001Good evening everyone. With the time being 6 PM on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025, I will call this meeting of the Webster School Committee to order and ask that you stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge alg 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 of the minutes from the June 10th, 2025 meeting. Is there any discussion about 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?
002Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item on the agenda is our superintendence report. Good evening, Mrs. Panguli. >> Good evening. How is everybody? Happy summer. I think it's finally here, right? We had a really wet spring and now we're into summertime and a little heat wave. Thank you. Um I want to start out my report tonight um with a personnel update. Um, we have a very special guest here this evening that I'm going to start with. Uh, we have a retirement. Uh, your official last day is coming up, right? But July 27th, but she finished this she completed her last school year this past school year. Um, as of June 18th, it was her last day teaching in the district. Um, Leslie Quasneski, we just wanted you here tonight to say
003thank you so much for your time here. A little bit about Leslie. Leslie is actually a graduate of Bartlett. You graduated in 1986. I believe we're all around the same age and I can't believe you're retiring and I still got a ways to go. I'm a little jealous. I'm just going to say. Um, but she graduated from high school at Bartlett High School and went on to Wester State College where she came directly to work for Webster Public Schools right out of college and has spent her entire career here in Webster. uh you don't really 35 years teaching in Webster. That is something that um is just incredibly rare to say that you've spent your entire life attending school, graduating from college, and coming right out of college and teaching in the same district. We've
004had a few of those people. I know Miss Millet, you were also one of them. Um, but it's it's an incredible feat and it's something that you should be very proud of and I know it's something that I am so thankful for. Um, Leslie was hired in August of 1990 as a grade four teacher at Webster Middle School, which was otherwise known as the Anthony J. Sowski School, right? That was our three through six school right in the center of town. You were hired making a whopping $21,000 a year back then. Um over Leslie's career um she served as a mentor. She served as a MCCAST academic teacher. You were a grade level leader. She worked in our afterchool programs. Um but most of all she has been one of those teachers who has always
005always put the students first. Uh you can go into her classroom at any time. She is one of those people that teaches bell-to-bell. um always whenever you walk in the classroom, her classrooms are always uh organized. The kids always know they're well structured. Um and she's one of those people that when I have new hires that come into the district or very young people who are teaching their first time, I always try and connect them. they they get assigned a mentor, but I always try and connect them or ask them to look out for so and so. You know, somebody if you want to emulate somebody, if you want to spend your career doing it, this is who I suggest you look at and model after. And Leslie was one of those people that I
006would recommend to a new staff to say if you want if you want to, you know, have your career and excel and run a good classroom um where kids feel like they belong in a classroom everybody feels like they belong. They're part of the day. They're part of the routine. They're cared about, but they're there to learn also. Um, that would be you, Leslie. Um, always, always, uh, walking in your classroom is always a treat, really. Um, it's a pleasure to walk in your classroom. Um, always something that I look forward to. Um, so I just wanted you here tonight to say thank you so much. You deserve to be recognized for your time here in Webster. Um, it's something that we started doing a couple years ago. Now, we have plaques in all of
007our buildings with our retirees that we want to honor. Those plaques hanging, the same plaque hangs in every building. So, um no matter what age the kids are that they'll see, they can look back to see who their teachers were who were tired, who spent time when kids come back. Um I've heard it I've heard it from a couple members already of a community who walk in and looked at a plaque and said, "Oh, I remember so and so. I remember there." So, uh, people look and people see. Um, so I just wanted to say thank you so much and we do have a little gift for you. Um, >> being able to at least work into brand new school. So going from AJ Sakowski's middle school and apps and for inviting me. >> And
008so, so in this is just some Webster We have some Webster public school glasses. It's not real champagne. I'm sorry. I can't do that. Um, but we have some coffee cups, some little treats, a little book on what to do in retirement, some snacks, and in there is a sub substitute application, so you could fill it out and come back to work for us. that's the best gift. Um, but truly thank you for everything you have done and I just wanted to say thank you so much. Um, and there you go. >> And now you can give your five minute speech. >> Five minutes. >> Thank you everybody. And then my mentor Miss Millet when I first started we didn't have the men of our program back then. So she took me under her wing
009and fourth grade, then third grade, then I went back fourth grade and then the last six years. >> You can have a seat. Sit down. We're going to give them a chance to say something nice. >> Oh, hello. >> I just wanted to say of course it was a lot of fun and we went through a lot especially at Sakowski school. I mean, physically with the school falling down around us at the time, um, fires, floods, you name it, we had it. Evacuations and she always always has a smile for students and staff. It It was a pleasure. I actually want to thank you not only as a member of the school committee uh for a remarkable 35 years that's it's really something special to be a part of a community you know as a
