001Good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools School Committee meeting for Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at the Johnz on Community Center. This meeting is being recorded by Greenfield Community Television. If any other persons present or doing the same, you must notify the chairperson at this time. Okay. Um, Secretary Deni, will you call the role? >> Chair Johnson Msad >> here. >> I'm here. Vice Chair Ston >> here. >> Member Goodwin >> here. >> Member Martini, we were told she would be absent. Mayor Disorger. >> Mayor, are you here on Zoom? Oh, she just joined. Mayor, do you wanna um uh they just called your name for role even though you just got here. Mayor, >> I'm here. Thank you. >> And member child, >> I'm here. >> Okay, you have a quorum with only
002one person absent >> and it's 6:32 p.m. Uh we'll now move to public comment. Uh we'll start with any public comment in the room. Does anyone in the room want to make public comment? Please. >> Good evening. Thank you for all your hard work. Um, glad to be here. And I don't have an awful lot to say except that I'm thrilled. um to have an interim superintendent. Um Mr. Dwell has done this before. So I was really pleased to see that um that's who the school committee had selected for filling in. And also um I did recently watch a subcommittee. I believe it was the budget committee that Miss Martini, member Martini ran. And so I was pleased to be able to see that. Um I'm looking forward to a a whole lot of um
003possibly some changes I think that might be coming down the pike. And um I guess that's all I want to say. I know it's a lot of hard work and I honor that you guys spend all your time. I will say that I looked at 29 pages on the school website, skimmed it like just like oh it's 29 pages long. I'll come back and take a look at that too. I believe it's a policy kind of thing for a new member possibility. Thank you for your time. >> Any other public comment in the room? Okay. If you're on Zoom and wish to be recognized for public comment, um if you can raise your electronic hand, that's great. But I will try to look for people who are expressing interest in any way. Okay. No public
004comment from Zoom. We'll move on to our next item, reports of the administration. Andy Pagette, our business manager. Uh, good evening everyone. In your packets were two reports, the FY25, well, including the capital revolving accounts, but we have two major reports, the uh FY25 local and the FY26 as of the August run. Um, I'll start with the 25 first. Um, we're still doing some final close out. Uh, there's some technical issues with acruals of payroll being posted and it happens sometimes when you have two fiscal years open. Uh, we do know that the city finance office is diligently working on moving some payrolls from 25 to 26 and vice versa. So, that will be uh corrected uh relatively quickly. We're, I said, constant contact and we know they're working on it. Um so once that's
005done, we'll do our final uh move of the expenses to school choice. Uh as you see right now, we're looking at 348,000. So uh the changes that we're talking about of the 25 to 26 aren't going to change that any substantial amount. So it'll be in that ballpark. But once we get that final number posted from the city, we'll be coming back with our final report to show you the final expenditures. Um, as I've been reporting recently about our uh federal maintenance of effort calculation for special education, uh, Mr. Messing and staff had worked diligently. So, we are meeting that. So, we are not, as far as meeting the maintenance of effort, we're not in danger of losing our access to the federal special education grants. Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that stuff that
006goes on down in Washington doesn't negatively impact those grants and others. Um, one of the things that I added for 25 was just it was this chart. It's a high-level chart, but it was really about uh as as I described it some of the challenges that we have been facing here as I think we all know as far as personnel changes um filling positions and this is at all levels except for subs. So, I wanted to show the amount in just strictly personnel at the schoolbased uh the overall what we call the vacancy savings. Um it's really not savings, the balance from the positions that were unfilled throughout the year or what have you. Um what ends up happening as I mentioned there, this is not I'm going to say quoteunquote found money because if
007you look through the reports you'll see one some of these savings went to address the maintenance of effort as I was reporting recently. But then the other thing was uh because of those vacancy savings primarily in the area of special education uh we had to hire contracted services to provide those services. So if you look and see a good chunk of that 652 if you go look at the medical therapeutic and psychological services those we did a transfer of $200,000 into that line and it was still over budget by 200 some odd thousand dollars. So that's a challenge that we're facing here and as I say unfortunately it's not unique to education it seems uh postcoid. So um I just wanted to share that as far as like kind offormational it does tell kind of
008a story as to some of the challenges that we're having. um 26 I'll say and then I can I'll take you obviously any questions but 26 of it's a month and a half of activity nothing uh glaring you'll see in the reports I say that uh the budget again you some technical issues you know I entered the original budget as once the adjustments are made from the superintendent's recommendation and school committee vote uh it was entered in and for some reason it didn't capture Mr. number was working on it and they whatever it is they were able to fix it yesterday so it was not in time to put the original budget into the report. So rest assured going forward we'll have the original voted budget column going forward. Uh not to steal any of
009Mr. Sullivan's thunder but if you remember at the last month I did report about the embargo of some of the federal grants. um happy to report fingers crossed that we don't go down this road again that those funds were restored from the federal government. So once those applications are available uh we will obviously be applying for those. With that I can take any questions on as we're closing out 25 and any activity 26 >> questions for Mr. member Ston >> I was just wondering if for I'll say even for my own benefit could you please describe a little bit more about maintenance of effort what that is what it means and what our responsibilities are >> right so uh the five cent description is that we're required uh for underneath the federal IDA individuals disabilities
010education act to spend a certain amount of money on special education out of your local funding not federal funding. So, and it's usually it's like the prior year amount is the minimum. So, that in order for you to maintain your effort, you can't use in a sense it it it ties in with the concept of supplanting. So, we can't meet our maintenance of effort for special education expenditures by using federal grants to say, you know, if our maintenance of effort for local funding for special education is $10 million, we can't only spend $9 million of local funding and then $1 million from federal grants to meet our maintenance of efforts. They want to make sure that from a financial perspective, the funds that you are targeting towards special education related expenditures and services are maintained
011at a level that they deem is the minimum amount that you're required to spend. >> Thank you, >> member Goodwin. >> So, Andy, off the top of your head, do you know how many unfilled positions we had last year? Uh it's a tough number because it is it has changed so much. I mean we and actually we were just talking about this today that uh Miss Tower not to you know she had a and has a spreadsheet where she was also tracking the the in the new positions whether they were filled and and then you know but in some positions honestly that occurred in one position for you know numerous times throughout the year. So to to come up with a specific FTE amount might be difficult to do, but I do want to when
