001good evening everybody it is November 21st 2023 I'll start by reading our vision statement the Ashen Public Schools is a forward-thinking district that cultivates the academic and social emotional growth of each student through a supportive collaborative Innovative and challenging environment students will develop V into self-motivated resilient lifelong Learners who Embrace their role as responsible contributors to a global Community this meeting is being recorded by waca cable TV and our order of business this evening includes our opening procedure agenda review and adoption public comment items of interest to the public and our administrative items this evening include request to establish a new student organization and stipend at mindes The Rainbow Club request to establish a new student organization and stipend at AHS The Culinary Club Shan wgl Ashlin Youth Baseball Softball aybs softball field lighting installation
002proposal for the Warren school school physician role Dr Charter's retirement recommended replacement Dr Michelle Duke school choice funding allocation FY 2024 High School Improvement plan any as nesdec enrollment projections superintendent update warrant approvals the consent actions include minutes from October 25th 2023 gifts and donations committee reports of activities member updates action items and then we will adjourn so I will ask for your um attendance and to see if you are okay with the order of business this evening Paul Kendall I am Haron Williams Hein yes Tina fanes yes heing yes Mark and here and I'm here and I'm here too yeah I am here we here to say I'm pretty sure I can get rid of the the virtual covid here and yes thing thank you all right I'm gonna um see if there I
003know there are a few people on um line there um if there are any people that want to speak publicly now is the time to do that so you could raise your hand or turn off uh the okay awesome yeah um so seeing none here or there um move on to the next item which is the request to establish a new student organization in stipend at MES The Rainbow Club so I don't know Meg Jen or Jenna uh who's going to take the lead on that but one of you three most capable women go ahead mag do you want to take the lead sure I I'm happy to um so the Rainbow Club is like a club that's equivalent of the gay straight Alliance um at the elementary level a lot of the elementary schools
004in the area have one but it's basically a safe place for students to meet and talk about um different kinds of families different kinds of people and it's an accepting way of um creating an anti-bullying environment for the students thank you anybody have any questions about it you have any sense of how many students are interested so we haven't um we haven't solicited any students we haven't advertised in any way shape perform because we wanted to get approval first so so Megan on something like this at the elementary school uh certainly at the high school level it's you you engage the students directly is at the elementary level is this uh like a family engagement kind of thing how how does how does that work at the elementary level great question I should have said
005that it would be an after school club for an hour and would would need parent permission as we do with any club um sorry for an hour after school once a month um so students parents would need to sign off on them coming it would obviously um not be mandatory in any way shape or form but any students who were interested um we would not include siblings or families it's something that has been discussed among other clubs but I think for mes for the start just starting with mindes age students who want to stay after after school for an hour and we'll do games activities books crafts just more promoting um a Unity experience for them and Megan would this be something that is just open to all students the same way any club would
006be that you would just kind of advertise it maybe in you know the weekly newsletters and then any students who are interested would then reach out to you or whoever if they wanted to join yes it would be exactly like that um and you know if kids hear about it later they could always join later it wouldn't need to be like you sign up for the entire session or if kids want to try it and it's not for them and they don't want to continue that will be fine as well excellent anybody else who's got a motion uh motion to approve the um establishment of a new student organization and stip and at Mendes for the Rainbow Club second all in favor Paul hi Aon hi Tina hi Mark hi I great got a new
007club The Rainbow Club thank you ladies excellent thank you so much next up good night we have a a request to establish a new student student organization and stipend at AHS called The Culinary club and I actually think that it's just supposed to be the student account the club is already established and receives the stien okay they've been operating for the last year and a half or so um but have just started this year wanting to do some fundraising um and um I think they've asked to do a bake sale recently and and just because they've been using their own um their own money to purchase some of the things they're doing for the club so they just wanted to kind of have a a way to raise funds for the group so they opened
008a they're looking to open a bank account EXC Student Activities account yeah the paperwork is correct in the uh in the packet but it was labeled incorrectly on the agenda okay so are we comfortable uh yeah such cuz I mean the club already exists right just but what we're doing is not listed it's not on the agenda properly the creation of the uh but I think in terms of I our obligations to give 48 Hours the public notice to the public of what we recently anticipate and given that we're we've got on the agenda something related to um The Culinary club and the student organization I don't think it's inappropriate to anticipate that one of things that might relate to that establishment of account so I think on something like this I'm comfortable moving forward
009the agenda is not quite right okay I agree okay uh I will just uh remind that we create the account and also authorize uh uh the principal to make the uh deposits and withdrawals or act on the account or whatever verbage we typically do at the beginning of each year for that who's got make motion no I was hoping somebody else all the language PA I didn't that's I I was hoping somebody else would have a language I'll give it a shot um I moved to authorize the the creation of an account for the culinary club and as well as the um authorizing the principal to um manage the account consistent with our practices regarding clubs that was that was a lot better than I was all in favor Paul hi Ain hi Tina hi
010Mark hi hi great thanks um next up the Ashlin H baseball softball aybs softball field lighting installation proposal good Sean so I'm Sean wage for those of you that don't know me um I've been the vice president of softball now for one full year and a lot of the things I've been doing has been organizing field enhancements for the program to not only help the kids want to come and play but also with the amount of fields we have within Ashland trying to get everybody to be able to play between baseball and softball ball um has been a challenge kind of field field space so this year you guys um really helped us with a home run fence at the Warren school which we had our first home run derby just so you know we
011had five towns and 25 contestants um and we had a trophy a raffle prize we raised $300 for aybs as a fundraiser so we're actually utilizing that as well not just as a pretty fence to have there but also to get the older kids that's seventh eth and ninth graders that can really put it out there which also saves us from having to pay money to go to the high school and then use theirs fields or middle school or Stone Park so um so I'm here again to represent the softball side of the house to help us because specifically this fall there was a lot of rainouts so you have a six week season and we had no place to play because if they rained out on a Sunday or a Saturday which were our
012games 4:00 gets dark at 5:30 quarter 6 you couldn't move the game to 6:00 when the weather might might be better um and then even practice times as it kind of slid we had some of the kids practicing for 15 minutes cuz there was they still wanted to come out and play and they played in the dark as best they could with coaches with their phones but um it limited us to be able to have a full season for what the families are paying for and then again from a season standpoint even getting a four o00 game in was a challenge because it started to get dark at 5:30 qu 6 as we played so it kind of transfers into spring and summer as well because it limits us to if we have more than
013three teams in a division you're kind of looking for other towns to pick up where the we can't have as many home games at a field um and Warren is the field that we don't have to pay for so it's also trying to draw more people there versus trying to work with the town to figure out Stone Park which doesn't have lights so then it's like okay again rush to do that and then again the high school and softball so the proposal was to just ask the town the school committee the board um if there would be an opportunity for us to look at what it's going to cost cuz again we haven't done that cuz I wanted to wait to see if it's an opportunity but we have The Big Field which is where
014most of the people play um third fourth fifth sixth 7th e8th nth each season um so the lights kind of face towards if anyone's everever been there The Snack Shack so it's away from the houses that are behind it um and then the small field which has the annex so the Warren school kind of annex so our thought there was like could you put a couple flood lights there you know to help the younger kids that are playing which is prek-k in first grade to be able to keep playing at that point um instead of putting giant things that are up around the school kind of try to make it easier and then I'm assuming it would have to be light poles that would come you know looking at grinell and looking at the middle
015school I kind of figured out where those might have to go but we haven't done any scoping or pricing or promises it was just enough coaches wrote in enough parents wrote in that said it would be great to not have a five minute you know again like we got there at 5 we were done at 5:15 or the games getting super dark or again we had some teams that couldn't even have a full season because we would call Holliston or Southboro or Medway which had lights and we could only use them so many time you know again if it wasn't their town that we were playing in so it kind of took away from also fundraising from The Snack Shack for us or stuff that were coming to town so I'll pause there okay so
016you just you're you want to make sure it's not an absolute no before you go and you do the research and um get more information for us and Jim are are you aware of any obstacles that would make that not necessarily obstacles I think it's appropriate to to get all of the information to to be brought back to the board uh certainly we have it is in a residential area and we want to make sure that we're thoughtful there of of the families um but anything we can do to you know get our our student athletes out there a little bit more I'm in favor of it's just the cost obviously ly who it's born by and things of that nature need to be done so anybody else have questions or concerns about it before
017you know it looks like it's very initial phase for you to just go see what the interest is it kind of came up whether there's fundraising opportunities yeah so our our fundraising this year we've already put our kind of budget in for other enhancements that we're trying to do um so this would be a kind of second year out for our budget down the road but it helps us be able to figure out what the pricing would be like even the home run fence was a year out and then it got us enough ability to be able to fund raise to be able to pay for that fence and then so the thought is it's costly item and then you the the board has someone who's a construction that did all the grin cell stuff
018so we have people that are you know smarter than me that can come up and be like hey this is what we'd have to run conduit up or again right where we' have to go so we'd have to show you guys hey this is what it would look like and all that but it was more just initial like is there an opportunity to put lights there to help eventually I mean my daughter's thirdd grade so I'm in it for a while so yeah um so it's again exciting for me my older daughter's 16 I coached her way back then so I'm now back in it um and then just again exciting to watch the kids come and want to be there like I said just having them in the dark was it not safe and
019then also it just limits there so mostly it's the fall so again if people had questions about timing game you know practice was at 5:30 and so you could imagine trying to have a 5 : in the middle of October when you couldn't even see so it was like Hey get here at 5:15 as fast as you can and then we'll go and then the older kids same thing so it was it wouldn't push us to like 8:00 or 9 o'clock it would just give us the ability to play at a regular hour and then the the summer games again it starts to get dark towards August if you're playing usually their six o'clock games end at 7:45 so the goal is to give them opportunity that if we had to have a 7 o'clock
