School Committee - April 2nd, 2025

001[Music] Rip it. All right. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to uh call our April 2nd, 2025 Milton School Committee meeting to order. Um as you will notice, I am not Lizzy Carol. Um so she is not able to join us um this evening, unfortunately. So I will be um running the meeting this evening. Um so um happy to um be able to step into that role um in her absence. She does send her regrets. Unfortunately, it's a last minute um situation that came up and she can't join us. Um but we're going to go ahead and get started with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And like

002we typically do, we're going to start um the next portion of the meeting with public comment. Um and uh we limit public comment to three minutes um per speaker. And um we also typically don't respond to comments that get made, but uh in the course of the discussion throughout the night, if it is appropriate, we might address any public comment that gets made. Um, so if there's anyone here for public comment, please state your name. And I mean, please go come up to the mic if you're in the room and you want to participate in public comment. And well, I don't see anyone in the room. Now, can we go to folks online and see if there's anyone who uh wishes to participate in public comment? No hands. All right. Um so then we'll move

003on to superintendence report. Great. Thank you. So I just have one thing to share. Sorry. Um that's not listed on our agenda and it's exciting exciting news. So MHS theater um recently for the first time in Milton history um won the state championship in the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild which is huge. Um it was a three-day event um from the 27th through the 29th um at Back Bay Event Center and um three schools were chosen as winners. Uh Milton won for the production of Too Many Daughters, a Jane Austin parody and um huge accomplishment. You all know having been to theater productions that every single theater production here is top top-notch. And um and also another really cool thing about I think our theater program is how many kids are involved. when you look at

004the middle school and you look at the high school between Pierce Players and MHS theater, it's it it involves hundreds and hundreds of students and um it it's a huge source of the energy of of both of our of the of Pierce and MHS. So really really cool to see that. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to backtrack just a little bit. Approve the agenda. I forgot to get us to approve our agenda. So we're going to approve our agenda. We're going to go back to item number two and we're going to approve our agenda. Are there any um changes to the agenda? The agenda is looks good. All right, we'll carry on. Go ahead. I was just like just want to make sure I want to make sure but I was like no

005just want to make sure we follow procedure. Perfect. U so I've got two uh items under my report tonight. Um the first one I'll quickly just kind of go through and then we're going to get to the the folks that are here which is going to be really exciting. Um Kyle Cott Cunningham playground renovation. Um there was information in the folder today regarding um the work that Kyle Cott is doing on their playyard um improvement project. Um this is something that they've been working on for quite some time. It consists of the removal of monkey bars, installation of a new climbing structure, re relocating of wood chips to the green space, which is that area behind Kyle Cottton Cunningham, as well as the installation of board rubber surfacing and two single post cantal lever style

006shade structures. Um they've also secured funding for installation of two permanent basketball hoops. So that work um estimated start date of June 30th. And that needs your approval because it's a gift and it's a change to the the school plan. June 30th this year. Yeah. My son was right. Told me they were going to redo the playground. I was like, I don't think they're going to redo the playground. What's happening? There you go. So, we have a motion. Uh, and the motion is has been made to approve the project as presented for the Collod Cunningham playyard improvement project. Is there a second? I will second. Uh, all those in favor? You say this is a gift. Oh, any questions? Sorry. Well, just for discuss. I just appreciate. Sorry. Apologies everybody within the PTO who's who's

007doing this. I know it's something we've talked about in facility advisory committee uh as as a needed improvement and just appreciate the all the work the members of the PTO are putting into to get this. My son is out there playing basketball every day. He'll be sad he's only going to get maybe one year of this uh he's he really wears out those hoops, but um tons of kids out there all year long. So just great project. Really appreciate all the work put into it. And the main source of funding is the uh community preservation funding. That's what I was going to ask. So is there any issue with voting before the CPA funding is approved or is this just a like saying should it get approved? Yeah, we're we're Yeah. Okay. That looks great.

008And I was also happy to see that the monkey bars and I know some kids are going to be quite upset but you know it's caused a lot of injuries I think this past year I've been hearing about it so um seems like we're going to you know replace it with something a safer climbing facil uh structure. Any other discussion or questions? All right. So now I can say all those in favor. No, I think that's a unanimous uh yes. So we can move on to the next item. All right. Thank you. So the next item is um an exciting mural that's going up at Tucker and we've got three guests, five guests who are who are here to present about this and and share in the excitement. Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, so

009we're all Tucker parents on the with associated with the PTO. Um, I'm Ma. Um, I'm Verne. I'm Nicole. I'm Lisa. And we have been working on this project since last year. Um, Tucker has this really wonderful program. It's a resident artist program where um a resident artist comes into the school, works with the art teacher Jessica Glue um and shows the kids their style of work. Um and then they make together a piece of work that is displayed at Tucker. Um but this year since it's Tucker's 100y year birthday, we wanted to do something extra special for Tucker. um to help celebrate the community, help bring the community together um and uh help the Tucker community, I think, think about um it future um and anything else that we're going to. Yeah, I think we

010wanted to ask with this mural, we wanted to think about this is Tucker's hundth year and so what does the next hundth year look like? hundred years look like and how might we together as a community uh imagine in a collective how could we collectively imagine an abundant future for our for our school for Milton what might that look like and so we're centering student voice we are centering uh voices from our community from parents um from uh the amazing staff over at Tucker and also inviting um neighbors as well and so um we are building community Through this art project, we are um like I said, thinking about that abundant future and what it could look like and also kind of beautifying our space and making it more welcoming for everybody in Milton. So,

011we've applied for grants um and we've gotten all of the grants. So, we're moving forward. We've interviewed different artists and we um have settled on an artist um uh who has a lot of background working with kids as well. Um he's going to start with the kids next week and they're going to together figure out um and brainstorm the um the concept of the mural um and then work over the next this spring putting the mural together. We've um interviewed our community and sent out uh surveys to get their input on how they would like to how what they would envision the mural um looking like. Um, and we hope that it will really just uplift our staff and students and it's a great gathering. It's near the gathering a gathering place that everyone will

012be around. So, I think it will be I'm excited about it. Anything else? I guess around gathering. Um, one of the the goals and visions of it is that it'll be like celebrated in June as like a community moment. Um, a bit of a ribbon cutting. I don't know how you unveil a mural, but maybe more of a ribbon cutting um celebratory moment. Um and it gives an opportunity to um show the the vibrance of the community um while also enhancing the vibrance of the community like for arts and culture in Milton. It will add to what we have to offer um as a broader community. It's not just about Tucker. It's about Tucker and beyond and helping to bridge the indoor outdoor um gap and experience of Tucker being a part of the community

013and the community being a part of Tucker. Sounds amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. That's fantastic. Any other any questions or comments? Where's it going to be? It's going to go on the back wall against the gym, which is right alongside where the playground is. Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Miranda did it right. That's exactly what you're doing. Yes. Yes. Yes. Great. And I think there's such great data that public art how it helps promote um you know good health, mental health um and uh and just I think we hope that it will just be a great thing for the community and um yeah, just thank you all so much for for your efforts. I think that'll be fantastic. I think beautiful. Um yeah, thank you. Yeah. No, I would to say that, you know, it's um as somebody

014who works at an organization that we center the arts as a as a way of doing our work, definitely the process of coming together and putting doing a mural and having youth voice and the student voice there. It's going to be so important and sort of that strengthening community, which I know you already have a wonderful community at Tucker, but even more so. And just that whole process, it's just uh it's hard to explain it until you've lived through it on how valuable it is and how beautiful uh a celebration can be. The the mural is like the culminating thing, but it's the process involved in it that can really bring sort of a community together. So, I'm excited about the project and can't wait to see the final the final product. Yeah, you get

015I get it. I did. You had to sell me on public art. I get it. It's great. appreciate that that that you're hearing the student voice in this that I feel like that's essential to what this project is and um and we've been Yeah. And we're also including Yes. Thank you, Renee. So, an important piece of it is that there's a um the fifth graders have an opportunity through the ACE program um the art curriculum enrichment program where there are fifth graders who give up their lunch in recess to take another art class. And so they will be very involved in um kind of enhancing the concept of the mural and then helping to install it too. So they're not only kind of um uh learning about artistic skill building, they're also learning work readiness

016skills too, right? So um there's there's a lot that they get to do as being part of that. So we were very intentional about like um what does the student engagement look like with this? Yeah. And I I I really love the fact that students are that's kind of we're talking about indoor and outdoor and that space is where all Tucker kids are for half the day practically, right? Like in and out of the building. So for them to be like basically part of this mural every day. I think there's like there's going to be long lasting impacts in terms of of kind of what it ends up representing and what it means for for students as they engage with it every day. Mhm. And it's a major community gathering spot for all of Tucker,

017too. And um we know we're speaking towards like the next like 100 years, which of course none of us will be here for, but in the more immediate future, it also creates a nice jumping off point for um the upcoming like playground work and um future project for Tucker. So, this kind of will help to like lay the foundation as that work um comes in the future and and hopefully will be shortly behind other communities that are getting their updated playgrounds. Yeah. Do you have a date? I know it's with the spring fair. Is there a date? I guess an actual date yet for that the for the billing in June. It's in June. Yeah. Do you know what date? I don't know the date. June 7th. June 7th. Okay. We will certainly be inviting

018the school committee to come and celebrate with us. Yeah, we look forward to it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Glad. Okay. So online we have FA. Do you see her? Um, unless I'm I'm missing her username, I don't see her name. Um, she she did text me. She said, "I'm on Zoom, but I don't think I can present." Um, yeah, we can present from here. Webinar. What is her name? What's she on her phone? Under Seth. Seth up there. I don't have my glasses on. Yeah. Yeah. It would be Seth. Yes. Seth Jacobs. Gotcha. Yeah. Sorry. Hi everyone. Hi Fa. It felt so weird to watch that happen and say I'm right here. Glad we figured it out. Yeah. So, I just

