001I wanted to start out and just take a moment to acknowledge principal Clemence achievements to begin principal Clement's achievements of far too numerous to sit in to fit into a three-minute speech a detailed accounting has been submitted for the record Mr Clement has been an exemplary leader and advocate for Minutemen whether it is success in academics skillsusa Focus for Dr Hoffer who says numerous Awards it is principal Clement that has had a direct and indirect impact on the amount of success here at miniman you cannot separate his personal connection commitment and support of the faculty and students to what Minutemen has achieved in 2009 he was hired to improve literacy as a Reading Coach he built the reading program he led the executive function and task force two years after his arrival the school had
002its first 100 percent Ela MCAS pass rate in 2013 he was a national finalist for the Scholastics All-Star teaching award in 2015 he became assistant principal Minuteman was having an enrollment problem and due to legislation students from out of District were not allowed to enroll the district was decreased from 16 to nine towns Mr Clement became a fierce advocate for Minuteman he attended and spoke out at town and Civic meetings he engaged with leadership and policy makers to ensure the best interest of Menace men was served as he led these initiatives to enhance the educational and the trade programs enrollment increased he set records for recruiting two successive classes of 200 students Mr Clement fixed the enrollment problem in 2018 due to his commitment and efforts Minuteman won the National Blue Ribbon award in 2020
003will serve in his principal Minuteman was the first and only High School to receive the Massachusetts reading Association honors award for the outstanding literacy program which he developed in comparing those accomplishments and reputation of Mr Clement to those of Miss Dawson there is no comparison I was very surprised to find out that Minuteman was not the first school to experience this upheaval in connection to Miss Dawson ours is not the first vote of no confidence held against Miss Dawson we are not the first school to file numerous grievances against the actions and behavior of Miss Dawson sadly concerning charges of misconduct have been filed and brought to the Boston school district superintendent it seems to be a pattern here I don't know what's more concerning to me the fact that these events happened or the
004fact that this committee did not see them and act upon them finally finally what began as a student-led petition has garnered the full weight of the faculty parents and the entire Minuteman community what has been presented to you must not be dismissed it is incumbent upon you to act I submit from the petition 2312 more reasons for you to act if you do not have the desire of courage to act please step down allow someone else to take your seat and they will thank you okay thank you next we have Margaret Murray a teacher [Music] my name is Margaret Moore I'm a teacher I live in Westford Massachusetts I'm reading a letter that was sent on Wednesday April 26 to the school committee um I do have one question and I don't expect obviously don't
005expect it to be answered but it would be helpful to understand something of the timeline what are the expectations of the where this investigation would be concluded dear men school committee members it was devastating to learn on Tuesday that our principal's contract would not be renewed Mr Clement exemplifies the caring support of community focused administrator that has built and solidified Minute Man's Stellar reputation his non-renewal coupled with the departure of the director of facilities and The Unofficial exit plans of other administrators is a dangerous Exodus that threatens the genuine student-focused culture responsible for minuteman's amazing reputation I was fortunate to join this fine District in August 2021 and experience its Excellence firsthand the criteria for evaluating a school district was part of administrator training I had participated in when employed as a database administrator at
006the acton-boxborough school district the training coverage School culture and was taught by a well-regarded superintendent who had mentored the acton-boxborough principal who would supervise my internship the criteria for an outstanding school was one a welcoming environment two transparent decision-making and three collaboration principal Clement in our administrative team exemplified this welcoming Community culture it is the core of minuteman's greatness please protect our school community community from these administrative changes their disguises improvements but are in essence dismantling this wonderful School community I have worked in several school districts and Minuteman is the only District that has met the criteria for evaluating schools presented in that training that said there are always areas where we can improve continuous Improvement is the only path to ensuring that Minuteman maintains its enviable standing please take action to protect our excellent
007Minutemen Community from being destroyed thank you that's that's we have Sylvia Stevens also a parent okay hi I'm Sylvia Stevens I am a parent of a minute man sophomore and I'm from Arlington Massachusetts um I am here in support of Minuteman students and staff and join them in voting buoyancing concerns about the ability of Dr Dawson to effectively serve as superintendent based on a number of her actions including the choice to not renew principal Clemence contract hearing that teachers were being asked to do even more outside the purview of their contracts by Dr Dawson without going through the proper channels to negotiate these changes is not good leadership Ms Maynard's statement to the school committee about Dr Dawson's demand for a student to take a test long after the term had ended is concerning and
008shows Dr Dawson's lack of professional respect for staff along with not understanding what it truly means to educate and motivate students it is understandable that the staff voted no confidence in Dr Dawson and if the staff feels unsupported and unheard we risk losing even more of them to other communities that will treat them like the professionals that they are also concerning his hearing students share how uncomfortable they feel around Dr Dawson because of her behaviors such as unprompted rubbing of shoulders and backs during the student walkout one of the student signs read stop rubbing my shoulders Kathleen in reference to these actions students should not need to continue to express that these actions make them uncomfortable her comments in the Boston Globe describing her actions as quote natural and that quote nothing more was intended
