001I like to call this meeting to order of joint meeting of the somerset school committee joint with the sumerset berly regional school committee on this Tuesday November 9th at 6:32 2021 do no have been posted pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of public meeting or may transmit the meeting to any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions may be made whether perceived or unpreceded by those present we have with us today uh satv contest channel 15 which this will be shown in the next few weeks uh roll calls member pres Kate 8 Mr M present Mr G here Mr G here Mr Gary here and Mike McDonald the chair is here we also have with us um superintendent of school is Jeffrey schover
002director of business and finance Mr Ron Taro uh L we have Miss NE a director of special ed and we also have robin maawa our recording secretary okay um for the the regional school meeting a video reporting public meeting May transm this meeting therefore advise that such reporting Transmissions may be made whether perceived or unreceived by those present and attendance here is Andre Mr here here here Mr here miss vincon here and [Music] to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I would on behalf of K8 like to motion go executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 38 sections 2182 strategy session in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions
003or contract negotiations with non-union personnel and the chso declares Jeffrey skover superintendent Ronald Taro director of business and finance V Aon director of special education a pursuant to mage Massachusetts General law chter 38 section 2183 to conect strategy with respect to collector bargaining or litigation if an open meeting law may have or open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chso declares American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees ceter and Par professional units the committee will return to open session so Mo second roll call vote Mr Mado hi Mr goette hi Mr G hi M Gary hi and I onion laws 382 next strategy session in preparation for negotiations with non Personnel Board to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations personel and
004Theo declares over super director special education general laws 38 section 21 AC bargaining or litigation Open Session may have a detrimental effect on the bargain of position of the public body and the chair's so American Federation State mpal employes cafeteria second okay we for second those in favor Andrews hi hi hi hi hi and we will have to entertain a motion U we have the suers school committee accept a memorandum of agreement between the suers school committee ask me cafet Terian workers for August 1st 2021 to July 31st 2024 is presented second motion made by m m second by Mr G any discussion okay L of discussion roll call vote Mr Shad I Mr SC I go hi M Gary hi and chair I Mike McDonald side thank you of school district Iain a motion
005of SCH committee to accept this m me agreement between school committee ask me August 1st 2021 July 31st so motion second those in favor Mr Shad I Mr hi hi for of ass sure uh you have uh a document in front of you that essentially um reviews and highlights information that I shared with you I think it was in the meeting iall uh so I that time I I created one of those online um live bers supporting walking through the U my various goals as well as the four standards uh for superintendence uh providing a reflection of summary evidence along the way U for that sort of in cycle check uh so rather than providing all that information to that again I just try to highlight some the key aspects of that information that was
006possessed back then um I don't know if you had time to review it if there were some additional questions I think it would be really necessary to go back through and uh red discuss all the things I had presented the first time unless you were watching that um file got earlier ran through a lot of that and then are there any areas Mr SCH that you um feel the the evaluation period was kind of extended and and brought over to school any areas and we when I know I was on the committee when we designed these goals they were meant to be multi right are there any goals that have been identified you talked about what your progress has been to be where you see you may need more more time to achieve the results
007that you well because this is a this is the midle check in the goals at this point uh can we re identifyed at the end of this school year is that uh at this point I I don't know if any of those will be extended on into another year uh and the work that we have uh regarding uh diversity equity and inclusion don't do something that's not social emotional learning uh is something that we are continuously uh finalizing the Strategic plan uh is something that will be achieved by the end of the scho uh communication particularly through co uh I there was it kind of shifted but that's always something that I want to focus on and uh the last goal was um uh really more than principal leadership and supervision um so that is
008maybe that that might might be another one that I time we'll have to see where we are at the end of the school year but certainly uh there's always uh the work is always conf I I I hate to say that you know unless there was something like the Strategic plan where there is a culminating component to it other than that the work is always being done like my shift from my priority area to uh to something else but it's still happening if that makes sense no it does I think can't Contin work on D but being establish that as kind of a FOC to show the the steps that you made within your district and your team to achieve increased learning and even awareness in that area right that's important J because you I
009see you know when the school committee gets the newsletters from the elementary school from the Middle School especially couple schools you can just see the diversity in the newsletter spreading the word of includes stuff like that diversity it's so nice to see especially our little ones you know so I know that's coming from you and so you said it's involv that'll always 365 days a year this is obviously great um I appreciate you putting this together one of the things that um U and I'm happy to know that you're are on target or Le at this time you feel like you're on target which is uh it's a it's a good feeling when you're halfway they halfway through the only uh when you say for number five effective communic and I love that you know
010I during the whole Co matter you had a newsletter out you kept people informed of what was going on and it's really it was great to know people felt safe they knew what was happening what to expect and things like that the only thing and I don't know if this is something that you and your administrators but mostly this is about you is um communicate the Milestones of our students as well because I think we're really lacking in that and and I I'll share it back again during the last couple of meetings though about thecast we only hear it that one time and it's usually not always what we want to hear you we have there were many great things happening through the prek to 12 uh grade level and uh and I feel like
011sometimes it's usually something that you see on the sign or you see um and I appreciate when you sent the letter you know I saw the the school uh High School's uh newsletter that Mr tala got the science uh award and a couple of days later I got it from you sent it to us um I think those are things that we need to promote extremely uh Cu uh between you our staff and our children we're doing great things here and I think sometimes it gets lost with the whole Co discussion and things like that so um I know it's not broken down on here that would be the only thing that I would want you to spend a little time on that you your I agree with you completely and that same message was