019I just um so we're we're to your update now and excited to um hear the update. Uh Mark has the slides, so he'll present them and you can just let him know when to advance. Okay. Um so on my screen, the MPS webinar is just an M. I can't really see anything. Okay. All right. Perfect. Thank you. Um nice to see everyone. It's um great to be able to present today on um the work that the DIB office has been doing through the school year and um the collaboration with school committee and the work that we hope to continue to do next year um and the next few years on um Milton Public. And so um our focus this year has been improving inclusivity and feeling the belongingness at um Milton Public. Um and so

020today I'll be going over just a few of the things we've done. Um and I just before I start I I I'll be remiss if I didn't give um credit where credit is due. I think collaborating with the central office members as well as school committee is great but a lot of the work would not be possible without uh working with Athena Shear and Cyrus Rivers the equity coach and the restorative justice coach there at Milton. So I just want to give credit where credit is due. Um they do a lot of the ground work. Um and so you know as a team um that's why a lot of this work is possible. Um next slide please. So just to give a quick reminder about the equity audit that was done in 2021 by Claire

021Galloway Jones. Um, a lot of the findings showed recommendation of improving and increasing professional development, doing things to disrupt disproportionality with our students and our staff members, um, and to utilize data to address the needs that we see. And so a lot of the work we do and continue to do is focused on this and um is connected very much to the audit because it showed us what the need of Milton public schools are. Next slide please. Thank you. So the first thing I said about professional development, Adena is our equity coach and so um she does a lot of coaching staff. She's staff facing and um she does the onetoone with teachers as needed, but we as a department put together an antibbias training for the entire um staff population. So, all unit A

022got a a district-wide PD and then also the paraprofessionals and the unit D um staff got two additional antibias training because we know that they are people who work very directly with our students on the daily. So, we wanted to make sure that we focused on on those people as well. Um we also taught on restorative justice um training so that again a lot of their interaction with the students um becomes less punitive and more restorative and more about safety and belonging. Um all staff members work again with me, Adena and Cyrus um to continue to grow in those areas. Um currently Tucker is um engaged in a book club with Celeste the principal um and they're focusing on how to build a cultural responsiveness as as classroom teachers and as staff who are um

023student facing. And we I I I we meet um monthly with each principal and with department heads to ensure that we are as a department meeting needs what each school and each department has needed. Um, next slide please. Thank you. Um, again another focus is on school climate to make sure that students and staff and families feel welcomed, feel celebrated, feel seen, and um have an increased feeling of belonging. And so in the fall, we rolled out a school climate survey alongside the SEAL um survey using vocal uh to collect data from students on feelings of belonging. Um feeling um feelings that their voices are heard or being heard. um feelings of pun um whether or not things are being done utilized in a restorative justice lens or if they still feel like things are

024punitive. Um and so we we had that data or that survey collected by all students. Um and the goal is to then give another one in the spring so that we're able to compare um results. Um the the goal of that is for teachers to be able to utilize that data in in conjunction with the data about grades, about reading levels, um and so on. All the all the wonderful data we collect as a school and connected to the students feeling of being seen, heard, and celebrated here at Milton. Um in that same vein, we focused a lot on celebrating heritage months. So we've worked with the librarians. We um put stuff in staff in our staff newsletters and student newsletters. Again, partner with principles to send out these choice boards to um provide multiple

025myriad of ways that these heritage months can be celebrated um in every um every level. So, elementary and secondary, meeting students and staff where they're at in terms of their development. Um, we have been working with the fifth graders to create a pen pile um, situation where they're able to write to students across the elementary schools, other fifth graders across the elementary schools so that they can start building those relationships before they get to Pierce. So again, taking what we've heard from the community and implementing the work. Um, a lot of the conversations we had or I had at the beginning of my tenure here was that there seems to be almost a a chasm between each elementary school and then that's something that has to be worked on in the middle school and we

026thought why not start addressing those things um as early as fifth grade if not younger so that by time they get to Pierce um there's that feeling of oh I know you or I have familiarity with you. Um in the same vein, we've been working with the middle school to um create the um Pierce Academy. So, sixth grade um fifth graders going to Pierce for a few days to um orient themselves to middle school and having that be open for everybody in an equitable way so that every fifth grader across the district has access to um orienting themselves to Pierce on an even playing field um with the teachers who might be teaching the next year and so on. Um and and again creating this sense of belonging for everyone. Um, so that's that's that's

027where a lot of our work is. Um, as you can tell, I'm very passionate about this slide. Um, but I'll move on to the next one. Um, so again, like I said, um, Adena does a lot of teacher coaching and she also, um, she and Cyrus also join me in my monthly meetings with some with school principles sometimes. Um, again, just to touch base to make sure that we do have our finger on the pulse. we are making sure that we can we know the needs of each school and we can meet the needs of each school. So those meetings are with me primarily and then the rest of the department jumps in again because we want to make sure that everyone's on the same page. Um in each school we have at least one

028equity lead. There's two in the middle school and one and two in the high school. Um and these each equity lead um their their role is to be a resource for the staff. There are people who are very passionate about the work, the DEI work. Um, people who take charge and take initiative to do a lot of this work within their buildings. Um, there are people who teach and and and breathe and and live in the building. So, they know the insights um that we might not be familiar with. Um so each of them each equity lead is facilitating an individual project at their school and then um they kind of report out to us so that we can continue to support them. Um each equity lead is also meeting with me um to continue

029to develop priority area 2.2 two um which is focused on um again that feeling of school climate and belonging um as well as 2.3 um where we're focusing on engaging community and building community engagement. Next slide please. Thank you. Um so in terms of curriculum and instruction, it's tied to our um work with professional development. We want to make sure that we are collaborating with curriculum coordinators as well as department heads like I said to make sure that the the idea of equity is embedded in everything we do. So that the the the curriculum that comes to our students um is is information that feels safe for them but also that provides um this idea of windows and mirrors um where they can see themselves in the curriculum but they can also learn about other

030cultures and other places in the curriculum. So working with um department heads and curricula coordinators to make sure that the curriculum is continues to stay relevant to the students that we serve which is a very diverse population of students. Um and then using that information we then customize our PD and professional learning um to ensure that teachers feel equipped to do that work. Um we also support lessons. We work very closely with the adjustment counselors in each school to either supplement lessons. with um lessons about restorative justice or lessons about belonging and and anti-bullying messages and stuff like that. Um or we kind of um collaborate with the adjustment counselors to say, "Hey, what lessons are you doing and how can we continue to build on what you're teaching the students?" Um Adena and Cyrus

031have gone across each elementary school and done cultural competency lessons for all fifth graders um across all four schools. Um they are just wrapping up um in fourth grade across the schools as well. Um the feeling the the lessons about friendship and um anti-bullying and um specifically course joking um so that you know in at fourth fourth grade you're you're saying jokes that hurt people's feelings and so how do you address that? How do you become a um you know not a bystander um but an upstander and and so on. So those lessons um again it's very intertwined with working with the SEAL um and the counseling but wanting to make sure that those lessons are not just done but cemented by by our supplementing of the lessons. Next slide please. Thank you. Um so

032in terms of restorative practices um Cyrus has done a really really good job of making sure that his presence is seen in every building. He works very closely with school principles, building leaders, um as well as classroom teachers to make sure that when not just if when um issues arrive arise that um the the solution is again not punitive but is restorative um that we're fixing what's broken or what harm has been done. Um so he has gone around um to classrooms and taught the teachers or trained the teachers on how to do proactive and restorative circles um whether it's jumping into their morning routine meetings or having those circles as needed when um harm is done. Um and we have seen a significant decrease in out of school suspension especially in the middle school

033um where we go in and address you know um whatever issues have come up and there's a lot of let's sit down with each student or teacher problem solve and then come together and and and repair. Um Adena leads the um the culture cats which is an um advisory class um at the high school. She leads it with Cyrus and Jess Norton um an English teacher there. Um and they they together um help those high school students um go to Pierce on some half days and we've created a sort of mentorship um informal mentorship for students who might feel like they need that safe space to feel like they belong and so on. So again, bridging that gap between middle school and high school so that when those students of middle school come to high

034school, they know people or they are very familiar with the inner workings of um Milton High. So again, just building on those smooth transitions to improve on feelings of belonging. Next slide, please. Thank you. Um so like I said, um we've been working on trying to improve community engagement. Um, I know it's not always the easiest thing to um, think outside of the student and the staff, but to push ourselves to think about um, bringing in parents and family and community members to help strengthen the work that we're doing with our students. Um, because we all on the same team of wanting our students to be successful. um the DIB office as well as the superintendent have partnered with CDM which is the Citizens for Diverse Milton and Mark the Milton anti-racist coalition to again

035just kind of meet once a month to touch base and um figure out what are some things that are important for us as a district, what are some goals that we want to meet to get um together. Um we're also we've also collaborated with PTO across different schools um primarily at the elementary level um to work on things like um like Mara and um the Tucker parents just presented um some of the things that might help our students feel like they belong more. Um so I've worked with Mara on um the unity project and bringing that to each of the elementary schools. Um, and the PTO has been wonderful in supporting us and working with us to make sure that they're also getting the the information out there and getting a lot of buy in

036for DEIB work which is such um it's been very helpful and has made the work just such a joy. Um, we have we have started working on the engagement community engagement survey. Uh I know Tucker had one sent out um recently and so we're hoping to kind of get that across all the schools to get a pulse on how community members feel in terms of the things that we do well and the things that we can um build on and and and do better. Um we've also collaborated with the Milton Coalition um in terms of you know not just the um Y RB S um but as well as other things that can be done to help our students be successful specifically in risk-taking behavior. Um, and then we recently applied for a grant with

