001foreign thank you foreign good evening everyone and welcome to the Milton school committee of June 16 2021 the first order of business is to approve the agenda of June 16 2021 oh the punch right sorry we need to put on the agendas I remember we were home for so long I can't remember all right I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thank you Mr jet all right I have a few adjustments to the agenda I'm going to remove uh Finance subcommunity report as there are no vendor warrants to approve so number six I'm going to remove I'm going to remove approval of minutes because I'm not sure that everyone
002had the opportunity to read them over and after citizen speak I'm going to add acknowledgment is there any other changes that anyone would like to make to the agenda seeing none do I have a motion to approve the agenda all in favor all right that's five zero great all right we're going to start with citizen speak we have one member of the community here for Susan speak Mr Rob Burke Mr Burke if you would like to approach the table please I will yeah [Music] good evening Mr Burke thank you um if you would um so kindly keep your minutes keep your comments to three minutes um just state your name and your address for the records okay and welcome thank you [Music] my name is Robert Burke I live at 297 Pleasant Street Milton uh
003families lived in Milton for 125 years and I'm so happy to be here today good evening Miss Denny Miss Dexter Mr Jett Miss Everhart Miss Roseman uh your Dr Craighead Rosemary and Miss Carol good evening I am been identified as a man I was the person outside of the schools with my sign critical race Theory destroys children it's an ideological argument has nothing to do with race I'm here to say to you that I went to these schools I love this town and I can't say enough about you folks being elected you've done a good job so this is why I'm here I want the Milton public schools to move forward not backwards not sideways and I like to ask the committee to make sure when we talk about each and every student we talk
004about what their capabilities are not what they look like I am a person of color I know it is to have the police come to my house and accuse me of doing something which was wrong I was a redhead I represent point five percent of the total population of the world my mother threw that police officer out of my house there's a lot of things that's happened to this town since last year whether it's the George Floyd innocent incident which was terrible Mr Floyd should never been killed by anybody but I blame senator Amy Klobuchar she had 14 times to get rid of that police love and she did nothing people should be on her talking why didn't she do anything but moving forward here I've noticed uh the reason I came was to have
005that Zoom call released you have a Public Employee unfortunately Zoom call get pushed all over the place I saw her on TV on radio I heard her on radio every newspaper or we need to know what what that was all about I want people to learn everything poetry I'm not wasn't great in school we have a new I think we have a new person coming on we may be wrong to go through the whole curriculum what are we talking about Equity about what exactly is that definition we need to get to that I want to know about it I want to learn about it I want the town of Milton not to be labeled as a bunch of Screwballs but someone says hey here's one point of an argument with the Langston use it here's
006another put of an argument with Nikki Giovanni I want to know that and when are we going to have those uh that tape that Zoom call released this is really important I want to thank Mr Jett for putting that letter out through the town thank you sir took a lot of Courage you agree a little bit of what I'm talking about because of the Free Speech in the U.S Constitution I never said never said anything about race or any type of thing like that it was never a race issue it's always ideological issue I'm against the Marxist if they're teaching maximum moxism in the school that's got to stop that destroys children I want to thank you for listening to me and I'm going to be back again I want you to pledge to me
007sometime and I asked each one of you are you a patriot or a Marxist are you a patriot or a Marxist are you a patriot or a Marxist are you a patriot or a Marxist are you a patriot or a Marxist man I'm looking at you are you a patriot or a Marxist ma'am are you a patriot or a Marxist that's all I'm looking for this is the greatest country in the world and I want to go forward not backwards nuts out and I'm not going back I listen to Less in closing I listened to Miguel codera today secretary talking about attaching covid money for this Equity thing can anybody Define the equity issue please there's a new lexicon out there a lot of people don't understand it I'm always trying to learn so if
008we have a lexicon of new words let's hear it don't be afraid I'm not a racist I've never been a racist and shame on people to call me racist at school shame on them I stood there like a citizen of the United States with my constitutional right expression and some nitwit driving by drive by calling me a racist they don't even know the hell I am shame on them I won't put their video out either I have who they are I would not do that I would not put children in my video only idiots would do that Let's Get Serious folks you've got a lot of great education here Harvey Yale the Wharton School Tufts William and Mary Colombia you're a dean of a school man correct doctor who's a dean of a Mass Maritime
009Mr Burke you think that we we don't address the citizen speak I'm so sorry fine okay thank you sir I want to be part of this okay and I expect all the parents to be part of it too they're bullied in this town they're all bullied I can't believe this how afraid they had to come out and talk to you I look at Mr Jet and know what I think of a person that's made it on his own thing not what he looks like ma'am I'm looking at you right now you made it because you you worked hard man the same thing they didn't appoint you you ran for her office and you won you won you won you won you won you want you want new one fantastic that's America this is good they
010sit here and be able to speak to you and I don't want to raise my voice it's really not my style okay I went to these schools I love this town and I don't want people to say I gotta leave my town because I'm being bullied that's nonsense that isn't America that's some third world dictator pole plot Hitler Stalin Nazis this has got to stop I expect you people I expect you people to stand up and let's go put the point of view out and let's move forward this is not personal this should not be held by government money if you do this we'll give you some more money I couldn't believe the Secretary of Education talking like that today so Mr Burke can you wrap up your comments I'm going to wrap up thank
011you so much I can't I want to thank you so much I really do it was Flag Day on Monday I want to give you want to give the American flag it's the greatest country on Earth thank you so much if there's a better one let me know show me the greatest country of all time we have our moments thank you sir we have our moments we can get past this thank you Mr smart people here that wanted to help you can't bully them anymore no more bullying thank you ma'am thank you very much thank you sir God bless God bless America thank you Mr Burke um is there anyone else here for citizen speak I don't see anyone though that's all right thank you sir all right all right so we can have acknowledgments
012next um I forgot to say if it's all right with you Mr death that we can take off our masks while we're speaking okay good thank you sir all right so I just want to start off by saying that we had a fabulous retirement um ceremony out in the Outdoor Classroom or the courtyard I want to thank the retirees who are able to make it it was a beautiful evening Mr jet shared some thoughts and feelings from their colleagues co-workers and long time friends and I want to wish all of them luck in there in their future endeavors I'm sure Mr jet might address that in the superintendent's report I don't know but I just thought I would mention it because it was so lovely and now we would like to thank someone as a
013school committee Mr Mike Lynch if he would be so kind as to come to the table we would like to thank Mr Mike Lynch for his work um all these years for our Milton Access TV and particularly the work he's done for us so I'm going to turn it over to Ms Ada rosemarin she has some comments for this evening thank you he said it was okay so Mike Lynch is a executive director of Milton Access TV where he's designed and supervised the renovation and construction of their TV studio that's located at Pierce Middle School he's been executive director of Milton Access TV since 2012 is responsible for the Studio's administrative operations budgets employee and volunteer management filming and programming and he reports to a nine-member executive board on which the school committee is represented
014by me in the last few years Milton Access TV schedule reflects wide experience and his wide experience in directing filming programming and generating ideas public and candidate forums Town elections local meetings features and educational series and cooking shows authors programs talk shows film critics children shows and more and I was lucky enough to get help from Mike Lynch filming the year ago sorry you're going to kindergarten video back in 2012 which is a long time ago but Mike was really just wonderful being down on the floor with his cameras filming kindergartners and and helping us with editing and and putting the video together in 2002 Mike received the community Builder award in Milton for his work with best buddies and his interaction and activities for children with special needs I had just so happened to
015be honored to receive the same award in that same year and I was so impressed with Mike who was still in high school at the time when he received that award I think he was the first high school student to receive the community Builder award so he's he's had these skills of building Community for a long time Mike grew up here in Milton and at the age of 15 he began as a volunteer at Milton Access TV working on the show Milton speaks he's a graduate of Milton High School from in 2003 and went on the Quinnipiac University graduating in 2007 with a bams Communications Mike has been the go-to person for the entire town during the pandemic he recorded and made available remote public meetings on zoom and many many of them and oversaw
016the technical end of two remote Town meetings this year which again enormous kudos to you Mike is the grandson of the late great Bernie Lynch who also committed many years as a volunteer in Milton including on the board in the Milton access TVs TV and and Mike follows and some wonderful footsteps Mike leaves big shoes to Phil and his role as executive director of Milton Access TV but we wish you well in all of your future endeavors and on behalf of the school committee we want to thank you for all you've done for the children the families and the public schools here in Milton thank you we have a little gift for you you wouldn't mind having thank you so much anything Beverly go ahead to understand how many people appreciate what you did to
017bring us the first many years of your career and especially this last year there were people who normally would not be civically engaged if it wasn't for your capacity to make our town meetings our school committee and the many other committees available to people and I hope you know how much it was appreciated and I wish you all the best I would like to add I had the luxury of knowing my many years it started out to Pierce when he worked and helped design and put together the studio over at the business and then at the high school and in the partnership with this area right here along with the the technology and having our students have access to this as well I think it was a great opportunity in addition to be in the
