001good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for August 14th 2024 we're at the johnzon community center um secretary denie would you call the role yes I will secretary Den I'm here Vice chair Martini here chair Johnson mad here mayor dorer here member Goodwin here member seon here member Childs is not present we have a quorum and also present is superintendent Pat our assistant superintendent and Andy pette our business manager and it's 603 so we're calling the meeting to order this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time not seeing any others um we'll move to public comment I don't see anyone on Zoom so I think it's iners public comment only if there is anyone let
002me just get the timer sorry is it two minutes now it's three minutes three okay I started abbreviating my comments already okay uh hi um members of the Greenfield school committee I sent well whoa I sent an email say your name and where you live sure uh Jesus SLA 88 Deerfield Street Greenfield I I sent an email to the members of the school committee with the contents of what I'm going to comment on now but I'm going to share an abbreviated version of it um I'm here before the Greenfield school committee tonight as a Greenfield resident to seek the support of the Greenfield school committee in endorsing a proposal to have this State underwrite the cost of school choice and Charter School Public Funding policies for low and moderate income communities I wish I could
003come before this committee to request endorsement by resolution on an existing legislative proposal to address school funding Equity but there isn't one what I can tell you is that there is Broad support Statewide for addressing the inequity created by the Dual State mandates of school choice and Charter School Public Funding policies that impose an insurmountable cost cost to the funding of low and moderate income school districts I emailed you two separate articles one from the mass Municipal Association uh written by the current New Bedford mayor um and a different one uh written by the editorial staff at the birkshire Eagle in Pittsfield um 62% of Voters Statewide in 2016 opposed the expansion of charter schools because of the negative impact that Charter School Public Funding policy has on declining enrollment public school districts this year
00421 school districts or more than 2third of all Commonwealth school districts are minimum Aid districts in declining enrollment and not receiving any new aid from the student Opportunity Act this was repeatedly stated at a March 1st state budget hearing by the superintendent of Northampton Public Schools the mass Municipal Association the current president of masc the chair of the Holio school committee and many more people I had the opportunity to speak to a representative from the Boston education Justice Alliance recently despite the reality that Boston was left out of meaningful new funding from the student Opportunity Act and that they too are among the 2011 districts they are still waiting on their traditional State advocacy partners for Direction but we cannot wait or hope for other people somewhere else to figure this out for us if
005we want to see legislation filed at the beginning of the next year that addresses school funding issues at the state level we have to be willing to go out on a limb ourselves so that we are no longer trying to address the funding issues posed by school choice and Charter School Public Funding policies in isolation to avoid getting lost in the noise of the 6,000 plus bills filed every year at the state level we must speak with one voice and converge on a single state policy issue that we are willing to put energy into supporting to address I am confident if a few local school committees show leadership on this issue that we will have enough momentum to actually impact Chapter 70 budgeting next year that's three minutes okay thank you good evening Doug swin
00638 Forest Avenue in Greenfield first of all what Jesus said that's the first part um but I have something not completely different but sort of different um you know that there is a ballot initiative that is going to be voted on in November um that has to do with um the mcast as a graduation requirement and I am going I am submitting a resolution tonight to you the Greenfield school committee and hopes that the committee will pass it in time to communicate that vote to our local legis lators and to governor huy before the November 2024 election so I'm going to read it to you as much as I can fit in in 3 minutes whereas ballot question two repeal the requirement that students must achieve a certain competency level on the Massachusetts comprehensive assessment
007system or mcass exam to graduate high school is on the ballot this coming November whereas ballot question two would maintain mcast assessments and related reporting and accountability requirements to the extent extended mandated by federal law and whereas ballot question 2 leaves the current academic learning standards in place that determine what students are required to learn and whereas the use of mcast scores as a graduation requirement has not catalyzed the closing of opportunity gaps in Massachusetts and the test can be a barrier to graduation for students who do not perform well unstandardized tests despite their understanding of a subject and where as the Greenfield Public Schools are committed to providing the best possible educational experience to all of our students and whereas ballot question two would establish a modified graduation requirement based on coursework rather than
008high stakes standardized testing resolved that the Greenfield school committee supports ballot question two which would remove the mcass as a graduation requirement and will'll send a copy of this motion to the Greenfield legislative delegation and to Governor Healey thank you that's it thank you any other public comment okay we will move on to reports of the administration and Andy pette has the uh budget report and our budget training Andy uh which one do we want to do first I think it might make sense to do the little training first because then we could actually apply it to the monthly report sounds perfect okay so thank you everyone uh we if I remember and we all remember that I was asked to give a a little workshop on how to read the reports uh as you
009can tell from the PowerPoint uh presentation I went a little Beyond because I think it's good to put it into context of how it is that we'll say best practices from the beginning of a budget development to the actual when we like to say and it's when the rubber hits the road as to actual operations so without further Ado if my assistant would go to the next slide please oh wow look at that so these are the areas that we're going to cover and primarily the first three we're talking budget development financial management and then the reading of the reports and some other information that could be helpful to you uh just as background the the best practices that we're touching on here uh come from and I'll start listing the alphabet soup that is
010the government Finance Officers Association the association of school business officials that's a National Organization for school business administrators the mass Association of school business officials uh I'm a certified government finance manager from the association of government accountants so we've taken best practices from that and also honestly uh from I used to be an auditor for the state accountability agency that reviewed school districts and also just taking it from when audits occur of school districts Auditors always would provide a management letter and in the management letter from Auditors they will provide recommendations for what they feel from an audit perspective would be for Best Practices so we've taken all those into what it is we like to call the TMS way and quite honestly I'm going to say and you'll see as we go through here
011uh Greenfield does a lot of it you know you should be you commended for and I'll be in amongst in the TMS world uh when we start talking about implementing best practices I actually use Greenfield as a model from everything from the accounting system that is used and how it was set up we're still working on improvements but it's still as far as the conf configuration of it and its use it's solid you know and even also on the budget development so we're going to hit on some of these things but it's like I said I wanted to put it in the context of from the beginning of the process to the actual end of what it is when we're actually living and working in the budget next slide please so this is a bit
012esoteric we're talking about in when it comes to budget development there are primarily three Concepts when it comes to budget development the first one which is we say like to say is a recommended one and it's pretty obvious is the needs based budget which is organizations build their budget requests by the identified needs and we use that here in Greenfield um you you would be surprised maybe not that sometimes when uh we've had clients honestly that once we build the needs-based budget with them they look at what the increase would be and the the sticker shock is oh we can't go forward with that you know that's you know our recommendation is the the community needs to know they need to know what it is as far as what's needed to fund the schools properly
013now does it mean we're going to get those funds that's where the budget deliberation occurs the next concept is level service budgeting and that again pretty straightforward is what your current services are that's what it is that we're going to be going to the next year for and then the third option is level funded I very rarely like to talk about that because honestly that's very Draconian you know if you're you're not even factoring in any inflationary costs in your budget for the subsequent year you know it's well I'll just say the technical term is it's not good next slide please so the subset of when we start talking about the needs-based budget uh what we do in in the world of TMS and other plac do it as well we talk about the all
014funds budgeting now those that have been through the budget process know that when you look at our budget it's not just the local appropriated amount you know I've done training for other school committees where I ask them what does it take to fund your school district and a good number of them will just go to the local budget and say it's and then you know I always have to respond to them well actually know because and I just brought up fy2 24 as an example when you look and see what it takes for providing the school with the education that we're looking for here and now this only talks about the net School spending side and we can I'll touch on that a bit afterwards but we're getting six we planned in fy2 24 $6
015million of other funding sources to help fund the educational programs here in Greenfield and then there are expenses that are on the city side to the tune of just under 12.8 million that go towards educating the schools students here in Greenfield as well so when you add those up you know you get what is the all funds cost for the education here in the Greenfield Public Schools of $40 million now I'll dust off my political science undergrad degree and say when time comes for Budget deliberation when you know we're talking about what we're asking for from the community you know I always say be thankful we're getting that $6 million because we're not asking that of the community we're getting that from entitlement grants and the other funding sources that come to us okay put
016the political science degree away now so now we're going to go on to the next SE which section which is a financial management so we've built the budget we've had the discussions at the administrative Team level Budget Finance subcommittee brought it to the school committee the rubber is hitting the road so again here in Greenfield all administrators with budget Authority manage their respective programs departments then the schools budgets you know so it is truly what it is that's expected underneath Ed reform you might have heard the concept of site based management site and program based management again I'm going to say just from experience we've had some of our clients when we've gone in where and I I say this with nothing but respect to business administrators where the business office controlled everything and they
017had the final say and and our concept quite honestly is the business office shouldn't be making educational decisions our job is to make sure that the information that the administrators have is as accurate as possible so that they can make the decisions of what's going on in their schools and in their programs so and that occurs here in Greenfield we're in a process and it's in a future slide but all administrators they've got access to the accounting system and or they're in a process of getting access to mun so that they can read their reports and if not they just call up the business office and we'll walk them through or give them a report for whatever it is they're looking for so it's really again I'm going to say internally here a solid operation
018as to when it comes to the management of those administrators with budget Authority when we get now to the level when it comes to purchasing all purchases and this is a one of those things that could cause some of us to lose sleep where all purchases of goods and services are done using a purchase order and that's a it's a preapproved process where it goes from a requisition that's generated at the building and a program level that goes through the system and gets approved at various stages all the way up to the superintendent and then it gets formally encumbered and reserved so what ends up happening I like to say is like as soon as you know whether it's your your con annual maintenance contract a purchase order is done and therefore it's a reserve
019so then when you see in your monthly reports if we have done and it's not perfect because there are some things that'll end up happening during the year but for all intents and purposes we know with our encumbrances of our known con contracts of supplies and services and then as I in a third bullet we're talking about the encumbering of salaries I like to say you for we should be able to run one report which would be from July 1 to June 30th and if that lower number on the right hand corner of the last page is a positive number we're good you know and if it's a negative number then we need to talk and that's when you look at those other funding sources because of the way that we manage things here we
020end up doing a lot of things where we charge it to the local budget first while we're waiting on grants to come in and then the other funding sources we have to come in and then we'll do an accounting journal entry to move the expenses out so again it's a very solid simple budgetary control system that I'll say Greenfield does very well you know it is one of the districts where amongst I say in the TMS world I don't lose sleepover despite some of the challenges that we have so again that's a testament to the administration and you the committee as to what it is that you do as far as supporting your operations next slide please so this again I'm just repeating as far as the access that administrators with budget Authority have to
021the accounting system um the they're getting they can run it daily if they so chose to see where it is that things are going you know but again for all intense and purposes the information is there for them at the ready so that they can feel comfortable to know and it gets to the thing as far as operating their budgets and their buildings their programs if they need to make changes then they've got the information there to be be able to decide if they want to take it from supplies and put it in textbooks or something along those lines that's all within their purview under the concept of site base management next slide please now to the original intent of this uh Workshop was the actual reading of the reports these this is an actual
