001Call the meeting to order. Could I uh please have a motion to adopt remote participation as written in the agenda, please? >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Good. Roll call vote. >> Hamner acting. Yes. >> Linda Her. >> Marily Dover. Yes. >> Dornner conquered. Yes. >> Oops. Sorry. >> That's okay. >> Thanks. >> Charlene, are you with us? >> Charlene, >> I hear me? >> Yes. Now I can. >> Okay. >> And your vote? >> I'm sorry. I just got in. >> Oh. Uh, vote to allow uh remote participation. >> Yes. Lancaster. Yes. >> Sharon Mosto. Lexington. Yes. >> Yes. Dulan. Yes. >> Gusto. Yes. >> Very good. Check that off the list. My understanding, Julie, you've just mentioned that there has been no public comments. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >>
002That was submitted earlier. Very good. Then consent agenda. The consent agenda contains two sets of minutes. The set of minutes for February 5th, 2026. the set of minutes for February 10th, 2026. Would somebody like to move the entire consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any comments on either of those minutes? >> Nope. >> Roll call vote. >> Hamler acting. Yes. Linda Herbison Bolton. Yes. Dorter conquered yes. >> Mark Healey Dover. Yes. >> Charlie Lancaster. Yes. Darren Mosto, Lexington. Yes. >> Jeff Stulan. Yes. >> Alison Lucas Joe. Yes. >> Uh I do recall uh getting a note from Sarah saying that she may not be able to make tonight's meeting because she may be on a business trip. So that is my assumption at this point. Very good.
003>> That is correct. >> Chair's report for the good of the organization. I have just two very quick items for the good of the universe. First one is we are now in daylight savings time. So I'm looking out my window and it is still light out. Second one, we are less than two weeks away from spring. That's my for the good of the organization. Anybody has any more specific to minute man? And I have Sharon. >> So I mentioned this before others came on, but Paul and um Diane, I thought you'd like to know that two of last year's alums are working an EMT shift together this evening. So they got their certification through Minute Man and now they're doing it and loving it and happily on the same shift together tonight. >> Very good.
004Any other Alice Duca? >> Heidi and Nikki gave a great presentation um to the Stow Finance Committee. Uh they very much appreciate Heidi and Nikki. >> Okay. I hear that a lot. Any other particular items related more to Minute Man? >> Um Heidi gave a great great presentation in Bolton and it went much better than last year. >> Yes. But less exciting than last year's. Last year was far more exciting. Yes. >> Well, >> for anyone who doesn't know, we were we were zoombombed last year. Nikki and I didn't bomb. We were zoom bombed in Bolton. Disaster. But this year was all business. and they were very positive toward what Heidi had to say. >> Right. >> So, one other kudo is um Heidi to uh Heidi and Nikki in conquered an excellent presentation and
005it was wellreceived. >> So, they've been making the rounds. >> Yep. >> Okay. Very good. >> I have one more. >> Yep. Um just kudos to Diane for running a great advisory board meeting the other night and um pivoting at the last minute because of weather to keep everybody safe and we did it um virtually and that was really great to get people and I think it's just it's always fascinating to me every time I attend one of those meetings just how invested our alums are and our members of the advisory who are on the advisory board as well as other community members just in really you know really critically thinking about Minute Man and how to continue to make it as as good is possible and I just I appreciate your work with that
006Diane. >> With a little luck, we won't have to do too much more pivoting because of weather this year. >> Okay, very good. Principal's leadership report. Mr. Principal, do you have anything for us today? >> Well, I have a few things tonight. Um, just want to make sure I'm going to be able to share my screen. >> Well said, Paul. There we go. We're getting there. Okay, great. Everyone can see my screen. So, thank you everyone. And um we have a couple of of items to bring up. Um our two student reps. Uh one's going to talk about the Crispy Cream fundraiser. The other one's going to actually uh do a small presentation that's going to require a vote from the school committee regarding a trip. Um then I will talk about another trip and
007then talk about admissions today. So Jamie, why don't you start us off with your Crispy Cream update. >> Hi. Um last Monday we started the Crispy Cream fundraiser. It will go on for another about I believe 20 days. The pickup will be in April. Um, as of this morning, we had $330 made and 14 separate sales that people had made and then plus donations. Um, and 50% of the sales were made within the last two days. And then some of these pictures are just like the items we're selling. >> Okay. >> Right. >> Coffee and donuts. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Very good. >> Just double check. Yeah. Miss uh >> Jamie, how do um members of the community who don't have current students get access to purchasing things for this fundraiser? >> As of right
008now, all of the students have got links that they can share online. Um and then when you go to purchase it, you can put in like a student's name. So if you sent it to like family members or friends or whatever in your community, you could just put like mark it under which student you were selling under. So, is there a way for one of the students or somebody to send it to the school committee in case anybody's interested? I don't know if that's a Paul question or a Jamie question. >> Um, I believe so. I can look into that though. >> Thank you. >> I see again I cannot see everybody. So, if you have a question, you're going to have to speak up because limitations of Zoom, you know, but I don't hear
009anything. Very good. Okay. So, let's continue on. Um, like I said, we have two um one out of state field trip uh that Matilda's going to talk about. Um, and then I have an out of the country field trip to talk about as well. So, I'm going to let Matilda take over and uh discuss the uh senior wellness trip that they're planning. >> Hello. Um, so this year we as a senior class kind of wanted to see if we could take our senior end ofear trip. Um, kind of a little bit bigger than it has in the past. In the past it's been canopy trips or Six Flags trips, but we were curious to see what an overnight trip would look like. So the plan that we've kind of been able to put together is
010through Camp Winnaki, which is in Malttonboro, New Hampshire. The idea would be to do a two-night trip leaving on May 22nd, which is our sign out day. So, we have a half day, and we'd be able to get on buses right after we sign out of school, and then spend 2 days in um Camp Wanaki in New Hampshire until May 24th. Um the idea is kind of a senior wellness trip. I'm going to read a little bit of the blurb from the bottom, which it's pretty much giving the class of 2026 an opportunity to relax, recharge, celebrate our accomplishments since it will be our very last day of school. And then the next time we'll all be in the same room together will be for graduation and then who knows after that. um to kind
