School Committee - March 18, 2025

001FL okay our first item on the agenda is comments and statements from the public sure if you could just go up to the microphone and state your name hi my name is Sarah Broadbent I am a mom of a couple of students in the community schools and I have a concern with um what I feel is a lack of communication when there are safety events that occur in and around the school um obviously there was an incident on Monday not during school hours which I totally understand where a man was apprehended with weapons here yes am I wrong you're looking at me confused yeah there was no first of all that was that reporting combined two things that were separate items okay on the one we had an alarm that went off we believe that

002the alarm went off because of the wind um Ling the doors we I'm trying to figure out was the gentleman who the police apprehended was never on campus okay that's good to know so even that okay so we are getting we have students here and they're being told the same thing we're seeing in the news and if the school board or whoever is responsible for communication could send out an email when something like that occurs to clarify these things it would really help us to be able to communicate with our children who are in the school and a little uncomfortable and kind of nervous hearing that this just happened I didn't know anything about it until my daughter told me and she was like Mom I'm really uncomfortable I'm like well you know I just

003looked I found the news article the man was arrested but I mean without any communication from from the school who knew much more than we did we have no other information and it was a little bit concerning and you know I I have a daughter here that that's all that we have to go by because we got nothing from the school I I mean I just I'm just I'm trying to understand ma'am with all what don't you understand it it was a scary situation portrayed by the news and I understand that you're saying that but we were still trying to figure out what was going on so we didn't even know so when did you know that he was never on campus when the when we got the Facebook announcement from the police department on

004Monday on Monday saying that and and and that's when we first of all we have a we have a school resource officer in two of our three schools all the time so the communication is is pretty strong when it comes to that not to to the parents we didn't we didn't receive any communication from the school to say that there was no danger public comment um should not be a back and forthood yeah I apologize ma'am if you would like to that's all you can no you can it's really it really is just things like that you know my daughter was I have a a daughter in the elementary school who says oh Mom there was the fire department came today there was a small fire in one of the vents like you know things

005like that I just feel like parents deserve an email just saying hey this happened there was no danger everyone's good but just so you all know and I'm not getting updates about things that I consider potentially a danger to my child from my 10-year-old or my children hearing it from other children who are going to portray it in a much more Grand manner that could be much more scary than it needs to be I just it was just something that I really think that maybe should be considered moving forward that's all I'm not saying that the news thing was correct I'm glad that it wasn't but again that's all that that's all that we in town have to go is what we're seeing so it was it just felt like if if somebody had just

006said hey actually just just one of the newsletters that we get in by email that just said hey you know this was not quite how it seemed there was really never a danger at the school at all I understand it was before hours anyway but it just it really felt like we were in the dark and that seemed like a very serious situation so that was really all I had to I appreciate you Shing thank you thank you much um so we are we're not properly posted to discuss that item uh but I will follow up with Administration on that so thank you for thank you for sharing okay the next time actually I would request that we take item a of the informational agenda out of order for our student Representatives if the committee

007is okay with that public hearing okay student Representatives okay all right good after afternoon school committee everyone else in attendance uh just have a very short list of items for this evening first off the last parent teacher conferences for the school year in the Middle School were held today from 2:15 to 4:15 the third term will come to an end and marks will close on Monday April 7th unfortunately mcast testing for the middle school will begin for grades 7 and 8 on April 8th and 9th they will begin their testing in ela the fifth sixth and seventh grade Spring Dance will be held on Friday April 11th permission slips will be sent home soon the middle school student council is running a fundraiser for the forever paw animal shelter in Fall River I don't have

008any other information but I know that it was handed out in home room today the spring Sports season is just starting and tryouts and practices are starting this week for baseball softball lacrosse and tennis and lastly just a little Shameless plug here tomorrow night the sophomore class student council will be holding a bingo night fundraiser the price is $1 per round or $20 for all 20 rounds join us at 5:00 for prizes and more thank you thank Youk you good evening superintendent auin members of the school committee and all in attendance this evening I'm going to start off with some important information about events at the school the last High School parent teacher conferences like Ryan said for the school year will be held tomorrow March 19th from 2:15 to 4:15 mcast testing will start

009next week for 10th grade students they will be taking the ELA portion of the mcast starting on Tuesday March 25th and Wednesday March 26th congratulations to all the seniors on the ongoing acceptances College commitments and decisions that are being made for future plans and careers the senior dinner will be held on Friday March 28th at 6 pm. seniors have invited staff members who have had a positive influence on their life thank you to Mrs Rell for organizing this memorable night for our seniors attention seniors graduation yard signs are now for sale and the cost is 20 or $25 depending on the design you choose orders must be placed by Tuesday April 29th and emails have been sent out to all seniors with this information on that email there's a QR code that you can scan

010to purchase the signs last call for your book orders all your books must be made and purchased by March 31st there is a link for Life Touch that's the creator of the um yearbooks that will be sent in the last newsletter or Mr monest see him for an order the Westbard high school student body would like to extend a warm welcome to all our Japanese exchange students who arrived this past weekend we will be celebrating these students at the black and white semi-formal dance this Friday March 21st it will be held from 6:00 to 9: in the Westport HIgh school gymnasium the cost is $20 for a student to attend and all permission slips and payments must be turned in no later than Wednesday March 19th student council news the senior class is currently holding

011a crispy cream doughnut fundraiser to help pay for their senior trip to Six Flags Donuts are $15 for a dozen and can be ordered through any senior or Mrs Ava orders close on March 28th and the donuts will be delivered to the high school on April 10th I would also like to interject here that I am a few dut orders short of getting that so if anyone would like donuts feel free to see me I don't have the form on me right now um the Westport advocats and rise room are sponsoring the second annual Jade nuso bowling fundraiser it will be held at Holiday Lanes on Sunday April 13th from 4 to 6 p.m. teams can pre-register now the cost is $25 for two hours of bowling and shoes all teams or all proceeds go

012to the Westport HIgh School Special Olympics t-shirts and a scholarship for the Westport HIgh School seniors if you are a senior in order to apply for the scholarship you must attend this event and lastly from for Club news the Westport drama club put on a very successful production of into the woods the students began working on this show in October and a lot of time and dedication went into putting into this production a big thank you to Mr Jared Russell for his endless hours and pouring his heart into this show now for sports the winter sports season has officially wrapped up and ended with tremendous excitement and success a big congratulations to our boys and girls basketball teams for their deep postseason runs also congratulations to the cheerleaders Mr Nunes and the pep band and

013all the fans for their amazing support throughout the season Co-op hockey with diamond dery and Westport made it to the Mi state tournament this year however they lost in the first round to tr the spring Sports season officially began yesterday with tryouts and practices for high school softball baseball tennis and Lacrosse good luck to all of our teams and we can't take wait to see what these teams accomplish this spring go wild cats great job thank you very much thank you both thank you so much thank you have a good evening I will say also I did have the opportunity to attend the both the play and the basketball game and it was uh it was great to see the involvement from the students looks incredibly phenomenal job okay moving back to our agenda item

014FY 26 education um budget public hearing so I will believe we have to make a motion to open the public he for I'll make a motion to open the public meeting for the FY 26 education uh budget public hearing I'll second that Mr May second any discussion hearone all in favor I all right so we are uh this is a hearing on our FY 26 budget you'll see on the screen uh includes both the recommended number that this committee approved um a few months ago um and discussed over the course of the Fall which came in at 24, 40,7 188 uh most of that as we discussed I'll just briefly give an overview of what that consists of uh the majority of that are contractual increases so that's our both of our bargain units as