009only adds to the evidence that she is not mindfully taking others reactions to her behaviors seriously her statement dismisses their feelings as it at it is the impact of actions that matter not intent it is disrespectful to them and goes against what we're all teaching these young people about respecting personal boundaries her removing the word vocational from her email signature has only fueled speculation that she wants to water down and or eliminate vocational shops many families are now concerned that the very reason the king to Minuteman will be taken away Dr Dawson could easily clear up the situation with clear communication but she has failed to effectively communicate for example Dr Dawson has not added a quote message from the superintendent to the website since 11 23 22. in contrast all interactions that I have
010had with other administration at miniman including Mr Clement has been open and respectful to students staff and the overall Minuteman Community I have seen Mr Clement work to set the climate of the school to one that is welcoming respectful and encourages them to bring their talents and find personal success because of this I was shocked to hear that Dr Dawson chose not to renew his contract the uprising of support from students and staff alike shows what a positive impact Mr Clement has had on Minuteman as a whole our school attracts students that excel in number of in Hands-On learning in a number of ways some of the ways noted include how many students have competed and meddled in skills USA competitions as well as other outside competitions both Co-op and employment opportunities as in well-established
011in local Industries as well as acceptance to prestigious pre-college and college programs these accomplishments cannot be contributed to Dr Dawson but to the administration and community that preceded her through years of work it appears Dr Dawson is not interested in joining this amazing Community with us but forming a new one this is why I stand with the staff and students of Minuteman Regional Vocational and Technical High School and ask that the board permanently removed Dr Dawson and worked to secure a contract for principal Clement for the upcoming school year thank you okay next is Catherine Rice Hansen also a parent from Arlington hello I am Catherine Reese Hansen from Arlington and I want to First say that I absolutely agree with the previous comments um and my daughter is a sophomore at Minuteman majoring in
012electrical wiring as a family we have been very happy with man the education she is receiving and the opportunities she has had to find a passion for electrical work that excites her every shop week over the past two years I have been frustrated by the lack of communications to families I appreciated when we began receiving the daily announcement in email and when Mr Clement began a weekly email those have made a big Improvement but they still are one way and not a dialogue in our town Arlington to the school committee and principals routinely have open forums or meetups for information sharing question asking concern sharing celebration of what is going well and open discussion I have greatly missed not having these at Minuteman I applauded Dr Dawson's listening tour teach District Town earlier in the
013year and eagerly awaited her entry plan report Minuteman is a thriving school that doesn't need fixing it of course does need a plan for continual evolution then after April break without having seen this entry plan report it suddenly felt like her vision has been being rolled out without any explanations or discussions with students staff and parents we have suffered amid your silence with a profound lack of information and acknowledgment feeling ignored and worried about school leadership the future of our trade shops their budgets and offerings well the privacy of personnel issues is completely understandable you can hold an open form to dispel rumors provide some information share the superintendent in your vision for the development Amendment man over the next few years and decades and most importantly ask for feedback from the Minuteman community and
014incorporate that feedback into your decision making I thank Mr Mahoney for attending the PTA meeting Monday night to offer what little info he could going forward I hope that you all appreciate how much families care about Minuteman and want a dialogue with Administration and our school committee Representatives I encourage you as our representatives to meet with your town families students and parents every couple of months to share information get feedback hear what is going well at Minuteman and what concerns we have I am sure both parents and students will be concerned over the summer about the status of having a permanent principal and superintendent in the fall and whether there will be other Staffing changes please don't wait until the week before school to share information please proactively touch base with the community throughout the
015summer I also want to note my disappointment with the departure of Dan O'Brien as communications director as a marketing professional I was very impressed with the high quality promotions she created and distributed highlighting all the great things our Minuteman students accomplish I am concerned that the negative media reports a chatter over the past month will have a lingering negative effect on enrollment in coming years little Snippets of info like that linger in memory because I could ask you to wrap up please every minute man oh okay great thank you very much thank you next is Shelly um I may have this wrong set thanks thank you apologize for my handwriting um first though I don't really have to prepare the same but I just want to start with some positive things I am a resident
016of Lexington my son is a freshman starting plumbing and I'm also responsible for the buttons that people but foreign experience but I did actually cut out and put together at least 500 plus buttons and I was out there three days and the kids the kids put them on so I wore some tonight um I just want to say I'm also responsible for the the second the second uh change.org petition uh which said uh the departure of uh doc you know let's let's get rid of Dr Dawson and bring back Mr Clement I'm also responsible for for putting up uh the letter I got I got my hands on the letter that he wrote to you just a few days after his uh he found out his that his contract was terminated there was a lot
