001Call me into order. >> Recording in progress. We start with the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem. You please stand if you're able to. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation early lights. What so proudly we held at the twilight last gleaming whose bright stripes and bright stars through the barrelless fight or the rails we were so gallently streaming and the rock is The bombs were singing there gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangle man way for the land of the free and the brave. >> Roll call. Member Alvarez >> present. >> Member Bianio, >> member Bernenda >> here. >> Member Guadiola >> here. >> Vice Chair Johnson >> here.
002>> Member mailman >> here. >> Member McCulla >> here. >> Member Roy >> here. >> Mayor Penny. >> So we will start with the student advisory committee items. Um just we have two here tonight. Just please stand, Nate. State your name. That'll be great. So everyone knows. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Arson Marisan. I'm from Worer Technical High School and I'm a junior. And today, uh, >> give me one sec. >> Sorry. >> Hi, my name is Annayia Ortiz and I am a junior at Jordi Memorial High School. >> Thank you for being here. So, we'll start with SA5-1 to propose a plan for a more student/ business jobs and or volunteer opportunities. Many jobs won't hire students simply because of their age. Also, aid students in getting job certific certifications such as
003Surf Safe, CPR, or first aid. Go ahead. You can speak to it. >> All right. Uh so today I would like to speak about the bathroom facilities at Worcester Technical High School about the updates. So I would like to say speak on the first one that I just read. You want to speak on that one? >> Could you please repeat that? >> What? I'm sorry. >> On the first item that I just read that you guys put on the agenda. Do you want to speak on that one first? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Speak on that one first on the um job thing. on the volunteers and jobs. >> We don't we don't have anything about the jobs on my agenda. I have some I have only the updates of certain high school. >> Okay. So,
004we just send that to TLSS. Those that are opposed? No. So, ordered. So, the next item is SA5-2 to propose a plan to aid unhoused students. Much like the already mentioned washing machine, truck like wellness packs that include toothbrushes, travel, toothpaste, and floss. We're going to refer that to administration. Those at opposed, no. So, audited. And the last one is the Worcester Technical High School bathroom facilities update. Y >> So, Sorry. Uh so today I will be talking about the bathroom facilities at Worster Technical High School and when students were getting asked the questions about the the most of the problems in school that they're facing was the bathrooms and and because of that a student led group worked really hard with administration to review every bathroom and I will be talking about how we
005reviewed all the bathrooms across the whole building and we found several issues and many repairs uh areas that are already in progress of fixing. Now I will start with the first one. So the first main issue was the soap dispensers. After a lot of research and hard work, we came with our numerous bathrooms in the building at Worcester Tech that need more consists. So for the update, we have new dispersals who actually arrived on December 4th and the carpentry shop that we have is uh actually going to be installing them soon. Uh and making sure they're properly installed and fully functional. So the second problem that they were facing was missing stall doors and partitions. So some bathrooms are still missing some stall doors and walls. Uh for the updates we have new partitions that
006have been ordered already and facilities and carpentry shop again are coordinating the installation process. For the third problem that we had was privacy gaps in stall doors. So certain stalls have been noticeable gaps uh that are affecting our privacy like the privacy doors for the updates. We have plumbing, CAD. Those two shops and staff teams are looking for different ways to fix those privacy gaps. And students are helping by taking the measurements and checking the walls. Uh and we will we will also be buying rubber strips that will be uh installing them in the middle of the open space so we can uh cover those open space whenever we close the doors. Uh and the fifth one, which is the last one, is non-working hand dryers. So, several hand dryers across the buildings are currently
007not working. And for the update, we have facility staff that are repairing the hand dryers. And they also confirmed that measuremental disposal containers that that are are already available. And they're also looking for like a newer options that they can install that are easier to empty and easier to use. And our principal, Mr. Wemouth, has been very supportive throughout this whole process. And also I would like to remind you guys seven students from different shops volunteered to help us identify the issues and assist with small repairs under staff supervision. Their involvement has helped move things forward. And I also want to thank our principal Mr. Wemouth for being supportive and thank Miss Phoenix and Miss Jarvis for all the hard work they have done. And I also want to thank those seven students from those
008different shops who volunteered to help us make those small changes and fixes. We will keep track of everything and share updates as we make more progress. Thank you so much for attention. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Um so motion to file. >> Those that oppose? No. So order it. So we move on to the consent agenda. Any questions on the consent agenda? No. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Bianceria. >> Yes. >> Member Bernenda. >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola. Yes, >> Vice Chair Johnson. >> Yes, >> member mailman. >> Yes, >> member McCulla. >> Yes, >> member Roy. >> Yes, >> Mayor Petty. >> We will move on to recognitions to recognize Bay State Bank and President and CEO Seth Pix for a generous $15,000 donation to help support public schools students
009facing food insecurity. Member McCulla. >> Thank you. I wanted to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude to Bay State Bank and President and CEO Seth Pitts for their incredibly generous $15,000 donation in support of Worcester Public Schools students and families facing food insecurity. This year, more than ever, we've seen just how common food insecurity is across our community. For many of our students, reliable access to food is not a given. And that reality directly impacts their health, their well-being, and their ability to learn. Support like this doesn't just fill a gap. It provides stability, dignity, and hope for families who are working hard but still struggling. Bayate's commitment sends a powerful message that our students matter and that our community stands with them. On behalf of the school committee, our families, and especially
010our students, thank you for helping ensure that no child has to worry about where their next meal is coming from. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, Mr. Pittz, want to come up? We have a certificate for you. So on behalf of the whistle public schools in recognition of Bay State Bank and the president and CEO Seth Pittz for the generous donation of $15,000 to support WA public schools students facing food insecurity signed Mayor Petty, Superintendent Allen, and members of the school committee. Thank you very much. Got to get one. Imagine that. All right. So, we move on to public comment. Any member of the public may address the committee regarding an item before them for two minutes. Please speak uh state your name, city of residence, and which item you'll be looking to speak on.
011>> Uh good evening. My name is Melissa Verdier. I am a resident of Worcester. I live on Dixfield Road. Um I'm also the president of the EAW. So I'm speaking on the report of the superintendent. Um, I've actually been asked by many of my members to come tonight, uh, because they are concerned about what's going on with our elementary school students. Um, so I see that the that it had gone up. The information that, um, Mr. Allen sent out to the school showed that it went up uh, quite a bit from uh, 20 23 24 to 25 24. And I'm hearing from educators in the schools that it is worse this year than it was previously. And so I'm just really concerned. I think um I know that we're putting supports in place, but I
012I think we need to really look at how do we help the whole child. Um and I think it has less to do with I think as educators, we know how to support children. I think a lot of this comes at a deeper level um that is outside of the classroom. So, I just wanted to come in and say that, you know, I I'm looking at this information and I'm understanding, you know, I do have a lot of uh conversations with Mr. Allen about things and and I do appreciate the supports that you are putting into our tier three sale classrooms and um in our hub schools and I think you've done a lot of great work around that. But I I do need to look at this. Why is this so much higher than
013it's ever been? And what can we do? what what community um actions can we take? What can we do to support our staff but also to support our students and how can we help um alleviate a lot of the issues that are happening in schools? Uh I hear from people on a regular basis who are injured at school and we we need to really look at that information and think about how we are going to to help our educators and to help our students. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> I am Bureau, resident of Worcester, Worester Committee Connections Coalition. Um, we're here also about the superintendent report about the discipline data and it's it's a very important report. We just really the committee really wants it us to take it in context. It's
014a very important data. It mostly reflects kindergarteners and and we all know kindergarteners were really some of the um the folks in our system who were impacted during COVID. They really um had lost so much during COVID. So, let's bring in support services to the school, but let's not throw out all the great infrastructure that's built in with the new master plan. um the new um strategic plan for Worcester public schools, the emphasis on culture and belonging and a less punitive approach has meant so much to so many families, particularly families of color. So, please let's keep it in context. Let's not politicize it. And um and and there are a lot of wonderful resources in the community that are that can come to bear to help assist with it. On behalf of many parents,
015we're so grateful also to the help of the schools relative to um afterchool care and trying to seek additional ways to find additional afterchool slots. This is the second top need of Worcester families in the community. So, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the efforts being done um to try to work with providers and secure additional afterchool slots. Thank you. >> Thank you. State your name and city of resident. >> Uh, good evening. Christine Mushin Wedgewood Road. Um, I'm a teacher at South High and also the vice president of the teachers union. Um, Melissa and I have spent a ton of time looking at the report and uh, my concerns are more uh, in line with the repeat offender numbers that are concerning uh, especially at the elementary level. I would be remiss
016to say that perhaps we need to look programmatically and assessment wise um when we are running into numbers of kids who are repeat bless you um repeat offenders and uh I hate that word too by the way offenders um because they're not really offenders they're just they're just maladjusted um and so perhaps we should be looking at programmatic issues and assessment and evaluation issues to maybe expand programming that will uh better support students who are in this on this path at this time. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> State your name and city of residence. >> Hi, my name is Heather Stanick. I live in Worcester. I'm a parent of a current sixth grader and parent of a first grader next year. Um I would just like to say thank you to the administration for
017following the law and looking towards restorative justice. I firmly believe that none of our staff or educators deserve to be afraid in their schools or assaulted in their schools. But I really think that we need to look at the data here and focus on the fact that these are disregulated kindergarteners, first and second graders. These are babies. These are people who were born during the pandemic. These are kids who need services and who need help rather than re um rather than bringing back SRO's or something like that. They don't need punitive um measures. They need help. They need social emotional curriculum. They need obviously probably more community involved support. Um but I would really urge particularly members of this body to not jump to conclusions as far as um disregulated babies. Thank you. Officer, is
018there anyone online? Hold on one sec. State your name, city, residence, and item number. >> Hello, my name is Eko Lewis Collins. I am a Worcester resident and a parent. I am the um leader of 508 chairs in um a youth nonprofit and I work closely with children and families across our city. And I am here tonight to urge the committee to respond to the discipline data with care and solutions that truly support our students, educators, and families. Um this data shows that um these are concentrated incidents um with younger youth. So this is not um a rise in crisis across all boards. This is definitely um something that is concentrated um and it involves a smaller number of the same youth. Um so this tells us that this is not a systemwide crisis. Um
