Concord Carlisle Joint School Committee - March 4, 2026

001So we are going to start our meeting and I'm going to call the Conquer Carell School Committee to order. So we will roll call because we have numbers on Zoom. >> President >> Morano present. >> Present. >> Oh sorry above you. Sorry. Caliber Morano. Mard's present. I can't do all order. >> Wat's present. >> Williams present. Is uh >> Carrie not with us today? >> Carrie is traveling today. And we have you and Michelle are with us here today too. We have I see some of our schooling reps online. Our students are online. Mark is in the room. We are really happy to be here tonight at the Croc Center. We have a lot of um all things MECO tonight. Starting with our recognitions. So we do have with us tonight Solange Benjamin uh Melenthy

002Bernado Andre Thomas Andrew Nichi and Candace Sumner who's the CEO and president of Mecca will be joining us. So when she joins us we'll do her introduction but we're so glad to have everybody with us. So with that I will introduce Melenthy and Methy we're ready for you to do your awards. >> Hi everybody. Thank you so much for being here tonight and for having us um do these awards here. Um so we are now in our third year of doing our medical ambassadors program which is a program um where we have two students from each grade level act as the leaders of the medical peers in their grades. Um and they really have taken on this leadership role this year. They talk to um the other students in their grades to kind of uh

003get the challenges and successes that have been happening among all of their peers. And then about once a month they get together with myself and some of the admin team to bring up those challenges challenges and goals and then they talk about the ideas that they have for the program and also um some things that they want to make happen to really make this program their own and really be proud of it. And so I am really excited to have some of our ambassadors here. A few of them couldn't make it just because of some other commitments that they had. But without further ado, I will let some of our students. So, Leila Smith is one of our sophomore students. She couldn't make it tonight, so I'll give this to her later. Um, London Zen

004will be here in a little bit. She is one of our freshman ambassadors. Um, Julian Reynoso is our freshman ambassador. >> Julian, don't go far. We're gonna want a picture. >> Okay. >> Jayla Vieira is one of our Mark Johnson is our junior ambassador. Sorry, Harborn couldn't make it, but she's a junior ambassador. Um, Laza is a senior. Um, he's our senior ambassador. And then Zion Atkinson is also one of our senior ambassadors. So, I will be answering them. We definitely need a picture, but I'm actually gonna rudely um ask Candace Sumner to join the picture, too. >> Introduce you after. Sorry. >> Come on in. >> Hi, baby. She saw them all yesterday. So, yeah. Awesome. Thank you. >> You can stay with us and join us in the >> I'll come up. >>

005Well, thank you so much for coming and for joining us for this. We thank you for what you do as ambassadors. It's a very important job that we have at our high school. I only see it on social media and I think the social media is really good. I have to shout out Melindy on that because she really is the best of the best of social media. Um, but thank you for your commitment and the time that you spent being ambassador. We appreciate that. >> All right. And we have Dr. Candace Sumner with us. >> Hello. >> And we're gonna give you the floor and you can introduce yourself and whatever you'd like to say to us. >> What's the optimal >> that is the nice backdrop over there backdrop? I'll be quiet. I'll be

006quiet. Um, forgive me. Thank you all for welcome. Um, I am Candace Soner. I am the new MECO president and CEO, but most importantly, I'm a MECO alum. I am a Weston Metco alum. I was in Weston Metco from kindergarten all the way through graduation. And from there, I went to Spellelman College where I got my whole life together and knew that the rest of my life was going to be There you go. Okay, great. Don't give a perform an X. Okay, here it is. And I knew that the rest of my life was going to be removing barriers for kids like me and creating bridges and opening doors for everybody like me and everybody who was adjacent to me and everybody everybody. Um, my entire career has been about either being what I needed

007or creating what I needed. Once I came back to Boston from Atlanta, Georgia, I was a which is why I'm a little late because I ran into one of my kids outside. You're 30. What is happening? Um, is being what I needed when I was you guys. Whether I was teaching at Tech Boston Academy or leaving Charles Town High School or Fenway High School or running uh the legacy scholar program at Newton North, um my uh TED talk launched me into national keynote speaker whatever that happened and um I kind of became flexing my muscles when it came to anti-racism. um equity and expanding access for all kids. And 10 years ago when the idea that Metco was going to be run by someone not Gene Magguire, I was like, "What? If that ever happens

008again, I got to put my name in the room." And it happened. I put my name in the in the room and I laughed because I I was six months pregnant at the time. So I was like, "You're funny." like this is wonderfully inconvenient timing, but clearly I'm supposed to be doing it and here I am. I'm very grateful to be on this journey. Every day has been nothing but beautiful affirmation whether I'm meeting the lovely you and the lovely you and the lovely you and you and you and everybody. I had the awesome honor of hanging out at Cogurt. Was it yesterday? >> It was. It was. So much life happens in 24 hours last year. And um I as I told Dr. Hunter because the day started with we're amazing. We're amazing. I

009was like okay that's what everybody says. Um we're very proud of what we do. And once I saw the my kids because that's my first point of contact with her. All right. That's what the super kept said but what do you really think? And I even got them in a room. I was like all right they're gone. What do you really think? like is it really like actually yeah it's not perfect but we actually kind of like it and I gave them that mama look like are you telling the truth and for the most part I can tell they were telling the truth and what I really appreciated is from the beginning it was clear we're not perfect >> but we got some good stuff and I know I'm in the right room when folks

010are saying we ain't perfect we got a lot of room to grow but there's a lot of stuff that we got that's And um I talked a little bit about I can't not be an English teacher or a or a high school professor and I love vocabulary when we talk about dialectical thinking how two things can be true at once >> and that's really really hard like Kia like what are you talking about and yes that's we are smart enough to know and our brains can extend where a lot of great stuff can be here and we got some work to And um what I appreciate is I feel like we are in the right room with the right people to do the work. >> And I appreciate Dr. Hunter because from the very beginning

011I felt like I had a uh a thought partner like all right how can we do this whether it's special ed whether it's something else as I'm learning the landscape because this job is complex um and Solange and Leny and Andrew and all of the awesome tell me your name again >> Mr. Thomas >> Mr. promise. Um, amazing human beings that are taking care of our kids recognize the wholeness of their humanity and the greatness of the work that's in front of us. So, I am honored and excited and humbled and empowered to serve you all from this role. Um, as the MECO CEO, I remind myself I was also that little black girl who got told negative things on the bus and uh, how did I navigate that? And then how can I help

012and empower the whole community because it's not just on us >> to do sometimes I just need to take, you know, be on my piece and knowing that I've got friends who will speak up, right? Um, and so that being the whole workout. Um, and I'm really really excited to do that. Um, I've been the student who was told negative things. I've been the school administrator who had to hold teachers accountable and say, "Hey, um, what you did was a little racist, and we got to work through this together." And helping kids build their sense of safety and knowing and creating spaces for them to know they are seen, they are loved, and I'm with you, and I'm going fight for you. I have two biological children and 112,000 non-biological children and I will fight

013for you like I would you came from me and I hope that you know that and I hope and plan and expect and would love to do that with you all. So thank you all for welcoming me. Um I'm looking maybe not now is the question and answer portion of the day because I know conquered y'all were on a tight schedule so I probably went 30 seconds over my time but know that um I'm here. I'm with you. I stand with you. I support the work from a dialectical lens. When it's good and when it's not good, because that's what true love is. Just it's it's cute when it's cute. But when it's not cute, will you still love me tomorrow? The answer is yes. >> And we'll do this together. So, thank you. >>

014Thank you so much. >> All right. I think we have one more student that came in. >> She's one of our freshman. >> Okay, welcome. Um, can we just take and mom, >> how are you? Um, can we take one picture? Candace, can you take a picture with the entire school? Can we take >> You got it. >> Let's do it. I'm >> picture. Drew, could you take a picture? >> Take my seat. >> Yes. Yes. Let's actually do the whole room. Can we do the whole room? >> Yeah. We need you guys in it. >> All right, everybody. >> I'll do a couple of Where are we going? >> Right there. >> Everybody in. Everybody in. >> Everybody in. >> We're doing it. >> Just watch out for the picture. >> HDMI. >> Trace

015could take both of them. And Drew, you can get in if you want. Get closer. >> We're too We're too spread out. We're too spread out. Keep coming. >> I never end up in the tall section. You're back. Wait a second. >> All right, everybody smile. You got to do one of these just in case. Tik Tok. All right, you guys are doing great. Say what should they say? >> Yes. >> Amazing. Wait one second. >> We need a break. >> Perfect. >> You got some text messages. >> Buzzing. And if anybody comes in, do you have permission to like stand up and interrupt? >> Okay, we have one more award recipient. Go ahead. >> We have London. She's one of our freshman. >> Right. Well, that is really hard to follow. So, thank you

016for joining us. We really appreciate it. We do run type meetings. Um, we have two of our school committee members that are online. So, you can see their faces right there. So, we have Michael Williams and Sanji Pushardi. They are joining us, too. And then our student reps are also with us. We have Maddie and Evelyn there. And Mark is our third student rep. Uh, Michael, looks like you put your hand up. Yeah, just uh for a hot minute at least when I put my hand up, we had a minute left to go. I I know uh Dr. Ser's gone full circle. I just wanted to give her an opportunity to comment on how it meant how it feels to go from being a uh Weston Medco student to have a varied career and then

