001e e e all right call order a meeting of the Salem school committee of February 24th 2025 7.m this meeting is taking place in person at 29 Highland Avenue room 227 you can also join via zoom using the link posted in the meeting agenda uh before we begin member Manning oh yes I I would just like to um take a minute to to recognize uh two gentlemen who were longtime Educators here in Salem who we uh lost recently um Charlie Walsh I'm sure there are a lot of you folks who are out in the community if you're watching watching this later who were uh the benefit of Charlie's um care and humor down at the colon school for many years um over 30 years I believe um and I think probably there were people out
002there who children benefited from uh ch's uh um caretaking for them and then the grandchildren um I think if you knew Charlie you knew his sense of humor um one of my something seared into my memory is Charlie on uh St Patrick's J roaming around to every school in the city in his green tights um something that once you see you never forgot um but Jolly was the principal at the Calton he was the principal at the cogwell and at the Sheridan at the same time and at one point he was the principal at the Bentley and um I was starting out in like 72 when he was principal of the colon the cogs and the Shan and looking back I really I'm not quite sure how he did it but he did it and
003then they added the Bentley to it so another more important though maybe in in a different way is that Charlie is one of the very very original founding people of the Salem children's charity and um all through the years supported promoted did everything he could for that and um in fact he was at the uh children's charity this past December so I just want to take a minute to um recognize him and also Charles sheret Charlie sheret who I call Chuck um Charlie was uh Salem person as both Charlie were but Charlie sh Salem person who went to St Joe's I think K to 12 and I only mention that because as time went on and he was working in the system he used to talk about he was glad he had the um bilingual
004programs in his school at the time because he could identify with those students because when he entered school he was um monolingual French speaking and then he then had to go through his own version of the bilingual program um at St Joseph's but he went on to um play football at assumption he went to Woodstock and I know a lot of people My Generation said they were at Woodstock but he really was he had the pictures to prove it um and if you knew Charlie you probably wouldn't have thought that that that was uh in his uh in his past but it was but he began teaching at Salem High as a French teacher and then as a counselor and then he became principal at Middle School East then he came over to Collins when
005we merged and was for many years uh we were co-principals and then he became the assistant superintendent here in Salem and then eventually the superintendent in Asbury um you know two two good men generous and kind and loving um and caring and everything good you could say um so I just would like to take a a a moment of silence to to remember both of them thank you thank you member Manning our first item on the agenda is approval of the agenda uh we do have member Crews participating remotely so all votes will be by roll call vote is there a motion to approve the agenda so moved seconded motion made by member Cornell seconded by member Campbell roll call vote member Campbell yes member Cornell yes member BR member Hoffman yes member Manning yes
006and myself yes matter carries public comment the Salem school committee would like to hear from the public on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of the committee's responsibilities Spanish interpretation is available for anyone who needs it the members of the school committee would like to remind the public that Salem public school students regularly attend school committee meetings we encourage all meeting participants to model respectful and public discourse for our Young Learners is there any public comment in the room seeing none is there public comment online okay are we wait is Cap are we waiting for fy20 to FY 23 uh that Salems are a 10% decline in our state aid share although 40% going down to 30% is a 10% difference that decline is actually much worse than 10% 40
007going down down to 30 is a 25% decline not 10 um next for the board I have a request um you know we've heard terminology that uh we've been treated unfairly uh that the Desi formula is broken and what I would like to see is this board put the Desi formula up there that shows the exact inputs that determines what we get for our for our Aid it's obviously the diminishing the uh student Opportunity Act obviously is not working the way that we've all hoped and I'd like for this board in a public meeting let's show the formula and let's show the actual inputs that are causing us to have a decline in that money uh next my last is a question for the for the chair I don't expect an answer tonight but I
008do expect an answer at a future meeting it's almost two years to the day uh since chair pangallo announced that the Desi formula was broken and it has cheated Salem out of millions of dollars and that he was going to work to fix it I think it's fair to ask him what he has he accomplished and what specific acts has he done over the last two years to help fix this formula thank you any further public comment online all right next item on the agenda is approval of the consent agenda these are the minutes of the special school commune meeting of February 3rd the regular school committee meeting of February 3rd and the school committee Workshop of February 11th the warrants of uh February 6th February 13th and February 20th so move second motion made
009by member Manning seconded by member Cornell roll call vote member Cornell yes member Cruz yes member Hoffman yes member Manning yes member Campbell yes and myself yes uh next item on the agenda is our student representative's report so due to to last week being February break we did not meet and today the adviser was absent so we also did not meet so I don't have anything new to report on within the group itself but I would like to report on the new change to the lunch that was just enacted today um I think overall after everybody like sat down I think it went well I don't think there were any like major problems except for in the beginning when it was hard to get in line and there was a like it was a larger
010traffic jam I would say it was a but I think the extended time that was added on to it makes up for it so I think that today it went well and I think it's a good way of clearing up the schedule and making it more simple thank you any questions all right next item on our agenda is their superintendent report uh yeah thank you good evening everybody um I just have a couple of um uh comments before we uh tackle the largest um topic on the agenda which is our school building project um but um I just wanted to share that um there based on some of the we we shared start and end times for next school year um uh the Friday before break um and well first of all welcome back everybody
011from break I hope everybody had a relaxing uh week but uh we Shar the start and end times and based on some of the input received about the start and end times we may need to make some minor adjustments so we'll be sharing that um uh by the end of this week uh I did want to note that this is the Dominican Independence uh well do Dominican Independence Day is this Thursday um and we are hoping to uh we're asking all our schools to recognize this important day given the number of Dominican students that we have in the Salem public schools um we've shared um Resources with our staff through the teaching and learning uh newsletter uh which focus on resources that focus on History culture and local connections um it includes materials on the
012country's Independence baseball music art and notable figures like marine biologist Delisa Bon and students also um will um learn how the Salem public schools in the City of Salem plan to honor Dominican heritage through or have honored Dominican heritage through murals and traditional um the making of traditional fa faceless dolls munas munas seen rostro and the city's Dominican Independence Day celebration is scheduled for this Thursday February 27th at the Lafayette Square park across from well um across from 135 Lafayette Street at 5:00 pm and what I'm pleased to share is that the Salem High School um brass Ensemble will be performing the Dominican national anthem at that event um I do also want to note um that the commissioner chose not to recommend Salem Academy's request for expansion to the desie to the desie board
