001Good evening everybody. This is the regular meeting of the minute man school committee Tuesday June 10th 2025 and as is 6:30 p.m. We're starting the meeting calling it to order. We need a motion to adopt remote participation. So move second. There was a second so we will proceed with a vote. Hamner Sackton. Yes. Sarah Montigue Arlington. Yes. M. Oops. Sorry. Steve, it's Linda's turn. Linda Herbertson Bolton. Yes. Leoo conquered. Yes. Maggie Sharon do. Yes. Charlene is Lancaster. Yes. On on time. Sharon. Sharon MTO. Lexington. Yes. Jeff is absent. And Alistister Lucasto. Yes. So that is unanimous in favor of having a virtual meeting. The next thing is public comment. I have received none. Um Julia, any news? That is correct, Alice. Okay. So we will not have any public comment. Um we do have somebody
002uh coming to meet with us. Is that person the auditor present yet? Yes. Do you think um does the auditor wish to go ahead um move up in the agenda? Whatever you guys like to do, that's fine with me. If the school committee would allow it, we could take the audits report AB out of order and have it now so that Miss Campbell could go on about her business. Is there any objection to that? No. Hearing none, we'll do that. So 8B is coming after public comment and take it away. Good evening everyone. My name is Tanya Campbell and I am a managing director at CBiz. I am responsible for overseeing the district's audit and I'm here tonight to present the results of the fiscal year 2024 audit. A little information about me since I'm
003new, a new face for you guys. Um I know you're used to seeing Scott McIntyre. Um I have worked with Scott for the past 20 years. a little scared when I did the math on that, but um we worked together as Meansen, Markham, and now officially Sebiz effective um November 1st last year, and we're hoping that's our last name change that we have um from here on out, which I think we're I think we're finally done, which is good. Um I work out of the Greenfield, Massachusetts office. Um and Scott has been working on transitioning some of his clients over the past few years. So while you did have the same audit team um that performed the audit, I am the now in responsible for overseeing the audit. My understanding is you were all provided
004with a summary of audit deliverables um when you also received the reports. So I'm going to kind of follow along with that and use that as a basis for my talking points. But please feel free to stop me at any point in time if you have any questions or want to discuss something further. So in terms of the deliverables you receive at the conclusion of the audit, first and foremost and most importantly is the financial statements. Now as part of the audit, we assist the district in the preparation of the financial statements as we do for all of our clients. However, management is ultimately responsible for the financial statements themselves and our responsibility lies in giving an opinion on those financial statements. So, after we draft the reports, we send them over to Nikki and
005she performs um probably the most detailed review of a set of financial statements I've ever seen of any client we've ever worked with. um you know she's provided with the trial balances and adjusting entries so that she can compare um the information she and um financial information she provide to us and tie that to the financial statements. Um and we review everything and and make any necessary changes prior to issuing the final reports. Something you should be aware of is if you look at the financial statements they are clearly not a one for one with your general ledger. um we are required to make um adjusting entries in order to convert the some of the information in your um accounting records to how they should be presented in the financial statements. Um but please keep
006in mind that these are just standard adjusting entries. Um they're not correcting entries. We're not fixing things that are wrong. um which is good and I can I always like to say that when I can because I can't say that for every single audit that we do. Um so it's good. It means that the information that you're being provided with on a monthly basis to review and make decisions on um is accurate. So something to keep in mind and I definitely like to to mention that when I can. That's always good to note. Excuse me. Um, in fiscal year 2024, we issued the district an unqualified opinion on the financial statements, which means that based on the results of our testing, we found that the district was in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. In
007terms of some of the key numbers, I'm not going to, you know, go through all of them. And please keep in mind these are almost a year old at this point. I can't believe it's already mid June 2025. But um the some things to to point out is your unassigned fund balance in your general fund, which the general fund is obviously the main operating fund of the district. Um and the unassigned balance is essentially what's left over at the end of the day after you've set aside all your reserves that you're required to. Um, and it's, if you want to think of it this way, it's the starting point for the district's free cash calculation, um, or END certification number, sorry. Um, that was about $2.6 million at the end of 2024, which represents just
008over 8% of the district's annual operating budget. So, that's a healthy balance. Um, the district also had over $2.8 $8 million in the building stabilization fund and just over $1.3 million in the OPED trust fund. So, also very healthy reserves and that have been set aside there. That was all I was going to really touch on in the financial statements unless anyone had any specific questions. So, the other deliverables include the um what we call the single audit report. Um because the district expends over $750,000 in federal funding, um the district is required to have an audit in accordance with um uniform guidance, which is the set of guidance that dictates um how the federal grant audits should be performed. Um, we're also required to perform our audit in accordance with government auditing standards, which
