001good evening the uh first regular March meeting of the taunt School commission come to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we held at the Twilight last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perous fight or the real parts we watch were so gallantly streaming and the rockets R glare the bombs buring in air gave Pro through the night that our flag was still there oh they do that star spangled then are yet W or the land of the free and the home of the brave please remain standing Mrs secretary Fagan Lord as we begin this succession let us acknowledge your goodness and mercy and ask your blessings on all our deliberations we thank you for this opportunity
002to be of service to our community and to the young people entrusted to our care and if you please remain standing we have to do a couple of moments of Silence this evening the first one is for Maria the Lord's Dello who's Greg's mother she was she di passed away on on February 19th in excuse me in St Luke's hospital she was born in Fall River and as a young girl her parents returned to S Miguel and the azos I'm going to have a little trouble with some of these names when I get going I might need some help she was educated in SE SE Miguel receiving her master's her bachelor's degree in education from the convento de esperansa Pont delada she was employed as a teacher and administrator in the schools in San Miguel
003she returned to the United States in 1962 earned an accreditation teachers degree from then South Eastern Massachusetts now known as un University of mass SMU excuse me and now it's the University of mass Don Donal Lords was previously employed by the New Bedford school system as a bilingual teacher until her retirement a dedicated communicant of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church she was the matri excuse me matriarch of the family who was happiest when her family was gathered around the table she always prayed for special intentions for anyone in need she was a beloved wife mother grandmother sister and friend to all she had many interests following her en ement she spent lengthy days in s San Miguel along with many cruises to several destinations she also took great pride in cooking knitting sewing
004crocheting and gardening her family includes her three sons Jose excuse me too I also forgot to mention her former husband was Eduardo her late husband uh diano deelo is that right okay she leaves Three Sons Joseph F Melo and his wife Helen Melo reth Edward deelo forever and Dr Gregory Dello of tarton a daughter five grandchildren five great grandchildren and she was the sister of the late Francisco s cabal Jose cab Francisco cabal and Olivia s cabal p Chico and her funeral was held at at uh New Bedford for her and the uh that church that she was very happy to be be a member of anything else you'd like to add Dr Dello no I just uh want to say thank you so much to my extended TPS family for all your condolences and
005notes of sympathy uh the entire Community uh was overwhelmingly supportive of my loss and I just want to thank everybody publicly yeah and uh I was more than happy to like I came back I when I was in Ireland I went to a couple of churches there for mass and there was have candles to light and I lit one for Greg's mother and brought it back and I wanted him to know what church it was so that that made me feel good to do that so please keep Greg and his family in your thoughts and prayers second person is very difficult to talk about Carol D who passed away on excuse me Saturday February 15th after a long vot with pancreatic cancer um surrounded by her family she was the devoted wife of Dennis cook
006with whom she shared 34 wonderful years the daughter of the late John and Mary Gomes shantra she was born in on February 28th for 1942 graduated from Westport HIgh School in 1959 and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Boston University followed by a master's degree in education from Bridgewater State College since 196 65 she has been a proud to tonian her life was dedicated to children she worked at a third as as a third grade teacher in New Bedford and later at the Edmund hatch Bennett School where she became a guidance counselor where she she always used to love to recount the stories of teachers who remembered how kind she was to them and how nice that that they always remembered who she was she served as the president of
007the Taunton Education Association and in 1980 was elected president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association the Commonwealth largers teachers union which which she helmed for the two year two terms until 1984 she was elected to the taunt taunt school committee in 2011 and served five years with us she was elected as state representative for the third Bristol District taunt and East in a special election and was reelected once again in 2022 and 2024 she was very proud of her District she often remarked your presid is often noted less than your absent but in reality when she walked into her room there was little chance anyone could miss the lady with the big hair her smile could disarm most and she was known for her quick wit warm presence and genuine care for all she encountered she
008distinguished herself in the in the House of Representatives as an oddent advocate for children this the disabled and the dispossessed she introduced legislation to lower cost for working families and seniors to ensure sign language is offer to in each of the Commonwealth public schools and to establish CPR and AED training as a Statewide graduation commitment while she was an noten Democrat she was not afraid to reach across potty lines and she let people know that and into that end she devoted uh she was devoted to constituent Services often working until the early hours of the morning to secure unemployment assistance for people laid off during covid-19 housing for families in needs for those in help for all who need it she was very active in the community somebody may remember you from her being co-host
009of the Silva City Meeting House Radio Show and her former partner is here Mr Barry Sanders the two of them did the show together they were both very interesting she was a board member of the downtown Foundation board member of the taunt Area Community table taunt Civics scorus Eastern Lions Club uh Taunton Elks Lodge Prince Henry Society of Taunton um she was also on the board of directors at Head Start she and I were both served over there always a one to um a proud daughter of imigrant parents excuse me from madira and cable verie Carol took pride in her Heritage many times over the years she traveled to her ancestral homelands enjoyed their food music and culture she and Dennis also made Regular trips to Europe visiting Spain Italy Greece Austria and England in
010addition to her husband she survived by her stepdaughters their husbands uh nieces nephews her grandchildren the five of them Paige Emily Zoe and Emison and kepa whom she was affectionally known as Kaka or KK I don't know how they said that her great niece and her cousins and and other relatives of her extended family and her F her funeral was held on um last Friday so on the 28th so off our condolences go out to her family I know we will miss her we certainly enjoyed her presence here it's nice to have a lot of viewers on a school committee so please keep her family and your thoughts and your prayers and if you could just one more second I don't know if any of you know it but with head the girl that's the
011head of head and Taunton um Anis the Anis girl her her um Karen Anis her oldest son passed away in Florida at the same time he was only 27 years old he died from an epileptic fit um and I I just want you to know that she's a wonderful woman that was very difficult for her she had three children and I I think they only found out he had epilepsy when he's a little bit older but to get a phone call like that and um so keep please keep her family in your thought and your prayers also so moment of silence for everyone please thank you so much thank you secretary Fagan uh before the roll call if I could just share that uh I happen to spend a week in Kate f with representative
012Dy and her husband Dennis and she was so proud to uh you know reunite her Roots uh her cap birdi and descent because she went into the trip uh thinking that she wasn't going to find any relatives at all and much to her surprise really within a day or two she had relatives coming to the hotel to meet her so she was very proud of that and February's been a tough month for me I lost two important women in my life but anyway roll call Mr enus present Mrs shavs present Mr palowski present Mrs Fagan is present Miss Santos present Mr Vieira present Mr Laura present the mayor is absent Dr Dr Dello present and Isaiah student representative Isaiah Wendell oh I'm sorry are you present Mr wend excellent excellent see him all the time
013and happy to be here thank you thank you secretary Fagan first up we have the approval of minutes of February 5th 2025 wish of the committee motion to approve the minutes of February 5th 2025 second all in favor I I opposed eyes have it now we have the student advisory committee report we have our student Isaiah Wendell welcome thank you as Dr Dello said my name is Isaiah Wendell and I am part of the Taunton High School student advisory committee some of the things that are going on at tton high school currently was yesterday we held our Mr THS Mr THS is a Hu was a huge success this show was completely sold out making it one of the most successful events this year congratulation to all the contestants their teams and the student council
014for putting on an amazing show a special congratulations to Sam MOA Mr THS 2025 if you missed it you can catch it on replay on the Taunton educational Network and the Taunton educational Network YouTube page All City band and chorus concerts will be taking place next Thursday at 6: and 7 p.m. best of luck to our talented musicians and singers representing Taunton High School Deca States competition Taunton High School had a strong showing at the DECA States last week exciting news one of our students is advaning to Nationals additionally free SAT prep for our Juniors Taunton High School is offering free SAT prep sessions to help students prepare for the exams Session 1 will take place March 8th 22nd and April 5th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. session 2 will take place March 13th
01529th and April 5th 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. students should see their guidance counselors for more details World Language and diversity week is March the week of March 17th this is a huge event at Taunton High School celebrating different cultures and languages the World Language department has planned some incredible performances and activities to enhance our students learning I look forward to seeing all the great act and displays of cultural Pride additionally starting the week of March 17th students will be issued ID badges for um both security and attendance purposes when students walk in the building in the morning through our weapons detection system they will also be prompted to scan their ID badges for both attendance and um to make sure students are where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be lastly our