013uh because of the hard work of uh many people here uh especially our Educators who have um and our students who uh their their commitment to continuous Improvement and the hard work of the schools over the last few years um I I think I I believe that desie saw that there was no need to Grant the academy um additional seats I want to thank the uh mayor for his advocacy want to thank Burman and the St for their advocacy and all the members of the school committee for their support um and uh you know we we think it's the right result for Salem um I did I also want to note that um tonight we launched adult ESL classes um that are being taught by for some former and current Salem public school Educators Victoria
014Shams Susie Hammond and Megan Mar martines who works at Bates school um we had uh a group of parents for the first how many 15 15 this came from a recommendation from our Latinos for Education cohort that they wanted to see us resume ESL classes um and so um Chris where was it again today B at Bates Elementary and so we had 15 families start uh kick off and they'll be doing that for the we have a series of classes over the next uh few months so um I want to thank Andre fona and Dr talbet for their support and getting um getting the um classes launched I also want to acknowledge some of our athletes our student athletes um and want to call out that uh this weekend Salem High hosted the division 2
015State wrestling tournament um The Witches were well represented with six wrestlers T making the Podi or take you know um reaching the podium and qualifying for all states next week at methan High School uh senior Miguel arcila had a um won his match to become the 150 PB state champion uh I want to also to call out Alexia Coleman Maria Mayo baros who took third place Sophia Fritz who took fourth place Kevin spoon took fifth place and Connor Buckley took sixth place all of them will be representing Salem High School at the um All State all states next week um also want to uh recognize Grant dwire who represented Salem High high school over the weekend at the uh state championship he played second in the 200 individual medley and second in the 500 free
016style earning two person best time so want to call out uh Grant um and then this Friday night the witches are in the basketball playoffs as the seventh seed we will be hosting a home playoff game the team finished the year 16 and four and they will we will be playing the winner of North Reading in Springfield High School of Science and Technology that's quite a ride from Springfield to um Salem if if they are the ones we play but 7 o'cl um at Salem High School um the game is scheduled we're waiting to see who our opponent will be so uh those are just some overall updates um and I want to congratulate all our student athletes for their performances in the last week sure y m uh I know we mentioned we talked
017about this I think at a subcommittee meeting or something but um I was just wondering do we have a Dominican flag that we can fly on Independence Day here across the schools yeah uh I I have one one outside my office but um can we throw it up there that's a great question I don't know we can get them I think pretty quickly yeah there's one in the calf there's one in the calf there's one on my the scho start ripping them off the walls you're suggesting that we fly them at the school yes okay yeah uh well we can order on um Amazon this evening okay um or somewhere yeah I'd like to see if we can get them there's a fly company okay thank you sure um all right so now the uh
018main event tonight is uh we we have um we're joined uh by um our uh two members from our um project management team for the new school building project Margaret Wood and Kim Carter you want to wave there Kim and we're also joined uh by our designer Brooke uh Tas who's also here and we wanted to share with the committee a lot of work has gone in over the last few weeks a lot of time energy by a lot of folks across the Salem public schools who have been working really hard uh with our team who is supporting us through the process in creating our educational plan that needs to go to the msba which Margaret's going to talk about in a moment as well as a space summary for the new high school project
019things are moving at a very fast clip after you voted at the last meeting to support a 9 to 12 facility um this is the next step which we'll be talking about we have Mr Burns here as well and we're going to share with you a little bit about the educational plan and the space summary um so that the school committee is fully informed of everything that's sent forward to the msba in the coming weeks welcome Margaret all right thank you I think this is on right um so while we get the slides sh I just want to say um the effort on this I think I first uh came and spoke to you on November 21st which was not that long ago and the effort um particularly in the last month and a half
020to put together um the educational program and the space summary has been very broadly collaborative and I think very successful so I think the documents that you have before you which are still in a draft format um are really um exactly where we need to be at this point so I'm going to talk a little bit about to for context uh how to ground this can you make me go forward Mark there we go okay so these two pieces um in the the steps of the msba process the very first initial step is What's called the preliminary design program PDP um the uh the pp on a on the whole is what I call a due diligence document so these two pieces are the pieces that are related to the building program but the architectural
021team and all of their Engineers have also assembled a huge amount of existing condition information they've had folks in to look at the building so um there's a the documents that the building committee is going to be reviewing this Thursday and um hopefully authorizing us to submit to the msba are a very large document but these two pieces are really the drivers of the educational aspect of the project so they go hand in hand the educational program is a narrative it's the big fat document on 8 and a half by 11 that's on your desk um and it covers it needs to be both aspirational and particular in the sense that it needs to reflect um how what the district aspires to teach how to teach and how a new building or a renovated building
022might um facilitate that and then the space summary which is this thing which even at 11 by 17 really needs a magnifying glass is as you can see four pages of room by room itemization now I can tell you over the last two months we've had a discussion about practically every one of the spaces that's on this document and we're not going tonight to go through everyone in detail but I think we're going to start and kind of give you an overview of the aspirational part of it and then have an opportunity for you to ask questions about it so those are the two pieces Mark next slide Steve are you gonna talk to this okay Mark can you move me along when I'm ready okay so um we with as with anything uh we
023start with our you know vision statements our um our uh values and in this case because we have a very strong portrait of a graduate uh this was an important part of driving it needs to drive our educational plan a lot of work was done four years ago to develop the portrait of a graduate which Salem High has um adopted not just Salem High but across our high schools it was part of the accreditation work that Salem High School did as well and so we we grounded the Ed plan which you have a hard copy of in front of you and you'll see um uh prominently at the beginning we talk about the uh portrait of a graduate and then we go into our district strategic plan our values and so forth so I just
024want to call out that that um portrait of graduate I think the msba wants to really understand how we have defined Student Success uniquely in Salem based on our um our values and what we want to see from Ed um from our educational programs and our educational system it is not meant to be cookie cutter uh that every District every uh uh municipality has their own beliefs about what uh schools should look like next slide Mark um and we we talked a lot about um as part of the project internally we've talked about the importance of embodying our core VA values of belonging equity and opportunity um in as we designed this project we wanted to make sure that this facility we've talked a lot about how it needs to shape uh not just the
