3.18.2025 Fall River School Committee

I'd like to call to order this special meeting on the Fara school committee for Tuesday March 18th Deb would you please call the role Mr Agia here Mr Bailey Mr Das here Mr Cory here miss larav here miss Pereira mayor cgan here salute to the flag I algi to the flag flag of the United States of America repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy 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 unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible

we have no citizens input tonight so we'll go straight to the committee of the whole these are carryovers from the other night um 3.1 is a discussion and vote to approve the Far River Youth Soccer Association lease renewal and referred by the facilities and operation subcommittee and presented by Ken Pico motion to approve second move I have a motion second Mr Cory second oh any discussion

that please call the role on you Mr Bailey Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss larvi yes Miss Perera mayor Coogan yes 3.2 is a discussion and vote to approve grades 35 Health curriculum pilot as referred by the instructional subcommittee and presented by Dan Fitzgerald director of health and phys so moved second I have a motion to Second discussion people all discussed yeah I should be clear on that

I'm sorry these were at the last meeting meeting there was an issue about some dates so we wanted to make sure we did them properly so we're doing them again tonight so Deb please call the rle Mr Agia yes Mr Bailey Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Mr larvi yes Miss Perera mayor Coogan yes 33 is a discussion and vote to approve the international teacher partnership as referred by the instructional sub committee and

presented by Brian Rosa assistant to approve second second discussion hearing none Deb would you please call the role Mr agow yes Mr Bailey Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes M larv yes M perrera car Coogan yes 34 is a discussion and vote to approve a three-year contract for yellow bus mckin vento and athletic SL activity uh trips serviced by serviced as referred by the facilities and operations approve second

I have a motion a second discussion hearing none Deb would you please call the RO Mr drag yeah yes Mr Mr Bailey Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss larav yes M Perera mayor Coogan yes 35 is a discussion and vote to approve the First Amendment to the lease agreement between the Catholic Church Catholic bishop of Fall River and the forer public schools as referred by the facilities and operations subcommittee and presented by

Ken Pico Chief Operating Officer motion to approve second discussion hearing none Deb would you please call the role Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey Mr D yes Mr Cory yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira mayor Coogan yes and finally and the housekeeping discussion and vote to refer policy bde to the policy subcommittee for further vetting and review as presented by Mimi larvey school committee motion of Grant lead to

withdraw I have a motion from Mr Corey first second I have a motion a second from Mr Cory Mr Das thank you I wish to make a quick comment on this um from the last meeting um my colleague who isn't here right now to my right at the last meeting falsely accused me of playing gcha and my colleague was wrong and here's why the vice chair at the facilities and operations subcommittee stopped the

meeting last week or the week before with concerns of the open meeting law that's all well and good that is an item in my opinion that is considered an emergency something we should vote on right away when our clerk sent out the revised agenda it was noted that it was for items referred out of that that subcommittee that subcommittee that day I do not recall the open meeting law

issue being voted out of the facilities and operation subcommittee over the weekend that past weekend I provided a determination by the division of open government that put the open meeting law issue to bed I noticed the item on the Monday morning agenda when was going through the agenda again I thought the issue would have been dropped at the meeting as the open open meeting law issue in my

opinion was disproven however the vice chair decided to change the argument at the meeting and state without any evidence that her colleagues might use this policy for the wrong reasons that's not what was said at the subcommittee so Mr chair there was a Guta moment at the last meeting however I was not the culprit I believe questions are a good thing and we shouldn't prohibit our

colleagues from asking less questions we should be focused on more important issues so I'll be voting no on this motion okay anything further Mr agar yeah just I want to reiterate as well uh I think we having a school Committee Member go to a subcommittee meeting is not a bad thing it should not be prohibited as we talked about at the last meeting uh the open meeting law allows it attorney Assad attorney Macy

former Corporation Council all said that it's absolutely legal within the bounds of open government open meeting laws so I I think we should leave to withdraw if it does get to policy I I'll attend that meeting to voice my concerns then too but all this is basically doing is if we vote Yes for this motion this is saying that we want to change the current policy which allows any member of the

school committee to attend the subcommittee meeting and ask questions and participate quite frankly I think that's a good thing I don't think it's a bad thing so if you vote Yes for this it's B basically voting to say we want to limit the participation of school committee members at a meeting I'm not in favor of limiting that so I'm going to be voting no I thank you this is just

Mr ragia and Mr Das this these these items all come before the full committee where they're properly vetted my concerns are um a quorum at a subcommittee meeting or someone being implied that there could be a quorum because of comments made by members that aren't part of that committee May influence a vote but again that's also going to be addressed at the full committee so um I appreciate your

candada from both of you but with that being said Mr Cory so um I take I have a different take on this um what's discussed in subcommittee meetings is always has to be referred to the whole committee and the whole committee at that point can take up the discussion not trying to limit questions or discussions but really trying to keep our meetings focused rather than having them run ay

especially with just a plethora of questions that's basically my feeling about it I think subcommittee issues should be very focused and when they're passed and referred to the full committee can ask as many questions as necessary Mr AGA yeah so two things one is to uh Mr chairman to your comment relative to the open meeting law and Quorum we've had that issue in writing by attorneys the City attorney attorney

Assad as well as the division of local government uh the ethics commission all the folks that have said it so the question isn't whether it's going to be considered it has actually been stated that is not so that shouldn't even be part of the discussion the issue of a subcommittee meeting having discussion if someone wanted to go to participate it will actually do the op it will

actually help the situation so that the questions could be vetted at the subcommittee by more members so that when we get to the full committee and people ask questions what we have here on the stage sometimes is somebody everybody just wants to go home some members want to go home so quick so if someone's asking questions and you can watch the tape for yourself they roll their eyes they Mumble they groan and

say oh and more questions coming so this is a way to actually help to make the meetings the regular meeting go smooth by asking your questions to get to the nitty-gritty more granular Topics in a subcommittee so I don't know why this is even going to be referred because it's only going to be taken away something that is the law you guys can vote the way you want I'm voting the way I do i y

thanks I just good I'm no I'm good I said what I had anything further Deb could you please call the role Mr AGA no Mr Bailey Mr Das object just it's carried to the next meeting though oh okay Mr Cory yes Miss Lar yes mayor Coogan yes 37 is the discussion on the what was the objection I don't know I raised an objection to the consideration of the motion pursuant to

um Robert's rules I just don't believe this should be considered at this time as Mr AAR said it was um this is removing basically the law and so I my motion Mr Assad goes to the next meeting I I'm not I'm not familiar with the objection standard at in Robert's rules on the vote um on the vote and um I know that the city council has that rule and it goes to the next meeting but they

have they don't go by the Roberts rules they have a different set of rules that they go by um I don't believe that Roberts rules has that it but if my brother to my my right here believes uh has a copy or has a uh a section of Robert's rules that he wants to show me i' be glad to look at it okay I think I think the objection has to be made

before the vote but I could be wrong I'll leave it up to you Mr chair how you wish to Pro proceed obviously if we if if it's wrong we will correct it like we did the other ones but let's go forward with the discussion on the for public schools fiscal year 2026 budget um I'll turn it over to the superintendent sure so um at at an earlier meeting um we were able

to present the um fiscal year 2026 budget uh to the committee and to the community and tonight we have with us our department chairs from various departments in the district as well as school leaders from our three middle schools RPA Stone and um other departments um in all the Departments as I as I referenced so we have shared um some information with the committee and we have people here tonight to take any

questions um either from the schools or from departments the one thing that I would ask is that we um focus some of the questions um to the extent possible so that a person um doesn't come up to answer some questions and then return to their seat only to be called up later I understand that that might happen but if we could kind of thematically group the questions I think that would be

helpful makes sense okay so why don't we why don't we go uh start off school by School Mr chairman Mr IA just a a general question rather before we get into the comments from the uh directors so Dr Curley my question is the same as I've had for a while now what was the um and I've asked you this in emails as well so it's not a surprise uh what directive or what sort of

uh process did you let the principles and directors know so we can be on the same page with relative to what they were instructed to do or not do add not add uh Advocate not what was given to them so that before we start calling up anybody I at least can know the perspective of oh they weren't told this or they were told that sure uh um I shared with the

committee um I don't know maybe it was a month ago or something uh the the basically like a template that was shared with all of our school leaders and departmental leads at the district level and basically it was it was offered as uh for consideration in terms of preparing their budgets for um I think every school leader used that template and um created a presentation that they used during their budget

meetings in some of the and we got some from departments as well in other in most of the Departments it might have been used as a guide but the and we had discussions at the table but it wasn't necessarily presented back using the template so I've shared with the committee the presentations from the school leaders as well as any departments who used it and then I provided the committee with all of uh

the other backup that was shared by departments and so the directive or the I guess I would call it a directive was to use this presentation as a guide as you create um as you prepare for your budget meetings so were they allowed to add if they felt they needed to were they like to throw it on the table what ever their request position so had sure we had um there there weren't a lot of asks

in terms of additional positions many of the asks came in the form of converting a position that uh maybe a you know a school leader would say maybe a particular position had kind of run its course it served a purpose for you know particular amount of time and they were looking to convert it to a position that they needed I did um I I would say that the guidance I don't have it in front of me

but I I sent the it twice out to the school leaders um and in departmental leaders and there was definitely some language in there that said like it could be it would be a tough cell really to um just create new positions that we didn't already have so I was encouraging people to look for um opportunities for any conversions for the most part that's what people brought back and then some

people did ask for just additional positions and the uh on that same was there any agreements in place other between schools related to the budget we're all going to go all in we're all going to not not add stuff or oh I I would I don't know and how about with um you said the presentations so I know I we talked earlier via um email about presentation information backup information so I was received the

committee received at 9:00 last night the special education slides which I'm assuming was part of the original budget it was presentation so we just got that so I did see that one and I saw the 105 pages from Mr Pico today is there any when you're saying presentations from the other people I don't recall getting any of those so so the principal ones were shared via email you had got those were

the first ones that you received a couple days after um you know the week of the meeting that we had and then and because we said that you know the next day we would post the budget and we would send the backup so that week we sent the backup the principal backup was a couple two weeks ago so those were the first ones we um I believe that special education was the um the the department

maybe maybe the only Department that used the same structure in terms of a presentation and that and that was just inadvertently like left out when we sent the the school ones and then I'll be honest with you you I got the email from you like what about the backup I had looked through the um like some previous budget binders and hadn't seen you know I I looked through I didn't realize that

anything had been shared so I thought that the presentations that we shared from the principles was actually more information that had been previously shared um and inadvertently did not share the packet of information um all of the handouts and discussion items that were shared you know at those departmental meeting than yep the only my only comment would be is that I have looked at some of the 105 pages so i'

ask your Indulgence if I have questions tomorrow sure relative to that just uh my focus is on the unfunded positions and the changes because I think that's where some of the dialogue should be sure thank you I yeld any further comment this time all right so I guess what we'll do is uh run through the schools uh at the top we have the first school is the stone K12 school um Miss larvey

yes so I have a question there's oh uh sure so well we'll see maybe so I just have a question I don't know uh Madam superintendent on dedicated space to address uh immediate situations whether the trauma situations disruptive uh situations at Stone is there space available for those situations for like a oneon-one for yes there is yes okay that's all okay thank you anything further on

Stone oh I'm sorry Mr AG yes I had a question for the principal

I just uh most of my focus is going to be on either the unfunded positions or asks or if there was movement within conversions or anything like that so looking at it on the unfunded list you have a teacher of Visual Arts was a request yeah can you talk to us about the rationale for that and what uh so we have two itinerant teachers who come in and provide uh each two days a week of

um music Mary Ellen can you speak more into the mic that better I don't usually get told I'm not qu I'm not loud enough so we have somebody who comes two days a week to do art we have somebody who comes two days a week to do music one of um our heart's desires has been to have somebody who can also do some therapeutic arts groups with with our

students and the idea that if we had a full-time person in the building that could help us get that going um that would be extremely beneficial to our kids so that's why we've asked for to take those two positions away those two itinerant positions um and then to convert either our one of our isls or our community facilitator position into a full-time unified Arts position what was the second one it's a community

facilitator and that's on the reduction list too that that is a a position we have never been able to fill so it's a vacancy it's a vacancy correct so if I'm looking at this you're looking at you got a you asked for a teaching position based on what you just said you're not getting that and you're red reducing a filled position and you have a vacant position we are reducing the vacant position is

facilitator position what's that what are you getting for that at the stone school I was hoping that that and removing the two itinerant would cover a unified arts teacher a new what a unified arts teacher so removing pardon me is that here or am I missing something that should be in there that's the only thing that we requested was to change those that position the community facilitator

position remove the two it itinerant teachers that do point you know two days a week and replace all of that with a unified arts teacher that's what we is that what you're calling Visual Arts or am I yeah Visual Arts sorry yeah yeah right so something's not adding up what's not adding up so if I'm looking at this and it's not the you're the first one on the list so not in person

no no the no problem wish list which is unfunded based on the administration saying that they felt it was not funded right whatever call it what you want didn't make the cut yep 70 grand that in here but now I'm looking at reductions and you're explaining that you have reductions that equal almost that amount of money and then some if you took the if you're going to reduce the two itinerant

teachers mhm and that's 0. 5.5 you would say one point that means one well they're not quite. 5.5 whatever it whatever it is two days whatever that what I'm not getting is your school is getting cut yes don't know I don't know the answer to that actually well I'll I can help you with it okay so you have right now you have a position that's filled that's getting cut right on this on this sheet here the

ISL position oh okay so that's getting cut you currently have a position with a person in it 35 40 Grand that's no longer going to be in your build and you're not adding anything you requested to add something that went on the wish list so you're getting cut at least 40,000 then you're going to get cut a community facility Ator who is a vacant position which is probably somewhere

else in the budget that's another 30 or 40 Grand so you're getting cut 80 grand in case just the way I see it okay so I I would just want to um offer some kind of response so the community facilitator position was not cut there is um there is a cut in the position of the instructional support liaison and that was something that we discussed during the meeting there were two requests for

uh um Fine Arts fine and Performing Arts unified Arts teachers one was at RPA and one was at Stone they they were they both ended up on the on the wish list and show up as um I think what I shared it to you it shows up as like not prioritize for funding or something like that there were a couple lists that I shared part of that is because the we're looking at

potential movement elsewhere um in terms of unified Arts positions um you know across all of them whether it's health and PE and um as well as fine and Performing Art and things like that and that's the reason it's not this just straight up sorry you are not getting that um we are it just it it didn't feel like it needed to be done now because we think there could be some movement

moving forward so I mean that's the that's the short story but there were not two positions cut the community facilitator is still funded in the budget um the instructional support liaison that we discussed that you I don't want to say recommended to be cut but said this is a position we could do without um that was cut and we are we are still looking at the way we might be able

to fund maybe it's a singular position across the two schools this isn't a matter of kind of replacing the two-part part-time with a fulltime it would be adding a fulltime she's not she wouldn't be losing the itinerant Staffing or or those um periods for um for unified Arts it would be additional so I just wanted to be clear about that oh okay does that make sense to you that

makes sense to me yes if if that's the direction that we're going in yeah just that I'm just looking at it as straight up what we have and when I say you cut if you have expositions this year and your isl's getting laid off or reduced whatever you want to call it within the confines of the contract to me that's a reduction in the stone school that's just how I see it the other piece of it

is if if we're getting stuff on I'm looking at the original listed of unfunded positions and expenses it says Visual Arts Stone new position not didn't make the cut right what I would suggest is in the comment section it might make more sense to put what you just said to say that we're going to look at it in a a different way we're going to reconfigure staff so I'm

looking at this as she asked for it at the stone it didn't get funded and that's why I wanted to ask you the questions do you have any other movement in in or out of your uh we are very happy with what we have great U Mr elme you jumped up is that no I just it was answered so I just y the only thing I would suggest and I'm going to probably

