6.10.2024 Fall River School Committee

I'll like to call to order the Monday June 10th regular meeting of the far OFA school committee Deb would you please call the role Mr draga here Mr Bailey Mr Das here Mr Cory here miss larv here miss Pereira Mary kouan here salute to the flag please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for

all pursuant to the open meeting law any person who make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible we have a number of individuals uh for Citizens input

tonight so we'll keep you to what we've always done uh three minutes I'll Trust my uh faithful timer Mimi and when I hit the gavel if you'd be respectful I really really appreciate it first up is Nancy dagel Crescent Street Fall River I'm going to read hers now okay go ahead Nancy deagle 13 Crescent Street I write this no longer upset but angry it seemed as though the meeting that was

held in May was a waste of everyone's time and decisions were made behind our backs to me the meeting was only held so it can be said that there was something done and make us feel heard our children can't stick up for themselves but we as parents will the children at tany have stability stability and routine why take that away from them from the principal to the Cross God they have made a

difference and are amazing individuals my son went from not speaking at all to being able to read a book all on his own he says words that I cannot believe he knew he has come so far and I have tany to to thank for that I am proud that my son son is a tany tiger I hope this meeting we are actually being heard and the right thing is done and that is to

leave our kids where they are at tany thank you Rachel cavalo Ogden Street

forward good evening school committee members my name is Rachel carvalo and I have been a part of the James tany elementary school PTO for the last 2 years and officially became the president on Friday evening I also a parent of a tany student over the last two years I have seen firsthand all the hard work the staff and families have contributed to make tany a strong community at the last school committee

meeting on May 20th it was determined that the James tany Elementary School was safe from closure for the upcoming 2024 2025 school year nearly 4 days later approximately 30 of our families received letters with new school assignments this was shocking and our families were left feeling underprepared for the upcoming school year some of these families had tried contacting the school department to no avail as no one

was answering the phones or returning calls or emails to answer any of their questions we as parents have been extremely disappointed regarding the state of communication between the school department and our chany school Community there have been instances of dismissive or unresponsive attitudes from school committee members when they are addressing our concerns our tany students and families are not just

numbers we are a community of people who deserve to be treated with respect as some of you are aware last week myself and members of the tany PTO created a flyer encouraging parents to attend tonight's school committee meeting our intent was to help parents advocate for more communication as of Friday afternoon it was brought to the pto's attention that parents did receive return phone calls and updates on Friday

morning regarding new school assignments for the upcoming 2024 2025 school year this was the intent behind our advocacy to have more communication from the school department and I would like to say thank you for showing respect and better communication to our families we know that the school board members are often faced with difficult decisions to consider for our district as a whole in

the future I hope there can be more regard and respect when speaking about our staff students and families implementing more effective communication opportunities for discussions and open forums can significantly improve the flow of information when significant changes are being communicated to families perhaps having a contact person or future meeting scheduled for an open conversation would help to lessen fam's

anxieties as they know they will have an opportunity to have some of their questions answered moving forward the tany PTO is hopeful to have a more streamlined way of contacting the school department to address parental concerns so we can mitigate overreactions and have a more collaborative approach we are only asking to have timely and respectful Communication in order to foster a strong partnership between the

school committee members and families I appreciate your attention to these concerns and hope to see positive changes implemented in the near future thank you for your dedication to improving our school district as a whole Mr chairman Mr chairman I'll defer to Mr Das um thank you um excuse me I just had um one quick question um about um your PTO meetings are they open for um any school

Committee Member to attend yes yes we always welcome Community input from the school committee members and when is your next meeting the next meeting is on Wednesday at 5:30 this Wednesday thank you Mr chairman Mr can I please get some clarity on U the speaker just mentioned that you received a call on Friday or the people that got the letter did can you explain what the result of that was

so one of the family members indicated that when they spoke with somebody from the school department they asked them which school they preferred to attend come the fall um whether it was westall the new westall or tanzi and I believe they were granted to stay at tanzi for the coming school year Madam superintendent I actually I actually can't speak to that okay what we have done and first of all

I apologize if we haven't communicated effectively but what we have done is we have actually after that meeting um we sent out letters to all the families who lived within that radius like we communicated there and all those families had the option so that they because they have a right to go to the neighborhood school if they so choose right and because tany has room as we all know right those families were

granted the opportunity to stay there as um students um at tany we have actually communicated weekly with the families that are within that radius we actually uh do a a call weekly a Sunday call weekly with those families we have a link that they post their questions and we answered their questions in real time and we also have been um uh creating that we actually have solicited if you

want to be on the interview team for the new principal for hires and some parents have volunt here to join us to be part of that so we do have a mechanism we that we um have been communicating with the families that are within that radius that are belong to the westall um school so all the tany families who received letters not just the fona or right wherever they wherever they are placed

currently if they live within that radius they all got letters it was in just T we have no as as we know we have no intention of to but we every parent should be afforded the same opportunity if they want to go within walking distance to the neighborhood school they should have that option and everybody got the same letter that is within that distance and that technically belongs to

tany I apologize I I'm sorry question was wrong the all the families who got letters were able to participate in those weekly updates able to ask question I I'm I think that some of the families didn't understand that that was that option I'm not sure yeah they all they all have gotten that communication we will go back and check out because we actually can go into parents Square to

see if parents have responded Etc so we will go back to check our report to see how many actually are receiving and how many have not opened their to find out but everybody got that communication is getting it weekly okay thank you I appreciate that we just wanted to improve the communication and I know when you had come to our school there was an exchange that was not appropriate

and I want to apologize on behalf of the PTO for how you were spoken to but we just want to make sure moving forward that we can have more communication we can all work together Mr chairman thank you Mr chairman Mr agie uh so just want to follow up because I didn't think anything was funny but is there a problem with me asking a question I didn't say I just heard a

bunch of laughing I wasn't sure what that was but I have no idea so Mrs PS all I want to do is to get some clarity so the first I heard of the uh letter is here from these ladies today so can you just Prov WR us some either copy of the letter or some clarity about what was said what I listened to these young ladies talking was that the people that

have students that are going to the tany currently and I believe they said the number was 30 correct me if I'm wrong so that tells me that 30 members of the current student body at tany school received a letter that said you will be moving or transferred to the West doall school because that is your neighborhood school is that accurate that is accurate that was not just the tany those were it

was all families that live within where regardless of where they are placed I actually notified the school committee in a Friday email last week and then this week um in regards to this um and the communication so um I will share the communication that we've had to date as well as the survey and all the all the information let me just let me just try to get clarity so if I have a child at

tany and I belong in the Spencer bordon District if I belong in the Green School District did I get a letter to say that my student was being moved if you the people that got a letter were the people what we said at that meeting was all families we communicated with all families who are currently within that radius of the westall school only only only the westall school that was our

priority and you said that was 30 people no there's 30 from that are currently at tany but there were people that are placed wherever I'm just trying to stick to the tany so you have 30 people that did in your Friday email to us you said there was six people that asked for a request for a waiver that's right in the letter I believe it said something along the lines of you can request the waiver

and then in the summer you're going to get notified yes or no is that accurate that's accurate except what we did was because in my email so far five parents I five or six parents have requested to stay our process is that if a student is assigned to an out of what we call an out of District school right if a student a parent chooses they belong to Spencer bordon but they choose to go to

vas for instance they apply for a permit and in the summer we wait to see if there's space and if there is no I understand that process all I'm asking is for the tany so I've sat here over the last four or five months and watched the tany parents get told all kinds of things that are not either accurate or anything and it's just it that's why I'm focused on the tany so when you sent the

letter on Friday to us that said the six parents what happened to the 24 sets of parents do the kids go to the tany they haven't requested it they haven't Reed here's my my feeling why should they have to request it if the letter says you're getting moved it should say if you'd like to move Kevin if you'd like to move that's what the letter should say I will send you the letter I will

send you take it down please thank you so here please nothing take it down yes this is very good information to get for parents that are concerned about some of the of the information that they're getting I'm of the belief as one member of this committee that the tany parents have been through enough the tany families have been through enough at this point if there's 30 families that go to tany school they should not

have got a letter to say that you are going to move they should have got a letter to say what you just said today Madam superintendent was it's optional if you'd like to move we have space in the west off of you but by no means is this should this letter in any way tell you that you cannot stay at tany school your child can't stay there for the duration of their education that's what

we said at this school committee the letter didn't say that they couldn't stay Mr agar I I mean if we're going to tell the truth we're going to tell the truth the letter did not say they could not stay we're following the process and because tany is not full we said that those students could some parents are opting to go even though they're at so you're making it sound like we're forcing no we are following procedure

and we're communicating my one my opinion as one member of the committee is that the parent shouldn't have been told anything other than the fact that they can stay if you want to opt into the West do feel free I think that's a different letter and I think I'd like to hear from some more the parents are here what did that letter actually say and what is your feeling because I've had

enough Kevin she's going to give us a copy of the letter you'll have it in your hand nobody has to come up and talk I'm just telling you one you're going to get a copy of the letter she just told I'm just thinking of one member and that's what we have and also you can say what you want about the fact that we don't answer to Citizen input time but

when a person comes up and ask a question and we want Clarity that's the right of any school Committee Member to ask those questions I yield next up Jennifer Santos three minutes Jen that's fine Mr agar so I'm going to answer your questions right now before I speak I was one of those parents that got that West doll letter for reassignment on Friday at 1:00 before Memorial Day weekend

after all the meetings that I've come to here we were told the same thing that you said that we were safe everything was tabled off and then Friday before Memorial day 30 parents from tany I think there was 26 from Spencer bordon and a bunch of them from fonsica from what I was told all got letters saying that our children were being reassigned to westall the option was left that we

could request a transfer and that they would be reviewed but that there was no guarantee that they would be getting transferred back to the original school and that we would not find out until the second week of August was what we were told when the parent Square meeting started to come out every Sunday I believe that started two weeks ago they gave an option for us to request a

transfer which I did immediately when I saw that and got a phone call this Friday telling me that my daughter was allowed to stay at Tandy due to a hardship that I put in for that has been the process since the Friday before Memorial Day so I was accurate correct thank you

my three minutes it started already when you were talking all right I'll make this quick so I stand here before you today as a tany parent and a Fall River Community member in the past few months I have attempted to be open-minded and non-judgmental about the tany situation I have spent countless hours doing research attending school committee meetings and reviewing broadcasts from

subcommittee meetings unfortunately the continued actions and non-transparency of the stool committee forbids me from continuing to stay open-minded and non judgmental at this time as a school Committee Member your job is to establish the vision and goals for the school in our Public District and to set the standards for the performance of the schools and superintendents you are elected by the people in our community

to represent the values the views and the desires for the public school district as selected leaders in our community you are to consistently communicate with the public to keep community members a breast of challenges ideas and progress you are advocates for our students and parents and we you to engineer a better future for our children since the beginning of this year your actions have spoken volumes to

the Tandy parents and to the F of a community the oath that you sworn under as school committee members clearly has no significance or value to you your non-transparency dishonesty and corrupt decision- making is appalling none of you deserve to be seated in those chairs none of you deserve to be paid for your services the fall a community needs to come together during the next election and ensure that

we remove these IND idual in front of us from office we need individuals who have morals ethics and who Merit our children and our community we need positive individuals who excel at communication setting standards critical thinking and problem solving these individuals here in front of us are not what we need as a member of the city of Fall River I will not forget the travesty that your school

committee has created not only for myself but for other parents dealing with this matter I assure you that I will do everything in my my power to promote the removal of every single one of you at the next election thank you next up Sarah Rogers langly Street next up Sarah Rogers Lang Street good evening members of the school committee fellow families teachers and community members most importantly

tonight good evening superintendent Pon tonight I'm writing directly to you I am well aware that you hate this kind of attention but like I said to you a couple of weeks ago with nothing but affection it's time to get used to it it's time to let those feelings of impostor syndrome go throughout your nearly four Decades of work here in our community you've lived out your passion

for Education you've shaped the lives of countless Children and Families over the years your presence has inspired folks to dream bigger work harder and never settle for anything less than the best for our children your kindness empathy and genuine care for the well-being of others and deep love for Fall River has touched the hearts of everyone who has had the privilege of working alongside

you the last few years have certainly been interesting I want to personally let you know that your legacy will endure in the halls of our schools in the minds of our students and in the hearts of our community your impact will be felt for generations to come shaping the future of our district in ways we cannot yet imagine it speaks to your belief in always believing always leaving it better than you found it as

you finish out your formal relationship with fer Public Schools I know that the best part of your journey is just beginning this is not an ending but rather a new start and despite the Bittersweet nature of it all there is so much good that lies ahead for you to embrace those beautiful Grand berries are awaiting their vvo tonight at your last school committee meeting I'd like to thank you for your efforts

and commitment to education and this community Maria I'm appreciative of the opportunity to have worked alongside you if you need anything I'm just around the corner thank you Sarah next up Rea Brown Bank Street for three minutes hi I'm Reena Brown I'm a tany parent and um and I live work and own a business in Fall River and I want to Echo uh former school committee woman Sarah rodri's

sentiment uh superintendent Pon I want to thank you for your 39 years years of serving the students and their families of Fall River you know um we're not just saying goodbye to an exceptional leader uh you're a remarkable educator as well um 39 years tells me uh that you were dedicated and committed to the students of Fall River and their families you performed your job with integrity and

compassion and you've guided countless Educators and families and students through the system uh I just want you to know that um you know your goodbye is filled with gratitude and a touch of sadness because you know to say farewell to somebody who's made such an indelible impact on our schools and Community is difficult I also want to say that you've managed to withstand years of harassment and

bullying from members of this school committee that you didn't deserve and I hope to welcome Colin disas and I hope he makes good on his promise to restore decorum and compassion and respect and creative communication between the members of the council and the new superintendent I want to welcome Dr Curley as the new superintendent I hope she brings thick skin in a suit of armor to withstand the

harassment and bullion that you have with stod with such class over the years superintendent Pon I want to tell you that I've made countless phone calls to superintendent Pont after watching a number of school committee meetings when she's with stod bullying with class and dignity and class and dignity maybe are perhaps qualities that Mr Das will bring to the school committee and other seasoned members could learn

I want to say goodbye to Sarah Rodricks and thank her for her years of service as well Colin I'm confident that you'll bring civility to this school committee and I hope that your youthful age helps teach seasoned members manners and again superintendent Pont I can't thank you enough I can tell you that as the parent of a special needs student uh when he first became of age to enter the public

school system here you know like all parents I was scared and apprehensive will his needs be met we had him enrolled in a private school we were going to public school and you know I got Maria pont's phone number from online on the website and I didn't know her from a hole in the wall but she answered my questions told me the people to talk to and how to go about getting

the best education for him so thank you again superintendent Pon for your Decades of service to fall River thank you um next person up I have a mo can I get a motion uh from Westport to let someone speak from out of town so moved second I have a motion second Deb please call the rooll Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss larav yes Miss

