001audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting. Attendees are therefore advised that self-remissions may be made whether received or unreceived by those present and are deemed acknowledgement and permissible. We'll do a roll call members present. Miss Ferrer, Miss Ashley present. Miss Gord Mr. Miss Solomon present. Mr. Bortes here. Al the chair is present. Also with us this evening our superintendent of schools Dr. Jeffrey Spooner our chief financial officer Mael Pel and our director of curriculum is Elizabeth. At this time I ask if you could please rise slowly. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And please forgive me also. Um, please note that the next regularly scheduled
002meeting of this committee is Tuesday, July 15th, 2025 at 6 p.m. here in the Summers Berkeley Regional High School Library. Um, the first item on the agenda this evening under new business is an update for our community service provider. Please hold. How is everyone today? Um, nice to see everyone. Um, nice to introduce myself, some people I haven't formally met yet. Um, so just a quick update um about what we've been doing this year. Very successful season successful year. Um, the high school um continues to be a great spot for us and continues to grow with our menu, with our participation. Um, So, I'm just really happy to share this stuff with you. Uh, first, so this is our Chartwell's team that supports Somerset Berkeley, myself, uh, Mr. Michael K, we got student engagement. He
003was just hired in December. He's a student engage manager and he is out there having events, um, such as global leads, uh, student choice, really communicating with the students and getting their feedback. Uh, Miss Aaron Monzar, she couldn't make it today. She was winning, but she came down with a bit of vertigo, so she could not make it down there. Mr. Thompson Don, Mr. Eric. All right, kids school lunch. Uh, more healthy whole grains, uh, more fat-ree and lowfat diary, more fruits, veggies gives them the energy to make it through a full day. Um, you know, we've really improved our breakfast this year, um, by adding all whole grain Belgian waffles with, uh, fruit toppings. Um, we've also thrown into some scrambled eggs one day a week. Um, and just trying to get students to
004participate in breakfast because everybody knows when you have a full belly going into your first period class, you just you're not concentrating on your stomach rumbling. You're concentrating on your books, your academics, stuff like that. Um, also still continuing free meals this year. Um, we will, as far as we know, and it looks like we're leaning that way, there will be free meals again next year. Um, hasn't been fully approved yet, but uh, we are leading that way. Um, between both districts, over 311 uh,000 meals. Um, you know, Somerset Berkeley alone um, this year has had over 94,000 uh lunches and over 10,000 uh breakfastes we've served out of this building to our students. Service. Um this what's important to you? Service. Um you know, we take care of our staff here. Uh we have
005we spend a lot of time, effort and funds into making sure that our staff here um has the proper PPE uh protective equipment um training. Serve safe that they are going back to this year this summer to get reertified. Um it's a seven-year certification chart uh requires every three years. I take them under that wing. Um, I prefer them to do it every three years so they know what they're so they don't forget what the regulations are, stuff like that. So, our staff will be going back to surf safe training this year. We have an orientation um every year for eight hours where we do a lot of training as well and bring them up to date the new regulations that we hold in this building as well. um you know nutrition education. We had
006a pop-up event this year where we just wanted to again focus on breakfast and it was overnight oats. You know overnight oats is something that's easy for students to make at home. We gave them recipe cards. Um they tried it. We gave them a pumpkin cranberry uh with some chocolate in it. Um kids really had uh actually students that tried it actually really enjoyed it. something that they really liked. Um, so we just kind of really focused on that. We did some kale chips this year at all schools. Um, you know, kale chips were either loved or they could pass, but it was we had a table out there that students got to get a cup of it and they really got to try it. Um, student voice, uh, we had student choice event this
007year where we had our theme made to melt. Also, Mac and Cheeseology. Mac and cheeseology was a butternut squash mac and cheese. So the butternut squash, we pured it. It looked just like the cheese. We add a little bit of cheese with it and actually got a pretty good amount of votes. But the real winner was made to melt, which is was a tomato, mozzarella, basil um grilled cheese. Um and that one and that has been on the menu since we had that uh winner. So uh that's one of our biggest sellers. um commitment um you know we commit to never stop improving on our menu. We went from a four-week cycle this year to a five week. So that means no student had the same meal within the four-week period um which was our
008main meal. We obviously uh have our commitment to making our standards um on certain stations but our commitment to always improving, never stop improving and following trends. Um and then also our commitment to speak with the students. Um I had a great time this year. I had two different civics groups classes. I had some uh food service meetings with some other students where we had the students get involved and they actually put out their own surveys, right? And a couple of those surveys came out with one, we want some more breakfast. We want some different options. We just don't want um the same old breakfast sandwiches that we put out there. We want something different. So that's why we brought in the Belgian waffles. I don't know if you guys seen them, but we have
009we invested in four um waffle irons. They're big. The ones you see like if you're in a college, we train the students to make their own Belgian waffles. They're in there. They put the batter in, they put it, they flip it, and they make their own waffle. It was pretty dicey the first month, but after that they started getting it going. Um, and then we we had the civics class. We had um really good meetings and what came out of that was they really wanted something that they could eat after hours in between classes without going down the calf. Um, so we really discussed on getting a new vending machine. Um, sorry little side there, but we bought a brand new vending machine custom designed for the school with the school label on it. It
