Scituate School Committee Meeting - 03-11-2024

001you're all set have a good meeting thank you all right the situ school committee is committed to providing an environment of respect during meetings we ask all members to interact in a polite manner even when there is disagreement we value the participation of our community and want all participants including marginalized and minoritized communities to feel welcomed and respected we ask our committee members and all who participate to commit to these standards to support and respect our community uh all right I will call the March 11th C school committee meeting to order 602 and we will start here with public comment yes SRA Hi l with 62 just so the folks in Zo can see here Hi l with 62 and vinyl Road I have a few things that I wanted to comment on tonight please

002the first thing I wanted to comment was I wanted to give a shout out to the gates drama club they had a phenomenal um performance this weekend I actually don't have anyone that was in it but my husband and I always try to support different um groups whether it's sports or drama in and we go every year and it's every time we leave and we say we can't believe this was a middle school performance so if you did not go or you have not been to any performances in the past you go it's it's worth every dollar to support the kids they put in so much effort and it really is a wonderful performance so just a little shout out I know I usually have high school shoutouts from the school but something from the

003Middle School is that that was just really really great and my second one is about the hatherly Cushing school project I have attended many many meetings from the start of this and quite frankly not many people from the public are in attendance I don't know how many people are watching but this is just a shout out to all of the registered voters and residents of situ this project there's already been a lot of money and effort put into this project and I'm asking you to please get involved please show up the I am someone that asks a lot of questions I always have I've been a parent in this district for a very long time and I've asked questions and they're answered and I just asked a question last week I got a very very

004thorough answer back the committee listens this is a this is a very expensive project but it's needed it's needed in this town and I'm asking to please not just show up on April 29th and not have the information and to not look at the needs of our town for these two buildings so if you cannot attend a meeting please watch the recordings please reach out to the people on the committee they are very responsive to answering so I'm just asking and those of you who are supportive please get involved there is not very many weeks left until that meeting but this is already a lot of money and effort that's been put into this project so if you are supportive please help please get involved and please do what needs to be done for the

005town of situ to show that we are putting Education First thank you on that and my third thing is on the school calendar which I know is on for a vote tonight I spoke um last month I believe about it and my feelings haven't changed I'm a proponent of looking at going before Labor Day I I every single thing that I've I've looked at I really can't find many cons and along with the school Pro project which is for putting Education First I believe that starting a few days earlier also puts Education First it shows that we're prioritizing education before Beach days and honestly the only Pros that I've heard is where of Beach town and that we have oh we can go away and there aren't many people at the resorts and we can

006spend less money money that shows that we are putting Beach days before education and we all know that all of the days that are before spring testing all of the days in September you're going to get more out of of fresh student and a fresh teacher than you are in June and we are we are competing for ranks as much as you know there's controversy there I I agree with that but it's the truth truth is that you know if another town in the Southshore has a few days now you may say it's only two or three days this year it would put us out in June before juneth and I believe the last survey that happened on whether people wanted to go before or after Labor Day we did not have juneth as a

007holiday when that was like a 5050 vote that's true I know from you know 20 years ago of having being a a mother of young children there weren't as many parents working now you have those parents working much you know and they are they're really looking for that child care in the end of August when there is no um there are no more camps that last week because the other towns are back in school and the college kids are back um back to college so I'm not sure if it's already been decided Maybe has before the vote tonight but I just hope when you do the discussion can you just um talk about the pros and the cons perhaps tonight and just say let's look at the pros let's look at the cons um knowing

008that with the juneth holiday in the um hours and days on learning so and um and it's and then the other date on there was that Friday December 20th which is a half a day which I don't really understand the half days and how that counts but that's five days before the holiday which is a little different than being um December 23rd or December 22nd so I would um if you could just clarify why we need a half day on the 20th so that's all thank you thank you for all you do thank you very much Miss with appreciate your comments I will look to virtu we do not have any hands raised all right and we'll move forward to our student reports hi everyone hello hope you're all doing well um David unfortunately wasn't

009able to make it again so I'll be sharing the updates today first here are some winter sports updates as we've mentioned the shs cheer team will be heading to Disney to compete in the cheerleading national competition from March 14th to March 18th we wish good luck to all of our cheer leaders Boys Hockey and boys basketball were Patriot League champions and in Boys Hockey James Sullivan broke cons situate High School hockey scoring record on February 28th with an overtime goal versus Melrose in round one of the state tournament which is an amazing achievement the Massachusetts secondary school's athletic director Association has chosen situ High School's athletic director Scott Payne for the District 9 Award of Merit this award is a reflection of his dedication and commitment to inter inter Scholastic Athletics in the state of

010Massachusetts next here are some academic updates as I mentioned in the last meeting Cate Public Schools is collaborating with flying classroom to provide virtual classes on Saturdays for grades 7 through 12 the first two sessions were on March 2nd and 9th and the last session is this Saturday March 16th teaching about a c a cow ey dissection the state seale by literacy is an award provided by the state uh by state approved districts that recognizes high school graduates who attain High functional and academic levels of of of proficiency in English and a World Language it recognized students for having studied and attained Proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation the state seal by literacy takes the form of a seal that appears in the transcript or diploma of the graduating senior and

011it's a statement of accomplishment for future employers and for college admissions the following students have earned the state by literacy Max Allen Matthew Carolyn Ashley doy Ben eus milia cson Lisa Kinsley Natalia Lett Beth mun Caitlyn mooic David Murphy CLA Murray Nick mutter Adeline Oliver junifer rley Matthew short iaon fman and Miles werman also as we' mentioned David Murphy was the Massachusetts winner and the voice of democracy spe competition and he was one of 52 finalists from a pool of 30,000 um the national contest was March 2nd 3rd and 4th in Washington DC and David enjoyed a wonderful experience and was able to tour the White House which is really cool the robotics team competed at Bridgewater State this past weekend on Saturday and Sunday March 9th and 10th SS students have their art displayed

012at the front street art gallery from February 29th to March 24th and the public is welcom to view the great work that our students have placed in the gallery Shore provided lunch for the sich high school staff on Thursday March 7th from Panera and they thank Shore for all that they do model headed to Nationals in California at UC Berkeley from March 6th to March 11th which I heard was an awesome trip and David was there so we'll have to hear more about it from him when he gets back uml is taking their biannual trip to Disney from March 11th to March 15th and situ High School recognizes Gia Adams James Ford David Murphy Jake Perry Bridget Coleman Claire Papi Alison mordi Serenity pop Hannah Smith and Julie Meredith as Sailors of the month this

013month uh class Cup events are marked were posted by Administration juniors are still in in first place unfortunately for us um and the next class cup event is the shs ping pong tournament which is run by student council that's starting tomorrow and lastly for some guidance news uh the course selection process is now underway for Rising 9th to 11th grade students um or sorry 9th to 12th grade students um high school students were introduced to the course selection process through L block with their homebased teachers on March 4th and students will meet individually with their school counselor within the next two weeks to discuss their course selections um earlier this month school counselors visited gates to share information with 8th grade students and the department held an informational session for Gates caregivers on March 7th

014all resources for the course selection process are available on the shs school counseling web page and the course selection portal will close on March 15th students and careg groupers are encouraged to reach out to the school counselor if they need assistance with the process and lastly on March 8th a group of shs students interested in the medical field attended a healthcare career Expo in duxberry representatives from many different job roles presented information to students about their daily activities and Zoe Ryan and Elizabeth clany school counselors accompani the students the students to the event and that's all I have today thank you busy times for sure all right celebrate student learning with our health wellness and business department Mr rer yes delighted to see the agenda wasn't packed with other heavy events you know I can

015be a bit verbose with my uh sharing so thank you for allocating an hour for this um but there are some amazing things to share so one second to share my screen I've got some colleagues and students uh this evening that I want to Spotlight uh this is a moment of sharing gratitude some amazing things that are happening that we uh are quite frankly delighted to share with you and the community um so some of the things we're going to capitalize tonight or share tonight is what I feel are excellent practices engaging experiences for students enrichment opportunities and Career Connections I always talk with my colleagues Mr Mackie and Mr fagerland about beyond the classroom how do we what we do how does it connected beyond the walls of the classroom how do we partner

016with the community how do we work together with stakeholders uh give students experiences that get them excited quite frankly that they're uh excited about Mr the macki fresh off the state Deca competition I'm turn the floor to you so you can share um share some information on that I want to note too for folks that I believe this was shared with your X Drive anytime you see like blue this is almost used as a resource to shoot you to other places check out the success in the app here's a video right so it's meant to be a bit of a journey for the viewer if that makes sense um good evening uh spook and superintendent Birkhead um so uh yes as lutu we just recently came back this uh P set can you guys hear

017me all right like all right um yeah we just came back this past Saturday um from our Deca State um um marketing competition and really what it is and and I know I presented to you guys um in the past prior to getting approved for districts um but real quick with what Deca is DECA is a business and marketing um club for students and it really provides uh students with the opport opportunity to take what they're learning in the classroom and provide um engaging and enriching opportunities for them in various types of um business fields and within an academic competition so there's over 40 different um business industry type of career Fields um such as uh Finance marketing management hospitality and there's a lot more um that could done those with um in addition to

018that there's also the opportunity for students to engage in uh entrepreneurship and community- based initiatives um that are Project based within our classroom um so those would be projects that they're working on from the start of the school year September up through the qualifying um process which is in this January February for this conference here the state conference so um so for this year um we had nine currently we have over 90 total members of our Deca Club um within that 79 attended the district competition um back in December the that was at the CEST fouth of those 79 we had 31 that um qualified and competed most recently this past weekend at the state level competition um and then I have some exciting news uh to share with you guys um so and I

019just told Mr burad in the hallway um we had three state champions uh from that event um bayy Young Savannah garabedian and will Hine um Savannah and Bailey being Juniors and will Hine being our first ever freshman that's ever qualif ified to this point um which is an awesome experience for him and we also had three finalists as well um which were Parker Shaw Parker housan and um oh my God I'm like right now Cooper that's right McDonald's sorry um and Parker hman is right behind me so you're gonna get to meet him as well Parker was also a um state champion last year for us and he attended the international competition um in Orlando um which is exciting and you'll also meet um Taylor who also was at the state competition this past weekend

