Concord Carlisle Joint School Committee March 25, 2025

001apologize. Good evening everybody and welcome uh to this evening's conquered and conquered carile school committee meeting. Um at this point we actually have a school choice hearing uh that I will now call to order. And Dr. Hunter, I think this is probably an opportunity for you to open it for both districts. I'm sorry. You have to open the public hearing for both districts. Is it for both? It's joint. So it's both. It's joint. Okay. So yeah, I guess you have to call to order, too. So I will call the conquer school committee to order. Great. You want me to take it from here? I think that probably makes the most sense. Absolutely. So annually, chapter 76, section 12B requires um that we consider our potential obligation to enroll students from other districts. We have the

002choice to withdraw and not participate, but it is an annual decision. So, it is proposed that the conquered carile school committees vote after the hearing on that issue. Um, it is my recommendation that we continue as we have both due to enrollments and due to space um to not participate in school choice. And there is not an equitable or adequate transportation system in addition to enrollments and space to allow all students to be able to attend in another district. and we would not want to foster any denial of participation. So that is my recommendation. Um and you're welcome to continue your hearing. So is there any comment on school choice at this time from anyone in the audience or on Zoom? Seeing none, um I suppose at this point we can either enter into discussion

003ourselves or take or I could also entertain a motion. I move that the conquered and conquered Carlile school committees vote to not participate in school choice for the school year 2025 2026. Do I have a second? Seconded. Um anyone want to discuss any points? Take note of what Dr. Hunter mentioned. I think just given everything that Dr. Hun mentioned about transportation etc. I'm in support of not participating. Yeah. Like to me the transportation is the key here. Yeah. It seems pretty cut and dry just based on that. So y um all right. So hearing a second and a discussion. Um, everyone in favor of the motion met by Miss Morano. I for I for both. I for both. Okay. All right. So, at this point, I will close our hearing on school choice and move

004into our regular business meeting. Um, we'd love to start with our student update. I see Maddie available online. Oh, and you're there with Daria. Looking good, girls. Thanks for being with us. Okay. Um, so this past weekend, um, IQ Fest was held on Saturday at 8 and it was really fun. I know a lot of my friends went and a lot of my friends performed and it was just a really good time for a lot of the CCHS peers to, you know, get together and have fun, listen to music. Um, the tenacity challenge was also last weekend and we sadly did not make it to like the the finals, but uh, our team did have a really fun time making all of their uh, art projects, doing a lot of the math uh, assignments and

005it was just a really fun uh, way to like come together and go to other schools. Um, last week student senate hosted the annual blood drive which is in partners with the conqueror or sorry the children's hospital of Boston and pretty much this big truck comes into the parking lot. Students can sign up and they can go out and donate their blood which is a really great event. And then we also had wellness week last week which happened all week and there were different things every day like there was taichi in the morning which is led by Mr. Jared who's a math teacher here. There's also hoops for hearts on Friday, which is a really fun event where you can go into the gym and you can chew hoops and parents donate to um a

006fund for um heart heart health, right? Yeah. Okay. And then there's also a fun Friday on Friday as well, which is super fun. There was a hydration station which pretty much emphasizes hydrating your body and keeping yourself healthy during these um winter into spring weeks. And also last week we had the CCHS alumni panel where a lot of alumni who went to CCHS and they had different paths after high school. They came and they shared their stories and I think it was a really interesting assembly because we could see a lot of different paths you can take after high school and just see where people went and get ideas for your own life in the future. Yeah, a lot of my friends thought it was really helpful and very informative. Um, today actually we had

007the desi mechco meeting. Uh it was the department of secondary education or elementary and secondary education came to talk about our mechco program and see things that worked see things that didn't work to see what they can implement in other schools and see what we could take from other schools as well and that was really informative and I feel like we learned a lot about each other and about the medical program and I feel like it was a really important um little meeting that we had together and it was fun. So, uh, we also had the ELA MCAST both today and tomorrow. Um, the schedule was flipped today, so it was a little confusing at the beginning, but um, we figured it out. And yeah. Yeah. And that's for sophomores. I was a little confused

008by the schedule. I ended up going to gym when I was supposed to be in my English class, but we figured it out. It was okay. And then, um, ongoing and upcoming, we have the end of our quarter, which is happening this Friday. So, we're trying to get our last grades in for that. and seniors are starting internships, which I guess you might know a little bit more about. Um, yeah, a lot of my friends are they they're finishing signing up and getting ready to go to their internships next quarter. So, instead of like actually going to their like classes, they're um going to internships for like the remainder of the school year. And yeah, and that's all for us. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Have a good night. Thank

009you. Um, and at this point, if you see our audience, you'll see we have a great deal of student participation. We would love to move into our recognitions, starting with Theo Remington, who made it by the skin of his teeth, I see. Glad you guys got here. Um, he is our state champion in skiing. So, I don't know if you want to say a few words or if there's someone to say a few words with you. Congratulations. Yoda, you want to come talk about your season just a little bit with them? Uh, sure. Yeah. Just tell us what the season brought because obviously that ended really well. You can sit You can sit down with us. Yeah. Pull up a chair. All right. So, I guess my regular season consists of a bunch of races

010with like local schools and I went pretty well. I actually won the league. Um, and then went on to states, which I wasn't expecting to do as highly as I did, but I uh put down a good race and the conditions were kind of uh crazy. The snow was super wet, which was not not normal, I guess. And uh I guess I I had a good race. And where was the RA? Where was the state championship? It was held at Birkshire East, which is in Western Mass. They still had wet snow out there. Yeah, I know. It was really It was like 60 that day. It was normal for skiing. There you go. Yeah. Season was great. The Car Carell Alpine team also did really well. The boys finished first for public schools, but second

011overall because uh St. St. John's Prep, I think, won the title. Soccer, St. John's Prep skiing, we really put a damper in it for all of us. The season was great. Team, I'm sure, had a lot of fun. We sent a lot of people to states this year. It was a really great experience. Great race as well. That's so exciting. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Of course. Thank you so much. Additionally, we don't just excel in the sports courts. Um, we also have our CCHS Science Olympiad team here this evening. And I don't know who would like to make a few words um on your behalf, but anybody, we'd love to hear from you. I saw a trophy, too. So, maybe Oh, wow. The advisers are here and the whole team. Great. Come on out. Cheers. You

012can all come up. Thank you all for coming. Maybe we need a picture, too. Yeah. Yeah, we'll definitely get a picture. There you go. Cynthia, that's a spare chair next to you, right? So, while they're getting settled, this was an event that especially at the culmination of the season. I think we lived it in real time a little bit. Um, one you had to do a quick approval. Remember that extra meeting you called and then it snowed the day they went. So, um, we got through all of that and they made it and they're here to tell us about what a success it was. Yeah. This was the trip to Dartmouth, right? Yes. Okay. Out of state. That's right. Yeah. So, um, this club was founded. Tell us who you are. Oh, yeah. So, um,

013my name is Evan. These are pretty much captains. Yeah, we should. Yeah, I'm Chinzy. You can also call me Kevin. I'm Gabrielle. I'm Maggie. I'm Asha. I'm Noah. Kevin, Sharon Stagger's Moss. Evelyn. Yeah. So, um, this club was just an idea that, you know, we just are this group of friends had just eating lunch one day and we just wanted to see if we could, you know, as high schoolers do something like this. like we would like we didn't even think that our club would like we just wanted to see if we could even exist and if we can do something like this. Um and so you know this amazing group of people um together we worked hard to to really learn how to lead a team of students and to know what it takes

014to bring together um other high school students to uh work toward a competitive goal. And through the process, I think the most important thing is that we as high schoolers get this training so early on um so that it can apply later in our lives and for the rest of the team too. Um and though I think our dart success is really just a culmination of that of our values of creating systems, not focusing on motivation. Um and so that we for example we have like structured practice testing dates and we make sure that um our captains keep all the logistics. We have captain's meetings every week. Um and you know we also just value keeping our team really socially connected because that is something um that you know we that really matters to team

015success team success because like what is going to keep you studying up until like 10 11 p.m. like like you we are working for the person sitting next to us and um yeah this and our amazing amazing amazing coaches Miss Moss who's been with us every step of the way um treats us like a mother and we A um and Mr. Penucci who's just always been behind the scenes doing all logistical work including ordering buses um getting schedules made and just he's just been the backbone of our club at CC. It's just been so amazing. Yeah. And I just want to add something because this club wasn't like the easiest to start. So myself freshman year we asked to start the club. We got a no because don't know why the sc uh the science

016department didn't want to start one. And then we tried again the next year and again we faced a lot of challenges like funding and getting enough students to want to join because CC um historically has been a pretty sporty school less about focusing on academics. So recently with the introduction of the science olympiad team this year we grew so much more than last year and last year we were just trying to figure out our steps and this year we had a lot of big goals and we achieved a lot of success. I I'd like to say that working with the six captains, yes, I have six captains and we do meet and we discuss, we plan. They have been the most um it's been my pleasure. I try not to cry. Um it's they are

017dedicated. You don't know that they give up weekends. Now, when I was that age, I wouldn't give up a weekend, but they give up weekends to study. They gave up a Saturday of vacation week so that we could leave at five leave at 5:00 a.m. to go to Dartmouth and there was a snowstorm and so we had to rush back so we I didn't get caught in it. So this is their dedication and not only did they do number one at Dartmouth, they also were 11th in the state. And you're talking last year, their first year they were 39th. So I Wish I could say it's all because of me, but no, it's because of them. A beautiful. You guys are a real inspiration and I don't know if you planned that um unbelievably eloquent

018explanation of your whole experience or if you spoke off the cuff. If you spoke off the cuff, I'm even more impressed. Um, I know words don't even cover. And then your emotion. I mean, I'm really, really, really happy for you guys. So wonderful. What a testament to your teamwork and your dedication to your mentorship, Sharon. So, thanks. Thank you. And good for you. Yeah. Good for you for sticking with it, though. Like when when they said no for the first year, you So, most of your juniors, I think most of your juniors, right? So, you stuck with it and you persevered and you kept asking. So that's I mean that is a huge life lesson and then your success is even better. So you know I'm sure your teachers have really done a great job

