001I don't know if it's passing 6:30. I'm going to open the public hearing for the FY27 school budget for the Southern Wy County Regional Vocational School District Committee. With that, I'd like to ask everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. All right. Fire department regulations, notice of proper exits. >> You'll notice two exits located over here. In case of an emergency, just go out there and follow the emergency exit signs. If those are blocked, we can exit through the doorway located over there. Again, go through that doorway and the other exterior door and follow the illuminated exit signs. Thank you.
002Moving on, the superintendent reviews the FY27 budget through the chair. So, we have a slideshow this evening to the FY27 budget. Um, this is the governor's budget. It's subject to change as it moves through the House and the Senate on that. Um, so next slide, we highlight our core values. So, our core values are posted throughout every room. You can see a poster up here, our graphics department. Put them up. Um, own it. We take full responsibilities for our actions and their impact on our shared community. We proactively identify challenges, set and achieve goals, and hold ourselves and one another accountable for maintaining a safe and supportive environment. We strive for excellence. We seek feedback, learn from mistakes, and look for ways to enhance our skills and processes. We persist through challenges and setbacks and
003use them as opportunities for growth. We have an attitude of gratitude. We foster a culture of respect, respect, and appreciation by recognizing the value in everyone's work. every shared experience. We are thankful for our team, our stakeholders, and the opportunity to make a difference. Our gratitude fuels our collaboration and strengthens our relationships. We act with integrity. We take ownership of our actions and outcomes both individually and as an organization. Our words and actions align. We do what is right, not what is easy. We build trust by being transparent, reliable, consistent in all our actions and communications. Be kind. We are committed to building a community where everyone feels a sense of belonging. We treat each other with kindness, dignity, and empathy. We actively seek out and value diverse perspectives knowing that our collective strengths come
004from the unique contributions of every individual. The next slide is uh you're familiar with this. We use the same slide format year after year. Our FY27 budget summary. This is the statement of assessments. Um so we'll start with our chapter 70 money. We're receiving 14,92,363. We have a number in for school choice assessment. This is estimated at $350,533. Our minimum contributions from our 10 towns is $12,459,53. There is no assessment above the minimum. Our fiscal year 26 interest we add in and reduce u the general operating budget with $150,000. Um this is relatively new. Uh the second year we've done this. Our treasurer recommended putting our EMD in an interestbearing account and it's paying dividends literally. Um so we're happy to do that. Our EMD will be transferring u 75,000 to pay our oped transfer
005on that. So no cost to the towns on that. Total operation budget is 27,235,883. Our transportation budget for the for FY27 is $2,169,08. Of that, we received roughly 75% this year in chapter 71. That's $1,621,678. We offset the cost, the assessment to the towns with our transportation reimbursement fund. We're happy to do $100,000 this year, thus bringing our assessment to our towns to $447,331. Our debt service, again, you can see that our principal is um higher than our interest. We're paying that down and that total is 1,550 $428. No capital, no super betterment. Those have been paid down. So, our total FY20 27 budget for assessment, sorry about that. Missed the six. Um, our total FY27 budget for assessment is 30,955,319. We add in back our school choice of $350,533. That comes out to a
006total operating budget with school choice of $31,35,852. So, what's the impact on Bayath? The impact on Bayath um you can see on slide four year-over-year uh increase our chapter 70 increased uh 336,557 or roughly 2.3% over FY26. our minimum contributions. Although we're um not asking for the t asking the town for any additional over assessment, it's important for our towns to know that their minimum contributions have gone up. Uh, so that's $845,258 or roughly 7.3% increase over FY26 for a required net school spending increase of 1,181,815 or overall 4.5% increase over FY26. So again, I already stated although the assessments are at the minimum, it's important to note that the required minimum contributions each town must contribute have increased collectively by $845,258. November transportation's assessment has decreased by $52,670 due to an increase in the