011of be together, enjoy a few nights, kind of embrace what it's like to be outside in nature, being able to make connections, reflect on what it was like the last four years together, um and kind of see what the transition will be like after high school. Um financially, it breaks down to around $200 per student. Um, we are trying our best to do as many fundraisers as we can to try to reduce that cost because we know that that might be difficult for families. However, we will always um offer financial support when needed. Um, the camp will provide all meals throughout the trip, so breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the days that's needed. A licensed nurse will be on site, a certified lifeguard for all waterfront activities, um, accommodations in full access to camp facilities,
012and special needs for dietary restrictions and allergies. Um they have lovely um cabins that we've been able to look at online right on the waterfront. It looks super beautiful. They have tennis courts and like large fields to play games. They also have like a bonfire for nighttime to make s'mores and chat. Um and then they're also willing to host like some larger group activities and also give us downtime where we can kind of explore the camp in general. Um but the idea is to just have a a nice weekend trip together. one last time as kind of a last harrah after signing out. So that's the that's the that's the trip and we were hoping as a senior class to get an approval from you guys before we take the next steps forward. >> Comments,
013questions, school committee members. Again, I cannot see most of you. >> Sure. Hi Jeff. >> Oh Alice, >> um quick question looks like a lot of fun. Um how many uh staff like adult will be going? >> Yeah. Um we are working on finding chaperones because it is Memorial Day weekend. We know that some teachers might not be available. Um but we are prioritizing teachers first and then we'll go to asking parents afterwards to fill those numbers. Um I can't remember the exact ratio but I believe it's something like one one adult to 6 to 12 students. So, >> it's 10. Yep. One adult to 10 students. Thank you. >> Um, so that's the number we're shooting for. We will find those. We're going to start with teachers first because as a student, it's always
014more fun doing something like this when your mom's not hanging around the corner. However, if we do need to go to parents, we'll absolutely ask to make it a safety to make it safe. And I believe we'll also along with hosting a few of like the nurse, the lifeguards, they will have some staff on site as well. >> Uh Mark, you had your hand up. >> Yep. Thanks so much. Um until I totally understand about having teacher chaperons if possible. Um and that was my first question was just about chaperoning. The second one is do they have um activity leads on site to help kind of structure the time with the students just to make um have some opportunities for kids who just aren't sure how to spend the two days up there? Yeah. Um,
015so I do believe that they're going to have some like camp counselors there to run some activities. I'm not sure if it's going to be like as structured as a summer camp would be where like at this hour you can go play this and at this hour you can go swimming. But there are going to be some structure where um there'll be like two hours where lifeguards are on duty in the afternoon and that's when we go swimming and then there'll be maybe another counselor leading a capture the flag game or somebody else leading um like an arts and crafts inside kind of thing. So there definitely will be people leading activities um when we need that more of a structure while also allowing us like two hours of the day um to kind of
016look around as well. >> That sounds great. And if you don't mind, I have one more question now that I'm seeing this. Um, your overview was great and they, um, I'm not sure I've heard about transportation to the camp. >> Oh, yes. Um, we will be providing buses for all students. It'll be required for everybody to take the bus up and back. So, that way there are no stragglers or anybody um, kind of going off and doing their own thing. So, we'll be providing buses to and from the camp. Um, >> yeah. >> Great. Thank you. If I could interject regarding chaperones, there is teacher interest. We just haven't pushed hard because we don't have the approval yet. So, >> yeah, we haven't make a list yet. We're just kind of seeing what the interest
017is like right now. >> Matilda, who is your class advisor who's in charge of the trip? >> Miss Mola. Nicole Mola. >> Okay. >> Yep. So my my understanding is that the administration will ensure before this trip heads out that there are sufficient chaperones and that you approve of the chaperones. Can I assume that? >> Yes. Any parent who would be on this trip would need to be coreied and just like we do with any other volunteer. >> It will all be done the safe way and the proper way. We just haven't been able to down and make the list yet because >> we've taken care of transportation and meals, activities and chaperones has all been taken care of. It sounds like. >> Yeah. >> So, in that case, I would like then a motion
018to approve this trip as written in the agenda, please. >> Second. >> Any other further questions or comments on this activity? >> I think it sounds like a great trip. Um, and it's like three, you've run several great events for the um, students. I think that's awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Yes. And and it seems to me like you really thought through what needs to happen to make this work and that makes me a lot more comfortable. >> Thank you. >> So, roll call vote. >> Hammer actton, yes. >> Linda Herbison Bolton, yes. >> Dort conquered, yes. >> Marily Dover, yes. line. Yes. >> Sharon must Lexington. Yes. >> Jeff stool and Nem. Yes. >> Lucas Joe. Yes. >> Great. Have I hope I hope hope this works out for you
019kids. It sounds great. >> Thank you. >> Great. So, let's move on to the international trip. So, uh, first and foremost, I wanted to, uh, thank the school committee because last year you approved the Ireland trip that has not officially happened yet, but is in process. But when we are talking about these international trips, uh, they do need a year in advanced approval in order to start uh, doing what they need to do in order to get organized to go. So there's another trip um for April of 2027 over April break um another um from health and careers this time and the idea behind it is uh we've talked about it before we love that our students want to be global citizens and learning different things from different countries and different techniques and things of