012I get that I will I want to bring that back to share and to give an idea as to what it is that we're talking about. Uh you know the the our ultimate goal is and and we've been working on it is to get ourselves solid with the the Munis personnel control ledger. So we're we now have another source document between what Miss Tower has, what the personnel control ledger has, what payroll has to see and stuff. But uh I kid you not when if you were to look and see the number of new hire I'm sure you remember for exactly you know so you know we hire somebody they're there for two months they're gone that position is vacant for two weeks three weeks what have you another position someone is hired for that
013I mean it has been that that a much of an up and down effect on some of the positions unfortunately I mean it's unfortunate in any position and stuff but we see a lot of it in the support service level pair professionals member Denife. >> Go ahead. >> Andy, I was wondering if you could expound maybe more than the five cent description of the mandated maintenance of effort. I'm asking because we hear from a lot of constituents that they would like us to lower the cost of the special ed services that we give. But through this concept, that's not possible, is it? You're that's a very explain that is a very because you know we hear a lot and there are some things we why we do actually have some special education programs in district
014where we take in students from other districts where we charge them you know for it. So, you know, the the goal, some of the goals, I say in special education is to create your internal programs that are more cost-effective. So, you don't have to send them an out of district placement. Because you do that, that doesn't mean that you are uh I say able to in a sense lower your maintenance of effort for spending. The there's a couple ways. is the one way I know in particular that you are allowed to reduce your maintenance of effort is if indeed you have students actually leave the district that were in a high cost placement or a placement that then you end up applying or factor that would be an exemption and a and or a waiver
015that would actually lower your maintenance of effort. However, and we have had that occur sometimes in Greenfield over the past. The issue is with the status that Greenfield is in as a district, we are not allowed to take advantage of that waiver and particularly because of our our special education status by the state. Uh when when that occurs, they still expect us to meet that amount. So it is a we're pulling in, you know, diametrically opposed directions where we want to be more cost-effective in our programming, but we do have that dollar amount that we're required to spend >> and that includes transportation also, right? Every sped related expens correct >> member ston and then member childs. >> Um I also just wanted to make sure that I heard you right that there was for
016the I think you said psych services that we transferred 200k more than what we had originally budgeted and we were still 200k short. >> Yeah. We overage of that of that amount. Is that partly because we have to go out of house for staff and they're more expensive if we >> When you have unfilled positions, we have to contract out with a a provider for those services, evaluation services, and they were more expensive than what it is the positions that we're budgeted for. Okay, this might be more of a strategy conversation later on, but if we ideally would have those positions in house so that we're not paying more than we need to, but we still have to meet these maintenance of effort. We'll have to figure that out, but maybe not tonight. >> And
017that's why if you look and see some of the things that I know that have been discussed, like if you look at uh I know uh you know there's always been some concern about like the end of the year expenditures and stuff. Well, Mr. messing you know in particular if you look and see some of the expenditures that were done at the end of the year were so that we are meeting that maintenance of effort so I mean I I say if you go look in his office right now he has boxes and boxes of special education supplemental materials that he had to buy wasn't frivolous it was ab needed much needed and stuff but that's you know we end up using some of these things to end up again meeting that maintenance of effort
018requirement Member Childs, then member Goodwin, then member Denive. >> So, me uh Vice Chair Ston asked the question I was going to ask. So, I'll just have the comment of I really appreciated the vacancy balance chart, the way you laid it out and the little paragraph explaining it. I found that very useful. So, thank you for laying out the information like that. >> You're welcome. member Goodwin. >> I know one of the areas that we spend a lot of money on with outside consultants is psych psyche apps. Um those cost over $1,000 a piece and it depends on what language they're in as well. So has there been a posting for another school psychologist? >> I I believe so. Um I would have to double check. I don't know if we have a >> I'm
019looking at you and we'll talk about some of the vacancies. I have that up in my report as well, but I'm looking at school spring right now and do not see that. So maybe we're filled for this year. I don't know enough off the top of my head to tell you that or not. >> Member Deniv. Andy, do you know the number that is the federal mandated maintenance of effort? You said 10 million, but I didn't know if you were just making up a number. >> I do have the I have the If you give me a second here, it's in the previous years, previous months, I should say, >> updates. The current year maintenance of effort amount for Greenfield, if I say current year, FI25 amount was 9,286,160. >> Okay. So, just for everyone
020following along to make sure that I understand, every year we need to spend $9,286,160 on our special ed courses, transportation, everything, the whole kitten kaboodleoodle for our students. And then we can use federal money if we have it through grants or >> you can you use the federal money regardless. But as far as the calculation as far as making sure that your locally appropriated special education expenditures are funded at a minimum it's the 9,286 of local funding. >> Okay. So that is what we have to spend locally >> every year. >> Correct. And so if you're to look at the total >> this is a hot topic. People bring it up all the time. I want to make sure everyone knows. >> Right. But if you look at the total special education cost districtwide, it
021would be the local the sped 240 grant, the circuit breaker, the um sped tuition, uh you know, the sped 262 grant, other special education grants that we might get stuff that is the total special education cost for the district. But the calculation for meeting your federally mandated maintenance of effort, it is non-federal only. Okay. >> Thank you. Yep. >> Other questions? Not seeing any. Thank you very much, Mr. Pette. >> You're welcome. >> Move on to the assistant superintendent and superintendent reports. Good evening, everybody. Hope everyone's had a nice summer. And I hate to use the past tense, but um my report includes a number of grants and I won't go through each one. One thing I do um want to bring our attention to is the competency determination requirements and guidance. Um, you all
022may remember we talked about this a little bit last winter after the vote on question two to end MCCAST as graduation requirement. At that point, we got very little guidance from the department. Um, other than we had to create our own local graduation requirements and a competency determination. We went through that process. I think at certain times we all felt maybe a little uneasy with some of it. We said we'd revisit it on July 17th. Um Desi put out some new guidelines and requirements around that. Um I sat in on a webinar last week to get some more information. I'm still collecting information, but we are going to have to revisit um what we put in place last year. I do think what we put in place last year is a starting point, but there
023are some additional pieces that need to be included. Um, there's a requirement around a graduation requirement for competency determination related to history. Now, there's some changes in the number of years of ELA and math. Um, and some things that we need to do for special education students and how they can attain their um, graduation requirements. And there's a lot of layers to it. As I sat on this webinar last week and the Q&A came through, other superintendents and assistant superintendent were asking questions about what if a student transfers in as a senior and completed something previous that was aligned with a different district's competency deter. And at that point, Dusty was like, well, that's something you need to figure out over the next few months. So, um, we, like I said, I think the work
