0012025 I will call this meeting of the Webster school committee to order and ask that we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance a pledge Al United States stands naice before we begin I would just like to ask ask for a moment of silence we um had a member of our um Webster School Community pass away recently Julie wch from our um cafeteria and I'd just like to have a moment of silence to remember her the first item on the agenda for tonight's meeting is the discussion and approval of the minutes from the February 25th 2025 meeting is there any discussion around those minutes hearing none I'll entertain a motion to approve them so moved second there's a motion and a second Desiree would you please pull the committee yes abstain yes yes motion passes and
002the next item on on the agenda is a superintendent report good evening Mrs pangel good evening I hope everybody's doing well tonight uh first thing on the agenda is a Personnel update um I have a retirement announcement uh Miss Kathy nasic is an instructional assistant at parav Elementary uh will be retiring um as of actually I think the date is already passed um we received notice so yep oh sorry I'll speak up um we also have a new hire Miss taret she is a special education teacher at Bartlett High School uh we have no new resignations at this time and no transfers at this time um below is a list of vacancies that we continue to carry across the district any questions about Personnel no okay um under instructional update on Tuesday March 4th and
003Wednesday March 5th uh the central office team along with our building principles attended a virtual um instructional prioritization from 9: to 2:30 uh this is an opportunity for our team to collaborate and be guided through our process with a facilitator to prepare our instructional priority for next year um we had done some pre-work ahead of the prioritization looking at different data sources um across Webster um and then we work with our team to develop the priority for FY 26 uh we still have some work to do and we hope to finish it at our next dealt meeting um tomorrow I believe it is tomorrow morning uh we will continue the work and um hopefully finalize some of some of the work as you know this this is planning for next year we're already uh looking
004ahead and um reflecting back what worked this year what didn't work what do we need to tweak and and how can we continue to clarify and simplify the work that we have moving forward um uh the dilt team also conducted walkthroughs on February 27th and we have additional walkthroughs coming up on March 13th and then this Friday on March 14th is a district-wide professional development day so there is no school for students I'm sure they're very disappointed and um I'm not excited about the long weekend at all um but I think they'll survive um and hang in there until Monday uh is there any questions about the instructional update no uh also in your packet uh you will have the southern Wester County Educational collaborative annual report um we are required by law to share
005that report uh with the school committee we don't have to go through it in detail uh we need to show that we've delivered the report and that you have it um for your review um if you have any questions in regards to that please let me know and I can forward them over to the director and we will get you any answers but those that is in your packet for your review and then in other updates uh Lisa and I will be participating in an msba assessment um because there is never enough fun going on around here uh the msba reached out um and they will be looking at uh other facilities across our district so they are reviewing Park F and Webster Middle School um they will be participating in a 2 and a
006half hour virtual session with us there was a board tab questionnaire that needed to be filled out um that is getting completed um we will be doing that on March 13 and then they will have a site visit on March 20th where they will visit parav and Webster Middle School um the msba has engaged the company STV Incorporated to conduct this this is a Statewide survey they do it across the state um it's it's a way to evaluate and support the ongoing needs of uh school districts acoss Ross the state so we will be working on that um in addition to the annual report which I shared uh few moments ago in your packet you have a copy of the quarter 2 report for southern Wier County also um so that is there for you
007to review and then I'm also happy to report that Bartlett recently has been awarded a grant in the amount of 21,900 from the 18 Foundation uh for the Project Lead the Way High School biomedical science program this will cover training for staff and durable equipment like a micro centrifuge and a classroom thermal cylinder uh cycler I'm sorry cycler um and other items this is does anybody know what a thermal cycler is it's for DNA testing I looked it up before I came out here um and the central fuse is for the tubes that you can circulate for blood and things like that so um I'd like to thank Michelle big for actively seeking funds to help support the program she is consistently applying for Grants receiving grants and looking for ways to um add add
008material in that program to enhance it so I thank her for her hard work in that effort and in addition to the one 18 Grant uh we were also awarded the U promoting safe and healthy learning environments um Dr mcki is here to speak to that Grant so as you can see we are constantly looking for ways to bring in additional funds for these so um Addie you want to take it away um this is fund one two fund code 128 promoting health and safety learning environments and there were six or seven options that we could choose from we could only choose one um all related to like mental health student voice um uh and and creating opportunities additional opportunities for students so we chose to apply to the option A which which was to
009create uh an so we already started internships more than we've seen in the past and so there was an opportunity to have uh student internships for the 21st century program after school so if you remember we used to have a club after school called future teachers and so for students that are interested in education instead of it being a club we are offering um we are offering them opportunities to be intern in the after school program so it doesn't take away from their school day um and uh it facilitates their transportation because they can hop on the bus and go to Park Avenue and and be the interns at Park Avenue and they get paid to be interns um that's what this grant will do um in conjunction with that we are creating a future
