Concord Carlisle Joint School Committee Meeting - May 13, 2025

001All right, I will call the conquered school committee to order. Um 602. Um so that is Michelle if you want. She is promoted. Okay, great. Um so we are starting with conquered this evening. We have um a few conquered specific CPS agenda items and then we will move into the region after that. Um Michelle is on Zoom and um everyone else is here. So we are going to start with the elementary literacy program adoption. Um do you want to open this or Yeah, I'll ceue it up. I'll queue it up while Shelley gets her slides up. Can you log in and screen? Sure. All right. Um, so you're seeing the culmination of a year's worth of work in a very short amount of time tonight. Um, back in the fall, we did some stepping back

002to where we were in the literacy world in K5. And through the work led by Shelley um the elementary principles and a number of teachers who served on a literacy committee we really realized there were options out there that we thought would be very beneficial and bring us into the researchbased world across all of tier one. We already have the phonetic and decoding pieces in place. This is really focused on the comprehension and in the literacy world right now it's called knowledge building and that's what the research is showing that um doing the work to build student background information levels the playing field and comprehension. It sounds so obvious when you say it like that. Um but what it does is really scaffold um content and build capacity so that when the independent reading really

003begins um it the kids are more set up for success. So we researched across three different programs um e lit and wisdom and fish tank and through Shellyley the literacy committee an unpaid volunteer committee of uh literacy specialists and classroom teachers across all three elementary schools they met monthly and dove into each of the three programs. uh a robust rubric was developed prior to looking at the program. So the agreed upon criteria was established and then the teachers spent asynchronous time going through materials that they had access to primarily virtually and electronically and then there were site visits to um other districts that are using the program. So they were able to go out to Northboro, Arlington, and uh Boston public school and really talk with teachers that are implementing at varying some one one

004school was five years into the program, another was a year or two in. So um we've talked a lot with our sistering districts and EL is the most common among districts like ours. um through the process that Shelley ran uh right after the break, a meeting was held and the teachers uh ranked programs and the committee uh unanimously chose EL that was by far the highest ranked program based on the rubric. So, we all feel really good about where we are and how we got here. Um I guess the last piece I'll offer and then she'll take it from there. We're planning two years of adoption for the fall. We've invited volunteers among the K5 teachers and she can get into the responses we've had which have been really positive. And then year two which

005will be 26 27 that's when everyone will need to become trained and start to implement. So that's the highle view. I'll let Shelley um she obviously sent you a lot of information so she's not going slide by slide um but she's got a few key talking points and then we thought this would be a discussion primarily. Yeah, let's get the slide deck up. Yeah, I'm going through a lot of what Dr. Hunter just shared. Um you do it in more detail a little bit than I do. we as you know um I'd say going to slide six just really to explain the why behind this it's really because of the science of reading there's a lot of research um DSI is expecting this in terms of high quality instructional materials our stakeholders are and um

006we do a lot of good work with across across the district and across the three elementary schools and the five big ideas behind science of reading is really these um the phmic awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension um and as Dr. Hunter shared the idea that how you build comprehension is not just based on skill building of strategies and just what's in front of you as the core text, but it gets into how do you build students knowledge um over time on a topic or an idea or a content area or something, right? It's not just an array of books and not just about the volume of reading you do. So that's just kind of the main point and the district has been working on this for several years. Um, and moving to slide seven,

007I would just want to just share this idea that some of the the work that the district was already doing before I even arrived was this core test called shifting the balance. and it talks about these shifts and practices um in structurally and just the philosophy behind reading and what that looks like as a tier one instruction. Um so PD was happening last school year and through this school year as we took on this endeavor and um just something to highlight at the bottom bullet point was just really this idea that not just students who read more are better readers but it's around that that alignment or building of both the um the encoding and the decoding we do again but that if you build a program that makes those that content and comprehension a

008core focus of it. You really see strength and growth in students. Um so like I said um DESIE is really pushing us and this is a statewide initiative as well as I would say across the nation you see this happening. Um, I would say of these four shifts that DESIE really has been pushing as an initiative, the one thing we were trying to make sure we were grounded in is the number two, shift number two, building the comprehension. We looked at and assessed internally. We definitely do shifts one, definitely shift three and shift four was like somewhat of a yes and no in terms of some definitely work but really about building alignment and coherence across all three grade levels. Uh I mean three buildings and then amongst the grade levels within the buildings. So

009really just about that districtwide when we think about students coming from conquered public schools, whichever elementary school, how will they be prepared and ready in terms of literacy and other skills as they move up into the middle school? Um so some of you have maybe heard of this study. It's talked about often um around how does comprehension get measured and why does content knowledge and building knowledge um a knowledge building curriculum support literacy development and it's essentially when you compare if someone knows about a topic like the baseball study they use like kids who already knew about baseball if you put a text in front of them and have them read it those who already know about baseball can comprehend it much better. Even if their literacy skills, even if they're still on the decoding

010and a what we would call maybe a struggling reader um with the phonics or some other components to literacy, they do stronger than those who have low background knowledge or content knowledge but high literacy decoding skills and some encoding. So we just wanted to put that out. There's another study as well that EEL shared with us too. So there's a couple studies behind this work. So it's important when we talk about equity and about diverse learners across our system that we know that they have different experiences, background knowledge. We want to say that everybody deserves to have that strong foundational knowledge um not just of literacy practice and skills but about content. So moving ahead, this is all a lot of the work we did and as Dr. Hunter shared we really get got started

011in this in late fall and this was not on our priority list July 1 August but we think through the work of the literacy specialists um our curriculum coordinator at the elementary level in ongoing conversations we did feel like this was the time to do this and not to wait a year out like that we could in some ways move this work forward quickly um and make some some highlevel decisions and make some priorities and commit to this and our teachers have really taken that on and I really do applaud them for making putting in the effort. Um, this is a big lift on teachers and we know that uh it's it's hard to to make those adjustments and adaptations to a core block during your instructional day. You know, at the elementary level, literacy

012is such a huge focus. So, it was paired down to three um programs, the ones you see up here, eel, fish tank, and witten wisdom. Um but at that point wit and wisdom was pairing down so we shifted to what's called arts and letters uh which is another program that great minds publishes. It's a new program that they are de um in the works developing and is ready to be published. Um so December was a time for them to look at other programs. So there's a couple others that they already filtered it down to these three three. This just tells you the whole timeline. We really tried to stay true to this timeline and be um the reason why this document is so long was we really wanted to be as transparent as possible about

013this process and keep teachers even if they may not be in the meetings and the the conversations um that this curriculum adoption committee was a part of that they could see the work that we were doing and also just share with any stakeholder just some of the work we've done along the way. So, it maps out as much as we can think at this time through fall 2027. And we then we got to this time of this review committee and as Dr. Hunter shared, they [Music] are volunteering their time. We wanted to make it meaningful and purposeful, but we also knew that this was going to be time that they had to spend independently. So we had four meetings collectively but there was a lot of independent work and some group work. So grade levels

014may work together and review curriculum and re review the three programs. So we drafted a rubric. We used like our own internal knowledge and core values of CPS of what we wanted in a program and what we know about our kids, what we value within the district about small group instruction and just holding on to the the work that we do that we want to continue to hold on to. But we also use science of reading materials and guides and rubrics and other resources to develop our own internal CPS evaluation rubric. Um, so that's what we did first. Here's just a quick list of who all the members were. On the lefth hand column were all the educators that participated in all of the four meetings. Um, many of those folks did participate in off-site

015visits to other districts that are in a few years with one of these programs or as close to it with Witten Wisdom and Arts and Letters. Uh we also had some folks who just volunteered to review materials and got some input from them just to review and see all three programs. These were meeting dates. We kept to it. We kept to the the timeline and the deadlines and we got it all done. It was definitely um a lot of anxiety about are we really going to be able to make a decision by the end of April and was it going to be one really close with another? Um, if you had asked me months ago, would we have picked EL education? I don't think that I I think that was the biggest surprise for me.

016Um, and I'll share why, you know, why I think this program was the one that did like rise to the top. Um, just quickly, we have a good number. I say these numbers are out of date now, but we've asked folks to tell us, are you interested in being a part of what we're calling cohort one, early adopters? And out of all the schools, Alco probably has about I'd say every grade level, every teacher, these numbers are not even exactly up to date from conversations we're continuing to have. Um, Willard is sticking with grades three and five and thorough is also predominantly in the adopt. Um, so what we anticipated as having two cohorts do um about a group of about 50 educators, which is about 50% of our staff across the three elementaryaries. We're

017closer to about 70 75 educators who are going to be trained in June. So, can I just comment? I think some of why you see the numbers fall the way they did, we really did encourage them to do this in a team at a grade level. So, like Willard really stuck to that and made choices on a team level. The other schools had a little more independent thinking on a couple of occasions, but um we're really pleased with where that is. whether it's two full grade levels or parts or most of other grade levels at the other schools, it's going to be a really strong year next year. And um even those not adopting are obviously going to be exposed and be part of the learning process. Yeah, we're already planning a lot of the

018professional learning and the support that we can provide. Um as Dr. Hunter shared. We just so you know at the top here when we talk about this power ruer these scores we we scored it. Um EL ranked out the other two in terms of that formal evaluation rubric. It was an average score of 69 compared to the others that were about 62. Then we talked about these power criteria. these idea of like what are the core values under conquer that we really want to commit to that stand out and so that's where EL even stood out stronger in terms of the averages of a score of three really strong evident to zero being not evident or just very weak. And so one of the things that one of the reasons why EEL came out on

019top was um this professional learning and how much support they could provide and how much we can invest with the folks who have developed this curriculum and can support us as all in this new process. And so then we did a rank order vote. And so this was the final meeting in our we prioritized and we gave a score. you prioritized, you know, essentially what was your top choice and you can see and then what was your second and what was your third choice and why. So you can see EL education um had the highest score as well. So all those in blue scored EEL as their first choice of the committee members and there's about 20 there was about 22 committee members. I think it's really important to remember all three programs are high

