001All right. Today is Wednesday, January 7th, 2026. The time is 6:34 p.m. This is the meeting of the Westport School Committee special meeting. I'll ask everyone to join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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, justice for all. Thank you all very much. I appreciate everyone joining us in the conference room this evening because we're uh getting new speakers put in the auditorium. So, uh it's always a good good thing there. All right, so we'll go right into comments and statements from the public. Seeing no public, we'll move on to ourformational agenda. And first of all, we have our student representatives, Mr. Keane and Miss Leblanc. Please take it away. Um,
002we are starting off a great new year with a new shape showcase. After amazing show of Beetlejuice, we are starting Hades Town with grades 7 through 12th. We have no school on January 19th for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And our next day is February 4th, half day. >> All right. Good evening, Superintendent Roy and rest of the school committee. First off, some of this may be repeated, but there will be no school on Monday, January 19th, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Tuesday, January 20th, will mark the ending of term two, and with that, the ending of semester 1. Report cards will be available on the community portal by Friday, January 23rd. The second semester begins on Wednesday, January 21st, and any high school students that are currently taking electives will have
003a change in their schedule. Wednesday, February 4th, will be an early release day for staff training. Congratulations to Zoe Drain for receiving the Frank W. Galashaw Scholarship, and she was recognized at an awards ceremony at Darmmouth in December. We wish all of our seniors well as they finish up sending in their applications for college and eagerly await decisions for potential ones. Congratulations to the Westport High School Drama Club for their successful performances of The Little Mermaid in December. The high school and middle school drama clubs are already preparing for their performance of Hades Down in M. And stay tuned for more information. Steel is planning for their annual prom pop-up shop on Saturday, February 7th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. here at the high school. It is free to all students in financial need.
004Students need to bring a student ID and Steel will be collecting monetary donations that will be given to local nonprofits. Now for some sports information. The winter sports are in full full swing for our Wildcats. First off, the boys varsity basketball is determined and putting in hard work but sits with a record of 0 and7. Their next home game is Monday, January 12th at 6:30 against Avon Middle School. Boys junior varsity basketball is 0 and3. And I know both of them are playing tonight, but we're awaiting the results of those. The girls varsity basketball is continuing to push through their tough season and has a record of 1 and five. Their next home game will be Tuesday, January 13th at 5:00 pm against Avon. And the girls junior varsity team is 0 and5. A huge
005shout out to Mr. Nunes and Nurse Winsky for bringing the excitement of the pep band and the cheer squad back this season supporting our basketball teams at the home games. And lastly, we have two athletes on the co-op ice hockey and they are three and three and play tonight at Upper Cape Tech. Six Westport students are on the Atlantis charter co-op wrestling. They are one and one and their ne next match is on Friday at Eastern Boston. And lastly, the co-op swim and dive boys and girls team are both one and one and their next meet is on Monday at Boston. And that's all. Go Wildcats. >> Nice. >> Do we know um do we know how many are participating in swim and dive co-op? >> Dive. Um I don't have a number on that.
006>> No, >> that's okay. >> Just No, I was just interested. Thank you. All right. Any anything further from the >> Thank you both. >> Oh, thank you both. >> Thank you for joining us. >> Thank you. I can take that. >> All right. So, we'll uh now go go along with ourformational agenda. Uh the next item is the superintendent report. Dr. Roy. >> Um I don't have a lot to report. Uh as you mentioned, we are the speakers for the auditorium are finally coming in. So, we had a great experience seeing the the current plays, but wait till our new sound system comes in for the spring. So, we're we're very excited. Uh, in addition, we had put in um they working on putting in numerous speakers that were missing, >> right, that were
007missing uh for some reason in terms that should be done like within the next >> February is the finishing tie in with all of our technology, our new cameras, intercom system, uh the speakers. There's a during February vacation, they're going to finish off all of those little projects. And we're trying to get all our cameras on one system instead of two systems, which we currently have. But the speakers and the um everything in the auditorium is the they're finishing that up. That's going to still take another week and a half or so. And then we still have to have them come back in cuz they still have more wiring to do. And then February they're supposed to February vacation they're going to finish it off. >> So the rest of those are outside of the
008auditorium throughout this building. >> Yes. Throughout the building. Yes. >> They did the front part during Christmas break and now they have to do the back end. Like speakers are everywhere. They're loud. They're not controlled yet, but at least we're getting them. >> When you say missing, do you mean they were originally supposed to be part of this building? You know, >> we we don't ask that question. We don't >> we don't know. But what we found out during this whole process that there are people in meetings at different times or in different classrooms or in different rooms being used that there is no speakers, >> right? >> Like the superintendent's office didn't have a speaker. Lor's office didn't have a speaker. The main office in the middle what was the middle school side didn't
