001[Music] all right 6 o' call this meeting to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance alag the United States of America stands Nation God indivisible Justice for thank you everyone for [Music] attending uh first item on the agenda is recognition and uh I'd like to welcome Mr Ralph K is our newest member of the committee thank you for your uh stepping up to fill the role and um welcome the board thanks recognition yeah just a few I want to uh first recognize I think Mr Murphy is going to do this later on tonight as well but uh Clen MCA who is our reading teacher over at the elementary school who organized Camp read a lot uh that's been a year-to-year tradition um that we we've organized uh the Friday prior to vacation where pretty
002much every classroom in the elementary school spends parts of the day reading uh together out loud individually so just another way to still the love of reading it to our students uh I also want to give a shout out and a big thank you to our custodial staff um who as you have all seen our winter has been a real winter this year and we've had a lot of snow and ice and sleet in this past storm even though it was on a Sunday um did a fantastic job of cleaning up the parking lot uh it's down to be asphalt um if we had a a week of school that may have been another snow day um thankfully it was not but uh they've done a nice job of making sure that our our sidewalks
003and our parking lots have been clear so thank you to to Eric and his team for their hard efforts and last but not least I want to just mention that the girls basketball team uh qualified for the Mia state tournament they are playing uh colle the Collegiate Charter School of L tomorrow evening at 5:00 so we'll be traveling from North quickfield to L for the game tomorrow evening I believe they finished 10 and S Mr J ises that sound correct yes um so another winning season for the girls basketball team so congratulations to coach Malone and the team for making the tournament and that's it for this season thanks uh next item on the agenda was approval of minutes uh you will all receive minutes in your packet uh any comments or questions so can
004we ask questions about like about not I have questions that I could have asked last meeting but I couldn't attend so is that what I asked is exactly what I asked I all right um well first let's um make a motion make a motion to approve the minutes I make a motion to approve the minutes from last meeting have a second please second all right uh discussion um so I just had a question in regards to the um sub separate class that we had all the staff leave um and so there was a teacher hired and that teacher also departed and um what's the status now we have a long-term sub in that classroom um I believe it was either in last months or this month's still the same you don't have it hir correct
005where's Caitlyn she's sick today oh so here are our minutes right here right yes she'll uh probably uh do the minutes from the video okay any other comments or questions all in favor of approving the minutes as uh recorded I uh public participation any public participation yes uh she a little blank Town accountant I just have a quick question um Jason Petrus forwarded um some reports to me regarding the um school budget uh and their balance for this year uh historically I send my balance up to the school and I don't see these reports but on this report that was submitted to Mr petritis um it shows that your remaining balance is still 7,286 um but that was what was voted at the beginning of the year so it's not in agreement with mine um
006and this was a program generated report so you're saying there's no running tally of how much money's been spent well this is said that this was submitted for the January school committee meeting and if you um look at it and I I can share it with you it does not um tell you it it tells you what your your balance is is according to this program but it it's not close to mind so I I don't know speciically what which one you're looking at U I know that Danielle is working uh through submissions with Tyler but we right now have expended 3.38 one million of a total 7.28 million but it's not on this report yeah that report is that the title report ref yeah so that report and that's something that we are are
007working through it doesn't translate to what the current budget is okay so this is also a Tyler report I don't know which one that is and this is mine and it translates to what the budget balance is um and part of Desy regulations on 603 is that you have to have a program that break down your expenses and your revenues and we do uh I'm not sure I I don't think I can give you a full answer on some of questions this evening but I have I'd be more than happy to help Danielle with this if she needs it she's undergoing training she's been through three sessions already I think she has three more um so she's trying to rectify any issues that we that she inherited through the Ty technology system well it worked
008in 2021 um we were able to balance but I don't know what's happened since then but I'm I'm just not sure how you balance with me if you as a school committee are approving Finance reports without a balance on it it's just my concern well we approve them to the best of our knowledge and um that's uh that's where that is we have to put our faith in what's given to us as being accurate and true and um I would assume the work is being done and whether a particular number is uh I don't know that's that's a software thing as far as I'm concerned if it's not being certain report just isn't generated properly it's a software training issue so if that's under under work then I would assume that we can have the
009proper number at the next meeting yeah the number that I did I did St State earlier and it's in your your packet it looks like this that is an ACC gr number uh like I said we're working through some technology issues with Tyler so the those numbers are all um on the same page that is okay sorry these pages are sideways does your number your running tally sound like what Mr mccom just said uh pretty close uh I have a balance of 3,557 1230 in the general fund only that's the only piece I have yes I see it here yeah so we have the total 7 billion 20 and then uh yeah 3.3 million [Music] so it's just a matter of getting the right number out of the software like delivering the answer of that
010can be transmitted to the town offices it just wasn't in the that last report it's in it's in the report that you have it's not in the report that right okay so it's not like the hasn't been counter for just say data has been transmitted do we know if that was in Prior months too or is that just I we have to go back and look I think it was just the the singular request actually if I go back for the reports that they asked it was the same case for 23 24 but I don't I give my information to them to double check because every warrant you guys sign that pile of bills I have to hand key those in so it's a double check both ways cuz I could make an error put
011it in putting it in and that's why you balance at the end of the month with all the and so all the reports are provided to the superintendent office okay so Danielle is being trained on the this program Tyler you call it [Music] all right anybody else yeah uh Matt Grant 99 old East Brookfield Road uh just to going back to the regionalization study I just had a quick question to see if any of the board I know this board voted to move it forward to our town for a vote potentially um I know quog didn't I'm just curious on how all that plays out cuz we all know this was a super long process takes a long time and if we ever want to revisit it again it's going to take another several years
012was there is there any thought of going to quog because watching their me the answers the questions they had about the report they got were all questions that could be answered uh they just you know asked them and said oh I don't know and just said well we can't bring this to the town let's vote it down is there any thought to going to quog or has it happened has anybody talked with the chair there about rekindling it and saying hey we can get the answers to this let's work through this because I know like I said it was a four five plus year Pro process and there was a huge gap of what a year and a half where there was no meetings and it was in in the attorney's hands to write up
013this um whatever they wrote up that last report that you guys saw um is there any thought of talking to quog about what their thoughts were and getting them those answers because I mean I just look at it like for me personally I think with our town with the way the budget's going and everything regionalization and for our kids we need to do something I mean something different than what we're doing at some point but where where's the direction I guess well I think the direction was me I mean Tim Canada who who will be late to this meeting um was involved directly with that um but based on the the fact that they voted that way is I I would say that that kind of puts where they stand in in relation to to
014whether or not North Field Joys with quog at all and if they voted to not even give their own constituents an opportunity to vote on it as we did then they they kind of dead dead ended that um and I I think the the gist that I got from from that meeting was they were concerned about any financial responsibilities that would be inheriting from us specifically uh teachers contracts and and things like that so so did they did they go did they ask any more information afterwards or was it just that meeting I think that just kind of killed it yeah well they just cuz they asked questions but they didn't really answer their own question they kind of that's why I was wondering if there was any followup or anything but but based on
015their vote I mean if they really wanted to they would have approved it yeah to me it seems they like I said they they kind of killed it yeah so if they had left it open to the town being able to vote on it that would have given more breathing room to to answer those questions and so I agree with you 100% that's where I'm going with this is that I don't know that they truly understood the process I felt you watch that meeting they felt like they looked like they were all set before they walked in what they wanted they vote so I mean there's that there were people who were there y what's that there were people that did Vote or something like that I kind of felt like it might have been
016predetermined as well just based on things I've heard but I just think that it's a a lot of waste of time and I'm not blaming anybody here I'm just saying that it would be nice to know why they wouldn't want to push it to their t to get the answers to those questions to try to work through some of that Financial stuff well part of it was if I don't you know when we would have meetings and ask to have updates even up to last year when Ron was still on who was also on the regionalization committee um there were meetings were pushed off over and over and over again I think this kind of was a long time coming Sheila yes she sorry I'm sorry haven't served on that commit since 2020 what I
017got out of the meeting was they didn't think it would be um benefit them financially yeah and I guess I wish they had just said that in 2020 or 2021 when the those initial numbers projections came out because we had them back then I mean we had some projections so projections yeah exactly right and then given the the way the process was drawn out I I don't think Co help at all and then uh I think some of the meetings were put off because of Co stuff anyway there's a lot there's a lot of delay and and I I feel you know they given the length of time I think it was drawn out far too long given the projections that were originally given and then gave a lot of time for things to change
