001Executive session minutes from June 10th of 2025 and exe executive session minutes from September 9th of 2025. Is there any discussion around any of 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 our superintendent report. Good evening, Mrs. Pangley. Yes. Thank you for double checking, making sure I have all my check marks in order. Good evening. First item I have on the agenda for you tonight is our personnel update. Uh we have no retirements at this time. We have a couple of new hires. I'd like to welcome Katrina Roman who is a power professional at Parkav Elementary and McKenna McKe, an
002ABA at Webster Middle School. Um I met them both and we welcome them to the district. Uh we did have a couple of resignations. Uh two power professionals, one at Park, one at Bartlett High School, Miss Natalie Grenan and Miss Shaheen Balick of Bartlett High School. As you can see below, we still have several vacancies um that are impacting our um instructional assistant unit uh and ABA unit. Um many uh vacancies across the board. We have continued to advertise, reach out. We did a Facebook post not too long ago. Um this is an area that as you know, they are a big support to us here in the district and very important. Um, so we're doing our best to fill those positions. Um, and hopefully, uh, we'll get some takers soon. Are there any questions
003about personnel? Moving on to management and operations. As you know, we've already started um having initial conversations about our budget development. Last night, we had a joint meeting. It was held in the public library downtown between the finance committee and the selectman and the school committee. Uh that meeting was to give a high level overview view as we approach the FY27 budget. Um internally here at the school department we've already started um and scheduled our initial communications. We start our budget season on October 1st. Templates will be going out to the schools. They'll start looking at departments. We will meet with um principles um along with L our L department, our special education department, our IT department and start drafting our budget. Uh we have a budget calendar that um Miss Kontos has created and
004that has been sent out to everybody. So, you know, the season ahead looks um tough. As you know, last year we used 1.3 million in free cash to help offset the budget across town. Um, so the conversation last night is about, you know, how do we generate revenue? What do we do? Um, and just making awareness between all the departments across the town as to um the challenges that may lie ahead. I know internally here um you know as we approach the year we are encumbering all of our that part of our practice at the beginning of the year is to encumber all of our tuitions um across the board and right now um after encumbering our tuitions we're showing an approximate $350,000 deficit um in tuitions and that's using our free cash that we
005have allotted. So we have a deficit and I know we oh sorry circuit breaker um offsetting with our circuit breaker. Um thank you for that. And uh we have I know we have a few pending placements that have not been encumbered yet. So that number will be higher. But as you know it's early in the year. Um these things are a moving target. They you know they can leave as quickly as they come in. Things change fast. So it's an area that we're going to monitor. We keep a close eye on it. Um, we review it regularly and we'll bring any changes to the committee. Um, right now I don't think we need to overreact, you know, just take it as it comes. It's early in the year and we'll see where we, you know,
006where things lead us, but it's just something that's on our radar, something that we need to pay attention to and something that we need to keep you informed of and we will do that moving forward. Um, are there any questions about that? No comment with the chair >> as we begin this budget period and after last night's meeting I think we really all the boards we need to emphasize needs not wants. >> We can't afford wants right now. I don't think the town can afford wants right now that we have to really concentrate on what is needed. >> I don't disagree and that's how we approach the budget last year. Um we didn't ask for anything extra and actually we were making reductions and we were very frugal in going through and and removing items.
007um you know looking at supplies, looking at curriculum, taking things that you know removing things out of our budget. We were we were nickel and dimeming ourselves in the budget and being strategic about what we're planning. As you know, 85% of our budget is is staffing. Very little of that um is, you know, expenses as far as supplies. Um a big chunk of our budget is tuitions um that we offset. So there's there's not a lot of wiggle room in our budget. Um so we're very careful on what we're doing uh what we're looking at. Um we have to be compliant. That's that's a priority when we're looking at our budget is compliance. So that's at the top of our list when we start looking. Um and hopefully uh you know we'll keep an eye
008out as we go. Maybe the chapter 70 numbers will come in um better than we think or better than they have in the past. that will give us some room to grow. But well noted, Miss Millet. >> And just going off of that that commentary regarding um needs and not wants it. I agree and I feel that last year was a really painful process of even even eliminating some of our things that we felt like we really needed >> to serve our kids last year. So, I'm really hopeful that we're able to find a solution that will help us continue to serve our kids the way they deserve to be served uh while being really fiscally responsible as well. So, >> I'm confident in this group to be able to work together, you know. Um
009next moving on um under management and operations our building project as you know section B you can I don't know if you can see the changes when you pull up there's actively moving forward with that um I did want to inform you that our building project has recently seen some changes in leadership um from our OPM our OPM team our new team um project director is Vivian Verbedian Our uh senior project manager is Christina Mulligan. She has been present since I want to say last April or February maybe. Um and then we have a new on-site construction rep which is an Elena Forbes. Um I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mike Carol who's been on the project for the last two years and wish him the best of luck. Um Vivian has been
010here for the past week and I think um she ran her first official meeting her our OAC today. Um she is a welcome addition to the team. Um she has relationships uh previously with uh the architects and the construction team. So she knows all the players on board and um we're excited to have her as a part of the team. So welcome Vivian and Elena. Um next item is a meeting was held uh on last last week already. Um I think it was Friday. A meeting was held to review the online registration process. As you know, we've been using it for the past two years. Uh we reviewed um some of the kinks that we see within the system. What can we control? What can we not control? Um we've really, you know, there are
011some things that work very well about it, but there are some things um we wish we could change and adapt. So as a team we've met collectively trying to say how can we um work around some of the things and what can we do to support one another as we use this online registration. It does I mean it does expedite processes in some in some systems but in sometimes um it can actually slow down the process. So, you know, it's just a matter of working with the families, the outreach and the continued followup um to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all the families and we're also getting to know our families and welcoming them and know the needs. So, we have systems in place where our family engagement um are reaching out
