2.12.2024 Fall River School Committee

I'd like to call to order the February 12th regular meeting of the far of a school committee Deb would you please call the RO Mr Agia here Mr Bailey Mr Cory here miss larvie here miss Pereira here miss Rodricks here mayor Coogan here uh salute to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for

all I do have a reminder um joining us tonight on Zoom is uh School Committee Member Sarah Rodricks 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 unperceived by those presents and are deemed acknowledged and

permissible um we have no citizens input tonight but I do believe we have a number of recognition Awards you want to All Join Me Down in the front

to good evening everyone pretty special night because today is all about our students and um we get to honor and recognize them and their families for their hard work on mcast today we will honor all the students who got perfect scores whether it was on science mcast math mcast or English language arts uh mcast so what I'd like to do is I will call the principal up here um who will

of theu of the students in the school that they were in when they took the test last year so some of those students may have gone over to their middle school or the high school but it's important for them to be recognized by their sing principal okay so principal dearis let's start with

you right amazing we had six perfect scores for dery last year uh starting with the mathematics test that's given in grade 10 Timothy

archinal also with a perfect score in mathematics Kenneth louu doesn't look like Ken's here today for perfect score on the grade nine science test Micah Ross

also on the grade nine science test Nicholas van

m in receiving a perfect score for both mathematics and Ela Katarina

Rumsey conratulations

I am standing in for former um Doran principal Eric Bradley and recognizing for a perfect score on the ELA test Farhan Nafi okay if we could have oh yeah that's right I forgot is the principal then representing the Henry Lord Community School for the ELA perfect score Eva

Murphy and if we could have principal um I think I saw him um from lerno I think I saw him here yep right Mr SS oh

yeah great beautiful behalf of the lerno elementary school community we'd like to um celebrate zier Brown fifth grade perfect score Ela and perfect score Ela from third grade Lila farell

Mr wet is going to join us

oh I am proudly representing cus and for a perfect score in ela Avery

mat doing

great all also with a perfect score in ela Julia

Ramsey with a perfect score in math wheeler soal

and also a perfect score in math Logan Wardell job

from Morton Middle School with a perfect score on the eth grade English language arts LC Aruda

good evening everyone Patrick Len's here to represent Sylvia Elementary School very proudly representing Sylvia Elementary School let's start with perfect scores in mathematics John deala freedus also a mathematics Kira Dudek with a perfect score in both mathematics and Ela Rory Edwards and a perfect score in ela Kira lafur thank you everyone to them and to their families because we know they

don't do it alone and it takes um a lot of support for our kids to excel so thank you for continue to encouraging them and um having them they made us all proud and I'm sure they're making you proud thank you very

much

spe

than

but I made it through just want to say a big thank you to the parents great job all your adult supporters and caregivers thank thank you let's give the parents and the adults all a big

hand congratulations guys one of the best days of the year um next item yes that's right what thanks for the teachers the teachers that did it you can't forget them all right we have a few uh subcommittee reports um I think we're to post uh facilities and operations will be the next meeting instructional um on joining us on Zoom with the parent and community outreach subcommittee Sarah

Rodricks so we met on January 22nd and we had a pretty productive meeting where we had some pretty concrete updates on Community facilit facilitator professional development and what that looks like we were able to look at the parent teacher conferences and some of the resources that are available to families during those times um we were also able to look at some of the new and long-standing

initiatives for kids and for families across the district and those have partially included The Parent Academy Workshop Series in addition to some of the um signs of suicide training the expansion of the curriculum and the use of ancl screener for our kids so we are hoping to meet again in the next several weeks so that way we can get some additional updates on those pieces and um continue to engage our families

in ways that are meeting call thank you Sarah uh the evaluation subcommittee uh Miss Pereira thank you so we held our meeting on February 6 um we started off discussing the timeline and the factors that affected the timeline we discussed um goals being due um when goals should be due and then re-evaluating the superintendent as the timeline does specify uh we reviewed the evaluation

tool that we're going to be using well possibly be using um it's going to be complet individually so every Committee Member um will complete their own evaluation um but there will be a a composite score um with one combined evaluation based off all the members um the superintendent we discussed would self-evaluate and she will be showing that we discussed two weeks she will have that to us so that that then gives

us three weeks to complete our portion so that that can be presented at the following meeting um and the evaluation tool uh was referred here tonight we'll be voting on that it's at the end of the agenda thank you thank you Mr prayer um Mr chairman just have a question on that I'm sorry Mr AGA just not so much for the subcommittee but I guess for yourself or the uh superintendent this is way

overdue and I think we're I don't know why we're not addressing it we're supposed to do the evaluation by contract in August and we agreed to do it in November so now here we are in February and we still don't have anything before us related to superintendent evaluation and I'm not sure how we got here because nothing's different in the process now than it's ever been um nobody's explained why we don't

have it done already and now we even have a new member that isn't obviously going to do an evaluation that he wasn't here we got one that was here that was gone it just doesn't look right and it doesn't feel right to me and just it seems like nobody's wants to talk about it just let it go and I guess we'll deal with it when we deal with it

but um this is the only thing on the agenda related to the evaluation and I I'm guessing we're just going to sit back and wait uh superintendent well that's actually what um is on the agenda is what's supposed to be on the agenda after the initial meeting for the uh T establishing the timeline and the process you are correct I think that you brought that up at the last meeting the

timeline was not followed um we had 37 meetings last year 37 um we I'm not making an excuse it was not we did not schedule that meeting in there the evaluation cycle is November to November not August November to November um for which was approved uh back then that should have happened and then if that had happened in November I would have come forth with to the subcommittee with myself you know to establish Lish the

timeline and go over that then um in December you would have done that piece and would have gone before the school committee so I went before the the subcommittee we're condensing the timeline so that we can get ourselves on track um there is uh if you want you know I mean I'll take responsibility no it it didn't happen in November to November um but um it is going to get completed and we will have the timeline

back on track that's the goal so moving forward is this supposed to be the subcommittee the school committee like I I just don't understand the um we there's not much we can do about it now but moving forward if we say that it's November to November doesn't that mean now we have to come up with a what does that mean in November you're going to give us the self- evaluation or do

you wait for us to do it is it a school committee issue that school committee didn't put it on the agenda like what moving forward after this one how do we go forward to make sure we don't have this happen again you're you're right um so moving forward we will signal to you um that it's time for uh to schedule that meeting to have the subcommittee meeting what happens is you the

subcommittee meeting is um scheduled and November to November is the timeline that was voted on by the committee um and really in when because of the data the data comes back later than typical so we will in September I will go before the committee with goals sign that we need to schedule our meeting so that we can be um on track and and make sure that we're meeting the November to

