001With the time being 6 o'clock p.m. on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025, I will call this meeting of the Webster School Committee to order and ask that we stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded both video and audio and will be posted on the district website. The first item on the agenda is the discussion and approval of the minutes from the September 23rd, 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
002committee? >> Yes. Yes. >> Member Mill. >> Yes. >> Member Stolair. >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item is the discussion and approval of the minutes from the executive session that also took place on September 23rd, 2025. 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. Yes. >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item in the agenda this evening is our superintendence report. Good evening, Mrs. Pangley. >> Good evening. Hello everyone. >> Uh I will start tonight with my personnel update. Um there are no retirements at this time. Uh for new hires, I am happy to say um that we had four recently. We have a Chelsea Bond
003power professional at Parkav Elementary. uh Vicky Parsons, also a parah at Parkav Elementary. Um Heather Wilcox, who is a special education teacher at Parkav, and then uh Elani Barackus, a PAR professional at Webster Middle School. I'd like to welcome all of them to Webster Public Schools, and we're excited to have them on board. Um we did recently have a resignation, uh Mr. Jack McFersonson, uh who was a par profofessional at the high school. We did do an exit interview with him as we are um throughout the school year doing exit interviews with our staff. Um we have no transfers at this time and then below is a list of vacancies as you can see. Um it's the majority of uh par professionals instructional assistants and ABAs. There is one missing um that I just remembered.
004It was a 1.0 prek teacher that we're trying to fill at Park A. Um I do know there were interviews going on today. Okay. I'm not sure where we are with that. Um but it's still a vacant position that is not on this list. Um we have been able to fill um the other vacant positions um for special education teachers um that we've been looking for this year. So I'm happy about that. Are there any questions about personnel? No. Okay. Moving on. Um I thought it was fitting and I couldn't remember. I think I gave a high level uh about this report uh PAR and ABA training over the summer. Um we've worked really hard to um look at ways in order to retain staffing. We see a high turnover with our par professionals and
005our ABAs. Um so we worked on a training program over the summer um for incoming parrofessionals and ABAs. The hope is that we have this training uh before they actually start that they can come in. They spend a day or two a day in district and then uh um another half day at their school getting some training um to make them feel more prepared uh which will hopefully help leading to some retention of paris. Uh as you know those roles have been very difficult to fill and we often see the high turnover rate. Um this is not just for Webster. We've seen these shortages across the uh state, but we have to work on how we can pro provide a strong foundation for the role and to support our staff um who provide many services
006across the district. Uh they work with some of our most challenging kids um in special education and uh we have to do our best to make them feel supported and prepared for their roles. Uh the training is being conducted by Miss Debbie Rivera. She is our director of curriculum. She also was a director before coming to Webster um in an um behavioral school. She has a lot of experience. We also have our assistant director of student support, Carol uh Cohen, Miss Cohen, who is also um willing to provide training. So, between the two of them, we have two trainings scheduled a month, but we look to move them depending on how we're hiring. Sometimes the hiring doesn't always align with the incoming staff. And it's important our schools I know are often looking um to
007fill these roles as soon as possible. So they have been flexible with adjusting some of those dates as needed um if if the if it arises if the need arises. Um so it's a work in progress. We're still working through trying to work out any kinks that we have. But the feedback that we've been getting from the support staff that have been going through the training is that it is very helpful and they've appreciated. And actually, you know, in a different situation, we had one who worked a day in the school first and then came and she took some of the questions that she had um from that first day and brought them into the training and really was able to have some good conversation about how do I address this need, how do I
008address that? So, it almost better prepared her for the questions that she might have in the role. Um, so I think it's um some good some good stuff going on there. It's just tweaking it and finding out what the right mixes of what we need to provide. Um, what we did is that Desi has a bunch of modules out there for power professionals. They've been putting them on their website. So, Miss Rivera did watch all of the modules and she kind of condensed and pulled and picked from all of them to create the training. Right now, all of our par professionals have on our PD days have been going through the trainings and the modules. So, all the new paras that didn't maybe get the training last year are now getting the training of those
009modules as we go through the year and we'll continue to get some of those um as finish them up as we go through. So, um I'm really happy with it and we'll continue to improve on it and hopefully this will lead to retention of staff making people feel um better prepared for their roles as power professionals and ABAs. Any questions about that? Oh, thanks. Um next I had sent you an article, a press release from Desi about a new AI curriculum pilot. Um, this pilot is expected to reach about 1,600 students across 30 schools in Massachusetts. I'm happy to say that our Mr. Art Duke, who is one of our project lead the way teachers, um, participated over the summer in this training and just received his first lesson, which he will integrate into his
010PLTW course. um they are asked to take this lesson that they're given by Desessie, implement that into their curriculum and try um and work it through with the kids and then give feedback on um the use of AI in the program. Um this new curriculum will serve as a model that Project Lead the Way can share across its networks of schools and partners nationwide. Um as you know, we're building up our programs within our pathways and hope to look for new ways to expand. And I want to thank Mr. Arduk for his um willing to always learn more, being seeing how he can better his instruction and being open to new ideas. He is um he's he's one of our teachers who is very committed to our pathways and our project lead the way curriculum
011and um we appreciate all his efforts and all of this. So, we'll continue to update you as we go as he goes through the year and sees what he finds. And um as you know, AI has been a hot topic um across the state and how we implement AI in our schools um that is on the list um of policies that we need to work on um which is you know going to take a bigger role as we need to incorporate teachers. we should actually have a small committee on that to figure out um what we're going to do for that. So, that's on our radar to do this school year as well. Um any other questions on that? Any questions? No. Uh moving on, uh CTE, so career and technology education programs, the middle
012school waiver. um as a district with middle schools that have access to CTE programs um either through our high school or through the membership in the CTE district or county agricultural school. As you know, any of our students here in Webster can um apply to Bay Path or can also go to an agricultural school if there's not one around here that has it. Um districts must um develop and implement and submit a middle school pathway exploration policy. So, this was reported out by Desi late over the summer. Uh, the deadline for either the policy or the waiver is on November 1st. I will be applying or I have applied for a waiver um for the November 1st. Uh, we do have a policy, but it will not it has not been put before before you