015well as non-union increases um and Transportation uh is also included in there as well as utility items um maintenance items custodial so that's really the and Technology as well so that's really the the bulk of our what was included in our recommended budget over FY 25 um the latest number from the select board that we received at their recent meeting was 23,6 54,9 43 so the Gap has closed uh a little bit since our last discussion um um you know some of this will depend on state aid and what other types of Aid look like um I know Mr Rob I think you want to touch on that or do would you prefer do that right now get that out of the way yeah just uh again uh I wanted to let the committee know

016that uh we're going to be going over the budget obviously you can see that there's a difference already of I believe changes at the Department of Education Department of Education plays a critical role in Grant allocations in particular titles one two and uh at believe four and uh we have been uh told by the Massachusetts Association School Superintendent that you can expect out a minimum of 25% uh cut in the titles um just want to make sure that number I believe amounts to $118,000 so whatever deficit we're looking at please bear in mind that uh depending on what happens with the grants going forward um we may have to go back to the uh jwing table and in fact um the district leadership has come together and taking a look at uh you know not

017that any any cuts are good at this point because clearly they're not but um if we get cut we need to be prepared so you know I've met with the business manager the assistant business manager and uh we're trying to see um you know unfortunately what what we would have to if that cut does come down let me be clear on this it is going to impact Direct Services to students there just no getting on with' cut all the uh Anar and there there's really not much left to cut at this point and that estimated figure was from the association of superintendent it is yeah they were saying to plan on a 25% cut I'm just concerned that with the momentum that's taking place at the federal level with a lot of these cuts that

018it could actually be more so I'm I'm you say not going to be very comfortable until this is uh this comes to fruition one way or another so uh again as we discussed the budget I would really appreciate if people could just keep in mind that this is right now best case scenario right now so I wish I had better news I don't yeah I know U after so again process wise finance committee has not approved their recommended number yet so we're not sure where that'll come in that should be over the next couple of weeks or so that we'll get a number from the finance committee um along with a better picture of the warrant and the recommendations and other items as well so that happens in the number goes to town meeting that

019number is what we have to make work so uh at that point following town meeting we will then meet to discuss whether we have to we're in a cut position um and how to how to make it worth it what it looks like after time meeting so that will be forthcoming um but for now is are there any comments from the committee on this budget um as is a public hearing so just want to open it's a committee I know a lot of work has been done on it to do the best for all the staff The Faculty everybody here and I'd like to thank Evan and um for all the work he's been doing teaching all of us as we get ready for our departure but um everybody has everybody here has done a

020phenomenal job this all the way down so and uh it'll be a learning curve for the next people but I hope that the people in town understand we're doing as much as we can little as possible and they are doing a phenomenal job with these uh principes and everybody else trying to keep it going and I I would like to thank uh Michelle and Melissa for their work on this as well we know the numbers change a lot so we're you know constantly adapting on as we get new information and new figures from different boards from state aid from wherever it may be so um and also want to thank the building leaders and the department leaders for presenting us with their thoughts on the budget their recommendations for what this should look like um

021a lot of work when I said this starting back in the fall and having different uh meetings with departments and uh I think we have a responsible transparent budget in front of us and I'm hopeful that uh the town will support it uh we'll see what looks like over the next few weeks and I want to thank also uh M Rouse and Miss Brown and the finance committee and Mr haret for their discussions of the last few weeks on the budget as well so just wanted to recognize that there any other comments from the committee just uh again another round of thanks for everybody who has been diligently working on this and and the back and forth I know is exhausting at times um so just to reiterate the the difference is $6,499 so there's

022still a a a bit of a difference to say at least between uh what we've got on paper and what is the what's the latest round from the uh the select board here um and this is after some significant shipping away I guess at at items including uh potential for a uh sped sub separate class and a couple other things so I uh I'm hopeful that the finance committee discussions will uh take into consideration just how much work has been done to to chip away already and and hopefully uh can find a good uh a good resting point I guess and try to make up this uh this difference as of now but thanks again to everybody who's been working on this don't way and I know it's uh it's it's certainly not fun so

023thank you thank you um this is also a public hearing so I'll ask theity members of the public that would like to share anything C want here for the hearing um is there anything that business office would like to had on us no we thank the whole school committee for working closely with us and having an open relationship to be able to go through this without feeling you know like in the leadership obviously because you know we work very closely with the leadership the department heads um business office we not in the same location and we still manage to be on the same page and to make this work so um and we have Lori melow could ask more than that can you okay is there anything further so I guess we can we can

024leave the hearing open we can we had it on the agenda for what 15 minutes been on for 15 yeah we we at our 15 minutes of this point do you need a motion to close I'll make a motion to close the uh FY 26 education uh budget public hearing I'll second the motion motion May second any discussion hearing none all in favor all right okay moving back into our informational agenda we'll go to Item B super attendance report Mr Robin yeah that that would pointed out uh on the on the uh M Mas uh you know warning for lack of a better term in terms of uh budgeting going for the titles I mean certainly I you know um looking at the uh you know what the uh students uh Representatives talked about I

025mean between the you know the Arts are they're not back at Westport they're just better and better and it's a credit to uh our kids and certainly our staff um I am extremely proud of both the the men and women's basketball teams um they played extremely uh uh tough and uh unfortunately uh one point away on the boys game that was just brutal um but it was a unbelievable season for them and quite frankly a great season for all of our Sports and our extra curricul so credit to the staff and uh ently the people behind the scene which is the you know the business people to make sure that um you know we have the money as a matter of fact uh one of the things we're trying to do right now is figure

026out where we get a few more dollars because uh the uh student participation in in La CL um is is large enough that we can field a a JB team this year so uh that's that's a good sign as well so and um that's about it sir thank you very much got it okay moving on to item C committee leaz reports start with Mr thr thank you Mr chair so the uh superintendent search subcommittee uh did hold its first meeting last week uh we currently have a a good crop of applicants uh that we will be going over our meeting next meeting will be on Friday at 4 P.M in the conference room uh it will be adjourned to Executive session to discuss the applicants our plan is to uh go over the uh the

027credentials and resumés and uh make a decision on who to hire or excuse me who to interview uh over the the course of uh the following two weeks so thank you thank you very much to everyone who is participating in in the committee I know it's uh little time consuming and also a little difficult to get schedules together but uh I'm I'm based on the the crop of applicants that we have I'm I'm pretty optimistic that we're going to be able to present some some good finalists to the uh to the full committee thank you thank you um nothing new besides um what Chris just said um I'm on that committee as well the superintendent of starts committee and um attended that first meeting so um looking forward to Friday and then um I didn't

028have any other um subcommittee meetings um since our La school committee land have to I've had no sub commmittee meeting same all right uh on my end I have the the so the audit committee met um and we reviewed the draft letter from the auditor which is now in final form um so that is available I believe on the town website if it's it it should be available if it's not already um soon there were no material weaknesses identified by the auditor in that uh I know Town account accountant and treor have been working hard to address some of the issues that previously identified have been doing good work there so the governor's letter did not identify any material weaknesses there were some um areas that were raised that the auditor continues to raise including

029um areas like U cyber security and Security in that I think just in general um especially with with cash handling uh with Town Town Town departments uh there was also some identified dollarss that were in low amounts that were from Grants that hadn't been spent down from different departments or U you know maybe a couple hundred dollars or less for those um same thing with some old war articles so there was so they're working to address some of that uh but those were all small amount that's just a matter of tracking down you know where the money came from which Grant it was from what the eligibility was so they can spend it um so that's where that stands but the big take away from that was no material weaknesses uh those reports and the

030meetings are public so I anyone who's interested in details on that I recommend read the reports on the town website umie the meetings as well those are all publicly available documents okay the we move on to item D the staff and student ATT tenis report um so this covers we didn't have one at the last meeting so this covers both uh time frames they have in front of you um again seems yeah consistant I know if there were any comments from the committee yes so um these were fairly uh new reports that were requested by a member of the previous um school committee based on you know some things that were being noticed I think as this committee moves forward you might want to consider either having these done you know maybe every six months