010learner as a student and then to come back and give back to that community. So the impact that you've had on Webster is probably immeasurable over that period of time. So, I thank you for that. And also want to just share I had the pleasure of um having one of my children educated by you in third grade. Amamira was your student and um yes, she did say she learned from bell to bell. Um and she really appreciated the rigor um in your classroom and the sense of belonging and all of the things that Mrs. Pangelie talked about. And that was um co be darned. that was a co year where it just began and um you were nice enough to to visit us at our house and and sign Amira's book for her so that
011she would always have that memory of you in third grade. So just another example of you going above and beyond and really um reaching your students. So thank you for all that you've done and you know more specifically for for Amira too. And I just got to add um your mom, you know, uh she was so proud. She was so proud. Um I love talking to her where I got my start as a sub in the office uh working for Barbara and Rita. And um she used to talk about you and it was just she was so proud that you were teaching in Webster, that you were part of the Webster community. So um I know both your parents were. So um thank you for everything you've done for our students. You've touched a lot
012of students over the years. And if you count the number of students that you've had in your classrooms um over 600, >> maybe their children as time went on, right? >> Yeah. >> Absolutely. >> That's really special. >> So, thank you so much for everything. >> Thank you for all of your contributions to Webster. >> Thank you. >> Now, class dismissed. >> Thank you, Leslie. Enjoy your retirement. Enjoy. >> Enjoy your trip. >> Yes. >> Bring photos from those trips. >> Absolutely. Be sure to fill that out. >> All right. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Good night, everybody. >> Take care. Congratulations. >> That is pretty awesome to spend an entire entire career in one district. That's great. Okay, moving on. We're we're going to move on to new hires. So,
013as you know, summer time is a busy time of year for hires. We typically will have some resignations, retirements, and then we look to fill those positions. So, I'll run through a list. Um, currently at Parkav, uh, we have hired a new family liaison, Nicole Suarez bracket. Uh, we have hired a couple power professionals, a Rebecca Connley and an Alexandria Balduchi. um an L teacher, a Lori Treyan, and a this one I am very excited about. Uh this position has been vacant for I want to say going on three years. So, Alexandra, I mean, uh Lori Trey, I'm skipping names here, Aaliyah Zubie, as a school psychologist. Um we are very excited to have her on board. Uh we also hired an ELA teacher, Emma McGrillin. Uh Sophie Moral is a grade three teacher. Jacob
014Bond is a grade two teacher and Annalise Sherman as another grade three teacher. We look at Webster Middle School. We hired Randall Stewart who is a grade seven ELA teacher and Haley Drezik is a grade five and math science teacher at Bartlett High School. We're still busy interviewing. Uh we've only have two more positions I believe to fill. Uh we have hired Cheryl Gelfund, a math teacher. uh Lucas Korea Covert, a school adjustment counselor, and Emma McGrillin, an ELA teacher. Uh we also hired in uh our assistant director of student support services. We are excited to have Miss Carol Cohen on board. She has been working already, digging in, jumping in, and um she's jumping right on board. So, we're happy to welcome her into the district. Um, so as you can see, there's been
015a lot of staff coming in. Um, which is great. Uh, the the pool has been pretty good so far. So, you know, we're hoping we can fill those couple difficult. I believe we still have um I think they're on the list at the end. We can get to that. But, um, you know, the more difficult the specific like a science or a foreign language or something like that, they're a little harder. But um we will fill those positions. As far as resignations, uh we have uh Lindseay Markham who is a par profofessional at Parkav. We also have Janice Romano who was an ABA at Parkav. Uh we have Daniel Gutierrez who was a teacher. He was a science teacher at Bartlett. Um he left us he left us to go to um his passion is
016he wants to be a counselor. um that's really what he was dual certified in guidance and um science and he really wanted to get his guidance hours in and so he found a position that was able to support his guidance hours so that's why he um resigned so I wish him the best of luck. We also have Nicole Cordier was a special ed teacher at Webster Middle School. Um there are no transfers at this time. And then you can see we have our list of um vacant positions um that we have at the high school. So we are looking to fill them. We have filled some that are not on the list. I know uh the big one, one of the sciences I believe are filled now. Both of them are now. So So we're
017moving through them. We're getting them. And um you know, fingers crossed we'll be fully staffed by the time we start school. um at the end of August. Is there any questions about personnel? >> Some great updates. Lots of hires coming through. >> Yes, they are. Yep. Yep. And which was really nice. We didn't have a lot of resignations, I can say, as far as teaching staff, which is a wonderful thing. So, that's great. Um moving on to an instructional update. Uh we did submit in our instructional priority um June 30th. Uh that was required to send into um our state support team. Uh they are reviewing it and they will give us feedback. They told us they were hoping to have feedback for us by the end of July or mid August. So as soon
018as we get that, I will then be sharing our instructional priority with the school committee. On Monday, July 14th, and Friday, July 18th, we had our two full summer retreat admin days. As you know, over the past few years, we've been um renting out a classroom up at Nichols College. We spend go there, we spend the day working on um getting our um priorities for the year, getting things in in order, doing some training for our admin staff. Um so we spent some time we uh had our legal attorney come in and do some training um around discipline and special education. Uh we also had some reviews around um ELLL updates. Um we did some title n training on investigations on how to do that with our staff. Uh we spent a lot of time
