BMR School Committee - June 12, 2025

001I'm going to call this meeting to order and ask everyone to rise for the pledge of allegiance. Just as soon as sit down. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisibley for all. All right. Introduction of members. I'll start with you, Jane. Uh Jane Reio, the town of Milville. Carrie Goddette, Blackstone. Erin Bakco, Milville. Dan Keith, Blackstone. Tara Larkin, Milville. Tara Scobby, Blackstone. Charles Stuntton, Blackstone. Matt Catalano, Milville. Maya Gany, student council president. Joe Spagna, director of finance and operations. Jill Pilgarani, assistant superintendent, director of student services. Jason Defalco, superintendent. and MAS uh student representative report. So I have our update from the high school. Yesterday BMR High hosted the largest track meet ever to be hosted at

002BMR. It was the division 3 state middle school track meet and it was the first time that states were held at BMR. So a great step for our school. Last week from the 9th to 11th we had 35 eighth graders along with four high school teachers go on the Washington DC trip. a couple of them I talked to that got back today had a great time and we also had our seventh grade stepup day just yesterday and it was definitely a success. It was way more involved than step days we've had in the past. We had seventh grade students meet with assigned high school mentors. So we actually had a large turnout of 50 upper classmen who volunteered to mentor these seventh graders coming into the high school to really show them the ropes and

003help them get their footing in a big new school that's unfamiliar to them. So, they had tours of the building. They heard advice from current eighth graders who are in the same position that they're going to be in next year and were also introduced to the eighth grade teachers that they'll have next year to start to internalize some familiar faces. They also had a Q&A session with student council officers and heard words of wisdom from them. So, we are getting ready for our end of the year activities here at BMR. Tomorrow, we've got our schoolwide bingo. Everyone gets together in the calf and plays bingo. We also have a karaoke bash next week and along with an outdoor nitro ball tournament. Fortunately, I won't be there next week, but I'm sure the person who's MCing

004Mr. Francisco is going to do a fantastic job. I'm so excited to be going to Girl State. I do leave on Saturday. I just got my room in city assignment yesterday. I will be in Liberty City and I will be housed in Core Hall. I attended an orientation last week online and I was able to touch base with some different people that I know from around the state who are also going and I'm very excited about that. And what's interesting is a lot of them are from MASC from SuKo. So it's very great to see the intersection between different student leadership activities around the Commonwealth and I have a friend from Minatrog and a friend from Medfield who are going to be in my dorm building. Once again, very grateful for this opportunity and I'm

005very excited to be representing our school at Girl State and hoping to bring new insights and ideas back with me. Maya, when you are in a major office someday that you are elected to, please remember this group, all of us. I will. I will. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. All right. We'll take out of order now school committee. Um item A, student recognition special Olympics. Thank you. Um Tim, could you put up our um our photo presentation? Do we have like the Olympics on? So, we're just going to show you some pictures. I just want to before we uh introduce our students, okay? And I want to thank the staff that was there today for all of the photos that were able to share with you today. and to Miss Dio

006if she's here for putting this together. So, uh, you can look at these photos, but we are incredibly proud to recognize and celebrate some of our most inspiring student athletes tonight. On May 30th, 24 of our students from across our schools represented the Blackstone Mill Regional School District at our second annual Special Olympics held in partnership with Bellingham Public Schools. And we are so proud of our students. They showed up as BMR Chargers and showed everyone what it meant to be Charger strong. Each building, as you see these pictures, took the time to recognize these amazing athletes with a sendoff. They decorated, they were cheering, they each had signs, and they were celebrating them on their day. The halls of each school building were filled with pride, positivity, and unity as our students headed out

007to compete. And every one of our buildings um sent our students off. H I want to give a special thank you to four of our high school volunteers. We had Faith Lavoy, Maddie Healey, Avery Dosta, and Seth Cades. And Seth actually took on the role of our Charger horse that day. It was a little warm in that uniform. Um, thank you for so stepping up and supporting our students. Your presence and encouragement that day really made a difference. Um maybe next year we can actually bring our um newest um BMR community member, Captain um to join us. Um and last but not least, while we watch these photos, I want to send a huge thank you out to our staff for your participation and support during the Special Olympics. You played a huge role in

008making the day a meaningful and successful experience for all. It was truly inspiring to see the care, energy, encouragement you brought to the event. And because of your efforts, our students were able to shine and celebrate their abilities. There's our charger horse. He made it for the start of it. got a little warm later on. [Music] That's the end. N I think that's all. Yep. [Applause] So, we're going to call up each of our members, our student members, and when they come up, I am going to ask the staff that works with them to come up as well. We'll have a little certificate for you and a little takeaway, but we'd like Dr. Defalco is going to take some photos of the students with our staff. And I'm sorry, staff, you're going to have to

009listen to the names. They're in alphabetical order. They're not by class. So, So first Evan DA [Music] James Barzaga. boy. There you are. James, why? Well, we're happy you did it for us. I'm not sure if Orion Wink is here. Did Orion come tonight? Orion did a great job tonight. [Applause] Logan I also want to acknowledge I don't think he's here I didn't see him but AJ Cologne who participated [Applause] Kandle [Applause] [Music] Wow. Look at the camera, bud. That's okay. [Applause] Get your bag. Yay. That's you. He says read it. Yeah, right. You said read it. Cheese. [Music] [Applause] So pretty. Yeah. Oh, and you got your medal and everything. Abby, can I get your picture? [Applause] All right, turn. [Music] Nice job. I'm not sure if he's here, but Jacob Fuette, is Jacob

010here? No. [Applause] Was Lens Genty? Does Lens come tonight? No. How about Cole? Jacob wasn't here. Riley is not here tonight. I think I saw Is Kyle here? Kyle Kessie. Where is Mr. Kyle? [Applause] Mhm. Work. Mutual [Applause] tonight. Come see. [Applause] and Marle. [Applause] I think I saw we'll give him his Okay. You want to take this from him? Go. We have another one of our high school students I don't think is here tonight. Tristan McGregor. One of our high school students, Dylan Patterson, who is not your teammate. [Applause] Their teacher back there Mrs. Gallagher's tail [Applause] Peters. Nice picture. Perfect. Nice. [Applause] And our last two students I don't believe are here tonight. Help me. Is Jasper Rossy here? Did Jasper come? So again, it was actually a wonderful, it was an absolutely

011wonderful event. We're glad the parents who came, we will definitely be doing this again next year. And I will have to say a shout out to Mr. John who probably last year he probably ran about 15 miles with the kids. This year was a little less, but thank you to the staff and students and families. [Applause] [Music] Yeah. Sure. Right. Now we'll move on to Kevin Burgess Eagle Scout presentation. Kevin. Hello. So, you may have the copy of it. I have a little speech of the essay of the presentation I'll be doing tonight. This is Connor Raymond. He's the senior patrol leader of the troop. This is Mr. Wilds. He's the scout master and my Eagle Scout mentor. So, good evening school committee. I'm Kevin Burgess with Troop 1 Blackstone and an Eagle candidate. I'd

012like to thank you all for having me tonight, especially the teachers, principles, and scouts in the audience who came to support me tonight. Before I dive into my proposal, I'm going to talk about my leadership and experiences so you know a little bit more about me. First off, I hold around five leadership positions inside the troop. those being den chief, troop guide, chaplain, aid, and leadership adviser. I am I'm a leader inside the Boy Scout honor society known as the Order of the Arrow. I'm a knee mat for them over the past 3 years with the troop. I've been excelling above the average scout. I've done tons of camping and training and have in the troop. I go to two weeks of summer camp in the beautiful woods of Yagu. Next year I will be

013going to the national jambburye at the summit reserve. During during the last three years I have done a lot of community service and lived by the scout law and oath. You can ask anybody here to support me tonight. Before I move on to the actual proposal, do we have any questions? Nope. This project will be focusing on the upkeep of the deck out in the um cafeteria. It was done. This deck is loved by Frederick Hartnett students. The deck was done by Eagle Scout with Troop 1. This deck have seen wear and exposure to the elements over the past 8 years. My project will be focusing on fixing up the deck. Structurally, the deck is fine. I would power wash the deck to get out old stains. After I stain the deck multiple times to

014protect the wood, I would also be replacing questionable floorboards that have seen their time with this project. I would also be replacing any worn out screws and spindles. After this is done, I would be replacing the picnic tables that have seen their time. Once this is all done, I would be beautifying the area right to the deck. I would level the dirt the dirt against the school and plant drought resistant shrubs with the with the bushes. I would also be putting gravel around the bushes instead of mulch to minimize future costs. Around the struts of the deck, I'll be putting more dirt to fill in the erosion that has happened. Last but not least, if I get permission from the janitorial team, I would mount smaller. One minute, I got lost. That's okay. I'll be

015mount mounting a smaller trash can on the deck to help minimize the constant flow in and out. The the materials for this project would cost about $1,500. And I'll be fundraising an extra $500 for future cost to ensure the ma it maintains quality and safety for future generations. Any questions? Yes, I do. Um, so you mentioned that you're going to m you're going to create a fund. Yes, I'll be creating a fund and working with the janitorial team and the the groundkeeper to ensure that after I finish this project, it'll be maintained in the future before either we have another eco scout who would be willing to expand it more and help out with it or the school will have to start spend their own money. Kevin, can you just let the committee know that

016the in the nature of an Eagle Scale project how it works? You you do it, you project manage it, and then who takes care of it after if you can let the community know. So, basically, when we're looking for a project, either the troop recommends one or the scout himself or herself would come and look for a project at different organizations. Over the past two years I've been at this school, I've loved the deck. We've been using it quite frequently. I noticed somewhere. Then after a little, I noticed it was an Eagle Scout project done about 8 years ago in the summertime. So then I contact Mrs. Rema. We me and her have been discussing this project for a couple months now. After I've been working on the paperwork for a couple months, once the

017Eagle Scout comes in, does the fundraising, does the project, we we did that to help minimize future cost and maintain and it's supposed to maintain long enough so we don't have to come back after the whatever beneficiary we go to, they would be responsible for it after. So, so the pro so we don't have to redo the project and we would have to minim in that minimize the cuts down of costs. Any other questions? Yeah. When would you like to start your project? That's in another paragraph somewhere here. Well, I'll be doing I'd be start fundraising in the span of whenever this get approves after I get approval. If I get approval from this committee, next week I'll be going to my troop committee. Then I'll have to send it out to either district or

018council for scouting. Then they will review all my paperwork. They'll send it back and then I'll be able to then start fundraising. With the heavy cost, it will take me probably about a month or two to fundraise the cost. After that, I would then be starting. So I'm planning on either late late July or early August. And my goal is to get this done by end the early September. Very good. It's been eight years since that's built. Huh. When I was here and Aaron, you were here. I'm the guy who pulled the permit for it. It's funny how that comes around and I out there on the Saturday morning with those guys, your predecessor. He did a phenomenal job. Um, and it was a great group effort and it's great to see that you're going

