North Brookfield School Committee Meeting October 20th, 2025

001All [Music] right, let's get started. All right, it being 6 p.m. we'll call this uh meeting of the North Brookfield uh school committee to order. If everyone could please uh rise to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Do you have any uh recognition? >> Uh nothing for tonight. I just I do want to say though that uh we just reached the halfway point of our first quarter. March reports went out in the last week or so. Uh and also just a shout out. I know Mr. Murphy started his student of the month. Uh the second one will be coming up shortly, end of this month. Uh and we had our first senior citizen uh breakfast

002which was sponsored by uh some of our students here tonight. Uh we're able to welcome about 20 plus seniors from the town for a free pancake breakfast uh which is a tradition that we started last year. So thank you to Mr. Murphy and to Miss Bington uh and all the students who helped put on that great event. >> Excellent. All right. No other recognition. No. All right. Uh, we have approval of minutes for September 22nd, 2025. Do I have a motion? Move to approve the minutes for September 22nd, 2025 regular meeting. >> I will second that. >> We have any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> All right. That was unanimous. All right. Number four, public participation, public comment. Just real quick, uh since we do have a big crowd here, we're going

003to do your standard two minutes just to keep it uh you know, so we're not here all day. Um so if anybody wants to do public comment, now would be the time. >> Teachers association president. Uh uh I'm here tonight obviously because I have some severe reservations regarding how the process of the task force went through. Um I just wanted to be able to say to everyone that uh I joined this I was part of the task force. I tried to be I tried to also be very transparent. All right? Because I am not in by no way, shape or form am I in favor of closing this place down. um still was hoping we could find other resolutions and try to bring them up. I do realize after being here for it's my 27th

004year that we are in some dire straits. We've been through some once in the past but the process like I said the issue that I one of the issues I have I don't know how our chair the school committee can also chair the task force. Um I find that to be a bit of a conflict of interest. Uh at the last meeting we were preparing about the idea of presenting which I find out it's on the agenda today that there will be a presentation but as of the last task force meeting there was still a debate at the end of that meeting whether it was even going to be presented. Instead we had a comments we had basically a debate about semantics regarding you know whether a recommendation is an endorsement or not or can

005you recommend something without necessarily endorsing it. Um, so what I'm getting at is like in the summer, as you know, we met in the summer. I of course have a place where I try to go with my son in the summer. So the the meetings were obviously not convenient. I asked the chair for be able to zoom. Never got invitations for Zoom. That wasn't allowed. So I missed some meetings. And the meetings that I came to when I tried to voice anything other than just rubber stamp the idea of sending our kids anywhere but here, um, it wasn't received well. You know, I get told what an objective is. Like I need to be told what an objective is. All right. The idea of just looking at this as far as the information regarding, you

006know, school tuitioning our children out. I will my dying day I will tell you this is not the right decision for the children of this district. Nor is it the right decision obviously for any of us. Um so I'm just letting you know I'm hoping and making imploring the rest of the school committee that was not part of the task force. Please, you know, pay attention to the presentation. Look for the numbers. All right? Because nothing's been real in my opinion. All right? And I would, that's all I'm asking because I have lost faith in the idea of this task force. I brought up at the last the last meeting the idea that talking about let's look to actually regionalize if we needed to to end up getting people all behind it. And I know

007you're about to call me on time, but I think it's 3 minutes, not two. And I was just all and I'll leave. Don't worry, cuz I'm not I I I'm not going to stick around. This it's it's a bad feeling. The other thing I wanted to say, you know, I I may have been on this task force, but like I said, I found out the presentation was going on because it was on the school committee agenda. The chair, who's also the chair of the task force, I never never sent me the numbers, the slideshow, anything else. Didn't know what what this is even about. All right. And then I find out that a couple other task force members, >> all of the what you're mentioning right here is going to be explained. >> Okay. >>

008You also going to explain the task force members that you dismissed at the last meeting and said that their services are no longer needed. >> I have no idea what you're talking about. >> Well, that's what I heard. >> Comment. We're not going to get you a back and forth as you know. So, if you want to talk afterwards like >> that'll be next time. That'll be next time. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. We're going to >> All right, we're going to Any other public comment? >> Yes. >> I'm Margaret Hansen. I am special eder here. I have been for 18 years and I'm also I live in town and I'm a taxpayer. So, I feel that that is important to say as well. Um, just a a housekeeping question.

009Is this the only time you're going to take comment from the public? Because I have been at meetings before where you have allowed comments as you went down the agenda at different times. So, I want to make sure the public here knows that if this is the only time you're going to take comment that this is the time that they need to speak up if they have something to say. >> Is is that okay? >> That's in the plans, Margaret. And also, just so you're aware, a lot of what you said is not accurate. We'll go through all that. Okay. >> So, he he spoke a little prematurely about a lot of things. So, um if anybody wants to speak after we give a presentation, we can certainly do that. Okay. >> And this is

010not going to be the only night that this has talked about either. >> So, nothing's been decided. I don't know where he got any of that, but So, >> so, so I als I also have just a brief statement. Sure. >> Um I would have been on the task force if I was able to, but for personal family reasons, I couldn't attend every meeting. I did go to a few meetings and um I was especially interested in the meetings with the numbers and um I only got to go to the presentation with Quavin. I didn't see the Quaog one. Um but my deep feeling is that we cannot fully comprehend what it is going to cost us if we tuition out the kids. there's there's no way to know those costs as they come up

011especially in the special ed department. So for it, it would h I just I cannot I cannot support tuition that the kids out. And I just wanted to make that very clear because I feel that what we have here in North Brookfield is unique. And I think we need to do a better job at promoting that because there are still kids who come here who choose to come here and who do well when they graduate from here. And as far as I'm concerned, that is that is the measurement of what kind of school this is. Those kids are getting into the colleges that they want to. They're doing activities here that they want to. And I feel like it's something that if we lose it, it just would be a terrible shame and I wanted

012to get that on record. >> Thank you. Anybody else? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to student representative. Past information, class elections. On October 1st, we held our class elections for 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, giving students opportunities to hold class office positions. Um, all grades, but six were just like fillings from the spring. We filled in for homecoming. On Friday, September 26th, we hosted our homecoming dance. The dance was from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. We had pizza, snacks, and drink drinks and ice cream. As always, the dance was for 9 through 12 only. We also hosted our annual homecoming spirit week from the 22nd through 26th. Upcoming information, Halloween room decorating. Halloween room decorating will be taking place this week. grade grades will be decorating their advisors classrooms and impartial teachers will

013be judging on Friday the um 31st I believe and the results will be announced on that next Monday. Halloween hangout the Halloween hangout will be on Friday October 24th from 6:00 to 8:00. This is a dance for 6th through 12th graders and students are encouraged to wear their school appropriate Halloween costumes. Giving turkey. Our giving turkey is coming up. Each teacher is given a bag that students can put non-p perishable food items inside. We're still planning the other specifics, but at the half day before Thanksgiving break, the teacher with the most will wear the turkey costume and school. All school committee members can come in and drop cans in whenever you want. Social media. We invite all community members to follow our social media accounts to keep up with all NBHS student council events and

014activities. Our accounts are Instagram MB StuCo, Facebook MD Stukco, Tik Tok, ND_ST Stuco. StuCo meetings. All meetings are open to the school and community. Meetings are typically every other Monday in the high school Kea from 6:00 to 7:30. Please feel free to join us if you have anything you would like to discuss or just would like to see how things are run. That's all I have for today. >> Thank you. Any questions for Noah? Feel like we should give you a bag, Noah. And then if your bag is the most full, you have to do the next school committee meeting in the turkey costume. I try on the costume. It fits me. >> All right. Next thing on the agenda is school committee reports. This is where we're going to give our tuition task force

015presentation. And I just want to start by saying I wish that Damian would have allowed me to give this presentation and then ask what he wanted to ask or say what he wanted to say because I think a lot of what he said was actually things I'm going to say. Um, and I wanted to personally say that myself heading this up, the fact that he's questioning anything to me is disheartening. I mean, we have a hard time finding good volunteers in this town and I'm a taxpayer. I'm a resident. I'm a parent. I'm all the things and I'm giving up my time to do this and to look into something that was offered to our children to potentially give them more opportunities. No decision has been made. So I wanted to say that first that

016I don't know where he got the idea that a decision had been made. This body though the task force was designed with the objective and he mentioned that he was told what an objective was several times because our objective was never to finalize an answer to give an answer to give a recommendation. we were to gather facts for the school committee to ultimately make a decision on the future of the school with hearing from the community. So, this is a piece of the puzzle. There's more to the puzzle that we still have to get and that's what I'm going to go through in this presentation. I think it'll be pretty clear when I'm done with it what the next steps would be. So, um again, I'm just very disheartened that a teacher here would would

017take the steps to make that type of public comment. Um so, we have the tuition task force. Tim, you want to do the next one? >> Uh, we have uh nine members of the task force. Myself, uh, Maggie, uh, Damen, um, high school teacher, Sheila Blank, town accountant and resident. Mary Beth Karsski, resident. Bruce Arnold, resident. Deb Arnold, resident. Uh, George Nette, uh, school custodian and resident. And Tanya Matthews, also a resident. Thank you, Tim. All right. Why was this task force formed? So, North Brookfield had a joint regionalization committee with Quaog Regional School District to study regionalization since 2021. At that point there, the superintendent uh there was a task force of I think it was 18 members had decided that regionalization should be the path for this district. So, that's why that started

018being studied. Um at the end of 2024, there was a final report given to Quayog and North Brookfield. North Brookfield School Committee ultimately voted to move forward with more regionalization talks with Quaog. Quayog root regional school district did not vote to move it forward. So it sort of ended there for them. Uh in January of 2024, Superintendent Duff, so this was a couple months after um regionalization was voted down by Qubog. Um Superintendent Duff from Quaybog reached out to North Brookfield School District to present a potential option of a tuition agreement. Uh fast forward to May of 2025, uh we decided to develop a task force to try to find out some more information about what tuition would be. Um and like I said, I mean this is something very difficult and obviously there's a