012certainly reinforced with me last week at the NSC conference several of the sessions that I went to address how school districts uh could and should be promoting promoting students achievement of students and staff more there one of those things was acknowledged that when everything else is going on that tends to that get set aside but um we have to keep our focus on it and continue to that and challenges too you know I'm think of the showcasing more some of these meetings not take a lot time showas Oran think [Music] especially you know sometimes you get back up in the numbers and and that and seeings students activties when they had one so show kind keep us on Focus that's what it's all about I just said I noticed um just as a parent um
013to that I think the communication do more positive stories I think it's actually been really good my Twitter feed is full of Sumer birly when I wake up chapter and I think that's a great thing Athletics in particular but not limited to that um and other social media as well you know Facebook and it's old folks like us who still kids don't look at that but um but I I've noticed I think a maybe Co this might be a silver line right sort of Co pushed us all to really communicate more um and more quickly and more thoroughly C urgency of that so maybe the silver line is that we sort of keep those habits and we use them to you know promote all the positive things but I definitely as a parent I feel
014like I have the information I need and I have noticed I think a significant increase in even the positive Stories the National Merit on my Twitter feed um the seniors just showcasing seniors and their destinations for m cing so um you could always do more but I I I've noticed I think a big improv an increase in that so and that goes to the administrators of the high school as well F to a great job I just want to say I'm sorry I was talking that way I don't have a mask I hope you're able to hear okay we good right and that brings us to the contract fall asleep Hadis question with you earlier moer position okay thank you well yeah with the um Can can everybody just talk a little louder when they're
015talking I'm having a lot of trouble and I haven't say anything yet but I can't I feel every third word everybody if we could vior included I can't really every third word I he we could just talk a little about if we could just for the sense of time uh Mr Gore had asked for cheers uh if he we could move up uh discussion of the grant writer position number eight so with everyone's permission if we could do that M okay thank you okay you ask us to be Sor want me start thanks okay so Mr SCH over Ron myself and soua who had a side meeting on ad gr rer position we'd like it to be shared by both districts F Fu I'm sorry I didn't I didn't hear the beginning of that you
016can't hear me no um I'll try to shout with my mask on so Mr scon over Ron Jameson Souza and myself we had a meeting to discuss a grant writer for both districts um it would be a part-time position and Mr soua suggested that we should potentially form a task force to go and seek out some grants and try to identify some different areas we could focus on before we go in after position okay go ahead okay would you get a question I'm I'm just trying to understand the sidebar conversation with Mr what we've talked about rers for probably each of the last two to three years of contract is it in this year's budget or is it not in this year's budget um I think posted for before any hit uh so I can
017I can go on we I believe we put in a budget two years ago we took it out and we get some big special education costs from a district so what I'd like to do is revisit and get it back on the budget for this year try to fill the position so you're asking for what the back in the budget this upcoming budget correct for next year yes oh okay so I'd like to jump in having served as a grer myself I had my own business as a grer um I like the idea of looking at what will we be eligible for because unfortunately the district like sou said is not going to be eligible for the same things that PA River it's a lot easier as a gr to write grants and receive funding
018for either Public Schools or even um nonprofits that are in districts that are considered you know either G AC cities or you know under privilege um I remember about six or seven years ago having discussion with suers at Berkeley in my role as a grant R it was very difficult to we can identify har that we would be eligible for it so I think it's important will look first before we fund the position to make sure it's worth the investment in a grant um fund R does that make sense yeah love it if you can help out in the task force we decide to go with it I'm more than happy I've written hundreds of prints actually I'm small and large so it's something I you know have done for many years now so it's
019it's unfortunate but true Somerset isn't necessarily eligible same thing for ly because of our population for many that other surrounding districts are eligible I I understand and I've looked online too and I've seen what our grants are versus other districts and I do think we probably could get a little better Jeff and Ron work very hard and I do think they the exra help I you know and that would make sense that would make sense I know we have a federal federal funding right State funding I can understand how that would be helpful and supportive so it depends on the ultimate goal right and initiative what we're trying to serve with this position to go out and get General funding or to really support what we're already getting you know F I'm not saying that's
020not a bad idea and it's great that br going to come spring when we have my question is have we ever had a at all not in my time not that's seven years not in my time okay just all right so we'll bring it up disc I I just besides identify Mr chair besides identifying um I would also like to know what this person's role would actually entail besides writing it because unless they're a being the administrator tracking the funding and all that because speaking to Mr Taro well Mr too made a comment at one of our last meetings that his team cannot handle any more more on their plate so I have to keep that in mind I know free money is great when we can get it but if we don't have the
021resources to actually man that so I don't know if you have a different feeling but it would have to be part of that person's responsibility to um cuz I have to be unless you know you've had that discussion I wasn't pre reaches so my position has change in that but I still think this opportunity that just ignore they just figured out what the is how we get that to work business manager I can't some of my financial responsibility to gr so I have to be really careful by saying okay you're going to get the grant suspended then there reporting requirements whether requirements or anything else that becomes a little more complicated time consuming it so that's where my so I'd like to comment again there's a difference right so when are bringing in Grant planing
022it's a huge recording and compliance piece of it and that's very difficult to build into the jobs that people are doing every day so if we are receiving federal state funding that requires this type of recording it really is outside of a regular you know job responsibility so we do need support for that and I'm not familiar with what we're already receiving so that would be important to know too um I don't want to minimize it but um I think it's a a good thing to look at and see what we're already receiving like from desie and others if we are um and what we can do I want to just clarify St this sounds like a budget discussion for the spr right yeah I mean not but yeah well yeah when we when that
