NPS School Committee Meeting 12/10/25

001All right, folks. We're gonna get started. 6 o' Republic. >> All right, just so everyone's aware, this meeting is being recorded by Nor Media Public Schools. Um, please just those who feel like reporting. We're going to start the meeting with our public comment period. We ask all speakers to present their remarks in a respectful manner and considering the privacy and interests of others. Please begin by starting stating your name and address. Uh public comment shall only concern items that are within the scope of the school committee. H3 will be allowed 3 minutes. Anybody wishes to address the meeting, please come up to the podium. I'm Rachel Kierney, NTA president, address out of town. Um, I, as promised, I have an updated cell phone policy poll for you guys. I know I this is the first

002meeting. I think there should be one for everyone. We made 10 zombies. Um, so we pushed a poll out this week. Um, it was open through today at noon. So, as you look at the policy um, poll, I try to ask similar questions to the first one. rate, how well it's going, how many students are not complying with the policy in your classrooms, and then how many writeups have you had to do for cell phone policy violations. So, overwhelmingly, it's still rated as either great or good that um those two figures equal approximately 94.5%. So, it's still overwhelmingly supported by staff. um how many students are not complying with the cell phone policy? We have about 83% that are saying um only three or fewer students are not complying. And it's important to remember during

003the course of a school day, students um teachers see an average of probably about 100 students. They are teaching about five or six classes a day. So if you say there's an average of 20-ish kids per class, it's about 100 to 120 students a day that they are seeing. So the vast majority have fewer than three students not complying. Um that 15.1% represented I think eight respondents who were in the four to six range. And then we had one staff member um who was more than 10. Then for the final question, how many writeups have we had to do? Again 80 almost 89% we've only had to do five or fewer writeups. Uh 9.4% had to do between six and 10. And that small sliver is again only one person who has had to do

004more than 10. So, you know, we've had a which is to be expected, a little bit of a drop from some students. Um, but it's still overwhelmingly successful. It's definitely making a positive impact in your classroom. It's better for teachers. It's better for staff. Um, there's there's, you know, when the there's an actual pause in the classroom. kids actually turn and talk to each other instead of all whipping up their phone and just texting their friend three doors down. So, it's just still going really really well. Um, and for the few teachers that are sort of not consistently maybe um enforcing the rule. you know, we have a climate and culture committee at the high school that I'm on and we're maybe raising that with our building admin to see what type of steps they

005can take to get those teachers to sort of come into compliance. Um because now that it is a cool policy, it is our job as teachers of the building to enforce the school rules. And so if we have some staff that maybe aren't necessarily doing that, that's something that we would ask our admin to address and do what they need to to sort of get them to buy into the program, see the benefits and come into compliance. So there any questions about the policy? Okay. So I will probably like again April May do one of hopefully our numbers stay consistently deer or better. Um but again it's just thank you for enacting the policy and it's made our lives as teachers a thousand times easier. So thank you thank you thank you for that. Um

006and again it's the the biggest benefit is that it benefits student body learning. If I can take one more minute. I might be over my three minutes. I just wanted to take a moment to publicly congratulate and recognize our high school principal TJ Clinton. He just successfully defended his dissertation last Friday at Nor Eastern University. So he is now officially Dr. Flanigan. Um even though I think he said it's not until May that the official ceremony happens. We're already calling him Dr. Flynan. But we're all super proud of him. Uh super excited for him. It's a huge accomplishment. So again, I just want to sort of take this opportunity to publicly recognize all the hard work we did to to earn that accomplishment. I'm sorry for anybody else move on to the next item agenda

007which is approval of 12 session >> questions, comments, concerns, edits. motion to approve the minutes as presented. Second >> second. All those in favorain. Next is the warrants just eaten. >> Um I have reviewed the following school expense and payable warrants. Um school expense warrants November 12, 2025 94,15754. December 4th, 2025, 549,71626. School pay wallrants November 13th, 2025, 1,200,64654. November 26, 2025, 1,171 863= 5 cents. Um, I reviewed and approved the wish statue to public record. >> Next, we have our student reps up the line. You all have a nice clean statement um from the yell. Um they are gearing up for festive winter spirit weeks inclusive summer vacations. Students have already been showing great enthusiasm with creative air, hats, socks, pajamas with warm. Some of the upcoming include winter character day, PJ day, festive

008sweater day, yell pride day. I think these spirit weeks continue to bring joy to the building. This past week, the unified kickball team played against Foxboro. But it was a um it was wonderful to see such strong support from family, staff, faculties, players had a terrific time, and a huge thank you go a huge thank you goes to coaches Mrs. Mallister and Lily Williams for organizing and supporting our student athletes. Students at the continue to excel across the board. This month's PBIS incentive is in holiday movie during the week before vacation. Every class is working goodbye to Ernon. The school is very proud of their positive offer and teamwork from the high school. It has also been a very um blessing time especially for spirit week decorating w and the thanksgiving day football game now

009behind us. The energy these events brought to the building period right last Friday's semiform for each members and seniors which was a wonderful fil with significance. On Monday we celebrated the members of the class of 2026 at the John and Abigail Avenue scholarship reception where students were recognized for the certificates and impressive academic achievement. Looking ahead, our winter concert will take place tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. This annual event is always a highlight of the season, and we're excited to see our students showcase their talents and help bring people completely into holiday spirit. To round out the month, our staff has also been participated in spirited few days, adding to the positive atmosphere and creating a joyful environment for everyone in the building. And from the JCS, November was a grateful month, and December is shaping

010up with just active. The Friday before Thanksgiving, school welcomed a drawing performance coordinated by Mr. Place and the JCS field. All students in preK through third grade attended the assembly and enjoyed learning about music and instruments. The Little Lancers preK program held its annual Thanksgiving family feast on November 19th with morning and afternoon celebration so all families can attend. Thank you to Mrs. Blackburn and the entire Little Lancers team for a social warming at Milkwing event. Right before Thanksgiving, teachers and staff participated in the secret staff spirit week with daily themes that the students had a fun trying to guess based on how their own stress. Preparations are underway for the annual third grade holiday concert which will take place next Friday. There will be a morning performance for pregame for second grade students and

011families are invited to the afternoon performance at 2 p.m. To wrap up the calendar year, JCS will a spirit week plus starting next Monday at running for the Tuesday before break. Each day will have a different theme and pajama day aligns with the prank and kindergarten or express celebrations. That's all of us think. >> Question. Um if with hearing from the teachers about the self policy, I'm curious like from a student perspective. I think it's going >> Dr. asked as CC inclusive communications and trying to share just a little bit about how we felt about the policy month newsletters said. Um but now it just being December it's obviously really strong in the beginning not what I thought I would say all all of my teachers enforcing policy um rebuilding now in December I'll definitely

012leave that like you know there are a few teachers who I would um like for submit um but I would say overall I would said that most teachers are kind of sticking to it and students are in the habit of it already So that was >> I agree. I think some teachers are definitely a little bit more laidback, but I think I won't spend too much time on my phone anyways. So it's it is nice for me to be able to like get it up and put it away and just I think it actually helps me focus a lot of classes. So from a student perspective, I think I know that might not be universal, but >> I think it's probably the holiday. >> Thank you. Sorry. Next we have the marina. [laughter] >> I'm

013not sure yet. We're going to find out. Um, so thank you for uh joining us here at LGN and allowing me to speak about our opening school opening of school this year. Um, it's a little bit different for me this year because usually it's it's September and I don't have a whole lot to say or show. So, this is kind of nice that it's in December this year and I have a few things that uh we want to highlight. Uh, this is primarily some of the stuff that I share at our opening staff meeting here in the in the cafeteria when we in August when we when we get together. Um, this year we had some music playing. We're kind of dancing and partying a little bit. So, I refrain from that cuz I know

014you have a full agenda tonight. try to keep this as brief as possible, but we'll have some fun as well. Um, we did welcome some new staff and faculty this year. So, every year I go into the summer thinking, boy, I have no one to hire this year. Uh, we're kind of in good shape, and then inevitably someone resigns or moves to a different position or retires, surprisingly. So, uh, we were lucky enough to add these fine people to our faculty and staff this year. Emily Hunter, our school adjustment counselor, uh, fellow Stonehill grad, awesome people. Uh, Susie Deorter, who I think is here. Susie in our best one par professional, Kelly Fontaine, Eric Greenberg as well in our best one classroom. Uh, phenomenal hires. Susie is also a parent here at LG. And um,

015it's we did amazing. We stole Eric from Mansfield, which I was very proud of living in Mansfield, taking him. Uh, they've done a great job. Kaylin Sandborn just started with us as a great power professional uh, last week, last Monday. So, uh, she's doing really well. You might know her from mom. And then Jenna joined us from JCS. um when Rachel Young retired. I'm going to talk about that in a second as well, but we just like to welcome them uh and show them the LG love. Few teachers this September also earned professional status. Uh Jenna Shest who's our speech language pathologist uh started the same year as me. So these folks started the same year as I did. Uh Mrs. Square Clinton who's our beating other beauty specialist and Holly Maloof uh also a

016parent in town and uh teaches first grade and her has bounced between first and second over a couple years. Soon to be retired Rachel Young at the time uh had about a month left in her teaching career. I don't think I've met anyone as passionate as Mrs. Young about early literacy. if you've met Rachel. Uh actually she retired and then 5 days later I asked her to come back and sub for us and she was like yeah so we're super lucky to have her and her enthusiasm. And then Mrs. Jen Bronco is retiring at the end of this school year after I don't a couple years of kindergarten quite a few years. Um but we're going to miss her as well. So we celebrated those folks. Uh I've shared these with my faculty and staff

017over the last bunch of years. I get a um MSAA PB as principles with solo leadership. Um this is something I took from them and I've used with my faculty and staff each year uh since I've I've learned about it. It's just a way for us to kind of be grounded as adults in the building and get ready for the work that we do each day. So I'd ask you, can you see that? All right. I'd ask you just to read these to yourself and maybe choose one that speaks to you. Maybe you love it. Maybe you hate it. That's okay, too. Um, I have a couple of favorites myself. Now, number three, there's always invitation, never invasion, always opportunity, never demand. So, I would ask anyone on the panel here, if there's one that

018spoke to you, you'd like to share it and invite me to raise your hand and maybe share it and maybe share why it uh it spoke to you. >> Dr. O'Neal, >> I know I could count on you. I was either you or Dr. Aan. happens. >> I like believe that it's possible to emerge refreshed, surprised, and less burdened than grounded. And that is exactly how I feel anytime I get to classrooms. >> Go back to >> Yeah. Anytime you have a rough day, go visit prek or kindergarten. We turn your attitude right around. Anyone else? >> Dr. Let the beauty we love be what we do. And that's really it's why we do this. We're here. We're really We're here for kids and uh it's chaotic at times. There's always competing priorities, but we're

019here for kids. And that's that's the beauty of all. >> Thank you. One of my favorites is when the going gets rough, turns to wonder. That's important for elementary kids. Uh sometimes they do some wild things and instead of, you know, kind of attacking them in terms of what are you doing? Why would you do that? Asking them, hey, I'm wondering what what's going on here? Why are you why' you say that? What made you say that? um and always turning to wonder with kids. Dr. Acman, let the beauty be loved. Let the beauty we love be what we do is also one of my favorites and it's actually the kind of the cornerstone of of our opening this year. Uh we talked about this quite a lot at my opening meeting. All about love.

020Uh this comes it's part of a it's a line from a poem by Roomie. Uh if you want the whole poem, you look it up or I could send it to you. It's it's a great one. But it's a really great reminder of why I do what I do. And I think, you know, hopefully sharing it with the teachers this year around um sharing that love with with kids and just, you know, it's hard sometimes, right? And you want to make sure you're you're having fun. Speaking of fun, uh I've continued my video morning announcements. This uh I started these in March of 2020. If you have any reflection of what happened in March of 2020, this is probably one of the only good things that came out of that time. Uh I do these

021every day. I get to work here around 7:00 a.m. and take 3 to 5 minutes to record an announcement. Um, it's one take warts and all. I make mistakes in front of kids. Uh, a lot of the stuff we share, you'll see. So, like StMath, our our Gigi the Penguin, our mascot for StMath, he shows up every Monday morning at least once a week to um update kids on their puzzle bowl progress. We've done a really nice job over the years. You can see like our our Super Bowl. I feel like the the Patriots with our Super Bowl banners. We've got 80% or more the last three years. We've actually been up close to 100% uh the last few years and we track our progress as well. So, every day the kids can come in

022at lunch and see GG moving up the chart. Um this little golden Gigi guy was a donation from a family. We hand out golden GG's to classes who have the the most p puzzle progress. It does get pretty competitive. I mean, I have some teachers over there who was questioning, wait a minute, but we had the the golden teaching this week. We [clears throat] share great children's literature. Uh, I have a a classmate from Stonehill who's now an author, and she sends she actually came to visit our kindergarters and did some poetry with them last year. She shares books with us. That's an autographed copy, which was she was so nice to send. And then Halloween obviously is a special time here at LG. We'll get to that, too. But that's uh that's me there

023with my long hair. Uh I'm holding out Purple Heart. So, our PBIS here at LG is is handing out purple hearts or white hearts here in the cafeteria. Kids can earn those. Sometimes they love to save them and take them home and hang them on the fridge. Sometimes they put them in the purple heart towel in the lobby. Every Thursday after school, I pull five purple hearts and three white ones and uh announce them on Friday. Kids get to come down and select a prize, which I will get to as well. Um, if you'd love to follow me, I know you'd love to. It's Thomas Higgins 3807 on YouTube. Check them out. We have people as far as Lancing, Michigan watching these videos every morning who are grandparents of kids. Uh, but I did get

024a message from someone in New Zealand which I shared on announcements one day just saying what a nice nice thing they thought it was, you know, saying the pledge of allegiance and sharing our our love here in our school community. We also have an amazing segment called Taste and Tidbits. So, our wellness committee in town, the nurses put together a bunch of different um just tidbits, little things that the kids can read uh to promote healthy eating. Miss Kim and Miss Linda here in the cafeteria do a wonderful job providing kids with all sorts of fruits and vegetables. And it's just cluing the kids into trying different things. Um and our third graders do a wonderful job. Mrs. York and Mrs. Loveing and Mrs. Quinn who are over there helped me record these tasty tidbits.

