North Brookfield School Committee Meeting March 24th, 2025

001[Music] Right. At 6:00 meeting for rise to the flag of the United States of America to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone for coming. Start off the agenda with recognitions. So I do have a few this evening. Um I don't see him here yet, but we wanted to recognize uh one of our seniors, Aiden Rodriguez, who uh was recognized by the state as being our loan recipient this year of the John Abigail Adams scholarship. Um this is for his excellence on the MCCAST exam over the last couple years exams rather. Um so we wanted to to give him the Mar recognition he deserves. Um he is not here this evening so if he does arrive later I will circle back and recognize him personally. If

002not I'll give this to him tomorrow. So congratulations to Aiden Rodriguez. Additionally, I want to just give a shout out to Dante Jing Grande and his sister Sophia who is it this past no two weeks ago, right Dante? Uh yeah, the 16th. 16th we we all kind of ran somewhat together in the Wister 5K St. Patty's Day road race. So uh I got to see both Dante and Topia at the end of the race. They ran with dad. So congratulations to the two of you for completing the 5K. Thank you. That's it for this evening. Great. Thank you. Um approval of minutes. Any uh I have a motion to approve the minutes. Move to approve the minutes for Monday, February 24th, 2025. Any comments or questions? Do you need to second it? No. Might that

003up? All right. Make a motion. I got the I will acknowledge I wasn't here for the public participation part. So I can approve the rest of it when I vote. Yes. I'm not approving that part. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes then? There we go. So moved. Second it. Second. All in favor of the minutes. I thank you. Public participation. Any public participation? Yes. Uh Shayla County, do you guys have it on your agenda to revote the budget after these um edits were made? Um we typically do at the end of the budget process. Yes. Well, these were like clerical additionaries. That's why I'm asking. We don't vote on the budget until we're we're not fully through negotiations. So, the entire number is not 100% right now. Oh, cuz you voted on

004it in my last meeting that I was here. We we voted on a number which is preliminary and which is stated and understood but it's preliminary number. So uh it's a work in progress because we still have uh teachers negotiations ongoing and we have uh I believe the custodians contract upcoming to be negotiated. So we won't have a final number overall. So if there are any clerical errors to be adjusted, those can be rolled in, I would imagine. So we'll have the final number when negotiations are uh completed and um we would vote on a final number. I believe at that time that's how we done it the last time around. Yeah. all we qualified it when we voted on it that it was a moving target at that point. So, we do appreciate the

005clerical adjustments. Thank you, Sheila, for picking up on that stuff. Okay, good question for Sheila. Sheila, did you copy all of us on that list? I I feel like I saw it, but I I just want to make sure we have it when we do do um I had uh copied you, I think, at one point, but then when Tim responded, I think Mr. Maggario was the only one on there. Just when we when we get to the towards the end of it, can you make sure we all have just we won't respond or anything, if you can just send us a copy of those list so when we go through the final review, we can make sure. Yeah, Danielle and I work on it this afternoon. So, we're in a complete agreement, but I

006just um you know, the finance committee has to look and make decisions at some point, too. Yep. So, if you could send us all a copy of that that list of numbers, that'd be helpful so we can make sure we've got them covered and nothing because it is a substantial spreadsheet on the budget. Anybody else? Yes. Bill G finance committee. Do you have an expectation of when the date for completion of contract negotiations will be? Uh we have we have not yet started with uh the custodians and I don't know what the end date is for that yet. Yeah, I don't even think we've set ground rules yet. I think there's an agreement. Ground rules will be set on the first meeting and proposals will be we'll have the first meeting as well. First round

007of proposals. So, are teachers negotiations done? Is that what you're saying? Oh, no. there's a little overlap and I'm not sure how many more meetings we'll have with them. So, uh, those are both in flux. I don't think we have solid end dates yet. Sorry, I can't be more specific, but since they're both, you know, one one is ongoing, the other hasn't started yet. Um, that's where we're at right now. Anybody else? All right, thank you everybody. Um, moving on to communications. Can we circle back? Sure. Aiden is here. So, as I mentioned earlier, um we wanted to recognize Aiden Rodriguez um for earning the designation of a John and Abigail Adams scholarship recipient this year. So, what that means is that Aiden scored an advanced the advanced category in both the math and English

008u MCCAST examination. Uh this will allow Aiden to have a reduced tuition than any state university. Uh, so this is a great honor for Aiden. So I just want to call you up, Aiden. You guys have fun. Sorry. It's always great to see uh successful students in our district. Congratulations on that. Um all right, moving on to communications. There are no communications to share this even. No new communications. Moving on to student representative report update. All right. So, uh for our past information, I have uh our St. Patrick's Day spirit day. Uh uh Monday, March 17th, we asked everyone to wear green in order to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Uh the MASC Hyannis trip. Uh earlier this month, our council sent eight of our members to Cape Cod for a statewide student council conference. Uh

009there we participated in workshops, listening to two amazing keynote speakers and participated in elections for next year's state board. This conference teaches members new leadership skills and helps to improve our council as a whole. This year we took uh home a few awards. Anthony Palano and Sophia Gene Grande received the Commonwealth award for excellence within our council. Uh uh last Friday, March 21st, uh the senior class uh hosted the annual senior uh senior versus faculty basketball game. This is at 600 p.m. in the high school gym. Uh the staff took home another win on their record. Uh lip sync and April spirit week. Uh the week before April vacation, April 14th to the 17th, we will be uh will be our spring spirit week. We will have different themes for each day. And on Friday,

010we will be we will have uh Thursday, we'll have our classes 6 through 12 compete in a class versus class lip sync competition. And the fifth graders will be there to watch. More information about spirit days will come soon. And then for conferences and field trips, I have spring conference uh a will be April 16th at Oakmont. Uh as always, we invite all community members to follow our social media accounts to keep up with all NBHS student council activities and events. Our accounts are Instagram, NBS Stuco, and Facebook, NB Stukco. Student council meetings. All meetings are open to the school and community. Meetings are typically every other Monday in the high school ka. Please feel free to join us if you have anything you would like to discuss or would just like to see how

011things are run. Thank you, Dante. Uh quick question. What were the awards that Excuse me. Uh so both uh Anthony Palano and uh my sister Sophia Gene Grande received a commonwealth award for excellence throughout the council. Okay. As well as we received uh silver silver council for our excellence book with uh filled with events uh that we've done throughout the year as well as other information about our council. Great. Any other questions for Gante? Comments? Feel like school committee should be invited to that uh basketball game. You got a couple guys down here. No offense Ralph and Dan, but a couple guys down here that could be pretty strong in the paint. All right. Thank you, Dante. Uh, school committee reports. Um, nothing really new to report uh, as far as negotiations is the only

012subcommittee really running right now and those are ongoing. Um, any financial reports? I've just attached the warrant on the monthly report for your review. There are no transfers this month. Any questions or comments on the financial report? N uh superintendent report. Okay. So, there's a few parts of this this evening. I'm going to call up a special guest in a few minutes, but just want to start off. Um, I know that some of you will probably be attending the Steam night tomorrow. I hope Mr. McGary, I know you're you're going to be going, hopefully a few others. Uh, but kind of along that same vein, um, just an update on on some of the, uh, new initiatives and new additions uh, to curriculum materials that we'll be moving forward with. Um, as you may recall,