020that nature uh really enhance our students uh not just you know graduating from Minute Man but having an exper experience that's global, like I said, a global citizenship. So, there's a possibility with this trip as well that if if they want to continue, they could get three undergraduate credits as well. That that would be on a student choice basis. That's not required of this trip. Um the idea too is that um you know, getting the juniors and seniors um to to be ready and making sure that everything's in place. And I do have to thank Sasha Chapen, the one that has been running the Ireland trip, is also going to be overseeing this uh England and Scotland trip. She really has been keeping everything organized. I mean, I have been at meetings that she's hosted
021with families, making sure, hey, by now you have to have your passport ready, things of that nature. And EF Tours is the other group that we using, we're asking to use again uh to also keep organizing from there. So, I'm happy to answer any questions. I was hoping Sasha would be here, too, in case I'm not sure if she is, but uh she's filled me in in a lot of things, so I can answer any questions as well. >> Okay, school committee members, questions or comments? And no, you can't go. >> How many people are signed up for this year's trip to Ireland? You have any idea? Oh. Um, geez. I can get that to you. I just don't have it off the top of my head. It's in a separate folder. >> Okay. Was
022it uh a lot of students interested in >> Yeah, it was about 20 >> 20 or so. So, >> yeah. Okay. And now you have not been doing international trips for a long time. So, this is kind of a new thing for Minute Man. Is that correct? >> Yeah. LA, like I said, last year was kind of your approval to do this island trip. And I think it's just something and the best part about these is for me as the principal, we're not interfering with instructional time. So the decision is to go on a break. Uh this Ireland's this summer, but you know, this one's over April break. So >> we still have instructional time within the school and then to go off on your break to kind of >> do this field trip. >>
023And what is the expected cost of this trip for the students? Um, that's a I don't have that on the slide. Huh. I I know that they have payment plans. >> I can speak to that. Um, so typically EF tours, most of their trips cost between 35 and um 55,000 uh not $55,000. >> Sorry. I wish I wish that was what uh the It makes no sense. Um so $5,500 is usually the max. $3,500 is usually the lowest. So, it will be in between that. And EF Tours is the gold standard um of uh companies to work with for international trips. So, they have a very tight process. Um the people who go on these tours do have to be trained by EF. And it is a it's a wonderful structured um experience that uh
024many many schools use for their trips. And I just want to give a shout out to the vocational programs who are recruiting their kids to go to these because I feel like that is a huge opportunity that we should really um publicize for Minute Man. Um and there is no real limitation. Um I know other schools have done um trips to London for the Globe Theater with students who are um interested in pursuing English or uh after um graduation. There are other vocational schools who use um again these customized experiences for particular vocational programs. And even though um you know international travel is something that can um be high stakes, this company allows insurance, allows all of those protections um that people need um when we are planning um international trips. And no, it's not
025$55,000. >> Yeah. Right. Right. >> Mark, I think you saw your hand up. Is that correct? Um, yes, but I think it was Oh, you know, it was whether this is um a new trip. I didn't know you answered it, Jeff, about this being fairly recent in uh Minim man's recent history in a way for international travel. But I will say EF does an excellent job. I've been able to go on one of their trips before as a chaperone. Great. >> Lucky you. Any other question? Alice Duca and then Sharon. I'm just very happy that the Minute Man's kids get to go on the Goldstein tours. There's um you know, not it's just great great to have them have that chance. and Sharon. >> Yeah, I was just gonna say um I have experience of
026with EF through the school that I'm at and the kids always come back with the most incredible life experiences and um and they need to have good walking shoes before they leave because that those tour guides keep you busy. I'm sure Mark, you're nodding your head. Um >> yeah, >> but they're incredible. I think it's such a great opportunity for our kids to learn outside of the bubble of the small area of Massachusetts where we are. >> Well, after all those comments, I have an idea where the vote is going. Could I have a motion on the table to approve this trip, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any further discussion or comment before the vote? Pam. Roll call vote. >> Pam sackin. Yes. >> Linda Herson, Bolton, yes. Deordner Conquered. Yes. >> Marily
027Dover. Yes. >> Lancaster. Yes. >> Sharon MTO Lexington. Yes. >> Just Don. Yes. >> Lucas Joe. Yes. >> Very good. I think we still have admissions coming. >> We do. That's the best part of the presentation. >> Oh, but the trips are the most fun part, don't you think? >> Um, so tonight I have a breakdown for you regarding acceptance information. I know in our previous slides we've been talking about applications, but now we're at the point of acceptances. >> Um so as you can see in this chart here, um we've broken it down by each um sending town that's there. And if you notice, you'll have our accepted rates from each town. So as we've talked about before with at EMAC, our slot allocation is at that 175, but we've accepted 177 at this
028point in time. Thank you. Um, and I need to thank the whole admissions team and that's uh Erin Noron, Drew O' Connors, Katie uh Buchard just really been working really hard to make sure that uh everything is really running the way it should be, especially with our new uh guidelines with lotteryies and things like that. It's really been um a big focal point and as I've talked to you guys before, engagement and ownership, right? So, we're trying to really hit that engagement piece. Uh, when it comes to admissions, um, we do want to note that this is the week where our private school kids tend to find out whether they got in or they're on a waiting list. So, that might affect some of these numbers that are there because those parents, and we've talked
029to uh, some of them, those parents are accepting, but they're also, I think, in limbo of waiting to see where their options are going to be. But we always try to push them to accept because you have those options moving forward. And then we're looking at our our out of district which we have 83 applicants um that we would be trying to figure out what we're going to do. But the first step is obviously to make sure that their chapter 74s are in place so they have the ability to uh come to Minute Man first before we can look at anything else. And that's around our April 1 deadline. >> Okay. Okay, I'm going to jump in for a second because I don't think it's common knowledge what a chapter 74 is. So, just so
