001meeting for Monday, January 12th, 2026. I will entertain a motion to approve the bills. >> Uh can I just make one uh announcement real quick just to let everybody know the computer that has the William F. Connelly placard. Uh Mr. Connelly is joining us um remotely. So he is on there. So, and if he makes a motion or votes, he should um announce his name as he does so. >> Perfect. >> A motion for the bills. So, moved. >> Second. >> Awesome. Any discussion, questions, concerns? All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you, Bill. A motion to review the approve the minutes from the December 8th, 2025 school committee meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions, concerns, or >> discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? >> I public comment. Um, we
002have members from the class of 1975 here. >> Yeah. >> This evening. If you like to come take a seat, that'd be great. >> How are you? >> Very good, thank you. >> I'm Jimmy Heen. I was the class president of the class of 1975 and Patty and and Fitz were on the reunion committee. >> Um, >> Nice to meet you guys. >> How you doing? >> I didn't recognize you. >> Yeah, I know. I recognize you. >> That didn't sound like a good thing. >> No, no, no. It's a good idea. Let's go. >> It's a good thing. >> I was just going to read the letter I had. >> Sorry. >> Thank you. uh school committee principles and other school representatives, thank you for allowing us to get on the agenda. We represent
003the class of 1975 50th reunion committee. The class of 197 of 75 celebrated its 50th reunion with the class of 2025 graduation this past June in in keeping with the Clinton High School tradition to give a class gift. The class of 75 fundraised throughout the year to meet our goal. We are pleased to announce that we have elected to give the class gift as a donation to the to the CHS music band and art departments. Our intent is to give a total donation of $9,000 of which $3,000 goes equally to the music, the band, and the art departments to give these departments additional funding to amplify their classes. We believe this funding will enhance the curriculum and keep the momentum going supporting the music band and art classes in the future. Sincerely, class of 1975.
004>> Thank you very much. You're welcome. That's very generous. You're >> welcome. All right. Wonderful. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. That's that's a great gift. I appreciate you coming and sharing it. And uh we will >> put it in our uh give some donations account for that and let the teachers know so we can get that to good use. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> We appreciate it. >> THANK YOU, LORD. HAVE A STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE THIS EVENING. SCOTT, >> no student representative. >> Thank you. >> Anybody from CTA? >> Nothing. Awesome. Thank you. PTA, >> no update. And there's three of you here. You got to be kidding me. >> We're just going to ignore you. >> Emily, how are you? >> Doing well. How are you? >> I'm good. Happy
005New Year. Happy New Year. We can still say it. That's It's okay. I >> think so. >> Controversy after like the fourth. >> Oh my gosh. Okay. So, we're here. Um first thing, and I'll give you each one of these when I'm done, so you can scan the QR codes and make donations at your own free will. Um efforts to amend the PTI bylaws are still ongoing. Um the CES snowball dance, um which is for grades preK through 4th grade, will be taking place January 30th at the middle school. This is a free event for um CES students. and we are confirming that it's going to take place because our deadline for volunteer recruitment was January 20th or January 10th. Um, and we have over 55 volunteer slots that have actually been filled in order
006to have this event take place. So, people have come and shown up um to make this event possible. Um, we will have concessions available for $2 per item and are cash only. It is not a drop off event and it is split between two sessions with first kindergarten and prek from 5 to 6 and grades 2 to 4 from 6:30 to 8. Um there's been some push back about that and if you have any questions about it, let us know. Um but it is for safety mostly. Um and we're going to stick by that. Um, Emily and Becky took advantage of post holiday sales and got many snacks, candy, and event decor at over 75% off. Plus, our supporters were very gracious in purchasing items on our Amazon wish list, including for the first time
007our very own glow-in-the-dark limbo stick, so we can do limbo, which I may lead with um my daughter. Um, so the wish list is still up. There's a couple other things we'd love to have that are still available on there. Um, March has our family bingo event that takes place at the middle school. um that will be on March 13th. Volunteer positions are posted. There is a QR code here on our forum if you'd like to be a part of that. Our next meeting is Thursday, February 5th at 6:15. Parents and families are encouraged to attend PTA meetings and or volunteer at events to share your own perspective and be a part of the decision-making process for any future PTA um efforts. Um and as an aside, I just wanted to thank Jan. Um, I
008know she's not here today. Um, but she'll she's got to be on watching. >> Usually watching. Yeah, >> she's usually watching. So, um, the front page of the item from Friday, December 26th, featured my little guy, Ryan, signing the beam. >> I can't even tell you how proud we were. Um, and of course, our adopted child, Piper Loots, made the other inside fold, which we very excited about. Um, and Becky made it, too, which was fantastic. And then we're all in there on the online version. So, we were excited about that day. and my kids are very proud to be part of this huge mission moving a school forward which I think is kind of fun to see. So >> It was a great week >> and I think that's about it for me. >>
