001e e e there we all set all right good evening this is the ashin school committee meeting for April 24th 2024 we start by reading our vision statement which is the Ashton Public School strives to be a model District that creates a culture of inclusivity where our diverse students and staff who feel safe and supported are empowered with the academic and social emotional skills to pursue their chosen path and embrace their roles as positive contributors to local and Global communities uh this meeting is being recorded by waca cable TV our agenda for the evening will be um this open uh the call to order which we've done the opening procedures um reviewing and um adopting the agenda which is um to include public comment presentation from the student advisory Council good to see everybody here
002our administrative items a make a wish club uh for out of state trip request for November of 2024 Eagle Scout presentation followup with Nathan Gan Nathan thank you for coming back um public hearing on school choice participation for the 24-25 school year an assistant superintendent report superintendent report warrant approvals and then for consent actions we have uh gifts and donations uh review and Adoption of minutes from March 24th um any committee reports of activities member updates and action items and then we will journ um so I will ask people just to indicate that they're here and if they're okay with the agenda Marcy here and yes Dina here and yes yes you're not here no okay and I am here and yes too all right um with that let's start with any public comment is
003there anybody here who wanted to make a public comment and also looking to the screen I don't see anybody who's participating remotely so we can move right on to our presentation from the student advisory Council who's here to speak on that want you come on up and please introduce yourselves at the mic um when it's your turn to speak yeah uh I'm rugid I'm a senior ashon high school I oh yeah go ahead okay sure yeah okay so ashon high school they recently had their uh Europe trip uh there were some students that went on it uh they went to London Paris and Madrid and uh they had a fun time there um they might have also seen like historical stuff which they may have learned in their history class so there's a educational connection
004we have over there and um finals for seniors they're May 28th to 31st and it's to be decided for all the other grades um there was also the Japanese student visit so students from the Toshi M GAA High School in Japan came to the um came to our school and they basically just like uh they were toured by students from our school they went to they follow them to their classes and all that stuff and uh course selection window it was open and then closed so 9th 10th and 11th graders were able to choose their courses for the uh next year thank you left this over here sorry um hello I'm Vanessa Thompson um so spring Sports for the high school are in full swing with many teams playing today with the girls and boys
005lacks at Med um playing Midway baseball and softball are playing Millis and girls tennis are playing Millis as well and then there were cards made during Teacher Appreciation Week um that was run by the stucco members during xblocks and there was a lot of turnout for that so a big chunk of students um participated making cards that were then delivered to the teachers and we had surveys go out during Xboxes um about positive during it was the positive community Norm survey which related to The Stand posters that are posted around our school that just have to do with student data and Anonymous information though and it is optional but it's highly effective for understanding things about our student body thank you Vanessa hi um so upcoming for seniors is senior week and graduation oh Emily
006sorry U I'm a senior um we're having Senior Week the week before graduation so graduation is on June 7th at p.m. with class day earlier in the day and so the senior officers have been working hard to um figure out what kind of things we're going to do we're going to go to canaby Lake Park and do a boat cruise um in a senior banquet night with um the yearbooks being given out um and then recently stugo had Bingo night which was the largest in school history according to Mr wixer um and we raised about $2,800 um and then the last day of senior classes will be May 24th um and AP tests are coming up for the School they'll start the first week of May um and run through about the third week of
007May and then um I'm going to speak on Karina's behalf because she's not here tonight but um prom for the juniors will be on May 17th um like with the grand March before at 4 p.m. at the high school um and tickets are being sold all week by the Juniors and recently the school bands performed at Micah uh which is the Massachusetts instrumental and chorus conductors Association and both the middle school and the high school won awards at the competition with one band winning goal great awesome thank you and um I'll speak on Norah's behalf so she also had something over here okay so um there was the Chicago musical uh it was a big hit it sold out every night uh there was a chus solo um the NHS talent show the fundraiser was
008for why not Devon and a lot of money was raised and a lot of seniors are committing to uh colleges their Ashton commits page on Instagram it's pretty active and yeah so a lot of uh exciting events going on nowadays yeah thank you all right anybody have any questions I I wasn't sure if you coming back up to the mic um anybody have any questions for our students thank you all no thanks thank you and for your seniors enjoy the last few weeks yeah all right um our first administrative item is the make a wish Club out of state um trip request the shields in company all right can you introduce yourself to the mic as well um hi I'm Kylie I'm a senior and I'm treasur of the make A- wish Club hi my