020if the weather's changed so it gives us some more flexibility that there could be lights there um we did already get one letter from a neighbor who must have seen that this was on the agenda you know with some concerns so down the road obviously there would have to be to see if there are other concerns um and probably that have questions answered about like will will they be on every day will they be shining into anyone's home you know the the typical kinds of things you know one of the questions too were why do kids need to be out that late but I mean we all know living here in New England that it's dark at 4:30 um time of year so it's it's not necessarily that we're keeping anybody out any later than
021they they otherwise would be it's it's an opportunity to just let them finish their practice or finish their game yeah like I said mainly it's for fall so if it's September through end of October yeah is when or you know before Halloween is usually when we end but halfway through our season that's when it starts to get super dark so you have three weeks and then the weekends weren't our friends this year because of all the weather so we had no place to to get a game like later or even hey let's play during the week you couldn't because you couldn't start a six o00 game during you know if you had lights you could but we didn't have opportuni so we lost some playing time yeah um and then again most of it's for
022the kids like hey we want them out there having fun for what they're paying for and doing that stuff um so yeah so I guess it'll be helpful for me to know once I get some other things like what else do you guys need or the town needs to just if I can a couple of things that that I'd be thinking about you know if we got further along with this um so certainly in line with what Jim and Lori have said about you know the impact on the the houses nearby and the residents nearby things like that I think um sort of whether or not there would be an agreed upon end time um because like grin cell during the summer there can be stuff going on down there till 10:00 at night um
023I could see that being more of a concern to the neighbors than if there was like a 8:00 end time yeah you know or something like that and I'm not trying to legislate that now I just think it's a a thing to think about um who Bears the cost of the electricity when they run right um if it's on our property I don't know how the the electricity is connected over there but if it's going to have an ongoing cost to the school district that's something I think we would have to look at and say well now you're using the fields it's for your purpose and you know we'd have to look at yeah I check because I know we pay for electricity through the Snack Shack and the water so we do all that
024on our own so I can find out how they would do that yeah and then the other thing I'm just thinking about is um you know I I don't have a sense of which sort of field is better whether the stone Stone Park field or the field at the Warren is better but i' be interest just understanding um whether the lights would be more useful at one or the other um because obviously one of them is an our proview one is not um Stone Park is Town property but it yes so Stone Park doesn't get um we've met with Doug and Roy and Patty and they're awesome they just don't have time to keep up like our Sha is completely Fallen apart and so we're we're actually meeting with them to see if we can
025do a quid pro quo like hey don't charge us to use the field if we build you a new shed that's there um but they're the maintenance on the field they just don't have the ability like this year we rented in the summer the high school field and we didn't get any maintenance so we would show up there and sometimes other towns were renting it and it would take us an hour some we had to cancel a couple games and we had paid for it because we only had two coaches that were setting up the field so we're learning things together Warren is what we're trying to like the home run fence there um you know enhancements of the field like we did a um Ferraro Landscaping we paid for them this year to redo
026all the fields so if you go down there you'll see gravel now in front of the dugouts where there used to be mud pits so we're going to have new um batted cages installed some of the things that we're trying to do so we're trying to bring we investing in that we're trying to just because we feel like it's still a home of softball for what we have um and Stone Park field has kind of Left Behind it's not worked that way um so that's what if that helps answer that question I appreciate that and and to add on I kind of had the the same thoughts that have already been expressed but the other thing that comes to mind is with lights on that field is it now going to become something that other
027towns or groups seek out to use in different ways and what would that look like um are they going to be I mean I would assume since it's on school property it would be something we would have to decide how they use if it can be rented what that looks like but people are always looking for field space right particularly and Jim maybe you can exp we we have a contract with our Our Youth Organization so we don't have contracts with the other towns and so that would be a totally different right but would they be asking to use it what would the rules around that be would it I'm just I don't know I'm not sure how fields are use what other organizations would want to use it but obviously those fields that are
028lighted are in demand and so like the middle school and the high school rent out to other towns we would not be thinking that way um One is because your control and we don't have the town doesn't they mow the lawn up to the annex and then it stops so our goal is we still we paid Landscaping to make sure like we want to make sure that's that and then I had asked Holliston Medway and South bro because again two are on school properties and one is near a school property but a little further out and they only allow you to play if you're with that team that team unless like Southboro rent it out to their men's softball so if you're in the you or the men's softball league of Southboro you can use
029that field because it's part of the town and then you're just it's just their Town thing so it wouldn't be an outside thing that we'd want to do it's more just trying to help our program continue sure no understand I just think it should be part of the conversation that if it if it is something that goes forward that there are rules around the use absolutely anybody else with questions more a a comment as the vetting of this goes through is that you know they uh some place like Sunrise rental or Sun Belt Rentals has the light towers and I don't I don't know if they're diesel generated or if they're plug and play but the ability to kind of do a trial with some heavy duty lighting before installing something permanent and being able
030to talk to the neighbors and see what their what the impact is you know it looks like there we wouldn't be looking at something like this for next fall installation but maybe a trial when you're talking about the sun going down you know in in October and working with the board for approval to bring on site equipment yeah that's a great idea idea thinking about the time limit like to me I'm a little less concerned about impact on the neighbors if lights are going off at 8:00 or 8:15 then if we're allowing people to use till 10 you know I think there's a big difference in terms of the impact and quality of life to people and then it's not every night for several months in a row right but if there's an opportunity for
031rental in the meantime and it it's within your budget then you can get a feel for how it's going to work the placement complaints yeah whether people are going to start taking an interest in the property that they didn't have before that sort of thing so maybe there's an opportun invitation come on down and right have a have a snack at The Snack Shack check out our exact our test game you know yeah um okay and then my other comment was a question to Paul is what are we gaining back for field space at noren that can help soft mes sorry yep yep yeah I mean so those won't be available till 20125 uh because they're going to be planted in the spring of 2024 so and they're going to be allowed to grow two
032growing Seasons okay um so if they were planted this uh this fall then they would be available next fall but uh so we have a a baseball and a softball field there and then in the middle you can you can play soccer as well um not at the same time obviously but uh uh and not lighted no that's not that's that's not lighted uh there's been a question about that brought up but uh we're not going to co-mingle that with our current permitting uh and things like that that that that muddies the water muddies the water from funding perspect yep it's it's very complicated to to introduce that as part of part of the project but uh but it has been discussed um so my my my thoughts are similar to think about your timing
033what and not just I wouldn't be reactive to say okay it's got to be 8:00 but what do you what do you want right and then be prepared for uh you know if 9:00 is the right time that would that would make sense uh I I know a lot of the guys that do the things with the uh with the program and have the skills and help at gzel do these things I think in a case like this I think it'll have to be externally designed and and professionally designed in that case um I I don't know that temporary lights are helpful because it's a totally different experience right so what we did at Mendes is part of what the professionals do with all of our sight lighting there was uh they can they can
034have photometric uh diagrams that actually account for the light spillage of the design and where it's supposed to go so that we could show it was part of the perating process and I can show you those from the from the permits um that when it's designed just like our sight lighting at Mendes it can show that there's no light spillage right and that uh whereas with temporary light just because that that works or doesn't work it might it might actually backfire because here's these loud lights that are intentionally broad uh which might offend somebody or so I I would I would say it should be professionally designed and in installed not uh uh not not just by the the dads that like to help and and have the skill set to do it um and
035with that you get this this level of uh of design that that you can uh and then they can also be held to that so somebody can come in and say hey these need to be adjusted because they're not to specification because you'll have a contractor that's hey this is what what's been been specified so thing of the timing uh I I would definitely recommend that's the route to go is is profess designed because you'll you'll get that and when you do it that way you're going to it's going to be a heck of a lot easier conversation with the neighbors CU you're going to say this is this this company designs these things this is um and they may even be able to say hey go to this place or go to this place
036and you'll be able to see the lighting and and and how they can control that light just the same way as we do at Mendes for site lighting it's different it's not as bright obviously as a as field lighting but and would you have recommendations of those types of professionals would that be my homework to try to uh I can I can ask um what the what they use but it might be a totally different firm and and quite frankly on a different scale you mean I mean I don't know how how uh uh but I can certainly ask a design team they were just part of the part of the design team so through through our architect so would we have to go through procurement for if it's on our property even if it's
037being paid for by someone else I that's a good question for Chris that is I think it's I I think it's only about the funding I think right that makes sense I just wanted to no I don't believe no we don't so it sounds like there's no objection from anybody here for you moving to the next step and and doing the research main things are placement who's paying for it who uh who's paying for the upkeep and the the ongoing electricity and if that's a school committee thing that's a bigger conversation because it's got to be part of a the overall budget discussion for the whole district and usually something has to go to make room for something else so you know those things have to be ironed out but certainly begin the conversations and
038and I do think the focus on on the impact to neighbor the neighborhood is important you know I know for me I I'm kind of envisioning potentially having the proposal at some point in the future should you get that far and wanting to see notice to the neighbors whether that's required or not I don't know but I'd want to see that make sure they had an opportunity to come in and express concerns hear the kind of presentation that that Paul's referring to um and you feel confident that the the change that we're potentially making to our property isn't going to have a hugely negative impact on the on the neighborhood agre yeah and I treat it because I as as you probably know uh uh it's been brought up about lights eventually at at Mendes
039as well right and so think of this as a as you you do this well and you're you're going to then have the ability to go and and and say we've done it here we we' we've managed the impact properly and and I think that's the that's definitely the way to go because I can tell you that and they're different neighbors for sure but uh there's a lots concerns even about uh an electronic sign on uh for Mendes so uh the people can be sensitive about it and and I think that's why I really recommend going the professional route that you can uh you can have something that just not trust us but here here's something that uh that was professionally designed and and we'll meet this specification and I think that'll go a long