017coming back to being CEO of Medco Inc. >> Do I have time? >> Yes, you have the floor. Yes. >> Do I have to stand up? >> No, you don't want to. it will follow you around. >> Um, I pray that every human being has the privilege of having a job that you know you were built for and that every life experience and I'm especially speaking to my babies cuz you asked me this yesterday. You were like, "What prepared you to be CEO?" And I was like, every single experience I had as a medical kid, the ones that sucked, the ones I went home crying to my mama about, and the ones when I got awards cuz I was doing something amazing and everything in between. And um I I didn't share. Also, my grandfather,

018Carnell Eaton, civil rights activist whose name is at the bottom of the Embrace statue, was one of the um organizing parents of Operation Exodus, which is what became METCO. So, it is every day feels like a conversation with an ancestor and every day feels like I'm built for this and I'm so grateful and humbled and honored to serve what I feel like is my calling. Um, and knowing that I'm doing exactly what I believe I needed when I was y'all's age. And it's I try not to cry every day and some days I do but not not in front of you. Just in my car just just at the beauty of the moment. Um so honored, humbled, empowered, excited, enraged, joyfilled, all of the things all at the same time. >> You know what's that

019movie? All things everywhere, all at once every day times about a thousand. But it's all mostly good. So thanks for the question. Thank you so much. >> Yep. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to our team. I of course think that we're the best of the best in Coffee Car and Boston. So, I hope you think the same, but um we'll we'll be our best speaker. So, thank you. All right. So, without further ado, we're going to go to the superintendents and chairs update. Lori, want to start with you? >> Yeah. And I actually um am going to pivot the floor tonight to have Andrew do an update on Andrew Numichi do an update on a session that happened last week at the high school with the leaders of all of

020our affinity groups, Black Student Union. I will not name them all. I'll I'll forget some. Black Student Union, Jewish Student Union, Spectrum, Uni, Unified Sports, on and on. and it really was a special meeting that gave us a lot of um hope and really proud of where our students are at and some of the visions they were setting. So, I'm going to turn that over to Andrew um for my report tonight just because I think it's really important. He was there firsthand and I want to capture that. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Mun. Uh so last Tuesday, February 24th, um thought of as part of our challenge success initiative, uh we convened about 11 of our high school affinity groups, uh really start to sort of deepen partnerships, collaboration, um strengthen the relationships among all

021those groups. And you know the work really started because you know the students two years ago um we administered a survey through the challenge success work that we do in addition to uh the panorama surveys that we administer every year and that data revealed that particularly our uh many of our subgroups of students especially um students who identify with the LGBTQ plus community did not feel a sense of belonging, a sense of connectedness within the CCH's community. Um, other groups were not experiencing the same level of belonging as their white and Asian peers. And so this convening last week was the first time ever. And Brian Miller, who's a co-principal of CCHS, he's been at the school for like 22 years. and he cannot remember a time where we brought together student leaders representing so

022many sort of intersection of identities right at CCHS. And so some of the groups that were there, Dr. Hans named named all of them, but I will repeat them again because it's important that you know >> um the different affinity groups that are represented at CCHS. So, we have Spectrum, which is our LGBTQIA+ uh student leaders. We have Black Student Union, which Mark Johnson has, he's the president of the BSU. We have the Jewish student union. We have Girl Up, the Girls Empowerment. We have Unified Sports. We have South Asian Student Society. We have our Mechco Student Ambassadors. We have Asian Student Union, Latin X and Heritage Club, Far East Association, Bible Study, Southwest Asian and North African Student Union, and currently in the works, we are hoping to establish a Muslim student association. Um,

023so 13 student affinity, I actually missed one, intersections club, but 14 student affinity groups at CCHS. And if you all have the opportunity to visit uh the high school, if you come through the cafeteria, you will immediately notice, man, close to at this point maybe 90 different country flags that are that are hung up in the in the in the cafeteria. And you know how that came about? Five maybe six years ago, the intersections club actually conducted a survey of their students at CCHS and over to this day over a 100 nationalities are represented at Conquer Carlo High School. >> Okay. And we're still ordering flags to this day, right? We haven't we're running out of space, so we got to figure out a you know another location to place those flags. But it's amazing

024how much diversity is in conquered. Um conquered is not all white. I say that all the time. Uh student population is changing. We are nearing 30% students of color in our district. Um when I started and Lauren, you say this all the time. It does. >> Yeah. I mean, >> and that's a very short time, eight eight nine years, right? And we've seen that change. And so conquered is changing and a lot of the work that we do in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is focused on making sure all of our students of color, students with disabilities, our low socioeconomic status students, right? um our multi-racial students, our black students, our Hispanic Latinx students, all of our students that that enrich the diversity in conquered feel seen, feel heard, feel supported, feel valued.

025Um and that's the work that's the work we we do every day. So I continue to be grateful to lead this work in conquered. I came to conquer because of this work. Um and and every day is a new challenge and I'm just incredibly incredibly grateful um that this work is is so deeply intertwined with not only the work we do in the schools but in the history of conquered which I challenge every single one of you to really look into and read about the history of conquered. Um, it will definitely provide you a new sort of insight into why this work is important, why anti-racist work has always been in common. So, I'll leave it at that. >> All right, Andrea, you're back to follow. You know, I don't really have any updates. The

026only update I will give um just because I want to be very brief was last night was the multicultural fest at the high school. I know a lot of you were there. Meal's Rice I'm still talking about. Um Aisha made it out in the snowstorm which was great. So it was just really a great celebration of all different cultures at our high school. Mark ran the table. You had buttons. The buttons are new, right? >> Yeah. Well, we have buttons trying to we'll take the buttons. So I've been trying to take groups every community event. So yes. >> So maybe you could bring some buttons to school committee at the next meeting. We would love I took bus but I love the buttons. Um, so it was just really a great celebration at the high

027school and then all of other schools are going to follow suit and have multicultural celebrations. So I encourage you to go to that. Um, and then I'll turn it to Aisha Michelle for me update. >> Thanks Tracy. Um, of course I want to thank all the MECO families that came out tonight for the school meeting. We really appreciate your attendance here. Um, the Alcohosted a Black History Month breakfast for the staff last week with food from a local Caribbean restaurant. And uh, the two moms that did set up are here, Tamara and Erica. So, thank you guys for that. That was greatly appreciated by um, all right. And, uh, two macro reps have been assigned to the alcohol PTG. Um I think there's been some uh trouble with uh getting response back from the PTG

028but uh the progress has started. Uh Erica is also one of those reps. So don't throw it under the bus or thank you for all your service. Um next week we are having the MECO friends and family uh event at the Discovery Museum in Actton. So that's through the family and friends program. So um I think that's all I have for KO8 updates. So um one of the updates and concerns um yesterday at the multicultural nights a couple of people have brought up that it seems like mechco our mech numbers are down and um and if you know possible um what's the process to get it so we can accept parents I mean students at different grades because right now we just do kindergarten and by the time we get to the high school middle

029school and high school age the numbers kind of dwindle and you know we want a stronger medical program So, um I think that's one of the things that we should work on as far as um just to to to create that um you know, the numbers are up then we'll have a a stronger sense of belonging and more inclusive environment. Um and just in the short time our son's been um taking over Mechco, it's exciting to see like the great direction that it's going in. Um you know, being an alum, her knowing what it is to be a Meco student, what it is to be a MEC graduate, I think is important. Um we have such a unique you know so unique I was a student at con house so it is important I love

030conquered I love my experience here so um I'm excited to see what um you know what what's to come um and one of the other thing I just wanted to um recognize since she's taken over at the high school um she's really made a priority to make sure the metro kids are getting into the AP classes and she's prioritizing it she's reaching out to the parents students and teachers um I think she's just doing so much. That's Thank you. >> And um that's all from nice. So Mar's going to cover everything else. >> All right. Did you have any other students? Just let me know. Okay, good. All right. Um so I will turn over to our CCHS reps. So we have Marcus with us and then online I think we have Maddie and Evelyn

031are together. So, let you guys see. >> Hi. Hello. >> Hi. >> We're just gonna share our screen really quick or see if we can. Uh >> Oh no. Um >> Well, I have to give a shout out to our student reps. They've been coming in person to all of our meetings. So, thank you for doing that. It's really awesome. And I know that you're not here tonight, but I know you wanted to be. >> Oh, no. Um, I don't think I'm gonna I don't think I'm able to share my screen. Dr. Hunter, we um shared it with you. If you might be able to, that'd be great. >> We should just plan. >> Yeah, >> perfect. Okay, that's awesome. >> We'll go into slideshow mode here. >> That's fine. >> That's perfectly fine. Thank

