001All right. Good evening everyone. Today is Thursday, February 5th, 2026, and this is a meeting of the Milford School Committee. Uh we have a couple guests this morning. Uh this sorry, this evening, uh we'll start with invitation to speak. >> Sorry, I can't see you around the hall. You can come on up to the uh >> that's okay. You can come on up to the uh microphone. So, invitation to speaks for public feedback to the school committee, allowing members to listen to and understand community concerns. It is not intended for debate. The speaker should provide their name and keep their comments to three minutes or less addressing topics within the committee's jurisdiction. The full policy is under code BEDH and that can be found on the district website. >> Hello, my name is Nicole McKenzie.
002I'm just going to read. I kind of wrote down so that I don't um babble, but I came here basically tonight to bring to your attention the issues with this district district's expulsion policy. Um the policy must be revisited in my opinion to ensure due process, transparency, and proportionality. A student's educational future should never depend on opinions, rumors, or gossip in absence of clear, documented, and reviewable factual evidence. Students as all of us make mistakes and disciplinary systems should not be existing to help should exist to help them learn from their mistakes not to permanently exclude them. Educators and administrators as trusted figures have a responsibility to act with objectivity and support students not to judge them or reach conclusion based on unsubstantiated claims. The policy must require progressive discipline and the exhaustion of all
003reasonable alternatives before expulsion as stated in our current student handbook. But particularly for students with little or no disciplinary history. These concerns are not isolated. Many parents, community members, and educators and even administrators from other districts have expressed serious concern and disbelief upon learning of how disciplinary actions have been handled. Disciplinary measures should not be correct should be corrective in educational not punitive actions that unnecessarily jeopardize students futures. I'm asking you as a community to please go over these um procedures and perhaps look further into what is happening in our community. Thank you. >> Thank you for coming. >> Thank you for your time. >> Okay. Okay, I don't believe we have any other speakers for invitation to speak. Let's move on to announcements, correspondents, and distribution. >> I just wanted to commend our woodland
004musicians who did a phenomenal job and Mrs. Knap for navigating so many hundreds of musicians. Uh the string performance was last night and it was just truly incredible. Like it was amazing. So kudos to that team. >> Excellent. >> All right. See nothing else. I am going to As long as you all agree, skip over the chairperson update. I'm guessing you don't want to hear from me when we have a room of MSBA people here. Which will bring me to the MSBA building projects designer introduction with HMFH >> Jonathan. >> Thank you. >> Hi there. >> How are you? >> Uh we just wanted to come to introduce ourselves. We have recently been selected for the new Milford High School projects. We're very excited. Um I'm Bobby Williams from HFH Architects. I'm the principal in
005charge. >> And I'm Stephanie McNeel. I'll be the project manager on the project. >> So, we are hoping to engage as much as we need to with the community and with this group and however the school building committee wants to use us. We were the architects for the Woodland Elementary School. So, um we're really excited to work with you guys again. So, thank you. >> Very good. Any questions or comments? >> You guys looking at me again? >> Look at them for the question. Yeah. I guess I I I guess I'll >> circle back first or go ahead, Craig. >> You Yes. Go ahead. Go. >> Oh. Um. >> Wow. >> Thank you. >> Priority. >> I I'm wondering if if um one thing I wanted to save for HMFH, I guess, was the um
006if you guys could talk about the visioning and programming work plan that we're about to engage in. Um I wanted to save it because I think that this is a good opportunity to involve a lot of different stakeholders. So I wondered if you guys can talk a little bit about that. >> Yep. Yeah. So uh the beginning part of every MSBA project is a visioning session or two. Um we have an educator educational consultant. He's an ed planner named Mike Pero who's going to lead this for the community. and we tend to try to get a large user groups together um make up of administrators, teachers, students, community members. Uh we did a similar thing at Woodland Elementary School and these really set the educational goals for the project as well as the facility goals
007and a lot of times these are what the goals we use to kind of weigh um decisions as we move forward. um they help inform the educational plan that's going to be created for the project and that educational plan is really the framework that the MSBA reviews for all the spaces that will be in your new school. So they give you a very prescriptive amount of spaces but every school differs in different ways and that educational plan will be very important. So the it's it's really important to get a lot of community voices, teachers, everyone to really help participate because that really will say this is what the vision of the new Milford High School wants to be and especially because you're looking to make it a comprehensive high school. It's going to transform a
