001Good evening everyone. Today is Thursday, November 20th, 2025 and this is a meeting of the Milford School Committee. We're going to start with the student representative update. >> Hi. Um I would like to start with some positives that we've had over the past few months. So term one ended a few weeks ago. No, we're in term two already. Um, last time we talked a little bit about the end of October, we had spirit week, pep rally, homecoming. All of those were very successful and actually our homecoming had a really high attendance and profits higher that than we've seen in recent years. Um, and now student council is working on our annual holiday can drive. So, each grade competes in a little competition on which grade can donate the most cans and boxed goods. Um, and
002then the class that wins gets a nice little prize for their class council. Uh, last year I think we donated over 2,000 canned goods. So, we're hoping to see something similar this year. Um, the music department had a very successful chorus vertical concert. Um, so that's all the grades starting from third grade, I believe. Um, and the next big concert is the winter concert on December 16th, 700 p.m. in the auditorium if you want to come check us out. Um, we also had central district auditions last weekend and many of our performers were accepted into small performance groups which is a really great achievement. Um, as for sports, fall sports are all wrapped up and probably the biggest highlight from this fall season was that our girls soccer team made playoffs for the first time
003in 13 years and they won a playoff game. Um, but now we're looking ahead to the winter season, which starts right when we get back from Thanksgiving pretty much. So, and then lastly, I would just like to follow up on some of those technology issues we talked about last time, specifically the Wi-Fi issues. Um, those have all been resolved. So, we haven't had any issues recently in class with the guest Wi-Fi and anything. So, that's pretty much all I have. >> Awesome. Any questions or comments? >> Great update. >> Nothing. I was I was going to say very happy about the the girls soccer team. They did great. Uh Nashawati been watch I watch them all. I'm like watch watching them play. And then of course your your your freshman Anella. >> I know she's
004probably listening. Great job. >> Second in the Hakamok in assists. Nashadi second in the Hakamaka in goal scored. Amazing. >> Some big highlights for us this year. Yeah. >> I would I would second that. Very entertaining games. I ended up at the last three but my daughters were all about coming. Oh, nice. And they were like, they don't watch any sports, but they sat there and just like >> locked in the whole game. So, >> it was a great season for us. Yeah. >> Uh, one question. Who won the trunk or treat uh car competition? >> Oh my goodness. Um, it wasn't my car. I think it was >> It was really hot. Yeah. >> Um, I think it was the brass section of um the band. So, >> I think my car was second.
005>> Little bitter about that, but Sorry, you got second. >> Very good. Anything else? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Uh we can skip invitation to speak as no one is here for that announcements, correspondents, and distribution. Anybody have anything to hand out there? >> I have an announcement. >> Please. >> Um if you notice, we have some new um updated art here. Um, so a select group of fourth graders from Miss Delaney's art room at Woodland Elementary School used the eight studio habits of mind to collaborate on this beautiful landscape which includes sea creatures, mountain trolls, and leprechauns. Evan Santimena, Kyle Cunningham, Amanda Diaz, and Nicholas Martins developed their craft using many art materials that included paint sticks, collages, colored pencils, and markers. Our student artists created a collaborative
006piece by envisioning how their ideas might work together and discussed how to bring these idea design ideas into the final project. This working group engaged in a lot of conversation about color and theme and persisted when they ran into our creative differences in opinion. I am proud to showcase this collaborative work as a prime example of how woodland artists create creatively think, problem solve, and reflect in the art classroom. So, a new update for us in our TRC. >> Awesome. Anything else? No. All right. Thank you. Uh we'll move to the general chairperson update. The only update I really have about the MSBA project is last week the designer RFS was finalized. So now I believe we're moving towards the process of procurement on that. That's something >> correct. Yeah. >> Should have the RFS
007should have been posted on Wednesday. Uh, next Wednesday we'll do a kind of a a walk through with any anybody that is interested in in submitting RFS and then we're looking at the RFS being returned on December 17th. >> Awesome. Thank you for that. >> That'll bring us to the superintendent disclosure unit A negotiations. You want to just explain this one, Craig? >> Sure. Um, this requires a vote. Um, I sought advice from our attorney, Felicia. I don't even know how to say her last name. V. Um, Vudivan, I think that's how you say it. Vudivan. Um, and she she wrote an opinion and then it was um run through the ethics commission. the ethics commission agreed with her opinion that um I will be able to um be a part of the negotiations on
008the teachers contract uh provided we do this step which is I fill out this form uh that's it's uh I don't it's a disclosure disclosure by non-elected municipal employee of financial interest and determination um And let me explain what my disclosure is. My wife's a school psychologist at Stacy Middle School. She's part of the teachers union. She has a she would have a financial interest in collective bargaining which would impact on her financial condition through her pay, fringe benefits, vacation, and sick leave as well as other issues with an economic component affecting her. Other particular matters to consider include direct supervision, recommending or approving a any personnel matter, evaluation, promotion, step rate, salary determination or other terms and conditions of employment in which my wife has a financial interest. Um I I would be part
009of the negotiating team and I would be making recommendations to the school committee. The school committee, you all are the ones that are actually signing the document and um saying yes or whatever. Um, so I need to disclose it. You need to vote and say it's fine that I participate and then uh Matt would sign it. Um, sign this form and then we we turn it in, I guess. Or actually, no, we keep it on file. >> We have to keep it on file. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, I think you all were you all got all the documentation. And you got the um you got the opinion that the the attorney wrote. You got um you got the opinion of the ethics commission. Um so now it's just up to you to vote. >> Any
010questions for Craig or concerns you want to share? >> Just say thanks for getting it done in a timely manner so we're not rushing to get it done. >> Way ahead of it. Yeah. Is there a motion to accept this disclosure and uh and allow him to participate? >> So moved. >> Motion by Michael, second by Derek. All in favor? >> Unanimous. Thank you. We will get this filled out and signed. All right. On to the report of the superintendent of schools. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, so I just wanted to provide a brief update on the where we are with the Stacy HVAC uh project. Um, we sought the advice of our current OPM for um the um high school project who was also the OPM on our Woodland project on um moving forward.