019with this but you guys also put the work in. So thank you to both Kevin and Sharon and for your leadership but also for the six captains because I'm sure most of you are probably captains. Good for you. Can can you just talk about the Dartmouth competition? Like what was it like? What was the goal? I see it. It was honestly um like for forever I really liked Dartmouth. It was like my first choice of college and then I went there in February and it's so cold. They have tunnels. They have tunnels under all the buildings. So that's I don't know if that's true, but we were on um we were on the bus on the way there at 5:00 a.m. and it was so cold even with the heating. And then when we got

020there, the campus is actually pretty big, too. And so we had to walk from our like classroom to like the competition area and back and forth and it's so much snow. So I may be considering going south. This is amazing. You guys come to every meeting. That's about the logistics and more about the competition itself. Competition a little bit for those who don't know about the competition. Like we can go one by one introduce our thing. You guys want to do that? Who wants to? You guys want So from a coach's standpoint, each students the students paired up and they it's like the Olympics where you have your events and so there's STEM events, their test events, and their building events. So and it they got was it an hour? Would you guys 50 minutes

021that they had to do their event and so they had to be very organized in okay you finish one event you had to make sure you had the tools that you needed for the next event. It might be you needed to have safety glasses and a calculator and a ruler and then or in the case of helicopter you need to make sure you brought the helicopter and the bungee cord. You had to make sure you brought the bungee cord and you had to have a log and testing. So, it was it was all day. Did you guys know like what the task for want of a better word would be in advance? So, you could come prepared. Each of us are for like hour like blocks of an hour in which we do events. Um

022the ones that I do personally are astrophysics and like spring physics are two things that I focus on. And then we have other people. You do anatomy and physiology. Um ecology, a bunch of other events like that which you have studied for, put the preparation in for nights before. Um, and then you take tests or you test your the device that you built and you're ranked among other students from other schools. And that's kind of like the structure of it. I think there are 20some events in total, 24 maybe. And yeah, we were able to cover all of them, which is just another testament to a bond of this. How many of you are in the the group total? I know you have six captains. Uh, we bring to each event 15 members in the

023club. In total though, I think that frequently showing up we would have about 20 members that we that we would be able to call on if we were to go to another one of these tournaments. And for Dartmouth, I'm not sure. You're allowed 20 people total. Five alternates, 15 people on the main team. And the same thing about that in the state the state champion state competition, you're allowed 15 and then you could have five alternates. It's tough to choose as well. It is. sometimes tough to narrow it down to 20 people despite the fact that might seem like a lot, but it's good you have that many to choose from. Yeah, last year we had we couldn't fit all the events because last year there wasn't enough kids on one. It was really special.

024We just took our team photo for this year because we get all dressed up in our lab coats for every so it's a very funny thing that we have these lab codes and so last year it was just I don't even know how many maybe like nine. Nine. And so which is majority captains and then three other people I think. And so that was really special to compare this year's photo where we have like two or three rows of kids and we're all like lined up like hugging and stuff. And it's really special just to compare those two and just see how big our team has grown and the success that's come with it. Great. Excellent. Congratulations. The best. Thank you guys for coming and taking the time. Yeah. Did you guys want to do

025a picture? Let's Can we Can we all Can we all do a picture? And Theo, you too, if you're still here. You want to take a picture for me? I keep trying to get out of pictures. It's not working. All right. All right. You can do it. They want me to [Music] [Applause] remember. Congrats. That's awesome. That's so cool. And your sister Thank you so much. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] There she is. We didn't get the trophy. All right. Um, now I'm going to turn it over to Carrie and Lori. Um maybe we get a quick chair's report and then a superintendent update and off you go. I have just a couple things. One, um I just want to um welcome Michelle McDougall. She is um going to be our

026new MECO rep. We are she's here tonight um just as a as a guest and then we will look forward to welcome her to the committee um at our next meeting or we'll we'll figure out the next steps. I know we're in Carile next meeting, so we'll figure out the next steps. But anyway, welcome. We're very excited to get to know you and um welcome you to the table. So, thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. Yay. Thank you. And um a very big thank you to Aisha who um had so many conversations and um really spearheaded the effort to try to um get someone to join us at the table. So, thank you. Um I also so there the select board announced a land matrix committee um at one of their recent committee meetings and

027um so I will be looking for volunteers for that if anybody's interested. You don't have to volunteer. Don't everybody speak up. Just conquered. So this is just conquered. Yeah. So this is um the kind of the select board is going to be looking at the holistically at the land that's available or will become available in the years to come and um thinking about how to best use that land. Um and this is a committee of basically committees other people other committees who will be um coming together and talking about that. So they've asked that a school committee member be a member on the committee. So, if anybody's interested, just shoot me an email and we'll talk about it. Do you know is there like a a term or like is there an expectation of how

028long the committee will meet? I don't know that, but I can find out. It's not a it's it's going to have a it's going to have an end and a beginning. Yeah. Do we know what it is? I would say it's usually between a year and a year, you think? Okay. And do you know when the meetings are going to be and when they're going to start? Who knows? I don't think it's that I think it's still in the like creation and development phase. Yeah. Okay. Um then the last is the we have I have a reminder that our next meeting I just said this is in Carlilele. Um it is going to be a I believe a regional meeting only. Um so just for the it won't be a joint meeting just for CCHS.

029Um all of us will still be there. We are going to be meeting in Carile and we welcome people to join us at that um at that meeting. Is that their townhouse? No. Town hall. Town hall. Town hall. Yes. Um and then I also wanted to address um some feedback that's been shared about um the thorough playground. So first I just want to say publicly a very large thank you to the incredible group of volunteers who have raised nearly half a million dollars. I think they're like $596,000 um towards this playground. It's an incredible feat and um this is an entirely donorfunded um initiative. So if it becomes a reality, it will be because of this very very amazing group of people. Um also recently a few um a few parents have raised concerns about

030the accessibility of the playground um in this the accessibility of the playground's current design which is in its conception phase. Um so the playground will come init eventually come to the school committee for um a full vote a full committee vote. Um and this current vision is um to support fundraising efforts and really to further the conversation about the playground and the need for the playground. Um so but ultimately the school committee will vote on the design once the fundraising has been complete. Um earlier this week Dr. Hunter and I had an opportunity to sit down with these parents and um we talked about um our shared vision for this for this playground and um I think we are all committed to maintaining open communication um and uh working together in a collaborative spirit moving

031forward and we uh don't know what a solution will look like at this point. Um but we are working towards that um together and um we will ensure that this is a space where all kids can enjoy play. Um so that is that's the thorough playground but ultimately thank you to everyone involved and a big thank you to the community for their generosity towards the um the project as well. Awesome. Those are the my updates I need. Want me to jump in? it agreed that you know I'm stay I stay close and the numbers are just outstanding and impressive and thank you to the community for the response on on building a new playground over there along with all the other projects we're working through and CPC funding coming at town meeting hopefully and anyway

032more updates to come on all of that um I just wanted to follow up on uh Zarya's comments about the desi visit this morning they were here to listen and learn about MECO so we met with them as administ administrators. Then we went to the high school as you heard where we had students with them and we went to Alcott and I think they heard again it's not formal visit. It really is just information gathering and intake on what what a day in the life is and talking with the kids about that and what the kids think's working and what we could all work on. And we obviously shared some of our opinions too. But a kudos to the leaders in the district who put students centered at the visit um including Andrew Namichi who's

033on uh family leave right now because that that was just really really important whether it was their student voices and our students as typical their voices are willing they want us to hear them. So it wasn't a silent room which already impressed Desi that they weren't sitting there with kids who weren't willing to talk. Um not at all. And then to get to the elementary school and a second grader toured them around and then we had lunch with first graders and we were able to even, you know, how many of you have siblings and I think it just brought the whole program to a level of humanizing it. Their questions when they came in were about funding and enrollment process. And I think by the time they left, they're like, "Wow, there's a" And we

034were not the first district. They were getting to everybody eventually. I I just you could see in them they're like, "Oh, it's actually about kids." And um that was one of our biggest goals. So, but our kids were just really shining this morning. It was really fun to be part of that which I didn't think was how the day was going to go. Desi visit fun in the same words. I wouldn't have predicted that. Um sounds like Daria felt similarly. Yeah, she really she was very articulate. Zarya. Yeah, she was very articulate and um I think this experience here has helped her grow because she's done four years of this. So, a lot of them had different experiences that they were able to reference and talk on. But we didn't sugarcoat it either. They appreciated

035our honest and open, you know, storytelling and uh took that in. What's the output of that? Is it is it We don't know. It's just I I really from everything I'm hearing as they set up the um meetings and then set up talk with us as superintendents. They're just trying to really understand the program. Okay. So, they're not making decisions in a vacuum, which right, kudos, right? We're pretty excited when they when they say that. So, yeah. Um it was nice it wasn't high stakes. I think that was really important actually. They really got an authentic view that um didn't have all the what are you going to write and what are we going to have to follow up on and all that. It was really just taking it all in. Uh middle school we'll

036talk for a few minutes here. So we are in phase two actively. Uh the mods most two out of the three structures are down and ready to be removed in their debris status. So, that's been really another big benchmark to watch that start to happen over on that site. Um, we're working with the design team and all the same people are still at the table talking now on phase two and whatever tweaks we need to do in the new building. Um, overall this first month has just been really really successful. Um, I've been able to talk with teachers and kids and teachers are already naming the lift it's given to their instruction. um the things that they're able to do now that they either was hard to do or impossible to do. They've already opened

037the walls up in a few few places a couple of times for larger group meetings or activities. So, it's just really fun to hear them start to talk about the vision coming to life. Um so, that's been great. And, uh I think from here, you know, we're at the table. The building committee asked last week how long they were signed up for. I'm like, till every bill is paid. So phase two is due to end a August into September which is when we expect all the fields to be um in their infancy and we can start to wrap that up but the bills will trickle in probably for another few months. So we're we're still nine months from full completion I would say. Um it's exciting as the spring has hit and we can get