024we did last winter gave us a starting point, but we're going to have to revisit that. Um, and once we get through opening day, I plan to turn my attention to that. Right now, we're really focused on getting people back. New teacher orientation is next Wednesday and Thursday. Teachers are back the following Monday and Tuesday and welcoming students two weeks from today. So, um, there'll be more to come. Originally, um, they said October 31st. So, I was pushing to have some, and this is something that I know we probably can't discuss much, but we want to maybe talk because it is policy. Um, so I'm happy to connect with the policy subcommittee if that makes sense. Um, but we do have until the end of December. They pushed October early on. They are now saying
025by December 31st. I would love to be ahead of the game and have something by October at least even if it's for a first read for the committee so we can get some feedback and then maybe make some adjustments. Um, my hope also is that as other districts begin to turn their attention to this and grapple with it, we're not all reinventing the wheel. Um, and we can find some common ground because there are students who move between schools, especially in the area. And I think if we had something that was somewhat consistent, it could benefit other districts. So, um, just wanted to bring people's attention to that. Grants updates. A lot of these are grant applications that we have out right now. Um, we were awarded the civics teaching and learning, that first one,
026the innovation career pathway. This is something we talked a lot about last year when we received a designation last spring that made us eligible for additional grant funding in subsequent years. So, we did um apply for that in late July and have not heard back. Um, same with that next one, the partnership for reading success. Um, targeted assistance, ESSA funding. Andy did steal my thunder a little bit. That, um, that freeze has thawed um, for now. So, we do have access to those funds. Um, and then these last two grants, the hate crime prevention grant is an application we have out. The public school district's opioid recovery trust grant or PS DORT is one that I shared with the committee months ago that we had applied in partnership with um, Furcog community resolutions and six
027other school districts. And I think in the last time I mentioned it to some of you, I thought the time had passed. They kept pushing back the announcement deadline. Um, and it didn't feel like it'd be something we got and we found out in um early July that we did receive this grant. It is $1.5 million over three years distributed among those eight entities including Greenfield. Um, but a lot of this work will go towards the restorative practices work that we started last year. um as would the hate crime prevention grant. So, continuing to look for other opportunities to supplement our funding. Um but those are a couple grant updates and I hope next month I'm back to let you know that we receive some more money from those other applications that are out. Um
028and number three, uh Mammud versus Taylor Supreme Court ruling. You might have seen some information on this. Essentially, um, this affirms famil family's rights to opt out of certain curricular content that conflicts with sincerely held religious beliefs. So, our attorneys have worked with us to um provide some language in our handbooks that has now been included. And this is another place where um we're working to prepare for it, but not necessarily knowing what's coming and when it might come and what the subject might be. Um so again trying to have a system in place. So we do have some guidance but um this is one where I think the attorneys even are like well this is the language we can use but in practice it's going to take some examples unfortunately to u navigate that
029situation. So something that we're aware of and paying close attention to. And finally, um, just wanted to share again our district prioritization plan. Um, the superintendent, interimm superintendent and I met with our, um, statewide system of support team from DESIE yesterday. They re they received the plan that we submitted back in May and they were very complimentary of Greenfield's plan. They felt like it was thorough. It connected a number of the dots that they were looking for us to connect. Um, a couple highlights they mentioned to us were differentiating our focus from our um, early learners, our Kada to prek to four to our middle school to our high school. That's something that we're working to be very intentional about this year. And that we're trying to equip teachers with more resources. And I know
030there is at least one teacher in the room tonight and we're being thoughtful about how we're implementing those resources. We want to make sure that our teachers have the tools to do what they need, but we also want to make sure teachers have the space and time to learn what these tools can do and figure out and make some choices on when they can implement them, when they think is best. Um, I've been saying I don't want our teachers cutting stakes with spoons, right? We need to give them steak knives and knives and all the other things that they need so that they can pick the tool that they need um for that individual student or or small group of students. So, while we've brought in a number of these things, we want to be
031thoughtful on how we roll it out. Um, and some of that is what we'll go over um next Monday and the following Monday and Tuesday when teachers are back. So, thank you. >> Normally, we advance to the superintendent's report right away, but because you're going to be giving a fairly extensive report tonight, I just want to give uh folks a chance to ask Mr. Sullivan any questions that you have. Member Goodwin, >> I just thought if we changed the handbooks, then maybe that should also go to the policy subcommittee. We >> we probably should just because if if a lawyer told you to change the handbooks, we should probably look at our policy as well for >> which policy. >> Uh I think normally the um those um >> Oh, I see what you're saying.
032Not for the handbooks, but for the policy related to >> potential optouts. >> Correct. You should make sure our policy matches your handbook change. >> Of course. Thank you. >> And uh just the way that we've done um policies in recent past is for first reading if you can just bring a draft to the full school committee meeting. So in September would be fine. And then if the in the discuss discussion the committee wants to refer it to the policy committee for any changes or incorporate people's feedback, we can do that. and then bring it back an amended version in October for a second reading. So that could be a process. >> Okay. I can connect with the attorney on that for September and look at something for the competency determination in October. So great.
033Thank you. >> Member Deniv. >> Um I was wondering Stephen if you had an amount of the gr total grants that you got for last year for FI26. I mean FY25 what the total amount was because I know that you work very hard on grants and you update us so constantly which I really appreciate but I also really want to make sure that we acknowledge the amount the total amount that you were able to get for our district and really celebrate you for that because I know that's a big part of your work and people should know that um that's an important part of the budget as well. >> Do you have a number or >> I appreciate that. I can't I could tell you I don't have an accurate number right now, but I
034could certainly >> in the future >> get that to >> maybe next month we can uh express our thanks. >> I appreciate that. >> Other questions for Mr. Sullivan? I felt like I did. Um like what do you know the source of the funding for the um grant that it looked like it was related to opioid? Is that the settlement funds? >> It's not the settlement funds. It's from a foundation. The I was just curious. It's >> if it's not not >> You want to let the superintendent go? I will have an answer for you. I do have it. I'm just trying to >> What is collaborative resolutions? >> It is a local um business organization. They work on mediation. uh restorative practices. They do some restorative practice training for districts and communities and municipalities.