010is air condition. It is uh refrigerated. Um it has sensors on it to tell me. Um and I'm sure it'll go to the facilities saying, "Hey, this is down. We're shutting it down because we can't have this food go below that temperature." Um the students got to create u build what they wanted inside of it. Um so they decided they wanted this room for salads, sandwiches, uh simple chips. Um and it is also probably ready as well. So, we'll get that up and going. Um, it was actually ahead of schedule until 3 to 4 months. We actually got it in within two months. So, we're working with our um with our service team with them and it actually can integrate to the food service system where they can just type in their code or scan
011their badge and they'll be able to grab a free meal out of there or they can purchase the aloc cart. Um, so again, always investing, always looking for the new technology. And the students, I have to really um give them credit. They worked really hard on it. They helped design it. They helped scout out the building where we're going to put it. Uh, we had to make sure that there was one internet could be received there and have a power source. We walked around the building um, and finding side we're going to put it. So again, you know what we do? We do do nutrition stuff, but we also like to have fun. When you have fun, we did a section with a popcorn day, right? We had five or six different spices that were
012all um compliant, healthy, and not full of sugar. We did a buffalo chicken. We did a chocolate with just real cocoa on it. And the students got to grab their popcorn and they got to put their own stuff on it. Sweet and spicy was one of them. Um they really had fun. That gets lets the student services is really communicate with the students, right? Know who we are. And the best part about me is being here 11 years now is actually seeing those students that were in first, second grade, they just come right up and talk to me. But it also lets me speak to students that I generally didn't see. So from Berkeley, I get to meet a lot of students from Berkeley that I didn't see come up through the system, but they're
013now here with us at Somerset Berkeley. Um, uh, local farms. We did a broccoli thing where we have the students have some broccoli. We show them where the broccoli was ordered from. We work straight with the state with that with the DoD program we are part of. Uh we get funds every year. We sign up for it and we get local farmers that work with the department of defense and we get to order it right from those farmers that came in. So it's fun showing them where it comes from and what they have. Um we have made to melt was there some students at the event that we had here when they were trying it. We had a global eat event today and one of them what I want to highlight today was students got
014to go and uh make their own flavor of guacamole. We had a guacamole station. Poor Mike was there was mashing guacamole this whole time and we got to talk to the students and they had a chance to build their own guacamole station, what they wanted in their personalized guacamole. We had the students grab some whole grain chips with the guacamole and it was a great way again to speak with the student, engage with the student and see what they really want. Um, that's what we try to do all the time. So, it's providing happy through food, right? Seeing the smiles of just a little bit of guacamole that they weren't expecting that day, it was great. It was a nice surprise that we could do for them. Um, this building here alone, after every single
015day, we average over 700 meals a day. So, we're putting out 700 meals a day. Our current enrollment, I believe, is 855ish. So, you can do the math. We have a great that are having um meals with us on a day and we're touching a lot of students and we're providing a lot of food on a daily basis and that goes right into No Kid Hungry. We're offering stuff that they want with collaboration with the student. So we see what they want, we talk, we get that information and we provide a guacamole bar, we provide made to melt because we knew through talking with them that their other favorite meal here that we serve the most of is their grilled cheeses. grilled cheese. I think um if there any students here that there is an
016Instagram of its own a grilled cheese for Somerset Berkeley Region High School has its own Instagram. I love telling that story because that was purely organic and grassroots. They built it. They made it and it's a Summit at Berkeley Regional High School uh Instagram of grilled cheese. So, we kind of knew through that that this would be something where maybe they want to add something into that grilled cheese, right? They want to put a little tomato in it. um see if they liked it and they like it if it comes out uh once every five weeks. Um just some year-to- date stats for May. Uh we serve over 116,000 meals. Uh our sales of 500K, bottom line surplus of $76,000. Um we do reinvest into our building, right? Since we've been here, and I know
017it's a new building, we've purchased a new freezer system, a new refrigerator system, four new ovens. Um, we've put things back into the building with waffle irons, right? So, we use our money that we make from revenue back and we put it right back into the system because that's where it belongs. Um, I have to recognize, and I wouldn't be right if I didn't do it, our staff here is wonderful. They are the backbone of what we do. I'm here talking but they make it happen on a daily basis. I am very lucky to work with them. These two ladies were recognized this year. Miss Maria Kudo, Miss Lisa Berseron. Uh they both Lisa's been here for nine years. Maria just started last year with us. Um our manager is going on three years with
018us again. She is a great manager. She runs a great program for us. I have a lot of expectations I put on these folks and they deliver and that's why we cheers them. Um so just want to show you two of these guys. We love celebrating our staff and they are the backbone of our program. Um flexibility and responsiveness. We have maybe about we have some severe um people that need special meals. We provide those meals on a daily basis to about five or six students and we give them five or six options with a schedule. We have flexibility when it comes to that. They deserve to have a meal like anybody else. Our managers, our staff work with them where they make sure we have a sanitized station, make sure that their meal is
019safe for them to eat on a daily basis. Um, so we respond to what we need to do and our staff steps up for that for them. Um, strong district administration support team. I can't thank Sonover, Raquel Moore, Miss Haskell, Miss Robin, and everybody in that admin office. I'm very lucky to get to work with them a lot. They are very good to me, and they help me whatever I need to succeed in which we do succeed because of them. So, I want to thank you guys for that as well. Student engagement, I've showed you what we've been doing. We will never stop. And that's my promise and my commitment is we won't stop trying to improve. We won't stop talking to the students because once you stop losing that student voice, you don't have