016seniors are voting on teacher superlatives seniors are currently voting on teacher superlatives a fun way to recognize and celebrate our amazing teachers it is always exciting to see what creative Awards they can come up with that concludes my report from Taun high school thank you thank you Mr Windell any questions comments uh from a student representative from the committee receive and place on file all second all in favor I I opposed eyes have it next up we have public input uh secretary Fagan could you please yes sir in accordance with Massachusetts general laws chapter 39 section 23 C we kindly request that individuals wishing to provide input sign up in advance a copy of the regulation and guidelines will be provided upon signup and individuals will be asked to State their name and address for
017the record the amount of time each registered individual will have to speak will be determined by the number of people who sign the register and will be announced prior to the start of the public input portion of the meeting thank you so much secretary Fen we have three citizens signed up uh as far as time is concerned I don't have a problem with time so uh we have Mr Barry Sanders city council Barry Sanders as private citizen Barry Sanders 75 Steve Drive uh concerning Summer Street School Mr Sanders thank you thank you Mr chair and thank you to the school committee uh today I am simply private citizen and Barry Sanders um come to talk with you about um I've heard and I hope I'm correct that uh there's there will be a recommendation this
018evening to name the Summer Street school after uh former state representative Carol dor and I come to you today to endorse that wholeheartedly um I could spend all the time you'll give me and more um extolling Carol's many contributions to our community and her lifetime of unrivaled public service but we already all know that here there isn't anyone in this room uh who would hear something from me that they wouldn't already have their own personal experience with regarding Carol uh we have uh a great opportunity to uh honor someone who gave so much to our community uh with with no disrespect to anyone who's had a name a building named after them those uh many times the folks who have uh buildings named after them they Inspire us from the history books right we we
019none of us here have met Elizabeth pole uh I doubt any of us have met uh Edmond hatch Bennett or uh Joseph Chamberlain or even potentially even Ben Friedman um but we have all met Carol if there's a building with her name on it every every single time we drive by it we'll be reminded of her Public Service we'll be reminded of what she gave to this community her family will drive by and they will know that this community uh appreciated what she contributed uh and thought so much of her as to to actually name a building after her an honor not bestowed lightly uh on anyone so uh I I won't go on as you all know I can um but I will say that I hope that um you'll see fit uh to
020move forward with this recommendation sorry if I let the cat out of the bag but I I I don't think it's a secret um and uh I'll I'll be done and say thank you in advance for your wisdom and your kindness thank you Mr Sanders next up we have Lisa field for Rockland Street topic Summer Street School good evening Lisa field for Rockland Street I really couldn't say it any better than counselor I know he's a private citizen speaking on this I'm here in support of renaming the building on Summer Street for Carol DH and again I I get I'm still a little raw about it um what I would say is that there's no one that I know of that dedicated her life more for public education with students curriculum and the staff especially
021the Workforce Development around the staff it would be a beautiful tribute and a beautiful Legacy to a woman who gave so much to to this community as well as to our school system so again I implore you to uh and respectfully ask that you consider renaming it in her honor thank you thank you Miss field uh next up we have uh Philip Dart also city council but also private citizen Philip Dart 8 trescot street department 4 Summer Street school thank you Mr chairman good evening I have prepared remarks so I'll be more long-winded than you Barry this one time um good evening first I just want to say that I'm speaking on my own behalf but also on behalf of um my dear friend Evan Francis who couldn't be here this evening uh who many
022of you know um we're both mentees of Carol um so this means a lot to us I'm here today to speak in favor of the long range planning committee's recommendation to the full school committee to name the old Summer Street School in honor of our dear friend Carol ority importantly what hasn't been mentioned is that it's going to be converted to a professional development center as a lifelong Champion for educa public education Carol began her career as an elementary school teacher and guidance counselor and then was elected president of the ttan Education Association now part of this I have quoted from uh the MTA statement Mass Teachers Association that they put out um because I only knew Carol for five years and so there was always something new to learn about what she did with
023the other 77 years um in 1980 Statewide Mass Teachers associ Association members elected Carol as their president where she served two terms until 1984 um and as president she fought tirelessly for Working Families to ensure that prek to 16 Educators had a voice in shaping the Massachusetts public education system and important to know if she led the MTA at a time when public education was in trouble um because of the passage of prop two and a half in 1984 she addressed MTA Educators at a special delegate assembly at Burlington High School and she urged them to use their voices you're good at what you do she said let's tell the story of public education in a way that only you can tell it then let's change public education in a way that only your commitment
024dedication and understanding can change it end quote her leadership paid off and just a year later in 1985 um due to her and the mta's advocacy they helped secure the passage of Mass General La chapter 188 um which was a bill expanding funding for Equal Opportunity grants and early childhood learning incentives and I think many of you are familiar with her passion for early childhood education um both on this body and as a longtime member of the head star board I think it's especially important to note and this was not included in the obituary that after this already tremendous career in service to public education Carol went on to work for 18 years as a director of professional development at the school of education at nor Eastern University um during this time she used everything
025she had learned thus far in her career to create their professional development program from scratch she all she always loved talking about her time in this position when she would go out on the road um and travel to local school districts to work with them on professional development M of their teaching and other staff um and that sounds exactly like what's going to happen in the Summer Street school and she did this to build the next generation of teachers many of those teachers are likely the ones that taught us whether it was a few years ago or longer than that or people that are even still in the classroom but Carol couldn't just retire after a fulfilling career already in public education Then she joined this body serving the students and families of ttan for
02610 faithful years in those years prepared her well to be our Advocate on Beacon Hill as state representative as State Rep her focus on public education as well as a whole host of other issues continued in her just under five years she worked on legislation to address student mental health help diversify our teaching Workforce so students have teachers who look like them and understand them and ensure that teachers have a dignified retirement and so much more and I'm glad that I had the pleasure to work alongside her doing that for a time I've heard that there's some discussion going on about whether or not to do this um with people asking what about this person and what about that person but what aboutism is always a convenient excuse to do nothing I'm not usually religious
027or even spiritual ual um but I think it's more than a coincidence that the Taunton school committee which Carol loves so dearly um is undertaking this professional development center project um at the same time that we have the opportunity to do something to honor someone who did so much for educators professional development and public education as a whole Carol did so much for our community and this is the least we can do to thank her for the profound impact she had on all of us thank you thank you Mr Dart uh of course like other boards and commissions we don't comment on public input but I do need to correct the record uh Mr Sanders uh there was no letting the cat out of the bag that was made at a public meeting there was
028actually a citizen present the first time in eight years I've ever seen a citizen at a subcommittee meeting uh that was there on a different issue so there's no letting the cat out of the bag this was done publicly on the 28th of February thank you so much next up uh we have the performing arts department update with us today we have uh Mr Corey beltram Performing Arts coordinat coordinator from prek through 12 welcome so as Corey's making his way to the podium as as you are well aware we are a prek through 22 comprehensive school system and as much as we talk about our rigorous academic programs the disruptive education programs that are taking place throughout the district our Athletics our Performing Arts uh are right up there with any District in Bristol in
029Bristol County and that's due to the leadership and div vision of Cory belum so Cory we'd love to uh get an update from you and I appreciate you sharing the mural but I'll stop talking and let you uh share the wonderful work that's taking place under your leadership thank you thank you superintendent caral um I'd also just like to mention that uh Carol Dy was a a supporter of the Arts and definitely supportive of our program her husband even uh from time to time would uh play along with the the recruitment process for fourth grade so we'd go around to all the different schools and uh we' demonstrate all the instruments and and he would always join um in years past uh on saxophone so I just wanted to mention that too um as you
030can see from uh the the slideshow um our mural on the back side of the auditorium um so that was completed in August September um by Phil bour and his uh cousin Matt they designed it and then Phil uh was the artist that uh uh completed it on the on the building um if you go to Phil's uh Facebook page he has a Facebook page you can see the time lapse of it it's pretty cool in Wild to see how he he constructed that so I just wanted to say thank you um to everybody that was involved in the creation of the mural and the support uh to add the mural to the building um it's it's such a showpiece when we come into the building in in the school day um sorry there it
031goes um just a quick overview of our general music classes um we have several teachers U between the middle schools and the elementaries uh our Middle School general music teachers include Alex M Mar Charlie Silva Jennifer Russell our Elementary music teacher or general music teachers are Kelsey Santos Alyssa lechance Michelle fry Jani cabal Curtis Banger and Mary snow so our general music classes are the Baseline of where we start in uh public education with music um you can see there's a picture from Freedom Middle School's General music class uh they're playing on buckets so it's it's pretty fun um this is what gets has started in the learning process of Reading Writing um and playing music so our general music teachers are a huge support to our entire K12 program um our concerts this is