007regional transportation reimbursement funds um as well as the additional 100,000 from a transportation reimbursement fund to lower that cost to our 10 pounds. to the next slide. Our total chapter 7 revenue is 14,92,363. Our school choice assessment again is $350,533. Our chapter 71 busing aid 1.6 million. And again, we're using our END uh to offset or pay down our opad liability to 275,000. and our interest earnings are 150,000. So the budget impacts um the budget impact overall is a multi-dep departmental qualitative and equitable review of the budget and staffing patterns of all our departments to maintain student services and minimal local contribution from all our towns. Health insurance is the most volatile. It's the largest increase. We had an unprecedented and unaccounted for 20% increase of sub during FY26 which results in 750,000 additional that
008occurred in October of 2025 uh through our health insurance collaborative group that we're a member of. We'll carry that 750,000 into next year. We'll have to pay this year and we're still looking to offset that. Um but that 750 carries over as well as double digit increase for health insurance next year as well. Right now um that stands at a minimum of a 12.5% increase and uh with our current provider. Yeah. And a high of 16% with our current provider. I do want to say that the volatility of our current provider doesn't leave us with a warm and fuzzy feeling that they'll be around. Um, April 1st is the deadline for any of the 73 communities to pull out of that. Um, and our feeling based on what we've seen in our forecast is that
009they won't be uh around or that stable very long. So we are awaiting we received our individual healthcare claims finally from the prov from our group insurance and our consultant or slow has sent that out for quotes. So we look to have those back within the next couple weeks on what ensuring ourselves going out on our own will be and we'll share that out and we'll have IA meetings internally uh with our bargaining units to talk about that as well. of the budgeting cap u impacts. We continue to use our so funds to provide social emotional support to our students as well as training to all our staff. Uh and this budget includes a contractual wage increase for all employees. We're currently looking at four collective bargaining agreements this year that we're negotiating. Freshman seat
010allocations are allocated annually based on the school age children population of our 10 towns. So you can see each individual town located on here for a total of 16,485 school age children in our collective uh draw area. We take that and we calculate the ratio. We take that ratio and then multiply it by the total number of seats we have available. 330. We're holding at 330 again this year. So you can see the allocation on that. Next slide is foundation enrollment. So that's incoming freshman. Foundation enrollment is the total number of students from each town that um is currently attending Bayath. So here you can see the FY27, FY26 and what the difference are between those towns that fluctuates just like the school age children population fluctuates. So some towns will have a higher draw
011allocation or a lower draw depending on that and you take the combination of all those. You can see the difference. Auburn, you know, uh will most likely ask about the $300,000 increase. that increases t2, you know, revenue, municipal revenue growth factor that the town puts in as well as 13 additional students on that. Charlton goes down 13 and so forth on that. These numbers are important for the next slide. So these are the statement of assessments. You can see all 10 pounds listed here. You can see the first column is minimum contributions. So we take the uh 12,459,53 And that's divided up for all the towns. You can see the foundation enrollment for a total of 1,237 students. Um, and we calculate the ratio and that ratio is used to uh divide up the 447,330
012assessment for transportation and you can see the individual town amounts there. capital population again with the ratio and that's how debt service or any capital improvement would be allocated on that. So you can see the total assessment per town um in the total assessment for all 10 is 14,456,811. The next slides break down per town or 10 towns of what their minimum contribution in a year-over-year um difference from FY26. So again, you can see that Auburn has an increase of $284,861. Again, knowing that it's a minimum local contribution um on that, but that's a combination again of the municipal growth factor that's applied by the DOR as well as the increase of 13 students on that. So their overall increase was up 16.16%. Charlton goes up 2.87. Um, again they had 13 less students on
013those. Dudley was up 8.07%. North Brookfield is down 11.07%. Oxford down 4.34%. Paxton up 17.52%. Rottland up 8.43%. Southbridge up 2.12. Spencer up 11.4%. Webster up 6.06%. >> All right. Thank you very much, sir. >> Question. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> So, that's what I was going to do. I was going to say questions from the committee and this is a public hearing. So, and from the public, it's just a little typographical. So, any questions, please let me know. Okay. Can we go back to the Paxton slide? Sure. >> Thanks. Obviously, it's good going to have to do some talking back at the ranch due to the heavy increase. Um, is it really just enrollment here? Is that all this is? >> I can look at Paxton Foundation. Enrollment >> can be enrollment and the
