School Committee Meeting 03/24/26

001This is the Shawsheen Valley Regional Vocational Technical School District School Committee meeting March 24th, 2026. Most of the members are here. Attorney O'Donnell was at the town meeting in Bedford. She will be here soon. And Miss Gillis is not here. Okay, we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Kenzie. Hello. >> Hello. Hello everyone. I know it's been a minute since I've seen you all. I apologize for my absence at the last meeting. So, I would like to bring to your attention what is on the screen in front of you folks. This is the student shout-out for Mackenzie Parent. She is one of our 2027 class

002representatives in medical assisting. She's in the far right at the top right. And she was able, by selling breast cancer bracelets with [snorts] um the envisionment of her aunt and doing good, she raised $850 and donated to the Jimmy Fund. And we hope that you you guys can all keep in mind this for next year because you will hopefully be continuing to grow and sell her bracelets and have everyone appreciate the amazing work that she's been doing for our school. I would also like to shout out the 11th graders in our electronics and engineering program who have earned multiple industry certifications, as well as the 11th grade health assisting students who have completed the Massachusetts Department of Health and Public Nurse Aide program that earns them earns them state credentials and qualifies them for certified

003nursing aide in health care system. And the Shawsheen SkillsUSA District competition on March 12th, we had 144 students competing in their shops as well as for state representative. And they hopefully we right now have a list of about 80-something kids who will be coming down to the medal ceremony for this Thursday to receive their bronze, silver, and gold medals, and hopefully shipping off to states. As well as our hosting our fourth annual culture fair, which will take place in the cafeteria on April 11th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. where all families and community members are welcome to join in celebrating all the cultures that we have here at Shawsheen. And the last thing I have for you folks is Mr. Pedro Martinez, the commissioner of Massachusetts education, who we welcomed warm-heartedly this Friday morning.

004And he runs the Department of Education for the state and helps regulate the rules for all the schools in the state, including this wonderful one we are present at right now. And that is all I have, so thank you for And I apologize. I took the student representative out of order. He was supposed to do public comment. >> [clears throat] >> And so, I have Jenna Lesko. Everybody. For those of you who may not know me, my name is Jenna Lesko. I served this district for 20 years in multiple roles, and I value being part of the Shawsheen community, especially my time teaching mathematics. I'm here tonight to address public misconceptions regarding my dismissal and to respond to statements that, in my view, have inaccurately characterized my performance and professional conduct. In April 2025, I

005was issued a 3-year employment contract reflecting the district's continued confidence in my performance and leadership. I began an approved medical leave from June 16th through July 21st of 2025. While I was out on protected medical leave, my FMLA was discussed publicly. I want to be clear that my absence was approved through the proper channels and should never have been discussed publicly. When I returned on July 22nd, 2025, I was immediately sent home and placed on paid administrative leave. I was not given a specific reason why I could not return to my job. In my view, the mandated leave was done in accordance with what was not done in accordance with the law. I then waited for communication from the district with the expectation of returning to work. On December 18th, I saw an article in

006the Town Crier referencing the dismissal of the business manager. I had not received any proper or formal notification of dismissal at that time. I received the official dismissal letter on December 29th, 11 days after the article in the Town Crier. In addition, I learned on December 26th that my health insurance had also been canceled effective December 19th. After waiting more than 5 months to hear from the district, I read about my dismissal through a local newspaper rather than receiving the dismissal notice through proper procedures. Public statements were made suggesting that I was responsible for financial mismanagement. Those statements were made without formal findings, without an investigation that included me, and without providing me any opportunity to respond. They've also been repeated in public budget meetings across the district's member towns, causing ongoing harm to my

007professional reputation. Prior to my leave, I raised concerns related to financial transparency, compensation practices, and working conditions. These reports encompass both my personal experiences and those of other female staff who had approached me for assistance. These disclosures were made and reported through the proper channels. Upon stepping into the business manager role, I identified and resolved a pre-existing $2.6 million budget deficit by successfully recovering funds withheld by the Department of Ed. While I maintained proactive and consistent reporting to the superintendent, the opposite perception of me has been communicated or portrayed to the committee and the public. I've always sought to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, honesty, and integrity. In my 20 years at Shawsheen, I was never issued an unsatisfactory evaluation, never placed on performance improvement plans, never provided written financing written findings identifying deficiencies

008in my performance. The only evaluation that has been referenced was created after I reported complaints while I was on medical leave. The evaluation was not shared with me and did not follow required Department of Education procedures. Given what has transpired, some of which I just mentioned, I was left with no choice but to file complaints with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I'm also contesting my dismissal with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Secondary Education. Ma'am, I'm giving you your time up. Okay, I want to be very clear in my closing. I respectfully request that the superintendent and members of the School Committee discontinue publicly discussing or characterizing my job performance, including in budget presentations to our sending districts. My perspective is that this is false and it must

009stop immediately. THANK YOU. >> [applause] [applause] >> EXCUSE ME, I CAN'T READ THE LAST NAME. DEMARCO. MY wife works here, Anne. Okay. My name is Stephen Demarco. I'm a 58-year resident of Wilmington and a 1984 graduate of Shawsheen Tech machine shop. I'm here for two reasons tonight. First, I'm currently going through a divorce from Anne Demarco, who is a math teacher here at Shawsheen Tech. On February 28th, Anne Demarco was allowed by the business office here at Shawsheen to cancel my health insurance without providing any proof of a life-changing event. This is a clear violation of Massachusetts law. It's completely inexcusable, and there is such a lack of oversight in this school's management that it's disturbing. That should really come as no surprise to anyone in this room. The second reason I'm here is to

010support Jenna Lesko. Jenna has served as this school for over 20 years as a math teacher, head of the math department, and most recently as business manager. In those 20-plus years, she's proven her dedication and loyalty to the school, its students, and its faculty. I stand today before you in this complete disgust over the actions of the superintendent and this School Committee. The dishonest the the dishonesty and cowardice shown by everyone in this room fills me with pure disgust. The lack of courtesy, respect, and decency with which you treated Jenna is embarrassing and shameful. I find your eagerness to destroy Jenna's reputation and career completely reprehensible. I stand before you requesting two things. The first is a public apology from each of you for how you failed your coworker and the community you represent. The

011second is that you all actually work together for once and look at the situation before you and realize this entire mess was brought on by Tony McIntosh and Patty Meuse. Both of them need to be removed before this school's good name is damaged any further. Cowardice has no place ON THIS BOARD. >> [applause] [clears throat] >> GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE. MY NAME IS KIMBERLY DO. I'm a lifelong resident of Billerica, Massachusetts, and I'm a proud parent of a 2024 graduate here from the plumbing department. Um, I am here to fully and unequivocally support this gentleman scout. Uh, this Lesko did not take the role as business manager because it was easy. She took it here at Shawsheen because the mission and her passion is really um, obvious to everyone. She inherited a department with long-standing systemic

012financial issues, and her mission was to modernize outdated practices and position Shawsheen for potential MSBA. The narrative being pushed at these meetings, amplified in the December Wilmington Town Crier article, and repeated at both the Wilmington and Tewksbury Finance Committee meetings recently, frames Ms. Lesko as the source of all financial issues. I'm here to say that's false and grossly misrepresented. When Ms. Lesko accepted this role in 2022, uh, Superintendent MacIntosh and the School Committee acknowledged she was inheriting significant legacy issues, and it would take some time to resolve. Ms. Muse, you yourself lauded your own budgeting experience at the March 16th Tewksbury meeting. You of all people then should be very well aware that overhauling an entrenched financial system doesn't happen overnight. I was absolutely dumbfounded by your comments and your continued spewing um, trying to

013bring Ms. Lesko down and misrepresent her. Changing uh, demands restructuring across a complex web of stakeholders. When Jenna was dealing with this, she was dealing with the superintendent, the School Committee, the Budget Committee, Department of Education, the Department of Secondary Education, and two auditing firms. One of which uh, abruptly resigned um, in August of 2023, which also was a reason for some of the delays in financial reporting. All of that was what Ms. Lesko was navigating. At that same meeting, Ms. Muse, you insinuated problems emerge only after Ms. Lesko's appointment. What you failed to share is that the new auditing firm, Cbiz, explicitly attributed delays to transition issues and historical record recorded challenges, predating Ms. Lesko's tenure, not her performance. The lead auditor said in 12 years he had never had such a difficulty tying

014out beginning balances because of the state of record from previous years. The district has now um, just seen fit to bring on a treasurer and an HR representative. You might have heard some discussions at at previous meetings. I would ask yourselves why now. I'll tell you why now. Those positions did not exist before. Who do you think paid the price for that at this? It was Ms. Lesko. She was doing three jobs. She was doing business manager, treasurer, as well as being head of HR. Ms. Lesko, I commend your composure in letting this process play out. I know it's been hard. Um, I can only imagine the pain. Sorry, I can't talk. In closing, um, sorry. I can only imagine the pain that you've gone through. I've seen it. Um, in closing, I've spent a

015lot of time poring over all of the publicly available information, agendas, meeting notes and recordings, budgets, and audit data. You, the Shawsheen Tech, charted a course. You handed Ms. Lesko the helm and said, "Fix what's broken, modernize what's outdated, and get us what needs what we need to get going." She navigated all the storms, the missing records, the resigned uh, the resigned auditor, the budget deficit, and she was getting there. Are you close to >> Yeah, and I am close. And then while she was still staring you threw her overboard. Now you're standing on the deck telling everyone the ship was off course. Little late. Make no mistake, Superintendent MacIntosh and Ms. Muse, insinuations are not oversights. They are a deliberate campaign to scapegoat a dedicated public servant for failures that predate her by years,

016failures that you are all very well aware of. It's defamatory and it's wrong, and it must stop. So, I implore the committee to stop the character assassination. As you yourself stated, Superintendent MacIntosh, you and the School Committee are ultimately responsible. The buck STOPS WITH YOU. >> [applause] >> I'LL CONCEDE MY TIME. THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT, SO THAT is the end of public comment. Um, Coach, you are up. That was disgusting. >> [clears throat] >> I'll set you up here, counselor. You may come up. Congratulations. Thank you. That's okay. Can I ask him to come on up? Is this where they're going? They went up that way. Mr. Burton, Mr. Faze, I'll find you. There was a problem with Is [laughter] that Ms. Faze? I'm no longer the sergeant at arms, I'm sorry. Sorry. >> [clears