035Um and I know they work closely with FURCOG. >> Okay. Thank you, Superintendent. >> Good evening everyone. And uh two weeks from today, school starts. Get ready everybody out there. And as we know, so we're excited uh for the upcoming school year. We know our teachers are already back in the building. They've been in this week um daytime and I know many of them come in even late in the evening and after hours. They have their little card that they can get in and do a lot of stuff. So, we appreciate the work that they're putting in. Some updates for you on the uh losing my voice. Superintendent search update in September. Just to let you know, we will have some presentations from MASC and NASDAQ in terms of presenting to you what they would
036do for that and costs associated with going forward. You're on a good timeline right now. You are not behind the ball at all. You're in front of it in that sense. Um, and they'll lay out some timelines as to where things would go. So, um, they're putting those presentations together and we'll present that to you in September. And then you would have the option of choosing one of those organizations to do that and modifying timelines and that scenario, you know, and even if you I'm letting you know, even if you did that saw that stuff in September, you could vote then if you were so inclined to do so. But if you did wait till October, you would still be in good shape for running a search. You know, you are you're ahead of the
037game right now for that. Those are the two big players. Mass Association of School Committees and New England School Development Council, Educational Council. Um there are some other small entities out there that do that. And some districts choose to do it themselves, but um when they do it themselves, it's the committee, the school committee that runs the search because as you know, one of your big charges in life is to hire a superintendent. So that gets to be a lot of work. I'm not trying to dissuade you from it, but um not too many do it themselves. Some think they can save maybe$10,000, $12,000, etc. Maybe 15. Um you'll find that I know many of you work and have jobs and lives there that it would be pretty tough to do in that sense. So,
038um we'll hear from them and you'll have your your choices on that one. We have reposted the business manager position on school spring to try to I guess you'd say refresh the applications. The one that had been posted and I know that many of you participated maybe in some interview processes for last springish in that sense was still up there but not garnering any attention. So we've refreshed that to bring that to the to the forefront again. And I will say I think the time frame of summertime does play a little down. As much as people are looking for jobs and don't get me wrong, we are hiring for a lot of positions. Um, in many other positions, people aren't apt to move sometimes in the summer and they get they get set in their
039ways in that sense. So, we'll keep you posted and see what we can gather from that. I have received some information from our transportation director and just to kind of give you a quick update, we're going to give you a more detailed update in September where more for cost. So, we weren't able to do that yet. Um, the fact that many of us were on did vacations, that type of scenario. So, we get and we don't have final enrollments right now. It's the bus ridership in that sense. And I didn't and frankly I didn't have time and I know I couldn't meet with Andy. It's not his fault, my fault. Um, in terms of getting a lot of things ready and talking with Teresa, our director. So, for September, we'll have more financial. I know
040many of you have asked about our own in-house services that we're providing, which are separate from the big what you generally would call the big yellow buses, Kazascus, that's running those, but we'll have information for you on that. But our own in-house service in terms of our vehicles, we run about 18 vehicles right now. Many of them you might call minivans in terms of the world knowing what they are and then a couple other um a Ford Transit as well as one and some micro buses, some smaller buses which many would know as mini yellow buses and then even like a medium-sized bus. So those yellow buses require a CDL, a commercial driver's license for that. The minivans do not. That's they require a 7D license. So you'll hear people refer to those as a
0417D, which are easier to get that license than it is the CDL license. They have to go for training and then do a state test with a state trooper in the end. And there's 60 hours of training for that. So it's a little tougher. We have three of those. Unfortunately, we just received the resignation this morning that somebody will be leaving us on the 26th for that. So we think we'll be okay right now. Teresa and I talked this morning, but we're obviously we just posted that job as well too. In terms of our, and I use the word our being Greenfield employees right now, we have 21 employees that we run for those vans and small buses. Just so you know that. Then most are the majority are drivers. We have many three CDL
042drivers, two dispatchers. We have four bus monitors, uh, crossing guard obviously, and a sub70 driver as well. In that scenario, we service some outside entities, you're probably aware of obviously Gil Monigue and their needs and drive upwards to 14 students to different places. And when you start getting into the minivan services for our own and others, right, we're obviously charging them, but when our own, you're using a minivan because you're a lot of times you're taking people to and sometimes individuals, sometimes a few, but to long distances away. Um, some of these that I'm looking at right now, we have some of our students on what we're servicing on what I told you, the in-house ones being the minivans, etc. We're servicing right now enrolled 92 students getting ready for this fall. Our enrollment and
043you'll hear me talk about enrollment coming up down the road here. We're maybe it's not obvious, but I'll tell you as an educator, it's obvious we're not done enrolling students yet. Um we still have people knocking on the door and saying, "Hey, I have a kindergartener. Can you come to school?" Yes. Yes, of course they can come to school. Come on in. Right in that sense. So, for all the good work that our teachers do and our office assistants and everybody getting it out there to let everybody know back in March, right, that we're enrolling people and getting ready, um, people still move in and have forgotten about it and time time lapses in that sense. But we take people obviously in town to our own in town places such as AAL, Federal Street, Newton,
044Four Corners, the High School, Middle School to then Four Rivers, Valley West. You start to go towards the Springfield area, the Holio area for that Chabe where you're driving some people oneoffs into some of those places. Sometimes you can piggyback people going to those places and do stops along the way and they do their best to do that. Um, so they have that and right now for our out of district Kazcus, the big yellow buses that you might consider there. We have six buses right now filled could be up to eight. Um, more than likely to be utilized from the redistricting is what Teresa tells me in that sense. So we'll give you full ridership numbers on each route in September like you know bus what we call bus one, bus two, that type of
045scenario. And with the buses we do get a good bang for our buck. You maybe know about the different tiers of buses, how they'll run a route for the high and middle schools and then they'll run a route for the elementaryaries as well too. And what I found on um interesting last year when I was doing time at the middle and high school as well too is in terms of time for people, we have some buses that start at the high and middle school and then swap out literally at that time. So you'll have I'll make this up. If there's eight buses, four start at the middle, four start at the high, they load the kids up, they then cross, they literally pass each other, and then they they go and then pick up more
046kids, the other buses, pick up the kids, and then take off and go do the routes to maximize efficiency in that scenario. So, always a big puzzle for that. We appreciate that the work that Teresa and her employees are doing and even Kazascus and all the parents who work through us because there's no doubt all of our best work will result in somebody maybe being missed at a bus stop on the first day, right? Or somebody doesn't get out or the bus was two minutes late and somebody thought they were already left and they started to drive their kid. That type of scenario. So, we do our best and we'll always have some extra runs in the vans ready to pick up kids to make sure everybody gets to school as well on that one.
