001The uh finance and law subcommittee shall come to order. I'll start with roll call. Mrs. Shabs present. Chairman Dlo present. Uh Mr. Vieier absent. First item on the agenda is the procurement card attached memo. Uh assistant superintendent Monahan, please. Thank you, Dr. Dlo. Um, as you can see that we have had um a few months that we're putting forth for the memo. Beginning in March for $25,9566. Um, April was $3,78844 and then for the month of May $3,7742. At the bottom of the memo, you will see that each of um the charges were charged which charges were charged to the um student activity accounts which were charged to the school budget. But please, as you do see um year to date, how much we have used um charged to the PCARD is just over $200,000.
002And then again, you'll see how mo um majority of it is split between grants and school budget and revolving. Wonderful. Mr. Shav motion to approve. Great. On discussion. So, just very quickly, so I I see some uh you know, travel related items. Are the are there more than one uh PECard out there or is this specific uh how how many we have out there? We have two PE cards, okay, that we have people sign out in the BIS in the business office. Okay. And so what we try to do is we make sure that once that person signs out that card that they are not to pass it along to others because there are some strict guidelines of what they are using it for and what their funding source is. Sure. And the other the
003other thing is um Okay. The the I I guess the the the lunches and dinners and breakfast and so forth. We're not establishing the PDMs. We haven't talked about that in a while. I know I brought that up at one time where if someone goes on school business to a conference to whatever they get an automatic perdm. Correct. They do. We do know how much they are to the the person that is using the card. There is a certain amount that the auditors have put into the city ordinance that they will be able to allow for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Right. But I see them charged to the PECARD. Yes, they do. They don't get it. I'm sorry. They do not go ahead and just get the money directed to them. they are allowed that
004and they will use it charging to the uh pecart. Okay. And do they have a requirement to I mean I see some that are pretty large amounts. Do they have a requirement to list who's part of that dinner or breakfast or lunch? Absolutely. So we do have that. Yes, you do see that. I lumped them all together so you wouldn't see everything down there, you know, by a list because it would be very very lengthy. But everything that we have is cross-cheed. It's a huge process to be um that is done by the the ladies in the finance office and I do appreciate their hard work on that. Okay. I I I guess my point is you know the PDM would be a personal item. So someone goes to and again this is part of
005the national uh GSO rate whatever it's called. So you go to a certain city for example New York would be $200 per DM but uh Tuscaloosa is 125. So, the traveler gets that amount automatically reimbursed to their payroll and whether they use it or don't use it, they get automatically. I think I think that's a great way to look at things instead of doing all this. It's more work for us. I mean, um, I'd have to check that with the city to make sure, but again, I know what we have what we've worked out with the city, and I'm not sure if it's a city ordinance or what, but they have allowed a certain amount of money per um per meal, but again, it is not directly given to the to this uh staff member.
006They know what is allowed and they can use the PECAR to charge. Okay, great. Mrs. chefs. Just based on what you said, I would think it would be financially beneficial to the school department not to do that because if someone if they get $120, but the person goes out for dinner and only spends 35, we've then given them 125 when we didn't have to. Yeah. So, okay. Yeah. And that does happen the other way around where, you know, they're entitled to 125 and that's not enough either depending, you know, on their eating habits. I mean, whatever. Um, it's a it's a personal thing. I I I believe so. Anyway, so the motion was seconded. All in favor? I opposed. Eyes have it. Thank you. Next up, we have coaching for change. See attached memo. Back
007to you, Mrs. Mon here. This is um for the May invoice. And you can see on the attachment the you will see what they have provided for services for um April 28th through May 9th at U. Bennett Elementary School, Freiedman Middle School, and I believe there's one more. That's the two. Sorry. Yes, Mrs. Shabs. Um, question. Can we request from them a summary for the school year so we can see what they I mean I know they've reported each month but I'd like to see a year um summary of what services they provided so we could cross reference it with what we're paying out with them to see how cost-effective it is. Sure. Yeah. I I I I I also think that's a good way of doing it. I think as we're starting the new
008fiscal year, I think we have to have some type of template uh for these outside providers because again, this is all fine and dandy, but it's not the information I'm looking for and it be easier on all of us as school committee members to better understand, you know, what we're paying for, what our students are getting in return. So, I agree with you, Mrs. Shves. I had requested that before, too, that I'd like to see it. We'll have that up and running from. Excellent. So, July 1st. Great. Any other questions? Mrs. Shves, make a motion to approve it and place on file. uh receipt and place on file. I'll second that. I just want to point out that uh in the warrant, which you probably have noted because I know you note a lot of
009this stuff, there's going to be a very large number for coaching for change. Yes. And uh that will be uh discussed when we get there. Yeah, I have a question on that. Okay, great. Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Eyes have Thank you. Next up, we have bills. Excuse me one second. That's our state champion softball girls, Lady Tigers. Good. They should be excited. Absolutely. Next up, we have bills payable for FY25 in the amount of $2,495,159.3. Wishes of the committee. I make a motion to approve um on discussion. Yes, Mrs. Shves. Okay. Please bear with me. I have a few because this is pretty lengthy here, so I'll try to go fast. Um, the first one I have is on page three. Um, number 620, Barnes Tree Services. What school was that for almost
010$5,000? It was here at uh Taunt High School for the softball project. We ended up servicing using the services from Barnes. It was more um economical for the district. Okay. Excellent. The next one I have is on page 10. Um, coaching for change. So that $28,767.75, is that for a the month? Is that quarterly? Like what is that? So it's actually two months. So they had Yes. So they ended up um not uh not providing us the correct documentation of the number of mentors that were uh working or being a part of this program for the um first quarter which was through 1221. And that is why you will see the bigger change because what we normally pay each month that is the reason why that is a little bit higher than what we have
011previously. But everything does match up to make sure that that is the correct amount that we should be paying. So I was concerned because I was looking at how many mentors times how many hours, how many times a week, like how much we're paying out. So So you're saying if it was two months then we're talking about eight weeks. So that comes out to be about $45 an hour. So, I just want to make sure that we're getting it's three charges. Yes. I want to make sure that we're get that we're, you know, we're getting our money's worth for what we're paying out. Yeah. It was actually I I received So, when Mrs. Moan was out, I did receive a call about this invoice and it was three months of charges. Oh, so three months.
012Okay. So, then that brings it down. That brings it more reasonably priced. Okay. That was my concern is how long that was for. So, okay. The next one I have is number seven. Uh, page 17, the fire equipment company for two $2,75. What equipment was that? What school was that? Um, sorry, hold on a minute. Which one is that? 30382. Fire Equipment, Inc. top of the page. Page 17. Must be on my other one. Library Books Foley. See, it's in my envelope. Um that is for the fire cylinder testing for ths culinary and also food services for ths culinary. Okay, thank you. The next one I have is on page 19 um number 31458. Hertz Furniture Systems. I know it's a 23, so I know it's a grant, but it just seemed strange furnishings, but
013it's emergency homeless grants. Correct. So that um so what happened was there's of course um guidelines and stipulations what we can use our monies for when it comes to that grant. So what happened was uh the school which went to the high school history department. Okay. Um they chose to use um furniture because of the increase in number of students. So that is the reason why we purchased 75 desks. Okay. Uh for the classrooms for the high school history department and that was allowed under that grant. Absolutely. Excellent. That was nice. You know how I love desks. We do. I we know every year I put desks in my budget. So yes. Yes. And whiteboard markers and calculators. Absolutely. Um page 21 number 10968. Johnson controls for 4,729. What was this and where? Johnson. Johnson
014controls. That is for the high school exhaust hood controls. Again, it's a service contract that we have with the company and that is what they had done at the high school. Is that for the culinary or is that for the cafeteria? I believe it's probably all really in that area. All of them in that area. It says all. It says here control. So, it's mostly all of them. Yes. Next one is page 25. Um, Gillette Stadium 27143 for 42,000. Is Is that the prompt? Yes, it is. Oh, okay. It just seemed weird because it said school choice student activities. Yeah. So, it depends upon how the the DESI codes do align in there, but yes, it is coded correctly. Promise. Okay. Um, the next one is on page 30. um number 28117 SFS of New
015England. I didn't know what that was. It is food s uh food safety training for the soup food services. Okay. And the last one I have is number 32 on page 32 number 26561. The art of education university for the software. What was that? What software is that? It is considered to be an six-year um contract for a curriculum suite. What department? Visual arts. Now, I know we were in our curriculum. We were they were evaluating a new system. This isn't the system. So, we hadn't approved it yet. more contract. Okay. So, but we haven't paid it out yet because we haven't approved it. Can you repeat that, please? I'm sorry. So, that's what I thought this was. So, they were piloting this piece of software. We met on our curriculum subcommittee. We have not
016approved this piece of software yet to be purchased by the district. They were just piloting it. So, I would just want to make sure that this isn't paid out yet till the curriculum subcommittee approves it. You can put a hold and bring it up in the next one. Yeah. Where's Melissa? I don't know where she went cuz it Okay. Okay. So, we make sure. So, we'll amend the um the motion. Okay. Well, you haven't made the motion yet. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Dlo. That was all my questions. Thank you. Okay. So, what are your wishes of the committee? Um I make a motion that we accept um we make a motion to approve this with the exception of putting a hold on that curriculum until we um make a decision on it. Okay. So I
017guess uh motion to approve the amount stated for FY25 with a hold on voucher number um well PO number 2550495 in the amount of $96,849. Yes. And I also request that I vote present on page 28. Uh that comes under Pride Inc. U vouch uh voucher number 25199 the amount of $10,370. The reason is I serve on the board of directors and also as treasurer. So if we could amend the motion please, Mr. Shavs, I'll amend the motion. So moved. Great. All in favor? I I opposed. Eyes have it. and uh make a motion to end the subcommittee meeting to adjurnn. Sure. All in favor? I opposed. Eyes have it. We are adjourned. Thank you. Good job, guys. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Thank you for joining us tonight. I call the meeting to order.