032you. Okay, >> so um hi everybody. Um the first thing that we're going to talk about from um recently the CC Alpine team, we had our state championship at Wuset last Wednesday. It was supposed to be on Tuesday, but then snow pushed it to Wednesday. And instead of having to be far out in Western Mass, we got to be at Wuset, which is kind of one of our home mountains, which is really nice. And the boys secured um overall second place which is great. It's the same place they got last year right after St. John's prep again which is too bad but they did really well. Theo Remington um again so he did a little repeat. He's state champion in the slalom and he got third in GS. So a great showing and then the

033girls did really well as well. >> Okay Mark take over this one. Um Kyler Muzgard, who is actually one of our um members of BSU. He's like our finance and fundraising lead. Um he made it to the championships and is now he won New England and wrestling. So it's great. I don't really I think he's on to states now. I don't know. He's going to uh Rhode Island soon. So whatever that is. And then um yesterday, I'm sure you all know this, we had our incredible multicultural food fest, which I think is every single CC student and their families. It's just such a special night for everyone. Um there were so many people going, even though it was like the snow was so heavy and so the roads were really slick, but everyone made it

034out. The parking lot was a mess, but um once you got in, the food was worth it. It smelled so delicious in there if um you guys didn't go. But um really great to see all those cultures represented. Um, and the food of course is such a highlight. And the music as well. That was really cool to see. Um, and yeah, it's just really special to see students and also their families just kind of participating and like being all together. It's so special. So, lots of fun. >> Yeah, it was really great. Yes, you had a table and as well as I think Jewish student table. Some of the affinity groups like kind of talked to each other and knew that these were like going to have tables. So, we like that. >> Um, Dr.

035Dr. Kenna Sner, your co-president CEO. I didn't here tonight ambassadors. We give her a tour and it was amazing. I think we went over time on the talking, which was okay because we got to get all of our questions out and really get to know you. But gave you a little tour of like the still in motion project um that Mr. Wise is doing and the macro room. I don't know how many we did, but >> you did great, Mark. Are you going to be 10 out of 10? 12 out of 10. >> Um, and then next up, I actually have a sister who is an eighth grade student at CMS. And so she participated in the MVP training that happened yesterday actually at CC by the CC um MVP, mentors of violence prevention club,

036which was really great. And so that was a whole dayong program. Um, I know CC students got to um miss their classes that day and instead spend the whole time um running workshops and leading breakout discussion groups um with those select kids. I think there was this really small group of I think like 20 or 25 um CMS kids and that was really great and my sister loved it and I know her friends all loved it and I think it's really a great opportunity um that the school is now providing um middle schoolers to get engaged and also to get a sense of what it means to be a part of MVP and also you know the general advocacy but that's something that they can join at CC in their sophomore year and take that

037training. Um so really great to see that and I know students really enjoyed that. So yes, and then um also next up this past I think the past like two we had two weeks in a row. So I'm a part of the science Olympiad club. Unfortunately I haven't been able to participate in tournaments but um our team has been super duper successful. Um we actually have states coming up this weekend which is very exciting. We were supposed to go to the Dartmouth um tournament which famously last year almost got snowed out but then we won first place and that's when we came in and we had um a recognition last year which was really great. But um this year, yeah, that got snowed out. So we went to Harvard, Harvard's tournament, and we got um

038ninth overall, which was a boost of I think four places from last year or maybe even five. I think we were 15th last year. So really great improvement. And then we also went to the UMass tournament um and we came in sixth place overall. So we meddled four times in both in different events for both of those um tournaments. And so that was really great. So yes. Okay. And then on to things that are happening currently at CCHS and in the community. Boys hockey um last Saturday. They beat uh Wuburn in I think 2-1 and it was a big um it was a big game and they weren't supposed to win. Um the boys the Wuburn team was fifth I think and then the boys might have been 11th or 14th I believe. So it

039was a great time. Um they're the underdogs and they came in. So now they're going to go and play in the quarterfinals of the MIAA state playoffs and I think that's going to be happening tomorrow. So that's super exciting for the team and the school. >> Um yes. So um Deco, we hosted our ping pong um tournament today um after school in the gymnasium and we're trying to raise money for the kids to go to states and it was great. I raised a lot of money. >> You're a deck or two, right? I'm like the chief of career development. Okay. So kind of helping everybody else in the club like navigating. Um, and then a junior here at CCHS, Da D. Rosa. She competed in the NCA, which is the National Cheer Association's competition this

040past weekend, which is a really big achievement. I'm pretty sure she's on the CC cheer team as well. So, she does this on the side as a club sport, and she went to a national competition, which is super big deal. So, we're all really excited for her. I'm sure it's great for the school team as well. >> Yes. And then on theme with the Oh, sorry. Yes. I wanted to add also Dla is in my math class and she was she joined from FaceTime to listen to math so she didn't miss >> and she was in Houston by the way for NCA because I might know a little bit about you. Goodbye. >> Yes. And then on theme before with Multicultural Food Fest is that it's World Language Week at CC. It's really special. We'll

041come in at the start of the day. It's 8 in the morning. All of a sudden you'll hear a French pop song blasting out over the speakers and in between the passing times. So each day we're listening to different music and then throughout the school on the televisions we have different slideshows prompting you know student uh teachers like experiences with languages and um also like just student testimonies if they've you know gone on to study languages in college and beyond um and the experience and the importance of learning languages which I think is just so cool that we have this opportunity um to you know share that and I took um I took two languages at CC for the past uh three years this year I had to stop but um just languages have a

042special part of my heart and so I just think it's really special that um CC is taking the time to, you know, go and talk about that and make sure that students really love what they do and um take the time to learn a language because that means a lot about, you know, cultural inclusivity and um it's just also really fun and you can go to a different place and speak a different language. So, um I think everyone's been enjoying that this week. >> Definitely. Um and moving on to our upcoming events. So, spring sports should be starting up in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure a lot of teams will be having triyous around the middle of March, so that'll be a good thing to look out for. And then also there's been

043some captain's practices and some preseason things going. I saw the boys lacrosse team doing sprints up that hill by Memorial Field um and then in the school as well. So it seems pretty brutal, but um it's definitely going to show up in their games. So that's great. And then I don't I don't think Mark, do you want to cover this last one? >> Yes. SAT on Friday. >> Thanks to Melindy Barrett, she um sent a few emails maybe a few um talking about mech course and it's every Saturday for I think what was it seven weeks and then we did five hours of practice again so feeling super prepared so thank you and everybody else is going to take it we've been doing a lot of they had open door come open door and acting

044which is like tutoring place and they held sessions after school and I think it was like hundreds of kids going so everybody's feeling pretty confident doesn't feel like a lot of stress at the school >> and it's during the school day at the high school which is huge. Amazing. >> Amazing. Other schools do not have that. I was going to mention. >> Great. Well, thank you guys again for like another awesome update. As the room can see, we have great students and we have lots of different programming and I love you guys always report on whether it's, you know, sports, the musical, debate team, DECA, like you give us a little bit of everything. So, I feel like we have a good insight into the high school. So, thank you. >> All right. >> Thank

045you guys. Thank you. >> All right. Bye. >> You can clap first. >> Okay. So, >> okay. >> So, next up we have our consent agenda. Um, the only thing is the warrants. So, does anyone want to pull any of the warrants off? Go ahead and entertain it. Uh, motion to >> I move to approve the March 4th, 2026 consent agenda. Second >> and roll call. >> Iard I >> Wat I >> Williams I >> All right. And in terms of correspondence over the past like I would say probably month we've had about 13 pieces of correspondence. So you have all received all of those and I've responded to all of them and I will move on to our discussion. So up first we have our metro directors. So we have Salange Benjamin and Melinda

046Fernando. They are present to us and it's up to you if you guys want to if you feel uncomfortable standing. If you want to sit like you could sit at maybe this table. I don't know you guys decide. However you want to do it. Okay. Well, thank you. >> Oh, yes. Before you start, if you haven't gotten pizza or cookies, please help yourself to pizza and cookies. And it's not rude if people just do it in the middle of the meeting. We don't care. >> Thanks. >> So again, thank you all for having us here tonight and giving us the time to talk about the medical program. Again, I'm commando the director high school and the director of HP. Um so on the next slide so Metro started with the idea of offering students living

047in urban settings like Boston and Morris Springfield the opportunity at a higher quality education um in suburban school districts such as conquered and right now we have 33 school districts that are in conquer and I'm actually really proud that conquer is actually one of the very first school districts going back in 197 and right now we proudly serve 120 students and families between kindergarten and 12th grade coming from Hy Park to meet the plane backester and Roxberry to name a few. So they're coming in from all over on that long bus ride. And then the next slide we do have a very vibrant diverse student body because the other goal was also to diversify the suburban school districts. Um, so we have 73 students in the K through8 cohort and then 31 students in the

048CCHS cohort coming from so many different cultural backgrounds like Afroamerican, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian and indigenous cultures. So they really are very proud to celebrate their cultures at our school and talk about them and teach other um students and as about each of their cultures and the next slide. Thank you. Um, so as mentioned earlier, one of my main goals was to really get our students into honors and AP classes. And right now we have 51 instances of students in honors classes and seven students in AP classes. And these numbers, it could be one student taking multiple honors and AP classes as well. Um, but the other part of that is not just them being in these higher level classes, but also making sure that they have the support necessary to succeed in these classes. Um,