009Maybe you didn't yell at me. So >> thank you so much. >> We're good. All right. Thank you. >> Do you have any updates from CPAC or LPAC? >> Okay, Dr. Meyer, over to you. >> All right. Uh staffing updates. Uh we have four resignations here. We had Jonathan Maxwell, CHS technology specialist. Uh Hannah Gmba, the middle school band teacher. Aaron Domo, CES ABA, and Christina Budro, a CESABA. Um uh Christina was already on a leave. She just informed us that she will not be returning. Um, and the one uh new hire that we didn't get in here because it wasn't finalized at the time of the packet, uh, we have hired a uh, new, uh, band teacher for the middle school, um, Max Wheeler, and he will be starting on Thursday the 15th. So,
010we were able to kind of post that quickly and, uh, gets the hiring process done, and and hopefully we'll be able to uh, get that started. And we've also been trying to work with the high school and Mr. Francois to try to help support that transition as we go over. Okay. >> Um I have in there a next agenda item just says the uh 18 student solve awardees. Um so uh the 18 foundation um sponsors a lot of it's the 18 applied learning hub I guess and they they we've done a lot of work with them. Uh they really try to support a lot of the hands-on applied learning things like project lead the way uh like the uh DKP at the 8th grade for for history. Um, and one of the things they do
011is a student solve day. And we had uh students at the middle school participating uh in the project lead the way classes. We had students at the high school participating. And one of our groups here um that's highlighted was uh uh they were they were selected uh for the their ideas they developed in the in the solve kind of challenge um to be uh hosted for an in inerson visit. So, uh, it was kind of a cool event. I went and stopped and saw them working at the middle school and I came over and saw them working at the high school during the day. They're kind of trying to solve more of a real world problem. They actually have access to kind of like a mentor or someone in the field to kind of help
012bounce those ideas off of. Um, and really tries to bring that kind of applied hands-on learning together. So, um, we'll get once they have an opportunity to see what this recognition, uh, once they kind of get this recognition formally, we'll probably bring them to one of the celebrations to formally acknowledge them, but I just wanted to share it with you a little bit. All right, great. Uh, facilities update. Uh, I feel like we I feel like start doing these things pretty quickly, but um, we did have a comment uh, a meeting to go over some capital planning items. Uh so um Brian has put together uh an update here. Um one of the things uh you know we under under like announcements um meetings discussion. So we had a meeting to go over capital improvement
013stuff just to see as we get into the budget season what what are things that we might need to look at and some of the things that came up over the next he said probably five or six years that we're really going to need to address. Some might even need to be earlier, but one was sort of the athletic complex lighting. Um the lighting for the around the football field in particular. Um now pretty much, as you know, pretty much every light is switching to like LED. So as those things, it's be, you know, it's one of those things where now as things break, it's becoming increasingly difficult just to like repair or replace. They're going to have to do a full upgrade pretty soon. um track uh the repairs or replacing that. Usually the
014track needs to be resurfaced every so many years. Um it's never been resurfaced since I've been here and this is what did we just say year eight that I've been here. Um so it's one of those things that I don't think it's you know needs it this spring but we got to start thinking about it. Um we are getting close to looking at the roof for repair or replacement at the high school or the elementary school. Both those buildings are about this building's about 20 probably 26 27 years old now and it'll be about 22 23 for the elementary school. So just getting to that point where you know you're going to need to start doing some of those um kind of like midlife maintenance issues. Um some of the parking lot improvements. Um we'll
015have to see. I know they're doing the culvert project in town and we'll have to see how what that does behind the elementary school. Um and then some of the HVAC building control unit upgrades. Same idea. You know, it's kind of like uh our system now is really kind of obsolete as things have really moved towards more digital as we go. So, like I said, none of those are are um you know, necessarily things that we he's proposing to put like a warrant article or anything on right now. Um but they're things that we are thinking about. Uh, one of the things that we'll probably end up doing too, one of the advantages we might try to leverage is, uh, the elementary school, just the nature of the roof of the elementary school because it's
016like sectioned. It's not one big continuous roof. We've talked about potentially some of the shingled areas that are smaller, you could almost kind of peacemeal those like maybe do one this year and one that year and that. So, we're working on some of kind of that stuff, too. Um, besides that, uh, I think we're, you know, he's staying on top of a lot of these projects, getting things going. Um, you know, there's his list there. I won't read the whole thing through, uh, to everybody. Um, I think he tried to go through and look at the um, uh, ARPA stuff and some of those funding projects and some of the the grants and those types of things. Um, is so far Oh, and warrant articles. So um almost all the ARPA stuff has been completed