018If you could please join us in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Oh, say can you see by the dawn early light what so proudly we held at the twilight last gleaming who brought stripes and bright stars through the peril. last fight. Or the ramparts we watched were so gallently streaming. And the rockets red glare. The bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled then yet wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave. Mrs. Fagen will lead us in the invocation. Lord, as we begin this session, let us acknowledge your
019goodness and mercy and ask your blessings on all our deliberations. We thank you for this opportunity to be of service to our community and to the young people entrusted to our care. Amen. Thank you. All right. And uh yes, I just want to say everybody notices where we've got our Tiger spirit on today because we are going to be celebrating our rockstar girls softball Ton High girls softball team. That Mr. Reinus present. Mrs. Shaws present. Mr. Powski present. Mrs. Fagens present. Miss Santos present. Uh Mr. Vieier is absent. Mr. Laura present. Dr. Dlo chairman and Mayor Okonnell present. Thank you, Mrs. Fagan. Next, we have approval of the minutes from June 4th, 2025. Motion to approve the minutes as read of date of June 4th, 2025. Second motion and second. All those in favor? Opposed?
020None opposed. So voted. And we have Isaiah Wendell with us tonight for the student advisory committee report. Good evening everyone. As Mayor Connell said, my name is Isaiah Wendell and I am part of the Ton High School student advisory committee. As we close out another school year, I'd like to begin by offering my congratulations to the Taunt High School class of 2025. We wish you nothing but the best as you take on new challenges, chase your dreams, and be begin this exciting new chapter. And always remember, once a tiger, always a tiger. Today marked the last day of school for all grades. On behalf of the student advisory committee, I want to wish everyone, every student and staff member, a fun, safe, and restful summer. I hope you all have time to relax, recharge, and
021come back ready for another great school year. I also want to take a moment to express how thankful I am for the opportunity to represent the students of Taton High over these past three years. It has been a true honor to share not only my own thoughts, but the voices of students who make this school so special. And I want to sincerely thank the members of this committee for the respect you've shown by listening to my reports every week. I hope moving forward we continue to not only listen to students but truly hear and consider their perspectives of the students we serve. I look forward to returning next year for my final year as a student of Taton High School, continuing to speak for students and working together for the good of our school community.
022And that concludes my student advisory report for the 2020 2024 2025 school year. Thank you all and have a fantastic summer. Okay. Thank you, Isaiah. [Applause] You and the other students have done an excellent job all year with your committee reports and so we look forward to seeing you in September. Next, you can come over the summer though if you'd like. We have public input next. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, public input. In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 39, section 23C, we kindly request that individuals wishing to provide public input sign up in advance. A copy of the regulation guidelines be provided upon sign up, and individuals will be asked to state their name and address for the record. The amount of time each registered individual will have to speak will be determined by the
023number of people who sign the register and will be announced prior to the start of the public input portion of the meeting. Mayor, we have uh many uh residents uh on the list for public input. Uh due to the number of of uh folks signed up, we'd uh request we keep it to three minutes or less per uh speaker. First up, we have Raphael Dowy. Uh 215 Harris Street, Taunted Mass, Taunt Public Schools, Softball Recognition, uh AD Dowy, please. Good evening everyone. Is that on? Thank you. Good evening everyone. Mayor Connell, our school committee members, um leadership team, just want to thank you. I just want to acknowledge had to take this opportunity to acknowledge our outstanding student athletes and our softball team for the achievement that they've accomplished this spring. Um not one, not
024two, not three, not four, but five state championships. I'm so proud of them. I'm proud of what they have done and acknowledgement and the honor they've brought back to Taton or brought to Taton and also to our community and our high school. Um I'm going to introduce um our high school principal, Dr. Harrison. He's also going to introduce Miss Michelle who is our um softball coach. Thank you. I just wanted to say a few words about the softball team. There's two words I just wanted to speak to and that's resilience which I think they showed all season long to go tw to go undefeated but also the last two games of the tournament run they came back to win the games and even in the finals the championship game they were down two nothing they
025tied it up 2-2 they were down 4-2 and then they ran away with it in I think the bottom of the six when they ended up winning 10 to four but to be able to come back it's one thing to be a great team but to come back and win under the biggest stage is truly Amazing. And the second thing is kindness. The second piece I wanted to say is there's a lot of tournament teams that get to this point and I've seen, you know, I've been a part of five state championship runs with different towns and different sport teams, but this team is unique. Um, they're all kind. Um, it's a genuiness when you watch them, whether it's a home game with the Tiger Tots, they welcome the young kids and it's such a
026community event. It's a special thing. So the kindness that these kids display to the other teams and each others, I think is unique. So I just want to commend this team for that because sometimes you think of all the winning and you don't you don't think about that second piece because that's just as important. So we're very proud of you. I want to introduce Coach Michelle Rapo. [Applause] Hi. Sorry. I'm gonna try to be quick. I just wanted to put together some things for the girls and and say a few things on their behalf. So, we talk about I'm going to just go on the piece of the kindness. I don't like drop them by any means. Um we always tell them to be humble. Um leave it all out on the field. We'll show
027them on the field how good we are and um at the end of the day that's just going to show us, you know, the tiger pride and just what type of respect we are as players in a community. So, I just want to say thank you to John Cabraw and our dedicated school committee members for asking us to be here tonight. I want to thank our coaches, Riss, Meg, and Fox. Our strength and conditioning coach, Coach G, our athletic trainers, Chris and Maddie, our athletic director, Raph, and the one who helps me with everything is Sandra. Um, Mark Freighus, uh, Greeney for all his work on the field. We know Sandra is the unsung hero all the time for me, especially when I call and I say, "Sorry to bother you." um our ths admin
028staff, fans, our athletes, and parents for their unwavering support this season. Um it's been a heck of a season. Um these girls have had an incredible year, finishing Hawkamok league uh champions two years in a row, undefeated 25-0 years in a row. Um bringing home a fifth straight title. I'm beyond proud of their hard work, resilience, and undeniable grit. This year wasn't easy. Um our beautiful softball complex wasn't available for us for over six weeks. um which if you know these girls was a big deal. Um they thrive on routine and suddenly we had none. Most days we didn't know whether we were practicing or um sorry where we were practicing. We could be at Freedman after school. We could be at the JV field. We could be inside outside. I don't know if it
029was early gym or late gym. And a lot of times I didn't know this until about 15 minutes before the school day was ending. Um so they had to be flexible. Um it was stressful and chaotic and for them and definitely for me. Um, planning practices was nearly impossible. Uh, were we indoors? Were we outdoors? Were we have access to cages? Will the field have a fence? Everything was always up in the air. Softball is a game that's 80% mental and 20% physical. So, if you're doing the math, you know just how mentally tough these girls had to be all season long. Despite all the uphill battles, they showed incredible poise and maturity. The mental toll was real, but as Kate always reminded us, we got this. She always had to calm me down a
030little. Um, they outscored their opponents 253 to 28. That's not just winning, that's domination. They played with class, confidence, and according to the Herald, they were juggernaut. A word that I had to look up because I had no idea what it meant. If you're wondering, it means a massive unstoppable force. And I couldn't agree more. They've battled some of the best team in the States and beyond. So, I'm going to just go over some of those. Early in the season against DR, it was our second game of the year. We're down one- nothing in the fifth. We came back to win in the bottom of the seventh and that's when I knew this team was going to be relentless. Against Westfield, we trailed 3-2 in the third, tied it in the fifth, and it exploded
031for a 12-4 win in the sixth. Against nationally ranked Lasal Academy, who hadn't lost since April of 2023, a 55game winning streak if you were counting, we trailed 3 until the bottom of the sixth and then came back to win 7 to four. Against Fen, we were down 2-1 early, then took control with the runs in the third and the fifth to win 8-2. The playoffs were no different. In the semi-final game against FEM, we were we left seven runners on base. We were down one nothing in the fifth after a wild hop on home plate. But when the Tigers have their backs against the wall, they find a way. Two clutch runs in the six sealed the win. And then in the final game, um a full circle moment for us because our 2021
032team began the streak by beating them one- nothing after nine innings. And um it was a rain delay that caused them to come back at a later time. And so to win one- nothing after nine innings was impeccable. This time Watusa came out swinging. They led early two nothing. We tied 2-2. Fell back um behind again. Tied it again and then exploded in the sixth to make it 10 to four. Heart attack inducing. Yes. I tell them they like to wait till the sixth inning because they want me to have a heart attack at some point. But uh classic Tiger softball. Our senior captains were exceptional leaders this year. Our offense was a powerhouse. Our defense was nothing short of impeccable. But none of this would have been possible without Kate Larson, who is an