032uh the Freeman concert some snapshots of the Freeman concert our band director is Teresa clear and our Coral director is Emily morera um and both have been working uh diligently to both increase our enrollment and um make B in course of fun activity and you can see some of our numbers of enrollment from uh Freeman band um you can see there was a dip during covid and we've rebounded since then um and also our Middle School course numbers um we've had a huge spike in fifth grade this year so I'm really excited to see where this is going pre uh covid it wasn't recorded in school brain so I'm lacking some data from the earlier years but you can see fifth grade is is taking off quite significantly in chorus Martin here's some again some
033still shots of Martin um our band or sorry our band director is Allison smana at Martin and Emily morera is also the coral director at Martin as well so she travels around and she's doing all three schools um so she'll you'll see her again with the Parker um our here's our enrollment from middle school band at Martin and similar trend and our course and again you can see our fifth grade we've made a huge push last year when with the fourth graders to get kids and bridge that connection from the fourth grade chorus into the middle schools um and again here is our Parker uh Middle School band and chorus uh both Mrs Clary Teresa clar and Allison smana share Parker so on the days that they're not at Freeman or Martin um they take
034turns with the the Parker building um one has Woodwinds the other has brass that's how we split it up um again Emily morera is at our um at Parker with chorus here's our Parker uh enrollment numbers and we typically do have a downturn towards the the seventh grade so that is a typical Trend um fifth grade wants to try it and then after a little while they go off in different directions sometimes so and our again our fifth grade course has skyrocketed again over at Parker here's some still shots from our winter chorus concert our select chorus our concert choir and our mix choir eight and nth mix choir and this is conducted by now former music teacher Steve Lardo and we have our uh new Coral teacher Jordan mongel here's our enrollment numbers again
035um you can see kind of that downturn from the co ER covid years um but I'm looking at fifth grade ahead and hoping we can uh keep those numbers climbing uh this year we added a a small ensemble in jazz night uh in years past the jazz bands performed with the full band um but we split it off uh we have such a a array of small ensembles now um a lot of the small ensembles are student run so after school they um they ask for a practice room or we put them wherever we can fit them downstairs in the abandon chorus area and they run themselves so they'll ask for um advice from Mr McKenzie on um music to pick to play some of them don't ask us and they just work it out
036with themselves and figure out what they're going to play um some of the other groups the percussion Ensemble uh that's actually run by Charlie Silva he's our Middle School uh General music teacher our other uh Middle School general music teacher Alex Martin she runs the flute choir so you can see the the various ensembles there uh the band concert this year the high school band concert we've added an extra Ensemble um we've added wind Symphony to our list of ensembles for the band um we have eth eighth grade band then it moves on to concert band syonic band is now our middle group and then the wind symphony is our top group so this was done to accommodate um some of the the students that are moving from actually we added um 9th through 12
037beginner band as well a couple years ago so this is now to help accommodate with 9 through 12 beginner band they take a semester of 9 through 12 beginner band and then they can move to the concert band and they can get some extra support in concert band we've had so so many kids joining band that now we needed an extra Ensemble to help tear it out a little bit more um and we can't fit in the Band Room completely if we have had them all together so that helps uh with spacing as well um and you can see that from here uh we added the 9 through 12 band and now the wind Symphony the way it's broken up um our music electives we have Harmony and Theory class uh guitar class and then
038new in the last couple years is music 8 uh music 8 is a general music class it's similar to the Middle School general music classes and it's an extension of the uh seventh grade music um so they do stuff with music history uh guitar ukele U percussion so they kind of do a little bit of everything um they can take it for one semester um and so there's four four classes or four four sections of of that class um guitar class also because of the schedule change um we're able to accommodate up to 40 students now before we could only accommodate 20 so that helps because now we have two sections of that um and you can see the percentage of the building that the the high school students are in music so this is
039music 8 this is Theory this is all the ensembles so we have 19% of the high school is taking one of those classes uh the drama program uh run by Allison Golder uh they produced Guys and Dolls back in the fall um and they just participated in the um metg Festival uh that's actually on my next slide too um so they participated in the festival we have a bunch of other festivals that the band and chorus have also participated in the SE mmea um we had six students participating in the junior Festival eight students in the senior Festival we had two students recommended for All State so once they audition for The District Festival they can get uh All State recommendation they go to audition a second time and if they get in SEC uh
040if they get accepted the second time then they play in the Festival they both scored very well but unfortunately it's competitive so they did not make it this year um we've had all state students in the past before uh Micah the Micah Festival uh both the wind Symphony and the select chorus are going to participate in the Micah Festival this year um Micah is on April 5th uh the band is also traveling to Texas and they're G for April vacation um and they're going to see the north Texas open rehearsal and the Dallas Symphony so that's exciting um uh the High School drama club also is getting uh tickets provided by Rodman for kids uh to go see John Cardoza at Mulan Rouge in New York city so John Cardoza is an alumni of Taunton
041High School and involved in a in the theater program when he was in high school so he's going to have a chance to be able to talk with the kids after the show and so that's pretty exciting um so March 19th our instrument inventory um so we're we've increased our inventory to about 483 instruments band instruments uh and this is through from fifth grade through 12th grade so most of these instruments are out at this point some of them are more specialized instruments for marching band you can see the suop phones up in the top so we don't use those every day we use those out in the field but everything else that we're using that is a common band instrument not a marching instrument is pretty much being used every day so that's a
042huge support for our students having 483 instruments available um our band Council um we Sorry yep okay our van Council um it is student run so this is kind of like a student council but for band um and they do social media graphic design they have a whole bunch of different things that they're working on um this also includes mentoring so they're mentoring uh middle school students through lessons um and there's another slide on that so I'll talk about that in a second but um you can see some of the pictures here it's not just um it's not just in the classroom we're also trying to envelop that that the sense of belonging that superintendent cabal has been talking about so Lobby band and ornament decorating uh this is Mrs C with her students um
043over at fredman so they play in the lobby in the mornings in December um which is everybody always asks about it you know waiting for a Lobby Van to happen um and then she did an extra event um where she had ornament decorating so that was more of a social piece it wasn't as focused on music but it was an after school activity to to you know include all of the kids in band over there um she's also doing another um event later on uh it's is it Lion King I think it's Lion King that she's doing where they're gonna work both the chorus is singing the band's performing it's more of just a a social event they get to watch the movie and then play the songs from the movie so we've been working
044on activities like this um oh we also have um Dr Matt arau um he's coming to Taunton High School on March 17 uh Mr McKenzie arranged that where Dr arau is a presenter in student leadership and music education so he's going to be coming to the high school to talk to the students both the band and core students um about student leadership within our programs um our Mentor band so this is a mix of both middle school and high school students so we have 83 high school student or 83 students sorry that should say just students in middle school and high school students that are participating in the mentoring program so we have high school students that go on Google meet um and they teach lessons one-on-one through Google meet to the middle school students
045so it kind of circumvents Transportation it allows kids to take those one-onone lessons and have uh someone help them um it also is monitored by our band directors so Dan McKenzie Allison smana and Teresa clear they all take turns they open up the Google meet in um the Google classroom and they add the students into breakout rooms it's also student run so the student the band council is organizing and running this and the teachers are there for support so the students pair up the the the band C pairs up the students with mentors and mentees so it's it's all student runs like I said so then um at the end of the school year in the in our May band concert the middle school students will come up to the high school they'll do a
046rehearsal we'll have a pizza party again about that social piece too and they will perform on the high school band concert with their mentors um I can't finish today without acknowledging uh Miss legardo um the tonian uh did a nice piece about Mr legardo two of his students are the authors of this piece um you can read it later on but I also have a clip of the his last concert [Music] you [Music] la [Music] you [Music] la [Music] la [Music] [Applause] um so Mr legardo is a percussionist as well so um and he didn't tell the kids at all that he was going to do that at the end of the concert like he didn't practice that whatsoever so that you can see the kids' reaction they're like whoa what is this that that's
047not what they're used to seeing from him um so Mr legardo taught in Taunton for his entire career 35 years and four months um so but in retirement he's looking forward to to uh gigging with his son-in-law playing percussion drums with his son-in-law um last there it goes um last is uh an up uh just a quick calendar of what we have coming up uh like Isaiah said earlier uh former student of mine too um March 13th is our All City concert at the Fieldhouse uh at the high school uh 6 o'clock is chorus 7:30 is Ban uh it's going to be a fun night so chorus and ban and that's uh 4 through 12 chorus it's 7 through 12 band that's participating um a couple other things that aren't on here just yet um