019but it does signal that some children are in need of earlier, deeper, and more consistent supports. And um when children act out, they are communicating unmet needs, uh trauma, behavioral health challenges, um family stressors more now than ever. And these behaviors are not um criminal and they are definitely um all calls for help. So, um we also need to be proactive in um considering how we can potentially connect agenda item um 5.17 um with a agenda item 5.1 brought up by um these youths, which is if these youth had more supports to mentorship opportunities, volunteer engagement, skill building, um certifications, and community connections. um this would be able to um enforce and support community positive connections um supports for the family. So, as you are um considering this, we urge you to prioritize um traumainformed
020interventions, coordinated family- centered supports, um early intervention services. Um but we do not believe that um SRO's in the school system is the answer, especially when um the disregulated behavior is focused on babies. Thank you. >> Thank you. So state name, city, residence and item number. >> Hello, my name is Barbara Mud. I reside in um West Boilston. I'm chair of the Worcester Education NA uh NAACP committee. Um and I'm speaking on the superintendent's report. Um I want to start by saying clearly that school safety is not binary. Schools are not simply safe or unsafe. Safety is something we work on all the time and it has to be understood through the lived experiences of our children. How we define safety says a lot about who we believe our children are and who we believe
021they can become. The data shows that our littlest ones in the Worcester public schools are struggling and they definitely have unique needs. Younger children have less regulatory capacity, coping strategies, and many have stresses that are bigger than they are. What they need is more support, trauma-informed practices, deescalation, social emotional learning, mental health supports, early intervention, strong partnerships with families before behaviors turn into removals. When students have repeated incidents, best practice and in some cases legal requirements when there's an IEP calls for teams to come together to adjust or increase supports, not increase consequences. Worcester is working hard to do just that. Just yesterday, I attended the Worcester public school safety advisory for education, the quarterly meeting. I saw meaningful restorative justice work happening, honest conversations about challenges, real collaboration, and a visible commitment across the
022district to learning, accountability, and repair. At the same time, we have to be clear that without current clear disagregated discipline data, we we can't see the fuller picture when it comes to equity. We know that in past years, disparities have existed, especially for students of color and students with disabilities. There's just there's so much complexity going on for kids today. News of lockdown drills, school shootings, and social media um is amplifying fear and anxiety, and it's really creating problems for our youth that aren't fully understand. >> 15 seconds. >> Okay. Um, I'm gonna have to end up uh safety is not a moment or a label. It's ongoing responsibility and because there's ongoing challenges and um I thank public schools for collaboration and their efforts. >> Thank you. >> State your names residents and item
023number please. >> Good evening. May de Morales um uh city of Worcester and item K. Um I just want to say that I'm not an educator and I'm I don't have any of those degrees and I'm very much aware that our children were very much affected by COVID, right? And so there are social limitations that they have and all of these things. So it makes total sense to me that this age range is having a harder time in school, right? Um, and then the other thing that I want to say is let's not weaponize this report. Let's be transparent. Let's be honest about what this report means and what it stands for and what really the data says to us. Um I read an article about this report that got leaked out to community and
024there was a very irresponsible in my eyes a very irresponsible article you know which led me to believe that we're thinking about um SRO's back in our school department and that's not in our schools and that's not what we need and we should not be thinking about that. We should be thinking about what all of these educators and all of these community folks are talking about here, which is how do we support our students, right, that have a lack of social emotional development because of the pandemic and COVID and that experience. So, let's not weaponize this and let's not go back to where we were before where our bipac and lowincome students were had a direct line from pip a pipeline right from school to prisons. So, let's not go back there. Thank you. >>
025Thank you. >> Else anyone online? >> Hi, good evening. My name is Dina Tedeski. I'm a Worester resident and also a Worester public school parent of a graduate and a current eighth grader. First, I'd like to give a shout out of appreciation to Superintendent Allen and his team regarding the clearly shared and transparent information and data that was shared last Friday in the superintendent's message and that that was shared out widely in Parent Square. Excuse me. My comments are regarding ROS5-17. Knowing that our current kindergarteners are the pandemic COVID kiddos and likely did not have access to childcare services, school programs, and the like, it is essential that school social emotional approaches approaches be utilized to support these scholars. As someone who's volunteered over the last decade and a half in schools, I have felt
026safe as a volunteer. I have also felt that my students were always safe and the staff was safe. Now, of course, there's always extenduating circumstances and an overarching experience is just mine that I'm sharing here and of course, we can always make improvements. However, it is clear from this report that they're making an effort to keep priority, keep safety as a priority. There are many approaches to this and I'm glad the district is focused on timely support in early grades, additional professional development and working with RAPs and counselors and support personnel to know that if scholars in K to3 are struggling, there's likely more challenges or other challenges happening at home. And I would encourage bolstering whatever supports we can to enact to help these families. I also think exploring what access to reading materials
027are available in that child's home and what kinds would be helpful for children struggling with these disciplinary actions and how we can encourage more parentto- child connections as needed. I also would encourage considering having more evening or afterchool events and activities at no cost where children and parents can be together at their school with educators and staff. This might be a key way to open more communication and support to scholars and their families. I also would like to echo the comments of all the folks that have already spoken before me. These are the folks that do direct work in our school community, in our district, and with families in varying capacities and the district would should connect with them if not already. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else online? No one else online. So
028we're going to close that portion of the meeting. We'll move on now to report of the superintendent vision to action discipline data report. Mr. Superintendent, thank you through the chair. First want to start by thanking our community partners that are here with us uh today in our partnership with the teachers union um to help us work through this issue uh together. I want to also thank the school committee for their opportunity to provide additional information regarding student discipline for the 2023 24 and 2425 school years through this safe and supportive schools report of report of the superintendent. Tonight we'll share the disagregated discipline data, share key takeaways and provide some insights and action steps based upon this data. Next slide. The work around student discipline aligns with our strategic plan priority around climate and culture.
029The district is committed to this work. We have made significant investments in climate and culture with programs and staff over the last several years. Above all, those public schools are safe. The data will show that we are not much different than our peer communities in the state in terms of stu student discipline incidents. Next slide. Above all, our priority is to do everything we can to ensure our staff and students are safe at schools. We fully support the use of restorative practices in our school by focusing on building community and relationships, but also holding students accountable for their actions as appropriate. Mr. Tony will discuss the actions and options of student discipline with a review of the state laws in the upcoming slides. Next slide. We appreciate the school committee's earlier comments about the administration
030being transparent with data. As we outlined with my entry plan guiding principles, we are committed to having frequent honest communication to build trust across the system. We will also continue to work with schools to build consistent be consistent with data management so we can be transparent with the community and then develop ways to address the issues in an open and honest way. Next slide. We continue to work with our mission around cultivating an educational system in which everyone is safe, known, and supported. You will see that an overwhelming majority of our students are never involved in disciplinary events and will continue to strengthen programs and services to support the staff and students through training and more programming options. Next slide. In the upcoming slides, we'll provide an overview of the top five most common suspendable
031discipline infractions, including disagregated data on incidents of physical assault on staff. We'll explore current patterns in the data to better understand what they may reflect, and we will highlight the ways the Wista public schools supports both students and staff in creating safe and supportive school environments. I'll now turn over to Mr. Tom Tony to review the Massachusetts laws regarding student discipline. Thank you, Superintendent Allen. Uh, the Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 71 sets the legal framework for student discipline in public schools, emphasizing due process, proportional consequences, and students rights to education. It requires schools to provide notice, use progressive discipline, provide an opportunity opportunity to be heard before suspensions or expulsions, and limit long-term exclusions while ensuring access to educational services during any removal. The law also pri prioritizes non-exclusionary practices particular for young students and
032includes specific protections for students with disabilities and clear procedures for serious disciplinary offenses. Next slide please. Uh we are now going to give you an overview of the Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 71 sections 37H, 37H and A2 and 37H and 3/4 along with requirements for emergency removals. Under section section 37H, principles may suspend or expel a student for serious offens offenses such as possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of a controlled substance, or assault on school staff. This section allows for long-term removal but requires due process including notice, a hearing, and the opportun opportunity to for appeal to the superintendent. Section 37H and a half applies to students charged with or convicted of a felony whether the conduct occurred in or out of school and the students continue presence is determined to have a significant
033negative impact on the school community. Under this section, schools may sus suspend or expel under this this se section after providing notice and a hearing and students retain the right to educational services during the the period of exclusion consistent with the chapter 76 uh section 21. Section 37H and 3/4 governs all misconduct not covered by 37H or 37H and a half. It significantly limits exclusionary discipline by requiring consideration of alternatives, capping suspensions, mandating uh re-entry meetings, and ensuring students who are removed for more than 10 days receive access to education services and an appeal process. Emergency removal allows a a principal to temporarily remove a student right away if their continued presence could cause harm to people or property or seriously disrupt the school day. This removal is temporary and must be followed promptly by
034notice, a hearing, and the same due process protections required under chap under chapter 71. Next slide, please. On this slide, you'll see key see the key reasons the state has identified for the change in the 37H and three/arters law. The law reinforces that suspension and expulsion should be used only when necessary and requires schools to first consider a student's individual circumstances, including trauma history, social emotional needs, mental health status, and whether the student is receiving special education or related services. The key changes clarify and expand schools obligations to use non-exclusionary restorative and supportive interventions whenever possible. Overall, the law shifts practice away from exclusion and towards keeping students connected to school while addressing the underlying causes of behavior, particularly when mental health is a contributing factor. The state has identified four key purposes to the
035change. The first being to keep students in school. It also provides stu It also provides students with a structure environment where students have opportunities to develop social skills, build relationships with peers and adults, and learn to navigate diverse social situations. The second purpose is to move from punitive to restorative practices. Restorative practices prioritize holding students accountable for their actions while also emphasizing the importance of taking responsibility for rep repairing harm caused to others. Restorative practices prioritize building and maintaining positive relationships with the school community. By embracing restorative practices, schools can create a safer, more supportive and inclusive learning environment for all members of the school community. The third purpose is to address mental health needs. Mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and trauma can significantly impact students ability to learn, concentrate, and perform academically.
