001Thank you. Now I'll call to order. It's 6:01. Um, do I have see who is in attendance? We have Jill Twig, Carrie Batterdsby, Kenan Francois, Brad Morgan, Aaron Upton, Randy Ro, Lauren Young, Patrick Mc Phillips, Robin Ivy, Gary Reese, and Ann Marie. Lisa Bloom is joining now. Okay. And Lisa Bloom will be joining. I'm here, too. I'm here, too. Oh, Alex, I missed you. Sorry, Alexander. That's okay. You were up on top of my screen. All right. May I have promotion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Uh motion to approve. Is that what I need to say? Second. Okay, that was Alexander and Randy. Any questions? All right, then we can vote. Jill Twig, yes. Alexander Budi, yes. Um, Kenan Francois, yes. Randy Ro, yes. Patrick McFillips, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. And myself, yes.
002Did I get everyone on the committee? You forgot about me, but yes. Oh, Carrie Battersby. All right. Where? Carrie. Yes. All right. Moving on to public communications. We have one which Robin is going to read. So, this was received today. um from Melissa Boland and she states, "As the school year draws to a close, I can't let this opportunity pass without expressing my profound sadness regarding the situation with Ashby Elementary School. Not only did I attend uh 38 years ago, but my youngest is still a student there, making this decision deeply personal. The entire process has been marked by disorganization, a lack of transparency, and a decisive approach that has pitted towns against one another. It feels as though Ashb has been disregarded as a vital part of our community. We are holding on to
003the hope that this is truly a one-year situation, but doubt lingers due to past broken promises and the rapid changes we've seen and proposals when another town raises objections. I sincerely hope the new members of this committee will continue to ask critical questions, explore solutions beyond school closures, and prioritize the well-being of students and families in their decisions. I also urge them to seriously evaluate the meaning of we arem and what the commitment truly entails. Furthermore, I hope the school committee will thoroughly scrutinize the claim savings of this one-year closure against new expenditures. It's imperative to find ways to keep Ashby open in the future. Finally, I must comment on the school committee's meeting schedule. I've not found another school district where comparing to market basket districts or local ones that hold so few meetings
004annually. The ongoing issues of lack of transparency, confusion, and numerous records request should clearly indicate the need for more frequent meetings. It's difficult to understand, especially during a budget crisis, how this committee can be comfortable meeting so infrequently. This limited schedule has only fueled a sense of hidden communication, eroded trust within the community. Thank you for your time, Melissa Bolan. Thank you, Melissa. All right. Thank you, Robin, for reading that. Any other comments, Robin? Was there any? No, no other comments. Thank you. Just want to say Kim Craven is in the um attendance. She needs to be promoted. We'll wait until she is in to continue. All right, there is Kim. All right, moving on to the chairperson's report. We've had several student athletes um make commitments onto college and universities where they will continue
005to play sports. There is the news article there for people to look at. Um, we have a section in here called Patriot happenings. So, there's been several in this last month and I'm going to read um about Memorial Day services that I attended at the high school. One second. All right. I've been attending Memorial Day services since I was little, nearly five decades of honoring and remembering. Since I was 2 months old, I have been a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. My dad served in the Korean Conflict, so remembrance and service have always been a part of my life. While each ceremony holds meaning, today's memorial service at North Middle Sex Regional High School had an impact deeper than most and one I will hold forever. This morning, I sat in the bleachers with
006the students. In front of us sat veterans and active service members. The program began and each branch of the military was introduced with a student presentation. Each every student had researched their assigned branch and had written a speech. Emry, a student I've seen grown over the years, was assigned the Marines. He shared the story of two Marines, Lance Corporal Jordan Harter and Corporal Jonathan Hail, who made the ultimate sacrifice to save 50 others. As Emory spoke, I glanced toward the rows of veterans and witnessed a moment that will stay with me forever. An older veteran gently placed his hand on the shoulder of a younger veteran beside him. The younger man had his head bowed, clearly overcome with emotion. At first, I thought, "What a beautiful, touching gesture, one veteran supporting another as they connected
007to the story being told." I teared up. It was a moment of quiet compassion and unspoken understanding, and I had hoped others, especially the students, saw it, too. After the ceremony and the reception, I was chatting with Emry to tell him how moved I was by his speech and to share what I had witnessed. He paused, then told me something that stopped me. The young veteran who was crying was one of the soldiers saved in the very story Emory had told. Today, Emory had no idea he'd been sharing a story of someone sitting just feet away, someone alive because of an ultimate sacrifice of others. It took me back to something I said on opening day to the staff of our district. Every student that comes through the doors of NM has a unique story,
008as do you. Our collective mission is to help them and ourselves develop the plot of our shared story. Remember your passion, your dedication, and your care turn a a school into a community, a shared collective that resonates and generates impact beyond the structure of our buildings. Today, I witnessed that message come to life in a way I never expected. What happened in that gym between a student, a veteran, and a story reaches far beyond the walls of the school. It reminded me just how powerful our connections are and how deeply our stories matter. It's the kind of moment that reminds you how small the world can be, how deeply we're all connected, and how each of us has the power to make an impact beyond ever realizing it. This is why we remember. This is
009why we keep showing up. This is why we continue to share our stories. Thank you for making today one of the great reflections of our community. All right, moving on. There were several activities going beyond going on in our school community. There was the top 25 awards, the senior awards, sports awards, the civics action showcase, several band and choir and chorus concerts, the underclassman awards. There's fourth grade celebrations and eighth grade celebrations coming up this week. And then graduation of our high school seniors was held on Friday on or tomorrow on channel 5 WCVB. Um Kenan Francois will be honored in the high five. Is that correct Kenan? Yes. All right. So everyone tune in and watch that. We have a dedication of the performing arts center in memorial of in memory of Susan Robbins
010Thursday June 12th. I hope that everyone is in attendance or can attend. We have a few retiring teachers and staff. I am going to share their information. Um Elaine Berandi 26 years. Lisa Karu 24 years. Claire Cooper, 10 years. Deanna Fitzpatrick, 21 years. Robert Fletcher, 16. Michael Gnan, 12. Sarah Joy, 27. John Judge, 18. Deborah McMaster, 15. Janine Roberts, 23, and Frank Spanelli, 38. I'd like to thank everyone that is retiring for their years of service to NM. Congratulations. Happy retirement. And then on my final point is our superintendence evaluation which I'll be sending out information to all the evaluators later in the week. Um and I will put a deadline of sometime in July and we will review in August. the collective. All right, moving on to the superintendence report. Brad, thank you, Lisa.
011Just be quick on um on the joint committee on education and then I'll cover um another item and then discuss the proposed fees later on in the agenda. But did just want to share with the committee that on Tuesday, June 3rd, I was able to testify again in front of the joint committee of educ on education along with Brian Forier, who's a superintendent of Triton Regional, Representative Margaret Scarsdale, and Chuck Walovich. Um, my personal testimony centered around the lack of the enforced bidding process and mandated costs around regional transportation and discussed my conversations with both the state auditor and the inspector general. Um again just really want to thank the Mass Teachers Association for their collaboration in this really it was really their voice that have given me the opportunity to speak on three different
012occasions in front of our representatives and senators. So just want to reach out and thank them and let that be known and in the meantime just continue to remind our community to keep advocating for funding reform with regard to the regional school funding budget process. So again keep it up. I certainly think that we're moving in the right direction and we are being heard, but there's still some work ahead of us. And also wanted to let the committee know that the transportation registration process began last Friday and will remain open until Friday, June 27th. And the hope with that process is that we'll really be able to streamline our busing transportation next year with regard to bus stops, number of buses, and really working to get to and from our schools on time. That's all
013I have for now. All right. Thank you, Superintendent Morgan. All right. Moving on to new business. We have out of state field trips, Miss Young and Missstead. Are they on? Yep. Uh Lauren Young is here and she's presenting for both her and Miss Olmstead. Okay. Go ahead, Lauren. Oh, thank you. Hi everybody. Thanks for your time tonight. Um tonight I'm representing Hawthorne Brook and Miss Tisset. Um, we are looking to continue our tradition of sending our eighth grade students to on a field trip to Washington DC for next spring. Uh, we were hoping to get approval a little earlier this year so that we could lock in the best pricing. Um, this past year our students um paid about $1,000 for their trip to Washington DC. It's a 4-day, three night trip. Um, and next
014year it looks like the pricing would be about $1,100 for um, the same time. Um, we are looking to change it just a little bit where the students actually stop in New York City on the way down and they're able to go to the One World Tower and also go on a um a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty um and then get back on the bus and continue their trip down to to Washington um and be in Washington DC by by dinner. Um so we're looking to do that trip next May. So, I don't know if there's any questions or does anyone have any questions? I am not seeing any. So, I will take Oh, I just wanted to say, you know, thank you for continuing with these um these trips down
015to DC. Um I I think it a great experience for the students uh to go down um and see Washington DC some of the history down there. Um as well as it's a it's a great um growth time for them to be away from their parents alone with themselves in a in a situation like that. So thank you for continuing with this and making it available for for any students that need to or want to go. Thank you. Thanks Randy. It is a tremendous trip. The kids really have a wonderful time. Thank you. You guys are going together, both Hawthorne Brook and or are there different dates? We We don't typically. Typically, we go two different weeks. Um, so we're still working out if we would go together or we'd like to go together, but
016I'm not sure that's feasible. So, we're looking into that. Okay. All right. Any more questions? I will take a motion. I move uh to approve the two out ofstate uh field trip uh requests uh for Nissit Middle School and Hawthon Brook Middle School to go for the eighth grade trip to Washington DC. Second. Second. Okay, I think I got got Randy and Patrick on that one. All right, Jill, yes. Carrie, yes. Keenan, yes. Randy, yes. Patrick, yes. Alexander, yes. Lisa, yes. Kim. Kim. All right. And myself. Yes, we'll put Kim as abstaining. All right, good luck on your trips and have fun. That's okay. Is that a yes, Kim? I I couldn't. It is a yes. All right. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Moving on. Next on our agenda is computer science professional development and device
017grants. Good evening everyone. Um so we had an opportunity through the department of elementary and secondary education to apply for and receive a computer science professional development and device grant. Through this grant, we're going to have the opportunity for two of our teachers who currently teach uh technology courses to expand their skill set with um additional computer science uh courses that they'll take during the summer. In addition, uh the grant will provide us the opportunity to purchase iPads for our elementary school teachers to expand the use of computer science activities within our Project Lead the Way uh science program. Any questions? Randy, Randy, you're on mute. I thought I clicked that off. Sorry. Um, so we're purchasing iPads, you said. Um, how many iPads are we purchasing? And, um, is there any kind of, um,
018connection or, um, compatibility issue because we use Chromebooks, uh, for the kids? And I don't know if there's any other issues that the iPad might present with other software or hardware that we have in the district. So we are purchasing one iPad per kindergarten through fourth grade teacher. So it's about 45 iPads that we purchased across the district. Um those are uh the devices that are recommended for use within the computer science um modules of Project Lead the Way. Um the other benefit will be that teachers will be able to have access for those to be used during the assessment of our early literacy screening as well. So it offers an an additional benefit for for the teachers. So um the teachers it it's recommended for the teachers or recommended for all the students who
019are doing so what will happen because we're getting one per teacher as the teachers are implementing those in the computer science activities we'll be able to group them together as so they'll go as a cluster to the classrooms for the for the students to be able to access. Okay. Is this something that the district is looking at um switching over to iPads from the Chromebooks? No, not at this time. Not at this time. It just is a device that um there's a couple programs that are taught within the computer science uh uh module that require the apps that are available on the iPad. Okay. And and how does this um affect our budget for the refresh cycle of these? Um we would have to take a look at that. That would I it's it's an
020it's an additional opportunity um in terms of the implementation of the computer science. So, it's not something that we would be required to continue to maintain maintain if we found that a we weren't seeing the educational benefit of it moving forward or b if we found that the the cost associated with maintaining it just became too excessive. We typically um refresh about every five years, six if we have to really kind of push it out there. I think after five years, if we have this in the district, it's going to become something that we're not going to want to give up if it's going well. Um, so I'd like to know some of the costs ahead of time. So maybe we can get something from Jeremy on what uh that refresh might look like. Would
021it replace any of the Chromebooks? Um, how would it be affecting the budget going forward? Certainly can get that information. Sure. These are This is a grant, correct? This is currently at no cost, correct? Okay, perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? May I get a motion on accepting the grant? I move to accept the grant for the training for two teachers and iPads. I second. Actually, could I have it read? Um, Patrick, sorry. No, that's fine. Let me open it real quick. If anyone else has it up, feel I do. I have I can read it. Go for it, please. Move to vote the school committee accept the computer science, professional development, and devices grant of $19,300. Who's moving? Patrick, I'll take it. Absolutely. And I second it. All right. We have Patrick and Jill.