018conduit between the local public schools and the community and just providing the community as a whole with information so without question and there are times that I've called late last minute and he's always come to the arrest people back we just did that um he says I got you so I do want to uh thank you because that's a testament to your commitment and dedication and uh I wish you the best of uh the best of luck in your future and I know you're going on to work with in the family business so kudos to you thank you yeah thank you everyone uh good at these things but um uh thank you I've really enjoyed working with the school department um not my Access TV has a really special relationship with the schools we're housed
019in one of your buildings and I know that we've always been involved I feel as the years go on especially this past year anytime the school department had an event or any one of the individual School sound event I usually was the first phone call to see how we could get that out to the community so thank you for you know working with us and allowing us to do that um I am confident that the staff I have trained and nurtured over the past 12 years will continue on so you shouldn't notice a missing step or anything um and I uh because I love this town so much and I love Milton and my departure for Milton cable is a little sudden uh and sooner than I thought I am going to continue on and
020serve on the board in the volunteer capacity so to continue on my grandfather's Legacy from cable so I'm not going too far please know if you have a very neat thing I'm here but thank you and the gift was unnecessary but thank you thank you thank you all right thank you so much all right all right chair ever hard can I mention one thing that wasn't mentioned and that is um I believe it was last year although although the years are blurring together now with the pandemic um we took the school committee meetings on the road that's right so we went to every single school and broadcast from there not in our place here where everything's already set up so Mike and his team had a huge heavy lift and to just get everything ready
021if we were at calicot Cunningham Glover Tucker or Pierce and so I want to thank him for that because I I know uh it was a heavy limit that I totally forgot about that that's right I think everyone was yes that was thank you Charlene was ready to to us in then as well yes go ahead of course of course I'd also like to thank Mike he's been very helpful to me in my capacity on the town as well as my change over to the schools but also every bit is important I want to thank Mike and his colleagues for their service to the parents when we couldn't attend hockey games and basketball games and our children's events so they were there to broadcast them over YouTube or whatever vehicle and as a parent to
022be able to see my kid from my home when I couldn't see them in person that was huge and I'm sure there's a lot of parents out there that feel the same way so I just wanted to also say a special thank you for that Mike because I do think you and your team always go above and beyond and you're going to be very missed and thank you so much yeah yeah that's very true they've also been streaming like fifth grade days and graduation and the award ceremony and um yeah this has been quite the year and uh we were deaf you were definitely our partner in this journey so we wish you but we know you're here so we can find you [Laughter] we can find you all right thank you so much all
023right thank you Mike all right Mr superintendent jet you are up next with superintendent's report so thank you before I get into the report I know you alluded to the Celebration acknowledgment we had prior to the school committee meeting and I think it's a I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to announce the retirees from Milton Public Schools this Academic Year in this setting um I won't get into autobio's we will be sharing the BIOS with uh Milton times um and hopefully broadcast that out but I do want to acknowledge 10 people the Milton public schools that worked hard over the years and are now enjoying retirement uh the first is Barbara palconitis the longtime payroll officer for the Milton Public Schools we have Jeannie scroy long time nurse she's over at
024the calicot elementary school Alison Joyce who was a partner in crime in the same vicinity at the Cunningham school they shared an office that's Alice and Joyce Mary down and tipping a long time special education teacher at the middle school and Elementary level Mary McCarthy over at the Glover School Joan Dao Mary Boykin two of our teachers who taught remote this year as I said earlier they taught two different grade levels the entire curriculum for the entire year and we commend them for their hard work dedication and commitment not only to the students but the Milton public schools and the fan and the families of our students Carol hunt long time Food Service Personnel work worker she was a tremendous asset to the Pierce Middle School in a bright moment in the students day as
025they they walked through and they saw her every day in the cafeteria of course Glenn pavlichek um assistant superintendent of business for the Milton public schools and finally Mary Gormley the former superintendent 46 years that she contributed her life Blood Sweat and Tears to the Milton public schools and I just like to take this opportunity to thank all of those folks for their years of service their leadership their mentorship and everything that they've done to brought the school to this point and we hope that we could carry on that Legacy in a positive way so I just want to thank all of our retirees at this point so thank you at this point on the agenda and I know a lot of people have asked for an update on the equity audit and we were
026hoping that we would have opportunity to do that this evening we're still waiting for the final version of that report but at this point in time I would like to ask Somali proc Martin who is the senior Equity Director of Education to come to the to see if she would give us a quick update on on the equity audit yes it is yes good evening good evening thank you for having me uh so the our projected timeline of the presentation for the equity audit report will be in July July 21st we are still working with Cambridge to finalize the report um and create a presentation that is going to be easily more digestible instead of just a whole bunch of numbers but actually makes sense of what those numbers really mean and what it looks
027like um so that's the update on the you know the report but I would also like to publicly announce the five community members that actually made into the steering committee we had a intense training with our selection committee that many people applied to be part of I think my selection committee actually spent almost 16 hours together developing relationships being able to have discourse looking through rubrics and identifying characteristics and diverse components of what we want to see in the steering committee so the five that made it to the uh the final realm and and is part of the team the first I would like to say is uh so proud that it's a student Giselle de manche is and I hope I am pronouncing that name correctly and I I'm sorry if I'm not Giselle
028eighth grade student from Pierce part of the mayak member and also a msapc member we have Shelley Sturdivant Community member and parent of eighth grade Twins and a member of the Pierce Dei committee Mac de la Sandro Milton resident and parent of two Milton high school students Meg Matthews parent of two Tucker students former Tucker site Council and Tucker board member and Mark member and Monique de Barros which is a Milton resident and parent as well so I'd just like to congrat congratulate you all in public as saying welcome to the team we're about to really embrace the work and dive in that's all the report I have that's great thank you anyone have any comments questions feel free go ahead I just want to say I I know most of the members of that
029team interestingly and you've got a great team there that's um that's excellent and thanks for putting in all that hard work and you know making sure that you got a A I hate to say the right fit but the right team that you were looking for for this Equity audit I do have a question for the chair when is our meeting in July so we're we're discussing that in our when we get down to uh okay I just wondered if it was going to be after uh the 21st yes yeah so I just want to put it out there that I didn't personally select this group of people um what happened was I put out to the community an opportunity for people to be part of the selection committee and all who applied to be
030part of this election committee how to commit to a time commitment around professional development and being able to you know work together team and all that other stuff that we worked on and that committee used a rubric and calibrated on the rubric to determine who the who the steering committee members are I had no say I was just part of the facilitating process so I just want to put that out there that these five actually came up through this intense process of being selected so I also would like to put a plug in if there are any Educators in Milton listening please apply we are doing phase two of the steering committee application process the application was sent with Mr jett's information separately if you also can't find that email please feel free to contact
031me we are looking for educators in Milton to be part of the team we can't do this work without that crew so we got to do that together from Members yeah so we're looking at a two-year time commitment because can't do work around uh Equity or work that requires diversity perspectives and inputs and you know listening to all voices and respecting people's rights and opinions without building a community where you can have that type of conversation and that type of pushback and that type of you know thinking in a way where it's no one's bullied or no one is afraid to say what it is that they they believe in and how they think things should go so that requires relationship building so that's the reason why we're looking at a two-year time frame for
032that commitment hopefully we can scaffold new members in and still have old members so that can continue to transfer with some mentoring but we are going to be doing a lot of professional development the thing about Equity is you can't bring people to the table without equipping them to do the work that you're expecting them to do at the table can assume people are coming with skill sets we have to identify what skill sets each person needs in order for them to work together in a way to move that work so the process itself is a process that we need to consider when we're talking about equity and not just the result and that's the reason why that two-year is so important and there would be a two-day Retreat that is going to be required
033in the summer because it's about again building relationships and knowledge base and learning how to data dive using protocols so it's not subjective is objective there's all of these training pieces that have to come to play so when we have students at the table we have to equip the students to be able to be at the table with Fidelity if we have a mom who has never stepped into any type of work in this manner we have to equip that Mom to be able to be at the table to provide us with the feedback that we need to in order for us to move this work in an equitable manner so yes there is a time commitment so we're looking at a two-day Retreat the first three months will be two two-hour workshops each month