012to new families when they come in, when they register, they have we have a sheet that they follow so they can reach out, welcome them to the community, see if they need any assistance. our registar here um also does that in supports and then um you know hopefully we can continue that with our health support services if there are questions that they need with nursing or guidance um we make those connections so we'll continue to evaluate and improve on the process that's in place are there any questions about that okay um and other updates uh there is a snapshot of our enrollment This was as of 9:19. Um, as I stated previously, it is a moving target until October 1st. Right now, all the schools are reviewing the enrollment student by student. They monitor the
013attendance. Um, if we've had students who are showing up as absent for a few days in a row, we're calling homes. Are you here? Are you registered? Did you come in? Um, what's going on? Do we need to do home checks? We're working through all of that. But as you can see right now, um I subtotaled by grade. Uh Park A when I did this on Friday was 773 students for Parkav total. At our middle school, we were at 549 and then at our high school we were at 438. So overall, uh we were showing 1760 across the district. Um, but we will continue to refine those numbers. It's an important time of year to make sure all the coding is done accurately. I know, um, Dr. Mai has been working with the L department
014to make sure that we're reflecting all the L numbers accurately. Special education is doing the same thing. the director of student support services and her staff are reviewing all of the um special ed information um so we can continue to make sure that we have accurate reporting um going into October 1st. Those numbers are very important because that's the foundation of our budget. Um so we need to make sure that it reflects the accurate information. And my last report is that tomorrow night here at 6:30 we're having our first CPAC meeting of the school year. So all are welcome. Um Miss Shar here will be here with the CPAC leader and there'll be um everything will be surrounding special education. So that concludes my report. >> Thank you for your updates. This is >> any
015questions or comments from the committee? >> Oh wait a minute. I skipped one. Sorry, I got to unconclude my report now. Um, Dr. Mai is here and she's going to speak about art school programming. >> Uh, first I thank you. Um, first I want to add It's okay. I want to add to the um to the conversation about enrollment. Um, >> I we're very appreciative of the fact that we added a teacher at Park Avenue. As you know, we eliminated a position for L at the high school last year for having two teachers, which was really one and a half teachers. Um, and we transferred that position and funding to the elementary school that has seen a growth in like a larger growth in L students than other schools. And so we've never been able
016to service kindergarten students. It's not mandatory by the state, but then they come to first grade and it's almost like starting there instead of starting the year before. And as a former L myself, the younger you are with language acquisition, it is um important that we address that. So, we added a position at at Park Avenue and that primarily is to work with kindergarten, but also to support the overflow. I call it the overflow because in first grade there were two sections that the one teacher for first grade could not handle because there were too many students and one section of second grade. Um and so to give you an example of our numbers in kindergarten that we've not been able to service in the past, she's she's picking up 21 students in kindergarten um
017that we hope can make rapid language acquisition gains and um and that that will make a difference in the long run. Um so next is talking about out of school out of um school time programming. Um we're going to talk a little bit about Saturday school, but Saturday school is starting Saturday this week. And um we are also uh starting the 21st Century Pass program at Park Avenue on Monday of next week. And we are continuing with the um high school interns. We are now up to eight high school interns. um that will support five classrooms. Um and uh they we had a very successful summer with the high school interns and so we're we're hopeful that that energy is able to be maintained. And what a great opportunity to provide a job, a paid
018job to our high school students that might be interested in education someday and they um get this wonderful opportunity. So, I'm really glad that these programs are starting and uh we're going to be servicing about 65 to 70 students at Park Avenue after school and we'll we don't know yet how many students will come to Saturday school, but we we'll talk about that in a minute. >> Thank you. Now, that concludes my report. >> Well, thank you for your updates and thank you Mrs. Mcai for your updates as well. And the next item on the agenda is our business manager report. Good evening, Mrs. Ktos. Good evening everyone. We're going to get started with the Bartlet High School renovation project. Um starting first with some phase 2 activities. We're still in the rough construction phase
019of phase two. We should start seeing over the next two to three weeks starting to close up that building and we'll be moving into some final finishing uh work. Um so that'll be advancing very soon. The other key activity that's been ongoing during this phase is we've been working with the design team um and their subconsultant on our furniture fixtures and equipment bid package. So we are finally uh finalizing that package. We're hoping to be going out to bid in the October time frame. And just to give you some sense of what we're doing, this is really getting all the new furniture for the building. The idea is we go out to bid now. It gets delivered over the summer next year. So that's when all the transition of bringing in the new furniture will
020come in for the two completed sections. We'll have to put the furniture for u this section of the building in storage until it's completed so that we can move it in. But it is a big undertaking. So we've been finalizing what the content of that should be. We did recently finish all the furniture selections, finalizing all that and getting the front-end bid documents wrapped up and we have some planning meetings this week to get that completed. So we're really excited. Um, you know, it's nice that we're in a a finished uh building, but it's going to look a lot better when we have some new furniture in there um to to spruce it up. So, we're excited about that. Moving on to the auditorium, which is I know the area that we're all waiting to
021hear about. So, um the audiovisisual commissioning items have been resolved. There's a few minor punch list items that will get completed um but nothing that would hold us up from occupying the auditorium on the water infiltration. um aspect. We did complete um the inspection of the area. So, Fuss and O'Neal came out, they did an air quality assessment as well as a surface sampling for the presence of any fungi. Um they did that inspection in what they're calling the area of concern area, which is really the the back of the auditorium. So, it's where the dressing rooms are, where the staircases inside the auditorium, the control area. That's been the area that's been impacted and that was the focus area for all of their testing. So there were no visible signs of mold or MI