038back because there's a even at the original site there's a lot of landscape work to do and things to to go back to that the winter you know frozen time. So, um, it's exciting to get to all of that, too, and keep making the site become what it's really going to be down the road. Uh, conquered Possibilities. I want to highlight our grand opening is Friday. From then on, we will be open Monday through Friday, uh, 9 to 2:15ish school hours for now. There's a lot of vision of going past that, but for now, that's where we are. So, really hoping people will come out. There'll be a event at 11 o'clock on Friday to really note the grand opening, but we're just super excited. The signs are up. If you haven't seen them, they're

039really, really nice and in that subtle, you know, modest way that um fits the whole demeanor over there. So exciting. Super exciting. Um more to come as we get active and really an active space. I just want to plug cuz I had the the good fortune of going over there on the soft opening. The merchandise is like really good, really good, really affordable and um really like conquered spirit. I I I just thought I was really impressed with the quality of what these kids turned out and they're and they're ma they're selecting it all and of in some cases they're making it by hand. So um I just thought it was actually kind of awesome. It was really fun. It's really fun. So there was a realized niche that I think they have run with

040which is that it's really hard to get spirit wear on a on demand. There's a lot of ordering and waiting, but if you need it for tomorrow's spirit day, there's not a really easy opportunity and they have run with that idea. It is the elementary school shirts especially. So they were so fun here for every building, every school. Um, they're using the Cricut machine like pros out back there, which is fun to see. Crafty. And I'm hearing the kids already talk about, you know, I'd really like to consider such and such. Like they're already noticing things they want to work on and include going down the road. This is great. There's a lot of business thought already happening. So, really exciting. Um, other updates. Uh, I reached out just I guess to parallel Carrie's comments

041about last uh public comment. I followed up with Mark, who's a dad I've known for many years, and talked with him about his anti-Semitic concerns, which we've named. We have the same concern. Um, since that meeting, he's been able to connect me with Kam Shalom here in town, and I have a meeting on the books um, in a week or two with the rabbi there. So, that's the goal, right? is we just all keep collectively working together on whatever these issues are and talking about different ideas and strategies, support to us, support to families, and um just try to keep better and better at it. So, I appreciate that that turned into a really productive um next steps. And then finally, I guess I needed to give this a little shout out. The Conquered Police

042Department has a new police puppy. He is eight weeks old. His name is Thor. He's traveling with our SRO, Sam Simpson. He is the cutest thing ever. I might have held him for a little while this afternoon. Uh but we're really excited. He'll be that dog that is around and in the schools with her all the time and the comfort mindset. Um of course, right now he's getting a lot of attention anyway, but he's comforting in his own little way. Um but we're really excited for that initiative. Carile's actually been ahead on that one. We met I forget the dog's name there. Yeah, we met her. Oh, back when she was a puppy. So, we're excited Conquer's following suit and um just more presence and obviously it sets a tone in what their goal is

043in being in the building. So, those are my updates. Great. Thank you. All right. Um we will move into public comment. I don't see any blue forms at the table, but if you are either online or in the room, um all right, you can approach the mic. Um I'll start in the room. Uh public comment as we note um is for you guys. You have three minutes to speak. Um but I just a reminder that our meetings are in the public, not with the with the public. So we don't um engage in any back and forth. Um all right. All right. Colleen Walston, Hawthorne Village. Um I was so takenback by Dr. Hunter's comment that she felt validated about the district's literacy program after she attended a portion of a talk with Kareem Weaver, a

044prominent literacy advocate that the CPAC put on. To be clear, conquered is a balanced literacy district. We are not a district that uses evidence-based structured literacy. Since Dr. Hunter became superintendent, the district has wasted a tremendous amount of time and money on fontis and panel products and trainings. Students suffered through years of pointless so-called RTI, now edu branded MTSS, using leveled literacy intervention, a curriculum designed to teach students to guess at words. Teachers at the elementary level have received training through Leslie Literacy Collaborative and use Fontis and Infinel Classroom as their core curriculum. As the district has published literacy plans and updated curriculum maps over the last couple of years, I noticed that the district referred to their literacy programming as quote evidence-based. But while they published the names of some phonics and phmic awareness

045curricula for foundational skills, any mention of the core curriculum brand was deliberately not published. The level of marketing the district engages in is disturbing when they should be practicing full transparency instead. The district's 5-year strategic plan for 2018 to 2023 stated that improving the MCCAST performance of underperforming subgroups was a goal. During this period, the superintendent and school committee continued to spend money on educational pseudocience. MCCAST scores did not improve and the strategic plan beginning in 2023 mentions no such goal. Where the district used to opine about students reaching their potential, they now write about multiple paths to success. And I have to wonder if that is a coded message. You will not all learn to read here. Routinely, students with disabilities, low-income students, and black students are reading proficiently less than a third of

046the time. Conquer is presently seeking to hire extended schoolyear teachers, listing, quote, "Knowledge and experience teaching leveled literacy intervention, LLI, to struggling readers is preferred." I was also surprised by comments that Alexa Anderson, when interviewed by the local newspaper, she cited being proud of her work on reading, and she credited parents who helped educate her. I am not sure how recently the Enlightenment has occurred, but I worked pretty hard to implore you several years ago to stop using low-quality materials. And while you listened for a while, you simply would not learn and continually spent taxpayer money on garbage. So to the administration and school committee, you have been asked to stop using LLI and fontisipanel classroom. You have been asked to apply for grants for highquality curricula to replace your low-quality curricula. You have been

047asked to commit to not spending any more time or money on low-quality materials and professional development. You have refused to do any of this. If you are to replace the garbage with something new in the near future, it is essential that all decisions be transparent, that you engage with independent professionals, experts in the areas of structured literacy to educate you on the why and the how of the changes. It's essential that the professional development and coaching be robust, and that you reject any materials that encourage guessing at words, otherwise known as three queuing. Your history has demonstrated that not only can you not be trusted to make literacy decisions alone, you can't really be trusted to make these decisions for our children at all. All right. And moving online, can we promote Betsy Olsen Macowski?

048Hi, Betsy. Hello. Thank you. Um, uh, do we need to say our address? No, you. Anyway, uh, 1741 Wedgewood Common and I'm sorry, my light is very bad right now. Okay, there. Um, I have something written down that I was going to share. Um, and okay, so this is a different topic and then I'll I'll come back. Um, I apologize. Let me get my screen up. Okay. Um so my comment is about the connection from the rail trail to the new middle school. Um those who are able will continue to access the school from the Bruce Freeman rail trail demonstrating the clear demand for this connection. However, the truly forwardthinking and equitable solution is to create a fully ADA accessible path, ensuring safe and inclusive access for all. While this requires an investment, it is

049a long-term infrastructure improvement that will benefit the entire town, expanding opportunities for safe, active transportation, and amplifying the economic and business advantages the rail trail already brings. Investing in accessibility is investing in the town's future. Okay. Um and then I just wanted to um echo some of the things that uh Colleen said. Um just I have a big concern about um the inequity of the reading scores in our district. Um and um and also um I've just I've just known many families that have just struggled and it's been really heartbreaking um especially when we have researchbased curriculum that's already out there. Um that's all. Thank you so much. Thank you, Betsy. Anyone else in the audience? Seeing none, I don't see any more hands raised online either. Um yeah, before we move on, I just

050want to note that in coming meetings, um we will be presenting on the reading work we're doing. We have three reading science of reading programs that are being considered and one will be chosen by the end of the year to complement the phonics and foundations and all those research and science of reading based programs. So Shel will be bringing that in the spring. So invite everyone to come and listen for that. And then just in terms of the connection from the middle school to the Bruce Freeman rail trail, I actually have had multiple conversations on this topic, including one this afternoon, um the slope of the hill between the building and the trail is very challenging. Um being ADA compliant with that steep of a pitch um brings a lot of challenge. So there's a

051lot of discussion going on about it. I just feel like it's worth saying it's just not there's not easy answers. We all believe in the need and want to figure something out. Um, but it's not as easy as it sounds. So, we are actively talking about it. All right. All right. I think we can wrap up our public comment. Um, we do have a consent agenda before us. Uh, and I would like to take a motion to approve the consent agenda. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda for March 25th, 2025. Do I have a second? Seconded. I guess in a consent agenda there's really no discussion. So all in favor I I for both. I for both. Thank you very much. Can I just highlight there's a donation here of a grand

052piano to the middle school. Big deal. It's a very generous donation and it um allowed us to take that cost out of the project. So we're really grateful for someone thinking to have the schools benefit in that kind of way. Yeah, there was a lot of action on that online that I saw. So, I'm I'm glad it panned out. It did. Wonderful. Very successful. Well, great news. Uh, all right, we'll move into correspondence. I am unprepared for this. I um am not the chair, so just filling in. So, the I think it was all cell phone. Okay. Um, we had one uh request about or email about um equipment for the music department at CMS and the into CPS. Um, and then we had probably another we had a records request. Mhm. We had one

053records request for the district um about public correspondence um between the committee and the public um and I think another one to like 10 um cell phone emails. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thanks for the summary. All right. And at this point, we are excited to bring up our two co-principles, Brian Miller and Katie Stall, to talk about our challenge success program at um the high school. Hello. Everybody made it through. Yes. Day one. Day one tomorrow. Yeah, it went well. So, thanks um for inviting us to talk a little bit about challenge success. Um we shared a slide deck earlier, so we're not going to um do any slides today. Just maybe highlight a few things and then answer any questions or have a conversation a little bit. So, right. So, we've been working with challenge

054success for nearly a decade. Um a sort of co we hit a little pause. there was other things to focus on and then a couple years ago we re-engaged and that was one of the big pieces that um drove our new spell schedule was coming out of challenge success and we look to identify um sort of some different priority areas that Katie is going to talk about. Um so last year we kind of um rebranded our work uh challenge success 2.0 now um just because during COVID there was a little bit of a slowdown with some of the work that we were doing. Um so last year we really focused um kind of on three buckets um with our challenge challenge success work. Um one of them being a well- balanced schedule. So really trying