Pereira yes Mary Coogan yes uh Liz carer madas Courtney Street Westport good evening uh my name is Liz Medeiros I'm currently a team chair for the office of special education I've spent the last 12 years working for Fall River Public Schools both as a special education teacher and in my current role as a team chair over these 12 years I've participated on negotiation teams for collective bargaining agreements

memorandum of agreements as well as many committees and District initiatives tonight though I'm here to speak for the importance of current negotiations and the urgency and need for a pay adjustment for employees in our district last week one of the questions during the interviews for superintendent addressed the idea of teacher retention and the various factors leading to current teacher shortages including pay

however I'm disheartened to hear I was disheartened to hear that no clear plan for how to raise the bar for educator wages is if it is a known fact that pay is a factor for Teacher retention why then are we failing to address this issue to head on with that said I now ask the school committee members what's your approach for Teacher retention what are you going to do as a committee to

show teachers that we are valued appreciated and worth a livable wage how are you going to show that we are priority fellow educ fellow Educators have stood in front of this committee and have read you the statistics of how our district wages compared to other districts how the cost of living has increased and how often we see Educators needing to have multiple jobs to make end meet but what now where are we going

to go from here I love this District I've been invested and dedicated to this city since First beginning my career as an educator however throughout the 12 years I can't count how many amazing Educators we've lost to other districts due to pay every time that happens we start from Square One additionally over the past few years although we've created many positions to address the current needs of our students in our

schools we have also had the difficulty filling these open positions one does not have to look further than our website which lists the many job openings I fear that if we fall to come to an agreement before the start of the 2425 school year once again we will be losing Educators over the summer and starting from square one while also struggling to fill the open positions we already have despite what some in the

community and actually some members of this actual board say there are many great things happening in this District but in order to keep our momentum we must need we we need to keep our best Educators our students deserve to have continuity consistency and the best and brightest educators in front of them every day and in order to do that we must pay our teachers appropriately retain them year to year and continue to

invest in growing this District to reach its potential to quote words said on this very stage before be bold Think Bold and over the next few years um over the next few weeks I look forward to helping ratify an agreement that addresses a pay adjustment and is reflective of the city's value for public education and Educators thank you

all right all right can I get a um can I get a motion in a second on a letting someone Mr AG the uh one of one of the issues that I have when we come up about given raises to anyone is we can we we got to have the money in order to do that and one of the things that oh come on Kevin Kevin what are you doing no you

can't negotiate from the stage I'm not all I'm I'm answering what the lady just asked so one of the things we need to do is look at every single expense so I need everyone to understand if if we're asking questions we need to look at every expense so Kevin Kevin there'll be time to look at can't address the contract Bruce said it's C address the contract on the stage if they asked the

question public input they if they ask the question we can give an answer we don't have to answer ask the attorney he said we can't address the ask the attorney ask the attorney all right next up ask the attorney next is Ashley DPR don't want to hear from you from Swansea next up is Ashley dpri from Swansea Mash can I get a motion and a second for second I have a motion second could you

please call the rooll Deb Mr AO yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira yes mayor Coogan yes Ashley Dupri s Street Swansea please 3 minutes Ash hello school committee superintendent Pon I've taught Ela in Fall River for the past 10 years eight years I tenured at Morton Middle School and the last two years I've been here at dery last week as the class of 2024

prepared to cross the stage I had the privilege of many of my past students seeking me out to reflect on their Journeys and accomplishments their visits reminded me why I love working in this city in my classroom I try to make my students feel heard valued and respected in my experience this is crucial to build students morale and it enables us to provide them the best education feeling heard valued and

respected is what the Fall River educators are lacking when it comes to the school committee's treatment of us both at the bargaining table and in this Auditorium as Educators we are constantly going out of our way spending our own money and countless of hours of our time away from our families because we respect the needs of our students in the city of Fall River our love for this city is reflected in our unwavering

commitment to seeing our students succeed by investing in teachers you are investing in the continued growth and prosperity of the city of Fall River ensuring that our students have the resources and support they need to thrive last month I sat in the audience of the school committee meeting and I watched members sift through papers and have side conversations they ignored my colleagues

as they spoke on the issues we are addressing in contract negotiations in those moments we as teachers did not feel heard valued or respected the exact thing we strive to allow our students to feel every day when they enter our classrooms providing Educators with the respect that we deserve when it comes to our professional expertise and experience is the bare minimum a fair contract for

teachers begins with recognizing the essential role Educators play in shaping the future of society the work we do goes beyond textbooks and lesson plans it involves nurturing mentoring and preparing students for a world that is increasingly complex and demanding the issues my colleagu spoke about have been issues for years in Fall River a fair contract for teachers begins with respect Educators teaching

special populations deserve Fair workloads parents in our district deserve a pro- family leave plan all our Educators deserve to be paid fairly and competitively and above all we deserve to feel heard valued and respected thank you thank you next up next up Josh liter Deval street L low lower I'm sorry thank you as the school year is winding down I like to think back over the year about

all the ways my students have made me proud one who stands out to me in particular is a student who wasn't even in my class at the beginning of the year one day about 3 or 4 weeks into the school year a guidance counselor approached me and asked if I would mind if she transferred a student from the class next store into my classroom for context there was no teacher in that classroom this student had an

inconsistent math education in middle school with periods through seventh and eth grade where there was no teacher or a teacher who wasn't trained and professionally licensed as a math educator on his first day of high school he found himself placed once again into a class with no teacher for weeks while his class was covered by a substitute he looked through the glass doors into my

classroom and wondered why he had the rotten luck to once again be without a teacher I am so proud that he valued his education enough to advocate for himself and he promised to work hard if he was given the opportunity to transfer classes let me be clear here there are over a hundred students from our outgoing freshman class that spent the better part of the first term without an

algebra 1 teacher these students will still need to learn the same skills pass the same tests to graduate as the students with a teacher it wasn't the fault of a single person at our school that they had no teacher it's the responsibility of this committee to make a contract with teachers that's competitive with other nearby school districts to attach attract teachers to teach you and it wasn't because there aren't

enough teachers willing to teach here I spent those first months of school while we had two vacancies on our team annoying my Dean asking every week multiple times is there anyone on the horizon I was told the same thing every time he had a great interview with a great candidate who had fit so well at our school they just need to go to Rock Street to sign their paperwork and that's when things always seem to fall

through it was left unsaid that that's when the new hires see their contract and what they will be paid last month you heard from a fellow teacher about how low our salaries are compared to nearby districts like New Bedford Taunton Brockton and others the difference gets worse and worse the longer a teacher stays here this is why we have dozens of positions districtwide that don't get filled all year year this

is why we have hundreds of students being babysat in a cafeteria on any given day and if you're afraid to be bold and give teachers a fair competitive contract this will be why hundreds of students return to school in the fall without a teacher in their classrooms thank you

um I have a McKenzie Breen from Buzzard's Bay I need a motion in a second motion a second I have a second Deb please call the rooll Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes M ly yes M Perera yes Mr Mayor kookin yes three minutes M keny thank you thank you good evening I've been working at dery high school for six years now as a special education teacher

in the math department and I truly love working with my students and colleagues this district has welcomed me with open arms and for that I am forever grateful I feel very passionate about being a teacher and also as of lately about becoming a new mother this leads me to draw your attention to a crucial issue that touches the lives of myself and many other members of our community paid

parental leave specifically I want to shed light on the impact it has on the lives of new parents my partner and I are very excited to welcome twin girls into our family this fall this is a special time for us and we can't wait for this chapter of Our Lives to begin but it unfortunately is not just a time for happiness it is also a time for Unnecessary Stress and Anxiety thanks to our District's family

leave policy I will not be able to take much of my maternity leave without with pay due to taking time off work for prenatal appointments I'm not sure how we will be making ends meet as a family of four living in the most expensive state in the country on one income thanks to our District's family leave policy after my paid time runs out we will have to pay out of pocket for our

medical insurance thanks to our District's family leave policy when I come back to work I will be unable to take sick time if me or my girls need to see the doctor paid for and to leave plays an essential role in ensuring that new mothers and fathers can navigate this transformative period with peace of mind mind it provides us with the opportunity to bond with our newborns for moms to

recover from childbirth and adapt to the demands of Parenthood without the added stress of financial insecurity looming overhead consider for a moment the alternative a new mother forced to return to work mere weeks after giving birth grappling with sleepless nights adjusting to a new routine all while worrying about making ends meet it's a scenario that not only jeopardizes her well-being but also undermines the

health and development of her child is that the situation you want your teachers in does that make for a classroom environment you'd want your students in paid parent to leave isn't just a matter of convenience it's a matter of Human Rights and social justice it recognizes that the early years of a child's life are pivotal in shaping their future and that investing in Parental well-being is investing in

the well-being of future Generations it promotes employee retention and productiv as parents are more likely to return to work and perform at their best when supported during this critical phase of our lives but despite these undeniable benefits paid parental leave remains a privilege rather than a right like many others I feel forced to choose between my career and my new family trapped in a system that fails to

recognize our fundamental needs it's time for change it's time to make apologies that guarantee every new parent the opportunity to embrace Parenthood without sacrificing our Financial Security it's time to stand in solidarity with new parents in our school system and demand the recognition and respect we deserve let us work together to build a world where every parent can embark on the Journey of

Parenthood with dignity and support thank you thank

you I need a motion in a second to allow Kelly gabardi from Summit said to speak so moved second Deb would you please call the role Mr yeah yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Cory y m lar yes M Carrera yes Mar yes some of y'all might have seen that before when you visited my classroom three three minutes please Kell thank you so hi hi Mr Cory knows me and he

knows that I cannot stand around and you all will know that too when I know Injustice is happening and I'm here to say that I'm here to make you aware but before we go on I'm going to let y'all know I need some I'm going to have some audience participation okay you need to be with me so I'm going to try to use these three mid three minutes to let you know that 2% is not

enough superintendent P I am so grateful to have to have been able to work with you and know your service and dedication to the students and educators of Fall River you know and some of you up there might know that there are so many demands in cost on the educators of Fall River Public Schools to help demonstrate how hard and how hard we work and how underpaid we are I'm want to ask use my

3 minutes okay you can see I'm wearing a blue shirt but it's not an F shirt it's my summer job shirt because I cannot afford to make end me without working a summer job I also work 21st century because I can't make ends meet so I'm now here's where I'm going to ask my my colleagues to help me please stand if you work a summer job including esy summer school it gets better people stand if

you work a second job anytime during the school year stay standing raise your hand if you work two jobs during the school year three jobs you get it please sit down I have another question so here's my other set of questions because I don't know I love my kids and I do everything possible to make sure that my little ones have the best experiences because we don't take them on field trips to the park anymore and

all that good stuff but so I'm going to ask my colleagues and this might seem like a big number but it's what I spend on my classroom a year if you spend $1,000 or more in your classroom please stand up $500 to,000 stand up $100 or more stand up I think you can see now that as a body of Educators we not only have we not only have to work other jobs on you

can sit down thank you people I think we made our point to work jobs on top of our teaching duties we spend a great deal of our own money to provide our students with the best learning experiences possible please keep teachers who are overwork and underpaid in your minds when you are wondering why our scores are woefully low thank you thank you Kelly we love our students we love our students everybody

else got more time we love our students our city but we can not continue to work under such conditions as unhealthy buildings large class sizes large Casados dist stuffed behaviors when those around us let's be fair nobody got this much a 7 to 20% less thank you 2% is not enough

all right next up is Kaylee kinin Archer Street Fall

River hi everyone um my name is Kaye kinet uh I'm soon to be a senior here at dery as a student I've started to notice a trend among my teachers if they don't get their pay they don't stay not many people realize that when you become a teacher you aren't just taking the role of someone who teaches the young as students find safe spaces in our teachers whether it is another parental

figure or just someone to talk to teachers here AR teachers aren't just here to repeat their lesson plans to their students teachers form lifelong bonds with students the better the teacher student relationship the better the outcome for the student in their class if teachers cannot support themselves they will not have the energy to support their students positively they are human beings and they burn out

too dery high school alone dery High School alone has been the eighth biggest High School in Massachusetts for 5 years straight and there are 40 open positions over 200 open positions in the district are you proud of that now maybe you aren't hiring enough or maybe they can't find anyone to apply because 10% less pay speaks much louder than this new building not to mention Fall River has a growing crime

rate not to mention fiver has a growing crime rate and growing population if people don't think that they will be 100% safe given class sizes that they can handle or paid a decent amount they won't want to stay here if every other District within a 30 minute drive can guarantee all of that if you want students to succeed then you have to create the conditions for them too if we

see the people that are supposed to be setting us up for Success not doing well for themselves do you think that gives us hope for our own Futures I want you to compare your situation to the teachers you have a stable life you provide money for your family you pay your bills and your taxes do you think a 28-year-old that just graduated from college is surviving a off of a 10% less

pay than everyone else in their field and in the state do you think that someone who is starting their career a family to take care of bills and taxes to pay gas to get cl to buy food to buy is surviving off of that I don't I cannot speak for every student but I have had the absolute honor of having amazing relationships with over 30 staff members and I know they deserve more

their families deserve more all of the teachers in this community deserve more if you all can be stable if every other District in Massachusetts can be stable they should be too thank you

uh um I'll need a vote on Haley D Medeiros from Taunton so moved the rules uh I have a motion a second to wave the rules Deb would you please call the r Mr Agia yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes M Mr Cory yes Miss larvie yes Miss Perera yes M Coogan yes three minutes Haley thank you good evening mayor Coogan superintendent ponon school committee members my name is

Haley de maderis I have been an educator at laterno elementary school for 5 years as a Fall River Public Schools educator I have faced several challenges from covid to lack of support with unmanageable behaviors that have impacted my ability to teach and support all of my students effectively still I remain dedicated to providing quality education for every student who enters my classroom door this year has been the

most challenging yet I immediately became ill upon entering my classroom in August as I began preparing for the 2023 2024 Academic Year I have remained sick to this day this year I did not have to face a global pandemic or extreme and unsafe behaviors in my classroom instead I faced a new challenge mold in the school building at the school committee meeting held on December 11th when this

information was first publicly shared with the committee it was asked whether the building was clean and safe for for teachers and students to occupy you were told it was when in fact it was not the high levels of mold identified in my class room have caused toxicity in my blood and body impacting my health and well-being both physically and mentally my c4a levels are eight times higher

than they should be c4a has become the inflammatory marker of greatest significance when examining innate immune responses in individuals exposed to water damaged buildings my number should be below 2,800 and are currently above 16,000 the current situation has introduced additional stress and uncertainty I am concerned about the long-term impact on my health and my ability to continue teaching I am also

worried about the effect on the at least 30 innocent six and seven-year-old students who have entered room 008 this year alone I along with three other dedicated colleagues formed a health and safety committee at lerno in conjunction with the F and MTA to work toward bringing our school up to acceptable standards we have met several times with Mr Pico and his team requesting testing

of every classroom in our school and mold remediation since the discovery of mold in our classrooms we have also conducted several building walkthroughs pointing out areas of concern yet to be remediated while there has been progress much work still needs to be done despite these challenges I I remain committed to my role as an educator and to my Student Success I am fighting to stay because I

am passionate about teaching and believe every child deserves access to a quality education not only academically but also in an environment that is safe for them to learn our students and Educators well-being and safety in safe and clean schools must be at your utmost priority therefore Mr Mayor school committee members and to our new superintendent Dr Curley I strongly urge you to personally

conduct thorough inspections of all of our school facilities before the 2024 2025 Academic School year to ensure that this situation does not persist and to prevent any further illnesses among our Educators or even more concerning our innocent students due to poorly maintained buildings thank you thank you uh next up Wan Elite Johnson Street forer three minutes Miss Le thank you

good afternoon mayor Coogan Mrs pwns and school committee members my name is Junia late and I come before you as a constituent of Fall River a proud parent of two thriving Scholars and an educator who has devoted Over a decade to the Fall River School Department though I wouldn't say I like public speaking I felt compelled to express my disappointment Following last week's superintendent interviews as I sat in

this Auditorium watching all four po candidates interview I applauded each of them for Having the courage to be vulnerable whilst facing this Committee in such a public forum while some candidates stood out more than others I respected the process a process of which you all agreed on I understand that choosing who would best fit such a vital position must have been difficult as all

four candidates demonstrated exceptional straints that would undoubtedly Propel F frps forward however I must address your behavior and how it has negatively impacted our City's reputation and the already dampened morale of our district Educators your behavior lacked theorum tarnished your credibility and reminded the public of why we are in this position in the first place when the

leaders of this city behave as you all did it is no wonder or it is no surprise that we struggle to attract and let alone retain a more diverse and highly qualified pool of Educators I would also be remissed to not mention that our city lost a valuable seal and special ed Champion due to the unfortunate events that transpired last week frankly why would anyone want to work in an environment where you are publicly

humiliated disrespected and devalued Mrs Pon I'm extremely sorry you had to deal with that you did not deserve that and neither did the new incoming superintendent Dr Curley Dr Curley congratulations as you embark on this exciting journey I hope you recognize that the nearly a thousand F members are valuable allies who share your mission of propelling our school district forward that said it pains me to hear

disparaging comments about our school department comments that undermine and devalue our Educators who tirelessly dedicate themselves despite being overworked undervalued and underpaid for fortunately neighboring towns recognize and appreciate the value of follow of Educators and actively seek to recruit us as Educators we are profoundly committed to our Pro profession and the success of our students we believe in

their potential and are devoted to guiding them as they navigate through life and achieve their goals academically socially and emotionally as one of the the candidates mentioned during the interview it is okay to disagree what is not okay is to be disagreeable it is simply it's in simplified this is important and I really want you to hear this it is simplified form at leral we encourage

all our students to be safe respectful and responsible with themselves with our school and most importantly each other if I were to survey my students a group of eight and nyear olds they will be able to identify and recognize that your behavior was not not how we resolve conflict or reach a consensus let's be fair thank I am going to be fair thank you that's way fast let's go Jan and as

Leaders I implore you to set as put aside your differences reflect on your behavior remember that our Future Leaders our students are watching and learning from our actions we owe it to them three minutes to model what we mean to be safe respectful and responsible thank you that's what I'm asking

and next up next up I'll need a motion to wave the rules for Keith michon from East Providence can I get a motion a second still moved second I have a motion to second that please call the rooll Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes M lar yes Miss Perera yes yes I'm sorry mayor Coogan yes three minutes please Keith thank you I uh so

so much to say at the end of the year but I want to start by saying congratulations to superintendent Pont uh we began working together nearly seven years ago when she was pres PR principal of cus middle school and then we worked very closely the last three years as Union president and superintendent and uh you know we don't always agree there's disagreements but we we always worked uh collaborative ly

and we work through things we didn't accomplish everything that we wanted to but we never do in a school year and we continue to work you know whoever comes back next year but I want to wish you all the best in your retirement um I also want to wish all the best to Tom cougan in his retirement um Union president HR Director work closely together that's another relationship that could be uh challenging at times

but uh with with Mr cougan it's always been great uh very um very fair very fair and great to work with I appreciate appreciate everything he does for the district um and now I also want to mention how amazing all these Educators parents and students are tonight I I could I couldn't say what they said tonight and deliver that message the way they did they did an incredible job and