011Um when we thought about okay here we we're going to do this project um we should have an OPM uh and we we sort of asked him should we do an RFS for this uh knowing that um that this is a the first phase of the project um and he explained that there's a couple different ways that we could do it um he provided an example I believe it was from Falmouth to uh Falmouth where we could create an RFS um for on call project managers uh basically up to four on call project managers that we could just call on at any time. We wouldn't have to put an RFS out anymore um to be the project manager for any of these projects that we want to do. Um you have it here in front
012of you. We just actually put that out to in the central register. I think it was yesterday, right? Or or was it last week? It was yesterday, I think. Right. >> Oh, we put on last week effective >> this week. >> Wednesday. >> Yeah, yesterday. >> Yeah. >> Um so that's where we are for the the OPM. Um and basically we're asking people to um just bid on being our um on call project managers. Again, we'll have four of them on call. We may not use we may only use one. We may, you know, um use more than one for different projects, but um we'd be able to call on them to to run the manage the project for us. Kind of like a clerk of the works to make sure that we're not overspending
013the money and they're just keeping an eye on all that u all the the bills and everything else. U so that's out right now. Do you have the numbers in front of you? what we have >> how many bit we received so far >> so far for that one >> um on OPM we have 19 >> 19 >> they're still coming >> and uh the architect is 33 >> and um we also simultaneously we posted the high school designer bit and we received 34 >> yeah that's the one you just talked about >> all right so the second part of it is the um on call architectural services it's the same basically the same thing that we would have four on call um architects uh at our disposal that we could go through um for
014any of the projects that we wouldn't be the high school project but any of these other projects that we're doing um for the design phase of any of these things. So um that's the way we're moving forward with this. Um once we have the O once we have the OPM we'll put together our basically our HVAC committee uh and then we'll just start moving forward with it. So um we're it looks like around the beginning of January we'll be complete with our list of OPMs. That sound right? >> Yeah. So, like sometime in the middle of January, we'll be done. I don't know if anybody has questions, concerns about that. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> On to the report of the interimm assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. >> Great. Um, so tonight
015I thought I would give you an update on our work around collective efficacy. Um, collective efficacy is one of our three district priorities this year. Um, it's really the idea that all staff members believe that we're capable of positively impacting student outcomes. And what we're really working to build um is a culture of collaboration, shared leadership, and professional trust. And so we have to think about like not just our staff members um and our teachers and um the staff that are working at the schools, but also our leadership team. So how are we doing this with our leadership team is really what I want to talk to you tonight about. Um I have four different kind of structures and systems that we have in place to hopefully work to towards building our collective efficacy um
016in different teams that we have at the at the leadership level here um at Milford Public Schools. So the first is this year we created what we're calling a teaching and learning cabinet. Um that teaching and learning cabinet is really um district level leadership teams that have leadership members that have something to do with teaching and learning. So on that um cabinet sits the curriculum supervisor of literacy, our multilingu lingual learner and dual language director and assistant director, our special education director and assistant director, our seal director, a director of communications technologies and grants, and then the superintendent and myself is the one that facilitates that. Um so we meet monthly. Um and really what we're working on talking about is what's happening in the teaching and learning world across our our district. what are
017the different departments working on and how can we really collaborate together to move different initiatives forward. Um we started the school year by looking at our three key district priorities and really naming what were we going to do at the district leadership level um that was different this year to work towards those three key district priorities and what would be the expected outcomes as a result of kind of those different moves that we were going to make. Um, it's helping us create common language and also just knowledge of what the different departments is working on so that we are not pulling different building leaders and building staff in 5,000 different directions because we're all kind of running our different initiatives. So, it's helping to create common language and just common understanding and communication um, which
