001Good evening Holliston and welcome to it's March 12th. Welcome to the Holliston School Committee meeting. Um I will call things to order and uh I think we'll get started with the consent agenda. Like I said this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. All in favor? That passes. We have no students in here tonight, so we will move on to Um move on to our School Committee individual comments. >> [snorts] >> Frank? Uh nothing for Nothing for me. Follow me. I'll just go with the crowd. Nothing for me. Uh what else? >> [laughter] >> Um I just wanted to say thank you to Anne King and uh the team of educators in the um SOAR and Lift classrooms. Um I was invited to be the mystery chef last week
002and we had a great afternoon with a wonderful bunch of students making pancakes. So that was a lot of fun and it was really a pleasure to be welcomed in to work with all of them. They were they were really fun to work with, so thank you. Um I also wanted to say a huge congratulations to the senior class for putting together a very entertaining senior showcase last night. It was really um a lot of fun. Um a lot of great performances. There was storytelling, a challenging game of Jeopardy. Uh huge thank you to Mr. List um who was a hugely wonderful sport in the game of Jeopardy which did include a run-in with a pie in his face. Um There was singing and great musicians, really great dancers. Um Also special thank you to
003the patience and grace that the performers displayed as they worked through some technical difficulties. Um so any It was just a really fun night and um want to say congratulations and a great way to celebrate the class of 2026. That's all I have. Um Do we have anyone here for public comment? No. Okay. And I don't think there's anyone on the Zoom. So I think we can move right on to um Is Dan here? >> [laughter] >> Dan? Dan McCloud. Dan in the corner. He was just here. No, they're back there. I'm house. Do you want to go or Got it. So we have a presentation Yes. uh on Terry, that's okay, technology and uh um AI steering committee. Yes. I have our awesome student Jackson Couton joining for the presentation. He was part of
004[clears throat] our steering committee, so I'll let him um he has a piece in this presentation, so he'll be sharing shortly. So yeah, thanks for having me. Uh let me get started here. Uh can someone give me sharing? Please. Cool. I think we're ready to go. You should be all set. Got something. Okay. So uh tonight's uh technology presentation, happy to be here again in front of you. Um it's going to be strictly focused on AI. A lot of times I talk about cybersecurity and infrastructure, but this one we have a lot to talk about, right Jackson? So >> Uh yes. Uh we're going to dive right in. So as you know, I think in the fall when I spoke, we were planning to launch the AI steering committee. Dr. Minardi was part of the
005steering committee. Uh we had four 90-minute meetings and our initial work is complete, so that's what the topic of this presentation is. Mostly what the committee came up with, next steps, recommendations, things like that. So Uh the goal here was um We're very happy. We um a big part of the presentation is also we were able to launch a professional development survey related strictly to AI. And we had an incredible number of responses, so I'll be sharing that as well. All right, let's head in here. All right, so last August DESE released guidance for districts, so we wanted to be sure the committee aligned its work with the DESE guidance. So all of the work you'll see from the committee had the DESE guidance in mind. Uh we want to make sure the professional development
006we deliver um actually has impact. So um you're going to hear some recommendations for PD from the committee. And finally um we had 23 members in the committee, a lot of parents, students, four sixth graders like Jackson, incredible. And then we had two juniors. So we had a sixth grade for whatever reason is very interested in AI, so Um anyway, it was a great group of stakeholders. Um It was a a group of 23. Uh Dan Halford, you mentioned that's a big group to corral and it was. So we didn't have 23 every single time. So good prediction there. But we had a steady number of 13 on average show up for each of the four meetings. All right, and naturally this presentation has a little um AI infusion to it, so you're going to
007see some phrases that were uh you know, AI enhanced by AI, so um I put the uh sort of the committee's recommendations into AI and AI came out with this phrase and I looked at it and I said, "Hmm, blockade? That's a little That's a little aggressive." Um but really that's that's what we're doing in Holliston. We are blocking AI from students. I mean, I'm just going to be real about it except for the high school uh where they use Notebook LM. Other than that, there's really no We never had a good plan and that's where the committee comes into this uh for you know maybe eventually turning on AI for students. There's a lot of reasons not to turn on AI for students yet. As you'll see shortly, 60% of students at the high
008school level are using AI anyway. So it's it's a little bit of a struggle for us. So Blockade to Blueprint is is we're coming from that blockade era into hopefully blueprint for success. It's been 2 years since uh ChatGPT or actually our work started in Holliston, so you're going to see that shortly. So here's our timeline. I'm not going to read all of this, but just some general milestones. Our first steering committee was actually in November 2023. And so the second steering committee which Jackson was part of uh was November 2025. So a full 2 years later we had to reconvene the steering committee. A different one. This one, the good news is uh the the committee convened in um November 2025, but prior to that September 2025, we actually launched our first formal AI
009PD session at Miller Elementary. And we saw some impacts from that session as far as staff and their use of AI. And then January 2026, so these things were already happening in Holliston before the committee. Um [snorts] thanks to Johnny, our curriculum folks, tech integration. So we launched another session at Robert Adams Middle. So those were two highlights I wanted to point out. The September 25, January 26 were formal PD sessions devoted to AI. The other two schools, again uh Placentino's We we want teachers to become more efficient with AI. A lot of them in the survey reported that their efficiency, saving hours per week, is definitely a reason to use AI. Teachers, we're talking about not students, so um we're working on developing plans for the other two buildings. And then finally March 2026,
010this came out of the committee which you'll hear about shortly. Uh we need to give a survey for for staff to find out where they are with AI. All right, so that brings us to the steering committee. And so I'll Jackson speak about this shortly, but basically it was 23 members. Three subcommittees, curriculum student literacy, staff literacy and PD. And then guidance and AI concerns. The environmental impact of AI is a huge concern in Holliston. And there's some places that sort of addressed it. Like University of Maine put out a tool where um they compared an hour of Netflix to typing in a chatbot. And the hour of Netflix uses way more energy than typing in a chatbot. But that's just there's a lot of push and pull with the environmental impacts. So um But
011I actually posed that to a junior here at the high school. I said, "Do you watch Netflix?" I go Cuz he was he was adamant, you know, not using AI cuz of the environmental impact. And I just showed him that it's Netflix is way more. So Anyway, those were the stakeholders, 23 folks. We did build a website. And it has all the members linked up linked up here. But I want to swing right into the role of uh our Jackson who's joining me tonight. So just a little bit about Jackson. Um He was like a rock in the committee. He was there for all four meetings. He was there early. Stayed late even with his other commitments. Uh thanks to his mom and dad who brought him to the meetings. Uh Just very committed. So
012super impressed with that. He also had noticed I I wasn't part of the subcommittees. I was sort of facilitating and he was actually sort of the leader of this guidance and AI concerns committee. He had his Chromebook out. Was typing on the slide deck taking notes. Um so I wanted him to have a moment couple minutes to share um sort of his experiences on the committee. And uh talk about why you joined the committee first of all. So first introduce yourself, sir. Um I'm Jackson Catone. I'm in sixth grade and I'm only 11 and I've had a lot of experience with AI before. So and I know how can impact the environment and you. Yes. So um Can you talk a little bit about what your group the sorts of discussions they had, the guidance
013and AI concerns? So we were most we were mostly focused on um the concerns. We were worried about first of all the the environmental impacts. Um the student grade impact. And how they would respond to other things in life. Like their creativity. Um for the guidance we we didn't want um students cheating on tests or assignments using it AI. Um though it could help teachers a lot. And it would help students to make stuff such as flashcards to study for the test. So we focused on that stuff a lot. Okay. That's great. So yes, most of it was as we're at this point where it's really helping teachers and even we had administrator meeting yesterday helping teachers and administrators become more efficient. But [clears throat] the survey really shocked us because um we haven't done