047In terms of open positions, if you ever look at our website, you can see open positions or go to schoolpring.com. That's generally where the majority, not all, but the vast majority of schools in Massachusetts use schoolspring.com for posting of their services. And if people were to look for jobs in Massachusetts, they would use this site generally here. So, we have a lot um you know, recently posted we have and we're still getting it's unfortunate, you know, that um people leave for different reasons. Um we find that I found that what I'm seeing just anecdotally, right, from being new and watching why people leave, it's distance traveled. It appears to be a lot of that. I don't I don't think you're losing people because they don't like Greenfield or things like that. I think depending on
048where they're coming from, right, the the population centers in the lower valley where many of our employees, not all, but many come from, if they're able to save 45 minutes one way, which is an hour and a half plus in a day, they're doing that. And that's what we're seeing for reasonings right now is jobs closer to homes, less commute time, more time with my family. And you can't blame them, right, for that. but it does leave us in the spot for that. So, jobs that we've posted today are um preschool teacher at AAL, cafeteria workers, school psychologist, you did mention that was posted just this afternoon. Um business manager, elementary music teacher, I know that they're they have a lead good lead on that. Health and phys teacher at the high school. I think
049they were ready to offer a job today to somebody. Uh special education teacher, a custodian, a school nurse. we had hired a nurse and then somebody didn't take a job. Um, of note too, and I know that I've mentioned this to the committee, our food service director, Greta, will be leaving us next Tuesday, and we want to thank her for all the great work that she's done um, in her last three years here, obviously with the food truck. The summer eats program is a great program. And speaking kind of piggybacking on that, kind of throwing my two cents in, we were fortunate to have a visit a few weeks ago from our congressman here and many many or some of our actually many three of our members were able to make it out there during
050the day which is tough obviously at lunchtime to come and we had the congressman out and we also had the commissioner of education and our new well our new commissioner of education and the secretary of education come out too on there and I guess they have an annual kind of summer each tour and they highlight Greenfield because of the great program that you have here for that and you may have seen that there was some articles I think some different ones in the recorder and some different publications and on the news as well too. So it was a great day everybody did a great job all of our cafeteria workers and our managers who were doing everything. I want to shout out to them and uh tonight I was fortunate to tag along with Mr.
051Sullivan here and we went to just Roots where they had the they changed the van. The van the the food truck. It's not a van, right? It's big. You look up at the ladies in there and they're tall up in there. I was letting them know. And Mr. Sullivan was also there giving out some books from title one to many of our young students who were there. They had a plethora of books to choose from and he's done that many times during the summer. Thank you for doing that as well. Well, and to all our workers who go out um many of you know I'm newish to Greenfield, right? And uh that was a good ride out to Just Roots in that sense. It's a big town, big city, right? In that sense. So, it's
052nice that our food truck goes and meets people where they are in that sense. That's a big plus versus having people to drive three to four miles somewhere to get there. So, it was really nice for that. And we are um doing some interviews tomorrow for the food service director as well and we'll be continuing those next week. So we have some good applicants and hopefully we can you know find a nice qualified candidate for that position. In terms of still looking for a handful of teachers as I mentioned and many I'll use the word many right instructional assistants IAS as you know um sometimes they're called pair professionals in different districts depending on who's here and listening. In that sense, it's it's tough, right, to keep IAS, cafeteria workers. In that sense, I think
053our base pay, and I don't think this I know this, I'm telling you, our base pay, like if you were just starting as an IIA, it's $16.95 an hour, right? Which has been up because they read just renegotiated contracts. And I know many people have talked about paying them more, etc. threat to get people through the door when and we hear that every now and then, right? Where they say sometimes, hey, kids can go to Home Depot and make uh uh don't quote me, but $18, 19, maybe even $20 an hour doing that or you can go to Subway and sometimes you'll see signs and some of our our chains in our local areas like that. Um we also do provide some nice benefits for people as well too in terms of, you know, I
054think we're very fair with sick time and um longevity, that type of scenario on a retirement if people should stay with us. And we do have many longtime employees, but there's no doubt precoid I don't want to say life was great, but in most districts, people were holding their own. Like you had enough workers and you had enough bus drivers, you had cafeteria workers, uh maintenance workers, custodians, IAS since since that, and you've probably heard this from us before, and I hate to be on a soap box and repeat it again, but in many of these cases, we can't give away jobs. And it it's amazing, right? I mean, you hear about the unemployment rate, people still looking for work, and yet we have jobs that we can't give away. And what are the reasons?
055I don't know. I don't know if it's if it's the time, it's not that sometimes they're not full year jobs in that scenario like 10-month positions. If it is it the wage not exactly sure what can or can't be done regarding that but >> can continue your report and >> okay so position oh student enrollment so I passed out a sheet to you that just gave you the update of quick version and we'll have you know more extensive versions break it down into class sizes for you in the future. They're still building classes and class sizes right now. And and as I mentioned, every day students are walking through the door. Not tons, but every day students are still enrolling and walking through the door. So, this gives you a general sense as to what
056we have today. This is as of the end of the day today and we anticipate still more um to enroll. For those listening and not, you know, obviously seeing what I'm looking at, at AAL right now, we have 74 students in preK. Those are three and four year olds. At Federal Street, we have 191. At four corners, 181. At Newton, 152. At the middle school, 322. That's grades 5, 6, and 7. And the high school which is grades 8 through 12 has 413 along with a few kids few students who are in the educated until they're 22 range in that sense and um 34 students who attend out of district giving you a total of 1,367 students who are enrolled today. I would almost be rest assured it will go up as we go through
057the next month. You know, and the state takes official snapshots twice a year from us. Nowadays, they're getting really good with coming into getting into our student information system. And I don't mean, you know, illegally, but getting into it and pulling out officially on October 1st and March 1st. But in the old days where districts used to baby maybe manipulate numbers or different data sets, yeah, it's hard to do that nowadays because everything's live. They're they even see our teachers, our certification, the classes that they're teaching. Um, so they they can see all that type of stuff. So there's our enrollment numbers for you right now. just a little under. I think generally last year's 1380ish a lot of times, but we probably anticipate that we'll be up there for that. And another thing I
058did want to run by you, and I'm not sure I kind of joke with you, but I'm not joking because I'm respectful that I'm working with you, is our central office hours. They're generally they've been 8 to 4:30 and in the summertime they change. And our schools, our office assistants and secretaries generally run 8 to 4 or 7:30 to 3:30 in the summer. And I found that when people and there is an option in their contracts that they can work earlier in the summertime. So people have been coming in at 7. And what I'd like to do is have our central office hours go to 7:30 to 4, finding that it's more beneficial to the schools that are open. I, as many of you know, I spent most of my career in high school level,
