5.20.2024 Fall River School Committee

evening everybody I'd like to call to order the public hearing for Monday May 20th uh we'll start with the roll call Deb Please Mr Agia here Mr Bailey here Mr Cory Miss larvey Miss Pereira Miss Rod here mayor cougan here salute to the flag please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for

all this is the public hearing on school choice Deb do we have any citizens input we do not we do not um I'd like to entertain any discussion on school choice for outer District students in grade 6 to 12 for the 2025 school year and any comments is a vote oh I'm sorry that's good 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 acknowledge and permissible okay any discussion on school choice for out of District students in grades 6 to 12 for the 2425 school year hearing none I think I got to say it three times any discussion on school choice

for outter District students in grades 6 to 12 for the 2425 school year thank you school choice for non-resident students in grades K to 5 for the fora Public School Employees consistent with the collective bargaining agreement for the 24 25 school year any discussion on that item Mr chairman U Mr aier please you please have the superintendent give her a recommendation for the public just so

everyone knows what we're talking about for this one anyone yes so school choice is for students who live in another uh city or town um and that we have an agreement with um with the sending school that uh for us it's a secondary issue we we allow students ending um uh room for 6 through 12 for elementary we um since those classrooms those uh grade levels fill up very quickly that's only

restricted to uh employees children uh per um the bargaining unit so um that's what this school choice uh vote is for for us to continue with uh this practice thank you Mr agar and thank you superintendent again school choice for non-resident students in grades K to 5 for the for Public Schools Employees consistent with the collective bargaining agreement for the 24 25 school year hearing

none finally school choice for non-resident students since grade ker 5 for the forward Public Schools consistent with the employees contract for the collective bargaining agreement for the 2425 school year hearing any discussion hearing none thank you I'm will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn second discussion hearing none Deb Please Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr

Cory M ly M perrera Mr rodri yes mayor Coogan yes

adjourned I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the for of a school committee for Monday May 20th Deb would you please call the

role Mr AG here Mr Bailey here Mr Cory Miss larv Miss Pereira Miss Rodricks here mayor Coogan here salute to the flag please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may

transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged in permissible uh citizens input we have a number of speakers tonight I'd like to first ask up Kristen rousell Norwood Street

forever uh three minutes please thank you I practiced Mr Mayor superintendent Pon and members of the school committee my name is Christen rousel I am a 20-year veteran of the fora school department and an F member I am here representing the special education and MLL departments at the lerno school the LNO school is a 4unit building with one foundational classroom at each level and

five substantially separate classrooms with students in grades K through through 5 there are 110 special education students at the lnal school receiving services in an inclusion classroom setting percentages of special education students in the general education classrooms are between 35 and 40% we have five licensed specialed teachers providing these services in addition to servicing these students

teachers develop each student's education plan design instruction and provide instructional services our special ed inclusion teacher also collaborate with general education teachers weekly meet as a Special Education team to monitor students progress and provide parents with progress reports for their students on a trimester basis in order to provide the necessary services for our most needy

population case loads need to be smaller and more qualified staff must be hired and retained to provide these students with the opportunities they deserve to become successful Learners in the inclusion classroom there are 122 transitional MLL students in grades K through 5 of the lnal school that are serviced by two licensed ESL teachers in addition foundational newcomer classrooms in

grades K through 5 are at a maximum capacity of 28 students causing newcomers entering our school to be placed in inclusion classrooms and serviced by these Educators as well students who are brand new to this country experiencing School in the US for the first time are are not receiving the support that they so desperately need to develop their language skills with the varying levels of linguistic

needs it is challenging to meet the needs of all students Desi recommends 2 to three 45 minute periods per day of direct ESL instruction for levels 1 and two and at least one 45 minute period per day of direct ESL instruction for levels three and four it is extremely difficult to follow des's guidelines with only two teachers servicing the transitional population furthermore due to the high number of students on ESL

teacher case loads teachers spend three months of the school year administering mus multiple language assessments and this takes away from direct ESL instruction for their students in conclusion we ask that you consider our most needy populations when advocating for our staff and support for these programs in the upcoming school year providing a work environment where they have manageable case loads and enough

time support and resources to complete their job will affect the quality of their teaching their performance will improve and so will their students thank you okay um and the next speaker is from West is Westport I'd like to have a motion to uh wave the rules so she can talk can I get a motion to wave the rules for the Westport speaker I have a motion second St call

the RO Please Mr AIA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Corey miss larav m Perera yes Miss rodri yes mayor cougan yes Jenna Alex three minutes please good evening my name is Jenna Alex and today I would like to address the necessity of paid parental leave I I have worked for Fall River as a teacher at lnal elementary school since I started teaching 7 years ago I learned the reality of PR to leave pretty

quickly through conversations with my co-workers by my fifth year of teaching I started to join in on these conversations I had a lot of time saved which put me in a good place for PR to leave because I had just gotten married and I knew we wanted a family within the next few years but then life happened 2 years ago my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma his oncologist advised against me

working since I worked with children and his immune system would be severely suppressed during treatment while it was the least of my worries at the time all of my sick time had vanished in a matter of months because I had to use what I could to care for my husband fast forward to now and I ecstatic that 2 years post treatment he is cancer-free and we are expecting our first in July

it has been such a happy time for our family bringing with it exciting New Challenges when getting ready for the baby however there is also the frustrating and unnecessary reality that I am now forced to take months of unpaid prental leave in order to properly care for and bond with my newborn baby boy this current system just does not work and it's not just me who the system does

not work work for it doesn't work for new Educators in the district it doesn't work for people who have changed careers to become Educators it doesn't work for anyone who has had to take FMLA for themselves or to take care of family members unexpectedly it doesn't work for anyone who has decided to have more than one child think about this to have enough time save to cover parental leave for a

second child after their first Educators would have to work for 4 years without using any sick dime it does not work we are in a time where we recognize the benefits of both parents having the opportunity to bomb with their child we recognize the need for birth parents to recover physically and emotionally parents deserve to do these things without the worry of financial hardship lack of PID prental leave causes

hardship for f families it causes hardship for the Educators we are so desperately trying to retain pain and it leaves these Educators feeling forgotten by a district that historically Prides itself on taking care of each other this is why the members of f are united in our determination to get an agreement on paid parental leave

uh the next speaker from uh Brockton I'd like to entertain a motion to wave the rules motion to wave the second I have a motion to Second Deb could you please call the rooll Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory Mr larv Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodrick yes mayor cougan yes Robert Gorman uh three minutes please yes I'll try to keep it to that good evening Estee members of the school

committee fiver has a teacher retention issue I've seen the Billboards lying the highway on my way home and I can speak to the fact that we've had a particular issue retaining secondary level stem and special education teachers we've had positions that go unfilled for entire school years however you've been able to retain me for seven years and I can tell you why with two reasons one is that I have seen enough

progress to give me hope towards being adequately compensated for the services I and my peers provide and two is the community of fantastic Educators I've been able to surround myself with when I started here that sense of community was profound enough that it was easier to overlook the then smaller differences between salaries in surrounding districts or in districts that were less of a commute for me it's a stark

difference to today where if I were purely salary motivated as a math teacher I'd have my pick of the litter between Brockton Taunton Bridgewater ROM or even New Bedford Fall River has one of the lowest salaries in the area all of that is to say this the average Fall River teacher never had more buying power in history say the past 30 years than they did in 2010 that was around $66,000 at the time

or $93,000 in today's money contrast that to right now where the average Fall River teacher has never had less buying power in recent history since 2010 the average Fall River teacher salary has increased by a combined 24% that's true but in that same time inflation has increased 40% that's a 16 percentage Point difference that we have to make up it's important to note that even at our Peak buying

power in 2010 that salary still wasn't especially competitive at the same time Brockton was offering a salary that was 9,000 more Taunton and New Bedford were both offering 7,000 more and Bridgewater ROM was offering 5,000 more the fact of the matter is this there were years in that span of time since 2010 where we took 0% or 1% pay increases martyring ourselves instead of standing up and fighting for a fair

contract make no mistake those years where we allowed inflation to outstrip our pay increases were the Union telling this school committee that it was willing to take an effective pay cut in a world where each year sees State and curriculum changes that increase the burden on myself and on my peers we cannot allow this to happen again we need to see more progress being made towards adequate compensation we

need more than a decade overdue we are more than a decade overdue for a pay correction no more pay for taking not more pay for taking on additional responsibilities a pay correction if you want to retain the talent currently present in the district you need to give us a reason to be retained and if we want to be competitive you have to put in the effort thank you thank

I'd like to ENT entertain a motion to wave the rules for a speaker from Pucket motion away R second I have a motion a second any discussion Deb roll call please Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m laraby m Pereira yes Miss rodri yes may Coogan yes um three minutes please Alexander suer blazedale Avenue Pucket hello hello uh Mr agar remembers me from RPA Coogan you took a bunch of my

hats when I was walking the halls of dery it's good to see you guys again they're under they're under the table out yeah oh good anyway so this is my dad's jacket I'm not wearing blue like all my beautiful friends here uh he went to School in 1980 he graduated 1981 um 1980 Carters America beautiful time uh anyway so he was an azorian immigrant um like a lot of people in in uh Fall River

and he was actually the first person that suggested I become a teacher and I think back then it was probably pretty compelling uh you know you could retire after 25 years of service and uh you know who doesn't like the Summers off that kind of thing right um but I think a lot of things have changed including salary right it's actually gone up four times approximately fourfold since 1980

but let's talk about what it takes to become a teacher right so the cost of tuition is now five times as high as 1980 and of course we have to get master's degrees now so it's you know compounded in that way uh in the 80s uh most uh let's see most of those students had virtually no debt right I think my mom worked at a doughnut shop to pay for

her tuition um and in 2024 we all know about the uh Rising student debt crisis um I myself have a master's degree in a technical scientific field and I still have to pay another $3,000 just to keep teaching um you know get that when we have a teacher shortage makes a lot of sense the tax on teaching um so the cost of a house has gone up seven times and I

think we know that in Fall it just keeps going out you know the train that will eventually come theoretically no matter how you look at it we're losing money right teachers have lost money what is this the fourth decade in a row or something like um so let's assume that despite the math you decide to become a teacher anyway and you want to get a job in Fall River

so if you get a job in Fall River you'll start at 7% the average amongst comparable schools in the area um and once you've been here for a while like me I'm master six I believe uh you make 11% less than most schools in the area and let's say you stick it out and you've been here 12 years and you take some classes to advance your um educational status or you know you're

you're at the top the top of the step you actually make 20% less than schools in the area so it's not like Father makes up for it by being a particularly easy place to teach we have a very large elll population and I think we just heard from lerno and you know we understand these problems so I want someone to explain to me why I'm even here right

why as I as I continue to stay here I make less money I'm here because I love Fall River right my dad's from here I'm from here I went to I went to dery I live in Providence I crossed that horrible Bridge every day right because I love this place right and no matter where you go if you throw a rock hard enough you will make more money at that school right at some point it's insane

for me to go to my wife and my potential children hopefully that will happen one day and say I want to keep teaching at dery it's selfish right so we need to make a decision either you care about teachers and you care about the education of the school or you or we as a society admit that it's not our top priority thank you I knew he was going to do what's the

difference um uh next we have um a letter from uh Dennis bores MOS place um that will be read by um Deb cabal dear fellow members of the school committee I hope this email finds you well I am writing to you today with a deep concern regarding an ongoing issue that has greatly affected me personally and has the potential to harm the overall well-being of our school Comm Community before deliver ring into the