013the last couple years we've partnered with 18 around our STEM education, uh, specifically Project Lead the Way at both the elementary and the middle school level. We recently received an additional $40,000 for our Project Lead the Way enhancement at the high school level. So, this will allow us to uh add four distinct classes uh at the high school level around manufacturing. Um, so we're going to discuss that more in detail tomorrow evening. uh but this is something that you know we can't we wouldn't have the capacity to to adopt this in a local budget. So these these opportunities have been really beneficial to supporting our students uh in in these initiatives. Additionally, um, as I've talked about in the past, going forward with this process through DESIE and receiving the the innovative innovative career pathway

014designation, just by completing this process, which took roughly a year and a half to complete, we received an additional $35,000 to uh use towards our durable equipment to support those four project lead courses. So, uh, in total, that $75,000 that we have now to use towards supporting these new initiatives and supporting durable equipment that again, we we would not be able to purchase without this financial support. So, within your packet, I did add some pictures so you could see what we're talking about. Uh, the first is a bench milling machine, uh, which is quite expensive on its own. Uh, we also are be adding an additional five VEX robotics kits. We have some currently at the middle school level. We're going to phase some more in to support our high school students. Uh, additionally, another

0153D 3D printing machine and then uh some robotic arms. These these pieces, like I said, uh we could not adopt into our local budget. So, these these grant initiatives are really helped to support this program. We're going to talk about this tomorrow evening at the steam night. We're going to have Mr. McNeel. We're going to have um Miss O'Reilly. We're going to have um Mr. Martinez uh discussing how these pieces of equipment, how this curriculum will support their teaching over the next 2 to 3 years. So, I'm excited about that. Hopefully, you can all attend that event. Um, additionally, um, I just want to just discuss briefly that Mr. Juriel, myself, and Miss Malone, who's currently having a meeting across the hall, will be traveling to Denver, Colorado, uh, where we're going to be heading

016to the applied voting conference. This, again, this is another one initiative that we've been part of this year. Um, this is fully fundamentally through that great opportunity. This allows us to see collectively um, more applied learning in place and, uh, we're excited about this opportunity. This is an extension of what we did in Boston back in mid January. Uh so this is continue that conversation for our district and building leaders to discuss how we can phase more of this into our two buildings. So that will be uh for 3 days starting middle of next week, April 2nd to the 4th. Um and then I would like to call up in a minute here what's channing look like? So if you may recall last June we had a presentation by Channing as one of the one

017of the people who discussed this with the committee and also uh the viewing audience. We started an initiative called cat lab uh creative action and thinking lab for our students here at North Brookfield. We started, we phase it in at the elementary school level. And what we're trying to do, what we've been doing this year is having artists, musical artists, work with our students, work with our teachers to kind of make that connection between the arts and our instruction. Um, and what we're going to do in a few minutes is show you some videos that premiered today. We had our kindergarten, our second grade students. We had a viewing this morning. We showed these two videos, which we're going to show all of you in a few minutes. But we wanted to really highlight the

018connections that can be made through music and instruction whether it's instruction around English, instruction around math. Um, but the connections really have been fantastic. Our kids love it. So, I'm going to turn over to Channing who will give us a few more details about what she's been doing. Yeah. Can I stay right here? Yeah, it's perfect. It's perfect. Um so yeah um the end of quarter 1 and all of quarter two um we had a few teachers volunteer um to do run the pilot cat lab sessions. Um we were fortunate enough to receive a grant um through the mass cultural council. um Bonnie Milner and um Deb Arnold wrote it over the summer and then we received it um through the school um which was really helpful because then we could really expand you know

019who we were going to get in and actually be able to pay them. It was to pay artists and um any technical people that were going to be coming in to to work with the project. Um so a good friend of ours Mark File Schwaller, he was the artist and musician who came in for both classes to facilitate these two sessions. He actually really really wanted to be here tonight, but he throwed his back and he literally is frozen and can't move. So, he is healing right now. Um, but he really wanted to come here and meet everybody. But, um, we hired him to come in and what we did is we met with the teachers who wanted to try this session. Uh we met with Renee Buzzel and Sullivan and Chris Servin in second

020grade and we had a series of like five questions that we wanted to ask them regarding um you know what what was in their curriculum that they would love us to reinforce and retach but with a creative lens. And so we got all the information. Renee Buzzle's big big things were letter identification and um letter sounds um and how we could really like create a song that really is going to reinforce that. And then Cindy and Chris um they they gave us a little more of a challenge, but it was really fun. They really wanted to focus on the second grade high frequency words. They felt like it, you know, it was a struggle for the kids to really get those down, memorize them. So they thought for us as the artists and facilitators to

021really reinforce that that would be great. They also wanted us to try to create a song that went along with one of their units in their ELA class. So the unit that they were working on at that particular time was um how friends how animals can also be our friends. So we worked with the students and created a song that not only integrated their most common highfrequency words but also the theme of the song is about how friend how animals can be your friend. Um so Mark um came in um every session worked with the kids on the writing and then towards the end brought in his real recording equipment and we set up the two classrooms um as recording studios and so they got to actually record and see how that was. Um where

022you know where the cams and um kind of really dive into what it's like to be in a recording studio. Um and then we had um film major Aspen Quales who is at Syracuse um currently and uh but she came on board and she was the one that filmed all the videos and edited all them. Um so it was really neat too to have the kids see like a real you know cinematographer come in and um I was we could go right in. I mean that's Yeah, I would love for you guys to see it. Um, so the first one is the kindergarten one. Yeah. So, two videos tonight and and they're three minutes. Three minutes. So, kindergarten will go first and then grade two and then in the very near future you're working with

023grade one. You may have already said this, but grade one. Yes. Grade one. Um, and then also fourth grade was interested. So, we'll be chatting with them within the next week. Um, so we can roll out for quarter 4. We'll both have a session with both guys. Here we go. After a What kind of word starts with the letter B? Bear. What kind of word starts with the letter C? What kind? [Music] I do feel that art helps the students understand the alphabet better. Um, kids instinctively are attracted to songs and rhymes. Music always helps kids connect to the activity, any activity that they're working on. [Music] Oh yeah. What kind of word starts with the letter G? Ghost. What kind of word starts with the letter H? What kind of word starts with the

024letter I? I kind of word J. [Music] kind of word with the letter. Word starts with the letter M word with the letter. So, what I think they were the most passionate about um was actually like getting to see and feel instruments and hear the music played in the room. I'm not sure they completely understand the process because they're only five. So I think we're as we're going through it and they're exploring the process, they're, you know, understanding what we're doing, what it's going to end up looking like. But I think the thing they looked forward to the most each week was getting to hear like a real guitar, different instruments, and I think they would have liked even more instruments than getting to hear them and play them. So the instrumental music really definitely

025All right, we're in the home stretch now. What kind of word starts with the letter R? Rainbow. What kind of word starts with the letter S? Snake. What kind of word starts with the letter T? [Music] What kind words of the letter W? [Music] Yeah. [Music] Yeah. Heat. [Music] You guys did it. You made a song. Okay. So before I show uh Gray too, we we did we had kind of like a red a red carpet Oscars type kind of vibe this morning where the students had their pictures Grammy awards thing in front of our cat lab um board by the by the cafeteria. And then uh Miss Buzzle who you saw in this first video was interviewing our students about their reaction to seeing themselves in the video. So it was it was a