040way okay yeah I mean my main thing was to just ask guidance and thought because again even the fundraising side of like once we find out what the price is I don't know but I wanted to make sure I let the families know and had reached out to me over the fall sure hey told I would talk to the the committee and and we kind of at least have those conversations so I know it's a longer process than the home run fence or the sign that we did but I just wanted to start the process so I appreciate no we appreciate you coming that's this is the right first step sometimes things go really far down the road and we're like What well we learned that with the sign but I wasn't in the committee
041yet I was I I was an outsider thank you guys for thanks for coming Sean okay uh School physician role Dr Charter's retirement recommended replacement Dr Michelle Duke yeah so uh sorry so as you know um maybe you don't know but we do have a school science position it was Dr Charter as he says going back to 1976 uh we sign a what $6,000 a year contract uh with with Dr Charter's office to help with physicals uh for those students who don't can't get them he'll come into theice office um give free physicals uh and offer other advice that we have throughout the year immunizations Etc uh he's retiring uh he's recommending out of his office Michelle Duke uh is the next uh physici for um the ash Public Schools uh Christina Molton who is
042our lead nurse um said it'd be wonderful to have her on board so really um the school committee's responsibility is to appoint the physician uh moving forward so I'm just asking for approval to point point uh Michelle Duke Dr Michelle Duke for the as a school physician and so Chris can enter into a contract uh with her uh we are I will say we are looking at the job description uh a little more deeply uh Christina is because the job description that Dr Charter had goes back to 1976 uh and really was job has changed the job's changed a little bit so we're just working through some of that um those details uh and uh once those are done we can then enter into a contract if if is the expectation that contract essentially from
043monetary value will be you know somewhere similar exactly yeah but I I would say it's going to be close I mean I think what's happening is the duties have changed dramatically um so we'll want to get an idea what um Dr charger is actually looking at the job description and say this is really what I do compared to what I used to do and then we'll have to look at it the you know what makes sense the denomination of right the contract yeah but but nominal for order of magnitude it's similar correct 100% yeah motion I move to app point or authorize Mr Adams to negotiate a contract to appoint Michelle Duke as the replacement for Dr Charter as the town as the district physician second all in favor Paul Mark you not say it
044right yeah well so two things one I'm going to really abstain from from the conversation CU I think my firm may have a a relationship with the place where the doctor is um so I'm just going to stay out of it it just seemed like Aaron was the motion I thought the question before the committee is I think the appointment correct right and then the functionally the contract be uh done elsewhere so I don't know if we had to vote to authorize that I will bring it back to you either way I would but I don't think we have in the past we've had the same contract but um yeah at the end of day if you're not entering into the contract and it has contract has to come back to us anyway right we
045can do that partly that that's part that's part Mo right okay so I move to so strike the previous from the record I move to appoint Dr Michelle Duke as the replacement School physician for Dr Charter second all in favor Paul hi Erin hi Dina hi Mark and I'll obain I okay uh school choice funding allocation FY 2024 so the the numbers have not changed from previous years uh sorry the backup I was looking at it as well the the backup shows the amount we authorized back in 2019 and 20 it's the same amount uh totaling 153,000 uh we've had good success with the amount of school choice funding again how each building uses the school choice is that really they have their own autonomy to to make a DEC ision on what they're spending
046it on uh I would say that as we move away from having more and more school choice students as we've talked about um last budget cycle I'm cautiously uh looking at the amount of funds we are receiving in school choice it's going to go down over the next few years just because of limited space uh so keeping the the amounts equivalent to what they have been over the past few years is at least fiscally conservative this year so so to that point Jim can you just tell us what the incoming school choice funds were at ballpark are we spending all of it I guess is the question of 153 no okay uh no um I don't have it off top of my head I'd have to go back and look at last year balance in
047school choice um from prior Years and we're not I guess overarching question is are we drawing that balance down with this allocation or holding it firm or allowing it to increase for this no we've included this allocation as part of our budget ccle from last year okay so this is what's already in the budget corre this we we anticipated this amount of these these amount of funds being used when we did our budget last year we just didn't appoint or you know um authorize the spaces to each building right yeah so one question that I had and you know kind of looking at obviously you know each school you know has a certain allocation of money and the different departments do I'm wondering and and this is just a thought this isn't necessarily something that
048I expect the conversation to move forward tonight but I'm wondering if there's room to potentially allocate money to the Arts as well I know that there's a line item for athletics um you know particularly for our band drama music programs at the middle school high school is there would there be space potentially to think about that just something to so yes there's always space to think about it um it's really deter determined by each building principal and the department so art and music have an opportunity to utilize those funds if that's where the school um specific School determines that's where the need is um Athletics for instance is underfunded by about $250,000 a year um for the most part um but I think the maybe the question is why would Athletics be itemized separately as
049as for example apartment because outside of the does it operate like within a school building or does it operate across school buildings I guess maybe is for athletics it would be operating across two buildings for sure right middle and high okay so I guess so I think the the point's valid right I'm not I'm not discounting it I'm just saying yeah but the athletic the reason for $55,000 in athletics appears to be like it's not built into what we're allocating or expected to be built into um the funding at a school level then the question would be like well should we put more I was just going to say and that that would be my thought in terms of is there space to have a conversation about you know cuz there are yes like music
050band drama those things are are part of our curriculum as well too right they're they're offered mainly as um not extracurriculars what's the word I'm looking for electives right that student particularly the high school that students take um and the middle school but Bandon the ex right but is there room I think that there's I mean there's a lot of opportunity to grow the additional programs that particularly at the high school you know around um looking at the extracurricular piece kind of like Athletics is I mean obviously Athletics is a whole different animal we have a whole athletics department with a director you know it's it's different um in terms of how we structure things here in asham but you know kind of looking at this is different buckets of money is their space as
051we move forward obviously this is already essentially allocated but um as we think you know are there ways that we could potentially use some of this to help grow some of other I don't know off hand Kelly how you've allocated all of school choice but do Arts and Music and band class get um some of those funds um yes yeah yes I would say there's certain there's definitely certain things that are not in their budget that's for um you know their day-to-day operations that we use school choice funds um I the piano tuner was here today yesterday and that comes out of there rather than out of the music budget so things like that and and is what I look at this uh I believe and correct me from wrong these are these line items
052correlate to an administrative position as well right so to your point that we have an athletic director so it's it's allocating it to a line item that is controlled we do not have a similar director of you of the Performing Arts and so it would fall to the building um and so it's I I sounds like it's already built in that they they're they're getting that but here it's listed as Athletics because we can give Kevin hey here's here's something for you to to spread through throughout and we have a I think it's also positional positional as reason why it's listed there the line item thing makes sense too yeah I mean certainly that could be that could be folded into Kelly's budget and then through you know given to Kevin in indirectly but I
053think it's because it's it's a director level position just like sped is and I mean I think in some ways like this line line item allocation is just splitting this money up within what we had already budgeted to take from school choice so the big picture question is like are we supporting our programs including the Arts at a level that that's appropriate and we should always be talking about that kind of stuff and I and I would say Tina to that point as we go through the budget process if we're looking at the music and arts department budget itself right that's the opportunity to build it within the operating budget so sustainable long term sure not just through for me I'm looking at the school choice those allocations eventually that money is going going to
054be depleted but if it's not built within the operating budget how do we even giving you know the music department $5,000 more if it's not there in the future I'd rather have it built we have to go back to 2006 um in 2007 before my time that these funds this $150,000 was basically supply line items that were built into the operating budget that were removed from the operating budget and never never were it was never put back into the budget so we've we've subsidized everything through school choice um and I've said for years we'll never be able to sustain this unless we start building textbook line items supply line items for each department back into the budget textbooks uh hundreds $200 a textbook now um if you want to replace a set of textbooks in
055a classroom um so yeah okay it's it's a large larger conversation for sure I appreciate it yeah yeah and like it's a process question too as far as like whether or not it should be the Arts or or building some other program or whatever it is and and I'm not saying I don't think that we do this because I know the budget process goes on for months before anything even gets to us but I think the bigger point for me is to make sure that we're not just doing the same things that we always do just because we always do them like we usually send this much to this school and this much to that school and these are the programs that are covered like like maybe there's a different way to do it or
056a better way to do it and I don't doubt that that's not considered when you're sitting down together um by time things get to us I'm sure you've had those conversations but it's helpful for us to understand yeah yeah yeah yeah so Jim just I maybe you said this but what's what's the um sort of the basis or calculation for the way that the proposed allocation has been done across our buildings I thought at one point we talked about we did have a bigger conversation stud en or it's a good question right I mean I don't think we fully ever determined uh how we were going to CU I know we made adjustments five years ago corre because there have been like so the high school concerns so the high school for instance right is
057the one is the school dist school that has the most school choice students and one would think okay they bring in the most Revenue therefore should the most of the allocation go towards the high school well that's not the case we're trying to equalize if you look look at um percentage wise the high school's still getting a larger percentage um of the of the pie but it doesn't line up exactly it used to be a lot greater and they also have four grades of kids they have four grades right um but I think when looking at the budgets quite often when Kelly's looking at the other principles and we're saying okay what are we what are we not including within the operating budget you know who needs more textbooks the high school offer many more
058classrooms uh what what is mes using it for and how are they offsetting some of the the costs that are not in the operating budget but to your point we don't have a strict formula Paul that that we've decided on um as a district um you know again one could argue that the school choice money should follow the building if you want the revenue but that's not it's designed for right it's designed to go across the entire um District I I'll move to approve the school choice allotments for fy2 24 as presented second all in favor Paul hi Ain hi Tina hi Mark hi hi High School Improvement plan see oh I got to share it sorry Kell do share there you go all right um and you should have a copy a newer copy