017throat] >> I don't know if he got it. Yeah, he's um, his meeting he just ended. Sorry, we don't mean to take away from >> [clears throat] >> your update. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you for inviting us, and thank you for allowing me to bring two outstanding student athletes with me here tonight. I'm going to give you a little bit of a winter sports [snorts] wrap-up, okay? And then lead into these two gentlemen that are to my right, and I'm sure they might want to say something, or you might want to ask them something. Okay? Um, let's start out with the winter season. Uh, boys and girls basketball teams were both in a rebuilding process. Okay? They played hard. They played hard till the end, and both ended up with identical nine and

01811 records. Okay? Varsity girls hockey, which we co-op with Bedford and with Lowell, had a successful 12 and nine season. Okay? Um, varsity boys hockey had a very successful season. Varsity boys hockey was 20 wins, two losses, one tie. They were CAC League champs. They were also state vocational champs, and they made it to the MIAA's Elite Final Four before losing at that point. But, a very successful season. Our swim team, and you'll get to meet our captain here, um, had a successful season, okay? 500 season, and they they really really provided some some great highlights for us out of that pool. I don't know how you all do it, Matt. I'm telling you. Okay? Wrestling, 21 and oh. Um, we all know about our wrestling program, and James is a representative of it. They

019were CAC League champs. They were also state vocational champs, Division One North Sectional champs, okay? Uh, Division North I I mean, Division One runners-up for the state title. Okay? [snorts] Very very successful. Placing numerous numerous uh, participants on the All-Star team, and we are awaiting all the All-Scholastics to come in now, but uh, two members of uh, James Tilsley and Dante Giusti were um, were both named Harold Harold uh, All-Scholastics. Okay? Going over to these two men that are to my right, um, we have Matt Matthew Kilfoil right here. I've I've seen you, captain, of our swim team. Um, tremendous work, a tremendous work ethic, and that led to to Matt >> [snorts] >> breaking a school record. His name will go up on the record board. Uh, it'll say Matthew Kilfoil, 100 yd backstroke

020record, school record, 56 seconds 88 100ths of a second. I'll tell you, that's moving in water. The only thing faster than that is fish. All right? >> [laughter] >> And Matt is also a member of our tennis team. Um, I have James Tilsley here as a representative, and Ronnie, you had asked me to make sure James was here. Followed the footsteps of a couple of your sons. Um, James will leave Shawsheen Tech this spring as the most accomplished wrestler in New England history. A four-time Division One state champion, three-time New England champion. He gets mad when I say all this stuff. Okay, but you got to live through it, buddy. Um, James is the only five-time George Bossy Lowell Holiday champion. Now, the George Bossy tournament, the best wrestling teams in the state go there.

021It's been going for 58 years. It's very, very prestigious. And to have the record as the only five-time champion, meaning an eighth-grade champion as well, of that tournament is really, really uh an exceptional, exceptional uh compliment to his skill. But most of all, James is retiring as the all-time Massachusetts state champion as far as records for most wins. Okay, James had 267 victories, which sets a new Massachusetts state record, all-time record, and 224 of those were by pin. And that sets a state, Massachusetts state record. Also, um tomorrow, James will be taking his straight matches he's won, 173 straight matches, down to Virginia Beach to the high school nationals to compete for All-American honors. So, without further ado, um pretty decorated people that I have to my right. You might want to say, "Hi guys."

022You might You might WANT TO ASK >> [applause] >> I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH YOUR GRANDPARENTS. [laughter] James also retired as the career leader for tackles with in football, all time. James, I hope you give some skills on to your lower classmen so they got to step it up now. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's a that's a great thing that um since um some of the kids have been seeing some of the success that our guys have been having, we're I think it's drawing a lot of people to to the Shawsheen Tech rather than going to their surrounding schools because of um the the work that we've been putting in. So, I'm proud of wrestling program and just athletics as a whole. So, I think we've been doing good these past 4 years and it's

023going to get even better with the more kids that are coming to the school. So, Thank you. Good luck. Yeah. Matt? Matt? Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Can't say [clears throat] it better than James just did. Uh you said it pretty good, buddy. Did you play on the tennis team as well? Tennis team, yeah. Hines boys? Do you know who they are? I did I never played with the Hines boys. >> Well, there is one. There is one on there. I didn't play with all the wrestlers. I played with one of them. Want to tell us a little something about the swimming [laughter] experience? Swimming was fun. I mean, it's weaker year this year, but we we're going to build back strong next year. Quite an achievement, the school record. It's quite an achievement. Good job,

024guys. I will say I followed the wrestling team on Facebook and there was one point where I looked at it and it was one of your competitions and you had a finalist or medalist in every single weight class. Every single weight class. What? 15 weight classes? Maybe more? I was quite impressed by that. What are you guys doing next year? Do you know yet? Um I'm going to college. I'm not sure where yet. I'm in the same college. But just weighing out your just weighing out the options of I'm pretty much in the same situation as Matt. Definitely want to go to college. Don't know where yet, but just trying to make the right choice. Good job, guys. I'm sure you'll do great wherever you are. >> [clears throat] >> What are you studying here?

025What are you in? I'm in plumbing. I'm in HVAC. Oh, okay. Coach, thank you for bringing them in tonight. Oh, thank you for asking. James, I follow wrestling religiously with my boys. Um Well, I like Tony uh Tony getting into it younger than Ronnie. Uh we followed your career and you guys your sister, Sid yourself, you loved your time here. Uh years later, years down the road, you come back and go, "Yeah, it was awesome." I know I know Sonny's he's pretty good, too. He's coming along. But thank you. Listen, thank you for all the time and effort and sweat and equity and I hope you continue on at the collegiate level. Great job. You work hard, you achieve incredible goals and then we're proud to have you. People stop me and go, "Hey, that

026kid Tilsley's all right. He's he's okay, you know? He's doing well." But thank you for all the effort and congratulations and I swim and I couldn't swim if I had to, but thank you. >> [laughter] >> But you and I just tread water. >> we do. Thank you. I swim like a rock. All right. Well, thank you, guys, very much. Anybody else? >> [applause] >> Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, everybody, for giving us a chance to come in and see you. Good luck this week. Thank you, everyone. Good night. Okay, the consent agenda. >> [clears throat] >> Anybody have any questions on any of these? The treasurer's report, approval of bills and disposal of equipment. Couple of points. You said you're going to double-check the basement with the guest speaker. Treasurer and the

027policy. Yeah, that's part of my update, but if you if you want a preview, yes, we're coming. >> [laughter] >> And then just on the non-AP stuff, it sometimes it's hard to like I mean, maybe that's the way Unis is set up, but like Yeah, the comments that I have an update on that. So, that that's auto-generated. I'll talk about that in my update. And then the treasurer's report is what's the plan for like So, he's planning to be here in April. Okay. Um for the April meeting. Again, we were trying to work around his his second job, his first job. I'm not I'm not sure how you term it, but it is tax season. Um and he is he he does run his own accounting firm, so he had asked that we put the

028in-person appearance off of the meeting. And has there been any like discussion about like what he's like he's serving at other schools and what the plan is for like what he's doing? So, I mean, he work he works he also works for Crest Collaborative. Um so, I mean, we haven't had a real pointed conversation about what it is, but again, he does you know, he does updates to Crest on a regular basis as well. So, I'm assuming that it's going to be it's going to kind of be built on that model. And then after the first time, if there's things we want to see added or changed or updated, we can move forward from there. Motion to accept the consent agenda. Second. All those [clears throat] in favor? Aye. Opposed? Yeah, that was quite a

029story. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Um so, McKenzie, we already talked about McKenzie's student shout-out here. Um jump right into things here. Uh just a just an update. Um Mr. Pigeon and Miss Youds been our track are actually tracking some different categories like students that didn't reply by the deadline, students that declined after acceptance, but I I wanted to kind of keep this focused on um you know, where we are right now. So, um as far as the class of 2030 applications, we did accept 33 students from Bedford. Um >> [clears throat] >> currently, there are 18 students wait-listed. Um I will say this is probably a big surprise to me. In the past, we've seen some turnover in Bedford. You know, usually usually a lot of those kids will be like, "Yeah, I

030changed my mind. I just I decided I want to do something different." Uh we have seen zero movement on the Bedford list so far this year, which is um very different than our past at least my past experiences here. Uh Billerica, uh again, we're accepting we accepted 103. There's still 60 wait-listed. Um there is some offers in transit, if you will. So, once once a family's notified, they have 7 days to accept the offer. So, the difference between the 103 and the 107, um there's probably seven pending excuse me, four pending offers out there that we just haven't received a reply to. Um Burlington, um this is this is actually the one we've seen the most churn in this year. Um so, we currently have we've accepted 41 students. There's still 13 wait-listed. Um there's

03154 seats. If you do the math, it it looks like all of those kids should get in. Um please don't hold me to that until all of this shakes out, but we're we're going to be pretty close. Um Tewksbury, again, we've we've accepted 76. There's 23 on the wait-list. Um it looks like there's two somewhere in transit there because we will accept 78 total. Uh Wilmington, we've accepted 55 so far. Um there's 33 on the wait-list and it looks like, you know, there's there's three somewhere somewhere in the ether there, if you will. So, two total to date, we've accepted 308 students so far. We still have 147 on the wait-list. And our total is I mean, our total our target is still that 332 330 students for the fall of 2026. Can you just

032clarify the dates of like cuz it's a new like lottery, like what the you know, just you're competing against like what those time frames are against your own town and then when it goes back, can you just walk through that? >> the lottery took place on March 7th. Families were notified. They had 7 days to respond to accept or decline. Um we did get the vast majority of those. I I think we only had I want to say eight um families that didn't acknowledge one way or the other. Um and again, we sent multiple emails, made multiple phone calls, left messages. And then after that 7-day period, uh we didn't we didn't we didn't throw those students out. We just put them at the bottom of the wait-list and moved on to the next. So,

033we will continue to maintain community waitlist through April 17th. So if that which is actually the Friday before school vacation, at that point in time then all those lists get combined. We'll use We'll use that the district wide waitlist from that point. Based on what we're seeing so far, it doesn't look like there's going to be many kids that are going to come Typically in the past it was Bedford and Burlington seats that weren't filled. It opened up some of those additional spots which were then filled by Tewksbury, Billerica and Wilmington. Based on what we're seeing to this point unless there's a big change between now and April 17th, it does not appear that that's going to be a trend for this year. Did that answer the Yeah, no that's good. All right, thank you.