031or maybe three months into the beginning of the year or even just when Administration feels like they want to report it out to you um only because it's you know it's all old paperwork and time that goes into it and it's seeming that the rate of attendance is pretty high so just my five cents yeah I I appreciate it I think part of it too is des's identification of chronic absenteeism as but as you know we've seen num as pretty consistent in our district so which is a good thing right and and one thing is is we're looking at staff and we're looking at students right so I do think that having it listed for students um unless there is obviously an issue which we haven't had an issue in a while but if there's

032you know having it for students on a regular like I said like maybe a quarterly basis and unless there's been me yeah we me we save a ton of work it's a lot of work getting together every uh week and one of the things is that if uh there is an attend issue that suddenly spikes uh I believe that the building leadership uh will let us know about it and then we can take whatever steps we think are important but I would agree with Dr Pao that um it is it is a t of work every uh every week it just is you I appreciate and and it isn't a requirement it really from the six years that I was here before we never did it so no it's not a requ it's just about

033the discretion of the yeah so that's a sentiment of the committee we can certainly adjust that I appreciate any other comments on that I I would just say that if it's maybe possible to start these reports uh almost quarterly and just with the with the I guess the the one caveat if something does come up where something drops down I mean I don't know if that's if that makes it easier on you or or more difficult over there um I'm justly quarterly quarterly would be okay and with with the caveat that if should something should a week become yeah you know wildly ask you to bring it to the committee's attention I think that would be sufficient if anyone I don't know need a motion for that I need to it can go down that

034route any there any objections to that so what we could do uh Mr shair is that um uh at the end of uh the ter we could uh present something to the committee and we'll have uh Mrs Melo put that on the agenda at the end of each one if everybody's that if that's something [Laughter] the right anything further all right nothing we'll move on to item e West for Community Schools Bill warrant dated 37 $2,551 of1 and 321 2020 6289 I reviewed it look through the invoices seemed see know if there any specific comments from the committee on this I I do have a just a specific question for the the business office um it's been a Hot Topic in general in the Commonwealth uh the uh the rise in electric and gas bills

035over the last uh last few months I am just curious if there have been any wild spikes on uh on our bills uh money back and and and that was actually going to be my next question if if we ever figured out the Energy Credit uh debacle that eversource was uh so putting on us I think we actually have to go back a year Melissa about a year when we noticed that yes it was back about a year ago we got a bill from uce it was $110,000 more than the previous month and that's when we immediately made a call to the state representative and or state senate as a matter of fact uh you know about our concerns about the fact that if you extrapolate that out you're looking at close to over $100,000

036um since then we've still been wrestling with uh getting all of the credits I know that we've been getting some of them and uh Mr sherff it's okay I think uh uh Melissa has been working very closely with M J from so actually it's good time for that question because we actually just received on our last month the credits that we've been holding since that we've been waiting to receive since last April so I'm waiting to close off the end of March to really take a look at that and see what that means because as Mr auin said um last year we probably overex expended about 990,000 in the utility so I really have to see now um the town accountant has put together a schedule Zed which is realigning all the credits and working

037on that so we're waiting for the end of this month receive the bill in April for the end of this month to really take a look at and how we stand at that point so I can report back after that excellent thank you here there anything further on the Billard just to clarify a question just because I'm not sure what it is um SG projecto 3 that's um repetitive on the second Bill one just um is it I know it's has to do with electrical at the different schools is it a SG projectile that's the solar bills is that what your question yes and so that you're seeing probably a lot of them as well because they were behind was happening is eversource wasn't reporting that information so SG projecto couldn't fill out their information

038so we're receiving them we're starting to receive all of them now thank you thank you thank you all right we move to item F proposal of graduation requirements good evening everybody so is is the season where we begin scheduling for next school year and part of that process is speaking with students and the guidance Department about our graduation requirements and over the past couple of guidance meetings um there were two proposals that I um am looking to bring forward to you so the first is um prior to well including this year and the past several years we've had a um technology requirement so over the course of their four years a high school student needs to take at least one technology course to meet the whs graduation requirements given the work that we've done specifically

039at the middle school to build up our steam programming and the work that our high school teachers are doing to incorporate technology into all courses I'm proposing that that graduation requirement be removed from the formal list of graduation requirements so that students have a little bit more flexibility in their schedule to take um the courses that they they want to take as opposed to maybe the courses that they have to take so that was the first course any questions regarding technology okay so the second proposal surrounds our current community service requirement to graduate which um was implemented three years ago and while I'm not looking to totally get rid of it what I'm asking for is just a current pause to look at how maybe we can revamp that community service requirement and integrated into

040our current academic courses and I'm going to provide you two examples where community service work is done within the classroom by our teachers so the first is at the Middle School Mr John Bernier along with Patty Summer and the um the Council on Aging and Veteran Affairs with Carol fris they are intervie um our Westport veteran residents they're Gathering their stories and they're working to publish a book and that book will hopefully be um put out this year and we'll get the hard copies and send it out and so what better community service than that which is done right in the ELA class and then after school in the building inviting those community members in another example is with Christian Hutchinson he's a a new science teacher this is his second year in District and

041he's working with the Westport Watershed Alliance to get students out um into the environment through his classes to to do work to better the Westport environment um doing Beach cleanups Etc so what I'm looking for is to pause those requirements to convene a committee to discuss how we can integrate more of these opportunities into um the the learning during the school day so I think it's great that there's that we want to be more intentional about incorporating curriculum my question is on a on a pause um my initial thought would be that we could keep the current requirement as it is until a new one is in place that's integrated into whatever it may be if it's curriculum or different course work that would be my initial thought that we keep the current in place

042um are there are you seeing issues with the way it's currently structured or so actually I'm trying to be proactive with this because the way that the previous community service requirement was written in was that it doesn't go into effect until the class of 2026 so our current seniors are not bound by that current community service requirement because when it was approved by the school committee they wanted to to give students time to get in those 20 hours so there's flexibility to keep the current requirement because it's not going to impact our current senior class I see yes so if there so if so if there was a um a separate structure that was created before the class of 26 graduates so say over the summer if something was created and that's that started or

043or whatever coursework was impacted by it could have that integrated by the beginning of the school year so that then could be implemented right at that point for the for the next class corre so I'd be happy to come back to the committee okay you know present a proposal and we can modify the graduation requirements then but we have plenty of time okay so even if it was not removed on paper this year it would not impact the current senior class correct yeah the business one has a greater impact because a students select courses um that could impact our seniors so if they haven't gotten that requirement in yet and that's removed it will give them more flexibility in the scheduling process okay for the technology PC for the yes for the tech I may

044may have said business I apologize technology piece my I did I did have initial thought on the uh technology piece is I mean technology is so integrated in everything that students do now I mean I'm not sure what it currently looks like with you know there there was a a class that was just computers and it was you sat at a at a desktop and that was your computer work but now every student has a chome book so do does that requirement go beyond that to say you have to have some additional level of technological proficiency Beyond just your yeah just your standard use of a so actually I think what has happened over the past several years is that it's rolled down into the middle school classes so in seventh and eth grade students

045are taking those desktop based Windows computer classes through app creators and computer science for innovators and makers so they're getting those skills prior to coming to the high school so this is a question oh s so the the tech requirement that's currently in this is for removing it for next year correct oh correct so the seniors are held to what the school committee had agreed were the graduation requirements that are posted in last year's program of studies so if someone already took a tech course like were the were the credits more than 120 no I understand what you're saying lose it NOP they won't lose anything so it's just I would I would feel safe to say that the majority of um Rising seniors have already probably taken this this required course you're probably talking