009means that we are required to test internal controls over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations that would have a material impact on the audit. Both of our reports um noted no issues. So, we did not find any issues related to your federal grant audit or um any issues with internal controls or compliance. In fiscal year 24, we audited ARPA funds um as a portion of the district's career technical initiative grants. The CTI grants um were funded with ARPA. So, therefore, they were required to be reported on your schedule federal expenditures and audited. Does anyone have any questions on those reports? Okay. At the concl Oh no. Okay. At the conclusion of the audit, we provide the school committee with a governance letter um which basically summarizes some of the information I just talked
010about and um makes you aware of, you know, whether there were any issues or any things that arose during the audit. And we did not cite any major concerns or highlight any issues in that letter. Um and last but not least, the endofear report. Um, every year, as you I'm sure you're aware, the district is required to submit the end ofear report to the um, state of Massachusetts Department of Education and um, they issue guidance in terms of what we're required to um, review and test related to that report to make sure that what is being submitted is accurate because they do use that for a lot of um, decisions and information on their end. So we did perform agreed upon procedures over that report as well and noted no bindings or issues with that
011either. So all in all a clean bill of health and um no issues noted which is which is great. Does anyone have any questions or anything they would like to discuss? Um I'm I'm acting chair and our chair always Jeff stow and if he were here he's on vacation always says you know he's not an auditor and he's wondering if there's anything you would want to bring to our attention. It doesn't sound like it from what you've said but I'm going to ask it on his behalf. Nice. I love there's always one person that asks the ask the same question every year. Um no we did not find any major issues um or concerns that you should be aware of. As I mentioned, you know, the reserves and the balances are good. Um, you know,
012the district is a pleasure to work with. Everyone on the staff is great to work with. You know, they're responsive and get us what we need um in a timely fashion, which is great. Um, and, you know, no issues noted in our our testing. So, that's fabulous. Yeah. Steve, did you have any remarks? Steve, you're on mute. Sorry. I think after six years I would learn, right? Uh um uh no, Tanya made that made a presented the um audit to the to the finance committee. I don't exactly remember. Seems like a long time ago. I think it was in the fall maybe. Um and uh Jeff did ask that question by the way at at finance committee. So, uh, no, we were we were pleased with the report and and I think it's a real
013testament to to our staff, uh, as as Tanya has mentioned. Yeah, I see no other hands up. So, I want to thank you for coming to our meeting and uh, doing the work with our great business department and we're just so lucky to have you all. Thank you so much. You're welcome. And Nikki knows how to find me. If anyone does have any questions, definitely feel free to reach out. um she can pass along my my email and contact information. So, thank you. Thank you. Have a great Tanya. All right. Bye, Nikki. Okay. So, now we going to go back into our regular agenda, um which starts with the consent agenda. We have approval of donations and approval of the draft minutes of May 13th. I do have some edits for the minutes. Um they're
014not they're not a big deal. Um, but let's start out with the approval. Does anyone have any issues with the approval of donations? No. So, let's take a vote on those and then I'll bring the minutes up as a separate item. Uh, can we get a motion to approve the donations? Move. Second. Um, any discussion? Seeing none, we can have a vote. Pam acting. Yes. Sarah Montigue Arlington. Yes. Linda Herbison Bolton. Yes. Lew Conquered. Yes. Maggie Sharon Dover. Yes. Cabaro Lancaster. Yes. Sharon Mau Lexington. Yes. Alistister Lucas Stowe. Yes. Thank you. So, next item is the um May 13th agenda minutes. And um I just have two things to change. Um in the section on the procurement requirements policy which we're going to discuss later anyway the third major sentence starts um will start there
015was a clarification of a key update in the policy. Ms. Andrad is officially registered with the office of the inspector general's office. It is not the attorney general's office. And then in the third the next sentence down below um I'm going to change the first sentence. Ms. Duca raised the point that these individuals um Whoops. Hang on a second. Sorry. uh that per the policy only upon approval of the superintendent the chief of per procurement officer has the authority to delegate his or her procurement powers and duties to Sonia Vorano assistant business manager and Michelle Rosendis director of operations. Those are the two corrections that I would suggest for the minutes. Um Jarren, so um I was also questioning that paragraph, the one that says Mr. Dra was um added that there was a revocation
016issued because of Kevin Mahoney was still listed as our assistant superintendent. My understanding was that that wasn't because he was still listed as assistant superintendent. It was because he was still listed as our chief procurement officer. Yeah. Um and then as you said that where it says that the records have been updated and delegated procurement authority too. I feel that that's a little misleading that it's more so that delegates have been identified as or that they have received the I mean Nikki I don't remember exactly what the title was but basically didn't we have to identify who the delegates would be but not that we've given them authority at the moment but that they um could be delegated to if necessary. Yes, that's correct. Okay. So, Sharon, you would like to make those two changes?