018is a huge part of collective efficacy as we build professional trust and collaboration. The other cabinet that we um started this year is called the operations cabinet and this one is facilitated by Dr. Conigley on a monthly basis. Um and this pulls together kind of everybody that helps the district run on a day-to-day basis. So the transportation director, the director of communications technology and grants, our multil- language learner um and dual language director as she oversees our family resource center. um our field facilities director, food services, athletics, nursing, community use, and school business administrator. Um and that meeting is really right now around like what is everybody doing and how can we collaborate across these different departments. Um when you think about some of these departments, they're kind of silos. Um but really how can
019we come together and understand each other's roles and responsibilities and and create shared leadership and some shared um understanding so that we're building towards more um efficient systems and structures um in place in terms of the operations um in our school buildings. Um we then have what we call strategery meetings. Um and these were really started last year. um they're between building leadership at a particular building and the teaching and learning cabinet. Um we meet bimonthly, so every other month. And the purpose of those meetings is really to give the principles and the building leadership some like facetime with district leadership and have one big conversation instead of asking principles and building leadership to meet with the different departments at the district level um in a lot of different meetings. And so we are um
020really working on collaboration and so they have the year of district leadership for every other month. Um where we really get to talk about what's happening in their buildings. Um I work with the principal to make sure that we have at least one of the three key district priorities on the agenda to make sure that we're really staying focused on those um district priorities as we think about what's working in buildings, what's not working, and what are some of the challenges or obstacles um that they may be facing that we can help them problem solve through. So, for example, today we had our memorial meeting. Um, we started by sharing the good news. We looked at some student attendance and chronic absenteeism and really generated different ideas on how um the memorial administration can start
021to build stronger school and family partnerships to help students get to school. Um, we talked a little bit about student behavior. We celebrated the fact that they had whole school assemblies for the first time really since COVID where they um pulled together different grade levels. Um, and one of the things that they were excited to share was that they brought back the memorial song, which really was a boost of morale, um, and some Milford pride. And then we talked about budget moving forward and what we can kind of expect them um, to submit for the budget season that's coming up. Um, I think it's really important that building leadership has a time to talk specifically about their building with district leadership and really for district leadership to understand what's happening at the different buildings so
022that when we think about what's happening across our schools, we have a bigger lens um of how to kind of pull everybody together and and what different buildings are kind of facing in and celebrations as well. Um, and the last one I'll talk about in terms of building towards collective efficacy is our monthly full leadership team meetings. So we alternate these meetings. Um sometimes these meetings are with the principles and the district leaders and then the other month it we pull in our assistant principles. Um and really there it's around some learnings. We always talk about literacy there. Um we always make sure that that's something that we are constantly coming back to so that everybody kind of knows what's going on with both the expedentiary learning adoption at the K5 level but also just
023what some of the current research is in literacy across the board. Um, one of the things that we, you know, we joke a little bit about but is really important is we have a norm around sharing the undiscussables. Um, and it being really an important space to everybody to be comfortable to share what's happening or not working. Um, or that elephant in the room. Um, and I really believe that that's what's going to push us towards the culture of collaboration, the shared leadership, and the professional trust that we're really working um, to build towards. So the point of me kind of sharing this is for you to to know that like we are working specifically towards these three different key district priorities, but these three key district priorities are also about the leadership level um
024and how do we do things differently to meet these needs um and these priorities as we as we move forward. >> Any questions? >> Yes. Well, these meetings typically >> a lot of meetings. So the teaching meetings >> it is a lot of meetings. Um they're monthly meetings. Um so teaching and learning and operations is >> two hours an hour two hours two hours on a monthly basis. >> Um strategery is an hour and a half every other month um for the schools. >> Six schools. >> It's for six schools. So it's three schools a month. And then um >> strategery >> that's a good one. >> That's the strategery. And then the full leadership is two hours. No, the principal full leadership is two hours on the in the when it's during the day.