023first out of budget we put it in and then thetion stays or comes out I like the idea too of in the meantime kind of trying to figure out you know is this a million dollars in Grant that we're eligible for or is this $50,000 we're not going to so I think that idea a task force kind of thing kind of putting that information together maybe even getting um job descriptions from other communities that have lers just so that you know Victor's um Victor's question is fin answered and then we move into the budget piece we all give task force anybody get a that idea else I don't think that's necessary to I don't know what a task what you mean by a task force I I do think it's an excellent idea for people
024to look at it I mean the the general I understand the reservations that Jennifer has but generally speaking they talk about a good grant writer should be able to uh double triple or quadruple their salary in terms of what they bring into into the district so um if we can between now and budget kind look at whether it's something that would really benefit our district uh with people like Jennifer and uh I'm always I'm always concerned about drawing too many people into this process and then we've got more meetings and but I I I don't know so maybe I just have a reservation by the pass but I think it would be worthwh for relatively small group to look at and see if it's something that we should in fact consider putting into the to
025the budget with with the prospect that we be thinking in terms of the grant writer at least the you know maybe not the first year but long term you paying their own salary and more and then about the indirect cost indirect cost everything something to explore for sure and it would probably be great if we had the problem of having to worry about getting someone to administer the grants because we get so much work doing completely we could have some I completely concerns but I know I don't have any your experience at school committee it's been my experience the last year and a half that unless somebody Pi something on and pushes it Forward which just never happens and this is something that was budgeted two years ago we end up taking it out and
026I think I agree with you this is something that should be beneficial to the district they should be able to double triple point of the salary fig that so I think it's worth looking into I some people will be bragged into it and that's just how it goes but I think I think reward cost the reason why I'm not denying the task force but when I look around this table and I see the years of experience right across the table Ian there's a lot of advice sure absolutely you know whatever you think I mean if you if you want to take this on and Champion it and I don't think we're forming official subcommittee but if you want to take this on if you're passionate about the grant writer and you want to bring some
027information at budget season I mean I'm all for that and want to work with I forgot anything you said I'll make it very clear I'm not interested in Waring sub to manye thank you everyone take thank you okay so this is approval of contract monitoring and uh we had some information we had a number ofos our insurance provider and looking at that the lower we're assured by our insurance areer that all of these organizations job with it the quote was based on uh our payments people you know very specific um docume so the quot are equal you so it falls down to the lowest cost provider as recommended by the insurance carrier and that be the so the only thing that Mr and I have talked about this but the one thing that we have
028I'm not sure about is ifed that list of people that the list we had the actual number I think we have to just look at the list and see who are covering everybody I gave them just kind of a administrative non type position we just right so that be sorting out so so the cost may not be exactly as quoted as the number of participants probably go down anything yeah it would probably beIN difference Mr a question proposal not have opportunity to look at the three that Brian was able to yeah and uh we had um to be fair we we we did have document that came over Lake from the carrier comparing you know each aspect of those um companies and what they what they to make sure they matched up properly but that
029you know we were kind of chasing them a little bit so I mean I think this is something we should be doing uh looking for a vote Tove forward with it understanding that going the low man change a little bit based you have any question no I think I think this was something that we intended to implement a while ago and U what I would suggest we have we have these BS and I I would leave it to the business manager director of business and finance to um to make make the final determination just as long as we get this insurance in place within you know the next uh 30 to 60 days and that we uh we vote to approve the idea that we're going to U purchase this disability coverage um B upon
030the and what's the turn not lowest than resp lowest respons low responsible my question is under discuss short long term or both it's actually in the cont shortterm so that's what's going to be in the most so so there's no further discussion I'd make a entertainment motional of the short and longterm the insurance policy admin all in favor K8 I wanton take a motion um yeah someone said school to approve short and or longterm disability insurance policy for administrators by m Gary second by Mr G any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed none okay thank you very much okay uh number six if I could have members of the shared position subcommittee youo so um the four of us myself M Jerry Mr Pierce okay we already met uh a couple weeks
031ago and without Mr scoot over and Mr car and we discussed um how we wanted to approach this um we right off the bat we didn't want to put additional workload and and a lot on the the administrative team or or the shared positions team to uh have to log hours we go through um that process um one of the things we identified early on was that uh the 6535 split I believe was done 10 years ago or whenever it was um and at that time I believe it was based off of student enrollment um so we we decided to um take that approach um with a couple outliners that we had a second meeting and we specific at um the breakdown of student population of this special education uh group uh so we got
032some input from Miss Ashton uh we also asked some input on there is an IT analyst uh position person under uh Mr L um that is split 9010 the region picking up 90% And and the public school picking up 10% that's the only one that didn't Follow The Matrix of the 6535 split so uh we got some feedback from Mr Mr spon over that that split Still Remains uh true um so we we had a discussion you just repeat yourself one more time last couple second is trouble hearing you um that we sorry I was on a roll um Mr we met with Mr levette oh oh we had we got some feedback from Mr levette Mr scoon over about the IP position um and it's currently a 90 to10 split um 90% in the
033high school the Regional High School budget 10% to the suit Public School side um and we the feedback we got that that split should remain the same that that person is still doing uh 90% of the work um for the region um so we asked for some statistics on enrollment and it came to a 6238 split um and that was pretty close for the uh special education population as well and um in an effort to move things along for the upcoming budget season uh the group decided to uh utilize student enrollment uh as a matrix for the split and to review that every five 3 years years 3 years five years that 5 years sorry um although we'll look at it annually um the actual change to to the split probably won't be done every