019lot of opinions on this and rightfully so. So um I appreciate the comments and but I mean I think we all need to understand that this isn't something anybody's taking lightly. So the objective of the task force was the uh North Brookfield tuition task force will investigate and gather information regarding the potential potential and feasibility of tuitioning students out of North Brookfield schools with a particular focus on North Brookfield Junior Senior High. This task force will be factf fighting in nature and does not bind the district to any course of action. Its purpose is to explore all available options and to help inform the community in guiding future decision-making process. All right. Next. Thanks. So, what is a tuition agreement? Essentially, it's a contract between one district, between two districts, a sending district and a

020receiving district. Um the amount decided per student would be agreed upon between the two schools and that's something that we would be looking at hearing about in the future potentially um between us and the other school and Desi would have to approve that contract. It's not something that we can just sit here in a vacuum and do. Um this is different than regionalization as we would still maintain an autonomous K through6 district. So we would not have a K- through6 district in a region. we would sustain that uh K through six as our Northbook Field School District. Um the benefits to the students would be the same as regionalization that we were going for before. Um students will have the option still to school choice to any other district that accepts school choice students. Um

021if North Brookfield were to enter into a tuition agreement, we would no longer operate a junior senior high school. So what did we do in the study? We had meetings from June through October. Uh we discussed uh with local school districts who might be interested. Ultimately we heard back from QuaBog and Quabin that they would be interested. Um we discussed uh we also reached out to another district in the state who has been doing this since 1982. Um Nant Swamcott. They currently have a tuition agreement and have continuously since 1982. Um we discussed tuition agreements with DESIE representatives who deal with regionalization and tuition agreements. Um we reviewed the prior studies that the town has done. Uh one was in 2011, one was in started in 2019 went to 2021. Um and those studies were

022also started for similar reasons uh that we're looking at doing this now. And that was so starting 15 years ago. Um, we reviewed some student exit surveys that were sent and received over the past several years. Um, we had some members that tooured QuaBog. Uh, we're pending some tour dates from Quatton. All right. So, I talked a little bit about this before, but we had a tuition study in 20 not a tuition study, a school district study in 2011. Um at that point we had 563 students in the district, 106 school choice out students. Uh that full study is available. If anyone wants to look at it, you can email anyone else, any one of us here on the board, we can get you a PDF copy of it. Um we also then had the

0232021 regionalization study uh which recommended the following. Uh the study committee was impressed with programming at Quayog and Quabin. The study committee learned that it there's most likely no financial savings for regionalization, but regionalization will offer our students more opportunities at the same investment. At that time, they said QuaBog was more like is more like North Brookfield than Quabin. Uh Quabin and North Brookfield then formed a joint study group. All right, this is our current enrollment here in North Brookfield. I think these numbers are important for everybody to know to look at. Uh, kindergarten we have 27, first grade 32, 2nd grade 28, uh, third grade 29, fourth 41, fifth grade we have 40 students, sixth grade we have 42, 7th 16 students, 8th grade 26, 9th grade 22, 10th grade 13, 11th grade 18,

02412th grade 25. I will say that the new numbers for this school year are being uh, certified by the state right now. So we should have them soon. This is the best we could come up with based on what we know. Um, our choice out total right now is at 205. Um, we have currently 20, excuse me, 72 students equated on that. 40 of those are in grades 7 through 12. 32 were in K through 6. We have 58 at Quab and I didn't get as much of a breakdown from them on that yet. I should have it by the end of this month. Um, we have 18 students choicing out to Brookfield Elementary. We have 21 choicing out to Tantasa. We have 19 going to Spencer. Uh and then there's several with small amounts.

025All right. So this is just again a little bit of an enrollment overview. I went back, you know, 20 something years. This is back when we were talking about building a new school. We had 810 district uh 810 in the district. Uh we had 359 uh that's as of right now for this year from what we could gather in K through 12. Um current students in the district in 7 through 12 is 119. Currently choiced out is 142. Um and that's just 7 through 12. Uh so total choice out currently at 205 we're at125,000 and we're taking in 29 students uh and receiving $145,000. So these are just some of the other districts in the state that do currently operate with a tuition agreement. So where they send their kids to students to another district.

026Um, a lot of them are are are small communities, like really small communities. Uh, like Ptown, I think, was on there. Um, the one that is probably closest to what we are at, it was when they did the agreement was probably Nihhat and Swamcot, they had over it was when in 1982 when they started it, they had over a hundred or close to 200 that they choiced that they tuitioned. Uh, now their their enrollment's dropping as well. So, all right. Next one. All right. So, I just did a overview of this because this is probably the closest comparison. Um, tuition agreements. Tuition agreement began in 1982. Like I said, uh, because they had low started having some low enrollment and some funding issues. Um, they still currently have that same agreement, not identical agreement. It

027gets renewed every 3 to 5 years depending on their contract time. Um, we talked to both superintendents of both schools. They've had a continuous relationship since then. um you know nothing alarming and coming up for issues. They work well together. They share a lot of uh administrative assistant level type staff. Um so Dant has maintained their own K through six district since that date. All right. So local a question that came up a lot was well hey if we don't have a junior senior high in town our property values are going to tank. Um I mean that's I don't know the answer to that question. I don't know how you quantify that, but there's a lot of schools or a lot of towns around here who don't have their own junior senior high. That's not

028abnormal at all. Uh just these are just some of them. Brookfield, West Brookfield, Oakam, New Brain Tree, East Brookfield, Brimfield, Hardwick, Paxton, Wales, Holland, Charlton. All right. So these are some of the other So this is the these are the districts in the state in order of lowest enrollment up with with a full K through2 district. So there's a lot of schools that have just like a K through six charter school, but these are all K through2 public schools. Hatfield's the lowest at 310. We're we're the second smallest at 397. Hadley at 518. South uh Southern Bergkshire at 609, Rockport 631. So it starts getting up there. If you look up, you know, any of those districts, they all have similar uh financial challenges to us and are looking at different options going towards the

029future. All right. So, uh Quayog and Quabin. So, I didn't do a full breakdown of all their courses because it it it's a lot and I didn't want to they can come present to us later potentially as we're going to talk in a minute. Um, but both districts from compared to what we have, they offer additional AP courses, additional electives, additional athletics, and extracurricular activities that we just simply can't provide because of our funding situation. Um, Quaybog is the smaller of the two districts with two towns. They average 75 to 110 per grade in 7 through 12. I shouldn't say average, but that's the range. Uh, Quabin is the bigger of the two districts with five towns going there. They're at uh anywhere from 108 to 166 in student enrollment. 7 to 12. Um, like

030I said, full course cataloges are available. Um, and we can bring them in to talk about their specifics. All right. So, financials. So, this is 100% where I agreed with what the teacher that made the public comment uh said. We don't have all the answers and we don't have all the numbers and we need to get proposals in order to get that information. That's why we had goals of when we come back to the school committee. Um, and I felt it was more important for this board who's going to be making the decision to hear from those uh other districts and to get the financial proposal so we can put the pieces together and see if it's if it fits. Um, so the annual estimated cost savings if we didn't have a junior senior high

031building to operate, if you look at staff building, uh, somewhere around 2.8 8 million and we would need to ultimately work with the central office to get more ironed in like real details but this is the best we could come up with which I think is fairly accurate. Um so the other issue would be we have a maximum projected one-time cost of unemployment that we'd have to look at. So obviously when you talk about uh you know potential teacher layoffs you talk about the town has to pay unemployment costs. So 1.2 2 million would be the max we'd have to pay and that would be in that year. That would be if every, you know, every position that was laid off took to full unemployment. Um, so we have the projected uh tuition agreement annual

032cost. That's something like I said, we do not have that right now. Um, additional funding uh would potentially be available for K through six on anything that we don't spend towards uh this school now not being here. So, we'd get money back to that school uh to potentially bring back things that have been cut in the past or additional staff. Um, and obviously over time we could see potential savings in the special education department if they're if they're able to if those districts are able to offer more special ed than we can and there'd be less students going out of for out of district placements potentially. We don't know that answer and that's also what was said um which I agree with. Um, so the the other big issue to think about is school the

033school choice rate was set by the state in 1991. So that's what 35 years ago basically. Um, that was supposed to reflect 2/3 of the cost to educate a student per year. Um, there are a lot of districts out there who receive a lot of students who are pushing to get that amount increased because right now they're only getting 5,000 for per for student. So, that is something we have to keep in mind that could change down the line. Right now, like I said, we're paying just over a million uh to set for our school choice out students. That amount could go up uh in the future. Um so, that's all I had on that one, but thank you. So, these are just some benefits uh and some some of the things we have to

034think about obviously. So, as I've said before, um, North Brookfield students, we we'd have our children would have access to more basically more more elective classes, more athletics, more AP classes, more extracurricular curricular activities. And these are things like I said, it's I'm not trying to talk down about our school district. It's just the funding. It's just a math issue there. There's more where there's more funding, there's more opportunities. Um so we would hope that if we did something like this we'd also reduce choice out among the elementary school choose students and that's a hope it's not a guarantee um because if you have more certainty the thing we have heard through you know it's nothing official it hasn't come in surveys but the thing we tend to hear is well students parents are taking

035their kids out of elementary school because of uncertainty um if that's true then we should see more students stay in our K through6 buildings Um because right now as you did see we do have students leaving in the elementary school ages. Um so Quaog I know Quabin is a little bigger but they both still do in comparison to other districts have small class sizes um at those schools. Um then we would be able to at some point repurpose or lease this building potentially. Um, and then the another bonus here, which is it's a potential bonus like a lot of these things, unlike being a member in a regional school district. So, when you're in a regional school district and there's a building improvement plan, every uh town or district has to put in for that.