022Jill. Uh, yes. Yes. Whoops. Sorry. Discussion. Randy. Hang on. You're on mute, Randy. Sorry, I keep pitting too many clicks. Um, I just wanted to put it on the record that um, while I very much support grants coming into the district to help us uh, further education, um, we do need to take a look at um, the continued cost to the district on any of these. Uh, that um, just because it's a grant and free today doesn't mean that it's a great idea and and um, kind of meshes in with everything that we need. We don't have to accept every grant. Um, I am going, you know, I'm going to abstain from this one because I don't have all the information I need. But everyone, uh, uh, vote as you feel comfortable. Uh, Patrick, we
023can also just stop, correct? Like if we get the three, four years in, the iPad stop working, we don't have the budget, we can just end the program. Yes, that is a possibility, but we've never done that. And if something's working well, like I was saying, they're going to want to continue it. Um, so it's it's fiscally responsible to at least know what we're getting into if this wants to be continued. All right, Alexander. Uh, yeah. I'm just I'm kind of concerned with increasing screen time at all at school. I think, you know, the kids get too much screen time at home in general. And um I really, you know, I know there's been a big push for more tech in the classroom, more tech in the classroom, but in my personal experience, as an
024educator, I find sometimes it does more harm than good. Um to be completely blunt with you, um I'm going to abstain from this vote because I feel like I don't really have enough or maybe I can get more information about one way or the other, but I I don't feel like I have enough information on this. And my personal leanings are uh honestly towards less screen time in the classroom overall because I think we we're I think we've moved too far in that direction already. Um and I would like to move away from that in a lot of ways. Um just because I've I don't know. I just feel like it's often more of a distraction than it is a help. Gary, this is more programming sense, right? Yes. So, can I just clarify in
025terms of So, while we're getting one device per teacher, that's what the grant allows, but this would be something that would be taught during what's currently already their computer technology class time. So, it's just an additional unit with embedded within the computer technology class time. So, it's not additional time that the students would be spending on computers within the regular classroom setting. It's just learning how to program on these devices and helping the teachers use the applications to program an educational standpoint. All right, any more questions? All right, I'm ready for a vote. Jill, I'm a yes. Keenan, yes. Yeah. Randy, I'm good at Alexander. I think I'm going to abstain, too. Lisa Bloom, abstain. Patrick, yes. Carrie, yes. Uh, Kim Craraven. Kim, it says she left the meeting, so I'm not sure if she's
026got booted. Yep. And I am going to say yes. All right, moving on. Uh Gary, you have this one. DSC, Office of Public School Monitoring and Integrated Monitoring Review Findings. Thank you. So, every three years, as is required through DESIE, we go through a process called an integrated monitoring review. And what they do is they look at um our compliance with laws and regulations both state and federal around special education as well as civil rights. Um they look at within civil rights I think there were about 17 criteria that they looked at and within special education there were about 11 criteria that they examined. Um that process involves us having to upload documentation data um to DESIE for their review. It also involves them coming out and doing observations, meeting with people, um, and then
027sitting down and engaging community members as well. Um, what was really great to see this year and something that I've never experienced in any other district that I worked in, we did not have any findings in the area of civil rights, which means that we were in compliance with all of the laws and regulations. It's very common during this process for the state to identify at least one or two areas. Um, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that we need to develop an action plan of how we're going to correct that within one school year. Um, within the special education uh area, there was one finding that was partially implemented and it was around the lensure of educators mostly due to a change in the regulations a few years ago about
028the categories of one of the licenses. Uh once that was identified, while we do have one year to correct it, it has already been corrected within the first month um with um Mrs. Upton working with the couple staff members involved in just making sure that they got the appropriate lensure for the area that they were teaching. So um while we did have one finding before we even have to write our corrective action plan, it's already been corrected. So very excited about the the progress and got really positive feedback from Desessie about the documentation that was submitted as well as the observations and the outreach to the community. Thank you, Gary. Anybody have any questions? All right. Thank you, Gary, and thank you, Miss Upton, for correcting. Um, Madam Chair, yes, Cam. Sorry, when you were
029taking that vote, I came off mute early so that I could weigh in my vote and I got kicked out. Um, but if I don't know if it's still possible to go on record to um be in the affirmative for the grant program. Yes, we will make that indication, Kim. Thank you. The record. Thank you, Kim. All right, moving on to food service renewal. Nancy Haynes. Uh, yes. Hi. Good, good evening, everybody. Can you hear me? Okay. Yep. Super. Um, I just wanted to include in the packet the renewal uh amendment for the food service program. We've been with Fresh Picks. Um this will be our fifth next year will be our fifth year and final year that's allowable in the contract. It's a originally signed by the school committee as a one-year contract with
030four um one-year re optional renewals. We've been renewing um we we did um meet with them and discussed the budget. There's some increases planned, but we're still going to be above um above break even. Our expectation is that we'll be just under $22,000 of um a positive balance at the end of FY26. That's what they're projecting as a guarantee. Um so we just wanted to before we move forward um just let the committee know. I know we may have uh chatted about this in finance while back, but um we are getting ready to renew. Um and next year we'll be required to go up do an RFP um to go out to um I guess essentially go out to bid for food service. Um it'll require a small committee to review the the proposals next
031year. Um and I just didn't know if there was any questions related to it or if Brad had anything you wanted to add um before I don't have anything. Again, I think um you know, the increased costs around around staffing certainly makes sense. Um and their ability to maintain staff, which has been a challenge for them. Um so again, I I think overall um I think they had a solid year. I know that we've had some complaints in the past, but I think they've been uh very receptive to any issues that have come up and they've been extremely responsive in making sure that the issues are addressed. So I think overall it it's been it was a good year and certainly understand the increases as with everything else. Any question? Randy um and my kids
032are out of the district so I have no feedback from them or their friends on um the food service. Um how has this been uh how have they been doing? I know you said that um complaints haven't been that much. We've had some in the past. Uh is the food quality still up uh to par? Um and are they still doing a good job uh per our standards, per the students? Are they liking what they're bringing? Um and then on the financial end of things, that 22,000 that they are um assuring that we'd be positive at the end of this year, what have we been getting the last couple of years as far as that positive balance? Where is that money going and what is it being used for? I'll let Nancy handle the um
033the response on the $22,000, but as far as as far as the food quality goes again, in years past, if there has been an issue with food quality, that is something that immediately um comes to after after it goes to social media, comes to the building leadership, and then central office leadership. Uh it happens pretty quickly. Um, and you know, for you know, sometimes it it's it's worse than others, but the past past solid year and a half, I would say the issues have been few and far between. And a lot of the issues I know that there were issues out there around whether or not um chicken was cooked or chicken was undercooked, a lot of those items are coming directly from the vendor as fully cooked. Um, so when they have when they're
034coming up as fully cooked and food service is under the impression based on that that it's simply heating it up. Um, that was not always the case. And when that does happen, um, they do end up switching vendors. I don't know, Lauren may may have something to add at the middle school level. Yeah, I could just add that we're very happy with the the vendor and the food product that that's coming out. The students are very happy with it. Um, actually I would say it's been the best couple years that we've had in many, many years. So, we're very pleased. Patrick, your hand was up earlier. Did you have anything to add? Yeah. Uh, my kids are loving the lunches at Varn and I know we had some complaints last year. I went and toured
035the high school a few different days to see how it was looking and it was a pretty good spread there, too. So, I I thought they were doing a pretty good job from what I saw. And I can tell you that they're still impressed by the high school. The Panini line is always popular. So, all right. So, did you want me to chime in on the financial side of it, please, Nancy? I'm sure. Um, so the food service program is a revolving fund. The entire program runs through a um a approved, you know, state revolving fund. It's essentially funded with the um reimbursements from the state and the federal on on how much they're reimbursing per meal. Um the the finances this year are really good. We're right now I just looked at it through
036I think it was the end of March because I have to submit that to the state every quarter and we're at about 170,000. um in the to the good for this year. I think what I could do is provide the committee with the f that profit and loss through um March. So they can take a look at the monies coming in, money's going out for this this school year. Um as far as what it can be used for, it's federal most of it is federal money. So it's particular in that sense. Um it can be used to support the food service program. it can be used for costs associated with that such as maybe replacement of an oven or those types of things. So, um again, we'll that's one area where we'll be looking if
037we have any upgrades that are necessary for um Squan Cookook. Uh we may look to those funds for that purpose. Uh overall, usually it's been running a break even program, but since COVID and the way that the program has changed, it's definitely been um you know, more positive balances in general. So, it's built up a fund balance there as well, which is great. Um in the past was it was a little bit tight. You know, we're really really close with the money's coming in and then the money's getting going out to pay for food service programs. So I guess is any other questions on that? Nancy, if you want to just share that information when it's available, just certainly. Thank you. Share away. Yeah, no problem. All right. Any more questions? Do we need a
038motion for this or are we set for this next year? I I think it's more or less just us sharing um committee. Uh Alexander. Yeah. I mean, um I'm kind of I'm kind of going to go against the grain of what's what's been popular lately. Uh I'm kind of more in favor of moving services like this in house. I mean, I don't know what the the budget realities of that are, but I kind of um often view companies like this that come into school districts as uh more or less rent seeeking. And um you know, I uh would prefer that we did more stuff inhouse like that. Um not just with this, I think a lot of PD stuff as well. But you know, um that's just my two cents on it. Um I know
039it's not going to be a popular opinion, but that's my opinion. Thank you, Alexander. Anyone else? Randy, just to answer uh Alex, we we did years ago have an in-house uh food service. Correct, Nancy? Um it was many, many years ago. And uh what we found actually it was um cheaper to have these companies come in um and run this uh just from the standpoint of uh we it wasn't our expertise to be running a kitchen um a staff for kitchen and food service. Um and so sometimes bringing in an expert who that is their main thing instead of us spending a lot of energy and a lot of our um administrative time on something like that. It was worthwhile for the district. We certainly can look at it and see if it's something to
040be brought back in, but that was the main reason why we had uh outsourced it out. We wanted to just concentrate on education. Yeah. And I'll just uh just one more point about that one. It was um inhouse. It was, you know, obviously the costs of the program were were funded by the district, but one of the bigger things that was of impact was that the health insurance was paid in the general fund um for many years. It just was multiple years of and and again the pressures of the budget I think um is why they started to look at other options for that. But I'm I'm open to at least looking at it. I don't I don't know maybe nowadays as things have changed. It's been I think since 2010 or so when they
041did uh privatize, right? Any more questions? Sorry, not privatize. That's the wrong word. The opposite. Send it out. We got it, Nancy. Yeah. Thanks. All right. Any more questions? Then moving on, we are moving to the user fees, parking, student activity card, and kindergarten fees. Can I actually just ask to just to go back? Um I I did want to see where um our special education director, Erin Upton, is on if she could just share the good news that she um has has heard from from Desi as of late. Her and her team have worked really hard. It will just take a moment or two. I know it's not on the agenda, but it does kind of go hand in hand with the um with the monitoring piece from Desi. All right. Permissible, of course.
