001On December 9th, 2025, I will call this meeting of the Webster School Committee to order and ask that we stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded both video and audio and it will be posted on the district website. The first item on the agenda is the discussion and approval of the minutes from the November 18th, 2025 meeting. Is there any discussion around those minutes? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve them. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item on the agenda is the discussion and approval of the executive session minutes also from November 18th, 2025. Any discussion around those minutes? >> Hearing none, I'll entertain a
002motion to approve them. So move. >> Second. There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item on our agenda is the superintendence report. Good evening, Mrs. Pangley. >> Good evening. We Oh, is our surprise here? >> It looks like it. >> I hope everybody had uh happy Thanksgiving. Um, this evening I figured we would kick the meeting off with a nice surprise from our coral department at the high school. And I believe they are waiting outside the room. So, let me get them. See if they're ready. You're all set whenever you're ready. This is our annual treat um to start the holiday season off. Yes. Come on in. Please go right in front. Welcome. >> Hi. >> How are you? >> To have
003you here to >> This is the ACA group and we're going to just give you a little treat of what what you'll be seeing at the winter concert on Thursday, December 8th in the new auditorium, which is beautiful. >> Yes. Fire burning brightath to I see the children outside Christmas song in my stockings by the Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas to me. Why Christmas to me? Walking on the roof as I fall asleep. The only gift I'll ever need is a joy of family. Christmas stockings by the Christmas tree to me Christmas to me. makes us sing. Oh, that's Christmas to me. In my heart I've got the cand >> out there. I just wanted to recognize Shuk as person that >> Yay. Congratulations, Louis. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And
004if anybody does that's wonderful. We look forward to seeing you. Thank you. >> That certainly is the best way to start a meeting. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you. Well, if that doesn't put a smile on your face, right, that's a great way to start the meeting and to start our holiday season. So, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Um, we will get started with the report. Um, under personnel, uh, there are no retirements at this time. Um, as you can see, we've been very busy hiring for the past week or two. Um, I have some new hires that I'd like to announce. I have Joselyn Delgado, an adjustment counselor at Webster Middle School. Hannah Lewis, an ABA at Park Avenue. Uh Gina Ducat, parro professional at Park A. Ray Maderos, uh it at
005Park Avenue. Tina, uh Tina Chauan, an ABA at Parkav Elementary, Erin Fra, an ABA at Parkav, Alexandra Maldonado, a para at Webster Middle School, and Julia Bastos, a par at Webster Middle School. As you can see, the two schools have been very busy hiring and we've had them all in and we're excited to get them on board. We have actually a couple more that we've had uh this week. So, it looks like hopefully things are turning around and we're starting to fill some positions. So, I I couldn't be more pleased about that. As you can see, we still have some vacancies below, but they are shrinking. Um we will continue to work um and look at filling those positions. Um are there any questions about personnel? All right. Next, moving on to management and operation.
006I I'm not I'm not going to talk a lot tonight because I know we have a director of student support services here. Um, but I just wanted to give you an update and give you a kind of final showing as to where I'm at with policies. I think I can actually say I feel pretty good about where we're at or where I'm at in the process. I actually feel like I have a good understanding of what we're doing, where we're going, and uh hopefully we can slowly make our way through updating some of our policies. So, for school committee purposes, um what we've done is we've taken this is just our summary for for your knowledge and for my knowledge and it's a system that we can track moving forward. So, the whole goal was
007to say what's been reviewed quickly. How can we have a document that we can look at quickly that summarizes everything? When was it updated? when was it reviewed, what needs to be done, and a way for us to manage long after because, you know, coming in, we don't really have a system in place. Uh we haven't even had one document in place that's been updated. So, what we've done is we've taken all of our books. We've had an online book. We've had a book there. We've had all of our policies um electronically, some of them which haven't been placed. We compared all of them and we made one final document. So, now we have one complete document. that document is now being put into the website. So, we are working on that. From that, we've
008also taken all of the um policies and put them into one spot. And so, what I'm doing now, as you can see, is we have the section, the policy, the name of the policy. Uh if it's reviewed, that means I've looked at it and I've compared it to what MASC has. So, there probably doesn't need to be any changes there. I put the date that I reviewed it and any notes and I'm doing that one by one going through. I compare what's on the MASC website. I review it to what our policy is and then I put the date that I reviewed it so we have a tracking. So if it's updated um I put the date that it's been up I put it's updated and the date that it's been updated. And I'm doing
009that for all of them. If it's pending it's something we're working on right now. You've probably seen one version of that. Once it's updated I will update this. Anything that is marked 2003 is the original version. If it's something that I've gone through and I've seen uh these were I've looked at in 2006, it needs updates. I know I need to go back to this one and bring this in a next form. So, I've started to review it that needs changes. So, I need to pull that document, go back and make some edits to bring to you. So, that'll be at a future meeting. So that way I'm not just sitting there waiting for the next one. As I have as I have free time, I'm going through and reviewing. When I have my five
010or 10 minutes here, I'll take a few. I'll try and do a Chris a quick check and then note them here and then as they change, I update them. So um we've actually made some pretty good headway um in in looking at what needs to review. I've made it to C. Um, so I will continue to do that and keep working my way. And as I've stated before, um, when we look at some of these policies and we make a change, the policy refers to one or two other policies. So I'm pulling that at the same time. So that way when we're making a change and it's impacting others, um, we're doing it all at once. So it's other sections. So, um, I feel pretty solid in the process and in the work. Um, it
011doesn't seem as daunting anymore. It seemed very daunting at first. Um, so we'll continue this process. We'll keep going through. You know, we're not going to finish this by the end of the year, but at least we have a process and a procedure in place that we'll continue to manage. We'll continue to monitor. And then I'm also taking the monthly updates that um MAC MASC puts out because they do reviews monthly. They look at policies monthly. So I'll pull them also monthly and crossch checkck that. So then we'll have an ongoing process of what we're looking at. So I just wanted to give you an update of where we are with that. um something that has felt very big and something that I didn't think we could manage on our own and district has now