033absolute goat on the mound. She pitched 143.2 out of 155.2 total innings. So, if you're doing the math, how many innings did she not pitch? 12. Um, she earned 24 runs, struck out 230 batters, and held a jaw-dropping 633 erra. We have five straight titles and undefeated 25 in season again. And to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time we've broken into the national rankings. We are now ranked 10th in the country by the National Fast Coaches Association. We're number one in the state, number 17th nationally according to the Sports Illustrated High School and number 24 nationally for Max Preps, which is unbelievable for a public high school here in this New England area. I'm incredibly proud of each and every one of these girls. Coaching them this season has been a
034lot of fun. I'll truly miss the bond this team shares because they definitely share one heck of a bond. Um, especially our seniors. But I hope you all carry the memories we've made together. There's something special just like this team. Um, to the seniors, uh, Brooke and Kate, you guys have not had the feeling of making it to a post um, game series and losing. You're you're leaving on the biggest winning streak anyone's ever heard. So, congratulations to everyone. Did you want me to read these? Yes. Okay. So, the kids are getting certificates tonight. I'll just read what it says. Says Taton Public Schools District Certificate of Achievement proudly presented to Taton High School softball in recognition of your undefeated two 2025 season, 25-0 and the team's fifth consecutive MIAA Division 1 state championship and
035a Hawamock League regular season title. Your historic excellence is a source of pride for Taton. Um, and what's really cool is they put all the years that the team won. So, we've won state 10 state titles here for the high school. Um, it was really nice. So, um, I'll just call this Brook Aldridge. Annayia Bailey. Congratulations. [Applause] Grace Bennett. Congratulations. Bella Bour Tori Carrero. Congratulations. Congratulations. Madison Crowley. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. Congratulations, Taylor Dosta. Congratulations. Good job. [Applause] Abigail Darity. Good job. Good job. [Applause] Jay Gagnon, [Applause] Ashlin Heert, [Applause] Llaya Hoy, Avajette, [Applause] Megan Crocka, [Applause] Kate Larson, Kaylee Lopes. She's not here yet. Gracie Alivera, who's not present. Caitlyn O. Sullivan. Emerson Rafferty, [Applause] Grace Simmons, and Mia Torres. Nice job. Thank you again, guys. [Applause] Thank you so much. [Applause] Thank you
036so much. We will of course be celebrating uh with the ring ceremony in the fall sometime with uh another accolades for our champion uh girls softball team and and in July. And in July, what's going on in July, superintendent? Celebration banquet. Celebration banquet. So see that I'll be there, too. Uh, next up we have I apologize. Uh, Serentino uh, Fina Serantino addresses taught and attention to issues in schools. Okay. Can I just leave? Yeah. And I just want to remind everybody during public input um, about 3 minutes we'll let you know when you're, you know, approaching or just past that uh, mark so that you can finish up. You can also submit written um, supplemental material as well. There'll be no response. Everyone is listening intently. Um but public records law does not allow us
037to respond. However, there is a letter on the agenda after this um a few items after this that does speak to this issue. If you want to wait just a second, please. Thank you. Bye, guys. Have a great summer. You too. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay, if you'd like to proceed, you can go right ahead, please. Good evening. My name is Tina Sarreni. I have um two students in Parker Middle School. My son's actually going into the high school next year. My daughter is in fifth grade going into sixth. My son is in seventh grade going into eighth. Um, on my son's first day of school, he was given a piece of paper by his teacher, and asked a few questions, his name, and then one of the questions was, "What are his pronouns?" I take
038extreme issue with that. Um, because his pronouns were assigned at birth. Um, so this is going to be a a difficult issue to talk about. Um, I had reached out to the mayor and had the sit a situation um that was taken care of. But because of the situation that happened the other day, I feel it's relevant to let you all know about what I see as a parent and I'm a relevant stakeholder in Taton public schools because I have children that attend the school. Um, so I had an issue with um a substitute teacher who taught first my fifth grade student in class and wanted to be called mix mx. Um, not mister, not miss, not teacher, mix. And I didn't understand what she had said to me until the next week when my
039son had the this teacher and told me that this teacher wrote it's what her his name on the board along with the pronouns. Um, so my son had this teacher twice and the second time I told him to take a picture and he sent the picture and I have that here. Um, along with the letter that I the email that I sent to the superintendent and the mayor. Um, so I have an issue with that because I expect my children to be taught proper English in school in public school. Um, if my English teachers from college and from elementary school heard a teacher refer to one individual student as they, them, they would have a heart attack. And it took me a long time to learn proper writing. But I can promise you, and you
040all know that proper English is weighted when you're applying to college, when you write your essays, and I expect my stu my my children to be taught the same. Um, so the most recent incident that I had, I attended the awards ceremony at my children's school, um, the stepup ceremony the other day and an ELA teacher, um, an ELA teacher was presenting an award to a student and referred to the student as this student, so single individual and then in the same subsequent sentences said they them and I this is an English teacher teaching our our children, you know, English that doesn't go together. So, um I wanted to address that and bring that to the attention of this committee because you guys are the ones that can make a difference. Um, the picture that
041I also sent to the mayor was another there was another thing that was concerning to me that I had pointed out that there's a pride flag hanging on the um on the wall of that teacher. Just as it's not proper for me to say that that rainbow is a a symbol of Abraham's uh covenant with God that um you know that he's not going to destroy living creatures ever again. It's not proper to display something that reflects what you prefer as far as body parts or gender as a sexual preference. I don't want my children being sexualized. I think it's inappropriate and I I really hope that you guys can form some sort of a solution that does away with that because it's not it's not it shouldn't be allowed in public schools. Thank you.
042All right. Thank you. Next up, we have uh Lisa Smith, 592 Tremont Street. Topic is together. Good evening. Hello. So, I don't have to say 592. Thank you. Hi. Um I'm here for the Together program. Um I just wanted to say I how wonderful this program has been to my children. One of my children is actually a camp mentor there for a few years now. And to my understanding, there has been some issues with um finding a place for um the Together program. And I know in the past years, we've had it at Taton High School and also the Martin Middle School. And I believe it's essential to a lot of these children in including mine, um because of the space that they have there. It's ample parking. It's convenient for the parents and the
043buses. It makes it for a safe situation and a lot of kids, you know, in the city don't always have lunches to bring. So, there's a, you know, food is being delivered there for the children. It gets the kids outdoors. They get away from their video games. I know I can't say enough about this program. It is essential to have this program continue. And it seems to be that there's been so much push back um year after year. and my situation. I have two biological children and I have adopted um my other three children and they've had some you know you know some different challenges um which I won't say publicly and I have to say that this is the only program you know it that you know my children were able to fit into
044um despite the fact that they had behaviors and and we all know behavior can sometimes be communication and you know the same thing you know we're just going work with them and this is the type of staff and this is a really strong dynamic program and I believe that you know as a whole that we need to stick together to make this happen for our children and and let's face it like our children spend so much time indoors as it is you know playing video games and social media and this program you know there's no access to any of that and the kids are playing and as a matter of fact um in the winter time a song came on and my kids were like, "Hey, this this song reminds us of, you know, Fabulous
045Fridays, you know, at Martin Middle School and, you know, and my kids really enjoyed being part of this group." And I believe the continuity of just keeping it there or or anywhere, you know, that has the accessibility um that these children need um would be a great um solution, I believe. And I'm just here as a parent um just to share my thoughts and my voice and support the Together program because I think they are so wonderful. Um and thank you and and my uh son is next um to speak as well. Jaden uh Bay Rudy. Okay. Absolutely Jaden. Thank you. Thank you Mrs. Smith. Uh next up we have Jaden uh Bayeri. I'm sorry. Bay Rudy Bay Ruby 592 Tmont Street. Uh topic together. Welcome, Jaden. Okay, my name is Jaden. I've been with
046this program oh for all the years it has been up and running. The reason why it should be in a school because there's a cafeteria for lunch, but not everyone can bring their own food. Also, there's separate classrooms for the different age groups involved. And the social emotional part is that there's a field big enough for outside play. And when it's raining out, there's a gymnasium or a theater to watch a movie that like if some kids don't want to go in the gym also helps kids keep off their phones or electronics, not making them addict to it. Having it at Martin Middle School also creates routine which some kids don't have at home. For me, especially in foster care, I had a lot of movement. I'm really hopeful to stay at Martin as I
047had so many positive memories there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Tanya Lobo, 140R Fremont Street. Topic Together, Miss Lobo. Good evening, everyone. My name is Tanya Lobo. Um, and I'm here tonight to urge that this body please reconsider allowing us the use of any school facility so that Together can run their program so our children can have a proper space, can be served lunch with dignity, and can experience the community they deserve. For the last four years, Together has provided a safe, nurturing space for our youth, a space where they are seen, valued, and supported. A space where they can heal, grow, build friendships, and learn the skills they need to thrive. Right now, we are being forced to operate in conditions that are not ideal and without the ability
