6.23.2026 Fall River School Committee - Special Meeting

I'd like to call to order the special meeting of the far school committee for June 23rd, 2026.

De would you please call the role?

Mr. A here, Mr. Das here.

Mr. Corey, Mr. Modus here.

Mr. Riley here.

Mr. George here. May here. Salute to the flag, please.

I pledge allegiance to to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium.

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made, whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. Do we have any citizens input there?

We do not.

We do not.

Uh superintendent report.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening.

Uh the first uh item is the school committee retreat and professional development. And I am pleased to inform you that last uh Wednesday the 17th of June, our entire uh school committee uh my senior leadership team, myself met for our first professional development.

We met for close to four hours. I think we could have gone longer. Uh, and we had a facilitator, Eva Thompson, who is known throughout the state as a facilitator that keeps the meeting running. We also had uh Sean Costello in attendance. He is from the Mass Association for School Committees. He is a field representative and represents and supports the Fall River School Committee. One of the things that we

talked about at this retreat and I do want everybody to know that we are committed to at least during this school year four additional retreats and I think our commitment really speaks volumes as far as moving forward uh getting to know each other uh working to understand our ethical responsibility to the Fall River families, the children, obviously our students in the district and to find ways that we understand and

especially as we kind of embark on a new administration. You know, how the superintendent's role and her senior leadership team is able to function, how we need and want the support of our board members under, you know, their uh authority, which again is hiring the superintendent, strong evaluation process to make sure that the uh goals and objectives set forth in the superintendent's evalu evaluation are

followed through. also to develop policies. Very important. This year, you'll see us reviewing our entire policy manual all the while updating that, but all the while creating the policies that come before us, you know, pretty much uh each and every month as we go forward. And also, obviously, one of the biggest roles is our budget, making sure, and again, I want to commend the school committee. Uh this

year, we know many districts are struggling. uh we have been able to put forward a budget that allows us to transport our students, allows us to put forward a curriculum, develop a strategic plan, and to keep the district moving forward. So, um again, I'll thank the school committee and we're continuing to have retreats during the month of July, during the month of August, and we'll continue to do that

throughout the fall as you prepare for uh a new superintendent, you know, coming in within this next year.

Next is the Fall River targeted uh district review, many of you know that a district review uh happened in Fall River during I believe the past year or so. And this is something that happens throughout all of the state. There are uh school districts that are assigned uh an opportunity for the state to come in and review a number of areas. One of the areas that they focused on during this

last month was the uh governance structure of our district. They came out with a report and what I will tell everybody I would ask you to go to our website. You will find the entire report and it is lengthy. You also will find a message from uh myself the superintendent talking about you know our way forward. And just briefly there were many positives many highlights you know that were contained in the report

talking about our district has a strong collaborative culture among professional staff grounded in academic priorities.

um clear instructional improvement agenda, uh communication protocols that clarify how school committee members and district staff interact and the plans to not only as I just talked about updating our policies, but working towards a strategic plan this year. Those are strengths of our district. There are also a number of uh areas in which there are needs for improvement. I'm not going

to go through and read every one of them. I think I just addressed some of them. As far as when you hear me talk about professional development with our team, we are going to do everything we can to make sure that we have very strong communication protocols. You know, we are able to put forward to you each and every school committee meeting not only what our strategic objectives

are, but how we are accomplishing them.

the um the areas that we need to focus on and we'll continue to as I said report that you know to the to the Fall River school community in the year ahead. But I do ask you to go you can read the report you can read the comments uh that I made about moving forward and each and every one of our school committee meetings going forward.

I will continue to update you on how we're doing.

Question.

Yes, Mr. So thank you for that. I just had a few comments on the uh targeted report.

Um, you mentioned that we have a dis we had a district review. I want to say it was in the summer of last year and that's a typical thing that happens. My question that I've been trying to figure out and I'm just looking to get an answer on is where around the state have they done a a f uh an additional targeted review within seven months of the original targeted review. So, I know

you probably don't know that, but I'm asking you that question so that maybe you could ask the the ESC to give us that answer of how many other districts have received a follow-up review six months after because these reviews cost money. They cost taxpayers money and I'm curious to why we had one which probably cost around $10,000 to have another one six months later and I think we might be

the only community in Massachusetts that had that. The other thing is the um process. So the original process of the old report, the superintendent at the time received a draft and then she was able to look at it for um inac factual accuracy or inaccuracy.

Were you given that time as superintendent to look at this report for factual accuracies?

I was given the report uh ahead of time uh myself and assistant superintendent Brian Reposo because I had to obviously rely for some of the factual accuracies uh with Brian. We read the report and I didn't have any questions at that time.

I know there are some concerns about what was written in the report. So to answer two things, one is you asked me if I am aware of any others. So I will assure you that I will be having conversation with Deputy Commissioner Rob Curtain. um you know some of the things you just heard me talk about this evening to update them as I said when they made the targeted uh needs for

improvement I think I want to keep track of that and talk about you know what we're doing the progress we're making um as far as and so I will ask him uh if if this is something that they do on a regular basis or if he can give me other places where they've done such a targeted review soon after doing a a full district review.

I appreciate it. So I wasn't aware for as one member that you received this report for fin for accuracy.

So I would question you and Mr. Reposo that in this document there's definitely some inaccuracies towards information and if they give us a report and ask you or ask the district for financial uh to check for accuracies factual accuracies I don't know how this report gets sent back again. So for instance, there's a in the original report a year ago, it said we do not post our minutes online.

That's factually not accurate. So we received a report a year ago that said that though they came back for a targeted review and said the same thing again. So now there's two times we've had administration have a let's say a bite at that apple to say no, we do post our minutes online. Something very basic and clear. So there's factual inaccuracies in this report that I believe we have to go through and try to

figure it out because we cannot move forward and get better if we don't admit to what is truly here and what's not here. So factual inaccuracies. Another one was in this report it says that school committee members show up at schools unannounced.

Factually not accurate. But I'd like to ask my colleagues, all seven of us sitting here, please raise your hand if you've ever showed up at a school unannounced to the superintendent, please.

Anybody?

I have.

Just the mayor.

Yeah.

So, are they talking about the mayor in this report? Because no other member of the school committee who is the target of this here ever showed up to a school unannounced.

I I don't think that's accurate. I don't think I think I I know of other people that have, whether they raised their hand or not. I know of other people that show up school.

So, somebody is not being truthful just like you're alleging in the report.

So, what I'm asking the superintendent to do is look at some of the factual pieces and try to get to it because if somebody did go unannounced to a school, we need to address it with that individual. We can't paint the whole school committee with a brush of, oh, you know, we're doing all these things.

Didn't say all at some point in here it talks about us going in and I just want factual accuracies with the report would be my thing. Secondly, um we asked through Mr. Das back in June of 2025 when the first report came out. He was concerned as we were that there was a lot of issues presented and that we needed this to be an agenda item at a full committee meeting. He was told by

the superintendent at the time it will be on the July agenda.

It's not been on an agenda since. So now we have two targeted reviews and it's never been an agenda item here. We when Mr. Reposa was in for that um interim time talked about it at a meeting he went to his team and was going to come up with a a list of action items like how are we doing with it so we can address it which is what everybody wants. We still haven't gotten that. So

I'm going to make a motion that we have this item both of these reports on the July agenda so we can address it.

Second.

Uh, may I have a motion, a second? Any discussion on the two reports beyond the July? All in favor?

I opposed. Unanimous.

Thank you. I yield.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Das, just to follow up on my colleagues comments to assist you. Uh, Madam Superintendent, as you may be aware, I did send an email where I myself went through the report and highlighted some areas where either I wasn't aware of that being something that' be factually accurate or something that you as superintendent should take a second look at.

So, some of them were some of the comments that my colleague Mr. Aguar, the vice chair, just just referenced.

A second question just trying to understand the process here. Something you could ask Mr. Curtain going back.

The report itself was originally embargoed meaning it wasn't allowed to be shared. The Desi gave the report before it was given to the school committee and the public. Desi gave the report to the superintendent both the superintendent and the mayor and stated that it was embargoed. My question would be, was anything changed from the report that you received and the mayor received that was embargoed to the report that

was public? Dear, I did not see any changes.

I didn't either.

Thank you. Did you, Madam Superintendent, did you touch um strategic plan update?

I'm I'm sorry.

Did you speak to the strategic plan update yet?

I'll yield for now.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Okay. just to understand. So on in the July uh school committee meeting, what you would like is a presentation from the senior leadership team and the superintendent about the 2025, so a year ago, the district review that was done and to talk about, you know, what we're doing as a district to address some of those concerns. Is that okay? So we we will prepare something for you for July.

I'm not sure how comprehensive it will be at this time. It might be something that I have to take in pieces. So for July, I'll give you an overview. We'll talk about some of the things that we've been able to address at that time.

Sure. And I think it you're prior to you even being here when Mr. Reposa was the superintendent, this was an issue that we raised, he indicated to us that he was going to meet with his team the next day to go over, you know, sort of like a spreadsheet. Here's the 40 recommendations or and what are we doing with them? Some weren't even accurate.

So we were already completed some of them. But that's what I'm looking for.

could take both reports and sort of give us a status update on uh where it is and that same document can be used to send to dees to notify them whether we're making progress or not.

Thank you Mr. Chair. One last comment on the district review.

Mr. Das, thank you. Just um also to through the chair to the superintendent a question I would have for Mr. Curtain and D and Desessie is I as um a citizen and as one member of the committee have um requested um information through um a foyer through Desi um information related to um how this report how this um inquiry came about and the internal factors about it. The DESIE is currently

under um some sort of compliance um review with the Secretary of the Commonwealth for refusing to um respond to the public records request provide those records. So, they're not in compliance with the law currently. I will forward those um that correspondence to you so you have it and for anyone that wants it. However, speaking publicly, I would ask Desty, if you're listening, why aren't you

responding to to a member of this committee's request for records if you have nothing to hide? I yield.

All right, superintendent.