019on our educator handbook looking at that. We had the educator handbook team come in along with our PBIS consultant, our Eric Mackey on May institute. How can we look at that, make that more user friendly, make it easier to navigate for our staff. Um because we're really working on that consistency across the district to make sure that when we're looking at data, the data is, you know, is accurate. we're not reporting things uh differently across the schools um and how we're collecting that because that data is really important to help us make decisions as we move forward. Um so we're really looking on streamlining that, make it easier for teachers to navigate, make it easier for our admin to navigate and just make it use more user friendly. Um so we're working on consolidating our
020codes and getting rid of some codes and streamlining our processes there. So we spent a lot of time doing that um during our summer admin uh retreat. Um also during that time um I had sent out an email to school committee. Our current strategic plan um ended on at the end of 2025. So we're currently working on a new strategic plan uh for the next three years. Um I have worked with our superintendent from Northbridge. She is an approved Desi strategic planner. Um she's worked with them. She's been trained by them. Um she has I've asked her to help facilitate our meetings to come in and facilitate. So she came in and we did a two-hour kickoff meeting. I was happy that Miss Millet could attend and spend two hours with us at our retreat,
021which was wonderful. Um where she was able to kick off uh the strategic planning with some thoughtful questions, reviewing what we've currently had, and we're going to continue that work through the summer. Our goal is to, you know, by mid to end August have a draft, something that we can bring forward to school committee. Um, we're going to continue that work with our full leadership team. Um, so it was all of our deans, our assistant principles, our principles. Um, we had a school committee rep. We are continuing it on August 13th, I think it is. I think it's the 13th. um with our full ILT um we have another full day retreat where we have our ILT come in for that day. So that way we'll have teacher voice um it's and we'll have there'll
022be about probably 30 to 40 of us in that meeting um talking about the strategic plan looking at work that we've done and where we're going as a district. Um, and then we've also will be sending surveys out to our families um to get some feedback and input from our families. So, those will be going out on Dojo um and through the web. Uh we'll be making sure that we have uh through email also that we're sending it out in multiple ways um because it's really important to get some feedback from from our community partners as well as our families. Um, so we are working on that and we hope to have, like I said, we'll continue to do that and I'll keep you updated and we hope to have a draft in by the
023end of September. Uh, so also, uh, I wanted to point out that I was down, uh, we received a couple notifications and I was, and this also kind of leads into twofold. We've heard it from two places. Um, last week, Monday and Friday, we had our admin retreat and Tuesday and Wednesday, I was down the Cape at the superintendence conference. Um, going through it was a great way to network, meet other superintendents and also go through updates of what's going on across the state as far as also taking little courses and going through um some classes. Uh I attended a couple classes on AI. I attended um some work on strategic planning, a class on strategic planning. But some of the bigger topics I think that were really um being discussed were, you know, support
024for superintendent during uh a difficult times. You know, there's a lot of difficulty. You can see in many communities out there as far as funding has gone. Um there's a lot of turnover. Um there's um difficult com uh committees in some areas, not great relations between school, town um and how to navigate those difficult times and those challenges. Um but a big topic uh from everybody was funding um and what's happening at the federal level with funding. Districts are struggling as it is with local funding. There are many districts that have gone for overrides um as state funding has kind of been level um and those overrides are failing and now we're receiving notifications from federal levels that some of our funding is on hold there. Um at the beginning of July, we received notification
025um from DESIE about the status of some of our grants. Um the title grants, the title A, title um title 2, title 3A, title 4 A, title 4B. So we've got title two, title three, and title four. Those are all part of our entitlement grants. the funding for those grants are on hold as long uh uh also um with that is our 21st century that funding is on hold. Uh the total amount of that funding for us in Webster is about $400,000. It funds our 21st century afterchool program which is about $200,000. So if we were to lose that that is a major impact to our community here in Webster. We support a lot of kids in our afterchool program. Um, and we've worked really hard to build a robust program that benefits our students,
026benefits our families, and they do a great job. So, this uh would be devastating for us here in Webster. Um, that would eliminate our afterchool program and that would just leave us with a four fee program for our parents where we we service many kids in our 21st century program. In addition to that 200,000, we have our title two, which is approximately 88,000. These are all round numbers, but I'm pretty close. Um 88,000. Our title two funds all of our DIS, all of our ILT stipens, our mentoring stipens. I mean, those are important for the work that we do after school, the work that we do with our instruction. I mean, we've really made a big push with our ILT to have that through line for our instructional priority. Um, working as a district and