025Salem of today but more importantly the Salem for the next half century and uh we have to have a Forward Thinking uh view of what this building is going to do for the our schools um we also want to build on the fact that right now Salem High School is one of the highest achieving Gateway high schools in the Commonwealth and that is not that is not that's not a exaggeration that's a reality if you stack us up our high school Salem High School with all the other Gateway High Schools Salem I think is if not the I think the second or third highest achieving Glenn has showing me a two um high school and we want to build on that success as we build uh this new high school um and then we know
026that the City of Salem has some very strong uh commitments to net zero positive energy efficiency and that's an important uh goal that we want to strike in this project and I know was one of the reasons we we selected to work with the designer that we uh we did um so with that um to to ground you in some more specifics about the Ed plan that you have in front of you um I turn it over to uh Mr Burns all right thank you all right um so the academic background as you go through it there there are many pages and it really breaks it down um by each content area did I skip ahead to Fox I think no you there academics is right all right it's not CT first no all right
027um and what we've really been doing is um first I want to start off by saying one of the things that has allowed us to get to the place where we are to have a draft um look the way that it does is because we've started school visits and that's really opened our eyes as to um to what's possible and not just trying to to recreate the space that we already have and just make it new um and that's been that's been a huge shift in the thinking from some of the people that have gone and we're we'll continue to visit schools in the upcoming weeks that are new builds um to to get further to generate further ideas um but some of the big things are we're really diver we have a really diverse
028student body um and with that is we want to make sure our that everybody feels included and that spaces are are used in such a way that students no matter what program that in in our school still feel part of the school um so adjacencies so the first bullet point is adjacencies of space to encourage interdisciplinary Project based learning so we have one we have the the teachers where our teachers are our space and how are they able to work together and that's a big part and right now salm high is Traditional School it's a big box multiple boxes if you walk down the the hallways um and that doesn't really lend itself to real collaboration and while we have these huge hallways going down it's not a lot of usable common space they're they're
029hallways and if we put things in the hallways you know we we are are breaking fire code and we'll get cited for that so we don't want to be doing that either um so giving teachers the the correct spaces where they're working with their colleagues together and then giving them um common spaces where kids are able to get together and work is really something that we're we're looking forward to and our teachers for the last couple of years have been working um collaboratively uh in PD sessions um the math teams use building thinking classrooms which is all about flexible spacing and how important Furniture is and how kids are writing and how the the mind works on different writing spaces and um there's a lot of science behind that and um and then we've worked
030across all content areas with flexible grouping so using student data and where students are at to appropriately group them and get them the supports that they need and that's a big part about where Salem High is and we have a really strong co- teing model so many of our classrooms especially along the lines of of special education we aren't segregating and secluding students with disabilities we're incorporating them and what does that space look like and how are they able to engage in content and how do we best utilize multiple teachers in one classroom um so that's really a part of uh our step one and what you'll see in the in the the document that you have in front of you um multiple venues for ongoing exhibition showcasing presentations of high quality Scholars work that's
031a big piece like we have a lot of great spaces that are not spaces that we can necessarily use on an ongoing basis basis to celebrate student work or what students are doing or showcasing like we're not we have a great robotics room we have a great engineering facility if you walked by it you wouldn't know it was either of those things um and those are some of the the key pieces like our our student body doesn't necessarily always know all of the courses that are being offered because we're not able to appropriately showcase the things that we're doing um and that also goes for how do we get our adult Learners into the building to utilize some of the cool things that we are doing and so we have one realm through CTI that
032we're able to do that but having appropriately spaced and located classrooms um it gives us the added benefit of getting more community members access um to these things and and certifications to uh either um improve their standing within a current Corporation or or job that they're working or to get the the job that they'd like to have um multiple teaching walls to allow small group teaching I I touched on that a little bit lightweight ergonomic and flexible Furniture so Furniture that's easily moved within the classroom so the schools that we visited um they're not brand new schools it's not like their first year so we're looking at furniture that's been around for like four or five years now in great shape floors that look good and they're constantly moving the furniture in the classrooms and
033those are things that we'd like to to be able to move forward um with at Salem High School um and then spaces that support collaborative high-tech tech programs we have a lot of incredible programs and we've made spaces work um and in recent years we've been able to Make spaces work because we have a incredible CT program that's helping us build out some of those spaces uh our electrical program W wires up all of the things that we need um and but they're making things work they're putting holes in walls and they're they're doing what they need to do to make um a building that wasn't made for this type of Technology work for us another big piece of this programming is the CTE spaces um currently our CTE many of our CTE spaces not
034all of them obviously our Auto Salerno building was was created to be an auto uh to be a mechanic shop um but many of our other CTE spaces were not created for what they are today there were traditional classroom spaces that we've renovated um the one that comes to mind is our electrical room where it was a two classrooms put together we've now gutted one of the classrooms and we have a a full one-story um house in it uh all studded out so kids can practice um before they go out onto Co-op or uh on internships um but most of our spaces have been um internally gutted by our CT program and our numbers are only growing so these spaces while they they made sense for what we have and we're able to use traditional
035classroom spaces that's not moving moving forward that's not necessarily going to be the case as salm high four three and a half years ago we were at 798 students now we're climb we just climbed over 970 and by the end of the year we'll probably be at 980 closer to a th000 um and next year we're looking at another large class from all indicators so we'll probably cross that thousand Kid Mark um so these spaces are no longer going to be feasible for the amount of kids that are taking these classes um Performing Arts that's when many of us have spent a lot of time watching our our Performing Arts um uh programs and while our Auditorium is huge um it doesn't meet the needs of the things that are happening in that space and
036what I mean by that is when we do a play if you look up in in the S we're renting all of the lights the electrical in the room doesn't actually service or do the things that we need it to do so we have wires running across the hallway um from electricians that bring power into our into our space um the so and we never use the Stag you everything is in front of the stage and on the floor um and that's by by Design because our seats are so far away from away from the stage it's they say an 1800 square foot platform there which is great for some uses um when the when color guide is coming into practice and the band wants to use it to practice but but for theater it's