034um and that's in addition to like our actual meetings to go over things but the workshops to build the skills and then we're going to continue with two-hour workshops every month and the first year we'll be focusing on building skill sets getting everyone um able to be at the table the way they need to be at the table and building relationships and then also data diving and identifying what the needs are and how that fits into the district and the uh and the um what's the word I'm looking for so we have the equity review and then we have the why did I just go blank you mean the plan the Strategic plan yeah thank you the Strategic plan yes in um culminating those two pieces together and making sure that it's being aligned and
035that all students are being served I know there's a huge question on equity and how some people are using Equity synonymous with race and that's not it at all if you are reading any of my newsletters there the last week's new newsletter actually has a little bit about equity and some educational videos on what Equity is so feel free to plug into that it's on the website to ask and I'm always open to having a conversation because I think there's a lot of misinformation out there or misunderstanding or whatever the case may be yes was he good thank you so much Somali for this update um and I'm really excited to see the work of the steering committee going forward and also glad to hear that educators will still have the opportunity to participate um
036I just have one sort of question or comment um I know that it was wonderful the number of community members who applied to beyond the steering committee including a lot of parents with you know very important lived experience and also professional experience and expertise in leading change for equity in other settings and I understand for the various reasons you just laid out not everybody who applied is able to be included but I'm just wondering what are the plans to sort of give perhaps other opportunities for these people who have clearly indicated their commitment and their interest in being part of this conversation and our continued work on this area how like what other opportunities will there be for them to stay engaged to be invited to participate perhaps in other ways even if they were
037not you know among these the small number included in the steering committee great question okay so I will answer that this way so I I yes I am the senior director of equity but I cannot do this work by myself I'm always tapping into other resources other groups other members other expertise to say hey I need help with this that's going to happen again when when yes we have this steering committee but the steering committee is going to tap into other groups to get to do the work there will be plenty of opportunities to engage in this work that is it's you know critical to making sure that all learners staff and students are you know equipped with what they need to do to be successful and to have those types of opportunities and that
038looks differently and the stages and the phases of this work is going to look differently and that is all going to be the responsibility of the steering committee of critically thinking about how do we involve stakeholders in this process and continue to involve stakeholders in an authentic way I mean I I want to emphasize authentic again we can bring whoever we want to bring to the table but if we're not doing our due diligence to equip them to be at the table with Fidelity then it's not authentic so we we have to strategically think about what that looks like so plenty of opportunity will always be there so and if I could just add one piece Somali and I had a conversation about the potential rollout that we're trying to just wait until we're absolutely
039certain when um Cambridge education had finished that but in terms of community conversations you know people might not have to make that 10 hour 12 hour two year commitment whatever the case may be but these These are going to be ongoing uh conversations that we're going to have with the community in to somali's point and she's reminded us all over and over again we're gonna this is going to be a fluid situation and and it's going to be an ongoing situation and uh people have entry ways into the process over the course of time throughout the year whether it's your Dei groups what are your your PTL groups your MFE group you know whatever the case may be uh and then just parent information sessions we're talking about the possibility of having some uh you
040know whether it's the back to school night which is the most heavily kickoff night of the year and obviously that time's limit but how could you put pieces and bids out there where people understand the one thing I will say is when information comes out we talked about different venues to get the information out and making it uh uh user-friendly or or Community friendly what I'm asking people not to do is to take information from Facebook that's put on Facebook it may not always have the proper context if you have a question reach out to the Milton Public Schools through Somali so we don't run into a situation where it is misleading or people are misinterpreting uh what's being presented yeah and I would definitely like to add on you know the statement that was
041made earlier by Ron or Rob oh Rob I'm sorry Rob about um you know the The Bullying component and you know we're all human beings trying to do this work trying to be the best that we can be and do better and be better always and the conversation should come in a very in a way where it's not one side being bullied to the other side it's about working together to understand the differences and where we all are coming from and then using that information to to ensure that all students are going to be served and provided opportunities to be successful and all Learners even staff too so my ask is let's approach the conversation but let's approach it in a way where it's respectable on both ends and not about bullying one another and
042um I just want to state for myself being an immigrant coming to this country speaking English as a second language I love America and I know I don't know what the narrative is about me out there but I will say I love America I love what America has done for me and my family I can't even talk about it without getting teary-eyed and I I love myself as much too but that doesn't mean that there are things about me that I don't think about improving every day so thinking about improving bits and pieces of me doesn't negate the fact that I don't love myself so I love America I just think there are parts of America that we just need to do better and be better and that's why I do the work so I
043just want to set the record clear and I personally from my own self want to thank you for stepping into this role during this time that was so difficult and you stepped into this role with so much grace and so much kindness you listen to everyone you respect every opinion you work with people no matter how they feel no matter what's being said in the community and I know that you have the children at the center and the community at the center and I am your ally in this work and we will make things better for all students in this community we will honor and respect the traditions of every member of our community and we will work to help everyone understand what we mean by the words we use and the lingo that we
044use so that everyone feels a part of the conversation so just myself personally and perhaps me I speak on behalf of the whole school committee and the administration when I say that you stepped into a role that was very difficult at a time when we didn't do such a great job of helping that and we are all working to keep children at the center to move this to keep this town its honor and tradition but to make things better for everybody so I can't thank you enough for the hard work that you're doing and I look forward to the work that we're all going to do together as a community thank you yeah and lastly I just want to say we all want to move forward we just want to make sure everyone is moving
045forward not just some exactly to come thank you so much thank you oh you're locked out keys all right thank you for Dr Craig Martin's all right all right Mr jet you're on again sorry next on the agenda is the enrollment we talked a little bit about this um and although I'm gonna present some numbers up throw a little caveat in here today because we were just doing another round of registrations and um just today alone we added in 30 more students to our account as of last week and I would continue to update these numbers as we go uh last week last Friday we were at 4 390 students today alone was 30 students added to that but we had a couple of folks sprinkle in on Monday and Tuesday for next academic year
046the collie caught at the time of the tallies for next year we're going to be 594. Cunningham was 614 that included a pre-k program lovers 594 Tucker 447th with Pre-K Pierce Middle Schools 990 and then Milton high schools when you stop to look at the lower grades next year as of uh as of Monday excuse me today's Wednesday and we still had to place a few more students we're up to about 350 kindergarten students coming into the Milton Public Schools it is a challenge and we had it close to about 48 students out of that four thousand three 190 that exited the Milton public schools that are coming back to the Milton Public Schools they they took a one-year Hiatus which we all knew about and we anticipated their folks will be coming in but
047I do want to thank you I do want to make a public acknowledgment because we've talked about this throughout the last eight months August is one of our biggest months for new students moving in and um so I just shared that with the general public because that may be a strain on us but that's a number that's unknown at this time so I I do put that out there publicly uh we're at June 16th and and those are our numbers so we're currently close to about 4 420 something students as of today hey and last week that was so that's about a 60 61 63 uh student increase from last year's enrollment as of today and it doesn't account for any move-ins between tomorrow and the start of the new school year Romans I will
048say that um you know many districts are actually seeing a decline in enrollment um it's find it interesting of course we have a wonderful school system so people of course would be coming back and moving into town but yeah that's um yeah yeah I think some some other entities in town were predicting that you know our numbers went down a little bit in the pandemic because people some people took their their students out and sent them to private schools but this proves that our numbers are incredibly high and going to climb so um yeah and we're gonna we're gonna once again run over the number of kindergarten classes that the schools were built for we have every year for many years so that just increases the problem uh again and again so yeah I mean
049it's nothing no one anyone here doesn't know but so to to speak to that point I'm sorry uh a member uh Ross Denny to speak to that point the vast majority of students that left it came back were at the kindergarten level and it wasn't because of the dislike for the Milton public schools in my eyes it was because it was a convenience they had the financial means to put them in a private placement but 23 students The Lodges out of all of the grades 23 students returning for grade one with 10 new students coming into grade one so you're talking about just right there in grade one alone there's 33 students and they're not kidding got a kid and got in uh grades I mean numbers are up as well yeah I'm sorry about