026fun morning. Mhm. This is grade two. Similar but different. [Music] [Applause] That's true. Wonder forever. I never to be there and stand with you against the worst of days. Bob Cats know exactly when to pounce. to hunt the rat and the mouse. Lions and cheetahs and leopards hunt too. You look at that. There's a tall giraffe. They all laugh. They are full of humor. That's the rumor. What kind of creature can be a friend to you? Please tell me that's [Music] true forever to be there and stand with you against the worst of days to dig through the trash. They're a very stylish mask. All because another friend tried to take his task. Max have such pretty air since he got no gills. Just be do it all again. What kind of creature can be

027a friend to you? Hey, you please tell me and I know that's true. The one who will forever find every way to be there and there with you against the worst of days. Big brown dog. Used to be a pup, but now he's older because he's all grown up. He made friends with the sloth and the iguana. And then he made a truce with the reeer and moose. And they all died that many. Please tell me. Please tell me it's true. It's true. Forever in every way to be there against the worst of days. I'm begging you. Please tell me an animal is true. Good stuff. Was actually ching on the vocals and you can hear the students in the background. So, I appreciate all your efforts so far. And we said first grade is

028starting soon and then fourth grade will be after that. Correct. Y are these going to be posted anywhere or I will we can post these on the web page. Uh we did confirm with all the parents that were able to show these videos and they they approved and I will share these with with all of you as well. Um but this was kind of the second we'll premiere this evening. Uh and then we'll make it kind of more mainstream after tonight. Any questions about the program or or what what's been going on? I saw better penmanship in that second video than like 30% of the people I work with. They're not watching this so I could say that but I've seen some bad penmanship. There was some really really nice nice printing. Yeah. Yeah. They're

029really Yeah. It was It was such a It's such a great experience. And the really the fun part was when we decided to have me do lead on this song, the kids were like because they just know me as a special ed teacher. So when I was singing with them, they were like, "Oh my god." Like we we just we're like we're a whole band now, you know? So it's really cool. It was fun. I just have a comment. Um certainly engagement en enhances learning, no question about that because they're b they certainly bought in. Where does it go from here? Um so ideally it would be we would continue to do this. Again this was our pilot season so we were just kind of testing the waters with it. Um, I know it will

030just be it will be a core memory I think for all of them and then it's something that the teachers can use every year to show you know their next students coming up. Ideally, it would be really great if we were to continue to expand with grants um and have it be more widespread where it's daily where we're having even more artists come in, you know, every day working. So, it's multimedia. Um eventually, you know, the goal is to bring it up to middle school, high school, and even work with um like uh social like working social media, working, you know, behind a console, you know, if people are interested in engineering and producing, producing video, film, documentaries, um and creating um things like that, even theater. Um so, it's not necessarily a video every

031time. That's just kind of what came out. That's what the teachers wanted this time around. Um but ideally it would be yeah to to expand um in just the multi multimedia arts. I think we want to go slow to go fast and I think that our entry point this year was at the elementary school which as you as you saw I mean their engagement is very high. They had a great time making these videos. Uh but this is just one platform. This was a starting point. I think that what you saw with these videos you saw site words. Yeah. So, it's more language based, but we can do similar things around math and science. Um, where it may be a video, may not, but but music can be incorporated into some of that engaging instruction.

032So, um, we're excited about the potential here. Um, I think there's some programs at the high school, too, um, that will support our students so our students at the higher level can have more um, kind of involvement with this. So, it's not necessarily always outside artists that come in. It could be our own students. We're working with our students at the at the elementary level. Any other questions? Is the We have a music teacher. So, was they inv were they involved at all? So, for these No, but they they were in they've been in all the meetings. We've invited them to all the meetings. both um Matt Bills and um Justin Matali as well as um the art teacher uh Lewis. Um so I think eventually yeah they'll have more they'll do more involvement. I

033think they you know they again it was p the pilot so they were they just kind of wanted to see how it was all going to be. Um but yeah oh yeah they're definitely we've had numerous meetings with them. Um and they they you know they've had some ideas. So yeah, we that's the goal is to really collaborate with all of them and have it be even a bigger pocket. Like I say, those are two adorable videos to kids engaged and and uh excited about it. Yeah. Um, and I think this is great because we, you know, we've got Steam night tomorrow night and the arts are a major part of that and I think this is a good step towards that integration between the other programs offered at the school and be able to

034bridge between, you know, science and technology and learning the arts. We have, you know, as long as there's something more to offer our students, it's always great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. Um All right. Anything else from the anything else from the uh student superintendent report as far as I I did add uh it was a separate attachment um to the typical packet. Um I did add all of the um new library books that we've phased in at the elementary school in the last uh year plus. Um I believe that was a requested committee. So that is that was attached to your um packet. Great. Can we discuss that a little bit? Sure. We can make a motion. Is that what we have to do? Uh no voting on it. Okay. So,

035I had I looked over some of those titles and I think some of us did and I have a concern about a couple of the books that are I'm not so I'm not convinced that they're appropriate for our elementary kids and and I think we should discuss that and um and I'm also not sure how we put together how we get new books. is does the librarian this whole list together from some resource or do we subscribe to a service that just says oh you need books here they come and and pay for how does that whole thing work? So a couple things um we recognized a few months ago that we had some books that we wanted to discard because of the age and the wear and tear of those books. So we surplus

036those books in that process. um the librarian with the support from the previous elementary school principal and and now Mr. Murphy look through kind of what what is being read at certain grade levels. What are some books that are um enticing to students at that age? So this this list is formulated by by that group of three essentially mostly by the librarian and Miss Priestley who is no longer in the district. Um but as as we started to compile this list books were coming in through donation. We do have some some some funds to support our library in the in the budget. Um, some are donated. Um, so this was the list that I attached to to the document is the complete list. I guess that's a question. I just wanted to branch off of

037that. These are all for elementary school children. This the list of books or I was assuming some of these were for the middle high school. These are all for elementary. So grades K through five. I Wow, that changes everything. There was some Oh, there I have identified a couple. I just have to go through that list again section of the last 40 pages of the list, which certainly isn't all of them, but there are two books on there specifically that jumped right off the page for me. And I would propose that we do something about removing those. I don't personally I don't think they're appropriate. And if we we need to discuss it, then we can discuss it. But there was some level with graphic novels and even some of the um titles were for

038children who might really enjoy scary type stories that I did not realize that this was only up to the fifth grade. Because as I was going through the list, when you see graphic novels and manga and stuff like that, I'm thinking, "Oh, this is for the middle and high school, too. This isn't just elementary." And that was an awful assumption that I guess I made because I really want to go through that list again and with a different lens. I mean, I just thought it was the whole district. I didn't realize that it was just a five grade and under. So, where do we go? How do we do this? Are these already metriculated already? I can I can check see the status of all the books. I mean there's quite a few books on

039this list. So there are but you know I I without specifics you're saying that there's books that you don't necessarily personally agree with but um that's separate than you know what the committee approved as well. So I I don't know what books you're referring to. Um, I would love to to see that list. But, you know, again, this is a book a list of books that was vetted by the librarian with with oversight from the principles that um are age appropriate. Now, it doesn't mean that that students necessarily going to be checking these books out. Um, but we do want to offer a ray of books that we feel are educationally appropriate for students. Do you have anything to add, John? I mean, I I saw a couple titles that I didn't necessarily agree with,

040but um at the same time, uh I'm not going to police uh what parent, you know, if the parents have any objections to what their kids are bringing home, leave it to the parents to object to them. But, um, I'm not going to say, you know, it's it's I'm not going to tell parents what they can and can't have their kids have access to. So, do the parents know what's on the list? No, we don't. Should the parents have the list? No reason why the parents can't have the list, right? It's already like a PDF. If multiple members scale, there are questionable titles. I think every parent in the elementary school is entitled to know what their child has access to in that library. Did I say compile the ones that are objectionable and bring

