Acton Boxborough Regional School Committee Meeting 6/4/2020

001therefore for our remote policy all votes will be done by roll call I will call each member's name and they will see how they vote joining us so just to the unit I usually ask everyone says mute their microphones until you have something to say or you raise your hand just because with all the people it can be distracting you what a welcoming everybody this is our one of our news book committee after successful town election on Tuesday in both towns Evelyn's of Aissa is joining us tonight and because she was born in with me this morning and I must say I have struggled all day with what to open our meeting with considering what has been going on nationally and in our communities and I settled on this so this morning I I was

002born in with Evelyn and Acton communit but for Town Hall is all about fro town hall and something that that I have always taken for granted I certainly was nervous about the election and I am felt to have been reelected but the process of going and getting sworn in until this morning didn't really mean all that much to me I showed up in my t-shirt in shorts and I was on my way to hide a while and everyone excitedly texted me that her nieces were coming up from Connecticut the washer gets born in and I was like oh my gosh that's so exciting and we showed up and everyone's old family with it I mean her daughters were there husband was there the leases were there he was there and they were all dressed up

003and it really struck me that I have not taken the map time to sort of really acknowledge how much privilege I've had to sit at this table and to have a voice and I just I'm really excited going forward that we are making faith for some other voices so when I wanted to what I wanted to start this with with this meeting is that I am absolutely 100% any to listen this is a bird reading of my second term on school kidneys and as I said I really welcome the face of these made at our table to be loving so that's what I'm going to start with I know that there are other members of our committee that wants to hear things and I'm going to have most people to wait and so Peter makes

004this comment but I was asked by a lot of you we're going to have an agenda meeting an agenda item at this meeting with regards to our response the full committee and what we want to say and I know that Diane worked very hard with some MASB leadership to come up with a statement that ma FC has put forward and I know that she would like to leave that I'm not really sure Peter if you have a feeling if you want to do your comment first and that can be shared and the work it makes sense for us the committee to do that piece of it now a firmer support or not behind the statement but but something has already been written and it didn't seem appropriate to sort of reinvent the wheel given that

005ma Fe has already a lot of thought in putting forward a statement so I don't know Peter do you think that it makes sense to do that as part of your comments so everything is condensed into one sort of item that you muted after that wonderful introduction I had to break your momentum so I'm going to defer to you I was actually going to ask if you would mind if we took some of the superintendent update out of order so that I can actually read my statement at the beginning of the meeting you can read your statement Diane has the prepared statement from MESP that we can sort of be part of our welcome and everything recognized Evelyn I just want to make sure that everyone understands and knows that Kira and yevon wing were

006also elected to the spoke Committee on the act inside Amy was reelected to sporulating so congratulations so because of the or Turnus of what over 19 is senticles of our town Acton Town Meeting is going to occur after busbar Town Meeting at Acton town charter indicates that members are not supported until the end of family so their town meeting given at the point to be on until June 29th means that the active members will not start so then which means we'd have this meeting and another to be graced with the presence of Oh Murphy and Maya mention before they start and I just wanted to note that at our next meeting we will recognize my close service as well as either Paula and Maya at their last so because of the out of order so

007I think I mentioned that didn't help that meeting will be June 29th FoxPro Town Meeting will be June 22nd and we will do public participation and the high school student representative update after Peter you may go ahead and share your so first Tessa thank you you know I just want to let you all know I really struggled with what exactly to say during this meeting and I've decided that rather than try and say something different I want to come back to the message today we as district leaders decided to write together this was a group in collaborative effort and I think it really speaks from the heart of all of our leaders so I actually just like to read that to make sure it gets repeated the district leaders the events of the last week

008have left many of us speechless at a time when we also recognize the need Darris Logan we watched as Jordan Floyd among the growing list of African Americans like Brianna Taylor and Ahmad our burry were unjustly killed we watched as individual across America in other countries voiced their anger and frustration as they came together to protest and we watched as peaceful protests that voiced anger and demanded justice turned into civil unrest range violence and destruction Robert Preston ADL New England's Regional Director shared the following message this week racism is foundational country's history it taints the country's application of its laws values and ideals ideal is used to decide who will be hard who will be free and who will be deserving of justice education of healthcare of mercy and most tragically of life itself we

009have seen its taint historically and we have seen its tape today in the very institutions we turn to for justice and safety our courts our police our government institutions at every level as a predominantly white leadership team we cannot fully imagine the feelings of our black students families friends and colleagues many of them are shouldering the impact of these losses in addition to a pandemic that is just disproportionately impacting our communities of color as it educators we do not condone violence and destruction yet we stand firm in our support of the millions of people across our country and those within our community who believe that we all simply must be better watching the demonstrations unfold over the last few days we cannot help but feel complicit as leaders of our schools which are among our

010community's most prized institutions we have had well documented incidents that have made members of our community of color feel less safe and supportive in some in our schools some of our examples include a parent arrest that Miriam elementary school earlier this year an incident at RJ gray last year involving a picture of a hooded Klansmen with a swastika in a high school and so there two years ago or a student discovered a racist note in a textbook despite our best efforts in years of work at the district and school levels we recognize that there is still much work ahead to ensure our students can see it's our responsibility as educators and school leaders to challenge systems that privilege some while disadvantaged and many others we need to reflect and educate ourselves as leaders staff students

011and as a community to ensure that our schools provide safe and inclusive space for everyone our schools classrooms and community are critical in addressing legacies of inequity and systemic racism and the absence of trust with and by commuter of color requires us to have a greater commitment in urgency around this work Robert Reston's message continued we all must contribute to the effort to dismantle the thinking and systems that have institutionalized racism each of us can begin right now by taking a stand in our own communities on social media platforms and in daily conversations and by supporting organizations engaged in this effort collectively we must imagine a country and I'll say our community and schools that is better believe that it is attainable and work together to create it it is incredibly frustrating for us and

012our staff members to be apart from our students and one another during these historic in difficult times we missed the opportunity to meet face to face with our students and families to process these events in meaningful ways because these conversations simply make us all better in the next few days we will be providing families with resources to share with their children about racism and social justice our high school recently had a faculty meeting and virtual student conversations to share feelings and stand against issues of inequity bias and racism and we are working with the fostering racial justice group called a community conversation about race that will provide anyone interested with an opportunity to come together for the same purpose frustratingly we do not have all the answers and the issues are more complex than we

013could write in a letter or speak at the beginning of a meeting yet despite the complexity of our times we need to be moved beyond wanting to acting and we are more committed than ever for working collaboratively with our community our students staff families and community members to develop and implement strategies to address an equity bias 8 and racism and that is from the entire leadership team beyond the Regional School District I do just want to add that you know I think our leadership team the the feeling as I've talked to leaders across the district you know we know we are certainly far from perfect and I think quite honestly we all feel that there are times when we simply need to be and continued need to be better that's something we are all deeply

014committed to and we hope that we can partner with our community to continue to get better for the benefit of all of us and in particular our students and Families thank you very much for listening thank you I guess now seems as good a time as any Diane if you're ready Nathan you'd like to read the statement sure thank you so I am the so well first of all I just give you just to give you a minute of background ma se divides up all the 351 school districts into your divisions there are nine division plus an urban division plus a minority caucus and this letter I am the chair of Division two and this letter was the idea of Mildred Lefevre from Holyoke who heads up the minority caucus you can join the minority

015caucus Facebook page on Facebook and see how to ask for permission but you know you're automatically granted access if you're a school committee member so the 11 the 11 of us got together with the board and crafted this statement it's kind of hot off the presses I don't not sure it's even been fully circulated yet it goes here I'll just read it to you statement of the MAS C following the death of George Floyd the Massachusetts Association of school committee's deplores the indefensible actions of the Minneapolis police that resulted in the murder of George Floyd we further call upon all of our national state and local leaders to recognize that mr. Floyd's death and then the demands of millions of Americans to respond must be addressed with not only swift and fair justice but also