036Mental health is an integral component of the overall well-being of our students by fostering a supportive and accepting environment. Schools can promote a culture of understanding and empathy. The final purpose is to eliminate the school to prison pipeline. By focusing on education, counseling, and support services, we can help students address underlining issues, develop positive coping strategies, and make better choices for the future. I'm now going to pass it over to Dr. Andrades. >> Thank you, M. Tony. We're going to present some general disciplinary data and then data specific to the disciplinary incident of physical assault employee, which may also be referred to as staff assault. Next slide, please. The information contained in this slide pertains to 2024 disciplinary data publicly released by DESIE. On the left you will see data for Worcester public schools and
037on the right you will see comparable information for the state of Massachusetts and the Boston and Springfield school districts. For Worcester public schools on the left the total yearly enrollment for 2024 in blue reflects any student who was enrolled at any time during the school year. In gray, you will see the percentage of Worester Public School students who had an out of school suspension in 2024, which was 2.9% of students who had been enrolled at any point in the school year. In yellow is the number and percentage of students who did not receive any disciplinary action at all. This means that 96% of students enrolled at any point in 2024 did not receive an out of school suspension, an inschool suspension, or an emergency removal. For both the percentage of students with an out of
038school suspension and the percentage of students never suspended in 2024, Worcester, the state, and Boston are all within one percentage point of each other. Worcester's rates are modestly better than Springfield. Importantly, these figures also show that both in Worcester and across the state, an overwhelming majority of students are never involved in disciplinary actions at any time during the school year. Next slide, please. Continuing with the publicly reported Desi disciplinary data, this slide shows the top five DESIE reasons for disciplinary action for Worcester, the state, and Boston and Springfield combined. The top three reasons are the same across our districts and the state and are in general similar for all but one category. This slide and the prior slide show that disciplinary events and actions in Worcester do not vary from the state or our most
039comparable urban counterparts. Next slide, please. We're now transitioning to internal Worcester data for school years 2024 and 2025. What you see on the slide are the top five most frequent reasons for out of school suspensions in both 2024 and 2025. We can calculate how much each reason contributes to the overall number of out of school suspensions. The percentage you see next to each reason represents the total share of out of school suspensions made up by that specific infraction. For example, in school year 24, of all the reasons for out of school suspensions, 22% were for fighting. In 2025, it was 19% of all the out of school suspensions. So, across both years, when students received an out of school suspension, oneif of the time it was for fighting. Perhaps the most important takeaway from the
040slide is the consistency of reasons for suspension. The top five reasons for out of school suspension have remained the same across school years 2024 and 2025. Next slide, please. Continuing with our top five reasons in 24 and 25, we now break down these reasons into grades span, which are elementary, middle, and high school. This table shows where that specific reason ranked for each of the grades spans using disruption of school as an example. You'll notice in 24 that it was ranked as the fourth most common out of school suspension reason for the district and incidentally for each of the grades spans. In 2025, it was still the fourth most common reason overall, but it was the fifth for elementary school and third for both middle and high schools. As you can see in the table,
041there is some variation in reasons for out of school suspensions both across the grades spans and across school years. Despite this variation, the overall ranking of reasons at the district level has not changed. You'll also notice that within most grades spans, one of the top five reasons for suspension does not appear in the top five reasons across a district. For instance, for middle schools in 24 2024, incetting a disturbance was the fifth most common reason for suspension, followed by verbal assault employee at number six. For high schools in both 24 and 25, possession use of marijuana was the fifth most common reason for out of school suspension. For our elementary grades span, physical assault employee was the third most common reason for out of school suspension in 2024 and second most common in 2025. Next
042slide, please. On this slide, we will unpack the physical assault employee infraction. For ease of discussing this, we'll also call it staff assault at times. This slide contains data that reflects the number of events that were coded as physical assault employee. The counts reflect the number of times that an incident or event occur that was considered to be staff assault and was coded as such. Even though these events are all share the same name, they can have varied varied and multiple resolutions. For example, these resolutions can be something restorative, some action with families, and or some type of suspension or emergency removal. The tables on the right show staff assault events in school year 24 and school year 25 by grade spans on the top table and by individual grade levels on the bottom table.
043Both tables show an increase in recorded staff assault events from school year 24 to 25. What is notable is that this increase is almost exclusively at the elementary level and in particular in grades kindergarten through three. As you can see in the top table, in 2025, elementary had 131 staff assault events accounting for 83% of that total across the district. And if you look at the bottom table, you'll notice that grades kindergarten through three had 111 events, which accounted for 70% of the total across the district. For older students, middle schools actually had a decrease from 24 to 25, and high schools and alternative schools had a marginal increase. Further review of the data indicated that the increases at the primary grade levels occurred at six elementary schools. Next slide, please. So to put this
044data in greater context, we then looked at the number of unique students contributing to the staff assault events. And this table displays the counts of events, uniquely counted students associated with these events and the num total number of students at each grade level for both 2024 and 2025. What is most notable is that less than 1/ half of 1% of the entire student body is involved in a staff assault event in either 2024 or 2025. Also important to note is the 111 events in 2025 for kindergarten through grade 3 which involve 48 students, meaning that these students committed this offense multiple times. Next slide, please. In summary, our key takeaways from the data are the overwhelming majority of the student body is never involved in disciplinary events. The top five most common reasons for suspensions
045were consistent from school years 20 24 to 2025. Worcester is similar to other urban districts and the state in terms of most common disciplinary offenses. Physical assaults against employees primarily occur at the elementary level and less than half of a percent of the student body is involved in such instances. Staff assaults decreased in grades 7 through 12 from school year 24 to 25 and were infrequent in school year 25 involving at most a quarter of 1% of high school students. At this time, I'll turn it over to my colleague Dr. Morse. >> I will now talk through a few uh insights and some learning and some action steps that we believe we should take. Um, next slide, please. District data highlights two critical improvement areas. Student interventions and supports and standardizing discipline coding in our
046schools. Secondary schools have shown positive behavioral trends. We believe due to the provision of effective tiered supports and the great work of some of the culture and climate teams. Conversely, some, not all, elementary schools, especially for our younger students, as you as you've heard tonight, have seen a recent increase in behavioral incidents. We believe potentially impacted by the elimination of some of the specialized programming we we had before, thus limiting the opportunity for high high level interventions. the transition from our homegrown customized Sage system, which had embedded coding guide rails and rules to our new Woo EDU system, which is excellent. However, it lacks these automatic prompts, has caused inconsistent coding discipline errors across schools. Addressing both the need for more targeted elementary support and consistent coding in WOODU is essential for equitable and effective
047behavioral responses. Next slide, please. In this slide, we're going to look at elementary and secondary. Elementary schools will be focusing on three key areas to address current behavioral trends in some of our schools. First, we will enhance the existing support systems, utilize data and the expertise of our teams, PYT Q teams and BCBAS and target at targeted schools and we will use them to provide responsive ineffective interventions. Second, we'll provide staff with an with the needed targeted PD or professional learning on the TE techniques to meet students developmental and social emotional needs. In addition, we aim to improve school safety supports by expanding on the lessons we've learned in secondary wellness rooms to proactively address regulation, conflict resolution, and in secondary schools. We believe we must maintain the positions of culture and climate and prioritize
048conflict resolution because many of our challenges with discipline uh revolve around conflict and expand the menu of specialized interventions so that we can provide um interventions in lie of out of school suspensions. Next slide please. So these are our action steps. Our discipline strategy is centered on rebuilding and strengthening systems of support. We want to focus on targeted developmentally appropriate interventions for student behavior. We're committed to enhancing program and potentially creating new positions and professional learning opportunities and how to deliver these customized tiered supports. This will ensure students with additional academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs and re and uh receive timely access to services aligned with their individual uh needs and requirements. Furthermore, our early childhood task force is currently analyzing trends and will utilize their expertise to to support both schools, classrooms, students,
049and the entire district in these improvement efforts. Next slide, please. Our um a major initiative currently underway and in progress is a systemwide professional development and training aimed at standardizing discipline and coding practices. This effort involves leadership at all levels, including principles, assistant principles, deans, and central office people to ensure a shared understanding and consistent application of discipline codes across all schools. To support this, a forthcoming guidance document will provide clear outlines for selecting the current codes, I'm sorry, the correct codes, define essential terms, and differentiate between similar infractions. This will specifically improve the accuracy, consistency, and equity with which schools apply discipline. We will maintain regular and consistent practice by using case studies for calibration and provide ongoing review of discipline at every school at every um at many district meetings. I'm now going
050to turn over to um our superintendent, Dr. Allen, to close us out on the last slide. Thank you. Uh we appreciate the opportunity to review and discuss the action steps uh with you. We're taking the steps this year to uh reinstitute an elementary wellness center to support students assessment and placement. We are creating a data team to look at coding discipline with the intent for consistency across the district. And we will expand the scope of our early childhood task force and support team. And we look to apply additional resources to support elementary schools in next year's budget. Our schools are safe and will continue to support our students and staff through the training programming and additional supports as needed. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Let's go. Member Bernenda, then member McCulla. >> Great. Uh