036We we would not we would have our uh per student tuition cost that it's either three or five years, whatever that would be. And you don't see the charges back to the town for building in um improvements or new buildings. Um, the other thing is tuition agreements aren't as complex. Um, and there's a lot more flexibility. So, if you get into a regional agreement, it's very hard to get out. This is a little different. You have an amount of time you're in it for. Um, so there's some flexibility there. Um, we would have control over our K through six budget, which we wouldn't in a regional school district. That's a bonus of tuition agreement versus regional. Um, obviously some challenges here. School closure never easy when we're talking about something like this. I totally understand

037that. Um loss of jobs and the big thing here that we spent a lot of time talking about is the potential of no voting seat on the school committee of the receiving district. So in a regional district, every town has members for their district on the board in a tuition agreement. That would be something that we'd have to talk about in the contract whether or not that happens. It traditionally does not happen. So we'd have to look at that. So summary here, uh benefits to the students, um access to more classes and electives, more athletics and extracurricular activities. Uh still have a small community feel with many familiar faces as you saw the numbers of students here that are going to those other schools. Um North Brookfield School Committee and the receiving district committee ultimately

038would have to enter a tuition agreement and sign a contract. The agreement would need to be finalized and sent to Desi if we were going to do something like this by the end of April for the following school year. Um there's no town vote required to enter into a tuition agreement. Uh so last thing here, this group did not make a final recommendation to the school committee as the task force was not tasked with making a final binding decision or recommendation but rather to gather information and guide the school district and school committee on its f future decisions. We need uh to see presentations with financial proposals from both districts in order to have a full discussion uh and make a final determination. All right, next steps. So, the thought would be that we could

039schedule a special meeting to hear from both of those districts so we can put the pieces of this puzzle together to see if it's something we want to advance some conversations on or not. Um and that would still again be an open meeting. Uh anyone be able to come ask questions. Um and then we would in hopes of listen to that discuss it at our next regular meeting. Um discuss all the information. Uh give everybody some time to digest everything. um we may want to think about um delegating the negotiation subcommittee or you know maybe two other people to work on figures uh with the central office and with the other districts ultimately uh to get a better financial picture. Um so we also want to look at discussing options and financial future of the

040district if we stay a K- through2 district as a standalone district. We want to see what that's like going forward. What would be the plan there? Um, so if we vote to move forward with a tuition agreement with a specific district uh before it's finalized, there'd be a lot of work to do. Um, it's not limited to but not limited to transportation, student credits, transfers, union negotiations, and much much more. Uh, we would look to schedule several information meetings um for the community with questions and answers. So again, just to reiterate here, I know the first uh Damian when he spoke there, he kind of made the assumption that there was going to be final decisions made without, you know, fully looking at everything. That's categorically false. Um and for him to suspect or insinuate

041that there's some sort of um I don't know, I that there's something corrupt going on um to me is I am here just like everybody else. I I want to see what we can do for the best available for our students. If ultimately as a board we vote not to do that, then that's what it is. Uh but I think we should always be talking about what can we do better for our students and not be complacent and be fine with what we have. I don't think that's an option for us anymore. So that's my personal opinion. That's not a task force opinion. I just wanted to reiterate that at the end here. So thank you. Any questions? I just have just a real quick question. Um Shelley here, I'm high school special ed teacher.

042I've been here for 28 years. Um I have a couple concerns when I heard that we wouldn't have any I guess say in students if they tuition. What happens to our special ed students who go out of district and who are go we're sending them and then this town not us the other town decides that they're going to place them out of district. We the town of Northfield then has to fund that placement. That is so not fair to not fair to the town's people and it's not fair to the students either that we don't have a say and we may know some of these students. So just just a just a >> No, I appreciate the question and that's certainly something that we would have to look at like that's that's that's a big

043big thing to look at. I agree. >> That's the first thing I wrote on my list actually for part of the presentation just the things we still have to look into. My top thing was the impact on the special ed student I said just concerned me. I've been doing it for 28 years. >> They have a lot of questions. >> Every single one of my students it doesn't matter and I hate for them to be sent somewhere that they don't >> right. And like I said, I mean, if this is a direction that the board ultimately votes to go down that road, we would have to ask those questions would be I mean, this isn't going to be a one meeting done and we turn the page. It's there's a lot of things to go

044through. So, and that's definitely a big one. I appreciate the question. Thank you. Anybody else? Seeing none. All right. Anybody any want to have a discussion now or do we want to do you have any questions? Anyone on the board? >> Well, I I have a question. Sure. Um, just because we have these numbers now out here in the public, we have the annual estimated cost savings of 2.8 million, but that is not like that's not just a savings of 2.8 million. That's what we figure would be deducted, but then we're still waiting for the proposals to find out what the actual cost to send out. And then there's then there's other stuff involved as well like this special lead and things like that. So these are these are just really like highlevel numbers that

045shouldn't be taken as carved in stone cuz there's a lot of other figuring that goes into this and a lot of numbers that need to be presented to actually come up with what the real real totals are here to have actual discussions about. >> Correct. And that's why you know there's no formula for going down a path like this or setting up these meetings and task force. So that's what we're So we we really want to see the full picture before we I mean I wanted to get some numbers on here that we found. But yes, you're right that the 2.8 million represents this building. It doesn't represent it wasn't meant to be like shown as a savings. It's it's this strictly this here. So um correct. We I mean and then we have some

046I mean we we have some other numbers too, but I thought it was premature before we hear from the other districts, you know. So like there's we we put together what we thought were, you know, operating costs if we if we had still own the building and had to keep because you do have to keep it functional. You can't, you know, just shut the doors and hope for the best. You're still doing things. So, yep. And that's what I hope that we achieve if we go further into asking more questions. And I just thought that like I said, there's no playbook on how to do this. It became clear to me through the task force process that, you know, with us not making a recommendation, I felt like we were starting to probably get get

047to the point of maybe getting more information than we needed to get at that point. And I wanted us as a board, you know, to be able to you guys to be able to hear from hear the numbers directly. >> And as a board, I think it's important that, you know, these upcoming meetings that we're talking about are public meetings. Correct. as a board. Yeah. >> If if it turns into something where we need more space, like we're we got a lot of people here right now, we we'll plan ahead for that and and we can we can make some arrangements for additional people to fit into a meeting. I don't want to feel like we're excluding people from the meeting. So, we'll we'll talk to you about that and just >> Yeah, that's fine.

048>> space in the building where we can have full participation. >> Excuse me. Can we go back just for a moment? >> Sure. >> Uh my name is Dan Chica. I just started teaching here math and uh just just a lovely place. Just I've been a lot of it's just kids are lovely and uh the staffs have been wonderful. But my question is and we'll get to the real question. Who's the best basketball player? The reason why I asked this is because you could say well the guy who got the most championship rings, the guy who's got the best scoring average. So the question, what's best for our students? Can you define that? Because you said we'll do what's best for our students. I'm not as a math guy, I like to know my terms.

049What does it mean to you when you say that? >> I I don't have an answer for you. I mean, I what I'm saying is I said of most available options. I mean, if I said best to me, I guess best means having access to more. >> I I don't know. I mean, I I'm not going to be the final say in this. I'm not I'm one person of five. So, >> but yeah, I just it's important for me to know I I don't live in town. I was considering living in town. Someone said, "You know what? School may close up before the years before next year to >> uh someone um so I'm just like what does it mean to the school committee people? What you consider?" So you're not clear as to how

050you want to define it, right? But how about the rest of you? How do you want to define? So just you know cuz when kids ask me what does that mean in math? It's very particular. It's very straightforward. It is it isn't. And if we have if I know what guides you then I think I'm better able to when people ask me what's going on and say well this is what people feels is sort of what they're aiming for for best best for the students. I think yeah I think part of it for just my answer is if you look back through those studies that I mentioned I I would reference you to take a look at there there's been his history here of financial issues. So it's to me when you look at that

051and we've talked around in circles about potentially doing something more for our kids. So I think we're at that point of where we have to make that decision because part of it is when you look at enrollment numbers do you know how the educational funding works. So that's part of where we're like when we're as low as we are right now. That's tough. Yeah, I'm uh >> so I mean to answer your question, I I think we're going to try to find out some of that by talking to these other districts more and seeing what they have. I mean, I can speak from personal experience on things, but I am one person of five. I'm a member of a committee, so I mean, it's not >> Yeah, I I um I I'm concerned about the

052tuition method as opposed to regionalization, right? because we have this discussion now, right? Potentially. But if you go to just the tuition thing, there won't be any discussion. Everyone would be just, well, that's just how it is. As opposed to regionalization, which may be don't know numbers. But if they were the same cost, then I would say it'd be better to have that say on what happens to your students. Otherwise, it's like, yeah, you're right. >> I don't disagree. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else have an answer to this question? I mean, I personally can say for me whenever I think about like what's best for the kids that I do think that looks very different from each one of us sitting out here. For me, have with children who came through here and are

053still here. When I think of what's best for the kids, it's the kids that are choosing to be here. They're kind of what's foremost in in how I'm viewing all these things, how I'm looking at it, the questions I'm writing down that I still want us to find the answers to. It's what's best for the kids that are here. Why do they want to Why do they want to be here? Do they want to stay? Do they want to go out? Like, they can't vote. They didn't vote for us. They can't vote for themselves yet. But I I really want to know what did what do they want because we are responsible for them, especially because they can't vote for themselves yet. So, but I I agree. I think it's very different for each one

054of us up here and that makes it a big challenge that's in front of us. >> And the other thing is too we have an obligation to look toward the future. I mean it's not just right today. We have we have an obligation to think about 10 years from now 10 20 years from now. So that's part of what we all have to get we have to look at numbers and get the answers to questions. So I appreciate the question. I'll have another one for you next time. Anybody else? >> Can I just jump on? I I'll be quick. >> Sure. >> Um Pam Bachelor. I'm a resident. Um I have assume a senior and a freshman. I am also employed here. I'm an ABA in the high school. Um both of my children school

055choiced out. One went to Quabin, one went to Quaon. I gave them choice. Uh they both came to me, "Mommy, you work at the school. We don't want to be where you work." You know what? I I'm I'm all for that. I get it. Um she lasted 3 months and came back. That was Quabin. He lasted a year and came back and that was Qu. Um everybody has different experiences somewhere else. I mean, I grew up here. We moved when I was in high school, but I would have graduated from here. My mom did, my grand did, my grand worked at the superintendent's office for years. Um, I want what's best for the kids. I don't want my kids to just be a number. I think that's why I've always liked here. And and I

056mean, we got to do what's right for all of them, but where they're not going to be a number. >> That That's big to me. And special ed is that's a big one to me, too. I I have special ed, you know, with my family. It's something that I'm concerned about for next year. When do we like timewise? Obviously, it's got to be done before the next school year. When does this decision have to be made by >> If we were looking at doing something before next school year, it would we have to have a contract into DC for approval by the end of April. That's part of why also why we're doing it this way. uh as opposed to it was brought up last year and it was felt that that would be something

057totally ridiculous to try to put through very quick. So that's why again I I'm trying to have this be as open as possible and you know with as many people involved as possible. I feel like at some point, no matter how you could we could try that all day and there's going to be some people that are upset about that, but I think we owe it to look into something that's been offered to us. I I just think we do. I mean, I don't think we have a way around that. >> Yeah. I mean, it's been an issue for years. When I was a kid, when my mom was a kid, it's it's gone back and forth and it it pulls back and it goes forth and es and flows, >> right? And like you

058said, I mean, you had a child that went to Qua and came back, went to Quaog and came back. I mean, we could take examinations from all the families in town and there's different reasons and >> you know, so it's it's it's tricky. It's tough. I mean, it's not some there's no simple answers to any of this. That's why, you know, that's why we're here talking about it. So, I think it's important to talk about it. So, thank you. >> All right. real quick. Yeah, if you might. Um, I just want to say I appreciate the time that the committee has spent putting this together. I know it started back in June and went through the summer. Um, I didn't see it on the next steps. I know we've discussed it. Um, I think that

059>> the school district >> Yeah. >> should have an opportunity to to uh kind of highlight some things that are going on. >> Plus, and again, this is the first time I've seen this presentation as well. Some of the numbers that that I presented tonight, I can tell you that they're not accurate as of right now. Um, so I just want to make sure that we project and put out the most accurate numbers. For example, school choice in um that number that we that we're looking at in this presentation is not an accurate number. So I just want to make sure we have the most accurate. >> What was the accurate number? >> Um the number you would had in here was 125. I believe the number I gave you including special increments is 488.