016with the national commitment to secure freedom from hate bigotry and social and economic injustice as school leaders we must look to those policies practices and procedures that often unintentionally produce inequitable outcomes for children at risk and adopt strong anti-racism policy these policy statements locally to show our commitment to identify challenged and chained to I'm sorry to show our commitment to identify to challenge and to change values structures and behaviors that can create systemic racism we call upon our colleagues and constituents at every level of government and in every school district to use their positions as leaders educators and mentors to the current and future generations to speak out and use their classrooms schools and their voices as instruments for securing social and economic justice for our students their families and their communities and their nation

017we must move with purpose to ensure that that we as a people act deliberately to demonstrate to all Americans that prejudice and hate will not be tolerated and will be challenged at every turn still with us that's the entirety of the statement I so was having some internet connectivity issues prior to the meeting so I see that first of all Thank You Diane for your comments and supporting that through the NASD and I see that John has his hand up so John the challenge that we face is both local in Acton Boxborough and global one of the you know hardening things that occurred you know was the global response to the death of George Floyd it was not simply a US response and I know that viruses and racism respect no borders so the response

018needs to be reflective you know of the systemic nature of the problem and you know I've talked about you know different things that I would like to be part of our school committee meetings and let me add another let us also in these meetings exemplify love and you know people wonder about the use of emotion and expressions that we should have but there can be you know no higher expression you know of our feelings then the love that we show for each other and the work we do thank you John Jimmy thank you I just appreciated all the statements I want to take this opportunity to recognize the fact that so many of our kids of our different people have showed up for the last two days at Kelly's corner I think there was a

019demonstration the day before and I I drove by three times yesterday through 27 and 111 and it was so awesome to see it was my understanding for my own kids or by kids for kids and and you know or my my girls this was the first protest I've ever been to that I didn't brag them in so they went on their own and I wasn't invited and I'm really proud of all the students and Amy who are not directly affected by this and one one quote that I that I read this has stuck with me over the last week was that nothing's gonna change until those of us who are not directly impacted by racism become as outraged as those of us who are and I feel like this time that might really be happening

020so I just applaud our kids they're wearing masks they were standing are far apart and I just congratulate them for her standing up yeah I just wanted to say that that was a beautiful statement from ban and thanks to the district for staying out in the state when I was a little bit taken aback that I had not seen a statement so it was a breath of fresh air when something came out I think I can speak for the people of color in the community that one happen yesterday and today and the support that we can in the community shows that folks in this community ready to make a change and that we recognize that there's a problem and I hope that we can cut it out for when you're wonderful we do as a

021district as a community to make a change where everyone in this community is feeling welcome and headed and appreciated so what I don't see anyone else put their hand up do we want to waste support in the form of a vote of support for the MAS see statement diana is that is that the intention of it is the intention to have districts sign on to this for sure so I am wondering if people are interested in doing that yes that's community I'll move to support the statement from as read by Diane second great so there is no additional discussion then Evelyn this is how it will work I'm going to call everybody's name and of course people are into the screen so this is gonna get complicated but i am i will call everybody's name

022to vote individually one by one jinnie yes oh yes Diane yes Angie yes Amy yes Adam yes John yes Maya yes your yes and Diane did I already say Diane sorry my thing is up cross Tuesday Evelyn yes and me yes so that death is a unanimous vote and support of mas misstatements okay so this is the time in our meeting where we have public participation for some items that are not on the agenda so there is anyone in the audience and would like to speak you can use the raise hand feature and I was a to be able to see don't see anybody do either and we will move on all right for represented this here so high school representatives are here I'd ask you to just raise your hand because we have a

023fairly long list of attendees but I do not see Brian yep so I'm gonna and Mimi I'm Larry wait a second I don't know Brian and me near AB staff leaders so got it next agenda item okay okay then we'll keep fighting me so they are my representatives that I was that I was referring to so see and we don't have our smoothly right I do not see them no okay okay so that our first presentation is the annual donation from handset Ed Wood Thank You Tessa I'm so pleased to have several representatives of the AB staff board with us here tonight to make an annual contribution which is expensive a $60,000 donation so I'd like to introduce we have Jim Kirkman who is the president of absent with Brian O'Connor who is the vice

024president we have two students we have onion tile and Sophie Zhang but I'm really pleased to have them with us and I'll turn it over to Jim hi can you hear me Murray we can jam we can't race but we can hear you okay great thank you very much and I'm not sure why my wife's name is appearing I must have signed in somewhere incorrectly but thank you very much paper for having us this evening we're very glad to be here this always this meeting represents really the culmination of a year's worth of hard work in in terms of raising funds for AB Seth so we've got two students as Marie said we've got a monument I'll and Sophie zag we're going to talk a little bit tonight about the mission of ab staff and

025how we raise on how we raise our funds and you can see Claudia in the picture there with them with the check that'll be in the mail and you'll be able to go in the bank but we'll get your real one and with that being said you know you hear if so I'll turn it over to you I can't find I now I'm trying to find her does anyone Amy you're in Turkey sphere he's already here okay great sorry okay I'm sorry hi so my name is Anya Mikkel I am a rising sophomore and this is my second year on APSA before we get to the donation I'd like to provide a brief background on access which was founded based on the belief that extracurricular activities are vital in developing well-rounded students and that they

026provide a way for students to feel connected to both their peers and the school numbers also believe that an entire community benefits when its youth are engaged in positive activities since its inception in 1981 AB slack has donated well over 1 million dollars to the Acton Boxborough Regional schools abstract raises funds to help support athletic teams from the junior high to varsity academic teams like the math science Speech and Debate and academic decathlon team and performing arts groups like bands chorus and theater as well as community service at a b rhs and RJ gray recent apps app donations have helped purchase a new scoreboard for the upper gym and a new stage curtain for the high school I'll now turn it over to my co-presenter Sophie Zhang to provide more details on how apps F

027raises funds and to present this year's donation hi I'm Sookie dang I'm a rising junior and this is my first year in Access this year there were approximately 23 students and 23 adults on the apps app board students and adults are asked to serve a two-year term apps top raises funds primarily through the sale of the Absa us which provides families with free admission to most to acton-boxborough home extracurricular activities during the current academic school year apps app pass holders are also entitled to two tickets to the RJ great musical and two tickets to a single performance of each of the high school's proscenium circus or PC main stage productions the other primary funding vehicle is the annual phonathon which is held over to evening each fall during this time apps app student board members

028and students from APR discs EBR a test called families in the school district can ask them if they'd like to purchase an app set pass or make a donation to Absa over the years apps app is continuously benefited from the generous generosity of acting and Botsford residence this year apps app is proud to be able to present the school committee with a $60,000 donation which represents the funds raised during the 2019 2020 school year thank you for your time this evening really thank you all Jim do you have anything else or Brian we don't just thank you again for your time time to see me and we look forward to coming back next year and having a similar conversation thank you something move to a goat you can wait and have the school committee accept

029it and also we have Clawdeen sage in here as well also from the have set forth great there are motion so moved second yes yes Angie yes yes Jenny yes Diane yes Evelyn yes and me yes and somebody's dog also happy and thankful that we are I think that's a generous donation passes unanimously thank you so much thank you girls for coming to give us such a great presentation RGB undo meetings like this and you know especially with everyone watching so you really spoke eloquently about the mission thank you thank you very much okay so Peter your rope neck so are we still doing or I just have a couple of quick things but why don't we do retirees first since they have been here and we're very excited about presenting you don't think about