020quality instruction materials. So there wasn't a bad choice. It was really just sort of what fit best with us and our needs and our vision for it. Absolutely. And here's just a few quotes that folks shared about why and so on. Something really simple to share is you know um EL is the most engaging, cohesive and gives teachers agency to grow. Um the bottom quote is somewhat similar to that in this idea that you know we may not take on all of the programs options and resources and modules that they um they have like what's called a core module block and then um there's considered some added resources and materials and time if you have within your schedule. So we don't want to bite off more than we can chew, but the thing that teachers

021feel most is that it is a really strong rigorous program, but it allows teachers to grow with the diverse. We have such high performing kids too. Like we have to remember that some kids are reading at in 8th grade level and who are in fifth grade or whatever it might be. So that range in that level of differentiation can allow students to really flourish and grow no matter what literacy level they're at. Um, and this just really finally is just to share with you a little bit about what that program looks like. Um, Dr. Hunter and I and Allison Foresetter and some of the literacy specialists have already started talking about making sure that we have at least a webinar um in the fall with families um K through five families to let them know

022about the two-year process as well as what the curriculum looks like and know that it might look a little different in each classroom based on cohort one or cohort two, but it's essentially four modules. Um and all educators will be teaching module one from K through five who are in cohort one. It's a topic. It then aligns so that in any K classroom they'll be teaching this if you're in year one adoption. Um we are still keeping of course our foundations and he as our foundational skills building. So that doesn't change. Um, and this is just a link if anyone wants to see more of a general overview. But some also some other reasons why EEL was adopted and I think that demonstrates high quality rigor. It's really built on of course as we know

023the background and the content knowledge. It is a DESIE approved program. Um, it has authentic performance tasks. Um, EL education stands for expeditionary learning. So, it's really about that deeper learning, critical thinking, creativity, deep understanding and tasks and formal and diagnostic assessments throughout these modules. Um, so the writing is embedded in it. It's um the student output that educators saw in the other district that they observed. They were really amazed by the work, the level of engagement from students. Um, and also just to understand that this is what EEL calls a social justice as well as a character building. Seal has some components of SEAL and really thinks about human rights. There's a lot of topics as you see that are very um centered on the rights and offending different groups and people and just

024understanding the diverse perspectives of different cultures and backgrounds but also grounded in what kids know and what a kindergarten would want to learn about. So that's just the general info. um a lot more planning and work to do and but I think everybody's excited and even those if it wasn't their first choice I think they're turning around and you know it's it's getting to know it internalize it and get through the the challenges that come with obviously implementing any new program and just getting a feel for it and understanding the routines and structures. Just the last few final comments. Uh first and foremost, this will have us completely aligned with high quality materials in the K5 literacy program and that's all we're going to be using. So important for instructional purposes. We might still resurrect

025some of our other reading materials from other learning environments for free reading and independent reading, but not for instruction. So, I can't feel like I can't keep saying that enough because I know that's an important element to share with the community. Um, two, I think really important to say that this is how you close achievement gaps. Tier one is really important core curriculum. Um, kids who are not getting equal access to core instruction, which is what we've been doing through no one's fault, um, already are behind and we aren't closing gaps primarily because of that. So having a level playing field across core one where all kids no matter who their teacher is um receive the same decoding and phmic work plus the same comprehension work is going to matter significantly. I very confident in

026the research shows we will we will see some gaps closing just because it's almost the proactive approach right it's not just about intervention intervention and trying to close gaps while the curriculum goes on it's actually about a curriculum that provides the scaffold and the skills for all kids to succeed to start with um so I think those are two really big important factors here and I think number three the fact that all three schools are finally going to be on the same page for literacy um is really significant to us as a school system. Um, the middle school's been asking for a long time if kids could come in with common experiences and they could know the scope and sequence that we've been working off of and really know what experiences kids have had. And

027now we're going to be able to really easily share and communicate that which we've been talking a lot about transitions um with teachers and each other and just knowing you know a known curriculum is a huge starting point um to to really improving those processes. So, I think there's a lot of good and again not on our list of things to do this year and um teachers are really excited now as we close the year out and get ready to to get going on this. So, kudos to everyone involved that the energy sort of flowed from within and drove us in this direction. That's a question. So my takeaway on this is that we are we are going to have K to five across all three schools only three curriculums now which are Heggerty Foundations

028and this new one EL. So everything else that we've used in our suite will be tailored will be out and that will be immediate with no for or for the early adopters. Yep. The will commence in the fall. Yep. And for those that aren't in that early adoption phase, the year after the year after the year after um so then sort of building on that um I know professional development to like adopt these curriculums can sometimes be significant. When when will that occur for this early adoption group? One and two are there are there cost ramifications for that? Yeah, we've factored that in budgeted for we budgeted this. We did know that this was coming up in the fall. So in our budget planning, we've we've allocated. So that is included in it is in

029the budget you approved. In the meantime, the Prism grant has come out from the state. So we're certainly going to apply to see if we can get any monies from the state. Um every district we talked to is applying so I don't know how far the money will go. Um but we will apply. Um but the budget is sufficient to roll out this first round. So teachers will be trained over the summer and through the stipended stuff that we've budgeted. June 17th is that last day when teachers when school students are no longer here, they are opting into a full 6-hour PD day um for EL to come in. We've got that already ready to go. We're just mapping out this final details with the contract. We've got some planning and PD work happening now

030to support them on site in their buildings. Um there's admin PD, there's sort of implementation support for those who are the specialists, there's on the ground teacher support. So they think of the different levels throughout the school year. and we're just kind of mapping out the different times and when how that all happened. But they will definitely get the what they call the module launches, which is what then they start unpacking module one on June 17th. They'll continue a little bit of work over the summer to really just prep. A lot of it is just materials prep and knowing the text yourselves to make sure you're ready to go the next day for that next lesson. So that will be the summer work and then the ongoing continues through August through the school year. And

031then will there have to be a comparable investment made for next year's budget to cover this? So okay um it would be less. It actually turns out more teachers have opted in for the first year than the second. It'll be smaller. It will be a smaller cohort. Okay. It will be smaller the second year. Yeah. That wasn't what we anticipated. So then my I guess my next question, sorry I'm monopolizing. Um in terms of evaluating its success, what will we what what will you basically look at? Are we are we going to look at like star data, MCCAST, a combination of everything? Like what generally are the metrics that we're going to look at um to evaluate the curriculum and how long will like it be in an evaluative phase and if it stinks um

032are we like is this a trial? Is it a subscription base year-to-year or are we investing in this? No, we're investing in this. It's an open-source materials platform. So, we're investing in the copies of the materials because we're going to print them professionally and the texts themselves that the students read. So, that's what we're investing in. Um the PD, you always are investing in that, right? Um we're not calling this a pilot. Okay. Purposely didn't say that. We did this whole research work to pick a program um without doing a pilot. We've had a mixed experience with pilots in the last number of years. Um we actually feel really good about the choice. So I do anticipate success. It that said the first year like we're telling teachers just this afternoon. Will you get through

033all the modules? Will you have you know feel great after you do every lesson? Like so there's a there is a learning curve and there's an implementation phase before I think you can certainly start to watch the scores and see what you find. But I don't know that you could really assess evaluatively. Is it like two years, three years? Probably two to three years. Yeah. Two to three. Because the second year cohort, you will then see a larger group of people. Yeah. You will see um just students and the teachers being more comfortable with it and knowing the language behind it and then then them understanding the routines and structures of any new program. Um does this like align with star like how what we get evaluated in star? So so is that sort of

034the main area where you might see improvement so that we can ascertain the success or not? Okay. And just remember when you start a program and you drop a fourth grader into a program they've never been in before the realing. Yeah. it it can take a while to really see it all come together because there's, you know, things to even out there that maybe they haven't been exposed to. Yeah. On like on a similar note, the um when you when you were looking at these other districts like I think you said Newton, Arlington, and Boston, what um were what was their data like their turnaround data? I'm not expecting you to like know off the top of your head, but like did you get a sense from them on on how quickly they saw results?

035Arlington public schools was really what put I think one of the reasons why our teachers who visited Arlington public schools that transformed their thought on EL because they mostly saw the enthusiasm of kids. They saw the engagement. They saw the level of rigor that a student could do at even the kindergarten level of the writing demand on them. the conversation, the academic conversation and discourse that kindergarteners could have around not just text but about language. They call them language t target targets and language deep dives that this program does. Um so they were really just impressed with the classroom setup, the student engagement, the level of just again the output of what student work could do. And it's still a process around say MCCAST results um because Arlington for example is in year two you

036know like they're the teachers see the the dramatic change. It may not always show up in assessment scores right away but they do have made this commitment. Um and again we are in like districts right now. We just started having a conversation with Actton Boxboro, Weston Public Schools, Harvard public schools and Sbury public schools and possibly Belmont because they are all adopting e the 2025 version that we are Arlington adopted the 2017 version. Um and they're not changing um because they have to buy all new text sets and student materials. So they'd they're going to stick with the old one. This one is a is a modified updated they continue to update and really make it as teacher friendly and user friendly as possible. So I think we're just at a good time for this

037adoption and learning from our colleagues as well about what they're seeing in student outcomes too. And again, I think we're all in this same idea of a two to threeyear expectation of seeing some gains that um you know, like we know our MCCAST scores in ELA for the elementary level been somewhat flat like when we compare it to and we're still ninth in the state so that everybody's pretty flat, right? That's a statewide nationwide we know in terms of the lawn learning loss and um but there's I think a reason why the teachers chose this while they know it's rigorous and it's very dense um they see it as the highest potential and I think just really important to remember these are researchbased programs this isn't about whether conquered is going to succeed on it

038necessarily hopefully that we're going to live the research and see gains but these are all tried and tested and that there's data to back them all up. So, a lot of the pressure I think we feel is implementation and teacher confidence and fidelity to the program. I have a few questions. They probably go into like four different buckets. So, one um is in terms of PD, will that first cohort will all of their PD for the year be very targeted and will they be you know at the high school and flex blocks we say locked in. Will they be locked in to those PD? Yeah, we at the district level would say we've got our PD days which were formerly PD pass. Those are three and then we have three days that are districtwide grade

039level meetings at the K5 space. So, we're allocating those. We are targeting and talking about the schedule at each building and what grade level teen time they may need and then thinking about how the specialists support them and work with them to help with implementation. Some of the heavy lifting is some teachers want to just say let me just get dive into the book the teacher guide and I can I can work with this. Um some really want some of that. You know everybody's a little different in terms of support. So we want to make all of those available to them and that's where really e education as the primary kind of PD provider for this is really going to help us develop an imp implementation plan as well as the PD elements and supports

040that at that teacher level up through the building leader which also aligns to this idea of like what are our expected what will we consider success in year 1, year two, year three. They help us map that out and really look at look fors in the classroom and do learning walks and observations with EL to say what are some moves that the teachers really need to focus on to really get to the fidelity and also what they call the integrity of the program. It's not about following the exact script u but really being intentional with what those targets and it is a backwards designed model. So, it's really thinking about objectives and the big ideas and questions that uh students need to we're going to be laser focused on literacy next year at K5. Great.

