4.8.2024 Fall River School Committee - Public Hearing & Regular Meeting

Deb would you please call the role Mr Agia here Mr Bailey here Mr Cory M lar here M Pereira M Rodricks here may C here salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all uh pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video

recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or UNP perceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible this is a public Hearing in accordance with Massachusetts General Law chapter 71 section 38n the proposed fiscal year 2025 annual budget of the for public

schools do we have any comment no uh is there any public input no there is no hearing no comment do it three time ask three times ask one more time three times any comment on the public Hearing in accordance with the 25 annual budget for the for public schools last call for the public hearing on the 2025 annual school budget of the for public schools hearing none I'll let detain a motion to approve motion to approve

second I have a motion to second I'm sorry I'm sorry motion motion to adjourn second I have a motion to Second Deb call the rooll Mr AA yes Mr yes Mr Cory y m lar yes M Pereira M rodri yes mayor kouan here I mean yes uh adjourn the public

hearing like to call to order the regular meeting of the Fara school committee for Monday April 8th Deb would you please call the role Mr ha here Mr Bailey here Mr Cory here m miss laring here miss Pereira she's on way that Miss rodri here mayor cougan here Su to the flag please I pledge allei to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation

under God invisible with liberty and justice for all

um 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 imp permissible Deb we have some public input tonight we do first up Andrew McIntyre uh North Main

Street three

minutes good evening um I just wanted to bring up a question about the uh budget draft that came out there is a SOA plan draft in section four of that draft it listed quarterly leadership meetings and it listed that PTO were listed on that so my question is is that something that's already happening or going to be because if it's already happening we haven't been notified as a PTO and would

like to know if it is um the other question that I'd like to bring up a lot of our parents you know use the summer daycare at tany and right now the administration isn't letting us sign up because they don't know what's going on so I guess my question to the board is can you guys tonight tell us whether tany will be open during the summer or not so that the parents can make plans

for you know the summer daycare if we're not going to use it that's the only questions I have thank you thank you Andrew uh Christine soua Langley Street I question okay can someone answer the gentleman uh as far as I know no plans changed for anything at tany at this time well he asked a bunch of question if there's reg I know but if there's if they sign up every other year there's

nothing changeed for this one as far as I know Madam superintendent that is true uh we have no intention of closing the daycare at tany at all so the gentleman just said that the principal is telling people not have you authorized him to say that no I will speak to principal brat so I'm not sure why um but I think maybe it's because of all the uncertainty that's uh uh swirling around so we'll have to get

that strained out but there's absolutely that would be independent of it anyway so um we um have no intention of not having the tany um uh do and do we have a date for the meeting with the parents yes we do that's going to be uh Wednesday well they could ask this right then now well absolutely they could thank you are Christine soua Langley Street for I have her oh you have hers

uh uh Mr is going to read that one Christine soua 43 Langley Street I am ex I am writing to express my deep concerns about the potential harm that breaking up Elementary School communities can cause particularly in relation to the proposed split and grade levels across two schools within our district as a parent and active member of the tanzi community I strongly believe that maintaining the cohesion of our school

Community is Paramount to the well-being and academic success of our students the proposal to divide grade levels across different School raises significant apprehension about the social emotional and educational impact on our children elementary schools play a crucial role in fostering a sense of belonging building strong relationships and providing a supportive environment for

Young Learners disrupting this cohesion by splitting grade levels across two schools could lead to to feelings of disconnection confusion and instability among students teachers and families reearch research has shown that strong School communities positively influen student engagement academic achievement and overall well-being by fragmenting these communities we risk undermining the sense of unity and

support that is essential for a thriving educational environment it is vital to consider the long-term consequences of such a decision and prioritize the hostility public development of our students Above All Else the tany community has had an essential force with Administration to sit with us to answer our questions to this point all discussions and proposals have been made without any parental or Community

stakeholder involvement collaboration with parents teachers and community members is crucial in finding a balanced approach that ensures the well-being and success of all students while maintaining the strong bonds within our school thank you for your attention to this matter I trust that the school committee will give due consideration to these concerns and work towards solutions that uphold the best interest

of our students and communities thank you uh Alicia Ley Deval

Street three minutes three minutes good afternoon honorable mayor Coogan superintendent Pon and school committee superintendent Pon has worked for the Fall River Public Schools as a teacher department chair vice principal principal of a level four school that went through turnaround and successfully reached level one status under her tenure principal of cus middle school dery high school served as assistant

superintendent and now ending her career as the leader of Fall River Public Public Schools having worked under Maria as a teacher alongside her as a colleague and once again under her leadership when she became superintendent I have had the pleasure of closely working with her for the 12 years that I served as an educator within this community anyone who has had the pleasure of working with Maria knows

that her top priority is doing what is best for kids I had the honor of completing my administrative internship under her at Doran and I couldn't have asked for a better mentor I's passion for the work understanding of the urgency needed to meet the growing needs of the community sorry and Relentless work ethic have helped to shape me into a teacher and leader that I have become

with every decision I make I will always ask myself is this best for kids as hard as it was for me to resign last year from Fall River one main reason was I had the opportunity to go back to work in my hometown in my own former Elementary School Maria's home has been Fall River since she moved here from Portugal and has dedicated her life's work to this city the retirement of an educator like

superintendent pont's Bittersweet although Maria will no longer be an F frps employee I think we can all agree that the impact she has made on thousands of students hundreds of Educators and during her tenure as an educator in Fall River it's going to be a hard one for anyone else to match I know that the evaluation for the superintendent will be reviewed later within the agenda

but I wanted to personally take a moment to publicly give Maria the flowers she deserves for her hard work dedication and advice whether I wanted to hear it or not Maria I could never thank you enough for all you have done and Fall River knows they are losing a good one thank

you you got to go buddy

go a

good thank you next up Shaya carmichel weed Mo

Street hi everybody um so my question is a question and also a statement um I know that this year I believe we're in compliance with the prek expansion and I'm going to be talking about that and tany as well um I did read most of the demographic statement and from what I got from it it seems that the population seems to be decreasing in the upcoming years sort of stabilizing and maybe

growing in the next 5 years um I feel like the the subcommittee keeps instilling this fear and propaganda associated with some urgency with this um and it's created a lot of like anxiety and panic sort of this in this educational Community I guess my question is is if the numbers are decreasing why is there um you know this message that there's some kind of like educational emergency and we need to fix

it right now so I guess I'm looking for answers about that um I know that tany was tabled in the last committee meeting but it seemed to be a large part of the discussion in the subcommittee meeting also creating a lot of naturally anxiety and panic within our community um there's just a lot of unanswered questions we understand the superintendent is coming on Wednesday so I'm sure that we could have our

questions answered then but just speaking as a parent obviously this limbotics of like phasor in right now is really unnerving so I'm just like asking for the committee to sort of be more forthcoming about the possibilities of options you know which dire SU facing and sort of to piggyback on Andrews as well my children do go to summer camp um at tany well we're sort of just like in this phase where because there's an

unknown it's just like you know we're not doing business as usual there's a lot of panic there's a lot of anxiety there's just a lot of unanswered things so um if we could just sort of help us sort of like ease that a little bit and just get some answers for us thank you so much thank you um next item up on the agenda recognition Awards can we go go down in front of the

stage

thank you very much we have two Awards tonight the first one goes to a gentleman who is going to be retiring after serving for many years as the ice hockey coach at dery high school he's retiring from coaching ice hockey at dery high school he coached from 2006 to 2024 he has made a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of student athletes we thank him for his dedication and commitment to the ice hockey program

and dery high school as a whole we know SE several years it wasn't easy but he held it together and he did an excellent job over the years and he made those student athletes better uh men and women after they left his uh care so congratulations to Mr Kevin Robinson

want to stay right up here we're going to give a picture in a sec and we're going to have uh we'll do the pictures after uh we have one more nomination we'll have another one next month related to the same thing so uh this teacher works in the uh after school program the 21st Century Learning at dery high school her commitment to our students in the Elementary and high school levels in regards to the

partnership they formed assists with literacy development this year her students in the 21st century between the lines book club they worked on over the summer they worked on an overall unit last year and they will continue this highquality project based learning as a high school student travel to green after school to read with and to elementary students it's an outstand it's outstanding to see

students gathering together to further develop and enhance their reading their comprehension and their leadership skills we couldn't ask for a better leadership from one of dery's after school staff members then Alexis Beria come on down

congratulations

okay

let's let's get another nice round of applause thank you very much for all you

do

all right item number four subcommittee updates special education alternative education and early childhood subcommittee uh Mr agie our chair thank you very much so we did have a uh special education alternative education subcommittee meeting it was uh long meeting but it was very fruitful with a lot of good information shared there's several contracts that you'll see on the agenda tonight that we asked Miss

openchain to present today uh there were two people that are very highly regarded in the field so I would encourage that um that we approve that Dr bronhard also discussed a a new position that she requested in the budget uh there's been some ongoing work relative to what that would look like so we work through some of that and I we believe we have a different recommendation coming out

today to move forward and we'll continue to Advocate and look at ways to streamline the process to make sure things are working well under her leadership lastly we had an early childhood discussion um the needs of that um I know person mentioned that we had tabled it before but the purpose of this at our subcommittee is because we have a compliance issue we've been told since February that we we have a current

compliance issue in the next several months as students continue to um become eligible for services so that definitely is a compliance issue we discussed it um the committee went over a few things as well as advocating that the superintendent advocate for the plan that she presented with her team so we charged her team with coming up with some options relative to the data and information related to space and

compliance issues and the like that's the the reason why we had it on the subcommittee meeting and that's the reason why I think we're still talking about it because we haven't got the answers that we need to relative to how we're going to move forward so that's an ongoing discussion which you'll hear about more uh on the agenda as well today so it was definitely a worthy um subcommittee meeting and I want to thank

all the participants for being there and sharing their thoughts by asking questions and and and doing things like that at the subcommittee level it makes our leadership much better as far as I'm concerned because we throw different things at them they're able to look at things in a different way so I would encourage everybody to watch the meetings you can see what it is you can show up to the meetings for citizen

input time anytime all subcommittee meetings you can have citizen input time where we can get some answers to some of the questions that you may have so I know there was some talk in the community wondering if those are open meetings absolutely is there citizen input time absolutely I'd encourage you to show up to those thank you um facilities and operations subcommittee uh Miss Lar thank you mayor uh facilities and

operation meeting uh was held last Monday April 1st uh at the administration building uh we had a few things on the agenda uh the Bright View uh contract uh at dery uh the trash recycling organic waste update uh electric bus update and uh Department directors from facility and operations gave updates uh for their departments uh we're discussing a Bright View which is a dery landscaping uh

company that we had contract with this past year but after a la a lengthy debate and receiving information from Mr Pico and the superintendent it was agreed by the uh subcommittee to take one member out of the uh the eight member grounds crew in place one one of them at dery to see if this work can can happen with just our our people so we agreed to let this happen for a little

while with regular updates from Mr pachico and the superintendent on how the work is uh getting done and and how it's going uh Mr Pacho presented a 3-month interval of CA pertaining to trash recycling organic waste uh reported numbers from July uh September October December nothing was really out of the ordinary but we still have to look at a couple things um well they do Mr pachico presented an electric bus

update uh the first 10 buses uh happy to say they'll be in place here by the end of this month uh there is no date for the next batch of buses but we are happy uh the first batch is coming to us soon there are full warranties on All Buses batteries last we found out from them uh 7 to 9 years uh and there will always be a backup buses available in case there's

some uh battery situation as far as uh plugging them in and whatnot um we were given an update from Mr Pico and all the department heads we were Pres presented a handout with documentation of the condition of all current equipment used in maintenance and and um um all the Departments custodial and uh some of our equipment needs to be replaced it was very apparent at that meeting um but uh

I mean some are old uh very Antiquated and can't even be replaced because they they are that old so uh Mr Pico and his team are currently addressing this issue uh will be um Mr Corey mentioned uh that he'd be interested and maybe it's something we could put on the table of maybe getting a small engine uh CTE program at dery so we can train our students to uh to fix the these I guess

these uh machines but uh uh we all thought it was a good idea and it's something that we're going to uh revisit uh there was also a discussion on who we Outsource work to as far as it pertains to those departments at this time we only have outsourced for drain cleaning and the work at lerno UH it was also stated that in our that our inhouse plumbers electricians and Carpenters

have had uh have done an excellent job with the RPA uh new entrance expansion and bathroom uh project it's the first time that we've actually had plumbers and electricians and Carpenters work on a project together from from scratch to finish so well not finished they're almost there so uh the nutrition utility department has recent recently reduced over uh overtime payments payments there

are better systems in place for ordering and have full control of Maintenance of all kitchens and cafeterias uh the security department is currently working and working on evaluating all buildings and producing upgraded uh crisis plans and uh uh filling all security positions that's all I have mayor thank you thank you Miss larvey uh and finally the technology subcommittee meeting report Mr

agar we had a technology meeting that was also uh had a lot of information uh Mr cabal presented on a variety of issues several of which we will have on the agenda today for purchases there were some other issues that are just um for informational only related to some new devices and things that we're we're working on for our elll population it was a good meeting with a lot of information we held an executive session

related to security issues we just want to make sure we're on track with all of that and Technology we also talked about a technology plan which is overdue it's been several years out of uh compliance I know it's been worked on the committee gave 60 days to Mr cabal to get that finished so that the subcommittee meeting will be held in 60 days so that we can at least go over the plan uh

sometimes the purpose of subcommittees we wonder out in the public what the purpose is the purpose purpos is to attempt to hold people accountable to make sure that we do the things that we need to do along the way at the district level I think we need a strategic plan but looking at the tech plan we do need to update that so the tech plan will be updated within 60 days and it has a lot

of information we increased a lot of Staff we also have uh a leadership structure in the um information Department that has a lot of quality people so I think that we're going to be having a lot of discussions relative to um a robust Tech plan moving forward lastly we talked about the website and looking at uh doing an analysis of the website internally with Mr faras as the lead on that and um we're looking

forward to getting that forwarded back to the sub commit as well so whether we go in a different direction or we just make some changes to make it a better more user uh friendly website that would be encouraged uh I said lastly but one of the other things we talked about was some software that's going to assist us with um the practice of applying for a job the how um cumbersome it can be right now so

we're going to streamline that process as well so we recommended a purchase of some software I believe that's on the agenda today to uh help us with that and with that that's the meeting thank you thank you Mr agar um superintendent report superintendent font thank you Mr Mayor so um I have an update on um as you know principal Hogue and principal dearis will be leaving us at the end of

the school year so we have actually wants to do an update on uh where we are in the process at Watson we've established a search team with representation from from the school we have teachers administrators par professionals parents um seal folks as well as District folks on this committee um they have had the initial interviews and are actually bringing back some candidates for a task focused um round

that will be happening uh very shortly and then they will be forwarding the finalist to me for the Final Phase of that process so that's the Watson the dery process started a little bit later than Watson um the interview team has been established with again representation from each of the groups from the school the initial interview process is um uh scheduled to take place uh the week that we return back from

break and hopefully uh we will have that process completed uh sometime in May and finalists will be forwarded to me um we I I want to thank principal hog and princip dearis for their years of service to fall Republic schools um and um the Watson and dery uh in particular and also for the hiring update since our last school committee meeting we've um had hired three teachers two admin

administrative positions eight pair professionals and two educational support positions and eight Operational Support positions on the other side we have lost four teachers three parent professionals one educational support person and three Operational Support positions um we currently have positions posted um as uh Mr agar just said we are hoping to um acquire um a program that's

going to make the hiring process um much easier uh as well as uh some of our internal systems and we have some upcoming recruitment events that are scheduled the Merc event is always scheduled during April Break um we will be represented there we also have a spring Our Big Spring uh spring recruitment event scheduled for April 27th at dery High School in the cafeteria and we will be at Bridgewater

State University's uh recruitment event also that's it thank you thank you superintendent next up um student comment thank you go ahead Faith um this week we are hosting the New England Association for schools and colleges for dery's accreditation they're actually here this morning taking a tour from some students um spring sports are in full bloom history abroad is leaving on Saturday for

Europe uh cultural week is coming up and at the end of April Deca kids are leaving for Nationals at the end of April as well there's a lot of senior events coming up uh May 1st is CTE chords and awards and then the CTE senior showcase is May 2nd students from all nine programs will pres presenting their knowledge in their fields that's all I have thank you Faith than thanks

Faith item number seven um I have a series of minutes um I'd like a motion a second could could we actually just pull out 74 and 76 because there's no minutes in here so I don't want to approve minutes that oh that was an oversight then no I I I figure but I don't want to approve things that aren't here 7 all right so we'll hold 74 and 76 we'll take them up next meeting