020um Charlie and uh Jake were also um District competitors last year and state competitors last year as well so we have a really good representation of um of deca members here in the room so um it's an awesome opportunity um and again our numbers continue to grow our success continues to grow um each and every year and um and again much attributed to you know the growth of our business department and obviously the support of our school committee and and superintendent Burkhead for um us to be able to have these opportunities for students um the other um the other awesome opportunity that provides enriching and engaging experiences for students is our um Gillette Patriot Place um project Bas initiative and really we've been partners with them since 2010 um where this project has really evolved

021over the last 14 years or so uh to where it is today um and really where it is today is um the marketing team with the craft marketing team what they'll do each year is they'll send out the some of the initiatives they're working on from a a marketing standpoint on their end and each year they send us five different initiatives that they love to see the classroom kind of take on and explore um so we take it on we explore it we allow students to have voice and choice with um each one of the different initiatives that they offer um students then should which one they want to work on and then all the different um things that we talk about and discuss and learn in the classroom as far as classroom content curriculum

022wise we integrated into this project and they have to create a promotional plan to be able to present to the marketing rep at Gillette Stadium um so it's typically a four to five week um uh pbl project that they'll work on um we vetted out uh minted out in the classroom um with various different levels of presentations to so we finally get to that final presentation we bring it up to Gillette um usually it's one or two of the marketing team members that will um that the students will present to um and they provide honest real industry level type of feedback opposite of obviously you know what I would give in a classroom um or Mr fagerland for that matter um but it's it's it's genuine authentic feedback you know and I think that's something

023where the students get excited about they love to hear it you know from somebody that's working in the industry somebody from Gillette and the craft organization to really kind of hear how their approach was you know to the initiative and um you know so it's a really fun experience for the students and um but it's also it's it's a step it's a step into diving into hey is this marketing field business field something I want to kind of carry on Beyond this building or into either the career Workforce or into you know the next four years on the college and I think these are opportunities that we're providing for students that are really enriching engaging and kind of opens the path up and helps them figure it out um as they move forward through this

024building so thank you hi everybody my name is Eric fager and I know I've met I know some of you I haven't met all of you so um it's nice to be in front of you tonight um most of the people in the building know me as Mr F so if you hear Mr F and the conversations they most likely referring to me um my second year in the building and I've been very happy to be here um and the experience has been tremendous but um for as far as my role here as a a business educator it's really about the experience it's really it's making the classroom as experiential as possible um it's creating those opportunities for our students to understand what life is like outside of the building um and whatever they might

025choose rather than telling them what it's like it's bringing those experience expences into the classroom and giving them real world opportunities to connect with different stakeholders whether it be in the community in the building in the classroom to deliver um end product that is real um it's tangible and they can see um I have to give a huge shout out to shore because if um you had a chance to be in my classroom it's extremely experien I mean there's TVs everywhere there's a podcasting uh Studio there and I would encourage um any of the school committee to come in and check it out if you have a project that needs to be done or you'd like to put out a message to the community we're happy to facilitate that here um in the in my

026classroom um big thanks to shore for all their investment in the Student Activities here uh in the high school um next brought people into my classroom um in the way of utilizing some of that podcasting technology one person I brought in was kitn Remy who was a colleague of mine from way back in the day she's a a recruiter she we put together a 15minute video podcast that really spoke to students about as seniors and juniors what they should think about as they study and choose their studies but the job markets like um areas of stud they may want to focus on that are hot markets for students in the business world right now um and there's actually a link that you can watch it if you have 15 minutes and you want to see

027what kind of message was delivered to the students we also brought a gentleman named Jesse Co back to the building if you don't know Jesse U he's a graduate of Stu High School in um 20 2002 not 2012 um and he's the owner of the Savannah bananas um he is um remarkable in terms of a sports marketer who's brought passion um and brought energy and brought you know um experiences to himself his team his team and the fans that he um entertains they just sold out um the um Houston Astros Stadium over the weekend and it's the first time they've had that many people in front of them they play a branded banana ball and the goal here is to try to build a project around um the sort of the concept of the Savannah

028bananas oh I have a video podcast to him for 15 minutes that we're going to show students and then deliver that as sort of a hey I walk these halls I did this this is my building and this is what you can do with your life beyond situ if you have the passion and the and the um and the energy for it and then you know bringing those experiences to the classrooms and giving the kids that the content is important but it's also extremely important to let the kids sort of look at that synthesis level that high level of of um um the the The Learning Experience where you know we put students like Parker and Jake and um and Charlie and Taylor not to you know continually bring those names up but if you

029want to see Superstars these are the ones for our department that I would consider you know some of our Superstars and give them the opportunities to Le clubs so they take what they've learned in the classroom apply it in a environment where it's still an educational experience and provide an educational experience for other students um and you know whether it be our Real Estate club our finance Club our Communications and promotions uh Squad uh the global economics club or any other things that come out of deca or our our learning experiences it's it's a wonderful thing I mean to see these kids grasp these Concepts and and really make them own um and you know as far as cap squad or Finance club or Real Estate club we've got um other experien that have happened

030in the classroom where we had a class of students actually work on the budget that you guys approved um they work with Dr RAB over the period of about two months um and they helped him draft and craft that budget so the budget you saw was the work of people like uh Parker and Jake um and the the Capstone class that we offer and really the vision is to provide more of these experiences and if you think about you know the way the world works with agency work with marketing and advertising it's really I'd love to see our classrooms become the marketing agencies um for the district and for the town so that if somebody had something they wanted to promote they would approach Mr Macky or I give us the opportunity and say here's

031what we need what can you do um and really kind of run with it so um that's kind of where we're at from a in a nutshell and I appreciate the time from the from the committee tonight thank you and the the clubs that Mr F was talking about happen during the high school schedule it's during our Wind Block period um they strategic happen Tuesdays Thursdays Fridays um so we're trying to find every lever that we can for kids to explore their voice and choice and chase their passions so it's a um great opportunity within the high school schedule uh that we have U another piece that I I think it's one of our Paramount duties is to nurture student leadership um and you're going to hear from the fly Foundation um gentlemen but also

032if you remember the course selection process when we proposed the new fashion marketing and design Course Savannah and Bailey was here they were highly invested in to see that get improved approved and um you know they've did a great job they um had an amazing presentation before school presentation the uh Wednesday mornings delayed starts a lot of these uh initiatives you'll hear the fly Foundation of students uh leverage happened on Wednesday morning so uh we're trying to capitalize on those times as well um you know Savannah Bailey had amazing for amazing professions from various sectors talk about their career experiences trying to motivate our students particularly women in this case uh to take on leadership roles and Empower them um and so you'll hear a little more story about that um from the fly Foundation

033folks uh little bit of breaking news everybody loves breaking news um we had an amazing I would say it was an amazing phone conference last week with desie M Drisco and Mr Burkhead right um some good news we throughout the fall we engaged in a two-part application process with desie for what's called Innovation and career Pathways um there are are several uh Pathways to pursue there are six at this point uh we wanted to start with two that we felt really strongly about Chase the passions of department shairs and departments um so we applied for two uh business and finance and environmental and Life Sciences um so what are these experien what is an innovation career pathway the analogy I can created is considered a a focused a focus for students as they engage in

034their High School trajectory of classes um it consists of coursework experiences clubs uh internship practical time at at a workplace um for them to explore uh whether it be in this case business and finance or environmental Life Sciences uh why did we pursue this well um quite simply since we've started the process we've brought in our networks uh we've had great plc's through desie uh through subcommittees and groups of this work we built a really nice Bridge with our local Mass hire organization uh we look forward to continuing with local area organizations I'll talk about that a little bit through our internship program um so it's really exciting and it's justcool we did Grant funds which is a very big part you know uh of of this as well for our students to help with

035the implementation and trajectory of this and um you these are things that had uh rooted in we were piloting for a couple years and Heidi's leadership conversations got to check this out like you're doing a lot of the work already and um it was a great process I want to give quick shout out to the core application team Julie Ward Patrick Newton Lisa Kirk myself uh that's weird shouting out myself good job me and collaborated Sean Marius bondes Jan Downing and Tammy Rundle also collaborators in the proc application process um the the application process was quite detailed focused on five core principles uh being Equitable access guided academic Pathways consisting of technical courses in uh Advanced courses um also enhanced student support so how can we provide services for students that might need them whether

036they're special education students we did mock schedules for students to make sure everybody could be part of the pathway um Career Connections like I said the 100 hours of internship or cap experiences and the what I love passionate about is the nurturing of Partnerships the more we connect with people outside of this building more students see the relevance in meeting in the work um so we received on our conference uh on our conversation with Jennifer Guin from desie I I think it was she said she'd be recommending us for approval come May so formal announcement come may but um I asked her if I could make this announcement tonight and uh she gave us permission um any point with anything um again we talking about the Career Connections and Outreach and yeah in January we

037had a a set sale showcase um for 8th grade families and um and one of my station in that was sharing the Outreach The Internship opportunities um that Blue Link links to my entire the entire slides um if you have time I highly encourage you to take a peek at it uh this is just a quick snapshot of one of them um in this case it was it was Mr swick and callwell Banker realy um survey feedback from students I mean it's it's an almost it is it's an elected within an elective I work with every student to chase their passions whether it's Automotive or being an attorney we work to help students explore those um passions that they have I had a few longtime colleagues review the slideshow recently because they just started asking

038questions about some students and and independently all three of them said the one thing I noticed in all the pictures in the slideshow was theud students were smiling the students were happy and um and that's really gratifying to see uh students so happy as they explore passions that they have um again this is a uh as of last Friday we've got a potentially a couple more placements on here as well but it's an extensive list of of variety of vocational U Endeavors that um trades to cosmetology to farming to I mean it's Oral Surgery uh it's pretty an amazing array so my gratitude to our community sponsors and the people that work with us is very deep yes um I wanted to just um I was just curious um when I looked at this list