049so I work with our medical academic leison on Chris Skinner. Every week we look through each student's grades just to make sure that they're on track that if they start falling behind that we get them the support that they need. And then also, I don't know if all of my kids have noticed, but we've been in your classrooms. We've uh done class observations with all of our students just to see how they've been participating in classes, how they've been engaging um and seeing like the dynamic between them and other students and their classroom and teachers, all of that. just so we have a really well-rounded view of what's been going on with all of our kids. Um, and then the next slide. And of course, MECO is not just about academics. It's also about engaging

050with the communities that the students are in. So, we have, of course, our student leadership program that I'm really proud to have most of my kids here. Um we have almost a 100% um extracurricular engagement rate right now with the kids um between winter and fall sports and we have a bunch of kids who are planning to do spring sports. We have students like DECA like Mark um students in history and reading club uh student government and a bunch of our member students are in um the black student unions. So it's really nice to see them really being parts of all these different spaces at school and really making them their own. And then also the professional growth opportunities. We have one student right now, one of our seniors who has been um in an

051internship program since the beginning of the second semester and a few kids who are interested in doing it for the fourth quarter. Um and it's really nice to watch them thrive and grow in um these experiences of uh things that they want to work in once they graduate high school. And I was able to also uh talk to some of our alumni who took on this um internship opportunity and they were also offered full-time jobs from these internships. So that's really nice to see them thrive in that sense too. Hi everybody, thank you for coming. I am Salange Benjamin the um CPS medical director through um 8. Our student are doing really well. Um um like Mentioned earlier. So um from our side our student last semester the next semester is closing um and and

052um last semester we had um 26 student um made honors and um five made the principal list. So um that was really nice to see the progress that our students are making at the middle school and also um the kids participate in different activities. Um right now we have um student going to um the human tenacity challenge which which I'm super excited to see them going and um and do that challenge with um peers from different district. Um they went pairing with Mr. Thomas um every Thursday um they have the bus that they could um take opportunities to do that and from the um K through five um we have student day going to be doing girls on the run which I love. Um they get to um hang out with coaches and talking about

053mental health and do different challenges together and then they get to do a 5K run and become we did it last year. It was beautiful to see parents and student running. Um it was nice. So I'm looking forward to that. And also there's a STEM movie coming up at Alcott. Um and some of our students only sign up. >> Um from um student um voices, our student are being vocal about what they want and what their needs are. And I'm happy to see that we have um seven student right now um part of the playbook initiative. They are leading this initiative with principal um Dustin and also from the elementary side. We have one at um Alcott and one at the students they come up with the best ideas. Um we had a week of

054they decided that what spirit they were supposed to do um as adults and yeah they put us through work was fun which was fun. I'm excited to see what they come up with um from them. >> Right. So what I see the beauty of being is that um it offers students a chance of course at the academic extracurriculars but also we really strive to make sure our students have um as many opportunities as they do after they graduate from CC. Uh so they have that autonomy of choice for once they graduate. And right now I'm really happy to say that all of our eight medical seniors have at least a few college acceptances um with varying degrees of scholarships from instate out of state public and private schools. Um we also have a few seniors

055who apply to HB.CU. Some acceptances are Morgan State and state. So that's very exciting. And some of the career pathways that they're looking to to major in the >> I'm sorry I'm really not meant for this job. Some of the things that they were interested in pursuing in college are things like business marketing, nursing, engineering, um graphic design and art, economics, psychology, and sociology. And I was able to get in touch with some of our alumni and they're doing really well in college right now, especially um the ones that I've worked closest to the past um three years. Um it's just really nice to watch them really thrive in a school setting in a college setting. If you can go back to the last one, please. >> This one. Is this the right one? >>

056The one before. The one before. >> This one. Got it. >> Oh, yes. This one. So, we are sending nine um fifth grader to CMS. They look ready. They seem ready. They somewhat confident. Um I look forward to the tour. Um I my biggest wish is that we could do a shadow day. Um, I'm I'm saying it here so everyone else can hear my thoughts. I wish that we could do a shadow day where we could send our fifth graders to CMS for at least a half a day to be paired with a sixth grader to see what the schedule look like, what it's like to go up and down the stairs, figure out your figure out your schedule, your location, get familiar with the building because I find this year a lot of our

057sixth graders were kind of nervous. It was it was a big experience especially the um the CMS building the new building it's huge. I get lost still in that building and sometimes in the beginning of the year it was a little bit challenging for the for the students and also to the independence for students um who are in programming when they're in elementary school. Some of them they have one-on-one support they always have an adult with them and in the middle school it's lessened. So these kids would benefit from having a day that they shadow um with student at CMS to help them ease into transition in the fall. And we have nine um eighth graders going to CCHS um learning and I am very confident that they are um they will be okay and

058we um we are meeting parents now and we're going to schedule those to start talking about what is what that's going to look like for them from the next >> am I No, >> that's fine. And um one of my favorite thing um Michelle kind of um touched a little bit on that is how parents now they are taking the lead and supporting us and it's making it so much easier when we have um when we have those support. We have Tamara here who um created this beautiful mural for us for Black History Month. That was the second time she did um she did it last year and this year and she surprises me every time she does it. And it's still there by the way because we love it so much. Like I was

059going to take it down today. Somebody inside. So hopefully um we'll be able to take it down without and also they got together. Um there's a group chat going on uh and um the nation came together and they closed um February with a beautiful um lunch for staff. Um that was amazing. Um and also they donated books um for the library that was um with written by black authors um and also they um donated funds to the AR PTG. And we do have two uh MECO reps from um each of our um buildings which is amazing because we've been talking about MECO parents having a voice and the decisions that the PTGs are making especially with dates of activities because sometimes they would schedule things 5:00 um which is too close um to the time

060of the bus stop. So the students will be getting off the bus, getting back to conquer. It's it's difficult. Um some activities needed to be done on Wednesdays um because the kids get out of school earlier so parents um can get them to um back to conquer and also now um we thank you Dr. Hunter for approving this. Um now we she approved that we can have staff helping us hosting kids to stay >> um when we have event like events like this but the students we um sometimes um volunteer with me to stay with the student um until their parents get to hunger. So um I do thank um the parents for all the works that we are doing and also um giving their time to support us. The last one is um so

061how we close Black History Month. Um we had a beautiful presentation at um the middle school. Um they had a a short film about um Helen Garrison which is um the name of the person the building um is named after. And also we had um one of our seventh grader J who is um one of the playbook leaders. She was there. She had questions for them which was nice um to see that you know they are acknowledging um black history conquered and also allowing our kids to have a say in you know and their experience as well as black and brown students. And um and also we had the lunch and thank you for that one. Let's move on to the next. >> Oh, and also can I just add our BSU where Mark went

062um but oh yeah, our BSU um celebrated Black History Month with the BSUs from A Foxboro and Wakefield >> and Wakefield. Um they got together one afternoon to celebrate community. They did a hoot together. They gave it to her school. So it was really nice to see. You had almost 40 kids I want to say. >> Yeah. And we were still texting with them. They were going to come to the multip but because of the film. >> So it's really all about celebrating friendships, creating those connections, celebrating his together. >> And also um I want to thank the the families. Um I can't name all of you, but those who were the who actively um donated their time. I don't want them to not know how much I appreciate them. Erica, Erica is on WB

063all the time. Tomorrow, she's her and Michelle are my goto people. I'm sometimes I have to tell myself I fall in too much because they're the mobilizers. And we have Tena who is who's been leading the Meco family friends for over a decade. um she's still doing it. Although she didn't have kids at the CMS building, she's still leading it. Um finally next year, her daughter is moving up. I appreciate you guys so much for all you do. And Kendra, who um she's new um she has a kindergarten student this year and she was the first person to reach out to say, "Yes, I want to be a medical rep for the BTG." And lastly, it's not a parent, it's a student, Kayn, who is here. Stand up so everybody can see >> who um

064acted in the Frozen Junior uh which the kid the kindergarten first graders are still talking about. So, um, she needs to be recognized and also gradually reward the stage and everything behind the scenes. So, thank you guys for everything you do. Thank you for listening. >> Yeah, I was just going to follow up with a couple of comments. One is com we were talking about um the numbers and how we continue to bring kids in. We accepted a fourth grade yesterday. So, we're we're working at it. We're trying to it's we're trying to strategize the best way to do it. That's the short answer. Um and just, you know, we're celebrating an awful lot. And I think to support uh Candace's dichotomy like there's still some really hard things. I was on a meeting this

065week with all the superintendents and Candace with the Department of Elementary second about special education. We're always talking about transportation. We're always talking about in belonging and inclusion. So, I don't want the joy tonight to not have that other part of we have work to do. We know that. Um we want to keep the numbers up. We want to keep people as engaged as possible. We want kids to feel really welcome and that they're part of a community that really values them and um wants them there. And we know some days that's amazing and other days it's not as great. So, um I'm just so excited so many of you came out um and get to spend some time with you. um you know, at least in a I know you're there and I'm here,