I then that would mean as M Rogers pointed out we we'd like to get approval on uh 71 Special Education meeting from 226 72 special uh meeting from 34 73 approval of the minutes from the special ed alternative Ed Early Education subcommittee from 3:7 and finally the approval of the joint meeting minutes from the city council and the school committee from 3:12 can I get a motion to Second motion second I have a motion

a second second oh okay any discussion on the minutes Deb please call the rooll but again holding 74 and 76 Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes M larvi yes M Pereira yes M Rodricks yes may Coogan yes item number eight is the approval of travel requests we have a number of travel requests does anybody have any hold or concerns on any of those here none I'm looking for a motion

and a second on the to approve second uh any discussion Deb would you please call the rooll Mr a yeah yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes M larvi yes M Pereira yes Mr Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes item number nine is the acceptance of donations we have a couple of donations tonight um the superintendent will read them uh any discussion on this on the two listed on the uh agenda

hearing none I'm looking for a motion a second motion second I have a motion a second Deb call the Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes M larv yes M Perera yes Mr rodri yes mayor Coogan yes Mr chair uh superintendent could you U Mr Cory uh if if if I may on that last motion uh I just want to say on behalf of the Michael Troy Foundation that each year

there's a concert at the Narrows honoring the late Michael Troy in his great songwriting and how he's inspired so many different songwriters in the region it always makes good money and they're committed to dery's music and they've just turned over a check for $6,000 this year and every year they they turn over a check roughly in that amount each year now it's been going on for the past five or six years and I

just want to honor them with that recog nition thank you I yield superintendent okay thank you um from the Michael Troy Foundation to the fine and Performing Arts Department uh Mr Jackie Francisco accepts a $6,000 donation and from the basaw um baseball team to the athletic um Department Mr Brad buston accepts $1,749 to be used towards baseball socks thank you to both thank you

superintendent number 10 is the approval of a couple of Grants um they're listed on the agenda does anybody have any discussion or hold on either of the grants hearing none oh I'm sorry M Rogers um I just had a question actually I would love just a description of them because I think it's important that people know what they are um and then I just had a question on the mental health

one but it's a like just logistical question about what's there what do you want you want to hear from both of them I just think it's important that folks know what they are that's all you got two there Dr bronhard No Mr FIS is here oh who's going to do it Mr FIS okay so you're taking the second one seal mental health Grant Dr BR so this is the second installment of the seal

mental health grant that we had applied for back in August to support this school year uh there are a range of Community Partners extracurricular um enrichment experiences that our kids are benefiting from that this grant is specifically funding as well as we're right now in the middle of a pilot phase with our seal curriculum at the elementary level as well as the universal screener K through 12 and so

our plan will be to leverage some of this funding to help offset the costs um at the end of the year as we look to adopt some curriculum materials and tools and resources to further enhance theal work in our buildings any questions any questions for Dr Bard hearing none second item Mr faras the sped enhancement the sped enhancement Grant is a $10,000 Grant to supplement special education teachers at Green

Elementary School in the 21st century program it is for the school year and it rolls into the summertime so we look to increase the number of specialed students that we um service at that school any questions on either of the grant Mr Agia just a quick question on that what do these Services get provided across the whole District or is it only at one school it's only at Green Elementary it supplements the 21st

century program and that's the only Elementary location of 21st century No we have um four different elementary schools one middle and one high school but it's specifically for green and what about the other schools is it they don't have special ed students there or is it just they do they do have special education students however the state uh releases different funding opportunities for different schools uh

Green Elementary has been a 21st century program for 18 years uh every time you go through a funding cycle the grant decreases so the state offers different opportunities to supplement that green at our is the lowest funding uh School 21st century school we have in the in the um city so they offer it specifically for green and why would they be less than the others and I know you said it was time but does that make

any sense from the state so the reason why it reduces funding is that the um the goal is that it gets Incorporated um and we find other we find look for other funding sources to um to supplement the the grant so if the other schools are getting more funding from us no no through their block grant it just what means to seem that all four schools should provide the same services to the

kids unless there's some other reason not just because they they fund things differently but you're thinking they're all covered with plenty of services and well we we do have special education teachers at all the sites correct and they're all treated equally all the sites in your mind yes right absolutely yeah thank you are you uh I have a motion in a second no I'm sorry you don't for a motion a

second Mr a made it have a second M thank you Deb would you please call a r Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory y m lar yes M Pereira yes M rodri yes mayor kouan yes uh we have a couple of contracts tonight also um does anybody have any discussion on JAG painting or Pearson Jag painting all right so we're going to hold Jag painting on Pearson assessments any questions Deb would you

please make a I mean um sorry would someone make a motion a second motion approved second I have a motion a second on pi and assessments de would you please call the role Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes M lar yes m per yes M Rod yes mayor K yes uh Mr agar on JAG painting my question to superintendent is do these go out to bid and I just see

77,000 on the agenda and there must be a rationale for why we can't do that in house so yes they did go out to bid and the rationale was the work has spread out over quite a bit of time um tying up our people for too long uh doesn't work because we're getting requests daily for work throughout the district and it is much cheaper for us to subcontract the

work that is um very time intense um uh and that's the reason for this going out that way so I saw one that was just as I'm looking at the backup was more recent or it was different times and so the work is happening take us through the bid process and how that went so the bid process is is a walkth through with $100,000 or less we walk contractors through there three

contractors who B on the work this was the low bidder with the stipulation as we're bidding the work as they're bidding the work that we may or may not be able to fit it all in in the course of the school year because of the location these are in in hallways so it obviously is all after hours work um and pending the bid was whether or not there were premium hours included so they all

knew that the possibility of this work lasting the whole school year was uh definitely uh definitely there so thank you if you could just send us the backup of the three or whatever I'm just curious the three year no the three people you said you had three people in sure there's there's backup for I just don't see it here but it I might have missed it but sure that's fine thank you

motion approve I have a motion a second any further discussion uh Deb would you please call the roll seconded um Shelly second in it Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yep Miss lar yes Miss Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes Committee of the whole item 12.1 is discussion and vote to pass a resolution in support of replacing mcast graduation requirement and passing the Thrive act

as presented by Keith Michonne the fva president Mr Michonne the mic is

yours he good evening and thank you for the time tonight to talk to you about the Thrive act for people watching that may not know me I'm Keith michon president of the Fall Riv Educators Association and an MTA board member I know you have a lot on the agenda tonight so I'll try to keep this brief we are asking the committee to vote on a resolution to support the ballot of initiative to stop the high

stakes testing requirement for graduation as well as the Thrive act over 130,000 signatures of registered voters were collected when they were asked if they would like to see removing mcast graduation requirement as a question on the Statewide ballot in the fall this is well over the 75,000 signatures required legislators have till the end of April to approve the initiative suggest a

substitute version or take no action if no action is taken a mere 12,500 more signatures will be needed to certify by July to assure a place on the ballot in the fall the Thrive act consists of three components which we will explain good evening my name is Jenna Viara and I a Special Education team chair excuse me microphone sorry too short good evening my name is Jenna Vieira and I'm

a Special Education team chair at both dery high school and resiliency Preparatory Academy I am here to speak to the glaring disparities our special population students face regarding the current requirement of passing mcast to earn a high school diploma the first component of the Thrive act aims to address this by replacing the m cast graduation requirement I would first like to share some data with you to

demonstrate how significant this impact is on our special education students and multilingual Learners when looking at the 2023 mcast results as reported by desie 23% of all students who took the grade 10 Ela mcast in Fall River fell in the range of not meeting expectations when broken down into specific accountability groups 51% of students with disabilities and 49% of multilingual Learners fell in the range

of not meeting expectations in math 20% of all students fell in the range of not meeting expectations and when broken down further 47% of students with disabilities and 33% of multilingual Learners fell in the same range in science 26% of all students fell in the range of not meeting expectations while a stark 59% of students with disabilities and 48% of multilingual Learners did not meet

expectations this data is not the result of apathetic students or unskilled teachers students can be present in school daily receptive to the material being taught in class and even even passing all of their content courses but still not earn a high school diploma high stake standardized tests are not designed with our students in mind teachers of all subjects spend time scaffolding and

differentiating their content material we do this because we know it is considered good practice it is the best way to ensure the content material is accessed by the many types of Learners in our schools including students with disabilities and mult lingual Learners determining competency for graduation should be no different if a one-size fits-all approach isn't acceptable in our classrooms it shouldn't be an

acceptable tool to measure student growth and success the F urges the committee to do something bold for the students of Fall River by committing to support the Thrive act thank you for your

consideration the second component of the thrive changes the way the state identifies districts in need of comprehensive support and Improvement a key element to this section is that the ACT would increase the weight of student growth to be equal to the measure of student achievement the importance of focusing on growth over achievement when evaluating our students performance can't be emphasized enough the proposed

changes would also end the practice of replacing the superintendent and school committee with a state-appointed receiver which is a practice that is undemocratic and disrespectful to the local families and voters instead the state would support an inclusive team of local stakeholders to lead turnaround as needed I could go in on in more detail but for the sake of time I will yield to Josh to speak to the commission

component good evening esteemed members of the Fall River school committee my name is Josh ler and I'm both a resident of Fall River and an algebra 1 teacher here at dery the third component of the Thrive act establishes a commission to study and make recommendations for a more authentic and accurate system for assessing students schools and districts over the years as Educators we've

continuously strived to innovate and improve our teaching practices however it's crucial to recognize when certain initiatives no matter how well intentioned fall short of our expectations the push to raise standards with high stake standardized testing has unfortunately led to unintended consequences resulting in a defective assessment system that fails to serve the best interest of our

students we've witnessed firsthand the detrimental effects of this system classroom time is increasingly devoted to test preparation robbing students of valuable learning opportunities and stifling curiosity and creativity the narrow focus on standardized testing has resulted in curriculum that fails to accommodate diverse learning styles and strengths of our students reducing this to a one-size

fits-all approach that overlooks looks the Myriad of ways in which students can Excel students are also reduced to Mere test scores overlooking their unique talents abilities and achievements this is a narrow view of Student Success that follows uh that Fosters feelings of anxiety low self-esteem and disengagement what we truly need are not just high standards but a holistic approach to education that celebrates

the diverse talents and abilities of each and every student we need an assessment system that values creativity create critical thinking problem solving and social emotional skills alongside academic achievement we need to reclaim the joy of learning and cultivate an educational environment where students feel supported empowered and inspired to reach their full potential passing the

Thrive act and establishing a special commission to study and recommend a more authentic and accurate assessment system is a crucial step towards realizing this Vision thank you for your attention and your commitment to the future of our Comm comm's children we'd be happy to answer any questions you have um thank you very much any questions Mr Corey yeah thank you I um I like this

proposal I just want to clarify in the um it seeks to establish a more holistic graduation requirement based on coursework could could you just clarify that exact point so that that work would be done by the commission so I can't speak specifically to what they would come up with because that would be the work of the committee to develop what that would be and so the committee the committee

would be stakeholders in the community it would be stakeholders so for that it would be a Statewide committee um that it's it's specify that the uh MTA would have an appointee FDA uh aft would have an appointee the commissioner would appoint somebody it'd be a you know inclusive group about it how people from within Fall River possibly there are residents on the committee but it is a Statewide

commission so it may not necessarily be uh specifically from this area but I I believe that they're trying to find Representatives regionally how is this region represented in those discussions so this region well for one this region would ultimately as part of the Thrive act have the ability to determine their own graduation requirements I me some districts may very well choose to have mcast be their

graduation requirement um but they would have the option locally to establish whether that's the mass core what specific courses are required portfolio assessments community service service learning I mean there's a number of things that you could do if this resolution passes tonight what does it mean uh moving forward it doesn't doesn't establish the act it just gives the right to look into it

right so if this resolution passes tonight we would become Partners um in this work of getting it passed and and and work towards getting the ballot initiative passed as well um which will require 12,500 more signatures if the legislators don't approve it okay thank you very much ield you're welcome Mr PR yeah motion to approve second I have a motion to Second any further discussion on the Thrive act

Miss Rogers um I just had a comment I I want to be clear that Sarah y gotcha um I want to be clear that asking to remove mcast as a graduation requirement is not about lowering expectations it's about clarifying what it is that our kids actually can do and what they what they know so holistically really looking at a kid because let's face it standardized testing caters to one type of learner I

have one of those Learners at home right it's going to do well on every standardized test and then I've got another one that will know the material but no matter what you do he's going to do horribly on a standardized test because it's just not the kind of learner he is and is that really fair for our kids who don't learn in that type of way or don't express their

knowledge in that type of way it's not so it's really about meeting the needs of all the kids because I know folks will hear that and they'll hear it as we just want to lower the expectations no we want Choice I'm speaking as if like this has anything to do with me per se um but we want choice in how our kids are assessed and allowing the people that are in front of them every day to

make that determination I just wanted to make that point Thank you Mr Agia yeah so uh I have a little bit of a different opinion than a lot of people on this but I'd like to hear from the superintendent on what she believes and her assistant superintendent think related thank you related to this issue well I I think that what we're looking for I want to make clear that this doesn't eliminate mcast

altogether what it does is eliminates the requirement for um graduation right um I agree that a student can go through the whole year come to school every single day do what they required and still get our certificate at the end because they weren't able to pass the test um we talk about differentiation all the time but that test is a on siiz fits-all with some accommodations and I do think that mcast should be one

indicator not that be

all so have you done analysis on the students that have missed out on the graduation requirement that they just they quoted data so I'm assuming that you guys would have looked at that data and indicated yes we have X amount of students and have you looked at the profile of those students to see whether in fact they would have been able to pass or not like have you done any analysis related to the students in

special education that or elll students that the speaker had spoke about we look at our data you know that we look at our data all the time and I agree with you and Miss Rodricks many of our students who end up not passing mcast are our um um MLL students as well as our special needs students and in many cases some of our students who are um uh in specialized programs uh shall we say so

yes uh we do have data for that we can certainly uh send you some data with numbers so I think I'm taking the answer to that is no that you haven't done that yet yeah we do you know we look at data and we know that we have our data I will send you data Mr so what I'm asking I'm asking relative to this because I think what happens is we all we all feel like

we want to say oh yeah let's not make it a requirement because we say that the students that are going through four years of school at dery high school they can pass all of the dery classes and if they get a passing score on that they therefore graduate and I think the missing part of that is the reason why the state has made this a graduation requirement is because we were graduating too many students that can't

read they can't write and they can't compute when they're done and I think that that digging into the deeper part of this rather than the feel-good part of your heart says yeah of course the student should deserve a diploma but it also means that when they get that diploma that means something that they can all read they can write they can compute they have multiple times to take

the test I think there's a whole another part of this discussion that people don't see when we just say we want to pass this particular um item there's a reason why the state has this they spend a lot of money here and they want this to be a requirement but I think the analysis that I'm referring to I don't think it's ever been done because I haven't seen it if it was done in the

past we could see it so what I'd be looking for is when you and I'm assuming that the young lady that just spoke said it correctly that 23% of the students didn't make a passing score in the grade 10 mcast so when those students at 12th grade what would it look like relative to how many of those students wouldn't have a diploma 51 whatever it said something like that was students with