051thank you for the report. I I think the most important parts of it are come where it says insights and action. uh if you as you look at the report itself um it's not an accurate report. I mean your analysis and what you had is accurate but the um disruption that is happening in middle and high schools does not show in the report. Uh and I think some of it has uh to do with the um the way that they record the disruptions that happen. Um I think in that when you address that in your insights and action that um there are different ways of recording what's happening and it's not consistently from one school to another. Uh my my concern um is you know restorative justice first of all it's only effective for tier
052one as we know not for tier two and tier three and as wonderful as it is it's not evidence-based. So I think we have to look at exactly what restorative justice are we doing in schools. Is it consistent across all schools and all levels? Uh interesting about um the kindergarteners because uh they weren't born when CO was here, right? They're five years old and CO was in 2020. So um they were born and they were experienced what their families were feeling during CO. about we have to stop saying that we have disruptions in schools because of COVID th those those days are over. Uh they the kindergarteners were not born then. Um also uh I think uh the reason that you have the high numbers of K to3 is we always had uh the numbers
053were high in K to3 and that's because the emergency removals and the reason why you have the data is because a principal cannot send home a K to3 student unless the superintendent of schools or designate is notified and they have to okay it. So there are papers that go with that that has to be recorded. So in in any area that you're going to probably have more consistency is in that because you have to send home those papers that are required by the law to do that. Um, also, uh, I I I've been recently talking to, um, teachers, um, four families who recently left the Worester public schools, whose they themselves work not for the Worester public schools, but for the city of Worcester. And when I asked why did you leave? And it's not
054because um, they don't like the Worcester public schools. They said there's too many disruptions. And and I think that's what the union's speaking about too is that uh the number one thing that teachers told me is they just want to teach and that they're having too many disruptions in their classroom. And the number one thing that students uh want to know is why does that student keep returning when they disrupt the class every day and I can't learn. So I think that has to be our focus on not so much on the numbers uh for suspensions and I know you know we report them to the state and we have to keep an eye on them but I really feel the key is how do we eliminate these disruptions that are happening in classrooms every
055day from prek to grade 12. And I I like your um your list here uh talking about the rehiring of some of the BCBAS uh that we let go that we shouldn't have let go for special ed classrooms. Um the the chief assistant principal and principles learning the code for discipline so that um everything is the same. the um programs for SEAL support um eliminating of programs where um our uh students coming from other countries that have never been in school and don't speak English, especially in the middle and high school are just going right into regular classrooms without support. Uh that can add to disruptions in schools. um the idea that um all students should be in inclusion classrooms and that we're going to just move kids into inclusion classrooms with not enough support
056services there. The law is very clear on that you least restrictive environment, but if you're going to move a specialed student into a regular classroom, it has to be done with support. So, I I would really appreciate um what you're talking about the additional supports. It actually says everything that um I was going to say um regarding how do we make our schools um less disruptive so that um students can learn and and teachers can teach um and we need to look at things besides culture and climate people. Um, I was reading the 016 uh yesterday and uh there was a video of Mr. Allen and he was at South High and they were having a celebration of all the students that got the John and Abigail Adam awards scholarships and one of the things
057he said which hit home to me was um we we are celebrating students for doing the things that are good. And so I think uh somebody tonight said too, we don't want this report to set us down the wrong road. I I I think that's true. I think we want to look at it knowing that all the data uh probably isn't correct, especially for the middle and the high school. And we have to look at what kind of activities can principles do in schools that make students feel like they belong and that they are appreciated for doing what they're supposed to do rather than us always talking about what are we going to do for those students that don't behave right. We we still have to do that too. But I think it's a combination
058of establishing a climate where kids do feel like they belong and um also establishing uh expectations and holding students to those four discipline. You know, I even uh recently uh some people that would have stayed on and not not going to retire, they're retiring because they just say that they can't do it anymore. So, I think we need to listen uh to what people are saying and we need to look at how are we going to stop the disruptions and whether that be restorative justice um definitely professional development but it's a it is an issue and I appreciate you being transparent about it and I think it's something that we need to continue to monitor. Thank you. >> Member McCulla. >> Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for this presentation and
059report. I've had the opportunity to have some conversations with Superintendent Allen and some of the administration around some of these topics over the last few months, and I've really appreciated the candid and open conversations that we've been able to have. First of all, I do think our schools are safe. I have heard such tremendous things at our middle and high school levels about the improvements. When we talk about climate and culture, when we talk about a lot of those social emotional type of supports, I mean, you ask any educator in a Wester public schools high school right now and they'll tell you that there are is a much lower incidence of actual physical altercations than they've seen prior to those supports being instituted. So, I do want to see that work continue. Things like the
060bright rooms, the wellness rooms, and things of that nature. However, I will say I obviously have concerns as well about the elementary school level and the issues at the level and how we're going to support the staff there. And I have had conversations with Mr. Allen where we talked about, you know, bringing that social emotional comp component back down to the elementary schools so we can really support those students and those staff. I had an excellent conversation with the uh a teacher the other day from one of our elementary schools, a young gentleman who was really open and honest with me about some of his concerns and challenges when it comes to those issues with that grade level. And he's been teaching, I think, for about seven years, and is starting to feel like, I
061don't know if I can keep doing this if kids aren't getting those right supports. And I just kept saying, I know I I want to hear more. This is how we do better for our educators is hearing what issues they're facing at the building level. And anytime I've shared that with Superintendent Allen, he already knows about it. He's already on top of it. We talked about bringing back the safety center comp um aspect, how that helps support our students because we know again we're talking about kindergarten to third graders. They're emotionally disregulated as I believe uh Miss Mushian said earlier, maladjusted, right? I don't ever want to say a kid's a bad kid because kids face so many different traumatic incidents and issues in life. And I do still think CO is a part of
062the impact on this. I think that we talk about the number of students that didn't attend preschool prior to kindergarten is a huge component of it with the socialization and you know people were more reluctant to put their kids in settings postcoid because everyone had been at home. So there are a lot of factors I do believe that go into it. I do want to take the concerns of the staff seriously though and we have had some significant issues and my question um through the chair to Mr. Alan, the first question I would have um when we have an issue in a school or a school is reaching out now at the elementary level and they're saying this is where I'm at. I know um there was some mention about what the steps are, but
063how are we responding to those concerns that they have a student that they really feel needs to be removed from that situation and helped and supported in a different way so that the other students in that class are not being disrupted through the chair. >> Through the Thank you. Uh through the chair. So certainly it's case by case situation. We certainly deploy our Q team members PYD, climate culture, so forth. Mr. uh Tony and his team um will get involved with the school. So we deploy the district level resources that we have to to support those schools on those case by case situations. >> Thank you. And you noted a growing need for the tier 2 and tier three supports at the elementary level. And I know you've mentioned some different solutions that are being
064looked in uh on that level. Obviously, we don't want to take away any of our supports from our middle and high school because those are working. Where are we looking to be able to I know it's going to cause it's funding, right? We need some additional funding for a lot of these supports. And how in your opinion, um, Superintendent Allen, through the chair, are we going to be able to kind of take a look at that for some I know you already have some, um, steps you've made this year, but like as we're moving forward, some other plans around that >> through the chair. So, we'll be starting the budget process for FY27 next month. And so as part of that process, we're already discussing how do we um increase the number of ASP slots
065at the elementary level. How do we increase or restore some of the BCBA positions that we eliminated um during the budget reductions a couple of years ago. This year we're already going to put a wellness safety center back in place for the elementary students. So we that so as resources become available, we can identify resources. We'll be applying those to support our schools, better support our staff, and then better support the needs of our students. >> Excellent. And probably the last thing I'll touch on because I'm sure other people have a lot of comments on the report questions. And I really do appreciate the work that's gone into it and the honesty and transparency around it that we really do feel that our schools are safe, but there's more that we can do, particularly at
066that elementary level, which obviously then will help as those students progress on in time and are reaching those middle and high school levels. Um the data reliability en coding was something that I had brought up during our subcommittee meeting and I was very happy to hear Dr. Morse talking about a guide book around that because I think that is crucial that data isn't perfect right we know unless it's being conducted in a lab and there are no outside factors even with that there are chances for plus or minus errors when it comes to data the more we can do as far as the consistency and the coding and the training and the expectations around that the better. I also think that regardless of any superintendent we've had who've told people they want people to put