060>> So I don't know. >> No, the number of students you said school choice didn't >> the number I think you used was 29. Um, last year we were slightly higher than that. I'm looking at the financial component which I believe you had 125 as the school of choice in it. It's much >> No, I had I had uh I had 1,ion25 that we were sending out. >> That's out, right? >> I'm talking about rece I'm talking about in the number you had was was far lower than what it actually is. >> I took what you gave me. So I mean I and you said we didn't have this years yet cuz they're not certified. So that's what I said during the presentation was that we'll get the certified numbers and we can update >>

061the numbers that are not certified right now. the FY26 enrollment. >> Correct. >> Yeah, >> that's what I was referring to as the enrollment numbers. >> So, you're saying the math is wrong on the 29* 5,000 or the amount of students is wrong? >> Both because the total number doesn't just isn't just 29* 5. There are students that are also special education students that receive receive more money for those students, >> right? And that wasn't I wasn't trying to this was supposed to be like I said a very high level overview, >> you know. So yeah, but anything you have and that's why I put it in here too that we need to probably assign someone to work with you and the just so everybody's aware we really haven't Mr. McCormack hasn't been a part

062of this. So we haven't been he didn't attend the meetings this numbers that we got through websites and different things and he's shared some of the numbers with me. So going forward that's what I was saying is that if we work with you directly we could probably get better numbers. >> Thank you. Just to clarify on that, um, that 1 million25 was just based, it was not including any special ed increments either, right? >> So, it kind of goes both ways on our expenses out and our revenue in. >> Yeah. And ultimately, I just don't want there to be this notion that I'm trying to like sway numbers. I was working with what we what I thought we had. So, yeah. All right. So, do we have So, are we all set on that topic

063for now? Anybody else up here? >> You good? >> I'm good for now. >> Okay. >> We got a lot of work to do. >> Yeah. No, exactly. Yep. >> All right. Next is number eight, financial reports. >> So I submitted for your review in the packet the financial statements approved 930 25 uh which if you look at the bottom number in the budget balance uh we still have 74.12% of our budget remaining in the general fund which is suddenly over 5.332 million. Good job. We did talk about the we did sign a couple transfers. I appreciate you guys doing the transfers on a regular basis just so we can stay ahead of those. That's very helpful. Yeah. Anybody have any questions on the financial reports? We don't have a Anybody have any questions? [Applause]

064What's up? >> Superintendent report. >> All right. Excuse me. Thank you. So, make sure that TV's working in a minute. Uh, we have a couple different presentations. I want to start As the committee is aware and I think most of our families and our our teachers are aware of the last couple years uh we've done a great deal of work looking at our high quality instructional materials and in that process uh we've identified many areas of of of growth for our instruction for our students. One of those major areas has been around STEM education. Um, so we partnered with Project Lead the Way and the 1A Foundation a little over two years ago to phase in uh a robust STEM curriculum for our elementary school students, our middle school students, and now our high school

065students. Um, we've had STEM education in the past. I'm not saying that we never had anything, but this is a more formalized curriculum that we use across all of our grade levels. Additionally, last spring um and and as early as as recent as this fall, uh we received additional funding from the state to support our innovative career pathways in advanced manufacturing. So that designation allows our students to take STEM courses from grades 9 through 12 to receive credentials for real realwide world experiences uh for the workforce uh while graduating with distinction. Um this is the first year of that program. Uh we're very excited tonight to have some student speakers to talk about their experiences in a very short period of time. We're very lucky tonight to have Mr. McNeil, our STEM teacher, who I

066may add, teaches STEM education across all of our grade levels. He's a singleton in this district. Uh, but John has taken it upon himself to receive the training, the credentiing to be able to do this for our students. Um, and and I'm going to have John and our students tonight talk about their experiences and why this is relevant. Uh, we know this in education, we get to work with some very cool objects. We get to build robots. But why uh where does this lead our education for our kids and what opportunities does this open for our students as a whole group? So without further ado, want to turn up to Mr. McNeel introduce the students tonight who will talk about what they're doing at their various grade levels. >> Good evening everyone. John McNeel. This

067is Mr. McCormack said thank you for the introduction. The district level STEM teacher here in North Brookfield. I've come from private school, charter school to public school. I've been in education now for about 10 years. And as far as gems of a district, North Brookfield is very unique in the ability to get to know students at an individual level and truly be able to have a hand in their future and future of their lives and give them career potential from here. And that's what our STEM programming does. Next slide, please. So the whole goal is building today's innovators through both the programs that they use and then a lot of what they're able to experience here both in a small district and then being able to get them out into the world. Some of the

068things I'm sure Mr. McCormack will talk about in the future will be some of the opportunities that our students here even at small district like North Brookfield are able to achieve out in the world. Next slide please. So for sixth grade we have Mick Iel to present our design and modeling class. For eighth grade uh we have two of these three presenters. Unfortunately the third isn't able to make it here tonight to present our robotics class that we do. And then for ninth grade, our first grade, kind of our uh beginning venture on this innovative career pathway, we have Dante to talk about some of what he's been able to learn on the engineering design process. High school rocketry presenter wasn't able to make it here tonight, so I'll speak on that slide once we're

069there. And then I'll go over some of our next steps and the vision that we have for the future as this pathway builds out. Next slide, please. So without further ado, Ma is going to come up talk about some of what he's built, some of what he learned last year over even at the elementary building and some of what he's doing this year both in class and what he does on his own time. >> Hello, my name is Nika Richards and I'm going to tell you about how STEM is helping me in other STEM is helping me learn about D modeling, giving me a lot of skills in 3D printing. I'm 3D printed fidgets and dragons and go to bend fair and show my prints and down on my computer and print them out and

0703D prints and the skills I'm learning will also be important in my future in my computer to give me job opportunities for now my friends that are already given me enough money to buy a go bike the STEM program is really fun I've learn how to use other um things like measuring with different instruments like a dial caliper and stuff and Sam's teaching me a lot of good skills to make and stuff like this. >> Yeah. So he started learning those skills in fifth grade last year and then as this school progresses he's building on it in sixth grade. Again, young entrepreneur right here being able to design his own business, make it his own business, make money for himself and then be able to impact the community around even how old are you now?

071>> I'm 12. >> 12 years old. Right. So that's the kind of inspiration that we're able to offer here in this. Thank you very much. [Applause] Great job. I just uh so this you have there are totally five 3D printers that are accessible for grades elementary school through 12. Correct. >> Correct. Yeah, we have two over at the elementary building and then we have actually four. One is actually donated as well. So we have a total of six in district right now. >> And we have an additional uh we have some robots are being donated from another uh partnership for our elementary school students as well. >> Yes. Uh, True Robotics recently donated 31 kits that we're going to be implementing over at the fifth grade level um to start a robotics program there as

072well. So, it's a lot of good >> and I know this is a design modeling class which is our middle school class which was actually our first project lead the way course back 3 years ago. Um, but I was walking through one of your fifth grade classes a week or two ago and one of the cool things that you're doing with those students is you're teaching them essentially CAT. Correct. >> Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So, fifth grade right now is learning a little bit about CAD. CAD is computer AED design. So, CA AD computer AED design is the ability to take something from a 3D world, digital, and then be able to either make it through an additive process through 3D printing, additive process, or a reductive process through CNC machining. So, you're using a machine

073to cut away material. Right? So, some of the items that we're able to do even at a fifth grade level is teach these students what actually is a transferable skill into today's modern world. Not only can it impact fifth graders very much financially in the here and the now, but some of the skill sets that they're learning how to do. Understanding geometry both has a mathematics aspect, understanding how to put something together and communicate that and then understanding those some of those soft skills, the collaboration, the teamwork that it takes to put these ideas together. So, up next, we're going to have our eighth grade robotics come up. They're going to demonstrate some of what they did. I want to put it to them. Uh they're they're small team. Not only did they build this

074robot, but they continued their normal coursework as well. So, this was something that they built in addition to what they had to do in class. And I'm sure they can talk about how hard my classes can be sometimes. So, very much a kudos to them for being able to put this together, have it function. So, without further ado, Noah and Vincent. So, in our STEM class, we've been learning specifically robotics. We've been learning a lot of practical applications for some more modern real world jobs. For example, a lot of factory jobs are done by robots nowadays and there are delivery drones done by Amazon. And there are overall just a lot of applications of robotics in the real world nowadays. And so you can really get a scope for how it impacts the world and

075uh I guess how you can integrate yourself into some of those jobs cuz you can learn problem solving, uh time management, and overall just the construction of how these things are made. Some of the kits are different from how most robots are built, but overall they can teach the basic base model of how robotics can be helpful. >> I suppose you guys want to say this is almost like >> the careers in robotics and the future of it. It's like it's a very bright future and this is almost a head start for us to get a head start in those careers. >> Yes. This showcases some basic movement capabilities of different robots. >> Absolutely. >> The basic one we were able to build in around 5 days. >> Also have stand still turning. >> Good