039I can imagine what most of these um internships would look like but I was curious about the ones in our elementary schools if you could just say a little bit more about what that partnership look like that's one of the ones that I love the most um it's to see a high school student say that they being a teacher say that they want to explore being a teacher um I always tell them like this is easy this is the most easiest placement we have is because our elementary schools and schools and principles and teachers are just amazing U sponsors they love working with our Juniors and seniors um I'm going to give a quick testimonial of a student who did an internship to Junior and Senior year Ashley rle who is absolutely going to be

040a colleague of us someday if she wants to be she's uh Works in ilc PLC over or happily and she's done that for two years and they Rave about her they she's incredible she's allocated a couple blocks of her school day um she had a a sailor Block in her schedule and she's like I don't want to St block I want to double up on my internship and again another Beauty in addition to the Wind Block we have on our schedule is the morning and afternoon rotation have it's for some students uh it's what keeps them the school um there at least five students I worked with this year I would question whether they would still be on the trajectory of graduation um they would take their core classes ABCD in the morning and in

041some cases EFG and age in the afternoon from lunch time on they're working at at an internship um I guess the the highest it's amazing I'll give and I can talk about each one of these kids for hours um of a student working at uh Wilder RS he interns there at 3:00 he punches in and gets paid till the end of the day um Glen Wilder who's an amazing sponsor uh has taken upon herself to reach out to the parents of the student and said your son has a job waiting for him on graduation if he wants it he's not a college F student that has health insurance in matching 401k like that's pretty amazing um we've had students that are cosmetology they like they're sponsors are helping them get the certifications and licensures that

042they need um and that's one end the other end expecting me attorneys pediatricians it's really lucky we are lucky as a community we're lucky to have the amazing people I'm hoping the people here that say hey let me email that see we can talk because um I will build a bridge with anybody that wants to work with our kids and then most important that matchmaking process right that the fit it has to be a good fit has to be mutually beneficial because if not it's a burden for this La it's not going to be bur we want win- win win win matches um thank you for asking the question any did that help I mean so every elementary school middle school we had have kids place this year um and one go don't do was

043an extender we had eight students that took the internship experience in the fall a semester based experience and eight of them said I'm staying on this is just going so well that I want to stay on and a couple of those are in the elementary school so thank you yeah follow first all I apologize for being late but um thank you for presenting I can start over no I'm I have it here um so I guess two questions number one is you said you had eight that were in their staying but how many in total students are participating in some sort of intership right now there's 30 in this Cort actually 31 is one um is flexing at G block and it's part of the student transition plan or IEP we're trying actually Junior building

044a nice Bridge with an interior design company if that goes well we hopefully work that into the student schedule for next year so there's 30 right now there were 28 in the fall and mostly the seniors right now I think there was one Junior last last first semester and there's two Juniors now both of the juniors are both in education both on both at w actually um but it's mostly senior so it's almost a third of the senior class pretty much engages in this experience it just honestly continues to grow we had a setback of Co and now it's like I think it's great and the next question is how do students if they're not listening to this meeting or here how do they know about these opportunities is there something that that guidance would

045discuss them with do you reach out or does a student reach out and and if so who does a student reach out to to kind of be aware of these and to get these going so Mr F Mr Ma and I had visited every um through a collaborative process with social study tomor we visited every student in this building over a three-day period um to discuss opportunities and electives and we tailored by grade right so Juniors and seniors would share this information we also shared it at the you know as a primer at the eighth grade Step Up night right that's gets people excited like these are opportunities that I have uh for me as I entered my high school career and so it's discussed with families in as early as 8th grade and students

046throughout the process and every counselor um actually I it's a tribute to our councils um remember I talked about like some some students have the EFG in the afternoon rotation it's a very thoughtful collaborative process with the uh to make sure that that's meets they have all the graduation over PS in place and that meets that students needs great right thank you yeah I have another question that to be in the business pathway and taking that track the so great question uh the internship program started way I started at 15 actually George had that ended over to me but 15 years ago I took it over this is um the business pathway you will need 100 hours to be part of the business pathway but the internship program is open to any vocation right so

047it happens to be I mean there career standards in business education department so I've overseen that but you um so anybody can be part of that I've already had students now like hey I'm interested in engineering great let's work now to find your placement now for the fall um there something I'm actually want to try to explore for the summer like a deeper dive for kids over the summer so hope that helps awesome um Mr Mackie got to B room for the kids yes all right uh our student spotlights uh so we with Taylor and then we'll have fly Foundation Bo right down next them um and I think it's really important you know I can talk about this all I want I can use testimoni students and share I think what we need to

048hear is from our students um and so Taylor you have the floor could you just tell us um you know um some highlights of your high school career and then where you're going what you're going to be doing next year yes of course hello everyone I am so excited to be here tonight to share my story in the business department actually I got involved with this department the middle of my junior year so fairly recent because I'm a senior now but I decided to take a Sports Marketing class you know I didn't know anything about marketing but I loved Sports so I was like Count Me In and little did I know that that decision would truly change my life and I'm not exaggerating when I say that um it's straight from the heart the

049amount of opportunities I've had from presenting at Gillette Stadium like Mr Macky mentioned earlier in front of a craft organization you know representative that truly they changed the way I thought about my career I realized I was like I'm going to do this for the rest of my life I stood out there and I felt like this was my purpose and as you can see up on the board um I actually have more of those opportunities as I expanded and got more involved with this department I actually worked with Mr asked to create the communications and promotions Club I told him the day I walked into Sports Marketing I'm going to work for the National Basketball Association that was a goal of mine and it still is and so he did everything possible to make

050that happen and give me the experience I needed in high school and so from there we just took off and we created the cap Squad and you know the resume I put together is incredible I mean you can see a clip up there me interviewing a student which is truly my passion I mean I love interviewing I love recording I love editing below that photo I actually was very luckely um I went to Gillette Stadium again for the situate Sailors they went to the Super Bowl in 2023 December last year and that was incredible I mean I was the student sideline reporter so I had full access to the tunnel I was on the field I was interviewing the coaches the play players all the students I mean I will never forget that opportunity I

051will never forget that and it just like I said it just kept going um right next to that is me and like with my podcast equipment I actually did start my own podcast so it's called let's talk about mental health there's a flyer right next to there and I brought that to the state Deca competition over the weekend and like I said I joined Deca this year and the opportunities and the Creations I've done are endless I mean I started my own podcast and it's what I love and I got to bring that to the state competition I even got to participate in the district competition before that and you know like if you look back I mean look at how much I've accomplished with only being a year and a half in this department

052and it truly wouldn't have been possible without the support of Mr Macky Mr F and mrir I mean when I tell you that I've never felt more supported from you know a group of teachers in my life I really mean that I mean they believed in me they never gave up on me and it's it like I said it's only been a year and a half and I'm truly truly thankful for everything I mean I've had the privilege to work with each one of them individually through Deca Sports Marketing and Beyond and you know to create this club Communications and promotions so I can give this opportunity to other students who are just as passionate as I am I'm so you know it's been sweet to leave but I'm so thankful that my efforts and

053working with them I can create more students opportunities and for future generations to come and I you're going where to I mean like I was just going to mention I mean if it wasn't for taking the Sports Marketing class my junior year I don't know would be majoring in because I'm actually majoring in Sports Marketing at B University in New York City this fall so like I said before I'm incredibly thankful for the business department for believing in me and seeing the vision and never giving up my dreams so thank you for listening to my story awesome good evening school committee thank you for having us here um my name is Charlie Harwell I'm a senior here at situ High School my name is my name is j I'm also senior here High School my

054name is Parker Housman I'm also a senior here at high school and I just want to start off by thanking the business department mrir Mr Macky and Mr f for their unable support and inspiration in our business experiences here situ from founding a financial literacy nonprofit to clubs to a podcast to uh participating in all the pre-existing clubs it's been an unable experience and we're very lucky to have benefits of the the program here and I'm G to give it off to Charlie just to start off discussing some of the clubs that you started so um how we kind of started our Venture with forming clubs here is uh one day in Mr F's class coincidentally me and Jake uh we came up with the idea for a real estate club and then from there

055it all kind of snowballed we became presidents of the already existing finance and investing club and then we uh founded the global economics Club so we kind of uh meticulously chose which clubs to form based on what we thought was important in business so we kind of just chose three topics that we thought kids would be interested in so finance and investing real estate and economics and um from there it kind of all took off forming the Real Estate club originally was kind of a shot in the dark because we didn't exactly know how many kids would be interested in real estate it's kind of a niche topic but uh like Mr Matthew was saying earlier we we only served as facilitators for this as the business department teachers were Educators we wanted to give

056students a a space outside the classroom to pursue their passion in real estate and um people actually did show up surprisingly they I mean there's a block in the day where kids can go and they can sit on their phones they can just do nothing but they chose to come and learn about Real Estate club and now all those clubs they take up every Wind Block available in the week and so it's been a great success so far and it would not be possible without the help of the business department teachers right so I just wanted to talk a little bit about uh fly so Financial ly nonprofits basically during this time when we were starting these um clubs so me and Charlie we orig started the Real Estate club and then we kind of

057started the global economics and kind of grew we wanted to kind of incorporate these three um different clubs into kind of one thing so there's like three young entrepreneurs we were thinking like okay what can we do to kind of bring these three together so we came up with fly so we we it's called financial literacy for the Youth so we kind of started with okay the original idea was okay maybe we could bring these clubs to other schools maybe expand it we were like why don't we just bring these together we kind of wanted to connect students to real business professionals and kind of like the idea was to bring so create some networking events for students to actually come maybe eat some food and learn about different topics for like an hour hour

058and a half before school so me Charlie and Parker decided to create the fly Foundation um I think it was about a year ago so we decided to create a nonprofit so that we could take grant funding thank you sure so we requested a grant I think last spring and we were granted I think $800 to basically put on some um Network events networking events um this fall so basically we were able to kind of encourage people that were in these clubs that we've already been doing for like a years we the people that were kind of leaders in these clubs to help us create this nonprofit and along the way we met amazing people from um Leo ransky like a multi-million dollar real estate professional to gavard an entrepreneur from UMass um who are