022mildew. There were no active water intrusion detected. So all of those leaks have been sealed up. Uh they did find some elevated moisture areas um in the dressing rooms that needs to be remediated. Um and they did detect some presence of some spores um in the air quality testing. So those results were brought back to great to remediate. They have begun that remediation. They are wrapping that up. Now, there are some very specific standards that they have to follow to recclean um accordance to there's an institute that dictates the standards on how they approach this. They can't close things back up after they do that remediation. Those walls have to stay open. And then what we'll do is we will have Fuss and O'Neal come back out and verify that what they did to remediate
023the situation has completely resolved it. So, um, they're wrapping up that remediation, and we're scheduling Fuss and O'Neal to come out. They need roughly, you know, time to come in to do their analysis, run the report. So, best case scenario, if they remediate everything correctly, we'll be in there by October 20th. Um, if they find anything additional and there's more remediation that's needed, we're looking at the end of October. So, some progress. Um but the good news is getting the inspection out there to verify that it's been remediated correctly I think is what's most important and the fact that uh we are taking care of that and taking it seriously. So October 20th is our best case scenario the end of the month with first case getting occupied questions hoping to tell you that it
024came back with nothing in the test but that was not the case which is why we do this. >> Yep. I'm thankful it was pushed and we're not being pushed into occupying a safe that we don't feel it's up to our standard. So >> all I have for this for that topic um the other topic I have is we have to do this annually. So it is a requirement for the school committee to uh approve our student activities account for the school year. So you have a packet um and it shows the total current counts as well as the accounts that we're looking to close. So across the three buildings we're looking to close a total of five accounts. And at the high school we are opening two new accounts. Um one of those accounts
025at the high school is called Active Minds. It's a new club for mental health awareness. And the other new club or activity that's being opened up is the freshman class, the class of 2029. the um accounts that we're looking to close in the packet. It is reflecting that if there's a balance on those accounts, which account that fund balance would get transferred to. You want me to walk you through those specific ones or? So, our park app, we're looking to close a miscellaneous activities account that has a balance of $37,7745 and looking to transfer that to the principal fund. For Webster Middle School, we're looking to close a cheering account that does not have a balance, so there's nothing to transfer and also an art um activities account uh that has a balance of 20
026cents, and we'd be looking to transfer that to the Webster Middle School general fund student activities account. And for Bartlett, we have two accounts that we're closing. One is the book bill with a balance of $247.50, and we're recommending to transfer that to the guidance testing activities account. The science field trips has a balance of $17366 and we're recommending to transfer to the BIS student activity account. As you can see, we also still have 10 accounts on there for past classes uh that uh you know, Gina's team has been actively working through resolve either through the class advisors, the current class advisors. Um they did a post this summer to get in contact with class officers, but you know, while we've gotten in touch with them, getting them to take those next steps to actually
027open a new account um and get that money withdrawn so that it can get transferred is is taking some time, but it is work in progress. Thank you for your updates. >> A motion to approve this. >> Okay. Appreciate you walking us through all of that. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the closure of the accounts that are indicated and the transfer of the funds as described. So move >> Oh, excuse me. I'm going to make that one more time. So, I'll entertain a motion to approve the closure of three accounts. Right. >> Close five. I I almost want you to um introduce this motion, but Okay, walk me through it one more time, Lisa. >> We're going to close a total of
028five accounts, open two, and then we're making transfers on four accounts from the ones that are closed. >> Okay, >> we can approve it as presented in the summary as well. >> I'll entertain a motion to approve um the movement as presented in the summary. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on this hearing? None. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Carlos, >> yes. >> Me? >> Yes. Motion passes and thank you for your updates, Mrs. Ktos. Uh, the next item on the agenda is our principal report and joining us this evening from Bartlett High School is Miss Gina Neves. Good evening. >> Good evening. I wanted to start and I didn't put this on the agenda with our focus this year being
029on family engagement. Um had a couple bigger things already happen to start the school year. Um as you all know we have an open house at the beginning of every year. Hasn't been well attended. Maybe four or five families for the last couple of years. We shook it up a little bit. We added in this year a college fair. um showcased all of our clubs, invited in community partners, and it there were a lot of people. We had 53 families sign in. There were more there. Um you could enter into both sides of the gym. Um before they had a chance to sign in, they were already into the gym. Um it was an active night. They were, you know, it was wellreceived by the families as well as the staff really enjoyed being in
030one spot. the the parents could kind of, you know, go from table to table without, you know, having to stay there from 6:00 to 8 for the bells like we have done before. It was more of a drop in meet and greet session. >> Um, so we started off really well and continuing in that way. We have already set up a a to be at the All Saints High School Fair in October. Um, we were invited. So, our guidance department will be there to start the school year this year. Um, as you know, in the past, it's always happened later. So, I'm glad that it's happening from the beginning of the school year. And then we have also paired two of our parents nights coming up with bigger events. The one in the fall is
031going to be a showcase night for area businesses as well as internally our pathways and we're exploring additional pathways for moving forward and we're going to have an interest survey ready for our families and our students for that right after that night. So, we'll be able to show it off that night and then roll out the survey right after. Um, and then the one in the spring we've we're calling Taste of Webster. We're going to invite area restaurants in to do samplings while our families are there paired with our food services are is also going to be doing something that night. So, we're just changing it up a little bit to see if we can get more families involved. Um, our first big event, just real quick, is on October 19th that is going to