008little bit in terms of how it's being used. So it'll be just a great opportunity to see who you can get involved in that. And then, you know, beyond that official uh educational visioning process throughout our design process, we'll be meeting with all of the various uh teacher groups, special education groups, you know, kind of every distinct functionality that's happening in the high school. And we'll be having specific meetings to sit down with them to, you know, we'll start at big picture and then be really dialing down to, you know, what is the casework and cabinetry in your room going to look like and how many power outlets do you need? So it'll go from that really macro to micro level with each of each educator's group throughout the process. >> So I guess um
009the reason I bring it up is because um it's here. Here it is in there. We're kicking it off like within the next week or two. Um it's starting to get folks in rooms and talking about what a new high school could look like. Um, so very shortly I'm going to be sending an email out to all community members, uh, all of our community members and seeing who wants to be involved in that process. Um, but this is where it gets really exciting. We start talking about our hopes and dreams and where we we hope this um this project will take our our school district. Um, so I'm very excited for that to to start. I'm also very excited. Um, HMFH, for those of you that don't know, we're also worked on Woodlet. So, Bobby
010and I have experience from 10 years or so, even maybe a little more back. So, um, it's good to be back uh, working with Bobby. So, had good experience um, >> over at Woodland and looking forward to working with him um, moving forward. And just to point out um one of the things that came out of the visioning from that was to you know 21st century learning and what that would look like >> and Woodland is actually one of the first schools built by the MSBA that has those project areas and those additional spaces that were created >> and now every school every has them. So Woodland actually kind of was the one of the first test cases for that with the MSBA projects which is really cool. >> So Chris So, I'm Michael. I'm
011really excited you're here. I'm also on the building committee, so we'll see each other. >> Um, so yes, last night we're at this violin concert with the schools, and the person I was sitting next to is my neighbor, Jacob Wyoff, who works for news, uh, channel 4, >> and we were talking about the new high school, and I was, he was like, "Oh, you know, we did a story a couple years ago on this great high school in Waltham, and I was like, um, and he showed me all the pictures. I'm like, wait a minute. I think we we just picked these guys." So, I think you guys were part of that project. >> We didn't do the Walam High School, but but we did do a lot of really fun high schools. >> But
012is it's a nice high school. It's a comprehensive high school, too. >> What he he brought up was specifically the the uh their net zero school. >> Y >> uh which I thought was pretty fascinating. Yeah. >> So, I'm uh recently coming off my last eight years, I've been entrenched in uh Arlington and Arlington's high school uh which we've just received lead uh platinum certification for and you know has lots of fantastic accolades to go along with it that um you know took took a really great collaborative effort between our team the town. So, I'm very, you know, it's been nothing but positive interactions with everyone that I'm excited to dig in with you all to create another fantastic high school. >> I guess yeah, quickly to add, um, certainly HMFH gave a great presentation
013was there was two presentations that we had a few weeks ago. It was unanimous consent between myself, Craig, and and Mike. Um, were very impressed with just their experience, right? Arlington High School was was one of the factors. um their comprehensive experience. So, you know, as we move forward, we know that there is the the physical building, but then there's also that educational component as Craig just spoke to and and in their presentation and how they look at the creation of the building and and how it relates to that educational component, especially since we're going with the with the CTE program. So, we're excited with that. Um, obviously we'll have a nice aggressive schedule that we really look to to support well, you know, aggressive to to get our students into the new school and