I think it's so important that we do this but it would be even more important for us to take this to the next step and get to some real disc course and dialogue because we all have a positive vision for this District we all want to see this District be great the reason we're here tonight is because we love this district and we want to work in this District so we need to come

together align our visions and keep this work moving in the positive direction that it is thank you thank

you um next up Jessica Pico ontop Street three minutes please Jess hi I'm uh Jessica Pico I have a daughter at lerno and I'm writing to speak and express my concerns about the current state of our school system as a c as a citizen of Fall River and a parent of a child enrolled I'm very worried about all the issues that are coming to light about the school system the fact that our

schools are underfunded understaffed is not okay all of the staff in the district is grossly underpaid leading to numerous vacancies especially in special education science and math I watch these meetings I know that you all know that this is an issue but it will be an even bigger problem if it's not fixed now pay them another concern is about student behavior and one meeting the superintendent commented that social

emotional issues are taking up valuable instruction and time that teachers are not able to teach for a full class period this is unacceptable for the children like mine who are trying to learn when others are disrupting the class what is the district going to do to fix this issue where is the extra support our teachers and pars need also losing Dr Rodriguez is terrible for the fall of school committee she is a strong

advocate for special needs students who my opinion are almost always overlooked just as the prek is overlooked in this District I was very upset when she said at the last meeting that she's never felt that our district has been a safe place for her disabled son what does that say for all the other parents who have disabled children and no choice voice but to trust in the school system

what's the plan to fix this problem you will not turn this District around and fix these issues by doing the same thing over and over again test scores are terrible staff is underpaid many of the buildings are old and full of mold and need improvements for example my child at lnal elementary her classroom classroom 8 is the one with the highest mold count and she has been sick since

the beginning of this school year as have I and I have medical issues and it has not not been resolved I have been giving the numbers and I'm honestly appalled at what the school is saying and then what's actually going on things are supposedly in motion to be cleaned but my child among other students are still sick and some severely sick with medical issues that precured before they

started coming to school now it's even worse bleaching and running humidifiers does not fix the problem okay the new superintendent has a lot to do to to work on this and with the number of the with one member of the committee resigning in the middle of the meeting because of her hire what does that tell everybody about how we're expected to move forward so in conclusion our our

children deserve better they need to be provided the education that they're deserved and entitled to thank

you uh next up I'd like a motion in a second to wave the rules on Lori Crumley New Bedford motion second it I have a motion to Second uh Deb please call the rooll Mr AG yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yep Miss larvi yes M Perera yes Mary kouan yes um lri Crumbley Liberia Lane New Bedford good evening school committee and community members I am here tonight

because I feel like it would be an injustice Under The Cloud of dark that sometimes seems to loom over us not to address the fact that we are losing yet another superintendent in my 20 years in the for of a school department I have worked under six superintendant 13 principles over four schools Maria was one of the principles and one of the superintendents and by no means did we always

agree but as our vice principal I respect respected her as I learned about her generosity her compassion her love for our students and her sense of humor Maria is genuine there are a lot of things that people may not know about Maria like she was the product of an immigrant family and learned English as a second language have we forgotten the work that she did at Doran or that she was the first

female principal at dery high school and when the district again was faced with adversity she stepped in as an interm superintendent before becoming our superintendent her Reign has been short but her impact has been mighty she has served as an example for our students in demonstrating how hard work pays off and that anything is possible the last thing I would like to say is that I wish we had had more time

to see the possibilities if she had stayed longer Maria I wish you well enjoy your retirement and remember that your impact on Fall River will be long lived

finally Alexander Silva Purchase Street Far Over three minutes Al thank you hello hi members of the school committee uh what makes a school district successful I graduated from dery high school as a member of the class of 2008 uh by way of Morton Middle School and Spencer board and before that as I stand here today all three of those for schools I attended are no more demolished as

outdated and rebuilt to the standards of today now although my school buildings no longer stand what does remain is the education imparted to me by the flower of a public school system however it wasn't any of those buildings that taught me the foundation of what I know today it wasn't a guidance counselor a principal or a superintendent I never met no offense it was the teachers

people who don't people don't move to a community and set Roots there because it's cheap today or a train is coming tomorrow uh they move to a community where they want to start a family where they believe their children will have the best chances for a happy and successful future this is a prevalent theme in places around Fall River and throughout the country what changes from place to place is the amount of

resources a community is willing to commit to reflect this priority teachers are the single most important direct investment that a school district can make for its students they are the people students see every day the ones they learn from uh we should all be aware that uh the additional challenges that come with the Gateway City because this these issues have been intertwined with far his

history since the Industrial Revolution after wave of immigrants made their homes here from all over the world these challenges themselves are not new what is fairly new in the frame of history is the growing pay disparity between far teachers and neighboring districts if far hopes to be a place where people see a bright future it needs to be competitive with its peers not relying

on an expectation that the results we want to see will be imported with time and forthcoming trains I ask that you think back to a time when you were in school to a moment in your education that help set each of you on the path that makes you here today who was it that helped you get here a teacher perhaps I hope you consider what it have been like in your life if they weren't

there for you if instead they were say in the next District over would either or any of you be here today thank

you um thank you everybody we appreciate it next item up on the agenda is we get to recognize Mr chairman Mr draga K may I just ask the superintendent to obviously we took notes of what happened but the some of the things that they were concerned about the mold if we can get a report on those the accuracy of some of those statements because it's very alarming to me because we've asked

those questions the other ones are 100 kids in the cafeteria I personally asked that question and that was told that that was not happening so if you could just go by Point by point and send us some sort of summary because there's some concerning information presented thank you thank you next up is the recognition Awards we'll go down to the front of the stage we have six people we're going to be honoring tonight say

thank thank you all so this is a great time of the year we're able to recognize people that have worked for the school district for a number of years in all different uh positions the first person we'd like to recognize tonight for 12 years as a teacher at BMC dery High School is Pamela Pitman can we get a nice round of applause for Pamela

and next up we had a power professional in one of our ASD rooms here at dery high school maranne Lu geder

next up a teacher in the classroom at William S Green School 26 years Deborah Lima

next we have a guidance counselor at the resiliency Preparatory Academy David dool 26 years

next we have a former principal of the resiliency Preparatory Academy and ended his career as the vice principal at Matthew J cus middle school for 29 years Mr Robert kah

okay

and in case you didn't figure it out we're going into the years of how many years of service they had so this gentleman gave the most years of service out of the people being recognized today as a custodian at the John J Doran Elementary School 35 years Mr Gerard do

Roes you here was he here somebody's looking around like he was here but maybe he's still working but you know we'll be sure to get it to them do you want them in the front and middle if everyone to get an award please come to the middle for a photo thank you

than

oh yeah he took

it okay now ready yeah take care Mr Mayor well we still on recognition may I uh Miss lar thank you Maria as you approach your well-deserved retirement I wanted to take a moment to express my my heartfelt gratitude for your years of unwavering dedication and tireless commitment to this district from being an Ela teacher at cus a Humanities department head a vice principal at Green principal of Doran

Vice uh principal at dery assistant superintendent and now a superintendent your dedication to teaching and your leadership in the many roles you have held in this district has been nothing short of exemplary your vision has helped shape our institution leaving inedible mark on the children you have served and those who have had the privilege to work for you and alongside you throughout your

years you have proven to be one of the most admired and Elite Educators this district and city has ever seen I know the past couple couple of years has not been easy for you and you've been challenged like never before in your career but I have to say you handled yourself with Grace and so much dignity for the betterment of this District the past couple of years as superintendent

you have done nothing but lead your team and this district with class and for that I thank you as you embark on this new chapter of your life please know that your contributions will be remembered and cherished for years to come your legacy of Excellence will continue to inspire future generations of Educators and teachers as Vice chairperson of this committee it has been my pleasure to work with you and I

extend my deepest gratitude for your years of service and wish you a retirement filled with joy fulfillment well-deserved relaxation and lastly an abundance of time spent with those grandbabies cheers to you Maria thank you for everything

stand up

that was a great

coup well this was a great way to start a meeting uh we have no subcommittee updates tonight but we do have a superintendent report so I'm going to turn it right back over to superintendent PS good back to business good unless going to say something first you I I just want to say thank you I I really um have I nothing that I've done has been done alone so um uh behind me

has always been uh uh uh a lot of people that have made the work uh bearable it's hard work every single day those people that are in the trenches have the hardest work that anybody any of us has so to all to every single person that I've worked alongside whether it's teachers our custodians our nurses our administrators and everyone in between thank you for Lifting me up and for supporting me along the journey I

appreciate all of you and I look forward to hearing great things about the work that you continue to do every single day thanks everyone one okay so superintendent's report for the hiring update um since our last school committee meeting we have hired 35 folks 16 teachers three administrators nine pair of professionals three educational support positions and four Operational Support

positions we have also lost 24 folks 15 teachers three PA professionals three educational support positions and three operation operational people um we are posting every single day anticipated openings and we will continue to do some recruitment over the summer the team will continue to do that work in regards to Summer programming where this is the last week of school Lots going on this

summer with our um uh Littles and opportunities for kids to get involved once again this year we're offering some type of Summer programming across all of our schools for the most part programming will run Monday through Thursday beginning on July 1st and will continue through August 1st or 2nd depending on the program the start and end times are different also because it depends on the schools so families

should make sure that they read the information that's shared by schools um so that they're planning appropriately summer programming at the loc at the school level is determined by the needs of the school of the children in the school the school designs the program programs uh in the spring this year with some modifications we were able to fund halfday programs at all of our schools

who submitted proposals we also have schools whose sum of programming is funded through 21st century uh or through other out of school grants at the elementary level Stu uh schools um the students are engaging in opportunities for academic support enrichment activities and acceleration schools are using District curricular resources bringing in some Project based learning uh experiential uh learning

through field trips or bringing in folks to provide those experiences for kids at the middle level and the high school level we are offering credit recovery and grade recovery opportunities and some of the middle schools are sharing sites for example at talbat and cus they're uh partnering together we have some new hires that are actually working summer school alongside experienced

teachers in a pilot program dery has some credit recovery learning opportunities as well as some uh 21st uh Century program uh programming ESL programming and they also have their Small Wonders and summer enrichment for children that are 5 to 13 years old and they have an evening program also with basketball and field hockey clinics and a basketball league um we um it's a very very active summer uh we are providing

lots of opportunities for many many of our students so um for those that are taking advantage of it you won't regret it and also this Wednesday on the 12th we're going to have the Dorne Community School playground dedication that's a prek playground on the upper uh right on the Columbia Street side and that playground will be dedicated to a longtime Doran School supporter Mr Alfredo Alves Mr Alves adopted the Doran

Community Schools many years ago I um will say from experience he was very very very supportive of our school he sponsored Christmas with Santa for prek andk students um with not only a free meal for every single child but he also sent every child home with a a gift additionally Mr Alves sponsored the fifth grade promotional lunch year after year for 20 years actually um at no cost

Mr Alves donated thousands of dollars to various fundraisers to assist ad Doran School as well as many students throughout our community Mr Alves served on the oversight building committee um he was passionate about serving the Columbia Street Neighborhood Mr elves did many many great things to make our community a better place and uh dedicating this playground in his honor is um the least the small it's a small

act of kindness that we're paying back to him he deserves um and his family deserves to see that playground dedicated in his honor so on behalf of Doran and the the follower Public Schools I look forward to seeing that playground dedicated to mow thank you super superintendent Mr agar just as far as the hiring update I know that we have a lot of vacancies and as a moving Target but if we could get a summary of

the uh vacancies we talk about how many people were hired but we don't always hear how many vacancies that we have for all those when people bring up concerns about uh the practice of hiring and stuff I it it's a real issue it's definitely a real issue we know we've had an issue with human resources uh Recruitment and the like for a long time uh with that being said though I've

asked probably at least a dozen times that when we advertise positions and I know you agree with this Madam superintendent is that we don't even put the salary range that we have and it is I can't tell you how frustrating it is to sit here and sit here we can't attract people to come and work for us but we consistently advertise jobs without a range so that we don't even

know what it is if we're afraid of what the salaries are just put them out there and be transparent so I for the principal of the high school that we had just passed and the other principles principal of the high school salary range is listed as 147 290 to 177 625 that's what was advertised so then I figured I would look at the elementary and I would figure that there'd be

something similar when I look at the elementary it says terms of employment salary and benefits to be negotiated now we have a range we all know we've voted on the Range but I've said it over and over till I can you know just keep saying the same thing another one principal Elementary School salary and benefits to be negotiated this is the some of the stuff that I think we can correct associate principle for student

supports at dery high is advertised that's one of the highest levels of the administration in the union the salary range for that position is listed in level 3B of the fra here it is salary range 3B of the administrated salary scale now these are the jobs we're just posting so this isn't your doing only Mrs P all I'm bringing it Forward is that we can't keep doing the same thing over and over

and when the committee says something we need to take it serious we've all agreed out here and in the back that we need to be transparent with the numbers and what we have how is this still going on is beyond me so I just wanted to bring that up because I did ask for those uh between meetings and it is just very frustrating but to me the salary ranges should be out there so anybody applying

knows what the range is if we have a teacher uh position open it should be the range of a first step to the highest step lay it out there I think some of the things that we don't do is we just say it's by the contract and then we start to not understand what does that mean so if you work in Fall River your range is going to be 50,000 to whatever

it is 85,000 or whatever the number is if everybody kept on doing that and then we see uh taunton's number is 60,000 to 100,000 I'm just throwing those numbers out it accentuates the issue for everybody it can't just be hidden behind a contract and I think we just need to be more transparent and at the end of the day we only have so much money to give but we have to be transparent about

what it is a speaker spoke about somebody coming in and saying I was ready to be hired they probably go don't know what the salary is go to Human Resources after the Super principles do the interview the teams get there and say I can't work for that kind of money well what happens at that point do we say what were you making in another District do you get the benefit of a

different step so a step six here might be a step somewhat higher or lower in do we have an equal pay do we say that you're going to make the equal pay if we recruit you from another District I've mentioned this over and over that the salary in the F in all jobs should be what are you currently making and you get at least that if we're going to

recruit you but no we don't do that so at the end of the day I think we really when we sit here and say hiring is not we got a lot of vacancies let's just try to do something I know people are trying to criticize me about saying bold action but that would be a bold action to do some things like that so I would encourage you to I know you leaving but

pass that on to Dr Curley and the HR department to see how we can do this better I would just say in Spirit of transparency there were two um that was human eror because there were two Elementary um principal positions posted one of them had a salary range and the other did not you're correct so I would say that that's a human era we have um made sure that we have put the ranges on

so now we're going to go back and check every single one to make sure that the ranges are there but I spot checked today after your request as I was looking for that to make sure that the Rangers were were um listed in there but there were two PR two Elementary principal positions posted one had the range the other did not so if we didn't want to be transparent we wouldn't put

it all but we're going to fix that thank you very much appreciate it Mr Das thank you um superintendent um just earlier in citi's input we heard um from the tany PTO um regarding the West doll school and um individuals um that could be sent there um I know you addressed this in your weekly update you just sent last Friday I I just want to get a clarification so if students who are

currently at tany received a letter whatever the letter said um that they would um potentially go to West doll if they those students that may be moved to West doll apply to stay at tany if they want to stay at tany is that guaranteed yes because tany does not have they're not fold they don't have enough students there to fill the building so we can say and that's why typically our policy as a

district is parents fill out a request and after all of the position all of the shuffling has been done over the summer we Grant some permits but because tany traditionally has positions we have uh granted those immediately okay thank you and um we also heard numerous complaints about mold into the classrooms at laterno um I don't know you that has to be referred um to facilities I don't

know if we can get that answer today but I just want to know like what what's being done what has been done to address those issues yes we we'll get you a a report on that um we have met as as um the teachers stated there's a Safety Committee but there's work that's been done and there's still work that needs to be done they're correct we'll get you that information thank you I uh we do

not have any student comment tonight um she graduated number six number seven I'm looking for a motion to second on two sets of minutes the regular meeting from June 10th and the regular meeting from June 10th second special special and the regular I have a motion a second could I get a roll call Mr ragia yeah just when we're talking about minutes so I had asked uh to both Madam superintendent as

well as the secretary for several weeks now to get the copies of the minutes for the superintendent search committee but the regular meeting any executive session minutes I've asked for that other people have asked for that I believe other Union officials have asked for certain documents as well and I still don't have them so I'm looking for an answer from the superintendent on why would we not get the minutes to the

search committee when we just made a decision on the superintendent what I would look at in those things was the mayor created an 11 member search committee those 11 members deliberated I guess and talked about things they they were privy to information that the school committee was not including all the resumés so when they deliberated and now they passed their names forward to us I thought it would be worthwhile to

actually look at it and to see what was the dialogue about the candidates and the like in addition I've asked for the summary of the survey so in April 24th the school department sent out something said the school committee is looking for input from the citizens of Fall River related to the superintendent search we all saw it on parent Square we saw it on Facebook we saw it all over when I was