017or really has been completed at this point now. Um we did the we spent our large grant for the air quality uh getting some rebates through that and we have to spend for future HVAC related projects. Um so that's you know been staying on top of all that. We didn't end up having to waste or return any of that money. Um and then the school related warrant articles. Um he's got some, you know, some of them are just from HVAC stuff. Uh some of them we're going to look to see if we need to tweak at all. Uh for example, like there's a middle school generator article from FY23 that has a remaining balance of $8,676. So we're probably not going to do much with the existing middle school generator. There'll be a brand new
018generator in another year. Um, so it might be one of those things where possibly adding something to just try to amend the language to say, you know, any generator repairs or whatever, something like that. Um, and then the uh, you know, some of those other things we'll just try to clean up. The biggest one there is the facilities garage and athletics complex maintenance article. If you remember, that was to try to replace those containers with like a a like a garage type building at the end of the parking lot. He is still working on that. uh it did kind of take a little bit of a backseat because of the time sensitivity of spending the ARPA funds, but it is one of those things that's coming coming back around. Um so right now, I mean,
019that's sort of his update. Um and I think, you know, uh I said told Bri I'd share it with him with you guys tonight. If you have any specific questions or you want him to come back and and comment on anything or as we get closer to budget season, if there's anything you want to talk about, we can he's welcome, happy to come back. Okay. Uh we also have a technology update tonight. Uh we do have uh technology director Chris here. And I tell you, one of the things we started looking at at our admin meeting today was the list of uh application and software that we have districtwide as we start looking at the budget. And it's >> it's a long list. >> Very long. It's funny when you real you don't you know
020even if you just went through your like phone and figured out how many things you have right like it's it's amazing when you start looking at that but we'll go be going through those and >> yeah ranging from $10 a year to you know $40,000 a year so >> wide range pricing so I think I was here I think right when school started for this year so um just quickly I know it's not on the agenda but I think the first few months have gone rather well. Um everything's been consistent. Uh students have their devices. Uh teachers are teaching. Um our first round of assessments went well. Um now we're in kind of our midyear assessments and this is kind of the season or getting to that part of the year where um our student
021assessments really start taking place. So um today at the high school, our EL population started their access testing. So that will run three weeks. Um I believe the high schools this week, the middle schools next week, and the elementary schools the week after that. Um all of our buildings are doing their curriculum assessments their midyear. Um we obviously have MCCAST starting in March and our AP testing starting in late April and May at the high school. So uh all that testing is done either on Chromebooks or on iPads, um including the AP testing, communication tools. I think Dr. Myers talked about this over the last few meetings, but um we did enter a contract with Parent Square. Parent Square is uh a communication tool um for outreach, not just for staff, but for families and
022students as well. Um it's pretty elaborate. Um so we've done most of the integration uh with our student information system and uh now we're kind of in the process of bringing uh Dr. Meyer uh building principles and others up to speed on actually how to use it. Um, so we're we're going to carry our IC messenger, which we're currently using for the next six months. We're actually under contract through the end of June. Um, but slowly rolling out Parent Square. Um, there was also a a parent or family side of it as well. Um, we think that we we'll roll that o roll that out over the summer. Um, it's an application that the parent can download and basically get real-time updates and and messages and uh it's pretty pretty great. Um and this very
023popular uh in the state of Massachusetts. Uh Worcester uses it. It's uh it's fantastic. Um along with Parent Square, um we actually teamed with them to build a new website as well. Uh so we elected or not really elected but decided to um instead of kind of copying over our existing website onto this new platform, we're basically just going to not necessarily scrap the old website, but just start a new fresh website. So, all new content um and you know take things we liked with the existing website but basically just start over you know um we did we did an update a few years ago to kind of give it a new look a new refresh we went through it last year kind of trying to remove some of the old content um I think
024Christy Leo who's our web master I think she's going to be at the marketing meeting uh next month and uh you know obviously we're looking for feedback from as many people as we can because um really it's it's a family outreach tool right um it's advertisement for Clinton Public Schools. So, the more uh you know, the more people that have a say um in in the building and the development and where things go, obviously we have some things with the state that we need to be compliant for um that needs to be on the website, but other than that, it's going to be basic basically a blank canvas and we're just going to go. So, um and the target of that is July 1st. So, probably before July 1st, >> July 1 to launch and
