Minuteman School Committee - May 12th, 2026

001I call to order the May 12th uh regular meeting of the minute school committee. Uh yes, amazingly we are in May. That means that um uh schools five weeks. Is that about right? Five weeks. >> I doubt. >> Okay, great. Uh was there any uh I know that we didn't have any public comment submitted. Is there any public comment from the not um prior to doing the consent agenda there are a few items that I would like to take uh out of order if it is okay with the school committee. This will include uh the student report. Uh I understand we have um some information about donations to be the second and our auditor's report will be the third and I assume that our auditors are uh standing by excitedly somewhere in that correct >>

002they are. >> We'll contact them and it's their turn. Um >> we saw them on the zoom. >> Okay, good. So if it's if that's okay with the school committee, any um comments, questions, no. Then I'll say you have a unanimous consent. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Which is a a term that we've heard a lot during your recent council meetings. Uh and let us begin with the student report. Do we have any student report? >> Yeah. So we're still wait we're waiting on uh I haven't seen him yet, but he plans on coming. So I'll give you an update if we get one. >> Okay. So, we'll hold off being very welcome. >> Uh, then we have some information on a donation. Is that also correct? >> Correct. Um, I would like to recognize um

003Kristen Clark and Eric Levy who are here. Um, they are making a $10,000 donation to establish the Minibian Cares Fund. What is the minimum care fun or would you please explain? >> Sure. >> So, our son evacuated in 2023. Um, and we are just so grateful to everything that did for him and our family um that we are fortunate enough to be able to say to you in this way. Um, and it is just a fund um for the small things that kids might need that they may not be able to afford or if um emergency comes up, anything from, you know, cleats or uh uniforms or I don't know, money to attend um something that will further their education or their social um agenda. um to support them um as we were supported um

004and our son was supported and um it was really life-changing. So we were hoping that just this small token of gratitude and thank you and paying it forward um will um help other students as well. >> Any comments or questions from membership? >> Thank you very much. It's our greatest pleasure to be able to do this and to dream come true. Thank you. >> Let me take that one out of order also outside of the consent agenda. And let's take a vote right now. I'd like somebody to move to approve the donations that we have in our uh our packet which includes this one. >> Second. Second. Very >> good. Any question find questions or comments? I think we should have comments. I think we should be very thankful and grateful. >> That's your comments

005>> to the com to the people who are donating this. And your names are I'm Kristen Clark. This is my husband, Eric Lobby. >> Thank you. >> And since we do have a remote element to our meeting, I do believe we still have to take a roll call vote. Even though the school committee is here, we're going to have remote guest. No, >> I don't think they I think that because the school committee is here. >> Very well then. Uh all in favor of the motion on the table. >> Um oppose extensions passes unanimously. Thank you again very very much. And um u uh the the students who many of whom will never know who you are or what you may need benefit from this uh as is often the case uh will uh have

006their life proved but for a long time these things work this because I think we I learned tonight what minimum cares fund is. Is this like a new fund where future families could add in or is it ongoing and use? Yeah, >> donations are welcome and and [clears throat] that it's something that continues on indefinitely. So, >> thank you. It's a wonderful idea. >> We need some way to advertise it to people so people know the possibility. Uh Minute Man currently has a a similar fund that is not as well funded uh that goes through guidance. This will run in a similar fashion. Um and whoever receives support from this fund, it will be confidential through guidance. Um but we are we're happy to of course open up for more donations. Um >> yeah, hopefully

007we can continue to and support it in an ongoing manner. Thank you very much. All right. Uh moving on. Um yes. >> Okay. So we could go uh right now we could go to the auditors if they are available because uh uh school committee members I know they've always complained that there isn't enough. Do >> we have a uh the appropriate students here yet or no? Yes. >> So let's skip to that before we go to let's get priority although we're very excited to be a highlight. >> So if I could may I introduce >> um so the students who we have here today we have two out of three >> two I'm going to name all three who are a part of this. Um, Conrad Anderson, grade 12 from environmental from Arlington. Eric Ross,

008grade 12 horiculture from Arlington. Hey, Nichols Brewer, grade 11, grade 11 environmental from Actton. Um, so they are sharing um their a group project that they're competing with. Um and the basically when they realized that our school's integrated pest management plan didn't explicitly address invasive plants um they set out to write one based on what they'd seen through the National Park Service and they'll be sharing this plan with the school committee and they hope to eventually have it officially added. Um so the reason why this was under um the superintendence report is because this is a wonderful example of something that Minan already does when it comes to culminating projects, our capstone projects, our senior projects, the work that our um teachers do with students um would fit right in if those new graduation requirements

009come to um pass. And this is just one small example. So, I'd like to give the floor to our um students. >> So, this is item 7 A. >> Thank you for having us. So, as um Superintendent Driscoll said, we have invasive plants everywhere on our campus. This photo right here, can We advance the slides. >> You got the arrow on the bottom right side if it looks like it's a PDF. >> Oh, okay. I see. Um, so we have we have lots of invasive plants on our campus and my partner and friend in horiculture is not here today, Eric Ross. and I have worked at Minute Man's National Historical Park the past few years um the past few summers in Houston co-op there mostly doing horicultural work and dealing a lot with invasive plants

010around the property um both in wild areas and also in maintained areas near infrastructure. So this for example is just a bunch of oriental bittersweet or Asiatic bittersweet that's growing right next to our athletic fields uh where the ropes course used to be. It's just taken over the area and that's really harmful to our ecosystems. >> Is that a vine or just a bush? >> It's a vine. Yes. And it's what you see commonly girdling trees. K. Do you want to >> Yeah. So uh from knowing the dangerous uh plants on our campus, we took the three steps from the national parks plan. The first step was to determine management zones across our campus. The next step was to inventory the invasive plants and the third step was to prescribe treatment methods. >> And so

011we started the process at Minute Man by taking our roughly 70 acres of land and narrowing down a few smaller management zones. And we have five accounted for in our written plan, but um we we brought this to Skills USA to states just two weekends ago, one weekend ago. Uh and we talked about three of the zones to highlight in that presentation. Um, and they are slide please. I don't know what happened with the heading there. >> The uh the zones are on the next few slides. So, the first is the trades hall. We've got a little forest right in front of the trades hall that's an upland pine forest. It's home to native bird species and it's got a native understory of plants that are all very valuable. Um, and it represents a potential

012threat to property because the trees are so mature and any disturbance caused by invasive plants could severely impact their health in the coming years, decades, uh, and cause them to collapse near the building or near students. Um, K, do you want we have photos on the slides, but so the next is the River Cotwell, which is a wetland protected under the Massachusetts Wetland Protection Act. Uh it's home to many key uh native macro invertebrates such as uh we have a crayfish on the side. It's not quite there. Um and then it's also high aesthetic value across our campus. So it's one of the first things you see when you come in. Um and it wants across a lot of it. And then also it has a high uh chance for spread. So if any seeds

013enter the stream, they might spread across the campus or even off of it into other wetlands. >> And the third zone here are the zones laid on the map. Uh this is the trade hall grove. This is the stream in the parking lot. And this is our third zone which is the vernal pool. Uh which is a valuable and rare ecosystem. Um as you can see right next to our athletic fields. It's home to obliate species that depend on the vernal pool to reproduce that cannot reproduce in any other type of ecosystem. And it is we use it in environmental science as a resource uh to study the ecosystem every year all year. Um, and so the basically we've chosen to focus on these zones along with a couple others. The others that we have

014written into our plan are this uh rain garden right next to the CCA playground and another kind of extension between the stream and the vernal pool has a lot of invasives growing. So we're focusing on these zones because of aesthetic value, ecological value, and um value to infrastructure. Like we want to maintain our school's appearance. We want to protect our habitats and we also want to actually prevent the damage that invasive plants can cause to our infrastructure. Um, and so we considered all of those factors when we actually wrote our plan, taking into account regulations like the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act, purpose water regulations, um, [clears throat] Massachusetts 3333 CMR14 is aims to protect uh, students and families from harmful pesticides. And that's actually why Minute Man has an existing pest management plan and that's

015what Superintendent Driscoll was talking about earlier. It hasn't been updated in since 2017 and it doesn't mention invasive plants as a threat. And so we designed our written plan as a supplement to that and we will be sharing it very shortly. Um I'm trying to remember if there are anything else. There we go. Here's so here are some photos but um the next few slides have more photos. So you can see just kind of some of the wildlife that we have in our zones and what they look like overall. Um, and we've had one successful treatment event so far that the plan outlines like the process of having treatment events. We're mostly expecting to rely on volunteers and staff at the school to actually implement treatment. So we're not trying to ask for maintenance budget

016to go towards mitigating the effects of invasive plants, but we have interested students who have all agreed that it's something they would be interested in supporting in the future. We have Miss Cotwall and environmental and Miss Ard from horiculture on board and excited about the prospect of starting this and using this plan to guide invasive plant management going forward. I think that's all we have to say. K. Do you have anything to add? All right. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Oh, yes, please. Please. Absolutely. Uh, >> did you said something? So, do you have a question? >> Yeah, I do have a question. Uh, my question is, do you have a time frame for rectifying all of the invasives >> there? Locations of invasives. It's a hard question to answer especially

017because most of the methods we're using rely on manual treatment processes like cutting using hand tools and if if we had example for example the ability to use herbicides the time frame would be accelerated but because our resources are so limited and our treatment events are so limited in like duration and scope at the moment it's going to be a long-term ongoing effort and there's no clear end to the process. But the other thing that we highlight in the plan and that the National Park Services highlight in their management plans that we kind of use as a foundation for our writing is that the decision to not act on invasive plants is the most harmful decision of all. And so like whatever treatment we can pursue and we can enact is better than leaving it

018to grow even if that means we will be treating for the foreseeable future. Uh, Pam, >> well, I think you answered one of my questions, which is are you mainly, you know, counting on pulling as the main way of dealing with it? It sounds like >> that's what you're doing. I know one of the things that I've heard particularly with bittersweet that you can get rid of it but it's often like a fiveyear process though and is that what kind of you've heard in terms of a timeline and something if you kind of keep after it for 5 years you can actually >> yeah it def and it definitely depends on the actual plant and like for example cutting one stem that plant might regrow for 5 years, but there will be more seeds that

019are growing every year and there will be seeds that are in the soils that are ready to grow. So, it it definitely depends. But yes, eventually cutting an individual plant every year will cause it to die and it won't be able to grow again. >> It is particularly hard to get rid of. >> Yes, Alice. >> Um, I just want to say you did a great presentation, have been to hundreds of environmental programs and heard lots of experts. you sound like experts. Um, and I'm also very impressed by your pursuit of improvement. It is very difficult to do that. Um, it's easy to talk about stuff. It's much harder to do the deep dive that you've done and then to try to make change. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate that. >>

020Go right ahead. >> Mark, quick question about um change over time. I know it takes, you know, could take five years, could take more. Uh is there a plan also to track that progress over time? >> Yeah, we we have um we have the tools to use GPS mapping to actually mark locations of population. We have notes from field walks that we've done. And so of course it depends on having awareness of the project within the school >> and having investment from students and staff and having the school committee's awareness is is really important I think. But um that yeah that's dependent largely on the people that pursue it going forward. But >> thank you. Maybe a suggestion cuz like it's wonderful beautiful work and importance. Um >> a lot of plant growth is seasonal