059right? In before 7 o'clock in the morning, right? Kids are coming through the door at seven, that type of scenario. Classes may start a little after that 7:30 range in there. But not to have I always found it a little odd and disconcerting not to have somebody in central office until 8:00 and having to wait if something should happen in that scenario, whether it's transportation wise, right? Bus riders, um, incidents that happen occasionally in that sense. And the 4:30 4 to 4:30 hour, you generally wouldn't see as much. kids are home, they're at sports, they're doing different activities with their parents. Um, so I propose and it would hand it would affect a handful of our um they call them administrative assistants. I don't want to use the wrong word here. Different districts are clerks,
060secretaries, but in that sense of going they work eight hours. They they're working eight with a half hour lunch, 30 minutes for lunch, so that's why they're there for eight and a half in that sense. And we stagger the lunches. Um, so in my opinion, 7:30 to 4 would be more beneficial, but I don't really want to rock the boat, and I'm not gonna die on this hill either in that sense. >> Well, it's really your call, but I'm it's nice of you to ask for our input, and I'm sure people will be happy to share that with you if they if they wish. So, thanks. >> Okay. >> Um, so, >> thank you. >> Yeah. So, questions for the superintendent, member Goodwin, and then member Denife. Well, the last thing definitely to me that's
061your discretion. Um, but I appreciate the fact because things always happen before somebody's there and something always happens after nobody answers the phone. So, we've all been there. Um, but the other thing, um, I've been watching how many people you have to hire, and I've said this before, and it's not a surprise to anybody. For the last 15 years, we have had a hard time getting instructional assistance in Greenfield. You're up to seven hires that you have posted. They always quit the first day of school or forget to show up. So, I'm predicting you're probably looking for 10 people. And so I would say to you and I would say to my fellow colleagues on the school committee, I would like to make a motion that there's a you know a conversation about a memorandum
062of agreement to raise the money so that you can compete with the surrounding districts because right now you cannot. um if you look at all the salaries around us um they are you know higher than what we're we're offering for our instructional assistance and so that is going to make a big difference to people and it does um and I just think we need to be able to compete with surrounding districts for such an valuable thing. These are the people who spend so much time with our students. Um, and when they're not there, our students suffer. We use them for recess, for cafeteria, and we're using them for subs. If you look at your budget, your sublines, you're not touching your sublines because we're using Paris because there are no subs. Last year, I know
063some schools, it was Paris who subbed for three4s of the year in a classroom. These are invaluable people and I think you have to pay them um a going rate. Um one of the reasons I think um you know we just have to look at how valuable those people are and reflect that. And so, and I know we just went through negotiations and everything else, but a memorandum of agreement would be something that, um, if you could come back with how much that would cost us um, just to compete. Um, I am very competitive. I don't like it when other districts are stealing our people. It just ticks me off. Um, because there are people and our people are good people. And there is a saying that goes way back to principles who've worked here
064for many decades. Green field people are the best. And when somebody takes them away from us, we want to know why. >> Thank you. Member Denife and then Mayor Disorder. Um, I remember when I first started here, I made 15 an hour and that was that was a whole conversation that we had to have about even that. So, I'm so thankful that we have grown. That has been something that I've been really serious about championing. Every time we have negotiations come up, that is the thing that we all say that we want to change. So being at 1695 in >> two years is it's a thing like it was hard fought. So any additional monies that we can give to them, I'm all for. Um about the central office time, I think that that's a
065great idea and of course it's entirely your purview. It's lovely that you asked us, but as a parent when I was a parent of someone in GPS, I really would have appreciated those hours at central office actually um that would have really positively affected my experience as a parent there. So, I wholeheartedly um uh support that and I think that that will help a lot of working families that need that little extra time as well as I know things happen in the morning and I know things happen in the end. As a bus driver, I saw that and no one was on the line to pick up. So, thanks for thinking of that. >> Thank you, mayor. >> Uh, thank you, um, Superintendent. I about something that you, uh, said to us about the choice
066numbers, the choice in numbers. Um, it looked as if we limited choice in numbers in to certain grades. And I wondered what your feelings were on that if you thought that they should be increased. I I imagine it would change by year and I was very grateful for the information you sent because it showed what so many of the other districts did and they seemed to leave it up to um just to call the school whereas we had you know definite um numbers per certain grade. So, I wondered if you could speak to that a little bit more. >> Well, that'll be uh coming up a little later on the agenda. So, if you can hold that and we can bring that back when we're on that item, that would be great. >> Okay. I'm
067going to two more things then. >> Great. on this is >> um reading through the budget report that we got from Andy, it appeared to me that we other than in the high school um we were under spent on um the paras in the all the you know middle the middle school and preschool. So is you would be supportive of us increasing the pay rate for the um for the paras. That is something that member Goodman just brought up. I would be supportive of that. >> She asking me is that a question for >> No. No. Um superintendent. So if >> Oh, I thought she said Andy. Oh >> Yeah. Yeah. In terms of understanding those lines, I'm probably not as great at answering that question, Andy. >> Okay. >> Not to put you on
068I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but in >> the She's absolutely correct. I mean, as I mentioned, that is the area primarily where we seem to struggle with having the vacancy positions, unfilled positions. You know, one of the schools I believe we had a pair of positions that we had anticipated that we did not fill outright all all year. So she she's absolutely right in that you know so um and then some of the things though could be you know as needs shift paras might move from a building to building but overall uh I would say it is a fair statement to say that in the pair professional line is the area where it is that we struggle to maintain and keep to staff. Um, thank you. And lastly, if it appears
069we have vacancies still in busing, um, and this could be something that maybe we we could just hear about next month, but if all of the bus driving positions were filled, do you anticipate that we could try that we would be able to drive all of the children in Greenfield that were going for out of district placement? I don't know enough about that right now to answer. I can I'll I'll check on that and report back to you. >> Sounds good. Thank you very much. >> Member Goodwin. >> This goes back to this the special ed requirement. Do Paris salaries count towards that? >> If they're funded local, yes, and they are. >> Yes, they are. So, the issue that we can't get these people um if we were able to raise their salaries and
070hire people would go towards that. Correct. Am I >> that Yes, that goes towards it. Increase in special education tuitions and overall expenditures go towards that if it's funded out of out of local fund and on federal funds. >> So it also makes the state happy. >> Just checking. I think there it seems like there's I don't think there's anyone on this committee who would object to finding a way to uh trying to increase our budget line for Paris um to have competitive salaries. So maybe it's something we can ask the budget committee to take a look at. I think that really has been uh the obstacle is not having the means to do it, but maybe we can find a way um for for next the next budget cycle. So, super superintendent. >> Yeah.