046about a handful that left it for senior year so it wouldn't it wouldn't have an impact because they they took a course they're going to get credits for their course it would just be in lie of taking another elective so when you take the tech course out of here are you adding anything in its place or just removing it we're just removing it so that it would provide more opportunity for an additional elective credit of their choice so on the second page the total required credits for this school year was 92.5 if approved by the school committee for next year the total required credits would be 90 and that Tech course if someone already took it could be considered an elective absolutely okay perfect thank you and we also have students who take multiple Tech

047courses because that's of interest to them so would this impact the number of credits needed to nope because we are still requiring that students have 30 credits every single year for a total needed of 12 120 by the time they graduate okay so how many courses fit this requirement as as it stands for right now how many classes are offered I would say if you looked in our program of studies it would be between six and eight courses but not everything runs every single year what runs is based off of student selection outside of the call costes that we obviously oh absolutely yeah there coures like you're always going to run English n you're always going to run Algebra 1 it's more the elective courses that are like fluid because it just depends on what

048that particular class may want in a given year um I don't disagree with obviously the logic here and um obviously there's much more technology built into um you know education from the ground up um when they begin and um have no problem with the removal of it I think just a watch out for us as a committee is um we have on our budgeted list an additional business technology teacher um and we're removing we're removing the need for a requirement from graduation um so I don't know if it's a bad timing thing or if it's an adjustment that we may look to make but um it was proposed to us and we approved it as part of our um increase so a little bit of a I'm happy to respond to that if you would

049like so I had reached out to staff and got feedback on what courses they've heard from students um that they might want to take in that realm and the majority of them were business oriented so we're talking about courses such as entrepreneurship um the stock market uh digital literacy course and we still have a business requirement within our graduation requirements it's specifically personal finance but I also think as we look to the Future that might be a conversation we want to come back to the table and have that is is it personal finance and maybe another course that we are going to require of students given the need for financial and business literacy as as students get older and Mr chair I that was my understanding as well that the the business uh aspect of

050this was what you were looking towards I yeah in student selection of courses it's the the business C courses which unfortunately we just don't have the Personnel for currently those are the ones that are more popular and sought after by students as opposed to web design that's just one example I do like the idea that you mentioned of having a conversation about ways to I guess bolster the business side of things because that's really your real world aspect right everyone talks about what's the what's the value of right exactly what's the value of public education I mean this is this would be an area I think where we could really say this is a this is something that is concrete that you know you're leaving here with some some sort of life skill that Beyond

051just your your traditional typ personal finance class right you could say this is an add-on to that so um just uh before no Mr Robin um so this these courses could also be used to fulfill the business requirement as well right is that is that the idea with with that with some of these new courses as the program as the graduation requirement excuse me is currently written students have to take personal finance to meet the graduation requirement but I am certainly not opposed to polling students talking to the guidance Department what are colleges looking for to have a conversation about maybe um changing that requirement or making an addition thank you Mr robt thanks uh based on my conversation with a number of people including our business manager uh we used to have a very

052strong Deca program here uh distributive educ at clubs of America and uh obviously uh the value of that is has not gone away in fact it's become and we've spoken about fact that we need to reintroduce that including you know even maybe a school store online and things of that nature to generate income as well I think additionally I think for the committee going forward because I will not be here but um I think it's going to be important to assess your courses every year as things are changing exponentially um there was a uh there was a report um this week on uh for example um sports betting and we know that sports betting is a real nightmare uh for the age group 18 to 35 um I would suggest that at some point we

053might want to address that in one of our courses with some of our seniors who are leaving you know uh and you know these are the types of courses or mini courses or micro costes that could be embedded within these things but what I'm what I'm suggesting is that um you you're going to be looking at these every year because things are changing just so rapidly right now and I think to not do it you'd be doing it at your own par and a students par as well I just had a follow up on the um uh volunteer requirements so what what does that currently look like in terms of uh so student is fulfilling those or I guess they wouldn't because you're saying it's a new it's a new piece that was implemented but

054we've really been pushing with our students like the class of 2026 that's our current Juniors you need 20 hours by the time you graduate so think about how how are you going to get that done if you haven't already started we've really been pushing five hours a year makes it more manageable yep so what is it looking like students are Comm um completing community service hours they're getting forms signed off and then they're going into their folders their guidance folders okay yeah that that was my I was wondering where that how that was accountable for okay that makes sense yeah I I wasn't sure if the district was seeking certification which I would imagine would be burdensome on Administration to like verify them themselves you know so if you're receiving forms and having them sign

055that that makes sense um yeah my hesitation on the volunteer requirement is I I think that we do I agree with you that we do need a a more intentional way of incorporating it into the curriculum whether that's through coursework I think that the examples you mentioned are great um um my concern is that if we remove it that we're that we might lose sight of of having that as the target that's my that's my thought I'm not sure what the committee's committee has any I do agree and the two that were mentioned are phenomenal um and you know I have a little bit of knowled um from both of them but I think part of my um hesitation or you one of my thoughts with it is that it doesn't if is there a

056way um and I think the middle school one may um reach a little bit more um kids or close to the entire grade um but I don't think it does in the high school unless you know the students have that specific teacher um if there was maybe a way to incorporate it for every student in a grade let's say by eighth grade um on the Middle School side of things um and then you know kind of something similar on the high school side of things um I think that would be phenomenal um but I just worry um I think it is super super important to our community um and to the kids and and certainly a life lesson with um community service um but I I would hate to see a way to kind of

057Wiggle around it um or you know it not to fit into um you know a students's course load um by the time they graduate somehow because they don't have a specific teacher that really has that Focus as well they have both options that I know if I don't have that teacher but I do community service so here's here's my letter might give both options to still make the requirements there'll be people that are going to fall through the PRS but at least both options you can do a or b so that way you're not having to change much you're just adding okay these students did this you three didn't so instead of what are you going to do you can't lose that let's do something else if you leave A and B there you're pretty

058open to everything and it would be my goal to expand it so that it's not just a couple of teachers and if a student doesn't get into one of those classes they don't miss out I also have to be very mindful that for some of our students just getting to school getting done what they need to get done and making it across the finish line is hard enough for them to then ask them to do this additional piece and say well your diploma could be on the line I want to provide even more opportunities for our students so I agree with you I don't think it has to be an A or a B we can look to mesh both so um I think you know um Mrs sheret is is has brought this to

059us and me you know I've seen the work that she's been able to do and and and I have very high level of confidence that she can rally the troops and get the resources together to ensure our students have options for doing their community service so I hear that she's not looking to get rid of it but to more so provide opportunities for our students to have that in the classroom and as and I was going to say that there are some students who just aren't going to be able to do it outside of the class classroom whether they can't get a ride or whether they just don't have the the the mental capacity to be able to get that done and we're going to provide those resources I think revamping it in a way

060that says to the the teachers you know you need to be able to to implement this in because we're not going to have our students this is going to be the main focus I'm sure if someone comes in and says you know I have this opportunity to work for the American hot Association for whatever I'm sure that the guidance Council we work with them and say yeah you can do that in addition but I think having that be the main focus of our community service will just will just impact us in a positive way you Al she also has to get it together so I think having her work on that and do that and then bring that back to the committee I one would like to to see her to do that do you

061know what I mean like let's give her the the chance now that she's brought this to us I whole hardly agree I I have no doubt in Mr ability to to do that and I have full confidence that that she'll find a way to to make it work my my thought is in the in the interim that we don't remove that requirement but we keep it and we can implement the uh suggestions that that you have um as part of that and if it is a robust thing that does engage you know all of our students in it then we can certainly I think REM at that point that would that would be my thought so when is the roll out when are you looking at rolling this out I thought it was like next

062next year no because I think we have we have some time um I'm happy to take the next couple of months and work on this and then present to the committee um in the later spring if that works so for for this before you very question U so is there is there urgency on your end to approve this item tonight no there is not that was my question so if there's so this because it's not impacting the class of 25 yes okay there's a little bit of urgency on the technology requirement just so that students can properly schedule themselves for next year but um whatever you feel is best I would I would personally be in favor of I would I would not be opposed to removing the technology requirement uh my I agree with