021like when you need to do the cutting and when you really shouldn't do the cutting. Have you mapped that into a calendar? Maybe you could go on the school website something like that. >> Yeah. Eric Eric is something of something of a genius. He uh part of his co-op work was to actually write these treatment narratives for specific plants that the national park will use. And so he's mapped out when the seeds are growing. All in writing. He's written when the seeds are growing, when to use herbicide, when not to use herbicide, when to cut based on the growth of the plants, and when they've got nutrients flowing up from the roots, and when they got water flowing and all of it. So yeah. >> Oh my goodness. Yeah. >> Well, I'm just curious how

022the presentation went at St. USA. >> We finished third in the state. >> So, lastly, I just wanted to thank you for the presentation. Thank you for concentrating on Minute Man and and trying to make it better for your fellow students and future students. And I want to encourage you to come back after you leave Minute Man. Come back and check it out. Make sure that it's going according to plan. >> I won't I won't be leaving forever. anything for us. >> Good. Thank you. >> One more. >> Um I'm very curious in terms of what years you are in school this right now. >> I'm a junior. >> You're a junior. >> And I'm a senior. >> And you're a senior. Okay. Have you lined up um your replacements for the next, you know,

023for the foreseeable five years? >> Kay is stuck with this job. [laughter] had a passive time. >> Um, >> so what does that mean? >> So I think in the next year we'd do events to take down the invasive plants again year by year and then I think we'd figure out who knows a lot about it and would be willing to work with us and I think who's coming to the events is important and we can figure out who has the knowledge and wants to >> Okay. So you're going to be looking for the your replacements. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> How far down can you go? It's just like freshman year. >> Yeah. I mean, you go >> an environmental science. I >> think that that's great. And you'll get them well trained, right?

024>> And the >> you're doing you're doing exactly what you should be doing, you know. >> So, that's terrific. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> Do we also have our normal student report today? Is that a yes? Okay. Let's again let's take that so they can go home and do their homework. I got to turn. >> Before the students begin, I just want to uh let everyone know if you remember today's Matilda's last school committee meeting because she's graduating in June. credit and then uh next year we do our in the fall we do our student elections and then we'll have two representatives here moving on. So thank you for your service. >> So who's doing prom? You are Jamie. >> Um so on Friday we are having

025the junior senior prom. To kick off the week we had spirit week we had a spirit week. So each day we had a different theme. Um, for prom tickets, we sold $271 tickets at $105 a piece. And then we also offered a bus option this year. It was $24 a student and I think about 40 people took that option. Um, and then this is just kind of our poster that we had sent out. >> Yeah, should be fun. >> Any questions about class? >> So for spirit week, those are like um dress suggestions. Y golden hour glow >> as a senior junior prom together. >> Yes. >> You get along well enough so you will be that and you can have the juniors with you senior. >> Yes. >> We enjoy >> which doesn't happen

026that way. [laughter] >> So what's the attire for your uh >> for prom? >> Um it's kind of a formal event. People like dressing up. People kind of go all out. Um, this year our kind of title is sees the night. It's an ocean theme cuz we're right on the water this year. Um, so a lot of people might be leaning towards like a blue theme, but um, I'm wearing red, so you can wear whatever you want really. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And do you have dancing? Do you have music? Do you have >> Yes. So, the event will run. We have um dinner there. So, we have a catering service that will provide us dinner. The event center does that for us. Um, we will have a DJ. We'll have a photo

027like station. Um, we're right on the water so we can go take pictures on the beach. Um, >> there you go. So, >> yeah, the whole night's planned for us. It should be fun. >> And the two of you are responsible for this. >> Um, us along with our team. So, we're both class presidents and then we both have a team that we get to work alongside. Yeah. >> Okay. Are you going to The teams have been good. >> Yes, they've been wonderful. >> Okay. >> Um, and then I wanted to talk about our first ever National Honor Society sleepover. This happened this past weekend. Um, and it was really, really fun. It happened in this room. We were able to be here all night long. We are the first ever group that was approved

028to stay in the building overnight, so we kind of took that as a privilege. And, um, we had a lot of fun. Um, we were able to play Manhunt, which is kind of like a tag hide-and-seek game. We were able to play Frisbee and Hacky Sack is back. So, there were hacky sack circles out on the courtyard. Um, Jamie brought a portable laser tag system, so we were able to play the laser tag, which was really fun. We watched Ferris Peeler's Day Off. We played lots of board games. Um, we ordered pizza, had bagels in the morning for breakfast. Um, and it was overall just a really fun experience. There were about 20 of us there. Um, Mr. Deva popped by and said hi. >> Um, but yeah, we had three chaprons with us. It

029was a lot of fun. We got five to six hours of sleep, so I'd say that. Um, Yeah, shout out those overnight chapers. >> Absolutely. Mr. English, Miss Chapen, and Mr. Marshall were the three brave souls to stay overnight with us. From >> what I understand, they had fun, but um it was really nice to have them there. Yes. >> And everything took place in this room? >> Yes, we had access to this room. We hung out in the courtyard. Um it was really nice. Yeah. Any other questions? Fantastic. >> Great. >> That's the first report. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. organization right into them. >> Uh one minute. >> Uh so before you you head out, I think we have one comment here. Plus I have a important uh suggestion for

030the school. But I think it's very unfair that we in this we in this school do all this high school press and you see uh how well they're trained and how they grow up and how poised and confident and articulate they are. But do we get most of the credit? No. It's the colleges [laughter] that they graduate the graduate the colleges get a lot of glory in terms of their you know big graduation. But really, who deserves it? Us. So, I think, you know, I would love it if we could just keep the seniors for an extra two years. Policy to do that. So, then maybe we could, you know, change better, get a little credit. So, what do you think? >> The countdown says eight days left. [laughter] >> Wolf fingers. Okay. that you

031had. >> So for my good of the organization, which is sort of out of order, I was just going to mention about how I was really privileged and honored that I was able to be one of the judges for the um senior projects. Matilda, I was able to judge yours. >> Oh, thank you. >> Um and I just I was really impressed, not just with yours, but just with in general all of the students did such a nice job. Um so it was great. I was I really enjoyed being so our all the advisory councils and so I'm school committee rep to the advisory council. We were all invited to judge if we wanted to and that was just a really wonderful experience to see how hard you guys all worked. So congratulations. It was

032really hard to judge you as Miss because it took me a little bit to get my final tally in because I was like, "Oh my gosh, am I being too hard? Too nice." >> But excellent job by all the students, especially Natalie, yours was great. >> Thank you. Hey, so uh seniors, goodbye seniors and uh good luck in future endeavors, but don't forget who gives the most power. [laughter] >> Okay, so I think that that uh one more thing out of order is the audit report. Would that be >> one thing before that if you don't mind, the scholarship? Um, it's on the consent agenda, but I see Erin Bordeaux. Sorry, I did see Aaron Bordeaux. >> Thank you, Paul. >> Oh, there she is. Um, so Erin would like >> So, this is under

033the two new minute man awards >> there, but it is one new award um that Erin would like to title with you because I know it's on the consent agenda, which we are Um, >> we have not approve approved the consent agenda yet. >> Oh, just one thing out of it. >> We just took one thing out. >> Well, if you don't mind, I would love for Erin to be able to speak her piece. And I see her cat and her cheese there. Erin, if you wouldn't mind introducing the title of the award and giving a brief synopsis to give people credit for contributing. >> Sure. So this year um we partnered with the classes and the MPA scholarship committee to establish a new award. It's called the proud parent award or proud community award

034is what the working title is. It is a an award that is meant to recognize students who might fly under the radar but have made really meaningful contributions to the Minute Man community throughout their four years at Minute Man. Um, generally speaking, they are nominated by staff. Um, there's a proposal that I sent out and worked with the scholarship committee as well as the MPA scholarship committee to sort of establish a sustainable revenue stream through a community event. Um, this year's was the bingo night that was run by the classes and we were able to raise $2,800 to establish uh six new scholarships for this year. So [clears throat] >> thank you so much. Thank you very much. You all heard about the musical bingo from our students um at >> the name was out

035there um in case we had any other people who um wanted to hear about that before we get to the authors. >> Now do you need an action for the school committee for this? You're just uh telling the school committee. >> We are informing you that very good quality. >> Well, very well said. >> Yes, it is. Okay. So, uh uh this is not going to be a short meeting. We do have a lot of work to do today. If you you've seen the agenda and as I said before, those of you who love finance going to be really happy tonight. And if our auditors are available, then we can uh move right on to them so they can get along with whatever else they have to do this evening. >> I am here. But

036those are some those going to be some hard acts to follow. Those are great presentations by the students. >> Yeah. >> Um, good evening everyone. My name is Tanya Campell. I'm a managing director at CBIS and I'm responsible for overseeing the district's audit. Can you guys hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Um, I'm here tonight to present the results of the fiscal year 2025 audit. Um, I had met with Nikki and the finance subcommittee back in midappril um and had a a more in-depth discussion with them than I'll have tonight. But um certainly I'm available or they they're available to answer any questions um that you have. Um, as part of that meeting, we talked about the various roles and responsibilities of us as your independent auditors of management of the district as

037well as um the finance subcommittee as well. And um also touched on some of the uh key numbers and the financial statements and just overall results of the audit and how everything went. So, I'm hoping to provide kind of a summarized version of that to you tonight. Um, my understanding is you've been provided with all of the reports that we've issued as well as um kind of the summary of audit deliverable deliverables memo um that we give every year that kind of has a brief overview of um of what we issue. And I can I don't know if I can share my screen, but I can pull that memo up if you would like. I have to >> be able to now. >> I just find the right screen here. >> Okay. Can you guys

038Can everyone see the memo? >> Yes. >> Zoom in a little bit more. Um okay. So you know as part of the audit process we issue we issue multiple reports and we also issue other communication um to the school committee which as part of the audit process you are considered those that are charged with governance of the district. Um, at [clears throat] the conclusion of the audit, we issue what's known as a government governance letter, which summarizes the results of the audit and in this case documents essentially that we ran into no issues or found no major concerns as a result of our audit testing. We also issue the district's financial statements. Um, and as part of our audit process, we do assist in the preparation of those statements as we do for all of

039the clients that we audit you. Um, you're not alone there. Um, while we do assist in the preparation of those statements, we are ultimately responsible for expressing an opinion on them and management is actually the one that is responsible for those statements. So, while we do issue the the drafts, we provide them to Nikki um after they are have been pulled together as well as um send along our reports and any journal entries that were are required to make as part of the audit process. and she reviews those and makes sure that the information that she provided us to prepare those statements um agrees to her internal records um and reviews whatever adjustments that were needed to prepare the statements. Now, when I say adjustments, please keep in mind that the only adjustments that we're

040required to make as part of the audit process are ones that we need to make in order to convert to the financial statement presentation required for your financial statements. So, it's not that we're making um adjusting or correcting entries. We're not fixing errors um or fixing mistakes. um they're just entries that need to be uh made in order to present things the way the the financial statements are required to be presented. Um your internal records don't align exactly with the financial statements and that's fine. That's that's not um expected in the state of Massachusetts. Um I like to mention that because unfortunately I can't say that for every single audit presentation I do. you know, we do have instances where we have a lot of adjusting or correcting entries. Um, but in this case, we