025That's just a screenshot of one. Look at that. You got to see the backgrounds, the camera work they do. It's amazing. And [clears throat] Mr. Blaze, our music teacher, did a jingle for us. Uh, which is absolutely amazing. Yeah. Tasty. >> It's really good. Uh, this was these are some pictures just from the start of school. Kids kind of get getting back into routines. Um, you'll notice I took the pictures cuz it's like, you know, bird's eye view. Uh, but just really kind of, you know, starting the year off strong. um getting back with partners and classmates, learning new classmates names, and just having a lot of fun re-engaging in school each year. We had a chance uh this summer as a curriculum leader team and myself and and uh across the district actually to

026do high impact teacher teams, professional development with Dina Freiedman uh over three different days. It was three days, right? Um and the team we had was phenomenal. our curriculum receive a lot of time and effort into into what they do at their grade level. We have a lot of fun, too. We we always try to have fun in our learning because it's important. It's important to me. I feel like when kids are having fun, they want to be here each day. Uh they want to participate. They feel energized and engaged. Um in addition to that, a lot of this stuff you see is our new leading program, our year two of of inter reading. Uh the teachers by all accounts love it. The kids seem to really enjoy it. and we're seeing the results. I'd

027have to give a shout out to Miss Clinger aka Mrs. Craniac. She's newly married. She's not here, but she's changed grade levels. I think every year I've been here because we needed her to. She just jumped right on board. So, currently she's teaching second grade. These are just a few pictures of her and her class. Really engaged in in uh into reading. One day she was in a high level group who was doing some interesting stuff. And I just love seeing books in kids' hands. definitely brings joy to me. Look at those faces. So, years ago, I asked PTC, my PTC at my old school and currently here to help support us in terms of getting books in kids' hands. Uh, so we give out birthday books, we give out break books. So, every day

028at lunch, anytime we have a birthday, I announce it on morning announcements and then, uh, up on the stage, we have a bookcase full of donated books or books that PTC has purchased. Um, my own kids have donated their books that they've never read. feel nice. It's brand new. You didn't even practice thing once. Uh, but the kids are just so excited to get a book and a bookmark and a pencil. Uh, and simple things like this go a really long way. So, I thank the PTC for for helping us support this. That's just a few little kudos. This year, we had an amazing opportunity. This one came out of my job is so easy. Honestly, I get people coming to me with ideas and I'm like, "Yeah, let's do that." So, Mr. Joe came

029to me. He said, "Uh, Mr. I think we should do a touch of truck this year. We have Luca Ferrara is here as an LG student and his dad runs the DPW. Maybe he would like to bring some trucks over and the kids can go on the most beautiful day in September to climb on some trucks and they made it happen and we had a blast. I offered Miss Bronco who was retiring if she'd like to go up in the in the bucket. She declined respectfully. I think Karen, you said maybe we can superimpose her picture on there after her retirement. Um, it was just such a great day. I had 8 million pictures. I had to choose two. There they are. How much fun is that? Um, also shout out to Mrs. Dermis, our

030library media specialist. She does a phenomenal job getting programming for us that is absolutely free. We have a great relationship with um, Young Lifely Bookstore in Planeville and they have an author series I think at the Yell. Ian Kouler is going to the Yell soon. So, Philip and Aaronstead came to visit our kindergarten first graders. Uh, it was all inclusive. Every student in in the school in K1 went to the library. They did a phenomenal job. Um, sharing their Amos McGee series. Uh, Amos McGee has a sick day and Amos McGee Snow Day. Um, and I don't want to steal Julie's thunder. She's going to talk. Are you going to talk tonight or is it >> I am okay? I'll talk a little now. Um, they agreed to give us their artwork in terms of,

031uh, Julie had this great idea of having a mural out in the library courtyard and they heard the idea. Julie kind of described it to them and they were like, "Yeah, we're totally on board. You can have our artwork and so Aaron, who's the wife of the artist, um, is going to plan a beautiful mural for us and we're going to be able to have it on the wall outside." um and they come to our school for free. We have not bookstore um does a great job with the series and how how can you pass up free enrichment that gets your kids engaged around the earth. So that's a phenomenal thing as well. This year we had that's me right there if you can't tell. This year we had our uh big heart hustle. We

032rebranded this year. Our PTC and I were dealing with Booster Thought over the last two years and we felt like we could do I would say a better job but a different type of job in terms of donations coming to our school and us keeping the majority of the money. So we had a goal of $20,000. Um in the past we've raised upwards of $40,000 through Boosteron and when you do full service with them you generally get about half. So, we were leaving with about $ 19 to $20,000. So, we set a goal of $20,000. Our PTC did a phenomenal job. Our teachers hyped it up. Um, I obviously hyped it up. This was a logo design by one of our parents. These are actual LG kids in the logo. Um, so we raised $31,000

033this year with our Big Heart Hustle, just us internally. It was a lot of hard work on PTC. I give them so much credit. They met all throughout the summer and the fall getting this ready. The kids had a blast. Um, you see their smiling faces. We had our step program kids from the high school with Trish Sweeney. Trish emailed me and Dr. Flanigan to uh ask if she could bring the kids over in the van. She like, I've never done it before. We'll try it out and see how it goes. They cheered on the first group of kids and then they helped and were mentors to our best uh one classroom and you modeled walking around the track with them. Uh there's Miss Pam with some of her former students. She was super excited

034to see them. It was just a great day. And again, I don't know how we do it, but the weather keeps coming out perfect for us all these all these days. That's our good buddy DJ Och Yo-Yo Man. Um he is a DJ and he and I have known each other a long time. So he came out to help me MC the event. He had the music going and the kids were excited. Um just a really really fun time. So we're excited about that and hopefully now that it's been done once we can just replicate it each year and continue the the amazing fundraising that we're that we're doing. Little Halloween fun. You saw me. There's the Savannah bananas. Uh we actually had a first grader who's dressed as a banana which came in handy

035for our blue picture. Uh, but Halloween's always an exciting time around here. Kids kids love dressing up and just having a parade. And I always think again if kids are having fun and enjoying themselves coming to school. I remember last year we talked a little about how do we make school more fun? And I'm like, I don't know how I could possibly I don't know if I stand on my head or what cuz we make school a lot of fun. Um, I feel like if I'm having fun, kids are having fun. Back to our purple heart choice board. I mentioned those purple hearts. So every Thursday I pick names. So some of the choices that our kids have um I hate to admit this but I will show and tell with Mr. Higgins and probably

036the bottom of the list. I I think over four years. It's true. It's true. I think over four years I've had maybe I count on one hand like five kids who have chosen show and tell with Mr. Higgins. When they do it they have a blast. They have a a fun time. Uh tops has to be Mr. Joe's cafeteria helper and Miss Tracy's morning helper. Um it's honestly it makes my life so much easier to have people who are willing to jump in and help whether it's a school secretary, uh school custodian, your librarian, media specialist, whoever it might be, our pair of professionals, everyone jumps in. We've got some just bright smiley faces here. This guy Lucas, if you know Lucas, that was was a hotline. He had a blast. Jocelyn over here. Uh

037M took this this picture herself. She's I think going to be a flourishing selfie photographer. So they just do a really nice job. Uh and kids, you know, whether it's a prize from the prize box or just a connection with an adult, it uh it goes a long way. One of my favorites, this one's my favorite is positive note sent home. Not a lot of kids choose this one either. So when they do choose it, we make a big deal out of it. Dean here shows positive note home. I went to his classroom. I make sound of trumpets. It's like I make Dean stand on a chair. He's like, "I'm not doing that." Said, "I'm the principal. It's okay. You can stand on a chair." Miss Klein, is that okay? Could I stay on the

038chair? Yes, you can stand on a chair. He's just such a a good kid. So, we write a note. I ask the teacher to share some things that they they think are are positive about their student. I write handwrite the note. They send it home. I hope it lives with them forever on their fridge. Well, maybe they take it to college. just wishful thinking. You never know. Um Benson mentioned this I think uh Mr. Place uh did a wonderful job this November in anticipation of National Drum Day. Uh he I think last spring asked PTC for some funding to have the Shindo uh Japanese drum company come to to LGN and JCS. When I say it was probably one of the best enrichments I've ever seen. No lie. I've seen a lot of enrichment over

039the years. The education piece that they gave around the history of Japanese throwing tied in with a perform, you know, multiple performances and songs. The kids were mesmerized. Students had a chance to go up on stage and participate. Um it was it was just phenomenal. So, you know, big shout out to to Mr. Place. He did a really phenomenal job with that. It was a lot of fun. And um yeah, hopefully we can continue to do I know we'll be able to continue to do things like this cuz PTC both here and at the JCS love to see these amazing events happen in our schools. I have to give a shout out to our after school fitness club. We had a couple of fitness clubs this this fall. Um Mrs. Muffing, I don't know how

040she convinced herself to do this. And then on top of that, how she roped in Mrs. Bork and Mrs. Hagglin. And on one occasion, I think Mrs. which was out there. You a fitness club teacher. Um we had how many kids, Lisa? >> We wanted 12 out of 41. >> Yeah. [laughter] Think about that. We said we'll do 12 and then it was just it grew and grew and grew. Word spread. That's like half our school. >> So they had a phenomenal time. Um you know, Lisa did a great job coming up with events for them to do and and changing it each week. Um, in addition to the afterchool fitness club, Emily Ducharm, our learning specialist, also did a positive walking club with her her therapy dog, Oreo, and that was an a massive

041amount of kids as well. I think she had over 25 uh kids in her session as well. We want to continue doing these things. And this was through a grant from the nurses, right? Yeah. Dory Brown. So, um, yeah, again, her teachers going above and beyond and taking time after school to do fun things with kids. kids have a have a blast. So hopefully that highlights a few of the things that we love about our school and the fact that love yes can lift you up. And uh that's all I've got. I I I I could go on for days talking about our school and how much we love it here. U but thank you for the opportunity to share my my opening remarks. question. >> I don't know why I don't go back. >>

042Yeah, we can use that. [laughter] Um, you know, it's always to me I I never had kids at the school's on the other side of town. So, I I always feel slightly disconnected from the student. Um, but seeing the great things you do here and I've always heard great things about the staff. I know some of you uh personally on that level. Um, so it's and and to your point as we're a little bit later in the year, there's so much more substance for me, right? Um, but you know, again, like for me, I always feel like I only hear about LG, you know, here. Uh so kudos staff for really making this event. >> Anything else? >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> We have our student set up. >>

043Thank you everyone. Um as um our amazing student representatives that mentioned earlier this week we uh celebrated 46 seniors uh with John and Abigail Adams scholarship. The John Abigail Adams scholarship is the Massachusetts merit based award that provides a tuition waiver for up to eight semesters at any masters of state college or university. Students qualify based on their strong performance in their class demonstrating academic excellence across test subject areas. The scholarship recognizes high achieving students and supports their continued education and receive public higher education. Um at high school members of the class of 2026 station were honored at a c celebratory breakfast on Monday, December 8th. This evening I present to you the list of these students in recognition of their hard work and academic excellence. Um, and I'm not going to read all their

044names to you. Um, but Benson was one of them. So, it's important. And I have to say, um, this class of 2026 is just an incredible group of students. U, they're extremely civic-minded. They do so much above and beyond academics and athletics and school activities. They're all super involved outside of school. They do a lot of um volunteering and um everything else in our community and I'm super super proud of them. And one of my favorite parts about the other day is we had a couple students that um missed the initial come down. And so at the end when they when they made it, everybody stopped what they were doing, stopped participating in breakfast. We did our own little ceremony for those three kids and welcome them. We took a new picture. Um so thank

045you to Mr. Cersei and his guys department. Thank you to Dr. in and Mr. Shaughnessy. Um, and it was it was a great event. So, congratulations to these students. >> It's it's always great to see, you know, the hard work of all of our kids. So, this one's a little special cuz my kids all day. So, >> you know, I mean, it's just I feel like a special connection to this graduating class that's they kind of started their school program and I started my student. So, um seeing them their phenomenal but congratulations to all of those kids there and u visual. All right. Next we have even come on down. Thank you for having us. Um we are a northern person educational development or a volunteer nonprofit organization fundraises throughout the year to announce to

046support teachers in Norton by providing a grant program. Since it began, Nita has had the honor of giving over $238,000 to teachers and staff public schools. This year alone, we are gleefully giving out $27,000 um just over $27,000 across nine sighting grants. So, I've been in need for a while and that is by far the largest amount given that. So, we're pretty excited about that. Tonight, we would like to thank all the teachers and staff submitted their grant requests and acknowledge all this year's recipients. Some teachers are able to join tonight um and speak about their grants. You will let them speak by themselves. And when we get to your school, please feel free to come up and join us. So, we start here at the LGN. Um we have two grants at the LGN.