076thing they built it up going to happen at some point. Anyway, um hopefully be a little more careful. Anyway, you can see the there are some different specific things that only apply to robotics like gear trains and motors and how those can work to build a fully functioning robot. But overall, it teaches a lot of skills that can apply to other jobs as well as robotics and not specifically just jobs, just school work in general, how you can be more efficient at doing this sort of thing. But it's been very helpful for most of our classmates, I think, and for us. So, yeah, good class. Good job, guys. We currently have, I believe, to correct my numbers, Mr. McNeel, but we have over 12 VEX robotics kits between middle and high school students. And we

077have those kits to buy it. So, middle school kids stay with middle school students and the more advanced models stay with high school students. We also have some robotic arms that are being used for the first time this year as well. Correct. >> Correct. Yes. So, in our introduction engineering later on in the year, we have the programmable robotic arms. So they use kinetic motion. Kinetic is the movement of anything. Uh in regards to our kits that we have, uh kind of one of my pet projects, our rocketry class came about as a just a dream project for myself. Next semester, we're going to use the high school kits to hopefully be able to 3D print and manufacture our own drones in district. So that's kind of my vision for next semester, being able to

078use our high school robotics kits, be able to do something very tangible, very much hip. I don't know if HIPP is even still a word they use nowadays, but very much in theme with what a lot of the younger generation are looking into and everything. >> And you're currently building the rockets with the printer, >> correct? Yes. And I'll touch on that more once we get to that. But yeah, up next is going to be Dante talking some about the the engineering pathway. Again, this is the first year that we're doing it, so it's a very much a transformative year for much of that 9th grade class. But, uh, it it's a lot of good information. It sets a good foundation for them both in certifications that they can achieve this year and some of

079the more practical applications in their coursework. So >> you guys have me feel that I'm prepared. We don't have any cool dragons any robots. Um so the advanced manufacturing pathway, it's main goal is to have us prepared to immediately enter the workforce straight out of high school. So, one of the things that we're actually currently working on in class is making ourselves familiar with CAD through uh Fusion, which if we continue to take this class over our next four years of high school, we can actually exit high school as a certified fusion professional with the right amount of hours and certifications throughout this class. Um, so it helps it can also help us with uh the technical mastery which so we're developing these advanced skills in mechanical design like Mr. Neil said later on in

080the year we're going to be using those uh robotic arm kits and he keeps mentioning in our class something about we're going to be designing automatones for our last uh design project of the year which not sure what that's going to look like but that sounds uh pretty cool. Uh it will also help um with an innovation and innovational mindset with ourselves uh through our baseline and engineering especially this year. Uh this course is required for all freshmen from my class forward and then we can choose to take it along the next four years and if we continue along we will gain more certifications which will help us to enter the workforce straight out of high school. One cool already uh opportunity that we had was two weeks ago we went to the basketball hall

081of fame for the massmates conference. So we went through three different workshops that day. One was about like um like a business standpoint where we had to design uh and create paper airplanes and they had to be approved by like a client for uh the design. And one of the things that we were getting really tripped up on was they were being really specific about symmetry which was really nice to learn that uh it really has to be very precise. And then the other two workshops that we went through were following a robot where we had to design add-ons to a base model robot that would help us uh in a warehouse scenario where we had someone controlling the robot and two people inside the warehouse being a supervisor and what they were calling a

082picker where you would have the driver of the robot bring the robot over to a shelf. where you would take one thing from from a specific order and place it into your robot and get it back to a packing station. Overall, that day was uh a great introduction, I think, to what a lot of we're going to learn in this course. >> Good job, Dant. um what other credentials can students earn as they progress from grades 9 through 12? >> So, we're going to be introducing some of the fusion, some of these uh 3D programming credentiing systems. Uh it allows students to be able to graduate almost at a collegiate level user interface with that computer AED design program. Uh that's one of the key credentiing that they're going to be able to get along

083with some of the other more technical aspects uh with some of the more coding ones later on in the principles of engineering. That would be a next year elective class that they would be able to take. That's a pathway that they're going to continue on. So they're both going to get some practical coding experience, some computer AED design certifications along with some of the more industry graded level piece. And one thing that um Fusion a lot of people like what is Fusion? We throw that name around a lot. It's actually the same program that Toyota, Harvard, MIT, the tier one institutions utilize for their computer AED design. And that's just one small snapshot of some of the items that they use for it. Up next is going to be the high school rocketry program. This

084was kind of like a dream project for me to be able to implement in a school. Uh last year we some of us saw it at the steam night. Uh we were able to get some of the students to be able to launch it. We use kinematic equations in order to be able to track the trajectory of a launch point to then a landing point. Kinematic equations is just a fancy word for tracking the overall arc of an object from point A to point B. One of the cool things that we are able to do here because of what we have in district is the fact that we can fabricate all of this ourselves. Um, prior, one of the ideas that we were kind of floating around in district was actually being able to fabricate

085our own fuel cells for our own rockets. Uh, something I know our presenter was interested in at the end of last year was being able to reach the 8,000 ft layer. Something that no high school in Massachusetts has done, even though we have in Auburn, Mass, the home of modern rocketry right there, right? So, being able to have opportunities like that here in district is something that's very tangible for us to be able to achieve. So again, engineering disciplines as well, scientific skills and professional competencies are encased in this senior level class right now and allows students again, it's a smaller class, but it allows us to be able to really hone in on achievements that otherwise wouldn't be doable in a more large scale setting. Again, everything is made in-house on our own 3D

086printers and we're fabricating and making these things just now as well. So any questions that you have about that? All right, next slide then please. So road ahead our advanced manufacturing pathway. We have a few things by the next 3 years that freshman class that's taking the introduction to engineering will then hit their capstone project. This capstone project is a national level idea that they're going to actually be able to have a lot of discretion in how they accomplish it. They'll be either able to go out and do an internship off campus or they'll be able to stay in campus and work on their capstone project here. So again, the practical opportunity for a high schooler to go out into the workforce into an engineering workforce and be able to have a hands-on component that

087few districts around here have. I was just today at a overall conference for the state of Massachusetts for the project lead the way curriculum and even there the engineering pathway that we have access to here is very limited opportunity in a lot of the larger schools around the advanced manufacturing pathway allows our students to be able to have that hands-on component that both manufacturers are looking for and that gives our high schoolers actual preparation for. Although the graphics are rather small right there, uh it does state that less than 50% of employers actually find viable high school graduates. Right now, the US Chamber of Commerce actually put out a statistic that even more over 80% of employers say that high schoolers are not even qualified for positions straight out of high school. So, this is

088a very direct connection for us to be able to answer that problem. Our students are going to be certified, trained, and able to achieve a more than livable wage straight out of high school with this pathway. Something that not there's no opportunity for that. I know when I was in high school, that was not even an opportunity on my horizon being able to do that. But that's something that we will be able to offer here. So unique pathway forward, but that's again in that four-year time span. Takes time to get our students trained up for that. How many hours have you spent already on Fusion? Quite a lot, right? >> Yeah. So it takes a long time to actually train this because this is again professional level certifications. This isn't just a backyard type thing.

089Now these students are learning tier one academic material. So in our timeline there again I apologize the text is small on this TV screen but the capstone project is going to be by the end of 2028 right now. So a couple years down the road for that. Next slide please. again. We're gonna have a uh steam night or a uh what did we call it today, Mr. Beck? It was >> I have it in my school improvement plan. >> Yeah, you'll talk about it momentarily. But um we're going to have a steam later on. We renamed it just today, so that's why forgive me that it's not on the sip of night time. But it's very much so to get more out into the community. um get our students more out there to be able

090to showcase what they're learning and what they're actually able to accomplish here in North >> Showcase a learning showcase. That was it. Um so let's get amped again. That advanced manufacturing pathway. Let's get amped about what's actually happening here in North Brookfield. Thank you very much. [Applause] Just want to thank all the students who came here tonight. I appreciate you being able to speak about your experiences, Mr. Neil. Obviously, you're very passionate about this this topic and the right person person for this position. Um, just want to end with a couple quick important facts about this program in general. Um, all of the materials, the durables, the consumables that we have purchased for this program, and that means the next four years were all purchased through grant funding. So we have been able to provide

091these opportunities for our kids without tapping into local budget which I think is a real uh plus for our district, for our school, for our community. Um I think in addition to setting up kids for success in the workforce, we also want students to go to college if that's their their choice. So this also prepares them the engineering field if they decide to go on uh to pursue that degree collegiately. Um and last but not least, we talk about equitable access. This program, as as Mr. McNeel alluded to, every high school freshman takes both a life science and a STEM class. They then get to choose after freshman year if they want to stay in this pathway or not. But every student is exposed to this their freshman year. Uh and they learn a lot

092of the the basic foundational elements starting in middle school. So they see this in grades 6, 7, and 8. They talk about in elementary school. So they have a real opportunity to build upon their knowledge base as they transition from grade to grade. So excellent job tonight. Thank you for coming and presenting and I'm really proud of what you're doing. Thank you. [Applause] jump right. >> Yes. >> I don't know if you had something else before then. >> All right. Shifting gears a little bit. I know we're going to we're going to you're going to hear some of these concepts again. I'll try to keep this succinct. Uh in your packets tonight, I gave you two versions of my goals. one a little bit longer narrative piece with key actions and benchmarks uh and then

093I added this presentation which streamlines those concepts uh for your viewing pleasure this evening. So I have five goals um for the 2526 school year for your review and I think the one phrase that that you'll hear a couple times during this presentation is continuous improvement. uh we're constantly looking to to to build better for our students to provide our students with more opportunities um and to take a look at what we have and make that better. So that that is a constant goal of mine and every educator within these two schools. Goal number one uh is is classified as a student learning goal. Um and this is increasing accountability and achievement at ELA and mathematics. As you know, in the last couple weeks, Desi released district and school report cards for every district and

094school in the Commonwealth. Uh, and we have dug into that information. Uh, my hope is to present a more uh, coherent picture of where we're at next month to school committee about our accountability data. But looking at the data right now and working with our building and district leaders, our teacher leaders, we've identified that we need to improve across across all grade levels. I think like every district can say the same the same same thing, but targeting most specifically grades uh five and grades 10. Even though MCCAST is is not a graduation requirement in the Commonwealth, we still want to make sure that our our high school sophomores as they transition to that junior year, which is a very uh important year for all of our students, that they are either on target or exceeding

