5.6.2026 Fall River School Committee

I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the May 6th Favre School Committee. Deb, could you please call the roll? Mr. Agnan? Here. Mr.

Dias? Here. Mr. Corey? Mr. Monas? Here. Ms. Riley? Here. Ms. Stewart?

Here. Mayor Kugin? Here. Salute to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through

any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. We're going to start tonight with our student comment, our student delegate report. Mr. Jack Rio wrapping up the year at Durfee. Go get him, Jack.

All righty. Here we are. Okay. So, first off, I'd like to talk about this week, which is Teacher Appreciation Week. And we'd just like to say a quick big thank you to all staff here at Durfee, all teachers, all staff, all that.

Just thank you. Now, Student Government Day, I'd like to talk about that personally because last month I had the opportunity to see government in action during Student Government Day at the Massachusetts State House. And it was very interesting.

It was interesting, it was fun, and I'd say more, but it'd take a while longer to go through all that. Now, just before April vacation, five Durfee High School juniors and school leaders took learning beyond the classroom and to Beacon Hill as they participated in AP Day on the Hill at the Massachusetts State House. The group had the opportunity to connect with policymakers, discussing

key ideas and learning more about the legislative process in action.

Junior Book Awards, congratulations to the 24 members of the class of 2027 at BMC Derfee High School who were honored with this year's Junior Book Awards. A long-standing Durfee tradition, the Junior Book Awards recognize students for their outstanding academic achievement and commitment to their school and community. Sponsored by colleges and universities, local alumni chapters, admission offices,

and community members, each award celebrates the character, leadership, and dedication that define the Hilltopper spirit. Durfee's Got Talent. On April 17th, Durfee hosted Durfee's Got Talent.

Students showed off just what kind of skills they have. And I watched it, and I can say there was a lot of talent. There was a lot of good shows of talent there. The STEM Abroad trip, all right, last month, the Durfee STEM Abroad Club went on their trip to the Galapagos Islands. I don't know how it went, but I'm assuming it was a great time. It looked like

a great time. I've seen a few pictures. It looks like they had a good time. I know one of the teachers she was actually talking about. Now, just a few upcoming events here. There's a planetarium show next Friday night, I believe, this Friday night. I think it's this one. The next Durfee Planetarium show is quickly approaching. These engaging programs bring science,

exploration, and wonder to our students and community. So Friday, May 8th, the show that will play is Habitat Earth, Living in a Connected World. The shows will play at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m.

And the ticket prices for adults are $6, and students and children are $4. Now, Spring Fest, all right? May 13th and May 14th celebrate the incredible talent of our students at a series of exciting, fine, and performing arts events at Durfee High School. This is on Wednesday. I already said that. Yeah, May 13th and 14th. So there's a fashion show at 4 p.m. in the Durfee Atrium at the

main entrance. There's a chorus and jazz band concert at 6 p.m. to Durfee Atrium at the north entrance. And then on the Thursday, Battle of the Bands, 4 p.m., Durfee Atrium, main entrance. Concert, band, and orchestra, 6 p.m., the Durfee Atrium north entrance. All events are free and open to the public. Come out and support our talented student artists, musicians, and performers. You won't want to miss

it. Now finally, this is just from me. All right, I'm a senior, I'll be graduating next month, and this is my last meeting here.

So I'd just like to thank all of you for just allowing me to be here and for listening to all the wonderful things that go on at Durfee, every little thing I've had to say about it. Just thank you, thank you for letting me be here. And that is all I have. Thank you very much, Jack.

I'm just going to ask the committee's intelligence. One part of the superintendent's report was the graduation update. She'd like to give that now. We have someone that has some scheduling issues, and we wanted to let them get on their way. I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. Thank you, Mayor. So I just would like to take that out of order, just the part on the graduation. I also want to say to

Jack, I spoke to Jack and just met him briefly. It's so important our student speakers to hear the student voice as we have our school committee meetings. So I have asked him to return on, I think, June 3rd is our next meeting to be officially recognized and thanked for his work here. So thank you, Jack, and good luck. Look forward to seeing you at graduation. So graduation is on June 5th this

year, and I have asked Principal Jessica Stevens to come up and to talk to us a little bit about the importance of that date. And following her, I will ask Dr. Stacey Monet to come up and talk about the graduation. I think it's RPA. Do I have that correct, ma'am? Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

So graduation this year is on Friday, June 5th. It will start at 7 o'clock.

It's slated to be on the Mack Aldrich Field. The rain dates are Saturday, June 6th, and Sunday, June 7th. Obviously, we'll make a decision depending upon weather as it gets closer. But hopefully, all will go smoothly, and it will happen on Friday as we would like it to. I did send an invite, but I would love to cordially invite everybody in person to be present on that evening. Everybody knows it is

a really wonderful event and it's such a celebratory moment, if you will, for not only the graduates, but really for our entire community. And so I welcome everybody to join us on that evening. I'm hopeful that our committee will want to walk in the procession with us and will want to be seated on stage alongside us.

So Jessica, again, just to, everybody has received the invitation, so you're waiting for RSVPs to make sure we can accommodate. As she said, we'd like to march in behind the superintendent and lead our graduates in, and certainly they look forward to you handing them their conferred diplomas. So thank you, I'm looking forward to the event, and I invite everybody to join us as we lead our over 600 graduates, is that

correct? Yeah, about 600. 70ish we're approximating.

Thank you. I know you have a meeting to get to, Jessica, so I appreciate your coming this evening. Thank you so much.

Hello. Nice to have you here, Dr. Smith. I look forward to meeting you. So I'm Dr. Morinette, and this is my first graduation that I will be part of organizing at RPA, and we have been quickly going into gear about planning, and there was a little bit of conflicting dates when we were trying to plan it, we have moved it to July 11th and actually in hindsight we

feel like that is the best date for us as we do need that extra time for some of our graduating seniors to make sure that they have all of their courses completed, especially those in our virtual pathway. So it will be here on, it was June 11th, sorry, on June 11th at 530 here at Durfee High School and We have, we're expecting hopefully about 25 seniors to graduate at this time.

So again, just to clarify, it's June 11th. June 11th, yes. We're not pushing that to July. We also look forward to supporting 25 additional graduates. Awesome, and we look forward, you will be getting our invite shortly. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I ask a quick question? Mr. Dias. The students of Stone School Are they going to be taking part with Durfee or are they going to Durfee? Thank you, Aiel.

Go ahead, Dr. Spencey's all set. Okay, thank you very much. If you have any other questions, I'm sorry, Principal Stevens, I guess you're also going to report on the SkillsUSA. I should have kept you up here. I apologize.

Any point of information? Are we taking all these superintendents report out of order? No, just one, just the one. Two. It ends up being two, so Jessica. It's all graduation and then she had one update she wanted to hit us with.

So this year, Durfee Advisors brought 36 students to the state conference. Five of those students served as voting delegates, 31 served in student competitions.

Durfee did earn a gold medal, or the gold medal if you will, in cosmetology, and so will represent Massachusetts in the national competition in Atlanta. So Durfee students competed in Career Pathway Showcase, Action Skills Individual, Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Promotional Bulletin Board Team, Masonry was an individual, community service team, criminal justice, cosmetology, nail care,

natural hair braiding, aesthetics, and chapter display. I don't know if you want me to speak specifically to how they did at districts. We did have a lot of students placed at districts. Well, congratulations. Thank you very much. Thanks, Jess. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Next up is citizens' input. tonight as we've been doing lately. It's going to be a half an

hour max. We won't hit that because everybody's got three minutes. And first up is Pam Nickerson, Harvard Street. Three minutes, Pam, please. Hi, good evening and welcome to Fall River, Dr. Smith. I ask you, I ask administrators and elected officials to prioritize, please, the return of affordable public swim lessons at our Karen Jarabek Memorial Pool. On and off since 1983, I have worked as a

lifeguard and water safety instructor in four different states and at countless beaches and pools. And after all that experience, I find our Durfy pool right here superior.

It's six lanes with a springboard and dive blocks. May is National Water Safety Awareness Month, but our pool remains closed to public lessons and open swim six months and counting. The CDC calls drowning a silent killer can happen in under 60 seconds, and it's the leading cause of death for children ages one to four. However, with consistent practice, even toddlers can learn basic skills such as body rotation,

back and front float, breath control, and awareness to reach safety. Families from Westport, Swansea, Dartmouth, and Tiverton also benefited from lessons here. And based on what was told to me, I informed the families that the plan was to potentially reopen after February break and then April break. And now I have no answer. It's really an uncomfortable conversation to have with parents because they care

and I care. And children, regardless of zip code, deserve water safety instruction.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Pool at Lafayette Park is open only during the summer, and I remember the horrific drowning there in 2011. It resulted in nationwide policy changes. That pool was redesigned to now just five feet deep. Other municipalities opted to fill in their pools and install splash pads, but avoidance is not a proactive response. Our Durfee pool is state of the

art. It's bright. It's clean. It's 12 feet deep. And being able to instruct at that depth is rare and so beneficial. I watch children's confidence soar when they realize the bottom is far below, and they are propelling themselves independently and jumping in way over their head. And we lifeguards must be deep water certified, which requires consistent practice. The American Red Cross anticipates a life

guard shortage again this summer, but that has not been the case at Durfee. There is a natural progression here of young people training. Our pool is well maintained and we have staff. I'm told the hindrance is I live close by. 15 seconds Pam.

So when I drive on Ellsbury Street at night, I see the pool in darkness as it's been since December. The pool redesign cost $8 million. It was included in the new Durfee construction. Taxpayers, that includes me. I feel that we're not getting what we're paying for. Please let's reopen the pool. I'm open to suggestions. Thank you. Thank you Pam. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Aguio. I wanted to, it's not a question for you,

it's just a comment. So one month ago we heard the same type of situation.

I asked on behalf of the committee at that time for us to get to the bottom of it. Because I do not like to come here and hear information that we don't know anything about. And if it is stopped, who stopped it and why? We've had situations where we're just getting blindsided and I for one am tired of it. So somebody needs to tell us what is going on and why.

We have a facilities meeting on Monday. If I have to put it on the agenda, we will. But it's disheartening to hear a month go by, we still don't know whether it's, is it broken? Is it not broken? Why is it not being used? And we just need to get the answers so that the public, and they can know one way or another. We hear that they were going to go out

to a private vendor. First we heard of it was because somebody came in here.

So the school committee and me as one member, totally in the dark about What it is, how it is, and why things change in the middle of the cycle.

It's not fair and it's not right. I yield. Thank you. Next up, Keith Michonne, Tryon Avenue, East Providence. Three minutes please, Keith. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Keith Michonne, President of the Forover Educators Association. First, I want to welcome our new superintendent, Dr. Smith, in our first week. I've had the opportunity to speak with her briefly and to work with Deputy Superintendent Legault over the past few weeks, and I'm excited about building with both of them. Everyone knows I've been candid

about the transition over the past few months, but tonight I want to acknowledge that this is a moment that we have the opportunity to reset how we work together as a district. I also want to be clear about the conditions our educators and students are experiencing. There have been many successes. but there are also staff challenges,

staffing challenges, workload, and increasing student needs that continue to stretch our schools.

These aren't abstract issues. They are impacting teaching and learning every day. Our members are committed to this district and to our students. We're looking for a relationship with the district leadership that is transparent, responsive, and grounded in respect for educators' expertise. Speaking of respect, Today marks National Nurse Day

during both Nurse Appreciation Week and Teacher Appreciation Week. Our nurses, educators, and school staff show up for students every single day. Recognition matters, but so do the conditions they work in, as our working conditions are our students' learning conditions. We're ready to work collaboratively to address these challenges, and we're also ready to be advocates

for strongly for what our students and educators need. Thank you. Thank you, Keith.

Next up, Joey Ford, Smith Street, Attleboro. Three minutes, please, Joe.

to say, and told you that I would be opening an investigation. Since then, I've been contacted by a ton of different families, staff members, community members, all different types of people, and they've tipped me off to a whole bunch of different cases.

So I've opened up four different cases so far. I've issued public records requests, many of these I've received records requests already, and one of these cases is now finished.

So this is my report into hiring irregularities at Sylvia Elementary. So in my report there are There's evidence and demonstration, including the source files, of claims of licensure on the job application are unsupported. Families told that they could get input even though they were not allowed to get input, and this is in regards to a hiring back in 2022. The job posting was only open for two days instead of

the required 10 by the teachers union, the FRAA contract. So I don't understand why anybody would pay any union dues if they're not being protected by their union.

This is a failure of the administration, the union, and everybody else. The dates are all over the place on this job application. It's even applied for before the job listing even existed. There's no interview records for anybody else who was hired. This person was also hired on an emergency license, but there are no documentation proving any type

of good faith efforts into hiring a qualified licensed member in the first place. So if you want to look at this, there's 21 questions that I would really like to get answered. I think the community deserves to have answers to. And my investigation will continue. I still have open public records requests even into this case as well.

So please reach out to me if you have any questions. Joey at parentdataforce.com. And thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up, we have two letters.

OK. I'm sorry. I thought there was a letter. Next up is Taylor Perry, Aberdeen Street. Three minutes please, Taylor, thank you. Okay, I am here today to advocate for parents and most importantly for the children impacted by the current redistricting process.

School is just not a building. For many children, it is their second home. It is where children learn and grow. It is where teachers come to know them over time, support both their academics and emotional development. It is a routine, the same classrooms, the same hallways, the same daily structure, that stability is what allows children to focus, feel confident, and

succeed. It is relationships, friendships built over years, trusted teachers who notice when something is wrong, and adults who supports them every day. For many children, school is their safe place. When the stability is removed, it impacts far more than placement. It affects our education, emotional and well-being, confidence and daily routine, and the long-standing relationship they have built over years.

This is not the fault of children or parents. Many families followed district guidance, trusting they were making the right decision at the time. Now children who are thriving are being asked to leave their environments where they feel secure and supported. That is why I am asking for a fair and a gradual transition. Allow students who are

already established in their schools to remain there until They complete their current school journey. Begin redistricting with new students in the 2026 to 2027 school year, correcting the system, moving forward without disrupting those already established. Ensure parents are included, heard, informed, and given meaningful input in the decisions that directly affect their children. And implement a

phase approach, prioritize stability over speed. Because years from now, children will not remember district lines or school boundaries. They will remember whether they felt safe, whether they felt supported, and whether they feel like they mattered. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And the last one is a letter. Deb.

Okay. Three minutes, Deb, please. Melissa Costa, Reno Street, Florida.

Mayor Coogan and members of the school committee. During the years of 2014 and 2019, when I directed and choreographed for the CUS Middle Theater Arts Program, the middle school division of the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild was held on one day at a host school. The preferred school by the re-owned statewide theater competition was CUS for the size and stellar facilities. Our theater company

regularly won awards both for performances and technical theater design from adjudicators who are professionals in the world of theater education. Continued lack of funding made it difficult for continue and choices had to be made between attending or mounting our other productions, such as the annual Spring Musical. This weekend, as I scroll through social media, I saw that Sunday, May 3rd, was METG's

Middle Festival. It has grown from just us hosting five or six participating schools to seven host schools with six middle school performances at each.

Our kids deserve the same experience and exposure that comes with being seen by professors from the best theater arts colleges around. It prepares them to get involved with the Durfee Theater Company, who has been part of the M. ETG high school competition for decades. It's an opportunity to collaborate with CTE classes as well.