Thank you. Uh, the next item on my report is a visit to the Brockton Public Schools human resource team. Many of you know that is where I spent 42 years of my career, six as superintendent. During that time, because of a district review, one of the things that they had talked about, it was early on with the new teacher evaluation, um there were recommendations made to us in Brockton

and we had to during my six years there look at our human resource office, strengthen our human resource office, making sure that we were providing feedback in a timely manner that all our evaluations from the superintendent all the way down to, you know, our teachers and any of our employees. Uh we also spent a lot of time on recruiting, retaining, mentoring, supporting young teachers, developing leadership

pipeline. So I was able to bring I think four members from our human resource office here uh along with four members of the Brockton public schools human resource team. We actually had it wasn't just Brockton uh sharing with us. We got to share with them some of our best practices. So, we will continue to consult back and forth as tonight you'll have uh the opportunity to meet our new

executive uh director coming on for uh human resources. We're very excited to welcome Chris uh and we'll talk about the the building of that office. So, I'm very pleased that we had that collaboration. I want to thank Brockton publicly for allowing us to come and having that collaboration. It's so important especially for urban districts dealing with many of the challenges that we face especially during this time in

supporting uh our employees across the district. Um next is this is all such great news the strategic plan update. So we went from our retreat last Wednesday I think we spent from 1 to 5 we immediately were in Dery went to another section we spent another couple of hours uh meeting our strategic planning team.

Uh I believe we had well you have three two members assigned Chanel and Anna.

Thank you Colin. I know you joined us.

Um we had 25 members that we were able to uh meet each other got to know each other a little bit. They range from uh representation from uh UMass Dartmouth from your community uh to some of your uh community members, nonprofits, we had teachers, we had parents. Uh it was really an excellent job and I thank you.

I thank Lori Oberchon for my team for putting this all together. It was a successful start. We talked about laying the foundation for how you actually start a team looking at a district uh looking at a strategic plan. Also, how are we going to go out there and gather all of the information? Where do we go?

So, we had opportunities to go around, I think, in six different groups and kind of brainstorm and be able to share. It was interesting how many different teams from the six teams really had a lot of the same ideas and certainly new ones as we went along, but it was a great process. We also talked about, you know, eventually we're going to have uh mission and vision uh sessions and and

then the most important part and we are looking at a year from now having our strategic plan to actually present to the school committee. And I can't say it enough, having done this process in a number of districts I've been in and actually consulted with a number of districts in developing a strategic plan. Once you have that, and I know we all like to say it doesn't collect dust on the shelf. It doesn't because it

should be part of every one of your superintendent reports, you know, talking about, you know, the goals, the objectives, the progress you're making.

Um, oh, and also I I can't forget we have students. I know I I do not believe they were there at that first meeting, but they are. they are coming on board because the student voice clearly is very important as we talk about what their hopes and dreams are and what we are tasked with doing to make sure not that we're not only that we're graduating but we're graduating students

that are able to go out there be productive members be part of our community. So I am very excited uh about this process. And lastly on my agenda I'd like to ask uh Deputy Superintendent Liz Lagal to give us a hiring update. I know there was concern. Uh we're going to be entering our summer season very soon. We've already started to do our hiring and to make sure our district is in compliance across the board.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Corey, if I just may. Uh Madame Superintendent, just inquire uh on the strategic plan.

It is a living breathing document. Is it subject to adaptation as it ages or is it is it a document that defines um your administration? What about future administrations and how does it change or adapt?

It should not change with every superintendent. You know what what it's a solid document but it it's a good idea to continually review especially during your this summertime would have been a time where we would have gotten together with our team. we would have reviewed all you know components of a strategic plan because some things do change things happen we couldn't have predicted in

2020 what was going to happen right so if you had a strategic plan back then you know you you did an about face and you were supporting your students in a very different way so it's it's not something that is stagnant or stays it's something that you continue to talk about but the one thing I guarantee you is we have a strong processes for school committee to evaluate the superintendent

and hold the superintendent accountable for that strateic strategic plan. I understand we don't necessarily have an overriding plan, but we certainly have plans in the district right now. So, you know, we're able to look at that and as you have principles throughout your, you know, 19 schools here, it's all connected. So your strategic plan has all arms of you know curriculum you know family and community engagement

instructional pro all of that is part of comes out of your strategic plan as to how you evaluate the superintendent how the superintendent evaluates senior staff principles how principles evaluate teachers all the way down. So it's uh it's probably the most important one of the most important documents you have approved by the school committee.

Thank you for that. I yield Mr. Aar. Yeah, just uh I just want to make a statement about it, not so much a a question. We as a school committee have struggled for several years now with the lack of a strategic plan. And when we look at the targeted reports and you look at other school districts, it is very very rare for have an organization such as this to not have a

strategic plan. And some of the issues that we've had over the last several years have been that this committee, well the prior committee, but the school committee has made this a priority and said to the superintendent, the prior superintendent, we need the strategic plan. That was put in the goals to start the year. A year and a half later, we still haven't done anything related to

the strategic plan. So we are in some of the situations that we're in and have been in because of lack of having a strategic plan. So I want to give kudos to the new committee who came in but when it's convenient for people to take shots at these people that with they just came in and they can't make decisions. They came in in January and within the first meeting we initiated

the strategic plan making sure it was going to be active and we appointed two of those new members to serve on the committee and as far as I'm concerned they've been doing a hell of a job making sure that they're meeting taking the time and the dedication to get the thing going. So, we finally have a strategic plan in place, but I don't want it to go without being said. The the school committee has wanted a

strategic plan for years and finally it's getting done. So, I thank those members of the committee. I thank the other members and also the superintendent for getting this done.

Thank you. I Mr. Chair, Mr. Das, thank you. So, um, as the superintendent just mentioned, um, for the first, um, the first meeting, I I just was curious to see what the work that was going to be done in the structures that were in place. And I have to say, I was very impressed with the group of professionals that will be leading this um, strategic planning committee. And I think we're going to have with their the

expertise that is on that strategic plan committee, I think we're going to come out in a very strong position when this is presented to the committee. The only thing I will say and it's important that we are communicating with parents as best as we can and with community members as best as we can. So there's no question or there's no um reservation from any members of our community when they speak out. What I'm

mentioning is we've had members we had a process where many members of the community applied to be on a strategic planning committee. Of course there would only be limited selections. My concern is the those members of the community who have reached out asked for explan who were denied were asked for explanations as to why. And it's important that when we're when parents, members of the community

reach out asking for information, especially on something as important as our strategic plan, that we're communicating to the best of our ability to answer their questions, address their concerns, and make and assure that they're going to be included in the process in other ways. So, I think there's just some work we need to do on that on that end, but overall I'm very um optimistic and looking forward to the

work that will be done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Das. The one thing I want to say is we did have and I'm not sure I have the accurate number, 67 members of the community. Everybody was invited to put in what we called an application.

Obviously, you know, we started out with great source schools telling us, you know, we should probably go with about 12 members. That was unacceptable in a district this large. We got to the point we got it up to 24 25 members knowing you know it would be a difficult schedule for many members to keep. A letter did go out to everybody and it talked about there they were not selected there would be opportunities.

We didn't you know interview everybody individually. We sat down and we looked at slots. We talked about community members. We talked about parents. You know we talked about people that might have had a a child that was a special needs child to get that view. A a child that was multilingual. we were looking at to make sure we had a d as best we could a diverse group. So, I want to

thank those people that put in the applications. As the letter stated, there will be lots of opportunities.

We're talking about going out to community events, making sure people have an opportunity in forums, maybe it's a survey, so people will have an opportunity. I wish everybody could have a seat at the table, but that is not how strategic planning is done realistically. So, you know, thank you for bringing that up. We will continue to communicate as best we can. And I'm sure on the website we will have a tab

to people keep people updated about our meetings and opportunities to be able to respond.

And I believe it was overall blind hiring process except um for one appointment. So I I think that's um fruitful. I Okay. I'm going to ask the committee's indulgence to take the next item out of order.

We still Oh, I am sorry you didn't finish, Dr.

Lalt. I apologize. Go ahead.

That's okay. So, I did give your packet just for time uh this evening. I gave you an executive summary of where we've been. And I started on May 19th with alignment conducted initial alignment session during the principal meeting. We notified uh and issued 222 non-renewal letters based on lensure deficiencies, performance issues or both. on May 27th brings us down to if you you can follow

it June 1st, June 5th, June 8th, we had labor consultation met with the union presidents to review final staff eligibility lists and metrics. On June 16th, resolution dispatched 140 resend letters to principles following official DESI certification confirmation. On June 23rd, today I finalized and met with the union president to confirm teachers received uh resend notices and supported documentation.

So the initial pool of 222 impacted staff members has been categorized into three distin uh distinct tracks based on their credentiing and evaluation status waiver eligibility with 62% or 140 staff members. These educators have had their non-renewal letters rescended and are fully eligible to apply for a desi waiver to remain in their roles.

Uh in lensure only uh no waiverss. This group represents a baseline lensure cases where individuals do not meet the minimum criteria required to qualify for an employment waiver. However, we are working with these uh the about 38 staff members to make sure that they do receive a waiver. Uh we are putting uh supports in place uh working with Bridgewater State and some other uh avenues to bring in lensure availability

to those teachers. Um next steps is the district has initiated targeting on boarding and compliance support for the 140 waiver eligible educators. That means that we apply for them through the district uh and the superintendent will sign off on those waiverss and ask DESIE to certify them for another year. At 90 days, we will ask for compliance and to see where where teachers um are on their

certifications and we uh we will uh support them throughout the remainder of the school year to make sure that they get their waiverss. Many of them were could just be MTEL. They didn't have um all the test the required uh testing uh completed. Um so we're working uh to help them pass the MTELS. Uh along with our paraprofessionals uh we are working with them. Uh we're offering a uh

support class for the PAR pro for all of our professional for our paraprofessionals. We have many signed up. Uh our first goaround we only had two people signed up in the PAR. Now we have uh uh two pages worth of paraprofessionals signed up to take the parapro. And I want to just thank uh we had we did have one staff member, a pair of professional um had not done so well

on on uh prior taking of the parapro the test for pair professionals. Uh we gave her a support uh class to take for the parapro. um she scored the highest um competency or or grade that you can receive on the PAR pro licensure um exam. So the supports work. We're willing to offer the supports for all our pair professionals and for our certified um teachers and we we will continue to do this um as we move

forward. Again, tonight you'll be meeting the new executive director of human resources and we'll on board uh for July 1st, 2026. Um, if you just continue through on, uh, and they're numbered up on top. I just gave you a a timeline of actions of how we we did things from May 19th to June 8th. Um, and I just went one further on June 23rd. And then you see the counts and

uh, percentages on the bottoms and just just some things that I brought up. And then one of the things that we did send out to non-certified teachers, human resources on June 5th and how we did went through key actions required for the employees in our crucial timeline.