013yet. Um, so we are reviewing it. I have it ready I think to go um to you guys in November and then it'll do the number of readings and then we'll be able to submit the policy in. Um so it is pretty much done. It's being reviewed um or has been reviewed and will be brought to you shortly for your approval in the next batch of policy reviews. So we are working on that. Um, I'm also happy to say when we talk about um our pathways or the programs that we have out there, um, we've also been working really hard at promoting our schools and promoting the high school um, with our middle school students. Um, and promoting what they can have when they come to the high school, what programs do we offer? Uh
014we sent notices home to not um one thing we did was we sent notices home with our families at all sight all saints to sign up for tours or have a shadow day where they can come in and shadow with one of our students for the day. Um which is great. In addition, all of our students were were invited to come to our showcase night on November 6th um in our cafeteria from 6 to 8:00 PM. We also had the middle school eighth graders come up to our high school last week um to talk uh to our counselors and a couple of students about the offerings that we have at the high school. Our hope is that we're talking to kids at the same time. they're going to be going off to Bay Path so
015they know what we can offer them as well um to give them options so they're comparing when they go to look. So, I'm really excited about the work the high school is doing. They're doing a great job and they're looking for ways to improve on the communication and the outreach. Um we're hoping that we get some students from All Saints to come in who want to shadow us for a day, see what it's like at at Bartlett High School to kind of go through a schedule with our students. um we welcome them and as always we welcome any questions or concerns that anybody might have. I know the high school principal is always willing to talk about the high school and the exciting things that are happening there and um we look forward to welcoming
016them. Are there any questions about that? No. And next I have our director of student support services here. We're going to be doing this throughout the year now. will be giving curriculum updates, updates from our special ed, and updates from our L department and our grants department um as we go through so you get updates um on a regular basis. So Sher, you want to give your update on special education? >> Thank you, Mrs. Pangelie. Um so Mrs. Pangeli gave a very thorough update on staffing for special education in re in relationship to our IAS ABA's teaching staff. In a previous school committee meeting, I mentioned the move in. So today I'm going to focus on some updates that are very specific to special education. The first one is safety care. We have a safety
017care training schedule that is continuous throughout the year that is really timely, effective and also also takes into consider consideration fiscal responsibility. We also um in the past month we received our corrective action report. It was accepted so there's no further action on that. We submitted today as a matter of fact a report that was required by DESIE on indicators 4A and 4B. They're relative to discipline. 4A is discipline related to students with disability and 4B is relative to students um that are in that are um of color. So that was they may have been they're looking to see if there was any like extensive disciplinary action based on students with disability or of color. We also submitted a report on indicator 7, which is for students in preschool that are either entering or exiting.
018And our last indicator report that we submitted was on indicator 14 that was um relative to dropout rates. We started the school year with all of our parochial school and homeschool students fully um staffed in terms of receiving their student their their services, which was wonderful. We were able to invest in some sensory supports and supplies with grant money from fiscal year 2024 that was inclusive of items like jewelry, trampolines, um like dividers to give privacy for students when they're receiving some services such as discrete trials. We also invested heavily in AAC devices. We were able to fund goal book which is a online platform to support the development of IEP goals and also has a data collection and and additional types of behavioral supports that could be be used. Since July 4th, we have
019received four PRS complaints. PRS is the problem resolution system that a family or guardian could submit a complaint if they have one against the district. So, I'm pleased to announce that out of the four, there was two had no findings. One was rescended with no further action and another was rescended as a result of what we call an LEA agreement. That's when the school district could work with the family collaboratively to come up with a resolution for their um ch their concerns and that was successful. We're also implementing walkthroughs with a specific um focus on looking at our inclusion programming this year. And one other thing that I'd like to add in terms of some things that I that I I'm really proud of in particular is that we created a think a think tank
020for special education which is inclusive of representatives from all three buildings. We have teachers, counselors, BCBAs, team chairpeople, administrators, and we meet monthly to talk about special education concerns and strategies. Um, this week's meeting is going to focus on developing a protocol for determining one-to-one support. So, I'm excited about that. The focus though of my um my update is really going to be around speech and language. Is this a good time to talk about this piece? Sure, you can talk about it which will but we'll have to do the vote separate later. >> Yes. So, um I chose um speech and language because one of our largest numbers in special education is around students that have a communication disability and we are seeing unusual numbers and it used to be for students that don't speak
021you would refer to them as non-verbal. The new language and terminology that's being used is for non-speaking students. So this summer we received eight neurosych evaluations that were that were reviewed by our Park Avenue Elementary School school psychologist. This is really unusual and the numbers are very high because neurosykes are very expensive there. It's very difficult to get an appointment and it's usually reserved for stu for children that have very significant disabilities. And what we found in those neurosych evaluations are students that were non-speaking require higher level of support that could look like additional adults or a subsparate environment. So that was very very unusual. We also noticed a trend of very high case loads amongst our speech and language prof professionals. Um an average case load would be between 40 and 60 cases. we're
022seeing upwards of in the high 60s, high 70s, and um in in the 80s. But what really drew my attention and why I wanted to report out on this um as one of my first updates was due to the fact that last year we had funding for 25 AAC devices. They have all been deployed. And I thought these were some really interesting and telling numbers that we have 25 28 25 students in 26 students I'm sorry in preschool that are non-speaking. So they're either with us as an integrated student subsparate or itinerate student and that number is 20 26. And then when you compare it to the the rest of Park Avenue Elementary School K through four there's 28 students that are also non-speaking. So those numbers are very very very very impactful and we're
023monitoring them. Right now there isn't any literature or research that's conclusive as to why those numbers are so high, but in speaking with our staff they suspect that there's better resources in terms of diagnosing students when they're they're younger and that could be impacting um the reason why we're seeing th this trend that there's higher level of of diagnosis Does anybody have any questions? >> Thank you for that report. It sounds like the number of students that are classified as non-speaking in preschool, right? Um is almost equal to the number of students that are diagnosed as non-speaking in the following five grades. Is that right? >> That's correct. We are investing in 15 additional AAC devices, assistive augmentive um devices to help the students access their voice and it's been very effective. Recently, I went
024into a substantially separate classroom and the student motioned to me to open her chips and I opened them. And then I asked her, prior to opening it, I asked her to use her device to ask me. But when she asked me, she didn't ask me to open her chips. She asked me to open fruit chews. And it wasn't a mistake cuz when I opened the chips and I gave it to her, no. And she went back to her AAC device and opened the chews. and I went and I got it for her and I opened it and she was so happy and I just felt like without that technology I would have never known if she was upset why she was upset. So it was really great to see it in action and and she