048I forgot to put the Memorial Day Parade band will be marching with the Memorial Day for the Memorial Day Parade um the band Council um they're putting on a benefit concert uh on May 4th this year it's going to benefit the little closet which is uh at the high school for um uh clothing for students that need um and our elementary concerts haven't quite been added to the the six day or the schedule just yet but once we get away from weather we'll add them to the the May uh sorry June calendar so anyway thank you thank you uh Mr beltram uh very exciting uh before I make some comments I'll go around the uh the room to my colleagues if anybody has anything to add or share or question seeing none well I I
049uh am one of the folks that uh always shows up and some of my colleagues around the table also do uh Guys and Dolls took me back to 1981 when I was in Guys and Dolls back in high school and it was uh so well done uh I mean professionally done uh all our performers whether they're singing or playing uh topnotch topnotch and that's a testament to your leadership and everybody that's part of your team thank you for that I know that our in instuments are also uh topnotch and pretty new I understand because the school committee did take the initiative to fund uh What We have 483 instruments right now which is unbelievable so uh on behalf of the school committee uh thank you so much uh and thank our students of course uh
050for all their hard work and accomplishments Mr superintendent yeah so if I can just close us out real quick so Cory I know uh we got to get back on track with our quarterly meetings and talk about the vision for the program so I I know we set that lofty goal of 25% so I'm very excited to see you and see the program at 19% so 6% away and we can only imagine what's going to come after 25% but but having a having a benchmark or having something to shoot for is what drives the program and not only is it a great program it's a large program and usually you think when something gets too big it loses quality we haven't seen that happen and again that's a testament to to your leadership and the
051folks that you surrounded yourself with and yeah I'm very excited I think you've heard me say plenty of times when I was in elementary school in Far River my parents couldn't afford to purchase an instrument or rent an instrument so that's why I've worked very hard with the support of the city and the school board to try to build our laner instrument so at the end of the year don't be surprised if I come back to the school board uh with a request for a certain allocation to be able to purchase additional instruments so we can reach that 25% and that every student in our elementary and middle schools and high school have access to your instruments if that's something they wish to pursue and last but not least I started my career back in
052the 1900s with Mr legado at Parker middle school and I can say he was a mentor back then so to see Steve finally retired after 35 years after not only has he had a great influence on our kiddos he's also had a tremendous influence on the staff and the adults that he's worked with so we're losing a legend and I think that's a great tribute what great way to go out on retirement through a drum solo right if we can all go out that way that would be the only way he would do it so Cory excellent presentation continue the hard work and let's get on the calendar so we can talk about how we can continue growing and supporting the program okay thank you thank you so much thank you uh next up we
053have uh executive session so a motion would be in order to go into executive session to discuss School Safety and Security pursuant to exemption four general laws chapter 38 section 21 A4 and to Recon vot an open session that will be on a roll call vote secretary Fagan yes yes yes M Santos yes Mr yes Mr Laura yes yes we are in executive session we'll reconvene an open session thank you e e e all okay so uh motion would be in order to motion to come back into executive session on roll call vote all in favor Mrs Fagan roll call please Mr anus yes Mrs shavs yes Mr palowski yes Mrs Fagan votes yes Miss Santos yes Mr Vieira yes Mr Laura yes and Dr Dello yes Mr powalski uh in the executive session a
054motion was made by myself uh to authorize a superintendent to develop an enhanced school security uh plan to be brought to the school committee at a later uh executive session of a later date good and uh we don't need to do anything with that action correct that was just a report out so we'll move on to next administrative business we have 2025 2026 school year calendar Mr superintendent cab thank you I'll ask the director of student services Stephanie H who helped compile the calendars and worked with our unions to get their feedback to discuss the three options that were shared and the recommendation that she's going to present forward on behalf that was also also recommendation by the tea thank you the seven unions receive three options for calendars for the next school year um
055option one two and three should be in your packet I can feel free if you'd like to ask any questions regarding any of the specific options I can tell you that most of our unions with the exception of one that uh did not make a formal vot vote have opted for option two which would be students would start on Thursday August 28th 2025 there'd be two professional learning days prior to the start of school and an additional day for convocation the calendar reflects a two week December break and the last day of school would be June 18th so option two seems to be the option that was the most popular um among the three options so my recommendation would be for the school committee to adopt uh option two unless there's further discussion or unless
056there are questions that you want us to go back and explore question thank you I know there was a correction because on option two says here there's an early release before Thanksgiving but on the calendar it doesn't show that so which one is right so option two does not have an early release before Thanksgiving break so that so that so it would have that Wednesday before Thanksgiving is off okay so the Cal the calendar the calendar is correct yes thank you you're welcome I have a uh comment so uh I know we're talking about the unions and so forth what what part do our students plan this do they have any options of saying they don't want to come back August 28 and want don't want a two- we December break I mean Should students
057be part of this conversation it's never been the practice it's always been the administration develops the calendars the administration works with our teachers unions to solicit their feedback and then we bring the recom we bring the recommendations to the board I would move recommendation option number two second I'm sorry I was asking Mr Mell if you had a comment Mr Laura please your your motion yeah I'll make a motion to approve option number two I second all in favor I I opposed eyes have it option two has been adopted thank you next up we have the preschool handbook see enclosure so this is going to be a busy night for Mrs Hoy and she also brought uh some assistance we have our director of Technology Jennifer Ashley who's also here to discuss uh moving forward
058how we plan to address our robust and ever growing pre K program so as you know one of our incentives and goals is to increase the prek classrooms throughout our district and we've done a a really nice job doing that so with that some of our registration practices are a bit Antiquated because as we moved on and added more prek classrooms just an in-person registration just isn't working nor is it really Equitable um if you had an opportunity to go to our preschool registration night last year at M Elementary School we have all these families they show up that it's first come first serve six full day classrooms that they are trying to register for and it really is very chaotic and it's very anxiety-provoking for families because they have to have certain paperwork and
059and some families work they can't get there at a certain time so there are a lot of inequities so one of the things that we had discussed this year is moving on to to a prek lottery system which many of the districts in our surrounding area do do and it really um assists with that Equitable process so Jennifer Ashley is here today to talk a little bit about the lottery and how it would work from a technology standpoint and I can certainly fill in any of the blanks or any answer any questions that you may have thank you um first I just want to say it's so wonderful to have um such a a sought after full day prek program um I I think that speaks to the work that you're doing here in this
060District so thank you for everything that you do uh Mrs Hoy and Mr cabal and the rest of the administrative team and the teachers as well um so what what we've discussed and and you know we are certainly open to feedback and nothing here that I'm saying tonight is set in stone it can all be adjusted accordingly um that that actually is uh one of the main um positive points about the online platform that we're going to use to collect the applications and to run the lottery we can customize this to sue our needs not the other way around we're not trying to fit ourselves into some framework that doesn't work for Taunton Public Schools so what we've talked about instead of having a registration night where parents feel stress and anxiety about being early
061enough in line where their child will have a spot what we talked about having is an informational night where parents can come and learn about the curriculum programming and other opportunities for our prek kiddos um as well as our halfday program at Ley uh preschool um they can have all their questions answered about the online application process and the and guess what the best part is that we will not be accepting applications that night there's no benefit to being the first person in line it's we're just here to provide you with information on how to use the platform in all the languages that we feel need to be available for the families in this District um and they can feel like they have an understanding of the process before we begin the process um We
062additionally talked about having some opportunities during the application window where families can receive tech support because this is an online system we want to ensure that parents who may not be so techsavvy have Equitable access to complete the application and get it submitted by the deadline we also want to provide a healthy window of time for parents to gather the necessary documents they need to upload to the online platform and again that get that technical support so we haven't I don't believe we've identified the dates for the tech support night we have not we've identified a a tentative date uh pending approval tonight for our informational night for our families which would be March 27th and um we were thinking some sort sometime in the month of April to have two evening events that we
063would open up one of our schools with our community facilitators who speak different languages and have some interpreters there along with some technology for those families who just don't have access or are feel as though the process is a little cumbersome and we can walk them through it so then after the application window ends on April 30th everybody who's submitted an application for our full day prek programming um will be evaluated we will go there's a human component to this we will go through every application and make sure that all the necessary documents have been uploaded we will reach out to families who you know maybe are missing one document two documents help them and support them in getting all of the things that we need to mark their child as eligible for the lottery