025At the night one, it's an hour and >> 15 or something. >> But for a principal like for a Memorial Elementary School principal, right, because that's the one I shared like they will be part of every other month they'll have a strategery meeting >> and then once a month they'll have a full leadership meeting. So >> the time that we're asking building leadership to meet is not any more than we were in the past. Okay. Um the new cabinets are really a way for the district leadership teams to come together in a way that we haven't necessarily come together in the past, >> right? Um, and I think it's important for all the different departments that are pushing on teachers and pulling on teachers for different adoptions or different shifts and initiatives to to know
026what the other person is asking for so that we're not asking the same group of teachers to consistently shift and change and adopt >> and think about something different. Awesome. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Right. We can go on now to the report of the school business administrator. >> Oh, um we we just continue to monitor the budget uh since last report and I don't have anything special to report. Missing just to attach the budget report and the personal update for your reference. >> Anybody have any questions on the budget update? >> Not at this time. >> Thank you. All right. That brings us to the consent agenda. So, we do have minutes from last meeting. Does anybody have any edits or comments on the minutes? All right. So, the consent agenda
027tonight is going to consist of the following. The approval of 11 warrants, the amount of $692,894.92. The approval of minutes from the November 6, 2025 meeting. Professional development, the amount of $2,01. uh gifts. There's five totaling $10,950 and then there are three grants uh that came in at $145,89. Is there a motion? >> I have a motion to approve the consent. >> Motion by Brendan, second by Chris. All in favor? >> Mr. Chair, do you want to go over those gifts? >> I will. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I wanted to be a little more specific. There were some uh very nice gifts in here. I will grab first one. Um there's a $350 donation to Ben's Challenge MHS. That comes from Kate Tolman and Chris and Lisa Burns. We have $2,000 to the
028Stacy Middle School Rally RIE. That's from the combined Jewish philanthropies. We have $500 from Daario Palumbo for the MHS Italian program. Mix these up as I go. We have $4,600 to the MHS French program from Villa Albertine, the French Institute for for Culture and Education. And finally, we have $3,500 for the Prevoke Skills Garden Improvements. And that is from the Milford Foundation. So, um, there's some big generous donations. So, I want to thank everybody on that list for, uh, for participating in and and helping these different programs out. >> All right, subcommittee updates. There might have been a policy meeting. >> We had a policy meeting tonight. Um, we went through um, um, administering medication to students in the schools, specifically Narcan. So, next meeting um, we'll be voting on that. the school nurse will
029send out information to everybody um we'll have well ahead of time for that. Um we talked about competency determination and graduation requirements which is going to be a moving target for the next few years. Um I won't steal Craig's thunder on that one but that's coming down the line for next month pretty quickly. Um and then we started to to game out uh fundraising and we will talk about that at a later date. >> It's a large conversation. >> Thank you. Any other thoughts? That was it. >> Sorry. >> Labor and management. So you guys are good with policy. Sorry. Make sure. >> Are you good? >> Sorry. >> Yeah. >> Labor and management. Uh we met um yesterday. Uh a lot of just more I'd say more uh operational concerns. Uh there were there
030are a few things I think or at least one thing I felt like would be have a budget impact. Um but mainly just you know Shining Star had some playground concerns. Just some things that need to be fixed up. uh Memorial has, you know, still dealing with some some heating inconsistencies and the other one would be some mice on on premise. So certainly something again more on the operational side to get ahead of uh some critters that are looking for a warm space. Um and then also substitutes and that was also uh what Brookside had talked about is just the need for for substitutes. Uh Woodland just uh some concerns about uh just trying to improve communication throughout the school. Uh Stacy, you know, again, inconsistent heating in the school. I was actually had the
031opportunity to be there today for a little presentation and it was one of the classrooms I was in was pretty warm and and I've heard that it's inconsistent where some classrooms you're shorts and a t-shirt and others you're in a winter with a winter coat. So, um and there was no representative from MHS. So, um but overall just wanted to go back in regards to the substitutes and it's just a growing problem. you know, you hear about it throughout Massachusetts in general. So, just more maybe looking towards the budget subcommittee that, you know, how do we get ahead of the need for substitutes and and you're hearing the teaching and staff saying as as the main classroom teacher is out then they start just pulling resources from different areas and it just has that cascading
032effect and you know certainly heard it from a lot from McM uh excuse me from from Memorial and Brookside schools. Well, again, I think that's going to have a budgetary impact that we need to consider or potential. >> Anything else? All right. Future agenda items. Anybody have anything to add to the list? >> I have one. >> Yeah. >> All right. And kind of a little bit more hearing from teachers and all that. So there'll probably be more to this, but review policy and mass law regarding student discipline. And without getting too far down, just I feel like as we're getting into negotiation season 2, I think it's going to be just good for all of us to understand what what are our policies regarding student discipline and what are also the mass general laws
033regarding student discipline and just to get get us up to speed on that. >> We'll send that to you. When you say review policy, >> is this a policy discussion or do you want >> Again, I don't want to get too far down. I think that it's just it would be in our best interest to review it and talk about it and to understand it. >> We can send it to you. Yeah. Then we can >> if we want to talk review it next meeting, we can do that. >> Yeah. It's a future agenda. So I don't want to again get too far down the road of that works of why. >> Sure. >> So >> that works. We can do that next meeting. >> I just think again it'd be good good education. >>
034Anything else? Okay. Well, that brings us to adjournment. So, I guess we're done. Uh, we do not have any executive session, so I just need a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Megan, second by Derek. All in favor? Unanimous. Good night.