrooms and and culture that we have to include disability um and I we don't see that happening or we're not hearing that it's happening um so I just got to flag that also um equal access to all classes in the use of m-block is is definitely something we're still hearing from the community that's a concern um uh some students had difficulty receiving services or getting compensated compensatory Services due to staff shortages um Ada audit has been on our minds and that hopefully I think is happening will happen soon I think so that's something we've been asking for for several years so we're excited about that

041executive functioning skills again another area we know that is being targeted by the district but it's still something we're hearing about from parents we raised an issue around the family engagement policy in Title One intervention um we are hoping to really get some movements around neurodiversity affirming practices and and that really flows nicely into that cultural sensitive sensitivity around disability those those things go hand in hand um in the interest of time I won't talk more about that but this is where I do a lot of my own work so uh if I'm happy to have a conversation with anybody at any time if you want to know more about that um and why it's so important for not just our students with disabilities but for all of our students Unified sports is um something

042that we recorded and would like to see in the district and then not on your list but I'm I'm going to add in um uh when I was watching the the meeting the last meeting I I don't know who asked this question because you can't when you see the recording and you see the screen you can't see the people talking so somebody asked about academic advancement um I don't know who that was but uh I I did just want to remind um that was you so thank you is a great question it's something I've asked several times and lots of interviews that have come up um I did just want to uh let the committee know that gifted education is not protected in Massachusetts we currently rank 48th in the nation for gifted programming which

043is obviously terrible we have a lot of work to do despite being one of the best states for Education um gifted education is much more than just access to honors and AP classes and um last year the uh commissioner created a draft document called developing a Continuum of services for advanced learning and talent development and uh I would encourage everybody to take a look at that again as we talk about strategic planning that should be a focus it's a very small percentage of students only six to eight percent uh really will fall into that category but it's certainly a six to eight percent that deserve um uh being challenged appropriately uh so I just wanted to throw that in there because that's obviously on our radar as well and um I did you know on

044your outline you can see some of the issues that we uh raised uh this year in the Triton School Union the last go over those now um and so in conclusion um this list of our challenges can be complex we realize it's complex and there's many themes that come up over and over again um but but uh having said that we've enjoyed a really great collaborative relationship with Administration which we so greatly appreciate and we really appreciate uh the ability for everybody to hear what we're saying even when it's really hard to hear um and it's not always a Rosy picture um and uh lastly we wanted to acknowledge that um as a district we have some really fantastic highly skilled caring staff and we just want to acknowledge them and all their hard work

045and we did ask I had mentioned earlier we asked parents to nominate staff for a little gift and recognition and we gave those out last week and I just wanted to share a few of the things that was said about some of our Masco staff which include that there are Shining Light they bring the class alive for my child they've been crucial in helping my child achieve their goals and they've had such a positive impact on my child this year and so you know parents are seeing this and acknowledging it uh which I think is fantastic that was really fast for me I loved it uh does anybody have any questions yeah yeah I can you just clarify what um a month familiar with the term Unified sports yeah so uh so there are districts

046can become Unified sports teams and so they offer Sports where um it's different from uh say uh um Special Olympics where you'd have a sports team that's just people with disabilities um Unified sports is um meant to be inclusive for all abilities and and without without special um it's not like you have a buddy running alongside you right it's just like everybody playing um but you go into it knowing that you're playing with people of all abilities and so there are lots of districts in Massachusetts that offer several John is actually going to speak to that I can actually add to that we have done a little bit of background research on this um right now in Massachusetts there are uh there's unified track and field unified basketball and there is um uh unified like

047Fitness training weightlifting that we've kind of looked into and started some preliminary conversations about it it's a combination of regular education and special education working together and collaboratively and in the districts that it's been done it's been incredibly successful there are some local districts that have Unified sports teams and I've gotten some information from them so we're kind of in the process of going down that road because it's been really successful and there's so many positives to it yeah thank you yeah does anyone else have questions for questions thank you very much thank you for your advocacy and your report all right middle school principle over the part about Europe I assume all the new members know Dr McManus who's our Middle School yes hi everyone hey hey [Laughter] all right here we go so

048um I have a a few words for you about an update on our school Improvement plan and and uh and a wrap up to the the end of the school year here in the Middle School so the Middle School ended the school year with our uh eighth grade award ceremony and moving on for the first time this year we actually split it into two ceremonies a student-only award ceremony on Wednesday which went very well and I think it um worked out well for students it also turned into a little celebration for them because Pac sponsored um donuts and bagels for them at the end of the day after the award ceremony so they had to some time to gather we also distributed yearbooks at that time so they could sign yearbooks so it was a

049nice way to wrap up the school year for them and recognize their achievements as a class so that went well we also had our moving on ceremony on Thursday and um we present all the students with a certificate they're moving on we had family and friends attend that presentation in the field house and that also went very well so we congratulate our eighth grade class as they move on to high school at the end of the year students had some fun activities we had two field days one for the seventh grade and one for the eighth grade they were on campus they were organized uh with the help of nicoat sources for his master teacher project and then with the staff so those happened outside around campus in various forms and games and activities so

