001standy for all. >> I'm going to ask that everybody please remain standing for a moment of silence for Dev, a former Clinton Middle School substitute teacher. Thanks. Start the school committee meeting for Monday, December 8th, 2025. Let's obtain a motion to open the bills. >> Any questions or discussion? All >> in favor? >> No. >> Just make sure know that I will enterate a motion to review approval of minutes from our November 17th, 2025 school meeting. >> I'll second discussion. All in favor, I'll turn to you for celebrations. >> All right. We have a lot of uh a lot of celebrations tonight. That's why we're here in the auditorium. Um I know we've been trying to coordinate a little bit. So first I'll turn it over to Principal Surac to start with the high school
002students and staff of the month. And then between that we'll roll into some of our special [applause] like to first start with the staff member of the month. Uh nominated by another staff member, Mrs. Diane Ryston. Mrs. Ryston does a tremendous job at our Excel club advisor. She maintains the club and its membership while organizing numerous opportunities for students to participate in community service events. She is also deeply committed to I'm sorry, deeply committed to community service for self volunteering at every summer camp sunshine. We are very lucky to have the traditions of the self continue school. Thank you to Mrs. Ryerson. Mr. Ryerson [applause] [clears throat] >> [applause] >> Next, I would like to announce our student of the month. This student was nominated by a staff member and another student. Our student of
003the month for December is Astred Hernandez Tel. [applause] Kathy deserves this honor because she's involved in so many leadership roles, sports, and community service commitments while maintaining good grades, working a part-time job, taking four AP classes, and completing college applications without missing a deadline. She's president of the No Place for Haiti, vice president of the National Honor Society, where she tutors students before and after school for community service hours. a senior captain on the girls soccer team and a member of step up to excellence where she also logs community service hours. What really sets her what sets Astron apart is that she doesn't do any of this for recognition or because it's required. She genuinely cares about making a difference in our community and helping the people around her. Even without the service requirements from
004her clubs, she'd still be out there volunteering or leading others. I know that I might be biased, but I don't think that anyone at CHS, students or teachers, would disagree with me about the positive impact she's had on our school and our community. Ladies and gentlemen, ask your hands. [applause] Welcome [applause] to this. >> [applause] >> And now I'd like to welcome Mr. Stephanie Clinton Middle School uh principal to the podium. [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Sherman. It took me about 20 minutes today to synthesize all of the positive feedback I got from teachers to celebrate our seventh and eighth grade teacher, art teacher, Coral Stevenson. It was pages of feedback from Coral's colleagues and I've synthesized it down to about this paragraph. Coral Coral, our seventh and eighth grade art teacher, is a dynamic,
005dedicated teacher whose positivity and enthusiasm brightens every corner of the school. She is deeply invested in the growth of her students, her team, and the entire community, consistently modeling the same perseverance and communication she encourages of her own students. Known for her contagious joy and ability to fill any room with laughter, Coral brings energy and warmth even on the toughest, coldest days. Beyond the classroom, she volunteers her time to school events in PBIS initiatives. She is a DJ and a dance leader, right? She volunteers her time making her a valued presence academically and personally around the CMS community. Her supportive nature, high expectations, and genuine care make her a role model for her colleagues and an inspiration to all who work with her. Please join me in recognizing our sevenday future corals. [applause] Characters. [applause]
006All righty. I'm pretty excited to be up here to celebrate the student of the month, Bruna de Olivivera. Brun is a seventh grade student at Flint Middle School and she's described as her teachers in the following way. Bruna is a very diligent student. She's always on task and willing to help her friends. She actively seeks out extra help and clarification when she when she needs it and doesn't let anything hold her back. She works very hard. Excuse me. She is a model student and friend to her peers. Bruna is a great example of what a middle school student should be. She works very hard all the time in order to obtain great results. This includes asking for clarification, checking in when absent, turning things in without reminding, and seeking help when needed. In addition, she's
007always polite, friendly, positive, and exemplifies the attributes of a Clinton Middle School Gale. Congratulations, Bruno. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> And last but certainly not least, this fresh principal. [applause] Good evening everyone. Tonight I have the pleasure to recognize a second grade teacher who is nominated by several colleagues and her co-teer. Tonight I am recognizing Mrs. Britney Foster. She was nominated by quite a few of her colleagues and I've compiled [snorts] nominations into this. Beyond her incredible work with students, Britney is also a leader within our school and have the opportunity to extend her leadership beyond CES and to network with colleagues across the Commonwealth. She was selected to be a representative for CES at the DESC academic success conference, a recognition that speaks to both her expertise and the passion for growth she demonstrates
008daily among her students and her colleagues. Her contrib extend even further through professional learning communities that she volunteers to offer as a leader at CES. She runs PLC's that focus on AI and she hosts several staff. These sessions have been outstanding and impactful. They are highly relevant to the current instructional needs. She provides colleagues with resources, support, encouragement to try something new, maybe a little scary, and outside of the with our current practices. Her sessions are so impactful that they are consistently full, often with standing room only. Britney's ability to make complex tools accessible and meaningful has empowered our teachers across our building to improve their practice which contributes to our growth. It also supports them to take risks. Her co-teer Rachel Sharon adds the following. On a personal level, Britney has truly inspired me