014a ton of PD as you as you've seen but teachers have sort of latched on to AI as this is a tool that's going to save me hours per week. So um They don't necessarily need the some of them don't need the formal PD. They and you've seen the chatbots, right? They're they're pretty straightforward as far as what they can do. So you're going to stay with me, right? So I can survive this. >> [laughter] >> Um so feel free to jump in, Jackson. You're going to see some graphs. He he'll be one of the first committee members to see the results. So enjoy. So these were the three groups. Um And they they just naturally came out from the sub from the actual committee of 23 we just divided to >> [snorts] >> decided
015to divide into three groups just to uh make the groups more efficient and targeted. This was a really cool recommendation that came out of uh the curriculum student literacy group. And we have not implemented this at least district wide, but it's a system where and some districts use this where students are given again if if it's an an assignment where they're allowed to use or assignments are given a label, red, yellow, red. Red, yellow, green, excuse me. Um red means you're you're not allowed to use AI. And yellow is certain parts of that like brainstorming. And then green full AI encouraged. Again, we're not here yet Holliston, but this is a potential tool we could roll out once a school is ready to adopt for students. All right, here's uh some of the survey results
016and I will um have a the next slide will talk about the numbers. I know that's hard to see. But basically um the teachers uh the top bar there I probably should go right to the next slide, but let me talk a little bit about the numbers. Uh we had 167 staff respondents out of 207 staff and that was an 81% clip. So thrilled about those results. Survey window was February-March 2026. And uh the key things we looked at were the grade levels that folks were teaching, AI tools in use, and then adoption patterns. All right, here's here are some of the numbers that came out of that survey. So 31% of the of the teachers that responded um top need was practical tools. They want a you know, 5 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever
017it takes. Show me this new tool. And then let me explore with that tool. And that's where the 22% comes in, time for implementation. Um Dedicated PD days, that's going to be tricky to you know, give a full day of AI PD and and actually that's probably not the best practice. But little um chunks of AI seem to be the most effective as far as what teachers want. Uh 21% of teachers no AI use whatsoever. That was interesting as well. Um so about 80% appear to be using and then there's 20 for whatever reasons are not using it. There's definitely plagiarism concerns, AI detection tools. And then setting expectations for responsible student use. All right, this one surprised me personally. Uh chat GPT is clearly uh the leader in the clubhouse. Um 80% of the
018teachers that responded are using chat GPT. And then Gemini as we've talked about is sort of Holliston's AI tool that we're embracing because of privacy. But um you know, if teachers don't put PII in any of these tools you know, it's it's not going to be I don't know. We're we're not we don't know. We don't know what what they're doing with these tools. Um but Gemini has claimed it's our own environment. So we're going to keep encouraging staff to use Gemini to keep all of the content within our environment. So again, the survey just came back. The high school just finished Tuesday, I think. So the results are very fresh and we haven't have not acted on these yet. >> [clears throat] >> All right, these were two things that came out of um
019I don't think this was your group, right? This was a um AI concern group. These two frameworks, the CPU rule is uh basically we want to help students understand AI cannot do the thinking for you. Uh you need your brain to solve not just current problems, but the future problems. So that's going to be part of um this framework we're going to show students once we do introduce it. And then the other piece is I'm sure you've heard in the news the deep fakes and and how students are using this um in poor ways to um you know, social media, deep fakes, all of that. So we want to help students with all of that and not putting your full name, address, birthday, anything online. As a matter of fact, one student um on the
020committee I believe they were they were talking about how they were using chat in middle school. And I I like, "Yeah." It just didn't you know, we we have to show students I I wouldn't show them chat, I would show them Gemini, but how to use it properly. So, that's where even showing middle school students. I want to share one teacher success story. Um Jenny White is a uh first-year teacher at Miller and she's absolutely she was a leader on the um steering committee, uh one of the subgroups. I believe that was yours, right? Yep. Um So, the guidance concerns committee, but she is innovating with AI um every day. So, I just threw in a a quote here. Um Yesterday she used it to look look at her rubrics. It helped me visualize areas
021of growth and pinpoint areas for targeted instruction. And such a great tool. So, that's again example of teachers using AI and actually her she has a whole workflow for exporting de-identified student um work and then importing it into AI and then having the AI help you know, determine targeted areas for growth. Saves hours. And she she and Ali Curley are presenting this model at uh Medfield has a digital learning day which is for Massachusetts districts. And so, they were their proposal was accepted. So, her Jenny and Ali are presenting um that as an exemplar. So, where do we go next? Um scaling PD one thing that came out of the committee was the ethics and classroom integration module. So, whatever we do with PD there has to be some ethics training surrounding it. We need
022to finalize our AI toolbox. As you saw, chat was uh hugely popular. It's even popular with some administrators. So, that's going to be definitely a targeted area. How do we handle the popularity of ChatGPT? And then a tool like So, Gamma was the AI tool we used to help with this presentation. So, adopt these other tools that we think will save folks time and put them in our toolbox. Guidance roll out. The committee came up with guidance which I'll I'll show you some examples here shortly of how they want to revise our current guidance. And then the measurement is going to be how we track um staff use. Again, continuing these surveys. And then what I'm a big believer in having dialogue with with teachers, you know, how are they using these tools in the
023classroom like example I gave of Jenny White. All right. So, at a district leadership, we met yesterday. One thing that we need to do, again, the the survey is hot off the press is review this survey data allocate PD as needed and the district needs to revise the guidance. As you know uh four of our nine senior leadership positions are going to be turning over in the 26-27. So, it's we're in a tricky spot with, you know you know, doing anything drastic right now with that much um changing. So, but but the data is now here that we can make decisions. Uh the district leadership also we're going to form a community of practice. We I'm going to launch we launched this yesterday and that's where what administrators have told us is they they missed
024the PD sessions, for example, that Miller and Rams were delivering on AI. So, the administrators are not getting the AI PD that they need. So, we're going to form a community of practice. It's going to be an hour a month where administrators can join optionally and we're going to share best practices, learn new AI tools like Gamma and then spend 30 minutes exploring that tool. All right. School committee. Where where can we use your help? Um basically the committee's recommendations you know, we we need your endorsement. Ask questions, whatever you need to do. We're going to take it back to the committee. Um we're going to probably update the AI guidance. Again, we're waiting for sort of the change in senior leadership. And that will help signal your commitment to our work. And then ultimately
025the goal is um everybody, staff and students. Um we have to be safe about AI. It's it's not perfect. It needs human interaction. Um and then academic integrity is is the hump that we can't overcome right now. That's why it's a very limited use for students even though we know students are using it outside of our uh school district. Questions? I thought it was very comprehensive. Thank you. Had a lot of help. >> [laughter] >> Can I ask Jackson a question? Sure. Jackson, can you tell me cuz I am not an AI user and I probably think I could learn best from people your age since it's more natural for you. How did you get started on this and what do you use it the most for? School work, homework, just things on your own?