022just a a screenshot of I just took one of the most recent on for fy2 of am munus report that's the accounting system that we use and it is sorted by cost center and again that gets to the concept of the the buildings the programs and we're going to get into some of the the weeds here as far as what it is that these numbers mean and the the descriptions mean and the even down to the The Columns per se so we'll go to the next slide please munist accounting system uses a concept which is called organizations and objects organ objects for short um orgs are the first segment that's a long number that you see in the the two segment uh description the numerical description objects are derived from the Uniform Massachusetts accounting system
023so again this is a testament to both the city and the school side when Auditors come in to audit the school district for this end of the year financial report that we have to submit yearly one of the things that they're required to look for is a crosswalk and a crosswalk is is there a crosswalk that that exists between the umis system and the department of Elementary and secondary education chart of accounts and we have one here and you'd be surprised again maybe not but I've got a good number of other clients that do not have that you know they end up having to manually do the crosswalk from the umis to the Desi chart of accounts so the org every org there's an or it's important because it it it ends up assigning it
024to the cost center when if there's a new need for a new line they'll be a new org created there is a method to the manness of what each number in the org requires but that quite honestly is Way Beyond what it is as far as that you need it's really you're you're looking at Cost Center and the object side that is of most importance to you because that's where it really tells the story so what I think is helpful for one of the things I know when we've talked about these monthly updates is to go through the Ford number segment of the objects because then you'll see you know the and it's worthy of reading the 5100 is a personal services that's a description by the umis account system those are salaries 4,200 are
025purchases of services so those are contracted Services 54 supplies 5600 is intergovernmental so that would be if you were to look at you know on on the city side where and I know we just talked about it like the choice and Charter School assessments that are paid by the city those would have a 5600 because those are being paid to other communities you know 5600 is also just because there's in a sense no sometimes no other place to place them for tuition to out of District placements they use the 5600 as well it's it's fine it's acceptable so 5700 is the catchall of if it doesn't fit into any of the other those other categories it would be underneath the 5700 and then 5800 is capital expenses so if we go back to if you
026were to look and see now that's sorry it's next slide look at that I didn't even have to tell you um the these are the columns now that we have in the uh the munus report the original budget at once the school committee has voted to approve the budget and the local amount that we for lack of better phrase back into we enter that into the original budget column in the mun system then the next column is the transfers and adjustments and I remember I mentioned that at the last meeting where we there is a school committee policy on budget transfers and we do these transfers when administrators request them and it goes back to the example I talked about just a bit earlier about if I want to do a transfer between supplies and
027other materials or in textbook the administrators submit a request and again the solid internal control system that is in place here it's just not you know automatically accepted it gets my approval to make sure that it's meeting budgetary Authority and also that we're not necessarily going against any school committee policy or if there's a need for regulation superintendent approves as well so you know it has that multiple check of originator requesting business office re reviewing and approving and superintendent reviewing and approving very solid then you get the revised budget that would be any of the reflected budget transfers that have occurred year-to date expended States what it is that is the actual expenditures as of the date we run the report en encumbered requisition we use requisitions but ultimately what gets into the system is
028the actual formal incumbrance and purchase order those are the reserved amounts regarding the salaries once we know as I've said when we've gone through the budget development we'll we'll draw a line in the S as close to September one to start a school as possible and we've already had like the encumbrances of salaries but we'll do a revision of that with all the comings and goings that have occurred over the summer to adjust the encumbered salary amounts again it's a very very simple but powerful budgetary control system because when people change you'll end up knowing you know if if someone takes a maternity leave and end up going out and has uh days without pay that encumbered amount would be adjusted by that person and you'll see the available balance amount change in the available
029balance available budget column so that helps us as our budget decisions happen where if we end up having something occur that is not budgeted for or we very well may be able to solve it internally by doing a budget Transfer and moving things around as needed and then the available budget column is just the number three less four less five next slide please so if you're ever un un unable to sleep these two links here will take you to the best uh cure for insomnia the first one link will take you to the Desi chart of accounts now we've talked about this when we're talking about how we want to change our current chart of accounts because of the fact that we have so many um but you'll see you know when we talk about
030it if you to any I invite anyone to go look and see there's a method to the madness and I'll be honest it it can be maddening uh to what it is that they're looking for when it comes time to reporting but at the same time when you talk about and looking at the level of detail we have and this is again not a criticism and it's it's something that every other community that we've been in and also we've seen across the state from my audit days when the department of Ed came out with this new chart of accounts we were all kind of learning on the fly if it was you know we were creating okay we're going to create Spanish supplies at the high school we're going to create French supplies at the
031high school but then you know we used to actually have to report it that way as far as foreign language supplies well now Desi has come to I think their senses as they've heard the feedback of saying that's just instructional supplies at the building and so you know you don't get any more funds through the Chapter 70 formula for it to be foreign language supplies or just general instructional supplies so you'll see when we start to talk about the the changing in our chart of accounts here and what we use that's the Bible that we're going to be following when time comes to make those changes and then the last uh link that's the most recent the fiscal year 24 end of the year pup and financial report all the information regarding every source of
032spending that occurs in Greenfield has to get completed on this report and submitted to the state and it gets audited through a compliance review by by independent Auditors so you know we and I I again give credit to uh the the both the accounting system and the relationship with the city finance department because there are things that are required on the city side that every year I get when we've been here from the city accountant city of finance department to be able to populate this report where to be honest with you in some of our other districts we've had to ask for extensions because we haven't gotten any information from the city Andor it hasn't been finalized or accurate so uh again I say and I'm not blowing smoke here that I use Greenfield as
033an example as far as the way operationally it's configured we've got room for improvement we always do every place does but again it's really solid as to how it is that we do things here questions May um so my my first question when the when you're putting the budget together um and you're it's being determined what's going to go to what um and then we have a budget committee do the does each uh principal submit their budget to I imagine that this happens every principal submits their budget to you okay and then because I I haven't been in on any of these budget me meetings and and then uh like who does who submits it for districtwide like who submits the budget to this superintendent for districtwide I'm I have a couple questions on this
034so anything that is not if I may anything that isn't building or program specific the districtwide the undistributed section are all through the I'd say Central Administration which would be superintendent patau assistant superintendent Sullivan and Dave messing and the technology director and Mike Buro as the facility so since they aren't necessarily building specific those are go to the program in a sense administrative side of what we were just talking about so they do that section of the budget development and and so I guess I'm looking for for for this for this school committee's part when it comes to the school committee budget uh you know initial review the budget team do is that information whatever was requested for each department seen by everybody on the budget on the school committee budget team whatever was asked
035for I mean this this it goes to the for the initial you know just for like next year when you're doing your budget for next year um in the end the superintendent you and probably with the finance probably with you are going to make the determination but do do our three budget members see whatever was asked for in each section of the budget yes because we go forward with the needs so the needs are now there's discussion about the I'd say some deliberation on the needs as far as you know there's healthy discussions regarding and I'm going to say like the the data that's used whether it's class size whether it's you know per summative and performative data I mean I'm really talking above my pay grade here but you know it's not it goes
036beyond test scores it could be attendance it could you know they're all sources of data that are used and then we'll have discussions where you know the past practice had been every administrator comes in and meets with the the leadership team central office leadership team superintendent assistant superintendent and reviews the data to see you know have some healthy discussions as to whether or not you know everybody can back up that we're going forward with that and then it gets shared with the budget finan subcommittee okay Vice chair uh I just want to clarify that question um a little bit for the mayor because um having been on the budget and finance subcommittee the last couple of years um I it's has not been the practice that U the subcommittee is um reviewing or privy to
037what individual department heads have requested in the ultimate construction of the budget and I do think that gets a little bit murky for people sometimes and that's what I was thinking uh watching this excellent presentation um the part that probably seems the most opaque to the public is the first part budget development how does the budget get developed um and and that's where we run into some communication issues I think with um with the public uh for example last year we had a great deal of um public interest and comment about the funding of music education in the um in the school department and um what came out of that in our subcommittee um meetings is was the question well did we fund everything that was requested by the head of the music department and
038the the answer was yes so uh that would probably uh help people to understand the efforts that the administration is making to provide U excellent funding to the music department but that it wasn't part of the discussion until that came up so uh does that I think that is what the mayor was getting at and I I I would agree with member martini and to clarify guess to say when the work that occurs is the goal is to come forward with the superintendent's recommended budget and then we have had as M Martini is talking about discussions at the subject we've even put in things you know even just you know regarding you know they've taken a vote to fund something you know and then we've put that into the budget to ultimately come forward with
039what would be the the recommended budget to the full committee so you know and that goes to think we always can do better as far as communicating what it is and how the process works and what it is that you know for a lack of better phrase might have made the cut or not made the cut you know but you know the ultimate is it's superintendent's recommended budget goes to the subcommittee and subcommittee deliberates and then we have the discussions back and forth they may ask for more information we provide the more information and then you know the feedback gets into Andor you know we end up having to you know share and using that music as a classic and a great example as to oh yes we had to ultimately did fund what was
040requested for the music program other questions M and then I'm just wondering the on the budget development concept page the the third one school expend expens forever what the city side does that also include the in increase in healthare costs yes thank you I just want to know if that number was the real deal Andy for it is the 24 budgeted amount so we'll we you know now that the year is closed we'll know the actuals but I was using just the what was used for building the budget but I saw member seon and then we'll go back to Vice chair martini thank you um one I just want to make a note that if you're amendable to it I think this presentation should be part of new member materials I think we should just
041it's an easy thing we can immediately put on our website for for anybody new uh who does come in in the future um I had some more questions about about the the budget development process and and specifically um who all like I get that it happens at the department or at the program level but you know who all is part of determining what the needs are are um what does that what does that look like and how forward looking is it I get that a budget is for the upcoming year but when we're budgeting for the upcoming year are we keeping in mind our Five-Year Plan like our fiveyear like are we really budgeting for what needs to happen now to get us where we're trying to go and how do we know that we
042are doing that um and then another question is you know we we budget based on needs which I totally get totally good on that but what we actually we fund our potential Solutions we don't fund the need we fund things that we hope will address the need and how are those determined like how do we choose among the possible options to address a problem and where is that rationale shared with us that I'll let you take some of that first and I'll chime in chime in um so for I think to address your first question um when we were devel veloping the uh budget for this year we were taking into account redistricting and what we're going to need for next year and the shifts and moves of personnel um building based needs with additional