059I'm sorry that Kelly added some stuff some updates and changes um since uh since we talked a little bit about this in July and and um since the school year started um we've had a chance to kind of start some of the work that we were talking about doing here so made a little some adjustments um to some of the things that we're doing so obviously the you know the first page um looks at the district priorities um so I'm just going to maybe highlight a few of the things that are on here that are going to be our our Focus for the year and our and our work for the year um and really starting under um maximizing academic uh growth down on the second one and and the goal of programming for students
060um with alternative needs and paths to and looking at different paths to a diploma um and we have started the work this year um of being part of the desie high school scheduling cohort um and I know I mentioned this in the summer but we hadn't done any the work yet so we've at this point had the opportunity to come together two or three times with the cohort which is not nine nine communities uh nine diverse communities um to really talk about some of the things that we are all seeing um with our students um and desie has taken the last five years of our data around um classes students are taking um teachers that are teaching certain courses what our class sizes look like Etc um and we had the opportunity last week to
061meet with the representative from the agency and start looking at our dashboard with data around that and kind of we're looking at you know with students on track to graduate and um you know one of the most interesting numbers we saw was that their their you know interpretation of our data is that 75% of our freshmen are on track to graduate at the end of freshman year um which was a number that kind of threw us um but it's giving us some information to really look at in terms of um it's you know we all of our students don't take World Language as freshmen and so that impacts um you know were they really making sure that our students that are in maybe some of our sub separate classes were part of that in um
062that information and that look at data so um we do not have the dashboard with us yet but we're looking forward to really um digging into all the data and so Kelly did you say that their data shows that only 75% of the freshman classes on TR okay but not at the end of their freshman year based on the classes they're taking as freshman year helping us really look at what are our graduation requirements what do students at Ashton high school need to do every year to be at the place to get their assessment is as of right now only 75% of them are last year's Freshman Class yes interes so yeah it was really it was interesting to look at we're really looking forward to getting uh deeper into that data and think about
063how does our current schedule support what we're really looking to do with students um Kelly just can I ask a quick question question on that is that based on our school committee policy with regard to graduation requirements Andor the state requirement to apply to a State University or college um we we are looking at both of those things but that that particular number is based on our okay thank you graduation requirements distin difference making sure yeah um and you know we're looking at other things as um in terms of how do we do our science curriculum and and the four years of science what do the students take um in terms of to be considered to be on track for graduation um so some good conversations just starting uh just last week K is a
064part of the discussion also like the math track yes which has caused some people some concern over the years yes okay MH yeah so we will um you know sharing ideas and resources with other communities in terms of what they're doing um you know we had an interesting conversation with one of the schools that makes everybody take geometry as freshman um and you know so just starting to explore some of those different options and what it might mean for us um and then related to that underneath there um in terms of an action item is really just evaluating some of those school to Career options alternative education work study um and I so I think that's going to be a big bulk of the work we do this year is is looking at what our
065current schedule um um does for students um how we're using our Personnel is the other piece they're going to be helping us with you know are we using everybody to their full potential could we look at um you know rearranging how certain positions are um currently being used um and then um can we use Personnel or do we need to ask for new Personnel in order to support some of the needs that we see out there um and I think I shared um you know our our dropout rate while while it's not high it did go up significantly in the past year and um I think you know looking at our data we know that a big part of it is students that leave school um often for work um and um you know so
066we we think it's important to look at options our current schedule we don't feel allows for us to have students do a work study have students do um any kind of alternative um options in order to earn the diploma and what is the dropout rate for like class Year's class um I I don't have the rate off the top of my head I apologize our typical year we would have two to three students um leave school without a diploma and last year we had 14 it's a big deal yeah it's a big deal um and and we know that many of these students are students that um are new um to the community new to the country um and uh that's part of what we're also looking at is as we expand services in that
067area um you know we hear from them that uh it's school is just too difficult to maintain and um you know so you know working with that we've we've spent some time looking in other communities and what they're doing to meet the needs of those students and so we've you know had some discussions about um you do we look at a half day Alternative Program where their half of their day is credits for work and half is um school and and those I assume are ones that we confirmed are not enrolling to somewhere else or going to a different country to enroll but they're but they're uh but they're not enrolling anywhere else not completing any education yeah yeah we follow up I mean we know this students who you know the hard thing with
068um students that withdraw from high school is there are some programs that they go to that still is considered um so we do have a few we really encourage students to use job core um or pursue their High set um we don't have high numbers for that but um we do have one or two um so the other thing that we're going to be looking at um this year around equity and and um some of these recommendations and AC action items came from both the equity audit last year came from um our Jed um audit that we will talk about in a minute um but really wanted to make sure we're looking at our course levels and we started the conversation last year with our site Council about analyzing how we wait our courses um
069and our site Council will be um starting the work started the work this month of um kind of reviewing other schools that have done the work already um they were all gracious enough to share their process um and we are going to take a look at that data and see what that means for Ashen high school and how we want to move forward with the discussion of whether or not we should um unweight um our different levels and I'll just say I mean ke being the sort of school committee representative site Council Kelly just shared this out last week so if anybody's interest in reading that material I can certainly forward that along actually I'll do that now you can choose whether to look at it or not yeah I thought interesting uh point of
070data from one of those towns was they had surveyed the top 100 colleges that their students attend um and you know the vast majority completely unweight the GPA that the high school um shares with them and just calculates on their own on a 4.0 scale so so we will have more on that but that is one of the things that we're looking at from an equity standpoint um and those conversations um really started around wanting to make sure we have students taking classes that are the right level for them um and not um you know the host of thing you know students don't take classes that are of interest to them um because it might be at at a weight that they want they don't want to have part of their GPA um you know
071the whole conversation around student stress they're taking six AP classes because they think they need to have a higher GPA um and the host of social emotional issues that that leads to so kind of a lot of facets to that conversation but looking forward to having it um so those are kind of the highlights for this year around Equity um in social emotional learning of talked a little bit here about um our work we've been doing with Jed high school um we spent two years with them doing with them looking at the things that we do doing surveys doing um focus groups Etc um the our overall uh strategic plan is shared is linked into this document if you do have it by Google doc but I gave you tonight um a one page that
072they put together for us um that um are kind of going to be our priority areas for this year um and it really is just talking about okay what you know what our what's our vision and Mission around social emotional learning at the high school level um we had our first um interdisciplinary team uh meeting that was also last week um really looking at okay what are the things that we're going to focus on this year from the Strategic plan um really starting with vision and Mission around social emotional learning um what do we want to do for means safety um you know really educating the community um whether it be within our own school um we know we have conversations with teachers that we don't always know what happens once we've made a referral
073for a student um and then contining to work on you know working with students so that they understand the protocols of what to do to seek support um and a lot of that work is also we've had some conversations about Crossover with some of the things that the Safety Committee is doing um and um really looking to make sure that we have these are our these are our procedures for what we do when we have a concern X Y and Z about a student and this is these are the steps we're going to take um so that committee that that group is starting with um they've taken many of the thing you know old procedures we've had for um if there was a student incident on campus um you know let's look at that revise
074it as needed um and then we anticipate bringing a lot of that to the Safety Committee and then eventually to you for approval over the course of the year um and then again I the Strategic plan just making sure that we have that out to the community we're going to talk at the beginning of the year about how we just present these are our goals these are timelines for how we're going to do um curriculum around social soci emotional learning and then kind of a long-term Focus that'll be after this year about making sure that um faculty has some tools on how to embed it um into day-to-day learning when appropriate um which also I know ties to um some of the work uh the district is doing around um making sure social emotional learning
075and the competencies are part of everything that we're all doing um uh let's say that's it on that area um Resource Management also ties into the safety piece um and we will continue um this year to really focus on the training we're going to do um around um safety protocols again you know in terms of the social emotional learning I already referenced that we're going to be revising some of the practices that we have um we're going to continue to evaluate our classroom space as we've been growing uh we have had to redesign how we use some of our spaces um and so I think you know we for the first time we have teachers sharing classrooms um and we have um you know kind of moved where one of our um our life skills
076program is housed uh we took kind of over a teachers um space and made that into the classroom which has been wonderful for some of the the activities that those students are working on um but we have not as much space as we've had in the past years in terms of um to make sure that everyone has their own classroom space and that we have additional spaces to use so we're um that'll be something will'll be ongoing this year as we look at the needs for next year especially if we talk about any kind of additional programming being brought in based on what we do with the scheduling um Network and um the social emotional work we're doing and um the other thing I highlighted in terms of um around technology is um we're having
077a lot of conversations that the high school is and I know every school is um around training and best practices with AI we do have a group of teachers that is um doing that as a goal area um with and it's across departments and there they've gone to some conferences um they're really looking at how do we um get ahead if it's possible to get ahead um of what the students are doing and how I that we can be teaching them how to be thoughtful about using AI um and then hopefully they'll be sharing with their colleagues um what they learned and um how we can uh teach teach students to use the whole world of technology safely so uh that is resource management and then finally with curriculum and programming again I already referenced