032be the trunk or treat for the town like we did last year. All right. Throughout the summer and into this year, we've done a lot of digging at our data, our success rate of our students, and again, wanting to, you know, change some things that we were doing, add things in, and in regards to the increasing of our graduation rate right from the beginning of the school year, our guidance department has already set quarterly one-to-one meetings with our students, which has not happened. It usually happens once, maybe twice a student. So, they already have four on the books with every student in addition to, you know, as needed. Um, and we've also added more semester courses with this block schedule. So, if something were to happen with our students, they do have a second semester
033to possibly take the course. So, hopefully that'll happen instead of, you know, it's too late and summer school has to happen. So, those are a couple things that we did for our seniors. Um, we've also built in our internships. We've expanded the opportunity to all seniors um if they're in the right space with their credits. It doesn't not just for pathway students. So, we have marketed that towards all and we already have some involved that aren't, you know, in addition to our pathway students. Um we added in that other college fair which was in great attendance. Um we did have our first early college program um introduced to the kids and we have actually have 17 students enrolled in it. Um it's a beginner Spanish class so it the students meet twice a week after
034school and once online. Um so that we have great attendance with that right now and it's again well received. The students appear to love it. They get college credit for this. Um it's our first one so we'll see where we go from there. They're working on what the second course if we can get them in for the spring will be. Um we have my cap up here at the high school which is the my career and academic plan my college and career academic plan. Um we've built it into a lot more courses. So in the past it's been built into our health courses and they've worked on a MEIFA curriculum. Well, this year we have added in a freshman seminar course course for all of our freshmen to start beginning on their skills as well
035as added in a 21st century career skills course this year and it's just gives the students the opportunity to specifically work on their specific post-secondary planning. So those courses are happening now. All of the freshmen were invol um enrolled this year which is the first time we've done that. So, jumping into our freshman, um I'm looking at Miss Mai because she's going to jump in on a couple of these. We started the year with a freshman barbecue. Um before school started, we've enrolled all of our freshmen into the freshman seminar course that they'll have complete before the end of semester 1. this year to make some adjustments. We took our core classes in biology, English, and um algebra 1. And we made several sections that were all year. So, we have some instead of running
036every day all year. We've looked at the data which students would benefit. We have some that are running every day all year long to see if that will help some students that struggle. Um, we've added in already happening daily attendance calls by our guidance counselors and my administrators are also doing daily tardy calls to families. Um, and not just phone calls. It's the parents are coming in so that the intent is to have parents at the table, not to wait till 5, six, or you know, 10 down the line. they're already coming in to have those meetings um and to set up specific plans which will you know hopefully be done there but if needed be adjusted along the way so we can have the kids in front of us when they need to be
037here. >> You want to jump in on the next two. >> I really just wanted to give an introduction to the next things that um Mrs. Neves is going to talk about. As you remember, we talked about some of the challenges that we experienced with summer school um with the high school with the number of students that needed to take summer school and we promised that we would come back to you with a proposal or a plan. It's not a proposal, it's a plan of how we're addressing um the high number of students that needed to repeat classes. And so I I want to uh applaud the efforts of the the groups at the high school that have really uh taken this to heart and and you've already heard of some of the ways in
038which some of the planning has changed um with the hope that we don't see as many failures at the end of the year. Um, one of the things that I said to parents when I was reaching out this summer for summer school was like, we must meet with our kids much earlier and they've already started to take that into action um because we can't wait until failure has happened and so um Mrs. Neves is going to present the the plan for um to support that goal of not waiting too long. We call it early identification of students who might be at risk of failure. >> So starting tomorrow, we have all of our students, not all of our students, all of our staff stay one day after school a week. So instead of isolated inside
039of our classrooms, we are opening an academic support center in our cafeteria every day, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Um where all staff, they chose their day. Um many departments working. So, there's a representative every, you know, every day throughout the week of a math staff or an English or social studies arts, all of them. Um, and they will be housed in the cafeteria to help all students that come after school. Um, we I rolled it out to parents last night. It's was emailed. It's ready to go out and emailed to students today. They were they were made aware of it that it was coming and staff will be there as of tomorrow. So students can drop in as they want. Parents can recommend. Teachers will reach out to families um and encourage students that
040are struggling within their classes, but it's not so they can go back to their classes. It's so they can work. They can work in their groups. They can work individually, but all staff can circulate and help with anything that's needed. Um it will become more targeted as the years go as the year goes on. Paired with that, I have um Saturday school. We are going to run it the same way as we did last year, open to all with a focus um on those that may be struggling. I will I have already reached out to a very large handful of students that just you know you already know you need a little bit more. So I've reached out to all of those families yesterday. Um heard back from many that the students will be there.
041Had great conversations on the you know what will they get from this program? how can you know what's the help that is what is going to look like can you help also with this so there's already that communication going back and forth and those are just with me not the ones that are already reaching out to the families I mean to the teachers um so I reached out to to many posted this as well um and it's like I said the conversations are already happening the communication is already happening they the kids want it the kids have already signed up for it the kids are already going to guidance to say how can I So, you know, what days can I go? All of this for both of these programs. So, it's been wellreceived. >>
042We've also targeted um in the hiring because one of the challenges that we experienced last year with Saturday school was early on when we were there and trying to help kids with like trigg um social worker Trigg um so it was challenging. We realized that we needed to target the support. So we we had a dedicated math teacher um uh for the majority of the time. We only started in January last year. So we we knew that we needed to start much earlier this year. So we do have uh representation from math the math department actually is going to be I think when kids need help in process and math is a biggie because there it's it's a it's not something that everyone can do. A um and B when they need specific content support.