042Go ahead, Miss Upton. Good evening. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share out. Um so each year the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education or DESIE assigns a special education determination to each district in Massachusetts that receives federal IDA funding. The determinations are based on multiple indicators of compliance with special education regulations, performance outcomes for students with disabilities, and other considerations related to finance and data systems. Beginning this year, Desi changed the way these determinations are calculated and moved from a rubric to a matrix to create consistency from the federal to local level. The shift to a matrix ensures that districts are evaluated using a clear, stable, and consistent framework. And it is expected for the determinations to remain relatively stable from year to year so that districts can better anticipate and
043plan for determinations um and their outcomes. So I am thrilled to share that our district made significant progress in our special education performance and compliance indicators. This year we achieved a 10.9 percentage point increase in our LEA determination score and went from 64.7% last year to 75.6% this year which means that we moved from a needs intervention status to a meets requirement status. Uh this is a major milestone and reflection of the hard work of our special education staff, our general education staff, all the teachers and our administrators. Um when I was hired just over a year ago, one of my primary goals was to move the district out of needs intervention status into meets requirements. And I'm really proud that we have successfully met that goal in just one year. This is really a
044testament to our team's focus, collaboration, and commitment to improving outcomes for students with disabilities. And our improvement demonstrates that we're making real measurable progress to serve students with disabilities. Um, the progress we've made is more than a number. It reflects our better compliance with federal and state regulations, improved academic outcomes, and more equitable access to education for students with disabilities. Um, so I want to thank our special education department, all of our educators, our administrative team for their tireless efforts in making this progress possible. And I want to appreciate the support I've received from the school committee throughout my first year as a special education director. While we're proud of this achievement, we know that there's still work to do and we're committed to continuous improvement and maintaining our strong performance going forward. And I
045thank you again for the opportunity to share this progress. Congratulations. Anybody have any questions for Miss Upton? Sorry to put you on the spot. All right. Thank you. Continue with much success. All right. Now we are going to use our fees parking student activity card. So thank you. And so this is in essence we are currently in the last year of that three-year scaled up fee process that we went through. Um so we're currently at um I shared with the committee the proposed fees, what the current fee is and then the recommended fee for 202526. Um, and when it comes to athletics specifically, the athletics user fees cover about 20% of the actual budget. So, it is it is not really coming even close to um funding um the athletics and some of the other
046programs. You can pretty much have the same argument and a lot of it does center around the cost of transportation. Um, right now when we're looking at transportation, just as a as a rationale as to why we're looking at these increased fees, every time we take a bus from the school for an extracurricular event, so something after school, it ranges from $500 to $2,000 round trip. Uh, so that is something that is an exorbitant cost. Uh, and you know, we do at this point in time have one uh passenger van that we use. Um, but that is certainly not something that can take an entire team. It works out great for a small number of track athletes. It works out great for the math team or possibly the tennis team, but it's not taking our
047basketball teams, our football teams, um, our band and things like that to events. So it's extremely expensive and we are still the fees we are recommending are still fees that are competitive within the Midland Wuset League. Uh so I will just go through them and just again try to explain why the numbers are what they are. The unified sports, we're looking to keep the same at both the middle and the high school at $100 per season, but we did add a a late fee um for um that is currently not in place. For middle school sports, it's $100 that uh really does not come close to funding um the middle school sports programs. And you will see that we are recommending $200 for cross country, $225 for field hockey, and 250 for basketball. The reason
048is underneath. Uh cross country is cheaper because they do not utilize officials, and they only take the bus twice. Um for field hockey, they have one official that is a paid official with six away games. So again, they're taking the bus six times at those very high rates. And then for basketball, two officials for every game and seven away games. And that is both boys and girls. Uh so boys basketball and girls basketball where field hockey is girls only. Uh something that the committee may want to look at is maintaining the middle school middle school sports user fee and moving away from buses and having it be 100% u caregiver supported as far as get getting to and from the away events. That is something that some of the schools in our league do do.
049Um, so that is something that could be a costsaver. It is not something that we could do at the high school level just because then you're involving student student drivers and things of that sort, but it would be something to consider. Um, again, no late fee, moving that to $25. U high school sports currently at 275 um per season, moving that to 350. Uh, late fee remains the same. Another significant um issue is the cost of ice time um for the um both the varsity and JV ice hockey teams. Total cost of ice time this year was $23,241. The current fees of 355 and 200 that's on top of the 275 that they're paying to play. That's just an ice fee covers only $9,100 of that. Um there are some schools that charge the students
050for the full cost of ice time. This increased cost of 525 and 370 is going to get us um a little over halfway there, but it's still not going to fully cover the 23 241. Um again, marching band percussion and winter guard increasing that as with um the same as with athletics to 350 drama. Again, I know this has been an issue for quite some time. Uh we're recommending where there's no fee right now $100 for the first show and $50 for subsequent shows in a year. Um currently the argument has always been that the gate from the shows is used to cover the majority of drama program costs. Um we are asking the committee to um reconsider that because realistically um that does not happen in other areas. For instance, uh the football program
051does not take the gate for football. It goes to athletics. The basketball hockey teams that uh collect gates do not go to those programs. It goes to athletics as a whole. So, I would argue that when you're having drama programs, concerts of some sort, um musicals that those are going to the arts programs, the gates from those events. The other thing that we are that I'm recommending and this is something that that is outside the school committee but did just want to put it out there is that we did notice um that the attendance was down this year um especially with our band and um and choir concerts. So we're looking to match those ticket prices with the athletic ticket prices which are $5 and $3. So, $5 for a student, $3, excuse me, $5
052for a parent or an adult, $3 for students. Right now, it is, I believe, $10, $15 and $10 or $107. And I think that that had a dramatic impact on the attendance at some of these events. So, if we do lower the cost to getting into the events, it's unlikely that the gates are going to fully support the programs um as they currently may or may not. Uh just going down the list, student parking, keeping that in 180. Um high school activity card, we recommended and got approved $100 last year. We're asking for the committee to simply approve a $75 fee for the high school only for next year. And I can go into that in more detail. Class dues are $50 per year. Right now, we're recommending that beginning with uh this year's freshman
053class that it's $200 if paid in full or $75 per year if not paid in full. So, there's a $100 savings if you pay them in full. Obviously, all of these fees, if a student would qualify for free lunch, would pay 25%, reduce lunch would pay 50%. And I know I'm going quickly, but I just want to go over um the activity card fee, when is it waved? So areas where the activity card would be waved at the high school would be the academic honors of National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, RO Kappa and Tri because those are achievementbased something that the students achieve um and they're recognized for and those are also things that in many cases the students have to pay a fee to belong to those organizations. And then the service
054learning clubs of Giving Tree, New York service learning, New Orleans uh service learning and the garden club. All of which are again service learning um opportunities for the students. So there would be no activity card fee there. So again, in general, just trying to put it out there that we absolutely have to do something with regard to fees. Um in in my opinion, um I've met with the high school principal. I've met with the athletic director. We have looked at the fees in the Mid Midland Wattus League and feel as though that you know next year I think it's pretty clear that we're likely unless something changes we're likely going to encounter a year very similar to this year. Um and if the towns are going to be asking us to bring forth a budget
055similar to this year, we could be right back in the same situation with reductions and things of that sort. So, uh, fees would be one way to help mitigate some of these increased costs because at the end of the day, we're not going to be able to stop the increases around transportation, health insurance, collective bargaining agreements, and the rising special ed multilingual costs. I have that just for now. All right, Kenan, I'm definitely going to have something to say about this, but um whoever owns the document, um if you could please share it with my school committee email, it got sent to my school like student email and I've been shut out. So, just so I can see what's going on. Ken, I can forward that to you right now so you have it. Yeah,
056Kim sent it to me, but I didn't have access, so it might need to be shown. All right, K or Carrie, we'll go to you and come back to Kenan. Personally, as a mom, I have no issue paying more for sports or extracurricular activities. My kids are involved in all all sorts of things, which is why spring is crazy at my house. However, I do worry about, as Brad said, we've had um less interest in extracurricular activities, sports, band, and all that. I do worry raising prices will cause less kids to be joining and playing sports and joining the band and the chorus and all of that. So, with that being said, even if we increase costs, but less kids are participating, I mean, where what's the rub there? I mean, it feels like we're
057not going to be really raising any money. And that's all I really wanted to say. So, so just to clarify, I we're not seeing a decrease in student participation. we're seeing a decrease in um students coming to some of the arts events, so concerts, plays, musicals, things of that sort. Um and and it's not just stu not just students necessarily, but also community members. And I I do believe that some of that could be tied to um the increase in t the increase in ticket prices which was approved a couple of years ago. So, what we're looking to do, and again, this is going to have an impact on something like the drama program, is cut the prices down so that they match the athletic admission ticket prices. So, instead of $15 to the musical
058for an adult and 10 for a student, it would be five for an adult and three for a student. Um, and the same would be the same for concerts because the I mean it wasn't so much of it wasn't as noticeable at the musical uh but it was certainly noticeable at some of the um at at the band um and at the at the choir events. It would have been nice to have seen more um I would say just just more spectators at those events. And again, I I can't say for certain it's the ticket prices, but it very well may be. I know that, you know, it's it's the tournament season in athletics, and I I do often hear complaints at a $10 ticket price to get into an MIA tournament event. So, I
059would have to think it goes hand inand that some families are thinking that's too much and I understand that. I do worry just incre even athletics though increasing. Um, personally, I'm from Drake. That's where I went to high school. I know for a fact uh two years ago they were having a hard time getting a football team anymore and they were trying to combine with neighboring towns because they couldn't get participation because it was so expensive. So I guess my concern is and I understand we need the money. I just worry that while you have said everything has gone up in price. that has gone up for every parent, every family, every household that raising prices for athletics will, you know, parents won't be able to afford it, won't be able to get their kids
060involved. And then, you know, where do we go from there? Because I think sports are really important. My kids play sports. Um, it's good for camaraderie. My son's playing football this summer, so he's going to make some towns and friends for his, you know, um, transition to Spalding. So, um I guess yeah, sports were such a big part of my life growing up. So, I just that's something that just concerns me a little bit. Randy, um hang on. Yeah, Randy, you were next. Sorry, I was That's okay. Um, as far as raising um the prices for the athletics, um, to give history to everybody, in FY23, we were at $190 for high school, 100 for the middle school athletics. At that time, we had realized that we had not been raising prices for a while.