078the waiting system and looking at our course catalog to make sure that we have offerings um so that kind of also goes back to uh some of the alternative things that we were talking about um offerings for students um in addition to talking about um whether we look at internships work study Etc um we've also have a small group um working on looking at bright programming um which we've looked at um off and on over the years which is programming that supports students coming back from uh long absences um and we're looking at whether or not we can maybe meld um some programming that's bright programming for supporting students that may be struggling with getting through the full school day um and students that might not that might need more of that work study and
079looking at how do we support the social emotional needs the um academic needs for those students that aren't um finding success in the tradition traditional classroom um so again a lot of it is looking at the flexibility and the things that we offer and how can we make adjustments to meet the needs of the students that are in front of us right now um and again I think we we are looking at a lot of the same things in a different way so would highlight on the last page is just really again the alternatives to a diploma um and how how can we make sure we get a diploma in the hand of every student if possible um and then the final thing is then again just continuing to look at the community service opportunities
080and how we're going to make sure that um is something that every student um is exposed to over the course of the year um I thought we had a successful first experience at it it was not what we had hoped it would be when we did the day back in um October um but it was a good start um and we had a lot of kids out uh doing a lot of meeting meaningful experiences around the community um and and some outside of the community um so I think we'll continue to work with um both the site Council um and our teachers throughout the year to see how can we um do this in a meaningful way that um everyone feels comfortable uh supporting the students that be an ongoing discussion with our site Council
081questions questions comments Mark you been in it so you probably have had your chance to yeah I mean to be honest with you like the conversation about s of the weighted grading system was something that just um really started the dialogue at the end of last year and and hasn't yet really been the topic of conversation at pouncil this year um other than to te it up and and the information I circulated to everybody tonight um was in preparation for meeting in Kelly I think wisely decided you know what it might be better to give people a little bit of time to digest of stuff before we start talking about it um but I'll be interested to see where the conversation goes I mean last year there were sort of a two immediate reactions one
082is absolutely and what are you crazy you know and not much very strongly about one way or the other and I and I think look I mean it comes from The Angst that the parents have probably more than the kids about what's the implication for college right and you know I certainly going through that process you're going through that process you've been through that process four times um you know it it's you start to learn as you go through it and the comment you made Kelly along the way about how schools just as soon as they get the GPA they unwe it anyway and that's certainly something I've heard you know out on the The Campaign Trail if you will um but I'll be interested to see where the dialogue goes too and I do
083try to largely stay out of the substance of the conversations I always feel like my role at the the St council is to express sort of the the point of view of the school committee you know what is it that we're focusing on and how does it connect our strategic goal rather than participate as a member of the site Council so I I tend to bite my tongue you know or or at least you know keep my comments you know from a a certain lens and and let the conversation yes I do I do and and it's um I think it's going to be a really interesting conversation and I think you could you could easily go off on tangents all over the place about what the hell is the matter what what's grading all
084about to begin with and what are we trying to do with this and right and I have every confidence that Kelly will lead that discussion wherever it needs to go but yeah and it's part of our bigger conversation too about wanting to like have these individual student plans like what really is right for each individual student it's not you know some thing that you're grasping at out there yeah right it's more of it what's right for for you and you and you and it's different a lot of schools are you know doing career Pathways and and those programs that are you know through Desy and we will have those conversations we have looked at it as um an admin team and we've had those conversations with the high school scheduling Network as well and so
085you know kind of looking at some of those things that are out there that are far more individualized for students is um you know it's helping them get to where we want them to be do they still do those tests that's that are trying to determine like what career that you'd be well suited for yes still have that yep they do that sophomores doing sixth grade did not say I was going to be a lawyer I was going to be a bus driver but you know well I was joking about it this this past weekend because mine said that I was like my destiny was to be a member of the clergy like a rabbi or a priest or something thought you say school committee no and so of course like when you're a kid
086and you get that news it's kind of weird but um but I just married two of my kids like I was the chaplain so that was like the story that I told like after 50 years I'm living my destiny finally um any other questions comments we don't vote on this by the way you guys probably remember that it's just an opportunity to give uh if there are major concerns or some feedback um but it's the the site Council that has control over voting on the final yeah no it's evident you guys have put a ton of work into it thank you for putting it all in the format to align with the forthcoming strategic plan yeah yeah I should say that there are some people who've been on this site Council for a long long
087time there a couple um I won't name names but a couple who are like I think they were talking about who's going to take the minutes and they the two of them were bouncing back and forth for probably a decade as they've had multiple children going through know who you're talking about and um you know I was like listening to that and like you know it's their commitment is is really impressive yeah and and really impressive and important and you know I think you also have a nice addition of some new voices in home too yeah I'm looking forward to yeah and and the student voices too at the high school level are are fantastic also so it's it's a it's a great opportunity for for discussion I had one question on the four so
088under Resource Management it's the one where resource Management's on the middle of that page the fourth one um the technology in the thoughtful manner that it complements instruction and provides access to all like Kelly are you looking at this at all with a lens of consistency of application across departments or across teachers especially where you know it's my first couple months of school and I'm just noticing sort of a drastic difference that makes some of those executive function skills or the management hard because you know you got to look at Jam board here or you got to look at Google Classroom here or there's a piece of paper here and to try to help guide your student becomes like somewhat of a logistical nightmare for the parent as well and I don't know if like
089you're wrapping that consistency in that goal at all we've we've had some conversations about looking at consistency within departments um as opposed to across the entire school um and we have we have lots of conversations around that and go back and forth of you know are they at the high school level is it's the time they are learning to um have many different um you know approaches and to deal with many different approaches um versus needing to provide that support um so we yeah we are having some conversations around within departments how they can look at doing some things consistency um but I think we're at the point of deciding you know that we do want each department to have um some ability to decide some of the things that they're doing and some aony
090it could be some yeah okay yeah because they each have such different needs as well right you know I I will say that you know I know our English Department our history department is working closely um around you know the piece of how are we doing essays now um and you know uh are we are they are they going to be all on demand in school um rather than you know assigning them as an at home assignment like we might do might have done five years ago because they right and how they how they use Google Classroom to assign those assignments um they're they're having a lot of consist question I mean um conversations around consistency there so that everyone has certain expectations for students when they are doing a piece of writing y interesting
091anybody else excellent all right thanks have a good night you too okay Jim nees sure so as you know each year twice a year actually we have U the New England School Development Council U looked at our projected enrollment numbers uh for future years and as always I want to um qualify it by saying you know years 5 through 10 are really just guesses uh on on nzc's part uh years 1 through four are the ones that typically are the ones we look at and say they are most accurate if you will uh not always perfectly accurate certainly uh turnover within the housing market within Ashlin um is important there are a lot of uh single family homes now that are being sold and students are families are moving in with children uh and you'll
092see an increase in uh enrollment because of that uh we currently still have almost 200 um units um that are to be built uh in town that have been approved uh and even though there was the moratorium put on these were projects that were already in the pipeline uh over on Chestnut Street and hom RAV that um pick up um I think 170 Plus in Chestnut um I don't so we don't know exactly how many students will be coming out of those apartments uh when it's they're finalized but we know we'll get some um and so it's hard to quantify that I'll show you uh the spreadsheet that I um track on a daily basis uh that shows where our students are coming from because I like to look at the condos in the apartment
093housing complexes and see really um how many are coming out of these um um you know multiple unit structures I think it's important to look at but I'm going to share this with you because I think when I first read it I was like oh my God what's going to happen um and and what I and so Chris myself Mike and actually Gretchen uh did sit with NASDAQ um maybe a week ago or two weeks ago Chris and to ask a number of questions but one how did they determine uh and I'll just jump right into it how did they determine when they're looking at um let's see here not this one yeah the straight line uh is concerning right uh yeah well there's a couple things that were concerning but um let me just
094see here enrollment and then share this screen view full screen okay so the easiest thing to do is look at this projected enrollment right um and when you when you if you if you look at I'm just going to highlight here with my Mouse um if you look at the 2023 24 school year the kindergarten students of 219 then it moves to 233 in grade 1 242 in grade 2 246 251 260 269 that that line was sort of concerning right it was like oh my goodness what's happening and why are they anticipating the number of students who are um going to be coming into the the district how is it working so if you filter all the way through on page 12 in the packet you got um you'll notice they talk actually about
095the ratios that they use and it's based on historical numbers so the facts that existed previously um they're not saying this is per perfect science but if we look at I'm going to go back um to the historical enrollment and if you look at similarly the line of from the 20131 14 school year the kindergarten number is 196 then it went to 206 so increased by 10 students in the first grade then it went to 219 in the second grade so these are actual numbers then it dropped a little bit down and then by the time they get to fifth and sixth grade 218 229 it starts to increase again and so they used they looked at as a factor of increased year-over-year actual numbers so that's what they're using for the projections does that
096sound right Chris how how they described it um and they actually write that on I'll highlight it because I think it was it certainly was important um but it was just a confirmation of how they were doing it um SE the reflection Jim scrolling up there I'm sorry so the so the so the projection methodology was here if 100 students enrolled in grade 1 in 2023 increased 104 students in grade two the percentage of survival would be 104% I don't like the term survival but that's what they use right so they use the ratio of 1.04 so ratios are calculated between each pair of grades or years in school over several recent years so they're looking at the Historical actual historical enrollment and then trying to project future years with that um so it it's