026Um I first of all, I use AI mostly just for facts or stuff I'm wondering about at home. Um Or I use it when I'm practicing say math to check my answers. I don't think I've really ever used it for any school assignments, projects, or tests before. So, I've only used it for educational purposes. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. He's doing it the right way. I have a question. Probably for Jackson, too. How do we encourage I I'm a big believer in AI and in using it the right way. Any tool could be misused. Um and then the computer is probably start of that, right? Like how we started using computers and we all found our ways to use it in different ways. How do we encourage students like you to others to use it
027positively? That's going to be tough. I know I know that some students have found a way around Dell DeO, which is the blocking site that they use. But I sit I think if it set like a guidelines that's posted throughout the school and and that's maybe even on the website. >> [sighs] >> And just for like how students misbehave I wouldn't exactly call it a punishment, but maybe like maybe uh someone should like remind them. General warning. Yeah. Got it. Yeah, I think blocking it will cause [clears throat] more nefarious ways than allowing positive access. And then enforcement governance is super important with it. Awesome work, Jackson, by the way. Thank you. So, again, all the committees uh we actually launched the website tonight. So, uh we'll be I'll probably put it at the bottom
028of my email and things. So, check it out. It's going to be on the main technology page. Um you can see the work of the committee all the recommendations, all the members and then again, we'll wait for um sort of our leadership to to check check it out and see what we do next. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you, Jackson. Okay. Um so, we can move on to the um updated superintendent budget. All right. So, we have an updated presentation for the FY27 proposed budget. So, I was going to put the slides up. You'll see some of our previous Excuse me, previous slides that we've shared and then you'll see that we have updated some information to hopefully um be able to get to the point of voting for a budget that
029would go to town meeting. All right. So, the updates tonight will show this is the original. You'll see here in January 8th, this was what presented after we presented uh mostly Dr. Jordan presented the three different parts to the um budget, the salaries, other fixed costs, and student services. At January 8th. At that point, we were at a 4.98% and you can see the number at the bottom. That would get us to the 4.98%, which is above what we can manage for this fiscal year. However, we really worked hard, Dr. Jordan in particular, and he's happy to answer questions about it, but we had an unusual year where we had some retirements. We knew some of the retirements were going to be coming this end of the year, but at the same time we had
030a number of retirements mid-year that we weren't foreseen in various departments and some resignations and other favorable payroll, so that actually was able to get him to a number of reducing that to -483,593. And again, so taking that into consideration, Dr. Jordan then updated this information on the chart that he presented with us on February 9th. And that brought our number down to 3.89%, so getting closer to where we would like to be. And obviously this is something that's a model that I shared in in multiple meetings in the town. So, I left that slide in. We know that we we were asked at budget sub and also the town manager, you know, money is tight in all towns and certainly ours is no stranger to that. We're hearing lots of challenges in many districts.
031We're not in dire straits like many districts, but at the same token we have needs for our students that we need to address. So, the 3.25% is a challenge to get to, but if we stayed at the 3.89, we're still, you know, 0.64 off and that's about 286,000, so we kept working to the number and as the closer we get to knowing real information about students, any tuition, unforeseen costs, and things like that as we get more out-of-district costs from districts, um from collaboratives and places, it helps us to get a better sense of what the real number is going to be as we move forward. However, at this point, the only way we can get to 3.25% does require reduction of 3.0 FTEs. And we every year we do this regardless of the budget,
032we look at enrollment shifts, and sometimes if it's an if we're not able to if we don't need a particular position anymore because of the enrollment, we've actually sometimes switched it to something that we had more of a need of, but in this case, this retirement at elementary would be a 1.0 come out of the budget to reduce that number. And then we did this is all discussed with our leadership team. For me, you know, it's really important that the people that are that are going to be here next year, as Mr. McCloud alluded to, have the voice in this They've always had the voice in the process. We never do this in isolation. We always meet as a leadership team, but this came from the the leadership team coming together, principals and central office,
033and really hearing their voices as what we could manage for next year. So, with that, two secondary positions will be eliminated based on Also, we've had a lot of enrollment, but we also didn't want to cut into the high school didn't want to cut into the classroom positions for obvious reasons with the new schedule. So, these particular positions would be positions that are not directly instructing kids in the same way as the classroom positions. However, you know, there's always some impact there and because this was not something that we expected, the two individuals that would be potentially impacted by this were already notified that this was likely the direction that would be happening. And that those three positions would get us to approximately that 286,000 number that would get us down to the 3.25%. So,
034that was the challenge that we were up against. >> [clears throat] >> So, you can see again, Dr. Jordan updated this for today's meeting and you can see where that changes the salaries and gets us to the 3.25% again. >> [snorts] >> That does not still take into account any of the priority needs and if you recall when we presented in January prior to any discussion with all of you at the back of this library, we met again multiple times we what what Dr. Jordan and the central team, Dr. Maynard, we meet with each department as we go through the budget process and we then met with each principal and we really talked about what they needed to come in with. We knew it was going to be a year that we were going to
035have a challenge to get to that 3.25%. We asked them to not put needs on there that they couldn't come up with a solution and you know, obviously if money weren't an object, there were definitely other needs, but they came up with their bare-bones needs and this is much less than we've probably seen in a long time that we put on this list because we were being very targeted with this and that was 158,000. Again, it's not a large number, but it's above that 3.25. So, what do we do about that? So, again, again from meetings with budget subcommittee and obviously knowing where we are with the with the fiscal challenges, we we all met as a team again. Multiple times we meet with our principals and central office and they meet with their building-based
036teams and we agreed as a team that the number one priority need if the if only one thing that could be filled is that 0.5 SSA out-of-district coordinator, which is about $60,000. Now, for years, those of you that have been here have heard every year this being presented. This predates me even and then Kelly Camp was here when I arrived. We really ultimately do need a 1.0 assistant director role and we were trying to hopefully get there, but knowing the challenges, at least to have a half-time position that's fully dedicated to these out-of-district positions because our our students that go out, as we know, can be very costly and right now we have our SSAs, five of them, at the different buildings. We have a half-time and four full-time as well as the student services