014marginal revenue growth factor. >> Paxton have five students. So good to have >> five students. Okay. >> They went up five students. They had 42 42 last year in f year um 2747. >> It's allocated. So um so that's a significant increase because that's the total tuition vocational tuition included chapter 78 and 74. Got it. Go ahead. >> Thank you much. >> Any other questions back to CH from there? Good. went down Thursday. Mike, >> can we have those uh spreadsheets sent out to the individual uh school committee members so that we have them going into the town uh VidCon meetings? >> They will be and that'll be the presentation that we always just wanted to have an advance. So, we will they were in the packet, but we will also uh before the meeting,
015we send it out because we'll send it to the town. Uh as soon as tonight's over, we start in Spencer tomorrow night and we'll send them a copy of this once appreciate it's approved. Any other questions, Don? Um excuse me. So, as far as the budget impacts, you don't foresee any new hiring of staff or administrators or anything like that for this for this coming year? >> No new hire. No. Any other questions? Public two. >> Okay. If there are no others, we can move into uh entertaining a motion to adjourn the public hearing. >> So move. >> Motion a second. Any discussion? I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? >> Opposed. Okay. So with that, the public hearing is now closed and we're going to go right into the regular meeting of
016March 2nd, 2026. Typically, we go through the pledge of allegiance, but we have done that. So, I'm going to skip down. Pass fire department regulations and go right to the approval of the minutes, which are the regular meeting minutes of February 2nd, 2026. So, >> motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Being none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carries. Approval. >> One extension. Thank you. Uh warrants, they are going around and there is a bunch of them. So, please make sure you have 10 minutes of your time to sign your name to all those. And then with that, I will entertain a motion to accept. >> So, move. >> Second. Have a motion, a second. Any discussion? Being none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? Opposed?
017Motion carries. E. Review of budget yeartoate expenditure report through February 2026. Mrs. Scoffield. >> So, yeah. To the chair. Um, this is the report. I don't love this report. I'm planning a little bit more to get the more compliant report in the upcoming week, but I wanted to make sure that there was a report uh this month with expenditures from um January 1st to end of February for um in the new system. So everything go from the legacy system to this system. So uh we're working on creating better more easy to read reports. You guys look at the monthly stuff as well as including grant reports as well as we move forward. So >> any questions for Mrs. Scoffield regarding it? Thank you for getting the report in there this month. I know you guys
018been between the budget and everything else working your tails off to get this in. So, any questions? Okay, moving on. Correspondence. Am I? >> No. >> Excellent. Student advisory committee. David will not be here with us tonight. He is out for some family reasons. Um I believe said it was a family member passed away. This David lost his maternal grandmother. So the family went back um for the services. So what thoughts are looking for that? No old business tonight. Citizen participation. Anybody from the public? >> Yeah. If you could stand up, just say your name. Uh David, Charleston, Massachusetts. Um, forgive me for the delay in getting back here. Uh, life has a way of getting in the way. Um, but I made a promise to certain families and parents and I intend to keep
019it and I'm doing that tonight. So, this may be more of a formality. Uh, but I had come here back in December with complaints on behalf of some parents. I had made a promise to them that I would never let it go. And I would come back and try to find out what happened. Um what came of it, what information I can bring back to those families. Um so that they can feel as though I didn't ignore them at all. That's why I'm here. But I want to be able to hopefully deliver them some kind of message from this school committee uh related to the complaint I had brought to the school on their behalf back in December. I had met with the teacher in question with HR and with the principal and after that
020night I was unable to get back until now to find out if whatever happened and so to this day I had no answers for those families or those parents what to tell them happened after that night. I was hoping to go back and provide them with answers. Okay. So I don't know as to exactly every bit of that meeting because we're not privy to that part. So what I would ask is superintendent and I know Mr. Packard was there if we could follow with a response um for that. Okay. So what we'll do is we will get you something in our public comment Mr. Singer. We don't do dialogue and debate. We just hear from the public and then we we can move on from that point. So what I will do is I'll work