048to provide our children with the simple things they deserve. I'm not here tonight to point fingers. I'm here to plead to this body on behalf of all of our students. The very students that you say you are working for and with. Our families are watching. Our children are watching. They know this program matters. And right now, though this continued lack of access, they are hearing something loud and clear that they aren't worth the space. That is not the message I'm sure you are intending to send. Not as adults, not as a district, and not as a community that claims to care for its children. We are not asking for a handout. We are asking for a partnership, something we've been trying to build with TPS for years without success. We are prepared, willing, and able
049to do what it takes to run this program the right way. We just need the facility to do so. Please reconsider this decision. Help us give our youth what they need for this summer. For we pass this world but once. Any good therefore that we can do or any kindness we can show, let us do it now. For we shall not pass this way again. [Applause] Thank you. Next up we have Ethan Lobo. Same address topic together. Mr. Lobo. Good evening everyone. My name is Ethan Lobo and I would I was asked to read this letter on behalf of councelor Philip Dart. I'm writing to provide public input to the school committee related to the decision of the school department to no longer allow the together program to utilize school department facilities for its summer
050youth program. To be quite honest, I was shocked when I first heard this. The Together program was created to provide to provide desperately needed support to the most vulnerable children in our community as a result of CO 19 and it has grown into so much more. This much was clearly evidenced by the public input that was provided to the city council several weeks ago during public input at one of our meetings. Among that public input, the most impactful testimony was given by the youth mentors. The youth mentors have been so positively impacted by the working at the program that they thought it that they thought it important enough to engage their elected officials about it. I am told the reasons provided for this decision were because one the school the school department would be creating
051its own new summer program and two there was construction being done. I will address the second point first. We have 12 schools in this district. Surely there is not construction happening at all of them and my understanding is that the together program only uses a few classrooms, the field and the cafeteria for meals. Back to the first point, I am all for the school department creating new programming but at the expense of an existing program that has already proven to be successful. That just does not seem right. At its inception, this program was supported by the city through ARPA funding. Now that ARPA funding is over, the program staff have been working hard already to find alternative sources of funding. And now the city acting through the school department is going to be the is
052going to be the one that puts up an additional roadblock by ripping the rug out from under them in the form of denying them a space to use. Make it make sense. Maybe there is more to the story. I don't know. But at a minimum, the Together program deserves a full explanation of the reasons behind this decision. There must be a space somewhere that they can use. And if for and if for some reason there isn't given that the school department created these exigent circumstances, the school department should be assisting and finding them a space. Remember, it's all about the kids. Sincerely, Philip Dor. Thank you, Mr. Lobo. Ju just to correct the record, that's a letter from uh city councelor Philip Dart. Do you want to enter that into the record? Um, I mean
053to the clerk to to Secretary Miss Lasser. Oh, it's on his cell phone. It's on his cell phone. Okay. All right. Well, if Mr. Dart, we thought it was paper. We'll have the script. Okay, that's fine. You could always send the letter. Thank you so much, Mr. Lobo. Next up, we have Evan Lobo. Same address, topic together. Welcome. together camp has taught me a lot of things from STEM to mindfulness and you think a school like and you think a camp like this would have many options for schools but sadly it doesn't and when we tried using Martin after three times They said no. And it feels so unfair for us to lose a community like this one over such a silly decision. Everyone's seen how great this camp is and it could be great
054again. The only thing separating us from that is that there's barely any options for schools. So, can you try to get us more schools? Thank you. Next up, we have Trinity Wilson, 22 Vernon. Uh, topic together. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Trinity Wilson and I have been working at Together Camp since the summer of 2022. With my time working, I have seen how running the camp at Martin Middle School has shaped these children. The school has been the foundation for this camp since it started. The school is a familiarity and that they are used to and comfortable in. These campers know where the classrooms are, the bathrooms, the cafeteria, the gym, the auditorium, the feel that we use on a daily basis. These campers love Martin because of what it has to offer. Children
055oftentimes do not like change because of the infamiliar the unfamiliar feeling that it brings. Allowing Martin Middle School to continue to be a safe space for these children is all that we ask. is an easily accessible school that is close and distance to most of where these campers live. Uprooting this camp, especially especially our children, to a new place is not ideal. And I hope you take into consideration what Martin means to them most of all. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Jen Hoy uh topic together. Welcome. Hi. Um, for those of you that don't know me, Jen Hoy, 169 Eldridge Street. Um, I'm a mental health advocate, a writer, and a parent of a rising ninth grader here in Taton. Um, here to ask you plainly and urgently to give true diversity
056the space they need in our schools this summer. Um, before I speak about true diversity, may I please say something regarding the pronouns in schools? It's it's your time, so you can say what you want. Um, as someone who shows up every single day to make other people feel seen, safe, and valued, I was stunned to see a shirt in the room that read, "The world is better because you're in it," worn by someone arguing against the use of pronouns in schools. Um, that message to me loses all meaning when you advocate for policies that tell LGBTQ plus students they don't belong. It's not about grammar. It's about saving lives. Um, LGBTQ plus youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers, and suicide is already the second leading cause
057of death for kids between the ages of 10 and 24. Um, for transgender and non-binary youth, the rate of suicide attempts is nearly one in five children. Um, respecting pronouns won't hurt a single child, but refusing to can. Um, so regarding true together camp, it's not just about a camp. Um, again, it's about giving kids a safe place to be seen, celebrated, and heard. As someone who works in mental health and suicide prevention, I see every day what it means for young people to feel like they don't belong. I also see the life-changing power of connection and community. And that's what true diversity creates each summer and with all of the work that they do for kids of all identities, backgrounds, and abilities. for kids who might not find that safety anywhere else. We talk
058a lot in the city about equity and inclusion. And this is the part where we can live it there. These are the kinds of programs that prevent isolation, that build confidence, and that literally save lives. And yet every summer it feels like they have to beg for space and that shouldn't be the case in a city that cares about its children. We have the buildings. We have the rooms. What we need now is the will to say yes and to stand behind a program that lifts up the voices of our children so they do not feel left out. Um, please give them the space, not just the physical space, but the affirmation that they and their mission belong here in Taton. Thank you, Miss Hoy. Next up, we have uh Gabrella to I'm sorry, Toro
059for Everett Street together topic. I'm sorry about your name. Hi, my name is Gabriella Toro. Um, I'm here to talk about the Together program. Um, the Together Program is not just a summer camp, but to many of us, it's a community. Um, the Martin Middle School is not just a campground. It's a home for many kids and a relief. I know it's not just me, but my fellow counselors and campers walking through those doors, sitting in the cafeteria, playing in the gym, and running through the fields provides an instant relief and nostalgia. to change the campground to uproot these kids to a place that many have referred to as home. I've heard it um would be harmful and a complete step back. I know it's hard to acknowledge and understand what it means to many
060of us because we have not gone to the camp. We have not seen it. We have not experienced it. But on that last day when we have to leave these kids, the tears that come out of us is unescribable. And the knowledge that it will be back next year and that we will see each other and we'll laugh again, it is amazing. and the fact that we have to fight for it and we have to not know whether or not we'll be able to see these kids again is so sad. So, I just hope that you guys can put together a place for us because it would be so important. Thank you so much. Thank you, Gabriella. Sorry, I mispronounced it. Uh, as normal practice, we don't respond to public input, but if you want
061to stick around, we do have administrative business item, which is a response to summer facility use letter that was addressed to the superintendent from the city council. we will be speaking of the topic. So if you want to stick around, please do so. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. You're welcome. We next we are on letter E and that is executive session. If we could get the motion. So Mayor, a motion to go into executive session discuss security protocols pursuant to exemption 4 general laws chapter 30A section 21A4 and to reconvene and open session would be in order. On a roll call, please. Mr. Dinus. Yes. Mrs. Shabs, yes. Mr. Palowski, yes. Mrs. Fagan votes yes. Mr. Santos, yes. Mr. Laura, yes. Dr. Dlo, yes. Mayor O'Connell, yes. We will reconvene in open session. Thank you. We
062are adjourned. Well, we not Thank you. Okay. We are back from executive session and Mr. Motion should come out of executive session on a roll call vote. Second on that motion and second on roll call, please. Mrs. F please. Mr. Enus, yes. Mrs. Mrs. Shar, yes. Mr. Powski, yes. Mrs. Fagan votes yes. Miss Santos, yes. Mr. Laura, yes. Dr. Dlo, yes. Shauna Connell, may yes. And then a motion to record the vote taken in executive session. Second motion and second. Do you guys want to roll call on that or we can? Okay. Honorable roll call, please. Mr. Reus. Yes. Mrs. Shav. Yes. Mr. Powski. Yes. Mrs. Fagan votes. Yes. Miss Santos. Are we voting how we voted? Are we voting? Yes. It's just it's just a recorder. That's all. So I vote the no then.