043Math is math is really difficult. So um the math department, they're all coming. >> They've split the Saturdays. So they've created a schedule. So I want to give them kudos um for doing that. Um we have some special education teachers that have signed up. We have um one of the coaches is coming. we have so we have a good representation of the contents so that we can provide as much support to the students as as we can we'll add in for the attendance as well for the that's tied to the academics if they reach so many absences they can you know they can make up this time so rather than waiting till the end of the quarter as well right after progress reports weekly those students will be invited so they don't have to wait
044till the end to earn back the points they they can do that right from the beginning of the That's all I have. >> Thank you for those updates. You're >> welcome. >> Very exciting. You know, and just going off of Dr. Mai's compliment to to you and the team uh with regard to whether it be the early identification of students that are in need of Saturday school or that really collaborative approach to providing extra support to students afternoons. That's amazing. And a big shout out to the staff that are, you know, working collaboratively like that and making it feel like more of a workshop. Sometimes, you know, it might feel intimidating to go into a classroom and ask for extra help. Even when you spend 40 or 80 minutes a day in that classroom, to
045go after school can be a little bit more intimidating than to be in the cafeteria among other folks that also are getting help. And and sometimes, you know, you might have something explained to you a couple times and a fresh pair of eyes comes in and explains things in just some kind of a different way and a light bulb goes off that may not have gone off before. So, uh, great work by the team and I know it's a it's a change for people to be in the cafeteria. I bet they're probably really excited about it, though. I know the kids probably are. >> Been all positive so far, so we'll see. >> That's great. Yeah, that's it's I can't wait to hear about the energy in the room, you know. Yeah, >> that's great.
046>> Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments about this >> through the chair? >> Member millet. >> I guess this is for the superintendent and as long as we have a principal here, but what happened to school improvement councils? >> They seem to have kind of gone away. We haven't heard about them. And the reason I bring it up is because before they get into this. We had some issues with the last um reports and you know some some of them seemed um to be principal goals, some of them seem to be teacher goals. Um, but it's a school improvement council >> and it should reflect and I I know there are things the state wants us to have in those reports. I totally understand that. Um, but I think they do have a
047place and to say Miss Peterson did produce hers and she came in and gave a review of it which was pretty good was good um and helpful and so I was just wondering what the status of those. >> We didn't forget about it. We were are currently working on a strategic plan. So we were developing our strategic plan. So we can build off of that. >> Okay. >> So we need to have a solid strategic plan in place and then they school improvements will build off of that. So typically those would have been sent here in the summer. We would have come in August and we weren't in the position to do that. We want them to be meaningful. So we didn't want to submit something just to submit something. So we >> I can
048speak for last year too. I being new last year and trying to reach out to the families and and have people come and volunteer their time. I couldn't I couldn't get any parents. Um and I can remember Hope Cooper coming in every every week and saying we're still looking for students or we're still looking for to join and it just >> I remember that. >> Yeah. Um so it wasn't for a lack of trying and it's already on the to get going. But it was I just couldn't get the volunteers. >> So you should after we get our strategic plan done, we will continue and move right into that so it'll align. So there'll be alignment. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. through the chair. >> Members Gregory, >> I just want to say because
049um it's so nice to hear all these initiatives and plans um because the shock it was shocking the um reports that we got over the summer of the attendance for the summer school. Um and I just hope and it sounds and I think we're in a unique position. It's a great position to be in. We're such a small school that we have the ability to be personable and to be connected with our students. So, it's nice to hear that the guidance staff's going to be meeting quarterly and it sounds like, you know, that taking this proactive approach. I just feel like this is going to allow our students to come in feeling like more positive about their learning and education. If they're already in a place where they're feeling ahead or they're feeling they, you
050know, if they feel like they're falling behind, they already have so many opportunities for them and people looking out for them to make sure they are successful. So, we're not coming to March or, you know, May like figuring, oh boy, like what did I do this year, you know? Um, so thank you for coming up with a plan and I I can't I'm really hopeful that it's going to be a successful successful year for these freshmen and these seniors that are getting ready to transition to college and hopefully they don't have to spend their nice summer indoors doing their education and they're taking the opportunity to do it now and being a student now when it, you know, when it matters and counts. So, thank you. Appreciate your comments. Members, >> one one follow-up question,
051Miss Ne, that I didn't remember to ask you is related to the college credit. Is is there a specific college that we're working with for the Spanish class right now in the future state? Great. >> Good deal. >> All right. Any other questions or comments from the committee? >> I just want to give Gina a shout out and Dr. Mai a shout out. There has been a lot of thought and time and planning put into this trying to be proactive instead of reactive. So, how can we support upfront? Um, and the willingness to do something different and think outside the box and um you know, the the the staff that are supporting at the high school. Um, it's all about what's best for our kids and how can we help our kids be successful? and
052and that is the thought process going in to all of the decisions they're making. So, I just really appreciate that. Um kudos and I know it's something that, you know, some of the things are new. We're trying something different. We might not get 100% success, but um you know, it's one of those things that we pay attention to. If we need to tweak it along the way, we tweak it along the way. We learn from it and we improve on it. Um but one thing we're really doing is giving opportunities to our kids. and that is something that I'm very thankful for and I'm appreciative for. Um, so thank you both for your efforts and your work. It's appreciated. >> Thank you. Couldn't have said it better myself. >> And one more thing to the
053chair. >> Members, >> I don't know. Um, Mrs. Hair found success posting about the CPAC on the district website. I don't know if that's the school councils or something that's um advertised on the district website. Um, I was going to check, but if they are then working, >> right? Okay. So, whenever but whenever that happens is that that could be good way to do it. >> Dojo, all that kind of thing, too, I'm sure. Right. I know. I've gotten those in the past. Yep. >> Yep. All right. Any other questions or comments for Miss Navas? Well, thank you for your updates. Clearly lots going on at the start of the school year. And actually just I suppose one final comment from me. Uh I had the pleasure of visiting although a bit late for the
054open house because of a conflict that we had um on our end but uh looked like an amazing event. Lots of smiling faces on the staff and the families that were going through and a real sense of pride I think on the part of the folks who were there uh with the that part of the building being in the condition that it's in. And uh so it was it was a a nice event and clearly well attended. I almost snuck past without signing in also. So I can imagine that there were lots of families that were able to kind of sneak by under the radar there. So looking forward to the next event. >> Thank you. >> That >> Sure. Um, I got a chance to talk to a few of the reps, a few