IEPs what does their profile look like so we can actually get a better gauge to not only on the Thrive act but just in general to be able to know is that student a student that can actually perform the grade level work that this is referring to which I believe it's an eighth grade uh assessment so we need to I personally want that information because it could change my opinion my

opinion at the present time is we should keep it because it's holding a higher standard for all students to graduate if you have an IEP you get accommodations you can get some serious accommodations to help you to pass the test and I think that if we don't look at what are we getting in the end if those students couldn't participate or didn't get a diploma what do that profile look like

and I think we need to actually have that we need to have that discussion so that we can actually vote on something rather than just a a feel-good piece of legislation and get to more specifics I know I'm not in agreement with everyone on this and that's fine too because it's not a bad thing if we have discussion about the issues so when I ask you about do we have data you don't need to get

offensive and say oh we have data it's nothing personal Mrs ponts all it is is we're asked to vote on something and all I'm asking you for is have we done the data relative to that specific piece so I don't mean to offend men but at the same time um I'm not going to be supporting this for that reason with that being said the other pieces of it about the receivership piece and and um

and that I can't I could support something like that but this is a one uh set package lastly I work in a school so I have had the opportunity to to do analysis of the tests of the essays that we can see when we're trying to prepare for uh how to assist students with the test if you work in a school and you look at it you get a better judge of

what is it that they're actually getting a passing score for or a failing score for not or needs Improvement score and I'd encourage the administration to look into that so we can actually know if a student gets a score of X on the mcast what does it look like for the work that they're actually producing whether that's either in writing if they can't write and they have an IP they could be

verbal it could be typed whatever it is there there's multiple opportunities for those students we need to do that analysis before we you know just blanketly say to go away with it with that idea I if I can just I'm just going to I first of all it is personal because we do do that work and I think since when I was a teacher and we would get our um

data back and we would pull it apart to see where kids um missed um uh on that question what we need to retach or what we need to make adjustments as teachers we do look at that information and I think that you look out there teachers are doing that work um I will get you profiles and I will get you that information but I um it's something that uh uh when I mean data analysis is

something that's important because it drives our work but just because we are saying that we have one indicator we want it I think that what the Thrive act will do is force us to go into Competency Based that doesn't mean that we're going to lower the standard and yes you are right there are kids who graduated or may graduate who are not where they need to be we need to fix

that not just say well we're not going to we're not going to change something that maybe needs to be changed or adjusted because we have that those are other issues that need to be addressed so I I'm not going to take personal offense in regards to I'm just saying that it doesn't mean that we don't do that work um just because you haven't seen it or maybe we haven't we do bring

data to you but maybe we need to be more specific and I will bring more specific work to show you what we do as we analyze the data and the numbers of the kids who are not meeting the standard and who are being deprived of their diploma as a result of not passing so yes that's good feedback we will bring it back but I I don't want you to I don't want anyone to walk away thinking

that we don't look at data Mr Cory the reason why we passed and worked so hard for the student Opportunity Act is because hcast has failed the urban districts throughout the Commonwealth and it was very inequitable and it and it placed our teachers backs against the wall in the classroom because of the inequity of the mcast graduation requirement I'm fully in favor of this to erase the graduation

requirement we're still going to use data it's still going to be a a a sense of direction for our our district to move forward to now with the student Opportunity Act in place and those extra Monies to help bring added resources to the necessary places especially in special ed we are trying to address in the best way possible equity in the classroom and happiness amongst our teaching ranks we need you guys

you're the backbone of our system and we want you to feel comfortable in your places M Pera I yield um I'm sure that everybody here has done their their research and have analyzed their data um and I'm sure not just in for but statewide right throughout the nation out of 50 states there's only eight that still require a test for graduation I don't really feel like that's a group I

feel like being a part of one of which is Florida I don't to mimic Florida's educational system um I don't think it's low ring standards um I'm just one example of a a mom who called me last year because her son who's a special needs student in Fall River um worked hard to complete all his courses in fora and was even going to BCC um to receive more education there was unable to sit

for his mcast because of not taking some math test that made him eligible it seems ridiculous to me that we're going to put that standard on a high school diploma high school diploma is very very important but we're not handing out brain surgery degrees where oh whoops He Slipped through the system now he might go kill somebody no he's going to be able to get a job because without a high school diploma how are

you going to be employed so if you can show up every day to school and you can try your best and you can learn the information given to you pass your classes to me that means you're qualified to have a job when you leave and in order to do that we need a high school diploma I don't think we're lowering the standards here I think this is something that's been talked about

for years and years and years I think Massachusetts is finally making sense um so I fully support it if everybody said their piece I think we can move the question move the question okay Sor I a question um I'm she said move the question I did I did Sarah had her hand up I know but yeah she had her hand up before it ends debate doesn't it Bruce so I gota wait for her

to all right so we have a motion to move the question um do I have a second second I have a motion question we need a two-thirds vote it shuts off this discussion Deb please call the role who's seconded the motion um Mr Cory Mr agan no Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes Miss ly yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks no mayor cougan yes now on the motion to replace the mcast graduation

requirement with the Thrive act do I have a motion and a second motion second you do have a mtion I already have it that would you please call the role Mr AGA no Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks yes Mary Coogan yes thank

you yeah go home it's been a long day go home go home go have dinner what you say I'm going to go my data Mr chairman Mr can you please maintain order please we don't need comments from the P the public leaving please control the meeting that's all 12.2 is discussion and vote to approve the conversion of an seel par professional to anaon at the fansa elementary school as referred by

the special ed alternative education Early Childhood subcommittee by Kate cob principal do I have a motion to motion to approve second I have a motion second any discussion on this conversion Mr chairman Mr agar so this was uh we had brought this up at the subcommittee level this isn't an issue of the actual School itself my concern with this was that we we don't have this position other than I think maybe at one

other school and that was what the argument was was that several years ago we created a position called caison that was going to elevate the the skill set of the person that was doing this type of work so in summary that was really the issue it had nothing to do with this particular school it's with the fact that when we do a budget we shouldn't and I've said this over and over superintendent disagrees the

superintendent thinks to just let it go whatever the principles had done before and let it go I disagree with that I actually believe we should look at it as a zero base where at the beginning of each of the budget Cycles we say is this going to be anal position or is this an power position we talked about this at the subcommittee this position stayed as anal power position even when the

district hadal Liaisons for a full year so this is over a year and a half late I think in coming to us when we created the new position we should have change the position then theal par would have received the par position at one of the various openings that we would have had uh so it's not I wasn't opposed to this particular thing it was about how it got presented in the budget I don't want to

let anybody think that I was given Miss Kaba hot timer at all that's my only opposition to it so if there hasn't been a motion I didn't know if I heard that there was there was so I am going to support it for that reason but I do think we should definitely still look at how these budget these positions get funded across the district thank you any further discussion yeah Mr uh Mr

chairman this was discussed in our subcommittee but I know that that uh principal Cobb uh is working really really hard at the fansa and she came out of a great school and she agreed to take an underperforming school and I think that we're in a position to support her request and she's boots on the ground in that school she knows exactly what's going down and so I support that wholeheartedly I yield anything further

Deb please call the B Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Pereira yes M rodri yes mayor cougan yes 123 is a discussion and vote to approve the autism LevelUp contract as referred by the special ed alternative Ed and early childhood subcommittee is presented by Lori obachan good evening so autism level up is an organization founded by Dr Amy Lorent and Dr Jacqueline feedi they were

actually brought to my attention um by a Sylvia parent who had asked if we had any opportunities to work with them that he would L recommend um our partnership so I'm asking the committee to fund a partnership for next year with autism level up for the purpose of um building our grow program so our grow program is going to be a new program in our district that is going to support students in our integrated prepay who

need a little more support in time to be ready for a full inclusion program as this committee knows we've uh shared before that we have over 900 students in substantially separate programs that is twice the state average so when I had a task force for the past year looking into how do we promote more inclusion opportunities so students with disabilities are with their typical peers we wanted to start in our prek

group and get them ready for kindergarten and then hopefully grow the program as the years go on um Dr Lorent and Dr fedi do this work work all the time both in Rhode Island and Massachusetts um ironically Dr Laurent is neurotypical and Dr feti is neurodiverse so they both bring um a unique perspective to the work this partnership um would provide the collaboration to build the program

structure that not only supports the students but also our staff who are willing to um collaborate with each other and make more inclusion opportunities for for our students so it would be a year-long partnership right now we have about 24 students that are slated to go into a partial inclusion program or our grow program coming out of um preschool and these are students that would typically um could be

recommended for substantially separate so that's why we're asking for this partnership any questions M Rodricks um so it's probably no surprise that I am thrilled about this partnership so I've I've used a lot of the autism level up resources that are free for everybody to use just in the work that I do out in the community and I think that this partnership really is a significant step

towards looking at inclus inclusion and action because we've been talking about it for a long time but we've kind of been doing the same things for a while and I think this is a huge huge movement um their work is really centered on neurodiversity affirming care um and you know Dr FEI is uh very openly late identified autistic and I think that lends itself to a whole other um realm of expertise

because I think it's really important then we're that when we're doing this work that we're actually tapping into the community that we are claiming to serve so by having that level of both personal and professional expertise at the table we're really opening up so many doors for our kids and for our families and our kids can see themselves represented and some of the work that's

being done so you know I obviously um am in full support but I think having that uh lived experience really is crucial to embracing diverse perspectives um and providing resources for our kids and our families i y thank you anything for Mr Cory uh Miss Oben Shain this looks like a really good proposal I'm especially impressed with the fact that teachers will have debriefing sessions after each observation and be

able to contact Dr Lauren and Dr fed how do you say that Fi Fi Fi Dr Lauren and Dr fiti in between visits with questions and concerns this alone the concept of debriefing creates buying it creates bonding it creates back and forth dialogue open-mindedness change for the better so our special needs programming in this district has been lagging for for decades actually for many many years and

I feel like this is a step in the right direction I just wanted to uh to thank you so much for looking into this and and um I hope we can bring it to our district thank you I yeld motion to approve I have a motion I have a second second any discussion Deb please call the rooll Mr a yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes M lar yes M Perera yes M Rogers

absolutely Mar yes 124 discussion and vote to approve the Allan Bloom contract is referred by the special ed alternative Ed early childhood subcommittee and presented by Lori oain do we have any discussion on this item can I get a motion a second motion second I have a motion to Second hearing no discussion Deb would you please call Mr chairman Mr Agia may we please get a discussion on this I think this is

another valuable piece for the public to know a short presentation from Miss obenchain that's all you had to say Mr agar go ahead drob Shane thank you so Alan Bloom um has worked collaboratively with the Department of Education on the new IEP document and I was fortunate to take a group of special education teachers from Fall River to um a professional development opportunity with him last

year and the feedback was overwhelming from our staff they really felt that his Bloom method of writing um IEPs leads to compliance um individual um um individuality and Effectiveness and they really asked me to see if we could bring him in back into our district to support all of our Educators so with that I contacted um Alan Bloom myself we're requesting 16 hours of professional development along

with helping us roll out the new IEP document there are a few other areas I've asked him to provide some consult ation on and those include our eligibility determination our service delivery and our transition planning those three areas were identified by our own Educators as areas of um need in our district currently we have again 30% of Fall River students are um identified as

special education that is again over the state average so we have to make sure that we are determining eligibility based on true disability and not just because a child needs help or has a slight weakness in some areas so be looking at eligibility determination also Service delivery least restrictive environment is the general education classroom so with a high number of kids receiving Services outside of the

general education setting again another need in Fall River we need to really look at that data and then um determine if we are providing the services or how we provide the services in the least restrictive setting and the last piece is our transition planning so we have students with us all the way until age 22 we want to start when they're 14 building solid transition plans so that

they can reach their full potential and then um be successful beyond the age of 22 when they leave us thank you any further discussion Deb would you please call the role Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes yes Miss lar yes Miss Pereira yes M rodri yes may yes 125 is discussion and update on the virtual school as referred by special ed alternative Ed and early childhood subcommittee presented by Dr

bronhard Mr chairman can I ask a question before we start go ahead the presentation that is before us is this the same presentation or is there it at the subcommittee we ask some questions is there there any answers to those questions or is it just the same presentation there was it is the same presentation as well as I know there was a question around um the other virtual high schools around the Commonwealth and

more of a descriptor around those which I believe was shared yes you're looking at it we got this today on when we showed up nothing else no thank you how you perfect um so thank you for having us here to talk about the potential of launching a virtual High School Academy next year tonight we are looking to share some information related to our initial research and thinking around a

Virtual Academy we won't run through the full presentation from 325 because all of you have access to it within the board docs or the packet um but we did want to share some general information for the full committee also for some general context um today's discussion does not necessarily require a vote the Department of Education requires us to submit an initial narrative application

that outlines our plan uh the the department then provides us feedback as part of the timeline and the process and then we as a dist as a team would aim to come back to the alt Ed subcommittee in late May for further discussion with a more detailed plan based on some feedback the overall rationale um is that Fall River has been continuously looking at alternative models that meet the diverse needs of our student

populations especially in grades 9 through 12 students in grades 9 through 12 who need a more personalized approach to education while we are working to enhance opportunities for disengaged students at both rlm RPA and dery a Virtual Academy could be a unique structure to serve an unmet need through the recent s SOA survey families identified developing additional alternative Pathways as a key budget

priority as the third highest we first started researching the Virtual Academy this past fall in response to the spike in mental health anxiety and increased School avoidance postco leading to an increased in in our Dropout rates and chronic absenteeism that we have been working hard to address particularly this past school year through the last several months of research and learning we have connected

with other Gateway cities who have launched virtual schools held focus groups for families who may be interested in a Virtual Academy and used phone surveys to connect with some homeschool students as well as students enrolled in tekka or students who have dropped out of school as our primary population based on our learning we believe a for of a Virtual Academy can offer a more flexible personalized

educational pathway to a high school diploma accessibility and flexibility allows students access to high quality education regardless of their physical or mental health issues or personal circumstances that may prevent a student from flourishing in one of our traditional models in addition many of our high school age students face significant challenges outside of the classroom um including

family responsibilities employment obligations and transportation constraints some of the work that we had done leading into our initial initial research started with a survey we did targeted Outreach to specific populations of students who we felt may be best served in a Virtual Academy after hearing from the virtual Gateway ummies that are already up and running these groups of students include our

current homeschool students the students that are currently enrolled in tekka as well as the students who dropped out within the last school year here in Fall River at the current time we have not included any active dery students in our research but will be open to working with our high school to identify students who might benefit from a virtual high school we connected with 137 students and families through email

phone surveys and direct contract direct contact to gauge their interest learn about the barriers they have felt they have experienced and ultimately learning from them about why the traditional models here in Fall River were not their first choice of Education 90 of the 137 students indicated they were somewhat or very interested in enrolling in a Virtual Academy here in Fall River some of the

themes that emerged from those different groups is the flexibility and ond demand learning is a key component of the student and the family's interest regular and consistent feedback from Virtual School staff to students and families would need to be a critical component of the program although it is a virtual model length of school day was another barrier of the traditional school schedule for some of our students

with the need to work and meet other family complic com family demands made it complicated for our students to meet the Traditional School Day schedule and postco challenges were really brought out as really being a challenge to our students to get back in routine um post Co they felt as though as older student at the time they were younger students but now four years later 3 years later

they really struggled to get reconnected to the school communities when it was time to come back in full person we also spoke with five virtual schools directly and had an opportunity to connect with leaders across other Gateway schools who do have virtual schools and some of the themes that emerged from those active programs um is a focus on structures for regular communication and feedback with families

their recommendation was to start enrollment and build over time and that the virtual schools are an effective model for a very small portion of the student population so intake meetings and systemic progress monitoring are especially important for those students whose fit is right they will flourish but direct contact and support would be a necessary component of a successful program so our next

steps are are um within our design looking at enrollment um some recommendations as we're beginning now the narrative writing of a plan that is due on April 12th um looking to enroll upwards of 30 to 40 students to start developing a referral system that is robust and making sure that it is a student chosen opportunity uh through pace dery and rlm RPA criteria for enrollment we will also need to

establish as well as what our attendance protocol will look like as well as what would our face-to-face and live connection system look like and in looking across the the platform that has been used for curriculum has been uity with the school Services platform that does provide a personalized approach to the platform it has uh teacher support built into the platform and provides a direct support

for students in that OnDemand learning environment the student support that would also we would be looking to incorporate uh would be that of uh student support student support through an adjustment counselor or school counselor as needed or required by a student's IEP um looking to leverage our cartwheel teleah health program for referrals as necessary building in an advisory program within

at least a weekly touch point and leveraging Community Resources to be certain that our students are connected to the Community Resources that they would otherwise been accessible to within the school communities if they were full-time students in a physical building so those are some of the summaries to the presentation that was previously shared um and we had hoped to be able to share this information with

the committee um knowing that our goal would be to bring back um a tightened up report by the end of May after going through some feedback sessions with the Department of Education around an application that is built on the feedback we've received thus far from the students um who we had reached out to U Miss larvey hi Dr P uh bronhard thank you very much for that presentation uh as I read everything

this weekend um I couldn't be more excited about this um as I as I live through some of these kids and watching them on a daily uh struggle with the traditional uh schooling as it pertains to attendance and mental health and the reasons why they're not in school and some of them could absolutely succeed through a program like this um one of my questions is um is there and there is there any

potential of getting some sort of Workforce Development um in in this program because you did mention Community um I I I understand it is to get them to the finish line and graduate but um is there anything any talk talks about in in this program about Workforce Development so we would be developing a program of study that would go along with the virtual school academy and a community component a work study um

element of it we've even been speaking about a potential Capstone project that could be overtime completed to be able to connect our students to the Community Resources very thoughtfully and purposefully that for some would include you know job Readiness job training working with some of our local Community Partners through Mass higher to provide some of those Services um so yes of of