specifics of my concern please allow me to provide a brief overview of my career background within the Fall River District having been born and raised in this community I have developed a strong connection and sense of loyalty towards our educational institution I first joined the school department in 2007 as a third shift custodian and through hard work and dedication I was able to progress within the organization

eventually assuming my current position as a the first shift districtwide senior custodian throughout my entire tenure I have consistently received positive feedback from management and I have been given achievement awards being commended as a model employee with consistently who consistently goes above and beyond in performing my duties even given outstanding Achievement Award by the school

committee my commitment is evident in my perfect attendance record spanning 14 years as well as my continuous efforts to enhance and improve the fall Riv school system over time I have become a reliable support system for many principles and other administrators throughout the district willingly volunteering to work every day during the challenging times of the covid-19 pandemic regrettably over the past year

and a half I have started to feel targeted bullied and harassed within the workplace unjustified attacks on my salary have occurred during open meetings rooted in false statements lies and baseless allegations moreover I have been subject to unnecessary investigations which have ultimately proven fruitless when these investigations failed to yield any wrongdoing on my part I have been unjustly targeted with further

falsehoods most recently I applied for three positions within the school district district and I was recommended by their respective interview committees however despite my qualifications and strong endorsements all three positions were denied due to due to the influence of a school Committee Member I have dedicated considerable time and made numerous sacrifices for the betterment of our school department

often prioritizing its demands over my personal commitments it is disheartening to realize that my efforts and achievements have now seeming ly Fallen victim to political Powers while I have accepted that my professional advancement within this District may not May no longer be attainable it is imperative that I speak out against these injustices to protect future employees from similar experiences I

implore the committee to take my concerns seriously and address the issue appropriately it is disconcerning to note that retaining skilled and dedicated staff members becomes increasingly challenge challenging when other districts offer more attractive incentives that's three minute that's three minutes Deb Mr chairman Mr AGA just I'd like to ask the superintendent to uh weigh in on those as far as I'm

concerned we're not going to comment on citizens input right now can I finish please go ahead but so what I'd ask the superintendent is to reply to the school committee based on this individual's accusation that the school committee has to say in the hiring cuz he's tried to indicate that it was the school committee that did not superintendent does the hiring not the school committee

and I'd like a response to the school committee related to this please thank you what we're not going to respond to those letters right now Mr agar finally say right now Robert Valu 70 Anthony Street Fall River three minutes dear members of the Fall River school committee I hope this email finds you well I Robert valo have been employed through the Fall River Public School for the past 13 years and am

currently serving in as the groundskeeper forant I am writing to express concern and frustration regarding the ongoing personal and departmental harassment allegations these accusations have not only been a direct attack but have had a continuing effect on the well-being of the school community at large as previously mentioned I have been a part of the Fall River School Community for over a decade

beginning as a junior custodian in 2010 over the years I'm continued my continued loyalty dedication and Trust to this community has deepened fering professional relationships and exemplifying the strengths of my counterparts this motivation and drive led me to my current position throughout my tenure I have gone above and beyond with any requests at hand I have received consistent positive feedback on

my work ethic and management my commitment to the school department and colleagues are evident always striving for what is best for the school school system disappointingly for the past 2 years I have been unjustifiably targeted within the workplace there have been numerous false accusations regarding my productivity work ethic and accountability these allegations have subjected me to unnecessary

investigations based on tainted evidence all proven false all investigations have failed to generate any wrongdoings on my behalf these harassments and accusations I have endured prove that the Integrity of the school committee itself is flawed this committee has belittled themselves and scummed into the two in individual who unjustifiably abuses their Authority privileges it has recently been proven

that dedication and loyalty results in being harassed over the years I have made personal sacrifices for the betterment of the school department prioritizing your needs over my own it is devastating that my hard work has fallen victim to political Powers although we cannot change what has happened in the past I write in hopes that speaking out will assist future person personnel with experiencing this

Behavior I ask that this school committee Take This concerns outlined above seriously and address the issue in hand appropriately in this economic climate it has been proven difficult to procure and retain loyal dedicated and skilled employees this becomes increasingly more difficult when tenured employees have not been appreciated targeted or tormented with false accusations all

employees should be treated with dignity and respect of an issue if an issue should arise this individual should be addressed directly and not subjected to the school committee at large a public televised meeting is not a place to State wrongful information with the employee having no ability to defend one statement thank you for your time and attention with this matter please note that my concerns addressed are not

singular My Hope Is that that my addressing my personal issues to the school committee it will Empower okay that's three minutes Deb Mr chairman Mr chairman Mr AGA so I asked for an investigation of an allegation of someone running an illegal garage in our school department yes I did and I asked the superintendent to release her investigation findings to report to the public because that is an

issue that we all should be concerned about I yield okay let's go um recognition Awards the committee has one person we'd like to recognize tonight I'll ask everybody to line up at the front of the stage uh everybody that's going to leave now we appreciate you coming we wish you were here every meeting but and we're glad you showed up tonight thank you all

the Bas

all right thank thank you very much so uh last month we did have a uh one nominee for a similar award and this month we have the second person this comes from Jay career the 21st century site coordinator he would like to nominate this individual for her commitment to our students at both Elementary and high school level in regards to the partnership they formed with literacy development her students worked last

year and will again this year with uh colleague students in the 21st century between the L's book club they worked on an overall unit last year and they will continue this highquality project based learning as our high school students travel to green after school to read with and to these Elementary School students it's outstanding to see students gathering together to further develop and enhance their reading

comprehension and Leadership skills this individual is the epitome of an educator who goes above and beyond her daily responsibilities our district is both blessed and fortunate to have such a fine example and a role model for our students and she's been doing this for many years even after retirement so we like to say congratulations and thank you to Mrs Charlotte Doyle

w

that very nice very nice item number four is the subcommittee updates tonight we have special ed alternative Edge Early Childhood subcommittee Mr agie our chair so we had a very very productive meeting uh we went over a prek update which several of the items uh from that meeting elicited some further information that was needed relative to funding and um decisions that are being made so I believe we have some updated

information for today related to that we talked about the timing of the uh making the decision and I believe we're going to at least make a few decisions today that are going to help move that process forward Dr bronhard mentioned several job descriptions uh trying to go through the Departments and identify positions that need updated job descriptions which I think is needed periodically and in

this case we want to align all of our um job descriptions appropriately in the counseling department so that'll be on the agenda for tonight's discussion as well the alternative school assignments we had to just clarify what is the process for when a student leaves a regular school and goes to an alternative school and that process is that the assistant superintendent will be the ultimate

Orbiter of when the student can actually go or not um so that was just a key point to reiterate the RPA was there to present uh the program of studies and some various programming changes that they've made principal Riley's in his first year down there and they're working working hard to make some changes to our programming that's going to benefit the children in that um Department we also

asked for some additional feedback so we had the subcommittee they make some changes and come back with how the process should be so tonight before us is other um items that I would encourage everyone to vote for it was a productive meeting and we were done in an hour and a half thank you thank you Mr agar um superintendent report superintendent Pon thank you Mr Mayor I'll start with with

a hiring update um as of our last uh last month uh we have had 37 new hires uh 10 teachers um four administrators 11 pair of professionals four educational support um positions and eight uh Operational Support um positions we have also lost 19 folks 10 teachers two administrators five pair of professionals one educational support uh person and one Operational Support person um additionally we have received

uh notice of six retirements three for the end of this school year and uh uh three that are going to happen at the beginning of the new school year and those include two teachers one administrator two custodians and one par professional um currently we have uh lots of positions still posted we've heard um I think Miss Rell um commented on uh fully staffed special educ ation classrooms and couldn't agree more we

continue to struggle with filling uh those positions uh we have uh we had last month a a large recruitment Fair which yielded 98 uh prospective candidates we also participated in the Merc um event at bu uh during the April break that yielded 18 prospective uh candidates and we also participated in the Bridgewater State uh event on May 1st and that yielded 20 potential applicants and that's it for the hiring

update and finally you all received a list as we've done in the past of end of year activities for all schools these are ranged from uh graduations to promotional ceremonies to Field Days uh and everything in between um for you to preview certainly you are invited to attend as many or as little but we thought you should have on hand all of these dates and locations so that um you

can hopefully uh support schools um as much as your schedules allow and that's it thank you superintendent Mr agar Madam superintendent can you please clarify the speaker that was referring to the elll and special ed earlier today yes is that an issue of uh unfilled like the positions are in the budget they just not filled or is it a issue of that we don't have enough positions I think

it's important to kind of clarify that because the they are absolutely correct we have had positions that have remained open um we have budgeted positions but we are struggling to recruit candidates for both ESL as well as uh special education thank you so so so can I just ask a question on that the um if if we can just get the report I know during the budget this came up a few times and

I had made the suggestion that rather than Phil leave a a position totally unfilled because we don't have somebody that has a license that we would look at hiring additional supports whether it's a regular teacher or someone to fill in because I think that's something that it is aggravating if we have the budgeted positions and we just don't even have a second person to assist the main teacher

but if you could just take whatever they said and give us a a one pager I'd appreciate it to just we got to know what it I think we've the budget has gone up tremendously so we have a lot of positions and I think that's one of the things the other thing I just want to give is just my first personal opinion related to hiring I believe that we're right now and we're going to see it

later on in the um agenda they were on the cusp of hiring a new superintendent and I believe that personally that we should be holding off on hiring major positions like principales HR directors and the like when we're going to have a new person whoever that person may be within a couple of weeks I know we have to move things forward but I think it's also potentially handcuffing the person that

when they come in so my personal opinion would be to hold off on these out of respect for the next superintendent and we're collaboratively with them as they go forward just my opinion thank you I yield okay so uh I do want to say one thing there was uh heavily um put on the internet and everything the uh the dery graduation rate and in the city of Fall River you

saw a number 53% that's not even in the world being accurate I think I think dery's at 52 I think the far of public schools are at 74 um I had numerous conversations with the producers over Channel 12 they did amend the story and the uh article they wrote but uh I told them it was an insult to every teacher in our district that we had a 53% graduation rate and the school committee

was up here talking about things other than that so I want you to know that that was a mistake it was not accurate and they did fix it because of you guys is the reason it went up thank you next item up is the approval of minutes I have a series of them from 71 Mr Mayor yes if I could just um can we pull the minutes for March 18th they are complete

but they were inadvertently left out of the packet so we will put them in uh with the June so I just don't uh we can't we have to exclude that so the March 18th one would not approve motion to approve all except 7.2 second second uh that will be we're approving the minutes of the regular school committee from 3:11 the special uh the minutes of the special meeting from uh 3:18 um the minutes of the public

hearing no not 38 that's the one we're sorry 48 and the minutes of the joint meeting from 49 uh I have a motion a second dad would you call the role Please Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larvey m perrera yes M Rodricks yes mayor kran yes we have a number of travel requests um including one that we're going to add on for the vava school to go to Cog Shaw Farm on May