012turned into I think something that we can tackle and um hopefully finish within you know another another school year I'm hoping so any questions on that through the chair I don't have a question but a comment in that it's a tremendous this amount of work. >> Mhm. >> But down the road, it's going to be so much easier. >> Yep. >> To have that at your fingertips. >> Absolutely. >> Just be able to click and change something. >> Thank you for all this work. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate it. And um thank you because it it's even easier for me now when a topic comes up or something that we have to say, I can quickly look here and say, "Oh, we have a policy. What's our policy?" Quickly identify it. go to the book
013and um look things up. So, I think it's going to make all of our lives a lot easier down the road. Um and it's actually a great process um for me to go through. So, I appreciate that. Okay. Um so, moving on from that um and I know Miss Contest will be talking about that. Uh our budget work, we are continuing at the district level. Um we had a DT yesterday to talk about the budget process. So, we are preparing multiple budgets for our discussion and I know we'll be giving a quick little overview of that um as we approach our heavy season come January um when we present you our first budget. And then uh in addition to management and operations, Miss KTOS, Miss Neves and I continue to have planning meetings with our
014OPM for a second phase move. Um it's really important to make sure that the logistics are thoroughly reviewed for a smoo transition for our staff and students. Um so we continue to collect data. Miss Ktos has been actively on top of things um in managing and aligning what we need to do. Um she does a great job with that. So I want to thank her for all of her work on the project. um there is no way that um I could have come close to doing this alone and she has taken on a huge load of work with the project. So I just want to thank her for the her efforts on that. Are there any questions on management and operations? Questions? No. Moving on. On Friday um 21st I attended the Southern Worester County
015Collaborative Meeting. In your packet uh you should see the agenda. Um I'm just going to start putting these in just so you can see the topics that we discuss at the meeting so you're aware. Um further later on in the meeting we have um the presentation of the reports um for you to see. Um but for now this is just uh this was the meeting on the 21st. Um this is our standard meeting. If you take away the annual reports we typically look at do um the minutes we get an update on enrollment staffing personnel. Um it again we are heading into budget season with the collaborative too. So those discussions are actively happening. Um and it's a busy time of year for everyone. Um and I was looking the next one is the district
016leadership team was also looking at other assessment programs um to be utilized across the district. Currently we've been using I Ready. Um, it looks like we will be continuing to use I Ready, but we are working with the curriculum office to finalize um our information going forward. And then next, I was going to introduce our new student rep. Um, Aiden Cruz has been unable to fulfill his commitment. Uh, he's busy and so he has resigned from his position as student rep. So, we have reached out to um Eric Pivachic uh who will be the new student rep who is excited to be on board and represent the uh student body at Bartlet High School. So, he is looking forward. He was going to be here tonight, but there was a conflict as you know with
017the N National Junior High um meeting uh not meeting um >> Thank you. Thank you. ceremony that's happening at the middle school. Um, so I apologize about the conflict and date. We really work hard to try and make sure we don't have meetings um and events on the same night and this one slipped through the cracks. Um, but we will welcome Eric here at the next meeting. We look forward to hear from him and he is excited to be a part of the committee. And then on Monday, December 1st, I also attended the CMC board meeting and I included that in your packet also. Um pretty much the same items that we had discussed at central um the Southern Worester County Collaborative. Uh the central mass we got received a financial update. Um we had
018a discussion with uh they introduced a new treasurer that we have on board. So that was um exciting to be able to meet him and uh I'm confident that he will do a great job for CMC. Um we also get a staffing and a program update. So, that agenda is in your packet. And then, uh, moving on, uh, I just added something tonight. I added an FAQ sheet for you in your packet. I'm sorry you didn't get it earlier. These were sent out, um, after our meeting the other day, but on Wednesday, I attended a webinar where Secretary Tutweiler and Desi Commissioner Pedro Martinez discussed the new push for the graduation requirements that are coming down the road. Um, in your packet I put in an FAQ sheet for you. Um, but what they did
019is, as you know, uh, the Massachusetts State Weight Graduation Council um, released its interim report and re there's nothing really for us to do. They did present um the seven areas of the overview of council of the graduation of proposed graduation requirements. Um the seven items are one the program of study. They're going to recommend student complete a rigorous program of study align with the higher ed admissions requirements. Um they are recommending end of course assessments. So they're they're calling them as you see the acronym EOC. That's what it means. End of course assessments. Um, it recommends that students participate in an end of course assessment connected to selected courses that are designed, administrated, and scored by students. They're also asking for a capstone project or portfolio. They uh number four is my cap career
020and academic plan. Uh, number five is the FASA or MASSA completion. recommend student complete the FASA or opt or to opt out of the requirement. They're looking for a financial literacy requirement. And they're looking at optional sales of distinction. So like the BI um seal of biiteracy, they're looking for more uh sales for academics, maybe potentially CT career pathways, civics engagement and things like that. Um the report that they reviewed was a highle report. uh they are still working and looking and will be holding more forums and um with um players down the road. They did put out an FAQ um which is what I wanted you to see because there's a lot of questions that are going through the list serves with superintendent. They're going to be building on this. Um some of the
021questions that I will read through this because I think it's important to note um when will these recommend recommendations impact students? Um the implementation timeline uh will be determined um through a broad-based stakeholder engagement. So they they don't have a timeline right now. They are looking to implement it. But they said they want to be careful about going through the proc process. They want to make sure all voices are heard. Um, so they didn't put a timeline on that on on this yet. Um, will this cost districts money to implement? The graduation council will continue to meet and assess costs and state resources that may be needed to implement the recommendations. Um, do these recommendations require legislation. Some of these recommendations do require state legislation be filed. The administration is assessing the best way to
022approach implementation. um that are these recommendations finalized? The interim report finalizes the framework for new high school graduation requirements in Massachusetts. There are details that still need to be worked out with the council, educators, parents, and stakeholders. These include design details to the end of course assessments, implementations, and timelines, selections or assessments that they spoke about. Um there was a lot of questions. Will there be both the 10th grade MCCAST and an EOCC at the same time? Uh they said they intend to never take the 10 uh to have students never take the 10th grade MCCAST in EOCC's at the same time. The goal is to fade out the 10th grade of the end of course assessments. um they state that uh there will be no one p no one failure of a course that