010teachers class so it's not yet and Mrs N will talk about it not yet we'll be coming back for approval of a of a new class but um we just got awarded the grant so we weren't in time for for for it to be included in there and we have to develop it quite a bit but um we'll be creating a class for students that are going to be selected as the interns and that'll be an elective for them and um they'll be provided with ongoing training because part of the grant requirements is like how are you going to train the interns and provide ongoing supervision and support um they'll have training in on topics such as professional boundaries um first aid lesson planning communication skills interview and resume writing classroom behavior management protocols School
011emergency responses and because it's affiliated with 21st century they'll also have a a student mini course on Project based learning um in addition to that there'll be an orientation to Park Avenue introducing who the medical personnel are who the admins are um prior to starting and then they'll be training for the Educators who receive an intern so that we understand like the role of the intern the role of the staff member receiving an intern um and then we're appointing a coordinator to coordinate all these activities to monitor to um do site visits to troubleshoot if there are any things happening like you know um any any difficulties that come up um and in the class the students will also be keeping a journal about the successes and challenges of um of this we also thought
012that we could invite as we're developing we could invite guest speakers not just teachers but the education profession includes a myriad of professions like my former profession like social work or counseling OT PT speech there's all kinds of you know Behavior Support Personnel that we could um expose students to a variety of educational opportunities they don't have to be locked into like a pathway it's not a pathway they don't have to be locked into a pathway but if they would like to explore a career path in education this would be a great way for them to be able to do that the grant total is 60,000 and that will provide the typen for the coordinator as well as the student the student salaries which is a great opportunity so we're we're very excited to be
013able to expand this idea and create yet an additional opportunity for students um in a more comprehensive way for those students that are potentially interested in education and um where they get a paid internship so that's the that we're very excited about this new opportunity this will take place in the summer so summer programming for past um 21st century and school year of next year so we'll be recruiting current Juniors awesome I don't know if there's any questions about that that sounds great great to hear it happening it's another great opportunity for an internship for kids to see a taste of the it's not such a real world but it is a real world because it's even though it's a school environment they're in these um leadership roles so that's great do you want to
014continue on and do the vacation Camp yeah as at our last meeting I said uh Dr McKai would be here at this meeting to update you on the February vacation Camp so if you want to get that up sure um over February vacation we had 24 students attend the February vacation camp at Webster Middle School um a little shorter little smaller number than we would like have liked to have seen but we condensed everything and made it Ela Focus because there weren't enough students to do Ela Math and Science um at that time or the student selection the school analyzed the data and chose like which standards need the most reinforcing and created lessons around reinforcing those standards chose the students um and and then the students received accelerated instruction throughout the week and so
015the four days of camp and um also participated in projects some of the project ideas it's just I just think that these are really fun to make it like fun February February vacation um some of the projects and they were mostly writing projects like research and writing to go along with the ELA standards um how to throw a football in a spiral jewelry making how to organize like somebody organized the classroom like how to organize the classroom and they had to list out the step by steps and defend their ideas um braiding hair in five steps making sour candy um how to fix a race car how to shoot a basketball and then one group um created vacation Camp project Journal so they wrote their own book um they Illustrated they were they they were
016extremely well done when I walked around kids were engaged and happy to be there I didn't see any kids that were like moaning and groaning for being there over February vacation um which meant or indicated to us that what was actually happening was engaging them and they were happy to be there uh the students that were there so because we only have the focus of ela during February vacation we're are also offering a camp during April vacation and we are considering focusing on math and science and maybe doing like a math and science academy and hoping that that will create a different kind of buzz around that um we were not able to offer a program at the high school um but we've decided for April that kind of a continuation of Saturday school that
017we will offer a different funding source so it won't be the the targeted the acceleration grant that is paying for the acceleration Academy but a different funding will fund um teachers to supervise students to continue helping students finish the work that they owe so that we can get as many kids to the Finish Line um and so I've just been given the first draft of the students to potentially reach out to for that so we're not leaving the high school behind with us so um again we're excited to have these opportunities to help our kids get there thank you thank you lots of good work going on and we are doing everything possible as a district um to support our students and to help accelerate learning across um on March 11th so today and tomorrow