you know at the initial development stages yes that is a piece of the plan thank you Dr bronhard I yield Mr Cory I just got a couple of questions Dr bronhard this totally represents progress It's a step in a good direction is I'm just it's very abstract to me I'm so old school and you know the classical model is is not abstract to me but this seems a little bit more so in that case

would these students um are they going to have FaceTime um every once in a while with a teacher that is the plan as we met um Mr Woodward and I had an opportunity to go out and do a few home visits with a couple of students and families that were part of our research and it was very alarming in a sense of the struggles that some of our kids and families are facing their desire to want

to be part of the typical Norm but their inability to move them themselves um in a direction that was needed however there in in the moment when we walked into the home you know they were in a little bit of an introverted place but after 45 minutes of talking about the opportunity it was really amazing to see some of these kids um and their families get excited about education again and

come alive a little bit through the idea of having a personalized plan that would meet their needs not just from an academic standpoint but also from a time of day standpoint um the urgency and the anxiety that it brings to families to get up to get out of the house and to meet the deadlines of the Traditional School hours was a huge um roadblock for some of these families but we also

noticed and they they described the human connection is still a piece that they are missing although the you know the larger School Community is not where they were able to find that human connection um they they were certainly looking for that would they have to would they come to school maybe once a week or once a month or would somebody visit them at the home site we see this

model as very much meeting our families and students where they're at so ideally we will build a program and a structure that does have those uh face-to-face contact points but knowing our ability to build slow and and then grow strong I think we also need to plan to meet our families where they're at and get students reacquainted with a school experience that they maybe never experienced before um that is on their

terms in a centralized location that can also meet their needs as an individual as a opposed to being part of the whole and then if this becomes a program in our schools then you would give us updates and and and and tell us exactly where it's at all that kind of stuff so the part about the virtual schools um as we know desie does not support online learning they do not support you know

virtual days at home so a piece of this program is it needs to be a St all of the virtual schools that are approved in fall in Massachusetts are Standalone School codes so we would be reporting out on this school code the same way we would be reporting out on all of our schools across the district thank you I yield anything further uh Miss Rog so I just hearing some of the conversation

about trying to get kids in and and having these face-to-face meetings a lot of kids are home because they choose that virtual option so I want to be really careful when we're looking at this because it start kind of started out as like this is another option for kids but now it's sort of turning into well the goal is to get them back into regular mainstream type education cuz that's where it sounds like that

conversation was headed a little bit yeah that's not where we're looking at at all um I think where the face-to-face contact and touch points with kids and families is really about supporting the social emotional connection for students so that we can meet them where they're at and help be the bridge um of connection to some local you know local opportunities whether that is enrichment

experiences for kids um and the like Andor resources for students and families and the like but certainly not replicating the traditional model of forcing in school or for that matter even going back to where we were in covid uh where those daily check-ins were mandatory at a certain time that is not our intention Wellness checks will always be a part of our intentions um and to work with students and families

individually but I do believe that's where starting slow and growing from there um to really be able to personalize the experience for kids and families because even within our feedback um truthfully you know families are not looking for that everyday 9:00 login experience so we're trying to think thoughtfully and purposefully around what is the reasoning for the physical check-ins and for students that

are eager to take on more of those in-person opportunities we want to be able to support them but if students are less apt to take advantage of those inperson opportunities we want to be certain that this program can meet the needs of both because ideally we would be supporting kids to over come any of their anxiety driven um challenges but at the same time if the students and families are not interested in creating

that next um School Community uh to be a huge part of then we want to be able to meet them where they're at and still be able to support our kids in earning a high school diploma because some of our kids that are enrolled in Tekk or kids that are homeschooled they're it's done that way for a reason because that's what works best for their family so I would hate to see I would I personally

think it's a great idea to have a virtual school option right in our district it's probably something that my middle guy would take advantage of um but I want to make sure that we're not sort of gatekeeping who's allowed to go in or what that's going to look like once they're once they are in that program like I heard about um enrollment criteria you know what does that look like for the kids you had mentioned that

we would have that is that something you already have lined up or is that something that you're looking to move forward or a referral process a referral process in a very similar way um which with which we have done evolve and it has been successful this needs to be an optin program um you know we are not expecting this to be um a non-choice program so our goal will be you know to

to be certain that we are very critical in the initial onboarding stages so that it is not every student who's not finding success in the traditional day school sees this as an option because that's not necessarily um the full student population that we're looking for we want to be um selective in a sense that it's the right fit for the student and for the family not so much

on a as a criteria per se on that front Okay because that word kind of jumped out on me and we're talking from ninth grade on like incoming nth graders correct so if we have students at the eighth grade level and we're looking at this could be a potential great option for them they have that opportunity to opt in and right from grade nine that's where they start we don't have to wait

for them to kind of fall apart and then look at it as an option okay um my other question is so a lot of homeschooled kids and this varies District by District um but lots of homeschooled kids also want to participate in their District's extracurricular programs so would these kids also have that opportunity and for I know infall rivert sort of school dependent um but would those kids have that opportunity say if

you had a kid that was doing a virtual school option but was interested in Fred TV which frankly kind of goes hand inand would those kids still have that opportunity I think we've got to make every opportunity available to our kids um I know taunton's uh Virtual Academy is set up in that way that it is run within the traditional hours of the school day so that all kids do have access to the extracurricular activities

after school specifically speaking so it it is ultimately the wish of the committee as well um and our partnership with dery and or rml rlm RPA um to ensure that if students are looking to access some of the resources from those schools that we need to do you know provide that partnership the way we would for any of our kids across any of our schools so Sports you know clubs whatever those extracurriculars look

like for those kids um I think that was all the questions I had if I think of another one I will let you know but I yield for now Mr AGA and can we have some clarity on that last comment about the um M Roger said said it was not consistent among schools related to kids participating in extracurricular activities is that I don't understand what how that is they have the option they they all they all

have the option if they're homeschooled if they so choose I think that what she means is not everybody exercises that option so not everybody exercises it and then it really depends on what the relationship is with that particular school it varies District by District um and that's that's what I meant about it's not consistent because it varies depending on what district you're in but

it doesn't vary among Fall River so if we I haven't heard that it varies among Fall River but I I can't speak for every homeschooling I mean I I as a principal I had some students who were homeschooled and came in for ban or for whatever um a sport uh whatever they um chose so parents will usually contact the home school that they're assigned to and um inquire about extracurricular

yeah I just said I miss might have misheard it but didn't explain I thought that that's what I just want to make sure that all schools are acting the same way relative to homeschool students and I haven't heard anything different in the virtual uh piece I think it's a good first step I don't think we're voting tonight but uh at the subcommittee we had some good discussions as well one of which was

about the building itself that's what I was looking for for some updates on what the other places do for a site but we don't need that today when you come back to us that would be one that to me is a big thing y because we had a debate over whether it needs to be in a building can it be part of one and I saw the T proposal about the couple classes in the morning

seems like they might have a good model just in my looking at it but um that's when you get come back to us I definitely would like to have that information but I appreciate you looking into it it's a good uh option the only thing that I would say is that relative to the budget we need to know what's going on with that as well so we're going to vote today I haven't gone

through it all but if we spend all the money that we need to spend including our onetime monies and not prepared for a $3 $400,000 expense we have to front this money for the first year so if we don't have that money budgeted maybe we do but we'll see how that rolls out but I don't want to vote to spend all the money and then we say we don't have more

for this particular piece so with that I Y thank you very much okay thank you uh Dr barard Mr chairman sorry I had one other question I wrote down I forgot may I go ahead just uh we also talked at the submit about Tekk um I'd like you or to the superintendent to submit to the to the school committee any Dees reviews of the Tekk program if you could thank you

they love it thank you thank you uh I we do have some people here and they I think they're waiting for item 1214 I would ask the committee to consider uh taking an item out of order 1214 is the discussion on um Early Childhood can I get a motion second motion I have a motion to Second de could you call the roll on taken 12:14 next Mr AG yes Mr B yes Mr Cory yes M

lvy yes M Pereira yes M rodri yes mayor cougan yes 1214 is the discussion and update on Early Childhood is presented by Maria Pont superintendent of schools thank you this is an update as to where we are as you know uh at we actually since our last meeting in March we had a subcommittee meeting that Mr um agar alluded to and and gave a little bit of the back uh background so since our last

committee meeting uh we were charged with looking um we met to discuss next steps for communicating with the stone family if you recall um the suggestion was to move Stone to 251 and populate uh westall formerly Stone and uh communicating with those families which we have with um the um Stone families 88% of the families we've reached out to um and 100% of the families agree that that's a good move um I will say that

we've also um explored Conley uh we had a very positive um meeting in our in discussions with them um in uh as a potential for acquiring or renting out space on the first floor for 12 classrooms um we actually have a walkthrough schedule for this week on Friday there um to look at the site and to look at at Logistics um that will occur this week um we explored additionally pce sanics um there was a

lot of talk about pace and the old part where used to be the vocational area um and converting creating um An Early Learning Center there um and we've looked at that um we're laying it out as to how many classrooms we could get out of there we actually are moving some folks from technology out of there and um of course that requires a new roof and fire suppression um system before we

can do any dividing of classrooms and creating that um as well as creating a playground and we looked we also were tased to look at the other options it was also mentioned about the Armory that would only uh yield us on the first floor uh four classrooms and it needs quite bit of work um and it it is a very expensive Endeavor probably not conducive to what we needed to do

certainly we know that tany was tabled um but we had looked at um you know the potential of of creating uh turning that into a new Learning Center so um we talked about the option for um we have on the table here we're looking a um an option of how so if we move Stone to 2501 then how do we populate um uh westto we know that um we heard last month we have the Fon School

neighborhood is an overpopulated neighborhood which um really has twice as many students as the the school can handle so if we um move Stone there we could certainly say um we actually have a u meeting with two because it's a large group of families two meetings one for when Wednesday and one for Thursday at 5:00 p.m. we've targeted um that we talked about the students that are

within walking distance of westall so we have reached out to those families and targeted them and uh we want to have a discussion with them about bringing those students back into the neighborhood within walking distance of their school and creating a neighborhood school for um fona families as at at West do so we would have if the colony piece works out we would have our 12 classrooms be able to move five

classrooms out of 2501 into Conley it would buy us a year for us to um uh work on the pace Learning Center and it also would help us to uh relieve some of that pressure of all those students from fonsica being distributed throughout the district right because they are all over the place so that that that's one of the options that we would um strongly ask the committee to um consider because it

it actually um helps us to uh potentially resolve three issues right uh creating moving the stone allowing us to to um to do the whole prek classroom space and somebody asked the demographics the population's going down you're correct it's not really about uh the increase in in in children necessarily it's about compliance numbers increasing so as students qualify for service once they turn three we're mandated to

provide those services and those services are in smaller classrooms in prek classrooms whether they're three or fouryear olds they're not five yet and old enough to go to kindergarten and that's why it is urgent for us to find Space because we're currently renting space and we do need to provide space for our youngest Learners that that's the issue I obviously creating an ELC on Race Street or tany relocation was

something something that um we we heard a lot of parents talk to us about potentially okay move them all as a school so certainly if we were to do that we talked to the staff too and that was their preference okay so if we were going to move the let's say uproot the tany school move it to westall and then move Stone over to 251 and then we would have those 12 classrooms at uh

tany that could happen that doesn't uh do anything for us us with a westall um over um the numbers that are so um so much higher than what the neighborhood um uh allows so it would help us with the prek and relocating prek to a one level school but um that's what it does for us we would move Stone we would swap out tany over there um and um the I would say the fanska students

stay put as is because what would happen is we would have to as students um graduate get promoted fifth grade that opens up that kindergarten class would be fansa neighborhood students but that would be a 5-year process before that school is populated with fansa students so that's where we're at and that was um what we were tasked to do how to move and and move um Stone over to 2501 what to do with um you know

our recommendation of opening up um stone or AKA westall as a fansa school neighborhood School bringing those kids to their neighborhood thank you superintendent any questions for superintendent M rods so I have a boatload of questions but I'll try to keep them brief um m m Roger can can you I'm notorious for not using the microphone hear you um so we know that we're not going to be able to house

all of the fonsica students as is both at fonsica and at westall so what would be the plan for those other kids right but we would be taking a 300 at least 300 maybe they still would be so let's say we just say we're going to and we can't really Tan's tabled right so we have to be careful about that but um let's say Stone becomes a fansa neighborhood school and they have 300 students there

so we have about 500 fansa students that are distributed throughout the district right 85 of which are at taning right so I would say we would we would I would we want to fill westall with neighborhood school children hopefully children who can walk to school and get easily to school inste go instead of going across the city and some St we're not going to you we're not going to eliminate all of

that but some of those students that parents may keep them where they are as as it is so some of our schools still would have some um uh F fansa students it's unless we're going to build another building my question is not critical my question is I agree with you got kids from every school at every other school in the district right like so and yeah just large in numbers larger numbers of Pica

kids are spread out throughout the district one of my other questions had been um a while back back that I don't know maybe got lost in the shuffle was about our kids that were in special populations that belonged to um say we have a a huge cohort of kids I'm just saying because I don't know the numbers but just say we had a huge cohort of kids in our ml classes at another

building and they were all from fansa would the plan be to bring would it be to leave those kids there or would it be to bring that whole program over you can't it's a small school um so we that school school is like a tany school and like a Watson School two unit school so we would not some some students who we were looking at typical students where we could have a two-unit school not um

tany has a two-unit um of typical student so Watson we can't have a whole cohort um because you know that our specialized programs are students from throughout the whole District right so student qualifies for special services they're going to go with their space and and that Me Maybe near their home and maybe in another school that has houses that program we would keep those students would stay in those specialized

programs so I'm asking this question so I'm also wondering you know with um having an Early Learning Center we would still have a need for all of the other prek classrooms that we have in the district in addition to 2501 and it looks like at least for now the space over on Northeast Eastern a so I'm thinking like we know that we're not going to be able to house every single

kid and every single building that they technically belong to right so I'm I'm asking those questions not necessarily because I expect an answer but really to highlight the fact that this is a districtwide issue and doesn't just pertain to the couple of schools that we're talking about so if we're going to be looking at you know moving this school here and moving that school there

I want to be really careful about not disrupting everybody all at once and make sure that we're doing it strategically right so you talk about the idea of bringing in fonsa first that sounds like a good idea because that's where the the most issue is um so as not to disrupt everyone because we know that we've been through such a period of instability that to add more instability

to that is a whole other issue you know my other question about prek is we talk about an early learning center but we again we know that we're going to have classrooms across the District of pre so what's our goal and having just one Early Learning Center I I think the goal would be to have the Early Learning Center house the three-year-olds okay and the uh four-year-olds that are ready

for kindergarten to be in in in the schools so that's actually in my notes right so why that was my my question like are we using the Early Learning Cent because right now we are are we using that for three and four year olds because if our goal is to get our kids in our neighborhoods I think it would make a whole lot more sense that we house our three-year-olds who who we

know need specialized Services just by nature of being three-year-olds that are referred for special ed right we have them in one Center we capitalize on our resources we pull all of that there and then they make one transition to their neighborhood school and they start there so if we're talking about building Community right if it it's sort of just I can't see disrupting a bunch of other

school programs to build community for one but then we're losing it in another and we kind of create this whole mess of things in an urgency to fill those seats because we did talk about how correct me if I'm wrong we only need one to two classrooms per year at the rate of growth that we're going is that correct yes that's what um Mrs um FAS said so one to two additional per year right now

our goal with creating the Early Learning Center is exactly what you're talking about is trying to house all of the half day programs where our three-year-olds are in one place so that we can pull the resources our three-year-olds also require a different type of support than than our older preschool kids right and so to be able to have them in one place really structure and organize what teaching and

learning for our threes looks like there it also keeps the halfday classrooms out of schools which is really challenging in a large Elementary School to have those kiddos that are transitioning at the midday and so to be able to keep those kids together and then in as many schools as possible which that is a challenge too with you know the space issues that we're having but to have the

full day classrooms where the kiddos in their last year before kindergarten are in a traditional elementary school and they're starting to get used to that larger environment and they're ready and they're able to stay um as much as possible for kindergarten so it sounds like I'm circling the airport with all of these questions right but but I'm not because my point is is that if we're

talking about truly expanding prek we can't do it at the expense of other schools we can't do it at the expense of 11,000 other students right we have a a need and a mandate to provide service for these incoming three-year-olds and that's where I think our focus should be but I want to be really careful about not disrupting all these other kids in the process whether it's tany or Spencer

bordon or green or you know what we're doing with 2501 I want to be really careful about that because then we're just creating another problem for ourselves so I think that's a solid plan I would just ask that we come to some decision because what's happening is our families are anxious our teachers are anxious and they're sitting in limbo because they're not getting information and part of that is because we sit at