009name is Maya and I'm the Give Kids the World coordinator I'm also a senior thank you um the make a wish club is looking for approval for our 10th Annual Give Kids the World Service trip this past year each student completed around 35 hours um of community service and we plan to do the same next year um our Target dates for this um is November 7th to 12th but they are subject to change um this trip gives students the opportunity to help make a wish come true it also puts into perspective all like the impact of all the work we do all year um and we had amazing an amazing time at Give Kids the World last year and we left wishing we could stay longer all right thank you and we we've received the
010packet of information anything you want to add Miss Shields to the details of the trip hey everybody um the the dates are tenative we work really hard to um with our travel adviser um to get the cost as reduced as possible uh right now the tenative costs are about $1,550 uh a lot can change in two weeks with the airfare and stuff but we're estimating that um last year we had a student withdraw from the trip and we were able to have another student who really couldn't have afforded to do the trip was able to go and really uh impact to Give Kids the World like we've never seen so um we are going to do our best to ensure that he's able to travel with us again because he was a force to be
011reckoned with there um he's a very active Club member and really makes a difference so it really has shed a lot of light on um making sure that all can go um and it is our hope that we can make that at least defay the cost but if not cover the cost um as we move forward and make some plans thanks any questions for the group I think on that uh you know we we've approved this it's going to be our 10th time approving it right so it's a great trip um but we also talked with other trips about something very similar to that and and what can you do you sounds like you had a you kind of fell into a really good opportunity to uh have that student uh be able to go
012on the trip but what can we do to ensure that students will show interest without any regard to to the cost so that we would at least know the interest and then have the opportunity to to try to make sure we can include as many of those as as possible so when we introduce it to the club members I always make it very clear if cost is an issue to please seek me out and have a confidential conversation it's just always been there um we do have a small amount of funding that has been donated um to help offset I don't know that it would cover the entirety of this trip plus thinking about other trips that would need help but I think we'll start thinking about creative ways through the helping our own fund
013to access some additional funds that can offset I don't know that we'll ever be able to cover all of these expenses but between the advertisement of possibility as well as the private conversations we can explore options good anybody else no I think this is I want to goor I know I know I I I love that you do this and and hearing about it every year is so uplifting so I'd love listen you know we would love everybody to come it's very hard for them to even get shifts enough for us um I'm being fa but I would love to go we would love everybody to to um experience it you your life has changed after you do it and you become addicted that's the reality so um it is our hope that more and
014more people discover it and go back there and and play an active role we actually have um a student being granted his wish on Monday and he is going there and we're I I don't know who's more excited you know about how this unfolds for him because we just know it's going to be a magical experience for him so absolutely I think it's wonderful there would be a good team building we agree maybe we should we should do rat and of course you'd have to take me because I know the ropes right you can't go on yours you can't go on ours Jen can you just um tell us briefly how many kids are involved in the club and how many get to go on the trip and how they're selected okay so there's 220
015students in the club right now um we've had to weed out a few because there was no involvement whatsoever throughout the year but 20 20 220 active members right now um we will put the applications out next week if approved um everybody will submit their applications with a small deposit to hold their spot um and if more than 35 or 36 applicants happen we will actually look at the attendance at the fundraisers as well as um club meetings and really pick the top most invested um club members for the trip great thanks is there a motion I will move to approve the mega wish Club out of state uh travel request as presented is there a second second Marcy um all in favor hi hi I and I for me as well thank you or
016nothing thanks appreciate it thanks for all your work guys all right Nathan your turn come on up and if you want to bring bring Mom with you you can suppose um how we doing all right thank you so why don't you to introduce yourself as well and then um just because you are recorded some people wouldn't have heard your first presentation to us why don't you just tell us briefly what you're what you're talking to us about in terms of Eagle Scout project okay well hello my name is Nathan grovin I a junior at ashon high school and a member of Boy Scout Troop 232 um in Ashland and I'm working on my Eagle Scout project um environmental sustainability is very important to me and when I started to think about completing an Eagle project