067their data in, we know that it doesn't always happen. And I I'm not saying that as a negative to those principles. I know sometimes feel like the pressure that they want to keep their numbers down or don't feel like they should, you know, always need to report everything. And I just want to make sure that our principles know we do want them to report those things because if we don't know how significant an issue might be at a school, we can't help them better if we don't see that data to help support it. So, I'm really happy to hear about that coding. And I guess my question on that through the chair to the superintendent as far as that standardized coding and book comes into play. Do we have a timeline on when that would
068be fully implemented? >> Mr. Allen, >> to the chair. So, uh I think Mr. Tony and Mr. Kmer are working on beginning that that work now. Um but let me just say that data is data and how it gets coded in the system is one thing. That's just numbers. What's more important is how we're addressing to the concerns raised by the schools. It's not we see a number and we respond to it. We get re It's as we get calls from schools that they need support. It's how we're responding. That's to me that's more important than what the numbers show. >> Absolutely. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that because that was actually in my notes too about when we are getting those calls from the schools, how are we supporting the staff and
069how are we supporting the students? Because I do agree with some comments that were made before. We have heard things at the elementary level where students, you know, unfortunately there's one child that's just having continual struggles and because the the safest way to usually address that is to clear the classroom of the other students, it then takes away from that learning experience for the rest of the class. And how do we balance that those students are getting what they need, but that that student that needs that additional support is also getting it. So, I appreciate that because I agree with you. Numbers are numbers. What we need to hear is the actual information from the school from the staffs from the staff of those schools and how we can then best support them. So I
070am on board with continuing the use of restorative practices as we have been where appropriate. Obviously, there are situations where you need more than restorative practices, but also just really making sure we're supporting not only those students at the elementary level, but the staff at the elementary level, I think, to provide those additional supports because that's, you know, that's, you know, they're doing a lot with those young children and trying to get them to read and math and spelling and social interactions. And if they're having those types of struggles, we know that that makes their job even more challenging. So, again, I would just like to say thank you for the report and I really appreciate that we'll be working together on this. Thank you, Member Quario. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh since
071I began on this committee, I've spoke to one common theme on pretty much every issue, transparency. And that is what my remarks will be around tonight. Uh transparency is a governance responsibility. As a school committee, our role is not just to receive data, but to ensure that it's clear, consistent, and usable for policy decisions. Transparent, disciplined data allows us to separate perception from reality and respond with evidence-based solutions. Transparent reporting like this report helps us hold two truths at once. Schools are largely safe and some staff are still being hurt. We all live in the community. We're all invested in the community and therefore we regularly interact with educators and parents. I truly appreciate this report because it's given us a real picture of what we've been hearing over the past few years and that
072is key to us to make decisions on what policy decisions we should be working on over the next few years. Transparency exposes what policy needs to catch up on. This report makes it clear that discipline coding has been inconsistent across schools due to system limitations. When the same behavior can be coded differently depending on the school, our ability to make sound decisions on policy is weakened weakened. Uh standardized coding and training are essential for equity, accountability, and trust. It protects our staff, our students, and our our uh our families alike. Clear data helps us identify that staff assaults are concentrated among the small number of young students, as mentioned in this report, with high needs. That clarity allows us to move away from a blanket solution and towards early specialized schools. Moreover, the data shows
073that the greatest increase in serious incidents is in the grades K through three. That signals a need for policy focused on early childhood behavior health, not just discipline. Transparent data allows us to align staffing, funding, and programming where needs are actually at their greatest. Transparency builds public trust. families, educators, and staff to deserve honest information and not just headlines. By sharing both straight and strengths and shortcomings openly, the district builds credibility and trust. Our policy should reflect what data actually shows, not fear or incomplete narratives. The clear expectations are essential to moving forward. As a committee, we expect consistent discipline coding, regular reporting, and clear trend analysis. We expect data that helps us evaluate whether investment in staffing and programs are working. Transparency is how we make continuous improvements in our policies and decision-makings. So,
074thank you, Mr. Superintendent, and your staff for bringing a report that gives us the opportunity to do our jobs. I look forward to continuing to work with the administration, strengthening our support systems with datadriven policy decisions. Thank you. >> Thank you, memberia. Thank you. Um, this is a very interesting report. Unfortunately, I don't think we have all the accurate data that we need. I mean, that's been established that there are certain things over the last couple of years that are not reported correctly that the codes made the difference and we're going to move forward from here. I do want to make a motion um before I even make any other statement and the motion would be that this report um then be sent to fog committee so we can keep an update on this at
075on a regular basis and we have the information. I don't want to see it put to the side and then in six months someone say by the way this is how we're doing this. I think it needs to be upfront in a continuous and show consistency not only with the transparency of what our success stories are but also the transparency in what we need to do and that's the only way we're going to get that done. to continue with a couple of other statements. Um, many people uh, a few people got up tonight and talked about the SRO's. Um, and then went to the flip side of saying this is K through three. Our SRO's were in our high schools. Um, right now we're looking at the K through three. So, if we're going to
076talk about the SRO's, they were in our high schools. And keep always keep in mind that our police department is part of our community and we just discussed theou that um was signed by everyone. So they are a partner and they're an important partner. Um but I don't see um a million dollars around the school department that is going to be able to fund uh what we would need to have the SRO's back in our schools. However, they are a partner and they will stay a partner and they're an important piece of how we are successful with everything and they should be uh looked at as um a true benefit in our community. As far as conflict resolutions, we need to come up with some ideas and some solutions on how to deal with it.
077U we talked about the wellness rooms this evening. uh how are they working? What makes them beneficial to our staff? What makes them beneficial to our students? These are this is that's not in this report, but we need to take a look at that also. Um and then the big word that always comes up is funding. If you don't have access to funds, how are we still going to be able to do this? Still meaning what are we going to look at to say this needs to happen? And this needs to be consistent. We need a safety center. It is not something that we can sit back and say perhaps in the future we can have this. Um obviously just by looking at this and hearing um from our our um EAW union. These are
078things that we need to take a look at um and and why why does it work? Why does it help? And how much staff is going to be needed for something like that. Um the other piece of this that um I for uh supports is we have a number of people that come to speak to us whether they're online or they're present and they're from different nonprofit associations. My question out to the public is um and and I may not be wording this exactly how it should be worded, but I'm going to put some some effort into this. And that is how can we get across as school committee members that we're here for the education. We're here for the social and emotional efforts in in working with our kids and working with our staff.
079What would be beneficial is to hear from associations that are working with families in our city, helping them lower the trauma, helping them with their stress levels. Because some of the trauma that our kids are coming to school with, it doesn't have anything to do with the building they're in at that time that they're entering that they got on the bus. It has everything to do what was happening in their home in in we can't do everything as school committee members or as schools. But when we hear from associations out outside of our educational piece, then we need to know what services are there that we can say this is beneficial to parents. This is how we're working to help with that level. And I do a lot of volunteer work in the city and
080um I I you you see very uh different programs developing and I'm hoping that we can push that a little further, a little faster because I think when we look at our K through three and we have some data to actually uh say this is where we need to come come up with policies, as my colleague mentioned, some new policies that would fit what is needed. But we want to ensure that we have what actually is needed, what can make a better classroom, a a more interesting classroom, and have the commitment from a seven-year-old, have the commitment from a six-year-old to make it where they want to be there, not that they have to be there. Uh so the buyin has to be in at an earlier age to then be successful and I think
081that goes with parents, siblings and in with the younger kids. I look forward to having many more discussions in reference to this. I certainly appreciate this report. Um however, I do have to say that um I think we have some transparency. Um, but I also think we're missing some pieces in no fault of um staff or administration at at this time, but I I think the last couple of years um there's been things that have been put to the side um and and looked at differently and what we need to step up to is really um support in education because those two obviously from what we're seeing here for Transparency is something that has to be together or it's not going to work. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Johnson. >> Thank you to the
082chair. Um, appreciate the report. um as this this came up in in fog and I I remember sitting there and I I just want to to the chair um say that I I think I might have been misqued on asking for further data to dive deeper into this and I think people took that as I was looking to I was minimizing the previous report on what was going on in the schools and I Just want to clarify that that actually wasn't the case. Um I did say let's pause the button here and let's get some more data to find out kind of what's going on because there has to be more context to what the original report was. And um sure enough there was um and I think there might have been some people out
083there that was feeling that majority of these incidents were occurring in the middle in the high schools or whatever and alignment or whatever. But I I think what was happening was we we weren't looking at that and we weren't talking about the positive things that had gone on. There had been a decrease in weapons and things in school. There had been a decrease in other things. We just was focusing on, you know, the hot button, the topic, the assaults and things like that. Um, which is very very concerning. and I reading the report um and and kind of working with families and and and kind of knowing what's going on. I'm actually not surprised at some of those numbers that a lot of this is in the elementary schools. Um, and as adults and as