November timeline but we we did that in September and I'm only trying to say I'm not sure why we even need a subcommittee meeting if that's the evaluation tool is what it is there's nothing changed at all why don't we just say that in September you have to provide us with or November when the data comes in you provide us with the self- evaluation and we do it in November I'm just trying to clarify it

so we don't get into the same mess again that's all I'm not trying to give you a hard time or or all I'm doing is pointing out the obvious and and I'm just following the process the process usually is through a subcommittee but certainly this committee is the one that has the power to change that so certainly if you're if the committee wants to take a vote and say we're not going to do it through subcommittee

we're going to do it through full committee and and just bring the self assessment and have the full committee um you know if we already know that we're going to use that tool then that's certainly up to you but um I was just following the process that the cycle and and I think we all agree that it needs to get better so with that I yield thank you um and finally M Mr AGA the special

education alternative education Early Childhood subcommittee so we had a very successful uh packed meeting we had a lot of information and a short amount of time uh the Early Childhood update um in basic summary m various explained where we're at and what we need to do moving forward one of the concerns of the committee was having a an actual written plan related to how are we going to

increase the space for the program so the committee asked for in 30 days to have a short and long-term plan by the superintendent presented to the subcommittee uh to be scheduled really spaces the issue and if we don't have the space we can't service the children um so we're going to be looking for some more information but it's already February so we start worrying about how are we going to increase seats in

September time is getting a little tight so we have to really get on it uh the special ed Department under Miss obenchain presented a lot of detailed information related to the IEP roll out some specialized programming specialed systems and structures some staffing a team chair update and the budget I would encourage anyone to go on the website and watch the meeting because there was

a lot of valuable information shared on some of the things that are happening in that department as well as some of the plans we have for the future so I'd encourage anyone to to watch that like I said there was a lot of quality information a lot of Works being done to put the need needed systems in place in the special ed Department under Miss pant's leadership and Miss Oben chains

so I want to say thank you to them on behalf of the subcommittee thank you I don't think so thank you Mr agar um next we have the superintendent report um superintendent Pont thank you Mr Mayor so I have an update from first of all a Deca update I'm thrilled to share some exciting news from dery high school's marketing program dery's very own Annabelle Fado em uh emerged as the winner of the 20124

Massachusetts Deca t-shirt design competition showcasing his exceptional talent and creativity for the shoot for the stars theme this year Annabelle's um T-shirt design has earned him recognition at the state conference and a leadership spot to attend the international Career Development conference taking place on April 2 well actually from April 26th to May 2nd in Anaheim California this is a remarkable

accomplishment and we couldn't be proud of annabal Annabel's winning design will be featured prominently as it will be um printed and worn by over 3,000 students along with their advisors and chaperons at their state conference the state conference is scheduled to be held at the Hines Convention Center in Boston Massachusetts from March 7th to March 9th this is a fantastic opportunity for

Annabelle's work to be showcased on a larger scale Annabelle will be recognized at the opening ceremony for the Massachusetts State Career Development conference on Thursday March 7th he will be presented with a well-deserved trophy in acknowledgement of his success in the competition we believe that this uh uh commitment to design exemplifies the spirit of creativity and Excellence that we strive

for at dery high school please join us in congratulating Annabelle on the on his remarkable achievement we look forward to seeing Annabelle's design making a lasting impression on both the state conference and the International Conference in California congratulations to Annabelle also for a hiring update since the last school committee meeting we have hired 15 teachers three administrators or supervisory staff 18

parent professionals 11 educational support staff 13 operational staff in total we had 60 new hires since our last meeting conversely we lost six teachers two administrators four parot professionals four educational support staff and one operational staff for a total of 17 exits we currently have positions teaching positions um High needs areas we continue to struggle with filling special education spots ESL we

have six Math um positions uh posted Science and Technology this um we continue to utilize staffing agencies for placements when we try to hire permanent staff while we're trying to hire permanent staff we actually have a recruitment event scheduled for February 29th at Morton we're also in the planning stages for the spring recruitment event as well as participating in the Bridgewater and

Merc recruitment um events that are happen in happening in the spring and finally for LNO update as you know we've had some struggles over at LNA with air quality just want to give you a quick update um the LNO school has been under heavy barrage of cleaning sanitizing and repairs for approximately four months the district has Enlisted the services of Common Sense environmental uh to do

service Ser surface and air testing as of January every classroom office restroom and common space has been tested the reports are available at the school or online the latest tests will be shared with the committee and also with the leral families tomorrow morning and staff the test results have shown us that we have some issues that need our attention the district has hired different contractors to perform

improvements highlighted in the testing reports carpet Replacements duct cleaning proposed air filter equipment for classrooms and other changes to address the issues in the report we will continue to work with the LNO Community to Monitor and improve the conditions at the school we're currently in the process of securing a company to come and sanitize the building over the break that's

it Mr AO just had a question on that can I think I might have asked this before and I'm not sure we received it yet the total cost of uh all of the cleanup and services at the latero yep um I also had asked about any damages related to the uh Courtyard flooding issues um and I'd also like to ask is I heard there's some issues at the tany school

is that under the same uh scrutiny as the LNO is are you able to share with us related to anything with the tany school yep I I will look into that because that's I'm hearing it for the first time here first time tany yes I haven't heard anything about it but we will look into it I super you haven't heard anything about that nope okay that hasn't come my way

thank you um I had one more question that I wanted to ask on the um facilities meeting I know we had talked at the meeting about I had asked for a an update on the audit we know we've had a lot of issues with the overtime and various systems in the custodial and maintenance department and we authorize funding for an audit can you just give us a quick update or send it out ASAP

related to that thank you I can certainly send something out thank you are you uh thank you uh up next item number seven our student uh comment and our student delegate report you're up Faith um most students in health assisting actually pass their CNA exams and then we also have 11 students who are in Co-op for earning more than minimum wage in three different programs um dery's