018um some high school students and teachers will be attending the parochial schools to present the E uh to the eighth grade students all the wonderful offerings at Bartlett High School uh it's an opportunity to show off what we can do for the eighth grade students that will be um moving on from the private school so we're excited about about that um this past Sunday um I was excited to be invited to the grid iron banquet to celebrate the football players who had a great season um I want to thank all the organizations and parents who support our students to make all these events possible it's really wonderful to see the kids shine and dress up and be happy to be supported and enjoy those events um so I want to thank everybody who makes those
019uh a possibility for our kids uh this week coming up on Thursday I will be attending the CMC board meeting in wiester on in the morning on the 13th and then uh last night Miss Kos and I were asked to attend the selectman meetings to discuss um special education across the district as you know we're seeing a Rise um in tuitions rise in transportation so they just invited us there to speak a little bit about that um to get a better understanding what's happening with special education across the state we know it's just not a Webster problem it's a bigger issue across the state and many school districts um are struggling to keep up with the cost uh surrounding special education um and that's all I have for you tonight under my report are there
020any questions no thank you thank you Mrs pringley the next item on the agenda is the business manager report good evening Mrs Kos good evening evening everyone going to start with giving you updates on the renovation project we are now in the final path to substantial completion for phase one so this is truly critical path activities are going on now to get to April 12th which is the targeted substantial completion date um to get there there's things that still need to be buttoned up so I want to just give you a report of either what's been completed or what's outstanding in certain areas um in the kitchen I'm happy a report that um everything is essentially completed with the exception of some final connections of the equipment in the kitchen as well as moving one
021of our um comi ovens and then a kettle um that'll move um just the week before the move they get the bfold doors in everything's there it looks really good um in the basement everything is completed in the basement with the exception of the lockers they're expecting the lockers to be coming in in and installed within the next 3 weeks but uh we walk through today we saw all the tile up toilet sinks everything's in it looks really good um on the first floor they're completing some of the ceiling grids as well as putting up all the wood paneling so um you may recall when you did your tour through the cafeteria there are areas within that cafeteria and that dining area that will be getting wood paneling and they've begun to put that up
022um I wish I had time this afternoon to put together a slideshow and I didn't get there so I apologize olizee but I did take pictures and if you want to see them on my camera before you leave tonight I will show them to you uh they're completing the bathrooms and installing all the partitions um and painting the walls there in the second floor um I'd say that's probably the most complete out of all the floors um they're um finishing up a little bit more in the ceiling grid as well as some of the flooring um focusing on a lot of the window sills right now and some remaining tiles uh the auditorium is the area where there's probably the greatest amount of work remaining to be completed so they still need to install the
023chairlift uh they need to get the chairs in start getting that flooring in and they're actively working on that um as we speak so the um stage floor as well as the seating is planned for the third week of March um it it's changing daily weekly you know the the look and feel um is is certainly progressing um it's really coming together so we're really excited I think what the most critical points here is really getting through all of our commissioning getting everything through all the inspections that we need to do and have the Architects do their final reviews so um they do have a pretty um substantial punch list of activities and dependencies that are required to get us to completion we have been still continuing with our move planning we are tentatively targeting
024Communications with parents early April we don't want to do that too prematurely um don't want to jinx ourself right we want to get there um make sure that it's pretty solid but we did get confirmation today from the GC that he's very confident that he will hit that April 12th date so things are moving along um and it's looking really good and as a reminder this is technically in terms of workload 50% of the effort like the big lift was in this section because of all the infrastructure that needed to be put in place so um phases two and three will be easier but we keep hearing it's going to be easy easier than phase one so any questions who the chair I'm just curious how um the cafeteria is going to work are students
025as of in April going to use that new cafeteria when they come back from April break they will be having their um lunch in the new cafeteria very exciting yeah so I it it's going to be change let's let's be realistic it's going to be change in terms of how um students will work across the campus we're going to be working in three separate buildings um so the path in which they travel will be different so they will be moving uh in and out of buildings in addition how they're going to execute lunch is going to be different right the the serving line is going to be different how you return your trades will be different um but I'm pretty confident that it won't take them long to pick up on it I think they're
026all going to be pretty excited when they see the end result it looks really good hard to believe we're five weeks away when we sit down and say that it's it's GNA be here before you know it um and walking through today just to see the change in the building within a week uh or a couple weeks since you've been in the msba was here with us today and they were amazed that you know I kept hearing them say wow this is different from the last time we were here because it's been I think a month since they walked through um so they couldn't believe the change but um you know last time we were through as a team I don't know if the the framing was up but I don't know if all the