041All right. So, the second bucket would be like materials and the purchase of materials. So, you're going to have a lot of printing costs and even like books and you're pretty much I mean I hate to say chucking almost everything but there's a lot of purchasing that needs to be done. Do you feel as though you've got all that budgeted for? Yep. We have some funding we're using to just get us started this for the June 17th because that's FY25. We have a little bit earmarked there that we can use some for the materials. We are going to phase those in um because most likely we may not get to module 4 in year 1. We are planning to purchase those for FY27 so that we've got the studentf facing and teacherf facing materials that

042we need all for next year for based on the numbers of classroom teachers in cohort one. Okay. Is is subscription not available? It's it is a onetime purchase. It's not really I would call subscription. It's essentially it is called an open source sourced platform. It's not. They have 2017 PDFs and modules, but it's all you log in, you download, and you would have to use your copier to make 20 prints, but then there's actual core authentic text sets of say Espiranza Rising for grade five. We are going to do an inventory of what we have, but then we need to order those actual book sets for every It's a really different purchasing model than we've seen any other program. Okay. So, we're not going to be stuck in like the version we buy per se.

043Yeah, we are in terms of the training when we think about getting teacher readiness and getting them prepared to teach a unit a whole module which has three units embedded in a whole module. um there's a lot of materials and resources and um the text sets that students need based on that module. So if we were to say shift or adapt, we would for example, that's why I act in Boxboro. They don't have the funds right now. They are really thinking about what are we going to do now that we're shifting to the 2025 because they already prepared two years ago for the 2017 which has a different somewhat similar modules and many of the same, but a lot of the text sets and things have been condensed. Teacher guides are a little different are

044different. So they're in a they're working as they go about how they're going to map this out. Yeah. We feel for it's fortuitous that they're updating right as we're about to get in this because that'll mean that another update probably will be years out years. Yeah. This would be Yeah. I don't think that there would be any major updates for another 5 to 10. I mean, what we were experiencing with the publishers, they're all updating as they go, as they get feedback. These are all really brand new researchbased programs that um you know, they're getting feedback from implementation and oh, that's way too much. We got to scale back. Oh, the manuals aren't user friendly. We're reworking those. We saw a lot of that and heard the there's always like a little bit better version

045about to come. Yeah, I feel really good that we're on the cusp of this 2025 version. So, I'm surprised there's not a subscription based that's you just get access to. I understand the printing and the hard copy material. I think because it's open source, there's no subscription fee. So, to me, it equates to what we normally would pay a subscription for for teacher materials, but they're giving that away and then moving over to a sub vendor to manage the printing. So, it's a really really different model than we've seen anywhere else. Yeah. Yeah. It's a third party vendor in terms of the printing costs. E only provides the PD if you want to go with them. and other districts who have adopted say the 2017 version and chose a different vendor for PD are now

046going to so even in my former district they did not go with you know there's different folks you can go around literacy to help you implement a model or a program um Arlington is now going back to EL like all the folks we've talked to who said that it's just best to go with the publishers Um that's what they're in terms of the costs associated with it. All the materials again are third party. All right. I'm almost done. I promise. Scheduling. Um so just in terms of the schedule at the schools. Yes. Is there additional instructional time for ELA and how is that going to affect how the principal does like the schedule of the school? I'm so excited but I'll let you answer. I know. Sorry. We are working on this. there's going to

047be the expected kind of block schedule block scheduling so that all grade K grade one is going to have their ELA block. Um it's still going to be on pretty much on par with the time limit the time expectations we do have. Now it looks different because it's the literacy the what the 1 hour core block that we are focused on here this module block um it includes the writing and the assessments too. So we right now have teachers maybe teaching the Lucy Caukins writing units separately from their reading block. So that's all going to be collapsed. So refining those times and then there'll be based on the grade level the heerty and the foundations that's already within our um each of our buildings. So that doesn't change. We are just looking at it again

048with fresh eyes to just make sure that we get the intervention time the wi what we call the wind block and I know yeah we're adding we're adding essentially a flex block to the elementary schedules um for lots of reasons. So there's a lot of exciting things happening in the elementary schedules right now that we're looking forward to. Just to clarify for this, this is replacing any writing curriculum. Lucy's Lucy's gone, right? So this will be our writing curriculum. That was one of the really another really big benefit was we can get back to where we need to be on writing and co in the years following had really eroded that some. So yeah. Okay. So the last question is special education. So you talked a little bit about flex blocks. So will IEP service

049happen within that like hour core block maybe in the flex blocks? Will you still be doing Wilson? Like you'll be doing foundations but Wilson will still happen also. Yes. Straight Wilson. Okay. Everything that's within any gritted services are still expected. IEPS are not changing for next year. We are working with Angel Charles and of course with the principles to to to look that over and make sure we're all on the same page about what is considered tier one for every student. And then what are the push-in pull out models that we need at each based on each program and each student profile. I actually think that scheduling is going to be much more effective too because it's part of the discussion we're having right now. Great. All right. Thank you. Yeah, I think everybody's asked

050great questions. Pretty much covered everything I have. Um, what percentage of I would say people providing instruction are in cohort one? of teachers, special education teachers. Yeah, I was saying it's about 70, I think, including the specialists. So, we're I say we're about 65 to 70% of our educators are classroom teachers. So, for FY26, that says to me that we will need to have the bulk of the materials. So what's the cost of this endeavor for FY26? Just need to know exact number. Yeah. Um we have a PD we think I think we budgeted approximately 200. We have 200,000 across a a multitude of lines. We would need to track it for you. It's not all sitting in one place. But and so then you think going into FI27 that there will be a significant

051additional investment or this would you think so? Yes. Well, we're going to have to get m acquire materials for cohort 2. So the 45 or 40% that aren't participating um will need materials and professional development. I think the good news to the conquered committee is those lines are there now. So, you're going to leave them there and they'll we'll zero base them for what we need. But it should not be a significant increase over what you've had for this coming FY26. But this is a significant investment. Close to half a million dollars over the maybe a little shy of that. Yeah. The rollout. Yeah. Yeah. It's less than that. That I think that feels high to me. Um 350 but it's also like a a major part of our curriculum. I mean, there's nothing. No,

052no, I just I think I just think that warrants being stated. Sure. It's a big investment that takes time and this you can't be flippant about it and I'm glad you guys took the requisite time to do it properly. Yeah. No, we feel really good about where we are and where we're going. That's why we said we're not calling it a pilot. No, it's we're we're all in. Part of that is money is part of the reason we heard districts say we piloted two things and then we have to undo one and that money is for not so hard for teachers and it's really hard if you're the teacher that doesn't get to roll forward and for FY26 this because we're not completely converting our curriculum will we have to then invest in the older

053curriculum or we've got enough of that stuff. Yeah. Okay. So we have teachers will use what they've been using which is a lot of teacher made materials to be honest and as a result of this shift are we going to no longer like right now we really don't have any level literacy in our curriculum or the materials are around because we purchased some things years ago um but we're not using them for instruction to the point of let's not waste them. I mean, they're perfectly fine for kids to read independently and for free read and all of that. It that's not a problem at all. So, um they would sit like in teachers libraries. Yeah, we'll figure it out. I don't think disposing of all that we have makes sense to me, right? And the

054decodables that were invested last year, I believe, too. Those are all still a part of those are part of this the geode part of the phone. Yep. At the lower grades, right? So that was an investment that is not that is going to continue to be used. How many hours of PD are people going to do this summer? We have the one PD day which is six hours just to introduce them to the program really understand the instructional strategies understand kind of the philosophy behind it. then they start to deeper dive into module one. Um summer work we are offering up to educators. We're mapping out some of that work now and planning for that across all the the schools K12. So we should have a better understanding of that early next week. And we

055are offering teacher time to work in the summer and grade level teams to continue to unpack module one or even prep materials. Again, like I said, the heavy lifting is just getting task cards and just like those materials and the way you design and instruct a lesson and get your what they call anchor charts up and just ready. So just familiarizing themselves with it and planning and just really focusing on the high level um priorities of one 60-minute lesson, right? Yeah. And is this similar roll out to what other districts have done? I mean sort of prescribed and we're not just reinventing this. In fact, we're listening to what worked for them and what didn't work for them and not repeating their mistakes. And do you feel like this displaces any other PD that you

056know you really would have liked to have done but now this is going to be I mean our time is always only going to go so far. I open circle the thing other thing we're talking about because we really need to get that curriculum back in place to complement responsive classroom. Um we just left the row where we had a forum and teachers were like we know we can't do it all. So a soft roll out of open circle depending on their level of familiarity with it and readiness. um in another time and place we would have gone full tilt with that. Um I also feel like though this does align like with what we heard specifically in our CTA contract negotiations that people are in fact keen to get um targeted PD. Absolutely. Um

057in their you know areas of expertise. So I just Yeah. And it sounds like for some veteran teachers, I would think that open circle aligns with what they have done in the past. So would be a huge shift. It's not correct. Majority of our educators have already been trained and it is will now be more widely available and it's sort of an open curriculum. Um we have to train people to have access to the materials. They've updated things. That's a subscription you have to pay. It's another topic. Yeah. A big number of our teachers are trained. So it it'll be a doable next step. So thank you. We're really excited and um looking forward to how this goes forward. It's a it's a lot of work. Um so Shelley and Allison and the literacy specialists

058and the principles are really fully invested and ready to lead it with teachers who are excited. So we're excited. Thank you. I appreciate the the prioritization of it. you know, really making this making this a reality and and I mean clearly from this like all hundred slides of it, there's a lot of work that's gone into this over the year. Um so thanks. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for your support. We know it's a big investment, but we hope that it does, you know, make some positive gains for our community. Great. Thanks, Shel. Any other final? Okay, we are going to move on to the CPS cell phone policy. So, um I sent around a Can you screen share that or do you Yeah, I can. I have it open. Can you stop sharing? Yeah, sorry.