037Celebrate Milton, um, with the hope of doing a project that involves students from each of our six schools so that we are able to have something to display, fingers crossed, um, if the grant comes comes through, um, something to display in each school to show again this unity of us being a diverse but unified Milton. Um, next slide, please. Thank you. Um it it's been also um a privilege to be able to collaborate with the school committee um as conversations about the calendar has have been underway um and and where we've kind of landed. Um it's it's interesting and it's obviously very important. everyone uh wants what's best for our students. And so again, returning to us celebrating each of not just the heritage months and not just acknowledging the holidays on the school calendar,

038but to highlight the importance and the values of each of those holidays and then to um be the example for our students and our faculty members of how to continue to celebrate each holiday even if we ourselves are not practicing members of that religion. Um so again we've partnered with the school librarians to display books or send out resources um choice boards and um just messages in the newsletter to make sure that those holidays are highlighted. Um we partner very closely with the director of communications Stephanie O'Keefe to send out as many of these things and she's been wonderful with um staying on top of it. Um we're also working with the elementary uh DEIB committee committees in each school um in all four schools. Um the goal is to meet quarterly. We've met once

039um and the goal is to meet quarterly again to do a check-in to to share resources to in be invited or to um celebrate events that continue to unify our district. Um and then to just improve our social media um presence in terms of taking a stance about the importance of DEIB to us as Milton Public Schools. Thank you. Um and so some of the policies that are being affected and um are being addressed are again making sure that um each holiday is recognized and celebrated even if we don't you know even if those are not days that are um on the school calendars as as off days for everyone. um that we know that they still are there and people who are members of that religion or that group might be taking that day

040off or might be celebrating or recognizing it in certain ways. So an example um is the students or staff members who or families who celebrate Ramadan um how do we not only recognize and celebrate it but how do we honor it? um maybe um no practice or no mandatory practices for sports on those days. Um I spoke to um a member of the athletic um team and they did assure me that if practices are held on those days, they are not mandatory and they are not held against students. Um but again, just trying to figure out ways to make things as equal and equitable for everyone as possible. Um and then no evaluation of teachers or staff members who you know might be or any any teachers really um during the Ramadan months or or

041days um to ensure that we're not um evaluating someone who might be fasting that day or who might be you know um not present um in school that day. And so again, just making sure that people don't have to feel the discomfort of having to disclose aspects of the identity, but feel like this is their this is their space and this is their home. Um, so that's our that's our focus for that. Next slide, please. And so looking ahead for 25 um FY226 um we're going to the goal is to continue the activi the activities stated above um and then to continue to collaborate with um other people that we haven't yet um dive dived into um as well as we would like to. So, student services with um Marty being gone and her um

042position not being um filled yet. Um reestablishing residency for students. Um Serena does an excellent job of making sure that our students are um are registered and um we want to make sure that the interruption of students being required to establish residency is equitable by making it um a scheduled thing. So, in um collaboration with um Danielle Wetmore and um Serena and Brad um Spindle, we are going to work on reestablishing residency at kindergarten, 3rd, 6th grade, and 9th grade. Um so that again, it's something that is everyone knows about, something to be expected, and we can do it, and then the students can just have a smooth time at school. Um there's also um Desi um continues to site multiple schools um across Massachusetts um on the over by identification of BIPO students in

043special education. And so again, working with um our um student services to ensure that that's not something that's going on in Milton and if it's something that we are doing or we're geared to we're um headed towards that we're able to get ahead of it and and and um rectify it. Um something that we're also hoping to work on and we've started the conversation with the high school principal is um the the policy or the um method in which we um track students into honor AP courses. Um we are a district that has very high achieving students and a district that has been recognized by um our awesome AP students. But we also are a district where the our black and brown students are disproportionately represented in these honors and AB courses. And so figuring

044out why that is and ways that we can get ahead of that is um something that we hope to address. Um and then again the increasing support for staff of color who are currently here with us um with the goal of retaining them and then to recruit support and retain new staff of color and staff of multiple multiple different backgrounds. Um, and then like I said, the elementary school DEI um, committees um, hoping to continue and build on that and then to include the middle and high school at some point um, once we have a bit of a foundation laid out for what this will look like. Um, and then continue to just improve the ways that we celebrate and honor our religious holidays. So, that is the that is the goal of the DEIB

045office. Um, and that's just some of the work that we've been doing in Milton Public. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so are there any questions or comments for Dr. Shavers? I have a few if you don't mind. Um, I think this is great. I think this is um we haven't had this presentation in a while. So I appreciate you uh uh presenting on this and uh I had requested this just cuz I haven't you know seen it in a while. So uh a lot of good work here. Um I did have a few questions. Um so I think if I look at um I think slide four where we talk about celebration of heritage months using choice boards. If you could kind of establish like um do if you could kind of explain do you

046feel like the heritage heritage months um represent all the different students from different cultures in our district and how can we kind of expand on that? Um yeah that's that's a really good question. So we took stock of the our data of so selfidentification of our students um as to what race or ethnicities they fall under. But we also know that there's identities that might not be on our data because they're not questions we ask. For example, we might not ask about religion. we might not ask about, you know, you might identify as one race, but you might not celebrate something that you assume would be celebrated and so on. So, we utilize the data that we do have. Um, and then we also kind of just Googled like a list of heritage months um

047and then we put that out there. We also were being thoughtful about some things. Um, again taking into consideration the political climate and um, wanting to highlight without giving any specific examples, wanting to highlight some things that maybe were not have not been historically highlighted. Um because in terms of equity, if one group has gotten a lot of attention, we were thinking not to say that that group doesn't exist anymore, but maybe we give the attention to this other group at this time. Um, and so that was our mindset. But again, we are hoping to continue to improve on those groups um or or on the things that we celebrate and rotate um each time what we highlight. Go ahead, Jess. Have y'all surveyed as it relates to like the pulling heritage months and who

048to celebrate, have y'all surveyed families um to to help get that information? No, that's a really good idea. I think we will add that to as we're developing our survey for the community. I think that we'll include include that. It is a difficult question to ask um because it's something that people choose to disclose. So, we you know in every demographic information you ask, you have to kind of give like the client to answer which is great and we should do that but then it also doesn't give us information that we're seeking. So we will we'll add that and I'll think about ways to be thoughtful in our asking. Yeah, I would definitely elaborate more on that only because you know I mean um you mentioned the political climate but at the same time I

049think we we can kind of you know try to figure out a way to be more inclusive uh of cultures. I mean I'm going to give you just a very transparent example. My daughter recently came home and said I wish I was an Indian. So um so that's why I'm like just using that as a personal example like it is really important to kind of highlight all different cultures that are represented. So if there is a clever way as Mark said you know um you know interviewing families or reaching out to families and seeing like hey how can we better you know be more inclusive and make sure all our students are represented you know I think I think that would be a good place to uh you know get that information. Um I really

050do think I mean I think it's I think it's great that we are celebrating heritage months but really kind of how can we broaden you know to include be more inclusive. I think that would be good to do that. Um I did uh have another question. I know like especially when you get into the middle school and kids have access to social media and they see things online that might be offensive culturally like and they don't know and they might think it's funny you know because at that age you don't really know and so how do you kind of are there things that you know are there sessions when we talk about um some of the uh training that you do and meeting with students is there stuff related to that so that they kind

051of understand and pick it up when they see something and say Oh, you know, that might be offensive. Maybe I shouldn't think that's funny. Yes. Um, so I mean, that's that's the bulk of the work we do when it comes to restorative justice. Um, it's educating students on the impact of their words or educating them on the things you see online might not be real life. And here's the impact of what it looks like. Um, so to give an example that I I had kind of touched on a little bit earlier, the fourth grade lesson is about joking. Um, and it it kind of stemmed from a principal reporting to me that um, a student again something heard on social media had brought a joke to the school without understanding the the gravit the brevity

052or gravity of of the joke. and um it involved the n-word and it it was it it it didn't become so big that you know it was overwhelming but she made it very clear to the student that that was inappropriate. Um and so we started doing lessons for all all fourth graders um across the schools about recognizing jokes like that, recognizing like you said things online that maybe people are laughing or it's getting a lot of reactions, but if you stop and really think about it, you know, you might get in trouble for it because it's not a good idea. And if you do choose to then bring it to your school or say it to your friends and then you know you get in trouble for it, our job is not to get you

053in trouble, but rather to educate you about what's happening, what your impact has been, and how you can repair. Um because we want everyone to feel safe in the schools. And um I think students, you know, they like everybody, they push, they test limits, they're trying to figure out what's okay, what's not. And so we come with that lens of teaching and educating rather than punishment. Um, social media moves way faster than any of us ever could physically. And so we are constantly trying to stay on top of it. But mostly we're trying to give students the tools to, like you said, recognize things because we can't always be there. We can't see what they see. We don't hear what they hear. And even when if something's reported to me or reported to a principal,

054I always assume that's one out of maybe 10 things that they chose not to tell us. And so our goal and our job is to educate them so that they can be upstanders and and speak up and shut things down when we are not there to do that. Um but again, there's three of us in my department and I'm one of those three. Um, so it's it's, you know, it's not the most efficient because there's only three people across six schools and thousands and thousands of students and staff members. So, um, that is definitely a goal and something we're working on. And it's good, too. I mean, I'm glad you brought that up because I mean, I've been in several of the Pierce DEIB meetings and it would be great if there's And it's awesome