They get to see what their peers in other districts are achieving. The adults coaching them deserve to be paid for their time and expertise. Theater kids deserve some celebrants of the funding that is always available for sports from elementary on up. We are entering dance recital season. Farrah Public School makes very good income renting out our state of the art auditoriums. That money should be reinvested

into music and theater programs. Let's see our middle schools represented at all next year METG theater festival. Thank you, Deb.

Next item up is item four, subcommittee. Updates, first up, Facilities and Operations Subcommittee, Mr. Aguiar. Thank you, Mayor. So we had a meeting with the Facilities Subcommittee. First item on the agenda was that MOU related to the school resource officers. Discussion occurred around some language changes and some overtime hours.

More information will be shared with the committee over the next month or so as administration works with the police department to get the data. This will be on a future agenda. We reviewed a little bit of the maintenance budget, the rest of the conversation referred around a refrigeration tech job description. This has been ongoing for

several months as we work through some details. Subcommittee recommended that a license requirement be included, and that is before us today on the full committee agenda. The meeting adjourned, it was very successful, and we will have another facilities meeting on Monday. So that will be posted as well. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is the Policy Subcommittee,

Mr. Dias. Thank you. The Policy Subcommittee met on April 8th, 2026 at 530 at the Administration Building, 417 Rock Street. The Subcommittee reviewed several policies around strengthening school committee, school department governance, and legal expenditures, which are on the agenda for tonight.

These were items associated with, um, no.

End of report. Thank you. And we'll also be having a meeting, um, next Wednesday, May 13th. 13th. Thank you.

Next one is the evaluation subcommittee, Anne O'Reilly, chair. subcommittee met on April 28th. We focused on the school committee goals and developing a self-evaluation for the committee with a rubric that we reviewed together. We hope you'll see that further on the agenda. My hope is that we can kick it off at a retreat to be scheduled ASAP. And then we can look at

rating ourselves and continue to improve our work together as a school committee. Thank you.

Now we'll go back to what was left earlier on the superintendent's report. Dr. Smith.

Thank you very much, Mayor, and I hope you give me a little latitude this evening, this being my first meeting. So first of all, I thank you, Keith, for reminding everybody about Teacher Appreciation Day. You know, when I think about my 45 years in education, the most important years were the so-called boots on the ground, you know, what our teachers, our support staff do each and every day. It is a profession

we want to encourage. I actually look forward in the district to developing opportunities, pipelines, and to make sure some of those very students that you're graduating very soon Look to come into a wonderful career as a teacher and I want to thank all of the teachers in the Fall River Public Schools and throughout our state of Massachusetts.

And Keith, I absolutely, I know we've had a phone conversation. I look forward to working with you on a regular basis, hearing about the culture and how we can support what's happening in our classrooms each day. So thank you. I will tell you today is day four for me. And again, this is not new to me, but it's been a very busy time. I want to tell you one of the first

things I did on my first day here last Friday, May 1st, was to take a picture of myself in the office and send it to my family. And what I said was, you can't believe this beautiful office. And I look out and I see the ocean. I see the Braga Bridge. It's beautiful. And I have to tell you that my 91-year-old mother who looked at the picture focused on Battleship Cove over

the fireplace and reminded me of the times we came to Fall River and the history here. So a very exciting time. And I will tell you that I was welcomed by everybody at Rock Street. from Al the custodian to my two executive assistants to Deb to Paula to my senior staff team. It has been a very welcoming experience and I really look forward to coming in each day. There's a lot

of work to do. I'll tell you, and you're gonna learn a little bit about me, you know, coming from a large urban district, and I don't know if I apologize to Brockton, I think I went from a boxer to a hilltopper. I never thought that would happen with the big three, but I guess I'm here, Mayor, so you might have to cover for me. You are here. So, in saying that, one

of the things that you will learn very quickly, and I learned this, it doesn't matter, urban district or smaller district, is it is all about collaboration and starting to develop those relationships with all stakeholders in the district. So I hope to be out there publicly, not only taking part in events, working with our staff.

I commit to finally getting out to the schools. I was very excited to come to this beautiful facility today. So I will also be sharing with the school committee on a regular basis, really, I call it the snapshot of the superintendent. And you'll be able to see day to day what is happening with the work in my office. Also, what I'll tell you is

my first day here, I got to meet with Mayor Coogan. Thank you so much for coming in. And Vice Chair Aguiar, you came in again and welcomed me. We talked about the work ahead for us as a team. I met with Cliff Ponty, who was brought in by my deputy superintendent Liz Legault to meet with me. And one of the things I asked him, I did not have the opportunity during the

budget season, and I asked if I could be introduced. So they have a meeting coming up, I believe it's this Tuesday evening. So I will be present there to meet with the city council, councilors. They are also partners, you know, obviously in supporting the schools. I just mentioned to the mayor what I hope to have as we go along. I call it a state of the schools address and I like to

do it usually about five or six months in. So, I'm going to go to the school district and I'm going to go to the school district. It's usually late fall, it's pre-budget season, but it starts to not only talk about the work happening in the district, but also strategically start to talk about some of the very things that we're looking at as important items in our budget. So I look forward to

meeting your city councilors, your representatives. I will keep you updated as to how that goes. Also, one of the things that we're doing, and I just heard Anna Riley talk about retreats. So when I come into a district, it is very, very important, and I've done this in each of my districts, to start to, again, very quickly hit the ground running and work with our professional development as how we

work together. So I know we're looking at a June date for our first professional development. I encourage everybody to be there. I have a facilitator coming in so I can actually take part, like you, in this particular retreat. I'm inviting my senior leadership team to come in. And I'm inviting MASC, I have not met Sean Costello, you might have. I previously had worked with Dorothy Presser who retired. But that is,

again, just to make sure that, and I always talk about this, and I know you know this, I'm not sure, many of you have probably done the charting the course. Is that something they still offer? Yes. So one of the things that I will say, is to make sure, I always talk about that high functioning team of superintendent, leadership, and school committee, and making sure that if we're high functioning, we are

able to have protocols we work, you're able to get the information that you need to make the very decisions you need to make, and we're working together in the best way possible. So that is my commitment to you. So hopefully we will have within the next year, or however long I'm here, make sure probably I'm looking at either three or four retreats along the way. commitment on your part, I guarantee you

as you prepare for a new administration to come in, this will really benefit us in a very positive way. I talked about getting into visiting classrooms, meeting with the principals. You know that the most important work you hire a superintendent for is to evaluate not only what's happening with my senior leadership team, but to also make sure that I am supporting the principals in the schools and their evaluation

process. So that is something that again, we have some work ahead of us. I have hiring to do at the human resource level, excuse me, the human resource office, which is critical in making sure that these evaluations are happening on a regular basis.

Also, when you heard me talk about the report to the city council, one of the things I think is critical, and I want you to hear this from day one, is the other thing that when I've gone into districts, we actually develop what I call a district annual report. And this report is out there for the public to, again, want to choose the Fall River public schools to send their children. You

know, it talks about all of the opportunities, whether it's theater, arts, sports. You talked today about skills and, you know, all of the different programs that you have to offer. Looking at your elementary schools, your middle schools, your preschools. So it starts with, you know, working obviously with my communications specialist, but to start to talk about some

of the very work we're doing. And I hope that that becomes something that you have in all your schools, your parent information center, which I think you call PACE.

Mm-hmm. And to make sure that we are highlighting the work happening in Fall River to really attract a strong staff to our schools. So with that being said, I will now, Mayor, thank you for that opportunity to address everybody. But as far as, I hope you also give me a little leeway with four days on the job. I am gonna ask my senior staff to jump in

and really support some of the items under Superintendent's report. So I'm gonna ask my chief academic officer, Brian Raposo, to talk about the hiring update. Brian? Absolutely, good evening.

So in terms of hiring, we have had 15 new hires in this time frame, one cafeteria assistant, two clerks. one CODA, one ESL coach interventionist, a specialty coach, four teachers, obviously the interim deputy superintendent and superintendent, two paraprofessionals, and a security officer. During that same time frame, we've had four transfers, three rehires, 20 resignations, three terminations, and four retirements.

And then in terms of the job fair, I don't know if there's any... Okay, go ahead, I'm sorry, the job fair update. Absolutely, in terms of the job fair, so on Saturday, May 2nd, we held the job fair at Durfee High School. We were well represented by schools and departments. This year we had a total of 119 applicants register for the fair either via the QR code system or on paper. This

is an increase from 89 registrations last year, which is great. Additionally, we had devices set up right at the job fair in a space. And we actually had 26 people complete applications for positions right then and there after they came in and spoke with someone at the fair. Thank you, Brian. Okay, next up are end of the year activities. So my executive assistant, Apollo Soros, is

sending out a spreadsheet to all of our schools, so we will have that information to you and to share with you, so you can take part in many of these activities. This is obviously a busy time of year. Next is kindergarten enrollment update, and again, I'm going to ask our Brian, Brian, I hope I say your name right, Mikolasik, did I get that right? Close?

Not even close. Michael Lasik, but Michael Lasik. Very good.

So currently we have 923 students enrolled in kindergarten throughout our schools, which is 55 more students than this time last year and 200 more than the COVID year five years ago. So we are maintaining an increase in kindergarten. In terms of enrollments, we've had, which opened up March 1st for all grade levels for next year.

We have 380 new registrations that have already been completed, of which almost three-quarters of them are kindergarten students, which is basically similar to last year, except last year we had 405 students register as of this date, so about 25 less. But we do pick up many of the registrations over the summertime and paces out recruiting at different places throughout the city, as well as the bus that is available

as an option now. So that's in full swing.

Thank you. Thanks Brian. Any questions Mayor? You get the last item. Okay, and the last item is the DESE visit, so the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, I think you're aware, are in the district. I actually had a virtual call with them yesterday. The Deputy Commissioner Rob Curtin, who I know very well from my work in Brockton, has contacted us

and because of the district review, one of the things that they are looking at is focusing on governance structures within the Fall River public schools. And the positive note about this is we all have an opportunity to talk to them And we all have an opportunity, you heard me talk today about professional development. They're going to come in probably sometime, it looks to me like early June, which is surprising

that quickly of a turnaround. A report which is going to talk about our strengths, you know, as a district, as a governance team, and also talk about opportunities for improvement, which as we talk about professional development, it gives us at that very time to look internally and see if there are things that we can do to allow you to do your jobs better, to allow the superintendent and their leadership team to

be able to function in a way that benefits certainly our students and our families in the community. So I, for one, who am very careful about DESE being in the district for the right reasons, they come in and obviously by mass general law, they have the authority to come in under district to talk to us about what's happening in the district. This is a very targeted opportunity with a very quick report

for us. So I want to see this again as a positive opportunity for us in the district. I will work closely with the team as we did today. They're going to be here for the next couple of days and I'll follow up with the Deputy Commissioner as we go forward. Mr. Chair? Mr. Dias.

On the last item, I'll be very brief. I know there was a prior district review which was completed in 2025. I believe we received the report May of 2025. I don't believe we've ever had a discussion about that district review that was just completed or how we can take some of the recommendations from that review. I do know the committee at this committee

asked for that prior district review after this current review started that we could review the prior one. I don't believe it is on the agenda tonight even though the committee did vote to discuss it. I think it's important that we play that out for the public and have a discussion on that one as well.

And if we can just get a follow up as to it was requested by the committee, however, it is not on the agenda for tonight. I yield with that.

Thank you, Mr. Dias. Mr. Aguirre. Yeah, rather than just scan over what Mr. Dias said, I think he raises some valid points. We, and I understand that it's the superintendent's first day here, but we've had a discussion in the past about this report. The report came out in When it came out in May or June of last year, Mr. Dias actually emailed the superintendent at that time

and said this raises a lot of questions that we would need to have at a meeting. The answer to that email stated, we're gonna put it on the June or the next agenda. That never made it to any agenda in the school committee.

That's what Mr. Dias is referring to. So it's very far past the time that we should have had it on the agenda. Fast forward a few more months. I don't think it's appropriate to not say it. The only reason why they're here right now is because the mayor wrote a three page letter accusing the school committee of doing unethical things and basically begging the DESE to get involved

in the last superintendent situation. That is the reason why DESE is here now. So it's very difficult to just put a positive spin on something that was brought for a reason that nobody really wants to talk about. But that is the fact. I do agree that we need to work together. I'm gonna be meeting with them on Friday. I think all the committee members are also gonna be meeting. But we can't

just scan over the fact that the reason why they're here is not just for that one little review. I don't know any other districts that have a district review in one year and then six months later have another one. And I think it's basically targeting the school committee of Fall River based on a superintendent situation that was

happening. So I don't think whether it's your conversations, my conversation with them, I'm certainly going to talk about that. We can't gloss over the fact of why we're here. But when you look at the report that came out, there's actually not very much in it related to what they're talking about now. So they're not coming here just to look at that report and update it. Some things in that report

we never did. We were supposed to do a different format for the budget, we didn't do it. We were supposed to talk about school councils. I personally asked the superintendent when that came out for a list of all the school councils at all of our schools. And to this day, I still have not received it. So I think we just need to not gloss over it. Let's all dig in. Let's work

together. But make no mistake about it. The reason why they're here isn't just because they want to help. It's because the mayor wrote a three-page letter accusing us of doing things that he shouldn't have done. I yield. Well, I, you know, did not want to do this on our superintendent's first night. But the reason... that I wrote the letter was because we were contacted by the DESC about letting go of a

sitting superintendent on what was some new members first or second meetings. So I did put my pen to paper and put my opinion on how dysfunctional this committee is.

But I can assure you as Mr. Aguiar certainly does with words. I was not begging anybody to come here. They already had their eyes on the city of Fall River. Anybody that watches these meetings knows what goes on regularly with the disrespect, the belittling of people that come up here to give their professional opinions, their know-it-all attitude

from some people on this stage. And if we can make headway in correcting those, working with our new superintendent, I'm sure we'll all be better for it. With that being said, I'd like to move to... Item number six, approval of the minutes. Mr.

Chair. Mr. Dines. Briefly, just want to respond. When I made a public records request with your city administration, I wasn't provided any documents relative to Desi reaching out. Is that in writing? No, they called. Oh, they called? Yeah. They called the office? Mm-hm. Did they call the mayor's office, superintendent? No, they called me.

Okay. How do you? Is that all you got?

Thank you. Approval of minutes- Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor. With that being said, I would just like to publicly say that we're going to release the letter to the public that you sent just so the whole public can see. I think you shouldn't. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. The school committee never even got notice of it, so I think we should just release it to the public so everyone can see

it. Absolutely. Thank you. I think it's very important that we move forward with an open and transparent operation. And that's the way we should do it. And I don't disagree with you a bit. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Approval of minutes, item number six. We have a number of minutes tonight. I would love to do them all at once unless someone has an objection or a hold on any of them. Mr. Dias. I

actually do have a concern with the minutes and when I was preparing for the meeting, two issues. One, it doesn't really necessarily give me cause to not approve them, but the second reason would. The first reason is some of these minutes appear late and I know we've been dinged by the division of open government in the past about the minutes so we can work on our structures of getting these minutes approved

to the committee and I don't even believe they need to even come before the committee. They can be approved by the chair administratively. But if they're going to come before the committee, we have to make sure we're following that specific timelines that the state law allows. Secondly, either through the superintendent if it's normal to have these in the minutes. So some of these minutes, I know

you need to have a summary of the discussion for each item. For example, I'll go to facilities and operations. I'd like these in most of the minutes. It'll say, please see the meeting video for discussion at 1-19 to 1-31-23.