28th I think you all have it in your packet for Roger Williams and one for Roger Williams both from vas um can I get a motion in a second I have a I have a motion second second I have a motion to Second any discussion on travel Deb could you please call the role Mr agan yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larv m Pereira yes M Rodricks yes M Coogan yes

yes item number nine is an acceptance of donations um we have two with us tonight uh could I get a motion to accept and then AC second I have a motion to Second Deb could you call the role and superintendent P will explain them Mr aan yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larav m Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes superintendent sure um on behalf of the Farland Corporation to the CTE

program uh Miss Sylvia Cynthia Sylvia accepts $1,115 62 and that was to be used for Student Activities and also from various donors the list is attached individual donors to a to the athletic department um Mr buston accepts a donation of $477 and that was to help fund a trip to Cooper town thank you thank you superintendent um as we always do um we have an a couple of Grants tonight does anybody

have any questions on the two grants listed the Perkins and and the title three hearing none could I get a motion motion approved second second I have a motion a second on the two grants listed Deb could you please call the rooll Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory M lvy Miss Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor KGAN yes item number 11 is the approval of contracts we have probably I don't know

six or eight there does anybody want to hold on any of the contract ask a question CL all the ones for maintenance have gone through the proper facilities subcommittee correct yes motion to approve I have a I have a motion to Second any other discussion on contracts Deb could you call the role Mr AG yes Mr Billy yes Mr Cory m larv m perrera yes M rodri yes mayor kouan yes Committee of

the whole I'm going to ask the committee um to take item 1210 first with your agreement um if we could have a motion a second to jump that item up it's the superintendent search and we have Glenn coocher here from the masc any discussion on that can I get a motion a second second I have a motion a second Deb call the roll please Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes M Cory Miss Lar

Miss Pereira yes M rodri yes mayor Coogan yes Glenn you want to come

down this is the superintendent search update uh presented by Glenn coocher uh the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of school committees Mr chairman members of the school committee uh we have provided your uh secretary with the report of the superintendent search committee I'm going to assume that you all have a copy of it yes and that uh it's that first at this point you may wish to announce the

names of the candidates recommended by the search committee to go forward to the public stage of the process I'm getting there Glenn there's 1210 I don't have the list yep you do just give me yours the four fin okay the four finalists are Tracy Curley Elizabeth Bal Anna Riley and David Thompson that's correct sir the uh the responsibilities of the school committee for the final stages of

the search process uh begin with accepting the recommendations of the search committee or modifying them or rejecting them but we SE certainly hope that you would accept the recommendations and then begin to plan the final stages which would include uh inviting the candidates to come and spend a day in Fall River uh and to meet with members of The Faculty that includes internal candidates who can spend time meeting

with the school committee and their work site the second uh phase would be that once the candidates have visited the district the the superintendent search committee recommends and and we recommend that the school committee invite those candidates who are spending a day in the district at some point very close to their visits to the district to have an opportunity to meet with the

community and Community stakeholders at a forum such as this where they can pose questions to the candidates meet them get a chance to get close and have an opportunity to ask the questions that pre- toate have only been asked by the search committee once the candidates have interviewed the school committee would then set up public interviews there would be due diligence reference checking that uh could not be

done until the candidates names were public and from there move forward to deliberation so it's up to the school committee now to schedule mutually convenient time with the candidates if you'd like to invite them to spend a day in the district or uh to schedule and or to schedule finalist interviews in public at this point every phase of the superintendent search process involving the school committee

and the candidates must be public so it there'll be automatic transparency You may wish to conduct virtual site visits with the candidates by having them round up people in their District to meet with you electronically or you may ask them to host a visit that you might make to the districts where they're currently working we're doing less of that than we are doing virtual meetings uh it's very awkward for

candidates first of all they've taken quite a risk by allowing their names to be made public which means means that some fortunate person will be selected superintendent and three people will be known as the person who wasn't hired in Fall River so it does take some element of courage to participate in the process we try to make it more pable by doing the visit to the sending District

electronically virtually so that there's no U the notion of of coming into a district and asking your colleague colleages to organize reference checking that could be done in another way can be rather Awkward on the other hand there are districts that want to visit the send there are school committee members who want to visit the sending districts and that is uh not inappropriate as part of the process then

ultimately the school committee will meet with the candidates in public conduct a public interview and then deliberate we strongly recommend that when the school committee reaches consensus on its choice that the motion to hire them should be made conditional upon the successful negotiation of a mutually agreeable contract of employment you don't want to have a candidate voted to hire and then come in

with the demands for salary and compensation that are beyond your willingness to reach so that should be a a negotiated process uh I can also provide to uh to you Mr chairman and uh through the secretary information on our recommendations regarding questions that people should ask when they do reference checking questions that the school committee may wish to ask of candidates when they become public although it is

certainly the right of the school committee members to develop their own questions and bring them up at the school committee meeting uh the school committee is not able to deliberate over the selection of questions in public excuse me in executive session all question development by the body has to be in public session but individually you may craft your own questions and pose them to the candidates when they're

here the requirement is basically that you be fair and Equitable to all the candidates but that does not exclude your ability to ask follow-up questions that may be unscripted or even questions that you may feel are appropriate to particular candid Ates and not to others that's what I have for you in terms of the recommendations and the uh the written materials that include all these things including our guide to

Contracting uh can be provided to you through your board secretary and shared they are not confidential documents they are not copyrighted they're available to anybody that wants to see them anybody have any questions for Mr coocha Mr AGA can you tell me when I still to this day haven't seen you a contract that we have with you so what what is it when does your contract end as far as what your duties

are versus when is it now in our domain to just determine what to do uh our contract provides for compensation to us once you have a successfully negotiated and signed contract if there's no contract if the search implodes if we have to do it again that's just part of the same Arrangement there's no additional charge for that and do we have a contract written contract uh services or expectations for what we can

expect from yes that signed contract has been provided to uh to the district okay can we just get that from somebody I've asked it several times and no one seems to say that we have it but with that being said the I think the timing is quick it you know we we need to move quick now these candidates are been named publicly uh we do have a timeline superintendent's leaving on June 30th

and when you had mentioned all these other things that we could do is it totally optional to just do what we we want like could we interview these candidates two days from now and then select one if the majority of the members wanted it well you're not required by law to have the process that I prescribed I mean theoretically you could throw the whole thing out hire me tonight as your

superintendent which which I don't think would be a very popular decision with the residents of Fall River but it's what I'm saying is you all the things you articulated are options not necessarily the way it has to go that is that is correct so although although the interviews must be in public correct you know I just think my personal opinion would be to try to get this done as soon

as possible so that we can do our interviews at that point whether you do a visit afterwards I've seen a lot of searches where they get to like a final two and then those two people individually come but I think the interviews are the most important piece for us to get to uh ASAP so with that being said I make a motion that we accept the recommendations of the search

committee and we move forward as soon as possible with the interviews is that one motion second okay but I I we we're okay hold on but we don't have our our full compliment of members won't be back till the end of the week so we'll have to look at it after that I'm not going to do uh anything until all the members are pres no no I'm not suggesting what I'm

suggesting days I was like what I'm just saying is that as soon as possible so we can say when all of our members are here you'd have to check with the candidates to make sure that they're available because they also have jobs and the like absolutely I just want to just get it to the next step of we move this process forward because it's important we get somebody in all right let's have let's

go with the first one the motion to accept all the candidates I have a u motion a second Deb please call the rooll M drag yeah yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larvey m Perera yes M rodri yes may cougan yes uh as far as the scheduling goes we'll work something out I want to say probably as quick as we can beginning of next week uh if you anybody has any questions that

want to get to Glenn I would forward them to him uh and we can kick those around and maybe we'll even have a special meeting to finalize the plans for what we're going to do going forward but if if anyone wants some assistance in developing questions or if you want to submit them to us to be aggregated which I'd share with uh I'd be doing that in collaboration with your board secretary would probably be the best

person to be the uh to hold the aggregation but we can work together on Gathering those questions thank you anything else for Glen okay thank you for your time thanks thank you Mr coer appreciate it thank you very much we'll be in touch next it up on the agenda is the vote to approve school choice that we discussed in the earlier public meeting for out a district students in grades 6 to 12 for

non-resident students in grades K to 5 for the for Public School Employees consistent with the collective bargaining agreement for the 2425 school year as presented by Maria Pont superintendent of schools I'm pretty sure we went over this earlier uh any discussion on this Mr Agia can Madam superintendent can you please explain the documents that are below here in yellow and blue what that actually

means right what Mr Michael ISAC actually put it together he uh what you have here the ones with the blue shows the number of students we have that are our students that have gone out to other districts and it outlines where they've gone as well as the students that we have received from outside of the district by grade level it's just a breakdown of that so the ones in blue where at 130 person deficit is

because is this vote does it matter whether we vote this or can the students go out anyway please can the students in blue leave anyway regardless of this vote right they they are currently in our district they have a right to if we accept them school choice they have a right to stay in our district until they graduate we have currently 61 students that are out of District that came to us

we receiving receiving is us and we're sending out students also on the left column right so what I'm saying is when we're sending to out does the vote matter whether we actually can this if a student wants to leave and go out they can go out anyway this is for our school choice the towns or the cities that are also accepting students they're doing the exact same thing so this is for us

and any students that we welcome into our district and what is the funding mechanism or the funding uh result of of allowing any of these things to happen including the collective bargaining one well the collective bargaining it's written in the contract that um students if we have room K to five typically our uh school choice is secondary but if we have room in K to 5 uh staff children

are allowed to um come into our schools all depending on well I'm asking for is what do the funding count come out as do they become our students so they get the yes same rate as us or they get the same reimbursement we get the same reimbursement c as any student they're ours and we get we get funded for them is Mr almea saying yes because I'm not sure that's how it works do we get the

same as we get for the other kids hours so the kids that we send out there's an agreement that we have to pay $5,000 per student that we send out to other districts and that's all done through the cherry sheet uh through the department of re revenue and what do we get in5,000 so it's a swap yes and how much is it that we get per student from a a typical student in Fall River

Chapter 70 and like what's the so the average for the foundation it's 8020 split uh roughly 8020 split uh State versus City contribution it's about $119,000 a student 19,000 versus 5,000 thank you anything further can I get a motion a second motion to approve second I have a motion to Second Deb call the roll please Mr aan yes Mr Bailey Mr Cory M lar M Pereira yes M rodri yes

mayor cougan yes item 122 is a second read and vote to approve the school year academic calendar as presented by Maria Pont superintendent what you have before you is the second read we have brought this before you before so we're looking for um a final vote and acceptance of um of a calendar motion to approve second a motion to Second any discussion Mr agar is there I can't see it in front of me

but is there any issue with uh half days or full days is there any changes from prior years or we have our um two full days built into the calendar also I and I will say that I said that last time the big difference is that this year because Christmas is on a Wednesday we will be closing for two full weeks and actually and all of the schools still meet are meeting the 900 and 990 hours

yes absolutely anything further on the calendar Dr R 16 days just to be clear not 14 so we get two extra not that I counted can I get a uh can I get a motion a second on the count I already have it de call the rooll please yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory Miss lar M Perera yes M rodri yes mayor kouan yes item 123 is discussion and vote to approve the Robert maderis resiliency

Preparatory Academy program of studies as referred by the special ed alternative Edge and early childhood subcommittee and presented by Kyle Riley Robert El maderis resiliency prepatory Academy principal I get a motion in a second on that motion to approve do we want to hear from Mr Riley yes please Mr Riley we have a motion in a

second good evening U just very briefly I understand that uh day I was out we had this subcommittee meeting and my um administrators did a fantastic job and so knowing that I have talent standing right behind me they'll go into the details with you but I really just want to share the program studies we looked at it after our first year and the most important thing we could do is make it a

student driven um program of studies how to get kids on a work site how to get kids passing at different times of the year how to make sure that we're meeting kids where they are when they come to our school so this piece is a lot of work from a lot of people um it goes in with thought is how do we make the school better how do we move forward uh year by year but we're

tackling the most important things up front so I want to ask um Nicole Estrella I had to look down on my paper because she just got married make sure I got it right Nicole Estella to uh get into the details with you good evening everybody um so most of the changes that we are proposing are going to live in the 11th and 12th grade courses we will be moving from a two housee system where

our 7th e8th and n9th graders are in one house 10th 11th 12th in the second house to a three housee system this will put our seventh and eighth grad ERS together our nth and 10th graders together our 11th and 12th graders together in that 11th and 12th grade cohort or team we're proposing that we semester IE all of the courses this will assist with students who have credit deficits it will also