066but at least we're in the same space together and um really get to talk on where we are as a program because those of you are veterans and I see a few of you in the room. We've had a journey here. Um yeah, I know. So, it's good to touch base on where we are now. >> Thank you. And just something on that sale is that um we're also working on creating opportunities for conquer and car students to come to Boston to um do their community service or um just experience what you know what Boston has to offer. Um I know Jayla's gone through my program. I run a youth program here in Boston. Jayla's gone through my program um and another conquer student has gone my program now. So those opportunities are always there

067and I've um I've worked with in the past just to get that out. Um, but it's open to confident and Carl comes as well. >> Thank you. Uh, Michael's online. Looks like you have your hand up. >> Thank you. Um, two questions and one comment. Uh, the slide pack uh, Meenthy that Melen put together. Can we have that as part of our package so we can refer to it later and keep an eye on that? And if Meenthy uh, Dr. Hunter, Andre or Solange, could they comment to what have you seen in progress over your tenure um with with respect to our our MECO families, our MECO students, our schools and and finally the comment that I have is that um spent a lot of time 33 years in conquered but particularly over the past

068uh two years want to make it clear that there's a a wellspring of support in our community for our communities being joined and working together to support our communities. So, I want our families in Boston to know that I I I personally have experienced that. I personally heard the concern that our concordinions have for your families, for your children to make certain that this is a welcoming space. So I wanted to make certain that we made that clear and the partnership that I have with both Aisha and Michelle has been paramount. It has been magnificent and the three of us together working with our school committee and our colleagues and our superintendent and our administration. We want to make this a successful relationship for all of us. So that's my comment and if you can

069speak to the questions I have, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. um for for a first year medical director, I'm going to speak on the half of the year that I've been here. The progress that um I'm having a great year. Can I say this? I'm having a great year. I'm having a lot of support from district admin, principles, um teachers, parents, from all um all kinds all kinds of people. And even you too, Mr. Michael. You was so I was very, you know, I appreciated you came and met me and and provided some support and gave me a phone number if I had any questions, any support I needed. That was really um meaningful to me to have so much support. And also um from the elementary school um point of view, the EL curriculum,

070I I can't I can't say enough about it. uh walking into a classroom to see the students engagement, it's it's amazing. And the content of that curriculum um you see um the students are reading stories about um characters that look like them. Um for example, they were reading um Ezra Ezra the Rising. They have questions they engage in and and it was amazing. She a little girl pointed, "Oh, she's like me." So, they picking up on that. Even the first graders, they are picking up on on characters like this and the engagement they have. um the opportunity to um give feedback and talk to um each other having small group discussions among themselves and the support that the teachers are receiving as well. Yesterday they had a coach come in um and teach the teachers

071how to perfect the the the curriculum itself. So that to me is progress in our student are learning um in my book success look different than um for each for each person because I see a student making progress although it may look like they're not compare in comparison we're not I don't want to compare anybody to another because each student have their own abilities Um, and I see the progress individual. Um, the students are making progress based on their abilities and what we know they can do. And we pushing them a little bit further and a little bit further. And I'm looking forward to see the end of the year, even next year when this is not their first year anymore, how well they're going to do. And I have high hope for that because

072I'm seeing it happening before my eyes. and from the middle school um having uh my partner in crime there Mr. Thomas who is there every single day and who is the first point of contact to see how hands-on he is with the students and having the admin team collaborating with me um with us um when he needs support it's it's it's progress so far we make we moving we're moving forward and we're not stagnant >> and I'll just also add that we've had such a positive trend in parent engagement as well this year that I've noticed which was a big shift from um last year when I was interim director to this year like even tonight I have half of my freshman parents who are here which is so amazing um and I think just

073having that parent support also helps a lot with my role and also with the kids and making sure that they get what they need >> um any other questions or comments from committee >> I just had a quick question you mentioned in the presentation that you had nine students who will be moving from fifth to sixth and nine students moving to eth to nth I was just wondering What is typical? Is it usually 100% of the cohort? Is it a smaller percentage? What are what do the trends tend to be in terms of moving from >> or maybe numbers of students? Is that typical number of students? Yeah. >> Um yes, that's the typical student, but we usually enroll 12 students, but since I started four years ago, it's been nine student cohorts. >> Okay.

074I think naturally from the eighth to n transition especially we sometimes naturally lose kids to like private schools or first or seven different locations like Boston. So that's why >> okay >> I'm just blown away. I I've heard like six different examples of um and extra pronounced in the mentor community of of student student agency. So, students mentoring other students, students taking leadership roles as you described, um working with other student leaders, um mentoring down for younger students that come up, and you know, we have the programs that we talked about at dinner. It's just unofficial stuff going on. So, I I think, you know, grown-ups can only take kids so far. So, having your peers kind of go that extra mile is is awesome to hear. So, um we certainly I went to CC,

075we did not have that. So, it's awesome to see. Yes, Michelle. >> Um, and I just want to say to piggy back on what Andrew just said, these MECO students are doing that with an incredibly long day, you know, so that that feeds a lot into, you know, the the stress and the pressure of of education in general and mentoring and activities. I mean, these kids are superstars. And then to be being honored and given awards is such a huge accomplishment because it is no easy feat for any kid to just go through K through 12. But to do it while you're taking an extra two and a half hours on a bus every day and you know getting home when it's dark out like that that's incredible. So you know any kid that got

076an award tonight should be incredibly proud of themselves. >> Great. Um so thank you so much for joining us. It really has been great to see the team that's been built here because I feel like this has been in process for a couple years now and I feel like now we have the right team in place here between conquered Carla and Boston. So I just really appreciate the work that you do and it does take you know it sounds so corny and cheesy to say it takes a village but it really does and it's all of us are part of that. So we look forward to your partnership and certainly if you need anything if there's any additional resources we're the place to have it. You have excellent spokesman over here um with Aisha and

077Michelle. You know, I I think about you, Candace, how you started Weston Mecca. Weston um their PTO was they were the first to have Mecca reps on their school committee. We were one of four districts, but I don't know if more districts are coming on, but it really has been invaluable having you guys with us. So, so thank you for all of your support and thanks to the parents and the kids out there. Um we couldn't do it without you. And and I will say we have we do have some more business to do our meeting. We're not offended if anybody leaves at any point. You can certainly stay. We've moved our public comment to the end. So I should have said at the beginning of the meeting that the Croc Center closes at 8,

078which I think everybody knows. So we'll close up at like 10 of 8. Um just to make sure we get the room reset. So if you have to leave at any point, you may leave. Uh but if you'd like to say, we'd love to have you. >> Okay. So thank you. >> Take Oh, and take pizza with you. Yeah. Everybody take See you. for Michael. >> We can hear you, Tracy. There's >> too much Todd >> Candace better love them all. Good night. Wait, I can't see it. >> No. >> Can you see it? Nice. Goodbye. We grew up together. All right. Thank you. So I go looking for something. Well, that's you know Yes. Okay. All right. We are going to reconvene. So, if you're um if you're still in the room, can we

079ask you to chat outside the room? We're just going to finish our meeting. Um but thank you so much for coming. All right. >> All right. Let's see where we're at. Okay. Michael and Sep, can you guys hear us? >> Okay, we're good. All right, we got the thumbs up. I hope you liked my little note on the owl that you did see my note. I had so >> That was brilliant. >> All right. Okay, let me see where. Okay, copies. On to coffees. So we are having um a conquer car a conquer coffee a carell coffee a Boston coffee and sand deepep I think you're going to have a virtual coffee >> yes so I I think I sent you a note about that uh but but yeah happy to get that schedule >>

080okay so um in terms of coffees basically we can have two members at every coffee so I think it might be in our best interest to kind of pick which coffee you want to be at Um because we anything more than two well if we have three conquered members it's forum we can have two carinal members plus a conquered member like the math gets a little bit tricky so um Sandep your virtual copy do you have a date scheduled because yours is like the easiest because it's virtual >> right so so that's I guess my my emailed you that's what the question was is there any particular date we want to hold it or is it just my availability >> your availability because it's going to be your copy Perfect. >> So, so I I

081I'll make it more than just mine. I'll send out doodle poll to just the committee members. So, hopefully one of the committee member can be there. So, it's not just my show. >> Okay. Oh, yes, definitely. So, it'll be at least two members. Um Michelle and I go to as many coffees as you'd like because we won't have forum issues. It's really just a forum issue. So, if you want to get your date out there, Michael, it looks like you have your hand up. >> I'm sorry. One more. you. >> Yeah. One more thing. So, the the the the Zoom link, um I'm I'm assuming Lori will get that created or do you do I have to, you know, I guess have a Zoom meeting created? >> Yes. Email email me and Aaron and we'll

082figure it out with you. >> All right. Perfect. >> Michael. >> Yes. Uh Carrie and I will be doing a coffee together. The tenative date is April 3rd at the Fowler from 1 to 3. Perfect. One to three and >> question. >> Go ahead. >> Is it already booked? >> Uh Carrie has the date and the time. So that's already coordinated. At least we we uh put that together I guess last week. Um the question I have is um well this is two-way are we going to general format are we going to prepare an agenda um of of things to start with or topics that uh you'd like us to bring to the community in addition to listening what they want to bring. So typically what we've done at our coffees is just it's been