025was I think in kindergarten or first grade and when I saw all those little tiny icons it wasn't just like eight big icons she was speaking to me through this technology in five to seven words which I thought was pretty pretty amazing. That is really amazing. And and you described a situation where it could have been seen as almost like a behavioral episode um that was very quickly diffused by her having a voice. >> Thanks for sharing that. Any other questions or comments from the committee? >> Okay, continue on. Thank you, Sher. Um, so next on my reports I have uh in your packet you should have a copy of the CMC annual report. Um we are required to hand this out. Um so you can see on the prior year's um collaborative um so
026that is for your enjoyment. You can read at your leisure. Um thank you for that. And then uh just another point for CMC uh annually when we have um a new member we have a incoming new superintendent in Worester this year. So he attended the board meetings for the first time. We did a reorganization and I have been voted in as chair of that board now. So I am excited to take on that new role and um I thank my colleagues for their support. I think Um, in other updates, uh, just a couple grants to let you know about. Uh, the safe and supported schools competitive grant was a awarded in the amount of $10,000. Uh, these funds were applied to support the planning work with the May Institute of PBIS um, district systems fidelity
027inventory. Um, in writing the grant, we anticipate needing the plan for actions related to stakeholder engagement, discipline policies, um, focusing on exclusion versus alternatives and, um, some initiatives such as PBIS, um, are they reducing or not reducing the exclusionary pack u practices. So, we will uh, I want to thank Dr. Mai for applying for that grant and again we always look for any help that we can get with funding across the district to make our district stronger. Um the second grant received was the strengthening career and technical education secondary reserve federal grant. This one is in the amount of $5,000. Um these funds are will be used to support our DECA competitions and supports um dues for students participating along with transportation for events and career related field trips. um they do use the school
028buses that we have um when they're available, but in the event that they're not available because we're using them a little more frequently now um they'll have some funds to support the students um in their program. They're also using uh this grant to purchase an embroidery machine for the school store um which can be used by students to learn how to do shirts. So, they're doing a lot more with the school store and we're excited for all of their work and I um want to thank um Miss Michelle Bigalow for applying for this grant. So, thank you. And then moving on, on September 24th, I attended the Wester County Superintendent Association meeting which was held at Holy Cross. Uh during that meeting we had Glenn Cooer of MASC who held a qua about the work
029that MASC is engaging in and the challenges they're facing across the state. Um during this meeting we discussed some things like the CTE policy. Um funding was another topic that we discussed and during that meeting um the topic of policy reviews and the number of readings came up. Um many districts were having a hard time meeting um the deadline because of the way the meetings fell. If they only had one meeting a month, they needed to wait two meetings um before um they were able to approve it. And so not knowing where the three readings came from or having any history, everybody said it was a district specific decision. So I went back to our policy book and was unable to find anything in the policy book. Um so I did answer my question that
030I had in there. I did call MASC and policy um BGB actually talks about policy adoption and there are three things that you need to to do during a policy review. You need um information on the item. So it needs to be on the agenda. You need to discuss the item and then you need to take action on the item. So I think that's why we had three meetings over the years to a meeting for each one. And what I was informed is that you don't need to do one each one in a separate meeting. You can combine some of these. So a lot of times what districts do is they hand it out for information at the first meeting and then at the second meeting they'll discuss and approve. So they narrow it down.
031Um so I'm just putting that out there for the committee. I know it's always been our practice. Um and I don't need an answer tonight. we can, you know, think on this for sure, but I'm throwing it out there that instead of taking three meetings, which can take some time to get a policy approved that maybe we want to shorten that and do um two actually, you know, do the first reading as an introduction and then the second meeting can be a discussion and vote to kind of help move the process along. Um it'll give us the opportunity to maybe get through some more and to address them a little more quickly as we go. So, I just wanted to put that out there for the committee. Um, we still are going through our normal
032process now. I'm not asking to shorten it. Um, at this point, maybe when we start the next batch, we can decide how we want to proceed with the next batch of policy updates. >> So, just to clarify, Mrs. Pangley, during the first reading, uh, there would be sort of an introduction to the policy and we would discuss what that policy is and any changes that have been made. >> Uh, usually it's information. here's the policy, this is what we're changing, this is why we're doing it. And then the second meeting could be the discussion um and approval of >> taking action on it. >> Thank you. >> And it's it's actually under policy adoption, which is BGB. And I said, now I get it. There's three little dots there. So, it was a learning curve
033for me. So, it's always good. Um, are there any other questions? No. Um, that concludes my report. Thank you. [clears throat] Thank you for your updates, Mrs. Panguli. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? The next item on the agenda is the business manager report. Good evening, Mrs. Ktos. >> Good evening, everyone. going to give you a start with the school building project. Um first up on the docket is uh furniture fixtures and equipment better known as FFN. Um we're wrapping up those bid specifications. Uh the bid advertising has been initiated. Uh it's been initiated across multiple uh venues as required by law. Um so the advertisements are going live. uh bid docks are available at the end of um October and they're all due by November 10th. And so the plan is
034that once we get those um bids in, we will do the evaluation process. And the plan is for all of that furniture to be delivered for phases one and two or I should say sections C and B to be installed over next summer. And then the remaining furniture for section A will be held until A is finished. And then when A opens, it will open with new furniture in it. So if that makes sense. So next summer is when C and B section will get all brand new furniture. At that point, section A will be under construction and then when it opens, it opens with new furniture. Make sense? >> Is that October? >> October. Yes. still doing work on move planning. So, um that's probably a good good topic to lean into. We're going
035to start doing some pre-planning for what it looks like to move and what those activities will look like for this February. Um but also with an eye on next year, right? Because some of that planning we will have to do um a little bit as we look at the school calendar next year. Um when is that section going to be finished? What do we need to do? So, we're having conversations um with respect to move planning as well. Um, with respect to section B, the renovation continues. We're still in that roughing phase and getting the building sealed up and closed up. Uh, the other activity that we're working on is preparing to connect section B to section six electrical the electrical panel. So, we're going to be tying in all of the electricity into that
036panel. Uh, looks like it's going to be early November. Uh, we're shooting right now for Veterans Day. If it doesn't happen on Veterans Day, it'll be deferred until the day after Thanksgiving. We're doing some prep work this week uh for that activity, but that'll be a big cut over to tie into the electricity and get that up and running. Um so that's going on there. Um with respect to the auditorium, uh as you know, I had reported best case scenario was going to be October 16th. Worst case scenario was going to be the end of this month, early or early November. We did receive uh the outcome of the testing that was done on September 26th. Uh just so you know, they come in, they do their testing. It takes two weeks for them to
