7.18.2022 Fall River School Committee

like to call to order the July 18th regular meeting of the Fall River school committee tonight will be our first meeting at Durfee High School and it should be nice to be in a fresh site for a little bit Deb would you please call the roller here Mr Bailey here Mr Hart here Ms Laramie here miss Pereira here Ms Roderick here mayor Kruger here salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

United States

foreign pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible have two entries tonight for Citizens input uh Deb would you please read the one

from Jeffrey goudreau of Palmer Street in Fall River

RPA are treated we have two high schools in Fall River it should be precedent if not even written in the school department rules for the school department media who are very good people to record all graduations at least the high schools and not just Durfee High School graduations again I do not specifically blame them they do a great job at what they do however the fact that the school department recorded the

Durfee High School graduation and not the graduation of the resiliency Preparatory Academy is abhorrent the academy also has family members and loved ones who couldn't attend the graduation who would have loved to have watched the and watch the recording we should treat all of our schools equally and greatly I think the whole idea of RPA is just segregation in itself we should work towards

integration and work on building up our own programs to provide the most one-on-one support to students who need it especially outside the classroom we need to bring in those who want to help students who are in trouble both inside and outside of the classroom not send them away to a separate school I hope that I hope this is the direction of the school committee Jeffrey gundro 29

. our next one is from Colin Dyess Ray Street in Fall River speaking in support of the great students of the resiliency Preparatory Academy an issue I wanted to discuss last month however I had to do to discuss the judge Rothenberg Center and how the school committee almost sent funds to them I feel as if the students of this school are treated as second-class students why didn't they get the opportunity to have

the graduation recorded you only have one high school graduation in your life this is not an attack on the great media team of the school department I do not blame them at all I have they serve at the discretion of the administration maybe it was an oversight however it shouldn't have been and Mr Mayor you should apologize for calling Durfee High School your quote unquote favorite graduation

I think that this is just genuine and disrespectful to the graduates of RPA and to the institution as a whole along with along with every school in the district I'll even go as far as to say why do we even send students to an alternative high school let's support them in any way we can let's build up our own resources so we can send these kids both in in the classroom and

outside of the classroom I think we should focus on integration in the classroom I think the whole concept of RPA is segregation of students who are in trouble and that's not fair to them we shouldn't just send students out of Durfee like we're sending them to purgatory Let's help these students let's start by treating them equally and getting their structural support in the classroom I

hope this is the intention and direction of this current school committee thank you very much for your time respectfully submitted Colin dies 560 Race Street I know the superintendent did have a comment related to those things about a specific right I just wanted to clarify I was present at the graduation rlm RPA graduation as was the mayor committee woman miss rodericks it was recorded and I'm not sure why it's not

posted it was brought to our attention and we are working with for TV so that it can get posted but they were there they recorded the graduation and they even had an overflow room for families the venue who couldn't um stay in the room because it was small so we will get that up and running for families but we wouldn't do one and not the other so thank you but it was

recorded and we'll get it up on the website Mr right yeah yeah I was unable to attend but um one of the questions I would have based on your comment Madam superintendent was that it was a small venue I know there was a very small graduating class but with all of the schools that we have I I don't understand why it would have to go off-site so as we're looking at it moving forward

in the future I think it should be a set that it's at a certain place like I recall a couple years ago we had it at cuss I think maybe they're dirty days I know there was a tremendously small class in comparison so I don't know if that was the fact that but we certainly should use our own facilities before we we go somewhere and then to hear that there was had to be overflow because

there wasn't enough people I think logistically that didn't make much sense so if we could look at that as well I'd appreciate it thank you I yields oh we agree um I have talked to the uh principal Brooks there it was planned and she had surveyed staff students and families and they had a plan that but we will moving forward we will be using our facilities they're larger and we have an ability to

have more capacity so moving forward it will be at one of our schools thank you next item up is recognition Awards we do not have any tonight the superintendent's report uh superintendent Ponce on the PowerSchool update yes as you know um we migrated as of July 1st from Aspen to PowerSchool Mr Cabral is here virtually because he's at a family event but and certainly we'll be able to

answer some questions but I will just give you an update as to how that went and what we're working on um I will say I'm happy to report that we're currently using PowerSchool I I went on today did some searches student searches staff searches Etc just to make sure everything was running as of July 1st we are using PowerSchool and not Aspen we are only using Aspen for State reporting we're continuing to upload

data daily to the in nursing special ed human resources and the student information data there's very very large files these are many years of data so it's going to take some time for it to all be completed training has been underway for the past few months we're offering training throughout the summer to all different departments and stakeholders they're having Open Lab Wednesdays they're well