009as an educator. Working alongside her every day pushes me to grow, reflect, and elevate my own practice. Her passion for teaching, her creativity with scaffolds, and her constant drive to learn and share new strate strategies reminding why I became a teacher in the first place. Britney models what it means to lead with heart and innovation. She is someone that grows both our students and our school communities. Her work strengthens all around her and she's truly deserving of this recognition. And we would like to invite Britney. [applause] Thank you. >> [applause] >> And now our student of the month. Our student of the month is John Wright and he was nominated by his teachers. They wrote this. John is an exemplary student who consistently embodies our school values of being safe, respectful, and responsible. He leads
010by example each day, treating classmates and staff with kindness, respect, and he always follows the expectations without reminders. He makes thoughtful choices that contribute to a positive learning environment within his classroom. And he also has the independence to foster his own learning. John takes pride in his work, supports others when they need help, and he shows maturity onto his peers. His steady, consistent leadership and outstanding character make him an ideal candidate for this nomination. John, thank you for being an example of how you can Leadership can have a profound positive impact no matter how old you are if you work to support each other as a team. Come on up. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] [clears throat] >> Hello again. Tonight we will recognize our students who have been awarded the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship,
011a merit-based award provided by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This scholarship recognizes students who have demonstrated exceptional academics performance on their MCCAST assessments, scoring in the advanced category in English, language arts, mathematics, or science, technology, engineering, and in the proficient or advanced category in the other subjects while also ranking in the top 25% of their school district. Recipients of this scholarship are eligible for tuitionfree enrollment at Massachusetts State Colleges and Universities. And now I will announce your Abigail Adams John Abigail Adams scholarship recipients. When I call your name, please come up to the stage to recognize. I am only announcing the students who are present here this evening. Michael Barentos [applause] Thomas Bates, [applause] Ella Visera [applause] Jaden Braa. [applause] >> Caleb Coin. [applause] Walter Corbett, [applause] Anna Donal, [applause] Davis >> [applause] >> Astred Hernandez,
012[applause] Zachary Johnson, [applause] >> Tessa Lambl, [applause and cheering] Adriana Mongro, [applause] >> Jake Notaro, [applause] Katie Peruse, [applause] >> [laughter] >> Sorry, didn't want to talk. >> Conor, [applause] >> Leo Rapoli. [applause] It's too cold. >> Natalie Salah, [applause] I'm sorry, >> Melissa. [applause] >> [applause] >> Taylor Thomasson. [applause] Ladies and gentlemen, your John and Abigail Adams >> Ava >> [laughter] [applause] >> We all make mistakes, right? Ladies and gentlemen, >> [applause] >> Next, we have our AP Scholars. The AP Scholar Award recognizes high school students for strong performance on multiple College Board advanced placement AP exams with different levels, including AP Scholar, score three or higher on three or more AP exams. AP scholar with honor score three or higher on four or more exams with an average score of at least 3.25
013on all AP exams. AP scoring with distinction score three or higher on five exams or five or more exams with an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken. These awards demonstrate college level achievement appearing on score reports and college applications to signal academic [clears throat] rigor. When I call your name, please come up to receive your award. Michael Barantos [applause] Thomas Bates. [applause] >> No, you're okay. Ella Visero [applause] Jaden Braa 18 [applause] Davis Pon 80 scholar >> [applause] >> Adriana Monro [applause] Leon [applause] Melissa Stanley [applause] Taylor Thomasson scholar with extension. [applause] Ladies and gentlemen, Ree Scholars. [applause] All right. So, we have one last uh award for tonight, the Massachusetts, Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent uh Superintendent Award. Uh so, every year the uh through the MASS um each
014superintendent is able to recognize a student um that student is uh given this award and also it's to attend the superintendent scholar lunchon. Um, usually the lunch is I think it's written out before the summer. It's in March, I think. Um, so this year's recipient is Thomas Bates. Uh, Thomas currently has a GPA of 4.44. Uh, he's an academic allstar for both golf and wrestling. He received the Harvard Book Prize and as you just heard, he's an AP scholar with distinction. Uh he was the golf team captain, the golf league MVP, and the most got also has won the most improved wrestler award and uh it's nice enough when we have to go to lunch in March, maybe we'll sneak in because I think it's a lesson. So congratulations to our MASS uh super events
015board. [applause] >> [applause] >> I ran out of swag. [laughter] >> All right. So, I'd like to uh thank all of our recipients who came here tonight. Um, as Mr. Serach mentioned, we read the names of people who came here. The complete list is in our school committee packet that will be part of our minutes. And uh let's have one more round of applause for everyone. [applause] >> This is the part of meeting where we'll pick up with our agenda for school committee. We would love it if you would stay, but if you choose not to, we won't be offended. Happy >> Christmas. >> I'll take it. Yeah, >> stole it. >> Hi, Miss Brother. >> Yeah. Congratulations. Bye. Do you have something for tonight? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Want me to do it now?