018that that correct and that's why why I'm asking the question about followup like was there was so there's no communication between when that study came out in our board and their board I I not I know okay just curious and it just seems like it should have been a conversation that happened you know on not not necessarily from our end but if they had these questions they should have there were meetings to to to share all the financial information from free communities and there was multiple meetings that they had at quog this is going back maybe year and a half two years ago y but they did present the financial you were at some of those right um but that's the last time that we had any serious conversation about financials so I guess to
019me to take a grant of 200 and it's nothing again nothing against this board I'm just saying to each side we had a grant of $250,000 to study this why did they even wait why they just say back then hey no I don't even know how much of that was actually expended I don't know actually you still have some in that Grant fund um but that that was held up primarily on the Chairman's side they never asked for really updated figures the figures we were still looking at were the ones based on the ones the outside contractor did um but that's what they based it on um but I I know the chairman who was their chairman of the school committee was actually one of the ones that voted in favor of going forward with
020the rization I just thought that was the idea is to get into the towns to look at so I just just I would have thought that they could have at least let the town people vote agreed it was it was rather disappointing because it was you know it would at least presented a a separate opportunity you know a path on theal path and and I think you know uh it's rather I don't want to I don't know cast dispersions but I think it it should have been put up to the towns for vote and and let let the people decide as opposed to a committee deciding for the people um especially for something of that magnitude but as for moving forward again the the the way that vote was split I would say that's a
021hard no at at any regionalization and um any any further movement on that would not solve anything in the short term especially you know we've got we're we're in budget season now um it's not going to it would be another I would say it be another long process of negotiation and uh I don't know if there's any indication that there's a willingness to to revisit any of it might just I was just curious to see if there was if they had reached out or if there was anything outside of that one meeting where they voted it down because I would assume it would have to come up and vote again on their end and and barring any any turnover in their committee uh of which I'm aware um I don't see it moving in in
022any other direction other than where it is that answers that so as far as the going forward on our end though is there like with enrollment our enrollment piece and budget what's the next step I know we've been talking about for The Last 5 Years well if regionalization doesn't happen we have to plan for a standalone School District to budget for that so is there any like what's the next step to getting rolling up here well there there are programs underway uh we've got the at the high school we're starting a program uh to gain interest in manufacturing and uh I believe next year is kicking off from for the Freshman so freshman through senior class uh it was an advanced manufacturing I yeah we're starting with Advanced manufacturing Innovation Pathways program is where we're
023starting so you're going to see from the high school big push towards stem programming um and Pathways programs uh so we've done a lot of work this year to start to move that we actually started last year um so you'll see a big push on that as we move forward Mr mccor has been getting quite a few grants for us to continue that program and moveing forward and so that that'll be a draw because it's it's an opportunity that is not presented in any other districts in the area I certainly have Bay Path for for trades but this provides a different avenue into manufacturing as opposed to you know the it's a different skill set yeah um and it gives them an opportunity uh to be Hands-On in the manufacturing process not only just you
024know administrative and office type of stuff but you also get to be on the on the the floor of a manufacturing facility and learn the ins and outs so that's that's a completely different path from what you see at at Bay paath or other other schools in we can't offer anything bayth has right right no and that's why we brought back small machines repair that's great um and then we have the woodworking shop that's back open and what we also have which Bay Path doesn't is the small size right and a lot of kids from this area will go to Bay Path and come back there are a lot children that do that because they the it's a huge place if you're not used to 200 kids in your class or upwards of 200 kids
025in your whole grade it might be too much you know so we can still have some of that personal and very different experience with the small class size my understanding is that even if you do get it to bayth there's no guarantee that you get the shop that you want right so you know there's that there's that chance and some kids bounce back from that because they didn't get they didn't get place where they wanted to be placed and uh again the the small class size is definitely a draw because some of these bigger schools it's just you know for some kids it's too much and you know socially emotionally it's it's not it's it's not meant for them and we offer a smaller class size and people can poo poo that all they want
026see oh it's such a small school this this class is so small it in reality it's a draw for for people and um I think we're seeing a steady growth in that direction uh especially give the opportunities that are coming uh especially the High School level I would like to ask Dante what do you feel about the small classes and stuff like that uh I believe that it is um a better than these other schools because I've always seen it as these other kids that leave and stuff like that they are going to have harder time getting the help that they may need and when it comes time for graduation you have uh you're competing more for money towards colleges as well so it's uh a better opportunity here rather than going where you're in
027a class of 200 where you're in like 30 here thank you thank you it's a great perspective did we miss anything no yes that was a great job youd make a great PR but I I would just add one thing we picked up two new students well right before break um so we're constantly getting an influx not a huge influx but we do see kids me to our school uh that want a smaller school from the neighboring schools not just kids who live in North Brookfield but uh student school choice again just for what Dante said because they do want the smaller smaller size so I know the staff's committed and we're committed and we appreciate the support of the school committee but um you know Mr McCormack's done a heck of a job with
028grants and stuff for us because you know finances are tight but we're planning on growing the school up that's for sure so girls basketball teams coming all right any other public participation thank you very much Sheila and Matt all right Southern Wester County Educational collaborative update oh sorry I skip communication commun Communications all right collaborative update so I've attached to your um monthly packet uh this is the second core report of the S wor County Education collaborative or swack uh so obviously noi as a member of this collaborative um this is just an update on what's going on within their schools and their offerings um and they talk about their expenditures and enrollment for those for those schools and also for those subpar classrooms um this is something that they need all the member districts
029to um have uh inserted if you will into the packets on on a on a quarterly basis just so that you guys are fully aware of what's going on by CL so it's not a voting item it's just more information any questions about the report I don't have anything no I don't have any questions thank you for that uh student representative [Music] report uh so uh Excellence book and award submissions at the beginning of the month we submitted our masc Excellence book and we applied the National Council of Excellence award we'll find out about the Excellence book at our spring Conference next next week in hyanis and we'll find out about the national one later in the spring Unity week our annual Unity week uh took place the week before break this event was used
030to enhance our sense of community as a school and to show support for all of our different types of uh people from members of the lgbtq uh plus Community to uh children with special needs and even just everyone's individuality then our upcoming events uh we have the masc spring conference at hyenes from March 6th to the 9th oh actually I believe it's the 4th to the uh 7th this year uh spring conference in April and uh social media we invite all community members to follow our social media accounts to keep up with all mbhs stugo activities and events our accounts are Instagram at NBO and Facebook at NB stugo uh student council meetings all meetings are open to the school and Community meetings are typically every other Monday in in the high school Kaa please
031feel free to join us if you have anything you would like to discuss or we just like to see how things are run thank you thank you Dante any questions or Callins on the representative board how many kids go on these uh so in hyanis this coming up week I believe there is around 10 so uh we can take up uh around 12 yeah it's um a great experience so 9 through 12 a whole range of students are going some is their first time and then I think some of them this is going to be their third time going adviser two right yes two uh one any other questions thank you Dante uh moving on uh School Community reports uh I don't believe we have anything to report um so moving on two Financial reports
032we have transfers yeah there's two transfers um the first is requesting approval to transfer the sum of $1,315 from the electricity High School to gas high school um the second transfer is for the sum of 9,938 from par professional special ed Elementary to par professional special at high school which I believe have copies of those two transfers [Music] all right we have to vote on this so uh a motion to approve the transfers [Music] of $1,315 from electricity to gas at the high school and 9,913 18 from Pair professional special Elementary to par professional special at high school that salary is that a salary yes so you moved the person no it was just being paid out the elementary for sh been out of high school so moved second all in favor of transferring these
033sums as stated all right thank you [Music] everyone gu we will superintendent report uh so we'll start with uh a few updates I believe I had six or seven to review before we discuss or any questions containing to the fy6 budget um as as we do every month we just talk about the new hires and the departures uh I would like to uh just mention on February 6 myself Mr diorio and M Malone uh traveled to uh Boston for the day uh we visit visited both Boston collegiate and John de O'Brien schools in Boston this was part of the 18 applied learning grant that we received back in the fall so this grant paid for this trip to Boston for the day to to go and watch or to observe 10 classrooms uh and to
034to look at what applied learning is now applied learning in a nutshell is what we are are using uh we want to use it with Fidelity across the district but we're using it right now with open side classrooms which are offered to grade 678 here the at the middle school plus our project leave the way courses that are offered at both the elementary and the Middle School level um but this Workshop really kind of gave us an idea of of what we want to see in our classrooms we want to see that student discourse we want to see the release from the teacher to the students where that the students are doing the learning the students aren't just listening to a teacher that stage on the stage kind of idea uh that we often see