047Uh, first up was um Julia Blasio. I hope I say your name right. Um, in the amount of $900 for an inschool field trip with barn babies. Barn babies would come to the LG J and set up the animals for students in the best in grip program. Animal therapy is a very effective way to help students with their social, emotional, and physical well-being. And we look forward to the students being able to experience this wonderful opportunity. The second grant is Mr. Mr. or Mr. Higgins, do you want to come up and say a few words? is prevalence that you know [laughter] >> this is Julie Julie and Linda's grandchild uh I can't take credit for this but the second uh grant is a group grant from Julie myself and Linda for a literacy garden with

048planter beds the story book interactive mural that I mentioned from thestead family and a bus reading nook for students which is going to be I think you agreed right >> I did >> another LG parent here who's going to help us with the uh with the bus note. Uh, this grant was fulfilled in the amount of $4,158. Again, all Miss >> Um, at the Yell, we funded a grant in the amount of $1,176 for a math subscription um that was submitted by Diane Bruno. This grant is to obtain four one-year subscriptions to the program mix and math 1 16 160 360. This is a high quality multifaceted resource for teachers that will enhance their ability to provide hands-on targeted instructions to fourth and fifth grade students. And then also at the yell at the middle

049school is uh Grant. Would you like to speak to that or would you like me to do it? >> Middle school. >> Mr. scene of that. >> So, at the middle school levels, uh, a grant was funded for unified uniforms for a total of 12 $1,200. This grant was submitted by Mr. Hayward, uh, Miss Mallister and Lily Williams. The Norton Middle School Unified Sports Program brings together students with and without intellectual disabilities to train, compete, and grow as one team. This grant will ensure that the unified athletes are outfitted with gear equal in quality and design to all other sports programs at NMS. And on a personal note, our unified program is just awesome. Um they do great work. It's so cool to see you could be whether it's basketball or boti or you know

050any of the activities that take place. It's something that you know a lot of our students get behind and it's just a great thing that brings a lot of students together. So it's awesome to hear that they'll have uniforms on par with the rest of our school games. So thank you to the Um, at Morton High School, we funded five grants. Um, first up is Matt Bushard and Rachel Patt, who requested a grant for $4,780 for a new cabinet saw that meets OSHA safety standards for the industrial arts works. Um, thank you very much for uh the grant. Uh, this really does provide the students with um the type of cabinet saw they would see in a real world environment, but it also upgrades the best-in-class safety. Uh, I have about 50 wood shop kits,

051so I guess you could say 500. Thank you, cuz they all still have their fingers negatively. Uh, if you guys are interested, I recommend you Saw Stop and looking at their technology. Basically, if a finger even touches the blade, it immediately drops into the song and stops. So, it's the worst you get is like I can come. So, it's it's it's amazing. Um, super excited about it. >> I was going to say in in funding the grant, we do research that I did see that it's pretty amazing. >> Yeah. They uh they they do the demo with a hot dog. >> Yeah. [laughter] But the guy who developed it and the owner of the company will put his finger on wood. He said he's done it and you can watch him do it on YouTube.

052It's crazy. So he really believes in technology. It's it's pretty amazing. >> And we had also um asked for from Jen Shirana's uh TV video class, we asked for a full set of uh cameras for the students to go out and do filming. Um, so you can imagine with a TV video class, not ideal to do filming with phone cameras. So, uh, need graciously funded over 6,000 almost $7,000 for a full, um, class set of cameras to be used in this TV video class. Um, so we are incredibly grateful for their unbelievable generosity. And so these kids have been doing some community work lately with helping officer Denn do some uh, videos around Alice training and evacuation. They're also working with Mr. McCoy currently doing some things around the CU Foundation with the toy drive

053and stuff. So, um these cameras are really going to be very very involved and very great for that class and we are like I said extremely grateful for their unbelievable gen. Additionally, Todd Kefir and Jennifer Young are collaborating to have students in semester 1 and two sculpture courses to be able to collaborate with cubing club members to successfully plan, develop, and deliver a public art installation to the annual Adabbor Arts Museum high art exhibition and competition. With a grant for $2,971, they will be building a frame for the mosaic cubing masterpieces, which will then be used after the competition to double their artistic exposure for years to come. And then lastly, Robin Miki will be adding two new pottery wheels to her art classes at NHS with a grant for $2,844. The potter's wheel is

054a high quality instructional material that offers a more advanced skill to clay handbuilding. Students will be able to create throne pottery and display it at the annual art show. And the last fun at NHS, Karen Denigan, uh was leaving a brand for just over $2,500 to obtain 30 new graphing calculators to be shared in math classes across grades 9 through 12. Um we can't do this without the support of the town. We are we get this much money from big donors. It's hustle, hustle, hustle. We're all working moms. We all have kids in the schools. Um and can't do it alone. So, we think the town of Warren um you think, "Oh, you know, you every time you get a pen in your driveway, you purchase an art to remember project. You drop off a

055bag of clothing for our savers drives, you participating in our big auction in the spring. Every time you do one little thing, you're helping us fund large amounts of money for these greenhouse. So, thank you. Uh thank you all for coming. It's it's impressive year over year how much you guys continue to help our staff. Um there's there's truly no way to say thank you to our staff but next we have Mr. Go see forum middle school. >> Greetings everybody. Thank you for having me here this evening. So once again I come to you as an annual tradition at this point. I believe this is our eighth year. Like I said I've lost track quite honestly. Um but we are taking our eighth grade students once again to New York City. Uh the date for

056this year's trip is Friday, May 29th. And so we are praying for awesome weather like we've gotten in the past. And so our itinerary generally speaking it's the same. And so we are you know you're looking forward to a great trip. It's it's always a very meaningful experience for our eighth graders who you know choose to participate. It's a long day but we're very fortunate to have you know pretty good participation rate. I think our participation rate usually is right around 80% students uh who choose to go. I think the students who choose not to go, it's really more about many of them tell me, well, I've been to New York City a bunch of times or, you know, I don't have any interest in going because I'm, you know, away that weekend or something

057like that. But really, the vast majority of students are excited about it. And I think now they've done it for as many years as you have, I think students just know it's something that they're going to be doing and they look forward to doing it. So, if anybody's any questions, Take a motion to approve a middle school trip to New York City. >> Thank you very much. >> Um I go back one second to we have to approve the amendment. Enter motion to improve the ask. All in favor? >> Uh, next we have the second reading and both background. >> Um, at our last meeting I presented uh policy 18A background checks to the committee. Um and what we were doing is we were adding um an additional component of our background check process um

058which is the story um the nationwide sex offender registry information. Um so anytime um we do a background check whether it's a new staff member or a parent volunteer we will now include that story component as well. And some of the questions that came up the last time were about like do we have to go back and now do background checks on anything as well. um Lori um daddy and actually we did in a webinar recently um access and be using the uh registry um and they run a batch file called current employees. So once this polic is approved, they'll run a batch file um and that would be um up to the date background information on all of our current employees and volunteers. So we want to be updated um right now for updated

059should be updated um as well. It's very interesting to me that I mean ultimately the Massachusetts is Massachusetts. So it's definitely important I think that we make sure that we have this aspect um maturity of all our students. Um I already seen this last minute. Can you just give us a what snapshot bringing in this exper kind of a background check process for what is what is everything much wrong and I guess why I'm asking this question just because like is there more interview is there like you might consolidate all this into one kind of >> so we do we'll we will now do the speaker number one we do the quy which um runs it's a it's a um real background, real history check um and that if you want to be a volunteer

060in our schools or want to work for us, you have to have that. Um they submit us, they submit a picture of their license, they fill out the form, it is run in our office. The majority of times they come back very very quickly. Um but until we receive your core val whatever whatever the situation is, you're not allowed building in that capacity until we receive that value. Um, everyone is also required to go through the national figure printing process. Um, it's $55. We go down um to typically US like a store. They even there sometimes they state you have to have your fingerprints done. Um, and so it's $55 if you're licensed by design. It's $35 for other um other employees. Um and so that is done as well and now we will have

061the solar as the same. So all three of these it's unfortunate because um the finger printing is mashed right so you get everything in the US um but sometimes that can take a little bit longer and it a little bit delay um but again hit start until we kind of check you out. Um is Massachusetts only sex >> I believe. Um no that's nationwide but the story is it's a nationwide taxation. >> So I guess my my question about I guess my question is from the two triple screen. >> So well so theoretically the fingerprints egg is your backup to the So if you are a volunteer, you just you're >> so what is the [clears throat] who runs that? >> They're all done in central office. So um all so Lauren Mazati runs all

062of those documents. Um so when we hire someone new um all of the onboarding court has actually finally now in 2025 done online. Um we were still doing a lot of the face of work up until a couple years ago. Um so they submit everything and that's just part of the onboarding process. Um if a parent is volunteering at one of our schools um the the front administrative will have them fill out the appropriate form. They'll do a copy of their license. They'll send it over to Lori. board starts. Um, and so then they are able to come back. Um, and I think a couple months ago, we actually had an issue where we were trying to get support done on um field projects to kind of close out some of the uh outstanding items

063and they had some starting to work and the board's process was so so slow. Every once in a while you dance for something that really makes but it's just always strange that happens right >> and then the fingerprinting thing. So does do we pay the fair >> district and then what is what do do we know what that like what happened? Yes. It's like okay the finger comes to it. >> Yes, we get a report. >> Yeah. >> So for every So for every single Cy or um fingerprinting that is done, I get a report on my desk for every single person and whether they come back if if somebody comes back and there's no um outstanding events because no historical offenses either um we'll just get a report that says it's this moment, right?

064the cover page is the ending of hating. Um and then in the middle you can see what is um what might be. >> So right now we can glory to think about trying to add stories >> and it's the story component is not required. Um, but from my perspective, if if you're not going to be getting this information from the cory process, I think that's a rather important that we add to our report. >> Yeah. And for Massachusetts, not saying this has happened, but someone was charged with crime in Wisconsin, moved here, didn't register the story was database that they would not hop on their hopefully. >> Fingerprinting on it would get is we're talking about >> have we ever this is definitely but have we ever looked at in terms of being able to

065do this in house and I don't even know if that's possible but I'm throwing it out there just simply because of what the police have from a standpoint of like main data mar is almost instant where like is that something that like G could prep is true and again there might be like a wall around >> there may be um and I I honest not really sure I don't know the department has capacity that help us in that way either um it's it's it's pretty light in terms of like you just send it through they they do the report it sends right um they'll say one woman the individual has to go and you get that >> well then there's shoulder people locally Yeah. And it goes like the money >> and I'm sure that

066you know whoever the company is that's doing it gets something and then the um the federal um fingerprinting national >> and then for volunteers mom both just >> it would be for but no >> no hand. >> Yeah. So I mean I do this right so I we don't have the national >> I don't all the fingering mature the finger printing definitely and the definitely the story is kind of something new from Massachusetts >> great thank Anybody else? >> All right. Entertain a motion to the meeting. >> So second. >> Yeah. All right. Next discussion. >> Um so there are just results of theft um last month. um so we were talking about actually February 7th we still pretty much running um and market for Asian budgets Um shoes I believe it's the 18th Monday

067the 18th is um meeting 8 weeks from that is Monday and the 23rd of March should be >> [clears throat] >> here. >> Oh, I'm sorry. This thing. >> Oh, May 18th. May 18th is town meeting. >> We have to send our budget to town hall 85, which is Monday, March 23rd. So, we have a meeting on the 4th and on the 18th at March. So we'll see recommendation in the budget. [clears throat] >> So meeting you will be volunteering it on the 4th as well. Yeah. >> And then the second >> um that's the budget workshop. Um some be done on Saturday morning and other bunch of the end of the meetings. um >> February 7th >> and then >> I mean I mean I I dealing around technology but I also think we

068probably try and blue and either chose to give you a little bit more information from the town in terms of what exactly [clears throat] >> you know I really going on here so >> we have received um documentation from the town in terms of their process they've already started their process >> um I believe all departments are required to submit their budget by um December 23rd um and I said that that that does not apply to us um our charter language is different than the rest of because at the end of the day it is the school committee that um the spin approves their budget recommendation and then leave it to um the town set. So um I have as I've shared with all of you as I've shared with my team I'm never going

069to bring to the table a budget that does not fully reflect the needs of our students and our schools. Um, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring you the budget that I think is what we need. Um, and I'm sure that we will be asked to determine from there. >> Okay. >> So far, Saturday morning was so far. So why don't we make that meeting with kind of a light agenda and then we can do the workshop. I mean obviously it's a public meeting of the committee. So anyone is welcome to attend it just like they would be on a Saturday. Um but we can make that a shorter agenda and we'll do the budget workshop on 11. >> Yeah, I think the workshop we never usually get surprised. >> Yeah.