meetings and we have these conversations and it sounds like this is a good plan and we're going to go with this plan and then something happens and we kind of backtrack a little bit off of that so I think whatever decision ultimately gets made just if we can make it with those with the idea that right now kids families and staff are all extremely anxious and it's not just the tany parents that are feeling that way

correct we are too because this is not something that can happen overnight no it can so there needs to be a lot of planning and coordination in order to um you know opening up a school moving a school um all of that is going to take work so you just saying that right there I think actually does ease a lot of anxiety because I think what families I know what families are stressing right

now is that they're feeling like they're going to get a notice tomorrow that their child school is closing and part of that is just we haven't had those conversations with them so you by you saying No this is going to take planning this is going to take work and we're not you know we can't say that we're not going to have um summer camp over at tany I think that eases a little bit of

that anxiety but that message has to be consistent throughout because our families don't know and when they don't know they fill in the gaps and it creates a lot of undo anxiety which then creates a whole other level of distrust in the district and we don't want that right we want families to feel like they can trust what's happening here especially because we got baby three-year-olds that are coming in and

we want those families to feel like they can have trust in what's happening so again it sounds like I'm circling the airport but my point is is that whatever plan we make has to be planful strategic and not at the expense of other kids and I think we agree with you we acknowledge that this is going to take time and we need to be very mindful of all of the moving pieces as we plan for the

transition but the longer it takes us to figure out what that is the more challenging that is it is challenging but I would just ask that we just keep folks informed about what comes next for them because you know we do have families we do have teach about wondering what September looks like for their kids absolutely anything further yes Mr Cory yeah so it's a very sensitive issue and

um I don't think I'm willing to uh seeed any control of the tany school until this tan is T oh that's tabled all right we're talking about An Early Learning Center then we we need to we need to look at all the opportunities throughout the community and I want to get an update on what the Conley visit looks like this coming Friday before we make any kind of decisions to move forward

and and uh in full transparency that's what I'm looking for I yield anything further Mr U who just super brief just so the superintendent knows where my mind is when you say something like bu us a year you're not going to get a yes vote from me buying us a year we have a problem we have to solve we have space we need if we don't want to make decisions now because we don't want to

disturb anything or we don't want to do it now what I'm afraid's going to happen is in a couple of years we're going to have to do it and that transition won't be as smooth as moving all of our teachers together it'll be a what knows what because we're not going to have the same building so I'm just saying that needs to be a thought process too if we're talking about Community talking

about keeping Community together let's not just look for buying us a year because time flies and it's going to be 2026 before we know it we could have a governor who's already telling us we need Universal prare from what I understood we want that so that's something we should be be looking toward so space is an issue it just is I I don't like it I'm not happy about it but

it is we have to use space sufficiently so I'm just worried that we're making a decision you know that the process is going to be make a decision today let's put a bandaid on it this way we keep the most people happy and then in two years all those people that are happy today are going to be furious because we fixed a problem with the bandid that's all I'm saying so with that I yeld

superintendent if I could just clarify so when I say bias a year we have the space at uh Pace right and what I'm saying is if we're going to turn that into an Early Learning Center we're going to need time to get that ready so in order for us to prepare that site we need to put the kids somewhere so renting space at Conley or wherever is what I'm talking about I I do I I just

want to be be clear this is for we need space for now to service the needs of our students if we're going to have the prek uh expansion Universal prek uh conversation I think that was said at the subcommittee as well at the in March that's a different conversation that this committee needs to commit to because that's going to require more space than 12 classrooms at PACE or at tany or at Conley um that's going to

require us looking for something even more serious a a a a bigger space so this is for us to continue to um increase classroom space as needed for compliance sake the universal prek piece is a different conversation that needs to be had and that we need to figure out as a committee whether we're going down that road and where we would potentially house many more students can I okay go ahead M Dr Mr

AA so the um my first question is who is on your task force Madam superintendent yep that's our uh Mrs feris is on our task force course um uh the assistant superintendent um Mr cougan uh Miss um uh cavalo from Transportation Mr um cabal Mr almea Mr pachico anyone that has to do because and uh Mary Ellen Shaw the the principal um of uh Stone that's because we had to explore the options first that are

within our control once we make a commitment to something then we have to expand that to include whatever population we're dealing with whether it's tany we need to get tany involved if it's going to be fansa we need to get fans involved but right now they're right we need to know one way or another where are we going we need that direction so we can get moving on that so I think you

have some valuable people on that committee that have a lot of uh years of experience with dealing with schools the issues that we present registration Transportation all the different buildings and and the things so I'm a little frustrated personally because at the last meeting where you were told you couldn't say anything but at least now you can say something which I appreciate

but I was a little frustrated because I want to hear and have a dialogue with all of those people you just mentioned so that I can sort of pick their brain to have a dialogue with them about what is like how did you come up with the first recommendation that you gave to the subcommittee so I'm going to speak for myself you came up with a recommendation based and you said it was

based on data and information and compliance that you talked to all of those folks with presented it to us as your recommendation somehow it turned into it was Mr aga's problem because he said you had 30 days and all this other Jazz so I never was able to do that I asked you I asked you to have a meeting a Google meet with these folks didn't happen I had to email again then when I email

again I said well you can have a couple minutes at the beginning of a meeting and I said no I'm not interested in that I'll ask my questions here so as I ask some questions I don't want everybody rolling their eyes saying oh there he goes again I tried to do this behind to ask questions wasn't given the opportunity so now I do have some questions but I offered to have a

meeting with the task force and the subcommittee I did offer that because I think that if you have questions they may also they the task force I said we can set up a meeting or you're right we also had were meeting with the task force and I said I didn't know what if you had one specific question or if you had questions that every everybody else might have so I

said if it's one specific question I can give you time at the beginning of the task force meeting if not we can have a subcommittee meeting some of the questions that I had and I still have are the same questions I'm sure that people that around that task force have had and have had discussions for many years the first step is we need a true honest cost benefit analysis and you and

I have had this discussion to say how much money do we get reimburse for a prek student versus how much does it cost us to house the program the staff and the INF we still haven't got this and we've been talking about it since February so everyone's upset everyone's on edge because we can't make a decision but we can't even get a cost benefit analysis that truly says what it costs

for reimbursement and how much it cost to Ed educate our students so until we get that we're just going to keep going around and around the other thing we've talked about and I'm sure you've talked about it with your task force is that all of the lines across all of the schools are screwed up they've been screwed up for years and we don't want to address it because that's going to force us to have a hard

conversation you and I have had this conversation we paid $115,000 for a demographic study in August 7th and you know what we talked about it in the old subcommittee for six minutes total that's it 15K gone I shouldn't be frustrated with that I think I have a right to be frustrated with it we talked about the long-term plan and short-term plan what I'm seeing here what we got presented here is I

always say clear as mud because I don't know what exactly you're recommending still I still don't understand what is before us to know what's recommended and we can't put it on we just put it on as a disc discussion so that we can't actually make any decision you just told us tonight that the stone people 80% said to move we can't make that decision tonight cuz it's not on the agenda to

say that we were going to vote we were told at prior meetings I have a note here we're told Eastern Avenue can't continue because of the size of the classrooms relative to the reimbursement where is that in this here information so at the subcommittee when I suggested and this was based on talking to families of the tany school my Rec somebody told me the recommendation would be to just start at

with k for prek and let all of those students graduate out of the tany less disruption keeps all those students together for their entire tany career I thought maybe that's a valid thing and it probably should come from the task force in their recommendation and here we got phas in Ray Street the bullet point says populate West doll K with West doll kids move grades 1 through three from tany keep grades four

and five at tany and open eight 3K classrooms at tany I don't know what where that comes from I don't know if the task force thinks that that was a good idea or what these are I I I truly am being honest it's clear as mud and I think we need to get some answers for these folks as well and we need to have a plan we don't have a

plan you said we're going to do the PACE Center Madam superintendent as a goal like not for this year but you know let's say a year from now what is the cost of the PACE Center for pairs we have projected costs in the backup yep what is it um in order to make whatever 10 classrooms seven classrooms whatever it 12 12 classrooms Mr Vio probably knows the number off off the top of his

head y unfortunately yes I do um so you please share so there are two things that happened at the PACE Center before we do that that's a roof and uh and a fire suppression system but beyond that it's probably $3.5 million to make those classrooms available Pro 12 is what looks like will fit in the building with a uh indoor play area and bathrooms um but that's the number and just if I can

go backwards for just one second sure so the temporary piece of all of this is just because we it's moving parts and these parts are going to continue to move so Eastern Avenue we're going to have until for one more one more school year and then we're going to need to move those seven classrooms out we have space to make we need to make space at Stone because when if Stone moves to the

new Stone location at 251 we're going to be move in some of those prek classrooms that are sitting on the first floor to also that facility in walks Conley as a possibility and at that point the the reason why Conley is just a stop Gap it's a Band-Aid for what we're trying to do is we're trying to get to Pace Conley piece will hold us for one year it'll have 12 classrooms we already have

those 12 classrooms account well we have seven or eight of those classrooms accounted for so we have a little bit of space there to wait for the completion of pace somewhere along the line Ray Street comes into play whether we like it or not Ray Street comes into play just because of its size and the fact that it's a one-story building and I understand the community piece I lived across the street from

Spencer bordon my kid had to go to Highland don't know why but he had to go to Highland two of them so I understand the community school piece I do I do believe that when you have a good thing going you want to keep it going but I believe that it's the group the teachers the students the families that are that Community it's got nothing to do with a building

nothing to do with a building because I would think that the Watson families feel they have a community and I think that fanska has a community and I think every school has a community but it's not the building that's making the community it's those connections with with the with the human factor so at some point that race stre conversation has to happen it doesn't have to happen

today but it has to happen at some point and I believe that in order to get us from where we are right now we have to bring into play the pace that decision needs to be made and I and it's in the process already we are in a better place today than we were a month and a half ago with that piece I believe that once that happens on Friday we're going to

have a better picture of Conley I hope and at that point that's going to give us the short-term relief that we're going to be needing to have a good start of the next school year but to to the question is $3.5 million for the pace on the school department side so so in order for us to move in there we would need $35 million total for the new roof the everything

nothing to do with the roof okay so that's not on outside of the house there for to spend this 3 and half million can we move into pay center by just utilizing this 3 and half million no not in September we couldn't no anytime the roof has to be done no so we no we we have to have the other work on the other side which is a a given I would say I'm not going

to speak you know for the city side of the house but I'm going to say that we are ready poised to um to have that out in the street for pricing and depending on how that price comes out we're hoping to move into the next phase of that um and once we do that then we can make that jump into our work getting started so there's some work of that is going to

be inhouse so I'm giving you that number but I believe that you know we're going to be what would your best guess be for the dery roof because we can't get to this until we do that now I know the May said months ago already he about four and half 4 and a half million 4 and a half million and if I expression uh another million and a half how many

million and a half 1.5 maybe two but so by my estimation that's $6 million mhm that has to be spent on that property yes before we get to spend our 3. half million yes in order for us to do 10 but that six but that 6 and5 million has to be spent no matter what or we lose the building yeah you know what I'm saying so it's not a that's not an Andor it's

it has to be done and then whatever we do inside the building is up to us but that piece has to be done and that's on the city side which I don't feel comfortable making a decision on what we're doing until they say how they're going to fund that $6 million well we wouldn't be able to make our decision anyway because there's no moving forward without that to but to your point Mr

Pico you had mentioned that Race Street is inevitable I said that at the subcommittee meeting it's the only single level building in our city that you can't take that away that's just a facts I don't care where it was located it could have been located in the south end it's the same fact if the Carol school was still in existence it was another single family but we knocked it

down for a parking lot and the B yeah so the point is is that we can't get away from that fact mhm so in making a decision I think it's important for the task force for the superintendent for all of us to to understand what this means before we can get to the I it sounds like the recommended option the best I can try to figure is that the pay center would be the the uh recommended

option of the superintendent in the task force I don't know if that's not the true please say it but if that's the case we're still talking 6 million we got to spend before we get to spend the three and half million and then where is the three and a half million going to come from that we have responsible for to make it

so oh I think there's a the only thing I will say is that this is a process so today's only a discussion item I'm only asking those questions to try to get a rough idea of where they're going to be but there's processes going through to do a bid to see what it would actually cost it's certainly not going to go down from what Mr Pico's estimation is because there's years of experience and

know what it would cost so I think that's a conservative number probably yes but as we're talking about what we're going to do we need info if we go to Conelly how much is it going to cost to make those bathrooms prek access ible how much is it going to I don't need an answer I'm just saying these are questions that we should be getting with his option A and it's going to cost x

amount his option b and it's going to cost x amount the way I start to look at it is not to say that we to to pick on the tany but if we have a single Unit School that we can phase out by giving those children an opportunity to stay in tany it doesn't cost us the millions of dollars that we're talking about and the piece of the noreast Avenue everybody

shakes their head saying yeah it's going to close well we don't necessarily we never really been told that for sure and the cost benefit analysis is going to determine a lot of what we can and cannot do so I think we just need more the the parents deserve more information but the school committee also deserves more information relative to what is happening what are the task force talking about what are we going to do

with these new changes and the and the lines there's not a five year plan there's not a one-year plan and in the district we don't even have a strategic plan so all of this needs to be part of it the last comment I make is about the Esser funds so in the Esser funds we talked about increasing three years ago the document States we will increase prek for the children says in there we got $60

million the time to do will some of these things might have been and I know certain things you can and cannot fund but we spent all that money now we got s the last s coming we spent most of that money that's why I was asking that we keep some of the the money that we're going to spend on these other little projects because until this is rectified we might need to save money and later on

in the budget we're spending you know $3 million or something so I just think we need to take a pause before we start spending any money and listen to what you said Mr Pico you said it better than I did that at some point we're going to have to look at Ray Street tany school property it whether it's now one year 2 years 3 years down there's just no way

around it I don't disagree with what you said but it's a hard conversation to have but people I think will understand that if we're a little further with this is what's going to happen your kids aren't going to not go to school next year with their with their colleagues if we that to me is the smartest thing somebody told me was let the kids go each year and stagger them out the

concern I got was oh we're going to displace two teachers that was the concern not the fact that we're going to allow 260 kids to stay with their school for those next four years to get a 5-year plan it was about we're going to displ two teachers and I just don't think that's the the thing that I feel it but I will ask again can we please please please get a cost benefit

analysis a true one that says how much money we get reimbursed and what the classrooms look like because without that we got a whole bunch of document uh info basically was income it wasn't an analysis please we need the analysis and then as we can proceed with some thought behind it so we're not sitting here a year from now saying what did we just do with that a yield okay I think that was pretty

question no I was pointing I was pointing a Sor okay yeah I just just want to lay out that I think we have multiple issues on the table one we have a compliance issue for next year we need at least two classrooms for the 25 uh 2425 school year so that's issue number one issue number two is we need to expand pre because at some point that may become a mandate for all of us right

so we've got Universal prek on the table in addition to that we have the other issue of the zoning of our schools are kind is kind of a a disaster at the moment and that's through no fault of anybody here they've been like that for a really long time and we've got some schools that are overpopulated we've got other schools that maybe are under populated so three issues on the table

we can't tackle all three at the same time so we've got to look at one issue at as they come we do need all of those numbers to be able to handle number two right what are we going to do to expand prek but I think we can look at what do we do specifically for next year because that's where we're going to run into issues and so I can appreciate the like