037it's not a practical space that that we want and then other things that we don't have in the school we don't have um dressing rooms we we don't have proper lighting or sound like we've purchased everything and kind of uh made it all work um and we don't have as many of you know proper HVAC in there so there's not proper Heating and Cooling um we have a system that's hooked up outside of the building that blows hot air in and when it gets hot outside we don't have any AC in there so fortunately we're out for the summer um so just to go back to that things that we we've been asking for or some of the asks are an updated theater um as well as a blackbox theater and the blackbox theater it's
038not just for theater it's um it'd be about a 200 person it' be for faculty meetings and a variety of other things and that's in in in the paperwork that that you have some of the uses that that that could help us out with as well as Color Guard practices um cheerleading practices a bunch of different opportunities for kids to use that space um and then student supports these are just some of the programs and things that we do use um one of the great things about Salem high school and one of the things that I'm most proud of is we are such an inclusive School uh we are a unified um Champion school and that's not just the title and we didn't just checkbox and say well we need to do these things to
039get this Banner um it's really a mantra that the school um does live by and and our kids are able to participate in everything that they want to participate in and we find a way to support them and that comes down to our adjacencies what are the spaces that we actually we have to make make sure that this type of collaboration these classrooms can operate and run like our UniFi Champion where we our gym as big as our failed house is it's one big space and it doesn't have dividers in it so you're using this big space and we have project Adventure we have Lifetime Fitness we have Unified sports and it's really hard to get all of those things in during the day and give people their space where they can be safe as
040many of you know our our back gym or our small gym um is a basketball court which is great but on the other side of that court is a weight room you can't use both spaces at the same time because it's not safe kids miss a basketball it's it's pops over to the weight room side and kids lifting weight can get hurt um so there there are there is space there but it's not always usable space and we can't use all of our spaces at one time because of the setup and just how we've had to make things work um other programs um that we have that many that are just in classrooms and don't necessarily have the right design or the right fit is our hawthor program which is uh a program that's really
041helpful with transitioning kids typically from hospitalization back into school and we build out um schedules that work for the student and there's a safe adult there that's helping them to that's tutoring them helping them keep up with work and as they're comfortable transitioning back into a full school schedule um we have connect for Success which is for um students typically in ninth grade and some in 10th that have really struggled with the transition the high school and we have adults there that are supporting them and those adults go between their classroom right now and um supporting them in their their core academic classrooms um crew which is our advisory period And while we love crew and it's great when they're all in their small groups we've wanted to bring Crews back together um but it's
042really hard to find the appropriate space or the common space where Crews have a a space that they that they own um or multiple Crews and that they can they can like kind of make it their own or share or have a team um that's really hard at the the high school currently and in our career in um our College and Career counseling um who hosts workshops provide providing onetoone support and mentors we have a hard time finding places for for these workshops and there's a variety it's not the traditional they go into a classroom and they just present there's also virtual College workshops that the college tells us during this time sign into these things um and we'll usually have 20 30 sometimes 40 kids sign up for those things where it's not big
043enough to use the whole Auditorium and though we sometimes we have to we'll set up sound and whatnot but it's not small enough also just the fit no classroom space so having that conference room space where we don't have to shut down our library or shut down other spaces is would be really important also a nice space to bring parents into for these meetings um for these opportunities um and then student supports just how are we um Distributing or how are we placing again adjacencies of classrooms for our mul multilingual Learners how are we placing the teachers where are the teachers um because they're part of the community they're not an add-on to our community um and so that's really important understand the way Salem High School is set up now it's very easy to
044not feel part of the community because there's certain wings that only have a few classrooms in and we utilize all of our classroom spaces and we need to they're not all because we've made so many different things happen in our classroom space like we have a traditional classroom space that is now our theater classroom so they'll build stuff in that classroom space CU we don't you're either in the theater which we can't just build and take that use that just for theater because so many other programs need to use that space um so that's really important that for our multilingual Learners is where we able to place these classrooms and make sure that they feel like they're part of our community um and then we I have already talked about special educ ation and making
045sure that um that they have fully functional spaces that support their development of functionality and that goes back to we have every program at Salem High School and it's really important that these spaces are created with the newest technology um that are developmentally appropriate for the kids that are utilizing that space um and right now we're doing a good job we're doing the best that we can with what we have and we invest a as we do but this is a great opportunity to upgrade all of those spaces and give our kids the best um and then one of the things that I do attribute um the the academic Rise um at Salem High School too is a Salem High educated learning lab so we have teachers that opt into um an embedded within their
046day their school day embedded teacher training program um and every semester it re-ups and there are certain things that they go over and then they they're in each other's classroom they're giving each other feedback it's something that I'm really proud of that our coaches uh run and oversee um and it's really important that we have h a space that's dedicated to them that is that they're able to you know share their stuff keep stuff up on the wall walls and that it's really an adult space and not just for students um and they're sharing their training and and what's going on and their our next steps as a school and sometimes there's there's student data up on the wall and things like that so that's a a space that um needs to be created we
047use right now a traditional classroom um but again we can get a certain amount of adults there the program's already beyond that so we've divided up the program over multiple periods of the school day versus getting everybody in there at once based on the space that we have all right right any questions or yeah Brooke this y this is you Brooke good evening school committee and members of the public I'm Brooke Tris from Perkinson will the design representing the design team um in front of you you have a very uh compressed slide of the very lengthy as Margaret said four-page program and I want to make sure everybody knows how to read this program and I think you do but do you want further clarification on this summary so let me just explain that in
048front of you is the new construction option for 9 through 12 we will be doing an educational uh space summary for 7 through 12 as well so we are obligated to look at code upgrades renovation Edition which we will have a summary for that and that really will include the large Fieldhouse and small gym only for reuse and new construction for ease of the discussion this is a new construction option so what you have on that slide is a compressed version of all of the sort of major departments what you have in front of you are is all of the detail the First Column is called existing conditions as you can see and that represents the spaces that you have we're still working through all those spaces because there are a lot of them the