034Enrollment update, again we're down two students. Again, you know, it's that time of the year. This is typical, you know, every every month or so we lose one or two students. Some of them are students that are moving out of district, you know, parents are moving out of district. You know, some of them are you know, we get with the ninth graders that come into the end of exploratory if there's something that really didn't um really didn't pique their interest, they they may be making the decision to go back to the sending school we you know before that's all finalized. Um so again we we see that churn. I don't think that those numbers are are significantly off. Two two students over the course of a month is I think pretty typical for us. Um

035and again we always try to backfill those 10th grade seats and the the before we come back in the fall and make sure that we have as close to 350 students in those the this year will be 330 but make sure we have as many as many students backfilled in those in those classes as we can before we move forward. >> [clears throat] >> All right, good. Yeah, sorry Charlie. We can go >> [snorts] >> I believe what is it the 26th which is this week is when the kids are going to start picking their shops? Yeah, so Thursday the announcement will go out to parents so that the the portal open. The students have till I believe it's midnight on Sunday to submit their their choices. Then what we'll do is we are we

036actually have it already already on the calendar. We'll come in Monday morning and we'll look and see you know how many how many kids didn't submit something. The guidance counselors and leadership team will track those kids down and say hey you know we need you we need you to sit down and and enter these and then we'll starting Monday morning we'll start running the placement information and again Friday that Friday is a holiday. Um which is which is Good Friday. So we're our goal is to have all the kids scheduled and notified before they leave on Thursday for the long the long weekend. So yeah, but that that's coming fast too. Yeah. Thank you. Co-op update again just continuing along with the class of 2026. And we're holding pretty steady 66% of the kids, you

037know, 2/3 kind of seems our our balance point at this point in time as we roll into the spring we may have a few more kids. Sometimes some construction related employment opportunities open up depending upon what the shop is and and who's already out. Um That amounts to 198 students out of the 287 298. We're up to almost 80,000 hours worked and we're we're creeping up on 1.3 million dollars in gross earnings for the class of 2026. So I think all of those things are pretty impressive. And you know, as we as we key in on the end of the school year those numbers will will do nothing but continue to increase. Breakdown by community. Three from Bedford, 78 from Billerica, 17 from Burlington, 47 from Tewksbury and 53 from Wilmington. It's 198 out of

038298 students or 66%. Again I I've just kept this slide in here just as a reminder. Really the only thing that we have outstanding with MSBA is funding. We are still pursuing both and we'll I'm sure we'll talk about this later in the agenda. We're still pursuing both of those tracks trying to get E&D certified to potentially use that as a funding source but we're also moving forward with the warrant articles as well. Brian and Sarah and I were in Bedford last night. Bedford voted to support our warrant article request at their town meeting last night. It sounds like our budget passed tonight before Mr. O'Donnell joined us for the meeting. Um McKenzie already mentioned this but just just a reminder Commissioner Martinez will be here on Friday. I did send some information out to

039school committee members. Again I think I heard from five maybe six people. You're welcome to join us for the first part of it. And again then there's there's a a time or a section there for him to meet with department chairs, lead teachers, parents and students where we're all going to kind of step aside if you will and and let him kind of run the meeting and do the things that he wants to do. So We have submitted there's a there's a very structured template that they sent us. We've sent all the information back to them. We had to identify who the students were that were going to greet him. We had to identify all the people that were going to be here for you know for that event. You know, where we were going

040to go, what areas of the building we were going to visit, who was going to be on the the teacher or department chair round table, who we're going to bring in for parents and students. So we've done a lot of that work in the background and at this point I think we're primed and ready and we look forward to having him here on Friday morning. So Want to comment on that? Social media update. Again I I can send the the presentation out afterwards. I don't think I need to read all of the numbers. We are tracking pretty consistently where we have been the past few months. And again our our PR firm or public relations group O'Neill and Cannell does a good job of tracking this and and keeping an eye on it and making

041sure that we're getting stuff out there in a timely manner and in and trying different strategies to make sure that we stay current and up to date on social media. Hiring update. Open positions we have. Um these have all been posted. I think some of you have seen this information come out in the past couple of weeks. Director of Support Services, Business Manager, Automotive Technology Instructor, Advanced Manufacturing Instructor. We actually have two retirements this year. Science, Carpentry, Dental Assisting, School Psychologist and a Support Services Paraprofessional. Um We will also just so everybody's aware we'll also be posting positions that are currently covered by a waiver. That is a requirement from the Department of Education for us to get a waiver for next year for those individuals. And we are currently working to make sure that

042they're all aware of that process and why we have to do that. We don't want anybody to be surprised and see a job posting and be like hey is that my position? So again we're we're working through that and that will that will be concluded in the next in the upcoming weeks. Um Again I I created a slide here for Finance Committee Ways and Means meetings. Charlie and I were in Wilmington Excuse me, just a few of you and I were in Wilmington back on February 28th. Um Mr. Hutchins, Ms. Muse and I were in Tewksbury on March 16th. Billerica is scheduled for this Thursday night. I'll be with Mr. Fusco and and Ms. Gillis. And then Burlington is Wednesday April 8th with Ms. Heverly and Mr. Moffatt. Bedford town meeting started last night. I

043think they'll conclude tonight hopefully fingers crossed. Then there's there's a there's a big gap there. Wilmington's town meeting will take place the Saturday after April school vacation and then as we roll into the first week of May you can see that they're they're going to kind of fall like dominoes here rather quickly. And then the second Monday in May we should be all done with town meetings. Um I just wanted to just give an update here. I I think everybody here has seen and heard some of the stuff that they shared [clears throat] with the Wilmington Finance Committee. This information was sent to all of you but again I kind of feel like I do have to respond to this based on some of the feedback that I got. Um Charlie and I met with

044them on February 28th. The information that they had requested coming out of that meeting was provided to the town manager on March 2nd which was the next business day after we met with them. Um The FY26 stuff that they mentioned in their conversation had also been provided to them last year. And again [clears throat] I just want people to to know that when we do get those requests at those meetings they are followed up on. We do create additional documents. We do share them out. Excuse me a second. >> [clears throat] >> And again I'm We we I I'm going to change the way that we share that information to make sure that it's also pushed out to all members of the the boards, the finance committees, the select boards and the town managers just

045to make sure that everybody's getting that information and there's no there's no confusion moving forward. We've also extended an offer to meet with them later on after budget season is over to have a conversation about what their expectations are moving forward because again we do want to be good citizens. We want to provide them with the information they want. We just you know we need we need a little input and feedback as to where it is they want to go and how they want to do things. Um Updates from the February meeting. I have There was a conversation about potentially moving the location of the school committee meeting and having some other areas of the building possibly prepared for that. So our EdTech department came back with a couple of different things. There is an

046option to update the camera in this room um to a camera that is going to say AI powered. And basically it will follow and track who the person is that's talking at that point in time. Um, they tell us that it has better audio pickup and it for people in the audience it will focus on on who the speaker is at the time. Um, again that's you know, that's that's an expensive about $4,000 to upgrade that camera alone. Um, we also looked at what it would take to outfit the library space to potentially hold school committee meetings down there if that's where the committee decided they wanted to go. Uh, it's about $23,000 just for the infrastructure the the the technology infrastructure that doesn't include we probably have to look at some different furniture and

047possibly some different seating down there. And then um, one thing that I hadn't thought about as part of this but like that also means that our maintenance staff is going to have to set up and break down that area every time we have a meeting down there. Um, where again this room is is pretty much set up all the time. We have staff that use it during the day for for meetings and other things like that that are going on. Um, we can't do that in the library. I mean that that is still a student's student space. So, after the meeting was over on a Tuesday night or whatever night we met they would have to either be in here early the next morning they'd have to stay late that night break all that stuff

048down and put it back to where it was um, for the kids to come in the next day. So, again I don't know where we've landed on that. I don't know if that's still things that the board has under consideration but um, we do have some more information about that if if that's a topic that you that wants to that you want to discuss as we move forward. Just a comment on the if you did the one you're talking about going to the library you still would have to have retrofit that for cameras as well. Yep. That's at that's at 20 that's at $23,000 yeah. Yeah. I get it. I know that's a lot of money but I as we just had a you know, MSBA first meeting [snorts] earlier which I'll discuss we'll talk

049about later on in the in the agenda but um, it's pretty packed and I think once people start attending when you're going hopefully we'll be able to get a bigger building. I don't know that this room is going to cut it. So, that's something we can look at. And and again I mean we can look at I mean I know we recorded that first meeting. I mean is it essential that we record all of them going forward? We we can meet in the library but like to set that space up and have the technology be able to do all that stuff is Um, yeah we That's a little ways down the road too but I just want since you're talking about meeting space I forgot to bring it up. Uh, next piece here Mr. I've

050talked to Mr. Hurley already. He is planning to attend the April meeting. Um, and I have asked him to come to come prepared to talk about the 2025-2026 shop placement update. So, by the April meeting all of that will have shaken out. Uh, he will be here to report you know, how many students ended up in each program um, you know, kind of what that looked like and and how that played out across all of our 20 different technical areas. Um, so again I that's that's a little different than we've done in the past but um, you know, he approached me about that. He's new to the role. This is something that that he is um, you know, he is excited to do and he and he thinks it's going to be beneficial as we

051move forward. So, uh, we'll hopefully we'll welcome him at the April meeting. Um, new district treasurer role we did verify with MS MS MASC that the current policy does cover um, having a district treasurer having Mr. Williams on board. Um, they did make um, a recommendation that that the business office procedure so our policy exists. They said just make sure the procedures underneath that which um, the interim business manager and I have been working on a lot of things related to business office procedures as well. So, we'll make sure that that gets included. Um, and then there was a question last last meeting about the payroll warrant. Um, we did look into that. Those codes are automatically generated by MUNIS um, which means that somebody would have to go in and manually change those and

052type something into each one of those things which again I I don't know I guess I'm counterintuitive. I mean if you're basically understand you're approving something but if you're suddenly approving something you don't know what it is how are you supposed to review? So, I guess that's to me it's like you look at those audit roles or things you just kind of kind of hard to understand completely what all of them are. I mean the AP is pretty obvious because you see you know, what you coded as you know, you paid for shop supplies or whatever. It lists out the vendor has a classification but anything that's more like I mean so I'm looking at the payroll it's it's absentee council 93. I mean the other union dues Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the state. Delta

053Dental or health insurance. Great West retirement is that's going to be a retirement product. Massachusetts teachers retirement Middlesex County retirement. Arlington daycare. Uh, STA treasurer so that would be >> But I I get that Tony but my point is if you're looking at something that's basically like an AP like take you go to the first one and you look at it and say okay it's AP warrant and you say okay we paid East Endicott I'm assuming 94 is either a check number that's basically the sign >> I'm sorry I thought you were talking about the payroll warrant. No no I'm saying but what I'm saying is it's you get the full detail in the AP warrant. So, you know you like list it lists out individually what they are but if you're looking at a