017of discussion among parents about you know this is this is a personal issue this is a private thing but sometimes when something like this happens when you get this kind of information and it really needs to be brought out to the people and let them see and I think we really got a response you know not as many as the first petition to bring back Mr Clement but 726 people have signed alumni students um there's actually you know I'm on the Minutemen uh uh parents Association our job is to is to only to raise money for uh student Scholars like the great kids we saw here and there was actually one parent one family that said you know we sent two of our sons to Minuteman and based on all this disruption we were thinking
018about giving money for scholarships and now we're not so sure so this this is a real concern and I guess kind of one of the things that I know there's so much about Dr Dawson one of the questions is who was it that told you guys to hire her who did the head hunting I mean what a terrible job just reading I I have a PhD electrical engineering and when we write a dissertation we keep all the ugly wart stuff out you know the stuff that didn't work and right there and a table on page 11 all the times disruptive employment all the issues that she had it was right there you didn't have to look for it and I'm just shocked and none of this is at all surprising based on what we know
019about her and my question to the school committee is that I'm gonna say when you find another superintendent to do a much better job and also look at whoever the Headhunters were if you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire for them to choose her you should get your money back because this is just been terrible I guess another thank you another question is about timeline and I I really appreciate Mr Mahoney we really really pushed him on Tuesday to give us a little bit more he was very professional and said I can tell you what I can tell you and I appreciate that at the beginning of this meeting you said we're here to listen we want you to act and one of the really positive things about this last two weeks is
020that is that you know getting getting uh emails from you saying you know we're meeting this night the next morning we put her on administrative leave and now we have Kevin Mahoney we're going to keep it going understanding that you know you have a certain investigation that's going on but let's just be let's just be realistic her contract is is you know from 2025 are you actually going to renew it let's get let's just let's just get rid of her now that's what I'm saying thank you next is Ellen Lawton good evening um my name is Ellen Lawton I'm from Arlington and my son is a senior who's about to graduate in the culinary program I also have spent my life living in ascending districts uh for Minuteman and so I have lots of friends
021and relatives uh who are graduates of Minuteman and I'm a huge Minuteman booster I'm really alarmed at what has transpired here at Minuteman over the last nine months I'm the recent president of the Minuteman parent Association from 2020 to 2023 and I had the opportunity to observe Mr Clement and Dr Dawson in their respective roles Minuteman has always had challenges fostering community and cohesion because of the nature of the geography as the Minuteman president throughout the pandemic I worked closely with the administration to participate in and help lead changes to improve communication and build trust with the parent community what happened here over the past nine months with Dr Dawson blew that trust out of the water and it squandered tremendous community that we worked hard to build and I'm upset about it I detailed
022in my letter to the committee my direct experience with Dr Dawson regarding the overdue need to address the racial climate at Minuteman and that came sparked by a letter A candid essay by a 2022 Minuteman graduate Layla Lubin who submitted an application for a scholarship to the Minuteman parents Association and she talked about her experience here as a black student and the mpa rallied around her and we designated a named scholarship for her and we talked about the need for change in Minuteman and we met with over the summer we met with Dr Dawson and we met with other Minutemen leaders all of whom recognized it was time for some change at Minuteman around issues of diversity equity and inclusion in my meeting with Dr Dawson I'll say that she I observed her skilled presentation
023around these issues and I also experienced her becoming rapidly and briefly vicious with me in the course of that meeting and her reaction was so Stark that for me it lends Credence to a lot of the allegations against her I was a parent and an ally meeting with a student and a superintendent and she did not treat me with respect as the mpa president I had a bird's eye view into Mr Clement's leadership skills and functioning I fielded numerous inquiries and complaints from the community and worked with Mr Clement to resolve a lot of those complaints he was not perfect there were areas for improvement and I'm going to take another I need to wrap this up I know there were areas for improvement clearly but he is a visible dedicated leader who is open
024skilled transparent and committed to the school the mission and the students the Community Trust that he engendered through his leadership during the pandemic was real and it was Irreplaceable so what I want to express is I hope that you'll have the courage to cut your losses while you can secure her resignation before the reputational and financial losses begin to mount as rapidly as our opposition to Dr Dawson thank you we have four more speakers and I would like to be able to get them in and I understand and appreciate this um support between each speakers but if we can keep that shorter we'll have time to get everyone in um so um we've we've already used up our time so what I want to do is to get in the people who I have on
025this sheet and then um let's see where we're at so the next person is uh Danielle teg okay okay hi I'm Daniel tag I have been a teacher here since 2006. and this is a letter that I sent to the school committee um dated May 1st I write out of concern for the developing and alarming Trend regarding the resignation and or dismissal of several Minutemen administrators since the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year the following administrators have left employment with miniman Aaron norson facilities and business coordinator Dan O'Brien communications director and Rich ikinen assistant director of operations and Facilities in addition super in Dawson superintendent Dawson has as you are aware recently made the decision to not renew principal George Clement's contract and our director of Information Technology Victor Woodruff has just put in notice