064and then um after a few weeks on May 16th we would hit play and run the lottery and the lottery would run based on the rules that we have programmed into the online system which is called School mint um we can tailor this to suit the needs of this District so for example if we have um multiples in a family if we have twins or triplets and they're entering prek age the system knows that when there are students with the same birth date at the same address they are likely multiples so if one child is selected for a spot in our full day prek program at Chamberlain for example all of the multiples in that family will also be offered a spot um we're trying to in put in rules and automations um that make
065it Equitable for all of our families um in addition um to giving consideration for families who may already have children in the element Elementary School that they prefer um their prek child to go to so again all of that can be tailored to meet the needs of the district and the families of Taunton um we also have the ability to have parents choosing multiple elementary schools uh where they are interested in sending their child for prek and then on the next screen parents have the opportunity to rank those schools First Choice second choice third choice we do try try to limit it to three choices because um things things can get a little bit complicated I think if if you give them more than three um but again there's always a human component to this
066so we could work with someone if it didn't turn out uh in the way that the parent originally thought with the first three options and there was a spot open somewhere else we will still have that human component and be able to offer families um a spot for their child if it's available um and then what would happen after the lottery was run there's still an opportunity for us to have that human component and manipulate anything that we need to um and then essentially we will hit send and the parents will receive a notification one way or another they'll either have an invitation for their child to enroll in the program that they have to either accept or decline within 10 days if they do not do anything at the end of the 10th day
067it automatically declines on their behalf and the system moves on to the next student who's on the wait list and this process continues for a few rounds until our seats are filled up with and our families are happy and our children are happy and our staff is Happy um and then what we the great thing about this system as well is that it can remain open all summer even after we're done with the lottery process because if there are any remaining seats families can submit an application throughout the course of the summer when our elementary buildings are largely closed um and we will still receive and process their application and if there's a spot in the school um they won't even have to wait for another Lottery to run they will simply get an invitation
068to accept if they apply for a school that is already booked uh they would get a notification that they were on the wait list and parents can drop out of the wait list at any time they have complete control over this so I think that is a is my summary and I'm happy to answer any questions you have anybody from the committee want questions comments I have something so when I've already hear lottery I get a little nervous uh I never win at the lottery that's number one number two I always assimilate Lottery with Charter Schools and vocational schools and all that stuff so I get very very nervous what do we how many students do we bring in every year that is creating all this chaos how many students so right now we have
069six full day prek because this would just be for the full day so is this 6times 25 30 20 20 so that's 120 okay and um historically we have many more families that would like space than what we can provide for them so that's one of the reasons why we are we have the large initiative of increasing our prek programming so do you estimate that 180 apply and 60 I'm just so it varies year to year but we typically do hold a wait list so what what do we do with those excluded students the ones that don't get in what happens to them they're on a wait list until maybe a student deci a family decides they no longer want the prease lot but we can only take 20 through for regulation purposes in each
070of our pre-lay classes so they really just sit on a wait list and if an opening becomes available then it would be the school's responsibility to call that first person on the wait list to say we have an opening are you still interested so right now there's an announcement made March 27th is sign up day be there it wouldn't be sign up day it's just an informational night I'm just throwing something out there in the old way they they come out it says open from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm and people show up at 2 in the afternoon line up is that how it happen they don't show up at 2 but they do show up early so typically it is 6:00 to 7:30 or 6:00 to 8 we try to cater it for an
071evening event you definitely have people showing up around 5:30 um it is it's it's quite a scene because families prek is very important for families right especially working families and um I think we take a lot of pride in our programming and because our prek classrooms get our students ready for kindergarten it's an asset for for them to come to us for prek so those lines do start the line is very long wrapped around M um and unfortunately sometimes we are telling parents that we don't have the space this would really allow allow families to register in the comfort of their own home it would allow them to come in to get extra support it would mean that the family that showed up at 7:30 that night um who couldn't get there any earlier will
072have the same opportunity to have their child go to preate in our uh school system as the parent that waited at 4:00 in the afternoon before we started so it it there is an equitable component to it but excuse me but just so if when the window of registration online opens up what's different because someone can you know like you want to get concert tickets right and you go on all of a sudden the whole system breaks down because everybody's trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets so if it opens up at 5 o'clock on a certain day uh the computer savvy people are going to be the first ones getting in so it doesn't matter so that it would let's say it's the whole month of April which is our goal so it's the whole
073month of April whether you register on April 1st or or whether you register on April 30th your chance of getting a prease lot is the exact same it does not make a difference okay that's where the lottery comes in once the window closes push the button yes thank you for the explanation yes Mr Vieira thank you Mr chairman I just want to uh commend the superintendent uh this body and the leadership team on the expansion of the prek program having more people that want to use it than availability I would say is probably a positive thing it means that you you're doing a great job and it sounds like a good problem hopefully we can find a way to create more space and overcome it and more Equitable opportunities like you're doing thank you you're
074welcome else Mr Laur this Pre-K now is it five- Day program full day fulltime five day full day and it's always the so words one drops out there's another open spot a slot but if yes but um so it's 20 marks historically do they end up dropping out at any time of the year it really just depends on the family circumstances there are a variety of reasons why families may not continue with us for the remainder of the year I would say the majority of our families if they're registering will remain for the entire year um so those opportunities of families not attending um are not very frequent so which means if you do have a lot of students on the wait list Unfortunately they may sit on the weit list uh but there are
075a variety of Reason sometime sometimes it is financial sometimes it's because they've um you know their work their work life has changed as as a family and they needed something different so there's a variety of reasons why and if somebody's on the waiting list the following year doesn't make it they still have to start all over again so most of our pre students most of them are four year year old students that would go to our kindergarten program the following school year or if they have another child let's say and they want the same age that wants to go to preschool it's like the St all new again yes thank you you're welcome Mr palowski Question your microphone please is this something we would refer the rules subcommittee to vote on or would we vote
076on it in the you could vote on it tonight or you could refer it to the rulee if you refer to the rules sub committee put those it put those up against the clock because of the timelines for March 27th and then having in the month of April be the um be the registration month okay so if you want to make this a policy then I would say refer it to the rules if you want to make it part of our practice adopt the recommendations tonight and just for clarity making part of making it part of our practice still allows it to happen right okay I would make a motion to make it part of our practice and enact it second okay all in favor I I opposed chair votes opposed because I never went
077at the lottery so uh motion carries thank you so much for thank you your explanation thank you next up we have uh Visual Arts curriculum revision uh Mr superintendent yeah just a quick update for Mr Bara he he can best explain this memo quickly summarize it for the committee okay for everyone's uh edification here and on viewing from home Friday is the last of all district professional development day which means there'll be no school for children it is an all day professional day for the staff this memo deals with our curriculum revision cycle for the visual arts department uh as our culated in the memo our educators of the Arts Visual Arts fantastic group of people they've always had a struggle finding um scope and sequence well-defined curriculum um in which to implement so we've
078done they've done a great job over the years of creating District design materials and with the struggle of that comes also with the lack of professional development opportunities so we've always tried to reach out to other districts and saying you know can we pair up arts department to see what they're doing other districts struggle as well so when we introduced the idea that their cycle of revision was up on their own they went out and looked at materials interviewed collaborated with this art of Education University regarding their curriculum but also the professional developments that they offer so they've actually some of our Arts Educators Visual Arts teachers took part in some of the professional development opportunities which are online so they had the personal connection already with that they conducted amongst themselves a zoom meeting