055that there are so many volunteers, right? And it would be great to kind of leverage that across all six schools and kind of bring them together and help support you, you know, and what can we do and collect feedback that way. Um, I think it's great. I, you know, and it's always great when we have volunteers, but I think have giving them just more of more of a purpose in terms of what their, you know, marching, you know, what their kind of mission is and what we would like to see in the district, I think would be great. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? I I want to say that this is great work. Thank you so much for all you and your team does. Um I have a suggestion cuz when

056my kids go to um elementary schools, I remember the teachers every year at the beginning of the school year, we send a survey out asking like what se what cultural celebrations you you um conduct at home and um what holiday you observe and all those stuff. And al also like I I I feel like if the whole district has have a one survey sent out and then with the teachers name like drop in the dropbox in that way you have the data for the whole district but then this the teachers can also individually receive their data um so that they don't have to duplicate effort right so it most likely this cost surveys already created by different teachers and for different purposes can perhaps maybe collaborate together to create just one universal one. Um, another

057thing is that when you talk about um collaborations between the six schools, I think that's very important because we always try to do a lot of things in different school buildings and we we we need to create more opportunity to work together. Mhm. Um and one simple way that um you have mentioned and also triggers my thought is that um curriculum updates like one many research have found that student who read a lot in young age contribute to their academic success in later in later age. So if the students are willing to to read more starting from young age because the book that recommended by the teachers reflects who they are is the most fundamental way of helping the student develop the interest of reading. Right? So perhaps we we we as teachers we think

058about the the material we introduce in our class regardless of subject area you can find diverse uh representations right even in science class you can think of you you can always find like what what is a a famous um African-American uh scientist right or maybe in in uh English class you can think about um just find one book that represents Asian Mhm. All right. Celebrate celebratory topics. Don't always talk about all those trauma trauma that all those people of color have experienced. We we are I think we we should pass that age of talking about trauma. We should talk about celebration of how we overcome so much already. So I feel like we have a lot of things to do to update our curriculum and by reflecting those diversity, inclusivity in our curriculum is going

059to help our students thrive in the long run. And um my my third suggestion is that um we always work with adults like I feel like our high school students, middle school students, regardless what the age they are, they are so smart. Like I work with the high school school committee representative and they they're 9th to 12th graders. They have very thoughtful questions and they always ask um um creative questions to to help their peers to understand what's going on in the school district. So, and also the high schools have cultural groups, right? We have the Asian student cultural group, the AfroCaribbean cultural group, the Hispanics cultural group, French cultural group. I think we should mobilize all those high schoolers to be um uh student leaders of the district to um perhaps like lead the

060heritage months debations or or display the the what's that called the the the board. What's that? Choice board. Right. I I remember I walking by the high school one day. I saw the Hispanic cultural group create a choice board. um flyer display thing with um like different cultural celebration within the Hispanic group and it it's just very informative and I feel like we together need to incorporate more student voices and we just need to collaborate a little bit more um in the future. But thank you so much for starting off this great work. I think that's a really good point that you made is like kind of empowering them to kind of lead that because I think it also gives them an opportunity to learn from each other which is more powerful sometimes than like

061an adult kind of telling them versus them kind of Yeahap yes absolutely and I think that happens across all ages you know like the more you expose them to that I think it's more powerful uh and it and they retain that information and it they find it more meaningful, I think. So, I think that's that's really smart and and it ties within the the volunteer hours, a meaningful volunteer hours being a club leader or volunteering at um a cultural events like this past February when we held the Luna New Year celebration at Pier Middle School, the the Asian cultural group has were an were MCing the event and they and and their members also helping out with like directing directions and all those stuff like Those are meaningful volunteer hours and it give them that

062opportunity to shine within the like in front of the community. I feel like we we need to create more opportunities like this for our high schoolers. So they don't need to look elsewhere for volunteer hours, right? And yeah, I just feel like there's a lot more we could do, right? But putting our head together, we can do better. Yeah. So definitely um Amanda, anything? Yeah, actually, um, two things. So, one, um, I really appreciate all the time. I haven't gone through all this before, so it's it's really helpful for me. Um, one thing just, uh, piggybacking on to the the community piece, I think reaching out maybe to the CPAC, uh, the this the special ed parents advisory council and maybe getting their input. I think that's one of the things that there's been um

063it's cons it's been a consistent struggle is really figuring out how to be more inclusive be even beyond public schools but within the community and finding opportunities for that. Um so that might be a good place um just to reach out as we're looking at um inclusion opportunities. Um but the second thing is and this came up the other day when um when the data was presented around um um sort of the discrepancy in um scores between um students of color and uh students with disabilities. Sort of that um opportunity gap that that where you know we've seen other populations within the district their scores have improved at a higher rate than those students. And this has been a discussion for a long time. So I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about

064maybe any work that you guys are doing with the district to begin to look at that looking at the curriculum or even maybe taking the step back and and trying to get to the why of it. Um I don't know if you if there's any work that's been done on that yet. Um just to clarify the question about the discrepancy between students of color and students in special education or the overlap of students of color and students in special education. So the students of color and students in special education. Um when you look at at some of the um evaluations say in Dibbles or with um I Ready or some of the other evaluations other the the scores of those populations do not see the same increases or the same growth as you do in

065with um with the the wider population. And so I know that that's been a struggle for a long time to really begin to figure out how to address that discrepancy. Um so that's does that clarify? Yeah. Yes. Um so that is something that we or at least I think of as we do a lot of the work. Um the the goal is that in doing a lot of these um different arms of the work that it addresses this um in terms of the why our students might be underperforming um students in these subgroups might be underperforming um is is very systemic in terms of I mean we could start from something like red lining right where do our students of generally or typically kind of live and what those are systems that we can't affect.

066But if we think about from an equitable lens, what are some of the needs that we then need to put in place so that those students can catch up and keep up um again the AP and honors tracking? What are some of the things that are being taught to students of color whether um formally or informally and implicitly about their abilities and their achievement? um who are the students that get tested versus not tested for special education and what are the resources that available in various schools um even across the same district because at the end of the day those things all play very little roles but then accumulate into big things like MCAST scores like I ready scores, dibbles um and special education um performance um performance for special education students. And so knowing

067all that and knowing that that is a very big bite to take, we've kind of broken them down to things that we can do to address it, such as professional development for teachers. So look at their biases. When you're interacting with a student of color, when you're interacting with a student um in special education, what are some things that you already come to the table with as you're teaching this child? What are some things you're telling the child about? what you believe about their abilities and their tendencies so that you're then tracking them one way or the other. Um, are you teaching to a certain standard for one student versus the other? Because the way that you teach those students affects the way that they then test, right? Um, like Bal shared about reading, if

068we have books that are only representing one group of students, then only that group of students will or will tend to thrive. And so there are so many different things that factor into a test score. And at the end of the day, we can look at a test score and say, "Oh, this is this and why is it?" it. There's like a million little factors that accumulate into our students of color and um students in special education testing at such a much lower rate and then not not achieving a as high a rate as um our other students. And so that's that's been in the research I've done in my doctorate. Um that's been a lot of my finding. And so that's what I bring to the work. Not taking that huge bite. Um but

069rather taking very sizable bites and in small chunks so that we can then address it and do it with fidelity. um so that we don't burn out cuz the work is a lot and it's heavy and it's constant and I want to make sure that people know that we are here to partner and not to judge and not to um you scold but rather to partner and to make sure that we are all doing the work together for all our students is including and especially those students in the subgroups. Yeah. No, thank you. That helps. Um could I ask two other things? I've got just something to add to that too. Think the other part of that is you know when you're talking about I ready and you're talking about dibbles and looking at progress

070the only way for us I mean you know FA just mentioned a lot of the factors that are involved in terms of how students get there in terms of remediation and how we move that needle MTSS and intervention really is is the way where if a student is not making great level progress it falls back to our intervention system if that's not working well then we're not going to be able to to to move that needle. So and that intervention system is broad right because it's academic and it's social emotional as well. It has kind of I think two components to it. Um that is the work that we've articulated in our implementation plan and and work that I think in the coming years will be critical if we're going to close that gap. Well

071I think the other I mean that you know she mentioned a lot of things which I think are really important. And I think it's also, you know, there there's a lot around, you know, having educators who look like you. Do you know what I mean? Like that starting early on like that you're more fully engaged in school. Then when you begin to see people who look like you in school and the ones teaching you, that makes a big difference as well. So I think it's also looking at our hiring practices is really important and I know that we are really doing a lot to that effort. Um, so my one thing I just wanted to it kind of goes along with what Anna was saying around the um around the teaching sort of around the

072jokes and the social media piece. I you know I wonder if there's some my two comments are going to have to do with special education. So I wonder if there's some collaboration or I don't know if it's already being done that you could work with because I think that there there is often times an added level of maybe not across the board but like almost of a naive that you don't necessarily um in some cases it's not all kids but there can be not maybe a full understanding of the social norms at a grade level like at a maturity level. And so oftentimes I I've seen this a lot and this goes with the bullying. So I think there's the teaching about the bullying to the people who are maybe encouraging kids to say things

073for humor and then I there's a lot of cases where then they film them and then you know it just is this very vicious cycle. So one is teaching teaching the kids to you know the teaching around not the the people who are doing the bullying I'll put it that way but then also is there teaching around for for students um around like is there maybe a a tweaked curriculum or teach tweaked teaching for kids who maybe don't have the maturity or the understanding of the some of these things sort of for what to watch out for in that regard. Do you know what I mean? It's nuanced, but I think it's almost like a little bit of a different approach. You still have to explain why and and do all that, but I don't