084professionals and working with children and being around children for as long as we have, um, when we talk about students being disregulated in school and and having some outbursts and some behavioral problems or whatever, and knowing that the city we live in, we we all live here, we know what what we're dealing with and and and some of the the the families that we're working with and some of the backgrounds and some of the struggles we all have as families and individuals or whatever. Um, there's a lot of trauma out there. There's a lot of things that we don't know that these kids are dealing with. We could sit there and we could talk about food insecurity and and and clothing and when it's cold and whether or not that there's so many factors there
085that's going to translate into the classroom. that's going to translate into our schools. How do we respond? I've been saying this all the time. We can't talk about all these bad things and not come up with a solution or have some type of avenue that we could talk about on how we could work to address this issue without incorporating police officers in school or some type of authority figure that might cause fear over our kids to get them to behave or act a certain way. That's not the answer. The answer is kind of what administration was talking about today. Maybe going back to the safety centers, right? Adding more supportive services. A couple years ago, we we we did add um outside counselors into the school. Um and in speaking with um Deputy Superintendent Mos
086uh um Moss, I know there was some issues with that. There's conversations regarding bringing that back. There was lack of therapists out there, right? They there wasn't support for our kids. So, that had to back off. We need to look at that again. I think that will increase and help out with some of these situations which which we had talked about. Um, as you all know, I I'm my history, right? So, I'm all about school safety. I'm all about kids being safe. I'm all about our teachers being safe. Um but we know that this has been going on for a very long time. We can't control fights that occur in school cuz part we didn't talk about it but on the other report there are fights there's assaults between students and students right I think
087that number is hot. How do we decrease our students getting into fights with with one another? There's so many things social um social media and all this other stuff going on out there that's hard to that it's it's hard to interact with and and and deal with. But I want to decrease fights in schools, but we talk about fights are going to happen all the time. You know, I was talking to my mother-in-law um the other day. talking about this report coming out and and and data or whatever. And she she went to North High, she talked about the principal coming out, two kids getting in the fight. Principal came out, slam their heads together. We can't do that, right? We have to find some other options or some other way to deal with kids
088cuz there's going to be incidents all the time, right? So, how do you how do you deal with that? But she also talked about them going back into the principal's office and sitting down and having to have a face-to-face conversation and hashing out. What is that? That's restorative justice. Dealing with the problem, embracing it, and moving on, right? Those things were going on before. Why can't we do that now? It's the same thing. Um, you know, I I think that um we're on the right track. I'm glad to see the data um that I was asking for and and felt that we need to dive more into. Um I am a huge fan and in of our climate and culture um and our wellness in our secondary schools and our high schools. I think that
089has done wonders. And again, I'm going to sit here and tell you that I think the numbers and the decrease in certain things in the middle and the high schools is because of that intervention that we put in place four years ago. No questions asked. If you talk to the principles, you talk to the teachers and other things like that, climate and culture and wellness has been a godsend in our middle schools and our high schools. No questions asked. Is it perfect? No. But it's working. Again, we're now talking about our elementary school students. We do we we have the wraparound coordinators. We have the school adjustment councils or whatever. I'm glad to hear that we're going to talk about the BCA BCBA bringing those back in. Um but I think there's some other interventions
090that I would love to hear about moving forward down the line. Um and that's it. I want to thank you for the report. The only thing uh uh to the chair is when we take the vote on this, I like to take the motion separately. I I think we I think we've had this. We got the data that that we had. We had another report. Um I'm not in support of this going back to um fog to hold it there to continue to have further conversations. I think we could talk about getting a further report um again in regards to this data um at the end of the year or early next year, whatever. That's where I'm at with that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, member Uman followed by member Alvarez. Member M. >>
091Thank you. Um couple of quick questions I think. Um are through the chair to the superintendent. Are we thinking about an opportunity to add any additional supports this through the end of this school year in the elementary schools? Are we >> or is everything focused on next year? Are we >> the chair? So, I believe I'll defer to the mayor. I believe the city council just approved an additional increase of funding for us at the last meeting. When we bring that re recommendation of the appropriation of those funds to you in January, it will include funding for the wellness center for the elementary schools this year. >> Okay. And that's actually one of my qu. So that's what this safety center is. I mean what does that mean? >> Through the chair it's previously we
092called it the safety center. I think we're rebranding it to match the name we're using at the secondary level to call it a wellness center. So a wellness room where it's a shortterm I mean are kids going to be a >> okay >> short yes short duration assessment of the student and then it's a just a short-term placement to better figure out the best supports for that student. >> Okay. And can you um um desi all this information is reported um at the DESI level which it will be out soon through the chair. Do you know >> Mr. the timing of that >> through the chair. It's out now. It's in your weekly update tomorrow with a link uh to the access the information. >> Okay. And can you just explain through the chair what
093additional um data we'll see and when we look at the desi reports? >> Mr. Chair, it's uh disagregated data I believe. I'm going to defer to Dr. Andre if he knows if he's seen it yet. Um I've only briefly glanced at it today. It is disagregated data by the district level I think by race. Um um I just don't remember >> yeah uh racial groups through the chair racial groups um uh uh English learners uh students with disabilities uh the different infraction types uh and also different offenses although they're buckets the way they bucket the information is a little bit different um it also can be looked at by the uh the school level >> at school level. >> Yeah. You just have to work through that data. Yep. >> Thank you very much. Thank
094you. >> What's that? Member Alvarez. >> Thank you for the report. I just want to speak from the data we're reviewing and from my lived experience as a school social worker who has worked in K to3, grades three to five, and grades six to eight classrooms. What this discipline report shows that the majority of the the majority of the staff directed aggression is coming from K to3 students. It doesn't surprise me. I see this every day and it's not unique just to Wister. Just earlier I was sharing with Superintendent Brian Allen that I had to replace my phone because it broke when I when it fell out of my pocket while chasing a a first grader who eloped a classroom. When we took space in that what we call in Wister wellness rooms, we had
095a one-to-one restorative conversation. And sometimes they will be regulated enough to engage in those conversations. Other times they won't be and maybe they'll just yank you by your lanyard um to and you lose your balance. What's important to understand is that these behaviors are not just about bad kids. They're about very young children who lack the developmental skills, emotional regulation, and often the external supports needed to manage stress, frustration, and trauma. When those needs are not met regularly or early on, the behaviors don't disappear. They follow students into upper elementary and middle and often become in severe and more disruptive over time. Hence the repeated offender, right? Um data. From a policy perspective, this data points to the need for stronger earlier intervention systems. We cannot discipline our way out of this. We need we
096need adequate staffing ratios in K to3 classrooms, access to school-based behavioral health supports, and consistent implementation of MTSS, SEAL, and trauma responsive practices starting as early as kindergarten. When when staff are being hit, injured, or burnt out, it impacts retention, morale, and ultimately student learning. And when children are repeatedly removed from class instead of supported, we miss critical windows for interventions. Investing early is not just a compassionate choice is the cost effective one. Early supports reduce long-term special education referrals, suspensions, staff injuries, and out of district placements. This this report reinforces what many of us already know. Addressing student behavior requires system level investment, not reactive discipline. If we want different outcomes, we must build stronger supports in our classrooms. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Said. Okay. So, just want to thank you for the
097report. We're going discussing the stats with the superintendent over the last few weeks. What's that? I'm not done yet. Okay. Then uh so we do have a motion to I still want to thank you for the data and looking forward to future reports and how we're going to proceed and want to thank the city council for funding. I think it was 1.3 was it? Yeah. Million dollars we sent to the schools last uh last week so two weeks ago. So um we will send this uh report to uh fog I believe was a fog motion. All those in favor oppos? >> No. >> What? >> I want to take a vote on that. I'm not I'm none in favor. >> Oh, okay. So, we'll do a roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> No. >> Member
098Biancia. >> Yes. >> Member Vanza. >> Can I just ask with the It looks like we >> I can't hear you. >> With with the um committees having different names, if we send it to FOG, is there a fog? So, we're saying we're sending it to fog, but is there still a fog? I I don't think so. So, there's a fog as of tonight. Yes. >> Where are we really? >> Where are we sending it to? That's the >> Yeah, part >> we're sending it. >> Okay. So, the motion to send it to fog right now and uh we'll we'll make any changes later. >> Say yes. >> So, uh we'll start the roll call again. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez, >> can you please repeat that? I'm sorry. >> Oh, okay. We're going to
099start the roll call again that you just voted on. We'll start from the beginning uh to send this report, the superintendent's report to Fog. >> No. >> Okay. >> Member Biancia, >> yes. >> Member Vanza, >> yes. >> Member Guardiola, >> no. >> Vice Chair Johnson, >> no. >> Member Mailman, >> no. >> Member McCulla? >> No. >> Member Roy? >> Yes. >> Mayor Petty, >> no. Okay, we will uh motion is approved to file. Those in favor opposed. Okay, we have reports of the standing committees. First one is uh TLSS. We have um SU. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh the committee on teaching, learning, and student success met on December 11, 2025. There were two items. Both were passed on uh 4 to zero. Filed and approved as they read. Thank you.