I don't want to make people mad right now I'm it's going to sound really mean but I got three kids I'm not worried about making people mad I make people mad every day it's what I do right but it's about just being thoughtful what we're going to do next so yeah you know obviously I've said it before my daughter is a student at Tanz do I want Tanz to close no but at the end of the

day if we have a concrete plan for everybody then we're in much better shape but I think the primary issue is what do we do for next year and whatever that plan is has to be a steady plan so that way we're not moving those kids again because the last thing I would want to see is we find two classrooms somewhere and then the following school year we say oh never mind we're going to

move those two classrooms somewhere else we don't want to do that either so what is our plan for next year what is our plan to exp prek and then what does our plan to rezone redistrict our buildings am I wrong in thinking that that that's those are the three main issues that we have no that's what we I'm not being fous and asking that I'm being like am missing something I just want to say the

cost analysis we did ask for you're absolutely right we provided you how much it was costing this year we wanted something more in in depth but we also ask for that information during budget season when we are in the throws of budget we will get you that information I agree that is important information the Conley piece we don't have a cost yet because we had our initial meeting and we're going to have the follow-up

meeting and the walkth through and hopefully we will have a cost attached to that the the whole piece about um tany we wanted to be thoughtful because we thought okay it's we could move the whole staff and the students and like yeah sorry moving the staff okay sorry about that the phasing piece well it's hard to talk about this without saying it right because it's the issue on the

table why why not just say it Mrs PS I don't understand because it's t this is a different discussion this is the discussion about prek across the district so why would we say we tabled the recommendation that you made before you're the superintendent of schools in a public meeting you are going to be stifled again and not be able to say what your opinion is no Mr agar we're not being fair to those people we didn't

tell them we were going to be talking about that tonight so that's not the right thing to do if we want to talk about it let's give them all the opportunity to hear it instead of doing it in buffle tones we're working on this project we're going to get this done just like we do everything else and when not going to violate these people's rights they have a right to be here if

we're going to talk about it and I feel strongly that we should tell them it's on the agenda this is what we're doing we're not going to backd Door this on them and surprise them with oh by the way we had a discussion last night on your school it's not happening you you can do 12.14 read 12.14 please discussion and update on Early Childhood that's it right so I think the superintendent should be should be able

to answer the question but you allowed and the vice chair when the first time the T parents were he said superintendent is not going to issue a statement that's the problem this is a discussion about Early Childhood she should be able to answer you're talking in the shadows we're not going to solve this want to rang something on and on and on we're going to fix the problem

which is what we do in the for of public schools and we're going to come to a resolution that hopefully makes everybody whole that's how this works but by talking it to death when you didn't even tell the people you're going to do it it's not fair to them can I just throw my two cens it on that though um it's not to negate that you're right like we had it wasn't on the agenda as

an item but it is in the backup documents so it creates just a weird situation you know I'm I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with any of those points like it's tabled we can't vote on it we technically can't talk about it but it just makes it mudy when all of that is in the backup dock so it's kind of like how do you have that conversation without addressing what's in there it's

it's a weird situation let's call it what it is okay the backup documents were part of the site exploration we had to look at we were tasked with looking at all all other options as to where we could potentially again that's not critical it's just a weird situation because it's there so it's sort of like how do you talk about it without talking about it even though it's there to talk

about anything further Mr chairman Mr were all of the other schools that were discussed in the backup documents invited to the meeting for this discussion today I I'm only reading what the agenda says early childood me too Mr agar I know that this makes you happy I have no idea why I'm not like you if we're going to do something on any of those schools that affects the parents in those schools

they have a right to be here and you don't think they do I disagree do what you want we're not going to solve this right now meetings this week I'm not suggesting that we do whatever you're doing is what you did at the subcommittee meeting my position is when we decide to make the right move to help everybody these people are going to be a part of it and we're not going to

surprise them truest the truest statement you made today was I'm not like you and that's true that's exactly the issue that I have is that the superintendent of schools the superintendent of schools should not be have to come to a public meeting again 30 or 40 days however many days it's been and not be able to give her opinion because we tabled the discussion that's not okay with me you can say I work in

the shadows or whatever but I work hard to try to figure this out and I hear from the same parents that everybody else does to try to put a thoughtful presentation together and the superintendent of schools who's the leader of this District who works with her team to come up with a recommendation should be allowed to to have conviction about why she recommended something that's what I

think was the problem six weeks ago when it was solely she's not going to issue a statement we pay her good money to to lead this district and to work it she should be able to say so today she wants to give an answer maybe some Clarity oh we can't say that because it's tabled I think that's hiding behind the issue the end of the day is we need to get this

rectified it's now April how many more times we going to keep saying well we'll wait well we'll wait it's it's frustrating it's tiring and if you people just want to say let's just go up there and not actually ask questions and and all that so be it that's not what I'm made of I want to ask these questions for that reason and she can give those answers when she says that it

was it wasn't the the point well when are we going to get this discussion I don't really care whether we had a budget going on or not it doesn't take rocket science to give us since February a cost benefit analysis it doesn't we've been saying three years ago in the SOA plan that we were going to have a comprehensive plan we have none and we're going to now say first it was Co

now it's this the excuses got to stop we just need to answer the questions and give the information so we can make a vote it is frustrating and I am frustrated are you what else okay anything further thank you next item 12.6 is a discussion and vote to approve the addition of the secl integration specialist as referred by the special education motion to approve motion second I have a motion to say any

discussion on that item hearing none Deb would you please call the rooll I oh miss Rogers I'm sorry yeah I just had a quick question I keep saying quick and it never is quick full of words today when I when I look at this it looks like it's not just about theal integration specialist so we're adding one that's where we're going with that yeah we we agreed to move on to proposal

two okay uh or the proposal recommendation two okay which was the addition of anal integration specialist to follow what I was informed and learned about the district's vision for that position um to have multiple it sounded like so we really need to give an opportunity to set that position up to be successful um as you can see in the earlier slides within the presentation there is really

a need to support the staff in our buildings um and that you know and and that will be a big piece of our agenda as we move forward um with the Staffing structures and really supporting the building based teams because I think one thing that is a little bit different from the instructional teams to that of theal team is that oural team um is not hired specifically as it relates to attend to the curriculums and the

material per se right our Sachs and our adjustment councils and student support coordinators we need them responding to our kids and our fam's mental health um whereas on the instructional side we have coaches and we have department heads whose sole job is the implementation of curriculum and supporting teachers with planning um and and whatnot so we are looking forward to add that one position to really create

teams so that our buildings can have direct support on a more regular basis yeah what we've had this conversation ation before but when we sat here and first talked about it way back we had talked about maybe three right Elementary Middle High School levels but we're not there um when I look at it are we looking at basically reorganizing the department because that's kind of what

it looks like but I could be wrong that I've just never seen it laid out like yeah we just laid it out to highlight the need um on that side of the house specifically okay I just haven't seen it laid out that way so hence why I wanted Clarity on that and I I just want to point out that when I'm asking questions I'm not asking questions to challenge anybody or to question somebody's

ability or competence or authority in making decisions it truly is because I'm looking for clarification on ANS so I'm putting that out to everybody that when I'm asking I always feel the need because things can get really contentious to put out that I'm not asking to be difficult I'm asking truly for clarification on things and that's it anything further Miss BR just to to preface at the meeting you had at the

subcommittee you had a more aggressive plan initially correct uh that was proposal to yes the first proposal so she did have a more aggressive plan if you watch the meeting this um was voted on we voted and two went with it and two didn't and I just want to say my colleagues have to stop apologizing for asking questions it's an it feels that way do your job don't apologize for it please no no problem so

so my rationale behind that is because it's always perceived as if asking a question is a Challenge and it's not a challenge it's our responsibility so I put that out there because I don't want that to be felt that when someone's asking a question that it's coming off like we're questioning someone's confidence nope there are things in my wheelhouse that aren't in others apologize let anything further on the uh

item 126 Mr Agia so just to follow up as well so it was uh a really good discussion about the department needs of the whole schools I just wanted to let the rest of the members of the committee know that we also discussed the needs to to look at job descriptions and responsibilities and the like across all of theal um positions whether it's Administration or or others and I think that's going to be something that's

going to be uh help to us to make sure that people when a job description was WR written 15 years ago and hasn't been updated to today's day and age with the amount of volume that we have for all these different positions who they report to and all that so I'm looking forward to you working on that and bringing back that back to us but it's just this is just one step but you did

put a lot of work into it there's info there's data there's uh numbers of PE kids that are in crisis and the like so I think that's great data and then we can bring it to the committee subcommittee we can vet it and I think that's how it's supposed to work so good job thank you I yield thank you Dr anything further de please call the B Mr a yes Mr

Bailey yes Mr Cory yes Miss larvie yes M Pereira yes Mr rer yep May Coogan yes 127 is a discussion and vote to approve the school committee meeting calendar for school year motion to approve second I have a motion to Second any discussion on the calendar DB would you please call the rooll Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes 128

is discussion and first read of the 2024 school year academic calendar as presented by Maria Pon super attendent of schools response um the only thing I want uh people to to note is that this year this coming year Christmas is on a Wednesday typically what we do is we have a half day before the holiday which is Christmas Eve that would be going in on a Monday for a half day we are closing

for the proposing to close for the two full weeks and return on the Monday after um the new year any other questions I get a motion appr sorry sorry 129 is a discussion and vote to approve the following items that were referred by the technology subcommittee and presented approve second I have a motion to Second any discussion on those items hearing none Deb call the role Please Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory

yes M lar yes M Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor kougan yes 1210 is discussion and vote to approve the superintendent's evaluation as presented by school committee woman Shelley Pereira chair of the evaluation sub committee so the superintend superintendent evaluation for 2022 to 2023 uh the committee used and approved evaluation tool and rubric to evaluate and calculate scores the superintendent

was evaluated in three steps first was progress towards goals which was scored from a did not meet to an exceeds next performance on standards which was rated from unsatisfactory to exemplary and lastly she received a cumulative score um which was given from unsatisfactory to exemplary the superintendent was tasked with completing her self- evaluation listing goals and progress toward goals the self- evaluation was

provided to the committee the committee members evaluated separately using the evaluation tool as a guide as well as the self- evaluation provided by the superintendent the findings with then average to determine an overall score from the committee as a whole three members and myself completed the evaluation the members were Kevin AGA Dr Sarah Rodricks Bobby Bailey and myself in Step One progress towards

goals um the options of scoring were did not meet some progress significant progress met or exceeded in part one professional practice goals the superintendent had a score of met in part two student learning goals the superintendent had a cumulative score score of significant progress on part three District Improvement goals she had a cumulative score of significant progress on step two of her evaluation

which was the per her performance on standards um the options of scoring were four areas unsatisfactory needs Improvement proficient or exemplary in part one instructional leadership she received a score of proficient in two management and operations she received a score of needs Improvement part three family and Community engagement she received a score of proficient and lastly professional culture she received a

score of proficient so in step three which would be her end of Psycho cumulative um evaluation report um her um could be graded on either unsatisfactory needs Improvement proficient or exemplary so the superintendent's overall reading by this committee was that of proficient um some Committee Member comments Mrs Pon has worked hard to affect a positive change over her first year as superintendent in the district

the low achievement levels of our students as well as the inability of the superintendent to hold some staff accountable contributed to this members um score of needs Improvement it's important to acknowledge that the superintendent assumed this role following a period of significant distress inconsistent inconsistency hostility and turmoil facing for Republic schools she stepped into a position that required Focus

across all areas to establish a safe and supportive professional climate this has not been an easy task nor was it expected to be the superintendant firsthand knowledge of the District 38 years of educational experience Community engagement and ability to form relationships has supported her growth as a leader the superintendent demonstrates commendable Proficiency in many areas including fostering a shared

commitment to high Teaching Standards engaging stakeholders in educational vision and ensuring a culturally diverse and inclusive environment her use of surveys and collaborative efforts reflects a commitment to transparency transparency and inclusivity there is an identified need for increased assertiveness in leadership particularly in definitive decision-making and consistent supervision and feedback

addressing concerns around consistent implementation of reflective practices among staff and developing more effective conflict resolution and accountability strategies will further enhance the superintendent's overall leadership Effectiveness the superintendent's commitment to family and Community engagement strategic planning and ongoing professional development is evident underscoring her

dedication to continuous Improvement overall the superintendent demonstrates significant areas of strength and with targeted enhancements in leadership assertiveness and conflict resolution the superintendent's impact and effectiveness in leading the district would be further elevated we'd like to take time to thank the super superintendent ponts for her dedication in leading our district through

difficult times we appreciate your work ethic and your passion for education and I personally feel it was um a privilege to work with you over the last two years and from the bottom of my heart thank you for your service to Fall River any discussion Mr Aga just wanted to go over a few items um the when you we look at the student learning goals so this is an opportunity for us

to the only person that we evaluate is the superintendent so I looked at this with the lens of what I would believe we all across the district would evaluate Administration teachers and the like as we go so through this process was our version in my opinion of how we should evaluate valuate all of our staff so at the beginning of the um the student learning goals were some of the

most important pieces in my view for the um observation and I know it says somehow that the rating is proficient and this is not to be overly critical to the superintendent but I think in her own self-evaluation she acknowledges the fact that we we didn't meet the the scores that we in achievement levels on the student learning goal it doesn't say it's proficient this is is significant

progress I believe the student learning goal doesn't say it said progress I think it's progress It's not no it says it's in like the fourth category buttice it's the the x that I'm seeing is in um student learning goal is the second To the Left Behind exceeded so I believe that that's a proficient um which one the first that's page two the is professional practice that's what was right just now

I'm not sure but M it's basically not the exceeded one it's just to the left of it it's not met or exceeded because our data doesn't show that right so that's what I'm saying is the second column it's blank on my sheet but what is the column between significant progress and exceeded on page one the performance goals there's a blue box that's empty and I believe that that is what you efficient and on page three or

four whatever it comes out to for the goals it's not for the goals it's not proficient it will be exceeded met significant progress or no progress that's how the goals are rated so the I see what you're looking at the one that's missing is M yeah whatever it is I just wanted to make a point that the one that's missing is I think the superintendent acknowledged in her self evaluation that

although when we did this the goals at the beginning the goals was stated that they were going to be based on the uh achievement levels of our students so when I look at it this achievement student growth High School completion like I'm not sure that any of these were to even what you had indicated was your own standard so um when we do this I I I just wonder how we got to that point of

not showing a little more needs Improvement I would say the same thing if a if a you were looking at a principal's evaluation of something if you didn't meet the numbers of your goal it it wouldn't be um the district Improvement goal one which was about evaluation I think is something that is uh still under your self evaluation you indicated that there was still departments that hadn't done their

evaluations things like that that to me was the factor why I made that a needs Improvement because I think even by your own admission that that still hasn't happened uh across the um the school system uh as I go through um I I don't think that necessarily the bless you excuse me thank you when we look at student instructional leadership and student learning it's very hard because

of the way this format is to talk about our achievement is not where it needs to be but we can say whether somebody's proficient or not that's a very difficult uh category to do I did have some comments in my evaluation that don't show up here and I think that they should be all the comments that people put on each of the standards should be part of this uh per excuse me I read

your comment word for word literally took it right off of your form and typed it out in a piece of paper and read it in front of these people just to be clear sir because I told you I would do that and that is what I did for everybody who commented I was just referring to the um oh okay the standard one standard two like within the standard so the summary uh was what was

read that's all and it's not to be critical of I did summarize because to sit here and go through every little but these are these are documents people can get so going back to why maybe somebody met why the superintendent let's say would meet ress here when she maybe had issues in that every every step also as you know cuz we're the ones that did it had little things underneath so sometimes I don't know I wasn't

evaluating everybody evaluated separately but there was some people who felt she did better here and there and was average together it came out to to proficient I understand by the math you can only average what the math is I totally understand that all I'm suggestion is that if the superintendent acknowledges that she didn't meet the the standards how does anyone that evaluated her say that it it was that

was what my wasn't being critical of you miss Pera the comments I was making just now was in the sections on standard one standard two so if you make a needs Improvement rating you have to give a statement as to why and that's what I was saying isn't here uh per se but I do think it's a public record like you said I have no problem with uh what I wrote I

just think that it when I look at the achievement levels that's the part that gets me on this and the superintendent created whoever wrote that last part about having a need at the time and coming in at a very turbulent time under the prior superintendent we needed someone that can stabilize we needed her expertise to do some of those things I do concur with some of the suggestions

that uh sometimes it's hard to you know follow through make a decision she was part of this district for a long time she's also the superintendent that has to deal with the politics of the position and that's part of the problem is when we come up through the district and we have some tough decisions to make it's very hard to make those decisions because there's a lot of forces that are

try trying to have her make certain decisions so it might be very clear that this is what the decision should be but the the politics of the nature of the position indicate such that it's not it's a very difficult position for the superintendent to have been in over the last several years I've been personally frustrated with some things but at the same time as I'm frustrated with the

superintendent I also acknowledge when when she tells me there's other factors involved or there's stress and I get it I totally understand that and it's hard sometimes when you're in it to make that decision so my overall needs Improvement rating was based on those type of things that had nothing to do personally with the superintendent I wish you're nothing but the absolute best in her retirement

we got a couple months left to finish strong I'm going to keep advocating the way I I am but I wanted to justify my vote was for a needs Improvement but I do think that the superintendent did a lot of good things over the time and we we all have to stop worrying about achievement if we don't improve our achievement all of these other things don't matter so with that I yield thank you

anything um do I have a motion a second motion second I have a motion a second um Deb could you call the r Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes item 1211 is a discussion of vote to approve the proposed fiscal year 2025 annual operating budget of the far of public schools as presented by Maria Pont superintendent schools we had the public hearing on