061We had agreed to a um 2-year increase to kind of buffer what we were trying to get to and it was $2451 in FY24 and plan to go to 275125 which it did. Now we're being asked to go to $350. So this is from FY23 $190 to FY26 of $350, almost a doubling of what we're charging for athletics. Um before I even consider $1 more, I want to see um participation rates from the last three years to see what um you know particip what these increased costs have done um to the participation in these uh sports. Um middle school has not increased. I'd be much more willing to have uh an equal percentage increase for the middle school uh since we had not touched that. uh trying to be fair between the two. Um as
062far as the middle school athletics and transportation, um are there any alternatives? Um I'm sure the boosters and the parents might be willing to do, you know, fundraising and or car pooling um for this. is there a way that we can have the cost for the um sport? And then we kind of negotiate what we're paying if they need a bus on what they need to come up with for the buses to do the travel. Um because there are alternatives in the middle school, the parents almost always go to the events anyway. Um or at least there's a very high parent participation or viewing uh of the high school sports. So, um trying to keep that going. That that may be an option, but I don't know legally if there's any more liability that we
063have. So, that would need to be taken a look at. I'd like to um at least see if something is possible there. Um I'm curious how the um high school concert pricing um of $10 um you said $10 was too much. They a number of years ago, I think be before we had gone to the $10 and $3 um for the high school band concerts, they used to do donation and the boosters were collecting a lot of money. Um we should talk to them. Um h has this gone down? Should we go to um you know donation again? Was that something that was just better for uh the concerts for getting people to go there and for raising money? Because I know some people paid many much more than the $10 when they went to
064those concerts. Um, the middle school, we we allow them for their plays to stay at uh for their concerts to stay at a donation. Um, we may want to consider going back to a donation for the high school concerts and middle school concerts if people aren't going. Um, I'm trying to look through here. Um, I I do just want to say just just for the record too, I I'm not I I'm never in favor of increased fees, but if we are looking at and and I am just as is part of my role looking to next year um in realizing with if we are looking at a similar budget um and the potential of another 20 or so staff enough um that these types of things are going to be questioned as to do we
065want to continue to maintain extracurriculars and if so the question has been phase I mean has been put out there it is it something that should be put I mean it's going to be put is as part of the budget so it's either going to come as part of user fees or it's going to be part of the operating budget which is either going to be approved or not approved um so that's just again something that the committee really does have to consider because if we are looking in another year like next year and I'm preparing for such uh that we next year we won't be in a position where we'll be able to cut that many staff and we will have to look at other alternatives. Um and this is by no means a
066solution either but it's it would help. It's not going to save anything. It's not going to raise enough money uh because it's still not going to fully fund the programs um or even come close to it for that matter. But it's um it is a way I think of saying to the tax base that you know we are trying to um pay in other ways as well. As far as a middle school transportation piece, um I would think that it would have to be turned over to the to the caregivers. I think any type of carpool setup would be putting the district potentially in a situation of approving and allowing when in fact it should probably just be done by the parents as if it's a town event um or or a town a town
067sport. Yeah. When I when I meant car pooling, I didn't mean that the district should be um coordinating it. Mhm. Um but you know, again, putting it on the parents and figuring that they were going to be car pooling for the parents that couldn't make it to the events and so on and so forth, but definitely not um coordinating it through the district. Um that kind of brings me to a slightly different question on these fees is how are they going to show up in budget savings? because um in the past last year, the year before when we talked about putting in fees, I didn't see any reductions in the budget lines. Um and the reasoning behind that given was that we didn't know how much these were going to actually raise. Um so how
068are we going to see where the savings is from any of these fee increases? So, I I' I'd have to ask Nancy to weigh in on that. I'm not necessarily sure we're going to see much of a savings because the busing is going to go up again. Um, as it always does. Um, and those again, those those fees alone make it extremely difficult for us to um, you know, find any positive out of increasing. But if we don't increase while they're increasing, we're going to fall further and further behind. So, I don't know, Nancy, do do you have a response to that question? Yeah, I was just uh I guess I'm going to think out loud a little bit, but the athletic fees uh those also are revolving. So, they go into a revolving account,
069which we use for um we can use for any athletic costs. So, the budget itself is made up of the budget that the is voted and then the revolving fund funds. So if we increase uh a fee, it will go into the revolving account. What could happen is if we didn't have the cost that um like if the cost stay the same and but the fees go up at the end of the year, the revolving fund would end up with a balance. Um and I I don't often see that in athletics. Um we've been really struggling the last few years because we're we're finding the costs are just higher in every every area that's you know officials are higher um transportation's higher um supplies are higher offic you um assigners are higher that those types
070of things. So in any case, I think you you could in theory end up with a balance there if we didn't have the costs. Um but we do generally. So, we I did just want to add to what Nancy is saying that in addition to those transportation costs, the busing costs, uh the MIAA has dramatically increased the cost of officials and that is due in part to the fact that they can't find them um for for multiple reasons. Uh you know, finding officials has become extremely difficult in some sports. So the only thing they've been able to do is increase the pay, which in some cases is near double what they were getting paid before. Yeah. Colleges are seeing the same thing. I I work in the UML rec center and the club sports are
071fighting the same thing as far as officials and athletic uh um uh trainers uh to be at those events. So I certainly understand that that's a statewide probably countrywide issue. Um, I'm just looking for some way to be able to show that raising these costs is actually impacting the budget. Whether it be we have a history of how much from the budget and how much from revolving accounts and we just keep going and seeing um, you know, what we're spending, what is going up, and how much we're raising. Um, but I I before I put this in, we have three years of raising uh, costs. Um, and I'd like to be able to see whether that's actually impacting or are we losing because uh less people are joining and paying this because this is going
072to get very expensive and out of reach for a lot of families and they really worry about creating two tiers. a tier of parents that can afford this and so their kids get to be athletes and then a tier of um some of the families in the district that can afford this um and their students have no access to athletics and I'll let you move on to other people who want to speak. Jill, I thank you. I just have a statement and then just a question. Um, I have coached in a few districts locally and I can say that their athletic fees are significantly higher that even what we're proposing in this um for students to do. I know that the tech schools have a mandatory uh they have to raise the money and if
073not they have to come up with that money. Um so I I don't think that these numbers are off from from what we're talking and this one question that I had is where we didn't pay for drama in the past. How were the stipens afforded for the director, the choreographer, for all of the, you know, the rights to the music? Was that something that the boosters paid if we weren't charging before? Because if that's the case, then I agree with the $100 um fee. Nancy, do you want to take that one? Well, the athlet the extracurricular uh stipens are generally funded in a line in the budget. So, but this would be helpful saving that. Correct. If we charged a fee that that could ultimately go towards these things, correct? Yeah, it could it could
074go towards that. Yeah. Thank you. Amen. So, um I'd be remiss if I didn't um take up all the arts programs considering I've just graduated and was in within the arts programs for the past nine years. Um the justification for um I was missing I think I missed part of the presentation whilst I was trying to find the the document. What was the justification for raising the fees for um Wintergard and percussion specifically just because it has always been in line with athletics. Okay. Um personally speak Oh go ahead. my so I wasn't I was never involved with percussion. I was um part of the winter guard for the past four years. Um I think if we're carving out um specific exceptions for say ice hockey because they have a exorbitantly larger cost and then
075uh also for cross country because they also have a significantly lesser cost. um then I would have to encourage a reduction in cost for Wintergard um and percussion as well because we don't use transportation um and our fees like everyone else like like the rest of the athletics just went up. Um, and considering that our cost is not shared um, between all of athletics um, and we're not paying for transportation, I don't see a purpose for these spec these two fees specifically to go up. Marching band, I understand we do pay for transportation with a via a bus and whatnot. Um, but that is not the same for percussion wintergard. We use we carpool and we use uh the mini bus uh that the school owns. As for the drama and the gate going towards
076the entire arts program, um I'd be more curious to know what the teachers um who administer those programs think of that. Um I don't see necessarily I don't personally understand the justification for it. I'm not saying that it's not necessary, but um when the justification is for attendance that the ticket prices were raised by this committee um that was a decision of this committee and personally um having been to all the band concerts and the choir concerts obviously um I think a lot of the attendance drop off is from just participation in the program um which stemmed from co um the band is this year, the smallest it's been um since I've been at the high school and I think in my time in this district um because of that co drop off um but
077I help out at the middle school concerts. I've been there for the past several years. Um those programs are very large now and they are making their way up but it is a long process. Um and I think it would be irresponsible to make this decision at this time specifically for sharing um the gate cost across the entire department when we don't know what those numbers will look like in one or we don't see the direct impact of those numbers in one to two years since ultimately who's showing up to these concerts is mostly parents. Students do show up but it's mostly parents. All right, Patrick. Uh, my first question is, is any sport or club currently covering their entire cost? Not to my know. No, because because they're not covering the stipend. Okay. So
078then I don't I don't see any reason why they they can't increase, especially with like Jill said, we have some of the lower costs in the area. Like you've said, Brad, I'm sure you've done a lot of research into this. Um, as far as not raising costs for those in the district who can't afford it, we already have the 25% the 50% cut out based on on their food program. Brad, if a student ever came to you and said, "Listen, like, I really want to play this sport. My family can't afford it. We're struggling." Would you say, "Too bad, so sad you're not playing." I'm I'm sure there's there's programs in place or things you can do to get a student on the team. Correct. Yes. So, uh, so in the past we have had
079staff members step up and we've also had community organizations step up. It it it just doesn't make sense to me to not increase the fee for those who who potentially couldn't afford it when there are programs in place to take care of them. That's like saying, you know, some people in purple can't afford their water bill, so let's just stop charging a water bill. Like, it it it doesn't make sense to me. Um, and Randy, I'm on the new uh efficiency committee. Um, we we get these packets ahead of time. If you have all these questions and you're unsure about so many things, you can reach out and get them answered ahead of time so that at the meeting you have your answers ready to go. Um, and then if you still have concerns, you
080can bring them up with the facts and not just ask the questions. I feel like in the past year things get pushed to the next meeting or or things aren't voted on because we constantly need more information, but we get these packets ahead of time. So, that's just my two cents on that. Thanks. All right. Um, Kenan, did you have more questions or you're taking your hand down? I'm sorry, I cut my hand. All right. Before I go back to Randy, anyone else have questions on the fees, Carrie? Um, and to be honest, if a kid in our community in Ashb was like, you know, our family can't afford to play sports, I know for a fact we would community come together and raise the money as well to help out. I just worry about,
081you know, parents that don't want to reach out. Maybe they're embarrassed or they don't want to, you know, look for that kind of um extra help. You know what I mean? So that was my only concern as far as like paying for sports. As a personal just my personal belief as a parent, I'll pay whatever for my kids to play sports. So that's all I wanted to say. I did just want to add to thank you for the piece on percussion and winter guard. That that does make sense. So thank you around around the fee increase with the lag with the fact that there is no transportation. All right, Randy. Okay. Uh, first, uh, Patrick, I I appreciate, uh, your advice on asking questions. I do. I ask a lot of questions beforehand. Um, a
082lot of times with the packet information, though, um, what's written down doesn't um, have enough information for me to have all of my questions. The whole idea of us having the discussions in these meetings is to talk about all the different things, whether we have questions, talk about what's being presented, which sometimes raises more questions. And I understand your frustration with things getting pushed off to other meetings. Um, but we need to learn how to have a conversation and we can't all just go and um try and have our our questions answered on the side because more comes up when we have a conversation. were a body of nine uh with all kinds of different opinions. Uh that said, um just quick clarification on the drama piece because I had thought and maybe I'm remembering
083incorrectly because I I very well might be uh Nancy, but I thought that the revolving accounts for the uh plays covered their stipens. I I thought the the the drama especially at the high school was fully funded by themselves. They generally are fully funded. I just don't charge the stipens to that those uh student activity accounts. So right now the drama plays and the drama team run as a student activity. So I feel like it's the students funds at that point. some of the um like the band concerts come to the have have traditionally come to the district but some of them are still running as student activity accounts. Um so it's not to say that we couldn't do it that way. We just haven't been doing it that way. Okay. Um then I think
084a little bit before we start charging for that I think we really need to understand the differences between um a program running as a student account and a program running as an afterchool activity or an extracurricular activity for the district. Um because if we're allowing them to keep some money and other places don't keep their money um we need to have a equal policy across the board um for each category. The other thing that this is bringing up is um all of you know do we look at tiered costs for the athletics that cost more money. That's essentially what you're doing um in the middle school and proposing because of the busing costs and having a tiered cost for the different programs there. But we're not talking about that at the high school. There's a
085lot of programs at the high school that don't have a lot of costs associated with them and yet they pay the same price as some of the more costly ones. it may be time that we're looking at um you know uh across the board just having some tears um for how much they pay as far as um uh paying for students who can't afford it. Absolutely. The district always steps up and I will never say that the district does not step up for any student that comes to us and says that I'd like to do this but I can't afford it. The problem is the students that just quietly go away because they're too embarrassed to come up because their parents don't want them to get um a break and and want to do this.