041them up? I think they should have the whole list. It shouldn't be censored or edited in any way. Can the school uh send a list with the kids? I may attach it to emails, but the Right because the list is long. It's 137 pages. So, it's a lot that Well, that's just the new books. It's not the entire No, that's just the new books, right? So, the entire library books, something like that. No, I think you said it was 600 were removed and then 700 were added or something like that. I think it was last meeting. 738 on the list. Yeah. I'm going to say too that there were some that I really really was excited to see on that list too that I thought all these are awesome. Um and certain series that I

042thought how exciting. But uh there were some that I looked into that said, you know, for a certain age group this might be really scary. this might be and then it was a whole series and um and then there's some topics that I think that if people are comfortable with in their own home then you get them in your own home but to have your kid bring it home from the school library I don't know how I would feel if my kid brought it home so So, I don't want to be a book policeman either. However, if we have books that if you don't police it, who does? That's what I was trying to get to. If we don't take a look at it, and then we're being told here that it's not in the

043perview of the school commission. No, I'm not saying it's not in the perview. I'm saying we can compile whatever you find objectionable. We can compile that. Yeah. And then if parents want to see the the list, I mean, we don't have the full list. We don't we don't have all the books that were added prior to this. So, no. That were purchased by private individuals. Yeah. So, um, we had a full list of the entire library and that's just that's just the middle school that right now the high school junior senior high school has a library but uh, as far as I know students don't use it. Are these books that these books just go home with the children or do they have an opportunity reading time to actually read it in school? I don't

044know. Mr. Murphy knows that one. Sure. So kids can sign books out so classes go to the library and they can sign them out or during library class they can have reading time. Thank you. Yep. I wouldn't we I wouldn't feel comfortable without saying something about the books that I've identified. One of them was already listed as a on NBC News as a book that is on a band list somewhere. I'm going to look that up. Do you know which book that was? Yeah. You want me to say it? Yeah. A good kind of trouble is the name of the book. It's on page 105 of the list that we have. So, all I did was copy and paste a title. Quick synopsis of that one is a 12-year-old girl um whose sister is involved

045in Black Lives Matter um and then she experiences a protest and decides some rules are worth breaking and then starts wearing an armband to school in in support of Black Lives Matter. That's from someone's synopsis on Good Reads. Um, like I said, if you know those that's one book. If there's other books that are objectionable, I say we compile a list of out of the at least from what we have available. And then is there a request from the committee to see the entire list of books that is in the current library? Yeah, I would. But yeah. Yeah. Um, we have two members requesting the uh YouTube, right? Full library three, right? Yes. Three three committee members requesting a full list of the uh elementary school library um for review. I think it's worth uh

046looking through given the um you know there's a bunch of books added prior to this that um I know there's objections to those so or at least people had objections to books and they were added anyway. Um, so I think it's worth reviewing. So what is the I mean this sounds like it's a a big undertaking. I'm not saying you should you shouldn't, but then what is the process? So if if 10 people don't like this book and then 100 people don't like that book, how do you I'm just trying to figure out that's that's where that's where it's difficult. That's why I said I don't want to police people. People have different opinions on what's appropriate for their own children. And I cannot tell people what they can and can't let their child see

047because one way or another they want to see it see it. And uh if it's already been through committee here at the school um that's a filter. Um and if it's already been deemed age appropriate then there's that. So 10. So this committee already approved the whole list to be in that book is for there was a committee you mentioned earlier the three people that picked them. read the book is the committee that approved them. That's what I understood. Said here's the problem with the process. The child can check out the book and bring it home and read some of it before the parent even knows it's available. Keep it at school and not ever show the parent that they have it at home school. So the parents have a right to know everything their

048child has access to that they they should be able to preempt it in some way. I think this is probably like a good opportunity to maybe start something going forward and okay, anytime there's new books, there's a committee to look at it. But I think that for the amount of books that's in the school to start looking at everything and then getting everybody's opinion, I think you're just going to be going in circles. And I'm not saying that that's wrong to do that. I just think that there's got to be a plan and how's that going to be implemented and and then maybe okay next year if there's new books coming in there's already that plan implemented that there's this group that is going to go through things because you're never going to please everybody

049right and uh that's I think that that's definitely uh something to take under consideration because we can't you know as a committee We have the curriculum subcommittee, but I'm not sure that falls under curriculum because it's not like those books are not all under curriculum. It's not part of the curriculum. They're just available. Um, and not every book is going to get picked up and used. We could make a library subcommittee. We could. And I don't think it's about taking out the books that some people don't like. It's about giving parents the option to write a letter to the school saying, "I don't want my child reading these five books or whatever." Yeah. And maybe it's a little more work, but for me, if I feel strongly about my child not reading about elicit materials

050or some other things that may be available, I want to have an avenue and I want to know that they're there. I think that's actually something you said that's probably more manageable that if the parents get the list and they have the time to go through it. If if there was a book I didn't want my child to read, then it could just a note sent to the school and it was flagged somehow versus every parent, every everybody looking at it and saying I don't want this, I don't want that. you know, if you feel it affects your child, then you certainly have a right to to say what you do and and don't want. And then that's just full disclosure. And then you're not reinventing the wheel of, you know, you're giving the parents

051the option that here's the list if there's something you're not comfortable with. Certainly can't read every single book which has, you know, maybe somebody sneaks something into some chapter somewhere. All we can do is look at sometime, you know, use the Google machine and to see what we can find on a particular book, what somebody else read the book and says what it's about. So, you know, we can't do much more than that. There's too many darn books to do that to. But I don't know. I think we have to I think there are I'm going to say some volatile subjects that people have to make a decision about whether or not they want their elementary student looking at. Snapdragon is a title that might be a little controversial also that's on the list. that

052one. Um, I I spotted that one and it's a it's a a trans kid befriending a lesbian witch. So, there's that. And again, it's I don't know what grade that's just one. It's an elementary school library. So again, the content of the books, there's no, as far as I could tell, there's nothing graphic. Um, nothing that falls under other lists that are, you know, been in the public and are rather egregiously graphic. um just the you know you have characters and situations and um like I said some people might find it objectionable and others might not and um that's one book out of 738 on this Can I ask a question? So, Kathleen Creia, finance committee. Mr. K, you're the one that initiated this conversation. How do you feel it should be handled? I think

053that um I don't have a problem with taking the books that I've not I've noted off the shelves. That's what how I feel. I feel that um like in the particular book a good kind of trouble. I don't need uh an elementary school student reading about a 12th grader who's finding her way through the political life and um learns about um takes up with a Black Lives Matter group because she saw that a police officer was acquitted for shooting a black man. I don't think that that's something that we need to expose our kids to when they need to. Um, that's not what I consider what I consider education. If parents want to take that up with their students, their kids at home, I don't have a problem with that. But I don't want to

054be the one I don't want somebody saying you're you allowed that book on there. Why? I can't defend that book to a student. It's also a 358 page novel and the average second grader is not going to be like chomping at the bit to read that when there's all these other things on this list. I think we need right now this is the first time we've talked about this conversation. There's a lot of things at play here. A the books on the list. B, how the librarian allows the kids to peruse the library because I'm assuming that the kindergarteners are not going over to the graphic novel section of the library. But I'm just assuming that we're all assuming everything right now. I think we revisit this next month after we've all had time to