037director literally all doing pieces of this. It's pulling them out of the building, which will make them inefficient and could be costly at team meetings. When they go out to another meeting, they might be missing something important that should be happening at the building level and unforeseen costs come out of that. And then just having it piecemeal these it's been very challenging to try to get to these district meetings and being very strategic with the information we share there. And there have been some unforeseen costs that got away from us because of the fact that obviously if we can find a placement of 100,000 rather than 200,000, but having too many pedals in the pot pots in the pots in the burner, you're honestly costing us money this way and I this is something that
038all districts struggle with, but most districts have added these positions long before this. So, we're we're behind and we're trying to get some of these gaps met. And certainly Dr. Cataldo or Dr. Jordan could speak to that as well. Oh, let me just go back on that. That number for just that one 60,000 would get us to 3.39% for the request. What about the other needs? So, you can see those again, these are the bare-bones needs. We did not put any fluff in here. We put really the basics and we do always try to be mindful of trying to when there are enrollment shifts, if we can shift things over to things that we need for the current or the upcoming year tied to our strategic plan, we've always done that, but if we put
039all of those needs forward, we're at 3.61% for the budget that we would be requesting from the town at town meeting. And obviously that's, you know, above that number that we are it's it's hoped that we would get to at the town level, but I really do think that these needs are really important and our administrators were really not being they were not looking for anything that is not directly needed to support students. And if you can see those needs, we're talking about our diverse learning population, out-of-district that's directly servicing our most challenged students in many cases, and then the tutors for ESL, again, our students that are our students of color or multiple languages, and then again, literacy. We know how important that is and as we learned this past year, we were able
040to add 1.0 math tutor at the middle school. Our math is going up and it's really been phenomenal the amount of students that can be intervention get interventions between the full-time teacher and now the [snorts] full-time math tutor. We don't have that model for reading. That is really critical if we want to get some of those interventions in place. It's a gap for our students that are struggling. And then the campus supervisor, that's the role that would be very similar to what the high school has. We, you know, again, middle school kids need a little bit monitoring in different ways than our elementary kids and it's very time-consuming to try to manage all that in the hallways. We have cameras, you know, that we can prevent some things. The amount of time, and this is
041at all that three of the buildings, we're spending a ton of time in the lunch room for our administrators and that's taking away from all the other things they need to do, evaluations. Things do fall through the cracks when they don't have enough time to manage things. This is a long overdue position that's been requested in I'd say David many other ways, but some form of this. So, that although it's number three, it's also a very critical need at the middle school as well. Right now, our capital requests have not changed since the last time we met. If you look at our initial request was at 3,335,000, but we went back and took a few things off of our initial priority needs request with capital. We took 95,000 off, so we're currently at the 3,240,000.
042However, that does include the MSB fees even feasibility study, which has already been voted on right now to at least propose moving that forward a town meeting. So, at this point, you know, we're looking for the difference from that. Which is the 740,000, right? Yeah. Okay. If you can see the curriculum resources, you know, it's it's very hard to prioritize these, but the grant that Johnny got that she'd be happy to talk about Dr. Mina we have that wonderful grant 90,000, John. Uh no, it's over 200,000. >> Oh, right. Some of it was for >> 243,000. >> So, it's just some of it was for training. So, part of the expectation is that they're piloting these resources and then we have to purchase them. So, that's directly tied to the grant that 275,000, which is
043critical because we already got that money and I don't know if they would take it back. I mean, that would be what they they'd be expecting it back if we can't follow through and tell them what we spent on our own. Um and then another seriously critical need really is that maintenance truck just because of the age and, you know, our maintenance person is highly visible, very active. He's been an incredible hire and he's driving it around in probably something that's becoming unsafe. Would you say, Dr. Jordan, at this point? Um publicly, uh yeah. >> [laughter] >> Well, we got to be honest, right? So, that would be the request for capital. So, I you know, I I do want to acknowledge the work that goes into this. It doesn't seem like a lot, but
044we really I mean, I don't know how many meetings, Dr. Jordan, would you say we've had to get to this point? We we really take it seriously. We're not frivolous in any way. Um each year I feel like we've requested less and less priority-wise and we really have reduced any time we could strategically based on enrollment. We've aligned all of our PD, all of our budget process, we've aligned all of the work that we're doing to that five-year strategic plan and we tell you what arches it's going to be seeing in my presentation the arches of the year. So, it's direct directly tied to the work that we agreed to do for the five years and then next year will be the last year of that. And as you develop a new strategic plan with
045the new leadership team, you will then want to kind of keep moving forward with kind of prioritizing based on your five-year or three-year plan whatever you decide at that time. So, here we're here to answer any questions and actually Dr. Mr. McCloud is here if there's anything technology-wise that you had question about as well. I hope he's [snorts] still here. The positions that were cut at the high school level are you able to are they like SEL support positions? Are you able to give any more clarity on what type? I know they weren't classroom teachers, but they're still full-time educators. Or I at this time I'm Okay. I I think I'd rather not just for their sake at the moment cuz they're very identifiable. Okay. And I just want to give that respect to them
046if that's okay. But it's a little later in the process we'd be discussing them. But just so everyone is clear and Dr. said it, but I want to just reiterate so that no one is concerned that the the individuals have been there've been conversations with the individuals that that will be impacted. So, no one has talked to you that that it's not you. Right. If you have not had a conversation >> I don't mean to laugh. I just mean like >> why not at this point? We are obviously pending any other budgetary changes, right? There's always unforeseen things that can happen, you know, but right now this is where we're looking. The reason I ask is that, you know, for some reason do we get tons of extra money? I mean, you know, but so
047it's unlikely. Money doesn't grow on trees. It actually is trees, but >> [cough] >> And we're not hearing good news at the state level. We had our legislative breakfast. Was it just last week, Johnny? >> Mhm. Dr. Jordan went, Sarah went, Dr. Mina and I and you know, it's it's not it's not always a fun meeting to regardless, but this year it's just that much more uncertain with changes happening at the federal level there's an impact to the state level even more than ever. So, you know, we don't know the impact of that yet, but that's something we'll, you know, watch very closely as well. And the big challenge of part of that is they're not giving any information cuz they don't know. And that's the challenging part of like you know it's a bad