035uh not not necessarily saying that we see that uh too much here but that's something that we see uh at VAR levels across any school district can do to so this movement or this this this work is around working with our teachers not only through the 18 18 Foundation through these great opportunities but also bringing this back to our our district as a whole um to show them uh to support them with some of these changes we're also doing this as I mentioned uh through our continu to work with nobec education and that's our work with udl um both both schools today had a curriculum hour where they spent the time working on um classroom objectives looking through a udl lens and making sure that it was accessible for all students um so that's been
036a big push big continued push for next year as well with all of our teaching staff um as I mentioned before this great opportunity will allow Mr diorio and two teachers to attend a conference in Denver in April um it's paid for by the grant um and it again it allows one of our leaders and two of our our teachers to observe in real time some exemplars of what the supply learning uh concept looks like so the the end game would be bring this back to the district and share out to both schools on what this looks like and how we can support our teachers and our students to get there for more classrooms um additionally um North Brookfield Public Schools back last year or over the summer we received $155,000 as a startup Grant
037which was for our inov career Pathways we submitted Part B of the application we should hear back from the state in March uh whether we we are fully uh brought onto that program but we did receive an additional $35,000 to support the durable hardware for those programs um and that's a good sign because that that means that um without putting the cars for the horse that that they are excited about our application and they want to support us in buying some of that expensive equipment that comes with these programs so this grant will help offset some of the costs at 18 and project lead the way we'll be funding uh some of the durable equipment to make sure these these classes get off get off the ground running uh on the 13th of February I
038attended a legislative lunch in in West oilon uh with 20 plus superintendents from the area uh where we met with local politicians State Rep state senators um it was kind of a I think it was a snow day for us or a delay for us so the attendance was kind of a mixed B B uh but we talked about Chapter 70 funding funding at the state level we talked about the increased need for special education circuit breaker funding um we talked about uh small rural school aid and how we need to make sure that that we continue to see that grow at the state level um as you may or may not know the governor uh proposed her budget a few weeks ago uh now that process will be ongoing until probably late June um
039before we have a budget for the state um but but having the opportunity to talk to our local politicians and have them ask ask questions about our needs uh is always beneficial because I can talk about kids like Dante and students uh that that are are enrolled in our schools currently and what they're facing as challenges and what our families are facing as challenges and what we're facing every year uh as a small rural school district and and the challenges we face um financially so it was a good conversation um and I think that that the local reps that did attend uh walked away with a better sense of what's going on not only in North Brookfield but the entire Wester County and last but not least two more things um we have been meeting
040I've been meeting with my newly ADI newly kind of rolled out superintendent advisory committee which I started this year uh there six students one Middle School student and five high school students we meet once or twice a month uh to discuss how we can work as a collective group so six students and myself with some issues that are going on across the district and what we landed on um right now with this group is to to work on our positive messaging for our elementary school students we want to to Really capture that target audience as soon as we can so what we're planning on doing later this week and early next week is having presentations to our Rising fifth and sixth graders so our students will be traveling to the high school next year but
041students who will be you know staying over at the elementary school next year as well so we want to really capture those students as as young as we can to talk about the the programs the offerings the student life here at the Junior Senior High School um so uh this team has developed a couple presentations that they'll be using uh for these presentations with our students and this is just another layer we're trying to add to to capturing those kids as they make that that 500 yard walk from the elementary school over to Middle Middle High School um so that meeting was uh we have a meeting tomorrow with that group and then we also I sent out a correspondence to families I believe last Friday just kind of updating everybody on on the snow
042um protocols the snow calls you may receive from me uh just to kind of make sure everybody's aware and and like I said earlier in this meeting we've had a a real winter includ was to Eric and his team for being so diligent making sure the school is prepared um but what I try to do is is all always call off school or a delay the night before if I can I want to give families as much notice as possible I know that some of our teachers drive a great distance as well so that the more notice I can give families and teachers and support staff the better I can't always do that but I like I like to do that as much as I can uh the message will always go out in a
043couple different ways phone call you receive a phone call or automative voice call from the district you'll receive an email from my sore page which is is something that I send out all my notifications through um you'll also we also be linked with Facebook and I also call uh fox25 Channel 5 and channel 7 so those three stations will pick up any delay or cancellation the district has what I also will try to do to the best of my ability is if we call a delay whether it's the night before or the morning of if the roads are not in great shape or we need to make a cancellation I would try to do that by 6:30 a.m. at the latest so that still gives families hopefully enough time to to arrange uh for someone
044to wash their children or or or take a day whatever they need to do I know it's not always ideal but it gives them a couple hours to make those decisions or make those phone calls to support their decisions so I just wanted to to kind of say that out loud I know I sent an email out but that's kind of my process my protocol for when I make a decision um I think we've had three days this year um so it's it's um it's like I said it's been a real winter as far as um snow and snowy roads are concerned any questions with any of those quick updates so um um Mrs Miss mlap is leaving the student adjustment counselor correct [Music] any other questions or comments thank you um do you want
045to go into administrative reports before we move to the budget or it's up to you I mean I I I presented last month um and and you have all the information um I think you know it requires a vote to move forward at this point but it's up to you I think we can just cover that now um so uh budget presentation updates there don't changes at this point um regarding what I what I Shar with you last month and I res shared one of the presentations this [Music] month so as it stands uh the the uh final approv budget for for schol year 25 was 7 million 8,658 and the current recommended budget for fiscal year is well with offsets uh 9 million $763,000 just want to make that clear there's still ongoing negotiations
046for our teachers contract and do a teacher contract expired the end of this year school year it does so there's no contract yet for next year right currently being negotiated that's what I just clarify myself thank you [Music] but this is the current working number you know we have to start somewhere and [Music] uh so and the number that would be going to the town would be the e27 837 right the recommended budget is 8,22 $ 7,837 31 just for the for the viewers watching at home last year's approved budget was higher but we we get those other offsets that cut down the cost by a million more than a million dollars it's like 1 Point 1.5 based on this year's budget [Music] and uh just for clarification you know this this is um this
047was in the last meeting but uh the major budget drivers are salaries uh special education and Transportation uh transportation is a big one uh it's an 11% increase um and uh again the salaries for the teachers are uh under negotiation but overall uh there's a 6.7% increase projected right now so that's uh that's where we stand there so we need to vote on this so we can have a motion to approve the budget has presented thus far can I ask a question we have to move it forward then we ask move forward okay a motion sure take some so you go I said that you're a low talker have a second please a second all right question yes I have a particular question we're adding two positions I'm sure you guys have all talked about
048this before but I'm new so bear with me a little bit there are two positions being added which goes into the salary account right can you tell me what those positions are sure those are that proposal um two positions uh was for an additional sub separate teacher and a full-time abbaa for that classroom we don't have those now we do but this is will be an additional class class I see I had questions about that because I wasn't here for last meeting um how is this going to be different from the other sub- separate class that's already not staffed I going to be different like it's serving it's serving a different population of students with different needs um this was mainly um a autism um I think that's what it said I would I wouldn't
049yeah I wouldn't label it as just that but it's a program that's that's going to look different than the current subset for the elementary school B in these institutes and that's Elementary School level from K to five yeah it would be K could be K through 5 correct or or K1 through 5 what was the reason for wanting to do that well if if we have the opportunity um to build programs within um even though there's an initial cost in the district it it's it's it's keeping those kids in District it's keeping those kids question at home and it's also a a short and long-term savings overall for the district if if down the road we had to send those students out to a placement you're talking um you know per student it's the cost
050of of a teacher and an AA um so if that were to happen it's it could be a significant savings to addition so you have students in mind that would be in that yeah no this isn't just something we we would plan on a win this is that this is this is for students that we know uh will need additional supports at some point in their Elementary and high school program when we look at our special education numbers specifically are are just placements it is always with with students in mind it's not we don't add numbers to to adding adding to those numbers those are based on who we know right now and that's the the tricky part is that if a student moves into the district that we didn't account for we have to
051find funding for that student and again with the rising uh cost of Transportation paying to transport another student out of district there more cost for the town and being able to retain that student in District again will be a savings or well a of District schooling is yeah very high then we're at the we're at the mercy of whatever that school charging that particular placement we just look at the percentage of the school's overall budget that is out of District special ed placements right now for a small District we have it's a big impact on the overall budget yes Almost Do you think that adding those positions or adding that so those Services would allow kids from other towns to come that's a great question and that's something that set some cost if if this