055to look at students and make sure that you know they're not having schedule overload. um creating a caring and collaborative and respectful uh respectful school and really looking at um some of the com the culture of competitiveness and why that's happening and how to kind of combat that. Um and then looking at a strong sense of resilience in coping skills or lack thereof for students and ways that we can help um try to build some of those skills with students. So we have given this challenge success survey. This is the third time we've given it and it's really nice because it's we have sort of have this nice longitudinal data over you know eight or nine years. So we're just going to highlight a few of the things that we thought that we that stood

056out to us. Um so something that we're really proud of and something that um the challenge success folks told us that they rarely if not they haven't ever seen is the word fun come up as one of the most used words to describe the school. And so we um had that as one of our results in 2021 and we had it again in 2024 which was something we're really proud of because as you all know um a big goal of ours is for the kids to really feel joy at school um feel a sense of belonging and to have fun while they're there. They spend a lot of time there. Um so that was something we were happy about. Um, another piece that is that we're happy about, but also an area of focus is

057uh this idea of teacher care and support and noting that 77% of students feel like they have an adult to go to if they have a problem. And while we think that that's good, we know that that still means that, you know, almost six kids in a classroom of 24 maybe don't feel like that. Now this survey was also given in the fall so the freshman numbers are understandably lower but something that we recently did um to do that is we in one of the back rooms in the library we put up uh every student's picture. So we had 1,200 something students pictures on the wall um sorted by grade and teachers went through and identified who do they have a strong connection with and that that allowed us to sort of note who doesn't

058what students don't have a strong connection and then at the faculty meeting the following week we identified those students who we know could use a little bit more support and we had our faculty members sort of who we know are really good at making connections offer for some really tangible moves that they do in their own classroom or their own space. They're not all classroom teachers um to help sort of close this gap and how can we get the rest of the 23% to feel that way. And that relationship mapping activity was something that Brian's been talking about since I got to CCHS. So, it was really exciting to actually have it come to fruition and really do it. And like Brian said, I mean, I think I think we were really pleased to see

059how many kids, you know, have connections and how many, you know, adults felt that they had strong connections with kids, but being mindful of the students who just may have fewer, um, is something that we really hope will benefit them in the future with teachers really being intentional about, you know, making connections with them. Um, I think there's one more here. The other thing that this survey sort of highlighted for us, so we've been really trying to take a hard look and using our data, but um something that we've known, but this survey highlighted was this idea of our gender non-binary, gender queer, gender non-conforming students um h are absolutely a subgroup that are really struggling. Um, so like I said, we've been using a lot of data to look at race, ethnicity, special education

060status, low income status, but that's just not one that frankly is as easy to pull out, right? Like we don't report that to on Edwin or something like that. So it's not something so you need a different surve survey tool. And I think that that has um that's something that we are talking about on what do we want to do for the spring to make sure that all of these students have feel experienced a sense of belonging. Um so just another area to highlight from our data from the student survey was just time spent on homework. Um this is also something that I think that we felt really good about. In 2016 students reported that they were spending 2.8 hours of homework per evening. 2021 two and a half. And this year it was down

061to 2.1. Obviously that is, you know, different for for every student, but that is the trajectory that we do want time spent on homework um going. We want it going down and not up. So we felt really good about that. Um and that actually kind of piggybacks and also relates to the other data point we wanted to talk about, which is sleep. Um, so we all know that sleep is somewhat of a challenge for teenagers and adolescence and something that they don't always get enough of. Um, so in 2016 our students were averaging 6.7 hours a night. 2021 6.9 and this year we were over seven at 7.1 which felt really good. And also um Pam who's our challenge success coach said that that's something that she rarely sees in a high school. um students

062getting seven hours which I know sounds shock shocking to me um who you know I can't imagine getting six only six or five hours of sleep at night um but um that's that's what she sees um and her with her work in other schools. So we felt really good about that for our students. Yeah, those were two areas that sort of started our work with child success nine years ago. why we wanted to start doing the work is we felt like kids were doing too much homework and this sort of conflation of rigor versus the just time. So um those have felt really good because I like our faculty has really tried hard to give more meaningful but and more targeted but sort of less homework right even if every class gave 30 minutes you're

063taking five classes right there's two and a half hours before you've started um so can I ask you guys a question I don't mean to interrupt do you guys have a sense of what the right amount like do you have a goal for what the right amount of homework is. Like do you is that a thing that you banter about? That's a common question. Yeah. I mean I feel so I I don't think it's research based but I sort of ascribe I like this idea of 10ish minutes per grade which meant like so if you were in ninth grade you'd have roughly 90 minutes. If you were in 10th grade you'd have roughly 100 minutes. So like a seniors to have two hours of homework. Now I if it will I do wonder right so

064the homework is that including their I think flex block has also made a huge difference in kids ability to get work done during the academic day. I can speak to that personally with my child. Yes. Yeah. I mean I think it's made a huge difference for a lot of kids who who really and not all kids use that time and that's okay. That's not what they need. But a lot of kids do use that time to to get started on homework or work on group assignments and things like that. So I don't think there's a there's a perfect answer for homework, but I think it's something that, you know, it's one piece of the puzzle in a very busy day that students have on top of other things, you know. So it's just something that

065I think so there's no industry standard. Well, there is like clear research that says like it after a point roughly about like there's no benefit, right? So you don't just need to like keep adding on and on and on. Okay. And kids need to sleep and maybe have dinner with their parents once in a while and talk to them. Talk to them or whatever. So hard to get that. Yeah. Do you have any tips on that? I know. Making the children I know more talkative. We'll work on making them available and you can work on the Okay, great. It's a partnership. The other thing that felt really good from the survey was students were asked um from a pick list like what things do they think could help help kids improve your school experience or

066be less stressed. And um they cited no homework on weekends or over breaks and reducing homework load. And those were two things that we started a long time ago and that was really affirming that we have one sort of no homework weekend a month and that we or we don't have homework anymore over vacations. And so those two things have been um nice. And they also talked about having teachers coordinate due dates um for major projects and assessments. And that's definitely something that happens in the nth grade academy um as kids are transitioning from middle school to high school which I know is really um a gamecher for a lot of students um and not something that we kind of had before without the academy. And then they also t um cited opportunities for more

067hands-on learning um in active learning, real world projects, field trips, things like that, which is definitely something that um you know we're trying to do more and more of. And then we just wanted to share a little bit about like sort of the work that we done in this sort of challenge success 2.0 or 3.0. Um so as I said we have worked on we have a new bell schedule that it's hard to believe we've only had for three semesters but it's just become so ingrained in what we do. And then we through challenge success we took the feedback about that our first day first year with like the early releases needed a little tweak. They were calling them hanger days and they were hungry. there wasn't a long enough lunch and that kind of

068stuff. So, we took the feedback and we Hunger Wednesdays, hunger Wednesdays and um yeah, so we took that and I think that this year those days have gone nicely. Um I think some other things that we've kind of always done, but um I think we've been able to do on a greater scale with our challenge success work, especially with the addition of flex block, is to have student fishbowls where we can really have targeted sessions with students. We had 50 kids. Um was that last week or the week before? Yeah. You know, in the last week and a half, we had 50 students come and all of our different challenge success um working groups kind of had our questions and we able we were able to get student feedback on their experience and what their

069thoughts were on certain things, which is so valuable for us. Um and something that we really take into consideration to make change. Um, we talked about we got again student feedback on the way midyears were scheduled and could we have like a day of reading period before where they or two when teachers aren't allowed to give a test because they were saying you know I just had this math test on Friday and now exams start Monday and that I just haven't had time to review or we talked a little bit about where does this makeup exam block go and they asked could we have it in the middle because it gave us in the winter can we have it in the middle because it gave us a little break and we can catch our breath

070and get some help. So that was just straight from student feedback. We didn't wasn't something we thought of. Right. And I think you heard in the student update from Zarya, um we just had another alumni panel and this one was kind of like you know not the straight and narrow path like you know students who took a different route and talked about what they're doing now. And I think that I mean I heard back from several students that it was really beneficial for them um to just hear that like it's okay if you try something and then that doesn't work out. I mean, try something else and that might be your thing or not. Um, it was really great to just we had the juniors and seniors at that panel. Um, and it's definitely something

071that we want to continue um for years to come. We had last year we really focused on teachers doing these shadow days. So, spending the whole day with students. So being a student body from 8:00 a.m. to 2:41 p.m. And what does that experience feel like from the student lens was another thing directly related to our challenge success work. That one was interesting. Like if kids were like walking to Sarrentos during their launch, the teacher was going to Sarrentos walking with them. Um that was fun. And you know a lot about our fun Fridays, but that's something that has just really taken off in the last couple years. I mean I feel like the sky's is the limit with those. um they just get more and more creative each month and it's something that the

072kids love. I feel like it's starting to become very much like ingrained in our culture just like flex block the kids are like when's the next fun Friday? What's the theme? What are we doing? You know, they like want to know all the things. Um and and we have kids like volunteering to do things, you know, kids like the pingpong club was a huge one that like just kind of came out of nowhere and now there's a lot of kids playing ping pong table tennis and it's great. So, uh, Alexa, to your question, I think we're one thing we're working on, we want to work on this year is, um, sort of some tips or tricks that parents can do in their own house about they're really so challenge success is really big on this

073acronym PDF, playtime, downtime, and family time, but what else how other things are easy moves that um, parents or folks can do. Cool. Um, and then the last thing that we wanted to just talk about in terms of the current um, work is just this belonging film project that um, Christina Johnson, our wellness coordinator coordinator, has taken on. Um, they partnered with a a local filmmaker who did this project also with Lincoln Sudbury. We have 16 students um who are making short films about just what their experience is at CCHS from all different types of groups, walks of life. Um and they're working together collaboratively. Um so that's been really exciting and I'm really excited to see the final cut of those and we're hoping to have a night where we are going to screen