going to deliberate what we were going to do with the superintendent the natural thing to ask for would be what is the survey what were the questions what were the answers I have still to this day and no member of this committee as of the date we voted had seen the survey or at least seen the summary so at the last meeting I asked for the same thing mayor Coogan told me two weeks

prior to the vote that I he was going to get me the survey results I still have not seen the survey results but we voted on the superintendent at that time I said why don't we have the survey mayor Coogan told the secretary Miss cabal did we send the survey out she looked at him like no we don't have it you don't have it and he looked like well what do you

mean you don't have it where is it did it go out this was before the vote for the superintendent so I'm still very concerned that we had a survey and we didn't go out I haven't seen it to this day nobody on this committee has seen seen it before we voted it's very concerning to me but the minutes of the meeting that I'm asking for I don't understand why they weren't done the May said at the

when I asked right before the meeting the mayor said I told her not to give you those meetings or I told her she's not done yet or some kind of excuse to me that's an unacceptable answer so I I emailed the superintendent and the superintendent is the supervisor for the secretary to the school committee so Madam superintendent I'm just looking for some feedback on why we haven't got

those minutes and are they made are they not made or why are they being withheld from members of the school committee I'm not withholding anything as the outgoing superintendent have had no part in the hiring of the new superintendent of of the survey having access to the survey to to anything so when I got your request I forwarded it to the mayor who's a chair and to the and to the vice

chair but this is so so Mr no excuse me this is not related to what's on the agenda there's two sets of minutes from June 10th the regular meeting and the special meeting that's what we're approving you and I can talk offline after my point is we're going far a field already let's stay on the agenda Please Mr chairman so I asked the superintendent a question the superintendent gave me an answer no the

superintendent gave me an answer she made a mistake the answer is not she told the mayor the superintendent is responsible to oversee the person who does the minutes to the meeting therefore that's why I asked to I didn't ask you I asked the superintendent and the secretary who her responsibility is to do the minutes of the meeting the meeting happened April 24th it's not on the agenda Mr a so at that point Mr agar

it's not on the agenda I'm speaking on the minutes no there's not for the 10th June 10th approval of the minutes is what I'm talking about June 10th you can you can try all you want to just say it's the fact of the matter is is you you're withholding the minutes to the Mr Agar was going to stay on the agenda please I'll bring it up at an appropriate time bring but the facts

remain the same yeah June 10th I have a motion in a second to approve two sets of minutes could I get a roll call Deb Mr we're approving June 10's minutes what are we approving June 10th no today June 10th today I'm sorry sorry my mistake 318 thank you Mr AGA 318 and 520 yes Mr Bailey yes right that's the meeting today Mr Das abstain Mr Cory yes M larv yes M Perera

yes mayor KGAN yes item eight is a number of travel requests if there's any points to discussion bring them up if not I'm assuming these are all second I have a motion to second on all the travel requests Deb could you please call the rooll chairman may I just ask a question Rel related to the travel travel yeah go ahead to the superintendent so Adam superintendent I think I've asked this before about uh

there's a a feeling out in the community that we we know no longer allow field trips is can you just clarify for what the um intention is on when a student can go on a field trip is it just is it something different because it does that's not under the purview of the school committee but I think when people say that we no longer allowing children to go on field trips I I think it should

be corrected for the record of what that is and is there a policy related to that there've been plenty of field trips especially at the end of the year lots of field trips so people have been going on field trips where we haven't prevented people from going on field Tri no field trip requests from school have been denied no not that I know thank you so I have a motion in a second Deb

could you please call the RO Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Mr Miss ly yes Miss Perera yes mayor cougan yes we have two donations I'm looking for a motion in second before the superintend second a motion a second uh Deb would you please call the rooll on the I mean on the donations Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes M

larav yes M Pera yes Mar c yes uh we have no grants tonight item number 10 I'm sorry oh jump in ahead I'm sorry superintendent go ahead from Project Lead the Way to Henry Lord Community School principal Daniels um accepts $1,620 and from first congreg ational Church to the Robert El Medeiros resiliency Preparatory Academy principal Riley accepts $874 50 cents donation thank you to

all as I said before we have no grants tonight but we do have a number of contracts under item 11 um anybody have any holds or pulls I'll take them right now Mr agar I have a question first on grants yeah go ahead so I'm looking for what is the policy related to how these grants get on the school

agenda how do the grants get on the school what the policy is there aren't any grants if there I'm sorry cont are you talking sorry I was under the contracts I apologize grants I have no questions you have no questions okay are we all set you said on grance there was none so I had a question on the contracts which is before us so my question is on the contracts how does a what is the

policy of how a contract gets before us he he has a general question for all the contracts right contracts go ahead who wants to know how they get on the agenda I would like somebody to explain what is the policy for how a contract gets on the agenda for approval before the school committee thank you Mr almea so contract amounts get put on the agenda for contracts with a vendor that are over

$25,000 so if a contract is below 25,000 we never get notice of it at all it's a total no even prior off the Record notice or anything no not off the Record but you know what I mean before the agenda so how would the school committee know when we're spending money let's say they spent $224,900 on a contract how would the school committee know what that's for and any backup related to that issue

those are the items that go on the bill schedules when they're paid and and they get appr finally approved by the school committee prior to going out they're signed off by two folks of the school committee before they go out so anything below that amount it doesn't get highlighted to say we're spending 24,000 on a this contractor when they correct so I know we talked about this in the

past about I wasn't necessarily in favor but I'm also in favor of transparency that to make it easier and just push things through and not have anybody discuss them is one thing with contracts but I believe that we need to have contracts at some point it has to be a delineation for when a contract comes before the school committee so when we're paying out a contract case in point I've asked for over a month maybe

a month and a half now for a copy of the contract that we have with the masc related to the superintendent search I still to this day have not received that amount do we have any information on that do we know I've asked this question via emails and do we know was there a a payment was there a contract like how does that work procedurally do you just we already use their services and it's

over so I would assume that the the paperwork is done and completed do you have anything to light on that I'll get you I'll get you the agreement but typically what ends up happening is an exhibit will get submitted to us with a requisition the requisition will go through it'll become a purchase order and then once the services are completed payment will be made so in this case you think there is an agreement CU I've

asked both I I I believe there is I believe there is and I and I if I I'll get it to you all right because I've asked both the mayor no answer the mayc chair no response so I am concerned that what we did we just completed it we don't even know what it is but I'm concerned about the do dollar value and I think that's something that we need to

revisit the other con the other one I'm concerned about was an expense that I know I've asked you guys about in the last year uh couple months here was that we spent $6,000 on a mascot $6,000 on a mascot and we're here trying to find every single dollar to to pay things and I've asked this question over and over I've gotten some answers to say oh it's a mascot it's really a nice mascot it's

something that we're going to use but as one member of the committee spending $6,000 out of the office of instructions budget for a mascot a costume is unacceptable and that's not something that should go but based on the policy that you just explained we would never know so we could buy 10 mascots we could buy you know $6,000 how many times the way that that policy reads is we don't

know how have to approve those expenses so when we see a mascot and everybody says well the school committee is buying a mascot for $6,000 I got to concerned with that I just got to be honest with you so I think we need to revisit that at some point about what the limit is because it used to be 5,000 if I recall 10,000 10,000 so we I think we need to dial it

back because when I'm seeing expenses for $6,000 for a mascot somebody needs to have a check in the balance here I yield Mr Mr Das hi um there's two questions um one so so my understanding and of course I'm new to this so any contract under $25,000 doesn't go before the school committee so the all all this all the information will go through everything before it gets processed and

before it go it goes out requires two signatures of the school committee so every every batch every schedule that we have gets signed off by two members of the school committee okay and is that a state law is that a policy a district policy it's it's our policy it's our policy we follow so all our bills that go out require uh two sign offs by the school committee noted thank you and

just uh followed back up on Mr agar's Point $6,000 for a mascot um does anyone have an answer on what was the rationale behind that expenditure Dr curle we actually sent that information to the committee with Mr agar twice um when Mr agar um asked for that um that's F Lexi right uh as part of the Lexia thing it's to mimic the stmath and GG um and it's shared between all of the schools uh when when

kids meet their level up then uh Lexi makes a visit to the school um that's an incentive for students and if you divide it up by all of our schools it's not that's uh but we did send that documentation I will send it again but you you've gotten all the information as well as the bills Etc we'll send you um paperwork again thank thank you Mr chairman i y for now thank you Mr

Cory yes in regard to the contracts I just want to make a general comment I'm seeing that we have cartwheel imagine learning and mcra Hill for grades K through five reading I want to let for the public certification just to for you to realize that these contracts are student centered Student First and and there to support teachers and there to support the efforts of our school board and its uh efforts to expand seal

Services first contract with cartwheel Health Services is a major step forward for all of our school teachers uh at every level because it's going to provide extra scaffolding and almost immediate response when there are clinical issues such as high anxiety unregulated behavior and how parents can have a tough time dealing with all of that well cartwheel is going to be in a position to help our school adjustment

counselors our seaons and our school teachers and staff to get through because they're going to provide extra Clinical Services that previously we could not just tap into so quickly this is an emerging Trend nationally and I'm just so glad that we're taking that step to move forward the next one Imagine Learning is meant for elementary math and to support the uh the math coaches and the school

teachers at that level because we all know that math has been a real sticky Point as far as our mcast standards are concerned Math's a sticky Point throughout the state not just in Fall River everywhere so I'm really hoping that these contracts I want you to know the mcra hill contract is directing is dealing directly with K through five reading levels and there to support the classroom teachers again I want you to

know that our sites are set on the class teacher with that I yield thank you Mr Agia just a follow up on the policy question so in the backup that the superintendent gave for the $6,000 uh costume it was I had asked a question of what is the internal control to that and it said we got three quotes So when I looked at the quotes there was none that gave an actual number it said a rough

amount to say we would spend X Y and Z is that a requirement of the three quote rule when you say you want to get a quote is it an actual quote or is it just this is Ty typically what a a costume would cost because what I'm reading is it when he gave the backup several things stuck out to me was test that it was a random someone said usually around 7500 some obviously you

could probably get one a lot cheaper than that um but when I was looking at it I'm saying to myself what is the policy and what's the internal control to prevent something like this and it's my understanding that was the only vendor that had the product so that's that was that vendor that provided that that costume so he was that place was a proprietary mascot uh Lexis sorus costume maker y so we had three quotes

submitted to us where did those Quotes come from I I I didn't see three quotes there was only the one so when superintendent sent us the information in there three quotes that didn't go to finance that you know of not that I know of okay so that is concerning as well what I did find was that to answer Mr Das question about the sign offs we have a system in place that the school

department sends us every now and again they'll send us a bunch of Bill schedules on a um uh doc sign so that means you have to you're supposed to go through them so when Mr alme is talking whoever was mentioned that the school committee approves those it's within a context of a whole bunch of stuff so you got before you sign it you got to actually look through it and read

through it so the ones for this one was signed by Paul Hart the first one the first half was signed by Paul har Shelley Pereira the second one was signed by Mimi laravie and I believe it was Sarah Rodricks was what the superintendent indicated so those sign offs are coming because of a system that we have of how that works just to let you know how it works whole bunch of

things come up and then we just go in and sign it off on now I've personally stated to Mr almea I will never sign one of those in in the future because they just lump a whole bunch of stuff in and we never get a chance to look at it but the community is going to look at it and say the school committee signing that to approve those expens so every single time I've ever signed in

this city when I've been on this school committee when I sign I'm approving each one of those expenditures so I could only therefore say that whoever signed that is was agreeing that it was okay to spend $6,000 on a GG on a alxasaurus costume I'm here for one to say I would never have approved that that's way too much money and we got to startop looking at all these expenses otherwise we're

just going to keep going down the same road we're in with that I yeld hearing nothing further if there's no holds on contracts I'll take a motion oh I I add a few holds I apologize I know we're having a prior discussion on what do you got Mr Das um I just wish to hold um proe systems cartwheel and a town of TI okay proav systems what's the next one please cartwheel cartwheel gotcha last one uh

town of ton what is it town of ton okay so I have three holes anything else I I'll act take a motion to approve motion to approve second uh the rest of the contracts with the three holds Mr D pointed out any discussion Deb please call the role Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss larv yes Miss Pereira yes mayy Coogan yes uh first one Mr Das proav systems uh your

concerns Mr uh Scotts at the podium thank you so I just want to walk me um to this contract so we have um 12 white boards going um spread out to um the um preschool locations which is conly is it um 2501 South Main Street and then is there another so Mr Das this will only be for the conle site uh 2501 already has boards um purchased they're being installed at the moment and the rental

location in Eastern Avenue already has boards at the location so these will be primarily for Conley and then once we figure out long term where we're going they'll move to either the Pace Building or wherever the students will be housed in the future thank you so um they're not going to 25 they're not going to 2501 all that was one of my my concerns but um I was a bishop Cony graduate um

they don't have white boards already at at Bishop connley so whatever they had there they've taken down so there's just black boards chalk boards in the classroom so there is no technology as part of our um lease they took down all the whiteboards just empty classrooms in there okay so there's a rental there's a rental group in there now they've taken their technology down there moving and it's

going to be left with we have to outfit it okay a oh you uh so that's um I I I yield for um proav for proav all right so can I get a motion a second on Pro second any discussion further Deb please call the roll one proav Mr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yep M lari yes M Perera yes Maric hugan yes uh Mr Das also asked for whole on cart

wheel health Mr Das thank you um so few questions on cartwheel so and I prev previously asked for um I believe there's another contract that deals with eapap contract um so my first question is about staff Support Services what type of um Services would um staff be getting from this the cartwheel program yes so the cartwheel is a teleah health mental health program um we've been partnering

with them the second half of the school the Year this year in a pilot program working with our secondary students um offering all of our students access to therapy uh counseling and support and so the the cartwheel program um is in Partnership also with the Brookline Center and some of the benefits of this is that um the offerings for tella Health go from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday so it just

extends offering opportunities as well as multilingual multilingual excuse me opportunities for our students whose English is not the first language there is a depth of access to counselors who can provide direct service in the native language of our students as well as a 48 hour turnaround so that our students are not having a wait list to be able to get the therapy and supports when their

families are ready to partner with them right that's for the students but for the staff that's for like members of the district like staff members of the district to receive Services themselves no no this is a student program however I will say in addition to the direct service to student um there are some resources that potentially will become available for staff next year but the

cartwheel program is a direct support for students they do offer through our Parent Academy some um workshops and opportunities but it is not a direct service to staff currently okay thank I apologize if you just clarify a page 17 of the cartwheel contract at the bottom it says uh staff Support Services up to 20 Lea staff seen for assessment and therapy what a cost of $5,000 what would

that be for that rolls into next year this contract for next school year that they will be available to give staff therapy as well okay that I'm sorry yeah I misunderstood what you were asking that's a new part of this contract it's not something that was part of the current contract we're in this is going into next fiscal year right okay and just to follow up on that so um it sees

up to 20 staff members is that like a first would that be like a first come first serve basis like if like an individual goes um goes reaches out to this um institution wants to be seen for assessment and therapy the first 20 and that's it or like is there any type of um way to like V that well how do that work it is a first come first serve and

then if we look to extend the serving staff element of the contract we would come back to the committee for an extension okay um this is my question um believe we have um an agreement with South Coast that um pertains to um St Staffing already that's not Rel that's not related to this is something separate so if staff are looking to engage in clinical support counseling support they to have access through the

cartwheel separate right the the reason I'm bringing this up now because I um out of respect for the taxpayers I just don't want to see like duplicate programs out there um right I I did ask previously to see the EAP contract so I could compare that that's why I had to ask that now but um I'm going to hold my questions for now thank you anything further approve second Mr draga yeah just to to comment

on that so I agree with Mr Das that we when we have the South Coast hospitals come before us now I've personally said I wasn't in favor of that we should have went out for bid and all that stuff we were told Point Blank by the person in charge in the school department and the folks from South Coast that any staff member that needed support with any kind of counseling would get it

for free as for as long as they want that's what we're told in a public meeting at that stage that's EAP for the EAP yep so why would we need to add this in I just don't get the even though it's I think only 5,000 of the money but when we're looking at the contract it is a it is a conflict between we're told in one breath we're going to do EAP for anybody

that needs it and now we're going to have $5,000 of this or whatever the numbers were with the program I think it's just conflicting that's maybe maybe it's me but I think it's conflicting with the two so I'm going to vote for this because I think it's a valuable thing for outpatient services for kids but it does say in our minute in our agenda provided to students and staff 75,000 will be paid for by from the