030you know, um our outofd district students, that means students who are not from our nine sending towns, um are still allowed to apply to Minute Man. We always accept all in district students first. students have to turn in a form that is given to their school district's superintendent and they approve or deny someone coming to Minute Man or being a part of the lottery. So we if we do have 83 we would likely have to do a lottery. We are not going to determine that until after the April 1st deadline because that is the deadline for those forms that the superintendent's approve or decline. Uh that that's the deadline for those forms being turned in. So this 83 will definitely go down um after 41 um because it all hinges on the approvals or the
031disapprovals. questions about those. >> What was that? >> Do does anyone have a question about that? I can't see anyone's faces, so I can't tell if anybody looks confused. >> He Heidi, my question is what is the maximum that you will accept? >> So, right now we have accepted 220. Um, last year we accepted 230 and we continued with that number until the end of the school year. And as you know, by the time we got to September, we ended up with 178. >> So theu the 177 we have right now are most certainly not the 177 that we'll have in the fall. It's this is a fluid number. Um families, kids change uh change their minds. Again, we also always take our in district um applications up to and including uh the summer Okay,
032school committee members questions or comments? Pim? >> Um, only because we spent a fair bit of time talking about this at the EMAC committee. You'll see there's 17 undecided in district um kids right now. So, I just want to be, you know, so as we talked about at EMAC, if those 17 decide to attend Minute Man, we will make space for those 17. So those 17 already have spots. So those 17 have not responded to our letter of acceptance. They have not said yes or no, which puts them in the undecided category. So I think that's pretty impressive that within a week we have 177 plus the 27 who actually responded to us and gave us a decision. The 17 have not given us a decision. So that deadline is coming up as well. A
033busy busy three weeks for the um um yeah admissions department. Yeah, busy busy. Any other questions or comments? So, our April report will be very interesting. Looking forward to it. Great. Does that conclude the principal report? >> Yes, that was the final item. So, thank you. Thank you for all that fun, especially for listening to the description of the trips that we can just get jealous about. It's okay. We're grown-ups. Let's see. I believe that we have a superintendent's leadership report coming up next. Heidi Driscoll. >> Yes. Hello. Um, so I do want to mention one thing about the international travel. the international travel was happening at Minute Man and got held up like just about anything during co um Diane mentioned to me that she's been on three trips herself. Um so this is
034something that was thriving and happening at Minute Man and it's just something that needed a little CPR after COVID. We brought it back. Um so um I want to make sure you know that if uh if that wasn't clear. Um so my state update um yesterday um I was nominated and I accepted to be a part of the department of education admissions data working group with the state um that was a part of the regulations that came out um Alice thank you I think Alice nominated me Steve Leoo did and I'm also Mava also nominated me to be their representative um so what that means means is I'll be working with the department about the tools that they use. I'll be helping to make sure that um the lenses through which we see the data
035about vocational schools. Uh they hear some of those pitfalls that we saw last year when they were making decisions about admissions. Um and we'll be meeting several times this year. There'll be recommendations coming out I think by the end of next year. And um in short, I will give you more information as it becomes available. Um the other piece that we have, >> oh just a just just a quick comment on that. Heidi is being modest here um and kind because the quality of some of the data that was presented uh previously by their data collections group would not have made it by my AP statistics class when I was teaching that. So I I know that there's some other good people on the team this time, but I we can be assured that with
036Heidi on the team, any um lack of professionality in the methods by which they are acquiring the data they need to make a decision will be pointed out in no uncertain terms. And part of the legislation uh that we're not fully happy with, shall I say, was based on data, some of which that uh we uh highly question. So her being on this team is um uh kudos and it's very good for us and the uh all the career tech schools to ensure that somebody is watching over the key data that they use to make some of their decisions. So I just wanted to point that out. She was zipping through that and I wanted you to all to understand how important the point was. >> Thank you. I'm all done. I just shut my
037video off because it looked like I was lagging for a second. Um, so but Jeff Jeff is right. I will I will advocate for vocational education uh across the state while we are in those um while we're in those sessions. I'm happy to do it. Um our next item is a presentation of the program of studies. So the last time the program of studies um came across to the school committee was in 2023 when there were some changes about foreign language. Our current program of studies exists on our website that you all have access to and what we are sharing today is something that is a it's more revised on the technical end of the program of studies. Uh Diane Dempsey took the lead on this as the guidance lead. All of our leads from
038all of our content areas worked with her and Drew, our technology director, worked on the format. And what we're going to share with you today um are some of the technical changes and I think improvements that um everyone made to make sure we have a contingency plan. And when it comes to our own data, we are reporting what's actually happening. Um, two years ago on our student uh on our school report card, it looked like um over half of Minute Man's freshman class failed uh a class, which was not true. We had a code that was incorrect. um our rigorous coursework um that there is no shortage of. We were not getting credit for certain things because we had incorrect code. So we kind of we bridge that um between Drew and our data person