017Yes, I would if possible. Um, does anyone object to those changes? No. Okay. So, with those changes, um, we could approve the draft minutes of May 13, 2025 as amended. Can I make one more just quick question that I'm not sure that it really matters, but I I felt like the on page three where they were talking about um the principal talking about the out ofstate travel. It was a little confused and this is a little minor technical but like just the whole idea of him of um principal Diva requesting the approval to begin fundraising efforts to cover the cost of both trips. Looks like it was to cover the cost of Skills USA and Educators Rising, but then what we voted for was actually to raise money for Educators Rising and the Agricultural Trip
018to Ireland which is below that. I'm just wondering if maybe we should include all three trips below or no just a simple technical thing of moving that because I was like wait both trips. We weren't fundraising for skills. We were fundraising for Ed Rising and the other one. So just a minor technical little thing but I just wasn't sure about that. So you just you want to move the two below the sentence about fundraising efforts. I want to move the agricultural trip above the sentence that says principal Diva also requested approval for I don't even it's not even both trips. It's like the Ed Rising and Ireland trip. Okay. All right. I know it's technical, but it's just it felt like it wasn't explaining clearly what we were fundraising. So, can we just change that
019sentence? Requested to begin fundraising efforts to help to cover the costs of the Ed Rising and uh Ireland trips and make the reader read on. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So, that's those are the the corrections to the minutes, the amendments to the minutes. Um so, can we get a motion to approve the draft minutes uh as amended for May 13? So moved. Second. We have a second. Uh, so let's take a vote. Hamner second. Yes. Sarah's next. Sorry. Sarah Montigue Arlington. Yes. Linda Herbison Bolton. Yes. People do conquered. Yes. Maggie Sharon Dover. Yes. Copra Lancaster. Yes. Sharon Mosto Lexington. Yes. OA Lucasto. Yes. That vote was unanimous in favor. Thank you. Um the next thing is the acting chair's report. So for the good of the organization, do we have any items for the
020good of the organization? Um anybody going to take any special training coming up, Sarah? I am taking um collective bargaining training in July. Very excited. It's on the weekend. Well, thank you. Anything else? Anybody else doing anything fun? Sharon? Well, I know that a lot of us attended graduation, so I'll leave that for Mr. Diva later, but I just also had the opportunity to attend the awards ceremony the night before, and boy, that is a welloiled machine that the faculty have. Um, it was a very long event, over two hours, but it was very um it was just great to see all the kids cheering each other on and the the smoothness of that presentation. and there's a lot of really wonderful awards and scholarships that have a lot of um deep meaningful connections to
021Minute Man. That was great to see. Thank you. Uh Charlene, um yes, this is actually nothing to do with me. It was actually a Facebook post, but it has something to do with one of our uh recent graduating seniors. His name is Tommy Ostro from Lancaster. So, I wanted to note uh a woman on Facebook wanted to give a public thank you to this Minute Man senior Tommy Ostra because she had a flat tire and he went home and got his tools and came back and changed her tire for her. And I thought it was first of all my my sons also mentioned that this kid is really very nice but um I thought it was an excellent way to um you know show pride in yourself and as a member of the community and
022it really made me as a school committee representative for Lancaster especially proud that a young Lancasterian from Minute Man would be so kind to do that for a stranger. So I just wanted to applaud him. That is really nice. Round of applause for Mr. Ostra. Okay. Um, any other items? No. So, next item is uh 5B. I see here. Thank you, Steve Leoo. So, that is because Mr. Leoo has been um from the representative from Conquered for six years and incredibly has brought 40 years as a town administrator that experience to the table. And it's unique in my experience to have someone who has that much knowledge coming to work with us and it just been terrific. Um, but I want to invite you, Steve, to a per in-person meeting. I know you're trying to
023get away, but um, could you come back one more time to July and just let us say thank you in person? Yeah, sure. I I told Jeff I'm actually leaving the next day to visit my college roommate, but that's fine because, you know, I'm only going to Wisconsin. not like I'm going Japan or something. So, okay, that's fine. But, you know, I I just want to say it's it the six years just went by so fast. It's just absolutely amazing. And uh you know, I I just thinking back all the stuff um you know, when I started uh the only people left from the board that I started um with are Pam, u Alice, and Jeff. We've had a lot of turnover on the board. Um and as one of the students said at graduation,
024one of the one of the student speakers, uh had four superintendents, two principles, and um I don't know what else, but you know, it's been a lot of and co and co on top of it. So been a lot of changes, a lot of a lot of things, but it's been a great experience. And I, you know, I' I've worked with, as Alice said, I've worked with a lot of boards over 40 years, and I think this board is really terrific. you know, we we u reach consensus on a lot of things and we talk through things and there's never never any any animosity or hard feelings. So, I I you know, it's kudos to all of you and and and the staff as well. The staff's been terrific and I'm going to miss you
025guys. Well, we won't let you get away that easy. We'll see you in July. Right. And I also wanted to introduce u my lower my lower right of my screen, but D Ortner, who will be uh be the new conquered rep. So, hello D. Welcome, D. Yeah, we'll welcome you properly in July in person. We'll meet in person. We don't usually meet in person, but we will be in person for that meeting in July. So, we'll see you then. And we'll see you again, Steve. Thank goodness. All righty. Okay. So, next one is the reorganization of the school committee meeting. That is Tuesday, July 22nd. That is an in-person meeting. We um vote for the new officers and so on and uh wrap up uh that kind of business. Um, so the next one is