025July 1 to start thinking about what's next. Okay. July 1st is the goal to to launch. Yeah. Yeah. >> To launch. Yeah. So our our current uh website provider, our contract runs through June 30th. So the idea would be to launch >> before July 1st. We don't want to go dark. >> Migrate to the new website on July 1st and then really as that kind of kick off our transition to kind of parent square. Start pushing the app out. Yeah. Trying to build that up over the summer and we come back in the fall. >> Yeah. The the nice thing about parent square too is it's all unified. So, as updates are actually being sent out, whether it's by Dr. Meyer, other building principles, whether it's PTA, that can actually all link into the website
026as well. So, it's really just compiling. You're getting the message out to parents, whether it's an email um or a voicemail. But, uh but you also can get it published on the website with one click. So, it's kind of seamless. That's what the goal is. >> Uh we just completed our -ate filing. So, -ate is um a federal grant that uh school districts uh across the nation have an opportunity to. So, um it resets every five years. Um so, basically they use um a combination of our free lunch and low-inccome report um and give us basically a a per student uh value in which that's our budget. Um so, this is the first year of our five-year plan. The great thing about -ate and this is recently changed is before it was actually broken down
027by school. So because the middle schools part of the new building project with the MSBA MSBA would have been exempt but uh a few years ago they actually made districtwide. So we actually do get the funding for all those middle school students but but we'll be able to use that funding uh specifically for the high school and the elementary school. So um we're looking to do some switch replacements. um we get an 85% break on that. So um you know if we signed $100,000 contract, Clinton would be responsible for 15,000 the federal government would would cover the uh the remaining 85. So um the other thing we're doing, it's part of our category one funding through is we're going to run a dedicated fiber line from the high school down to the elementary school down
028the poles. Um we're simply just doing that for just easier access for the two buildings communicating with each other but also concurrent lines. So um these two buildings, the middle school and high school are connected along with the fieldhouse. But um if the elementary school or the admin building ever goes down, they can use the backup line up here through the high school. So um just trying to add some uh some different options. So we if we do go dark or one of the buildings go dark, we have some different options. uh budget line item number two. Um Dr. Meyer just I was in that meeting with with uh Brian Farrager and we talked about a lot of different things. So things on this list, none of this needs to be done this year. None
029of it may need to be done even next year. Um but I wanted to give Dr. Meyer and the town just some some heads up that there are some aging systems again at our elementary school and our high school. Um and things that we need to start looking at. So our our phone system is end of life. um intercom, paging, clocks over at the elementary school. Uh we need a new system there. We need some additional access control, which is uh door badges, door swipes uh at the elementary school uh access points. So again, we can do that through um with an 85% break, but uh we installed these in 2021. So, um the idea would be to replace these in FY29, FY30, and we need some additional servers to replace some of our older
030aging ones. Uh on a smaller scale, things that we want to address this year um in our budget is obviously continuing our onetoone uh with Chrome pack Chromebooks and iPads both at our high school and elementary school. And uh we do have some AV some small AV stuff. We have a few remaining rooms here at the high school that needs a couple of things done. And uh we need to look at some of our our televisions, our interactive televisions at the elementary school. Other updates, AI, we're working on a policy. Um I'm part of a working group with Dr. Meyer and some some teachers and other administrators. So uh we've been looking at a whole different things from different schools to the state um to what fits with best in Clinton. I know that um
031a few of the teachers here at the high school have actually been polling the students and getting some feedback from them. So, uh, we're trying to keep up to date with that. And lastly, uh, cyber security. So, I think I, it was about a year ago I was here. We had retained, uh, a company that sold us Sentinel 1, which is our cyber security software that's on all our PCs, Macs, and servers. So, uh, they've been terrific. So, we just recently signed a three-year deal with them. came at a little bit of a cost increase, but um overall um because they're part of it funded through the state um a good deal for Clinton. So they're helping keeping us safe, so we appreciate it. >> All right, >> any questions? >> Questions? Bill, you got
032anything, bud? >> Nope. Cut. >> Great. >> Just want to thank Chris for all his help in keeping me active on the committee. >> You're welcome, Bill. I look forward to to the next meeting. >> Thank you, guys. >> Thanks, Chris. All right. Uh, our next topic, uh, under curriculum instruction will be the CHS program of studies. So, we'll have, uh, Principal Surmac kind of walk you through. Uh, you should have a hard copy of the program of studies in your uh, binder, and there was a change sheet in your packet, but I think uh, you'll be giving a a revised one here. >> Ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted to make this a little bit cleaner. Um, thanks. >> 132. >> Was there any significant changes or is it mostly just formatting and stuff?