054payroll warrant it's a bucket you don't have to back up to fully understand what that is. So, it's already difficult enough as it is when you pull something up and you look at it. I mean I'm assuming like you said the approver is the district treasurer is reviewing that that's an approved of policy but then it has to be then approved by a school committee member and it's very difficult to review that one if you don't really know exactly what it is because it's you said it's it's difficult and you can decipher or take a guess but you don't have to pull back up to guess what that is. Now, I know that it's based on a pre-calculated um, thing but it's if you're doing a review and approval it's it's kind of >> get

055the backup for all of the other for the AP warrant? I think they're in there I'm pretty sure. I think I don't I I don't typically see them on the payroll. Well, we'll look at all of the options. One of those numbers are statewide numbers. It's fund code numbers either. Right. I think Mr. office No, he's talking about some of the stuff that's assigned by MUNIS to like different funds. Yeah. So, Cuz even on one of the sheets even on one of the sheets it's noted that the district treasurer gets the backup that's what I'm saying. Like it's kind of kind of intuitive that if you're if you have accounts payable you get it you review it it goes through three levels but you get that full backup but if you're getting I understand it's

056very different than a payroll deductions and all that it's based on a predetermined but if [snorts] he gets it and reviews it and signs off on it but then the next person that's the second approver is you one one the district treasurer three review school committee on the AP side. On the other side it's the district treasurer who's getting the backup but it makes it difficult to kind of the person reviewing it yeah. We'll look at the options. >> Okay cool. Thank you. I I again I don't think I understood that completely but thank you for the the follow. Uh, and that is all I have. Do you have any questions? Yeah, I I just >> [clears throat] >> just a comment on the on the lottery. I got a couple phone calls. Um, and

057me too? Yeah, I know. And and and we we as a board here folks we know we fought the good fight. We fought we fought we fought. We spoke to people we spoke to everybody. Spoke to the MASC people and we and we knew we weren't going to make it. We knew and I people said why is there a lottery? We we tried and the state assumes it's it's um, it's happening. So, um, it was disturbing on social media when I saw a Falcon member's child didn't get in here. That hit home. I said to my wife hey I I I was I what really hurt me if my own son didn't get in or parents' children. Um, I know the system give them three ping pong balls and that's where how it goes Tom.

058But I mean uh, I know I don't think it's going to go away. I know I appreciate the the work the superintendents are doing. Uh, there'll be some we know we we agree there'll be some sad people out there. And maybe I don't know it looks like some of these towns the wait list is it's not going to happen. I was I was at a MAVA meeting um, I believe it was last week and this this was one of the topics of discussion. So, I know um, the MAVA superintendents are kind of coalescing around the fact that you know, there should be some type of sibling preference for this. So, if if an older child have gotten in that you know, there's there's some type of pathway for that. Um, there was also I mean

059one of the things that as we talked about was twins one gets in and one doesn't. So, that that's another issue that came up. And then they also discussed the fact that you know, like if you're if you're a staff member um, you know, do your kids have access to that school or do they get preferential treatment? And and again I know um, I I can see both sides of that. The the people on the outside looking in are like well, your kids you know, you know, your kids no different and no better than mine. You know, it's it should be equal but on the other side you know, you look at it from a recruitment tool and if people know that you know, if they're a staff member here that their kids can attend

060sometimes you know, that helps you attract and and um, it it keeps you know, keep good staff too. So, um, those those all came up at that meeting and I know um, that group had does have a meeting scheduled to talk directly with the commissioner about the impacts and and and what they what we've seen and and what they'd like to see going forward. So, A good possibility to look at I used to deal with school choice. I don't think you have that with school choice here but there are different rules and regulations there that informative to this discussion. I can tell you people I've talked to in my town like the state it's the first year they've done it but the people I've talked to the state better be prepared for the fact that

061it's going to blow back because at least in like you when you apply to college it's a review process. This is like it's like you meet very basic criteria and you get a one one this one you get put in a lottery but it's going to basically especially going into an MSBA project. I mean people at the table better be ready. I mean I'm I'm already talking to people in my town. You going up for 1,600 kids and all of a sudden people are going to start saying it's rigged because basically why am I going to waste my time applying or you do an easy apply, but even if I do that, it's just it's like I mean, no offense Tony, but I watched that thing. It was like watching Let's Make a Deal. Like

062it's like it's it's your like a computer program. So they can Yeah, yeah, 14 minutes. And there's less kids that are going to be Why am I going to waste my time applying when it's not going to be seriously evaluated? So going in an MSB project I mean, I can tell you in our town, we got a school for 1,400 kids and that's partially what sunk that one was basically because of the whole thing of how big it was. And that's your you're basically having a a school for that projected to be 1,600 kids. And I mean, I may be nuts, which probably I am, but but basically I think you're going to like get less kids applying because it's eventually not not initially, but over time I think some kids are just going to

063say forget it. Like why am I wasting my time? What? And I could be wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Charlie. Yeah, I've gotten some phone calls similar to that actually cuz all the kids the students that apply they know their fellow classmates. And I've had I've filled the calls already about, you know, certain kids that won't even show up to school the minimum like a lot of absentees. They don't understand it. They don't apply themselves in school. They get they like at the bottom of the grade list and and they kids like well, why am I trying so hard? So I hope they look at that down the road because it's like giving these kids aren't going to have any incentive to do well, which I think is the worst part of it all. So I

064hope going forward they've got that in their thought process as well. I just like to add that I actually had personal skin in this game. >> [laughter] >> My son was in that lottery. So I completely understand. I think merit should absolutely count for something and I feel the pain. I feel the pain. I agree. I none of us wanted it and hopefully it won't continue this way. >> I think everybody's for diversity and equity, but it's got to be based on actual fact. So the state better be ready for blowback and the fact that even people, not to bring political into it, but even people that typically did support that and I can tell you that's the current governor. I wouldn't waste my time that that kills my vote basically because of that that

065maybe not the best >> I mean, we can obviously as a committee say what we believe, but this wasn't the way we wanted it. >> has to be it has to be based on fact, statistics, and reason why you're doing it that it's shown if there's been other examples, but in what I've read and seen there has not been actual hard data to say that this is basically why it's been done. If they said, "Okay, in three other states this is potentially being done or other areas of the state." It has to be based on fact and from what I've seen there's none of that. So. Um if the concern is that certain populations are not being represented, that's a problem. But it wasn't our of the high schools that were affected by this. So

066I think it would have been a much better move to say, "Town X, we are concerned about your percentages. Let's fix you." So I mean, let's fix you. So I mean, let's fix you. These are the percentages. You're meeting them. As long as you continue meeting those percentages, we can maintain status quo because I mean, talking about the the concept of, you know, siblings, twins, things like that. It's a complete chance. It's awful. If it's I have to No, I don't have twins, but if I have twins and one doesn't apply themselves, one doesn't bother going to school, one doesn't bother get doing their homework, and one doesn't bother behaving, and they don't get in, I can clearly say to them, "I warned you these are the consequences of your behavior. It has nothing [snorts]

067to do with the fact that I'm going to expand the school and not." But in this case, come it's awful. >> [snorts] >> Attorney, thank you. And I don't know if it's going to change, but I think if you guys scream and yell a lot, maybe they I don't know. It needs to be tweaked a little bit. I don't think it's going to go away. Well, they have to show see the data. Yeah. I I I do think that from our community perspective, the the parents Ron mentioned it. There's a teacher here whose child didn't get in. Like I mean, it is it's just it's it's a bad overall feeling after that lottery on March 7th. And the um you know, that from the people that they've all sharing this thing. It's like a, you

068know, one of those petitions things >> Yeah, petitions, change.org. >> [clears throat] >> I don't even know where that goes, but like I hope that, you know, Dessie or the commissioner, whoever it is, is seeing that feedback. I don't know if there's anything we as a school committee could do to make sure that he's hearing from us about what our feedback was with this experience, but I know that there's a lot of people that aren't happy with what happened. >> I I've heard that the governor has a phone line Okay. >> that is I won't say closely monitored, but is paid attention to. So I know one of the conversations last week is some of our sister vocational schools when they're sending information out to parents, they're saying, "Please contact the governor." >> We've been

069saying contact your state At least I have. I don't know if Charlie has, but the state reps too because that's probably where the change has to happen. I think that's good advice. Well, there's also the unhidden ones you don't see, which is you're sending middle schools already are used to a current process. You basically torched that and then they don't give minimal time, so they've had to adapt. So it puts additional stress on you're trying to base on this side and that side to create a partnership and it basically torches that and basically now you have to It's probably not the best word, but you know what I mean? Now it's you have to go back to the drawing such a minimal amount of time. Yes. >> Um just to add on having had a

070lengthy conversation with the parent of twins last week trying to explain the sensibility of this was challenging. I was struck by how considerate and well-reasoned this person was in hearing it despite the very stressful situation it's creating for their family. Um and we we you know, we went through some of the history of it that we're all familiar with and also looking forward, I think what we're all anticipating is we're going to have uh retention rates in the fall that are considerably different. And I was, you know, very appreciative in the discussion I had. We're talking about April 17th and then over the summer and then the thought that all of this becomes somewhat all the efforts that Andy and the team down there put together and then we have numbers of exits in in

071September and October that are very different than we've ever had before. That would that would be the next worst-case scenario. So it's um difficult. Um but I I think it's important that we continue to hear from those people and pass their stories on. I think we should have done something right at the beginning. I think all the tech schools should have went out and done it. No? Uh you know, I mean, perhaps there's consequences or not, but they should have just said, "We're not doing it." What what are you going to do, Dessie? Not give us money? What are you going to do? You know? Okay, you had something else to say? Sorry. Yeah, no, that's okay. I I kind of lost my train of thought at that comment. >> [laughter] >> I'm good. No,

072no, that's okay. I just lost my train of thought. Okay. Any other comments? Questions for the superintendent? Okay, subcommittee reports. Safety subcommittee. Update that we met as our subcommittee yesterday, so February 23rd. Um we have some So we have some updates that I cannot fully share at this time, but very positive in my eyes. Concerns that I had that, you know, were addressed and I am looking forward to bringing um more information that I can share with everybody on the April meeting. >> [laughter] >> We're working hard. Budget subcommittee. Okay, we uh have met uh 20th. It was a joint meeting in February February 3rd we met and we met tonight. And uh we went over the update of where we're at the budget cycle. Um meetings that will be coming up with the finance