009have a speaker. Some guidance rooms on the opposite side didn't have speakers. So, we don't know if it was part of like those things that they took out thinking that the original setup was going to be different than what it is. >> That's the part we're not we're not positive on. >> Right. And that funding for those speakers though is coming out of uh approved by the school building. Correct. Correct. From the school building committee, which by the way, we are making progress on closing the project out. We're getting closer and our next uh meeting is January 14th, I believe. Um I other than that, I can say that the flu has hit and we we're checking attendance daily just to make sure that there is really truly no spikes. I think there were four
010kids sent home recently in in this building, but we still look like we're doing okay. Anything from the committee? All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh so now we'll move on to the business manager report. Mr. Reposa. >> Yes. So Dr. Roy and I have a meeting with um the CPC committee for the next step for the playground for the Macumber school. Um we were very grateful. they were, you know, very open to moving us to the next step and they were going Thursday night for a remote meeting at 6:30, I believe. And at that point, they're supposed to vote. So, we were accepted in moving forward. So, that was a good thing. They were all very supportive of, you know, installing a new Macra school for playground for us. So, that was
011that's a good thing. And we'll know more on that on Thursday. Um, again, we're doing our budget. Um uh we did have a resignation in our technology department. The technology director is leaving for a different school district. He was his last day will be January 23rd. Um Dr. Roy, myself, Mrs. Hograves, we've sat down with the technology department because we really want to take a look at what the needs are in that department and not necessarily just jump out and hire a new technology director just to replace what we have. We we think there's some more instructional areas that need to be addressed. We think we we want to get a better feel of what that department needs working with >> protect. Is that Tony? >> Yes. >> So that's one thing there. The other
012thing was I know that um we had asked about a little bit more with the revolving account for the athletics that you will find that piece in your packet. So I just kind of just briefly wanted to go over this. I can always get more details too as we go along, but I just kind of wanted to get a little bit of a rough look at that and also give you an idea of how many students paid for fees. And so this that you see there, this is just a revolving account for the um for athletics and student activities. So you'll see for FY25 they started with a $21,44 balance. Athletic fees that were generated was $84,430 and then expenses total was 70,026 leaving a carryover of 35,808 into FY26. Those expenses account for coaches,
013sports officials, any refunds for kids that play that may they may do a cut off that kids don't get the team, they get it back again. um co-op fees, tournaments, ticket sellers, the scorers. So that everything comes out of that line item there. If you wanted to see a better breakdown of like, you know, what do we sell? What do we pay coaches directly? What do we pay the um you know, the the sports officials, you know, things like that. We can always get you that breakdown. it's not in the documents that we easily have, but if that's something down the road that you wanted to see, we can definitely do that a little bit better. Um, so then starting off FY26, you'll see we started off with the 35,808. Athletic fees, we only did
014for the fall season, so we've taken in 7534 for middle school and for athletics for fall for high school is 21,167. Um, tournament bonus expense 480, ticket seller and scorer 600. Arbor to pay, which is where all of the fees are received in. Um the expenses for the referees and the sports officials, which is where that where they get paid from comes out of there. Um supplies, athletic equipment 2310. Refunds for student families is 27.80. Swim co-op fees right now for Bishop Staying was a,000. So again, this is only a quarter of the way through the year. Well, a third of the way maybe through the year because of the season. we only did right through the fall to show you here. So, right now our fees have been pretty stable. So, I just wanted
015to mention what our fees fees are. Cheer pays $125 for cheering. Um, all of our co-op teams pay 175. So, one thing to make note of like we may pay 17, you know, we might have kids playing football that pay 175 or hockey paying 175, but we may pay out 800 or $900 to the other. So the there's a loss but at the same time you know it depends on how everybody wants to move forward. Um again hockey, football, swim, wrestling 175. Um in line this fe these fees have not changed much in years. I mean I think Mr. Piggo can speak to that as well. Um they also get waiverss. So they get to qualify based on their income. We have a general liability form that if a family qualifies in a certain range,