037get the test results back and to issue the reports. We did get the reports after hours on Friday night. And all of the actions that needed to be remediated from the moisture testing had been resolved. So that had all been cleared up. out of the testing that they did, four of the tests came back and the results had dropped as we expected. However, there were three elevated tests. So, um, proactively, our GC in learning about it verbally had mobilized really quickly to get another testing done on Friday and is pushing to expedite the return of those results so that we can rule out whether or not there were variables in different conditions that factored into the outcome of it being elevated given the fact that all of the actions that they were directed to do
038to remediate um did not produce the outcome that they were expecting. So that's where we are with that. Um and so mobilizing on that and um looking to hopefully get that answer back so we can figure out what needs to be done, whether or not this was really kind of a false test um or if there's more action that needs to happen. Any questions >> for the chair? member on >> with the weather that we had Sunday through yesterday, was there any additional >> there's been no additional infiltration of water. >> Good news. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um the parapit that we talked about is a, you know, a big step in terms of helping that and preventing that from happening, but there has been no additional water infiltration. >> Maybe we can put together
039a slideshow because I'm thinking they haven't really seen the inside and the development for the next meeting. Oh yeah, that'd be great. Sure. >> All right, I'm going to move on to some regular maintenance updates, some operational items at Bartlett. We actually did have um an issue with the HVAC system that supports this district office. Two panels um were not functioning and those panels has have since been replaced. However, as a result of replacing those panels, we discovered that the compressor was failing. Um, it's semifunctional right now, but we have a new compressor on order and we'll we'll be getting that replaced. The good news on all of these items is that all of those parts were under warranty. So, no cost to us from that standpoint, only for the labor. At Webster Middle School,
040we had three sprinkler heads that had to be replaced along with a drain pump. And on the gymnasium, we have three rooftop units that support the gymnasium. One of the three is um not functioning. those parts are on order and then once they come in those will be replaced. We also have some fans in the boiler room um that need a motor replaced and uh that work is also being scheduled. Lastly, at Park A um we actually have a software system that manages our building management system and it was throwing all kinds of alarms and monitors in the HVAC system. We had a technician come in, look at all of those alarms, resolve all of those areas, and get to the root do root cause and get that rectified. So, now that that's been resolved,
041we'll closely monitor how the temperature is in the building, and if there's any other additional issues, we'll investigate that further. Questions? Okay, I'm going to move on to some other updates. I have a number of other updates. Um, and I will um, go into some depth on some and others I'll stay a little higher level. So, I wanted to give you an update on -ate funding for the district. Not sure how familiar you are with, but it's a federal program that provides financial support to schools for high-speed internet and network infrastructure. It can cover up to 90% of the cost for services like broadband, Wi-Fi upgrades, or any kind of internal connections. Uh the discounts you get really vary based upon the percentage of students who are eligible for reduced or free lunch or whether
042or not the school is located in an urban or rural area. Historically we have um received high levels of funding between 85 and 90% um for our -ate programs. Now there's two different categories. There's category one and category two. So category 1 is for internet access and broadband service while category two is for internal connections like Wi-Fi access points or network equipment that supports your infrastructure on a quarterly basis we do receive our funding report and so for um the prior year for category one we received close to 7800 um worth of funding that was paid to spectrum for our broadband services. So, they think that's good news. Um, during the last - cycle when we look to how we want to spend that money that is that we're eligible to use, we made a
043decision to look across the district to increase our broadband service across the entire district to upgrade our firewalls and to upgrade the wireless access points and switches at Park Avenue. from a broadband uh or internet increase. We went from one gigabyte to across all three buildings to two gigabyte per building. So, it's a significant increase and it really is needed with the amount of online resources that we're using for learning as well as the testing. uh we were finding that we were having challenges at different times during testing and so the increase uh really was needed to support all of the the SAS kind of solutions, software as a service solutions that we use across the district. Um the firewall configuration changes were completed over this past summer and the wireless access points for Parkav
044will be um upgraded over winter break. And so what we're looking at from the broadband upgrade, the good news is that essentially it was um a minor increase annually of $84. So essentially flat to go from what we had across the entire district to what we now have per building. Um from a firewall standpoint, rate was covering $9,300 worth for both services and hardware. and for the access points and the switches, um it was roughly around $159,000 worth of coverage for both hardware and services. So, it's a wonderful program um that we're happy that we take advantage of because it's a way for us to keep our infrastructure um up up to date and meeting the needs of the students. Any questions? All right. Next, um I want to give you some updates on the
045OSD inflation rate. So the operational services division by law is required to come out with an estimated rate for special education tuition and they are estimating for the following uh fiscal year at 3.04% increase. Now I want to give you a little bit of background um as this relates to increases because we talk a lot about our upcoming budget season and the cost of special education services. In your packet, I did give you a historical breakdown. Um, between 2011 and 2026, the rate is been approximately 2.01%. Um, however, our higher areas have been in the last two years where we've been at 3% or 3.12%. There was one year in this overall um history that there was a major spike or um that was really done deliberately by the state and it was done to
046do both uh what they call a cola increase as well as workforce stabilization. And so what they did in 2024 that increase was actually 14%. And so what they did was they did a cost of living increase of a little over 5%. And then they did a workforce stabilization of uh 8.82%. They basically did that to help those schools and those programs to attract teachers. Um and they were having significant staffing uh shortages and high turnover across the state. So that was what they needed to do to um to really help those programs succeed. But I think if we look at the last three years and what we're seeing in terms of increases, you know, we're looking at over the last three years 20% increases in those placements that we do out of district. So
047I think it's important for us to keep an eye on it. Uh good news is we have our rate and we can factor that into our budget planning as we move into fiscal year 27. Any questions? All right. I also included in your packet um for your reading pleasure a report. It's only 160 pages long. Um, and it really is about the study that was done by the state on the S SOA and ESSER spending in Massachusetts. You may recall, I think last May, we reported that we participated in this study. So, we did um participate in a couple sessions relative to this. And so this report was specifically done to look at how Massachusetts leveraged funding from the uh student opportunity act and from the federal ESSER program um that happened um during that