050students really enjoyed those we had an end of the year Canopy Lake field trip for the eighth grade which was a big highlight for them that they always look forward to so that happened um and there were some other various activities on team and uh and throughout the last few weeks of school where we honored students or recognized them like National Junior Honors Society we had our end of the year concert for concert and band so there's a lot that happened it was a whirlwind of last month of school and and kids were excited to participate in those various things so that went very well all right on to um the school Improvement plan and an update for you on that which uh I presented on earlier the school year as you know so for

051goal number one we focused on the global Community team building diversity and inclusion but the goal being specifically continuing to develop learning opportunities centered centered around cultural sensitivity Global interdependence and diversity to increased increased students Global awareness so to accomplish this teachers implemented various lesson plans and class activities that talked about global diversity and interdependence and through various classroom observations that I conducted um I saw different ways that that teachers did this one of the the biggest things that they do in seventh grade on the white team is called The Innovation and power of one project and that's where students have to learn a new skill or something that can help their family or Community um through the power of one and then Innovation is usually related to that it's either learning that new skill

052that then that they then use um or it's something that is passed down in a generational manner in their family like cooking or baking or something like that as a lot of the students participate in um students also did uh science um two science expositions this year one in seventh grade one in eighth grade A lot of those focused on uh Global Environmental concerns like plastic in the oceans or safe water to drink so that's something that focuses on global interdependence and then our Washington DC trip for eighth graders this year that was brought back after several year Hiatus due to covid um so students could go down and learn about government and visit the various attractions in museums in DC and that's that's another one that ties into this this little horse um or

053second part of this students will participate in assignments or activities that celebrate cultural diversity we had a couple of different school-wide visitors this year Henry Turner who's the principal at new North High School came to talk to students about diversity equity and inclusion being an upstander and on how to support that in their school we also had author visits by rajani larocca and Nathan Hale who are actually two nationally known authors that we brought to campus this year and they both Regina laraca is a indian-american physician so she talked about her upbringing and how that influenced her writing and her books and then Nathan Hale he's a historical graphic novelist and he talked about the role that slavery and and people of color played throughout history and brought that to life through his drawings and

054he actually animated uh his his talk as he was he was going so those are two great things that we did this year and yeah they were really interesting for students I thought they brought a great perspective for them so our second goal but yeah focused on school climate and culture specifically social emotional learning and then citizenship diversity inclusion again and then social awareness so we are focusing on maintaining an environment that promotes students well-being both socially and emotionally through good decision-making kindness respect and a sense of belonging one of the big focuses for this was our social emotional learning training that was conducted by Alexis Costas and Kristen Duffy for all teachers during the Wednesday afternoon professional development so that was run as you probably heard throughout meetings this year in three different sessions

055and throughout the course of the Year all teachers were able to attend that and so the expectation was that they were able to bring what they learned into the classrooms better um you know benefit students through social emotional learning also through class meetings citizen workshops and different team activities uh um students were able to participate in a community at mascinoma where we celebrate um belonging and respecting each other's differences and kindness we focus on a big culture of kindness in the Middle School you hear about that every year I talk about it at the beginning of the school year I usually talk about it here as well so that's a focus that we've had throughout the year and then finally our ideas training for teachers one of those Wednesday afternoon PD modules that we did

056focused on diversity and cultural sensitivity for teachers and how they um you know the biases that they bring into the classroom is something that we need to recognize and be aware of as educators and our third goal was focused on curriculum and instruction and specifically working to improve study skills mathematics and English language arts we don't have this year's MCAS results yet in one of the big indicators for that in the school Improvement plan is Again cast results for 2023 um however we did have teachers as a goal have them focus on uh um working with students on their math and English language arts skills one of the big things to come out of that specifically is in the seventh grade while we've always had geometry lab as a class for students in extra math

057uh there's also a need for additional Ela learning so we're introducing a seventh grade class coming up in the fall called Ela foundations or English language arts and the way that that's going to work is it will be a one trimester course however it will only meet for half the trimester at the same time that geometry lab meets so it'll be a small group class of about 10 students Max and students will be in that foundations course for half of the trimester and the other half they'll take the geometry lab course so in one trimester trimester they'll get a dose of that Ela foundations will really focus heavily on reading and writing and then they'll have geometry lab for the other portion of the trimester and so all seventh graders will will get this it's

058a class us that's general education for all students to take and we're hoping that that will help students to improve their Ela skills as they're coming into middle school that's been something that we've heard over and over again from seventh grade teachers that the foundation skills for English language arts are something that's lacking and so we're putting in place a class to specifically address that next year um so other than that you know teachers did uh Implement skill specific lesson plans to address the areas of weakness and we're hoping that you know our MCAT scores this year do show an improvement for students but we also know that there's been you know a lot of um struggle for students especially coming out of the pandemic last year uh and we're still seeing the after effects

059for students as they come up through Masco so otherwise that can that concludes my pay for you on school Improvement plan I'm happy to take any questions yes thank you for all that sounds great um question about the MCAS scores I was really surprised when Gretchen reported that the Spofford Pond third graders are testing at a 40 proficiency rate which is half of where it was eight years ago um are the numbers here at mascot similar to that um that your experience is it there I mean our scores from last spring definitely were down compared to the the year two years previous um when they tested prior to the pandemic so yeah we've we've seen a decrease in scores I don't have specifics to give you as far as a percent decrease but when we