ask the same questions right down the list so thank you you're welcome anything further Mr Das oh sorry thank you um do the timeout rooms at Stone have any live to bance for security purposes right now we do not actually at the moment have timeout rooms at Stone we had timeout rooms in the old schools we did um we have at Stone we have um a room that we call our in school

suspension room which we don't ever use as a full day in school suspension it's just ISS is a good easy way to refer to it that room we will bring a student to if there's a difficulty that's going on that we need to process with them often what happens at Stone this year is that we bring students to our offices we because now we have off individual office space which we I've never even

had an individual office until this year so we bring the students to our offices process situations with them in that regard and then bring them back when they're regulated to their classroom up until this year we have always had timeout rooms we do not have dedicated timeout space at Stone this year thank you for that and um last question so I see um the not prioritized for funding

and stoned the visual arts that we're discussing was there any other positions that you've advocated for that um were denied no thank you you anything further for stone thanks M you're welcome uh next up is the cuss Middle School cus Middle School does anybody have any qu Mr agar

good evening hi good evening so similar question to the last principal uh looks like you have an operating conversion at the literacy coach yes to ESL coach and I don't know if there's anything else on these sheets but if you could articulate anything that you've asked for or were cut or anything like that the ESL coach is the only request that I made um that is a change to our

budget for next year um and that is because year-over-year our ESL enrollment um has gone up in a pretty significant way we're now at a third of our students um being ESL students right now we um have an ESL coach that is shared across the middle schools in in the district um and just given our number of ESL students and the fact that all of our teachers in the building now

service ESL students um whether they are foundational or mainstream we felt that we needed a a designated ESL coach at our school and we felt that we could do that rather than adding a position through a conversion of uh another coaching position what is the actual conversion of what going so we currently in our budget um have a literacy coach um that is a vacant position right now

um and so we feel that we can support our teachers um with the literacy uh and our mtss programming our intervention so on and so forth um in ela um in other ways and that when we have to make choices for us having the ESL expertise uh really felt like where we needed to uh prioritize so do you have a math coach yes we do that's what they call are you calling

intervent on the uh or chart looks like this it says intervention slash yeah because our our coaches also teach um classes usually intervention classes so you have a is that the same model that's in all the middle schools when I see literacy coach I was just thinking that person's job is to be a literacy coach I don't think it's to teach classes or I don't know if they all teach classes or they not some people

have uh you know department heads which you have the department head OFA so I know so our coaches teach a very limited number of classes um so our math our math coach does one math class a day and then one math intervention small group that's 34 minutes a day the rest of her time is focused on um coaching of teachers and that's how we do it for all of our uh coaches at cus they teach a

very limited number of classes and the rest of their time is focused on coaching I I sorry for I got to look back and I thought you said that Ela coach was vacant you converting we have we have a math coach and we have um we had a literacy coach specifically for our mtss programming and supporting like reading intervention um that position is vacant but we have a Humanities coach in our

building that focuses on us the support of social studies and ELA teachers I am I I just when I'm looking at the big picture of I'm confused and One conv Vision might be something if we had no need excuse me so when I look at the ranking of the cus Middle School the scores test scores and the like I find it a little difficult to say we're going to convert not saying that you need for

the elll that you mentioned and the increases I have a difficult time just saying we saying that we don't need a literacy coach at the school with the third percenti in the Commonwealth on mcass maybe there's a bigger issue maybe there's more issues I don't know budgetarily I think that's a hard personally that's a hard sell to say we're going to convert one of what could be one of the most important positions

uh a quality literacy coach is a quality key position in a middle school and whether it's vacant or not doesn't mean we don't need it and that's what I try to get at sometimes we just have vacancies so it's all convenient I don't have I'm vacant so I'll take it I'll convert it and then later on next year next budget or whatever you or whoever is going to come back to us and say you

know what we need an Ela coach so we do have a Humanities coach in our building we we had a Humanities coach and a literacy coach you think you have too many coaches is that what you're trying to say I I would say to answer that I would say that in if there were infinite resources I would have coaches for every subject right but in a world where there are finite resources and we have to make

difficult decisions I have expertise in my building around Ela around literacy I need additional expertise in my building around ESL given our enormous um ESL growth over the last three years so you're saying that in Humanities which you're considering English I guess Ela and social studies y one person can do that entire work in your school well I also have I I mean I have a department head devoted to that

as well so a department head and one coach is enough to handle all the humanity English literacy issues in your school well we we also have our teachers who so in terms of supporting teachers if I could have it all I would have it all I understand um but in terms of thinking about what I can do with with limited resources I I want to focus on my department head and my Humanities coach

um doing that work and I want to have expertise in ESL that can support our teachers in the building around serving our ESL students I don't argue the ESL Point what I am thinking it doesn't make sense to is when I'm looking at this Aug chart you have a department head of ela and you have a literacy coach and intervention coach literacy and intervention coach Humanities that's two

people you're telling us you can do it one the department head and that person and the teachers is what you're saying I think we I think we can I think we can make do with that one coach in that area I think I mean I think we need to try it I think that's clear what you're saying I'm not I'm just out facts it's not I'm not trying to argue with you I'm just trying to

point out facts but when I look to the right of the same or chart it says department head of math literacy coach in math literacy coach in stem so my it's begging the question then why do we have two there under the math heading but we can do with one in the other is where I'm going with my question so that when we're at the third percentile in the Commonwealth in the in the middle

school I'm having a hard time with understanding why we would cut the literacy coach there maybe there's more to it maybe there's not maybe it's because it was vacant and it's more convenient that's not how we should operate in budgets it should be what is needed and what we're going to go forward with that's one of my concerns the other one is I don't really know how the school's going and we don't really

get updates and uh relative to discipline how orderly it is or anything like that how the needs of the school are being met we only get little bits here and there of somebody calls to complain and sometimes you know they don't call to a compliment typically but I know there's two sides to every story sure when I look at 6 654 students at the cus I look at three Vice principles I look at five School adjustment

counselors I look at four seal Liaisons and I look at two guidance counselors and my initial reaction to that is that's got to be a well-oiled machine that's working everything out there's these kids needs to be in met there's no discipline these kids are right rocking it when I look at this these numbers cuz this is something that school committee has provided a healthy dose of resources

MH absolutely and I'm just giving you an opportunity to say is it is it rocking everything's going smooth is there things you know generally speaking we're trying I would say I would say that we have made real improvements um over the last few years absolutely and it's a continued work in progress I just uh and I'm really proud of the work that my team does every day I want to say

that as well um and uh so I will also say that in terms of the school adjustment counselors and SE liaison um uh one of those School adjustment counselors andal liaison positions came over with the addition of the uh reach program um to cus as well last year and that is a program that uh given the social and emotional needs of those students really need needs that designated Staffing for that program I'm

sure they do and I I support I supported all these positions it just there's a lot of support staff in the school I I don't feel comfortable with the literacy coach piece but that's something the superintendent can take up is there any other issues that you had up or down no other changes no thank you very much are you anyone else Miss lar hi M hi so my uh question is focused on the seaons I

am aware of the the reach program we have you have one uh dedicated to that but can you just briefly tell us uh what the other liaison daily tasks look like are they doing are they doing performing the same job do they have different um tasks throughout the day can you just give me a little bit abouta on the other three not the absolutely so often our seaons are kind of our um First

Responders um if classrooms um need support or if a student um has kind of a a challenge they're facing in the moment um and needs someone to speak to and so we have anaon at each grade level um who is able to be kind of that first line of support but if um there is uh an issue with a student that really is is rising to a higher level of need than our

school adjustment counselors are brought in um to support the student and the family as well um our seel Liaisons are also really critical in our attendance monitoring system um and have a uh a case load of Home rooms that they're really focused on building relationships with students who have been chronically absent and getting those students into school and making those phone calls

every day um our Liaisons do run groups um with students um and but the uh they are often working with what we would categorize more as like our tier 2 students where our sacks are really focused more on on tier Three Needs within the school building okay you you do have a community facilitator right I have it in my budget but it has been a vacant position all year it's a vacant

position all year I was just want okay I didn't is there anything that you foresee that you could probably use the seal Liaisons for another purpose is there something at cus that you could use them for something else outside of what they're doing now well my goal really um is to um really strengthen kind of our restorative um Justice approaches um within our building and our restorative practices and so I do

see over time um our SE liaison really playing um a a critical role in that we have um started some of that this year so when we have students who have a supported structured portion of their day um they are with an seel liaison during that time and other students who might also have kind of a supported structured day and during that time a part of the project a part of the time

is a restorative um project or Reflections on um what maybe happened the day before how they may have impacted the community and then having time with the seazon to really talk through that and process and prepare to um reintegrate back into their classes and repair the harm with a teacher or a fellow classmate and so we have started to um integrate some of that work but I see restorative circles um restorative

conferences as a key pie piece of the work kind of moving forward uh that I'd like for them to take on more of okay are they at all involved in the advisory short periods so right now our SE Liaisons um they they do a lot of uh covering for advisory um quite honestly um which means that they are leading advisory almost every day um because they will be the first ones called upon if uh a

teacher is out that day within their grade level to um um take on the advisory but I do think moving forward um we're looking at like some different timing during the day of our advisories next year um and that will and in that switch of timing and and so on and so forth right now our advisory runs during the lunch periods um so student has lunch for 25 minutes and then they have

advisory um for the rest of the period And so our leaon are on lunch duty um so but next year looking at the change of time for our advisory they will be able to take that on as an actual kind of part of their work every day or as often as we have advisory a few days a week thank you um my last question is you mentioned groups I was going to ask

about groups but can you just give us a brief synopsis on how they run when they run how long they're running what they're about I guess it's not too brief huh but well and so and the answer isn't the same across all groups okay um and it depends on um it depends on the group that's being led the makeup of the group um so we have had but I'll give you some

examples of different groups that we've run um we've had um leadership groups um sometimes we've had male leadership groups sometimes we've had female leadership groups um we have had groups focused on um kind of coping skills and developing coping skills for when students become feel themselves becoming escalated um whether that's angry whether it's frustration whatever it might be um we've had um groups that uh

are around peer uh peer conflict and how to address peer conflict when it comes up the groups um happen during our they don't happen during core academics they happen either during like it could be during a a Lunch Bunch time or it could be during a unified Arts period and typically groups run for 6 to8 weeks okay thank you I yield Mr Corey uh it's a fact that music in the Arts always helped the children uh

academically and emotionally can you just give me a brief brief response on what's going on musically artistically at cuss well I'd recommend that you all come out this Friday or Saturday for our musical Friday night at 7:00 Saturday at 2 so we have our drama club they do a musical every year this year they're doing Beetle Juice Jr also have a really robust chorus program so every one of

our grade levels has a different chorus um that students can sign up to take part in and it is a class during the day and then um for concerts the three groups come together for a portion of those concerts at well as well and perform as a full cus chorus we have band we have orchestra um and then we also have General music classes um during the day uh and and right now in

general music our kids are playing the ukulele that's really good so as far as the uh the chorus and the band is concerned the number of kids is is it a healthy number of kids that have taken part in those in those programs absolutely I'd encourage you to come out to our concert um in in May I think it's May 22nd or 23rd um we we have quite a

music program going on and um I want to say you know we' had band and an orchestra since I've been at cus the chorus um was not happening when I got to cus it had been shut down um when Co started and so I want to give all the props to our Music Teacher Chelsea Burnham who brought back chorus in a huge way at cus thank you

I Mr Das thank you um so I see on the on the budget three instructional uh support Le leis on position that are um that are V that are open vacant right now um what's the issue with filling those up are those new um two of them two of them were new um for this current year um and if I remember right um superintendent curle you might have to help me here if I remember right

I think that we for a while kind of put a hold on filling ISL positions so I'm not even sure that um quite frankly that they were posted um I felt I I do think that um they are really important positions in our building because those are are people who will be supporting on the academic side of things our students um similar to seaons but really on the academic side for students who are

really struggling academically and providing that support um and so we are hoping to bring those positions back but I don't even think um in terms of filling them that we had them posted um this year and I'm so waiting for this budget cycle okay so we approved the budget with these three items your your goal is to go and fill those yes absolutely yes in the community facilitator position um my my colleague

to my left asked about it and it's been vacant for a year is there an issue what's the issue with filling that one so we had that position filled through the end of last school year um that position I actually um I in the process of filling it right now um I honestly I've been waiting for the right candidate and um I'm hoping that we have found that person thank you

MH anything for Mr agar could I ask the human resource director a question

I have uh I'm just following up on what the principal just mentioned so can you give us any information relative to budgeted positions that this committee approved that she just indicated were not even posted in attempt to get one so we have vacancies and you know can concerned about why we need to fill vacancies and the like so can you just either clarify or do you know about the

positions we referring to was there a hiring freeze that we didn't know about um cuz I have never heard that we had a hiring freeze so I'm looking to you as HR director for superintendent Direction on that I will um I'll respond I'll have to look through some Communications coming out of some meeting um some school committee meeting in either January or February um I was under the understanding that we would

be um holding on some of the open positions and not hiring so we weren't um I was the part I asked to take the postings down and um there was some discussion on our end around really taking a look at those ISL positions that were unfilled more than halfway through the year um hadn't been filled all year and wanting to make sure as we're we were moving into next year um

there might be a possibility that one some of them um might need to be cut and number two that we were um positioning some of those positions to support some of the um recruitment efforts and some Partnerships that were um will be coming to fruition in terms of um you know University Partnerships where we can work with some folks to be working in our schools while they pursue their degree um in a way that's you know

supported by the school and some outside funding and some of their own personal funds and we were looking to hold open some of those positions so uh Mr I think there are seven or eight open right now yeah uh the reason why I asked the human resource director is because he's been here since July and he would have the int intimate knowledge of whether we're filling positions whether there's a

hiring frees whether something was pulled or not now I don't expect you to have that all in your memory sir what I would ask is that we get a full report on the positions the history of the positions because it doesn't sit well with me even with the superintendent's answer right now the superintendent's answer right now is basically saying that we made a hiring freeze but the school committee didn't know anything

about it that's my paraphrase the other piece of it is when we created a budget last year starting the school year starts at the end of August so I would expect that all the positions that this young lady just mentioned were advertised and people either had a right to apply or not from the start of the school year at that point if we've gone through the year and said halfway through the year to the children that

are at the cus middle school right now not getting that service for us to say well it's okay we can do without it for the rest of the year I would expect then that this would be on a cut list if we did it all for the children that are here now we were able to do it without two out of the four whatever it is why are we now saying that we need

the three we we never had a higher increase I've never voted for a higher increase I just have to sit here like everyone else and listen to that we have 180 vacant positions and why can't we fill them everybody in the committee says the same thing why can't we fill the positions and then now we find out at a budget hearing that we didn't fill the positions on purpose so I'd like a

full report through the superintendent of how because I've never been told that we're not filling positions on purpose I yield anything further on cuss next school up thank you listen thank you is uh Morton Middle School Morton Middle School I guess it's going to be um yep Mr

bretts Miss Miss laravie hi so don't repeat myself uh same questions on sea on I know you're missing one right one is uh unfilled one position my then I looked okay my notes are wrong okay just let me how's it going what are you what are they doing every day yeah I I would echo my colleagues conversation around our secl support has been really robust here at Morton for our SE eons they are

first line of defense in the classrooms they are running groups from lunch bunches to various uh restorative justice circles for students as well and then also one thing that we've done a really nice job with is with professional development around I decide so students that might need an understanding around healthy behaviors from tobacco use and such uh so they might be running those

programs as well after school or during the school day so they are overseeing classes ADV advisories there also have uh a case load of students for attendance uh they help out with home visits and such so they are really um the Cornerstone with social emotional support in addition to our school coun do you uh foresee them using them in a different capacity or are you satisfied with how uh the liaison are per not

performing but the work they're they're doing with the the students yeah I always like to try to be as creative as possible with our staff and our student population and particularly I'm looking for next school year foron uh to take on a larger role of working with students so maybe offering one class during the time that those students would be in unified Arts uh to give them that opportunity to get