052program takes off um potentially and and yes it could be something down the road that we could bring students from other districts in I'll give you a perfect example we received an email a few weeks ago from from the superintendent of the quabit B schools who they are they have some programs that they're trying to fill within their district and they reached out to surrounding towns if they have students that we catch you to send there um and and you know it's it's a it's a great conversation to have because they can do that they can support our students potentially at a at a at a a lower cost than what a collaborative would charge so potentially it's your question down the road this is successful and viable we could do the same thing we
053could we could pull kids in the surrounding districts and essentially tuition them into our district to offset the cost of the salaries and the cost of the supports for those kids ining I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily call it that but if it does take hold we could send out fist to neighborh districts how many spaces will there be in that classroom um right now we're talking single digits but you know that could grow based on on need so of the 300 the $358,000 increase in salaries how much is are those two spots that's about $100,000 based on um what we project as as the level expertise for that teacher and then the cost of an apaa your idea just have have someone hired that's experienced and not just you know fresh face yes I in
054a program like this you need someone who has you know obviously the training and and the experience um to know how to to support these students and and to run this the room I mean there there's staff that reports to this particular teacher as well so we want to make sure that they have those skills you're likely to need more than one assistant in that classroom with the type of child you're talking about maybe maybe not um based on how we can cycle some of our other pars through classrooms we may be able to to to do that to start and if the program grows in size then we have to look at additional Staffing [Music] any other questions or comments about the budget well to be clear for the the viewers at home this
055vote moves this on to the next step in which case now the I we I invited the finance committee tonight but I don't think that was able to happen um but now there's a lot of finance committee meetings and conversations with the board of Selectmen so what we're voting on tonight is to move this to the town in general and we'll probably have to revote again on a on a finalized number once those conversations have ended and also as in previous budget years like Mr McCormack mentioned with the state budgets and things like that there is a lot of numbers that are in flux that will change over the course of the budget season so what we're voting is this is an acknowledgement that this is what the school is looking for for next year's
056programs and we will revisit the final number and discuss what the actual impact is to the programs at a later date once more of these numbers that we don't have the same amount of control over are uh determined question from mat Grant um could you clarify you mentioned aut of District uh special end cost and what we what what's the projected amount for next year just dollar I think it would help for people to understand that that's that's an amount we have to pay just we have all right so we have um outo District placement uh currently budgeted uh for four students uh this is between collaborative private day and residential uh total number of students is 15 for 15 students for this year 1,797 n39.3 uh there's a projected decrease from this year to
057next year of $50,000 51 50,51 61 it's 2.78% decrease which is minuscule in that number so for 15 students almost uh $11.75 million $1.8 million basically this year so when people online say hey we should just be better at spending money that's a 1.75 we can't this is this is um I just want I just want to make that clear great point and it's you know people people act like the school's just burning money and this is this is we are obligated legally morally ethically to support these students and this is how they need to be support and um this is just the number ass signed and again because of changes by the state for OU of District placement these other collaboratives schools they were allowed to increase their the tuitions what was the percentage
058two years ago was 14% 6% this year projection for next year is 4% right it's kind of dropping off but it it that 14% really took a hit and um so you know this is a big this is a big part of the budget you know out of 7 million you're talking you know $1.8 million directly going to 15 students and uh again being able to keep some students within the district would certainly offset some of this cost and um it's I think it's a a great goal to move towards um want to add something go ahead yeah thank you I want to be able to say this publicly because there have been people that have come forward that have said why can't we just take a tiny bit of that budget and pay a
059great teacher and have our own program so these children don't have to go out of district and it's very important for people to realize who don't know the population of these type of students who I do because one of my children is one of these students that it's not a matter of just hiring the right staff or having the right environment for them it's a whole group it's a whole set of skill sets it's it's it's also having the consistency of that program knowing that type of child's needs where you can hire somebody that could be great and then if that person leaves now you now that child doesn't have the proper supports anymore can you get somebody who who's equally um skilled and I've been through this myself with my own child where we
060had a great teacher and then that teacher left and the next teacher wasn't able to keep him at the status and the level that he should be at so that he can Excel so people need to realize that it's not just about you know one little special need or some help in reading that it's a it's a huge picture of the support that these type of children need if they have to be out of District it's a huge uh undertaking it's it's a lot for the the IEP team to figure out as a whole team um of the school all the professionals the parents and everybody to realize that this child just can't be serviced in a typical Public School environment and so while it seems like an easy fix just make an environment here
061for them it's not it's not an easy fix made a good point at the end there I was going to I was going to say it's not it's not an it's not a simple decision and a quick movement for a CH student to go to a a different program like this the school it's years sometimes takes years of professionals and working with the families and with the student and with the other members of the community in the in the school Community to figure out where the best fit is for them in this environment it's not it's not taken lately it's not something that is um you know a quick process but it's something that over over time time has been decided to be the best option for these students to get the education that as
062John said we as a town are morally and legally required to provide them until John also said ethically what you like thank you for the clarification I just I I kind of knew the answer I just wanted to broadcast it out because I think there's a huge misconception going on right now by led by a couple people online I think we all know who we're talking about um but it's just when I was on the school board there wasn't much meat on the bone on the budget we were paying for everything we had to and that was about it so I'm guessing it's similar now and I just don't think a lot of the Town understands that I mean they say let's slash teachers let's let's fire certain teachers it doesn't work that way it's
063it's easy to be a keyboard Warrior it's easy to to spout off and but without actually being in in the weeds and seeing what's going on seeing the hard work that's being done by the teachers and out uh it's it's not you can't just say oh we we'll condense these classes or we'll remove this teacher it's not that's not the fix we're already like people again people think we're burning money here and we're not there's there's very little you look at some of these line items and it's it's tiny the amount of money that's allocated to some of these departments over the course of a year and uh it's almost laughable compared to other districts or you know you know you think something something is important and it get such a small number assigned to
064it well we've talked about it for years too there's not there's not a contingency included in this right there there's you know Eric SE he's got his budget in there if something big breaks it's not in there it's a different conversation we have to have right so it's it's a it's a lean budget and to to your point Matt um we're talking about not a lot of meat on the phone there's conversations about grants and things and and grants not Grant um so the the grant conversation is the school adding these programs that you guys were talking about earlier without affecting the bottom line of the budget they're they're working with what they have and then that extra money that comes in helps to enhance the environment as it is and and make the school
065more appealing and to reward the students who are here like Dante you know he's he's is stck sticking with the school and deserves the finest education we can we can provide him right I think it does the the current student population disservice to speak uh to belittle the district and to undercut the efforts that are being made here to make this a thriving and successful district and again casting aspersions is not the way to move forward or to support the the the the schools it's part of the town and by undercutting the schools you're undercutting the town at large and I don't think that's fair I want a message the students I just feel it's a sad message to the students yeah I again that's why I try to speak highly of what's going on
066here because I I do speak with the administrators I do speak I try to speak with with with people when give the opportunity and they're working hard and people can spout it off online and say whatever they want but it does not reflect the efforts being made in the district to make this a successful School District um inter statement uh any other comments or questions about the budget as presented [Music] all right all in favor of uh approving the budget as noted sent on for further discussion and revision I I all right Northfield High School class of 20125 graduation requirement discussion okay so this is uh a new talking item um for this month's packet um if you recall back in November December uh question two uh was on the ballot um if you voted
067you you probably voted on this on this question uh what this question essentially said was that if it was to either keep mcast as a comp competency determination or not uh and what that means is it's a requirement for for students to pass the ELA Math and Science mcast examinations in order to graduate in order to receive a diploma um what what happened the vote uh it was it was voted down overwhelmingly that they are erasing mcast as a CD that does not mean that mcast is going away mcast will still be administer administered for students in elementary and middle and high school but like I said it will not be used either the test or the re test um for as a graduation prirate with full students who took the test were seniors this