055of the the um, college reps and I heard that the timing was really good because it's very early in their circuits and so a lot of there were a lot of people there. There were a lot of colleges there and so it was um the so the timing of a beginning of the year attached to open house was really good because they were available. They get busier and busier so they were available and happy to come. Great. >> And not just that, we had freshman and sophomores also walking around and talking to colleges. So that early exposure to say this is something I thought was great. Um, also to see those kids talking, >> you know, that's an excellent point. It's again going back to feeling intimidated as a student when you're doing something that
056you don't do every day. And that's probably another example of something that, you know, after having that experience a couple times gets easier and easier. So great, good deal. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is an update from our student representative. Good evening, Aiden. >> Oh, good evening. Um, some positives we have for the beginning of the school year are um we're able to use the locker rooms for sports and for gym class. So, um you can bring clothes for gym and you can change shoes too. Um I like that because um sometimes, you know, you want to wear like say I wanted to wear boots to school one day. I had gym I couldn't you know be able to change but now I can. So I like that. Um >> some challenges
057are still the phone policy. Um it's getting better though I think I think with time and just like listening we'll all be able to just put our phones away and socialize more like it feels good. Um, some student engagement opportunities are sports. Uh, I'm big on sports because I met a lot of my good friends on sports and I believe you can always meet people especially through sports that you can stay with forever. Just have a good relationship. Um, also the big brother and big sister with the uh elementary school, middle school. Um, for people going into education, um, I feel like that is really nice to be able to have the connection with everybody. Um, some student events are the class ring presentation that's on September 25th and our marketing pathway is holding a
058homecoming fundraiser. Some family events are the honors banquet for all students that made honors for all four years or all four quarters last year. Um that'll be September 25th as well. Um the open house that we just had with the college fair and the teacher tables I really enjoyed because um I was able to see teachers from a different point of view and be able to see that they're better people than you think. teachers are very good people and it appre I was a very I really liked going there to be able to see everybody and the connections my parents could have with the teachers and just being able to see the new school not on school hours and it was nice everything was um we also just finished our benchmark testing for both math
059and English um and our senior class update is the senior breakfast I'm really excited for Yeah. Uh, I hope it's good. Uh, September 26th. But that's all I have. >> Thanks for your updates. Are you doing sports this like this season? >> Uh, yeah. So, right now I'm doing soccer. Um. >> Oh, great. >> In the spring I do tennis. But >> excellent. How's your season going so far? Um, it's been better, but learning with all of our players, like getting to play with each other and learning how each other play is very nice. I feel like we're growing as a team. >> That's great. >> Good deal. All right. Any questions or comments uh from the committee for Aiden >> through the chair? like um that you've put the challenges in because that's important
060to note. You know, it's just it's nice to celebrate all the successes, but I think everybody the committee, teachers, people need to know what the students are feeling in the former challenges. So I I appreciate that part of your report. >> Thank you >> to the chair. >> Member Scraia, >> speaking of challenges, and I don't know if you didn't want to bring it up because it's in here, but what's going on with the headphones? >> Well, AirPods. >> Um, for me, I like to listen to music, especially when I'm doing work, like if it's writing, not so much math because I have to focus a lot, but when I'm writing, I enjoy it. And um it's just hard not being able to listen to music cuz they see your earpods, they tell you to
061take them out. It's fine, >> respectable, but um I just enjoy it. So I find it a little hard. >> With Miss Navis here, would there be an opportunity like because I know the students have Chromebooks, could they use like old school headphones if they connect to their Chromebooks in order to listen to music or is YouTube not available or like what's the what could be an option for them to listen to music if they want it to work? I'm not sure if YouTube is available or not. Um, there are students that have music built into some of their plans and we do encourage the Chromebook instead of the cell phones if it is being used. So, >> we say work that out with the teacher. >> Got you. >> But the the the cell
062phones, the earbuds and anything tied, the watches and all that are a no-go from beginning to end. Right. >> So, >> and that I would add that I think we'd want to be very careful about how much we allow streaming across the network. >> Right. because that could create bandwidth issues and other things that we have to consider as well. >> Old school CD players, that's what I'm thinking. eBay. >> Well, and I think Aiden, sorry to put you on the spot, right? But you also brought up the fact that you you mentioned it more I think the last meeting, but you alluded to it tonight that you yall are doing a little bit more socializing without a screen in your face or something in your ears, right? Uh, it's maybe forced right now, but
063to your point, it seems to be getting a little bit easier. >> Well, I feel like I I feel like most people, me especially, need like that little push. So, like you're kind of forced to do it, but like not forced at the same time. >> Yeah, >> cuz everybody has their choice. You can obviously go your own way. But um having the opportunity, being pushed a little bit into it, and being able to socialize, it's nice. You don't get to do that every day, especially when you get out of school. You're not going to always be able to socialize as much as you can in school. >> Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I just read a a book about about the impact of the phone-based childhood essentially and how that how isolating it can
064be and it it feels like you're more connected to people because you have access to text or social media, but the actual interaction is lacking. And to be a person that says, "Well, I'm going to put my phone away today and I'm going to interact with people." And then you look around and everyone else is on their device. it becomes it it it's you can't be successful if you're if you're one of a few people that is opting to try to you know detox from the screen. So I as as much as um I imagine it's hard I would love to hear what what it is like as you continue this less electronicbased student life over the course of this year and see it sounds like already you're doing a little bit more socializing and
065probably your peers are too. They're more available. >> Yeah. >> Do you feel like you think less about it during the day now before that separation anxiety almost a little bit? >> Yeah. Like most of the time it's just in my pocket. I don't really take it out unless like occasionally if I get a text, but like then I try just not to do it, especially when I'm around people. >> Yeah. >> Silent. But I'm silent. >> It's hard to >> not vibrate. Silent. >> Remember millet? >> I have enough of a point to this because it's how I learn and it's how some students learn. Because even when I was in college, I'd sit with headphones on with some music >> while I was reading and it made me concentrate more on what I
066was reading. So sometimes it's a part of how some people learn. >> I did I was in a class we were in I forget was it on our walkthroughs? Um, but somebody said, "Could you put on the playlist?" So, a teacher had a playlist to play in the background while they were working on that was on our walkthrough, right? >> I used to do that. >> Um, so they had a playlist going, you know, uh, so the kids could work and have some music so it was they had something there. I thought of that. >> Great. Lots of lots of different ways of meeting all all the different uh, preferences while still being focused on the school work. Thanks for sharing your perspective, Aiden. Appreciate you. Any other questions or comments for Aiden? Poor Aiden.