targeted support in a different manner than during the 20 minutes during lunch or uh after school hours so that's one difference that I'm we are considering as a collective team uh for our school thank you I yield U Mr Das thank you um similar to the last line question I have I also see that we have um three instructional support leads on positions unfilled currently right now I don't know if you

heard the the last line conversation is it similar um as to why they're not filled or they new positions that are added in this year's budget no I started with ISL positions and the goal of the ISL position is targeted support for students and really if you think about it the what the requirements are for an ISL as an interventionist working with students is the hope that those uh individuals will

be able to be in the classroom so I had ISL positions this year that were filled and we have transitioned all of those uh candidates into school positions whether they are in special education on a waiver or they're a classroom teacher so we that was the hope of the intention of those positions we were able to do that thank you so U you're planning on filling these relatively soon correct

okay and um with the Paris there's a few par positions as well some one-on ones in the in the English language so um is it a similar yes uh I will say for professional positions have also been hard I I think if you really look at the budget line items we do have a number of vacant positions and that's the piece it is no fault of anyone we are really

trying very hard to uh be creative and seek out additional support but we're looking to try to fill positions we've uh this year we also recently did do an interview and we're looking we have someone right now for the ESL paros that should be filled in the coming weeks okay um do have a rough estimate on the other um ESL and the one-on ones how long they've been unfilled for I was

trying to see if it's an issue with funding if it's low salaries or it's just a hard position to fill there are hard positions to fill I think sometimes what happens like with the one-on-one positions depending on what comes out of students IEP meetings uh but I will say special education and the entire committee comme including HR has been very supportive of making sure those positions get filled and um we are

moving forward with that thank you and last question on overtime for your last I don't know how long you've been in position or if anyone else has the answer to this um and looking at overtime in general um I see 10,000 set aside for overtime how much has that um what do we have a percentage on how much that was used in the last fiscal year or the fiscal year we're currently in sure

so it's it's clerical overtime associated with the school and that's where it gets charged so it's it ranges it's not the same every year you think the 10,000 is enough or it's good it's okay how you think just um Mr ragia then Mr Curry so uh I just had a few thoughts and and questions but uh the when I look at the or chart it looks like we pretty healthy with uh supporting the more three Vice

principles four School adjustment counselors two guidance counselors fouras on whether they're full or not you know that's different story but it seems like we're definitely so similar to the question that I asked the cus principal with the amount of staff that we're talking there I would think that the school is and I haven't been there so I don't know like same question I just asked her are you rocking it or

discipline academics like is place an order like what is your general statement on the status of Mor relative to those issues with all due respect I think Middle School is are the toughest three years so collectively thinking about social emotionally I think we're doing the best that we can I think that our families send to us the best of the best and their children and our goal is to

make sure that they're safe they're fed and they're educated and I feel that the structures that we have set up this school year with our team we have no one um let me step back and say that for unified arts and transitions in the past students had an opportunity to move around the building and we went back to a different model where teachers are transitioning the students so that

they're not having negative interactions in the hallway they're not being put down by others comments or actions so I will say around the social emotional and looking at our suspension rates as well as after school detention Saturday detentions I feel with our team we are doing a a very good job I I really do and I think that we have a good handle on the social emotional aspect of our students they're middle

schoolers 6 through 8 it's the toughest three years for our kids but I feel very confident in our team and the work that we're doing the um thank you the uh School adjustment counselors do they do discipline School adjustment counselors do not do discipline only the assistant principles do the vice principles and by that I guess I mean uh are they student acccept that they go and deal with it

right away and then bring the student to the I don't mean the discipline like paperwork uh a a school adjustment Council has taken a lot of time during the day to go put out situations with kids acting up in the classroom and or the the vice principles no our vice principles are our SE on school adjustment counselors might be pushing in for additional support as well our security guard does a lot of support

myself included our community facilitator we're an all Hands-On deck all day long it doesn't matter what the position is we're all here to help our kids so I I think when it comes to a student needing help or groups of students needing help uh collectively everyone's doing it but my school adjustment counselors are also meeting their minutes on C grid delivery of services running groups Satchel groups

we have a number of groups that are taking place that are not just lunch bunches they are groups that our students need um based on the the data coming out on satchel and such thanks I I do think that's a good and I think you did mention that at the last budget when we added a person based on those minutes so I'm glad that that's working out the

um when I look at the Martin I and I know you share this super would share a second percentile in the State uh not good it's horrible it's not good it's not something something that we can take lightly um I am at the same time surprised by a few things with the budget so knowing you you've worked there before you've come before us before you're usually not shy with

saying what you need if you need to do it I I don't know if there was an an agreement or anything to not add positions or do something but just from my one perspective I'm looking I said we're second percentile we have conversion here that you're trying to convert some uh people people like I think one's a coach to ESL another one's going to go to a teacher then I look at the a chart then you're

going to have basically nobody under same conversation we just had with C they have four intervention coaches Martin would have none and maybe one if that other position got converted but I'm just having a hard time adding up the low percentile which means we have some instructional needs the lack of instructional support staff you know and how does that how does that go together

that we didn't get any request to say I need I have 754 students I need coaches do did you come to the administration and say I don't need coaches no I have a literacy coach in the position and has been in the position and we're continuing that and that's in the position for next school year so I have a literacy coach that works and supports intervention services as well as with my

department chair so that's in my budget line item the only we currently do not have we share like has said been earlier in regards to an ESL coach amongst the schools and so that's where that conversion comes because we do need an ESL coach to help support that piece so the thing that we also do is our coaches are also our interventionists as well and so that's why I have that position

there in addition to so that I don't want you to think that I'm not focusing on Intervention or literacy that person is in the position we're continuing that and we're also when with ISL our interventionist our PA professionals continuing intervention y I'm just looking at what we have given to us so under the operating conversions says you're taking a marttin cus uh coach intervention is moving that to a teacher

of Criminal Justice so that therefore is eliminating a coach position and then when I look at the or chart which is sort of the summary you have no no coaches listed here at all so that's what I'm going I'm only going by what's here that's all okay I can have that updated for you because I do have the intervention literacy interventionist as well that is on there so I'll make sure that gets updated I

don't know if it's the is the wedding the coach is that the why it's not here but I don't know why it's not um consistent between what you're seeing for cus and the fact that their coach interventionists were named in the OR chart and in more and it wasn't I I'm not I don't know why so if that was the case and you guys you guys can figure it

out at some point but you have one I currently have one literacy coach which is the coach intervention and that's all you're going to have no I will have two next year I so with the conversion I'll have an ESL coach and I'll have a literacy coach correct take ESL out like just move on the side because had four positions for coaches interventionists you are going to have one and I don't understand the

instructional point of that and not asking for more when we're at the second percentile at the Martin Middle School that's I guess I think there's a go ahead I think that we have to understand that instructional coaches are twofold one is to work with small groups of students but also to support teachers with coaching cycles and such I really want our staff working with students and so I would much advocate

for a teacher versus that of a coach or interventionist because I'm going to make sure that they're certified supported and they're going to be working with large groups of students to focus on academics so when we think about Coach intervention the reality is that those positions previously did not work specifically with students with large groups we've shifted throughout the years my goal is

that we have certified staff that are working with po populations of students that's my key so the interventionist coach just like my ISL all my isls work with students all day long that's what we need to help build our our capacity around teaching and learning so I guess it's more of a district conversation I guess because I can respect what you're saying but we're going to have four schools

that are teaching the same grades doing different things so what is the district's model on what we're going to do or not so I can understand your rationale and I would kind of agree with it that we need to have people but there's also something to be said for making sure everyone is coached up to make sure that we have there's a benefit to both sides of it so what is the

district's position on one school has three let's say next year they're going to have three and they have he has one how does that jive how does that go together I just don't I'm missing something so he will have two right the literacy coach interventionist and then the ESL correct and cus has four counting the ESL person which we just heard they'd have four I just don't understand they have 500 and

something students this gentleman has 200 students more and has half the amount of intervention coaches I just a math simple math problem but it's also something that we got to get together I've said this in every year in the budget I've said it during the year we have to have some consistency over what we're doing I would say from you as the leader of the district to assistant superintendent

raposo whoever at some point this is the time to say this is the model that we're going to use now there's should be a little bit of variation but a school with 200 students more shouldn't have half the amount of coaches and interventionist and to uh they're at the second percentile in the Commonwealth I that doesn't give me confidence that we're all inconsistent both could be right in some

ways but it doesn't give me confidence that we're it's nothing about you it's just across the district if your idea is the right one or the way we're going to go if that's the case then from the superintendent it needs to be said this is the way we're going to go and then at the budget time we make sure it's all equal it's not there's still pockets of just look at those numbers I just said

you got 200 students more than another place who has twice as many intervention coaches so I I do hear what you're saying I also think that what's not there is that you see how much our directors really push in to PLC in supporting and giving um targeted support to our teachers and our model looks a little bit different because I have an English department chair and I have a math department chair that's not

the same in the other schools so for example you heard from cus they have a Humanities department chair that covers those two departments mine doesn't so I think that we are trying to be as creative as possible but collectively with our directors and that support we ensure that we are in alignment across all of the traditional middle schools with what expectations are there and we

meet with um assistant superintendent Roso as well to make sure that we're in alignment and meeting those expectations I I hear what you're saying I apologize it wasn't 200 students it's 100 students more we just had the presentation from the cus the cus has a department head of ela and a department head of math and they have four instructional so this really not an issue for you it's I'm

speaking to the assistant superintendent and the superintendent more so so I I do appreciate the information I just hope that we get more consistency at the end of the day you're doing what you think is the right thing to do I would say the same thing as fill in positions it's not easy to fill positions but we have to fill them did anybody tell you there was a hiring freeze no I you had the ability

we are always trying to fill positions there I've never heard of that all of my positions I've converted a number of people they were in a position and they went into a different position to work with students so I didn't it was not of anything uh to pull away from students and I would assume that you have the ability to create a substitute for those folks say that in the district you have

the ability to create a substitute for those people so you have let's say three isls open could you hire a substitute and have them serve that purpose see how they're doing to try to sort of groom and build up your own uh people yes I mean we are constantly in communication I was actually in communication with Kevin earlier in regards to we have some really outstanding exceptional uh

teachers that are coming in and we're trying to how to rain and also what is the best position to support them um and I think that the central office and the finance department uh under Kevin's leadership has just been very supportive and creative in assisting us across the board thank you uh Mr Cory Nick when you were at tany did you at one point when you were at tany did

you leave you see my recing hair yeah so you did leave the district at that point but now you're back is that correct I hope so I'm so glad the reason why I asked that is because I'm so glad that you're back because I saw your work at tany and I was very impressed uh you're very human in all your dealings with h with not only the kids but the staff as well and I'm sure

that you're bringing that to Morton you know that whole feeling of inclus inclusivity and uh what you just remarked before is all hands on deck I appreciate that approach because that means that your team is working holistically for the good of the school and that's a really good thing one just a couple of things I'm concerned about um not so much numbers but um how's the music and the arts program looking at

more in these days yeah similarly I would agree with principal ruette we have a we brought back the chorus program grade 6 seven and 8 that's exemplary we have our spring performance coming up we have we have a drama club we have music I think we've taken music in a little bit of a different angle besides General music we've done a music lab so kids are making beats they're uh writing lyrics they're rapping they're

really getting a different spin on it and we're using different uh digital software so that kids are familiar with it and they love it so we are taking that piece uh if you look in in regards to the unified Arts the one thing that you will see is that conversion to criminal justice one is I know that they're building that pathway at dery and our number one piece is to support

that but the other rationale for that and I really want to thank the superintendent and assistant superintendent for this is uh as you all know this past year unfortunately Morton had uh a loss of a student yes earlier in the fall I was actually with uh that student's sister today where are you yes and the hardest thing for our school Community was that our students were there uh at dismissal and could not help

that individual out because they did not know CPR uh so they did what was best by calling 911 but we couldn't assist in that moment so the criminal justice thread not only supporting our pathway for unified Arts at dery and thereafter but we're also integrating CPR certific we're also trying to implement first aid certification AED certification as well as potentially babysitting through that

pathway for our family I think that's outstanding I was actually on the phone with Cindy Sylvia um and looking how can we expand our CTE programming throughout the district and she alerted me to the fact that through the criminal justice program there were going to be Emergency Medical Service uh IDE ideas as well through that whole curriculum I was thrilled to hear that because that's

just a great way for our kids to continue to learn and develop some hardcore skills for future careers I think that's just incredibly important so that's really good I'm happy to hear that I'm sorry about the loss of that student I um I did I do meet I I had the opportunity to meet that young man's sister and I just asked her just this morning how's the family doing and she claims that everybody's really okay you

know it was tragic their loss but uh but everybody's pulling together they're very spiritual and they're pulling together and they're making it I have one last question so as a retired adjustment Council I'm always concerned about social groups and schools and I'm not just concerned about lunch bunches lunch bunches are cute but I want to know are they really serious social groupings going

on so we you utilize the various seal screeners including satchel and we form groups from that so that is something that we've never had before that's happening under the support of our school counselors so we are not running just empowerment groups that are meeting 20 minutes we have large groups of students that are about 10 students to some smaller groups that are meeting uh during the unified Arts times that

our school adjustment counselors are over and that's something that's great for our school I hope it stays robust and that's been under the support of Dr bronhard uh is truly all of the work around advisory and the Satchel supports and the screeners uh I think it really has taken on A New Perspective and I can't think that enough that's really good get those kids doing beats too yeah

and Tom if I can just go back to your previous comment uh I was out of the district for 7 years years yes I was able to go back to my hometown uh to to lead and give back but I missed the district I'm so glad you're back I missed that really that's why I asked I wanted to make sure you know but I'm just so glad to see you back thank you I

yield M larvey so quickly I I did go back and reference the budget binder and it says you're budgeted for four but there's one open position is that accurate for four for what uh sorry sea on I I apologize it's budgeted for four and I did fill that one I had a a resignation earlier this school year and that that was filled so it is all of those positions are filled perfect so

how are you using the fourth are the you have three for one for each grade and then the ex how are you using it yeah so we if you think about it our model is a school within a school so I have an assistant principal with a school adjustment andle is on one for each grade okay so the there's where the three is I have a school adjustment counselor and I have

anazon that help in my sub separates so all of my stride and also um my rise programs that I have and our rise programs are new to us so they are the key Point people in addition with special ed support and our cluster coordinator and our bcba to support support our subps thank you they yield thank you Nick I got a couple of quick questions you just described your team

do they move with that grade or or is your sixth grade stationary goes 678 rotate back no we've gone to a rotating model I think that they learn to work very closely with our students and families just like ourons loop with our students as well so they have a key Point person okay and you're targeting of kids for those seal groups is there a focus on school and community vience

prevention in certain groups that you've brought these kids together to work on that specifically and another or part of that coping skills uh that's what I'm looking for yeah we do I have to say the support that we have from uh I'm drawing the blank Tom dated me back at tany um it was the the piece of our um Court diversion program Youth Court Thank You Youth Court we work with youth court so closely and

they are running groups on weekends they're running uh after school community service their mentors also come in to work with our kids as well so we're doing we have had a great partnership uh with youth court my assistant principles also have gone and they are um the lawyers to they volunteer their time as well and so that has done a number of support for our students and families around crime of CT