041don't. So, I like to point that out because it means that the information that you're being provided on a monthly basis in terms of, you know, looking at reports um and making decisions um is accurate. Um, so I always like to bring that up when I can. Now, in fiscal year 2025, we issued an unqualified opinion on the financial statements, which means that based on the results of our testing, we found that the financial statements are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. That is the opinion that you want us to issue and that's the opinion that we have always issued on the district's financial statements. So, that is good. In terms of some of the key numbers and Please keep in mind that um these are from 6:30 2025. I know you guys

042are, you know, looking forward, but our um our audit process always looks backwards. So um as at the end of fiscal 2025, the district had about $1.7 million in their you the unassigned balance in your general fund. So, that's kind of what's left over at the end of the day after all your reserves have been set aside. Um, and everything has been accounted for. Um, it's essentially the same as the starting point for the district's free cash calculation. Um, if you want to think of it that way. Uh, and that balance represents about 5% of the district's annual operating budget, which is right kind of where you want to be. Um, and it's a healthy balance for the district. So, I just wanted to mention that. Um, the district had also about $4.2 million in

043the building stabilization fund and just under $2.3 million in the OPED trust fund. Um, both of those are also very healthy reserves. Um, and I know the district has made a concerted effort to set money aside into both of those funds over the years and has a continued plan um, for the OPED trust fund as well as we discussed in the the meeting about a month ago. Does anyone have any questions on that or questions on the financial statements or >> I have my usual two questions that I'm going to restate here for the record. Uh the first one is in reviewing uh Minute Man's financial statements. >> What would you say the overall uh health financial health of the district is? >> Um the district is in is in great financial shape. Um again,

044we're looking backwards at 2025. Um but from what we see as I mentioned with the you know the balance in the general fund as well as some of your reserves and and stuff that the district has set aside in order to you know make the district stronger in the long run. Um the you know the district is in good financial shape. >> Okay. Okay. And my second question is compared to similar organizations, how would you characterize the um uh quality of the auditing process and cooperation of Minute Man with your auditing process? Um, as I mentioned, you know, before with the um the lack of audit or correcting entries that we have to do, um, you know, that that speaks volumes, I would say, to to the finance team that the district has. Um, the

045process is always very smooth. We're always, you know, given what we ask for in a timely fashion. Um Nikki does I think the most thorough review of financial statements I've ever seen. Um I know as you know I mentioned before that management is responsible for the financial statements and we're responsible for um issuing an opinion and kind of helping draft those but but Nikki really does take that um responsibility seriously and takes the time to review things and make sure everything is accurate. Um, you know, we have instances where we send the draft reports and we get back a signed representation letter within a couple hours. So, clearly, you know, people aren't people aren't spending a whole lot of time reviewing them. But, um, you know, the the team that we work with there is

046is wonderful and um, like I said, always always cooperative and gives us whatever we whatever we need. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Um, yes. Damn. >> So, so I [clears throat] really appreciate all your kudos to Nikki and her team, you know, welld deserved. Um, is there anything that you would recommend? Um, you know, just based on your experience, on your knowledge of the environment, is there anything that you would recommend that we as a school committee, you know, be on top of or looking at or be aware of as we're moving forward? I understand the audience is looking backwards, but just based on what you've seen and based on what you know about the environment, is there anything in particular that you would recommend that we be attuned to in

047the coming year? >> Well, that's a good that's a good question. I mean, given that the district has done a good job in terms of establishing an OPED trust fund and um you know, has a has a process for funding that going forward. I mean that's that's a great step in the first in one direction. You know another number we talk about when we have our our more indepth indepth discussion is your pension liability which in this case it's an asset um in fiscal year 2025. Um you know so the the retirement system is well funded. um you know, making sure that stays that way is is um something to just, you know, be aware of or work towards. Um because that's one that's a you know, that's one expense that the district won't have

048that's much that's as big as a lot of the other districts and a lot of the other cities and towns um that we audit in Massachusetts are seeing. Unfortunately, you know, most of retirement systems are 50 60% funded. So, they're still, you know, putting a good amount of money into those into that cost. Um, health insurance has been a big one. um you know, keeping an eye on that and making sure you're always looking for other options or evaluating those those costs because I've seen some pretty detrimental um effects of that um across the state in terms of audits that we're doing or districts that we're working with um and towns as well. Um I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. I know, you know, the district has done a

049good job in terms of, like I said, setting money aside in your capital stabilization fund, which I know will be used for capital projects down the road, but when you have the ex, you know, excess money to put into that to help alleviate costs of borrowing and and stuff like that, I mean, that's that's always a smart move to make. Um, so it, you know, the district is is doing the right things and and setting themsel up setting yourself up for success going forward. >> Any final questions or comments? >> Very good. Then, well, thank you very much. Uh, we appreciate the efforts that you make on our behalf and I'm happy that we have such a strong report this year. and um uh we know what part of the reason is that you have

050such a strong report this year that is appreciated by so thank you very much. >> You're welcome. [clears throat] >> Good approval of draft minutes of April 7th, 2026. I have a motion to approve them as written, please. >> Second. >> All right. Fighting on second. I get any comments or questions on the minutes that have not yet been good. All in favor of of the motion on the table. Uh oppose and abstension passes unanimously. Okay. Okay. For the good of the organization. First just a note. Uh our July meeting is our reorganizational meeting. So anyone who believes that they would like to consider becoming an officer may want to think about that. The July meeting will also be in person as is our tradition for the reorganizational meeting. And Julia, this is the meeting

051that has not yet been scheduled to be scheduled. So, uh, query the membership. It will be in person. Not our June meeting, I don't think, but our July meeting will be in person. I just want So, that's kind of for the neutral of the organization. I have a any questions on that. Okay. Uh now for the bad of the organization item uh Pam. >> So um something came over to me over me earlier this year and I decided to run for select board in Actton and so our election was April 28th and I did win my election. that does mean that I really can't hold both office, you know, both offices at once. Um, however, I, you know, I have talked to people in act and, you know, express my desire to um, serve out

052which I believe goes till the end of June, but um, we are checking on that. So, I will be here for the next month. Um, we're in the process of finding someone to replace me. My first choice isn't able to do it, but we're going to continue to find someone really strong to be coming in to be joining all of you. So, I'm not going to say goodbye now because I am going to be around for a little bit. So, but I did want you all to know that, you know, I I'll be joining the Actton Select Board, which um very sadly for me means I'll needing to be stepping down from the internet school committee. >> Well, the translator to say formal goodbye to Pam and congratulations. >> Well, thank you. First time I've

053run for office. >> Good. Yes. >> Okay. I believe we also however have some good of the organization items. Is that correct? >> Yes. Um we have completed all nine of our town meetings. Um last night was the last one was very good. Um and to um to our delight um something I've never seen happen before. um Arlington, our our largest member um district, voted after our presentation using clickers, so it was a literal um visible vote and we had zero no votes um last night when >> zero and zero questions too >> and zero I that is t not typical for Arlington um and at all. Um so her the finance committee chair Narlington and several other um town elected town officials came over to Nikki and to me um to express their gratitude

054um with uh the information we've been providing about not only our budget but also the programming that we provide um for students of their towns and we received um truly that warm welcome in in all of your towns. Um the appreciation for the education that we provide at Minute Man is um I feel like much more visible this year than it was last year um from a greater amount of people in the community. Um so I want to make sure um that we're recognizing everyone who um is a part of that. >> And they appreciated our bake sale too. >> Oh yeah, they love the bake sale. They love the bake sale. We had um Matilda was actually there and um we were raising money for the Ed Rising um field trip. Did we sell

055out again? >> I don't know. I don't know. I >> big sale. >> It before we could even set up, people were wanting to um purchase items. It was a wonderful thing. So um so that's it. So I wanted to thank all of you for the late nights and for your communication of your towns um your town administrators, your town finance committees. And I know it's a lot. Um but um it was uh well worth it I would say. >> And that is now over for this year. >> That is now over for this year. [clears throat] >> Right. Exactly. Well smiling and that anything else for the good >> that very good. Uh that is also the same thing reflected audit. Because part of the reason that you don't have question had a good

056feeling part of the reason that the financial material you present is considered uh clear, transparent and believable. And that's one of the reasons because how many people are on the um Arlington Finan? >> Uh at least 15. >> At least 15. >> Okay. >> It's a big group. >> Yes, it's a very big group. Challenging group to work with sometimes. >> Okay. Okay, wonderful. That finishes the chair's report and I believe we are now up to the principal leadership report and we have a few very interesting items on this category. >> Uh so tonight we have a few things to talk about in the leadership report. >> [clears throat] >> um want to go over some adjustments in the handbook uh based on the side council's recommendation. Uh also we have uh Diane Dempsey here

057to talk about the 2026 graduation and the program studies update. And then as always I have another request for a outofstate field trip regarding Skills USA. So I'm going to leave this up here. I'm going to go over to the handbook. Hopefully this works. Beautiful. I'll try to zoom in. >> Is that better? >> So, we have three items uh that we discussed that we'd like to make an adjustment within our handbook. Uh one of those items is our attendance policy. We >> That's really fun. >> Oh, let's see. Sorry. It helps when you have a lot of good pitching that like the game. >> Yeah. >> Um, so >> I'm sorry. Paul, can you just do one one notch up? >> Do [clears throat] one bigger. Yeah, there you go. Oops. >> All right,

058hang on. We're going to get this. >> [clears throat] >> That better? >> Try to go one more on then it goes super big. >> That's good. >> All right. Um, so one of the things that we discussed was >> before you get started here, let me just uh remind people that we've looked at this handbook before and all this going over is the final changes before we approve it. >> Yeah. So we've basically we haven't voted to approve it but we've approved it understanding there's going to be one more review and all his presenting today is the changes from the book that we had already uh said yes it's good >> and again um everything's based off of last year's just a three adjustments that we're making. Um, so one of the discussions was

059the attendance policy or our protocol regarding focusing our amount absence that require meeting or what we're going to be calling credit instead of administrative failure. Um, and making it spread out more based on semester and yearly. Uh, we did everything term. There was a lot of meetings that were term and we said, you know, wouldn't it make more sense to spread that out? um in a bigger time zone uh to have really fruitful meetings and have people have chances to to improve going on there. So everything that's in red um are the changes that we are proposing. Um again 18 per year uh but nine per semester um again 18 comes to 10% of the school year. So when we calculate everything out that's kind of the way we did feel that administrative failures I

060don't know the word the wording is a little I don't know not not what everybody enjoys here but everyone agreed that if we say no credit at that point and you can earn your credit back um that's the direction we went may I jump in and summarize just because I know you are not all familiar with our attendance procedure um if a student is absent a particular number of times during a term. On their report card, it says AF, which is an antiquated term, administrative failure. Um, a more common term is [clears throat] no credit. They are allowed to earn that credit back the following semester. We are not doing it every single term. um it is so short that students don't have an opportunity to earn things back. So Paul did not do this