Brooklyn schools or whatever and it's the whole contract is 155 so I I and I couldn't find it in my binder to look at the details so I apologize but and I will double look at those details as well because the the contract with cartwheel has been specifically for students and so if there is language that got added to this new contract then that is something separate I know that

the adult program is going to be an option moving forward um particularly also as it relates to offering language supports for even our adults who speak a different language um but I did not see that as a direct element of this contract I will have to double check that fine and I'm not looking to uh all I'm looking for is some clarity so I think it brings up a good point Mr D

brings up a good point if we check it and it's something that's duplicating Services I'm sure we can recommend that it get pulled out of the contract so I'm we've had through this um subcommittee on social emotional learning special education now we've done many good things and there's a lot of these things that are coming out here that youve presented before us so there is a lot of

good things happening in your department in special education I'm not denying that at all when I make comments sometimes to say that we have a lot of issues in this community has nothing to do with that we don't have pockets of think good things going on and some of these things uh to your credit for what you've been doing but at the end of the day listening to everything that's happened in this meeting there's no

doubt that we have some serious issues in this community and people can say that I was the one saying it was a problem we do have serious problems all which I said in the meeting but I do want to at the same time recognize the fact that we have some good things that are happening too so I'm hopeful for a lot of the things that you have on board we've had at special ed subcommittee

great discussions with special ed as as well Asal so I don't want you to think that you you or anybody else to think that I think everything's bad I just know that we have some issues and we need to correct them and thank you for your work I yield uh Mr di thank you I apologize I actually had a few questions about the student portion of this so um how long was the current contract we

have a cartwheel now like I know it's going to end soon but when did it start a few months back I think it was about January February so it's like a trial period B yes it was a pilot program um was there any like um survey done or any data taken to see the effectiveness of it we're coming to the end of that um now at the end now with our kids coming

to well it's actually not coming to the end because some of their services will move into um the summer I can certainly give an update um at the end of year for July's meeting the reason that we put this contract forward right away is so that we could have Esser funds to support it which we know will be expiring um soon typically I would have come forth with those um outcomes but I

apologize for not having the data from the pilot ready to go it's okay but have you heard um good reviews to overall it's been great uh Claudia CA oural coordinator is in regular contact with cartwheel we've also been meeting with the brook line Center because there are a range of even professional development opportunities that our district will stand to serve through this to be a

beneficiary of through the partnership um so as it is now we're planning for Teacher Institute so that we can also offer some seal supports in the teacher Institute this year which will be a little bit of a different experience as a result of the partnership with cartwheel explicitly thank you and um I did get um I do have a question in terms of like what type of therapy um this some service provides I

know it's tella Health um is it CBT therapy or did he offer more services in this uh CBT do you know yes it clinical counseling one-on-one counseling working with our students um also providing supports connecting with our adjustment counselors back in our buildings to make sure that there are wraparound Services of care okay and then um do they do um Care Management or like referrals and they do

referrals after like the four two to four the four months is over four to yeah four to six yep if a student is in need of additional care there is a direct um backwards plan to connect with the school until we get that student into permanent care here in the city should they need it beyond the time frame of their um sessions with cartwheel okay I Yi thank you any anything further on cartwheel uh Deb do

I have a motion a second you do um would you please call the RO Mr AA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes M perrera yes mayor kouan yes and finally Mr Das asked for a hold on the town of tan um I think uh Mr um almea can explain that uh he's at podium now is there a specific question Mr Das there was I'm just trying to

um find the um the panh in my my very big book here um Mr chairman may ask one sure go ahead Mr AGA so I know what this is and stuff just that um it says please remit 40,000 for these five students yes so my concern is the Net G gain or loss of revenue from the Commonwealth related to all students so I believe you said at one of the last meetings that we have is

it 19,000 per student yes so multiplying 19,000 * 5 is 95,000 for the good and then this is 40,000 to the bad so that's $135,000 that we're losing a net loss to Mo to pick up five kids and they look like they're all on the same street so if we're losing $150,000 I think there might be a better way with uh than doing this I know we've done this traditionally it's not your

fault Mr Al it's above your pay grade but the more I look at this when it's I was told 10 years ago or however when I was on here that we were going to not do this anymore because of this type of reason now we it just says we're adding a student so $135,000 loss we can transport kids for I would assume less money than that um so I don't know

if do we have this like are we locked into this or are we just going to was this for the kids in the prior school year so we can cancel it for next year what is like you're saying please remit 40,000 for the current School the the agreement's been in place for a while we've we've had the kids that lived around the Saudi Pond area and it's mostly been due to the cost of a

bus to transport those students and where they're located but so when it you look in the agreement does it lock Us in when when can we say that we're going to violate we're going to so the agreement before us here says uh 518 of 2021 we can renegotiate the agreement if we have to every year yes so I think I don't want to not pay the bill that we already

assumed and it was done but as I've said many times before we know need to bring stuff forth before that we just keep on doing it so I'd ask the superintendent the new superintendent yourself somebody to come up because to me this is a net loss of 135,000 we got 18 vehicles that we have we have we can put five kids in a van that cost less money than that including a driver for

fulltime I think don't think it's a good use of money especially when we're trying to find money to pay raises and and the like so I'm going to vote for this but please put it on the I don't know that go facilities maybe I don't know because it's Transportation related or wherever you or the new superintendent thinks could please put it on as soon as possible because we should out of fairness to them families

say no you're going to come in September to our school and save us 135k how you old thank you Mr D um so this a echo on Mr agar I pretty much answered all my questions question but um so for this year it's a cost of $40,000 I just heard 95,000 um but the cost for this year it's $40,000 to transport these students to Tian no the cost is $40,000 for those kids to attend

TI in public schools that's the cost from for us to them so um it's so all all so all these students um want to because of where the geographical location they're choosing to go to ton yes and something they want to do okay correct yeah then I yeld thank you okay hearing nothing further do I have a motion a second on that yet de you do not can I get a motion a

second please motion I got a motion Mr and a second motion Mr Bailey and second miss larvey Mr chairman Mr ragar just looking at the I know we're going to look at this but in the mou page two and I'm looking at this quick but it says not later than the first day of July each City's town or Regional School District shall submit a non-resident attendance report so I don't know if

that's a July date but they're just food for thought if we're going to do it we and and save the 135,000 I don't know if that July 1st is a real date if that's the case we're going to miss the opportunity to do that so if any time during the meeting if we figure out if that's the case I'd encourage this to come up on the new business so we can take a vote on

it anything further D please call the rooll Mr a yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory y m lar yes M Pereira yes mayor Coogan yes Committee of the whole 12.1 is a discussion and vote to approve you Aspire as presented by Drew Woodward director of guidance

good evening um first of all I want to thank you for having us here tonight to update you on our uspy partnership which has been a multi-year uh partnership so thank you for your previous support as well just for the edification of the public who may not know you Aspire is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the economic mobility of underrepresented students by

creating Financial Solutions to diverse post secondary pathway you Aspire supports our students and families by providing individualized financial aid support helping them make informed College decisions and successfully enroll in postsecondary education this support includes um helping students and families complete the FASA the Massa CSS profiles helping them apply um for scholarships review financial aid award

letters and appeal financial aid Awards and More in addition you Aspire supports our dery high school and Fall River Public Schools alumni I so that they can continue to secure the best financial aid and manage College cost as they progress towards a postsecondary degree or credential here tonight we have lesana Reed uh us spy's College affordability adviser at f frps as well as Kimberly need the VP of operations

they will be sharing some brief updates on our partnership and their work with students this school year and we'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have so I'll turn it over to Lana good evening everyone my name is Lea as Drew mentioned um just a little bit about me I am a Fall River native and a dery graduate of 2014 so it was my pleasure to come back to the school and

support students this year so as Drew mentioned um I work directly with students helping with financial aid choosing affordable colleges um going through financial aid packages to help them make the best decision for them um so I do work in the school Tuesdays through Fridays um I do onetoone meetings with students during these times as well as a texting program um they're able to ask questions through

there as well so once I've worked with all the students throughout senior Year I'm still available to help them and support them through the summer so currently our summer program has just started which is mostly virtual with texting zooms um but if they do need support I can come into school as well to still Provide support for them so some of the things we did this year I'm just going to go through a few data

points so this year we've had 336 High School seniors at dery sign up for the usire program um of these students I've had 839 onetoone meetings with either students or parents 89% of those students have been engaged via text with me um and that's more than 10,000 text messages that have come through to students from students with questions updates if they need to make a meeting anything in between so far we

have submitted 190 fafsas and mafes we're still working on this um because of the delays with FAFSA this year if you guys are familiar um it's been pushed back a little so I'm still continuing to support those students and hopefully get these numbers up a little through the end of the month um we've had 58 CSS Pro profiles submitted 56 well actually today I just double checked 66 financial aid offers reviewed

to help students decide which schools will be most affordable for them and 54 students have completed any verification steps that they needed to complete um aside from these points I've also worked alongside with counselors here at dery and with the one goal program with students who are starting to prepare for college that way um counselors or teachers can point out any students who

need a little additional support and I can support them as well so once the students finish up with um the summer program they should be ready to enroll in college know who their College counselors are know how to pay their bills and manage their loans the students are still able to continue with the program um and it's called succeed so through years one through five of college the students will still

have an advisor mostly virtual where they'll still be able to text Zoom if they need help um reapplying for financial aid making sure they understand their financial aid packages and keeping up with their tuition bills so for the succeed program um this year we had 403 dery graduates continue on and 78% of those still engaged over text with their new advisor um so as long as students stay engaged whether they

continue on to college or not we're still there to support them whether they go to trade school just want to work or take a gap year we'll still here to support them for whatever decisions they make and the top three schools um for 2023 were Bristol Community College UMass Dartmouth and Bridgewater State and brist community colleges in one of the schools that we recommend as financially safer where students tend to

leave with less debt and get better financial aid packages so that's the basis of our program in what I do here at dery and what the students continue doing and then I'm just going to turn it over to Kim to talk a little bit more about the funding of this program okay good evening my name is Kim Nita I am the VP of development for Massachusetts so I secure fund for all

of our um all of you aspires work across Massachusetts including Fall River so I'm here to answer any questions you might have based on our fiscal year 24 funding um and then fiscal year 25 is still in the works our fiscal year end June 30th so we don't have an actual budget yet that I that is visible to me but our team will provide that to me July 1 so I can answer any questions on

fiscal year 24 if you have any um Miss lar hi thank you both for being here tonight uh so my question one is the summer program does that reflect towards the seniors that just graduated and they're going to have the services this summer and what does that look like yep so um any student that I worked with throughout the year as long as they've been engaged in text messages or have

had meetings with me um they'll continue to have so it's like we use a it's called MGI it's like a computer texting system they'll continue to get texts throughout the year for example today I sent out to check on if students had received any Financial Aid packages that haven't in the past so I was working on some of them going over it making sure they understood what was going on and

then any students who decide to opt out are welcome to as well but it is the seniors who are here now who continue into the summer program and that transitions into the succeed program if they choose to do so yep correctly as long as they stay engaged they'll still continue to how long you said three through college is that all the way until they graduate pretty much mhm okay this is our first year this year right

um we've had it for a few years so it's my first year as the adviser Kendra was the advisor three years before and then I don't know how long all together no I wasn't I was an advisor yeah I say actually that's right Bobby was I believe it's been I actually was the first advisor I remember that now it's coming back so um I'm I'm a huge believer of the program obviously I was

the first adviser at dery when this started um I think there's a lot of great work behind it I don't think people really see how effective the program is also um when we started with the texting part of the program um we had to navigate a lot of things I think my only question was um looking at the evolution of the program is there anything um within the texting app that's multil language um for some of

our students because I think one of the biggest things that students with barriers um students that speak different languages was a huge barrier for me um was running into that student apparent where um you know I couldn't connect because there was a language barrier um is there anything in the texting app that provides that so I definitely get your struggles with that it is a little difficult to

get students who speak other languages to answer messages unfortunately we don't have anything that like translate messages yet I do allow students to text me in their preferred language and then I'll just use Google Translate or somebody in the school to translate the message for me or help me come up with a message to answer back in their language that way it's easier and more helpful

for them to navigate awesome Miss uh Miss lar wasn't quite finished I'm gonna continue now okay oh sorry sorry it's all right Bobby because I I was I wanted to get into the parent aspect of it okay I mean Bobby just touched on a little bit and mine is mostly about the communication with parents do you have a a large group of parents that you tend to where I'm getting at is sometimes a a

a student say a junior senior they're really excited to go to Harvard Medical right and uh this family Dynamic is like no from the background right so I think the parent communication is very very important to um the success of the student right so how much parent engagement Guardian engagement uh is there so it really depends on the student and if they're comfortable with me reaching out to their parents I

always offer and say I can email call I do have like a separate work phone number that I can call parents from or they can reach me at as well like I've had some students whose parents weren't willing to help them fill out financial aid and I've made those kind of phone calls or I've had parents come in to discuss their financial aid packages um to see if the student really is making

the best decision so I don't have like a specific texting format for parents but I am open and willing to communicate with parents if it's needed right and my last question I don't know who wants to answer this one but what is the indirect total cost what does that mean so the indirect total cost is uh 41,382 yeah what is it oh what is it it's so it's basically like part of my

salary so fundraising for all the other costs that come with it so any like the technology that she uses um the knowledge and training so we have a knowledge team who every year goes over all of the aspects of FAFSA and then um informs lean's work in terms of like a we have um we call it a safety financially safe framework so we go and look at the income of most of the

students or the majority of the students that we work with and then our knowledge team comes up with a list of financially safe schools for low-income students in Fall River low-income students in Malden Cambridge all of our other sites and that really is so it's not just Le Shana's salary but it's a lot of like our other team members too also supporting um her work on site thank you

I yield M Mr Corey Drew if I could ask you could you just like give me U just regular language on on what this program is does this program help our guidance counselors and and and I'm just not familiar with it so I I'm trying to get familiar with it sure yeah so our um it helps our students um really get the one-on-one attention and support for filling out those critical financial aid

forms that make College affordable um so the school counselors do work closely with Lana and you Aspire but Leana takes on a lot of the oneon-one meetings and uh has this text infrastructure that is secure um where she can also reach out to students and families via text which has been a huge help and support when they have uh questions so is this is a leg up for kids that really need some

extra extra help to like crack that college barrier and does it also see their way through college through the uh entire program or is it just at the beginning uh so they the ability through the succeed program now to continue uh throughout College each year they can continue to um connect with a usire advisor to help them fill out financial aid forms to help them earn the whole

goal of the program is really uh to help students earn a postsecondary uh degree or credential to help them Li live you know their best life um and have choices in their careers um so uh it starts usually in the spring of junior year and it goes throughout um um until they graduate from college up to five years thank you Bobby if I could just ask you what was your experience uh

in in your experience with it uh amazing us py was probably one of the best jobs I've I've ever had it prepared me um to work with students but I think it's also important to know that the relationships you build on those one-onone meetings um one thing that they're not bringing up is the amount of kids who came back two or three years later whether they went to college or not and contacted me and

wanted help with the financial aid um um process whether it was in the application process but also it's the relationships you build with the colleges around um and having the ability to just call a financial aid office or call an admissions office connect a student um change packages negotiate col uh Financial packages for students um so I think there's a lot of work that goes into it and I don't

really think you can quantify the amount of work that goes into it um one of the biggest things for me too that I was thinking of that was just getting my gears going is the amount of money that kids save right so if BCC is our number one school you might have a kid who's a borderline student who Pro potentially probably could go to a four-year University but if they can save some money for two

years and go to a a fouryear university and obtain the same degree and even go back and get a graduate degree um so I'm a huge supporter of the program and I I'll I say it all the time I think it's one of the best jobs that I had um but it also gives you ability to sit in front of different students and see what their family structure is and actually

meet those students and it is a handoff with the guidance counselors thank you thank you motion to approve thank you Dr I have a motion I just want to say real quick I am very familiar with yeah is that me were you pointing at me or no yes you're next but I have a motion to approve Sor you keep talking do I do second Miss perara and m r um I was going to say um

that I am very familiar with the the program um and it is applying for college is daunting in itself never mind the financial a process of applying for college um having two kids in college right now um I know that it's challenging and even though I did it back in my day Everything's changed right I filled out a paper and a pen and now everything's very different so even parents who've navigated it in the past

for themselves this is still very helpful um and also like Bobby was saying that connection because you may have parents in the home um maybe don't um understand value of going away to college as their as their children do so this allows as Bobby said to build relationships with other adults who can support that um so this is fantastic and I'm happy we're going to approve it again and this is something that for of

is doing that straight that not everybody is doing can we can make a point of that too not every district is investing this way we are and I think that's just important to mention with that I yield thank you Mr Mr U so I I've always had some questions about this program you probably know the questions I'm going to ask ahead of time but how does this fit in with the current guidance counselors uh what

would what would a guidance counselor be doing if you Aspire didn't exist at the high school so um school counselors at the high school are working you know daily with students on a variety of different issues but in terms of the College Planning and financial aid process counselors are meeting with with students uh they're doing classroom workshops uh B uh they would probably be doing a lot of more small group and

classroom workshops about financial aid um but with the with the responsibilities having multiple grades not having you know the professional development that you Aspire can bring to the table on that expertise um I don't know if it would be as effective in supporting students uh to save money and make College affordable they certainly would be working with students with all due respect Mr wward the question that I

asked you was if this program didn't exist so it doesn't matter whether this program is everything that we just said Mr Bailey I'm glad he was speaking up because he had worked on that like he said what he said my question was very targeted to if usire did not exist what would the role of the guidance councilors B at a at an urban Comprehensive High School related to these issues they they would would this