050that no it's okay earlier this year we talked about the plan to use the extra space that was identified at each one of the elementary schools do you anticipate that we're going to use all of it was like two classrooms online at the Cunningham and then it was going to gradually increase as we went into the next school year are we going to use what we anticipated or are we into what we thought we would need for 2022. so as of right now I think we are good but what I cannot anticipate is the new enrollments and what grade that they move in and what school they move in so right now we have some space at the Cunningham College we identified that we're already and we're finalizing those orders under the capital uh requests
051so we'll finalize that we did that the same at the Pierce Middle School we did it at the Glover school we convert in two spaces um Bob Patterson has just ordered some of the materials or put into order for some of the materials the technology to make sure that that happened and the same thing for Tucker so as of right now we anticipate dissipated a higher number so we should be good for the next year but like I said I just can't predict it's a fluid situation in terms of what what transpires in between July and August but I I'm hoping in praying that we're in good shape but I will say you know to uh Chia abahad's comment uh there's something about the Milton public schools and the community that's tracked in a lot
052of people um so the numbers that pierce or sorry if you wanted to say something that's a lot wow like 990 I don't isn't that what they have now yeah it's about what they have now and I and I think what happens if you look at it is only like 161 student difference between the high school yeah we have four grades at the high school and three at the middle school so it is a challenge well thank you okay just sorry I didn't see you I apologize I was just say this this conversation with Mission with closely after enrollment projections and and the um the ins and outs of enrollment and how that affects our application to the school building authority and um Sean O'Rourke a chair of the school building committee put together a
053graphic that I think really tells the story well so that people understand exactly what the situation we're in right now and what the enrollment projections tell us um and and don't tell us what the Packers are all right all right we look forward to that report after um okay and then I think we have one more item item agenda item dual enrollment it was a dual enrollment if if folks recall two school committee meetings ago uh uh Milton High School principal Karen kahoe did a presentation regarding the dual enrollment uh opportunity we had or we're working on with Quincy College in Curry College there were a lot of questions that were raised at the last meeting prior to any vote being taken and unfortunately some of those questions are still remaining particularly with curry college
054and we understand it it is a challenge it's a busy time of year for folks uh I I believe do you guys have the responses in your packet uh if not I will go over some of them I have I have them here on my okay so I do apologize one of the question was uh the mou states that the cost uh this is for Curry College is 375 uh dollars per credit hour in the classes three credit hours is that a clerical error um unfortunately uh principal Cahill was still trying to get the confirmation on that um with this for that specific question and has not gotten it as of earlier today the question a second question for the calorie College mou was Will participation in this course count towards the minimum Ela requirements
055uh to graduation or is it considered elective it will count towards the senior English class requirement at Milton high school that was one answer the agreement says qualified participants will have earned senior year 12th grade status with the B average 3.0 cumulative grade point average what does this mean basically in order to participate uh the senior at Norton High School must have a b average at Milton High School to kind of participate in that program so there's still some unknowns about the Curry College which we understand it that might make it a little more challenging to do to vote but as far as Quincy college is concerned uh will the courses be delivered by Milton uh Public School faculty and staff at the high school with the knowledge and the content uh expertise the answer
056to that is yes under Quincy College if yes is a portion of the tuition coming back to the Milton Public Schools the courses are taught by Milton Public School faculty but there's no tuition coming back to Milton Public Schools but the teachers afforded the opportunity to add the title of adjunct teacher to their resume as they will be teaching a course for Quincy college so unfortunately we're not getting money back but it is an opportunity for our teachers and I know that's kind of a tough sell but it is an opportunity for our teachers and our students to gain that um so at this point in time unless there's other questions um whether you wanted to vote to allow well I don't want to make a motion to that but you can think about you
057thanks sir um and work those details out or we can continue to explore those opportunities I just had one follow-up question related to if a student I have a feeling that in fact Curry College is going to be the three times 375 yeah it is what it is for kids who can't afford it do we talk about whether or not there's some sort of funds that can be raised to help subsidize it because my concern is that is literally going to be a restrictive opportunity if you can't afford a thousand dollar class while it's cheaper than a four-year University it's a sizable ask for a family so that's a very good question I will say yes do I have the specifics on that right now no I think that the general public should understand the
058generosity [Music] provide the PSATs to all students in school we also do a support system and and provide financial support for our students that may need it in terms of advanced placement courses we have always tried to find ways to do that and I'm proud to say this past year even during the pandemic we had over 360 high school students take over 800 and something AP exams so I know there's a lot of conversations about lowering expectations but the reverse is happening in the middle Public Schools when students matriculate through the programs they do have to open they do have the option to take these more rigorous courses in the final thing I would say about that those AP courses are open enrollment any student can take them uh as long as they commit to
059the contract do the work over the summer and sustain to try to scaffold support for those who need it yes um I would like to table this until we get answers to some of the questions like the the question that Beverly raised um as well as well my own particular opinion about this situation with Quincy is that if our teachers are doing the teaching um and we're just sending money to Quincy and providing them with a with a cohort of students our students are getting something out of it yes but but it seems ridiculous to me that that that's the situation that there's no funds coming back to the Milton Public Schools however I would like questions answered before before I personally vote on this if we decide to vote I'll upstate Lizzy go ahead
060just a question on that um is there any sort of negative consequence to delaying the vote does it compromise our ability to move forward with these opportunities sort of during the summer if we were to delay voting on it and I I would at this point in time I would agree with Dr Craighead because I I can't answer that and I in most of our students have already selected their courses as part of their course of studies so I can't imagine it would but I can't say that with confidence that it will or it won't for this Academic Year it could be for the second semester or second part of the years but I can't answer that so I think as Cahill had sent the answers to the questions um she did mention she she
061said would we consider separating the two and vote vote for perhaps just the Quincy College one since the it's clear what the answers are there the the Curry College one the answers are not clear but I I hear what you're saying Elaine that you have concerns about um the fact that teachers are paying I mean excuse me teachers are teaching the course but um but there's no fun there's no funds coming back either to the teacher or to the district I'm trying to the students are paying the money to Quincy college so that they will have a college credit on their transcript which is great for the students but it's also great for Quincy College because they're not providing anything except for the credit on the transcript right right so I think I mean I
062want to thank um as we did last time I know you all agree with me thank Ms Cahill for our innovation in trying to move something like this forward I think probably there's a lot of stumbling as we try to figure something like this out I'm not sure what something like this would look like um you know what we would agree to that would be beneficial to both students and to the district so I think the only barrier Lizzy would be that if we don't we're not voting on it it won't be in the program of studies and the opportunity would occur later in the year perhaps like in January so I think if we have questions and they're they're reasonable questions I I all the questions that were raised the last time are reasonable
063I just don't know I think we we would either have to um be a someone would have to probably be a part of that conversation with Miss Cahill and the school and either look to other districts who do this and what are what are the what are the benefits back and forth for each party involved um I could share just as a personal example um and I don't anticipate that would happen in Milton let's start with that I grew up in Upstate New York with the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology had land that was owned by our town and the relationship was if you had a b you could take those classes for free I don't know if there was a pilot this is Upstate New York mind you right but there
064was there was this level of reciprocity and I don't want to delay the opportunity for our students to have graduate college credit but I agree with Elaine like I would love to have had this hammered out because if it was I would happily approve it one of the town meeting members a couple years ago asked me to find out what contract they used and I was in all fairness I called my town they were they they were not as willing to share those materials but I do think there is an opportunity for negotiation I just feel bad about the delay for students but I would rather have something firm that we felt comfortable with before rushing in because maybe it's not a matter of there's a cash disbursement coming back to Milton Public Schools but
065maybe it's free PD for our teachers or there's some sort of negotiations you're you're getting a cohort that you didn't have to earn you didn't have to recruit right Milton public schools are giving it to you in in response to that you'll get free meeting space or you can get there's something that Quincy College may be willing to do that's not onerous because they're you know they're a small school but something that shows we appreciate that Milton wants to partner with us and that you're going to give us a cohort of kids and in return for that your kids are going to get college credit and we're going to do this for the Milton Public Schools or to address your other question so perhaps subsidize you know a certain number of students who can't afford