We stayed to the timeline. We targeted it. We didn't move from the timeline. We started on June 5th. We went to June We told the teachers they'd have resent letters by June 16th. We hit the target date. Um and we are on time. Um and we see that every all 140 of those uh teachers that were on waiverss have completed everything that we've asked them to do. And so that we we have

rescended all 140. At this time, I can tell you that um we've hired uh since our last meeting that we met, I think was June 13th or June was it June 8th? Um we've hired uh 10 new hires uh four pair of professionals, two teachers, one school psychologist, one liaison, security officer, and a boys basketball coach. We have three new principles. One is a rehire. uh she was at the Rhode Island

Department event and she is back. We have 37 transfers in the district. We had 19 resignations, two ter uh and one retirement. Um and there's some more information on that page. You will see that. So those at this time, that's what I have for the hiring update.

Thank you, Dr. L. Mr.

I want to thank Deputy L for that. The information was thorough, spot on, and he did what you said you were going to do. So we I do appreciate that. My only question was about when this process started. When is the last time that the human resource department in Fall River actually did a similar review? Do you know?

I couldn't tell you. I couldn't tell you. Um it's probably been some time. Um we've we've I know that um I have talked to uh Dr. Gadino as she's uh over the last couple of weeks and how we're going to make the system even better as we go forward um to put structures in place to put supports in place to make sure that we're doing the right thing and I think that

um I talked to one of the union presidents today and I'll be talking to I talked to the par union president last week. My goal is is to start meeting with the union presidents. I know that the superintendent has has also uh charged that all of us to do that to sit with our union presidents and to talk to them about how the system's going to work and and when we're going to start the process

and how do we keep people moving forward and getting credentialed. So, I have um I think that the human resource department um the people that are there today are doing their best and they're working with us and trying to get us, but I cannot tell you when this was formally last done.

I appreciate it. I think it seems like something that's very basic to a a human resource organization. uh in once again in the past this committee's been or the prior committee was very and myself included has been very critical of having a low functioning HR department because we hear it from the staff we hear from the principles we hear from directors I'm glad that we're moving in

the right direction with both of you and a new director. So I just was curious if this was going to be like if we're doing something that we just did last year or last two years. So I applaud you for doing it. It seems like basic work, but it's important work.

I would say that in my prior district, and I'm sure that in Dr. Smith's prior district, that this is something that should be done every year, should be done, you know, throughout the year, making sure that people are having certificates, get lure there are updates. I know throughout the year that human resource has made sure that people that were on a waiver or that were uh obtaining their MTELs or or they that

they needed an SEI endorsement that they would get um a checkup from the human resource department. But I think that going forward uh we'll have some systems in place um that I know that Dr. Gadino from her former district as superintendent. We we've always I've always done things like this that you know every couple of months you or every month you're sending things out to make sure that people are on track getting

what they need.

We appreciate it. Thank you. I think the other thing we have to mention here again this is a time where especially large districts are are looking to encourage you know teachers.

You heard me talk about once we get them on board supporting them retaining them.

So it is clearly something that also affects when you talk about the district review or you talk about accountability.

You need to be hiring high quality teachers so that the teachers that have the proper licenses are in the proper places teaching our children. Does that always happen? No. It is difficult sometimes in many areas. And not only will we continue to check to support, we also will find ways when you look at special education, when you look at, you know, multi- language learners, when you

look at e even the sciences, the maths, we need to make sure as a district that we're leading as far as, you know, how we're able to create and support opportunities, you know, for our teachers, working with the local colleges, community college, you know, UMass, uh, Dartmouth, Bridgewater State University, many of them are our partners. So again, I'm not saying that's going to happen overnight, but

that's the work our human resource office will do, you know, to retain, to attract, and to let people know when they come on board, you're making an investment in these employees.

Okay, as I started to say before I allowed uh Dr. Lal to finish her presentation rudely, um we have an item that is of the reason, one of the reasons we're here tonight is a special slashemergency discussion. It's item 5.2.

Uh because of time schedules and some people's availability, we have to get this one done. It's the discussion and vote to approve the transfer of contracts which exist between Tremble's Bus Company and the Far Public Schools to the new owner Student Transportation of America as presented by Ken Pachico, chief operating officer.

Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion to second. Any discussion on this? Would we like to hear from uh Mr. Pico? No. All right.

I'll take a roll call vote on that one.

Deb please.

Mr. A.

Yes.

Mr. Das.

Yes.

Mr. Cory?

Yes.

Mr. Monus?

Yes.

Mr. Riley?

Yes.

Miss Stewart?

Yes.

Mary Kogan?

Yes. Uh, one other thing before we get into the rest of the agenda. Because this is a special or emergency meeting.

Um to continue with the non-emergency items on the agenda, I'd ask for the indulgence of the entire committee. Um if we could have a roll call on going forward, um I I would appreciate that.

Uh Deb on continuing with the rest of the agenda because we do conflict with the city council meeting tonight.

Would you call the role, please?

Can I get a motion?

Oh, could I get a motion to have a motion?

What are you looking for a motion for?

To continue to continue the meeting.

Yeah.

Second. I have a motion to second that call the role, please.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. D?

Yes.

Mr. Cory?

Yep.

Mr. Monus?

Yes.

Mr. Ryland?

Yes.

Stewart?

Yes.

May?

Yes.

Can I have ask one one question? Because I did get a um a constituent concern about the language in the charter. Did you get a um did you speak with corporation counsel? They cleared us. I I got corporation council and I actually similar to what you get I got mixed messages that some of these items would be considered the rest of them would be considered emergency and some wouldn't.

So they wanted a vote of the committee the obvious one that did qualify immediately as an emergency was the one we just did with tremblies. So to continue on I wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page with us.

That's all it was.

Item number four is the approval of contracts or contracts continuation. Uh we can do the first two miscellaneous contracts, E+ Technology and the Tivotan public schools.

Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and second on the first two. Do we have any discussion on E+ Technology or Tivetan Public Schools?

Hearing none. Uh Deb, please call the role.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Das.

Yes.

Mr. Corey.

Yes.

Mr. Monus?

Yes.

Mr. Riley?

Yes.

Mr. Yes. Maya.

Yes. We have a number of special education contracts.

Can we place a hold on Meeting Street, Rhode Island?

Meeting Street, Rhode Island. Uh, Mr.

Das. Yes.

The other ones are Justice Resource Institute means ask a general question ahead of time.

Uh, would you uh you want me to read them or go ahead ask the question, Mr.

Madam Superintendent, these uh changes are what is the reason for the changes?

I I was trying to get to it inside the backup, but for the special education contracts, Lori's right there.

All right. Um, so the kind the all these amendments are either additional days or they're oneto ones for students. In some cases, they were new students over the course of the year. And so all we're doing here with all these contracts essential is to catch up for the total for the year for every one of these placements.

So we're just cleaning it up. Not like I I'm looking at this thinking there's one week left in school and we're having five changes.

It's just it's just a clean up at this point.

It's what we had owed from prior things.

It's not anything to do with um prepay or any of that stuff.

No. No.

Thank you. I yield.

Okay. So the only one we have a hold on is Mr. Dasis.

Motion to approve the others.

Motion to approve the others.

Uh, so we're going to approve Justice Resource, Reeds Collaborative, Pilgrim Area Collaborative, and New Direction Solutions. Deb, please call the role on those four.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Das, yes.

Mr. Corey, yeah.

Mr. Morris, yes.

Mr. Riley, yes.

Miss Stewart, yes.

Mayor Kogan, yes. Mr. Das, Meing Street.

Thank you. So my my my one question here is in looking at the backup this appears to be we signed an original we signed a contract that had the wrong tuition amount.

I don't believe it would be the wrong tuition amount. Mr. Das what happens sometimes if kids move in during the school year and we budget for what the kids that we know existing students are there right? So the initial contract that we bring for before you has the kids we currently know. If a student has to go out of district, the tuition goes up. If a student moves from one placement to another, the tuition in

both schools ch of both placements change. I would have to look into the specifics of the individual or you know issues because again we don't have specific information. Sometimes it's uh they need a new onetoone. Sometimes there's just a lot of reasons why tuitions can change and I don't have that because this comes from our business office, not necessarily from my office. So I don't see the particular

student in the particular difference.

So So I I guess I appreciate that clarification. This comes from the business office. So, I guess when we're approving contracts, I understand sometimes we go through these and it's somewhat of of a rubber stamp, but we should be able to if a committee me member of the committee has a question.

I did ask this question in advance. I'm not asking this on the spot. So, I'm sorry, I didn't get I didn't get question.

It it was sent through the superintendent, deputy superintendent through the channels we were told to submit it through. But with that being said, just reading through the backup that we have here, I've been asked to for the attached contract to be revised for the correct tuition amount. The tuition should be 56,000, not 50,000.

There should 56,55936 not 50,3328 as is included in this contract. The calculation is school days at 72512 a day. So, I guess my question is, did the school give us the wrong reading that I would read that as the school gave us the wrong tuition. They're asking us to revised the contract off of their mistake, which I don't want to throw $6,000 away because the school gave us a tuition. We signed We have a

duly executed contract.

The school gave us the tuition amount.

We should be we should honor they the school should honor that tuition amount whether it was a mistake on their end or not. If it's we sign the contract, we've either begun begun payments or whatnot.

We should I agree. I would have to go back and look at the original contract and see if it was $725 a day. That's what they're saying here.