Deca actually had a successful fashion show fundraiser representing clubs and sports um the school last week showed its appreciation for counselors who are busy scheduling for next year not me though I'm leaving I'm graduating um ARA Cooper is a guest speaker from Chicago that'll be talking about rowing opportunities in the city um students from Portu will be visiting in March for

the third year in a row um and then also I found out today that 13 dery students are nominated for Youth of the year and then in the athletic department uh they're partnering with Kyle care which will be having a guest speaker on February 15th to talk about mental health and the National Honors syst Society um induction ceremony is coming up so I would like to invite all members and I will be sending out a formal

invitation soon and if you just who there's somebody that's nominated for Youth of the year do you know who that is um I don't have a list I do it's Faith so I just want I'm sitting near of the Year nominee it's Brad congrats I might I might as well Mr Mayor embarrass her a little bit more but she got her license this week she was nominated for Youth of

the year she's having a pretty good and she got a lecture from Mr Corey about safe driving so it's all wrapped up it's the end to her the end to her Mr chairman but but to Faith and and and the other nominees from dery high school it's so important for our community to understand this school is turning out Scholars it's doing the work it's doing the hard work every single day and

sometimes only the bad news leaks out to the community but that's a whole bunch of great news congratulations faith and to all of your your your student colleagues they're doing great work thank you um I I do before I get to the approval of the am minutes um we were informed that a young man came down he wanted to talk at uh czon input he got here a little bit late uh am I right

guys Steph is that you it better be something good I'm going ask the committee to wave the rules and to Second All In favor I opposed unanimous come on down three minutes better all be good stuff Su dressed up especially because you get dressed up thank you thank you good evening school committee members and Mr Mayor thank you for having me here tonight my name is Jacob McArthur I'm 16 and a junior at dery

high school today I'd like to bring to your attention a new Poli policy that dery high school would like to enforce that I and many others find absolutely appalling to say the least the new policy was announced about three weeks ago at our halfe assemblies they typically go over new policies to keep students informed on the rules of the school and keep everything in order when on the topic of summer school however

they mentioned a new policy that would be possibly enforced for summer that new policy is a fee that families would have to pay for their child to attend summer school I found this policy so shocking personally that I decided to email Mr Lima one of the vice principles here at dery and he stated quote Ben it has been discussed through upper management and our admin team that this would be

enforced now the idea of making struggling families pay for summer school that's technically already paid for through taxpayer dollars is absolutely baffling to me um this policy seems predatory considering that fall has some of the highest poverty rates and some of the um lowest grades in Massachusetts I was originally going to Simply email the school committee about this issue but I feel that the families

of follow over also have a right to know about this new fee that they may need to pay this upcoming summer I hope that you all as school command members will address this sooner or later and make the right decision for the families and students of Fall River thank you thank you um I'm getting mixed messages on your message who told you that uh Mr vice principal okay Mr dearis one question you know anything about it

that's thank you go ahead thank you for Mr MacArthur any uh okay so we have a number item number see that right I mean we're look into excuse me did I just hear that right no he he might he might have got he might have got some misinformation all so we're going to get it clarified just matter I don't think that sounded accurate I haven't heard that have you heard it Miss B oh man

oh come on down Matt Scott I'll check on on that statement and confirm it or or clarify it for everyone as soon as possible I get a text going right now I will say that over the last several years with the Esser money uh summer programs were funded throughout the district at no charge but historically there was a fee a nominal fee for summer school um and through grants and other uh funding

streams um it was paid for over the last several years I know that money is drying up um but I have not been actively involved in a discussion that said that all students are paying for summer school so I'm going to clarify why that was said at an assembly thank you okay anything uh further I just have a question when we're talking about s Mr Maris if you're walking away but you can

answer from there um when we're talking about summer school we're not just talking summer activities optional we're talking about summer school for kids that need to earn credits or credit all yeah yes okay that's you all set yeah I'm good okay we have a number of uh minutes that need approval uh I'd like to take them as a bundle we have the seven item seven one is the approval of the minutes for the

special education alternative education Early Childhood subcommittee 72 is the approval of minutes for the instructional subcommittee from 14 item 73 is the approval of minutes for the regular school committee 18 item 74 is approval of minutes for facilities and operations subcommittee from 118 and finally 75 is the approval of minutes from the parent and community outreach subcommittee meeting any

questions on those I have a motion second any discussion de could you please call the role Mr a yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss L yes Miss Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes item number eight is the we have one travel request uh it's a it's a travel request to Cranston East can I get a motion in a second motion motion second I have a motion to Second any discussion on the

trip to Cranston East uh Deb could you please call the role Mr a yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Perera yes M Rodricks yes yes mayor cgan yes item number nine we have three donations I'm sorry three donations um we'd like to accept them um before they describ miss uh can I get a motion a second so moved second I have a motion in a second Deb

could you please call the role Mr agan yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Perera yes M rodri yes mayor C yes uh superintendent Pont thank you from pestone Foundation to the Early Childhood Program uh Miss Mrs FAS uh accepts $35,000 donation to be used for the parent child program from Bay Coast Bank to health to the health and physical education department Mr Fitzgerald accepts a $500 donation to

purchase t-shirts for the adapted fizzed uh bowling field trip and from the family's first parenting programs to Early Childhood Mrs FAS accepts a $500 don donation to cover parent program expenses thank you to all thank you superintendent item number 10 we have a few grants here um does anybody have any discussion points on any of the grants hearing none motion to approve oh I have a motion I have a second any