073committee. Um so Tony and Paul updated us of what's happening out there. Um so we have one big picture down check. We're moving on. Uh Thursday night Tony and I had the pleasure of sitting with Tony and uh dealing with the Wilbraham people. I hope that goes well. Uh we met with the town manager Tony and I met with the town manager. Uh Wilbraham uh last week. It was a very cordial meeting. Uh we were kind of nervous going in cuz what were we expecting? But he kind of just uh said, you know, um "They're going to have a lot of questions." We said, "We're going to have a lot of answers." Okay, so uh he was fine what's going on and I said, "You know, if you you've seen that school." And he goes,

074"I only drove past it." Well, I said, "You got to get in there." So I'm hoping he did He got a short tour >> what this place is all about. I said I said, "Chris, it takes a lot of money to pull off the quality of education we have here." And and I just was selling Voke to him. He was very impressed. He was He just sort of stared in awe at you know, automotive and one of the machine shops at the number of different equipment that we had and all the cars up on lifts and >> Last September, the finance committee walked around with us after we had several years as a committee, we brought them in, three hours later they're like, "Wow, you know." So, it's nice to show off what we have

075and what's going on. Yeah, I would and we kept saying this place is tight, you know, this is the biggest space. So, we hope to go well. We hope that the select board in Billerica moves to warrant article one. There's a lot of ifs and that's what's going on in in in in Billerica from my perspective. And I appreciate all the efforts everyone else has made, all the other towns. Uh it's kind of a weird year, I'll just leave it there. So, that's my report. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Any >> [clears throat] >> comments for me? Um two things we're going to actually I I appreciate Paul's say thanks for the input, but I think two things Paul's going to put together like TMS can put together a report that basically says all the

076changes that were made. So, if you talk about like key things that can be shared that basically says these are for fiscal year '27, these are the recommendations that were made. So, for example like I had a discussion with the select board member in my town like basically about how salaries were treated and how breaking out like utilities was all jammed in one thing, now it's in like multiple breakouts like explaining that. And potentially any fiscal year '28 that will be clear. The other thing is if you look at the board book, I think in the past having like FTEs, I think that'll be helpful basically to show in the detail section because if you look at you know, say look at if salaries make up 70% of your overall operating budget and you look

077at those line items and you see okay, there's three members from fiscal year '26. I understand fiscal year '26 '27 is kind of a weird cuz of this stuff that's going on, but basically if you look at that that salary line had three member FTE and then next year at FTE and then over time it's called it's three and a half. But that will help to kind of break out and lead to less questions and then we'll be able to explain. So, I think that'll be helpful when you're reviewing the budget and then you position it next year basically you know, basically that that's kind of how you present it and then I think even the transportation issue we had that hopefully you know, when you your budget before you do your assessment is is

078you didn't put the the expense line I mean quote me wrong here, but basically like that's going to leave that 6% is basically is it's um understated. So, it's going to be a massive change from fiscal year '26 to '27 because it's like artificially inflated cuz you're kind of catching up in this year because of the transportation issue. So, if we clarify all that stuff and clean it [clears throat] up, I think that should help to lead to less questions and hopefully down the road we'll make it better and clearer. And honestly you're going to take you're going to take a beating this year you make changes, that's just the nature of the beast. So, people thought anything different I mean that's just the way it is, but I think hopefully Thank you. To piggyback

079on you this focus is gets better and better every year. Thank you and I think we a couple years ago the Billerica finance committee wanted salary, we gave them salary. We gave them I know. And with all it maybe they'll find something else. I know Wilmington hopefully they're going to be happy. I mean right? I mean I'd love to go to a meeting and go, "This is great. You're all set." you know, but you know, I know Tony would It is what it is. There's everything we need to know that's in there and then find little things and so, we can't say that we did not do our homework. This is how we how we operate. Can I Can I have one last comment? So, I was my last comment about it, but I think

080other people have been watching. I mean nobody's going to say it, so I you don't need me to be the person to bring it up, so I'll say it. So, I think everybody's been watching the finance committee meetings for the towns um and I got to be honest Patty, I watched someone from Tewksbury the stuff you but but Patty the stuff you said there was reflected and nobody else in the committee is going to say it, but I will. It's basically the stuff that was said was not completely accurate and frankly did not put in the best position of the way. So, to say that basically what you said I mean I can tell myself personally, I show up every day, I have no allegiance to this anybody. I go here because I do it

081for Burlington, I do it for my mom and side all these haters and some of the stuff you said I I personally took it personal. So, like like some of the stuff you said basically made it sound like you were taking a backseat, you basically were like you came back in and basically like to say that stuff like like people have been here, we show up all the time like personally I I don't appreciate that. So, like I think I think you owe people an apology basically I did um I was a little taken aback when I was accused at that meeting and that you know This is your problem. >> so so so do you want me to go on April 8th and do you want me to do the same thing you did

082basically and I go in and I face No, and I realized that I was I should have taken a breath and thought a minute but I didn't, so >> [snorts] >> I didn't mean to offend any of you. But but that's [laughter] but that's how it was. But that's how it was. But that's how it was. So then so the next time do I go that when we go to Burlington and I can say that? Okay, well then that's what I'll do. Okay. Then that's fine. But I think you owe people an apology for what was said in that meeting because the way you presented that made everybody in this room look like that. So, I mean I'm sorry maybe other people won't say it, but I will. If that's how you felt, I do

083apologize, but that's not what I meant. Well, that's what it was portrayed I felt personally I did felt feel personally attacked that meeting. And this is my town. This is who I'm presenting to. Yes, but it's five towns Patty. Basically nobody else in this room would go out. The superintendent is not going to do it, the business manager is not going to do it, nobody on the committee is going to do it. Like I have respect for enough people in this room that but You may You may want to cut me off, but that's that's what I wanted. Okay, the old business school building committee's feasibility funding. Okay. Just a few minutes. Uh we met for the first time on St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish, so it didn't bother me. >> [laughter] >> But

084it was a very I thought productive. It was more just an introductory, mostly the members attended. It was very well done and um everybody just basically went around the table and introduced themselves and those that had experience with past projects, you know, let us in on that. There were a lot of good ideas generated and you know, in the first obviously you have to take a little step at a time until we really get going after the feasibility study which I hope we're going to end up having. Um but it was very well attended and like I said, a lot of good ideas and it was just everybody in the in the room was all had some energy in it and the Billerica town manager was part of it. He seemed very positive from what

085I could see on it as well as what I had already stated. Um but I think we we just put out a uh Nicole just put out a thing before We're hoping to have another meeting again sometime next month uh just to continue on and then I think if everything goes right and we have the money for the feasibility study that's it's going to really start to take off. And then and then we're going to be busy. Can I Can I ask a question? I just have a question. Yeah, so I'm trying I'm wondering how many people on the committee had prior experience with building committees. I know that Bedford has been the Bedford rep has been part of it. I would have to say it was about six of them. So, that's so they're

086bringing experience to the building experience with and experience from different perspectives. Yeah, quite a bit. Um yeah, so I didn't get to say anything cuz he kept on talking and then we stopped him, but you know, this this whole thing with the lottery, these FinCom meetings, these from my community I am hearing, you know, we're talking about the feasibility study and we're going to be going to vote on this and I think you know, we as a school committee need to be like thinking about all this stuff because how we present ourselves to the public does affect the towns' vote when we ask for money. And you know, this feasibility study and the funding is all great I mean this is this is this would be great for our school. Obviously if we get a

087new school or we can get to the next phase, but if we don't get to that phase because our towns' people don't vote in favor of this, you know, this all just dies. So, I just think [clears throat] it's important to keep all that in mind when we're meeting with these towns. We have three more. We've gotten through two, right? And Bedford's tonight. Is it Did Bedford pass? And we had Wilmington and Tewksbury. Those were just finance committee meetings. Those weren't the town meetings yet. >> Yes, so but we have to get through those meetings, too. We have two more, right Tony? So, I just keep that in mind when you're speaking those nights because I I would I'd like to see us get a new school eventually, but we're not going to get there

088if we don't get through this other stuff and I know the people the lottery has no bearing on us because we didn't choose that. That was DESE. But you know, that affects people's views on this these big money decisions and in Wilmington we just approved an elementary school and we're already seeing the repercussions of that within our tax bills and it's pretty it's pretty significant. Um and so then we're going to come and ask for more money for this new high school and it's just anyway, that's all I wanted to say is just keep that in mind when you're I just want to say because of what you were saying. So, within our meetings going to be televised by anybody that's out there watching. Obviously, we're going to have to have televised and we're going

089to try and be as transparent and get information out to the all five towns that you know, just so they so it's not a big surprise to them at the end of the day we get to the point of being able to be approved completely and have it will be a complete shock or surprise, whatever you want to use. Or whatever, they're not listening for the play, they know it. And so, hopefully that'll help us. It's definitely going to be a part of the whole thing is being able to promote it as we as time goes on, not just to wait till last minute. It's almost like a campaign for lack of a better word is the way I look at it. Making sure that all the different residents are well known, all aware of

090what's going on and what's involved and everything else. So, if you put those meetings, I know you said they're going to be televised, are they open to the public? Yes, they're open. Fine. Um, just I even even as I echo some of the thing would echo some of the things that both Gwen and Kant have said about the the Tewksbury meeting and how the committee was reported on. I think it's also important as we go to these meetings and be it's important to be as many as possible cuz quite frankly, one of the dynamics I saw in Wilmington was there was one approach when Charlie and Tony were in the room and the following week when they you know, they weren't expected to be in the room, suddenly uh there was a very different attitude.