020a program because they're our customers, you know. Um, and then just want to let you know free meals again and our investments. Any questions? Adrian, I'm curious since you're the student here, do you have anything to add or anything from that that resonates with you or that you want to share? Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's always a pleasure to see something new in the lunchroom. And, you know, at popcorn day, that was that was amazing. What was your flavor? I think I got the the it was like spicy churro or something like that. Something like that. Chili powder and cinnamon. That was good. That was good. I think I might have stolen a few from other people, but but you know, I know it's uh it's always tough when we have events like that. You
021have the first lunch, you know, like we got to make sure we have for everyone, but the last one I'm like, let's go. Let's get it out. And uh to speak to the faculty here, I mean, yeah, they're they're amazing. I've haven't met one person who's given them a hard time and, you know, they really give us all that they can. So it's really amazing to, you know, to be served by that, I guess. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you guys very much. Have a good night everyone. Okay. Um the next item on the agenda is to discuss an act of annual appointment superintendent to the South Coast Educational Collaborative Board of Directors. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, that's it's just a routine item. uh annually for both the Reeds and South Coast collaborative
022boards. How about this? I'll entertain a motion to appoint Superintendent Spooner to serve as the Somerset Berkeley Regional School District representative on the board of directors of the South Coast Educational Collaborative in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws chapter 40 section 4E as amended by chapter 43 of the acts of 2012 for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Second. A motion by Mr. Passnack and seconded by Miss Ashley. Is there any further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? I opposed. So voted. Um next on the agenda we under business and financial we have continued discussion of the 2526 budget. Sure. Um I I was going to provide this under staffing update but uh this is uh more appropriate place I guess. Uh so uh as you know um during the budgeting process uh
023we had uh several positions here at the high school slated for elimination from um cafeteria monitors to in school suspension hallway monitors and teachers um and counselors in in various departments. Uh primarily there were uh two departments that were identified um where where reductions in force would be made um uh those being science and math. Uh since that time um and once student schedules were loaded uh it actually has uh appeared that there is um less of a need of uh the existing staffing in our world language department um and um the request to maintain the current staffing in the science department. Uh so and for the non-Somerset school committee members uh here uh the Somerset School Committee is also um in in their budget approved uh the the uh reestablishment of a Spanish position
024at Somerset Middle School. Uh so with the the need of a position there at at the middle school um the flexibility here to eliminate a position and not eliminate any courses in our world language department. Um I I will be tomorrow sending out a request voluntary uh request for transfers to go from the high school to the middle school. Uh so because that is happening it preserves the science position um as of right now. Um also uh you know one of the uh really challenging parts of having two distinct districts but one teachers union. Uh and this has happened several times over the last 10 years. a reduction in one district impacts the staffing in the other. Uh so as a result of that again Somerset school committee members here know that a uh elementary
025PE teacher uh we're consolidating the our elementary wellness staffing. uh there's enough flexibility in their classrooms uh in their schedules where we can uh still offer the same courses that we have now uh with one less person uh by being members of the Somerset Teachers Association. Sometimes the teachers who are at that level who are really the ones being um where the the transfer needs to be made from have professional status and then it ends up uh results in the bumping of someone without professional status and uh within the STA contract uh whether it's a reduction in force or non-renewal there are all of these various factors that we have to look at uh education ational attainment, lensure, um evaluations, um and at the end of the day, if all is deemed equal, um then
026the least senior person um is the the one um who is being reduced. So, uh that is happening this year where uh one of our uh fantastic PE teachers here at the high school. Uh that position is that person is being bumped out of a position to make room for someone from the Somerset public schools to transfer either voluntarily or involuntarily into that position. Uh so that's the the other update that I had that was unforeseen uh perhaps a couple of months ago. Um but uh that that's what we have right now. And I think besides that, we're still waiting on uh the House and the Senate uh to work together to come up with a final budget. Uh fortunately, Chapter 7 funding seems to be um you know, in a better position now than
027what it was two months or so ago. Um, and I think the only other question mark is still local health insurance and what those final rates would be. The committee ultimately approved a 10% uh a budget that reflects a 10% increase in those rates. Uh, but there's still uh some potential movement there uh which would cause those rates to increase. But uh we're working with uh town hall uh that keeping us updated on that and as soon as we know uh you will know there any other items relative to the budget. That's a good question at the end. I have a question. Um, just for everybody's benefit, what was the rationale for maintaining the science teacher position as opposed to the math teacher position? Uh, the um special education needs primarily um where uh some
028uh there have been the uh the creation of a uh smaller class size. I know uh in one we have uh a growing um anatomy and physiology project lead the way classes. So some some need for some extra sections there ultimately um was the school's recommendation over math even though math we know class sizes when you eliminate uh a teacher class sizes will be increasing and from what I understand class sizes in classes like AP Calc, AP stats those will be larger um and as of right now and class sizes in you know the advanced college prep, um, algebra ones, twos, geometry will be not small, but smaller than what we have probably in our more advanced classes. Thank you for that update. You're welcome. The next item on the agenda for business and financial