063you but I see your point now timing wise why yes I I understand what you're saying let's see so two questions first of all as far as choosing courses um is there a deadline that you need you would need the committee to act on the technology requirement specifically preferably before next school year because I want my goal is to have students have full schedules before they leave in June at the high school level um so that would be my goal understood okay um the second question just going back to the requirements uh for volunteer service what I am curious you you you had mentioned that this has been a requirement has been set for the class of of 26 for some time and that you have uh the Administration has been uh recommending five year

064or five hours a year so are we in a situation where there is a significant amount of students that are off uh that aren't keeping Pace with with that at this time is that so working with high school students we know that the the final minute is when they're going to turn in their stuff so we have had students turning in five hours every year or all of their hours in one year but we do have some students that are currently Juniors that haven't turned in any hours yet but there's always plenty of opportunity within our schools to get those community service hours done for example we had parent teacher conferences today that's two hours right there where they can assist parents and finding classrooms we have parent teacher conferences tomorrow that's another two hours

065they could get four hours done this week so there's always plenty of opportunity so I'm not as concerned if they haven't turned anything in yet one because they may have just not turned in the paper and two we can assist them if ultimately that requirement stays so I was just wonder you say I was 20 hours for graduation correct and and it's they can do all 20 hours as freshman and be done with the requirement they can do five hours a year it's whatever works for them as it's currently written um in the graduation requirements ultimately I I would be concerned with removing requirement um but I am very interested in in what kind of uh integrated program you can create uh so that there are opportunities within instruction time as well um so I

066uh if if if there's any way that uh you could get back to us with with you know what I pause with look like as would it really be a pause or going to stay kind of reformulated for the next year absolutely and just so the committee is aware uh and I don't want to let the cat out of the bag but uh within the next month or two I believe that Westport will be given um Innovation pathway status by the state so uh that will certainly help poer our technology um um usage by our students yeah yeah we we need to replace of these space computers uh we needed to be on that I know that that makes some funding available for a lot of different SK and that that's typically somewhere around up

067to $500,000 that's real money absolutely yeah I there are some districts that have built entire programming around that that are you know not your traditional academic courses but it built you know even non-vocational schools that have done a lot with that so and I think what Lisa Kaminsky has done working with LA has been amazing and I'm really excited about the possibility of uh looking at this uh you know uh community service in a much more organic uh way because I think it's scalable uh I think the legitim there's a legitimate concern for those who simply cannot get anywhere to do the community service necessary and uh I just think it if we can do this organically I I really think it'll be a model going forward and I know uh you know principal sherette

068working with a team they're going to knock it out of the park I'm absolutely sure that can I so the last thing that I'll say is is there are some students who just are we look at community service and maybe we look at ourselves or our family members we think okay well we'll definitely be able to do it we'll definitely be able to get it done but there are some people there are some families that just may not be able to do that and if you can imagine a student who's just barebones getting through their High School career not being able to graduate because they were unable to do 20 hours of community service and I know that's what none of us want but when that's a requirement that's a requirement that they have to

069get done so while I'm in favor of it I mean and I'm I'm just going to say that the more we can do to be able to provide that resource the better so anything further from the committee right thank you as always you thank you okay we move to item G discussion of school choice for the FY 26 school year I think you on me how would we like to do this we like the do we want the uh principles to I know they're on they're listed on the agenda so why don't we go through this very quickly all right all right so I'll start off by saying that we introduced school um choice I think it was uh two years ago if I'm not mistaken and quite frankly it was to try and generate

070as much revenue as possible uh students equal dollars I wish I wish it weren't true but it is true so uh What uh Michelle is going to explain is what what has happened with School uh Cho since its Inception here at uh Westport correct so we're going to go on slide two um what this shows you is our current enrollment as of October 1 and or as um Felicia excuse me Felicia did as of March 13th so this is the enrollment as of that dat by grade level we currently right now when we went out for this FY 25 we were opening up school choice to five students in grade seven five in grade eight 10 in grade nine 10 in grade 10 and five in grade 11 what came over to us from seventh

071grade we received two students out of the five four out of the five for grade eight three out of 10 students for grade nine two for grade 10 and one for grade 11 so we received 14 of the 35 that the school committee approved to open up school choice Bo then I'm going to go to slide three here sorry my phone's going in and out before you get to that if it's okay Mr chair I just want to point out that um the revenue we received in school choice last year in Melissa if I'm wrong I'm not tender somewhere around $118,000 I have that side not wrong I think it's 138 138 138,000 school choice receiving if you look right over here I will highlight this in yellow just so that you can see it

072a little better so for this year we're receiving 138,139 23 students we last year we receiv received 61,62 year before that we had 12 students we only received $$ 57144 year before that was only three students so as you can see the school choice implement the amount per student is about $5,000 if we have a student with special needs there is a process that you go through to figure fill fill out your school choice reporting which is calculated based on services within that grid on the IEP so there's a calculation that happens so our students for special ed depending what they have in that grid will depend on how much money we receive receive a school choice so as you can see from fy20 we have definitely increased even from fy2 to this current year

073what we're going to receive it's going up $76,000 so on on that the the is there a uh the increases there aren't proportional to the number of students right because you have 12 enrollment and you re and it's not clean correct it's not it's not a clean what the what is the is that just well based one thing I will tell you from having actually a regist now who's doing the reporting on a regular basis is definitely a huge help because definitely the efficiency of reporting now is 100% more accurate than what it had been in the past so some of this right here of this differential that you can see is probably incorrect reporting During certain times so that does make an impact but right now she currently like she goes on to the

074school choice reimbursement um online with desie she then keeps track of them for instance when we looked at this report back here you'll see that there are two students right here these two students in grades five and grade six were brought in as school choice we ended up having to report that they came from Fall River they're reported as living in Westport off of Blossom Road but because they pay taxes in Fall River those two students shouldn't have come to us they should have been reported and they stay with um Fall River schools so that was something that we found out last year in that process we at this point we're not sending them back you know so we're receiving school choice funding for them um the other thing that you can look at here

075so if when that occurs does does that is that considered um taking one of the slots that are that are uh approved by the commit moving forward it does not okay all right all right so we'll stick to just the school choice right now um so this here is a project ction of looking at next year what the numbers will be shows a student ratio of what they currently are some of these classes may be off a bit she basically just took the averages um across the board so you might have a class that might have 24 in it and another class may only have 21 in it so this is just averages our principles could probably give you more of an exact number um so we had sat down and we had spoken to

076some of the principles to find out what their recommendation would be we also sat down with Mr auin to figure out what we thought we would like to see come in to help increase enrollment and this was just a preliminary projected look that we would like to see five in kindergarten five in first grade 10 in fourth 10 in 5ifth five in grade six five in grade nine and five in grade 10 so in that discussion there was many things taken into consideration it was taken enrollment um continuity of students staying with the district if they came in a younger age they would be with us longer if they sto if they got into West W um we didn't feel bringing them in at 11th and 12th was probably feasible we felt like a lot

077of times you might be getting different students that you know are not making it in other schools and then you know taking up Resources with Westport um we felt getting them in again at fifth you know fourth fifth and sixth grade was getting them into the district and maybe trying to hold on to them so we were looking at a way to increase the enrollment as well um um you can't what we have done in the past just so everybody knows as well we have denied a student or two if a student has come to us and during the IEP process we find out that there is a certain program that they need that we don't we do not have we have sent a letter saying unfortunately at this time we do not have a