I think it would be so much much easier just to have the meeting minutes just be the audio, video recording of the meeting. So that's the easiest way to find it. I'm not sure if that complies with state law, so I'm a little hesitant to approve meeting minutes. And all of these meeting minutes, except for the public hearing, have that similar format. So I'm just a little hesitant to

approve them tonight, because it doesn't have a summary of the discussion of the items.

It just refers right to the meeting video. If I can just get some clarification on that, I yield. Ms. Riley. Thank you. So Mr. Dias, it does comply with the law. These are actually, this is how I do my minutes and I shared it with Deborah because she was doing all of the conversation. This allows a member of the public to go specifically to the area

of discussion they're interested in. So if they don't want to watch a whole meeting but they just want to see the discussion on pick something from it, you know, who's being appointed this year, they can skip right to that section in the minutes, watch that portion of the video where the discussion is. There's no requirement under the

law to summarize discussion, only the votes are required. So we're already exceeding the law, and the video just allows folks to skip to the Parts they want to look at. Most people who want to watch the whole video aren't going to go to the minutes. They're going to go to the video and watch the video. But if you want to look at the minutes and pick out the specific sections that you're

interested in, this is a much easier route to do that. Can I respond? Thank you, Ms. Riley. Mr. Dias? Thank you. I just, I don't want to necessarily question anyone, but I know it's, different states as well. I did briefly. I worked in Massachusetts also, Mr. Dias, and this is how we did our minutes. It does state in the law you have to have a discussion, a summary of the discussion, but going off of your

guidance on this, I'll vote to approve. Remember, the discussion's there. It's just on video.

Thank you both. Mr. Aguilar. Just as we, I mean we have a whole bunch here. Yep. What is the statutory requirement on reading the actual time for the minute?

Is there any requirement to read like we're approving the minutes from this meeting, that meeting? Or can we do them in the box? You mean the dates, right? Do we have to read the dates or can we just do them as a book?

I don't think so. I think you can approve them as a whole. Dr. Smith, do you remember? You can consent if somebody wants to. You're familiar with the consent?

Mm-hm. So if somebody wanted to pull off, as you said, something that needed to be corrected in minutes. I just want to make sure there's no statutory requirement to do otherwise. You can consent to approve. Make a motion to approve all 10. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve all 10. Deb, would you please call the roll. Any further discussion? Sorry. Deb, call the roll please. Mr. Aguilar? Yes.

Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Moniz? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart?

Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. I have three travel requests. Motion to approve all three. Second.

Any discussion on the travel? Hearing none, Deb, would you please call the roll? Mr.

Aguilar? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Moniz? Yes. Ms. Riley?

Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. Item number eight is the acceptance of donations. Can I get a motion? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Second. I have a motion and a second on approving all donations. Deb, would you please call the roll? Mr. Aguia? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes.

Mr. Ramones? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Cougar? Yes.

Now you usually explain them or are you not ready for that right now? I'm sorry, Mayor, what- You usually explain the donation? That's okay, we'll do it this way.

Okay, but in the future you would like them all explained? Yeah, absolutely. Superintendent Smith on behalf of the Tansy Elementary School Principal Stephanie Brown, requests acknowledgment of a $3,000 donation from Satellite Subaru. It will be used for the principals, obviously to use in the school at her discretion. Superintendent Smith on behalf of the Athletic Director Brad Buston,

requests acknowledgment of a $1,767 donation from the Derfee Sports Booster.

This will be used for trophies and plaques for the 24-25 season. I think that might be 25-26, but that's okay. Superintendent Smith, on behalf of the Eternal Elementary School President Sean Simpson, requests acknowledgement of $1,025.85 donation from Ahold Deliz. This donation will be used for student activity fund to support field trips.

Superintendent Smith. On behalf of the athletic director Brad Buston, request acknowledgement of $1,000 donation from Kyle's Cares Foundation. This donation will be used at the discretion of the RAL Talk Club. Superintendent Smith, on behalf of the Fonzica Elementary School Principal Kate Cobb, request acknowledgement of a $200 donation from Target. This donation will be used to

fund the Family Spring into Health family event. And finally, Superintendent Smith, on behalf of the Green Elementary School Principal, Elizabeth Dunn requests acknowledgment of various school supplies on donation from the Greater Farver Food Pantry. And this donation will be used for Green, students, and staff. Thank you all very much. Item number eight

is the approval of grants. We have two. Is there a hold on either- Can we hold the Title III? Mr. Dias wants to hold the first one. The second one, building childhood partnerships. Motion approved. Second. I have a motion. And a second on building childhood partnerships. Deb, would you please call the roll on the second one? Mr.

Aguil? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yep. Mr. Monas? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Mr.

Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. Mr. Dias? Thank you. Just so I saw in the back of this program is covering a summer enrichment camp, which is good. This one, you get specifics on How many days per week will the program run? Absolutely, I can go through just an overview if that's helpful for you with some details. So this is our MLL summer enrichment camp,

which we're excited about. This will serve students in grades one through seven from Fonska, Green, Viveris, Henry Lord, Morton, and Talbot. This will run July 6th through August 6th, Monday through Thursday, four days a week. It'll actually be 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It'll be located physically at Henry Lord Community School in terms of the site we'll be using. and students will be excited to do some

project-based learning. So we really are, you may have seen recently on social media in our MLL programming, students were out collecting trash and doing projects with Save the Bay.

And so we're gonna really try to integrate as much hands-on learning during this enrichment program as possible in the summer. Thank you. Do the students have to, is there a fee? No, there's no fee. Okay. The only, and I'm, I was supposed to approve this and support summer enrichment. The one concern I have is last year in the budget, we took out

paid funding for many of the enrichment programs, so many students had to pay, families had to pay out of pocket. I don't know if it's something going into... Historically, I think what you're referencing is the Durfee Summer in Richmond. That program historically, from my understanding, Mr. Almeida is here, has always been a paid program. I believe ever

since it's existed, I think since the beginning. To my knowledge, I think that's the enrichment program you're referencing, potentially, the one that's housed at Durfee. So prior to the last summer, summers prior, there was no programs that were priorly paid for, no students had to pay for what we paid for. We have both.

So we have programs that are funded through 21st century learning grants, programs funded through these grants. We also have some credit recovery programs that are funded. But the specific program at Durfee, that enrichment program, to my knowledge, historically has always required payment. Thank you. If I can just ask if we can get an update later in the

week as to what summer programs we'll be offering this summer and what the fees will be. I can share a list with the superintendent who can share it with you, absolutely. As for last year, it wasn't. Yes, I actually have one, so I can send that over tonight or tomorrow. Thank you. Motion to approve.

Second. I have a motion to second. Any further discussion on Title III, immigration and youth? Deb, call the roll please.

Mr. Aguia? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes.

Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. Item number 10 is the approval of contracts. We have a number of them. We usually do these in batches, I think, but I don't know if anybody. Can we hold the first one? All right, we got a hold on industrial communications. I have a hold on South Coast.

Educational Collaborative. McGraw-Hill. And South Coast Massachusetts Educational Collaborative, hold on. I got industrial on those two, and McGraw-Hill, Mr. Dias.

Anything further on the holds on contracts? Motion to approve. The others.

Not the new ones, but all the special education ones. All the special education ones, and anything but the new contract starting at 10-2. Second. I have a motion to second. Deb, would you call? I do. So the one that you need to hold is SMAC. Yeah, they're in the second batch, I think. No, the two that you

asked me about were both held, Southeastern Educational Collaborative and Southeastern Mass Educational Collaborative. I don't need the Southeastern Education Collaborative, just the one after that. You don't need the first one. Okay, that one goes through. The only one being held is Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative. Correct. Okay. Any others? We do have the others held.

Everything up to new, Deb, could you please call the roll? Mr. Agia?

Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Moniz? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Mr. Stewart?

Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. Mr. Agia, Industrial Communications. Just a question on what, there's a few new ones, what that is. Sure, so again, the radials are purchased as we need them.

Safety, security, we're using them on playgrounds, we're using them in some of our sub separate classrooms. We're also using them during recess to give people access when we do have large groups outside of the building. So as they come in and as the need arises, we purchase them. This should be the last one for this year, for this school year. And then we'll reassess what we have left. A lot

of these are upgrades also. As radios go down, we have been buying new radios. Yeah, I'm just asking because we just had this before us a month ago and it was told it was at the time. I thought it was everything included, so now we had some additional, which I can understand. The question I had at that time was about the RPA building at Tsuneni Rock without either phones not

working. I don't think that they have access to the same, some sort of communication ability within the classroom. Any of these for them or is it going to be a separate? No, these weren't for RPA, but it would be a separate ask. And we're working on trying to figure out what that is.

We will get a total as to what they need and where they need them.

We'll obviously, if there's any summer school activities at that building, they will have the radios by then. Yeah, what I understood at the time was I don't believe the phones work like the other phones in other schools. So they don't either have a phone. Somehow they need to be able to communicate in case of an emergency. So that's my only reason for it. I do think we

need to probably purchase a lot of these periodically. So I'm definitely going to support it. I yield. Thank you. I make a motion to approve. Second. I have a motion to second on industrial communications. Anything further? Deb, please call the roll. Mr. Agam?

Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes.

Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes.

McGraw-Hill? Mr. Dias? Thank you, in the back up,

it talked about if you investigate or you launch an inquiry and you find out if that's the only company that's offering what you want. So this actually is the current curriculum we already utilize. And so what this is is a renewal of the digital licenses because they're expiring. So our teachers, in order to plan, effectively in grades K through two. This gives them digital

access to all of the ELA curriculum. So all this is is basically a renewal of that digital access. Otherwise, it would expire for next year and we would not have access digitally for teachers to be able to plan and access that curriculum. I understand. I was just looking at the backup that was provided. So it says miscellaneous contract and in part, if you, I'm assuming, mean the district determined in writing,

after reasonable investigation that there's only one practical source for the items. You can go around 30B, which I'm assuming we did. What is that process?

When something comes up, whatever is in this curriculum, have we looked elsewhere to see if there's anything else? I wouldn't know, but it's- My understanding is that that would have been done prior because this is a renewal of the current curriculum that we utilize right now. So this is your adopted curriculum? This is our adopted curriculum,

and it's just only the digital access, so we have print, but this gives teachers just the, it's basically just digital licenses, so they can log on to the programs, do their lesson planning, put materials on the Promethean board. So it's our current adopted curriculum. Right, I guess the point I would make is in the age of technology,

there's always new curriculums, there's new companies offering different things, and I just didn't know there was... We have a company similar to this and we're looking around to see if we can get the same type of software, the same content for a different price. It's just more of a systems thing that... This is complementary to the program

that you're providing to students. Exactly. So this is the research program approved by DESE that you, and again I'm asking questions myself, that you have adopted for the district.

Yes, absolutely. So this is continuation. It's just a continuation so that we can continue with the digital access. Yes. Right, I just didn't know if there's a 30B exemption, I just want to make sure, even if it's a continuation, I don't think that would, for any contract, if it's under 30B, even if it's a continuation, I still think we would have to go through those processes. I'm not trying to just pick

on this necessarily, this one is just more of a point I've been trying to make with many contracts. Yes, in this case, I think the challenge would be is that we have the the core curriculum, and so these resources are for that specific curriculum. So I think the challenge it would present would mean that we would be out looking to purchase an entirely new core curriculum if we were to change this

component. It's not necessarily like an interchangeable piece. This is the digital access of the core curriculum we have now. So you answered my question. Thank you. Motion to approve.

I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Question? Mr. Aguilar.

Yeah, just on this document, we haven't received this in a while, and I'm not the chair of technology this year, but we have a program that I believe can print out or show us the usage amongst all of the online curriculums. And I think we've done a better job over the years where in the past we've had curriculums that we pay for that either we're not using enough or whatever. I would

just like to ask through the superintendent to get some sort of update on all of our I think in the computer it's very simple, but we don't get those on a regular basis to know that we're using it with fidelity, are we still using it, rather than just, and I think you understand because I think you've actually tried to help with some of this. Absolutely, yeah, I can respond to that briefly.

We have an instructional subcommittee coming up at the end of the month, and we're actually bringing forward a couple recommendations on things that we may not choose to continue with because of sort of lack of usage, and so we're really taking a hard look at whether the resources that we have are being utilized in the way they should be. So absolutely, we can print that out. Yeah, and the other thing is

we did have a practice, policy practice or whatever that when we were going to start selecting, because it was all over the place, we had to rein it in so that at subcommittee we said, if someone wants to add another online subscription, that it has to come to the subcommittee first to digest with the committee so that we could know whether we were going to do it. So that we're not adding

just, are we adding anything new right now on the fly? No. In ELL, nothing like that? Not to my knowledge. We're piloting one program called Moat in ELL, which is like an add-on to be able to record. If it's an expense, that comes before us. All I'm asking is that we continue that practice and bring it to the subcommittee. to see what it is and not just do what we used to do in the past

or willy-nilly. Thank you, I yield. Can I make a comment, Mayor? Dr. Smith. I think you bring up a really good point, and this has happened in many districts I'm in. We should, especially looking at a budget, make sure that we are aware of all of the programs. This should be a simple spreadsheet, the success with the programs, and making sure if we continue it in the budget, that it is something,

as you said, our teachers are using. It's benefiting our students, and that should be something that we're able to certainly have during the budget process to make sure the committee's aware. All right, so I have a motion and a second on McGraw-Hill. Discussion further? Deb, call the roll, please. Mr. Aguiar? Yes.

Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Dorp? Yes.

Mayor Cougar? Yes. Motion approved, SMEC. That was a potential conflict. Mr. Aguiar, I have a motion, I have a second. Any discussion on SMEC? Deb, please call the roll.

Mr. Aguant? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Moniz? Yes. Mr. Riley?

Yes. Ms. Stewart? I'm staying. Mayor Coogan? Yes. Under contracts new, we have one, activating language access. Motion approved. Motion to second. I have a motion to second on approving the final new contract. Any discussion? Call the roll, please. Mr. Aguant?

Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Moniz? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart?

Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes, finally, Committee of the Whole. 11.1 is a vote to approve school choice for our art district students in grades 6 to 12 and non-resident students in grade K to 5 for the four of a school employees consistent with the collective bargaining agreement for the 26-27 school year.

Presented by Dr. Smith, Interim Superintendent of Schools. Yes, I think you're.

We're recommending that you continue with school choice for the very reasons that I talked about this today with my senior staff. One of the things that we learned early on is you want people to select the Fall River Public Schools if we have that particular opening, which you have obviously researched as a committee. So we are recommending

to continue with the current practice. Motion to approve. I have a motion to approve.

Do I have a second? Second. I have a second and I have a question, Dr. Mott. Ms. Stewart.

Where is Tividend? Rhode Island? Yeah, where is that? Don't we send kids out to Tividend? It's out of state, so they're not part of school choice. Okay. So they're actually part of our roles and we pay them tuition for it. So that wouldn't be on here because we send them out? Correct. Thank you. I have a motion, a second, on approval of school choice, Mr. Aguilar. So when I looked at the

backup, it looks like we have this document that says we don't need to vote on this, and then it's here. I'm just a little confused on- You need to vote on school choice. Yes. Yes. Right. I think I want to say it's before June 1st each year. No, I totally agree. Yes.