059Okay. Um I sent around a draft. See, let me go to the Zoom. Um, so yeah, I sent around a draft um as part of our pre-eread materials. Um, I hope everyone had a chance to take a look at it. This is this will serve as a first read. Um, I tried to take everything that we talked about at our last meeting into consideration and put this put it down on paper as a um as a policy. So I'm open to any feedback. Um essentially it says that there will not cell phones are not allowed between the start of school and the end of school. We had talked about um obviously students on IEPs or um having exceptions that there was inclusion in that and that it also it does not include um buses um

060transportation to and from events or um after school hours at even school sponsored events and allows administration or Lor's team to make um decisions around that. So um feedback on the draft, things you like, don't like, edits you'd like to see made. I think it's great. Um, my one ask is it is rare that um I I you know I know we'll cut and paste this and put this into the handbook for um parents and students to have access to, but I I and and I and I and I recognize in the last sentence that you're looking for latitude about discipline um and that we don't like to be prescriptive and I understand that. I do think I just want to make sure and and I think we've had some things that have come up

061in my time here where um our polic I just want to make sure and I think this is a good exercise to ensure that our policy and our handbook um are always aligned. So because I think sometimes it can get confusing and even just I don't know there like I just I'm wor I'm wondering if there is even a reference to the handbook to so that we're held accountable like all disciplinary decisions and enforcement related to this policy will be determined by the school administration as presented in the handbook. I I don't so because I just want to make sure that the school committee is accountable so that it's clear to the community that the school committee is also accountable to that to whatever's written in that handbook. Does that make sense? We do have

062a policy that says that we will review all handbooks and discipline. Exactly. So I think the more that we make mention of that to ensure that we do follow that and close those loops I think is maybe worthwhile putting in there just a little context on where we are with handbooks. So we consolidated the handbook a year ago and it's owned in my office now. We've been updating that based on the policy changes you made. It's gone to the principles to share with the school councils because they have to see it before you bring it. you see it for approval. Um, so it's funny because we had a whole circular conversation this morning. They're like, "But wait, if this polic showed them this, if this is going to be in there, how is it going

063to be updated in the handbook when our school councils see it?" I'm like, "It might not be because you you all haven't approved it yet." So, we're a little bit stuck in the timeline to a point, but that doesn't mean you can't put it in the handbook when it gets to you in June, June 10th. Um, so I think structurally, you're totally right. How do we stay synced up? Um I think structurally we've got a better better method of staying synced up because the handbook and policy are now sitting so closely together. Um but if you think putting language in helps. Well, yeah. And I mean I even think like too like I I I do want to preserve the building based principles the right to exercise discretion and discipline. I think that that is

064important. But I also think for kids and or parents there's no sense of whether this policy has any gravitas to it. Does that make sense? Like but are you envisioning in the handbook even if I mean I know that we're you're already in like the final stages of next year's handbook. Are you envisioning that there will be consequences or so in that version? Not per se for cell phone. It's going to fall under some remember the handbook now has um less specific consequences purposely as of a year ago because every context is different and that would be the same here. So I don't foresee us saying oh if you're caught with your phone we're going to do this. That isn't what we've been proposing. I think then it would like it would then be like

065a cross reference to different consequence polic like policies that have there's a discipline matrix there for lack of a better word that sort of gives you the scale of severity and consequence you could refer to that now cell phones is going to be on the low end of the severity scale obviously. So, so let me ask Alexis a question. What are the parents at each level going to be made aware of of the consequences of bringing up to school and using it? Well, and I don't know if this is the conversation you want. I mean, like right now, we're not consequencing kids. We're telling them them to put the phones away. We're not keeping them for detention. We're not taking the phone for the night. We're telling them to put it away. So, I have

066not had conversations about doing more than that. I would rather work with teachers and kids on enforcement more proactively than punitively. And and I think we've talked about this before, but like the education side of talking with parents about that as well, like making it a joint a shared effort. Yeah. That I there's lots of room for that. Yeah. And I just think that to have reference in the handbook to a cell phone policy is important because parents get the handbook. They're not reading through our huge binder of policies. So I think just to have a reference in there and have this stated in the handbook and if we vote on it at the next meeting then it could go right into the handbook. So then we can vote on that the next meeting. There's

067something similar there now. It's just not school committee policy which I think is fantastic that it'll so I think you know we sub this in and maybe reference that it'll be listed in the all handbooks. Okay. Well, okay. Okay. And Alexa, your recommendation was all disciplin disciplinary decisions and enforcement related to this policy will be determined by the school administration as per as outlined. Yeah. As you cross reference in these as outlined as outlined in the handbook or you know that official name. Well and then I can um I can do some research on what the cross references would be beyond that. And again, I know that we don't get into enforcement, but I just think if we're going through the effort of making a policy to have the only enforcement to be a polite

068request, put the phone away, I think is in personally I think is massively insufficient. And we need to talk on what level of responsibility we're putting on teachers because they're the line of enforcement. So that's this and I get that as we think about this I this is well done but I think somewhat lacking at the end of the day because I just because again if that's what the enforcement is that doesn't have a ton of teeth but that's again well I think my take away well that's what I was just going to say my take away fromation was that that that had no place in this correct I get that um that there's a place for that in the in the schools. I mean, you and I have never agreed on cell phones and

069all this. No, we've never agreed and we never will. I have bigger fights to pick with kids. Keep school safe. Yeah. We're trying to enforce a climate piece where the phone is not what you're doing all day. Yep. So, okay. So, I will look at the cross references. Is there are there any other line item um line edits or substantive changes? Anything else to this? The only thing I had was transportation to and from school for K through five. I just don't think kids should have phones on the bus. But a lot of that's meco. Meco I well just for the mechco. So my son's been there since kindergarten and I did get him a phone before fifth grade I think. And um it was needed because I needed to know where my son was.

070I was at bus stops for an hour. So um and if you know if there was an accident or something I need to be able to speak to my the other hard part is correct and enforcement's really hard because there's one adult who's driving and there's no so rather than could be could be two hours from the metco point of view like they're on the bus for 45 minutes you know and I'm not there tonight because there was an accident and it delayed the bus 30 minutes so you know there's definitely a need for meco kids to have some way to communicate with their parents. um in my opinion. Yeah. Thanks, Michelle. So, we don't disagree with you, Andrew. It's just there's other things at play. Yeah. You have to budget from bus monitors and

071No, you know, there's really not much Wi-Fi in there. But not very much, but they wanted um Okay, great. So, I will make those edits. Sorry. And smartwatches. We decided last time we don't want to include that, right? Right now, it's just cell phones. Yeah. Earbuds. What? Earbuds. They're not in this. Oh, I know. Do we want I mean, now is our chance. If that's your to bring that up, go back and consider the high school policy. I think we could probably they can revisit it next year and see how this works. Okay. If it turns out there's a huge gap because we didn't include watches or all internet capable devices, you know, I mean, we did talk about devices last time and we all decided we can change that and but we decided cell

072phones were the right keys. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, that's that and then um I think we're gonna we're gonna move um see the CMLP solar CMS agreement to next week just because we got the the draft earlier today. I personally have not had a chance to look at it. So, I don't know if you have. I is there anything we should pay particular attention to? I'm assuming it's all the red that I should be paying attention to. That should have showed up. We do have Jason here on Yeah, we we invited Jason to do them. So the only changes that were made I can were um to convert the agreement to it started off as a a license agreement which is a standard CMLP agreement with third parties like businesses and other um organizations

073and we had uh uh legal council for the town of conquered look at it since it's technically it's really between two town departments and converted it from a legal document um like a licensing agreement to more of an intra government agreement. So all those changes don't really change the substance of the agreement. Um I thought that the uploaded version didn't have any red lines in it and see. Oh seeing a lot of like you know red in a good way but I looked more. Did you look on the agenda linked item? I don't know. I just clicked on. Yeah we got it at like it depends. So the one that's linked to the agenda doesn't have all the red but the one you got by email must have red. Oh, look. I got so much

074red. It helped me. I liked the red. I was into the red. Um, yeah. I don't know. And that was actually I clicked on that from the agenda. All the more reason to do this next week. Great. Sounds sounds perfect. Carla would like to come to the table. So, they'd like us to move on. Getting nonverbal signals. All right. We're going to do the next one though if you'll move. Carrie's going to move you in there. Okay. The last piece is um the DESIE account alignment with the FY26 CPS budget. I'm going to try that. Um okay. So um the reason for these changes, first of all, this is we're not changing the way we're spending a penny in the budget. What we're doing is we're changing the way we're classifying how we report items

075in the budget. Um the Department of Elementary and Secondary Ed has kind of a model chart of accounts that we have to submit an end-of-ear report for. Um, we have to do a lot of remapping of our accounts because some of our accounts haven't kept up with some of the changes Desi's made for example to technology lines to software to professional development. Um, we also had some EL teachers classified as um in kind of a clerical line instead of a teacher line. So, what these changes do is just remap our our budgeted line to a different account. Um, and I need you to revote it because it's going to move how things are reported in the budget. We're doing this now before FY26 because when we um you have a budget that we've shared with