016>> That's like something not We do have a student. >> Perfect. >> The student come on up, sir. >> I think we need a report and an acceptance. >> Yeah. Do you have an acceptance speech for this loaded house that you emptied out? Is it? No. Okay. Um, good evening everyone. So, CHS wrapped up uh, spirit week before our Thanksgiving break and it was a fun and impactful week. Not only did our students and staff show their school spirit, but we also raised over $1,000 um, through penny wars per week and also donated over 1500 lb of food. Uh, giving tree will be going up this week and gifts will be donated uh, that will benefit you as well. Thank you. >> Thank you. We have any CTA. Thank you very much. >> Oh, double
017barrel action. >> Thank you. be nice. I'm not going to give you out the remainder of our treats from our Polar Express event that we had yesterday, which was very successful. Um we have over 65 people in attendance um at entertainment in Lster. I just want to give a huge shout out to Justin for playing conductor Sher Tina and your wonderful friend who I think is Holly. That was appropriate. She was now with you which is wonderful. Um Jason Tollis played Santa and Becky and Jess led the way with this amazing project with the volunteers and it turned out I think a little bit better than we expected which was really awesome. Um was sponsored by the pink goose and nothing but cupcakes were donated by nothing but cakes of shrewberry. Um Clinton Middle School
018had their scholastic book fair last week. Many thanks to Melissa Pitin and Sam Morardi for managing the fair for most of the week if not all all week uh open and closed which is pretty fantastic. Um efforts to amend the PTA bylaws are ongoing still standing still there. Um CES snowball dance uh pre-K through fourth grade is January 30th at the middle school. This is a free event that we host for CES students. It is a great opportunity for high school students to volunteer and meet the requirement for our scholarship. And we will need more volunteers to sign up in advance in order for this to be a success or to happen at all. Mark your calendars for March family meeting on March 13th. Um our next meeting is Thursday, December 11th, which is this
019week. And we do have a volunteer training coming up. So look at the newsletter on Facebook for that information. And then a happy belated birthday to Dr. Meyer. And Tina would be happy to autograph that beautiful photo of her on your minutes. >> Thank you. >> Thanks guys. All right. Thank you for take off. which would result in 24 days. I'm already discuss favor. Can you guys speak up just a little bit, please? >> Was on my to-do list to grab this fruit. Now I'm going have to put it right back over there because I realize that next up is our athletics report. Here you have our athletics report. It's our director of athletics. Hello. >> Have micro travel. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you. Few updates here. Um, first and foremost, our winter season
020is kicking off uh, excellent. Tonight started uh, the middle school program and we have great numbers this year or I should say this winter um, which was phenomenal. So, we have uh, kicking off tonight with our triyouts for our middle school program for basketball and our first basketball game here girls this Friday heading to Milbury for 5 and 6:30 JV and then varsity. Little recap on what has gone on this past fall. First and foremost, nine MWL second team Allstars, 13 MWL first team allstars, seven MWL academic allstars, one MWL MVP, and three Camass soccer allstars. I am still waiting for the CAMS football allstars to come out. I will update that and send that out in the newsletter um with also the senior If you haven't seen those, I did post those um through
021the Facebook page and they'll go back up in the newsletter as well um of all the banners and kids. Cheer did not compete this fall. They will compete in the winter. Cross country boys went forward four. The numbers are growing. I think we're at uh 19 this fall, which is great. Cross country girls, they didn't quite have enough uh to score in their meets, but hoping to increase the team for next year. Field walking went 124 and three, hosted the round of 32 of the MIA tournament, and then fell to Ipsswich, which is a strong team and a wonderful game. Football went seven and three, hosted the round of 16, traveled the round of eight to West Bridgewater, and travel to the final four MIA tournament at Main Field where they fell to Amesberry in
022an awesome game. Golf went 10 and six, made the MIA sectional tournament as a team. and Thomas Bas Jaro qualified for the MIAA state finals. Boys soccer 89 and two hosted the round of 32 tournament and then fell to a strong playoff team. Girls soccer 5 and3 hosted the round of two and traveled to the round of 16. Um the MIA tournament where they faced Hamilton JB field hockey, golf, boys and girls soccer and JB and JB2 football all had great years a lot of skills development. The middle school teams had good seasons with growth in skills and more importantly in their character. Um, some of the concerns we're going to look at is our low numbers for girls cross country numbers in field hockey. So, we've lost 11 seniors this year and we will