063Correct. You could vote yes because you're recording the vote that was taken. Not how it was taken. How it was taken. Okay. Yes. Mr. Lord. Yes. Dr. Dlo. Yes, Mayor Okonnell. Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Next, we have the strategic plan update presentation. And thank you, Madam May. It's already up there. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Thought I beat you to the punch. So, this is something I'm very, very excited about. Uh something that is long overdue as our original strategic plan was a five-year strategic plan that I wrote with the support of the committee, many of the committee members, and the public. And that was supposed to last five years. So, the strategic plan that we're I'm going to provide you today is just a draft. It's not the final product, but I will demonstrate with
064you our next five-year strategic plan. And this is a plan that will guide us into the next decade. In spring of 24, we've been since the spring of 24, we've been working with a tuned education partners who supported over 200 districts nationwide in developing their strategic plans. So we are very fortunate and very blessed thanks to the funding that we received through the bar foundation to be able to offset the cost of developing the strategic plan. This plan is grounded in local data and community voice and outlines the shared aspirations of the Taton public schools. So again the process began last spring in 2024 and was structured in four phases. laying the foundation. So, establishing a steering committee to serve as the lead strategic planning team to build a detailed project plan to support rigorous
065and inclusive planning and collect data to support a comprehensive diagnostic process on the current state of the town public schools. Next, we articulated our aspirations and performed a diagnosis. And again, I won't read this uh verbatim, but you get a kind of hint or just a a sample of all the work that went in that went into this. So, why is it important to have a strategic plan? Because every high functioning organization has a strategic plan. A strategic plan provides the organization with clear goals. It sets priorities. It establishes achievement levels and long-term objectives, but more importantly, it drives accountability and it also measures performance. So, I want to emphasize that we didn't have to do this. We didn't have to go through this extensive exercise, but again, I believe that a high functioning organization
066needs something that they can hold themselves accountable to and something that our constituents can hold us accountable to. So, I'll just share with you members of the steering committee. So, we established a 10 member steering committee made up of district and school leaders. This team has invested significant time of five multi-hour sessions to develop the plan. The group represents different departments of in levels ensuring that a holistic approach and perspective was taken. So I want to commend the members of my leadership team as well as the district leaders who participated on our steering committee. The primary sources that shaped this work were outcomes that were data driven instructional quality reviews and community feedback. We had over 955 survey responses from students. So Isaiah, you'll be happy to know that we captured student voice, families, staff,
067and board members and the focus groups with educators and students. This ensure that we we just we just didn't look at numbers, but we listened to voices. I'll highlight what was some of the key strengths that this work articulated or found based on the feedback we received from all those who were interviewed. know stakeholders reported that TA public schools and we heard this last night during our budget presentation for the council. Even though we're a large city, a large school system, we have a close-knit community feel that deeply serves the students in Taton. Taton has a high graduation rate that sits above the state in in demographically similar peers. Many of Taton staff see the district's curriculum team in postcoid adoption of HQIM, high quality instructional materials in ELA and math as major strengths of
068us. 96% of the classrooms observations, classroom conditions were conducive to learning and were evidenced in strong relationships and belonging in 98%. In stakeholders listed caring teachers and staff as a major major strength and I'm also part of our work to address chronic absenteeism as was lifted during this work. Now, we're not going to sit here and say that we don't have challenges ahead of us and we've had identified through this work six areas where we need to improve and six areas that we will use this plan to drive that improvement. So, despite progress, student achievement remains low overall with persistent subgroups. MCASA scores in grades three through eight have declined in AP and SAT and college going rates are lagging. Stakeholders also raised concerns about behavior, discipline and equity, especially for our multilingual learners and
069students with disabilities and also the new prompter scores which means would you recommend the Tom public schools to a family moving into town? No. This signal signals signaling that we need to do some work around that area. Now we we distilled this work into four focus priorities. So the four main buckets that the strategic plan will be driven through or driven by will be rigorous instruction, student culture, talent development and stakeholder engagement. Providing you with a sample of one of priorities. So this is the priority around rigorous instruction. So we will be defining what rigor looks like across all schools. We will be aligning professional development. I'm very proud to state that later today after this presentation actually something that's been in the work for seven years is we're going to present to you our
070five-year professional development plan which is something that I'm very very proud of that will also align really well with our strategic plan and drive the professional development into the next decade aligning our feedback systems and instructional leadership to this common bar initiatives include lesson internalization observation rubrics and I'm very excited to say that we are going to be launching a leadership academy for our principles and our assistant principles. Again, with regarding student culture, we're developing a vision for student cultures that's restorative and inclusive. Training and data systems will help staff to respond to student behaviors proactively and compassionately. And our priorities three and four, we will work on talent engagement and talent management. So, creating a TPS educator profile. So, what is it that our hiring professionals will be looking for when we recruit staff
071to come work in the Taton public schools? Mr. Bara will be leading a three-year mentoring program to support new staff. And we're going to work on our engagement, making sure that we're launching continuously launching in multifacets districtwide communication in an input plan to make sure that we are soliciting feedback from our stakeholders, which also falls into the fourth strategic priority. And again this just provides you with a sample of our draft priorities. So the key headlines that have emerged from the focus groups is again teachers and leaders have question about what what is rigor? How do we measure and define rigor? You know, being proactive to ensure that there's a strong student culture. And I commend the work that's taking place at the high school with the bar foundation and the linked crew. And we
072also want to have deep conversations with our stakeholders on how we can improve our communications. And what was also lifted during the strategic work was that families are very satisfied and very happy with implementation of parent square. So this is just a sample of what it will look like as we implement. So unlike the current strategic plan, we're going to have a timeline, a phase in an implementation approach, and then on a year-to-year basis, we'll be able to measure and but using data measure how successful we are we are in implementing our strategic plan over a five-year period. So this is just a sample where we design, we launch, and then we monitor. and then set setting very lofty benchmarks to attain and reach our goals. Again, this is a tool that we'll be utilizing
073and this is a tool that we can also share on our website and update caregivers so they can see in real time the progress that we're making on our strategic plan. Again, an other measure of accountability and part of our work will be to have an opportunity for reflection. So these would be three driving questions and again that's just a snapshot into some of the work that has taken place over a year and a half and I'm very proud to have this behind us and look forward to implementing our strategic plan. If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them now. Okay. Thank you superintendent Mr. Laura. Thank you Madame Mayor. Uh when are you going to give us another update as to what's going on as far as the strategy plan? So
074as soon as you RSVP for convocation day, you'll get another update on the on the strategic plan because we plan to launch it and share it with the entire uh staff on convocation day and there'll be a continuous updating as with the previous strategic plan. This is a living breathing document. It will not sit on the shelf and we have a tool that we'll be able to utilize to demonstrate to the public the progress we're make we're making uh on reaching our strategic objectives. Thank you sir. Okay. Anyone else? Miss Santos, thank you. Um, you know, the funny thing is is when I was reading through this and the questions that it was actually the same concerns that the teachers had at the end because I know what rigor means, but what that means is
075really subjective, right? Um, so, you know, I was reading that I'm like, so what does that mean? Does that mean because people think it's harder if it means rigorous, but that's not necessarily the case, right? Um, and you know, among colleagues of ours, some people hate using the word rigor and some people like using the word rigor. And I've been told that my classes are rigorous, but I'm not going to say one way or another. But um, so and then so when that was I'm trying to find the page then. So on page 11, right, where that key headline that emerged from the focus groups, it says the teachers about that question, right? I I didn't see how that will be addressed in that bottom section or unless I missed it. Once you have the
076full plan, you'll see the other action steps and the initiatives that would be taking place. And I didn't know I mean obviously with the subcommittee I don't know if the curriculum and instruction subcommittee could have some not say but like if there can be some collaboration. I envision I envision board members playing a role in this work. Okay. And I just have one more question. um because I thought that the suspension rates were really um significant because it says um black and Hispanic Latino students are suspended disproportionately higher. Um and then in the um the student culture section page nine, I'm just wondering if maybe there could be some racial bias training or something like that that might impact how those students are treated and why they are disproportionately suspended. So, as we bring teams
077of educators and stakeholders together to work on these priorities, it's not going to be one person leading this work. One person will oversee and manage a priority. But the way we envision this is that we'll have multiple educators, stakeholders, caregivers participating in identifying what is it that we're going to do because what you raises is is an excellent question or excellent suggestion is part of our plan. Do we provide training not just oneoff training on one year but over a fiveyear period so we have those multiple touch points. Yeah. Thank you. Okay Dr. Dilla. Thank you mayor. Uh as you said superintendent uh it's a living breathing document and I just want to say thank you so much to you and the steering committee for coming this far and uh there's a lot more to
078do a lot more work at university level. This is always everchanging, ongoing uh and of course uh it's a lot of work and I am part of a steering committee at the university. So thank you for your work thus far and we look forward to the convocation day and the update. Thank you. Thank you. So looks like that's it, Mr. Laura. Motion to accept the presentation on the strategic plan as presented by the superintendent and have a place in file. Motion second. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed. So voted. Thank you. We are now on G professional learning plan presentation. Good evening everyone. I'll keep this relatively brief because as Superintendent Cabraw mentioned everything we do in K public schools is driven by our strategic plan. So, what you will see tonight with our
079really quick synopsis of our strategic plan, which is still being completed, our professional development plan, but we also have below that our instructional priority, which is grounded in our strategic plan, which also goes to our school improvement plans, which will be the through line all the way up to our strategic plan. So, that really is the guiding document for all this information. One of those components, professional development, as you see embedded in the strategic plan, has to do with the professional learning plan. Just as much as Dr. Dlo and I think everyone, all the committee members realize the importance to have a living document, this professional learning plan is a living document. We know that every single year we're offering mainstay professional learning opportunities because we have new staff coming in who need to be
080orientated to the curriculum. We have existing staff members who need to almost say be reertified in certain type of strategies and stuff. So we have those constants but we also have those professional development opportunities that are somewhat ad hoc student population changes we have this need we have this need. So although you'll see embedded in the document that you have in for you or whether it's online you'll see some offering of professional development opportunities and it's different between learning and trainings that we put out there as examples examples what we will create which will be a public document not only this because when other people look at taton public schools whether or not they want to work here they want to say what's their professional development plan it'll be online with our strategic plan with
081our school improvement plans but we're going to have a separate document almost like a live stream of the professional development offerings that are ongoing. So that'll draw people's attention to go in our PD portal and to schedule or enroll in the courses we offer. So really quickly, this is sort of evidence-based documents that we've embedded in here because we know the greatest professional learning opportunity we can do or provide is not the oneoff trainings and forget it like the Ronco said it and forget it. It's actually job embedded professional development which means taking advantage of our teacher leaders, our instructional coaches, our curriculum supervisors and coordinators modeling lessons and such and activities in classrooms so that other colleagues can observe it and then see the impact on our students alone rather than taking part in
082professional learning offsite and then having to in your brain how does this relate to my classroom here? So we have our mission and strategic objectives which again will change and quickly it talks about what the difference in essence is between professional learning and training and this is Steve this is really difficult to see so I'll talk grounded in it is all basically about we award professional development points for everybody who takes part in professional learning in the district it has to meet desis or the department of ed's um standards for that. So we clearly articulate what does high quality professional development means. Not only what we offer but also how much in contiguous time you have to do for example one clock hour professional learning is one professional development point. And for most educators they
083understand that but someone from the outside has realize hey they have a lot of time off they call professional development but what are they doing for the public? They could actually see that. So we have embedded in there what the department of elementary talks about requirement for reertification examples of professional development categories who are audience who will be providing that and we take advantage of our teacher leaders, instructional coaches, curriculum directors, consultants, external vendors primarily through grant money I might say. So we try to hit all the bases to provide the best quality professional learning opportunities for all our staff inclusive of cafeteria, custodial, educational assistants, psychologists, anyone who walks through our doors. We're going to be providing professional learning opportunities for them to take part in. And I'm sorry I'm scrolling fast but uh
084and the term time series we offered for example like on our all day professional development days staff members can sign up for it. We do have some say Tuesday and Thursday night series where it could be a couple of classes or learning experiences. We actually have scheduled for the next year five term time modules set aside of a series of five professional learning opportunities for multiple topics. So for example in October through November we have five dates mapped out. We could be offering um safety care training. We could be offering you know deeper dive in open sed. could be offering up for um our educational assistants who want this aspect of it is deescalation techniques, right? So, we're going to be offering a lot of opportunities and in fact uh communication went out to our
085staff today saying, "Hey, this is what's going on so you can plan ahead into the fall and and take advantage of it." So, we're actually almost like a college mini class for those. Again, it's alignment to our strategic plan and I leaprogged a little bit. Those are our our f four subject areas, our strategic plan objectives that's currently in your hands. Now, our prioritization plan which you submit as a district again that through line talking about in this case providing professional learning opportunities like superintendent Kabra mentioned to our principles and assistant principles, instructors of how to actually lead professional learning, develop our capacity as instructional leaders. down below for those people who want to dive deeper into it. There'll be the school improvement plans. Those happen to be this year's plans, but as they're updated,
086they'll be embedded there. Again, the idea of buildings know what our strategic plan is, our instructional priority. And then your school improvement plan with there so be transparent to the public. You'll see the through line. So why people ask why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? It's it's right here. Credit to the professional learning committee which we offer people. It's it's non-compensated, but it's something we might look at in an hourly stipen and such, but names come in and out, but we have a committee that will vet professional learning opportunities, which I'll draw you to this last slide and say, how does this happen? So, the district has professional development learning council. Now, in times past, they would just set they would take input. Okay, here's what we got. Here we go.