079probably late August with the company they liked it they brought to my attention I participated in the zoom I lik what they offered I also made sure that the curriculum that they propose for the district use is aligned with the massachus state Frameworks most importantly the online professional development component is called cost effective for the individuals and for the district and our work this Friday is we have an opportunity to zoom with the company with all of our Educators taking place at 12:30 on Friday along with our Community Partners we offer them an opportunity to come in with the uh taunt Art Association here on William Street which hosted our students art display last week uh we invited them to also listen because we want to invest Our Community Partners and we'd also offer up
080that invitation to our curriculum revision cycle by Miss Santos Mrs Fagan and Mrs shabs that if you're available on 12:30 on Friday in the art department and I have a little flyer here if you're interested uh to want to listen to what's going to take place we're going to listen to the vendor we're going to map out what our pilot structure will be what levels we're piloting certain lessons the feedback cycle that not only we're going to do this internally but also with the company itself uh and see where we end up by the end end of May wishes of the committee questions concerns um I guess I sorry I have one so as far as the invitation but then would we have a separate curriculum subcommittee meeting to discuss if those changes yes and
081the the purpose of this is to provide you with the information firsthand what the teachers went through to draw this attention bring it to my attention two to listen to the presentation by the vendor and then the three because this is going to be a half hour meeting the remainder day will talk about okay so what does that look like for Taunton and top public schools and what does the pilot look like and from that then as your purview as the chairperson of that committee to come back and say what are our next steps okay thank you Mrs shs you're talking about piloting this correct it's going to be a pilot okay thank you good uh action on this motion to receive and place on file second all in favor I opposed eyes have it
082thank you uh next up we have the Staffing reports the enclosure superintendent so you just have the regular Staffing report uh the appropriate action would be to receive and place on file so moved second all in favor I opposed eyes have it next up we have taart and public schools Staffing update superintendent please o sorry very excited again we're at 98% staffed when it comes to to tea uh Educators in our classrooms and we have on the second page where you see the positions that are still V vacant we do have a lead on the special educator grade three at p and we actually have a lead on the TT High School junior a2c so we may be able to reduce that by two so uh excellent I just want to say the HR department
083their goal is to be 100% staff by the end of the year great same procedure second all in favor I opposed eyes have it uh next up we have field trip requests first item a THS Key Club see enclosure so Key Club District education conference heading down to April 4th to the 6th where they going Portland Maine interesting huh Portland Maine uh let's see 15 students two chaperon fundraising Source Wishes the committee motional approv is presented second all in favor I I opposed eyes oppos eyes have it next up we have the Martin Middle School New York City trips see enclosure was that what Mr Beltran brought up earlier was that the one no no this is a different one so this is uh a trip to the Metropolitan M Museum of Art and the
084American M Museum of Natural History taking place uh let's see May 10th it's a one-day trip uh my question is how are they going to get both museums in on the same day that's a lot of they leaving at 545 yeah that's a that's a busy day with two very very nice beautiful museums anyway I'm sure they're up for the challenge so wishes of the committee move approval all in favor I I opposed eyes haveit thank you next up we have the taunted abroad update see enclosure just get that here so this is uh being led by Allison Golder and Christopher gring co-advisors this is a 2026 trip to London and France it yes so the first one is uh 2026 taking place from uh February 13 to February 22 and as always uh I
085always hope we could get some updates at the 90day window interval So based on February 26 uh a six-month review in a 90day review if that's possible if we want to accept this so so a motion or approve with the stipulation that there' be a 60-day review and then a 90-day review Mrs sh I'll second just on discussion so on the second page I'm assuming these dates are incorrect now because on the cover sheet it says they're moving the trip from February 26 to June of 26 but on the second page it has the February dates so that should be updated yeah I I think due to that I think we should because there's signatures on this I think we need to start over on this one I think we just need to push it
086back to them and have them bring it back to us that was actually the intent but we wanted to include the original packet okay with that revision so it'll be coming back with you with revised dates and such making sure we hit the 90 and 60 day uh report outs excellent okay so we're not taking any action on this tonight correct okay no action taken we'll expect another field trip request come before us for June 21 to June 29th of 2026 next up we have the grease trip Tri 90day approval and I did take a look at this one hold on we got a lot of stuff here folks let's see so we now have a uh Day by day itinerary that's in closing the packet and everything looks to be in order that's June
08720th through June 28th 2025 am I correct that's still the same okay uh wishes of the committee on the 90day review receive and place on file absolutely all in favor I I I opposed eyes have it now we're coming into uh subcommittee reports first off we have Unit A teachers bargaining subcommittee uh M uh 210 2025 and 225 2025 uh Mrs Fagan I believe you were only present for 210 2025 yes and on on that day we met I believe uh all that was that that day was just to do the I'm sorry rules and EST the rules establish Mees excuse me and establish meeting GES and establish oh that's right we established the we did the subcommittee um rules we set those all up and that was relatively agreeable and then we had the
088um set up the dates that we we put for forward a few dates that we thought we could meet and that was where we left it then and then the next meeting I believe next meeting uh yeah that was uh negoti are ongoing um basically that's uh we have future dates on the calendar that's that's basically it y all right so those are the two subcommittee reports Wishes the committee motion to receive and place on file second all in favor I opposed eyes have next up we have the long range planning and school property subcommittee uh February 28 2025 Mr Vier thank you Mr chairman the taon public schools uh longrange plan and public property subcommittee on Friday February 28th 2025 at 9:00 a.m. the location was 66 Summer Street in Taunton in attendant was
089myself Dr Dello Mr enus from the school department was superintendent John cabal assistant superintendent Brenda moan and director of facilities Mach frus also in attendance was Timothy avalino uh neighbor who resides on Prospect Street in time first and only item of business was future use and utilization of 66 Summer Street property it was a followup from our meeting held on January 31st 2025 superintendent discussed the process of soding the content inside the building with Mr frus the content was distributed to Taunton Public Schools principles uh where it could be reused uh the superintendent recommended to the committee leftover content no longer serves any purpose Taunton Public Schools be declared Surplus and be sold at a yach sell on the property at a later date a motion was made by DR Dello seconded by Mr enus
090to cleare the content Surplus in fatan public schools to host a yard sale onsite out of later date the motion passed 3 nothing motion was also made by DR deelo and seconded by Mr Reus to have the swing set and playground removed at the 66 Summer Street property that also passed three nothing as the committee continued to tour the building the superintendent told the committee the only immediate updates that would be needed a cosmetic he told the committee that he was going to work with dalah hatang career and Technologies education director conjunction with tarton high school construction class labor program students to offer an educational experience through the upgradeing process Dr Dello requested at that time that we open the meeting up for public input motion was made by DR mow seconded by Mr enus
091and we had public input concern name of Tim avalino uh stated told the committee that the lights on the building are shining into the adjacent properties and asked if we could kindly redirect the light or cover the lights that way it would not affect their um enjoyment and use of their property uh motion was made by Mr Ena seconded by Dr Dello to redirect cover the outside lights so it did not affect the neighbors the motion passed three nothing after public input superintendent recommended future use of the 66 Summer Street property be utilized as a professional development Learning Center the center will offer opportunities for professional development and training new curriculum and teaching strategies presentation space for out side speakers meeting space for collective bargaining and others and it will also free up space being
092utilized in our school for said things uh it can also be used for the better good of the public and it will continue to give Taunton Public Schools a presence in downtown Taunton a motion was made by DR Dello seconded by Mr enus to authorize a superintended turn 66 Summer Street property into a professional development Learning Center the motion passed Dr dallo also made a motion that was seconded by Mr Vieira to name the professional development Learning Center the Carol and Dy professional development center and that motion passed as well the meeting adjourned at 9:20 a.m. that concludes my report thank you Mr Vieira uh just uh I just want to add something on the playground set the swing set in the playground uh the motion was to remove it because it was a danger
093to the neighborhood the students that uh would sometimes go on the swing set is definitely a danger so that has since been removed and the playground I forget what they call like a castle or whatever has also been removed so that's why it was brought up that way uh what are the wishes of the committee on the long range planning and school properties uh report from Mr Viera move approval of the report with the recommendations as presented by the subcommittee chair is here a second second on discussion all in favor I I I opposed eyes have it next up we have the Elementary subcommittee uh 3525 Mr Laura the elementary subcommittee Matt this afternoon president with Mr palowski and myself as chairman along with superintendent cabal Mr bar with principal uh Tara gagman and her
094assistant I believe was Miss Craven I believe was her name but I'm not certain on that M Craven thank you uh the meeting was called to order at 4:45 p.m. principal gagnan was recognized to make a presentation on the school Improvement plan at the Herold gallagan Elementary School for 2426 highlighting four areas of focus with a concentration of goals to be achieved with continued Improvement among students and staff at the school first goal of focus was to continue to improve students right and math skills by 50 to 70% on the district assessment as well as on on amcast scores all educators are are utilizing the ace it with Fidelity in grades 2 to four in order for all students in particular s swd MLS and dually identified students to produce writing response to Greater level