074them. Oh my god. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. That's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, it's been really great. I have a cameo on a couple of things because you show up at my door and they're like, "We need you to do this." I'm like, "Done. Let's do it." So, so I think our big takeaways from challenge success survey this time were really being intentionally focused on our LGBTQ gender, gender queer, uh, and our continuing to focus on our students of color. Um, thinking about professional development with engagement. And then also this other piece that um, Dr. Hunter is leading, but where does AI fit into the mix as well? So, I think that's sort of those were the big pieces we wanted to highlight. I don't know if there's questions or do our pure districts

075participate in this program. Um, do sh Dover Sherborn does um Yeah, there one of that's where it started. Like that's honestly how we found out about it. They did an article in the Boston Globe nine years ago. Yeah. And our coach Pam, she her kids went it over and she was really big on it on challenge success from the parent side and then her kids graduated and she's home and now she had a bit of time to sort of do this. Yeah, they work obviously with schools all over the country, but that is a local one. They hosted the spring conference last year at Dover Sherborn. I guess anecdotally I can speak as a parent. Um, I think I've been a parent in the high school since 2014. So, like when Denise Pope came in,

076it was like, "Oh, Denise is here and she's going to taco challenge success." The high school feels different. It feels very different. Intentionally different. Um, I think the outcomes are still the same, but it feels better. I mean, it's it sounds kind of ridiculous to say it just feels better, but it really does feel better. You know, gone are the days of six hours of, you know, 100 chemistry problems on a Sunday because that's what it did look like in the beginning. Um, I think that you're hitting the balance of what's enough homework while still getting the same outcomes and test scores. Yeah. Um, but I think it's like the little things like do they have a teacher to connect with? Do they have anything to connect with? And I love that you did that

077that reverse, you know, putting the kids up the relationship. So powerful. It was amazing. It was like gave you chills. Yeah. And the whole staff can see that and you can really see if there's, you know, these kids that are sitting in a classroom quietly and being unnoticed. So kudos to you for all the work you've done on that. And I just had a question about your LGBTQ plus population. So do you ever get feedback from the spectrum group? Like did they So that that's a great idea and we are going um so that's actually the group that I'm working in. Um so we are meeting with Pam next week to just take a little bit of a deeper dive into that specific data from the survey and then um our plan is to meet

078with Spectrum and then also BSU as well. Um but yeah, so we're hoping to um meet with them in the in like the next couple weeks hopefully. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Can can I ask a pretty maybe a dumb question? Um so like I'm just on slide whatever teacher care and support, right? And the band between the low is 37 and the high is 4.1. Are there like how do you think is that like a huge I'm trying to think how to ask a question like is that a concerning drop? Is it in like um you know like a band that you know needs improvement but not concerned? Like I I don't know like is that a big with our data set is that a big drop off or is it um I don't know if

079I'm asking. No no I think I get what you're saying. Yeah. Right. So we it sort of ret this all this data tells the same story every way we look at it. We know that our historically marginalized populations they are not doing as well academically. they don't feel as connected and it's hardly the research probably says which one goes which one leads to which that so yeah I mean we're not it's not oh my gosh it's not dire and yet we do know it is a affirming feels like the wrong word but like it's sort of telling us again that we still have work to do and we're not shying away from the work we know that we we want to dive into it and we want to make it a school where everyone all

080all students and staff um have a strong sense of belonging. Got it. I have sort of a comment. Um what my biggest takeaway was not a lot of the detail but more um in like the overarching narrative that you all as leaders in this school and as professionals take extraordinary amount of time to sit with our students solicit their feedback and then we see an actual change in philosophy um in anything from the structure of the day and I think that is really telling of the fact that you guys do center students and that you know we are looking out for what's best and I think when Tracy mentions too we're doing all of that and yet the outcomes are not changing we are still achieving at a very high rate so I'm so grateful

081to you guys that you are willing to put in that time because you know part of it is data and part of it is qualitative Um, and so the marriage of those two things, the the quantitative data that we get through surveys where we can you guys can really look at that, but then you marry that with all of the time and effort you guys take to get the qualitative data and the real understanding and heart behind behind it, I think is is a testament to you both. And um I am glad to hear very very tangible changes that have been made for the better of our students. So thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah. And we've added um I think se So we have 10 students now on our challenge success team actually. So

082they meet you know five times a year with us. They're part of it. They're like student leaders now. They're you know helping with the communication piece and helping kind of own the work. So that's been really exciting too to get you know we started with I think four kids on the team and you know we added um more this year and it's it's been great. So, yeah, I was taking my Tracy and I are kind of in the same boat, but I don't have kids still in the high school. I have to say I'm going to say pre- pandemic I had my kids graduate 16 and 18. It was a very different school. Very different. Yeah. And I don't know if things would have changed. I think changed throughout I would say at least the

083Commonwealth in many high schools similar to ours. The pandemic definitely had an impact um on teachers, on students, on families. So to me, everything looks very different. You always have to also have to layer on this AI situation which I think requires um the classrooms to be a much more active situation where you really don't want kids to pull out computers and compose essays, right? You don't want to have to police them with the work. So I mean um how do you combine trying to have more I will hate to say the word rigor but more I think that's where you know it's appropriate not at homework you know like having uh real discussions about the work showing your work talking about the work in every discipline it's you know it's sometimes harder one than

084the other and I think that's sort of developing because it's a challenge to homework, you know, with AI is difficult. Yeah. I mean, I think that we'll I maybe Katie I don't pretend to know the answer. Maybe Katie has all the answers, but I don't I mean, which I think that's another place where, right, Lori, we we mentioned it. We talked about it at admin a few weeks ago and Lori started a K12 committee because we felt like it wasn't just a like a CC thing, right? It's K8 for sure. M I think it's also on teachers to make that we need to make assignments that are meaningful that can't just be googled or put in chat GPT or Gemini or whatever the and yet I want I at least our stance isn't that we

085want to police it we think it's an incredible tool when used effectively that stu certainly students let's say need to learn the writing process right but are there other places where AI can be a great support for struggling students right? Can you make a 25 question review quiz about X Y or Z and that can be great when you don't have the private tutor right so and how can that help level the playing field for our struggling learners and I think in terms of even just thinking about the writing process I mean our teachers know their students right and I think you know if you if you we've sat there and said you know write me an essay on Romeo and Juliet I mean it's So you can tell when it's a like it's just

086so not authentic, right? It's just very, you know, and and I think the teachers know their students and they know, you know, their, you know, their right, like how they write. And so I think that it's something that, you know, I think kids need to learn how to engage with it. Um, and I think, you know, it's something that we have to kind of empower them to do, but in a responsible way. It's an ongoing thing. I mean, absolutely. Yeah. we're all learning about any update on my AI committee, but I I will just for a quick second. So, you know, to get um 20 educators K through 12, and it's really a balanced mix of um both levels and content and special um subjects. So, ELELLL, special ed, English, social studies, K through 12,

087all in the same place on a afternoon from 4 to 5:00 voluntarily. Um I wasn't sure what to expect. It was phenomenal. It was absolutely phenomenal. And I' I've pushed them to think on what the opportunity is and to put the challenges aside. Really hard to do, by the way. Um, and I heard a few examples that I'm like, "Wow, there's so much potential here." Some a few of them are really dabbling and they were sharing some stories. In the meantime, when I put it in my um Friday email, I got an email back from one of our um parents who's a professor at Harvard School of Education and is in the working group for AI, and she's offered to come meet with us next great next week. Even better. So, I took her up

088on that. Um, and today they found two of the um, high school teachers found a summer workshop they want to go to on AI. So, I think we're at the beginning of the conversation. I want to get to a point where I'm bringing you sort of the vision, broad vision, and some policy, which is going to be hard to put to paper. I'm already aware. But I think there's so there's so much energy on this and so much stress about it because everybody's worried on everything you just talked about. But I'm really having fun already. And um I think the people who've started to engage and we're going to just keep widening that out are going to it was interesting. My sixth grade daughter is taking her like trimester 3 elective at CMS and the

089elective is called genius bar. I don't think she know what she was getting into. And basically what I'm ascertaining is it's um teaching children how to do a a fairly substantial research project. So she her her topic was swimming. And so she goes, you know, I have to have like 20 things that are subtopics in my thing on swimming. So I said, "Oh, you know, you should do something." I don't remember what I said. We were, you know, in bed last night and I said, "Oh, you know, you should ask this." And she goes, "Mom, no. None of our subtopics can be anything that you can get an answer with with a single Google search." She was like so we have to we have to you know collect our information and make sure we cite

090all our sources and nothing can be that simple. It has to be much more complicated. So even that I feel like is a simple change in practice that is just making the kids think about things differently. In lifetime on the meeting they ask how do you how do you source AI if you use it in a paper? And I'm like I don't know. One of them one of them actually asks chat GPT while we're on Zoom. How do you use a APA format for how to site AI? I'm like, okay, so we're all gonna learn right in real time here. Um, that's what's actually really fun. Like the answers aren't all out there. We're going to evolve along with the possibilities continue to evol evolve and change, too. It's terrible. A lot more to come.