023will prevent a student from getting a diploma. Um the next question is will students need to pass EOCC's in order to graduate? They state no students will not be required to pass the EOCC's to earn a diploma. Students will be required to meet the obligations laid out in the framework to graduate. EOCC's will be more of a targeted approach to assessment than our current high school MCCAST. Um, and it says, "What makes the proposed FA framework different from the current GA graduation requirements?" Right now, Massachusetts lacks a uniform statewide standard for graduating high school. This framework will not only provide a uniform set of standards that each high school student and school district will need to follow in order to earn or award a diploma. It will also ensure that Massachusetts is the first state
024in the nation to offer a comprehensive statewide set of student focused diploma requirements that are rigorous and engagement gauging aimed at providing students with a full and rich array of options for postgraduation. So, as you can see, there is they're still in the early stages of this. There are a lot of questions and um that superintendent had about the requirements. when is it going to be implemented? Um they stated that they are going through this process. They're not going to rush it. They're going to take this time. They want to get it right. Um so they will be looking for the council will be looking for more feedback as they hold these sessions throughout the state. Um right now there is nothing for us to do. um we continue forward on the path that we
025have, but it does look like there will be requirements coming through that are dictated by the state um and of course assessments that we we will need to manage at the high school level um as students work towards their graduation requirements. So it it's very high level right now. I will continue to bring information forward to the committee as we get it. Um, I'm sure they will be sending more information out through the school year, but I just wanted to bring this to your attention. As you know, it's something that's been higher on our radar um since the MCCAST um has been voted out. So, we knew things were coming. We knew the state was working on alternatives. We just didn't know what they were. And I think now we have some insight as to
026what they're looking at. Are there any questions about that? No. Okay. Thank you. And then lastly, um, in my report, which I think I left part of my paper on my desk, um, on last week on Thursday, December 4th and Friday, December 5th, we had our visiting NES team in for their initial review. On Thursday, the team had multimate meetings which included meetings with students and staff. They also conducted observations of classrooms. Um, Miss Neves was very pleased with the team that was here. Um, they had very positive things to say about the high school. They were excited about the building project. Um, they were thrilled to see the new section of the building. Um the chair had spent some time with me um doing a quick one-on-one for about 15 minutes to talk about
027some of the positives um that he saw across the district. He loved the engagement with the students. Um he loved the follow through and um the messaging that is happening across the district. Um he felt that everything that the school and the teachers were saying, we were speaking the same language here at central office. So he felt there was a real throughway. Um a lot of the comments were just continuing to do the work that we're doing. Um as always they have growths that you can work on. Some of the high level grows is to continue to work on our curriculum development. Uh as you know we've been working very hard at the HQIM and at the high school. Our uh three main tested subjects are science um which we've just implemented open sad we
028have study sync our English program and we do CPM math are all HQIM um but we offer many others many other courses for that so continue to update our maps um and planning throughout the high school so they give some recommendations um the report uh was drafted did when they left they had a pretty well solid draft. They spend all day meeting on Thursday. They come back on Friday. They do have some final conversations. They do a lot of writing. Uh Miss Neves is hoping to have the final a draft of the report before we leave on Christmas break. She will then have 10 days to respond if there's anything that she wants to point out. And then they send those recommendations forward and we should have the clear final report by I would say
029March. Um, and that sets us up for our full review which will be happening in 2027. So, this is the initial. We go through goals, we talk about things we're working on, and then they come out in two years. They'll come out in 2027 to see what have we done from now until then. Um so they left here feeling very excited to come back knowing they'll come back and see a new building um a new environment and um they feel like we are really um setting ourselves up for success. So that was good to hear. Um so I was very pleased with that. Um are there any questions about that? >> No. And that concludes my report. >> Well, I'm going to turn it over. I'm sorry. I have one more thing uh under other
030updates. I just wanted to turn it over for to our director of student support services for her report. Miss here. >> Good evening, Miss Hair. >> Good evening. Thank you, Superintendent Pangelie, and welcome um school committee to this evening's meeting. Um I'd like to share an update with student support services and I provided an update listing many different items. So, I'm not going to read them to you, but share some insight to each of the items. The first one is a tiered focus monitoring. Just when we um received approval of our corrective action plan, shortly afterwards, we get informed that we're going to be part participating in a new tiered focus monitoring, which is um not surprising. And come late January, we're going to have more information about what that will entail. We anticipate that
031the new IEP and process re um involving IEP compliance is going to be a major indicator that they'll be looking at along with civil rights. Any questions on the tiered focus monitoring? Okay, the next one is a big one. It's an added district placement update. So, I'm going to start off with some interesting updates related to this year's moveouts, dropouts, graduates, and students that aged out. We have six students that moved out of the district and we will no longer be fiscally responsible for them next year. U one student dropped out who's pursuing a GED. We have three students graduating from out of district placements which is really exciting and three students aged out. So that's a total of four. Um we have about leaving for various reasons, but it's not going to be offsetting
032the costs of some of the placements that we recently made. So one would think that um five students that have been placed this year would offset be offset by the cost of 13 students that are leaving us fiscally and programmatically next year. And that's partly due to the um extensive nature of the student needs. This um re of recently starting at the start of the school year, we have placed two students out residentially and those fees are fully funded by the the district with some some um reimbursement through circuit circuit breaker. The other um three students, two are in the process of being placed out are cost shares with DCF. Um, one is a student. The third one is a student that's hospitalized and the hospital placement has determined that he's no longer suitable for
033that environment and because he's DCF involved, it'll be a cost share. So, I just wanted to share like what happens when DCF follows their process. So essentially they go through like their version of a least restrictive environment which means they try foster homes, they try intensive group homes and when that doesn't work they go through residential educational placements. Some of those placements have a fee for the educational program while others don't. When there's a fee for the educational program, the school district follows suit and they pick up the educational costs. But when it is a program that doesn't split the prices, it becomes a 50-50 cost share. So, um, that's kind of where we stand with, um, five residential placements, two were districtwide, and three are DCF involved. Does anybody have questions on that piece?