074know. I just think that there's sort of a level of it. I don't know if I'm making sense, but I just think looking at it through those two lenses of also maybe kids who are more vulnerable to that bullying and to maybe repeating things that are racially inappropriate or culturally inappropriate and they might not, you know, maybe there's a curriculum around that that's important to look at. Um um and then I guess my other question is I know that we have inclusion specialists in Milton. Do they work in concert with with your um with your team? Um no, not not yet, but I can definitely reach out to them. Okay. Thank you. And I think just to kind of piggyback off what you said, uh, Amanda, you know, um, with the curriculum tweaks also to

075kind of how do we get peers to like feel empowered to if they see something to like stand up and say, "Hey, listen." Yeah. That's not right. You can't say that. You know, recognizing that. and they know it's a tough, you know, especially when you get into middle school and high school and it's a tough age, right, for to say that because you don't want to be looked upon as like the kid that's speaking up, but how do you empower more of that to happen? I think that would be really helpful, too, you know, to Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Sorry. I think y'all are making have great questions, making great points. I especially love all all that you said, Belle. Um I guess a couple just wonderings around like specifics here. You talked about the equity

076leads leading projects of the school. Could you share any particular examples of the work they are doing? Oh gosh. Okay. I'll try to remember off the top of my head because there's eight of them. Um but um the Cunningham um adequately lead Sarah um she put together a book list um about racially represented um students, students in special education and with different disabilities um students celebrating multiple like the heritages and and ethnicities and so on. Um she made you know her choice board of sorts and then she shared that with the school. She also partners with the principal, the assistant principal um to help bring that work to the faculty and faculty meetings. Um Jess Norton is another like amazing superstar um at the high school. She leads the culture cats. there's um group of

077students um who selfidentify in multiple identities who come together to find a safe space for themselves to make their schools their school better. So they um are wellversed and very very well trained in restorative pract restorative justice practices. Um they run circles like I said they go to Pierce and help the students in a mentorship kind of way. Um Jess also collaborates again with um Karen Cahill to bring that work to the faculty. Um Lauren also at the high school um she's a school psychologist and her goal is to focus on equitable um testing for students in special education. Um, and so looking at the testing material used for um, screening and looking at um, how equitable they are, how viable they are, and if they actually are measuring the things they're supposed to be

078measuring with our students of color and our students um, who might have developmental delays and so on. And so she's they take it's the projects are usually passion projects, things that um, make sense for the positions they hold. So Jeff Norton's an English teacher. She has that advisory. Lauren is um school psychologist, so that's something she's passionate about. Sarah is um I want to say a first grade teacher. Forgive me, Sarah, if I'm forgetting what grade you teach, either first grade or kindergarten. Um and and so and so on. Um we have Laurel in Polycott who's an art teacher and she gets to work with all the students across the school. So she does many projects with the students again celebrating themsel c celebrating the students and encouraging them to shine um in every aspect

079of their identities. Um the middle school, there's two of them. Um but they work pretty closely with another teacher and they've been working on the um some of the curriculum for staff to train staff on equity um specifically. And they've also run some community gatherings with um some of our Haitian students who were having a very hard time originally when um the eating the dogs eating the cats thing was at the height of of of its madness. Um and then even now with um the ICE raids and the the fear of deportation. And so they've done a lot of work. Um, again, these are people who just feel very passionate about the work and they work very closely with their school leaders to make sure that not only, you know, not only is it okay

080to do this work, but they're doing it with fidelity and they're doing it to ensure the safety of their students. Um, I'm sure I've forgotten some other ones doing such amazing work. Yeah. No, no, I appreciate that. Um, I guess a similar question in terms of the work y'all are doing with the curriculum leads. Are there particular places within the curriculum that we have been able to make adjustments that you've like targeted kind of in this first year around changes to to to make it more representative for the the windows and mirrors point that that you made earlier? Um I can't take credit for any of it yet. Um but I can highlight ones that I have talked to um department heads about and encouraged. So um one that we worked on more recently was

081the social studies in um the middle school where um they're teaching on Africa and the teachers um did an excellent amazing job on highlighting um aspects of Africa through a strength-based lens um through um rather than like Val said the deficit and the trauma and all that but um just highlighting the the awesomeness of each place. So um learning about groups and learning about areas of geography of different places and um just being very aware of the of the language being used of the way that um things are highlighted in each culture and each group and each each geography. I believe the next one they're doing is on Asia. Um and so we're able to meet with them and have those conversations. Um so I' I've met with with people um department heads and so

082on to discuss those things. I made slight tweaks to things but it's I started in July and by the time I met with everybody school is about to start and all the curriculum is already set. But the hope and the goal is that over time we're able to revisit and slowly tweak the things that that need to tweak and then you know some maybe not so slowly uh kind of remove the things that we identify as damaging. Yeah. No, that's great. that very appreciate all those examples. I think the the work especially around like the reading curriculum and like what books kids are are seeing, being exposed to, being able to see the themselves, uh especially because we just know the the historical texts that we have highlighted within ELA um spaces have have not

083been that. And so the more we can do that I think quickly with urgency uh knowing the importance that that has to people feeling connected and uh not otherred I think is is great. So I I don't know what the timeline of that is. I know obviously we're looking for new ELA curriculum as well. Um and that will come within it probably its own kind of assigned texts and things like that within the elementary level. But uh I think that's that's really would be great. I think the other piece just more broadly speaking is I'd love to know if there are like do we have particular goals we are looking to reach here and like the timelines around again diversity hiring is something I brought up before like I think that's you know that being

084having that representation kind of within who students are seeing we we know what the impact is on kids or what the goals around when we would do a curriculum review around the the books uh when that would be able to be completed kind of K through 12. So is there are there any particular goals or timelines kind of established within the department? No, not yet. But um I would I would welcome any suggestions or feedback on that right now. Um I am working on reviewing the hiring guidelines um for that exact reason. Um, so not yet in terms of we don't have a timeline yet. Um, but it is something that is on my desk currently being worked on. Um, so looking at hiring practices such as how do we post job postings? What language

085is being used? Um, what are some things that might deter a certain type of candidate versus another one? What are some policies in our district that encourage one type of candidate versus the other? Um, how can we encourage um less bias in the interview process, including using um rubrics that are um that are created with the understanding of historical and structural racism that have kept people of color from certain spaces. um and what what accommodations are being had for people who maybe are neurody divergent or are have a disability and so on and so that that's work that is being done currently uh but I will definitely work with leadership um central office leadership as well as again welcoming suggestions from school committee on how that timeline should um kind of unfold right Now, you

086know, to in a very realistic sense, everything is kind of um in flux and in limbo with uh the budget and the override. Everyone's waiting for the override. We're trying to do work and with the hopes that everything will continue um next year seamlessly. Um but we don't have an HR director and hiring and retaining is a big part of HR. So, I'm working very closely with Lori. I'm working very working working very closely with um co to continue that work as much as we can um but it would be impossible to set a timeline if we don't have a lot of the things in place that are needed to make this a reality reality yet. So um in terms of the timeline I think it will very much depend on what April 29 brings

087as well as what our um superintendency brings in the future. Yeah. Yeah. You named the elephant in the room there. Thank you. Yeah, it's it's really hard. I mean, I'm doing a lot of the work and I am I'm committed to it, but uh my name is on the riff list and so it's really hard for me to say here's all the stuff we're doing and then if I'm gone, I don't know who's picking it up while I'm gone. And so I'm trying to plan as though I'm here, but also plan for whoever is here if I'm not here to continue the work because I'm not important. The work is important. Right. Well, you're important to But you're important. You're very important. I appreciate that. So, no, I really uh I just wanna sort of

088just thank you for for naming it because it's it's there and I want to thank you for your presentation and for elevating the importance of this work and for demonstrating the multifaceted uh you know there's just so much to do. Um, and I think I like your your uh use of, you know, taking small bites in order to make progress, and that's important. And I I I'm I'm an optimist, so I'm going to go with the uh assumption that, you know, you're going to be here and you're going to carry on. And I would say that I would elevate with that. I would elevate sort of making sure that we prioritize sort of a you know a set of just the things that we want to focus on in F42526. Where do we want to

089move the needle and name exactly what that is and what gains we want to see in order to continue to support and be able to see that traction over time. But do recognize that uh I was reminded as you were speaking I'm like oh yeah that's right you've only been here less than a year. Um so um I commend you for all the wonderful work that you have accomplished in that short time and for reminding us again how critical this work is and how important it is to center our students and making sure that there there's a strong sense of belonging that they see themselves reflected and that we continue to do the work with our adults and also with them uh to create the the climate that we want. Um so thank you but

090Peter go ahead. Yeah. And I just wanted to um kind of related to I think Mark you mentioned I think it was our last meeting just about setting goals on academic achievement as well. And I think kind of relative to that and to to setting goals around DEIB and hiring practices and all those things we in terms of like our annual process of of setting those targets and then bringing those forward. I think that is something that needs to we were kind of on our pathway to that and I think that does need to happen and it has to be driven by the systems that we're developing to move those data points and I think without addressing the issues that came up from you know an entire year of of engaging our our staff and

091engaging our community and our students around what are the needs in the district. we we kind of unearth those. We still are kind of mid-stream on developing some of those systems. Um I would caution just setting targets without in in the hope that you're going to move those without doing the work internally to shift those data points. And I think that is the that is the the work. So I just wanted to mention that I think that's those two things are really tied together. Um I did have one last question. I think it's on um slide 11. Um you mentioned in here collaboration with student services and reestablishing residency. I was just kind of curious like what are um you touched upon a little bit, but I was kind of curious like are there specific

092things that are coming up that you've noticed that you felt like it would be good to like be involved in this? Yeah. Um, so in terms of so one of the things we worked on last year, um, I think early October, November, um, was to create a more equitable system in terms of people who are being reported as non-residents who are attending Milton public schools. um the investigation of SAD students and then the appeal process that um the families have. So obviously we as people who work here, we care about all our students as people who live here. You care about making sure that the the students are, you know, being served, the students who are here are being served. And so understanding that and wanting to make sure everything's fair um in my in