100>> Okay. Any questions? So motion's to approve. Roll call. >> No, I'm sorry. What? That was at the beginning of the meeting. So we will uh go ahead. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Vancario. It's on this. >> Go ahead. >> What? >> A motion is to approve the report. >> Yes. >> Member Bernendo? >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola? >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Johnson? >> Yes. >> Member Mailman? >> Yes. >> Member McCulla? >> Yes. >> Member Roy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Penny. >> Yes. We are on U. Next is Fog. Member McCulla. Thank you. At the recent fog meeting, we took up three items. The first one was um just an update on the student activity audit and that was approved and filed. The next two items that were taken
101up were both the restructuring of the committee into three committees of finance then operations and governance and then um keeping TLSS as is. This helps to give some of the workload onto a separate committee, but also avoids the two two votes from happening anymore because it will submit um excuse me, it will adjust the structure of those committees to three members each. There will be one member that will serve on two committees to be determined by the mayor and that will not be the vice chair because the vice chair will only serve on one subcommittee as part of these updated format structure and rules. As far as the rules themselves proposed to begin January 2nd, 2026, um rule number two was simply an adjustment of some verbiage just to say that full meetings, five members
102shall constitute quorum and for standing committees, it would be two members. When we look to rule nine, there's just some updated verbiage around um when school committee members do want to visit schools to ensure that any requests that they have are something that are brought to the full committee from those schools, but that visits are coordinated with staff and school-based leadership at those schools to ensure that it's conducive to their workday. Um, there was a motion made just to tighten up any formatting and consistency in language throughout the document number 14. It's just to adjust where we already have the vice chair already sits to the left of the superintendent or I guess the right depending on which way you're looking. Um, you know that that would be consistent as to part to what is
103in our rules. And then number 24 just clarifies that the current format that we do follow now which is using the Google form that that does go to the clerk and vice chair automatically is just put into our rules. Um we updated I believe um there's an item we updated that had to go earlier in the chain of events and that was updated as well as information around our student reps. Um public petitions can be filed on our website as well. And one of the uh changes that was made after some public comment on number rule number 31 when it comes to petitions from the public that if they have not been taken up within 60 days, which our rule is that the chair shall endeavor to take up those items within 60 days. That
104if they have not been on by 120 days, that the chair does put it on so that an update from administration on a timeline and where we at where the item is does occur. so that people have put those petitions in have an opportunity to hear where it's at and make additional comment as necessary. Um, rule number 34, petitions, communications items or any matter before school committee uh typically have been, you know, standing committee, special committee to administration or to a Friday letter. After conversation, it was said to or was suggested to put the actual Friday letter verbiage in the rules. But we also as discussed in that subcommittee want to make sure that anything that is public that that is noted that it does go on the website as it does now so that
105that information is um available to the public when it becomes available to us as well. Obviously confidential information has to remain as such but that that the public gets that same information that we're getting from the administration. The rest of the adjustments here are around the standing committees. And then additionally, a rule that had previously been part of the committee that was asked to be added back in was that any item that has remained an active and standing committee for two full calendar years from the date of its initial presentation shall be subject to automatic filing. Each December, the clerk shall compile a collective list of all such inactive items and place the list on the agenda for committee review. An item shall be considered active if it has received a vote, substantive discussion, formal
106referral, or has been scheduled for future action within the two-year period. The original maker may elect an item may elect to keep an active an item active by indicating that intention during the meeting at which the collective filing is considered. Items approved as part of the collective filing shall be deemed formally filed. There's an adjustment as to when the school committee student advisory members are elected and that's noted in the rules as well as ensuring that the vice chair works with those student advisory members in conjunction with the superintendent's office to get their items ready for submission to the clerk. Um at this time that is the report. Those items were all approved for to zero and the meeting concluded. Okay. Member Mill by Menda follow by Johnson. >> Thank you. Um I have a
107few questions. Um I I do think we'll need a motion. We didn't get an answer on a tiebreaker. And even if we have a committee that is of three people, it is very possible that there could be a meeting where there are only two people. So, I think we were in the process of getting a legal response on a tie vote and what happens and I'd like us to through the chair to um get that answer because I think it's very possible we could still need the rule for what to do in a tie. um just because you just it's one of the last things we talked about the the I think what creates frustration or what I felt is that a lot of items stay open for a long time. So this is item
10846 where the fog committee is trying to say you know let's at the end of two years let's give everybody a list again and see where it's at. I want to remind committee members and the public that if an item is referred to a standing committee and has no action for two consecutive meetings, the maker of the original item may request the item be returned to the full committee. So, I think that's a way for the public to um to know that we can we we don't have to just wait. we can put another item back on. And maybe it's a simple update, but I think um in this public system of ours, I think it's important that we try to give the public a sense of what we're working on and what kind of
109timelines we have. So, um that's justformational. Um, I I don't I look I watch I called in and I watched the meeting that you everybody had the other night and I'm still I'm not understanding why we wouldn't just have a teaching and learning a finance and operations. I'm not sure why finance finance and operations are being split. I think they belong together. the work of our schools are aligned with teaching and learning finance and operations and then the other work under Dr. Coup is um called personnel engagement and equity and I would think in that personnel engagement and equity is kind of a there's you know family engagement and lots of other stuff but we'd also need governance as part of that. I think that both teaching and learning for the the group's consideration and
110finance and operations should have policy within those committees so that there's substantive work within each of the committees that relates to the work of the district. I and I did not hear a lot of discussion. And I had a chance to talk to Chair McCulla um earlier today about um some of her thinking as she worked with um I think the mayor and the superintendent on this. But um I just I would be interested in others on the school committees um ideas about how we could have more substantive um committee structure and have it align with the work of the district and I'd be interested in the superintendent's thoughts on that as well through the chair. >> Thank you. You all set? >> Yep. >> Okay. I want sound. Uh to the chair, as we
111discussed on the phone the other day, um the composition of the school committee subcommittees I believe is the prerogative of the school committee will the administration will support whatever the school committee decides as that composition. >> Okay. I but I also understood there was some conversations about it. So So not there were really not conversations about it then through the chair. Well, the conversation is the administration will support the prerogative of the school committee as it relates to >> there was no input from the from the um administration about the >> well I think subcommittee I was asked if we would if the administration is okay with the composition of these three proposed committees and I said we'd support the composition however the school committee decides. >> Fair enough. Okay. So then I guess to
112my colleagues um if the if the administration does not have a view, does anybody think that maybe that we have go back to kind of the original committees that we used to have except make have that policy as part of teaching and learning and part of finance and operations? Or does is anybody other than me not crazy about this splitting finance and operations into two different committees through the chair? >> So I guess I throw that to you chair >> petty. No speaker my turn comes. Are you alls done? >> Yes. >> Okay. We have um member Ben. >> So I have a just question on the policy part because uh policy is very important. It's one of the major uh jobs of the school committee. So under teaching learning and student success policy was
113crossed out and procedures were put in. So procedures have nothing to do with the school committee. Procedures are the responsibility of the superintendent and their staff. Policy is school committee. That's what they always teach you. Procedures is a superintendent and their staff. So, um I do think that uh we can't vote on something that doesn't follow the rule regarding uh procedures assigned to the school committee. We don't we don't do that. Just policy. So, I would like to um see policy um then returned to that teaching, learning and student success group because teaching and learning curriculum policy um that was in there and again we don't do procedures. So, um I just wanted to mention that. >> Okay. >> Member Johnson. >> Thank you. um to the chair. Um, I would like to make a
114motion to add back in um requiring uh school committee members to at least inform the executive director or the superintendent when they are reaching out that they're going to be reaching out to schools to schedule um visits to go meet with schools. Um, we put that in a couple years ago. I'm asking that it remain in there. So, that'll be my motion that we add that back in. Um, and I am I've been going back and forth on this u Mr. mayor in regards to 34 um adding uh the Friday letter to a um a way that we refer um refer items. Um, I think that if if there's an item out there that we're looking for information on that it should either go to a committee or to administration for a report back on.
115I I think what has happened is is we what was happening most of the time was we were getting a report back and instead of making a motion for further information we were just cuz it was a minimal information we were looking for we were then just saying yeah just provide that little paragraph or whatever into a Friday letter. If that's the case, we don't have to add in a Friday letter. You could just talk to whoever the administrator is to email you the information or do whatever that that you want. I I don't know. It's just me. I I I don't know. I don't know if if I'm making a big deal out of this or not, but I just the Friday letter thing as a option to send things to, I'm just not
116sure I'm a fan of anymore. Um, we're going to continue to get our communication with the superintendent on Fridays on kind of what's going on. That's what we've been doing. Um, I mean, if people want I won't make a motion, but if anyone else kind of feels the same and others want to jump on board with that, I'll be fine with it. If not, I guess we're we're try it out for two years, I guess. But thanks. >> Thank you. And member Makoa, >> thank you. And respectfully, just to kind of chime in on what member Johnson was just asking about, so the Friday letter is actually something that's been around for many, many, many years. It's a terminology that's used. It's something if you look it up and it's explained that that's a common
117practice and it was something that's been going on since before I was initially on school committee and took a different um shape. When Superintendent Monz came on, we had our what's happening weekly and then after conversation, it was shared. It was really important that we then share that information with the public that could be shared with the public and um that is why it's added in. I respect Member Johnson's thoughts on it, but I'm comfortable with it staying on as long as that information is duly noted in the um information that goes out on Fridays to our families. Thank you. >> Okay, so we have I guess it go down. >> What's that? We all set? >> Oh, no. I think everybody's all set. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, >> Mayor Patty. >> No, thank you,
118Mr. Chairman. And uh want to thank the committee for I think I think we struggled with some of the rules this year, the last the last session. And this listen, if we can change these six months to a year later, if things aren't going the right way, we can even at we have to wait two years. I think we can give it a shot. One of the biggest issues I heard was we have four members on the committee and we're going two two vote so nothing would come up to city council. I mean city council the school committee body uh it was just important because some of the stuff was pretty important. We're losing time on some of the policies that we wanted to do. So I just give this a shot with the uh