be their responsibility I guess is to get to the point yes certainly they would be supporting students through the financial aid and College Planning process as best they can uh I guess my point was that they would be doing a lot more small group and um in the group setting um due to the larger Case Case loads and uh what us buire can do is um more one-on-one specific to financial

aid counselors do meet with students on a one-on-one basis uh for the College Planning process for applications but the financial aid process is so complex that it does take a significant amount of time um and so um I think it would be more of a psycho educational model where U we would be providing information about and supporting students as best we could uh without the uh the added

resource of usire how long has usire been in Fall River I believe since uh 2014 14 yes so prior to 2014 whose responsibility was it to go over with the students their college applications their fast for their this that whatever it is since then before 2014 when we had you Aspire whose job was it to do all these things um I believe it would be the school counselors I believe it's still the school counselor's

responsibility um but I wasn't here prior to 2014 but I believe it would be the you know the school counselor's responsibility correct right and I think if we looked at the numbers we actually have more counselors both you can call them school counselors they're still guidance counselors in my mind because that's how we can differentiate between the school adjustment counselor and the

guidance counselor in the last six years we've doubled the number of counselors at the school so my concern is that we have a program that we're getting funding that says please not funding level is not guaranteed year after year so we've created Something That We're relying on these grants to come in to do such a thing as well as our portion of it is 55,000 which is ironically around the salary of a guidance

counsel and I've said this for for many years so the whole program is costing $20 and some thousand but we actually could fund a guidance counselor an extra guidance councel every year just for the money that we're putting in never mind the grant funding and all these other things that are happening that's my concern is just a long-term benefit to it and I haven't heard from you or anybody to say what

what are the councilors that now are not doing that work what are they doing extra that they now have time because if what this young lady had mentioned it's all the work that she's doing if they're not doing that work what else are we getting are we getting a lot more bank for our buck out of the guidance counselors that we currently have or is just somebody else doing it no I think a

lot of the the counselor's attention is uh to support uh reducing chronic absenteeism a lot of Dropout prevention supporting students um you know in school Success unrelated uh to the you know the post-secondary process um so this has allowed school counselors to really to really focus on um a variety of academic and personal social and um how do the guidance counselors how do the guidance counselors work at

dery how do they get assigned are they is there a 10th grade do you have each of each grade or do they follow have uh most of them have a 10 through 12 case load some of them do have a 9 through 12 case load so they don't deal with seniors or they deal with a third of their case load as seniors yeah they have about 75 or so seniors on average and you're telling me

that they can't do this this type of work because they're doing some other type of work that's non- postsecondary related out of my case load like I just don't understand how that goes and then you if I look in here there's another program called one goal which is another grant that we get when I asked the same questions about Early College and it just seems like that we're duplicating a

guidance counselor to this program and it's it's costing $20 and some th000 and I think it's a duty of guidance it's a responsibility of a guidance counsel I just don't I just don't get it Mr agar I I do think it's also important to look at the history of um our efforts to support students with financial aid the changes that occur in financial aid are very regular and annual and when we think about the

professional development in day-to-day followup to support our students many of which who are first year College Bound the financial aid process is a very tricky process and I would I would tell you that there is no way that we can give all of our students our best efforts um to think about the demands of daytoday on our guidance counselors who are servicing Myriad of a myriad number

of students and the the demands across the really 10 through 12 spectrum of devel of putting out a guidance Department curriculum and reinforcing postsecondary exploration and all of the above uh financial aid as we know one of the biggest challenges is supporting our students in believing that they can afford postsecondary education and so that alone would have to be if the committee wants to go in a different

direction I would highly advise that we really would have to do a deep analysis around the benefits of this program and how to replicate it um because I'm not so we would have to put one person fully in charge of this work to put the financial aid work to this degree and to support our students with the level of hand holding that is needed to really really support not just students but our

families as well um who just don't speak the language of financial aid um I I just don't see us it's just not a comparable conversation immediately right now now if we want to say we want to hire a guidance counsel whose sole responsibility will be financial aid then that just becomes a different conversation that I don't think I've heard come across the committee before but when I think about the demand on our

current guidance council is there is no way in good faith that I could recommend us backing off of this current partnership and to expect that our councilors who are meeting the demands of the day-to-day could pick up the sensitivity that comes with navigating financial aid um so that's I just want to speak to that piece of so I had just mentioned to Mr Woodward that we're paying OPP portion of this funding is

55,000 which is a salary for a guidance counselor so I I just said in the public meeting that I and I've said this last year I said it years ago when you look at that it says please not with an aster funding level is not guaranteed year-over-year so I think we're setting ourselves up for saying we need this so if we could have for $55,000 a or 60 whatever the number

would be if this is the need then we should just hire our own resident expert on that that's under the control of the guidance counselors or whoever's in charge of those now so that we can do this and have a long term I just keep on looking it says well man Foundation I don't know what that is are they going to continue to fund this is the United Way going to fund it and what would they

be funding if they didn't so would the greater follower of development C say they're not going to give us 15,000 to help this if it wasn't youire like I just think we need to look at it I'm not trying to pull the rug out from underneath it now but thinking forward we have to have stability year upon year um I don't necessarily disagree I just want to put I just want to put I guess

I'll use the word caution for lack of better term um about thinking that this could just be done by our guidance counselors as a former department head of guidance and guidance counselor myself um and knowing the everchanging element of financial aid and the sensitivity that our families deserve when it comes to embarking on that process and support of their children I just think we need to take a

hard look at the Historical success and if we can replicate it um certainly come back and maybe offer something different going into next year um I you know I appreciate you know maybe your critical analysis of it but I I do think we would need to take that under exploration to review but knowing the need to keep our kids seeing College as an option certainly has to stay at the Forefront

in most media piece I'm not disagreeing with you I do think that we need to be reflective over the entire process the numbers of counselors and staff that we have at dery is tremendous millions of dollars is being spent we used to have eight guidance counselors and two adjustment counselors for 10 total staff working with those folks I know but we never got the results of our kids going

to college and having the access to the postsecondary opportunities that we currently can speak of and more importantly I would say that our kids can speak of as I came to college Signing Day and saw more than what felt like half to three qus of our seniors proudly on the stage you know promoting where they're going Life After dery High School and and I think sometimes people need to look at that and be reflective

and say if these are the things we've been doing for the last 10 years College Signing Day for instance if I'm ah head of guidance or involved in guidance I would be saying we should be doing our own thing so we can duplicate it without relying on a grant that's all my point is when we had 10 my point of saying we only had 10 people it was very difficult

to do all the things we have now we have tremendous needs but we've tripled the amount of supports that we have so now we've tripled the number of supports and we having this organization for 200 something thousand do some of the work that would have been done would have been forced to be done which was was my first question if if not for them somebody would have to be doing it so

all I'm saying is to take a hard look at it including all of the stuff and say well what are we doing because if if I'm doing a job and you tell me that somebody else is going to do a third of my my job or whatever the case load would be which is probably the case I better be given something duplicating that that's all and I think we just need

to take a hard look at it so my points are only for that reason let's take a peek at it and if the funding is is guaranteed then so be it but when I see it that it says it's a grant and what if they don't so my last thing was going to be if I can get of we can get copies of the funding request letters to all those organizations to say what that looks

like i' appre apprciate it excuse Mr Das and M perea thank you thank you um just turning my attention to um some line items so this a confirm this is a cost of $55,000 to the district because there's other correct okay because there's other things that come in today um so for staff salary um how many staff does um nonprofit have like working in the district for dery it's just the one

staff it's just me oh oh okay just you um and um this contract is um just for for high school students so it doesn't work you don't work with RPA I do go once a year to support them for the day I don't they aren't like part of the texting program or anything but I do go for a day just to make sure they know what they're doing I give them

my email I give them all the steps they need to take so they do still have a contact if they need somebody W um I I think as a committee we should look like look into like getting services for I'm pretty sure there's many students that at RPA that want to go to college and would really benefit from a program like this um it's definitely something we should look into in the future I you

miss pereo so I was going to make two points actually to Mr D's point I was going to ask about the RPA and why these Services go when we talk about our high school students I'd like to start talking about them in context of all of our high school students because this separation between our Traditional High School and our resiliency Academy is not working for the students at the resiliency Academy so I would like to

see that what I would not like to see is this program to end um I encourage all of my colleagues to do a deep dive into what this program is not just what it's doing for this District but nationally just the success that it has had and it is not replicating Services I look at filling out that financial aid as like when I go do my taxes yeah I could Turbo

Tax it but I'd much rather go to the professional that's learning every year all the new tax information they need to know and this is very much similar to obtaining financial aid in a college there's ways to go about getting it cheaper and there's ways not to right if I'm going to go do something I want a professional in it to tell me the best rate and the best way and that is not

going to be our guidance counselors because that's not what they necessarily went to school for even though part of the guidance job is to gear people towards College which we know they are not um experts in what you are there for so I don't think that you're replicating Services I think you're necessary I think you're needed I think you're support to our educational staff which needs support so they can do other

really important hard work and you're certainly a benefit to our students I would just like to see it expand more to the RPA and not have that line of like we're doing it here but we'll give them a little I'm I don't want them getting the left overs do you know what I mean I want them getting Equity there so if we could go towards that in the future that

would be awesome I love the program and with that I yield thank you Mr Corey so I'll be very brief um is there a contract do the students sign a contract are they are they held um once once you're working with a client in in the US buer program uh let's say you've gotten you've helped them with their financial aid for their first year are they held to a standard

to try to meet so that they could earn it for the second year the third year and the fourth year are there any standards in place so it's basically based on how engaged the student has been um do they respond to text messages have they had meetings with me um have I assisted them with financial aid have they asked questions so there's no specific like things they have to meet except for

staying engaged with the program is the only thing that keeps them continuing on with the program so according to their financial aid they're going to be aggressive with the text messaging so that they could get the best inside info as to how to keep that funding going for them is that how that works yeah so they don't need to text back like a million times I believe it's if they've answered

at least four or more times in the span of the year they're able to still continue on and we do have the option as the adviser to look through a list and decide if we think a student should stay in the program even if they haven't been engaged so if I find a student doesn't text me all the time but I know they come and meet with me I can still keep

them in the program as well okay so I'm just going to ask you off the top top of the head are you feeling like everything's really moving forward with this program in in your the body of your work with these kids I do especially um this year because there was a lot of delays and issues with the financial aid I don't think a lot of students would have been able to navigate that on their

own or with just their parents because we do get the training and like the inside information on anything that like small little ways they could fix something that's going wrong with the process if the website's going to be down um so we do get a little extra Intel that someone else may not have to be able to support the students and the last thing I'm going to say is I like to

Echo the sentiments of my colleague to my right is that U we certainly want to try to uh invest in the future of our students at RPA and and I wish that if if this is such a viable program this could be a great incentive for them especially in their daily attendance at school and their investment in their education you know when they become Juniors and seniors at RPA they start to

mature and start to think about the real world in front of them that's when something like this could really probably help them a lot so I would appreciate some type of U uh activity at the RPA site as well moving forward that a thank you Mr a Mr Mr Bailey and then I'll go back to Mr AA um this is just a thought and I just wanted to share I

mean um when she speaks of 800 plus student meetings um those initial meetings alone take some time and and I agree with everyone when they're saying we need deserves our RPA but I think it's also something that we have to explore and look into because when you're an adviser you are expected to meet with every student am I correct um and when you're texting every student you're meeting with every

student throughout the course of the year and you're doing primarily financial aid stuff you're not doing admissions work it's more of a handoff um if we're doing that I think we have to be really strategic on how we use her time or if we're going to invest deeper into this program because if whether she even has to B with to do that so good point you yield you done Bill Bobby

Bobby oh I sorry Mr AGA on that point so Mr wood what is the guidance curriculum water for a guidance counselor relative to their students isn't it listed in there that they need to meet with every student put their college choice help them with isn't part of the curriculum all these things we're talking about that's that's correct so uh counselors would have meetings individual meetings

called we call them senior interviews uh with students to support them uh through their post-secondary process uh look at colleges um uh talk about uh financial aid uh topics generally more generally and then we we typically hand off to Lana and you aspire to go into the specifics and the individual meetings because a lot of our families and students have unique circumstances that

the counselor may not know the correct uh answer to um so yes there is can you get us a copy please of the guidance curriculum for what guidance council is expected to do at the high school level because I just keep on hearing the same they should be doing some of this it's not you know some of these things should be happening and maybe they are and then this is just

a duplication of it but it it it appears almost like as if when every time you come here it looks like as if they're doing it and they're Notting it and it might not be accurate I just want to see for the edification of everybody what the guidance council is supposed to do so when it comes time we say well we just added a guidance C we added three guidance councils we go 13 14 guidance

councils now for four grades it's a lot more than what we used to have so I'm just having a hard time with sometime try trying to figure that that out the other thing is if what happens to all the other kids that don't get service so isn't there how many seniors are there there's 2400 students divided by four there's 600 500 between 500 and 600 depending on the year so if if 200 or

300 work with them what happens to those other 300 related to these issues so the other the other 300 would be working with their counselors we also have um support of the trio programs who support students as well through our talent search and Upward Bound program uh so it's a collaborative approach uh to service everyone as best we can um some some uh for example um on your question about

curriculum uh so all of our counselors go through English classes and and meet with seniors um to talk about the financial aid and College Planning process at the beginning of the year in addition uh counselors will be meeting with all students individually to support them with postsecondary um uh their postsecondary Choice um we do have us spire and Lana to really support on the financial aid

piece but there's specific tasks that that counselors du um for each of their seniors on their case load I think when you gave us the stuff it might make more sense at least to me because it's going to articulate right out this is the thing you're supposed to do the other piece about RPA is I just asked how long this program has been in existence and you said for 10 years and for over 10

years now we've had an RPA alternative school and now we're finding out today because because somebody asked on the stage here what about RPA that this these type of services aren't in place there how does that even happen when we're in this business of equity and making sure everybody does things equal as far as students having access no one's thought over the 10 years of this program to say we have that bunch of

students down there that need to get these same Services if I'm to believe that what you're saying is true is resident expert on financial aid and all that stuff that you just said if I believe all that I have a real hard time with the fact that for Equity purposes RPA just gets kicked to the side I have a hard time with it not looking for an answer I think it's just a fact so i y

Mr di I know I he had another question okay um that's okay um so I just want to follow back up on again the um the cost here and I understand it's only 55,000 and there's other costs but just to break down um um for the public at home for the taxpayers edification so the 109,8 staff salary what um what goes into um Fringe The Fringe Ben I'm assuming fringe benefits in manager

support so the fringe benefits are leana's uh part of Sal leana's salary plus her fringe benefits and then manager support she has a manager who helps her in thought partnership um if Leana has any issues with some students and needs to navigate like how do I discuss this specific situation with this student her manager will come in and step in and give her guidance on that um I don't know if there's anything else

you want to add on to that and how much is that out of the 109,000 do you want to speak to your spe you want her salary specific it's a manager that's not salary is that absolutely so it's a percentage of the manager salary and then the staff salary is Leana plus her Fringe okay um in OCC occupany do you hold like an office in dery is that like what's the that's

we're paying for um occupancy to stay in the building um why we're not just going to give you like a room we we um paying for it sorry I'm just a little confused on that part it's a good question so the occupany we have a Boston based we're based in Boston uh so we did up until October of 2024 we've gone fully reot since then that's open to all our all of

our advisers including Leana if she needed to go in for like staff retreats um what else do you go in for meetings with our advisor so that's the rent that we used to pay up until October of 20124 and then the technology is the mly platform so the texting platform that she uses her work cell phone that she uses also to reach out to students okay um and we have um indirect cost of

