001good evening everyone with the time being 6 o'clock P.M on Tuesday February 25th 2025 I will call this meeting of the Webster school committee to order and ask that we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all as a reminder this meeting is being recorded both video and audio and it'll be posted on the district website the first item on the agenda is the review and approval of the minutes from the February 11th 2025 meeting is there any discussion around those minutes hearing none I'll entertain a motion to approve them no mo second there's a motion and a second desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes motion passes
002and the next item on the agenda we're going to go a little bit out of order for those of you that are not aware it's a big night tonight here in Webster um our Bartlett High School basketball team is in a big game tonight and I know hope is a huge fan just like the rest of us but um we want to get you up on the agenda so our next item will be our uh student representative update good evening hope good evening um so I'm going to start off with updates especially because I was not here last meeting so it's a little bit long longer than normal I have that Bartlett had their English um I ready a few weeks ago in their home room we also had Saturday school held February 8th and
003then oh efforts to create a school council are underway um we have seniors have been going doing a Valentine's Day fundraiser this now ended um but they were selling stuffed animals boxes of chocolates and rubber ducks and from what I heard it was very successful we raised a lot of money which is very good because we can use that for our uh senior trip as well as prom um I also we had the national interal actic athletic administrators Association the scholarship um essay application is open for students that are eligible the eligibility is available on Miss nevis's weekly report that goes out to all of the students we also had uh local local scholarships for seniors are also found on this weekly new newsletter by Miss Nez um I I know a few uh last
004week there was a long list so any seniors that are looking to get a little bit more money that is definitely a great way to do so um and then we had the boys VAR City basketball became seata champions this last Thursday I believe and they defeated bensville Christian 52 to 42 and then for upcoming we have there will be a poetry contest for Spanish-speaking students um out of Worcester students can send in their like their poems um the link is also in miss ne's his newsletter um we had the seal by literacy testing is March 3rd and March 4th I believe there was a meeting some point this week for that as well um we have spring Sports signups are out now Mr Pono sent out an email to all students in Bartlett just
005let them know that they can sign up now um this includes softball baseball track um I'm sure I'm missing a few but tennis yes um we also had boys basketball competing in the State game tonight against Brooks Carter um Charter not Carter um we had we have the next upcoming Saturday schools will be March 1 March 8th March 15th and March March 22nd and March 29th um and then finally we have March Madness kicking off next month um National Honor Society is right now we're finalizing our events for that as well as the themes that we're going to do for the month of March every Friday for our spirit at like month essentially and that's all I have for tonight thank you hope those are great updates lot's happening any questions from the committee get
006to that game let us know how things are going we'll try to get there too you're gonna have to te doubly loud until we get there nice to see you drive safely thanks you too at St Joe's all right so the next item on the agenda is a superintendence report good evening Mrs Angie good evening I will be very brief in my report tonight as you know we had a February break last week so it's been a little quiet around here um we're back in the thick of things now um I'll start with a Personnel update uh retirements we have no uh new announcements at this time uh I am happy to say we had a new hire miss a Miss Ariel Gabor uh she is an ABA at parkab elementary um we did have
007one resignation in Erica labar at uh Aba parkab also um below is a list of vacancies I am happy to say that today I did sign on a special ed teacher at the high school Quest so that that was a good one to fill um and I will be bringing that name forward at the next committee meeting um any questions about personel okay under management and operations um negotiations are finally underway uh we had our first meeting with the WEA on February 12th we have about three to four more sessions scheduled um so we look forward to working with that process with the we Union um secondly I did attend that legislative brunch on Thursday the 13th um I was able to drive in with my mentor we met up in Auburn went in was
008able to discuss some things along the way um it was great to be there to meet with our legislators uh we had the opportunity to sit with our State Rep unfortunately um Mr Fatman couldn't be there because they were called into session uh that day the night before so he had a student representative there um for the meeting but it was an opportunity to really um showcase Wier County Area Schools um it was all about Central Mass at that point talk to our legislators talk to them about our concerns concerns you know the number one concern for everybody is the rising cost of special ed um transportation everybody is starting to feel the hitting around communities so that was um the big topic on what we can do to increase our Chapter 70 what kind
009of assistance can our legislators uh give us to help us with our special egg uh growing Special Egg costs so um it was nice to have that conversation with them and then um as you know last week was February uh Camp week U Miss mcki will be here at our next school committee meeting to give a more detailed update on that um as part of the camp there's data collection that needs to happen I can say that you know we had uh about 20 a little more than 20 students attend um and we felt it was very successful uh the day after Camp ended uh this planning went into effect for April Camp um we have a little more time to plan that now and hopefully get a little more robust of a program but
010it was good and that concludes my report thank you Mrs pringley any questions or comments from the committee hearing none the next item on the agenda is our business manager report good evening Mrs Kos even everyone happy to say that we are under two months away from substantial completion on section c of the building so that's really exciting want to highlight some key accomplishments that have happened recently um some of which are on the critical path to completion um most notably is this past Saturday National Grid was here to enable the power in section c um we did have a power outage um on Saturday as well as bringing down all of our equipment so that we would uh be able to bring it back up gracefully but really happy to say that they've been