Court aversion programs as well as um issues when it comes to uh drugs as well as gangs and such okay how many kids we talking I don't have the exact number up hand I would say a a roughly around 15 to 20 kids I have nothing further oh Mr Das thank you going um quickly back to the talk of the interventionists um I see here that one of the interventionalists um positions

was um converted to a the criminal justice position yeah um we you just um briefly explain the rationale behind that again so I want when we think of unified Arts so unified Arts are the opportunities when students are going into elective classes and we do not have I think a a plethora of offering for our students and so when we look at unified arts and Pathways we're trying to grow exposure

for our students so that's why we wanted to go into the criminal justice like I had said with the loss of our student to be able to bring in the certification of CPR first aid AED and also to support that K to2 uh trajectory for the CBT program program that's at dery the that position works with students they'll have a full case load and this is a um it's not a

required class it's an elective it's an elective thank you okay thank you uh Mr bretts thank you next up is the talet uh Middle School I'm assuming we have questions for talet too does anybody have any questions just a comment not a question uh when I look at this I don't see tet's name on anything operating transfers up down or nothing so they want nothing new I'm assuming that everything's great and uh

we're in the seventh per accountability um so I guess my only comment is is that they don't need anything you can either yes or no or whatever you want that's correct we didn't ask for anything additional sir so I would assume everything's going great there okay everybody concur yeah I mean I think there's a difference between um I mean I don't think anybody really at any of our schools feels as if

everything is perfect and everything is just going great but I do think that people feel as if the structures that they have in place are the structures that are going to help them move forward and so if you know talit over the past you know few years has you know the previous um leadership team made some changes added positions and things like that and we're looking at ac across the

schools really just strengthening the the you know using the existing structures for the most part and really strengthening um the the productivity within the structure because changing a structure adding positions isn't necessarily going to be the thing that makes a difference we've added 500 positions or more you know over the course of three years and they're you know you get to a point where you say

like okay we've added all of these positions now we're going to you know make you like better use of them and so I don't think I think that's what was communicated by most of um the leadership teams you know when principles came in to sit down it was about nope I think we can do it with this and you know either ask for nothing or look to convert something that they thought potentially would um strengthen

that structure yeah it in my opinion I'm just looking for you're saying everything's in place we got the positions uh the principal comes in says everything's good so we're expecting good results and you're happy with it that where we're at right now that's all I'm saying so I don't I it's not that I mean we met with every every we I shared with you what and and you have all the presentations and the preparation that

went in people took a look at you know their current contact you you know we discussed the student data we discussed all the structures that were in place Staffing wise programmatically uh people talk through you know a kind of why that would work moving forward some tweaks they would make within systems and um I I I'm not you know I'm not sure what else to say I I'm not saying and I don't think any

principle is like no we're good we're just going to keep doing the things we're supporting people to make good use of the structure in place so with the budget that we've created we expect good results to come from that that's all that's all I'm saying is that you saying we got enough structure we made some changes we made additions in the past I voted for most of those I just think at some point we

got to get results and you're saying that the structures in place to get the results so time will tell thank you I anything further Mr Das thank you thank you Mr Collins um two questions on two line items in the budget if you can go into the uh teacher and admin stiens and what those are for I'm sorry the um teacher stiens and the admin stiens that that's for extended day Mr Das repeat

that I'm sorry that's for extended day talbet has a 30 30 minutes more on the day any the any the um ab and stiens are used for that as well yes to cover okay I you anything further for tell Mr Cory um it we're talking to talit now right yeah so could you give me a low down on on what music looks like and music in the Arts right now at Talbert

yeah I would say um I would use the word maturing the class sizes aren't as large as the other school houses but it is definitely um staffed with some really great folks who want to do good work in the Arts um you know I value the Arts as well as not only a teacher but a leader and so we want to encourage our kiddos to be in those sections and to take

those we do have itinerant folk that come in and teach the band and the orchestra but I do have in-house two music teachers uh we all know that music in the Arts help to level the playing field as far as academics and intellectual growth is concerned it's incredibly important and I know Talbot's dealing with the very challenging demographic within our city limits you know so uh I

just I just hope that it's like really good what about social skills groupings is there active social skills groupings going on so like my former colleagues that just uh excuse me a the colleagues that came up before me they stated to you both positions theal position and the sack position are both utilizing groups on a regular basis we do have boys group um that meets with Oneal we

have um kids that are meeting based upon just like um Dr beckon Court said from Morton based on the Satchel screen screeners and the different screeners that we're utilizing with that sack population there are lots of different groups that are happening um we also bring in outside people as well that do uh lunchtime tutoring and things throughout the day through our Trio Services which is a a new partnership

but something really great so we have quite a few uh stakeholders that take part in those groups every day every week are you pleased with what you seeing his results sure most definitely I think that the kids have lots of support I've said this to many people and as a 24 year educator I've not ever witnessed a Schoolhouse having so many wonderful supports for kids there are people in place for kids and positions

that a lot of places people fight for and so it's nice to have those allotted here okay thanks M Miss larvey uh Hi how are you hi I'm fine how are you good so same questions but I um the seela on how you use them how they're structured uh you're budgeted for four you four uh three grades how we using your so one of my's supports our two subset programs of

reach and stride and the other three are per grade level and they loop with the children from 6th through 8th grade they uh often times are the first person called as you heard earlier but um the right hand and the left hand sometimes and so that's really nice they uh do operate groups throughout the week as well but they also take part in our attendance every day um and call folks

and get um you know information on terms of what's going on in terms of uh student attendance with kids so they have case loads there as well as their grade level Andor their program that they support daily uh they have a great working relationship with their sack because they're teamed with a sack and that's really nice to see their Dynamic Duos to be very honest with you right so

it's similar to the to the uh Morton I would say ENT um I'm pretty sure that's districtwide right sack with ano so um so you have three right now right uh I have four three in grade level and one that supports it says empty again and one that supports for reach sure okay appreciate it thank you very much anything further for Tabet oh Mr Bailey um I think this is just a question and a

followup from what everyone's been asking um looking at the budget um Community facilitator um you have a vacancy there been so I actually do not so when this was created I uh have a new community facilitator awesome who's been with us for almost a month going on a month okay that's it are you I have one more question Mr chairman Mr Cory so um a couple years back we we put that beautiful basketball court outside the

grounds on talit how's that being utilized so we do utilize it a lot of times I've notice for uh subset rewards like kids are breaking out into spaces and using it it is not um utilized by whole classrooms right now okay thank you and on Saturdays thank you okay thank you talbat Middle School next up is the Robert El madus resiliency Preparatory Academy any questions for the Robert madus Mr Das

hi thank you Mr Riley um just um a few questions and I'm looking through um a list of positions the committee received that unfortunately weren't prioritized for funding however there is some wiggle room here for the committee and I just wanted to hear from you today I understand um there's two positions um the bcba department head and the visual arts teacher that were denied am I

correct in saying that that were denied yeah we requested you never requested those positions no we requested a bcba and a 0.5 uh music teacher yes and um well I have on my list that they weren't prioritized for funding Mr can you speak absolutely just bring that closer to move it up and I just wanted to um hear from you the importance of both those positions so we can prioritize them hopefully sure and

just a quick rundown from last year the committee uh Administration supported us quite a bit as in my first year adding a vice principal adding uh seazon and a sack uh that allowed us to have uh go into this year on floors with 78 on their own floor 910 on their own floor 1112 uh graders on their own floor so we set up those mini teams uh and it's worked quite well this year I think one

of the asks for last year was a bcba uh and it didn't get approved I'm looking probably from a lens of a former special ed director and really realizing what that person can bring to our table it doesn't support us to keep suspending kids for the same infractions and thinking it's going to get better and all we're doing is turning kids out when we talk about a bcba I look at a uh board certified Behavior Analysis

analyst to look at data to support staff and to make sure that uh not only kids are getting what they need but staff's getting what need the feedback they need how to set up Point systems how to um give the support for our kids that haven't had it in other places because they've been in larger um communities where we have a smaller one so I come back to the table asking for the bcba uh

cuz I do think it's an important position uh with the music position uh we have a 0.5 music position right now it's doing a wonderful job very much um I like Morton has is a very tech savvy program where they're in a electronic band they're creating WS laying down tracks uh and then third period he goes away uh and he goes to dery and supports kids at dery so we don't have those

electives in the afternoon uh and it really does affect us twofold uh there's good things going on we want to continue that uh and the other side of that is we want to provide electives in the afternoon for our kids uh who at times really get burnt out throughout the day uh and the struggle for us is usually that sixth and seventh period so that would be a big support for our students

thank you I like to make a motion that we add the visual arts teacher position into the priority funding using the $500,000 buffer room that we have second I have a motion to Second any discussion on adding a visual arts teacher at uh RPA um Mr Mr Mr Agia then miss lar yeah I just think listening to principal Riley the equality is the issue where I would come from with electives and I

don't know the schedule enough but I trust that you when you're saying that you don't have electives in the afternoon that is a problem and I think we need it whether it was this visual larts or something else you're saying it's successful in the morning it makes no sense not to have it in the afternoon I think it's just a matter of equality and the children at your school deserve to get everything that every other

school gets so that's the reason why I think it should be a priority um the other position we'll talk about later thank you Mr larvey I don't disagree uh with Mr Agia but superintendent can you just give us a little background on why it didn't make sure I I think um I referenced this in um at the same time that we referenced the um that we spoke about the stone request um in terms of you

know the potential as we we we really are continuing to look at unified Arts across the district um and across departments that um provide for our unified Arts um in all schools and believe that there's an opportunity um within our current Staffing and current numbers um to be able to provide additional um programming at RPA and stone through some conversions and so that's why they weren't prioritized I

would suggest that if we were going to prioritize um and I don't know make a motion to support the position in this way at RPA I I'm not sure why it makes sense not to do the same at Stone because I do place them in the same category in terms of the level of need and what the asks were at both of those schools well we have a motion a second on um uh on um

RPA so um why don't we call the role on that Mr may ask a followup question I was talking but if you want to interrupt that's okay I apologize oh thank you but if you want to tell us you're going to do a conversion to put someone down at um Stone and come back to us with that after that's okay too it depended on how your Staffing goes is that okay that

yeah I know that there's a I know that there's a um you know a vote to happen so that's fine I just wanted to be able to we'll do the vote on remind everyone that we discussed this um I I talked about this when I talked about Stone Mr Das um superintendent what position or maybe I should ask this to Mr Ry what I mean what position would we want to

convert into the visual arts if we were to convert a position to that yeah I can answer that I certainly um took a look at across my staff um if you remember last year I came in the position we about 13 uh empty positions not not filled um we are fully staffed right now outside of we lost the power we're about to hire another one so we're in really

good shape on that end uh we do have a family support specialist position where um one of two in the whole District the other one I believe is at PACE not at a school um we do have a c CF a community facilitator and we do have a engagement specialist um I think we're duplicating services and I think we could U move away from that position and it would pretty much equal out where the um music

teacher would be can I talk to go ahead yeah and I would also suggest um we are aware that we have some um you know taking a look at schedules again you know throughout the year across schools that um there there are some teachers who are um UND scheduled and so I I do think that there will be some some room for conversions I would say just in general

we have a a different um like the the enrollment the population at RPA is is such that it we don't know for certain what the enrollment will be next year so sometimes that just gets you know it makes things more difficult in terms of planning ahead and so I think we we need to see how the enrollment shakes out um at the school and and what the programming will look like to determine whether or not the

additional staff is needed or we could be converting and I and I do think there is room for conversion as I said throughout the um unified Arts kind of departments across the district and I think there's probably the potential to do that at RPA as well okay Mr D um Mr Riley um out of out of those position to you um just mentioned that could possibly be converted into this position do could do

you see any other um uses for those conversions that you talked about with those different the community um facilitator and whatnot I I think all the positions are important what I did look at is what do they do day in and day out when I got there what do we have them do now and it seems like a duplication of services for the family support specialist doesn't mean we're not supporting families what

it means is um we do have an engagement specialist who is going to houses and knocking on doors and getting kids back in school is um making calls to our virtual pathway kids to make sure that um we keep track of them uh our community facilitator is very similar to a lot of the schools right now that um is making sure that we kind of have the breath of what's going on in the

community and supporting our families within that Community um so I I just would say with that position as a duplication of services no I appreciate that and I also know um the position wasn't something that you thought of or wasn't thought about at all it wouldn't be on this list as well um so I'll take a vote on it thank you Mr Riley I would just not to add too much more but I just

think um it we looked at this as a 3 to five year turnaround over there I I take real great pride in our kids number one but in that facility is we wouldn't be where we were with any of this without school committee the administration but without building the grounds without maintenance without um getting a new room out front like it is to change and kids are feeling better about it because

of those things are happening but it's not because you hired a fantastic principal you did that by the way but that's not the reason uh the reason is a lot of people coming together support the kids in that school and uh you can see the difference already because of it thank you any further discussion on the motion Mr cor so I I do see some of those good changes happening there at RPA and it's

uh it's it's continually a work in progress and uh I really hope that uh our central office continues to really layer focus on the needs of our PA because our kids need it I recently heard um a really good review on the virtual learning program going on there chman can we just take the vote and then Mr Cory can speak this isn't I thought he was talking to the motion Mr a no I

think he's talking about something else go ahead we'll take the vote V let's take the vote and then let me continue my question okay like thank you Mr agar um Deb please call the all Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss larvi yes Miss Perera mayor Coogan yes and now Mr Cory go ahead so I just recently heard some good reviews on the virtual learning program could you

reiterate yeah I think we're getting some pretty good results um attendance is up I would say up is the key word to right like we got to take our wins where we take them so some kids are at 90% they're killing it they're doing right where it's supposed to be uh Ingenuity tracks be uh progress for us so we know where kids are every G given minute every single day um but some of the wins

are kids who weren't shown up school at all and now they're at 40% of progress that's still a win that's what I'm hearing and so we're getting some of those things that um are somewhat expected but somewhere kind of wins that were slightly unexpected and I think it's going we're growing and feeling some bumps along the way but uh staff's all in uh Dr Brown hard and I meet weekly with our admin team to make sure

that's happening uh we met this morning and we're feeling pretty good about where we are with both that and not to bring up a whole other subject but the start of our culinary Department uh as a pathway as well so those two things happening uh again give kids a lot more options than they had before uh and we're feeling success let me give you my condolences over the recent happenings

that just happened and uh unfortunately it just seems like you know uh our population that you have to serve at RPA we had an incident last year that was tragic and we just had an incident this past weekend that was tragic I'm so sorry uh I extend my condolences to the family uh and the friends and everybody that's been affected by this or should I say disaffected by this so it just begs

the question U as far as social social skills grouping at the school could you just give me a picture of what's going on sure um and those two strategies were one year and one day apart um so really just a tough time of year for us at RPA um yeah we have three three's one behavior um interventionist the four the third seal is actually on a um grant that we were able to um get

through theal Department that paid for thatal and also paid for trauma informed decision-making um and so we bble to set up sensory rooms on every single floor with that uh it goes back to my bcba piece like we got some things in place now we really want to uh hit the ground running with that piece too um but we feel like we're a small enough community that with anal on H4 or be

behavior interventionist that we are getting to the kids the second they step out of the classroom and have a need um we're seeing them in the hallway we've converted the hallways if you've been over to see that it's not a whole full Square anymore we're using two hallways so um on the high school floor the vice principal is on one end and I'm on the other they're all academic classes are

between us um we're just getting to kids a little quicker than we were last year and we can feel the difference uh it doesn't matter doesn't mean that we're still not having behavior issues that kids are still have needs we're we're following up with those needs um we are following curriculum satal curriculum during our uh um advisory time each day and one of the keys that happened before