027walls were up yet of the windows were in but now we're seeing painted walls and Floors covered and um you can actually visualiz you know the area now when you're in there you see the area you can it's plain and simple you know where the cafeteria is the serving um so it's exciting I can't yeah they were sanding the gym floor today as well when we were in there so we saw the brand new gym floor down that's being sanded um we're just finalizing all the graphics for the floor right now so just finalizing the size the font what it's going to look like so working through those final details before they come in and do the graphics the auditorium was pretty well um I mean the chairs still need to be in of course
028but they have all the catwalk stuff up it's uh a lot of the wi iring going through the ceiling painting um you can stand on the stage and the control Booth is finished so uh it's come a long way it really has it's exciting it's been a long road and we're really happy to see the light at the end of the first tunnel all right moving on in my updates um on maintenance updates I had previously reported about some uh leaks that we had in section A and we had remediated those with more short-term type of solutions that certainly did not hold we had significant leaking um in section A in the hallway as well as multiple classrooms we did hire a roofing company that came out immediately when um the water was coming into
029the building um they did a lot of patching up on the roof um what we did discover is that a patch that was probably done you know it's well before my time but many years ago there were very small cracks in that patch that needed to be repatched we found some other um small areas and small cracks Up on the Roof by the penthouse itself that needed to be repaired um and then there was a spot over the library um that also got repaired um certainly when we went up on the roof I think the part that was surprising is that it was it was there was nothing up there there was no snow there was nothing there um so what they believe happened was through those small cracks two different layers of the roof
030that had got under there sort of spread out and then leaked down once it finally got to its destination so that has been remediated um when I did my report we had two rainy days and we made it through those two rainy days without any leaks so it's going to hold up another year so please keep your fingers crossed I'm also happy to report and hopefully I'm not stealing any of your thunder when you talk about it but the bleaches are officially in at Park AV I had reported we are slightly delayed due to some challenges from the uh company rep from getting out here but they are in they look very good and I know that the administration at Park AV is very excited because now when they hold assemblies with the full school
031um or even having parents in there is a place to assemble besides the cafeteria with seating that works much better for those types of functions so really happy that we have that completed were the kids Happy yeah well they haven't been on yeah so they're curious yeah I just through the chair remember just a comment on that I met a little kindergartener at the library um two weeks ago now it was and he was very excited about the bleachers um I won't say his name because I don't know if I can say like but he was very excited and I'll I'll talk to you later about it too great yeah so it is exciting pictures are for you in your packet if you didn't get a chance to take a look at it um show
032showing them to you open so that you can see what it looks like I think we calculated I think we can fit about 420 I think is what we can fit in the bleachers so yeah this you know unfortunately the foot the the footprint that we had for that location to put the school up didn't have enough space for a very large gym in there um which is why it's pretty condensed so we do recognize that we can while basketball games Could Happen only one set of the bleach bleaches could be partially opened right because they do go over the line uh but we did compromise with that because it was more important for the assemblies than it really was for basketball games any questions um and in other updates what I did want to
033make you aware of we um spoke a few weeks ago about our projection for our fiscal year 26 special education as well as regular education Transportation um so for two years we're now seeing another deficit this year with special education Transportation at this point I'm projecting a deficit of $786,000 as a result of that we've done some analysis and we've placed a hard freeze on the budget right now only for Necessities so that we can cover those expenses with our Lea budget um by suspending some spending um as well as because of some vacancies that we had and some grant funding earlier this year we feel confident that we'll be able to cover this deficit in the laa budget any questions what I will share is that when we look at the historicals um for
034last year with the deficit as well as what we're seeing this year I'm very confident in the numbers that we put forward for the projection for fiscal year 26 for the special education Transportation assuming we don't have any new movein that require Transportation or um new internal students that get placed on IEP that require out a district placement so is there additional buses or any additional buses at this point correct CRA yep it's a moving Target for sure so y okay thank you for your updates any questions or comments from the committee from Mrs contos all right well once again thank you and the next item on the agenda is our principal report and joining us is Miss Amy PFO from parav good evening good evening all right so um I'm going to start with