060analyze them in the fall we definitely saw a decrease for our student scores compared to how they historically work and do we think that's pandemic related versus just a little bit of I'd say It's a combination of both yeah sure um is your presentation linked anywhere I didn't have slides for tonight um because I already presented the school Improvement plan so it was just just my own words fashion index cups I know I was like all impressive here I couldn't read this if I had them um the you mentioned that Ela foundation's piece and I was just wondering if that's connected with the literacy concerns that like Gretchen brought up earlier of what is it tied to seeing an increased need coming up from it's not it's not something that's special education related it's it's

061for all students because of has mainly we're seeing the decrease in scores on the MCAS and then hearing from um seventh grade teachers that there's a lack of English language arts skills when they're coming into Middle School yeah it was more tied to that as opposed to specific literacy um problems so we have the title one English class which is us I'm targeted specifically to students who aren't necessarily receiving any kind of literacy Services as part of special education but they exhibit a weakness in their literacy skills so those students are specifically targeted to take the title one English class which we'll still have this is in addition to that yeah yeah Meg Hildebrandt brought it up that that we're seeing some skills deficits she would like she would she'd like some time to address

062them and given the fact we were contributing 30 extra to math it didn't really seem Equitable to do it that you know the way we've been doing it so we're going to do yeah half and half math and English I think that's a good idea uh yeah no thank you for the presentation sounds like you guys have made a lot of good progress and um I guess I'm wondering um are there goals or attributes of the goals that you had to discuss that you didn't achieve this year that you're carrying forward into next year well I would say everything's a work in progress for us but I would say definitely the the curriculum and instruction goal which was goal number three uh will still focus on that and we do want to see um you

063know data coming out of our Geo lab and Ela foundations class so see what that looks like at the end of next year and then obviously get the results on the this past Spring's um um MCAT scores so yeah there are things that are work in progress as far as carryover not sure yet we'll see what the development with our Sac looks like in the fall and see what we want to either continue doing or what kind of things we want to develop new oh but I would say every year there's a little bit of carryover from the Sip School Improvement plan one year to the next yes so Gretchen had talked about how um like the ideas training it covers the diversity of a lot of things but it doesn't cover disability so how

064are you implementing that that's a good question um that's that's an area I think that's Gretchen's right we have some work to do on that and bringing that into the classroom and working with our teachers on it maybe putting that in the school Improvement plan for next year yeah I agree um when do you expect to have the testing results and cast results well preliminary scores without essays are actually out this week but they're embargoed so I'm thinking probably but by August we'll see um reports for principals and administrators only and then in the fall we'll receive the official unembargoed scores yes the scores will be out in the fall yes and that's typical case that's always the guess that's the together is Phil said we get them their their raw scores so I mean

065they're actually looking at them is is not a real user-friendly yeah um so that's something we kind of see later on in the Summer where deci will actually put them in eventually well oh yeah yeah okay it takes a while yeah okay I'm looking at them now there's definitely a you know I'm assuming it's a lot of code considerations but it's definitely going the wrong direction the last four years and that's a Statewide Trend too it's not a mask yeah I'm assuming it's the code was about for kids yeah all right thank you Phil okay you're welcome go look for us all right sounds good thanks thank you welcome next up is the soccer fields renovation plan but the first since I saw John really um I would like to recognize the girl Celestine for

066being the chance for the second year in a row and I didn't say that earlier sorry congratulations Mike one will uh embellish on that and we invite you yeah so oh yeah yeah thanks for watching them thank you Bill they're a great group of kids you want him sitting here Johnny up here thank you on the table Yeah goodness wow don't expect this kind of treat um yeah I'm gonna read the The Proposal all right and then we can roll um Sarco field renovation proposal number two um this is attached to the packet um can we clarify the proposal number one was in March because proposal number one was in February February in March part of what I'll read um and I Mike and I apologize for this not being in the attached to the

067agenda sooner I sent it last Tuesday and wires got crossed and it didn't get linked so anyways Mass economics grass soccer fields including orange seven eight and nine one on the second page which is updated up there are in need of renovation according to District records the last major investment in our athletic fields was back in 2009 when the district made it 118 000 investment in an irrigation system a proposal to sod renovate field 789 during the Spring of 2023 at a total estimated cost of 294 thousand dollars was presented on February 1st and again on March 1st as part of the capital plan and the critical needs summary respectively funding for this proposal was not approved at that time condition of these athletic fields will not improve without a significant investment of resources by

068the district therefore we have proactively developed an alternative less costly proposal for consideration and funding the original February March 2023 proposal reflected a full sod renovation to all three Fields during the late spring of 2023. this approach would have required very little time after installation for the sod to establish itself before play could resume for the fall 2023 athletic season our alternative two-phase proposal reflects a much less costly renovation approach using core aeration and overseeding but requires a significantly longer period of time post renovation for the new grass to grow and establish itself before play can resume the details for both phases of our proposal are as follows phase one Fields eight and nine so those are the back two fields which the baseball fields renovation to be completed during the early fall of 2023