discussion Deb could you please call the role Mr yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes M lar yes M Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayy cgan yes item number 11 approval of contracts we have a number of contracts there one two 3 four five any anybody want any of those contract items pulled centy pav sentury Paving please pulled sentury Paving any others can I get a motion in a second on the

rest motion motion second I have a motion second dab on everything but Century paven could you please call the role Mr yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes M lar yes M Perera yes M rodri yes Mayan yes um Century Paving Mr Agia just had a question on this I think uh I recall some kind of uh work being done last year for a chiller pad at Henry Lord and I don't

know if this is the same or is this a different project it's it's same project AA there's um the work that was done last year was a little bit of demolition work just to uh take out the old unit what we need to do now is remove the infrastructure from that particular unit build a new pad um some excavation a retaining wall and uh some road work uh from that new pad area uh completely

around the building to uh the play area in the back so this was this was never meant for in-house work this is road construction work this is big machinery that we don't have and it's not in-house work it was never intended to be in-house work we did what we had to in-house along with some equipment to remove the in-house stuff but this particular work was never meant to be in-house we don't have ability to do a

cement floor CH for the chiller that was already done a cement pad for the chiller that's not finished that was never done the removal of a the removal of some of the pad for the old um cooling tower was part of what we did in-house and it was never last year going to be an in-house job this was never to be an in-house job thank you motion to approve second I have a

motion to second on Sentry Paving dad would you please call the rooll Mr ago yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes M lar yes M Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor C yes Committee of the whole item 12 item 121 ends the discussion and vote to approve for of a you soccer lease renewal as referred by the facilities and operation subcommittee and presented by Ken Pico motion I have a motion second and any

discussion on the renewal for far use soccer hearing none Deb would you please call the role Mr yes Mr Bailey M Cory yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor cgan yes 122 piggybacks on that it's a discussion and vote to approve the Far Over use soccer shed placement as referred by the facilities and operations subcommittee presented by Ken Pico motion to approve second I have a motion a second any

discussion Deb yes oh Mr Cory more of a comment uh Mr chairman I'm just happy that we uh have a great partnership with for of Youth Soccer and that they're able to use our facilities it shows that we are an engaging in a small community that care about one another with that I yield thank you um did we did we call the rooll on that de no okay Deb please

call the role Mr yes Mr Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes M lar yes M Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes 123 is a discussion and vote to approve the program of studies course catalog addendum at dery high school as referred by the instructional subcommittee and presented by Matt dearis principal of dery High School Mr dearis so I believe you had uh sent along to you uh our proposed addendum to the

program of studies that articulates our credit recovery options and it does so in a way that uh gives families all of the information in terms of when these options are available how to access them and their points of contact uh for uh the family and the student when students struggle academically any questions for Mr dearis Mr Agia just the same comment that I continually make about

um the nth grade like when a kids comes in in nth and they're not doing well I think that we're missing the opportunity to uh provide some of these opportunities for those kids and I know we've talked about it and maybe there's something coming up in the future but um it still just doesn't sit right with me that we let a kid and I'm saying this not you fail for the whole year and

before we say well maybe an evolve and sophomore year might help or something so it that's really my only gripe with the the process is what do we do for those younger kids because now once they're behind it just they'll always be behind and I I just think we're missing the vote on it but I'll probably be the only one to vote against it but I'm going to be voting against thank you any further

discussion uh do I have a motion to second that no I need a motion second motion second DB would you please call the role Mr AA no Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks now mayor cougan um yes um okay 124 and discussion and vote Disclosure by our attorney Bruce Assad of the financial interest of immediate family members and determination by the school committee that the financial

interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the Integrity of his Services which is in the school committee may expect of him as motion approve motion to approve I got a motion second discussion one question um I'm sorry Mr Cory then Mr a but in all my years Mr chairman I've known that attorney Assad has sat Faithfully on this board and has executed with near Perfection he's a

brilliant attorney for us and with family members working in the district they have been completely appropriate in their own respective roles and as far as to my observation for the work that they do not only are they appropriate but they're far and above they given this District a phenomenal amount of service pride and integrity those are my comments I yield um Mr AGA yeah has nothing to do with this particular

question but it's meant for the superintendent I would guess if we're doing this in this case we should be getting more of these and I've been asking and for some reason I can't get them but um this is totally appropriate done the right way I'm assuming by the letter of the rule but if that's the case they shouldn't be like the only only one we see just in general people do have family members and they should

do this exact process so we can get that through and if you could check into that and if it's not happening we need to get it done ASAP so everyone that has the same situation can be treated exactly the same Asad is here I yield thank you thank you um do I I have a motion to second that you do I do please call the role Mr a yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss

larvi yes Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor KGAN yes 125 is a discussion and vote to approve the addition of a cluster coordinated position to the special ed Department as referred by the special ed alternative Edge and early childhood subcommittee motion approve second I have a motion the second presented by Lori obain any discussion on this item hearing none Deb would you call the

role Mr yes Bailey Mr Cory yes M lar yes M Perera yes M rods maryan Sor yes excuse me 126 is the presentation and discussion of the proposed fiscal year 2025 annual budget of the for of public schools as presented by Maria Pon superintendent of schools thank you if we could just I think that because we have some on Zoom we have to um go go off the stage and

for folks to see he's going to Scott you're going to bring down the

screen presentation is in the binder if anybody wants to follow along presentation is in the sh we shelle we'll put it up on the screen for you you'll be able to see it Sarah I apologize I'm okay over here don't

worry you can do it it's like I

think thank you good evening so um actually this Kevin and I are going to be um piggybacking for this budget presentation he's going to take on the technical side um and we'll be going back and forth but tonight marks actually the beginning of our budget process process right so we voted um on the budget calendar Etc and we've done work background work and tonight what we are going to do is we're going to hand

over your binders today yes I I I know that every year we go back and forth on this but um we are formally presenting you our draft budget for the follower public school department it is meant to be uh handed over to you today so that you can take it home so that you can look at it digest it dig into it give us some feedback we are open to all of those

things so that we can present a budget that's that's fiscally responsible and is sustainable that's been our goal all along so um we have our presentation we'll go over that with you you will take that um Miss cabal is reaching out to all of you so that we can um uh schedule our two budget meetings uh according to the schedule and at that time you'll be able to ask us questions about the budget we'll have principles