029matters is the May financial statement. So, with the May financial statement, uh we're approaching um it's a little right now we have encumbered and expended a little over 95% of the budget and we're approaching our final month of the fiscal year. Um what is not encumbered or expended at this point would be our um reconciliation of the final teacher payments. um any activity stipens our last month of substitute cost and um because our health care we prepay one month ahead of time really understanding what that increase looks like will impact our June payment for July. Um so those are some it some items that are outstanding. I know we have budget amendments um on for tonight. We will probably have one more final amendment coming forward and that would be end of year wrapup and
030it would also be um if we the recommendation would come forward if we were going to prepay special education. So we would bring that forward for a final budget amendment. Next item on the agenda um budget amendments. You don't know if we need to walk through them. Does anyone have any questions about the amendments as presented? Yeah, clear. Thank you. Just two things to update. Um just wanted to say that we've had a couple of trainings from Desi um talking about um tightening their belt. Um their concerns are cash flow from a federal level. Um so two things that they pointed out to us. Um one we we attended a a training today with grants. So we'll get on a better rotation with our grants. Um and I know that we will be bringing forward
031quarterly updates on the grants. The other t thing is our revolving funds predominantly the um regional transportation and circuit breaker. It was guidance that was released to make sure that um any balance that we have going forward um is only the the dollars that we receive in the fiscal year. So with those two funds, you receive them in the year you can expend them in the current year or you can bring them forward one year. Um so they're tightening the belt on that. So you're going to see there are two budget amendments here that are quite significant and those are because we we made sure that we've expended all of our revolving funds to meet that requirement for end of year report which freed up some money and we made some adjustments. Thank you for
032that question. In that case, a motion to approve the budget amendments as outlined in the June 10, 2025 memorandum. Chief financial officer So voted. The next item on the agenda is to discuss an act on some contracts for 2025 2026. The first we have is for electrical repairs from Austin Electric and Telephone Corporation. questions or anything you need to those are um there are two bids um and they were opened on May 21st and those were our the only biders and so we're awarding them the contract. Perfect. Okay. In that case I would entertain a motion to approve the electrical repair service contract with Boston Electric and Telephone Corporation for the period of July 1st 2025 to June 30th 2026. Second motion by Miss seconded by Miss Ashley. Is there anything further on discussion? Hearing
033none. All those in favor? I opposed. So voted. Next we have a contract for plumbing services from DDS Industries. Um since there's nothing to elaborate on, I would entertain a motion to approve the plumbing services contract with DDS Industries for the period of July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Second motion by Miss Ger and seconded by Miss Ashley. Is there anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? I thank you very much. End of year financials are so much fun. Appreciate all the work you're doing on that. Next item on the agenda under student teaching and learning um is um recognition of our May visionaries of the month. This month we would like to recognize the following students. Yasmin Duza for resilient. William Fischer, academic, Aaron Gil, independent, Noah James, digital citizen.
034Payton Morasco, digital citizen. Aaliyah Morris, independent, Austina, respectful, and Madison Rello, empathetic. Congratulations to those students. Next item on the agenda under unfinished business is to um just discuss subcommittee assignments. I want to thank Robin for cleaning up um and confirming the subcommittee assignments for um this year. Um I don't know it doesn't require a vote but I just don't know if anyone has any questions concerns otherwise we will move forward as presented. Next on the agenda is our superintend. Okay. Thank you. So obviously we want to first start by congratulating the class of 2025. Uh we had a great uh graduation ceremony on Friday night. We had 209 students uh receive their diplomas. Uh including three students who um earned certificates of attainment. Uh we have three additional students who will be continuing uh
035their studies over the summer and should be uh graduating in August at our evening school uh graduation ceremony. Uh next uh congratulations and good luck to our varsity baseball team for um earning a spot to the state semifinals. They're playing tomorrow night at UMass Boston uh against I think the number two seed Reading Memorial. So, so good luck to them. Last time we had a number six seed play uh at UMass Boston, it was successful. So, we're hoping the same thing happens this time. Uh let's see. Um just quickly for facilities since this is uh pretty much an ongoing item for us. Uh we've had uh last week we had a pre-sight construction meeting for the turf field work. Originally we were identifying yesterday as the mobilization day, but when we met last week, uh
036the contractor said there was not that much of a rush to get out here on June 9th. So that work should begin over the next couple of weeks with still um with the bulk of the work happening during the month of July and the expectation is that substantial completion is still met by the August 15th deadline if not sooner. They're they're thinking maybe final completion could be potentially done around that time. So, uh, that work is ongoing and next week we have a pre-construction site meeting for the, um, baseball, softball, practice football field work that will also, uh, be taking place sometime soon. Uh, so just in in the matter of a few weeks, um, the what is that the west side of our campus will be very active with different projects uh, taking place
037out there. Uh and I think uh let's see. Oh, and then just uh one other item. Um if you notice under the screen up there, there is a soundbar and I think a camera. Uh Mr. Levette had uh some Zoom equipment installed or some equipment installed for us to have better remote meetings. Uh that was just installed on Friday. There's some other work uh some other items uh that go with that. I've yet to uh test it out with him, but I will get some training so that we can um see what's happening there. And then if this solution works, we will uh copy it for uh the Somerset Middle School media center. And um I would just like to add I know um there wasn't the student teaching report on here the uh our
038student advisory committee report but if it's okay with you if uh Adrian can kind of slip into the superintendent's update and give the student perspective for the same thing. Hello. Hello everyone. Uh we're almost done. There's three grades instead of four at this school and the kids that are left can count down the days of school on their hands. Uh, soon we'll be lounging, not worrying about Portuguese homework. I know I'm not already, but you know, we're uh, but what this also means is our last few days with some staff. Um, I know the budget is rough. It's hard to move things around and even harder to fit things in. But people like Mr. Coocher, Miss Deb, Don, and Bridget, uh, they give more than to the school than just their time. They shape our