059actually able to help um come into the school and allow us to put on like a networking event so to kind of like give students an opportunity to sit down not necessarily um engage as much in this one but kind of just like listen to like what someone maybe like five to 10 years ahead of them have done with the opportuni so gab lard I think he went to BC high but he went to UMass and kind of started his own private Equity Fund um basically he's like I think he's like 22 23 years old and kind of the opportunities that they created for themselves and kind of like the leadership qualities that they kind of found were successful so yeah this is in with the flly foundation we've we've hosted three of these events

060so far and we actually so we've raised over $1,100 this of grant funding and kind of with this as it Blended these three clubs together we were able to encourage a lot more students maybe students who weren't really into business originally but kind of like bring them into the business program and kind of with the um advising from Mr n AR Mr E and Mr Macky they were kind of able to help us create these events so yeah um and recently we're able to start a podcast called the financial flyer too so it's been really cool really cool experience learning how to um kind of like start our own ENT I guess nonprofit yeah you guys share what your Visions are for your you leave us where are you going what are you doing obviously

061based on attendance and different interest levels demonstrated we have students in mind for each club and few overall nonprofit take over and this is something that has really grown that's good like kind of transition this has grown into something bigger than ourselves just us three it starts as three you know clubs and kind another club and another club and the nonprofit and then the professionals coming in but now we have 20 team members we have social media marketers operational managers Talent coordinators people who are just helping reach out the situation to write newspaper articles where you can look up on situation and several articles of the networking events and we have advisers from Mr anir Mr Macky Mr F Mr Madison goes on and on and on and it's it's grown so big to the

062point where now we have to hand it off because this is we weren't initially even sure if this was going to work and now we have to figure out how to continue it because we just fallen in love with it and it's just been an opportunity provided by the business department that if we didn't have the original exposure through maybe Deca to these business competitions or the cedit for Life fair to financial literacy where we were we were able to become senior ambassadors thanks to Mr aneri and competing in the regional and state and international level competitions our BL for business was ignited and I know us three I mean we're pursuing Finance majors in the fall and if if we didn't have the opportunities given by the business department who knows where we would

063have ended up but I feel like we've really learned where we thrive in these Business Clubs and the nonprofit um yeah it's been an overall amazing experience and there's so many faculty members along the way that have helped us from Mr um yeah M Patterson from scheduling the pack and then the the space provided by Mr Mackie and the marketing from situation and the grand funing from Shore and it's just been a CommunityWide initiative that has been amazing to see grow and yeah I hope it does continue to grow in the future and if you want to learn more information you can look up fly foundation. net and there's more about all these clubs and photos and some amazing students that have done some amazing things where you going in the fall well I'm undecided

064at the moment but I'm up between some good schools um just got an UNC so that'll be good and waiting a couple more are you going to study I'm going to study Finance um I'm between a few schools right now nor Eastern in bson and I'm going to probably study finance and Entrepreneurship I'm going to Boston College next year also to stud Finance fortunately with M Drisco leaving us she's going to miss our course and smart brevity um we're going to be launching next year but it's hard to make this brief and uh so the utmost of gratitude for your time and appreciation for the opportunity hopefully make you proud and uh uh more importantly the students uh in good hands so thank you so much for your time any questions go yeah yeah I

065was thinking of that yes I one question I got an email from an eighth grade student a couple days ago who's doing a Civics project and is interested in career exploration classes in in eth grade or in the middle school and um I want to definitely share this fly foundation with that student because I like it's a really cool example of like students taking initiative and you know what can come of that but I was just curious um this is all awesome it's so amazing to hear I love just the passion with which everyone has spoken students and teachers alike um and it looks like this eighth grade student might be interested in trying to emulate some of that and bring it down to the lower Middle School grade so I was just curious so

066I have a little bit of plans yeah i' love to more so part of the pathways Grant is are um adopting this mcap program uh my career in academic plan uh it's a 6 through 12 trajectory of experiences and we've already started our school counselors and folks connected with the pathways have started to the PD process um and so it's going to take some time right we're going to launch in Middle School we're going to start with grade n and add a grade each year uh but some of that career exploration pie p is is absolutely in the worst and that's part of it's part of the expectation to be an innovation career Pathways um district is that it moves down to as low as sixth grade with you know speakers and that whole reflection

067process my likes my dislikes and what do my hopes and dreams uh so that's um some exciting news and you know other piece to is Gates has ibcs there was a student that reached out hey could we do an investing IBC well let me let me get the pathways gr we keep nudging our way down yeah so that's great very I mean in five years when next time I talk about something like this actually just in five years I can't wait to see the growth in five years hopefully I'm back next year where are you going no no be here forever um I don't even know where to start because I the passion that all these students feel is it's like overwhelming I almost think I S of crying talk the passion you feel for

068your job um that well that you will have um because it's so important that I tell my my my kids what if you know what what do they want to they say what should I do I said whatever you do make sure you like it because it's going to be your job and you really should enjoy what you do and not every kid finds out early on what they want to do and that's okay but it's just so fantastic that you guys have already like you know what you want to do and you just you can see that you're passionate and you're going to love it and you're going to be great at it so thank you for all Mr Mr Mr F and coach and Mr rer and Mr Mackie for helping these kids

069find their way pleasure yeah I know great job I love it it's awesome thank you guys obviously available at any point for a followup presentation slightly doesn't have to be short it just has to be substantive and you know hopefully it was hopefully the substance was there excellent have a great night than you yeah all right Dr R this is some fin this will be more exciting sure all right I'm excited about this though this is a big deal very big deal we really should be thank you very much it was a joy working with the students in the fall it really was two of the students that work with here this evening and I work with six seniors in the class and they were fantastic it's a true Testament to the business department um

070normally fund transfers are terribly exciting this one actually is so it truly is so let me talk a little bit about it so we're finally in the home stretch of closing out the gates middle school project and we've submitted everything to the msba and we're still waiting for the possibility we may actually get a little bit more reimbursement um but right now there is $1.8 million left unspent in the borrowing that we did so way back we borrowed $75 million and because the interest rates were so low they didn't stage that borrowing they borrowed the entire amount of 75 million and so over the course of the project that money was spent and there's 1.8 million remaining we have an opportunity to transfer that funding to the Future Cushing half project now clearly if the

071project doesn't get voted this whole vote would be moved but the idea is we can reduce the debt on the town by using unspent funds in the gates middle school project and I know tomorrow night I don't want to step on there thunder but the forest Elman is also bringing up a couple of other opportunities that Mrs H has found of spent remaining funds in other capital projects that are not school related um so all told there's a good possibility that even more than $1.8 million could be transferred to the Cushing halfway project and Mrs H would like to write this into the motion for the special town meeting article which is the urgency this evening so uh simply $1.8 million to the Cushing cath project reduces the year One impact from $863 to $843

072and reduces per taxpayer at the $921,000 median household level we've been talking about and reduces the 25e total uh impact from 15,942 to 15,590 but as important it reduces the amount of Interest out by the town by $2.9 million and so this is an extraordinary opportunity to use unspent funds that have already been borrowed they've already been appropriated um way back in 2020 at special time meeting the rescinded anything that wasn't borrowed so there's no unborrowed money in this account anymore um and with a vote of the school committee um Miss H can put this on a special town meeting ballot and and reduce the overall debt for the Cushing cete project and and for me especially coming a new to situ it I've seen all these opportunities people are looking for opportunities to save

073that and make it easier on the ch um and did you say when you did the calculation on how much it would inrease was that just including the pieces that Nancy's going to bring up ex or it could even be further reduction exactly okay do you know what you don't have to know this I don't I actually know how much the board s is going to be considering tomorrow but I don't want to step on okay got it know I think this is great news Tom and I know that you're new and we should probably know more than you at this point Rel to this but can you just explain a little about the timing of this is this because of the whole sidewalk issue that we needed to resolve before they could close out

074the middle school project this money theoretically has been out there for the last couple of years since the project was complete but because of the sidewalk repair or sidewalk issue this was just being delayed until now that assuming that has been resoled exactly is that accurate yes okay thank you and there is an opportunity for more reimbursement from the S msba once they close out their books and then there'll be a decision down the road how appropriate those really what do you think the likelihood of that additional reimbursement is high really yes we'll a great I'll take it that's awesome you would like us to vote this please the exact number is 1,834 6711 uh I'd like to make a motion to authorize to be included in the special town meeting motion the transfer of

0751, 83467 And1 from the gates middle school project to the Cushing hady project for the purpose of reducing the overall borrowing required for the Cushing hudley project second all in favor and that will be orted to the select board so that I just want them to be clear that we made our vote meeting absolutely all right some old business here with our 2024 2025 calendar calendar discussing this I we already went over we're going to vote tonight on it but certainly discuss it as well anything I did have one question um and this might have been already discussed I'm just not to speed but I was just wondering if on the days that we cannot hold school because of Elections if there's any other like way around that like for the small like there's a

076prim State primary I think on September 3rd this year and so that's I mean I don't know a smallish turn up compared to what we're expecting in November in which case I can see like we definitely need the high school uh gym and we need a ton of parking and all of that stuff for some of these smaller um elections I was just curious if we've ever explored because I just then then it just means that the voting drives the school calendar more than we might want to to you know same thing with the recent primary on March 5th kind of meeting that we had to move the PD day and all that stuff um so I was just curious if that's something that we've ever talked about or who even we might approach to

077say like is are there some Creative Solutions around this should say that because I it's been a frustration of mine and I did reach out to Mr buo recently after we had know this last issue we had a move a date and I'm like wow spending all my time here working around the elections things I don't typically think about like that so um he didn't say on the major elections obviously this that would be tough but he'd look into and discuss this elect board at some point I'll consider alternative venues I think they have to look at parking and those things but you know with some help from the school committee to talk to you know selectboard folks and to get get that discussion happening would be helpful as well ultimately you know they would