027then working handinhand with our ILTS and our schools. Um, that's where we're a lot of our instructional priority work is happening and we're funneling it through. Um, it also provides, title 2 also provides for some teacher trainings that we can do. Title three is expected to fund our flashlight program. And that was the program we had for a L monitoring in progress. Um along with some stipens that we did for that and our title 4 funds the majority of our PBIS work. So that was about $50,000 there. So I mean in total we have almost 400,000 that we're kind of, you know, uh on hold with and a bit concerned about. Um and we're already watching the pennies in our budget. Um, we were very very we went through our budget this season with a
028fine tooth comb. So there is no there is nothing built into that as far as safety nets for us. Um, so you know I think it's important to bring this to our attention um to your attention. Uh it's it's a hot topic at the state. Uh we're advocating the state is advocating for us. um you know, they're hopeful that that funding is going to be released. Um but there's no guarantees about that and we're not sure. So, it's just a matter of waiting for more updates, being involved in advocating. If you talk to a state rep, if you talked um to our representatives, you know, put in a plug. I know we're doing everything as we can as school superintendents MASS I know MASC is advocating um but we had uh you know uh the
029national superintendent association there um speaking on behalf of the federal funding and um they are also concerned at a federal level about what that means for school districts and for education across the country. Uh so it's definitely something that we need to keep on our radar. Um I'm not sure what that's going to mean uh for our federal pos for our filling our 21st century program. Um if we don't, you know, we typically look and advertise to fill those positions over the summer. We're reaching out with families. We're trying to get that stuff on board. Um so there might be a little delay in that or we go through and um there's no guarantee on that. So, uh, we're just going to have to take it as it comes, one step at a time. Try
030not to panic, but also try to be responsible about what we're doing and be on top of things as we go through. Have you heard anything else on the business manager side of things? >> Yep. >> Through the chair, >> members, >> did they give you like a timeline of when there's an idea of when the funds would be released? because I just think of our p our families and our parents who need to plan if this isn't going to be an option for them for after school um how they could you know be prepared. No, no, they the last message we got is um you know Desi will continue to communicate with the US Department of Ed the importance of these funds and I will work with state leadership and others across the country
031to gain access to these funds. We advise that superintendent plan for the possibility that their district and school may not receive these funds for FY26. To this end and in the coming days, Desi will provide districts with additional resources and guidance to help with their planning. That was from the commissioner of ed. Um so we're still waiting. We're still um they're still talking about it. Uh you know, there's guesses out there. I can, you know, one of somebody uh at the conference said, well, you know, uh they think the one that's really at threat is the title two um title two is $88,000, but that's for us that's our ILT stipens and our mentor stipens. So, if that those fundings are cut, where are we going to fund those? How are we going to >>
032how are we going to have those positions title two? Yeah. >> So, I mean, right off the bat for us, that's that's still a major impact. Yep. >> That's still a major impact. >> So, um >> as a So, yeah, as a district, we need to start like thinking about where like right, we need that plan. >> Absolutely. >> Same thing with our families. Like if for whatever reason this 21st century money is not allocated to us, like are we funding that through our district? Are we cutting it? >> And we can't. And that's the thing. It's $200,000. It's after school programming. We don't have that in any other grant. And we don't have that in our um in our budget. you know, it, you know, we're really monitoring, we're monitoring a lot going into
033this school year. Um, but really trying to keep a close eye on special education, too, and those high cases that we have out there. Um, there are a couple that are pending that there are things that are just not in our control, right? >> Um, you know, it fluctuates and and I don't want to put out numbers, but I mean, you know, a month ago, we were looking if this happens, what if this happens? We were like $400,000 in the hole and we hadn't even started the school year yet, >> you know, and you know, that could change in a month, that could change in a week, you know, depending on moveins. We're not seeing um I haven't heard of any large moveins to date, but we went through a spell that where there was
034a lot of change going on. So, um you know, Sher and I will have some time to sit down and review that again uh to go through and say, "Okay, where are we now?" because I think it's really important that we're on top of that and that we're really communicating that to you because what if you know what if um these things happen. I mean we will be getting a little bit more circuit breaker back um because of the budget passed. So that for Webster I believe is about $200,000, right? Um so that's helpful. So that could pick up like I said if our tuition and that's what we hope like you know if these tuitions change that we pick those up with those circuit breaker funds that we have but um it's just something