055figure out a little more about the processes involved here and the books at stake. I I don't think we're going to achieve anything tonight in this conversation other than making a plan to revisit it once we have a chance to look at it. That's where I'm at with uh you know, like I said, getting the full list and getting you know, being able to review it and if you have objections to particular books, we can revisit it then. Um and maybe we do form a subcommittee for the for the library. um if you are so inclined. Um so I moved to be tabled till next month when we have more information. We want to second that. No, we'll second it. All right. All right. Administrator's reports. All right, Uncle. Um, our second annual career fair

056was March 11th at the high school. We had many different companies and speakers coming to talk to our students about different career opportunities. Students signed up to receive information about different careers that they were interested in. And then each student had the opportunity to visit four different classrooms, each with a separate career presentation. Many of the presenters after the career day was over commented about how attentive and engaged our students were. I just want to give a special thanks to Miss Heheart and Miss Margolus for putting this amazing event together. Uh Friday, March 21st was our staff versus student basketball game. staff won handily uh thanks to the help from some recent alumni, Jose Ortiz, Lola, and Colin Sukurv, and Lindseay Bennett. And if you don't know, uh both Jose and Lindsay were both a

057thousand point career scores. So, they had a little advantage in that game Friday night, but it was a lot of fun for everybody. Um on Thursday, March 20th, Mr. McNeel and Dr. visited the elementary school to promote our family steam night. On Tuesday, March 25th, Mr. McNeel brought one of his robots. Uh, his students are creating in the robotics class. The robot is able to move in all directions and recognize voice commands. Dr. Aor had students volunteer to come up and create giant bubbles. Uh, we're really looking forward to seeing everyone at our steam night tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. Um, our high school students will be providing presentations about their projects and learning around these areas. I hope you can all join us for a night to celebrate at North Brookfield High School. Uh MCCAST

058testing begins tomorrow with our 10th grade in ELA. Middle school will begin their ELA testing the following week. 20 of our high school students will be working tomorrow uh around creating a fostering a sense of belonging at a workshop with mass ideas training. The students will have two three-hour workshops around developing an inclusive environment. Uh this was also started last year. So this is part two of what we started last year. Once the students complete the workshops, they will share the information during student assemblies. And finally, mark your calendars for our famous school lip sync contest on April 17th. The morning of the 17th will be our second wellness day for the students. And then in the afternoon will be our lip syncing contest. Looking forward to a great day on April 17th. And that's

059all I have tonight. Thank you, Mr. Yorio. Any uh questions or comments? Mr. The superintendent council visited the fourth and fifth grade in March. So, Mr. McCormack, Mr. Dioro, and the MDHS Superintendent Council did a presentation for our fourth and fifth grade around all the offerings at Northfield High School. They discussed and answered questions on schedules, grading, leadership opportunities, athletics, clubs, and the list goes on. Our students followed our assembly expectations and were great listeners and had thoughtful questions. So, thank you to the MBH uh MBHS students for all their hard work on the presentation and showing our students how successful they can be um when moving across the parking lot. So, it was a great job. And then our second update was um we finished up our in-person training with Dr. Burke from Novak

060Education on March 11th. The main focus was how we're implementing UDL techniques in the classroom that supports our curriculum. Dr. Bert provided a dashboard of resources that the staff could tailor to their needs in the classroom and I um put an excerpt in from that dashboard. So it has everything from embedding curriculum, removing barriers, types of scaffolds you can use, choice boards. Um it was a great professional development. The teachers gave it high regards because of the way that they could interact with the material. It wasn't just someone standing up at a board and kind of telling you what to do. They were able to take their curriculum uh their pedagogical moves and then tailor them to that presentation which is great. Any questions or comments for Mr. Murphy? Thank you very much. Okay. Um

061I'll go next. Um the final ed plan tasks related to the upcoming end of the school year are wrapping up at this time. Um and this will complete all of the various cycles and stages of the IP program that are necessary for the school year and allow for any updates that are needed over the summer. Um so we'll be a successful cycle and completion of all of the ed plan um program and that final transition um over to the new program. So excited for that to be um nearing completion. Um secondly, as requested by Desessie, the final confirmation of uh the demographic and other information for access and wide out alternate access testing for our EL learners uh was confirmed this week. Uh this will now allow DESIE to move forward in their progress uh

062process so that the district can get the scores and information back to use for programmatic decision- making. um we expect those back um relatively soon. And then finally, as part of the ongoing preparation for Jesse's review of the district's um English learner education program during the upcoming 2526 school year, um myself and our ELELLL teacher, Miss Lav Chappelle, have completed the first stage of our self- assessment review process. The next phase will include the EL's data dashboard that I spoke with you about last month that was introduced um again last month. That self assessment review is expected to be completed just within the next two weeks or so and submitted to the DESIS office and language acquisition um again within the next two weeks. So we'll be excited to finish that process up shortly. Thank

063you very much. Any questions or comments on that? No, but I had I realized something about um Mr. McCormack's report that we didn't get any notifications of departures or hires and I know that um uh Miss Ms. Emory is leaving our district soon. So, what do we have in terms of departures and new hires for this reporting season session? No, outside of Miss Samurai, we have uh we're working on a few additional new hires, but nothing's been firmed up just yet. Um we had interviews today um or excuse me, last Friday for an admin admin assistant role at the high school. Uh I'm making an offer tomorrow with that person. Um we're also speaking to a a long-term ABA person for many of the year, but that person has not returned my phone calls yet.

064So everything's still fluid as far as you know if they've been hired or not. have not been hired. Um, yes, Miss Emry is leaving. I did notify um, Mr. McGario, I believe it was three plus weeks ago now when that information came to light. So, what we are doing is we're interviewing, we had two interviews this past week um, with two recently retired um, special ed directors. U, one recent as this past October. So, having conversations with with one of them about next steps um and bringing them on as a consultant um for the remainder of the year, just a couple days a week is is what we're looking at, but again, those details have not been ironed out yet. Is there still open position for that subsearate class that had the teacher leave? That

065same person is still the long-term sub for that classroom. So, it's still a subchanged. Okay. And there has been no one else that's left again. There's no one else that's left the district. No. Um I should have added Miss Emory. That was an oversight on my part. Um I knew that the committee knew about her her departure. She's leaving next month. Uh um and she will be greatly missed, but uh that's that's it. Okay, that's it. Now it's time for Mr. He's superintendent report. Sorry, not super super uh wrong. Super office of facilities and grounds. We'll get the wrong line. The elementary school, we uh I continue to manage the day-to-day operations for the school. um for the complete February um scheduled events for the school uh we had 33 scheduled events which accumulated to

066approximately 10 vendors that use various parts of the school. Uh I continue to work with Snyder Electric on the uh building system management um software. Uh we did an upgrade on that. Um I work with them between the high school and the elementary school. Um we had an issue with a univvent number three in the elementary school uh where uh these units are original to the school and uh over time they uh wear and tear. they um this particular one broke the squirrel cages in the in the heating unit. So um it wasn't it's not allowing to blow out the hot air um for the heat. So that affected uh uh five classrooms. Um so we had minimal minimal heat over the last couple weeks. Um, so the technicians are on site now doing the

067work to get the upgrade uh done for that unit right now. Um, we had an issue with the boiler one at the elementary school. The fuel pump was leaking. Um, we had uh uh service tech come in and get that uh fixed and and updated. [Music] Um we the high school again managed the day-to-day operations. Uh for the complete month of February they had six scheduled events which approx uh covers like three vendors for the year that use various parts of the building. Uh continue to work with Snyder on the BMS system. Um on March 3rd um we had a small electrical fire in the uh univvent classroom in room 206. Um all the students and staff were evacuated from that area and the fire department was called. Um what happened was one of the