034>> Miss Sarah, I just have a question actually regarding >> the district's responsibility for residential placements. Can you give us just a lay person's explanation on how that works? >> Certainly. It's a very long process and it is a very a process that's taken very seriously and it's based on least restrictive environment. So the two cases are very different but I will give you like an overview. When a student has participated in district and then that was was needing a higher level of care then they would go out of district. when they go out of district, you start off at a public um out of district setting. If that isn't restrictive enough, then you would go private. Once you go private, there's really no other option to start considering maybe some care inside the home.
035But what really is happening with these cases like this is the students are not able to generalize the skills in the home and there becomes a significant safety risk that can't be provided by us as a school agency by providing maybe like an ABA support person um after school hours. So we we conduct various assessments in school and then it would leads to that we conduct a home assessment and then we meet as a team and we make the determination. Typically, it is a very significant safety risk that the the students not able to successfully be at home. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so moving on to um legal legally involved cases. Last school year we had seven active legally legal cases with nine that we were monitoring. So when we have a legal case
036that is a case where our legal team is attending team meetings because the families have for whatever reason and it could be through I could give you some of the channels they have hired private pay attorneys or if they're DCF involved there could be a DCF um assigned attorney through a state agency. Also, some state agencies go through third parties and those third parties have a line item and the line item um suggests advocacy and advocacy means that the state agencies go through a third party, hire an advocate and then if they so deem necessary, they will hire a lawyer um to represent the the families, which is very very um complicated. And it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a contentious situation. It's just um it's kind of like the the new state of how
037things are operating. So those legal cases mean that there is a a lawyer present an attorney present at a team meeting and when that is the case the district seeks representation from our attorney as as well. On a very rare occasion depending on the simplicity of the nature we'll we'll we'll be advised whether or not we need an attorney but that's not the the case. We um monitored nine cases last year, which could mean something as simple as an attorney did a record request for a student and it just didn't go anywhere. So, we just had it on our radar to make sure if an attorney was present at a team meeting that we weren't caught caught off guard. So, I looked into this year's um legal involvement. It's very similar. We're trending about eight
038legal cases that are active and eight that are that are monitoring. Some have fell have fell off and have just you know been been resolved. Any questions regarding legal cases in the district. Okay. So when we last met I talked about AAC devices with the speech and language department and we have made some headway because speech and language evaluations for AAC devices are about five times the cost of the AAC devices. So I'm pleased to announce that we have some documentation related to family responsibility, how we collect data internally for in for insurance funded devices and how we could um assist the students with having um the devices across settings. So we've come a very long way. We've had um our speech and language pathologist review the document, our technical director um review the documents.
039We are going to be exploring the these AAC devices are the ones that are very um I wouldn't say typical but it's like do you need an iPad? Does the iPad require um specialized software? Do you need um a a case to protect it? Do you need like a strap? Those things are very obvious. The ones that are a little bit more challenging for specialized equipment such as eye gaze equipment, we're still working on that. But for for cases that could have cost the district upwards of $1,600 for evaluation, we prefer to buy the $350 device. So that's that's a little bit of a cost-saving for the district. Any um questions? Okay. Another project that we're working on is protocols for additional adult support. So as you all are aware, a good portion of the
040budget is for ABAs and and IAS. And we want to make sure that the students are getting the supports that they need. So we put together a comprehensive team of special educators ranging from BCBAS, teachers, speech and language pathologists and building and district administration. And we are collecting data around what it means to have a onetoone what if what is this purpose? How do we know when a student needs it? So we're hearing from all these different professionals to come up with with protocols. So, where we stand right now is we had a major brainstorming session um with that full team of professionals. We're going to narrow it down to our behavior specialists, our BCBAS. We're going to be reviewing the data and then together we're going to propose guidelines based on the feedback and
041then we're going to go back to the team and this may go back and forth until we develop some entrance and exit criteria for adult support which I think is going to be very valuable to our staff and families to just be all on the same page when it comes to who need how do we determine who needs this this extra adult support and when do we know when they no longer need it. Any questions on that? Okay, preschool program development. With the onset of the the build, the new build, there's going to be new classrooms, and this is a great time to develop um programming. So, we're going to come to the table with anywhere between three to four different models that we could choose from to determine how we're going to serve our
042increasing population of special ed students. We know there is a desire for a full-time program, but the guidelines for preschool are super strict. And if you have a substantially separate classroom, there's no way about it. The maximum number of special ed students you could have in that classroom is nine. And for integrated classrooms, it's eight typical students and and seven students that have a um that have an IEP. And those those numbers are really restrictive to our growing population and our space. So, we're going to come up with some creative ideas on how we could maximize our staff and our and our students with our with our population of students. Any questions on preschool? So, more to come on that one. Um, we recently developed a team meeting parent survey. What's exciting about that is
043we were able to share our our tool with our CPAC and they were able to give some feedback. We have had two responses and it's so it's so nice to see that both families are 100% satisfied. We got perfect score and everything. So hopefully we continue with that trend. So that was really really nice. We're two for two. Okay. And then um we are trying to create a very efficient um student support services department and using the existing tools that we already have which is power school special programs. We received two training sessions in which we um are able to do things that we were doing manually that were taking a very long time. So I'm pleased to say if anybody in this room were to ask how many students have IEPs, I could tell
044you and by the press of the button and I could take like less than a minute to tell you how many students now have autism or a specific learning disability. I'm able to tell instantly how many students are on each provider's case load. So, we've made a lot of progress. So, those in fact, you know, there's a couple of other things such as like I know how many students are on special ed transportation who have an AAC device. So, all these automated things are making us more efficient. So, we take we could, you know, take on the new work of um the new climate of special education which is definitely very challenging. Any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Hair. Any questions or comments from the committee? >> Clearly, lots going on in special