035that we need to keep our we now more than ever we need to really closely monitor. We haven't had to monitor that closely um in a very long time our spending and what's happening on a not just a monthly basis or a quarterly basis but what's happening on a weekly basis. You know what's changing um to make sure that we just know what we're spending money on. It's important to know where we are at what we are at and that we're going through our expenses with a fine tooth comb. >> Yeah. Matter of fact, if I can piggy back on that, during our off-site DLCship, we talked about um best practices, financial management from a lens that we haven't had to necessarily, I mean, not that we weren't doing it, but it's a much higher
036rigor that we're expecting going into this year. um as we look to do it and always ensuring that if we're making commitments for expenditures that we're encumbering that money so we have it and there's no blind spots that we have within our spending so that we can hold ourselves accountable to our budget. But um as the superintendent said, this is going to be a change in that it's going to be much more rigor, much more was this planned for, how are you paying for this? Um and uh holding everyone highly accountable. Not that we weren't holding people accountable before. I don't want to send that message. But really um highlighting the need to really be mindful and pay really close attention to um what we're doing, especially those things that are within our control. >>
037I mean, we've had that flexibility in the past to say um you know, looking at curriculum or looking at supplementals or looking at this looks really great. Could we do a pilot with this or can we purchase some workbooks for our families to send home? We're doing this. Those were things that we could do before with ESR funds and with things. But now we don't have that luxury now. You know, what we've budgeted is what we've budgeted and it's for very specific items. So if there's a change or there's a purchase, then where is it coming from? What are you moving to make that happen? Um and so that's you know that's the instruction or that's the guidance we've given our principles like we we have to be really mindful and before we even ask
038you know can we do something different what's the impact of that is it a necessity and if it is where is it coming from what is that taking place of um so those are things we need to be mindful of and you know we just need to make sure that we're diligent diligent in what we're doing. We're diligent in our tracking. You know, I think we've done a very I think we've done a great job with our finances. I think we've always been on top of it. We've always monitored. Um, but this is a different level of what, you know, of where we're headed as far as making sure, you know, we want to make sure that we're going into the school year and we're going into the end of the year meeting our budget,
039you know. So, um, it just we need to keep an eye on it and we need to watch it closely because there are so many unknowns that we don't have the flexibility we've had in the past >> through the chair. >> Member Scribe. >> Yeah. And just coming back to that $400,000 that might not be available to us and not to cause panic to the families, but also giving them a a decent enough time to plan if that after school program is not available to them, if they need to find, you know, the Boys and Girls Club or private care. thinking about them even if we don't you know even if that they might not be giving us a timeline like could we you know create our own like hey we need to let the
040like if they haven't given us the funds we need to let the families know by August right >> you know 7th that this is possibly not happening so you know after school care would have to come through their own means >> right and that's what we're working on internally what what can we fund into when and then you know how are we going to proceed from there. >> Yeah. >> Um, and that kind of summed up my other stuff that I had in there. So, it kind of put it all in one bucket. So, um, and there was only one other thing actually I wanted to talk about that wasn't in there and it it'll be real quick. Um, we had, you know, we always as we prepare for the new year, we do our
041mandated trainings and stuff that we all do at the beginning of the year. All of that was website. I am happy to say that um last year we had purchased a three-year um of our uh academy part of it was a budgeting tool that we used but also part of it um does our annual training for us and before it was just a document that it could have been a PDF it could have been a PowerPoint it could have been just a legal document and people just clicked on it and said yes I've seen it yes I've read it and checked off a thing now we have a system where there's actually little videos. They're like 10-minute videos or clips that have all been approved. They meet all the compliance that they can watch. These
042are the videos that they have. Um, you know, uh, sexual harassment prevention, McKini veto, civil rights training, student records, requirements of special ed, bullying prevention, physical restraints, um, all of these trainings. So, those are trainings that they can take. They're monitored and they're kept. So, we have record that um you know, we know our staff are being trained. They're more intuitive. Um and I think actually they're more educational because you know how you can just look at a legal document, what are you going to get out of that or what are you going to get out of a PowerPoint when you can hear something? I think it's a little bit um might stick a little bit better. So, we're excited to do that this year also. And that's all I have for you. >> Thank
043you, Mrs. Pangelie. >> Thank you. Any further questions or comments from the committee? >> Hearing none, the next item on the agenda is the business manager report. Good evening, Mrs. Ktos. >> Good evening, everyone. Going to start off with some updates on the Bartlett High School renovation project. So, as we completed phase one, one of the procedural things that we need to do is complete a certificate of substantial completion. And in our case, it was a partial certificate because the auditorium wasn't done. So, I'm happy to report that that has been signed off on what we needed to execute in order to get that completed. Was a no cost change order to change the date of completion to the Friday at the end of April break. And you may ask, well, why was that important?