068transformers inside the unibheated and melted all the electrical wires um in the unit and uh created a small fire. Um we luckily we had spare parts downstairs. Um, and we also were fortunate that our vendor who services the UNI events was at the elementary school. So, I was able to bring those guys over and uh we got that univvent back up and running the same day because we had all the parts in place um downstairs. Were uh are there other similar units in the school? Yes, there's there's Almost every classroom has Were they inspected for similar weren't there? Uh, no. It's um this one here. Um I think we were pretty confident that it had to do with a a a baron that seized up. Okay. So, we were able to replace everything and get

069it back up and running. Um, I'm currently looking at investigating some some roof leaks that we have at the school. Um, we have one, two, three, four, five, six areas in the school right now that we've identified for leaks. So, I'm further investigating those. Is there any warranty coverage of that? pass the warranty. This This is a The roof's a warranty for 20 years and we're in our 21st year. Uh the district uh in the process of uh documenting the pavement projects for capital improvement. Um working to get that documented and getting quotes. I have to reach out to vendors now and uh get some estimates and then once I get that then I can package it up and bring it forward to you guys. Um and this is something that's that will have to

070get submitted to the town um and get put on their list of projects uh to be funded. So, it's uh it's broken up into several projects. Each one of the driveways, the three driveways out front, the driveway in front of um that's parallel with Okam Road, and then the driveway going down towards the playground. All those roads are pretty much broken up and been repaired over the years. and uh it's it's time to get it on the list and try to get it resolved. Um Thursday, March 13th, I met with the MSBA, the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Uh they were out on site to kind of do a survey uh to update their records. Um, the last time they were updated was I think 2016. So, it's they're just getting all their information updated on

071their side. So, down the road when we do look at some projects, then they have a better idea of, you know, what what we have on site. So, is that a source of grant funding or um what's there? Yeah. the there there's possibilities of of grants um based on the project. So could be doors, could be windows, could be boilers, whatever categories they have that uh fall within the MSBA. Um, and then I'm working on the uh the sign out front, the electronic sign um that took a power surge over the years and we are I'm in the process of trying to get that replaced. So that's it. Um, two things mentioned doing redoing the road alongside the uh playground. Um, is drainage going to be part of that study? One of the problems that

072I'm seeing is the water is sheeting right down to the to the playground and it's kind of creating like a swamp. I think uh the way that that that's pitched, if you pitch it right on the driveway, the way we pave it, I think we can take care of some of that towards the bottom cuz there's right at the bottom there is a storm drain. Okay. So, it's just a matter of putting a little bit of a lip there to funnel that water draining down the driveway. Fair. Fair. Um, now I kind of heard a little bit about this before, but um, you mentioned the evacuation. Um, which to me kind of raises kind of a red flag. Um, couple questions. Was a review was there a review done on the evacuation after the fact

073as to how it happened? Kind of lessons learned. You already we well I just we debriefed them on on the whole situation. Um you know the fire department was here for over an hour hour plus. Um after the the students were evacuated to the elementary school, fire department did a a full walk through of the entire building including the roof and the students were not brought back over till we got the the gohead from from the department. So um I think in total was a little over an hour. The students were displaced in the auditorium. Yeah. And then uh they came back and went back to classes. So like the part that I'm curious about I run part of what I do is run a facility. Um, and I'm assuming you can do it once

074a year kind of uh, mock evacuation. Um, and part of that is to try to get a reaction done, how long it takes the kids to get out. And I guess my my biggest question as far as the review is, do we have an idea of how long it took the kids to get out from the time that the we try to make a mountain? We've been working a lot on that. It does take uh the last two fire drills we've had, they're they're out of the building in under 5 minutes under out of the building and accounted for, I should say, in 5 minutes. Um, if I could add, I was in the room when it happened. We were out of there very fast. We realized that what was going on and we were

075outside and then through to the elementary school within probably a span of around 7 minutes. I I have a question. Did your class go to the gymnasium first from that classroom with the smoke and then did the police and firemen arrive and pull the fire alarm here and the school hadn't evacuated yet? Correct. Correct. There was smoke in a classroom. The students were just put in the gym while the heater was smoking and we've identified it as an electrical fire. There was no smoke when we went down there to look at it. Uh there was a smell. So that's why we put him down in the into the gym and then called the fire department right away. Okay. As a parent, it was just nerve-wracking because last week we got another email about a scent

076of smoke. The students were evacuated and they were just looked for hot spots around the kids. That's the way Mr. McCormick's email read to parents. So it just makes us a little on edge that our kids are safe in this building and that fire drills are being followed appropriately. question. How do you know everybody's out of the building? So, we take attendance when the students evacuate. Each teacher takes attendance when they get Yeah. So, they bring a uh we have a what we call them a to- go to go bucket. So, they bring their attendance uh with them when they leave. Same thing would happen if we had a sub in the classroom. That roster is printed um for every teacher when they leave. All right. Thank you, Mr. Hy. I would know I think

077it's worth having those other units inspected if that's a um you know if there's similar units make sure the same wear and tear isn't observed in other units and maybe get ahead of the issue. Do we have any other spare parts or did we use what we had? Did we did we have other spare parts similar spare parts? Okay. And you know, is it worth having our our vendor inspect those? We'll take a closer. All right. Old business. I don't believe we have any technology updates. Technology. Sorry. technology update. Um it's from uh Mr. Barage. Uh quarter third quarter progress reports have been distributed. Um a network switch damage to the power outage has been replaced went smoothly uh and now allows them to begin some longerterm projects have been on hold. and that includes

078an aim of cutting licensing costs for several elements of the network. Um he says his goal is to over time convert to open- source solutions uh currently hosts several virtual machines and uh that's on a VMware server and they have drastically increase their licensing fees for the software and he's identified a another uh system which can be done with an open license and he's testing that functionality. Um, another licensed item is the wireless access points and he's looking at another replacement and that project will likely take much longer as it would require a proof of concept first. Uh, MCCAST training and prep has been largely completed. Still some issues that he is addressing but no blocking issues. And last item is that the March state reporting prep has started and beyond the data correction for

079classes that was performed last month been reaching out to individual teachers to fill data that was missing to more accurately represent their functions and background of the district. uh for example the MEP ID was missing for many employees and several employees with roles that require an assignment did not have one. So that's another task he's been he's taken on in addition to the other technology assignments. All right. No old business. So we're on to policy. Excuse me. I have a question. Oh, sure. I don't know if this falls under point business and not I don't see it on the agenda anywhere, but at the last meeting we talked we were talking about new graduation new graduation requirements for uh it was hopefully to have a proposal for this meeting. So is that old business? No,

080we don't have a proposal for next year for end of next year yet. So we just when we discussed it last month, we talked about for this year for end of the school year. So you have you will have a proposal the committee will have a proposal um by next month. All right. Mhm. policy. Uh we have a motion to approve the reading and adoption of policy KF, the rental and use of facilities. So that's a voting item. Um Mr. Mor, you want to Sure. I don't know how how uh in detail you want me to go. Um we went this like M. McGary said, this went through policy subcommittee twice, two different readings. um we we updated some of the language but specifically some of the the the the fee structures that were in