091But, one of the things I think we really have to be aware of, I said it at the building committee last week is people conflating short-term and long-term. Um, we're talking about a building that is going to be meaningful and serving generations of families and kids long after we have a different superintendent, we have different business managers. But, at at a couple of the FinCom meetings I've already seen this really unfortunate and I think uh un- professional in some respects approach of well, I'm a little agitated about the business office or I'm a little agitated about the the budget book and the way it was put together this particular time. So, I think we're going to teach those guys a lesson and not support the feasibility study. That is a remarkably, in my humble opinion,

092if you will, for me to say cuz our town has less financial stake in the game, very short-sighted. >> [clears throat] >> And I would hope that people and we we can all encourage people separate those issues out. If you've got an issue with the committee, the 10 of us, the superintendent, the business office, whatever, think long-term. But, I again, the fact that we heard that at two different FinCom settings already that there were people who were like, well, maybe we can just send them a message and let them go back to the end of the MSBA process. As many most of you know, it took us three applications to get this far and it'll take a lot more applications to get us back on the list if we can't even if you can't even

093get through the feasibility phase. It's one thing not to be able to get a a building project approved at certain scale. Um, which is one of the and I would also say it in that context we can certainly acknowledge some challenges that we've all been through and we can have reasonable disagreements about some of the outcomes on personnel, budget, all of that. But, the fact of the matter is though all of that is a short- term set of issues and I think we have to encourage some people cuz with all due respect to a couple of the other communities, I saw some personal grievances being potentially taken out on 1,300 kids and the future 3,300 kids in this building by like, well, I'm not happy with them or I got an axe to grind with

094a personnel decision. Which is a lot more nuanced and one of the things I I took some exception to with and particularly uh in both Tewksbury and Wilmington was we have done a lot to try to correct some of those things. Not everybody here agrees on the steps we took, but a lot has been done. And to we can't be so defensive that we don't step up for ourselves and say we've done a lot. It's not perfect and I listened to some of the comments being made as I was coming over here from the Bedford town meeting. But, if you if if Noel if people want to be upset about any of those things, I just encourage we go to as many meetings as possible, say keep the feasibility study in a whole new cat

095different category. That this is not the place for people to grind their axes with respect to it. So, forgive me for the lengthy diatribe, but it just got a little crazy to watch some of these not that watching four Fin- finance committee meetings isn't really good for your uh I'm sleeping happy. sleeping issues, but uh no, I again, all of those finance committees also made some good points. They made some reasonable, legitimate points. But, there were people who have shown little or no interest in Shawsheen Tech from what I have heard and read over the years, suddenly and we have not been perfect for the last 30 years. And any suggestion that everything was perfect and everything changed just in the last few that's that's oversimplifying in a different direction. It all of this is

096a lot more nuanced and all of us that have been here know that and not only for the public meetings, all of us that have sat in offices here with the business manager before and after superintendent, we all know that. So, um and we're a little bit hamstrung in what we can say on some of these issues cuz of other proceedings going on, but again, I just we our main goal right now is to get through the feasibility phase and if there's any sentiment in your community that we're going to you know, send them a message on that. It's a really bad idea. Please don't do that. If you have the capacity to do it, try to get all the towns to approve it. That's what happened in Burlington, they basically wasted That's what happened

097in Burlington, they basically wasted 1.5 [snorts] Yeah, it's all wasted. Thank you. We're here for the kids. I think that's what we really need to remember. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Internal audit findings. Should I take that one away or I think that one was good. Uh chair. Um, so we I guess we're recombining that one with the internal audit bid submission. That's fine. If you want me to I mean, I can have to take that one if you want. Uh if you want to do the maybe the funding one, I can take the other one. So, uh again, the the uh audit subcommittee did meet earlier this evening um and again reviewed the submission that we got. Uh there was a significant price increase over the first version of this that we saw. Um there

098was some conversation back and forth. Um if this Please Mr. Mr. Moffitt, Mr. Hutchins, correct me if I'm wrong here. At this point in time we're going to put a hold on the uh the quote, [snorts] the the the bid, whatever you want to call it that we got from Cbiz. Um and I've been tasked to go back um to TMS and ask TMS to really kind of take a strategic look about what they're already doing um and what we could potentially add to their scope of services um instead of spending you know, it's it's well it's well over $100,000 at this point in time. One it was almost 107. Initial fee. 85 and it came out at 106. So, the the committee discussed that and decided to we're going to try to explore some

099other options. You may actually parse out like if you state in this Well, if there's stuff that they're already doing, so put together something, but if there was like deficient areas that they don't cover, we could like scale that back and have We can always come back to a plan. >> [cough] [snorts] >> Okay, superintendent's evaluation. Yeah, so um Miss Miss Stoudt has done a fabulous job updating the uh the Microsoft form template. Um we updated it when we were here last year. Um again, she took the information and the created a form with that. Okay, so so if if it will it will be new to Miss Stoudt, my apologies. Um but again, so that that submission will be coming out this coming When are we targeting the next to release the uh I

100was going to send it tomorrow. Tomorrow? Okay, so you know, it's coming out tomorrow. >> [laughter] >> As as a part of that um I the the goals update we had already you know, I kind of already shared. I will update that as well, but I'll also send some information about those specific uh indicators that the the committee had picked. So, again, people should have um some background for me about what we're doing. Um as a reminder and and I believe the form says this as well, this is just kind of a mid-cycle piece. Um so, it's not it doesn't need to be quite as detailed or or as Yeah, Nicole will send it out to you guys. Okay. It's micro- it's a Microsoft form again. Uh you get it in an email. Yeah. And

101then Miss Stoudt will will update the form. This is not your this is not the final. This is this is a this is a formative. It's not a summative. I thought so. Yeah, I thought we discussed it. And again, that's in line with what the committee had discussed in the fall and had decided that they wanted to do a new evaluation. So. Okay. Coming soon. All right, retreat date. So, I'm I'm going to defer to Ms. Stoudt on this one. She's the one who had the the conversation with So, by the time I got back to our MASD rep with the date that everybody had landed on, unfortunately, she had something else booked. Um I sent out a Doodle Poll, but unfortunately, not everybody got back to me, so we still don't have a finalized

102date. Um she did give me a number of dates to stay away from that she's now booked, but I'm not sure if we can find another date. If you want me to send out another Doodle Poll or how we can go about getting a a date that works for everybody. I think do a Doodle Poll as long as everybody agrees to fill it out. Right. I think we also need to consider that maybe we have our retreat and separately see Alicia. How long is Alicia's presentation? Um she said it takes about 2 hours, an hour and a half for her presentation plus a half hour for the Q&A questions. Does it have to be during the day or could it be in the evening? She said nights, weekends, days. I mean, do we want to

103consider keeping our original um date for our retreat because it took us 10 minutes to come up with that date >> [laughter] >> and then [clears throat] It's fine. and do a separate Doodle Poll of dates just to have Alicia come because maybe I I mean, I know half of us work days and don't necessarily have the flexibility to take the time off. So, maybe um if Nicole sent out a date, it could be some days, but also maybe some evenings, then maybe we could have her come, you know, on a different Tuesday night, you know, where we know it's going to be 2 hours. We know we're discussing one thing and then you know, we we know it's going to start at 6:00 and end at 8:00 and you know, people can plan for

104that and maybe we can start earlier. I don't know. I'm just We also have that date that the Division 8 meeting. That's it. Yeah, but that's that's October. That's later on. Yeah. It's a little later on, but if all else fails and we're running out of options, that might be because those Division 8 things are usually like 2 to 3 hours and So, there's a couple of options. So, July 16th, that was the date that we had all agreed on, right? >> July 13th. 13th. So, we're going to stick with July 13th. 13th. 13th. So, let's just stick with that date and worry about Alicia separately. Yeah, that works. She's out She can't make it then. No, she's gone July 11th. She's honestly gone most of the summer. >> [laughter] >> Well, that that means

105Yeah, it's gone a couple weeks in July. She was a different time. Yeah, leave it for the 13th for the retreat. Just a You mentioned October, so I'm just trying Right. I was talking about the protocol person from MASC. If we're going to do that as a separate You meant to do it on the same day. You didn't want You suggested That's why I'm We want to do that or or do we want her to send out a new poll? That's all I'm Well It's October 17th, I think. I can look, but again, I don't know how people feel. I mean, that's eating up a whole Saturday. Honestly, I mean, this is something we've been talking about for a while. Why are we kicking it 6 months from now? I was going to suggest that

106um if we're sticking with the the retreat date separately, that you send out a couple dates in in late April, in May, in June. You know, if we have two dates in each of those months to pick from, you know, or maybe more, hopefully we'll find something. And I mean, she knows when your vacation set is set, right? >> Yes, but I'm I'm just laughing about April and May thinking about like Well, all three nights this week I'm out. Three nights in a row. Okay, so maybe later. >> [laughter] >> Honestly, I was thinking maybe April will work better than May because there isn't, you know, after tonight, there isn't a town meeting again. After Thursday, maybe there's a break. I don't know. But but there's vacation too, so I don't know. So, we don't

107have a monthly meeting in July. So, what about 2 hours one evening in July? Like a Tuesday like we would normally do a school committee. We just have to find a day. I'll throw out some 2-hour windows and evenings over the summer and we'll see. Thank you. We're still going to be on the 13th. The retreat is on the 13th. It's during the day. Yeah, cuz it's our retreat. I'll see if I can get a 2-hour window during the week over the summer. If she's available. Yeah, I have the dates she's not available. She is around some of July. All right, some of July. Yeah, all right, because before you know it, it'll be 6 months from now. >> [laughter] >> Maybe October. I know. I'm going to say, "When are we going to have

108that woman in?" Now, yeah. She's business manager and director of student services. So, oh, that's that's all right. Uh just to give an update on the hiring committee. So, um Mr. O'Donnell and Ms. Stoudt have agreed to serve on the hiring committee for the director of support services. Um Mr. Fusco and Mr. Fiori will be serving on the interview committee for the business manager. Um I know Ms. Cook is probably a week or a week and a half ahead of kind of where we are with the business manager. I'm trying to finalize um some staff members and some business office staff to participate in that. I think we're going to end up with about 10 or 11 people total on the committee. Um we will start I know Ms. Cook is planning to start interviews,

109I believe I not interviews, start meetings of that committee, I believe, next week. Um Well, ours is on Thursday. We have We've got one this Thursday. For us it's support services. Support services. I haven't final I haven't completely finalized the business manager one. I'll get it out to both of you as well and then we'll we'll probably be a week or two behind them. Um the idea here is is to have a recommendation um before the I mean, before the May school committee. I don't I think April might be a little too optimistic, especially with the vacation week in there. Um maybe maybe maybe we do have it ready for the April meeting, but I think May is probably a more realistic. Nicole's Ms. Stoudt is shaking her head The tentative interview dates aren't until

110the last So, it'll probably be May. When you said 10 people for each committee, you're expecting that many people? Not exactly. We have about 10 that are on the support services committee. No, this is more on the support services interview committee than it is the business manager one, but I have an academic department chair, I have a vocational department chair, some representatives from the business office. Thanks. Three three administrators. We didn't do parents on the Parents only interact with the business manager. No, no, but for the Oh, but yes, support services is the one. Yeah, we'll have 10 on the business manager review committee. Yeah. And Jess is Jess, I think it's like 12, something. So, Jess is doing support services independently of the business manager search. Jess has taken responsibility for that. Assembled the

111team. Who's doing the business manager? You are. Yes. All right, so you have formulated your team. Yep. All right, so we want We'll get dates out and again, I'm going to throw some dates out for potential meetings. We'll get together, kind of go through the preliminary stuff and then finalize dates and start interviews. So, once you get Yeah, okay, so what I'd like to have done once you set the dates is for us to all of us review the applications. Yep. Who's responsible? Yeah, that's the plan for the first meeting. And then and then we bring in who we want to bring in. We got to be try to finalize this in May. Yeah, I think we're I think we're targeting in the first week in April for the initial meeting. Was that the date