019to put that effort into keeping it, you know, bringing it back up to snuff and and and keeping it preserved for as long for the longevity. Any other questions? Next paragraphs will be fundraising. For fundraising, luckily we live in a relatively small town with a lot of caring local businesses. Some being Scout/Ele Scout Ran. These are ven they are very generous towards local scouting and we have lot of caring lumber stores and hardware stores that will be asked for small donations of materials al I will also be running can drives and partnering with local stores to sell candy bars and relevant things. Obviously that's a couple of the main ways to get materials and money. For the sake of time I will not be present I will not present all the fundraising ways I'll be

020doing it. Luckily, most of the cost is materials, which is way easier to get donated than to purchase with money. Overall, this project will be running over the summer months of possibly end of the July to August. This whole this whole process would be going hopefully done in a week. Throughout this process, if this does get approved from this committee, I will be keeping you guys informed over email. Do we have any questions about fundraising? I'll I'll ask uh do you have a an ID have you you have a um a list of materials that you need or have you have you I have a I have a pretty good printed out list of what I would need. Okay. Any other questions? Can you get that list to Matt and have Matt get that list

021to me? I have it over there. I'll show you it after. He's prepared. Moving on, how this will benefit the school in the long run. In the long term, this can benefit the school significantly. As mentioned above, redoing the parts that need to help it will help preserve the deck for future students of the district. Also raising an extra $500. This money will be designated to help preserve the deck for several years. With with that it will minimize the co with that it will minimize the cost the district will have to spend on the deck and divert it to other needs. With restoring this project it will ensure students can enjoy the deck any day that is nice out and the school does not have much to worry about the deck for a long period

022of time. Thank you. Thank you school committee teachers scouts who have allowed me to be able here tonight. And thank you for people who came out to support me. Do we have any questions? Okay, that's my speech. Nice job, Kevin. So, are you looking for us to authorize you to proceed? I'll make a motion to authorize Kevin Burg's Eagle Scout project for the deck adjacent to the cafeteria. I'll second it. Motion made by Matt, seconded by Jane. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. Thank you very much. After after I need a few signatures for the paperwork. Sure. You can if you if you want do you want to leave it with us? What? Oh, just he could leave it with Matt. We'll

023get that done pronto. Uh, sure. I'll bring you tomorrow. Good. Good stuff. Do I need it? Yeah. Thanks. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Whatever. Oh, yeah. Retirees. See how that No, no, no. I don't know if you wanted Oh, yes. Yeah. Let me ask you, Matt. Are they going to wait for that signature? I can bring it to them. Okay. Okay. Next. Recognition of retirees. And some of these names can't be possible. Right. I went to school with them. We can't be retiring already. Right. Mr. Superintendent. Sure. Thank you. Um so um this is always a bittersweet uh part of our um part of our year when we say goodbye or see you later to our uh to our friends who have put so much time, effort and energy into not just our students but our school

024community, our staff, our families um and have contributed so much. Um, in your packet there is a brief overview. Uh, and I just want to thank Jackie for putting these together. She did a great job of of kind of capturing um, just a summary of each one of our retirees this year. And we don't have all of them with us tonight. Uh, but we do have a few um, and uh, I'm going to ask them. They come up together, but we'll talk about them separately. If there's strength in numbers, ladies, so if you want to come up together, that's fine. Um, and as it is tradition in uh, BMR, our retirees select a book that they would like to donate to the library um, of the building which they're retiring from. And so, um, if

025we want to start Patty with you because you've had me hanging on many words on your first chapter Fridays as you're watching, but if you want to start and, uh, share maybe the book that you selected and talk a little bit about why. Sure. The um book is The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Geminart and one of my favorite authors and he is a former teacher librarian like most children's authors are and um like Dr. Defalco said I do first chapter Friday every Friday with the kids um just to peique their interest in a book and then they have an option to borrow that book from me so that you know just to just to read for pleasure. So it's a story of a girl whose um mother and sister die in a

026horrible accident. Her father can't bear to be at home anymore. So he outfits a bus, a school bus and they go cross country. never to return home. But eventually she does try to convince him to go home for a specific reason which I will not reveal so it doesn't ruin the book. So chapter two. Yeah, that'll be chapter two. Awesome. All right, Kathy. All right. U Well, I teach fourth grade and I have since I've been here at BMR for about eight or nine years and um so I chose uh Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Um it's a classic story that I remember reading when I was a kid and um we read it in fourth grade now and for again for the sheer pleasure of just reading for pleasure. Um we don't ask

027we obviously discuss it but there's no essays, there's nothing attached to it. It's just read it, let's talk about it, let's laugh with it, let's really get into it. And they the students absolutely love it. They love it. And so um surprisingly there wasn't a copy here in the book in the library so we needed one in the library. So and also to Patty's point when we finished the story the students are they loved it so much and this this is not a that's a true statement that now they want to read other stories. You know Fudge is the the little brother of the main character and they want to read more stories about Fudge and so they now they're reading more stories about Fudge and and then oh well Sheila the Great she's also

028in this. So they we just really turned them on to a lot of different kinds of stories and they they read them all now. So now they're reading a lot of different stories for fun. Thank you. Um my book actually I came to it um by reaching out to Patty and because one of my favorite books is called the math curse and they already have it here and I used to read it to my students and it's just all about oh math is everywhere. the curse. The curse and so I knew they already had it. And then there's also an individual who left professional football. He used to work for the uh play for the Ravens and um he left playing professional football to become a math educator at MIT. But that book was more

029for high school. So I went to Patty and I said, "I'm stuck." So she recommended The miscalculations of Lightning Girl. And so I read through it and it's about this girl that's stuck struck by lightning and she suddenly becomes a math genius and she's in middle school and um while she's gained this incredible mathematic knowledge, she has some trouble kind of getting along with um other middle schoolers and understanding um the kind of personal dynamic that goes on. And so the book is about her um kind of learning how to um be a middle schooler and um and also has this great math um intelligence. So I just thought it was a really cute story. So that's why I chose that. Great. Thanks, J. Is there anything that um any anything that the committee would

030like to add? I would I have a question. I would like to know what you're going to do with all of your free time. You want to after many many years of September to June and you know, right? Travel during a non-school vacation. Travel during that's it. Well, let's see. A couple of years ago ago, I started decorating cookies. So, I've started my a little cookie business that I'm hoping You've had some of them, Danny. Um, so I'm hoping to just kind of put more time into that. Is this online? It's fun. Is it online business? Um, it's on Instagram. Patty Bakes. Patty Bakes. Patty Bakes. Plug. Put a little plug out there. What was the name of it again? Patty Bakes. Patty Bakes. That's cute, right? Little louder. You should have known this and

031had some here. Had some cookies. Bake cookies for your own retirement for your own party. Well, that's fun. That's awesome. Um, I'm going to spend some time um visiting and spending time with my granddaughter in New York and I also have um some family members that I'm going to be uh taking care of. So, very nice. Well, I wish you all the best. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for if you find yourself driving by just because the car takes you there, you know, we do always need cookies. Cookies cookies. Cookies and substitutes. I was I was going to let her know July 6th is our next meeting. I'm going to be on that calendar way more way. Is that why I said July? But it is rare that people give the kind of time

032that you have given to this district and I I know Patty the best. But um thank you. There's always been a great respect and a great commitment that's seen every single day. So thank you. That takes a lot. Oh yeah. It's a Sunday. July 6th. We have a meeting on Yes. July 6th. We have a Jason listed. What's the matter? July 6 is a Sunday. All right. You cannot put your cookie order in while we're cookies. I don't know. I'm looking at the pictures going. I really You said I love cooking. Jackie put these together. Jackie put these together. 24 years. Many years. Mr. McCorm, we have a few. Are we going to mention their names that people that aren't here? Yeah. Yeah. Mr. McCormack is uh retiring. So he will be wrapping up his

033tenure with us uh next year. 30 years and 6 months. 30 years. Wow. Sue Desolates is also retiring after 26 years and 9 months um as an instructional assistant and also um an admin assistant. Joe I think with you for a short time. Yeah. Yeah. She did uh some really good work in our student service office. Um, so they will very much be missed and I can say uh I would spend time in particularly Patty and Cathy's classroom and Jill was a great thought partner and as an instructional coach but also as a math interventionist. This is um a tremendous loss like tremendous tremendous loss to our school community. It's great for you. Um, but you are all leaving just huge shoes to fill and you will be missed very much. Thank you. Thank you.

034Um, we do have some flowers for you. That's nice. So, does anyone want the red? Random, right? Thank you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. [Applause] All right, we will go back to consent agenda A, warrants. Take a motion to approve the warrants. So motion made by Tara Locken. Second. Second by Carrie. Any further discussion? Um I just want to add that we have a new copy of our minutes. So it was emailed to us versus what is in our packet that was delivered on Oh yeah. It was emailed today. All righty. Uh all those in favor of the warrants. I saying I Any oppose? You guys have it. And I have our copies of Okay. Okay. A motion to approve the updated minutes as Evan pointed out. We got Well, I they were updated before

035we voted, so I don't know that. Well, this is a separate vote. No, we're doing He separated the votes. He just did warrants. Okay. Uh motion to approve the minutes. That's a Tara. Motion by Tara S. Seconded by Carrie. Sure. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. All right. Well, uh, public forum. Anyone from the public would like to address us? No. Anyone in the back? That was a good strategy right there. Clear the meeting out and then no one from the public's left, right? Um, okay. School building project. We took care of that at the to that vote earlier. So, policy updates. Mr. Catalano. Yes. Um, so we do have a few policy updates that we've been working on uh for quite some time and we're

036uh prepared to bring them to the full committee um for review and possible vote. Um you want me to run through them? Yeah, sure if you want. Okay. Yeah, no problem. In your packet u you have um the policies that Matt is uh referring to. They are JND policies. uh and there's one GBE at the end that we'll talk about. Uh these are all uh anchored in technology or um personal use of technology, school use of technology. Um and you will see uh that we um highlighted in yellow the changes uh for each and um struck out the language that we are recommending we remove. Um and to Matt's point, the policy subcommittee, we've spent a lot of time on these ones. We've come back to each of these uh quite a few times and

037had a lot of rich spirited dialogue uh about each one uh which is always good and healthy. Um and so the first um is file JND access to digital resources. If you look on page two of your uh of that packet, you will see the recommended change uh for that policy highlighted in yellow. And that was simply to add a fee schedule. um you'll see the fee schedule for broken uh Chromebooks are uh is not significant in in the in the number of um in the dollar number or the dollar amount. Um but we felt strongly that uh there needed to be a little bit of skin in the game uh when we have repeated screens being broken, keys being pulled off, um chargers being lost uh or broken. Um, and frankly in some cases