026that who are we leaving at the end of the school year Rumblings of the unhappiness among the remaining administrators of which there are now so few have also been circulating a single or even a couple resignations could be dismissed as a matter of incompatible Visions or perhaps even conflicting personalities but the numbers here cannot be innocuously explained away this dangerous Trend can best be characterized as yet another indicator of the overall Discord between Minuteman and its new superintendent since the first week of school superintendent Dawson's lack of trust in and disregard for the professional experience and decision making of them in a man faculty has been evident final grades that had been issued prior to her employment were made to be changed during the first week of school after a single 10-minute observation judgments about
027a teacher's use of class time and attention to rigor reformed and shared by the superintendent in front of that teacher's students despite outperforming our pre-pandemic scores on the English MCAS Improvement was demanded and simultaneously dissatisfaction implied with the institution of a new school-wide goal and the examples continue from there with the departure of our season administrators I fear an impending trickle-down effect on the faculty who already feel disenfranchised and disinhearted we will be faced with working for and with a largely unfamiliar Administration an Administration that would be led by someone in whom we have at this early stage in her tenure lost all confidence when our veteran teachers feel no other option than to follow suit and resign in the upcoming months and years it will be the students and minuteman's reputation that will suffer
028greatest change is never easy but I had hope for Dr Dawson's leadership at the start as did many of us however it is becoming undeniable that this is not the right fit not for the administration not for the faculty and most importantly by extension not for the students we ask you the school committee interview now and before Minuteman becomes unrecognizable sorry okay next is um and I may have this wrong Corey Nicholson I'm sorry if I mispronounced your name thank you hi uh my name is Corey Nicholson and I'm a social worker here at miniman this is the letter I wrote to the school committee on May 12th I have worked at Minuteman since 2017 which compared to most other staff members is only a short time to say that is one of the things
029that attracted me to working at Minuteman would be an understatement rarely do you come across a place of employment that has staff who've worked here for their entire careers and continue to love what they do the community of Minuteman has felt like a home since I stepped in the door with staff and administrative team who care not only for not only one another but are willing to do anything and everything for their students since new leadership has taken over Minutemen and Center con changes that have impacted our culture and the core of who we are as a school our staff is open to meeting the challenges associated with change as we have done many many times before however when changes decisions made behind closed doors threaten to shatter our community harm the success of our
030students and the future of our school those changes are no longer acceptable from the loss of Mr Clement and other administrators to the lack of transparency respect and open communication with staff students and parents a harmful precedent is being sent a precedent that no longer represents the ideals and the values of the Minutemen that our districts know and the Minutemen that our students love the culture and values and school Community are why students choose to come here they are our first priority the success of our school moving forward and plans and actions of Dr Dawson do not line up I hope the appropriate actions are taken to protect minutemen's community and reputation thank you Sheila Nagel hi my name is Diane Dempsey I'm the Minuteman faculty president and I have been for many years in
031this year more than ever have I never been more proud to represent this group and I'm going to tell you we are angry with you okay many of you have been on this committee for many more years than I've even been employed I've been here for 20 years the fact that you people continuously unanimously approve every vote you take means you are not listening and having proper debate okay 100 of us voted unanimously no confidence in that superintendent you guys we deserve better from you Michael rudeman you fell asleep in the one of the last meetings you were woken up by your committee members and instantly was told to vote Yes and you did what does that say to your member Talent it's insulting to everybody else who might have been listening and it's insulting
032to the families the teachers and the kids we are here to ask you to do better on May 11th we actually had Pam Steve and Alice listen to the Minutemen faculty Association for the first time rarely do we ever go before you with any issue we keep it in house anytime we've gone before you you have ignored us you have chosen not to look right at us like you're doing now and we're insulted it's time for you guys to take responsibility for selecting the superintendent with no background check because today I spoke with the super um with the former president of Boston Public Schools he was there for 14 years he said there's no reason that you guys couldn't have found this information do better we have one more person who has signed up on
033the sheep on excuse me um we have one more person who has signed up on the sheep Stephanie and Stephanie attended Cuba so let's have um Stephanie speak and then we'll move on to the rest of the business of the committee so thank you very much thank you um my name is Stephanie Edinger Nikola I'm a parent I live in Arlington uh my son is a junior here and I have an incoming freshman as well so I will be part of the school Community for several years to come um I first want to start with something positive I want to say that this school has been a transformative experience for my son regular school was incredibly difficult and not working for him and he has turned into a confident happy young man at this school