Again, I have to go back. If the committee would like moving forward if I could get this information ahead of time from our uh business office, I can come prepared with the specifics from my team of what exactly is the difference um that we're changing the tuition amount or requesting a change to the tuition amount without going back to my team and looking into the spec specifics because

we don't we have more than one student at Meeting Street. So, I'm really not sure just based on this information here.

So, I guess my question would be because to your to your point, Miss OpenChain, you're not on this email is to the to it was sent to two members of the business office. So, I guess what does the collaboration look like between your office and the business office when we're putting together these contracts before the committee? It doesn't seem from what you're telling me, it appears

that there's room for improvement there.

there. I'll answer that question. So the contract that was initially provided was information that was provided to us from the sped department. So the sped department provides the requisitions. In this case, they provided the requisitions based on number of days at the daily rate. When we submitted the con the original contract that was approved by the school committee to to the placement, the placement

indicated to us that the calculation was incorrect and asked us to update it to what it actually was, which in this case is 78 days versus what was initially approved. So I guess so we confirmed with the sped department after the after the email from the vendor whether or not the additional days were accurate and they were and so this amendment to you today is an update on that.

So when we assigned when we proposed the original contract and we I'm assuming the school committee approved this is an amendment to a school committee approved contract.

Correct. the company did not um this not the company but the meeting street didn't mention at the time that this is the wrong we don't we don't send the actual contract to meeting street until the school committee approves the initial contract and once that contract is approved here we then send the contract to the vendor okay so I think it just looks like something that an internal systems

things I think we can approve on I yield a motion to approve I have a motion to approve and a Second any further discussion de call the role on meeting street please.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. D.

Yes.

Mr. Cory.

Yep.

Mr. Monus.

Yes.

Mr. Riley.

Yes.

Mr.

Yes.

Yes. So we have four left between miscellaneous and grants proav security deeg Associates and bulk.

Motion to approve all.

I have a motion to second on approving all. Any discussion on those four? Deb, please call the role.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Dice, yes.

Mr. Cory, yes.

Mr. Monus, yes.

Mr. Riley, yes.

Mr. Stewart, yes.

Yes. The committee of the whole 5.1 is a discussion and vote to approve a one-year renewal for Witson's as presented by Ken Pico, chief operating officer.

Motion to approve. Mr. Mayor, do I have a motion?

Can we get a presentation first?

I'll second that one. We have a motion to second. Now the presentation.

So uh in your in your packet you have um the desi standard contract renewal for um food service uh food management and um it dictates where all of the fees land. Um the contract itself um had the original contract has Mr. Chico, can I ask you to use the microphone a little?

Sure.

Closer.

The um the contract the original contract has uh an escalator, a CPI. Um so basically each year the administrative fee and the um and the other fee that's involved here the management fee go up by that particular um escalator it's 3.9% which was um the CPI for this upcoming contract. This contract is this particular piece is the beginning of year four of a five-year contract. We have one year uh remaining in the

contract after this this current this next school year starts.

Any questions to Mr. Bitson's Mr. Das?

Thank you. So I am very I'm inclined not to support this in general. However, I do I am aware students need to eat. We need to have a nutritional program going into the next year. However, going into next year, we need to give the administration some some direction to go out to bid and just make sure we're we have all the best options that we can. With that being said, that's based

off of um constituent complaints that I've received from um parents, staff, etc.

But going into this year and the contract for this year, my concern is and I guess to I guess I'll use an analogy here is I'm trying to think of an outside vendor we use just for just as an example. I'll just say ENE or just like any outside vendor that comes in to do assistance. Mr.

Super Chico for I don't know if I'm using a good example here with EN but um someone from E&E comes they're they're fixing something is that employee is there's that vendor sitting in on um different meetings of um personnel style meetings is that vendor the individual that's from E&E are they do they are district staff reporting to that outside vendor I'm going to ask Mr. Pico not to not to

answer that. You right now have a contract with Witson's. I think you're aware of the structure and I know there are concerns and I hear you and if that's something we need to look at going forward, but presently we are under contract with Whit Witson's with the structure that is in place for Mr.

for Mr. Pico to answer an analogy of a company coming in here. I'm not sure where you're going Mr. D. What?

We have a cont. So, we're not under an active contract or we are under an active contract, but you're asking this committee to approve a renewal of the contract.

Uhhuh.

I'm highlighting a concern that I have with the current contract.

I heard that. But you're asking asking Mr. Pico about something else for him to answer. I'm going to ask him not to answer that.

An analogy that you're making. I hear the concern you have and please share that.

you know the we we we have me members of this company Wiston's where staff either receive direction from they sit in on personnel meetings and they're not an employee of the district.

Okay.

Is that not a concern for the administration?

No, I I said I hear your concern, Mr. D.

We understand that. I'm asking him not to respond to an analogy that you're making about another outside vendor. you know, please state your concern and as I heard you about going forward looking, I will tell you that we can look at a number of other vendors and Witson's my understanding has done very well for the district. They certainly have supported uh our um food services. Uh I know you

have a concern with the structure that we can discuss. It's not unusual the structure you're seeing.

Just to be clear, I have two concerns.

One is the overall I guess I I guess we should I I guess one we should have at a future meeting or we should have had it at this meeting a presentation on what Winston does, what they offer, if we have data which I've asked for as a member of as a committee multiple times on the quality complaints. I think there's um room for a larger conversation there. The second concern which I was making the analogy

of was the structure that we have in place which should not go into next year as is. So we cannot as a me as a committee we do not have control over the day-to-day. We cannot offer Mr.

um the individuals that over part of this company that are in the schools every day. We cannot offer them a contract.

you can as a superintendent. So, I'm going to make an amendment to the motion that we direct the superintendent to solve this um situation and offer the individual who is not an employee of this district who sits in on different um personnel style meetings and has employees that go to this individual that we direct the superintendent to rectify the situation with either an appointment contract or an amendment

amended contract. contract in here. I make that in the form of an amendment.

I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

A motion. Second on the amendment, Mr.

Das.

So, Mr. I'm sorry.

Thank you. So, Mr. Das raises a valid uh question. I have the same question. I've raised that with the superintendent. Um I've raised it with the prior superintendent. I raised it at budget meetings. I raised it when we have the uh organizational chart.

I believe firmly that we should not have a person supervising our staff that is not an employee of the for public schools. It creates a situation. It creates liability for the district and quite frankly it should not happen. The food service has their own piece of how they do this. So if the director is the director and the assistant director is the assistant director, that's part of

the contract. has nothing to do with how we operate except for we as the Fall River Public Schools has continually taken any comments and questions from the school committee and totally just veered them off and said those are not relevant to the conversation. We are told consistently that well if the personnel is the personnel but if something happens then we're going to go to Mr. Pacico that Mr. Pacico is not the

supervisor of everybody in nutrition.

Yes.

Prior No, that's not true.

Yes, it is. No, that's not true, Mr.

Pacifico.

It is. It is true. Mr. Mr. Aguia, everybody inutition is going to say that you correct.

So, yes, they do. Just like every other department that I supervise, the custodians, they answer to me.

Yep. Well, just just as if everyone answers to the superintendent. Yeah.

They're answering to me. Everyone in these departments that fall under facilities and operations, if Mr.

cutting has an issue with an employee then I will sit on the meetings and I've sat on plenty point of information but Mr. Cutting is also sitting in another's meetings as well yes he is that that's my concern this so may I continue please yeah I was going to say Mr. D raise your hand please no I was referring to Mr Pico interrupting me not Mr.

D I'm sorry but it sounds like two interrupt here's so here's the my concern is Mr. Super Chico cannot supervise 500 members, however many people that we have in this thing. He's got 200 custodians. Is this man Superman that he's going to supervise everybody?

So, we have situations, and this is a real issue, Madam Superintendent, that we have people that work for the school nutrition department that actually are told by our human resource department and by others, report to work and talk to your supervisor. And I have this in writing. I showed to you and the deputy superintendent, Mr. Cutting as their supervisor. So, Mr. Pacico is here

trying to say that he's their supervisor and our own HR department when there's an issue with an employee is told, "Report to work tomorrow and report to your supervisor, Mr. Cutting. This is my problem. I have given facts and copies to you and the deputy as well as the prior superintendent to say we need to just rectify this. This is not a dispersion on Mr. cutting or witson or

anything. It's a structure that does not work and Mr. Pacico cannot supervise a thousand people himself. At least he can't do it well. And if a person's working in the school, the person who's their direct supervisor if they have a problem should be working for us. So a a person could come into a school work in the in the nutrition department, have an injury, and they call the outside vendor

to come in to deal with the issue.

That's not that's I believe Mr. Cutting is an out I mean he works for Witson's but he works solely for the Fall River public schools to oversee our kitchens. Is that correct?

Yes.

That that is the structure. Um as I said you know this is not unusual.

You can look at and I can name Chartwells. I can name Sedexo. I they all function in this way. Somehow this isn't working for the Fall River public schools. I don't know if it's the preparation of the meals the quality.

are you getting all kinds of complaints that we can look at. As far as the supervision of employees, I would have to look deeper to find out what are the employees not getting. Now, that being said, I talked tonight about a human resource office. I need to make sure that we have a staffed office so that they can support the supervisors, they can support the Witson supervisor, and

we can make sure our employees come to work, they're supported, they do the job they need to do. We need to do those things. I I I can't just point a finger at the wits and supervisor.

I understand. I understand. So, let's say the new sup the new HR director comes in. And that HR director has a vendor that runs the computers and the monitoring of the uh evaluations for HR.

Let's just say that she has a vendor that does that, an outside vendor.

That's the only thing they do is they watch all of our HR forms and this and that. Do you think it's appropriate as a superintendent to have that outside vendor sitting with that HR director in an executive meeting with you and the other four assistant superintendents or other directors within the department mid-level managers?

I again I believe the structure with Whitman's Witson's is a partnership.

This person has been in your district I really can't give you how many years Witson has been here for 15 I want to say the Has been a structure for 15 years?