017um my goal was to help promote this in our community and here we are sort of as a result of that um can give read the background that I gave you guys I think yeah and we and we certainly recall what we talked about before I think there's interest in your project but there's some practical things and um I think you were going to kind of think about some of those things and come back to us with some other ideas yes yes do you want me to give like full background or should we what do the members want to hear I mean I'm fine with the updates but okay yeah I why don't you just update us on where where things are okay so sort of as I added to the little blur about it
018um after our last um meeting on March 7th I met with Mr Adams U Mr Murray and Miss stur in the high school cafeteria um and we talked about the project we answered some questions you guys had I took and I've been sort of implementing these parts to it um we walked through the cafeteria we agreed on the placement of the structure I I sent you guys the picture I don't know if you want me to present it made a little drawing of yeah where would be in the rough we've been given a copy of that with our materials lovely y um yeah the rough dimensions of the project um and you can see sort of the additions we made with the wheels and the handles and elevated off the ground in the splashboard and
019stuff like that these were all things we talked about for practicality of the project um yeah I think that's sort of the main update as we discussed it I've gotten a little bit farther in terms of just figuring out what what it's going to look like what it's made of I've had more discussions with my project project advisor and miss iner and you guys um yeah I guess I'm here to answer questions on it um all right so Mr Adams kind of or M iner sort of where are we in terms of just framework are we s point you think you have what you need to be able to feel comfortable making a recommendation to us sure so so conceptually uh when we met with Nathan and myself and miss anur and Mr Murray uh
020we did talk about Nathan's um drawing shows you we talked about having cures on it so it's easily movable uh the idea of where Nathan wants to to have this house near uh one of the windows in inside the cafeteria was fine the backsplash so he's incorporating a lot of these things into um his project which uh Mr Murray and I and Miss aner had asked him to do so conceptually this was certainly something that that we're good with in terms of where it is um you know the the concern that that we still had was making sure that what it's being made of making sure the material was appropriate and and from my standpoint Point um moving forward with the project as long as the material is something that is approved by Mr Murray
021uh certainly we're 100% behind uh the project is the material issue sort of a sanitation issue or sanitation there's sustainability they they're a MRI of I don't want to speak for Mr Murray but certainly those are the things that he certainly brought up yeah Ian that's one of the questions I was going to have for you because the last sentence in that update talks about coded with uh and but we talked about uh uh uh the materials last time and you know expressed a concern about a uh you know a coding wears off right it's from a maintenance perspective but also some just so did you have you thought further about what that what that's going to be or or what you're going to make it of or yeah certainly um that's probably the thing
022that's taken the most of my time the L share of my time since I was here is actually what it's going to be made out of um I've done a fair Fair bit of research whether it's Google or Consulting professional opinions um and sort of doing research on what it would look like while we're building it stuff like that the material which I sincerely believe is the best decision for us to make would be coded wood instead of composite I can give you my various reasons why but um that's sort of my plan going forward is why that's better I can answer questions on it if you so desire yeah I think I'd probably lean on our you know director facilities who you know after you're gone from the high school uh they're the ones
023that are going to need to ensure that five years from now this thing is uh still functioning as as you intended right because you want to want your eal Scout project and we want it to be something that's going to last and and and look as good five years from now and function as well as it does uh the day you you do you install it right so one question and I know it's not the scale and that's why I'm asking the question it it's in front of it's kind of near that window uh I'm assuming it's obviously not the scale but there's not going to be an accessibility issue Ada perspective we actually brought out um when we were there we actually brought out a cart that was similar uh in terms of Dimensions
024iig I fig you probably had covered especially with John but U that was the question I had when I saw that where it would be just it's really a perfect spot for it uh we all agreed yeah 100% And and having it on the casters is is one thing because you know what we thought about was when we have uh the use of of the auditorium for instance we rent it out uh this is something that we could then utilize and wheel out to uh the lobby uh and have folks there recycle as were appropriate so yeah Marc I just had one other question in terms of you know you mentioned in here that the um environmental action Club will be emptying the bins as part of their bi-weekly um you know kind of emptying