086Those are the students that are losing out and those are the students that we need to think about that we will never know about. So, we need to keep costs um in perspective. Okay? And um if we're looking at the cost for the sports, I urge everybody, I don't know where you're looking at the cost from other districts, pay attention to the towns you were looking at. Because if we're going to compare ourselves to a Lincoln Sudbury, none of our students would be doing anything because they can afford a lot more than our community can as a whole. So when you're comparing our costs and our prices to other districts, please just pay attention to the towns and the districts that we're um comparing ourselves to. And we do do that. We're generally looking at
087the midwatch, which is the leagues, which is the league that we're in, which has most of the communities around us. The the only other thing that I did want to add, the reason why um the high school isn't structured as much is because some of the more expensive sports and I wouldn't I would not include basketball in it, but ice hockey, which is expensive, and football, which is also expensive, does have a gate. Um where some of the other sports, baseball, softball, cross country, uh there's no gate there. So even though the prices are there's there's no um tier in prices, it's because of that's the other component of it is that there's no gate for some of those other sports. The more expensive sports do have them. The other piece is is that all
088of the high school sports have a significant transportation um cost. All of them do. Um, cross country, while it may not be expensive to run, um, is something that requires more buses than some of the other sports do. So, again, instead of taking one bus for $500 or $2,000, you're taking two. Um, and in some cases, when you go to the Reggie Lewis Center with a group of students, you're there for the I mean, those are like the $2,000 trips. You're there for the entire day because you're paying the bus driver for the whole day to to be there. That's how generally how it works. But um again can can certainly look at this. Um I mean it it does sound like I mean I I will say that it's it's going to be a
089challenge because generally signups start the end of July for a lot of these programs. Um so not having the ability to increase if there is no vote tonight could certainly pose a challenge. I do like the idea um that was that was presented that you know keeping the middle school prices down and moving away from transportation altogether um and I will say that's a challenge to find sometimes anyway. So that's not necessarily an issue but at the high school level that's not something that can be done and I do seriously worry about what's going to happen with FY27 because again I've said over and over again I think change is coming. I don't think it's coming for 27. I think it's going to take some time and I think we're going to see some money
090potentially coming back into the district this year. Um, but that's that's just basically plugging a hole in the dam for the year. It's not going to solve our problems moving forward. It's fixing FY26 and possibly being able to prepay for some things in FY27. Kim has her hand raised, too. Kim, thank you. When someone has a moment, if if I could be let in on my computer, I'd be thrilled to to be off my phone at some point, but don't do it till I'm done talking so I can switch over. Um on the fees, um you know, I think that they do need to be raised and I'd love to actually increase the on-site parking fee a bit more. I know that the students do need their cars if they are going to work, but
091I do feel that the um privilege to park should come with a little bit of a fee. So, I don't know if we could get that maybe to 250. Um the other fees, you know, in looking at other schools in our district, I think that they're fairly in line. Um long term, you I am a numbers person. I'd love to start looking at more data from what is coming in. Um, that's not going to prevent me from voting on something tonight. I think it's important to have an increased fee structure going into the school year, but I think if the community and the school itself starts to see what um might be out there in terms of attendance at some of these events, what the gate comes in for the football games. And I know
092that's a little bit of work for folks, but I think seeing that could help. Um, and it might give us opportunities to look at different ways to raise funds for some of these activities. And so if we could start to collect some of that going into the school year, take a look at what NY's collected over the years, how she's collected it, how it's been distributed, um might give us some opportunities to reflect on that for the future, but I wouldn't want that to hold us up for today, but I do think we have opportunities to, you know, strategize for the future. And and just to add to that, I do know that that Mr. Demar, our athletic director, is going to be looking at um sponsorship opportunities to help either keep the costs um
093down or to at least supplement the programs in some way. So, teams going out and and looking for sponsors and that's something that he's willing uh to start looking into as well. So, that could certainly help some of our programs, not just for athletics, but also the arts programs as well. So, so that was um superintendent, one of my hidden um words under the strategies. Um I didn't know if I could say the sponsorships out loud, but you did. So, yeah, I think that um collecting some of that information and some of the great um uh opportunities that would be there with sponsorships, having some of that information. And you know, I had the opportunity to go some of the plays this year and some of the different activities. And I think that looking at
094that um in the long term that there could be some really good opportunities um if that were the will of the district. Thank you. Um Kenan, excuse me. Now, if I could be switched over to Okay, Robin, will you let Kim in? Yes. Can I just ask that if if you get kicked out for any reason, if you just raise your hand, I'll notice it quicker. So, sorry about that, Kim. Um, I think since a question for uh Nancy, um, I understand the student uh, parking fee just went up uh, from this last year or this year. It's more than what it was last year. Um, and I like I liked Kent's suggestion of possibly raising that because I think that's a really low friction way to increase income um, or revenue I should say.
095Um, because students are going to park regardless. um there's a handful of people that park across the street, but strictly speaking, those handful of people shouldn't be doing that. Um and uh that's, you know, a personal choice for them to make. But what does um what is the cost or the total revenue, I should say, that we're making from the parking fee and I what does it go to? Um like is it just the maintenance of the parking lot? Yeah, it could be used for anything related to the parking. It could be like snow plow costs, equipment costs, line painting, any any of those things, repair of um you know, asphalt, that type of thing. And this year so far, I took a look uh we have collected just over $30,000 in parking fees. And
096I I don't know if you have that number in front of you. How many cars is that for? I that I don't have. Okay. Yeah, I'd have to Well, I can do some division. I can figure it out. Yeah. And Kenan, keep in mind that some students buy half year be half year in between and things like that. They don't buy the entire year. That's very true. Thank you, Lisa. All right. So, your math could be off, Kenan. All right. So, there was a recommendation just to increase the fee from 180 to 250. Am I correct on that? I'm just trying to keep if it does go to a vote. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Made that recommendation. Randy, um I'll stick first with the parking. Um Nancy um do you have any information on
097how many um students purchased this year versus last year? Um did that cost um change how many per uh permits that we give out because that was a substantial jump from last year to this year. Um so that that that's what I want would want to know as far as for the parking. Um, as far as for the sports, um, remember we're talking the these costs are per season and we have no family caps anymore. So, if you have a family that has a 12 season athlete, they're paying at the $275 $275 per sport rate right now an extra $825 a year. And most athletes that are in the high school are also doing outside um athletics uh with uh club sports with team uh clubs uh team um you know town teams rather. Um
098it gets expensive. We're going to be forcing these families to making having their children's choose high school club sports town sports because 825 for one child per year. And if you have multiple children that are close together, I had two children in high school um at the same time for six years straight. Um if they were both 12, you know, all four three of them were 12 season athletes, I would have been paying over $2,000 a year just for sports. I'm not sure I would have been able to afford that or want to afford that. Um and I want my kids to be involved. Um, so when we're not talking about um any kind of cap for a family, um, we do have families that have kids that are close together in age and this
099will cause problems. Um, I I I am not in favor of going from $275 to $350 um for this where we just increased it every single year for the last three years. Um I you know again um show me numbers, show me data, show me participation rates, show me the revenue, show me how it's being spent and what it's reducing our budget for. Uh because if I don't see numbers go down in the budget and we're collecting more money and we're just creating more um of a balance in our revolving funds, I'm not for this because we don't have a great way right now of monitoring and spending our uh revolving funds and keeping track of them on our budget and I'm not going to go and create more balances there that are just going
100to sit. Anyone else have any questions? Nancy, um c can you just share how we're looking in athletic revolving now? Um I could give you those numbers. I just don't know what uh transportation bills have come in. I'd have to dig into what months we've paid because sometimes those lag. So if I gave you a number, it might not be 100% accurate right now. Okay. Can you share what it was at the end of last year? Sure. Once everything was paid out. Yeah. Well, it was we came into this year with $215 left over from the revolving fund from last year. So, so this is not um this is not one that's built up generally. No. And and we're not going to be tracking revenue because there really isn't any. It's just trying to trying
101to keep up with the increased costs. The only thing that the only thing honestly that I think would be worthwhile tracking is participation rates. And if participation rates are being impacted, that's certainly something that we want to look at. But the revenue piece for athletics is $2,000 is is not it's not that it's not meaningful in any way, but it's something that's generally going to be close to going into the red on an annual basis because of all of our because of the increased costs. It's not something where money is being um saved in a revolving account like like the parking fund which we need to save because in time that parking lot will need to be redone in $30,000 I would imagine would would would take care of a very small area of that
102parking lot. Um just based on the costs of previous projects previous paving projects we've done that $30,000 wouldn't touch much of it. Um so just putting that out there. the the revenue piece is really not there for a lot of these user fee programs. Yeah. And I do have uh the the budget worksheet for FY26 where we plan what we planned for revenue and for both the general fund and the revolving fund which I'm happy to share. Yes. Nancy, would you please share that with everyone? Randy, yeah, I apologize for the questions coming in. There was a question I actually had from looking at the packet that I just saw on my notes that I missed. Is so we have a budget going into next year. Um, it's been approved by the towns. Um, we
103put out a budget. These fees weren't part of it. If we institute these fees, what are we getting back? Are we take bringing back anything that got cut? Are we uh increasing anything or decreasing anything in our budget? What are these fees going to do for FY26 since we already have a budget? They're potentially going to help address with increased ice time costs, which we don't have at this point for next year for for for ice hockey specifically. And as far as away event, that's that's a moving target. We never know exactly how many away events we are going to have. And sometimes a shift of three or four in one direction in a particular sport can have a significant impact on the cost of that program. And the other piece is is that if
104we have teams that are qualifying for the MIA tournament, that's also something that is an increased cost in transportation because that's not something that is um you know, part of the regular operating budget. I'm sure that Mr. Demar accounts for some wiggle room there. But again, it depends on where the bus is going. Um that's what's going to determine the cost. How long is the driver sitting in waiting for the students to come um out of the event? All of that has a dramatic impact on the price. So yes, these all of these costs are significant, but you know, if you have an away game that is $500 and now it's $2,000, that basically wipes out three user fees on its own right there. um you know that f even more than three user fees
105um with that simple shift in the location of the event and we do have some teams in our league that are lengthy drives if you count something like Shephard Hill which is a long ride. Thank you. Mhm. Brad, would you recommend taking this to um another committee to decide some of the fees or again I think that um this is not something that that I enjoy doing in any way. Um I have made some adjustments. I do think the middle school sports can stay the same if we move away from the transportation piece um and addressing the percussion and winter guard and and adjusting the student parking to what was discussed. I think the problem's going to be is that um is that a lot of the signups start occurring. It's it's are we going
106to have another meeting um between now and when signups begin in July? And I think that's going to be a challenge. No, it's completely up. Again, it's it's up to the committee. I don't think anyone can say that they enjoy increasing these costs. This is not um certainly not something that that anyone enjoys. But, um it is going to be asked next year. Um and people do start to ask questions come budget season, how are these extracurriculars being funded? We can't in looking at FY27 look at another round of staffing cuts like we did this year if we're asked to present the same budget back to the towns. If that's what they're asking for um and and they want almost a 0% increase from the school district, that's going to have a a dramatic impact
107on the school district's budget. And there's only so many cuts you can make to the people that are in front of kids every day without looking at other areas to cut. And then you start then you start looking at the athletics, the arts, building safety, um, and things of that nature, um, or or cleanliness. It's It's not. So, again, I think that it's a difficult decision, but I I do think if we're not going to have a have a meeting in July, uh that we probably need to at least vote on this tonight and see where the committee stands. And if the committee says no, then we go back to the drawing board and have a finance meeting in a couple weeks and then propose a special school committee meeting strictly on fees. Kenan I
108Yeah, I think Brad just basically just said what I was going to say. Um I think it's Is this something that we say we vote and approve this right now and we get more information and we realized we can lower these fees by like $25 a pop. is would that be overtly complicated to then switch say after sports registration or no? It's something that we might the majority of our student athletes play more than one sport and the majority of our kids that are in um you know some of the other user fee items are involved in more than one. So I think that if the committee were to make a vote they could likely adjust it on the second season. Um, but if the student doesn't adjust it, if the student doesn't participate in
109multiple sports or in multiple events that would have these user fees. Um, Nancy, how complicated would that be? So, you're looking to reduce it later, increase it now, reduce later if it's determined that if it's necessary, it's not needed. Oh. Oh, I see. Um well you'll have some people playing sports in the fall that pay the higher rate and then the winter sports it goes down as an example. Yeah. So they would pay less in the winter so they would be credited. Are we are we refunding all those people because that would make be challenging like is it like I think what I'm asking is if most of if most of these people will be paying again later anyways is it complicated to do like a credit or something like that? like as long as
110I'm I'm very comfortable moving a question right now and voting yes, but I just want to know um if there's a mechanism to reimburse those people in some kind of way if necessary if only if necessary. I mean there we we can reimburse people. It's just probably a slight manual process. We use we use a product um an Arbiter sports product where people sign up and pay that way and uh you can adjust fees in that but again it's for everybody signing up so it's there's not an individual way to credit one student and not another we could do everybody gets a credit or nobody gets a credit okay I think that would be self they're self- selecting you know you could we do that we did that for a while with the free and
111reduced we'd families self- select the free and reduced um they click a button and then they would get that price and that resulted in us having to reconcile those and people don't understand what that means. They think everyone's free so they're clicking the free button in athletics. So um we stopped that and had to manually go back go back to manual. So it's not that it's not doable. So we can live with whatever the committee wants to do. I'm just there's there's going to be a manual element to it. Yeah. as as long as there's a mechanism for it. So, I'm comfortable if I have a second to move the question. If that pleases the chair, we can move the question. Is it to accept all of these fees, Kenan? Yes, as as presented in
112the document. Um the doc something we didn't talk about but not the kindergarten. Is this not two separate? I'm sorry. If this is two separate motions then that need to be made. I'm talking about just this document of activity fees. Okay. Oh, I scroll to the bottom. I understand what you're saying. I'm sorry. I did not scroll to the second page. Then yes, I'm comfortable moving to the kindergarten discussion. Okay. So, are we voting on the fees prior to kindergarten or we incorporating the kindergarten after? I say we do the fees first and then kindergarten after. Okay. Keep them both separate. Thank you. All right. So Keenan made a motion to accept the fees of the athletic fees and the band fees and the parking and the parking fees. All right. Who seconded? Patrick. Patrick.