I got there that we continue is the Wednesday afternoon meetings with the entire staff to be able to run them through PD be it academic social emotional uh it is quality time for us to get together uh and try to meet the kids' needs sometimes we just have a sock meeting is what we call S so a student of concern and we sit down with individual students and say what

happened that week they had us us have a concern and how do we meet that need um for them uh I I would also say uh not to get away fromal but the academic Focus this year has been much greater uh we had a department head of English last year we we uh hired her to be our vice principal and didn't fill that position for the year this year we split the

position Marielle and I have had a great relationship with spliting these two individuals who are doing great work um uh meeting with staff on daily basis making sure um they're performing uh PD for us on those Wednesdays what the mood like yesterday today with the kids in school it's an interesting one I don't want to get too deep into that but I would say that um both tragedies um the

individual who lost his life this year was not known by a lot of our kids um just the individual that uh alleged to do it um so a little different than last year um don't forget we came into the weekend after that had that day we met kids where they were attendance was pretty regular for us and then and at 2:00 a house caught on fire across the

street from us uh and so we got into a different mode allog together of emergency so it was a different day it quite different yeah yeah it was a different day but I think the kids that because we had all these meetings I just talked about we knew which kids would be most affected we made sure those kids were pulled right in the morning uh we made sure that if they had a need we we

met it whatever that was uh if it's just leaving class 5 minutes early or just sitting down with school adjustment counselor that that was done done throughout the day and uh I feel like we met them where they were uh we don't have all the answers or all the um uh problem solving ability on everything uh especially in tragedy but I think we were there for our kids when it counted

thank you thank you for that I yield I I I got oh Mr Bailey go first go ahead no I just had a question and and I'm just echoing what uh Mr Cory said about um just sending my condolence to the family CU I do know both boys um and had an opportunity to work with them um my question was just around support um with RPA um do you get to work with

any outside organizations that get to come in um and I think this is a question I need to ask to all the schools CU I think um we need to realize that it's more connected than we know um work with a a lot of the youth in the city um and a lot of them are sharing the same sentiment um cuz it was a tragedy I think it was a major event um

that actually affects more of our students than we know so um um and it's a question I I think I need to really ask um all the principles is there any type of outside organizations or or Community Partners that work with you guys when it comes to these events cuz um I do think it's important because it should be a handoff service I think uh specific to event like this uh my first

call is superintendent we had a conversation uh I certainly talked to Claudia Coster as well to make sure that we had um School adjustment counselors on the ready if we need them both for staff and for students um that's all within house I think some of the work that we do on a regular basis either with the city through Christian mclusky which is Shannon Grant to make sure we're meeting kids needs uh proactively

uh is big support we have a great partnership in the United Way um we've got the teachers closet to support teachers I think there's a lot of that that goes on throughout the year but usually in events like this um I go to Central Administration make sure that everything's in place they're ready to support me at any given time uh Tracy was there first thing in the morning Claudia came for the day um we met every

need that was in front of us in that um uh situation when I know you didn't ask us but when the fire hit all of a sudden we did something totally different called uh Ken came over we called Dead we got transportation in the back we did a whole different emergency route uh and the people within the district were tremendously supportive awesome and if is there anything you need um as far as

uh that goes I and and I don't solely put that on the schools because obviously you have your things that you worry about but any type of resources you need as a principal um because you you do have a tough population right um and it's a it's a tough job and it's needed yeah I think the community is robust in what they can offer and I think those organizations are out there

when needed um for me at the school I really am trying to do this methodically it came in last year try to establish myself really look at what's needed uh again with support school committee in central office we started two Pathways uh culinary is up and running uh we made some moves that kids could be proud of uh right away and we're just now year three looking at what do we do next

what's the thing that next that will bring us over that next hump um we have some wonderful kids in that building like really tremendous kids uh and they're um finding success where they couldn't find success not because of the fault of the school but the size of the school in a lot of cases so we provide that small unique uh Community for them I think we're staffed pretty well for

that right now we know this fluidity uh and how many kids we're going to have at start of the year and at the end of the year and somewhere in between um I do think that communication uh is fantastic with principles uh they'll call me and say hey I'm worried about X Y and Z kid um we're going to give him a few more weeks but we might need to talk again

any suggestions um these are the interventions we've done we have those conversations be behind the scenes I think they work out really well uh so I feel very connected to the other principles both at the high school Stone and at the middle schools thank you you're welcome I I I got a question same question I asked Mr britz do you have groups talking about school and Community violence teaching the kids

COPE in schools who the the se's run those groups who runs the groups yeah generally Seal's or sacks um run those groups uh so we do the ADV during advise we we do the Satchel program that incorporates some of that work but we also do groups throughout the day do you target get your groups for specific kids that need specific supports yeah we do uh and I would say uh in our school

honestly Lunch Bunch is really important um I went through last year with five individuals that really just needed to sit down with me and get away from everybody else and have a real fun conversation and it worked for them didn't mean they didn't need other things but we definitely Target groups male female uh Mr Cory had come in last year to do a mail group for us um for a few weeks and uh kids were very

responsive to that uh it it depends where we are at the particular moment and what we can provide for kids so thank you you're welcome okay uh Mr agier the only question I have is not a question but a comment on the bcba request I I think that's something we should uh definitely look into uh further I think it should be a priority but also taking into context with the um assistant superintendent for special ed

and student services I think they should be able to weigh in on it as well because I do think that's a a a major issue and it's an important issue whether we can do it now or not I'm not prepared to say today but I do think we need to keep that on uh the front burner I yeld thank you thank you okay thank you Mr Riley Mr chairman just want to

let you know I do have to step out for a work commitment so I will be back if you see me leave it's not for anything other than work you the meeting please right no no just only joke I'll be back sooner than later we'll see you in a little bit thank you Mr Agia uh next up is Art and music department do we have any questions for the art and music department from the budget hearing

none we'll now go to the athletics department does anybody have any questions about the athletics department Athletics thank you curriculum do we have any questions for the curriculum Department

well we're flying along now um Early Childhood Department Early Learning Center and the far of a Learning Center M um superintendent what is the for of a Learning Center I just want to know what that is oh that's the uh five classrooms that are on Eastern Avenue um 251 South gotcha okay 251 and the Early Learning Center is where I'm sorry Dad well you can continue may you I'm just going to

finish have two questions problem the Early Learning Center is where classrooms that that's a School classrooms are split between right now Conley and Eastern gotcha Mr Das thank you and I just remember um briefly from the state of city um when should we expect um repairs to begin on the U PACE Center the um finally the the um fire prevention system is out forbid right now as soon as that's done then

once those two the roof is already done the fire prevention Systems off a bid once those two things are done we'll tackle inside okay thank you anything further Mr Cory no no I was elll I want question we're not there yet we're there now Mr Corey elll El uh is somebody here from elll yes coming coming down from the bleaches thank you dear I just want some clarification again just for my own edification on um what

the Dual learning program is looking like and how it's growing uh we will be moving up through fourth grade next year it's uh so each year we're adding a we're adding a tier each year it started out at like I think at K or k only right is where only and now it's up to fourth grade next year we will add fourth grade so does that is that the what's look

like does it look like two teachers working together in in in concert with each other or is it one teacher doing both no so we have a two-way immersion model there's a teacher on the English side and a teacher on the Spanish side yeah and then it's two units so there's two classes in K two classes in first grade and so on and so forth that's great and I know that the the the focus

is in Spanish are there any other languages being touted or looked at or anything like that that we do not currently offer any programs outside of Spanish just Spanish thank you that that that clarifies it for me I'm all set okay thank you guys I'm happy to see that program growing like it is I was I went to the early meetings for the Inception of the program and and when we appropriate something like that we like

to see the growth and development to it so thank you very much we're very proud of it and we thank you for your support thank you very much um facilities and operations we have our first category is Administration any questions for administrations of facilities and operations hearing none we'll go to campus Services questions on campus Services okay one by one custodial Services Mr Das Mr I'm just well I have

my questions kind of lined up differently so if this isn't custodial Services just direct me um when I should ask the question what what are they on Mr D I'll put it under that category for you sure so I just had a question on a couple of the line items the uh contracted Services line item um the other supplies line item and the admin contractual services and um operations contingency line it okay I don't see

those but we we might as well hit them now go ahead Mr Das thank you um start with the um the admin contractual services and operations um was what's that line item supposed to be for used for Mr D hello Mr dice I think you had those superintendent respond to pieces I'm not Mist it it it was part of the the 100 page okay it was it wasn't part of the

100 page no it was part of it was answered during the um on the email where you will you outline those items oh no I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm returning so we so we that was just in preparation for the questions in case they were asked tonight so that I did not share the document with uh Mr Das sorry about that that's okay if you don't mind sharing it I wouldn't um I'd like to see

it I can uh let me dig up that information yeah I I'm happy to share it thank

you so which one would you like first um the admin contractual services

so um that item is um the contingency line item as a reserve um in case we have some expenses that pop up on the scene have we used that in the past we have okay um next was the um what buildings are we currently renting or leasing out of that mine item so we have three buildings currently um 1822 North Main Street which is uh distribution warehouse y um 300 North Eastern Avenue prek space and

um 373 Ellsbury Street which is Bishop Conley and that's pre space thank you um in terms of the budget that's really um all I have for today I if um there's a document I'll look at it after I have any followup I'll make sure to ask thank you anything further for um facilities and operations Mr Cory um not so much as an inquiry because I speak with Mr pachico frequently but I just

wanted to make a general comment and I I see all your people are here in the room with you and I just want to say uh as one school Committee Member how much I appreciate what you guys are doing to keep our buildings and our grounds and our facilities uh up to Snuff it's a big job there's a lot of ins and outs there's a lot of gray area you guys are working

your hearts out and and this school committee man recognizes that and I want to especially praise your director caico cuz he's working his heart out to keep the whole off a is going with that show you all my appreciation thank you a Mr Das thank you um one um last uh line of questions um regards to the um water Ste storm water CSO line item yes um how much is that broken up into so for water

sewer and um the storm water fee

so depending on the facility um sizewise the way so Water and Sewer is obviously um very self-explanatory but when you uh break down the um the remainder items it's based on square footage um of surface right um that is um how every individual's house is broken down but it's also the same way that the schools are bigger piece of property bigger surface um and depending on how much of that is perious and

nonous it'll it'll depend on what that fee is so um whatever has to be treated obviously you know the more grass you have the less issue you have uh the more hard surfaces you have that water has to be treated and therefore the um the fee comes into play right I was um to the to the line item if I I'll just rephrase the question I I think it was um trying

to look for it on the budget was around 500,000 yes might be a little yes so for water that's for water sewer in the St water guess I was looking for how much like like broken down I don't have a breakdown um because that would be all on each individual bill that we get so we pay those bills quarterly and on the individual bills uh we'll tell you what what piece relates to water sewer and

CSO but in total it's about $500,000 for the year right uh do you have an estimate how much um what I'm really looking for is a storm water how much that I I'd have to go through every single Bill to figure that out um so going into the storm water what is the requirement how long have we been um paying the storm water fee for in the city for since it's Inception pretty

much yes when you say pretty pretty much was it originally we we weren't paying the storm water fee when the storm water fee came into effect that's when all the department across the city started being built is there an ordinance that requires this or it's just practice it's been in place since it started right I'm just trying to figure out um one why the city and I I understand not blaming one

Administration or or the other I know this been going back years and years now but I'm just trying to see on ways we can save money and just trying to figure out why we're like what what what's the requirement that the city charged us District to I mean charge this feed to us if I could Mr D and it when I was on on the DPW side the parks paid CSO yes cemeteries paid CSO everyone

pays CSO so if we don't pay our share of the CSO then that's going to be passed on to the consumers someone's going to make up that dollar amount based on the overall budget of whether it be the um the Sewer Commission or on the water side so we're we're paying our bill basically on what we use and and as far as the perious and non- perious surface is exactly the same thing that dollar

amount that we pay that 300,000 400 or 500,000 would just be passed on to each homeowner as an adjustment because the bill has to be paid they're all Enterprise funds so they need to they need to pay their own way um the city does not contribute to their to their funding thank you for that I'm just um for just specifically the storm water I'm just um not do all our not all our

properties get charged uh so all our properties get charged yes all of the school department properties have have a CSO fee why is that I I don't know so the the CSO fee is we're not paying we're not paying for the grass areas for instance if you take a look at fonsa fansa has a has a field on that property and there's a little bit of grass surface all around the building but the

parking lot is is a is a surface that has to be treated so that water drains into the into the system into the uh sewer system and basically has to be treated at the treatment plan that's the fee that's the CSO it's it's being treated it's going into the into the tunnel into the CSO tunnel and then treat it at the at the water treatment plant so with that being said our properties differ for instance

dery high school has a lot of surface that doesn't require a CSO but the roofs in all our buildings require it so parking lots roofs sidewalks all hard surfaces are how they measure the CSO price per building per site um is there um have we or maybe something we should consider looking into doing some sort of analysis or looking for ways that we can know collect the rainwater or either collect

it try and find a way that we do not have to get charged a a fee which I my person my personal opinion I don't even think we should be charging the city any City resident this fee whatsoever and hopefully that's something we look forward to in the future but just keeping it to this um have we done that we haven't done an analysis as to what it would take for us to to come up with

gray water or come up with some way to use that water we storage um changing our parking lots to a cious to you know aerious surface imperious surface depending on what we want to do uh in order to get rid of our hard surfaces there's going to be some we can't avoid and then we'd have to treat it but I've never done a districtwide analysis of that work sure I like there's requests

to the superintendent that's something we could look into and then possibly long term we could save money i y done okay thank you Mr Pico any Mr would it be possible I have an Oran Department that's on the end of the transportation if if you have any questions if I could bring her down now if that's possible what is this Transportation transportation is uh dead last okay it's dead last goad uh well

hold on can we just finish your department anybody have any further qu questions on maintenance nutrition or security those are the three areas last three hearing none Transportation transportation is last and we're going to bring Transportation up now because Mr um oh I'm sorry Mr Das on Transportation thank you I no thank you um so for for transportation and we've had this conversation um I believe

at the last meeting and it's been brought up a few times now um do we have like a number like a percentage on how much um student transportation and I understand it goes to the city and we're just a reimbursement here but trying to be good allies with the city with these transport transport cost how much would you say are um covered through state

aid I think it's mcken vinto and the special needs no it is I I I I answered the question I have it here I just want to be able to just highlight all right right here so um in FY 24 we was we received uh just under 1.4 million through mckin vento and Foster Transportation um in addition in circuit breaker we received uh 1 point just just over 1.4 million in transportation for a

of District students um that you know from a percentage standpoint for the mckin vento and Foster Care it works out to just under 72% of that transportation and for circuit breaker for the auto District tuition it worked out the rate is about 57.7 56% now that's not on the overall Transportation that's just specific to those pieces of Transportation so 57% so you would agree that um student transportation is not um

fully covered by the state in terms of state aid yes okay um I think we should um help our city here and something I've been pushing for and I like to make a motion that this farer school committee asked the city council to file an unfunded mandate petition with State auditor's office on student transportation so we can potentially recoup some of these funds help the city out help the mayor out and help our schools

out um I I think Mr that that is that is a good advisory I um I did have the MMA in um Government Center last Friday I just happened to be sitting with uh one of the members of the city council M uh Mr kadim was there as the representative from secon uh and the uh conversation did Spin A lot of it did spin around school transportation um I believe there

is there may be some movement this year on that but um obviously you and I can talk later I I support you 100% on that one and everybody in the building should know it so let's see what we can do going forward I will wish I wish you the best you got a question oh are you done Mr Das yes I I read a motion I'm looking for no second oh I I'm sorry I did not

hear you made a motion he did oh a motion to petition city thank you Mr D say it again please I didn't hear you no worry um the motion was that we as a school committee asked the city council to file an unfunded mandate petition with the state auditor's office to look into recouping some of these funds for the city I'll second it discussion Deb give it a call please