033>> There was there's formatting every year, of course. Um, if you look at this, there's red, yellow, and green. Red remove, yellow update, green add. Um, the updates are basically the regular formatting things. Remove was just courses that haven't run in multiple years. And the add are new courses that we've we put in or changed. I don't think there's any changes. I think it's just new courses that are being added. >> So, all of these changes were kind of we walked through them at the curriculum instruction meeting in December. Um, and I think all the new courses are all pretty much either AP or their project lead the way. So there really that move to add more what the state would consider advanced coursework uh to the program of studies uh for students. Um and
034like I said I think some of the uh you know the the removal ones are just because we they're just really not relevant anymore and the updates are mostly just tweaking here and there. So uh if there's any specific questions we can answer them. If otherwise, I'd look for a motion to approve it so we can start scheduling the high school. >> Pleasure of the board. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you, Bill. >> Right. >> Thank you, everybody. Appreciate >> Appreciate it. >> All right. So in here, the next topic I had was a update on the K to2 statewide graduation council. Um, this was a uh presentation that Jesse put out uh in December 3rd. I was actually at a webinar
035this morning with the superintendent association kind of uh digesting uh some of this. It was they sort of had a panel talking about some of these things and um it's uh I still think I think it's kind of a mess at this point still to be honest with you. Uh there's a lot of things that they're trying to to do. Um uh one of them like learning experiences are trying to uh they're trying they want to make sure that everyone completes um uh mass core uh which is has some very specific things in there. Um that's there's a lot of schools that that's a challenge particularly some of the vocational schools. also could present a challenge for certain special education or English learner students who might have other courses in their schedule that eat up
036some of that time. Uh so there's a lot of equity questions involved around the mass uh coursework requirement. Um they're talking about having end of course assessments. Um, right now, you know, it's funny cuz this whole change is in response to the fact that MCCAST was voted to not be used as a high stakes test and it seems like they're just sort of trying to kind of repackage a high stakes test as an end of course assessment. Um, maybe there's a different spin on it, but that's not really how it's being presented right now. Uh, they're also trying to add some sort of capstone portfolio requirement, but they really haven't given many specifics on what that would look like. Then there's this other components that they kind of outlined like my cap which is your
037career and ac uh career academic plan FASA and a lot of these are getting some push back for sort of want you know FASA like not every student we want every student to be able to like go on to college we want every every or be prepared for their career. So kind of requiring these things like MASA uh or sorry FASA or MASSA u seems to be uh sort of like an overreach like we're talking about we're talking about your high school diploma right I mean if you want to ask encourage us to have support kids doing that that's fine but why is that getting lumped into the the the diploma criteria same with the my cap I mean yes should we try to help students have plans yes that's a but what am I
038going to do a kid doesn't have a good enough uh career plan so we're going to not give him a diploma and bring them back a year like it it just doesn't really make make a lot of sense. Uh financial literacy, that's one I actually agree with. I think we should be you should we should be building that into our program of studies and trying to make sure that that's something students are getting which we've tried to start start doing that in our uh sophomore experience. Um and then some of the seals of distinction like the biiteracy or whatever else we might come up with. I think that's another opportunity too to let let students who who put in that effort and show that you know to get earn those I think is great as
039well. Um, so it's it's still a mess. Uh, like I said, this is the initial recommendations. They're going through things. I would expect there's a lot of conversations between now and then. There's also some a lot of conversations about the timeline. Um they were saying, you know, when when when from the time I I think they were saying today, these years are pretty close, but it was kind of like from the time ed reform came in when they decided to do the MCCAST and have a statewide assessment to the time MCCAST counted was like eight years, something like that. And it was like it took four years to develop it and then four years of piloting it so that they could actually set the criteria before they actually said now we have a standard that
040we feel like we can enforce. So the question with some of this is like you you know you can't just roll out uh an end of course assessment next year and expect that all of a sudden we can just jump and add it to our graduation requirements. there's going to have to be some planning and and then what happens in the meantime are kids taking end of course assessments and an MCCAST that right now they're taking they're still required to take that doesn't matter. Uh so it's I think there's a lot of work to be done and I get it. I mean I'd say the one thing I would say is I think that you know the superintendent association went on our webinar today and and me personally I think we're not saying there shouldn't
041be anything right like I think I think the there needs to be some way to kind of make sure that we're confident that a diploma from a Massachusetts school means something. And that was part of ed reform was sort of like we're going to change sort of the funding formula. You're going to give us a little accountability so we know that every school is meeting certain expectations. Uh I just think this started getting a little too um specific when you really consider like it's it's your high school diploma. You know, it's one stop on your journey. It's not the whole journey. So >> there's a lot of people that got high school diplomas well before MCCAST ever presented itself as being real. And I think they all ended up just okay. >> Yeah. So, anything