093informal unofficial audit of the policies that we have and and such I realized that the people in power or the the dominant group are are not the people who are who tend to be reported as non-residents. Um and then even when they are they have this informal knowledge of how to proceed um how to prove that they live here um as well as how to appeal. Right? This is something that's just kind of culturally the norm for the most part in the dominant group. whereas um members of subgroups or people of color specifically um might not know how to navigate the system. And so I took it upon myself to address that. Um, and I brought that up with um, the superintendent and the student um, service director and they shared my concerns and um,

094shared that that was something that was underway with wanting to establish residency um, to reduce the number of people being reported as people who don't live here because it it the pattern showed that there was a bit of targeting of students of color. um especially with knowing that we are a district with a good number of immigrants who might not know how to navigate the system. And so wanting to make sure that if when something happened where somebody was misreported, um they the paperwork showed a very detailed step by step on how to prove your residency, how to appeal if you know if for some reason we say, "Oh, no, we still think you don't live here. Here's paperwork you can bring, and here's how to um reach out." and having multiple avenues not just

095on the computer but on the phone and in person and so on. So providing that so that everyone not just one group of people um has feels empowered to advocate for themselves. Um, now that being said, if you don't live here, you don't live here. And you know, um, unfortunately that is that is disruptive for the student. But again, wanting to make sure that we are not letting certain people fall through the cracks. Um, that can be very disruptive for the students, that could be very tumultuous for the family. Um, and so that is something that I'm very excited to roll out because then it becomes something that all students can do, all families can do at one at once. Um, obviously there's some families who you might have a child in first grade and

096a child in sixth grade and a child in 10th grade. And you know, we're not asking you to reestablish residency every year um for all three kids, but wanting to make sure that the s the the system and the policy is equitable for everyone, including people who are less educated in navigating the education system or even the American school system. No, I I appreciate that very much and I I think that approach is good to kind of offer guidance and have that. I mean, being an immigrant myself and, you know, my dad kind of navigating things when I was a kid, just not knowing where to go or, you know, being able like English not being his first language. So, I appreciate having those kind of supports in place to help them kind of, you

097know, figure it out so it's not completely new. Um, so thank you. Great. Um so thank you again for joining us uh and for the presentation. Um and uh we are now going to move on but thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Thanks. Thank you. So we'll move to um now to the chair's report and I am going to do my best by Lizzie. Um and we are uh the first item under the chair's report is the um override budget information sessions that we've been hosting. As you know over the past two weeks we've hosted uh three sessions and uh have one additional session that's been scheduled for next week, April 7th, Monday at 6:30 here at Milton High School. Um this morning I know that the finance committee being a member

098of it um we had an extensive conversation on how we can continue to improve our messaging for the upcoming meeting and beyond. really thinking about how important it is to make sure that we continue to um explain in in ways that um I think uh you know members can or community members can understand sort of the impact that um the cuts that uh we're looking at uh will have on the student experience on the family experience on our teachers on our buildings etc. Um but just if there are any um sort of comments or anything and uh in terms of the upcoming session um or any thoughts on the sessions we've had. Uh but I I you know we definitely had a you know a conversation this morning but if there's anything else I just

099want to mention the next next week's meeting um is in the Newton library. The high school library. That's right. The high school library. Yeah. On Monday at 6:30. Yeah. April 7th. Um, and the best way to find the library is park at the back of the high school and enter through the door right next to the gym and take the elevator up the third floor. It'll be less of a maze. You'll get there quicker. Yes. Um, and I just want to, you know, just thank the, you know, the administration, uh, for your continued support around the presentations and thank you to Mark and Lizzie for leading those sessions. Yes. Um and um we look forward to um the one on Monday and um then uh we're going to move to the next topic which is

100the interim superintendent process and our job as you know we we posted the job uh for the interim superintendent role. Um the posting closed on March 30th and we did receive a number of applications and on behalf of uh Lizzy, I do want to thank you for your quick review of those applications and for getting back to Lizzie um with your um your comments. Uh that that was very helpful in getting us to um tonight and um after reviewing. So, I also shared my perspective with with Lizzie. Lizzie um compiled everything she received. As you know, we couldn't sort of just hit all. We had to do it individually. So, she did take the time to to look at all that information. And as we were talking this evening and she realized that she wasn't

101going to be able to make the meeting, she did share um the results of your input. And um we have um we've aligned actually. So um that is good and that there is alignment in sort of our our review and our um our choices in terms of um where we landed. Um so that means that we're actually ready to move forward with a motion tonight. Um so um and it's almost uh just about you know unanimous in terms of where we landed. Um and so based on the um expedited independent paper screening review that we've completed um I would like to put a motion forward uh to appoint uh as interim superintendent pending successful contract negotiations and the approval of the special waiver um John Failen. Um and uh at this point I open it

102for um discussion. I'll second the motion. Oh yeah. Did Thank you. Is there a second? Thank you, Mark, for second a motion. Always here for you. Thank you. Do you have the document that you put together? Is it I don't see it in the folder unless I'm missing it. Or did she What? What do you just said that like we were all aligned? Yeah. No, we were just aligned. So this is just individually right sort of uh we were asked to review and just sort of give our our views of sort of if there was someone we would elevate as our choice and based on that uh you know um Lizzie gave me sort of the results of of that. Okay. I don't know if this is a you question. I don't mean to push

103you on this one. I just wondered for because I've never hired an inter room superintendent before it like are all the applications and candidates is that something that is posted publicly? Is this is that available for like folks who are interested? Is that not because the privacy of the people who applied? I I think for the privacy, I know that what we did do is um Lizzie did this afternoon was let um the top three that were named just to know that their names may come up, but John Failen for sure knew his name was going to come up publicly. Um but everyone else we would not bring up. Not okay. Exactly. Okay. Because they're current employers. Correct. Correct. Okay. Exactly. Exactly. Great. Awesome. Yeah. We had Can we share? We had over 15 candidates.

104Over 15 candidates. Correct. Yeah. So, lots of candidates. Several with superintendent experience, right? Um but John has a great resume. So are you and Lizzie moving forward with uh the negotiations with John the conversation with John? Correct. So that would be the next step is moving on to the negotiation and the fact that we also um he need to uh be approved for a special waiver. Um and so pending that you know then um then we would get to the final um appointment. Yeah. Yes. So that would be the next steps. Okay. He seems to fit just to be the profile that kind of was discussed at the last meeting around like the retired superintendent with needing that special waiver. Yeah, exactly. So, the retired superintendent, the number of years we were looking for and

105also I think um I I think I can say it that def definitely the connection to Milton um was a big plus. Um so um I think you know definitely um fit the criteria that we set forth as to what we were looking for for the interim superintendent. So, um, can I ask a this might not be relevant now, but I'll ask. So, I think we talked about it this at what point do you post the the permanent permanent position is that did we say did we say so based on sort of the guidance that we've received so far, it's that we would really work to get that job description all done and posted um what September early September. Right. And that you'd be appointed in January. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you. Great. All right. So,

106we're ready for a vote. Okay. Okay. All those in favor of um appointing Let's see if I can do this right. Um hold on. I have the motion right here. So um based on an uh so all those in favor of uh appointing John Failen Failen as our interim superintendent pending successful contract negotiations and the approval of a special waiver and um Lizzie did want me to convey that she is in favor of that as well. Um so it's a unanimous uh vote also. Thank you. And now um moving to u finance subcommittee. Great. You're doing a great job. Thank you. Uh you you covered a lot of um in terms of what we've been doing over the last couple weeks. A lot of it's been the community engagement process, the creating of those presentations,

107the refining of those based upon feedback. Um, again, appreciated the discussion this morning on on that as you referenced just in terms of like how do we feels like we are doing at least a pretty good job on like hitting on some of the details and the numbers and the story of FY25, but how do we uh just talk more about like the actual impact, right? Connecting on the emotional level to your point, the human level to your point um uh for the what the pending non-override cuts would mean. So, um, still still a lot of work to to do on that and certainly not a lot of time. So, appreciate that. Also, just remind anybody watching the finance committee meetings are recorded and posted um going all the way back through February. So, uh,

108if you have interest in watching those, um, they are at at your um, disposal on the MATV page. Uh, over the last two weeks, we talked bit about the FY25 budget, mostly around the select board. So, we haven't had meetings since then, but the update there, the select board at our last meeting, we voted to ask for the million dollars of the special ed reserve uh allocation for FY26 to be moved into the revolving fund for the town within FY25. Uh the select board um voted to do that for a $700,000 amount, not the full request, but a significant amount of the request. Um, so that occurred and then obviously there's just ongoing work that Katie and the team are doing around um and the whole district is doing around monitoring spending and and making

109sure we're doing whatever we can to continue to shrink the FY25, watch it and uh pay attention to some of the the details coming out of the state uh legislature as well around some of the additional funding we are expecting to see. So that's the big update on the FY25 piece and then the FY26. We had our warrant committee presentation last Wednesday which um the questions were great. Really appreciate the continued partnership and um collaboration with the warrant committee members. Um so had that that seemed to go well. We again good questions, good conversation and then we've been doing the overall kind of community presentations on the FY26 budget. Um, and so those have been the the primary focuses of the finance committee. We obviously have an update on the non-override budget and the presentation

110on that today. So I'll pass that over. Great. Great. Um, yes. So relative to what Mark just shared in terms of our guidance from the slug board, um we had have returned to our non override budget, uh with the the directive to remove a million dollars a further million dollars in reductions. um principles and central office staff or administration came together and um looked at first obviously revisited our non-override list and then talked about what further reductions um where the the further reductions um would be. it was as you can imagine a very challenging process and um there really is nowhere that there's nothing kind of that is and I think we mentioned this this morning there's there's nothing non-essential in our budget so the revisions on the first slide sorry Mark no you're fine