021with Mr. and Brener in getting a response out to you that we can meet all the requirements of that response if that makes sense to you. >> It does. I just hope that uh it doesn't take as long as it took me to get back. Obviously, that's that's not me. That's my fault. >> Yep. Um, but I would like to get back to them and and I'm hoping uh hoping beyond hope that what I get to come back to them with from you isn't just uh you know because there's enough of that and right now there's a lot going on in all of our schools. um F time is not alone. Um and so I'm involved with a lot of different schools right now and groups progression this wherever it's come up and so I'm
022hoping to get a concrete response. >> Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean is it fair to say we can have a single response? Good. Okay. >> Before the end of this week, you will have a someone from the school either dean or Mr. Bren reach out to you. Does that work? Y >> excellent. Thank you very much. Any other public comment? Okay, with that I will move on for new business. Uh recognitions through the chair. Uh two recognitions. I'd like to recognize our second ship night custodian supervisor Ken Wright who just retired last Friday, February 27th after 19 years of service. Um so we had a nice little gathering um and recognized all of Ken's dedicated and hard work. Congratulations to Ken and we wish him all the best. Uh, and while they're here, I'd like
023to recognize the event team for their mid-grant review which uh, many of you attended and those who did know how spectacular they did in articulating their project, their uh, progress on their project and their needs. So, congratulations to them as well. >> Excellent. Thank you. Moving on to presentations, right? To the Levelson MIT invent teams update. You guys are taking the whole agenda tonight. >> Hi, we're all members of the invent teams. I don't know. >> Yeah. I mean, again, we do have a camera over here. If you guys would like to come over and get a little face time. >> Yeah. So, um, hi, I'm Emily. I'm one of the administrative leads for our event teams here. And so, we're just going to give a little more formal of an update to you guys
024on how our progress is going so far. And like we said before, we had our big grant technical review on February 10th where it was open to the public. It was held here in the cafeteria. And that was a really big success for us. We had about 85 members of both the school and the community come and support us and ask us questions on our progress so far. And we had a lot of help from the school and the shops here. We had a sand pit built by Carpentry and Masonry lend us some sand so that we could have a live demonstration of just trying to move the wheelchair through the sand. and we had culinary help provide us with some snacks and everything for the mid grant review and overall it was just it
025was really nice to see all the support from the community and everyone and thank you for that. Congratulations. class. I'm Brian. I'm the technical lead and we've purchased materials to finish our track for wheelchairs and we should be on our way on completing the wheelchair by the end of March to beginning of April. >> I'm Paul. Uh we raised enough to be able to fund a trip to MIT for their open house on March 27th and 28th. Um to do this, we held a 5050 fundraiser from the teachers. We collected donations from anyone who wanted to donate at the dirt. Uh, we received a $1,200 donation from Ron and Janet Goin. Uh, and our current expenditure is around $3,500 of our Perkins and LIT grants. My name is Chiselle. And with the money we've spent,
026we were able to buy the exact replica of the wheelchair that our beneficiary uses. So that'll be able to help us remove the exact parts and see how everything works together. And so we're we were invited to present what we did at the mid grant technical review at Charlton Middle School for a class of middle schoolers. And we were also on the radio wxllo and they invited us back. So whenever we want to go, we can go and I guess. >> Excellent. >> Awesome. That's fantastic. Um, and you'll see down on our agenda tonight, we are also going to be voting, I believe, for a uh field trip for you guys to do an overnight. So, congratulations. Keep up the good work. Um, it's an excellent thing you guys are undertaking. All right. Our next
027presentation is going to be the adoption of the FY27 school budget through the chair. Um, this item is at the discretion of the school committee. The FY27 school budget was presented tonight, Monday, March 2nd, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at the public hearing. The budget totals $31,35,852. The superintendent director, the school business manager, and the budget subcommittee recommend the school committee vote to approve the FY27 budget in the amount of 31,35,852 as submitted. And there's some special language that we need to make sure get in this motion. So before we make the motion, do we have that language? Because it's pending legislative approval and um >> I need to make sure we have that in the motion, sir. It's in the pack. Please make sure we have that >> and then I'll entertain that. >> Okay.