049middle three columns um that's the new construction option and that really delineates all of the space needs that we've received to date so the far left of the middle column it says um room NFA net floor area that's the square footage of the space then the number of rooms is in the middle column and the total square footage is um the the multiplication obviously of the room net square footage and that's the usable space inside the walls and then the total the msba guidelines is what the msba will allow without much dispute uh that doesn't include special ed because that's District by district and you have a particular you have a lot of needs in the special education program so that is delineated on this plan very clearly it also doesn't include the CTE program
050which you will support on this document everything that's gray is not in the msba guidelines so those are additional needs that you have in at the salum high school that the um educational narrative will support so that's really sort of the major things to look at there's a total net square footage and that's the usable Square footage of the building so right now we're looking at about uh 279,000 I don't like those off numbers 280,000 net use net square footage that's usable and then there's what we call a grossing factor a multiplier that's 1.5 and that includes everything like toilets stairs circulation by the way your building now has 20 foot wide Carters 20 foot I count of the know we measured that and all those other um closets uh custodial closets Etc that is
051in that grossing Factor so if you have 280,000 net square feet and if you multiply by 1.5 you're about 42,000 square fet right now um this is still a draft and there are some things we're looking at because there are some areas where you have a lot of need and we think you can be more efficient as you write this new program and I will say everybody has been looking at like Margaret said every single line item at multiple levels with multiple people so there may be a need requested by the um director of a program but then that goes to other people who vet and and really question the need so that is uh the summary of this program I think the principal gave a great outline of what's in this at a high
052level and if you have any particular questions or if you want to go through it I really leave that up to the the committee to inquire questions M Manning I do have a couple um on page if I could just refer to page three yes thank in the section on um health and physical education yes and I'm sure there's an explanation a little unclear on it though The Fifth Line down in that section the fourth line down I'm sorry where it talks about locker rooms yes boys and girls um but it only lists under new construction um one room and and then again out under what the guidelines allow one room so I'm not sure but the boys and girls and the one room right I mean that's it's two but it's it's taken right
053from the msba it's they're saying one but we break that down into two spaces so I could right I could divide it in half and say you know 800 oh so this is the total footage for both it is oh okay so in all the cases where you see white we were carrying the msba guidelines over any case where where you see the grayish color we have made increases so for example we carried the the gymnasium requirement or guidelines for a gymnasium is 12,000 and we haven't built a 12,000 squ ft gymnasium in a while it doesn't allow for three practice courts and one competition court so we're recommending 18,000 your existing large Fieldhouse is 188 so you're you're good there so thank you for that clarification but it is divided in two and then
054I had another I had two more of the same SE on in the auditorium drama section yes I see the square footage for the uh proposed Auditorium um but do you know the remember the seating that that it it's about 690 typically we get out of that once you get the so we may be able to squeeze 700 but is that counting seats like there are now like the the thousands that we the Thousand we have now counts the seats and the flat area will there be a flat area or is that 600 total so the 600 are the seats total yes okay and is the design to the point where we know yet is it all you know the we haven't designed it yet but you flat but in the middle no well are
055you talking about the front at the like there is now in the present one we we can talk about that we don't we haven't designed the auditorium yet but we will look to um I mean we you know there's a lot of discussion around Orchestra pits and what happens at the front and we'll be able to have that conversation with you okay so that's still up in the air okay we did increase the size of the stage because we've done a lot of these really remarkable stages that both support the actors as well as the back of house students who are interested in Lighting in the backup house and we find that the stage needs to be a little bigger than the msba standard so we did increase that yeah that that was my other
056question actually the the proposed stage is 35 by 80 do we know could do you know what the stage now is just so have an idea of how that compares stage proportions now I I don't have it off hand but this is this is a wider and deeper or yes okay it's I wouldn't say wider this stage is pretty wide but it's it's the exact proportions we work with a theater consultant and this stage gives you the right proportions for any kind of musical it's more like a Broadway stage size thank you remember Cornell uh Brooke I just I realized that this hasn't come up yet at the um at the building meetings uh about gender neutral spaces for changing areas and restrooms and I'm I'm assuming that's going to come up at some point
057so um but I'm just curious like when in the conversation um in our in our uh the building committee meetings will we start kind of talking through that what we want our bathroom spaces to look like our locker room spaces so that all of our students feel comfortable and included yes we will absolutely have all gender facilities throughout and how that's done is really a discussion it's actually a pretty lengthy discussion we will have all gender uh facilities within the locker room so students can uh have a sense of safety and and comfort we also provide um typically all gender restrooms right before you go into the main multi stall restroom rooms and there are other ways to do restrooms it's a long conversation how far you want to go with it you can go
058as far is saying we have stalls and we have sinks you can go into that's a very nice way to do it but not schools aren't always ready to manage that um we can also have the individual all gender toilets right before the bathroom so you can just duck go into those uh bathrooms comfortably so this is a full conversation that but we expect to have it with you and we expect to have those types of facilities throughout the building but like I said everybody has a different they'll be there they'll be there at the main um multi-stall bathrooms they'll be in all the changing facilities um the dressing rooms they'll they'll it'll all be covered to what extent and how that will the convers and I would imagine just like with everything else the
059msba gives us like here's here's your x square footage that we're going to pay for and then you can configure this it's in the grossing Factor okay so it's typically all the toilets are in that 1.5 M so if you have that to what was it 280,000 the 50% of that is that grossing Factor where we uh create the the bathrooms and the circulation and the all gender and okay all those spaces that are required as as part of the functionality of the building okay great thank you well we look forward to that conversation it's it's it'll take a whole subcommittee it'll be a subcommittee yes please um so on the first page at the top section for core academic you listed a space called book storage what do you refer to as book storage
060that's an existing space and if you look on the first three columns under existing they're listed there but we didn't carry those over because we're going to find that those the book storage will be within other spaces within the building so it may be within teachers rooms there may be cabinets in various classrooms and other rooms and where books will be stored Library the media center okay and those are like textbooks in the space existing the school or just now they're probably probably different textbooks that you have and different books that teachers use okay thank you a lot of class so in every classroom we imagine well we typically have shelving and Cabinetry and books could be stored there you want to say something about the classroom sies that's sure there are a couple of