066to take the class in return for what we're what we're providing for Quincy here and I do want to go on record I mean I I advise students on the college level I I have been a faculty member on the college level looking at transcripts for many many years now these are great programs I am not trying to hold this up I I'm not trying to like put a stone wall up or anything like that I just um I just want it to be an equitable situation no I yeah I think that those are very fair and valid questions those are valid questions to me other thing we we had a tentative conversation uh last year and then lost or two years ago lost traction yeah and even if it was something that helped us
067with space we're allowing our students to lead as a perk for seniors to help with the enrollment right but they take the class out of College University and get that college experience at least for one one class but uh we could definitely get these answers to you and uh and maybe one of us should reach out to miss Cahill as the as the um body responsible for accepting the contractor we should maybe one of us can reach out to her and say have give her our suggestions or ideas and then work with her to me and I I wrote them down in in that box now that the year has come into a close movie would have a little time you might have some time to do some work yeah no and like I said
068I think we're all in agreement that this is the um this is where we want to go for students right and this was when even when we were doing the uh surveys looking for the superintendent this was something parents were interested in sort of thinking about um for our town so I thank you to miss Cahill and her team and we look forward to having an agreement that we all feel comfortable with so thank you all of you for your for your thoughts and suggestions I'm so impressed with everyone's thought process all right so on to the chair report so that would be me um in your packet there are some Milton School Community subcommittee suggestions from what we talked about the last time um you know I look you can look them over I
069think um Lizzy already pointed out that it was Beverly who wanted to be on the consolidated um joint Town join Town School subcommittees is that right Beverly was that you that wanted to be on that not Lizzy right sorry that's right and and the inclusion task force I'm sorry say that again that is correct as well as the inclusion task force thank you I couldn't thank you that was the one piece that I had not written down I had a question mark there so thank you for helping me remember um you'll notice that um uh Beverly had suggested two new advisory committees for the school committee to consider and I had a conversation with um Beverly and Mr and I had a separate conversation with Mr Jet and Ada and so what we decided is
070at our Retreat we would like to discuss those two committees further sorry but further because there are two ta there are two task force that are attached to the Strategic plan that address both data and one of them and the other is curriculum and so we try we as we think about what things are going to look like in 2021 2022 and Beyond what the plan is going to look like do we what do we want to do about that how do we want to take the work that people are already doing as part of the Strategic plan do do we want to separate that what do we want to do as a committee along with the leadership of the superintendents to really firm that out in addition to incorporating the quality review information that
071we're going to get from director Martin so I think I would like to put those two committees on the side until we get to our Retreat and discuss them as a conjunction with part of separate from the Strategic plan um and so if that's agreeable I appreciate I've been doing some research too about other towns that have curriculum and instruction committees and and trying to get some more information about that that I can we can bring to the retreat as well and to think about because there are some things we really want to think about there's a lot on the table right now in terms of what's being reviewed the math curriculum they want to do a review of the history like those are in the cycle that we have um as we do curriculum
072reviews just because you might want to get new curriculum right so a lot of things to think about but those two aside these were the things that we discussed at our last school Community except for the changes thank you to those of you who suggested them um yes Dr Craig I'm willing to chair the policy subcommittee unless somebody else wants right so I was talking to um Lizzy Dr Carol and she was uh also saying she would even though it's her first year I think I think that would be wonderful um up okay yeah okay okay I think it's great policy is my favorite subcommittee as anyone who um not that I don't love Finance yeah love love Finance but I love policy because it really helps to move the district and to really set
073guidelines for everyone so um if if Lizzy you would like to chair and we would be supporting you always of course um in that in that uh capacity and Dr Craighead will chair Finance Dr Carol with chair of policy member white would chair Health and Wellness and then we're not doing transportation and traffic right now facilities would be members Rosemary and white and member Roseanne would share that strategic planning committee right now is currently member Rosemary um and we'll just leave it at that for now School building project committee is member Rosemary and members white and member Rosemary serves as a co-chair of that committee with a Community member Dr Carol is going to be the liaison to our student advisory committee and that's going to be a really rich experience I think because there's
074lots of opportunities in town happening around that and then doctors Craighead and Dr Carroll agreed to be part of the bargaining team for our Union negotiations Beverly rostany would like to do Town School consolidation committee and Dr Lynn Craighead and member white would do Town Capital Improvement planning committee yes brought you there yep I think we only get one rep so um so but you were used you've been doing it though and you wanted to continue right I did one okay so you're going to continue then that's fine she can do it next year oh she does have next year yeah right yeah exactly exactly um we don't have anyone for the mountain I'm sorry that's just me I'm done you know me with my pen um Milton foundation for Education we need to discuss
075that um uh members remember we'll be staying on for MPEG and then security we we put a table on that for now and then inclusion task force Beverly Ross Denny right yeah and I'd also like to serve on the MFE oh you would oh my goodness I love them if you also served on that board for many years um and then payroll warrant Dr Craighead has been signing both the payroll warrant and the vendor warrants do you still wish to do that Dr Craig yes okay um we appreciate that tremendously and then of course the appointed representatives of the five-year financial planning committee would that be superintendent uh Dexter it used to be Dr pavlichai yeah it would be yeah okay yeah yeah that's right yeah okay and then Mr superintendent yet you would be
076the special education collaborative attending those meetings okay all right so that's what it currently stands at um I don't I don't think we have to vote on them I think we just print them and make them available to the um community and then after our Retreat we will figure out what we want to do about um the other two all right and I would like to help on policy I know there's a lot of people in policy but we can I can I can figure it out we can figure it out all right thank you all I'm looking forward to a really productive year I think we have wonderful committees and members signed you up for everything five-year financial plan committee representative um okay so that's that's the subcommittee list I will neaten it up
077and get it off to Charlene for a final approval for now this will to be be continued then the last thing on here that I'll talk about is the retreat AKA and the school committee meeting so apparently I was wrong shocking um that we usually don't meet in July we usually just meet in August um the like the the Wednesday before this School opens so when we had our meeting the last time we said we were gonna have a meeting on July 21st yes yes yeah because we wanted the time to plan so we wouldn't go into the beginning of the school year so can we still use the 21st as a planning but according to director prank Martin's though what about the information from the quality review we would have it by then right
078we we should definitely have it by then they should have it earlier and the reason why we chose the 21st because we I thought we were going to school yeah that's my phone right so that's why I didn't know yeah that's the connection okay um but could we use the 21st and for part of our Retreat I know that um Dr Carroll has commitments earlier in the day as do I I'll be teaching um from eight to one every day we're not teaching I'll be working but I can take off early and we can come for a later part of the day okay or yeah I mean Dr Lizzie's busy until like I I couldn't get here before 5 30. right the other thing that oh here she comes another white um the other thing
079is we can do some of it remote since that was passed by it would be open to the public people could come just like they would on the zoom um but we could also do some of it remote because that was approved today right and that might make things easier congratulations am I no yes maybe it's just it's huge a lot easier when we can open a room and hammer things out okay that's fine so can we stick with the 21st fret so then for at least part of that time in the later part of the day have a retreat yeah okay is that is that agreeable to everyone the 21st yeah and if it's at five if it starts at 5 30 that's great it'll never take any time Perfect all right we'll do
080it later on we're probably gonna have to add another day half a day because I do think we have a lot to think about yes and um but if we at least we get started on the 21st um that would be helpful and I director Martin's had some suggestions about helping someone who could help facilitate the process or and if any of you have any suggestions that would be great if anything I wanted to know besides us of the six elected members will superintendent jet yes of course anytime we meet it's an open meeting for everybody yeah that's good people have come in the past all right so that's wonderful and then I will talk to Charlene about what the actual date is in August um uh for that meeting I don't I'm sorry to
081say that I get two Public School Systems the dates that schools are starting confused um but I will ask her all right thank you so much I'm done talking now um yes chair yes I know that you um wiped out my finance report because there's no vendor warrant tonight but I did want to just say something that'll take one minute okay about Finance is that one right go ahead all right um I just want to let everyone know that the school committee is working with the select board specifically the two Finance committees are working together the town has graciously offered some of their cares act funding that has to be spent by June 30th to the schools and Karen praval who is the director of Finance for the town and assistant superintendent of business Amy