028Does it suffice to say that this is based on the governor's budget? >> Yes. >> And as it makes its way through subject to change as it makes its way through the house and senate >> to be adjusted accordingly. >> Yes. >> All right. Sorry it >> I'll read it for you. >> All right. All right. So, I'm going to entertain a motion that the uh see hold on. >> Yep. that the uh school committee vote to approve the FY27 budget in the amount of $31,35,852 as submitted pending the final action of the legislature with the school committee reconvening at a later date if needed to amend the FY27 budget and assessment to uh reflect the final action of the legislature. >> So move I have a motion and a second. >> Any discussion, questions,
029comments? Okay, being none, I'm going to call for a roll call vote on this. This will be for approval of the budget. Katie is absent. Mary Barl, >> yes. >> Al Beand, >> no. >> Jim Caldwell is absent. Richard Clark, >> hi. >> Kirsten, >> yes. >> Don Gillette, >> yes. >> Dave Brener, >> yes. >> Mary Johnson, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. Don Montville, >> yes. >> Amarie Pantos, >> yes. Mike Pantos, >> yes. >> Peter Sher, >> yes. >> Tim Sher, >> yes. >> Bacon, I know how they're voting. Mike Tberry, >> yes. >> Uh, Bob Trebley, >> yes. >> Jeff Wel, >> yes. >> Bob Zukowski, >> yes. >> All right, the motion carries unanimously with everyone here. I want to take a few minutes and thank the budget subcommittee for meeting.
030This was an extremely arduous task. Sydney Filter, thank you very much. I mean, I know this was your first one. It was, you know, by yourself a real challenge. Um, and I know Kylie had a lot of input in that. I mean, everyone did. So, thank you to everyone who did that. Um, now we begin the real hard work, every finance committee, every town meeting. So, the next, I don't know, month and a half to two months of your lives and the mileage will be driving between those 10 Denver towns. So, thank you very much for that. Um we're going to move on to the approval of outside project townbo band Rutland Mass through the chair. Mr. Trip uh Pocabishes vocational director received a request from the town of Rutland for our electrical students to
031install lighting at the town gazebo/band stand. Mr. Vham visited the site and believes this will be an appropriate and beneficial project for our students. The scope of the work includes installation of direct and indirect lighting as well as up to three electrical outlets. All material costs for the project will be covered by the town of Rutland. The superintendent director and the vocational director recommend the school committee vote to approve the outside project for the town of Rutland as submitted. >> So move second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Being none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. D. Approval of new revolving account STEM club. >> So to the chair, the superintendent, director, and the business manager recommend the school committee vote to approve a new revolving
032account for the STEM club to ensure timely access to funds for competitions and materials and to allow for proper financial oversight and accountability. So move second. Have a motion, a second. Any discussion? >> Real quick question. uh if we're approving this account, do we ever see the balances from the other accounts that are already, you know, created? Is that something that we should be looking at or which other? >> Well, any other any of the revolving accounts? Yes. >> So, typically we don't get them in our monthly expenditure report. However, you can ever always ask the business manager for a copy of the balances and then as part of our audit, our financial audit, it's in the documents that get audited >> and that we do approve the audit on >> because obviously that was
033one area that was uh >> in trouble. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, they are included in our financial audit as well. >> Okay. >> Any recommendations of that then get rectified by the business manager? >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Being none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. What do you know? Approval of donations for the STEM club. >> Bless the >> superintendent, director, and the business manager recommend the school committee vote to approve a total of $2,772 in donations from for the STEM club. These funds were collected through various donors and will be used to support the club's trip to the MIT invent team's open house. So move a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Being none, I'll call
034for the vote. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. F. Approval of 2026 2027 school calendar. And please note that there's an asterisk on the graduation date because we're waiting for confirmation from DCU. So that's one note I was given before I forgot to mention that. Right. So through the chair uh attach and in your packet please find the proposed 2026 20 27 school calendar. Please note that the first day for teachers is Monday August 31st. Grade 9 students will report on Monday August 24th and the first day of school for all students in grades 9 through 12 will be September 2nd. Um and also that the uh graduation will be filled in as soon as it is verified through the DCU. The superintendent director and the principal recommend the school committee vote
035to approve the school year as submitted. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Sorry. Um I did see that I I thank whoever created the calendar. I think it was a suggestion from the staff to put the open house in the school tours on either the same week or the same day and I see that that's that is the case. Um but I don't know a week b week what that means anymore. I forgot is is uh during that week who's in the shop. Can you answer that? I'm sure you >> skip through the A week's freshman, seniors, B week, junior. >> Yep. >> So that is so junior, senior will be in the job. Perfect. Right. >> Sophomore, junior will be in the shop. Perfect. Thank you. >> Yes, sir.