076you that enables you to compare FY26 to FY25 based on our old chart of accounts. We don't make this change now. When we go to next year, you're going to see a whole bunch of variances because of this remapping change. By doing it now, we're going to move into these new accounts. Um when we deal with the 27 budget, we'll be doing an applesto apples comparison. So, I hope that makes sense. Um, so, um, just as some examples, the the first page just kind of outlines it. It's a it's a Desi requirement for reporting. This will save us time in in complying with Desi's reporting requirements. Um, the second page shows the accounts that we're reclassifying. Um, I'll just pick a few as examples. Um, if you scroll down to, um, there's ones that begin

077with 101.2451. All of the software accounts, those are actually the hard Desi would say that's that's the hardware account number. You shouldn't be using that. So you'll see the characters 101.2451 becomes 101.2455. Um so these are going to make our life easier in terms of complying with DESI. Uh it doesn't change the way we're spending it. It's still for software. We're just classifying it more to fit Desi's charter accounts. And I won't go through all of them, but I just wanted you to have a the big picture about why we're doing it. 17 pages. And then I And then at the end, um, just so you have it when you are approving this, the the revised budget shows what we had presented for 26. And then there's an adjustment column to to reflect, you know,

078how how we're changing it. And then at the end in the far column, it's the the revised budget. Um, so I'm just asking for approval um to make these changes to align with Desi's requirements. Sure. I'll move um I move to approve the revised FY26 CPS budget as presented. Second. Any discussion? Very few people in this room would catch that, Bob. So, thank you. Exactly. There are three people in my department, including me, but uh I was ready to wait another year, but I got pressed to clean it up. So, thank you. All in favor? I Great. All right. Carile just want to join us. [Music] Okay. Yeah. Turn it off. It's chilly. I told you that was going to happen. Brought a blanket. It's perfect. It's perfect. No, I'm good. Thanks. There's no such

079thing as comfortable. No, we like to keep you hopping. Yes. Hi, Julie. Hi. All right. All right. Well warmed up for you. Yeah. I love that. All right. It's 7:09 and call to order the Conquer Carle Regional School District School Committee. Um, do we have the students on? Zarya's there. Awesome. Um, Maddie is on her way home. So, should I wait for her or should I just get started? Do you want to wait, Zarya, for Felicity or Maddie? Um, Felicity can't make it today, but I know Maddie is coming. She was at I wonder if we ran so long she had to hop off. Well, she had to she was at the school. Um, so like for Senate and then she had to like drive home so she was like, "Oh, I hope they don't

080go in the next 10 minutes." Of course. Here we are. You want to wait and close? Yeah, we can wait. Okay. Or go do something else and come back. Yeah, we can do um we can move to public comment. We have any public I don't have any blue sheets up here. No. Anyone online? No. All right, let's move to the consent agenda. [Music] I move that we approve the consent agenda as uh written on the agenda. Second. Second. Any discussion? Thank you for the donation. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Um All right. All in favor? I great. Um sorry, it's moving really quick. You like the second page already. I love it. Um sorry, we're coming back to you. Yeah. Uh correspondence for CPS. CPS. just had a message in about um Conquered Pride is inviting us

081to all the various events and activities. Um but otherwise that's it. Yeah, I think it's June 7th. We can share the more details at the next meeting. We literally just got it while we're all Yeah. here. So um just give a pre-eread. But other than that, I I have some updates in the chair's update with some things that were sent outside of the traditional um messages, but I can share that now unless Maddiey's on. I mean, it's been one minute, right? Yeah. Okay. Um, all right. On to the superintendent chairs and liaison update. Laura, do you want to go first? Sure. I have the CCF update. Okay. I'll let you do that when I get to you. Um, so just in terms of where we've been at the high school for the last two weeks,

082uh, I don't think it's a surprise for me to say has been incredibly hard. um coming through a week-long's worth of services and getting through uh the new normal, I guess, whatever we're calling it at the high school with structures going on and support for kids of many ways and kinds. Uh Julie will talk on the finances, but your support of the additional counselors that I think actually I named the day at we met Tuesday and I know it was Wednesday um two weeks ago that I was very clear we needed more help. So the support for that and the willingness to allow us to do what we needed to do um to support students and then strategize the monies was really important and I'm grateful for the support. So, we've added um two and

083a half outside counselors for the remainder of the year and are paying three interns who have been with us all year but would have graduated and we would have lost them if we hadn't offered them um pay for the remainder of the school year. that's been absolutely essential and it's allowing um both supports to kids that are in acute need, kids that are in another degree of need and allowing guidance counselors to do some of their regular job which means all kids are benefiting from the additional help. So just thank you for that. It happened really quick and it um we were very fortunate that the right people were available at the right time including two retired CMS counselors who know a lot of the kids. um really really important. So we continue to meet

084um once and twice weekly as a mental health team, once a week as in a crisis management team. We now have subgroup meetings on prom, graduation, all of it. Trying to be thoughtful, proactive, ensure we allow fun. I'm going to say that again. We need to we need to promote fun knowing how there's an asterisk next to it that that's going to be doable for some and not doable for all. Uh we maintain ongoing regular communication with uh the three families and staying close to the staff and what their needs are. Um it's just continued to be an extraordinary um lift of people rising to the occasion under impossible circumstances. So this committee support's been really really important. The support from the central office administrators Brian and Katie I don't have words for. Uh we

085met for the first time this morning as a K12 team and you know the quiet tacet support coming from the other buildings has been palpable and real and put everybody in the same room was really great this morning. Um so it's just the community's response just continues to be extraordinary. Um Julie will share a little bit of the financial piece, but I mean we're other school districts, we're still getting cookies and platters as of last Friday. So I think it's a symptom of just how serious and devastating this has been and everyone can feel it. So um but just a big thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we're a day at a time. There's no other way to say it. We're a day at a time. So, um, in other news, uh, the shelter

086is formally closing June 30th. That word is officially come from the state. Families are being housed. Um, and we are seeing the shelter wind itself down. So, that means we have a really complex transportation system. Um, we'll be bringing you some CPS updates. We learned yesterday we're not going to get as much uh, PDM subsidy as we thought. So, we're strategizing that. Um, and like for what we've already completed. Yeah, like for what we've already completed. Um, the formula changed. We knew there might be a change. It was a hard to translate. Um, so there's about 16 students that aren't eligible for the PEDM subsidy. The thinking in the legislator legislation was those kids have been here long enough, they'd be in our chapter 70 formula. which I reminded the state we don't get much

087of. Yeah. Anyway, um it is what it is. Bob's instincts are really good. He kept saying, "Why is it taking so long?" And I'm like, "I don't know." And then he's like, "Something might be wrong." I'm like, "Let's not worry about that yet." And then the call came yesterday. So, those 16 students all year times $104 a day. You got it. Yep. So, we're um looking at CPS for unbelievable times. Yeah, we'll be back to you next week. I think some updates on that. Bob was ahead of it. Bob was calling me last week on the way home saying, "Here's where I can figure it out if things don't come together." So, yeah, we're grateful for that. That's a big It's a It's hundreds of thousands of 300,000. We know. I'm trying not to show

088my I think it's just But what it is important to say that out loud. Yeah. No, it's different from what we're getting shortanged. We're getting short changed. I mean, that's kind of a critical. We're not alone. Um, no. When I pushed, you know, when I had all those same comments, the answer was it was really hard to get the legislation through this year. So, I think I think there's an equity discussion going on that some districts do homeless to this level all the time without additional subsidies. We can't deny that. And districts that had the shelters have benefited. Anyway, we're moving on. So, we're gonna bring you some thoughts on that next week. Anyway, plus the transportation part is beyond is in the red. So, oh, I can only we're going to need to bring

089you that as well and get through the year and then look at those reimbursements starting to come back. The transportation will still come back. It's just the cash flow challenge. Um, so have you talked to Carrie about it? Yeah. No, we're strategizing it internally right now. Okay. So, we'll bring you an update next week just on CPS budget. Yeah, I mean the big big picture is we'll end up just carrying over less circuit break. Yeah, that's the bottom line. I get it. We were we were we we were planning for not to quite I mean the 300 isn't all surprise. Some of it's a surprise. Um so we're not We'll talk about it more next week. Yeah, we'll bring you a formal item. I just didn't want to not say it because it officially happened

090yesterday. Okay. Bob's like, "It's good you called to check." I'm like, "Oh, I didn't call them. they called me. Um, so in good news, you know, I and I'm working to remind myself we've done really a great job with these little people and set them up for success in all the districts they're going to and our liaisoning with those districts. And I have to, you know, we're kind of in the money thick of it now. And going back to the student piece is really important. Um, we've served these kids really, really well and their families. So, do you know, you know where they're going? We do. That's good. because we're often busing them from those communities already. Yeah. Um Willard especially is making bridges to the um local school systems. How long does that sort

091of program where the kids get bus to their district? End of this school year. Okay. So this is they can continue here but then starting in the fall the our obligation financial our obligation our financial outlays will cease for the shelter for Yeah. Right. There's the the legislation's still there for any homeless student. Yeah. Sure. But for the Yeah. For what we've been managing to date. Yeah. Yeah. We've fulfilled our obligation once school's out. Um CMS uh really exciting. We have our first concert in the new gym in the new auditorium this week. So, that's really fun. Um, we've rescheduled the ribbon cutting for June 11th at 5:00 PM. We couldn't find a weekend, so we went to a week night. Um, June 11th, 5:00 pm. Hopefully, that will somehow work with your schedules and

092you'll be able to attend. Um, we have a lot of moving staffing pieces, both hiring, um, open positions, finalizing our our riff list, which I feel like I need to keep reminding you, I am laying people off. It is really hard. um not huge numbers but some right sizing especially at the middle school. Um we're been really pleased with the pools of people in the positions we're hiring for so far. We're drawing people who are in districts that are in either leadership or fiscal chaos and we're benefiting. I don't know how else to say it. They're like I I don't know what's going to happen next year. So you look really appealing. So that's worth saying out loud. think that um there are plenty of districts really struggling to keep things pulled together. Um and