067[Laughter] Thank you once again for your updates. Uh the next item on the agenda under new business, we have several different policies that we're going to be doing readings on. I'm going to take these policies and at least uh individually name them. Will we be discussing all of these or some of these, Mrs. differentially or >> I just kind of walk through them in our process because we actually started this back in um June looking at up our updating our technology policies and MASC had a newsletter um that went out one of their bulletins that said all the policies technology policies that you should review. Um many of these policies that are in your packet we didn't even have. So I think the last time our policy might have been done was in 2015. the
068others were outdated 2003. So um which prompted us in June as we were starting to look through updating our technology, we started asking questions about our policy. We look at our policy um and realized that we were really lacking in this area. Um so if you want high level, John is here. John, I want to say thank you for his work on the policies. Um he went through the MASC. He looked at other school policies, looked at what we did internally. Um, many of these are just normal, you know, generic policies, blanket policies. Um, and then there are some that are detailed that we did have that um like our acceptable use that was updated to be modern, more reflective of what what our practices are now. Um, so I don't know if you want
069to go through and and have me tell you what what is new that didn't exist here before. Um, so you know when you review them? Um, is that something you'd like to do? You want to take it one by one? Do you want to chunk a few? >> However you'd like to >> Okay, I can say the first three. Um, policy KDCB, which is our district website and social media. policy JICJ, student use of technology in schools. Um accept uh the next policy JNDC, the acceptable use of digital resources. Um we didn't have any of those in existence in our policy. Um the next two, policy JN DB and policy JN DB/R. Um those we did have in our policy and those were the ones that reflect the biggest changes. Um those I can have
070John I don't know if you'd like to give like a highlevel overview um of the policy or what you found when you were going through Oh, hi. How are you? It's weird being on this side of the >> door. >> This side of the door, hidden away doing the recording. Um, so uh the first thing to note about the uh policy JNDB is it's it's actually fairly short. some of the other policies such as um JNDC uh and a few others actually used to be part of this larger policy. Um and MASC decided to split them out into individual line items. Um but as a as just a kind of a high level in uh JNDB is just a a general use of technology in instruction. Um just how faculty and staff are supposed to
071be using the technology for uh for instruction as a tool in instruction. Um what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable, the more nitty-gritty um day-to-day stuff that you can find a little further down in the in the JNDB-R. Um that's the the the reference is it resource >> regulation >> um is uh underneath there I looked at several different school districts Westwood East Long Meadow uh Chelmsford uh to name a few um and kind of stole and borrowed from here and there. Um primarily the uh overview is is from the MASC. Um it goes over uh general usage, the scope. Um it defines a few terms that get referred back to such as um things like Furpa, SIPA, and COPA which are the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Children's Internet Protection Act, and
072the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which are some of the keystones when we look at involving any new um curriculum or any new programs for the teachers to use. Uh those are some of the things that we have to make sure that we're compliant with. Um and so that just it highlights it there. Goes over general use and principles. A lot of this if you if you look into it, you know, seems like common sense. This is mostly for just making sure that it is memorialized in the um school committee policy uh manual to make sure that we are uh compliant with state regulations. Um are there any specific questions about any of the specific kind of sub areas in there? I don't want to I don't want to like sit here and read out
073the whole thing to you. Okay. >> I think you did a nice job of summarizing the policies and the the reasoning behind them and also some of the sources that you used so you didn't have to just completely reinvent the wheel there. So >> yeah, the the other tech directors at the other uh schools were very helpful and and and uh more than happy to to kind of offer up their their two cents here and there for uh what they thought, you know, worked and what needed tweaking and what worked since these uh newsletters have been put out by the MASC. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you, John. And then to continue on the list, I JNDB access to digital resources that is new policy EHB data retention um records data records and retention
074that's new. Policy E H AAA um district security relating to technology that was new. Policy BH uh was another one that was um something that we had here already that is updated more modern. And then policy KDC and policy GB E um community use of digital resources and personal use of techn technology are also you new um in many of these they reference other policies. So that's why it was easier to do these as a a collective batch um as they reference so we know we're getting up-to-date policies as they reference other ones within there. So >> great. Where are we keeping these policies so fe people can access them and reference them when they need to? >> Yep. We're going to have to work on updating our website and the policy because the policy
075manual on the website is very updated. We don't The problem that we're having here is we don't have all the policies in one spot. So we have an old policy manual paper copy. We have some policies that were approved over the year prior to the major use of technology that were done that were updated and put in the paper copy. And then we have multiple files online from previous assistants who worked in the superintendent's office who kept them on their computer. So there's multiple copies on the computer. Um, so we're doing our best to kind of try and organize and find the most recent when we start looking. Um, really what we need to do is as we start moving through and finalizing getting clean copies and updating them on the website so we know,
076I mean, we're going to start the practice of in the past when we approved new policies, they weren't sent out to the district. They kind of just went in the book. We're going to start emailing them out to the district. so staff know this policy went before it's updated it's new um and then we'll you know start figuring out a process for how we can um display them because even the policy manual that I'm finding that we have online has different items in it than what we have. So it's finding that consist that consistent model which we you know this is a huge undertaking. We're doing what we need to do now for things that we know are very outdated, but there are so many policies that just need to be reviewed, reflected. Um, you