Mr Mr Bailey yes Mr D yes Mr Cory yes M lar yes Miss Pera Mary KGAN yes you still got the floor you done oh I no um I would so I know this will go to the city council and hopefully it's a fruitful discussion and good things come out of we send it over thank you thank you Miss lar do you have a question yeah I just want to revert back to safety did

we get to safety yet security security safety yep so um I do have questions I have concerns sorry about nope I don't need you to come down John thank you but there are questions and concerns that will probably have to be at a facilities and operations meeting uh an executive session but um that's all I do have I do have concerns and lots of questions okay just want to on record anything further for facilities and

operations okay thank you Mr Pico um any questions on the finance department Mr alme you're going to be grilled now any questions for Mr almea oh Mr Das thank you um believe this line item is in here or it's um I forgot if it was financed or HR um Michael Joyce um Services would that could fall in finance that's fine it's it actually falls under the specialed department but

because that's where we pay it out of I I'll take the question it's fine okay I that when when does that come up on the agenda that it's about five items down Mr Mr Das I'll wait you wait this bed okay anything on finance then hearing none next up is human resource department Human Resource Department anybody hearing anything on that one yes you do M larvey yes Mr L

please hi Mr L um I've been a pretty strong advocate for the HR department where in in the case of I just don't think we have enough people um I just want to know your opinion on how you feel you are staffed and if we can um if you think you need more staff um could you talk to me a little bit about that please yeah so I think um currently as

you see listed it's my position and then there's um five other people in my department underneath me um the easiest way to answer that is I I think for right now we're in good shape and the reason why I say that is I started in this position in July the human resource manager position was new as of I think it was last February March just just about a year uh about a year

ago and then um just as recently as last Monday March 10th we just hired a new human resource coordinator that position was I don't want to say vacant but sort of a a part-time position since I started um while we tried to fill it with a a new person so all that's to say is I I really feel like my team is really now sort of fully filled out at

this point um and one thing that you know I've I've talked with Dr Curley about is looking at how I can utilize the team as it stands right now looking at job descriptions and figuring out if there are things that we can shift um you know maybe utilize people a little bit differently or or better than they have in the past um so I think right now I'm okay with the staff that I have I I

think the things that I'm looking to do with the department and and you know the goals that we have I think we can accomplish um I think as I sort of you know end this year move into the summer into the start of next year get a full year under my belt I'll have a much better idea of you know if that team does need to expand or not um so I mean

I could have a different answer for you a year from now but I think right now we're we're looking pretty good um and I do have some ideas about how to kind of utilize my current staff a little bit differently than than they have in the past so you just think you need some time to to shift things around yep try to use them a little differently change some job descriptions and we'll see how we all

win like I said I think you know next budget season you know a year from now I'll have a better idea of you know if I feel like we could really utilize or uh use additional positions um I mean I just have some strong feelings i' I've done a little research on on uh HR departments uh you know Brockton and New Bedford and they're just quite larger yeah you know and and sometimes it just

gives me uh reasons to pause and like you know try to understand why we are and I don't want to say short staffed I just want to say smaller you know um but if you say you trust uh what you're doing right now then I'm going to trust you but at any time please come to that just like anybody in that in the audience right now just come to the uh obviously to the

superintendent and and let us know and I speaking to that I I think too you know for this budget process specifically this year um part of you know my my biggest task this year was understanding the district understanding the department you know figuring out kind of where we're at what our Baseline is I I think as I'm doing that you know in this sort of calendar year that I I've been working here I

didn't feel like it was appropriate to say 7 eight months in I think we need to add you know all these positions I I think the the important work to do that first year is sort of assess where you're at and then again sort of thinking you know into the budget cycle next year um at that point I'll have a pretty good idea I mean I I have a pretty good understanding of the

department kind of where we need to go um but I didn't feel like it would be proper at this point to sort of advocate for for more positions until I really had you know kind of full year under my belt full school year start of the school year end of the school year um full hiring season to kind of see where we're at okay I appreciate that thank

you I yield Mr Bailey then Mr Cy then Mr D um I was just going to just to piggy back on some of the things that uh Miss Larie was saying um and the question was just going to be asked around Recruitment and and what that looks like and um you know what are we doing as as far as that goes um and I just want to touch on what you just said um as far as

you being new in the position um and I'm speaking for myself and I'm pretty sure a ton of people on the stage feel the same way um during the budget season just ask um if you need it cuz I I do um think that it would be unfair if we didn't provide you what you needed to be successful for one but for two if you're understaffed and you can't do the job

that wouldn't be right for us to come forth to you and and ask for something that you can't deliver right um also no secret that across the state um across the country right now it's tough to recruit in education right it's it's a problem everywhere we go um so I just wanted to tell you you you just have to ask and and second the question was is um are we doing something different for

recruitment practices what are we doing and and are you confident that you have the staff to recruit more uh people to come to the district yeah so I mean recruitment is a big piece uh I think the fact that we just recently came to an agreement with the teachers union is is going to be huge um sort of highlighting uh those contract changes uh updated salaries all of those I I

think are are big recruitment pieces for for all of our open positions um one idea that I did have as I mentioned we did get a new HR coordinator that started just last Monday that's one of those positions that I think historically didn't really do a whole lot of recruitment I'm kind of looking at reworking that to to do much more recruitment um I I think the person that

we got in there you know the the skills are there and um I think it's just a matter of maybe working that position a little bit um but I know that Dr curly and I have had conversations about you know potentially use utilizing um I know that we have a contract with the pr firm if that's still in place um you know utilizing them for for recruitment purposes and kind of advertising um we

are in the process of uh setting up our uh career fair uh job fair um an internal one that we're going to house on uh May 3rd I'm going to be attending the Bridgewater State uh job fair as well um and I'm looking at a couple others for for this spring so trying to get the word out there as best as possible and then couple that with you know some packages about you know why

people should come work in Fall River I think those are uh the important pieces okay Mr Cory then Mr so I was very concerned about much of the same thing recruitment I'm wondering if we have um an incubator in place to try to like uh rally some people within our own District or in surrounding is you know to become School teachers or future staff members of our school department I'm I'm concerned about that

and and if we could create a stream sort of like in and what's our relationship like with uh the local colleges and universities uh great point and I'm glad that you brought that up we actually have a meeting coming up um internally and Brian reposo is going to be uh hopping on because he can speak to this as well uh we're going to I think the meeting is 25th or 31st of this month

within the next 2 weeks um to talk about a grow your own program here in the district which essentially just what you were talking about um figuring out who we have in District that you know would be good candidates to sort of move into teaching positions uh figure out what they need to get there and then provide that support coupled with that um we definitely have Partnerships with UMass

Dartmouth um I've made some connections with Bridgewater State but I think we're we're a better partner with uh UMD right now um Brian Roso and I met recently with representatives from Roger Williams University um specifically looking at their special ed program and and getting um Educators license in that um so I think that one is is something that we're looking to really ramp up and get

going because like you said I think we're seeing a lack of people out there it's not just about the recruitment piece but um if you have a small pool of candidates it it doesn't matter how good your recruitment is going to be if that pool is you know minuscule it's going to be tough to pull for um so figuring out ways that we can really build up our own

people is is going to be important so Mr L postco I'm speaking not strictly postco um and with the national teacher shortage going on are We accepting a lot of people with life experience uh I I think yeah I anything you know everything that we I don't see anything wrong with it you I I just just want to get a read on it yeah and you know since I've been here I mean we

certainly bring in people and work with them getting either emergency licenses or waivers to be able to teach you know for the year and then working with them throughout the year moving towards that full lure um so I I think those are the people that you're you're talking about somebody that you know comes from an industry where hey we just might need to get you know some of that pedagogy and

and teaching background um built up but you know your your work job experience the thing you've been doing for 20 years translates to exactly what we're trying to teach in the classroom exactly yeah and and as far as PR is concerned advertis izing you know throughout the state you know especially now that we do have a new teacher contract in place which I think is a boom for us uh it

puts us on the map I I'm I've I've always been fearful of the kids coming out of college and the kids today coming out of college they shop districts they want to look for the highest wage and and I know that we were always at the bottom of the barrel but I think that whole discussion has changed and and I'm really hopeful it is because we really need to bring in a lot of talent to our

district and keep it coming in I hope you guys are Laz are focused on exactly that to give our our our district to Resurgence uh and top priority status and and U and give our re give our district like a feeling of like wow man we're we're we're doing it cuz I know that during Co everybody took a hit and so we're trying to still dig out of that so I it's it's energy and reenergy

that's what I'm looking for I hope you can keep bringing it absolutely Brian anything to add yeah sure so uh just to add a little bit so um we have really been trying to continue to nurture relationships with universities right now um at UMass Dartmouth and they offer different things right so UMass Dartmouth have a partnership sorry at ums Dartmouth we have a partnership with them um where

they offer um some graduate degrees in stem um they are a university that I think has been poised for people that are career Changers um and they do some lure support work on the side as well I know they have work going on at dery high school they do to help teachers that's a really tremendous that's one of and that's a pretty strong cohort that's a great program I also want to name you

know at all levels of the organization um they've actually saved some spots for us for their uh their year two of a doctor and education cohort and we actually have staff members in their first cohort and folks who are actively applying for their second second cohort so I think that's a retention strategy as well for we have one of our own teachers teaching those cohorts yes I think it's just just tremendous and then

uh through Roger Williams um Mr farias actually uh Derek faras initiated an initial conversation and we're working with them now on a master's potentially exploring a partnership around special education um and so they really want to um craft something um and support Fall River in some way so we had an initial meeting there um that we're going to move forward and I just want to mention

the your own I think this came up um we do have a meeting um with a diverse group of folks there different levels of the organization actually including a parent as well um with this really mission of developing our own talent I think we have a long-term Vision around um multiple Pathways as you suggested so you know if someone's a par professional what's their path if someone's an ISL

what's their path but then also really tapping our most important resource which which is our kids and so thinking about in high school um how are we really cultivating and growing that Talent so if you think about dery that has over 700 students who are multi are bilingual right essentially or or or English Learners there's a potential for all those folks um entering a Workforce that are biling that's a whole pool

right and so I think about how to tap those existing folks and how do we create a structure so that there's a clear pathway even let's say leaving High School where we could eventually get some students to come back and and teach here so how do we stay connected with them and support that as a trajectory thank you that was a great synopsis I appreciate it I yield Mr Mr

Das thank you um so while we're speaking of recruitment so two items I want to focus on so that PR firm do we still that we employ that we had conversations with um before this committee are they are we still in contract with them so we um we we signed a two-year contract with them um that expires October of 2025 um we did have an opportunity coming out of the discussions that we

had when a representative from The Firm was here to take some questions and talk about the services that they provide to um you know kind of admittedly on our end you know say we had not been using them um in the way that we had originally intended or maybe what the vision was some of that was tied to our um you know we were doing a lot of work around the contract negotiations and

felt that we hadn't really brought them into the fold I have a meeting set up we actually I say all that to say that we actually did kind of put a pause on the contract and they allowed us to do that to step away from the contract um over the course of five months we are re-engaging with them for seven additional months beginning um April 1st so April through October so in the

second year of the contract really only engaging with them over the course of seven months and not 12 and really looking to tap into them around recruitment efforts very specific to that so part of their support is you know six to8 um uh press releases each month focused on different events and things in the district but we um I had some preliminary conversations with them about what it would look like as we

re-enter the contract to finish out the next s months and so we're going to do that with an emphasis on Recruitment and that's starting up April 1st we have a meeting um set up in the next couple of weeks to plan forward for that no I appreciate that I also um appreciate the fact that they're willing to pause the contract I think that um shows um good efforts on their part um yearly how much

is the contract over the thresold that would have to come before the school committee um so I think it came before the school committee initially is my understanding um what you know a year and a half ago um moving forward so it's about $2,000 a month to contract with them and so we have $114,000 remaining in the contract through October um and what's the threshold for a contract to come before the committee

the I think 25,000 so it's one it would be 1,000 short of needing to come before the committee no for it's only 14,000 Oh you mean um yeah I'm saying about about um I think again I'm assuming it came before the committee first time around um I I I don't remember but I know that we signed the you know we have a two-year contract and um moving forward from now through October it's just over

14,000 okay and if we and um if we can um maybe this um verify that when it did come before the commit I know I'm assuming it's before either of us were on the stage mhm yeah okay um yeah we could verify that and um if I could request regardless of um if there is an appetite to um renew that contract in October I believe the committee should um this should come before the committee

so we can um have some discussion on it because PRS is very important to um to this district and something that we should definitely have a conversation on so I'm just requesting what whatever whatever contract if there is an extension that it do come before the committee whe regardless of any um minimum threshold I would appreciate that thank you and um secondly on the human resources coordinated position

could you go through the um details the job description of the HR coordinator correct sure let me pull it up

I'm going to be asking questions on whether um because I I really think um there should be someone solely focused on Recruitment and I understand there's a coordinator position and um that might take on multiple different responsibilities and I think it's really important that we have a position that is solely focused on um on that so just just some a heads up that's the why I'm asking okay

um so I mean I I would say a short answer as as you're pulling up the um the job description is that it's not the sole purpose of that so we and we don't currently have a position in the human resources department whose sole function is recruitment so that's that's the short answer for sure um but I do believe in that particular position it is part of the job description it is so

one of the um performance responsibilities is coordinates resources for recruiting qualified staff um including posting advertising and hiring process for any vacancy through a variety of strategies in media so that's something that you know I think when I spoke earlier I'm I don't know how much this position previously was doing with that so I'm looking to really expand that um and then I I think um another

main part of this role um man in the evaluation system for staff um sort of organizing that working with um principles and supervisors around the evaluation making sure that plans are accurate and um you know deadlines are met um and then uh absence management as well so assisting um staff with our absence management system um building questions on that system that platform setting up new employees things like

that but recruitment definitely one of the the pieces um I think that's one of those things that like I said I I I don't know how much the previous person was doing in that role um so hopefully something we're looking to expand with this one yeah I just ask um if you noticed that you really want to really expand this description I don't know if you have to description that would have

to come before the committee to change um just know as one member um if you need more support in in regards to that willing to um be of Aid um no problem and the speaking of the line items the advertising recruitment line item to 50,000 um what do we expect that to be used for like what type of advertising recruitment are we going to be doing so I I know previously I know there was um

uh a contract done with Cox media um I think that was for between 10 and 15,000 I roughly um that was uh I think a year contract that was due up this past fall we actually decided not to renew that contract we just felt like um that was mostly radio and TV spots um a lot of it was promotion for the job fair that we were holding last spring um I think some

other promotion around just you know hey there are open positions in Fall River schools if if you want to apply um but for that price I I think collectively um you know that was a topic of discussion at our uh senior staff meeting we felt like um we really didn't want to uh spend that money especially this year while we were going through contract negotiations we felt like we didn't have

a whole lot to necessarily give to Cox media to sort of get the word out there um so that is one that I know I believe there were some Billboards purchased last year as well I'm assuming that would have come from that line um so I I think we have a lot of money in that line in in that area because we really haven't utilized um much much of it this year social media advertisement going to

be a priority yeah yep yeah anytime our jobs get posted um you know one thing that I'm looking to do is really um increase where we post our jobs so um LinkedIn indeed uh handshake Shake which a lot of our colleges and universities utilize um I know most of our job postings get picked up on some of those sites um but ensuring that all of our our postings get posted there with accurate information that's something