048situation, okay, then we can plan towards it or maybe it's a positive situation we can obviously celebrate a bit, but not knowing is kind of and then it's no fault to the state leaders and our local leaders that they don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. On Monday, Sarah, Frank and I attended the select board meeting where Senator Spilka and Representative James Arena Rosa presented to the select board and I I have not heard Senator Spilka be as sort of um concerned as as she she was about the the state's budget and that concern and uncertainty obviously leads to to difficulties with with doing budgeting as we know we know on a more micro level here. So, um in the past few years the Senate and House have been able to get the town more
049money than the that was in the governor's budget for chapter 70 and then some additional uh circuit breaker, you know, the there certainly was no commitment, not that there ever would have been a commitment, but it was definitely like, you know, we're just trying to sort of keep our head above water as we do with all these unknown costs. But I'd also like to add too, if you look back obviously since I've been here six years, Dr. Jordan's been here forever. Well, now you're taking over cuz Mr. Medeiros gone and Mr. Kime will be gone, but you're one of the longest tenure. But with that we've been very fiscally conservative here. I mean, you're you're not hearing the doom and gloom that we're hearing in many many many towns. Um you know, just meeting with
050my colleagues um the other day at the legislative meetings and other meetings I've been at the the districts making significant cuts and they will continue with new hands and I could name dozens of districts right now that are really struggling. So, we've been very careful. We didn't over plan positions that we needed during COVID with all those funds that we got the one-time funds. We used that to free up to get free time the kindergarten full day paid and then was it getting into the budget. So, that's why you're not seeing us with a significant number of reductions because we knew that that money would run out. So, I don't want to be all doom and gloom because honestly we're not in dire straits, but we do have to be very conservative, continue to be
051that and mindful of, you know, the needs of the district cuz we want to still continue to be a a strong performing district. Yeah, I've been I've been, you know, in the the duration that I've been here um and just kind of reiterating what Dr. Kaska said is is Austin does have a a strong history of of running conservative budgets just as a town as a town, but as a as a school system where, you know, your your highs aren't too highs, your lows aren't too lows and, you know, that's that's kind of where we are and and as Dr. Kaska said, we're you know, we're not looking at the massive cuts that you're seeing at some of our neighboring communities um and some of the other funds we we have the the space and
052the ability to kind of stay flexible as as others are in more inflexible positions than you. So, I don't know how you want to handle it. If we we have three recommendations from budget sub. We can do it where it is on the agenda. We could do it now. If we're talking we can do it now. >> Sure. Yeah. Um so, I guess this first of all most not most importantly, but one of the important things, you know, when we did the override two years ago, we made a pledge to the community that we would, you know, meet the the three and a quarter percent each year for for level services and so this this budget does that. Um while the specifics of how we got here, you know, we're not sort of the exact
053we're we're not planned obviously sort of the the need for changes in in needs in the district, you know, we're certainly anticipated in in with enrollment shifts. So, nothing here is sort of a was overly different than sort of what I was thinking it would end up being how we would get to the three and a quarter percent. Um that said it, but the sub we did support the 3.61% budget um including inclusive of the priority needs. Uh we discussed potentially just doing one or two of them, but we think that, you know, we were really conservative or the administration was really conservative with what they asked for. So, um we are going to go forward with the 3.61% um as a recommendation and we'll see where we get with the town and see if
054there's any favorability there. I know the town manager was able to um balance the budget. Um and that's before any potential increases in chapter 70 and any potential increases in in in circuit breaker. Some favorability here or there and a few unknown numbers could shake loose a a few extra dollars that we could you know, try to uh request. So, um with the permission of the chair our budget recommendation is 45,972,162 dollars. Um and if you would could we could debate it or or people are comfortable with that, but that is a 3.61% but a 3.25% uh level service. So, We should vote on that to to adopt that as our motion to adopt the 3.61% percent. I'm probably not going to get the words right. 972,162 dollars is the school committee's requested budget. Second.
055On favor. That passes. Then we also voted Dr. Jordan had done a lot of work on the MSBA feasibility study cost in conjunction with discussions with the town manager and um James Keefe our facility director and their sort of joint consensus is that we should request 2.5 million dollars for the feasibility study. It's uh Dr. can talk more about it but I guess you know the MSBA does not really help you sort of look for comps but don't really guide you into what they think it should cost and so you're not you're you're trying to sort of guesstimate based on where other people are coming in and we're starting to even see some districts that are even higher than this for buildings that are roughly similar cost so um there was at one point thought
056that it might be it would be even lower though I remember like 10 years ago people were talking about a million dollars for these things so um I don't know if you want to go into any more detail but Yeah I mean we even even since we learned that we had been accepted into the eligibility period the comps that we had received were about were about a year old on the comps that we received for feasibility studies and we saw anywhere from 1.7 to 2.5 million. Now we're starting to see the the kind of October, November, December those feasibility study numbers start to come in the current ones and you're seeing two 2.5 three million dollars for those comps for similar sized buildings so I I I still we still feel very confident about the
0572.5 million dollars but I I do think that you know it's the belief James and I that now is the the time I think to to really push and and make the feasibility study start cuz I think that we're already seeing already noticing that these costs are are exponentially growing every six months. I thought I've talked with the chair of the finance committee you know about having having the the resources for this and you know obviously a firm commitment wasn't made he didn't imply that he thought that the number was achievable he thought that this was a reasonable number when we when we talked earlier this evening. um He did say no to three million dollars but uh and then so and then we're also right now anyway they really haven't started the capital process
058for May but right now we also voted to support the 740,000 dollars for other capital requests recognizing that the 275,000 for K through five ELA is a priority because it is sort of tied to that that grant. um it's grant does not impact the 275 directly but it kind of comes part and parcel so um we voted to recommend the 2.5 million for the MSBA feasibility study and 740,000 dollars for the capital requests as laid out in the presentation. Do we need to vote on that as well? I would do two votes. Two votes. So one for the feasibility study. >> Yep. So I'd make a motion to uh request 2.5 million dollars as part of the our warrant article for the MSBA feasibility study. Second. On favor. That passes. And I would just say
059for anyone watching um you know it's going to be very important to show up at town meeting to support this assuming you support it if you don't support it stay home but it is important that I mean the the MSBA does watch to see sort of support from the town so the more more people to show up and and you know voice their support for this is very important so we'll we'll communicate more I think with the Yeah. uh with with the uh with the district and community as we go forward but May 11th is town meeting um and so we encourage everybody who supports this to to to show up. And it's all kind of blurred. But more information will be shared out we'll share it during the MSBA update but more information will