061in seclusion. He did this with our school council that is made up of parents, students and representative faculty members. Um, so this is to change administrative failure to no credit and to align our same policy with a semester overview as opposed to smaller increments. Is that a good summary? >> Perfect. >> Okay, >> that's one change. I don't want to if anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to answer it. The second change, which isn't too far off, as we all know, we've been making sure that our graduation requirements are aligned with our policy. So, based on policy IKF, what's in our handbook now reflects the same as the policy. So, we our numbers all add up. Everything's correct. I know we've had uh discussions regarding that. Last year we had to keep what we

062had due to the fact that the graduation vote was later than what we had before. So we wanted to make sure that that was correct. >> I'd also like to add this is our minimum graduation requirements. You'll see in the program of studies that that articulates some co-requisites and the more of the details about the actual courses. Um this is also as you know from the policy subcommittee in alignment with what will likely be um the state graduation requirements which we are waiting with baited breath. >> Yeah. And then the final change actually comes from our uh MIA and athletic part. If I can get down to that. Sometimes it's more towards the bottom. We'll get there. Here we go. Um, there's been some things with MIA regarding student participation. Um, if you do not

063have an accurate roster, you can be in eligible and basically forfeit your whole season due to that. So, we wanted to make sure there's a statement that within our school only um Minute Man students may participate in athletics here at the school. And that's more of a cover ourselves to make sure we don't run into a problem with MIAA and being ineligible and again losing a whole season due to someone that's not a minim. But some schools, >> some some have run into it and in different aspects. I actually ran into it previous my previous district was not filed. >> Let's put the motion on the table then we can have a discussion on it. So who would move to accept the student the parent? >> Very good. Now I said a question right over

064there with Shel. >> Yeah, I I had a question about that last bit. Um, doesn't Minute Man join up with other high schools sometimes for sports? And that's fine. >> Yes, because we sign off on that. So, it's an agreement between the two. So, when we do a co-op, >> it's an agreement between the two districts. So, if you don't have enough players in another town wants to join, we fill out a form with MIA saying that we're co-oping. >> Okay. >> Good catch. [clears throat] Would >> you get credit for it? >> Yes. There you go. Bring it to a vote. All in favor of the motion on the table. Uh and abstensions. It passes unanimously. Great. So we have a uh Alice, would you say we've improved student handbook [clears throat] to work

065with now for the future? >> Yes. Okay. Great. Great. >> This has been a a problem for a long time. We appreciate the improvements. >> Yes. >> Great. Um Diane, if you're on just want to check if you could unmute yourself. >> Yes, I'm here. >> Great. Um we're going to turn it over to you regarding graduation in program of studies and then when I get to program and studies, just tell me where to go. I can open it up and we can go from there. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Um hi everybody. Uh I just wanted to discuss um the class of 26 graduation. I think we talked about it one time earlier in the year about making a slight change to the schedule. Um, typically it's always the first Friday of June. However,

066this year um over the summer when we found out that Skills USA was being bumped due to um the World Cup down in Atlanta, um we had to proactively move our graduation so that uh even though we didn't know which kids would qualify, we assumed that we would have um some seniors in the mix, which rightfully so, we have at least I think five or six seniors who qualify to go to Atlanta. Um, and that begins on June 1st. So, we moved uh or I should say the first week of June. So, we moved our graduation from Friday to Monday, June 1st. Um, we worked or Heidi worked um with with Karen Ward to make sure that that was okay, that our kids could still be fully participating. So, that was fine. So, we moved

067up at the time from 2 to 1 in order to allow more flexibility with flights. So, it's all working out. knock on wood that we will host our graduation of the LMA on Monday, June 1st at 1:00. Um and the kids will the seniors who qualify are leaving right from Lowel and going to the airport. So um we told that they were um wouldn't miss out on either event. So, I know Julia will send out the um typical invite to you all to see who will be joining us that day, but it's such a great event. I hope as many of you can make it as as possible. >> Just a comment on especially for the newer members. So, what we do as school committee members is that we're sitting there on stage and we're

068allowed to get up for a certain amount of time and hand out diplomas to some of the kids. So we do it, you know, however many school committee members there are, you get a certain number of diplomas to pass out. And so that's always a thrill. And you'll also find that I think that Minute Man graduation is a lot more fun than a lot of others because uh it is short. Uh Diane keeps it running like clockwork. No delays and the attitude of the kids is I think uh better than at most graduations I've done. So it's a lot of fun. It's more intimate. So, if you have not done that, I would uh when you get the invite and if you can make the time, I would suggest if you haven't done it before

069to uh go and do it. It's fine. Okay. Thank you. Sorry for interrupting. Please continue. Okay. Um is any other questions about graduation? Should we move on to the program of studies? >> Okay, let's move on. Paul >> Thank you. Um, I don't know if you just want to scan through a little bit, Paul. So, I know I presented already on the program of studies, but now it's officially completed. Um, we hadn't really updated this entire book really since the old building to be honest. So, we did tackle that this year and it really took the entire year to do it. Um, we all the academic leads met I don't even know how many times throughout this year. So um Sheila Nagel, Eric Marshall, Greg Donovan, John Fusco, they were really integral in getting this

070document to where it is now. Um we went through every single course course description and updated. Um, and we're, the reason we started, we basically started over was because we realized that Miniman wasn't getting full credit, particularly on our advanced courses on our DESIE report card. So, when Heidi went over it with me when she first started, I said, she's like, "We're not getting credit for this or this." And I'm like, "But we offer all of those things." So what we realized is some of our course codes weren't aligned exactly with what we were already teaching. So our teachers were doing so much and it wasn't being um promoted on our report card. So we've gone through and we put all the levels in. We put a lot of what the state requirements are, what

071we are anticipating the state requirements are going to be in the future, the near future. Um, we put all of that in. Um, so we went through and what the leads did was they made sure that every course that they're offering is aligned with their frameworks. So we um we added that and then we added the Desi code. You can see under each course we added the DESI code so that when we're putting it into our student information system that we're reporting exactly what our teachers have been offering. So now we'll get additional recognition through our desk report card for what we have been doing. So we also went ahead and um designated which classes were the competency determinations um knowing that that's going to be part of everything for graduation requirements. So we know

072we specified which courses those would be. Um and then further along you'll see which courses are also um recognized as advanced courses. So um it was definitely a group effort with all of the academic people. They put in so much time and I kept going back to them with like a few more edits and all this and um so it's really come a long way. Um Katie Buchard updated all of the CTE courses. Um, and then what we did from there is Drew O' Conor and I spent a lot of time looking at courses that we're offering embedded within the CTE programs so that we can pull those out and recognizing them not only in the program of studies but also in Aspen so that it's being reflected on the students transcripts. So, we have

073dual enrollment classes which Danielle Tag oversees and we are now recognizing some of those within our CTE majors which we hadn't done before as far as um specifying that on a student transcript. So, it's been a lot of um adjusting courses in Aspen and credits and that sort of thing and having Danielle get the our current teachers approved through Middle Sex. So all of that was done. Um so it's been a lengthy progress process. And then thanks Paul. This is where you can see like the advanced courses. Um and I had sent out to the leads. It's Desi has this Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of codes. So the teachers had to go through what they offer and what it matches for the Desi code to get it correct. So we did all of that and

074I'm sure there'll be still still finetuning we'll have to do. um as we start using the book. Um but I just wanted to send it out there to everybody so you guys could could have a copy. We'll continue to tweak it. Um and then just wanted to thank all of the leads who put so much time. Um and Drew for helping me format cuz I don't know how to do any of that stuff. So that's the update on the program of studies. >> Thank you Diane. I I would like to jump in just to make sure this is not understated. Um we at Minute Man were not getting credit on our school report card or on some of our desi school profile publications that are shared with our towns even though we were doing the

075work. Um, so what Minute Man leads with Diane, with our um, tech department, what they put together really brings our reporting, our actional teaching and learning um, and communication with people who don't know things inside and out that Minute Man does. for example, something uh the the language um of all of these descriptions over the years that they as they get tweaked, they sometimes don't look as consistent. Um the vocational courses um were poured over. Um it looks so professional, clear to people who don't know Minute Man. I cannot um I cannot understate the amount of time that it took for people to learn the why this is urgent and um because it was urgent and they knew that um they got it done. I don't know of another place that could have gotten this

076done in one year and to expand the knowledge base of all of our leads now knowing what the codes mean even though you know that's the whole tedious backend part. Um this is incredibly helpful to us. Um we uh the state actually pulled a bunch of our data well not pulled they have it already um to help figure out their own reporting to see who met mascorn didn't um and we because of our accuracy with our reporting were able to tell the state well actually you got these things wrong and Minute Man reported it correctly. Um it was it's a wonderful place to be. I feel like we're going to be worlds ahead no matter what comes at us with those graduation requirements and um th this was a heavy lift and I can't wait

077until it's um published on our website. So, thank you um Diane for your leadership and the leads for coming together um to make this happen. >> If I could just add one thing as well, um I want to give credit to Diane because she looked at the book and said, "I'm going to do this by grade level." So, if you noticed when I was scrolling to try to get to advanced, you know, I had to get to the junior and senior courses, but she's made the book more um familyfriendly because if you have a ninth grade, you're going to focus on the nth grade um section and then a 10th grader, you're going to focus on the 10th grade section. So, that was really all her idea and I want to make sure she gets

078credit for for coming [clears throat] up with that. >> Is she still saying? [laughter] So I I guess I just want to you know thank thank you for you know [clears throat] what seems like an extraordinary amount of work that is going to benefit us in so many ways. My [clears throat] question is, is there anything we can do retroactively about not getting credit for work that we did within Desi? And I think of all our towns that go to that website, you look up Minute Man, and I hate the fact that they say the real thing. >> Um, business rules, no, they do not allow that. Um, we every October there's strict deadlines. Um, but the good news is, um, instead of just having one person look at what we send to Desi, we

079have a small team that does that. Now, I think you remember with my, um, with my, uh, my entry findings, one of one of the many data issues we had was co-op. It looked like we had none. Um, which we did plenty. So, that we can't fix retroactively on Desessie's website. However, um we can we do have it correct now and it will continue to be correct. And all what's wonderful about what they did with this program of studies is this is sustainable. So it is it's a it's a continuity plan. So right now we are many times trying to find pieces and processes and what do we have what they need is something that is sustainable. so that if there's a change in leadership, if there's a change with um uh people who are

080contributing to this, they will still have that same framework and be able to um I guess connect the dots. So, we're not um starting from scratch. So, um uh unfortunately, I wish I had better news, but the state does not. Uh once once we are done, we are we are done. Uh just a comment as a teacher in Newton which I was for 23 years I have incredibly grave doubts as to whether we could have pulled off what you did in the time frame you did it. I do not believe that we could have come near reaching that goal. So I have a pretty good idea how challenging that [clears throat] was. So, uh, kudos everybody and, uh, it's going to be something that's going to be helpful to the school for a long, long

081time. And we don't need a vote on this. This is not a uh, does that finish item uh, C and D? >> One more. >> We got one. Oh, I don't I know you don't want me to skip over this next one, so we'll just say goodbye to Diane. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Diane. >> Thank you. item E. So, let me see if I can [clears throat] make this a little bigger, too. So, as we discussed before, we needed a vote for states uh and [clears throat] staying over and now uh we are looking for a vote for out of state for the nationals for skills. As was stated before, we have 13 students that are gold medals that qualified. Um, and two of the and also two MTI students. So, our