091We'll definitely bring you a report before the end of the school. But I do think that the AI committee is such a is like a continuation of all of this challenge success work because it's such an example of all of the the innovation and asking questions and taking action. It's just part of that. It's it's constantly learning and and growing. Um and then I think there I mean so much has been has already been said that I won't reiterate, but um thank you for all of this. And that the one thing that stood out to me as we're all getting lots of emails about cell phones is that um you note in like big bold letters that 75% of kids sleep when you're talking about sleep sleep with their phone in their room. And I

092think that is like a big piece of like our challenge as we think about cell phone use in schools to Dr. Hunter's point. It's eight hours of the day or six hours of the day and um what's happening outside of that. So I there's a ton of good data in here. There's so much good work happening. Thank you. Welcome. And I appreciate you volunteered to come because you had things you wanted to share. So that doesn't happen often. But I think that's a great mindset for us to get in that when we see those moments that we should bring you. We we volunteer to do that. Yeah. Sure. Thank you. We love talking about challenge. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good night both of you. Yeah. Now, we'd like to invite

093uh Emily Rush and Mark Howell to the table. We are going to receive an MCI update. Emily is on the committee and Mark is the also on the committee as the select board liaison. We also volunteered to be here. So, do we get big appreciate Do you want your slides up while we Yeah, that'd be great. Let me It'll take me a second to Okay. Um, I'll just start by introducing myself. I'm Emily Rush. I'm the advisory board for MCI and the community engagement subcommittee. Um, we have a slideshow where we can kind of walk through everything, give you an update, state of the affairs, but really our goal on the community engagement committee is to engage with the community, foster relationships with our primary stakeholders. the school committee um is is one of those

094have listening tours really kind of get be as transparent as we can with all the information we have um and involve every sort of aspect of the committee. So and Mark's here from the our select board. We're really thrilled with the work that's going on already and Emily's going to walk you through that and I'll just help answer any questions that you might have. Okay, great. I just Sorry, one sec. We'll have your No, you're fine. So, so why why don't I just start just with sort of the players involved and and soon um a map will pop up so we can sort of see the actual site. But right now um the DAM, the Department of um Capital Asset Maintenance and Management, thank you. Owns the site. So they're the body of the government

095that takes care of the the state property that's owned. So they're decommissioning the site. We just did a tour the other day. It was very cool, but they're, you know, they're going in and removing what equipment can be used other places. So, that's going to take a long time, upwards of a year. Simultaneously, DAM is going through their own evaluation of the site. So, what's in the land? Is it contaminated? What materials can we preserve, etc. Um, if you want to go to the picture, the first picture is great. Um, so we're sort of simultaneously walking through um everything with DAM. This is this is the site as a whole. You'll see the Rotary we we all know and love. Um the so um and then our site is 51 acres. Behind that headed towards

096uh West Conquered and the train station is Junction Village. That's 12 acres that zoned for uh 40B over 55 housing, I believe. Mhm. Is that right? Um so what we're doing right now is we're we're taking a look at sort of all we have. One one challenge in front of us um is the Department of Transportation. So they're going to go through and rework the whole plan to restructure the Rotary. Could be an overpass, it could be an underpass. you could use some of the land in the parking lot, you know, on on the right there. So, there's lots of different options. And now that this site is on the table, it could possibly help to create a better infrastructure for the Rotary. They're 18 months away from a conceptual plan. So, we can still

097come up and make a recommendation to the select board. Hey, we think I'm making this up. This is going to be great. We'll have some multif family, mixeduse, retail, athletic facilities, but we're really not going to be able to get moving until the Department of of Transportation has a plan on the left side. Um, that's the wastewater treatment plant. So, that's not kind of like in the prison walls, that's all up here. Y um that's far left, that big thing on the left. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep. So, that um that's kind of another project in of itself. The owns that. We're considering, do we want to buy it? There's about 25 million of work that needs to be done to improve the wastewater treatment plant. Whose responsibility is that? Is it the states? Is it

098whoever turns out to own the site? So, that's sort of a separate um monster that we're that needs to be figured out. I'll note that the importance of the wastewater treatment because without maintaining and then expanding that development is limited right if you think about um 221 main street potentially pee right so without you know even you know I think NOVO is fine for there but what we do at junction village so that is a really important piece of the puzzle um I'll stop there if you have anything to add yeah the um wastewater treatment facility is already an ongoing is in the stage of beginning negotiations with the state. Um it's 310,000 gallons per day of of wastewater capacity of which the state will continue the state's continued operations in the department of transportation

099maintenance facility and the state police barracks and the northeast correctional facility which is all the stuff sort of north of Route 2 is uh about 80 to 100,000. So figure approximately onethird is of the capacity is likely to need to be used by the state and twothirds of the capacity is likely to become available for development and and the town which is really important just on an order of magnitude that the current wastewater treatment facility that the town uses is 1.1 million gallons. So, we're talking about a good 30% increase in in overall wastewater treatment capacity if we can bring it into the town. Um, and a fun fact before we slip flip to the next slide, but right in the middle you'll see a small sort of square building. That is that is sort

100of where the mosque, the temple, the churches, and and I don't know if folks know, but in 1988, Mother Teresa came to visit to spread the message of peace and love. Yeah. So, So you can pop to the next slide, please. Um, this just talks, you know, area over, right? Of course, we also have what's going on with um, Warner's Pond. So there's a lot a lot to kind of consider in the village of West Conquered itself as we we think about and so we are engaged with all of these uh, various entities. Um, if you want to go to the next slide please. So this just talks about our charge. Um, you know, we were sort of formed in April. Um, we've been amending our mission uh through June. And really, as mentioned, it's

101it's just to sort of create uh communication within our town so we can advise um an effective strategy for the the select board uh as we think about redevelopment. We have hired um a consultant, a firm called agency. And uh one of the women there spoke and I loved what she said. She said, "Our goal is really to marry vision with datadriven solutions." Right? So, what do we want as a community? What's going to drive tax revenue for our town? What's going to be good for our students, our schools, um, and what's going to be good for the vendors that operate out of these spaces. Uh, so if you want to pop to the next slide, this is just a super quick overview of um, of who the uh, is on the advisory board. We're

102also with uh, agency's help. We're in the process of redoing our website to make it a bit more user friendly. So you'll you'll click on it from the town website and then it will pop automatically to a website that we manage, but schedule is on there. You can learn about each advisory board member um and sort of the latest and greatest on what's happening with the development. And then you can shift forward. Um this is you can leave it here if you don't mind, Dr. Hunter. Um so this was the presentation from DAM when they came. Um when was that? Nove September. Um and this is sort of the timing of of when they think construction will begin. I think this is really I mean this would be amazing. It's wishful thinking. Um especially if

103you think of like the delay that's going to be caused from the department department of transportation, the work DAM needs to do. There's I mean there's tunnels under this this thing like it's massive like the environmental is going to be really intense. So it's going to take a lot longer than that. But what we're focused on right now with the help of agency and you don't this is a newer slide so I apologies but is effectively um what we want to focus on for community engagement in the coming months. And so we're going to have a series of public workshops. Those will be um I can we'll share the dates, but April 30th and May 28th. There'll be a workshop in the morning and in the night on each of those days because we really

104want to make sure we're getting a full range of people. Something we'd love your help on in terms of communication, right? How do you how what's the best way to access like the young parent group who can't get to a meeting like this at night? Um is it a PTG meeting? So, we'll we'll want to we'll want to talk about that, but we're having sort of a series of of listening sessions, um themed community conversations. It's meant to be a really interactive process. We want feedback. We're going to roll out a new survey for feedback about about what what people want as well. Missing anything there? Um, no. The website's going to be interactive and obviously as a school committee, you also have a a role in terms of um trying to help identify what

105municipal uses and needs. I noticed you mentioned the land use matrix task force that's been that's being kicked off. the we anticipate trying to impanel that and starting in May from the select board perspective and that's about what are the opportunities for all the various piece parcels of land that may become available. This is about diving deep on what does the community want to see eventually come up in this piece. So there's a sprint going on right now. It's it's led by the land use and planning strategy group working with agency to get the visioning underway, to get community input about what we want to see um to happen next. And so that it's also really important to to get as many voices as possible into that. Yeah. And then this is just, you know,

106sort of a brief over overview of what's each comm each subcommittee is focused on. And it's been great to have these subcommittees because it's just felt more productive and actions happening. Um, I think finally, you know, we're working on a drone tour that will be part of the website and it's, you know, and, you know, dovetailing off AI. Um, I don't have a sample of it here, but, you know, we've we've taken the all of the information that came back from the DAM meeting in September and distilled that into I think it's like a 20-minute podcast. And it's pretty crazy because it it sounds like a real podcast and it's pretty accurate. there's some mistakes but um so we're trying to find ways to leverage AI to you know just get as much communication out

107as we can. That's wild. That's great. So that's all I have open to questions. Thank you. So the um so I saw the 440 440K, right? Yep. Was the this used to pay for the consultant? Yep. And I and I believe the final price there was 400. Okay. So, we're in the process of of sort of rejiggering the budget, thinking about because we need to use all the funds that were allocated for us this year. So, we we need to think about how to disperse those funds. And what's the term of the agreement with the consultant? How long is that? So, they're working on four phases which have to do with discovery and visioning and and community outreach. Right now, that's going through June. There's a a fifth and sixth phase which is the actual

108zoning work which will be in FY26. Um that's also bid out over the 400 at another 100,000. Okay. So you your goal was to use up that money because Yeah, we're trying to use it. We're we're trying to unlock the our legislative representatives actually got us 725,000 the in two ear earmarks. the second year mark. We're working to unlock it, which gives you an idea of how easy the state is to work with um so that we can spend it before it expires it in in June 30th. And that's mostly going into this wastewater planning um effort at the moment because that was actually already up and running and so we were able to do it on their timeline. I mean, that's so interesting. I think this challenge with the wastewater treatment plant such an

109opportunity but right you have to negotiate. So who does that? Is it the town manager? Is it your committee? Is it combination of all the above? Kind of. I think well it's a a land acquisition. So it falls to the select board to actually um work out the terms of the contract but it's really primarily being le led by the water sewer enterprise and Alan Cathkart's team. I assume they everybody is interested. I mean, it sounds like something that's hard to pass up, right? Yeah. But the money, I mean, the key is even though the facility has serious capital needs, what what it really comes with is a permit to discharge, which is nearly impossible to get. Um, our our town's been working for years to try and get extensions and expansions to the permitting

110that we already have at the wastewater treatment facility on Bedford Road and we just haven't been able to do it. So, um, this is incredible. So, I just have one more thing as this is and I really don't I haven't got as much information about this, so I feel like I'm the average person. I really don't understand what we can do and how much influence the state has on what we can do with the property and I don't want to because it's probably a pretty big question. Um but maybe in your um engagement with the community you can try to go through that. Yeah, I mean we think about that all the time. Um and technically what we are in control of is the zoning. Um so that's sort of the lever we have. the