093then just uh because I thought you'd like to know Doug White replacement continues to move forward. Bob's meeting with the folks at the town regularly. Um we are due to start the replacement June 9th. It's excellent. And the goal is to be done by the 1 of August and we're really thrilled it's going forward. So, um, probably worth ongoing appreciation to the town of Conquered and the efforts they've made to make this happen effectively and efficiently. Um, but really good news during that time, right? The whole thing may. Yes. But that's great knowing the original timeline could have gone all the way to October and disrupted the fall season. So, that's really great. Yeah, they really responded. Both Gail Associates who's doing the the work and the bid has just gone out and come back,

094right? Yeah, it's come back. There was concern we wouldn't get the turf in time, but it sounds like Yeah. So, kudos to the town and Gail who really kept looking at the timeline with our feedback of like you we can't run into the fall. So, they tightened up put together a bid that says to the contractor, August 1st is your date. That's great. Um, really feels good. So, the bids came in on Yeah, Bob was there. They did. They did. They have to vet the the companies, but they were all reputable companies, which was good, I think. I'm not 100% sure, but I think they said the low bidder is the company that initially installed it. I think that's what an Yeah. And um so they need to go through their vetting process and then

095I think they award the um contract or they'll select the the low biders assuming everything works out by next week. Was that significant or less? Do you remember the check whatever they called that entity that presented the check to the left board last week I think. Right. Okay. So they'll have some money in the bank, right? They were hoping to get it back is what the people said. Yeah, because it's going to come up 10 years, right? And you didn't admit to that, but you said wasn't sure about the law regarding that. All right, I'm going to move on because I see Maddie is back on. So Zarya and Maddie, I'm gonna move to you guys. We'll come back if you want to give us our your update. Yeah. Hi everyone. Hello. It's the wrong

096thing. I think we're having a hard time hearing this. Turn it up just a little bit. I tried. Okay. Is it sh Okay. Is it sharing? I don't know what's going on my computer. Sorry. I can try to share it. Is that helpful? Yes. Can everyone see this? Okay. Um, no. I can see the bar. But not Okay. You know what? We're going to try again. Okay. It's so strange. What's going on here? You want to share the slides with me? I might be able to do it from here. Oh, you guys see that? Okay. Oh, look at that Shrek picture. Yeah. Um, okay. So, our update today is a little short. Um, as you know, um, this past weekend, as we talk about all the time, Shaq the musical happened. Um both me and

097Felicity were uh in the cast and Felicity actually was the publicity manager and because of her we actually were sold out on Saturday. It was great. Zarya, I'm so glad people enjoyed it. It was so fun. The cast and crew and the pit were everybody was amazing and I'm so happy people enjoyed the show. It was really fun. Wait, Zary, can I just say I'm just so happy that I got to see you in your debut at the middle school. I think it was in The Lion King. And then I got to watch you sing a solo. You actually sang a solo. I was like, "Look at you go." It was It was excellent. It was great. And there were a lot of solos actually with, you know, all the creatures. Fairy tale fairy the

098fairy tale creatures, right? Yeah. You did great. I went to the Friday one. It was awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was really fun. Okay. Something ongoing is we've had advanced placement testing. So, we have a lot of AP exams that students are taking. I think they began last Monday and they've been going on through they'll be going on through this week. And upcoming we have an early release day tomorrow. So we're all at the high school going to get out at I believe 120 or 115. So that's very exciting. I think people are going to go out and try to enjoy what hopefully I think is going to be a sunny day. So that'll be nice. And in addition, I think that sophomores will be having their last round of or second to

099last round of MCCAST, but last of this of their high school career, I guess, next week with English or math maybe. And then they have science upcoming like towards the end of the year, I think. Um the week after actually well next week is the last um on May 22nd is the last day of actual senior classes and the week after that is senior week um where we do a lot of fun activities um I think the Friday before senior week though is the 50y day of service and and sorry did that just disappear? No it's fine. Um but Um, but yeah, it like the the senior week is next week and I'm honestly really excited. Uh, well, it's not next week, it's the week after, but it I'm really excited. We're going to go

100to Kimbell's and go to Six Flags. It's just really fun. I'm really excited and all my friends are excited. So, yeah. Um, and another thing upcoming that's really exciting for everyone for juniors and seniors is prom, which is happening this Saturday in Boston. I think I think the Copley Marriott Place Lace Plaza something like that. I'll hopefully figure it out by the time that prom rolls around and show up to the right building. But um everyone's really excited for that. Also, graduation is at the end of the month and I'm me both me and Felicity are going to be graduating. So, we're kind of like leaving Maddie by herself. Um but I think she'll do fine. I don't know. She's been doing great so far. So, and Zarya Mark and I have already chatted, so

101I know you're all queued up. Yeah, Mark Johnson's coming on. Oh, that's great. That's great. Is there a second a third person? Second additional person. I don't know if the Senate's looked at that yet. I don't know. I'm not in Senate. You won't be alone. We know that Mark's Yeah, Mark will be coming. We're doing more elections um in the next couple weeks for the next round of senior of senators and school committee representatives and then also the representatives who work with administration at CCHS. So that's also coming up I guess. Um so I think that's everything for today. Um thank you. Thank you for waiting. I had to drive home from Senate. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Bye. All right. So, we'll switch back to the chairs and leazison update.

102Um, just on the heels of what Dr. Hunter mentioned, um there's been a a a lot of things happening um especially at the high school. So, um a couple things. One, um I think a lot of us are aware of the Conquer Carile Foundation, formerly known as the Conquer Carile Community Chest. Um I per person personally am involved with them so knew know that a little bit of their process and Jen from uh CCF has been in touch with us since right after the the tragedy um reached out to Dr. Hunter, reached out to me um and just said, "How can we help? What do you need?" And uh we really appreciate them being proactive and not having us to have to even think about that. Um, and so we made a pretty big ask

103of them to fund the counselors that that Dr. Hunter mentioned earlier. Um, they responded to us within hours, not days, and then they reviewed our application. When I um the whole committee has the ask that I made, but we did make an ask for around $59,000 um to bring on three and a half. We ended up scaling that down to cover the two and a half that Dr. Uh Hunter mentioned um to make an ask of $33,000. They just approved it. Um and um they approved it last night. They are formalizing it now. The allocations meeting that is happening right now. Um I I am still um just in awe of how kind they were to us. Um so you did like an out of cycle grant. We did. So really responded and then they

104called an emergency meeting. Wow. Yeah. So it all happened within a week. They approved it and um Yeah. Yeah. So, it's a huge huge thank you to them. And um the way that it it boiled down when we did the $59,000 was it was going to come down to if we were just to allocate it to just the senior class support, it really came out to like everyone getting one session if you look at the cost of an annual like an hourly session, every senior would have would have gotten and is going to get if they need it um a session. That's really how the finances break down. So, um I just again just really want to say thank you to them. Um, like I said, this all got turned around and like you said,

105off cycle, unprecedented, and just they took care of it and they're like, "This is what we're here for." So, huge thank you to them. Um, so we have that covered. Um, and they are also still seeking more donations to to support anything else that we need. So, there's that. Great leadership over there. Yes, they're amazing. So, a huge thank you, especially to Jeff Blue, who chaired it, um, and Jen at the the foundation. So, that's that. Um, on the heels of that, just for me personally, um, like you mentioned the dogs, I'm going to mention the dogs again. I've been able to bring my therapy dog. Brian's brought his. So, Fam and Honey have been at the high school. Um, that has been a bright spot in a lot of darkness. Um, Honey is really

106like well loved at a lot about Honey. She might have her on Instagram at some point. I don't know. She's been on Instagram. She's been on Snapchat, Tik Tok. She's all over the Instagram. She really is. She's the only small, well, not the only one now, but one of the only small ones so people can pick her up. I think that's been a hit. She likes the girls nails, the senior girl nails. Scratches on the dog, you know. Yeah. Know the dogs have been enormous. Yeah, I know. It's enormously supportive and positive. The dogs keep saying I don't get much past the lobby. Yep. The dogs neurotic and not a therapy dog. Same. Mine's same. Yep. Mine's on a lot of serotonin and just hangs out. Um, she really just hangs. It's quite Yeah, most

107of the pictures. She's on serotonin. No, she's just Oh, I'm like, wait, where do I get this? Not to have him feel up, but Brian's bringing a one-year-old puppy who just hangs out, too. So, wonderful. Just amazing. Yep. Pull him in. And honey, I'm lecturing my dog at home about Yeah, her failings here. Yeah, I know. And Honey has a huge crush on Otis from the Wayland Police Department. Continues to show up. So, I mean, it does bring a lot of brevity to very heavy situations. So, um, and then I know we mentioned Shrek. I had a chance to go and I just want to echo what you said. I mean, we went to the Friday night show at 7 o'clock and, um, my my daughter and her friend ended up in the, um, sensory

108area. We were like outside and I look up and there's Darius. I'm like, you're still here. Um, so you know, I've seen Meg like hours before school starts. A bunch of us went Thursday night. I was with the Thursday crew and I was and to really see there were a lot of teachers there actually on Thursday. A lot of administrators, Lori, Brian, Katie. Um, and it just I mean, your day ended at 10:00 that night. So I just think you know just the commitment to our students from the teachers and administrators and really just a huge thank you especially to the CCHS teachers whether it's a teacher a guidance counselor administrator a custodian they have gone above and beyond these past you know three weeks and like something that you're not trained to do I

109mean no teacher is trained to do that and I just you know I can't say enough about just the leadership from the leadership all the way down to everyone at that high school it's really an amazing placeing I'm grateful that, you know, our kids are there every day and we know as parents that they're supported. You know, some of us has kids there, some of us bring your therapy dogs there, but just knowing that they have a, you know, a safe space that they can Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The community and culture, I think, cannot be understated. Agree about what I don't know. It's it's um it's just intrinsic to everything they do and that is a big deal. It is. It's Yeah. Absolutely. Quantifiable, but nonetheless. No. Yeah. And then I think just on the