045education and um it's helpful for us to understand with special education being something that uh can be a significant cost to the district, it's helpful to understand a little bit about what those costs are and and how kids are benefiting from them. So, so thank you for sharing that. And it's always helpful to know when you were talking about the AAC devices that there's that thoughtful process that goes into making sure that students have what they need, but they have no more than what they need because the goal obviously being that we are augmenting communication. So, so well done there. Thanks for all your updates. >> Now, that concludes my report. >> Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you both. Mrs. the um progress on the policies is really significant. >> Thank you. >> So um
046commendable work really because I think it's or I believe that it must have been something that would have been pretty overwhelming to begin with >> and just chunking it up and tackling it one policy at a time. >> That's it. >> Seems to be working. So >> yep, we'll get there. >> Uh and very exciting about all the hires also. Yes, >> a lot of vacancies with our par educators and uh we're certainly making a lot of progress there and our ABAs and that. So, >> absolutely. So, I hope to have a few more to bring to you at the next meeting and um I don't know what's going on, but it seems like we're attracting more staff. So, I hope that keeps coming. So we look forward >> and it' be interesting to see
047with the implementation of some of that training that's happening for people at the beginning of their employment with us whether that helps us with retention as well. >> Absolutely. >> Uh no other questions or comments. >> All right. Well once again thank you. >> Thank you. >> And the next item on the agenda is our business manager report. Good evening Mrs. Ktos. >> Good evening everyone. I'm going to get started with the renovation project and give you some um updates on progress. Um the all the interior walls are fully framed now. Drywall installation is nearing completion. It's nearly complete on the second floor and they're continuing to make solid progress on the first floor. The steel final inspections took place and now the team is moving forward with the completion of work that they kn
048need to do with our mechanical engineering and plumbing systems. So, that's really exciting. Um, piggybacking on what the superintendent said, as we work on some of the move activities, um, the teams have been actively doing all of their inventory planning. Um, we've been meeting with the mover so that we can assess what that work effort looks like and what the sequencing will look like. Additionally, we're working closely with the science teachers. Their move is far more significant than other areas. Um, and we are also working with an outside third party that's going to assist them with the chemical storage. Um, as we move into phase three, um, that will be a full inventory of all the chemicals, determining what we're going to store, how we're going to store it, um, and if there's anything that
049needs to be disposed of. We're hoping to have that completed over Christmas break. So, making good progress on that front. Um, we did just recently learn from our OPM that the schedule is at risk. Uh, they had contemplated some accelerated schedules, but as we're hearing that may not be feasible. So, this is still continuing to unfold. I don't have the details of what this means when we say it's at risk. If this accelerated schedule is not going to make it, is it moving to April? what's this impact at this point? But I wanted to give you a heads up that that's what we're hearing at this point and we should know more the next time we meet in terms of whether or not February is going to be feasible or if this is going to
050move to to April or beyond that. Um so more to come. Um I don't have all of the the reasoning behind it. I can only speculate at this point that it's related to some of the uh unforeseen conditions and some of the change orders um that have happened. Um, but more will come as this unfolds and the OPM digs in deeper on it. Any questions? Moving on to some other updates. Uh, the superintendent gave you some updates, but on fiscal year 27 budget planning, uh, we've been at the planning starting in October. uh the departments all begin their activities through the month of October working with their teams identifying what those needs are so that then they can submit in all of those needs to us so that we can compile what the overall department
051needs look like. So the approach that we're obviously taking is before we load in those needs and those requests, we first start with looking at where we landed with all our contract settlements, making sure that we do the appropriate um grid changes based on those negotiations as well as making the appropriate step changes, lane changes, and any other contractual requirements that we have um and that those are accounted for within the budget. And then we start layering on those needs. We did just meet recently. We'll be back together um before break to revisit it. We have a bunch of action items. Everyone's taking a hard look at this uh making sure that we have everything covered um so that we're well positioned to present our first preliminary budget to you on January 13th. The um
052governor's budget comes out the third Wednesday of January. So, it looks like we'll have the governor's budget before we meet for the second time in January. So, we might be pivoting really quickly when that comes out to see what kind of adjustments we may make. Um, it all depends on what we learned from the governor's release on their first budget. And then the other budgetary item is the capital planning budget. Uh, it was originally the initial list was originally planned for October, but they moved that out to December 18th. Uh, what I'll be doing is submitting in just an initial list. uh the town accountant knows that we need a little bit more time to do estimating on some of this um which we can't get done um during the same time frame. So, we'll
053be submitting that capital budget to you either the second meeting in January or the first meeting in February for your review. Lots of work underway. Um and uh we look forward to those discussions. They're going to be tough. Um on the financial front, uh the town um auditor Roselli Clark and Associates completed the annual basic financial statement audit um for a year ending June 30th, 2025. You do have that audit report as well as the requirement the required communication letter. Good news is is overall the financial statements reviewed there were no findings um or anything uh whatsoever. Uh only thing mentioned is someformational items that they're pointing out for us to to take a look at. There were three of them. First one's network security. This is a routine and common one that the auditors
054are keeping in many of the town audits primarily because cyber criminals are um prevalent and through many fishing attempts um that can be very costly to towns. So really there was a big push on making sure that we're keeping our antivirus software and malware software updated as well as taking a focus on employee training. As you know we are rolling out multiffactor authentication. That's one way that is helping us to uh solid uh solidify our security across the district through that. And I've already seen so far with some of the implementation of that some less fishing attempts than we typically see which is really uh promising. The other item that came up is inactive revolving accounts. The town accountant already has a process whereby all of the revolving accounts that haven't had a lot of
055activity over time, he's constantly reviewing them and closing them when there's been no activity. So, that is a process and a system that's in place. The third item is one item related to the school and that has to do with excess school lunch balances. Uh the requirement in the regulation for school lunch program is that your surplus cannot exceed three months of your average expenditures and at this point in time our surplus is at 12 months of our average expenditures. This is not uncommon. This is an um outcome from the uh co 19 pandemic and the awards that were made during that time frame. Kelsey Sanders, our food services director, has been aware of this and she's been working on a plan to remediate this. One of the things that we're doing um is looking
056at equipment at the other schools and looking at the um state of that equipment and whether or not it's ready for upgrades at this point, particularly at Webster Middle School because that is the oldest school in the district. So, she's been doing reviews of all the equipment to make sure that we can start uh taking down that surplus. So, she is working on a plan and we'll report back to you on that. Any questions? Felt like I had a lot more to say than that and it went by faster. >> That's okay. I took longer than I thought. >> That's it for your update. >> Any questions or comments from the committee? >> Well, once again, thank you, Mrs. Ktos. I'm looking forward to hearing more about particularly the building project and the scheduling there.