060be shared on what feasibility study is people understand it can get comfortable with it so everyone know where to >> Dr. Jordan is working on a presentation for I did a presentation too. No but I'm just saying like it's a it's a ton of money for like a visa for a study and so what what are we buying? Yeah. And um Yeah so next I I am in the early stages of a preparing a presentation for next school committee meeting on March 26th also for the budget hearing what the community facing presentation of what a feasibility study study is for for you all. And these are you can search online I mean these are things that are hundreds of pages long I mean one of them is even 2,000 pages long granted there's some attachments
061and stuff but these are lots of lot of work goes into them. The opportunity to use AI for >> [laughter] >> And that will probably just make it cheaper for them but the same cost for us. So I think we need Dan McCloud is over there and his slides are a little bit familiar to mine I'm wondering what resource I can use >> [laughter] >> I'm assuming we don't pay for Gamma that's why it has the made by Gamma tag on each slide. Right now yeah. >> [snorts] >> So and then entertain a motion for the uh 40,000. 40,000 capital request. For everything else. Even for everything else yes yes so moved. Okay. Second. On favor. That passes as well. Okay. Any other questions on budget? I will send the PDF to acting town manager
062Cheryl Gould and town manager Frank so that they have those numbers and they obviously will follow up with them as well. You okay? I think we can move on to policy. So we're revisiting JLCA which is a physical examination of students we looked at this in January not too long ago. We looked in January just as a reminder because there were some updated recommendations from the Department of Health but since then we've had an opportunity to meet with Kim Marsden who had some additional um recommendations to make sure this aligns with our district practices as well so the changes here are more removing some language um so in the first paragraph just to for a little more clarity we changed in the law and regulation to by the Department of Public Health. um In the
063second paragraph we added that a record of all examinations and recommendations will be kept in each school's health office. um In the next paragraph we added some language about physicals so it says every candidate for a school athletic team will present the signed consent of their parent or guardian to participate on a squad and will with the signed consent of a parent or guardian be thoroughly examined to determine physical fitness by a physician and will provide a copy of an annual physical or sports physical. And then the subsequent language there around school physician where we're moving um because the district doesn't like most districts does not have a school physician so even though that's Department of Health recommended language for a policy like most districts we're [snorts] going with the annual physic physical as proof
064of ability to participate. um And then in the next there's some language uh minor changes to language whenever the school nurse finds a child suffering from any medical problem the situation will be reported to the parent or guardian by phone or in writing at the nurse's discretion. um The school nurse will make a monthly report to the state and available to the superintendent. And that is those are the changes. Any questions? I'm good. Do we need to vote to approve the changes? I think so. I always get confused about this so >> you you can vote those changes. >> Okay. I'll turn to the motion to approve the changes as outlined by Hillary. So moved. On favor. Sorry sorry. Sorry. Tracy will second it and we'll say all in favor that passes. Great. Sorry about
065that. Okay. We can move on to central office updates. Susan. Yes I think Mr. Cloud already mentioned that we had our full admin meeting our monthly check-in yesterday and we did start talking with them about this Gamma. Gamma. Gamma. That was one of them. Presentations that was done yesterday. We are all trying to lean in to AI in the positive ways and but making it our own and also making sure that we're using it appropriately as administrators and you know, it's a it's it's an interesting place to be in time, but it's you know, it can be exciting and it has has become a very useful tool if we're using it as administrators we're really putting our own input in there. I mean, you can take a PDF that you found of something and pop
066it in there and say please make this whatever and it all that, you know, so the amount of Mr. McCloud's point I think as a leadership team we're really trying to also get a little more proficient at this because the and keeping up with it is is a lot. So, you know, remains to be seen how many of us get more proficient with that. And I know that the changes where we've talked about with the PD day, so we we definitely are we took the March 10th day. Obviously, that was a day for students and staff and then the April 3rd day will be the full day PD for staff for teachers not for parents. We may have a few parents coming in that day, but it's primarily the teacher PD day going into that
067weekend for Easter. And I don't think we have any other changes. I know you're going to be discussing the calendar further, but at least knowing that those changes have happened and hopefully I didn't I did not look at student attendance on Tuesday. So, I'm not really sure how that went and hopefully it was well attended for today. I was happy to attend the legislative breakfast with Chair Fitzgerald, Superintendent, and Assistant Superintendent. I want to say thank all our local reps for supporting Holliston. And fighting the good fight to get us more funds. Mathapalooza was a phenomenal event. We had I know over 600 I did not get the final count, but it was over 600 that night that first count. A huge shout out to Ashley Bouchard and Kristen Marino who really organized all of
068that. Wanted to thank all of our staff that volunteered in the stations as well as we had a lot of high school volunteers, a lot of Leo volunteers. As well as our book fair volunteers. I had the pleasure of running the penny polish station. So, I smelled like ketchup and vinegar for quite a few days which is all good. As Dr. Kuska talked about we are in the throws of planning or I should say re-planning our professional development day. I attended the leadership meetings for both Placentino and Miller today. So, plans are um on the way and we continue our curriculum reviews. I invited Director McCloud to come up. He and I had the pleasure of co-facilitating the Miller principal search, but I thought he could give an update on that. Sure. And I know
069Tracy was on the committee. So, we spent a lot of time. So, just a quick update we have sharing the survey data with Dr. Carter. And the survey just closed yesterday at noon for staff students not students but staff in the community. So, that's been shared with Dr. Carter. He acknowledged receipt of that and I'm sure he's going through that data. And then the he requested reference checks on the two finalists and so we've delivered that data to Dr. Carter as well. So, I we expect a decision you know, in the coming days is is about all I can all I can share. So, very soon. So, when the decision is made will it be just emailed to the community? Dr. Bernard and I actually we're talking about that today. So, >> I'm sorry I
070couldn't hear your question. >> it be communicated? I would I think they probably want to ask That's a Dr. >> Dr. Carter question. He might want to write it and get sent out by the So, usually when we are charged with facilitating a search committee, we become out of the mix when it gets to this point because the charge is to bring forth candidates for superintendent to review and select. So, that would be a Dr. Carter call on that. Yes, we fully expect him to send out via BrightArrow which obviously he has not been trained on BrightArrow. So, I fully expect some sort of message to come from him and Yeah, we're not waiting for the next school committee meeting. No, for sure. So, I expect it very shortly based on everything that we've provided.