039communities to be better than they can be. Uh, Mr. Coocher goes to every game and has been coaching our hockey team for a very long time. Uh people like Bridget and Dawn, I think maybe know every student in the building and on. Uh they people that I consider more more than just staff, but they are family of the Raiders. Um half our bathrooms are barricaded with foam boards and the other half are being protected by our hall monitors, Miss Deb. Uh but now we're cutting that. So what I ask of us is to understand you know the impact that uh removing these people has on our student body. Uh these people's impact on students cannot be overstated. Uh for every student that has come through these doors, they love seeing Mr. Coocher. Uh for those
040students who feel safe talking to an adult uh who understands them, you know, there's Don and Bridget for the order in our hallways. You know, we have Miss Deb. And uh what students want I think mostly in the future is for uh the person behind the position to be in consideration. Uh every budget I I feel should start with the people that we already have and what we plan to do in the future. It it should not be the other way around. So thank you. I just wanted to add regarding graduation two things. One, if you were on the term, you realize it's a good thing we're replacing it. Wow. So, um I'm happy to see that that's moving forward. And the other thing is as much as we obviously congratulate the students who are
041graduating, I wanted to really extend our thanks and gratitude to all of the staff who worked so hard to put that event together. It is um I know it's a lot of work behind the scenes, our maintenance and grounds and custodial staff. So, the chairs and setup, um, everyone who's involved in that, and I won't name names because I know it's a total team effort, but um, it looks it's a classy, um, event that I think honors our students the way that they should be. And, um, it's just it's it's so well executed and, um, I think it's just it makes me proud that our staff um, to that occasion each year and works really hard for it to be the advantage. So just kudos to everyone involved in a lot of other events. And
042if I may add, it's u and thank you for acknowledging uh the staff who make that possible. Uh but it's also members of our teaching staff too or who are working with kids literally the day before graduation to make sure that kids can still walk uh that night. So I I mentioned three students who will continue their studies over the summer. That could have been five or six or seven. I don't know exactly the number, but certainly I know of several students who teachers were working with right into the last minute to make sure that work was being made up work. uh and things were um progressing so that students had that opportunity and that experience on the Friday night. So, uh thanks to all of them who make that possible and it's they're doing
043it quietly behind the scenes making sure that students are getting the supports they need right up until that last minute. So, next um staffing update. It's just for for information purposes. There are a few um two resignations and uh one appointment um just for your reference. Okay. Next on the agenda we have policies for first. So I I just wanted to mention I think we mightes every I think we might want to table IKE and IKF. I've noticed that IKF is not the updated version in our folder. So, not everybody probably look at it because it's not in there. I think IKEA I'm not sure if anybody had a chance to take a look at it. So, makes sense. We can um see the was pretty much just warning. some bold information which is not
044required at this time which is kind of so it's more current since we talked about this and then this is oh this is the one that went to uh council to review the uh student discipline and the changes in here represent what his suggestions Does anyone have any questions? I So actually I had a question just about the student discipline. So the changes that are in the student discipline policy I'm assuming are um consistent with Mass General law based on the recommendation of council. Yes. Are they um are all of these changes I'm just curious are they more restricted than required by mass law or they simply consist of law when it comes to does that question make sense? It does and I'd have to I'd have to really compare the two side by side
045to see I I don't think it's really going ab above but I can't say that with 100% certainty. I only ask because I want to obviously ensure that we're following all of the laws and regulations um and honoring student rights, but I also want to make sure that we also appropriate and and permitted that we also give our administrators the discretion that they need to make sure that they can maintain a environment. So, I want to make sure we're consistent, but I don't add restrictions on their ability to make those judgments. I mean, I don't know if everybody agrees, but maybe a table As I said, the amended is not the right. Why don't we take them out of order? So, I would entertain a motion to approve for first reading the policy JIC student
046discipline. Motion by Miss Solomon and seconded by Mr. Is there anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? Opposed? So voted. Okay. I have a motion to table um policy IKE and policy IKF I'm sorry IKE promotion retention of students and um policy IKF commencement exercise participation just pending the most um updated versions of those policy changes per the policies by Mr. second by Mr. Anything further in discussion hearing none in favor? Okay reaction. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. Um that's a lot of work policy subcommittee. Thank you for doing that. Next on the agenda uh other under other matters offormational we have the acceptance of the Zachary Dean memorial benchm right underneath the scoreboard on the soccer field. And has it already been constructed? Is it ready? The bench is ready
047to go in. The Somerset Highway Department will be installing the cement pad. We just need to ensure that uh through Dig Safe that they're not going that it it's a safe spot to install this. Uh and all of that should take place within the next couple of weeks. Um, okay. I would entertain a motion to accept the donation of the Z memorial bench to the side regional school district. Um, motion by Miss Herrera, second. Um, anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor. Next on the agenda, do we have updates from um we start with Berkeley public schools this fall? Sure. Um so we just had it's typical for our June meeting which is is super quick meeting um to approve the budget number. Um we did that and our budget was approved.