069Fields would be closed for the entire fall 2023 athletic City play could resume on a limited basis on those fields for the spring of 2024 athletic season for baseball only play could resume for All Sports for the fall 2024 athletic season phase two which is field seven that's the field that runs adjacent to the parking lot renovation to be completed during the late spring of 2024 field seven would be closed for the summer and the entire fall 2024 athletic season but they could resume for All Sports for the spring 2025 at the athletic season the phase two plan for field seven may vary depending upon the status of the turf field project which directly impacts this field the during phase one uh John is confident that his office can manage all practice and game needs

070through a combination of increased usage of fields to figure one again and by proactively partnering with our member communities to identify and schedule supplementary field usage primarily for Varsity games at off-campus locations including but not limited to the following facilities Oxford Turf Oxford rabbinic yeah and Middleton and Clark Park in Topsfield some other important information on the proposal so the size of each field to be renovated is the dimensions of a standard High School athletic soccer field which is approximately 72 000 square feet estimated renovation cost per field is twenty thousand dollars as compared to the ninety eight thousand dollar sod renovation so the much less costly targeted completion of phase one work would be September 2023 so if approved I would work on the specifications get them out to bid and hopefully get um

071have an award do a vendor let's say Late July August um and then targeted completion of phase two work would be May 2024 so about 11 months from now so I would put that we'd use the same specifications put it out to bid probably in the March time frame award a contract in April and get the work done probably in late May was the end of the spring 2024 athletic season as teams kind of finished their season we would have everything lined up to to um to renovate that field so those are the details of our plan um so John and I worked together kind of collaboratively over the last maybe 60 days um kind of thrown out different proposals one of our proposals was to do all three fields at the same time and

072we didn't think that we could accommodate everybody on campus and within the community um but I'll let John talk a little bit about how we're going to make it work if the committee approves The Proposal um by using you know the fields on the other side of the campus and some other fields in the community so um Fields one and two assuming Fields eight nine were offline we could use Fields one and two for um for practices you know we have we have three levels of girls and three levels of levels of boys soccer so we could use those fields or practices and we could use Fields one and two as game fields for our sub varsity teams so far our JV and jv2 teams and we could also utilize for our varsity teams field

073two which is the stadium field um we could utilize that for our Varsity games um trying to be strategic with the amount of Varsity games that are played on that field because we also play varsity football and sub-varsity football in that field so being strategic with the number of games that we do play on The Stadium Field for Varsity soccer I've already reached out to um the contacts I have uh for the box return and I've submitted our soccer and uh we also play um a limited number of field hockey games over there as well so I submitted the schedule our entire home schedule to them and they're in the process of reviewing it now because they have lots of groups obviously that use that field but they've been really good to us and I

074explained our situation um and I've also gotten some other information about who to contact regarding you know Rob schneck park for example and the you know form to fill out uh facility request form for that um even as recently as this afternoon I got information that awkward pond pool has the field there is um a good enough field for example for Varsity level game so I'm going to take a ride over there and look at it but I also need to make I have to reach out to um the people I need to contact because I want to make sure that it has as limited an impact on groups in town so my varsity coaches have good relationships with um you know the youth groups and um I've made them aware of kind of information

075too and I'm confident that you know we can we can do it um as Jeff said taking field seven offline as well and and losing all three Fields would have been really problematic I failed to mention too that we can also use field seven for practices and sub-varsity games as well I forgot to mention that um so we feel like if we just completely took three Fields offline in the fall it would have been incredibly challenging and problematic so that's kind of where we're at right now but we think we can we can do it um as a stand um I just wanted to make sure I don't know if you guys are aware but clockwork's not going to be available yeah so that's again as recently as this afternoon or as I was doing

076research on this um I've kind of found that out um that being said if that's not an option then we I can still feel good enough are they doing work there or yeah yeah trying to repair that okay so we could fan it okay technically with ourselves I live on that street so I'm I'm pretty pretty aware of them technically with our schedule we could actually pull off I have the schedule for the fall set already so we could actually play our Varsity soccer games on the stadium field but there would be so much use on the field it would it would be would be back here um do that one yeah so um I mean that's been the problem historically right is that these fields have never gotten a race and they've never gotten

077rest um they just get a lot of use year round I think you know developing some sort of a rotation going forward into the future is probably part of part of what we'll work on next to you know have give the field a better chance to You Know cover to recover and live into the future there's a finite number of uses you can get in a field of the year before it's unemployable yeah one of the other big problems that we have that most of you probably don't know so Fields one two three and four do not have irrigation um on the Middle School side of the campus Trevor so even The Stadium Field doesn't have irrigation so we have um I've I've purchased water cannons so that we can otherwise like it'll get decimated

078after this year so so we've been on top of the irrigation uh across the rest of the campus so Fields five six seven eight and nine all have irrigation now we had a little glitch last August which we repaired and um it's been working seamlessly since and we inspect it weekly and everything's going going great in that regard um never had a question yeah so I think field two I think I'd argue it's almost over use now like you look at that field and it's all mud through the whole season so I don't know if it could handle more um and then two is in actually pretty good shape right now Bill two right now is actually held up okay you know and we actually played a significant number of soccer games on it last