048period of time. Districts across Massachusetts uh re uh received $3.4 4 billion dollar um to support um their programs and they saw that these funds increase per pupil spending by 38%. Even though enrollment actually declined over that time by 3%. So I want to highlight some of the key points from this report for you. Um, some of the key spending trends is that overall LEA budgets rose by about 32% with the per pupil expenditures growing from fiscal year 18 from 19,748 to 27,196 over that period of time. We saw that instructional spending remained stable at about 58% of the overall budgets, but subcategories like professional development and technology saw faster growth. Teacher salaries stayed the largest category, though their share of total spending declined as those other two categories increased. The other thing that was
049highlighted in the report was equity and subgroup insights. So, high need LEAs, those serving low-income students and English learners, uh, prioritize a couple key things with the spending that they had, mental health and family liaison services, as well as pupil services and instructional technology. These eleas also saw growth in teacher FTEEs, in salary spending, those still lagged per pupil teacher expenditures compared to wealthier districts. in gateway cities increased staffing faster but spent a hund $831 less per pupil on teacher salaries than non-gateway districts. So those are a couple high um points for you to mention in your packet. I summarized a few other things, but I'm going to end it with what the recommendations are and what the next steps are. So, the study recommendations concluded with they're going to conduct some more updated spending
050studies, um explore the impacts on specific student populations. They're going to investigate staffing and cost drivers and then monitor the long-term outcomes from ESSER as those funds wind down and the S SOA plateaus. With that in mind, as we talk about S SOA and chapter 70, I also want to share that um the Healey Driscoll administration announced a series of public listening sessions to solicit some feedback on chapter 70 funding. So, if you are interested, there are two sessions which may be feasible for local people that if they want to attend in person, there is one on Thursday, October 30th from 4:30 to 6:30 at Doherty Memorial High School. you can't make that one. There is a virtual session that is going to happen on November 18th from 4 to 7 p.m. Um, if anyone's
051interested, I can send you the link to register if you're interested in listening to that. I know that I'll be joining one of those myself, but I thought that you might want to be aware of that as well. Okay. And that nicely leads into where we are with fiscal year 27 budget planning. So October is the month that we kick off where our departments do their independent uh budgeting activities within their own areas to come forward with a needs-based budget. Um and as the departments are working that on that, I also included in your packet a an article about what schools potentially stand to lose with the next federal education budget. So um as you know with the administration's focus um on education is different than what it has been in the past. There's more
052focus with this administration on school choice um and cutting kind of traditional grant funding programs. U so that's things like we talked about when Dr. Mai was here title one and teacher development. And so a couple key callouts first that we we did touch upon, but I wanted to highlight again is that title one in the House version of the budget is being proposed to be reduced up to 26%. Um, and now title one is support for lowincome students. So things like supplementing schools for serving high poverty communities, intervention programs like tutoring and afterchool support or any literacy initiatives. and then any kind of resources that you can do to close achievement gaps. Title two is being proposed to be eliminated that is focused on teacher professional development. So things like teacher training, mentorship and
053instructional coaching um support for recruiting and retrain uh retaining teachers and then any programs aimed at improving classroom instruction is is at risk. Then lastly is title three that's also being proposed to be eliminated. That focuses on English English language learner support. So what's at risk there is language acquisition programs for multilingual learners. Um and then any kind of culturally responsive curriculum development. So things that we're certainly keeping an eye on and decisions that we'll need to make in terms of how we approach our budget this year, whether or not we decide to include all of those all of that funding that we had in those grant programs into our budget or not. But we're going to have to keep a close eye on this. So certainly there's larger implications if this goes forward and
054understanding what it means when the federal government kind of steps back from the role that they played in this and then the role that the state will have to pick up in terms of managing um what's left of the programs after um it goes through the legislative process. So um on the topic of the federal government um as we know we have a shutdown right now. So in terms of impact to us um from a food services standpoint, we have gotten assurances that we are good through the end of October with respect to reimbursements for our food services program. On the federal grant funding stamp uh side of the house, there's no immediate impact on us right now. Our our current grants that we're approaching were funded with last year's budget. Um so right now
055we're in a good situation and that's not impacting us. We'll just keep an eye out on what it means for food services as this shutdown continues. And then lastly, um want to highlight the result of our K our kitchen inspection. So all three kitchens were inspected by the board of health and they all have passed. So that is a true testament to our uh cafeteria staff and their level of professionalism and their dedication um to not only serving delicious food but in a healthy way as well. So, and that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Mrs. Condos. Any questions or comments from the committee? >> As usual, there's lots going on from the building project to um all the rest of the updates that you gave us. I know the the budget process is going
056to be exceptionally challenging this year. So, thanks for all the updates and the work that you all are doing on that. The next item on the agenda is the principal's report and joining us this evening from Park AB Elementary is Miss Amy Pafco. Good evening. >> Good evening. Uh so I'm going to start with our school opening. We did have a strong start to the year. Teachers worked really hard to set strong routines and foundations um and expectations for the students. So uh we really did have a smooth start. that continued when kindergarten and preschool started as well. Always a we do it once and then we do it again when our littlest ones come. Uh we started with we currently have 144 staff members. We are struggling to fill several IIA and ABA positions
057as well as long-term sub positions. We have five maternity leaves right now. Uh we do have one um filled Yep. [laughter] Uh we also we have 772 students currently. That was the reading today on P school. We've had 39 new students since the start of the year. Our kindergarten class is uh 146 students. So that's a big kindergarten class and growing. Um, I actually they weren't all kindergarten students, but I saw four new uh folders ready with students ready to place sitting on Miss Reed's desk this afternoon. And our largest current grade is grade three. Um, if you remember, we moved a teacher from grade four to grade three to accommodate that large class coming in. Um, and as Murphy's law happens, I have gotten numerous moveins in grade four. We are currently at 148
058students in grade four. So, two students less um than grade three. So, it's they're they just keep coming and coming. We welcome them all with open arms. Um, we've had some events. Moving on to events. We did have our open house on September 18th. We had 381 families attend which is a a good amount. Um we also had our first community meeting which is al always good. We had all the students come in together into the gym. We were able to welcome our kindergarteners. So last year we said goodbye to our fourth graders with a tunnel of teachers as they left and this year we welcomed our kindergarteners with a tunnel of teachers um and welcomed them to Parkav in that same way. Uh we also had a visit from Boston Children's for grade four.