Aid an engagement where students will be earning credits more frequently throughout the year in addition to this we're proposing adding two additional graduations throughout the year so we would have our traditional graduation in June but also so another in August for students who finish their credit requirements during summer school and another in January for students who finish their credit

requirements at the end of semester 1 additionally we're looking to expand the options for students that are not necessarily live in-person courses so this looks like online Edgenuity courses both in a live lab within the school day as well as potentially out side of the school day for students who have other responsibilities additionally school to Career internships and employment

opportunities that would allow students to earn credits for jobs they may already have or for internships that we can connect them with that are in line with their career goals uh on top of this we are aiming to lower the total graduation credit requirements from 100 down to 80 our initial proposal was 90 which is 100 less the 10 credits of World Language that we do not offer at RPA uh at the subcommittee meeting it

was it was suggested that we should maybe even go a little bit lower um so instead of asking for 22 and a half elective credits as part of that 90 we're proposing uh 12 A2 which would make it a total of 80 uh credits for graduation uh I'm going to ask Drew Woodward to add anything that I have missed at this point no I think uh Miss austral Australia Australia uh uh spoke uh very

comprehensively about the program of studies um the only thing I would add about the Edgenuity and Credit Recovery piece the enhancement that we're asking for is uh to have to Pilot um an on demain and tutoring piece uh for the uity uh platform where students who uh get stuck need extra support could access um a live tutor 7 days a week uh to support them in their content this does come at an additional cost um of

about uh $60 per student per course I I got a question anybody else got anything cut them off I have a question you can go first all right I'll go first I'm looking at your program of studies and for that population don't you think there should be like a work experience component in there somewhere where you can get the kid a part-time job and let him earn some credits and

get some job skills I I just didn't see it it's probably me I missed it Nikki but is it in there yeah it is so um in the again in the 11th and 12th grade cohort the work study internship options will essentially be a larger menu that students can pick from so part of that will be through the urban youth co-opt which will have a Workforce Development seminar as a requirement and then

leverage that into more individualized you put it on the last page Nick you're killing me no I it is there I agree and that's what I thought was important for that population to give them a chance in the real world thank you um um Miss Rodricks so it was more of a comment I actually really appreciate the three separate graduations um because I think part of what happens and happens in college to

where folks get really discouraged right and I graduated in January but now I've got to wait all this time to actually be recognized for the hard work that I did so I think that's actually we're looking at social emotional learning and we're looking at kids being able to meet their goals I actually think that's a really good idea um and then your other pieces when you just said about work de

Workforce Development and having it included it's not every kid is forced to have a part-time job correct correct again that's sort of the menu that students would be able to choose from which allows us or will allow us to further individualize for every student based on their okay um responsibilities their needs their interests Etc okay and it just looks like you're moving more

towards a sort of a not really a Project based but it kind of looks more like a Project based learning piece it will look more that way yes yeah which in reality is what's developmentally appropriate it's how people learn all that good stuff so I'm just I'm in support of that want to clarify that Workforce Development piece thank you I think the other P piece not to add on to it but is the colonary that we've

been talking about all year long and it's up it's put together it's probably I'm just guessing at it probably a couple weeks away from being complete I go down there every day to check on it we have floors we have ceilings um just needed really equipment coming in now so that's going to be a big piece inhouse especially for kids that um don't Venture well into the community and need

support right here in school so that's another piece of it that um I I think is going to be a big help for students uh and I'd be missed if I didn't talk about the cooperation of district with Dr bronhard um Drew Woodward helping us out in our team as we're building it at the school we're building a new Administration team uh Lorie crumley's here tonight Luther Jose couldn't make

it because of family commitment and of course Nicole that you've already heard from uh it things are coming together pretty well uh and we know that it's going to be a constant uh opportunity for improvement each year okay anything Miss Rogers just to pay back on that I do want to clarify when we talk about um decreasing the number of credits I know that some people will hear that as we've decreased

expectations and I I just want to put that out there that that's not what happens um I don't know if you want to speak more to that because you could probably do it a lot more eloquently than I do but before that even becomes a question decreasing um the amount of credits does not equal decreasing expectations for kids correct so all of the core courses will carry the same credit requirement as dery um the only

credits that we are essentially eliminating as a requirement are the 10 world language which we don't offer anyway um so in the past we've actually been asking students to do 10 additional credits in usually elective areas um to make up for that so um the other 10 that we are proposing deleting off that 100 would come specifically from electives which again we have very limited offerings in comparison to dery so uh

holding the students accountable for all of those core classes still some electives offering the opportunity to earn those elective credits in new and and varying ways but all of the core courses uh will carry the same responsibility and credit bearing as before thank you anything further motion to approve I have a motion I have a motion a second already um Miss per Mr AGA just a few things thank you for the

presentation and taking out feedback the one of the questions I had after the meeting was when you talk about 11th and 12th graders having something different is there a change in the mechanism of when you become an 11th grader at in alternative school sometimes you're taking classes and you're either Competency Based or you're able to jump up quicker is there something in embedded somewhere that allows a student

let's say that really starting a do a great job and go from 9th grade to 11th grade in one year or something like did they jump or how is that going to work not necessarily so there is a table in there somewhere I'm not sure what page it's on but we will assign students their grade level based on what year of high school they are in so a first year

student would be a 9th grader a seconde student would be a 10th grader at that point it's unlikely that most students would have a very serious credit deficit at the third year and above regardless of where their credits lie we would have them in that 11 and 12 house which offers much more flexible options for them to earn credits but they would not be placed there solely dependent on where their

credits are so if a student was Age based on their age that they would have been in 11th grade are they're going to be in that cohort to get the three correct so they wouldn't be held back as a 18-year-old freshman potentially correct so I I think that makes a lot of sense and I said this at the meeting um to Mr Woodward that what's the reason why it's called an altern alternative

school and I wasn't being factious I think that's what we need to really look at is it has to be an alternative because if we keep doing the same thing we're not going to get different results so I do appreciate your efforts to look into this and the I asked about the um position of the chef or director whoever that is I hope that's ongoing soon so that we can I know you went there Mr

Riley but Dr bronhard said we were on it and I trust that we are on it and I I'm really looking forward to it that's a program that I think can do a lot of good things for our kids and and uh kudos to you guys for doing it we're on it um that particular Chef is going to become a building sub that we have open right now in our building uh so we can

ramp up and get ready to go over the summer and going into next year great thank you you all set Mr AAR yes thank you okay I have a motion a second on the RPA program of studies Deb could you please call the role Mr agan yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory miss larv m Pera yes Miss rodri yes mayor cgan yes 124 is a discussion and vote to approve the following

revised job description is referred by the special ed alternative Ed and early childhood subcommittee and presented by Dr Amy bronhard assistant superintendent of student services and strategic integration and Tom Coogan human resource director can I get a motion and a second first motion to approve second all right I have motion a second and um do we want to hear from Miss bronhard uh Dr bronhard please

please hello so what you will find before you are um three job descriptions with corresponding charts to show the transparency of the recommended adjustments to language and um duties within over the last few years um at dery high school more specifically our school counselors formerly known as guidance counselors um they live at dery high school and at our middle schools more specifically and the three

positions are the school councelor position the department head of School counseling which is a position at dery high school only as well as the Director of School counseling um over the last few years the director of School counseling was part of the budget a couple years back there was a more academic job description for the department head because of of the dery high school being the only school with a

department head of guidance in addition to that the last time these job descriptions were looked at was back in 2005 if my memory serves me correct so we needed to review them to bring them up to speed with current landscape of the work of school counselors and to make sure that the job descriptions align with the duties that our staff are working diligently on day in and day out

we had an opportunity to share it at the subcommittee as well as share it with the fra to receive their feedback um and so we bring them to you tonight in 21st century school counselor job descriptions questions for Dr bronhard Mr Agia just on the uh the director of School counseling and pathway basically on all of them typically there's a line in there that at the end says and any other duties

that are deemed pertinent by their director I don't see that on the department head one or the it's I think it's called director of School counseling and pathway development that's technically the old guidance department head and I'm looking for some guidance from HR or somebody to say should be isn't there a line that we always put in there right there is so that was omitted that needs to be added

yes you're right all of our but are you looking at the same thing I am yes so we we have to revise that basically number it's up to 16 says organize facilitate promote but I think 17 should be just to say things change and we can't know everything that's uh coming up I do appreciate the um salaries that we recommendation at the subcommittee was to put the lowest the highest salary so that people know um what

happens I at the subcommittee articulated my concern with how the the position was created and then I feel like the school committee was snookered by the folks that were in charge at that time in that we said we would give one person a raid or the position to combine and then that and therefore would have eliminated the old position and then it just kind of help somehow happened on its own I don't

think that you were involved in that Dr brard I don't think Mrs Pon was involved in that but I just think it's something we need to look at and make sure we don't do that moving forward because I've been on this committee for 15 years and I've seen this several times already one year we said get said oh we're going to do these one person is going to do

these two jobs and then a year or two later they say oh but we need that other job so we can't play that shell game it's just truth and advertising what it is and I think that's what you presented so I'm going to support it based on that but please in the future just tell us what it is and and it's not thank you I yield anything further just oh M

Rodricks quick question so I think um during the subcommittee meeting there was some talk because it looked like one of the items was something about like the the the director of counseling Pathways position was coordinating all the 504s and it looks like that was corrected in the job description because if the guidance counselors are not doing that and the adjustment counselors are

then it sort of made sense for that to enlight it looks like it was corrected there but underneath in the rationale it still says that what position are you looking at you're making me look at department head department head because the department head the department head would be working in partnership with oural right coordinator so number 15 does say collaborate with fcl coordinator I think that was switched

from when it was originally proposed at last week's meeting right but if you scroll down under where it says um job description proposed changes it still says that um are you in the chart I'm in the chart okay I don't might not have gotten correct just be the way I'm reading your chart but you know I'm I don't do well looking at things on the computer I do well looking at them in front of me on

paper that's just how my brain works but it does say down there number ad serve as District 504 coordinator supporting implementation of student 504 plans after the subcommittee meeting on Thursday night in a quick Friday to get it turned around we changed the job description explicitly because that's the formal document I will go back and make sure that that's changed in the chart um the chart was

mainly to give people a talking guide and a crosswalk Pro prior to the committee meeting I'm just looking to see which one was the accurate one so the job J description is the accurate but I will go back and cross reference that cuz that will also serve as a tool for us in the future don't do it for me because that's just to have it on file so I appreciate you that that's why

accurate i y can I ask anything further just a clarifying question on that same thing the in the job description collaborate with theal coordinator to support um implementation of student 504 plans and training for staff so is the what we changed with theal coordinator is that the person only in charge of the Sachs correct so that will be adjusted I will be bringing forth also um a revised

looking to take a look also at the student adjustment Council a job description as well as theal integration specialist and theal coordinator so in the last few years with the new positions being created and added to the budget I think it's important in the next few months before next school year that we crosswalk those three um so that we can do a similar process of reev revising as needed um to ensure that