079fall because we were forced to do that because of what happened to the field so they've actually held up really well but uh your point is well taken for sure that we have it will get beat up we have to be really careful with the amount of use it gets for sure and then before the meeting I did a walk through and out of the three meeting I mean the three fields on the right I would say seven is probably in the worst shade I don't know if you'd concur but I'd say seven is the worst until I would say eight is the worst by far and so I'm not an expert yeah I've been out I've been out there a lot um just the support of fixing the fields without resotting it I feel

080like we're putting grass in divot holes and I don't know what that's gonna fix our issues I'm having a flat plank surface so it'll get aerated um cross-air rated right which will loosen the soil and then um it'll get seeded and then a top coat of organic compost goes over the top which uh protects the seed it keeps the seed moist and it actually levels the plane surface okay Jeff when was the last time it was aerated in the spring in the spring yeah but that second process that you just mentioned that's above and beyond usual that's above and beyond anything that we can do here um so in the next two weeks all the fields will be aerated overseeded uh they'll receive their second application of fertilizer um their first application of weed control

081grub control will come in about a month about a month after that the third application of fertilizer we'll do some overseeding on field two field 6 and field seven and we'll also do um a bunch of I'll call it spot repair for the heavy use areas like gold mouths and face-offs circles all of those things will happen whether permitting in the next 10 days um and it'll probably spill into the week of July 4th because the weather doesn't look great but that's what we have lined up for the next couple of weeks so and then you know we'll iterate again in the in the fall after the the playing season and then just try to put in place a more rigorous maintenance program that's what's existed here in the last 15 years Matt originally had

082a scandal yeah so thank you for the comment on field two maybe the same kind of question on field one is it is it better than 79 at this point yeah yeah it is um oh without a doubt that that field has had the ability to rest we um rest a little bit certainly more than seven eight at a time or lacrosse in the spring uh yeah we we've we've practiced um like our sub varsity lacrosse teams in practice there um and we played our JV boys lacrosse games there in the spring um but the Girls JV lacrosse team plays back to back after the varsity team just because they're a limited number of officials so that field definitely is in much better condition like if you not just if you drive by it but

083if you walk on it it's definitely a much better condition right now and I thought that today Matt and um it's actually probably in the best shape of all the fields uh with the exception of the the goal Mouse for the yeah they're pretty beat up and need some love but you know we'll take care of that in the next week or two yeah and I appreciate your comment below uh coordinating with the local programs um we've struggled in the last year because of the Heat Wave and the drought Last Summer and this past spring we were shifting players across Towns at different fields and whatever we could so I think it'll be better in the spring um but we're still facing challenges that's the silliest point okay so what I would urge you to

084keep as many soccer games as possible away from field two because I think I have a soccer player in my family they'd rather play on a parking lot than play on again on a field that football games have been played on it just doesn't work very well for them and then beyond that just to comment on spocker right coached on that field many times um you're gonna have the opposite trouble opposite problem it's blocker that you have here it's too wet over there the entire facility there has clay underneath it and so whenever it rains it will not dry out for weeks so if we have a nice dry fall it might be a great field but if when it's wet watch out um and the grass is usually like seven inches tall which isn't

085great for soccer but you know I I I'm sure that Boxford could cut it you know lower um just that I would suggest asking about that um because yeah I mean the the eighth grade girls uh and under played on that field they're uh all the top games and it can be a good feel but it's going to be very weather um dependent so keep that in mind I saw I saw Chris then Kendra and then I I have Snapchat I'll be quick at Boxford common or you've also accessed the grass field so the feedback I have gotten about and I've been over there um a bunch of times in the spring is um that I'm not sure that that grass field is up to the quality of a varsity level soccer field um again

086this is feedback from my own witnessing it myself but also from feedback I've gotten from other people who have a lot of knowledge about soccer so um and maybe that's something we can look into and talk to the town about because clearly we need access to more Fields so we were over at that field we visited the turf and then we drove up back to the um to the grass field and we had the same conversation it looked a lot like our field seven yeah so playable but not great not great my other question is if we're going to be taking people off campus for so many things do we have buses do we have transportation if I can be pretty blunt about that from dealing with probably losing sleep over buses for two years

087the answer probably is no if I can be really blunt yeah um and that was one of the reasons why we decided and rotation and not takes seven offline at the same time as eight and nine because of the bust dilemma that we have it's it's it was a real challenge for sure with buses and it was an everyday issue of figuring out speaking to the bus company and almost having a conversation with them and even making recommendations about how to get kids into certain places about well if this team is going to this town and I have another team going to that town can this team jump on the bus with that team and drop them here and then drop that of the team there and bring another bus over to that town and

088bring them home it was a so I'm not confident that we can get additional buses under the circumstances that we're in um exactly any Equity issues for us do we have after school transportation that can take the kids to well for practices I'm um we plan on keeping everyone right here right that was the a big concern is um understanding how challenging that would be for kids and parents to be able to do that and I don't think it's realistic I don't think it's uh you know a smart thing to do and we're able to we have enough um field space for practices to be able to do it and our coaches agree and I think it would just if we don't take seven offline if we don't take seven offline I think it would