068year um and they did not meet the the the CD requirements if you will uh what the what the basically the law is now stating is that each individual school district has to come up with a way to make sure that these students are progressing and these students are demonstrating Mastery of skill and that could look different ways for different districts um so what this is It's initial conversation uh this evening I put together a brief memo um and this is really around our our class of 2025 students um we looked at uh myself Mr diorio um School CS we looked at our student population our graduating seniors and there's nobody uh right now who would need additional remediation as far as you know who did not pass the examination who would not graduate so
069that's a good thing um but what we also need to do is look look at our our policies for FY for after this year for FY 26 and Beyond um and what are we doing to support those students when the test is no longer that CD um so what I did was I attached to this memo I I attached our current uh credit requirements for our foure subjects English social studies math uh Science World Language Fine Arts fad and electives and I also broke down what we require uh for graduation requirements for credits uh per year and and in total uh we also have currently a um a community service requirement that students have to complete 30 hours both a Junior and Senior year which is track internally um but what what this is is
070really to start the conversation around uh this determination moving forward like I said I think this will not impact anybody in our current senior class it will not impact anybody in our current senior class but we need to look look at what we are doing to support these students after this year uh and what I intend to do uh with the help of Mr diorio and and teachers and school counselor is to come back with a proposal for FY 26 and Beyond um to look at what we can do to support those students who um who are currently students underclassman who did not pass the MCAS one of those three core subjects what we can do what we need to do to make sure that they they earn their diploma how is this different from
071last year so last year you you had to like I said yeah well without that standard I mean sorry the the policy that that I outlined in this memo hasn't changed as far as the the credit requirements that has not changed um but but without the mcast requirement like I said you need to support those students whether it means they have to retake or make sure they pass the language has changed and that's where we need to really kind of dissect this it it used to be proficiency now it's Mastery how do you define Mastery right is that a is that a a c or better um so there's a lot of Gras and I will tell you that the state has done a lot of webinars around this um but they haven't given us
072a clear answer um they're really pushing it back to the individual districts to make these these determinations there are a few districts who are reopt if you will mcast as requirement most districts are not um but with that being said it's still like I said leaves us with this this area that we have to figure it out and we have to do what's best for our current students and what's best for our students moving forward to make sure they are ready for College and Career um we can't we don't want to I think when this was voted voted it down if you will um the state didn't have a a plan in place uh to fall back on um and I think the way it happened it happened very quickly uh up until the vote
073and there was a lot of back and forth between the two sides you know for against but there wasn't a contingency plan from the state if this doesn't get voted gets voted down what are we going to do so now it's on the districts to figure that out so I have a question if I just want to make sure that I'm clear if you if you're the the student didn't get all the credits that they needed to attain they needed credits and the mcast passing right yes yes okay so if a student does not you know transition from grade to grade with the appropriate credits they to read take courses if they fail those courses there options to take to retake courses outside the school year for example um and and we do have students
074to do that they have to double up on certain certain classes in order to graduate there is language around I think it's five or 10 credits Mr diio um that you may walk but you still have to earn those credits in order to early to fully earn your diploma so you may walk at graduation with your peers but you don't earn that diploma until you finish that last I believe it's last Force but the credit requirement has not gone away okay and it was always there yes that's not new yeah it didn't seem I know dropping mcast asass comp termination is is I say when I graduated there was no standardized test you had to pass it was did you make your credits did you how did you score your finals that was you know
075that was the that was the metric back then so yeah the core subject matter or by grade hasn't changed right so that's all still required to be at least proficient you mentioned Mastery but at least proficient so we need a something in place to M measure that somebody has not just attained the grade for the credits but uh acquired the skills that the state has said that all the kids have by a certain isn't isn't the grade itself a reflection of whether whether or not the master not necessarily I mean there are teachers that you can do anything you want I'm not trying to dispar teachers but a grade isn't always a great reflection a kid can miss a lot of class for instance and his grade is affected because he missed a lot of
076class but he maybe conquers whatever the subject is but that's not reflected in that grade it could be the other way as well where maybe a kid does a lot of extra credit and brings that grade up there's all kinds of ways that they you'd like to think that the grade is a true reflection of what they get but if that class doesn't follow the uh subject as identified by the state then it's not exactly true that they Master with a fin take care that if the final exam follows at least within certain perc of the grade of the uh the grade of what they were supposed to get I just think it's easy it's not an easy thing this coming from a teacher former teacher so but I just think it's kind of wild
077that you know we went for years without a standardized test being being part of the requirement and kids graduated and one college and were successful then suddenly this is in place and now that it's no longer requirement because I think the big concern is whether or not standardized testing is great for every kid and whether whether or not the results of that standardized test actually actually reflect the student's capabilities right um and I think that's been recognized over time is that standardized testing does not work for every student as a as a metric uh and I think that's a big reason why this this vote happened was people recognize standardized testing is the end all be so to make it a requirement for graduation I think a lot of people saw it as an unfair
078hurdle for certain students right so is it that difficult to un unravel this one requirement and go back to previous standards that were perfectly acceptable for decades one of the good things about I'll just bring up the other side of the point of view is that one of the good things about MCAT is it followed the standards by grade so the mcast tested the kid on the standards if they did well on the test then they mastered the standard and moved on one of the benefits of that is you know that a kid in North Brookfield is learning the same standards as a Ked Newton or Welsley or Northampton or wherever we're all measured the same way so that when you're applying for college everybody's got the same base to build on and it ends
079at 10th grade so that you've time to build in the other um classes that you'd like to get whether it's more math or more English or more music or whatever it is and there were also a lot of fail safes that were built in after 10th grade where the kids could take the test until they passed um and if a you know special ed kids that head um have accommodations small group setting reading the test to them ascribed write their answers down and at the very worst case if a kid just is just can't do it then the special ed teacher can provide a portfolio and submit that and the kid will have be able to advance so there were a lot of fail safes there but again the the test isn't going away it
080just wouldn't be held as a as a as a final step for graduation I think what Mr mccomic said is it could be you could still do it as the district decides that mcast can still be in place it can be a measuring stick not the it's not the one and only but it can be a measuring stick as to what they've had so may they make sure the standard of talk that's just an example [Music] well again to be fair uh I think it would be worth looking at what percentage of people in our town voted to support or vote against having the test be a standard and uh I think it would be incoming upon us to take that into consideration for uh deciding to keep it as a standard or as a
081requirement give trying to lar kids back in here yeah there you go I was thinking about that too come to North Brookfield the mcast yeah what how did you decide who was it that made the decision as a team to maintain that you don't need with W was oted on and not have the MC as a determining factor for graduation can you state that question who was it you who was on the team you you said you decided not to have M so well I didn't know we I mean the propos the the conversation we're having tonight is that we don't have any student that requires um for us to do any remediation because they are are not in good state with amcast that's for this graduating class after this year we have some students
082were coming in rooll that would would need to either retake the test to graduate or um but again that's not an option I think I don't have the results handy but I I did see the results at one point I think North Brookfield of only only voted against retaining the mcast as a graduation requirement so I'm not necessarily proposing that that's what we do at all I'm not saying that um I have my own personal views on this um I think that you know we need to make sure that um I would love to see at some point the state come up with a universal plan for all the districts to have some sort of high stakes accountability for all students because when you leave it to individual districts they can look different within five
083miles of each other and um that can be Troublesome um the test if if you recall has been changed over the last 4 to 5 years where it's more critically thinking based so it's a different test when it was first rolled up um and I know there was a lot of uh opponents to the initial the early the original testing it kind of became Antiquated very quickly the newer version even though maybe more challenging initially showed kind of a deficit for some of our students with their critical thinking skills and I think if we don't have this as an account accountability measure we need to make sure that those students are receiving those skills or learning those skills as they progress through middle school and high school so again this is not I'm not proposing
084anything this is just kind of act presenting what where we're at right now I think what I would like to do is for next meeting have a proposal for FY 26 and Beyond um that you know I can we come up with a couple different scenarios potentially but that would need to be voted on by the school committee this was just informational just to remind everybody that this question was voted into law that mcast is no longer requirement for for a diploma so what are we doing to support those students who did not pass that exam and like I said we have no nobody in the current graduating class would fall into that bucket if you will um but after this year we may have students we will have students who do so what we