025of the of recycling and whatnot and just want to make sure because I use bi-weekly in different ways so do they do it twice a week or is it every other week with the volume of water bottles if it's every other week I'm afraid that's not going to be enough so I'm just curious what what the frequency is well the truth is that it is every other week that's what they do obviously um changes can be made like flaps could even be added to close off the top if there's genuinely a problem with it I think there is a difference just to sort of qu the concern of bottles there's still going to be a difference between the amount of bottles that are bought the amount of bottles that end up in there just because
026although a lot of kids literally just buy a water bottle and empty it out because they're not a fan of our filters at school um I bring my own water so I guess I can't make a comment on The Taste but um I think a fair few are still being taken with whe with students um or faculty whether they're going to a sports game after school or the recycling it in a school in a room recycling bin I don't think that volume will be a concern but certainly that can be addressed if that is I didn't know if that came up in your it yeah we feel like we're comfortable with it and and I guess after our conversations uh and and how this iterated because before it was you were also talking about compost
027and things like that has this now is this only going to be bottles Plastics or is there going to be you know what recycling is it single stream of multiple things or is it going to be purpose built for for bottles or it's certainly created for bottles it's created to targ the water bottle being bought in the cafeteria okay so are we at a point where I mean sort of subject to Mr Murray's approval on the materials we can go ahead and approve the project are people comfortable with that this point yeah yeah okay so why don't we ask for a motion um along those lines so I would move to approve the E Eagle Scout project uh for a recycle container uh subject to a approval by our director facilities is there a second
028second okay all in favor I I I an I for me thank you Nathan really appreciate your your contributions to our school Community thanks for being flexible and working through the MRI thank you guys for meeting with me visualize things we can add great okay right you're all set thank you thank you thank you all right uh our next item on the agenda is public hearing School Choice participation for 24 25 school year um so I think what's that she was deciding if she going stay for oh you don't need to stay you're good yeah you're off we talked already we're just gonna unless you want I say unless you unless you have a different opinion of what we should open up than this guy does she does not you'll tell her when she does
029right okay all right so why don't we do this why we um U Jim you want to make a presentation with your recommendations then I'll open open the public hearing for the public is not here um then we'll close it and then we can have our deliberations so um at this point I'm not opening the hearing yet but Jim want you go ahead and thank you te it off for us uh so as you know and I'm sharing the screen here uh each year we're um required to determine whether or not that the school committee will enter into um the ability for our district to to participate in school choice uh so students coming into our district from other districts around the Commonwealth and as we've we've looked at the numbers continuously we look at
030our enrollment numbers and we look at uh you know over the past five years we've seen a significant uh increase in in students so we've actually reduced the amount of our uh school choice seats over the years uh I did some research however in the past uh three years we average uh less than 50% um filling a fill rate if you will of of students um who are um coming into the district so last year we opened up 10 spots uh we had five we opened up five in kindergarten and five in first grade if you remember last year uh we had five kindergarten zero first grade uh the year before we had 30 seats uh we had 10 students uh across the district uh in in District so as we are looking at the
031enrollment over the next few years uh we wanted to make sure that there are there are a couple things um to be aware of uh kindergarten numbers still at this point for next year's enrollment um we have about 181 enrolled that includes uh the students who are at pway um so uh we're we're anticipating you know another 10 to 15 throughout the summer months um when we're looking across the district our numbers our enrollment numbers do not fluctuate significantly once the season School season starts we have kids who move in and kids who move out so it's it's been pretty flat in terms of uh we're not anticipating an extra 40 kids once school begins um and that that was important that the data we went back and looked at we may have had 75
032new enrol le during the school year but we also had just as a number move moved out right um and so that's important I'm also very thoughtful of where we are from a financial perspective um while $5,000 doesn't seem like a lot of money um when we have school choice students going out um you know even just having enough school choice students in uh to offset that cost is is significant um but we utilize as you look at our budget we utilize school choice funding um significantly uh to balance our budget um that's not to say it's the right thing to do if our numbers were um exploding um you know we we potentially could you know theoretically get enough money um from Chapter 70 uh per per prle but that's not necessarily the case