111state could come and say, "Well, we're still going to do X, Y, and Z here, right?" Um, so that's, you know, school committee coming into play, right? If you know, how much multif family are we going to build? What what component of it needs to be affordable? Can you even make the construction cost works? How does it affect the school system? Like, so what's reasonable to expect, right? Um, so it sounds like we should take the opportunity no matter what might happen on the other end, right? Yeah. To do what we should do. Well, just and and just to leverage folks creativity, right? I mean, there's a big there's a subset of people that are like, "We really want to have a hotel there, right? I mean, that's going to bring food and room revenue

112and tax, you know, to our tax base or should there be some component of office there?" Um, so thank you. Who decides the criteria for the RFP? Is that the state or is that So, that's really the process that we're in right now. The state is asking us to provide input into their RFP criteria. And so when we get to the end of this public visioning process, the the goal there is to have some idea of what the balance if you think about the residential, commercial, municipal, open space uses, housing uses for the property. Ideally, we'll be able to say as a community, we think the mix should be roughly this. and that will inform some of the criteria around that. Um we're also actively searching for you know other examples looking at how um

113one member of the advisory board was involved with Devons quite a bit. Mhm. Um we made a visit uh a couple of members economic vitality to Littleton and talked about some of what they're doing, you know, thinking about the point where the O'Neal Theater is and some of their commercial development, what kinds of trade-offs they've done and what sorts of things can end up in RFPs, which is is an interesting um criteria. But that's what we're trying to do is get a community sense of of how much of what things do we want to have or do we need to have. How do you and can you talk a little bit about how you get to that recommendation? You talked about having workshops um or just community sessions, but do you are you doing any

114like data collection whether it's like research polls or um like how are you getting to that um that recommendation? too. Like I think we're just too early to do any sort of quantitative aggregation of information because there's so much like miscellaneous stuff that's kind of popping in. I think once we sort of hone maybe do our survey um and then from that could sort of think okay x amount of people want to build a whatever and then are you um is the goal that June 30th date is that is the goal for the vision or that data that that information is June 30th the deadline to have that or what's the June 30th deadline? The June 30th deadline is primarily when the state's money disappears. So that's one of the reasons why um the select

115board is putting an article on the town meeting warrant that suggest that that potentially requests an allocation of funds into FY26. So let's say things don't go completely as planned because you know they always do but occasionally they don't. Um we may need some funding into next year and so we're trying to understand that. So we've got a placeholder there for that. Um just to step back a little bit to your to your previous question, the um the consultants's first month, they basically are on a fourmonth sprint is all about discovery. So they're compiling a lot of information, a lot an economic analysis in terms of what kinds of things could go there, um what they might cost to do, um what the market will bear, those sorts of things. And that first month is

116about that. We're going to hear begin hearing that discovery information starting next week and then they're going to be talking about how to present that in these community forums that are coming up. The the expectation is that likely we're going to end up with sort of in these forums three different sort of development scenarios to give the community an opportunity to re respond to those. So, one may be a little bit more commercial heavy, one might be more residential heavy or something like that, but they'll put together some some things based on what they hear from the community and then ask for community responses to that because most people are not able to right out of their heads, you know, come up with how to develop 50 60 acres of land. That's that's so the

117idea is to get a sense and then distill that. Well, thank you both. Um, I appreciate you guys taking the time and I think we're all pretty informed now. Um, good luck to you guys. Yeah, I think it is a we should sorry to interrupt Alexa think about um as we progress and get deeper into the process maybe creating a more formal like a liaison to the school committee someone that can pop into our meetings or just so we can make sure it's not like I'm updating you every we're updating you every few months. Yeah. Also, um the ask for the town departments is to help identify in what ways will that site be useful to their particular operations. So if you as you're considering the school department's needs, you know, engage with the land

118use committee, but also think in please be ready to bring forward what kinds of uses might, you know, or what ways it might contribute to the school programs. We're not that I mean that no, I might have already had a conversation with Carrie about this building because this is our last albatross here and we don't want to put money into this building. I don't know what that looks like Mark but that seems like the obvious answer you know and one of the concepts behind land use if I might for a moment is that we may trade off things. So if we for example often cited is the notion of a public works facility coming into MCI there's some things like the wastewater treatment facility that are already there that say do that that would free

119up the Kaiser Road campus and then the community can start talking about what to do with that. Likewise, Miriam Road, uh, when I I heard in Littleton, they're actually figured out a way to put their municipal building into into an RFP for a developer who's redeveloping the IBM site there. And they're planning on taking that building and turning it into affordable housing where their town offices are right now. I mean, not compared to this, but So, it's it's it's interesting. So, you know, it's time to think big thoughts. This is something somebody said. I mean, this is a generational opportunity for sure. I mean, it's just like crazy, right? Yeah. And then there's Peabody. Yeah. Then there's happy to leave that to the select board. Another night. Thank you so much for taking the time.

120All right. Um, we're going to move now into our school committee goals. Um, I see Julie has joined us via Zoom. Um, and we appreciate that you're here. Um, I often refer to the school committee goals, as I just did in a text to you, as your third child. So, um, I'm happy to let you uh take the lead on this discussion. Sure. I can I can share my screen and then um I think it'll be fairly quick. Carrie and I had a chance to connect earlier um about this. So, can everyone see my screen? Yes. So, it's not much change from what um has been since the beginning of the year. I've just updated it with tracking. So, for example, the last time we reviewed this um anything that's complete for the year has

121green all the way till the end. Um so, the things that we've we've finished um you know, so again, number two, update and finalize critical policy issues. We've made some really great progress um on the first two. So, we've already talked about um the annual report and some of the social media in the first half of the year and now we have um title N and cell phones which we covered this past policy subcommittee meeting um which is myself, Carrie and Cynthia. Um some of these are going to take a while um and that's some of the things that might adjust. So, for example, Title N's pretty straightforward. We're realizing cell phones is a bit more nuanced, especially as we look at um K through 8 versus the high school. So, those will be ongoing.

122Um Carrie, I know you and I had had talked about um the story of the school. Do you want to give a quick update on the status if you haven't already? Yeah, I mean, nothing really has changed since last meeting when we talked about this. Um we're we're working on it. We're meeting now every Friday just until we get like a draft and then the meetings will um become more spar sparse again. But yeah, we're moving forward. Um yeah, mostly on a digital version. We'll have some copies for town meetings and whatnot, but mostly for a template and I've updated numbers for you if you want me to send those to you. Do you want me to send those to you? Printing. Printing costs. Yeah. Okay. Or you can just bring them on. Great. I

123don't know if um I uh Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so everything else is pretty much on track. I think we talked about the evaluation um previous as well and happy to talk about it, but as of now, everything's on track. I would just ask for the next meeting if anything um that still has some leeway, you know, any of these uh here that are white for now. Um if we see any hurdles in us, you know, achieving those goals, please let us let me or Carrie know and we can populate. But I think this has been a good process. It's not perfect. Um, and as we said at the beginning, just because something's yellow or red doesn't mean that it's failed or anything. It's just saying, hey, we something else has taken priority or we've

124moved on. Um, just need some attention. So, I think we're in good shape. Um, any other questions or ads to what I already showed? The only thing I'll I'll add is which is the next agenda item, which is the school committee evaluation. I think we could just tackle that right now, too. But um is we have a draft from MASC that um Julie and I will um connect on and then um we're going to do that probably in April, get a link out to everybody. Um so it's not a very labor intensive process, but we're going to do that again this spring so we have some new data and then um we'll bring it back to the committee. What What is What is this? The the just the school committee evaluation. We we did it

125in You've probably done it. We did it in what? August. It was over the summer. And we're trying to shift the timing of it so that it's a little bit more relevant. Um like August is a weird time because it's a new committee evaluating an old committee. Um and so we're trying to shift the timing of it so that we're evaluating ourselves. I like that. Yeah. So you think we'll do that in April? The we have a draft. So we're we're close to like we have a draft and the idea is we talked about the other the other addition is we talked in August about expanding the like participants. So it would include um Aisha and u Michelle. Um one thing we did talk about was like some of the administrative staff or maybe that's

126a different evaluation evaluating us. But either way maybe this is the first step and we can talk about the next step. Great. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah. All right. I guess we're moving into our liaison's update. I know Brian has an update from our campus completion. We want to start with Brian and then move around the table. Sure. So, um just a few updates for campus completion. We also as a subcommittee continue to meet weekly and we may dial that down. Um I had sent out for review our first draft of FAQs. Um, and I do get some feedback and continue to uh evolve those. But, um, and I think we're going to continue to need to evolve the FAQs, especially as we hear from members of the community. Um, but sort of handinhand with that,

127I met with Erin earlier today about carving out um, a page on the website where we can start to put material. Um, you know, some of the reports that we're receiving from Gail, the drawings as we get them. Um, and I would like to get a version of the the FAQs out um, pretty soon. Um, because we also need to circulate them in other places. Um, you know, for example, um, for example, the town of Carlile website. I want to make sure they have them. And you mentioned and we talked about the, um, the briefing book to make sure that they get into the briefing book for town meeting. We need to review them as a committee though in public. We haven't had a discussion about them. Right. Um the subcommittee did in public. Yeah,

128we had and I sent it out to the committee two weeks ago or a week ago and ask I I wanted to have a back and forth with you because I I think one of the most important questions. We don't have it on our agenda. So I don't really think it's appropriate for us to have a lengthy discussion about the amenities building because I think one I think we should review the presentation for the conquer town meeting hearing and two we really have to have a good answer about why we didn't apply for CPC funds on time. So what? Yeah, go ahead. I'm making I mean that will be the question. So we have to have an answer. Why did we apply in August or September? We submitted a very late application. Did you look

129at the FAQs the what I drafted originally? Well, I don't what is the answer? I don't know if I So this is on the April 10th agenda. So I think Should we just fill it for then? I'm looking at Julie, but Alex is cheering, so I don't know who's deciding what we're talking about, but um that'd be my recommendation that you have a thorough conversation then. Let's just plan for it then and I'll um hold off on circulating them publicly until then. Um yeah, and then otherwise just handinhand with that, we've gotten some guidance from Carlile in terms of six minute presentation for town meeting on May 18th, what they're looking for in terms of content. So, we'll start to work on that. I don't even know what the guidelines are for timing on town

130meeting. I haven't had that conversation with Carmen yet. Usually, that's a little closer to the actual meeting. Um, I think we're also going to do a Carile podcast. So, Hall's been doing podcasts and the amenities building will be one of them. So, it's great. We'll bring in our podcast expert here uh and uh and tackle that. Anything on We talked about the letter. Thank you. the letter. Um, so there's been a letter that's drafted, an advocacy letter to organizations that use the fields. So it would be I um, so we had a letter that was drafted that the committee's the subcommittee's gone over and then who it's going to, we have a list of probably almost 30 organizations. So the the friends of groups, the youth sports groups, the MSWalk, Mighty Moose, kicks for cancer.