070the meeting for the in January will be our first um presenting to and then we'll have difficulty >> and then the in terms of presenting to us be looking at the same ide you know six areas to look at there five schools plus central you know, perhaps just hey, there's your budget in November, >> and we'll ask the principles to attend on the 11th. Um, so that way they can answer specific um questions that people might have. Um, and and so Christine and I started budgeting weeks today. Um, we met with two departments um already and you know, I think people are being very conservative, which I appreciate and you know, some of the hard conversations gotten into, okay, we need to do this. where are we going to reduce in other areas to make

071it happen? So, um we will see how that goes. >> I didn't spend a lot of questions. >> No, I guess we'll just put it on regular sheets. We don't have to. >> Yeah. And then I mean we always have people out >> Yeah. But I was assuming >> yes. >> It is we have captain for spring. Um, so this is our class today. Um, it looks a little bit different because like so we put together just what would be anticipated for Saturday. Um, we will get more backup as it comes in. It was just a little early uh to get and we'll work on it all the votes but I'll put the FY27 um major made it in this exact format we just took and was submitted and you can benefit um so our

072first recommendation is for an upgrade to network inspection. Um I had quite a bit of help from Karen involved today explaining all this to me. um because it's a little bit confusing. So like this is very surprises which I think Paul explained it as the switches like the post office in your district and all of the traffic goes there and that's the switch and then communicates out there. So those are failing. they're being on um usually about 7 to 10 years and we're at 15. So it is um very costly which is why we are going to have the help of the fee rate which gave us% um so right now um just to give you an idea between I think it was 2020 skip 2020 skip um it was around $175,000 so we're guessing

073it's obviously going to be over an FDA. So, but they will reimburse the 50%. But we have to show the funding very similar to FTBA project. They have to show it um unlike them that reimburse you able to pay the vendor directly but they still have to show the funding say so right now compared to all of them. the vendors act walkers yesterday. So you would get that. >> Um the next one. >> So what is Ebagen? What does that mean? you want to talk about. >> So is a federal program and what they do from the government. Um we are a 50% district reimbursement. So it's a schools and library program. We actually get um 50% of our internet covered. So if it were to cost us $16,000 per year for internet, they actually

074paid $8,000 of that. Um whenever we look at doing like a big project like a Wi-Fi project or um another type of infrastructure, they we could put in for funding. And so because Norton um based on the free and reduced um lunches that students and families um going to fill out, we get 50% reimbursement. There are towns that get 20% reimbursement. There are towns that get cities that get 90% reimbursement. We fall right in the middle. um and that change like year to year, but as long as I've been here, um we have been a 50% district. That hasn't really changed in the 12 years that I've been in one. Um I will say that when I first got here, they were only um capitalizing on like the internet and back then it was phones

075too. Phones are no longer an option. Um it's just purely internet and um any type of uh like infrastructure or chat to that is what they call it. Um you get so much money per year like per 5year cycle and we're at the beginning of a 5year cycle. So once we use that kind of pool of money um and it's quite a significant amount like like we will have enough to cover the 50%. They'll they'll fund us for this. Um it's not like oh we're going to cross our fingers they will find us. Um it's just a matter of we're doing the walkthroughs with the vendors. Um it's very you know specific but you know it's 15 years. Um if you've noticed on some of the the uh school committee meetings um we've had drops

076um when I've recorded them that switches. Uh some of our staff might tell you uh we might have some lags and it's not bandwidth. We have plenty of bandwidth. It switches. It's all of the infrastructure that we've done over the years. Um what's happened is more and more of our schools rely on Wi-Fi. They're relying on the network. It's it's not just our boards and our our student devices and our staff devices. It's the cameras, it's the uh the door security systems, it's the uh heating um it's you know facilities now part of um the network. So we really >> go all five schools. Yes. And this again would be like next 10 year for another 10 years. >> Is there like warranties or anything on these things or >> Oh yeah. Yeah. >> And

077we get support built into that as well. Um but this we're really looking to build this out so that again when you're looking at a 10-year you know what can you anticipate for 10 years um I think Paul has been here for 20 some odd years and did an excellent job you know when you say these things don't usually last and it's they've lasted for 15 years so >> is this something that's that's full of like something that most Yes. Um so if the town were to you know need or require any type of uh infrastructure they could not be on this project with us because um only funds schools and libraries >> public library >> I'm sorry public library. >> Yes. >> It's definitely you can you can see it more now. I've noticed

078it like when you get on a Zoom call or you're at a Google meet like like a blind >> everyone else meets um it's definitely you're noticing it more often. >> Um and so it's like you know kudos to parents and their team for keeping us going for years. >> And this is I mean that let's just say best estimate 500,000. I'm hopeful. Uh I'm hopeful that it's 500,000 and that our town cost is 250,000. >> Is this a one time payment or is this something we can do over three years and we have done? >> I believe we can be a phased project. Paul, I don't know if you want to come over. >> Um, it it could be a phased in project, but the two biggest portions of the project would have to

079be phased on, which would probably be 70% of that budget anyway, which would be the high school middle school would have to go first and that's going to cost the most money. >> But is that how I mean I I hate famous. I think the is the huge other issues ex have a system that's from 2025 and our new system 2029 it's an in however would it go by school so like hypothetically if we did the middle school high school 2026 you know school in 2027 like is that how it would go or does it need to all kind of be connected onto one >> ideally it would be one shot >> yes >> and everything runs full speed now you uh just old equipment. I'm getting failures every day. I can I just sound

080because I'm not getting very powerful switches. Uh we patch that, you know, we just move things around and and make it work. >> And and thinking about just the status of the schools, I mean 12 15 years ago when switches were in, it was different. Um I mean, it it was just a different world. Then when we think about the JCS and just the the way that that building was wired and kind of set up I mean if you want to speak to this is kind of which yeah, you know even here the networks were built back in the late ' 90s mid '90s and things were just done total different. So you know you had to hop from here to there hop from here to there and it's just not ideal. I'm going to

081throw a question to him. If we reduce the amount of things on the internet, hypothetically at our elementary schools, took the Chromebooks away and other stuff, then this project becomes shipped. No, it's not going to matter. It's not going to matter. Doesn't matter how many devices we have. We just everything. So, think about all your access points go back to the switch. All the phones go back to the switch. All the security kits, everything you see touches network. It's just you can't get away from it from so [laughter] >> it's not a trap. It's just really saying yes or no like sometimes >> so building a project goes a cohort amount to bring it forward. So there are any specific lower but >> yeah and the other things that are on here are electricity I

082speak to them but um yeah >> um yeah so the next one we um our next one is the recognizement of the door access to Samantha or in high school. Um so I guess it was very existent. One of the buttons does not work when you get in. Um there's nothing. Um so and now both of them are not working on most of the time which we've got once in a while. So um those are outdated not operating. Um they work on right now we thought we got money to stay. we have in that these guys 25,000. So a little bit lower and then also in the last are second year these are high school techies that we got last spring or this fall and then the other checks on there just they wanted but

083we're not going to discuss it until the fall. So this is the challenge the second year capital um the replacement of the front door access system in the high school just kind of pop up pops up at the very know it was installed when the building we did the addition of the rental about 10 years old which to me seems like it should last long um and so but to me that's a school seat issue we can't have floors propped and we can't and we can't have people not be able to get in so it's you If you've ever been in the high school office on a in the morning, that place is placed. There are kids coming in now, staff members coming in, now parents. Um it is it is truly the busiest office

084that we have. Um and so something that wasn't on our radar is now one of now number two on our priority list for this. So, um, while we're going, we while we handed in this 10-year plan to, um, M town earlier today, students afternoon, um, we know, and I'm sure you guys all know this possible, and there are things that are going to go in and out. Um there are things that we can prevent there are things that we can only thing that kind of sticks out to it's more of like do we need it type of thing is being a onetoone all district we don't just have classroom >> so some of the software Um and again if you wear a certificate on the furn but um we have like um audio video class

085that uses specific um software. We have um some engineering classes that use a specific software that have to run on actual computers versus Chromebooks. So Chromebooks are always web based. So we have to install a specific software. We can't always do that. to like um and sorry I might be using data lingo for HTP it's not that okay it's not here anymore um >> we used to have and so that was like for engineering design those types of things so you can't put that software >> I was going to pass >> but I'm doing okay [laughter] and the only other one that I be in the garage building. Um, just looking ahead. Um, would that [clears throat] be something like I'm just I'm looking at this and saying, let me build. >> No, I agree.

086And like there's lawnmowers and there's a motor tractor. Yep. Like I don't know Jared might not be saying this but like would a grounds department in the town maybe of something of interest perhaps. >> So I I think I think that's that's why we have these things on this list because um it's important conversations. So if we retain our our grounds every one of our grounds equipment, there are things that are going to be closing, right? Um that garage behind senior center is not a seat and I have nothing and it's you know the wear is there over there. So um they're on here um to have to have this conversation. So I guess time on that one too if we I assume you can just don't tell me to get lost. Um so I

087assume if we go out for a John Deere tractor we get the same price as like >> Yes. And it's all off the state list. So it's not um they don't get a better price because they're town versus >> No. No. [laughter] Yeah. Hold on. Um I just had a quick question. So if we I see the tech switches in FY27, but again they're come back again, but it's upgrade network infrastructure in FY34. What it's it's different. So it's like seven years out gosh. So I was like why are we doing this again? And that was the exact same thing. so that we don't go this 15 year that we shouldn't have that. And then we looked around the room and said, "We're still going to be here for 10 [laughter] years." >> We will

088be I guess. >> Yep. [laughter] Sometimes I feel a broken record. Don't do cat. I feel like we get this in one meeting. Try to go through all these things. vote on it. We don't even know how much things are going to cost us. >> Yeah. And I would not vote on anything after FY27. >> Yeah. But like even FY27, are we talking $750,000 for these switches? We're talking $400,000. >> What's our what's our thing to the town? I hate voting on things without knowing numbers. Um and again, I understand the the town needs him. You know, I'm sure the town the new town manager maybe it's doing a little sooner than has been and so on and so forth. But like I feel like we need to start covering capital back in September so

089we can get these questions done because there's a huge thing on here that Mel's thought about that's going to be probably about one two million probably $2 million. It's going to be a replacement of chars. >> That's another conversation that we've had that we actually had today um in terms of um our athletic revolment account and the fields account. Um, and so we can actually present it to you, maybe we'll be at a meeting in January about what the balance of that account looks like. Um, and so and I had a conversation about where we want that account to be. um because we know we're going to have to you know turn the you know >> and again make this policy fall for those >> but like I would just love to see what we

090have done what we're looking to do what our projections are we know things are going to come up school safety is number one that if that thing has to be moved on to the capital project they're going to move on to the capital project just as if the kids are open they're going to do the same exact But like I want to see it like we just need to have a little bit more. I don't even think it's detail. It's just a little bit more of a clearer picture of here's what we have done. We were requesting this last year. It was in yellow last year. We're now turning it to red. Now we're really seeing hey this is green. We know this is coming of you know tech switches in 10 years a field

091you know retitling something whatever that can be green. We've done a good job maintaining it. It's now in yellow. But we need to set this up so that we can actually plan and have a clearer picture of exactly, you know, um what things cost. And I think the other the other issue that I really have is like I feel like we missed out on a few opportunities simply because like the town approved every single capital project of the last 3 years. So like should we have been putting more stuff in? Should we have been like, "Hey, this isn't yellow. If we got $30,000, we can check this off the list now. The town has the funding. Let's do it." So but a lot now prior to the three years >> but we can this is

092the town we can have our own >> and we can give you our own in our own is just a little bit more funky right now trying to get it to a 10 year um another thought was like say you discussed September going to capital fall one um kind of like we need to get in those and then this little comes up very quickly. We said we finally got that we did October with Randy contract getting that ball rolling and then all of a sudden we stand. So maybe in September when we discuss the fall at the same time we discuss spring I'm just going to do it all together maybe that >> I'm not even against like do a budget from Sean just do a couple like I don't know like that way everyone

093kind of can understand we have a little bit more information than you know >> not for nothing but a few memories on a piece of paper being like oh we might have these projects coming you know and I'm not saying that's for this year I'm just saying and I I know that 10 years from now Yeah. Trying to project the limit, but a 3 to 5 year window is intend I think was a little bit more manageable than um well >> accurate >> I think. Um and so we could definitely do that. Um we also can bring back around our others in the past that was social safety teaching and learning. We have like original gag is one of the >> Oh my god. Um I'm assuming everyone. >> Yes. So everyone has the exact

094same sheet and like we could go through and we could look at okay what does EMW ask for? What did fire as well? So you can see everything. >> Um the other thing that I think is important for us to remember is that um we typically have more luck at the fall time in our capital than we do in the spring because in the spring we're trying to b we're trying to get the actual fiscal budget for the big school year. We don't know what our free cash is really going to look like as much. In the fall there's a big problem every year. So that we we tend to um do well at that time. But again, I don't know if that speech either. >> Um update. >> Um yes. >> I believe it's

095I think they were out there um before. Yeah, >> I'll I'll get you guys and I'll take 35. >> Yeah, >> I mean I we're >> we don't have any deadlines. We're very sniff so early. Yeah. >> Yeah. And it doesn't mean >> Yeah. >> And I mean that's true assuming that a little bit too but hypothetically a door here falls off in place. >> That's something we did with emergency put on March. >> Sorry. >> Well, that's what happened to the uh the elevator. >> Yes. Yeah, that is >> and that's I mean you could look at this correct you know uh John Deere track >> well if that has a catastrophic failure it's our only one >> like this to me just looks like a generalized 10 years the things we would anticipate