044That is needed because that's when it was actually completed, but that's when the warranties then kick off on many of those items. So, once we got that executed, the GC signed off on that. So, we're happy to have that um taken care of. I will also mention that with respect to phase one, they have been actively working on all of the punch list items from that phase, we are approaching Friday. Friday will be their targeted completion date. There may be a couple remnant items that will roll into um August, but the majority of those punch list items have been completed. We are waiting to see what is going to remain and what's going to roll into um August. The other key activity that's going on and that has just started, I believe I brought this
045up in the past, but if I haven't, I'm going to give you a brief update on this and it's called the window lentil remediation. So, one of the things that was discovered when we were doing performance testing on the windows and specifically new windows and existing openings, this particular issue did not apply to new windows and brand new openings. And what was discovered is that what was implemented in the field back in the 1970s is not what was on the asbuilt drawings that we have. And what was discovered as a result of that testing failing is that the lintils did not have the expected end dams in there to help with the water drainage. Now, that hasn't been a substantial issue for us over the years because we have concrete masonry walls in that section,
046or at least we previously did. Now we have drywall. And so after much consultation um with the state about how we would approach abatement, we did get sign off from the state on the plan and we are moving forward with that remediation and section C has begun. Um the first step in that process is the uh subcontractor for the brick is taking the brick down so that they can go in there and appropriately remediate that following the appropriate abatement plan um and what's been approved by the state. So that is in progress. What is coming up next is some projected costs for what it will take to do remediation that's expected in section B and section C. Let me just pause there. See if there's any questions. Okay. The other one which is the one
047we've been waiting for is an update on the auditorium. As you may recall, the auditorium was not completed with phase one. It was unable to be completed because the steel connections within that area um did not um align with the delegated design that the steel subcontractor had submitted. What we were expecting to see was bolted connections on those connect um steel connections. Instead, it was welded. So the approach that the subcontractor and the GC originally took was to do the least invasive approach to remediate this which meant that their engineer was doing a whole bunch of calculations. Uh the engineer was not able to get those calculations to prove out. They kind of hit a bit of a brick wall with that. Um and so what was decided was that the GC was going to
048pay the architect of record and that engineer to actually do those calculations on behalf of the steel subcontractor. So they were paying for that work effort. Um and good news is is that uh the majority of the steel connections have been able to be passed through the calculations with the exception of four connections. Um so there are four connections that do need to be remediated. Uh they are working on the schedule and mobilizing to get those connections completed. So it is looking highly hopeful that the auditorium will be open by the start of school. So that is good news. Any questions? >> My fingers and toes are crossed. >> That nothing changes with that status and another unforeseen condition shows up. >> Good news that we're moving forward continuing that progress and it's good thing
049that we are checking those calculations. So >> yeah, it was really important. I mean ultimately what was happening is that those connections needed to be checked not just for the specific connection itself but what was the impact on the overall building, right? And that's what the architect of record really needed to make sure was going to not cause us any long-term issues within the building. And then as it relates to phase two, uh demolition is nearing completion. There's still a little bit of work going on the roof. Um but they have started with the footings as well as the rough plumbing and electrical for phase two. And you'll see there's still a lot of activity that's going on outside of the district office with the site work. um laying that uh roadway which will be
050in the future the prek drop off and the bus loop for prek and then you'll see some of the sidewalks they actually have the rebar down now they'll be pouring the concrete over that um so they're laying out some of those sidewalks as well so uh continue to move forward and actually if you go around the campus there was some additional um landscaping that had been um planted as well so looking really good coming in really nice um so we're really happy at the progress that's been being made. All right, let me move on to some yearend activities. So, the business office has been very busy um with preparing the year-end activities to close out. Um the one area I want to highlight is the special education transportation. Uh earlier this year, I think sometime
051around January, we were projecting that we were going to have a deficit in our transportation budget. Um I'm happy to report that that deficit is not as much as we were projecting. Now we projected worst case scenario based on everything that was going on. Um and as it turns out, I'm very happy to report that despite the fact that uh we did have an article on the town meeting. Um and we are very grateful to the town for supporting that. We are not going to need to execute that um spending on the town meeting. So all of that will get released back to the town. We had an article that uh was approving up to $400,000 worth of potential additional expenses. Um so we were projecting a number close to $900,000. Uh it was just
052shy of 900,000 and we came in at about $577,000. So we did put a budget freeze on earlier in the year. That budget freeze along with a couple tuitions releasing because you know changes with students. And I guess you'll ask, well, how did we come in so much less than that projection, things change as the superintendent was saying, either placements change, kids move out of the district, students change, and that transportation need is no longer there. So, um, really happy to report that we were able to cover that in the LEA budget. And then with respect to closing activities, the work that we do as we close out the year is really focused on um paying all outstanding invoices, making sure that um everything is accounted for if we haven't received the invoice so that
053we're encumbering the appropriate money in the budget so that if those invoices come in late that we can pay that out. We also do a thorough review of our grants to make sure that everything that we expected um to hit hit in the appropriate accounts, right? So, we have some salaries that ended up hitting some grants. So, we do a thorough review of all of that to make sure that we're on track. And so, we're continuing with all of those activities and uh looking to give the go- ahead to the town accountant hopefully within the next week or so um that we're in good shape and that uh activities to roll into fiscal year 26 can occur. So, it's a busy time. Um, keeping everyone else busy with with all the followup that we do