that earlier right so what we have before you is the the budget that will be hopefully sent to city council um we we did make some formatting changes and took some feedback of some some of the things that were um suggested at the hearings um I will say that we continue to have some uh positions sitting in um the wish list because at this time I we are negotiating with all nine units I

think we need to prioritize that as well as uh absorbing the 116 positions that we are carrying over from Esser um I don't want to submit a budget that is going to um in a year or sooner uh results in in if we look around us results in Cuts so I think it's a fiscally responsible budget and um certainly a budget that is um you know uh supports our uh schools uh in

ways that we haven't been supported motion to approve I have a motion do I have a second second second motion Mr AA can we just clarify what the third paragraph means as it relates to the as it relates to the um it's the house overall vote I think the only budget right now has the governor's numbers in it Mr agar then they'll they'll obviously you've been up there it comes to a conference

committee and we'll get the final numbers when everything's done we're not at the final numbers yet so I guess my point my the point of my question is is that if the final numbers come in for Chapter 70 increase of $200,000 more than what it is now does this automatically get increased up that so that that'll be a discussion with the city and we will go for what is the required

number so are we over 100% net School spending budgeted or right now we're right now we're at 100% of net School spending right now that's what that's where we're at but if the number does change through the state legislation through the process that's something we will go back to the city but that's not an option no budgeted no it's not so all I'm I'm curious as to that because I

think for the edification of the other members it's important to know that if the budget goes up by $2 million it's the obligation of the city to give that money to the schools absolutely if we're at 100% of net School spending so that's basically if it goes down by 400,000 and the more money goes to the general Aid to the city we would lower this by that equivalent am no this is what we're moving forward

with so at that point the city's got to put the the budget in their in their budget the appropriation in their budget and at that point and they'd be so they'd be over if the city comes out in a month y or whatever two months and the city is over 100% of net School spending there's no mechanism to to state that we would get the 100% so the City by you know under their

offices can fund the school budget at 110 or 120 or 130% if they want if they can so um you know the city's going to determine what the figure is they're going to put in their budget we're sending a figure over to the mayor to put into his budget today that meets 100% of net School spending so you know whatever the process is and what happens with the budget here on out we will keep

keep mindful of what's happening and we'll see where it all goes but what's fair is fair and I when it comes time that the school department is owed money by the city I'll state that I the city I don't disagree I don't disagree mrar I agree with you what I'm suggesting though is if through the process of the budget it comes out that the city isn't obligated to pay as much and is

therefore going to be over 100% I for one member will vote to say no we should be at 100% And we can adjust accordingly but I don't know the mechanism to do that so what I will say is we have been a very good fiscal partner with the city we have over the years we have funded a lot of items and projects that we potentially could have gone back to the city for to take care

of and we have not because we've been good partners with them so it's you know we've worked together that's what I will say and all I wanted to say for the record is that the city needs to pay 100% of net School spending not 101 and that's only one member everybody else can speak for themselves so totally with that I yeld thank you sir anything further uh do I have a motion a second

de no you do yes we do motion you do yeah okay give give it a call Deb Please Mr yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yep M larv yes Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes 1212 is a discussion and vote to approve the proposed fiscal year 2025 Transportation budget of the for public schools is presented by Maria P motion to approve second no you said 1213 hey 1212 yeah we're on trans 12 12

sorry okay I have a motion to Second Deb please call the r ask one question I'm sorry Mr AG so if we in um in the school department if we needed a a van for transportation where would that come out of if we needed a van for Trans so let's say we had a mckin vento Vans and two of them engine blows up what where would that money come out of and how does it

get uh determined after this is already voted on so so if we needed a so if we needed a van uh that would have to be a and it would go for transportation that would have to be a discussion with the city as because that because would be part of the transportation budget and is there money in the budget for that on their side or you just it would be a you understand what I'm saying right

if we have if we have the kids getting transported and we need an emergency need how does that what's the mechanism for that to happen so be a discussion that would be a discussion with the city Y and same theory if we added another staff member if we added a staff member I would say that that would be a discussion with it would have to be a discussion with the city we'd have to

look at our needs thank you are yeld I have a motion to second on Transportation de would you please call the rooll Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes Miss larv right here we go Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes sorry 12:13 is a vote to approve the fiscal year 25 annual budget of the four Public Schools send to the mayor for approval I'm going to send it to Bruce

Assad first thank you uh just want to alert the uh committee that there are two members of our committee that have uh members of their immediate family who are actually employees of the for of school department as a result they would not be able to vote on a budget that had a bottom line going forward there is a process however that would eliminate any type of conflict that either School

Committee Member would have and that is is by identifying the individual who is the employee and a member of the immediate family and having the committee isolate that and vote separately on that with the member herself or himself abstaining and not taking part of it the committee could then approve or disapprove the individual's line item once that is done and if the committee approves it there is no

conflict on the IND individual who's uh the parent or sibling of the individual who has the uh uh the financial interest once that is done uh on each individual item where the line item where the money is coming from as well as a salary is voted on by individuals who do not have a conflict and are able to vote on the matter you could then vote on the entire budget including the individuals who had

to abstain for the respective um sibling or um daughter now the way the law is is that the there are two individuals uh one either one can vote on the others conflict potential conflict and the and the uh and vice versa and what that will do is that if uh for instance if Mr Cory voted for on a matter that would concern the financial interest of of a sibling

or child of of uh miss larvey that would not be a conflict okay because he does not have that conflict it would be miss larvey that would and vice versa so the easy way to look at it is that if in fact this committee uh voted on the individual with the parent or sibling abstaining then that would remove any conflict because they would not be involved in any Vote or any budget item

once that is done they can vote on the total bottom line budget uh it is a a method that's used quite frequently and is is U uh you know basically sanctioned by the state and the and the ethics commission as a a way of handling the situation because on many many occasions over many many districts there are individuals who are employees of a district that also happen to have a

public official who sits on a board or a commission and with that I would Mr chairman Mr Reg we had the same discussion last year that's correct it was very confusing to me of why we need to do all this stuff it's not a secret that we have a few members that have a conflict and that's okay if they have a conflict if they have a conflict that's okay but why do we need to go through

this whole rig roll of trying to figure out who has a conflict and who doesn't if they just leave we'll vote on the thing and then they come back that that's what we did last year I don't understand why we got to go through this convoluted process over and over because it it allows the committee members who are elected by the public to weigh in on the budget the bottom line budget that

will be submitted to the mayor right but they just participated in the whole process say it again they just participated in the whole process the same people had conflicts participated in the process the whole time so it's either you have a conflict or you don't have a conflict but why not just let us vote on this thing so we can get the the the meeting to move on because there's a

method in in the law that allows an individual to not have a conflict and that is very it's a very simple matter you don't vote on the individual that you have a potential conflict on therefore removing any conflict that let me finish that individual then who was elected by the public would have an ability to vote on the entire bottom line budget so where is it in our backup documents that say when we get to this

point this member has a conflict with this particular position so therefore they have to go no it's not it's here it says we're going to vote on it and and it it doesn't make any sense to say it otherwise we're going to go over okay who has a conflict let's talk about it let's say why they have a conflict you know in this case we got people that have conflicts with the superintendent

but they're the ones deciding the superintendent search that we're going to talk about next that makes no sense either I yield I don't know what he's talking let's let's just follow the the legal process what are we doing next Mr go ahead why don't you you first yes so Mr Mayor uh if I can make a motion uh to approve J Cory can I make a motion to approve jna Cory's salary of

49875 Chara Henry L special education teacher salary line item number 203 6325 511 220 second I have a motion as second on jnna Curry any discussion Mr uh Mr Bailey may I ask what you're reading from um stuff that I got from the budget and Mr uh Mr Assad prepared a statement also Mr Assad prepared a statement for me okay gave it to us tonight so let me just I know people wonder sometimes why

is he's talking like this why is he doing so our attorney did one piece of paper to give to one person to make it one vote but the whole school committee doesn't get a right to see who what what we're going to vote on that's part of the problem we got people have conflicts we don't know I'm going to give it to one member it would have cleared all this up if we just said if

we got four members that can vote on the budget that's how we should do it so that we don't have to get into this so Mr Corey has a conflict I guess because his daughter has a small position in the school department so therefore we got to go through this so that we he can actually vote on the budget and you're the only member that got the copy of it

well it' be a lot less time if we just voted on it as opposed to just disc absolutely but it' also be a lot less time if we just voted on things that make sense rather than doing things that don't make sense sorry for sorry for bothering anybody it's a law sorry for bothering anybody it's a law and it gives the the committee gives the committee the opportunity to allow its

members to vote on the entire budget you don't have to do it but that's what it is and if they walked out we could have already addressed it all right let's vote so Mr Cory has a conflict with his daughter let's vote on this let's going to vote six seven more times and then we'll finally get to vote on the budget all right let's just vote make it over

with we have a motion a second Deb call the roll on Miss Miss Cory m s yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory yes no jeez good Lord what he's abent right obain Miss lar he doesn't know what he supp so go ahead I just heard excuse me Mr chairman yes Mr AA not to con conflict but if we're going to follow the law attorney usad can you weigh in on if the person

who's abstaining should be voting which includes yell and abstain from the back no which includes what she includes yelling from the back obviously if you're abstaining that means you're not participating right we just heard somebody yell from the back I abstain to me that's a vote we're going to either follow the rules or we're not going to follow the rules no you know something you could you can Muck it up

as much as you want on this but the bottom line is it the votes the the votes are taken individually uh there are two individuals that uh uh Miss larvey has Brothers two brothers who are members of the of the department each one of them has a line item and a salary should be voted on during those votes Mr Cory can certainly vote on that and vice versa when Mr Cory's uh daughter is

being mentioned M laravie can vote on that it's very let's just finish the vote why attorney Assad you why did he leave the room hold on why did he leave the room that's the question for the attorney Mr I think it's fair question can we finish the vote we're half done with the vote we're in the middle of the vote no no we're in the that's right so can we you're out

of Mr agar we're finish the vote please I bang the gavel you be quiet finish the vote you can ask your question when we're done go ahead Deb Miss larvey who we voting on Miss JY J Cory yes want him to repeat it yes got it all right so the motion was was to approve johnic Cory salary of 49875 charge to Henry Lord special education teacher salary line item number 203 6325

51120 okay yeah we already had the vote Mr AG started it go ahead Deb keep going M Mr finish the vote on this one miss miss perea miss perea yes Miss Rodricks yes mayor cou yes Mr Agia my question for attorney Assad is simply if we're going to say that we're going to follow the rules and the law does the individual who has a conflict have to leave the stage the area so that they

cannot hear what we're saying no or they can just say abstain and just not participate they could do either one so there's no reason to get them to leave they can sit here and just say I abstain the best practice the best practice is to have them walk off the stage that is not a man M ated practice the they can sit here and they could abstain or they could walk off the stage the best

practice is if they do go off the stage so there's no law either way as to what is right or what is wrong it's best practice next next Mr uh Bailey um next is motion to approve Matthew dear's salary of 162 225 charge to dery professional salary line item number 20158 0 51120 motion to approve the motion sorry second a second Shel is a second Mo to approve Mr Agia

I'm just trying to get clarity so miss lari has a conflict with the principal of the high school which is a brother and a c member of the custodial Union they're going to be separate this oh we can't do them together this one's just oh we just won just one at the time oh I see so the principal of the high school is directly related and hence the reason why she didn't participate in this superintendent's

evaluation for that same reason because of the conflict that the superintendent evaluates Mr that's both reasons thank you Mr uh got a motion a second call the r Please Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes M Cory Mr Corey just just keep going Miss larav Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes Mr Mayor I'd like to make a motion to ba what is it go ahead I would like to

make a motion to approve Michael L larv salary of 52428 dollars charge to custodial salary line item number 2 27171 511240 second I have a motion second discussion Mr Mr hag uh so miss lar is not participating because her brother is uh custodian correct and that's my question would be then if the mayor's brother is the uh leader in the union for those why would the man not have to abstain from

the same vote this is next year's budget Mr um agie my brother won't be here but as a current you have a voting on a current with next year so you have a current conflict that's over on July 1 no I don't have aent you don't have a current one either when I vote for them I do but I don't vote for them I abstain you abstain from all custodian votes no

not custodian that he's in charge of what so if your brother's in charge of negotiating the custodial contract have you abstained from that yes or no uh first of all I don't answer questions drilled at me like that my point is I follow the law as everyone should I listen to Mr Assad for advice and I follow it but if I apologize so no you apologize you obained for plenty of time

and then you started to participate so I just think it's a conflict thank you I know and that's why you ask questions like that to try to embarrass people let's get to the vote which right is right Mr a yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory MIM this on MIM conflict yes yes yeah I'm sorry yes Miss larav Miss Perera yes M Rodricks yes mayor cougan yes Mr Mayor just want to let you know and the

members of the committee um I have to go have a family emergency I'll update everyone later what's going on um but I have to go I'm waiting on some phone calls okay why don't we do this vote first Mr Bailey then can she come back in now no done so now we're going to vote on the entire budget to ref to refer it to the fiscal year 25 annual budget can

I get a motion a second motion to refer motion to refer do I have a second second I have a motion and second discussion question Mr Agia uh to the chair to attorney Assad can you tell me when a person is actually retired actually what retired I don't understand you question do they retire on the date of their retirement or could they pull their retirement at any time up until such

time as they get out I have no idea I mean it's uh can you please get they have a retirement date that's and they put their papers in and they do the corre correct forms they retire on that day and if they chose to pull it before there's not an option for that I guess they would be able to do that as long as they file the paper proper paperwork but

I'm not uh familiar with the with that thank you so can we get a vote Deb please to refer Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory y Miss larav yes Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes may cougan yes 12:15 is a discussion and vote to approve the spending of 3,562 77 as appropriation is presented by Maria Pont superintendent of schools as you recall um as you recall last month we we had 2 um1 or $2.4

million that we were bringing but because we were talking about potential moves that we held on spending that money so now we are bringing that forth we have gotten an additional million dollars from um the um city and we are um have some capital projects that we'd like to invest in I can't find mine chairman any questions Mr Agia yeah just based on the same discussion we were having earlier I

think we should hold off on spending this money until uh we figure out what we're going to need for the uh potential expansion of prek or any other building stuff uh I don't think it makes sense to spend this money never mind go through the the various things we we're we're still not clear on what we're going to do for our expansion plan so so the issue Mr agar is that the money goes

away come June 30th so we have to have a spending plan right now as to how we spend it so so um if that work you know that we're talking about is not going to happen until let's say December or January of next year this is no good this this money here is no good I can't use it so we have to have a plan right now to spend it and internally there's no other way to

do to do so until they get a definitive plan on what we're going to need for other funds we're depleting the funds or you just telling me we have a lot more money left over I'm telling you that I have to appropriate these money now and I have to have a spending plan for it before June 30th so that the money's committed in this year's budget for that money for next year that's um you know

something that we will have to I'll have to further look into as to how we can fund everything that needs to be funded and it has to be spent by June 30th it has to be committed so I have to have a purchase order and everything set up and established before June 30th for this and what happens if the purchase order doesn't get acted on I'm sorry what happens if the purchase order doesn't

get acted on the money if if the money goes unspent then that purchas order gets liquidated and then the city would still have to give us that money back the following year so in essence we're not going to lose the money it just we'll have it to spend on something else that's because they've had 100% of net School spending and half but they but they won't be so this is so this three

and a half million is their commitment to fund net School spending yep no I get it I understand that's why I've been saying since when we knew this in July is when we should have got the money from the city but we haven't so now it's April and we have 3 months left to spend it so let's spend it on these things because this is just what we I'm only saying that we should be providing some

options so that we can determine if we need to spend right here it says two handicapp uh bathrooms 280,000 at the uh tet so if if taking a bathroom gets you 280,000 for two of them and we have to make four of them at Connelly or some other place I'm assuming we're going to come up with that kind of money again I don't know that that that that school requires that kind of money to be honest

with you I think we've you know internally we've talked to some other plans to to make it work so you know what I'm saying theoretically it could be a large expense if we make a determination on it so understood um I don't think we should be voting on it but I'm just going to vote no if it comes up I yield anything further can I get a motion in a second motion

second uh de call the rooll Please Mr AA no Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss larav yes Miss Pereira Miss Rodricks um I wasn't here for this discussion so I feel uncomfortable voting this is the 3.5 million that was I know but I wasn't here for that whole can we move can we move I would we people okay uh May yes next item up is the um discussion and vote to approve the third quarter

revolving fund is presented is presented by Kevin almea so this is the quarter the third quarter revolving fund report um this is our report out on our 13 revolving funds uh we have positive balances in all our revolving funds uh with this transfer uh we will be with your vote and your approval we'll be approving a 40,00, 41537 transfer of overtime for sounds light tech uh and overtime associated

with that so with that I'm requesting your approval please any questions on the revolving fund motion second one question Mr Raga so we're doing the budget transfer at this point so if we it's not not this one a couple from now a couple items from now a couple items from now it's not this item okay all sorry I had a question on the transfer sure yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss laravie yes no