Last year we have this letter that's in our backup. Why it's in there I don't know, but it's related to the fact saying that we either Maybe we can just look at it, but I've always felt we always had to need to vote, but confusing last year. It's a school committee vote. Yeah. Okay. So nothing's changing.

No. Yeah. Sounds good. All right, Deb, give it a call please. Mr. Iguin. Yes.

Mr. Dias. Yes. Mr. Corey. Yep. Mr. Monis. Yes. Mr. Riley. Yes. Mr. Stewart. Yes.

Mary Coogan. Yes. 11-2 is a discussion and vote to approve the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Virtual School Gap. As presented by, who's presenting that? Brian? Brian, yes. Mr. Michael Lasek. Yes, so I would ask to give an overview of the virtual schools. There are two statewide virtual schools, TECA and Greater Commonwealth Virtual, used to be called Greenfield. Combined for the

state, there are about 4200 seats that any school district Students can enroll there just like they would transfer to Somerset from here. They can transfer to one of those two schools. Current enrollment combined for those two schools, 133 students as of last week for those two schools, which is 1.2% of our October 1 number of 11,184. Last year, the school committee voted

to increase the cap from 1% to 2%. Last year, we were at 1.3%.

now we're just a tenth of a point below that. To increase every district in the state, if they don't make a vote to increase it, they're at 1% by default. But several districts, including four, have voted to increase it, and we're at 2%. It can go high if you chose to do that. But that's basically, right now we have up to 90 more students could technically go to

one of those two schools and transfer there to get to that 2% cap.

If you choose to lower it, your first opportunity to lower that will be next February because we are required to submit the change by the first week of March each year to the commissioner. Similar to school choice we discovered, it has to be done and voted on by June 1st to continue it or change it. So, which we'll get that in tomorrow obviously, but any change to virtual school caps for

forever, we have to be next February. Any questions or discussion on the virtual school cap? Mr. Dias. Thank you, Mr. Michael.

The only thing I was just a little confused about was last year, I know I had a strong stance on this position. I still do to this day. Maybe it's the information we received back then that we just didn't even have a cap. I know Mr. Aguiar brought up we should set a cap because the state has like the 2%, so we should

match the 2%. I didn't think we were at 1%, we raised it to 2%, I just thought we just never had a cap. But thank you for letting me know otherwise. I think we should stay as is, especially I know TECA, a lot of students, a lot of families in the community really rely on their support with the Mass Commonwealth virtual school program as well. I think it's just important that

we allow families to send their students to school, virtual schools that best fit the needs of their students. So I wouldn't support a decrease to the cap. So I think we should stay as is for this year. That's my position as one member. I yield. Anything, Mr. Anguilla?

Can I just ask why this is on this agenda? Why? Yeah, why?

What you just said was that we missed the deadline of March. So if we would have had to do something before March, why did they, if they want to change, if there's no change, I don't know why it's on the agenda. Are you recommending a change or is the administration recommending we change? I don't think we're recommending a change. I think we were asked to give, I think last year, in the

last few years, we've given, some of this information as part of the school choice ones where Tech and Greenfield, Commonwealth will show up on that as districts that we send and receive from. So I think that was when I was asked to give the backup, I put this together again. Subsequent to that, I did research that the March 1st deadline we missed, you know, several reasons. It wasn't done.

So if you want to change it, obviously it could be for next year, but this is like bonus information for- Yeah, no, on the agenda- I understand. On the agenda, it just says discussion and vote to approve, but there's not backup saying a recommendation, so I was a little confused. So basically, this is just informational only. We don't need to vote to approve anything, and I'll stay in firm that we need

to stay at the 2%. And the reason why- You're at 2% right now for this year coming up, and I'll put a calendar note that we discuss this again- Yeah, I mean, I've said over and over. We have a class size crisis amongst our elementary schools specifically. And I still don't think that's not a problem. That's still a crisis as far as I'm concerned. So can you imagine if we had a

1% cap and we didn't have, I mean, it's down lower, but at one point at the beginning of the year, we were at the 2%. I had a constituent call that wanted to enter and they said, no, you're at your 2%. So we don't have any room under the current situation. Our class sizes are 27, 28 or higher. So- I'm not voting to change it, but

I'm glad you said that. I can point out that one thing that will be different for this year coming up versus the past year where we did increase it to 2% is that we are also submitting, I believe, an application to be the 10th single district virtual school that is in the state. These are two statewide ones, but like, you know, Totten has one, Springfield, and several communities. We have an application,

I believe, to make that a virtual school for us. So that may, based on the enrollment there, as we get the new school year going, make a different conversation come February when we decide to either increase, decrease or stay status quo. So what you're saying is that the two other schools in our own virtual school will be subject to the same 2% cap now? No, the one that we have

internally that we're applying for, that could have 10,000 kids in if you want to.

There's no cap on that. So it's not relevant to this discussion? No. But in terms of if the school is successful and approved, or Favrever's version of that virtual school. If we recruit kids to go to that program versus going to Tech or Commonwealth Greenfield, then within our district we get the full foundation budget and so on.

Whereas- Yep, right. So- So we're competitive with these other online platforms and we'll be able to keep the students in district. That's a very positive thing for the district. I totally agree, we've been talking about that for a long time, so just put it on the radar before March, I guess, is the moral of the story. Thank you. Good point, thank you. So we don't need to vote on

this tonight, Brian? No. Okay, next item up on the agenda is 11-4, discussion and first read. No, I'm sorry, 11-3 is discussion and vote to approve redistricting as presented by Liz Legault, interim deputy superintendent of schools. Liz Legault.

I would say I want to thank the community. We've been out for the last two weeks presenting on redistricting for the district of Fall River. And we had a good turnout. We also did an all-comers meeting on Monday here at Durfee High School. The turnout wasn't great, but we have been out to... all of our elementary level schools, we went to four elementary schools. And we came here to Durfee

to talk about redistricting for the district of Fall River. This has been discussed for the last two years in the district prior to my coming or the superintendent. I did put, we gave you the backup in your binders or that you received of what we spoke about at all of the meetings on our

And on the last couple of pages, I would let Brian speak to the maps, knowing the maps a little bit better. I do think it offers opportunity and access across the board to all of our students, especially the K through 8 schools. It's never easy when you talk about redistricting. It's never easy when we talk about movement. It's never easy when family has been in a school for with two

or three kids or have placement in another building, and I understand that.

However, we do have enrollment in some schools that is very high, enrollment in other schools that has leveled off. Class sizes, as you just pointed out, are 27, 28.

We feel that we could have a better opportunity to get them a little bit more equity across the board, and that's something that I came into late, but I have been out talking, and my biggest part of this redistricting plan is the communication and trying to communicate with our parents. And if they, we understand that some parents do not want to move their children, our students, and we

understand that. And we're offering to get the transfer in as soon as possible. And we, Brian and the team at Pace, I want to thank them. They were there every night with us to talk about the redistricting plan that we're If you could get your transfer request in as soon as possible, by June 1st, this team will get back to your family to let you know if the request will stay, if we can accommodate, and

Lori Oberton, Dr. Oberton from Special Education will be part of those conversations and that was a lot of the conversation of my son or daughter's been in this program.

What's going to happen to the program? We want, this is early enough where if you send in a request, the district will look over the request and will try to honor the request. These are difficult conversations. We know when we start moving around or we start saying there's not gonna be a bus here, or there's not gonna be a bus here, or we're gonna offer buses, or we're not offering buses.

All of these types of conversations are difficult for parents to hear.

But this conversation, and I also sent backup from which I asked for to send to you, that has been over the last years, and the surveys that we sent out, The timeframe in November of 2024, there was surveys sent out. There was elementary surveys, middle school parent surveys.

We talked about surveys from the budget priorities from 25 to 27 that are in there about redistricting and what this can do for us. If we were to do those things, I also did a narrative for the Fall River Public Schools that was sent out to our families and why. Why we are reassigning, what are the options of K-8 model? To be clear, early, ongoing

communication. We're not saying we're not listening. We certainly don't want to tell anybody that we won't support keeping a student at a building. If it becomes a hardship for a family, we understand that. But we have to have open communication and transparency. We're listening and we want to support those transfer requests or no transfer requests.

If the parent gets it in to us by June 1st, PACE is working on it. I know Lori's team is working on it. We're all working on it. Brian did a terrific job. The maps were a little bit confusing on one of the days. And I asked Brian to go back, redo the map to make it look a little bit, look easier for some of our families and for me to

understand them. He did that and we have sent this out. It's on our website.

to look at these maps and we are receiving telephone calls and questions, emails on a daily basis and we're responding. Mr. Chair.

Mr. Corey. So thank you. Just I realize the whole idea of redistricting makes a lot of sense, especially from a financial efficiency point of view. There are going to be some hang ups though that I would like to bring up. As far as 504 kids are concerned, what do we do in that case?

These are questions that did come up this week, so. Oh, sorry. I've asked Lori and all of us to be part of the conversation. Certainly. 504s are general education. documents, legal documents that provide accommodations for students with disabilities who don't require specially designed instruction.

Those accommodations are required to be provided at every school in our district. So that would not preclude a student from going to their neighborhood school just because they have a 504. Okay. There's gonna be a little bit of, you know, there's gonna be some hang up with that. I have another question. Socialization, especially in the early grades, is incredibly important to a school child.

So when a child is in fourth grade and asked to move to a new school and they don't pass to the next grade with their partners into fifth grade, and that's generally the end of their elementary years. That, to me, just looks like a hangup. Is there any way that that's being looked at? Has that been discussed? We are going to look at all of those specific situations. Our recommendation, honestly,

is for parents to complete the transfer request form, so it's on our radar, right? We certainly understand that there will be some families who may have to move.

and we will work with them and their children to set up a transition. Whether you're special education or regular education, of course, we want to support students and families with a smooth transition. So again, once we have specific families that will be impacted, because remember, and I said this at one of our, our parent forums was not every student who is outside of their neighborhood

school is going to go back to their neighborhood school. For example, I spoke with a family. Henry Lord, fifth grade, is already at capacity. We would not move fifth graders back from a different school to a Henry Lord, even though they're outside of their neighborhood school because we have to take into consideration all of those pieces. So I do think that once we have

identified specific families that will be impacted by this, then those are the conversations If they're on our transfer request forms, we will go through that. But otherwise, we can have individual conversations with those families to talk about what does a transition plan look like. Or if there are particular hardships that the superintendents want to consider, we

certainly will. We just don't want to get ahead of ourselves in making blanket situations.

Yeah, I'm not even asking you to get ahead of yourself. Of course. I'm concerned about the psychosocial factors. Of course. And you know we have very, right. The elementary school child. We have school adjustment counselors, school social workers, SEL liaisons in every single building in Fall River. Again, there's other ways that we can support this, like

if we know a street that a child lives on and there's another child I don't know, on the next street over, and they're at that school the student's gonna be going to, we might be able to reach out to that family and say, hey, would you mind if we introduce your two children? Like, there are other things that we can do. Of course, we have staff who think about those things and

will support however the situation unfolds. I'll wait with bated breath. Thank you, I yield. Mr. Chair. Mr. Dias. Thank you. I echo some of my colleagues' concerns here. So I guess I will start off with saying I think this administration here, in looking at the backup, did very well with having, I thought it was the right move to have meetings in person, reaching out directly to families, and

hearing their concerns. I believe we're doing the right thing right now. Looking at the backup that you provided, July of 2025 we had survey. November 2025 was our budget priorities. November 2024 was a budget planning survey. We did not have in-person meetings all of this year, and we haven't had any concrete proposals to change maps. We've only had surveys. We haven't really communicated with

parents up until now. And I believe if you were all here for the past year, the past two years, this would have been taken care of.

With that being said, it's April, I mean, now we're in May 5th, May 6th, and I think this is just last minute to make moves like this. I would be more comfortable, and I mentioned this to the administration, if there was a grandfather clause for students that are within their schools, because I don't think that's fair for a student that is there for whatever reason, and they want to stay within their

school to have to move schools. I know there's some specific reasons. Like I know with IEPs you need to have the appropriate staff and things of that sort within the schools. That's a little bit different, but with just with other students, having them move to no fault of their own, like if it's a fourth grade or a seventh grade, I don't think that's fair.

I did ask, I don't know if we have the numbers specifically on how many students could be affected by this. I did ask for that backup. Do we have the numbers? Yes, we do. I would just like to address that comment. Colin, if I may, Mr. Dias. First of all, I appreciate you acknowledging that the team has gone out and had public conversations with our parent and parent meetings. I think

it is critical for the district to continue to get out and talk about growth, our programming, our superintendent has acknowledged it two or three times this evening about getting out talking about different state of the school address state of the union or state of the school address where we are in the budget that is something that I've been saying I think I'm three and a half weeks today is my month

anniversary on May 6th they started April 6th I agree with you that the leader should be out in front been talking and I have done that for the last couple of weeks. Redistricting came to my focal point at one point where they said we've been working on this, we've been doing this for two years, we really need to get there. I just offer two thoughts. I understand that parents, community members will say this

is a hardship. You can grandfather this this year, you can grandfather this next year, every year we will have parents that will come forward and say, please don't redistrict, please don't move, please don't have, don't do this. And we will understand that. But at some point, whether it's this year, next year, or the following year, whatever the school committee decides how we move forward with redistricting,

no matter when we go to redistrict, There will always be an SEL issue, a specialized program issue, a building issue, a transportation type of issue. And parents get involved with their schools and PTOs and PTAs and love their teachers, and I understand that. And that's why we wanna have communication, and we are asking for parents to contact us now. Let us, we've got, I don't

know, how many school days till June 1st? Or how many, it's May 6th, 26 days, 27 days left, 28 days till June 1st. If we can get to June 1st, and let's see how many parents contact us. If it's overwhelming, we can't handle it. I do believe this team can handle it, but maybe we come to you and say, This may not be the right direction this year. We're asking,

we'll take some more time. But I ask you to give the latitude to this team. Give us some time. We'll continue to go out if we need to. We will continue to ask, and I have asked, I don't know if any, I've been at every meeting. I wanna thank Mrs. Stewart. She was at a meeting. Mr. Dias, you came to a meeting. You came, you saw the parents, people asked you questions.

I know they saw both of you. I think Mr. Dias, you were at two meetings. My biggest message was we're going to communicate, we're going to listen, we're going to hear you, and we're going to do the best for your child. All I ask is to, we've got numbers here, I think Kevin has some, not yet. They are working on buses. I have asked for the transportation on the

costs and what would it be like if we were to move buses or take a bus offline? What would the financial backing be on that?

there be a savings, would there be an addition? But to that point, we do have some enrollment numbers, but on the other hand, I don't, we have not had a lot of pushback at this point, Mr. Dias. We don't, we haven't. There may be a few, but our office has not been, the superintendent's office on Dr.

Smith's side, my office, from what I'm hearing from Pace, it has not been overwhelming nor inundated with calls or emails at this time.

So we're asking if this is the first reading of it or if you hold your vote, we have a meeting on June 3rd, we would have on June 1st, a better indication of how many people that are asking to move or not to move at this point. It has not been an overwhelming or inundated call center at this time. And so I would just- I appreciate your answer. Yeah, and

I let Brian talk about the numbers. I just wanted to point out, this is a multi-year plan. The drawing of the maps, we didn't do major changes to the maps. There are basically 40, not 40, but many parts of the city that we did change some big, some small, and Henry Lloyd having the biggest two schools for the elementary level being changed. We've looked at data all year. We've been looking at

data and watched our enrollment over the, you know, several years go up, up, up, and up. And now we're at a point now that we're plateauing. So for example, this, every month we do enrollments and withdrawals. So we had 61 enrollments this past month and 77 withdrawals, so we're, you know, negative nine there. whereas last year we were plus 33. For the last four, from January through the end of April this

year, we had 157 kids less between the enrollments and the withdrawals.