034year um for consistency State for the budgeting process um I think if I we talked about um coming up with a standard that would be easily traced back each and each and every and we debated that versus getting kind of um analysis from each of the people in the administration and in support as to how much time they spend this week on K8 versus this weekend on the region and we weigh the the pros and cons of those two approaches and felt that the enrollment was a solid um I guess consistent Benchmark for that that separation of cost with the exception we we looked into special education um and that was very close but with the exception um of of technology so the current um techn technician right technology um coordinator for the high school
035would remain at 90% for the high school 10% for the uh p and with the remaining districts with the remaining positions shared by both districts at the 623 and correctly this is what I couldn't pick it up I couldn't open it up in my uh phone we looked at we actually looked at the changes that would happen in that Excel spreadsheet when we changed those positions in many cases it wasn't significant uh when when we played with the numbers slightly back and forth and so we thought that standard made a lot of sense so that it wouldn't burdensome for administration to go forward and kind of recalibrate that that we did and I think Mr Good the Delta based on the positions that we looked at in The Matrix That We examined several times the
036change would be a shift was about $40,000 about 40,000 shift from the state 8 to the high school uh moving forward with the the 623 split um and maintaining [Music] technology so that's our recommendation that we keep that that we look at sh positions in that fight and that we review it can I can I say something I say I just want to say respectful to all my fellow School commit members and under the region side too and thank you for your hard work I you know I I just didn't know where we were going with this or what the mission was you know my love to me is the true professor and to his left is a true professional and another left is a true professional there are going to be times yes they
037work 70% 30% we don't need them to have an apple bracelet with them on at all agre and and I mean that and I say that respectfully they know their job U I just didn't know where we were going with this and if you know if the superintendent spending 9% of time for the region we're going to let them know about that's happen so I respectfully spent a little bit of time on this but I I our sh position those are true professionals working for us no no doubt I mean I I totally agree with you and that's why we didn't really feel the need for them to be kind of clocking in for one district and clocking in for another they they're professionals they're working on behalf of all the students of thater and
038so but to that point Mr McDonald the shift has has shifted it like you know Somerset Public Schools used to have 65% of the total involment they now have 62 the region had 35% now we have 38 so it makes sense to revisit that every it's been 10 years since we looked at so I think that's the extent that we thought we should be moving those I I say everything out of respect Mr I I can I just no I I I'm sorry I brought this up I I think you should let all the subcommittee members Speak oh I'm sorry you're speaking as a subcommittee I I apologize no I don't want to drag this out I just wanted to mention I don't think anybody mentioned the actual statistics in Special A which were actually
03935 65 so they were actually very consistent with the old formula um my my feeling was that was one example and I was I was willing to go along with the adjustment based on the role um and the other thing we wanted to look at was uh the 90% position at the high school because my my view was that U there are a lot more Chrome books in the K District now than there were when we came up with this formula and but I was satisfied with the explanation that we received that Mark's most of Mark's time is still spent at the high school but he does do some work at the KA particularly in the summertime so those are just two you know sort of data points that I just want to I ask
040a question the the enrollment numbers were based on the October 1st inment for this year they were okay so I'm just wondering if I don't think the the historically what it's been I'm wondering if um have we seen any of this change attributed to Co at all we or is this we think this is a genuine change CU I know there was prek in kindergarten and some kids didn't enroll last year is there any sort of Hangover effect from that um that we think might change and um I guess my follow question is looking at it every 5 years if we're going to make minute changes like 2% so you know a percentage here a percentage there I don't know I I guess I need I need to think a little bit about how often
041that gets looked at do you think it needs to be more frequent if it's my changes or less I'm asking I debated three to five yeah I think I actually need to process it a little bit but I'm just thinking that if it's going to be based Bas if you're looking at an October enrollment I'm thinking about how does that line up with your budget season and you know how often you is it worth recalibrating it I don't know if it's that close but my my first question and I think you answered it was is any of this change is this a true um population change or is any of this Co related and I think we we debate it even we look at it every year but I think we want to be mindful
042of how much of a shift it is and and Mr McDonald's Points these are professionals that we work with they're serving all the people um and I think for their budgeting purposes to make it a fraction of a percent this year and a fraction of a percent this year that's why we figured to look at it over multiple years whether it's three or five I think we landed on five but that was on our just just to address the enrollment component um so it is not just a a CO shift we've been seen in our elementary schools of declining en rolling over the past several years and um whereas our older grades right now still the somerset Somerset B system um on the somerset side we consistently have 190 to 210 students every sing year
043in a ra uh and uh K of four stand or so uh we're averaging probably 150 160 for great and it's a consistent pattern that we now see so we have seen an overall decrease in our population but and the high school over this period of time has maintained its thousand, plus students um but the Sumer set enrollment about drop by 150 or so over the past 67 years and then my only question would be do we have projections for say the next five you we can get those right uh we are we just um I just entered an agreement with M that so we can have that moment we haven't had that before but that is important information that we need to receive so we get so I would just think that maybe before
044we finalize anything that if we we have access to that information now and if we're proposing you know going 5 years out that we sort of maybe take a look at with projections would do fact that I don't know that it's going to be radically different we have the information I feel like we should look at it I think I think what I took from it is it it's kind of like this big you got to figure out you got to weigh everything out what's going to be worth our time and our staff's time and one of the things we looked at is like logistically you know Mega Aston might have a huge workload this year at the high school because you have you have children that can that can be you know a little