061things that are required to be within a range and uh on the guidelines and the general class room is at 900 square fet I think it ranges from 8 to 950 um we picked a 900 so you can you know work uh do Project based learning collaboration the rooms aren't just to stand up and deliver classroom which you have some smaller classrooms now you have about 25 classrooms at 7115 square fet and you have nine classrooms at 840 so you have small classrooms and it's hard to move around in those smaller spaces and and do the kind of uh collaborative environments that we and you would like to see as noted in um the prior conversation so that those are um 900 square F feet we also carry 1,440 square feet for science rooms and
062that's an msba standard yeah yeah just a couple things on that I think it is important this classroom space um we while we have enormous corridors we have small classrooms and uh it is tight in those rooms uh with Big B big bodies the bodies keep getting bigger over time uh too as um and so we it's tight in some of the and we're restricted but you know generationally taller I don't mean wider I meanall you didn't mean biger sorry um but it St it is a it is an issue uh when you walk through those rooms it is very tight with all the furniture so that is significant and important that the class um classrooms will be bigger um for in this in and and the corridors will be smaller I will also just
063point out that um I'm glad Mark is here we are one of your colleagues is going to join the student Advisory Group next week to talk more with students about this just be this is an important document but it's still iterative um and I know we want to get more input from students and so I just want to point out that um I I forget the name of your Dr atlin and I'll try to be there as well oh you're going to try oh great uh because I think we want students to weigh in on on on this and so mark this won't be your only crack at this and I just need to give a special shout out please report back to all the students how incredibly well they did on the surveys I
064don't have all it with me but we were up over past 550 surveys which is unprecedented and I hope we have more so thank you and we learned a lot so that was great work and that was going to be my last point is can we get that those survey results to the committee so they can see what teachers had to say students had to say and families there's a whole graphic component to that and we'll work on that this week other questions member Cornell yeah I just um I want you to know Mark I care about more parts of the building in the bathroom but now I'm I'm hung up in the bathroom but um I think that would that step definitely something where where I mean every student input is important throughout but
065I think as as people who are using spaces you know like bathrooms and changing rooms I'm I would hope that you all could include that in your conversation I'd like to hear your feedback um you know because I know there are concerns about you know vaping in the bathrooms and you know all manner of bathroom things so um if you could just sort of keep that on your agenda thank you and sometimes last couple of schools we did more airport style so there weren't doors I know there's another District nearby I think they took the doors off the the multi-stall um bathrooms and we'd like to design it so you don't have to do that and there's it's it people feel safe within the bathroom other questions so just to clarify um if something is
066in the proposed new construction program on this table but it's not reflected in the msba guidelines that doesn't necessarily mean the msba wouldn't provide reimbursement it means that you need to provide a narrative make a case for it and make a case for it and it doesn't mean they'll 100% accept your case special ed shouldn't be an issue CTE shouldn't be an issue if you really support and provide the narrative and the utilization why it's necessary for teaching and learning then you'll you'll put that forward it's a negotiation um at the school I'm a Science Guy intern and I work in the Hydroponics room and I noticed that there wasn't a like specific room on here that listed that is that included in like prep room or classroom or it is included um it is
067there it's under um environmental science I think it's under the environmental science science and techology lab no um oh I see it I think it's in that room the vocations in technology yes yes as we did see that room and I think that's I think it's within that space But I will check for you and report back is your name Mark Mark I'll report back to you mark all right thank you remember man I just have one more as I'm thinking more about the auditorium and I'm thinking about when Mr Burns was talking about the population growing um 800 now or 900 and probably a th000 and yet we're planning a 600 seed Auditorium is that because of a financial constraint or is that actually a intentional what we want um it is maybe I
068should ask Glenn not you well I want to tell you where it came from and I'll tell you what you can do most districts even though they're large still have that size Auditorium it's part of the msba guidelines and people stick to it so um if you want a large you can you can have what you want and and it has to be supported but you'll have to pay for that and even in our larger facilities they do have an auditorium that size and they haven't taken the step to they had the same issue that you could have a lot of people in your gym if you group when we built this this place and it was quite a while ago but we had over a th000 students but we got another Auditorium that seats
06934 330 340 but the rationale was because there was a thousand seat Auditorium right up the road for the city so now there'll be no Auditorium for the city in the city larger than the 600 yeah please that's why I'm just s of thinking about it okay um yeah Mary that's a really good point and I think we need to discuss that a little bit I know that in a prior District I was in uh the W when I was in Wakefield that was a conversation when they built the new new Middle School that they because they used that facility for town meeting for instance they made the decision to uh build a larger Auditorium it wasn't reimbursed past a certain amount but that is a discussion that the building committee should probably have this
070school committee um needs to discuss because um because we made the decision here for a grade level fits which was okay for the middle school yeah that was good that was okay right but we had the Thousand Cedar and you would lose that and now if it's 6 600 that's you know yeah about 690 typically if you can get out of that square footage going to be a stretch from a yeah I me thousand I know we've talked about making sure that the Fieldhouse could accommodate the whole school um in one place but that doesn't answer it is a different that's right Ambiance to say you know right and so I think that's worth more discussion I don't I don't know sort of uh that may be a building committee and then to the school
071committee again about the need for that like I don't know how much the fil ammonic gets on on an average but I know that it's popular you know those kind of uses just are there other are there other uses where would be all I'm not sure I'm just I'm thinking more of like the students and the the plays I mean the place is filled on plays and that's the thousand seats so you know it's y um I just think we should look at that again thank you uh I was deputized uh to continue oh thank goodness he's back great you know how I like to be in charge of things I think we're done we done further questions there was one more slide oh you sure uh there was about visit touched that's all right
072yeah oh yeah so I can I mean I could do this we just uh Glenn had mentioned that um his team had gone to a few schools already and we're grateful for the uh team at um Salem High um but also to Brooke who helped and Margaret who helped facilitate those visits to Bara high school and Belmont High School 1 to 7 to 12 1 to 9 to 12 but we also think that it's a good idea to schedule opportunities for school committee members who are interested in seeing some um uh new construction or new buildings um at some point and so we wanted to facilitate that we maybe we'll throw surely we'll work on throwing some dates out um uh for places for school committee members I know everybody's got busy schedules but maybe