and department heads here at meetings so that they can ask questions in regards to um you know what they're thinking was and I will say that this process um with we we met with our principles worked with our department heads this was different um this process because um for the last few years we've been very lucky um money has not been an object right we've had um SRA funds um certainly with

the increase uh the the S SOA which increased the formula for um uh uh student funding really uh we've been in a good place and we are in a good place financially we have a responsibility we know that Sr funds are expiring at the end of September and we are in a place where now we have to create a budget that's sustainable we've added so much support we have layers of support in

schools what I've told principles is we've build the infrastructure and now we have to make that infrastru infrastructure work for us so our budget is a financial tool it's a communication vehicle we're going to communicate what our needs are it's a living document we're going to get feedback from you um and we'll make adjustments accordingly and it acknowledges the work that's been

done and acknowledges the work that's ahead and it's a complement to our district planning it really is a statement to what we value it continues to be I said this last year and it continues to be a statement of what we value we're going to put our money where are in our resources where we need to so that we can position ourselves our students our staff to be successful so that budget is a moral

document what we fund is what we value it's a moral it's what we have to do what is right what we know is deep inside of us that we know it's ethically right to support our students in our schools so that we set ourselves up for Success so we started by surveying our student our um department heads and our principles and ask them what their priorities were if you notice the priorities look familiar and they

should I know that um uh uh sometimes we think okay if something's not working let's throw it out no we need to stay the course we need to with not with everything we need to make adjustments accordingly uh but we know that this is what our department heads and our principles identified what we've identified as a collective group are our priorities we want to invest in core instruction we want to continue to

invest in curriculum instruction and assessments we have done a great job with building consistency across the district you know uh uh we hear a lot about high quality instructional materials uh desie is um has made it their prior priority to make sure that districts um uh invest in that and we are ahead of the game we have used uh a lot of our s of funding to build our infrastructure and to make sure that we

have what we need so that our people can be successful um special education we all know is a priority Miss Obin Shan has been working um diligently with her team on program reorganization expansion creating more opportunities for inclusion um that continues to be a priority multilingual Learners we have our numbers have increased with multilingual Learners we are making sure that we have the right uh program

improvements in place so that all of our students are able to be successful we have a dual language program at VIIs that we've started that continues to roll over we need to make sure that we go through that cycle to assess its Effectiveness Human Resources it's no secret that we need to invest on Recruitment and Retention of our staff we every month I come up here and I tell you the people that we hire the people

that we've lost we need to prioritize Recruitment and Retention we need to work with our um neighboring colleges we need to um also we are in the process of um bargaining with all of our units and that needs to be a priority in making sure that we are competitive with all of our neighboring districts instructional technology and student information we've invested a lot in technology I think that a few years back um I

remember the days of covid when we were struggling trying to figure out who you know how do we get Chromebooks in people's hands that's not an issue now we need to have a capital plan so that we are able to replace some of those aging devices so that we have a a a plan in place so that we can grow and deepen that work facilities and operations we've done done a lot of good

work proactive work in our schools we are using Esser funds to improve air quality in many of our schools investing in h vac systems we've done a lot of work with with the monies that we've had to make sure that our buildings are kept up we need to continue to do that we don't want to wait for something to break in order to fix it right um so uh facilities and operations and being

proactive and having plan in place student support and strategic integration we need to make sure we have for the first time we have a full compliment of senior staff and umcl work um curriculum resources for our students uh in in social emotional learning Partnerships uh Dr B has worked tirelessly to bring in Partners um to our schools parenty Miss Kudo had it that's really she's launched that and

it's really taking off so we need to create up uh other opportunities to support our students as well as our families and we need to continue to invest in our College and Career Pathways and that's early Co our early college is a model for the state um I just last week they were presenting at Bridgewater State uh our numbers have increased a lot of those kids our first generation college students we need to

continue to do that but we also need to continue to invest in our alternative programs I think Mr agar just said what are we doing uh catching these kids early so they're not falling apart and uh uh under credited in 10th Grade so let's let's be creative and figure out how we're going to support our students this committee has done an incredible job in uh making some significant uh

Investments to make sure that we have what we need that's not the issue I remember the days when that was the issue that's not the issue we have the resources we need to make sure that now we are deepening that work our priorities are result of these of the collective work and that we are using this work uh all of our funds all of our resources to uh impact student achievement because ultimately that's

what we're focused on so Kevin so the foundation formula is uh essentially the foundation budget so the foundation budget is the adequate level of spending that's provided to us by the state the foundation budget is the minimum spending amount by the state and so as part of the foundation budget there are two components the two components are the required local contra contribution and the chapter 78 the

required local contribution is the amount that's provided by the city to us on an annual basis and the Chapter 70 figure you know through the formula is what's left over that is provided by the state so the key factors in the formula are these six pieces here that you know make up the funding and so the key factors are the student enrollment uh the wage adjustment Factor uh inflation

property value income and the municipal Revenue growth factor and these these items are what's establishes the foundation budget and the local contribution and that's how it works to get to chapter 7 so this here essentially is the foundation budget for the fall of Republic schools and as you can see these are all the components there are 13 components uh to the formula and for each component we receive additional

amount um a different amount of money based on the needs some are weighted more heavily than others uh but this is is our breakdown and so as you it's kind of hard to see the right hand side of the slide but uh the total enrollment figure is just over 12,000 students and just you know for the Public's consumption the those totals uh include the charter schools so it includes the