112Ms. Stoudt? Yeah, so the first full week in April would be our initial meeting to talk about, you know, how we're going to do this, to go and start to go through stuff, to have conversations about interview questions, who's going to develop them, how we're going to review them, um and then we'll roll from there. What services are in the same timeline or they're ahead of us, actually? When when you plan on distributing the applications to the everybody? As soon as we finalize the list. I would say right away. Which It should be soon. I mean, we're just we're pulling together a few final details, but yeah. >> [laughter] >> They'll definitely be available for the first meeting. If possible, can you at some point, it doesn't have to be right now, share a general

113sense of who's on those committees in terms of you know, two parents, two administrators, two school committee I mean, I realize it's confidentiality. We We don't want names, but um you know, Well, I mean, we know the school committee players. Um on support services, it's it's Principal Cook. Um it's um Ms. Johnston, Mr. Hurley, and I believe Mr. Carlson from guidance. Um I believe there's either three or four support services instructors. Um again, I I don't know the the exact makeup of of who those people are. And then I believe there's two parents and both of those parents are very active CPAC um and you know, had had kind of been um I don't want to say recruited, but but basically, you know, they're they're very involved in all the stuff that's going on anyways

114and they seem like a good fit. Uh as far as business manager goes, like I said, one aca- one academic chair, one vocational chair. I believe we're going to have two people from the business office. Uh Ms. Cook, Mr. Hurley, Ms. Johnston, two school committee members, and myself. Thank you. Okay, anybody else new business? Uh We kind of covered that one. Yeah, we kind of covered that one. Masonry dedication. Yes. So, um those of you that were in attendance on the day that we did kind of our our wasn't a ribbon cutting cuz we didn't cut any ribbons, but our kickoff for the new masonry space, um it was kind of um thrown out there at the ceremony that we consider naming that expanded space uh for a long time instructor who was here. The

115memo was circulated. Kind of explains that. So, the proposal that was shared at that on that particular day and the proposal in this in this memo is to name that space after after Larry Bradley. Any of you that have been around for a while know Larry. He was a long time masonry teacher. He's actually he spends just as much time in the building as a long term sub since he's retired, but Larry's Larry's here and does a lot of great things for us and it is is been a great asset to us after he retired. He's he's been a long term sub in carpentry and in HVAC and machine shop and electronics. There was There was vocational degree. Yeah, he's he's he's been a bunch of places. He's been super helpful to us. So. >>

116It was suggested at the ceremony. >> At the dedicate, yeah. Uh and I thought and I brought this forth. I thought this is a fantastic idea. Um So, I think uh we'd like to really do this. I'd like to see if we get some sort of plaque for that for the inventory. Absolutely. >> [clears throat] >> The shop is amazing. Those who've seen it. And kids are really benefiting from it. Um So, Pat, I'll make a motion to officially name the expanded masonry shop at Shawsheen Technical High School the Lawrence Bradley Larry Bradley Masonry Shop in recognition of Mr. Bradley's exceptional service, leadership, and lasting impact on the school community. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Um unanimous vote. So, I think uh he keeps us informed of what's going on. And we may

117not have as big of a to do, but when we when we get the plaque up there, we'll do a little unveiling. We get the plaque coming before the end of the school year. If not, uh and then we'll let him know what's going on. I think he'll be truly honored. Thank you. All right, >> [clears throat] >> FY24 internal audit recommendations status. I am going to defer to our interim business manager who prepared some information that was I believe included in the packet. Okay, thanks very lot. Thanks. Okay, thanks very lot of other Yeah. So, um logically, you can I I don't need to read through the whole thing. had it in your packet, but again, this is now heading towards FY27 with FY24. Behind the times. Um These were recommendations that were not

118um didn't tend towards solving problems in the future, unfortunately. Um and there is I think another year left in the contract and they are in the process of doing FY25. So, that may be a consideration for the future as to, you know, whatever you wish to see. Um As I say, I don't want to read everything here, um but there are some responses here that uh you know, that we are already receiving to make. We are updating on page two. Um we're updating the committed to control cost with Tyler. We do recommend to the system to implement utilize workflow management system. This has not been fully utilized at all. Um and we >> [clears throat] >> introducing employee access where changes can be made on a form that you come into the office and be

119uh approved and then put into the payroll system. >> [clears throat] >> Um we now uh you know, certainly providing reports to the departments to manage and take responsibility for their own uh budgets. Um we've just recently implemented a process or starting to implement a process where when graphics or food service or any other department offers a service to another department, that's not free. It it takes money away from those departments. So, there should be an internal transfer. So, basically those departments that are offering a service will provide an invoice and then we will have to say, "Where is the um budget internal budget transfer that goes from that department to the graphics department or food service or wherever it shall be." Um that's that I think used to be in place, so quite a

120while ago. But it's been lost over time and we sometimes people got paid and sometimes those departments didn't and I think that creates frustration and hurts the culture of the overall system. Um so again, I don't want to read all of those. I mean, you you can read, but uh we've created a fund for compensated uh absence. And there were two accounts. There's a small account with $10,000 at the end of FY17. >> [clears throat] >> Uh we will be moving that in with the next FY18. Interesting to the larger um We're working for assistance to set up the payroll uh withholdings because that have not that has not been set up. When you take a payroll offset out of somebody's pay to pay for health insurance or, you know, whatever the other benefits are,

121um that they go into a liability account that was not set up the same way across the board. Uh so, things were, you know, difficult. Um We've some of you have heard it before. We've untangled revolving accounts and student activity accounts. We are held up in We're working with Tyler. We've we've paid for and we're setting up training for them to come in because originally when these accounts were moved into the software, they never moved in the beginning balances. It's and I don't even know when Eunice started actually. I I don't think any of you unless some of you on the committee have been here a long time. Um but those beginning balances or even the balances we currently have and I've shared it I think with some of the committees. I think it was

122budget Maybe the whole committee or budget committee. We now do have balances, but those will probably increase slightly because from even the very beginning um they were not included. Um and we've got those separated. We've got uh procedures for student activities. We're talking about moving student activities into um the responsibility of the building as it is in all other schools across the state most other schools where um they have to respond to certain things in student activity groups, athletics, or or others fairly rapidly and when it comes to our process. And [snorts] it's not done without oversight. The business manager, your new business manager should be reviewing that several times during the year, but then by DESE regulations, it's required to be audited externally annually. And there are procedures in place. So, we've put we've

123put that together. Um There were many There were many grant accounts, many other accounts that um had never been removed. It caused frustration. We I I sat with the leadership team saying, "Does anybody know what this title means?" Because it was so long ago and and again, that creates the cumbersome nature of what we were trying to pull apart because we didn't know if it was real, if the activity existed, did it continued. Some there were monies in some places where the activity had ended several years ago. Um and I think policy talks about eliminating those. Some some class money, what do you do with student lunch money that is left over from classes. So, that's sort of maintenance and cleanup that again when it's not >> [snorts] >> tangled up into the mix, makes

124life easier. You know, you pull up 27 pages instead of 50. You know, looking for something. Um Again, I don't need to read all these. Um These um We make sure as a as a receivable of fraction were reported in the general fund. However, they were related to funds received in this is the third one up from the bottom. We corrected that. Um again, in the second one up from the last page, uh this is understood. We will be working with Tyler with the assistance when they're training with us to fix that. Several of these have that. Um We will be working with them to to now get things set up properly. Uh because it's been misset up, we don't want to set it up wrong. And they've had they've had changes in their system

125updates. So, we want to make sure we're getting it right. So, it's worth spending a few dollars to have them guide us through it and do that for us. Uh I can go into detail on anything, but uh again, these were recommendations from FY24 that didn't necessarily uh even get reviewed really till now. Uh these were some things that we were already starting and Nicole Wood, who's my partner here, um and myself and we have more to do and uh you know, we did some of the things that we mentioned on the the possibility of an external audit or external review of these practices. A lot of those things, the approval processes we were both we were attending to. So. Happy to answer any questions. I have just a very quick question. So, I'm wondering

126on the color copies that we have, there's uh text in red and then there's sections that are um in yellow highlighted in yellow. And I was just curious who who wrote I did the yellow ones. You had done the yellow ones. >> I was the red. Okay, thank you. I was just curious where it was coming from. Thank you very much. It was it was a definitely a shared document. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> And yellow. Um 26 27 school calendar. So, again, this was in the packet. Um, there is a proposal. Um, this has been discussed with with the STA um, leadership team as well. Um, we are back a little bit earlier than normal, but that is only because I believe Labor Day is on It's either on the absolute latest day

127it can be or the next to the latest day. Um, so there was some conversation back and forth. Uh, again, staff will be back the last full week of August, which is typically when our staff is in the building anyways. Um, and we will work We will conscientiously work around that Labor Day weekend and I will make sure that if people have There's actually a couple of uh I think there's a couple of back-to-back 3-day or 4-day weekends there um, to start of the school year. So. And again, [snorts] this was this was this was done with uh through Principal Cook and um, I believe the uh school council. I believe they've also [snorts] had had eyes on this and and enabled to provide input. Um, and I know it's been reviewed by numerous staff

128members. It looks like if we didn't start until after Labor Day, we and there was a lot of snow next year, we'd potentially be in school till literally the end of June. So. This looks good. >> Wait, what's the last day for this year? For this school year? >> I believe it's June 24th. Yeah, I think it's the last the last Wednesday in June. Anybody else? I'll make a motion to approve approve the 2026-2027 school calendar as presented. >> And I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Unanimous vote. Uh, discussion with school committee meetings during inclement weather. You want about school committee meeting dates? Oh, I'm sorry. Pardon me. School committee meeting. The school committee meeting dates. >> [laughter] >> Um, and does anybody have any problems with the dates? Again, I think

129we typically avoid you know, we avoided the week of Christmas. We Yeah. we stayed away from school vacations. Again, credit to Miss Stouty. Excuse me, credit to Miss Stouty for going through that stuff. I'll make a motion to approve the 2026-2027 school committee meeting dates Second. >> as presented. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Unanimous vote. Now, meetings during inclement Well, this is something Pat that I was talking about the last meeting. Right. Yes. I just asked Tony and because uh this has been a really a you know, this winter obviously as you all know has been really a an outlier, all right? But I just um would like a um policy in place to have a meeting if we knew that we were going to cancel the school. We couldn't get in here.