081place for several years. So we looked at making those more relevant. Um we have broken down um the groupings if you will to four distinct groups. Um so for example group one is MVPs clubs and teams. uh advent group 4 is our groups that are individuals or non-n Northbrookfield residents organizations uh that are all for profofit. So based on these four categories we came up with different fee structures uh for renting out um the auditorium ka cafeteria kitchen gyms fields etc. Um, and with these with these fees, there are some uh some service fees as well. We're a custodial if this if the kitchen is being rented, there's kitchen health fees. Um, so all those fees were were investigated and updated based on um what in my opinion kind of long overdue looking at at

082some of the fee structures that we have in place. Um we we want to make sure that we allow or we we are using our facility um to as many people as we can, but predominantly our youth organizations here in town. We want to make sure that for example, youth soccer, youth basketball still has access to our facilities. Uh but we have we have some some slight changes in some of those fees as well. So we're looking at increasing that to a $500 flat fee for those organizations. What was it before? um it was we didn't really have one that was that was kind of regularly enforced. So that's a flat fee and then if we do need custodians uh to to kind of unlock and be in the buildings there's also that fee associated

083as well. Um so those that was all clearly articulated in the fee structure. Uh there's a timeline that we we want to adhere to. So we have this new uh facilities policy talks about 14 days that the superintendent and the facilities director has to have 14 days before uh we can execute an event. So we don't want things to be sprung on us two days prior to the event. We need time to plan. We want both building principles to sign off which that's current practice but the the adherence to the timeline we want to really make sure that's that's adhered to. Um, so we have do we have any um organizations like how often do we have new organizations approach us or do we just generally have a kind of a a roster that we

084have some long-standing relationships with uh like I said youth organizations here in town. The theater guild used our facility. Um we had a uh an adult basketball league that came back to our facility this year. Um and that that fee structure was different than the youth groups. They're paying an hourly rate plus the custodial rate. Um we have one group that that is looking at using our fields. Um we're in the process of of discussing that potentially. We may say no to that group because um we want to give our youth groups, our youth soccer group first priority. And if there's a cancellation one of their games, that means those kids are being displaced. So you we take all that into account. Um, but we don't have we don't have people knocking down the door

085to use our facilities. We have some long-standing relationships and we have a couple new ones that that pop up. Um, but we want to make sure that that we have good relationship with all those groups. One one thing I um I I kind of overlooked, you know, we we removed the there used to be the requirement for committee approval. Correct. and um you know that that having committee approval uh doesn't allow for a timely um approval of of the for the event depending on on notice. Um, but as far as uh like out groups outside of North Brookfield, nonprofit and for-profit, could could we make an addendum that that those any outside groups like that would be reviewed by committee? Um, I I I would say it does say we have the right to cancel

086any permission granted. Number 11, right? Wouldn't it be better to have it brought to us first? I think three and four would be something that we should have the I had mentioned to John that the school committee should have still a say over before we just find out about it, you know, within a few days of the event being held and then try to kash the whole thing. I I again I the the understanding we we're trying not to inhibit um events are taking place uh as far as you know timing goes but at the same time we have a a new organization outside North Brookfield. That's probably a rare thing and they probably would had you know big lead time anyway. Yeah. type of event you would think they would be trying to plan

087or something or or reoccurring or something that would be some lead time for them too. But I think it'd be worth um just adding that in. I do you have some suggested language you want to add or um let's see where we're at. I guess under number three, we could add a um a part a uh regarding groups three and four that The school committee could review the applicant prior to approving the event. So maybe you have groups one and two have that they're under this umbrella that you have up here saying um the use of school buildings, grounds, equipment and facilities will be authorized by the superintendent in conformity with the following regulations which have been approved by the school committee. So we have group one and two under that umbrella. However, group three

088and four needs to be presented to the school committee and then maybe you change it so that you know the group one and two has 14 days, but then group three and four is going to need more time because we're going to have to look at it first. But I would also add it like any this is new groups, new like groups that have not uh used the facilities before. I I I would allow that any any groups that we've had previous relationships with uh be grandfathered in basically. Hopefully that's not too muddy. I I can word it and bring it back to the committee next month. That's if that's desire. any uh comments or questions on this? Um, and my question on the um bottom where it says in all bold in all caps,

089the superintendent, I lost my page. What does it say? The superintendent may establish a reduced fee. I think that was it. Reduce fee. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yep. I didn't hear you right. How what uh I wonder what circumstances did that come up? Uh it was really thinking about we again we don't want to inhibit uh when I was put that in there. So that we want to make sure that our youth groups are prioritized, right? So if if this would go were to go in effect, let's say in June, it may or may not give those groups enough notice to their to their families if they have to charge increased fees. Um, so you know, I like to think we can work with those groups to make it make it work for them, for us.

090Um, it it's again, we want to try to adhere to the policy as much as we can. That's not I mean, and it's not it's not everybody gets a certain deal. It's it's following the policy and following the the prices set in the policy, but there may be situations with timelines that we may have to to work together. question. I have a question. Has the current policy um been being followed with all outside people who use the facility having to pay in the district? Uh this this old fee schedule is I think brand new and that's basically where I worked in the office and I used to maintain the buildings and grounds. There was a previous free fee schedule and this is an updated one that we were voting on. No, I know. I'm just

091asking if the current one has been followed and everybody is being charged so it's equitable for all. So the champions program they pay a daily rate to use the facility. Uh I don't know if it's a daily rate. We we do get some uh we do have a cost share with them. You get a a contract with them? We do. Okay. Y thank you. I I have Sure. Now, just out of curiosity, uh the youth soccer for instance, if they want to use the fields for the games, what are we what are they looking at for fee? Um right now with this new this new fee structure, it' be $500. And that $500 is it's a seasonal rate is for maintaining. Yeah, it's maint um we go back to whether it's field improvements or or

092you know, buildings and grounds improvements. And the fees we we've arrived at fall in line with other districts. Yeah. I mean, I think they're they're in line. They're actually less than some of some other districts I looked at just based on, you know, we're making a change. We're making a jump. We don't go too high. Yeah. Um, could I make a comment that $500 was always in there for a youth program and it was $5 or an inind donation and at times they used to replace the soccer nets down on the Hubac field. Um, and that was always a a piece for the youth soccer based on the past policy. I think they have replaced the nets. Um they did years ago they used the last couple in kind. I think even within the last

093couple years they have too. Um that language is still in here on the fee schedule it says North Brookfield Town Leagues that use the outdoor facilities at a regularly scheduled time will be asked to pay the seasonal rental fee or give in kind contributions. It's on there equaling the fee of 500. Yeah. So the rate didn't change any. All right. So with the um we'll deal with this until next month. Get the language is hammered out. Um but otherwise I think it's a fair uh fair policy. Do we have to make a motion to table? Um since yeah, since it's a voting item, uh get a motion to table this until next month with uh clarifying language. So move. All in favor of tableabling this until next month. Hi. All right. Um, new business. We

094have the 2526 school calendar. And since this uh this meeting was originally supposed to be last week, we realized looking at the schedule that it would have been closer to the previous meeting and then six weeks until the next meeting and given the opportunity for the presentation of the uh the cat lab felt it was uh beneficial to have meeting this week. So that was something we uh we overlooked in approving the last calendar. So, um I want to just uh make sure that we don't have any major gaps between our meeting dates. But any, uh my only thought was the November school committee meeting is on the 10th. Should we make that looking at that right? No, 17th. No, it's a holiday. That's That's a holiday. That's That's observation for Veterans Day. Okay. Wait