043grades at the elementary and how those uh Supply costs are going to increase and and things like that so we do have a forward um I wouldn't say it's as far as five years but there's always a a two to three year extension in our minds as we're talking about uh the shifts especially with the upcoming shifts in 2025 that were going to occur um I also think that um when we meet Christine uh myself Andy and then every Department had met for many hours and just really we hash out like what's going on what's the data saying what are our priorities in the Strategic plan what needs do we need to meet under the district prioritization plan with the state like there's so many you know factors that go into that and then what
044do we really want the experience for Greenfield Public School students to be on their actual day-to-day schooling and those conversations are heated at times and and collaborative and engaging and then um usually at the end of all of those meetings we've come to a a a an agreement that this is what's best for Greenfield Public Schools if we move forward with X Y and Z and we probably could not we could do without why so that's really like the collaborative effort in all of that so that at the end of the day it's not me saying what a principal needs a at a building or it's not Stephen saying no I want this curriculum everything's very class collaborative to be very forward thinking about all of the other components that we have to address with
045the needs of our students where they are and then I forgot what your second piece was um the other was about um when we have multiple possible solutions to a given need to meet a given need do where where do we sort of get um the rationale that went into picking one and funding it curriculum and academic wise it's often Grant related so if we can offset some of the needs and the solutions that we need to use to address those it's usually through uh teaching and learning Department because there are a lot of grants that we can apply for but then they have specific parameters as to which you can use that money for the solutions so we're always looking for those those pieces first so that we can have that funding offset the
046costs that we're asking the city to fund the schools with and that's really uh a lot of our academic Solutions come through those either entitlement grants or competitive grants that we find and say we really need this we really need this solution and this grant will address it so we're applying for it and then when we get it we say great we have that money to offset that need with that solution and if I may I'll add and this is even a a non-finance thing that I will add um it's a collaborative and evaluative process so if there's if we were provided with some potential solutions for whatever the issue may be it's not just from on high that that decision is made that we're going to go with program a it's let's all you
047know there's a committee or you know a group that work group that will get formed to look and review whatever it is and then make a determination what is best for the course of action that will take so it's very collaborative and evaluative I'll say another thing I'll say that I've taken from here for our other other clients and I I'll just quick bring up an example where uh we we I'll just remember with the whole eer funding one of our districts used their eer funding for a community outreach coordinator and it had success in the community and so the discussion was the concern was what do we do with that once the Easter funding goes away and my response to them was well then unfortunately we might have to look and evaluate something else
048and there might need to be a tradeoff of what it is you know if we value that community outreach coordinator and the funds aren't there to fund everything else that we want to then we end up having to make some hard decisions and prioritize potentially what's going to go because this community outreach coordinator has such huge success or something so you know those are the types of discussions that do occur Vice chair Martini do you still have uh well it's my first comment is a little bit uh related to member seon's suggestion which I uh will raise actually because I was thinking that it would be very helpful if we could um segment just this part of the video from this evening's meeting and put this presentation on the uh school committee part of the
049website not just in member materials would be great but actually I think um there might be a few people out there in the public who would like to see it uh and won't know that it exists unless they happen to be watching tonight or look at this agenda somay later um I wanted to ask a question about something that comes up a lot um members often end up asking questions um um when looking at reports about fluctuations in um salary expenses between buildings and often the explanation is because someone at a different step level moved to a position in a different building or something like this and yeah so it ends up throwing off um numbers on the right hand side and I just wondered how is that reflected or is there a way to
050reflect that to just avoid that particular piece of confusion so one of the things you might have heard us discuss in the past is the concept of a position control Ledger position control system um munus has that in it and it's something that we had been working with the city Side on updating and for lack of cleaning up because when when it was first I'll say active quite honestly again people were just you know creating position after position after position and so it required a lot of cleanup and then with some turnover that occurred both in the business office and the HR both sides in the school and you know that was not kept and maintained person we know who our people were but the whole purpose of this position control system when working to
051its fullest capacity would address exactly what is you're talking about talking about I'm pleased to report that and I will tip my hat to ver in the business office she went through and we did a cleanup and by we I mean she did a cleanup of the position control system and if you were to look at the fields that are in it I mean there's about 32 plus fields in a position control system and we we want to use them all because it's a very powerful system to use so she went through and cleaned it up and then Karen and at the time superintendent the barge went through and reviewed it so our goal is for to you going say use this for FY 25 to say I'm going to use a raise cleanup because
052I I want to remind everybody that we begin this budget development process for all intendent purposes a year in advance so and when you're talking about the fact that as everybody's experiencing or and not even just here and I think in education in general Personnel movements are going on on you know we have I going to use the word transiency there's some a lot of transiency amongst the Staffing as far as the comings and goings so you're talking about building a b budget a year in advance you have all these changes that have occurred during the year which some of those you know negatives and or changes might have been reason to occur you have positions end up moving because of needs as identified as the year has progressed and then you also have whether
053it's Grant things that come up as far as grant funding more or less and we can end up moving things around you know and then just some of the normal cleanup that has had to occur so the goal is now we want to use the position control almost as our guide book for where it is that we offer FY 25 for hopefully when we start building fi 26 we'd be able to use that so will I say that you know as I like to say that you know our goal is that come close to September 1 you know maybe a meeting in whether sep nber most likely October will have a realigned FY 25 budget for you that will have the people as we know them at that point in time where it is that
054they belong that's our goal and then using that from the position control system for building f26 that's great to hear thank you fingers crossed member ston oh member Den you first from you yet Andy thank you for doing this presentation I appreciate you hearing the need that we had and fulfilling it I have three maybe four questions um this is the first time that I've heard you mention your other clients so I'm just curious how many districts TMS serves geez 16 right now 16 um wow good for you um I was also curious you mentioned that there is room for improvement and do you have any ideas of what the room for improvement might be in Greenfield things that we should keep an eye out for as we build new budgets I mean the room
055for improvement as far as the administrative side of things for what we're talking about and we are in discussions both with the City Finance and it's all in the HR module of the munus system there are a lot of things that are extremely time consuming I can't speak for the city side but I know the discussions we've had on the City side with the HR and Personnel side of things there are things that are inordinately time consuming on the school side when it comes to everything from the onboarding and just normal paperwork the acrs that occur for people's time um it's a very manual process that we have to do now that there are modules in the mun system that if we can use them and get them in place would make make us more
056efficient and we are endeavoring to work with the Tyler is the company that owns munus on getting them into start making those changes I'd say that is the the biggest area from the school side I see the mayor shaking her head I think you know she would agree on the city Side as well that the HR component is is a struggle uh one just by nature of HR in general but you know when you're looking at you know there there's and quite honestly there's the potential of some of the the other programs and vendors that we use we potentially could no longer have to use if we fully used and embraced the HR they call it human capital the human capital module in in munus so uh we have been reaching out there's you know
057and there the discussion is ongoing as far as bringing them into get the ball moving on what it is that we want to do regarding time and attendance acrs you know everything pretty much in the HR side to improve our operations here on a school and I would I feel comfortable saying on the city Side as well and then my last question is um one of the reasons that I I really was hoping that you would give us this excellent presentation that and I also agree with member sex and member Martini that this should be on the website for sure I I will I was going to tear out that little section with the numbers 5400 put them in my bag so I had could read them and know what I'm looking at which leads
058me to my question this munist report is full of wonderful data raw data but we're volunteers and I'm wondering if with any of your other clients if you have found an alternate or additional way to present this data that makes it more digestible and that is comparable over several budget Cycles so that we can get more of a macro view because this is very micro in the we and we do need that from some sometimes but we also need an overarching View and that's one of the things that I was hoping to get from this presentation so two things one I would say as far as our other clients unfortunately no what what we've done with them is because uh we've done the the workshop on how to read the reports um the other challeng
059is as far as I guess and I would almost say maybe we end up this might be a topic for the Budget Finance subcommittee to talk about what it is because I know we this is not the first time you know this is our third time back here in greenfeld ours and our company's third time and I know there are former committee members that we've always had discussions as to how we what's the information and how we should present the information and you know quite honestly I'm going to say without speaking all of those gone before us a lot of the times the business office was a report writing machine as to we have to run to report this way we have to know oh but we also need to run it this way because
060we voted on it that way and it's quite honestly just not a good use of the business office is time um we have the ability to synthesize the information to a higher level but then the discussion becomes and you know we're never going to want to be accused of quote unquote hiding things but where is that breaking point where you lose the Comfort information that you have as committee members regarding I feel comfortable with what I'm looking at as far as one of my main responsibilities as is the budget um and or and I understand what you get I agree with you it's very granular I mean you you see you see the end result of the sausage being made I mean that's a lot there is there a way I'm going to say graphically
061to present it that's a struggle because you're talking about something that is constantly in motion and so you know I was talking again with ver in the business office we were you know thinking is there a way for us to do this and we're looking to see and then also you're just talking about the processes you need to then export the information out into a format that could be manipulated to put into a graphical form anytime that you then start to have human manipulation of data there's the potential of Errors of things being dropped off for whatever reason and then honestly I have to say if you look at the format of of munus report that gets exported into Excel or CSV format um it's cumbersome so then we're we're starting to get back into
062the is it an effective use of the staff's time our time to put it into a graphical format or is there some way that we could look at a munus report synthesize it into some categories that might it make it I'm going to say you have the Comfort level of being able to say yeah I feel good about what it is I'm looking at as far as a budget update um but maybe not necessarily down in the weeds of what it is that you're currently getting this is admittedly this is a warts and all you're seeing everything you know so that's also I say not necessarily a bad thing you know I think about one of our former clients where you know I we were their their department heads didn't have access to the accounting
063system that they used and I bring this up again when I do training uh their medical therapeutic contracted Services line was projected to be $200,000 budget so the accounts payable lady came to me and said what are you going to do about that and my response to her was well let me tell you I said again going back to my they did encumber so I said if you look at the last page the lower right hand corner number it's still positive I said but the special education director she got the report the superintendent she got the report the school committee members they got the report in their packets and if you go watch the school committee meeting tonight you'll hear me report out to the school committee that the medical therapeutic contracted Services line is
064projected to be $200,000 over budget however again looking at the bottom number on the last page of the last line we have the funds internally to cover that so it goes back to I just share that as it's the the where is the breaking point of that Comfort level for you being school committee members doing your duties as the overall budget oversight you have versus the uh comfort level Andor the detail so that you know things are running the way it is that we expect them to run so nothing and nothing so no well answer I would say graphically it's a CH would it it's I I'm going to have to say again I would defer to the Budget Finance subcommittee but if you're going to ask our recommendation my recommendation I would say no