030it are you guys whatever prepared marina you were going to introduce correct Marie and I'm going to promote people and I hope you bear with us we're going to try to do this nicely but also you have about a dozen of our retirees with us this evening along with the principles from their schools and we're really happy to be able to say a few brief words about them and before we start I want to show you that we do have this crystal paperweight with the ABS that we will is going in the mail to each of our retirees we normally would have a whole celebration and we would be handing them to them but I just thought I would show everyone the are still paperweight so they'll be getting it in the mail their schools

031are doing virtual celebrations with them and it's certainly a unique year but we're gonna start with Blanchard and principal Dana lab thank you very much thanks for having me first of all I just want to congratulate testometer reappointment and I want to congratulate Evelyn on her appointed school committee a very much look forward to working alongside with you we have three retirees from Blanchard i'li Barnett first came to work at Blanchard in 1993 as a substitute teacher in 1999 she accepted a part-time position and has been Blanchard's full-time visual arts teacher since 2003 eileen is known for adorning the front office and fresh flowers every week and creating beautiful displays of artwork and student work in the front lobby and throughout the building Ellie smiles on everyone's faces and leaves the students brimming and bursting

032with pride she has forged strong connections with her colleagues and she will be sorely missed we hope that she will come back to Blanchard soon and roam the hallways in her roller skates cathy daniel began working in the district at miriam in 2001 she had been the nurse at Blanchard since 2001 kathy has been a valuable member of our safety team and always is willing to learn to helping him as an admitted hypochondriac I am sure she will be relieved to not have to take my temperature on a weekly basis I'm sure captain enjoy spending time gardening and reading in name finally last but not least Lauren Grady started tenure at Blanchard in 1994 as a substitute teacher in classroom assistant she has been a Blanchard classroom teacher since 2000 Lauren has an infectious laugh

033marvelous singing voice in a wonderful taste in music Lauren also throws the best parties in box borrow and go we are still invited if I know Lauren she is very much looking forward to her time with her beloved family we have Cody with Damian she grew and will gradually bring people into the meeting and have to be in panelist we find amy was definitely here [Music] I am having trouble true and Heather mackerel I think I can bring Heather up first having trouble finding Damian in the list yeah he's already in oh great okay perfect you said Heather is in yeah Damian all right it's uh it's a pleasure to honor Heather Makris who has been the nurse at Conant for 15 years she has become an institution at Conant welcoming every student to the

034point where many students need to be turned away because they're just looking to visit not to get medical attention because they love her so much we will certainly miss her her medical advice her sense of humor her soft touch in difficult situations and her support of spirit as she moves on to retirement and now we certainly hope she keeps in touch with us and we will miss her a great deal thank you Thank You Damian congratulations Thank You Damian Thank You Heather next we have Douglas and Chris Wood bag along with Cheryl Breslin and Debbie Kelly Pelly Debbie sorry I'm sorry I knew that no that's that's okay um Cheryl Breslin there she is Cheryl started in acting in September of 1997 as a counseling assistant ed Miriam and the following year was a classroom

035assistant she became a classroom teacher grade four at Douglas in September of 2000 after her completing her degree at Leslie College where I had the pleasure of being one of her professors Cheryl lives the Gandhi quote be the change you wish to see in the world each year she has taught children not only to be responsible classroom citizens but citizens of the world Cheryl is a masterful teacher and her Jolly Ranchers as she calls her students will remember her fondly Thank You Cheryl Debbie Pelle started in September of 1995 as a classroom assistant at Mariam as well she moved to Douglas as a special education assistant in August 1999 became the kindergarten teacher in oh seven oh eight and then moved to the classroom teacher grade two in Elaine or nine debbie has quietly guided

036second graders through meaningful investigations and learning experiences together they built totem poles explored trees recycled newspapers or planted butterfly gardens and raised butterflies every day Debbie was thinking about new ways to teach her students Debbie often started sentences with I read this book yesterday and we should think about in her own gentle way she shaped Douglas school and we're better off for having work with her thank you very much Debbie Thank You Douglas next we have the high school with Larry Dorie Lisa Danielle bill Noah Larry yeah I'm just checking well are we all in theater let's see I see my friend Lisa de hemline where is my friend bill no it is William okay [Music] Lisa de Hill started at the high school in 2013 she came to us from Lexington I believe she

037was one of the best people I've ever with ever stole Lexington she worked with the what's called the directed intensive learning program for students with social and cognitive challenges Lisa provided a program a home support to students that we weren't in my opinion providing what they needed she is one of the most caring and just simply smart people when it comes to working with with young adults and I thank her dearly and appreciate everything she's given to us they'll know if there's one of my best friends he's been at the school for 43 years when I started 27 years ago I never thought I would say he was one of my best friends but he's an amazing he's an amazing individual he has been able to reach all different types of learners he has helped

038me grow and learn more than any educator I've ever worked with and he supported me from the very beginning and in my role as a leader in the building bill will still be around and I'm grateful for that but I want him to know how important he's been to me thank you both thank you very much Larry next we have dates with Lynn Newman Nancy Mae and Priscilla coated great is everybody everybody's there yeah okay so I'm going to start with me and see and it's really my honor to be speaking on behalf of all three of our amazing gapes retirees so Nancy may joined the gate staff in 2003 and has taught fourth grade for eight years and third grade for the past nine years Nancy's devotion to all her students in her commitment

039to providing them with a strong academic foundation are well known by parents and colleagues what Nancy students will remember most about mrs. May are the many memorable experience such as the wax museum and the third grade Oppel all of these allowed each student to feel very special and to shine so thank you so much Nancy thank you so much we have thinking do we have jovian I'm gonna go with Priscilla next is Priscilla her still is here Johanna could not make it tonight okay so I think actually um so Priscilla it's electronic pasilla codex career began in special education in Maine and New York in 1976 she joined the Acton Boxborough Regional School District in 1994 working as a technology integration specialist and later became the director of instructional technology for the past ten years

040Priscilla has been the gates assistant principal an inspirational leader a thoughtful educator respectful colleague loyal friend and most recently a loving grandmother to her new sweet granddaughter Lila Priscilla you will be missed or as I say mrs. dr. Kovac you will be missed and I would also like to speak on behalf of Johanna pilots Johanna Pyle is a dedicated educator who has worked in the field for 38 years in 1994 Johanna began her career in a be working as a special educator in the integrated preschool for 14 years and for the past 12 years Johanna has worked at the gate school as a special educator in our resource firm Johanna will be sorely missed for her passion devotion and commitment to the students she is and with the teachers for whom she has worked with

041I want to congratulate all three of you you are amazing and we wish you nothing but the best on your upcoming retirement so thank you she dates next we have community education extended day we have Kate Murray on behalf of Leslie Morgan okay thank you I'm honored to get to be here and speak about Leslie she started the district in 2009 as a head teacher and I've had the pleasure of working with her for the past five years she's been the head teacher in the fourth fifth and sixth grade classroom which is a very tricky age since typically those kids don't think they need extended day Leslie brought so much to the position not only did she bring compassion and devotion to her kids but she brought an amount an amount of professionalism that was

042unmatched it was during this time after school each day when kids let their guard down and they share so much of themselves and they shared it with Leslie she made special net connections with all of her kids and I know each one of them will never forget the shoulder she provided for them when they needed it most she'll be dearly missed especially by me I don't know what I'm gonna do when she's not here to tell me what's going on with with those kids and I know she's going to go off into the sunset and play with her five grandchildren thank you thank you Kate and Leslie next we have Miriam with Juliana Schneider mark and Martha Sheridan Thank You Marie it's a pleasure to be here to speak and I know Martha is here

043I don't think Betty is joining us this evening but I will begin with Martha Martha has been teaching Martha began teaching at Miriam school seventeen years ago and truly embodies what it means to be a lifelong learner not only has Martha nurtured and challenged so many Miriam students throughout her years she has always helped her colleagues to look at each situation with the new lens her medical lens parent lens equity lens environmental lens teacher lens for the purpose of what is for children Martha thinks she's retiring but really were only giving her the summer off before we bring her back in new and different roles Thank You Martha congratulation thank you and next nurse Betty was not able to be here this evening but nurse Betty has been taking care of me tab Miriam students

044for twenty years being the only remaining teacher who started in the old Miriam building which is now the admin building her incredible dedication and love has been felt by all Marian families and the many different ways she's cared for all of us bruises scrapes tears we often joke that there's something magic in her ice we wish her all the best with lakeside living in New Hampshire Thank You Giuliana thank you last but not least we have the junior high we have Anderson and Lisa Owen and the people who could not be here are Lincoln Raffi and blueberry maybe Andrew eyes Lisa on well we're waiting for I'd like to I'd like to thank Dana lab for putting on a suit and tie making the rest of us look bad I appreciate that so I feel

045the obligation to let everyone know I got a haircut this afternoon just for all of you Lisa I thought I saw her earlier I don't see her yet so we it Lisa is there could she raised her hand it might be under one of the other names I'm almost sure I saw her earlier why don't I read the the ones that who aren't able to come and then hopefully give a little time for Lisa to show up so we have two retirees who are unable to join us today Lincoln dracky and Robert berry when contracta has been at a B for 18 years starting as an assistant in the last twelve as a seventh grade math teacher at RJ gray from beginning Lynn has been at the forefront of incorporating technology into the classroom has

046served as a resource and guide to her colleagues having Lynn is a resource these past few months I think it goes has been invaluable for us she and her avatar will be sorely missed so thank you Lin for everything you've done Robert berry also more affectionately known as blue berry has been accustomed custodian and a bee for 25 years most recently as part of the day shift at RJ gray he's partnered with many custodians over the years to ensure that the facility is ready for students and staff each day he's actually going to be with us until mid-july so we actually a few of us look forward to a chance to say for a while in person of course in a socially distant man but we'll miss boo so we're looking forward to seeing him

047in person when we're back in the school in a couple weeks with that is Lisa is Lisa back I don't see her but why don't you go ahead okay Lisa Owen has been a teaching assistant at our jig ray for the past 13 years supporting several teams and special educators during her time at our Jay gray she's also well known within the district for her role as a long-term coach for both the cross country and track programs at the high school for me she actually arrives at school right around the same time that I'm walking back into the school building from morning traffic duty so we often have a few moments together each morning and it's always kind of a highlight of the day just before everything gets busy so for me personally that's going

048to be something I'll miss about on behalf of the whole school we're certainly going to miss Lisa as well so congratulations to all three of those retirees and we wish them a great future in terms of their other endeavors thank you Andrew so we had a total of 24 retirees over the last eight to ten months about 15 of them are this June and 12 them were able to join us right those twelve alone represent more than 300 years of teaching experience almost half of that was Bill Noah but it's really remarkable sorry I had to get one in but thanks to all of you for having us do this and honoring these amazing educators as they retire from really astounding careers Oh certainly a different way to honor them but I guess with everything

049else this will be done with a special memory even if there wasn't the memory that they anticipated thank you to all the teachers and sister Tianjin and other staff that has worked so hard and understood a lot so no one has been at the high school since I will say so there you go and danke I mean not Dawn has been about his bulletins and I mean always there with you all right so Peter would you like to give your school closure update now yeah sure I'm gonna start off by talking about you know another group of people who are leaving us in a way that's a little bit different than expected and I actually wanted to do a little bit of update on our graduation parade and make sure you that you know you're

050all invited to come tomorrow around 4:45 p.m. and help all of the class of 2020 celebrate their commencement in a bit of a non-traditional way so tomorrow beginning around 4:45 p.m. we'll be kicking off our first ever rolling rally to celebrate the class of 2020 the rally will begin at the Boxborough regions so and then it's going to proceed along route 111 to the entrance of our Jay gray rally will then be proceeding to the high school where our graduates will receive their diplomas I know that this has not been the semester that our exceed seniors expected to have while they closed out their time with us but we do want to help them celebrate as a community so for school committee members if you are interested in viewing the rolling rally please know that

051you are welcome to join us either in front of the high school where the high school faculty will be gathering and then we are also inviting their community members who would like to do that role in rally to participate along route 111 we do ask that everyone does so in a socially distant manner and wear their masks as well just to celebrate the new reality that we all have but again it's tomorrow beginning at 4:45 is the kickoff out of the box for a Regency but we would love to see as many faces as possible helping to celebrate or seniors as they depart so I just want to end that section by thanking all the organizations without support this you know transition to a different version of graduation this was an incredible amount of work

052so to both of the health department's in the towns for helping us to make sure our plans were safe to the town administrators and their staff and helping us they helped us make sure banners I'm not celebrating our graduates to the elected officials including you and our town officials as well high school administration and staff did an incredible job with this but I particularly want to thank our PTSO and Project Graduation because as community partners they were absolutely incredible to work with the deadly step of the way we are so going to miss the class of 2020 I wish that it might be a traditional graduation but I continue to believe that for years this graduating class will look back and remember their high school graduation probably more than any other high school graduating class

053in history so congratulations graduates I hope you can join us tomorrow as we kick them off well not really keep them off my property but you know kick off that kick off the next phase of their lives it's not kicked them out last one that I have is very very quick you know I had updated you at a prior meeting I think was the last meeting when I gave you an overview of the process that we're using to plan for reopening I just want to let you know all of our committees have now started meeting and we've kicked off that process officially we had our first steering committee last week and we had another one this week and then all of our working groups are now up and running with membership we are so thrilled

054that we have some school committee committee members involved in that process but also thrilled that we have members from the ADEA as well in the process and then we're going to be reaching out to a whole bunch of stakeholders throughout the planning process to make sure that we get a lot of community voice and a rep well represented in the process so that was it for me plan for revision to four of our policies tonight as well as a new procedure new procedures to look at for how we select our schools make efforts and advice yours for the new school year Amy would you I'll let you present however you want to present them and [Music] yeah I just want to say thank you as a parent of a senior I this is not the

055year that we thought it would be but it has turned in to be something really special so thank you very much for everybody's I know they've been a lot of work um so the first policy that we have to look at is the graduation requirements so we had postponed that this would actually be a third read and Diane did you want to say something about that I know you had a question yeah so I was reading over the minutes from the policy subcommittee meeting on May 14 so I just to refresh your memories briefly I had added some of the tenets from directly from the math score site on the first one that that is still in the in the policy and we have it tonight is an encouragement for the schools the junior high

056specifically in the high school to create a broad range of courses and interest and engage students that's right from math course the other two tenants were mass core tenants that you said it's kind of a directive to set ambitious goals to increase student participation and a key courses especially students from historically underserved groups and to address implicit bias and stereotypes about who is taking heed these advanced coursework this advanced coursework so those were dropped and so I was reading over the minutes and there was one one sentence that starts me that administrators agreed they did not want to emphasize increasing student participation as a result of this policy and and looking back and Larry Dory's memo 97% of students apparently are already taking three likes three years of math so this only applies to three

057percent I'm just wondering I understand why why the scale for the mass for attendance I don't want to impose wholesale and make assumptions about dropping wholesale into schools an initiative that we're not quite ready for it doesn't mean that we won't in the future for sure I understand that but I want to understand in more detail we are increasing student participation this policy it might just be incremental just 3% I don't know how many students that is but who is who is already who is the 97% and who is the few who is three four who is the 3% and how how will they be supported in in this additional requirements that's pretty substantial but if you look at it night and I support the policy I just want to ask the question so they

058can take this it's Marie okay um I'm not sure if a minute if they were exactly what you said they're missing a couple words because the point was specifically to not emphasize increasing participation in AP Richard what the mass core tenant was so he felt that he didn't think that the School Committee policy had put such an emphasis on increasing participation in AP so that was why we took it out not increasing participation in coursework by any me yeah so that's it's the preceding sentence does say that that reference to mask or program provides a helpful resource to why the district decides on requirements that they do subcommittee members decided against including the mention of AP classes and then and then it goes on to read administrators agreed they didn't want to emphasize increasing student

059participation in this policy okay so now pertains specifically to the AP courses and not just generally and okay and so how will the 3% be supported generally in this additional requirement so I think the reference of the 3% when we were talking there's other a couple of different percentages the 3% of the students for whom the policy there might be waivers for I think that's the piece when we've been talking about having some students who might be moving into our district their sophomore junior and the where language requirement especially if they're learning English that we may waive that requirement so there might be some specifics for waiving around the 3% of student population for who the requirements and may not align for one reason or another okay and this 97 percent included kids on IEP

060s because it's a good disability or they would yeah okay yeah okay thank you [Music] go ahead so calm you heard something yeah so I had asked this question a couple of readings ago because I was very concerned about the 3% but I remember hearing the answer that that that's the effort would be for engagement and and options that would actually bring them in and that's that's why I'm been supportive of the change correct me if I'm wrong I mean that's how I understand it being a percentage of students for whom I think Peter Pan alluded to this earlier and specifically so for example and the sciences of math for whom you know weird algebra one part one and then the next year Algebra one part two and not really having a diversity of choices

061for students after that and to be able to have more choices in mathematics or other subject areas and so there is a percentage of students for whom we need to create other kinds of diverse courses however there is also a 3% of students or you know we're going to have to read the requirements for those other reasons I just mentioned so it's actually serving some dual purposes eighty yeah I have two questions one the first one is so just to clarify the we don't sir I didn't see it in the policy that we put in the policy that we don't anticipate an increase is that part of the policy increase in Latin participation the the previous Marie was talking about so we took out that our emphasis is on increase in participation in ep's only

062I think that's not our goal is to just increase participation Rupees are going to have choices for our students to participate in courses that really need an interests and yeah passion and need our apartment so um they don't have to set a limit in terms of anything that's kind of my first comment my second comment is because of this virtual classroom situation right now so my general question is does will this be possible include any kind of virtual cost in the future that we may develop in the future as part of here that won't be able to meet the requirements to takes effect yeah I think it's probably too early to speculate about what we would want to do virtually versus in person I think you know there's certainly going to be elements of the

063closer and what we've learned from the culture that will bring into school but I think it's probably too early for us to figure out if we're thinking about offering virtual classes rather than Universal what can I have a funnel that question in particular really doesn't pertain to whether or not we want to change our graduation requirements which is what the policy is about so I look if your question pertains to something they you need clarification on this policy and yes you can have a follow-up but otherwise I we need to vote it's the third time we've looked at the policy and it's not about what what courses we may know in the future and everything else it really is John know so I just want to make sure that if that would be about him

064in the future and his policies still will be okay was that situation so this takes effect I'm at the class of 2025 those are current some grade students and I'm hoping between moving the next couple years we're going to get better and better in terms of our distance learning and so and I think all those different things coming together but we're always striving to improve that weekend right I understand so let's also make sure this policy if that will happen in the future and student taking the virtual classroom will still be able to meet the requirement any course been offered would if you want to vote them like you actually Tessa if we can bug this one and then I wanted to go into use of facilities of policy development and then say the reorganization

065procedures policy for last but I think I am still has one comment about this one I wanted to just express my appreciation to the two Tessa particular from holding the policy on my behalf to this meeting and I also just want to make it clear that I am thrilled to see the engagement piece in there it's it's um it's it's a really it frames the whole thing for me and you know in a driving kind of principle that I think we're all we all can get behind and so with that I would like to move that we we approve restoration requirements policy ikf second yes yes Maya yes yes Dora yes yes Evelyn point I don't know much about this policy no no Emily you may have pain if you would like Edward yeah I

066like this policy that's fine all right and I and I vote yes so did you get all that bad yeah great Amy go ahead okay so the next policy is use of facilities and if you remember we had a first read last meetings and the only change was that the Friends of lower field are no longer on that policy they're not they're no longer running helping to run that field so we're looking for a vote I didn't get any comments on it I move to approve use of facilities policy KF yes Diane yes any yes [Music] moving around on my screen for that I apologize so bad that was unanimous that the adoption of Evelyn home today okay the next one is policy development we talked about it last time and I did not receive

067any feedback it's up for a second week about fees I'll move to approve school community policy development [Music] yes Adam yes oh say yes John yes Amy yes oh yes Maya yes Angie yes I am yes Jenny yes and my Nana man okay all right Amy you want to talk about the meeting so we're the reorganizational meeting is at 4:00 second read and since our last meeting we had a we developed some procedures and if you look at your pet in your packet there are the first lists of procedures is what the policy subcommittee came up with and then you'll see the very next page there are there's the procedures have changed upon it because we incorporated comments that I got from Adam in the comments I got from John so I would I would

068say that I just wanted to share with you what the policy subcommittee came up with first and then didn't say that we incorporated those and so I think we I would like to speak to pregnant normally we do not vote on procedures because procedures are not in our purview and we develop policy with the nucleus administration or other entities that implement the procedures but in this particular case we actually this is our policy and these would be our procedures so I would the court that I think we should go ahead and vote on both so does anyone this is the this is the first time people have been looking at the procedure so Eng I see right hand up would you like that the questionnaire director thought yeah I just have a question that I

069noticed there be a second after nomination second is now needed I kind of want to hear the subcommittee be at the philosophy after that so if you go a little bit further down after the second one you Roger Robert's Rules ending Robert's Rules it says when you nominate a second is not needed so we just took it directly from that okay nominations are fairly different from other things I've looked at the Robert's Rules as well and eliminations are [Music] yeah first of all thank you to the subcommittee for putting together these procedures they're very helpful and and I do like all of the changes that were added in the second version I guess my question is about timing and if we are going to vote on these procedures do we feel like we need to

070have a first and second read of the procedures like we do for a policy and do we have time to do that before were actually required to reorganize we're not going to reorganize until after Acton Town Meeting which is what June so it was the first time we would be able to reorganize we'd be in August I don't see very drying sorry so my first is what are we organized Oh she'll be right side July 1st so I I don't see a problem in doing a second read on the procedures if that's what the committee feels I'm happy to take it do it tonight or wait for a second tree - oh were you gonna have the thing-thing yeah I was going to ask about time timing so my feeling about my feeling about whether

071or not we we do a second read is that there is anyone that has actual concerns about what is presented here I think that mermaids are important when there's a lot of discussion around things that James but if people feel that this is representative of how we would like to move forward I mean we did have discussion ahead of the procedures being sort of drafted just kind of talking casually about you know what this may look like in terms of reorganization and it's not there are many things other than the fact that there's a balance though it isn't entirely different from what the doesn't have but nothing was written down Sam so two people have now been confused about the August first thing and that was put in just to build in a buffer zone

072for the outgoing chair and the incoming chair to have some mentorship and just some time to get it to speed instead of just being thrown into the role suddenly I wasn't under the impression that the other when we do restructure and we we volunteer for the various subcommittees and all that gets gets done what is the timing for that and could that be clarified in the policy just a suggestion that wasn't given is the purview of what we don't usually do that and then we organizational meeting so my recollection is that and I don't know if there's policy more procedure around that that the organization of subcommittees isn't done until I'm not sure that it would fit in this policy I feel like if that's an if that's something that you feel is important interest

073then we should go and do that separately I don't think it belongs in this policy well because those things are the discretion of the chair and if this is about choosing the chairs and I agree that there are we like the chair would need some time and people would like that's why my when you don't do it at the same time with that you know people start their school year and they think about what kind of time they may be able to make I would imagine will be especially important that there be uncertainty about what everyone especially because this is our first meeting that we have new members so how can we ask the members to come on to a subcommittee I just was a really good one I think what do people think we

074have two dentists and we want to look at this again or the week John do you have your hand right yeah I wanted to say a couple of things one is I really applaud you know the initiative that Amy policies have to be to create a procedure so that something was a little murky can be fully transparent and then secondly it just as a parliamentary issue because you know we have in our policy that Robert's Rules of Order dominate in any area where we're not going to do exactly what Robert wuhl stipulates it's super helpful for us to have voted the policy so it's clear you know that we have explicitly changed the policy and there's no question about you know us being in compliance and then lastly you know I appreciate you know Amy

075provide me with the opportunity to provide my feedback on this you know prior to the meeting so as far as I'm concerned I'm good to vote yeah I did I just I was looking for a point of clarification on the page 12 in the packet so the the red line version of the procedures where the asterisks talks about a majority vote I think it may actually be more confusing to talk about a majority of those voting as opposed to the waited votes that we have which talk about I'm not sure if that language is clear to say a majority of both means that more than half of those voting a group emotion because you could have happened the people voting but they're weighted votes may not equal well I think I agree this was this

076was confusing to me and and that's and I had a long conversation about it I think that so the the idea of the majority vote and the majority weighted vote is that mmm it's not just the number if there were three people contending for one position then it's not the person that gets the most votes it's the person that gets over 50% of the votes weighted votes they're all waited for the people that actually participate in the vote so you could have school committee members that decide to abstain and they don't want to vote in which case we would go down from 11 voices to 10 voices or nine voices and that would be the majority of that weighted vote yeah I think just by the time the term of those voting I think we

077should we should change to the weighted vote because again if I'm if I choose to abstain then that's only one vote versus someone who is an active member who's got the three three and a half votes or whatever the ratio is I think that's where it's confusing is that votes whatever you whatever the the active members get but that's that's the part that's confusing to me is that it's not a majority of those who vote it's a majority of weighted yeah can you hear me now yeah sorry um I think Adams right you need to add the words of the weighted votes of those voting you got the yes I agree yeah I agree - it's confusing with the weight of boats so I think anywhere that I mean it's confusing with how we'd have

078to vote in general so anywhere that we can put in and terrify that at the way to vote I think it is a business lucky dog okay that says she agrees and she's going okay so it please so do we want to vote on this just nod your head you want to vote on it tonight okay so that's that the majority of everybody and except for into the block so I don't really see Andy is there is there something that that could be changed and what caused you to want to vote on it tonight well I just feel because there's new members tonight and this is the first week and we have one more meeting there's two opportunities so I just would like to see everyone how do you feel about that would you like

079more time to consider this I'm down India bad idea I really don't know much about it so but you know people are gonna go and I thought the will explain anyway well this is the most important thing that we do as a committee is so far our leadership so we wait for the next game the next meeting is much heavier than this meeting there's a lot more on the agenda so if we decide that we discussed I don't want to freak anyone into a vote it's just that there's not a lot more discussion about then I didn't realize the next meeting was so heavy I I think that if we can get this done night it would be great if you guys so if you don't want to that's okay but I do think that

080the more we can get done before the next meeting and still work I agree I mean given that given up their significance I mean most of this is laid out by Weber school this motley they were the water you know creative expression on the part of the policy subcommittee and coming up with this you can write from I'm going to make the decision that we're going to vote it tonight when if you wish to obtain that that's totally fine not a big deal so I will think we have to both the things definitely know so we have to vote the policy then we looked at last time there is actually a second venue right yes and then and then the procedures so I will take the motion for normally we don't vote procedures but I

081in this particular case I would argue that we should move to approve the School Committee annual organizational meeting policy BBA Angie we're voting a policy right yes [Music] yes Amy yes Adam yes oh yes yes okay so that was I was all yeses with the exception of Evelyn's abstention and now I will create motion to I'll move to approve the school committee annual organizational meeting procedures dated six for 2025 BBA - our second Angie I'll abstain from this because I feel like yeah I'm Stan yes Adam yes oh yes sorry yes Maya yes yes I am yes Benny yes Evelyn I was standing with a champion and I'm not up to speed with it yet okay and me yeah so that was two abstentions from the ng and Evelyn and the rest for you okay

082thank you for all of that work Amy and the subcommittee committee seriously yeah thank you okay so the plan is and the we will organize on drawing first meeting after the active members have been sorta so they've already been elected senators Zbornak okay so I was going business in your packet we have minutes of the meeting on May 21st move to approve the Acton Boxborough Regional School Committee meeting minutes of May 21st 2020 [Music] yes Amy yes Adam yes oh yes John yes yes yes three an ellipse dating any Evelyn yes that was unanimous accepted attention from Diane okay so theater we have the episode collaborative financial update I didn't see one you then you're muted thank you so is there I've been updating you over the last several months about the financial status of

083Banco last meeting we had a good conversation I may be next room was in attendance as well and at the end of the meeting we requested that we come back to this meeting and get an understanding of the committee's desire to either remain members of the echo collaborative or to choose to withdraw as members of the collaborative and an additional option would be to consider a termination of the egg collector there's a lengthy memo in your packet for that extent just providing an overview of different points of view as to the issue and also in that memo chose to summarize the position of several other member districts where we did no other status I just want to update that now we did have a Board of Directors meeting today and at the Board of Directors

084meeting Lexington withdrew their motion to initiate termination proceedings they are still continuing to withdraw from the collaborative but they have withdrawn the motion to terminate the organization so that was not up for consideration there was no other member district that chose to initiate termination in addition Concord and Concord Carlyle the so you know if you're new that is actually the same district same superintendent but because technically two districts like we used to be they get different votes but Concord Carlisle and Concord did not move to initiate termination proceedings either at this meeting the superintendent there also indicated that they had chosen to initiate a withdrawal process simply so that over the next year they could watch the financial status event oh and then make a decision as the year progresses next year however if the

085collaborative is in good financial standing they are likely to continue as members of that Oh so with that you know that's a pretty significant update Belmont you know just to summarize the memo decided to continue is members they did rescind their votes additionally Newton affirmed that they were continuing as members as a and that was actually the rest of the rest is in the memo you know I have talked to a few superintendents some districts felt very strongly that echo was a strong organization it has been in existence 50 years provides great services to a variety of communities and students across the state and wanted to make sure that they affirm their belief in encode and the strength of the organization and there were some other districts that also indicated that it may not have

086been of direct use to them they may not have placed students in the collaborative or they may not be taking advantage of professional development offerings however they chose to remain in the collaborative because withdrawal would remove their voice and having a seat at the table and so it was much more pragmatic knew that if the organization you know was struggling financially they would rather have a vote at the table look how that gets turned around rather than have the liability carry with them long term but lose their seat at the table in a voice so I'll be honest with you my own personal take on this recommendation would be to remain members of the egg collaborative for both reasons philosophical that I do believe in the organization who sprang from the organization and also from

087a pragmatic standpoint that you know for $14,000 a year in terms of our assessment that it would be much more beneficial to the district to turn it coal around and have a seat at the table in that process than to leave and have you know several hundred thousand dollar liability that could potentially follow us into the future so I think you know either way you look at it I think it's probably more beneficial to state members but you know quite honestly I've seen the budget for FY 21 as has bathed there actually we just passed today the budget for FY 21 which does show a variance of over $200,000 to the good with the intention rebuilding the reserves of the collaborative first and then having the process to pay to have liabilities after that but

088just like personal finance you have to have your own safety net first which is their reserves and then begin a process of paying off liabilities the strategy made sense to the board today and I would recommend that you continue to participate in the collaborative however I did provide you a variety of options and outcomes that you could consider along with some possible bold language to do you want to make a motion Peter the other thing that baby bears on the decision about what to do would be your sense of the strength it goes current leadership so I take it from your recommendation part of that is that you do believe that the current leadership group can rebuild the organization is that correct I do yeah I thought long and hard about that and I really

089do think Nadine is coming in and trying to provide the right direction she's also proposing to work with one of the former executive directors who actually does some strategic planning to develop out of a new branded strategic plan for the collaborative and moving forward so I do believe in the model but there's sorry I just forgot to unmute myself sorry I saw um so last last meeting I think I was probably on the 21st that I watched it on action TV you had mentioned there was a twenty thousand dollar assessment for FY 22 kind of like limb out of the red and it's the assessment then going back to $14,000 he's no increase in the assessment for next year that's question one so they answer that right so the assessment actually I believe used to

090be $16,000 and had been lowered gradually over the last few years for $14,000 but for a variety of reasons there was a deficit in FY 2010 Koch believed that we were going to have future success in the organization we needed to close out for white women without a deficit so we did vote the additional one-time $20,000 assessment but that goes away and it goes back to 14,000 okay my other question was about programming because that meeting you also had mentioned that you know while we're taking advantage of the McSweeney Center of professional learnings as full committee member I have to say that was like really it was the closest and really only professional learning opportunity that I had and I took every single advantage of those those networking opportunities through the school committee roundtables they

091really really helped helped me just connect with other people and connect with the issues and and push me as a leader to develop myself and my my my leadership skills within the context of school committee a really really think that was really valuable but you did say like we're not availing ourselves of I mean I've always admired collaboratives because they're they're like little laboratories of innovation there's all kinds of programming in the 20 there's 25 collaborative statewide and an ED code has some really great programs like their career pathways for kids 18 22 who need additional support with the transitions they have their partners program for students with autism omit that targets transition in high school and their ABCD Center for academic behavior and character development so those are just three of the many programs

092and I'm wondering that that one in particular is for grade kids in grades six through 12 and with been suspended for substance abuse with the goal of transitioning them back quickly into their are their settings and so I'm just wondering because you did say we don't we take well we take advantage of the mixed media center self in the professional learning stuff not so much the programming and like why is that if we are paying the assessment and the programming I can't believe that there's no need for the ABCD program or so some of the other programming programs and I'm wondering if that can like why and if I'm sorry I didn't email I just didn't have time to catch any with Lessman I don't mean to put you on the spot but is there

093anything thought to increasing our participation given that we're paying the assessment and it's right there and we do offer introduced a tuition reduction for member districts yeah you know so a lot of the programs you referred to are actually relatively new programs at 8'o within the last year and so for a district to participate it has to kind of be the right student with the right profile at the right time who needs it not a different placement with you know sometimes it's a case where we already have students and other out of district placements that might serve a similar to each where it's better for the student to leave the whether currently placed that to try and move them into an echo program just for continuity and at other times you know we do also

094have some 18 to 20 year old program in our district that's in direct competition with what it might do in some ways and so it's looking at our own population too and thinking of some of our students and where's the better fit is it our own programming or is it a oh and you know most times unless there's a really specific need it's preferable from a student's I could to be able to go to programs in your own hometown and continue to be part of that school community so it's kind of an overarching challenge that collaborative zs-- have had in recent years - as districts expand their own programming and schools that you know a what we're seeing in collaborative is you know people are choosing to stay in their own districts and then be

095what we're seeing because of some of those declines in enrollment there's a much more concentrated profile of student with higher needs going into collaborative but something cases experience as well so the profile of programs is just a little - so it's kind of a nuanced a complicated answer we are looking to expand our use of the ed programs for example we're actually partnering with Ed code this summer and Enco is going to help us provide you know extended summer learning opportunities for some of the students that we want to provide additional learning summer they have an online program that they've been developing we are actually looking to have a boat I think we're about a hundred and twenty students bad but just hope they're still there we're at about 120 students that we're going to

096be sending through their virtual program this summer from a came through I think Pete for students who are in K through five in nineteen twenty so there were these know going into first through sixth grade yeah so we're really looking to you know ensure that the climate is strong just while I'm talking anyway I'll just also insert a historical perspective that just a few years ago case was in a much more serious financial position as very similar to n Co currently and if you recall I think I updated you during the budget process this year but with good fiscal management case actually had to turn back additional reserves this year because we exceeded their reserve capacity as you know legally allowable under you know desi guidance so it is very possible even you know within

097a short span of years that with good leadership and good fiscal management you can have a significant change in status yeah so thank you Peter for your participation in that committee and then also giving us a very thorough report on it I am inclined to continue our membership and I'm also so inclined to reaffirm that with a vote because I think not only is it important for us to be members of this I think it's important for us to actively commit to continuing the good work that I Pro does so I've been on the committee for nine years and and every year I hear nothing but good things coming out of Edco so I also would be inclined to vote to reaffirm I'm also inclined to vote in but with the financial situation will the

098program be impacted yeah for the next year no no they they have you know a staffing model in place and to be able to offer all of their programs for next year they know they're they're in a good place with programming okay sure I moved that the Acton Boxborough Regional School Committee reaffirm our commitment to the remaining members of the he's trying to beat him to the punch yeah I would like to make a friendly amendment that we reaffirm that commitment recognizing the value that echo provides to our school community I'll second it [Music] yes [Music] yes yes I am yeah [Music] we only voted the amendment we still need to vote the motion really sadly yes yes me yes yes yes yes yes I am yes yes yeah all right good job all right

099yep next we have B butter the update from our very favorite favorite next Elsa no slides tonight just a brief oral update FY 20 we are still in the process of beginning to the beginning to close the accounts no no revelation since since the last three or two weeks ago FY 21 we're expecting next week we'll open FY 21 in the accounting system so people can start placing orders they'll be held until until we have an actual budget but it's it's a process that needs to begin so that people who have short amounts of time from now to the end of the year and can place their orders in the system part of the task of reopening under the task I'm sorry at the reopening team then I'm on with Murray it's the resources reopening

100team will be to agree on guidelines as to what information what guidance we give to the administrators as far as what's appropriate to purchase for next year the thought being are we going to be live are we going to be remote or the default right now is we'll be somewhere in between as far as the big picture for next year I don't expect any state budget guidance until next month that's been that's been pretty consistently reported for some time now that the state is not ready but lastly just to give you again and I think I've said this before but with respect to the federal grant programs that the district will be the beneficiary of there's guidance trickling out but there's a clear order in which we need to access the various funds that are

101identified at this point so we're going to be preparing a submittal for the FEMA grant which is basically koban related health and safety expenditures the Easter esse are funds that we used and we identified as a source of funds in the FY 21 budget and reduced the reduced our appropriation accordingly we're going to be taking it applying for that as well the deadline for that for the application is the end of this month and finally the cares Act and that's where the significant money at least in comparison to the other two sources appears to be and just to say Peter and Marie and I had a preliminary discussion with the town managers of both act and inbox borough they're developing plans for use of the monies that have been allocated to the cares Act funds

102are allocated to cities and towns not to regional school districts so that discussion was to remind them of that fact and to tell them that we believe that we'll have eligible costs that hopefully they'll consider putting on putting on their request for or care Zach fund and that's that in terms of the the state budget you know one of the things that won't happen until July is you know the state won't realize the revenues associated with the tax filing do you think it's reasonable to expect that the state will actually wait until that data comes in to make some decisions about directionally where the budget is going is it reasonable that that's the only way I can answer that John is yeah that sounds reasonable but as far as the actual what are they doing

103I do not know no other questions I think that we can move on you don't want that all day you want that yes thank you for maybe a memory report yeah yep done so the the school building pity you know we are being soon to be drilling our first test wells for the geothermal system of the building that is the first real activity we are also beginning to gear up and demolish classrooms on the game site on those two classrooms inside of the school that you come down for the enabling work and then we'll be starting to see construction fencing go in the hole over the summer and preparing the site for future work the you will also notice I believe you all have now received the first in our series of updates that we're

104going to be providing our project manager will be developing weekly updates that go out to the mail list that we've been developing for the bolan project over the course of time we have added all of your email addresses for you to that mail list so that we flood your inbox with information about the building project but in all actuality those email updates from scans that have been fantastic so we're looking forward to keeping everyone in the loop if there's anyone listening to the meeting that wants those updates they can go right on the building project page of our website and there is a link to sign up for additional updates so if you have beauty members asking I'll make you more about process please steer them to our website the building project page [Music] there

105is an action item before you with regard to the building project if you remember earlier this school year you voted something from MSP and called the project scope and budget agreement that agreement was the agreement between MSBA in the district is to how much they're eligible grant would actually be there is another document before you tonight for your vote and approval which is the project funding it for the douglas gates elementary school this is a standard form template from the MSBA the attorney will also have to send in a certification as soon as you vote to approve it you are not required to approve it only if you want to receive money from MSBA let's go you know if you want their mom this is the language of the vote otherwise feel free to do

106with more I really want to move this vote because it's one of the few building related votes that doesn't have a lot of numbers in it so I move to approve the project funding agreement for the Douglas Gates elementary school project I really want a second [Music] yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes [Music] I say move to approve the project funding agreement for the Douglas case [Music] by the MSBA so moved second I don't know I'm just going with what put that that to me she's the one to go I don't know all right then we'll vote again Evelyn yes Guinea yes Diane yes John yes me yes oh yes yes the world yes yes yes okay that was approved unanimously alg does anyone have Diane you're on my yeah I was at the mean so it's okay active leadership

107group met this morning they spoke about town meeting just FYI Acton is planning for normal attendance which is like 300 350 400 people taking the following precautions and of course top priority is safety they're limiting the number of worn articles to 20 and 7:30 they looking at overflow rooms and possibly even outdoor seating weather permitting and had a limit discussion by moderator oversight encouraging concision when speaking avoiding repeating what others have said and adding some background information into the warrant that kind of few people to the the cost savings realized for certain initiatives like the Kelly's corner and land acquisition they also talked about the fiscal year 20 update which basically Dave just gave us on this full side on the town side the cares Act money has been going to local any programs here

108in Acton for small struggling businesses and rental assistance and things like that so and the other big thing that I wanted to just say out loud here in school committee is we always talk about the spreadsheet which is a financial model that looks like three to five years out for the town in the schools in Acton and it's a feat to manage that in Meriel Tyrians see there at the finance director for the time act and manage that process so the big idea here is for school committee is that we as we head into a new budget cycle this fall I mean we're about to go to town meeting in a few weeks for that by 21 bunch of it as we head into the FY thinking about FY 22 it's really important to keep

109in mind that there there likely be huge deficits in FY 22 and the directive is to tighten as much as we can expect to use reserves and to have a plan so I just want to put that in everybody's head now really early is probably something you're gonna hear a lot more but we came on strong came across very strong from from active [Music] will be [Music] attending and they did - [Music] I think [Music] the purpose of the applications at that meeting this year and shortening them to really I think you know the important thing is what Diane mentioned earlier you know and what everybody now understands Tom meeting is gonna be really abbreviated and I think the message that should go out to people is you know we did do all the work

110that we normally do to build this budget then we made some changes at the end in response took over 19 but the hard work is next fall you know when we really get more data about what folios capable is likely to look like and that's you know where we will see you know big effort in the budget so I'd encourage everybody that heals you know maybe a little bit disenfranchised because there won't be much this guy tell me to come the school committee's in the fall and you know to everybody to just you know make sure we talk to the community about what we're going to do so John you were so to pre-record your whole talk about the budget so that people can do it online before Tommy B is that correct that's one

111of the things that's been discussed whether that's actually going to happen I think we're still a little bit murky but if we have an opportunity to put out some additional information either in that form or some other form or you know as we're trying to pull together our information from the warrant you know everything other than Town Meeting floor we should try and you know give a little bit of extra where we can no I completely agree the idea of putting forth the whole budget presentation online before the meeting is would be really great and then allow for the discussion on the floor mm-hmm II can health insurance trust met May 28th expenses through ten months four fourteen eight point eight million dollars against the income of thirteen point six million dollars for a loss

112of 1.2 million dollars not including expected reinsurance recoveries of zero point two three million dollars April showed a favorable variance of $209,000 related to reduction in services for members including elective procedures this favorability is expected for May and June with the revised expectation that the trust will lose between a half a million and 1 million dollars in FY 2010 restricted assets of the trust are inspected to be about five million dollars a year in which is equivalent to about twenty five percent of the annual expenses the trustees discuss the merits of establishing a policy to govern the level of the trust unrestricted assets and a policy to govern investment and trust assets members were generally supportive us of establishing formal policies members are doing research which will be reviewed in the future meeting great thank

113you John okay effect is item second recommendation to accept an anonymous donation of personal coverage material today acton-boxborough Regional School District figured if you have then you wanted or no very brief thing we had a community member who very generously wanted to donate you know several thousand face masks to us for use we you know received them and no are distributing those at just about any available menu I think where we brought some over to the election the other day you know we certainly want to make them available at Town Meeting this is more to give out to the community than necessarily is a stockpile for us and the personnel also made a donation to the [Music] so yes we received 12,000 masks and the town of box where we see 5,000 with the commitment

114to more and the goal is to give masks to every household in actinium box borough and it's a very generous donation we're not the only communities involved Jaime Eldridge was involved in in making this happen but this Saturday so the goal is to distribute them to every household we we've gone through all the food security channels so community supper put the gave them out our lunch program gave them out open table food pantry etc but this Saturday any act in our box Pro citizen is welcome to go and drive through the Foxborough Regency Hotel and they will be given free masks for each member of their household 9 to 12 a.m. so please try to make it second Don yes yes Vinny yes Adam yes I am yes Evelyn yes and myself yeah great thank

115you so much for that thank you for the additional info marina wonderful we have warrants to approve tonight you receive an email with a file look at them they were one subcommittee hi I'm Wilma sweetest baby Adam from an arrest citation I move that this local ad voter approved a roll warrant follows number tr02 for being 520 120 in the amount of two million seven hundred ninety thousand five hundred forty eight dollars in the sense payroll deduction warrants as follows numbered 20-0 stand for PR Vienna 521 20 in the amount of 1 million one hundred twenty seven thousand six hundred thirty-four dollars and one cent vendor warrants as follows numbers 20 - New York in four dated five twenty eight twenty in the amount of 1 million five hundred seventy two thousand five hundred thirty

116nine dollars and twenty-nine cents second Don yes [Music] yes Andy yes yes yes madam yes I am yes [Music] the last thing on our thing fYI Peter is there anything that you would like to highlight that no do you think well yeah yes you can just take a look at the mass foreign language poster contest one of our students was highlighted in that statewide contest and we included the winning artwork picture of it for you so and then congratulations to our graduates oh I see 40 motion to adjourn I wanted to note that in the queue a meeting was what dr. ashram was was watching and he said dear acton-boxborough city and superintendent light thank you for your support and appreciation for SL fabric about a fourth largest partnership did you then okay all right

117John yes Amy yes oh yes yes and I just want to add one sentence I just remembered today is June 4th is he okay Emma squared eight syllables never you know the pursue of liberty and justice is never end yeah that's it thank you yes remember you have to send me your credit evaluation form yes thank you yes nice