110same kind of theme, the um Carrie and I met with meet with the PTG leadership. We saw them putting together the teacher appreciation week. Um and my gosh, they hit it out of the park last week. So, a huge thank you to all the PTGs across all the different schools. Um we appreciate them also including Carile so we could kind of follow along. So really a lot of the the same messaging across both both towns. Um and then you know again I just going into the high school seeing all those signs saying thank you to the the teachers was really awesome. Um, and then I think just I wanted to just provide a little bit of clarity because I've um, like I said, there's some things that have just come up like offcycle, but we've

111had I've had I don't know about anyone else in the committee, but for me personally, I've had people um, thinking that their tax dollars are going towards the Doug White replacement. And I just want to make sure that it's really clear that that is being done through um, uh, a private donation um, or I should say friends of conquer Carell Fields. And so anyone that participates in youth sports, right, plays pays basically an additional fee and that money is um taken care of by a board and Yeah. So I just want to make sure that that was really clear because there was a question that was brought up to me. Um the parents of youth sports in conquered and Carla are paying for it. Correct. It's not recreation funds. It's not town funds. It's parents

112of kids in youth sports. Correct. Correct. Exactly. Um yeah. Yeah. And then I just, you know, I think the other piece was the um we had the amenities building uh warrant article discussion coming up soon. Um I think there's been a lot of confusion that was brought up through the sewer connection and again those are some emails that that I got. So um just a couple things I I want to make sure at least this is how I see it and I'm open to to feedback on this but um I don't see the sewer connection as a as a hurdle. um that kind of came out of nowhere when we were at the finance committee meeting. And when we finished the finance committee meeting, the finance committee said, "We don't know why we're asking so

113many questions about this. This is not actually what we're here to review." Um in preparation though for that, I think what they did want to check on is that we have a handle on it. And my stance is that we hire as a school committee really competent professionals. And I just want to make sure that my feeling is that Bob has been more than competent on this topic. Um, I've said it I said it to the bridge um over email. I just want to make sure I say it again. Allan um through um public works has been great as of late. Um so I don't think there's as much friction as maybe people think there is and I just want to created by uninformed citizens. Well, I just I just think I just want to

114make sure that it's clear that I have full faith in and in and Bob and and Dr. Hunter. I think we're on on top of it and I think people raised some concerns that were both financial and then public health and as a public health professional I would never do anything nor would I push anything that would put it so we're not going to do anything that is a public health hazard nor anything that we can't afford. Um I think we have a really great handle on that. I think Bob's done a fabulous job of that of looking at the top of it. And so I just want to make sure that we just are grounded in the fact that the finance committee did approve or recommend that the warrant passes. And in addition to

115it, I we heard hear the concerns. I am not um making light of any of those concerns. I'm saying I think we have a really solid handle on it. Um, and that we're pushing for this project to be ADA compliant so that anyone that is at the CCHS campus, whether it's Wreck, youth sports, community events, or CCHS athletics, that we are having a place for people of all abilities to be able to access a toilet. We do have a discussion topic, right? Yeah. I just want to say this because a lot of questions, but I don't I have no I but I'm saying I got personal emails sent to me asking about this and so I just want to make sure I I I'm happy to. Yeah, I'm happy to. I thought I'm sorry and

116I thought I have but it's I'm happy to do that. Um so anyway, that's the last piece for me. Um anything for CPS? I think you covered it. Okay, great. Um lison's update. Anyone have any updates? I think I went to the last finance committee meeting which I just alluded to. So the select board has not taken a position on the amendities building and they will do so at town meeting. Correct. The depending on what happens the finance committee could revisit it and you might get actually a more favorable vote if things have changed to make them because I think it they just had questions. So they voted positive. No, but they can revisit. A couple people said they might revisit it. But that's not how the process went though. They they voted on all

117four of our No, no, I understand. But they can always revisit a vote. Sure. Yeah. You could say that about any art anywhere in I mean any article, right? Exactly. So anyway, yeah. Um I was unable to go to the Slackboard meetings, but I did rewatch some of it and there was a lot of discussion about I think there's confusion over the sewer, but I think it's pretty clear what we're doing and I think the professionals know exactly what's happening right on both sides. Totally. Exactly. Are you sure, Michelle? Anything from Mechco? Anything pop up? Um, no, not right now. I know we're trying to um we had to reschedule the senior dinner, so we're just I think we're just trying to pull together and just figure out a a date that works for everyone.

118I think they're close. I think I think it's about to be Okay. It's just been tough for them. Yeah. Yeah. I bet I bet as well. I know. you know. All right. I think that's that's good. So, let's move into discussion. We're going to move the school committee evaluation to the 20th. Is that Yes. This is my fault. I have the results and I failed to share them with you. So, I'm not going to make you guys talk about school committee evaluation results that I've not shared. So, my ap my apologies. We will do it next week. Great. Cross that off. Sorry. Okay. All right. and then the CMLP dark fiber agreement vote. So, um, what is dark fiber? That's the question I asked our IT director and and I'm going to just read a

119blurb he shared with me, but um, the gist of it is it's our it's it's the backbone of our our network. Um, we uh use CMLP uh for this. um its locally managed infrastructure to provide us with long-term cost efficiency, increase network reliability and strategic control over internet services. Um by using using this high-capacity fiber network, we avoid rising fees from commercial providers and and benefit from stable predictable costs. And it also provides long-term savings, operational efficiency, and stable and secure digital access for students and educators. So, I can only remember so many things. I thought that was easier to just read the blurb. Um, the reason we're we're voting on this, it's an inter um intramunicipal agreement. We we had a 10-year um agreement with them that expired in September of 2024. So, I

120told Jason we needed a new agreement or we wouldn't pay any bills. So, we now have a new agreement um that basically gives us uh it's 10 years. We have the op ability to opt out after two years. Um, I just, you know, for due diligence, I should just check like what a commercial vendor might offer. Um, Jason's pretty confident that they would probably just lease his network with the markup. So, he's he's he included that in there and he's not worried about it at all. So, if you read through it, I don't know if you have already, that's why we have an opt out after two years. Um, RT director uh relies on this and it's a it's a core need. the pricing comes down a little bit because the pee building uh you

121know we have two buildings sandborn is really replaced by the new middle school in terms of the connection and then pee will go away at the end of this year. So um the the pricing that is reflected in there will we will pull out um pee once once it um goes to the town. Yep. That's great. So that's it. I just um since it's uh kind of a agreement within the town and with CMLP I I think it just needed a school committee vote. Yeah. I will hear a motion to approve the CMLP dark fiber agreement. So moved. Second. Any more discussion? All right. All in favor? It's for both committees, right? For both. For both. Correct. Yeah. Bob's also going to take the next one if that's Yeah. I was just going to say

122yep. The uh reallocation of END. So some things have changed since you voted. um use of END. So we wanted to revisit that tonight. So um let me just sorry I lost my connection. Let me reconnect while you were talking. We were talking about the connection. Can't make it up. Agenda we go. Um so for I mean the reasons I outlined um in the memo are are shouldn't be surprising. They're they're really due to developments in two ways. Um we um were proposing we had previously voted to allocate $400,000 in END, $200,000 to an OPED contribution, $200,000 to capital stabilization. Um actually got a recommend I think an email forwarded um from Julie. Cynthia, thank you. um that suggested we think about capital stabilization. Um well, repurposing the um the amounts we had um previously

123designated. So, at the time I wrote this memo, um things have since changed again. We we had said at the time we didn't know we were going to obtain third party um sponsorship, which we're grateful for. We had planned to allocate 50,000 for counseling and mental health services, which is a little bit less than we're spending, but we just wanted to make sure we covered a portion of it. Um and then 300 move 350,000 to capital stabilization which um would more than cover the um any sewer connection fees if we get charged um kind of the high end of the range. In addition would give us um some additional contingency if there's bids and if not it would also give us some money towards future capital projects. At some point you'll be presented with a

124a capital plan. Um, the only thing we really know of in the in the near term that we're looking to use district money for is to replace the memorial field turf, which is getting old. It's not quite as bad as Doug White, but um, so this is money that would basically be relieving taxpayers of having to pay for that by us putting into capital stabilization, be able to pay for itself. Um, so I think hopefully I mean I don't think we really need to explain why we need the counseling support services. Um it's back there is the Delta is not fully covered on top of what um the foundation offered. We've also identified a need for counselors at All Night Live. We're working with them right now on that. And I think we're going to

125we are going to want to offer some summer supports. So I would I would suggest you leave the 50 and that would allow for any upcoming needs. I think the only question I have is and again I'm not a part of CPS so I don't I don't know if I even tore saying but it sounds like the trans or the transportation might be needed. So, do we want to strike the 50,000 knowing that we have some support coming in and more than likely can make other asks to maybe third parties and is there something? No. No, because this is transportation homeless. It's only region. Yep. Sorry. She was talking about transportation for is it any of it going to the region? Yeah, but we we'll we'll worry about it's much smaller much have the same

126issues going on there. It's like a tenth of them. Okay. So, you don't want to allocate the 50 back to the OPED? No, I don't think so. Okay. Um, you know, we we could when we vote, you could allocate um up to 50 and that you give us the flexibility to put more to capital stabilization. It turns out that would be my preference. Yeah. Okay. So, we'll just when we get to vote, we can word Smith it a little bit. We're at the boat. But but that 50. So out of that 50, so so 20 would cover those three interns probably, right? So about 20 and then you have 30 left over for any summer needs. Yes. Or even back to school needs. Yes. This is only to June 31st. Right. Right. Yeah. That's this

127fiscal year. This fiscal year. Yeah. When it becomes July, we'd have to figure out a way to pay for it on next year. Right. Um, so I I would say that when it comes to the vote, you you just vote as it is with an additional at the end um with flexibility for the district to repurpose some of the 50 to capital stabilization if it deems appropriate. That's the way to do it. Yeah. We don't need the right. Okay, that feels better. So, we do have a vote. Do we want to Okay, so do we want to make a motion um with those changes? So, we did notice towns on our new FY25 budget. Now, our FI25 budget is going to be lower because we don't have no PEP contribution. Do we have to notice