065I'd be open to a discussion and potentially trying some other scenarios of cons consolidating things whether it's you know uh just doing it by salaries by those four categories and just some totaling those by cost center we can explore things like that even your report that you speak to us in a written format that's included in our materials would be helpful because then the public can see sort of the macro view that you are giving us instead of we I'm just trying to avoid this going through this and being like what does this line mean what does this do you know what I mean not just for me because I've had to jump on this learning curve you know that's just part of it but we have that due diligence to the public and they
066look into this and then they email us and then I don't know I'm not the business manager but if I could look at the report that you give because you you excellently put it together in every meeting and explain it then that would give me a place to go as a Committee Member I could review it and know where we are and have that in my mind as a jumping off point for your next report I think it is something we can refer to the budget subcommittee to discuss so great thanks member ston you still yeah mine's just a little question um so I get that like 5800 is capital expense what do these other two numbers mean because they're different in some of the some of the lines and is that just like this
067was the 26th Capital expense we had the 27th or do they actually mean something can you give me what you're referring to as far as are you looking at the actual you're looking at the the actual and all right so let me just we've got you know for the very first one Elementary School windows it's 5820 does that 20 mean something so those would be subcategories of the 5800 so it would be identifying uh looking at those um it would be some sort of mechanism that we get these numbers assigned to it like when we get the capital outlay the city is the one that generates the accounts for us so there are segments underneath so those are sub accounts of the capital outlay so it's the 58 is the kind of the key driving
068Factor other questions or comments from Members mayor um thank you Andy I do that was very good presentation and it was excellent giving the different numbers so people would know looking out at what it was I really appreciate that and I wanted to just say something about munice that Andy was alluding to um we've have $330,000 allotted to Something in munus for HR and uh another $100,000 program that's going to bring the city hopefully into the 21st century um with uh you know getting people in different buildings knowing where everybody is pay all is going to be great munice I think is having the same um uh shortages in Staffing that almost everywhere else is because we weren't getting munist to even answer and I do want to say this just so all of you
069know that my priority was making sure that the schools were included in this first they both Karen and uh Andy let me know but Karen especially it would be so good if we get this new munus program that we were going to get done during the summer period because that of course is when people have more time and you know we have reached one person at at you know at munus and so I just wanted to share that information you will go you will be first you have a a big group I want to say that um and next on as far as us looking at the budget I see one thing myself that I feel like I missed um and that maybe next year we should make sure that we're that we as a
070committee are watching carefully because I'm pretty good with numbers but I I I actually asked for the J the uh July one to come up I think we should SP spend a fair amount of attention on the end of the year things that happen and I you know I was writing little answers here and my days are as busy as everybody else is are I'm assuming but you know I'm writing down whatever it is but I do think we should have a thorough you know time that we look at that and even another month to go back and look at the end of the year things so that we see what happens at the end of the year I had specific questions on that but I can save that till the next part if you
071want because I had a couple more questions on what we looked at last month do you want me to ask that now or later Andy I'm going to defer to the chair the chair why don't we keep the focus on the big picture now and then get into last month great thank sure well done any other comments or questions from the members I have a few um there was a town recently that fell victim to fraud because the there wasn't a sign off on invoices before they went to be paid essentially I'm assuming that the people with budgetary control sign off before it gets incorporated into our warrants and all that yes okay and also reviewed I review them superintendent reviews them so we there is again that thorough review even though I know there's
072only one school Committee Member required to sign but the internal review of the expenditures are done by administrators with budget Authority and superintendent and business office okay great and um not that I haven't completely memorized all of our policies but for people who don't know could you kind of summarize our policy about interde Department transfers that you were mentioning so it it and I would I'm 99% sure because I was here we were here when it was that if it is a budget transfer within the department of Elementary secondary education function code it doesn't require school committee approval so if you're talking in the when you when you're bored and click on that chart of accounts if you see that it's within the 2,000 range it doesn't require school committee approval unless it is from
073a salary to a non-salary or a non- salary to a salary the concept being that if you're taking funds and moving it from instructional materials to textbooks you are not significantly altering the integrity and the intent of the budget it's still in in the instructional category but if you are moving it from maintenance to instruction instruction to maintenance or salary to non-salary non- salary to salary that is a significant altering of the Integrity of the original approved budget that would require school committee budget transfer approval okay thank you and is munice a for-profit or is it or is it part of the state government how does that it's a for private company okay but they're understaffed okay it's unfortunate I guess the other thing I would just say is like going back to the conversation
074about the the reports and presenting them in a more visual or userfriendly way and you're you know I think wisely considering the staff resources that would take as well as its value balancing that with its value to the school committee my perspective on this in general like with the administration is if there's something that's going to take them a long time to pull together data for that's also time that they're pulling away from other things they could be doing that would be valuable for student outcomes so I would I think that as a school committee the kind of General guideline should be if we really need it in order to make um significant and strategic uh choices that then we can then I think it makes sense to ask the administration to commit more resources
075to Gathering and presenting that data for us but if it's if it's not if it's if it's um if it's not something that we necessarily need I mean I think like you're saying you're already struggling to shepher all that human resources data that you were talking about um that's occupying a lot of time that could be used for more strategic resources that's just my own personal perspective on kind of a um framework for thinking about those questions and that's all I have anyone else want to add anything else superintendent anything okay thank you so much so okay that's the training and now we're moving on to reviewing last the last reports so Andy do you want to make any general comments about the most recent um I'm looking at and I was just going through
076in a I don't is the only thing that made your packet the capital I can't find maybe it's me I can't find the monthly update in the school committee materials am I missing that I'm I went to the email from the business office that it was sent was it does does everybody have the monthly update I guess I should maybe ask that question okay so you have okay good all right so again we're um it's you know the middle of August so uh we have things going on that we're you know getting ready if you see as I mentioned we do have things encumbered so uh as far as you know some of those negatives that you see in there that goes to what I was talking about earlier about between other funding sources that
077we have that have not yet either come in and or uh we're working like I I think in particular if you look at the out of District tuitions uh if you remember from budget of development we use close to a million dollars in circuit breaker and then we also have the special education 240 grant that we ultimately use uh for those tuitions so even though that's showing negative those funding sources are identified and we'll be moving those expenses as the year progresses but other than that I mean it's uh you know for lack of better phrase All Quiet on a western front I can answer any questions that you might have mayor do you want to ask your question now yeah I had two questions and and I feel like I alerted a little bit
078by saying it it was the last one that I had a question on on Transportation um well I we can look at it it's line number 420 and I'm actually going I'm going back now Andy so it's not this report that was in the it's the one of the ones that I sent to you yes I actually had it I saved them all in a packet but I asked it last month I asked what that was and it was 183 the encumbered 183,000 um uh was for Vans and I I think of that as a capital expense but also I wondered your the policy does this does the city does the school follow the same policy about vehicles that we try to watch out to make sure you know for the Energy Efficiency but um
079you do do you think of the cars as a capital expense because that's what we usually do on our side yes it would it it will be reported as a capital expense and we do follow the guidelines about energy and the the the fuel and requirements that uh I for the Green community component to it um so yes good oh that's wonderful and we usually put them through the capital committee we have something where they go through the capital committee to to actually be voted on for any like you know yeah I mean that's something at the time the issue was and it's actually further up on the addenda when you're talking about the fact that we had two vehicles we needed so um there's nothing saying honestly in a school committee underneath Mass General
080law that the school committee can't you know because the district the community funds the Greenfield Public Schools above minimum net School spending that there's nothing saying as long as they don't drop below that minimum net School spending requirement that the school committee could use funds and in this case here the funds to purchase the the vans so I guess I'm just looking at our overall like we just had a meeting last night the economic development and and we just want to try to get an overall just a great overall View at Energy Efficiency in all our vehicles and going forward that was is that going forward that we are all like kind of working together on that page for a sort of a you know Fleet Management person um we have somebody that's in charge
081of the the of the fleet do you want to work together on that or that's actually why we're uh I mean interrupt but that's why we have to dispose of the two vehicles was because we were told by the city that they're not going to allow those Vehicles yeah on the road so we do work with the about that and also again to reiterate regarding the efficiency of the vehicles and I can tell you that the Vans met the efficiency requirements um and so the thank you um the other line item um and I'm going and I'm still I'm back at in that same month because I because I didn't it's hard you're looking at what's in front of you for this month and it wasn't actually occurring to me it's my bad it wasn't
082occurring to me that it was the end of the year things that I I actually felt like I should have been watching a little more and I didn't so I have to go back a month um the staff development this is 91 3 29429 um have I got that right no instructional supplies 515054 this gets smaller every month um I don't know if that happens to anybody else instructional supplies I asked about it last month but we didn't and I whatever I it wasn't budgeted for anything and we spent 81,000 and then encumbered 233 I actually asked our accountant about it it sounded like I I got that at least one of them was um maybe something that you were renewing for this year but I thought where is that in so we purchased something
083at the end of the year so I wanted to hear more about that and I wanted to know if that 233 was that anywhere in fiscal year 25's budget because it was P you know like were you projecting in fiscal year 25 any of those supplies and what were they oh I don't know it's like a renewal of a subscription for something yeah it was curriculum materials that uh the plan was that it was going to be coming out of eer 3 I believe eer 3 and with the funds available we we decided to to allow us the flexibility for eer 3 since it carries and it does have more flexibility was to use it the purchasing for with the funds available and then allowing us as far as eer 3 usage to have that
084for some of the other things that we want to use we've had some change orders and I'm thinking of an just an example this is not the only reason but you know for the security camera upgrades we've had some change orders come up that have costed more so by doing what we did with with the curriculum materials that has given us flexibility for some of these things to be able to address that we did not anticipate happening okay so and so how would we as you know Representatives um see because I'm trying to I'm trying to and it's not easy I might add I'm trying to incorporate a little bit more into the city budget so to that we actually see uh if something is budgeted where we're using the grant fund alongside of it
085um this was my first budget coming forward with all its imperfections we didn't have the uh an index on the page I might add but next year we will you know it's it's hard to do it the first time but I'm trying to incorporate into it that we see where the grant funds touched into something so that we' know um we have uh I'm going to use like dispatch for an example I noticed what Northampton did and that's what we're trying to incorporate into our budget if you put what your budgeted and then what fund you're using also at the same what grant funding you're you're using so you know it was appropriated because I was just thinking I would not have been able to know anything about that from looking at that right so
086I think if you remember also I think back when you one time you visited with Dr we went through you know our budget document is you know an 8 and 1 12 by 14 plus you know page where we have every single funding source identified exactly what you're talking about associated with every corresponding expense line we have in the budget so admittedly I understand what you're saying would you have been able to determine based on that looking at the end of the year that's where it was no but if you were to look at the plan in place that we had for the use of the funds you would see that okay eer 3 was the identified funding source for these materials and it was then offset and back we back into that local number