So we're actually plateauing. If I went back two years ago, the increases were double and triple those numbers to our good. So now one of the reasons why we're saying this is multi-years, because A, any grade level, that has a change may not work for every single grade level within that neighborhood.

Meaning that in grade three, we may have the room to move them back and we will make that the attempt. And in other cases, it could be like you said with Henry Lord, that Lordy said, we may not be able to do that and they'll be able to stay. We're opening up the request process, the permit process much earlier than we ever had before. We're guaranteeing to review it earlier. we have

before and make those decisions. I just want to point that out that we do a lot of different changes besides neighborhood schools. There's things with ELL, dual language, special needs, classrooms. A lot of different things are happening that will affect identifying more classrooms where we can have more neurotypical classrooms to our schools.

All the pre-k relocating to Conley. The dual language moving to green will open up space at Viverus. We have a thousand kids who could live in Viverus neighborhood that could go there if we have the space. We only have less than 500 that live in Viverus going there. So we're trying to get more kids back to the neighborhood school as an overall theme. But obviously parents always have that right to request

a permit. And we'll review it. It's not a quick review. It's a review by a lot of people. And it's, you know, I think just to the administration's point is we've had in the past, we finally last year straightened up the policies around transfer requests. So I'm hopeful and I'm positive that will be strictly followed, that we don't run into this mess in the future. And of course we need students,

we want them going to their neighborhood schools. We want to make the maps equitable and right. And we want, of course, lower costs. So that's... If I can just ask a follow-up question on the budget we just approved, did we take into account any proposed redistricting when we passed this budget or are we going to need any budgetary changes? At this time we're not going to need

any additional changes, no. So the budget we passed was in anticipation of possible redistricting? Yes, that's been accounted for. Okay. Last question is, I have a targeted question on transportation, and this actually comes from the meetings. I did email about this, is the dual language program.

How does the transportation work? Do they follow the policy of one and a half or whatever the number is specifically?

Yes, so with the program being moved, if it moves to green, any student that lives more than one mile from the school would then qualify for transportation. Okay.

Has that been the case this year? Yes. So it wasn't a free for all with the transportation? No. So at Vivares currently, any student that lives more than one mile from Vivares will get bused in. Okay. Thank you.

I yield. Ms. Stewart. When we talked about the redistricting like a month ago, I thought we were told that the fourth graders that are now that's going into fifth grade would be able to stay at the schools. Is that not the case?

For this plan, we're following the same recipe we did for the last time we redistricted, which was the Westall School opening up to alleviate Fonsky's in which fourth and fifth grade, fourth did move to fifth grade. And we also did the same recipe when we did Henry Lord, he has a community school about 10 years ago. The students did move. And again, the parents will have the right to stay. But

that is the plan for this year we're submitting is that they are going to move at all grade levels and then parents can request the permit and we'll review that. I just thought that that's what we had discussed.

That's what you guys had told us. and he had talked about it a month ago. I'm not sure if it was at that meeting, but I just know the many, many meetings we've had over the past year, many in the last two months, that was the outcome internally on our end. I'm not sure if it was something that was supposed to be separate from the previous superintendent or someone else, but obviously

that's subject to you changing that if you wish. Okay. Mr. Chairman. Anything further? Mr.

Corey. So if there is a child of a fourth grader, a parent of a fourth grader. And they petition you before June 1st on behalf of their child. Is there a chance that their request would be approved?

In many cases it will be granted, I'm not saying it will be, but again, based on the reason that they're asking for the request. The three reasons you can ask for a request is basically sibling in the school, from a district provost like special ed or ELL, hardship or just because you want to. Like you went to Tansy and you want to be a Tansy person. So your kids will be a

Tansy person. So those are things that we do, again, look at their, a lot of factors. But I understand it does stink that kids will have to move schools.

But I think the kids will bounce back and be fine in the end because many schools will reach out earlier and do their ice cream socials and popsicle socials sooner rather than later and make them They're welcome, but again, we are following the same recipe we did with Westall and previously with Henry Lord. Yeah, I understand that there's a lot of moving parts. What I'm asking for your team

to keep in the front is the social emotional factors of all of this and the sensitivity of each child in all of this. That's what I'm concerned about. Thank you, I yield. Mr. Aguilar. I've heard just today, they've been working on this for years. And this is something that got thrown into the new deputy superintendent and superintendent. But trust me

when I tell you, and the minutes and the meetings can tell you, if you talk to your team. These people have worked tirelessly for several years. Picture how frustrating that is to go to work every day, try to get the solid numbers, to be a professional. We'll make sure that we're given plenty of time for people to understand what's going on. And we still can't make a decision. Several years to

do a redistricting when we know we have students that live two blocks away from one school. That that school's filled up, so they have to bus that student across the city and pay because we filled up the school. I just can't believe that we're even finally getting to this because I've been so disheartened by the fact that we couldn't make a decision for years. So I applaud you all for what you're

doing. The issues that we talk about filling up, this is complicated. And we can't take willy-nilly votes, in my opinion, without trusting what the administration is doing that they know the back story on each and every one of these. For instance, I'm sure people aren't aware that if you have a situation like I just mentioned, and

that person had to be transported, The Pace Center actually tells that family, you're going to that school, we're gonna pay for the transportation now. But if there is an opening in your school, you're no longer gonna get that transportation. There's these little pieces that we all don't necessarily know, the minutia of every single situation. But I think

to me, it's a good part of governance, good governance, we talked about it with the DESE, is doing what we did at the last meeting. What we voted on at the last meeting by this full committee, was to allow the professionals sitting before us and the redistricting team to do what they needed to do in the best interest of kids in this district. And make sure that they're gonna do what they

have to do. Because we can't keep kicking it down the road. The deputy superintendent said it, if we don't make the decision now, next month we're gonna make it.

Next year we're gonna make it. But we actually voted last month. give you all the authority, which is good governance, to say, you all know the details, you make the best decisions for the schools, and we're staying out of it. So I'm not even sure why we even have this on here to vote again, because as far as I'm concerned, we voted to give you that authority. And every single question that's

come up from Mr. Corey, Mr. Dias, or the public, or anybody, I have confidence that all the people sitting out there know full well the SEL needs, what's going to happen here, the hardships. There's going to be that level of individualized listening, caring about people, caring about kids. Nobody wants to pull a kid out of a class for their last year. The hardships are going to come in, the

notes are going to come in, but as a school committee, I think we need to take a stand and say we're allowing the administration to do what they need to do. So as far as I'm concerned, I don't think we need to vote, but if we have to, I'm supporting the administration to make the best decisions for the kids and the families. So if we want to take a vote, it says

discussion and first read. Discussion approved. Discussion approved. Discussion approved. I'm sorry. I was on the long one. What I'm saying is we voted last month to approve. Okay.

So I got a question too. Do the people know the students that are being moved right now in those families, have they already been contacted about where the student's going to end up? No, actually, so based on a favorable approval tonight, we have an action plan starting tomorrow morning on several fronts, special ed, ELL, PACE, transportation.

in which we're going to start to identify the students that we definitely have to contact. On Friday, every single school community will get a separate, unique one-pager through ParentSquad that's translated. It gives them all the outlines of all the changes for their schools, as well as links to the maps that shows any changes. If they're in Spets and Board, you'll see these. You know, Fonzie will see these. And

so that way everyone's being notified up front. It'll have the transfer request form in there as well, as well as a lot of other things specifically for that school.

And then we'll send the next two weeks going through the students we think candidates to move. We're going to be moving the dual students officially. We'll move into sub-separation program officially. And we'll start identifying as a team, which is basically Cindy Codan-Pace, Devin Transportation, myself, and several others. And we go over all the different grade levels and

rooms, and we have all kinds of things. We actually still know what we're doing.

I got one other question. Just one number, Bri. How many kids are we talking about moving, rough estimate? Without, you know, being, I think there'll be a few hundred at a minimum that are actually moving because of neighborhood reasons, neighborhood change to the zones. The rest would be because, you know, district programs are, you know, becoming, you know, moving from Spencer Ward to Sylvia to

put the whole program at Sylvia versus two different sites. And I want people to know that. A few hundred. I don't think it will be thousands and it won't be. Okay. The middle school has very minimal changes to it. So that's not really changing much. Okay. Our goal was to get more and down by 50 students for next year because it's already 120 over the opening capacity. And the elementary, we were

very strategic how we did it and And again, we want to take the next year to see the enrollment changes and then come back possibly. Again, like you said, this should be done on a regular basis. Every year should be reviewed and unfortunately I retire in a year. So who does it after that? I don't know, but at least I'll be available at this point. My last question.

As someone who's been to Westall a couple times, I thought that whole transition worked out very well. was not a lot of negativity associated with it when those initial students may have felt the shock of transferring schools, but when you go in there now, the place is humming along. I think even though we moved a lot of students out of Fonska back into the new West Hall, one of the reasons

why I think it was successful and some of the reasons we're doing with the Henry Lord and the various areas is because those students lived in that neighborhood, and so to them it's like now they're walking to Westall versus, you know, walking eight tenths of a mile to Fonsica. So I think it made it natural easy. To this day, I think that's one of the nuttiest things

I ever heard since I've been on the committee. When we asked, going to ask elementary school students to walk from Durfee Street to Fonsica, which to me is halfway across the city, I thought it was, you know, because of the geographic mile lines, I said, we must be out of our mind. But... Keep up the good work, congratulations, keep going. Mr. Cory. Just one more brief question. Madam Deputy

Superintendent, did I hear you say that maybe we could discuss this again at the June 3rd meeting? For some reason or other, I just don't want to feel rushed on this vote. I believe it says for vote. It's up for a vote.

It was vote. What I'm saying, you're the school, Superintendent, they're the school committee.

This would be the second reading, I think. This is the second reading? First reading, but on the last meeting. I'm getting conflicting news here. We've already voted to approve the redistricting. Yeah. Okay, so I don't know why we have discussion of votes. I just, for one, speaking for myself, I feel only... I'm in agreement with the entire plan. I just want to be able...

the parents of any affected child to be able to see what they have to do. You've got to have confidence in the ability of our counselors. I do, I have a lot of confidence in your ability. Our counselors and our staff to do what's right and work with those special cases and do what's best for the district.

I'm with Kevin if we have already voted. I don't know why it's back as a discussion and vote. Mr. Dias. I'm in agreeance. I think just an idea, just to call my colleagues concerned at the next meeting, maybe just a superintendent's update on how the transition has happened so we can be kept in the loop, I think. Absolutely. I fall in line with the superintendent's adage that she said communication is key to

the way we operate, and I think it will... We will communicate. As you can see, just in the short time working with the team that I have, I thought we're working well together and we're coming in, we're streamlined. And I've always worked by the six Ps. Prior preparation prevents poor performance.

The more prep that we have, the more organized we get, the more well-oiled machine we will be. I can tell you that the teachers and the team behind, that sit next to me or behind me, however you wanna say that, they're going to work hard, they're going to make sure that this is an easy transition and we're supported and we'll do the best that we can. We will,

We will prepare, we will organize, we'll be well managed. And when we come back again, I'll have more information. Dr. Smith. One of the things I want to say to the school committee, and this is very difficult, and I can assure you of a couple of things. One is if this information is going out to parents, let's say Friday, we'll make sure in your packet that you receive, and I haven't had

a chance to talk to you about the communication packet, we will have information because I assure you, you will get some phone calls. So to make sure you have that information. Number two, I do not know coming in, but Having had a parent registration center, you have PACE here. This is obviously a little different with the redistricting,

but hopefully you're getting a presentation each year. And usually this is a good time of year to talk to you about people that have requested changes, talks to you about enrollment at each school. So hopefully that's something that we do on a regular basis is have that kind of a presentation to the school committee. But thank you for supporting the team. They appreciate that, I really appreciate that, and we'll

continue to keep you updated. And Mr. Corey, having been a school adjustment counselor, I have great faith in the schools, in the principals, and there are going to be some students that have difficulty transitioning. I do as well, Dr. Smith, I have a lot of faith in them. But thank you for bringing that. Mr. Aguilar. I still believe that we voted, but instead of that, just to make it clear, I'm

going to make a motion to vote to approve the redistricting as done by the administration. Second. I have a motion and a second on item number 11-3.

Obviously, we've discussed it enough. Deb, would you please call the roll? Ms. Aguilar? Yes.

Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Moniz? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart?

Yes. Mayor Cookin? Yes. Item 11-4 is a discussion and first read of the following policies that were referred by the policy subcommittee and presented by Colin Dyess School Committee. Mr. Dyess, the first one is Powers and Duties BBA. Thank you. Give me one second to pull it up.

Quick question through the Chair to the Clerk. The proposed job description that attached to BBA? Yes. Yes, thank you. So the committee with this policy here, the only change we made was just to clarify that where the school committee attorney and the administrative assistant to the school committee is within the purview of the school committee. Other than that, I don't believe there

were any other changes to the policy. If- Mr. Dias, I have a question. Sure. Second to the last line or the line before legislative or policy making, the committee takes a broad view of its functions. That was added in. What does that mean? BBA?

I believe it says BBA right here. I don't see any changes. It says School Committee Powers and Duties.

BBA? BBA. Committee takes the board of its functions.

I think that is the MASC proposed policy. Yeah, but I thought that this one.

I don't believe we changed anything. This is here. It doesn't have that. Oh, I see. It takes a broad... They took the paragraph and re-altered it. Mr. Dyes, I got my answer. Thank you. Thank you. So I would like to make a motion. And the reason I think we should get away from first reason policies, we're going to be having a lot of policies. We're

going through a lot. And if we go through the first reads and second reads, we're going to have a lengthy agenda. If there's no objection, I'd like to make a motion to pass policy BBA through all readings and to amend the draft description as drafted.

Is this, are we on the administrative assistant to the? Yes. Yeah, so the administrative assistant is just being clarified within policy that they report directly to the school committee. And I should have talked about the job description. So to make the policy, the job description compliant with policy, if that's the committee's role, we're just changing

up the language to be that the administrative assistant to the school committee will report to the school committee or designee evaluated by the school committee in consultation with the superintendent. Can we take these individually? Yes. A little clearer, like I'm looking at BBA. I'll make a motion to pass BBA through all readings. Mr. Aguilar. So when BBA is the actual policy?

Underneath that there's two job descriptions. What I'm asking is if we can just do the job description separate so we know exactly what we're voting on. So policy BBA is that the one that the mayor was referencing? What is the only change in that? I'm asking to take three votes, I guess. Is there a change to that original? Nothing has changed. BBA, the only thing that's changed within the policy is just

clear that the administrative assistance reports to the school committee. We used the updated MASC.

There's no language changes in that policy. But do we need a vote on that?