082Dexter have been working together to figure out what of the schools expenses related to the pandemic could be funded out of that money from the town so it's in process great that's it could I just make one correction the cares act money has to be spent by December 31st but we're trying to close out some things by June 30th same I did the same thing thank you you're not alone let's go here all right the school building committee report is up okay [Music] um what What DOT she gave me three documents the PowerPoint well it it um yes you tell me if this is the right one hold on yep that's it yep all right and then I just have to great slime well Amy's getting that warmed up I'd like to just welcome Sean
083O'Rourke here uh joining us this evening that's the first time he's come to meet with school committee welcome the first time with James Jets got to actually see you in person realize how tall you are yeah yeah um but um Sean's Sean's been a wonderful um to step up and to the role as chair of the school picture our former chair Carrie Hurley needs to step down and worked closely and we've all worked closely with Sean and his leadership for this past year and it's been a great year and I thought I'd give Sean a little more a chance to introduce himself and let you get to know him a little bit thank yeah so my name is Sean O'Rourke I've been living in the town of town for about three years I grew up
084in Dorchester right next door so I'm very familiar with the town I'm the director of electrical engineering for a company called wsp here in Boston we've got offices worldwide I'm also on the board of directives for construction Managers Association of New England so I've been on that now for essentially a year um for myself I was trying to bring you know my background in engineering and construction to help the school building committee with my company I've been there 17 years I've worked on a variety of projects from Puerto Rico uh for trenobrano which was the first urban transit system down there uh all the way to San Diego for rental car center up to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco all the way back over to New York recently just completed LaGuardia Airport and we're
085recently before the pandemic working at JFK around the city I've done a lot of work with passport and currently working with the MBTA on a lot of projects so it's been nice but nothing compared to raising a four-year-old daughter and that kind of how I got involved in the schools a little bit I went to the information session for my daughter for pre-k she's at the Cunningham and during that presentation at pre-k they gave an over enrollment presentation from Dr Donahue previously and in that presentation was a graph and it just kind of jumped out at me it was the enrollment through the schools through over the years and how it all jumped up the question that I'm not one that really speaks publicly as you can tell I stutter a little bit as I
086get nervous but it's fine the but it jumped out at me on the graph as I was looking at it after 2008 enrollment just started spiking and going up when I I looked at it my question to Dr Donahue was you know you just finished the schools there was didn't you anticipate over enrollment more kids coming here for lack of better words if you build it they will come right and the answer was no and it was understood there was a simple answer because I'm sure there's a lot of complex issues that go into it but it was kind of a setup question for my follow-on was the talk about a new school and are you project projecting when you build a new school again are we going to build it correctly to accommodate that
087and the answer again was no so my end for engineering I'm like that doesn't make any sense I need to get on this board I need to jump on this I need to volunteer so jumped in volunteered a couple years ago and as aided can probably attest to just dove into the numbers I've been diving into the enrollment numbers the projections that NASDAQ does the square footage of all the schools what they're used for and how they've been converted so any any questions on the schools feel free I can answer them um so with that you know we've been pushing with msba we've submitted to them last year a statement of Interest which we hit on two factors both for overcrowding we put it in the msva denied our application last year which was fine
088there was a lot of competition for funding that was out there and there were other schools that obviously more need part of it too is you know the work that the teachers do our educational system hasn't suffered that much so when they were measuring some of those metrics that they use because kids are doing so well they're like well Milton's pretty fine but we know we're not so with that we're resubmitting and part of that process of resubmitting is coming for you tonight with our new revised statement of Interest the nice thing is as Ada knows and Ada thank you for all the work you've done on this of our committee did a ton of work originally to do it and to kind of rehash and to update our statistics for what we have now
089um the good thing about it was we were able to import last year's one so we didn't have to recreate from scratch which helped us with our timeline like it's due very soon so what Ada and I and I think James you might chime in a little bit too is we wanted to kind of run you through a revised statement of interest and stuff like that so Ada do you want to start with the beginning slides that you want me to do sure sure and uh just my dad also that Betty White is also on school building committee so feel free to chime in Betty I will yes um so um just to give you an overview of what the statement of interest is we um and what we need to do we are required
090by msba to get approval by both the select board and the school committee to vote to authorize the submission of the statement of interest to the msba so that's what we're looking for tonight is a vote to authorize the submission and it is the first of many steps in the msba school building construction funding pipeline we'll tell you more about that in a bit there are no commitments for the town at this point it was just putting it in and then seeing seeing where it goes and hopefully this time around we'll we'll have more luck and and get in but we aren't making any commitment and obviously there's no guarantee of acceptance by msba it is a very competitive process this past year statements of Interest were accepted out of the 71 submissions we made
091it through the first round of the sort of the first cut of 30 that that were considered as sort of the first cut and we were very pleased with that but there's there's more uh more to do so this is and I'll turn it back to Sean yeah so essentially the statement of interest is due in a couple weeks June 25th uh that we'll submit it um msba then you know takes all the revised statement of interest and also new statement of Interest so over that time frame uh the gather them review them and they'll be a similar process to what we went through before there's an initial cut that they they'll they'll they'll put a certain amount of schools out and allow a certain amount more after that cut they do formal interviews with
092them which will allow us you know for some of the enrollment uh stuff that you were talking about James of uh in August when they start spiking the good thing is we'll be able to have those numbers then to provide to them we don't have them today but they'll be in by that time and then after that you know the decision should come next year as far as whether we're accepted or whether or not and then as we get accepted if you go to the next slide please I'm looking at my computer I'm saying next slide no it's all good um no the next slide please okay sorry about that the once we get accepted to it this is basically a 270 day period where the the msba it's it's their first set of modules
093that they have So within those we have compliance certification a formation of a school building committee which the good thing is we're way ahead of them and already have one so essentially we just need to augment our committee to make additional members which we've already started doing because previously we're assuming we'd be uh accepted the educational profile um there's basically just the linear things that go along with it as as we go through that and that after that that will basically put us into a next module which is basically where you start bringing on an architect an engineer and you move that process through next slide there we go so this is kind of that slide uh that process that we're talking about the eligibility period the formation of the project team which is the
094engineer architect and owner project owner's project manager uh from there once we have them we lead into a feasibility study where we'll find land develop different options for that land or other pieces of land that they look at and then come up with the best option to jump into schematic design after that we'll get to a point where we'll have through schematic design a kind of better idea what the funding should be for this and we'll come to back to the town with the funding authorization that we need to do once that funding is approved we would go into detailed design and then after soon after that construction and close out so it is so so our um uh SOI is focusing on Cunningham school it represents um it's the one school you had to
095focus it on one of of your schools and we we framed the SOI as representing all the elementary schools but really the response is framed around all four elementary schools because they're all over credit it's not just one that needs that is overcrowded and the rest have have room or the like so that that was um Cunningham is the target school and we've applied under two of their priorities and priority two which is existing severe overcrowding and priority four which is prevention of severe overcrowding in the future um so we use the previous submittal as strong was saying as a baseline um for um for this year's SOI and we just updated it with um some of more of the facilities modifications that we've been doing we added in more information about the facilities maintenance
096work that we've done and addition additional information about current enrollment and then we go into existing conditions in the schools measures that have been taken to mitigate the overcrowding problem the impact of overcrowding on the district's educational program and a lot of it has been talking about non-traditional spaces converted to classrooms because that's really been our primary way of dealing with the overcrowding um and in the um um so I would talk about the difference between the number of students in the schools when we first opened all the elementary schools after one of the last ones were opened um in 2007 2008 school year there were 1873 students the school's capacities were built for 1900 students and this year the enrollment for and this is for pre-k to five is 2258 in in 2021 so
097it's an increase of 385 students since 2008 um however as you'll see later on and as we all know those numbers actually went down some this year because this year is an anomaly with the pandemic and so um we're we're submitting our soy with these numbers but we're also making a point repeatedly that yeah it dropped now but it's not going to be staying that way and all indications are are that is going back up and with a rebound and we're already on on our way there um as we know the the schools were built for 14 strands which is um 14 classes at each grade K to five and currently we're five classes short of 17 strands of K-5 so we we have already expanded the number of classes that we have in our