014get these CTE programs going. So, again, very excited. I think when when >> Craig presents from the educational side, it's going to be very important for us to be a part of that and really have a good knowledge. And again, there'll be the again the the physical building and then the educational component that I think that's going to be driving us and especially since you know the school building committee they are they are driving the project and they are in a sense a customer but I feel like you know we are the ultimate customer right because we're representing the school community so exciting work environment. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. >> Yeah I'm excited for it. Um I I remember the old woodland. >> Yeah. new. My oldest son remembers the old one when
015my two youngest know the new one. >> Oh, that's good. And uh and it's a big difference between the two. So to see that being able to happen again, I'm excited for it. Great. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. >> Yeah, we're thrilled to have you back with us. So, thank you for all the work that you'll do. I think to the comment you just made around the eight years you spent at Arlington. Could you just give the community a very high level sort of what should you expect from here kind of hitting some key milestones knowing I'm not looking you sign up for any dates but just kind of generally what should people expect this takes between this just to give them a sense. >> Yeah I think you know we'll be kicking
016off all the ed visioning and planning and then that will so right now our brains are focused on what we're we call a feasibility study. So we have in that feasibility study portion, we have two separate reports that will go into the mass school building authority and those are going to really contain like Craig was you know the educational program. That's going to be the bulk of the lift of setting the stage of what needs to go into this building. And then after those reports happen, we move into schematic design and that's the beginning design stages where we, you know, at that point we'll have worked our way the first report we look at the myriad of options. The second report we've narrowed down to three options and then at the end of that report
017we're now down to the one. And then in schematic design, you develop that one option. That's where we'll be making sure that we're on budget for what is going to be our overall budget for the project. And that is all going to take >> it's going to probably Yeah, we're going to say 16 to 24 months. We'll we'll just give it a range. But we're try we're going to try to hit that as quick as possible because you know we want to provide the best value and you know getting the kids in quicker is better for everybody >> and completely understand that you know your firm doesn't hold all the milestones. Yeah, we're actually working on that right now to help build that out. But and then construction itself once it starts will probably take
018>> um about 30 months, you know, maybe a little bit longer depending on on how the phasing might have to work or if it's a new build or if it's a major renovation, you know, that's all we're kind of studying right now is to figure out what is the right solution for the new project. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> All right. And and if I may just add a little bit to that in case James the OPM um >> the uh it's not like we just hired them on and and they're they're going but it's not they have we have the MSBA oversight. So um part of these uh part of the schedule that we have to take into account is that we need to give time to the MSBA. We're giving these submissions
019to them. they give a thorough review >> and so um and and give comments that we then need to provide comments back to or modify or justify what we have in there. So it's um it's not just you know these guys are excellent at what they do but then we additionally have that additional oversight of of the MSBA who you know yeah they they see buildings throughout the whole commonwealth and so it's a good process. >> Thank you. Well, the building and the grounds were used certainly by the whole community. So, we appreciate all your effort to make it a great home. >> Please try. >> Excellent. Thanks for making the time to come out. I really appreciate it. I'm sure we'll have you back at some point in the future. >> Happy to give
020you a presentation or anything. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Nice meeting you. >> Thank you. Great day. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, we'll move now to the warrant articles for annual town meeting. Um, we do have one for vending machines. It's in the packet. Um, did everybody get a chance to read it or do you want me to read it? >> I'll make a motion to approve that, Matt. >> All right. Motion to approve the vending machine article made by Megan and second by Derek. Any discussion on it? None. All right. All in favor? Okay. Move on to the report of the school business administrator. >> Okay. Um, so in addition to the personnel updates, I have um two um actually both are elementary school ELE department surplus. They're from