034in much much in part due to the fabulous teachers that we have here and the incredible welcoming atmosphere where all kinds of skills are valued so that cannot change although it has been um uh I also want to Second everything that has been said by all of the parents and the teachers tonight it is incredibly important that you do listen and act make change um I did uh meet with Dr Dawson along with another parent to discuss the racial climate here to discuss diversity equity and inclusion at the school that is an area of improvement that is needed um and we thought that we had some uh good action steps I'm not sure that any action was taken with very concrete uh items that were discussed at that meeting and I think that's where it
035stayed um which was enormously disappointing uh on that front um in addition I also want to bring up what actually Shelley brought up as well around the school committee I want to understand how she was chosen um and I want what my question is uh and I understand you can't do uh discuss Personnel details I'm a manager myself and I get that but I would like from this investigation an understanding of the not just has what has happened but an investigation of how she was chosen and what that process was and where the holes were and how it happened so that when go you're going forward you have a different process because clearly that was a failed process and it needs to change so that is the communication in in addition to all the other
036things people have mentioned but that is the communication that also needs to happen um and it needs to happen as was said before the next school year um yes and I think the other thing that I just wanted to say in an underscore along with everything else everyone else has said was that we need transparency in those value findings can't be something that oh we've made a decision that's it it needs to be communicated out and it needs to be communicated out in detail not high level thank you very much thank you hi so the the school committee does have certain rules that we need to follow yeah um so let me just explain right now so um we had again I'm just trying to explain to everyone where we are so we had set
037aside a certain amount of time for public comments we extended that for tonight we've extended it for this meeting we do have some very important some timely business that we need to get to tonight as well so right so so so what what we need to do is to get to our our business um you know I what 10 10 10 weeks I'll be under a minute right right right so let me just say let me just say I will allow the gentleman that is standing at the mic to speak but after that um I do have something I do want to acknowledge all the people who have spoken and then we will get to the rest of the um agenda for the meeting so I will turn it over to the gentleman at the
038moment thank you very much can everyone hear me um my name is Kevin Sharon I've been teaching at Minuteman since 2006. I actually started a week before uh Miss tag who spoke a few people ago but I'm going to do a little different approach I wrote a public comment and uh supporter George lament but I'm gonna this this is something a little different um so just bear with me not to sound redundant but based on my childhood experiences I have generally learned not to trust others over the years I have learned to trust certain people on certain things up to a point especially in my personal life but even less so in my professional life based on my life stories analyzes I seem to act like I know it all in the belief that I
039have all the answers and others necessarily do not this is not a conscious decision but regardless of intent my actions must come across in that way and my belief that I do know best automatically reduces the status of others knowledge adding to this I recognize my colleagues weaknesses and vulnerabilities and he immediately lose respect for them due to their incompetence at least that is how I perceive it such an attitude absolutely does not allow for respectful exchanges also based on my perspective of their incompetence I often do not allow my colleagues to assume the responsibilities of their roles as the leader I do not create opportunities that would allow relational trust even to start was it bad that I needed so little support was it detrimental to my leadership development that I was successful in
040all that I was doing was my success in nurturing this subconscious belief that I had all the answers in new best again I did not think about this back then it is a thought that returns to me now as I reflect on how those years compared to the ones that followed would I be authentic if I were not consciously acting as though I knew best at that time I was doing the best that I could do for the team in the best interest of the students okay and then one more piece I've worked as an assistant Headmaster for a few years before I learned about a three-year doctoral program at Boston College it would allow me to keep on working and attend classes on weekends and during the summer it sounded perfect and the tuition
041was reasonable I applied and was accepted it was a cohort model after a couple of months of classes I found myself sitting in the back of the class while sitting there I looked around and asked myself what was I doing at a non-ivy league institution how did I go from Harvard to BC in addition BC had a limited reputation outside the region as an executive model I wanted to attend a university that had a quality reputation and high standards at least higher than those at BC so I dropped out so these These are not my comments these are from uh Dr Dawson and her dissertation which reads more like a Manifesto to me um page 163 16 134 and 123. I just thought that would be more effective so thank you foreign okay I I
042want to thank all of you for being here and I want to thank you for your comments I do appreciate them as I said we're here to listen I heard people say hey we want more than listening we want action as well I heard a lot of themes themes about accountability things about communication um so um as we said that this is not our opportunity to engage on the public comment that we've heard but it is our time to to take it and then as we move forward to be incorporating it into our planning and you know I will say that we will be incorporating it into our planning as we move forward so again I want to thank you all for being here and I'd like to ask at this point we do need