096because they're being proactive like that's why you see the network switches twice because it should be 10 years not 15 to 17 years no I mean I think this is just to me this is like something he's just trying to be a little more efficient But you know, as we all know, schools can't can't really do more than five minutes. I wasn't even thinking to find out as we all >> and you know, the town does have, you know, emergency funds like for some reason. We needed that. It's the whole conversation about the middle school roof when the apartment building and the finance committee said if you need money to fix the middle school roof to get you through the winter, let us know. Not that finance committee. for your receipt so to speak and

097local. I think that >> All right. Next, we have the student assessment data. >> Now, Mr. Sch in. Do you want to for us to have all that info or do you want to do this tonight? and >> a scope of sling with me. I think we might as well follow it. >> Okay, cool. >> And then >> ask. >> Yeah, go out next. >> Wonderful. >> So, I want to just take a little bit of time and just share with the committee the results of our student achievement sess last year. to give everybody a little bit of background. Um, we've been a busy place doing a number of things over a number of years. So, we've had IMTSS of their schools now for over four years. We're currently in the third year of a

098number of curriculum adoptions. Um, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to read them off to you, but um, we've been busy at all three levels. And in fact, this year we're going to be looking to add additional math materials at the high school and additional uh, science materials at the middle school. Um, so we continue to have an active and ongoing curriculum adoption process. Additionally, we always pair our curriculum materials with professional development. So, uh, Tom had mentioned this earlier this evening with, uh, the LGN. We had high impact teacher teams this year with a large cohort of administrators, principles, and teacher leaders to really look at the power and efficacy of teachers working together and focusing on the most important data, which is work that we're going to continue throughout this year. Additionally,

099we have um uh an offering of English language learner 3D at all five schools. In elementary, we're focusing on in reading and this year we brought a board for tier 2 and tier three spire which is a reading intervention system that has a strong evidence base behind it. At the high schools, uh we are continuously updating our curriculum maps. uh over the last year and a half, we've created an intentional time for the middle and high school to come together to talk about longitudinal connections, content, and curricular connections. Uh as I had mentioned earlier, we're looking at math and science, science at the middle school, math at the high school, and um we have formed uh thanks to uh Karen and a number of folks the artificial intelligence um district task force and we hope

100to begin for our high school folks professional development later this year. And for each of our early release days when we have professional development, we almost always build in dedicated teacher time to take the new learning and unpack it together. So, I wanted to focus this evening, I think it came from, it may may have been Nick, I don't remember um from where, but a little bit more information about our STAR assessment. And basically, our STAR assessment is a nationally normed assessment. And what that means is we compare Norton students, students across Massachusetts, and then across the country to get a really large data set as a basis of comparison. So it's a good progress check for us as a basis of comparison across the state. It's given three times annually, beginning of the year,

101middle of the year, and the end of the year. And we are a bit of an outlier. Our students begin kindergarten and actually take STA all the way through grade 10 in both math and EL. So star is really important because it gives us a longitudinal piece of data that can help us identify and support our struggling learners. It also tracks progress over time. So if a student begins their time in Norton, we can follow them with star data all the way through 10th grade. And it really helps our teachers to look at what the star score says, what their classroom data says, and then for students that may be in the intervention process to have another data point to talk about the next steps in service. Frank question just think I know the answer,

102but student a in bridge one take that up. Can we can you request their results from K through and then see if like we're seeing more progress as they come in on them? It would be difficult because there would be student privacy around that data. Um and STAR is proprietary. >> Okay. >> Um that was tough. >> So one really important measure on star is something called student world percent time. And what that does is it measures a student's progress over time in a percentile basis. Percentile from one all the way to 99. A student that is at the 47th percentile scores at or the same as 47% students across the country. When we talk about that and then we reference that with the large percentiles, we look for students that are growing typically and

103that falls at the 35th percentile or above or high growth which is the 70th percentile above. That's really our goal and our intent around benchmarking is to identify students that perhaps are below that 40th percentile to give them additional help via IMCSS. And the district benchmark that we're using this evening really is designed for that purpose to identify students that may need additional intervention. So student growth is really important because every student that comes to us and walks into a classroom has a different skill level. So this is kind of our applesto apples comparison. And what we look for as educators is one year worth of growth during one school year. That's really an important piece of how we look at growth. So the first table I want to show you is the star SGP

104in English language arts by school from the fall of last year to the end of last year. So this over here on the right is the percentage of students at our schools that took these assessments that are either at or above typical math. >> So Brian, should I say spring of 25? It's fall. We took the Yes, it should. Yes, my bad. >> I was reading that and I was like, >> "Yes, but >> it should say uh spring 25." >> So, so when we seen LG North K through obviously >> that is last year's 24 25. >> Yes. Got it. Yes. Okay. >> And then when we look at fall 24, it should say thank you Nick 25. These are are by school percentages of students at or above typical growth which again I

105think we always strive for improvement but this does show progress for our students. So I guess one of my questions like LG Norris, right? And and I think this is where my question from my email came from is 78% of our students at LG Norris ELA are testing on STAR at or above typical grade >> of last year. That seems probably really good. >> Taking that guess I don't know if that's for sure or not. >> If you compare that what this is where I was talking about with the state Yeah. >> is like okay it sounds good. 78% good or is 78% in the middle? Is it low? Like where are we? Cuz that that's where I was kind of saying like sure, what do we look for in Massachusetts? What do we look

106for dark? What do we look for? >> I think I think when you have the majority of your kids making typical or above typical growth, that's a strong positive sign. The goal is I personally I'd love to see everyone at 80 and above. Um but that's a high aspiration. But as long as you're seeing students make progress over time, I think that gives us some positive data. Got it. And then I don't even know if we can answer those questions. I think if we could, we would try to fix it. But like LG 78% in ELA and for percentage wise, they're our best school, but then come math, they go down to 56 57.6. And that's where one data point is always interpreted with caution. Mhm. >> It's valuable. It's important because having almost 60%

107of your students at or above is still a solid metric, one we always want to increase, but that is just one data point. Um even though in the overall version, >> yeah, I just I guess when I look at this from from ELA and by school, the Sony school goes from 73 to 63 10%. Okay. Middle school goes from 66 to 63 in math. The yellow school stays right around the same. High school stays right around the same. But a massive drop at alge. So it's just like again I don't know if we know the answer exactly. You know, you know it's just bad class with math. I mean in both it really it really honestly could be any because it is one one data point and over one year and the growth itself is

108is still excuse me the percent is still pretty strong. Okay. The next one I wanted to show you is then this breaks it down by grade. Um, so that's fall. Again, should say fall 24 to sprain 25. That's my ball. Um, but again, if you're looking at those grade levels going all the way from two up to grade 10, those numbers are pretty solid. Do you also think it's safe to say as they get older they're starting to realize that this is a standardized test and I don't really care about them and there's no real grade on them so they don't >> I I think there's some function to that. >> Yes. I I I would say that um but I do >> uh and then why don't we have K and one on it?

109So, kindergarteners take something called STAR Early Literacy, okay? Which is a different text subject and then some grade one students also take early literacy. So, it's hard to get the apples to apples comparison. And this next table shows fall uh I should say fall to spring. So our SGV being that and again similar the percentage of students at or above typical growth is is solid. I think we want to obviously always be on the high end of that. Um but that you know I think that's helpful to us. So this is a super busy table. So I just want to take a moment to explain it. So if you go over to grade two, these results here are actually for students who took this in grade one. These are current grade two students. So this

110represents for ELA the percent of students in grade two that were at the fall or above the fall one benchmark. And then that blue represents the percentage of these students who are now in grade two, but these are grade one scores that were at or above the district benchmark in the spring of 2015. So what we hopefully want to see is we get growth from blue to red. Red. >> Yes. Red. Thank you. Give us this. Where the yellow falls in are those students. So these are current grade four students who took the MCCAST in grade one. So that is it's the star data juxtaposed to MCCAST data all the way through the relevant grades from two to current grade 11 students. But these are results from grade. I'll just give you a minute to

111take a look at that. And then similarly on the next slide is the D course. So again, if you're looking at the fall benchmark, the spring benchmark, and then for those grades or students that took MCCAST the previous year, they're at or above proficiency level. So we know with MCAST data, it's a little bit sticking because of the ballot question last year. Um there's been a ton of work that's gone back and forth. Um you know there's all all new like graduation guidance from from Dassi because obviously they can no longer mandate MC pass. So that's had a a little bit of a sticky effect for us. But what I'd like for us to just take a look at is to focus on grade level cohorts. So that's following students longitudinally. And again we want

112to focus on that with So this is the middle to high school ELA cohort data starting with students that were in grade six in 2021 which again was a wonky mere test following them through seven and 8. They didn't test 9 and then grade 10. So overall in the meet and exceeds over a 4-year period we're up slightly for the middle of high school math cohort data. Um again it's it's about it's relatively similar from from 21. Um we have seen some increase overall from those students. Um but it has been you know relatively consistent. Then our elementary to middle ELA cohort we've seen a nice growth in the exceeding category. And then looking at our elementary to middle math cohort, we've had a little bit of a drop, which isn't to be totally unexpected

113because we have had two new curricular programs. So there sometimes is a little bit of a implementation what they call an implementation dip. And then for our E elementary ELA cohort, we did um have a little bit of a decline, but again that I think comes from a new program that takes a couple of years to embed the language and the routines and instructions. And the last cohort slide is the elementary math cohort data. And again, a little bit of of decline, but again, I I really do believe some function of that is curriculum, new curriculum materials, and again, having some changes may impact laws. So, just kind of summarize the data, I think looking at SG, we're making some progress. I think all five of our schools have a majority of students that are

114at or above typical growth and many having high growth and there's some positive movement in the middle high school MCAST math cohort. Um again, MCCAST is one measure. I know it's complicated. We always want our scores to go up and we did see some cohort moves that they haven't decrease. Again, we take this data seriously. We're going to continue to focus on all of our students, implement our instructional materials of accompanying PD, circling back to the high impact teacher teams to really look at the data that matters most in leveraging the expertise of our teachers and continue to have ongoing longitudinal connected professional development that also gives teachers time to assimilate. I know that wasn't as much fun as phon never [clears throat] >> I think it's really interesting um to see this together as

115you believe our audience um I'll be able to see some but it's really interesting because the anecdotal conversations that I have with the teachers specifically around math program the program Um great example u Mrs. Phillips who's a teacher where at GCS was probably last year and so I was happen to be in her classroom couple weeks ago and she said it's amazing to me to see the difference in number sense and the understanding of math from this year's group of students because I wasn't very much here and I wasn't here to see what it looks like kind of building the group. So um I think M and is obviously getting a lot of negative there's a lot of conversations that are happening around the benefit of the assessment. There's a lot of conversations I think

116about you know how much effort you tend to put in. And so I think that for Brian showing some star data and in comparison to MPS data I think that's really important for us cuz we say all the time it's one and um hearing from teachers and kids about what's actually happening. It's just really powerful. Um the negative of that is that the state is still judging us on MC and they will continue to judge us. There is no plan at this time to move away from um so it's it's definitely frustrating. Um I know that there's a lot of educators that are track control and my role but we've been working on seeing that in cooperation with the plan about the need for um other measures assessments. Yeah, I think it's the data point.