011able to get that enabled um it's enabled but not turned on yet so that's the next step next activity that happened during school break is we are preparing the former nurse's office to be the main office so a new exterior door um as well as a release on that was installed over the break the other activity that happened during the break which is uh a big one is the concrete wall near the per the temporary egress out of the building was removed so as you recall that was the wall that had the mural of the old Bartlet on it was removed if anyone is listening that contributed to that mural it will get recreated in the building not to worry we do have that planned for Section I think it's going to be in section
012B um and that is planned so that came down so that's a big change as you watch out of the old main office they did put up another temporary wall there right now but um it gives you visibility I left a couple pictures in the packet for you so the other thing that we're working on um is again working on all the move activities across um the the the um key areas that are moving so working on inventories working on the scope of what needs to move we have the movers coming out next week so that they can walk through take a look at everything that needs to move move from the as I mentioned from the kitchen to the library to the storage area that's the Fishbowl right now as well as all of
013the staff and rooms that need to move so lots of work is going on to be prepared for that move we've been pretty busy finalizing keying schedules finalizing signs finalizing graphics for the gym uh getting all of that finalized and approved by everyone that's involved um that's all I have to share at this point I'm sure I'll have another big three- week look ahead for you when we um come together next time but I can tell you that the commissioning officers from our OPM are involved and looking at all of the completion and making sure there's enough time for them to review and sign off any questions thank you Mrs Kos any questions from the committee do have two more updates for you though uh just some general updates um at Park AV um we
014began the installation of the bleachers last week um as a reminder to everyone this was on our fiscal year 25 Capital plan and it was approved at last ma toown meeting uh we had hoped to have all of the bleachers installed last week however the main installer from uh Sheridan bleachers um was not able to get on their flight on Monday from Canada because of the crash then on Tuesday got on a plane had some navigational issues got sent back and did not fly out until Wednesday so the installers worked from Wednesday afternoon all through Saturday got three of the four sets of bleachers fully installed the remaining one um was partially installed and we're hoping that they will be back um on Thursday or Friday I'm waiting for confirmation but it looks really good
015and I'll share pictures at the next meeting and lastly the elevator at Park AV continues to be problematic having had a person for the second time get stuck in the elevator uh luckily it was over school break so uh we are working with the elevator company to get to the bottom of it uh they believe it's some surges that are happening but I don't have confirmation yet until I Circle back and that's all for updates this week all right well thank you once again I'll open it up to the committee for any questions for Mrs Kos looks like there aren't any thank you for your updates certainly very busy with the um windown of the section c project the next item on the agenda is our principal report and joining us this evening is Miss
016Peterson from Webster Middle School good evening good evening everybody um so I wanted to start uh tonight with I ready so as hope had said the high school had done their I ready and so did we um so I wanted to share uh some of our um accomplishments at Webster Middle School in terms of growth and so uh comparing our beginning of the year score to our middle of the Year scores um all of our grades uh raised their percentage in students who are are on or above grade level um in this assessment in both reading and in math um and so I not going to give you all of the percentages but I just want to give you some highlights um in particular um grade seven had the most Improvement in it's going to
017sound opposite because uh students who were two or more grade levels below so two or more grade levels below what seventh grade is um is at the beginning of the year we had 60% of our seventh graders who were at that level in this most recent test in January 47% of our seventh graders are still below grade level but that's a 133% decrease which is a good thing we want that Red Zone to be decreased and the other areas to be increased um our most significant increase was in grade eight for reading um with a 10% increase of students who are on or above grade level at that time um in math our most significant scores um were in grade five in both areas so we saw a third 1% increase in students who are
018on or above grade level with a 14% decrease in students who are uh two or more grade levels below and so um we are on the move with this um we are still working because we we obviously want all of our kids on grade level um but uh some of the other numbers I want to share are pretty significant in terms of class room numbers um I can't share that publicly because it's it's teachers names and um associated with that but we had we had um many classrooms at least half a dozen to 10 um with students uh scoring getting an increase of between 200% and four over 400% increase and so that Gap uh that we have is shrinking and so so while we're still looking at moving those kids to grade level that
019huge 400% is Improvement is a huge a huge thing so um we continue our work on hope uh reaching our grade level um before I go to the next things any questions on I ready data um we are getting ready to start our UniFi basketball team through Special Olympics um they've already started their practices and so at this point we have 22 students who are uh part of that team which is really great I think that's doubled what we had last year um we have five games currently scheduled um so uh we are looking forward to promoting that and um I think at least I know two of those games are at at um not Bartley Webster Middle School um and possibly a third one so we're going to be getting the word out to