attended we have administrators that have been popping in with questions I will say our Tech team has been second to none and has worked with schools on the last two days of school all of our teachers and building staff members had to take part in a Google Classroom of lessons and information regarding the new Power School in our new parent Square platform we received many many positive reviews on this type of

training and information sharing we're going to be offering some intensive training sessions at the admin Retreat for administrators at The Institute of the week of August 8th all staff members now have access to the new system they're beginning to upload and implement they're building schedules the student information team continues to make themselves available to any building or admin team to help them with

uploading the schedules that's uh you know uh depending on the school it's comprehensive process it takes time and they can they what they do is they report to Durfee and that team helps them with the work and that's worked really well documentation and social media posts are going to begin to be made available to all the stakeholders that are affected by this transition we're going to

provide some cheat sheets right so to easy for easy access short videos for students staff and families to access we're also going to use our new parent Square communications platform to disseminate information the IEP data is being finalized final uploads are in progress for all the live data Health Data is continuing to be uploaded the human resources in is in the final implementation process for their new

employee Suite this is going to be connected to PowerSchool and it's going to make employee onboarding so any new applicants that whole hiring process is going to be paperless and it's going to be much more efficient and I finally I will say our Tech team is being has been phenomenal in helping us through the process and really it's been a seamless process I know we've had a lot of

hiccups and we will continue to have hiccups but getting on the site managing through the work the site has been a pretty easy process and that's it thank you any questions and comment on parent Square just from my role as a as a parent Mrs Rogers so I I am received uh in an email just updating like how to do it I gotta tell you that it was a very simple process like the directions

um that I received on my end it made it a very easy process to download I'm sorry my voice is all kinds of wacky today so I'll likely be quiet you're all welcome um but I did want to point that out that it was a very easy process to set up um and it looks like it'll be pretty seamless for folks good to hear thank you thank you anything further Mr agya just to comment

on the superintendent uh when you spoke about schedules and the master schedule and stuff I recall I think it was last year or the year before that we had principles I think that needed to call in people as consultants to do their schedule for them do you know if that's still going on are We No we're doing it with our own people so it's been you know because you're in the schools right

when when you upload a Schedule Master schedule maybe 30 of it will upload and then you have to work on the other 70 to fix some holes uploaded again but we've been every I will say the principles have been very pleased with it they've been doing it with the tech team and uploading it we haven't used I know you're referring to because when I was a middle school principal we did that too

it's been in-house and it's been through PowerSchool thank you anything further thank you superintendent um I have a no student a delegate tonight obviously School's Out approval of minutes I have one series of minutes from 4 11 22 can I get a motion in a second motion to approved second I have a motion second any discussion on the minutes that police called a roll yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Miss Laramie yes

Mr Carrera yes that's Roger yes mayor yes we Have No travel request tonight and number eight is the acceptance of donations we have none of those either approval of contracts number nine we have a series of contracts here does anybody have any questions on any of the contracts hearing none I would listen Mr Mayor Mr agya if you want to pull them out for discussion we'll do the rest like we've

done it's a question on the one that said School dude School dude it's a I think it's a new name but I don't have it in front of me it says what is I don't know trying to find it Mr aguiar it's uh brightly formally oh it's the second one the second one all right so we'll pull out School dude um for discussion does anybody have any others I'm looking for a motion a second on the

rest of the contract ocean I have a motion second another second can we vote on those and then go to uh Mr aguiar's uh concern Ed yeah yes yes Miss larva yes because yes Miss Roderick yes yes okay so this is called brightly formally dude solutions for 31 000 Mr aggia yeah I just had a question on the uh is this just a change in um business name and the other question I

had was on the um the information that we get from the school dude I know several months ago I asked for some data on that and I haven't received it but um I'm just curious to see it looks like we're renewing it so I'm assuming that it works through our advantage but one of the things that I had asked for during the budget was a comparison of work orders from the prior

a couple of years until now so we can try to see as we hired a different maintenance director what their numbers were and I don't think we've gotten that yet but I wanna just get some kind of feedback on that it's working it's just a change of name um the product is exactly the same the two portions of the of the contract one is a regular uh School dude which houses

uh facility rentals but it also allows us to put all our work orders into and then the second piece is the maintenance um directory so to speak so that would house um or parts equipment when life expectancy and each piece of equipment so it houses a lot of data I did not get you what you would ask for those those years and we will work on that um but um it's um

it's early to make that that call on on how effective it is I can tell you uh visually It's very effective and uh you know this demonas has done a great job with organizing um the work and getting some work done and obviously the usage um of the personnel has been very very good so we're we're very pleased with uh with Mr monas's work the reason I mean it sounds like it's a good system but as

a school Committee Member I can't tell you I've seen some of like the reports that the system can do but I've never gotten a sort of uh um dog and pony show from you or the superintendent so maybe you could set that up offline to come in and you could show me everything that's absolutely I think it's valuable if we use it if anything else we pay for software and we