073we can at least provide some options for people to go and see other buildings I know uh Glenn mentioned that his team will continue to visit I know they found that very I think we saw a turn in our ability to write this Ed plan once we they they had a vision of what things could look like in newer facilities and we think that that as we get you know more defined and clearer about what we want that uh having some visual models is important um and so it's helpful to see things that you you know Brooks firm has uh designed um and so we'll be uh offering that to all of you in the coming days and weeks yeah and just to tell you both of those auditoriums are like this one okay same
074size similar fly law stage 6 about 690 okay right so and and Bill and Belmont's they're both big much larger schools Belmont is much larger and Bill rck is larger so they had the similar discussion but they ended there for you to see that yeah and that's one of things you want to come up here um to miss Manning's Point that's one of the things that I believe we brought up maybe a couple building committee meetings ago was that our Auditorium isn't just used for the school that it has a high city use and that the shows and whatnot do exceed some of the smaller schools and and B the principal did talk to us he was on the building committee and um he said that well we we opted to say if we can
075get our whole school into the gym and they put larger um stands into their gymnasium um but we use our school differently than they do our our school is is a a community Hub where our Auditorium is rented out on the weekends by large groups um the city uses it for um everything including like Paul tuck as inauguration and um and those type of things so those are things where to your point that you might want to spend a little bit more time to think um because you can't do those events in our gymnasium um it'll fit the people it just won't have the right fail or Ambiance can I ask um yeah do uh either of the schools have chapter 74 programs no they did not so um and that was one of the
076things that so we're setting up a tour down on the Southshore dery High School which is a larger Urban high school but they do have um a similar amount of CTE uh programs Somerville um which is another high school that that's similar to to us uh a little bit larger than us but has CTE programs um so we're going to check out a few of those those schools too see how they fit but also the the design and really a lot of it comes down to also where we want these places located within our building and the adjacencies and that's one of the things that when you've been working in the mindset where everything is like people were we were talking to the PE teachers for instance they were just trying to renovate the field
077house it's like it's going to look it can look wildly different it's not just throwing up some walls inside the field house and and dividing it up that um so yeah we will be visiting um some uh Comprehensive High Schools as well as some uh just Vocational High Schools than I guess I keep having on one more question but I think I'm not sure it might have been Steve that that said would setting up some tours maybe for the school committee at other places Brooks uh team has designed and I'm wondering I mean does it have to be that we go to places that that team has designed or shouldn't we just be able to go to high schools that you know because we're trying to get an idea of a big picture sure of
078what things could look like so doesn't matter if we're looking at a school that Brooke designed or a school that you know Sam Smith designed or that we're just looking at a different high schools to get a really broad image of what things could be like I I I don't I'm not sure we need to be limited to going just to the ones they've designed because it would give us maybe a broader idea of what other what other schools are like you know yeah I agree nothing personal no Brooke is on board with that um she we're able when we called up Bel R we actually didn't know was a Perkins and will Design okay yeah schools let you Belmont Brooke helped us um and the individual that gave us our tour was the H
079head of their building committee because there aren't a lot of people at the school level that were still around when the school was was going through process um so their head of their building committee is the one that gave us the tour and that was great to hear from him on why they built spaces the way they did and he did that but um to to Brook's Point like to see all of the schools that are new builds and really get an idea um because Brooke keeps telling us well we we'll do what you want y um so it's really important so I just didn't want to be limited that it had to just be certain schools that we go see maybe some might be closer or you know whatever just one more thing I
080think I just have a question for the committee um what what the what we thought was uh we wanted to give you this material we're still working on as Brooke mentioned and as Margaret mentioned we're find finalizing and fine-tuning the Ed plan and the space summary but we wanted to know uh we do have a meeting next Monday um um and then there was obviously a meeting two weeks after that if the committee because we want to give you time to digest this information to read through it I mean if you want to read all 67 pages of this document um and whether you'd like us to put this back on the agenda next Monday or wait until March 17th uh so that you know you can ask any follow-up questions before we submit this
081to the msba and before you answer that question just a little bit of larger context about this so as I said at the beginning we're about to make this PDP submitt the due diligence submittal so the next step that the building committee will take up is look at the options that the design team is developing and at the end of that process the building committee will vote on a particular option so this is the ideal time for everybody to be going and looking and thinking about this um as part of the submitt that that What's called the preferred schematic report PSR report um which we're going to submit in June we will be submitting an update to this right so this this you should think of this right now this is a draft um and
082I think the one thing that I've heard tonight that I think we really do want to change is to probably increase at least for the draft the auditorium area because it's harder once you've made the submittal to enlarge things and to shrink them right so that's something we'll take up with the building committee but it isn't the last time you're going to see this it's you're really voting on a draft that's part of the due deal Ence just as we've sort of looked at you know where there's ledge on the site and how many square feet the existing bits like a sort of it's a it's a baseline condition so I don't want you to feel as though in taking a vote to submit this to the msba you're sort of giving up your control
083of it because we'll be coming back with it for revision so I think that being said I mean given the timing of the meetings and our next meeting is literally in week a week y won't be yeah it might be I think beneficial to just put this on for the second meeting okay put it to put it to the second yeah the second meeting of March unless are objections great good thank you all very much um thank you uh you you want to mention the evaluation uh well is on the agenda yeah I think the evaluation is being moved to next next week's meeting is that right thank thank you mayor thank you superintendent yes I I'll submit them for the record uh to the secretary following this meeting and then uh we'll be prepared
084to present the composite uh at the next uh meeting and just wanted to thank you all uh for getting uh your evaluations in uh and yeah looking forward to discussing next week I think just by way of process what usually follows uh the uh evaluation uh in the and the discussion of the composite would then be conversations about um the superintendent's goals for the upcoming school year so once we get through this lug of it uh there we we do move into the next phase of uh working on uh creating joint goals so just uh wanted to make sure that for members of the committee that uh I know we have at least one member it'll be the first time completing the evaluation that's what we'll move to uh in the upcoming uh in the