023be losing 21 seniors in football. So, we'll be looking at what that looks like, who's coming up. We anticipate to send a survey uh at the end of January just to see where we are with interest. Some of the other things that we're looking at is continuing field hockey and hopefully moving into a middle school team for next year to build those numbers, continuing the growth of the volleyball club um that Mrs. Dilla's been running right now and hold because we have our gyms are full. She'll pick that back up in the spring and hopefully start that again in the fall. She had great numbers consistently showing up. So hopefully moving that into more of a club team for um for this upcoming year for FY27. Again, the winter's off to a great start. Our
024numbers for the fall of 2425 or our Alaska school year was all was 283. This past fall was 262. Down some. We did go down about 10 girls for girls cross country and a couple here and there at other areas. Um but our winter 2425 had 142. We currently have 173. Um and we anticipate probably down about 20 more um as our CMS basketball team had almost 40 student athletes trying out. So which is great um for the kids and great for our programs, our rep programs and our top travel programs as well. So again, looking strong, hoping to move forward. Um and if you have any questions for me, please let me know. >> Thank you guys. >> [snorts] >> All right. Thank you. U the next thing in your packet is just it's
025not the whole FY25 NWB report, but it's some of the selected pages. Um there's not, you know, not a ton that I'm uh you know, going to go over with you. But the one of the big things is we have met all of our maintenance of effort requirements, minimum spending requirements. Um Annette is here tonight. She does all the work with us with the town. Uh reconciling all our accounts, getting all the separate charges from the town. Uh these are typically due uh beginning of October. Usually they're in by kind of like the end of Octoberish. Um and then uh you get done get them done as soon as we can. So this has been all completely submitted. It's just our first school meeting, I think, since since we've had everything finalized. And uh I
026just wanted to share with you now. We'll get some more um once they kind of process these numbers, we'll have be able to compare them a little more if we want to see like how our per people spending compared to like states and other districts and that kind of stuff. But this is more of just kind of uh updating you that this is one of our accounting requirements. It's the end of the year report. It is a very is a monster of a report. There's a ton of tabs for everything. And like I said, there's a lot of reconciliation with the town because we have to account for all that spending. any debt service, any um like insurance contributions, retirement contributions, anything that the town is making on behalf of school employees, we have to
027capture all those expenses for this report. Uh so there's a lot that goes into it. So thank Annette for all her work with that. Um but this has been submitted. Any questions on that? If you have anything, if you look it over, like I said, it's a very dense report. If you have anything, I'm happy to uh dig into it deeper and we'll talk probably a little more about the That's when we're able to kind of compare it all more and start focusing on next year's budget. Um, so speaking of next year's budget, the FY27 budget, I put a timeline uh in your packet. We've already kind of started the budget process uh with some of our admin meetings, doing a survey with the staff uh so we can start looking at uh projections for
028who might be moving lanes, uh who might be retiring into this year, over the next three years. Um, principles have started getting information out to gather input from their staff about what their budgetary needs are for next year. Um, and we'll start compiling those budgets uh in the coming weeks and then principles will review those. They'll send them to central office. Um, we'll review them. We'll compile all of those at central office early in January uh going over all those requests and uh with the goal of getting a preliminary budget um available for the tri council on January 26th. Um, typically that that preliminary budget is we try to just get you a number of this is what we think it will cost to run the district and then we kind of the rest of
029the budget process is sort of how do we reconcile from that number to what we reasonably expect is uh a manageable uh revenue number. Um, and we'll work to reconcile that over the next few months. Uh we do have a couple meetings coming up uh later this week. Uh I'm meeting do a capital expenses meeting uh with um like our director of technology, facilities director, that kind of stuff. So we can start looking at some of those big ticket items and slotting out like where do they land over the next few years to make sure we're good at capturing all that. And then we'll have a uh we have a large staffing meeting on Thursday with our principles and special education starting today. So, uh, that's all in the works. Uh, also in your packet,