085need to do for those students all right hope that clarified or answered your question yeah again maybe I'm just old but the high stakes for me was getting the getting the grade you know getting trying to get the A in the class that was the high stakes uh but that was a different time um not that old pretty old I'm older than I've ever been until tomorrow he's ever been he loves the dad jokes find that out about John all right uh administrator reports uh what's going first first all right I'll go first uh so on Friday February 7th we celebrated senior night for our boys basketball team and dedicated a thousand-point banner for Jose Rivera Jose graduated from North Brookfield High School last year and scored over a th000 points in his basketball career
086he's currently one of our success stories he attends Assumption College as a finance manager uh major and just want to say congratulations to Jose that was quite an accomplishment on Friday February 14th we celebrated our Middle School uh student awards ceremony uh students were given awards for attendance academic excellence and overall growth it was great to see families show up to this event we invited families um we had a pretty good crowd on hand so that was great and I want to say congratulations to all our Middle School Award winners um today and Thursday I'm Hope brazinski from the District Attorney's office will speaking to our high school students in grades 9 through 12 about healthy relationships and preventing team Ence um then on Friday February 28th all the girls will go to the gym
087for a dating and positive relationships Workshop presented by the Vanessa T marot Foundation part of this program is going to feature a self-defense class for the girls um our boys will go to the North Brookfield Elementary School auditorium and we'll have a keynote speaker for them also a little talk from the district attorney um and then they will also be discussing the legal ramifications around Dating Violence and positive and healthy relationships um on February 26th our Juniors and seniors were scheduled to go to Flexcon as part of our Innovative Pathways program that we just talked about that date has been changed one more time uh to Thursday February 27th um so this week we'll be going to Flexcon as part of that Pathways program um it was originally scheduled for the beginning of the month
088but due to a couple snow days we've changed this state this is the third time now so we're excited to get this going this is the second year of our program and our students will have an opportunity to apply for a pay internship at Flexcon and earn a full-time job after graduation last year we had uh four or five students take advantage of that program uh again our second annual career fair will be March 11th uh we have over 25 different companies and speakers coming to talk to our students about different care opportunities students will receive information about different careers that they're interested in and it's a great opportunity for our students to prepare for their future and learn why school is important our first steam night is on March 25th at 6 p.m. so
089I hope you can all come um steam education is a teaching method that combines science technology engineering the Arts and math to help students learn and solve problems um again that's part of our program to grow our high school it's designed to give students a well-rounded education that includes practical skills and critical thinking steam gives students an opportunity to engage in experimental learning persistent problem solvings Embrace collaboration and work through creative process students will be providing presentations about their projects and learning around these areas finally 20 of our high school students will be continuing our work around fostering a sense of belonging at a workshop with mass ideas Mass Ideas support schools and Educators in developing practices to ensure that all students receive the proper support and resources to succeed academically and Thrive socially and
090emotionally this will also be part of the program that will go down and they'll talk to our elementary students as well uh we do have the two dates I just found them today uh we just finalized our two dates they'll be March 25th and April 15th um there'll be two three-hour worksh shops that about 20 of our students will go through U they also went through this last year so this is part two of that program and the students are excited about that as well and that is my report for tonight I have question I have a question excuse me that steam night sounds like a big night is that going to be besides on this is that going to be publicized we'll get the newspapers here or yeah we're going to try build it
091up I mean we're just talking about building um good feelings about the school earlier so that might be a big opportunity to bring the public in and all that yeah that's great we work with Kevin in the newspaper and so he's going to put on our call for us Mr McCormack puts it on in this districtwide uh newsletter because it's not just for high school students and their families it's for the entire District we hope we see a lot of Elementary School families here as well uh but yeah we're going to try to promote that as much as possible and we're also going to have refreshments and food there we find that the house spring on cre too so but but in all honesty to to your point it it's going to be a great
092night and really excited to show off we have a fantastic uh stem teacher here with us um we're going to show off he's he's planning on building a robot U we won't have it done by that night but he's going to talk about the Prototype and things like that so there's some pretty cool stuff going on here thank you is this the first year for this um Dating Violence and healthy relationship it is yeah we did some somewhere we did a we called it a celebration of learning last year uh back in January of last year um this is going to be geared more towards the steam approach because along with the Innovative Pathways program that uh we have the grants for this is part of that program that we're so we're excited about that
093and we really sorry I can talk all night so I'll try to limit but uh we really you know this is going to be our Niche and and to the audience uh I don't remember the gentleman's name out there but you know trying to attract students to our school the Steve program that we are going to start is is is going to be unlike things that are done in other schools and we're really hoping that this is going to draw more kids into our school from other districts who want to be part of this program and part of that Innovative Pathways program as [Music] well just just a quickly I know you're asking about the relationship we have done that with DA's office so do that for 3 years now so it's done it that
094presentation or similar ones with our middle school and high school students this year we're adding a different layer to that where we're having conversation with the boys as well um we're splitting it up to two different groups so it's been well received in the past and we're hoping that this this addition will make even better all rights good stuff thank you Mr yoro uh sure um I know Mr McCormack already mentioned it but we had our camp read a lot annual event um on uh February 14th which was the Friday before February break the entire day was dedicated to celebrating reading as a school we had eight stations that each of our classrooms rotated through throughout the day it was bookmark making jump rope for reading in the gym campfire reading intense which I provided
095a picture for um it's hard to see cuz it was obviously campfire it was dark um Reed with a buddy so there's also a picture those are two fourth graders with a preschooler um so in our Bell area older students got paired up with some of our younger students and they actually read books to them just fantastic um we had our firefighters um and as guest readers with books on safety um stock drop and roll ice safety about going out on the ice in the winter um we had book Bingo stories through crafts and always with some food we had U the PTO donated pancakes in the cafeteria so um reading makes you hungry so we had um a station again our PTO is fantastic I feel like like any event that we have um
096which I'll talk about another one later on but um our PTO does great work with providing um great experiences for our kids and and and they just show up for everything which is great so thank you to all the staff and volunteers that made this special day and to Clement time M for for organizing the event it was a great event next um we had a presentation on identifying trauma in the classroom so TOA Marist the um adjustment counselor here at the high school did a presentation on identifying trauma in the classroom for our staff in February the objective for the staff was to understand how trauma impacts the brain and development and then to learn strategies for creating trauma informed classrooms research shows that teachers are one of the most important relationships in students
097lives after parents and Guardians M molus and the staff discussed attachment Theory adverse Community environments adverse childhood experience trauma informed perspectives and other varing information um teaching is hard work but it can be made easier if we use um a trauma informed lens so this does not mean we lower expectations in the classroom or remove accountability it just means that we can proactively plan to respond to situations with students Tak in into account the whole child so um a great job by Toba and and thank you to Mr diorio for letting us borrow de uh TOA for the day and the afternoon it was it was a great presentation by her and then last but not least least we had our first ever that I know about glow dance um in February so the PTO
098hosted an annual February dance and this time we went with the glow dance um and it was February 7th from 6:00 to 8: in the um Elementary School cafeteria close to a third of our students so um when you're talking about an event that late at night on a Friday nights in February where a lot of families are busy um that that was a huge turnout for us which was very exciting um there are students from prek to fifth grade enjoying the glowing environment music and photo booths um all students needed to be accompanied by an adult um so we had a lot of parents and adults enjoying the glow environment and the music um and it was it was a great night so that we had Smiles on our students and parents we all
099around the cafeteria and the main hallways and again thank you to the PTO and and DJ did Rondo um for creating the exit uh exciting and safe and fun night for our students again creating something in town for our students to go to at night um where they can feel safe they kind of let the hair down and have fun it it was it was an amazing night and and hopefully we'll we'll have some more of those soon yeah that was a lot of fun if you missed it you missed me I may have may i' been cutting the per my daughter yeah it was a lot of fun kids had a lot of fun yeah any other questions or comments thank you Mr Murphy is that right go next um I have fun exciting
100glow dance disco ball dances but I'll go I'll try I'll try to follow it's always hard I think I'm gonna have to go in front of Mr Murphy next time um so just a short couple of updates um the access and Alternate access testing for our uh English language Learners was completed this past week um I would like to acknowledge the hard work of our elll teacher Miss LEL uh to ensure this testing was completed successfully um as well as the teachers really for their flexibility and support throughout the process um this assessment provides important information regarding our elll students progress and programmatic needs um as part of the preparation for des's review of The District's um English learner education program that's coming up during the 2526 school year um I participated in another training