I'm I'm looking to make sure happens right no and I'm familiar with handshake as well especially getting young college recruits and um definitely indeed it's obviously the big one also I I hopefully um we also consider utilizing Facebook advertisements I'm big fan of Facebook um I think we'll get a lot of different um responses there yeah um and very briefly the contracted Services it's big line item 240,000 you

can briefly just describe what that'll be used for so my understanding a lot of that um is our uh evaluation in PD tracking platform that sort of housed under my department um so that I don't know if um absence management and and Frontline services so absence management are our absence tracking platform we're also expanding Frontline um to not only include absence manager but um overtime

tracking and uh recruiting and hiring that's actually something that we're starting to roll out uh going into this spring um we're going to be able to do job postings through Frontline and that actually has um speaking of of uh advertising that actually um has some different websites that it advertises on as well so those I think are the majority of the contracted services for my department is there any legal I I

know um there's some legal mostly in um special education other is there I don't think anything directly in in my department yeah I mean the times that I have had to reach out to sort of outside legal counsel um obviously gets built we're charg for that but I don't think it's directly um a line item in my my budget thank you yeah Mr Bailey um question I just had to ask I forgot um

as far as exit interviews are we doing any type of exit interviews and then also when we talk about recruitment just to get back to that do we have any um like any type of analytics or data around um recruitment with some of the tools that we're using uh I'll answer the last question first I'm not aware of any analytics around anything that we're we're currently utilizing um we can probably get some

information in terms of you know how many views our job postings are getting on on talented and things like that but um beyond that you know how many views actually turn into applications or clicks or things like that I'd probably have to reach out um so I'm not aware of any um what was your first question um it was EX ex interview so uh that is something that I am looking to

um change I guess right now what we do is we do offer an exit interview form um for employees to fill out um it's not mandatory it's just sort of a link that they get um that they can you know answer some questions I found that form to be pretty burdensome I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of people look at it start scrolling through and say there's no way I'm going to answer this you I

just I left this this place so I'm looking to streamline that a little bit and then the other thing is we have done a few in-person exit interviews that's only been at request yeah um so I I think it's important if we are sticking with sort of a form which I I think is valuable streamlining it so there's not as many questions and uh allowing an opportunity for someone to request an

inperson interview um if they so choose so so work in progress for sure it's it's you know the pieces are in place but I think we need to uh beef that up a little bit Yeah and I don't I don't expect you to have those answers uh starting in July that would be crazy um I just ask that CU a lot of those things go in hand right and the amount of money we're spending on Recruitment

and everything we should at least have some type of analytics or some data backing some of the things that we're talking about but the pr piece as well um right because the goal is to uh attract people to the district um I know you have a I know you have a lot on your plate um I commend you for the job you do just like everyone else it's a lot um I just I I'll y with

that Mr Das thank you just real quickly on um exit interviews um so when we and I'm glad you're um really taking an issue with that um for the exit interviews themselves do employees know they have the the right to request in person exit interviews that something we were advertising or you know I I don't think previously no necessarily um like I said the two or three that we've done

it's been you know the employee specific specifically reached out to either me or someone in my department saying hey I'd like to talk to somebody about you know either my resignation or you know whatever the case may be um but but I think that's an important you know piece to um include moving forward you know with our separation documents with people um at least giving them that

opportunity to to be heard and you know hear their feedback about what they liked about the district what they didn't like and you know that's all valuable information for for us to use moving forward is that done with like that employees immedia supervisor or is that done I I typically like to do that with with my department so if it's not me directly you know somebody else in my

department either HR manager could be one of my adment assistance coordinator um I find oftentimes you know if there's candid information that they want to share sometimes the you know direct supervisor isn't the best to to hear that so sort of having someone that they don't know sort of a you know quote unquote third party um and you know keeping that as confidential as we can

obviously um is important too no I agree I agree with your sentiments thank you going to need another person for that okay anything further that'll be next year all right next item up on the calendar is insurance insurance I have I haveen no I have a question have insurance you need insurance anything on insurance no all right the nursing department do we have anything on nursing department Miss

ly she here yes yes um Mr Mayor um did we skip music excuse me we did Art no we did Art music together that's right I said that at the beginning how are you good good just a a couple questions on um the staff and if they are certified the whole staff faculty especially people that work directly with children certified in First Age C PR uh AED is that in the budget and is everybody

certified not all the staff is certified all right not all staff that work with children right yeah not all staff that work with children are CPI ad uh and first aid certified um in our safety plans we have a list of staff that are certified in each School my dear could you could you speak closer to the microphone please you can pull it closer the whole thing there you go yeah

so um we have safety plans that are in each school and um there's a list of staff that are certified in each school um so and those are in the principal's office and they in the nurse's office so there are safety plans in every principal's office with those people listed who are certified so if something happens in the school there's always somebody in the schools that are CPR certified first aid certified 8 Ed

and whatever certifications there are uh say EpiPen or Knockin I know we're doing it with the students now those certifications so but it's not necess I don't want to say necessary because I think it's necessary that everybody who works with children is certified so I guess this is for you Dr Curley is that something that has never happened in the district it's never been budgeted so I guess I'm not going to lie

I was sending a message to Mariel and Shaw telling her she should go home um and I missed the part first part about just about uh the the staff especially those who do work directly with our students uh being certified in CPR first aid uh AED um is that something that's never been uh I guess the case in the district where everybody is certified or has it been the case where just a few select

people are certified in those areas I think it hasn't been the practice that everybody gets certified has not been the practice do you think it's necessary or not so was the question was the context literally like all of our staff every teacher work with children um I don't know I'll be honest with you we hadn't really thought of it we have you know medical professionals in in every

building and we do have some staff um and there's really there really hasn't been any discussion around it I think that we could be well served if we had more people um who were trained in those areas right I guess that's where it brings me to the budget I mean if it's in the budget I would just like to know what the expense would be T the time

would be who would do it I guess um if it's ever been um in the district I mean I I was asking a few people in the district you swe off for First St no are you CPR and these are teachers and Paris and so I I guess it just it Sparks something to ask and I didn't know if it was it was because of the budget or if it was time constraints or we just focus

on a certain few in each school well I know in the P I've been here for 23 years and I was a CPR instructor and um the practice was that there was like three or four of us that were CPR instructors and we' get lists of individuals who are interested in each school um who are interested uh and we would go and they would pay the the school department would pay us stiens and that kind of

went by the wayside um okay and that's been you know several years but it's never been it's never been practice you know the current practice isn't that you know we just don't you know so I guess my followup and I guess it's for whoever wants to answer it you you or Dr curle is it mandatory to have staff certified in those areas in every school it's mandatory that the health care professional is certified in CPR

and first aid and AD trained so healthc care professional we're talking nurses nurses correct and we have in most buildings we have two nurses except for the smaller schools and they're there from you know the time school starts until after um so there're us you know there's usually someone who's always AED CPR certified at a school um but aside from them um we started talking and by

we I mean um Dr bronhard and I and um I'm not sure if it happened or didn't happen whether or not um they offered it during professional uh day where we were going to uh have a sign up for teachers in Paris to um become CPR certified uh and it was going to be um done by the U Fall River fire uh Department I think that was kind of just something that we uh started talking

about and um I'm not sure whether that happened or not but right it was in the early stages and I think that was as a result of uh the mort Middle School student as far as AED training um is that just the nurses as well in the schools yes okay so I mean I guess it just leaves me with with a little concern with with a uh say dery with the amount of students

at dery with the amount of of Faculty at dery and it's only mandatory for the uh nurses say there's what three or four I don't even know how many three right at dery um but I I I guess this is for now that I have my answers I guess we could probably um have uh further conversations about this because I think I feel a little differently uh without

making a big deal about it uh but um I I think that's all I have for now I appreciate you your honesty um but I yield Mr Mr D thank you so two questions um first I 100% agree with my colleague um we need to really um maybe it has to come through policy uh we have to you know make sure is mandatory that we have our staff CPR AED certified so I like to

make a motion that we refer that issue to policy subc commmittee I'll second there's a motion to Mr Bailey did you second it yes I did can it is a motion to do you know what it is the sorry I was asking about that's okay I can repeat the it was just a motion to refer Miss lar concerned to policy subcommittee so we can do policy um I have a motion to second on referring uh

m L's questions about CPR and AED to the subcommittee Deb could you please call the role Mr ra Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes M larv yes M Perera May Coogan yes thank you and that's um oh I'm sorry I no it's Mr D that's okay um that's actually all I had for now I yield thank you anything on Mr Cory I just wanted to make a couple of comments Mary um

I think the nursing program has advanced phenomenally over the past 20 years and uh I know that postco um when when we talk about all the counselors and seaons that we've uh staffed phenomenally throughout the schools that anxiety issues are running High I just want to take a moment to praise the nurses as a department cuz I know how hard that they're working especially with student

anxiety issues and anything else that might arise throughout the school day so I would like you to just go back to your people and let them know how much we appreciate their services really and how critical their services are for us uh for our staff and but mostly for our students and keeping things on an even Keel it's not an easy job uh we don't often talk about nursing in the day in

the business of the school committee but now that we have you here I just want I want to reiterate my praise for the entire department and please go back and let him know that I yield thank you ning last call thank you can I just add something on the CPR I didn't want to so when Mr Fitzgerald comes up um he can also just add to that conversation because we are actually making some some

uh some moves there on the teaching and learning side around certifying folks as trainers the other thing you know as a as a principal I think it was mentioned we would typically offer it um frequently for after school so there would always be it would always be offered to staff um but really then it was up to them if they chose to take advantage of that opportunity but you know speaking personally at talit you

know we had several opportunities where we may offer that staff uh offer that training to staff after school but I know Mr Fitz shell can add a little bit when he when he comes up thank you and if I could just add one thing I am getting um some messages around the fact that we do have people in our um Nutrition department that are trained CPR and also in terms of um choking and

then um on the security side there are people trained um all of our security officers so just there are more people than the nurses in schools who who have some of the training if not all okay thank you thank you thank you Mary next um next department is parent and Community engagement Title One Mr Das thank you um is Miss Kudo here today or oh actually she is ill and is not here

this evening okay um but you could still ask questions and if we can answer them then we will go ahead Mr D okay I just want to um find out if um she has all the support that she needs um she asked for any other positions that weren't included or no no I mean that you'd have to we don't have anything else from her so that is a question that we would have

to ask her and then we could get back to you like in case there was something she didn't reference or I don't I'm not sure okay um yeah if we can if we can find out if if there is um something that can be discussed with um the budget I'd be um if we can maybe include it uh it's too late for tomorrow I guess but next week or um whenever the budget comes back sure I

Y okay health and fizzed Department health and fizzed anybody have any questions for health and fizzed hearing none well well I want to hear about the oh the CPR come on up Danny come on up Danny get out that that's right I forgot about the

training so in terms of health and uh in terms of the CPR assistant superintendent bronhard and raposo and myself had talked about this year um getting certified as a CPR instructor that way we were looking at um fourth grade sixth grade and after conversations today um that are still preliminary ninth grade health uh where kids would receive CPR um only at the ninth grade level would they receive the

American Red Cross certification um at that cost is about $40 a card um with that we'd also show students how to implement um the uh EpiPen uh buying some trainers buying some EpiPen trainers so that if a student they were with were having some type of allergic reaction they would understand how to administer the EpiPen um going forward um assistant superintendent bronhard recommended that um if I were

to be certified that they could offer after school hours during teacher meetings possibly to go over the heick maneuver how to administer EpiPen as well as um to go over CPR with um School staff not necessarily having to certify them they could always purchase their own card if they completed a course but just to give them that skill based so that if an emergency were to happen that they would be um prepared thank

you is um oh you would know know that I was going to ask if our CNAs would train but they must be when you go to a school do the teachers volunteer to take CPR training or do you know what kind of response you get Danny so just at the high school um Chris picino who is a certified instructor um we currently just put five of our teachers through the American Red

Cross lifeguard first aid CPR just cuz we want to expand our swim program we want to do a learner swim program um where we would teach teach some kids at the high school level how to swim and part of that component is the first aid CPR um but as far as other schools I'm unsure um we offered uh first Aiden CPR this summer several of our physical education teachers took advantage of

that during teacher Institute um and became certified um many of them are already certified because they are coaches in the district or outside of the district okay anything further from Mr Fitz Mr Das thank you and just more of an idea for um the direct cross card there's any like grant funding or a grant that we can apply for to help cover those costs I think that's something we should definitely consider

um but yeah I I think we'll have a good conversation and policy subcommittee on this and um thank you for all that you do I yield anything further for health and Fizz education department one question M lar sorry uh just a quick update on the referee program y so the ref reps class we ran it for the first semester we ran two different cohorts Brendan Kelly did an amazing job we did

a blended learning model um so the students that um you know were assigned to the class um we allow them to choose their pathway one of three Sports basketball volleyball soccer um our first employment was with the for of intramural program uh Christen go our assistant athletic director um started giving our students some valuable experience where they were able to earn uh money refereeing uh

middle school and elementary basketball um she's also we spoke today um going to employ some of our students that um sorry finished the volleyball program I've been in contact with mass premiere for a youth soccer um the Dartmouth Youth Soccer Association as well as um several other agencies around we reached out to the COO and a couple of signers um it's a matter of just trying to plug the kids in um Mark

Adavan who is the former athletic director at tton now that he's retired um has really taken this program on and has uh contracted Services has invited us twice unfortunately both times um they were cancelled to do evaluations and then um upon a successful evaluation he would link the the referee with the assigner um that way we can get these kids working and um some gainful employment good what go what's the

breakdown between um male and female that participate in probably like 60 40 that's not bad it was better than what we thought right think it was going to be at the beginning we had one one girl right the first class we ran we had 1 two three four more than okay five I want to say yeah it gets tough period one when you got to balance all the the um the students we try to Target were

some of our athletes they got them working in the system um and it's tough with all like the the school constraints I guess like you know they need their certain classes at certain times um so what we did with the the fizzed teachers is the first couple of days we went around and asked anybody if they would really want to be in that class is like a recruitment when we do our routine and

ritual um a couple kids took on to it but after seeing the buzz because uh Brendan Kelly brings them into the gym to give them real life experience so one week it may be they're refereeing a basketball game amongst the kids in the class he's going to go over the hand gestures um all the things other kids were starting to peek around the curtain and generate some buzz and um once they

saw their peers starting to referee and make some money um you know we've had a lot of kids ask about it so y it's something that we're going to hope to grow and they get a physical education credit for great Mr B thank you for the update hey um can you send that over to me and send me some information on that yeah absolutely really be interested going to steal it

no I mean I've well it's big it's big at the Mia right now because of the referee shortage as well so um I've been um you know discussing that and I think it also be big not just for the schools for the community because I mean when you look at what officials are getting paid throughout the week I mean it's it's good money very good money you know so so he's looking for him in the summer

he's going to steal your idea he's going to steal your idea I hope so I hope so Dartmouth is running it um I just sent the information to my wife's school at adelo high school um hopefully they're going to run it the more people the better the age of a a referee Nationwide is 53 okay you know I'll send you that over right now Bob okay all right thank you Mr

Fitz next up school committee Mr Das um two items um one what memberships are um we a part of again and the MC that's it that's the um entire 9,000 yes okay um and lastly and just real quick on the um the membership you know I understand um I don't know if that's something we utilize often and I think in the future it's uh we need to have the conversation

whether um something you know we need to pursue more I know we we took a vote to have them um do some sort of training for us um I think that's something we should utilize if we have a $9,000 or um do and memberships I I think we should definitely utilize it which is something um I don't think we do enough of um there's any ideas that we can give to

each other um I'm all ear um there's um I did sign up for um a conference one of their legislative um conferences so like to um see what they have to say there um but I think it is something that we don't utilize enough of and any way we can save money in the future I think would be good um the last item I'm going to ask I don't know if this is in the

school committee line item because that's the entire I don't know if this comes out of um another line item but the um the Weston's contract for our our sandwiches um where's that come out of out of the school committee line the supply line um I don't I don't see it in in the con in the school committee line item is it under expenses is there an expense line item Mr Das not that I not

that I see I just the general supply line um I don't have it up in front of me it's part over the 2575 uh the general classroom supplies oh um how much does that go to Winston's for the sandwiches $45 a month 45 a month mhm um okay um again I I think um and I will I I will say I I think um when we're a district that needs to look

for all the funding that we can we should um lead by example and I think um we should look for um for other ways that we can um I think maybe even as a bonding effort for the committee we can all pitch in once a month I I don't have an issue with that but we maybe talk about it in the future um I just hate to seeing those sandwiches also half of

them go to waste every single meeting and um I I I think um we should do something different but we can have the conversation in the future I yield thank you Mr D sarie I think we should be getting a sandwich a day for being on the school committee I yield okay thank you all right any further questions on the school commit water next question go to the special education department Mr Das

go thank you I I'll wait one one moment um go ahead question the only question I have obviously um I appreciate all the work that you do and um I'm not going to um the only I didn't even know this was in your line item the only questions that I have as regards to um the contract that we have with um Michael Joyce um how much have we given Michael Joyce this

past this SCH year do we have a number on that I do yeah so Michael Joyce for this year through January we've paid 8,639 108 or 180 108 8,000 going um through through January from Jan just from January dis patch July through January July through January is 108 um and so that could potentially go up to near 200,000 you would estimate yes um we again we um have an attorney right on the side of

us who's very accomplished who doesn't make that much um we have um I really think we need to look for ways that we can cut down on that line item I think that is just way too much money that we're given one attorney um I just like to hear the rationale from whoever can answer as to um the services that Mr Joyce gives to for public schools she not tell now Michael Joyce