016they get free athletics for the for whatever season or for the year. So, we have probably about 20 families that will qualify for free athletics during the school year. Just just to give you some rough numbers. Um, same thing for transportation. Just I'm just throwing that out there because that's another fee that we charge families. We charge $200, which that number has been there forever. That's only for grades 7 through 12. We're not required by law to transport students. Only students grades K through grade six do we have to transport. Again, we do if they qualify for free or reduced meals or under the direct certification under the state like SNAP benefits, Mass Health, those families automatically qualify under the state law to receive free transportation. So we have about 262 families that are paying
017for transportation and the waiverss of free transportation about 119. So it's a big chunk of people there that are receiving that. Um well >> just a quick question and this is like a nuance thing but like athletic fees when you separate middle school and high school if it's a middle schooler playing high school do they does that count in the high school? No, they take it by grade level. Correct. I say a grade level. >> One time it was combined, then it wasn't combined. I was just curious. >> We tried to separate a little bit just to get an idea because at the time we started in this school, everybody wanted to separate middle school from high school. So, we've kind of just kept it that way. >> But at any point in time, I
018can get more information on that. I just wanted to give you guys a brief because we had requested at the last meeting. >> All right. And that's all I have for the business manager at this time. >> Neither do >> welcome. >> Comments, questions from the committee? Hearing none. Thank you, Mr. Posal. Appreciate it. >> And we'll move on to the curriculum director report. Mr. Graves, >> thank you. Good evening. I have um a few brief updates. Um we are still trying to get the word out about community celebrations for Westport's 250th. The committee um will be meeting with our staff during January and February staff meetings to share information from the committee and to encourage um ideas for projects that we could be doing here um and partnering with them um to uh you
019know garner some more enthusiasm for that. So stay tuned for more information on that. Um our financial literacy program uh is up and running. Um, our first banking day will be scheduled for February 10th. Members from Westport Federal Credit Union will be joining Mr. Morardi's entrepreneurship and Mr. Clark's personal finance classes during the first weeks in January to um do a guest speaker series and they will be here on the 10th to start that banking program for our students. Um, and families can still sign up for that if they have an interest in that. Um, two exciting uh uh other updates. Our innovation career pathways, you have a flyer in your packet about that. Um, our team has met twice so far and the two pieces that have come out of those meetings are the
020development of this flyer to get the word out to students that the pathways are here. They're open for enrollment. We're really looking for freshman and sophomores um primarily uh because they would have enough time to complete a full pathway. And in order to complete a pathway, students need to take two technical courses and two advanced courses as well as complete a 100hour internship. So, it's an intensive program um but certainly doable over the course of the of their four years. We have um interest already and a couple of juniors and seniors are interested. And so, uh, the guidance counselors will be doing some records reviews with those students to see if they qualify regarding those um, uh, those uh, requirements. And, you know, our our goal by the end of the year is to have
02115 students enrolled in each of the pathways. It's a it's a lofty goal. Not sure we'll meet it, but we're hoping to get there. Um, oh, and the other piece that came out of those meetings is we do have a website up and running and that is on a link to our main website. It's nested under the high school page. It's right up at the top of the high school page. So, if families are interested in learning more about the career pathways, they can take a look there. Um, Dr. Roy and I will be starting some instructional leadership teams. Um, we formed two teams, a STEM and a humanities team. Dr. Roy will be leading the STEM team. I'll be leading the humanities team. We'll be meeting um on a monthly, possibly bimonthly basis depending
022on our schedules, but definitely a monthly basis. Um, it this will this will be something that is a multi-year process. Um, our hope is to begin some of the work around streamlining and consolidating some of our curricula to articulate an overall focus for our prek to8 curricula. Um, and to be taking a look at potential curriculum adoptions as well as assessment. Um, members of the STEM team are Andrea Katril, Lindseay Gawson, Johanna Marcel, Debbie Milton, and Hannah Mareno. And members of the ELA team are Kelly Croft, Jen Merchant, Bonnie Santos, Michelle Trip, and Jod Williams. >> That's it. >> Thank you very much, M. Most appreciated. Next item up is our committee liaison reports. And I will start start at this end, Mr. Melik. >> Uh nothing to report at this time. >> Nothing here
023either. >> Only uh no meetings. Uh I will be uh at the school building committee meeting next Wednesday. >> Uh cable advisory committee met on the 9th of December. Um main topics were budget discussion as we're familiar with and going through ourselves right now. Um and also the um um we approved the hiring of a um camera operator for for the cable um committee and actually happy to uh announce that it's a um high school student from from here which is which is very good. Um and our next meeting will most likely be towards the end of March. That's it for me. >> All right. So, the only thing I have uh the CIPC capital improvement planning committee uh met uh couple a few weeks before I guess Christmas um and approved a uh quite