089be more problematic if we started to try to ship kids out for practices it would be a real problem I think it would be a disaster for kids and families and um yeah it would be but you get away with it with gymnastics our gymnastics team um as as you know obviously because your daughter's on the theme um their practice schedule was a lot lighter um and it was a schedule that was known well ahead of time and so we were able to kind of plan for that um and kids um because it was our home site pretty much found a way to get to um practices um liability uh we found it it was our it's our home location and home site you know so for example um the ice hockey team our home

090location is the Haverhill Valley Forum and they when they go to practice that's their home location and that's where they go to they go to practice there or um so they're allowed to privately get episodes there in their home to the even though the home may be 15 times but yeah for uh the golf team practicing at Ferncroft um I mean or this one exactly the swimming team we we it's impossible for us to provide buses every day for the swim team to go to practice like that's a great example um um not only is the the cost of it but we just don't have it's a driver issue it's there are no there are no drivers available it's um School District or districts are sharing drivers or a limited amount of drivers and I

091I even got together with um not to make this a bus thing but I just I got together with a couple of local athletic directors who we all use the same uh bus company to try to rearrange our own schedules our own away schedules to see if we could limit the amount of weight contests we had on given days so we could have a bus availability so it's it's just a challenge address next I had a couple questions about the thought and I don't know if this can be answered but is there a is sought out of the question because it is too expensive it does seem like it's kind of the easier quicker way and my other question is what if the grass I'm sorry if this sounds stupid what if the grass doesn't

092take or it takes longer because of the seating and topsoil and everything I mean it is sought out of the question because it's more expensive and is there a less expensive of it there would be an option I don't know if that I'm just thinking of time wise there isn't a less expensive it's actually a major concern and if you think about it you got to bring in heavy equipment and take off the topsoil and bring bring in new topsoil and feed them giant roll sod uh it's their major construction projects but it's very very costly and I think that was the conversation that we had back in the February March time frame was the the cost and I don't think we ever deliberated a sport on the sod it was sort of can I

093add something on the side that's you have to have an irrigation system with sod yeah we have all those the all those three fields are irrigated okay yeah yeah we never it was 98 000 skills um according to the capital plan yeah and we never really deliberated on it it's um a number of factors but um yeah fantastic are we I'm sorry Kendra we all said yeah no I was just think I was just thinking what would happen if the grass it's unlikely that it would it would not take yeah time wise it seems like there's a lot I'm gonna give it a lot of borrowing and I mean that's a pretty long Runway that we're giving it so let's say we complete the project by September 30th and then it has that whole growing

094season and then we're gonna partially close it for the spring if we're only doing eight and nine right we're going to partially close it we're going to let the baseball teams play they don't they don't beat up the fields at all um and then we'll get another full growing season and then we'll do some more 10 to 11 care around this time next year and then we'll have the whole summer before it's ready for the soccer team so it really it should be in great shape and really plush in a year or 11 months yeah thanks and uh something to be so newly questions just because I'm new here but um this money is this already in the budget or is it this is on top of the current budget so that'll come next if

095you know we're feeling like this is something you want to do I have a recommendation in terms of where the money would come from we have a stabilization account with okay about 950 000 and it's relatively short dollars anyways right second it's pretty small dollar amount yes um and the eye of the beholder I guess yeah yeah are there are there rental costs associated with using Oxford common or so we've been so fortunate we've we have a great relationship with them and um we uh create a purchase order um yearly and we we pay half of that in the fall for use in the fall and half in the spring so we've already budgeted for it um so it wouldn't necessarily change um what we've already budgeted for it it may it may because the

096request is for or yes independent use um but I have it like yeah well we would obviously a couple others okay um personal comment I think transport to me that's a huge concern just getting people back a couple of groups to jump between three towns to find fields that may be available and having smaller kids I know there's already a burden on space for these fields so adding more competition to the fields just to be clear all the practices the daily practices what everything would be on campus and all in all of our sub Varsity games would be played on campus too so just to be clear I do like the fact that you're thinking about rotating the fields I'm assuming that's going to be permanent eventually you have a plan to haven't gotten that

097far yet but yes yes this is very informed okay thanks is that who's the expert uh I'd prefer actually not to say because they didn't I didn't tell them I would announce them publicly and up probably go to them with the bid package as well so thank you um I mean it was kind of related to that so I might as well um which is with that so when you do that like will we see so because of the cloth park being in my backyard um there's just you know they're doing like soil testing and what types of fertilizer they're using and like multi-directional slice feeding and all this stuff so I'm just curious with our especially with those fields that we're not doing the fields of irrigation these ones have irrigation yeah right um

098but just like a schedule of the and also like they're talking about the mowing schedule because I guess when the seeds are when it's they're little it's plays a role in all of it um well we have an opportunity a schedule of they're like mowing watering how they're doing it to to know that it's um I can share with you the specs I write yeah I'm just kind of curious how they're doing it because because it's like it wouldn't be how they're doing it's how I'm telling them they have to do it I write the specs and I issue the specs and then they bid on the specs okay but you're getting but you're writing the specs based on those of their their expert recommendation on on some people like some people's input will be