033um I'm not saying that's a financial ision that I'm for the recommendation tonight but it is certainly something that that I think about um so as you can see here uh and I shared with you um this is our anticipated enrollment um for next year uh and currently uh the 24 we have 34 total students in school choice coming into the district okay we anticipate 12 of that 2821 if you will uh for anticipate enrollment next year 12 students have been accepted at Keef uh so those students we anticipate going out so that number would decrease by 12 okay um and then as we look at and and that's actually going to be five less students than we currently have at ke Kei um next year um and as we look at the numbers we
034feel comfortable and what I said with Kelly I actually we called I talked to her I said how do you feel if I asked again to add students at each grade level at the high school she said it really doesn't make a difference to us uh because not every kid is going to be grouped into the same exact classroom uh all five together all the way through at each grade level they're spread out in class sizes are anywhere between 17 and 23 to begin with um so that's important to understand too yeah so on that point I assume that that's different than saying for example 20 cumulatively at the high school like so they could all be nth graders which because nth graders can be blocked a little bit more and it spreads out over
035time she's not interested in that correct okay yeah right so we used to do 10 10 10 and 10 we used to do 40 students at the high school alone so the last two years we actually had Z or last year we did zero um and what we find is we do have students who are Midway through the year right seniors we have a policy uh that if a student uh a family moves partway through the senior year we allow them to stay in the district technically they're school choice students once that occurs right so because they're no longer living in the district um but we allow them based on policy so we this gives us a little bit of flexibility with that scenario as well um because you might have a freshman with with
036you know entering into the third quarter fourth quarter and really disruptive for a student uh to allow them that flexibility um so here we are I'm looking at the only grade levels I do not and would not want to see um are any of those above that 230 range uh which you'll notice um 245 at the at the third grade 232 at the 5th um 234 at the 6th and 232 at the eth um those are are really large classes um and we just don't feel comfortable adding any students there at this point in time um so that so the recommendation is to add in those spots um and I'm just sharing with you where our kids come from I do that yearly of the 34 students uh you can see the majority are come
037from Framingham uh 16 of them um but we have 10 who are seniors this year um so our number would drop to um students who would be if they assuming they all came back and that's not always the case so sometimes it's just the you know um um they gave it a year and then they decided you know what I'm going to stay it's been too much of a commute so families who are choicing in coming from marbor might say listen it's just it's because we're not responsible for transportation right y it's too much for them and they're like we we worked it out for a year and now we're just going to continue um we're going to go back to wherever um so just to summarize J can you um scroll back down sorry
038I'm read me up sorry up so your your recommending opening up five seats at all grade levels except grades three five six and eight okay okay any um anything else you want to present before I formally open the hearing for the crowd no okay that's it so I will um formally open the public hearing on school choice participation for the 2425 school year anybody interested in making a comment should come to the podium now there's an empty room here uh is there anybody on screen there's not okay um then I will close the hearing the public hearing having received no input from the community and look for the the um School committee's deliberation on the topic anybody have any thoughts or questions for Mr Adams Jim just to remind me make sure I'm I'm not
039remembering it incorrectly when we uh accept a choice student they are in our district throughout unless they withdraw and the seats in and not opening up a seat in the next grade doesn't impact them right they're they're they're one of our pupil Point soon as they're in Choice they're in Choice until they determine they do not longer want to be in choice or they graduate and so all of these are um opening up it's an addition to any choice we already have corre 100% right and we and the reason why we've got to get this out to communities we have had uh 13 folks within um outside of the as Community who've inquired about school choice for next year it's not to say all 13 will apply but there's a process to apply to get
040to a certain date uh and then um then it's a lottery if we have more than five students it becomes a lottery situation just because of financial impact can you talk a little bit and I think people here might know this but people might watch them whack or whatever might not um how the funding works for students who require special education or ell services anything else that's is there any other adjustment beyond the $5,000 per kid coming yeah great question and good point um the the conversation once a student we we cannot deny a student into choice if they're an El student or special education student it that does not matter I I want to be clear we accept all students into the choice seats however if if a student is on an IEP for