071And and I just have two quick other things I'd like to throw in for your information. Um one is that next week um Assistant Superintendent Sullivan and many others will be participating in a teen back to school event at the library. So, we're fortunate to have many of our teachers uh doing different events that night. It's a fair that participants will go back to school and how to use a locker to read a class. Judy Bennett from Greenfield High is doing that. How to apply to college. Eric Leaper from the high school is doing it. How to deal with back to school stress. Ashley Wyn from Greenfield Middle School is presenting that. And how to stay in school. Our own assistant superintendent Sullivan is doing that. So, we'll be well represented at that event next
072Tuesday night. I believe the 19th on that. And I'd just like to do a quick report out that I did literally this afternoon just get off a we say the word Zoom but a Google meet with many people from Greenfield regarding composting in our schools and trying to resurrect that. Um Greenfield has done that I think prior to COVID and then CO obviously threw a wrench in a lot of things everywhere. So I had an initial meeting this afternoon. Many of us were on at Peg Hall. You might know these names. Nancy Hazard, Amy Donovan, our Mike Bud, our facilities, and Greta, our foods, and I did a call for about a little over an hour and talked about waste pickup, but where it's taken to Martin's farm at this point right now, that type
073of scenario. So, um, obviously, well, maybe it's not obvious. It's an argu it's a idea that you really have a hard time arguing against, right? And how would you arguing against what's good for the environment and proper and all that type of scenario? We do need to look at dollars, right, a little unfortunately because we were level funded last year. So, while I I agree in concept with this and I told everybody we were talking with that um I'm going to end up talking with Mike and Greta and obviously our business department this week and Amy and I are going to talk late next week sometime and try to see where this flushes out like how much this would cost us in that sense because in some instances there will be savings, right? We'll be
074saving potentially trash fees if we're bringing things to compost, but we're also paying to for special bags that are biodegradable in that sense for another dumpster that's out there for the emptying of that dumpster for a tipping fee for all those things that happen. So, I will keep you posted, but just wanted to let you know that we are um moving forward with the concept of that and looking into that and we'll let you know about all the costs and how we could roll that out again and get get back going and doing what would be the right thing to do. >> Thank you. All right. Any other questions for the superintendent? Okay. Um, we'll move on to the Oh, sorry. Member Goodwin. >> Superintendent, can you say for all the people who don't know
075the first day of school, the time school starts and where they can find the bus routes? >> Bus roots will be posted on our website. The first day is two weeks from today, which is the 27th. >> What about kindergarten? >> Friday the 29th. PreK is Friday the 29th. Um, got to get these times >> and the school start times. You guys are you're it's like a trick question to the new guy here, right? >> Not every not every bell schedule yet. >> It's 8:30 at the mid No, the high school and high school and middle school I know are early >> at the elementary 8:30 and then 730 >> 30 at the high school and junior high school >> at the preschool. >> Thank you. So, all of our all of our enrolled students
076right now, and we'll have this on our website as well, too, but are getting letters. Some actually received them already from their principles letting them know a lot of that information as well, too. But if anybody has any problems, they can reach out to me. Um, I did send an email out, I think a few weeks ago, I passed on to let you know that. And I did receive and hear from many parents and were able to connect with them regarding address changes, some different questions that you mentioned, too. So um I see myself sometime as a facilitator if I don't know the answer I'll get you the answer in that sense >> right 7:30 right doors open they can get breakfast they don't start till 7:45 and AAL the full and AM session starts
077at 8:30 a.m. dismissals at 11:15 and the afternoon session starts at 12:15. >> And I was just going to say and we are fortunate enough to have free breakfast and free lunch for all of our students here. So, uh, parents, you can save a little money if you want to and eat for free. Free breakfast and free lunch. Thank you. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Uh on the consent agenda is approval of the July 9th minutes, approval of the central office and information technology department surplus lists, approval of school handbooks, and approve the awarding of two Vulcan electric combi ovens and accessories and one Crown Electric 40gallon tilting kettle and accessories. Um is there anyone on the committee who would like to remove any item from the consent agenda and consider it separately?
078Okay, I'll hear. Oh, Ann Childs, I see your hand up. >> I'm not sure if I need to if we need to pull it off, but there are a couple things I wanted to say about the food service equipment, and I didn't know if that would be the discussion part of approving or if it could be separate. >> Uh, I guess keeping it separate leaves open the option of voting it down. So, if you're not inclined to try to vote it down, then we could just include it in the discussion of the consent agenda. Okay, then we can include it there. >> Okay. I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. A motion from member Goodwin. Is there a second? >> Second from member Deniv. Um superintendent. >> Yeah. And
079if I may put um our business manager just on the spot. He and I have talked about this. He could let you know about that equipment and what process that it's already the process that it already has gone through. That may answer the questions from member childs, but I'm not sure. But >> great. We want to hear this anyway. >> So, you might remember uh we needed a at the middle school there was a the need for the food service to have a new combi oven and kettle steamer tilt kettle for the the the cafeteria. We went to the city capital planning. They approved the uh purchase of that. Uh the funds are coming out of the food service revolving account. They have enough money to do it. So, it's not an appropriation of capital
080or our budget. Um, unanimous approval by the capital committee of the of the city. Um, there was a cap of $120 for 120 $125,000 that they voted. As you can see, the lowest submitter uh is coming in at $95,90.80. So, we're recommending uh that you vote to accept the low bid from Gillette as presented. >> Thank you, Andy. The only thing I would add to that because pretty much it was the content that I wanted to have made very clear and very public since it is almost $100,000 that if anyone wants to know more they can go back and the minutes or watch our May meeting where this was discussed in depth and yay for coming in almost $25,000 under budget. >> Thank you for that member child. Any other discussion of the consent agenda?