098schools that were built for much less and as some of you may recall we did an elementary space needs study with dra that was completed in early 2019 and their conclusion was that 10 years out from from that point that we would have a shortage of 26 classrooms so we have already converted over 20 non-traditional spaces into classrooms with five more projected for the next five years as we know we've gotten some funding from the town Capital funding to do those additional conversions yeah so as asada was talking about you know dra did this study a while back and their study was uh probably 2017-2018 because that's kind of when the presentations were being done um you know since then the town has foreign School building Committee in the spring of 2019 um and as
099they had talked about you know to mitigate this overcrowding they've been you know cannibalizing non-traditional educational spaces to make classrooms out of it um uh as some of you probably know kindergarten classrooms take up more space than a traditional classroom so as those kindergarten numbers are getting up and up those are pushing out some of the other classrooms to kind of move that stuff around and it's just the domino effect of once you re create one of those it offsets a number of other classrooms all the way through um so you know through that I mean one thing too is I met with Holly Cong Cannon a couple weeks ago to go over some some studies that I was doing and we couldn't meet in our office it was being used for testing so um
100you know your principles and stuff like that don't even have office space that they can operate out of professionally that just unheard of so it's it's and they're doing that to allow the students to do that so A lot of people are sacrificing a lot of stuff right now you know for the betterment of them students next slide please the impact on overcrowding um yeah the class sizes are starting to get bigger you you're limited by the square footage that you guys have in spaces now people are working to convert some of the space but you guys are essentially out of space at this point that's going to lead to other kind of critical decisions that come over the next couple of years as we go through this process the cafeterias are one of the
101areas that I became aware of doing the tours of you get to push these kids in and out through there so when people talk about expanding the the buildings to make more space for students there's functionality things there like pushing kids through a class through a cafeteria at different times you don't want kids certainly eat lunch at 10 o'clock and then having to go through a meter of the day for lunch so well theoretically yeah you can build more classrooms add-on to buildings put more kids in there there are limitations to it a lot of it too is you know art music computer labs all those additional spaces all those are gone um the playgrounds are all overcrowded and again this all comes to limited space you're having more and more students come into a
102limited amount of space and you're just the the square footage per student is is is reduced it's critical at this point and knowing the timeline of this program of this project it's just going to get worse over the number of years going forward next slide please perfect slide to transition to you know I expected increased enrollment you know I mean uh nestec's used to kind of project all these enrollment numbers you know they take into account a certain number of things mainly the way the the way they explained it to us for Rural communities they take live birth rates that are there and extrapolate those out assuming those kids transition right into school a while back when they were doing the schools and stuff they weren't taking real estate transactions and so as you said
103overlaying real estate transactions on top of this as we all know you can see all the full sale signs in the town empty nesters and moving out people with kids moving in and it as you overlay I can pull up one of the graphs at some other future meeting when you overlay that with the enrollment numbers they they're in line so did you get spikes in real estate transactions you have spike in early enrollment in kindergarten and fourth grade the other one that's coming up as everyone knows in town the 40b projects right we're looking at them the majority of the 40b projects more than 50 percent of the units that are going to be there are going to be two bedroom and three bedroom units that's going to lead to more children in the
104town so it's occurring you know I mean you can you can the problem with f40p projects too is NASDAQ doesn't take those into account right now they don't take it into account until the permit is issued and they know it's going to be constructed however we as a town know it's going to be constructed you know it's going forward so until those permits are issued they're not taking that stuff into account for their projections that's how it looks on the screen yeah yeah that was the problem yeah it was a graph that wasn't showing up on PowerPoint can you speak to it even though we can't see it yeah can I connect my computer think yeah it shows up here can I connect my computer to that you can connect over here because I'm I'm
105projecting you're rejecting it yeah but we can um yeah do you wanna uh we need an adapter I don't have one and whoops yeah you need a different adapter yeah yeah could you email it to her yeah yeah I tried repeatedly and and it wasn't coming through that's why I sent the Wikipedia I think they they already emailed it that's how you got it right yeah yeah yeah this is on um thumb drive yeah I'll just email you an image not the PDF so that way you can yesterday well he's going to get it out of my email okay everyone closed the eyes no you can see the emails that's all you do you can see how many I get a day yeah I can be able to like right and I'm doing this right
106here perfect which is what I think hers is so I don't know if it's name the same thing engineer always solving problems and sorry I would I would have called you Sean but Sean had about 50 things going on this afternoon foreign yeah I wouldn't essentially well yeah I'll do my best sorry yeah essentially what it does is you'll have the graphic in your handouts and you know we can make it public um uh through it what it does is it takes the actual enrollment that's there and it looks at it the last time you had to dip in enrollment was 2010 to 2011. and what we did is take the NASDAQ product projections at 2011 that showed a reduced enrollment at that point and then overlaid the actual and you'll see the actual skyrockets
107over so what we're doing is using that as kind of a graphic for the NASDAQ predictions that went on last year that are saying they're saying it's going to be a decrease going forward to just show they're not really there typically for the enrollment that the town's been doing it's basically about 1.2 percent per year 1.17 to be exact uh compounded every year so if you average it out if you take the actual enrollment numbers and look at that so with 2300 kids it works out to like 27 extra students every year that's a classroom every year so the timeline of this project really becomes critical because msba as we join with them it now becomes you know a seven to eight year timeline before we build a new school wow so you can do
108the math on there and just start seeing how much this is going to be a problem there one of the things I'm pushing is is there ways that we can work with msba to shorten that timeline through different Contracting methods and stuff like that so is that the yeah I was just passing the screen yeah and what I'll do you just pass that one so the bottom is what they projected in the top is the reality yeah so the green that you see I saw this Monday night unexpected lovely so it just okay yeah yeah not the most efficient way but thank you you're the best we can sorry folks um so um msba has some very specific required language for our vote on this and it's in your packets um it's like a paragraph
109long and I don't know if you want me to read this out loud yeah okay I mean it's basically um languages here having convened an open meeting today um that we are approving the submission of the statement of interest to the Massachusetts school building authority do June 25th for Cunningham school and the priorities identified are priority two and four for existing severe overcrowding and prevention of severe overcrowding expected in the future and it gives a little bit of a blurb about the enrollment numbers that that we just described to you and hereby specifically acknowledge that submitting this doesn't guarantee acceptance or approval and that it doesn't require any funding commitment from Milton or from msba so that's the motion somebody would I'd like to second that motion thank you [Music] good to discuss anyone Elaine
110um okay so first of all I'd like to thank you both for putting together such a thorough presentation and I wish that the viewers could see this graphic because it's it's very telling as to what NASDAQ has predicted in the past and what ends up happening so um and I totally agree with you that that it's it's going to go up not down I think some people may have looked at that slide in the presentation that showed the NASDAQ prediction of needing 26 classrooms in the next 10 years and seeing that we've already reappropriated 20 spaces and five more in the next few years and would say oh well then why did you need a new school building I thought you did a great job Sean of going through all of the things that we
111have lost by reappropriating those spaces everything from heightened pressure on bathrooms and cafeterias to No Art rooms or music rooms or computer spaces and libraries being taken away and these are the things we're taking away from our students so I am you know totally supportive of this obviously have been for years but um the other the other thing is even if we flatlined at the point where uh super almost called you principle superintendent Jed said where our enrollment of the enrollment figures he went over earlier in this meeting even if we were right there we need this building and I I know that that the numbers are going to go up um I I can't can't you know guarantee that but but it's been historically the case and I think it only makes sense to
112to say that but even if it didn't um we're in dire need of this building so that's my two cents so I just want to clarify Sean when you started your presentation you talked about the questions you had when you yourself came to a meeting but I just want to clarify for people who are listening in for the first time that 25 years ago the last school building um group did see that our enrollment was going to go up significantly and we were not allowed to build by the rules of this organization beyond our current enrollment so if we had if if at the time the S msva had given us the flexibility to build for what our projections were we would not be in this scenario right now so I think that people need
113to understand it wasn't like someone didn't do their Duty 25 years ago they did but we were not allowed to build beyond what our enrollment was at the time and you know I support this 100 percent that we should submit this however given if you've been watching if you watched the news last year during the pandemic and there was a lot of discussion about the state of the buildings across the Commonwealth we there are so many buildings that are that Priority One we are priority two because of overcrowding but Priority One still is a substantial amount of buildings and I work at a district where they were approved denim because one of the elementary schools is over 100 years old so we are competing against a lot of infrastructure needs that are significant our overcrowding