don't use it it's going to be of no value or if we don't use it with Fidelity or all that so we should be able to see what was in there how long the jobs were waiting which ones were and uh so I'll reach out to the superintendent to set something up Offline that was one of the things but while I have you Mr pachico I had a question on the can I say just on that

sure yep um do you want to make that emotion that yeah make a motion to approve that's that's fine well we have to have a motion on that contract anyway okay okay I'm just saying motion to get that information from the superintendent that's what I'm asking do you want to get make that emotion I think they know what information I'm asking but if you do you need Clarity on that Mr Chico or Miss Madam superintendent

do we need a motion for Clarity on that I think that's what Miss Lowry is talking about well just as a committee moving forward I think um anything that we ask of the superintendent and and uh everybody else um maybe should be made into a motion and um maybe the committee should be as a whole and decide if we do want the information or want to but if it's

something you want to do on your end and reach out to superintendent if you want to do it here I think it should be made as a motion that's my opinion yeah so two two things one I don't think any I think any member of this committee should be able to ask any member from the superintendent on down for information related to whatever they want to feel like to do their job that's

a blanket as far as I'm concerned now I've asked and I've been more than patient I've asked for this since April so I'm not trying to spot anybody I'm just making making a fact that that's the information that was asked for and it hasn't come in now when I asked about coming in was just going to be me personally to come in and say can you show me how the system works so I don't

think everything that any one of us asked for needs to come as a motion because there's certain things that you might want that I don't really have a need for but if you want as a school committee woman you should be able to get it just like if I ask for something I should be able to get it so I don't think it needs to go as a a motion but I

will make a motion to approve this contract can I just clarify that yes hold on hold on so we've got a motion a second why don't we vote on that I knew as you want to go after go go ahead go ahead do we want a demo and reports right for everything that's on there Mr agar or do you just want to demo on how the system works I was asking in the past was just so

that we can get some data I think it's valuable what I was asking for was a memo just because I'm curious how the system works if anybody else wants to call you to come in for this fine I don't think it needs to be at a meeting or anything like that that's why I was saying I'll do it offline where we can come in and I can ask Mr pachico can you

pull up uh School dude and tell me how many um Job Lot is a six months old or things like that so it's more individual I don't think it needs to be a presentation but um we are spending thirty thousand dollars a year on it and we should know what the data is getting out of it so if I would assume that whoever's in charge of that system is giving you reports on

a regular basis so then you might just be able to like regurgitate those to me but um I'm curious of how it works just individually okay thank you all right I have a motion a second tab please call the roll Mister again yes Mr yes Miss Rodricks yes yes approval of Grants we have three I had one other question that we let the vote go through oh okay go ahead just a quick

question Mr pachico on ene systems yes there's one in here I always thought of them as the uh maintenance you know ventilation that type of thing yes but on here it says admin building security and card access it's a new division for me and E that does the Cod access at a couple of I've already had a couple of our buildings and we're adding buildings as we go uh to the system so basically one card

might swipe and any other administrator's wife will get us into all the buildings along with maintenance people custodians um that'll allow that that access uh to be much greater but it also allows us to know who's where you know and who's coming in and out of our buildings so it I was just curious because it says the any that was the difference yes does every school have it not yet so what do

you need for that to happen for the system it's cameras it's a it's a specific camera uh at the different entrances that are going to be used and then it's the card readers um at the access points no I mean do you need anything from the committee on why it's not done across the whole system uh just a time thing or is it and it's it's hundreds of thousands of dollars so

we're laying it out as we need to in the different buildings it will be eventually at all the buildings I mean I'll speak for myself that that seems like that's part of security and that's important so we have the money I think we should just get it done sooner than later that's just my opinion I yield thank you back to Grants we have three handy discussion On Any Grant specifically if we prove them all

Mr agya on the bar Foundation I think this was the grant we were talking about having to expand right has that worked out I know we talked about it it's going to go to different parts well they've agreed to um to remain at Durfee for now to hold off on the expansion for the next couple of years and then we'll talk about the future but right now that Grant um that they're getting we're not we're

not talking about moving so for those three years we're good that's what you're saying thank you are you any discussion on any of the other grants okay I'm looking for a motion a second motion approved I have a motion I have a motion a second dad please call the roll Mr again yes Mr Bailey yes Mr yes Miss Clark yes Ms per hour yes Miss Roger yes mayor Kruger yes Committee of the whole 11.1

its discussion and vote to approve the special ed curriculum is referred by this question in a second now this has been vetted twice in front of the subcommittee does anybody have any questions on this I just have a comment Miss uh Miss Pereira I just think that maybe as a committee as a whole we need to pay attention to what we're referring back to different committees when they've already been vetted