101session held by desie which provided an introductory overview of the El data dashboard um this webinar introduced the various features of the dashboard such as access score Trends which districts can use as part of their self assessment review process um it was actually quite um informative desie staff from the office of language acquisition will be available to answer questions during the dashboard as districts have an opportunity to explore its features over the next few months so um I think it will be very helpful as we participate in our self [Music] assessment is this for students who are English is on their first language yes correct and how many students like we have about uh right around 20 21 [Music] students thank you any other questions or comments about student services thank you very [Music] much
102see old business old business we have technology scroll down far enough [Music] uh facilities update any you want to make say anything or you want just yeah some key points February update for facilities um the elementary school um continue to manage the day-to-day operations of the school uh during February vacation uh the custodians were focusing on uh doing some deep cleaning in the restrooms um and also some um High Point uh cleaning on you know your high touch points Doors door handles uh that type stuff um we worked on the fourth grade restrooms we had some repairs that we needed to do in the the restrooms we patched patched up some some walls and put some new paint on it uh also painted up the uh baseboards uh also worked on a um a title
103one office we repainted and patched up the walls there and also um painted the baseboards um the month of February we had 33 scheduled events which equates to about 10 different vendors that use various parts of the school at the elementary school um that could be anywhere from you know the theater Guild using it multiple times throughout the the month uh basketball that type stuff um I continue to work with Snider Electric um on the uh buildin management system that we've uh installed um working closely with them to uh get the updates uh done and work on any issues that we have with the heating system um and that's both here at the high school and at the elementary school um today I over the the last couple storms we had we had some power
104outages and we had an issue at both schools the elementary school our problem was that when we lost power um the transfer switch was not getting kicked on which would then turn power on limited power into the building so that would illuminate your um exit signs and stuff like that um we found out that we had a faulty um voltage regulator that we repl today got that up and running uh so that shouldn't be a problem uh anymore um at the high school again manage the day-to-day operations over February vacation we did some deep cleaning in the restrooms and some of the classrooms um we also started repairs on the locker room floors and uh there ceramic tiles uh um 2 in x 2 in tiles and the Hope was when we first looked at
105them some of them are buckled so the Hope was to just be able to deal with those ones that were buckled well it ended up being a little bit more of a project once you start getting into it because it creates a dominal effect you start taking out a little bit of the tile and then next thing you know you're up to a 3X3 ft square area of tile that you end up taken out so we were hoping to make some good progress on on it over the vacation week but with some of the snow removal and some of the other projects we didn't get into it until late so that's going to be an ongoing project that we do from now till we finish it um month of February for scheduled events we had
106six schedule events which was approximately three vendors that would use various areas of the school again working wood Snider Electric uh they were in over vacation and um we worked on um trouble shooting some of the heaten problems in in the school and um we're going to continue to do that until we can get to a a place where we're comfortable with um the Heen system um January 21st this is part of an update that I gave last month um we had problems with the generator out here in the back um there was uh when we lost power the generator would start up but then would con out so we wouldn't we weren't able to maintain um emergency light in and and Generator um power to the school unless we manually overr it so we
107had service come out and we identified some stuff that we needed to have fixed they've since been out over vacation and has uh made the updates to that so so now we'll monitor um the generator process and and make sure that it continues to work this being the emergency shelter for the town we need to make sure that that is up and running and is reliable so we'll continue to um monitor that I also um we had a problem with the sound system down in the gymnasium um where we could not over the years I guess it's just wear and tear on the system where all the knobs and different controls were very finicky and just were not working the way that they should work so I looked at trying to troubleshoot some of the
108electronics there and just for somebody to come in and just start trying to fix one problem not knowing what the whole problems are it was more cost efficient more cost effective to bypass that system and go and just create a new system Al together so we have all the functionality of what we current uh what we had in the past which was the intercom system wireless microphones um Flor microphones and there was one other thing that that escapes me um so we were able to upgrade that for about $450 so um that worked the the microphone system we have up to three mics wireless mic microphones that we can use at once um so if somebody's doing a national anthem and somebody's doing announcements you don't have to keep running handing off a microphone now
109we have up to three mics that can be used um districtwide um we had a couple of snowstorms um that we had to deal with um this recent one was pretty nasty even though you know we had quite a bit of snow but the problem was you had freezing rain and and a lot of rain coming in uh which froze pretty pretty quickly so um I thank the custodians for for their help and dedication out there in the weather getting getting the school cleaned up in a timely manner um I'm working on Capital Improvement um projects uh right now I am outlining several paven projects um around the school is's the main entrance coming in uh which is 10 new school drive is the exit road going out as a another project and then and
110the parent pickup um driveway right out side of the um elementary school as another also the roadway going around uh parallel with the oam road I have that listed as a paven project and then also um in the back of the school by the playground uh going from oan road down to the um the basketball hoop area as as another project so I have to uh I got to go through get all the measurements and get quotes for that and I got to get all that uh documented so that uh at some point I will present that to the uh cap room Improvement Committee in town and then um start having the discussions and getting it on the list of uh projects to hopefully get funded down the road at some point in time but
111if we don't get it on the list then you know the the town does not know know about it until it gets on that list so my goal is to get these things documented get them on the list so people know about it and then hopefully if money becomes available and it gets prioritize in in such a way that it helps us out then you know that's uh that'll work in afternoon so um and that's that's all I have for the uh the floors in the bathrooms uh what's the are you trying to repair it so it's like it is now or do you have a a different system that you're putting in we're using yeah we're going to replace we're pulling up the tile and then we're going to uh reement the tile down
112and regrout it so we're using stuff that we already have in place so there's material missing uh in some areas we're missing a few tiles here and there there's been repairs in the past where they've just filled in um whatever tiles were missing they put in some type of mortar or hydraulic um cement to fill in so it's it's level but the stuff that I'm dealing with everything that I'm pulling up I'm going to be reusing so we'll clean that all up get it reset and then regr it I know there's another uh inspection item which was the the sidewalks is that play I'm in the process of I'm waiting on the folks to come in um what I planning on doing I'm splitting the project up um depending on what the quotes come in
113at a portion of it I will be able to fund this year that's my hope and then um so that my quote is is for the sidewalks in front of the elementary school as one quote and then the second quote is all the sidewalk here on the high school so depending on what how much they come in at well I'll make a decision on which one I want to go go how much you know what am I going to cover for the amount of money that and I assume that's prioritized a safety issue right so but uh that's that's the goal is is to try to get it done by the end of this year this budget year so that would be you know anytime from Spring to June and then when I get my
114new budget I will look at you know where they stand with the second uh second quot uh last item is technology update um from Zachary barage our technology coordinator um second quarter report cards are sent out by Alma uh due to improved communication this went smother than previous semesters a license has been procured for a wireless access point Network making it possible to replace two defective or misconfigured units in the elementary school uh the power outages revealed some weaknesses in the infrastructure uh one of the network switches was damaged so it showed that our backup power supplies are not working as expected likely due to their extreme age uh 16 years for the two oldest and nine for the newest quotes have been received for replacement switch and replacement backup power supply is being investigated
115um and lastly State reporting is completed which is a new responsibility for the technology coordinator uh requires extensive update of the data in system and it was a multi-week process and with help from Tech at Alma it should be simpler going forward with the data connection Corrections that have been performed so it sounds like some streamlining taking place and then believe this is part of a separate new business all right so I think that's it for the administrative reports uh no old business and I don't think there's any policy update no this time so new business we have the north bfield Library sorry North bfield Elementary library super Surplus books so what you have in your packet is a report from Kelly adamitis who is the media specialist of the elementary school um starting last
116year she was tasked with looking at the entire inventory of the of the library um and what she found which wasn't surprising was a lot of the books were old uh were beat up were in rough condition or very damaged um so I did not add this to the packet uh but this is the list and I can pass this around this is the list of the 600 of books that were not um either usable or readable um could not be salvaged um but the 600 that potentially will be going out she's replaced with 800 bucks so there books that are coming in that she's waiting to put some of those even on the shelves now um just waiting for the room uh when we remove some of these books but anytime we Surplus old
117equipment per se we have to have a a vote on Sly to support that do we have a list of the new books I get you I can get you the list of the new books still okay that's actually I have that on my desk it's a separate new pile of things that we ined by m Priestley and Mr Murphy Miss Adam so they're all H appropriate um but a lot of them are newer editions of the books that we're replacing so um that is just a a complete list of the 600 titles that we're looking to do something with some of them I don't know the exact top my head some of those can be donated they will be donated but a lot of them need to be recycled at this the record this