048Um I apologize that I forgot my notes so I don't have the specifics but we were Looking at the recommendation from the town, the 1.2% increase, which was obviously devastating. Um, we did end up with a it was five around 5% 5.1 maybe. Um, it still um is very that's still difficult for us and we're still there still there are about four positions affected in total. I apologize. I don't have the specifics, but um a lot of that came from the town giving um from our general stabilization. So even with our four positions and the stabilization money, it's it's certainly not sustainable. So a lot is going to happen next year possible discussions, things like that. So um but it passed. We're we're got through this year and Um, so other than that, that was
049really all we did at our last meeting. Um, and we have our eighth grade graduation next Friday night. Um, Friday night. Doesn't rain on Fridays around here. It just went on Saturday, so that's about it. Thank you very much. Um, for Somerset Public School update. Okay. So, um, the Somerset Public School Committee um met last Tuesday. Um, We celebrated um the end of the year with our student representative Soua. We also celebrated our um readers of the month at Somerset Middle School um for April and May. Um and we also celebrated four retirees that we have and we embarrassed them just the way you do here because I I felt we needed to really do that. It really uh goes over very well. They love it. Um uh but you know, all kidding aside, definitely
050celebrating the years of service. How many years of service combined? 79 years of service combined, which is tremendous. Um we also received an update from Chartwell's food service. We discussed and voted to approve the middle school student handbook for the upcoming school year as well as the upcoming Somerset Middle School improvement plan. Um we discussed the entrance age policy JB at length but ultimately took no action to make any changes to the age at which children are permitted to enter kindergarten in Somerset public schools. So ultimately we will maintain what is currently in the policy. Um we also voted to approve the uh reappoint of Dr. to the South Coast Education Collaborative Board of Directors. Um we had our May financial statements. Uh we voted to approve budget amendments as well. Um we also approved
051our contracts for electrical repairs and plumbing. We received a staffing update from the superintendent with just a few changes. Um we did have um a wellness subcommittee update from Miss Corville who serves on that subcommittee for the committee. Um we also had an update from the redistricting subcommittee which is obviously a very uh hot topic on the Somerset side. Um, and we now have a live survey where interested participants can put their name in the hat to see if uh if they are interested in serving on the subcommittee. Um, and we will be bringing as a subcommittee the recommendations of who we think might be a good fit to represent the community to the full committee for approval at our July 22nd meeting. So after that time we will have an official approved list of
052participants for that subcommittee and we expect that work to begin at the end of August. Um and other than that um we approved some minutes had some public input and that's a wrap on our meeting. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have topics not anticipated by 48 hours. I just I don't know that it's a topic, not just last week I was able to come to the interns did their presentation. I happened to be home that day. I was able to come. It was fantastic to come and watch them both the firefighters uh EMT paramedics and then I actually came back for the future teachers and actually one that worked with the housing authority uh was awesome to see next year maybe somehow they could come and do this presentation for us just so
053the committee can see what's coming out of that program. Great. Is the civic showcase this Thursday? Yes. Okay. This Thursday at six o'clock, I think. 6 in the student dining center at No, it's in the it's in the gym. In the gym. Okay. Okay. So, if anyone wants to check out the work that our civic students are doing um this Thursday at 6 in the gym. It's always very cool and we've often gotten some pretty good ideas from students and actually implemented some of that in this committee. So, looking forward to that. Action items for next item on the agenda, action items for future meetings in addition to those discussed this evening. Have anything Okay. All right. Next on the agenda, we have to consider approval of the open session minutes 13, 2025 and May
05422nd, 2025. We have these minutes. I would entertain a motion to approve the open session minutes of May 13th and May 22nd, 2025 as presented. Second motion by Mr. Seced by Miss Ashley. Is there anything further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. Next on the we have public in four. So um just a reminder for format for public input um when we have four or fewer speakers which we have I have four folks signed up. Is there anyone who wanted to participate who did not sign in? Okay. Then um we ask uh speakers um to um have their remarks um limited to five minutes and um just please state your name and either your address or your affiliation and then um five minutes. Um first we have Christine Sor Christine Source, 111
055Calvin Avenue. Had to make sure there wasn't a mic there because you can hear me from here to Timbuk, too. We know. Um I'm a chemistry teacher here. Um I'm also um the STA negotiations person for the contract. I know Mr. Skoonover made some comments regarding staffing today and how we are eliminating some faculty members due to budget cuts. Um I went to many of those budget meetings in February, April, went to the May town meeting. Um, I understand that we need to watch the budget. We need to be fiscally responsible. One of the things that has been bothering me since the budget approval in miday is that it is now June 10th. And some of the teachers, albeit most of the teachers who are being laid off due to budget cuts have not been
056notified as yet. That disheartens me because you are playing with the livelihoods of teachers and I understand that there have been some according to Dr. spoon over some other implications whether we needed a science teacher or did we need to lose the math teacher or what's going on with foreign language but I think a lot of those moving parts could have been um done in a more timely manner additionally at the K8 we know that we for removing or removing a K5 fizzed teacher. That was public knowledge. It was in the budget hearings again midMay. And we voted on that budget and the decision was made to remove one of our faculty members, Justin Cooer, who is an integral part of this community. I do not agree that a K8 cut should affect the 912