0212014 and they're not meeting the the state standard for uh EL education anymore. So um I just um hope for a vote to declare surplus for those materials. >> All right. All right. So, just to be clear, we're looking for a vote to declare surplus for the following. It's K through two EL department surplus and then 3 through 5 EL department curriculum material surplus. Motion to approve. >> Motion by Chris. Second by Megan. All in favor. Thank you. And we also do have a personnel update in here for for everybody. All right. So, that brings us to the consent agenda. Before I start that, there is an outofstate request in here. Did anybody have any questions or comments that need to be made on that or can we include it? All good. All right. >>
022Actually, just one quick >> Yeah, sure. >> Um Craig in there just Sorry. Should be ready for this. Um it states in his contract that he's there these types of trips. I just want to verify that for anybody that's >> would be listening and asking on that. So again it's out it's outlined in his contract that these types of conferences are are um yes or uh he's able to attend. Okay. >> Okay. So the consent agenda tonight is going to include the following. the approval of minutes from the January 22nd, 2026 regular meeting, the January 29th, 2026 budget meeting, an outofstate travel request for the Woodland principal, and the approval of eight warrants in the amount of $81,647.39 and professional development totaling $8,646. Motion to approve. >> Motion by Chris. Second by Derek. All in
023favor? >> Unanimous. Thank you. Uh future agenda items. >> Can I ask a quick question though on the um the travel? I'm just reading through it. It says that he's going to use his own points for his flights. Why >> why would you tell him now? I guess if we pay for it. >> Yeah. Why can't we pay for it? I mean, I'm able to apply my own flight using my personal credit card points. I would use the $15 my contract allows me to the balance. >> Yeah. Maybe >> I I read it the same way as you did. I just figured that maybe to to help offset costs of the overall that he just felt like he would at least use his own points and reduce overall costs. I >> mean, this is a
024proposal. Yeah, >> you certainly could say >> I find it strange that he would use his own personal funds to go on a work trip. >> You could say that you'll fully fund the 2500. Also, it's his proposal. >> Sorry for bringing up. I was just reading it through. It just didn't make sense to me. >> When does he need an official answer, Bri? I know we just voted on it. >> I mean, >> I don't want to cause a big issue. But I just don't understand why he would use his own money to go uh >> in March in March. Okay. I know he probably has to plan it. Um >> the fan. So I mean >> just thinking through process there because if you wanted to run that by him that's fine. But
025I would assume if it changes the amount we should probably revote on that. >> Well, we're just approving the out of state request. >> We're approving the request as far as money. That's still up to and crew. >> That'll come through in uh >> That's true. That's fine. I mean, it's just >> I'm okay with that. That I think you're right. I don't think we have to actually approve the the dollar value. It's within his contract. It's allowed. Yeah, >> we're approving on a state travel home. >> I just found it strange that he's using some personal funds to go on this. >> Okay. >> He's going to pay something out of pocket anyway. He only asked for 1,500 >> which aligns with his contract. >> So, he's going 25. >> Yeah. So basically we're
026saying his contract says whatever >> it's going to cost more contract. Yeah, >> right. He's proposing that >> the balance. Does his contract have a cap on cost? Is that why >> 1500? Okay. >> All right. >> That makes sense. >> Either way, >> travel approved. >> Out of state is approved. >> Um >> future agenda items. Does anybody have anything for that? >> Just kind of curious. Maybe get an update. >> Well, I guess it's not on there. um policy just we haven't seen policy in a while so I'll just give a little push to our policy subcommittee as it's one of our three things that do I know that I'm not in the room and >> but so I'm sure you're working hard but I will >> ask anyways >> we would have
027given us an update but it's not on the agenda >> Mr. Sure. >> We thought we we had a good meeting today. >> Good. >> Hey, no updates. Anything else? >> No. All right. >> Just a question about there are a few items in January that I don't believe we covered. Are we still tracking? >> Which one? On the long term? >> Yeah. Like the district priorities update, Craig. I don't know that we did that recently. >> That is something >> we've been kind of doing along the way. >> So, just sort of embedded. Is that how we're thinking about? Okay, that's fair. Um, and then there was one other that I wanted to ask about. Um, >> the midyear review of your goals. Sorry, I just want to make sure we don't fall like
028too out of cycle with that map. So, just we can put on a future one. >> Yeah, we can put that on um >> what we do next. >> Yeah, >> whatever works. >> Does that work? >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Any more? No. All right. note those down. All right. So, that does bring us to adjournment of the open session. We do have executive session to discuss both MTA bargaining and the ask me bargaining. We will not be returning to open session. And this does require a roll call. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Yes. I'm also a yes. Thank you.