083very open-ended just generally um you know what's on people's minds but I think it might it might be in our best interest to talk about some things that we could talk about like cell phone policy that could be something but the trick is >> I thought exactly >> it's it's deliberation. So, so that's the only thing I would just caution. As long as it's not deliberation, um I think that you can just leave it pretty much open-ended to items that have been on our agenda or any communities looking to learn more about. >> Okay. Um Carle >> so yeah we are looking at May 6th at Kimbles one maybe once three do that same time frame >> okay so >> the choice in car right now is Kimbles or like a room in town hall

084and I think may actually get >> is more fun >> get people >> is the place the Yes. >> And that's May you the date was May >> May 6th. Thank you. >> Yep. Yeah. And then are you sure Michelle? >> Can we do May 1st? >> Yeah. Anytime you want. >> May 1. And what time are you? >> What day of the week is that? >> It's Friday. >> Friday. >> No. 11. We'll do it at 11. >> And you can also like if you want to decide on the time as we get closer, like if something comes up, it's totally fine. But at least if I feel like we have dates scheduled, we've got a shot at it and then we can publicize it and maybe you can send them out in your

085district bulletin once we have them all set. >> Yes. Okay, no problem. And social media and all of that. So once >> social media and we could put it in the bridge. That's the other option that um that we can put on the calendar page. So, Sand Deep, when you have your date, will you just let me know? >> We'll do. >> Great. All right. All right. Good. Thank you. Um, and then we have an update on our regional budget is next. So, I'm going to turn it over to Bob. Um, tonight we will be voting the regional budget. And so, Bob's going to give us the latest and greatest high school budget. >> I just I'm just gonna open up with context. So, we've talked um about the changes in estimates that we've gotten

086on health insurance and state aid at the region. So, that's allowing us to consider a reduction which initially came at the request of Carlile given a 9% increase. Certainly, Congress is not opposed to a reduction. Um some other things have come up in the throws of the last couple of weeks about capital and oped. So, we need to talk about that tonight, which probably also might have some impact on the final maybe not the number, but the way we present it. So, I just wanted to give you the moving pieces of what's been on the discussion board. Bob, we'll take it from there. >> And Bob, just before you start, so tomorrow night is in Chrome hearing. Now, there is going to be some weather tomorrow night. >> Yes, we're >> I'm not sure what's

087going to happen. So, it might be on Zoom. Um, we might have a Zoom possibility. And you do not need to attend. Lori and Bob will go. Are you going to go? >> I will be at least on Zoom. >> On Zoom. I will probably also be on Zoom because there might also be a state championship hockey game tomorrow night. Same. So, I'm hoping that we're going to be on Zoom. >> All right. Go ahead. >> Um, okay. So, and just one point on tomorrow night. I mean, these this budget for the region is being presented tonight. We've already sent them the slide decks for tomorrow night a while ago. I don't know that we're going to have a new CCRSD slide deck for tomorrow night so we can talk about what we should be

088presenting. This is >> We could we could verbally update it if that's what >> Yeah. And we have the slide deck. We had the slide deck in December. It's in everybody's packet for this week. So you should have the line item budget, the slide deck, and then this is an update. >> And just to clarify, we gave I sent you a new slide deck earlier this slide decks earlier this week that are now in town meeting ready and will be used at the public hearing. Yes. a little different than the ones you've seen. Not a lot, but to Bob's point, I don't know if we'll turn those slides into something different, whatever you do tonight, but we can verbally update people in conquered tomorrow. >> Thanks. >> So, I mean, as Dr. Hunter mentioned, we've

089um we're asked by the town of Caral to look at our budget. Um, two things became clear to us. Uh, first is revenue. We actually build our budget before the state begins its budget process. So, the revenue estimates that they come out with in late January, we don't have access to. um until after we built our budget. So, our first um update is to update our revenue budget for CCRSD and just line it up with what the state projections were. It's what's called the governor's budget um in the cherry sheet process. So, um it's kind of a key stage in the state budget process and we're we've aligned our revenues with that. In total, it's an increase of 90,000 265 and the yellow shaded uh section in the memo highlights what the changes are in

090the specific lines. So, that's the first item. Um, and that additional increase in revenue will serve to reduce the assessments to the towns. Um, the second change is something we previewed in a memo in February, early February. Um, and so I'm really just communicating here that, you know, the impact is 156,422. We're reducing our budget by that amount. The initial estimate we guidance we received from Maya which is the um is a pool of an insurance pool that a lot of municipalities and regional districts participated in. The initial estimate they provided for healthc care premium increases was around 12%. Um our final number ended up being 4.3%. Um which was fantastic news for us. Um >> explain why. I mean have not heard that. Well, we're we're we're a new member which we've had presumably

091that means to me they've shared the formula. They they basically means we have had favorable claims experience. So less claims that we would have expected for our premium levels. >> Um it's more a little bit more complicated because they take out large losses and they pull that across all of their customers. But in general it means we've had less claims than we would have expected. Um so um that's a significant reduction. Um so those are two that we had previewed with you in February and now we're um kind of locking them in. Um the third part is that we had presented a plan for funding our capital projects that involved putting um redirecting our OPED contribution of 375,000 and putting it into capital stabilization. Part of that was to fund FY27 capital projects. Part of

092it was also to fund um we know that we're going to need to replace the turf at Memorial Field likely in FY28. Um the feedback we got from um specifically from Carile, but I conquered this approach either was but Carlos was specific. They did not want to um preund uh via this method um of using capital stabilization. Um they would rather pay directly for the capital projects. So what we uh and and that's what we had presented when we presented this with them. We said this is not this is layer play. This is what we this is an approach for us to fund these things. We think it uh it avoids the towns having to fund it through a specific capital article. Um but we wanted their feedback and so we got their feedback. um

093with their feedback, we've decided to to peel back from that approach and instead just fund specifically the FY27 capital projects that we had previously presented to both towns in our capital plan and that is shown here. Um so this is our revised FY27 capital plan. I know it's a little bit smaller, but um so this list hasn't changed. The only thing I've done is take out projects that don't have anything in FY27 um that are future years. And I've also um taken one item out that was under 10,000 that we are going to fund by the operating budget instead of um through capital. Um in total it's 286,000. Um and there's a summary at the bottom budgeted by a little bit of a larger group of buckets, vehicles, building improvements, and grounds improvements. Um so

094that is an incre that previously hadn't been in our line item budget. Um what we are um proposing here tonight. Um we you know believe this meets the uh spirit of what the towns want us to do is to budget the capital specifically and then um in order to maintain a level assessment we've had approval of our overall assessment um is to reduce the oped by a corresponding 286,000 particularly to Carlile even though our regional budget you'll see on the next slides um it's under 2% it's under one and a half percent it's it's a really low increase, but with the shift in the student population. Um we've felt um and kind of the the request from Carlile was to try to find some ways on a one-time basis to help cushion them this year

095because their increase because of the student shift is 9%. Um even with us having a 1% increase in conquered is like negative one and a half%. Um so this will be an increase um of 286 for capital projects and a reduction of op of 286. And the next slide will show you um kind of what that looks like. So you had previously voted um this column here the the FY27 preliminary budget. These are the reductions. Um this fixed charges includes the reduction in health insurance. It also includes a $286,000 reduction in OPED contribution and the fixed assets here um includes the the capital projects I just showed you. So the overall budget decreases and this is the expenditure budget by 156,422. This does not factor in revenue. Um it's a 1.24% increase over uh last

096year. Um the other thing is we've typically um shown our budget in total probably going forward I think with capital projects we'll need to um present it a little bit um to separate cap c the capital from the operating budget. We end up we've been doing this historically at the end of our budget presentation but I think for simplicity it might make sense to just always have these um breakouts as part of our slides. The operating budget is up 1.21% 21% and capital is 1.58%. Um, big picture-wise, if you think about it, we haven't had many capital projects. Uh, it's a new high school. The only thing we've had in our capital assessment has been debt to date. Um, and so the way we've structured our debt is level principal declining interest. So, we have

097a steady decline in our debt service typically. Um this is the first year we've identified capital projects uh that we need to uh incorporate and that's why uh the capital is increasing by 1.58%. Still the total is 1.24%. I don't think I'd be surprised if there's more than more than the districts I can count on one hand that have less than that. Um this is what's voted on this section here. Um however I think the towns are interested in the assessments. So I've showed that afterwards. The assessments are a product of the budget in the regional agreement. They're not something you'd specifically vote on, but um but this is the budget that we'll ask for a vote on. Um and then these are the assessments. So these assessments um are actually u they show a

098um further reduction than you saw on the previous slides because it factors in the $95,000 increase in revenue uh which offsets what the taxpayers need to pay. Um so the overall uh assessment increase um total operating capital together is um well it's negative 1.47% for conquered it's 8.62% 62% for Carlilele. Then if we break out um operating here, you can see operating and then on the bottom you can see capital um of the capital um of the debt in capital um I've just listed at the bottom what what the comic group and carile portions are. Um in case I I think that might be of interest to the towns. They may fund that um through free cash. So, um, a lot of moving parts. Um, there's a lot of detail. The information I shared is