$41,000 um what is that that's uh what I mentioned earlier the fundraising part of it so my work uh my fundrais for for all of our Massachusetts work Fall River including and then also a portion of my boss's work who also helps me with thought partnership um action items on who to reach out to across Fall River um like application work the software that we use for we document a lot of our

things on sales for so it's a portion of like our work and leanas as well I Y thank you anything further Deb please call the role Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr D no Mr Cory yes Miss larvey yes Miss Perera yes may kouan yes 122 is a discussion and vote to approve An Early Learning Center Principle as presented by Maria Pont superintendent of schools so as you know um we've had uh

multiple sites we have had uh students at 251 as well as uh um on Eastern Avenue uh uh our director Kristen FAS has really been doing double duty and overseeing that as we knew was a temporary um issue and uh but really she needs to be able to do her job full-time and to um focus on on that work and we're going to have classrooms at Bishop Colley as well as

continue to have the um uh satellite over on Eastern Avenue we need to have a principal uh overseeing both of those sites motion to approve second motion to approve second discussion Mr AGA where does the pre Early Learning Center principle fit into the salary Matrix approved by the school committee oh it would that needs to be approved by the school committee it I would have to look at the Matrix are you

talking about where in The Matrix well we we've this is the first of this right yep so I would say that we don't have a matrix for early childhood no you're right you're absolutely because we didn't have it then so we'll have to add that proverbial copy for the horse you know discussion there's a need for someone to be in charge of the program I think relative to what you're

talking about in the past we've had a teacher in charge or the like but there's got to be a system of when something gets created and we get put on the agenda that we say wait a minute we can't approve a position that the school committee hasn't actually voted on what is the range of salaries that's the duty of the school committee to create the range for salaries so we have to look at

it because yes it's important to have a person in charge is does that person have the same responsibilities as a person who's responsible for a 600 student Elementary School with a little older children it's a different type of situation I just don't think we should be just plugging oh that's the way it goes we need to have a discussion about it to say what is the salary going to be

and do we need it that's my first concern the second concern I have is that we are going forward last month we had a conversation we were going to go forward with this plan we had subcommittee meetings we had this to this date June 10th now we've been talking about this for over a month again I asked last time what was the uh vote when was the bid opening for the

roof at the big school relative to the pay center the fund so this begs all those questions to say as we're going to approve more money what are those what are the details of that same amount so how much is the roof what is the this is all relative to this vote to approve a new principle and an additional expense because we're looking at the expenses I I don't I got to know what

those are I don't see how I'm sorry point point of order I don't see how this we're not talking about a roof we're talking about hiring a principal for the Early Education uh program that's what we're talking about right now irrelevant Ken can come up here and tell me the roof's never going to be done I'm still going to say yes we got to hire somebody for these kids it's just not what's on the

agenda let's just talk about what's on the agenda please and move forward and vote or see what you have to say about I I do believe that we should stay on the agenda it makes things a lot simpler on the agenda I just I just refer it back to exactly how this is part of the agenda but that's not affecting so the approval of this how it's related to this agenda item is we're approving an

additional position that's going to come out of the budget we're approving a position that's going to come out of the budget not understanding what the overall expenses are going to be related to to the discussion on fixing the roof at the high school that then the other roof and this is important because we shouldn't be spending another 130,000 right here if we don't know what the expenses are going forward the

city's paying for the roof so go ahead Miss Miss P well um it's a good point I I would say that that's the equivalent of a Watson or um tany uh in regards to the number of classrooms Etc but what I would say is regardless of whether we do need to have someone oversee those multiple sites uh Kristen feris cannot be doing that work again we ask no other director to be the principal of a school

as well as to do their director job so whether we move to Pace or not we need to have somebody leading that work but all of the so you beg the question of the next couple we need the West do we need there's other things that are going to come up as well all of those positions and all of those decisions are contingent upon what you and your team said to this full body in the last

meeting to say it's all contingent upon this happening which was the new roof at dery the pay center roof coming in and US finding the three and a half million to pay that I already said and I think other members of this committee said we're not going to just take all the money we said we were going to spend on playgrounds and the like to do it we have received zero information so if we

got the information in a timely manner bid was opening 2 days after the last meeting when and where have you shown to me in this committee that you've said here's what the bid's opening up at this here's what the amount is here's what this is we have received zero information but now we're here to add more positions that's all I'm saying this is relevant to the discussion of adding positions and money that we may

be just wasting money or not have the money so I think it's a valid question and if nobody's hiding anything I don't know why we just can't get an answer hiding anything we can get you all that information for the uh Mr pachu can put that together um but we are waiting for princip the I guess the bids w't open and we don't owe any money then I guess that's that's what I would say Mr

Corey uh just for a point of clarification Madam superintendent when you say administrator are you uh classifying that as a principal or a director a principal it says principal in the minutes I mean in the agenda in the job description it's a principal okay thank you anything further Mr Mr Das thank you um so this um so the item we have right now um says that there' be um additional five to seven classrooms

for rental space at Bishop connley and um I'm not trying to jump the gun I'm just using this to compare the next item says there'll be the Conley site will have 6 to8 um do we have an exact number on how many classrooms would be at conle yet so we have we have space to expand as order again I I hate to be a stickler here but can we talk about this and take

this vote and then we can talk about Conley cuz I want him to answer get all his questions answered but I'd really love it if we conducted a meeting right for once and just kind of stuck to the agenda so if that means we got to do this then that's what we do but let's vote on this please I a motion to move the question I'd like a second if any of my

colleagues second okay I got a motion in a second to move the question next agenda no Mr Bailey no Mr Das no Mr Cory yes Miss Larie yes Miss Pereira yes Mr chairman mayor Coogan yes Mr Mayor do I still have the floor Mr yes you do yes you do Mr D thank you um just to clarify I'm just we I'm um principal for Early Learning Center um I

just have here I'm just trying to get um clarification on the classrooms size it says 5 to 7 just the next item I'm not trying to talk about the next item it's just the next item says 6 to 8 this item says 5 to 7 I was just trying to get a clarification for this item on on on the classroom sizes for Cony that was my first question I believe that pertains

to the item at hand yep it does the Conley the Conley site can we have room to expand um what we will do is we're moving the classrooms from 2501 currently um Miss um FAS is actually looking to move one of the very um there's one classroom at uh Eastern Avenue that's very very small she wants to move that classroom over to Conley also so in total when we do combine all these classrooms we will have

approximately 12 to 14 classrooms we're just shuffling them around to make space and Conley does have space if we need to expand okay and this 12 the 14 okay now now this 12 the 14 is going to be at the Early Learning Center and Bishop con that's 12 to 14 is what the total number of classrooms that we anticipate when we open up pace the uh when we combine those classrooms and

move them over to Pace total okay thank you I anything further Mr agier so let me just try to connect these dots superintendent just stated that on this agenda item related to the 12 to 14 that Mr Das was just mentioning and then she said it's about the pay center can someone please tell me how me asking about the roof at the dery and the roof at the pay center isn't part of this

agenda item but the superintendent just mentioned the pay center in the argum in the discussion now can somebody please tell me how can you tell me how that question is part of the the agenda Mr chairman okay hold on Mr chairman w w Mr chairman w w w w wo whoa whoa whoa Mr chairman m m PR just wait one second Mr agar asked when the um superintendent answered she used the PACE Center as an

example I wasn't sure that myself I thought this principle was for Connelly and St anony of the desert it is okay so how many classrooms in we have 12 at Conley we could use when we did that tour I believe am I right well there's a there's potential for that but we're not we're not going to use them all okay so we have 12 and how many we going to use

to seven and then we have five classrooms over there so we can go up to yes 10 to 17 classrooms or whatever okay 12 to 14 at Conley and at St Anthony desert this principal is for next year no yes this this principal is for next school year to oversee both of those sites and then when those sites combine that principal will oversee we move where would they move where would they

move whatever we get done no where would they move question Madam Mr chairman yes yeah Mr so two things so two things one is I'd like to make a parliamentary inquiry or suggestion to you as the chair if you were going to try to every time I say something with any kind of passion that I need to quiet down I need to stop yelling and I need to be respectful to everyone else you have to therefore

duplicate the same same thing when I have the floor when another member has the floor you cannot allow another person on this board because she doesn't like what's being said to interrupt so if you're going to try to tell me that I can't say anything you need to do the same thing to everybody else on the board and that's all I'm asking you for now relative to this particular item the

the 12 to 14 that we have at the uh the site and Mr Das asked the question of what is the point so the point is that Eastern Avenue s which we were told last meeting was going to lose $600,000 per year negative that's a loss of $600,000 at the EAS app site so I'm happy to see the superintendent say that working with Miss FIS they're going to try to move one of those classrooms

because it makes zero sense that we know that we're losing $600,000 at that site for multiple years to just keep going down that road now with that being said I still think we need the answer relative to the roof we'll get them in time what I would suggest to the superintendent is based on this particular item is that I don't believe that we can approve Early Learning Center principal because no job

description exists and no Matrix exists currently and it's the role of the school committee to approve all job descriptions including what it's going to look like and the salary range we have not voted on that so in order to move this forward I think we need to do some kind of amendment or something to say it's subject to us proving The Matrix and the and the type of job what

if the principal of that school could be a teacher in charge like we used to have back in the day when we had other Early Childhood or kindergarten schools or whatever it is there's other options to come up with but right now this is going to say Early Childhood Principle as listed and we haven't approved the job description unless somebody can come up with that you already admitted to me

that we don't have a matrix as part of this so I think we need to do some kind of amendment here to move this process forward with some sort of subject to a vote or I don't even know how we can do it because it's uh if we're going to follow the rules like everybody wants and we're going to stay consistent we shouldn't be approving any of this because it doesn't say we've never

approved those things before and we can't approve a job description that's not on the agenda now we'd have to have another meeting so please somebody TR try to figure out if that makes any sense we do have a principal job description but um we I know that Mrs feris was looking at specific duties that are different then so we will subject to to that approval and as far

as the Matrix what I said to you we do have a matrix for principles you're you're right we've never had Early Childhood principle in that Matrix because we didn't have an early childhood um principal however that is the equivalent of a Watson or a tany the small school so if you want us to add another part of the grid that says Early Childhood then we can do that so so we

can say subject to approving the grid and subject to approval of the revised job description principal job description okay well Mr DUS had his hand up I'll come back so if we approve this item today are is the administration going to come back with like a salary schedule a description of the job yes before the position can actually be fulfilled and all the contracts are oblig and such what

yes you would have to first of all if it's not approved today then if it comes back in July then it will only be able to be posted after that meeting on July 15th if you approve it today contingent on the revised job well either way I would I'm assuming that that has to go to a vote so it would have to be um at the July meeting a you for now okay what Miss

perea then Mr Agia wouldn't a Early Childhood principal wouldn't that be around the same Matrix as a kindergarten principal I mean are we clarifying different level of of principle I don't I don't know because I assume we have Matrix for principles we have Early Child Care Professionals so I'd assume it would fall under that Matrix am I Inc corrected we have a matrix that goes by school size yes okay

and so what I said is it's the equivalent more or less of the population of the Watson as well as tan have idea current mat it just doesn't spell out early childhood principle in that matrix it's elementary middle and high well these are these of course most of them are housed on elementary school and what have you okay I'm fine with that Mr Agia then Mr Cory so Madam superintendent can you define an elementary

school prek to five or k to Five K to five do we have any school as Miss Perera just said that's a k School no no so the reason why I've said that this is needs to be a matrix is because when you operate a school and I'm looking out there at our assistant superintendent our HR director and other folks when you look at each of the salaries and we make

decisions we have to do it with thought and knowing what are the ramifications of such so we have a if we just say we're going to approve this now and we're going to lump that person whoever this person might be into a k to5 Elementary School Matrix that Matrix is based on a k to 5 School 400 students I would argue the point that a k to 5 school that's

got a lot more needs or whatever should be at different level than it should be for an early childhood and I think that anybody in education would say I think that makes sense because we can't be putting a person who's running a kto five school and make that same Matrix as the other so I think it clearly in my opinion as a as an educator and having been on this board know it I would

encourage you to to look at it and say look it we can't actually approve this we don't have it it's a it's a Quagmire because we Pro brought something forth again that wasn't vetted prior to the meeting now I've said this over and over we're supposed to have meetings about the agenda there's multiple people on this board the chairman the vice chair the attorney superintendent her team

everybody's supposed to look at this and no one that looked at it came up with the idea that this language here isn't the appropriate language because we haven't approved those things so if that was the case and we looked at these things critically we would have said we want to put on the agenda which we could have done and say Here's the new job description based on what you said Miss

farus wants to do with some specifics to the Early Childhood principal on the agenda before us would be here is the job description for the position and then after in the agenda we would go through it we missed the boat again so all I'm suggesting is either we have a special meeting if we have to or come up with something but the way I see it and everybody wanting to say we got to

follow the rules and what's on the agenda and not on the agenda I would ask attorney Assad to say what we do do we have any chance to amend this to say fix this problem or do we have to come back because of what's listed on the agenda I I just want to say that that agenda went out to everybody everybody at this table not only me my team everybody at this table no one you're

right those were good that was good feedback but no one gave us feedback until today and and you know what I'll take responsibility for our peace that we missed that piece but everybody on at this table previewed that agenda also okay I I I told Mr Cory then Mr Bailey just one last thing I you Mr Cory then Mr Bailey then you I just have a brief question Madame superintendent if we

approve this motion would you be able to post it uh rather quickly well we'll post it as soon as it's approved I I do think that there are questions that need to be answered uh in regards to um because the job description needs to come before all of you so we need to figure out how that will happen as well as if we just table it until next month so that you guys can

write up a job description with a matrix in place would you still have time to post it and enough time for the new school year to open yes we would have to do it immediately I think that Mrs Fus already had shared um a modified job description with Mr cougan we um so we will just go through that and make sure that it reflects the duties that because

it is it's not a k to5 so I don't want to say it's less responsibilities it's different responsibilities and um so we don't have that currently we'll bring that forth as well as the salary Matrix uh add another grid to it so that it reflects I I like the idea very much I think just as a point of clarification I think commit managar is is is is right in his concern to write it up properly

before we can approve it but I I am I am in favor of approving it once that's done so thank you very much I yield I agree so what are you doing Mr Bailey has Mr Bailey I think this is a a question for attorney Assad as well um about whether we approved it or not I I get we have some things that we have to work out with it but my only concern is if we

wait till July and that gives us less time to find a candidate for the position um for two I agree with Mr agar what he was saying um in terms of even if we had a special meeting or something like that to get this done I think it has to get done um obviously we have some things we need to work out I don't know if we can amend them now and and

make a decision and conditionally approve something or what that is I don't know attorney out if you can answer that question for us because I definitely don't think waitting until July is the right move to make on this I think that the biggest issue that you might have is the fact that um once a job description is approved you have a salary uh if you're going to be uh advertising a position you have to have

a Sal salary range and where that where that's going to lie I think what the superintendent is saying is she looked at it in terms of the size of the building and what would be re who would be responsible uh as a principal and looked at that as the as the Matrix position to uh for it for this type of a position uh until that is determined by the committee and agreed to by the

committee you can you can uh advertise anything you like however no one knows what the salary salary is going to be you're going to have a difficult time time filling that position or the duties we have to be specific with the duties so do you want a do you want a table I mean the job description you can't advertise something unless without the correct job description what go ahead I you next M the center

now on eastern half yes what's the job description for the we don't have uh Mrs feris has been overseeing them so we don't have a principal there at either site now she's been doing that so now we need to have so would her job description would not reflect that of the principal because they would have less tasks than her obviously she's director my issue is that we can't even as an anti typically sometimes we can

post something as an anticipated anticipated opening but if the job description is going to look different and there are different rule um uh duties we can't post something and then modify the job description people need to know what they're applying for I'm just I'm nervous that we're not going to have enough time that that is very concerning to right now because if this I'm not saying that's not an issue I'm

not saying there's not things to be fixed what I'm saying is we keep pushing the can and we're going to be back here in July it's going to be a problem then we get back here in August I'm going to have people upset pointing fingers at other people I just feel like this this prek is already behind we're already behind and I've said it many times so is so of others this is just one more thing

is it is there any way we can at least start this process so that I don't care make an amendment yeah Mr a change wordage whatever but like Mr AG or suggested an amendment subject to salary scale and job description um I mean where we can get people that are interested to throw their names in the Hat things are going to keep moving forward but again if we have to have a

special meeting um we could do this to finalize the job description to finalize it Mr AGA so as much as I want to try to help uh Tad said it pretty clearly due to the fact that we did not DOT our eyes due to the fact that we did not cross our tees due to the fact that the superintendent just admitted to this full committee that Miss faras had a revised job description she gave it to

the HR Director and it still didn't show up here tells me the what I've been saying for a long time we don't dot our eyes and cross our teas here and this now put us in a quagmire The Quagmire is is that we have to have a meeting where we can approve the job description and the salary we can't do that now because it's not on the agenda so I think we're

forcing ourselves to ultimately have it superintendent's point point about the agenda I would like to request that the we receive the information on the last five meetings agendas that were approved I would like to see the date that the draft went out and the date that it was the time and date that it was officially approved because to try to imply that we as a committee had time to look at it

isn't very genuine at all because at the end of the day the thing goes out just so the edification of the public and it gets approved almost immediately because nobody has a chance to look at it and nobody has a chance to amend it nobody communicates from the administration I'm going to Mo motion to table true motion to table second right motion to table second any further discussion Deb call the role

please yes Mr a Mr Bailey Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss l yes M Perera no mayor Coogan yes uh 12.3 is a discussion and vote to approve an office power professional at Conley which as presented by Maria Pon so moved do I have a second second discussion on a par Mr Agia we have all office Paras I remember I asked this at a prior meeting that's confirmed that we have no schools

without an office par yes we we do have a school we RPA had an office par that if you recall they were in the intake Center that now is doing work in the office when so every school has an office power we not given this no this is the somebody needs to answer the phone I understand parents there's no other schools that don't have my point everybody's got a clerk or an office

parah yes thank you de uh Deb please call the roll Mr a yes Mr Bailey Mr Das yes Mr Corey yes M laravie yes Miss par yes mayor Coogan

yes discussion and vote to approve the start and end times for the school year for 2425 is presented by I have a motion to approve and a second on the start and end times any discussion Mr Das yes um I actually today received a um complaint from a parent more of us not even a complain more of an inquiry from a parent from Morton um um and they're just wondering why the um it was