036Any other questions? >> Being none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. G. Awarding of 2026 2027 house project and updates for current project. through the chair. The superintendent director of the vocational director and the house selection committee recommend the school committee vote to award the house project to Miss Donna Gagy for a 900 ft accessory dwelling unit ADU to be built at 16 Allen AB in Oxford, Massachusetts. Okay. So move a motion. Sorry. I have a motion a second. Any discussion? Mr. Sir, >> is this an in-law apartment set up? >> So, it's a separate dwelling unit. It's a completely standalone plans. Um, so the uh state has allowed what they call accessory dwelling units, ADUs. They used to be like an in-law that they call them.
037This is a new designation ADU that uh typically, right, you can build it and a family member will move out there, you know, things like that. Yeah, it's a new new language in the code for inline. Okay. But in the packet, you can see that it's a standalone ranch style. >> It's true. >> Yeah, it's pretty. >> Any other questions? Being none, I will call for the vote. All those in favor? >> I motion carries. And as part of that updates for current project before I jump so Mr. Trip. >> Sure. Uh so to the chair um plumbing they're thinking rough the rough will be done by the end of this week will be rough inspection the end of next week. Electrical rough inspection will be next Friday the 13th once they're done. Carpentry's been
038waiting on them for their rough inspection. So one step after the other. Um cabinet making is still working with the homer in the design phase. We'll have a better update next month on that. So progressing as planned and on time. >> Excellent. Thank you. All right, moving on. Approval of field trips H1 Robotics Team 2026 National Robotics Challenge in Marian, Ohio. Through the chair, uh Mr. Tosski, lead teacher for advanced manufacturing as well as the Bayath Robotics team advisor approached principal package with an opportunity for the team to attend the 26th 2026 National Robotics Challenge in Marian, Ohio from April 15th to the 19th. Up to 12 students will attend with two Bayath instructors and two Corey check volunteers from outside of Bayath. Participating students will be required to pay an estimated 5 to 700
039for airfare and hotel. All other costs will be paid using the robotics revolving account. The superintendent, director, and the principal recommend the school committee vote to allow up to 12 students and two baby math instructors to attend the 20 2026 National Robotics Challenge in Marian, Ohio from April 15th to 19th. So move second. We have a motion, a second. Any discussion? >> Being none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. two STEM club MIT open house for 2025 2026 invent teams participants and this is an overnight trip to the chair Miss Christine Wade science instructor as well as the Bayath STEM club adviser approached principal backard with an opportunity for the STEM club to attend the MIT event team's open house in the Cambridge Massachusetts for March 28th through
040the 29th. Eight students will attend with three bay path instructors. One instru three three bay path instructors. One instructor or two. I thought it was one bay bath instructor and one chap. >> One chap. So two. So one bay bath instructor and one cory check volunteer will stay overnight. Total estimated cost is approximately $2,100 which will be paid out of the STEM revolving account. The superintendent, director, and the principal recommend the school committee vote to allow up to eight students and three b one bay path instructor and chaperon to attend the MIT and event team's open house from March 28th to 29th. So have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Being none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations. >> Enjoy. >> All right, moving on.