082postsecary uh students also got two golds as well. Um, we also have two students who are voted national delegates. One of our students is served as the state president, so she will be going. And then one of our students was selected to be an incoming delegate. So that person will be going as well. And I wanted to shout out um what we qualified for like we have a career pathway showcases. So arts and communication, business management and technology, human services, health science and services, agriculture, food and natural resources, engineering and technical math, public seeking and job skill demonstration, occupational health and safety, and electronics technology and graphic imaging. And these are pictures actually from states from states. And actually if I go back to going a little smaller um you can see in this picture

083here how many students participated. >> Oh that's great. >> Did you run out of red paint? >> I think they ran out of backdrop if you look at it. Um you know they have a Skills USA backdrop and we had to go on two two areas past that. So, um, great experience for our students and obviously would like to have a vote to send them to nationals right after graduation, our seniors, which is 11 seniors. >> 11. >> Yeah. Somebody like to make a motion, please. So moved. >> Second. >> Very good. Um, this is a lot, right? [snorts] Sending this many is a lot. >> Yes. And I'd also like to shout out our Adult Technical Institute competitors. That is new. >> I was about to say that is how great is that? >>

084Um and anecdotally, um you know, I worked at Southeastern Regional for many years. Um I'm from many teachers still keep in touch with me. My favorite part this year of um the skills um awards ceremony was former teachers saying another minute man kid. What are you guys doing over there? I was it was the best. It was the best. >> Okay. So the motion on the table is um from under item 6E approval of the overnight travel for minimum schools USA. It has been moved and second. further discussion or comment on the motion of the table. Very well then bring it to a vote. All in favor of the motion of the table say I or is this fine opposed and abstensions then it passes unanimous. Good luck to Skills USA and uh nationals and

085let's see uh June 1st is coming. >> Couple weeks it is. >> Wow. And of course you will um u send us through course >> two weeks. How many >> um 13 >> 13 school gold medals plus uh who are high school students and two adults. >> Okay. >> And is that uh the conclusion of the principal's leadership report? >> That is the conclusion of the leadership report. >> Great. Superintendent's leadership report. >> Thank you. Um Paul would you mind sharing the slide about admissions? So the um the ind district admissions has not changed um at this point. We have um oh wait till zooms in >> and there >> we have 174 students who have accepted as of this point. Um and as you know um if we have 174 who have accepted as

086of right now that is not the number that will arrive on day one. Um so we moved forward to our outof district acceptances. Do you mind scrolling to the go? Um we have offered 54 student seats and we have 30 acceptances as of yesterday. So, as of right now, we're hovering where we were last year at this time. Um, and um, we did not need to run a lottery, which is uh, an ideal situation. Um, Aaron Nordson, if she is receiving in district applications, um, we are still processing those. However, there are no more outofdist applications um that would be processed at all. Those would be put into a um a wait list if you would. Um and we did have I think it was over 70 actual outofdist applicants. Um we only admitted students

087who had approved chapter 74 forms. So if you're not sure what that is, if you are an outofd district student and you apply to minute, your sending district needs to approve that you come for a particular program and you can only stay for that particular program. Um that's in short. Um so sometimes um member districts uh are concerned that out of district students will take the seat of soando. That's that's not typically the case. um because they come here for a specific program and um close that if you want Paul. Um [snorts] we had um a town Sudbury as you know was very interested in finding out how to become a member and rejoining. There were five students um who um were accepted. Six who applies uh actually we accepted all six five accepted the

088acceptances. That was our biggest particular town. >> Have any questions about that? [cough and clears throat] >> Yes. Are you still um you know you have um acceptances out of 54 who are offered? Do you expect more to be continuing to come in? >> We we hope so. We shall see. We need two things. We need them to accept the offer and we need them to enroll. So they do have a strict deadline. And if they don't enroll by the deadline Erin provided them, then they took those stats. So with these out of districts, it's very we need to know that they are to attend. So that number I do anticipate will actually put down any questions or Okay, that is all I >> You have item three. Um we do need a vote to

089continue the legal services contract with Murphy Lamir Murphy. Um our contract ends on June 30th. Um we are looking to have that for another 3 years. Um the is comparable to um rates from other districts. um as I shared with our school committee chair um and I am hoping someone will make a motion and we can discuss if you'd like to >> second so let's say what the chair did on this so I got a uh email from Joshua saying that it's time to look into our contract and he sent a new contract and the new contract is just like the old one except for one difference the price per year goes up. So even our old contract uh it started in um uh July 1st 2023 225 per hour and then it went up

090[snorts] $5 each year and now the new increases are $10 each year compatible with other people in the world and generally people are pretty happy with the work that they've done for us in general. So I did inquire of the superintendent. I inquired of uh school committee members who have worked with them. So generally people are fairly pleased. So on uh before that I would like a motion to adopt or the contract. >> You just uh oh we already have >> is that great. So further discussion. >> Yes. Um, item seven says the attorneys are independent contractors and neither they nor any employee of theirs shall be considered to be employees of the city. Should we say the district? >> Um, they are forever. >> Okay. Just like we're not a like I just wanted

091to clarify. We're not a city. >> No, we're not. Okay. >> So, it's only a word. I was just wondering if we don't I proofread everything they send us. Don't >> I'm sorry. You're absolutely right. >> You know I do that. That's right. >> That's why we need you on the policy. Yes. >> It's never a word. >> Says never. >> Okay. I found one word. >> Any other comments of both regarding contract? Very well. Then bring it to vote. All in favor of the motion on the table. Opposed and abstensions. It passes unanimously. So you can contact the deal with superintendent. It should actually say K. >> Jeff. Jeff. >> Yes. >> It says through 2029. Look at that number. >> 29. Almost a third of the way through the century. >> So you're

092just horrified by the path that you kind of >> I'm horrified that it's starting May and I thought yesterday was September. Now it's May. Senior's graduating. But it always is thicker. Okay. Does that complete the superintendent's leadership report? >> It does. >> Very good. And again, once again, finance fans, as promised, we're nowhere done with finance. We got some interesting issues in addition to our normal reports. So, I will hand it over to Sarah. >> Sure. We're at that time again where it's time for the school committee to um review the um quarterly reports and we're going to have Nikki take us through. Take it away, Nikki. Awesome. >> We even have a few funs, >> of course. Thank you everyone. It's nice to see you all in person. Um as you know, I get

093a few of these where I get to talk a lot, so I apologize that it's already late. So, we'll try to um you know give a big picture summary. We did spend about an hour with the finance committee really going into the nitty-gritty. So, I apologize for those of you that have to hear this twice. Um we are going to kind of reorder the way we did it. The finance committee, we're going to start talking about our projected END. And um for those of you um that don't know what that is, that's excess and deficiency. Um, for some towns it's called free cash, but it's essentially kind of um the net uh money that you have um at the end of the year. And um Paul, you could advance to the next slide. That would

094be great. >> It just has a little lag. That's um >> that's that's no not a problem. >> Um so at this time of the year, we're presenting our third quarter reports, but you know, now we're in through the middle of May. So um we're also looking at what does the end of the year look like? Um so with the finance committee um I presented some tables for the school committee we're kind of going big picture with a graphic which was a great recommendation. Um so when you think about END or excess and deficiency you're only allowed to have um up to 5% um left over and that's really um set by the state in ensuring that we're presenting um you know a fiscally responsible budget and not overcharging any of our our member towns.

095So um when we're looking at where we started and in particular as the auditor set us up good that 1.7 million that she mentioned is um over here this starting END um column right here. So um as we know that's certified by the state it was certified in March and um we ask as part of the budget the school committee to vote and approve to offset the FY27 budget. So this first line right here is the 650,000. You've already done a preliminary vote and a certified vote on that number. Um so we are going to give money back to our member town. So if you see this orange line here, um our END actually started slightly over 5% but because we're giving back more than that, it was about an extra 175,000, we are technically

096below that 5% threshold. So now as we're looking into the year and and we'll talk about um where our reports are looking like for um the third quarter um but we're we're looking strategically as to where we're going to end the year and the goal would be um our school committee goal is between 3 to 5%. Um we really don't want to aim um any higher than the max allowable. Um so as we look at that, there's some thoughts and considerations that we've done in prior years. Um and one of those is fully funding our capital stabilization account. So as we're looking at that and trying to be strategic about um where we want to land for year end, um we made um a contribution uh this year of 950,000. Um this would fully fund

097our capital stabilization account. um if we were to um take this vote or recommend it would be a budget amendment. So it would actually increase our budget and we would use END um to fund that. Um as the auditors mentioned um having a fully funded capital stabilization um account is really great thing to have for our reserves. It's great for our building um looking into the future. Um and it is something that we have done the past few years. Um there would be no impact to any of our member towns or their assessments. It would truly just be utilizing the END um to fund that capital stabilization um account which is sitting right now at about 5.2 million. Um so then we look at END. That's kind of um where we started and if we're

098going to utilize that. Um and then when you think about the year um we have budgeted revenue and budgeted expenses. So um when we create our budget we have our revenue um which is a majority of our member town assessments but also we have you know chapter 7 aid chapter 71 regional um transportation. We also have some unbudgeted revenue that came in this year. Um we have it's a majority of our interest income. So that could be a consideration um in a future budget. Um we have about $125,000 worth of interest income and then a small amount of miscellaneous revenue. Um but when you think about where we're starting, when we're over that 5% already in the beginning, when you have a little extra revenue or savings in the expenses, um we're going to kind

099of still be at that um that higher line. So this is um increasing our END or END balance. Here is our projected um unexpended budget. Um so that with um a transfer um which is in our next slide would be 513,000 which would bring us um just under that 5% which is really where we want to be. It would be about 4.5. So Paul, if you could go to the next slide. Um I just want to show kind of where we're at and where we're projecting right now um would be savings of about just just less than a million dollars. Um I am proposing that we um as we have done in prior fiscal years um make a budget transfer. This is a operating transfer um within our own um budget that would be to

100our oped um trust fund. And for those of you who don't remember what OPED means, um it's other post-employment benefits. Um as the auditors mentioned, that's something really important to fund. Um this year we're about 18% funded, so we do have a a ways to go. Um you'll see there's kind of a break um where we're seeing the savings. Um there was some savings this year um in particularly in our salary accounts. Um we had a number of um staff members on leave where we had long-term subs come in at a lower amount um as well as a uh program that wasn't um that didn't have any students to run the program. So we did see some savings um in that line. And then our non-s salary savings um more of the savings or the

101higher um budget savings that I saw was in the health insurance. So we did budget a 10% um in the FY26 budget where that came in at was a 5% for one plan and a 7% um for the other plan. So we were see seeing um about $150,000 in savings there. So again, if we were to make this transfer, which brings our um unexpended budget essentially down to about 500,000, that would keep us um right around or right below that that 5% um mark. So those are two budget uh recommendations um that that I will be making um and that I have made to the finance committee. Again, one would be um Paul, if you want to go to the next slide. Um well, let's go one more and then I'll and then I'll come

102back to it. But again, kind of making this vote um whereas we would increase the budget a budget amendment of 325,000 um and then utilize that excess and deficiency. So again, another vote. Um and then Paul, if you want to go back to that letter to the school committee, this is really just kind of what I've chatted about. We um did get this number certified um in March. Um and what that means um if we were to do the transfer, it would um increase our capital stabilization fund. Again, we're that right around that 5.2 million. Um and again, you know, thinking about, you know, working with the capital planning committee. Um really being strategic there. Um, with that 20-year capital plan, we do expect some years um that are going to have a big increase