113All right. All right. Now we'll vote. Kenan. Discussion on the motion. Whoops. Sorry. Just discussion. Kim. Um, uh, Ken, would you accept a a friendly, um, amendment to your motion to accept the student activity fees with the increase of the parking fee to 250? That is uh, yes, I think that's on the document already and I think Brad updated it whilst we were whilst we were discussing. Okay. Yeah, I can't I'm locked out of my North Middle Sex. Maybe they thought I was a student like Kenan, but I don't have access, so I can't see what you all are doing. So, thank you. Can I just update the committee on what's been updated? Yes, go ahead. I I put the middle school sports back to 100 with no transportation. Um, I moved percussion winter guard
114back to 275, which is what it was. Student parking has been removed from 180 to 250, and that's it. Okay. All right. Is everyone clear on the fees? Randy, your question. Oops. Hand is down. So, yeah, I just forgot to put my Okay. All right. Now, everybody's clear. We're just voting on the fees, not kindergarten. Yes. All right. Keenan, yes. Randy, no. Jill, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Kim, yes. Carrie, yes. Alexander, yes. Patrick, yes. And myself, yes. All right, those are the fees currently set for next year. All right, moving on to kindergarten. And Brad, you're going to put out a document to everyone and the community, correct? Yes. On the fees? Yes, I will. Thank you. Okay. So, as far as consider as far as kindergarten fees go, and this could be a consideration
115for FY26 or it could be a consideration for FY27. Um but just some important things because this is this is two parts. The first part is is that I I am going to request a waiver from the committee to petition DESIE on the class size regulation in kindergarten. Right now kindergarten is the only grade level that has a class-size regulation attached to it at 25. And the reality is is that as you know we've made significant budget cuts uh this year in the district to staff and we do have the ability to petition to the state the ability to go over that 25 but the school committee has to give me approval to ask. So that would be an item that you would vote on. Right now we do have some kindergarten sections that are
116hovering around 26. Um, that being said, as part of the FY25 budget process, every single kindergarten classroom had a full-time PAR professional. Those positions were reduced to where a single PAR professional was shared between two kindergarten teachers. In preparation for the larger class sizes for FY26, those full-time PAR professionals had been moved back into the kindergarten classroom. Every kindergarten teacher has a full-time kindergarten par profofessional with them. The reason I'm asking for the waiver is that if we go above 25, which we very well may in some of our sections, not only does it go against our class size policy, um, but it would also be in violation to a desi regulation. So, I would need the committee's approval to seek a one-year petition to allow us to go over 25 in a classroom due
117to budgetary reasons. That's essentially the only reason. Uh, it's district hardship that would allow that. So, that's the first step. I think we'll leave that open for discussion. It is allowed, but I need permission from the committee to do that. Um, so I'm seeking a motion to do that if needed. All right. And I'm not saying it's going to be needed, but it may be needed. So, I'd like to be prepared. Um, and also, please recognize we're not looking to have our kindergarten classes get um overly large either. Um, but if we're over by, you know, one or two in a section or two, it may be something that that we may want to consider seeking the petition. All right. This is talking about the petition for kindergarten class sizes to decimate. All right, Carrie.
118Um, would we be raising it to a specific number? So, instead of 25, would we be petitioning to raise it to 30 or would that be open-ended? It would be open-ended. I I honestly don't see us getting to that point. Um, but I would see us possibly at 26 or 27 in some areas. Um again with the hope to avoid it but if we get there um I I would need again I would need desi approval to go in that direction. Uh and but also the realization that with the budget that we currently have. I I would like nothing more than to hire another kindergarten teacher. The problem is is that if we have um the need for a you know another multilingual teacher, another special education teacher, I don't get to make decisions on
119that. That has to be done. It has to be taken care of so that we remain in compliance um with the students under both federal and state guidelines or or regulations at that point. Uh so that's oftent times when we're looking at adding staff, that's where we add the staff once the school year begins and the budgets active. Um adding general education teachers is not something that we generally have to do. And again, if we have a little bit of a cushion because of hiring and things like that, it it it might be best for this year to save that for when we absolutely have to hire someone and the choice is not at our discretion. All right, Randy. Gary, educationally speaking, how is this going to work out for the kindergarten classes and the
120education of these students? because as I understand it, we went up to 25 with a full-time power originally because um trying to educate and control and have these children um you know they're kindergarteners first time in school actually be able to learn and be doing what they want to with 20 in a classroom was tough. When we decided to go to 25, we put a full-time parrot in. We cut that this past year uh to one parish shared between the kindergarten classes and now you want to go above that 25 educationally speaking. Is that going to set them back? Not with the inclusion of the full-time paraprofessional. I think you know if we looked at maintaining a half-time paraprofessional right like we have right now there are class sizes of 24. There's actually a class
121that had gotten up to 25 um this year with only a halftime pair of professional. So with if we're looking at one or two additional students in a classroom with the addition of a full-time PAR professional, I think um they would be able to meet the educational needs of the students. Is there a cap that you would recommend? I don't know if I'd um want to give a cap at this time. I certainly would want to look closely at the numbers. Um, I think adding one adding two um students to a class with a full-time power is reasonable. I think as you get up higher than that, it may it may be something that we need to look at. But we also want to make sure that we're equitable between the two buildings because if
122you have one school that has 26 in a class and then we've added another section to the other school, then we're now looking at grade levels where we don't have equitable numbers of students between the the classes. right now the for what's currently enrolled for students, they're they're equitable in terms of the the sizes of the the classes between the two buildings. Thank you, Lisa. You're on mute. Oh, that was my own conversation. Sorry, Gary. It would depend on the needs in that classroom. Correct. Because each classroom would be designed a little differently for the kids. Yeah. Correct. So putting a cap would be tough on one classroom. Correct. And that's why it's hard to say, you know, base it just on a number. You have to also look at the needs. Okay. All right,
123Alexander. Yeah. I'm I'm going to um I'm going to back up sort of what Gary was saying like if you have another if you have a par profofessional in there full-time that you know couple students over that 25 margin you know it's not going to be that bad um a good par goes a long way um and I'm biased I was a parah for many years so but a good pair goes a long way and um yeah I I I think I you know I know it's not ideal but the reality is what the the reality is what the reality is and having these big classes but having a pair I think they're going to do fine and hopefully we can get the sizes down a little more but I think for now I think
124they're going to do just fine do we know what the um the amount of students for the incoming kindergarten is going to be for the 2026 2025 2026 school year so that is something that is really never known I know that that the the principles predict it and we do have students that are registered right now, but it really is it is something that moves throughout the entire summer. Um, so we never really know until the beginning to the usually the first couple weeks of August is when we have more of a a solid number that we can count on. Um, but it moves all summer long. So, I don't have a a great answer for you other than the fact that it's like that every single year. Do we have a rough estimate just
125with what we have enrolled right now and then like kind of guess what we might have over the summer? Yeah, Gary, do you have those actual numbers right now? Sure. So, right now it's looking right around 100 for both buildings. So, and we have and we have four teachers. So, that's why we're pretty much at the 25 right now. Um, but we also have, as I've continued to monitor this each week, there are students that withdraw or families that withdraw from the registration process. So, we really, it is a it's definitely a moving target and it's hard to to maintain. We we try to wait until they fully have completed the registration process, submitted all the documents to officially count them within the hours. Of course. Thank you so much. Any more questions? So, I
126need a motion to ask Desi for a waiver on the classroom size of our kindergarten classes. I move to request the increase through Desi for the kindergarten class. Seconded. Okay, that is Patrick and Alexander. All right, Kenan. Oh, any discussion? Seeing no hands. Oh, Randy, I just want to put it out there is is as I do um thank you, Gary, for your opinion on that. I just really truly worry about the youngest learners. The more we hear with any research that's going on is the earlier you can start with these students with a strong foundation, the better it and easier and cheaper it is to educate them all the way up through 12th grade. We fight for early education for early start for everything to get these kids with that great foundation. And I'm
127not sure that going above even with two people in the classroom, I'm not sure it's in the best interest of the district to put to even possibly um you know possibly have it be detrimental to the kindergarten students. 25 is already up. It traditionally was higher than all the other grades. I understand the other grades are, you know, up at 25 now as well. I just really truly worry about starting these kids off um on a bad foot because it takes years and years and years to recover. So, thank you Randy Gary. I just um one of the things and I thank you Randy. I I agree. We certainly want to give students the best start and um getting them early definitely does make a difference. We did recently receive information from Desi that there's
128going to be some additional grant funding and opportunities for um additional tutoring and support for students at the lower grade levels particularly focused around literacy. Um so we have submitted interest for being considered as part of that grant process. Um we don't have a lot of details of how much money what it will look like but at least we are exploring that so that we can you know that could be another avenue to continue to support our students. All right. Thank you Gary. All right. Any more discussion? Ready for vote. Kim. Yes. Yes. Harry, yes. Alexander, yes. Patrick, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Jill Twig, yes. Randy, no. Uh Kenan, yes. And myself, I'm going to vote no as well. All right, moving on. Okay. And then just um the other thing just to consider um
129I know we've discussed this before um but this would in fact help uh potentially fund additional staff. Um as you know, kindergarten is is not currently required under DESIE guidelines. uh the districts do have to offer a half-day kindergarten education for all eligible children. Uh that is in your packet and in the document that I gave you. But something that um you know again whether or not the committee wants to entertain this or not is something I just wanted to put on the table is that we do have three area districts that do charge for full day kindergarten. Um those being Grot and Dunstable at $4,200 a year, Harvard at $3,750 a year, and Actton Boxboro $1,975 a year. Uh there were a couple of other districts that had charged previously. um they no longer
130charge, but it is something that is um frequently brought up in conversation uh to potentially go back to it, but again, it's not something that um that is being done at this point. So, there are only three in the immediate area that currently charge for full day kindergarten. And just wanted to put that out there as well. And again, it's for full day, not half day. Half day is required. Alexander I would be totally opposed to charging for full day kindergarten to be completely honest with you as a parent. Um, knowing a lot of other parents with young children, um, everybody, you know, uh, it's it's hard to find child care. Um, and it's hard to find it at a good price. I mean, even even two days of extended day a week is costing
131me an arm and a leg at this point. So, yeah, I'm I I would I would be totally against charging for full full day kindergarten. I'm just, you know, I know we have some financial realities, but just on a matter of principle, I I would be against charging for that. Thank you, Alexander Carrie. So, my big concern, I agree with Alex. Um, but my concerns are we have like a two-tier system. So, we have kids going half day, kids going full day. What does that look like for first grade? Do we have kids diff at different levels of learning at that point? And then my other concern is I mean we only have what I think it's 38 school districts in the state of Massachusetts that are charging for full day kindergarten. So I mean
132that is a very a few amount. Um, in reference to just for Ashb, I mean, we're already losing our school for the next year. Having to pay for full full day kindergarten while sending our kids to towns in seems like a big ask. So, I do my biggest concern though would be the two-tier learning half day versus full day kindergarten and what that would look like for first grade. Thank you, Carrie. Uh Jill, um so my biggest concern about kids that possibly need full day but don't have an IEP or a 504 in place. Won't that increase our special education costs for first grade moving forward for those kids that maybe were missed because they were just there for two hours as opposed to, you know, I feel like it's going to increase our sped
133services later on with increased IEPs and 504s for these kids. And you it's very hard to come off of those as the years go through. And I feel like we already have a large cost for special education. I just feel like this is going to make it so much worse. [Music] Do you want to keep the with the comments or the questions? Yeah. Yeah. We'll just keep going and then you can answer them all or address them all at once. Uh Kim, you're on mute, Kim. Thank you so much. Um, you know, this is such a hard um topic in looking at it sort of high level by the numbers only. A few um around us are charging. I was looking at what Grat and Dunstable and Westford are charging. um looking at the cost
134of child care, looking at the cost of private kindergarten um and recognizing that it can be a real struggle for folks not knowing this discipline as well as some of the other areas of government, not knowing what might be available for families um for for payment if they're on different programs. Um, I'd like to be educated a bit more on that, but is there a way that we can start with maybe a lower fee to see what might be, you know, possible? Um, rather than maybe coming in at the fee that you're suggesting, is there a little bit of a a a smaller fee that we could charge in the beginning? Um, it's again, when I look at just the pure numbers, it makes sense to charge. When I look at some of the other
135contributing factors that might have impact later, it's a little bit not as cut and dry as sometimes I'd like a decision to be. So, can you give some feedback on that, superintendent, or just some thoughts on what might be in an alternative sort of phased in approach to this or other areas that we might look at supplemental funding? Um, I know again, um, from the TEO perspective, taking off my school board hat, we're always happy to supplement fees for activities. Um, fees in this regard, depending on the number, might be a little bit harder for us to commit to from a TEO perspective. Um, where the fees are much easier for us to say, yes, I know we can pull that from different fundings, different grants, different programs. this would be a very new area