024a few of the the requests uh as far as uh the school school department had um there was a subsequent request to switch funding for one truck I think the dump truck for the >> whichever whichever truck is is more uh uh more urgently needed. Um and based on the response, I I don't think it's going to be an issue to do that. Uh there there will be a subsequent meeting just to go over that one more time. Uh but uh so that was that was very very positive de developments there. uh including as you mentioned earlier the earlier the the playground work that's also the the make ready if you will work on on the CIPC uh side was was approved as well and of course those will be going before uh town meeting
025uh >> in May. So that's that's all I have on the committee committee liaison reports. We'll move on next to the student staff attendance report. Uh, everyone has the latest reports in your packet and if there were any comments, questions, concerns from the committee, >> it's just >> like what happened the week of December 8th through the 12th at the MAC, 92 students absent at the West 186. six at the middle school 208 and at the high school 230 >> all on that same week. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So >> like there was a half day, right? I wonder if it was the half day. People were just like >> Well, that could have been. >> You know what I'm saying? >> Yes, that could have been. >> I think there was a half day
026that week. We didn't have a snow day here. >> There wasn't a snow day, but like a day. >> Oh, actually that makes sense because it says four and a half. >> No, it was a half day. I wonder if kids like parents just didn't send kids. >> Yeah. >> So that probably Yeah, that >> that's just chaotic to me. Like send your kid to school. Don't put that in the notes. >> It's not public. >> Sorry. Do you think people are watching? By and large, having the attendance over and 95% most of the time is is >> I know that's just crazy though. >> I I I will say again uh compared to years previous few years ago was pretty good both on the on the student and staff side of the uh attendance.
027So any other questions questions or concerns on that one? All right, hearing none, we'll move on to the next item, which is to acknowledge the Westport Community Schools bill warrant dated December 12th, 2025 for 172,56453. The bill warrant dated on December 26th, 2025 for $497,65560. And finally, dated January 9th, 2026 in the amount of 175,000, excuse me, 175,820.86. Were there any questions on the bill warrants and everybody should have had these should be coming ahead of time as well uh to everybody via email. Um, so were there any questions, concerns on on any items on this hearing? None, we'll consider these acknowledged. Uh, we'll move on to the next item in our presentation, which would be the superintendent findings presentation. Dr. Roy, uh, this is, uh, having to do follow up on on the injury
028plan. So, Dr. Roy, please. >> It is. Um, I am on schedule with this, so we we have it posted there. U Lori, if you want to go to the next slide. So, um, just as a as a reminder when I presented the entry plan process to you early in the fall, the goal is really for me to understand, right, what's going on and not just make assumptions. Um, and so now I've done a lot of learning and some stuff. And today I'm going to show you where our findings are from a big picture perspective. We will be getting a strategic planning process. Our strategic plan is expires at the end of the school year. So these findings, just understand it's just findings at this point. Hopefully that will begin to inform the strategic plan
029for the next 3 to 5 years later in the uh in the year. So, um I I just wanted to explain to you and the public how we how I collected this data. I mean, we did we and Miss Melo actually helped an awful lot because she was at my sessions. We I did 13 listening sessions with families, PTO, staff, and students. We also did an online survey and got 49 respondents, 11 community partner meetings, 13 school visits and classroom observations, eight individual interviews. Some of you were included in that. Looked at document reviews. All in all, I had 46 different artifacts of what I wanted um to kind of compile. As a reminder, the the listening sessions were really guided by those guiding questions that you see on the right hand side. It's really
030what are the strengths, what are the weaknesses, but also what do you value and what do you hope for our children? Um, and and all transparency, I did use a bit of AI to help me use this. I was experimenting with AI to help me with my 46 documents. And so in all transparency, the way that was working, I uh I read through all of our notes. I thought about some themes. I've been thinking about some themes. You cross-check it with AI. It's it's a back and forth process. It's really fascinating this whole AI technology. I'm sure we'll be bringing a policy up to you at some point very soon. So, um, this is a first sort of, uh, dab into ethical use of AI where there's a lot of cross-checking and you're not just
031making assumptions. Okay. So, with that said, let's move to the next. So, of all of that, of all of those different data sources, they really I compiled them into sort of five what I'm calling building blocks, and they all truly do build upon each other. the f foundationally the community I've heard that over and over and over the Westport community and the pride it's strong it grounds us it was just a joy to listen and learn about okay so and I'll explain the themes the next that I I want to talk to you about is the human capital and operations we have tremendously good dedicated people here who just want the best they want to do a good job they want to support the schools. Uh, and I'll talk a little bit more about that.