041information and proposals report from the superintendent director through the chair submitted a written report. I do want to call out that our road show starts tomorrow with Spencer and you can see the other towns if the date has been determined. Uh you're welcome to join uh just email us and let us know and we'll send you the packets uh as we send them to the towns as well for those. So that's it. >> Excellent. Thank you. Moving on. Audit subcommittee. Nothing to report yet. they haven't met. I believe the audit was getting started. >> So, the audit is just about done. They're just waiting on one piece of it. Uh the plan is to hopefully have the audit um come to the school committee meeting in April. Uh they have till March 31st to submit
042it to Desi. So, it has to be done this month. >> All right. So, what we'll do is we'll get an audit subcommittee notice for the subcommittee members and get something on the schedule. Uh budget subcommittee. There's a typo on here. Tim Shore is not the chair. No, Don Gillette was able to get selected unanimously and begrudgingly. >> The budget subcommittee brought the budget before you tonight. >> Hope you all liked it. >> Unanimous. Good job. Well done. >> All right, moving on. Uh, building and ground subcommittee has not met this year. Negotiation subcommittee. Dave Grineer. uh ongoing negotiations both with Paris and with BPCA. Uh we had three meetings in March. Excellent. Thank you. Policy subcommittee, Peter. >> Uh nothing to report. >> I bet that feels good. Finally, it does. >> Absolutely. >>
043All right. Warrant subcommittee. Warrants are available for signatures by all school committee members at monthly meetings and during the day of the school. Please call before you come in to be sure someone is available and there are warrants that need to be signed. Um, moving on from there quickly, future business, uh, meeting date, regular school committee meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 6th in this room. Topics for the future agenda, reach out to either Leah, Kyle, or myself, and we will do our best to accommodate and get it on the agenda. With that, I'll move on to remarks from the superintendent director. >> Turn to the chair. Just again want to recognize all the work from the business office and our department leads uh and top admin for the work done on
044the budget and the budget subcommittee for meeting separately to go over um the budget and come to conclusion to present tonight. Uh I also want to congratulate the event teams again. Um the opportunity that these students have to fund raise, write grants, design, present, get customer, you know, feedback, user feedback is uh beyond high school level and many in in college don't get those opportunities to do that. So, incredible work, incredibly well spoken. Um, and great job all around on that. Um, the next and last I I want to call out for uh two two things. The lottery, our first annual admissions lottery will be this Friday at 3 p.m. live streamed from our lecture hall. Any school committee that wants to attend is welcome to attend and sit in the audience of the um
045the lottery. It'll be uh Facebook live streamed alpha map recorded and certified that evening. Uh so you're welcome to attend it or you're welcome to just join in live from home. We'll send out that link as soon as it's ready. 3 p.m. 3 p.m. And uh the last is I just want to send uh David our condolences for the last. Thank you. I'm going to move this way tonight. Mike D comments question. How we doing with the Yoda pouches? They working. >> Yonder. Yoda. They're supposed to hold your cell phone through the uh through the chair. >> I guess we'll go with Yoda. >> I like that. Uh through the chair. They are working. They're working in that. And we just heard this this morning from our student advisory council to the superintendent. Um overall
046they're working. There are no cell phones seen in the hallways and the common rooms. There's still a struggle um within individual classrooms on that. Uh so we continue to you know uh the party line that they should be away that consequences should be out if they are seen. Uh and did I miss anything? I mean just this morning, you know, through through the chair, just to add to what Superintendent Ber is saying, we do have a distraction-free environment, the school throughout the learning process, and that was the ultimate goal with this policing uh 1,200 students to put a couch in front of us every single day is a arduous task at best. Um, and I give a lot of credit to the administrative team holding the line to the level they can. And what I
047mean by that, we're fighting off big phones and pouches, you know, every single day. You know, I don't have it, but it's in my back pocket. The reality is this, they're not coming out. You don't see them out at lunchtime. You don't see them out in the hallways. You don't see them out in the classrooms. And when we do, we act upon it like we should. Um, students are happy because they're able to be able to speak to one another and have conversations. And I do think it's brought the temperature of the school for the kids down quite a bit. We're never going to stop social media. We're never going to stop connectivity with cell phones, it's always going to be out there. But I think we did a really progressive step forward. Um, and
048we have to think really strategically next year on how we continue to build this. Last week I was here, you know, just to add to what Mr. Packard said, I was here for the town manager breakfast and Mr. Trip took us through just about every shot um with the town managers to give a tour. And as we walked in there and through the hallways during bells, you didn't see one kid on a phone. And I mean, I can't tell you that's how it is all the time. I mean, >> how about the regular academic classes, science, so I can't answer. >> Yeah. No, I'm just curious. >> So, I think you'll get a mix of bag on that though. you will get and that's exactly what we're you know they say out of the the