057I know we have been going strong on schedule >> up to this point. So I hope that trend >> Yeah. And I think the one thing I'll add is um certainly after our experience with phase one and the push to get in um I wouldn't want to see this rushed in an accelerated schedule put us in a situation where we open the building and things aren't fully functional. um we really want to be in a situation where we open it and you know we're not dealing with significant punch lists and outstanding items um just to meet a date. So uh I think most importantly is can they make it and can they do it in an accelerated schedule that's reasonable um and acceptable and so uh I don't think we'd be pushing as hard as
058we were pushing last time based on our experience. >> That's prudent. Thanks for that perspective. >> All right. Well, once again, thank you. And the next item on the agenda is our principal report. And joining us this evening from Park Avenue Elementary is Miss Amy Pafico. Good evening. Good evening. All right. So, um I have four general topics to talk about this evening. First is curriculum and instruction. So, um we continue to offer um optional professional development for the teachers. It's offered both in the mornings and the e and the afternoons. Our um assistant principal Jessa Hutzky uh offers that for teachers. So, it's really encouraging to see them choosing to stay and participate. Some of the most recent PDS she's offered um is quality qu questioning planning sessions which goes right in line with
059our instructional priority as well as gradual release and intentional scaffolds. So, we've had a good number of teachers uh opt into those. Uh when we return in January, it will be testing season quite a bit, your benchmark assessments, our foundational reading assessments as well as I Ready in math and reading. Uh we will also be administering access for our English language learners um K to4. So they all take that and that's pretty much the whole month of January. They have I know you've heard of it before they have four separate tests in speaking, writing, listening and reading. So, um they have a good number of um assessments to take for access to um assess their their English language acquisition. Moving on to our events, we had quite a few events in November and already in
060December, uh we welcome Twister Academy again. This is, I think, their third year coming to do snippets of their productions for us. This year it was Music Man. We also welcomed the library, uh, partnered with the library. They came and did a readaloud for our kindergarten class on the day the crayons quit. Um, and Mr. Tai, the children's librarian, uh, was in one of the crayon costumes. We had green and red crayon come and visit our our, um, kindergarteners, which they loved. Our PTO put on book bingo which is an annual event always well attended and fun. We also had uh the district attorney's office present. They came and did a presentation for grades three and four on online safety and protecting yourself and making good choices online. We had our conferences on November 20th.
061Uh we now have a half day on November 20th. So we use the second half of the day and the evening for conferences on that night. And November is always uh girls on the run month. So we had um their practice run on November 1st and they had their official run on November 16th. And they are also doing a toy drive in conjunction with Webster PD as their impact project. So, um, they've had quite a good turnout of toys donated for the Webster Police Department. And then this month in December, we had an author's visit. Um, Ada Ahri, who uh writes uh children's books. She came and did an interactive readaloud with our grade two class of her book sp the spider's thin legs, which is a retelling of the Anazi Spider story. Uh she
062also shared some African culture components such as dress and in instruments um and such. So it was very wellreceived. Uh grade two really enjoyed it. So um in order to keep it small, we had it just with grade two because it is an interactive readaloud. So we wanted the kids to be able to have that full experience. Uh we're doing some community and culture events around the school. Um grade two had their Macy's Day parade which is always a fun event. They put out on their balloons and do a parade around the school with their character balloons. We also have some staff fun going on. We had Thanksgiving trivia where teachers could win our PAE lotto tickets which are things like prime parking spots and free prep period. And this month we're doing musical bingo.