032The curriculum piece, Miss Harg Graves mentioned in her update some of the work that we know we need to do with curriculum. Um, once you have these sort of pieces, you have the strong community, you have good folks and good strong operations, you've got a good tier one core curriculum, then it gets a little tricky because that doesn't work for everybody and you need student support because some kids are a bit tricky, right? and and their more complex needs. So that was the other theme. And if you put all those things together with a lot of aspirations for kids, if we can do all of this really well, which is the complexity of schooling, then we're going to have a thriving school community, right? And so what I'm going to share with you now are
033the themes that came out in terms of both strengths and areas of concern or areas to improve, which is true for every district, right, in the Commonwealth. Okay. So, this first one, as I mentioned, uh this is my favorite one. Community, relationships, trust, trust, and shared identity. I'm not going to read all those bullets for you. You can you can read those bullets. As I said, and you all know it. You're in the community. Community pride and communication is strong. So many community partners want to support the work. and that you see that in the second theme about community partnerships. They want to support the schools. You the picture over there is the Veterans Day celebration. It was my first time at the Veterans Day celebration across all schools. It was just an amazing event
034to see that intergenerational community support. um you know, the the parents, the teachers, everybody talked about this tight-knit small community, but there's also, if we want to move a little bit into the the concerns, um there's this uh this I don't know, I guess a narrative about other folks not understanding how good Westport is and so they take their kids out, right? The kids go somewhere else. So there's that push and pull and there s sense of pride that people just don't know enough about Westport and if they knew more then they would understand and they would want to keep their kids in the district and that's where you see some calls for more um really communications public relations the communications piece. The other fun thing about this, we have so many boosters and community
035partners and activities, but the downside is coordinating all those activities becomes a nightmare. And so they're overlapping. So there's lots of calls to to make that a consistent way that we're all communicating. So we're not planning five events on one day, which we did, I think, this year, right? So we're we're trying to, you know, work with that more coherent approach. Okay. or next thing, human capital and operations, staff quality, facilities and resource management. This is where I'm saying you've got so many folks like Michelle, like Lori who are, you know, Westport residents, brown and white forever. My favorite colors now is, by the way, brown and white. Like I'm all over the brown and white. I don't have it on today, but um but they're they do a great job and they don't get
036paid a lot compared to other districts. I think you know this, but it's truly an asset. It's truly tr they are, you know, folks like just Lori and Michelle, but there's other folks in here, our HR, business, our facilities folks. I'm very impressed with how facilities is run. And you see the West Bathroom Project as the the sort of the little picture there. They're not big, but boy, they they get their stuff done. They really do. And when there's an incident, they are right on it before I can even drive my little car up to to see what's going on. So again, really people who just want to do good work, right? It it's so rewarding to be in a community where I'm seeing this kind of dedication. Um, so all this investments that you've
037done that the committee has been approving and working towards in the facilities and the technology, people are noticing. People feel good about that. The staff feel good about that that they like the redesign of the bathrooms and and all the work and the fields and everything else that that's being done. The, you know, there's not many there were not many concerns about there. I would say what I've been trying to do is streamline some of like our HR functions or our information management systems. So there's places that we need to be a little bit more automatic or automated with right using technology because our HR like our HR department is a department of 1.5 people right for everybody for the whole district and so we are working on streaming uh streamlining that with some technology
038um and what we talked about our conversations with the technology folks which Michelle was talking to you about technology you once you kind of get it next year you're already behind the curve right because it's always advancing it's always going to the next level so very much like with the fields we understand that we may need to do some outsourcing for some real expertise this stuff is complicated cyber security it's complicated and if we go down right it's it's we're in big trouble so those are more on the concern sides but nothing major there Okay, next please. Curriculum, academics, programs, pathways, and enrichment. Um, people, you see the Little Mermaid cast there that show. I can't tell you how many folks from different stakeholders talked about the extracurricular programming we have, the music, the sports,
039all the drama people. I'm extremely impressed and they're all extremely impressed. For a small district, we do a lot and we do it well and kids are just completely thriving in those spaces, right? It's so wonderful to go to a I went to the to watch some games the other day and you had uh middle school basketball, you had freshman basketball on this side, you know, you had Ali games coming up. No one had their phones with them. It was a lovely thing, but kids were just doing good positive youth development. So really so much work has been done on that quality programming, the advanced placement. We're a small district, but we offer as many advanced placements as any other uh district. This is great work to do. We have some really creative curric um