026the school committee meeting schedule which we can have a vote on to approve the 2025 2026 school committee meeting schedule as presented in your packet on page I don't know what page it is but you've seen it. So um that's page oh page 18. Um, can we get a motion? Second. There's a second from Miss Norris. So, we can proceed. Any comments? Seeing none, we'll take a vote. Pam Nurton, yes. Sarah Montiku, Arlington, yes. Linda Herbson Bolton, yes. I'm going to vote yes, but it's a little weird since I won't won't be here, but yeah. Steve will do conquered. Yes. Thank you. Maggie Sharon Dover, yes. Colleen Cabraw Lancaster. Yes. Aaron Mto Lexington. Yes. Alistister Lucas Joe. Yes. Thank you very much. Moving right along. We're going to approve to appoint a temporary member to
027the finance subcommittee. And it's my understanding of this is that for a couple of months, we need someone to um review the warrants and sign warrants as a member of the finance subcommittee. Is that correct? just a couple of months of service from one of the members of the committee. Uh the finance committee does meet twice twice a month as well. So you could go to those and it would be fun. You get to see Steve for at least a little bit. I think one more meeting I think. Um is there anybody who'd like to volunteer to do that for a couple months? Probably really instructional and exciting information, all that finance stuff. Anybody with expertise in finance who's been hiding is that Can I ask a question? Um, do you need to sign things
028in person? No. Electronic. It's all electronic. Adobe. Even better. Anybody want to join Stephen and Sarah? Feel like an auctioneer. Jeff and Sarah. Jeff and Sarah. Sorry. Jeff and Sarah. Um, Pam's volunteering. Thank you, Pam. Um, okay. So, we can vote to appoint Pam Norris temporarily to serve on the finance subcommittee. Can we get that motion? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we put in the motion through the end of June? Because that's what we're talking about, right? Uh, no. the usually uh the uh the um uh committee assignments are done in September if I'm not mistaken. It's through the end of August. Can you still do it, Pam? It's all remote. Yeah, I Pam I can do it through the end of August if that helps. Yes, that would help a lot. Okay. So, we'll revise
029that motion to appoint Maggie Chiron to temporarily serve on the finance committee through the end of August. So, moved. Second. There was a motion by Steve, seconded by Pam, so we can have any discussion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And um and we can take a vote. Pam Norakton, yes. Sarah Montigue, Arlington, yes. Linda Herbison Bolton. Yes. Steve Loo Conquered. Yes. Maggie Sharandover. Yes. Cobra Lancaster. Yes. Sharon Mosto. Lexington. Yes. Alistister Lucasto. Yes. Great. Thank you very much. No problem. Can somebody just send me the dates of those meetings so that I get them in my calendar? Yes, I'll send those to you. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. We're up to number six, the principal's leadership report. Mr. Tva. Good evening everyone. I'm just going to pull up my report real quick
030and everybody can see that. Um before I move on to the graduation slide and I only have one slide tonight which is means we're getting to the end of the school year. Um I want to also thank uh Sharon for bringing up academic awards night I think and scholarship night. Um it was it was a beautiful evening and I just again hearing everybody that is connected to Minute Man and the donors that were there um saying their piece of why they're donating to Minute Man uh was just a a great night all around. So I I appreciate that being um mentioned. So for tonight's leadership report um and again these are rough pictures. I literally took them as screenshots from the YouTube video that was there. So, uh just to give you a little bit
031of a feel of the evening, there were so many pictures that we could have done, but um note that on graduation, which was on 66, we had 175 seniors that graduated. That day, our students arrived at Minan at 10:30 to do a practice within our gymnasium. Um afterwards we had a nice lunchon with those students uh the staff that was volunteering um in the student union and then this is something new to me which I think worked out wonderful and I hope it still continues that students were bust from Minute Man to LOL Memorial Auditorium. Um, I will tell you from experiences of different um, graduations that I've been at MC for. Um, that is not something that is typical. It makes the evening very easy because, you know, if you have somebody that's late,
032you got to restructure them. You got to put them in a certain line. Everybody was there. Uh, so that makes it so much easier that we can do all that stuff right at Minute Man and head over to them. um students and staff. When we got to the venue again, we did another quick dry run. We all were able to prepare and and and make sure our robes were all set and everybody was good to go. I do want to personally thank um Miss Diane Dempsey because she is the welloiled machine. I mean, meaning meaning that she's the engine that keeps it all going and running. And again, from my past experiences of of MCing, uh this was probably one of the best graduations that I've ever um attended because of the organization, because of
033what has happened. Um you can see some of the pictures there as you know having our voices of Minute Man High doing the pledge and getting certain awards to even our saludiatoran Aviva playing the saxophone. That was definitely a first for me, but it was just a wonderful evening. uh at the end and if you look at the end there our students throwing up their caps uh in the venue as well. So um again thank you to Diane Dempsey but there's I mean Mr. Brian Tisley, Mrs. Copathornne I I could go on and on. Um you know uh Mr. Mler and Courier for they get there early. Mr. Keller gets the uh plants over there as well. So there's just a lot of people that uh take a piece of this graduation and make it