035events we've had quite a few events both PTO and school-based events um taking us back to February we did have our Winter Carnival um that includes games dancing Sports um face painting snacks it's always a great a great event with families coming and going throughout the day we we also so uh also in February our school leadership committee um sponsored medieval manners manners maybe you saw it in the paper uh they decorated the um the cafeteria with a real focus on um cafeteria manners so it's a nice little play on words the kids had fun and the cafeteria created a nice special um chicken we leg meal kind of in that that medieval manor style uh We've also had several student of the month um breakfasts which are always successful we've added the additional benefit
036that the students get a special lunch table up on the stage and staff serve them as a as an additional so we decorate with a tablecloth and um nice plates and make it additionally special for our students of the month uh this um past Friday our PTO sponsored cookies and canvas which did sell out again um a big thank you to Kalen desano our art teacher for leading it um so it's a paint night um that includes cookies and it's a family event for um an adult and a child to paint together our uh Girls on the Run has started it is up and running so they will be running running again uh this spring big thank you to um Central breaker and control for their generous donation which um allows us to really supplement
037a lot of the students as well as coaches and transportation so um that was a great uh great donation to be able to keep the program running and have three coaches so when a coach has to be absent we always have that backup person as well and Real Madrid soccer uh will begin this month so that's in um in partnership with mafre Foundation um so that will begin this month we are currently running registrations and we have about um 41 current registrations so that's getting just about to our limit for two coaches so we're excited to get that running always successful coming up our mcast begins April 7th with our Ela mcast and I'm sure you all are aware that we have our community reader day um I do understand the invitations were sent out
038to all members and uh we did move away from the read Across America and um for a couple reasons and we are now calling it celebrating community and diversity so all of the books that we're reading will be celebrating diversity I also wanted to give an update on attendance so our chronic absentee um absenteeism rate at Park AV is down 8% from where it was last year so we are improving on our chronic absentee rate still not where we want it to be uh additionally our tardies are down by 22% percentage points from where we were last year uh our daily attendance rate our average s attendance rate did fall below last year's rates for the first time in February we had a lot of illness um felt like a steady stream of students heading
039out of the nurse's office um during February so we did a dip below but other than that our daily attendance rate has been above last year's each month we're currently holding attendance meetings with counselors family engagement and administration for um students who are reaching that chronic absentee rate we have held 18 so far and the meetings are really to work in partnership with families to um understand if there's any issues any transportation issues um situations at school that are preventing them from coming how can we support how can we help uh that's really our our goal is to support families in getting their children to school um a big piece is helping families understand what level of sickness they can still come to school we all have our kids that wake up and they're sick
040um but there are certain levels of ill that um mean stay home from school and there's other levels of maybe Malay that they can still come to school and should come to school so it's a it is a balance and I can remember having those same questions when my child was young trying to figure out when is right to send send and when is right to keep come home but um we're we're trying to help support families with some real information in that area uh open architect has been a great resource to be able to track attendance in real time um it updates to the day prior so I can get real time um percentages and be able to keep families informed of that so being able to reach out to families as soon as
041they start getting close to you know a certain percentage um and be able to keep them informed with that so it's a great um tool and teachers are also making regular contact with families um I'm a to keep them updated on on numbers and so teachers are also making regular contact with families just to say Hey you know we've missed so and so anything we can help with in again in that supportive mode and yes I was going to talk about the bleachers but I also knew that Lisa was going to talk about them because um she sent over a request for pictures so I said I know what that's for um but yes a big thanks to ardan uh Matt for initiating and really wanting to bring these in um he's all about Community
042within the building and this was a a way that he really saw being able to bring all of the students together um he's already done that with a lot of assemblies bringing the kids in but it is tight in there when the kids are all on the floor but we can do it and now we're going to be able to do it even better so thank you to Lisa for really making it happen really being on top of it and um helping us figure out all the logistics and and making it a reality so we will be holding um not only assemblies that where we bring people in but um schoolwide and grade wide Community meetings we'll be having our first one uh this month which will be sponsored by grade four and uh facilitate
043by our student leadership team so we'll be able to do PBIS celebrations um modeling of appropriate behavior and just an overall building of community from prek all the way up to four which um we don't often get to do that and that is all I have thank you Miss piao what sounds like lots of great things going on at parv as usual any questions or comments from the committee remember I'll just comment I went to the winter carnival and you saw how happy we were it was a great event um all the games were so much fun there was so much to do um I mean I mean I brought my littlest was nine months and he was calling around in the gym so it was just an awesome awesome morning event with everybody at