Yes it has. Then then obviously if it's not working for Fall River as I said you know we we need to look at what isn't working just to try to end this my question was a sincere question relative to does that make sense to me it doesn't make sense we should not have the director of nutrition sitting in executive meetings of the departments that fall under Mr.

Pico including grounds and things that have nothing to do with nutrition sitting in on interviews for positions that have nothing to do with nutrition. This is a problem. So I don't believe we should we should go forward and relative to this particular motion.

I think we've made it clear to you that there's an issue and all I'm asking you to do is that you address the issue over the year. next year when it comes time to this vote, we cannot we cannot get something presented to us 30 days from the renewal date and say, "Do you want to renew this contract?" Because we have no other option at that time. We can't

go out to bid. We can't do anything. It is actually boxing us in that we have no choice but to give this one-year extension even if we didn't want to. And I happen to think I'm going to vote for it because I don't think that they're doing a terrible job. We've gotten complaints in the past. They've done surveys. We've had them present. So nothing I'm not masking dispersions on Witson's. All I'm saying is we can't get

something one month ahead of time and say, "Oh, what do you want to do? Do you want to and do it or not?" So this needs to come back to us in time so that we can if we wanted to go out to bid and see what the other companies could do. I think we need to do it. So I'm not going to be supporting this, but uh ultimately I I hope these concerns are taken seriously.

Thank you. I I would encourage my colleagues to support the amendment. The reason why is we're going if this this contract will be approved, it's going to be approved for now until June 30th.

We need to give direction. We can make comments. We can make um recommendations. However, what carries the most weight is a formal school committee directive to fix this. I'm confident that the administration with the direction of the school committee can fix this. However, just to reiterate some of my concerns, I do not understand how a even though they are a vendor, there is no contract language in here.

There's no contract language in general which has an individual who is not an employee of the Fall River Public Schools to sit in on personnel meetings.

You said that. That's about the third time you said it. Tell us something we don't know. I I have the right to continue. I didn't order. You keep repeating yourself. Say something different.

Can I Can I continue? I Is there any Tell us something we want to know.

I understand they're your supporters, but that doesn't give you the right to shut me down. Thank you.

No, just say something we haven't heard three times.

I'm asking to continue. I don't understand why you're interrupting because you say the same thing over and over. Just say something to us.

I'm re I'm reiterating a point. I have the right to re reiterate a point. So, if I can continue I would have been done already if you didn't hit the gavvel. So just to continue all I'm asking for from the administration is just to fix that part.

Put the indivi we can't put them under a contract. So the administration should either put them under an employee agreement. So there's a dual employment between Wiston's and the for public schools. So it's official. So it covers us in regards to liability and we're doing the best thing going forward. So I I I encourage my colleagues to vote for the motion. I yield. M what?

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chief, oh, I'm sorry. I'm lost. I'm looking for guys up here. Go ahead.

This is an amend. This is just one document. This is not the contract. This isn't this is just a renewal contract.

There is a full document that is much more intensive that there's the original document and each year these renewals come up as part of Desi's operation. So there is a full document that lists all of those pieces that you keep asking about for why it is listed that way, what the duties are of that person and how the operation is. And I will get that to everyone so that they all have

so everyone here has that document.

This is just the renewal document.

That's all.

Not can I respond, Mr. Das?

Not for nothing. I have asked for this several times in the past. I'm so I'm happy something exists, but I'm going off of what I have right here. So, I'm glad that's going to come before the committee. However, this should have been presented in subcommittee when this came up. This should have presented a long time ago. I yield.

Okay. Further discussion here. Now, Deb, could you please, Mr. Chairman, repeat m just let her repeat the motion.

I mean, uh the amendment. I I'm not I'd like to make an amendment to the amendment.

You want to make an amendment to the amendment?

Yes.

Okay. You want to tell us what the amendment is?

Of course. Go ahead.

So, uh, Mr. Das's amendment and the I and I believe the um the point of it is so that we don't get caught up in this same thing again next year or month before what we have no other choice. So, I'd like to make an amendment to the amendment that says we approve this one year uh addition and that we go out to bid for the next year.

Second.

But the next year, meaning a year and a half from now or a year and a Miss Stewart, but I thought we already it's we're in a two-year. We still have two more years left on this.

No, the contract's over. We have one year options that we can choose to go again and again or we can choose to say we're only going to go one more and then we're going to go out to bid. It's totally within our rights to do this.

All right.

I thought we were in a five-year contract and we contracts are over. I believe that's what Mr. Pico said. And these are one-year options, correct? No, there are five contract the first year and four renewals.

Correct. So there five renewals, but the contract is a fiveyear contract. The document is a fiveyear. It went out for bid for five years.

So why are we voting on one years?

We are voting on one years because we're voting technically on the CPI, the the increase to the contract required by Desi, but it has renewals, but it's require.

It's required by Desi.

So, it's just the increase, Kevin.

I I just don't understand why we're even having this discussion. If it's before us for a one-year additional renewal, whatever it says. Um, to me, that means that we have an option. So, a one-year renewal for Witson's, that's what's on our agenda.

That's not accurate.

The document itself is a renewal document showing you I'm referring to the agenda that we have before us says discussion and vote to approve a one-year renewal for Witson's New England. That tells me that if I vote yes, we do the one-year renewal. If I vote no, we don't do the one-year renewal. Now, I'm being told that even if we vote no, we still have to vote yes because we have a five-year contract. Am

I missing something here, or is this just Am I the only one that's confused by this?

Did the school committee already vote for a five-year contract with Witson's? Yes.

So, you have a five-year contract with Witson's. Are you voting on the additional monies? Is that part of the contract?

Yes. It's it the way does he So, if we if we have the contract null and void and continue to go out for bid, we probably will need a legal um I don't want to get rid of the original contract. They get if if we're told it's a 5-year contract. It should be a 5-year contract. And if we're going on a vote on a CPI, the agenda item should say

vote to approve a 3.9% CPI for Witson's.

What we have before us is a one-year renewal for Witson's. That's my only question. So if we voted for 5 years, I already told you I don't have a problem with the Witson's contract. But if it's a fiveyear, it's 5 years. If we're voting on a 3.9% thing, that's what we should be voting on is whether we want to, I guess, just memorialize the fact that CPI happened to be 3.9%. It's just

truth and advertising. We're not voting on what is here.

Have we been voting on this each year with this thing?

The document is the same. It just changes.

The document only changes basically numbering wise. So this is number three.

Extension number three. It's a five-year contract. After the first year, that would be extension number one. Last year was two, three, and the next extension next year would be And what is the three What does the three-year extension? What does the third extension do? Like what is the language in that a bigger document that says is it just the CPI?

It's the CPI and it's which shows you the administrative fee price for 10 months and shows you the management fee price.

Is that going up by 3.9%.

3.9% each year.

That's the only thing that's changed each year.

Yes.

So it's 3.9% this year. Last year might have been less or more whatever the CPI is.

So we just need to take a motion to approve the 3.9% CPI. This agenda is not written right.

Said this a lot of times. So I'll make an amendment that we approve strate specifically the two items that Mr.

Pinko just said to reflect the 3.9%.

It's going to override all of the motions because we don't have any options.

That's why I was saying we're here talking about something where we shouldn't be.

Right.

We already passed a 5-year contract.

All right. So, you're the you're the only the overriding motion is to go back to the original language and improve a 3.9% uh increase CPI increase.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any further question? Miss Riley.

Thank you. I just This says 10 months.

Who provides our summer meals or do we just have a different contract for summer?

Witson provides the summer meals. Yes.

Is it under a different contract?

separate and it's uh we're a subcontractor to we provide the meals to um CD recreation.

Oh, okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Anything further, Mr. Dus?

So, um when does this contract officially end? When did the school committee originally approve the five-year?

When did they approve it?

Yes. Like when does this contract then?

When this contract will end um we have one more complete renewal. So in in June of next year in July one it will be the fifth year of a five-year contract.

So 2028 June of 2020.

Exactly. Yes.

So we can go out to bid for the year after and start the process next summer if we want.

You would need to. The process is quite long.

A year. I think we should go out to Yeah, we would normally do that then. We would normally start next year. I want to make an amendment to um that we go out to bid next year, next summer.

Second.

Do I hear a second on that amendment?

Second.

All right.

So, so why don't we just roll Uhhuh. Yeah. Why don't we just take a roll call on Mr. Das's amendment to go out the bid next summer? Mr. Dory, I just have a question on that motion.

Uh, wouldn't that be the process anyway next year that we would we would begin to review it?

I think it would. I think it would.

Yeah.

So, I don't I don't understand this motion then.

It's It's pro- for Mr. Corey.

All right.

I'm hoping that's what we usually do.

Go ahead, De. Oh, Miss Riley.

I'm sorry. I just So, maybe I'm all wet here, but typically we partner with Desi because you get the best price that way.

Desi goes out to bid. They make a recommendation to districts. we hop on to their bid and as someone who's looked at this before, it is not easy to go out to bid for food services that this is why we lean on Desi. So my guess is we would wait to Desessie would go out to bid and share that result with us and we would decide then if we wanted to hop on to theirs just

so so what we would do is we would use the Desi document. So Desi got Desi standardized all the documents. We use Desi's document. We put it out as a city through the process.

So they don't bid it for us.

They don't bid it for us, but they oversee the whole process.

Perfect.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay. On Mr. Das's motion, have call the role, please.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Das.

Yes.

Mr. Corey.

No.

Mr. Monus.

Yes.

Mr. Riley.

I'm sorry. Just want to make sure we're voting that we're going to go out to bid when this contract expires.

Yes.

More.

Yes. Mayor Kogan.

Yep. Now on Mr.

Aguiar's a motion to approve the 3.9% CPI.

Can I ask um if I can ask a question?

Mr. Das, this will be my last line of questioning. Meant to bring it up before. So when I guess when we receive when we look at this contract and we receive the bills, what I see that comes through the um the warrant system is just like a general like reimbursement. I don't usually see like the like the actual what we're paying for at least that I've seen unless I'm I'm missing it. So they're provide just can

you just go over briefly what with this contract what is being provided. So we have all the meals for K through 12 for all the schools.

Um what what's line item is this coming out of T1.