085upcoming months all right thank you member Cruz we'll set aside a lot of time for the evaluation I have a lot of notes superintendent bring the hammer looking forward to it just a gav um finance and operations report uh just two quick notes one is um on Thursday as part of Dominican independence day we'll be serving a special lunch for um in celebration of Dominican Independence Day so we hope all students will enjoy that um and then just to note that at the next school committee meeting we'll be bringing an update on the FY 25 budget I know we're very focused on next year but we'll be bringing some transfers to you related to this year's budget thank you anything else from your no that concludes my report subcommittee reports NE the subcommittee chairs have
086reports to share out you do okay member Corell I just wanted to offer an explanation for committee members about the directory information changes so um they're included at the bottom of the packet but after some discussion with Council we have we are recommending a revision to uh authorization to release directory information it's it is Guided by federal and maass law about what kinds of information we can or we have the authority to release about students um and it included a whole lot of things um and so um what we're recommending is that we uh reduce it to uh we can sort of Define what directory information means uh so for our purposes in this District we are kind of defining it in in a more simple way than than had previously um been outlined where
087we say that directory information uh includes name grade level honors and awards received and parents and Care parents and Guardians uh can at any time opt out of uh that that um you know what is it called the directory information um I I don't really it's I wish I had a better way of saying this uh the directory information list um and we took out a separate section that made um parents and Guardians opting out of directory information really onerous and it was like three sentences long and we just took it out and uh recommend that the superintendent let us know what the process is at each individual school and communicate communicate with uh principes and school leaders about how they should give their parents and Guardians notice about how to do that so it's
088if you read it it's not um we we had quite sort of a long conversation about it because it's a little tricky kind of un parsing out State law versus what we have control over so um I hope I was remotely clear but if anybody has any questions Dr yeah I just want um that was no that was is about as clear as it can be because it's not it's not intuitive um we are going to um do a push once the committee passes or if they pass this um we are going to make a push to go back out to families around whether they want um their directory information shared or not and explain it to them it's part of the back to school forms um that sometimes get lost because there's a lot
089of stuff that goes out but um you know there given that there's you know concerns about what information schools are sharing out with um with uh you know the public um at this moment in time this is uh we want to reiterate to families what our po now what our new policy will likely be and then what option what rights they have about whether they want it to be released or not so uh once we get U you know I think after the third you know the third reading then we would go out I've already talked to Mark about how we would uh do a blast out to families about um about uh designating what they what they want in terms of the release of directory information great any further questions no further subcommittee reports
090under motions and resolutions we have second reading of policy 52140 graduation requirements and competency determination uh move to approve policy 52401 second for a second read sorry motion made by member Cornell seconded by member Campbell roll call vote member Cruz yes member Hoffman yes member Manning yes member Campbell yes member Cornell yep and myself yes uh next we have uh policy 52151 directory of information on students first reading motion to approve seconded motion made by member Cornell seconded by member Campbell uh a roll call vote member Hoffman yes member Manning yes member Campbell yes member Cornell yeah member Cruz yes and myself yes um we are postponing item three under motions and resolutions superintendent's evaluation to next week's meeting item nine any announcements from committee members member Cornell I think I have to call this
091a point of personal privilege I don't know I'm sure uh member crw can tell me uh I I just I wanted to bring to the school committee's attention a conversation that I had with Dr zrike uh regarding establishing or or starting uh school committee newsletter and sort of social media presence because we don't have one and Dr re said it's not uncommon for districts to have that kind of communication that comes directly from the school committee and I think particularly over the course of the next year or two we have a lot of really difficult budgetary decisions to make um and I I think we need a a point of direct communication with families in a way that we don't have right now um that's our specific voice that's not going through the superintendent per
092se uh so how we do that maybe I'd like if we could throw that on a on a school committee agenda um it's a little tricky because we can't you know collaborate I think probably two of us could I know two of us who like to write and edit and edit each other and pick it words so I feel like I don't want to volunteer mem Manning but uh I feel like you know I may have already um but this is sort of just a broader conversation about what that would look like um how we could do that responsibly how we can manage to sort of capture uh what our work in one voice none of which is easy but uh personally I feel like this is kind of the time the time to do
093it so I just wanted to bring that to folks attention that this is a conversation I I've had with Steve sort of over and uh actually the uh our school committee counsil as well um who recommended that we do this too so if we could stick it on the maybe not the next agenda because won't be at that meeting um but the one after that right so we'll put on next week we'll put on the Mary can say no the second meeting of March as well on that conversation uh further announcements I believe member Cruz do you have yeah thank you mayor uh I just wanted to uh share with members of the committee that uh last week uh I was approached by um secretary Tutwiler uh our secretary of education and he's asked uh
094if I would be willing to serve as the uh as a non-voting member of the desie commissioner search uh and I've agreed to do so um so I just wanted to inform members of the committee and members of the public that I will be serving on that search committee shouldn't have any impact uh on my role as a school Committee Member uh but my my larger uh I think ask of members of the committee uh I I value all of your opinions um obviously throughout different parts of the process uh I'll be engaged in an executive Search that will be uh confidential uh but if you all have any uh you know burning priority areas uh for the state whether it's the funding formula or other pieces that you'd like to make sure get raised
095uh throughout the interview process um happy to uh consider those so I I would just ask uh if members of the committee um want to set up um time with me or just shoot even me an email about particular priority um areas I'd be happy to entertain those as well thank you member Cruz and congratulations on the uh selection to be on that committee Dr yeah I just would also like to um let the community know and the school committee is that on Friday I will be um meeting at nagley with students and families we've done this annually to get input on how the school system can better serve um the lgbtq plus Community um and so from 4 to 6 uh I've been invited by Tony um to come down and I think other
096members will be um from the team will be there as well um and so I we I found it productive to have those discussions and uh it's always good for us to hear how we can improve and better serve um different members of our community so just want to call that out and I um yeah so that H that's happening on Friday from 4 to 6 there are no further announcements our final motion motion to Second motion made by member Campell second by member Cornell roll call vote member Manning yep member Campbell yes member Cornell yes member Cruz yes member Offman yes and myself yes we're adjourned thank you everyone e e e