Atlantis Charter School and it includes Argy so it's our Public School enrollment plus those two schools and that's what's made up and so we we work as a pass through so part of the money goes to directly to them so just for the public consumption and so this is essentially what the foundation budget is the found it shows you that the foundation budget is oh sorry is just under $243 million it's kind of hard to

see the right hand side there but the foundation budget per pupil cost is 19532 so I'll go a little further into uh the details here so these here are the rates that um are used in all those categories I'm not going to bore you to death but you know the rates are all a little different and it's all weighted and so as you can see the bottom the bottom portion here where it talks about

low income that's where we get um a big majority of our funding and um so you can see the ratings once you move from group so there are 12 groups we fall in the in the next slide I'll show you where we fall but it ranges from $4,000 a student all the way to 8,514 of students so again this is the low income these are the rates and as you can see the

slide up and we fall into category 12 so for each one of our uh students within the low income category which we are at 81.6 one% we get 8,514 17 per student so this is this is the state formula and so the Statewide Foundation budget is 14.51 n billion state wide for all districts and the state um establishes a 5941 split Statewide 59% is funded by cities and towns 41% is funded by

Chapter 70 the remainder and so this is just a breakdown of you know what those figures are um and the local contribution is made up again of the income effort and the property property effort and what and how that contributes to the total there okay so net School spending again net School spending is a foundation budget it's the minimum amount 100% of legally required net School spending is the

minimum minimum amount a community must spend on education it's codified by Chapter 70 Mass General law so the actual net School spending it includes the town and City and direct costs as well towards education so the last piece of the budget puzzle is the indirect costs and so the city's able to charge off what what's known as indirect costs to uh the school department and so there are costs

that sit outside the education budget that are outlined in our indirect cost agreement that um get charged off to the schools and get charged off on the city Side those costs are costs such as Retirement uh health insurance there's an administrative cost and the cost for the charter school is also set out there as well so the student Opportunity Act um in 2019 the student Opportunity Act came in

came in play um it was signed into law and it was signed in to provide adequate funding to all districts and so the funding was to uh be provided to all districts over a seven-year time frame uh this year is actually the fourth year but um the first year the state did not fund not fund the amount so they're going to fund they're funding it over six years so we are in year four of six

and what uh what what was determined or what happened was that the it was found that costs such as lowincome students uh special education costs Fringe benefit costs cost for English Lang language learning students and all those costs were underfunded and so what the student Opportunity Act is doing is bringing those costs up to level and making it essentially making everybody whole uh to where they belong

sorry so the student Opportunity Act also changed the low-income threshold um so now the low income amounts are pre-populated by the state and it's preop again there in three Cate it's done three ways it's identified as participating in the state public assistance programs uh it's we verified as low income through the supplemental data collection process and for students who are reported as homeless and as you

can see Statewide the number decreased uh by about 7,000 from last year so this slide just shows um is just a picture of um what our students this is who we are uh our enrollment in F if you look at FY 23 our enrollment was 10,268 um and over two year two-year period we've had a change of 388 we've added 388 students we also have the demographics there if you see that the

plus and the minus what we've gained and what we've lost and if you look at the bottom you have first language Learners this I I just want to point out this is as of October 1st these numbers because we've seen um those numbers increase so our first uh um English language learners for instance is n was 19.2 went up to 21.3 22.7 and it's it's actually higher than 22.7 now um but

they what they use is the October 1st figures um if uh you can see that I high needs have been flat uh the numbers there's been very little change students with disabilities those numbers also if you look at 23.3 then we we went down a little bit and look where're the number that was reported on October 1st was 25.2 but I know those numbers are higher than 25.2 as Miss soin chain will tell

you the next slide just take gives you a five-year picture of where we were with with the um these four groups the English language Learners in 2019 um to um if 2020 to 2024 where we were um and how our percentages have increased and um we have the numbers for lwi income as well as students with disabilities and high needs um very interesting the high needs is is is kind

of flat but um those numbers have a slight difference the the low income from 79.9 last year to 78.5 and um you can see that the students with disabilities and I believe right now our students with disabilities number is at around 30 hovering around 30% um and the um El numbers are hovering around 25 so we know that those numbers change but these are the numbers that were reported out in um uh on

October 1st so our enrollment in prek we have added 94 students from last year again October 1st enrollment in K to 5 we have had a plus of 137 students in grades 6 through 8 we've seen a growth of 14% uh 14 more students 9 through 12 we've lost 68 students from last year and K to 12 177 students from last

year so this here here is a representation of all those C of most of those categories we talked about before showing you a graphic of the change from FY 24 to fy2 so you can see how the enrollment changed and fluctuated in each category this here is just a representation of the dollar amounts that we're getting in each category um so you can see um you know the total 226

544 for last year of our FY 24 and the figure for 24284 296 for fy2 as you can see the the largest category of the total is the low income category where you can see the increase from just just under 76 million to about 85 million there so all I'm not going to read those priorities again but it strategically we have placed them throughout our um PowerPoint because it's important

for us to always be reminded of why we're doing what we're doing and why we have been intentional with our budget so here on this uh slide what you see is the budget planning parameters uh the Outer Circle is the state's um uh budget process and the inner circle is our budget process uh as a district in November we did budget survey with our principles December school committee approves the budget priorities then

January it goes all the way around uh to where we are so we use best practices for each of our schools we're we're reporting out in cost centers which is different we started that last year because the reg changed anyway and it's a good process it's a good practice anyway students needs Drive every decision that we've ma we we've made and we continue to make we allow our principles to make site-based

decisions uh at reform and we prioritize the the areas of investment it's important like um we C we we can't just have in um we've been very liberal with adding positions throughout the the past three years um very little um knows came out of this committee when people came to the table and said I need this position um this committee has um uh afforded them that opportunity to hire additional staff

um now it's time for us to um say okay we have all these positions we have all these layers of support now what so Chapter 70 state aid 222 m1212 N1 that's a $14 million increase over the final FY 24 chapter 78 that's minimum required increase there is a a built-in $30 increase per student again minimum the city contributes 4,711 19,5 that's an increase of $2,198 556 uh dollars that's over the last

year's budget right required City contribution the appropriation is 200 if you add both of those up 242 m840 296 that's an increase of 16 Mill 295 $370 over the final FY 24 required net School spending this is required we're not asking for extra this is what's required for us to be at 100% net School spending and that's what you have that figure for the mayor nice and big I can

tell so what are we spending all this money on okay so as I said this is this was a different budget Pro process um this budget includes extra positions but not necessarily positions that we just allowed principes to come to the table and say hey I need three more teachers I need this I need that right from the beginning we told them we need to build a budget that's sustainable we've had