So the this money comes out of the lunch account. So it's out of the school lunch account and uh the bills that are provided. So you'll get the the bill which which will show you the total and then behind the bill is the breakdown of what makes up the bill. So it breaks everything out there.

Does it do we usually receive that in the warrants? So like what breaks up do um I guess my one question is like when we um have like the the monthly the monthly meals like that comes out of the school committee line item. Is that like is this a part of that this contract or is that a separate What? I'm sorry. What's the question?

So the monthly meals, the gourmet sandwiches the same that that comes out of the operating we pay for that out of the school committee line to pay for.

Yeah. So that that's that was my question. So we that come in out of this out of this contract or is that like a separate like it's it's a separate catering bill.

It's a se Okay. It's a separate catering bill. So it's a separate So it's not in this contract here.

I'm sorry.

So it's not in this contract? No, the c those catering bills come in the warrants.

No, we pay we pay for them internally.

We don't see them in the war in the warrant system.

No.

Why?

I'm sorry.

I'm just trying to understand.

Because we don't pay our We're not paying ourselves.

So, because we're we don't process a payment to ourselves. We do it as a journal entry.

Okay. I'll follow up on a at a separate time.

It's a payment. It's a payment that's going from the operating budget to the revolving account. And so we don't issue checks to the Florida public schools.

We just do an internal journal entry to pay to to process the payment.

I yield. Thank you.

One last final question.

Mr. 3.9 that is the motion.

Did you say it's in there that we pay CPI and this CPI is therefore 3.9? So we don't have a choice. The 3.9. The 3.9 was the CPI for And in it, it says we're going to pay CPI.

Exactly.

This is not just voluntary to say we're going to pay 3.9.

No.

Thank you. I yield.

Deb, call the role on a 3.9% increase for Witson, please.

Mr.

Yes. Yes.

Mr. Das.

No.

Mr. Cory?

Yes.

Mr. Monus?

No.

Mr. Riley?

Yes.

M. Do.

Yes.

May.

Yes.

Next item up is 53. It's a discussion and vote to approve the addition of a July 8th regular school committee meeting and to change the August regular school committee meeting to August 19th as presented by Dr. Kathleen Smith.

Yes. Uh our last official school committee meeting was June 3rd. Uh and on again on the agenda plan was for the next meeting to be July 22nd. That really is too long with many of the items that we have uh on our school committee agenda. So, I am requesting that we have a regular school committee meeting on July 8th and continue to utilize the July 22nd meeting and also to change the uh late August meeting or

excuse me, early August meeting, I think it was August 5th.

Yes.

To August 19th, the middle of August as opposed to the beginning.

So, that would it actually added one additional meeting but changed the calendar for the meetings. I'd make a motion that we allow uh the secretary to pull the members so that we're not doing it on the stage here relative to what's available. And then I understand the um nature of trying to move them around, but if we can work on that offline with everybody's schedules, people have

already been committed to vacations and we should make sure everyone's accommodated.

Second.

We don't need a motion now. Okay. Just uh we'll just let Deb handle it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um 54 discussion and vote to approve the job description for the deputy superintendent of schools as presented by Dr. Smith.

Again, I would like to table this. I have been back and forth with a number of looking at like districts uh having uh Dr. Lul here and looking at the job of a deputy superintendent in a large district continues to change as we continue to hire and as I said staff and HR office looking at the areas of concern I have. So I would like to bring this I'm not exactly sure. Probably the

July 22nd meeting. Excuse me. Yeah, if Right. The July 22nd meeting is already scheduled.

All right. We have a motion. Well, we Mr. A. Yeah.

So, I think I believe did we have the first draft of this? Did we read the through the uh first draft of this at last meeting or whatever they call not first draft, but what is the first read?

We have a first read.

We did not have a couple out there that for you to look at to I just like an opportunity to continue to say we we had a draft when we hired um list so we can share that with you because we had a draft that we circulated.

So one of the things that I'd like to do is um I'm totally fine with you know extending it but based on what I've been seeing and we hired a deputy superintendent at the time we didn't have an HR director so things are in flux a little bit. One of the biggest concerns that I have is the um and h I have had over the last several months is the um alternative education. We've had

many debates over it. We've gone back and forth over how many years we've been uh struggling to try to do the same uh thing over and over. There's been some uh various amount of plans and and all that uh been presented for us. So, I'd like to make a motion that regardless of what you come up with in the uh deputy superintendent's uh job description that we assign one of the duties of the

deputy superintendent is to oversee all alternative programs as the final decision maker. And I make that in the form of a motion.

Second.

I have a motion and second. Any further discussion?

Deb, call the roll.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Das, yes.

Mr. Corey.

Um, no.

Mr. Monus, yes.

Miss Riley, yes.

Miss Stewart, yes.

Mayor Coogan, I know. Uh, now on a motion to table or just don't have to touch it?

We don't have to touch it.

I would say bring it back when you're ready.

Okay. Let's go to four 5.5. appointment of the executive director of human resources as presented by Dr. Smith.

Thank you. As you heard me this evening, you can tell how excited I am. I want to thank people that were involved uh in the interviewing process. There were a number of interviews. Um I I was joined uh in the final selection of uh two members came forward and uh Dr. Gadino by far was the most qualified candidate.

Uh I know Dr. Gadino to be an excellent school leader has background in a number of areas. Um she creates uh operational excellence and compliance. This is so important with state and federal regulations. She is a collaborative worker with administrator, faculty, families and community stakeholders to really strengthen the culture of our district. I am welcoming that. her professional experience. She's had

leadership and curriculum oversight, staff evaluation, probably one of the most important things that we'll be providing to our staff and supporting them. Professional development, data-informed decision-making, administrative operations, she's managed teams, supported systems, promotes accountability equity continuous improvement. So, I'd like you to join me in welcoming Dr. Chris Goodino. and I

don't know if she'd like to come up and and actually say a few words because we're very pleased to welcome her to the district.

So, thank you very much. I'm excited to join this new administrative team and as um evidenced tonight by this meeting there's I can see there's a lot of work ahead of me and I'm excited to you know pick up the ball and run from seems like deputy superintendent LGO has been you know spearheading a lot of human resources and I'm excited to um get to work on that and get moving. So, it's a

wonderful district and you human resources the real goal is to make sure that our students succeed and we have wonderful teachers and support for those teachers.

Motion to confirm with a question.

I have a motion. Do I have a second on the motion? Second.

Mr. Das, there's no vote.

Oh, there's no vote on this. There's no vote.

It's my appointment.

It's superintendent.

We No vote.

for CF. Okay. Can we ask I just had a question?

Absolutely. Ask a question.

July 1st.

Thank you. That was going to be my first question. When was going to be your the start date for Yes, I'm starting July 1st.

Thank you. And um I guess just like and I'm and I saw your resume and I'm excited that um superintendent chose you to join our team. if um if I can just ask just for like a general overview of um what do you think we should work on first and how we can assist you as a committee in terms of recruitment different HR policies.

Sure. So when I first looked at the district data of course my concern was the number of certified teachers in the district and you as we heard from the report tonight there's a lot of work to be done in that. We talked about um giving our teachers, our parro professionals the support they need to achieve those certifications. We also had, you know, some interesting conversations in my interview about

early college and maybe getting a track for um aspiring teachers so we could have students in the district um when they graduate college come back to the district. I think that really needs to be the focus in in terms of how the committee can support me. I think I really need to get in, you know, get in, do some real work, and I will certainly come back to you with that. Um, I'm sure

district and we'll keep you updated into the as to those areas we're hiring in.

If I I wasn't Mr. D has ahead. Um I guess um one one thing I hear from either um mainly from staff members I've heard as a concern and just wanted to bring it to your attention is around um the handling of complaints if a staff member files a complaint making sure it's properly investigated. We're following state federal law and doing our due diligence. So, um, and I'm sure there's no question that you believe

it's it's important that staff members when they bring up grievances, they bring up concerns that they're duly investigated. I'm sure.

Absolutely. And we have to, you know, look at the hierarchy and make sure our building level um administrators are are trained and make sure they have the right um tools to address those issues.

And I think that's some of the professional development that has been discussed in that we all um are on the same page in terms of how to address those issues.

Thank you. I yield.

Thank you, Mr. Corey. I just want to take a moment to say welcome.

Thank you.

And u I want I want to take a moment to thank uh Dr. Smith for her expertise and her vision and uh we are finally trying to seek and uh some stability in that office and I really think it's a step forward. I look forward to working with you closely and uh I want I just want to take a moment to say welcome and I wish you the very best moving forward. Thank you. I yield.

Good luck Christine. Anything further Mr. Aia?

Yeah, I'd like to just welcome you. Uh, one of my concerns the last uh, time we had an opening was around HR functions, not necessarily school um, experience people. Yes. So, we had uh people that applied that were HR focused and then we had school people that had a little HR experience and I thought it was unbalanced personally the last time and proof is in the pudding is because

now we're at the situation where we're in where we have so many things and as I'm looking at your resume it doesn't necessarily indicate that you have the HR experience but you've had school experience. Can you just talk briefly about either that experience or plans to how to like uh address the human res like the investigations the this?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Absolutely. So um as this I was a superintendent of schools and in a rather small district in that district we didn't have an HR department. So it was basically a lot of the functions was were left up to the business manager and myself and we did a lot of those functions throughout the district. I think you'll see in smaller districts there aren't necessarily big builtout HR departments and those are absorbed from

the leadership team within. I've served as an assistant superintendent and a superintendent in in a lot of those roles. I've handled grievances. We've worked with staff and I have a lot of experience in those ways. And I also think that the systems and structures, you know, when you look at, you know, EIMS and teacher certification, a lot of that fell into the assistant superintendent role I was in because

again, we had no HR department. So, I've worked through a lot of those um issues and I feel strongly that I can address them here.

Sounds good. Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you.

Again, welcome. Anything further?