130Have the ability technology we have to have a Zoom meeting. That's all That's what this is all about. Um without losing a date. We didn't have a date. Mr. Ann I just see it was crunch time. I think it was Was it the January >> January. We missed the January meeting. I think every time we went to have a meeting uh Yeah, it was It was going to snow. Uh, so that's something that I was talking with Cole. Um, we could put on the agenda that in the in the winter months, you know, possibility. But I think we can do it. I think Miss Stouty did did a little research on this. >> Yeah, I think um right now, we've we've been using YouTube. So, it might just get complicated having multiple links, you know,

131having publicized something in the agenda that uses YouTube and then having to shift to Zoom. We're also kind of opening up the can of worms to always have Zoom meetings where the public can attend virtually. So, just things to keep in mind. We are connecting with the IT department to kind of discuss options going forward, but just things to keep in mind that it's not necessarily black and white because we use something with YouTube. But we want to I understand that. Okay, I'd like to further this discussion. I I just have one We have two like assuming the IT We have the snow day, I don't know what the IT paperwork that I was having if you have the snow day as far as their their availability as well. And then the only other thing

132is far as like I said, televising it. I think I brought it up before. If we do that, do we have to televise all What's the law? I guess I just want to make sure we're >> [clears throat] >> in compliance with whatever the law. Change our policy, does it affect everyone? Whatever the old meeting law is, if we do one, do we have to do them all? I don't know what the answer is, but I think we need to check that out to make sure we're not we don't I believe if we're in violation and we if we're considering a a virtual only meeting, that has to be included in the agenda. We cannot if the agenda doesn't say anything about a virtual only meeting, we can't add one with 12 hours notice. Um,

133when we did it during COVID, what was that just a state mandate? Like it's not >> [clears throat] >> a Zoom meeting. It got to be authorized then. That was before my time. Yeah, it was statutorily authorized. The state to do an alternative to in-person meetings. So, if they did it then, then Well, there should be an option to do it now. Oh, there is. There is. Um, I I think the issue is has to do with if you are You can do the hybrid, but if you're going to switch from hybrid to only, there may be a problem, but I'm not absolutely sure. It changes [snorts] the way you vote, too. I think what we're I think we're tripping over is the 48-hour notice. I think that's the thing that's going to get in

134the way on this. having multiple links go out. Cuz right now, we send out the link to the YouTube, but if we go virtual, we'd have to be a Zoom link and just Which sort of gets to the issue of whether we should consider having a default of two nights later. That's a I mean, that's a suggestion, too. So, if if we do have a winter meeting, the the understanding is that it would be a Thursday night instead of a Tuesday night. That may be a cleaner um Could we also find out is it feasible to have an agenda at you know, November to April list two links. Our our YouTube link and a Zoom link. And if we have to do a Zoom link, how feasible is it to upload that and I don't

135know if you know the answer to this. How feasible is it to take a recorded Zoom meeting and upload it to YouTube afterwards? So that somebody 6 months from now can just go to one place on YouTube link to see all the meetings whether they were done in Zoom or done on YouTube. I don't think that addresses Brian's concern of the switch from the hybrid to I I just don't know exactly I'm proposing that if we go to Zoom, that the that our policy states the Zoom meeting will be used if we are unable to access the building due to weather >> But if it doesn't if it doesn't meet open meeting law, it doesn't matter. So, that's that's the the crux here. We have to We have to make sure that we're straddling both

136of those issues. >> Yeah, the people have to be available to watch. And And even in the current to Brian's point about hybrid, another board I'm on, there's certain members that do show up for hybrid. That changed the whole way you vote and so See, I'm I'm I'm What I'm saying doesn't address what Tony's saying, but I'm saying that it isn't hybrid. It's either we are all in person and people watch on Zoom or watch on YouTube or we are all on Zoom and people can watch on Zoom because I know in Zoom you can have a webinar so that say for example, we had to do this meeting on Zoom, Coach Costabile or any of the open mic people could have been quote unquote elevated from webinar observer to participant. Um, not that we

137would not that it would be, well, it snowed, but we can get in here, but if you don't want to come, you don't have to. It would be like, no. We're either all here or we're all on Zoom. I don't know if that resolves I don't know how the open meeting law rules go for 100% remote meeting. I'm not saying I'm answering that question. I'm just I'm not saying hybrid. I'm saying either >> It'd probably be better to have like an alternative night versus trying to do it Yeah, I didn't think [laughter] we were going to have this problem. I understand. I know kids. I'm just So, hypothetically, folks, it seems that the smartest thing if we I don't want to see it up I don't want to see any more snow than we saw

138this winter. Let's next year won't have any snow at all. And it probably won't happen, but that's how it works. Um that if we ever had this type of winter that we would cancel We know we cancel the meeting with the hope of rescheduling it within 48 hours. Rather than just sit on it That's going to be problematic. If it's on Tuesday and you have a new agenda by Thursday, is that 48-hour window Does it have to be a new agenda if nothing's changed? Just put the agenda out. Yes, do the same thing. Yes, it has to be. If school's canceled in the morning, and it's it's supposed to be you get your 48 hours. Like on a Tuesday if if school's got called off on Monday night, I just would like to see us

139meet rather than sit on it for three or four days. >> all in that bucket. The agenda. It would It would also probably help with um because so often we schedule other ancillary meetings right before so that if there's also a finance committee meeting and a safety committee meeting scheduled right before, if you just flip them all, it doesn't mean everybody People will have their own circumstances, but at least it means everything moves. >> [clears throat] >> I think we might want to include in the policy or maybe it could just be a procedure that if a shift is happening, there's a deadline. Like so we're supposed to meet on Tuesday. If the shift is happening from Tuesday to Thursday, the decision has to be made 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. >> Whatever. Just cuz I'm

140also thinking what if a storm comes in during the day? Okay, I got And midday I mean, there there was at least one day I know where the kids all went to school, but you canceled all afternoon evening activities. Like, we have that we have to consider that. Okay. You know? So, that yeah, you know, so that by 8:00 a.m. we can look at the weather or whatever, you know, just have a time. >> So, what are we doing here? >> of time to re- re- re- >> it. It's just food for thought. Who was going to look into the open meeting law, Roy? We we can do some research on that. I mean, I think if we if you push it to Thursday night that means that we have till 6:00 on Tuesday night

141to make a decision cuz that's that's still your 48 hour 48 hours. And I think that's going to give us plenty I mean, again, even if the kids go home early and we have to cancel like early afternoon, late afternoon, whatever, you still have you still you will still have the 48 hours to update the posted. Yeah, they can some committee meetings have been before and those were less important than probably can. Yeah, they did. I mean, it depends on the the the date you're going to be able to change your I mean, to change the policy before the end of the school year? We got to go to policy change. I don't know. Well, and that's what I was going to say, it should be going into the policy change. Probably. I don't know

142if there's anything that specific. I can look. I don't think there's anything that specific in policy about that. So, I just like to go into the next school year with something definite's going to happen. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Um I don't know of any agenda items that morning. Not that I'm aware of, no. Tony, there are a couple They're not open houses, a cultural fair and and maybe a health fair that are coming up. I'm not sure about the health fair. I do I do know about the cultural fair. cultural Is there a second one? Tony, is that one or is that two different Is this the same thing? Miss Ferrari is shaking her head. There is a culture fair happening. Culture fair, when is that? Culture fair and then also the one

143that is spiral ones. I wrote I wrote it The culture fair is on the 11th of April. Yeah, I wrote it down. Yeah. And the one or something. There's a second thing. So, I'll I'll work with them. >> one with the Bolivar health or substance abuse council? Is that the one? Maybe. Let me let me find out about that. Those are the kind of things that I like us all to know about. So, I know I saw both of them on Facebook and did not at the time think to write the dates down. I just shared with them that that new thing you put out, the community That's what I was going to say today. The newsletter Yeah, the community connectioner. It has if you go to the bottom of that, it does have a

144community connection. And if you do the principal's update on Friday, if you click on that at the bottom of that, they have some of some of it's a lot of the same stuff, but then some of it's also other stuff. Doesn't mean it's not nice Okay, next um do you have something to do? I'm sure I won't. I don't know. Nicole, when you send out that evaluation, is there a deadline on it? Yes. We landed on a date. I don't remember off the top of my head, but it's included right in the body of the message. Okay. Okay. Anybody have future agenda agenda items that we haven't already discussed? We got an update on the ask for you. >> [clears throat] >> You want I I I that was just looking at that. Do you

145want me to This one I I don't know if this was a to 48 hours before, but Mr. Moffitt had asked for some information, some updates from CVIS. Um so, I did reach out I did reach out to Mr. Jaswetz, who is our account rep or whatever his title is. Um so, he did say that they are still waiting for some of the reports for the FY25. Um again, they're saying that, you know, having the Indian certified it will will kind of expedite the process. Um he said both Mr. Rubio and then Ms. Wood have been working on that and uploading stuff. Um He said he was going to reach out to them. This was um This was Monday. He said he was going to reach out to them. Um Their overall plan is that

146the FY25 audit completed before the final school committee meeting before summer. I don't know if he means the May meeting or the June meeting. Um [snorts] He did He did say that he's planning to block off 2 weeks of time, likely late April or early May, which is when the vast majority of the audit will be completed. Um you know, again, he says he's that is pending all of the documents, everything being um being submitted. Uh the student activity fund update that I asked him for, uh said that there was one pending question. Um the last update that he gave me like 6 weeks ago said the same thing. Um he did not share what that pending question was. Um I need to follow up with with some of our business office staff and find

147out um where we stand with that. But, um he did say that that is that is almost complete. Uh and then again, it has to go through a re- a review process um through their partners, and then it'll be issued. Um And then there was there was some follow-up stuff about about some billing questions and some other things that they had. Um but that was the update that I received from them uh yesterday uh yesterday morning. And just so everybody's aware, this is the last year of that contract, so we may seriously consider alternatives cuz I would say they're Their delivery is not less than stellar. Basically, the value [clears throat] add we thought is kind of coming I mean, to your Mr. Paul on the in the fall from 24, once you have the

148student activity stuff broken out, they did the fiscal year 25 audit, will that be going as as student activity audit? I would be responding to the 24 audit with our suggestions, but speaking currently. So, part of what we have already sent them is our whole process for student activity and the accounts we believe um that should be student activities by definition of local services >> [snorts] >> guidelines. Um they aren't in place yet. They haven't been transferred over to But, they know what we're going to do with those accounts, what we're going to use, and the procedures we're going Yeah, all that. The procedures were shared in draft form with us. You know, you have to have a team of assistant superintendent help out. Just But, that'll be in the rotation for the fiscal year

14926 once once the other one's completed. Anybody else? All right. Anything for motion? Motion to adjourn. Second [clears throat] that one. Second. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? That's a nine. All right.