BBA by itself. So what this policy subcommittee is doing, what Mr. Dias was talking about, is we're going to be reviewing all the policies in cycle. So even when we don't make a change, we'll bring it to the committee so it can be updated. But I agree with Mr. Dias. If we're not making any changes, we could probably skip a multiple read when we have... changes, we will probably still need

to do a first read and then a second read. But we're not making any changes to the policy. We're simply saying we've reviewed it, it's updated, and we'd like to repost it with the new date on it. So we need to vote for that? Yes. If I can respond, I believe we did make a, we just used the updated MASC language, which removed the administrative system to the school committee. That was

the only change. But that's not written in the policy. That's just in the job description. So I think Mr. Aguirre said let's just vote on the policy separately. From what I'm understanding you're saying is so that in the policy manual it will say as voted by on May 6th. You got it. Our goal is to put all the policies into a five year cycle so nothing is older than five years. We

have policies that date back to 2010 if not older at least. So this way everything's in a five year cycle. I agree. I just think it makes sense to do the one And then each job description is separate. You got it. Yes. So I make a motion to approve policy BBA through all readings.

Second. Second. We have a motion to second on approving the policy BBA. Any further discussion? Deb, call the roll. Mr. Agam? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr.

Monas? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve the proposed administrative assistant job description to conform with the new school committee approved policy as drafted in the backup. I had a question on that one too, but I'm probably going to be wrong. Who's the designee, Mr. Dias? It's school committee or designee. I was going to take a third vote on that designee. It's the

school committee. It's our administrative assistant. It just makes sense that they report to the school committee. That's what the subcommittee. Yeah, but it says school committee or designee.

Yes, the school committee can designate and designee if it chose to.

Give me an example of who we designate for that. So, I'll you have my colleagues. Let me know what you're talking about. So what happened is we put both of them here. There's two of them here because the old one who was the previous. clerk had, that's what it had in there.

That was the language that was there. So we just moved the language that was there from the old one to the new one is why it said designee before.

That's the only reason why it just moved it over. I just don't know who the designee would ever be. I agree. Okay. I'm just saying that's where it came from was the old language from the old one. That's the only thing I see.

Do we have a motion and a second on that job description? Second.

Deb, give it a call on the administration. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Corey, if I could ask my colleague just to explain what this role is, I just want an appraisal on the role. Thank you. As Ms. Stewart just stated, we just approved a policy. And the job description for the administrative assistant is just to conform with the policy we just approved. which is the position

we'll just report to the school committee or designee evaluated by the school committee in consultation with the superintendent. The changes as you see are highlighted on the second page as well. Yeah. That is the only change to the job description. I see.

So my question to you is, is this an additional person or who we already have? it would be whoever's filling the position, which is Ms. Capra. That's it, thank you. That's the clarification I needed to hear. Thank you, I yield. Anything further?

I have a clarification on that. On a day to day basis, the administrative assistant is reporting to the superintendent. Yes. Should it be the designee? All right, Ms. Riley.

That's what I was going to say. I think over the last several years, overlapping responsibilities have been given to the school committee secretary. And as we discussed earlier, we have a lot of meetings, a lot of subcommittee meetings, and a lot of minutes.

And we were just trying to clarify so that she's not assigned jobs that aren't necessarily assigned to the school committee, which is why the shift. And I'd like a chance to review this. You got it. Okay, thank you. Okay. Deb, call the roll please. Okay, Mr. Aguilar. So is this a first read based on what Ms. Riley said? I think it should be a first read so that Dr. Smith can take

a look at it. So we don't vote. No, I think it's going to be either the motion was made, so it either has to be withdrawn or- Mr. Chair?

Yep, Mr. Dive. Through you to Dr. Smith, do you see any, just with this one change, would you like additional time to review this or?

I think you can take a first read, I'm just- First read, okay. Okay, I'll withdraw my motion, I'll make a motion we pass through first read. Okay, next item, Mr. Dias. We have to take a second and vote. It's a little confusing, I think we take a vote on the first read, just so it's on the record that we did the first read. Okay, let's take a vote on the first

read. I have a motion to do the first read, do I get a second?

Second. All right, go ahead, give it a call. Mr. Dragnam? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes.

Mr. Corey? Yeah. Mr. Monas? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Cougan? Yes. Next up, Mr. Dias. Thank you. Policy BDG, we just used the updated MASC language. I believe there was very little to any substantive changes into the policy. It's just the updated MASC language around.

school attorney, I'd just like to take a specific note as to, I've had issue with this in the past, specifically around routine legal assistance, which doesn't require school committee approval. I just hope, and I'm confident going forward that this policy will be followed to a T. However, we have in the backup, we have the old language from 2010, which hasn't been changed. And now we have the

new updated MAC language. which again doesn't have basically any substantive changes to it. So I'll make a motion to approve through all reads.

All right, a second. Mr.. Yeah, maybe I could help a little bit on this. As the committee knows, I haven't asked for an extension of my contract or a new contract, and I don't intend to, so that I can weigh in on this without fear of any conflict and bias. With respect to the school committee policy over here, it doesn't seem to be

anything that's really changed at all. The only thing I would recommend is you put corporation council instead of town council in your new policy.

But I do understand that you're looking to see, and rightfully so, make some changes in terms of what the needs are of the school. of the department and looking at it in terms of the number of attorneys, what positions they would have, as well as whether it would be by contract or by an hourly basis. And I would be available to assist either the

subcommittee or the full committee with respect to that. I just caution everyone to be careful when you do it on an hourly basis. Because I know that if there was an hourly basis my contract over this past three years, thanks to Mr. Michon and his MTA people. I'd probably be summering in the vineyard right now.

And you guys would have somebody else up here. But I just caution you on that. If there's any assistance I can bring to the table, I certainly will, and best to all. Thank you. Mr. Edgar. I'm just looking at the back up and I don't see anything in yellow. I see two policies, two pages. The only thing we had corrected was it shouldn't say town council, that just for some reason didn't

come through. That was the only change we made. We changed it to corporation council, but for some reason that just didn't. That's it. That was the only change that was made to that policy. The policy is the same as it was before. Yeah.

No changes. So do we have a motion? Yeah. Just want to clarify, and we also changed the word town to corporation. Okay. Yeah. All right. I have a motion, a second. Second. Dev call the roll. I made the motion, I'm sorry. I know it's Mr. Dias who seconded it. Who seconded it? Kevin, I mean Mr. Agua.

Mr. Agua? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes.

Mr. Riley? Yes. Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. Thank you. Next item is policy BAA, which is the evaluation of school committee operational procedures. I just want to quickly thank my colleague, Ms. Riley, for mobilizing the evaluation subcommittee to really take this head on. And I agree with my colleague's prior comments.

I believe it's really good that we have a rubric that we go through to self-evaluate and improve. The only question I had just in preparation for this meeting through the chair to my colleague, chair of the evaluation subcommittee. language in here. I know the rubric, and I support the rubric. I'm going to support that when it comes up. The rubric itself, I believe, is just a little different than the

policy itself. I don't know if we should change the language just to match your rubric, or we just keep it as is just so it makes sense. I'll go to your advice on it. I just, we simplified, I simplified the rubric when I met with the evaluation subcommittee because similar to all evaluations, we all work on a million things at once. I just tried to

trim it down to the initial group of things we could start to work on.

Do you think we should keep this language? I think the rubric can be changed annually by the school committee when we update our goals, when we meet to do our self evaluations. I don't think we want to change the policy. We may add some of these things as we continue to improve our work together. We'll add more to our rubric and evaluation. Make a motion to pass the roll readings, BAA.

Second. I have a motion to second. Deb called the roll. On BAA.

Mr. Aguil? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yeah. Mr. Monas? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes.

Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes. Thank you. Next item is policy BIA. And I believe what we did here was take the updated MASC language around school committee member orientation. I don't believe there's anything that we changed of substance in here. It's just clarifying when you're a new member what information you're receiving and just what the clarifying policies around

visits, requesting information, responding to community requests and handling confidential information. I think we should pass it as is. I think maybe the superintendent working with the school committee leadership can make some sort of welcome packet. For example, it has all the items like the policy manual, which is in the policy here, the policy manual, the open meeting law, ethics, budget,

having that all within one welcome packet I think would be great. And then maybe making some sort of procedures on your own around, well, we have policies already for to schools, but maybe some procedures around information requests, community requests, and the other sorts. But yeah, I think we should pass the policy as is, but I think

there's more room to develop procedures around this. But no question, I'll make a motion to pass through all readings. Just a reminder, Mr. Dias. Ms. Riley. These will be live links. That's right. So we don't have to submit. So you don't have to wait for a packet. It doesn't show up on here, but Deb just reminded me there'll be live links on our website. So when it says a copy of the

policy manual, that will be a link to the manual. A copy of the current budget, that will be a link to the budget so that you don't have to wait for all the items. One of the things I would suggest with new members, I have done this in the past, is when new members come on board, although they have this available to them, to have a meeting with the superintendent, members of

the school committee, the chair, vice chair, and kind of go over some of these things if there are any questions. Support that, thank you. I have a motion by Mr. Dias. Did I get a second on that? Second. I have a second, Mr. Agua. We had asked at a prior meeting about chairman training. And I think we're all going to do that because the law says that when you're a new

member, you need a mandatory training. But if you're a new mayor and you become the chairman of a committee all of a sudden, right? There's no law or regulation that says you have to have training on how to be a chair of a meeting. We determined that all of us chair meetings at some other time, so we're going to do, I believe, one jointly. But I think, I don't know if it's

the right place to put it, but we should put a placeholder on everybody's mind there. There needs to be a policy around that. And I actually have a copy of the role of the chair on my desk as we speak. Everybody got a copy of it a while back. Thank you. If I could briefly just quickly respond.

The policy, and I actually had that similar question when I had this up, if we should put some of that training language or make this some sort of training policy. Maybe we can put something within a policy specifically around trainings if it's the... I wouldn't mind looking at that over the summer, so we'll take a look. Thank you. I have a motion and a second on new school

committee member BIA policy. Deb, call the roll. That was to approve all rates, correct?

Yes. Mr. Agat? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corrigan? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes.

Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. Finally, school committee member authority BBAA?

Mr. Dias. Thank you. This was one that was passed back and forth from subcommittee back up. There was some concerns, so we passed it back down.

We adopted the language of Attorney Assad's recommendations to clarify some of the language of what we can or cannot do. So I will make a motion to approve. All readings. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second. Any discussion on the final one? Member authority? Hearing none, Deb call the roll.

Mr. Hagel? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Ronas? Yes. Ms. Riley?

Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. 11-5 is the human resource director's job description. Chief Financial Officer. Chief Financial Officer. What do I have? Sorry.

What? Is this the other one?

He's got the email. That might have been on a subsequent draft. On the draft, yes. Sorry guys. No. So I have update on- What the mayor just mentioned is we need to do that too, so. I'm not sure why we, you know, maybe we take this one and then talk about that. Update, Chief Financial Officer job description is presented by Dr. Kathleen Smith, Interim Superintendent of Schools. First

of all, it is with regret that we accept the resignation of Kevin Almeida. He has been in the district many years. He has, you know, certainly kept the district afloat during good times, you know, bad times. So I really want to thank him and He came to me on my first day, I know it was difficult for him. I think I was there before 8 AM and he was there at 8.05.

So that was the beginning of my Friday. But that being said, I did try to find a job description. You look at this as back in 2008. We think there might have been one in 2011, I believe when you were hired, Mr. Alameda?

I looked and I couldn't find another one now. So what I'm presently doing is I'll work with the school committee. I'd like to take a look at. updated versions of this particular job and as soon as possible start to come up with a job description. I also, interesting enough, MASBO is having their, that's the Mass Business Officers Conference coming up I believe next week. I had not planned to attend, I

will go there, it happens to be in Falmouth, which is where I am, so I will start out my day there to start to take a look and have some conversations about organizations making sure we're able to advertise to get a wide net to come to fall with. Thank you. Anything on the, Mr. Aguia? So since this one is from 2008, I guess it just as a normal practice doesn't get

updated when we update the range. So this one says 90 to 115. You're talking the same way? Yeah. So I think in an effort, Without the details of the piece and understanding that the superintendent just came in, we have to be realistic with the range of what's more appropriate to attract someone. So based on what the superintendent just said, she's going to be going to a conference. Potentially there could be somebody

there that wants to get the job. They're going to ask her, what is the school committee range? And she can't tell them 115. So I'm being facetious, but it's time sensitive. So at a bare minimum, I think we need to make a range that you can have so you go in knowing okay the school committee has your support to hire whatever. What is Mr. Almeda's current salary? So

my current salary is 176,500. In the? Currently. Currently, so as of July 1? It'll be around 180,000. Yep. So I think we need to obviously be in that range somehow based on experience. What is the recommendation that you might have for us on just a range of number like So we can vote on it. What I need to do is certainly look at the area here, look

at what we're competing against. I can look at Brockton, I can look at Taunton, I can look at other area districts and what if we want to be competitive.

And we want to attract certainly a talent to come here. So I can get back to you, which is exactly what I'm doing. I've already reached out to some questions. No, I understand. I'm just trying to make sure that we give you some So I make a motion that we approve the salary range from 160 to 200,000.

Good. Second. All right, the motion and the second is to approve the salary range for the new chief financial officer from 160 to 200,000. Deb, call the roll. Mr.

Chairman? And Mr. Agar. And while we're at it, we have another opening in human resources. Same conversation is going to happen. relative to some language that we might want to put in, you might want to put in. But the salary needs to be upgraded to attract someone as well. Relative to that, if you're out recruiting someone. So I'd like to amend the motion to have that same salary range

be for the human resource director. Second. So CFO and HR? It gives you a range. Can I ask if you're going to be making that salary range? Is that a, that to me sounds like a senior level position. So you're calling it a director? Do I have the authority to start to look at titles as to- Absolutely. That office needs some, certainly. Absolutely.

We've been talking about what is it going to look like as far as the language in the contract? Is it going to be called, and at some point we wanted a deputy slash HR director. We talked about another assistant superintendent, but- Your salary I think is just something that we can easily do to say that there's the appetite to be in that range. And then you can come in with whatever and

if that range isn't great, come back to us next month. But I want to at least give you some opportunity if a great candidate comes up that you can actually pull the trigger. Thank you. Thank you. So I think we have to full verse on Mr. Aguilar's amendment or take them both at once. Can I do them at the same time? I think you amended it. Amendment first, yeah. The amendment to

add. Human Resource Director at the new scale of, what is it, 160 to 200?

160 to 200. So I have a motion and a second on that. Deb, call the roll. Is Mr. Dias who second it? Yes. Mr. Aga? Yes.

Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yeah. Mr. Monas? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart?

Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. Now back to the Chief Financial Officer at 160 to 200.

Deb, call the roll please. Mr. Dias? Yes.

Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan?

Yes. Okay, so knowing full well that Dr. Smith and her team are going to work on the job descriptions with a base salary. Do we have anything further on that right now? Hearing none, I'll go to 11-6, which is a discussion and vote to approve the school committee self evaluation tool and rubric as referred by the evaluation subcommittee and presented by Ms. Riley School Committeewoman. Motion to approve.

Second. Second. I have a motion to second. Question. Did you want to say anything, Dr. Riley? Mrs. Riley. Ms. Riley, I'm sorry. Just that I think this is a good step forward. We've been talking a lot about improving how we work together, really becoming a team. I love Dr. Smith's idea about retreats and working together. And so I think this is another step to that. This is just a review of how

we operate, how we operate together as one team, and that we take the time to rate ourselves, to evaluate how we're doing, and provide some opportunities for either more professional learning or for discussion on how we can improve in whatever area we feel is lacking. Anything further?

Hearing none, Deb, would you please call the roll on 11-6. Mr. Aguil? Yes. Mr.

Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yep. Mr. Monas? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes.

Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. 11-7 is a discussion, a vote to approve the start and end times for school year 26-27. Motion to approve.

As presented by Ken Pacheco, I have a motion to second. Any discussion on start and end times? By anyone up here, Mr. Aguilar? Just a question on the, I'm trying to find the copy, but I think there was one change and it said, if I recall, that it's to tier one extra route. So financially, obviously that would be a good thing if we can tier a route. Is there any other tiers available under the current

changes? I ask the same question every year. I'm noticing one adjustment that needs to be made that's not related to that, that I just wanted to share if possible while we're on it. So in the budget, from what I understand, Talbot ELT, sorry, in the budget, from what I understand, Talbot ELT was eliminated. And so that change needs to be represented here as well with a 2.15

dismissal. And I'm noticing that it's still the current time of 2.45. So I just wanted to make sure, I think, Mr. Almeda, that was proposed in the last budget cycle. Transportation knew that? Excuse me? Transportation knew that? Like, is this happening? No, I believe they knew that. I just think this might have been a typo here for this on the sheet. So I just

wanted to mention it while we're on the topic. The only other question I had was on the instructional hours of a K-8 school versus a traditional school. Is it the- 900. Typically- If it's K-8, they don't go by the middle school. They use the elementary 900, yes, for the community school. And we're obviously over that. Yes. But if we were middle, they would. It's a slightly shorter day for elementary. Exactly.

That's interesting because that, I guess if you're in a K to 8 school, you minimize your instructional hours by 90 per year in the K to 8 school versus a traditional middle school. I think all of our schools are slightly above the required, right? So I don't think we have any schools that are right at the 900 or 990. But in the community school, I believe you can utilize the

elementary hours. Sounds good if you say so, Mr. Chair. I think further, Mr. Dias. Thank you. RPA, I thought it would be on the agenda for today, but I know it's not.

The start and end times, I know this is really something that's in flux.

However, with the current model that we, approved or half approved was there will be, I thought the end time in some of the, the virtual school is separate from RPA and we approved the opening of a virtual school. And we have transportation for those virtual schools. Shouldn't that be in this as well?

The program, the virtual program. We haven't approved the virtual school program yet.

Have we started the application process? Yes. Do you want to speak to that? So it would have to be amended if it's approved by Dusty? I would assume that would be the process that we would take, but we are now awaiting feedback from the department in regard to that virtual school application. Okay. I guess we'll assume we're going to hear over the summer and we'll have it up

and running for the next school year. That is the goal?

So we're fine with keeping the language as is for RPA, the transportation? Currently the start at end times. As of right now, as of today, yep. Okay, I yield.

Anything further on start and end times? Mr. Rangio. Did I hear Mr. Dyer say virtual schools are going to need transportation? I'm not being facetious, but I don't think that. I think we approved the virtual school application. I was referring to, I said virtual school, I was referring to Evolve. Sorry.

So, I know you just said where we're at. I think we already approved the virtual, that we want to go forward with the virtual school model. Just the details, I guess, is all we're waiting on. Right? Yeah, I believe that. I think we're waiting on the DESI piece. We need to then bring that plan forward to get a formal approval. As we know, we already have students who are in the virtual

pathway. We've also been meeting with all of the students at RPA, so we have a better sense of where students are interested in landing. So I feel very confident that we will be able to move forward in regard to an August launch with a virtual school. Sounds good, thank you. Anything further? Deb, call the roll on start and end times for school year 26-27. Mr. Igev? Yes. Mr.

Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mary Coogan? Yes. 11-8 is a discussion and vote to approve the following job description referred by Facilities and Operations and presented by Ken Pacheco, Chief Operating Officer. The job is the refrigeration appliance repair service technician. Motion to approve. I have a motion to

approve. Second. Do I have a second? Second. Do I have any concerns or questions on this job at all? If there were none, Deb, call the roll please.

Ms. John again? Yes. Mr. Dias? No. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? No.

Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes. Mr. Chair?

I just want to quickly rationalize my no vote. I was coming into here. I was actually looking to approve it. However, in terms of policies, in terms of getting the backup, backup itself was provided the last second so I did not have time to go through it and I think in terms of the committee I know we want to have a rule where if we don't receive all the backup the item doesn't go on and I

just think we just need to be consistent otherwise I likely would have voted for this position and I trust that the administration will make sure that we are keeping the cost down which I'm happy about and this is the goal is to keep the cost down and next year I'm looking forward to seeing that report. That is actually the case. I yield. Thank you. Chairman? Mr. Aguiar. I know we voted on

it, but this is a position that's gone through several iterations with Mr. Pacheco. The intent here is actually to save money and get more productivity out of the amount of money we spend in the cafeterias for repairs. So we pushed back a little bit, the committee did what they had to do. We looked at the invoices to see what we're going to pay. There's still some lingering questions on what somebody can

and can't do as far as repairs. But I just wanted to make it very clear that my impression is that if we spent $110,000 in that for the current year, now that we add a position, that we're not going to go over that $110,000 combined between the individual as well as a vendor. Now if it goes over, other than a catastrophe, it's going to look real,

we said we were going to save money. So I just wanted to lay it out there, that's why I supported it. To me it's a cost savings and we're going to get more productivity. And I believe it's an 80-20 split, if I recall.

So 80% is going to be coming out of the nutrition account, 20% is going to come out of the district. So I just wanted to rationalize why I supported it and I look forward to working with you in the future. Yes, it is 80-20. Thank you. Mr. Dyes. Very quick comment. I do also want to appreciate, I know Mr. Moniz really advocated for making sure we have

the appropriate licensing for it. So I want to appreciate Mr. Pacheco and the administration for adding in that piece. So, and I echo my colleagues' comments. Thank you. 11-9 is a discussion and vote to approve prepaid tuitions as presented by Kevin Almeida, Chief Financial Officer. So in your documentation, I provided you with an update as to

what we paid for July through September of this year. I've projected what a 5 to 8% increase would be for next year. And so at this time, I'm requesting the ability to prepay tuition in this year's budget in 2026 for 2027 tuitions from July through September. an up to amount of $2,750,000.

Motion to approve with a question. I have a motion, do I have a second?

Second. I have a motion, second, Mr. Dias. Thank you, I don't believe we did this last year. I guess my one question would be is, and I hate looking back at things, but just to look back, what's different this year than last year, why we made the- So last year the reason we didn't do it was because We were in the middle of negotiations still with a couple of

our unions and so I needed to be sure that we had enough funding in the budget last year to cover those negotiations. Thank you.

Deb, can I get a roll call on that please? Mr. Mayor. Mr. Aguilar? Related to the amount, where can we tie that back to where that money's coming from? Agenda items where all those transfers are coming from? So we have, so in addition to that with this request, I'm requesting that the ability to move the 2.7 million within the budget to cover this.

So. Right, so in essence, we probably should have taken this as a after vote, I would guess. Because we're now voting for this, then we're going to vote for the transfers to pay for it. What is the maximum amount that you, is the 2.75 million the maximum? That's the max. That's what I'm saying the maximum amount is, yes. That legally we could do, or is that the maximum amount that

you can do? So the max I can do is three months. And at this time, the best estimate I can give you at this time is up to that $2.75 million. So we're not leaving any prepaids on the table. I can't tell you that something's going to change in the next two months. No, but as you know right now, that's basically it. Yes, exactly. Thank you very much. May that call the

roll please. Ms. Draghi? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monis?

Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Abstain. Mayor Coogan?

Yes. 1110 is a discussion and vote to approve the third quarter transfers. Presented by Kevin Almeda, Chief Financial Officer. So within your packet, you have.

We have a total of 658,000 transfers into several cost centers. The first cost center is ART, second cost center is insurance. The PACE, special ed, Watson and Westall.

The largest transfer is required in special ed and insurance for several reasons as noted within the documentation in your backup. With that, I'm asking for your approval tonight. Mr. Chair. Mr. Dias. Thank you. A few questions. First, I know we have a transfer due to an increase which we discussed in tuition, special education tuitions to out-of district places.

When we prepare for the budget each year, do we build in the potential, oh, there could be a 3% increase or 2% increase or do we just, when we build the budget do we just go with the amount in the prior year? Yes, we build on an increase. So the transfer, so the projections or the actual costs when, are projected higher than what we projected them to be?

Yes. Okay. A few questions here.

So in our indirect cost agreement, and I look briefly at the indirect cost agreement again. So we currently have any legal settlements covered on the school side and wouldn't be covered on the city? Legal settlements, we cover through our side, yes. Okay.

For Fonseca, the VP of Fonseca I know was I know they transferred mid-year, which is why we're doing the cost. Would that decrease the Talbot cost center at all?

I'm sorry? So the VP of Fonsica transferred from Fonsica to Talbot or one of the VPs. Yeah. Would there be any changes to Talbot's cost center? Not at this time. Okay. I know, so I still see that we're trying to do a transfer to save with some, the vacated para positions, have we, those positions, I don't know which specifically they are in the budget, I'm not sure if it said, I think it

was special education paras, but have we made any effort to try and fill them or are those covered by one of the outside companies that fill?

So we still have several paras that are covered by agencies, but we're doing our best we can in house to fill. positions as people are applying. So the money to cover a vacancy for using an outside position, where would that money come from? Is that specifically in the school cost? Is that a special education? It's in the school cost, yeah. And the salaries, are they below?

The salaries we pay the companies is significantly above what the salary is for the actual position. They are, yes.

Last question I would have, I don't know if the superintendent has any thoughts on the policy of transfers. I'm not sure how it is in other districts.

However, the 50,000, is that we receive some sort of explanation? Is that normal in other districts? How would that? I'm sorry, what are you referring to? Are transfers normal in other districts? When you say transfers, are you talking funding transfers? Yes.

When we do budget transfers? Yes. When we receive, I guess I don't know how it is and if we're looking through these, because we're not going to have another one for a couple months, so I figured I would ask now, or if you want, if we can talk maybe through policy, if there's, do you support the current model of how we do transfers here? I think I need an opportunity to

really review some of your practices in the business office. The reason I mention it is because I've advocated in the past that we should potentially, if the budget is within the entire purview of the school committee, I believe we should receive explanations pretty much on all transfers. So I just wanted to just make my position clear, something we could talk about in the future. I yield, thank you. Mr.

Haggio. So on that last issue, I think Our policy is that we have quarterly transfers and it's utilizing projected expenses. So I think we should take a peek at it because we just transferred $2.7 million this quarter that we probably knew was there second quarter. So there's some probably language there where when we knew that we had in the second quarter $2.7 million in

available funds to transfer, we didn't transfer it. Now in the third quarter, we're actually transferring 2.7 million. So unless that 2.7 million came out of somewhere between the second quarter and third, there's just probably a technicality of we're not necessarily doing quarterly transfers in my mind. But a couple of requests. One is can we get through the superintendent what we have left over when all is said

and done here? It's at the bottom of the sheet. Yeah, as long as it's.

I don't want to say not accurate, but for instance, all of these transfers were exactly $100,000. That's not just coincidence. You know what I'm saying? It's to get you to the 2.7. I totally understand that.

But there's other money available in other lines that we should know under separate cover.

The circuit breaker funds that are in the other That's not being touched, that's sort of- The plan is to carry over the full year's reimbursement- What we see is the remaining balance- Correct. Unencumbered, uncounted for. And the agency transfers is another one that we talk about all the time. So once again, quarterly. If we had a person, for instance, that has given school since September

fill in an agency rather than a salary. If we are doing with fidelity quarterly transfers, that first quarter should have transferred some, that position would have been transferred from school salaries to the, it comes out in the wash a little bit, it's probably a little bit more money. But I just think we need to, as we move forward, look at the quarterly transfer language to make sure that we're not inadvertently

not following the policy, even though it's more functional to probably leave it there. So I just think we need to. up some of those things and I know we got you for a few months, right, Mr. Almeida? I'm sorry? We still have you for a few months, so. You've got me for a couple months. All right, so we can talk about it. Thank you very much, I yield. Anything further on the

third quarter transfers, Ms. Stewart? I just have one question. Why are all of the principals over? I'm sorry? Why are all of the principals' budgets over?

Why are all the principals' budgets over? All the principal's salary lines. because we updated their salary tables after I did the budget last year. And so that changed some of those salary amounts. And it's because of people that would have come into positions that were in there. Within the principal's salary line, there are also other positions in there. So we have department heads, we have vice

principals in there. There are people we would have hired, the salaries would have been a little higher than what was budgeted for. So those- That's in the principal's line?

Yes. It's not just the principal's salary. Gotcha. So principals is vice principals too, everybody's in that same line? Yes. Okay, thank you.

Have you closed purchasing for the year? No, we'll close it June 15th.

June 15th, you're so brave. I know. It's a big district. I already closed mine. It's a big district. Yeah, no, I get you. So if lines are running in the red, do they have to ask for your permission before they run in the red? Yes. Okay. Mr. Chair? Sorry, just one final follow-up question from my colleague's question. For principals, and I might go further into this in the general budget update, just

The principals, in the last year, has anyone received an increase in salary?

This year? Yes. Yes. Were all those school committee approved?

All the salary ranges were approved by the school committee. They were approved by the school committee and the superintendent? In executive session. Okay. Yes. Okay, thank you. Let's call the vote on 1110 third quarter transfers. Deb, please. I need a motion. A motion to approve. I have a motion and a second. Second. I have a motion and a second. Mr.

Agam? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes. Mr. Riley?

Yes. Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes. 1111 is a discussion and vote to approve the third quarter revolving fund as presented by Kevin Almeida, Chief Financial Officer. Motion to approve. Thank you.

Question? Second. I have a motion and a second. Mr. Dias?

Thank you. Just a question on this. So if we charge, I'm just trying to understand the language here. So we charge vendors for, all outside vendors for security and overtime? We charge them a fee and as part of it is that cost, yes. To cover, because I've seen one bill and like I, I don't know if it's across the board that we itemize for security, for custodian.

So I guess my question would be, so why is the $26,000 being transferred? I'm just trying to understand the process. So what we've done historically is the only expense that you see within the report for the quarter is the transfer from last month. All over time associated with the use of schools account is charged to the operating budget. And every quarter I come to you with what that

total is per quarter. And upon your approval, that money is then transferred to the use of schools account. So we accumulate a total of what that is for you every quarter. And upon your approval, we transfer it over. Thank you. Just one final question. So are there any, because I know we have a specific policy for use of schools. Are there any organizations that use our facilities that might

require that security and that overtime? I know some, like if it's a small neighborhood association, they wouldn't have security there. But is there any that require both those that we don't charge or is it pretty much? No. No? Okay, thank you. 11-11, vote to approve the third quarter evolving fund. Any further discussion? Deb Calderon.

Mr. Droghant? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yes.

Mr. Ramones? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes. 11-12 is a discussion and vote to approve the year to date budget report as presented by Kevin Almeida, Chief Financial Officer. Any discussion?

Mr. Chair. Mr. Dias. So I have a few questions.

We recently saw the audit of the city expenses, which includes the school department as well. The nutrition account, and I know we brought up this issue last year. I believe it was in the eight millions last year, and this year it's 9.6. Could you please, and it was flagged in an audit, so can we talk about what we've done through the past year to resolve that issue? I just want to make a point of

clarification. Go ahead. That this item is on the agenda for Monday night's facilities meeting, just so you know. So I would recommend that we hold off on questions until Monday when everyone's more prepared for it because it's actually the first item on the agenda. Thank you. I have other questions, but I'll hold off on that until Monday.