020get our students and community members present at those games because it's really just a great Community Builder um we uh had our student of the month breakfast uh before break and that when we do our breakfast it's for two months worth of student of the month so this one was for J um December and January students of the month um we had 185 families present for breakfast before vacation um and this month in by uh Friday we'll be announcing our February students of the month so we're looking for students who are kind respectful and mindful um without disturbing others throughout our school community so um students are excited about that and if you go um well you guys don't have access to our Dojo but uh if you look at the pictures that um the
021dean of students takes and posts it's just you could just see in the family's faces how proud they are of their students and um we have parents bringing kids flowers for the breakfast and the and bringing grandparents and it's just a great thing to see the happiness at the at those events um and then finally I do want to add something that wasn't on the agenda um because it just happened over vacation um but but while the Bartlett High basketball team is excelling um the middle school team is as well um our boys team uh finished their season over Vacation by winning the All Saints Academy tournament um which may made which brought their uh end of the season record to 18 and0 so they were an undefeated team this year so they have worked
022hard building that team over the last couple of years um we have younger kids that are on the team that will hopefully continue that Trend uh we also have an eighth grader case in Stafford who was recognized on uh February 14th our final home game by scoring his 500th career point um with a 50-point victory over quog before vacation so um we have great things happening at Webster Middle School as well so um I'm hoping at the next time I'm at school committee I'll be able to invite them to recognize them in public but it was a little short notice this week to get to ask kids and families to to come so a shout out to coach bangston and the team and the families um of the basketball world it was an exciting week
023of basketball I'll add to that the girls team actually placed fourth in that tournament as well so a lot to be proud of there yeah yeah they had a great season you know um they've been building as you know over the last couple years and it was it was it was a great season to watch for both of them thanks for your updates any questions or comments from the committee oh I just want to say I didn't get to all the games over break but I did get to a couple and it's and it's really great to see the kids and how they they play so hard but their sportsmanship how they act outside of the school how they play with one another how they treat the other teams um they did a great job
024talented kids and we have to keep them in our system keep keep growing so they get to play at high school level we have high school teams um but they did a great job so it's great to see them so agree yeah okay well thank you Miss Peterson the next item on the agenda under old business is the final reading of policy J Kaa physical Restraint of students and that will be a uh motion to approve that policy if there's no commentary on that move thank you second there's a motion in a second Des would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes motion passes the next item on the agenda is an update on the FY 26 budget Mrs brany hi thank you um so at our last school committee meeting um M
025Kos and I talked about about coming back to the committee and presenting a four 6% and a 4% budget um at this meeting um after some careful consideration and after taking feedback in from the school committee at the last meeting and looking at scheduling a workshop we felt that it would be in the best interest to have that Workshop get some feedback we have been working consistently behind the scenes at what it would look like to reduce the budget um so in the meantime we did have conversations uh with the Town Administrator and the town accountant we do have some minor adjustments to make to the 6% budget before we send it down and then we understand fully that um the budget that we're sending down to the town at this point um is pretty
026much a placeholder that there is a lot more work that needs to be done on the budget um there will be significant reductions based on some of the conversations that we had at this point which is why we think it's best that we have the budget Workshop um as we continue on before we present another budget so um Miss contest will give some updates with a 5.5 um as our startle or rewind so what we're proposing is to move forward with um the budget you essentially saw previously which was a 6% increase but we did make a few reductions bringing that down to 5.59% we'd like to submit that as a placeholder because we are obligated by Charter to get that submitted this week to the Town Administrator and so we're looking at an increase
027over last year of 5.59% if we go to the next slide what we essentially did in that budget um is we made some refinements to our utilities uh we also met with the town accountant and the Town Administrator as we continue to collaborate on this and in those conversations what we did discuss is that the school resource officer will be fully um budgeted in the police budget going into fiscal year so we were able to take that um reduction down in this budget submission we will still have a student resource officer it's just not going to be partially budgeted in our budget um going forward so those were the um tweaks that we made to bring it down below 6% let me just pause there before we move forward with a little more information we
028wanted to talk about see if there's any questions through the chair members Craig so just to clarify there's still going to be a school resource officer but it's going to be through the department police department it's just fully budgeted through the police department instead of split and it's going to be the same the I mean off no change no change it's kind of geography only thanks for clarifying that yep all right let's move on I just want to I think what we wanted to talk about is really just to create awareness of something that we're continuing to think about um and we need to think about as we move into some of the budget workshops and and that is creating awareness that we do have a number of positions that are either partially um or