119the fourth committee and uh was assigned that we put uh three members on the committee so we won't have the issue but we'll support a motion this case. It is a one-1 tie. uh we'll get a legal opinion on how we should address that. But uh going forward um maybe member McCulla if you have maybe you can talk procedure versus policy because there's a motion to put was a motion >> policy back >> member mala >> I just don't want to step on >> thank you absolutely through the chair and um certainly understand what member Benunda is talking about I think that this past year we had had a lot of conversation around policy um coming up and like policy is set in governance and as far as TLSS That's not policy, but I understand
120what superintendent is saying. I'm member Benenda, choose Louise. U member Benenda is saying around, you know, procedure and purview. I do think though there is a lot of conversation that happens in TLSS around procedure that administration does bring to us and it's not that we are dictating that procedure to them. It is that they are reviewing the procedure with us. So that was where that adjustment had come so that there was clear delineation between where a policy went and where conversations around procedure when it came to TLSS went. That was the rationale with that conversation. Thank you. >> Mayor Penny. >> No, again just this the result of some I think couple members asked us to look at these rules and we didn't just do it on my own and uh the committee couple members
121asked to look at this and this is what member McCullik came up with in the uh in the committee. uh working this and uh I give it a shot and see what happens. If we don't like it, we can review in six months, even six months. Let's give it six months. Then summertime comes, we can I we can just readress the committees if we want to. So I have no problem doing that. Okay. Thank you. >> Good member. >> Uh oh, >> member mailman. So clarification, we will put policy into the teaching and learning >> through the chair. >> What's the question? >> Clarification, we will add policy into teaching and learning. >> I think there's a motion on that. So we'll take a vote. >> That'll be a vote. Okay. >> And people are
122not uh I actually agree with member Johnson about the Friday letter. So if that matters, if you want a motion, I'm happy to vote it. Um, but I also see that nobody cares that finance and operations go together. Is that right through the chair? >> For now, we can look at that. Let's see what it looks like. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You might be right in the end of the day. So, we'll see. Okay. Um, member Bernenda. >> Um, just another point of clarification. So, in reading the um number 40, operations and governance, it doesn't really have policy in there. It just has in there. I just want to make sure the policy is somewhere. So, it doesn't really say that. It only says that you review the student handbook and the policies
123handbook, but there are actually policies that um we need to develop maybe for support uh for u Mr. Allen and the uh his administration. So that's different than um a handbook, a student handbook. So I was just wondering where exact it really should be specific. It says policy oversight, right? Um, oh, I guess I guess you could put it that policy oversight, including the review, revision, and implementation of our policies. But that's under governance. But the development of policy, um, this is review, revise, and implement. But the development of policy, maybe we need to put development of policy in there. It has to go somewhere because I know that recently we're like the AI policy, right? We've got to develop that. So, what group is going to be responsible for that development? >> Who can
124add development to there? >> What number is that? At what time? >> 41. >> 40. So, your motion now is to put development with policy on page rule 40. >> Okay. Are they good? Yeah. Okay. What's that? Okay. You have two motions. >> So, I think the original mo motion was to keep policy in with teaching, learning, and student success. >> Y >> um and then it was explained um by member McCulla that it was already included in operations and governance. >> Yes. So, that one's withdrawn and we do the one on page rule 40. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. I just want to be clear. Okay. Um, so member mailman. >> Okay. I then I'd actually just remake the motion that member me that policy is part of teaching and learning and policy
125is part of finance and operations. >> It's already in there. Okay. So, teaching and learning. Okay. So, we have a few we have four motions. The first motion is to ask for a legal legal opinion on the tiebreaking. All those in favor post. So ordered. >> I oppose. >> Through the chair. I I'm sorry. I oppose. I through the chair to because we spoke about this in FA because I I actually asked the question in regards to did we get an answer back on the the the legal matter and I can't remember what member uh I actually I think through the to the clerk if the clerk could clarify what the answer was she gave me. I'm sorry. Madam clerk, the answer on the uh the tie break didn't vote from the legal opinion. >>
126We didn't get a legal opinion. >> We didn't get one. >> We did not get one. >> We did not get >> chair. We did not get a legal opinion um because of the anticipation of the separation of the subcommittees. We put that on hold. >> You put it on hold. So, it's in committee. >> Yeah, I understand that. I don't understand why we need a legal opinion. If we're approving three committees of three people, if we happen to come into a situation where only two people show up and we take business and it's a one one thing, then it sits there until the next meeting until the next member shows up and is able to to break the tie. There's no legal opinion or I really don't think there's a legal opinion around that.
127I mean, it is what it is. >> No, that's a good point. Okay. Okay. So we take a roll call on >> the legal opinion comm mail >> through the chair then that should be written in because we had a fourperson committee and we needed to get a legal opinion on it. >> So if we could have said with the four people just wait till the next meeting but that's not what we said we were going to do. >> Okay. >> So I'm cool with it. Wait till the next meeting. But I don't know why it wasn't that simple when we had the four people. >> Yeah. it it through the through the chair. It it was we we we realized that because it was a two- two thing. We couldn't there was no action
128taken in the committee. So, it couldn't be reported out on the floor. It had to wait. We had to wait till the next meeting to >> eventually take action in the committee and I think it was 40 31 or whatever it was and then it was able to come out. So, that's how it played out. >> Okay. But and I don't think we had that issue up until just this recently just came up. This wasn't an issue for a year and a half. Um to the chair. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So the first motion is to get a legal opinion. Let's you withdraw that. I can't No. >> Well, it's if it's written in to our rules that this is how we're going to handle it. Cool. >> Okay. That's fine. Okay.
129So, we don't need a vote on that. So the next one is by member Benender on route 40 to add develop were to use develop of policy developing policy. Is that correct? Member Benenda. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yep. Okay. So um is everybody fine with that or you want a roll call? >> Clarification please. What are we doing? We're adding policy where no >> on Route 40. We're using the rule 40 development of use the word developing policy towards the point that we have review policy there but we only have developing policy I think member that bernend's point was if we have AI and other such issues we need to develop policy so >> okay so we will develop policy within the okay >> yeah and move forward okay >> y all those
130in favor okay post so a ordered then I think I'm not sure if you to have your toss policy motion. Okay. So, okay. So, we'll do a roll call on that one. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. Member Bianio. >> Okay. We'll start over again. And uh so I think >> this is the one that member McCulla showed the difference between procedure and policy. Correct. And you explain that remember mailman has asked that we put policy back into where we put procedure. Correct. And uh >> in regard to TLSS. >> What's that? >> in regards to TLSS. Okay. So we'll start over. >> Yeah. She wants to add the word policy. Maybe member McCulla if you want to explain that again. Well, I'd like to Yeah. through the chair. We just added policy to
131finance and oper or whatever the heck it is. Just fi just finance, I guess. Or >> actually, we did it not with finance through this other new operations. Governance will have policy. Finance will not have policy. Teaching and learning. My motion would be that teaching and learning has policy in it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Then member McCulla said procedure is more procedure in TLSS versus policy. Is that I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth but just so people understand. Okay. Okay. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Biancia. >> No. >> Member Bernando. >> Uh yes. Me >> uh member Guardiola. >> No. >> Vice Chair Johnson. Uh, yes. >> Member mailmanian. >> Yes. >> Member McCulla. >> No. >> Member Roy. >> No. >> Mayor Petty. >> No. What
132was that? >> Four to six. That fails. Then we have a motion for Oh. to inform the superintendent if a member of this body wants to go into a school. Correct. Is that what the motion was? Okay. Okay. Anybody's fine with that? >> Roll call. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Viania. >> No. >> Member Bernenda. >> Could I ask for a clarification on that? >> This is the Benenda rule. No, I'm kidding. This is the one that you have to get permission from the school administration and and not the superintendent for school visits. >> The the rule was previously is that you just need to inform the superintendent or the executive director if your plan is to go out schedule visits to go >> visit schools to do >> um walkthroughs
133and stuff and meet with the principles. >> That was the rule. It's now being taken out. I'm asking for the rule to remain in. I just I I think it's out of respect and and whatever that we inform administration or someone from the administration that we're going to be going into the schools and meeting and and and speaking with um principles and we're going to be bringing things back potentially to the floor on what's going on with the schools so they're aware that we're out there doing that. Although we can do it or whatever, not an issue, but just out of respect that we continue to keep that rule in place. Oh, so for clarification, you you're just going back. I don't know how the new rule got in there, but um maybe it was
134discussed in fog. >> Oh, >> that was there two two years ago, >> right? The rule that we've been following is a rule you want to keep. >> Keep Yes, cuz they were just taking it up. >> Okay, so motion is to keep that rule that was there. Okay. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Biancia. >> No. >> Member Bernendo? >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola? >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Johnson? >> Yes. >> Member Mailman? >> Yes. >> Member McCulla? >> Yes. >> Member Roy? >> Yes. >> Mayor Penny? >> Yes. Okay. Then we had >> I wrote down Friday letter, but uh so we had the Do we have a motion to Friday letter? No. >> Okay. Fine. Okay. So, we did that. So, the motion is to approve the other
135items in the uh FOD committee. All those in favor are the finance items in there. Yeah. We do a roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Vancaria. >> Are we voting on Excuse me. >> We're voting on the other items in either the committee >> just like the student activity report. the committee report >> like the audit that was out of number one. So that's >> the other items that were in the that were in the fog meeting. >> Thank you for the clarification. >> Okay. >> We already voted on some of it just now. Okay. >> Then the rest of it. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Member Bernendo. >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Johnson. >> Yes. >> Member Melman. >> Yes. >> Member McCulla? >> Yes. >>
136Member Roy? >> Yes. >> Mayor Petty? >> Yes. We have O proposed revised schedule to approve a change in report of superintendent schedule for the school year 2526 presented the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget presentation on February 5th 2026 in the structural framework JP enhanced on February enhanced on February 26th 2026 good luck on getting that budget done. So we're going to just change that to okay everybody approve motion to approve. All those in favor? Oppose? So ordered. To authorize an additional expansion of up to continue legal services related to work visa an existing employee up to $7,500. Motion is to approve. Roll call. Question on that. Member B carrier. >> Thank you. could there wasn't any backup on this and I was just curious on how many times we're going to pay the 7500
137because is it legal services that are occurring or is this a continuation of something that hasn't that's never going to go away or how how how is it operating here >> through the chair this will be a one-time we think last expense associated with this so it's a onetime expense It's a onetime expense. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Bianio. >> Yes. >> Member Bernanda. >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Johnson. >> Yes. >> Member Mailman. >> Member McCulla. >> Yes. >> Member Roy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Penny. >> Yes. Okay. Okay, we have 5-124 to receive the central mass collaborative fiscal year 25 audited financial statements in the auditor's fi fiscal 25 letter to the board of directors presented at
138the December 1st 2025 board of directors meeting and questions on that motion to file. All those in favor oppose so ordered and uh brings us to the end of the meeting. We have the announcements. The inauguration is January 2nd at 2 p.m. at DHY Memorial High School. People are interested. It's open to the public. Uh so and we have 800 seats. So