114is a is a huge problem but you know I there's a possibility that we're going to go through this again and come up with the same response and then we have to go to the drawing board to say where do we go from here and whether or not we could do some creative um ways to build a building without the support of msba the reason I didn't want to get into it too much but when I talked to Dr Donahue at that meeting and said no no like I said I knew there was a lot more that go went into it and you know with my education through msba through this process and stuff like that for others that might not know msba comes in and does their own projections on their own they'll take
115witness next year as part of our SOI but later on they'll do their own projections and what they say is based on that this actual spreadsheet that you can download you enter in what that enrollment projection is going to be and it lists out how much square footage they'll allow you to build so what that does is become for a lack of better or your template of what you're allowed to build anything bigger than that is non-reimburse based on square footage so that's one of the tricks that comes up when we're working with msva if there's additional things that we want to do as part of this new school that are outside those boundaries we don't get reimbursed for it so what it does is there's an advertised reimbursement rate from msba that's like 30
11635 the last thing we did the school we got a much bigger reimbursement number on that that's not going to happen this time so what happens is that 30 35 gets diluted so in reality talking to opms that I know in the business and stuff like that now that number goes down to 20 to 25 percent so it's p uh you know we'll talk about this new school and the process it's going through people that are in the mindset of what it was in 2008 and that reimbursement rate that was there they have to get educated very quickly that's not going to be there so part of that comes in what Betty was alluding to because it's such a small reimbursement rate over a long time period like we're saying in seven to eight years
117and if we get approved in 2022 we're talking 20 30 before the school gets constructed is it worth it to wait for that small amount of a reimbursement rate or is it better just going on our own knowing we can sacrifice we buy time so we we forfeit that reimbursement from msv that we know is going to get diluted we take the handcuffs off on the design and allow us to build what we want to build and then we get it done quicker and we address the problem in a much shorter time frame so that's something I'm going back to the slide to expand upon remember White's comment in Sean's comment about the 43 I mean the 40b projects those are not allowed to be counted yet until they're per minute correct we know it's
118coming and so to your point about taking off the handcuffs that might give us the flexibility to move forward and make those projections because again and I'm reiterating it because I know sometimes it gets lost to the general public that are not immersed in the conversations on an ongoing basis and they think that we're not doing our due diligence but in fact we are but we're just restricted the other piece about the buildings it's not just the space to pull them over if we don't get it we're talking about increased class sizes and and that makes this current spaces that we have a lot tighter and I think that's the piece that you know you want to make sure that we keep reiterating to the general public about that in in some cases it's a
119good problem to have people feel very confident about the town of Milton the Milton Public Schools but it is uh pushing us to the Limit and just add on to that I think to build the case it is to talk about class size ratios when you have 26 seven-year-olds in a room it changes how a teacher can instruct and while not all of us are teachers by trade I think people can understand that 26 to 1 is not the ratio you have and then I remember back in several years ago in California they had a very similar situation they had 30 and 40 kids in a class and I think Milton can do better than that and I think to your point about waiting for a 25 reimbursement we might need to have a parallel
120path that says if it doesn't come through what are we going to do yeah yeah so on that note you know that as we submitted our SOI last fall um people on my committee can attest to it and they've all done a great job of I was pushing everybody for plan B's you know we weren't guaranteed it was going to happen and if it didn't happen this fall and in the spring what was our plan so we have kind of Dove down multiple rabbit holes of Alternatives that we've looked at and stuff like that but we felt it would be best to still put in for the SOI right now uh we still have alternative plans that we've been working on that we're not ready to publicly talk about yet for stuff like that for
121public consumption but the plans are there for Alternatives that we're looking at that's good um also when when superintendent jet talks about the 40b projects are you know just going back and looking at the the last SOI there were five 40b projects in the pipeline then there are eight now the the total number of units for our last SOI was 635 we're now up to 771 units and as Sean mentioned more than half of those are two bedrooms or more so you know so if say half of 771 even if they had one child in each one of those that's another 385 kids potentially um but you know you will also see a lot of small units becoming available that people who have empty nests then downsize into those but then there are bigger houses
122with multiple bedrooms become available so it's a you know it's it um it kind of affects us both ways but um so this is this is the update any other questions or comments let's go I'm going to take a vote then I think the motion is on the table yes and seconded so yeah all in favor of the SOI motion on the table okay very good I would just like to thank um Sean and Ada and the entire committee for their work their ongoing work which has been over multiple years now and will continue to be ongoing over over at least another year or so and I do think having a plan B and a plan that might actually become the plan a if the funding is not available is really the way we should
123be thinking and you know we had had some other ideas on the table before about An Early Childhood Center about expanding some other species I don't know if those would continue to be conversations you have as opposed to just a new building but I know there was lots of conversation about those things as well and I just want to say for the viewing public that you know there was a lot of conversation during our meetings uh during the height of the pandemic that people were not aware of this situation and that they weren't um aware of our overcrowding so on June 16 2021 we updated the community in a very thorough way and gave a current configuration of what school will look like in September um and um projections passed and future that we have
124an overcrowding issue in the town of Milton we have we're running five elementary schools in four buildings our middle school has a large number of students only a hundred and something less than our high school so I just want people to be aware that those those issues continue to be part of the conversation they have been every single year that I have been a school Committee Member which is five um and um so we appreciate the community support and encourage more people to get involved in the conversation of how we might come to some conclusion about how to solve this problem yep all right thank you thank you thank you um yeah our next meeting agenda items I we will we will have our Retreat on the 21st and then um then we will have
125a meeting in August and I will imagine that at that meeting what we will talk about these programs of study we will talk about whatever updates we have on the quality review um plans for school and what school is going to look like in terms of post covid I don't know if that's even a word you're allowed to use um and in the reopening of school in September 8. if there's anything else that comes up obviously we'll add it as we go along yes Dr pegan I'm just wondering if we can I'm sure this is going to happen but I just want to say it out loud if we can get the August date before we meet next yes I think I think it's the Wednesday before um the Wednesday before so School opens on
126the first Monday oh yeah over here right thank you yeah it opens on the first right so my guess it would be the 25th August 25th okay yeah concerned about those having enough time for this Retreat we're gonna have to find another time as well it's not going to be yeah yes I was going to send myself we start with the 21st at least that'll get us somewhere yep um or if I don't think we were going to be able to find something before then because of everyone's schedule right all right so this is the last school committee of the year yeah well then you I would just like to extend my thanks to everyone the administrators the teachers the custodial staff but Food Service workers every single person who made this school year happen
127I know there were lots of lots of conversation around it but I'm very proud of the work of the Milton Public Schools I am very proud that we ran School in a pandemic in a hybrid in a remote gave family options were respectful of the needs of our community and we kept people safe and I I really can't say enough to all of you for all that if I don't know anyone wants to share their thoughts I I really just want to thank I want to end the year on that note thank everyone for the hard work it's it was a hard year and I'm grateful that everyone is safe and moving into the summer I guess I I would add as the interim and newly appointed superintendent I do want to thank members of
128the community and I would once again ask what I asked for all year a level of understanding patience and flexibility we've made it through one of the toughest arguably the most challenging Academic Year of My educational profession and I I really called the community this is a Time call of put a plea out to the community this is the time to come together put up put our students first uh let's set aside our differences work collaboratively and let's push forward in a positive in a productive way and uh we're looking forward to a new school year that we had a call with the commissioner today we were once again reminded that we will be in school full-time five days a week no social distance no Mass all things on the table including bus transportation I
129mean Transportation Sports performing and Fine Arts PE chorus the whole nine yards so that in itself is something that's optimistic that we all look for but more importantly I I call on the members of the Milton Community to really come together let's band together and push forward in a positive way so thank you all for your support um and look forward to a productive summer in a positive New Year I have oh everyone has a little summer I'm going to make a motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of conducting strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with Union and non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with Union and non-un Personnel in accordance with chapter 38 section 21 A2 and for the approval of minutes we will adjourn directly
130from executive session not to return to open session this is a roll call vote um member Ross Denny aye number one yes member Everhart yes remember Rosemary yes Dr Craighead yes Dr Carroll yes happy summer everyone stay safe