034work the way it is. So um I have nothing more to say about it. Just wonderful great things and I appreciate all school committee members that attended. Those that couldn't, we understand, but uh really made for a great evening. So thank you and I'll entertain any questions or thoughts or comments. Stop sharing. You have to add Mr. Cheriel in there that you didn't have to say all those names. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And if you remember from the awards night, that was a that was a good start of practicing. But yes, Mr. Anthony Cherello did a fabulous job uh saying everyone's name uh going through getting their diplomas. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Delea or comments about graduation? Somehow I missed the backflip. It was amazing. I I missed it too. I missed it
035too. I did too. When was that? Yeah. Toward the end. Think missed. Right after he walked He walked to the edge of the stage and back flipped off. It was wow. He He shook my hand and let go and back flipped off the stage and I said, "Oh my gosh, did he he's alive. It was okay." And it was very quick and didn't cause a a scene, which was amazing. I think Mrs. Duca said it best that um she had a saxophone player, a backflip when we talked after and a fua. Yes, there you go. So, you've been through many of them and uh this was one that was very unique. It was great. It was great vacation and vacation. It was a great graduation and it was really wonderful that it was the traditional
036Minute Man short graduation. Thank you. Thank you. I think everybody likes that. That's wonderful. Thank you so much to everyone. Um so next item here is the superintendent's leadership report state regulations update. Okay. So um I want to thank Sarah Montikue for setting up a meeting um with our Arlington rep. Um, I actually touched we went to the state house yesterday. Um, and he I would say gave us some pretty good education about where we can go to make an impact with the lottery conversation. Um, I talked to his name's Sean Garbali and um, I spoke with him last night as well. We're in contact and he's happy to support Minute Man and everything we do. Um Julia today gave me an updated list of all of our senators um who are connected to Minute
037Man and um Mava's recommendation and my recommendation is that we personally um contact senators um because where the lottery issue stands right now um let me actually open up actually I will share my screen. This is the There's been so much information going out. It's kind of like trying to sip water from a fire hose. Um so even actually as Sarah and I sat waiting to meet with him on this bench, we had what was it? A three or four page um additional sample letter that we could send out and we're like, "Oh my goodness." Um there's a lot. Um but there is this if you I know most of you follow this already but there's a Massachusetts vote tech coalition um web page and um the action that we are asking senators to take
038is to support the house outside section 65 page 15- 16. So right now the house proposed that we establish a vocational adi admissions task force which would in essence stop us from having to implement a lottery in September. Um and if you want to read that you just click this here and you can read that outside section. Um, so what I'm going to do right now, just for ease, is I'm going to put a link to this um, page in the chat so you can all have it. And I will have Julia follow up and email it to everyone. And I will share out Oh, lost my little Zoom thing. Um, I will share out um, the updated list of our senators. And even if it's a senator that is not connected to your particular
039town, we should be contacting all of them because they are all connected to Minute Man in, you know, as a regional district. Um, so I know we've been talking about this every single month all year. Um, does anyone have questions or maybe Sarah, do you want to add anything? I would just say if we can get the communication out as soon as possible because what we heard from Sean is that um the it's it's now with conference committee but we're not exactly sure if they've officially started. We know who's in it. Um and we know that they have to be done sometime in July. So that doesn't that leaves you know it's almost the middle of June already. So, I would say once we get that information, if we could um send it out to
040the senators, that would that would be great. And Heidi, thank you for clarifying that specific ask that we should make. I think that's crystal clear. No problem. So, if you look in the chat, the link is there. And um like I said, Julia will email that out right after the meeting. Um, so I know in actually in Arlington and in some other um finance committee meetings or town meetings, people asked about the lottery and what they can do. This would be the ask. Um, give them this link, follow this web page and um ask to support that specific um area outside the budget. um questions. Okay. Well, that for that is it for our state updates, but I would like to preemptively thank our policy subcommittee because we are going to have um some very
041shorttime work that has to get done um not only with admissions but also with our local graduation policy um to make sure we are aligning with the new state regulations. Um I just sent out a survey to staff and Paul um sent out a survey to students, parents um everyone um regarding what they would like to see in our um graduation policy. What do we see? What's our vision for it? So that by the time we get to meet in July, we'll have that information um readily available for the school committee to hear from all types of stakeholders. Okay. And that is the end of my um my update for today. Oh, actually one additional thing I'd like to sneak in. I would like to congratulate Paul on as the principal for getting to that
042uh graduation. He did a spectacular job as the MC. He really did. And um I as well have never seen such a efficient. Not a single kid was late. People didn't behave badly. It was wonderful. Um and I I was a little worried um being offsite. Will it still feel like Minute Man? And but all of you last year were so um complimentary of this. And Diane Dempsey was one of the first people who I met with when I came here. And if you don't remember, I want to say it was September, maybe October, we did commit to five years to make sure we have the date at this location. So this is um year one of five. So um couldn't be happier. Couldn't be happier. And congratulations, Paul. Um is that it Superintendent Triscoll?