there is not not overlap or is that there is supportive overlap in those prescribed areas so I agree with that I'm just reading 15 just it's real just granular but if a person was uh if a guidance counselor was uh School adjustment council is supposed to be doing the 504 plans and they were doing it either not to the level that they should or they just say it's not their

job whatever it would be would they do it would they report to the direct of guidance or to theal um coordinator because if if they're going to be theal coordinate is going to be like the overseer of the sax I I don't know that we shouldn't look at changing that as and we could always change it after you come back with the other one to like align it because you really want to be able to

say you know she's my direct supervisor on this and you're my direct supervisor on that so I think we should approve it but keep it open and we could always change it afterwards if it aligned better once you do the other job descriptions does that make sense sounds good okay thank you anything further I have a motion and second to approve those three job descriptions uh Deb would you please call the rooll Mr I

yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m lari m perero yes sorry M Rod yes mayor krger yes 12 five is discussion and update Early Childhood as presented by Maria Pon superintendent of schools thank you so we've gone before multiple subcommittees as well as this full committee since our last meeting um if you recall we had scheduled a um walkthrough at Bishop Conley that became available as a viable option um we did

the walkth through and we're waiting for to look to see if that was uh something that we would entertain we also were asked to provide some cost analysis and to do some recommendations of the usage for 2501 um and uh Pace Annex uh to explore other options um at uh in addition to what we already had explored um we as you know in some of this we've talked uh a lot about prek expansion um we've

expanded our prek program last two years we've added 12 classrooms um and and this is to accommodate and fulfill our compliance needs um I want to be clear of that this is not Universal pre uh our students our kids when they age out of early intervention at 3 years old we have responsibility to provide services and this is what um we are doing we're looking for and and more and more kids

are qualifying which is uh presented uh the issue of us being um proactive and looking for addition additional space we did uh we do have classrooms at 251 um but we had an opportunity to we have to explore those that it has three floors we have students on the ground floor and on the first floor but we're going to we have a plan to inhabit that building because we can't have students

on the top floor um because they're little prek students uh our current uh landscape uh if you will we have 33 prek classrooms which is as I said the 22 in the last two years um that's an additional 12 classrooms we have 16 classrooms that are located in four of our elementary schools one of the things that we kept hearing it was wanting to put them in our schools we have

exhausted our school uh space we have seven classrooms that are located at 300 Eastern Avenue which we are renting that space and we have 10 classrooms that are currently located at 2501 as I just said um we have 609 currently 609 children um in our pre preap program 19 of those classrooms are full day that's for four and five year-olds that are about to enter kindergarten and 14 classrooms are

halfday sessions and the those are serving students in 3 to five who are uh further along into entering um uh kindergarten our Early Learning Center at North Eastern Avenue that's always been a temporary site um class size is reduced in in that building because those classrooms are a little smaller um once we move to a larger space we will gain 24 additional classroom seats because now we have capped at 12 because

we can't fit typical 15 uh in each classroom uh at 251 we have uh as I said on the first two floors we have um 10 classrooms uh that's five classrooms on the ground floor which we intend for them to stay there and uh four classrooms on the ground floor and f um I think now we have five and five but we intend to move six outs hopefully and leave four we intend to move yeah feel

free to join uh feel free to join uh Mrs FAS um and so we're recommending we did visit Conley um there is plenty of space on the ground floor for us um if we so choose um we would recommend that we enter into an agreement we you have uh backup uh to rent that space for a year um and that would serve uh to for us to uh move this the classrooms that are currently at 25

501 on the main floor as well as to add any additional space should we need um space for um expansion our uh ELC there 12 to 14 classrooms Mrs ferious you can I don't have to be and you can certainly jump in we certainly want to create an Early Learning Center we are exploring and we would recommend that we move forward with pace and explore that as a site for future building we could 12 to 14

classrooms there um and certainly would serve our needs in the long term uh we're looking we definitely need to look at school zones re redistricting our our schools changing those lines will impact enrollment at each of our schools that needs to be a prior priority and creation of a long-term strategic plan to fulfill our needs certainly we've heard um I think Mr agar has mentioned

this multiple times and it is a good practice we need to put a 5-year plan we need to have a short-term solution which is what we're recommending but we also need to be thinking long-term um as part of our uh Five-Year Plan the boundary piece um is is that will uh redefine so right now the boundaries for let's say the Varys might change if we change those boundaries it's going to impact

their enrollment we'll be able to shuffle and and shift that's a long-term solution and that's going to be something that's going to um has to be planned out out can't be done overnight certainly not going to be done within um months and we need to really explore that work with someone to redesign and and redraw those lines and uh analyze the impact and the implications of those lines um you uh we were asked to do a

cost analysis went back to drawing board and and added more we got some feedback at the last meeting um what it would cost per classroom as well as other costs that are within uh that also are impacted like administrative costs related Services cost and what we get reimbursed per students and we are also looking to so doing the pay Center building that out uh renting Conley in the meantime we're

also looking for the committee to vote on officially vote on us moving the stone school from where it is right now um on and moving on Maple Street and moving at to 2501 and then using that school reopening that school as an elementary school westall school because we need to relieve some pressure from the fonsica school as we um add classrooms there all of that will um uh ease our serve two purposes right it

will support our um expansion needs for prek and it will also um s uh uh support uh some of the work that needs to be done and and in releasing some pressure from fansa as we've said many many times fansa is in the most densely populated neighborhood it actually there are 1,200 Kids that actually could go to fansa if we have had a school that big but only 600 and some students attend there so

the other students are um going throughout uh to schools throughout the district opening westall is not going to solve all those problems immediately but it will release a lot of pressure we solve some We Begin that work in creating a neighborhood school for the kids who really should be going to the neighborhood school should be walking to school like other kids do in some of our

other schools so we we' be looking for that also to um open up a vote so that we could open up the westall school as another Elementary School any qu any questions Miss RS um so first question on the cost analysis just when it says 176,000 is the estimate for a teacher in two PA professionals per classroom but your Total Staffing is 5.8 million based on your 33 classrooms but that number doesn't include your

administrators or any related services or anything like that correct so what is the actual cost so it's just over it's just over $6 million uh it doesn't include on top of the $6 million you have 1.8 million in transportation which is fully funded by the city so you know prek is an expensive Endeavor and it's you know there it's not a money maker so no right just when I did the math it

didn't the math was not mapping um and so I was questioning where those other like how do those other services come in because that number is not in here so um of our transation thank you for clarifying that and in addition to um I don't believe the superintendent mentioned I included a um an analysis on ELC and what the cost is just for ELC alone because that was one of the items

that was requested the other night so that that is in with packet that's where this is me missing things again oh here it is part of this one okay all right thank you you're welcome Mr AG for now so uh I'm trying to look through and figure out what so the slides I don't think have changed appropriately just if I was being critical because the slides are still giving the impression when you

look at the cost analysis that it's 5.8 million and 5.88 9 million therefore we just took out the word Surplus because that was just totally stupid to put in there to be honest to say we had a surplus when we don't and then you look at the 1.8 funding by the city transportation the city's always you know hot time coming up with the money and what how did we fund all of the

transportation this year did we pay for some we paid for some out of vesser yes out of vesser so so you can't say well it's always comes out of the city because we paid it out of Esser so I find it just whoever it doesn't it's not only you it's the team I mean everybody's been working on this looking at slides I would assume during the day but you can't include like we help them with Sessa

where are they going to get the money to pay for the 1.8 million so I think we're in deficit but then the other thing like the related Services administrators there there has to be a a budget to that and then I think that's what you tried to do in the in the end like options where one of them says it's $600,000 deficit somewhere is that what you're trying to show by the yellow so the

other the other piece to everything is I put together three options on how we can fund Pace because I know that was one big big thing that was discussed the other night and the three options are in front of you there but before that one the the page before shows cost analysis of a whole bunch of things and then it says so that's just that's just the ELC Mr agar that's the cost for the ELC

what does that mean ELC Eastern Avenue because it was requested an analysis of what Eastern Avenue cost so in order to keep the E Learning Center open we're losing $600,000 yes nobody nobody else has a problem with that so if we lost $600,000 on it this year that means if we open how many years we've been over there two this is our second year the second year so if you lose $600,000 one year that means

you lost $1.2 Million by not having a different solution than that Center am I crazy or is that what like am I missing it option no we we F we funded it through Grant we funded it through grants so we've used eser to to to pay for it so I know it's been funded Essa funds are not necessarily shouldn't have been just let's just go spend money on whatever

you know we have things that we need to do we need to we can't lose $600,000 and then say well we don't have enough money to give raises or other thing like we can't get money twice so when I look at this I'm like that's not even I thought you were referring to the entire package of the related Services the administrators money just so just so you know from my standpoint okay as your fin

as your financial person prek is not a money maker I would not recommend continuing to open prek classrooms obviously we're require to for compliance and we will need to to continue to open those classrooms but from a money standpoint it does not make money it takes it's it costs more to us and I would say I agree I agree with everything you just said Mr elmeer my frustration comes in that over 90 days

ago in February when we first had the meeting when it turned into Mr Agia is the one that gave a 30-day window and that's why the tany school parents are all upset and everything else what we're showing here based on this this data actually makes the point that we should be opening buildings that actually make sense financially that we own not looking at it well a lot of parents were

complaining and whatever else if we could save $600,000 per year if we own the building it it's a different argument to say whether we do this or we do that we were just very quick to oh we tabled it and then that's it every nobody's going to re relook at it but today or when it's May 17th when this came out that's the first time we've actually gotten a real cost analysis

that I've been asking for and other colleagues have asked for the same thing for months but just just to be clear Mr AAR I've provided three different analyses of this at this point you know originally I provided uh an analysis on what the total cost was originally based on what what we're paying this year and so that was Pro provided UPF front and so it was requested that we provide

something else and I've provided that as well so I've been trying to accommodate the requests that have been asked I understand you're trying and I do agree that you have submitted those things my frustration comes into I wonder how you as the CFO submitted those same documents to over million dollar in salaries of administration and no one said these aren't what they're looking for for

these are not what we should look for because we need to know what the real number is so it's not you you can only give it to the superintendent superintendent is responsible for whether that's sufficient or not and lo and behold look at what we did after all those ask times asking now we realize that that particular site is losing $600,000 per year so moving forward whether it's one year or future years we

have to either do something different there we have to get out of there or we have to call the legislator is down and say you either have to fund prek like you do everybody else something else I've been selling how many months have I been saying that and can I say where where is the meeting of the local delegation have we scheduled a meeting with the local delegation to articulate that prek needs

to be paid like everybody else have we scheduled it no we have not so sometimes people get angry why is he getting that mad why I'm frustrated because I've been saying that for months it doesn't make any money and it's actually cost in US money so for every dollar that we lose here it comes out of the other teachers that we have everywhere else and I agree with you Mr

almea but it doesn't solve the issue we got a problem here and it's not over just because we're going to say we're going to rent Conley for a year but that being said I appreciate the this is a real good analysis that has a real number that's what I was asking for I'd also like to ask for the same analysis for all of our sites so that we can try

to say well if we had a site that we owned and at a different place it's this amount if we have them in schools is it this amount because you don't have as much Administration there's got to be some sort of that's what a long-term plan is going to be they're going to say look at all the facts so I would like to have that for every site and I'm sure at

some point you can you can get to it but the third page of you had the three options of how to pay for the pace we had asked some questions about the roof and the timing and I'd like an update because we asked for that update relative to the I should say the roof like plural because it it's one project I feel it should have been two projects but ultimately where are we at with the roof