097and I found it interesting that that's Mark you and I had this conversation because I initially was like shocked and said oh my God we're gonna be out of space soon yeah I mean I I will say because you and I did have this communication when we first got this data like that didn't feel right like what we've experienced right that we start with a Kindergarten class of 200 and end up with a high school graduating class of 230 or whatever the number might be it felt like if anything we get to high school kids some go off to private some go to ke Tech um and so I was very much looking to forward to understanding it because either my sense of things was just off which is probably partially true um or this
098is a scare tactic and it's not you know feels like I mean I obviously don't have this isn't a scientific comment right was mine it but it feels more Dynamic than it has been in the past so we see our largest increases what they're saying is in that Middle School time frame right so that's where that High School number jumps up now we lose about 19 kid you anywhere between 10 to 19 kids a year as they go into to high school right uh for a variety of reasons whether it's private school right any of the V techic schools um but that percentage increase is what you know we wanted confirmation as to why that number was going to go up now there are some anomalies in here I mean I look at our kindergarten
099class which is now a first grade class right and um that first gr class is only 175 it only increased by one student last year so we actually had them go back and say how many kids were quote unquote red shirting if you will um and how many students who were in the current kindergarten class were at age appropriate where they could have been in kindergarten last year and in first grade this year it was six students so not significant which I you know so we start digging more deeply into that type of data like oh wait a minute maybe these families through Co kept these kids another year or two you know they they didn't register not really the case it was six kids so it's a weird like like a reverse bubble yeah
100I just don't know where the I've said this to staff and waren staff I don't know where the hell these first graders are I don't know where they were as kindergarten it was just a a birth rate that was higher but didn't those kids aren't they just moved somewhere they're offsetting our ninth grade class uh yeah you know um so so from the nesdc perspective I feel comfortable looking at you know again we do this in the spring as well um partly because we have that transition of students right who are are moving uh who who move in uh we still have if you go around and look at the properties in naon there's still a number of single families that are out there um that are on the market and we'll see what happens
101there um we have the you know the fluctuation of of students to move in and out um Transit students um families go back to you know Brazil wherever it might be uh so our numbers really do fluctuate um I'm not concerned I think you know when I started looking at this and I looked at Mendes for instance because i' think about next door in Hopton right I mean our population's at 669 um it gets up to 684 by the 27 28 school year projection now we have flexibility because of how the building was designed to handle this so I'm comfortable with that now that being said if we got up to 771 in 2321 or 23 20 31 32 that might concern me a little bit but I'll be retired so somebody else can deal
102with it um but but the greater point is they're guessing beyond the first four years like really significantly guessing when I went back and looked at nesda projections they're within a Delta of 20 students per year over the course of the time times we've done this but that's partly because they take the data the actual data in the spring and readjust their their projections like they're taking October one numbers and then trying to develop something and then move it forward to in April we we do it again and say okay how many kids really actually are here um so I mean if you look at this kind of data it feels like it begs a million different questions s like where are we going to put them right I mean if this comes to fruition
103yep how are we going to educate them part of my grammar but in terms of a budget yep um and obviously we get some amount of money from the state based on how many kids we have yep but um in the profile of kid remember which I want to show you yeah but this certainly says if we're looking long term this is within the range of possibilities range of outcomes yep and you know I I think about at least our space issues I don't we're we're talking about sort of at this maximum projection having in five years right the 2028 birth I'm sorry it's 2028 birth year yep um we yeah we'd have 3226 kids I think if I'm reading it right in 10 years in 10 years in 10 okay in 10 years yeah
104so years few a few hundred more 3,56 right and we're at 220 kids right 220 so I mean it just K was already talking about sort of space challenges the high school you know but it just which is to me interesting concept because the high school was built for 1,50 students right so we're at 900 we could be up at 900 so so again it's how are we visualizing utilizing space and I think that goes along with what Kelly's talking about with even looking at the schedule right how is the schedule designed the schedule designed at the middle school we've had this conversation for ever the schedule was designed when it was a smaller concept for the teaming right it that's how it was designed now when we have more students and you're adding half
105teams it makes it a really difficult schedule to Monitor and and to utilize um you know the Middle School stays relatively flat meaning that half team could and should be in existence if they continue with that schedule moving forward um it's not like we can just get rid of that half team otherwise now the class sizes are up in the mid-30s again so it does I mean it helps us as we're projecting budgetary stuff um I'm not really concerned over the next three to five years um but I think beyond that we have to monitor it for sure so I want to share um so so Jim just before and sure and we can take this offline so I can better understand it but I'm look at like the historical enrollment yep chart how are
106we supposed to read this there's a birth year there so don't worry about the birth year there then there's a school year yeah so so like I'm I'm trying to track my if you look at your kid so when so so let's assume um Kaden was born in 2008 he wasn't I don't know 2010 right okay but let's start with 2008 because I think that's the 10e window that we have to look at right so because the 2018 students are the ones who are first in are in prek now so if you look at that 2008 student and I and I'm going to start with really the K and the K would really be 2007 kids does that make sense it's the year before um that's what I was trying to understand so it goes
107in diagonal so the pre I'll stick with the prek the prek is it's a challenge because we're not required to have prek kids right so I always start with k i mean I just Lop it off and I start with k so it would be the in in the 2013 14 school year there were 196 K students okay then in two in 20145 that same cohort of kids moved to first grade there were 206 of them so increased by 10 students that's factual we know that then in second grade that first grade class increased to 219 students so we added another 13 students so over a course of kindergarten to 2 grade we had 29 student increase for that birth year of 2008 if you look at the birth year of 2009 it went from
108193 to 212 to 219 so seven another 26 students were added K through two and then and then it just Cascades all the way down so that's how that chart works so those are the fact that's what they're using as their ratio saying okay well wait a minute you had 10 kids this year 10 kids next year 10 kids we know that there's going to be at least additional 10 students so the the thing that that drives this that sounds like you've looked at but they may not is development in town of the types of housing that brings they do look at that do they yeah so that's part of this um but do they look at so they look at both the future and historical to so you're you're using a ratio that so
109that's a good question there's a causation for that ratio they might be using an infl inflated ratio it's inflated right probably potentially but I know they're doing it for for current projects and future forecasts but if they didn't go back and say hey so they don't know specifically right so they're they're just taking the raw number they don't know specifically about so if we look at the permits issued and they go and they pull permits and birth certificates in town right to those families that so not the families who moved into town and had babies just the the babies that were that were um reported as being from Ashland so similarly with building permits so they look at the multi-units in single family home so you can see there was a decrease from 2019 to
1102023 in number of permits pulled for single family homes so there were 30 in 2019 there was one to date in 2023 for single family home but multiple units there was 64 in 2019 and then 174 for 2023 and they don't know specifically if it's a one-bedroom two-bedroom and how many are going to be students potentially could live in those apartment complexes or condos so like the American boulevards is now in their final stage right we they don't go in and look at how many kids are from those um those units so it's hard for them so they're just looking at that raw number of okay to increase 10 kids they don't know where those kids came from they don't know if it was single family homes they don't know if it was uh the
111apartment buildings that were permitted and or now um you know fill yeah no it's it's more if if they're applying it on their forecasting they if they logically should go back and apply the same to your ratio to better understand the what you expect what your logic if you're applying it in the future go back to the past adjust your ratios with the same logic so you're not because if it's if they think it's valid enough for forecasting that means it's valid enough to also use for your ratio so you're not um because when you're using it for a ratio it's a projection but you you can't project Things based on what's already happened and you got to you got a bump you can't predict another so if there's a and you logic here to
112predict it you should go back and adjust your rati I see what you're saying so you're not say hey there's a bump well that means I'm going to forecast a bump in three years so right so they're looking right they're not doing bumps they're looking that 10e window saying over 10 years this is what happened in each of these grade levels and then they're applying that ratio to that grade level I would say at least for just having a sense of where the community is now compared to where it was to years ago right the capacity for additional building is shrinking sure right and so I don't know what the future is going to hold in that but it would certainly suggest that at some point in time about the years we're talking about that
113huge sort of expansion off my neighborhood which is like Ridgewood and and Summit AV or Summit Road um where there are tons and tons of kids like there's not I don't know there's any space left in town for another development that size um that's going to generate you know probably an average two kids per house um and I'm not saying that's fault for them I'm just saying it's it's kind of like there's a lot of possibility that the sort of most expens most aggressive growth projections may not come to be because I think we're running out of space in this town right well it was interesting too to look at from the historical numbers over the past 10 years there's been about a 15% increase and then the projection is over the next 10 years
114there'll be another 133% so it's kind of like a similar I mean it's a little lower but roughly and who knows if it'll come to to pass but um we'll keep this in check on him in 10 years right exactly no I mean but but thinking through I mean like a the demographics of the district have changed a lot obviously the size and and you know the number of students and housing them and class sizes and all that kind of stuff and so um we have more families that have say a two-bedroom condo that might have two or three kids within those condos right then we have ever had before and and are we seeing more uh you know I hear more stories and and know people who are housing nieces and nephews or the
115you know families are are you know it's a Max You Know It's a Grind to say the least servicing extended families uh more more so than we used we we could have two full-time employees just determining whether or not folks actually our residents of Ash like it literally we could have that uh even when folks come to register and we're looking for certain data to register them it's like pulling teeth trying to get actual information before we can let students in the building um but I I think again it's it's interesting stuff and and to me this is um this is what I track um have this um this chart in here to Jim in her packet no I don't know if I gave no um I don't think I don't think so cuz I
116just finished it today okay because I literally do this daily um because I think it's and and I wait until everything's updated um what you'll see here is just and I'll share this and make sure it's in part of the package but you'll notice get a little bit bigger here it is um at the end of the school year so our data that we reported to the state is the 6 20 3023 number uh home school I don't you know it's not part of this projection that I do daily and then as of today we've got 2841 students in the district um when nezda did this there was 2,835 students so it's increased six students since o October 26th if you so what was the number at the beginning of the year 2798 is what