is a very pull that Lor please right near you pull the whole thing there you go Michael Joyce is a very valuable resource for all the Republic schools I can assure you I worked with several different special education attorneys or attorneys that support school districts with um student issues and that's really what Michael Joyce is here for us for and he is by far one of the best he is a

former educator so he certainly understands what the law is around education but also the practice behind it um the cases that we consult Michael Joyce on are very complicated involving multiple attorneys sometimes DCF or other um supportive members of the community families and really he there he is there to guide us we make the decisions but he guides Us in the decisions that we're making if we don't

have his services and we end up going to hearing on these cases it will cost this District double what Michael Joyce makes in the course of a year I can't stress enough enough what a valuable resource he is he provides professional development he is seriously a phone call away something comes up there's a crisis that we need an immediate response on Mr Assad is fantastic but he also has a

large job to do one attorney for a district this big to handle both personnel and student concerns is just not reasonable um and we are fortunate to have him many many districts would seek Michael Joyce I'm I can't give you the specifics of the specific student or cases that he consults us on Just for confidentiality reasons but he has saved us thousands of dollars um our doj investigation he is guiding us through

that process which is a process that no one in our central office team or in this district has gone through before but Michael Joyce has so I can't speak enough no and and I appreciate that and and I appreciate your cander I'm just also um understand that we build him by the hour or by he builds Us by the hour and I can tell you you can see his bills

right they are very itemized down to you know 20 minutes of an email or a phone call um very rarely are there's never actually a a bill that I look at I look at every single one I know all those students names that are in those bills and when I look at what he has provided for the service for that particular student and our staff I never question what he has done there's never anything

that makes me say hm is that really valid no I'm not necessarily questioning um his qualification a or the work that he does um I just think um he he's almost one of the most um highly paid individuals in in this District if not the highest paid um if if you if you look at that what we just said now but Michael Joyce does more than just um special education work am I right he'll

do discipline for us he handles a lot of our um procedural pieces around student issues it could be anything from Title 9 inv investigations to discipline to special ed to bullying bullying and his rates Mr Das are comparable to other attorneys that do the same things for other districts I'm sure that if the superintendent wanted to reach out to other superintendents and ask the um attorneys that they use

for these similar matters and the the um amount they charge per hour I'm confident they would be comparable for sure does Mr Joyce also handle a public record request yes some not all of the time but he does he has right um I'll would speak from personal experience um I I would question um some of his um past rulings on public records requests to members in the district to Citizens um requesting

records um I think we need to have a general conversation if not tonight on what our legal strategy is in general um where we're allocating resources um potentially we can save by having an attorney in house not a second attorney in house um and just seeing where in general we pay for legal services and I think that needs to be an item on the agenda and we need to have that

conversation and see if we can um move forward because I I do think and I and I again I appreciate your cander and um and I don't disagree with anything you're saying um however we need to in my opinion um bring it in a little a little bit and just I don't think it hurts looking for other ways that um we can save money um so I I'll yeld thank you Mr chairman Mr Cory

um I just have a different point of view on that I I I know that I've already as I'm in my third term and I've already had a couple of dealings with attorney Joyce on some very critical matters and as um assistant superintendent Oben chain described um he's worth his weight in gold because he has such a wide perspective of the issues that affect education and Personnel in education

he's been there he's done that he's done it around the block so many times and he's developed a strong sense of trust with especially our school department Department here in Fall River so I I I really have to disagree uh with my colleague's sentiment uh as far as saving money is concerned you get what you pay for in life and uh we're paying for one of the best pieces of advice we

can get on legal issues as an outside counselor and uh he's worth his weight and gold with that I yield anything further on Special Ed I Got how's it going this year law it's going actually again we're continuing to move towards our vision to have students um be especially students with disabilities sorry about that be included in the General Ed setting the staff is really embracing um you know

that sentiment principles are embracing that we are really looking at uh outcomes for students with disabilities and trying to get them set up to be the most successful they can be I can't speak enough about my leadership team my special education supervisors go above and beyond to try to think outside the box to again meet this the very complex um and multiple needs of our students nice nice sure anything

further I just want to make a comment um I know you have your hands full and uh you think so and and you're coming to us from a great experience with the collaboratives and I think that you've been able to to um stretch our relationships to the collaboratives even more deeply and that speaks volumes in itself and I for one really appreciate what what it is that you're doing with

our special needs Department because for a long long long time uh and I started working in this District in the mid 80s and it just wasn't together back then it's much more together these days than it ever has been and I'm I'm going back over 30 years so I have a long record to refer to and I'm very pleased with the progress that I see that we're making now and I think we're lorri I I believe

that we're laser focused on making progress in the special needs department so I just want to leave it at that it's it's a work in progress but I'm very pleased with the progress being made I yield and I want to say on behalf of the entire department without the support from this school committee we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing to move this department forward because all of

the resources you have provided special education does not go unnoticed they're definitely needed and now I tell my team it's time to take the what we've been given and just determine how we take those resources and get them to meet the needs of our kids so I do appreciate that so um to that point we worked really really hard a few years back for the student Opportunity Act to be passed

and I know that we're using that extra dollars in a big big way for sped and I and and I hope to continue to Advocate our district in in the entire Commonwealth our district was one of the lead districts in in and really prospering that act forward and moving it forward we went to all of the developmental meetings for student Opportunity Act because we really needed those extra Financial Resources I'm very

proud of our district for fighting so hard and I hope that we'll continue to fight hard on behalf of that thank you Mr Das thank you last question um if there's ever a parent in the community that reaches out to us maybe they had um IEP concern or whatnot what would be the proper chain of command um to um refer them sure so on the um special ed page of our website has the um special

education supervisor for each building so depending on um the school that their child is in I would first start with the special education supervisor if they've already reached out to the building themselves right that's always the best place to start and then from there if those responses um parents still have questions or they don't feel like their needs are getting met my information is

there too I have met with several parents um so I'm always available as well thank you for that okay next up student services who's talking about that you Dr bronhard sure anybody have any questions on our student services Mr Cory I don't have questions I have a comment I know that uh uh assistant superintendent brard is I call her the ever ready battery and uh she's working really really hard

just want to acknowledge that and a lot of positive changes have come about through your leadership and I for one really appreciate it as a former adjustment counselor to see what you're trying to do to re-energize that entire department and what I just heard about virtual learning just recently really pleased and I know you work really hard to Institute those programs and I know now with the no self pH policy uh I'm

sure it's uh there's a couple of hitches here and there but by and large I think it's working out really well I personally want to thank you for all of that for instituting all those policies thank you very much okay lar I so what I did notice going through uh you know school by school not one page by everybody and I just want to acknowledge uh the attendance issue that

you promised all of us about a year and a half ago two years ago maybe maybe even more time flies but I do have to acknowledge that the district is we're not where we want to be we all know that but it is definitely um improving uh immensely so I do have to acknowledge that you you definitely uh stood by your word and uh and got those numbers up but

one of the uh questions I have uh about student services is basically about the wraparound services and your opinion especially on the individual ized bases like you guys spoke of I wrote it down the S so you know and the meetings that you guys have and and they're individualized based and how does that transition into those wraparound Services when they're identified like what do that work like

so that becomes a building based experience with the building based teams and my department has been working very hard to ensure that we are creating a through line so that all schools have access to all of the consistent Services across the community um and so you know depending upon what the needs are for those individual students and then also what the families are willing to accept

and Embark upon with their students right no student is going through uh challenges that they're experiencing alone and in some cases some families are more equipped and or more ready to engage with the resources you know we say it all the time um I feel extremely blessed to be in this community uh Mr ba referenced it earlier as it relates to the tremendous resources that are really

at our fingertips when we're at a point of need and unfortunately it takes a tragedy for us to recognize just how supported we always are but I can also say that there is truly not a day maybe not a week that goes by that something comes up that a school needs a connection for a thing and across my team and if not my team across my larger Community team we have those resources

to reach out and ask for help and then a very quick turnaround happens um but it's really about identifying need when it arises as we know you know our kids and families just like every single one of us we live in the es of flow es and flows of life and what I need today might be very different than what I needed yesterday or the month before and certainly different than what

I need 5 weeks from now and being able to have deep relationships with our families having regular communication strategies with our families the work that we've done around attendance I think has absolutely strengthened the trust that we are developing with our families and as a result of that I truly believe that is where the wraparound services are accepted by families because we can offer a buffet of

services but if families are not ready to support their kiddos in that work if they believe strongly their moral beliefs religious beliefs strongly about you know supporting their kids differently as a school department we have to be able to bend and flex and meet families where they're at and so truly you know that is the wraparound piece for for us is making sure that our staff are equipped that they know the

who in the community can provide those supports and when they don't they reach out to us directly um Claudia Costa as you know is Central in that work in the district she is a phone call away to all of our adjustment counselors and principles for that matter um and we continue to grow um her her reach and her access points but without a doubt you know that is certainly the cycle of

support that we've been able to enact here in the district right and you're you're satisfied with the the staff that you have now you don't need any more staff especially for the wraparound services and that uh communication amongst the school and the community um I I know as one member of the of the committee I would not hold back on any funds for this work yeah and you know I really believe you know as we mentioned

earlier in a few of the budgets and as we look at elementary budgets tomorrow the school staff are my staff when I think about that extension right um having seal support staff at the district level is only going to take us so far but our our work of you know monthly meeting with representatives from those buildings uh where we are making sure that everybody is exposed to the resources where there are direct

lines of communication so that if there's another support staff in that building that might not have the relationship those teams are working in collaboration um so I do believe that we have some pretty well-oiled systems always evolving always developing uh but we have staff that are willing to come along for the ride with us we have staff that are willing uh to participate in these collaborative

opportunities so that they are continually growing and learning of those resources um and and taking advantage of every opportunity to professionally develop them um in in our work I know everybody works very very hard very diligently in this District I mean we we know that we see it a lot of us um but this work specific is the key to a quality education because we all know if there not ready to learn they're

not going to learn and we have to support social emotional learning so I I mean I applaud where we are and again I know we probably have some advancements but we're we're we're doing the work and I I thanks thank you for the update I anything further on student services next up a superintendent does anybody have any questions Mr dis thank you I'm just trying to um this um the same question as the school

committee what's the um the dues and memberships of the superintendent um uh Mass Association of um School superintendents Mas so there are dues there are conference fees and things like that I also participate in the new superintendent induction program um and then we have a membership uh one South Coast and the Old Colony superintendent Association um what's the one South Coast I think I I me I thought

I mentioned that in the email cuz I saw South Coast chamber members what's the I know I know I'm sorry I know what um One South Coast is I didn't what's the um what do we get out of the membership um I I I'm not sure to be quite honest with you and no it's a year yearly fee we pay it's with the other local Chambers we meet up we um cuz I've

gone to a couple of those meetings yeah I have not so that's why not a lot of it a lot of it's like with the banking community and and and you know we all we meet up we Network for ideas and ways to get like other additional money and different kind of things you find it to be useful yes it's it's very very cheap to be part of the membership it's only $325 a year so okay

um uh last three questions I saw the postage was um I don't know if this covers the entire District or it's just for like 417 Rock Street but I saw the um the postage was 45,000 cover it covers the whole distri district with the exception of dery dery has that that makes sense then um and last two questions the office equipment Furniture maintenance um is there something that broke or it's just the that and the

supply line are two lines that historically have been in the superintendent line um area and it's just random little things that come up it's not and the lines are small very small in comparison okay and just last question just for the public edification what's the ti in tuition for again I know we discussed this um what's the when I first came on the committee the ti in tuition oh the so it's it's the T

so it's so we pay tiin for I believe there's five or six kids that go maybe seven actually that go to tiin and so historically we were paying them and we were not getting the benefit of those children this year uh we had the Tian children sign up with us and enroll with us so we we worked out a tuition out ofate agreement with them where we recoup the money for them and we pay

Tian to educate them and so the reason being is it's cheaper for us to do it that way because of where they're located and we would we' be required to offer a busing and everything and so that was the cheaper of both of the options and we're actually getting the benefit of the students within our enrollment now so thank you thank you okay Mr Cory so again I don't really have a

question but I do have a comment and uh it's been a very challenging year since the superintendent was uh put into position last summer there been a lot of heat up here on the school board at the meetings a lot of questions sometimes unfounded point of order um do we have any budgetary questions yeah Mr Mr Cory just this budget it's the budget I just want to praise the superintendent for assembling a strong

central team and in carrying our district through all budgetary matters thanks Mr that have faced the school department in the past year it's not an easy thing to do thank you m next up is technology does anybody have any questions for Mr gabal Mr Das thank you one um thank you Mr cabal and um just from have a question um and I know there's um a lot that goes into this and

um speaking with some individuals on the technology subcommittee understand we're getting the best bang for our buck with this um however I know for cop of services and I know we are a big district with a lot of paper um um but I know it's for 435,000 um could you just explain some of the work that we're we're currently doing to potentially minimize that and move to more um digital means of um work so

currently everything is digital a teacher can send in a work order to the copy center uh it stays in a digital depository and she can she or he can next year at the same time just click on it and send the job in if they use the copy center uh we have 273 devices across the district in the buildings um during covid we saw some increase in funding so we added some machines um but the

$435,000 is basically lease costs um and it's all care and maintenance of the machines um they are under State contract and this company that we've been using for a number of years I can call and within 20 minutes they are at one of our buildings because they understand the need of the students in you know central office staff um we will in fiscal year 26 see a reduction because most of the machines will be

paid off by then however we'll be coming back to you and have to replace some of the older machines in the fleet by then uh fiscal 26 Technologies may change and I can come to you with a better solution um we're always researching better ways to do things um but we've moved away from mograph machines where you know to ability now where we can scan um and duplicate color uh for sped um special

ed Department um or board maker for their you know pieces of uh work that they need uh we have large format printers and all of most of the buildings that they can print out posters and such um so we've come quite a long way and working with Mr uh alme we've been able to cut down that line um significantly over the last couple of years and we continue to do our best to do so in the

future no and and that's what I heard and and I do really appreciate that and the leadership and effort you put into redu the that line item um hopefully one day we can get that close to zero um last question and um just my recollection um from the parenting community outreach subcommittee um that was held about um a few weeks ago and someone correct me if I'm wrong however we currently do not have the technology

to post our financial batches the school committee signs off on is that there's a a barrier there with data am I wrong in saying that uh there's there's quite a few things that we would have to look at um related to fura and CPA compliancy um and we'd have to do uh quite a bit of redaction um as far as account numbers um names of individuals um a lot of the

stuff that's on the batches that would be something that would be a much larger discussion um with the superintendent and the C o um my job is to just put on the website what they tell me to do um but I can tell you that as a technology and clerical undertaking it would be a very large lift after every uh meeting knowing the size of some of the batches to make those available on the website

and also I only have so much room on a website as far as digital space like a hard drive I can only upload so much data so it would slow down the website um so there'd be many questions technologically as well as um um law you know law wise with Mr Assad attorney Assad and superintendent to possibly figure out a way to make that work okay I I'll would just say I I do appreciate

I don't disagree with your response um I will just say as one member I think we should really work for and I think it'll be really good in the eyes of the public for transparency purposes for um oversight and just um showing the public what we do that we should post our financial batches redacted um if need be by law however we should post our financial Bates that we a school committee members sign off on

on the website of theps I think that would be a great step forward there many different districts across the Commonwealth across the country that do the same and if all public schools I don't see any difference so I really hope that's something we can work out some sort of plan even if it's not every single batch even if it's certain items if there something anything that we can

do to take one step forward I think that would be ideal I yeld anything further hearing nothing uh we'll be back here tomorrow night at 5:00 for the second round motion to adjourn second I have a motion to adjourn Deb please call Mr iel Mr Bailey yes tomorrow Mr Cory y Miss larav yes Miss Pereira Mary Coogan yes adjourned 5:00 tomorrow here five o'clock everybody