040some teachers with creative curriculum like our STEM teachers. They've developed their own curriculum. It's very innovative. It's very handson. We're doing we continue to do work on early literacy. And there's these potential these little seeds what I call seeds of experiential learning like the um projects with the watershed alliance and the farmtoschool projects and the the sped kids going out in the community every week. the these are just little seeds that really could blossom into sort of very innovative programming. Now on concerns on the other side there there is quite a few concerns with the curriculum there it is inconsistent right we've got some pockets of really cool things but again I've been talking to you about the infrastructure there is no consistency in spreading those pockets of amazing things and this is why Miss
041Harg Graves was mentioning the curriculum teams that both she and I are starting small district usually the superintendent is not running one of these teams, but we're a small district. There's not a lot of folks. So, we definitely need to be a little more consistent. We need to tighten that up. We need to be more data driven. But the trick is I want to do that without um without hampering the innovative work that's being done by teachers. I actually want to elevate that innovation that we see from here to we have a lot of great staff and a lot of good things are going on but I don't know I think there was a lot thrown at them and because of that not everything that was purchased or being used got implemented because it would
042maybe too much too soon right so we got to just kind of build it and and move in a more consistent manner okay next student support so there's Uh, I quicked all my favorite pictures, by the way. These are all my favorite pictures. The unified basketball team, if you have not watched unified basketball, you should come watch unified basketball. It it is just really joyful. If you're having a bad day, come and watch the unified basketball team, especially when the pep band is there. Um, it's a great experience. So, in terms of student support, lots of parents, lots of stakeholders bragged about our special education programming. We have some really strong special education program. There's a huge investment in the number of sped teachers that we do have as in the district. Our subsparate programming
043is foundational. The life skills programming expanding unified sports. It's a really creates this inclusive culture. And if you see in that picture that the I know the middle kid there, his name is Matthew. He's a regular ed kid, right? So it benefits the regular ed kids just as much if not more uh than the the kids on IEPs. So these this is really really so strong. Um there was some mention though right where I got some concerns about the 504s. The IEPs people are feeling generally pretty good but the 504 process that may need some work. Um, and there was some conversations about there still seems to be in general these middle level kids were not necessarily IEPs, right? They're not on IEPs that are floundering, right? And this this this idea of who's supporting
044the kids who are kind of on that cusp. The kids in IEPs, they're getting what they need, but there may be this middle group of kids who need a little bit more support. So, a lot of that is what you're seeing in the concern problem. And that's in terms of both academics as well as their social emotional development. So there are some kids who need a little bit more and not getting that because the you know we're not quite there with that process. Okay, we're going to go next one. Um so love this picture. Aspirations, hopes and dreams for the future. I mean look at that that attitude. So this picture, this, if you've not seen it, this article was in the shorelines. This, I believe, I take no credit for this. This, this is
045a student who graduated last year, >> who was part of the electric boat whatever program, >> right, which our kids go to and then we're doing it again this year. A teacher is driving them to electric boat for this real hands-on training. She now works for them and it's and she by the way is a field hockey co like you know helping out with the field hockey team too right what's better than that um and she's a kid who kind of knew she didn't want to go to college but she's really has such high career aspirations if you have not read that article you should read that article so truly a road model a road mapap to success for folks other than college. So, right, college is certainly one way and we have many many
046kids as you know that are doing very well and are going to um really competitive colleges. So, the what the folks have been saying as far as their aspirations is this idea of having multiple pathways, hence the need for a career pathway coordinator in the budget. Right? That's one of the reasons because we they we want to continue strengthening obviously that more traditional college pathway, but there's this other avenue that can benefit folks as well. That's the part A. And in part B, um this is, you know, so if you're an elementary school teacher, you're not necessarily thinking about job opportunities, but you still have hopes and aspirations for your kids. We want kids to be thriving learners to be excited about what they learn. But what I love about this other part is that
047last bullet which brings us almost back full circle where it says stakeholders hope students develop lifelong connections to Westport, give back to the community and foster a sense of community pride. So what I sort of began with about what you value is also an aspiration for future generations. So I I and I've mentioned this many times. I've never been more impressed with the community and I wish I would have raised my kids here. Um I you know there's a lot of strengths here. Okay. And I so I think that's basically Can you just go to the next one? Yeah. And then we don't need these are the some of the stuff we already I don't want you to think we're just ignoring the concerns and we'll we're already addressing some of those concerns. So it's