042they can do to muck up the waters, I suppose. >> All right. Um, so we'll keep you posted on that. Like I said, there's there's more to come on that. As of right now, we did we passed our local uh compsy determination policy. We've submitted that to the state. We know what we're doing for our students, which I think is fine. Uh, the 2026 2027 school calendar draft. Um, so there's a draft of the calendar here. It does not have all of the half days. It does not have all the prek start dates and end dates. Uh there's some things that we still need to work out before we approve it. This is more of just an initial draft that we're getting out. Uh primarily the main thing we want to highlight to people is
043that um we are planning on starting next year on August 24th which at first glance probably doesn't seem that weird because I think this year was like the 25th, right? It was it's but the the significance is uh Labor Day is very late. It's September 7th. So, we're actually starting two weeks before Labor Day with our teachers returning, students coming on August 26th. Um, there's a couple, you know, one, Labor Day is late, so naturally, like I said, calendar-wise, it's really not that much of a difference from this year. U, but the more importantly, we wanted to make sure that we were able to um get the 27 26 27th school year over as quickly as we can. um because that's the summer we're going to need to start the demolition and finishing and moving
044of the new school. Uh so we didn't want to get the late start with the Labor Day. So I want to thank the CTA. I know that they um it was we had to work with them and get an agreement because of the start dates in their contract. I know they uh worked with their membership and um I think we came to an agreement that will help us out, help everybody out for this year. So we'll continue with that. I wanted to get this draft version out. If there's any other comments on Oh, that's also why we don't have the two weeks for December vacation that year, too. Also, because Christmas is now sneaking towards the end of the week. It's not midweek anymore. >> Um, so the uh uh so if there's any other
045comments people or questions, they can let me know. Uh otherwise, we will probably not for next meeting, maybe the meeting after that, we'll probably have another uh revision with more of the details with preKK half days, that kind of stuff. and uh hopefully try to get something approved shortly thereafter. >> So you don't need any action from us. This is just >> this is like a draft. This is getting it out there so that if there is any you know public comment things we missed anyone has uh you know questions they could they could voice them at this time. >> Awesome. Uh we have some policies for our first reading. Uh so these were vetted by the policy subcommittee advisory committee. Um they're kind of they're they are fairly significant here. um the in in
046a kind of tangential way, but the uh a lot of them deal with fundraising and solicitations. And one of the main things that came out, we received an advisory from the state uh reminding us that um as a government entity, we're not supposed to be be conducting raffles and that we're not supposed to have students collecting money for raffles or games of chance. Um, so I think there might be more of a workaround in that as farms of um, using a third party that might be able to do some of that stuff like a PTA or booster club or something like that. So it doesn't mean like all those things have to go away, but they shouldn't necessarily be presented uh, sponsored directly by um, the school itself as the entity. So um, that's mostly
047what we see here. It was based on uh a legal advisory we received from the state. Uh then was mo taken to model policies from the Mass Association of School Committees. We then kind of had our our local legal council review all these policies uh just to make sure that it wasn't any like overkill and this was all accurate and she she concurred. Um, so, uh, like I said, there's it will, you know, some of these policies will probably have some significant impacts on some of the fundraising events that happen, um, in terms of at least the logistics of them, uh, for, you know, primarily things like 50/50 raffle at the football game, you know, something like that. Um, I don't know, I talked to Mr. Serach about like, you know, chuck a duck at
048a is that a game of chance or skill, right? If you're paying the person that gets closest to the middle. Uh but those are um those types of things are things that um you know the by the letter of the law you're not really supposed to do. I don't think anyone I much like anything I'm sure this came to light because someone probably had some really big raffle that went haywire and all of a sudden they had to get rained in somewhere and then it became let's let's remind the whole state what they're supposed to be doing. Um, but you know, as it is, this is this would be the the policy. So, um, >> but if we wanted to continue to do a 50-50 raffle at a sporting event, we would do so under
049the opice of like sponsored by the PTA or boosters or whatever. >> It's not like the activities have to stop. We'd have to make sure that >> we got to get a little creative to make sure that we're following the policy. Y >> just to throw this out there, we we can't funnel money and we cannot do anything that along that lines as well as um like lottery or gambling as well because we have to >> for your PTA guidelines >> because our PTA guidelines have to follow along national. >> So it just kind of >> Yep. >> Keep that. >> All right. So you don't So you don't want to help? I get it. I'm te I'm teasing. I'm teasing. I'm teasing the meeting on February for you to voice your opinion. >> Just
050teasing. Just just teasing. >> That's what we would have to work with. I mean, honestly, like I said, this policy isn't anything different than saying we're going to follow the the actual state regulations. >> Um, so, you know, anything that we want to try to work with as far as maybe what other districts are doing as they deal with as they cope with this. I'm I'm not trying to say I don't object to any of those things. I just think we need to this is aligning our policy to the regulations. >> Sounds good. So if you wanted to, you can make a motion for a first reading. We could look at it closer if we, you know, it won't be an official policy till a second reading. So that would give us a few weeks
051for any anyone who wants to to review it, ask questions, make comments, uh, at that time if you want. Uh, or if you, you know, don't feel ready to do that now. It's totally up to you. >> Pleasure of the board. There's a first reading for the five policies. Take them in sort of one motion. >> Yes. So move. >> So move. Okay. >> Second. Any discussion, Bill? Any thoughts on that? Any discussion? Okay. >> No discussion. >> All right. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Great. >> All right. All right. Uh couple quick uh other items that I had. Uh fire prevention officer office. So, um the fire department has kind of a new position. I think it was in their budget for this year, but they're just starting to fill it now.