044Park app it was great yeah I'd also like to shout out a lot of the volunteers we get from um the high school and middle school uh as you saw we had a lot of a lot of our kids from the high school and middle school running those games and we wouldn't be able to do it we'd never get that many volunteers without them um coming so we're really thankful and the prizes were you crushed it so many good prizes I still hear the horns in the house I was going to ask if you ended up with a horn and I'm sorry got plenty one wanted one so we had to get two and they are still very much used great today great lots of great things happening I miss I miss the uh Carnival
045but I had a representative they running a game right um so once again thank you for your updates and all the good things going on there I actually got to see the bleachers in person um one one of my kids was doing uh footall over the weekend um they look great they were folded up but they look great they look like they belong and I had a hard time imagining them looking like they were you know they were sort of part of the the plan all along but they really look great yeah yeah and I'm excited especially for the ones that are kind of set back in for basketball we'll be able to pull those out um on the other side they're they're right up to the line so those can't really come out but
046um we'll be able to use the other side for for um thinking like the weekend sports teams that use the use the gym and whatnot so sure yeah great all right uh the next item on the agenda is our update from our student representative good evening hope good evening I'm going to start with my updates I have only a few and I I have that we had the seal by literacy test which held last week um the third and the fourth we also had our student council that went on their annual masc field trip to Cap Cod and then we also had the selected Deca members attended States in Boston this past uh few weeks ago I think um then we have the senior overnight details that have been sent out in this letter as
047well as different opportunities for volunteers and fundraising for that and then for upcoming events we have that Saturday school was held this past Saturday and I think I'm not sure when the next one is I think it's this Saturday this Saturday um then we had we need two more we have that we needed two more students for the school council um which is which consists of principals parents and students we also have the poetry contest for spanishs speaking students is still open um again more details are found in Miss nevis's we letter um we also have that the Varsity Softball is selling T-shirts um these t-shirts say it's Indians game day and they're $15 a piece I actually have an order form with me um and it's just for any sport or BART to support
048Bartlett essentially um we have the mcast information night which will be held tomorrow March 12th and then we have the PBIS egg hunt which will be held April 13th from 9 to 11 for Bartlett students and more details are on more details soon for students and that's all I have that's a lot lots happening over at Bartlet too huh have you started your countdown yet not yet um a little bit a little bit a little bit it's it's getting there yeah it's going fast isn't it it is that's it feels like we just started school still so it's kind of a little freaky right now but yeah yeah great well thank you for your updates um and you you said you have an order form for the t-shirts all right so yeah you want to
049pass that around or something sounds good um any other questions or comments for hope all right well thanks again thank you and the next item on the agenda under old business is a monthly report on fundraising applications I did see some in our packet um just as a reminder it is the role of the school committee to review fundraising activities but we don't approve them those are done at the building level there's a bunch of them in here uh Mrs Pang anything that you want to highlight or you think we're we're all good here some book fair okay we have the PTO s on here PTO spring Book Fair coming up we have St Patrick coin War at the high school grades 9 through 12 this is all at the high school coming up uh
050the softball program like pop said is selling T-shirts um this sweet treat delivery service they're selling Whoopi pies cookies and brownies that is not a bad thing and we have the class of 2025 who are selling Junior and senior prom tickets right and then we have the PBIS egg hunt and continental breakfast and raffle tickets um and then at the middle school we have the band in chorus who are selling candy bars to raise money so I think there's a sweet toin a few of these events um going through but a lot going on and we appreciate everybody who's always willing to purchase and donate um to our students to make all of these wonderful things happen so it's much appreciated great thank you um and then the next item on the agenda is an
051update on the FY 26 budget y just a brief update just to remind everyone that our public hearing is on April 8th and that announcement has been sent to the Stonebridge press to get published into the Webster times um and we'll all meeting be meeting as a group uh this Thursday to do our budget workshops as well so no other updates other than to make sure that the public hearing is on your calendar as well as on the public if they're listening thank you and that's our next our our scheduled meeting scheduled meeting yeah thank you okay thank you for those updates and then the next item on the agenda we have some donations um four of them the first is a $5,000 donation from the Fels family to the sports Department Mrs pringley did
052you want to talk about that or um uh we want to thank the Fels uh for Their donation um again we are asking the school committee to accept the $5,000 donation um Miss Fels actually put a nice little note in there that she saw a picture of the kids um in the paper and that she felt like she wanted to give to the athletic program self Sports so we appreciate them thank you so much that's great much appreciated um I'm going to outline each of these donations and we'll take an Acceptance in one motion okay that's fine the next uh donation is $5,000 from Central breaker and control to the girls on the run at Park Avenue Elementary uh I think Miss plea already mentioned that's a donation to supplement the program have more girls