048a slide there if you want to read more to it. We can go next. And this is what's in the original PowerPoint. Um, we are now moving from stage three to stage four where we've got to figure out now the strategic plan uh process and how we use this information plus some other information and move forward with our next iteration. That's say thank you. >> Okay, questions. I want to say thank you very much for your thoughtfulness in this um and the process that you've implemented and already starting to address some of the concerns which is great and I'm sure I speak for the whole committee when I say that we look forward to supporting your work in this and addressing uh these issues and certainly supporting your the strategic plan that you present. So
049thank you. Yeah, I haven't been involved in previous obviously given this is my first year. Um I don't know if this was done previously by but like the professional presentation, the thoughtful presentation. >> Good job. >> It it it is very clear there are there are challenges that are being addressed right now. But I I I also appreciate that you did highlight some of the some of the great things that are happening especially I mean the innovation career pathways thing that is a huge >> huge thing that I think will continue to uh send send ripples down for many years and um I thank you again for as it's been said your uh your your thoughtfulness in putting this together. Um, and I I also look forward to the the conversations about uh what direction
050I guess the strategic planning is going to go >> uh here as we as we get into 2026. So, thank thank you very much Dr. >> Yeah. Know uh you know, well done. appreciate obviously the um the presentation and the um you know the thoughtfulness and the time that goes into it um that you you know that you put into this um and again making that community connection um at the end and kind of wrapping it up that way you know really speaks volumes you know again for people that are here and and volunteering um you know for the community um and you know some of us may or may not have grown up here or whatever but that thought of giving back um you know I think is lost sometimes um you know with
051students. But it it's good to see that, you know, continue to be reinforced here and coming full circle with a student um you know, who I obviously know in that picture and coming back and giving back and in the sport that she played here and loved and everything. It's great job. Great. >> As a parent, I'm happy to raise my kids here. >> All right. Thank Thank you once again, Dr. Roy. Thank you, everyone. So uh so at this point we'll move on to the last item on ourformational agenda which is uh the discussion of the fiscal year 2027 proposed school budget. Uh before we get into numbers here uh just wanted to give a little bit of uh background into the process of course uh this uh is a product of almost end product
052anyway of of a whole lot of of work and a little bit of magic from our business office from our superintendent. Thank you all uh for um putting putting this together. Um we're looking at a a budget line that uh including you know the contractual uh increases and and uh some potential expenses. I mean obviously supplies are going up. The little things do do tend to add up uh as far as uh just just the costs uh in general of of of some some of the more mundane things. So, uh, you know, unfortunately that does does end up being, uh, increases. So, uh, that being said, the number we we've had a number of budget sessions. Uh, the school committee has, uh, there's been meetings with the, uh, the new town administrator, you'll be meeting
053again with the new town administrator as you me mentioned. Uh the process now is that the uh this proposed budget which to be fair will probably be changed many times between now and the time we get to town meeting because we still don't have you know state numbers, town numbers, uh twe tweaks will no doubt be made. Uh but the next step in this process is to present a proposed budget to the uh finance committee that'll be taking place on May the 3rd or excuse me February the 3rd. Uh from there uh we'll uh by then should have some more numbers uh from the town side of things and of course this is voted on as part of the town budget in uh at the the annual town meeting in May. So with that being
054said um is anything specific uh Mr. Pros you want to mention on >> No basically just you know thanks all the to all the administrators the staff I mean we've worked very hard and with the help of Dr. for Roy, you know, trying to present a budget that we feel is fair to our students and is going to help them and our staff, you know, not just just the students, but it's a way to give support to the students and the staff on both ends of the deal. So, I think we've, you know, put together a fair and equitable budget that is not astronomical, but something to work with that we can move forward and hope that it continues to grow in time over the next few years. What one thing that has always impressed
055me uh even before my time in the school committee uh Westport Community Schools always seem to do more with less. And this uh this budget shows that, you know, we're we're stretching things as things as far as they can go, but at the same time, uh I I I do believe this is this is a a reasonable and realistic budget that's going to be able to meet the needs of our students and our community. And thank you again for for all the work that's gone into it. I just well I wanted to recognize the business department because not only when we have our meetings with our depart with department heads and the building principles um you know these aren't just reflected as all increases to the existing budget over last year. You're also doing a