117I've read book spoken right now for three and a half years to see how our students are doing is the hardest thing to judge simply because one bird's eye view or 50,000 food. We're not daily in the classroom. It's like we kind of see the kids go from first grade, second grade to, you know, eighth grade to nth grade, whatever. We kind of just see that progress, but we never really know how they're actually doing. So when we get the MCAST data and we're seeing the MCAST stuff and then obviously now that the star to me the more data we get on what's happened very and I think ultimately being one of the people who you know sat on this committee approving new programs for lots of lots of money to the town to me

118it's very important to say hey okay you picked this curriculum you know we had the curriculum team and teachers and that and we're hoping to you know by approving this we're hoping that this is supporting our students we want to make Sure, it's actually important for students and then if five years kind of like hey pivot maybe this isn't right for us like you need to use exactly this type of information >> just like that and again I get around bringing that standardized testing and even the star stuff it is not the greatest it's not the best thing in the world but that's all we did you know and then that makes it very tricky to kind of see and compare and and know hey you know where is you know I've obviously looking at

119all the results you know going back to the MCAST when it first started matter in 2003 I've gone through the desk website and gone through exactly where we've always been we've kind of always floated above state and you know over the last give or take seven eight years we've kind of dimpled a little and now this is concerning again to see like it looks like we're falling behind even more yet are we actually falling behind where is the state you know and that's why I think bringing in star data is also important because again that gives us now two data yep whole state came down we were you know state average last year we're state average again this year you know hey look at the star data we're doing better in these you know and

120then we can kind of start maybe taking a wild guess of like all right how do we make the cast still mean what's being driven from admin to principal to teachers to home to students but What's that connection saying? Hey, you are going to take the MS. It is important. We need you to do well on this test. How do we get our parents and our community members also involved in that? And what does that cost to them? We are one of the new districts with regard to our what the policies. We're asking our high school students to sit at the end. There are other places that are not asking for that at all. So I I think we're trying to keep it in a complete level of of um you know fidelity to to

121the metric whereas it is true there's mixed vestage really everywhere um and we're still waiting for a little more specificity we stay on well um because when that ballot question asked Jesse had a whole new reconfiguration >> um and then I guess like you know obviously next steps I feel like we hear these a lot like focus on the whole student. How what does that mean? I feel like we've been focus on the whole student for the last four years. So like are we doing anything new? Are we looking to be like wait a second maybe I'm making this up again but its maybe that's not the best thing we're going to go are we going to pivot? Are we looking at you know what are we doing from anal standpoint but kind of what

122is the focusing on a whole soup? We've been doing focusing on a whole soup for the last four years. Our testing scores seem to be trickling down if you want to that way compared to state averages I should say like focus on the whole student how what are we going to do how are we going to make this better so I think some work this year um this summer we did the ID impact teacher students um passions development circles all those principal roles are central office team and all of teacher leader roles so active coordinators team leading the middle school leaders And that all focused around looking at student. So when you think about things like what um it really focuses on looking at student data and using data from the classroom daytoday to make

123educational decisions about where students are going to be. >> Um so that work has been very beneficial that um it's part of our strategic plan as well when it talks about um creating data systems data protocols for schools. So that's been really helpful and um a lot of our schools are doing a bit more ground. When you say work with the whole child, we mean more than just so um our attendance needs in each of our buildings. If a student is not here at school and they're going to have a hard time keeping up with the learning that's being presented on. So that's really important. um if a student is having um mental health issues or social functional things and they're not available supports and how can we meet them where they are and help

124them um to be ready to take on this challenges um and and so a lot of the the work in professional development um I remember having conversation with Dr. I had a I mean they wrote first roll and be badass but it's like it's taking you a long time both yeah it takes a long time to do the whole thing so it's you know if you do you want it done or you want it done is what I said with Joe and so I think that IMCSS process is a multi-year one and the the hit scenes which every time people like squad focus >> um but that's our next step on behind CSS is really giving teachers specific phone calls and calls about how to look at data and what to do. When do you

125really dive in and look at data across all of your grade level classroom? It doesn't have to be just star assessment or just like at that point it's over like what assessments do we have of you on a dayto-day basis where we can say okay I gave this exit ticket at the end of the class yesterday and I'm going to now pull these five kids this morning they clearly didn't get it and we're going to do a small group why next time and giving teacher permission to to do that to stop and pause for a minute and say these things that we need to do. And I also think it comes down to building tools, right? Um one of the conversations we had the other day about um classroom placement at the elementary level and

126how when I was classroom teacher, I got a certain type of kit every single year. They said general works really well in this type of if your picture goals into that area, then you're not building your tool like your tool kit to say, you know, we need to have her work with this, you know, profile student this year. so she can develop that and then that way you're building capacity of teachers. We tend to pitch people um and it's it's not good for professional growth and it's not good for kids either. So it is really important that we're looking at what types of training are providing to our staff so that they can have the confidence to make these success and um how many hours of professional development are would be required to provide teachers

127or how many I guess hours also required to like so ask as districts and you're not required to buy a certain remember um when a teacher is going to reertify they need 150 ft peaks was not it's a 5ear cycle 150 peaks um and so that they need specific professional development points in certain areas so like you need a certain and I I'll be really honest I can't say the numbers off right it used to be like 30 of them had to do with content or I need a pedigogy or vice versa and now they also need to have 15 that are retargeting special education 15 L's. Um so they need that but they can get those in a lot of different ways. So they can see they can earn credits by taking their graduate

128course. They can earn credits by the professional development that we offer here in district. Some of our um more individ um going to a workshop, going to a conference. There are a lot of different ways that they can earn those. Um, but we are not obligated by the CEO by a certain number. We are just all we're required to provide fresh. And so the reason we started a number of years ago was to be able to provide teachers with professional development that align with our strategic goals in a way that is cost effective. So instead of hiring someone to come in and do professional development on universal design for learning for 300 staff members, we've, you know, we offer all these little different types of workshops that people um couple years ago we did year-long

129books that we spent. staff could choose from how many areas 21 22 probably 15 to 20 different offerings of all the admin. So like on instead of on stage you might without high school together without school you're all learning about something that's tied to our strategic goal getting creative for us. I'm just thinking with all of the things around professional development and it's important but it's also time that kids are not in the classroom and I'm wondering if there needs to be a shift perhaps in the new some more divisor instead of once a month So I don't I think one of the strongest tools we had was our coaches, >> our curriculum coaches. So I Shia is at the back. She was our um elementary um reading coach. Mr. Be was our elementary math

130coach. And one of the best things was that they attended every PLC and they would go to PLC's and they would look at data with classroom teachers and then they would push into the classroom to what's once oh professional learning. So our teachers meet once a week um usually three times a week sorry three times a month for course year um and it's part of their 35 additional hours of their lunch before school or after school. um and is centered around instructional um practice. And so she would do that and then they would push it to the classroom and they would coeach a lesson teacher or they would help teacher look at their student data and say okay what's our plan for these over here and the skin um these things over here are like

131totally what could we that they would also help to facilitate the um grade level intervention box. So sometimes that was, you know, helping states plan, sometimes that was groups. Um, so when we lost those positions in the spring of 24, we lost a lot of that building, which was really valuable. And so, you know, Dr. Arian is one person is overseeing curriculum and instruction from page 12 um, in all subject areas. And you know that's capacity those types of things. And you know some of our principles are really really good at instructional leadership and others. I sent a quick email today. Um I'm just taking the data but stay dark. >> Yeah. >> All right. Uh next we have update on the logistical. Yes. >> Um okay. Thank you all. I'm happy to um welcome

132Dr. Ross Fever tonight. Um Ross is down in I believe New Jersey as he's joining us virtually. Um can you hear us? Okay. >> Yeah, I can. >> I'm just trying to get my video on here. There we go. >> Push the button once. >> We're just going to turn you off a little bit louder. >> I can hear you. >> You need me to be a bit louder? No, I think it's the um I think it's the system we have here. I just need it to be a little bit louder. So, we're working on that. Wouldn't mind just one second. >> I will use my outdoor voice. >> Thank you for joining us tonight. >> My pleasure. Um what I'd like to do before I start, I'd like to share my screen. So, I

133need permission to do that. >> Okay. Working on that. All right. >> Um, okay. You can now Can you see my screen now? >> I can see a I think a moon. >> I'm gonna make It's It's >> Hang on a sec. Um, slideshow beginning. Okay. So, um, again, can I'm trying to I I am sharing, but can you guys see it? we can only see your desktop, but we have the presentation here. So, if it's easier for you to just see us um and then we can move the slides forward, we can do that for you as well. >> Okay, let me just try let me try sharing one more time. Um >> if not, I'm absolutely willing to have you back. Just give me a second here. Stop share. Okay. Share um screen

134two. >> Yes. No. >> Thank you. >> Does it is is this is this working for you? >> Yes, it is. Thank you. >> Okay. Great. Okay. So, first of all, good evening everybody. Um um you've had kind of a long long afternoon into evening. So I will try not be boring. Okay. I'm keep my voice moving so I don't put anybody to sleep. So anyway, having said that, uh what I want to do tonight is kind of a brief overview as to where we where where we've been, where we are, and where we're going in terms of this project. So just um first the first slide. Okay. And here here were the tasks that that were part of this this project. First was to develop a 5-year enrollment projection using the cohort survival method.

135Um which is cohort survival just is the way of of of projecting students based upon live births attributed to the community. Kindergarten students who come in five years later to develop an average between kindergarten and births five years before. and then a fiveyear history of the um of the actual enrollment in the district and averaging that out and using that average to project forward. That's the cohort method. Uh so that was the first thing we did. The second thing we did was conduct a facility utilization analysis to assess the impact that enrollment changes may have on school capacity. So what we do is we take the projections, we tie them into the instructional space in each of your buildings and then and and move that out five years to say okay here's where we are

136now, here's we going to be 5 years from now in terms of instructional space and then uh we create a data infrastructure to evaluate the existing school boundaries and evaluate any concerns that may result from enrollment changes. In other words, what we're taking a look at is how does the projections how do the projections impact the facility and does that facility does that impact require us to do other things to um either equalize um enrollment or program or that kind of thing. So that's kind of the direction that we that we go in. Um this next slide really talks about the relationship that I just spoke about. Okay. The basis of any of these studies is enrollment. That tells us where you are and where you're going ahead and then that gets applied to the

137facility. Again, as I said, taking the projections, spreading them out over the numbers number of instructional spaces we have in each building and then finally seeing if this would have any impact on school boundaries, school attendance zones. So that's the overall approach that we take. Okay. So now what have we done to date? Well, as I said, we did the enrollment pro the initial enrollment projections. Uh we did initial student geocoding and boundary development and I'll show you that in a minute. We visited uh this we we site visited all of the school buildings and that's been done. Then along with the projection the housing the the enrollment projection based on births and history. We also t take a look at how any potential new housing construction might impact future enrollment. And that gets tied

138into the long range projection. And then from all that, we go back and review what we found and update any of the tables or anything that we need anything that we need to see in regards to how all of these things are impacting instruction. Okay. So, geocoding. So, this is this is a map. This is a district-wide map. Each dot that you see on the map represents a student geocoded to their home, their residential or parcel address. Okay? You can see that there is um density, a lot of density in the northwest part of the school district, but because most of your school because schools grades 4 through 12 um serve all students, they will flow through that. And the centrality of the of these schools, the high school, the middle school, and and is

139Yelli the right way to pronounce it? Yeah. >> Okay. And and and those these so these three schools with everybody attends, they're all centrally located. So it doesn't make um doesn't create major impacts on transportation. >> Okay. [clears throat] Okay. Now, what you're looking at here, you're looking at the um the Norse and the Salom. Salami. Get them on. Close enough. >> Or do >> or JCS >> Okay. So, um you can see that the two boundaries aren't the same size, but that's because Sony is a bigger school. So, that that that that generates the size of the attendant zones. Um where you know, and that and it also having these boundaries also does limit limit the impact on transportation. So, we've geocoded all of the kids to the map. We have them in place.

140We can count them in zones. We can count them in boundaries. Okay, this is um a a a distribution of all of the um K5 students across the district. So, it's a good spread. Um and again, in our analysis doesn't have any major impacts, negative impacts on on we call it logistical structure, most simply transportation. So that so that was our initial analysis based on student locations and things like that. So now and that was the first setup. So the first setup was to do the to draw the boundaries and to geocode the kids. Make sure we have everybody located properly on the map. So when we do counts that the counts are accurate. So now we take a look at some of the projections. So this is a district-wide projection. The gray is the

141historical enrollment. The color is the projected enrollment. So we kind of take a look at at at these things. We take a look at the the K3. Okay, it's the base year was 564. The ed the the last historical year that we're using which is the current school year was 657. And then as you take a look, these are the projections come out. And as far as kindergarten enrollment is concerned across the district, it's level. I mean it there's a you know a slight a slight bump over here but over the course of the um of the five years of the projection the enrollment is pretty steady same for grade four and five yellow school again there is some fluctuation but it stays within a reasonable amount and our assessment is looking at these numbers

142don't cause us any alarms in terms of of facility distribution of kids and instructional space again middle school um middle school very steady, just a couple of bumps here, but again, not enough of a bump to really have an impact on um on facility. And finally, the high school, same kind of thing, 662 to 663. So over the course of the 5 years of projection, it comes back to where it was in the first year of the projection. And again, some fluctuation here, but nothing terribly critical. So that that that's was what what this represents us that m no matter what we recommend or what you do almost everything will h well everything should have sustainability. In other words whatever decisions you make now should last over a you know a fairly long period of

143time. We're saying 5 years but looking at these numbers it would probably be considerably longer than that. Okay. So now here's the Norse enrollment and again kindergarten near your numbers no major fluctuations there. Um grade one same kind of thing. Grade two little bit of fluctuation high here little bit lower here a little bit higher here and then kind of steady going out. So again Norse show stability. It did have some it did have some increases enrollment in the past, but it looks like using the projections going out this tool looks like it's it's it's it's stable in terms of enrollment. So now, so I'm going to try and explain this because sometimes it the terminology may confuse me. So when I talk about we're looking here at at taking a look at at target

144class sizes and we're looking at two variations of target class sizes. So one we're calling lowend and that low end it's it's a low-end target of class size. So on the low end we're looking at a target class size of 18 students at K1 and 20 students at grades two and three. So that would be the the targeting the lower end of of of of enrollment of enrollment. The high end uh uses 22 students at K and one and 24 students at grades two and three. So let's take a look at at how that works. If we're taking a look at the high-end over the over and targeting that class size at those high-end numbers um 20 uh 22 and 24 across the board we're taking a look at three CL of three classrooms at

145each grade level and that but that's what we're looking at three class at that grade level. If we look at the low end which lowers the class sizes and it make it makes perfect sense the lower the class size the more rooms you may need. So if you take a look up here where almost we have the majority of the of the grade levels the majority of the grade levels in each of the years require four. So in most cases it exceeds the number of rooms by one. There's still a couple that remain at three or they're actually one two five that remain in three. The rest are at four. So what this shows you the difference between um higher higher class sizes and lower class sizes and and based on your instructional space you