030there's a kind of a one pager, uh, that, uh, Annette was, uh, kind enough to put together for me, um, that has a lot of information that she's gathered, uh, either through MazB or other towns, um, for the regarding the special education stabil stabilization fund. Um, so we had talked a little bit about this after the MASS, C conference. Uh so as a stabilization fund, it's something that we can set up specifically. Uh it needs to be um the initial approval of it needs to be would be fun to establish the fund and then all the expenditures it would be kind of like a joint control between the board of selectment and the school committee. Um and the idea is it is for is really targeted for unforeseen special education costs. You don't really use
031it as like a you know an additional revenue source. It's more of like we had last year I think it was when it was last year we had a couple of moveins late that we were end up being financially um responsible for for students you know students that were never going to uh public schools because of residency. Um so those those types of things when that kind of stuff happens particularly midyear uh something like a special education stabilization fund can help to make sure we don't have to make drastic budgetary changes midstream because of special education costs. So uh that was something that we can continue to look at. We don't need to make any decisions on it tonight, but as we go through the budget process, it's something we might want to see if
032we want to get that as like a warrant article or something to get in town approval and we can work with attorneys to get exactly what that should be if that's right. The uh next topic in here I have is just the Desi celebrating uh district success convening. Uh so they had two days of a a celebrating district success convening. One was on uh last Tuesday the 2nd. Um so Miss Fr uh Miss Murphy and uh myself were in Malboro on Tuesday for the district component uh of that where they were talking about best practices. And then but the more exciting part was last Wednesday team from Clinton Elementary School was able to go uh one of those uh team members was the uh student uh staff member of the monthly elementary school. They did
033a presentation during one of the breakout sessions called let's talk about destruction. You can see that that right up there. Um and it was uh Chrissy Dobec, Britney Foster, and Kelly Smith were the three who presented from school. So it's great to re to you know I think has done a lot of hard work. have done a lot of things for the last few years and and um getting some recognition for that now with some of the uh uh gains they've made and being able to actually present at the statewide success committee I think is a a great honor. Um and then we got another invite the other day um because the elementary school is a uh school of recognition. Um uh principal Chris and I were invited to go to the the uh state
034house on Tuesday, January 20th at 10 a.m. uh where they're going to present certificates to the 55 schools of recognition and the six national blue ribbon school nominees and two 2025 PSA distinguish schools. So, another recognition that we've been invited to. Um and I said that's the uh you know that's that's I might be I might be getting invited to get my picture taken at the state house, but really it's the work of of that staff and and all the amazing they've done over there. That's that's that's a reflection of And the uh last thing I have on here was just a update on the building project. Uh if you've driven by recently, you know, take a look and it's it is really coming together. We're doing a lot of uh with the steel up.
035It's it's starting to feel real. Um on Friday, we had an opportunity to do some tours. actually on Thursday afternoon I was able to do a tour with the press uh and uh go get some get some pictures and then uh Friday during professional development day uh we did three tours um throughout the day so that we could let some of the fourth grade teachers go and then we did one with like fifth and sixth and one with uh seventh uh so it was a nice opportunity just kind of they work with us kind of walk the ring road and make sure we kind of stay out of the way but that was there so that was Great. Um, the topping off ceremony is Friday, December 19th. So, the invitation should have been emailed to
036you. It's in your packet as well. Um, we will have the beam. The beam should be in place on December 18th so that we can have the students uh who want to sign it, sign it. Uh, if you can't make it the 19th and you want stuff up on the 18th, it should be available. And um, and then we'll go and sort of it's a little ceremonial. It's never the exact last piece of steel, but it's towards the end and it's pretty high. It's in the front. Then we'll uh do a little recognition at the OSBA. Kind of similar to the groundbreaking except it'll be in the inside. We'll do the signing pictures of the beam, go inside for a little bit of speaking, then come out for the ceremonial beam placement and then that'll
037be over. All right. And I think that's all I have. Thank you. As far as the subcommittee and advisory committee reports, looks like we have a a couple meetings this week and then a few scheduled after the break in January. Is there anything material or pressing anybody else? anything under old business. Anything new in the business? >> True. Nice to hear from you. It doesn't surprise me because you hear all the time. I want to do a motion to everyone. Thank you