057school or budget because by removing a teacher at the at the 912 level and replacing that teacher with somebody with professional teaching status, you are impacting the budget, albeit slightly, but you are impacting the budget. We've had this occur on two separate occasions and it has only occurred when they eliminated a professional teacher at the K8 and there were no non-PTS teachers at that level to displace. We are now displacing a nonPTS teacher with a PTS teacher where there are two nonPTS teachers at the K8 that could have been displaced. It would not have impacted the K8 budget because they've already eliminated the K5 position. But now our budget is going to be impacted slightly because of the increased salary. I do believe that looking at lensure is important and all of the nonPTS teachers
058are licensed. It should not be, well, this one has a preliminary license and this one has an initial license because as a nonPTS teacher, if you're licensed, you're licensed. It should also go by what do they bring to the table. The teacher that is being displaced up here is at every activity after school. He is coaching our young people. He is working the the games in the gym as a scorekeeper, not a sports person, but they're doing that thing. Okay. So, I think all of those pieces should be taken into account. And I don't think they were. I think it was just last man in, first man out. And again, I think that if we're going to do staff cuts, people should be made aware that they're being cut in a timely manner so they
059can actually look for another job. Thank you. The next person in Justin Hello everybody. Um, my name is Justin Feer. I'm a physical education teacher here, an ice hockey coach, and I work uh with the athletic department doing game administration. Um, so I'm a Somerset grad. I was born and raised here. Um, graduated in this same building that we stand in in 2016. Um, as a graduate of the school, I take pride in what we do here. Um, in our athletic programs, what we do in classrooms, in the gymnasium, and in the community itself. As many of you know, budget cuts are affecting this district, and many others um like never before. Today, I was informed that I would be let go from my position due to our district's budget cuts. While I find myself
060fortunate to have had the privilege of teaching and coaching in this district, the sad reality is that this chapter will be coming to an end. My heartbreak lies with the students and the student athletes alike. They will lose more than a teacher. They will lose a coach, a mentor, a supporter of their academics and athletics and any extracurricular activity they participate in. A consistent teacher whom they've grown to trust and respect in just a short time, one year. They will lose a person who is willing to go above and beyond showing up for students and the community anytime it is possible. As de devastating as it is to leave the school and community, I am not what's important in the situation. What's important is our students. In just a year's time, students have formed connections
061with their teacher that last a lifetime. Unfortunately, they will lose the daily interactions we have and the daily support and motivation they have grown fond of. Students in my class feel respected, trusted, accepted, motivated, heard, and seen. My students and student athletes enjoy the daily life lessons we teach in fizzed classes and on the ice alike. Resilience, hard work, determination, empathy, humility, and teamwork to name a few. At the end of the day, it is about what's best for the students, school, and community. Like Christine Sor said, um I do believe we need to factor in other things that take place outside of um you know, a lensure. Um we need to take into part, you know, into account what a teacher provides for the entire school and the community itself. Um, I wholeheartedly believe
062this decision will hurt the most important part of this community, our students, and I hope this is taken into account going forward. Thank you. Personal public input is Lauren Taylor. [Music] Sorry committee. Um, my name is Laura Taylor, 535. I have a child that this school. Um, it was brought to my attention, I want to say about a month ago, that there was some changes coming about in the music department. department. So, I'd like to hear a little bit more about that. Am I able to ask questions or just speak? Um, you should just speak. Okay. So, my son was informed by a teacher, by his teacher, that they were going to be moving to the middle school. Mrs. Rush, I didn't take too much of it into consideration until I actually heard it from
063the school department. And then I received a chain email from another parent advising that Mrs. Isidoro is going to be taking over for concert and she's not trained in woodwind instruments or any other type of brass instruments, things like that. She is okay. All music teachers have to take all different types of instrumentation. That's why I wanted to be able to ask a question. That's accurate. Thank you. Um, it's my understanding that she's going to be teaching concert band as well as strings. I'd just like to really understand a little bit more about that, but I guess this is a oneway conversation at this point. Well, I I guess what I could say is um is that um conversations about personnel um that this this committee is not the scope of our responsibilities to make
064decisions about how to deploy licensed staff that that those decisions rest with the administration. Um, and what I would say is that um this committee does not and will not um have conversations in any public forum um about the credentials or specific gap um and that um the committee I'm just just to clarif that the committee invests um Dr. Kunover and his administrative team with making decisions about um how to employ staff. This committee does not interfere with or weigh in on um specific um assignments for staff because that's beyond our scope. that's beyond our perview and we would not comment on any member of our collection bargaining units um assignment. So that that authority rests with the superintendent and his administrator. Correct. So I believe the town center is called the the music town.