118is a uh 102 Pages double-sided yes um extensiv [Music] list you're on a speed reader yeah did take that glass higho [Music] many times I yeah you too [Music] so the point of this we we have to vote on her being able to dispose of these books as she and I believe the proposal is that some of these go to the art Department to be purpose for other projects some teachers and Mr Martinez has expressed interest in recycling some of these for our projects so um I don't know if there's a number there but there is a a small amount that will be used by the art Department yeah her refer to as the main pile which is yeah it's not a metric pile it's an imperial pile yeah um some it says that some
119arer the the condition includes mold so obviously we don't want those in circulation students and I think it's we give the science department yeah microbial study oh I'm in favor of authorizing her to suppose of the books that have been twed out of the library and I will make a motion as such second any uh questions or comments about this any concerns I would I would like to say it's really nice to see that we're weeding out 600 something books and we've got 700 almost 800 books that are coming back in so it's it's getting rid of old books and replacing them with even more new books for the kids to read so that's all the she mentioned several different groups that were involved in making that happen and uh it's really good to see
120that let to be said for turning pages in a book right inste of scrolling on a device okay right all in favor of uh media specialist disposing the books [Music] I looking forward to the art projects I want to see what they're going to do with it the next item is uh North Parkfield Public School teachers union school committee side letter pertaining to Bank use so I I did uh in your packets there is a a draft U that really has been looked at by by both the committee or I meaning the sbay committee and the the union leadership um and and they are in favor of this potential uh draft or this potential proposal but essentially what it is is it in the teachers and the support staff contract it's article 11 um there
121is an opportunity for people to buy in to the sick Bank um sick Lead Bank they can donate two year two days of their alloted sick time a year to this to this Bank um and and what what can happen is if someone has a a physical some sort of emergency where they expend all their sick time they can then go to the sick bank and request additional days the sick bank is compromised of of myself two building principles um two teachers and then the president of the Union sits on as a non- voting member um and that's pretty standard what is different about this potential or this potential ask is that this was brought forward by a staff member uh not for themselves but for a sick spouse uh that wasn't needed care U
122and this this person has been been paying into if you will to the sick Bank um they had conversations with myself Mr dioro um members of the Union uh we were in agreement that we should bring it to uh the level of of of which the policy states we should bring into the committee and and discuss it which we did um this this ask was voted U five to zero in favor of supporting this potential staff member but with that being said we also recognize that this is outside of the contract language so that would that would we would need a S letter signed and supported by both sides to honor this um seeing that it was it was time requested for supporting their their sick spouse now this person has gone through all their
123sick time um and and in this meeting we allotted 20 days that could be used either half days or full days based on the need um to support this spouse so that's the proposal in front of you um like I said it was it was voted in or in favor ofan unanimously by the by the board um and this may be something that we discuss uh during this C contract negotiations as looking at the language for this this uh this article moving forward I did I did ask just so the committee knows I did ask both Mr Mr rney uh if they wanted to attend tonight and speak on un's behalf they were both unable to do so uh and they said they were finally me speaking about the Sil all right uh you have
124a motion to uh approve the SI leave Bank usage for family care so moved second any questions or comments I have a question how does this work with family medical leave so that's a good question um what I think two things family M leave and this this particular staff member um has been the district for multiple years so so they have their time in um family medical leave really only goes into place if the staff M has been in this district for at least a year so um if it was a new teacher per se uh they would not be able to access that up until a Year's worth of time this provision I think was started prior to to FMLA being really a thing that we use kind of with Fidelity now in in
125school districts and the workplace um and what this does is is it requires the teacher the staff member to expend all their sick time before access accessing the the sick bank so Fay you don't need to necessarily expend all your sick time to to uh pursue that so that's that's one of the major differences there does that makesense that's yeah I thought you're if you had I might be wrong but I thought that if you had applied for FMLA the benefit you get is based on the number of sick days you still have in my maybe it's paid FMLA I'm not sure no we don't honor paid FMLA in the school district we don't we honor your your position uh we have a question from on the FMLA you get so many weeks off whether
126it's paid or unpaid and I would say that this would just give them more if they had used 20 okay and then they got 20 it would give them 20 more paid under the FMLA you have a doctor letter that says it's going to take 20 weeks and you have you don't have enough so you get paid you still have the job back but this will help you the only thing the really does is hold your Hold Your Position it doesn't once you've expended your si time for from you don't get paid after those days are up right this would allow you more days to to use and be paid during those during those days thank [Music] you but this would be something where the the employee comes to the this board with a a
127need and it gets approved and then up from there yes but and the number of days is determined by the number of years you've in the district so you automatically you get for the first year you get 20 days and it and it goes up by 5 days each year after that support staff contract they they just started this back in 2021 so it's relatively new so even if that staff members have been the district for a sa 15 20 years they can only access the last four years based on the contract teachers who've been in the district for a long time can access all those years and they may have about to say 80 90 days and they have access to based on the the sick bang leave language so this person is actually
128has more days that that we could allow them to use we started with 20 and and we the message will be come back to the board if you need to to use more days and we we're voting on to as an exception to the current language correct current language only allows us to happen for the person who's employed by the district if they become ill so our vote is really just for this one particular case yes any other questions or comments all in favor of approving this uh si le Bank usage for Family Care as approved by the Sick Bank board hi [Music] I and uh the last item for new business is uh the Comm Virtual School enrollment right so this is something that we we have reviewed um through this committee before uh
129it it requires a vote by the committee uh and there's a template that desie provides to superintendant school leaders to submit to them um but essentially as you you're probably aware we have students and there's students throughout the Commonwealth who access virtual on online learning and this this started well before Co was even a thing um but Greenfield Virtual Academy for example Tekk are two of the more well-known um online platforms that students may use or may may apply to enroll in um um but what this cap is is that we would like to cap the number of students in our district who can access this to 1% of our overall student population which would be roughly four students we currently have 2.27 which equs to nine students who are enrolled in one of these
130virtual platforms the way this reads is that this would not affect those students so they can continue to be educated through these platforms even if we vote to capit at 1% it just means that for next year that we can only allow 1% our student population to be enrolled in one of these what was the former percentage 2.27 that was the former that's current that's the current yeah but that's the number what I can't I remember voting on this but I don't remember what our number was I don't I'd have to look back my in my minutes my notes um that's what that's what Des is reporting why would we lower it well a couple reasons I think that um there's a financial proponent to this there this when a student does enroll in an
131online platform sometimes it's it's very favorable for that stud sometimes it's not it's also more money out of the district for those students it's it's roughly 9,000 Plus for those students compared to 5,000 uh it's kind it looked it's it's very similar to uh what student school choic is out it's just one money that the district is is is losing in essence um I think that we have worked very hard Mr J can speak to this it's promly at the middle and high school level um we have students who we are trying to re-engage um into the into the school setting and they often look to this as as a as a way to kind of not come to school and we often find out that these students aren't attending and they basically become uh
132drops the district um and we want to really work harder to re-engage those students as opposed to just pushing them on to a virtual school platform it works well for some students but that number of students it works well for is is is not a large number so the 2.27 this is uh would not the currently enroll the current enrollment is that only through the end of this school year and then it would drop or no it it would it we would if if those students all remained we would have over 1% in roll but we can only allow another one 1% for next year to enroll in a virtual uh online platform so these students that are currently enrolled would not be they does that carry on until until they like until they graduate
133until they graduate or decide to reenroll back into some classes or whatever they decide to do yes so they're not they're not um jeopardized any way if we adopt this 1% so basically that 1.27% is Grand fathered in over the 1% cap yes are they and so next year is that are we already capped for next year or is that one is that four more kids could possibly do so we we could have four new students we enroll one of these platforms for next year all right I didn't understand that on top of the other students will curently enrolled if they stay enrolled I think it was 3% that we voted I'm I'm almost certain but don't quote me but I do remember like one of the first things I voted on because I remember
134it this but I don't remember the number sorry if I failed to uh did we do a motion I think we did motion move to approve it a second now we can talk about it yeah um no I I asked a question first right um any other questions or [Music] comments all right all in favor of approving the 1% cap on Virtual School enrollment hi I I vot now I think it should be higher than [Music] that that's [Music] put believe that's it for new business and uh we have an executive session so I will move that we adjourn to Executive session from the regular meeting and only reconvene to end the regular meeting you a little car you got yeah second all in favor of moving to Executive session as noted cada yes John
135G yes Matthews yes yes thank you everyone for attending happy to see Lord yeah