059This was sponsored by Mafrey Fundion and they uh BO Boston Children's came to speak about the importance of helmets and um wearing them correctly as well as seat belts and wearing them correctly. Um gave the students some ideas of of what can happen if you're not properly protected on your bike, on your scooter or in the car. We will have another one later when uh bike riding season starts to resume for families to help them um strengthen that message at home as well. As part of that, we had a visit from Princess Elena from Spain who is the director of um Mafrey Fundion. So I know she visited all three schools and saw some of the work that we do in our schools. these uh last week we had the Webster Fire Department in to
060do fire safety for all our grades. I think one of the important things they do is especially for our younger students is dress up in the full gear so the students can see because that's a very scary look um when they have that full mask on and they sound like Darth Vader. So, um, for the students to be able to see if, god forbid, they were ever in a situation where somebody had to come rescue them, what that person looks like, so they know not to be afraid that that is a safe person um, in a in a scary situation. We also had a fire drill where um for the first time in a long time they tried to pull a fast one and steal a student and um so we wouldn't know that they
061had taken a student but we successfully identified that that student was missing. Um which always gives me a a big sigh of relief that that uh we're able to that our systems are in place to keep all of our students safe. So that really is a shout out to the due diligence of the teachers in checking their rosters and communicating and the systems that are in place. So um that's something I take very seriously. So I'm very glad that we were uh we passed that sneaky test. Uh something new that we are starting this year is uh under the the brainchild of our dean of students, Mr. Aronian. He's always bringing the fun. Um, we've started a PAE news show with our news team. It happens every other week and um, the segments that you're
062about to see are pretty much the segments that occur uh, PBIS uh, some interview segments and it really highlights the wonderful acting of our news team. So enjoy. There's bosses and there's bosses. >> I got your coffee. >> But you didn't say cream. Yeah, I guess Glacier's in charge. Hi, welcome to video game central where all we talk about is Hi, welcome to two bears in a chair where we learn about park style. I gave this script to her like nine times. Hi and welcome to the show. Are you new to the school? What's your passion and what do you like to do on your spare time? >> I am passionate about reading and on my spare time I like to spend time with my family. What do you like to do at Park A?
063>> At Park A, I like to help our friends. I'm here to help with anything. If anybody needs any extra clothes, food, anything that their families may need, they can come out and I'll help them out. And I also speak Spanish for our friends that may need a little extra help with that. >> Is there any kids that can help out? >> Yes, all the kids here at Parkav can help. They can help by asking their teachers or any adult that they trust. Um, letting them know if they need help with anything. They can bring them down to my office. I'm in 124. So, thanks for your time. Time for a nurse segment. [music] >> Hi, my name is Benjamin and we're going to check out the nurs's office. Hi, I'm not feeling well. What
064should I do? >> Did you let your teacher know you weren't feeling well? >> Yeah. >> Okay. And she put a nurse pass in. I see you here. What's your name? >> Benjamin. What's going on, Benjamin? What are you doing? >> Well, your belly hurts. So, I'm going to ask you first. Did you have lunch yet? >> Yeah. All right. And when did your belly start hurting? >> Um, a few minutes ago. >> Few minutes ago. I'm just going to take your temperature to make sure you don't have a fever. Okay. All right. Let's see what we got. All right. So, since you didn't have a fever, we're going to have you just lay down and rest for a little while. Okay. And see if your belly settles. All right. All right. Okay. So, we'll
065let you rest for a few minutes and then hopefully you'll be feeling better and we can get you back up to class. Okay. Are you feeling better? >> And do you think you want to go back to class? >> Yeah. >> All right. Sounds good. >> Have a good rest of your day. >> Thank you. >> That was easy. Now you don't have to worry about the nurse. and drop your keys. >> That was really weird. PBIS moment. >> Hi everybody, Mr. Goodyear here. Just giving you a quick PBIS tip. I know we often practice here being safe, responsible, and respectful. We wanted to give everybody a chance to see what that looks like up here at first grade. So, as we walk down the hallway here, I see some students doing a very nice
066job waiting safely, respectfully, and responsibly by the lady's bathroom. You can see there's more than three people in there, so they're waiting outside. And then over here in the boys area, we see these students waiting patiently in their spot. Nice job, everybody. >> And then as we come down the hallway, we might even see a classroom that's walking down the hall safely, responsibly, and respectfully. And if you're not familiar with these terms, you'll learn a lot about being safe, responsible, and respectful. Nice job. >> This year in your classrooms, when we discuss it, you might see these popcorns being passed out. You might even get one yourself. These mean that you did a really nice job being safe, responsible, and respectful somewhere in the school community. We'll talk more about this this year. And heck,
067you might even be able to get into one of these videos and help us out if you're being extra safe, responsible, and respectful. Thank you very much. Have a nice day, everybody. >> Mr. Ray, can you hold on a second? Hope you enjoyed the new show. See you in a couple of weeks. Yeah, I got you door. >> Yeah, that's it. No, no, that's it. They have started putting in um sort of like the Avengers movies, the scenes from next time. Uh so it grows, but um it's just a nice way to introduce the kids to people. They did a segment on our breakfast um staff, the people that bring breakfast. They did a segment on our custodians. So, just to help the kids throughout the building get to know many of the different members
068within the building. So, uh the kids have really enjoyed um seeing those and Mr. A has really enjoyed making them if you didn't notice [laughter] and writing himself very funny parts. Um so moving on to some clubs that we have going on. We have some a great selection of afterchool clubs happening in school. We have started Real Madrid a basketball which is up and running. We have 38 students again. It's another um program funded by Mafrey. Uh we have coaches Monnique Kanty and Sean Heatherman. And this is also the grant also covers a late bus for the students who are in um Real Madrid which really allows a lot of students to participate. We also have our drama club uh getting started. They will be doing the Wizard of Oz this year and our advisors