078program that meets your child's needs to move forward into Westport so that has happened the other thing that happens is if a student student currently it comes in his school choice and then needs to be sent out to another another program that student at that time now becomes enrolled back in the sending school district and they take on the financial responsibility at that point in time if we receive a school choice student that comes in say in January that school choice reimbursement is pro-rated so we would only receive say out of 10 months and the students only with us with five for five months we're only going to receive those five months at 500 a month and that money just so everybody knows the school choice reimbursement comes directly to the school district it does

079not go to the town like Chapter 70 is that uh is this ruling enrollment or certain period I'm sorry I heard you you both spoke at the same time go ahead is is this a a rolling enrollment or does it or is it a set period where you can enroll the school for school choice from other districts um they can enroll all year long in this like for this year if we're approved this year for say just grades 5 through 11 they can enroll right up until May 1st June 1st even to enroll but the reimbursement will be prated correct the reimbursement gets prated um so this here was just basically the calculation and payment of how tuition a charges what it looks like I won't for or anybody with that again this was the

080school the school choice pupils tuition preliminary which I kind of reviewed with everybody just now um and then U Felicia just wanted to put in here this was just like for information so we had current number of school choice students with IEPs currently right now are five students and we're receiving 23,5 A2 for um for like any types of additional services that they receive and it's based on their IEP and what so if a student has 30 minutes of speech services and they receive that service three days a week um Felicia will sit down with the sped Department to do the school choice report and they will look at the sped service for each one of the students that's on school choice and build into that report how so it's 30 minutes three days a

081week this many you know depending on how many months they're doing it for and they that's how the report is done so it gives you an idea of what so if they receive PT if they receive otot if they receive some type of BC uh RBT Services that's all broken up in there or Psychological Services or testing of some sort that's how that's broken up my um my thought on this is if if we so if the number uh that we're getting in reimbursement uh for the students is not proportional to the number of students is there a is there a point at which at least to a a a degree that we can predict right just looking at that spreadsheet is there a is there any concern as to the a point at which

082the reimbursement doesn't cover what the district could anticipate as cost for the increase enrollment I think um and I hope I'm understanding the question correctly yeah what you're saying is uh do do we is there a point where the where the increase in enrollment is is outweighed by the The increased cost of the district incurs from higher en SP we'll go back to but I think but maybe better example would be like so if we receive a student say we receive a high school student that comes in in grade nine and I I might have Mrs shet jump in if she F we need be but we have a student that comes in maybe the student showing some behavioral issues and requires a little bit more attention but it's not in a in an IEP

083but we're we fire a student that is struggling and is requiring a lot more services that's kind of where the reimbursement we're receiving is is being outweighed by the amount of services that student is receiving so if it's taking some extra you know the school guidance counsil is are having to spend time with a student every single day for an hour or two that and it because it's not part of an IEP and it's not in a grid anywhere that we're not getting that money back so that's time taken away from say Westport students if does that make a little more sense so that's where it would be cost effective it's you know we we could be losing money because we're not getting to spend it on our own students I guess if you could

084say it that way so and even this figure the I IEP reimbursement that's that's the reimbursement figure that's not the cost figure correct correct yeah correct so for instance the cost for Westport for teaching each student uh per pupil is like 17,000 per pupil so that's the expenditure account so we we pay the district is cost The District 17 around 177,000 not the exact amount $177,000 per student so if we're investing that same amount into a school choice student and not that I'm knocking school choice so I don't want you to take that that's the direction I'm going but to answer your question Evan that's kind of because we get the reimbursement at five correct right so I question on the when the projected enrollment so you say in first grade you take in now

085those PE kids come back the next year the second grade that's still taking five in instead of zero are you not going to take them because there's no allotment no this is already looking at what next year's numbers would be for their enrollment so if we were to say we're taking five students in kindergarten right we're we're projecting that next year's kindergarten class is 110 we would be taking in five students those students stay in the district though they stay in the district yes they don't leave they're not leaving the district school choice goes away they they would remain with us even if if the school committee said we're not doing school choice next year those students that are currently in school choice currently right now would remain with us and that funding to receive

086the correct and that funding would remain with us as well so I I have to be frank here and say that I have serious concerns with opening up school choice in at at the elementary school level um and and I I one of my goals that I would like to see this this District in in terms of increasing enrollment I I would like to see that increase come from keeping Westport students in Westport this the school choice um I I think they're you know there's clearly a couple of classes especially in the high school level where I think it makes sense to to maybe have a you know five a year allotment but on the elementary school side with the with the uncertainty regarding uh sped services and IEP Services the longer someone is in

087the district just law of averages the more likely it's more likely that they may test into needing an additional service so I just I I I have serious concerns from the financial standpoint and even just looking at I mean just looking at the average uh or the approximate student to teacher R ratios already um I I'm just not sure if if this if the the juice is worth the squeeze here especially when it comes to the elementary school but that's just kind of a curs review of this right kids do we have on school choice that are in other schools I can tell you that right now so school choice sending right now we have 69 students which as you can see we've done actually a much better job from the past years the decrease

088has happened like this year we actually are in better we only have 69 students in school choice in other schools keep in mind that school choice counts for such things as Diamond Stang all of those are in there so but the number as you can see is definitely gone down from previous years so that's been a huge help to to us to Westport for what we've done here um so thank you for doing this uh enrollment chart and the projected enrollment I think it's it's pretty clear clear um the numbers I think um in the past I would have been concerned I would have had the same concerns as um as attorney Thrasher however looking at our numbers now and seeing what our student so just to confirm our student teacher ratio here includes school

089choice allotment or does not this number 22 to1 includes if five come over yes no it does not this doesn't this number here is not included in this number so if if all five come over it would be 27 to1 23 to1 because it's it's by five classes Class M Agia probably can help and also um Mrs duat okay so just to confirm these numbers as they look now Mrs duat shaking her head yes so then so then it would be because there are five classes you'd be like 23 per student per kindergarten um if you looked at grade one we probably be at 23 students Mr agar you think more or less um about five classes correct 23 to right what about uh grade four grade four you definitely would be at close to

09023 24 person has grade four has six teachers six I'm sorry the rest of them have five and the reason that we chose to have six in four was because of first of our transition sure you know going from fourth grade to a Middle High School you know significant challenge there's also curriculum reasons why that took place as well sure so I I I think our our numbers are are reasonable you know they're not at 26 27 and I'll also say that I think if we have our students come in for school choice at the elementary school I think that they'll stay until the end you know until I think I think we'd have a high likelihood of our students who come in as school Choice staying even in high school um throughout you know

091those years so you know that's one of the reasons why I I I think in this case it makes sense to to do the school choice allotment um that's here I mean yeah I I I prefer versus the high school because once you get to the high school you're a lot of the students have already you know they gotten all those pre they've built the foundation and then they're here if we get them early on they're able to build the foundation with our teachers here to be successful but I think we should listen to the principles too to see what their view is on everything too because they're the ones that are living it would any of the principls like to share Mr chice there are notes on the um bottom of the sheet as

092well with recommendations from the principal it looks like so um I'll just start with with two things I think it's important to acknowledge that at the high school level we have to be mindful of our requirements and what students have to take to get a Westport diploma so students coming in in the 11th and 12th grade it makes it much more challenging for them in a shorter period of time to meet those requirements mcast um passing mcast is now off the table um as of November so that's one less thing we have to worry about but that's why um um my input was that we don't recommend it for 11th and 12th in terms of the younger grades I've thought a lot about that and I've gone back and forth um I initially started out

093like attorney Thrasher not necessarily feeling like it might be a good idea but then pivoting more um Dr bico to to what your mindset is and if we can get them earlier um I think we can have a greater impact on them I also think that this is not a general statement this is just what I have found in many of my experiences is that family buying is much greater at the younger levels and so um maybe getting them here earlier uh would be beneficial to Westport thank you hello good evening hello I just I jotted a couple of notes down because I wasn't sure if I would be able to make the meeting um I did when we were posed with this question I had my thoughts on it and I ended up discussing