087There was always a question or concern of well are we having enough voices contributing to what we should offer. So I'll go to the left that's a district council who will vet all professional development in compliance with in alignment with their strategic plans and such. All stakeholder surveys everyone in the district is allowed a link and saying hey if you have a professional learning opportunity that you want to see the district provide submit it. More importantly, if you are a classroom leader or in the guidance area or whoever who wants to offer that professional development itself, you can submit a proposal to the council. We'll vet it because we learn best from our peers. Students listen better to themselves than the adult in the classroom. You know, teachers listen to themselves sometimes more than administrator
088who appears to be talking down to them and administrators learn from the like. So that gives them a direct line to the professional learning council to say what is it that you want to see and and will you be willing to uh lead it and we already have some people who have bid on that challenge who'll be offering some up in August. We have our building based instructional leadership teams. Now that is that component within the building which is differentiated um leadership which means staff members in that building itself can bring their proposals or concerns to that instructional leadership team within that building. They can verify that need within the building. Send the proposal up to the council. Right? In all likelihood they've done their homework. This is why it was brought to our building
089based ILT. Here's the data that validates it. we're going to bump it up. Now, us as the council in all likelihood will approve that because you have that building team saying, "This is what we need." At the district level, we'll look and say, "Okay, if Martin wants this and Chamberlain wants this and Bennett wants this, how do we then coales those teams together if it's a like professional learning opportunity?" So, we can actually uh make it cost-effective and map it out. So we can look at a district perspective is how many schools are looking at this and we can combine them to work together if it's aligned with what it is. You know there's a difference between an elementary or middle school. Our district leadership team obviously comes down here superintendent cabinet where very oftent
090times the next layer to the far right hand side local and statemandated professional learning trainings. So if we adopt a new curriculum we're going to have to have the subsequent professional learning. So that's sort of like a no-brainer that will go through the district leadership. Uh DESIE may say you're required to remain in compliance in this. You're going to have to this professional learning opportunity. So that would be vetted right to the district leadership team and into the council on the left stakeholders within each individual building. Again, that goes back to those teachers and everyone in the building going up to the building based. This is what we want to see. So we're looking at a a through line of professional learning that makes sense. that it's aligned to our strategic plans and our school
091improvement plans. That's coste effective as well. And including that is our professional learning pro proposal form which will be on our website and it's difficult to see but it talks about you know who would be the presenter. Again, we want teacher leaders, administrative leaders leading it, uh what school or department, what's the proposed topic, objectives of it because we want people to know exactly why they're signing up. More importantly, what are they going to learn and use in the classrooms? Now, before we got this proposal, okay, it is great, but we need to do a better job of going out and observing and saying, "Wait a minute. If we offer professional learning, if Mrs. jobs goes back in the wig back machine and she's now in the high school the curriculum supervisor and I want
092to do as professional learning opportunity what are the people going to take away they want to have something either in hand or strategies they can turn around on the next Monday and employ it so we want to build in the tracking system where we know who signs up for that PD so if we go visit those classrooms to see has that professional learning really been effective we'll only know it if we see it and we'll ask the building principles hey all these staff members took part in this professional learning you should see either the implementation of these tools or these strategies. If not, let us know. We're also asking those people who sponsor the PD. If I lead that professional learning, I'm going to ask my participants to give me feedback and say, is what
093I shared with you in our professional learning working your classroom? Yes or no? How can I help? Can I go see? So we want to make sure that we continue to offer the professional learning experiences that we know work and quite honestly discard those that are not effective. We'll first try to refine it but then we're going to discard those because we need to be cost effective. You know, time is precious commodity and you know, thankfully this committee has approved the early release days where it's all going to be accountable time, but it should be time spent addressing the needs of our students in alignment with our strategic plan, instructional priorities, and school improvement plans. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Barata. Mrs. Shabs. Thank you, Madam. Um, nice job, Mr. Barata.
094Um I I just want to make a point about that teachers have to um earn PDPs and so a district offering quality professional learning is very important because otherwise they're searching for um opportunities in other districts that the the offerings may not align with what is going on in our district. So you've come a long way. Um, some of the things that I would like to point out that I that I think is important is I went back over the last year to figure out how much we're putting out in professional development. Um, because it's a substantial amount. Those that are on the finance committee, we see it um, every month and a good portion of what you're doing comes from grants. Um, you so you're really um, using grant money very well to to
095fund this, which I think is really important. Another thing that I I've seen as a change is that you allow all staff members to attend this which is a which you don't see in other school districts. So I know within my department at the time like a lot of teacher aids wanted to go to uh professional development or even some of other staff members some secretarial um um aids and at the time it wasn't it wasn't looked upon as something that they should do and our district has has made a big change about being inclusive about anybody that is working with students that they have an opportunity to go to this professional development which I think is really important. Um, I also like the fact that you're um planning ahead and showing what's coming up
096because I think that is also important. We know that all of our teachers have busy lives. They're busy in and out of um of school. So, knowing ahead of time that okay, we can already start to see that all of these um opportunities are going to be offered. I I went and looked at a few of them already um coming up. So, that's helpful versus them finding out at the last minute all of a sudden there's this opportunity. And I think it's important that you stress that you aligned it with DESIE because Desi is very very strict about what they'll take for PDPs from teachers. So making sure that that you're aligning what we're giving with strategic goals that you're making sure it aligns with DESIE. You're offering more than an hour because they have
097rules and how long it can be before it can count. Um I think um that is good and obviously I've been part of professional development here and I think this has been an an immense improvement. So, I want to thank you and your committee on doing this. Um, I think that when you talk about trying to get other um teachers to come to Taton, I think this is something that really shows that we're supporting our teachers and that's the type of thing that when people are looking for jobs, they're looking for districts that are going to support them. So, I thank you. Great job, Mr. Laura. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Barada. Just a point of clarification. So now you determine say the middle school personnel needs a certain topic to be discussed
098and you determine that uh three or four of our middle schools need it. How is it determined where it's going to be held on a professional day? That's a great question. I'll just clarify something. I won't decide coming out of the buildings. They'll use the data to inform their s. where the location would be. That's when we look and say, okay, what how many participants are we looking at and what's available space? And the little curveball we have is, you know, we have some schools on different tiers. So, it's how to manage that. And that's something we always navigate. You know, those all day professional days are perfect for this. And our early releases are pretty good as well. But there are some afterchool times when we want to meet with staff that gets a
099little tricky from the high school in Freedman, which is tier one versus schools on tier three. So sometimes we offer multiple sessions or we sort of do like a hybrid where we'll launch it for tier one and then when two and three come in we'll go back and recap and give the tier one schools a little bit of a break to try to make sure everyone gets the same information. It's a it's a dance and that's at sort of like uh really into the weeds about how do you make sure you align it. So if it's used as a professional day, the attendance of course will be mandatory. When when it's not a professional day and you do a followup, right? So we're blessed to have professional development days and early releases. So staff are
100here in essence. Those other professional learning opportunities say after school um is difficult because as Michelle has meant with home life and schedules, it's very difficult. So I think the plan that the plan that we developed with Superintendent Cabraw is like, "Hey, I want to see a plan and we get teacher input is we're now providing professional learning opportunities that they've articulated they need and that we need as a district." So then there's a highly likelihood and if we get those schedules out early enough that people are going to say, "Okay, I'm going to adjust my schedule because I know this is coming up." And that's that's on us to make sure people are well aware of what's coming down the pike. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. All set. Yes. Okay. Dr. Dilla. Thank