069are Carrie Williams and Deb Castellani. So you will of course get an invite when that play kicks off. We have Girls on the Run um running for its fifth season. The 5K, the official 5K will be on November 16th. The practice date, which they usually do here at the middle school, has not been set yet, but um the actual date is November 16th. And our coaches for that are Sam Lopez, A Aila, and Leslie Pets. We also have a garden club running um as you may have heard about in previous meetings. Uh we have 14 students. It runs at three different sessions. So there's a fall session, there'll be a winter session where they focus on starting seeds and and growing indoors, and then there's a spring session that focuses on planting. summer is usually
070the summer programs that get to harvest a lot of the a lot of the food. Um, and they do in fall as well. And those are volunteer advisors, uh, Elizabeth Waybetts and Jenna McDonald. Um, which is fantastic. And our Big Brother and Big Sister program will be starting up again. Uh, the it's expected to run October 28th. That is in partnership with the high school. uh and that is they've been doing interviews to make sure to match the students with appropriate high schoolers. They call them bigs or the big kids and littles or the little kids. So, uh, that should be going at the end of October and that is Jessa Hutsky, uh, Nicole Suarez Bracket, our new family liaison you just saw in the video, and, um, with partnership with Barbara Smolars at the
071at the high school. Um, and that is everything I have. I always start with a nice list and then it gets added to and added to and added to. Um, but that's everything that's going on. Not everything, but a good chunk of what's going on at PAE, uh, since we've started. >> Thank you for your updates. >> Yeah. Any questions or comments from the committee? >> Clearly a a great start to the school year, it sounds like. Yeah. >> Um, what an unexpected thing for the fire drill. I'm still thinking about that. Sneaky. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Good to keep you on your toes. I suppose it can be scary, but um you know, it's good to practice it in those moments and test our systems. Um you know, you have systems in place, but
072>> sometimes you you know, you need to test to make sure they work. So, um I was very thankful >> that they do. Yes. >> Your peace of mind, and I hope it gives the families peace of mind that that we have plans in place to keep all the children safe. >> Yep. Yeah. And great. And like you said, your system worked. So, so that's great. >> Yeah, I'm going to have to keep an eye on that new fire chief of ours. >> I guess I guess um love the news programming, too. It gives the kids something to look forward to, I'm sure, and to aspire to be a member of the news team and whatnot. So, great work. Still a leadership um group, too. >> We do still have a leadership team. They run
073our community meetings um as well as some other events throughout the throughout the year. So, yeah. >> Great. Great leadership opportunities. >> All right. Great. Well, thanks for your updates. >> Thank you. >> Uh, the next item on our agenda is an update from our student representative. Good evening, Aiden. >> I wanted to start by saying >> extra help offered Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. um not on half days, but from 2:15 to 2:45 in the cafeteria. Um some challenges are school lunch. Um I feel like for the days the days that we have away games, um it's hard to have enough food. It feels like I'm really hungry before the game. And our coach has been bringing us some things to eat, which is nice. And um yeah, I just wanted to
074bring that up. Um some student engagement opportunities are all the clubs, whether it's drama, art, or medical. Um some student events we're having are staff trivia Friday and homecoming week begins today through the 18th. Um the homecoming dance takes place Saturday at 6:30. Tickets are on sale for or until Friday and they will be $20. Uh some family events are the community trunk or treat on Sunday uh October 19th from 5 to 7. It will be $5 per treat percorn [laughter] available for purchase. Uh raffles and prizes located at 52 Lake Parkway. Um, some sports activities are unified basketball at Auburn at 3:30 on the 15th. Um, varsity football vers Worcester Tech at 6 PM on the 17th and boys v boys varsity soccer um vers uh that will be at 3:30 on Friday. Um,
075and the girls play, oh, sorry, girls varsity soccer for Shephard Hill at 3:30 as well. Um, some senior class updates are the butter braids fundraiser that'll be coming next month. And, um, I know if we have any questions or concerns, we can go to Miss Podette for that. And that concludes my my update. Thanks, Aiden. >> Tell me more about school lunch. You mentioned it's a challenge because you're feeling hungry on on game days, but is it is it a lunch issue or is it a like between lunch and game issue or what's going on? >> I feel like it's just like like the amount we get. But I also don't feel like it's that bad if you don't have sports. So like if you're not like when we have home games too, it's not
076really like that bad. But when we have the away games and it's like an hour away drive and >> we have to drive an hour back as well. There's no food from that. It's kind of hard. >> Yeah, >> we can look into that. We used to do a snack program to see >> and I'm not sure. I mean, there's monitor and oversight in that. >> Um, but we can check into that. It's also something good to talk to our food service director about. That's some good feedback. >> Yeah. Yeah. It could be late. You know, I have an athlete in the family, too, and I know sometimes when they get both both my kids, sometimes they get back pretty late, and I find myself trying to find things to stuff in their backpacks before
077they leave in the morning. But >> yeah, good feedback. How about the line? Is it Do you find that it's long or it's pretty efficient to get your lunch at lunchtime? >> Actually, they just switched it. So, now we have both doors for hot lunch, so it's really >> It's really quick now. >> It's better. >> It's a lot better. >> That's good to hear. Yeah, it was taken a while before, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> What's your sport? Is it soccer? >> Yeah. >> Sorry, Mrs. Translated. >> Oh, no. I was just going to say they I I know I had talked with um the manager over there and they were doing hot lunches on one side and cold lunches on the other. So, they were going through, but more kids wanted
078hot lunch. So, they were finding a way to do it out of both sides, two lines to speed it up, to make it go a little faster. Um, so I know they started that. I'm glad it's working out. It's moving quickly now. >> Yeah, >> that's good to hear. Great. >> Yeah. >> Um, when's your next game? Friday, >> right? Good luck. Thanks for your updates, Aiden. >> Can you tell me about the um pep rally today? How did it go? Because that was your first pep rally in that gym. >> Yeah, the pep rally was actually really fun. It was um it was nice having our our class president come out and uh speak on the mic. He was having fun. I know it. And um yeah, no, it was it was nice being