053and coaches as part of that and transportation did you say um that weets all great thanks and then the uh the next donation is 100 boxes of tissues to park AV from the Worcester County Sheriff Lou evangel's office and 20 random acts of kindness bags to Park Avenue from Wester County Sheriff Lou evangelist's office U Mrs prle anything you wanted to say about any of those I just want to thank everybody for their generosity to the Webster Public Schools great thanks I would like to reiterate that thank you um and is there any questions or comments from the committee with regard to these donations hearing none I'll entertain a motion to accept them so moved second there's a motion and a second desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes yes yes
054motion passes and once again uh thank you to each of these uh groups or individuals for their kindness and generosity the next item on the agenda is the discussion and approval of the Bartlett High School program of studies for school year 25 to 26 good evening Miss neis good evening um we updated our book there are a lot of changes to the look um just made it have a better flow overall so I'll go over some of the big changes that we did um so I'm gonna go with the additions first so I added a a principal's message inside of there we added our PBIS expectations in this book um it's become part of our every day and our notices and everything so that we wanted it everywhere um we've added some charts and Sample
055careers for all of the areas just to make it more kind of eye-catching for when students and families look at it um um we have a lot of horses that um staff have wanted and they're electives to bring a lot of these electives back in um so in the advanced manufacturing we added we we took out the OSHA certification and another certification out of one of the classes and made its class of its own so anyone across the board could take it um whether they're in a pathway or not um we have also added the third pltw course um into the the health and social assistance pathway which is the medical interventions and we added another um elective into the healthcare pathway as well which will bring in first aid CPR dementia care and detect
056together um certifications into the program in English we are using our study sync curriculum but we're going down a little different Road we're going to introduce British literature as a fourth year English and we've added in two electives dystopian and science fiction and horror stories math we wanted to add in a alternative to a fourth year math so we added in an introduction to statistics um right now our only course was Advanced algebra intrig so we wanted to give a choice um we added some we added the honors level to the advanced algebra Intrigue in science same thing we added an honors level as an option and then we added two electives Astron and we introduced biology of illness and disease this past spring and it the kids love it so we're going with it
057for the fall as um an elective in World Language we added in the elective of Spanish for Native American speakers native speakers sorry and then in our music and Performing Arts we added World music history of hip hop and rap and theater one and two as well and the um the course that Patty had spoke about we are putting back in Future teachers I do have a description that touched upon what um Patty said but that's in the making um as we come up with the specifics we'll come back in front of you to to let you know what that is um we took out in our pathway for healthcare and social assistance three courses right now um that are dual enrollment courses and it's not that we're not doing them we have to explore
058more with the colleges and depends on budget as well last year we were able to fund that with a grant so we are looking at ways to bring that dual enrollment those dual enrollment classes across the board back in um but right now they are um not here to replace with the medical interventions as the third path uh third class um the AP they can take the AP CM the bio and the psych um it's just not listed under the pathway section it's listed under the science section but they're listed as Alternatives and due to the low enrollment or no enrollment for the last couple of years we have taken out medical business Spanish um and the other Spanish class which was the intro to Spanish and Latin American Film English language arts in math
059we have we're going to do targeted remediation within either home room or wind blocks um so we've taken those remediated courses out of the the schedule on here giving the students more opportunities to take other electives and music and Performing Arts we have taken out musicianship lab and history of modern American music and replaced them with the others um that they propos there's some changes I don't know if you have any questions on the changes I don't know if you want me to go through every one of them um and we're in this book we are in the process of forming a vision of a graduate in place of the 21st century and we're doing that in line with our um Nas self assessment so as soon as we get that piece we'll bring that
060in front of you as well all I have great thank you sounds like a lot of a lot of changes based on you know uh the desires of the students and enrollment and that type of thing great um are you looking for approval tonight or do you want to wait until you want this part appr so we can continue with our course selections we have gone to the one pario school today we have another one tomorrow and the middle school tomorrow to talk about the courses um that may be there and we've had our first meeting with our freshman class just to introduce the scheduling process so we would like to jump in if this is approved to start them let them go into the computer and start looking at the courses that they have
061and that they can take sure that Mak sense remember at Anapolis before we print all these out is there just we change the first page just to have the proper year version I think says 24 25 before we make them thank you Minor Details uh any other uh questions or comments from the committee hearing none I will entertain a motion to approve the uh courses that have outlined in the program of studies as presented so moved second there's a motion in a second desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes motion passes thanks for all the work I know undoubtedly it was a team effort um but thank you to all of you that worked on this and for bringing it to us and for bringing it to the to the rising