049mouths of babes they tell us >> you know and and that's exactly what you know man said responding you know it was like we know you gave up we're not we're not wanting students coming through >> there's a level of you know respect and understand >> so right so from what I'm hearing not interrupt I have teachers right here that are saying Yeah. >> And I don't have they're not in their homes at all. >> And that goes to the culture. >> The the juniors had a few years of free access. So some will fight. >> How long has it been in place? >> This is our second second year. >> So So one and a half years. >> You'll see better compliance for lack of better with the younger. >> But I heard I
050heard just the opposite. >> That's why I want to hear. But that's why I said that mixed bag is there are pockets of individuals who um wouldn't block it. >> Yeah. They don't see >> the value in the fight at times. >> So again it's you know we deal with that as it pops up. We are light years ahead of where we were and we have to celebrate that. Um it's it's a monumentous shift. Like I said any school that's undergoing this transformation it's taken time. >> It's it doesn't happen overnight. makes us >> cuz that's it. Um yeah, the chores you won't see them in the hallways or the the cafeteria. >> Excellent. All right. Thank you, >> Mr. Ber. >> Yeah, just the uh thanks to Mr. Brener and Scoffield for their hard
051hard work um on the budget through on the subcommittee that Don graciously accepted as chair. Um, and it you can tell a lot of work went into this and it's a fun thing for their hard work. >> Excellent. >> I got a chance to go to the invent team's mid grant review and I thought it was really well put together and I did like the sand pit demonstration. I thought it was pretty good like really good. >> Excellent. Thank you. Well said your earlier comment. Congratulations to the event team of faculty and students. It's amazing big path at NY years ago. Who would have thought right? >> Excellent. Mary squ. >> Oh, that usually takes up my time and goes to the average 100 words or less. You got it. Peter Sher, >> uh, congratulations
052to the STEM team and good luck uh, when you're in U MIT. I think you'll do very well. >> And also kudos to the um, budget uh, preparation by Mr. Turner and M. Scoffield. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah, I was just going to say congratulations to the STEM team also at Ditto here, but great work on the budget putting it together. It's it's never never easy. So, appreciate that. Um, and thanks for hosting the the town administrators. I do have some uh particular feedback I'd like to share. Our town administrator said he's never met somebody with so much energy. He said, "I was blown away." You >> sad for that yet? >> Was blown away. So, congratulations, Steve. He had a straw in the coffee pot. >> He wanted me to. I said, "I'll have to
053do it." It just uh the team is doing great work in Paxton on our project. So, thank you very much. I to I toured it this morning. Um it's just great. They had everything organized even to stack in the dumpster. That was terrific. So, great to see. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Good. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, congratulations to the students and the entire team. Thank you for the work on the budget committee. You have our administrators well prepared to start start their road trip tomorrow in Spencer. >> Yes. Yes. Mr. >> Congratulations on the STEM team as well. Uh just wanted to say I was out here on Friday. My daughter had brought her class. She's from Oxford High School teacher and she brought her special ed class up. And I just
054uh want to say that the whole culinary arts team did a great job and especially the server who I don't know where her name was, but she was phenomenal. And I want to thank Kyle for stopping by and seeing them and they were all excited about it. It was they did a nice job. >> Thank you. I won't say anything. You got that clicker for >> Go ahead, Mr. Well, I would like to share some personal information and I want to thank everybody that I'm able to serve here with you and the excellent job that you do to keep this school at the highest level and no matter who I talk to, it's really a welcoming hearing to say Bath is a wonderful school. And the other part of me being a veteran, our veterans
055this Memorial Day, Thursday before Memorial Day, we're going to do again. This will be my 10th time to do it, which I'm very, very happy and proud to do. And the other thing is tomorrow I'm going to receive the second Elijah's Air Force medal commenation for doing a courageous job back 65 years ago when I had my F102 fighter and they brought the refueling unit out and we got an emergency call of another plane coming in with landing gear problems. All the fire department was on the runways and this refueling unit caught on fire, sprayed the gas out, got on me, I got on fire. I put myself about with a fire extinguisher, put the unit out also. And I had just completed a fire course two two months before. So them recognizing me for
056that tomorrow and the situation. I would like to also ask every one of you knowing that I'm an Air Force. I've flown with many pilots, many crews, and we just lost three F-15 fighter pilots in Detroit. And I'd like to have you just do a silent mental thought and prayer for the families of those three pilots. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I couldn't have top that no matter how hard I tried. So, congratulations for tomorrow. And that was 104 words and I'm going to tell you. So I mean with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So >> move a motion and a second. Any discussion? Being none of the vote. All those in favor. >> 720 three. What?