052uh of a fire prevention officer. Um basically it's the person who it's an officer be an existing person on their staff I believe who would now be in charge of um doing like smoke inspections and looking at building plans and doing all those types of things. Um uh so they were looking for >> they do that now. They do it now, but it's very it's kind of like uh and I I actually know this because uh personal experience, I guess, but like if you're trying to uh you know, like a real estate transaction, you need to do a smoke uh uh smoke certification, right? And it was notoriously doing that in Clinton was very hard because there wasn't anyone who it was really their dedicated job. So, you know, you might be trying to get
053an inspection done and next thing you know, they're like, "Oh, sorry, we can't. we got a call or we got whatever. So, um so that that was their goal is to try to do that uh to get caught up on some, you know, get get doing more of those. Um so they were looking for an office for them. Um we have a space down in our basement in the basement in uh admin building that they they were fine using. So, uh we've looked at it. We had some, you know, air conditioners stored in there or whatever. So, we were going to move those out, let them kind of use that space. Um I don't see any issue with it. Uh, I just wanted to make sure you guys were aware and knew that we were
054kind of sharing that space. I'm fine if you if you want me to pursue I mean I can talk to the chief. I'm happy to talk to the chief and try to you just do something that maybe has anou about like you know what would happen or you know what anything like that. But um I think we're just trying to help them out for right now. They they have a spot they're looking for someone a place that that person could have a desk and look at blueprints and store files. So, uh, we came up with a space for him. So, um, if there's any, you know, I don't think I need a motion for that or anything. If there's any objections to that, you can let me know. Certainly, you can let me know, uh,
055offline if anything comes up. And then, like I said, I'm happy to try to, if you think it'd be better for us to formalize any type of agreement with them, we can certainly work to do something like that. Um, Church Street parking. I know it was kind of brought to brought to my attention that the uh no parking signs that we did add on Church Street on the one side nearest our the admin building uh as you go if you're coming from High Street coming down towards Main Street. Uh they stop at the driveway, right? The >> at your back driveway. >> Yeah, the back driveway. And then there's that gap from there to Nelson Street. >> Correct. >> Where which kind of co coincides with sort of where you pull out of the of
056the banana. So now with people not being able to park at the other spot, they kind of try to park down there and now it creates a So I think the recommendation was to or the the thought was to maybe uh bring this up to the traffic committee to say would it be worth extending those signs down to Nelson Street. >> Yeah. Just to Nelson Street. >> Yeah. So, but I think the process of that was typically to have the board kind of endorse it, right? And before we just bring it as like a uh >> it would have to be on their agenda. >> Yeah. They have to go once they if they approve it, then it goes select, I believe. >> Yeah. >> Sure. >> I make a motion that Yeah. We get
057on the agenda for the traffic committee and propose it. >> And I'll second. >> Any discussion? Bill, any thoughts on that? >> No thoughts. Full support. >> Okay, great. Perfect. Uh, all in favor? >> I >> Okay, great. >> All right. >> Perfect. It's a good idea. >> And the middle school building project uh in your packet. I think all we did was we put some of the uh materials from the topping off ceremony. Um the uh Oh, there was a little map I think. or maybe those just in line. Uh the topping off ceremony. Uh some one of the pictures that we had. Uh so we did that. You know, you can see now that uh well, it was our first meeting since topping off ceremony, which I think we had to kind of
058piece it together a little bit with the weather, but I think it went well. >> That was good. >> Uh overall, I think uh I think it was neat having all the all those kids in attendance. They I thought they were extremely well behaved. Uh they seem to kind of be interested in it. Um, so that was uh that was good, especially for the day before vacation, right? So, um, so I thought that that went well. Um, I know we're getting to our next building committee meeting is not tomorrow, it's the week after that. It's the 20th. Uh, we are at that meeting. We should be approving uh the GMP uh the the gross maximum price uh for our um contractor, our contract manager. Um right now it looks like that there is um uh