045bit more comers than others so maybe but maybe they age out next year so do we want her to have to keep coming back to us every year and say well you know um Tommy aged out and he's gone now so now I'm going to be able to spend a lot more and but now I have you know I have another student with very comers at elementary school and and you know maybe not we talked about looking at it every year just looking at the number and is it drastic enough to change is it do we have a half of a per or 1% or do we have a 3 or 4% change that we need to look at and adjust the numbers I think that that's something that can be looked at every budget
046season just like what's the projection or what's the four two or threee projection and do we need to think about maybe changing that here but I think what we all agreed is that to have I mean I guess it's mainly obviously we already we talked to the tech um the tech person but I so I guess it's mainly like you know Ron Jeff and mag as so I think when I look at it I just think that to to kind of like put it it's all individual we would have had to essentially meet with everybody individually have them kind of write out what do you do but it's fluid it just changes you don't know what's going to I have to speak ladies and gentlemen I have to speak none of you heard what I
047asked none of them let me tell you what I did ask to revisit the shared positions because this gentleman is working his rear off that is the reason why I asked for this is the shared position makes sense because I even had a meeting I said if I'm going to continue to pay 65% or 62% does it make more sense for K to8 to get its own business manager because we're paying for a halftime um HR person before K8 happened I mean before this regionalization we had one gentleman who acted like his the human resources and the uh um and the business manager he handled both of them with the assistant of the superintendent how can you think that you've made a legitimate subcommittee yes I'm insulting the work that you did how no I'm
048speaking now how do you think you can make a decision for Mr Taro if you didn't even ask him he works on two budgets 50 50 two budgets and you want to know he is working on the business man the business school but he also works on heal all every single piece about um Human Resources because guess what the town does it for the KA people how can you honestly say you revisit this issue without sitting down with the people to see exactly Mr superintendent I have to ask you a public question right right now in the percentage that you work do you spend 65% of your time or 62% of time in the K8 level often no often no okay Mr um Mr uh Taro on in an open session I apologize this is
049bringing to you on an open session and not bringing it in a uh a subcommittee format on a daily B on a yearly basis I'm not asking about punching clocks do you feel that you spend 62% of the time just on Ka items I'm not sure if I can tell you what percent 5050 so I don't I just asked two questions in an open session that you guys didn't even think it was valuable to ask I'm not I'm going to tell you right now this is not about the dollars this is about human beings working to the point point that we're trying to figure out ways how to make their responsibilities less we are spending Ka is spending 62% of Mr Ty's position I can tell you this budget season is going to be a
050little interesting because you know something I hate to say this if you want to make it about money only you're fleecing the K8 possibility and if so it's all the same pocket so what if Berkeley would have to pay a couple extra thousands of dollars and I don't know that number because you want to know why I don't know that number because I have no documents in front of me none whatsoever a subcommittee was put together and I have blank pieces of paper that's all I have how do you say you actually did a qualifying subcommittee work when you didn't even speak to people about the only people you spoke to is of the 9010 I actually admit you know I'm glad you spoke to and I'm not asking every year to turn things I'm
051just saying use common sense are we putting all of our money on one or two individuals to do something did any of you even ask to see if we needed an assistant superintendent did any of you ever asked if any of our shared positions in the administration level needs more help anybody ask these questions the answer to that is always going to be yes but can I think the question is can we actually do that yes we can because you want to know something cuz we go into the budget season you have to do the report if the answer is yes you didn't bring me any documents I hate to say this for the public I think you guys failed because I didn't think you didn't fail me you did not fail me I think
052you failed all of our administration because you didn't do the survey that you were supposed to do not just about division of shared position wait one second hold on hold on the chair the chair the chair right now we are going to regulate the meeting in one at a time please one at a time short to Gar so we just Bob just said that Mr two two years ago we took out a grant writer position which is a part-time position right was like $30,000 that we had to skim off of a budget to pay for a special end but now you're saying that if we needed a a second superintendent and a second business manager will put it in the budget I think we were all trying to be real istic we spoke to people
053so to insinuate that we didn't you're wrong we put can I have the minutes just just give me the minutes and no accusatory someone's wrong I mean let's just keep it calm please I think perhaps um I think the first thing we said is kind of what's the mission here am I right and we kind of all talked about what what do we want to get out of this and what do we how do we move forward with this and I think that it's I resent the fact that you would say that we failed anyone he didn't say the word respectfully in front of it so I let's so we all head along um so my question are we tabling this tonight because there was a supposed to be a vote on the the committee
054to adopt a standard allocation for chair for are are we board amend this tonight I don't I'm happy to table it and resign from okay I'm sorry what I'm happy to table it and I'll resign from the sub okay um well that's why I did want to thank the subcommittees for work and your time you spent because I know spent a few hours on this and um you know how I feel on on this so I I I just want to uh just want to say thank you for your hard work and and I I see where Mr Michelle was coming from and his points are made and M can I say something yeah I just would like to say that we are all sitting in a school and you know we have all these
055acrs pride and respect and I I just think that some of the comments were inappropriate and I think that we should be role models and I I don't think that this was the place of the time and and I my my colleagues resigned from a subcommittee because of it so I just think that pride in respect let's all be Role Models this W be preach what was the region feeling on table in this I do not I mean I don't really see this way I think that the subcommittee has done what they were asked to do I and they've made the presentation to the committee I you can vote it vote it up or down but say does it make a difference to table what what table think not the evaluation right I I want
056to be mindful of the time that it is right now and and the discussion that's been but I do want to just say there's a different way of doing there's a way of saying I hear what the subcommittee said I would have liked you to go in this direction and look for that and look at something else I'll be quite honest from my own perspective I did not it didn't enter into my awareness that we were we would consider bifurcating the positions um and creating two superintendents or an assistant superintendent or a two directors of business and fin I'm being honest Mr Shadow it's not that I didn't do my job that wasn't something that was in my in my awareness of what we were looking at we were looking at and I thought we