043to move on to because we do have some important votes that we have to be taking tonight so we do want to move on to the rest of our meeting please thank you and it seems a real action okay um next thing on the agenda is the chairs report and I do want to announce that we okay can you not hear me okay so this mic went off yes okay the next item on an agenda is a consent agenda and I've learned um I will go to the islands in central Canada if anyone would like anything without please just call up the draft minutes of March 28 2023. yeah that one should okay is this one working now okay so I had said the draft minutes of March 28 2023 draft minutes of April 11
0442023 approval of the list of monthly donations okay we'll hold the list of monthly donations could I have a motion to approve the draft minutes of March 28th of within March 28th minutes I submitted one and I'll spell okay we're gonna take all three items separately okay okay um so um could I have a motion to approve the minutes of March 28th with a spelling correction moved okay any discussion all in favor it's a unanimous yes okay could I have a motion for the approval of the draft minutes of April 11 2023. so a second a second okay any discussion all in favor okay unanimous um okay could I have a motion for the approval of the list of monthly donations second discussion Madam chair can we accept a donation of services uh the vendor's
045invoice puts a price tag on it which you know we we have uh no independent verification for uh we will uh evaluate that uh that donation uh seek uh guy who's from the um the area the technical area or the uh vocational area that that is from and we can we have done that in the past we're reluctant however to provide a letter um so the IRS placing a value on that item IRS does not acknowledge donation of services if any value can you say Michael I didn't hear you IRS rules do not allow for the uh you know crediting any value to a donation of Professional Services you just can't call it a donation if we sign a letter saying they donated this they're they're likely to turn around and um I don't know
046what they'll use it for but you can't donate services we'll make the change which item is this sorry this is the vendor from uh Jay Barry for uh various things relating to prom we'll make that change and classify it appropriately okay with that change in the list of monthly donations any other comments then could we vote on approving the list of monthly donations as amended um Jeff I was voting oh you're voting you're already voting yeah okay all those in favor of the list of monthly donations as amended okay and again it's unanimous thank you very much okay we didn't have a motion as Amendment that's how we did okay we need to since we amended um the list we need and we need a formal motion for the amended move the motion as amended
047could I have a second okay now all in favor okay thank you very much see for the good of the organization I oh um Lord go ahead oh thank you Pam a couple of weeks ago um I got a call from our friend Steve Sherrick who Steve used to be uh at Minuteman and he is now I think the executive director of mava um as his position it's my understanding that Senator Cronin unfortunately I don't know what uh District he represents but he submitted a budget amendment number 771 to have admissions uh for all vocational schools to be on a lottery basis um and they were very concerned about that they asked if I could help put them in contact with representative Denise garlic who was from Dover where I'm from and Needham um because
048she is now the co-chair of the education committee on the house and that happened we put them together we had a meeting but I can't take credit for this but I gather yesterday uh Senator Cronin withdrew uh his Amendment um and uh The Plea was basically from mava it should not be in the budget as an amendment where it would receive no discussion it's very important to have discussions so it will be brought back up um and it's going to be brought back up as a separate bill Senate Bill 257 um and it is uh again the same request is to have all vocational education admissions done by a lottery I agree it's not good um so um but there's a Jew a hearing on June 12th uh which will be dealing with that lottery
049so anyone uh that would please uh contact their Senator or rep and express your opinions and if you want to go to the hearing I'm sure you will I don't know if you'll be able to speak but at least you'll be able to be there mava is taking extremely active role in putting together a speaker's group that will go and speak uh I just will say from a personal point of view education by Lottery is not something that I have ever approved or thought of it's it's just by chance education is not not right but nevertheless there's a huge waiting list to get in um almost all vocational schools and when I spoke to representative garlic and the group and basically said what we need to do is try to find more money that could
050go to the msba and encourage more districts and more schools like miniman throughout the Commonwealth because I think it's sorely needed but that is is my reports Judy no thank you oh that's yeah I don't have a working one okay um thank you for it um I just wanted to give a shout out to the Hornets cultural students who volunteered at the annuals um the annual Lexington plant sale which was held last Saturday it happened before the rain luckily the students were very enthusiastic they shared their knowledge with those who were attending there were lots of smiling faces so I really just wanted to say thank you to those students and also I just want to give a shout out to the seniors today being their last day except for a few fun items on
051the schedule um so a week for tomorrow we get to celebrate their 13-year Public School Journey so looking forward to um witnessing that honor so thank you anyone else I am very happy to announce the ratification of the collective of a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Minutemen faculty Association and I want to acknowledge and thank the members of the um um school committee negotiating team and members of The Faculty Association who work together to um come to agreement on this contract um at this point we will turn it over to Kevin Mahoney for the acting superintendents report thank you madam chair uh as far as items A and B I would defer to bring the committee up to date um probably it's probably the middle that one's being used for Zoom I think is