positions in Esser um that we've been funding through Essa grants it is time for us to move those positions over right so we have in this budget we have 48 you see the point1 two 2.81 that's because Esa funding expires on September 30th so up until September 30th we will pay out of there and then it will be out of the operating so 48 positions for teach teaching positions and I will say

most of those are um ESL positions special needs positions uh we do have uh the 2501 building that needs to be staffed so that's T is taking a bulk of those positions um Paris 31 roughly 30 uh to par positions Community facilitators counselors instructional support Liaisons nurses and on and on we've also the total operating budget we have 116 positions right and then we have grant funding

we've moved from Esser into Title One three counselors two department heads a vice principal and a teacher so those the total Grant positions but if you look at the next slide you look to see so we added 48 but you have previously on SR funds now in fy2 operating budget that gives you the difference the positions that we're actually sliding over because s Sr funds are expiring okay so this is the comparison for uh

from for fy2 to fy2 24 again showing you the differences uh you know from one year to the other the change of 195 in enrollment from fy2 to fy2 24 the increase of 16, 295 370 to the foundation budget uh the required local contribution nearly 2.2 million and chapter 78 14, 968 thou 814 so again required net School spending for this year is 242 840 296 um so Chapter 70 this year is 83.2

3% of the total um for of the 242 million so this this comes right off the dec website when they formulate all of our all all of our amounts for each district and this just shows the trend uh of the funding over the last five years it actually doesn't show um the fy2 and I'm not sure why but it's just not there yet but it would actually be

it should be 26 to so it would just be going up on the upswing for uh fy2 so again this is our fy2 budget so the budget we are proposing is 100% net School spending we're proposing a budget that totals 242 mil 84 296 it is 16, 295 370 more than last year um in what we call Net school and items that are eligible for net School spending so I know there was some confusion last

year around Transportation so I just wanted to be sure that we had a slide on transportation to explain the uh Transportation um appropriation that we are proposing to the committee so uh I'm we are projecting a cost of 13.8 million in total for transportation um we are putting in for 1, 42720 to cover a of District transportation for next year that's representative of the amount that we are

receiving this year associated with Transportation uh we're committing a million dollars as part of the late liquidation process in eer 3 for preschool Transportation um and $500,000 to come from mckin vento at this time so the transportation appropriation that we are recommending for fy2 out of the operating budget is 10,897 280 so like anything else you know we you know these are you know our concerns you

know and a lot of times they're the same for each year um so our concerns are Transportation you know the Char of school school choice expenses uh aedis special ed we we've seen a big increase this year in that area uh utilities our Capital costs and you know being able to maintain it from year to year and what in what comes and goes and what goes down uh health insurance

increases and at this at this time the unknown contract negotiations so this slide just provides you an update of where we stand with our covid relief funds with all of our s grants so sr1 ended 93022 uh there is zero funds remaining in that Grant sr2 uh ended 93023 that Grant is also fully spent s three which is the grant we are still working on we're still spending down um

started off with a balance of just over $39 million at this time the balance is about $12 million we still have expenses and things that are being paid out of there we have salaries that are still being paid out of there and being paid out of there through 9:30 um and so Sr 3 is a continuation of Sr 1 and two and we've continued those items through Sr 3 and this slide just provides you with an

update of where we stand at this time so this is just just showing you in four categories where the expenses lie as compared to FY 24 and this is representative of our operating budget which includes Transportation here so the operating budget that we're moving forward to you is an operating budget totaling 186 6 667 686 and the budget for this year was 174 mil 172 138 which was which is an increase of about 7% as

you can see um the majority of the expenses lie in the salary and benefits area that is the largest chunk of our budget and there you have it I just want to before we end um Kevin has been uh morning noon and night working through this budget process um just want to acknowledge our team Dr Curley Miss Obin chain Dr Bernhard Mr Pico um Mr Coogan Mr cabal um our secretaries uh admin

assistants U Miss cabal Miss Sor Miss Vado our principales and their leadership teams um all the senior Department directors Mr michon from f as well as um f Mr akley and and all of you because um the only way we can uh create a budget that's responsible and um sustainable is with everybody working together

okay

um obviously between the presentation and the uh binders we have tonight there's a lot to digest um and I'm sure everybody will take a look at their areas and things they're concerned about and we'll have ample opportunities at the budget hearings to discuss it so I appreciate every's attention item 127 is a discussion and vote to approve the brightly contract as referred by the facilities and operations subcommittee

and presented by Ken Pico Chief Operating Officer motion approve second I have a motion to Second any discussion hearing none Deb would you please call the rooll Mr yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss larv yes M Pereira yes M rodri yes mayor kouan yes 128 is a discussion and vote to approve the lease renewal for 300 North Eastern Avenue as referred by the facilities and operation subcomittee

and presented by Ken Pico Chief Operating Officer motion approve motion I have a motion second any discussion hearing none Deb would you please call the role Mr AG yes Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss larvi yes Miss Perera yes M Rodricks yes Mary cougan yes 129 is a discussion and vote to prop approve the proposal form RTA Architects and opms for a chapter 34 building and access code compliance assessment of the Robert

El maderis resiliency Preparatory Academy as referred by the facilities and operations subcommittee and presented by Ken bico Chief Operating Officer motion approve second have a motion a second any discussion Deb please call the role Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes M Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes 1210 is a discussion and vote to approve the superintendent evaluation

tool as referred by the evaluation subcommittee and presented by Maria Pont superintendent of schools motion second I have a motion to second I any further discussion on this item Mr agar yeah I already made my statement before but can we just get clarity on what the process is right now to move going forward well if you approve this tool then you will all get it and you will complete your individual um evaluations

of me and then uh there will be a composit um that that will be syn synthesized into a composite rating um I will uh I'm working on I I already have most of it my um uh self assessment and my collection of evidence I will submit that to you by the Monday the 26th and you will use it to um to um evaluate me and then um for the March meeting I'm

assuming you would at this meeting you would uh publicly evaluate me thank you my only question my only other question is if does anyone have any um conflicts that they can't participate in this could you repeat the date I don't think he's referring is he referring to a date conflicts conflict I don't think he's referring talking about a date or you talking about no he talking about conflicts with the process

like conf oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I thought you were talking about the date the day of oh is that me I think so I'll get back to you Mr AA on that I know that's a refer to be thank you you're welcome okay all right so we have a a motion in a second any further discussion Deb would you call the role Mr R yes Mr Bailey Mr