099information I think the towns will be looking for and I wanted to be clear to people. So, there's a little bit more detail here. Um, and some of it's repeating things that we've seen before on the healthcare and the revenue, but I just wanted to have you all all the information in one place. Um, and that's it unless there's any questions. >> All right. Any questions from Mike Lawrence Sandep online? >> Yes, question. Question. Um, I recall the request and in fact I had it in my folder here from Carile for the $100,000 consideration which would be $400,000. Where does that figure into this or does it Bob, could you speak to that? >> Uh, I I can I have it in a memo, but I I >> I don't know if I was going

100to be exact, but I think we came in at approximately a $267,000 reduction to Carlile. >> Okay. >> Um, no, I'm sorry. I should say that, not to Carile. 62,000 to Carile. 267 towards the 400,000. >> Okay. that in order to attain a $100,000 reduction for Carla, we would have needed to cut 400,000. >> 400,000. Yeah. Yeah. >> So, we ended up cutting 267. Well, not necessarily cutting the revenue was an increase, but 267 is the net reduction of the assessment. Um, and Carlile share is $62,67. So, um, they're close. >> And that was mostly insurance, right? >> Mostly insurance. Well, yeah. Two/3s insurance, one third uh uh revenue. >> Yeah. >> And Brian Waters has been leazisoning with Carl. So, they've been up to date all through this. Michael. >> Yeah. >> Michael, we

101yesterday Bob Lori and I gave the chair of Carlile fin a preview of this because they're meeting actually right now. Um >> and the Carile chair, my take on it was um you know, he was appreciative of the efforts that we made. Um, also, especially as we reook at how we're handling the capital piece, um, it was a very positive conversation yesterday. Um, obviously we're voting on this tonight. They're having their conversations. I will sync with them as soon as I can later on in this week, but we've had a very open dialogue uh, this budget season. >> Excellent. Yeah, I I I wanted to understand uh how uh how this was going to be received in Carlile. >> Yeah, I think another product of these conversations um both conquered and carile is we need

102to establish a capital process for the high for the region um when we're not in the thick of it. So, we're we're hoping to do that, I think, sometime this summer and really develop how it's going to work so both communities are in agreement. We know how to present it because that is what we got caught in a little bit of that of trying to present it without an agreed upon plan. So, >> I set a calendar reminder for myself June 29th to start the scheduling process. and I think that's been hugely helpful even on the conference side because we do a summer meeting with conquered pincom leadership and that will continue. So I feel like to move that to have a meeting with conquered leadership and car leadership be really important especially talking capital.

103>> Yeah. And then we haven't really had the need for it until the last couple years because we've only had debt service and that's just it is what it is. You budget it. It's um it's a specific debt schedule but it's come up with the amenities building. there was more complexities with that beyond budget. Um, and and now it's it's come up with this. Um, and you know, the reality is that the fincom might not agree within themselves. The select board might not or the fincom and select board might agree or the two towns might not agree. And I think we need we feel like we need representatives instead of going and presenting something and getting four different pieces of feedback. We need to have like a representative from each group at the meeting to

104come up with like our plan. So when we present, we don't care how we present it that we'll we'll just meet what our agreed upon guidelines are. Um but so this year we you know floated a method it didn't you know we got some feedback but we became clear to us that uh we need that participation and feedback from these groups all together instead of separately. Um, and then just last, I think I said it in February's meeting as well, but I want to thank Bob and Lori for just working with Carile and being available to answer questions. Um, it's uh, every year feels unusual in the budget process, but this year feels particularly unusual with uh, so many things going on in that town. >> Any other questions for Bob before we vote? Um

105>> um so I will move that the Conquer Carl Regional School Committee votes to approve the adjustments to the FY27 budget as presented tonight. >> Second. >> Okay. Roll call. >> I Morano I >> Wat I. >> Williams I. >> All right. Perfect. Okay. I'm just giving everyone a time check. It's 7:34. We're definitely not going to get through everything on our agenda um because we will close this meeting up at 7:50. All right. Next up is policy. >> Do we need to reorder anything? I think we're good. >> Let's go. >> Uh we're going to do our votes first because it's policy and we're just we're just going to keep going. I think we just keep going for now. Um so we have second reading of policies. We have three policies that we saw

106at our last meeting. We have GB EBC, GB uh nope, sorry, GBBC, JIE, sorry, my eyes can't read them. JJ, so I couldn't read it in the glasses. And KVE. So those are the three policies you have. We saw them at our last month. Does anyone have any comments or questions about these policies? >> Okay. So I would entertain a motion. I move that. Do you want this to be >> Why do you read? I think you read the policies. Sorry. Go ahead. >> So close. >> I move that we approve the revisions to policies GB EBC, JJ E, and KB. >> Second. >> Okay. And any further discussion? All right. We'll take it to a vote. Roll call. >> I. Morano. I >> Hardy I >> Wat I >> Williams I >> Okay and

107just for Michael and Sandep online there's like a little delay in the Zoom so we're waiting for it but we're just enjoying the delay in the room. Sorry. Um okay next up our school committee representatives to bargain. So we have two um as you know Sandep and I are bargaining with um our educational support professionals right now. So, we need two representatives, one for K12 maintenance. So, we do need to have we do need to have a car loan number. >> You don't have to. >> We don't have to. We need two regional members. I'll say no pressure, Carlo. Um, one for K12 maintenance and one for K12 admin assistance. Can I >> Can I ask for two so that if the p if one person can't come, we can still hold a schedule? >>

108Yes. and I did the admin assistance last time. I'm happy to continue with that if someone would like to join me on administ. >> Can I just ask for both of these? What does the time commitment and temper look like? Like how many meetings does it have to be? I know you'll never know for sure, but >> I would say admin assistance um maybe like >> a few three or four and maintenance >> a couple a couple >> maybe. Okay. >> And these have to be after their work days. So they're generally late afternoon. >> Tracy, I'll do it. >> Which one will you do, Andrew? >> Whatever. >> Okay. Andrew is a volunteer. Anyone else? >> I I'll do one. >> All right. Great. Sandi and Lynette. Okay. >> Does Carrie want to do

109one? >> Um, we can check with her. I'll check with her after. >> She has a ton of She has a ton of experience. >> Well, she's going to roll off. That's going to be a problem probably in the middle of it because we will receat conquered at the first meeting after town meeting. >> Okay. >> So, we probably won't be finished. >> Yeah. >> Did you pick which which committee? >> Um, we did not pick who wants to do what do you guys have. Do you guys have any preferences? Okay. So, maybe offline we'll just we'll slot people in. I'll do admin assistance only because I did that last time. Um, all right. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right, moving on. Um, school committee handbook. This is going to be really quick. I

110went to a learning lunch with Alicia Min um on handbooks and so we talked about our chairs round table too. So I am going to attempt to overhaul our current handbook. We haven't looked at it and I don't know five years. So the handbook, the school planning handbook is basically all of our policies in one place. So it's really not much outside of policies. It's your policies, it's your protocols, and goals are not in there because goals we do every year. So, um, I am undertaking that little project. It's going to take some time. I figured, you know, I have one more year left. I might as well take on an at home project. If anybody would like to join me in looking at it, I definitely would. I might have heard that Carlos looking

111at their handbook from Brian. Um, I don't know that we so much have a handbook, but we're looking at how we onboard people, which should turn into a handbook. >> Um, it's actually one of our goals of the of this year. >> Okay. >> Um, so there's some synergy there. I'd be happy to work with you on it. >> Okay. And we have talked about it at the chair's round table and and the chairs are really excited about looking at handbooks. So, not many people have them. Um, and as long as you have your protocols, a lot of a lot of schools just look at protocols, but we just thought it'd be a good project to undertake. Could be a summer project. I'm not really sure. But >> what is the per what is the

112purpose of having just a north start? >> Um, so when new members come on, they have a place to start. So you can say I mean usually typically what I do is I send what we currently have for a handbook and then I send all the links of the policies you want and we have that 30 60 90day document. Fit Alicia did also like it our lonely lunch. Um, so you have like a starting point. It's really for a new member on boarding. So I figured my last thing to do before I leave will do that. >> So no third term. Okay. >> No third term. Nope. Nope. You heard? >> Okay. So that's it on school planning. Any questions on that? Nope. Okay. Um, bias and heat incident working group. Sundy. So I was

113actually not at the last um bias and hasten working group uh since I was on travel but uh I I I can summarize uh um I guess the the the main discussion points it it's centered mostly around uh the um I guess categories of bias that the form should have the most school relevant topic that came up and this has been a recurring theme is to make sure that the uh information collected did in the school system uh and and that of the town is there is coordination of some kind. Uh what that coordination looks like uh I think we'll need to discuss a little deeper. >> And I did put um Sandep's leaison reports into the drive. So you should have all of those. And I was like Sundep you're so timely. And you