054in all the departments to make sure that they've submitted everything, nothing is outstanding, that everything that they expect to be submitted is in. Any questions >> through the chair? >> Member Miller. >> I just have a comment because I can't keep quiet about it. I hope everybody involved with the renovation understands the disappointment and that people are not happy with how this has dragged out with the auditorium be it shouldn't have gone on this long and how it has number one affected our students. It shouldn't have happened if people can't get together and figure this out in a timely manner because the date kept changing. I don't consider this a timely manner and I my opinion is I hope they understand that we are not happy about it. >> I'm not happy. >> I think
055they understand. >> I can't I'm not speaking for the committee. >> I am not happy about it. Mhm. I I I I think we have made it loud and clear how unhappy we were actually back back to April when we knew that it wasn't going to clear and how unhappy we have been um and we have been pushing for this remediation. In fact, one of the pushes that we gave was can we put this back to the architect to do like why do we continue to have the steel subcontractor struggle with what they're doing? What else can we do? So that was a lot at urging collectively from our OPM as well as us pushing and um essentially demanding that it needed to be done before the start of the school that we could not
056start this school year without this um being completed. >> And and and the path that we took was not actually it was a path that we took knowing that the full team didn't agree on it, but we knew it was the fastest way to get it done. So, we made a decision to go forward knowing that our internal team was not in agreement with that, but we wanted to prioritize what our staff and what our students need. We sat in a meeting and you know, I clearly stated in that meeting, you're not the ones that have to look at our kids and tell our kids and the disappointment on our seniors faces who didn't get to sit in the auditorium before they left for the school year. I said, "We're making false promises and it's
057unacceptable." So, we have told them, both of us, on more than one occasion, how disappointed we are that it's gone on this long. Um, it is unacceptable. It is unacceptable. That's all I can say. Um, unfortunately, um, you know, we have to go through the process. we have to go through the work and um we have done everything in our power to try and expedite this um the best that we can, but we are in total agreement with you as far as um your feelings on that because we feel the same way and we have expressed that on more than one occasion to our construction leaders. Well, thank you for what you have been doing and helping to support our students and our staff. >> We are trying very hard every single day. >> Uh,
058Miss Contos, I have a question related to the uh transportation funding that we were we secured from the town that it seems like we're not going to need. Is it premature to release those funds back to the town at this point knowing that the year hasn't started yet and we may have some expensive >> It's for It was for this past fiscal year. >> Oh, it was for last fiscal year. Oh, I see. In the upcoming year and and I do think >> we um substantially increased our special education budget for transportation for next year, right? You know, so it kind of went hand inand this ask for the with the deficit and the additional funding. Um but that was specifically geared towards this 25. So we wouldn't we just don't need it anyway. >>
059Perfect. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Any other questions or comments from the committee? >> No. Okay. Thank you for your updates, Mrs. Ktos. The next item on the agenda under old business is a monthly report on fundraising applications. We have a number of fundraising applications in our packet. As a reminder, it is not the role of the school committee to approve fundraising activities. Those approvals are done at the building level. We simply review them at our meetings. So, we have uh homecoming dance for the class of 2026. PBIS event, the trunk or treat, um that's going to be happening in October. Um butter braids, that's always a community favorite, I think. Class of 2026 is really getting their fundraising activities in very early. Kudos to uh Miss Bett and Miss Bigalow. Uh the holiday
060craft fair, the dodgeball tournament, that's another crowd favorite, I think. The junior and senior prom, the meat raffle, breakfast or brunch with Santa or the Grinch. These are great. Community Bingo, the Egg Hunt. Wow, they're they're going all the way through the year, huh? I love it. Uh, and then we have the uh Grid Iron Club as well in here. So, are there any questions or comments from the committee with regard to the fundraising activities that are happening? All right. All right. Well, thank you to everybody whose um time is being spent on raising funds for our students. We greatly appreciate all of your efforts. And the next item on the agenda is the discussion and approval of an updated Bartlett High School program of studies. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, Miss Neves. >>
061Good evening. Um I just have a couple changes that I had explained that we were going to bring forward once our schedule is approved. And basically that kind of accounts for everything inside that I'm bringing forward now. Um we added a couple things. We added the district's mission into the book that um was left off before. The first big thing that we added was our first goaround with a portrait of a graduate. Um, this sets up all of our staff to help our students look beyond school and what they're going to be doing, whether it be school or the workforce, um, or whatever else they choose. Part of our NEAK review that's happening in December is to come up with this portrait of a graduate. So, we surveyed our staff at the end of the
062school year and everything that's in here was there were ideas from them that we pulled together and um formed these five areas that we'll be working on um throughout the year and I look at it as a working document in some sorts. So, if we do have to tweak it throughout the year next year um we can finalize it between this review and the next review. Um, with the change in schedule, there were some changes that we needed to make due to credits for the students that will begin with the class of 2029. So, in regards to graduation requirements, um, we put the new number of credits that that class will have to earn by the time that they're seniors, and that's 160 credits. Everything else stayed the same. And that's because we're going from
063the book that was before was a non-rotating schedule and this is now the um five period drop block. I mean five period block. Um I updated all of the first. So page five, six, and seven all have to do with that. Page eight had to do with that. Um, page 10 in the book, we updated the dual enrollment to also include early childhood that we hope is coming our way. Um, we've applied for it. This will not be at a cost to the district. This will be us pairing with and our staff eventually helping the college teach these courses. Um, we're not there yet, but we are working on that. So, I put it that it's coming forward that it'll be coming soon. Page 11 again was the change in the credits due to the