039and guidance and now those things live right in our program of study. So, you might see some things in there that um maybe don't really make uh deep meaning to parents when they're reading it, but it is important because a lot of people use the program of studies um for various things. I also want to give a shout out to the work they did to make sure that their language and the descriptions are more consistent. Um there was no substantial changes in our courses at all um for any of our academic courses or electives. The substantial changes are in our language about um our policies. Uh we wanted to make sure they align with that. We do have a vocational change. Right now we are not closing. We still are keeping our robotics chapter 74
040designation. We are absolutely keeping that. This year we have no students as you know from last year. it is combined and is a part of engineering to make sure we don't lose interest in that program and we're going to need like I said CPR with the um EF tours we will need to do some CPR to robotics to bring that back fully um but it is not a separate group right now so you'll see that in the program of studies as well and I'm going to turn it over to Diane Dempsey and Diane you just tell me what you want me to pull up um from the program of studies and I'll I'll share Uh thanks Heidi. So what we wanted to do um with the academic leads was take a better look at um
041the system of the book itself because originally we had some charts in there that were a little bit confusing for students and parents as far as um selecting courses. Like this time of year we do course selection with the kids. uh the teachers have made their recommendations and now the guidance counselors meet individually with every student. So we're looking at the book. I don't know Heidi if you want to pull it up. Um even maybe the English part we can start with nth grade just to do a quick overview. Um the beginning of the book, we're still tweaking a little bit, but we, you know, we wanted to add made sure we have our mission statement, a little bit more about Minute Man, um the non-discrimination information, um things like that. Uh so we spend
042some time on that language. You'll notice um the um we're still working on um page numbers and all that. Drew and I are working on that, but we wanted to present something. So, some of it looks a little off originally. Um, but as Heidi mentioned, we'll be able to see um if we can go up to just maybe like ninth grade, Heidi, if we start there. >> Um, >> school profile updated non-discrimination to match >> grades, um, graduation requirements, CD information. Um Heidi and I have also talked about maybe doing some live links verse actually putting the information in here. We're still making those decisions. Um seeing how best kids and parents can use it, but also um dual enrollment, honors descriptions, college prep descriptions, all of that is now highlighted in here. Um so
043if we're looking at English, so the book is going to go by grade. So it'll be grade nine first. Um, we'll go through English. So, we've highlighted the honors, how many credits, and then the CD determination. So, that you'll notice on these classes, the competency determination, we've highlighted which ones. Um, at the end of each course description, you can see what Heidi was talking about, the Desi code, making sure we're aligning it with what we want to ensure that Minute Man is getting credit for. Um, then as we go down, we go through um the different subjects. So we have math and science and history. We go through each grade um with the appropriate levels. Um so we just want to make sure that parents can also plan out appropriately a sequence of courses for
044their kids over the four years. Um and everything can be fluid. And one of the reasons that I was kind of against putting in a chart at the beginning was because I feel like at Miniman we do a really good job of allowing kids to be flexible in their levels within each discipline. So if a student is really strong in math and science and maybe not as strong in English, we allow kids to have different levels in each class um based on discipline. So, um I think not every school does it that way and I really support that Minute Man does that. Um and then now we're into our electives. We put the electives under each grade because every kid has the opportunity to take electives. Um so that's going to be that whole section
045now is under every grade where maybe before we weren't sure if it was clear that every student had that opportunity. Um so we put the foreign language, the world languages in there and then art and music options um with every grade. So if I can jump in. So when you are reading this document, so we will send you the link to our current program of studies and this um content which is solid content right now other than minor um formatting adjustments. What I want you to know is that you might say, "Wait, I already read Advanced Studio Art." And you might think it's duplicative. It's actually not. Because how the team who developed this figured parents would look at it, who are our actual audience for this, parents and students, is if I'm looking at
046the ninth grade program of studies, I need to know these electives go with the ninth grade. If you say, "Here's ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade for all of your core content and then have the electives in a section at the end, it's as if they're secondary or extra." And at minute, they're not. They're a part of something that all students have access to um during their years here. >> And of course, we always have a caveat for all of them that it's it's based on enrollment because that can change yeartoyear with interest. So that's um noted in here also. Um Heidi, can you go the other way real quick? Um down to maybe 12th, 11th or 12th grade. What we also highlighted were what we call um what are called advanced courses. So that
047also goes on a school um ranking. Um so if we look under um maybe for >> senior Yes. Um okay. So here so under after the DESI code we've um highlighted which courses are considered advanced and at the beginning you'll there'll be definitions for each of these um what we're um highlighting. So we've now also noted that in the program of studies under each course as well. So on our school report card, it gives each um every school uh a percentage of how many of your students participated in advanced coursework. there's a specific list of those courses and um they look at 11th and 12th graders and um we need to make sure that we're aware of which courses are advanced because the goal for the state is to make sure um students have access
048or are exposed to at least one advanced course over their time um in high school. So once we go through, we do the academic um then we we almost have two programs in one. So then we're going to go into the vocational section um where we've um gone through exploratory and then we talk about every program with a description and Katie went through and kind of rewarded um or maybe used a template is a better way to describe it so that each program reads succinctly so a parent can look at one program and see the um certific ifications that each program offers. >> Let me let me share something else. So, this is something that Diane noticed um when we were um when we were reviewing I'm preparing how this would look. So, when we