099incorporated into the specs yeah so there's a couple of people in there in our community that are also you know experts and yeah um developing um grass Turf so um I just kind of curious okay we can share the specs yeah thank you but it wouldn't be just to be clear it wouldn't be for the community to give input into it'd be the document that I'm going to be for us putting out a bit so um we say varsity teams uh off site is it just the two soccer teams or yeah so field hockey's still going to be playing on on six on six yeah okay so that's games right they play 16 game Seasons so eight so say eight boys games eight girls games so have we checked on Essex Tech at all I

100haven't yet um I mean all three of us pay money to that school I mean couldn't we leverage that first weekend I've used it for several tournament games um field hockey and soccer and you know I've I have a really good relationship with their athletic director and their facility people because we've used that field and they've been really good to us at this point I don't think there are any options that are off the table at this stage you know so um depending on what is or isn't available you know when when we have a home game I need to find a field so um yeah so I will definitely look into any in all possibilities with there are some other local districts that I have relationships with too but Essex Tech obviously makes the

101most sense because of the location and proximity is um really the tactics the operations are really not our remit so I'm kind of curious what was he actually oscares for just the funding or nothing much and it's so easy to go into this it's a good discussion it's interesting but I do kind of feel like work okay exceeding you know our space a little bit yes all right well I was going to do just that one other thought did you consider hydroseeding one of the fields to have it ready for the fall no that's not preferred mode I just said you have to do on bare soil and there's a lot more preparation yeah aerating is the best the best bet to to to to nurture that that soil here all those plugs and be

102reintroduced and re and kind of leveled out and plus you're doing that extra step by adding that leveling that topping soil so that's it's going to make a really big difference yeah but I think I think starting here with these fields is probably a good step for us and it sounds like we've worked it out I just saw Bill raise the stand so yeah this is 40 000 to attempt to improve the fields as opposed to ignoring it and and continue to listen to complaints about it so bloody hell let's do this yes so we are requesting the school committee's approval for the following number one the creation of a new fund account entitled Capital project Athletic Field renovation two transfer of forty thousand dollars for the completion of phase one Athletic Field renovation on

103fields eight and nine on the district stabilization fund to this new fund account the stabilization fund account has a current balance of 959 568 dollars so moved second do we have do we have to do two different motions okay all right discussion Trevor I saw first is there any way we could approve of phase one and then that's all we're doing I only I'm only asking for Facebook okay okay that's all this is just two Fields because I don't I don't know enough about the turf field project yeah so that's that's part of the reason why we're waiting on the third one was you know yeah next and that's field seven or February week except you're saying we're going ahead with a with Fair fun field six it's six and seven would be the ones

104we're looking at for Turf so before we actually spend 40 or 20 000 on field seven make sure we're not going to plow it under and put artificial surface on it within a year okay so silly then then yeah I think I have three questions I don't think they're all long um water can you remind me do we have a well or do we pay well okay we don't pay top sales water bills top still we have a well and a pump house okay yeah because Southfield water is very expensive right yeah water from the Topsfield yeah we're not talking about that but irrigation is a well um you're feeling it looks like I'm assuming since you're requesting but just to confirm like the stabilization one of the a big reason we're not doing sod

105is because we don't want to draw that down too much this filterable that was the conversation that we had back in February so I'm super comfortable with this record just confirming that um coaches and the new facilities director are part of this all of this conversation our our coaches are aware of this facility director's work yes I like to confirm those things and the last question was kind of similar to what you were saying with this the next phase um another option I'm just hoping that could be on the table as if we're not at that place with the turf turf fields at that point we're close to budget season we could consider maybe sod for field seven like there's other options so that's I I'm happy with you requesting this part yeah my plan

106is to tee up the field seven conversation in January and February of next year based on what we know then yeah right uh Jeff are you confident that the bids will come in under 20 Page I am sorry sure I've been wrong before that but yeah this is just a one-time charge that's the thing on me right sorry I thought I heard just well not it not if we not if we develop our rotation and you know we're really robust maybe a new plan right that's totally different yeah right that would be different and we would try to incorporate it into the operating budget I think that's fine yes yeah it goes right and you know risk mitigation if we can't get these Town fields new funds Capital project Athletic Field renovation and transfer forty

107thousand dollars from District stabilization fund so I'm gonna take a vote all in favor say aye all against any extensions and motion passed stainlessly thank you for your hard work and for any thank you in advance for the coordinating that you'll be doing in the next few months thank you everybody thanks faculty student enrollment requests so thank you Bill Michael no this is how you want to talk about the first night it's not a summer job my wife made it no I mean yeah I can speed up for you so this is a request that comes uh through the teacher's Association contract uh that allows uh members of the mascara Teachers Association to request of the school committee uh to put their children attend uh maskana so we're with one request or a teacher who

108is looking to enroll this child in grade seven for next year um I I had understood well first I had understood that we agreed a couple years ago that we don't need personal letters we just want sorry that's okay I mean I just because I think really all we need to know is is there room in that class um I mean we had raised I thought we thought yeah I mean I don't we had actually put in perspective we had uh set aside 10 school choice slots we've had five students apply so there's still okay some space there and we can still do this even though we do Choice yes and that's part of the CBA it's otherwise we're in grade seven but yeah we don't get the five thousand yeah we don't get any