because if we do all these things as Miss Pera mentioned at the subcommittee meeting and I wholeheartedly agree with her we uh if it doesn't come to fruition we're going to have to go back to plan B I think was what was said any updates so the the bids are not open for the for the general roof piece just sub subcontract that bids it open um so as soon as that opens we'll have those hog

numbers on um that'll be delivered to the city and then moving forward um after we verify those numbers um the city can um accept um and then we move forward but we can't move forward I believe you said that we cannot move forward with building anything in the pay center in the area that you're referring to until we get the whole roof stun and the sprinkler system yes so once the roof um

once the the the bid is given out for the roof then the contractor will start 30 to 45 days later and finish that roof probably in 8 to 10 weeks while that's going on the design and bidding process for the uh fire suppression system will happen at the same time while we're waiting for that construction or during construction as soon as we have that document that we are looking for bids

and once we accept those bids we will start construction inside the building um with the intent that we will not occupy the building in those new areas until we have an operating F suppression system and since the last meeting have you received any information from the city that I requested of how we're going to how they are going to fund that roof like any assurances like yeah I mean

what we've done is we've pulled back some Opa projects we which we had some Surplus left in we've allocated uh I want to say $3 to4 million I think right now uh and that's why I believe that the first round of bids should open up any time I know we've had people on the roof looking at how to move the uh systems that are on the roof whether it's was it DBS or a

few of those other companies have already looked at their part of it um if we have to the bond some we may but I believe when we look at all the pullbacks from arpa where we've given more than was needed I think we can fund that roof and what is it anticipated to cost the roof and the and the sprinkler system fire suppression is probably a million and a half 2 million and the

roof is going to be between three and five so 6 s million you got to come up with and my only concern is I'm all forward if you have the money but I I'm sitting here watching and seeing what's happening on the city Side financially and say I don't know how the hell they're going to come up with $7 million 67 million so I think it would make me

feel a lot better like you just gave us more information that we at least got if it's $3 million in oper funds you know that's a good start but I don't know if that has to be approved by the counil I'm just worried that we're going to get down this road we're going to make this decision and then it's going to something's going to happen and we're not going to be in control of it and

we're going to be be stuck with having to make rash decisions at the last minute that's my only concern the roof at the pace is that included in the um you remember we had a meeting talk at one of the meetings about doing the roof at the PACE Center separate from the other project because it would it's under more our control and is that all included in the totals that you said Mr

Pico so the roof for the pace is not any anything included in our side on our side of the house I'm saying it's included in that number that you just said but yes so if they spent 7 million is going to do the roof from for both buildings over there both both roofs the yeah between three and five on the roof and then fire suppression will take care of the entire 90,000 Square Fe Square

for building yeah and then when you get to the um funding mechanism here of I guess there's options but can Mr me to articulate what the what that means so the three options that are proposed so option one is to rent Conley move Stone to 2501 South Main Street and to populate westall k to2 for school year 2024 2025 as a two-unit school option two is to rent Conley move Stone

to 2501 South Main Street and Le the West all school closed for school year 2425 and option three is to rent Conley move Stone to 2501 South Main Street populate West doall K to three for school year 2425 as a one a one unit school for one year and I think this is implying just I think anyway because you had put four units in the budget is that

so I put so there were two units so the the budget itself when it was initially submitted was for two extra was for a k to 5 school and it was a two-unit school that's the way it was proposed so in number one way you just have you're going to save three four and five like is that because you just want to do it K to 2 yes and you have a budget K

to you have a budget of K currently I have a budget of K to five at the moment so the the additional third grade fourth grade fifth grade teachers would be would be savings for that one year come up with money for here because the part of the this whole process that actually made sense was to alleviate some of the pressure in other places and I believe we have issues with three four and

five as well so I'm personally not too happy with the fact of we're going to have a a school that's in working order and just say we're not going to fill three grades of it for budgetary purposes to try to I just don't think that makes any sense and I don't know that there's an option for filling the school with all of the two unit schools like we had already

said in the budget and then put our heads together to try to say where's the other money coming from because if you recall back I suggested we save some of the money that we allocated last month which I think was stupid we should have saved that money and we would have had some of this but that that money is being generated part of that money is here this year so part of the plan would

be to pre- purchase materials this year um to the tune over $1 and a half million but out of where where's that money coming from out of out of this year's budget so we would reallocate some of those funds that were allocated last month and allocate it to per to pre- purchase materials for the pace wait a minute wait a minute depending on which option you choose I get it come

back to you with all du respect allocate with all due respect this item right here says option one please someone please tell me where it says on option one for 1.5 million that we are going to reallocate what we allocated last month even though you were told two months in a row I can tell you that from me that we shouldn't have spent this money so last month we said we're going to do this list of

projects for all of these schools it's public document is public record now without telling the committee we're just hoping to say we're going to use 1.5 million of that to say oh those projects that we said we were going to fund we're not going to fund those anymore but we're not going to get any information on this no that's not without telling you you haven't voted on you haven't

voted on any option it depending on which option what we have we have not spent the money on let's say playgrounds for instance I'm just using that as an example that if you vote for that we would be coming back to this committee to say can we reallocate some money that we had earmarked for this and use it for prepaying this is not about uh moving the money without we know we have to

come to you to do that but how how ridiculous is that each of the three options says pre- purchase materials 1.5 million pre- purchase materials 1.5 million pre- purchase materials 1.5 million Mr I it was it was requ it was requested to us to put together a plan for options of how we could fund a 3.3 million for the pace we have the options in front of you we're presenting it to

you right it's disingenuous is what it is it's disingenuous is what it is where are you going to get the 1.5 million you please tell me what you and your leadership team have said where this 1.5 million is going to come from what are the projects that you're going to reduce tell me right now please I can't tell you exactly right now Madam superintendent can you tell me because you obviously have had meetings about

this and said we're going to take $1.5 million that we allocated last month and not do it which projects of last month are we now not going to do please tell me well I think we have to look at what we had said is we were going to look at the money that we're allocating for playgrounds potentially we don't know now we are waiting for some back stuff for one of the elevators we have to look

to see what's available to us now and what we could um move forward with in saying let's take some of that money to use for uh working at pace so we had I don't know was it a a playground at the green school which is the play one of the playgrounds 300,000 at what school do you know no we just we just did the Green School this year place this year

in the F okay so we come to the school committee last month superintendent's been told I know it because I'm the one that suggested it two months in a row do not spend the 2.5 million because we have a pre issue going on we might need that money two months in a row I personally told the superintendent we get to the meeting oh no we have to do

this we have to do this great now we say we're going to spend a nice we're going to make a $350,000 playground for the children that go to the fonsica school awesome everybody's in favor except this month based on not doing what we needed to do in the right way with with the pre issue and doing things on time we're going to say sorry fansa school and all of your children you're not getting that

now because we need that money to pay for the prepay for the pay center that is what I see I don't see anybody telling me that it's different all I see is last week you told us to go back to the drawing board to Identify some funding sources where we could use that money to fund pace and that's what we did we look to see you know that we're an entity we

don't have a savings account on the side so we were looking to see what projects we have what we could move and and then come to you to the committee to decide you know is this something that we want to do we were told last week at our subcommittee meeting go back and see Identify some potential fun funding sources that could fund that project and that's what we did I think we should go

back and look at it and the great part is it's on video and you can watch it because I for one as the chairman of that committee did not suggest to anybody in the administration please go back and look at funds that we allocated for another project and come up with them that's not what I asked I'm not say you sat before us let's lower the r but everybody said Kevin Kevin but when we

were at the subte just talk please at the subcommittee I asked the question can you please tell me where are we going to get the 3.5 million for the pay center that's the question that was asked and I wasn't told we're going to take back the vote that we just took last month I wasn't told that at all I was expecting that for whatever reason the plan had to be amongst the superintendent her

leadership team the task force and everybody else in finance that was looking at it that we knew that we needed to come up with $3.5 million to fund the pay center if we were planning appropriately instead of that we said last month we're going to take the 2.5 million that we got from the health care from the city that they owed us and spend it the same people that should

have been in that room for the last 90 days figuring this out said last month we're going to spend this money on these other projects and I think it's disingenuous to come here today and then to look at this list and not have a memo like look where's the memos where is the most recent memo now that says after the subcommittee the one I have here it says May

6th that's the one last one I have so it articulates we have this we we're going to do that we're going to do this how much this is how much that is after the subcommittee I don't see anything so you did all this work the day before the subcommittee and then we slide in the last page of potential options for Pace Building prek buildout three options and don't tell us one time that 1.5 million

is going to get clawed back I personally don't I don't agree with it I don't like it and I think there's got to be a better way if there isn't a better way then what a failure of the last 60 days or 90 days of this process because if if that's what happened that we spent 2 and a half million we didn't need to spend and knowing that we were going to claw

back those projects it just doesn't look good it to me it doesn't look good so I'm not sure I'm going to vote for any this stuff to be quite honest with you would that I yield if I could go ahead um in the last 90 days we've done nothing but this in fact probably in the last 6 to eight months it's been 251 prek every day every day and besides all of that

there is a district that needs a whole bunch of other things so I think think it's extremely disingenuous to say that we can't go and look under every Rock and try and find the amount of money to do this this is not an easy lift and we're always asked to do it in such a short amount of time not by anybody's fault but the system so we're asked to come up with

this money we're asked to spend the money right at the end the end of the school year knowing full well that the year is going to end on the 30th and now we need to spend $3.5 million just like that the procurement alone makes that extremely difficult but we're going to give it the Yen's effort and we're going to try and do that now coming up with some extra money for

this we start whittling away at what we can and can't do I'm going to use the elevators for an instance for the for the first example the planning of the elevator at both sites is an extremely long issue we had approached msba not to blame them but we had approached msba to use the Consultants that were already on hand so we could save 45 days of just getting a consultant on board for RPA 45 days just

asked them if we could add it on a whole bunch of legal reasons why we couldn't do that they gave to us very polite very forthcoming and said we can't do that so basically that project has to sit because it doesn't matter I'm not going to get a procured or encumbered by June 30th so that's a Dead Issue the exact same situation is at Morton uh at talin not his fault and not the superintendent's

fault I was the one that helped put that list together so if the blame is going to be played you play it on me because I'm the person who tried to get all the these projects in and spend that kind of money as far as the playgrounds the playgrounds we could prepay and get those in they won't be installed until probably Thanksgiving by the time they come in but we could have done the

playgrounds the playgrounds still a viable option and there's items like that all over that piece but to come up with onetime money to spend in 90 days is very very difficult now come to three these three options here and the westall piece the uh 2501 piece the rentals the I didn't know we were in the money-making business I didn't know everything had to make money but and please bear with me

it's been a long day and a tough one and I don't want to go into details why but all I'm saying is please understand that everyone's working tirelessly on this and I hear the the thought and Mr agar if I was sitting in one of those seats may be coming out of my mouth what I'm saying is from this side it's not a snap of a finger it's not just looking for the $3 million4 million

10 million it's actually trying to spend it and in public procurement it is extremely difficult to do that so where we are right now is where we are and going backwards and rehashing everything else really doesn't matter at this point because I've to try and get one of these projects off the ground because more prek kids are going to be coming according to the expert they just keep coming I need room for them and 300