049looked at our vocational programs in our current program of studies, here's an example. Um if you look at the plumbing, heating, the engineering, those are very um developed um descriptions and our advanced manufacturing looks so much shorter that at a glance if you are not familiar was with what these programs are already might give um an unfair impression to our parents or students reading about the pathways that they can choose. So, what Katie and Diane did was make sure that we are giving each program its um full attention and uh there we go. Uh and explanations. There we go. So, every program obviously offers certain credentials. So, we wanted to highlight because that wasn't we realized in the old book that the credentials for each program weren't um highlighted. So, you know, if this book
050is going to represent us, like our school profile does when we send it off to colleges, we want to make sure if a parent has a program of studies for their student going to their local high school, that Minute Man's program of studies also highlights what makes us who we are. So, um I think we've done a really nice job with it. We still have some edits to make. As you can see, this is a totally different book than what we used to have. So, it's a labor of love and we're not exactly there yet, but we're closer than we've been. And Heidi asked me like, "When was the last time you did a deep dive?" And all I can say is it's not since we've been in the new building. So, that's a pretty
051significant amount of time to not be able to really spend some time looking at this. And I will say all of the leads took responsibility for their own areas. And it was we, you know, spent some days where Paul got us subs and we spent hours in a room together kind of working and tweaking and coming up with a format that we thought would read well and still highlight everything that we were able to offer. So, we're not there yet, but we wanted to present it to you guys with we're just about ready to go with it. >> Okay. I'm going to take a minute to put this into context for the school committee members before we take a possible vote on this this evening. So um this new program of studies is different from
052the previous one not in terms of the content of what we're the programs we're offering but in two important ways. Number one it aligns with the desi codes so that we get credit for all the programs we're offering. whereas in the past because it didn't it made some of our programs look bad not because we weren't offering them but just because the data was not entered properly in terms of the desi codes. So are those two things correct? We're not making any changes into our major changes in our offerings. We're doing uh aligning with the desi codes and we're putting the information in a way which we believe will be uh more clear for parents and their families because the way it was written the emphasis on some programs seemed to be stronger than others
053and it seemed like almost neglectful because of that and those are the uh that and the overall uh layout is what's changing not the content of the programs that we are offering. offering. Would that be more or less correct? >> Yes, that's correct. Yes. >> Yes. Okay. Now, our role as a school committee is not to approve this document. We don't approve it because we are not the educators here, right? Uh so what we do is we accept it. Now, this is currently an incomplete product, but they need our initial acceptance, I believe, to move forward with some of the things you need to do to finalize that. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> So this this is my understanding of the order and please correct me if I'm cor wrong. We've now
054had a presentation on this document that has been on the website forever, the previous version of it and now this version. It is not significantly changed in content from the last time we voted on it. It is changed very much in format and in in organization. >> That is correct. And and I'd like to give one more shout out. The >> the group of people who worked together in a workshop style day, that intensive let's get this done together. And then of course that wasn't it. That was just how you kick it off. Um I really I I cannot sing their praises enough. what they got done this in this short amount of time would have probably taken other places a year and a half, two years. So, I appreciate their commitment to understanding the
055importance of this so that we can keep that, you know, let people know what we really do here. So, I feel like the the information that Diane had the leads work and put in there and make sure everybody's calibrated is what we already do. We just needed to explain um and let that be communicated in a way that people will understand outside of our circles. >> So what we are going to be Oh yes, go ahead, Mr. Principal. >> So the only thing I wanted to interject on is that because we're the school council is also working on the handbook, we're trying to make sure that all this is aligned as well. So if you looked at the beginning parts, those are the parts we want to make sure are also accurate in our student
056handbook when it comes to CD credits graduation. So again without this program of studies being the way that it is then we can align our handbook and so on and so on from there. So just wanted to throw that pieces of this program of studies are also uh being parts of our handbook as well. So what we are asked to do tonight is to accept this in its current form for now. Then when they do finalize it, we'll be given the link. We can go online, read it to our hearts content. Then we'll come back and accept it again. The finished product. Is that my understanding of we where we are going with this? on something. It's unless it's >> Yep. So, so all we're doing now is receiving it. You need to be aware
057of it. We're sharing it publicly. >> Um and when it is final and we're about to release it onto the website, we will come back. >> Okay. So, who would like to make a motion to accept the program of studies and we can continue our discussion on it? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? questions or comments at this time? >> The superintendent. Yes, go ahead, Mark. >> Oh, yeah, sure. Um, Diane, thanks. I wanted to um, thank you for explaining the electives or the options that you put into each grade. And I can see the logic there. It makes a lot of sense as a parent. And as Heidi reiterated, just kind of you're focused on your kids's experience in the moment. say you flip right to 10th grade and you want