111I'll so I'm I'm so sorry this morning's finance meeting I was I think when you guys were talking I thought it was like after 9:00 so I was like sort of listening but it couldn't but what could you just give me just some background on the million dollars that they were asking to reduce for FY26 in case of a non-override from the select board like what was the kind of the directive for that? Well the directive was I think what Mark just mentioned which is the we requested a million dollars for FY25. FY26 if an override fails, the free cash that would be used would no longer be available. It's going to other parts of the budget in in in a a failed override. So this is Okay. So the 700 that we would be

112getting, we would be borrowing from next year. Is that what I understand? Okay. Yeah. It's the use of current year free cash, but the town administrator is constructing the next year's non-overrite budget to use all available free cash to um kind of buff it against the impacts of the the cost cuts to services. Okay. Right. Which is what we've talked about previously around the FY26 budget is not in and of itself a sustainable budget because it's built on the back of $3.5 million of free cash. Um, y but yeah, so we would need to pull a million dollars. Right now it's only $700,000 has been pulled from that, but given we are unclear at this point of exactly where that would land and we as a committee asked for the million. The town administrator's direction

113was like you should create a plan for the million. If you think you could use the million and obviously if you don't then that's that's a benefit. But at least, you know, in fairness to to the staff and the folks who obviously need to be informed about this, we need to make plans um according to that that scenario. Okay. So, I know we're kind of running out of areas to cut from. I I know with this particular one, I see a lot of interventionists on here. Um, I was just curious kind of what led to this decision like that these were the positions. I'm just kind of curious like what the thought process behind that was. Can we let them just like run through No, I appreciate just run through it for the the public

114and then I know I think great questions. We we should definitely come to that. Um, so this these are the the further revisions that we made. I we did share this information yesterday with staff that are impacted that are currently in these positions. Um part of the the seniority process means someone could be in a position but they may bump into another position. We are going to be doing that work now after we finalize this list. will be working with the um union to determine uh the process to go through determining where um people land in the seniority list. Um so so these are the this is kind of broken up into positions on the bottom and um kind of operational and and other expenses on the top. And in terms of kind of the

115decision-m around positions, um, as I mentioned, there are no we we don't have non-essential I mean our we as I I think I said this yesterday morning at KICOT when we came forward with our level service budget and that 6.4 that was our essential budget. So everything we've taken away from that is is kind of pulling back from where we we need to be. Um, so the expenses we we've just kind of trimmed in different areas. Athletic fee increase, um, tech general expense. This would reduce our, um, purchasing of hardware next year. Um, changes to a nursing contract, a general expense reduction, looking at uh, pretty much pulling back on our professional development primarily. Um, reduction of extracurricular. Um this is a further reduction which would result in in not having extracurricular activities beyond sports.

116Um we had a previous number of 200,000 was the the previous number in the non-override budget. Um uh the positions um the equity coach this was a position that was added u recently. Um the four interventionists, the next four interventionists were positions that we had on the initial list that we had added back before we got our final number from the select board. Um Pierce reading interventionist and um the director of social studies which is a a unit B position. It's a one of our coordinator director of curriculum positions and then two elementary teaching positions through attrition. So there are two retirements and two reductions in positions based on enrollment. Um the slides below are uh previously presented slides just with the if you want to go to the next slide. I'm not going to

117go through all of these again, but just to see them together. So, this is these are district leadership positions. These are district-wide support positions. Districtwide services. Can you clarify the theater clubs athletic stipens? What is that amount? These are kind of clumped together and Katie and I were talking about this earlier. We need to kind of I think refine this in in our next presentation to to more clearly articulate since that's work that we are doing. But generally speaking, can I guess since you don't have the slide, can you just talk again a little bit more in depth about what are the the impacts to that? Can you talk I know you looked at this today. Sure. So for the extracurricular programs, um the amount that was factored in in the non-override cuts was essentially

118the elimination of funding for the clubs and other student activities. Um, previously in the non-over cuts, there was still a portion where we had retained funding for a very limited number of um, clubs and student activities, but this is essentially an elimination of um, funding for that budget line. So that's um all of the clubs and student activities. Um when um Principal Cahill was here in December, she presented um the high school site council presentation and she had linked in that document or in that presentation a slide that gave context and kind of like the list of all of the clubs and activities. And so I think that may be a good reference point. Um I think that presentation is listed under the school committee um presentation section on the website. And so that kind

119of lists out all the current club offerings at the high school. So you can see each one of those there's a number. So all of those clubs would be elementary. Mhm. the 60 plus clubs and I believe when we had talked about athletics um and we can get again further information um but I believe the conver conversation focused around potentially elimination of the freshman teams. So it would be junior varsity and varsity teams. Yeah, there were 65 clubs listening that presentation just at high school. So Milton High School here. So again, in this we're cutting one teacher from each core subject, which means increasing high school class sizes and decreasing course offerings. And the peers production is the production of a team. Mhm. And then the librarian and reading interventionist. Um I think I have

120this information, but you remember how big is Pier sixth grade this year? The current fifth grade. You mean the current fifth? I was saying the current sixth grade, but yeah. or the incoming fifth grade. The incoming the incoming um the rising the rising sixth grade is I believe 368. I can um I can pull up that number right now. Yeah. Um 368 is our would be our rising sixth grade. What is it right now? Do you know the current and it was we were I think last year the fifth grade was about the same and then obviously at 368 and then drops cuz some some students do leave there's some transition with it's three sixth grade right now is 340 and so right now we have four sixth grade teams this eliminates it brings it

121back down three sixth grade teams where it was historically or obviously the sixth grade has gotten quite large in the last several years. Yeah. I mean our seventh grade is 346, our eighth grade is 334. Yeah. So just in quick math, three teams, four classrooms within each team for 340, assuming we lose some kids. Over 28 kids per classroom in the sixth grade next year is what we'd be projecting. That's not good. And then this is the combined all four elementaryaries none override cuts and this includes the million dollars okay that you mentioned earlier. So then how many French reading specialists do we have left is would be none. This goes back to the previous Yeah. Okay. So zero. And then is it the same for the other intervention? So do you know how many

122are there would there be any? Yeah, there are that would leave two math interventionists, one early literacy and four reading specialists. That would be shared. Some of those are shared. Yeah. Yeah. So you have four reading specialists across four elementary schools. So you'd have one for an entire school essentially. You'd have one math specialist, math interventionist for two schools shared for two schools. And there would be no librarians. No librarians. And no French reading interventionist. No French at all. Yeah. What is the impact of the Spanish teacher cut the point 6? So this this isn't any this was not on the further this requires yeah this requires restructuring of schedules and and looking at potentially once a week versus twice a week. for a longer period of time. So, additionally, and that's the updated number

123of FTE. So, can we one other question? So, um if you look at the elementary school and the high school, we lose a custodian in each place. So, how much does that I mean I know we're already pretty lean so do you know what that leaves? So, is that how many custodians do we have across the elementary schools? Do you know? I don't have those numbers. Okay, we can find that for you. Um, can I ask one other question? So, what does this do to the preschool? I'm trying to Does that We don't have a Does that eliminate the full day preschool? Okay. And then changes and then what about um are there any changes to the half day like as far as number of student I mean if there's fewer did we lose any

124teachers for the half day and does that impact the number of kids we can take in the the half day wouldn't be impacted by this? No. Okay. because those are mandated but only half of I mean well but you have to have the other half the seats in order to have the ratio right the Tucker full day classroom is nonsp specialcial Right. Okay. That goes away. That goes away. Would it help to kind of I'm just like, you know, just seeing this as a community member. Mhm. Um or community member hat on. Um to see like for instance the 2.4 French reading specialist, right? like what is like I wouldn't looking at that not knowing how many we have like I wouldn't know what we have left and how they would right like so I

125don't like would it be helpful to have them you know if we two math reading interventionists on this or math interventionists on this list and then that leaves us two who would be shared across four schools like to kind of offer that contacts versus a list might be helpful, right? and how that and I think also, you know, um also stating like, you know, this is how many kids they see for instance, you know, and just saying like then just having two they would only be able to see them for this many maybe not even every week now or whatever like you know just kind of putting that into context and just kind of because like reading this list it's very it's it's just data and I don't really know and in context and just

126trying to understand like I don't know if a lot of people understand what a point 46 is right like when we're it's just yeah it gets to the point we talked about this morning that you made again how do we just how do we create the emotion tie the context even even for like and I think just the reality of what it will be it's not necessarily like just it's really like this is what it is and like versus I'm not trying to like right you force someone's hand, but like really like this is this is the reality and that we'll do our best, but this these are the adjustments that we will have to make and kind of just having that plan too. I think that's something that we need to kind of figure

127out to your point earlier, we will now have 28 kids in a classroom. Like that's kind of because we also have to kind of figure out post April 29th how we're going to function, right? on even though it's going to be hard um and what are kind of next steps and are just kind of like that we're committed to still doing the best we can under the circumstances you know I think that's important to kind of for just to kind of have confidence in us versus like well you know like just what our roles are right um to kind of help figure this out and uh you know if it's a matter going back out for another one. like what are what is kind of our process and what are our like what are like

128we should be thinking I think you know best case scenario worst case scenario what are our plans to kind of just going into FY 26 like what do we like you know I think those are kind of discussions just so that we're kind of thinking through it versus like waiting and then trying to figure it out you know it would be nice to have a chart saying like positions cut like not if it's not overr and over records positions left um the impact on the students and the we have some of that information in different places I think it's probably bringing it in terms of what you're talking about in terms of how many positions we have that right and how we would function right like in this post override like climate like right like

129how or like you know and I mean I know it's like I mean that's like all that would be all summer work right deter I mean that's not something that you would decide I mean it's complex it is complex but just that we are going to think about it and figure it out as best as we can whatever you know and just kind of um yeah just kind of you know just I'm sorry to to jump in there but I think you know the the work you know yes summer but even before then uh because you think by the end of the month, one would know. Yeah. And so really the pivoting and figuring it out happens immediately. It has to happen. So it it will happen immediately. I we have there's no choice, right?