117we ended last year ended last year okay so we're Plus 43 right so and what you'll notice is the major difference is we graduated a class of 178 right and that kindergarten class is at 220 that's 46 student difference that's really the so so the projections it's interesting um you know how how the numbers are panning out um and and it's it's don't look at the Delta it's Delta by grade level but it's not Delta by cohort does that make sense yeah it's not cascading like nzda does so because 46 students is difference between last year's K and this year's K so it's not 174 to 174 it's actually zero they have the same amount of students they had at the end of last year as they do currently today in first in that first
118grade who were kindergartens the year before I colorcoded it I didn't that makes sense I can track it by color um except 208 was messed up like in the classes all jumped up a chunk in mes like that's where a lot of kids came in huh um third and fourth grade am I reading that correctly so third grade went from 199 to 194 okay never mind I'm looking at the next one fourth grade 222 correct that one went up 12 kids yeah yeah and then the fifth now sixth grade class and the fifth to sixth right so you'll notice fifth to sixth sixth to sth in sth 8th he said that's the largest group right that's where we're seeing our greatest increase every year it's 16 you know 21 extra kids right it's a full
119class but it's at least it's spread out yeah right I just remember we had that year I don't know what it was seven eight years ago already where we had a ton of kids come in and a whole group in fifth grade no like just randomly had another fifth grade class but it was it wasn't like a bubble of births it was a bubble of mve so this is where NASDAQ thinks their like their numbers are so accurate it's because they're taking our data from October and then applying it to their current projection so as I said they're off six students from from what they projected it's because we gave them the actual numbers on October 1st um what I find interesting is this other data um that we're tracking that I track our L
120students uh and our students on um IEPs uh so from we have 21 students currently um really 229 again the prek is not included in the 2 um students who are English language Learners currently uh we have 575 students on IEPs which is actually a decrease from 500 um 31 take that back it's actually the 42 should be let's go back and look at that I don't know why the we we have a slight decrease um I know that and then in the yellow the gold and the the other colors are um the number of students in each building so 70 L students the percentages there aren't dealt is there of student population correct well of the number of L students so 70 of 20111 right so 33% you lost yeah you lost me so
121the 7 7.43% and the 20 24% oh that's a total population PA right I was down here I'm sorry I was looking down below yeah yeah yeah so can you talk about that colorcoded part yeah so this is the number of students in Warren specifically of this total here okay so there's 70 oh that's a car so 25 23 and 22 is 70 okay so that's the L students then the IEPs IEP students and and that's a percentage of the total percentage is as of as of that total number of that demographic that's right of that demographic right not of the whole population yeah so so 7.43% is the is the total number of students who are L students across the district and that is 20% active or active as of today or tracked not
122correct that's active who are receiving services today today okay that's as of today I know that for a fact okay and and so the number of students on IEPs is about 20 20.2 for okay it's 575 students as of today if Miss Brewer updated it correctly which I'm 100% sure she did she's on the ball she is always on the ball um what what's what's the what's the the next column um 531 that's where am I oh yeah that's just comp comparables from the previous year Paul 531 students were onun IEPs okay yeah last year last year so so so so if yeah so this 28 represents there were 30 students last year in the kindergarten level there are 28 now in the first grade level so we reduced there were two students Less on
123IEPs okay for you know so that's that's how it was working so these are the languages obviously Portuguese 75% of our students who are L students are Portuguese speaking students 158 of them and then 24 Spanish speaking um more interesting data to me is this when we talk about more building projects so we break out the number of students in um condos and apartment complexes so we just run a report and I pull it in and look at certain data that exist um whether they're free and reduce students English language learner students or students on IEPs like what percentage of those students coming from these housing um complexes do we have because there was always this it was far back as I can remember people like well they move into these condos and they have
124all these kids and they're all on IEPs well it's not true it's it's just it's sort of like okay let's look at the data and see really what it represents um it's a high number for sure um but we have 713 students currently living in those 10 to 12 and again includes a couple different things America Boulevard is Boulevard queen of Isabella John hanock all neighborh that whole neighborhood right so there's 161 student students in there that currently reside uh in the as public schools so 713 of the 2,841 kids um Jim just the free and reduced yeah is that now free lunch free meals for everybody don't we we they get meals but we still have to classify them because that impacts Chapter 70 okay so when we're looking at we so we still
125encourage folks to apply and it also impacts busing or Transportation Athletics any other thing that we have for user fees um we want everyone to to um qualifies qualify because it also if you remember the incremental uh on the Chapter 70 that's how we're able to get pick up chapter it's based on the state program so they're going to be a part of that not just for the services they get from from us right yeah I I will say I think it's helpful to have this data to think about projections I certainly wouldn't want anybody looking at this stuff to sort of Come Away with the the statements like you you were illustrating before like that's where they come from because I think there are a lot of reasons why that's right um families who
126who have El students or students ateps might be choosing I I understand right mean it's a result not a cause correct right the causation isn't because it's just really I think that's always the double- Ed swage when you're looking at data mhm is people are going to ask okay look and they make these unfounded statements like everyone's coming from here well actually guess what numbers don't lie right um and but I do think it's important because at one time when we were looking at an override we talked about Ashlin being probably I think at that time was the second largest condo apartment complex um in the Commonwealth in terms of you know act I think Acton was number one boxboro boxboro right in terms of the number of students impacting the school districts right I
127mean again we've got 25% of our students are coming out of a very small populated um right high density set of residences right uh with 200 more to go with 200 more Apartments to go right um so and and the state pushing for more apartment more Apartments along you know over where the NBTA station right exactly right so how does that impact us right so it's just I think it's just um you know it does it does um is kind of probably beyond the scope of what we can do to some degree but um you I know that when Hopkin approved the Legacy Farms development they also had triggers you know in there in terms of what right what the developer had think had to pay to the town in the event of a certain
128spike in enrollment um I think it was T million dollars if I remember right and you know I think Ashen kind of after cus kind of like oh we should have thought of that too kind of thing little too late but as we look at these types of developments it's certainly something I think we as a school committee and School District need to Advocate with the other Town boards to be looking at those types of right linkage fees or encies or what have you um to support the growth yeah I mean Cirus has given us 55 kids right but but like the first year or two that that was there was like six right right so I think the initial I think it was 74 78 originally was never as well below what forecast was
129like 75 or 80 like4 was the number that popped in my head yeah but again but there's no you know there's no science behind exactly how they're determining it like they they say well if it's a one-bedroom you might get a point two of a kid well I really five bedrooms you get a whole kid yeah right five bedrooms might get three who knows right it's like um so again we you know we have this conversation we're still a growing population we will continue to be growing over the next 3 to 5 years that's really the story what it looks like I'm not sure I don't think anyone can definitively say we're going to get 30 more kids um but I think we have to as we continue to build our budget and project for
130the future right and looking our staffing um that's important so when and again it's probably out of the scope of this conversation with the exception of when we're looking at our Esser funding that's going to be utilized final finished up this year with those half teams at the middle school the bottom line is we have to absorb those those teachers into our operating budget next year right and that's what we've been planning for I'm be clear we've right that Happ to look at you know many districts did not use Sr funding for Staffing because they were afraid it would go away and they would never have it again um the way Chris and I and Mike looked at it was well we also know we're going to have anywhere between 8 and 15 retirements over
131the next 3 years and so we have to hire more strategically and utilize those funds to offset the money that we're not getting through the grant funding or the SR funding so um so it'll be an interesting exercise when we start asking for staff in our budgeting process um you know I talked to Pete today at Warren and you know in determining you know what his numbers are going to look like he's still got one more year of that small class right will go to second grade um so we'll see what kindergarten looks like in the spring those are the projections thank you do you have anything to add to a superintendent update I don't no okay no Thanksgiving break starts tomorrow woohoo Paul do you have warrant approvals I do uh between October 26
1322023 and November 2 1st 2023 I Paul Kendall authorized by my signatures payables in the amount of 1, 38,000 $247.9 this includes general fund expenses of $312,700 and meal tax expenses es of $28.7 thank you does anybody have anything on the minutes from October 25 I think that was the meeting that you missed yeah anybody else have anything motion to approve the minutes of um from October 25 2023 as presented second hi Aaron I I even though I wasn't there I don't know if I get to vote on this one I I um gifts and donations sure um Paula pepper $50 to helping our own fund Deb pelier $50 helping our own fund Jill Verns $300 helping our own fund Kim Robinson $25 helping our own fund Ohio pile $82. 76 miscellaneous gifts and donations
133uh fames friends of David M's Library 9,332 71 for the book fair uh Lisa Ben dagel $25 for helping our own fund and Greg rean $30 for helping our own fund for a total of 9,895 47 thank you motion to approve uh motion to approve the gifts and donations as presented second all in favor Paul hi Aon hi Tina hi hi Mark hi uh Committee Member updates Paul uh let's see uh so have met for a while um trying to look through I know there's been a several different things um what was our last meeting there we go uh so I did they had the Halloween parade this year first time going to the uh to the new school so I I did I did pop over for that that was pretty cool um let's
134see I know there's a couple other things we had a safety committee meeting and I've attend at U uh the concert and sorry should been more prepared here um the went to the El night um that that they had at Mendes which was again a success and and thanks Christie and everyone for you know we've been talking about how we engage uh our population families and and we haven't had much success but since since uh since Christie's started that it's been very successful we had uh I don't know how I don't know what the numbers are but we had uh ended up being over 100 folks with parents and kids nice yeah great um and I guess the big thing is I shared it with you we did uh open the playground yesterday or yeah
135yesterday to uh to the school so the Bus Loop and playground are now uh fully operational they won't use the Bus Loop until I think after after break but but uh they've been there's been kids out on the playground and everybody's really excited to have a have a legitimate playground to use and as opposed to just running around in the in the dirt and and I'm assuming uh Mike and Randy and everyone all the custodians at Mendes are going to like that as well because say everybody does laundry at home right well the if you walk the hallways over at that end of the building where they come in from current recess it's it's a disaster so they had the work cut out for them so I'm sure they're they're going to appreciate the not