114even said that you watched the recording. So good for you. >> Yes. Watch recording at time and a half speed. So it goes fast. Okay. All right. Anyone have any um questions, comments? I >> think Michael has his hand raised. >> Yes. Uh we I'm grateful that this uh item got added to the U agenda. >> I I have one question though. Um I think it's important in fact vital that we regularly get input from the um bias hate incident reporting work group. But I think more important for our our work is that we don't simply look at that information but as the sled board does looking at the town looks at our own house. So uh two things I might suggest uh consideration for this one that we change the name from bias and

115hate incident reporting world group to just do a bias assessment assessment uh including information from the bias and hate incident reporting world group but the bias assessment would be about our schools not just the high school and this is at the regional level but also at our our elementary and middle schools. So keep this item but change its title to look at our responsibilities and have it informed by information coming from the from the uh bias incident incident reporting working group. And mind you also the biasate incident reporting work group has an end date. It's going to be completed once their work is done. So I I would ask us to consider that we look at this item as an item for us to look at our house and assess our house as it is

116also supported by information coming from what the select borders give select boarders charge the bias in incident reporting work group. I think again grateful that this item's on the agenda, but to make and regularly on the agenda, but to make it something that is more responsive to our school's needs. >> Thanks. Good feedback. Um, and the other thing, Michael, that might go on there, we Michael and I are on Conquered United. So, we have a meeting on I think is it Monday? >> Yes, >> Monday. So, we have a meeting on Monday. >> I think it's >> Let me pull it up. Let me check. Give me a sec. Let me check. >> Yeah. >> Uh, yes. Uh, on the 9th. Only the 9th. >> It's on the 9th. So, um, and that includes the

117superintendent, the chief of police, the town manager, the DEI commission co-chairs. So, maybe that some of And Andrew, sorry, Andrew. And Andrew, you >> he had it home. Yeah, >> he had all right. And Andrew is also on it with us. So um that might be a place that that that could slide in on the agenda too under that kind of under that title. So >> again the the the reason I I make the suggestion is that certainly the bias incident reporting group certainly conquered United information gleaned there can better inform us. But the the title change and the focus change is that this this this this conversation is about us and what's going on in our house and informed by information from both those other both those other sites. As the select board looks

118at bias and hate from the perspective of the select board for the town, so should so too should we look at the issues of bias and hate from the perspective of our schools as informed by that other information. That's the suggestion I would make. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? >> Just one thing. Yeah. Um just for the advice and hate um just because we've had so many incidents over the past months um we've been working with I've been working with um one of the state reps and a senator to um gather some speakers that can come out to conquer whether they present to conquer as a community or to the school um we can work on that just so we can great >> that sounds that sounds perfect. >> Yeah. Okay. All

119right. Um, okay. The last item on the agenda is, and I really apologize to people that have been waiting for this item, is the cell phone policy survey. So, I've shared with the school committee um a survey that everyone should have. Should I share my screen? Okay. So, I the school committee has it. So, I just want to have um just a couple minutes on the cell phone survey. We're really looking for feedback from parents on cell phone um bell-to-bell policy in our schools. So K to8 we have a bell-to-bell policy just for those of you that are joining us. Um and the bell-to-bell policy means that students do not use their phones during the day at all. They're out and away. So I had asked the school for feedback on the survey and I

120heard from Sadep and Michelle. So, do you want to just talk about your feedback so we can try and incorporate all of this into the survey? Sure. Go ahead, Michelle. >> So, I just had one one item and it was under the question, what kind of communication is most important for students to be able to access during the school day? check all that apply. And I felt that we should include one of the um options to choose as um apps that the school uses because I heard Lori say in the past that >> the the high school students use apps to sign up for things. So >> maybe adding that as a selection. And >> do you have a list? >> There's two basic ones. So um you can get those to us and then

121we can include that. >> It's for flex block and checking in. >> Yeah. And and I think that the tricky part um with naming the apps, I think we should name the apps and then put like and others because as technology changes and things come up. >> Yeah, exactly. So that was that was a good catch right there. And Sep you had something too. >> Yeah, my account was mostly I think uh you know where you write things like beltto belt restriction what the other options are. I think it'll be good for level setting uh for you to just describe what you mean when you say bell to bell, what you mean when you say um you know away and out of side or whatever the different options are that we're considering. Uh because unless

122you're you're used to what the the CC's language is um you know it might be hard to understand what uh uh what that wording means. And and this is as the the parent of a middle school or an elementary school, right? I I wouldn't know what these mean. >> And even like when I was going through other surveys, some people were using bellto bell but describing that you could still use your phone during passing times and lunch >> which so we do have to define that. So that was also a really good hitch. >> Okay, Brian, did you have something? >> Um, so just one thing as I was going through it is I noticed you had um high school parents and I think it was K to8 parents. I don't have it pulled up,

123but some of the questions I felt wouldn't apply to K8 parents because they're not they're not in it yet and they they can't talk about well what is actually happening in the high school. >> Yeah. Um, so I don't know if we add logic to the form to um to redirect people, but I also think as a committee we like our focus personally is on the the parents who are in the thick of it right now. So I'm even wondering like for right now are we sending it to K to8 parents or you know the groups we need to hear from and I don't think we've heard from enough are the teachers >> are the students and are the high school parents and so um I just wonder if we focus the the audience a

124little bit more. >> Yeah. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? Michael >> I I agree. I talked to one I talked to a couple of teachers that um that said that some of their students use their phones like for activities in the class. So like for instance they do like a scavenger hunt around school and things like that. So think they would need their cell phone to do that take pictures or to be involved in activities. So um I think it would be good to serve the teachers as well. >> Yeah. >> Michael. >> Yes. Um I I think adding uh faculty and staff input to this I think is important. I I have I guess I have some question though whether uh we the survey should be just to high school uh families

125but to our school community because you know if we could just go to high school families there are eighth graders that will be high school family. There are we we we should be I I think to get a widest as possible uh response we should be talking to our school community as opposed to just the high school because actually quarter of them are going to be gone in a year. So, so I think to get a robust sense of how our community feels, we should have all the the the the uh oh, we should have dialogue one with our entire entire community. And that's why I think part of this would be the the back and forth uh conversation we have through our our u our um coffees. But for this survey that we should

126be looking at a wider group than just the high school parents. Uh secondly, as as I look at some of the questions, uh when you're putting out a survey, you want to try and make certain that the language of your survey doesn't bias, uh people want anywhere other than I think question five, um uh could be biasinducing and that you're sort of just focusing at at the bell to bell. Uh question six, u rather than looking at bell to bell and actually I don't have the survey directly up in front of me. I should pull it up. Um, looking at question six, rather than looking directly at uh, bill to bill as Sand Deep has suggested, have all the options available. And that would probably require you having a a a a uh, um, guide

127of, you know, bell to bell, out, off and away and off are accessible during passing time uh, through different formats. >> Yep. Yeah. Yeah. >> And um question eight, I believe. Um and I should have copied them down when I look. If you look at question eight, uh >> is it one of these? >> Yeah. Um next I think it's the next one after that. Yeah. Um that at least a lot of the reading I that I did in preparation for our our ultimate conversation sort of discounts some of those. I think you might want to look at the question uh or reframe the question um from the context of some of our our reading like u um believe I have give me a second. I know the the uh emergency responders um their national

128organization actually speaks against uh access having access to the uh students having access to phones in a um uh either shooter incident or emergency incident so that it doesn't block access of the first responders getting the information and the response. responses that they need to get out to the the their tactical and support people to respond. So, I might want to look at the questions a little bit more closer, but those are the only points that I have. >> Okay. So, it sounds like we need a little bit more discussion on the survey. Um, and I guess my my last thing is is should it I I actually I'll ask the question. Do we think this should be anonymous or we should put names on it? I I'm concerned that fill it out multiple times.

129Like I'm not sure. So >> that's the problem the select board had with their survey is people could fill it out as many times as they want. >> Right. >> I think I think anonymizing makes sense. Sorry. >> And we can do that without >> we can weed out similar sentiments. I I think what we need to capture is sentiments instead of just weighing it based on number of responses. Right. So um and and we we'll be able to do that fairly easily if you uh examine the content of the the responses. >> Okay. So um in light of the time at 7:54 and literally we need to be out of this building in six minutes or less. I'm going to put this on our agenda for April. We're going to further discussion. If you

130have any feedback or suggestions for questions, you can send it directly to me. So I'm going to give all of you homework. So any feedback that you have, send it to me and we will discuss that at our April meeting and we'll get the survey in better shape to send it out. Um I did talk about at the chairs round table too and they were the chairs that were in attendance were adamant that we should be getting feedback from our high school principles. They had done that. So, I'm going to ask Lori to get some feedback from the principles on the survey. Um, because the school is going to be the one that's going to administer it and we are welcome to feedback from our administrators. And I'll leave it at that. Does that sound

131good? >> Yeah. >> All right. So, more to come on that. We do not have time for public comment. If you are watching online and have public comment or if you're in the room and have public comment and you would like to make it, you can send us an email. We take all email as public comment. So my apologies. Um we just have a time constraint on the room. So with that uh I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> All right. And >> roll call. >> Iard I. >> Williams. Hi. >> All right. Thank everybody that came into Boston though to thank them for taking the effort to come in again showing the connection between our communities. Appreciate that. >> All right. Thank you.