077know, that's something that we planned on looking at in our coming budget year. Um, because you can hire MASS to come out and do a full-blown budget review, uh, um, policy review. Um, which is something we truly need. Um, because there are just so many outdoor since 2003. So, um, we'll continue to plug through the big ones, the important ones that we know as things come up and we see something. Um, we're currently we're working on a homeschool policy. We're working on we have some others that we're planning hopefully for the next batch um that we'll continue to work on. So, it'll be something that we hope that we can continuously come to school committee and update um while we're going through the process and hiring for next year. >> Great. Sounds like it could
078be a good um internship. >> Something to think about. >> Have to pay, >> right? I know finances are >> Yeah. >> where it's not budgeted right now. We just have to >> Right. Something to think about. Yeah. >> But certainly, I agree. If if we're approving new policies and we'll be holding folks accountable to those policies, making sure >> of them, >> they're aware and they're accessible so that they can reference them. Mhm. >> will be will be important and complicated to accomplish I think. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> The chair >> members Coriglia. >> Uh I just want to ask about um policy GB the personal use of technology. Um in the second paragraph um it mentions X public schools. I don't know if that's the wording that needs to be used. I'm
079not familiar with writing policies. Um I don't know if it should be Webster public schools or the district. Okay. >> Yeah. Good catch. >> Thank you. >> So, we've gone through each of these policies. Uh I believe that would constitute the first reading of them. Is that right? We don't need any motion or anything like that. >> Any other questions or comments from the committee with regard to all of these policies that we've referenced? All right. Well, the next item on the agenda is um regarding surplus items. Looks like we have some stackable chairs and a collapsible batting tunnel. That sounds like fun. Uh we no longer need those items. Is that right? >> Okay. First one is the stackable chairs. when we were um clearing out section B, Webster Middle School was hoping to
080retain them and use them um but they don't have the need for them anymore. So, we do have these in surplus and uh looking to get um placement of these chairs. They are brown stackable ones if you remember what used to be in the cafeteria. >> Have an estimated value on them. It's probably generous given the age of them. Um but um that's the situation with that with the batting tunnel. As it turns out with the renovation in the gymnasium and the lack of the CMU walls to actually anchor that tunnel to the tunnel we have we can't use in there without uh really pulling out those walls and putting beams in. Right. So, we have a new replacement batting cage planned within the project um so that we have one that comes off the
081beams in the middle of the gymnasium. >> Okay. Thank you for that explanation. Any questions or comments from the committee >> to the chair? Sorry. >> Members, >> um you're obviously going to try to sell them, but if there's nobody, you know, looking to buy them, um these won't be thrown away. think they'll be donated. >> We will see if we can actually get a buyer. That's my my preference. Um and then if we can't, then we would look to donate. >> Any other questions? >> Just so you know, typically what I do with these is I'll then go out to the business manager listerve, find out if there's any schools that are interested in that purchase. I'll start there. Um and then if we don't get anything, then we'll kind of look locally um
082and try to promote it that way. And then last resort would be a donation, but they wouldn't be discarded. >> Thank you for that. So, if there's no further discussion, is there any further discussion about this? No. Okay. I'll entertain a motion to declare surplus items of miscellaneous chairs and equipment from Webster Public Schools and to direct the superintendent or the business manager to auction off, donate, or otherwise recycle or dispose of these materials in conjunction with the provisions of Mass General Law 30B. >> So move second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Member. >> Yes. >> Member Mill. >> Yes. >> Member. >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item on the agenda is an executive session and that's in accordance with Mass General Law
083Chapter 3A section 21A to discuss strategy for negotiations with union personnel in this case or not personnel not union personnel but personnel in general the cafeteria. I'll entertain a motion to enter into an executive session to uh reconvene an open session. >> So second >> there's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Member Corell. >> Yes. Member. >> Yes. >> Member. Yes. >> Yes. Motion passes. So we will adjourn and we will resume and open. >> Okay. Well, good evening once again. We're back from our executive session and uh would you like uh a vote on on the matter that we talked about? So, we were in executive session to discuss a memorandum of agreement between the uh Webster School Committee and the um cafeteria group and we have
084arrived at an agreement. I'll entertain a motion to approve this memorandum of agreement as presented. >> So, >> second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. >> Miller. Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yes. Motion passes. And you know, I'd like to take a quick moment to just thank the negotiating teams both on the part of the district and the part of the cafeteria workers. It sounds like that was a very collaborative process as it typically is with a wonderful group of people who uh work hard every day to serve our kids and I know do a great job. So happy that we were able to arrive at that. >> Me too. and I just want to thank them um and let them know how much
085we appreciate all their hard work. >> The next item on the agenda is a review transfer signing a borance bills payroll and vouchers. And before we get our signing pens out, we do have a transfer request in the amount of $8,380.79. And that's going to be from the Webster Middle School student activity account to the uh excuse me from the Webster Middle School student activity account at Webster 5cent Savings Bank to I believe that's the checking account which is the Webster school student activity account at the Webster Credit Union. Are there any questions from the committee about this uh transfer request? >> Hearing none. I'll entertain a motion to approve it. >> So move second. There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. I'll entertain a
086motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion in a second. Desire, would you please call the committee? >> Yes. Member. >> Yes. Meeting adjourned. Good night everyone.