Northeastern Avenue at the time was our only option because the committee threw out a couple of options that we brought because that was a cheaper option because we didn't want to go to any other rentals so we were stuck we did what we needed to do and fortunately for the church they had the open space and we took it and we're going to and we need to keep it for one more year

because of the uncertainty I can't eliminate something when I don't know I have it I still don't know if I have Bishop Conley because we haven't brought that up yet but I have to have someplace to put these kids and I'm trying to fabricate as much as I possibly can with this but but um something's got to give and I and I look nobody should ever vote on anything they

don't want to vote on but we need some votes tonight or you can forget it in June because none of these options can be on the table in June it'll be too late so I think we're not in the business to com to your comment about we're not in the business of making money I share as hell hope we're not in the business of losing $600,000 and not telling the school

committee I would hope that that's not the case because I have sat here and paid attention no one can sit out there on this Administration or anywhere and say to the school committee when we chose to say nor East Avenue is the only option not for one year the second year or whatever that we're losing $600,000 by doing that yeah we had Grant funds and all that stuff nobody told us that if we

go to this site it's one in adequate as far as the numbers because of the reimbursements and all that and no one definitely told us CU this today is the first time in years that I've heard that we lose than $600,000 on that particular site so my problem is is just a planning I guess is the is the point that this has been going on for a long time and when we look at the

projects I didn't ask you to bring those projects forward I place the blame not on you Mr Pico whoever said let's just throw together a list like it's a Christmas list rather than what it really needs to be realistically you knew when you put that list together for us that $650,000 for the RPA elevator is probably not going to happen the way I I couldn't say that because if msba was involved it would have happened

so I I didn't know that at the time and I couldn't ask that at the time because when we did get the approval I started the process and as far as the talbat one that's a totally different situation and it wasn't haphazardly put together but it was items that we thought we could fund in the short amount of time and as far as saying prepaying for materials I'm sorry gentlemen I'm sorry

point of order I'm sorry I I don't know why we're talking about t but right now I appreciate you can and I appreciate you Kevin all the questions but right now we're supposed to be talking about Early Childhood not projects that may fund a uh a building that's not even on the agenda tonight with all du respect if we could just kind of stick to what we're doing here which is talking about

approving stone school getting Bishop Conley all set figuring out westall and let's worry about that stuff another day when it's on the agenda Mr possible I have the floor so relative to the actual document that you gave under this item discussion number five that's how this is relevant this is what I've been talking about the 1.5 million that 1.5 million is not articulated in here

like what Mr Pico just said it might have made more sense if there was a backup document with this that said this 1.5 million here's what's happened since and then you would go in to say what Mr Pico said this doesn't explain it but this is part of this discussion so all I'm suggesting is that it if what you're saying is 100% true Mr pachico all I was saying is didn't tell

us it don't make it look like as if we don't have the detail if you said we're still going to have the playgrounds but we can't do that because of whatever it's just a fact that it came out now and it it it bothers me to go back to the spending the money out of every member on this committee I've been the one that was saying all of this last

year to the mayor and to anybody that would listen that we know we owe us 2.5 million why are we not getting it ahead of time so we can spend it go back to the record and look at it we just need to do a better job of of saying what it really is and I think sometimes I don't know if you guys don't talk in your leadership meetings but pick like pick

some holes at some of the like we would want everybody to do and say what does that mean can we identify that better we wouldn't have had the the nonsensical Surplus word at the subcommittee meeting this is what we need to do is just get more info and I'd probably be supporting it if you said hey we just can't do it but I also think I don't like the idea

of not having a West doall uh full we have other issues so if we vote for this today we're going to now say month from now when we have more kids that need to go to West Hall we're going to have a full school like why why is this this is just a discussion Mr Agia item 12.5 no vote so when when is it that you're going to know solid numbers on roof bids all the

things I just suggest told you that no I'm saying when is it that you Mr Pacho would say as as soon as those bids open we're going to know within 15 days whether it's a thumbs up or thumbs down on this discussion y it's contingent on the discussion about the prek that we had at the subcommittee and here we're not even near that when is the bid opening Mr AIA can we stay on

the agenda early update on Early Childhood you made your point does anybody else have anything else they want to add no I still have the floor please I know but ask Mr simple question I think it's when the next couple of days I I sounds simple right I wish I wish my memory was better than it is but I think it's the 21st or the 22nd which is tomorrow or Wednesday that's my guess

right now well Mr was at the subcommittee meeting right all I did was ask for some further clarification for the full committee that's all this the same thing I'm asking for now we didn't get as much as I think we should have had and with that I yield thank you anything further on that issue 12.6 R oh I'm sorry M Rog I didn't see you go ahead um so just on this 12.5 so

these are your recommendations we're not voting on any of those recommendations today the only thing we're looking at is Stone and the rental agreement for Conley but we are voting on West doll right right so my I agree we need to open up West doll to alleviate the pressure at fonsica right there's no question about that but one of the things that I'm worried about is that in the recommendations in your

Five-Year Plan we have we're going to redistrict the schools right and that's necessary so what I'm working about those we're going to move those kids for next year and then are we going to be moving them again in the next few years because if we redistrict and we're looking at moving kids in in different schools we're going to be looking at moving those kids again no we wouldn't because what Mr Michael EAC did is he

drew a boundary within the fonsa boundary if you recall one of the meetings because that boundary is so large and identified students over 300 students that are actually Within walking distance of that school that actually belong would attend that school so what is it fair to say that if we're going to be looking at redistricting and we're going to be looking at balancing and and redrawing all those boundaries

that the one that remains untouched would be West the new westall right okay because I would have a lot of concern about moving those kids in there now and then in a couple of years we kind of you know we've got all this information we've redrawn it and now oops we're going to move those kids out again because that's way too many transitions for kids I agree okay with that I yeld

thank you anything further okay let's go to 126 which is discussion and vote to approve the moving of the stone therapeutic Day School to 251 South Main Street as referred by the special education alternative and early childhood presented by Maria Pon motion to approve we do before we do I just want to make sure that we did have a discussion with parents yes about everything the same actually that was um

principal Shaw I give her she we spoke to all parents and they were all very um agreeable to the move they're very excited is that a second Bob I got a motion a second any discussion M Rogers just um I saw that we spoke with 88% of the families or am I was I misreading that I saw something like 100% of parents of the 88% surveyed right so I'm just wondering what happened to that other 12%

of families I get it sometimes people just don't respond but exactly okay okay thank you anything further I have a motion to Second de call the roll on on the move of stone Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory Mr larav M Pereira yes M rodri yes mayor KGAN yes 127 is a discussion question and vote to approve the rental agreement for Bishop Conley for 2425 as referred by the special ed alternative Edge and

early childhood presented by Ken Pico Chief Operating Officer any discussion on Conley I just have one comment M Pera I am going to vote Yes on this but I just want to make it clear to everybody that I I don't agree with this I feel like my back's against a wall and that's why I had to do it we're talking about where we're going to find 3.2 million that's not a conversation for today we're not

going to solve it but when we initially talked about expanding prek that wasn't part of the conversation and because I think this became a very emotional decision for some which is totally understandable but what we're doing right now is fiscally irresponsible and I'll tell you what I'm not going to do is take a playground away from any kid in the fonsa neighborhood with that I yield anything further Mr agar I just

want to say I agree wholeheartedly with Miss Pereira she articulated this the subcommittee and she's spot on right now we are not making a smart decision we are forced to make this decision because I don't believe that we had the proper leadership along the way to make sure that we did what we had to do we are forced to make this decision so I'm going to vote Yes reluctantly as well

that's classy I no I yielded I didn't say we didn't have proper leadership but I I don't like the way this was handled but that's fine okay let's vote Deb I I still I had a question M Rogers just in the the slides it says that we were paying 7,000 a month for Conley plus an additional I think it was 500 each or I could be making up that number

right now for use of the cafeteria and the gym but in the agreement it says 11,000 so the the contract um as it's WR written currently um is all in so we were paying utilities okay each month so when you roll in the utilities um it it the 11,000 month which is why they did it that way okay thank you anything further just one comment Mr Agia just to just to articulate the point not Madam

superintendent what would be helpful is to have the information which M Mr Pico is 100% right he said that at the subcommittee and that was Clarity what I think should happen when we come to these meetings is the memo that comes out to everybody should just answer that question ahead of time because he's 100% right it made sense what he said then what he said now it's just that we don't

get the backup that kind of says here's the update from that a clarifying was it's all included that's all thank you are you appreciate it um Deb want to call the RO please I need a motion oh I need a motion second a motion to approve second I have a motion second go ahead T Mr agan yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larvey m Pereira yes M Rodricks yes Mary

kouan yes 128 is a discussion and vote to approve the West all 20 as an elementary school as referred by the special ed alternative Edge and early childhood subcommittees and presented by Ken Pico Chief Operating Officer any discussion on the westall I have a just so they was talking about filling the school so what what's going in there yeah what's going to go in there u m Mrs there are there are three op well two

options actually uh one to make it a k to three and one to make it a k to 2 the the reason why we um and included the K to 3 is because we do have a second grade bubble in in the district and at fonsica and to open it open it up as a k to three and then have those third graders roll over into fourth grade and then fifth grade would make sense um

that would be our preference okay so my preference would be to get as many kids in that school as possible cuz the concept right now I just sat here and listened to all of these Educators who deserve to get paid more and we're s sitting here spending money so ridiculously it breaks my heart so that school I think we need to have students in it because an empty school there makes no sense to me and if

it costs a little more I I I honestly don't care we can't have an empty school there all right I mean I'm ready motion to approve unless somebody has something anything for Mr AG so can somebody articulate what we're voting on so when we voted at the subcommittee we voted to call it Elementary School yeah and so that was in my opinion if it was a 2un school it

was K to 5 2un school that's what an elementary school is so where is it other than this whatever this is from the prior vote because it's not I don't see the backup here for for this particular part but please tell me what is different and where is where is the information that's different for what we're voting on you you got the three options as how we would open well two options how we

would open uh West all certainly this body has the power to say we're going to open it as an elementary K to 5 what we're saying is if we're going to as we have talked to divert some of those to save some of the um uh Staffing um uh monies and um so that we could support um the p uh Pace then we would open it as a k to three but certainly if this

committee is saying no we're going to go full in K to 5 then we go full in K to 5 can you just tell me I'm I'm curious what the Baseline is that's I guess what's missing so at the subcommittee when we voted to say we were going to open West if money wasn't an issue for the pay center or anything else y was that meaning that we were going to have