063So during announcements we play a music some music and as teachers win bingo they win various prizes. The kids are very into it too. there. The bingo boards are on the front of the in the front of the uh classroom and the students are very into when their teachers win. Uh we also have our community meetings ongoing monthly um which are hosted by a grade four class and we also use that time to recognize our merit winners. So it is a time to bring the whole school together for community and recognition as well as talent show. So the students get to put on a talent and it's really amazing to see uh the fourth graders be willing to get up there in front of 780 students and do something that that um is a talent
064that they possess. And then finally, we have some upcoming events which I gave you a schedule. Uh we do have our play coming up on Monday. Wizard of Oz is um going to be at 400 pm and 6 pm. That is our adviserss Carrie Williams and Deb Castellani have been working on that play. Our community meeting is on the 16th at 9:00 am sponsored by Mrs. Boule's fourth grade class. We also will be welcoming the middle school uh chorus to come. They come over and um carol around the building uh for the students. On December 18th, we have our staff band Polar Plunge performing at uh lunches. So that consists of uh Mr. a our dean uh Matt Aronian our assistant principal Keith Goodyear uh music teacher stands in sometimes Jenna McDonald we've had um
065our front office secretary Angie Bonia in the band and we are also welcoming special guest Ben Gelino who is a sub former um Webster student uh who will be performing as well. So you get a chance, come on by. They do it at lunch. The kids love it watching the staff perform. And then we also have the high school carolers coming for us as well on the 19th, which is always a great way to to end the year and send the students off um with the high school performing. So yeah, it's going on at Park A. Great. Thanks for the updates. Lots of great things happening. I'm excited about the play. Yes, that'll be fun. Um, any questions or comments from the committee >> through the chair? Member Miller? Um, I know we have started
066um making cards for Valentine's Day, you know, for Webster Manor. But I think it would from my visits there, there are a lot of people who do not receive visitors there and they love getting cards from the kids. So I was wondering if maybe we could do Christmas ones. That might be a little tight of a turnaround. Um, I can certainly put it out to staff and I'm I I'm sure I mean I'm always really impressed with the number of Valentine's cards that that get produced. So, I'm sure that students will be, you know, teachers and students will be more than happy to throw to to spend some time >> children. They really really >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will certainly put that out to my out to my staff. I know. I know. >>
067That's an easy that's a a an easy blast and people jump right on board with that. So, um I'm sure and I will let you know if we have some for pickup. >> Does that work? >> All right. Great. Wonder if that's an afterchool program kind of thing, too, right? I mean, that's something it doesn't necessarily impact, >> right? >> What's going on during the school day, >> right? Yeah. I could connect with Lois. >> Creative. Yeah. >> That'd be great. captive audience in the after school program. >> Absolutely. >> I'll also reach out to the art teacher at the middle school. Maybe they want to do something like that an art class or something. >> Our art teacher is just coming back from so she might be a little overwhelmed and have a project
068already or she might she might really be happy to have something to work on very quickly. >> Well, this is a short one. It doesn't take a lot. >> Right. Right. they get done with their work, maybe they can make a card, >> right? Put some paper and art supplies out and >> Yep. Let them go crazy. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> That was actually a project Girls on the Run did maybe last year or the year before. They made things for for some of the residents at the local nursing homes. >> And actually, my grandmother wound up with one of them, which was such a special thing to see her, you know, she was very excited. So, pretty neat neat stuff going on at >> Parker AF. >> Any other questions or comments from
069the committee for Miss Pafico? >> Well, thank you very much for coming and for all of the good work that y'all are doing. >> Thank you. >> Hopefully, we'll see you at some of these events coming up. >> Yes. Yep. We'll be there. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, moving right along, the next item on our agenda is an update from our student representative. It looks like he shared some thoughts with us even though >> he did this evening. >> So, I just want to point out a couple of things since we only have the one meeting um and he won't be here until after the first of the year. Uh we had our our 105th annual Thanksgiving game um against Southbridge. I am happy to say that we were victorious. Um it was
070a great day for a game. It was beautiful out and it was just wonderful to see the people there. Um so, congratulations to the football team. and they had a wonderful season. So, I just wanted to give them a shout out. Um, leading up to the football game, we had our annual Thanksgiving pep rally in the gym. Um, so that was nice to see the kids getting together and celebrating and get exciting for, um, the game coming up. Um, during the pep rally, um, we got to feature one of our teachers, Mr. John Busami. The student council had a turkey fundraiser, um, to make the teacher having to wear a turkey costume, and that was Mr. John Busami who had it on and he was the energy for the pep rally that day walking around
071and um getting students um in the mood for an upcoming game. Um just a few highlights and events I want to um put out there for the high school. They have their breakfast with Santa in their holiday craft fair um this Saturday morning coming up. So, if anybody's interested in breakfast with the Grinch um and the craft fair, please come on out. That'll be here at the high school. Um they're working on a robotics club um for students who are interested in engineering. Um and they're working on a current Toys for Tots and sock drive. Um as you heard Mr. Carney, we have a they have their annual holiday concert on December 18th um here at the high school in the new auditorium. And I just wanted to put out there the Webster Middle School,
072their band is performing tomorrow night at 6:00 at the Webster Middle School. Um and lastly, uh last night they had the chemical health night at the high school. That was the first event that we had um in the auditorium and it was wonderful to see the turnout that we had. It was nice to see people sitting in the seats there for the event. Um and it's just great to be able to use the space. Um I didn't hear any negative comments. Anything that I heard was um excitement and how beautiful the auditorium was. So we're excited to be using it. We're excited to be there and it's nice to see the kids um excited about the space also. And that's what I wanted to point out. >> Great. Well, thank you. Thank you for the
073updates and for putting them together for us. >> We look forward to seeing him in January. >> Um the next item on the agenda under old business is the monthly report on fundraising applications. As a reminder, we the role of the school committee is to review fundraising activities, but we don't approve them. Those are done at the those approvals are completed at the building level. I see two in our packet here. One is the Webster Middle School band and Chorus annual chocolate sales fundraiser. >> The other is the uh softball team at the uh high school that are selling hot dogs and pizza at the basketball games. It'll be a money maker. >> Yes. >> Any questions or comments from the committee about the fundraising activities? >> I just want to thank them all for