Thank you. The snow removal. I know we saw batches over the winter come in. What accounts does snow removal come out of? Within the facilities cost center. My question would be, and when I saw the indirect cost agreements, snow removal is a city expense. Wouldn't those be directly billed to the city?

So the city, depending on what part of the city, Part of the operation falls on the city, so all of the snow removal, not snow plowing, but snow removal, anything taken off site would be part of the city's expense. So those are passed through, we don't touch them. We get involved in the selection of the contractors, do the assigning. But the city pays? And then the city pays those bills,

yes. What do we touch? You said which ones don't pass through?

For snow plowing within the district. So for instance, not all of the work that was done during the blizzard was the city's responsibility. We still had to clean sidewalks, we still had to clean our parking lots. The snow hauling part of it was on the city's expense. Right, I guess- And that would be a regular storm. Advocating for the school department, when I see the indirect cost agreement and it says no

removal, I would take the position that covers everything. anything that has to do with snow should go right to the city. No, it never has. I can tell you for 10 years on the DPW side, those charges were basically a cost that kind of like maybe the auditing department or the other expenses as a percentage of the city services that part of the indirect cost agreement. Snow

removal is one of those pieces, okay? In any given snowstorm, you will see city vehicles coming through our property. Whether they're helping out on a salting operation, whether they're taking care of the surrounding streets, adjacent properties, as part of that. So on the city side, those expenses end up on an indirect cost agreement. They're not outright snow removal. Thank you. If we can, I think at the next

meeting, I know this was brought up at the joint meeting, if we can get an update. on the negotiations on a new indirect cost agreement. I know the superintendent wasn't here, but I know we're currently in negotiations for that. It'd be nice if we get an update. The Medicaid reimbursements, and I know my colleague Mr. Agar has touched on this extensively.

In the indirect cost agreement, it's a school department expense, so it just makes sense to me that we that it shouldn't be that in terms of any net school spending arrangement, it should be based off our agreement, it should be covered by us.

I'm not sure why the city would claim it. My last point I'm gonna make, and I've been very, very vocal, is the warrant process. If,

I don't know if we should touch on this in policy. We have to touch on it at some point in my opinion. And I just don't think we're doing it the right way. Many communities have the monthly warrant process within, they have it on the agenda and it's approved monthly. I know that there's other expenditures that, the only expenditures that should be on there is the

the expenditures that we've done from the prior month. I know there are some that are going to be later. However, I still think it would be easier on both ends if it's just in a monthly report. You can even be on a consent.

And we can ask the questions beforehand and the process would go much more smoothly. What we do right now in the district is we send them to different members of the committee to sign off. And it's broken apart, I don't think, and it's on the agenda for later, I don't think that follows the open meeting law. And I just don't believe that's the way it should be

done. And I think we need to get more backup within the documents themselves. I know when Mr. Repozo was working, he put in some policies and we've seen some improvements, but I think there's a lot more that has to be done, improving the warrant process. Mr. Stewart? If I could speak first. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry, Mr.

Almeida. So what I will say is our process has been very slow in the past, and it hasn't improved much. I was hoping that with the electronic process that things would go a little bit smoother, a little bit faster. As far as the documentation goes and everything that's attached, we attach...

my voice is to all the bill schedules, everything is there. I think if you make it a process where it's gonna go into a monthly basis, it's just gonna delay the process even more. I'm just gonna put that out there. I understand, I get if you wanna change the process a little bit, but to take away the ability to process the bills on a weekly basis and to try to get

them signed, it's gonna slow down paying vendors even more than it currently is. So I just wanna say that publicly. Let's do it. I agree and disagree with Mr. Dias. I do agree that we need to change up the process a little bit, but I disagree with doing it monthly. I think that things need to get paid a little faster than they already do. I do not agree with doing it

monthly. I think that things will get paid way too late and we already have issues with that. Changing it up some, absolutely, but doing it on a monthly basis, I think that that's way too long to do it monthly. May I respond? Mr.

Dias. I guess there's two points. The guidance from MASC, and they do provide guidance on warrants in the law. I'm not an attorney, but the way I read that is it's supposed to be a monthly. The way I read that, that's actually the law. I'm not sure. And I've looked at other agendas from other communities, and they have monthly warrants.

Some city, for example, the Redevelopment Authority has monthly warrants. I know they have many less expenditures than us. However, I don't know if it's, I don't know if. So what I'll say is we followed what the MASC guidance was at the time. And so we've since updated our policy. We went from four signatures down to two signatures, but what we have done is every month when

I provide you with the documentation and executive session, it's the whole warrant of what's been processed in that month. And I summarize all the batches and all of the bills are all there that you can see. I don't have the documentation for the bills because they've already been approved, but I have a listing of every single thing that was processed for the month for the warrant, the warrants that were approved. So

everything is there. We are still following a process. I appreciate that. Last question is, whatever contract we pay, once it passes as it goes to the city, has there been any issue in paying a vendor after that point? I know I asked the question beforehand, has there been any issue paying a vendor after it's been signed off by the committee? You get the occasional, this account is slightly over, and

so we correct things slightly.

This year we've cleaned up our procurement process quite a bit and so as far as all of our documentation and everything goes and so things have been a little bit slower this year, I will say, because of the additional amount of time required with the paperwork and everything but as far as there being an actual holdup on the city side, I wouldn't say there's this major holdup on the city side, it's

just a clean up of our procurement, that's all. Just because I mentioned it, I think they're just want to make sure once the school committee signs off on a contract or purchase order that it is signed off by the city, we're making sure those vendors are being paid on time. So they're not having to pay out of pocket and they're not running into issues. Understood. Thank you. Mr. Aguilar.

On that issue, I'm going to try to tie it into this quarterly report, but I think it needs to be revamped in some way. As you know, I've had issues with the way that it's signed, how long people look at things and just sign off on things willy-nilly. But for whatever reason, and it's not just this year, it's for years. School and city, it takes forever to pay vendors. I've heard it,

I'm sure the mayor's heard it, other people heard it. I don't know when and how long it's going to get to the point where somebody says, we're going to fix it. Because we've been talking about this same thing for multiple years. And please- Whoever's listening on the school side, the city side, it takes too long to pay a vendor. Whatever that is, we've got to figure it out and we just can't

keep doing it. It's just, it's sickening already. The question I had was on the paragraph, the fourth paragraph where it says with these two formats used, we're slightly over by 200,000 and 600,000. Can you please explain what that means? Yes, so that's the insurance projection, held insurance projection for this year.

using the reimbursements from either this year, the projected for this year, or the projected for last year. So depending on what method we use, that's where we would be.

And what methods are you referring to? Using last year's revenue or this year's revenue, one or the other. So the 204 is using the projected for this year, and the 600,000 to the good is for using the revenue from last year.

It says using all reimbursements for insurance. So are you talking about the rebates? Yes, rebates and the stop loss, yes. So which, the rebate hasn't been clarified yet. Correct.

But the stop loss from the city joint meeting was in our end of the year report. So which one includes what is in our end of the year report?

Both include the rebates. One method is using reimbursements from prior year.

method is using what the projected amounts are going to be for this year.

It's just clarifying- So we got no credits for rebates before because they said we didn't need to. We did not, no. Now you're saying that we have it for last year? So they've agreed to give us money for rebates? I'm just giving you the scenario what it would look like if we were to get the credits. That's what I'm doing. Right, so last year the debate was over $2 million in rebates.

How is that and where does that come in here? We're almost three quarters of the way through the year. Mm-hm. So rebates have not been agreed to yet.

Correct. But stop loss has and paying claims has. Take the rebates out, where are we with the healthcare? Is that one of these two numbers or neither? It's neither one of these numbers. Neither one of these numbers. Okay, so I would just like to ask that through the superintendent we get what is correct. Currently in our end of the year agreement. And I'll back out the rebates. And the

rebates, I mean, I'm still convinced that it is. I'm going to be sending an email back to the legislature and the new superintendent to try to get her up to speed with what the feeling is. What I would like to ask is that as the CFO, you try to get the information on the actual rebates for the current fiscal year for our employees. If you can get that to us,

I'd appreciate it. Sure. Thank you very much. I yield. Mr. Chair, guys, one final question. Mr. Dias. Thank you.

I should know this, but I'm going to ask this so I know. Do we use for our accounts, do we use one bank account or separate accounts depending on the cost center? I'm sorry. Where do we store our money?

We have nothing to do with the money. The money is the treasurer's office. The city? The treasurer's office has several bank accounts. Okay, so I guess my question is, how would we know, do we have any knowledge or anything? Do our internal statements match the bank accounts statements? The city is who reconciles cash. We don't reconcile cash on this side. Okay, so it wouldn't be

any of our error for any. I'm not sure who you're referring to. There was an audit that came out where the city is, I don't know who wants to explain it better, but there's 218,000 that's unaccounted for between the bank and our internal financial statements. There's a discrepancy. Okay. I just want to make sure it has nothing to do with the schools. Colin, just to be clear, that 218,000

is a surplus. It's not a short. I didn't see that in the office.

Yeah, I know. It was just misrepresented. It's a surplus, believe it or not. I checked on it today. That's 218,000 to the good. Thank you.

Anybody have anything else? One more question. Yeah, okay, 1112. Mr. Almeda. Yep, 1112.

Mr. Almeda, one other question. Mr. Dias raised the question. So the schools get the revenue from the DESE for our students. the city gets the investment income. Does that ever get netted out, the investment income? We, as far as investment income for what in particular? I'm sorry. So if it's school funds, I know it's the city handles the school funds. Yep. But if those funds,

let's say, came to the school, and then the school invested the money and received that money. Every time we go to the city, Council, we hear the CFO say there's great investment income, it's great investment income. Well, if half of that money is based on the school revenue, we're not receiving any credits. We do not, no. Thank you, I yield. Anything further? Can we vote on 11-12, please? Motion to approve. Do

I have a second? Second. Deb, call the roll, please. Ms. Jackan?

Yes. Mr. Dyes? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yep. Mr. Moniz? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes.

Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes, obviously number 12 is retirements, new hires, death notices. I'd like to have a vote to place them on file.

Do I have a motion and a second for that? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous?

Let's see, I'm sorry guys. Any new business, number 13 to come before the committee tonight? Do we have a reason to go into executive session, Mr. Mayor? Somebody said something. Oh, who said something? Superintendent, I just. Deputy Superintendent. It's not really new business, but I just wanted to follow up on something very quickly. Tonight,

in public comment, we had talked about swim and the pool and going forward into some program. I met with Mrs. Nickerson this week. I sat with her for about 40 minutes and spoke with her about the pool. About a couple of weeks ago, I had worked with facilities and I sent over some paperwork that was asked about who serviced the pool and how we're servicing it. I am in conversation

about the pool and I will have an update for the superintendent to bring to June 3rd's meeting on the pool and at the facilities subcommittee on Monday and moving forward. Thank you. Do we have a reason to go into executive session? Yes, we do, ma'am. Do you want to read them first or do you want me to take a motion? Sure. Can I get a motion to second? Motion to go into

executive session, sir. I have a motion to second. Mr. Assad, please read the reasons.

Master of Laws Chapter 30A, Section 21A7 to review and approve the executive session minutes for April 1, 2026 regular school committee meeting. Master of Laws Chapter 30A, Section 21A7 to review and approve the executive session minutes for April 15th. the 2026 special meeting of the school committee. National Laws Chapter 38 Section 21A1 to review the open

meeting law complaint dated March 8, 2026 filed by Colin Dyers. Regarding the March 4, 2026 school committee meeting, the complaint alleges that a certain complaint brought against certain school committee members was discussed in executive session. And another member of the school committee revealed the information in the communication on social media.

Section 201A1 to review the open meeting law complaint, dated March 12, 2026, filed by Melissa Panshly regarding the March 4, 2026 and March 11, 2026 school committee meetings. The complaint alleges that both meetings had a lengthy executive session. She and others left for a period of time. Upon returning to attend the school committee

meetings, the buildings were locked, thereby denying the public access to the school committee meeting in violation of the Open Meeting Law. Mass General Laws Chapter 38, Section 21A1 to review the Open Meeting Law complaint dated March 11, 2026 filed by Taylor Perry regarding the March 4, 2026 and March 11, 2026 school committee meetings.

The complaint alleges that her citizens' input that she submitted in writing not read by Chair Paul Coogan at either meeting. National Law Chapter 38 Section 21A1 to review the Open Meeting Law Complaint, dated April 22, 2026 by Patrick Higgins, alleging that Chair Paul Newman and or his staff did not respond to his request for meeting minutes for the years 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977,

and 1978 within 10 days. Master General Laws Chapter 38 Section 21A1 to review the Open Meeting Law Complaint dated April 11, 2026, filed by Colin Dias, alleging that the former school committee approved warrants monthly. The complaint alleges that for the month of March, the warrant was not approved in or at the March meeting.

Master General Laws Chapter 38 Section 21A1 to discuss complaints brought against the school committee member. National Law is Chapter 38, Section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining agreement, including grievances relative to all paraprofessional employees in the former school system, represented by the former Federation of Paraprofessionals as the chairs determined that

an open session may have a detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee.

National Law is Chapter 38, Section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation regarding the Department of Labor Relations in the As a matter of AFSCME Council 93 and the City of Fall River, slash Fall River Schools, GR number 269-26, number 2026-144-SS-SK, L period 1118.

As the chairs determine that an open session may have a detrimental impact on the litigating position of the committee. Master General Lords Chapter 38, Section 21A2. to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation with non-union personnel and or to conduct negotiations with non-union personnel, specifically Kathleen Smith, Interim Superintendent of

Schools, and Elizabeth Legault, Interim Deputy Superintendent of Schools. We will reconvene, there may or may not be statements at that time. Good. Deb, could you please call the roll and go on to the executive session? Mr. O'Neill? Yes.

Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yep. Mr. Monas? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Stewart? Yes.

Mayor Coogan? Yes. We're going into executive session, but can we stand in front of the table for one second? Superintendent Smith wants a picture with everybody. I have no idea why.

I have a motion and a second.

Any discussion? Deb, call the roll please. Mr. Aguia? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yeah.

Mr. Monis? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes.

Anything further? Yes, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the executive session minutes for April 15, 2026, special meeting of the school committee. So moved.

Second. I have a motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Deb, please call the roll. Mr. Aguia? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr. Corey? Yep. Mr. Monis? Yes. Mr. Riley?

Yes. Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes. Anything further to come before the committee? I'd like to make a motion to approve the contract as negotiated with Kathleen Smith, Superintendent.

Second. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second on Kathleen Smith. Any discussion? Hearing none, Deb please call the roll. Mr. Aguil? Yes. Mr. Dias? Yes. Mr.

Corey? Yes. Mr. Monas? Yes. Mr. Riley? Yes. Mr. Stewart? Yes. Mayor Coogan? Yes. Anything further? One more. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the contract as negotiated with Elizabeth Legault, Deputy Superintendent. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second on Liz Legault. Any discussion? Hearing none, Deb, please call the roll.

Mr. Aguil. Yes. Mr. Dias. Yes. Mr. Corey. Yes. Mr. Monas. Yes. Mr. Riley. Yes.

Mr. Stewart. Yes. Mayor Coogan. Anything further? Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. All in favor? Open meeting law stuff? Do we have to take the votes out here? Open meeting law? Okay. I need a second. I need a second. Second. I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We're out. Have a good night.