087so okay thank you other questions about the current or previous reports member ston um was wondering if we had an update on the Federal Street elevator that is right now I know the facility director had been working with the consultant and got final information on what is going to be going out to bid so the bid is I'm going to say 95 to 99% ready to go other questions member Martini I just have a couple um um could you talk about the custodial staff lines just sort of in general because I noticed that several of them are either um about 100% spoken for or uh significantly over in the districtwide I'm looking at page seven at the moment but I've actually been going through each individual um section just to take a look at if
088you're looking at the wide one it's 133 43300 I see that stuff so uh that goes to every time you know there might be some changing in where the Staffing went you know in the buildings uh so I'll have to research honestly you know why that is I do know um the uh what you like I'm looking at the maintenance coordinator that budget number was based off of his partial salary so that is one of the adjustments that when we do our refresh we will end up putting what his annual fi25 salary is and so at the time the budget was built this goes to that Personnel control thing was right the salary that was picked up from the system was only picking up his partial salary and you know so that one in particular
089but the other ones like I said it's whenever there are changes in the Staffing there could be changes in assignment that cause for moving staff around um and also the fact that they're either 100% committed that goes to the fact that the salaries are encumbered so they we've taken what it is that the current Staffing is in based on their buildings and have projected them to be for the year for all in pures paid for the year right so far as I could tell the only one that looked like significantly under was at the middle school so it just looked a little mhm lopsided um can you explain the difference between the two uh out of District tuition lines because they say the they get cut off at the same point so so this is
090where one of them is out of District tuitions uh in state the other is out of District tuitions out of state but awesome even then those are not we need to have and if again that end of the year the chart of accounts we have to have tuitions for collaboratives tuitions for instate public instate private out ofate public out ofate private so we have never had that here as far as this goes so what ends up H happening is we have to then go through with the sped department and when time comes for expenditures for reporting they have to break out those lines we've created those lines in the budget development but if you remember we did have change in the bed director position so we kept it as give us the total tuition amount
091you need and then we're going to work to allocate that out amongst those categories I have a similar question on the um on the capital report it's page five and it's under high school construction and it's another one of those lines where the text gets cut off and I can't tell what it means it says miscellaneous other PR purchases purchases okay oh oh PR no sorry um I'm looking at high school construction is at the 97,000 684 yes um it's the one that's the highest percent over overused yeah um seeing as that's related to the high school construction I would actually have to look at the the budget for the project to see what what that represents um I'm thinking you a lot of the times the category would be other Professional Services so that
092could be anything from okay field testing or you know so I'm you know but I would have to see what where that is okay yeah on a like application Level questions like that come up sometimes and I'm just wondering is there any way to make these titles on the left hand side not get cut off partway through you uh we've tried and this is one of the things where it's a thing uh because what ends up happening when we a when we've changed the column side of things what ends up happening is that the number side just ends up wrapping around so then it doesn't even line up with the original adjust Ed you know expended budget and stuff so um it is something I know honestly in the other clients that use munus the
093struggle is real right okay thanks could you provide um like a key like each of the different account numbers and codes on a separate sheet with the full description there is I mean we could generate a chart of account account report that has everything you know and we could segregate it out and pick up just to school accounts um this in particular I just would need to go in as far as the capital side because technically the cap even though we manage our capital projects using this in particular High School construction that was a Cityside so if you know in this using this example I would just need to see if they've coded it some way where it would be picked up as a school related expense um I'm not ruling out the fact like
094one of the discussions as far as to reach out with Tyler as far as I mean as much as I would not like to admit it you know do we and to goes to the mayor's kind of do we see about reducing the font size to be able to then capture the name description so oh God not a recommendation but you would all kiding I mean exide Tyler Technologies is a multi-million dollar Corporation I would like to think that there's some way that as far as being able to get the report so that they're legible but as I've said our other clients that use it have that struggle as to the cutting off of descriptions based on size and whatnot but but so you're you're but are you saying that we we could have a
095chart of accounts that has the full names just as almost like a glossery that we could ref yes the the I guess the let me go I'll go look and see and run what is that it looks like as far as segregating out by just School accounts to see what it picks up you know it could be a very cumbersome you know it's almost like I'm just wondering would you end up you know to have this report in front of you with the and I'm going to say easily a thousand plus accounts to then go through and determine where you know so let me look into that yeah although if it was electronic you could do like search and true so could work if if it's possible but I'll look into it yes I but
096I do know there is a definite chart of accounts thank you mayor this is my last one um the on this one that we're looking at the out of District um I'm on page seven as well out of District 133 2 6630 um we've it was the original appropriation was 319 and we've spent some but incumbered 2 million 169 720 and that is enormously different from what the end of the year was last year we just spent in that line last year um it looks like we spent 500 26,000 for the total for fiscal year 24 if I'm looking at that did we get a lot is there a reason for that or just that goes to what I mentioned about the fact that we are using one point I want to say I'm pulling
097it up now as we're talking one close to we're using $1.2 million a circuit breaker $540,000 of special education 240 Grant uh and 163,00 ,000 and change of the sped tuition revolving account to go toward special education tuition the law requires that we cannot spend those funds until we receive those funds so we have not applied yet for the special education to 40 Grant so when we do our encumbering of the tuitions we encumber them all into the local and then once the grant gets approved we do our monthly draw Downs that we're allowed to we end up reclassing expenses to those corresponding revolving and Grant accounts so to make sure that we've captured all our Auto District tuitions we do the incumbrances to the local lines first and then move them as the funds
098come in okay pardon me if you were repeating that when somebody's asking a question on one budget line you're looking at the it it and I want to make sure that we cover everything so sorry if you had to say that Twi apologies other questions remember goodwi I think the numbers are so big that like especially the Staffing lines like it would be helpful to even know how many people are represented I mean you don't know like are these all brand new teachers are they experienced teachers but even just knowing how many people work in each site would help um you know the custodians at the middle school there are more custodians at the middle school than the other schools so that number is going to be higher andless somebody's gone Mia so and with
099special ed um which is fluid all the time but we don't know if the number represents an increase in out a district or a decrease in out a district and that's something that Greenfield has struggled with over the years we see the warrants and we see these really large numbers um and you just go so you're not sure what they represent and I think it would help even if the special head director came and talked about what the money really means um and transportation I know Christine had said it was on her to-do list um to figure out are we self- sustaining with the fleet of fans I mean are they saving us money making us money or are they just in the church parking lot being paid for really well you know what I'm
100saying I mean that's something that as I look at the bills like now we're repairing old vans I mean so I'm looking at that going you know as a Honda driver for 20 years I'm going when you know I know that moment where you get rid of it instead of keep fixing it so I think that is sort of like a a financial area I'm hoping you can help with yes and uh we've talked I've talked with uh Teresa the the transportation coordinator about the analysis of operating our own transportation versus the you know I can tell you and I I I know one of the I don't know if it was a school Committee Member somebody requested what we were as far as the reimbursements and what we were receiving the Run we were
101generating I'll admit when we were first brought back we as an TMS first brought back I was skeptical I'll be perfectly honest skeptical of because I'm never a transportation transportation and photo copers are the bane of my existence quite honestly um so um I was concerned but then looking at now how it is that it has progressed I would say the revenue that we're generating I was quite surprised as to how much that we were bringing in but it does require the the the in-depth analysis that Teresa and I are going to be doing I will also say regarding your issue concerning the age and vehicles of the condition of the Vans stuff all municipalities are good at running Vehicles into the ground you know so it's a thing where it's that again the Fine
102Line discussion as to do we keep repairing or do you then look at a refresh for a new vehicle police cruises are a classic example of the replacement cycle for police cruisers you know we had to and further on in the agenda about the disposal of the two Vans because the city yard won't we but we're still paying other outside companies to provide yeah it is a combination is not fully you see that piece in the warrant all these little companies that take two kids at a time and I've held those van doors a lot and then you know that our vans are somewhere but you don't see the balance of that I mean that's the part that it's kind of hard to figure out and then we know we're paying a lot of money
103for them to be parked so I mean there's there's so many pieces it's an mcast open response question if I ever saw it um and are they are they you know the question is are they worth it sure and just even Staffing the Vans because when when the first year we bought the Vans we didn't have drivers because we couldn't find drivers and so they sat so I think the question is do we keep adding more to the fleet do we become a bus company I don't know understood and as I said I'm repeating myself but tra and I are going to be doing that analysis regarding the and then I have a big question and hopefully you're the one who's been here the longest now when it comes to the money so which schools
104do we still the state still do we owe the middle school was rebuilt 20 2000 so we don't owe any state money for the Middle School correct I would not because I'm not sure if the city has done any refinancing of any of this their debts and stuff so that would honestly be a question more for the city Side okay um you know depending on you know I know again some other clients have done refinancing where they paid off dead earlier which ones we still so I know the high school clearly because it's the SP obvious I would agree the spa is brand new but the rest should be clear I would hope just trying to see where our debt is except I guess I think the the Green River is the other one as
105far as because there was some construction renovation done that's the whole discussion we're having about potentially yeah Green River is like Harry Potter it's Voldemort yeah right but everyone else I would agree with as far as a facility so okay okay that's the only one but I more of a question for the city Side since they handle the debt I'll ask other questions yes member sexon this is more I guess about a process would it ever be helpful for us to get a presentation from the Cityside people about their portion of our budget every quarter every two twice a year I don't know how whatever Cadence it is but would that ever be useful for us I don't I mean quite honestly I'm G to say because it's statute driven and I'm really going to
106bore now 603 CMR 10.0 is the section that requires regarding what those are called indirect costs they're indirect costs that are paid by the city on behalf of the school so for all intents and purposes you're talking about the health insurance retiree health insurance Choice out Charter out tuition and then at some administrative cost that are again determined on a uh Rec an allocated per pupil amount that is used again under 603 CMR 10.0 so um quite honestly as far as U I guess I'm wondering I'm not sure what more information they could provide just to you know I would again leave that up to the city and or you as a school committee determine if you think it would be worth to hear from them regarding those expenses I'm just saying that they are
107so statutorily driven that th there is really no wiggle room the wiggle room occurs when you end up having like I say about the administrative cost concerning uh you know the here in Greenfield they use there's an allowable per people cost that use for allocating the administrative portion of expenses that the city does on behalf of the school other communities they if they don't have use that administrative cost they're required under 603 CMR 10.0 to have a written agreement agreeing on the methodology for allocating those costs that's where it would be probably prudent to have someone come in and talk about it because that's where I don't want to say you know there could be potential gamesmanship but we have seen places where there have been debates regarding it but it is very straightforward cut
108and dry here regarding the administrative cost and even on a maintenance facility side of the cost that they cover for us it's all actuals so other questions Andy if people have uh questions about the budget between meetings what should they do I would say the process would be would it not to go either to the superintendent Andor through you or and then to funnel that way and then whether it's a you know I'm a big and I know you have subcommittee structure here so you know to me some of those things would be avenues for subcommittee discussions if it you know but questions I mean like similar to when the mayor forwarded about you know I have no problem doing that but I just again want to respect the rol of responsibility of the school