109reimbursement yeah when does the school choice window close it really doesn't um so at the most we would have 11 including this one to approve this second second all in favor um [Laughter] well this is going to adjourn this movement now against extensions I saw your thunder yeah you did without me Tennessee but at least there sorry switching Windows all right uh so first off congratulations to the girls tennis team uh who on Sunday June 18th won the division two state championship by defeating Westborough uh four to one to complete an undefeated season uh with individual wins by senior Kendall Skokie sorry uh first singles uh senior senior Nina Klink it's second singles and sophomore Tegan skull Scully uh at third singles um economic includes the title um the first doubles pairing of Maya clink

110and Senior Shaylee Moreno also notched The Comeback win uh in the time and this is the second consecutive state championship for the girls tennis team so we want to congratulate them on a great season um also want to recognize uh the retirement of six members of our mask faculty uh Dearborn who's a middle school math teacher uh Sue Mikus middle school health uh Helder of quadros who's a district facilities technician Deb Silva the Middle School main office assistant uh Meg Smith the high school special education teacher and Tom traven in high school English so combine these six retirees represent 135 years of experience and they've touched the lives of literally thousands of astronomic students in that time so we want to congratulate them and give them best wishes as you enter their return as they

111enter their retirement if you check out my blog there's actually some really cool pictures of them when they first started out too so all right and then finally uh 22-23 school year is officially complete uh last Thursday masconomic Middle School marked the end of the school year with its eighth grade moving up ceremony our incoming ninth grade class was welcomed to masconomic high school by incoming principal Ms dinardo and and a high school student council president ravati Nagin after students were dismissed at 10 30 the mass economic teacher Association held its annual end of the year luncheon for all faculty and staff at that luncheon we also recognized all of our retiring faculty members uh last day I worked for teachers was last Friday June 16th and uh not looking forward too far in the

112future but you know uh we'll begin the 23-24 school year with the return of all faculty and staff on Monday August 28th uh students in grades seven and nine will be invited to their schools for orientation on Tuesday August 29th and all students will return to school on Wednesday August 30th so we want to wish everyone uh restful and safe summer yeah thank you anyone have any questions for Mike everyone else sorry I really just want to are you is there going to be another update on the Strategic working group plan uh so there's a there was an update I posted to the strategic planning last Wednesday or Thursday oh not to the regular okay it's up on yeah I didn't see that okay thank you I should have gotten an email I don't think

113I think we got to send the emails out that's the only thing okay trying to figure out how to do that do you have an update on who you have for members of the kickoff meeting coming up I think it was like July 17th for the foreign myself uh we've invited one member from Paris up and I think that's one member and Joe from school okay announcement and then stantec will have their architect their partner in charge their project manager and Sean um their associate planner we're going to move on to subcommittee reports so the first one is community relations um I Patty's not here tonight she wasn't feeling well but I did speak I did email with her and she said she would schedule a formal meeting for some time in office so we're

114looking to have a meeting sometime either next week or in July for our kickoff um send out an invitation today to have people just go back to me with their preferred weeks days times I know there's a lot of vacation coming up but um when you get together and start out by reviewing the uh Capital plan that we had originally looked at way back when uh just to get familiar with it start there and then move on wonderful thank you Jeff um the anti-racism yes uh we haven't met recently but are planning on meeting before the uh the school committee retreat but we continue to work with the tri-town council and developing an event um that will likely take place over the summer essentially uh sharing a TED Talk and title don't call people out

115call them in um basically just to help members of the tri-town communities learn to talk to each other they may disagree strongly about topic they're meeting there's maybe this Saturday isn't it yes thank you Bill um Trevor policy update um we have a meeting scheduled for Friday at 1 pm via Zoom um it's going to be a light meeting just talking about that policy the transportation one and then our goals I did um and we're going to work to schedule another meeting that July 15th I don't think it's gonna end up working um I have documents for you at some point on approved offices okay remind me okay I'm gonna liaison updates so anyone have liaison updates either from CPAC or Shaq or I think silly went to a track meeting which is yeah um

116yeah I mean we kind of took taking the summer off I don't know really know what to share it's mostly it was mostly just kind of trying to figure out the composition of it and um thinking about goals and a lot of the conversation one of the things that we that they talked about is talking about how anxiety it's not necessarily A disorder so maybe next year that there might be like a theme around anxiety and what's normal anxiety that helps you and what's a problem then doing some education around that um and I'm sorry I was going to say for CPAC we should make sure I utilities on now I think are you and Patty yeah just make sure that we get on their email so you know when their meetings are they actually

117did after their meeting and so okay they're gonna keep in touch for the future yeah wonderful I was going to bring in a blast meeting but we didn't have this subcommittee reports me and Kendra had went to the Middleton Middleton hosted a elected and appointed officials open meeting law training and we had gone to that and they're supposed to give us uh the documents they presented and I was going to email them out in a PDF format once I get them so thank you I don't think they've met he's not right no but we're hiring for next week okay that takes us to the consent agenda um so we are proving June 7th 2023 meeting minutes um and warrants in the amount of two million 666.71 representing nine signed since June 7th of 2023. so

118approved consent agenda second second um right so with that the next meeting in April is August 9. and um we'll see you then I hope everybody has a restful July and um our balance is now 2 million and so we um