043Yes. Okay, we're going to the finance report from Steve Leoo. Okay. Uh, first of all, we have our budget all approved by all the towns. Uh, conquered was the last on June 6th and because eight other towns had already approved it. The I talked to the moderator and she put it on the consent calendar, which is a little weird to have a million million uh $700,000 consent item, but it passed with passed with a breeze. So we uh we're good to go for FY26. Um finance committee did meet on I think June 8th and uh uh mainly we went over the the the two issues that we we're going to ask the uh the full committee to vote on but we also received an update on the um on the north building which my understanding
044um the the board will get a full presentation on on the status of the uh north building at the July meeting. So, um um the first issue I I would like to bring to the board is uh to approve some uh uh end of the year uh budget transfers for FY25. And I'll I'll turn it over to Nikki to uh go through that. Thank you, Steve. I'm just going to share my screen to show the details of the committee, but this is in your packet. Um, as these two budget transfers at year end are over $10,000 um, between function codes, we will bring them to the school committee for consideration of a vote. As Steve mentioned, we have brought this to the finance committee. Um we have one item um fixing our heat recovery unit
045in the advanced manufacturing shop and we added um a slew of detail underneath for anyone that's interested in the particulars of the air and the coils that are going um and Michelle Rosundes is here um to answer any questions on that. Um we are also uh requesting a transfer of funds to our textbooks line. Um and it's for textbooks and related curriculum um related to health and other electives and um oh may may I add one thing and English language learner supports. Thank you Heidi. Uh and those are two budget transfers. Happy to answer any questions on them. See, I don't see any. Okay. Right. Uh if there's no questions, I I would uh move to u uh uh for the school committee to approve the transfers as presented. Second. There is a second. So,
046we can have a vote. Pam Naractton. Yes. Sarah Montigue Arlington. Yes. Linda Herbison Bolton. Yes. Steve Leoo conquered. Yes. Maggie Sharon Dover. Yes. Charlene Lancaster. Yes. Sharon Mto Lexington. Yes. Ellis Gustoau. Yes. That was unanimously approved. Okay. Uh the next item uh is uh an award of a contract cleaning company uh for the school. Um the uh uh the staff put together a review committee uh to look at RFPs. And under state law, the first thing you have to do is is basically um determine if if if the uh if the proposal um uh basically is highly advantageous, advantageous or not advantageous. So uh the committee did walk through that. Um, I guess I'll let um Michelle uh uh walk through the results of this. She's ready. Not Nikki. Yeah, I think Michelle, I'm sorry.
047I just couldn't get Matt. Yeah, I couldn't get my uh mute off. So, yeah, just as Steve had explained, we had a committee put together. Um we went through the proposals. We received four proposals. Um, one of them uh was deemed unacceptable. Um, we had one that was deemed advantageous and then we had two that were highly advantageous. Um, again, we went out for an RFP. So, for the district, that's the most beneficial when doing these contracts with people because we have the opportunity to review the company as a whole and not just the bottom line. um uh price. Um because we get to do that, we take the time to really go through each of the proposals. Um the two proposals that came out as highly advantageous, which enabled us to move them forward
048to the price evaluation was SJ services and then our incumbent company which is MP building services. Um at this point um the committee calls references. Um we called not only the references that they provided but we also called other references of companies that they had previously done business with. Um we got um great reviews um on them. So then it it moves to the price um proposal stage and um SJ services as you can see was our lowest bidder. Um and so our recommendation is to move forward with um signing a contract with SJ services. Um does anyone have any questions for um Steve, Nikki, Michelle about this cleaning contract? Um Maggie has a question. um how does the price uh compare to what we've been paying in prior years? So, it is um a
049little bit higher than what actually we had budgeted for next year. Um but Nikki and I have worked through that already. We kind of have an idea. Um I think it was about uh from our budget I the budgeted amount it was about I think 10,000 Nikki about 10,000. It's 15 to 10,000 um or 10 to 15,000 actually. Um I can't remember the exact number off my head, but I mean that and that's generally when we budgeted we budgeted a little bit of an increase from last current year. Um so I think um it's about $20,000 more than what we were paying this year. But it is it wouldn't have mattered if you'd gone with the incumbent anyway. the price would have gone up. Correct. The cor that both both estimates were higher, but not
050significantly higher that it wasn't something that we could handle um within our budget uh amounts. I mean, everything is more expensive, right? Like that's how everything is. Um no, that's all great. Thank you. And this group, this group does other schools in the area that like Yes, we that's the most most of their references um were other school districts that were similar to us. Yeah. Any further questions? I'm I'm not absolutely certain I'm seeing everybody's face. I think I do. I think I see no further questions. Um, we could take a motion to award the cleaning services contract to SJ Services for a one-year period beginning July 1, 2025 and ending on June 30th, 2026 uh in the amount of $782,974. the option for up to two additional one-year renewals for a maximum of three
051year total of three years. Uh um Nikki or Michelle, correct me if I'm wrong, but that 782 is for for the full contract, not just one year, right? That's for all three years. Yeah. So if Alice is making a motion for one year, we need that broken out as to what the FY26 I correct me if I'm wrong, but the motion should be um for a one-year period beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026 with the option for up to two additional one-year renewals for a maximum total of three years. But the total price is 7.82,974, right? Yeah. For the three years. For the three years. For the three years. Is it um like three even installments or is there any upfront larger fee this year with different fees in the other years?