057were looking at the way his position was split we talked to Mr tar we talked to Mr s we we got feedback from M AC we went to Mr got back so we did talk to people we may have missed some points that you specifically wanted I apologize I it was not I was not aware of position where aware of those questions that you had but to insinuate that we didn't do our job I did the job that I thought was in front of me and I worked collegially with the the members of the subcommittee to address the issue and we looked at it various ways we fell short in your eyes but it doesn't mean that we did any less for the community or any less for the administrators that we care about and
058want to serve so I understand that you're disappointed and I'm fine if you want us to go and look at it again I just think that there was a different way of STA and so Mr chairman if there is a desire for us to look at something else you know the committee's members it's not just one of us not just me not can tell us well we'd like you to go back and look at X Y and Z and then the committee has that instruction to go do that that's the way I look at it I I mean I think we're all here we all roll up our sleeves we all do the best we can uh we were very mindful of the time that we were spending with our administrators we didn't want to
059be abusive of it we wanted to be Michael I honestly sincerely mayor coopa did not look at bifa those positions or or we actually talked about the fact that if there were savings on the P level that perhaps they could look at shifting those savings to positions that might be need so we have those discussions it might not have been in the ve that you wanted we have minutes we can provide them to you I guess so I'll leave it to the Comm the the larger committee to decide how how you doing what's going okay thank you I just think a littleit misunderstanding here maybe some of the words used weren't well I'm not going to say anything else but it it's just nine times out of 10 that this happened it's just a misunderstanding
060I don't might be good if you go back and take a look at some of those things again from the mentioned it it's just you know I I don't know if it's necessary to get all worked up on this you know we're still this this is a very small community at the end of the day we all have to work together and I think everybody wants what the best for the districts and I say both districts and I think you know you know it is what it is people are passionate but U just I think we need to work together and just see what we can do sorry I was just going to say I think we need if there are issues that this uh committee majority of the committee wants to look at I
061think we'd be happy to look at I never conceiv that we were to be looking at the idea of an assistant superintendent or uh an assisted business manager or uh uh the uh Regional School District hiring its own business manager uh so uh that that comes down to micromanaging personnel which is U not our responsibility but super dependence um I will say my attitude toward this issue has always been that we have objective standard like enroll because I'm not going if we're going to do something different I as an as a practicing attorney I re Ed my time for 50 years on a quarter hour basis and if we're going to start dividing up based upon workload then I'm going to want some kind of standard to be applied so that we know how this
062time is being applied Mr schover said when asked that question um that uh maybe he doesn't spend uh 65% of this time uh maybe that's true but I know we have one school in the Regional School District with more administrators than any of the schools in the KA district and there are four schools in the KA so uh that to me is 20% versus uh 80% um and and we are about to embark on a new middle school project and I would be the first to admit that when we were building the high school we may have taken up more time of the business manager although at that time we had our own full-time Treasurer but we may very well have a disproportionate share of the time of the business manager during that project period
063and I'm quite confident that the KA district will have a disproportionate amount of Mr T's time during the middle school project so all of those factors we can look at them down to Manu but from my perspective I've always felt that this objective standard that we appli has work well and we're just going to put more pressure uh one of the things that Mr Tyro mentioned in our meetings he had a concern that we would be looking at these things every few years because there's significant bookkeeping work that needs to be done to make these minor changes in salour because all of these shared positions receive two separate paychecks with all of the calculations that go into the with holding uh the sharing of the medical uh Insurance expenses and all of that and it
064all has to be adjusted every time uh there's an adjustment to this formula or so can you imagine a situation where you've got uh we had a list of all of the sh positions and you have to and all of these positions are going to be treated differently and on different percentages so that there's going to be a different percentage of their salary each of these positions us up and all of the witholding that goes with it so now if if the committee wants to give us a further charge uh I'm happy uh to go back and look at it again but I want it to be a consensus inquest I would just like to take a minute to uplift what Miss Gary said if we are I was not involved the subcommittee I I'm
065sure it was in the minutes we had a subcommittee but if we are working towards building students who are empathetic and respectful all of us around this table need to embody that right here every time we need and I'm passionate I'm very passionate about many but we can be passionate and respectful and empathetic at the same time and I want us to keep that in mind as we move forward because we're not always going to agree that's the world we live in but we need to find ways to be thoughtful and respectful of the work that we're all doing because we are doing it most of us very volunteer mostly volunteer and we do it because we want to do we passionate about the schools and we want to be role models for those that
066come to me and that's very important to you and I need to uplift that because it needs to be said I don't think it's been said enough thank you for s than mam I have to respond first of all I consider myself angry um this is Vincent Mrs Gary how many years have you heard about shared positions and asking people to look that how many times have you heard that not not many Mr not many okay I've been talking about this for 10 years for 10 years I've been asking people to look at it and for finally for everyone to say that they're going to look at it and I don't believe they actually have heard what I said I really don't because I'm really concerned I'm you know when you want to say you
067should think about other people's feelings I'm thinking about my Administration this is the the last three years I've heard our Administration we as a group have discussed many times about possibly losing people that is what I'm thinking about and when I asked and you all agreed to look into it and only one little piece the piece that means the least to me the funding piece the funding piece is the least that I care about I actually care about my Administration I want to keep good people here I don't believe they did the job I don't believe I believe I was ignored I really do I believe I was ignored so with all due respect to Mrs Gary and and anyone else that feels hurt I hate to say this but when you're not hurt for