You'll be seeing us again. M one one last comment. So when we're doing the not for you, but it's relative to the agendas. You know, we have to do a better job and you know, we didn't have the agenda setting meeting. This really doesn't belong on here as an agenda item because this appointment doesn't fall under the purview of the school committee. So it really should have been I believe at the beginning

like where the superintendent can announce a few things like this is an announcement that she is appointing you to the position not necessarily us on an agenda. So we have to do a better job so the public knows what it is and that you know I just wanted to say that because we have to do a better job. I yield.

Next one up is thank you is 56 which is the appointment vote to approve the appointment of the chief financial officer as presented by Dr.

Smith.

Well, I am very pleased to introduce you to our new chief financial officer, Aldo Petronio. Um, I'm sure many of you looking uh at the information that we provided uh will understand that uh Mr.

Petronio and I worked very very closely together during not only my time as an administrator in the Brockton public schools but also as the superintendent of schools for six years. I will tell you he is uh again heralded throughout the state of being an architect for your student opportunity act and what I mean by that is his experience is great. He started out uh on the city side in

Brockton. Uh worked very closely there with the chief financial officer of the city. You'll see that as something very important as we go forward. You've heard me talk about the collaboration with our city in many areas to strengthen uh that communication and make sure we're all on the same page since we are the biggest I'm going to say mayor part of your budget for for Fall River. Certainly the schools.

Sure.

Aldo has experience in many areas. You know, working closely. We met on a regular basis every single day. Um, you know, talked about uh systems in place, talked about uh reporting that the school committee, I know there has been uh some recommendations of some additional reporting that you want to do. We'll be able to talk about that.

Welcome Aldo into the district, talk about some of the best practices that he has employed. He also has a very good relationship with Kevin Almeida and they have also committed to making a smooth transition as Kevin transitions to uh Taton and Aldo transitions into Fall River. They're part of a larger organization called MASBO where both of them are highly respected and it's not

often that you get to hire somebody with the uh the background the experience as an Aldo Petronio. So you will enjoy working with him. He is a pleasure to to meet with to talk to about you know information that you need to actually do your job as we prepare the budget.

You'll find that starting very quickly when he is able to come on board. I do not have a start date at this point but we do have a commitment as I said with Kevin leaving to go to Taton uh Aldo uh giving his present district uh information that he's leaving that we will work all collaboratively to make sure that we don't miss anything here in fall. Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair,

I have a motion a second. Mr. Cley, so I'd just like to take a moment, Dr.

Smith, again u as uh the the ship was the ship of Florida public schools was on rocky waters and I just sense uh that we're beginning to smooth the tide and again thank you for your expertise and your sense of direction in bringing us forward. I'd like to welcome you, Dr.

Petrono. Did I say that correctly? It's not a doctor, but it's it's Mr.

Mr. Petronio. Sure.

And and and just the fact that you know um our outgoing CFO, Mr. Almea, is is very impressive to me and uh with the sense of resume that you have and experience you have with Dr. Smith. Um I want to welcome you to our schools and at the same time I'd like to say something about Mr. Almeida that that he's been with us since 2015 and it's been a fabulous run. He's a product of

our high school here at Dery High School and and a hometown boy. I'm so sorry to see him moving on. That being said, in the same breath, I'd like to welcome you with open arms for a smooth transition and anything that this school committee member member can do for you uh to help in that transition, I extend that to you, sir, as a welcome. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I appreciate the kind words, Mr. Desta.

Thank you. I echo my colleagues um remarks both to welcoming you to the city of Fall River and um I do wish you the best moving forward in your future endeavors. Um question I I would have and I'm going obviously going to support the appointment. Um but just um for public certification, it's no secrets and reports now the um how serious the school committee takes the its financial

obligation seriously through the warrant process. Could you just explain maybe briefly just your um prior interactions and how you've engaged with prior school committees through the warrant process and how you would um engage with us and updates and things of that sort. Well, sure. First, I'm excited to be here.

Thank you very much for having me and for considering me. Um, when it comes to the warrant process between accounts payable and payroll, they generate their reports out of Munice. Reports are prepared. They're on paper. I would sign off on them. They would then transition over to the finance office at city hall where the treasurer would sign off, the auditor would sign off, and eventually

the mayor would finally sign off on the warrant process. And that would allow it to go through to the auditor and be paid whether it's account accounts payable or whether it's payroll. And that's something honestly that your entire job revolves around is getting bills paid and especially getting payroll paid without missing a beat because payroll can't be late. Cons payable could be

late, but payroll cannot be late. Never in all of my years, 27 years, never once missed a payroll.

Okay. Um I I guess we're going to like do you have any um I I don't know if you'd say I don't know if you have any preliminary like ideas to improving the systems here or do you might you might need a couple weeks to see what we're about to recommend exactly coming in. I'm not going to change anything immediately. I need to see all the processes. I need to meet

the people and understand what they do, their work, their workflow, and see it all in place. If things are running smooth, my job is to just make them better. If I find there's an area that needs improvement, we'll discuss it.

I'll discuss it with the deputy superintendent with the superintendent, and if need be, bring it to this committee. But if if the the processes are working and they're not bogged down, then again, the what you do is just simply try and improve them. If something's broken, then yes, we'll go in and see how we can fix it. And honestly, that's what I've done my whole career is look at where we can so much

changes with computers over the years.

You know, you went to where you you'd have to either physically meet or with a phone call and now you just got on and put a zoom and there you are having a meeting, you know, face to face. So, there's been a lot of improvements there. And the same thing with the computers, a lot of stuff that there's now docuign to sign warrants. If you can't get everybody together, you know,

quick enough, you can do the docu sign.

So, this there's that was going to be my question. Do you think Docu Sign is a good process or do you prefer the good old pen and paper?

I I'm oldfashioned. I prefer the good old pen and paper and blue pen.

So on a, you know, a black and white document, you can see that that it's original ink.

Um, so I like that preferably, but there comes times where it's timing. If if you can't, you know, if you can't get to the vice chair or to the mayor to get their signature, then yes, you you've got deadlines you have to meet. So you do what's necessary.

Thank you. I guess my final question would be it's important in our collaboration with you, we take the time to review the documents that we're signing, make sure we're asking our questions ahead of time, and we sign after we complete our due diligence.

Yes.

And I'm actually, again, I'm old school.

A lot of times I'll initial every page on a document because I don't like when the signature page is just a page with signatures on it. I I want it to tie to the rest of the document because you can take that paper clip off. So I usually initial every page and date it.

Thank you, Mr. Angia.

I want to thank you for your willingness to apply here and your willingness to come work for us. Uh I did sit in on the interview that we had with you. I want to tell my colleagues that Mr. Petronio answered all the questions, you know, honestly, but with a a level of experience that we could tell right off the bat that he's going to be a great fit here in the city. Uh, he's done good

work. He has the highest recommendation from Dr. Smith and Mrs. LGO. So, ultimately, I think this is this is a real good hire for us. We're thankful that you're going to be here. With that being said, uh, we just said you just answered the question that said you want to keep everything as it is and kind of move forward. Well, last meeting we had a uh situation where we had a contract

that didn't come before us and it was over 20,000 and we got angry at the time and we made a motion to reduce from 25,000 to 20,000 the threshold. But I feel like we need to give you the fresh start that Mr. Almeida has had over the years. So I'd like to make a motion that we go back to the 25,000 with the respect for Mr. Petronio and then at

that point if we need to change it later, we took a knee-jerk reaction. I can know I understand that but you should get a fresh start, sir. So my motion is to go back up to the 25,000.

Second. Second with a question.

That second with a question. Mr. Das, is that going to start? We don't have a start date for Mr. Petronio. I think that should start when Mr. Petronio starts. I don't think I trust everybody that right now it should be reflect reflected immediately because at this point uh we trust the superintendent and the deputy and Mr.

Petronio and Mr. Alita to not do anything underhanded in the Okay. Further discussion.

M Mr. Almine, how many contracts do you think that would affect coming before the committee?

The $5,000 difference.

Quite a few.

No, in six days.

Over the next six days. Not many. No.

No.

I yield.

Okay. On Mr. Agio's motion to go back to the 25,000. I have a motion to second.

All in favor?

Opposed? Unanimous.

Mr.

to vote on.

Oh, that's true. We have a motion to second on that.

Yep, we do.

Okay. De give it a call, please.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Das.

Yes.

Mr. Cory.

Yes.

Mr. Mus.

Yes.

Mr. Ryland.

Yes.

Miss Stewart.

Yes.

May.

Yes. Congratulations. Welcome aboard.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

And finally, Vive 7 is a vote to approve the appointment of a law firm as presented by Dr. Smith, interim superintendent. So again, uh, I want to thank, uh, attorney Bruce Assad. Bruce, you've been a gentleman. You've been there every time I've called. I know I've been here as a short-timer, but I really appreciate and know the time that you've spent in the district. That being said, you know, difficult, uh, as they

say, shoes to fill, but we were able to go out. Uh, haven't had experience. I guess this is where the experience in sixth district comes in handy. uh we were able to go out and we had proposals from uh three law firms uh comprehensive law firms that actually you know practice uh in uh what I would say employment law. So tonight I'm here to recommend the law firm of Murphy Hessie

Tumi and Leah Hane who uh again would be legal counsel for the Fall River School Committee. Um we went through a very comprehensive interview process. Thank you Mayor Coogan. Thank you Vice Chair Aguia. you were there for each and every one of our discussions. I want to thank Vice Chair Aguar. We actually spent time running right down to the last minute uh looking at and it's very difficult when

you're looking at proposals and you're looking at a fee structure not really knowing um you know what we're going to need in this district but understanding that you know we are putting systems in place. We need to do professional development as we just said you heard uh Dr. Cadino talk about pro professional development for our staff to make sure that we're not utilizing the attorneys

when we don't need to if we have a a well-trained staff. So, uh I feel very confident having worked with uh Murphy Hessum and Leah that they will be here for everything from specializing in uh not only education law, collective bargaining, labor relations. So, uh again um the rates were favorable certainly. Thank you again to the Fall River public school. So I want to recommend Murphy Hy to me and Lane to do

our uh education law labor relations going forward.

Motion approved.

Second with a question.

I have a motion to second. Mr. Corey to Mr.

Well, I I think Miss Stewart had a question.

Oh, Miss Stewart, I'm sorry.