059I would say fairly significant savings under what was budgeted at the 90% or at least what was budgeted at the initial. So uh we'll see how that comes in after that meeting. Um but it does look look positive that our bids are coming in uh under um and then the uh the only other update I kind of had I mean I have our construction meeting tomorrow but I know that you can see now they've been putting the tenting up around that far side because they'll be heating they're heating in there so that they can keep moving with the work in there and and pour the slabs. So I'll have the construction meeting tomorrow probably walk the site and get an update on exactly where they are are on that. Steve, is the steel all done
060now? >> Pretty much >> all the main steel is like in place. So, they're going around. I think they were still going around. At least the last meeting last week. Uh they were still going around and >> I think they had maybe one or two guys on the steel crew that were still here that were buttoning up. >> Yeah. >> Things, but all the the crane was gone. Everything's uh >> that happened. Yeah. >> Fast. >> So, that's great. >> Mr. Chairman, if I may. >> You bet. Uh I'm not able to walk the site currently, but uh I used to go out once a week and take a tour and was always impressed with the progress they were making. But I'm I'm on the distribution list for daily report with pictures and everything else.
061And I continue to be amazed at professionalism and the coordination and the scheduling that they're keeping both both time wise and the budget. Um I'm I'm pretty impressed with the team we have in place up there. No, it's great. >> Well, it's going, you know, I think it's I think it's a good good process. You know, last meeting we were >> uh going over some stuff and and I know uh we had a couple members of the permanent building committee that stopped in that meeting and we um not enough for a quorum, but a couple people stopped by and uh and we had a you know, a little push back between a couple of the groups, but it was it was good. It was like a healthy discussion that people wanting to make sure that
062we are going to have a quality product that's in the best interest of everyone. So, it was uh I think we're think we're in a good place. >> Yeah, I agree. >> Great. >> All right. Uh advisor. Um that's all for me. Y so >> good. Um well I mean it looks like we have from a post holiday scheduling perspective we'll start to to see our subcommittee meetings pick back up a few have already been scheduled. So >> yeah big one we have wellness this Wednesday uh we got to look at the trienal wellness policy uh evaluation we need to do and then safety at the end of the month marketing before the February meeting and then next meeting the next school meeting is the 26th which will be the tri counsel which will do
063the preliminary budget. So that's a that's a big one. We got a facilities update today. So, yeah, looks good. >> Uh, do we have anything under old business? >> Anything under new business? >> I'll share one thing. I just know I did send >> One of you guys has to have one thing. We don't go empty there. >> We don't go empty there. >> I just I'll uh I sent the letter out on Friday. Um, we did see a a large amount of students who were uh sick with flu-l like symptoms. Um, you know, Thursday was the first day at the high school where it seemed it was really primarily at the high school. Thursday was like, "Wow, that's a lot of kids." Friday we were like, "Uh-oh, that's more kids." Um, today though was
064about half as many as uh Friday. So, we're hoping that we can start seeing it kind of normalize again a little bit. Uh, we haven't we've looked at the numbers at the other two schools. We haven't really seen the a concerning uh uptick in those buildings. Uh we have talked to the uh uh local board of health just to make sure they they were aware of the spike in cases of you know fluike symptoms here and we did have facilities come in to do some additional cleaning in all three buildings over the weekend. And part of my letter home just reminded people that um you know please don't don't uh send your kid in if they've got the fever over 100 and don't try to you know give them Tylenol so they don't seem like
065they have a fever and get them in that kind of stuff. But um so hopefully we'll see it. I know that was on the news, you know, across the state they were seeing sort of a spike with it. But um you know, if everyone can just sort of, you know, stay home if you're sick, wash your hands, all that kind of stuff. And we'll try to uh hopefully we'll continue. Hopefully that was our spike and we'll see it kind of drop down. >> Awesome. Okay. Anybody else? >> Nope. >> Good. >> Can't up with that one. >> All right. We'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you, Bill. Thank you. Have a great