095targets u for their MCCAST accountability scores. Um, so we're going to be looking at both ELA and math. Um, and and we have a very clear plan of how we're going to look at that information and make sure that we are doing our due diligence as educators and holding ourselves accountable for collecting that data with some of the benchmarks for this for this first fall. Um, we will develop a a district data dashboard for ELA and math. Uh we will continue to review uh what what is going on in our classrooms, what our our interim benchmark assessment data is telling us. That's our MAP data. Uh we will look at our observations um focusing on math instruction and and reading and writing instruction. And we'll continue to check in and also relay that message out

096to school committee to families about where we're at with with meeting some of these goals both the state has set for us and we have set for ourselves internally. Goal number two, monitoring progress and alignment to the district strategic plan. Uh if you may recall, we developed this plan or finalized this plan about a year and a half ago. Uh this was a plan that was developed with 25 plus stakeholders from all different groups. So parents, families, teachers, students, community leaders. Um this working plan, it's a living document. Uh we constantly look at this plan. We highlight this plan in in green, yellow, and red to to to indicate where we're at internally with meeting some of our benchmark goals. Um, and in turn, the two building principles develop what are called school improvement plans

097or SIPs to monitor how that strategic plan, which is an overarching document for the whole district, kind of trickles down to the school level. Um, so we will continue to look at um where we fall. are we meeting those again those short and long-term um goals for ourselves as a district as schools and you're going to hear from both Mr. Murphy Mr. Beck a little bit later tonight about uh their their 2526 school improvement plans. So again, like goal number one, I will also share out with the school committee um both in writing and probably a presentation form where we fall with our strategic plan, what we've accomplished, what we've had to revise, and where we're at within the two buildings in the special department. Goal three um is around implementing a district-wide data cycle

098process. Uh we have we are currently collaborating with Andrea Consulting. Andrew Ricarda was a or was a former Desi uh worker who we have worked with in the past. Uh she is working first our leadership team to develop a district-wide data analysis protocol. Um it's it's it's a concept that is not foreign to any one of us in these positions. But we want to make sure that what we talk about at the district level is replicated at the school level and that every teacher understands this process, understands this common language and can use this common language in this process to look at data for their student success. So we just started working with Miss Ricata. We will continue to work with her through the fall and then we've already started to implement some of these

099these protocols into our instructional leadership teams within the both buildings. I know Mr. Murphy uh already has a data room that he's developed for the elementary school to look at data at all grade levels and for ELA math and science. So again, this is something we'll share out as the year progresses. But this data cycle and making sure it's uniform across the district and both schools uh we felt was a real key for for making this all these actions and goals attainable. So just again speaking around data u and this is kind of gets a little more granular. I'll I'll go through this very quickly, but making sure there's a clear process for all teachers that we we have a leadership team which is very accustomed to it, but also building leaders within the teaching

100ranks that they know and they can replicate this in their classroom and then showing teachers and having teachers be able to look at the instructional impact of going through a data cycle uh with whether it's map data, attendance data, uh MCCast data, there's data all around us. So taking any piece of data going through this process and making sure that we are using this data to drive instruction and supports for our kids. Goal four uh professional practice goal for me as your superintendent uh engaging in continuous leadership development. Um I'm currently part of leading now cohort 13 which is a national group of superintendents and then the MSSN which is an inaugural year this year as I mentioned last month. This is a group of 24 superintendents, eight per cohort. There's three groups that essentially

101work on a problem practice monthly. Uh we collaborate on on issues that are are kind of coming at us and how do we work through them and and essentially what the mantra is the is the answer is in the room. So by working with these two groups uh working with the leadership leadership team here in the district um I'm always looking to to become a better systems thinker uh more informed uh with data decision decision data informed decision-m excuse me uh and making sure that as a leadership team we collaborate our decisions what's best for our students and five which Mr. Neo and the students talked about um predominantly project lead the way. Um but we continue to look at what high quality instruction materials we want to bring in for our students. Curriculum instruction

102is the backbone of what we do. If we don't have great instruction, if we don't have strong curriculum, we can't expect our students to achieve at their highest levels without without the appropriate supports. Um over the last two and a half years, we phased in a lot of high quality instruction materials. We need to continue to look at those products. Are they working for our kids? And if not to the way we want, what are we doing to make them better? Additionally, we want to look at what else can we bring in? And we want more voices in the room. We want to really enable our our teacher leaders to give principles to give directors to give myself feedback on what to do next as far as what high quality instruction materials we should be

103looking at. And that takes time and that takes effort on on everybody's part. Additionally, we have partnered with Novak Education again this year. uh a universal design for learning uh which I'll go into in a minute here uh is is a theme that we have embraced as a district. We have two instructional coaches that come in from Novak to work with our staff. They'll be back with us in December. U and this really speaks to engagement, representation, and expression. Making sure that we are removing all obstacles for our student learning that students have access to curriculum. students uh can really showcase their knowledge through their their preferred learning modality and make sure that that we give them an opportunity uh and that we also have the appropriate supports in place to support those students who

104are still struggling. So I think by and large the feedback that we receive from staff they've really embraced our work with Novak and UDL. UDL is not a new concept. Um it's probably had different names over the years but it's it's a concept um that we want to embrace. We are embracing. We want to make sure that we we are fostering a very safe learning environment for all of our students. So measuring success these five goals and as you can see some of them are intertwined. Um but again our commitment to continuous improvement is five strategic goals. Uh we're targeting two two grade levels with our MCCAST accountability grades five and grade 10. Uh we have currently seven HQIM programs. We look we're looking to phase in more strategically. not just to say we have

105them, but but bring those programs in that our kids and our teachers need, but also even more importantly, look at how well they're working for our students. And then we want to make sure that what we're doing as a district, what we're doing as our two standalone schools within the district, are our goals aligned? So, what we do at the district level, we're talking about it at the at the school level, and our parents, our teachers, and our students know what these goals are for their learning. Any questions from the committee? >> We need to make a motion to accept the uh I'll make a motion to accept the superintendent 2025 2026 goals. I will second the motion. >> All right, motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none. Um, all those in favor.

106Next up. Thank you, T. So, we're going to go through the administrator's reports. So we'll go first. >> You can duel over who goes first. >> Sure. Um just want to start with our senior citizen breakfast. Um so on Friday, October 3rd, we hosted our first senior citizen breakfast of the school year. Um we had selected students from our fourth and fifth grade classes. Um and they were our weight staff with two MBHS students um making pancakes on the griddle. The menu also included coffee, bacon, sausage, uh fresh fruit. We serve close to 20 local senior citizens. Um, Hope Risinski from the DA's office al uh was also there to present some pertinent information for our senior citizens. A huge thanks to Karen Fington for putting this together and getting the word out in the

107community and we're hoping to grow this each and every time. Our new date is Monday, November 17th. We just finalized that with Karen. Um she brought in a huge donation of um bacon, sausage, um all those things already so we have it on site. I usually try to do some of the cooking the day before. Cooking baking in in our school in the morning would cause a lot of uh drooling and kids going in and trying to get some before our seniors had a chance. Um but it's just a great atmosphere and you know I think there's a great um opportunity for learning for our kids to interact with our seniors in the community and go up to them, welcome them, ask them questions um and just be a part of that process. It's an

108amazing morning and um I hope I hope we get more and more each week. So that will be November 17th next time. And then Mr. McCormack also um alluded to it a little bit, our ID room. So, we um created an ID room for our monthly after school meetings. We just had one today. ID stands for instruction and data. Um through our professional development opportunity for our district leadership team, we're able to develop protocol for facilitating meetings around data and how that data can be used to reflect on the curriculum instruction um instructional decisions that we make. Um the process has four steps. So, for me, I'm a visual person and I live by, you know, if you want work to be done, then do the work yourself. So, um we we made visuals for

109all the steps, they're up in this room, um very large um and up on one of our accordion doors. So, I would um ask the committee if you're ever in the elementary school to check out the ID room. Step one removes all factors that we believe might have affected the outcomes. It allows us to focus just on the numbers and see them for what they are. Um we call it going on the balcony. So you can't interact with the numbers. Numbers are the numbers. It's our Waldorf and Statatler um board. So it's just looking at the numbers. Um I think you know as human beings, as people work with children all day long, you can get defensive about numbers. You can you know have a hard time understanding numbers. Um, so this first step is

110just looking at the numbers and removing those things and and and trying not to get down on the dance floor is what we call it. Step two is simply about labeling what you see. So it's one simple step. It's just here are the numbers. What is one word to describe what you're seeing or one small phrase? Um, step three, that's getting on the dance floor. That's where, you know, we have pictures of animal and other Sesame Street characters down on the dance floor and it's about what do you see and and what might have affected those outcomes. Now, now you can start to have those conversations about um things that happened about instruction, about um the makeup of the class, anything, and just look for the trends, look for the patterns, and then start to

111see what might um have affected the outcomes. And then step four is the last step. It's what we do to prioritize and make actionable next steps. So, what do you do with the data? Um, and we walk through these steps with our staff. We've had one data meeting. Um, our next data meeting is in two weeks and we'll be looking at our Dibbles data uh data, excuse me. The first meeting we looked at our MCCAST data um and just surface because we're just getting into this process, but it it's already starting to to produce some great conversations um schoolwide. Um, a lot of our second grade teachers haven't had discussions with our fourth grade teachers around what things they're doing in the classroom and and how it affects students. So, it it's it's going to

112be a great use of our time after school. We're really excited about. Do you want me to walk right to my SIP now or do >> Yeah, I would just I would just look for the buses. I have it up on the screen if you want to look. It's also in your packet. >> So, next up is the school improvement plan. Um, so this broken up into three categories. First is curriculum and instruction enhancement. Um the objective is to continuously improve and innovate curriculum and instructional methods to ensure the delivery of high quality education. Um so our goal and objective I just stated um our first strategy talks about UDL. It's something that we're going to be continuing this year. We had a lot of um PD around UDL last year. It's the universal design

113for learning. Um we work with Novak Education on that. um specifically Dr. Burke and they'll be back for three days of professional development and the through line is those instructional days after school that I talked about. So every month we have two meetings. One is going to be on instruction, one's going to be on data. So on the instructional days it's a lot about how we're using UDL in the classroom to enhance this. 1.2 is continuing supporting the use of interreading. And so these are high quality instructional materials into reading project lead the way and also bridges um for our math program which we'll get into. So that goes with that um curriculum alignment. So continuing to monitor our district curriculum alignment. We're looking at 80% completion by June 20 26. This is what we