064schedule. Um we changed a title from baseline in our courses to say high school courses. So it didn't just say baseline. Um so we changed that throughout. Page 11 again was that dual enrollment piece. Um page 49 that was just a title change. It used to say study support and skills development. We changed it to my cap which is what we're working on throughout the the school already. Um that's my career and academic plan. Again planning helping prepare these students for life beyond college I mean high school whether it be college or the workforce. So we just changed the title um for some of our courses. I mean that where the courses fall under. And the other the only other big change that we did was we added a freshman seminar course. So we're hoping
065to reduce our number of failures um by making some changes in this one being one. Teaching those students that are coming up to us how to be high school students. Um what do credits mean? What is it, you know, study skills needed in a high school versus what they had in the middle school? Really wrapping our freshman tighter. So every freshman will go through this course within the first semester of um the nth grade. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Miss Navvice. Welcome. >> Any questions or comments from the committee regarding the uh changes to the Bartlett High School program of studies? I didn't comment last time about the uh requirement for the personal finance class, but uh it's great news that we have that as a requirement moving forward. and uh happy to
066see some of these updates that you've incorporated as well. Future teachers, lots of lots of good things happening at Bartlett. >> Yes, thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. Uh if there's no other comments or questions, I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh updated Bartlett High School program of studies as presented. >> So moved. Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Miss Navvice, and the whole team. I'm sure that were involved in creating and editing this program of studies. >> Thank you. >> Uh the next item on the agenda under new business is the approval of a fundraising organization, the Grid Iron Club. >> Yeah. So, in your packet, you have a request from the Grid Iron Club to
067be recognized. Uh they need to be recognized annually to fund raise on behalf of the Webster Public Schools. Um, so this is they've been in uh practice now again uh for about I think the last three or four years. They're very active. So um this is for your approval. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from the committee >> hearing? None. I'll entertain a motion to approve the fundraising organization, the Grid Iron Club. >> So move second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? Yes. >> Yes. Motion passes. And thank you to that great group of people that are raising funds as well. >> Absolutely. They put in a lot of time and they do a lot on behalf of our kids here in Webster. So, thank you
068to them. >> The next item on the agenda is the approval of transfer of an L position from Bartlett High School to Park Avenue Elementary School. >> Thank you. So, in the budget for this upcoming year, we had two L positions at the high school. We are looking to move one of those positions over to Park A Elementary due to the numbers. Um, they were using a model at the high school where we were servicing some kids and they were also doing some pushing. Correct. Um, so they are with their numbers at the high school, they have enough support to be able to do the work with one L teacher and we could use the support at the elementary school. So we are looking to move one of those positions from the high school over
069to the elementary for the upcoming school year. >> Thank you for that clarification. Any questions or comments from the committee about this >> hearing? None. I'll entertain a motion to approve this transfer. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Uh Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item in the agenda has to do with some surplus items. >> Uh no, we skipped over the academic interventions. >> Oh, thank you. >> Yep. So, uh, let's move over to that one. Uh, the next item is the discussion and approval of a transfer of an academic interventionist position from Webster Middle School to Park Avenue Elementary School. Yep. So, in the middle school, we had a math uh interventionist that was in the budget all year
070last year that we didn't fill. Um, it was decided that we could move the interventionist over to Park for that early intervention. We could use the academic interventionist there. So, we'd like to move that position just to be an academic interventionist at the elementary school. As you know, we had taken one of those positions also and made it into a behavior coach. So, that'll help supplement that position over there. >> Great. Thank you for the clarification there. Any questions or comments from the committee on this? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the transfer of the academic interventionist position from Webster Middle School to Park Avenue Elementary. >> 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
071agenda is uh the approval of some surplus items. I understand we have some science scales from Webster Middle School and some social studies student edition textbooks from the also from the middle school. >> Yep. These are just outdated items that we've had that we need to dispose of. >> Okay. So, I will entertain a motion to declare surplus items of social studies books and science scales 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? Adamopoulos. >> Yes. >> Millet. >> Yes. Motion passes. And the next item on the agenda is
072a donation in the amount of $173.38 from Jane Molina to the Webster Public Schools. >> Um I haven't seen a letter so I'm not sure what this will Okay. So, it appears that um her mom had passed away and she wanted the money to go to Webster public schools. Um it didn't dictate what use, so it would go into a gift fund and then if there's anything we see appropriate for that, we can um dictate how that fun that funding is used. Um but we, you know, we appreciate the donation and we'd like to say thank you and we're sorry for the loss of her mom. >> I would echo all of those comments. Thank you, Mrs. Pangeli. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to accept
073this donation in the amount of $173.38 from Jane Molina to the Webster Public Schools. >> 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 under the review, transfer, and signing of warrants, bills, payroll, and vouchers is a transfer request in the amount of $9,9569 from the Webster Middle School activities savings account to the checking account. I'll entertain a motion to approve that transfer. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion in a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Motion passes. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire, would you please pull the committee? >> Yes. Meeting adjourned. Good night,
074everyone.