Michael Joyce. Are we keeping Michael Joyce at this point? Uh we are keeping Attorney Joyce who specializes in special education. We are going to look at though uh the past couple of years and the ways that we've utilized uh attorney Joyce. I know that my assistant superintendent uh Lii Oprahane has worked very closely, has been pleased with the support from Attorney Joyce.

We'll continue to allow that, but we also are going to look at ways where we can streamline certainly the uh our budget for special education uh and making sure we're using legal when we need to and are there other ways to to contain our costs. Correct. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure.

Mr. Corey, uh Dr. Smith, uh would the uh the incoming uh legal counsel be with us at each of the meetings as attorney Assad has been?

Well, that that is not the practice that we would like to have going forward. But the butt here is because we've been used to that. I think in the beginning we're going to ask Murphy Hessie Tumi and Lane to get to know us to be part of our process to see again you know when we are able to you know have our school committee meetings obviously in executive session there are going to be

reasons why you would have your attorney there. They're very comfortable with that. So I think going forward we're going to start with the attorney present and we'll see what we can do moving forward to maybe make some changes.

Okay. And at the same time, I'd just like to take a moment uh to our outgoing attorney. Um attorney Assad has been with us for a great number of years. And uh speaking personally for my life, I've been uh I've been a friend of his all my life as we grew up in the same Lebanese community here in Fall River. Uh he was my JV ba baseball coach. Uh, and uh, I

have fond memories of attorney Assad as a youngster, and to be able to say that we serve on the same school board together has been very honorable to me.

So, thank you, Attorney Assad, for your years of service.

Mr. Das, thank you. Um, first I'll speak about the the contract that is before us. I mean the proposal that is before us. I'm going to ex vote for it with some reservation. The reason I'm going to vote for this is I know our vice chair has been very active behind the scenes trying to get us the best law firm that we can. And I see in this um in this executive summary that was provided

before us today, it was our vice chair who was um very aggressive in getting the the rates lowered and getting um competitive rates. So, and that's always a good thing. I guess I will state my concerns for the record is, and I don't know this this law firm personally. I do know that the school committee, school department reached out to multiple law firms. One of the law firms that

provided um sample legal um legal advice to this committee had to do with a question that I've had with the administration on an ongoing issue um for several weeks now and they answered it um in the favor of the rights of the school committee. So, I just want to make sure that this company, this law firm that we're bringing in, it's the school committee's law firm and they're going to represent the rights as best as

they can of the school committee. I do know there's a lot of um different questions interpret and and interpretations with um ed reform and I've been very public of making sure that we need to be the best that we can with ed reform in in terms of representing the interest of the school committee in terms of oversight budget whatnot policy with that being said looking at this here so I we don't have like a con we're

just approving a general hourly rate.

So, how is this going to be built into into the budget um for next year? So, I all I see here, unless I'm missing it, is um we have different hourly rates and we're just going to get bill by the hour similar to Michael Joyce.

Nothing will change right now with Michael Joyce other than we'll have oversight.

I No, I understand that. But similar to Michael Joyce, the law firm that we have, I'm sorry, Build Light Build. Yeah, Bill. What we're going to do is I think we had committed uh with this law firm to look at our monthly bills. Um every year is different. You're going to be going into collective bargaining I believe with your union probably sometime in early January. So we'll continue to look at where we're at in

comparison to what you've spent in the past.

What I would request is that the next meeting or um sometime over the summer we get a presentation on where this is going to come out of the budget and so we can answer how much we'll have allocated for Michael Joyce. how much we'll have allocated for this law firm here just so we're all on the same page.

Okay. So, so you're not So, can I can I answer the question? So, you have a legal services account that has $300,000 set aside in it. So, you can spend up to $300,000 on legal services. And if you have to go over, then an appropriation or additional transfer will need it at that need it at that point.

No, I I guess um and that's I understand we have the account, but just making sure do we have like and we probably don't have this now, but we should have how much are we projected to spend with this law? How much are we projected to spend with Michael Joyce? What I like to see as one member in the budget going into next year, different line items like my my opinion is Michael Joyce the

the legal services for special ed should be in its own line item in the budget similar to what we have what we have here. I think that'll make that'll be that again that's just the transparent thing to do and we'll be a lot better moving forward. My one last question is just how the procedures are going to work here with this law firm. So for example, um attorney Assad

was under a salary. He was not paid by the hour. And he brought up the point that if you have an hourly um contract, you could run into a lot of different um you can have an extensive bill. We don't know what I mean legal services. It can be we can get one one month we can have nothing one the next month we can have 20 different bills we we can have many different needs.

So um that's why I'm concerned about how the budget could fluctuate. So I what I my question is I think if we're going to ask like the attorneys a question, if we're asking for like a written legal opinion, we need some sort of procedures or we need a point person on this committee who will reach out to the law firm on behalf of us. There should just be one person. I believe it should be

the vice chair. My opinion, but I I'll I think vice chair has his hand up, so I'll let him answer first. So I'll be open.

Yeah. Just so I just want to assure my colleagues. So, we did have uh several very candid interviews on the computer.

Uh I appreciated sitting in on them with the mayor. We, if you can imagine, I had a lot of questions for them. And we ultimately have come across where we want to make sure that we're not going over budget. We have money in the budget. As Mr. Almea said, I believe it's going to be a cost savings in in when you look at what the budget is.

We're spending upwards of $550,000 a year on legal across all areas. And I would say that with the hiring of a superintendent that's qualified and a deputy superintendent that's qualified and an HR director that's qualified to do all of that work, we're going to have less of a need to keep calling Michael Joyce every single time, which we've all been saying we need to do. So, all I

would ask is to trust the superintendent and her team that they're going to be doing a lot of stuff that we used to call Michael Joyce for. But ultimately, the big part of us is the budget. And I can assure you that I've asked over and over the budget is enough to cover their worst year including litigation. So in a year when you do um uh bargaining rather, we ask what's the cap, what's

the highest that they would be. So they were able to articulate to us what it is and we can still live within that number. Now in the years that we don't have bargaining, it's obviously going to be a little less, but we need to be consistent. So, I assure you that the mayor and I and the deputy and the superintendent asked some tough questions and they assured us that they're going to be uh not just building

us willy-nilly, but to answer your other question, the person in charge of this firm looked right in the camera and told us she works for the school committee, period. So, she's very well aware that we have to work collaboratively with the superintendent, but she made no mistake about it that she works for the school committee. So I wouldn't I don't feel any unease whatsoever about this.

They're the right firm at the right time to fix a lot of the things that we have and we have a lot of things to fix. So I say let's vote on these people and let's move forward.

Do I have a motion?

I I just have one follow-up question to Mr. What Mr. Aar like to move the question please.

Yeah. I mean really Mr.

We need a motion to move a question. You need to have a second. You take a vote.

I just have one I I just have one question.

So, can any member of the committee just call the law firm?

We're going to work the policies out with them and the administration, right? So, if we're approving a contract today, it is very valid to ask that question of what we're going to do. We don't have a contract. Mr. D, I hear you. I hear you. But but members of the committee at the end are trying to shut down the conversation when we're trying to approve a law.

I assure you, we have a motion. Make sure that Murphy and they will get the information. We don't need a motion for anything. Let's vote on this. You'll get the answers that you want.

Let's vote on this right now. Okay.

On the motion.

On the motion to hire MT whatever she called it. MTL.

Let's go.

Deb, call the role, please.

Mr. Das.

Yes.

Mr. Corey.

Yes.

Mr. Monus.

Yes.

M. Riley.

Yes.

Stewart.

Yes.

Mayor Coug.

Yes. Any new business to come before the committee? Mr. Chair, Mr. Agar, just it's not new business, just a general comment. So, I know we've talked about it that we've had uh vacancies, we've had this position, that position, or whatever is going on. I could I can just assure you that the pieces are starting to come in place and Mr. Cory said it, but you can see the level of competence that we have in the

administration that they are going to be doing what they need to do. The all it's a tall task. We have a situation where we're in a mess in a lot of different areas. Let's just admit it. But the way you fix things like that is you put pieces together, one after another after another after another, including the attorney. So, I think we're in the right shape. So, I want to commend the

superintendent and the deputy for your leadership. We are on the right track.

Make no mistake about it. So, thank you.

I yield.

U Mr. Das.

I yield.

Okay.

Is there a reason to go into executive session?

Very good. Mayor, um why don't I do a motion in a second first? Motion to go into executive session.

Second.

A motion to second. Mr. Assad, please tell us why.

Mass General Laws Chapter 3A section 21A1 to review the open meeting law complaint dated April 22nd, 2026 by Patrick Higgins alleging that Chair Paul Coogan andor his staff did not respond to his request for meeting minutes for the years 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, and 1978 within 10 days. Mass General Law Chapter 38 section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining

agreement including grievances relative to all paraprofessional employees referral of a school system represented by the forward refederation of par profofessionals as the chair has determined that no possession may have a detrimental impact on the bo on the bargaining position of the committee.

National Law Chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining agreement including grievances relative to all custodial employees of the for school system represented by ASME council 93 local 118 as the chair has determined that an open session may have a detrimental impact on the bargaining position of the committee mass general laws chapter 38 section 2182 to conduct

strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and/or conduct negotiations with non-un Union personnel, specifically Kevin Almea, chief financial officer and attorney Bruce Assad, school committee attorney. We would reconvene. There may or may not be statements at that time.

And Deb, could you call the role and go into executive session, please?

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Das, yes.

Mr. Cory, yes.

Mr. Bonus, yes.

Mr. Ryland, yes.

Stewart, yes. Mayor Kuban, yes.

We're back in session. Executive session. Anything further to come before the committee?

Nothing. Hearing nothing to come back.

Oh, I'm sorry. You stay with me. Roll call. Back in session.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Motion to adjurnn. Second.

Motion to adjurnn.

Discussion. Hearing none. Miss Riley, call the role, please.

Mr. A, yes.

Mr. Das, yes.

Mr. Corey, hooray.

Mr. Monus, yes.

Yes. Miss Stewart, yes. Mr. Mayor, yes.