056lot of diligence to look at where we can save money along the way as well. So this is just a net difference. It's not that this is only an additive process because I know every year, >> you know, you sharpen your pencil and really work to see what can be done in the budget, which I think is is good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, which is what we're elected to make sure happen. So, um, it works well when we have, you know, a business office that really does their diligence on that. So, I wanted to recognize that. Um, a a couple of things I wanted to note on this budget that I think are important to point out is, you know, we're looking at a at a at a recommended budget of of uh nearly 25
057million, but 24,960,332. Um, a couple things to note there. twothirds of that is simply contractual obligations for uh to keep the existing staff we have to support our students which means keeping right which means keeping class sizes the way they are which means if if we cut those positions >> that has an impact on our on our students in our our in our school district. So um twothirds of that of that of the overall increase in our budget is is simply those contractual increases. The other um increases there are to ex are the vast majority of them are to existing lines in the budget that we need to keep up with because uh costs are increasing at a as at an astronomical rate. We bear the brunt of when when the price of something goes
058up if it's lumber, if it's whatever it may be, >> we're seeing that at an exponential rate because we're, you know, we're the we're the consumer. So, we're we're paying for these services um or these uh products if it's maintenance and we're seeing the increase of that. So, and when you're dealing with a district, it's tfold. Um and I know that you've worked with all the department heads and to really look into those numbers, so I appreciate that. Um but I I thought it was important to point those things out. And then the extent to which you know we're looking at um I know the career pathways was mentioned um as well as a coordinator for uh development and that's really I mean even there is is sharpening our pencils because we're looking to see
059if the opioid committee will help use some of the settlement funding to fund uh a contract position for that at least in a in a in a partial sense. Um and a lot of these are are Like I said again, our necessary uh expenses, transportation for out of district students, I mean, these are expenses that again we're obligated to meet. So, um I just just in that special education category, we're looking at an increase of over $300,000. So, just between our the original staff obligations and the special education, that's that is pretty much our entire increase uh in the proposed budget. So, um, the extent to which the the town numbers come in, it still has yet to be seen. We have potential, uh, in possible anticipated increases that we've included to kind of, um,
060uh, in our anticipation of the town number just for our own estimation purposes. But, uh, I think we're pretty close to what we can likely expect from the town. Um, and I think that shows the responsibility of this committee and the district in in making sure that we're meeting the needs that have to be met to make sure that we're delivering services um uh at a rate that our students deserve and also uh being cognizant of the financial realities of the town that we live in. So, just wanted to say thank you and I think the process that we implemented was was great again this year. So, >> anything else from members at this time. So again, the uh the process at at this time would be uh we have a recommended budget. There would
061be a presentation to the at the finance committee uh from there down to uh down to the town town meeting in in May. So uh at this point I have so we have uh the proposed numbers in front of us here. Um, I would be willing to entertain a motion to give a preliminary approval of this uh proposed budget if if any committee members would be so inclined. >> I will move that motion. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion at this time? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I. >> That carries and we will uh move on to the uh the FinCom presentation. And again, that's going to be on February the 3rd, I believe. And uh once again, thank you to everyone uh in the business
062office who's been talking about sharpening pencils and uh >> we'll make sure that gets sent out to everyone. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Excellent. Wonderful. Thank you so much. All right. Excellent. Well, that uh that wraps up our discussion agenda. We now have uh two items on the action agenda. First of all, we'll review and act on school committee meeting minutes for Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025, as well as a uh school committee budget work sess session on the 3rd of December and the a work budget work session for Wednesday, December 17th. Everyone should have the minutes in your packet. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. >> All right, the minutes carry and we'll move on to the next item on
063our agenda would be to review and act on the Westport Elementary School field trip to the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island on May in May 2026. Um, believe this has of course been approved by the superintendent. Is that correct? >> I move to uh approve this field trip. >> Second. >> It's been moved and second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I. >> That carries. We'll move on to routine matters, correspondence, and notices. I have none. Uh discussion of future agenda items. Any items that uh committee would like to see on a on a future agenda at this time. All right. Hearing none, I have uh no topics that I cannot reasonably anticipate 48 hours in advance of the meeting. And with that, I will entertain a motion to
064adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? I >> I >> we are adjured at 7:27 p.m. Thank you very much everyone.