114teach when on a yearly basis. So looking at how we deliver our um materials based on um our state frameworks and walking through that yearong. So um working on our maps to make sure that we know what we're teaching when. And then last is uh to continue to develop and integrate our ILT um to support that implementation. I can't do that on my own. So we need our teacher leaders to do that. So, we started our ILT program after school this year. Um, so that way we can give a stipen to our teachers to do that work after school with me. Um, and and do a great job doing that. So, they'll be leading a lot of the implementation of step one. Goal two is meeting the needs of all students to provide a supportive

115and inclusive learning environment that addresses the individual needs of all students. Um, first strategy is to enhance our SST plan. So SST is our um student support team. So teachers can nominate students that they feel like could have some outside eyes look at how a student is performing in the classroom and maybe um develop um some interventions for that student that maybe they have um need some help with. So just talking about the continued use of the team, the use of district forms and then reviewing the cycle of the process through teacher surveys. Our cat lab is coming back. So that um creative action thinking uh that will be continued use at the elementary school. We're going to develop a 2026 schedule um by the beginning of November um create an observation schedule to observe

116and evaluate the program and then quarterly meetings with our liaison who is Channing Leblanc. she is one of our um special education teachers. And last is reviewing a our second step program. So that is our program that deals with um just our overall um bullying curriculum at school just how students are treating each other. Um our PBIS team will will do an analysis of our stick and set curriculum and give feedback on next steps. And last but not least is goal three, fostering a culture of belonging. Um and the goal of this one is to cultivate a diverse, inclusive and welcoming school culture where all stakeholders feel valued and connected. Um the biggest thing at our school is our PBIS program. We work on it um tirelessly. We have a PBIS team which also meets

117after school. Um we're creating this year our Starbucks store will have a tracker to create data. So last year was just about implementing PBIS. This year is what is the data telling us again with that data focus. So you know handing out Starbucks for behavior is great. Now is that behavior being affected by our program? Is it something that we can target? Is there trends or patterns that we're seeing in our PBIS program? So 3.1 talks about enhancing that programming. And then 3.2 2 is developing a school council and student advisory. Um, so my dates for that are December 15th. So getting some of our parents to join student uh school council and our fifth grade students to join a student advisory board and hold four meetings over the course of the school year. Now

118speed talking. So if anyone has any questions, I can answer them. Sorry, that was a lot. Any questions? Any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Murphy. >> Of course, >> you get Well, I do have one question. The bacon. You get to eat the leftover bacon. >> Um, there's usually not any leftover bacon. >> I wish, but um yeah, you're welcome to stop by and I do have one question. So, we're going through these now. >> Um, is this available on the website or something or is there is there somewhere if someone's watching and can't read that at home wants to just see it? Is there is there a place where that lives on the website? >> Sure. So, if the school improvement plan does live on our website, on the North Brookfield public schools website.

119Okay. >> Um once um obviously presenting this tonight is finalizing this, so it should be updated on the school website. >> Okay. Excellent. Just wanted to make sure it's out there. >> Of course. Good question. >> This is very well put together. And if anyone has questions, it's like you just kind of read through. It's got everything laid in there. So, >> I appreciate that. Thank you. And at the high school, I had a very a brief report, some of which has been highlighted by um Dante um when he spoke about the trip to the mask makers innovation challenge at the um basketball hall of fame. Um I'm not sure if Noah wants to add anything related to uh the visit by the True Robotics group uh who came into the eighth grade classroom when

120you there. >> I was there. >> Yeah. What were your thoughts on it? >> I mean, it was good. They brought up a lot. They actually they said we were one of the most advanced classes they had ever been hosted by for a middle school class cuz they had gone to a high school. I think it was a week before and they like didn't know much and we were answering questions they had weren't even ready to ask. >> It's nice to be able to hear that feedback. >> That's great job. Thanks. Um the uh Miss Airheart in the guidance department uh has continually been arranging for a number of post-secondary institutions uh a variety of of of colleges and um as well as military and other organizations that are seeking to have students um join

121their groups and those will continue. I think Suffach University will be here tomorrow. Uh, I know that that's not on here, but I'll I'll keep the committee and the public updated uh in newsletters about the opportunities that kids will have to check in um with colleges, universities, and other post-secondary organizations at high school lunch over the course of the year. Science teacher Kait Caitlyn Malone uh has attended the open SIED teacher leader network kickoff event and their work really focuses on putting the people who are implementing open sad at schools across Massachusetts into a network where they can go out and observe each other get into the classrooms um sit and have dialogue with each other about the integration of the various units in open sad and how to be able to do it more

122effectively and more more rapidly because they're not operating on their own you you know, having the opportunity to consult with other teachers and other schools who were dealing with similar challenges. Um, it's the objective of the organization that, uh, teachers would hopefully be able to make those adapt adaptations faster as they move through. And, uh, I'll talk about this a little bit in the school improvement plan, but, uh, Michael Tiff, John McNeel, Caitlyn Malone, and I went to Nitmuck Regional High School for the applied learning kickoff event. and I'll talk about um what we brought back from that because that has also been integrated into the school improvement plan. Um congratulations to Sarah seniors Sarah Mosen, Sophie Defrain and Sophia Jane Grande who were recognized on senior day um and for having played their last

123field hockey home game and congratulations on their careers. Uh on Wednesday, October se 22nd, the eighth grade students will take a tour of Bay Path and the seven and they will meet Bay Path representatives will meet with the seventh and eighth grade to provide information to students about the school. There'll be information uh forthcoming about the plans that Mr. McNeil and other members of our school community are making for Operation Holiday Cheer. And the counselors are currently planning on conducting a well a whole school wellness day on November 12th, the half day. And so like um Art had indicated that our our school improvement plans are aligned in those three categories. The first one curriculum and instruction. Uh we did engage in the we used a version of the data analysis tool that um and

124protocol that Andrea had applied or had shared with us um in our administrative team meeting. We took that to our next faculty meeting and we did an item analysis and we we split the faculty into um STEM along with uh music and um art given that there's a lot of math and music and art um and the humanities met in here and they did an item analysis from last year's MCCast and the first thing really that they had pretty clearly identified in one of the groups is that um our students We really need to do a better job of teaching our students how to write more effectively. And given that we're such a small school, while we can have these individual approaches with our students and understanding each of our kids, we want to take

125the time to make sure that we're we're teaching writing in a coordinated manner so that students aren't having to relearn something from classroom to classroom to classroom, but that they're able to apply things as they move across the curriculum in the same school year. But there's there's also a purposeful sense of the increasing sophistication as students move up through the grades. And so that goal is to research, develop, and implement a grade level standardsbased approach to writing instruction in grades 6 through 12. The second goal under curriculum is to continue to integrate and enhance UDL strategies for all classrooms. This is a continuation uh from last year in what really is at least a 2year endeavor. We did start off at the beginning of the year uh because we have a few new members of

126our faculty and staff um reacquainting ourselves with the central tenants of universal design for learning. And then the third goal is something that I was fairly excited about coming out of this because very often you go to professional development and um it's nice you get things sometimes you get swag and and um and products that you can take home that have t-shirts. I got a fancy pen. I got a little bag with a pop-up guy in it. But it was probably some of the best professional development that I have experienced in terms of giving us a protocol to help teachers reflect on their teaching practice. And so this goal is that all teachers will become familiar with the tenants of the applied of applied learning by participating in in the use of the leveling up

127authenticity protocol. And basically, and John, given that you're here, you can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but basically this protocol allows teachers to work with one another in small groups. And the intent is really to make an existing or new learning activity more authentic by more authentic uh more real world. In other words, they're applying more skills, but students are doing most of the work in the classroom and getting further and further away from um the sort of sit and get that traditional education can be, but trying to get students better prepared um and way more interested in what it is that they're going to be doing in class by activating that learning. And basically, it it we had engaged in the protocol um I think three or four times during

128the course of the day. Then we observed um their actual faculty and staff bring things in with other faculty and staff. And I think on each of the groups there was also one student um who sat in and observed through the protocol. Basically the teacher provides a a a really small summary of what they would like to do sort of the objectives of the learning and then um the folks around the table fellow educators sort of uh look at these c these six categories problems and challenges products and outcomes um audiences partners clients and tech and gear and to make suggestions questions for how to make those activities that the teachers were already planning to do more active and have more applied learning involved. And so it was a great experience for us. And what

129what ultimately we would like to do is get to the point where everybody this year has participated in a minimum of at least one of these. And by participate, I don't mean for any teachers who are here um that you need to put yourself sort of it's it's not a hot seat. It's a it's a very safe protocol because it starts from building off of teachers strengths and the strengths in general of the activity. It's something that um I feel is also very likely to result in more teacherto-teer collaboration as people feel more comfortable with their colleagues working through these specific protocols rather than just sitting around and and having conversations and sort of blindly problem solving with their with their colleagues. Um these protocols make things a little bit more pointed and it it

130literally takes 15 minutes to do it really effectively. in meeting the needs of all students. Um we have we're in the process of implementing second step in the new um crew period and uh similar to the elementary school over the course of the year we want to we want to evaluate its implementation and make recommendations going forward for how if there are things that we're missing what can we do more effectively and then to refine the student support team process very similar to um the elementary school as Well, and then we're continuing the process of developing personalized learning plans for each student, considering their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and learning pace. And uh it'll be a second year of focusing on the personalized learning plans in the MYAP system and implementing that curriculum through the school.