052that right nope that okay oh I guess over there foreign are they up there all right so first is just where we're at in terms of admissions uh so I think you'll all be happy to see that our waiting list is down to six students um um hold on a second I'm gonna just ask if if school committee members want to move forward in order to see the slides sure um encourage people to do that yeah it's up here on the big screen for folks foreign so as I was saying so the waiting list as we anticipate as it always does as admissions is a fluid process is down to six students from my experience my hope will be that that'll be down to zero students by the time the school year starts and we
053actually have like three students from our member communities who missed the deadline who maybe even we might even be able to sneak them in before the school year starts which is always what we want as much as a waiting list is nice in terms of the demand what's most important is that the the young people from our member communities have access to this amazing educational experience um so like I've talked to you all about in the past we try to come in on the first day of school with 189 students and so we play a little bit of numbers games in terms of like right now we have 191 it will change that's just how this this process always plays out um but it's always a good news the more kids we have from our
054member communities and the less we have on the outside looking in the better it is I don't know if the school committee has any questions because the next part is just about the new student in family orientation which is not numbers based I know you have to ask them from your microphones like everything and then I don't have a slide I don't think I have a slide for this yeah but um so feel free if you guys want to sit down it's up to you um so on May 6th on Saturday May 6 we hosted our new family and student orientation uh the family new student and family orientation is actually two events that happen in parallel so we have our our families who come um and that sometimes that's parents sometimes it's grandparents uncles
055aunts because they want to see the building and this amazing place that our students get to go to school in um so we had 160 of those families that were listed up here attended on that Saturday which is fantastic um so the parent portion of it is they have they get to listen to um our lead teachers talk about our academic programming as well as Miss Dempsey talks about scheduling and guidance supports our special education leads talk about the special education supports and we talk about Athletics clubs activities and all that stuff so it just in transport station which frankly is the question the thing that most families end up having questions about in the long term after that uh Courtney's Warren and Meenakshi sengal had organized through the mpa a group of parents um
056and Courtney is the mpa vice president from Arlington and monoxide sengal is the parent of a sophomore from Lexington um and they had a group of current parents here to kind of be part of a little meet and greet with um a catered breakfast from our culinary arts department and from our students who were also supporting that and then the final part of that day for the parents and the families were or was uh quick very large group tours through the building led by our student ambassadors who give the best tours on the business and on the other side we had our students our future students um going through we had our first class meeting to start they had some breakfast then we went out and it was a combination of students taking their diagnostic
057Assessments in math and writing and then also doing some community building activities as well um we've been doing our testing from home for the last since the pandemic started but with the Advent of photomath and chat GPT we just wanted to ensure the Integrity of their scores so that they're placed in classes that are going to challenge them and support them so we had 11 teachers here facilitating those assessments on a beautiful Saturday morning we had Josh who's in our I.T department and three of our student interns in there as well supporting the technology of that day and it's just a massive undertaking with all those different moving pieces happening at the same time but because of our teachers and our students it because our teachers are good at being flexible and adaptable in any
058situation that's what they do every day and so that's why that event went really smoothly and I think families were really happy I would tell you since you're the school committee you should know that we also got questions that day about you know what's going on at the school um wanting some reassurance on the situation both with the superintendent and principal and I'll just tell you that the only thing I shared on that day and I want to make sure that you hear that as well is that the reason I am confident as we move forward is because of the people who were here tonight and who who are not here right now and all the work that they do for our kids because that's the one constant I know will remain and will support
059our kids which is the most important thing so that was in the short term definitely I think helpful but you know I think in the long term it's going to be a questions that are going to continue to come up so it was a fantastic day it was a beautiful day and our students and our staff shined as they always do thank you very much Anthony I really appreciate that Madam chair I'd like to just follow up during any items on the uh on the agenda for uh the superintendent's report our annual Town meetings I please report that our budget uh passed unanimously all nine towns uh voted approval of of the budget for next year and their appropriate their assessments and I'd like to publicly state that uh on behalf of the school committee
060uh we appreciate the support we see we received uh through this budget season and and we're very grateful for that for that support uh the next item is on the the school choice vote this is a vote we take annually to not participate in the school choice program a vote would be in order moved is written into the agenda second okay any any discussion all in favor oh I'm sorry I just wanted to say because people often forget why it is that we take this vote that the tuition for school choice has not been changed since 1993 and it is five thousand dollars and that is the reason why the school committee annually votes not to accept school choice students and if you don't vote and put the information to the department by June 1st