062nth graders too thank you yeah you're welcome thank you the next item on the agenda is the discussion and approval of the Bartlett High School mcast competency determination so we sat as a team and we looked at all the guidelines from you know and the samples and the examples from the state and other schools and we've come up with our version that we would like to present um we are looking at so beginning with the class of 2025 in order to graduate and earn a high school diploma from Webster Public Schools each student must earn a total of 120 credits and receive competency determination and we are looking at these three things so in English language arts if they have not passed the test we are looking at full credits earned in the equivalent of
063at least two years of English being English one or its equivalent and English two as it's or its equivalent in math full credits earned in the equivalent of at least two years of math Algebra 1 or equivalent in Geometry or its equivalent and then science full credits earned in one science course at the high school level and um that can be in physics biology chemistry or a tech and engineering course for the students in the class of 2026 and Beyond as long as there's no changes in the law or new guidance from Desi we recommend certifying courses counting towards the Bartlet High School graduation requirement in math English and science for the purposes of obtaining a CD we wrote that for any students that we are aware of in the classes of 24 and earlier
064who did not attain a compens determination that will offer a path on how they can um receive that determination per the updated statute and that would include a transcript review um to determine you know where they were at and what they may need um if this is approved we will post this so students and families are notified that they can um you know for prior years can come back and ask for that review and we recommend that well all students still need to take the test um and they're still eligible if they want to they just have to let us know if they still want to take it if they have not passed it so as soon as this approved we will communicate these changes and expectations to all students staff and families and District
065stakeholders and make the information publicly available in multiple languages that great any questions or comments from the committee about this I do have some data if you want to hear a little bit we had um currently in this class 13 students that hadn't met the CD and if this goes through 12 of those have already met that competency um we have one that should meet meet it by the end of the year um so that'll be all 13 of those students that hadn't passed the mcast with competency and then we looked back to the class of 2024 also and we had six students um five of which would meet the CD requirements as is and one that would have to do a little bit more um and we've had one parent reach out um regarding
066a student that did not U meet the requirements three years ago um and if this goes through as is he would have met M as well great how does this compare with other other districts have we have we looked into that it sounds like you have already right yes it's very similar y they've been sharing um sheats across the state for um from all districts and we have a shared folder so we went in we looked at other districts we compared um they're pretty much all doing the same thing as you know we have to meet the standards um that were in the 2023 um mcast so this aligns with meeting those standards okay yeah and I didn't catch this when I originally reviewed this document but the first paragraph on the second page I
067would recommend that we just change that to Bartlett High School will notify students and and just remove most of that first sentence just for readability and and it it goes in line with the language throughout the rest of it that what we will do okay does that work yep thank you sure uh if there's no other discussion about the document I'll entertain a motion to approve it with that uh revision so moved second there's a motion and a second desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes motion passes thank you thank you the next item on the agenda is the discussion of a fy2 school calendar change that's me as well um we are looking to for the sake of this year only um change our third night for our teachers after
068school um from the second semester parent conferences to have them attend graduation um again just for this year we had set it up originally thinking that with the block scheduling it would be similar to what it was last year um which were semester-based courses so we had an parent conference on both ends and um it ended up with full year courses so it would be visiting the same teachers again okay if there are parents out there that were not able I I understand that conferences are not overly well attended at the high school level but if there are parents that missed the opportunity to go originally thinking that they're going to catch it you know um later on in the year do we have any any ideas in place for how they'll be able to
069connect with the teachers well I will have our teachers reach out in addition to my changing this but as well let them know that they will they can call any time to set up a meeting with their their students whether it's during the day or after school perfect okay great thanks any other questions or comments from the committee about this change in the uh school calendar through the chair memb corg so just to clarify no spring conferences we're going to graduation instead correct the high school yeah at the high school all right so I will entertain a motion to approve a change in the school calendar being that we will not have parent teacher conferences in the the spring at Bartlett High School so moved second there's a motion in a second desire would you
070please pull the committee yes yes yes yes yes motion passes be great to see everybody at graduation thank you and I Rose the next item on the agenda is the review transfer signing of Warren Bills payroll and vouchers e e e I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second there's a motion in a second does would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes yes meeting adjourned good night everyone