058to look at the options. It's great. >> Thank you. >> Uh now Heidi made a comment a few minutes ago about how extraordinary it was that they were able to get this done in a short period of time. And that could be a throwaway comment unless you know like me from personal experience how hard it is for a school to get any uh uh collaborative document completed. Never mind one this large and complex with. So you you you target exactly the goals you wanted to do and you change it and you get together to make the changes. you know, uh, well, this process, she says, it usually would take a year and a half. Not an exaggeration. The fact that they were able to get this, go through it and and get it done so
059fast is uh, a major accomplishment. So, I just wanted that, you know, because sometimes you say, "Yeah, yeah, they say this." No, I can tell you from experience how hard it is to get these documents done with a um committee of teachers and administrators. And so it is uh an important accomplishment. So if there are no other comments or questions, let's bring it to a roll call vote. Pam >> Pam Norakton, yes. >> Linda Herbison Bolton, yes. >> Dorder Conquered, yes. >> Marily Dover, yes. Charlene Fabrell Lancaster. Yes. >> Darren MTO Lexington. Yes. >> Jeff Stan. Yes. >> Alistister Lucasto. Yes. >> Great. Uh, does that complete the superintendent's leadership report? >> Um, yes it does. >> Thank you very much. >> Yes. And kudo administration and Diane for getting this done in that period
060of time. I look forward to looking online and perusing the document when it is finished. you. >> Yeah, I'd like to echo that Diane and the leads, Drew, 10,000%. Um, I extend my gratitude. Thank you. >> Very hard to to do these things. Um, okay. Well, I know that you're all going to be disappointed that we don't have a very long finance report tonight. Uh, Nikki is not here. Sarah is not here. Uh I think deed was not at that meeting. So it's just me. So fortunately here's the finance report. We looked at the warrants. We approved the warrants. That is the end of this month's finance report. I'm hoping for you uh finance fans to have more financial uh reports and details at our next meeting. But for tonight, that's it. Any questions on
061the finance report? Very good. Now, some very interesting subcommittee reports. Item nine, a enrollment, membership, access, and capacity, lovingly known as the EMAC subcommittee. >> Very lovingly. Thank you, Jeff. And and this will be a relatively short report. Um the EMAC committee met and we spent a good part of the meeting going over the figures um the enrollment figures that um Paul has already presented today. So I'm not going to be spending time going over those again. We had two um you know two topics of discussion. One was the enrollment fig um figures. The other one was to begin a discussion because we have had two um two districts who used to be part of the Minute Man District, two towns reach out to us with an inquiry about rejoining our district. So we began
062a discussion about what that would mean. How would we um how would we approach this? What would be needed to um for a town to join the um district financially and in other ways. Um so we um a few years ago we had developed a um draft proposal for um the financial piece if a town was to join what we've decided we want to review that look at anything else that we would want to include and then come back and have a uh you know a a broader discussion with the school committee about that. If we decide that this is something that we want to recommend and move forward with um we need to begin the process of getting inputs from our getting input from our towns because ultimately it would take a vote of
063every one of our towns would have to approve allowing new towns to join. So ultimately they are the decision makers. So we're going to be meeting again on March 24th and really try and dig into some of the information and be able to come back to all of you for a um further discussion. So I I guess Jeeoff I want to stop and just see if there's any questions about that. Um the thing I learned at this committee meeting that um because I'm new, I wasn't there when these two towns left, but there's a lot of emotion behind that. So that's just kind of a piece of information for the other new folks. >> That is very true. And there's a lot of emotion, not just among um those of us here on the school
064committee, but there's a lot of emotion among um people in our towns who were part of that um time in history. >> So the the next step is for us to be looking at what would the ramifications be for like what would be the ramifications for enrollment? What would be the ramifications for having new towns join? Um what would that take and to be able to come back for a um you know a more full discussion um among school committee members. >> Just to um continue with that comment if I could for a second. Pam. >> Yes. >> Um a few things. First, this is a uh we're a million miles away from anything happening, okay? This is a multi-year process at the at the very least. And we're we don't even know 100% how
065serious they are. Maybe when they see the amount of money, they'll run away or their political responsibilities. Then we have to go to the towns and the towns, as Pam said, are the ultimate deciders. And there is uh I won't go into the history of I brought the idea of emotion up, but the way I get around the emotion issue is I said I don't care about the adults who behave badly when they do behave badly. I just look at the kids. This is a uh when they when towns left, they they took away an a key opportunity for their children. And that's what I look at. I don't care if I they say bad things about me. Uh adults sometimes behave badly and the splitting of the district. There were a number of adults
066who behaved extremely badly and uh you know people remember that and I remember it too but I'm also looking at the kids both our kids to make sure that of course we don't um overload the district with too many children that's important but also any kids in the Commonwealth for whom their life could be greatly improved uh if they were allowed to attend Minute Man. So, uh, yes, the emotions are important, but I think that if we focus on, uh, children, we can get over that portion of it. But we're a million miles away, and Pam is just, uh, giving you a early heads up, but Emac will certainly be talking about this a lot. And I think Alice's hand is up. Yeah, I just wanted to say I've heard from a couple of other
067schools when I was at the MASC meeting that have heard from these towns as well, a couple other vocational schools. So, they're they're looking around. It's not just they're not just looking at us, >> right? So, I think that unless there's other questions or comments from anyone else who's on the committee, um I think that is it for EMAC. >> Great. And I know that you always want some more of Pam. So, uh super negotiations and evaluation subcommittee very >> well. Well, this one is very very easy. We have been having trouble scheduling a meeting, but we now have one. Um March 24th, it will be a busy day, but March 24th, um the superintendent negotiations and evaluation um sub commmittee will be um meeting. Um so more to come. >> Okay, >> very good.