061you are defaulting to accepting five thousand dollars as a tuition payment so that's why we do it okay any other comments have to look down both sides here okay all in favor okay thank you very much unanimous next item is the acceptance of the Academic School calendar is presented vote is required could I have a motion to approve the 2023-24 Academic School calendar as presented second any discussion Judy thank you I just want to point out that um this year graduation is on June 2nd next year it will be June 7th so it's a full week later so it's another week of school it's just something to look at thank you any other comments all in favor okay and it's unanimous final item under the acting superintendent's report is the approval of the contract to
062reappoint Dr andonian as the district's physician okay could I have a motion to approve the contract for the reappointment of Samuel and donian MD as District physician somu is there a second yes okay any discussion Jeff okay so um I recall on many occasions voting for nurses less often voting for physician now where is uh this doctor actually located and do we have know how many times approximately during the year that we actually use the services just curious how it's how to operates do we have that information that Dr broad has the information um I think that the mic over there works okay knock it real hard against something down it worked oh there we go sorry um so Dr andonian has his practice in Lexington Center he's been with us sorry as long as
063I've been here um he writes all of our standing orders for all of our over-the-counter medications he comes in and does sports physicals as needed um he consults with us whenever we have a question he was very helpful during all of kobit everything um so he basically is I wouldn't say at our beck and call but he is at our disposal as we need him perfect answer thank you uh Michael okay any other questions or discussion all in favor and it's unanimous okay um now we're moving on to the finance report yes uh map chair in your packet it was included a letter from the chair of the uh Minuteman uh District Retirement Board Laurie Elliott who also serves as the district Treasurer uh to the school district and in compliance with mgl chapter 32
064section 103 subsection see this is a requirement by the uh requirement of the Retirement Board to notify the uh governing body that being the school uh committee uh of their intent to vote a um uh Consumer Price Index increase uh at that meeting which took place yesterday I don't know what the result was but historically that vote is a three percent increase uh on the first fourteen thousand dollars of eligible required uh retirement allowance it's just a notification uh no vote is required okay any questions nope uh yeah sales is there another um similar uh announcement that we had well you wouldn't know because we're here but I feel like there was another similar uh three percent on the first fourteen thousand for some other group earlier in the year is there another group uh
065I'm not aware of that I can look into it but this is an annual vote that we take here so okay thank you uh and then also included uh in your packet um was a a request for Budget transfers it basically breaks down into three sections there's a transfer uh to cover some uh Bond anticipation note interest on a 2.8 million dollar uh band uh we had budgeted for a shorter term but because of the uh extension of closing out the building project we had to uh extend the term about temporary borrowing which required the additional uh interest cost uh we reallocated funds to purchase new freshman laptops of 142 000 and we also reallocated Thirty one thousand dollars in 374 31 374 dollars to transfer and purchase new computers for programming in web development
066I would note that these were reviewed at the school committee of the finance subcommittee meeting not the last meeting but the prior meeting uh and I'd ask that the board vote to support these transfers okay could I have a motion to approve the third quarter general fund year-end budget transfers as presented second any questions or comments finance committee voted in favor of these transfers okay if nothing further all in favor passes unanimously thank you madam chair if I could make one more comment for the finance subcommittee before we move off this item um the fact that all of the towns in Our member district uh approved our budget is no small accomplishment and I wanted to thank the the extensive efforts that Dr Dawson put into preparing that presentation that uh was taken to all
067the town meetings in the town and especially our business manager Nikki Andrade who bear days before giving birth was there on the floor of a town hall for the Arlington town meeting to go through the particulars herself it was in many ways a river of performance thank you Michael okay at this point I'd like a motion to enter executive session and to return to open session attending school committee members um Kevin Mahoney and Julia pasigna and the reason is for the following pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21 A2 for the purpose of discussing strategy as it relates to negotiations with non-union Personnel the business manager and director of special education so moved okay because this is a motion for entering executive session we need to do a roll call by town so
068why don't I start down on my left with Erica Bolton yes Judy Clark of Lexington yes foreign okay thank you very much and again we will be we're going to retire to Executive session in the superintendent's conference room and we will be coming back here after okay okay we have everyone together I'd like to call to order this um our return to open session could I have a motion to approve the three-year Employment contract between Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical school committee and the business manager for the period commencing July 1st 2023 and ending June 30th 2026. so moved any discussion all in favor any discussions but Michael did you have your hand no oh getting ready to vote all in favor okay it's unanimous thank you could I have a motion to approve the employment
069contract for the director of special education oh uh a motion to approve the three-year Employment contract between the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical school committee and the director of special education for the period commencing July 1st 2023 and ending June 30 of 2026. so moved any discussion with much gratitude okay all in favor okay it's unanimous yay we're very happy we're very very happy thank you very happy thank you very much I know you can't see me smiling here but I am okay could I have a motion to adjourn go ahead all in favor thank you everyone