074their work. They put in so much time doing this stuff. So, I appreciate it and it all goes to our right back to our students. >> Agree. >> So, >> yeah. Thank you. >> The next item on the agenda under new business is the FY25 SWCEC annual report. >> Hi. Thank you. Um, this is for your awareness. Um, as I stated before, we need to clearly um mark these things on our agendas for the school committee to know that they're being presented. Um, this was presented to us at our Southern Wester County Educational Collaborative. So, I'm bringing it forward to you. It is the annual report of everything um that went on at the collaborative at the end of last year. So, I'm happy to say they're in good shape and they're doing a fantastic
075job. >> Great. You need a role to accept this, right? >> Nope. It's just for your information. It's about keeping the committee informed. >> Perfect. Thank you. So the next item on the agenda is the financial audit for FY25 for the S SWCEC. >> Yep. And um happy to state that they are in good standing. They do a fantastic job with their financials. Um the collaborative is doing a great job. We had um the auditor in. We were able to meet him. He walked us through the report. Um so it's it's just um a nice job. >> Great. And the next item on the agenda is the quarter 1 report for FY26 for SWCEC. >> Yep. And that moves us into this year. Um you'll see the quarter one report for the Southern Worester County
076Collaborative. Um you there's some information about their programming in there for the quarter 1. Um talks about their finances and the districts that they service. So this is for your awareness. >> Great. Thank you. And moving on, the next item on our agenda is the Innovation Career Pathway student activity account for Bartlett High School. It's a request to create that account. >> Yeah, I'll take that one. Um, yeah, the high school is looking to create a new student activities account specifically to support the career pathways. They're looking to use this as a way to support some of their future programming, events, and activities that they hold. So, looking for school committee approval to create the new account. >> Great. Any questions or comments from the committee? >> All right. Well, hearing none, I'll entertain I'll
077entertain a motion to approve the creation of an innovation career pathway student activity count at Bartlett High School. >> So, move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. >> Member? >> Yes. Motion passes. >> Great. Thank you. I think they'll be very happy because I think they're looking and hoping to be selling things this weekend at the um event on Saturday. >> Oh, that's great. Well, I can't wait to see what they what they're selling and also what they're going to do with the funds that they raise. I'm sure it'll be something exciting. >> So, the uh next several items on our agenda are policy readings. And as Mrs. Frangelie pointed out recently, if we have feedback on these policies, we can certainly share
078that. If we don't have feedback, we can move from a second reading to a final reading in one setting. So, I'm going to take these individually so that if there is any feedback or questions about these policies, we can deal with it. Um, and if not, this will probably be fast. Yep. >> Um, but I welcome any feedback. Obviously, if >> I just will note before you start, just to make awareness, we had conversation about the graduation language the last time. So, that was amended and it's in red. So, I just want to point that out. When you get to that, you can look at it and see if that is more in line with uh is clearer um for anybody who's looking at the requirements as we get to that once we get to
079that one. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So, the first uh policy is policy add background checks. Any questions or comments about that policy? >> So that will be our second and final reading of that policy. >> The next policy is policy ADC, tobacco products on school premises prohibited. Any questions or comments about that policy? That will be our second and final reading. Next is policy GB D. Tobacco use on school property by staff members prohibited. Any questions or comments about that policy? That will be the second and final reading of that policy. The next item is policy HB teaching about alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Questions or comments about that policy? That will be our second and final reading. The next policy is policy IHBA, English learner education. Questions or comments about that
080policy? Hearing none, that will be the second and final reading. Policy IHBG, homeschooling. Any questions or comments about that policy? Hearing none, that will be our second and final reading. Next is this says exhibit IHBG home education process. >> That was the form that just goes along. >> Oh, perfect. >> Yeah. >> So that's the form that goes along with our homeschooling policy. >> Questions or comments about that? That will be our second and final reading on that. And our next policy is policy IHBH, middle school pathway exploration policy. questions or comments about that one? Hearing? None. That will be our second and final reading. Next is policy IKF, graduation requirements. This is the policy that there were questions and comments about previously. I'll open it up to the committee to um either review or
081express any any comments about the addition of the uh MCCAST piece. This was edited since the last time we were here. questions or comments there. >> All right. I think it looks great. It incorporates what we need to incorporate and uh >> you know as our graduation requirements progress and we hear more >> absolutely >> webinars. This is subject. >> We'll be back >> more updates. >> Absolutely. >> But with that being said, this will be our second and final reading of that update of that updated policy at this time. >> The next policy is policy I KFE competency determination. Questions or comments about that policy? Hearing none. This will be our second and final reading of that policy. And our next item on the agenda is >> Do we make a need to make
082a motion to approve all of them? >> Oh, we do. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So, if there is no discussion about any of these policies, I will entertain a motion to adopt all of these policies as presented. >> So, move. >> There's a motion in a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. And once again, thank you for all the work that uh you, Mrs. Pangelia, and the team are doing on these policies. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Uh the next item on the agenda is a donation of a gift card in the amount of $45 from Ocean State Job Lot for the Webster Middle School uh for holiday gifts. And this was donated by a former school family, >> I believe. So, yes. >> We don't
083have a name on it. So, it was just a donation to the school. >> Well, that's awfully nice. >> Yes. Absolutely. Any questions or comments from the committee on this? >> How are we going to use this? We're going to purchase things and >> Yep. for for Christmas gifts for students. Yep. >> Give them to distribute them to students. >> Y great. >> If there's no further discussion, I'll entertain a motion to accept this donation as presented. >> There's a motion in a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? Adamopoulos. >> Yes. >> Member Millet. >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item on our agenda is the review, transfer, and signing of warrants, bills, the vouchers. But before we get into the signing piece, there is an a transfer request in the amount
084of 3,4 excuse me, $3,234.96. That'll be from the Park A Elementary savings account to the checking account. Any questions about that? Hearing? None. I'll entertain a motion to approve it. >> So move. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. Okay. >> No, no. I mean, that was >> I tried to go through and put everything on my calendar, but We're also doing two dress rehearsals. The kids are That's fine. I mean, most of your stuff's on there. >> The ones that we all use. Yeah. Excel. Yes. And it wasn't on there. It wasn't. >> Yeah. Like They accept the kids. They don't forget. >> That's true. >> Thank you. Get it down. I have my husband from Florida. I can't partner. What type of
085transfer? >> I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Adamop. >> Yes. Meeting adjourned. Good night everyone and happy holidays. We won't be meeting again before the holidays. So, happy holidays to all of you