078make the call on that but I think like you said for the smaller ones maybe that's I don't know the place as well as maybe you all do but I think you know I did bring that out recently he said he'd look into it he said that the big ones probably not but the smaller ones maybe so I can follow up with that as well let you know but it's a great point because we are driven by that unfortunately and it's not ideal for our PD or our student learning or I think like this with throw brought up every day we miss is a day made up after after the fact with a lot of State Testing and things like that things have also changed with early loing okay just out of respect for Miss

079with's earlier comments maybe we just spend a minute I mean I know I think if I understand correctly we can't adjust this year's calendar even if we wanted to because of the teachers contract isn't that right in terms of going before Labor Day we can't adjust that so you you were asking for reasons so one of them is cont contractual it would have to have a discussion um but I'm wondering sort of philosophically where my colleagues sit or stand with that curious I've always been okay with starting before Labor Day okay for the record and especially years where Labor Day is later I mean think it's you know it doesn't make I always look at the calendar I'm like you know we could have had like three days in September before Labor Day yeah I

080had um asked a couple of people in Marshfield for example they have a set date if Flor is after this date they will um start school before that could be something to look into I think I definitely as a working parent have felt the squeeze of no child care and like just feeling like oh my gosh everyone else is back at school and here we are still not in school and that is a really tough period of time child care- wise um I would be really curious to know what the teachers also think just about the academic like you know the emic point of like meing those extra days it makes sense to me but I I've never heard kind of like do teachers also feel that way I imagine they might but I don't

081know so that was one thing I was thinking about I was also wondering about maybe it's time to redo the survey I think last time the survey was like pretty 5050 but that was a number of years ago now um I think there might be more like the the composition of families might have shifted towards more Working Families and so I would be curious Maybe to try that and I I think there probably were less towns having school before they there's a lot more now that's true yeah um yeah I think my kind of viewpoint is a couple one of is a little bit odd but one is um I think it depends on when Labor Day is Like if it's late then we should have the opportunity to start earlier and if it's September

0821 2nd then obviously it's different the other thing is in addition to the I wasn't here from with us comments but I can assume some of what she included that we're missing as she mentioned before we're missing some days of learning prior to the you mcast and other assessments the other thing is um I'm going to shift it to climate I don't know if it's Tech technically warmer in the end of August or the end of June because if we're putting the kids in staff in the schools in those warmer days we might want to think about that as well I don't know if there's going to be a significant difference but I haven't really looked at the average temperatures I know it's kind of funky but might be something worthy to look at we

083the average temperature is 5 degrees warmer in August and we might want to continue with our current schedule or vice versa I don't think there's a significant difference but something that I think is important as climate is changing and getting warmer yeah I I that was one of my only hesitations is we've gotten a lot of um feedback from parents about the heat days and things and those do tend to be more August September than June um but and I think the teachers contracts it's they can't start earlier than the Monday before Labor Day so technically it's our decision we when we start and there was that time I believe we a it's like before Co that we I don't know what we did we almost voted that we didn't we were split or something

084happened was a little dramatic I can't remember you I like Maria's suggestion to survey folks in addition to asking the teachers because I think the thing I wonder about is while I get that we would be adding a number extra days right number-wise we would be going up in terms of how many days but I'm just curious about quality like what's going on in those first couple of days and then you have the disruption of Labor Day right you sort of get going and then you take a long weekend and so I would just again I'd like to know from the teachers in terms of quality days and I completely understand having come from Maryland which has a very big Economy based on oceans I understand the sort of Beach town and wanting to shift

085priorities but at the same time we're talking about losing babysitters and needing child care that's not necessarily focused on education either right like it's just we're we're something's some it's gon to be a trade-off no matter what we do is what I'm saying so I think hearing from the teachers and the and the town just to sort of you know get a beat on folks would be a good idea yeah I think that's I agree I think it's good to get a new sort of yeah kind of as Miss with mentioned you know families change priorities change time happens and we should be uh probably it is absolutely time I feel like it's been at least six years maybe since we've you know looked into it deeper than just the General Health um I like

086this sort of you know if it is 5050 or thereabouts I agree with Miss Fenwick on um you know kind of doing a split if it's particularly late then we would it makes much more sense to go earlier is you know but I do agree with you on Mr Gates's comments about um there are my I know like kids have had heat days in other districts as well and it's like that's not funny so I don't know that there's a we can please the masses but we should do what's best for the majority and if the shift is towards before Labor Day we should should be listening to those that that um larger group can I also just ask about the half day question um oh yeah do half days count has school days I

087actually don't know yes they do days and where that 22nd came out it's worth a point of discussion because it wasn't there a few years back and then um Christmas came on a Monday or something and a lot of we had like nobody in the school a lot of absentee ISM next last year I think it was four days out so still kind of close because went the half day worked out well our attendants went out people stayed because people go on vacation leave early so that it was based on the attendance really that we weren't getting folks there it was accounting as a day but nobody was there so we said okay we make it a half day we got tendance up and we're able to get something done so that's where that is

088where it's 5 days now you know I'll leave that open to you but I wouldn't have a problem making that a full day or not but that's been the rationale behind it that Friday before holiday was cutting it close now as it moves away it's longer you know that could be a considered full day if we wanted to I think much like the discussion of when to start lab day you can have you know the same goes for when to have that half day I it makes sense if Christmas is like the following Monday but if it's a week away doesn't depending on the year that's kind of Wednesdays that we four or five days we left it in there and then next year six thought would be an easy one where we be full

089day so that's kind of where we fell that but we are watching it and as far as the um the starting for labor labor day I I took some notes here and what I can do is put together maybe a presentation with for you and do some research on that with the weather got our own resident expert weather person here Mr sure would love to take that challenge on so I think we get some really good local weather seriously then um get the surveys out before the end of the year um meet regularly with the teachers we can get get the feedback on the teachers and I can compile that into one little presentation for you and you know may not impact this year but the following year we can get a jump start um

090and have good information good feedback from the community good feedback from the the staff and be in a good place for you to make a better decision for the following year thank you and just to one war more comment I feel like we we've gotten away from snow days and it's like other natural disaster days like power and trees wind it's crazy yeah I joke with this R like a little um phone chain with the local superintendent glass at Marshfield ducksbury norw Handover just on you know when the weather's coming yeah and and some of the veterans talk about that like I miss I miss the days of like it's going be 10 to 12 inches of snow I know that's an easy one and now with all this power outages and weather and we've

091got tides and it's really become a lot more complex and you're right there's been more weather event days and there have been snow days in the last three years I'm sorry one more question February 5th being a half day um on this draft it's marked as a half day but it's not explained why and I feel like I don't remember why and also I feel like people are going to have that same question it's a Wednesday just this half day and I don't know why that's a ele um parents conference day or something that we bring them back so but I will I agree with you that should be clarified because it's not I think that would be helpful was there another one you saw this on there no I think the others are all

092marked um yeah I was just trying to think about if there's any way we can get school to not end on the 20th the day after Jun just because it's always a half day and so it's like just makes the end of the year so anticlimactic first teachers for kids It's just tough you know um but I don't know where else we would squeeze in it's the unfortunate except except September 3rd we could if we could start the day earlier that would and yeah but then don't forget provided we have zero so anything can knock us it's it's really tough yeah but I see your no I I'm just I'm just looking at that December 20th half day yeah from student initiated that half day yeah I know I I mean it's nice I just

093I know it's always a problem obviously the day before vacation starts but you as you guys have indicated Christmas isn't until Wednesday I don't know if it's not going to matter it doesn't pick us up a day just it already counts as a day so it doesn't really do anything like just going to give more people a reason not to come that's all but it's fine I just I mean it's a great I mean I'm looking I'm like oh this is great but yeah then but then but then the kids come the problem is that the second is is a Thursday so they have they're gonna have two days of school in two weeks which is which is fine it's good it's just works out that way yeah short week back yeah but like next

094year probably won't be there there's probably no reason is that more confusing well I think it's worth I mean I think what to me what we're highlighting is it's worth discussing these sort of Mark days like you were both saying like if it hits Labor Day at a certain time or or Christmas bumps up you know that we would do the right like you would do the automatically do the half day and that's something we could take up after we approve this year's calendar yeah yeah make a motion I was looking at the format is this the how it's going to be to the um the community oh all right doesn't look as busy it's paper form yeah the um we have a new version we've had two calendars we had one for the staff

095and one there was kind of a lot of stuff floating around there so we try to consolidate it into one and um that one it also be more detailed and specific and try to explain things out so that one is the one we came up with and model it after to some of the the school districts that were using those was there any discussion of like putting this stuff right here like on the back side because it used to be two sides yeah that was the whole thing is one on the page and people just have it and we've got the also you get um the opportunity there to go online yeah it's easy to post that's the feedback we got is people wanted simplified it was too much watch some folks like me might

096have to wear our cheaters when we read it that's the only downside but it is kind of user friendly and all one page all right I make a motion to approve the school committee no approve the school calendar for the year 2024 all in favor Lin all teachers love lated really all right uh leadership reports Dr twice in one night thank you so we had some wonderful news on February 14th the financial forecast committee met uh thank you Miss benwick and Mr gates for their participation on the committee and our health insurance rates came in a little lower than expected and that resulted in an additional $263,400 and uh we took a look at the requests that we had from the department heads the principles assistant superintendent curriculum all the way around to try to

097think of some creative ways to use the funds we took a look at enrollment we took a look at what we know right now for next year and so if you look at the uh second page of the memo that I that I presented on the back side we're breaking that down into mostly expenses I I think all along we've talked about salaries trying to make sure that that we we keep our salaries a number of salaries under control however we are adding an additional teacher or recommending to add an additional teacher for 75,000 really a player to be named later if I can use that term um you know we're looking at kindergarten enrollment we're looking at High School enrollment we're looking it all the way around um likely we will need another person

098somewhere and I think this is an opportunity to embed that in the budget and if we don't need it we can talk about other ways to spend that money next year so I think it's a good way to hedge against any enrollment spikes or any enrollment changes that happen over the summer without having to rec have that in in the budget itself the rest of the recommendations are all around expenses and again we've looked at the ongoing needs of all the schools um knowing that we have the Cushing Cathy project coming forward we had already added funding to Jenkins wal tuck and the high school and so the recommendation is actually to accelerate that so we were able to add some funds to that in the regular FY 25 budget um but the recommendation this