109committee to make sure that the the chain of command is in a sense followed oh okay I was think about just factual questions like you've been addressing tonight about like oh I okay I I mean I have no problem you know answering you know the the email address I think it's on the website as to how to reach reach me by all means go right ahead and I can respond accordingly okay great and I guess if there are items that come to you that you want to refer back to us and feel free yeah y great okay thanks everybody wonderful present presentation I really appreciate that I have one request though if the video is put up make sure you get my good side oh yeah our videographers have been working on that all evening
110so we'll just put handle it in post production um's see and next the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning thank you good evening everybody um my report for tonight and I'm already reading through this first line I would say we're closer to finished with the planning for the new teacher orientation um than the planning being ongoing new teacher orientation is next Wednesday and Thursday during these two days our new teachers have an opportunity to learn about the district instructional strategies meet their mentors spend time in their buildings get an overview of pupil Service Pro processes and get a tour of the city of Green field so we're excited to welcome our new teachers next week and connect them with their mentors that they'll have this year also wanted to announce that we are recently awarded
111an innovation career pathway planning Grant from desie Innovation career Pathways offer com comprehensive support to our students encompassing several key components career advising supports each student in completing a College and Career plan during High School identifying areas of aptitude and interest exploring career opportunities and establishing a transition path to college apprenticeship and or employment training this process includes helping students surmount obstacles to completing their plan continuing as I transition into the district um I had the opportunity with our two new principles um to attend two staff listening sessions the week of July 29 9th um two each at Newton Street School in Four Corners um with the principals s cor and Destiny Meer and it was great to hear directly from staff about their perceived successes and challenges that they faced in the school um
112similar to what superintendent patau did last spring having listening sessions I think it's allowed both the principles and myself to kind of get a flavor of what the teachers perceptions have been um and like I said important to integrate ourselves into the community and learn from those on the those boots on the ground we look forward to more opportunities like this with student staff and parents as the school year begins another similar opportunity superintendent patot and I had the pleasure of attending two of the summer eats events in July on July on excuse me in July 17th we had the opportunity to go to Just roots and meet a couple of families before the storms rolled in and we were forced to take cover so it was always an adventure um and then on July
11330th it was a much nicer night and we were at the skate park from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. and there was a steady flow of families and community members the entire time we were present at both events we offered books and bookmarks to families and ENC encouraged students and families to discover a good book for the summer so it was both opportunities were great to meet some people people I I will say the skate park based on the weather was a much more enjoyable night I think for everybody superintendent thank you um I start off with the new superintendent induction program that I've been a part of under Mass um even though I've been in District for a while it is my first year as a superintendent and I have joined cohort 15 of new
114superintendents from across the the state it's a three-year leadership program where we get to collaborate with one another and engage in professional development and work Co closely with a personal coach who has superintendent experience um we had a summer meeting already and we've also had a follow-up PD and I've met with my coach numerous times and my coach Kenny Seline will be attending September's school committee meeting to introduce himself but also to discuss the niss program the first big step in project in this is to develop an entry plan and um for most new superintendant it's because they've really just joined a community that they haven't been a part of so mine's had a few tweaks because I've been in the community and been part of the district but I still think it's a very
115valuable process and I will be presenting that entry plan to all of you at the September meeting along with my coach so I look forward to you meeting him um as Stephen said we have been on tour lately it's it's been a lot of fun so I uh always love to share a few pictures one is of us at the skate park it was a beautiful night and we had a lot of families join us um and then Saturday I got to go to the Family Resource Center and do the backpack family bash um big shout out to Kia Burton King at the Family Resource Center for inviting me and uh it was really just a fabulous time and we were able to give away over 150 um we put together a pack of school
116supplies for kids and they came through from 10: to noon on Saturday and I got to meet a lot of families and their kids so it was a really great day um next up I just put in a plug because I will be at the Harvest supper so hopefully many of you will join me in volunteering and helping out at this great Community event um but I will be there on Saturday August 24th and I will be serving food from 4:00 to 5:30 I believe but I hope to see many folks there hope hope to meet many families in line and really uh take part in this great event I know they're still looking for volunteers if you're interested in joining me and then lastly um we are getting ready for the opening of school
117I can't believe it's two weeks away it just boggles my mind um when I looked at the calendar today but we are diligently and uh really just heavily looking for hiring uh for our vacant positions and every day I've been signing off on hiring forms so it's been good to see that we do have candidates we are moving forward um Stephen and I are going tomorrow to GCC they just graduated nine folks from their par educator pipeline program and we're going to interview them so hopefully we will hire a lot of IAS tomorrow to fill our uh few vacancies that we have left but I always want to put a plugin for substitutes and volunteers if you are interested in being either in our school community um we're always looking for folks to do that
118as well and those postings are on school spring as well thank you thank you let's have questions for the superintendent and assistant superintendent first and then we'll move on to the next item mayor I just wanted to say to both of you thank you for being so involved in all those community events that's is absolutely fabulous and I think they still need a hundred volunteers at the Harvest supper um I'll see you there there as well but I'm just going to tell you the numbers if anybody wants to sign up they can use people to do anything but I'm so proud of the work that you're doing thank you both and thanks Andy you're getting out of here good for you any other questions member ston yeah I I also wanted to second that I
119really appreciate both of you taking the time out of your Summers to like really make connections with families but I also um like is are you planning to continue that during the Academic Year that sounds like a lot I know at one point we had a position in the district that was like a community outreach person who sort of responsible or task for doing that does that position still exist one is it filled two um or are we looking for someone to sort of take that on and help be a support to you in that because like you're you're doing superintendent stuff and this is part of that but like you know I know you've got plenty of other responsibilities on your plate both of you just doing your like regular Duty so I'm just
120curious about that and then also yeah plug please volunteer I'll be there scooping ice cream so come see me after you finish your shift um the community outreach coordinator I forget the the acronym social justice slash whatever was uh eer two funded and we did not move it into the local budget last year so that position was vacant and we did not renew so um what we tried to do this year that I think um was pretty successful is we took the year at a glance we made our school calendar for the year we sat with all the admin and we tried to book events where they weren't conflicting with other school events so if the middle school was having something the high school couldn't have something that same time same night so that we're
121not overextended but we're also not missing opportunities to engage with our students and family um but I plan to continue and I really plan to plug the school events because often they're very unattended by our students and families so we really would love to see more families actually engage in those events where their students are either you know displaying artwork or performing in a band or you know doing um the drama club you know up and running again at the high school so I think we're going to try to do things in conjunction so that we're also in the community but we're also luring the community to support us as well other questions or comments mayor if if we can help in any way to publicize anything you're going to I'm happy to put it
122on the city website as well if it would reach somebody else that's fabulous that you're doing that but just if if that's another Avenue just thinking out loud thank you and we did just go social media for those of you that didn't know so please follow Greenfield Public Schools we have a Facebook and Instagram now so we're really trying to put the word out there more often in more uh avenues that people access so but happy to share all of that if the city can also uh publicize for us we would love to have more community members supporting our students any other questions or comments okay thank you superintendent now presentation of draft superintendent educator evaluation goals yes it is that time of year for Eddie Val um we're doing an administrative training of the
123edial process um and then we train our staff upon return when they come for convocation in their PD um but it really all starts with me and my goals and then having those goals filtered down to our administrative team those goals filter down to the building base level and what teachers are doing in the classroom um over the past few years desie has aligned Eddie Val's Focus indicators for the year so I I attached the hand um the handout in your materials um I think they may have oh they made their way into your packet so that's great um if you've ever looked at the desie rubric for Eddie as you know it has many subcategories and standards and indicators and what you ended up doing was trying to evaluate people on 60 Avenues and
124really got no positive feedback that provided any movement towards growth and opportunity so they have every year um put out focus indicators and what we have done with Educators is aligned those Focus indicators with the areas of which we are going to work on in the edal process and try to improve and grow so there are separate teacher ones but the ones in green that you have are for administrators so you'll see that there are six categories that will be the focus for 20 24 25 and then when we make uh our superintendent eval goals um we try to do uh a professional learning goal which is what teachers have to do as well and administrators then I took two District Improvement goals based upon a lot of the data that we're already working on
125from last year that's going to continue this year and then a student learning goal that really hones in on instructional leadership and how District leadership building based leadership and then classroom leadership can really be aligned because ultimately uh student growth and achievement is what our Focus needs to be so um I created four goals which are in draft form that we need to agree upon so that we can move forward but uh if we agree tonight and move forward and they're approved then we'll meet with admin team next Tuesday at our e team they'll draft goals based upon mine and then we will do the same with teachers so I I really like the pipeline effect instead of in years past everyone's just kind of been like oh well I want to do this and
126I want to do that and then ultimately we see the scattered outcomes across the district so for my purposes I uh was looking at year two of the Strategic plan we have a draft 2425 prioritization plan with the ssos team that we are in um turnaround with it hasn't been approved yet for this year but once it is I will share it with you we have a meeting with them I believe on Thursday we also have been under an elll tiered Focus monitoring we've also had a coordinated program review of all our sped programming so I have data reports from both of those and then we look at data from end of year mcass ewis which is the early warning indicator system so we get a lot of data that says if a student's X
127Y and Z they have early warning indicators that we should pay attention to because they may not make it to the graduation line so taking all of that into account I developed um the four goals that you see in front of us you'll note that they deal with the instruction strategies for instructional leadership this year's focus is really working on data data analysis constant evidence-based practices after reviewing that data and then teaching administrators and teachers what to do with that data that's going to directly impact student growth that was like the L the real big Missing Link last year so that is our Focus this year for Budget really taking those District resources and making sure that it's not only about academic and instruction but you also know we have a chronic absenteeism issue and
128in our endof year report that Christine and I did in June we have made great strides but we are still higher than the state average so part of this has to be we have to work on our absenteeism because if they're not in front of us they cannot learn so I really felt like that had to be a part of the goals that I was addressing as a district leader and it has to be a real Focus for our building based leaders and keeping track of students who aren't in school why they're not in school and what are we doing to get them back in school for family and Community engagement I think you know we were just talking about this it's the multiple formats that I feel like has been missing that um I've
129really started this summer and I want to continue because I feel like giving people people opportunities in different Avenues has led to some really great conversations that I don't think I would have ever had with parents if I wasn't standing at the library or sitting outside at a skate park so I really have enjoyed all of it but I really feel like it does need to continue because there's really been some valuable insight and feedback in those things so that really is my family and Community engagement focus is to continue that and to really have District leadership building leadership do the same um and then the last one is really that professional culture um with our coordinated program review our L tiered Focus monitoring um along with all of the data from our turnaround team