103um or kind of items in the building uh running at capacity or at useful life. So, um we want to be able for a second. Um for those of you who remember our on-site insight report, their recommendation, correct me if I'm wrong, Nikki, >> was that we have 2.2 $22 million a year for our capital stabilization in order to com >> keep our building and our fields and our campus as is. That is not something we can do. Um we're not actually coming close to their recommendation, but I do think we're um doing better than most districts with um what Nikki's requests are. >> Absolutely. So being able to at least um transfer in to meet that kind of state um max it will definitely be in the best benefit um of the school. And

104then you know as we've gone to finance committees and talked to them um when we have those years where we have those unexpected expenses um the school committee will be able to vote to utilize the capital stabilization fund instead of going to the town asking for debt. Um, so that's really more of a budgeting tool and a strategic way that we're going to be able to um, help our member towns in the future. Um, and just a reminder again, it will not change any of the member town assessments. Um, really just um, as we've done the past few years, um, a letter that goes out um, noting that the towns have 45 days to respond. If they don't respond, it is essentially deemed as approved. >> We want to do the votes now. >> Um,

105yeah. So, yep. That's my next report. So, does anyone have any questions on the presentation um on access and deficiency or any of the votes? Um you might want to just go back to where the votes are that last and and Julia, [clears throat] everyone has this breakout in their backup, correct? So Paul, you don't have to worry about zooming in so close. Um, may I have a motion to amend the fiscal year 2026 budget by 325,000 from 32,461,56 to 32,786,56. Second. So moved. >> Okay. I heard a second. >> We'll pretend those would have happened in office of the >> Yeah. >> Do we want to take the other one at the same time? >> No. Uh how about questions, comments, right? >> Yeah. Questions, comments. >> Okay. Bring to a vote. I'll take

106a motion at the table. opposed and abstensions. [snorts] >> And may I have a motion to authorize 325,000 from certified excess and deficiency fund to reduce member town assessments for the fiscal year 2026 budget? >> Second. Any questions, comments? >> So, can I ask a question? So basically we're taking we're adding the 325 to the budget but we're not assessing the district's 325 because we're taking it from the excess and deficiency. >> Beautiful. >> That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure that I put that into like layman's terms. >> You summed it up perfectly. >> Any other question? It's irritation. [laughter] >> Bring it to the vote. All the motion the tables and abstensions and it passes unanimously. >> But don't get upset. There's a lot more finance left. >> There is

107more. Um, and you know what? I didn't mention one thing. So Paul, could you just click on that second tab which is the health insurance comparison um on the very top? >> That's the top. >> Yeah. Um so typically when I've made these recommendations for OPE and capital stabilization um we've um we've gotten feedback from some of our um member towns about um you know kind of equally contributing to both capital stabilization and OPED. Um so that's something that um we've thought about and considered as we um look at all of this. So in this version um I am recommending an extra $100,000 to OPED which is 425,000 versus 325,000 in our capital stabilization. So, um, one of the reasons why I'm recommending that is, um, in our FY27 budget, um, unfortunately, as you've heard

108from all your member, um, member communities through town meetings, um, health insurance is something that, um, is continuing to increase um, not only um, in our member towns um, and in the state, but in particular this year for Minute Man. Um so we are part of Mass Bay Healthcare Trust. Um and I am a member of the trust um along with our director of HR and compliance and there are two union members. Um so there's four members from Minute Man and there's four regional schools. So each year um we kind of track and create um premiums or increases because we're a self uh insured trust. Um and over the past five years, um the trust has been in a very good position where we've been able to um despite recommendations to increase um the premiums.

109Um we had over a year's worth of reserves and um we really for three years voted a 0% increase. Um whereas if you look across the state um and in particular um the group insurance commission which is the state plan um you can see that they had um an average of you know 6 to 7% increases that year. Um the last two years you know you'd see those are closer to 9 and 1 half.7 8%. Um we did increase this year the five and the 7%. Um but what we're looking at for next year is a 15% on one plan and a 20% on another plan. Um that is still with the trust subsidizing almost $800,000. Um so the trust um has subsidized these years um compared to the recommended number um because the uh

110trust had a good amount of reserves. Um this year in particular with um weight loss GLP1s which are essentially the OMIC um there's been a huge increase in the number of claims. Um so if we were to um keep um weight loss um GLP1s on our um health insurance that would have increased it. They would have recommended a 36% increase. Um so you know one thing that we did um for the trust was exclude um weight loss GLP1s. Um that isn't something that we decided um just by ourselves. It's something that Blue Cross has decided. It's something that the GIC has decided. Um it's something that Maya's decided really in hopes that you know if these big um companies um start to exclude it, prices will go down and it's something we can reconsider in

111the future. Um but because of the number of claims this year um and just being very fiscally responsible for our trust um that was the vote that we had to take this year and how that impacts our we budgeted um 10%. Um so we will be experiencing a short um a shortfall I guess in um the insurance. Um and one way that I'm recommending um that we make up for that is with OPED. So, if we were to fund an extra $100,000 within this FY26 budget, um our allocation to our OPED trust versus our active health insurance um for our retirees could just um be reallocated by $100,000. So in total um we'll still be able to um with this 100,000 for FY26 um be able to meet our commitment um to our oped um

112and still be able to um fund our our active health insurance for for our retirees next year. So that's something um just wanted to make everyone aware of as we you know make our promises to our towns about our our funding to OPED. Um we'll still be able to do that. um just you know kind of reallocating between one month um and that should put us in a better uh fiscal position for FY27. Um unfortunately we do our best to estimate in some years we do a really good job um and we're able to move some money over in some years. Um this has been the first year um since I've been here that unfortunately it's gone the other way. Um so you know I usually love to share great news. Un unfortunately um this

113is the one item um you know that Minaman's seeing this year um that we've under budgeted for and um you know this hopefully will help us get into a better place. Any questions on that? So do we have a lot of faculty that are going to be affected by I mean everybody's in the DLP ones these days. So like do we is this a sore spot with the faculty at all? like are there people that are suddenly going to lose that coverage and be frustrated? I mean, >> I I can answer that. So, anyone who is on a GLP1, unless it is for actual diabetes, that will not be covered any longer. Um, however, we are we're one of the last groups to vote to take that on as well. Okay. So that is not

114um we're not an outlier in any sort of >> that problem is going to have to be solved really at the national level. >> Absolutely. >> Unfortunate. [clears throat] So >> um I I'd also like to mention at the finance committee meeting um they shared some ideas about possible incentives for um people to take um maybe uh partners' insurance or something like that. So those kinds of um ideas are not um out of the uh realm of possibility. Um but right now this is just where we are. >> Oh, I understand where we I'm just I know that it sometimes is a big hit when you're like, "Oh, your premiums are going up, man. Your coverage is going, you know, it just sometimes is, >> you know, and also as a trust um you know,

115over these, you know, over these three years of 0%. um you know maybe what we've learned is we you know we should have done a 333 and you know there you know it's always it's always in hindsight right retrospect um so that's something that I've learned and I probably wouldn't recommend a 0% um in the future but it also felt wrong in those years when we were sitting on a year's worth of reserves um to pass on um more expenses to um you know the employees. So, you know, there's always, you know, double-edged sword there. Um, but >> have a two quick comments. >> Yeah. >> The first one is that, uh, next year are we likely to also have a very large increase. >> Um, so what they're projecting and they excluded some of

116the GLP ones um would be another 15%. >> And that forever or for just we're kind of over the hump that >> Yeah, just for that year. um we looked at, you know, projecting out if we were only to do a 10% this year, um it would have been closer to a 20% next year. >> And the other thing is that on OPIP, yes, we're uh at what percentage are we at now? >> 18. But if you look at our schedule of adding to that in five or 10 years, we're going to be in very good shape. I don't we had a report a number of years ago of how we should handle that. they came up with a a painful but a really professional uh solution to do it. And so we start, you

117know, small because we're starting level with zero. Uh and in five or 10 years, we're going to have a very substantial amount of that taken care of. >> Absolutely. When I first started, our contribution was 50,000. Um so you know it is something that you know after the OPED advisory group really got together um it was something that was strategic um something that they didn't really put in place until the esco lease off the books so it wasn't something that um took a really big hit on the towns um and I think that really prioritizing that to ensure um that you know when all of our teachers retire um we're in a really good place um as our auditors mentioned our minute man retirement um board is is over 100% funded. Um so we really

118are just making sure that you know all of these reserves um are in a really good um fiscal financial spot. >> Our towns look at that and they're happy that we're contributing to it even [clears throat] though it's costing them money. They're happy we're contributing because they understand that's a a financial bill with it. All right. Any other questions on this? Okay, great. Um, so we are going to fly through the rest of this. Um, but this is our general fund report and we will be recommending um a number of budget transfers. Um, if you scroll down to the bottom, Paul, sorry. Um I think we're about 4% um remaining as of March 31st. Again, kind of the numbers that I've been bringing to you that we just talked about were closer to May 1st.

119Um >> so I brought to you about 900,000. This um is different because we're talking March 31st compared to kind of May 1st. Um so I'll talk to you about the highlights. Um we have a deficit in our long-term subline again um just due to um you know teachers that were on leave um or employees that were on leave um and you know transferring that to the proper coding as we've we're all really familiar with the DESIE codes. um we've really got to make sure we're in line to make sure um our reporting not only for uh the program of studies but our financials is is correct. Um and then we have um some projected deficits in our utilities account and our snowplow line which I'm sure you've seen through all of your towns as

120well. Um, so I think it'd be easier to talk through the budget transfers on the next um, slide, but um, overall um, 4% um, as of uh, March 31st and kind of what we looked at projecting out um, through the end of the year. Um we are still in a very good financial position on meeting that uh goal at the end of the year being between that 3 and 5%. Um that the school you should try making this one a little bigger. >> Sure. We just want to get about >> um so this first line um is something that our director of technology and data systems um brought to the finance committee. Um it is a transfer to cover access point implementation, configuration and installation. Um what what does that mean? Um in our FY27

121budget um you know we plan for capital items. This is an IT item actually. Um and it's to cover all of the access points in the building. Um Drew did a really nice job essentially kind of the wireless um within the building. So when we put an estimate in the FY27 budget um compared to the quote we got it was a little short. we were able to um work with them to figure out that [music] there um there was an item that we could start um prior to the uh FY27 budget and that made sense because of where we're at with the health insurance already kind of being um a little bit under in our FI27 budget. it made sense to kind of um be able to start the implementation um in the spring and

122then um be able to completely uh fully fund um the entire building. The other alternative was maybe not doing a a portion of the building which just for equity purposes um didn't make sense. So, um that's what um we're presenting in this first line um is to start that um budgeted um FY27 um replacing all the wireless within the building. Um our second code is really just a reclassification um from where our director of academics was to um our MTSS coordinator, our multi-tiered system of support coordinator. um and that um employee started in March with us. Our third transfer is just to cover the long-term perm um substitutes that are in the building due to leaves. Uh pretty straightforward. Um this fourth item, and I'm not sure if Greg Donovan is on, but he came