081All right, with that, um, member Deniv, can you call the vote? >> Sure. Chair Johnson, >> yes. >> I'm a yes. Vice Chair Ston, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Mayor Disorger, >> yes. >> Member Childs, >> yes. >> Vote is unanimous. >> All right, the consent agenda. >> The consent agenda passes. We'll move on to school committee reports. I don't have a report at this time. Um, the chair of budget and finance is not here. Um, I don't know if anyone has a report from that committee. Okay, we'll move on to uh, member Deniv's legislative advocate report. I do not have a legislative advocate report at this time, although we did have nice talks with the education commissioner and the secretary of education and they love Greenfield and would love to come
082and give talks to our students in our amazing auditorium at the high school. So, expect that next spring. >> Great. Uh, community engagement subcommittee report. >> Okay. Our last meeting was in June and we have switched our schedule to the fourth Mondays of the month at 6 PM going forward. Our next meeting will be Monday, August 25th. There are several things we are working on. One is to meet with the superintendent and it to figure out a way to organize a calendar sync so that school events, committee and pack meetings and other district news can be all in one place. This will allow for the community for the community and this committee to engage more easily and regularly. We are also recommending as a subcommittee that the full committee create an advisory council comprised of
083parents, students, community, and committee members to work on the permanent superintendent search to begin this fall. The subcommittee is prepared to make a motion on that tonight if needed. The other work we are doing is to foster new relationships with city council members and our subcommittee has been invited to a joint meeting with their community relations subcommittee on September 15th which we will attend to work on identifying overlapping issues. >> Thank you. Member Childs. >> Um I really like uh the increased communication and uh to that note, I would like to make a motion. I move that we appoint Vice Chair Ston as the liaison to the city council to represent us at the general city council meetings. I think it's important that we have a voice there. >> Thank you for that item. I
084think that because it um we did not have it as a listed item on the agenda. I don't think we can make a motion and discuss that tonight, but I'd be happy to put it on the agenda for September. Member Deniv, >> actually, we can vote to have something added to the agenda as a body if we wish. >> Okay. Uh certainly someone could make a motion to add it to tonight's agenda. Um >> so move. >> Okay. So your motion is to add what exactly is your motion member child's >> to add to the agenda a motion to appoint a liaison to attend city council meetings. >> Is there a second? >> Second >> discussion. Member Goodwin. >> I'd like to table this because it it wasn't on the agenda so that I have
085time to think about it. This is the first time I've heard about this so I would like it tabled. I think your motion would be to postpone the meeting the the motion to a future meeting. You want to say state which meeting? >> So would it be the motion? >> My motion would be to postpone this to the September meeting. >> I I'll second that. Any discussion? Okay. Um member Deny, will you call the vote? >> Yes. Chair Johnson Mad. >> Yes. >> Oh, I'm I'm sorry. I just want to clarify. We're talking about tableabling. We're voting on >> responding to the September meeting. >> Okay. Chair John Smith. >> Yes. >> I'm a no. Member Ston. >> I have to abstain. >> Member Goodwin. >> Yes. >> Mayor Disorger. >> Yes. >> Member Childs,
086>> no. Wait, which way? Sorry, too many motions. >> Yes. The motion to the September meeting. >> So table, I vote no. So, two nos, one abstension, and three yeses. So, the motion is tabled. >> Yes, we have postponed that motion to the September meeting. So, we'll add that to our September agenda. Thank you very much. Any other items from the community engagement subcommittee? >> Nope. >> Okay. Uh, I don't have any old business. Moving to new business. Um, school choice. Superintendent Thank you. I've included some information. So, Greenfield, for those out there, Greenfield does participate in school choice and districts in Massachusetts have to vote by the end of the school year. I think generally it's June. There's a date there that you have to vote whether you're going to participate or not in
087that. And you have participated over the course of the years. I've added some information in your packet just as an FYI and then I I'll get to where I'm going in terms of asking. So, you voted to participate and then I I'm assuming this is an assumption on my part that you've probably asked your principles etc where they would have openings in the spring or in the fall anticipate where they could fill some of these slots and we've I say we we've Greenfield have voted to two four six sorry eight to have eight slots of school choice like accepting new students in not that does not include those who are already here those who are here stay can day in that sense. So to accept eight new um I I have found that personally very
088small like a very small number and I kind of show you some of the the only your local numbers in Greenfield but this the information I gave you is available on the DESI website for school choice so it's it's out there for anybody you can see what school districts take in and out via school choice and just for us in FY24 is their latest updated year on the department of ed website we greenfield received says 51.8 students because some students come in or out parts different parts of the year. So, they'll slice that payment tour for you. But we we send out students. Um when I saw that I almost couldn't believe it, right? But the numbers are pretty consistent over the last roughly 10 years. Prior to that, there were some blips. I don't
089know that. I haven't taken a deep dive in on that sense. Um, on the flip side, I know that school enrollments everywhere in not only the state, but in the country are going down. The population is going down. It's not a it's nothing bad about Greenfield that your numbers are going down. They're going down everywhere. I've worked in Chickab, which used to have 8,000 kids years ago when I was there, and now they're at about 6,700. They've lost 1300 in in 10 years. Right? So, everybody is losing students from just less population. You see it at our secondary, at our post-secary, at our college levels. You if you follow the higher ed, many of the small schools are closing. So, less students are are around taking aid in. You know, we have a couple scenarios
090where I've gotten some applications over the summer for school choice in some grades that are not listed here. So, I think what I'm asking you is you did vote for yes to accept school choice. And I also included what other districts across the state have accepted just so you can see that. But you don't you give guidance and I don't want to tell you what to do. You know that, right? I'm just kind of saying you don't have to vote on the actual grades. Like that can be a rolling thing to that sense. We want to be transparent in the spring of what we have, but should openings occur like we think we have more room in certain grades. I'd like you to let me along with the principles working with them make the decision
091to allow for example somebody in eighth grade to stay. We have somebody we have different scenarios where sometimes we may have families who are moving out of town for different reasons but still want to send their children to school here and I have some grades that I don't have open and I can't accept them in that scenario. And I know that I can tell you I haven't even talked to every principal about this. I've talked to some, but in many cases, can I find a slot for one student? Probably. I bet you I could in that sense. And we have it here. We know that with our enrollment. Would we put somebody and take people into classes that are are bulging at the seams, right? No, we wouldn't do that. It would be obviously a
092choice that would be thoughtful and deliberate in that sense. So, I wanted to run that by you because we talk about how all these students are leaving us and what can we do to get our kids to stay here and we're working on that, right? That's going to be a goal of ours all year and and for the future as well. What can we do to draw students in here? And when somebody raises their hand and says, "I want to stay." And for the most part, I'd want them to stay, right? Why why tell them no, I'm sorry. you have to go to the town next door where you move to when they really like their teachers here and their their activities that they're participating in etc. So I don't think you necessarily have to
093vote on this. I'm kind of talking you through this. You did vote to accept and and that's what you vote for. You being the school committee in terms of the openings generally, you know, I want to say that can we can I make do with some of those? I mean, it's been a while since I read the regulations, but can we vote to open it again? >> Yes. Yeah. Well, you're open. No. When I say that, you're open, >> right? You're already add to the seats that are currently listed. >> That can be that can be fluid. Yes. >> So, why wouldn't we want to do that? >> Well, I just always want to run it by, you know, I know, and I appreciate that so much. But to turn away a child who currently
094is in Greenfield public schools because their family moved, >> I mean it just, >> you know, and I'll do a little more homework, but I don't believe you need to take any votes. And I believe I can do that. And I wouldn't accept anybody if I couldn't, but I think I can, but I'll I'll finalize that >> for sure. But we we're not, let me tell you, we are not having an avalanche of applications here. I'm talking about one or two, literally. I think that we hired you because you knew you would we knew you would be thoughtful and considerate and you had this experience. So, please rest assured that we trust you to make these kinds of decisions. These are the things left in your hands and I appreciate you reporting to us, but
095I have full faith in your ability to make these most compassionate decisions. >> Thank you, mayor. I concur. Thank you. I'd be delighted to have you make those decisions. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or discussion? Okay. Thank you. Well, with that, I think our next item is adjournment if I am right. A motion to adjurnn. >> Move. >> Motion from member Goodwin. Is there a second? >> Second from member Deniv. Any discussion? Secretary Den, will you call the vote? >> Yeah, hold on. Uh, Chair John Musan, >> yes. >> I'm a yes. Vicer Ston, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Mayor Disorger, >> yes. >> Member Childs, >> yes. That's right. We're adjourned unanimously at 750.