099evening is to add $100,000 to the high school expense budget for improvements here at the high school and that really goes a long way toward not only possible improvements out in the Foye improvements to Furniture fixtures and equipment here at the high school um we look forward to getting some students together getting the teachers together getting people together really do a walk through we invite members of the committee do a walk through the high school let's be thoughtful and see what we can do to um really improve the condition here at the high school um similarly at wck and Jenkins while it's an additional $110,000 um the needs that we were able to do in the 25 budget didn't meet all the needs of those schools and so we were we were recommending it adding

100$10,000 each to those building budgets so that the principles can use those for the same purposes Furniture fixtures and equipment at at those schools and then finally an additional $53,000 for our curriculum line um if you're going to make your improvements to any curriculum the most expensive one is math always um it just it just is there's a lot of components to it there's a lot of materials training for the teachers making sure that everybody has what they need for a successful math curriculum Improvement but this will also allow us to take a look and maybe accelerate some of the curriculum improvements in some of the other areas as well so an additional $53,000 was welcome we talk to you Mrs drisol and um it really will help solidify not only a success implementation of

101the math PR but allow us to move forward in some other areas as well so total of 263,000 for a new budget total of 51 m327 680 so um Tom thank you for this this is more great news for Budget tonight so you've been to cap Capital planning and I've been going and I know Nicole has too and so something that we always get asked about is our sort of Maintenance budget right and so I just want to sort of bring to light that you mentioned 100K for the high school and then 10K for the others about buying additional things I'm I'm assuming because you're good stewards of our money that this will not be at the expense of other things that might be in disrepair right that we're continuing to sort of make up

102for in future I mean previous administrations no thank you for saying that we actually heard loud and clear pet Capital planning and that was the primary just putting the thought great thank you um no I just wanted Tom thanks for doing this is I very clearly presented and easily understandable for those that may not be involved dayto day but again just a shout out to the town again for our financial forecast process that works great again the reason that we ended up with these extra funds is that as uh as Tom mentioned there was a lower expense in the T Town employee insurance program essentially and a couple of other um there was an increase in revenue or one less student I think they went to votex or or something like that but ultimately with

103the formula that we have we ended up with additional funds so it's just a really great process that we have um I know other towns are fighting to get additional funds for their schools we built the budget around what we originally had and then were're able to do these great things so I just want to thank shout out and thanks to those everyone that was involved in in this process as we continue that going forward [Music] number I did a suggested Motion in the that's [Music] great I make a motion that the school committee approved the budget amendment as presented second I like Tom's language this works all in favor thank you the language look he wrot he wrote a nice Amendment he wrote a nice motion read it into the record number um all

104right we are moving along here Dei director report Mr Adams hello everybody here and at home Wasing on the tape in present think it's it's not so anyone that is celebrating Ramadan I'm on that Journey with you just want to say Ramadan folks doing that and further on want to engage in our report regarding the haven't been here in a minute so let's go right into it ours are we and we is us and us be all and all of us are situ with Public Schools SPS we are the journey on the Journey of equity slide deck to Pride check check check out our journey we Museum the beach some of the accountability nor Retreat we Retreat the love that hate can't stop we love always we always love we SPD with SD see athletic

105the music library the academic Excellence Excellence is our sales set we dream explore discover we memorialize MLK we are students for life in this house this is our house of lit Love inclusion and trust trust us trust that we are always we we believe and we believe I'm just I can't see on the screen I'm like we can see it we can see it we believe and are not done yet ever just went there and with that folks we present to you our Equity uh Journey as Al line with our strategic plan and an equity audit here are our goals um regarding Human Resources the introduction to the lit ecosystem and student engagement when regarding Human Resources we want to make sure we begin to streamline our surges and to maintain Equitable hiring practices we

106want to inform all staff of our ongoing Equity Journey I'll explain a little bit more as we go through what all of these mean as we go through the rest of presentation we want to introduce our lit ecosystem we now have the pieces in place to have that but we need a mechanism to make that possible and so we want to implement the lit ecosystem which again reminder folks lit stands for love inclusion and Trust through our district lit committee we want to do this and have this in place by 2425 the next academic year making our district L committee the source and C from which all SPS Equity efforts flow and next in regarding student engagement we want to make sure that Lit is an essential component of all staff and students experience as

107part of our condition now we chose the timeline as a methodology of how to explain our journey since 2021 um and because that was the best way to explain kind of what has happened because we've been working and put a lot of things into place since then and so this time line gives a trajectory of what that is and as you can see we on fire and we the the blue flame of The Fly which is which is the hottest part of of the fire and as you see we go through each um different Academic Year so first first time we started in the end of 21 we addressed the slide the incident I was at our Middle School which led to our adjusting our best practic in addressing similar circumstances and keeping those things

108locally but what we did we took advantage of that opportunity to create teachable moments We R the community rally the community with all kinds of signs of love and we had chalking we had inservice learning events for students and staff without villainizing anyone it wasn't that wasn't the focus there the focus was on bringing the community together then right after that um we had our first ever first Pride open mic and that was done in conjunction with the community then the summer came and then over the summer we had introduced theit platform and plan to our district leaders then we welcome the spbs pledge which is coign my students and parents and caregivers and um Department chairs Cal office and school commit so we all all created what is that school pledge we C public

109school we reflect family education and each other we are always we we got a present and future unified by love inclusion and trust with Scholars family and together that's the The Pledge just want to remind folks of what that sounded like what it was next then we get to the fall of spring fall and spring sorry 2122 we introduced this is our house which is the community and identity affirmation event event that happens at every school in our district and then this is our house that again we affirm everyone's membership in our community we also began the lit team that e school which at the time had between six to 12 Scholars on each team then we introduced the parental caregivers Advisory Group as well that same year then we started our community connection with

110the community conversations pce which is done in collaboration with our um situ library and we had our first MLK Memorial then we start the cultur cuisine through our lit team which is where our students on the lit team they do some research on food connected to different countries and how they connect to the people of the countries and then they send that recommended they sent actually several um options to our dining team and then the D team finds out which one they can actually get the ingredients for and then they produce the actual product along with the history on our menu on the day that is there the history of the um the food that's on the menu is shown in the cafeteria and that usually happens within a month or two month time period

111then we have the lit podcast which you get to hear members of our community and mostly our students talking about things connected to love inclusion and Trust at the same year the Unified sports was Amplified a little bit more we began to explore some Equity move moves regarding HR and then we the first thing we did was expand um a little bit of what our SPS searches were uh the engines that we were use cross searches then at the same time we had lost our current mecro director at that time so we had inter director again then we started the first districtwide acknowledgements of Heritage months days of observance inclusive of identity ability spirituality culture race and then we also began to have a regular maintaining a regular presence of Staff of color in all

112of our schools where we intentionally scheduling times where we were in all of the schools within our district um profess development structure was enhanced through our lit Short Stops meaning that we had to come up with more ways to talk about some of the efforts regarding equity and profession development outside of the times that were just already in place so once a month at the top of the month on the first Thursday of the month we would have these things called Short Stops they 10 of them and they're voluntary not mandatory and they complement the already in place for pression development opportunities then let's see we are um intentionally started adding the presence and voices of marginalized Scholars and staff to the high school senior dinner and to graduation this is DB because we have

113students that come from Boston on a regular basis and we are a Metro District so it makes sense that there is representation during commencement and also during the Senor dinner to that effect we wanted to make sure we had some representation of Marti L folks doing graduation as well so that became true that year um and then I began serving as the the lays on to our diversity Equity inclusion Council and then we also created our first C Freedom team which is all on going so that's the first year we really got going so a lot happened that first year just when you thought that was it um we went to the fall the spring of 2223 where we actually established our district lit committee which is comprised of U Department chers staff and principles

114then we had to do another me search that same year where we landed our coordinator at the end of that that time um this is our house grew and it became more involved with students where they were more engaged and more positive anticipation for the event to happen so that was a beautiful thing as less me talking more talking about what love includes and Trust means to them and for them in our community we also began the neurodiverse this is our house and that was out of um conversation with parents from lit actually where for members of our new diverse Community we wanted to make sure that they felt the love as well and if they wanted to be present for this is our house they could be there but if not for any number

115of reasons that we understand that we still show the love to those folks every place where we had no diverse folks we did an additional well a preliminary this is Al house for those it was wonderfully wildly received um and we continue to do that to this day The Pledge uh was begin to be shared in every Elementary School and so that was good along with it being posted in all the schools on a banner um after the Pledge of Allegiance and announcements and birthdays and lunches and things like that the pledge is shared typically it's shared by a student and a member of the lit team then we uh we did Equity audit which was something that preceded um my arrival um and what folks wanted to see it happen so we had that

116take place we developed the district lit website we didn't have one prior uh we also did our first meet and greet with the central police department whereas we wanted to change the narrative and defeat the narrative that the police cannot work alongside and with folks of color and so the chief and I big shout out to the chief we had conversations and we decided to make this happen along with Nick as well and so we had the first installation of the meet grp where all of the the folks of color and our met with the police department we did two um that first year where because we had in order to meet the whole staff we had to do two shifts because of they change shifts and things like that so and that went really

117well um the last one was just the first one was just before the unity basketball game which ended up happening and so it was good to meet folks before that happened and to continue to enhance our relationship with each other started doing lit lunches for folks that weren't able to participate in the lit teams but wanted to have some conversations so we did those primarily here at the not here but um at the gates Middle School um then we piloted lit bedtime stories which was an opportunity where parents um volunteered to read a bedtime story that's geared towards Elementary level schools um at 7:15 it last no more than 15 minutes and they connected to topics that are gear to love inclusion and Trust then we had a lit open house that year which is

118where folks want to just get some clarity on what lit was and we did this at the library and it was there that folks I think they were fine with what lit was and what it was all about but then we ALS also Unearthed there were some wounds that hadn't been addressed and so maybe you may still get at some of those things on the heels of um some work of by superintendent um I was a giv a presentation at that year we spoke about lit on a more region level with the New England associ school superintendence and then also that same year when we had um a hate symbol show up on in our community and on the result at the on the heels of that the situ of love that hate can't stop