146guys can make a decision where you want where you want to target. Do you want to take the class sizes down? Do you have enough room to increase the number of rooms by grade levels? Um do you need to do you want to maintain the current the 20 the higher the lower end which is the 22 to 24. This helps you guys make a decision in terms of how you want what kind of policies you want to set with regard to class size. So our initial assessment of enrollment projections and class size targets that we will need between 12 and 16 rooms again depending on class size. Now this is also important to note too and it's it's it's important to our method methodology. There were no provisions made for for the different for breaking

147out special needs students. There are two reasons for that. First of all, not all special ed students require a a a specific classroom. So, self-contained students, yes, but their mainstream special needs students, they they stay with they stay in general ed classes and maybe get pulled out for resource, get pulled out for some kind of help. But the bottom line is that all of these students, general ed and mainstream special ed, require a seat in the general education classroom. So what we do is we we tal we calculate how many of those rooms we're going we're going to use to meet the needs of special needs of of of gened and mainstream students. And then we take a look at the the individual programs that exist for self-contained students. And we we make sure we

148we make sure that in building this stuff before we do anything like boundary change or anything like that or move programs around that after we program in the mainstream the mainstream special ed and gened students that we have classrooms that are available to to put to self-contained special students. And um I haven't looked in detail at your classifications yet, but you know, every uh every different every every classification may require a different maximum class size. For example, um a autistic children may require probably can't exceed more than a six in a classroom and there will probably be a teacher and be a so you need a full-size class. um learning disabled children um who need to be self-contained can go to a higher number maybe 12 to 15 um I'm not exactly sure of the

149uh of the state guidelines on that but u typically um uh autistic children are around 6 to 8 and typically LD children are around 12 to 15 we want to make sure for those self-contained children there is space in their home school so we don't want to be or or wherever their program is located so they remain in that school throughout the course of their um going through the school district. So that that kind of gives you an idea though of the difference between um between going to the high end the high end which is the 22 to 24 or the low end which is the 18 to the 18 to um to 20. And um this is also this is also a a thing to take a look at. Okay. Um if if we

150look at at these at these charts, okay, this is a line of 20. If you take a look at um our projection using the the low-end target, okay, we come up above the we come up above and don't have a whole bunch of space. Uh I'm sorry. Yeah, the low-end target. We have we come up to here and we have no room above 20. And what's significant about that is that let's take a look at let's say this um this this grade in um in 2025 next year, right? So if we're using a target of 24, right? And so that means that vertically if we got if we received new students, in other words, students coming in, we could take this all the way up to here. We can go between 16 and 24. So

151we have room for eight students in that grade level. So so this gives So all of these show indicate room for growth. There's a little bit of less space here, but the bottom line is that with the high with the low with the low end uh we we create room we create vertical room and the vertical room being the difference between the target and the actual. And that's what this represents. When we go to the um high end, the high class size, what you see here is that we don't have a whole lot of space for growth. At at 18, we have a little bit of space here, a little bit of space here, some space here, a little bit of space here. So, at this at this level, okay, the difference between the target

152and the actual gives you little room for growth, which means that um let's say you're in a you're at um in a kindergarten and you're at Well, let's take a different number. Let's say this this grade level, okay, exceeds exceeds the tw the um the 20. Okay. The Yeah, the 20. That means that if you if if you want to keep that that number at the at the 18, all right, you probably have to open up another classroom. You have to probably have to split this. So again, the the the the highend [snorts] lower class sizes gives you less flexibility. Okay. Um and so decision so one of the decisions that has to be made is that if you want to target low-end we do the assessment of how many spaces how many instructional spaces

153are available in the room what impact it has on teaching staff. In other words in other words if you start to split split grades because of of of any access coming in. Um do you open up another classroom? Doesn't mean hire another teacher. I'm not saying anything that like that's a bad thing. I'm just telling you what it is. So, more flexibility on the low end, less flexibility on the high end. And flex, what I mean by flexibility, the ability to absorb more absorb new kids as they move into the community. If if the community expands and grows so we look at salom salmones, same kind of thing. Historical enrollment, historical enrollment, projected enrollment. So, here we're going again. We're staying we're staying the next year projecting a little low but after that a little

154bit lower dropping from 88 to 81 but across the board that looks very very stable. uh probably carrying over to later grades. We're going over we're at 92. So we dropped a little from the year before. Dropped again to about 87 here, but then we go across the board again last four years out. Steady. Same thing across here. A little bit of differentiation in the first three years, steady in the last three years. Uh finally here at the high school, um I'm sorry, at the um third grade level. Um you take a look what the numbers are. There are a couple little drops in here, uh, but pretty much with pretty much within a range. So, if you're starting at 113, you're ending at 103. You're probably not to have make a whole lot of

155changes over the course of that 5-year projection. Again, what's important here, uh, as I said before, is that, um, that the district is by and large stable. And again, stable stability is good for sustainability of programs, sustainability of class sizes. So again, um the the same thing we talked about here at the um at the low end, uh I'm sorry, at the high at the low end, um you need less classrooms. Take a look across here. And at the high at the at the high end, I'm at the high target, I'm going to say high. At the high target, um you need less classrooms. At the low target, you need more classrooms. And we're talking here um that as with as with as with Norse for purposes of developing section counts we use the same

15618 18 at K and one and 20 at 2 and three as the as the as the low as the high target and um we used um the same figures the 20 the 18 the 20 and 20 I'm sorry the 22 and 24 as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at as at the higher grades and again shows that um that there that that less classrooms are required at the at the low end at the high end and

157more classrooms are required at the low end at the lower target size. Um it's all logical. It all makes sense. Um and now again adjusted again the same thing we talked about before. Highend gives as you go above this line especially for the low raise at 18 and even if you go above the line at 22 you've got very little flexibility. And again like the flexibility between the actual enrollment and the and the target size that that determines how that determines how many kids you can bring in the class before you either have have to create another section or just go beyond the targeted the the the target size or the target class size. Again the um the low the the low end a lot more flexibility. So uh and and again just reemphasize flexibility

158meaning that if you absorb more children over the period of 5 years vertically you've got you vertically you've got room to grow before you either need to split a section or take some or or increase the class sizes. Um and again the same kind of thing. Um we we're taking a look at the at the um this is for um Yelli I believe. H A Y. All right. Again, the the the the low end produces more classrooms. Uh the high end Yeah. produce I'm sorry, at the at the low at the high end, uh we save classroom space. At the low end, we increase classroom space. So, uh again, that that shows that kind of shows what the differences are when you target different class sizes. And as the board begin the board needs to

159or wants to which has policy with regard to maximum class sizes this serves as a good guide for that. So now just uh couple of other things uh the recent review of school classroom capacity indicated substantial capacity in each facility meaning that each building has room. LG LG Norse has 24 classrooms. JC Tamise has 41 classrooms and her Henry Yelli has 40 classrooms. Now as indicated in the prior slides previous slides a demand for general education classrooms would be Norse 12-6 18 to 24 and Yelli 16 to 18. So when all the programs including special needs and other programs in the building are considered, there really isn't enough space to consolidate the three PK5 facilities. Um we the the the studies are funding show that that that there's too many other kinds of programs including

160self-contained and all those self-contained and uh OTP if you have it and resource rooms and individual instruction that you've got enough space to do that you've got really adequate space to do that but not with a consolidation. uh the clear size comparisons indicate that no significant imbalances exist between JCS and LGN that will require any kind of redistring. I mean there's no need to make any changes because it's not going to change. It's not going to it's not going to be an equity issue in terms of class size and enrollment and access to programs. And you know one of the things that that we look at we consider in a study and I'm sure you do is equity. We want to make sure that every kid in every school has the same opportunity. So, so

161given us us us our study being based on class size and based on instructional space indicates to us that in terms of enrollment in terms of class size there's no inequity between the buildings or if it's very minor and um and so again sustainable but again there there's no need to well a we don't believe that you can uh that you can add you can um join join schools uh consolidate any of the schools given the space that you have. Um and finally existing space is being used by specialized programs and activities which can clearly continue. So another was saying that things to this point in terms of our analysis things are looking very good. They look like they're sustainable. Um we're not quite finished with with the study yet and um bring to the

162next slide. So, um, the next steps in the project, a reassessment of space allocations, and given a lack of space available for consolidation, are there alternatives to the current space configurations that would be valuable to the district to consider? And what we're saying here is we're going to take we're going to take like a 30,000 foot view of all the data and say, is there something that you can do better? Not saying that there is, but we're saying that we don't want to we we don't want to reject everything out of hand. We want to take one good look based on the confidence that we have with the data that we're we're we're um dealing with. What are the other viable options for grade configurations and their assignments to the schools? Again, something we're going

163to look at again. And this could this could have to do with program location, um consolidation of maybe special needs programs. And these are hypotheticals. They're not anything that we've decided at. They're just kind of things we want to look at the whole picture that um I think that Tim uh I don't know if you guys met Tim. He's my colleague. He's been doing a lot of work on this project also. He's been doing most of the work on this project actually. And um but we we we have confidence in the data. So now we want to do is we want to step back with confidence in the data and say is there something maybe we missed? Is there recommendation that may be um helpful to the school district in terms of decision- making? Remember,

164the purpose of this study is to help you guys make decisions for the future. Um, and I was listening to some of that tonight um at at some of the presentations. So, there's a lot going on in the school district and this is helpful in terms of basically where you're going to put your money in the future, what you're going to do with your programs in the future. So, that's what this is about. It's it's it's just giving me data and information at least on the instructional level on the um capacity level and instructional space level to make decisions in the future. Um and the other thing that we're going to look at finally at the end is that what are the impacts of any of the options um in terms of in terms of

165um uh logistical things such as if we if we make a recommendation how does it impact transportation and of course changes in transportation um have could have serious impacts or major impacts on costs. Again, we're not we're not ready to say we may say, "Hey, nothing there's nothing left to see here. We're fine." And you move on because you're going to be sustainable over the next over the next 5 years. You're doing well. You got space. Um and or we may say, "Hey, we found something that might be helpful to you." And if it's helpful to if if we if we say this is something that's helpful to you, we'll give you a cost. will say, "Well, this could change transportation," which is probably the single most expensive part of logistics in the district. Um,

166in terms of in terms of dollar per student. So, um, there you have it. Um, and I am more than happy to field questions. >> Dr. Gabber, I appreciate that. Um, I I think I the only thing I just want to mention to the committee um is that um, we'll be coming back in January with those next steps. So, one of the things I asked Dr. Habber and Tim to kind of look at is if we reconfigured the lineup of school grades, what would that look like? Um, you know, we have five schools. He really touched upon our three elementary settings. That's what the majority of our kind of movements is at this time. Um, but we will take a look at a couple different scenarios in terms of, you know, if this building was

167no longer 45 and it was 35 or if this building was K2 or something along those lines. Um, and I think it's important because um, as Dr. Hmer said, this is nothing that like we've decided. It's just giving the committee information and data to make informed decisions. Um I also think it's really important um to talk about the facility capacity. So in the ideal world when we said you know what is our low target for class size what's our high target for class size like that's like if the stars align and like minding from like in front of the trees. Um we know that that's not always where we're going to be like I like kindergarten classroom sizes to be 18. I think that's what's appropriate for kindergarten, especially when we do not have full-time

168power professionals in those classrooms. >> Yeah. >> But what we can actually do with the funding that we have is really important. And I think it's also important to note that the general education classroom spaces are really what was the focus of this study. As Dr. Gber mentioned, every student needs to go into a home room. So that's make the time and that's the the the data that we look at. But we have and you know here at the LGN alone we have um five or six special education classrooms that are full classroom spaces for specialized programs. At JCS we have seven preschool classrooms. So those things are all um in factors. We do not have the ability to um combine any of our two schools um the way that our current grade level configuration

169and enrollment are right against. So, I think this was super helpful. Number one, the geocoding is really cool. Like, you can almost look and find your address and see your own individual little dots sitting there. Um, and it's not something that we could have done. And so, thank you to Dr. Neighbor and to Tim, um, you know, for doing this work for us. Um, and we're working with them to get the transportation information, um, and really take a look at alternate options. and we will present that to you probably in the second week of January. >> Um I have a quick question with the numbers >> um with the enrollment projection baseline numbers that >> yes >> does that in school choice students or is that just nor residents that's a great question um Dr.