094it with staff who also had their own thoughts on it and some of the things that came up was um just the allocation of resources because sometimes we do struggle already with um our services as service providers and at the younger grades we do service a lot of children with some of their early intervention needs and again we have some of our uh therapists are already commuting in between schools and so just adding to that might bring some you know added pressure to the Staffing also some of the things they spoke about was just just thinking if you I'll throw out if there was five now you know through the years would there be more um increase of um interest so you know it's five this year would it be you know 10 next year

095and that and they were just thinking of just the um support to Residents first and foremost before we take on um other students when and I I again also uh School choice at the upper grades the child is invested in the choice and when they're younger it's a family's choice so we struggle with just thinking about if it's the f um family's Choice when the child gets older and all their neighborhood friends are doing you know more local events what what does it look like for you know even Town wreck things how does that you know how do we manage those things um this the struggle you know just kind of you know increased is um again of course you know whatever um you know thoughts are I you know we can you know again

096talk about it and try to make things work but we just really were thinking of the residents first and what we can do for them and try to keep adding on to even you know uh more supports family engagement uh we thought of that too you know if people live further away will we have the volunteers will we have you know families who want to come in I think we're increasing family engagement um truly you know with every event and would that be you know a struggle for some families so that was it at the um kindergarten level already preschool we do have some students that are out of town thank you thank you as Mr I goes welome to the microphone I will note um committee does not have to act on this tonight

097if if that's the pleasure of the committee we do have until June 1st to act on this item um so we we don't have just wanted we can but we if that's the pleasure of the committee but we don't have to toate per se thank you very much so uh I wasn't sure I could make it tonight so I'm glad that I was able to I I did share one page with some of my thoughts and uh one of the photos from one of our classes so uh when I first was presented with this I had to like Mrs duet we I talked to my assistant principal Mr bico mention it to the staff try to get some feeling from people what they they feel uh our staff feels like the um physical size of

098the classrooms at 23 students we're averaging 23 basically in first second and third and as Mr auin said in fourth grade we have six so we take the same number of students but divide them by six so in fourth grade our current uh ratio is 19 uh when you look at the size of a a physical classroom I took a photo of the one uh and I share it with you for the uh 25 students in first grade that is a very uh tight uh scenario in that particular situation and it doesn't really at 23 we can be at 25 tomorrow the way kids can you know students can come and go we also have issues with um a student comes in for instance and we have they're on an IEP we can't necessarily control

099it across all five classes if the special education services are only in two of those classes so if that class is already at 23 and there's another one at 21 but the child needs Stu uh special education services I have to place them in one of the classes that are already higher so it's not necessarily equal uh across the classes but uh I do think that's a concern of of the school with it's the size and in grade one uh I know the budgets are tight and you probably would give more money if you had it I I totally understand that in grade one which which is different than in kindergarten we have no classroom par professionals so the teacher is one teacher with all 23 students big difference between uh in kindergarten they have

100a student with one par professional so a lot of times at the start of the year we get into situations where like what this is a different student than what we saw in kindergarten but they are actually one teacher and they don't have a an aid even if it's not attached to them classroom AIDS are a big deal so uh my personal recommendation would be not to do it at the Elementary grades with that being said when I look at the fourth grade and there's six classes uh for the sake of if you wanted to do school choice I think fourth grade is an area where we could take the students because at that point we have the six teachers now if we ever had to make cuts and drop down to five teachers it

101would defeat that argument but I think looking at what I've saw seen today we're not looking at reducing a fourth grade teacher I think fourth grade could be something that you could look at uh relative to that and um when you look at the timing as chair General said I think June is uh the deadline and um we don't usually take this up in for over I don't think until like May basically so we can kind of see what's happening I could get some people uh transfer in now so these numbers might change by then and you could always revert back if you wanted to uh but I would I would say that we should either to fourth grade and I wouldn't recommend any into first grade I do agree with Mr Thrasher uh and

102his point I think almost everybody on this committee has said the same thing we want to take our homegrown Westport students into the school district and I think the the the more quality job that Mrs duat myself and principal sheret do with our students we're going to be getting the better job that we do we're going to be getting some of those students back uh so we just want to make sure that there's always enough area so that when that comes to fruition because I do think we're doing a great job once we get those people back we don't want to be an now at 25 would be my only uh once you approve it in the summer if you add more now we're going to have a higher class size so ni question um

103do you happen to know the years pass and what the enrollment was in those classes in those grades it's very very similar to what we have here uh in grades 1 2 3 and four so when you look up the uh 110 119 116 we we basically fluctuate around that number give a take with the same number of teachers though last year was the first year that we had five so when we had um changed the six down to five for the reading specialist which I do think is a great thing and thank you for that that's where the numbers have been consistent five in grades one two and three and if they hover around 116 thereabouts 14 it's at 23 basically at 23 in each of those classes so I I'd be interested in

104knowing over the past 5 years what the enrollment has been in each of those classes and the student to to teacher ratio because I I feel like I can remember um higher but I could be wrong so I can get that information all right thank you questions from committee um just you know again my personal thoughts um I agree with basically everything that was said here and even some of the um I think um thoughts on bringing them in earlier will help to keep them um I don't I don't disagree um in terms of the thoughts there I do worry um a little bit about the class sizes now and offering it to those grades um and increasing them um along with what Mr agar just said um also agreeing with um Miss sheret and

105the you know not necessarily risk but the thought of um incoming Juniors or seniors coming from other districts that have different requirements in trying to hold them to our standards and be able to fit it into their schedule um in just a general statement I I think that our Focus needs to be continue to be on the community and the students of Westport um and it's not a a slate to anyone outside of here but um I'm a big proponent of not having and not offering school choice and continuing to um to work on the success that we've had um in keeping our own kids here in westpool and just to um add to what you said Mr Pico I think regardless of the action the committee takes on this I think what we don't

106want to lose sight of is the importance of retention because that's really I think important I mean we've always seen a it's always been a drop off between 8th and nth grade it's always been but the the extense of which we can minimize that I think is really uh where the f focus should be I mean I know we've seen it increase which is great because a lot of the things that are happening here which is it's been really great to see that um but I just wanted to note that that it shouldn't be lost in the conversation as part of this that the retention is is uh is certainly important um my initial reaction too to what we heard from our building leaders that if the committee were to go ahead with school choice

107um for the next school year that it' only be grades four 9 and 10 is what I'm hearing from building leaders if we were to move forward with it next year well I just I want to be abundantly clear about this in 2001 uh 41 pink slips went out at dining and the superintendent said you have one of two choices you can increase enrollment or you can cut 41 people he met with the Union president they they they brought 200 more people in and avoided the the layoffs we're sitting right now as we sit as the crow flies we're sitting on $200,000 shortfall but we're not sure that it could be as high as 400,000 that's 138,000 school choice it's the committee's choice understand that if we had a robust group of people that were

108coming in from Westport we wouldn't have even recommended school choice but the fact is is that we were bleeding students out of this district and one of the things that the committee has passed by which I think is an amazing statistic is the amount of retention that has been taking place here over the past two three years and and I would say that would be great if that we can guarantee that but we can't so I don't have a dog in the race the question becomes you know you cut school choice uh numbers you cut Revenue you're going to cut people because people in Revenue are tied especially in a in a a budget rate over 80% of the people are salaried so I mean whatever the committee decides it's fine but I want to

109make it abundantly clear the $138,000 is real money in this district and yeah I don't I don't disagree with I don't disagree with that my thought is if if we're not increasing the enrollment then I'm not saying that the the the increase in expenses is proportional but there would be not a I'm not saying a savings but less expense incurred because we're not whether it it costs more for per pupil to take in a suit I'm not sure at what point if there is a point at which the expense outweighs we haven't seen that tell me if I'm wrong have we seen that no I I I would like to add I guess take into account that if you had a class that was already at 25 and now you have to bring in a