06810 years and you're not and you're focusing about the dollars and not the people in my opinion and I don't and I honestly believe what Julie said she didn't believe she didn't understand what the task I believe that I really do believe that but my frustration is is it what I was hoping for was isn't here and it still isn't here because I feel like people are working extremely hard so with all due respect to anyone that I've heard I'm not here to be people's friends I'm here I'm here to advocate for people that work under our jurisdiction and I will continue to support them and I will continue to defend them so with all due respect I've known most of you personally and some people I don't know but here I'm trying to get
069things matter done so I apologize if I'm a little too too direct I'm too Donald Trump like today you know for all you know just being phous and bringing some comment to this I'm hurt I'm extremely disappointed I'm extremely disappointed and I shared that and I'm ready to move forward to the next topic but I'm just saying I don't want to be sat here and lectured to by anyone about Pride respect and all of that I really don't care because I know how I feel and none of you have acknowledged except Julie said I'm sorry Mr mov I didn't get what you're what you were asked for she was the only one that acknowledged that to me and I may be Mr Pierce but at some point you know but all I'm saying is the
070task wasn't completed and I'm fine with it because obviously it's going to move on and look it's 8:51 I'm just before you put this to bed I just have to tell you you just you just said that you were you degraded the subcommittee with valid reasons there's no reason to be like that to anyone and I will in your next sentence you said I don't think you understood me that's okay maybe we maybe we didn't understand where you were going with it so you could have just asked that we relook at it you can lecture you about pride and respect I think that this is one of the videos you're going to go back and look at and have second thoughts about because the way treat people is unacceptable we move on yeah to chair
071so we are going to decide to table us for now and just have the subcommittees go back at a later date who's on the sub commmittee room I'm just asking can I ask a clarifying question please could I could I understand that the the the proposal I just want to make sure I understand or the recommendation coming out of the sub would be that beginning with FY 23 MH that the allocation switch from 6535 to 6238 Y based on enrollment that's the recommendation that's the entirety of the recommendation and that we and that it would be reexamined every 5 years okay with the exception of the technology director the 91 right so I this is just on discussion for me I'm really close to um other issues that may not have been addressed aside just
072on that um I'm close to that if it's based on October 1 and nor it doesn't sound like it's probably going to fluctuate a lot if it is going to fluctuate it's probably going in a direction that adds more to the region and L my my only two concerns is I actually do have to worry about the money and as one of the Berkeley reps with the assessment it is a it's a little bit different CU there's sort of the Somerset High School assessment there's Somerset KDAY that's all Somerset money I do have to think about my Berkeley taxpayer and the assment now so which is why I'm trying with an objective measure like enrollment I don't want people filling out time sheets or professionals I totally get that um I guess my only my
073only question might be I would be I would be curious to see the projections since we have access to about and I understand that that might actually til it more the other way I'm okay with that but if if we're going to look at if we're not going to adjust it each year based on October one enrollment October one going into the next prate season which maybe too much tinkering for not a lot of payback I would just be curious if we're going to make this adjustment that hasn't been changed in 10 years can we look ahead five years and maybe look at what based on those projections what the average might be and come up with a number like that as opposed to October 21 already say that in the suers perly regional agreement
074that it says that it's it's looked at every year as far as the percentages of enrollment of students that's between Berkeley and Su between Berkeley and suers at the region based on yes with the exception the carbo of special ed but I think that's a little bit different than what we're talking about here which is the salary of the administration which goes to the region and then that up between summer so again I I'm I'm pretty okay I'm really close to this um I would just like that little last bit of information for me to feel like if I'm going to agree to something for 5 years that hasn't been changed in 10 I'd like more than one data point of one year sure we can get that I can be on board with this
075I think that okay sorry yes sure um that information we can uh hopefully have by the end of December early January uh once the information is given to ndaq and I just want to add another contributing factor to nor we don't know how it'll impact thing obviously 3 years from now we be opening up a new middle school year and that might have a positive impact on en roll two which I just stated the while deine we may see that come back um hopefully the that that will be a piece of information that goes into this study so hopefully that is also reflected in the projected home I so if I may so in that instance be look table to see that information which will not be de but the question is that we'll be
076building next year bu yeah we're going to have a joice meeting in janary thank you for the work by thank you okay um number seven update on rization study so we um we went to um our Consultants to find out what dates he and his team would be available to do a joint presentation to this committee and um the regional planning board which was made up of members of both Peter districts um and we would of course include the entirety of the Somerset PA committee as well as the enti of the committee we' make it a public meeting and so I have three dates to throw out to the committee and then what we what we talked about doing is because it's hard to get a good date out to 100 people we would focus
077on this group right and then um the regional planning board and then dat so I'm going to throw up three dates um and then we can send out a um a meeting poll so that everybody can respond formally just so that you can keep in mind we're looking at November 23rd if you want to let me know if that would be good because we need to give um Mr Abraham's some notice so we can respond as quickly as possible he needs a week notice to just there November 30th would be the other alternative date and then December 21st M chair I mean uh those are the dates that we Thanksgiving Thanksgiving and Christmas I I can tell you I'm a no three you know so we can look at January but they were looking to
078try to complete the study before the end um because we're on this topic I just you know I I served on the regional planning committee and um and I'm going to ask our Berkeley reps to share what the community in Berkley had said about regionalization we know that yeah I I feel I know we spent the money but I feel like that report is basically uh whatever the results may be it's just something that I feel that the Berkeley Representatives that were at that town meeting and be very clear that it's something that they're not interested in so I I just feel like if whatever that report comes in and it says how great it would be to have a full regionalization it's just it would be almost like the group in Somerset that didn't