071So, Can I add one thing before Dr. Jodi goes? I what did want to mention something new hot off the presses that we found out about today. Jodi Renee Harrington went to a training yesterday. I'm not going to remember the name if you remember it education something. Education to career. Education to career hub. So, literally she took the training with the Department of Education yesterday was a free training. We didn't I didn't even know about it. So, today we happen to be having our central office data meeting and we try to talk about any data that we want to bring forward and we've kind of put her on the spot and asked her to present some of that and what it looks like. What I think you'll all be excited about is this is a
072tool that can be used by the public. You know, how we've talked about trying to have something for you. So, it's the same data in some cases that's already in DESI, but you probably heard about it, right? So, Hillary I know you probably been you probably could teach us how to use it already. Not yet? So, it's obviously very new, but we did play with it today. Jodi was showing it to us. I think you'll find it very useful as the community members and all the different graphs and things you can make to you know, understand that data yourselves. But if you'd like if and when Mr. McCloud and Jodi Renee do feel more comfortable you know, we'd be happy to do a presentation in lieu of our regular data presentation that might be one
073that we could actually do some practicing and showing you what it can do here. So, let me know if that's something you want to go and put on another agenda. In your folder is kind of a more truncated truncated summary version of what we shared with the budget sub which is kind of a budget memo budget summary up to to March. We are kind of a total budget utilization about 62% of our total budget used and then kind of where we are in the year we're about 69% through the year. So, kind of reading into that is our budget's in a good spot where we where we should be. As I talked about as far as our grant use grants are typically reimbursed expenses that you've already accrued. So, like we need to you spend
074pretty much the majority of the year eating those expenses into your appropriated budget and then you start accessing and drawing down the grant funds from GIMS which is the state system and those start to hit our accounts. So, we do have you see it in italics if you're in there there's a um we use about a 5.5 million dollars are set aside for as an offset you know, which Dr. Cataldo and I were meeting earlier today during our budget meeting about four slightly over 4 million of that is circuit breaker and 240. And that's that is pretty much exclusively used for tuition to offset tuition expenses that that we have. The remainder and I was just signing off some updates are are kind of our entitlement grants and then some of the other other grants
075that we have as a district. So, that will start to shift that number will start the the offset number will start to look a little different as we start to kind of accessing and drawing down those expenses. Oh, lastly is we did our bid walk-through for the flag field project. So, we had a record number of different companies interested in bidding on the flag field project. We hope that that means that that will get some really competitive cost value uh bids for us and that will really kind of be able to kind of transform this that space. This bid this the project encompasses not only the revitalization or re-envisioning of the flag field and where the flag school used to be, but also the current access road that we're using and kind of really turning
076that into a legitimate road for driving on including some increased parking spaces, some sidewalk repair on the Placentino Miller campus and some additional paving of the parking lots on the on the Placentino Miller campus as well. I never know which one to speak out into. Sorry. So, I was away for a large chunk as you know, I've back from New Zealand and ready to jump in. Today we had I had the good fortune being invited to work with the new teachers institute with Dr. Bernard who had become and speak with the brand new teachers who are not brand new anymore. It's now March. And it was interesting to see them because I saw them back in September and and then to come and make a comparison. They were so much more relaxed and they were
077able to make jokes and and really it was great to work with them. My presentation today was working with paraprofessionals in your classroom. We talked about the different needs that a paraprofessional might be invited into a classroom for. I gave them three articles to read. We also talked about what's going on with paraprofessionals now and some of the experiences they've had. All really really positive opportunities across the district. So I I wanted to share that cuz that was great and we sent everybody off to read their articles. But But very boisterous, very chatty, which they weren't in September. They were very subdued back then. So that was very nice. We're continuing to work on ESY. We're coming closer to our numbers. It does look like we will not have as many students attending, but I
078don't have a specific number yet. But we are working towards making sure we're asking children to come who really will demonstrate regression. My true belief as a parent and as an educator is when school does break, we want children to be able to get out and see their peers and go to camp and do vacations and ride their bike and swim in a pool or in a jump in a sprinkler. [clears throat] And so if if at all possible, we'd rather have the children out for the summer and having opportunities that are different from what they get at school. But we do have a cohort of students who require additional support to prevent regression in the fall. And so now we're down to organizing more specifically what the children's needs are and who we need
079to hire. We've begun looking at those numbers and I'll be able to report back to you later. We had a CPAC meeting on Tuesday. I wasn't able to go. I know Hillary, you weren't able to go. It was a >> [laughter] >> You went? Okay. Could you report? Would you mind? It was a pretty brief meeting. Um I think one of the big questions was around Excuse me. >> [clears throat] >> The uh unified arts um Not unified arts. Unified basketball. Uni- Yes, the unified sports and um some of the personnel, whether or not volunteers are able to run those roles um or if it had to be a staff member that was allowed if it was run like a club versus a team. And um then we they had looked at some of the
080the grant funding and some of their money what they've been dealing with. Um but it was actually a pretty brief meeting. Okay. Yeah. And And I know next month we'll be meeting again, but also next month on April 28th, right after we get back from the vacation. I know it's a ways off, but that is our Special Olympics in Medway. And that will just be 1 year away from the Special Olympics being right here in Holliston. So please be prepared. We if you want to come to Medway and have the opportunity to see what it looks like in the you knowing they're coming back here. Um I've already notified Jess Beede that it's going to be here and we will catch up on that as well as uh we're beginning to catch up on some
081things for the transition. So we've already begun that. And I believe that is it this week. Thank you. Thank you. Uh okay, we can move on to reports from subcommittees. Communications? >> [clears throat] >> Communications has not met since, but I was working to I text you guys. We're going to set up a meeting with Chris Mayo and Dan to talk about the website for the MSBA's just process. Starting with the feasibility study, it's the avenue to share information. Um it likely will be a town page. We were talking with Tina this week, which makes sense, but link it back to the school page. Um so that we get as much visibility as possible and and it's saying the same thing. If we have two pages, it could get disconnected. Um so we'll have a
082meeting on that probably as guest speak guest attendees. So look for an email to come out about that before next uh school committee meeting. And otherwise, there is the office hours at March 21st. I'm going off the cuff here. 2:00 p.m. at Rushford. It's a Saturday, I believe. 22nd, sorry. 22nd? 21st. Okay. Okay. Yes, 21st then uh at Rushford, 2:00 p.m. Okay. Policy? Nothing else for policy? Yeah. Budget? We met on budget matters, but uh we we updated you. Yes. And then superintendent eval? No, good. Okay. Um So under old business, I had Miller principal search update, but I don't know you just provided I don't think there's anything else to add at this point. Um MSBA update? Do you want to uh It's on the closed warrant. It's on the closed warrant for the
083May town meeting. Um Then Frank and I were at the select board meeting. They talked a little bit about that. So that was great. Um I know This last school committee meeting, Heather and I met with Tina as part of the working group. That's where we came together and aligned on May and the language and sharing that with them back with the MSBA, which I think is in process now. Um the other we discussed, we're starting to work through how we're going to think through the process to set up the school building committee. Uh so I think that'll be a topic of discussion at our next meeting this Tuesday, upcoming Tuesday. Yeah, I know I think the working group has been working very productively thus far to get these things off the ground, but obviously