Cory yes M lar yes M Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor C yes um item 13 is informational we have a number of retirements new hires resignations and regretfully a few of our former members have passed away could I get a motion in a second to motion to approve of the question second I have a motion a second Mr agar's question please my question is has there I know I brought this up

before has anybody been terminated for cause in this district is that anybody been terminated for cause the it's a Personnel matter it's a Personnel matter Mr yeah superintendent doesn't know that but it that's Personnel um matter that I wouldn't put out a public meeting okay so you can send me something privately thank you I yield may ask a question what are you requesting Mr AA from the

superintendent if anyone in this district has ever been terminated for cause think it's a fair question means meaning if someone's working for the district and they're not doing a good job and they get evaluated or whatever happens has there ever been anyone terminated it's a pretty simple question that's what I'm looking for okay I was just thank you clarifying what you asking thank you can I get a roll call Deb Mr

AGA yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes M Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor cgan yes uh item number 14 any new business to come before the committee Mr agar yeah I know we talked about this last time we since then we've had more leaks we had a piece of cement fall out of the roof at the pay center and we still haven't heard anything related to the new roof can it

happen when it's going to happen how it's going to be paid we've received zero information I can I can help you there Mr AGA anyway would be better than what we've got cuz nothing otherwise I did a tour of the building uh during a rainstorm with Mr alera um um Kenny Pico and his crew have tackled a number of those leaks and the PACE Center directly there was very very

little wet spots I could even find in there there was a leak on a wall in one room but it was I would say it was 95% under control there were some significant leaks in the old part of the building on the stage and in one of the practice rooms that has ALS that they have also been in the process of addressing um Mount Vernon has not gotten back to us with a price but we

felt in the interim the best thing to do was to stop any further damage from going in and Patch the leaks up uh again Mr Pico and his crew done have done a great job there and I did specifically go through there on a day when we had extremely heavy rains and there were no canapes or any of that stuff flying anymore so I was glad to see that the PACE Center was marketly drier than one

of the other times when I had been there and it was wet it I did notice a difference and I believe that tackled some other significant leaks since then but the Wet Side was the old side I'd still like to get something from superintendent or her design on it to make sure we we received a report that said how we were handling it is we make sure that the technology department

has topin tops put over the equipment to protect it that was on the old side but whatever it is it just that shouldn't be that's embarrassing to get that as embarrassing we need the them thing fixed and we need it fixed yesterday okay we talked about the splitting it can it happen split I don't know we still haven't gotten it another month goes by so you can sense my frustration

with it but I do think we need something in writing so we can finally deal with it we're working on it Mr agar thank you thank you with that being said Do we have any reason to go to Executive session through uh um Mr Assad would you read this please sure uh M General law CH 38 section 21 A7 to review and approve the executive session minutes for January 8th 2024 regular school

committee meeting Master general laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the Bing agreement uh including hearing grievances relative to All Professional teaching employees the forward School System including coaches Title One teachers nurses occupational physical therapists and specialists in the teaching profession represented by the FL of Educators Association as the

chairs the determin an open session may have a detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee Mass general laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to Collective Bing relative to all administrators and employees represented by the forward administrators Association as a chair is determined that an open session may have a detrimental impact on a barging position

of the committee Master laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining Rel relative to all cafeteria employees the forward school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as the chair has determined that an open session may have a detrimental impact on the baring position of the

committee Mass general laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining relative to all maintenance employees in the forward school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as the chair has determined that an open session may have a det mental impact on the bogging position of the

committee Master Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to Collective bogging relative to all custodial employees of the former school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as the chair has determined that open session may have a detrimental impact on the barging position of the committee M laws

chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collector Bing relative to all Safety and Security employees of the for school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as the chair is determin and The Possession may have a detrimental impact on a bargaining position of the committee M laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy

with respect to colletive bargaining relative to all civil clerical employees of the forward school system represented by the forward Department of Civil Service clerical employees Association as the chairs determined that open session may have a detrimental impact on a boggling position of the committee M laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the

Bing relative to all power professionals employees of the for school system represented by the Flor of federation par professionals as the chair is determin that open session may have a detrimental impact on a bing position of the committee M Law chapter 38 section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation with non-union personnel and or to conduct contract negotiation with non-union

Personnel including Kevin almea Chief Financial Officer and Anna Dello human resource manager we would reconvene there may may not be statements at that time thank you can I get a motion in a second I have a motion and a second Deb could you please call the rooll Mr a yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory M Cory Cory we're voting there uh say yes you okay there you go M lar yes M yes M rodri yes mayor C

yes

recess session please call the Mr Agia Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes M lar here m Miss Pereira yes here M rodri here Mary Coogan here uh anything further to come before the committee yes Mr chair person I'd like to make a motion to approve the executive session minutes for January 8th 2024 of the regular school committee meeting second I have a motion a second any discussion Deb please call the rooll

Mr AGA Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes anything further yes Mr Mayor I'd like to make a motion to approve the contract uh of Mr Kevin almeer Chief Financial Officer I'll do her second as negotiated yes second I have a motion a second any discussion Deb please call the rooll Mr AGA Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Mr Miss larav

yes M Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor hugan yes and finally Mr mayor like to make a motion to approve the contract of Anna Dello human resource manager as negotiated second I have a motion to Second any discussion on Anna Dello Deb please call the role Mr AGA Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss larav yes Miss Pereira yes M rodri yes may hugan yes entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn

second Deb please call the rooll Mr AG Mr Bailey Mr Cory M Cory yes M larvey yes M Pereira yes Mr Rodricks yes M hugan yes ajour