123um came to us with a clever idea which um you know we hadn't heard of yet and they're essentially books um that are called fitbound or permabound. and they're essentially books that um I really can't break. Um it turns our paperback books into hard coverver books. So, >> and they have a lifetime warranty. So, um he was able to reutilize some of the software money um and uh plan to purchase some books with this lifetime warranty. So, as long as the book um is in publication, which any of the kind of classic titles are, um this will be a great um budget saver for future budgets being able to um kind of reallocate the funds here. Um we have um two transfers to our instructional uh equipment line and um unfortunately um when our robotics

124program didn't run this year because of the enrollment um we wanted to reallocate uh that funding in particular to um our engineering which helps um teach those robotic skills as well. So, um we're looking to transfer um funds for structure sets um for hands-on experiments testing theories. Um and we also wanted to um make a transfer for a industry standard production system um for the live broadcast in studio settings. Um and we are fortunate enough to have Katie Buchard here if anyone has any particular questions on those um CTE items. Great. I'm sorry. I do have a question. So, and this [clears throat] may be a silly question. I know this is for this budget, but when you do these transfers, how does that affect kind of things going forward? [clears throat] So, for example,

125if um you know, part of it was you know, not having the instructor or I think that's what you said. So if if we do have that in you know that position back does all of this change? >> So right do you understand what >> I do I do. So we already proposed the FY27 budget right >> um with the staff that we need with the anticipated um supplies that we need. These are one-time costs. them. So, it's just one time, not setting >> those structure sets, we're not buying those every year. >> Okay. >> Um those lifetime warranty books are in fact replacing the need to get um consumable books and paperbacks over and over and over. Um so, these are like the next one like the shortage for the athletic buses. Um that's

126something that we needed to cover for this year. It's a one-time switch. Uh nothing here is a uh now an added revolving expense year to year. >> Yeah. So Heidi mentioned our athletic games. Um our teams did really great this year. Um so just compared to budget um we had a lot more miles and a lot more hours. So um you know again anything over 20 um 10,000 comes to the school committee for consideration. This is our estimate that we'll need to cover the end of the year. Um again just transferring that from our regular transportation line um to the athletic games. Um transportation line um that function code 3300 is just student transportation to and from school whereas an athletic game um is different than that. Um the to and from school is a

127reimburseable. So we just need to keep that separate um for reporting reasons. Um and our next line is utilities. So um I had been working um with our um kind of solar consultant uh Beth Greenblat. She had helped through the business um the school building project um and she helps kind of budget um helps me budget each year for um utilities. Unfortunately, we are um slightly over for our electricity and we're still looking into um the reason why that is. I did chat with her on the phone right before I came in. Um, you know, she did look and see maybe we were using utilizing a little bit more AC than we had budgeted for. Um, but one of the main reasons was she was kind of netting out um some of the solar in

128the budget where she shouldn't have been. So, um, that was something we were slightly under budget for this year. Um, and you'll see uh we were also slightly under budget for snow plowing. Um so unfortunately that it is you can't um always budget everything perfectly. Um what I used to come to the school committee with um was requests to um move money into our student transportation line because of homeless and foster care. Um we budgeted that very well this year and we didn't need to utilize it all. So really just an al reallocation of funds this year um to >> can't predict all. >> Yep. to some line items um that you know unfortunately I've never been um off on snow plowing until this year. So it's been a a number of years where um

129you know the snow hasn't impacted the budget that that much. Um this question was asked at our town meeting. So I thought I would ask what amount roughly of the snow overage was like salt sand materials and how much of it was like the hours. >> That is a great question. Um you know Michelle and I actually looked at every single invoice and we even looked at okay if they were here on the weekend was it for a rental and we took that money out. Um, you know, they have sanding chart. They just have a sanding chart. Um, it wasn't necessarily like that they charge us for bags. Um, I can tell you incidotally there was a huge shortage at that time. Um, so thankfully we had reserves here. >> Um, but that is you

130are right. They did jack up the prices when there was a shortage of those. We we weren't one of the places that did not have enough. We had enough, but apparently it was like $500,000 excess in still and um it was mostly materials. >> So I can tell you anecdotally I heard that there were were hunts. I don't have that in front of us right now. >> Yeah. No. Wow. >> Um yeah. So that was just something you know unex obviously unexpected. We can't really control the the snow. Um but you know we budgeted 65,000 so we were more than more than double our budget there. Uh you know what one of the things that makes miniman a little bit more expensive is that we not only plow but we plow and remove the snow

131um due to the wetlands and the protected land. So that does make our snowplow budget a little more expensive um than maybe something else. Um this transfer we've kind of chatted about a little bit um at length the OPED contribution again kind of taking from our excess in our health insurance um as well as our our teacher line. And then um last but not least is a transfer um just within the capital budget. Um this year we had planned to um do uh electric gate. Um and once um Michelle Rosendez, our director of operation, looked into that, um it was a little bit more um complicated than we expected and a lot more money than we expected. Um, so there was also some plans to um kind of resurface our wood bridge. Um, and that

132did not happen this year either. We prioritized getting our um boiler replaced, our hot water heater, and now um you know, after discussing um as a team, the the next most priority for capital would be um a the purchase of a 14 passenger van um for our students that get um transported to co-ops um different different sites. Um, you know, we have three buses now, um, that are, I think two are 2008s and one maybe a 2009. Um, so we're getting on, you know, way kind of way past the useful life. So, um, that really is something we were able to get to from a grant this year, but something that we really want to, um, make sure that when the students are being transported, um, we are doing that safely, um, in a van.

133Um, you know, >> may I give a I'm going to give a shout out to some of your towns who shared wonderful plans um for um the life cycle when um town vans and cars and trucks are they have mileage limits, they have limits. Um and that's something that I think we will be adopting here in the future um with our capital planning committee and our new director of operations. So we're not just waiting indefinitely for things to uh to break. We need a cycle. >> What is the uh uh most common purpose for the school meetings? >> Um to bring students to offsite um experiences like clinical or um so like a a hospital uh nursing home. Uh horiculture is constantly out. Um >> so these are vehicles that are used very uh common.

134>> Oh. Oh yes, we average about 100 field trips a month. >> 100 a month. >> They are at a premium. Um >> who's the driver? >> Uh I the driver switches. Um I would say horiculture is out a ton. Environmental is out a ton. Our offsite projects are out. >> The teachers are the drivers and they answer the students. Yeah. >> Teachers do everything right. Everything. Unbelievable. And with that they all who is the driver wants the newest van. So we got to make sure they don't have a >> you should get credit for your moving snow around to protect the wetlands and stuff because at least in my town they're starting to talk about storm water management policies and you know crazy long lists of rules about protecting the water from salt and

135whatever. So, if you're already doing that, you should advertise. [clears throat] >> Um, I'd like a motion to approve the fiscal year 2026 general fund thirdarter budget transfers as presented. >> So, move second, questions, comments. Excellent. >> Uh, move to a vote. All in favor of the motion on the table. opposed extensions. Passes unanimously and waits there's more. >> Thank you for your support. All right, we're going to fly through the rest of these. This this um was a lot. So, this is our statement over evolving funds. Um I've chatted with you about it at length. Um you know, all appear to be um you know, in good standing um at least projecting through the end of the year. um you know probably the facilities is what school committee focuses the most on. Um so

136you know just know that we um are projecting to collect enough revenue as far as um facilities to make good on our promises of fully funding um our reserve which is the 237,000 um as well as um offsetting the the debt service from the field that 116,000 um while still covering the expenses um and making some money. So, you know, just in total, um, you know, all are in good standing. Um, as well as these on the bottom, which, um, we, um, you know, kind of have made promises, um, to offset the FY27 budget. Um, as far as the out of district tuition, the capital fee, and the regional transportation. Um, does anyone have any specific questions on the revolving accounts? >> They look good. Keep that one easy. All right. Next should be the

137student activity report. Um and again that's something that um you know for transparency the the auditors recommend I bring it to you every quarter. Um we'll also be emailing it out to any of the adviserss um you know after the meeting. Um again everything uh remains in good standing. When you look at this last column um we've got our beginning balances. we add our revenue less our expenses is our ending column. Um what would concern you is if there was any negatives here. So everything remains in good standing. Um you know it it tracks as far as what we're hearing from the students, right? Um we're here we're hearing that they're doing all these great things in their senior year. Um and you can see the fundraising that they're doing um and some of the

138um expected incumbrances that are coming down um whether it be for some of the cool trips that they've done um or prom that's coming up. So all of this um appears in line um you know with the activity that's going on in the building. Um as I always um as I always say this funding is the students. It is not ours. Um it requires three additional student signatures um in addition to the principal um their advisor and the business office. So we're really just um the you know the fiscal agent um and we cut the checks and hold the money for them. Um but this is the students fund and we just do our responsibility to make sure that um that is transparent and clear and in line with um everyone's expectations. Any questions on

139these funds? Great. All right. Next is our um bank balances report. Um so really this is just something Paul you can kind of just scroll through to the bottom. Um it's something that we show the school committee. Um it's directly from our treasurer. Um we reconcile um our bank statements monthly. Um and you know just to note note that the third quarter uh March 31st um the bank balances you know with the treasurer reconcile with our system um and in you know in our system is what creates all these wonderful reports that we um that we present to you. So all of that um remains in good standing and happy to say that everything reconciles. Any questions? Great. I think that might wrap up my time here. I think that concludes our finance report. >>

140Great. >> I know it was a lot. Thanks for bearing with me. Thanks for being finance fans, Jeff. I think that might be my new tagline. >> [laughter] >> Well, Nikki, uh, how tired are you? You mean you've had in short order the budget? [laughter] You had this huge amount of lists you had to explain both the finan how many town meetings and fincoms would you join? >> Yeah, you know, I think everyone is sick of my voice. So, [laughter] got it. >> Not only here, but maybe throughout all the towns. Um, I appreciate your attention. I appreciate your support. um you know really just making sure that the district is in a good financial place um and being able to present that to you hopefully in um an easy to understand um presentation is

141always our goal. So thank you again for your time um and for you know thinking through the district's finances with me. Thanks. >> And I do read the newspapers on uh districts that get into trouble. These are finances are not transparent. And I'm I'm grateful that here we have a focus on making the finances transparent. Uh which minimizes chances of you making the kind of mistake that I've seen so many reports on this year in places you would never believe that they didn't have a good book on him. So, uh, we do appreciate it and, um, we appreciate the comments from the auditor. We appreciate what, uh, you and Heidi did and the reports of member towns and on, uh, bringing us all these reports and be able to stand there for that long, go

142through all of them. It's a lot harder than just sitting here and saying, "Gee, that's nice." That's But yeah, it is appreciated. >> Thank you. And just a big shout out to my business team. um you know doing our job on top of everything for the audit is always a handful on top of everyone else that we bug in the district um for things. So um big shout out to my team um anyone in the district that was part of the audit and making it successful. Um I really appreciate the time that everyone put into it to making sure that um you know we remain um you know uh in good financial position with the others. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Great. That was the committee of reports. We got lots of schools getting