052I think there's an inflationary increase over years two and three. Yep. Can the motion be kind of we're awarding the contract they presented which has in it the pricing information. So can we make the motion to award the contract for you know the one year with the option for two years without including the price amount? Yeah. I think that is uh if you look at the updated agenda, I think the language is to approve the cleaning services contract for a one-year period beginning July 1 ending June 30th with the option for up to two additional one-year renewals for a maximum of 3 years. Um that way it aligns with whatever is in the contract which is in your backup packet. Okay. So, can I try a motion? Gonna just repeat it. But, um, I move
053to approve the cleaning services contract. Oh, shoot. I don't have the name of the company. SJ Services Services. I move to approve the cleaning services contract for SJ services for a one-year period beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending on June 30th, 2026 with the option for up to two additional one-year renewals for a maximum of three years. Second. Okay, any comments? There don't appear to be any, so we can take a vote. Pam nurse Actton, yes. Sarah Mont, did we get a second? Yes, we did get a second. Okay, go ahead. Sure. Sarah Montigue, Arlington, yes. Linda Herbison, Bolton, yes. Evil Conquered, yes. Maggie Sharon Dover, yes. Charlene, Lancaster, yes. Sharon MTO, Lexington, yes. Alice Lucasto, yes. Okay, we are done with that. Thank you everyone. Yeah, thank you for working on that. Um subcommittee
054reports capital planning um we do not have anything to report at the moment. We'll be meeting soon. The policy subcommittee we have um the same policy that we looked at last time DJ this is procurement requirements. This is the second reading. There have been no edits sent to me. Did uh anyone else receive any edits? Um no. Alice? Yeah. Um when when the finance committee reviewed this um Jeff uh was concerned about in um in the fourth sentence of the draft the phrase positiontitle could be mis mis misinterpreted. So it might be better and I'm trying to get the whole language to just pick position as opposed to position title. Um, I'm trying to find it. Sorry. Is it the one that says only upon approval from the superintendent, the CPO of the school district
055has the authority to de to delegate his or her procurement powers and duties to a position title? That's it. That's it. Yeah. So, if correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that came directly from the office of the inspector general. Is that correct, Nikki? So, that was the wording. Um, but Jeff felt as though the like slash um may make it may make it appear as though Minute Man may have missed something. So, maybe we should either just remove the slash and write or and or um or just pick position. I think position and title are pretty much the same um thing. And I think just the way he was reading it, he didn't want someone to misinterpret that Minute Man um didn't catch that. Okay. Uh what do you think? Which word? So as
056if it were um something like we didn't fill in like a position like a placeholder. Yeah, that makes sense. So what if we just say or title position or title with a Massachusetts? I think that makes sense. Position or title. All right. So, with that amendment, we could um adopt DJ for second reading. Um does anyone make a want to make a motion to uh adopt DJ for second reading with that amendment in the fourth line? Second. We have a second from Mr. Leoo. Okay. You can have a vote or for further discussion. Any further discussion? No. Um, we'll have a vote. Amnner, yes. Sarah Montigue, Arlington, yes. Linda Herbson, Bolton, yes. Steve Loo, conquered, yes. Maggie Sharon Dover, yes. Cab Lancaster, yes. Sharon Mto, Lexington, yes. Alistister Lucas, Joe, yes. I'm just making a
057note that we amended it. Okay. So, uh, 9C, um, is the superintendent evaluation subcommittee with Miss Norse. Okay. Um, so what I wanted to do is just review the process and then talk a little bit about the document that's in the packet. That's a compilation of um the uh individual school committee evaluations. And I want to first just do a little thank you to the committee, Maggie, uh Sharon, and um Charlene. And a special shout out to Maggie for compiling all the individual data from um all the school committee members. So, just as a little review, here's what was in the um evaluation document. So, first of all, and I'll go over this quickly, the evaluations based on the goals that were developed by the superintendent, approved by the school committee, and for each goal,
058the eval the document included key key actions, evidence, and additional information to support the goals. Each school committee member then evaluated the superintendent on progress towards each goal and all the rankings that school committee members gave on all three of the goals fell into the categories of significant progress um met the goal and exceeded the goal. And there's lots of comments there to um support those rankings and you know really to call out a lot of the just incredible terrific work that our superintendent has done over the past year. In addition, the school committee members evaluated the superintendent on each one of the four professional standards and all school committee members ranked the superintendent as either proficient or exemplary on all four of those standards. And again, um added lots of comments talking about, you
059know, the you know, tremendous skills that Heidi has brought to this position. I I just wanted to call out a few comments that were representative of many of the comments that were in the document. Um, one would never guess that Superintendent Driscoll is completing the first year of her superintendency. She leads like one who has been at this for decades. And that sentiment was repeated throughout. Minutemen is extraordinarily fortunate to have Superintendent Driscoll at the helm as we move forward. Reviewing Superintendent Driscoll's reflections on the year, it is clear that we are very fortunate to have Superintendent Driscoll at the helm. She set forth with a strong and comprehensive datadriven plan, listened carefully to all members of the community, and offered consistently powerful insights and strategies for moving ahead across all areas of the district.