095a minute. That doesn't make sense. Shouldn't Shouldn't it be on the 11th? Yes. No, November 11th is the observed day. It's a Tuesday. It's highlighted as the 10th. That should be the I should know it's my birthday. I never had school on my birthday. National holiday for your birthday, John? Um, let's see. There's six weeks, but that's because of the holidays in December to January. And then there are some that are only three weeks, but that's because you have to make up for that. So, yeah. So, there's only three weeks between April and May and June, but that's because of the holidays and school ending. And so, there's not much you can do about that and vacations. Yeah. Yeah. So, and with with Christmas on Thursday this year, it's going to be full two weeks

096off. Yeah. So, in the contract, um there's I think it's you have the day before Christmas Eve or off. Um and then we could come back on Friday, January 2nd, but um we discussed and and I shared this with union leadership and they felt that uh it gives a everybody a full two weeks not coming back for one day. So, we're out on the 22nd, which is that Monday. We come back on Monday the 5th of January. And then a half day on the 19th, too. Uh, which day? Wow. The 19th of December. Yes. Starting with our our first two days back. uh for teachers is the 25th and 26th of August, which is similar to what we've been the last couple years. And then the last day of school is the 17th if there's

097no snow days, 17th of June. Uh that's correct. Okay. Shouldn't the uh snow makeup days start on the 18th then instead of the 22nd or I'm sorry, say that again. Uh for June, it says snow makeup days 22 to 26. So snow makeup day should start on the 18th. It should. Yeah, I can make that correction. Yeah, cuz then it's the Juneenth holiday, so we can come back on the 22nd. So it' be 18 and then right. Yeah. So other than that and the Veterans Day holiday. So, we have I can move to approve this pending the adjustment to Veterans Day and to the change of date of the school makeup days unless we have other stuff to talk about. Nothing else is popping out of me. All right. Well, I move to approve the

098school calendar with the knowledge that we'll be adjusting the Veterans Day holiday and changing the snow makeup days to start on the 18th of June. second. Now we can discuss. Yeah. Oops. Well, LeBron's not watching. All in favor of the calendar with those two adjustments. Hi. Hi. All right. Don't have an executive session. So, can I have a motion to call this meeting adjourned? Can I ask a question? I don't know if it's a question or comment, but sorry to delay everything, but this is only my second meeting and I know I'm new at this and all that, but I correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the role of the school committee is to represent the town's people in the operation of the schools. Is that correct? Is that correct? Yes. Okay.

099So I listen to all the reports and everything seems wonderful except the only problems I hear are the buildings and grounds. Everything seems wonderful and yet the uh class sizes are dropping and we don't have enough money and this and that. But I don't hear problems. I just hear how every everything is wonderful. Is there something I'm missing? I hear other great pro programs, but I don't hear about any problems. And if we're to help the town's people have a, you know, a proud school system and we don't hear of problems to be addressed, then I don't know know if we're doing if it's a complete job. So, if I'm mistaken, somebody please correct me. I don't have problems. Everything's we have public comment session. We have emails available, phone numbers available. And if it's

100a committee matter, it comes to the committee. Okay. If it's a school issue, it goes through the schools. Okay. I'm learning. What is the role of the school committee? Maybe that would be helpful for us as towns people. fee. We are here to represent the uh towns people and the students in the district, the parents of the students in the district. And if the parents have concerns, like I said, emails are open. the meeting is open. There's time for public comment and we've invited that repeatedly like the last few meetings. So, thank you for those that have participated tonight in public comment because that's why it's there. And um can I ask how something gets put on the agenda then? Yeah. because really important issues have been discussed publicly at other meetings that weren't put

101on this agenda. And I'm curious as to why we're supposed to be able to discuss it. Are you saying it's up to the public to bring it up? Well, the committee to bring it up like the finance committee. We assumed I made that assumption which I know we're not supposed to do but after the last finance committee meeting in which you were several of you were present I made the wrong assumption that you were going to bring up certain articles that we discussed at the finance committee meeting and it hasn't transpired yet. I didn't have a copy of the agenda. Had I had a copy of the agenda, I probably would have brought it up initially, but we several members of the finance committee are here tonight. We were here to answer questions and to

102discuss budget. That's a big issue. Budget the budget is still being it's in flux. Mr. Dario, at the finance committee meeting, I specifically specifically asked you if this would be brought up at uh at the school board meeting. What had transpired at the finance committee meeting? Did you mean it wouldn't be the next school board meeting when you said that it would be or not this one? I don't know if you're silence me. No, my my silence is my silence is me trying to recall that and um I was not taking notes of my own things. So, I apologize. Um I did not receive minutes from that meeting. So, um, if there were minutes from the meeting stating that, I didn't receive them. I believe it was a very lengthy conversation that we had. Um,

103so if we're not going to if you're not going to discuss it tonight, can we assume again that it will be on on the agenda for the next uh school board meeting? Yes, we can put that on the agenda. What specifically, Mr. McGar? Also, if we're going to have a conversation with the with the finance committee, we need to post it as a joint meeting. Yes, that's we didn't come here as as a committee. We all came separately. We didn't post the meeting. We came to sit here and and perhaps if you needed answers to questions, we could do it. But we're not here as specifically the finance board. There are three of us here from I'm just trying to and others that will possibility of Mr. McGario's hesitation for it is is because there

104is technically a quorum from the finance comm. They're not participating in this conversation, but you did say answer questions and have a conversation about it. So that is we're hesitant to do that if if we knew you were coming. If we know you're coming next time, we can post as a joint committee and we can have a full full-on conversation. You could have a conversation with the members without a decision being made. Yes, you can. We also have a considerable amount of homework from that finance committee meeting. Are the rest of the members of the of the uh school board who were not present that Thursday night two weeks ago with the finance board? Are you aware of anything that transpired at that meeting? I I had a conversation with John who called me. I

105requested to be zoomed into that meeting, but I because I had no child care, so I couldn't attend. Um, and I was told that because it was going to be a quorum, I couldn't be zoomed in. Um, and that I was explained that that was uh an error. And so that's why I didn't wasn't able to attend. And um, I will say this, I I heard some about what happened at that meeting. I don't think I can say I have details on the workings of how the meeting went. I did get told that that Mr. McCormack was coming up with a you know the budget he has now a meager budget and then a bare bones. That's what I was told that we were going to see something different but I I I kind of

106thought we were going to have it today and I looked at the agenda and it wasn't on there. So I don't know when that's coming is when is that coming? Uh that would come next month. Yes, I just I looked up the MGL on the role in the school committee, so I thought I would share it with all the members. Um the school committee in each city and town in each regional school district shall have the power to select and to terminate the superintendent shall review and approve budgets for public education in the district and shall establish educational goals and policies for the schools in the district consistent with the requirements of law and statewide goals and standards established by the board of education. The school committee in each city, town, and regional school district

107may select a superintendent jointly with other school committees, and the superintendent shall serve as the superintendent of all the districts that selected him. So you have like the school committee's job is to oversee the superintendent. Do you guys review the superintendent? Maybe like performance review. Yeah. like like wouldn't staff get reviews? I know like the superintendent the superintendent has goals that are set and we vote on those and uh the superintendent's goals are reviewed. Did the superintendent make you aware that he's in the final running for a position in West Boilston right now? Yes, he did to the whole board. He disclosed that without being told the board being told by somebody else. He disclosed it to me and I disclose it to the rest of the committee. I move to adjourn. Second. All in

108favor? I I