095texts which demonstrates Mastery of the identified right W in standard professional development will be provided to teachers with opportunities to visit classrooms in order to observe writing skills across great levels the second goal addressed was that all Educators utilize the mindup curriculum and supplemental Resources with Fidelity in grades K to four action items will include in this goal to analyze data from sell sbrs and vocal to create groups for guidance Based on data analysis create flexible grouping using data and teacher input and provide guidance in classroom teachers with materials that support social emotional learning the third area of focus is The Chronic absenteeism will be reduced by by 15% at the end of this school Academic Year this will be accomplished by analyzing data from open Architects and school brains create Family Outreach programs to
096include families in the process create incentive programs to reward improve attendance and finally to meet with staff to review attendance issues at least quarterly the fourth area of focus and Improvement was to provide support and increase the achievements scores for all our multilingual population by utilizing staff and families to engage the whole child this will be accomplished by analyzing spring access data mcast and other resources create groups for support and reading and writing with multilingual teachers and Title One teachers send progress reports home to families in their home language and engage families in more after school activities by sending every correspondence in home languages including on parent Square principal gagan presented an improvement in a very positive fashion indicating that there are 282 students at the school as of today uh in a positive fashion
097great enthusiasm detailing her plan utilizing a multitude of resources to to ensure her goals and objectives are fully implemented and thus creating a learning environment will offer great results to our students the meeting concluded at 5:20 p.m. this concludes my report thank you Mr lur wish of the committee motion to accept the report and adopt the recommendations uh on discussion I I was also present as an observer and uh you know it's one of those uh neighborhood schools that still have that Charming character uh where uh kids walk and everybody knows the neighborhood and everybody looks off one another I believe it's 282 students and uh definitely one of those beautiful neighborhood schools that I simply adore listening to the principles and what they've accomplished all in favor all opposed eyes have it thank you
098we now have the finance in law uh today March 5th 2025 that's chaired by myself uh part of the subcommittee is Mrs shazz and Mr Vieira first item on the agenda was youf facilities assistant superintendent monan provide us with an update of different organizations that have requested and have been approved to use the facilities uh that's in your packet uh that motion was made to receive and place on file voted unan in favor next up we had a donation uh the donation was already um donated to the town public schools there was a typ typographical error on the numbering system there was an extra zero added at the end of the $1,300 which has now been corrected to reflect simply $1,300 once again uh that was um motion was received to place on file and
099accept it uh it was I'm sorry formally accepted already accept a correction as stated and that was from the Prince Henry Society thank you to them next up we had uh disposal disposal of surplus equipment request we had three items we took these individually and I'll expand upon that as we get to them the first one was the gallagan elementary school there were a multitude of different uh pieces of equipment such as desks and carpets and so forth and and bookcases Mrs shavs did make a comment if we could reuse them in different schools and the response was they're not they're not safe enough or I shouldn't say safe but they weren't up to Specs with our schools the way they should be so a motion was made and seconded to uh Surplus the items
100listed in your packet from gallagan elementary school then up next we had the extended daycare uh extended daycare also known as 66 Summer Street and what happened there was uh we reported out in the subcommittee report from Mr Vieira that we're going to have an actual yard sale at a date certain so people can come by and take a look at the items and purchase them uh prices are very very inexpensive and uh that will take place at a date in the near future once again that was uh received and placed on file voed anly and the last item was to Hamilton Street uh and what happened there is there's some memorabilia that Mrs shops pointed out that she thought it would be best uh and also Mr Vieira backed that to either uh reach
101out to the Alumni Association which I believe the superintendent already had some contact with or even the old colony Historical Society but the direct route should be the Alumni Association of the co and Cassidy school and uh that's what we're doing on Surplus in that we're going to engage them and uh give it to them and they can do what they'd like with that uh and that was also voided anly in favor to move in that direction next up we had coaching for change we had an update uh basically because they're on the warrant uh we as a committee have requested that the outside organizations give us an update of what they've been doing uh for the last few weeks so it could be basically our backing for justification for paying the warrant and I
102had no questions or issues uh there were no comments on this so that was received in place on file uh the next one was facilities update which was a facility due work order and uh nothing out of the ordinary except that moving forward instead of using uh facility due the city is transitioning to the master library and of course uh we will have limited access but some questions were brought up concerning um repairs to the buildings you know what is the responsibility of the city what's our responsibility making sure that they're addressed in a timely manner I also brought up ADA compliance issues and I was brought to my attention that we have a very uh good robust conversation with the people uh leading that charge like Donna deorio correct superintendent uh so uh very
103comfortable and uh moving forward that the master Library will serve our needs uh greatly and the reports will still be coming our way uh just like you see in your packet with the facility due reporting out of closed work orders versus open work orders once again that we received in place on F voter unanimously and last but not least we had a bills payable for fy2 in the amount of 1,21,000 s uh through the warrant some questions were asked uh nothing out of the ordinary except that I was asked to be recorded as voting present for allow me one second here for a voucher uh number 24521 in the amount of 9,882 payable to Pride Inc since I serve as co- Treasurer and also on the board of directors and the uh maker the motion
104did amend it was voted unanimously in favor to pay the bills payable in the amount of 1, 21,980 two and that concludes the report wishes of the committee motion to accept the report and adopt the recommendations of the finance and law subcommittee all in favor I I wonderful thank you next up we have new business taunt Public Schools FY 26 budget update superintendent uh thank you uh chairman and favorite subject matter thank you CH my favorite subject matter crypto these days but I'll I'll I'll dive into the governor's budget so uh the last budget update I provided you was on a state level so this pertains more to the local level so I'm really going to kind of focus on the first two paragraphs and then get into the item areas where we saw the
105most substantial increase with regards to our Chapter 70 funding so on Wednesday January 22nd 2025 govern Hy released her FY 26 house one budget the proposed budget increased is the T public schools chapter 78 so the chapter 78 increased by almost $10.5 million or 11% so for fiscal 26 we will the city of Taunton will be receiving in the form of Aid 105 mil 442,000 in the form of Aid and again that that's an increase from fiscal 25 which was just under 95 million and again that's a that's a that comes directly to the city of t the overall FY 26 Foundation Foundation budget has increased by 13 million almost 10% so between indirect costs and the appropriation the amount of funding spent on education must total 13,498 n75 for fiscal 26 that's that's up
106from 140 million this fiscal year so the city's required District contribution increased so while the aid increased by 10 ion and again the total increase was 13 million so a increased by 10 the city share increased by three you add those together that's $13 million so just to try to keep things simple I can honestly say that 4 million of that 13 million can be attributed to the 222 students we received in new newly enrolled in the to public schools so if you we didn't have that enrollment we're looking at about a $9 million chapter or Foundation budget in increase and of that $9 million 65 would be in the form of Aid and then 35 would be the city's requirements so the reason why we're receiving such a large allotment one factor is because
107of the 222 students who moved into our school system other areas where we saw substantial growth if you look at the column or the bulleted items that I provided you oh I skipped the paragraph so I apologize so again the city will receive in the form of Aid $105 million the foundation budget components increased for the prek the foundation budget pupil per pupil in Rose by so per for each student attending to public schools from fiscal 25 to fiscal 26 we're going to receive an additional $1,147 per student so when it comes to educating our kids it's going to cost the city of tten $1,151 the state is kicking in about 12,000 of that the city's share is 6,000 and you add the two together it's 18,000 000 so Elementary on the foundation line increased
108by $2.6 million that is quite substantial and again if you look at our enrollment reports that's where we're seeing the most growth at the high school we know we've seen a lot of growth at the high school that's increasing by 1.6 million the investment we made in the construction craft Labor uh to now we have nine Chapter 70 programs we're going to receive an additional 1.2 million and if you look at uh e El prek El 6-8 in El high school you'll notice that those are much higher than what we received in the past so it also goes to show that we are we are growing but we're also growing with the more diverse population and of the 10 of the 12 low income death siles tton is number 10 so we have about 60%
109almost 70% of our students six out of 10 kids qualify as low-income students so that provides an additional 5.7 million in the form of chapter 78 so again when we put our budget together it's going to look like we're we're we're increasing by 10 or 11% that's because our chapter 78 increased by 10 or 11% if that makes sense and as I shared during the elementary subcommittee meeting we are providing a level service budget which means we're going to continue to carry over all the Staffing we current have currently have in place and not reduce any positions and again we'll schedu we'll schedule our budget work up at a at a at a later date with with the committee so that concludes my report and again this is just information so the appropriate motion would