038we have students who are on their second or third Chromebook cuz they're just getting smashed and not being taken care of. And so the idea was to create a small fee schedule uh for intentional and reckless damage that would be determined by the administrator who's you know tracking the um the issues with our Chromebooks. If you were to go into our technology office um I think you would see it looks like a um workshop in there. um a Chromebook factory. There are literally there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pieces that our tech team is constantly repairing. We do have a technician who uh wasn't designed to be his main job, but he literally visits the three schools every day, picks up all the broken Chromebooks, brings them back to the workshop, almost like

039Santa here. I'm kind of describing this, fixes them, and he goes back out to the schools and replaces them and gives them back out. Uh so we we need to try to curb some of that and um we're hoping that this might help. So that is I So was there a reason to say intentional or reckless damage versus just saying fee schedule for damage? Look, sometimes it's accidental. a kid will drop it or and so we're certainly I think the idea was that we weren't looking to penalize a student that accidentally dropped his Chromebook or something or um those we've been dealing with but it's when the same student it's repeated those kinds of issues. Do we need to put this in any of the handbooks? I think we we did speak with Jill Fus

040if she's here. I think she Yeah, she left. left. But, you know, that was a discussion, I think, if I recall from the uh from the meeting the other day, um that this should be part of the handbook. And to that point, though, to Jane's point, it's not a this isn't a full replacement. We're not looking to No. Yeah. Understood. But it it is to I just hate to put somebody in a position to say you dropped it intentionally, you dropped it by accident. You know, I hate to to make an administrator that that person versus like it's damaged. There's a fee for that. So, there's a there is a tracking process. These are, you know, assigned to certain students. So, if it's a, you know, a student that is continually having them, you know,

041putting the, you know, doing all the tick- tock tricks to make it blow up and all that kind of stuff, um, then that's when this would be implemented. Would it make sense to add that wording then to make this more clear or just add something that says as determined by right administrator administrator whatever tracking process I don't know how detailed I'm not sure about the tracking process though because it might be a one-time thing where the kid throws it so that would be like the accidental and probably well threw it still not no but yeah I don't think you'd have to say tracking But maybe you could just say fee schedule for intentional or reckless damage as determined by whoever that is it a tech administrator. Uh usually it's the building administrator's building administrator the

042investigating if there's a there's an issue. How about just fee schedule and lose for intent? The sentence above it says, "Individual shall reimburse the district for repair or replacement of district property lost, stolen, damaged, or vandalized under their care fee schedule and then lose the for intentional reckless damage." I agree with that. Yeah, because it already does state above what the fees would be for and the administrator is determining it. That's right. Regardless of problem. Yep. All right. Are we doing this as a package or one at a time? What is your pleasure? Oh, one at a time, please. Both of them. One at a time. So, I'll move to accept um policy JD as submitted with the edit or not. We didn't edit, right? I thought we removed intentional records. We're just going to

043say fee schedule. Oh, fee schedule. Yeah. For damage. Just fee schedule. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because the sentence above it takes says damage. Okay. As amended. Second. Motion made by uh Jane, seconded by Matt. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. The eyes have it. Uh next up we have uh responsible digital use policy. That's file JNBB. Uh and there are actually um no changes to this. It just needs to be added. So this was this was an MASSE recommendation and we did the subcommittee did not make any changes to the MASC recommendation. So the idea would be to request the adoption of JNDB. Motion to uh approve JNDB. So moved. Motion made by Matt. Second. Second by Jane. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying

044I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. Thank you. Uh the third policy underneath internet publication JNDC. Uh this one was a little bit lengthier. You the whole thing was a rewrite essentially because it was so out of date. Um, and you'll notice we also struck um two paragraphs right in the middle of the uh beginning of the policy um on page four. Want to eliminate that. Uh there's some redundancy there. Um but there was a lot of language that was just really dated web master and different things. Um and so uh you'll see that the the actual entire policy has been rewritten. Um, does this match um, MAS now or is they still outdated? No, this was our um, Dan Saltzman, our um, lead technician and his team actually rewrote this um, and Dan

045for this particular policy actually uh, worked with his colleagues across other school districts um, and that they were collectively bringing these forward to adopt because this is how essentially it works. like this is what this is what we're doing as far as the expectations around content around safety precautions, student work, student photographs. A lot of this stuff we're doing already. So the idea was to kind of craft the language that shows what we're doing essentially. Take a motion to approve. Uh I have a question. Sure. So, when a when a staff member travels to Washington DC, let's just use that as an example, or New York City or something, do they have a district phone that goes with them? Uh, the lead nurse has a district phone, so she's with them, but in this situation,

046she wasn't able to go. So, we did not send the district phone. So, so I'm in Washington DC and I'm a eighth grader who gets left at a museum. Didn't happen here, but has happened. Did not happen here. Very clear about that. But has happened. I have no personal phone number to call anybody to let them know that I'm You forgot me on the bus. I mean, because this says cannot share, will not give out. Yep. So you'll see in other policies that are following this, we talk about using all of the district approved venues. So Google Classroom, email, we have a sports app that we use. I think it um music it's uh I think they use Google Classroom for their music page or site or something. I just worry about will not give

047out versus should not give out. That same feeling. Yeah, we just did discuss this in length as Jason just said, spirited conversations on our pol sub our policy subcommittee, it's just almost impossible to avoid it. And I think putting it in with such strong language and strapping the hands of our educators that are doing good things. I don't know what the right thing is, but I know this doesn't feel like the best way to say it. There are there are reasons and Jane, you just gave us another one that there are other instances where they just have to have communication and we don't give out phones to our educators who are doing so much with our kids on a daily basis. You know, I love your example, Jane, about what a field trip once a

048year and okay, what are we going to do? Put a phone that's becomes a school phone? But I'm I'll you just said it and it brought me right back to when my kids went to DC. It was Mr. Cameron and his phone number was on the top of that packet that got handed out to the parents and the kids. Mhm. Everyone had that phone number. Was it his real phone number? Probably not. But it was probably a Google phone number that went to his personal phone. Well, then and it was communication and it was it was felt safe and it felt good. That's correct. One marching band. The kids are together every Saturday. There there are many chaperones, but the person that's ultimately in charge of that group of 85 kids, the kid they there

049has to be a way they can communicate that isn't going on their Google classroom and if it's an emergency or I don't disagree, but it can't be that it should not be the person's point. I think we're getting ahead of ourselves because this policy I think this is conversation is going to be had. had it right. No, no, no. But I think but I think you're on the wrong policy. Well, J&D will uh Excuse me. Um is it it it's going to come back up and we can have this conversation, I'm sure, Mr. Chair, but uh the safety precautions clause that you have in here is in relation to internet publications. So, it's in relation to putting out student or um information uh such as first names, personal cell phone. So that's in in saying

050like we're not putting that out on the internet on our internet as an internet publication. So not I it's a this conversation we want to have. I just don't think it's for this one. It isn't. It's not. Yeah. Well, right. So the So the is pause on it as opposed to JN DC. Right. Aren't we on DD? No, we're on DC. We are on Maybe that's my problem. We're on DC. A lot of lot of letters. We haven't lost anyone in DC either. To your point, they all came back last night. Okay, I'll wait till DD then. I was on I thought I like Okay, you're on the right track. I thought we already voted. Uh I'll entertain a motion for I J NDC. So moved. Motion by Matt. Second. Seconded by Carol Lockin. Any

051further discussion? Just for clarification, this was for internet publication of of information and all that kind of stuff. And it was really just to clean up a lot of the um outdated languages. Dr. Falco did um did put so just so we're clear on it. And we already basically do all of this. There's really nothing new. We get permission to post photos. That's right. Get releases. Yeah. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose. The eyes have it. Now we'll move on to I J and DD. Mr. Superintendent. Yes. So, uh, this was an update on our social media, um, policy and, uh, this too generated a lot of really rich conversation, um, because there's lots of social media pages and sites and staff members are, you know, have things

052for their for their activities, which is great, you know, whether it's athletics or or uh, music or clubs, etc. uh students have right class of 2025 and those kinds of pages and things. So the idea was to try to kind of streamline this and put together something that would make sense but again not tie the hands of um those that are doing good work with our students. Um so you'll see the new language in yellow again. Um so I am going to read this piece. Um, when an employee wants to establish a social media page for any class, club, or activity, proper permission and approval must be granted through a district determined process. The appropriate administrator must be invited to join the social media page. uh we landed I think in a really good place

053with this which was if it's the formal BMR pick a sport pick a club pick an activity you know page then we would have that page registered you know on a Google form somewhere that says hey you know here's the Twitter handle or the X handle or here's the Facebook you know screen name I'm not sure what that's called but here are the other social media pages this is where you can find it so that we at least would know um what's out there. Um it is not to prohibit our adults that are leading these things from having this information out there, but just to make sure that we have a handle on what's going on. Um so that's where kind of the origins of that. Uh we struck D and we struck E, uh

054section 2D and 2E. Um and then rewrote um what will now be the new section D. Staff will not give out their private cell phone numbers to students. Sounds like we're gonna talk about that again. Uh instead, all electronic communication would go through uh district approved methods. Um maybe I'll just pause there. Okay. Is this where you want to revisit your This is this is where I was speaking to before. Um I just I I believe that there are in so from personal experience I have no access to a Google phone number. The systems that I have don't allow me to have a goo without creating a whole new Google email and having another email that would be my fourth Google email. So I don't have that ability. So, if I want somebody to contact

055me, it's either my personal cell or call my office like during the day when I'm at work in the office. Um, I have had instances where I share that my phone number with my students. Rare circumstances, but I have to think that I would not like I would be violating a policy to do that creates fear inside of me. Like I think that there are instances where we ask our staff to be responsible for youth and the major communication with those youth youth is cell phone. I feel like I'm gonna start Uncle Vinnie the two of you. The two of you, but with the is his cell phone. And so to think that I can't share my cell phone because it violates the policy. I just I think I I like what it said before,

056you know, approval that you're going to do that may be an option or under extenduating circumstances, you know, but I I like should not give out versus will not give out. to Jean's point that we just sent two of our staff members to Spain and France with a group of kids and every student and parent involved with that trip had the cell phone numbers of the staff that went that was our So what's that was our safety net? What's the So what's the alternative? Why is it a issue if it's the staff member giving it out? What where what is it's just a liability piece the district's opening itself up to? I mean it is that's that is a fact of the matter that you're opening it up because it's a personal phone. You are

057opening up so the other the other option is to have phones to have phones. That's what I'm wondering to have phones. So is the sorry to address that somebody who travels you know that we have you know work phones. I mean people have work phones because the need makes sense. Are our BMR accounts able to have access to the Google phone? I mean, we run on all of our class lines can be forwarded to to cell phones. Like all of our school lines can all be forwarded. I mean, that's just something else to think about, which weird piece to that is like my personal cell phone, I can't call the high school. I get a Verizon wireless, your number can't go through. I can call the middle school, but I can't call the high school.