130we have three subgroups that are underperforming that we need to pay attention to and that really is fostering that support to use the data and not just think about how is my whole class doing but how is these three subgroups doing and then if they're not achieving what are we doing to address the needs of those three subgroups because that is where we're seeing the greatest underperformance so that is why I I actually identified our subgroups in that professional culture piece because we have to keep looking at those results and improving those results and anything we do I feel for any underperforming subgroup is ultimately going to help any child in that classroom so um I'm happy to read them to you I don't think you need me to read them to you but I
131I've really put a lot of thought into these goals because I want these goals to to mean more than something on a piece of paper they're working they're living and they're going to be part of the work I do every day and part of um the focus of every um action we take as a leadership team and in our buildings with staff so that we're constantly thinking about our student performance and improving the experiences that they're having at Greenfield Public Schools thank you um let's see I was thinking we might do a motion to approve the um superintendent edal goals has presented and then have our discussion as part of that motion but do people want to ask questions before we do that okay before okay great remember goodwi four is too many I think
132two if you were a teacher sitting in front of me I would say two as a first year teacher so a first year superintendent should be two because I know you're going to do all four but I want you to pick two because the process is so stupid so pick two we don't use the S word Miss Goodwin SOS you did s SOS other questions comments yes member Denise thank you so much for such wonderful goal setting work that you did um I'm of course going to be a yes on this um I want you to have all of the support and time that you need to implement these goals but I just also want to say that we're all finally working on some new things new protocols new ways of doing things which is
133so great like we're really making progress so next year we have to be in place as a school committee to have our goals ready before this time comes because we're part of the collaboration so what we want to bring forward for the district based on on how we interacting how we are interacting with our constituents and what we're hearing should be part of your goal setting as well so next year I hope that we can uh get that together sooner so that we can be an active partner as representatives of the community in order to give you our perspective and goals because we didn't set them at our working session um and that was really just us doing it for the first time and not having it together I understand so I just want to
134say that that's like that's a part of it and I know that when Liz comes next month she'll discuss that as well but um thank you so much for all of your incredible hard work and the goals look really great other questions before we make a motion member seon so I can I can do for myself mapping between what's here and what's in here but are there is there anything that's not in any of these bullet points that you would like us to help you judge your success that you know you're going to do something that's not here that you think counts a success that you want us to know about so that we can be like yeah you did that so once the goals are approved what I was going to do is um
135you will have to look at evidence that I provide to do formative and inative over the course of the year and what I would do is just make a Google drive with each of these categories and I'm going to continually share um what I am doing to support these goals in those Google Drives and then if they don't fall into the quote unquote Desy language of the indicator I can always do a narrative before the formative to at least explain how I see that fitting into that bucket other questions or comments before we have a motion I have a motion to approve the 20242 superintendent Ed eval goals as presented so moved motion by member Martini is there a second seconded second from Member seon discussion member Martini I just have a question um not
136about what's in here because I love what's in here and it looks great but I wanted to know um process-wise how much of this is prescribed from on high and how much of it do you have control over in terms of individualizing it great question I think the individualizing comes from just knowing the district and what we what we can adjust the proscribed piece from all of the desie data and the reports and oversight that we have I think though the majority of it has to be individualized because we see our kids every day we see the experiences that they're having so we look at what they give us and identify the areas that they say have to be our Focus but then we also see the systems in process in place that might need
137to be tweaked or we might need to adjust or we might need to adapt because what that reflects from on high isn't really what's going to work for Green Field and I think that's the part that we've had as an admin team conversation is that yes we know we have X Y and Z on our plates to think about with turnaround and uh a desie district review coming up so I think the the piece for us is not to get lost in the desie weeds but to keep the focus on the Green Field because that's what matters more to us and then we explain to them later so you know we can't it's like um when people say you teach to the mcast no we teach and we want to just be doing this this
138work for our kids because that's what's good for them and you know we'll deal with desie in the prescription of what they need us to do in a way that finesses the Lang enough so that we meet what they're asking but I think most of this work really is um individualistic to Greenfield if that helps just as a follow-up question is there any way in which you would have liked to tailor this more um that you were not able to yeah I think um the time commitment it's it takes for a lot of these goals um I would have loved to have put more time um in buildings we're doing six official walkthroughs as an admin team and you try to get in you know we alternate if I'm in elementaries one week he's in
139high school and middle and we vice versa so that one of us is constantly boots on the ground and seeing what's happening um but you know what happens and then you know know you get a call and desie is here and needs a two-hour meeting and all of a sudden your site visit so I feel good that we have like prescribed time and buildings that I've are my calendar is already booked I'm saying no to everything but I think that's really the piece that we need more of as District leaders is really being in those buildings really paying attention to what's happening in those classrooms member deneve and then member Goodwin sorry I forgot to ask you um when is the evaluation due what what time of the month are we going to be doing
140the evaluation I mean what what time of the year are we going to be doing the evaluation um your timeline your formative assessment you have to offer feedback on my evidence at the January meeting and then you have to write a summit of evaluation at the June meeting and I can re share the uh Eddie Val timeline if you would like me to post it with the materials or just send it to you in an email I I just want to put it on our calendar as part of just being aware of what the timeline is so we don't lose it purely in just a quick question sorry M Goodwin because the state hasn't like shown up and given you other things to do yet okay and I would just like to see clearly we're
141going to approve these tonight but that you have the opportunity prior to January to say I needed to put this off because this happened so we do that with teachers where this goal couldn't happen because this happened but I want you to have that flexibility because these are beautiful but it's a lot and you have all these other groups of people who are going to make demands on you that may create this whole new life for you so I would like to think that prior to January we're not sitting here looking at these goals I don't want these in cement is what I'm saying that you have some fluid to say I couldn't do this because this so that you're not sitting there evidence evidence evidence because this huge thing landed right so I just
142don't want this to be a concrete document I'd like it to be a fluid document that's always been the unfair part of this process it's too concrete and life happens in schools questions or comments I just like to say that um there's so many different layers of um forces pushing you and pushing our district hopefully in the right direction in terms of student outcomes including you know the Strategic plan that the school committee approved and all the other things you mentioned the turnaround plans and everything and I just want to acknowledge how how much it is and it's it's probably too much we probably don't need every single layer of this um because uh I feel a lot of confidence that you know what you're doing you know how to head The District in the
143right direction um so I appreciate your um you know the whole admin team's um management of all those different layers and um excited to see our continued progress and hope you see us as school committee members here to support you with these ambitious and good goals with that let's take a vote on um the motion is to approve the 20242 superintendent Ed eval goals as presented all those in favor say I I I I all those opposed say no uh and I abstain so it uh the motion passes thank you great and um our agenda says should the meeting extend beyond 8:00 pm a five minute break for members will be observed so let us begin our five minute break um it's 8:06 now so as the clock is turning from 80 8 8 uh
14411 to 812 please be in your seats thank you [Music] a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] Vehicles Surplus okay well discuss that separately any other items that people would like to discuss separate from the consent agenda okay I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of Item B vote to declare transportation department van Surplus so moved a motion from Member Den is there a second second second okay any discussion which one second just say that the um that Susan Farber um acknowledged that the date was wrong on one of the uh on the minutes and that has been U will be addressed but doesn't need a separate Vote or anything to fix clerical
145errors so all right um all those in favor of approving the consent agenda with the exception of Item B say I I I all those opposed say no I'll abstain the motion carries now we will move on to um the vote to declare transportation department fan Surplus I'd like to start with a a motion to um declare the transportation department vanza Surplus so moves a motion for member Martini is there a second a second all right uh discussion can I start with you mayor no I just um the the process for them being Surplus I guess just if there's any just I just want a little more clarity on that I and then I would vote the DPW tells us we can't keep them on the road okay that's all I needed to know because
146I know that they that's perfect thank you any other discussion okay all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no and I will abstain the motion carries moving on to uh appointments update um I think it's probably useful to look at both items A and B together um the um our policy asks that subcommittee members be given a description of their functions and duties um that it's in your packet and then the assignments are um basically the same as what we had with the exception of um appointing member section as the uh union rep um I don't have it in my packet is this only digital um I sorry about that um so I guess well let's see um do people want to try to access it digitally or we can
147we uh the the superintendent has a hard copy we can actually pass around the assignments um for people to view that's really what's being voted on um and we can pull up I think the only change to the uh to the functions and duties was a um the description of the um the had hoc subcommittee for the redistricting and reorganizing so would anyone like to first of all would anyone like to see the subcommitte and representative assignment sheet yes I can't find it in our Google doc actually I'm sorry I'm looking at all of the materials for tonight and I do not see it it's not in here I'll pass it over to you while you're looking at that I'll pull up on my computer the the description I can just read that out loud
148folks I apologize for the error with the packets to enter my password and everything it's a little project I'm really cool um oh that's the one that yeah we have that that's the hard copy that I we people are looking at um the I'm pulling up the um the yeah the functions and duties which I can I have so shouldn't be too hard toine okay so the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee is described as function recommend changes to redistricting policy to the full committee on an as as needed basis as the administration identifies unanticipated outcomes of the committee's redistricting and reorganizing policies convened to develop and endorse changes to the full committee meets by vote of the full committee or at the request of the superintendent when time frames don't allow the full committee
149to weigh in [Music] so um but the vote the only vote needed tonight is about the uh subcommittee and representative assignments I believe folks have now had a chance to review those uh is there a motion to approve the um subcommittee and representative assignments as presented member Den so you were saying that the only changes that you have added member sexon is the union route that's correct okay I'll make that motion okay is there a second second second for member Martini discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I I so I think I heard three or did I I heard member Den member martini and myself did anyone else vote I they're all about us it's all of our names are all over this but uh I okay uh all those opposed
150say no no no two knows and um so the motion and I guess I voted I hopefully uh so the motion carries 4 to three um so thank you for that um um I believe that was 42 wasn't it I'm sorry there oh that's right there's all six of us not seven tonight yep motion carries okay uh any other discussion about the subcommittee functions and duties okay maybe when there might be when we've had a chance to read them yeah we can we can re we can review again um I will just right I mean the only well this these were distributed to you at past meetings the only change was the one that I just read out loud so um we can discuss again [Music] um okay great um where are we switching to
151the next page uh school committee reports report of the chair uh I'd like to just report on a um on a little project um I H had a meeting with Lauren in the superintendent office about the um school committee web page and the way that our um meetings are displayed um the two major concerns that I have are that the full school committee meetings are relatively easy to get to from the school committee page um but all of the subcommittee meetings get a little buried um layers and layers deep so we're looking at adding all the subcommittees to the committee meetings page so they're kind of all in one place the other piece is um this page is not particularly mobile friendly when you look at it online the um columns don't really align uh