130And so I think that's something that I would just name that this body will be ready with everybody else administration and and you know obviously administration with support of teachers and principles etc. school leaders to be able to figure out, okay, now it's time for us to uh, you know, really figure it out. And and realizing though, and I think I I would just like to name it, and I think um we've said it several times in these conversations in the community, we've said it in finance, we can say it again here is that this is not sustainable. This is not sustainable. It is something that it's it yes can we get through and and muddle our way, but it's not it's it just not it's something we would have to build back up to

131making sure that so that our our kids get the services that they deserve and the education that they deserve and experience an experience, right? It's just it is what they deserve. Um, and so I think the the work to figure out the interim and then figure out how to rebuild it's just unfortunate that you know if we find ourselves in this situation it's something that's not going to happen over one year. No, it is this is over over a number of years and it's not I hope we you know it's very I appreciate that you took the time to once again present this in separate slides because going through it slide by slide it just there's something very sobering about going through it that way and you're reminded of of the impact um that all

132of this uh will have on the quality of experience that our students and our families and our our our teachers are I think about our teachers and the strain on our teachers and our school leaders uh to make do um without all of this. Yeah. And I think also just seeing these positions listed I think I can't imagine like you know a teacher's perspective seeing these positions listed on there. It's just, you know, it's it's really hard because I mean, at the end of the day, um, you know, no one deserves to to be in this situation. So, it's just just awful. I think to the point on like with the conversation how we share the impacts. I I do think some of the slides y'all put together that are on the website may potentially

133pulling them to the front maybe or something but that talks about right math interventionist this is a 25% reduction that was before we added another one so it's a 50% reduction half of all our interventionists um updating those highlighting those a bit more because I think they they do as you all worked on to like provide a little bit of that con a little bit more personalized context to each of these cuts and the impacts to each of these cuts And I think also, you know, from like seeing all these interventionists listed, I mean, I personally have a concern of, you know, would this mean more students referred to special ed because they're not getting the supports that they need, you know, and that cost going up. Y those would be mandated, right? With Pierce,

134right? you got 28 kids in a class within a you know important grade where it's a transition like the ability to individualize personalize the attention with and not have the peer the reading interventionists at Pierce like those combinations of factors are not setting our educators up well for success that's just asking for failure and that failure is going to be on the backs of of born on the backs of kids uh unfortunately and so obviously there's no one in that who's going to be left in that pierce who would, you know, call it quits and say throw up their hands, but they're going to do everything they can for every kid. But there's just a certain limit to what is able to be done, right? I do think, and it seems like y'all turned around

135on morning conversation very quickly on the web page, you have the quote from uh Principal Cahill. And so I think that's great. I just read it cuz I as I think about the cuts the extracurricular programming in the context of our theater department winning this championship, you know, our football team winning uh championship last year and the great work of our girls hockey team to make it to the state championship and uh just all the fantastic kids we got. Um, you know, Karen's quote is, "Let me be absolutely clear. Cutting clubs or athletic programs would be devastating to our student body and a non-override budget. All extracurricular activities are under scrutiny. These aren't just after school pastimes. They're vital opportunities where our students build impressive resumes and showcase their unique talents. The significant reduction in

136offerings will directly harm students development and future prospects. These programs aren't luxuries. They're essential components of a complete education that our students deserve and need to thrive. I think that's very well said and I think yeah I think that's great and more of that uh more ways we can highlight that those types of like statements from our staff and from our families and our students is great. Thank you. I believe we we need a vote. Yeah, we got um I have the word reluctantly in here again. What did we add last time? Uh All right. I will make a motion uh to reluctantly approve the um updated non-override budget as presented this evening. Is there a second? Any discussion? All in favor? I just have a quick clarifying question. Um we so based on the

137information that we know now we shouldn't be expecting select board to come back and say you know find more cuts for next year and use case of a nonobide. No this would be hopefully it the only situation which that would I could see that happening uh would be if there's a reason why the SY 20 FY25 deficit would exceed 1 point well I mean a million dollars. Okay, in that scenario, which again is like a conservative estimate, but I'm sorry. Um, the only point that I would add to that is if we had to cut any more to the FY26 budget, we'd essentially be funded less than we are funded for fiscal year 25. Yeah. So, it would essentially be a reduction next year. Um, did you see that slide at the end? Were you

138lost for finance? The end of finance when we showed that slide. Oh, the Oh, yes. Yes. I I remember saying it was actually And so, um, just to Yeah. reference this morning's meeting. So, we talked about um the budget numbers, the current FY25 budget number, and with all of the cuts that we've talked about in the nonoverride scenario, um the FY26 non-override budget is effectively a level funded budget. So we we will be receiving the same funding next year as we have this year. And because of all of the cost increases, because of um salary increases, inflation increases, some of the mandated expenses, um it is a reduction to the budget. Yeah. In the amount of over $6.3 million. And so you can see those numbers up here. So again any further reductions we would

139be our FY26 budget would be less than our FY 25 budget. Do you I know in one of the previous meetings finance meetings we talked about you know any impacts from federal state funding. Do you think that would be impact FY26 or would that be more 27? like just looking at um for FY26, I haven't heard of any updates at the state level to chapter 70. Um I know right now uh we still are looking at funding levels based off of the governor's original um $75 minimum per pupil. Um so but I believe that there will be more information coming along soon. um as that as that process progresses um I do know that there's been a lot of advocacy through MASBO um MASS MASSE to look at the funding formula because so many districts

140so many towns across the Commonwealth are truly in a similar situation um as we are here in Milton. Um and so just looking at all of the factors that we're facing here um and how do we advocate at the state level to make sure that education funding is truly reflective of the cost of operating a school district. So I know um I don't have any concrete numbers or information but I can say that is kind of a large part of what we talk about um in our business association group um meetings. So I'm sure there'll be more more information in the future. Um just make sure this clearly highlighted for any viewers. The top line FY25 budget is our current budget. FY26 is the updated budget, non-override budget if the override does not pass. So

141again, point Katie made, it's an $8,000 increase, which is essentially a 0% increase um in the funding when we were looking for 5 6.4 for level service. So that's a just drastic drastic cut. Yeah, I think we talked about this in finance, but there's it's the override a just we really need to get it passed because the impact is so astronomical. In the event the override does not pass, I think there's further conversations that we need to have with the select board around what are we in this emergency situation, what are we prioritizing as a town and what are we choosing to let suffer and what are we not? Mhm. Because to me the the conversation that the town administrator brought up at this like board meeting we we presented around deferring OPED payments in

142the situation where we are gutting the school so drastically in an on override where we have again one one math interventions for two schools and 28 kids 29 kids in a classroom in sixth grade just like it seems like we as a town I I would hope we choose different priorities. then that then let's live with this and fund this long-term liability. But I think that's a hopefully we don't need to get there because the override passes, but I think that's a further conversation maybe we can or should have as it relates to um you know April April 30th. Mhm. Um, any other questions or discussion on the non-override or any of the budgets? I just had a question. I know when we talked about closing the gap for um FY25 being did you ever

143get any clarity on that? We did. Um, so there was an adjustment that was made. So, we'll factor that into um I'm working on the um quarterly report as of March 31st. Okay. So, there was an adjustment um and then that will update kind of our expense projection. Okay. For the remainder of the year. So, a little bit of good news. Take everything. Yes, 100%. Um uh all right. And then we have a vendor warrant. I shared out with y'all the other day. Um but uh I'll make a motion um motion to approve vendor warrant report 38 payable on 4325 in the amount of $222,729.71. Is there a second? Second. Great. Uh, all in favor? That's it for finance. Thank you. So, I missed this earlier, but we didn't have a facilities meeting after on

144our last I had to go back and check this, but we did. I already gave an update on it after our last meeting. All right. So, no facilities advisory committee report for the record. No datas anymore. All right. Um, and with that, we're going to move to our next item, which is the approval of minutes. Uh, so I'd like to move that we approve the minutes from the March 19th, 2025 and school committee meeting. A second. Are there any um changes? All right. All those in favor You need a second. We can We can wait a second. You need a second. All right. It's only 9:16. We're doing great tonight. We still have about an hour and a half if we want to. All right. So, um, next meeting agenda. I'm going to leave it

145to Let's see. Sorry, I'm looking going to my document here. Um, the special education presentation, right? more finance. Yep. Performance matters, right? Next. The next one. The next one. Okay. All right. Um, so I think we're good. And so, um, I think is there an executive session? There was. Yeah, there is one. Yeah, there is one. Yeah, we adjourned. the agenda. No, I just wanted to make sure because I realized she did not mention that to me as we were talking. All right. So, now we're gonna um make a motion, I guess, to adjourn. Yeah. Um into our school committee meeting and go into executive session. Don't have the correct language with me. Okay. So, we'll make a motion to adjurnn uh into executive session and then adjourn directly from executive session. Moving into executive

146session to discuss negotiating details of negotiation and strategy with the Milton Educators Association pursuant to MGL chapter 3A section 21A3. We have to state clear like why we're doing Exactly. Exactly. All right. So, that's the motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All those in favor? All those in favor. All right. So, now we're adjourned and we go on into [Music] rip it up. Rip it up.