058So, that's strange. Yeah. I'm sure I'm sure I'm not the only one. Fine. But but is there an alternative? Carrie is the only unknown number that I answer. I just wonder if there's an alternative. So, you know, well, is it as simple as what Jane just said is should not. Mhm. Not will not. Will not is. So, does that leave but then does that leave too much? So then where do we put the where do we put the kind of guidelines around what the should and should not is that puts the liability on them to do the right thing and if they do the wrong thing we have the policy well and what you cross out is without prior approval of the district but we have legal advice on that this is the MASC language

059is that teachers will not give out their private cell phon that's masc We struck that. Yes, that was MASC. That was um Wait, but the does the MASS have without without without permission? Yeah. Yes. Private that that is MASC. So, I'm okay with without permission. Like somebody has to know that you're giving it and the reason you're giving it. But who's giving the permission, right? District administrators. I tell you who isn't given the permission like who it says prior approval of the district that in right yeah the wording on e that struck out goes back to I think what we were suggesting it be is getting approval and this isn't so like this is what this isn't so teachers aren't being bothered at night this is why Why? What is the why? The liability is

060what you said, right? Yeah. It's just a liability issue. It opens up a whole It's one of those situations where it's not an issue until it's an issue. Mhm. And then you're going to wish and then and then you're going to wish you had Exactly. Then you're going to wish you had something around this that that safeguarded the district. I mean because F kind of covers if some like F is saying inappropriate contact via phone or electronic device is prohibited. Mhm. But basically in a 35 mph zone is prohibited too. How did you know? Are you saying you do it, man? I'm not saying that. I feel like he's watching me. So my point is is that right things and and that's true of all of these policies anyway. But you know when we have

061a I didn't see you driving. Okay. I know. There was no one around at 2 a.m. Mass Pike. Yeah. He's on the Mass Pike doing 85 in the third lane. That's the No, it was Milville. All right. Um how do we how do we just We can't foresee the future. We don't know. We We know in our hearts that nothing's going to happen. That we trust our teachers. We trust our our staff members. Um, but there's stories day in and day out all across the country of staff members that teachers that were and many different people and across the country that were trusted at one point and then are not trusted anymore for the worst of worst reasons. as a staff member as a you know I would think that I would want some sort

062of safeguard that says hey listen maybe we do put in a provision that says unless traveling abroad uh specific situation we have I mean how how do how wordy do we want to get with this that says you know do we have permission from both parent and admin you know um so that it's understood that everybody says yes this is okay um you I've fought pretty hard to have language like this so far. I really don't feel like I can give up any I I personally can't don't think we should give up anymore um for the sake of ease or for the sake of you know maybe it won't happen. And again not to say that you know this is happening in this district at all. Mhm. God forbid. Yeah. I I I have no

063issue with will not give out as long as we as a district are providing an an alternative that makes sense. and and the alternative I don't know what a I don't know even know what an I think it's general for any but those are not if I'm if I am traveling if I am out on the road whatever that is whether it's in Spain which I'd love to be chaperoning that in the future um or DC or McDonald's for a kindergarten celebration like I we need to be able to get not we personally and not even all the parents of all the kids going, but there needs to be a like a contact number. Um, and if especially if there's not a nurse that's that's going. Um, so whether that means we start investing in

064district phones that somebody going on a trip takes the phone and it's a, you know, common number, whatever, I'm okay with that. I just think it needs to be something more than just no, absolutely no under no circumstances. Can you contact somebody by phone? So, we spoke about apps using apps and this kind of goes to I think it might be in something else here or it was then we took it out. Um, but having like one app to kind of rule it all in the district, WhatsApp. Yeah. something less encrypted I guess than that but more where the you know where it can be the public you know can be the information can be pulled from it um so I don't know if that's an alternative to to this where it would be tracked

065everybody uses apps to communicate now so you know is it is it a what's app I don't I don't know I don't use any of that stuff I what's the what um so should we put a hold on this until we can explore or perhaps those other alternatives just or language. Yeah. Discuss the language more. Yeah. And I think that was one of the things in the in the policy subcommittee that we did talk about is at least bring it we wanted to bring it to the larger committee and have this discussion and understand the opinions and the the thoughts so we can because we're almost at a at a at a dead end. Not a dead end but almost a standill of of you know where do we go? How do how do we

066do this? So that was why we brought this up here. So maybe not so much for a vote, but definitely for uh for more conversation. Again, I think this conversation is bringing it further than the actual policy intention of social media. This brings it to another like e whatever it's going to be actually a whole level. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. All right. So it was good discussion. So we'll um pass over making a decision on J and DD until a further date. And now we will move on to GBE. All right. So this is the personnel use of technology. Some similar themes from from the prior one. That was one of the reasons too that we put all of these together is they were um very much overlapping. The policy were kind of bleeding into each

067other. So we were trying to clean a lot of these up at the same time. Um this too uh added um a lot of uh uh spirited chatter to our meeting. Um this was a new draft. This is a new MASC uh policy and you can see the changes that we recommended. Um and again we were trying to get this to align with the policy we just looked at so that there wasn't conflicting language between the two. Um so here we added uh digital resources are provided to support the work of the district. Email, Google classroom, a district approved app and I know in athletics I use sports you um and then uh if you go down toward the bottom we struck team class or student organizations pages accounts groups will be created only in

068conjunction with a coach faculty adviser. We talked about that in the last policy, right? Like we get kids are going to do a page for their class of 2025 thing. Um, all groups must include the appropriate administrator. Again, we struck that because we uh we kind of cleaned that up in the policy before this. And then the last part, all contact and messages by coaches, faculty with team members shall be sent to all team members except for messages concerning medical academic privacy matters in which case the messages will be copied to the appropriate administrator. We we struck that out as well. Uh and then we got rid of online and added digitally. So when interacting with students digitally, uh group interactions are encouraged. So there was a lot of conversation around this too. Again, not

069wanting to tie the hands of the staff, but wanting to ensure that we're insulating the district from any potential liability shouldn't be an issue. Mhm. So, the first one that struck, it's repetitive from the policy that we're um tableabling tonight. The second one is like Jason said. So, I was definitely the one that said it it tied their hands too much that to make everything group in a group activity because what happens when a student goes into a teacher's classroom at after school for extra help and it's one-on-one? like if you're making them feel like they can't have a an online conversation with just the two of them, how are they going to be in in a school setting? Um, and even though Matt said it in a different context, but we're we're entrusting them

070with the youth. you're gonna say you and that is I you know when you start making people feel uncomfortable about it how do they do their jobs so um I felt the next line when interacting with students digitally group interactions are encouraged so but other examples came up that if a coach needs to communicate just to the captain and then the captain's responsibility is to communicate to the team you then there has to be a way for that to happen. Um it you could probably pick any instance with, you know, a class advisor talking to the class president. It's not going to be there. There are sometimes when those conversations have to be able to happen. Um and then we're only talking about online again, so or digitally. How are they going to feel in

071a classroom if they're not allowed to have a anything but a group discussion in an email or in a text or in a So that's why that's how we got to that um in the policy subcommittee. We felt that it was least restrictive but most protective. And to your point, coaches still have a and faculty and staff still have a way of communicating one-on-one with a student that is still backed up by district, you know, policy with Google Classroom or as I mentioned before, an app to that we were able to pull the data from. So I'm okay with that given those two examples if we have have that ability um that we have we have some sort of fail safe. We have some sort of safety net that if we need to pull that

072data that it's not encrypted on a on an app somewhere that we can't get to very light reading very light so I'll make a motion to approve GB as written motion made by Aaron seconded by Jane GB beat you out of the gate. She was honor. She's ready. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. Next, the report of the superintendent. Uh there's one other thing under that. Sorry. Um pilot next. I know. I was just trying to pass by. Oh, one final policy discussion anyway would be cell phone pilot next steps. just to loop back to uh a quick um piece. I know we've had one discussion about it already um at the onset of the pilot uh to just jog everybody's memory.

073The high school has piloted uh over you know the last few weeks um the cell phone um kind of lock boxes in the classrooms. There were five classrooms where they did that. There were over 300 over 350 students that were participating in this. Whether it was, you know, one student that had two classes that had these boxes or it was just one student that was in one class, but overall there was over 350 students that participated. Uh, and just to jog everybody's again just kind of memory, student goes in, they put the phone in the lock box at the start of class, teacher locks it up, has class at the end of class, teacher unlocks it, the students come back and take their phone out. So, we were at at our last policy meeting, we're

074checking in with the high school administration to see how the pilot was going. U, overall, and everybody please jump in on this, but that's on the policy subcommittee, but overall, the administration felt strongly that the pilot worked well. um that they had a little bit of complaining in the beginning uh by a few students, by a few parents, but uh everybody engaged in the pilot uh and that it did in fact help minimize the distractions during class time. Students still had their phones. Um we also dis uh in between classes. Uh we also discussed, you know, fire drills and those situations where the teacher just picked up the box and brought it outside with them. Um that kind of thing. Um so certainly would you know I don't know if anyone else I know this

075was another piece that very strong opinions feedback from the three or four young people who came to address us about this who were concerned about it nothing formal I mean what I got from Mr. Ducharm when he was with us um on that meeting was the hope for consistency and you know students knowing what is expected in every class because even I guess before we even had this there was a few teachers that had the shoe bag on the wall and some kids put it in some kids didn't. Um he actually asked that if it is something we're going to do that he wants another box for the office because when they are taken they're right now on a desk. So is that you know now we are liable because that phone is on the

076desk and if it goes missing or if it's damaged or whatnot um you know he he seemed to think that that the consistency piece was going to be um and and he said that students were okay like you know and they he he said he's been in and out of the classes and that they're engaging and they're actually doing the things that you want them to do at school, which is talk to each other and and do the schoolwork and pay. I just have a question. Do we have a cost per box and how many boxes and a total if this were to go through what the cost will be to the district? The boxes were about $50 a piece and we need how many? We got five of them. So, we would need, you

077know, whatever the number is times $50. I I would like to know how many we would need to what the total cost would be to the district. Was this a grant that we started with? I I don't No, this one this is not a grant. No, we just were doing a pilot to see how it So, we use a high school. The high school or the high school and middle school all grades or it was all um I mean moving forward what would we want to do? So, the conversation it was the high school 8 through 12. So to kind of touch on Jane's question of feedback from the ladies that came and spoke to us, um I know one piece that they have mentioned is that some of the pilot teachers were the staff