110new teacher or 27 yes that's when our resources definitely wouldn't be Hur and also with the sped you know the different you don't know the different needs as the kids are getting older and the specialized needs which are excess costs but to put a number I can't say that this number depends on the situation but as it stands right now we have it's been a net positive you know to to Mr alman's um you know thought thought process if if we don't look to increase our Revenue in places that we can and you know we end up having these issues which we already know that our budget could potentially be cut by 25% the the title one grants or the title grants I mean who's to say that we won't have to reduce our our

111staff and if we did you know taking one teacher away which is less than 100,000 would be more of an impact so I think we really have to be mindful of what is it going to be to add one student per grade and I I think I I'd really like to look at the numbers to see what our numbers have been over the last five years to see I mean I don't think I'm ready to make a decision now I'd like to see those numbers and then i' you know I'd like to I mean think about what else can we measure now can I mean I'd love to have 18 students per every single class and then we can get another building and hire more teachers and you know we'll go get the pot of

112money that's growing in the in the backyard but you know we don't have that so we have to do with what we have and I would rather see one student more per class than have to reduce our staff and potentially have classrooms that have 28 students thank you and for the record I want to give the impression I'm against choice or anything I'm just saying I want to make sure the committee sto you know discuss this Mr chairman yes I would been standing here because you didn't tell me I could go sit down just I just had one uh comment on the 10 students in grade four so if I was seeing the numbers right we have 138,000 in Revenue that's going to continue because the once they're here you stay so if we did

113nothing else on that board but added 10 students in grade four which I do think we can do based on the six people that would be a net $50,000 increase so if everything else stayed the same you still got the 138 in your pocket because that carries over we would get a if you just did the grade four you'd have $50,000 in addition so you're not losing it doesn't go back to zero so because we haven't had any before and we had 10 if we added five now it's $25,000 increase and we'll support whatever you guys think I just think uh it's a good dialogue and thankfully we have time thank you thank you there any additional thoughts from the committee on this item questions comments C elector revisit does obviously I don't think any

114to make a decision tonight but uh it so but by June 1st is correct by June 1st yeah so we can we can add it to the next agenda if that's the pleasure of the committee we can that's we could add it to the next agenda because then if we could add it to the next agenda and then if we don't agree you can just table it again till the next me sounds good way to go pous if if I'm too if I'm too if I'm giving too much of an opinion you can just table it and then make a decision with so we'll move to and and thank you uh Mr Kat and Mr agar for coming tonight and explaining thank you okay we will move to item H discussion of superintendent search Community

115survey I will defer to the chair of the subcommittee Mr Thrasher thank you Mr chair so this was uh this was a suggestion that was brought up uh by several members of the of the search committee uh search subcommittee um in the past I believe that there was a a survey sent out uh in the past I believe there was a survey sent out to uh the Westport uh schools Community uh asking just some some questions on what uh what it what everybody would like to see in a new new superintendent um it was requested that uh we uh put put such a survey out uh just you know just quick little Google form type situation uh and I didn't want I wanted to defer to the full school committee since that technically wasn't part

116of the search committee's purview but um I would uh certainly like to see uh something sent out as soon as possible and I can I can certainly help uh I um everyone involved to get this get this out I agree that there should be a survey um if there are thoughts from the committee on what should be incorporated in that we can discuss that tonight I would also suggest that we uh incorporate the opinions of the subcommittee in that as well so that and that be included as an action item on the agenda for your city meeting on Friday we we are meeting on Friday and it was it basically wanted to bring it to the full committee to get approval so to speak and then uh you we'll figure out the uh some of

117the question detail or the details of the questions uh but we could certainly are there specific items that you or I guess we can open to the committee items that would like to be included in that uh so there were a uh a couple of uh committee members who were actually involved in uh or one particular Community uh Committee Member was involved in a previous search and had some questions uh that were uh left over I guess from from the last search so I to certainly incorporate some of those um we did not necessarily discuss in great detail the contents of of this survey yet uh but we can certainly do that on Friday and uh and the the I you know ideally with the time timeline we're talking about uh choosing who to interview

118at this next meeting and then in two weeks time have a uh interviews during that week um somewhere I believe the the current timeline calls for presenting finalists to the uh the full committee uh the week of April 7th I think so um if it's possible to get get a survey out you know between now and then I think uh basically before our final decision uh so you saying before you begin interviewing before we picked the F the finalist not necessarily so much on the uh so you can bring the yes exactly AES so just a question um are you looking to do the survey and if you are if you need help with it I can I'm more than happy to help like with I'm so sorry one more time I know these mics

119are um are you going to be doing the survey and if you are and you need help with it I would be more than happy to help you because I I do that and I'm not sure like what you're going to use if we have qual tracks here um or if we have access to it you know it was everything from a Google form to just survey you know it doesn't have to be too complex so much as just offering a chance for for feedback I think so but I I appreciate that all okay well if if you do um so I I think a survey is a good idea you want to make it as short as possible because then people won't answer it um yeah that's it uh I would also suggest in

120terms of distribution um so people are aware that it's out there that it be shared social media and probably my town website so there's a a landing spot for it so maybe we can talk to the clerk's office or the select Board office to see if we can get the goal would certainly to be to disseminate it far and wide so absolutely and that's that was uh I don't necessarily think like I said there's there needs to be a motion or action so to speak but I did want to bring it to the full Committee just so that could take action to authorize the subcomittee to create a surve distri I certainly would not be opposed to that the least you moving we'll call that a motion yes indeed I'll second all right motion remain

121second is there any further discussion hearing none all in favor iose unanimous okay moving to uh item a of the action agenda review and act on school committee meeting minutes of Tuesday February 25th 2025 and Friday February 28th 2025 so move second Mo remain second is there any discussion hearing none all in favor I Item B acknowledgement of $675 Westport Education Foundation Grant whhs Exchange Club cultural outing to New York City and Boston I'll make a motion to approve the the two we grants one for 1675 oh no one W Grant for the cultural Ting of New York and Boston I'll second motion made second to acknowledge the grant is there any further discussion heing none all in favor I that's unanimous item C review and act on school choice uh based on the conversation

122today I will entertain a motion to table this item so move second motion remain seconded is there any further discussion none all in favor that's unanimous item d review and act on proposed graduation requirements what is the pleasure of the committee um I'll make a motion to approve the removal of the tech requirement for um graduation okay motion has been made to remove the technology requirement for graduation second motion has been seconded is there any further discussion hearing none all in favor I I I unanimous um in table the other yeah in regards to the um community service survey uh community service I I didn't make a motion because I wasn't sure what the pleasure of the I think we were talking about she was going to work on it until she has stand okay

123all right on the I'm sorry which item the community service so do we need a the community service part oh yeah yes I apologize yeah that's okay so I'll make a motion to table the community service requirement of the graduation requirements table you're saying you're tbling the action or pausing the I um well I guess I guess I guess we did take action on the item so we don't we don't need to do anything about the that's fine um item did we that already already okay was that very good oh we took ademy out of Border yes okay um all right R Ms correspondences the notices I don't have anything there the only last thing that I will note just on the FY 26 budget is the documents are all online for anyone interested in

124viewing them uh they're all on the school committee website our our web page within the school department's website um they're listed there both the presentation that was given to the finance committee and the full budget document that's broken out by line item is all available publicly on our website as well as the select board meetings where the number was discussed and the select board's recommendation as well as the plance Comm meetings are all on YouTube uh okay topics chair cannot reasonbly anticipate 48 hours in advance of the meeting and the May with that being said I will entertain a motion to adjourn so Mo second motion second is there in discussion Hear n all in favor meeting adour