119slogan was introduced and we had some um magnet that also had the same quote that shared with folks in along with the LA Signs so we will move and showing how we we are love how we move with love then we get to the summer and this is first time where our school committee was like Hey you know other places doing this thing with their addition doing some trainings and stuff can we do it sure why not we like let's go with it and so we did that and I think it was pretty successful and really um meaningful for all of us involved we spent some time particular pertaining to L and E we spoke about the move which is a methodology for engaging in conflex conversations so we did some of that and that

120worked that nicely then that same summer later that summer we had the museum Beach incident and it don't have to get into details of all of that but what I will highlight there is that it showcased how much love is actually in the community it showcased how the efforts that we've been putting forward all the way up till that point in time allowed us to shine um how much we care about each other how much the community um is about being in love that hate can't stop and that we wouldn't um cow in in the face of any challenge or adversity and the amount of Love That continue to flow from that moment is still to this day so a big shout out huge love to everybody here to the community I can't thank everybody

121enough for sh love on the hills of that then now we're here this year and we had another Meco search and this time we landed our first fulltime permanent director since 21 now this is interesting because I'm not gonna steal Sean Thunder because Sean's coming in two weeks gonna say a couple things but we have a legacy with mecho mecho got started in 66 we had it since 68 so we have 54 years of Meco in our DNA in the district and so we're absolutely going to be the flagship of what it is to have um lco affiliation as a district that's what I question we on that J we've been on it but we just going to highlight it highlight highlight it and there's some things that'll be introduced and I'll leave that for

122Sean to share um when he presents in a couple of weeks but I just something to note something to celebrate something to acknowledge and something to drive us to fuel us to do incredible things yeah right um then we did a we had a PD on equable hiring practices happen this summer to help everybody kind of get in the zone and this is just before the arrival of our new HR Director so Tai will continue that Journey um with the practices with our our team there then our freedom team was trained on the circle model for atonement and healing this is the opportunity for folks to talk about issues that may have been um hard to talk about in the community this is where some of those open wounds we learned about and during the

123open house lit open house where we may use some this technique to talk about some things but we'll see what happens but this this model is is uh is designed for that it's it's important to mention that our one of the members of our freedom team that teaches this has been sought out by several other Freedom teams to teach them how to do the circle model as well so we are being reflected in other communities um let's see um the lit teams this year at each of the schools as you see is growing it they are now being run fully by the staff of the schools the first year I ran them and they like six to 12 students students in them the next year it was about 300 students that were on the ltin

124school year then this year we shifted a little bit so it's a little there was a change in number because of how how we're running it but the important piece is that all of the LI teams again are being sustained by staff of those particular schools and they doing really really well um we began something called a longitude lit training on the 10 principles of diversity whereas the district wide P took place in November there were 10 folks that agreed to take on this this component of learning the 10 principles of diversity but there was a mandate a mandate connected to it that if you do this you have to connect um every week on the 10 principles and so from March I mean sorry from November all the way through March the staff that

125did this maintain connection every week it has been wildely successful they report every member of the every member that has um taking this longitudinal PD reports that is helpful it's meaning kept them connected to the 10 principles and they are now place to be trainers to Mentor other folks to do it as well so that's the hope with that not the Hope actually the plan that will happen there um let's see then the same year um through HR we I have a one pager that's in place that once people are hired into our SPS family they get the benefits package all that kind of stuff they also get a one pager that kind of explains what Equity efforts are in the community and then also we get one page that explains what Meco is and

126what Meco is not this is so that folks no longer um are not aware what those things are um along with these resources we'll make sure that everyone in the district has access to them as well these also available on our our District web page as well so we front all of those things everything we're doing um proudly we are a part of the launching of the the uh Statewide an organization which is the association of massachusett school Equity leaders which is representation of my counterparts throughout the state that do this work it's been recognized by the state Itself by the governor and by the secretary so this is a a great thing in which I I represent us as the second vice president in that then uh we also were a recipients of $1,000

127through a grant um through our uh as being a Meco district and so we're utilizing those funds to work with Dr oura Ana Monty Jackson and she's working with our district El committee on how we will roll out some of the things that we are working with regarding um Equity efforts in particular diversity and how love chest will connect with u the rest of our district stay with me you good you're good you're good all right just check with folks then here we are some additional things to acknowledge is that in this position um I believe it's more than just the de director connecting with students family students um the community and the region I believe folks have strengthen their belief in what lit is all about and what it's doing and that's about bringing

128people together not dividing people and it's about making sure that it represents all of us not just a segment of us or cohort of us but it's all of us and again always be always love and we sh that to we and then love the visits to classrooms are are often and they um I'm invited to assist with Contex discussions also the we enhance our community connections for example the American fiction film that happened just recently that was an example of the community of our staff our faculty and our students all come together to make this possible that we can watch and it also was it was beautiful that the an Alum was a producer for it as well so that's just reflective of many things that have happened this is really just a thumbnail

129shot of what has happened um the request for assistance through my position that I'm in is more than just Equity effort so I just mention that to know that when we are really part of the community we are really part of the community so folks see what we doing as more than just um Equity efforts we continue to create new best practices for our field and some of the things that we're doing here that are now Pastime to us for a lot a lot of districts has not happened yet and so they are looking to us to get EX to be the example looking for us for resources and asking us to share some of what we're doing with them so we're proud of that and happy about that um we now um we we

130uh we hold a greater accountability towards what we doing because it's not only in our strategic plan is coming out of our EIC off audit is also part of our goals as mentioned earlier and so with that we have increased an increased standard of expectation from students staff and families as well and so that is a quick look at what we have been doing since 2021 I mean that really is a thumbnail shot there's there's so much more there but that is where we can pause at for right now um I can share also something that we're proud of is that over the break we had our first lit sort of program break programs happen where we did a lit folks asked and wanted and we did a lit bedtime for over break and it

131was really well attended so that happened um our freedom team again as part of a freedom team network is there are so that folks know there are seven other Freedom teams throughout um the state and um I gotta um also um show appreciation to um the community and the town for working with um our our Metro folks again cre Beach passes that purchas to be a part of the community so I'll pause there and and answer any questions things like that sorry those F but questions yeah thank you so much it was great to see everything all in one place um I had two questions I was curious about like the numbers of kids and people participating all the different like I don't have a good sense of of how sort of um how many

132kids are taking up these opportunities um so I don't know if you have an answer to that on top of your head I was just it's okay if you don't I was just kind of thinking about that um so go ahead and and then I can ask a second question okay so to answer that when we first started the first year there was between six Y and at most 12 students then in conversations with the principles we did a different way to explain the opportunity to join one of the lit teams so every student from grades three to five got an information sheet and has permission step on if the families and students want to be a part of it on the HS of that that's when the number jumped to about 300 so we

133had 80 in one school 76 in another school um 57 in other school and 49 in another Elementary School the the um middle school has always been um somewhere between five and 10 folks kind of thing at the high school there's umbrella organization called star which includes the TEAM stands for students taking Action Against Racism but so it jumped up exponentially then the next year this past year we we didn't do that same way we tried to utilize the digital pathway where folks can find learn some things online learn about it then sign up that way I think we took a hit from that I think we definitely took a hit from that and as folks are learning to be more digital in our correspondence with the community but what has end up happening is

134all of the teams now have more than um have double digit numbers and so between 10 and 20 folks that but they also now divided into sessions and three sessions that eight long which we had to do to meet all kinds of standards and things like that so we're rebuilding that kind of thing but okay still folks are coming out so that's how the numbers work that's great thank you part of the reason I asked and I think this is kind of a question for anyone who also worked on the Strategic plan so in the Strategic plan it says that one of the goals that's specifically kind of di related is students and staff understand how to create a culture of lit and actively work to ensure all individuals have a sense of belonging and

135I feel like anytime you're talking about culture change or people having a sense it's it's kind of hard to measure but I was just curious if you have thoughts or if any anyone who was working on the Strategic plan had thoughts about how are we really kind of like looking at all the things that are happening and saying like yes we're seeing some of the the starts of change and one of the ways I think is look at involvement so you know there's that which you just shared about I was curious about other thoughts that you or anyone else has on of how we think about that I I I as being part of strategic planning and then parent who did the digital form um so part of I the layer that sort of teachers

136are owning this in their own buildings to me is that next step that it's not like a top down initiative it's like it's more of a you know it's kind of the way it's run and being rolled out by teachers who you know are in the buildings with kids every day and they're kind of building those relationships and it's not just kind of like a you know central office kind of or like you know administrator driven sort of stuff I love that it's being you know um kind of spreading love that way um and I feel like through our strategic planning you know sort of that is that kind of hits on a lot of those points with just training others to be a part of initiatives and not just rolling them out from um

137that was just my take on like on the entire presentation like parts that really feels like second phase and kind of moving forward with it is that just having you know immediate access for kids in in the buildings at all times like you're one person who's dividing themselves up and how do you do that effectively it's well it's funny Maria that you asked that question because as I was watching your great presentation J thank you um the the sort of nerd in me was thinking that we should be asking Julie Ward to be looking for Grants to do a program evaluation um because I do you think I think it would serve multiple purposes one is you're already being tapped as sort of the go-to program in the state and a program program evaluation will

138help you present those best practices just by doing what's called a process evaluation which is did were you able to do what you intended to do right and then you could add on and and do this in Partnership whether it's with Bridgewater or some other university or some other organization do it in partnership with the folks who have the expertise then you could do the outcomes evaluation which is to say you know the lit bedtime story we're seeing this and have them collect data for that for the freedom uh group this is what's happening and I think at some point because it's part of our strategic plan we should be looking for grant opportunities because I just think that elevates the work you're doing anyway um in all the you know and all the really