152with your phone so um Lauren is going to work with the um web design people to try to address that issue if you look at the the homepage of the Greenfield Public Schools and you scroll all the way to the bottom you can see there that the website does have some functionality around events but it's not fully um I don't think it has the features we would necessarily want to have in terms of being able to give you links to um handouts and agendas and videos and things like that so the I don't think we'll we're planning to use that we did kind of explore that um a little bit so but if you do have um feedback or thoughts about improving the the website um I guess you could could you could let me
153know and I can work with Lauren on things like that I don't think that's a huge school committee deliberation thing that we have to worry about um but just wanted to meet your needs in terms of you being able to make adequate use of our web page as well um and let's see budget and finance subcommittee or let's see yeah bu and finance subcommittee do you have a report they have not met since the last school committee meeting but as you know the uh budget and finance is working on creating a draft budget development calendar the aim of which is to help people understand uh what I mentioned earlier during Andy's uh presentation was the most opaque part and also understand uh where opportunities lie uh for providing feedback and public input so uh I
154have shared a preliminary drafts with the superintendent and we will be meeting TBD soon uh to go forward with that great thank you um the policy and program subcommittee did meet it was a day after our last meeting so my memory is a little bit vague but I I know one project that we are working on is looking at our policies with regard to student Garb to um try to make sure that if there is traditional um clothing that folks want to wear the the specific example that was brought up related to U Native American attire at um graduation ceremonies so we're we're working on that um the the other item that's here on the agenda is the review of policy BB and [Music] bb- um so these we did vote on these in November
1552023 this is our policy about um basically how to items get onto the school committee agenda that was raised by members last last month um for discussion I think that the practice that we've had conforms to the language of the policy but then we have um policy bb- is the exhibit and there are actually two exhibits of two different agendas um basically template agendas that um the school it seems to imply that the school committee would use so one of them probably the first one in the in the list um should probably have had striketh through to be cancelled and replaced by the new one which was recommended by mask um a question is for me is is the polic is our policy manual the place for an exhibit of a agenda um sample agenda
156to live or is that more of a school committee handbook item I guess in my mind it feels a little bit more policy but I guess my question is whether the committee would like to refer these um items back to the policy subcommittee to take a fresh look at our our policy about um building agendas and templates and where they live and all of that member Den I'd like to send it back to policy this is I vaguely remember voting on this in November but it's vague old memory and I'd like to look at it again we can take a fresh look and if people want it to also live in the handbook as a link to a draft agenda so people new members or whoever wants to refresh can get used to how it
157will look that it could live in both places yep we can have that discussion for sure um member Martini I'm not entirely sure why we have a policy um um about this and at first blush I don't think it's really necessary Second Glance the policy recommended by masc doesn't really line up with the way that we do things and several ways so I would agree with uh the secretary about sending this back to policy great do folks want to do that as a motion and a vote or do we want to just kind of by consensus say Okay policy please look at this any objection to us looking at it okay we will we will uh add that to our next agenda the executive subcommittee did not meet did redistricting and reorganizing meet did oh
158school committee handbook ad hoc committee big night it's our big night our first draft has been submitted um it is in the digital packet I want to preface the whole thing by saying that this is just a rough draft there are definite holes and some information there are things that are missing um but I would say that we're now at about 50 to 60% complete and we're going to meet again in September so we've really hit the point where it's time to bring it to all of you to look at it and tell us what you think and what you'd like to have added um and we can fill in holes both from policy and from what we know as a committee so when you look at it in the packet we've um completed a
159um a table of contents we have an introduction a statement of inclusion um we have no mission statement and that's something that I wanted to ask um the superintendent about um I've fleshed out a bit of a member code of conduct um we have the beginnings of a public calendar outline um we have a section for school committee goals uh we have a section for what we're calling an academic dashboard but is really um a compilation a section for the comp compilation of the data that was presented to us at the last um budget presentation by um Dr DeBarge um we also have a list of important Personnel for the school committee to know about list of subcommittees in general description of their function important links School Partnerships people that we partner with from the
160YMCA to music of Franklin um we have a collection of acronyms which is something that we found most school committee handbooks have and it's quite long um and we also have a how do I uh frequently ask questions for new members and then we'll be linking the masc new member materials as well so if anyone as they peruse this feels that there are sections that are missing sections they'd like to see um for example on my way over here I thought I need to write a section about how do school how do we as a school committee adopt res res Solutions where do they go where do we file them how do you write them that's something that I'll add there's a notes section at the bottom um where we've sort of started uh future
161notes and things still to do and that's where that information would go and then the subcommittee will work on it so I don't know how best to collect this information um so that we don't violate oml um maybe Clen you can advise how you would like the full committee to give us their input would you like it to be tonight or would you like people to have a chance to look at it and then send individual emails or how would you like that to go yeah um I wonder if we could definitely get whatever comments people have tonight uh understanding the short timeline that people received it but um but maybe there's just a very basic survey that could be sent to members so that like you can gather the feedback but in a way
162that isn't just random emails I guess like like is a housekeeping email sort of like a housekeeping survey yeah just a survey yeah would you like me to collect to create a poll or a yeah okay I think what other people think is that seem I mean it just seems like maybe a good way to kind of keep the information organized and kind of have it all in one place in case there ever was like a records request or something about you know you would be able to see individual members um submissions and what their responses were okay I'll create a poll with a section at the bottom for uh comments on sections or what they'd like to see yeah and it can be very broad I think right yeah just the questions you'd like
163us to answer okay I'll put that as my to-do list and I'll send that out shortly we'll be meeting again in the end of September September 23rd so um t uh place to be determined hopefully hopefully the ghs library just putting out there um so if you I'll get it out in the next week or so and then people will have enough time to get back to us and then we can work on it more fully yeah let us know when you would like us to respond by um okay and I guess one thing I want just one piece of feedback that I well why don't I hear other people other people have feedback tonight um I just have one thought my only thought is just that we once we have voted on a a
164handbook um we can always add new sections and improve it so maybe if there are pieces that people are asking for that would require a ton more work maybe they can just stay on your your list for a future version to be approved rather than putting off having a feedback having a handbook at all until some later date that's just my thought we could always create a time of the year where we could just revisit whatever is on the to-do list and make that happen and then bring it forward that might it might be a good time of the year to do that in summer when we're not quite as busy as a committee yeah you could even include in the handbook kind of like what the recommended frequency and process for um re revising
165and improving the handbook is other thoughts mayor I are the papers gone now who else is on it with you thank you for doing that actually than you think you're welcome it's Vice chair martini and member seon and we've been meeting in person in a working session format okay thank you so much other questions or comments yeah member seon just real quick about the nature of the feedback we're looking for now is not the time to play New York Times editor that's not the level that's not the level of feedback we're looking for it's really like broad brush Strokes you don't want to hear if comm's out of place that what you're saying no we don't want to hear about our grammar oh yeah all right I'll resist the urge okay not that there's a
166lot to I'm sure there's not a lot to complain about I just uh I worked for PBS learning media as a um the person putting this stuff on the website and I just they trained me so hard about every comma and the M dashes and everything so you can go through at the end and and and touch it with your know and fix all of that oh I would no one will mind you're describing it a dream half day for me thank you sounds [Laughter] great um any other questions or comments thank you so much for your work on this this is going to be a a very important long overdue document for us and I think it'll be a useful tool for especially for new members but for all of us um going forward
167so thank you so so much welcome all right uh CES representative nothing okay anything on City Planning and construction and's not here uh anything on uh mask and legislative representative member denev um yes so uh I'd like to sponsor the resolution that was given to by the member of the public so there are endorsement lines here if anybody else would like to endorse this resolution and I'll send it to you okay for the next meeting um but also uh hyanis is coming up in November if anybody wants to go you should be getting things in the mail about that and now is the time to book your hotel or it will be Mayhem so um there's that piece of it that's the annual mask uh three day long Wednesday to Friday thing if you want
168to go um you can build the district and there's information in the draft handbook about how to do that great so you could do it properly um and then in regards to the masc division 5 work um the plan in May had been between the um um the head of the District 5 the representative of District 5 which is Humera fudin from South Hadley we were to begin the work of starting to speak with legislators in the fall so now is the time I'm starting to get ready to communicate with her about creating some Zoom calls with various legislators so that we can be prepared to really make some impact in May uh because when we show up in May the budget is like being wheeled down the hallway as we're speaking about our issues
169so we want to be ahead of the game um and that's the plan so fairly soon I should have some Zoom meetings scheduled and I'll let you all know when that is if you'd like to participate so it will be time for us to talk about bills and what we might want to advocate for so I'll bring a list of what is going on at the next meeting thank you is mask doing anything around elections right now they have their delegates where they each school committee submits a delegate to go forward and vote upon resolutions for the uh the mask annual meeting yeah so School committees choose a delegate if they want to and then when they go to hyanis that delegate will go sit in a very very long meeting all night long and
170vote on resolutions okay and I don't want to do that least don't make me do that um but um yes they do collect their resolutions and then they do bring them forward in June so part of um my thought behind also sponsoring this resolution is to create a a folder for the resolutions that we do create and pass or not pass so that we have a database of that so we have a place for them and we know what the action items attached to them are and make sure that we do them and so we can look back and then send them at the end of the year to masc so they can see what we've participated in and what we are standing for or not standing for nice thank you you're welcome any other
171questions for our mask slash legislative anything on District Wellness okay and um any new business that members would like to propose M Goodwin I would just like to propose for the next agenda that we discuss music can you say more about what you want to discuss I think the concept of bringing band and music alive in our district and what are the resources we're going to need um budget wise to do [Music] that mayor I I'm kind of new to the new business item I know you mentioned that they do it on city council does the city council then vote on whether to take up certain items or how do how does that process work well it depends on what it is like what I'm going to say you may refer to committee um and
172or put it on top for the next agenda so you they don't have to vote to put it on the agenda would just say the chair can just say okay we'll add that to the agenda or right okay um so uh what I was just going to bring up that perhaps to go to um f well you would decide where that would go to but I was thinking Finance but something that Jesus is working on I think it would be good that we as a school committee you know advocated for change in the school funding formula that's just a thought that I had member geneve there's a petition about that that's being circulated that has almost enough signatures so um I did have a conversation with that U that member of the public that I
173would try to bring that forward as well once it reaches the number of signatures required thank you okay yes member seon um I would love to also discuss creating a regular Cadence for getting reports and updates from our public bodies like our CPAC and our lpac once it has populated with actual members um because that's actually required in part of what what is required in having those bodies is that they give us regular reports which hasn't been past practice and I would like it to be future practice okay are there new business business okay um well I'm sorry to say the only item left is adjournment so I'd like to take a motion to adjourn even though it's hard it is hard so motion from the mayor and a second from Member Martini is that
174right uh any discussion all those in favor say I I all those opposed and and I'll abstain so the motion carries I don't know how [Music]