084communities aware this is the we can say the foundation, but the pillar in which as it leads into the school building committee once it's formed to take from here. So it's kind of an interim period before that committee is built. Um we are shooting for by the start of the MSBA feasibility study, which is June 1st, to have school building committee at least partially up and running. And that what that means is there are some required roles that are on the committee. So take it. Hillary probably knows the roles specifically. >> I do not remember the off top of my head. It is Yeah, there is um specific designated roles. >> Superintendent like that. Yeah. Mhm. We won't go through all of them, but we can provide those obviously. Um select board having a vote
085on those roles to start and then there are a number actually at our discretion, a number of at large roles that we'll be discussing as part of the working group this week. So we should have more information by next school committee meeting on that. Um so I think things are moving forward positively in this process thus far. It's important to note though that the warrant article empowers the school building committee to essentially spend the feasibility study money. So we need this school building committee. Our goal, and again this is being a very very thoughtful process to make sure we we work collectively with the other organizations, the town, is to have a school building committee set up by the feasibility start. Especially with the feedback from MSBA on having a head start there, I think
086was kind of a nudge to say let's get this ball rolling. We just want to think through it. We want to think through it enough and as someone said this week, we want to move fast. It's Damon actually. We want to move fast, but thoughtfully. I think that's what he said. Those were his words. And I align with that. Sooner the better. Sooner the better, yes. Especially with the core the people that are kind of already by definition need to be on there. Yes. And that probably means that some of those names so some vote from or we did ask >> can be phased in votes I would imagine, you We did ask the school Yes. The select board to plan for a vote for those that I I Tina had said that she was
087in support of that. I think it has to be brought to agenda and seen and discussed, but I don't think we'll have much of a problem. >> they said that possibly by He He didn't want to do it on the 9th, but possibly on the 23rd. So Yeah. Just to signal we're moving the process and I think by the 23rd our goal would be to have a perspective on how we're going to start thinking about the at large members. I would I would just say having kind of like tossed folks the start by the start of the eligibility pool period. Um you may want at least the the the people that are are kind of required to be on there having kind of had some preliminary conversations of what kind of examples so that we
088know we're going into that first meeting. Um the those folks, especially those who are kind of employed by the house by the by the town of Holliston, have things for for the group so they can kind of hit that ball rolling. Totally agree. That's why having those voted on, selected, and identified, even though they are mandatory, they can start working together. Sounds good. Anything else? No. Okay. So There are no comments. Yes, thank you. You're welcome. Um Okay. So moving on to the next item, 26, 27, school calendar. Apologize to the community for taking our time with this one. It's been a challenge. Um But we have a calendar drafted. Um But I think we can move forward with. Yes, so the calendar we're looking at is the one with the PD day moved from
089September 11th to September 25th, which is after the first day uh for for teachers that we previously uh approved months ago, it feels like now. Yes. Um but and then retaining the half day um for for students. On the 26th of August. >> 26th of August. So the first day of students would be the 26th, but it would remain a half day. Um So I'll I'll I'll I'll make a motion to uh set the calendar with the PD day on the 25th of August and the first day of students as being the 26th as a half day. So moved. Second. Second. Did someone second? Only the chair may If I make the motion, that's the motion. Can you second it? Uh Second. Joe Kennedy seconds. Sorry. Okay. in favor. Okay. Any other discussion on that?
090I I just think that we again I would commit to that. I think we you know, others can voice their their decision but to to look at the calendar more holistically for the following year. I think you know, over the next Mhm. I think the following years Baby steps. Let's get to Let's But there are a lot of moving pieces to to and different ideas to look at and we I don't think we've ever really pulled the community holistically on everything. We've done pieces and but not really looked at sort of trade-offs and people's preferences and things like that but um I I I think that we it's worth it's worth a a broader look. I think the challenge with this is every year is unique. Like we're saying next year so it does get
091But our calendar tends to go longer than than most others. So that's Are there Are there ways that we can sort of mitigate that? And that's kind of the question and um there are way too many thorny issues in there but um you know Yeah. that's what we're here for. Okay. Um moving on to new business. Um so in I think we all got an email from um a student here in Holliston. Um I forgive me if I've pronounced this wrong. Angaj Palai? Um who is part of Mass Audubon's statewide youth climate leadership program. Uh and they were contacting us to um they are looking for support for the climate literacy education bill. Um and they have submitted a letter that they would like us to um send to our legislators in support of this
092bill that um would help bring um climate education into the classroom. And I just wanted to hear anyone's thoughts and see if this is something we want to send off if we support the letter. The letter's in the folder as well. Um Let's see where did I put it? >> [clears throat] >> So I had a chance to kind of peruse the House and Senate bills and it wasn't totally clear whether the the bills would replace or supplement existing courses. Uh will will this be integrated with existing courses or will there be additional coursework that students would need to take? Do we know? I don't know. It's a great question. >> it might be a I don't know if Dr. Maynard knows anything about this. >> not know. No, this is the first we're hearing
093of unfortunately. >> Yeah, I haven't heard anything. So I think I support this letter in in in in in general and I think but I I would I fortunately didn't get a chance to to to read. I think there's a few things that we might want to clean up a little bit and then I'd also kind of like to give it the administration some an opportunity to sort of Sure. get some more information about what the bill bill means. >> I would like to add did not read the bill yet. And then maybe we can vote on it next next meeting. Sure. That makes sense. Yeah, I mean there's there's a fund that's going to be created as well but it's not entirely clear if it's going to be fully funded or if the district's
094going to have to put some money up as well. So you might want to clarify with principal list the questions you asked because I we were not aware so Okay. Okay. Yeah. I don't know what his plans are. But just to be clear that's not a you know, a lack of of of support for it's just And then the logistics of how you'd get there would have to take care of. >> Yep. Yep. Okay. So we can put this on the agenda for next and um do a little more research and understanding on I really appreciate the students reaching out and different ideas that were things that they were working on and stuff like that so definitely encourage that. Okay. Let's see. Okay. Um so the next item under new business is to appoint liaisons
095for negotiations with the nurses. I think Frank and Sarah would be great. Oh, Frank you got to get in there, you know. >> I agree. I'll throw my hat in. Okay. Sounds good. Who is your work better with you though, Dan or Who I do it with? >> [laughter] >> Everyone works well with Sarah. I know. I'm just saying. Sarah can even work well with me. That that takes a lot. In that case I could be the good guy and Sure not. He definitely won't be the good guy with That's just [laughter] what I'm saying. I don't know. So anyway, I I I will make a motion to appoint the Sarah and Frank as a liaisons for for for nurse the nurse unit negotiations. Second. Great. All in favor? Yep. That passes. And we've already
096done the vote for the budget. >> Yep. We got everything covered. Please >> But just to remind people to You'll go over when our next meeting is but at our next meeting will be our budget hearing. >> Yep. So that is the opportunity for the public to come ask questions, share concerns, things they love about the budget. Uh generally not but um so generally it's poorly attended but uh you know, please please come out and let us The opportunity is there. >> Let let us know. Um and then obviously the before that is the the office hours. Yeah, the office hours obviously budget uh the MSBA process it's an open office hours for any topics that you may have and I will also ask for anyone to join me um at Russell. >> If you're
097interested. Maybe. And then on 3:31 Anyway, on 3:31 is the um um is our meeting with the Finance Committee to present the budget to them. Uh obviously the budget subcommittee members will be there but um all committee members are are invited if they would like. It's on Zoom. Um are we Do we want to post? Are we posting there? We could or or it's already sort of on their agenda that we're meeting with them but >> Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. Okay. Anything else? No? Great. Okay. At this point I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Our next meeting is March 26th. Our next meeting is March 26th. And I will Motion to adjourn. entertain a motion to adjourn. All in All in roll call vote? Nope. No. All in favor? There we go. Good night,
098Holliston. Check.