078members who don't have an issue with cell phone use in their classroom that it's already the expectation you walk in, your phone does not come out. So that may or may not skew the results because there wasn't a cell phone issue to begin with in those classes. Um, other feedback from them has been very consistent that when looking at policy and when wanting to put in policy that affects their day-to-day life, the students would really like to be part of the policym. they would like to have a seat at the table and that would probably be our easiest way to get policies put in place when the kids speak to it and they can own it and they can speak to their peers about that. Um, as far as the budget piece that Tara just

079brought up, I keep going back to the grant that we had that we used for the yonder pouches that we could have used on a lot of other things and we got 3 months out of yonder pouches. So I I keep playing with the overall cost and wondering almost why we're not doing this as a roll out, why we're not we I and I totally admit I've only been part of one policy subcommittee, so this could have been a discussion earlier, but why wouldn't we try maybe just the incoming eighth graders? And that's as a parent of an incoming eighth grader. So maybe that's the way we set the standard and we lower our budget cost to see Like if it worked with the eighth grade, then we roll it up and do eighth and

080ninth grade or we just kind of play with it that way instead of taking on the entire cost the way we did with the yonder pouches. Yeah, I like that. Except except when you have the mixed grade and then what do you do here? You put your phone in this box. I I disagree. I mean, there's got to be with the whole premise. I think the kids should be learn how to be responsible. They should be expected to just turn it to silence when class starts so you're not interrupting the teacher and then you know the phone can be used as an incentive. You do your work, you get it done, you can use your phone. So what's happening with the state bill? I haven't heard any updates on that recently actually because one of

081them while I'm a proponent of students being responsible as a college administrator and a classroom professor. I have 40 year olds who take out their phone and watch a movie while the lecture is going on or the class discussion is going on or you know never mind 17 year olds or 12 year olds or whatever. I just it's I I am a proponent of of no cell phone in the class. You heard me the last time when the students came. Like I just I think it hampers the educational process. If there's a need for it, if there is an a game they're playing that requires that, then you just hand them back out of the box and you use your cell phone for this activity or or whatever the case may be. I think there's

082there's solutions in that, but it is it is asking a lot of a person to not and you all heard my phone go off while we were in the meeting. I mean, I have my alarm set for 6:30 and I'm sure it disturbed some people, but it's, you know, it's it's it's something I'm willing to pay the consequence for because my phone went off. If somebody wants to see what's on my phone, that's that's them. But my dog needs his epilepsy medicine. So, um I it's it's distracting. It's disturbing. And it's it it is too much of a I don't even know the right word that I want to say, but to say that, you know, let's let the students be responsible. Why are we giving them send them to the vice principal? But he's

083already dealing with that. That is how did we get Can I ask a question about the piloting by way? I don't know if you even have this information, but did any of the teachers that were piloting say any students said they don't have one or turned in maybe a fake phone? Um, did they say like anybody refused to turn anything in? I don't think and it was kind of like a that was already happening, wasn't it? I asked that in the meeting. Yeah, I heard that about that at another district that tried to do something similar. There was like students that were bringing in old cell phon or something. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I mean, if we're if we're looking I just want to know if they got any push back during the pilot. Mr. Chair,

084yeah, thank you. Um, if we're looking to find reasons why not to do it, we can find a million reasons why not to do this. We can sit on our hands and we can just not do it. And I don't disagree with the young ladies that were here that night who feel as though, you know, there's a a sense of punishment without the crime. That's a that is a legitimate and feeling and I get that. And I don't disagree with with Chuck here that says why aren't we teaching them responsibility responsibility. But the two things that kind of go in there is that we're we're educating them. You know, we have a lesson the teachers have a lesson plan and they shouldn't be taking their time out to teach them about maybe we have a

085class for phone etiquette. I don't know. I don't know. But, you know, it's are we going to take their time? 15 seconds per student, maybe five students. It eats into class time. And and and I'm not trying to speak for the educators, but I'm sure, you know, some of them would agree. And unfortunately, there's a situation where it has to be. This is where equity does come in. You know, equity is not always good, but this is where equity is where we we have to treat everybody the same. um you know and it is an equal outcome unfortunately um if it wasn't a problem we wouldn't be having this this conversation but teachers and admin have come to us and you know express their their wishes for this so um maybe it's an opportunity that

086we we do learn we do teach them and we do get better from it but um my only question to that is just to not to take too much time but we always asked if there was more less if there was money left in the yonder um grant that I think that's gone right. I can't remember if we had that answer that. Thank you, Matt. Can I just ask is that how this policy came to be that the administrators approached the policy subcommittee asking and they actually they wrote a draft of one. that came from uh the high school administration and the school resource officer because it was such a problematic issue and and it was born also out of you know recent events that we had in the school where cell phones were the

087cell phones can be locked up from 7 to 3 and if something like that's absolutely can but it can also mitigate it during during the day but not if they have it during passing time and lunches like if something's going to be posted during the day it's going to be point or they that's the student who hands in the fake phone into the lock box in boasting from the bathroom. Yeah. And again, we can't and how we can't stop everything. I mean, we can't stop, you know, again, we can't stop Aaron from going, but we can be consistent in our message. And our our message needs to be if you're in a classroom, you're in a classroom. You're not on a phone. You're not watching a movie. You're not you don't have an earbud in

088your ear. Um, you know, you you are in an academic setting. And part of that is being a participant in the classroom as an engaged person attempting to learn and participate. And cell phones don't belong in that environment. The the earpod the music thing was mentioned though and there is a way they can do it from their Chromebook because some kids need that during study hall or during and um Mr. Mr. Ducharm said that they have all access to all of that on their Chromebooks. So they need that during certain times whether it's permission from the class or study um that they would be able to some kids, you know, they have their own methods. But does NASC already have a a policy on this that we could work off of or is there a

089draft? Not to my not to my knowledge. We looked at we looked at quite a few different places and we couldn't find any. Are we proposing something or Actually, let me strike that. We did find We did find Let me Let me correct myself. We did find We didn't find anything we liked. They were there was no restriction or it was all restriction. It was 100% in, no phones, period. The end, lock boxes, genre pouches or it was be responsible. Um we we decided as a policy subcommittee that we just needed to have more conversation together. That's why there's nothing written here. Right. Isn't that exactly? Yeah. It was kind of be like a Yeah. Exactly. Just to talk about it. Would it be helpful? I know we the policy subcommittee Keith and Jill were

090able to join us. So we're kind of able to talk about the fact that at the beginning of the year the expectation was 45 minutes at a time off and away and that didn't work. Um so you know so you hear that there was a lot of teacher feedback. It wasn't just the administration and the SRO. A lot of teachers um very concerned about the cell phone usage. So and it was taking away you know from distracting it is it does at home too. And I think any of us if we don't admit that here then beyond the right problem in the school I see it as a parent that my kids lose their lose time. I I I think we all do. You know they'll come home from work and 10 minutes later they're

091not in the house and I'm like what are you doing? and they, you know, well, I'm not going to call out any of my kids, but they're not on their phone at work, so then they catch up. Catch up, but it's like, do you realize how much time that just took out of your day, you know? Or you have you have kids we have kids in college that if maybe if they were taught differently in high school to for that time management away from the device they wouldn't have to they wouldn't be as distracted by it when they're prepping for something in college. It's an unfortunate side effect of all of us having them in our hands. And I I mean, if anything, for any other reason, I appreciate that it came from the SRO

092and maybe that was a safety direction, but if anything, maybe we'll just be teaching them better life skills on managing their time and paying attention to what's in front of them at the moment and moving, you know, to that next class or lunch or I I don't know. So I would just like to request when you know subcommittee goes to the next phase of this discussion um include like liability to the district for these phones if there are damages or someone takes the wrong one. Um there's a I think there's other scenarios to consider when you write up this policy too. We have touched on it but could we also get a total cost? I know they're say $50 each, but about how many definitely we would then need because we didn't budget for this

093next for next year. And I think it makes sense to do it districtwide. I wouldn't pick it just for the high school. I 100% agree. If you're going to do it, if I can have a phone in the sixth grade and now I can't have it in the eighth grade. Like you can't middle school. It's they're not supposed to have a phone with them on them. I don't they're not supposed to and it is followed a little. They're not supposed to have differently, right? They're supposed to be shut off and put But they have a locker. Why don't we have They do have lockers in middle school. We don't have them in the high school. So, just mimic that. Okay. Yeah. I guess like Terry just said, maybe we find Is that in the handbook

094for middle school? Find that. Yeah. Why aren't we mimicking that at the high school? Mimic. We We did. We told them the kids just aren't doing it. They don't do Yeah. I I haven't heard they have the same rule. It's there's a there's a certain maturity difference in a in a you know, I know my kids for a long time. There's a difference. There's a difference between younger kids and older. Am I am I wrong? the difference between they said yes. They just said they all whatever I said. All right. I like that. I like it. All right. At the request of the vice chairman, we're going to move on. We look forward to hearing back from the subcommittee. Um it was a very robust discussion. Very very well. Uh moving on now to the

095report of the superintendent. Thank you, superintendent. Um we in your in your packets uh speaking of handbooks and policies and all these things um our student handbooks uh for this upcoming school year pending any changes to any policies that may be upcoming um those may need to be amended to reflect but uh we only have Milville Elementary that has recommended changes for this year. We don't have many so it's going to be less than five. Uh the high school does not have any recommended changes again unless there's a policy change and similarly with the middle school unless there's a policy change. Very light, very very light. Yes. So um one of the things um we're calling it the parent student handbook since they're so little at that age. It really is really the parents that

096are taking responsibility. So um so that's one of the edits and then a big chunk is just changing the calendar. all the typical stuff, the members of the um school community, the staffing. Um adjusting the times for preschool times in there so they're the correct times. Um and that's then the um other big piece was the guidance just rewarding some of their curriculum. So making it um where it's not choose love in there, but we're talking about all the framework and all that they're using. We also wanted to add some language for the bus. We looked at a few other districts around to see if we were missing something or found that um we needed to just tighten it up a little bit. So, we grabbed some language from other um places and we're hoping

097to add that to our bus language. Obviously, it would seem common sense that kindergarteners sit in the front of the bus, but that's not always the case. Sometimes they wander. So, we like to many of the buses keep them in the front, but sometimes they like to wander. So, it's more important. I mean, grant they're prek to three, but um you know, they're still learning how to ride a bus in kindergarten without without a seat belt. So, um that's an important piece. And I don't think they realize that they get bus misconduct slips if they don't behave on the bus. So, we felt that that was important to put in there. Um and then with the uh employment, since our kids don't work, we took that line out. Um um and then we also don't