029fully covered through grant funding uh so we have as you can see in our first presentation of the budget we had shared um the portion of our overall budget uh that is covered through grants right and what we cover there what we wanted to share with you are the types of positions and the types of stiens that are currently covered under those GR funding um and it's again it's an area we're watching we know that with at the national level we're talking about Cuts with the Federal Department of Education um I think there's some unknowns uh nothing definitive of course it's really unknown at this point whether or not that will result in any changes of funding to our title grants or our special education grants but it's something that we're going to have to
030continue to watch and monitor should anything develop um as we will have to factor that into how we approach uh our budget submission for this year so this is really more for awareness at this point to make you aware that we're keeping this in mind as we move forward and we're going to continue to monitor what's happening at the federal level I don't think we have any indication yet that there's going to be reductions all the conversations that we've been having indicate that that will stay but I think it's a fluid uh conversation I don't think people understand the impact of funding that we do receive we there's you're talking about just between titlean and sped about uh $1,300 in fund uh 1.3 million I'm sorry uh dollars and funding just in those two grants
031and that do doesn't include you know title two title four our early childhood grants um there are many others that we get at the federal level so um you know we've been very fortunate to have these grants for many years we hope they'll be here for many years to come um but with all the talk going around and the uncertainty at the federal level uh we just think it's important to know but they fund at a district level so it's our recommendation that we move forward with submitting this 5.59% budget with the understanding that we will schedule and conduct those workshops get better Insight from the school committee um in terms of areas that you're comfortable with certainly we got feedback after to the last meeting we took that seriously so we thought that having
032that dialogue would be really helpful to the whole District leadership team as we approach um how we look at the budget as well um and I think we have to continue to evaluate creative options on how we can achieve savings as we move forward it's going to be a tough cycle Y and we can say the town is doing the same on their end they are looking they are communicating with us um again we know we know there's going to be more Cuts coming we know this is not going to be our number um they understand this is what we're sending down at this time because they're waiting to finalize additional numbers coming in um and you know feel comfortable with our insurance numbers feel comfortable with um other impacts to the budget before we
033move forward um but um for now until we get clarity on where we're going um we're continuing our work to talk about reductions on our side when we have a workshop we'll talk about that together get your Insight and you'll understand where we're coming from and then we can make an uh a well-informed decision moving forward thank you would you like a motion to approve this to send it down to the town yes please and I'll put the dollar sign up there it's the bottom right so I will entertain a motion to approve this budget draft to go to the town in the amount of 28 milli2 57,200 so move second there's a motion and a second desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes motion passes thank you and certainly I
034think scheduling that um Workshop I know you were holding out on me finally got back to you but it was late so we'll get that on the books yes it's uh hoping the 10th or the 13th if okay you could give me a date um and like I said there earlier we can do that you know five um so we get out uh is the 10th uh Monday is that work yes I believe was the Monday the 10th of March for a budget workshop at like 5:00 pm or the other option would be Thursday the 13th well is the 10th what about the 13th 13th it's a Thursday yeah yeah sure yeah we'll plan on the 13th location TBD uh location will probably be here we did a library El yeah we did it at
035the library last year in space more room yeah yep okay so 500m park F yep okay thanks everyone the next item on the agenda is um approval of the seventh and eighth grade band and chorus to perform at an outof state music festival go almost um any discussion around the um out of state field trip for the sorry I moved forward kind of quickly there no this is a backup so it's meant to be in Agawam um but I think it happened one year where they actually switched it to be out of state and they have to come last minute to request an out of state so this is just a backup plan so um we have all our ducks in a row and we're not holding up um Miss Pico okay thanks for clarifying
036that thank you um and it sounds like we have a motion right to u to approve that yes okay second so there's a motion and a second to approve this potential out of state field trip um if there's no further discussion desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes motion passes and the next item on the agenda is the appointment of the director of student Support Services right so for the last few months you know since October Miss ha has been filling in as the interim director of student Support Services um we've had the pleasure of working with her and seeing her grow in her role um I am quite confident in putting Miss hair forward to be the permanent director of student Support Services she has certainly um shown her skill set
037has been dedicated has put in the hours and is very capable um of doing the job we have somebody inhouse I see no need to go out um to find somebody who's sitting right in front of us very capable to do that and is dedicated to Webster so it is my recommendation to put miss here forward as a director as you know there are two positions that are appointed by the school committee one is the superintendent one is the director of student support services so I am looking I am recommending to you to appoint miss here as the Director of student Support Services thank you Mrs Prangy thank you any questions or comments from the committee hearing none I'll entertain a motion to appoint uh Sher hair as the Director of student support services so
038move second there's a motion and a second desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes motion passes congratulations Miss ha and thank you for stepping up as you did um when Kathy Baris retired and and filling her very large shoes to fill and uh supporting us through that transition the next item on the agenda is a review transfer signing abor Bills payroll and vouchers e e e there's a motion and a second desire would you please pull the committee yes yes yes yes motion passes good night everyone go Bartlett