170behavior. We have school choice students, so they are currently included in our numbers, our current enrollment numbers, but I would imagine that you see them in the gray as the actual or the enrolled, but they're not projected in the colored columns because they're not births within the community. Correct. >> Well, okay. So, school school Okay. So just so I fully understand I mean I know what school choice is but in terms of yours. So uh your district so you've got two K3 schools. Okay. So can parents elect to go to either one? So in other words someone living in the um in the >> Okay. How does school choice? >> If you live in town you must attend the school that you that you're you must attend your neighborhood school. However, we have very few

171openings each year for students from other communities or staff members that want to choice their children in. >> Um, so typically in a kindergarten class the last couple years it's been maybe five bins. >> Okay. Well, they're they're counted in the projection count. Okay. Because we're taking remember that let me go this is your just your actual enrollment from the schools. So this is historical enrollment. So if these 664 or 662 um or if they are in enrolled in your school they're counted and they're projected out. Now um the other thing that we come up with too and I don't know um if we talked about this when we did the initial geocoding any child who does not have a Norton address doesn't geocode. So we'll know we know that those are kids who are

172coming to the school district you know for other reasons you the school of choice or whatever it is but just going back to what I said all of these historical numbers they include every single child in your on your enrollment doesn't differentiate whether they're in district or choice kids or out of district kids those are those are so we are projecting on those numbers they're and they're included in that they're in the bars >> which so theoretically it probably only impact that kindergarten number >> or if we said we have two spots in second grade or something along those lines. So it would be a small >> so where we've cut back on choice. >> Yeah. Two or three extra. >> Well, what we can do what we can do is um we can do

173it. Let me go back up to the geocoding. So um now okay so so on the geocoding we can we can say okay show me all of the kids in any school in any grade who live in the Norton boundary and it's going to show me the kids who are geocoded into the um boundary. Then if I reverse that and I say, "Okay, now show me all of the kids outside of the Norton boundary." And and we take a look at that and we say, "Okay, we've got 20 kids um in grades K through three." Uh >> okay, I'm I'm just making the number up. Okay? You know, so I'm just making I'm just telling what we can do. and um is is give you the number of kids who are coming into this the

174number of children who are coming into the district who don't live in the district and we and we break that out we can break that out by grade level. So we could take a look at K through 12 and say and you K through 12 say it's 200 and some odd kids over 13 grades, right? So on a on a grade level basis, unless it's overwhelmingly in one grade, it probably doesn't break out to that many numbers, but but it does appear in the projection. And if you need to know, you know, and if if if these um I got my thoughts together and if the facility stuff here, okay, is impact like may say we go here. Okay, so in the in the in the low end in in this partic in in in

175LGN, right? The low end says that's the 18 that's the 18 to uh 18 and 20 18 and 20 uh MAC target sizes. Okay. So if we say okay now let's extract from this okay all of the out of dis all of the choice kids or all the out of district kids it probably would have some impact on the on the on the on the uh low end. Okay probably it probably would probably bring these numbers down and maybe decrease and I don't know for sure because I've done it maybe decrease the class sizes but you can do this on an annual basis. I mean it's not you know it's not set in stone for one. So again going back so yes choice the choice kids are counted in the projections and they are they

176are counted in these numbers but these numbers don't deduct the choice the choice children the choice children. So um so if that's a question that you need answered we certainly can answer it. >> Thank you. Does anyone have any other questions for doctor? I have a bunch, but I think it'll be better. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Paper. We appreciate your time and um I know you were on for a while before we got to you, so thank you for spending your evening with us. >> I was watching I was watching a basketball game, so it was fine. And no, I was occupying myself. I was watching Purdue basketball game, so that was lovely. Uh but I was paying attention too. Anyway, thank you for your um questions. Um we will I I'll talk

177to I'll talk to Tim and we'll address we'll take a look at what that choice what the choice impact is and if they were removed from school how that would impact the uh low end. And uh you guys have any questions um get them, you know, get them to me and I'll be Tim and I will be more than happy to answer answer them. Um and uh I guess that's been it. So, so, so again, thank you for your attention and um have a great holiday everybody. >> You as well. >> Thank you very much. >> My pleasure. Bye-bye. >> So, um >> we switch things and change things up. So, we can do that or we can talk offline. It's really whatever you prefer. So when they come back in January, um we will

178be looking more specifically at um reatterization of the schools themselves and graves span changes and we will also be looking at transportation impacts which then will inform the start you know so um and so it's very cool to kind of look at like if you're if you like like number eight job it's cool Um, and then timeline wise, >> y >> would we be still looking to roll the south fall? >> I would say if we do not have a decision by the end of January, I think we should push it back to fall of 27. Um, I think the end of January is your So I think >> Well, that depends on the change that I change. >> Correct. Yeah. What recommendations here? Absolutely. Um, and the other thing we could always do too,

179like just like we have conversations, like we have people that are on the negotiations team, like you have some people that are on the table, like we could get two of you together, I mean, we could do some of the meetings like get on with him and um, Ross and the three of us at some point if we wanted to do that and flush out some if we if we were to make some type of significant change, you know, strength measurement based, whatever, would you look to do very far? >> Yeah. So, we're getting close. >> No, that this was awesome. >> I think so. It is very interesting to see it. And um Brian and I met with them last week and he said, "What about this? What about this? What this? I haven't

180yesterday." So, >> I mean, I think if nothing else, it finally puts the bed based on his productions cannot. I don't think Yeah, I don't know. Well, I don't not that's very similarly slow. I don't know if it gives us the ability to look at eventually doing something different with levels of where to fall. And with that being said, is there a potential for I don't want to go down and saying, but in addition to this for all would there be an addition to JCS where we move this grave back there this you know whatever like I think those are the doors that this will give us way more information >> I agree >> to make those decisions logistically and >> and so because of the program we offer in district and we all know

181that every time you keep a special education program in district you are number one you're keeping kids food their siblings, with their peers, with their neighbors, and it's better for the student, but it also is significant cost savings because an out of placement is always going to cost the um so we always want to keep kids in discharge. So, because we have those programs, we face and our preschool program is just for us, which is wonderful, right? It's wonderful that families want to be able to send their stomach answers being space for those things to come. And so the other thing we always want to make cautious of is that if you were to close one of our elementary schools any reimbursement that we receive from the MSDA the windows doors the roof you are

182now obligated to pay off them. So those things because it's no longer being utilized school and therefore it no longer involves the MSBA. So that is wouldn't be something. So, hypothetically, if we said, I'm just throwing at you, like, and I'm not going to use LGN because LGN always gets typic. I'm gonna say we're gonna say, okay, JCS is going to be just preschool. >> We would never say that. >> That's not a question. >> But, um, JCS is going to be just preschool. Like, at least it's still a school. >> It's still a school. So still be operating as a but you wouldn't like closing a building is in my experience that whatever money just whatever money I know like inity like 20 years but I can get you >> yeah but it's you

183you made that >> I mean you know side of that there's talk about Catholic pros Right. >> Yeah. No, I'm not reimbursing for MSBA. >> It's much easier to sell projects both capital and staff >> speaking. [laughter] All right. >> Uh, next is discussion involved on the middle school project. Um, so I brought this back to committee for um because when we last talked about it here publicly, we talked about a restoration of the workplace. um you know we had a lot of concerns about it um and we really pushed our open and um design firm to give us more information about what a full um couple weeks ago we went to building committee um had a really positive uh meeting with them in terms of you know sharing all the information uh so tonight

184we I'm not going to go through everything with you I think um the schematic design is is all in there and ultimately what I really just want to share is uh the finance. So um we had originally started by talking about a restoration that was going to cost roughly $9 million $9.5 million. And now u we're talking about a full replacement which would be $9.2 million. Um, plus if you look on the back, it's it's actually 10 because of the uh the OBM fees and all those and all those other things there. So, um, I apologize my starting to shut down. Um, we have a 55.63 63 reimbursement. And when you look at this cost here, it is going to be higher because the estimated maximum total facilities for from a state is about 5.6.

185It's very important that our s that our highest number is here and now before the MSBA speaks to their board meeting and approves that they will give us up to $5.6 $6 million in reimbursement for the middle school. Uh, in talking with our OPM and in talking with our designers, they find that bids typically come in around 70% of this initial construction cost. So, second grade math for a long time, I'm going to say 70% of 10 million, roughly 7 million, give or take. Um, and then we would get a 55% reimbursement rate on that >> 70 >> on on whatever the final whatever the final cost is. Um, so if it if it cost us 7.5 million, we would get 55% reimbursement on 7.5 which would block cost under $4 million to do. So

186the narrative around $7 million for a roof is not Yes, that's number showing us right now, but it's not accurate in terms of what it's found is going to mean performance. Um, also in your packet tonight, this is brand new, is this timeline for the middle middle school roof project. Um, as you can see, we are, you know, kind of in this schematic design. um the estimator cost estimate. All of our information has to be to the MSBA by next Thursday, which is the 18th. Um and they will review it at their board meeting. We do not anticipate any issues. Um but what this would mean is that it would go to MSBA, it would be approved by them. We as a school committee um and superintendent, I would like to do my road show

187a little bit in the spring if this is what we're going to be asking for at town meeting. Presenting to the finance committee again, presenting to the fleet board, going back to the current building committee, going over to the senior center and presenting to the mayor. Um all of those things um I think are really important for us to help sell this project to town. Um, and at the end of the day, the reimbursement is really good. A 55% reimbursement, um, would be incredible for us and we can't afford to do it all, right? So, we want to make sure that we are following this process here. Um, and I would welcome any of you to, you know, attend these meeting and share these services. When we met with the permanent building a couple weeks

188ago, one of their questions is what else potentially would need to be done to Norton Middle Schools to kind of make that building weather exciting again. Um, and so they had asked our op and our designer to come back with a little bit more of a comprehensive number. um knowing that it wouldn't necessarily be part of the reimbursement for MSBA, but like when you're in the road trend, do any of those windows need to be replaced because there's been so much water damage? Um is there um pointing of the break that needs to be done because of some of the water damage? Um one of the other things that we discussed is like the middle school's like in good shape like when things happen, leaks are fixed, idles are replaced, the wall is the wall

189is fixed. So, we're not super nervous about the about the inside of the building itself, but I think in any construction project, you never know what it's going to fun. So, they are working on um cost estimates. >> Yes. Well, we knew there were spec. But there are no middle school. Um, so I felt it was really important for you guys to do another vote because this would be a full place in this. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I think sitting to the department of building committee as well as a resident um and talking to the to the 70% just reporting point numbers and they want to get into a bid and whatnot but the $10 million that's being thrown around everywhere that's going to cost $10 million to go is very probably look somewhere between

190three $4 million that's actually going to be put on the taxpayers and some type of form of a debt exclusion that you know pass through the whole process as well. Um you know so I think that needs to be clear to the public and with the state kicking in the 55.6% 6 million% state is going to be on the hook between you know what 4 million and 4.5 million give or take exactly what >> so I think that that $10 million I haven't scared a lot of people but it also makes sense if you're thinking in terms of like you got to go to the number to stay you always inflate it on purpose to make sure the reimbursement fee that's coming back it's also going to make sense then you know things fall off

191the nice thing that I did was break from the building committee one committee was they seem to be much in favor of putting contingency in around like gentle sagging. Well, you know, you take the roof off, you see a window, it's leaking, there's a window to be in place that all the way down from, you know, things away from me and the water damage. I just never know, you know, put off. So, uh I thought overall that there was definitely good support behind it. I think ultimately as a committee, you know, kind of making sure we I think pulling this from the town in the fall was an absolutely right move for me. >> Um, you know, so I do want to commend us a little bit on that as well because I think we

192kind of not that we got rushed into a vote, but I think they were so done on like trying to get this thing done cuz obviously we need a room. Um, and I but I think kind of scene is all kind of planning out now. We put on a band-aid on it essentially, you know, till the next few months. make sure we have all our ducks in the road. Get the support we need, you know, the town the rest and then hopefully we move the stick forward because I have yet to be said that >> um yeah, so I mean we're going to be looking at the summer. So um thank you to the finance committee and to the current building committee for their advocacy and for them to you know say that our team

193like do the repairs you need to we'll figure out how to pay for it. So thank you very much to them. Um and I and I um I think also going to that meeting as of um was it was really nice because I think again everybody you speak to and part of these committees they want to do this right. Yes. Nobody nobody wants to approach this in any bad area in 5 years. You know we're throwing for a month later like you know everybody knows that this needs to be done and they want to do it in the correct way and so that was I think it felt very >> I think that kind of shows the evolution of the talent because for so many years >> a lot of projects weren't done correctly and

194and ultimately Boston's taxpayers paid them. So now, you know, you kind of look around town, we have a lot of new facilities, we have a lot of, you know, now it it turns into now we have to keep going, you know. So that's that. And that's where I think, you know, we're going to always have our hiccups. There's going to be the difference in opinions and everything else. But I think that's where spoken committee would select more fin permanent building even pulling everyone together and having general consensus of like hey here's our front lines because when we do that type of stuff the residents see it and say wait a second our leaders are doing this together you know they're making the best decision what they believe in full town you know in our in

195the city. So I think, you know, again, I give them a lot of credit. I I give us a ton of credit. You know, this is almost been a ongoing process and as it should be. We've crossed our tees down our eyes and so forth. So um you know, I think hopefully we can kind of I think we're in a good spot kind of move this thing toward and doing greatly. So like I said the last time, poor souls who sit here and you know, 20 years from now aren't doing the same job. [laughter] All right. Any other discussion? All right. So, I'll entertain a motion to approve the roof project as presented. So, please all those in favor. >> All right. Um, any other business anticipate anticip service tomorrow night 5:30. Um, we have

196an abusive chorus band like um [laughter] group. They're amazing. It's really fun. Bring kids. >> So, I know you just gave us this. >> Yeah. >> Um, Greens is hoping it's their new space January 5th. >> Really exciting. Really exciting for them. >> Exactly. >> They should have completely. >> Cool. >> So, that gets the two facilities or they shouldn't. They're not saying that though. >> No. Middle room is still happening. So this will be their their partner space for DHH. Okay. Um and so um they will be emptying classrooms at JCS. Um and students will be transported um from their facility back to GCS. >> Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Motion to move second.