136having to sweep up all that stuff all all the time so they just waiting for waiting for the um pavement to sort of Harden before they drive on it no just uh planning and and when you make changes for the bus drivers and and for the parents and and stuff like that uh yeah so and they didn't we we've been really pushing to get that turned over so it wasn't until I trying to remember when I told Jenna gave her the news I think it was I think it was Thursday I uh Thursday evening last Thursday evening I gave her the news that we'd give it to her on Monday so she didn't have a lot of I I told her we were we were pushing for that but until we had all our ducks
137in a row and and and all sign off so couldn't give it to her so uh scheduling the fence to get taken down and all that stuff so so it's just be prudent they've uh they haven't had a full recess out there yet uh they've been bringing the each of the classes out there going over the the rules and and and having them have some some lower key experiences on it and before they unleash the uh the masses on it so you pleased with how it turned out yeah it's it's if you haven't been over there it's it's beautiful it's it's you know we designed it on paper and and we rendered it and I think it actually exceeds that so it's it's pretty cool to see that's awesome that's awesome yep I have a
138fifth grader that's been getting his instructions like small groups going out and getting what are the new rules what how do you play on certain pieces of equipment and that sort of stuff so I believe they might be as a special for the half day tomorrow I think they might be doing a a full recess except the weather say that's why they did it last two days they pushed it up yesterday yeah they shifted the Turkey Trot until today of the weather well it' be nice to come back from vacation um yes so uh the uh Safety Committee um met and so the Cadence on that will be monthly the first Thursday the first Thursday of every month yeah whatever that one was um and so that'll be the Cadence going forward um there's more
139discussions about Alice certifications and this trickle down um methodology of essentially teach the teacher and then having fa having admins being our inhouse staff for that and then having that trickle done and through um PD in the building um but poent I know you were researching bringing somebody in as well um so we'll probably after the December meeting have an update to share on that um and uh first kids night out in the actual building um in mindes was a success and I think I was stuck in a corner doing face paint it was wonderful I love seeing all the kids but um you know just seeing the kids so excited and like exploring their new space and having it clean and bright it was just wonderful so again more kudos for you yeah I
140did stop over to that they didn't put on my calendar so I forgot to mention it but yeah it was it's the loudest I've ever heard that cafeteria because they had the dance they had the the dance party going on in there it was it was really loud up in the media room watching and just I I did I did I did go up there and look uh you know and stuff like that but they also um and and thanks to to Len for doing this so I I connected uh Jenna with with Len and he had his hooked up his telescope up on the so she was taking small groups of students up on uh the roof uh the the outdoor uh outdoor space on the roof uh and looking at the moon and
141and having conversations so she was really excited about that and uh so thanks Len for doing that so I probably should have you know thanks for reminding me about Koo I you wanted to mention that as well um so let's see uh lots of things going on this month so I was able to also attend the eel um night last week it was great it was really nice to see all the families um there and engaging with one another with the The Faculty um and the the administration and to to see all the kids too like they uh every they were having fun uh which was nice so it was nice to see them all in the building um I also attended the ashack meeting um this past month with you know there was a
142a a robust discussion about a number of different things Britney is the one who who tends to answer most of their questions and share a lot of information with them um there was a lot of discussion about um the 18 to 22 program um that Britney is working on um so she was sharing you know kind of some of her thoughts about that it's still in the planning phases um but you know a lot parents had a lot of questions in terms of what that was going to look like you know we also disc discussed um you know different survey results and and whatnot things that ashack had been doing and one of the questions um they had for me is in terms of some clarification on Jim's goal they know they had uh listened
143to the meeting and had some questions about the goal around um attendance um and looking at absenteeism chronic absenteeism so we discussed kind of what that goal meant um and how it it came out of a state directive and and and what that means and so I think um you know between Britney and I I think we were able to to to answer any questions um you know that they that they had um and so it was good it was a it was a a nice robust meeting um I also had the opportunity like Paul to attend the the high school band concert was actually high school and middle school so they had the seventh eth and high school bands play uh which was nice the eighth graders get the opportunity to play with the
144high school kids at the fall concert so they enjoyed that um the uh the AHS uh drama club also had a a a performance this past weekend it was a very very unique play um and I'm going to say the name wrong it was either she kills monsters or she something with I'm I apologize that I don't have the correct name but it was a really unique play and it was very um they did a very good job on it it touched on some sensitive topics and and walked through a lot of different things and they they did a really good job of making it very entertaining um and and in dealing with with the issues that the that the story dealt with um there was also we had a number of kids from the
145high school school this past weekend audition for um districts for Central districts for both band um and chorus and there's a huge group of kids from Ashlin who and I I apologize that I don't have the list here to read it but who were selected to be part of either the band The Orchestra or the chorus um for Central districts and a number of them were also offered um auditions for all states and does one of them live in your house one of them does live in my house yes um so we're very proud of him congratulations thank you thank you're allowed to brag here and you know and a couple of the students were actually you know not they didn't just make the band or the orchestra but they were placed as the principal
146instrument player in their instrument for all of Central District so they they had a great showing yeah they had a really great showing at District auditions this weekend so um you know Mr Maul and um Miss nameth is that right is is that the right teacher thank you um you know have should be very proud that their students had a great showing so excellent congratulations yeah thanks so said two things um one the uh masc conference did go on without all of you um so I was down at the conference from Wednesday through midafternoon Friday um a number of actually interesting speakers a lot of content about Dei programming um some of which quite frankly seemed a little basic and and but probably also appropriate for people who are like new to the school committees
147that Etc um and also very interesting speaker from MIT around um Ai and sort of the the challenges where we are with with um what's a term not iterative generative uh Ai and sort of what it is what it isn't which maybe some of you already know um the challenges that that face education with it um but but interesting very interesting speakers so a couple of good ones I wasn't able to go to a lot of EX I have my work a hat on for you know for 75% of the conference but um but good programs and and I did spend some time with the folks from Grafton as usual so um awesome and then the other thing I'll just share um by way of update for um Paul Aaron and youori is we do
148have um dates to start collective bargaining negotiations in early January um and Jim Tina and I need to schedule time to get in a room and talk through that a little bit but um that is forthcoming and then when once we met with them and have an understanding of what they're looking for we'll have an executive session to to talk about how to respond that's what I've got excellent um I also attended the El U dinner the other night uh hudos to christe and her team they did an excellent job it was nice seeing so many people out and and enjoying that beautiful building um I attended the Warren sight Council um we also had some good communic iations about how to um you know welcome people into that building and what's the best way
149to do that is it through um you know a food night or or a dance night or and and and parents had some really good feedback about communication and I shared that it's something that we've been working on you know forever really truly um and um a parent shared and it's something that we've talked about here before but especially as our community becomes more diverse um people coming from different places that there aren't the same expectations in some places about the involvement in in school at the educ and your kids school education whatever so there are um you know there I think there are some folks that aren't really sure what's appropriate and you so it's it's just helping us understand I think we need to have some cultural training or sensitivity about about that
150so that we can best Reach Out um and then we need to continue to find ways to I'm just going to excuse myself my airplane that I have to meet is um coming in earlier than expected get on the road and that that's all I have anyway so um I I should have mentioned uh just like I I did attend the Mendes site Council they also talking about um different ways to celebrate the diversity and and and and the inclusion and and had some robust conversations Happy Thanksgiving around some of that stuff so uh want to give them the the nod that they're working on those things as well yeah it's nice to see those conversations happening at the building level um it's like we need portrait of a guardian in addition to like theps
151and the portrait of The Graduate of like hey here's like normal behavior between like you know your child's teacher of like hey can we talk about this like maybe emailing them every day and badgering them is not the right way to go you know like certain kind of the social norms that you know I think some especially coming from a different country you may just be hesitant to begin with right and then I've always thought and I I've said this to you all privately like as a school Committee Member knowing what our teachers go through I personally hold back and if I had like a document that's like here's what's normal and okay like I maybe would have engaged more you know I think that's really hard to figure out what's normal and okay for
152right that's I think that's that's a that gets into a really slippery slope yeah but I think what's what it part of I guess the work is it's not just about the tools and how you reach out it's about how it's been received and understanding who you're reaching out to and what their needs are and it's not uh like one size fits all in our community which is a beautiful thing but it just means that we have to put some effort into understanding and looking at what we can control and how we can contribute to that relationship exactly like I like in Kelly's not uh I don't know if it's in the daily announcements but I think it's in her weekly thing she talks about like go here first then here then finally come to
153me if you have an issue like I think that's really good gu yeah sometimes it's nice to have a road map so as far as um action items Jim is it you're planed to have like one um one one or two each meeting for the Improvement plan so we started with the high school and we'll keep going I knew was the most prepared yeah so just know what to anticipate going forward so that's all I know that's um that we should add to action items and other than the normal stuff that we our next meeting is December 8th I think town meeting is the 29th town meeting is November November 29th 29th December 8th did you say that's a Friday no 6 six sorry the second Wednesday so the second Wednesday is actually the 13th
154no it's aren't we on first and third yeah we were second and fourth okay cuz I have the 13th and the 27th it's the 13th yeah yeah the 13th is our next meeting yep that's what I have from Gretchen that's what I have as well 13th and 27th okay is vacation week so we won't we won't be meeting on the 27th so we'll just have one meeting in December and it will be on the 13th time meeting is the 29th right correct yes y um and if we have any business that comes up in the next could right right if we need right and and it sounds like so far into the future but not really so if we're not meeting till December 13th then that would be the time to start talking about whether
155we're going to have a meeting in January talking about the budget right right we're just in that process we have a meeting next week yeah with ad okay all right I'll take motion to adjourn second all in favor I I I thank you good night everybody good night Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving so Jim do you want you and I to look