098want our kids walking home at our level. So and the other stuff is just updating like um people in charge of the different policies or the titles or any of that stuff. Um dates. Dates. Yep. And then obviously anything here. That's it. I told you less than five minutes. Any questions? Um, so that's Milville Mees. And so these on all are we voting on all these all the handles? There aren't any there aren't any changes. If you look, that's what's in Well, that's right. So, we don't have to make Yeah. Just to be clear, you're just changing the the time, the in-n-out time to reflect the correct that we've been using all this year. Nothing's just for, you know, for the minutes and for everybody listening that we we're not changing the time. We're not

099changing of the mees school day. it if assuming that this is in Millville next year other than preK are there any people who live on that street who would I mean I don't think they can walk because of the regional transportation correct I'm just like I'm thinking when we were in Blackstone there might have been somebody literally across street and it's Oh, we have someone right now lives right across the street and he gets bus she waits for the bus. I've seen the I pass her when she's getting on the bus. So the high school is different but wave some of our high schoolers but maybe so we still can but at that age I mean when it was at mees there were families that walked walked down the road but they would be parent

100pickup these kids aren't getting dismissed and let walk and then we do have we do have that we do have parents to live like diagonal in the corner and they come they walk they pick up their child they wait at the door and then they walk home. Yeah. So they don't wait in the parent pickup. So that to us is parent pickup. I'm not letting a them walk home by themselves. Understood. I just I I didn't want to take out something that makes it seem like they can't do it at all. But it just it doesn't really say that. So it's fine by yourself. Question. Ready? Yeah. Yes. Sarah. I'll make a motion to approve the MEES parent student handbook edits for 2526 school year. Second be by Terara Scobby. Seconded by who? Chuck. Second

101by Chuck. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. Thank you very much. Have a great night. Thank you. Should we make a motion to accept no changes to as well while you're throwing it out there? Okay. Yeah. So, I'll make a motion to accept the middle school and high school uh handbooks with no changes except for school committee and school calendar. Second. That's how it's motion made by Eron, seconded by Kelly. Um, any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. And now we vote. Uh, now we have a internal assessment system. I ready? Yes. Um so, um I'll turn it over to Mary and Jill in just a quick uh moment, but just as

102a reminder, we've been looking at our internal assessment system, uh for the past couple of years. We've done some piloting and some different trials this year and uh Mary and Jill are here uh with some of the recommendations around our next steps. Hello. Oh, so just to recap what we've been talking about for for this year that we um we were we piloted just uh using the assessments from our curriculum for math and we kept STAR and so the that was to to see how effective it would be. Um but we found that um the needs that were identified is that we needed um we needed better benchmark tools for ELA and for math. So, uh, the last time I was here, we talked about the two, uh, curriculums that we were, I mean, the

103two assessments that we were looking at. And, um, we chose I Ready. And, um, we we met first, we met with the assessment committee. The assessment committee unanimously chose I Ready for both math and for ELA. And, um, Jill is going to go with going to explain some of the reasons why we went with I Ready. So, uh, one of the reasons we, um, chose I Ready was there was a high correlation to MCCAST, meaning that it gave how students performed on I Ready tests was correlated very closely to how they would perform on MCCAST. So, it really gave us a window or can will give us a window into how students will perform on that um, benchmark. They also have a wonderful range of depth of knowledge questions. So they'll ask questions that require

104just kind of what do you know about this? But then they the questions move into higher order thinking. So using the skills to um answer questions um analyzing critically critically thinking um rationalizing their uh perspective or their answer. So it's a really nice rich set of questions that um gives us a good view into what skills what kids can do. Uh the extensive reporting cap capability. So this gives us an opportunity they have multiple reports that we can pull. So we can look at how um students are doing at the teacher level, at the grade level, at the school level and beyond. So it really has some rich um reports that we can pull to see what what students need, where are they and in terms of skills, what do they need? Um and it

105this data can also and will be used for MTSS, RTI as well as differentiating within the classroom. It um also has the ability to group students based on skills. And it's not just skills um or not just students that might be struggling, but it could also group students based on um who's on level and what students are advanced in terms of that grouping so that we can again differentiate instruction for students. The math intervention resources are also very rich um because it's all embedded in there. It they offer complete lessons that are based on student skills and again that breadth. So not just students that might be um struggling but also students that are at grade level and students that are above grade level or advanced. So it's providing um a rich uh resource for

106not just RTI instructure instructors but um classroom teachers as well. I wanted to mention that you mentioned that when we were doing our blueprint um community information actually some families asked you know what I mean what we have in place for personal pathways for students and not just intervention. So this could be definitely a way to help support that and identify and support that. Exactly. I was at I was at a um a meeting today with the fourth grade teachers and I tal I talked a little bit about that and they were very they were very excited to hear that piece the intervention piece that they could use it as well and also this was the re th these were the main reasons why we went with I ready because the amount of data that

107we'll get that we can actually use was it it was far better than the other assessments that we were looking at. We once we met with the assessment committee and they voted for I Ready, then Jason, Jill, um Jill and I and the principles uh met with the the people with I Ready and they actually also thought that this was a good a good way to go. Um and then for our next steps, we'll be implementing this in in August. The thing that comes with I ready that I that I really liked also was they have a lot of professional development. So we'll start it in in in August and the first one will be about how to use the data to drive the instruction, how to how it how to administer the test as

108well. We'll do that one in August. And then during our November PD day, we'll do our second P uh um instruction with them to understand that by then they'll have all of their own data. All the teachers will have their own students data. So we'll how to use their own students data to um to build on the strengths that the kids have and to scaffold for the kids that need to that need um extra help. And then for the third one, they'll have been have done two diagnostics by that time. So we can look at action steps at that point with the um for the teachers and come up with a plan. They also have um other professional development as well if we need them. So uh this was and they're also seem to be

109a really actually a very supportive company. So they're very responsive and um they've been really nice to work with so far. Then um we'll review this the committee the assessment committee will also review this at the end of the end of next year to make sure that we're on track. We've only we've only um purchased it for one year and so to see um how you know how it goes. Does this have a way to send a report home like the way Jill mentioned that they that individual pathway so families at home will get information on that? Okay. Yes, it has parents parent reports as well. Is that included on the um breakdown of cost that's all included? That's all. Yes. Jill asked that question frequently. Is this all included? And yes, it is. Also

110the it it actually um will be can read be be reported in Spanish as well. Oh and this is all grade levels we have this for. Yes till 10. K to 10. Yeah to 10. Do you see this drills down all the way to per teacher? Is it like as far as like results or you know data per class? Per class. Okay. So per class at the teacher level, right? Yes. Yeah. Does MCAST do that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, it does. And that was one of the um issues with STAR. They didn't correlate. Okay. Any other discussion? Any relate comments? I'll entertain a motion to approve the new internal assessment system. I ready. So moved. Motion made by Tara, seconded by Tara. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

111Any opposed? The eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice work. Nice work. Let's vote on it. That's okay. Summer and fall sports update. Darlene, come on down. I see her. She was hiding. Yeah, she's been hiding around the corner with Scott. Scott's sitting over there, too. It's probably a warmer corner. Wait till you walk outside. Uh, so we have completed spring sports. Our last athletic event was yesterday. Um, here are some of the highlights from the season. We celebrated our all-star athletes at the DVC All-Star ceremony. Those athletes were Natalya Marias, Camille Weatherell, Kamaya Biano, Josie Scanio, Ryan James, Jackson Dutton, James Reban, Carly Chiconei, Carson Canoyer, Marin Barry, Caroline Turner, and Izzy Goddet. Uh we had several athletes qualify for states for both middle school and high school track. Um and

112for the first time we hosted the middle school state track championship yesterday at our high school. Um this is because our state championship was at Bridgewwater that got postponed halfway through the meet. Um and my middle school head coach threw us in the ring for hosting it. I think it was a great opportunity. It seemed to go well and we're exploring options to host relays and middle school states next year as well. So I think it's a great opportunity to get more visibility for our school. Not to interrupt Darlene, but when she says like we hosted the state meet, I don't think any of you quite grasp the size of what this meet was, like I know Chuck was there. It was massive. I drove by it. There was not a place to put another

113car at the high school or at the complex. Like it was it was huge. We had kids like from Ammeris like all over the state were competing at BMR yesterday. It was great. The whole track was lined which was really cool. It was huge. 35 teams. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. Tents set up along the side of the building. Their tents. Yeah. Awesome. It was a It was a strange call I got from Chuck around 5:00. He's like, "The place is mobbed. Can you get a drone down here?" I was on a ro on a roof and I'm like, "All right, let me see what I get." Did we get one? Did you get one? Yeah. Mike, we'll share it once we get Oh, that's awesome. I have a sneak peek. Did you get that? A

114picture of it. Yeah. A stranger. That was at the very beginning. Like that didn't even convey how big it got. It was I'm glad I got there early. That's all I need to say. Chuck was saying that to me as he was giving someone directions. Figure what? Go to the Kennedy School, park there, and walk back. Great. I think the track boosters did all um so we uh and then our girls tennis team uh advanced to round 32 of the playoffs and ended up losing to Bramfield. Uh, I'm going to be scheduling end of season coach evaluations with all our spring coaches over the next like two weeks. Um, and then we're going to be reviewing their schedules at the same time. Kind of reviewing what they liked, what they didn't like about the schedule,

115teams to avoid, and teams to definitely schedule for next year. Um, and then parents and students should expect the end of season survey for any of the spring sports to come out by this weekend. It's really important people respond to these surveys. It is anonymous and I use it to, you know, discuss with the coach their performance as well. So, it's really important people respond. Uh, we are looking forward to summer and we'll be offering the following programs. Open strength and conditioning. This is open to all sports, both men and women, uh, grades 8 through 12. This will be 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. in the high school weight room Monday through Thursdays. Uh we'll have field hockey captain's practices Mondays and Wednesdays. Um and then fitness Fridays usually is in collaboration with the girls

116field hockey team and the girls soccer team. Um once they get going and see what their attendance is like, they're going to implement fitness Fridays. Um for grades 6 through 12, we'll have boys soccer captain's practices on Mondays. Uh cheer captain's practices on Wednesdays. This will be inside the school. pretty much everything else is outside. Um, and for cheer specifically, I'll always be present just because there is. Coaches can't be there because it violates MIA rules. So, I will be there just to monitor safety and um, make sure they have everything they need and make sure the building is secure. Um, we will be offering a Charger youth football camp through our head coach Jamie Caparella. Uh, registration is required for this. We have a bunch of posters in the middle school, but um he

117has a website too with all the information that I can pass out the link to. We will have open track starting late July um from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the high school track. And then I have like two open sessions um just for more of a popular sport. So, for open basketball, that will be every Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. open to all grades, both genders or all genders. Um, and then we'll have open soccer out probably on the lower fields at the high school every Tuesday from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. And then separate from our youth football camp, we'll also have pending approval, um, we'll also have a high school football camp. Um, in the past, all the DVC teams had their own football camp. This way, it prevents like violating