065So what type of strain are we putting on our music department is my question to the committee. Thanks. Thank you. Next for public input we have My name is Gabriel Gonzalez. I live on 39 Parson's Walk and I'm a student athlete here at Sunset Berkeley. I'm speaking here tonight on behalf of Mr. Coocher, my peers in PE and the varsity ice hockey team. In my personal experience with Mr. future. The relationship in the classroom is one of shared interest and complete trust. He is a teacher I can share my goals with while getting his own personal opinions and advice in academic and athletic situations. In my experience as a varsity ice hockey player, he has been one of the most influential coaches I have ever had. When I was in eighth grade, I was exploring
066options of private school and prep schools. And in doing so, I got into Boston College High School. As excited as I was, I quickly came to realize the harsh reality of having little financial aid, which prevented me from being able to attend school and play hockey there. However, within that disappointment was an excitement to play here at Somerset Berkeley. The first coach to acknowledge me and welcome me into the program was Mr. Cooer. He was the coach that changed so much for me in my high school hockey career and made me love hockey again as it was my first time playing again. Um, at the end of the at the end of this past hockey season, I learned that coach Snider was passing on the torch to a new coach. I look forward to having
067a new coach, which was most likely would have been Mr. Coocher. This cup would not allow me to have that opportunity to have as this new coach. He gives students and athletes the opportunity to improve as a hockey player and be greater. He makes people be better as an athlete, student, and an overall man or woman. Within my two years of being a student athlete here at Somerset, I have been through tribulations regarding injuries and motivational issues, especially in the winter of my freshman year. Throughout all these tribulations, Mr. Cooer has been there when I needed him, no matter time or place. It would be a travesty to so many people to lose someone who cares so greatly about the community and the players he fosters within the school and the ice hockey program. While
068I am aware of the unfortunate realities of necessary budget cuts, I think it would be a devastating loss to the physical education department, the ice hockey team, in the overall community at Somerset Berkeley. The release of Mr. Cooer would be one of more lost than gain. Finally, I would like to close this out by setting forth my statement of how detrimental his loss would be for my time here at Somerset and the entire student body. Thank you for your consideration and your time. Thank you everyone for the public. I have just one follow question. Um decisions about reduction of force are unfortunately to be made. Um I assume that we following the guidance of the collective agreement about the timeliness of it in terms of notification. Yes. And um seniority and other factors. Uh absolutely.
069And uh first of all, as many teacher contracts have dates for um non-renewals, reductions, and force. Ours does not. Uh the the only date is the June 15th date in master general law about notifications. Um uh but with uh within that it is I I've worked closely with the STA president. Uh we've met several times discussing possible scenarios rationale for for these decisions. Um and so everything is is fully aligned within the the collective bargaining agreement between school committees and the Somerset teachers association. And one of the other things and I know you know I don't want to address specific comments made but just um you know it was very public that um there was the only reason why we're facing these is because of of budget constraints. Uh typically when if there is a
070non-renewal of a of a teacher who does not have professional status uh legal advice from our schools legal counsel is always keep it vague don't give a reason and that's what a non-renewal typically is for a person without professional status. Uh we know that these that the reasons here is it's not because of performance it is because of budget cuts. Um, and then knowing that that's happening, um, if I follow the the sort of the typical the standard non-renewal because, uh, the impacted people potentially, two at the middle school, one at the high school and in PE and health, um, because they don't have the professional status. Um the STA, as I was informed, had a some pretty good ground um to grieve it because there was a budgetary reason there was a reason why
071this was happening. Um so those those conversations took place and uh Mrs. Soros also talked about and maybe uh you know Mr. Coocher as well about all the other things that teachers do. And when we look at the contract, it's three things. It's uh educational attainment, lensure, and merit based on evaluations. And we know teachers bring so much more to the table than just those things. And several years ago, there was uh a reduction here at the high school of a of a teacher with professional status. And it was one of the one of the things we're comparing two teachers and a more senior teacher was the one who was ultimately eliminated but looking at all those other factors and the SDA grieved it eventually and we worked on um essentially a rubric. I personally
072wanted to quantify, you know, try to develop a way of rationalizing or introducing all of those other things that teachers uh bring to the table and the SDA wanted that as well. We developed this system and ultimately received enough enough push back where the STA I think um officially withdrew um that item and so we never were able to actually um and never came to fruition, but it was something that we attempted to do a number of years ago. Um and you know perhaps situations like this it brings it to the table. Maybe we we should introduce something like that again because it does allow us to look at the involvement that teachers have in the school community. Um and and bring that as factors into the decision because currently right now by the the
073contract they're not factors um to the detriment of people who work very hard and do so much to support our students, support the school, and just make it a better place. Um, so maybe that's some some work that we can work with the SDA again if if they're willing to. I don't know. Um, but that's a possibility. In that case, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. So second