136for us that I don't know if we could you know quickly um pivot and find that kind of funding to supplement. So as far as the impact to kids first and foremost is that um you know I I can't say that it's not going to have a negative impact on students. Uh obviously the goal would be to have the half-day students um to to have the day structured so that when the half-day students were leaving for the day, they've had the majority if not all of their um major or core academics with specials, lunch, things like that being as as late in the day as possible. Um obviously within reason, especially with the lunch piece and then having some of the specials in the afternoon. Um so and again then at that point you would
137be taking some students out of things that um you know they'd be coming to school for things that they may enjoy. They may enjoy being in the music class or being in the physical education class um and may not enjoy the academics as much, but maybe getting just as much out of those special specials classes as they would or would at least get them to um you know be more engaged in some of the um some of the core content areas. So, I can't say for certain um that it would not have a negative impact. it likely would have a negative impact on kids. Um, you know, if we were to move in this direction and too many students uh were choosing to go the half day route instead of the full day route. Um,
138you know, as I said, there were two area districts that had the fees, Westford and Tingsboro. They don't have them anymore. They they eliminated them a couple of a year or two ago, so those fees are gone. But we still have, you know, over 30 in the Commonwealth that do have them. three of them are in our immediate area. um is it something that we want to consider a small fee um to have full day kindergarten access so that it's something that would be affordable for most families but it would help again uh with any type of uh it would help subsidize any type of additional staffing that may be needed um in case of you know in case we had to hire an additional teacher or something like that because as I said the
139operating budget as it stands right now does not really have wiggle room for regular education teachers. It just doesn't um it has, you know, we we do have to set that money aside for some of the mandated positions that we have that continue to be um not fully funded uh by the federal and state government. So, that's something to consider. Um you know, I put those fees on there so you could see what other districts were charging. I know that North Middle Sex considered a $3,000 fee last year. Um, you know, and and in looking at it now, you can see that, you know, there are a couple districts that are below that right now. Um, and as Miss Craraven said, do we want to consider something that's that's small to start out with? Uh,
140do we want to consider something small this year or small next year and and not implement it until FY27? Again, I think ultimately, um, we just have to keep an eye on what the what the budget is and make sure we're being as responsible as possible. and making sure that we're doing the best we can to service kids, but also um making sure that we're living within the confines of what we are currently being forced to live within. Does that make sense? Did that answer your questions or Yes. Um I I I think it does. Um, again, I just see, you know, like when I look at graten dens, it's 4,200 for a full day, nothing for the half day. It's it's hard to for for me not having had the experience of putting kids
141through that. Um, sort of the impact of the half day, the full day. But I think that we do need to really consider something. Um, I hate to have to consider it, but I think that we do, even if it's just, like I said, something nominal to start out with and, you know, hope that our future is is better and brighter and hope that maybe we can find some, you know, supplemental funding or other ways to help if people can't meet that fee. And again, it it creates um for us the need to do really good outreach to the families to let them know that the district will try to find, you know, sponsorship or whatever we might do. And like I said, it's it would be new for for the TEO part of it,
142but I I'm sure that we would be committed to to looking to our partners to try to find um help for those families that couldn't pay the fee. So, so thanks for trying to help me through it. Superintendent. Yes. Uh Patrick, buckle up everybody. I vehemently disagree with this for several reasons. Um I I I have a young family um eight, nine, second and third grade. So, I've seen the past three years the kids that have that daycare experience, those kids that have that kindergarten versus the kids who are just um coming straight from home to school, it there is a there is a big impact. Um I feel like as far as fees for sports or or parking a car, those are choices people are making. But young families need to start sending kids
143to school. Um and kindergarten typically involves younger families, you know, starting out a parent has been probably home watching a kid this whole time, so the the money is already low. I I don't think charging even a small fee is a great idea because as we've seen, those fees are going to increase year-over-year, and it's going to catch up to those families. Um, I love charging fees for things, but I I I disagree with this one. I just don't think it's fair. Um, I think it will impact the students. I think it will impact the families greatly. Um, I would love to see more money coming into the district. I just don't think this is the way to do it. Um, I I feel like just based on all the comments we've heard, we could
144probably move to vote just because I I have a feeling this thing fails fairly quickly and easily. efficiency. Randy, um first very opposed u I was opposed to it before because again for the cost whether families can afford it or not if they choose not to. We're creating two tiers uh of kindergarten students going into first grade causing us major problems in first grade. There's already problems going into first grade with students not being on the same level and the same page on what they've learned and what they know and how they can go. Um, starting our students off in kindergarten on different feet in the district will only cause more problems going through school. Second, I will again my advice before pay attention to where we are comparing ourselves. I just looked up real
145quick. Harvard has a median income of $189,000. Graten has $189,000. Um, Actton 15 153,000 uh median income in their town. Peril, which is the highest of the three in our district, is 126. We have to watch what we're comparing ourselves to. They are wealthier cities and towns than we are. Um, so that's just first. So I I'm glad that they can and they're making it work and that their students are going for our students. I will never be forcharging for full day kindergarten. All of our students get the same opportunity for education, sports, extracurricular. Not happy about fees, but those are extra. Our core mission is education. If we're going to charge for full day kindergarten, get rid of it. Have half day for everybody. And I'm very firm on that. There's not one dollar
146that I will make somebody pay to go full-time kindergarten in this district. Lisa Bloom. Lisa, you're on mute. Hi. Sorry about that. Um, I totally disagree with charging a fee and I believe all students should have access to full day kindergarten. Um just as um when my girls were starting kindergarten, I lived in Tingsboro. Um and unfortunately I was going through my divorce then and I had no I couldn't afford the full day. So then then we moved to town then and it put them behind. And I know for a fact any child going through a half day kindergarten versus full day kindergarten makes a huge impact in their learning. So, I totally disagree with any fees and every student should be able to go full-time. Thank you. All right. Um, do we want Oh,
147Kim, do you still have a question or you're good? So, I do. Um Randy just mentioned something that if we were to charge a fee for full day that she would prefer that the district just move to all half day kindergarten. Um so that you know with just hearing that for the first time um made me think very quickly if we are valuing full day kindergarten as really transformational. I'd love to hear our opinion as to how that would be a viable approach to just have only the half day kindergarten in in effect. Go ahead, Randy. Yes. Um, full day kindergarten has been very transformational for the students. Um, but as I understand it, and you know, Gary, please step in if I have misunderstood this over the years. um having students go into first
148grade um at completely different levels causes just as many problems as half day kindergarten. When if we have half day kindergarten, obviously some of those students have a better um education at home. They have supplemental education at home. Some parents opt to send their kids out of district for k for full day kindergarten to give their kids the advantages of a full day kindergarten um program. We see that coming into our kindergarten programs as well. We know that there are some children that have had more enriching uh pre preschools uh experiences. And there's a problem in kindergarten with trying to level them out and work with the children to bring up the kids that didn't have that enrichment beforehand so that they are at a level playing educationally playing field as all the other students
149in the class. Um, I don't want to create an even larger one going into first grade by charging for full day kindergarten and having a subset of students only doing the half day for all sorts of reasons, not just financial. And then going into our first grade is going to cause us problems going forward. um having that large of a gap because it's going to add to our special education because these kids are not going to be up to the level that they're supposed to be. They're not going to be up to their peers. So, it's not even like we have an entire classroom we have to bring up a couple of levels. It'll be like we have 75% of a class that's good and 25% which are going to end up on IEPs because
150they're not with the other students in their class. Um, so I'm not for going to half day fully, but I would prefer to see that it rather than charge and have money be the deciding factor of whether these children are coming in at an equal level or not. So that that's added to my level of confusion. Um Gary or superintendent, can you help me um sort of navigate our numbers at this point and anything that you might see in the classroom? Um half day versus full day. Um how many we have in each if you can without um revealing anything. um of any numbers that then you see a propensity that those children that are half day go into special needs um plans more than children that go from full day into non IEP special
151um needs programming. So currently we only have full day programming. But I meant in in general like like numbers of anything. Yeah, I yeah, it might be hard to just pull out. Um I just didn't know if there's any like studies numbers that show the difference for kids in learning. Yeah, we can certainly take a look at that, but I I don't have that today. Okay. Um, in in your estimation, what would happen to the educational environment if we only went to half day? I think that's a really difficult question to think about. Um, I think the what we in terms of going all to half day, is that what you're asking? I think what what would be missed is the additional skills that the opportunities for skill building that we look at that are
152beyond just the academic experience. If we're only doing half day, the focus would be on the academic program. So the core academic subject areas. So we would lose out on the opportunities that are provided through the arts, music, fizzed, health type programming. we would lose the opportunities for students to interact with one another during lunch and recess where they're developing strong skills and we're able to then process and work with them around those that skill development. So I think those would be the areas that that skill, you know, not an academic skill set, but that other skill set that is very valuable within learning. And I think that would be challenging for those students moving into advancing in their grades. And just a further question, this would probably be more for Nancy, of course, because
153it's budgetary. Um so when our community asks you know of of us um you know where are you cutting the budget and why didn't you cut this? What is the difference um costwise estimate? I know um this is we're going down a little bit of a rabbit hole here but what would the cost difference be approximately um for half day versus full day? Yeah, I guess I would have to really run it to be honest. I don't off the top of my head. Um, you know, it's going to vary because again, there's some brand new teachers, there's some teachers at the top. It's it's a variety. I don't know. I I mean I guess we could look at it, you know, what the savings would be for half day and how we would how we'd
154implement that. And in addition, Nancy, to the staffing, there would also be budgetary implications for busing because we would then have to add an additional run. So that that might offset, you know, so it's I think that would take a little bit more analysis. you you might actually yeah you might break even on busing actually because it depends if you could take the buses that are in the later in the afternoon they'd have less kids on them so you might be able to squeak yeah um and and I'm being a bit of devil's advocate here um because it was introduced that maybe you if we're going to charge any fee at all that we should just go back to to half day um so I think you you probably have this figure um the cost
155of one kid if they are left behind and we have to give special services, special education about what is that costing the district a year and it depends on their placement honestly. It could go somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000. Okay, fair enough. I appreciate that. I think it just gives a really good perspective. I know you can't give the numbers if it if it went fully to half, but I think you can give that's a good perspective if there's even one kid that because of a half day approach um so it wouldn't seem prudent at all um to go to half day. Um I know there's really strong feelings about no fee. Um and I can go with the will of of the committee. Um, but it, you know, it's something that I'm not sure
156we totally want to throw out um forever. Might be something that I I bring up um in the future. Um, but I think it's important if we are going to have these discussions and we throw out a I'd rather do with something halfway than not just because of one element of it. um that it could push us into a corner of something that we have a really bad unintended consequence for. So, I just think we need to be careful of that that that we would say, "Hey, we want to just do away with something and push it backwards." Um because I think the cost savings to just go to a half day would not be um prudent um for what we would have to make up globally. I I'd like to try to maybe over
157time um query the district on how many people would be able to absorb some sort of cost um for kindergarten um and explore that. Um I think that in these budgetary times, as much as we might not like it, um I do think we owe it to our communities to at least ask the question and if it comes back unilaterally, don't charge for it, then at least we have that information. Um, but I'm certainly willing to go along with with the rest of the committee members tonight to say no fee, but I would like to get more community input on that so that we have a better um better answer to answer our communities as to why we're not implementing that fee. So, I do have a comment to add. Um, if we did go
158to half day, my worry would be that we would push people away from our district because several districts around us offer a full day and we would lose enrollment, which we can't afford to lose enrollment as it is. So, that's one of my concerns. Moving on to Patrick. Yeah, I I agree. I feel like this negatively impacts both our our lowincome members in the community and our and our higher income members of the community. Whether half day impacts people trying to get, you know, mother's hours jobs or just trying to get some stuff done with a kid in school. And then for families who can afford full day, if it's not available, they're going to go elsewhere. I I don't I agree that half day versus full day will have a major impact on the
159difference in kids in first grade, but it's not fair to hold back kids from learning. I think the whole thing is silly. I think we have to stick full-time. I think it has to be free. If we do want to dig in this deeper, I don't think it's going to impact this upcoming year of kindergarten. So, I'm just move to vote. All right, Patrick, I think you're breaking up. I think what we can do is we can the current Patrick and dig into the Yep. Can you hear me? Patrick, you're breaking up just a little bit. Yep. But I think we can move on. Yeah. I I just All right. I think we'll just move on with the discussion and or we'll stop discussing it. Yep. I can hear you. I think we'll just move.