118MI any MIA rules. Basically, all the coaches coach all the kids. Um, we're just trying to host it here instead of going to Nitmuck or another school. Uh, additional captain's practices may be added. Uh, we're still in the process of hiring coaches, too. So, things may change, but I will make sure everyone's updated on any changes. And then if there's any rain outs uh for any of the captain's practices, if they're meant to be outside, they'll either get cancelled or postponed. We won't be moving them inside um for rain. And then uh over the summer, I plan on thoroughly cleaning all the storage areas. Uh particularly at the high school, we have a ton of storage areas in the basement and in the locker rooms that's just like filled with old stuff. We could use

119that storage for a ton of other things. Um, so that's a big project. I hope to recruit students to help me with that over the summer as well. Um, I'm going to be re-washing all the uniforms, organizing them. We have a new closet for all the new uniforms, so we know exactly what we have for the current season. Um, and then Izzy God, my intern, is helping me go through all the old stuff to see what's sellable versus what just has to be trashed in terms of the old uniforms. Um, and I think we were discussing with the athletics committee selling the the apparel that can be sold during homecoming week, maybe next fall. Um, how are you washing the uniforms? So, originally I was getting a quote with stadium systems for laundry service. I

120just recently found out there's a wash and dryer at the high school, though, so I figured that's more cost effective. So, I'm just washing them myself over the summer. Uh for fall updates, we are hiring for the following positions. Varsity cross country, middle school cheer, varsity field hockey. We are interviewing a candidate tomorrow for that. Uh JB field hockey, and an athletic trainer. The following positions have already been filled. So, we just hired um a varsity chair coach, Alyssa Bourke. She is new. Um the cheerleading team was involved in the interview process. So we're all on board. We all came up with our goals for what we wanted in the new coach and in the team. Um and we're all really comfortable and excited for her to join us. Um we will be continuing with

121Kevin McCort for girls varsity soccer. Matt Wheeler is our new uh boys varsity soccer coach. He comes from Shrewsbury. Um he has a really great record with a division one school, so he's going to be a great addition. Uh John Christina, he's going to continue with middle school soccer for both boys and girls. Um I already met with him to discuss how the scheduling would work for practices and for games and we're comfortable with how that lands. Um Jamie Caparella will continue for varsity football and Marsha Harvey will continue for middle school cross country. And then for fall dates, the important dates, football practices will start August 15th. Every other sport will start August 18th. Tryyouts will begin the 18th, which is the first day coaches can have interaction with their kids. Um, and go

122until the 22nd. And then all all user fees will be due the 29th, which is the second Friday after tryyous start. So that should be enough time where coaches can make selections. Then families will know hopefully a week in advance if their child made the team and have time to plan for the user fee. Um, and then I'm meeting right now with fall coaches just to review the fall schedule we have so far, add the remaining games. My goal is to have a complete fall schedule within the next two weeks, add that all to Arbiter and to our website, and then create a bus schedule based off of that, like right out the gate, so we'll be set for upcoming fall season. Um, and then once we hire an athletic trainer, that will be another

123big piece over the summer to make sure they have everything they need, make sure they have a space, and um, review their schedule for game coverage and practices. That is everything. Any questions? Yeah. When are you So, so you're working with the coaches now for the fall and then as soon as you finish those schedules, are you rolling right into winter schedules with those coaches? It's actually kind of concurrent right now. Basketball, um, we only need three more games, I think, for boys basketball. So, we're close to BA basketball, you really need to get on early. Um, but right after fall is done, then I'll work on the remaining uh, winter sports. That'll open you up to start spring soon. Yes. in spring because baseball was so competitive to get opponents. I'm trying to get

124verbal agreements at least like now before athletic directors go on break. Um just so we know who we can count on when we're actually scheduling it. It was very competitive. It was almost as competitive as getting football games. So be important. And Arbiter Alive, will they all go into Arbiter Alive? Yes, there'll be an everything will be in Arbiter from um like where I enter I log in in Arbiter, but it'll also be on the website. The website will have like a full like printable list and then Arbiter sends to sports you. Um I will preface by saying Arbiter I really am not a fan of Arbiter Live. Um I can communicate like hey these are the games I'm waiting for the contract to be accepted. Um, but if both ads don't accept the contract,

125it won't show on Arbiter Alive. So, I'm hoping the website can fill in the gaps if we're waiting for contracts to be accepted. Any other questions? Well, thank you for that detailed update. Thanks. Thank you very much. That concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Was that the last superintendent's report? Well, not forever, but for me, uh, moving to the business office, Joe, thank you. Um, for the budget journal entries, the the first item on the list, uh, there's quite a few budget journal entries you'll see in the next week, there'll be next month, there'll be even more. Um, except for a few miscellaneous entries. For example, the first one is just correcting a salary stipen line and the second one is the additional funds that were needed for the additional saffron to Spain. Other

126than those types of miscellaneous entries, the majority of these entries relate around the additional purchasing in FY25 we did preparing for FY26. Um, many of them are to move budgeted update account to update the accounts at the end of year reporting that'll be happening within the next month or two. and the year-end budget allocations. I've begun doing that. The next meeting, I'll have a final um budget adjustment for year-end allocations just to make sure everything lines up to our budget. Unless there's any questions, that's all I had for this piece. Okay. Um any questions for Joe? Take a motion to approve the budget journal entries. So move. Motion made by Jane. Second. Seconded by Carrie. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. Uh the

127next piece is the personnel report. Just showing you the um resignations uh uh and um appointments that are taking place just to be put on file. Quite a few appointments which is nice to see. Mhm. Uh and then my expenditure report is the next piece. And you'll see that I've through the journal entries I've been doing that most of the lines that were carrying deficit balances at one point have been reallocated and you don't see as many in there. The the line that you will see a deficit still on is under transportation which is on page two under professional services. That's only because I'm waiting for the final bills to come in for the for the fiscal year. and then I can make sure everything that's supposed to be in the grants in the grant

128and we can take a look at that line and hopefully eliminate that deficit also. And the other place you'll see deficits is under tuitions for school choice sending and charter school sending. I guess DESIE looks at those as legal deficits because we really don't have the right number at the beginning of the year anyways and it's adjusted as we go. Um, we're still looking to end in a positive light. Uh, that will support our, uh, the END that we're looking to aim for for the end of the year. And that's all I have for that unless you have any questions at this point. We're good. And the final piece was just kind of anformational piece. Um, I am in the process of trying to apply for a school violence pretent prot prevention program grant, the

129SVP. It's through the um cop's community oriented policing services office. Found out about this grant about a week ago. It's due in about well the first piece is due within a few days if I can make this happen. And then the grant itself is due I believe I have on here the 26th. the 26th. The issue, it's a $500,000 maximum grant. Um the grant if if we are awarded, it's very competitive. It does require a 25% match from the district. So, if we were to get the full $500,000, we would have to match $125,000. If that is the case, and I can make this happen, I would obviously come back to you once our END is certified to request that maybe we could fund it with that. Um it's a it's a grant that we

130can use to start implementing all the safety and security issues that we've were presented to us through our assessment through Homeland Security. You know, we're looking at uh ball more ball arts. We're looking at the uh in a replacing the card swipe system, access system that we have right now. It's really archaic and it's very difficult for maintenance and management. potentially some of the walkie-talkies upgrading to some good quality two-way radios in the district and it's all around physical safety. Um the issue we're having is my access to the federal websites. Um it's the feds. Nothing is fast. Everything is a long process. If I can get the access I need in time, I will submit right away. If I can't, it is an annual program. Um as long as funding is there. If we

131miss this deadline this year, we can always apply for it next year. But I'm doing my best to um get the access that we need. I said I'll I'll make sure I update you in July whether it was a success or whether it was the website open. Yeah. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Up next, we have facilities report facilities director Scott Heert. How are you this evening? Good. self. Good. Thank you. Good. Um, so the high school uh a particular boiler company came in and diagnosed a bad circulator pump. This pump maintains the water level in the boilers. Um, these boilers are steamed, so it's constantly using water and you got to refill it to a certain level. So, we're getting that repaired. The John Deere tractor is all set. I got a phone call

132this morning. It should be dropped off on Monday. Two weeks too late, but it's ready to go. Um, we have a broken window on the lower learning center that's going to be replaced on the 20th of June. No students in the building. So, um, Hotton Middle School, certain boiler company came in, replaced, uh, they broke the sections down to diagnose what this boiler needs, and it needs all new gaskets and O-rings. It's uh, it's a big project. I show Joe show the photos. It's And the quote we got was uh, just over $16,000. Yes. Which is unbudgeted. So, we'll see where it won't be done till next year, so we don't have to worry about it until this for this fiscal year. Yep. And let's see what else we got there. FM generator. Um, they're

133coming in to replace the faulty transfer switch. Ironically, we lost power Wednesday morning at 1:00 a.m. I had to come in. Um, and none of the lights were on. So, the generator was running, but the lights didn't transfer it to come on. So, that's what that transfer switch does. So once that's done, we should be good. Um, previous power outage um blew the circuit breaker on the ventilation system in the kitchen for the steamers and burners and exhaust. Uh, that was a bad circuit breaker. So that has been replaced. That's all set up and running. JFK AFMEES uh boxes have been delivered so that the teachers can stop packing in anticipation of a move if it happens. Um so that's underway and we also installed um additional electrical outlets in the classrooms in the uh

134preschool. What had happened was we got cited for running extension cords that we shouldn't have been running. Um, so yeah, we got new outlets put in. It's good to go. We won't be blowing circuit breakers anymore on that section. Yeah. Um, Milville Elementary School currently getting quotes for new kitchen equipment. Joe and Chris and I will be meeting tomorrow to go over that. Um, this is replacing items that can't be repaired. Associated Elevator diagnosed a bad power switch at the Millville school as well. Um, so the elevator is out of operation, but that'll be up and running before anything. Uh, fire pump was tested on Tuesday and we had no issues with that. And that is all I have. Any questions for Scott? Aaron? So maybe it's not just for Scott, but do we have

135an update from the permit process for the water at Mobile Elementary? I uh reached out and heard from Peter. Um let me pull it up here. Um he was uh helpful. He responded right away. He said uh that they met with Mary Jude. Contract still in process. Uh they've recently decided to change uh the contract format on all grant awards. So, it sounds like it's a it's a a formatting issue, possibly including those already executed. Uh, but she wasn't too sure. Her team's working closely with Mccclure and Boston office to expedite the permitting. April and May test results came in under their thresholds uh for all tests, including DBPs. That the update I got is from Peter this morning. That's done. [Applause] What was the original time frame for the permit? 60 days. 60. Okay.