10 classrooms right it would be a k five well would be that's open out a full Elementary School like 12 classrooms I said 10 but I was just adding in my head so at the subcommittee we voted for 12 classrooms under the recommendations that we have here are we just like trying to cut it in half and and just not fill the other spaces or like what is it that we're actually trying to do

well at the subcommittee we were also asked to identify funding sources and what we were doing was saying if we only filled it with k to2 or k to3 we would be there would be some cost savings and then the kids it would roll over the following year but we would be able to use some of those funds to um to to work on Pace that was think based on

everything that I talked about I want to make a motion that we open it as a full K to K to five school like the subcommittee referred 12 classrooms second well that's option three right no it doesn't matter what option it is that's not even Elementary oh it's just we're now we're just refering back to it but I agree with Miss Pereira this is ridiculous in some other ways we're going about this but 12 classrooms

that's what the sub committee voted for we vote for 12 classrooms we keep hearing that we got all these problems with space so we're going to leave six classrooms open let's let's figure out a way to find the money in the budget and if we go line by line I'll help you find that money in the budget all right all right hold on let's get to one thing at

a time Miss Rogers um so two things one um number one I agree that we open it as a k to five because we can't say in one breath we don't have space and then I think that discussion about you know open at K2 open at K3 is a much larger discussion that we cannot have right here right so that's a separate funding question um it is fonsica tany and I

think Watson or 501 that was on the list of playgrounds and I'm not willing to take any of those playgrounds away either um but the other thing is when we're opening West doll we originally had that conversation about moving tany kids into there and I am bringing this up because those families are very anxious and I think that they but what I'm saying is the families need to hear that they are not closing

for the following school year the families have not heard that right now CU that's not one of that was not one of the recommendations because the families have not heard that formally and there's still a lot of anxiety about it so I'm bringing it up because I hear it every single day because it's been tabled we haven't had a discussion I'm not asking for a discussion but I am asking that we at

least tell those families for the 2425 school year that their kids aren't going anywhere Mr AG's gon Mr Agia so I also agree with my colleague to my right so the problem is that since that was tabled in March just because the committee tabled something doesn't alleviate people from wondering can it ever be taken off the table when is it going to actually end it was a sort of half-baked effort to figure out all the

parents are here everybody's upset let's just table it so that we can we don't address it tonight that didn't mean let these people sit for 4 months and wait and say well is this going to happen at any given time and what ends up happening is now we're here it's May 20th I'm not voting for that right now and I might have voted for it a month and a half ago but right now I believe

we take this vote when this vote ends I'm going to make a motion that we take it off the table when we take it off the table we vote to say to you City council's terms leave to withdraw whatever the hell you want to call it because we need to give them clarity now keep on saying oh it was tabled it was tabled is not leadership so when this is

ending in new business I'm going to make that recommendation to take it off the table and we kill it so everyone knows and they don't have to worry about this for the next 60 days are you I just want to be clear the day that we had the parent form at tany I wrote an email to school committee and asked if they would they need to be thinking about doing exactly that for special meeting or

whatever so that parents could have an answer so they can move forward so to say it's not leadership I did reach out and so did Mrs roders to this body to entertain a special meeting so that we could let those folks know whether they're going to be tany or not in September and I can tell you that I never received a response um but that that question was asked by both of us

yes right then who makes that recommendation how many times did he recommend to the mayor that you wanted a special meeting to to put this to bed I sent it to all of you no no to the mayor because the May is the one that sets the agendas for the meetings did you say that over and over and say we have to close this no I yield anything further on West doall no

so Mr agar offered an amendment did it go K5 K5 12 class all right so we're going to just add that in to the discussion and vote to approve westall as a K5 Elementary School referred is that okay that's exactly as ref we have to do we have to vote on the amendment first then the whole thing no well it's not an amendment exactly that let's do the amendment first K5 I don't believe we

need an amendment it doesn't need it you don't need it because at the subcommittee we we were voting on okay so let's go K5 on 128 is a K5 Deb do you have motion a second I do Deb call the rooll M yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larv m perea yes M rodri yes mayor cougan yes 12 new business out order no 129 discussion and vote to approve can take new business out of

order please sure I'm sorry can I please take new business out of order sure anybody oppos listen I got 129 we're done with that then we'll do you out of order we got one left cuz 10's done sure discussion and vote to approve prepaid tuitions as presented by Kevin almea Chief Financial Officer Mo to approve I have a motion second I have a motion second Mr AGA my only question is is are we

totally maxed out I'm sorry are we totally maxed out on the ability how much money we can prepay at that $2.3 million figure for what I know as of today so the number may change if something else comes up from this bed department or whatever but I'm what I'm requesting here through this vote is the ab ability to prepay the $2.3 million uh plus if anything else comes up between now and the end of the year

and how do is that a separate vote later no so in my in my recommendation here I said I'm recommending the approval of the expenditure of $2.3 million prepaid special ed uh for fy2 um and what I write in the memo is I'm requesting the ability to prepay any additional tuition amounts up to 3 months of anticipated expenditures assuming balance remains within the school appropriation for fy2

and then it'll come back to us cuz you're going to probably have a surplus over the correct that amount so I think it it makes sense we just I I'm just going to use this opportunity again to please uh I implore the superintendent yourself the other members to have meetings with the legislators the legislators so that you can actually create the accounts that I've been talking about for years to so

that we don't have to do this exercise of trying to spend money and prepay and all this other stuff there's mechanisms that we can do in state government to actually make this work it's actually smart saving money put in a rainy day fund to use for the following years so I just once again recommend have that legislative meeting please with that I yield thank you sir okay M rers can we

actually pull two of those tuitions out of there there's the judge rotenberg Center and there's the Southeastern Massachusetts educational collaborative sure just vote if you can vote those separ yeah that's fine and each one separately huh okay she's abstaining from those two um no I'm abstaining from one pulling them but we're pulling both both separately so motion to approve all

except his recommendation except for the two M rods just mentioned I have a motion I have a motion to Second de call the RO can I do a roll call there sure go ahead Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larvey m Herrera yes M rodri yes Mary Coogan yes motion to approve smck I have a motion to approve smack have a second I have a second Bobby I

have a motion second on smck uh Deb call the role Please Mr AGA yes Mr biley yes Mr Cory Miss Lar Miss Pera yes Miss rod obain May yes can I get a motion a second on the judge Mr chairman Mr Agia i' like to make a motion that we approve $ 57,8 19520 from an account other than JC what what he has listed here judge Rottenberg Center my motion is to use that

equivalent amount of money but count it towards any of the other ones he could just increase it because it's the overall percentage correct what if we don't want to vote on the Rottenberg cuz you might go down on that vote why we not vot did Judge Rottenberg sent yeah so I guess my question is what happens if the kids already placed there and I have to pay for we're not

prepaying that you pay for it out of that's a separate vote next year I'm talking about for the prepaid piece okay you have it listed here as 57 but we can take 57 and divide it up on these other lines to be the bottom line is what's limiting you correct that's fine yes so if we just say it's going to make be a wash and then next year when we vote to

pay for tuitions that vote will be the same as does that make sense that's fine so add add 57 895 to the bottom line is what Mr Agia is saying did you make a motion yes any account other than jri I or whatever it's called J I have a motion and a second I just need to clarify that so we're making a motion to take that money not prepay jrc and put

BT L and we'll pray somewhere else okay I have a motion in a second Deb call the rooll please I'm sorry Sor I the motion who second second Bobby Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory M lar M Pera yes M rodri yes mayor Coogan yes okay uh now Mr agar's motion was to take item business item new new business 14 out of order can I get a motion and second on that motion made second Deb

call a roll please is drag yeah yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory Miss larav Miss Pereira yes yes M Rodricks yes cougan yes Mr agar make a motion that we lift from the table the superintendent's recommend original recommendation to close the tany school off the table do I have a second second any discussion Deb call the rooll Please Mr ago yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory Miss larav Miss Pereira yes Miss Rodricks yes mayor C

yes on the motion I make a motion to deny the superintendent's recommendation to close the tany school for this current fiscal year do I have a second actually I should take that back just close it period do I have a second what was that a second I'm basically saying that take a recommendation and get rid of it we take the recommendation superintend to close theol they do it again huh second second all any

discussion de call the rooll M drag yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory M lar M Perera yes M Roger yes mayor K yes uh for your information we have a number of retirements resignations appointments and uh regretfully people have passed away can I get a motion a second to accept all motion to accept second uh sorry Mr AGA just a point of clarification the um if somebody's hired as a teacher it says step two is that

because we eliminated step one and gave everybody a bump what's the no they might have they might have taught somewhere else for a year and then are coming to us so if someone's on here right now they've never taught for a year anywhere and they're on step two is that no they're step one if they're a brand new teacher they start on step one so a person that gets license to

teach right now what is it person that just got licensed to teach they just finished their student teaching start step one stay start on step one all I would recommend you do and you know why I asked these questions because I actually pay attention and I actually know some of the stuff that I'm talking about so please review it and come back to the committee with the the facts on

it thank you all right I have a motion in a second to accept all those um yep Dev call the role Please Mr agam yes Mr Bailey yes Cory Miss lar Perera yes M rodri yes mayor cougan yes um we have a request for executive session uh Mr Assad would you like to read it please sure uh the reasons for executive session M General lawyer chapter 38 section 2187 to review and approve executive session minutes for

April 8th 2024 regular school committee meeting M lawy chap 38 section 21A one to review the open meeting law complaint dated May 9th 2021 24 filed by Patrick Hagin regarding the April 25 2024 records request made by him Mr uh Higgins alleges the school committee was a violation of M laws chapter 38 section 20g uh Mass general laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with

respect to litigation including work as compensation case regarding Missy Lima Department of industrial accidents Board number 0309 5-19 as the chair is determined that open session may have a detrimental impact on the litigation position of the committee Mass lawy chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to Collective B agreement including hearing grievances relative to All Professional

teaching employees forward School System including coaches Title One teachers nurses occupational physical therapists and specialists in the teaching profession represented by the Flor of educators associ ation as the chair determine that no concession may have a detrimental impact on a bargaining position of the committee National Law chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the

bargaining relative to all administrators and employees represented by the for administrators Association as the chair is ATT term the no possession may have a detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee M Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with the respect to collect the bargaining relative to all cafeteria employees the for school system represented by the American Federal

cation of State County Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as chairs detered that open session may have detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee M laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the bargaining relative to all maintenance employees the former school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees

Council 93 local 1118 as the chair is ATT tune that open session may have a detrimental impact on the bogging position of the committee M law 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to Collective Bing relative to all custodial employees of the for school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as a chair has determined that no

possession may have a detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee M Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 discuss strategy with the respect to colletive bargaining reled to all Safety and Security employees of the forward school system represented by the American Federation of State Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as the chair has determined that open possession may have a detrimental impact

on the bargaining position of the committee M Law chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the bargaining relative to all Civil Service employees of for school system represented by the for pro Civil Service clerical employees Association as the chair is determined an open session may have detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee

National laws chapter 38 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the body relative to all par professional employees of the forward school system represented by the forward Federation of par professionals the chairs determined an open session may have a detrimental impact on a barging position of the committee ma laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with the respect

to collect the Bing relative to all government employees including with li limitation parent professionals parent workers and Clerks of the for school system that are paid for federal or state grants and represented by the for R School rules government programs as the chair's determin of possession may have a detrimental impact on the bogging position of the committee matal laws chapter 38 section 21 A2 to conduct

strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and or to conduct contract negotiations with non-union Personnel including Scott Cabra Chief Information officer chairs ATT op may detrial effect on B position committee we will reconvene their sh they may or may not be statement at that time uh I need a motion in a second so moved second uh Deb would you please

call the rooll Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory M lvy M perrera M Rodricks yes mayor kouan yes recess to Executive session we're out of executive session back in session ad Deb please call the rooll Mr ago here Mr Bailey here Mr Cory Miss ly Miss Perera yeah M rodri here mayor Coogan here uh anything further to come before the committee Mr chairman Mr make a motion to approve the executive

session minutes for April 8th 2024 motion approve second motion second Deb call the rooll Please Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larav m Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor kougan yes Mr ragia like to make a motion to allow attorney Assad to respond to the open meeting law complaint dated May 8th 202 for filed by Patrick Higgins but I SEC do I have a second second I have a motion to Second any

discussion Deb call the role Please Mr aam yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larv m Pereira yes M Rodricks yes mayor Coogan yes Mr Agia like to make a motion that we approve the contract with Scott cabal for three years do I have I I have a motion and second any discussion Deb please call the RO Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory m larv m Perera yes M rodri yes mayor kouan anything

further motion to aurn motion to second I have a motion to Second Deb please call the V Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Cory lar Pera yes M rodri yes mayor cougan yes aour