041instance um and or receives any other special services we have the ability to then build back to the sending Community uh percentage of of the um services that we're providing uh to that child so so instead of let's just use an example of $5,000 uh for student who comes in if there are services that we're providing uh that account for another thousand there's a percentage of that that then gets reimbursed back to the um to the the receiving district from the sending District thank you similarly when we have students out right who are going to it goes both ways so it's not just you know how many students do we have that we send out on school choice we have I had that up there we had 133 oh okay sorry I no no worries
042yeah yeah yeah yeah well what I thought was interesting looking at that is only six of them are really going to other districts like ours right correct there I'm sorry seven there's six going to hollon one in Framingham the other ones there's one that choice out the other ones are the other ones are virtual it shows the six virtuals right yeah there's six virtuals uh and I can tell you of the virtuals um there are four siblings so yeah so that's a family pick another way come back after Co to be honest yeah and Jim I've never really thought about this until we were just talking we looking at k um and now I think back to us going uh tuition free and I'm just trying I think the answer is doesn't matter but if
043the sending Community is not tuition free it's still the same it's still the same setup right there that's correct anybody else have any comments or questions okay is there a motion to approve um superintendent's recommendation on school choice okay I say or I say or I suppose some other motion but um all right so we've got a so moved we have a second all right Marcy second all in favor I I I I for me as well pass for nothing thank you Jim um Mike assistant superintendent's update sure um we finished off Ela mcast before April break uh special congratulations to our third graders whoever experienced that for the first time they should be ready to go for math coming up um in May and and science as well for those who take the science
044ncast our five tal Special Olympics is on Friday we are participating once again and that this year it will be in Millis and um as was alluded to by our students uh AP tests are happening in May uh we've got over 200 students taking AP test this year for a total of about 450 tests so kudos to those students who um have decided to take that challenge and take the advanced placement in the organization that has to occur to get that time yeah yeah thank you Mike and and uh do we we get sort of um you know synthesized data meaning without students can we hear a little bit down the road about how our kids are performing on those on we try that data for you I assume that's not available till the fall
045or something like that yeah okay yeah we do a spreadsheet each year Kelly will provide to us over the summer once the grades come out I don't think you're lit up Mike that's okay um I'm sure everybody heard yeah uh and the reason the reason I I particularly highlight that obviously I have no idea how our students will perform this year but you know there was there was a year a few years ago where ashin students passed more of these tests um than any other school district in the state and we my view didn't do a great job advertising that as the success of the district and successes of our students um but I think it was something that we used to talk more about that the AP program here really is a distinguishing factor
046in the education we offer our kids and um I'm just looking forward to hearing that data and how it all plays out because I think it's something I suspect if we were successful we're doing before excuse me um we probably still are and that's something we ought to be sharing with our community that's great well and it'd be interesting to talk because there as we talked about more engagement involvement and and taking on those challenges I wonder whether a success would be that not necessarily that all of them are performing at such a high level but just the numbers of particip participation because we want kids to challenge themselves and even if they don't get a high score if they're if they're getting a competent a nice a nice score and a competent score in
047that we got a lot of students at that level that might be also a big win for us right yeah I think certainly the participation alone you know is is you're right it's people challenging themselves whether they get a two or a three like it's not not the only thing that matters okay thanks Mike uh Jim that's a good point um a couple things one uh I apologize for the raspy voice um we uh just got back permission to be brief if you wish I will be I I chaperon was one of the chaperon on the London Paris Madrid trip it was fantastic our kids as I said to the group um on our way back uh you know they represented uh ashin the community the school their families uh very well um we learned
048a lot uh it's tiring uh it's on the go it's um up early uh bed late um Cory does it McAn does an outstanding job getting it organized and I think uh for the most part um that the kids were um engaged uh we had a wonderful tour guide and that makes all the difference honestly with this um so the only other thing because we were on break I did make an announcement yesterday uh we we have hired uh Miss Aaron L Chappelle um as the next Middle School principal of ashin Middle School uh we did uh under took interviews uh with candidates uh we had 133 applicants initially um um and interviewed requested interview of four one of them dropped out because they had received a middle school principal um offer and then we