079want to uh um regionalize at first um and still feel some still feel that way I I just feel like I rather just have a written report and sent it to me make it public to those but I really don't feel like I want to be so that's just my opinion but I don't know but I'm going to ask the I'm going to respect the Berkeley uh to feel to share how they feel about that because I know how your town felt about it so I I think um well one thing about the dates I do I think that since there's not urgency so you know this is this is obviously a an ongoing longterm I I would bump into January I think the holidays are probably not a great I think the post must
080have booked up and um so probably not a good time so I would suggest telling it to January or or Beyond I I think um uh we sort of know the the vibe that we've got in in conversations inly I do think though that um it's certainly an issue that we've both uh we have sort of pledged to make sure that whatever conversation that we actually don't want it to be just a report that it's about that we want it very much to have a a public meting that can be well advertised and well because I think uh there are people who do have strong feelings about it Mr sh as you said and I think they would want the um opportunity they might not come but the opportunity to attend um a meeting I
081so I think a meeting after the holidays where that could be um discussed would I think would work well for the report did also include um because we asked it to we asked them to analyze ways that the Le districts could collaborate to say fun so that's included in there and so I think that that's a value for the three districts to hear and Mr fencemaker and I were at the as were Miss Vincent and Miss Andrews when we went before the Berkeley Board of Select and I know that at least Mr larab said that while there was some hesitancy on on behalf of residents in the town they thought it would be valuable to heal whatever came out of that that report so that's why we think I'll I'll we'll go back to IM
082say she has plenty of time now to present to prepare and it would be in January and perhaps those dates could be given to miss Vincent who could bring them back to jul I've been in part of the process from day one and I mean I love my people from iake met a lot of good friends they're fantastic people so much to the table the feeling I got is that they they like to control and they K to already they like that and they do such a a great job and I didn't know how they felt if they were they came into our system they would lose that identity which they shouldn't because they're just a a great 8 group over there uh that was my feeling so any documents been presented to anyone yet
083that are public we just got um kind of the the the draft notes but they're not in one document yeah he just wanted to show us this is the kind of information we want to put into a presentation okay what dat are you available and we take those they gave us those dates and and that's what we're presenting but it would be with a document that would be made available okay anything else further before we go into public input we have public is anyone here to speak on behalf of public put like I yes I'm sorry because the person who left spoke to me privately earlier um she was interested in an update on stay teston stay so I wasn't sure if maybe school over was that well I I know that's on our agenda
084for Monday that's why she was here though that's why I know she spoke to me she just been come and ask a question t i on so can we discuss that I don't know what's the top testing day is a program offered by the state uh that allows school districts to test students who have been identified as close contacts who are not symptomatic with covid um and by uh coming to school and having a a test done a rapid test uh with the results back 15 to 20 minutes if it's negative the student would be able to attend classes rather than being having to self-isolate it home it's it's optional it's a parent op opin program we [Applause] have I just wanted to point out she did wait an awful long time and that's why
085I thought it was important to bring it up right so I question is because I know we have on the agenda for Monday which I've had a ton of questions am I allowed to ask those now or should I save them for Monday I I would say because if we had that in agender we might have exactly more people in the audience just before I I say that because um a lot of people knowing that we got into high detail with this that want to be here I just wanted to acknowledge her presence that she did wait and she you know it is 9:00 she is reach out ask I can ask her some questions I can I can reach back out to her but she did wait an awful long time to speak and
086she wasn't able to make it till the end because she does have family and children at home sure so I just wanted to know if she was here and that was question thank you you're welcome Mr McDonald to hear more about this program do we have it at the high school no we do not yet okay so I'd like to hear so why you have it on your agenda why don't we have it on our agenda for a future meeting here about is is it the administration that decides whether to implement it or is it school uh I I don't think it's officially uh has to be approved by school committee can be I know most administrations have done it I don't know did Berkeley I don't think we officially approved it the the administration
087chose to do it and we may have talked about it at school committee but we didn't have to officially approve it and again remember we have one one Elementary School one middle school and we we appealed to the state to get this like before school even started because we felt it was really important to get these kids and keep them in um classes based upon our surveys and everything else done with families before we even started so it was something that we've been doing almost since day one I know my granddaughter's kindergarten classes down to seven kids uh so you know I'm I'm all for masking and testing and vaccination but if there's a protocol it's going to get kids back into the classroom uh on for that as well so I think we got
088hear it we've had a number of I will say that for our small District it's been very helpful like even one of my own children was able to stay in school because of it so okay Mr um just because this is a joint committee and I think this is should be acknowledged once again congratulations to Mr uh talet uh for winning his the science I don't know the exact name of the award but I know it was Association of science teachers briso County science teacher new it's always great to see someone from our districts um you know um always being acknowledged I want to say Wow to Mr Gore who ran the 5K at a very quick Pace after not running at one in a very long time but a real wow moment uh I
089I have to acknowledge because this is the committee joint the somerset Berkeley found Education Foundation uh they handed out many grants I want to say if I recall Mr is it a 28 something about 28,000 about 28,000 to all three districts uh sincere thanks to that organization and I'm sure we all feel that way and uh it's just great to see a group because that's really going to help a lot of our students our programs and I think because this is a joint meeting it should be acknowledged at this meeting so thank you Mr Shadow and I know before we adjourned Shan to help me out with this there's a ceremony for Veterans Day to celebrate our veterans yeah I think on Thursday 10 or 11 yeah from 11 in front line so as a
090reminder for the veterans thank you well all business have been complete complete for K 8 I would entertain a motion toj someone second okay motion made by Miss Gary second by Mr M this a Voice vote all in favor all in favor I I oppos thank you the reg side motion I'll move second motion second all in favor thank you reg I see