160This is great discussion, but any of it's going to not have an impact on this current year of kindergarten. So, I move to vote as is and and we can discuss this absolutely for upcoming years, but I don't think any of it's going to have an impact on this current kindergarten school year. I I have a feeling we don't even have to vote at this moment because I have a feeling that none of us are going to move forward with kindergarten fees at this time. Is that the correct feeling I'm getting from everyone on the board? I believe it's no across the board. I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I figured that's the way the vote was going. All right, Lisa Bloom, do you have anything to add or are we good
161to move on with the discussion? Put it down on a vote. Lisa, put it down on a vote. Yeah. Okay. All right. Lisa, going to agree with you, Lisa. Um as I think if we went to half day I would cause um many people especially parents who are working and have to work um daycare problems and you know or somebody having to be able to get the child up less and be home with them and vice versa. So I don't agree with half day. All right. So, I'm going to take a motion quickly just to um not do um fees for this coming year. Is that okay with everyone? Is it a vote to not do fees or should the vote be to do fees that we all just vote no on? It could be
162either one. Okay. The motion hasn't been made yet. Yeah. Go for it, someone. So, uh, I will move that we vote not to have kindergarten fees for FY. Okay, that was Randy and Patrick. All right, Patrick. Yes. Randy, yes. Kim, yes. Keenan, yes. Alexander, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Jill Twig, yes. Carrie Bedsby, yes. And myself, yes. All right, moving on to the next topic. All right. So, we're on to kindergarten class size, old business, school committee meeting schedule. Okay, that's where we are right now. Yes. Okay, so the school committee schedule in the packet you guys received a schedule. Is everyone okay with these dates for now? And the workshops are held in person. Randy, um I'm just wondering um well, one one I appreciate you putting in the workshops. um actually having them schedule
163will be a great opportunity uh to bring MASC in for some of those for training and have set dates that everybody has on their calendars. Um but as far as around budget times with the last two years of having a lot of uh or very difficult budgets and and anticipating yet one more year of um a bad budget year of trying to figure things out. Um, do we want to put in a second meeting in January before the budget hearing? Um, at least in January so that we have that on the books. It's scheduled in everybody's um, you know, calendars. We're not searching uh, for within you know a twoe period of when everybody can be available for a meeting. It's down. It's there. We can always cancel. Do you is there another date available?
164What is another January date? U there's January 27th is two weeks after uh after the 13th and two weeks before the 10th. Do we want to place January 27th on the calendar? Is everyone okay with that? Is that one to do remote or it will be it will be a remote one just due to weather? That way we don't have to reschedule things if weather becomes an issue. Is that okay with everyone? I'm still not happy with all the virtual and I think we need to work something out for this year and we can always change these virtual ones to in person if we can find a way to do this. Uh but for uh getting the dates on the calendar and getting everyone uh scheduled for them, I'm fine with the way it is
165with adding that date in. Anyone else? Any questions? Nancy, just a thought. But you may want to push that out a little bit because uh we could potentially try and figure out when the governor's proposal might be out. It's usually like right around an hour. Right at the end of the month, right? Yeah. Uh, I mean we we could put it on the 27th and then revisit again, but it's just an idea that it be useful to have it after that proposal comes out. Maybe it's right now because we got it this year about that time frame like the 27th. Yeah. Although it's it might be the week before so it might be good. It might be the 22nd. It's weird. uh calling there's four four Thursdays in January. I think it comes out on
166Wednesday, but by the time we get it. So, we might have it on the 27th. Let's just leave it. Okay. We'll watch that date and possibly shift it. And yeah, I was going to say and looking at that while we're talking, do we want to have a second date in March um or somewhere a second date between the budget hearing and the budget adoption? again with the difficulty that we had um and the and we're looking at another difficult budget year um I think we'd be better off having more on the books than less. Is that the February time frame that you're looking right now? Yeah, February 10th is the budget hearing. Um 17th I think is is a vacation week. Um, you have the 24th would be the in between the right the two
167weeks in between those two. The 24th of February. Yeah. Is everyone okay placing the 24th of February on the calendar as well? All right, we'll place the January 27th and February 24th on the calendar as of now. All right, try to check these as I go. These are all Tuesdays, correct? Yep. Yes. All right. Yeah, I can make all those work. All right. So, can someone make a motion to accept the calendar with the February 24th and January 27th date added? U, I will move uh to approve the calendar um as presented here with an additional U meeting date on February 27th and on March Nope. CL. So, sorry. Oops. On I forgot my dates already. Um, it was January. Yeah. What was it? Start again. Start again, Randy. Start again. I will move that
168we approve uh the FY uh 26 school year uh school committee calendar with the addition of two meetings. The first on uh it was January 27th. It's January 27th and then February 27th. 24th. 24th. Yeah, 24th. Sorry, I closed my calendar. I shouldn't have done that. I second. That is Randy Rush and Lisa Bloom. All right, Kenan. Yes. Patrick, yes. Carrie, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Jill Twig, yes. Craraven, yes. Alexander, yes. Uh, Randy, yes. Did I do you and myself? Yes. All right, moving on. Next we have the subcommittee um reports finance. Did we have a transfer Nancy? No. I'm going to wait. I It's really close. I really don't think I'm going to cross my fingers I won't need it. Okay. So, we will move on to the warrant signatures. This is Alex. All
169of the warrants have been moved under um the warrant subcommittee. Um Robin, do you want to explain why we did this? You've gotten some insight into why. Uh yes, this has been a um a topic uh that's been discussed uh quite a bit over the last uh couple weeks on my list serve. And uh what they were explaining that when you the warrants are approved because um you voted to um appoint Alexander to review and approve the warrants. So they should they should not be listed under consent agenda for approval because they were already approved. So um they should go under the warrant um signatory. So ju just as a courtesy letting you know letting the public know that those warrants were approved. All right, Randy. Sorry, I'm busy pulling up the um uh the
170policy that we have. I do believe that our policy uh says that uh the warrant subcommittee, it is a subcommittee. They are not speaking for the full committee. We are appointing somebody to actually physically go and do the signatures on the uh warrants, but the full committee still needs to approve all of the warrants. And if you give me a moment, um I'm bringing up the policy. Randy, you find the policy and we'll move on to the community outreach liaison. We'll come back. All right, Carrie, anything from MASHB? So, David Nu and I have been trying to get together, but our schedules are insane for end of school year, sports, etc. Um, so we are trying to meet because I do want to talk with him about um some of the ideas that I have
171for the closed bath. So, that's where we're at right now. Also, Thursday is the last day of school, half day. I know everybody knows this, but we're doing a townwide clapout for the AES students that will be either leaving to go to the middle school, fourth graders, or actually leaving to go to Spalding/Squanook. Um, I'm going to be there as a parent and a member of the PTC. But I would love if some members of the school committee wanted to come out and give the kids a good sendoff. Um I think it would mean a lot to the town, especially if we had, you know, at least one or two members for the school committee and maybe Brad Morgan. I know he's busy. Maybe Gary. Um but I think that would have a really nice
172impact with the town. So just a food for thought. Carrie, I do plan on attending. Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate that. I will be there, too. Yeah, thank you, Brad. Appreciate that. As will I. Thanks, Gary. I appreciate it. All right. Um, Pil, I do not have an update to you, Patrick. I'm going to take that as a no. Towns and Keenan. I know that their town meeting is coming up. Yes, the uh Townsen town meeting is on June 18th. Um nothing really of concern for us specifically as a committee. Um considering our budget is already approved. Um, in the last few days I've been in uh contact with Valerie from the Thompson Select Board um just regarding uh she had some constituents question or asking questions about our meeting schedule and what our um
173uh what our meeting uh where we're holding our meetings uh for the this upcoming year whether we're staying virtual or um in person. So, we're I deferred her to this meeting um until we approved uh what we given or what we just voted on. Uh but yeah, nothing else other than that. I'll just hop in real quick and say nothing from me from Pepper. Sorry, I was having trouble with the mute button. Okay. Thank you, Patrick. Thank you, Kenan. All right, Randy, do you want to bring this back? I'm sorry. I I thought I had it written down and that's the one policy I did not write down. I apologize. Um and I'm having a couple minutes trying to find this. Um I don't remember whether was it was under the financial or if it
174was under the school committee which is what I'm trying to figure out. Why don't we do this? we can bring these warrants back to the next consent agenda if need be. The other thing also is we'll need to take a look at either changing the policy or changing what we're doing is I did find on in there that our policy specifically states that the subcommittee will have no less than three members. So it's not this year that we've been in violation of this, but this is uh but that is something that I did come across on this. All right. So you're going to pull that back into policy. Yeah. then. Okay. All right. Can we take a motion for executive session? Somebody want to read it? Anyone? I can read it. A motion and vote
175to meet in executive session pursuant to MGL chapter 3A section 21A for the following purpose. Purpose two, to conduct strategy session sessions in preparation for negotiations with non union personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel, assistant superintendent principles superintendent assistant principles. Uh purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to and in preparation for the collective biding with the North Middle section school district teachers association because an open discussion may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the committee. The committee will not reconvene in an open session. All right. Um Lisa, I I have a question. I'm wondering no offense to Robin. appreciate you uh reading that. But this is one of those legal uh requirements that the person making the motion I think has to be this
176can't be a so moved motion which is why we always read it. Um other things on our um agenda sometimes we just say so moved or as written in the policy. This one has to be read and Robin does not have authority as a voting member to make a motion. So, okay. So, then then do you want So, I go ahead and read it if you have to. Okay. Keenan, go ahead and read it. I move that we meet in executive session pursuant to MGL chapter 3A section 21A for the following purpose. uh to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-un non-union personnel or to con or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel assists assistant superintendent superintendent principles assistant principles and pursuant to Massachusetts general laws chapter 3A
177section 22C to review and approve exe executive session minutes of the north middle sex regional school committee's executive session meeting May 19, 2025 and the committee will not reconvene in open. All right. So, that was Kenan and I'll second and Randy will second. Okay. Keenan, did you say yes? Keenan, yes. All right. Lisa Bloom, yes. Twig, yes. Alexander, yes. Kim, yes. Carrie, yes. Patrick, yes. Randy, yes. And myself. All right. We will go to executive session and we are not reconvening.