049so we brought in three um Aaron uh and another candidate were actually pretty highly thought of and uh we did some research and um we believe Aaron I believe 100% that Aaron's the best fit for ashon Middle School uh and I'm excited to welcome her aboard the leadership team in a different level uh she's very well thought of um when you talk to high school parents and families and uh staff and uh I fully anticipate she'll make a great transition into uh the Middle School principal yeah I think she just knowing her a little bit through like State Council she just seems to have the disposition that would be really do really well at that Middle School level so congratulations yeah all right great job retaining I know it was going to be too much
050longer probably would was being recruited heavily so without a doubt all right uh Paul warrant approvals yes uh between March 28 2024 and April 24th 2024 I Paul Kendall authorized by my signature payables in the amount of 1 million 55,8 4148 this includes general fund expenses of $886,000 $154,300 expenses of $1,265 91 and meals tax expenses of $79 64 and I guess we're uh European now we're using commas instead of 're used to all right thanks Paul um to save Jim's voice um I'm going to read the gifts and donations for this evening um so we have uh two different donations from Warren school parents and students um for books for the Warren school library one is in the amount of 1,143 66 the other is for $6,195 we also have um donations from area
051Merchants which apparently have the listing on um excuse me gift cards and prizes for AHS student um student council Bingo night the amount of $3,569 plan aid for $333 48 the ashon PTO $2,934 another from planet Aid 46795 and from GPI us Inc um $500 to the High School principal's fund for a total of $15,508.57 Rhythm tonight I will except for the time that he jumped in I know Paul screwed up um all right all in favor hi all right great passes for nothing thank you uh minutes from March 27 2024 anybody have anything on those minutes good to me okay uh can I get a motion to approve the minutes as presented so moved Marcy second you're going to be just as good as Preston before you know it all right um all in
052favor I I hi I've got no opposition I was going to say did she did she uh has she experienced the Preston town meeting oh wow hope you're going um all right member updates Marc anything you have um the only thing I wanted to say is I've been sitting on several fields and it is a thrill to have the scoreboard at the middle school working tracking every minute and every goal and every you know thing that the kids are doing it's awesome so um thank you got a little smirk out of Chris there you got it's awesome it's great thank you great Tina um um John the update so a couple of the things were mentioned by the students um you know was at the Micah Festival both of my kids um you know take
053part in the music programs and they did a great job they um actually won a gold medal this year for the first time in many years which then put them into a lottery to perform um at estate um kind of all of the different districts um put their gold medalists into a lottery to play at a at another concert we did not get picked to play in that concert it's a lottery um it's also very short notice and it was the first Sunday of vacation so I don't think we would have been able to field the full band because there was not enough notice um beforehand but um but they did a great job I think they were all really thrilled as was um Mr Maul um they all the bands did a phenomenal job
054um uh there was an ashack meeting last night so it's always you know I think that Britney does a great job of of answering all of the questions keeping everybody up to date um about staffing issues you know the the budget was something they asked me about let them know kind of where things stand that we passed it as it was presented but we're just waiting for the town to rubber stamp it and um hopefully that shouldn't be an issue um that's all I can think of there may be other stuff but that's all I got Paul yeah I'm sure like her I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting but uh from Mendes's perspective one of the big things so the site was very busy over break uh probably the most noticeable change for people is
055we added a uh uh another egress Point uh from the parking lot so our uh once we got in there and operated the school what we noticed is uh particularly during uh dismissal we have a queue of cars that come into for pickup but we also have uh some vans that are in the parking lot and also our faculty need to be able to leave but we do not want people passing even though there's plenty of space we do not want them passing queued cars where kids are being dismissed to so uh we added another egress from the parking lot uh kind of merges in front of that uh of that queue so uh that's probably the biggest uh bonus I mean even if it wasn't that I mean it was kind of frustrating having
056to go around the whole Loop when you're doing that so uh see people will notice that um and I think I've mentioned we've mentioned it here before but I guess I'll talk a little bit more about just where we are with the uh inflation reduction act and um our tax reimbursement even though we're not a taxable entity uh I think I mentioned before uh there's a change this year with uh the uh with the act that tax exempt entities are also able to participate in that and uh they just get a cash payment from the IRS and so we've hired uh I don't know if we G gave this update before so we we have hired uh a tax adviser out of New York who's doing this with other um uh districts or or towns