101you, Mayor. Uh Mr. Bara, thank you so much for the presentation and to the uh learning committee for participating. Just to expand a little bit on my colleague, Mrs. Shaves. Of course, as part of the finance and law subcommittee with myself and Mrs. Shaz, Mr. Vieira, I think our questions on the warrant are always around professional development and the money we invest. And this is a great capulation of of what we're doing and what we intend to do. But as Mrs. Shav also said, we're very fortunate to have outside grants like the Bar Foundation and others that uh provide an invaluable service to the district. So that's very very creative. And I'll just sum up this uh you know, every individual being included is so important because I firmly believe that to have student success
102whether you're cooking the food, feeding the student, you're the superintendent, and everybody in between is part of that student success. So, thank you for making it inclusive to every individual that wants to participate. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Motion to accept the presentation. Second. Motion and second. All those in favor? I opposed. None opposed. So voted. Thank you, Mr. Barata. Next, we have the superintendent report. I'll try to be brief, madame mayor. So, I just wanted to let everyone know uh publicly that we have closed the two Hamilton Street survey, but we will be hosting uh district will be hosting three communitywide forums to review the Hamilton Street proposal and share feedback we have received from staff, caregivers, and the community. This feedback was collected through parent teacher meetings, faculty meetings,
103and a districtwide community survey. So, as of today, at the close of the survey, we received over 3,200 responses. So, we received quite a bit of feedback. Uh, we I what I can share with you is that of the 3,200 respondents, uh, 1,526 were parents and caregivers, 528 were community taught and residents. And again, Isaiah, you'll be very happy to know, Isaiah, that the third largest responding group were students, 424, followed by staff members and classroom teachers. And based on the feedback from the survey, and again, we're not making any decisions tonight, uh, the top the top vote getter at 4.5 was the creation of a fourth middle school. The second vote getter was the creation of an eighth grade academy at 4.24. So, very close. And then the third top, I'll just give you
104the top three. The third was specialized programs at 3.55. So, it looks like we'll be making a decision between one and two when when I bring the final recommendation after the forums to the committee. And for the public who are interested in attending, again, we're scheduling three, trying to accommodate uh everyone's schedule. So, I want to I want to thank uh chair ch school committee member Powski for the suggestions of having two in the morning. So, we'll have one on the 24th at 10 a.m. at Freeman Middle School. There'll be one in the evening on June 25th at Taton High School and again Thursday, June 26th at Martin Middle School to make sure we can accommodate residents throughout the city. And again, these are not posted meetings. You are not required to attend, but you
105are more than welcome to attend as a school board. And then I just want to give you a real quick year in review. As I shared yesterday with u with my with my message to the board, you know, the marathon's over. We've we've ran down Boilston Street and we came across the finish line for a year for a year that's been a marathon. So, as we conclude another academic year, I'm filled with pride and gratitude for our collective accomplishments. Our students demonstrated tremendous academic growth with 301 students improving by two or more grade levels in in math and reading. We also celebrated 13 students achieving 14 perfect MCAT scores. Our focus on attendance yielded significant results with six schools meeting or exceeding the district goal of 93.5% and four schools surpassing the chronic asenteism goal
106of less than 19.5%. The world language department saw outstanding performance. We had eight national Spanish medal exam finalists. We had one national Portuguese exam medalist and five national French contest medalists and 17 national Latin exam medalists. In athletics, our team secured five Hakamach league championships and we proudly recognized not one but two state champions. The performing arts department excelled with eight students participating in the southeastern Massachusetts music educators association district festivals in band and coral and our wind symphony earning a silver medal at the Massachusetts Instrumental Coral and conductors association festival. Our chorus also made its debut at the mic at the mic festival. Our chapter 74 department and skills USA program had its largest number of contestants ever earning medals of excellence, a nominee in gold standard chapter status with 100% participation. Notably, we
107also had our first early childhood educator competitor at national and we also had our first robotics and urban search and rescue team at state. We celebrated a sweep in audio radio medalists in at districts and it we also had our first two-time state officer with students competing in 12 different state categories. This year we proudly celebrated 544 graduates. Of the 38 of the 544 graduates, 318 almost 60% will metriculate to 70 different colleges and universities attending two and four-year schools. We also have 12 students making the ultimate sacrifice in entering military service. These successes are a testament to our students hard work, our educators and staff's dedication, and the invaluable support from our families and community. My deepest appreciation goes to you, the committee, for your steadfast leadership and your steadfast support. To our incredible
108teachers, administrators, support staff, thank you for your profound impact. To our parents and community members, your partnership is vital. As summer approaches, I encourage everyone to rest and rejuvenate. I am confident that next year will bring continued excellence. Thank you for your dedication to all our students in schools, and I wish everyone a safe, restful, and enjoyable summer. That concludes my report. Thank you, Superintendent. Motion to accept. Motion and second. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed. So voted. under administrative business. Number one is response to summer facility use letter. Mayor, uh thank you. Um the letter in your packet today is uh addressing a um a motion made by the city council of May 27. So I'd like to read the motion because I don't think everyone was privy to it. uh at the
109municipal council meeting held on May 27, 2025, council Borg's motion to the mayor's office and superintendent's office to report back to the council as to why Martin Middle School cannot be used for the Taton Together program camp. So voted Jennifer L. Ledger, city clerk titan. Uh first and foremost, I I would have appreciated a motion made to the school committee. Uh it should probably be bodytobody. I think that would be the respectful thing to do. But uh superintendent was kind enough to respond and the response was submitted on June 10th to the members of the municipal council. If I may read it publicly, uh Taunt City Council, City Hall, 15 Summer Street, Taunt Mass. Dear members of the city council, on behalf of Tom Public Schools, I extend my sincere thanks for the opportunity to
110address the matter of summer space and building utilization, particularly as it pertains to the use of school facilities by outside programs. We are pleased to report that following several years of pandemic related disruptions, all of our school buildings are once again operating summer programs at the same capacity as before the CO 19 pandemic. This return to full in-house programming allows us to provide vital academic enrichment opportunities for our students throughout the summer months. As a result of this increased internal use, however, we are unable to accommodate building utilization requests from outside vendors this summer. Joseph H. Martin Middle School is hosting two separate Tom Public Schools summer programs, which significantly limits the available space for community-based programming. This has necess necessitated difficult decisions regarding the external use of our facilities. I would like to note
111that the Together program is not the only community organization affected by these constraints. Other requests have likewise been denied due to space limitations and our obligation to prioritize student programming. The Together program was formally notified on March 17, 2025 via email that we would be unable to accommodate the program at Martin Middle School for summer 2025. This communication was made in anticipation of the request in well in advance and the hope that we would provide the organization time to secure an alternative location. This message was again reiterated by Mrs. Hoy on Saturday, May 24th, 2025 via email. We appreciate the council's ongoing partnership and understanding as we work to ensure the best possible outcomes for taunt students. As a district, we must prioritize the programs and needs of our taunt public schools students before considering
112requests from outside entities not affiliated with our schools. Should space availability change in the future, we'd be happy to re revisit these requests with the appropriate considerations in mind. Sincerely, John J. Cabraw, superintendent. So, uh, I thought it was important to include the letter in today's, uh, packet because there's been a lot of, um, a lot of, uh, different, uh, stuff going on in the community, uh, including social media posts that throws us, the school committee under the bus, and sometimes things happen without two sides of the story. So I think as chairperson I think it's very important to address this because as we mentioned before and we saw with our own eyes we have students uh that we uh do the best we can to help the way we can and unfortunately through various
113means of communication really early on. Not only was this program notified but other outside agencies that reached out to me specifically also and I'll name them the Boys and Girls Club is one of them. And there are others uh Girls Inc. and the YMCA and so forth. So there's there's there's no animosity towards any organization. There is open line of communication. There are buildings that are offline with various construction projects. And all I want to ask publicly here, the superintendent, has anything changed since the last communication as far as availability to outside entities. Unfortunately, we're unable to accommodate any outside entities at this time. Thank you, Superintendent. Okay. So that's the uh information I'd like to share. Thank you, mayor. You're welcome. There's no need to take uh any action or votes on this letter.