068That concludes your reports. Is that correct? >> That concludes both my reports. >> Very good. Now we move on. Capital Planning Subcommittee Alistuca. Uh yes, we met um February 26th. Uh Heidi, Nikki, Michelle, Drew, Julia, me, and also Ford Spalding and Steve Leoo, who um are there as kind of expert consultants. You know them both. Um so we heard an update on the north building, which is the welding large equipment kind of building that is near where the welding shop is. That's uh not a very huge building. It includes um uh we learned that all the inspections were complete temperature control, wiring, certification of the water coming from the eyewash equipment. by reporting on that because it's just interesting to think about all the certifications that are required >> and they're expecting the building inspector
069followed by move in prior to the April vacation and the equipment to be moved in there will free up considerable space and increase capacity in the main building um and there had been an issue with some ice dams which they will address. There's an RFP out regarding um the water heater which according to the uh on-site insight report was not expected to be replaced until year 9 but here we are and there is no real understanding of why it failed early. Um two of the three boilers have had issues. So we have the three boilers. Um in the on-site insight report we were not expecting to see there would be any replacement until year 14, but here we are. So, I believe they're replacing one and they had to repair another the week prior. Um,
070the And I have heard in my own town, by the way, that they are replacing boilers. It seems to just be like what everybody's doing right now is replacing boilers. I don't understand it. Um, the MSBA recommissioning project report is due in April. So, that'll be really interesting to look at. um comparing the on-site insight report and the MSBA report in tandem should yield some very interesting information for the district. Um we have uh there's ongoing procurements uh including a roof replacement and a bulkhead replacement for 20 mil street which are the three houses over on Mil Street that you remember and um electronic gates and electronic sign. And in ter terms of the plans for the athletic fields, uh we heard that there will be a subcommittee working with the athletic director and others
071to discuss usage to inform uh the next um part of key strategy for that and that's my report. Did I leave anything out? >> No, I don't I don't think so. But I see that Al St. George is here. I just want to give him a shout out. He is the person who is the leader of the north building renovation and he just sent me an update. I think it was yesterday. Um they are still going full speed and it's a huge project. So I just want to say thank you for that. >> It's looking great and that is a huge piece of equipment that they're going to shove in there. I mean that's going to be exciting. It would be probably pretty fun to watch. Anyway, have you been down if you've all been
072down to see that piece of equipment in the welding area? It's huge. It's like a size of a house. So, and heavy. Very heavy. It'll be fun to move that. Anyway, that's it for capital planning. >> Any other questions and comments on capital planning? >> Very well. Then a little bit more Alice policy subcommittee. >> So, this is actually more of the school committee. So the school committee approved a bunch of policies for first reading at the last meeting. There's nothing new. These are the same ones. We're just going to vote them again and that will make them like the final thing. So um there's one change in the language of the votes. The first vote is to adopt school year school calendar policy A for second reading as presented. But we will also need
073to remove policy ICA ICB because we don't want to have two conflicting policies existing together. I think it would be like some kind of a science fiction event um in the same time continuum. So we're going to remove that. So the vote will be to I think we could possibly Jeff, what do you think? Take a vote on all of these four together as one vote. >> No reason not to. We have received no comments on them over the month. So >> they're exactly the same. It's second reading and the only change will be that the first vote is to adopt school year school calendar school committee policy a for second reading as presented and to remove the existing policy ICA ICB. >> So I will take that as a motion made for all four
074of these votes with that one alteration. So that's a motion made. Do I have a second? >> Yes. >> Second. Very good. Any discussion on these policies which we've seen before? >> I want to make one comment, Jeff. Um just because not everyone has a copy of the agenda, I want to read the names of the other policies we're approving for second reading. The first one, the second one is school day school committee policy ID. Um that is uh yes that's that um there's um then the next one is um school committee policy curriculum development and review policy IGD and the third one is school the third other one is school committee policy IHM which is health education Any final comments or questions on the motion on the table, which is to approve these four
075policies for second reason reading, which means they become our formal policies and the deletion of one of them so we don't have a duplicate. Ready? Go ahead. Roll call vote. Pam >> Pamin, yes. Linda Herbison, Bolton, yes. Dorter, conquered, yes. >> Marily Dover, yes. >> Lang Pastor, yes. Lexington. Yes. >> Jeff Dulan. Yes. >> Alistister Lucasto. Yes. Thank you. We saved ourselves six minutes. >> Great. And that >> does that include conclude the policy subject? >> Yep. That's it. >> Very good. Okay. Which brings us to our uh executive session. Now, we are we are not going to go to another link. What we're going to do is we're going to move to executive session. The chair is going to call a 4-minute recess and during the recess, everybody will leave who's not part of
076the executive session. Then we'll we'll get to business. Does that sound fair, school committee members? >> Yes. >> Very good. Then uh I would like a motion to enter to executive session not to return to open session to include Heidi and Julia for the following reasons. A. Approval of draft minutes of February 10th, 2026. B. Pursuant to MGL chapter 38, section 21A2 for the purpose of discussing strategy as it relates to contract negotiations with non-UN personnel, the business manager. >> Not to return. >> Uh, I said not to return to open session to include Heidi and Julia. >> So moved. Do I have a second? >> Second. Roll call vote. Pam >> Pam Norackton. Yes. >> Linda Herbison Bolton. Yes. >> Dorter conquered yes. >> Marily Dover, yes. >> Cabal Lester, yes. >> Darren MTO,
077Lexington, yes. >> Jeff Stoen, yes. >> Alistister, yes. >> Good. The chair calls a 4mm recess. So, four minutes and then we'll get back to work. Thank you all very much.