128anybody or we just gonna I'm just Well, I So, the the previous This will get I have seven days to notice them, but I'll send it tonight if you approve it. Right. So, it's going to be my math is about 150k lower the FY that we voted before. Is that right? Oh, no. So, uh, let me go back. So, we we our budget is going to we previously voted to increase it by 400,000. Now, we're just voting to use use that 400,000 a little bit differently, but it doesn't change the budget. Okay. Instead of instead of for the purposes we reallocation, technically Desi might view this as a budget transfer and not another END vote, but uh they advised me to present it this way and to share with the town. Yeah, sounds good. But

129we good. So the motion is the same as it was before because we're doing exactly what you said in the memo with the flexibility to um use some of the put some of the 50,000 towards capital stabilization if we um don't have need. Okay. So maybe I think the motion I move to approve the reallocation of the use of 400,000 in END funds that was previously approved on April 10th, 2025 for the purposes outlined in this memo and specifically to recognize that up to $50,000 be allocated to provide counseling and mental health services. But if such funds are not used, the delta will be allocated to capital stabilization. Thank you. Y I have a second. Seconded. Awesome. Any more discussion, questions? Okay. All in favor? I Thank you. Great. Thank you, CCF. No, thank you

130for Yeah, both of you. Cynthia, thanks for bringing that and Bob, thanks for responding so quickly. Um, all right. Right. Now we have the fiscal year 26 DESIE account alignment with fiscal year 26 CCRSC budget. Okay. So I don't know if Brian uh Julie heard this while I was presenting it before. Missed it. You don't have to go there. Oh yes. I'm sorry. Yes, I did hear that, but you can give us a cliff notes if you need to. Okay. So these are high level. These are not changing a penny of the budget how we're spending it. It's just reclassifying the accounts to comply with Desi's reporting requirements and to save us time on on reporting appropriately. Amen. And page one just outlines the purpose of what we're doing. Page two shows you the specific

131account changes and then the rest of the pages are um showing the budget that you have previously approved, a column for adjustments, and then the revised budgets. and I'm requesting approval for the revised budget um as we're showing there tonight. I move to approve the revised FY26 CCRSD presented. Seconded. Any discussion? All right. All in favor? I. Okay. Great. All right. amenities building warrant article. Um I do not have that one up cover. I don't have that. Yeah. Probably given over the sewer discussion. So we've been uh working closely with Alan Cathkart. He's talked to his board. We have uh we're on the agenda tomorrow night um to you know the default rule is when it's uh in peak capacity it's over a thousand that they they can't just blanket approve it. It has to

132go to the public commissions board. Um our peak capacity probably will be reached once a year um on graduation. Um Thanksgiving is not as well attended as it used to be because the change in the football playoff structure but um so the games are not as meaningful as they used to be. Um but those are the two days we have the most attendance and and the the typical volume is significantly less. So we've shared a lot of information in a memo about our usage, about our plans. Um they'll ultimately decide um to give us u we're looking to get uh permission to connect to the sewer right on on the access road there. Um and then they have the ability to assess a fee. It's kind of a standard fee based on a certain formula.

133um we have the right to ask for some um level of consideration for reduced fee. Whether or not they grant that I don't know but we have set aside I would say you know well enough a very safe very much of a safety net. Um the the cost estimate at 50% design was 1.7 million a little bit less than 1.7 but just round it up to 1.7. We have asked the two towns for 1,850,000. Um we're gonna we have a 100% design that's just done, but we don't have a cost estimate to go with it. Um there's an additional 150,000 um safety net there if there is some escalation. And on top of that, you've just um authorized 350,000 into capital stabilization. So between the 150 and 350, that's 500,000. I I can't imagine that

134that's going to be that much cost estimation. Do you know what the typical sewer hookup fee is? uh typical is small but ours could be up to 200,000 to 200,000 and we could ask for a reduction because we're a municipal entity. I did ask we'll see if it's granted. I mean I I I mean I've shared our usage. I think we you know we're we're going to use our capacity like once a year. Once a year, right? Okay. So um so that's tomorrow night. Um you know I did hear that you know there's no moratorum on you know new connections. It's not nec that's not the issue. It's just that there's a a process that directs it to the public works commission. So, we'll we plan to go there tomorrow night. I think um you

135know, we'd asked for some feedback on the memo before we sent it. It seemed to answer the questions they have. Um so, the next step is to go um and I think it'll be early in their meeting tomorrow night. Yeah, it's actually four o'clock tomorrow. Oh, four. Yeah, four. It's like night time for me, so it's good. Lucky for Bob, it's four o'clock. I know. Exactly. But again, like we, you know, we've the emails have been exchanged. I forwarded them to everyone. Like you've been talking about this with the group since for months. So, um, this is, you know, part for the course. Mhm. Um any difference in the scope of the project in terms of reducing the number of bathrooms or I don't think we're going to be allowed to reduce it any more

136than we can like through the plumbing board and the like we we are going to reduce the um sinks. What's another word for concession inside the the bathrooms? Yeah. Um just the sinks. The sinks. The sinks inside the bathrooms. Is there another one? He called us something else. And it's called something else. Fixtures. Fixtures. Is it fixtures? I mean, we're at the minimum for the plumbing code for um facilities. And then there's a waiver for the sink. And even in Brian's poster, which was excellent, by the way, if we can reference his poster, I think that's actually helpful. I mean, maybe we bring that to conquer town meeting, too, because I do think it's helpful when you see the number of bathrooms. It's not 44 bathrooms like Yeah. Oh, it's come down on a loted

137like a ton. Like I think there were like eight women's bathrooms. 17 bathrooms total. Yeah. So 17 bathrooms total. And when you break that up to family, gender neutral, like I mean it's not that many bathrooms, right? And we're the we are ADA compliant with this structure, right? And I do think that like the term amenities building is unfortunate. It is what the professionals use, but it is a bathroom house. Like literally it's toilets. And I plan to lead with that in Carile's town meeting on Sunday. Terrific. I like it's right and that is a thing to bring up is the Carile um town meeting is this Sunday. Um so that is the first kind of pass of the step or first step of this whole process and um Brian's done a great job working

138and Carl we've done the podcast he did the poster um a lot of education obviously we have the CP uh a funds coming if we get this approved. So, a lot of things are starting to to take off. Um, and I just want to echo again the finance committee, we had a really rich discussion um outside of the sewer stuff, but just really about cost and I just really appreciated the support. Um, but also the questions that they asked were really thoughtful and um it was just it was we really appreciated it. Um, Eric Dolberg and the rest of the team were were wonderful. Did you have to provide them any documentation or an application or anything? There is uh an application uh we get a copy of that uh I don't know if Gail

139Associates did it, right? I haven't seen it. I can I can forward if I when I get it. Yeah, sure. A copy of the sewer application is that to the department of uh public works commission. Sure. Yeah, there's a memo that has the appeal. Okay. Get that out. And Sven Weber has reached out. So, I'm going to try to connect with him as well. So, just schedules weren't working well. The day job gets in the way sometimes. Um, all right. Anything else? Bob, do you need any support from us tomorrow? I cannot attend. I'll be But the consultants from Gail Associates are going to attend. Okay. Um, so I'll I'll check in with him, but he's I'm there to support him. And yeah, that's very typical. Through the whole middle school project, I think I

140went to one permitting meeting. They professionally handle it correctly. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Do you want to ask about the preference for order or No, we just we should talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Um, so there's a question. You sum it up because you know. Okay. So, there's a question from Carmen about the um order of the articles and if we want this to be with the school articles or as a highinterest article on Tuesday night. I responded to that per Lor's request and our recommendation was given um the specific and unique circumstances for parents around the financial implications of attending town meeting I mentioned that our preference was to have to whatever was done was to ensure that all school related articles happened on the same night so that parents don't have

141a disproportionate burden I think it's great to have their voices heard in the Thank you. no democratic process. I guess I just wonder if we could have it first in the school articles or not. It would go out of order. I think one of you would follow up with Carmen. Yep. To suggest that. Okay. Is that originally reached out to you, but it was not good timing. So, Alexa answered as the conquered vice chair of the region. Yep. Because it needed to be a conquered. So if you can reach back out again to see I think it's a good suggestion. Okay. Y cuz it could triple off into the next day if it's last year related articles. I mean personally I think if we could do that as the first school article that would be

142my personal preference. So we ensure um 13 I don't know. Okay. I'll get it wrong. It's not high. No no it's not Monday teens. It should fit into Monday, but to ensure it fits into Monday when you know parents and people with young children that are contributing to like the Doug White Fields that pay fees like all over the place. I mean, they should have a voice in it. Yep. Absolutely. And we'll let you know what happens on Sunday. Great. I'll be there. Yes, Bob and I will be there. It's going to be exciting. I will not be there. We'll let you know what happens. We'll let you know. Um I'm really excited about the food trucks. conquered people are like, "They have food trucks. Why don't we have food trucks?" I'm like, "I don't

143know." Remember, it's Carla. We don't really have options for food otherwise. That's true. That's true. I think it's kind of a brilliant idea to food trucks. Food trucks for town meetings. Yes. Yeah. Awesome. He's excited now to come. 11. They were legal until last year. Do you know which ones are coming? Like it's a hungry nomad. For your town meeting. Yeah. Yeah. This weekend. A little different in Carile. All right. Uh moving to action items. CCHS trips, the football preseason trip to Naples, Maine. Um, this is an annual trip. Annual trip. Annual training trip by the CCHS football program. Right. Yep. So, I move to approve the uh football preseason trip to Naples, Maine. Second. Any discussion? Thanks to Coach Reed. Yeah. Yes. All right. All in favor? I. All right. Thank you. Great. Thank

144you, everyone. Um, let's see. We need to move into executive session. Somebody to I can do it. The conquered school committee and conquer Carle Regional School Committee will enter into an executive session under purpose two of open meeting law to discuss strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining CCHS tutors and transportation and not return to open session. Can't wait. Thanks everyone. speaking. Thanks, Michelle. Have a good night, guys. I mean, like that would be amazing. I don't know anything.