060And perhaps my favorite comment here, the future of Minute Man, to quote an old song from the 1980s, is so bright that I have to wear shades under the superintendent's leadership. So, I want to commend Heidi on a very successful first year. Um, I want to give school committee members who would like to add some comments and then give Heidi an opportunity to comment. Eddie, I'll go. Um, I just think that your um your ability to not just see a problem but try to solve the problem. Um, I specifically think about when we met early on and you were notified that you were in the superintendent um training program, but there wasn't one for vocational superintendent. And so you didn't just go, "Oh, well that's a bummer that there isn't one for um vocational." but
061now you've worked towards creating one for vocational. So I think that that's really um indicative of just kind of how you've led this whole year of that if you see a problem you move forward with how to solve that problem and it's been pretty impressive to watch the various ways in which you've seen problems and tried to tackle them. Thank you Sharon. Alice, I'm one of the people who feels very lucky that we have uh Superintendent Discoll for Minute Man. Um and uh I'll just leave it at that. I was very wordy in my evaluation, so I'll be short now. Other comments from school committee members? Heidi, I would love to say something. Um, I read every single word um that you sent in that um draft because it hasn't been approved yet. Um I
062we don't get to spend a ton of time as a whole together. It was just absolutely wonderful to see how all of you know about Minute Man and what happens at Minute Man and I appreciate that tremendously. Um, I do also appreciate I saw some recommendations in there which I of course will take to heart and I will um make sure that in my future um goals they're reflected. Um and uh I am I am absolutely so happy I came. Um our staff is incredible. Our leadership team has been wonderful and I feel like um the the finding problems and trying to solve them. That's my best and my worst quality. um because there's always something. Um, but our um our team really wants to make um the future of Minute Man happen and um
063it's really exciting to be here and I I hope that um with Paul and I um here this year and us uh fi finally not having any interim positions. I hope that this is um the age of consistency and I feel very fortunate to work with all of you. Um, I have worked with many school committees and to echo Steve's sentiments, you all work so well together. You're wonderful communicators, so respectful and professional to each other and to me. Um, it's been an absolute pleasure and um the work that we've had to do outside of the building. Um, I do want to call out Alice has been to driving to Everett to uh board of education meetings and um Sarah was there yesterday. I mean there's just there's so much of that that energy and
064passion for what we do um as a regional vocational school district and um I feel fortunate for for working with all of you. So thank you. Okay. Um, oh, I have one more shout out. I was looking at all my little boxes and Charlene was hidden there. If you don't know, Charlene, um, did attend the superintendent school committee joint conference with me. Literally, we had to stay there for several days. and Charlene has been very very active when it comes to the vocational coalition and connecting with other school committee members in other districts which again is just uh everybody's doing their piece but those some things that have just been above and beyond. So thank you. Do we need to vote to approve this Pam? Yes. Yeah. Um, hold on. I just was reading we
065do need to we do need to vote to approve and then we will um provide Heidi with a final version. So, should we take a vote? Could I make a motion that we um approve the superintendent evaluation as presented? Second. So, move. Okay. Okay, we have a second and we can take a vote. Hamner Sactton, yes. Sarah Montigue, Arlington, yes. Linda Herbison, Bolton, yes. Conquered, yes. Maggie Sharon Dover, yes. Kob Lancaster, yes. Sharon MTO, Lexington, yes. Alistister Lucasto, yes. Thank you. Superintendent evaluation subcommittee and superintendent. That's great. So we have finished with the agenda with the exception of the executive session. So um for those of you who don't know we are required by the open meeting law to read the vote to enter into executive session exactly as written. So we need to have
066a motion to enter into executive session and not to return to open session to include Julia Pgna in the meeting for the following reason pursuant to MGL chapters 30A section 21A2 for the purpose of discussing strategy as it relates to contract negotiations with non-union personnel superintendent director Driscoll and um now we can have a motion for that Maggie moved and a second. Second. We have a second so we can take a vote. It must be um known also that we have to repeat when we get into executive session. We have to repeat the exact same language in the executive session. So we will now take a vote to enter executive session. And thank you everybody. This has been a terrific terrific year. Um go ahead. Hey nurse acting. Yes. Sarah Montigue Arlington. Yes. Linda Herbison
067Bolton. Yes. Steve Leu Conquered. Yes. Maggie Sharon Dover. Yes. Kab Lancaster. Yes. Sharon MTO Lexington. Yes. Host Gusto. Yes. We have the link sent to us earlier by Julia. We'll see you there. Thank you everybody. Thank you.