079around everybody and seeing everybody happy, everybody smiling, laughing, enjoying the day. And >> And you all fit in the bleachers. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. Made that work. >> That's a good thing. So, it's nice to see a celebration starting to happen back in our building. So, that's great. >> Good fun kickoff to what should be a pretty fun week. Oh, >> yeah. >> Great. All right. Any questions or comments from the committee? >> No. Okay. Well, Aiden, thanks for your updates. Good luck at your game on Friday. >> Thank you, Aiden. >> Uh, the next item on our agenda under old business is a monthly report on fundraising applications. As a reminder, it's the role of the school committee to review fundraising activity, but we don't approve it. That's done at the building level
080or the district level. I did notice there were two fundraising applications that were in here. Um, one related to I think it was uh selling Bartlett gear and the other uh bake sale for student council. So, good stuff happening. It looks like the fundraiser is going to be um this Friday at the home at the homecoming game, right? >> Yep. >> Great. Likely we can get our Bartley gear that night too, I would imagine, and throughout the rest of the year as well. Any questions or comments from the committee about the fundraising activities? All right. So, uh, the next several items are on our agenda are related to policy. Uh, Mrs. Pangeli, you shared with us some information related to um, policy adoption earlier. Um, the last time we talked about policies, we simply read
081the name of the policies. Is there anything that we want to do differently this evening with regard to these policies? >> I don't think so. I think they've all been introduced. We had some feedback, some little minor corrections that we had the last time. Those adjustments have been made. >> Um so again, this would be your second reading >> and then um you would vote them in at the next school committee meeting. >> Okay. Does that sound good to the rest of the committee? >> Okay. Um so I will um if is there any discussion around any of these policies? Do I need to read them out individually? Probably as a second reading, I would imagine. >> Yeah, I think it would be helpful. >> Okay, here it goes. [laughter] >> Second reading of policy
082KD CB, district website and social media. Policy JJ, student use of technology in schools. Also second reading. Policy I J N D C acceptable use of digital resources. Second reading. Policy I JN DB use of technology in instruction. Second reading. Policy I JN DBR. Webster public schools access acceptable use policy. Second reading. Policy I JN D access to digital resources. Second reading policy EHB, data and records retention. Second reading policy EA, district security relating to technology. Second reading. Policy B, use of electronic messaging by school committee members. Second reading. Policy KD C, community use of digital resources. Second reading. policy GBE E personnel use of technology second reading. So we'll have our third reading and acceptance of those policies at our next meeting. >> The next item on the agenda under new business is the
083discussion and approval of a 1.0 FTE speech and language assistant at Park Avenue Elementary School. >> Yep. I will turn that over to our director of student support services. >> So, as part of the director update, I gave you a lot of information about the speech and language pathologists. More specifically, we have four across the district, three speech pathologists over at Park Avenue, one is serving 68 students, another is serving 53 with the ex expectation to exceed 78 by the end of the year. And our third one over at Park Avenue is currently supporting 88 students. We have two SLPA speech and language pathology assistants in the district and one is full-time over at Park Avenue and the other one is part-time. And the way that they service kids is they share the treatments with
084the speech and language pathologists so that all students are seen at least one time with the speech and language pathologists. This is really significant these numbers because when you have for example 88 students on your case load it means you're attending 88 IEP meetings. So it's very very those numbers are high. In particular one speech pathologist shared that to date and granted we we know we're in October to have 24 evaluations is very very high. that is she's almost at 50% of the evaluations that she saw last year in an entire an entire year. So they're a very very busy um department and we want to stabilize it so that we could provide the necessary services when they're younger so that as they get older they will no longer require the services or they'll reach
085a plateau and no longer be the the means the need to go out of the classroom and spend time in speech will no longer out outweigh it. So, we are seeking a um full-time position uh one FTE for a speech and language pathology assistant to lighten a load, which it would allow the um speech and language pathologists more time to to evaluate our students and provide treatments and have an opportunity that when they do leave for IEP meetings that they could make up the the time for the students. the um particular position that we're requesting is going to be shared through funding from circuit breaker and also from um the from proportionate share that is part of the special education grants. Any questions? >> Thank you, Miss Hair. Any questions or comments from the committee?
086>> Hearing none. Thank you for for all the detailed information you shared not only just now but earlier with regard to this real need. Um hearing no further discussion uh I'll entertain a motion to approve this additional 1.0 speech and language uh assistant at Park Avenue Elementary School. >> So moved. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. >> Miller. >> Yes. Yes. Motion passes. And the next item on the agenda is the acceptance of donations from the Bartlett Grid Iron Club. They donated 48 blackout uniform jerseys to our team. Any discussion around that? No. Well, >> thank you. Well, no further discussion. I'll entertain a motion to accept those donations. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion in a second. Desire, would
087you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. And once again, thank you to the Grid Iron Club for their tireless efforts. The next item on our agenda is to enter into executive session according to Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 21A to discuss strategy for negotiations with uh union personnel, specifically the instructional assistance. Um we will enter back into open session, but it will simply be for the purposes of a warrant signing. that you don't >> we're not voting on it tonight. >> So I will entertain a motion to enter into executive session according to Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 21A to discuss strategy for negotiations with union personnel specifically the instructional assistance and we will not be reconvening in open session. >> Second A motion maybe. >> You just said you made
088a motion. >> Oh, I was entertaining motion. Make it. [laughter] >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Uh Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Uh so um our open meeting will be um adjourning. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn our open meeting. >> So move Second >> motion and a second. Des, would you please pull the committee on that? >> Yes.