131So some of the nonprofits that are high users of Memorial Stadium, Recck Department, then we talked about Carile, different um places to send it to in Carile. So we're we've generated that list and if you have any other thoughts as to I mean we can certainly bring that up, but we're going to start sending that letter around. I think our goal was maybe next week looking for advocacy. That letter would come from me as the the chair of the subcommittee to reach out to people. Yep. I think that's all I have unless there are questions. Any other liaison have particular updates? I do. You were at the select board last. Yes, I was at the select board actually twice. Um so one I'll start with the Doug White turf um hearing that happened with the

132rec commission. I went to that um and I spoke on behalf of Julie and they are moving towards turf. So that that I think is the only hearing that's going to happen. There's a committee um that Carrie has and I believe that is Aaron Jonas on that committee representing the schools or are you on it? We both are. You're both on it. Okay. So there's input certainly from the schools on that, but it appears as though they are moving forward with turf and hopefully that's going to be an expedited process. And then last night, the only thing that really intersects with us from the select board is the school committee hearing's been moved from April 10th. Thank you, Julie, for uh flagging that. And I believe it's I'm gonna thank Cynthia. Cynthia Cynthia, I opened

133up my war. I'm putting all the dates in. Oh, thank you, Cynthia. Yes. Really glad she thought that. Yeah, that's a good call right there. Um, so they they seemed happy to to move it and so there is a new date for that. Um, and I'm forgetting if it's the 12th or the 15th. It's can't be the 15th. Is it the 15th? It's the 15th. Okay. All right. So that's the 15th. And then the other group I leaz with is the DEI commission. So, I went to their last meeting last month and they have a candidate coffee this actually it's tomorrow night from 5 to 7:30 and that's in the Goodwin Forum at the Conquer Public Library. That's it. The April 15th meeting is that a joint meeting or that is a hearing. Okay. Usually

134it's Bob and I and you you may be there. Usually we hope someone's there and u but we're doing okay presenting and sometimes I feel like it's just been the chairs that have been there and we haven't been there so it's not a meeting. It's not a no no a formal that's helpful. You do not need to be there but you are welcome if you welcome trying to prioritize. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Brian's on a few committees. Just a few. All right. Anyone else with the liaison update? So, one thing kind of significant that did come up with Car's budget is they are uh getting rid of the sustainability director, which is unfortunate, but it's a layoff. Um, so I think we have to um have Dr. Hunter work with Miss Laflur on figuring out

135what our relation this is. It's going to be this fiscal year. So, next fiscal year, we'll have no sustainability director. She did say there' be a significant amount of ESCO work. Um that's I'm not sure what the schedule is of that and uh which is a evaluation um I think it's all state funded of all of the municipal facilities in terms of um making them more sustainable. Um I mean not not big picture. We're talking about small things. Yeah. And and the only thing you know that she mentioned in terms of that was that the deputy town manager I think would then be charged with that basically picking up where the sustainability director is a layoff. But we sort of had a dotted line to the sustainability director. So I just want to clarify what's

136going to happen going forward. You know what they would expect. Carrie and I haven't spoken about it. No, no, no. I'm not saying it's for the next fiscal year because that person's going to stay in that. Yeah. She did she did talk about the partnership that you guys have had on greening our schools. Um and just you know how you're collaboratively working together about replacements and things. She did. So it was just it is going to be a gap. Um and you know even though we have a person picking it up, it's still her full their full-time job. So um so yep that's all. All right. So, we are moving into the final stretch here with our action items. Um, I would like to take a motion to approve the Conquered Public School bus lease.

137So, moved. Do you have a second? Okay. Um, any discussion on that? Lori, do you want to give some background? mostly Bob. So I um we are leasing or as we have been for the past few years two buses um two new buses for each district to kind of keep replacing our fleet of um vehicles. Um the buses we're replacing I think are nine nine 10 years old. Um the total cost of these u one of them is 324,674 for the CPS buses, 325,864 for the CCRSD buses. Those are net of trade in. Um we did get some tradeins. Now that we're not trading buses that are very very old, just old. Um we get a little bit more tradein value. Um the interest rate um was actually a little bit better than the last

138time we did this. It was 4.03%. Um I'd also just note that the huge huge um backlogs in the supply chain have slide uh slowed down. We placed our order in 2023, June of 2020 2023. We received that order in November. You approved it at a November December meeting. This was our um order from June of 2024. So we're now eight month lead time and um we anticipate those lead times coming down again if we were to order for FY25. So, uh, that's good news on the lead times, um, so that we can kind of get our vehicles replaced on a timely basis. Um, I would, in terms of the vote itself, um, you have to vote to approve the, uh, leie resolution as presented in our packet. Okay. Not just approve the lease, but

139approve the lei resolution as presented. Do we want to withdraw the original motion and make a new one? Yes, thank you. I'm just looking for the language. Sorry, it's a really long document. Yes. Let me know. Just to clarify, are we voting separately? So, it's conquered first. Yeah. One for each district. Can you specify which month we take delivery of it or the buses are ready? Like we're getting them insured now. We would um this later this week potentially or early next week. Okay. But we uh we don't make payment until we inspect them, right? Um the funds go to escrow that you'll approve here and then we release the funds once we've got it done a full inspection. Can you just repeat, Bob? Uh we're approving the bus lease. Uh need a motion to

140approve um the leie. Let me read what it says on the um form. Cannot find exactly in motion. There's no motion in there, but like language 16. It's a long document. All right. I couldn't I I skipped right by it. Okay. Thank you. Um you have to read the whole thing. You don't be here till 10. All right. I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. I just I just don't know what the document's called. Is it called a leie resolution? Resol resolution or exhibit A? You could say exhibit A. So I make a motion to approve the CPS bus lease resolution leie resolution as written in the packet under exhibit A. Second. Great. Uh so this is conquered. We are all in the room. So all in favor I I Okay. Uh Bob, we'll move into

141action item number two. Bob has given us the details on the regional bus lease as well. So, if we could go into that second motion and that will be done via roll call votes because Julie is on Zoom. So, I move to approve the CCRSD LEI resolution as written in the packet under exhibit A. Second. Second. Second. Okay. A roll call vote. I will start that. Anderson I. I. Morano. I. Rainey. I. Ranken. I. Viola. I. Wat I. Thank you. Thank you. And then our final action of the action item of the evening is the consent to replace the Doug White fields. I don't know, Lori, if you want to give any background on this before um we entertain a motion. Sure. So, I heard from the town manager ear. Um, they need formal consent

142from the regional school committee to move forward with the plan to replace the turf at Doug White per the IG, the intergovernmental agreement that we're involved with with them. So, they're looking for that formal approval tonight um so that they can keep the project moving. Uh they're happy to come at any point. Um probably a good idea at some point to have leaders from school and town come and give you the scale and scope of the project and the timeline. Um, so we just need you to vote that tonight. Okay. So, can I get a formal motion? Read. Um, I if there's not a motion written, so I'm going to try it again. I move that the Cocker Carlo Regional School Committee gives consent to the replace the Doug White fields. Replace the Doug White

143Fields. Do I have a second? To the town or does it essentially? Yes. It's part of the intergovernmental agreement. So that you're formally acknowledging that they're going to do that. I'm gonna add as per the intergovernmental agreement with the town of conquered. Great. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Town of conquer. Um so we will have another roll call vote and it will start with me. Anderson I Morano I. Rainey I Ranken I. Viola I Wat I. Okay. Great. And with that I will adjourn the public session of our meeting and I will entertain a motion to enter into executive session. I move that the conquered school committee and conquered Carell Regional School Committee will enter into executive session under purpose two of the open meeting

144law to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with the assistant superintendent of finance and operations and not return to open session. Second. Uh, okay. I just ask one question before we adjourn. I'm just reading Carrie's email. It says, "In addition, we should discuss whether it makes sense to amend the existing IG." So, I think that's a significant conversation that we should have. So, I don't think she was rushing to get our approval. So, I think we need to have somebody No, my understanding was she needs the approval so they can keep moving and then that can be a separate conversation. Can somebody put that on their to have because she said that they would come and talk to us about plans of blah blah blah and the process. Um yeah, I think they're meeting

145with Carrie regularly on that, right? That that was the assumption we had last night that there was a committee meeting. Yeah. And I would say from from reading the message, Cynthia, like we're what we just voted on is not agreeing to a new agreement. No, no, I'm not saying that, but this seems like significant piece of work. I think that's a further discussion. I I intentionally didn't think you were going to take that tonight. I'm just trying to keep the project moving. No, I understand that. But I'm just saying not clear to me what the time frame is to amend the IG blah blah blah. I don't know. Well, I think we have to discuss it's not on the agenda. tonight. Can somebody on the school committee, the chair follow up with the chair of

146the select board and find out what we should do or not do going forward if it if it can wait until you know next year or if this should be done this year. I have no idea. Great. That's so I think we have to discuss it. I mean, my feeling is we already we first of all, we just voted for it, but the second thing is um that's the first time I've seen a request to amend it before the current contract. So, I mean, I'm not saying I know what's what's going on here. So, I think Julie, you talking to Mary might make good sense. I'm happy to do that. Yeah. Okay, great. Um, sorry about that. No, it's okay. Uh, we have a second to move into executive session. So, I'll start. Anderson, I

147for both. Project. I for both. Morana. I for both. Rainy. I for both. I for both. Me. Viola. I for the region. Wat. I for region. Thank you. Good night. Have a good night.