114Next, we have Reed's collaborative quarterly updates. That's just for your information purposes. Okay. And what about the board appointment? So, that is something that needs to be done annually. So, I serve on the board representing the school committee. So, the appropriate action would be to authorize the superintendent to continue serving on the board. And if you could do that on a roll call vote. Yes. So, was there a second? Everybody said so. Okay. Second motion and second on a roll call, please. Mrs. Fagan, Mr. Enus, yes. Mr. Shav, yes. Mr. Palowski, yes. Mr. Fagen votes yes. Miss Santos, yes. Mr. Laura, yes. Uh, Dr. Dlo, yes. Mayor Okcon, yes. Motion passes. Subcommittee reports. First is rules committee, Mr. Ens. Oh, I'm trying to think when it was now, honestly. May 30. Let me think. Oh,
115that was the handbook change. Oh, correct. Thank you, superintendent. So, on um May 30th, uh 2025, the rules committee met um and it was just changing a word. I believe it was from Shel or maybe what was Mrs. Sorry. Do you recall? Do you recall serious to any s and that was uh approved and so voted and we adjourned it was done via zoom also because we try to get it in as quick as possible. So motion to accept the report. All all in favor? I opposed. Eyes have it. Next up we have the committee the whole June 17 2025. That's myself. Uh we met before the city council just yesterday uh and presented the FY26 budget presentation. The superintendent did a wonderful job uh being very fluid going through the entire budget. Uh many
116of the city councils, I believe all but one uh were very uh uh how should I say supportive of the way it was presented of how uh wonderful of job we're doing that we're not in the red that we're in the black and that we account for every penny cross every tea and dot every eye. So, as school committee members, we're very proud and we should be proud that uh we're fiscally responsible and providing everything that we need. And it was brought up and I I brought this up at the at one of our meetings was when the budget presentation, I think council Pier asked, do we have everything that we need for our teachers and our students? And the question, the answer is yes. We have enough teachers for all our classrooms and the
117students have everything they need. So, it was very wellreceived. Uh and the did they vote last night? I can't remember. No, but they did present me uh some of my colleagues with a birthday cupcake. So, thank you so much. And that's the uh report of the committee of the whole should seconded. All in favor? I I opposed. Eyes have it. Next up, we have the high school subcommittee. Uh Chairman Powski. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. I have to vote present. I wasn't at that meeting. Sorry. So, maker the motion amend to record Mrs. Fen as present. Thank you. Second of the motion. All in favor? I I I opposed. Eyes have it. Thank you. Chairman Powski. Okay. This evening we had a meeting of the high school subcommittee. The subject of the meeting was
118the school improvement plan for the Ton Alternative High School presented by Principal Bert Delaney. Um uh the highlights are uh the the the goal the mission statement of Ton Alternative High School is to provide an opportunity to graduate for all Taton students. Um it specifically caters to students um with uh credit deficiencies. So this year uh they service a total of 130 students uh mostly 16 mo ranging in age from 16 to 20 years old. Uh we had 60 seniors graduate on June 1st. Um the specific goals that uh Ton Alternative High School is working on um increasing their attendance rate, dropping their chronic absenteeism, and increasing their graduation rate. Um so the attendance rate uh they they reported um in 2024 the attendance rate was 83.5%. They've increased that to 88.5% in 2025. Chronic
119absenteeism was 66.4% in 24 and that is down to 54.6%. And uh Mr. Delaney made a point to shout out uh Kim Gonzalez uh the truency officer um as the key to this int this improvement in attendance. um she's really gone the extra mile making personal phone calls to each and every student that's in danger uh of you know not showing up to school. So uh really appreciate the efforts there. Um so you know that additionally they've been using their school improvement plan money um to hold um out of school hours opportunity for um kids to make up their time. Uh so that's you know bringing in in teachers after hours uh to keep these things going. Um so uh in the 12 years that principal Delaney has been running the school they've had 871
120students graduate. So that is 871 kids that if not for this program wouldn't have graduated. So that's that's pretty impressive. Um and uh uh uh Dr. Dlo asked the question uh how many of the 60 graduates are going on to the college track and 15 of their 60 graduates will be going on to college next year and uh that concludes my report. Thank you chairman. What are the wishes of the committee? Motion to accept the report as presented by chairman Powowski. Second on discussion. Yes, Mr. Speaker. Did you mention who was at the meeting? I didn't hear you say that. I did not. But at the meeting was myself, Mr. Powski, Mrs. Fagan, Dr. Dlo, John Cabraw, I didn't mean that. Just the two committee. Okay, that's it. I didn't want to shame Mr. Vieier
121for not being here. No, no, that doesn't do that. It just motion is accepted. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Eyes have it. Next up, we have finance and law. Uh myself as chair uh met earlier this evening. uh part of the committee is myself and Mrs. Shabs. Uh we had three items on the agenda. The first was the procurement card. Assistant Superintendent Monahan provide us with a detail in description of all charges relating to the month of March, the month of April, and the month of May. Uh the good news is is that um I think it's a centralized way of of reconciling and making sure that we know what we're spending and where we're spending it. The total amount charged to the PCARD starting fiscal year July 1st uh is $218,31.31 uh hitting
122the school budget 78,262 total charge to grants was $78,265.95 charge to revolving $54,978.27 27 and charge to SS SAA $4,72212 and total charge for food services $2,128.35. So of the $218,000 that's how it was split out to the appropriate accounts. That was voted unanimously by myself and Mrs. Shave. Move to approve. Next up we have the coaching for change memo. Um, again, it's very uh self-explanatory as far as what was presented to us. Uh, Mrs. Shaz pointed out that going forward, which I agreed to, starting a new fiscal year, probably uh have a template in place not only for this organization, but others to uh really explain uh what what the bang for the buck type of thing. What's our ROI, right? What are we what are we getting back for our students that we're
123investing uh couple hundred,000 here and there to make sure it's it's worthwhile? And of course uh that was uh voted unanimously to approve and moved on to the next item which was bills payable for FY25 in the amount of 2,495,159.3 and there were numerous questions asked by Mrs. Shavs who goes through this warrant with a fine tooth comb and thank you for that. And it's it's amazing that you know a lot of the items are sometimes the same items that I note on my my notes so we don't have to ask them twice. And uh besides all the questions being asked by uh answered by assistant superintendent Monahan, I did ask to be vote uh to be recorded voting present uh for an item listed on page 28 which I'll pull out for you here.
124And that was a um a warrant in the amount of $10,370 paid payable to Pride, Inc. I voted uh unan I voted to abstain from that vote to vote present because I serve on the board of directors and also serve as co- treasurer. And that was voted unanimously in favor and that concludes my report. Yes, Mr. Shots, I'm sorry. Just sorry, just one addition that we um agreed to do the hold on the out of education. Ah, thank you so much. Yes. So, an important item that Mrs. Shaves picked up because she was involved on the curriculum subcommittee was an item that is on 32, page 32. Thank you. So, the item uh which is PO250495 in the amount of $96,849, we did not include that in the warrant. So that will be on a
125future warrant and that is to the art of education university LLC. So that was now voted unanimously. What are the wish of the committee? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Eyes have it. Thank you. Next up we have new business. Uh softball field scoreboard naming C and closure. I'll just quickly just refer the committee. Uh this is the recommended process that I believe the committee should follow. I provided you with the four-step process. So I I would recommend that you utilize June 18th today through July 23rd as the public comment period. And I'll authorize if this process is approved, I'll authorize our communications coordinator, Cynthia Johnson, to advertise that we're soliciting input for the naming of the softball of the softball scoreboard in honor of David Lurie. And um again, number two, if anyone wants
126to provide documentation that you want to review, they can provide it to the school department. Then I would suggest that at our next meeting on July 23rd that the committee deliberate and then if the committee wishes on July 20 23rd take final action on whether or not to approve or deny this recognition. Very good. What are the wishes of the committee? I would remove I would a motion to recommend the timeline as stipulated by the superintendent. Second. All in favor? I opposed. eyes have it. Thank you, Superintendent. Next up, we have summer professional learning opportunities. Superintendent, so even though the year is winding down, you'll notice that the year is ramping right back up. So, uh, beginning on June 20th, Mr. Bara and our curriculum instructional team will be offering a plethora of professional development
127offerings before folks head off to the summer uh for their muchneeded break and rejuvenation. And then beginning on August 7th, we'll kick off our all admin retreat. and then is new teacher orientation and then convocation. So I just want to also let the board know that you are more than welcome to attend any of these professional development offerings. The only thing I ask that we ask is that you RSVP with Mr. Marado or his admin assistant Amanda Ericson. Thank you superintendent wishes of the committee. Motion to accept and place on file. All in favor? I uh before we go on to unfinished business, we had two letters uh sent to myself and uh as chairman and Christine Fagan as secretary. I'll read one. Mrs. will read the other. Uh dear Dr. Dlo and Mrs. Fagan,
128I hope this letter finds you well. While I'm writing to respectfully propose that the school committee consider a meaningful tribute to honor the legacy of my late father-in-law, Joseph Joe Martin, a lifelong educator, administrator, and public servant whose career was devoted to the students, teachers, and families of Taton. Over the course of more than 35 years with Ton Public Schools, Joe served as a math and computer science teacher, director technology, and ultimately assistant superintendent. Even after retiring in 2006, he continued to serve the community with distinction as a member of the school committee for 14 additional years. Joe's contribution reached far beyond his titles. He was passionate about teaching, deeply patient with his students, and committed to helping every child succeed. He was a calm, principal leader and exceptional listener who brought intelligence, empathy, and
129common sense to every discussion. He always came prepared and always brought conversations back to one essential question. What is the right thing to do for the students? Joe positive positively impacted thousands of students, families, and colleagues and community members. His life's work centered on education and service. I believe his contributions are worth recognizing in a way that reflects the lasting impact he made on the taunt and school community. I'd be grateful for the opportunity to discuss this idea further and to hear thoughts on how the district might best honor his memory. Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration. Sincerely, Jesse Strawbridge. Mrs. Fagan also received a letter addressed to myself and her. Mrs. Fagan, if you could please. Dear Dr. Dlo and Mrs. Fagan, I hope this message finds you well. I'm writing to
130respectfully propose that the Taton school committee consider honoring the life and legacy of Donald Clearary in a lasting way within the Taton public schools. Don Clary dedicated his life to public service in Taton as a teacher, principal, assistant to superintendent, and ultimately superintendent of schools. After retiring from education, he continued to serve the city as a city counselor and as Taton's 50th mayor. His commitment to students, families, and the broader community was unwavering and extending to decades of volunteerism with organizations like Kuowanis, the YMCA, and the VFW. For so many, Don was the heart of Taton's education system. He was a booming voice of leadership, a fierce advocate for kids, and a tireless champion of public service. His colleagues remember his passion, his preparation, and his everpresent clipboard, and his deep belief in doing what
131was right for the community. Even in retirement, Don remained a mentor, advocate, and trusted voice in taught civic life. While Don Don made a lasting impact throughout the district, his connection to Martin Middle School was particularly special. It's where he began his administrative career and where even now his presence is felt by staff and students alike. I hope the committee will consider honoring his remarkable contributions with a tribute on the grounds of Martin School, a space he loved and where his influence continues to be deeply appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration and for all you do for the Taton public schools. Warm regards, Peter Fernandees. Thank you, Secretary. the wishing committee just I also probably think we could refer sorry I believe we should also probably refer to the July 23rd meeting second
132that is that proper superintendent yeah we can well because it's came in on the new business we'll list it as an agenda item for the meeting on the 23rd for the committee to discuss next steps excellent all in favor I opposed eyes have it thank you next up we have unfinished business action item update uh in front of us. Did we add that item? Uh yes, we did. Okay, gotcha. Okay, great. And press time. Any press in the audience? They were here. They left. Okay. Uh motion to adjurnn be so moved. All in favor? I opposed. Eyes have it. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone.