12.11.2023 Fall River School Committee

I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Fara school committee for December 11th um Deb would you please call the r Mr Agia here Mr Bailey here Mr Hart here M lvy here M perrera here M rodri here mayor cougan here let's salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for

all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or UNP perceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible we have no citizens input tonight and we do have one recognition award so we'll

go down to the front of the

stage for a second

hello so the recognition tonight is going out to one of our members who's decided to go back back to one of his other homes the farest city council um Paul's done a great job in the schools he's uh concerned and caring and uh we wish him well on the city council side um he's moving up I guess so Paul Hart good luck and thanks for your years of service on the fora school

committee uh thank you very much Mr Mayor and uh really thank you to all my colleagues uh the superintendent um I'm definitely going to miss the school committee uh I loved serving here and um it was eight years of a lot of fun a lot of hard work and uh you know just um get a little emotional about it but I'm going to I'm going to miss a lot of the people

uh the leadership team of the superintendent uh my colleagues and Al also the the the staff and the uh teachers and the district and everyone that works very hard for for the children so thank you again thank you Bobby

Bobby

you're welcome Hey I can say that killing

me can congratulations Mr Hart again uh we have no subcommittee updates tonight uh item number five is the superintendent's report thank you Mr Mayor uh so let me give you a couple of updates first let me start with the holiday fundraiser that occurred on in November late November our holiday wish fundraiser was a great success approximately 300 people attended the event was the largest one

that we've had uh to date the night raised 17,400 um and we received additional donations all funds received will support our needest students for Christmas School staff will shop wrap um gifts and deliver them to homes so that everyone can have a uh joyful Christmas we couldn't be proud of our school staff and school community that stepped up and supported our students also hiring update as of the last meeting uh

November 13th since the last meeting we have hired 14 teachers seven administrators 12 parent professionals three educational support staff and seven operational staff for a total of 43 new hires on the other side of the Ledger we have lost seven teachers seven parent professionals four educational support staff and two operational staff for total of 20 exits uh we currently have 68 teacher positions posted to of

them are non-classroom assignments our biggest area of need as has been all year special education ESL science and math um we are also sending out information to staff and recruiting uh on the special ed and ESL Certification programs this month we currently have over 70 uh staff participating in the course reimbursement program and more enrolling for the spring semester our partners at UMass Dartmouth and brid

Bridgewater State University are finalizing their offerings for the certification program and we will have participants at both sites for this spring semester we also have about uh 45 students doing student teaching or Counseling practicums in our schools and all of those uh folks are being recruited uh to um dedicate themselves to fall public schools and finally we have um for everyone's

information uh we will be having a tiered fol focused uh monitoring site visit during the week of January 22nd 2024 the department of Elementary and secondary Education Office of Public School monitoring will conduct a tier focused monitoring review of follower Public Schools the Office of Public School monitoring visits each district and charter school every 3 years to monitor compliance with federal and

state special education and civil rights regulations so it's our turn in addition to the on-site visit parent and Outreach is an important part of the review process the review chairperson from The Office of Public School monitoring will send all parents of special education students online surveys that focuses on key areas of CH of the child special education program survey results will

contribute um to the development of a report and during that on-site review The Office of Public School monitoring will interview the chairperson of the district special education parent advisory Council other on-site activities May also include interviews with District staff administrators review of student records and on-site observations any parents or individuals who want to be part of this process will

be able to call Julie Evans who is overseeing the chairperson we will post all this in information we will also send it out via parents square and put it on our website so that parents have the information but we wanted to make sure everybody knows this is coming in January and everyone will get the information so they can get involved and that's it thank you superintendent uh any questions Mr Agia

just a couple of things that have happened over the last 30 days that I'd like to get an update on related to some of the issues so we've been receiving a lot of I've several calls that I received but also correspondence on the LNO School having an issue um and I'd like to get the superintendent's uh comment for the public to what happened how it went yes we um as you know and we've actually communicated with

families also principal Simpson has done that we had uh we were made aware of potential molds um at uh in uh a section of the school we immediately brought uh a company in we did some testing certainly um Mr michan and his um folks from F have been very um good about communicating with us um we met with them as a matter of fact last week um to uh collaborate on on how we're

remediating what steps we are taking um we are um doing everything in our power to remediate uh all the issues that are there um the we brought in a company to come in uh to sanitize those areas and there's going to be additional testing so one of the questions I had and we we received something a bunch of pictures from the um principal but it talks about rugs in the carpeting in the

first floor and I recall just having you know paid attention over the years that there has been other leaks that have caused flooding in the first floor so thinking to myself how was there rugs in the first floor if there was um obviously flooding and then in the courtyard at that school there's been flooding for years and I'm curious as to why they would still be rugs maybe there's a good reason but Yep this SC

it's scatter rugs um absolutely but certainly Mr um I think one of the reports said wall to- wall rugs which got my the scatter rugs I understand that's a rug that comes out and you get a new one but I'm just curious as to what the rug sure so the rooms in question were just the scatter rugs the uh the wall to- wall we referring to the kindergarten and pre areas that did not have issues

um let me take that back they weren't the initial requests uh for testing uh and um issues so what we're doing is testing all of those rooms um in the near future and um the goal is to replace a few of the rooms that we've already tested with the wall to- wall it's not quite wall to- wall but it's a huge section of of in place uh carpet squares um we're going to replace those

with VCT Tile uh over Christmas break and that as much as possible during the Christmas break and then we'll pick up on that um in the near future so those rugs were not damaged during the flood of 21 if I'm not mistaken I may be off a year there but it um these rugs that we're talking about are just 9 by 12s that we replace every two years or some three years and was there actually mold

found there was there was uh Sports found in one classroom uh for sure yes one level was high and and was found in one classroom in the um was there any leaks in other areas like the ceilings there was indication of leaks in other areas that we've since looked at uh and um one area which we missed was a bathroom area down um in the prek uh Wing that we've identified since then so the what

happens when a sealing tile is got mold on it or it should be replaced it should be replaced yes not painted just to get over the it should be replaced placed the um the I guess there a cad in the middle that leaked that that's what the other issue was in 21 so no the water didn't come in from the courtyard the water came in um due to a check valve that was malfunctioning on the

north side of the building uh that check valve was replaced um and then we did through through the services um of a contractor and uh some other sub contract has cut walls did all of the usual mediation when you have a flood so the courtyard doesn't have a flooding issue or has never had it hasn't had I I'm not saying it never had any but I'm saying that it it doesn't have this is

not an issue as of right now that it's coming into the building from there no absolutely not yeah Madam superintendent if we could I've heard a lot of complaints about the flooding in the courtyard specifically if you could do some research on that and report back to us for what it is so at this point it's clean there's no Olden in the in the building there safey for teachers and

staff to be there and students yes for the rooms that we've tested yes and and again i' I've been asked by members of the of f uh to take a look at some other rooms they gave us a list of the rooms they would like looked at and we're going to look at those have some testing done there and then we'll do whatever remediation is required if we find

anything lastly I saw a picture of a a barrel with a half filled with water that was apparently there for a long time is there a I have no idea where that was but I I can tell you that I seen the picture also and it um it shouldn't have been there it's not than few minutes exactly it shouldn't have been there so I I I have no idea why it

was there and and what it was catching but uh those things will be taken care of and you're saying it safe that's most important thing for staff the only other comment I had was on the um holiday fundraiser so as you know um well I don't know if you know I'm assuming that you know that the committee wasn't invited um formally to that and I was just a little disheartened by it um I'm

always happy to make a donation to those things and we actually got the invitation a half an hour before the event which shouldn't happen and um I hope moving forward it is a worthwhile fundraiser we should all donate to it and I'd be happy to donate it in the future but a half an hour notice isn't appropriate in my opinion I completely agree um that was a discussion that was

had before um yes I agree we should have invited you and we didn't so I'll take responsibility for that but I I thought we had thank you yep our yield um next we have the student comment Faith go ahead um so at dery the eighth graders in the city um they explored opportunities at dery during their tour seeing the CTE programs Early College athletics and the music department and then this Thursday December 14th the

Attorney General en will be meeting with the group of students about Rel uh relevant social issues so these are from AP Gov and student government and then Health assisting has finished their clinical rotations and are preparing for their CNA exams dery student government is setting up a spirit week to celebrate the upcoming winter vacation and then the dery theater company had three

successful showings of Matilda the musical in this Auditorium thank you Faith want to ask you something Faith uh can you give us an update on the pep rally I can and this is news I like um so third place I believe it was the sophomores yes it was a sophomores Juniors were second place and seniors were first place and then I believe Orchestra was place number one for the banner competition all right thank thank

you um I have two sets of minutes for approval Mr chairman oh I'm sorry Mr AA I just had I looked at the I thought we had a budget discussion but it's not so it's just an update of what I've seen over the last 30 days the Watson school has the whole place lit up and I'm getting calls from my constituents as well as seeing it from all over the city if you're at the

South End you can look and every light in the place is on and I can't imagine that we just think that's a good thing to do with uh but it's literally every I thought at one point it was because there was some repairs going on but it's every single light I think and every night so something needs to need to happen be fixed or whatever we'll check that Kenny com up oh Kenny Mr

Pao um so I can't vouch for every single night but we do have a minimum of two to three nights a week of construction going on at Watson um second shift because we can't work during the first shift so the second shift is there till midnight uh in those buildings but I again I can't say for sure that it's every night and it definitely shouldn't be on Saturday and Sunday so if those

lights are on on the on the weekend uh then we have an issue and I'll take care of that yeah it is it has happened so I'm not sure if they don't have a control of it they do you know they can shut the lights down yes and the other piece is I happen to live near there so I go by it a lot there's been a lot of work on weekends there's been a lot of

work on on Good Friday there were uh Black Friday was out you know and like you're saying there's second shift work going on I'm wondering why we would pay overtime for people I'm assuming because go by the and it's busy and people probably get paid overtime but I just don't know some of that as well but if you could just take a look at it to the superintendent to give us a report I'm

just curious sure thank you I Yi we have uh two sets of minutes for approval um the regular school committee meeting from 11:13 and we're also seeking approval of the grievance subcommittee minutes from 1127 could I get a motion 7.1 7 second second I have a motion to Second any discussion Mr yeah just uh when I look at it online I know we had a discussion last meeting where we tabled discussion on um an

issue that's not on the agenda I'm looking to wonder why well hope can we do this first well it's in the minutes that's why I'm reflecting it here are you talking about EAP yeah in the minutes it says we had a discussion about the EAP program we made a motion to carry it forward it was before the committee seemingly in a rush because we wanted to get it and it's not on the

agenda and there's no correspondence so I'm just curious why it's not on this agenda we were instructed to survey staff and to gather some information and that's what we were doing so we Our intention is to bring it before you uh next month we didn't have all the information yet so you're working on it yep absolutely thank you all right I got a motion a second that would you please

call the role Mr a yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes M larav yes M perrera yes M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes yes we have a number of travel requests um I'd like to take them all at once if anybody has any questions can I get a motion a second motion to approve second I have a motion a second uh any discussion Deb call the rooll on travel requests on item eight

Please Mr AG yes Mr Bailey Mr Hart yes Miss lar yes Miss Pera yes M Rodricks yesan yes item number nine is the acceptance of donations motion to accept second we have one um any discussion on donations Deb could you please call the rooll M G yes Mr Bailey Mr Hart yes M larv yes M Perera yes M rodri yes yes oh I'm sorry go ahead there superintendent thanks okay on be on

behalf of dery high school principal Matthew dearis um I request acceptance of $386 13 donation from Ohio pil Prince this donation will be used at the discretion of principal Demaris thank you thank you uh we have two grants tonight item number 10 um any discussion on the grants Mr agar that a question on the first one 3.7 million and the question is it runs from 928 of 03 so my question is related to

what was the budgeted amount for all of these line items and if it's different than this amount can you say that one more time Mr agie I'm sorry I didn't hear you so this total is 3.7 million y when we did the budget back 3 months before this started in September 28th I'm curious what the did we anticipate getting 3.7 so that's the amount that was slotted in all of the budgets for all of these positions

or is it different so so it's just the entitlement Grant so I don't know Kevin how does it relate from this year to

before I'll have to get back to you this by Friday I'll get back to you okay I'm exactly what that is and the reason why I asked is I asked this question at the last when we had I think Title One or something so when we do the budget July 1 we lot certain salaries so we will off by half a million that would mean we have a million to spend I'm curious if

there's any money in this that we have unaccounted for that's the rationale but yeah Friday's great thank you any further discussion can I get a motion and second motion to approve second Deb could you please call the role Mr Agia yes Mr Bailey Mr Hart yes Mr laraby yes Mr Perera yes Mr rodri uh yes very yes item number 11 is the approval of contracts um we have a number of them I am going

to ask for a hold on evolve which is under facilities contract is the first one um we'll take that up in executive session and come back with it does anybody have any others they'd like to hold um Dr Rodricks uh Southeastern Massachusetts educational collaborative I just need to abstain from that one okay anything else Mr Agia and okay right under facilities okay we're going to hold that one and Miss Dr

Rogers is going to abstain on South math okay anything else okay can I get a motion to second on contracts motion to approve second uh Deb could you please call the role M Dr yes Mr Bailey Mr Hart yes M lar yesera yes M rodri yes may yes with the exstension for um Dr Rodricks on South Eastern Mass educational collaborative uh de please okay and um en systems Mr

Agia I just had a question on I it looks like uh it says here Sylvia work but I I think there was other schools in it and I'm just curious what this is as a change order so it's only Sylvia the other items were included in part of the project this was an item that I didn't see um the items that are all on that page um were all unforeseen but there's uh

capacity within the the budget to pick those up in the amesco budget this one here is outside that amesco budget which is why it's coming here and it's items that um when I originally walked did the walk through with the company um I told them that these area would these areas were finished I didn't realize that they weren't so that's why this came up as an extra and I didn't want to put it in to

throw those numbers off uh inside the amesco budget is this the uh I recall when they did the walkth through at other places it I was told that there was no um heat to go into the hallways under the system so yeah this is that correct it no this is not um this is not the regular ene budget this is um an extra as the with the amesco project it's got nothing to do with that that's

been looked at and we're good or we're going to get we're okay we're okay so we're not going to get more of these is my concern that not unless we undercover something else um I don't believe there will be anymore thank you I yield anything further again with the hold on evolved after um motion approve any second I have a motion to second on everything else Dad please call the RO on Mr AGA

yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes Miss lar yes perrera yes M Rod yes mayor C yes item number 12 we need smack we need take smack okay I'm sorry I again a motion a second on southeastern Mass there's no money on that does see do so you know it just says tuition is that a blank check oh yeah there's no dollar or it's probably budgeted already so the amount should be 332 474 is what

the amount should be to thousand yes motion to approve second I have a motion second on De please call the role Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes M lar yes Mr Carrera yes yes item number 12 is a discussion and vote to approve the revised school calendar for the 23 24 school year as presented by Maria Pont superintendent of schools yes um what you have is there was a a

calculation era on the last for the last day for seniors um at dery originally had said uh May 22nd I believe or and now um it is the Tuesday um after uh Memorial Day so it's May 28th the Friday May 28th the Tuesday May 28th is the last day for senior so it doesn't change the um any other uh dates except for last day for seniors because supposed to

be 12 days and um there was there were one day off so that's why we're bringing it to here yes approve with a question do I have a second on Mr Agia just when we as we're looking at this calendar and the schedule I'm assuming that all of our schools meet the 900 or 990 hour requirement yes that's required by law right do we have any documents that would show that by school yes we they

have to submit um time on learning we have to submit to D time on learning sheets could I please ask for a copies of those I'm just curious what they look like thank you we have a motion to Second any further discussion on the calendar Deb would you please call the role Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes M lar yes M Perera yes M Roger yes mayor cougan yes

item 12.2 is a discuss vote to approve an addition of a school admin manager at the Robert eleris resiliency Prep Academy as presented by Kyle Riley principal of the Robert El maderis resiliency Prep Academy any discussion on this item can I get a motion a second Mr Agia just uh as I'm looking at this I think you know I'm a proponent of the RPA and we just recently added positions to it

um personally I would feel much more comfortable if we have a subcommittee meeting and refer the this so we can get into a detailed discussion about the school and then um bring this back for the next meeting if possible unless it's an urgent Thing by the superintendant um we can schedule a meeting between now and the next meeting unless you hear otherwise but that would be my as chairman of that committee

table I think we or refer it to the subcommittee so that we can have a a discussion about all the situations there and then we can come back with the information rather than put the principal on the spot right now Mr Mayor can we refer to Mr Riley and ask his opinion on this just to see if there is a need right now Mr Riley can you join us

please so I say uh yes to both those is it something we need right now yes and we can wait till next month um it's one of those positions for us that we want to make sure that we're identifying student issues right away the smaller issues and dealing with them right away so give them feedback to kids and parents um and so it may look a little different than they do at dery but I

think it's a need the school sees as we're adding other positions on but we did just thankful um to the committee and to the superintendent with the support of adding a school uh adjustment counselor and anal uh it's kind of helped bridge that Gap right now um so we certainly can wait to month to go over all the positions and see how we move forward you um does anybody want to make

a you make a motion or refer to Alternative Ed subcommittee second any discussion Deb call the rooll M Dr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira yes M rodri yes Mayan yes item number 12.3 is the addition of a certified occupational therapy assistant has presented by Lori obain assistant superintendent of special ed I think the committee was provided just the uh rationale behind this we

have had a significant increase in our number of students receiving spe um Occupational Therapy Services on their IEPs due to initial eligibilities as well as students that have come to us this year with Occupational Therapy Services on their IEP we are getting close to the Caps um that the codas have in their contract so we are trying to be proactive so students go don't have to

go without any Services um by adding an additional Koda at this time any questions Mr agar so I see here this detailed report shows 55 is the cap MH and obviously I can see there's a lot of numbers that are close to that so when we have a situation with caps what if it wasn't for this what would happen so we have 15 more students in let's say and everybody's went up by

three to get over the 55 what are your options as the Director yes um sometimes staff take on additional cases for compensation otherwise we owe compensatory services and students are put on a list so that's one option or the other option is to do what you're doing now come before us when things get up and try to be proactive be proactive and make changes so um I appreciate that I work in a school I

understand what these things how these things happen but I do think that you need to have that right to come before us I through to superintendent as needed and we add positions as we need based on when you seeing this data it's very solid data that you know these people Serv as an x amount of students so that's very clear so I definitely support this and thank you for the detail are yield anything further can I

get a motion in a second oh I'm sorry Dr rodri just one quick question are we seeing um just a bigger influx at the prek level or are we seeing it across all grade levels right now it's usually the younger levels to me I know usually it is but I'm just wondering if you're seeing just with our kids kind of being home for such a long time if you're

seeing it at some of the older grades as well not so much but the the thing that we're seeing is that our students when they're starting to enter middle school they're not being discharged from Services right so they still need those Services as they're getting older I uh can I get a motion in a second motion to approve second I have a motion a second Deb could you please call the role on now adding a certified

occupational therapy assistant Mr a yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes 12.4 is discussion and vote to approve an additional Administrative Assistant for the office of teaching and learning is presented by Tom kougan human resource director question question oh I'm sorry Mr AGA I'm trying to figure this out we in the documentation it says it's for the

office of instruction and the office of student support is there no support now there is right now we have um one administrative assistant and one clerk the clerk uh supports the office of teaching and learning as well as the uh MLL Department with um adding another assistant superintendent so um Dr barnhard uh that didn't have its own separate admin assistant so we have all these directors we have these

departments that have grown and we have one person their sharing one person um between the two of them and it's always been sh with the directors well we didn't have three assistant superintendant well we had them for year and a half right so we haven't brought that up so the way I'm reading this it looks like as if we've always had it one one for the office of instruction well

we've always had one up on that floor for all the needs of the um assistant superintendents that were up there if you recall the assistant superintendent of student services was vacant for an entire year no I understand so if you go back 3 years four years 5 years six years yep the office of instruction has always had a an administrative assistant SL executive secretary like you have

like everybody else so the way I'm reading this is it sounds like as if we have a new assistant superintendent who needs the equivalent of that so each assistant superintendent has one of those that's not what's listed here so I would be totally comfortable with the fact that we need an executive assistant administrative whatever the wording is just like we just did that for Miss

openchain as an assistant superintendent that we should have one for Dr Curley one for Dr bronhard this is confusing in my opinion it's probably the same budgetarily but it should be one working for each of the assistant superintendent makes more sense than we're going to share by me reading this it looks like they're going to share two people double like it doesn't it's more convoluted

then directly this is what you need you're right that isn't the intent that they they will each have somebody assigned to them but right now we have a person we have not said okay this person's going to work with Dr B and this person's going to work with Dr Curley so once our Hope was that once we have that then we can divide those roles and say this person's going to work with

you know office of instruction this person will work with um Dr be's team but if you if you rewind 3 years ago four years ago before we hired an assistant superintendent forcl Support Services whatever the terminology is we always had an executive assistant to the curriculum director/ assistant superintendent for curriculum before anyone was hired in that job I am saying that that person works for Dr Curley

that's that position or the assistant superintendent for for instruction that's how I see it because that's how it's been for 5 6 7 years 8 years 10 years so to me logically that person has been working in that office works there Dr bronhard just got the job without an assistant Administrative Assistant like that I think this request should be a person for her now if you as superintendent say I think that that

whoever is in that position is better in this one so be it but here we're voting on a a second person for the office of instruction and I'm going to vote no I will vote Yes if you say that this is what it's for it's for one for each person you understand what I'm saying I know what you're saying the office of teaching and learning encompasses all of so we're all one big team but certainly

if that's what you need clarification on I would like to respectfully request an additional admin assistant to service Dr bronhard motion to approve second with a question U Miss larvey so does that mean that that'll be the second one the second one that um will serve as Dr will work with Dr curly and her team and one that will work with Dr B and her team so what the future you're saying the future

is for each one of them to have their own administrative assistance they do they will after this vote they will after this one that's what yes that's why I said is this the second or the third this is okay thank you any further discussion Dr Rogers just to to piggy back on that when I read that that's how I read it too was that Dr Curley was basically getting two and it was like a

one point five for Dr curling like a 0.

five for Dr that's how it kind of read to me so I appreciate the clarification little greedy Dr I think it just no it it was written as a piece of coming together in collaboration because truthfully that is exactly what's happened since I've stepped into the role um the administrative assistant in the office of instruction has completely just been part of the work that we've been doing um but I understand what

you're saying too but that's where the rationale came from because from the beginning we've been sharing and it's our way to split the share any further discussion dead please call the rooll who seconded the motion who seconded the motion second miss larvey Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes M lar yes M Perera yes M rodri yes mayor KGAN yes item 125 is a second read and vote to approve the staff handbook

as presented by Tom kran Director of Human Resources any discussion I have a motion motion approve I have a motion second any discussion one qu Mr this just reflects the changes that were made last meeting we inserted what was approved last month into hand thank you I yield Deb please call the rooll Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Miss lar yes Miss Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor

cougan yes first read superintendent's recommended 2025 budget priorities is presented by Maria Pont superintendent of schools so this is the first read the um what we do traditionally is we've surveyed our uh Department leads as well as our principles uh worked with them and um to uh gather information from them in regards to the priorities what where they see that our investments we need to

focus our investments in it doesn't look very different than what it has because the work is about deepening the work that we have in place it's never a good thing if every year we came up with um a totally different nobody wants to see uh inconsistency so this is a first read what I would ask is that you know um you look through that certainly it is an opportunity for you also to give us some

feedback we want to focus on the uh on the HR side we have to put a focus on um you know Recruitment and Retention uh which is you know we're opening uh uh negotiations for bargaining we want to we want to hold on to our people but we also want to entice people to come to follow over so that has to be a major major um focus for our work in addition

to providing um to deepening the work that we're doing with our new teachers and supporting them and uh professional development we want to focus on um we know special education needs to be another priority um not only in deepening the work that's already in place but miss Oben chain has been working on and um looking at uh assessing the current programs and and how we will um create and rise our

programming model to be more inclusive um we also want to invest in uh um continue to invest in our multilingual Learners we're looking to make some program improvements expanding on our co- teaching model as well as obviously our dual language um program at VIIs is rolling up ESL curriculum resources again so that we are providing it's no secret that our uh special ed students

and our um ESL students are um behind um their counterparts and we need to look at programs and we need to look at how we're supporting how we're supporting the adults in supporting our students and and investing money in that um also in core instruction we need to continue to provide um resources for our staff to continue to work with tier two and tier three um uh working with scheduling

providing intervention opportunities um we will continue to expand with our College and Career Pathways um which includes Early College Korea Tech education um alternative Ed we have to look at altern alternative Ed programming not only at um at the Robert U Medeiros RPA but also we need to have some alternative options at our middle schools and at our high school um uh alternative Ed does is not one siiz

fits-all it's really Alternatives and we need to be doing some research and some work and actually doing some work where um we uh provide opportunities for kids to be successful at all of our schools uh student support and strategic integration uh we are also looking again at curriculum resources vertical um alignment with that partnering with our uh neighbors uh Parent Academy programming where we are going to gain

some Traction in really involving our parents as well as staff development we all know that um our kids are coming in with significant needs and we have to support our staff in supporting uh those needs and facil and operations uh we have done an incredible job with expanding our prek we need to look at um our physical space and figure out how we are going to rework some of our schools um as well as we're

investing in HVAC uh air quality uh throughout the district um continuing with our Capital um improvements and Safety and Security is a priority um at every single school and in our district and then instructional techn technology um we have um Mr gabal has done an amazing job in making sure that we are a onetoone district we have um technology state-of-the-art technology in all buildings we have to have a plan uh a

maintenance plan as well as a capital plan where we are able to um uh make sure that we are able to uh not only continue with that but make improvements and cycle um that technology and we are looking at our websites and how we can make that more user friendly for and and update it so those are that's the proposed um proposed Investments where we're going to put money into it

obviously um we are welcome um we welcome you to give us some feedback this is the first read and we'll come back around um next month uh with final um proposal any comments or discussion Mr agar just a uh few things one is a question so we at this present time haven't even done the superintendent evaluation That was supposed to be done by contract in August I believe and then we said we

were going to wait until the mcast cause came out and we haven't received anything from Administration or leadership related to that so I for one would like to do that evaluation before we talk about next year because a lot of these items are the same so therefore there should be comments either good batter and different related to these um so I'm not sure if anybody has any we'll we'll schedule that um we have

we'll schedule the subcommittee so we can take care of that but it's got to be done right I mean it's not bringing something up that no can't be done um my other thing is that I I when I look at this I think I mentioned this last year over a year ago that we had some issues in several departments that we needed to revamp we need to do things a lot

different and we're uh working hard on a lot of things but we're sort of stuck in a lot of ways and I think we need to do something a little more bold and um intense related to that I brought up the issue back over a year ago about hiring a deputy superintendent that could oversee several of the Departments that do not have assistant superintendent um uh through line where there's no

assistant superintendent for a few items I also think in a district this size with the complexities that we have as superintendent Mrs P you need some assistance at a at a an executive level above the assistant superintendent that can help you manage this entire District hold people accountable put systems in place as well as doing the negotiations properly over the next year because I

for one think we've been lacking in that regard over the years so as I look at all of these priorities they they all seem good and sound good but we've been talking about these for years and I'd like to have a year ago you said you were going to talk to your team about it and discuss way ways and options now we have some other things happening so I'd like to get a report from you relative

to whether you think that's a good idea or a bad idea or along with your rationale I for one have told you personally I've said it publicly we need to do this for the good of the district to move forward and um I really would like to get your opinion on that as well as your team and I'm happy to meet privately to discuss those concerns but I can't stress that as much as I I could

here that we're stuck right now we need to do something that's going to make this District move to the next level and I think hiring a qualified Deputy superintendent will do just that just my opinion thank you I yield anything further thank you item number seven is discussion and vote the use of the dery high school Nagal Auditorium on January 2nd for the inauguration of municipal offices as presented by kico

any discussion on this item looking for a motion and second to approve second second um dead please call the RO Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr yes M lar yes m perero m perero yes M rodri yes mayor C yes um again for your information we have a number of retirements resignations um hires and regretfully some death notices um I don't think we have to take a vote on this do we Mr sign yes okay AC

any you have to vote to accept that oh can I get a motion and a second motion to accept second de call roll Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes Mr lar yes yes M rodri yes mayor C yes uh anybody have any new business hearing none uh do we have a request for executive session it would be need do you want want to read them first Master General Law chapter 38

section 21 A7 to review and approve the executive session minutes of November 13 2023 regular school committee meeting also M Law chapter 38 section 21 A7 to review and approve the executive session minutes for November 27 2023 grievance subcommittee meeting M laws chapter 30A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect collector bargaining relative to All Professional teaching employees of

the forward School System including coaches Title One Title One teachers nurses occupational physical therapists and specialists in the teaching profession represented by the for for educators Association as the chairs determined that an open session may have a detrimental impact on a bargaining position of the committee Mass General Law chapter 3A section 21 A4 to discuss the deployment of security Personnel or

devices or strategies with respect there to uh M of laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to Collective bothering relative to all safety security employees of the forward school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 is a chair has determined an open session may have a detrimental impact on

a barging position of the committee in Mass General Law chapter 38 section 2182 to conduct strategy section in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and or to conduct contract negotiation with non-union Personnel including Dr Tracy Curley assistant superintendent Chief academic officer Dr Amy bronhard assistant superintendent of student services and strategic integration and Lori obain assistant

superintendent of special education would reconvene there may or may not be statements at that time okay I need a motion in a second motion second uh Deb please call the RO Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes Miss laran yes M Perera yes M Rogers yes Mary kougan yes going into executive

session I like to call the meeting back to order coming out of executive session Deb would you please call the role Mr a here Mr Bailey here Mr har here M lar here M pereo here M Rog here mayor cougan here anything further to come before the committee tonight motion to approve the contract with the valve second it any discussion Deb please call the role Mr agam yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har

yes M larvey yes M perea yes M Rogers yes mayor kougan yes anything further yes Mr Mayor I'd like to make a motion to accept to approve the executive session meetings for November 13th 2023 three second discussion DB call the rooll Please Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes Mr lar yes M Pereira yes M Rodricks yes Mr Mayor I'd like to make a motion to approve the executive session

meetings uh minutes for November 27th 2023 second I have a motion of second any discussion Deb call the rooll Please Mr agam yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes lar yes Miss Perera yes M rodri yes mayor cougan yes miss anything further yes sir I'd like to make a motion to approve contract modifications for Dr Amy bronhard as negotiated as negotiated second you can't take them all together

okay I have a motion to second on Dr bronhard uh Deb would you please call the rooll Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr harp yes M lar yes M Pera yes M rodri yes mayor cgan yes I'd like to make a motion to approve contract modifications for uh Lori aishan as negotiated second I have a motion a second any discussion Deb would you please call the r Mr ago

yes Mr brayy yes Mr Hart yes M Lori I mean Miss lar yes M Ferrera yes M rodri yes mayor Coogan yes and finally Mr Mayor I would like to make a motion to approve contract modifications for Dr Tracy curlyy as negotiated seconded I have a motion and a second any discussion thatb would you please call the role Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr yes M larav yes M Perera yes M

rodri yes mayor Coogan yes anything further I have a motion to add one special ed supervisor and two team chairs to the district seconded I have a motion to second any discussion Deb would you please call the rooll Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes M larv yes M Pereira yes Mr Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes uh anything further uh can I get a motion to motion

to adjourn I have a motion a second that would you please call the all Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr har yes M lar yes Pera yes Mr Rod yes may KGAN yes merry Christmas happy holidays everyone