Miss Pereira M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes 1218 is a discussion vote to approve the year two date quarterly budget report is presented by Kevin almea it's the transer right Mr Mayor transfer transfer 127 I jumped it my fault 1217 is a discussion to vote to approve the third quarter transfer is presented by Kevin almea so in front of you you have uh the third quarter budget transfer uh I've G I provided

explanations on all the items uh $50,000 and above within the cost centers that require approval um this is just our standard uh approval for the third quarter so in total the transfers to equal $169,000 across the cost centers any questions for Mr Mr ago just uh not so much about this but the transfers in general quarterly so am I to believe that once these transfers are done there's no other budgets that are

um if we project it out as spending what we think we're going to that are have extra money in it for the rest of the year we do so when do we get I I believe talk about this so the report here as as we started this year this report I've projected out for every cost center what I project out for having as surpluses moving forward so you can see each cost

center and what their surpluses are moving forward can I can I please ask for a just a summary of Where the pluses the minuses are taken care of this do you want me to send that to you this week on Friday send I would send it to the full committee there not about this is taken care of the negatives y but this you could tell us lines that have a positive projection just so we know

thank you are y motion to approve second a motion is second um dead please call the role Mr agam yes Mr Bailey M Mr Cory yes M ly yes Miss Perera yes M Rodricks mayor Coogan yes um 1219 is it no 1218 you said 128 1218 discussion vote to approve year today quarterly budget report is presented by Kevin alme motion to approve second any discussion hearing none Deb please call the roll M draga yes Mr

Bailey Mr Cory yes M lar yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes 1219 is the discussion and vote to retain the services of the Massachusetts Association of school committees to assist the school committee in its search for a new school superintendent um as you can see from your uh handout they do a comprehensive search um I believe they have the ad up already we had discussed it briefly at

the last meeting um and we do want to get this moving so I'm asking for a motion a second to proceed with a uh thorough search for a new superintendent this is an item motion to approve you have question second I have a motion to say any discussion Mr so this vote is going to start the process I think the process is is already moving Mr Ria I couldn't hear you sir I think the

process is already moving right that's where my concern is so we talked about at the last meeting the opportunity to us for us to do all the highlighted pieces identifying success factors approve the leadership profile proof selection criteria you know the the pieces that would fall under the purview of the school committee and it's already been posted so I'm not sure when we get a chance to

weigh in on that so I was able to watch the meeting where you indicated Mr Mayor that this would be the process to M Rodricks that we would have a say either the masc was going to ask us individually to we in on what the leadership profile should look like or any of the other items none of which has happened it hasn't happened yet Mr agier it is going to but we already advertised

the job well that's just to get names in the Hat but our job will start with the with the layout from phase one to phase five they're just looking for candidates there's a dir of them right now so they're trying to move the process along to make our pool more all-encompassing our our responsibilities will be followed so when I look at the what they have posted is not accurate you're

saying we're going to change that now um um I looked at the uh what part are you talking about Mr a yeah part the second part where it says uh in an invitation to a it's also listed on the masc website right so there's information in it it talks about the timeline the budget it has the timeline it shows selection criteria what it would look like uh successful experience um things like that

so I I wouldn't I don't understand quite honestly why we would have this out there already if it was uh not approved yet by by the school committee and the selection criteria I think is important for us to all have a chance to weigh in on absolutely another one on salary and contract I think is very important we're never we're not even near there Mr agar we're just looking for a pool of candidates that we

can vet and then move forward with the search all of the phases we talked about when we talked about it at the last meeting will be followed so on this on the document that you gave us and looking at the masc website yep if you're a superintendent candidate you look at the website it says salary and contract competitive salary commensurate with experience multi-year contracts negotiable what if the school committee

said you know what we pay a real competitive rate we want to list the amount so people know you're going to get between 200 and 20,000 to 250,000 they're already advertising this job and the school committee had never CH got a chance to weigh in on any those section but there's nothing wrong with if that's what your motion would be tonight to add that into the ad it takes align but it's not on the agenda for

that it's on the agenda to just say approve them right but it's going backwards well it's not because we don't we don't have to approve every piece of paper that's in that search our responsibilities are identified and again if that's what you believe that is important we'll have it on the next agenda item right now we're trying to send a wide net out to get as many candidates as we can if someone's

interested in calling and talking about the salary they want to come from and it's and it's somebody we want to talk to they'll send in an application if not we will wait yeah I just I disagree with the way it's handled so I'm looking for phase one that you said was going to be done correct phase two all the bolded actions of B ours and you somehow masc was authorized to put this out without

the vote of the school committee right somehow no they we talked about it at the last meeting and I'm pretty sure I I didn't have anybody give me any push back I said it's a very thorough search our pieces are all headlight it I brought the same uh sheet to the last meeting and explained it all we're doing now is doing the formality of approving it but they they are the best in

Massachusetts for helping you get a superintendent so I think we should go with the best I I don't doubt that we need to hire them I I think we need to just I don't know how they were authorized the vote that we made was to for you to go check to see if you could get under the 10,000 to go again you know not be in violation of the uh competitive bidding law and then it was

going to come back to us and the exact quote was yeah masc is going to come back to us Mr Rodricks asked the question to get this stuff before it goes out now it's already out and I I don't remember that I remember the going under the 10,000 and that's what we did I yielded I watched the meeting I yielded okay so I have a motion in a second to oh I'm sorry didn't see um M

Rog goe this exact item was on the last school committee agenda It Was Written in exactly the same way that it was we were discussing and taking a vote to retain the services of the masc they can't hear you down that end M rods we took this vote last month to retain their services so I'm I'm questioning are we taking this vote again because we took this vote last month I thought we

did but Mr agas seems to be confident we didn't it was on the agenda I again I I move forward with it we are under the $10,000 threshold that was what I was charged with we explained the phases we're going there if Mr agar believes we have a better chance of getting some quality candidates by amending the um the ad to put in some money we can do that at the next one or

even at this one make a motion to uh amend it but I think it's leaving it open so we see what we get for interest is not a bad thing well I I'm just trying to clarify what we're doing we did take that vote last month I thought we did too and that's why I went forward but again if we didn't and we're doing it tonight let's do it and get moving sounds like very different conversations

I again I have a motion a second Mr ago so at the last meeting we made a motion to retain the services of masc period okay Miss rodri asked the question to you as the chairman what does this mean for the phases of the document that says phase one leadership profile and she identified it she stated for the record those that have bolded are school committee actions you Mr Mayor said yes those are going to come

from us she asked you a question said is that going to come individually from masc before we get this out so that we can weigh in you said yes all I'm suggesting is that we did vote to retain them but we didn't vote to do the process of the we're missing the phases that we were supposed to do now I think we should do it as quick as possible because time is of the essence all I'm

suggesting is that we can't just keep coming back to meetings and say when are we going to hear from them and what is the leadership profile the leadership profile one of the things that I think is ridiculous that comes in here to say successful candidate will be motivated Dynamic leader who demonstrates excellent communication and political skills that's the second bullet on this

thing I don't know where that came from you need to be a qualified superintendent that learn that can lead it doesn't shouldn't say political skills on here that's just one example but when are we going to get the chance to weigh in as what you said is Mas going to be calling us are they going to revise this and it's not just me it's got to be the committee I think that I

know but I think on the website right now you have the ability to go put questions on the leadership profile development I'm just as I said Mr agar we will put this on the next agenda and we can do identify if everybody brings in some success factors expectations we can find tune the application there are not a lot of candidates right now um I talk to masc it's a shortage across the

state there's nothing wrong with getting our ad up fast and seeing where we go we still have a few months on this so let's get it out and try to get some names into the hat and go forward the fine tuning that yourself and Miss rodri are talking about I have no problem with that we're going to do it I I I want the best candidate for the city of Fall

River I'll leave it at that this is just to get the process moving I have a motion a second Deb call the r Please Mr Agia no Mr Bailey Mr Corey yes M larv yes Miss Pera yes Miss rodrix I'm voting again to retain their services correct yes yes voted on this last month okay the timeline um is in the handout um it may need some tinkering because I'll tell you why

after I give out the committee um that we have put together but obviously we're already getting applications in uh the semi-finalist will be selected we'll have a panel go through that semifinalist interviews the finalist um will be selected hopefully by May 13th we may have to move the finalist interviews a little bit and we'll vote to approve and hopefully by July the first week of July we'll have a uh

superintendent on board um and that's where we are right now um does anybody want it quicker or does anybody want it slower or that's what we're trying to look at a timeline right now roughly the first week the only thing is wrong is it should say July one or as soon as possible so Mr AGA I would as I mentioned the last meeting I think we need to do it quick

the benefit of an masc would be for them to screen the candidates and get to this full committee as quick as possible with the three four five whatever the amount of candidates that they think is qualified to be interviewed that process I think should be as streamlined as possible so that when you do hire somebody if we hire somebody with experience that currently has a position they're going to need to

give 60 days 90 days notice before so I think making it go to July is too far personally so I would like to maybe have a conversation with masc to determine what is their recommendation for us to do to get the candidates in front of us as quick as possible would be my personal recommendation well this was the timeline they recommended they said this is what's effective um I know you

know again I think if there's ways to Move It I have no problem with it but we're going to have a um an advisory committee also look at the candidates and do an interview with the ones that they screen out after masc looks at them checks some references goes forward with their piece hopefully we get a pool and U we go from there but this this is just um a timeline we're going to try to

stick to it as best we can and I think that'll move us along I do we'll be fine I just I'm concerned that you know nobody here has weighed in and spoke to masc I haven't seen a contract haven't seen they don't understand some of the pressures that we have related to what the issues are in Fall River so I personally think that masc needs to speak to the school committee members

that this is our responsibility to determine what is the process going to be whether we have a screening committee or not I don't believe that that you need to have a screening committee but I truly believe that all qualified candidates need to come before this school committee not a handpicked search of people that you submit so that they can say whether a personis comes or that's not the process Mr a yeah we're

not doing that no we're not doing that we're going to use the screening committee we're going to use masc and I understand so what part of that wasn't accurate what I just said no you offered your opinion so I would say vote no or make yourself comfortable but at the same time let's so you want to create a screening committee that nobody on the school committee gets a chance to weigh

in on no there two MERS school there's two members of the school committee on the screening commit I don't know I it's only on the budget we haven't got it I have it right here the next item is informational you get the screening committee I only asked for to get the information last week when we got it for all of the agenda items but my point is is is that we shouldn't be having any

screening committee other than this school committee be able to take candidates in or out we need to have all the qualified candidates before us for a public interview that we can sit down as a school committee that's our responsibility to vote for the new superintendent all of those folks should come before us for a public interview so we can determine what they need that's what my opinion is okay we have a motion

a second no I need a motion a motion on a on on 1220 on yeah 12:20 time I vote to approve the superintendent school search time I thought you just said it was only an informational item I said 13 is an informational item I said 13 Bel motion to approve 1220 I have a second second I have a motion to Second so on 12:20 M says discussion and vote we are going to

vote on something we don't even see no the timeline you have in your packet the timeline he just described to us yeah he just described the timeline it's in your packet Kev the timeline it it doesn't make sense we I vote no you vote no go ahead your vote is no Mr AA yes the vote is no okay Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Mr lar yes M Pereira yes M

Rodricks yes I guess Mary Coogan yes okay so I'll pass out on item number 13 is the uh search committee that will let me do the initial screening of the applicants if you could pass it down of I I've asked Miss Pereira and Miss laravie to be on the committee um give that was down to those guys that got in and um I think it's a diverse group of Fall River Educators parents and um I

think that they can we represent all areas of the schools um we brought the um f Rea former president in and we've made it a WI ranging group students parents elll teachers sped parents and we put them together for the initial screening um I think I got a former school committee member on there Mr CA I think there'll be a good thorough group that can vet the candidates going forward that's informational only and

now we'll get back to the regular agenda um for your information item number number 14 is the retirements the resignations the appointments um and regretfully I think a couple of people did pass away can I get a motion a second to accept all those motion second motion a second Deb call the rooll Mr agan yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes M ly yes Miss Pereira yes M rodri yes mayor cougan yes new

business I new bit Mr AA so um under the rules of the school department and school committee when a a member of the school committee asked for something to be on the agenda they ask through the superintendent the superintendent either chooses to say yes or no and then forwards it to the mayor once that comes if it doesn't get approved on the agenda I believe that the request in public

meeting would require it to be on the next agenda item uh the next meeting agenda so so when we got the agenda on Wednesday There's been an ongoing discussion related to the Chief Information officer's contract superintendent has had these conversations I had this conversation with her at a subcommittee meeting it was stated that that was going to be presented to us as a full body and

executive session did not happen on the draft agenda which is supposed to come out on Wednesday purpose of the draft agenda is so that if we have any changes we ask that they be made I emailed the superintendent asking that that item be put on the agenda for the Chief Information officer to be on for negotiations Prince uh superintendent forwarded me something on Friday saying she forwarded that request to the mayor

so two things one is I want to put it on the record that I'm asking that the cio's salary be put on the agenda for executive session and two is a question why is it not on the agenda if it was asked by the superintendent to be added I I I believe she asked you to give me a buzz I never heard from you no I what happened was Mr agar asked me

about putting it on the agenda I asked you you asked how how long Mr cabal had left on his contract did we have time because I wasn't ready uh we didn't have all the information ready but um he still has a whole year left and we said we'll we'll wait um to bring it forth yeah but I also told you to tell him to call me I would tell him the same story

okay I nobody told me that I needed to call you sir I would have called you all I'm doing is trying to say we've done this before so we can't say that everybody that has time left on their contract doesn't go on an executive session that's not being consistent my question is is that I asked it's public now so now it should be on the next agenda item based on the rules of the

school committee I yielded okay request for executive session Mr sad yes there would be a reason uh mayam you want to read them first and want us to take a vote okay go ahead M Law chapter 38 section 2187 to review and approve the executive session minutes for March 11th 2024 regular school committee meeting also M General Law chapter 38 section 2187 to review and approve the executive

session minutes for the April 4 2024 technology subcommittee meeting M General La chapter 38 section 21A 1 to review the open meeting law complaint dated uh March 18 2024 filed by Colin Das regarding the March 11 2024 regular meeting of the forward school committee Mr Das alleged is that an individual attending the meeting uh was removed from the meeting in violation of the Mass General Law

chapter 38 section 20 r g as a chair's ATT no possession may have a detrimental impact on the position of the committee Mass general laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining agreement including uh hearing agreement is relative to All Professional teaching employees for a school system including coaches Title One teachers nurses occupational and physical therapist and

specialists in the teaching profession represented by the for which Educators Association as a chair is ATT an open session may have a detrimental impact on the Bing position of the committee Mach chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining relative to all administrators employees represented by the for associations the chairs determined that open procession May have a

detrimental impact on a bing position of the committee we will reconvene that may may not be statements at that time can I get a motion a second for executive session motion executive session uh Deb call the rooll Please Mr dran yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss larv yes M Carrara yes M Rodricks yes may C executive session we may come

back we're back in session Deb please call the roll Mr AG here Mr Bailey Mr Cory here miss larv here M Perera here M rodri here mayor C here anything further to come before the committee uh yes mayor uh I'd like to make a motion to approve the executive session minutes for March 11th 2024 the regular school committee meeting can I get a second second thank you I have a motion to Second any

discussion Deb call the roll please Mr draga yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss larav yes Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes anything further yes Mr Mayor I'd like to make a motion to approve the executive session minutes for April 4th 2024 technology submit uh subcommittee meeting do I have a second I have a motion to Second any discussion Deb please call the rooll Mr AGA yes Mr

Bailey Mr Cory yes Miss larvey yes Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor yes anything further yes Mr Mayor last one I'd like to make a motion uh to allow attorney Assad to respond to the open meeting law complaint dated March 18 2024 peace second I have a motion to Second any discussion on the complaint Deb please call the rooll Mr Agia yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory yes M lvy yes M Carrera

yes M Rodrick yes mayor Coogan I'll entertain a motion to adjourn Mo tojn um de call a roll please Mr Bailey Mr Cory yesera R it was I I I was so done