131In climate and culture, fostering a culture of belonging, goal one is to create opportunities uh for open dialogue and discussions on important social issues for middle school students led and trained by high school students. So last year there was a group of students who were trained by Mass and although some of those students may have graduated, there are a number of students who are still here at the school. We'd like to continue that relationship with Mass. Um but I have a lot of experience in in having older students trained to then go out and deliver portions of curriculum or facilitate discussions with younger students. And it's very impactful because the younger kids have a tendency to really admire and look up to the older students and those students get an opportunity also. It's another leadership

132opportunity um that can often come from students who might not otherwise look be looked at as being young leaders and help those students learn, grow, and become more active in the school community. and then uh imple implement schoolwide community centered opportunities for all students to display their learning through showcases for families in the community. And again, this came from um the professional development that that we had done, it was really clear that this school does a lot of student work around and although some of it was left from showcases from the previous year, it's really well done. It's it's very appealing to look at and it must generate a great deal of pride in students to have that stuff be shared with the school community, you know, even beyond their families. And so, um, given

133that John has done a really nice job, uh, with this the first STEM night last year that was pretty well attended, we we want to kind of expand those showcases and and branch out a bit more into other content areas and hopefully do more than one during the course year this year or during the school year. And That's it for us. Any questions? Questions? Questions? >> No question. But I do I do like the I like the idea of having more of those. Anytime we can increase the opportunities people to see what the students are producing. It's it's great. We hear about here, but you know, to get the word out and get people in the building and see it firsthand is >> it's great. >> Yeah. Appreciate the efforts to do that. It was

134really impressive and I'm I'm hopeful that um it will also be something that combined with more opportunities for applied learning will also result in getting students all students more excited about what what's going on in the classroom. >> Thank you. Uh good evening. Thank you to the uh to the committee uh for allowing me the opportunity to present this evening. Uh in my report, I I wrote about uh our inaugural uh special education parent advisory council meeting that took place on September 23rd of this year. We had a number of uh parents attend and um we uh you know we look to set the you know open up a new page uh for parental voice uh and leadership in special education. It is a regulation of the state, a rare regulation of the state that

135you have a parent advisory council and um it's not the purpose of it. We don't have the group just to check a box or meet a regulation. We we have the group so that we can provide parents with a voice, provide them with an opportunity to connect with one another about really important issues in their lives, the education of their children. Um and also to learn uh about resources and programs and methodologies that are available for their children both in and outside of school. together at that meeting, we uh developed a survey uh that was launched and sent out to parents. Um we had uh 40 respondents to that survey and I'll have more information uh for you all about that uh in our next report. Um, our most recent meeting was held on October

13615th, uh, just a short time ago, and, uh, we are scheduling a spaghetti supper, uh, for our CPAC to take place on the evening of November 19th, uh, of this year at 6:00, uh, at the North Brookfield Elementary School. And we certainly hope that our school committee um, members will be able to join us. We are in audit preparation mode uh in the special education department. We we will be visited by the department of education for an on-site uh visit in January, the week of January 12th of 2026. Uh we also have an audit of our multilingual students program or what what you would uh probably refer to as our English learners. Um we are you know we we have to um upload a number of documents and policies and procedures to the department and

137faculty and staff and myself and leaders will be uh interviewed by the department uh in December uh of this year for that audit. Uh I've continued our regional collaboration with uh special education administrators from our surrounding districts. We looked at an opportunity for regionalizing our special education transportation for our out of district students to see if we could find cost savings. Uh we had a meeting that involved uh the directors and some of the superintendent from the area with uh with a vendor that we were uh exploring potential partnership with. And uh we had our most recent meeting and one of the topics that we that we spoke about was potential regional collaboration for CPAC uh and being able to bring resources together for our parents uh you know from our surrounding districts uh for

138all of those things that um that I had just said. the uh 10 staff members, I'm sorry, nine staff members in the North Brookfield uh elementary school underwent training uh for therapeutic crisis intervention for schools. This is a researchbased program that's administered by the Bron Brener Center for Translational Research in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. It's a no joke program uh that uh is uh research has proven improves school safety and improves climate. It imp it improves relationships that students have with adults and adults with students. Um it gives stu it gives faculty and staff confidence in their ability to interact with kids in really difficult situations. And uh I think more importantly data wise as we talk about data in our school improvement plans and how important performance is of our

139kids it's proven to improve performance in school improve attendance and decrease incidents uh that lead to uh damaged relationships and um disciplinary problems that lead to suspension from school. The course was 21 hours in duration. All of the attendees uh who took the course passed two assessments. One is a handson uh observation of their ability to teach a child new coping skills um in a protocol that's called a life space interview. Meaning we're not just teaching kids how to read and write. We're teaching them new behaviors to choose when they feel um when they have feelings such as frustration, anxiety, fear, anger, uh or what we call um pain- based uh behaviors. Uh the all nine members also took and passed a written assessment that's administered by Cornell University and all nine members of um

140all nine attendees are now certified in therapeutic crisis intervention for schools. Um this is an investment uh that is moving our school system towards being trauma sensitive or trauma informed and I was really proud to have um to have been able to work with the faculty and staff uh in that program. Anyone has any questions or comments or concerns I'm happy to take from them. >> Anything questions? >> Thank you. We we learned a lot about TCIS earlier in the year. We got a good We got a good rundown of that previously. So >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> Awesome. >> I believe it was on was it recorded? >> No. >> Wow. That's too bad. >> Well, it's there's probably a lot of opportunities to see and hear me doing it. There's uh there are

141a lot of videos and stuff out there. So, thank you very much. >> Uh Tim, anything you want to highlight from the other other administrative reports? the technology and the >> Yeah, just real I mean just real quick I you know I I know I mentioned in my my initial page my report which I didn't talk about tonight but Joe Holloway has come on as the interim uh custodial supervisor uh is really hit the ground running. Um so just that's that's Joe's report for what's been happening the two buildings. Um I know that uh the dugouts that we have talked about are going to be taken down sometime soonish with George right through Thursday. So George and Andrew I think are working on those. So those will be offsite very soon. Um and then as

142far as technology uh you have Mr. Bar's updates uh mostly around his ALMA and his data reporting to the state but also I I attached it to his report. It's it's under a new business, but the technology surplus, which they need to vote on, which these are some really antiquated tech pieces that we are getting have these removed at basically no cost. >> Good. >> All right. So, we got any old business we need to we can get rid of that. >> Oh, yeah. We're That's up. That's coming up. >> Oh, that's later. >> New business. I just >> he was just to it. >> Yeah. So, uh any old business? >> Nothing. >> Uh policy updates. So, um the policy subcommittee um and this should be my apologies. This should have an aspect because

143this is potentially this is a voting item tonight. Um, we met this evening at 5:00 and we discussed uh draft policy JF, which is the middle school pathway exploration policy. And I'll give you the the the quick overview here, but essentially what this policy policy discusses is giving our students equitable access and information around not only our ICP program here, but also what Bay Path offers for our our um their incoming freshmen, our students that decide to go to Bay Path. Um so it it articulates and frames that we will um make tours available during our school day. We will have a a uh counselor from Bay Path come and speak to our eighth grade class. Um we will discuss our short and long-term college career planning during our school advisory, our crew program, uh

144using the MYAP, which we mentioned a couple times this evening. Um and we will do the mo most of this by October 15th every school year. So we'll get this out to families, out to students, out to teachers about those timelines and it will be basically secured through this policy. Um, additionally, we just list off, yes, we talked about RCP pathway, but Bay Path being a vocational technical high school offers many more pathways, if you will, many more programs. So, we list the program opportunities that are afforded to our our students if they are enrolled at Bay Path. Um, vocational technical high schools have gone to gone away from weighted entry um or they've gone in in the root of a lottery. Um and this is just making sure that again there's equitable access for

145exposure to what the offerings are both within our school but more importantly at the bait path if a student decides to to look at that option. this will need if this is voted in this evening um or if it's not we can we we can ask for extension but at some point this policy will need to be submitted to the champ protocol or champ software to the state um and this will be adopted as as a schoolwide policy around um pathway exploration every state every district in the commonwealth has to have this approved >> uh quick question so this this is essentially the document that would go out to parents or something along >> this is a policy There will be some memo language language talking about the timeline and what's going to be offered

146>> with with all like these opportunities. >> Yes. >> And all everything that that was in red is has been revised and obviously will be changed back. >> So the idea behind it then in other words is to I mean I know you said it's a state level uh mandate but it's essentially to notify families of opportunities that they >> to notify families make sure they're happening. Um and also then you know we keep records of what happened within our school. So when the tour was, how many kids went for who came to school to our kids, how many kids attended? >> Sounds good. So if the student handbook, right? >> Yes. >> Um is anybody opposed to voting on this tonight? If anyone wants more time, we Tim said we can ask for an

147extension with the state, but we do have to get this in uh by October 15th. We don't ask for an extension. No, that's meeting by November 1st of this year. October 15th is when we need a message to families. >> I'm sorry. Forwarding. I'm sorry. >> Thank you for correcting me. >> Um I personally I'm fine with voting on this tonight. I don't know what anybody else think. >> Same. We got it in advance. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve this revised version of the uh middle school pathway exploration policy. Second that. Any any more discussion on this? Any questions? All right. All those in favor. All right. Thank you. And new business uh technology surplus. So, Mr. bear attached a spreadsheet with 25 plus items ranging from laptops to desktops to

148speakers, projectors that are all either no longer functional or not supported by Windows 11 and cannot be uh used at a regular basis within our school district. Um the recommendation is to have these these tech supplies surplused and disposed of. Like I said, at near minimal cost to the district, a lot of them are in his office as we speak. So, we want to clear that office out somewhere in the library as well. So, >> when you say um near minimal cost, what is the process? But you said you found a recyclable. >> Yeah, there's there's most everything here they'll they'll they'll take for free. Uh there's a few items that in total we're talking under $1,000 for for the recycling cost. Feel like some of these things we should consult with Brandon Avery and

149see if we should the town music >> the VHS plays a VHS. >> Yeah, >> I did like that. >> So, uh I'll take a motion uh for disposal of these items if someone wants to make that motion. I make a motion that we approve the disposal of all of the listed items. >> I'll second it. Right, we have a motion, a second. Do we have any further discussion, questions? >> No, I'm sure he'll be glad to go do that in his office. >> Yeah, I think it does a couple things. It gets rid of things we've been we should have, you know, we need to get rid of and creates extra space that can be used. All the uh if there's any more discussion or questions, all those in favor? I >> All right.

150I miss the days. It wasn't that long ago where you could like get paid for this stuff. >> Yeah. >> And somehow that's fallen completely by the wayside. It used to be nice. You could go. >> Not anymore. >> It's outdated after it's bought. >> All right. So Tim, did you want uh we have executive session tonight here? So >> yes. So I'd like to make a motion that we go to executive session so that we can discuss contract negotiations and only return to the meeting to adjourn the regular meeting. Second that. Any discussion on that? Seeing none. All those in favor. Roll call vote. >> Tim Canada. I Matthew Grant. I person. >> All right. Thank you everyone for attending. Someone's still awake.