136I think it was May 7th. They said they 60 days starting May 7th. I think it was. Mhm. And then they said it was 30 days to install. H. Was it 30 days to install? Two weeks to get the stuff. And then two weeks. Two weeks. Like the money pit. Two weeks. That's no reference on the north. That was just this just a long day in the sun. Yeah. Like it sounds like they could potentially still meet the July 31st date at this point, but depends on how long that new format. Yep. What it impacts. Can I just ask about the all new O-rings and gaskets? Like that's going to cost a large amount of money. Yes. What building is that? That's in this building. That's in this building right here. They got to take

137it apart. I understand. But is is that part of is that ever in a PM, you know, contract they would is it just it they just give up and so every year they come in. So yeah, every year they come in, they break down the boilers and clean them out and all that and make sure nothing's wrong. But I think it was November we fired up that particular boiler and it had a bad leak coming from underneath it. They thought maybe it was a cracked section, which would have been even more money if that was the case. And they're not even sure they can buy those sections anymore. So, luckily, it turned out just to be the O-rings. And it started out they were just going to do like a third of it, but once

138they broke it open and saw that other sections were leaking, it was like, might as well do it all at once and get it done. So, this in in a sense, this is a preventative maintenance because they weren't all that. So we're just changing them out. Yeah. In anticipation of future issues. Yeah. And we also treat the water in the system. So it's not like it was, you know, corroded water or anything. It's just Okay. It's from heating up, you know, heat contraction expanding. Just touching on that. That's um that's what 16,000 was the quote. Yes. And did you did we get a work order yet to get them moving on that or because I think we should have that money. We should have that. I'd rather get to see that get done sooner than

139later. Yeah. So, we're waiting for materials that won't come in till after July 1st. So, I'd ask Scott to do that that purchase order after July 1 so we can get it into the next fiscal year. Oh, good. As opposed to doing it now. But they are moving already. We already gave them the Okay. Oh, good. I was just thinking because of the part, you know, what sometimes you get stuck on parts. Yep. And and then next thing you know, it's October, November. Yeah. You know, need that boiler. So, basically, that boiler hasn't run all year. We ran on just the other two boilers. Fortunately, we have three here. So, I mean, yeah, any given day, there's no more than two boilers running. That's probably why the seals, it probably doesn't run that often. seals.

140We do have a software that is supposed to alternate the boilers so that they do constantly run. All right. Oh, sorry, Erin. So, I just can I ask why we want to wait until after July 1st because it won't be it won't be done. It we won't have it done this fiscal year. So, the expense wouldn't fit to this fiscal year either way because the service has to be completed before June 30th. You can allocate we can we can airate, right? Well, well, we we could we could um I mean, we won't change there's pros and cons to both of that, but with with our year-end forecast and cumble was the word with what you said is unbudgeted, would it be frugal of us to encumber something because otherwise it's tied up in END. We

141we could we could encumber those funds this year and roll it forward and who actually if if they thought they could get it done by July 15th. That's what I was just going to say. Or would it expediate the process? Even still get the full expense to be in this fiscal year. So we could do that because incumbent going into next year not being able to use it might be you know if we weren't able to use it all of last year if it's something we could be a little proactive on and though we don't have any line item for this type of expense I think I see it there that we could I don't know I I'm just it's something we could do we If you'd like that could carry that accompance forward over

142to the next year. That way it's not tied up in END. If we let that go, it's rolling and locked up until unfortunately we have to pay to have it fixed. So yep. Yep. It's got to get done. So Okay. Okay. Are we good? More questions. All right. Thank you, Scott. You're welcome. Thanks. Facilities use requests. Use of facilities requests. Um there's three requests. Uh the the first one is a group one. It's the uh BM BMR music department. They run a band camp every year. Um there's no anything here and um Mr. Schaefer does a great job. There's no issues here. So that's that's an easy one. Should we do these all at once? We can do I if there's no objection, we could probably do them all together, right? I think the other

143two we just got an update on from the uh athletic director anyway. Yes, it is. It's exactly I have a question on this one though. The football ones. Sure. The next one. Just the two football ones. Yes. It's the varsity football coach requesting it, but it's 212 Enterprises. Yeah. From what I understand, it's not it's it's not a school um run program. I guess from what uh Darene was saying, we can't do certain things. I don't know all the people. Yeah. So, I'm just questioning the name of it. The junior charger camp. That's a big gray area with MIAA and the group that it's falling under. But it's She said youth. This isn't for the high school kids, is it? No, the high school one's the preseason camp. There's three different things in here. There's

144just there's a big gray area right now with preseason camp and then there's a junior charger. Yeah, because it's called Junior Charger and it's Yeah. connected to a coach. I must have two of the same coach running it. But it's a nonprof. Can we make a motion to approve that as just junior camp and they It's just that word. It's just putting charger in there that I feel like we're I wonder though. I don't know. Well, I'm looking for Darlene's update cuz I feel like the age group, does it make a difference if the age group is not the kids that would play? It might be a varsity only rule, which isn't there requirement, too. You can't have so many percentage of Yeah. Which is why I know she said they were being opened up

145to schools. I just So, the team is grades I think this is it though. So, here's my question. Is the Charger Youth football camp on Darlene's update for grades four through seven match? the charger youth change the group and how we charge too. So that would because this is group three which would be because it's a charge, right? Yes. But it doesn't grades four to seven don't play in the team. Does that make it better? I don't know. That might save it. Okay. 810 through 813. Um you want us to check that crossroads just to make sure. Yeah. What's that? What is that? The one in August also overlaps with band camp and the band uses obviously the staff parking lot. So can we just advise them that that is going to be off limits?

146Make a notation of that. Yeah. No parking. So that way they don't have any issues elsewhere. Yeah. They requested the football practice field. So they technically should be the back of the school. Oh, is that back field? That's correct. Oh, that makes sense. I'll check on those on that piece. Still can make a note. I mean, I don't know if we want a motion to approve it pending. Needing a name change just so I would say need to table this until they get some clarification. I'll tell you what, I'll take a motion to approve band camp. So, move to motion made by Matt, seconded by Jane. All those in favor sign any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. And so now we have um Oh, they're

147both 212 Enterprises, huh? Yeah, I think he'd be okay with taking the Chargers out cuz the other one doesn't have it. And it's the same 212 Enterprise. But our basketball Oh, okay. Our summer basketball camp is run by by It's Bimble. Coach Annabali, isn't there? It's all he volunteers his time, but it's sponsored by Bimble. Yeah, but Bimble's the town league. Yeah. At the risk of thought we'd never hear Bimble for a little while. Don't go with Bimble. Well, and I think but this was it's also called Charger V basketball camp though. So maybe it's because it's youth. Those aren't it's not. So, I'll make a motion to approve uh the request as submitted pending verification of legal use of the name. There you go. Perfect. Cross reference it with with basketball though because I

148really think it says Charger basketball camp. Well, we are football. Your motion has these two football camps. Correct. Okay. Motion made by James. Seconded by Tara S. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. We're on that. I'll check that. Jason, you can check on that. All right. Got it. Yes. How was that? Um um school committee forum. I have um just a MSBA high school building project update during public forum tonight. Um both committees, the school committee and school build building committee separately voted to move forward with grade 7 through 12 configurations. Um so the um school building committee will continue on with the preferred schematic report which is due August 28th. So those are our next steps to complete the phase um that we're

149at. Um, and then just on a side note, we held the baseball banquet um, last week and we held it at BMR and I thought it was awesome that we were back in the school um, having the kids, you know, in their school to do the banquet. Food services did a great job um, providing food really fair price and I think the kids liked it there. They played whiffle ball outside so just ties in that community feel of the school. So I thought it went well. Excellent. And then, sorry, one more request. Um, just touching on the Nova water system. I feel like, you know, processing those dates. We're going to be getting close to that July 31st um date that was mentioned in a board of selectment meeting a while back. Um, just can

150we add it to the July 10th um agenda to have an update? Sure. Okay. And we're confirming that's July 10th, right? Not July 6th. July 10th. July 10th is a Thursday. It's usually Monday. It's usually Monday Monday. It's July 7th. Well, it says in the district. Yeah, on the district side it says July 7th. Confirm getting the correct agenda date on the July meeting. And that's our last meeting before the Yes. the end of the month where that motion fell. Okay. any anyone else for good and welfare uh or school committee forum. Just want to mention that the marching band has started their season in June to that lasts all the way through November. Um I attended the first night the other night and it's probably going to be one of the biggest marching bands

151we've had since in about Oh, yay. 10 years. Nice. Almost 10 years. So good. Um they're really excited for it and uh wish them the best of luck. Great. Okay. Thank you. of fall seasons. Darlene did not mention it, but family ID registration is open for all fall sports. I know all of our sixth and seventh graders were introduced to all of the fall sports offerings, so hopefully we can get numbers up on our sports teams, too. Anyone else? I'd like to thank the school building committee, a joint meeting earlier this evening. I'd like to thank uh also thank all the Special Olympic award competitors recipients. That was very very nice for the second annual speech. Thank you Jill and all the administration and parents that assisted. I'd like to thank uh Eagle Scout Kevin

152Burgess for his commitment to maintaining the deck outback and the retirees, all the five of whom tonight. And I don't understand how like Patty Bushery can be retiring. Well, she like graduated a year before me or two years before me. But um I'd like to thank them. And with that being said, we have one more. Um Oh, thank you. I move it over. We also have on behalf This is our superintendent's last meeting with us. So on the on behalf of the uh the Blackstone Milville Regional School Committee, we'd like to present you with this certificate of appreciation and recognition of your outstanding leadership, unwavering dedication, and tireless commitment to the students, staff, and families of the Blackstone Milville Regional School District. Your vision, integrity, and service have less left us a lasting impact on

153our schools and community. As you embark on your next chapter, know that your contributions will not be forgotten. With heartfelt appreciation, we thank you for the your years of service presented to you on June 12th. Thank you. 25. Thank you. [Applause] And more importantly, you will have to honor this card from uh the school comm. Thank you again. Thank you uh for your years of service and it's been a pleasure um working with you and as a as a selectman as a school committee member and and you came into this community with a super town meeting the first one should have been assigned right then and you didn't run the same for seven years. So um so now folks we're going to go into executive session and we will adjourn. We're not going to come

154back to the TV. We'll journ out out of uh coming out of executive session. So I'll ask for a motion to go to executive session and not return to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining to disc strategy with respect to non-union personnel. So motion made by Chucked by Tara. Roll call. Jane, yes. Aaron Kerry, yes. Aaron, yes. Uh Matt, yes. Chuck, yes. Tara S. Tara L. Yes. and Danzy. Yes.