057uh as well it's it's very new uh I think the the first submissions are literally going in next month um so uh we're still in the process of trying to figure out what can be uh part of that it's also uh in discussions with the town uh determining whether we're going to include the public safety bill building and some of the the things in there uh as well but it should uh it should be a fairly Hefty Hefty sum of money coming back that we can uh then once we go to our permanent round of borrowing uh not have to have to borrow and and can can lessen that tax so it would be the funds would be dedicated to the debt on the new building or the financing of the new building or does
058it come back to the town general f it it comes back to the town without any strings okay but uh uh I I certainly my expectation and I would I would be shocked if uh if Michael had a different take on it but we you know unless there was something very compelling we would we would rather not borrow right and and not not impact the TA you know basically if we can take uh you know it we're expecting a seven figure uh you know check from the government so where's the decimal point on that the commas okay right but uh so yeah so it comes back there's no there's no constraints on that on that fund it's a check from the IRS so uh I also attended a webinar that um uh Senator Mary hosted
059uh then it's uh uh undaunted K K12 undaunted is the is the the group that kind of has spearheaded a lot of this and and advocated for it and so uh just to give you more context on it at all this also if you wanted to do electric buses or other so it's it's not just kind of these things but it's all these other green initiatives as well uh the percentages and how how it carved up is a little different uh charging stations and different other things as well so um and for us we're if this had quite frankly if this had come out and been announced a year earlier we might have pivoted a little bit on on the project and gone all electric but uh because just the if you uh say our
060whole system uh which is over $7 million package um uh was eligible it would either be 25.5 is the lower number percentage of uh reimbursement uh up to 34 if it's if uh at least 50 or 40% is uh domestically sourced so that would be a you know a fair so with our project we have to take um and determine what that percentage of of the costs are for the things that are the sustainable the geothermal uh the pumps and all those different things that do not use the fossil fuels uh but it's still going to be a a fair chunk of change so but that's in progress um it's you know it's exciting but it's also bleeding edge we don't you know uh we're very happy with with our advisor they they they have
061I think all the all the answers that anybody would have at this point um so uh so more to come on that but that that's that's definitely in progress great anything else I'm sure there is but all right I'll just provide a brief update on today's um site council at the high school um most of the conversation was around cell phone policy um which will only really come to the school committee when we approve the high school handbook which we do annually um there's a lot of discussion about I think staff in particular are really looking for a schoolwide approach um rather than sort of what has been sort of as a in effect not by writing but by practice sort of teacher X will have one approach to a teacher while have another Etc
062and it seems the staff it seems like a majority of the staff I it's hard to tell from the data we have um whether it's a strong majority but I think that it is um are are looking for something that just kind of more consistent more uniform the idea if we're all doing the same thing kids are going to know expectations better um so that that conversation's ongoing and like I said um you know Kelly said that once the handbook is finished this is we be a part of it we typically see that either in June or maybe over the summer um as just sort of one of the perun things we do every year in terms of approval so that that's one topic of discussion um the other wasn't there wasn't any substantive discussion
063on the weighted grading issue again today it was on the agenda but um we had an hourlong meeting and we were at minute 53 when we finished the cell phone thing um and I just confirmed with Kelly that whether she anticipated making a recommendation on anything this year she she does not um and I wanted to say that for your all to be in the loop on it but also obviously the community has been um interested in the topic I know I've gotten a few emails personally from parents that are expressing concern um most of which you seem to be able to calm down after they find out it probably would be for an incoming class so those who are high school parents like wait my kids a sophomore like oh okay they let it
064go do change but obviously for people who have middle school students or lower that there's there's some viewpoint on it um but anyway so the there's sort of research on some of the points that were raised here tin I think you sent an a fairly detailed email to Kelly with um some concerns and those are among the things that they're Gathering data and researching and I I don't anticipate that we would have any kind of recommendation till probably mid to late next year um looking for the year forward I I'd be surprised if it move faster than that so I just want to provide that update um action items I don't know that we have anything to put on the action items um our next meeting is the what's it with this eth right um
065so um I guess at this point we'll just look for a motion to adjourn so move Mercy second all in favor of adjourning I I anybody opposed to adjourning can stay okay motion passes for nothing thank you we are adjourned for