139positive ways and then it highlights it for the district to make better decisions about how to invest money in in the program you're doing but that's would be my recommendation at some point I always say is us always say is we do together abely I think I just think it's important to be kind of capturing growth as it's happening and so that we can someday you know kind of look back and say oh yes we're really glad we did this we know it works because we want to recreate this and do more you know and we know that we're getting those positive returns that sometimes you kind of feel like we're getting but we're not really sure how to pinpoint it and like I said this is a tough one we're not just looking at

140like our math scores going up you know this is a little harder to measure but I feel like just really important to have an eye on that yeah you're absolutely right to that effect like we we're on the heels of again bearing in mind we've had mecho for 54 years we just had our first black his yeah at the high school that says something it's good but at the same time it's something worth knowing that you know it had happened prior to that so this is example of things moving um and students saying hey we want to do this want to make that happen is example of that the this is our house the issue we have with this is our house now is that we don't have enough time for the amount of students

141that want to participate in this is a good issue to have but out of that we have art that's showing up um have art as a part of house so just great I think it's a a great question how to quantify sense of belonging and measure that and I think we've done a lot there are a lot of things we've done I think now we talking about is how do we capture that whether it's numbers whether it's surveys of kids whether it's involvement in the community so that will be something that we we're already working on but we'll have for you I think it's you're right we want to memorialize it we want to how do you know what working that's the we feel the energy and I think it's anecdotal but I think we

142can articulate that as well I don't think we'll have a problem doing that but we should focus on that thank you for the feedback yeah I don't I mean I don't think it's a problem at all I mean this is where having expertise outside of the schools would be helpful because there's plenty of good surveys and how to measure I mean sense of belonging is the sort of in the literature now so that's yeah there's plenty of yeah we could do it for sure the way that people will participate and that will be great as well because we came in this we're at a place now will receive it differ sometimes what happens is folks come in they just come in with these these things and stuff and it feeds just negative yeah energy and

143so this I'm putting the work we put in up till now help the reception of I would also say from the MLK event this year you could also feel the shift in more inclusiv for neurodiverse individuals just um you know participation and acknowledgement and you know it was it was definitely noticeable and to that effect it it's almost like a day on instead of you do on the day yeah so the uh the lit 101 if that goes out to new hires yeah and you said it's available for current staff yeah and so do they have to take it upon themselves to access that or is that something that like sent to them no this is just a couple little tweaks on it we'll just make sure they get it the folks that here they

144just get it okay but anyone newly hired will get okay they'll get any pack okay and are you planning on having another lit Community conversation the near future was thinking about it um but I don't know if it probably a coule um the I was trying to figure out we need to have another lit open house I think that first one folks were kind of cool with l once they understood it was clear that folks weren't being taken out of class and things like that but some of those um those wounds that were still there it it's probably worth trying to get at some of those things um the parking lot conversations were you know a lot of those conversations we want those to be probably more organized set up for um a conducive to

145have an engaging conversation so I don't know it could the short answer is could be yeah still trying to figure it out but is it going to be a lit open house thing or is it going to be the circle kind of thing I don't know that folks going to come out to another lit open house because folks kind of we've done it but we can do an update like we doing now I mean it's nice to it's ongoing keeping the Community PR to what we're doing this is true I'm not opposed to I also think with the this is just based on my elementary school kids coming home and the third graders are talking about the election and all that you can imagine the third graders so I wonder if there's a place for

146you know a community conversation around how to how to talk about the election how to talk about different different opinions um you know how to how to have that com hard difficult conversation when you disagree fundamentally um so just just an I would love I would attend that one so absolutely selfishly so yeah absolutely you sp on with that it is time Clos we get to November the morning's conversation going to be happening people can disagree without ending um friendships and relationships and break families apart we can have variance of opinion and still be together you absolutely do so you make a lot thank you appreciate it oh okay approval sorry approval of minutes from February 12th comments I motion make a motion to approve the minutes from the February uh 12 2024 School commit

147meeting second all in favor all right laen Dr R thank you madam chair I do have one to read in from February 15th for $266,400 Warrant all right um no correspondences any other business anyone nothing great uh future agenda items a question do what's the relationship between school committee and PTO well PTO are nonprofits right so they but do we have any we have no say we can't okay like they operate teally I just have well maybe we should just talk offline about it okay yeah like more about how the relationships work and no it's a very specific response to something but I don't if it's not a school committee matter then I don't think it's worth bringing out do we have a policy well I just wonder like so we have no per we

148have no purview over they just they just run at will whatever they have their own they have to be do the guidance of whatever the state requires of a PTO they should have their own bylaws that they're following that are legal yeah I just I mean I don't want to open can of worms get a lot of hate mail just I'll just say it because look I don't I don't I don't people will say what they want to say so my my question is around sort of understanding the budgets of PTO and the huge asks of PTO when we just approved a a school budget and so I'm trying to figure out sort of like what is the PTO rightly spending money on and what is the school district rightly spending money on and I

149just want to make sure that parents and caregivers aren't be and grandparents and all the folks are not being asked to pay in two pots do you see what I'm saying like does that make sense what I'm saying sure um and and I love should be in their by and I want to be clear like I am so 100% supportive of like our PTO like they do amazing things they help us do field trips and lunches for teachers all the good things I just want to be make sure that parents aren't feeling stretched because schools are asking for money and the PTO are asking money I just want to make sure that there's does that make I just want to make sure there's a collaboration so that you know when we're getting asked to pay

150for this versus that that it's a collaborative thoughtful process I'll probably get lots of now what is like asking for money yeah I mean I got a flyer today asking for money and I'm thinking oh my gosh I just you know I mean I'm being very vulnerable right now like I you know I just paid for my son to go on a field trip that was pretty expensive ensive because I didn't want to do the fundraising so it's just trying to figure out like how to best allocate funds so that all the kids can do all the things and I'm sure I'm not the only member of a family feeling that way that's that's awes School sponsored trips coming out of sort of official School channels in that way versus PTO right more supporting enrichment

151opportunities and that sort of thing right and just figuring out sort of like are the school districts supporting because I know in Bill's budget we talked about how it's awesome that there's money set aside for families who can't afford field trips and then the PTO is saying they're supporting field trips I'm just trying to make sense of the different pots of money this is not a criticism of any PTO I'm very supportive it's just are we using our limited resources in the best way we can to support our families and our kids and our teachers and our schools that's all the way I understand pto's in situate is that the PTO fundraising money they tend to spend a segment of that towards enriching curriculum yeah so it it there is like a tie to the

152put time on learning and all that so while they're not connected their programming supports curriculum and teacher usually they ask the teachers for input like you know well when they go to Plymouth for example it's like uh the third graders are doing a unit on the pilgrims and such so it ties directly into the yeah curriculum but in terms of how much they're asked to pay by families for those sorts of activities I believe they're that they have their autonomy on that really and it's like the board and then it's members and yeah I guess I'm just also wondering like do we know what the average budget of PTO is and is it Equitable across the district are we worried that like because one PTO at one Elementary School can rate right like these are

153odd questions so those are and I obviously it's maybe we should just stop maybe this is scho committee but I'm these are just questions that came up that's all so I wanted to see what our role if anything it sounds like there is no role so correct and I do I do hear you on different events take place at different schools yeah and like I I I hear you on sort of some of that no no I think it just is yeah um there's there's like sort of like how much Equity do we want versus how much it's really should be that you you know some schools but you know I hear what you're saying sort of like a BAL needs it's nice when it's balanced but it's not always now yeah sense yeah sorry

154I all good and then I mean technically the high school Shore kind of operates differently too yeah I don't know I know and it's St from middle school you know it's there's so many layers you we can look into more of like how it TI to you know all I know is that there are typically um they should have their own um bylaws that really different how that operates okay uh sure anything else if not take a motion to ajour um no I just wanted just for clarification for me and I think that I am aware but um back to the elementary uh coaching hady new school we have our annual town meeting on April 4th April 8th um just from my perspective I clarified this with Nicole that the the school vote is not

155then there's a totally separate one and just from my perspective I think that I know it's not our job to communicate it but I think that it's important for folks to know that at that at that time meeting the school vote will not be happening because it's not planned to be there I just don't I don't I'm involved to the I guess the second degree and I was kind of clear on that but not entirely so I think it's important for whomever is communicating that town meeting is very important on April again April 8th whatever day you just said but that's not the school vote and I just think it's important to distinguish those two dates yes M Gates we're working on um actually Nicole and I meeting tomorrow you our by weekly meeting and

156we'll be talking about you know we always talk about the new school uh process and you know getting the word out in public relations so what I was going to share with her tomorrow I'll share with all you tonight is uh um CommunityWide uh mailing that everyone will get to their home that will educate them on all the upcoming uh public meetings votes and articulate and educate on you know this the 8th versus the 29th which is our vote separate because I have heard that as well you know and no matter how many public meetings we have the same handful of people come a full circle tonight a number watch afterwards the numbers do go up considerably so that they are folks and I do you know Monday um morning um Talk on the community

157cable that goes out there and hits a different population so I think they're they're being reached as well um you know and I also think there momentum as it gets closer to the vote people start paying attention just in general so I think that'll pick up in speaking to other superintendents just went through this this is about the time where things start picking up and we're seeing that too so I think and what I've learned from other districts that mailing was very helpful that you know everyone gets it all community members the same message and it's you know not partis I'm supporting it not it's just educational one you know these are the dates where you know we're having public meetings this is the day we're going to vote you know we'd like you to

158participate so we'll we'll definitely do that in many venues and we're also working on some um some videos we're going to have an eight minute long video that explains the whole kind of presentation that we we do in person we're going to put it on video and we're going to have two minutes four two minute segments of those videos with the why behind why why do we need a new school the money piece the redistricting piece um and send those out so that's much easier to share as a YouTube video here share that so those we're working on as well so I think you'll this will pick up with momentum we definitely got a public relations plan to get the word out so I think there'll be no one that can say you know at

159Tom meeting that they were confused so I I appreciate that but I want to share with everyone that well I should never say that it always happens but we're going to do everything we can to so that question doesn't come up and U that's our plan so I think there there'll be a lot more communication going on thank you goad Mo motion to adjourn at 8:10 p.m. second all in favor I