110be to receive and place on file so move second just a question if I could yes Mr lur on vocational uh increase of 1.2 million that will that allow our students to take more take more trading studies labor preparation for skills yes and no I know um when you see the vocational program growing by 1.2 million that goes into the general bucket of funding it doesn't go directly to the vocational Department to increase their budget so that goes into the general bucket uh that we use to sustain all our programs all our staffing and and pay to keep the district uh financially stable thank you thank you so the vote was called all in favor I opposed eyes have it thank you next up we have the school committee recognition night it is now scheduled
111for March 26 at 6m is that correct superintendent correct and that'll be held at ton High School so uh if the new folks on the committee uh you are able to uh recognize a citizen a student a teacher if you'd like to recommend anybody I believe the forms were sent to us already cor correct so it's probably in your emails so as a school committee you do have that privilege to nominate a outstanding Community citizen or student or faculty member and if you do nominate someone you are responsible for introducing that person exactly that means going to the microphone which I'm sure we're not shy uh and under new business would anything uh uh for the next meeting be needed to add here regarding our report out from the um naming of the uh 66
112Summer Street property in a formal motion or that's already been adopted tonight do we have to wave any rules I mean it sounds like we would need to do it one of two ways is that correct superintendent we would either need to probably wave our rules tonight or put it on for the next meeting and the chairman right is that the rule of my paraphrasing my my recommendation and and this is no disrespect to representative D who I was very very fond of we have a policy that is very well spelled out you do have the option to wave the rules but please be aware that uh if someone else would to come forward and ask for a facility or room to be named after them um we set precedent by not following our policy
113so my recommendation would be to follow our policy uh put this item naming Summer Street on behalf of Representative caror professional Learning Center as the motion was made on a future item uh for public input so we allow the public the opportunity to come in and speak about it and then on that night you after public input you can formally take action per our policy and with the March 19th meeting be appropriate as chair Dr Dello you get to decide how long of a window you want to allow for people to provide input well I think in the past we've done a 30-day window so probably April 2nd would be most appropriate sounds good so April 2nd at the April 2nd meeting that would be in line with our policy yep okay so so motion
114to we can't really take a motion but we're going to we can to put it on the agenda put this on the 19th we're going to put on the 19th of March on the agenda that the formality will be taken up on April 2nd okay okay is that correct Yes sounds good all right great so that's that so that's uh the end of new business uh unfinished business action item update first off we have two Hamilton Street facility update I believe this came about either from Finance in law long- range planers Mrs M I want to give a quick update on the work that's taking place place so far just to bring the committee up to date on the work that the building department in the city of tartan have conducted or completed or in
115the process of completing at two Hamilton Street thank you superintendent cabal there is a memo in your packet um and as superintendent cabal stated that it was asked what what projects have been um happening in the at two Hamilton Street by the city what's been completed ongoing and upcoming so I did reach out to City's superintendent of public buildings Chris carmichel and he did submit the following on February 16th so there are completed projects the first one is the building envelope the roof replacement Scupper installation and masonary repairs repointing have been completed mechanical completions the water heater has been up um upgraded and duct work the required upgrades to the duck work were completed in January of 2025 ongoing projects include uh site work which is the restriping of ADA spaces will be completed in
116warmer weather and is is scheduled for upcoming spring in addition crack repair and seal coating are being priced to determine if they fall within the budget mechanical uh sprinkler the contract has been awarded awarded and the design is complete and the work is scheduled to begin by the end of the month or beginning of this month um Plumbing fixture replacement the pricing has been determined but we are waiting to coordinate with the bathroom Ada upgrades before finalizing the scope of work the elevator contract has been awarded and work is being scheduled upcoming planned projects by the city the building envelope which is the next phase which includes additional repairs and upgrades is being currently designed and will go out to bid shortly inside the building the vat abatement the abatement in the cafeteria is scheduled
117to be completed within the next two weeks interior Ada upgrades are being designed and the project will go out to Big shortly electrical the design for branch circuits and generator replacement is in progress it is also recommended that we upgrade the buildings iCal service which is being priced at the at um a line item so those are currently what the uh city is doing for for projects and right now the following projects that Chon public schools has begun we are in the midst of an installation of a new alarm system um do director of facilities Mark frus met with alarm vendor help Inc to discuss and obtain a quote for installing alarms on all exterior doors and strategically placing motion detectors throughout the building so that was actually just sent out as a PO this
118past week and I'm waiting for installation dates and I will keep you up to date as well uh we are working with uh the city for requests for proposals for a new security system um so we are going to help ask the city to help us create an RFP so we can go out to bid for a new entire security system for for the building um for the network upgrade we are working with our director of Technology Jennifer Ashley um she is finalizing plans for install install installing cabling as part of the technology Network upgrade so the wires Behind the Walls and everything um and then kitchen facility upgrading we are in collaboration with Food Services director Glenn ma to develop specification specifications for upgrading the kitchen facility to align with the standards of our
119current schools kitchen and this project will go out to bid I'm actually work meeting with tomorrow with the architect so we can just do the uh the plans and look to see what they have already done and then go ahead and begin with the construction do ments to go out to bid thank you wish of the committee Mrs Fagan I have a question for the elev the building to reped they said at one point they might be able to fix it I believe right no the elevator is one thing the lift is the other so the lift is the one that's right at um right near the bathroom the audit in the uh gym so that is currently that is working and they are working now they're upgrading I think is the elevator because the
120elevator is a little bit smaller okay so does do you need a whole new elevator in there I'm not sure I don't want to misspeak so I would actually ask there we oh that's what it is it's the carriage you're right they applied for a waiver through they they were off a half inch they were granted the waiver so they just replacing the mechanisms they don't have to reconstruct the okay the ACT shaft I guess okay Mrs shvs yes thank you Dr Dello do they have I can't remember do they have a vable like a safety Festival like we have here is that something we're going to have to look at we're going to have to do something we're going to do something different for there because they have that smaller one but that doesn't
121really do much like so we're going to have to build out something similar to here that we have here at po okay and which is something we're doing throughout our entire School District okay uh of course so we haven't thank you you're welcome we haven't actually made a call the vote yet but um we can call the vote and uh I have a discussion topic so what are the wishes of the committee move that rep place on file okay on discussion so I'm concerned hearing from Mr Enis I just heard this tonight that we have a waiver on the elevator Mr enus is that correct it was granted okay for how long is that elevator Grant it was half inch on the the size and it's forever it's forever forever gotcha beautiful and all these
122upgrades uh kitchen facility upgrade for example technology uh these I'm sure this is hundreds of thousands of dollarss who's paying for this th those are typically items that we own as a school department exactly that's what I was afraid of okay wishes of the committee all in favor opposed eyes have it thank you next up we have um I lost my train of thought here CPAC item too uh summary of findings in response to CPAC C enclosure y That's Just that's just for informational purposes only once we receive the final report of the findings and the corrective actions I'll share with the committee move that the matter this this information be place on file all in favor I opposed I have it city of taart and hopo school ownership transfer again just information purposes just
123to make you aware that the city council did take action and transfer and the building was transferred to the city excellent same procedure all in favor I opposed eyes have it next up we have the Taun and public Virtual Academy student outcome update uh this was in response to a question that was raised during principal Rodriguez's presentation on the T tart and public viral Academy regarding where the students are who attended the program I believe it was last for the 23 24 school year so we provide you with a breakdown excellent Wishes the committee rece and place on file second all in favor I I oppos I have TT in area school to Career internship placements similar question was raised regarding tax asking where our students are being uh deployed for their internships and we
124provided you with a breakdown wish of the committee second on that on discussion so I'm seeing Subway McDonald's um THS um I'm gonna I'm going to wait for a later date to to expand upon the placement sites I just mentioned because I'm not happy uh I I don't know what we're doing with uh $112,000 a month to secure paid internships for our students um I mean THS 11 of them there out of 18 uh we could do that in-house I believe but anyway I'll say that for another dat wish of the committee all in favor all opposed eyes have it thank you next up we have the action item update superintendent please uh the only action that I would recommend is on the third item dated 9 2023 that item can be removed from the
125action item list as the city has received hopwell and property excellent wishes of the committee motion to remove on a roll call vote Mrs Fagan Mr yes so yes yes yes m s yes yes yes yes thank you so much uh next up we have press time any comments Press thank you and a motion to Jour be in order so move second all in favor I opposed eyes have it we are Jour have a good night everybody that was a long one