explained to me by some colleagues a little bit as a why to do this both um superintendent if anyone can explain more as to why we have um the early start times early end times at the middle schools if we can just um um for the edification of the public explain that thank you so we have we it's tiered our schools are tiered so some schools start early and some schools start at 10

of 9 because of Transportation so we have to tear the schools in order for them to do their runs thank you are you anything further Mr AG just uh when we look at the star and end times we uh it begs the question for everyone always talking about transportation and uh how that works so have all these issues been worked out related to this and does the transportation coordinator sign off on

these moves to maximize cost or has there been any suggestions that are not been followed through is there any way to maximize actually minimize cost but maximiz maximiz cost savings via um start and end times so miss cavalo um has looked at all of the times um we're staying Pat this year we added the change the one change on that whole thing is the addition of the West Hall school because we didn't have West Hall

school as a separate school so um all the times are the same the West Hall School is mimicking the other schools of its kind the the K prek or K through five um but we are looking at some other ways of cost saving some of it is um changing some bus stops um re-rooting some of the um kind of Legacy roots that we've had in the city um to maximize on students

on bus because most of the time um especially on our special education uh routes we run out of time before we run out of space on a bus so some of our buses are running you know with not a full uh a full load on that bus because we run out of time so we've got a couple of ideas that we're going to probably pilot uh this year to see if

we can get Buy in from both um parents and um see how it works out to allow us to to maximize the space on a bus while we try and stay within the time constraints so there are things that we're working on and and Miss cavalo is is started that process so earlier this year in the middle of the year I got a call from a parent who was concerned

that the bus I can't remember the school was late every day for a tier because they that the bus said they can't do like they're doing this job they can't get to that job the time over over that's not the case so the case is is that some of the companies were short on drivers so they'd have a new driver sometimes a new driver every other day every other week and if you don't drive

every day on a route especially if it's a door too or some other route that takes time then you lose track you pick you take one wrong turn and you're five seven minutes five and seven minutes a couple of times in the course of a route is 15 to 20 minutes and before you know it we're running behind on the second route so those Corrections were those all of that was on early part of the

year and those Corrections have been made both by the bus company and the schools um to be sure that they getting the students out first tier it's important that the schools have the students on the bus a certain amount of time and then they move on that route gets finished there is a time frame between that and the next pickups and then usually everything works out because it is timed everything works out

fine there's a whole bunch of things that fall into that traffic construction that change things but all of those quirks were worked out so we don't have one that's overlapping is my point so other we don't have anything that's overlapping absolutely not otherwise we're just not changing what's not working exactly I get it thank you anything further Deb please call the rooll Mr agam yes Mr

Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss larav yes Miss Pereira yes Mary Coogan yes 125 is a discussion and vote to approve the addition of two custodians at the westall elementary school as present Ken Pico Chief Operating Officer I have a motion do I have a second I have a second discussion Mr Pico so um the the addition of uh West all um is uh a school that we didn't

have obviously so we short two custodian positions one will be a senior position one will be a junior position um the assumption is uh right now and we haven't heard different that the custodians who were with the stone school would like to move with the stone school um but that's not a definite I have nothing other than a short conversation with different custodians on that particular piece no matter how

that works out we need two more positions that's what this request is for Mr Cory so just to support you Ken uh is two custodians enough for it is cuz the schools uh are uh two unit schools So currently Stone has two custodians a day custodian and a night custodian the Watson is exactly the same way one in the day one in the night so this is the same situation it'll be one

day custodian one night custodian yeah there's a lot of stairs in that building and stuff we got elevators now so oh you have an elevator now so so that's good for them so you feel two is adequate for the building yes thank you ield Mr DUS and then m I don't know a question for Mr Pico or is the committee as a whole um when if and when we approve this the

salary schedule is that something that's going to come back to the committee to approve or is there something how does that work okay okay I you thank you Miss I just had a quick question um the two custodians I was going to ask about the custodians that were at westall you said they may want to move to Stone so now the question is the two custodians that if let's say you have two custodians at

uh 251 South mean I they just doing the stone school or are they going to be doing the entire School meaning our pre- so it so it's going to be two custodians that'll do the entire school what we're doing is obviously that's an experiment because we we don't know what we don't know um and we're going to see just how that works out but uh currently there's one custodian at that building at 251 that's handling the

lower floor and the first floor okay so then the other two would be exact thank you that's all anything further Mr a yeah just uh it says on the what we're approving the addition at the westall but I thought you were just saying you needed two additional and you assign them it's two additional I think it's just a little bit misleading because if you have one stay and the other one stay

well they may not May one may go and one may stay so it somewhere along the line that could be two new ones at westall or I'm saying this is not binding you to anything it's basically custodians to you the custodians are going to apply for open position thank uh we have a motion to Second de we do uh de call the role Please Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes

M larav yes Miss perara yes mayy Coogan yes 126 is a discussion and vote to approve a one-year contract renewal for witson New England as presented by Ken Pico Chief Operating Officer so uh this is a regular occurrence after the first initial contract um as part of the RFP process each year um the contract comes back to us um this is new this year because desie is involved this is a Desi

template the RFP was a Desi um RFP uh so Desi is taking a a bigger role in uh the uh food service contracts so this contract here um this particular like First Amendment so to speak or first addendum um has a um a cola has a uh a CPI of 4.6 so it's an automatic built into the contracts um some years they're up some years they're down um but Desi has the original

documents they also have the uh forat forecasting tools from two different um colas to um to come up with the dollar amount so it is going up by 4.6% on both the administrative side and the management side any questions on food M Mr a yeah then Mr Cory just on what you just said about the U desie being involved but they can be involved in I guess it sounds like a new process

that they're doing it how does that the RFP was the new process so they basically are working along with um I'm not the district to develop the RFP what they did was they developed a template and it's made the first time around was a little difficult to go through it but it it it will make everything much faster in the future um because all of the information is already in the document and all we

will do is rewrite whatever changes we have so if we have other other schools in the district or things like that um and then this part is brand new also so we we normally would do the amendment or the addendum um each year but they have this particular document there a few pages longer than we normally would have um and this document currently has already been sent to desie about a week

ago uh for their approval it's usually taken between two and four weeks what we're asking for is if nothing changes in that document um if desie gives us a thumbs up they won't change the document they want to look at the document if nothing changes in the document then we would move forward if there are changes then I will bring this document back in July what the reason I'm asking is we've been

doing this for a while now with one year multiple years so if it's a new process why would we just extend them for a year if you thought they were doing a j that's what this is this is this is the first we already had a full year under the new document under the new RFP this is year two then there'll be year three four and five there's a fiveyear contract so we have a

fiveyear contract we do this is just every year because of the price change we have to go through Desi show them there's a price change and then they give us the okay based on the cola they just want to be sure that we're paying what we're supposed to pay and what's built into the contract that's all that that this is it's just a second check at what we're doing I'm only looking at

what it's here 7124 to 630 of 25 yes and I don't see that maybe um everything I'm seeing is only for one year it doesn't show that it's a 5-year contract if you see if you see if you take a look at the the first line it says that this is an extension of the contract dated 7123 so that's the date of the original contract 7123 to 63024 that contract that's not a 5year

contract is where I'm looking at it so the you already approv you already approved that RFP award last year if you said it's a 5-year contract that line should say contract dated 71 2023 to 71 of 2028 if it's a 5-year contract that that's why I'm just having a hard time understanding is they're only giving us the start thingses this is what we've always done we've always given just a start date and we know it's

a one-year contract so we know it's going to end every year on 6:30 so if a different company wanted to apply to the RFP for next school year no not not next year the following year it's a 5-year contract and we know we have a fiveyear contract so there is no application we don't have to advertise so it's not an hour Fe it's nothing like that it's none of that this is straight they have the

contract for five years all we're doing is paying the colon yeah it seems it it's confusing but that's better than every year we have to keep doing it thanks are anything anything else Mr uh Mr Cory so can the uh the 22,000 uh the administrative fee of 22415 per month is that is that for the entire service for all of the schools the the whole food service for every school we have both both of those

items are for all of our schools so that that monthly administrative fee covers each school for the month right yes um in term of in term of the company itself I know you got a five-year contract so I'll be brief but are there other companies that offer similar services at competitive prices there's probably three or four companies maybe five um it's a very unique business that I I don't want to say territorial

but most companies will apply um but they have their own territories so to speak so they do come here and and we had one company bid um and they did a competitive bid um there was some things that you know we could have that they could have done better um so in the process of the scoring which desie is involved all of those items are taken into consideration but there are four or five

companies not locally but well four or five companies that would normally bid on Food Service yeah so I I've had some experience while I was still working and uh that's why I asked this question because uh there was a couple of things that went down that I wasn't thoroughly pleased with that I saw so uh I'm just going to ask you to keep your eyes on the prize looking down the road to see

what the reviews are on other companies and give us the best alternative as we move forward thank you with that I yield anything further do I have a motion to Second de no we need a motion motion second had a motion to Second de call the r please one sorry one question go ahead just Mr Pacho I had just one question on the uh when when the uh students pay cash you

know for no one pays cash anymore no cash like we do we do U I'm I'm sorry there may be an alicot item that they want to pay for but normally there is so if you're paying for alicot items like did they pay cash they would unless they had an account with us if I want two a dollar or $2 there's really not a lot of that to be totally honest the number is

much smaller than it ever was because Everyone's entitled The Universal lunch where so let's just suppose that there was uh did they have like drinks sodas uh juices Gatorades uh any kind of stuff like that no that's they have water but they would have a uh if a student wanted an extra lunch that wouldn't be free if a student wanted uh two desserts that necess wouldn't necessarily be free so

there are items they pay for so if they pay for uh a drink that's not out of the free yes do we ever review the bills to find out how much money should be collected from all those cases like a check in the balance who ords those books so witson has to give us a balance sheet and gives us a balance sheet every month of what is that what we've paid to

be totally honest since we went to the the uh the universal or the free lunch there there isn't a lot of that to be to be totally honest you could just check into it get us a any kind of little report nothing major just a I'm just curious of the check and balance thank you you're welcome Mr Das that's one quick um comment um I'm I'm gonna vote to support

this but um if you can just get myself or the committee um any records at least from the last year on like um Audits and maintenance I haven't heard any complaints lately but I know um a few years prior there were some complaints on um food storage um if you can just get me at least the last year of like any audits at the schools that would be great thank you all right Deb call the role

Please Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Perera yes mayor kougan yes item number 13 we have some retirements some appointments some resignations and regretfully some deaths could I get a motion in a second on all those moved uh discussion Deb call the r please who seconded uh Shelly shell Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes M lar yes M

Perera yes may hugan yes Mr chairman if I may uh is in regard to the death notices I just want to pay a deep respect to the people who worked for us through the years especially Terry bisinger especially Raymond madis and even luned Isabelle melow may they rest in peace thank you any new business Comm before the committee Mr Anga yeah I just had I meant to ask this superintendent's

report on the hiring update and my can my question is related to the human resource directory we had received a note that we had a couple candidates then a couple more candidates so one is if we can get an update and two it's a question for the body that what is the role of the school committee or the mayor related to those positions I don't think we have any I don't believe we have any oversight

over the Director of Human Resources that's a superintendent higher right it's a super yeah it's not in assistant superintendent's position so it' be the superintend so we should have no information on that members of the committee as far as the names of the candidates that's not within our purview as school committee members or the mayor that's not our that's not our area Mr Agia no I understand so um I'm a little

concerned that I I've been hearing that one member of the committee was is asking around uh doing reference checks on one of the candidates so I'm a little concerned with that and um if we're not involved we with Personnel we shouldn't be involved in Personnel I agree one member of the committee is calling around asking for how is this person or if they're qualified to be that person

and the HR department I think we should have a concern with it right right out of the Shadows Mr agar uh anything further if we have a question for executive session I had um to um um for new business um first I'm seeing within the beginning of this meeting um we heard from the tany PTO of miscommunication between their organization Administration I think it would be beneficial for um the public

that we discussed this in subcommittee so I'd like to make a motion at this time that we discuss communication between parent teacher organizations and the F public schools and refer that to the subcommittee parent and community outreach I have a second second second just for the I guess for my own edification as well uh has Mr dice been appointed to M rodri's uh like he's filling in just point get

so because I think is that is that one that you answer I I I know on my first day I received the um the the new sheet from the from the from Miss cabal and um I believe I was appointed to all of M rogers's old positions and so I'm the chair of that committee yes great anything further want I just want to point I just want to I don't

know I guess I want more of an update because I was hearing again very a lot of concerns regarding the mold issue yeah I thought it was resolved I was under the impression that everything was resolved with that issue I don't need to speak to it tonight we can take it up in facilities and maintenance Maybe put it on the agenda for next month I don't know but it's really really concerning

to me yeah I agree all right Mr Pico give us an update anything further Mr AG related to the same thing now we've been talking about mold and mold comes when there's leaks and there's water coming through and the roofs aren't working I'm also concerned about the pay center that the roof is leaking like a Civ for years now and we've done nothing about it we can say we we patched it or whatever but at the

same time every time it rains we shouldn't be getting you know information that the stuff's coming down we had special education files that had a a toplin over them for a long time so when I ask the questions about the roofs it's also because we need to stop that because as people and families working in that pay center that the same comment that the young lady said about the lerno

shouldn't be happening in any school including the pay center but it always gets lost because they what we do here is we force people to come before us and make a big stink one we should just do the right thing if the lady said something that's not accurate let's say it if if the the scores are too high and they're inappropriate let's fix it but I think the pay center should be included

on any correspondence as well I yeld thank you thank you Mr Assad do we have a reason I'm sorry I'm a roll call go ahead Mr AGA yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Das yes Mr Cory y m larav yes m per yes may cougan yes Mr Assad do we have a request for executive session we certainly do I could read them off okay Master Law chapter 38 section 2187 to review and approve the

executive session minutes for May 20 2024 regular school committee meeting m m general laws chapter 38 section 21 A1 to discuss complaints brought against the school committee member m general laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with the respect to collect the Bing agreement between uh including hearing es relative to All Professional teaching employees the forward School

System including coaches Title One teachers nurses occupational and physical therapist and specialist in the teaching profession represented by the for of Educators Association as the chair has determined that an open session may have a detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining relative to all

administrators and employees represented by the for administrators Association as the chair has determined that no possession may have a det mental impact on the bargaining position of the committee Mass general laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collector Bing relative to all cafeteria employees of the forward school system represented by the American Federation of state county and

Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 is a chair is ATT ter that no possession may have a detrimental impact on the Bing position of the committee M general laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with the expect to collect the Bing relative to all maintenance employees the for school system represented by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as a

chair is detered an open session may have a detrimental impact on a bogging position of the committee M general laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the Bing relative to all codal employees of the forward school system represented by the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as a chair is determined an open session may have a

detrimental impact on a bing position of the committee m laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with the respect to collective bargaining relative to all Safety and Security employees of the forward school system represented by the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees Council 93 local 1118 as a chair is determined an open session May a detrimental impact on the barging

position of the committee M General Law chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the Bing relative to all civil clerical employees civil clerical employees of the forward School school system represented by the forward Department of Civil Service clerical employees Association as the chair is deter that no possession May a detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the

committee man Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collect the bargain relative to all par Professionals of employees of the fora school system represented by the foror Federation of par professionals as a chair has determined that no possession may have detrimental impact on B position of the committee Mass general laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss

strategy with the respect colle baring relative to all government employees including without limitation par professionals parent workers and Clerks of the forward school system that are paid from federal state grants represented by the for of public schools government programs as the chair is theer session may have a detrimental impact on the Bing position of the committee National Law chapter 38

section 20 section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation with non-union personnel and or to conduct contract negotiation with non-union Personnel including all instructional support leas on all SE Lea on all Community facilitators lorri obain assistant superintendent of special education and Dr Tracy KY superintendent of schools we will reconvene that may may not be

statements at that time I'll entertain a motion and a second toj no no a motion to go to Executive session yeah Motion in a second yes Deb call the rooll please M Dr yes Mr Bailey yes Mr D no yes session we're going into executive session I I I do have if can is there time for discussion no no no I'll keep my vot okay all right is it a yes or a no no it's no

it's no it's a no it's no I'm sorry Mr uh Cory yes Miss lar yes Miss Pereira yes mayor Coogan yes we're at recess to Executive session we're back in session Deb please call take the time Mr in the back yes Mr Bailey yes mras yes Mr Cory yes Miss larav yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Rod um mayor Coogan yes anything further to come before the committee yes mayor uh I'd

like to make a motion uh to re to approve the executive session minutes for May 20th 2024 the regular school committee meeting get a second second discussion Deb call the roll Mr aam yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Dain Mr Cory yes M larvi yes M Pereira yes may Coogan uh anything further I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second Deb call the rooll Please Mr aan

yes Mr Bailey yes Mr D yes Mr Cory yes M lar yes Mr Pereira yes mayor Coogan you're going to need it tonight Baran