143on that, so don't get upset. Uh, enrollment, membership, access, and capacity, lovingly known as EMAC. Hang on. Okay. Well, luckily, excuse me. I have two very short reports. The EMAC committee met and reviewed the data that you've already heard today from. So um we are continuing to use the two like strands we've been talking about has been the enrollment report as well as um looking at um uh the feasibility and whether it makes sense in moving ahead in terms of excuse me recommendations on adding expanding the district. Um Heidi was after our last meeting was going to be the followup meeting with Stberry which is one of the towns that has expressed interest and then the committee is going to be meeting again. So you'll be hearing more in that. [clears throat] >> I mentioned

144Sar's vote. >> Oh and yes the reason thank you. The reason why um Heidi is having a follow-up conversation with Sbury is Sbury [clears throat] actually have we have we met since did you hear a report for me about um the meeting that the subcommittee had where representatives from sub area came and met with us? >> I think so. >> Okay. Two meetings [laughter] ago. Sorry about that. Let [clears throat] me back up a little bit. Two meetings ago, um, we had representatives from Sbury come and talk to us. And one of the things that they were talking about was really expressing why they're interested in joining a vocational district. Um, they're very upfront that they're not only looking at Minute Man, but they are very interested in Minute Man. And one of the things

145that they were doing to express their interest is to be setting up a um to be recommending to town meeting that they set up a um vocational revolving account. because as I said that they in order to be setting aside money for any buying fees, you know, that would be necessary if they were to join a district and join Mick. >> [clears throat] >> As you know, we there has been no conversations about money, but this was one um one step that they were going to be taking to um you know, to demonstrate what their interests and to really try and get themselves ready so that they could join a vocational district. Unfortunately, the item did not pass at town meeting. So, they were not able to set up their revolving fund. So, at our

146our last meeting, we decided that it would make sense for Heidi to follow up with them to get a sense of um where they're at right now based on their vote. I will say and I you know I Linda's not here but you know Jeff can if he agrees with this. I think um coming out of that discussion we actually were all very impressed with their level of commitment and you know which seemed incredibly sincere and real. >> Yeah. a town manager, an assistant town manager and a member of the select board physically, you know, join our meeting. So >> physically on Zoom, they are during our meeting who wanted to chat with us. So that's impressive for them. and and they acknowledged, you know, in in an attempt not to kind of just hide

147some of the negative interactions under the rug, they acknowledged that there had been some negative interactions when they left the district and were very committed to make sure that something like that did not happen again. So, we don't know where we stand right now. I think that if there's still interest, you know, one of the things that our committee had talked about doing was um getting ready and preparing for a meeting with some of our town officials to start raising the issue of expanding the district if that's something that this committee decided, you know, was a step that you wanted us to take. Um, but you know, we've set another meeting. I don't remember the date offhand, but you know, we will be continuing to review the enrollment as well as figure out the next

148steps in terms of the potential of expanding the district. So, any questions with all of that? May I add something, Pam? Of course. Um, I just want to make sure we all know, um, right now we we don't have room with this admission cycle. This is not something that would be, um, taken lightly. Um, and things look very different than they did prior to uh, Sar's telling me. Um, so we we are following up. We're always open to hear ideas. high and seats at minute man are are are premium. We have to make sure they stay. >> That conclude the EMAC report. >> That concludes the EMAC report. >> Superintendent negotiations and evaluation subcommittee report >> and um we will be talking further um in our executive session. >> See how short that was? >>

149Alice Duca policy subcommittee. you get through his quickly. Um, thanks to the firework um person who cares about the meaning of the word and um Steph Albert as uh staff who doing a great job organizing stuff and helping us get through this stuff. [clears throat] What we need to do is vote one at a time on these because we're going to amend one of them. Um, if you have your packet, it's page where the votes are listed and it's I guess it's on here too. Um, I hope you got a chance to read these. Um, what we want is to have a motion to move on instructions committee policy IHPF to second reading as presented. And in your packet you'll see um this is the one that you need to amend actually. um going to

150amend the word assistant superintendent student services to say principal or their designate >> student services [clears throat] or just principal design instead of >> so it's as written with that one change >> one change where it says assistant superintendent of student services it should say principal or their designate >> I'd like to move that moved So, um, are there any questions about this one? I received no comments, by the way, questions. We can take a vote. >> All in favor of the motion on the table. Against abstensions passes unanimously. >> Okay. The next one is I >> You need to take the next four individually or can you do them together? I think out of respect the amount of work that you're involved in this I would like to take it individually. It's very tempting

151in something like policy which people get tired from to ignore them, not discuss them or just kind of scramble through them without actually >> I think actually it's the opposite that they're so clear that that's it. But anyway, >> I think that there the policies of the school district there may be people um who are listening on the internet who would be interested um they should know what things are being moved and and so on and not just scramble through them not the state legislature. So I I HBA we need a motion to approve uh to move IHBA to second reading as presented. This is English learner education. >> So moved by >> my only comment is so we're no longer going to look at our kindergarteners to see if they need to be English

152language learners for this change. So, so my question was was that was our current policy kindergart. >> Okay. So, we need a motion on that one. We did that. Is that okay? So both. >> Yeah. All in favor of the motion on the table. Extensions. No. Passes unanimously. >> Okay. The next one is student services program school committee policy IHBA to move it to second reading as presented. In this one um we've added the word enrolled before students and instead of resident students we've said enol students. This is um an MESC policy uh which would have made no sense without those rules. So move second and it's replacing it's an MASC policy as you saw in your notes that it's going to replace a current policy that we have. So like the previous one was

153an MASC policy we were recommending to adopt when we didn't have like it's it's sort of there's a whole different group of them. Some we have, we're editing. Some we don't have we're adding. And some we have, but we're replacing with a different party. So, it's all takes a long time to figure out exactly all the stuff that we're doing. >> So, did we vote? >> We made a motion and second. >> So, any [clears throat] further discussion? >> All in favor of the motion on the table and abstensions passes unanimously. >> Okay. The next one is to move um this is summer school. This is policy IHCA motion is to uh go to second reading as presented. I just want to point out there were tremendous number of edits on this one. Um this

154has to do with uh required summer school. So the kid has failed at court. It's a sad situation. Um what what do we do about it? What does man offer? and it refers to this parent student fair handbook and it is actually matches the student fair handbook. So um [clears throat] we could take a motion there. >> Do I have a motion? >> Did you move that? >> Yeah. Um do you need me to read it or did I just say >> No, we just we thought we heard you say show >> second comment question. So, in reading this, I wasn't sure. I I understand what you said about this being if someone failed a course, but does this mean we're taking away the option for someone who wants to take a summer course for

155enrichment that they no longer have that opportunity or is that written somewhere else? So the third paragraph um may attend approved sent school courses for credit recovery purposes but cover that and um I believe uh there's nothing that says they can't take another course. This is just saying that if they're going to take a course which they failed it would be it could be done at minute man if we have the funds to provide that. So our our commitment is we are making sure that we are providing avenues for failed core academic courses. If I'm a student who wants to take um a course for credit at a community college or something that I get approved through guidance that would this would not hinder me, >> but we're also not going to pay for it

156which is there was a lot that was there was a lot of discussion about this one because it was unclear that it was saying you know when the budget allows minion we'll provide. We're like, but we're not going to provide people to go take a course somewhere because they want to do it for enrichment. We would do it for students who had not passed a course, which is what we provide here through our summers. >> Did that answer your question? [clears throat] >> Can I just clarify? For example, one of my daughters had a friend through high school who liked to take um courses that were offered throughout the summer at the high school just because she was that type of kid that she wanted to take extra courses. Um [clears throat] so and you

157know the the high school allowed her to do that. from my reading of this. If there's someone like like this friend of my daughters who just likes to take as many courses as possible, they would not be able to do that here. We we don't do that now. People can't jump ahead in their credits like maybe you would at a college um you know for additional credits. So now you are a >> a year ahead. Now if someone would enjoy these classes and would like to sign up, I'm sure um Mr. English would welcome them into the programming. No problem. >> Um but to get to cancel out my English class for next year. That that's not what these are these are recovery. Yeah. >> Any other questions or comments on motion table? >> All

158in favor motion the table. Raise your hand if you're in favor. opposed abstensions. One extension >> question because we had that same question discussed in >> and she's not exaggerating. It was >> Yeah, probably we were originally moving this one through with significantly fewer um edits to it and then we each started looking at it and we're like, well, wait a minute, what does that mean about this? And then it got sent back to the administration and back and forth. So, we spent a lot of time on the words of this one. Okay, the last one is policy J instructional materials. Um the vote we're requesting is to or recommending is to remove to move instruction materials to second reading as percent. And you'll see here that the references the legal references have just all

159been changed. Um and this just this is the school district does the buying of the textbooks. The school committee doesn't vote on textbooks. We don't decide what tools they're using in the carpentry shop. >> We actually used to >> Yes. A long time ago in the present >> in the real world we don't. >> Right. >> So um and the changed it so the superintendent does indeed shall match the first sentence. Um and they have to they have to go along with rules. um that's the reference to it too. So >> because there were a lot of legal references and some one that was there was not accurate >> when she says we click on them and like read through them and we're like why is this >> I wanted to say that the recommended

160NASDAQ at the bottom means that 2010 NZDC consultant recommended the original policy to us. So that's no longer relevant information. Anyway, [clears throat] that's the last one. Someone can take a vote on that one. >> So moved and seconded. Second. Any further comments on it. All in favor of the motion table. Please raise your hand. Oppose. Abstension. >> One final >> passes. See more of these next month. It was just on Thursday which is coming up two days from now. And um I I'm telling myself that too. Um so there's a big long list that are coming from the next community and this is good. It's a good thing. We're actually cranking on. Can I add something to that too? Like I Stephanie has done this incredible job of like digitizing all these policies and

161making them all formatted the same way. and the header and the footer is the same on all of them now and it's just been really it's been wonderful and she's been updating them in real time on the um on the website. So, it's great to you know we've got this drive that we're all sharing and we can see exactly what stage everything is in and it's really helpful to help us be able to move this on with to you guys faster. So, >> yes, actually uh I'm not going to spend time on it today. There's a lot that's been going on behind the scenes and trying to get this Titanic uh moving in the right direction. We are going to talk about that. Uh we probably should have uh Stephanie join us again. >> Oh

162yeah. >> Uh we're going to talk about that and we're going to get do a deep dive into what they've been doing and why it was necessary and how to all uh but not tonight. >> Oh, we don't want to stay a little longer. >> We are staying a little longer. So that ends I believe the uh regular portion of our meeting. Now I am going to call a few minute recess after we've entered our executive session, but I'd like to take the vote move into it first. So um I'm going to move that we enter into an executive session and not return to open session and uh we'll have just Julia join the school committee. for the following reasons. A approve of draft minutes of April 7th, 2026. Bursuant to NGL chapter 38 section

16321 A2 for the purpose [clears throat] of discussing strategies as it relates to contracting negotiations of non-UN personnel director. And since we're moving into an executive session, this one needs to be qualified. So, do I have a second? >> Second. So let's do our roll call vote in our normal order. Pam >> Pam Norakton. Yes. >> Sarah Montu Arlington. Yes. >> D is next. >> Dort conquered. Yes. >> Aril yes. >> Shine. Yes. >> Sharon Menton. Yes. >> Joe. Yes. >> Gusto. Yes. Great.