as well as the next item that's coming um if it was in a subcommitting meeting um Everybody the people who are there obviously have the opportunity to ask questions those others could always watch the meeting ask questions I think that these two things getting pushed off at the last meeting was very unfortunate and I blame myself because I could have said something but it happened so fast and I

got home and I'm like what is going on this was already vetted in a committee so if it's a matter of something that special education related and we want it in the special education subcommittee I'm all for it by all means but I don't think we need to be wasting our Educators Time by bouncing back and forth and luckily it all worked out just fine so it's not a complaint it's just

maybe we need to think about that um you know the director was at the subcommittee meeting she couldn't make it to the regular school committee meeting we still had an opportunity to ask her questions the subcommittee meeting so I just I'm glad it all worked out but we were almost going to have to have a special meeting just to take care of this so we didn't put our hard-working Educators behind and again I blame

myself I left that meeting very upset with the job I did I just think going forward we need to kind of acknowledge that and not bounce things back and forth and with that I yield thank you Mr Rogers Well I was the one that sent it back to the special ed subcommittee and I've explained why I've done that but I'm happy to explain again but the reality was I had asked questions after

that subcommittee that were not fully answered and so because I didn't get those answers because I'm on the Special Ed subcommittee I felt like it was necessary to have a deeper discussion and to be honest I'm still not comfortable with the curriculum because it is a full ABA program I think whenever we are looking at something that will impact students in a way that is going to have one type of

um one type of delivery of services like behaviorism we need to have a really big discussion about that and so I was very uncomfortable with just approving that and just so you know I did ask those questions prior to the school committee meeting and they were not fully answered and with that I yield okay anything for uh Mr agya yeah just a couple things so one is I think we missed the um part of

the agenda when it was created about the subcommittees reporting out so we should have had that so as chair of that committee I would have had to report out what happened at the meeting so I think we just missed that so if we can just look at that when we're creating the agendas um this quite frankly was not the school committee's dropping the ball tell you that right now when this verse was presented for the

instructional subcommittee meeting I personally asked the superintendent why this wouldn't go for the special education subcommittee which deals with the issues that are at hand more so than the regular curriculum superintendent told me based on information that she got from her people that this needed to get done right away otherwise we weren't going to get the materials on time

that's what she was told by her people so if there's blame to go around here let's place it where it belongs other people dropped the ball on this not the school committee so wake up presented and we said okay we had to do this we'll have a special subcommittee meeting because we were in such a rush to get it done so we did the subcommittee meeting we hashed out some of the issues we turned

around and said now we had to all of a sudden because we weren't going to get these materials on time we had to have the special meeting the special meeting was held when certain people myself included that couldn't make it it was a rush job lo and behold when we checked it out now all of a sudden we don't need it it's because this stuff's going to be in on time so this issue isn't about the

school committee the subcommittees that work part-time that do their best to try to make good decisions this is other people that are working in the school department that drop the ball on this it wasn't on us so I have no problem with the subcommittee as I've said to the superintendent and at a regular subcommittee meeting I've had more subcommittee meetings in the last six months this never came up one time all

of a sudden now it's a big rush that we've got to get it done that's not the school committee's fault and our job is to do our due diligence and ask questions whether that's one meeting or two meetings or three meetings so I don't want anybody on this committee to be chastised in any school committee member for doing their job asking questions and looking for information is what we get paid and

elected to do if this is not a matter of the school committee was out of their uh whatever you you want to say that's not the case at all we have subcommittee meetings we want get answers we should get the answer from the start not at the last minute oh all of a sudden now we don't need to we don't need the special meeting is related to the the issue we talked

about various things one of the things that came up from the subcommittee which I think was a very valuable discussion was that this 275 thousand dollars that's in the Esser funds that's related to special education nobody on this committee knew that I didn't know that and I'm the chair of the subcommittee but by having the meeting it was said okay there is now a hundred thousand a hundred and seventy five thousand

dollars what are we going to do with it that's what was said at the subcommittee then it was said we were going to use it for a district-wide curriculum on something that isn't related to special education per se I suggested right back that we need to look at it and plan and let the special Educators know what that is so we can come up with some funds to do the things

that they need to do not a district-wide social curriculum or whatever the was the answer so there was information that actually came from the meeting that was very valuable we had a professional meeting the thing passed I'm going to vote for it today and we're going to move on but we can't be coming to meetings and just going to you know start making blanket statements that we we made a mistake by

doing it nobody on this committee made a mistake he did the right thing as far as I'm concerned with that I yield Miss per hour so maybe we need to listen to what I said again maybe I wasn't clear I wasn't blaming anyone on this committee throwing people under the bus really isn't my jam what I was saying was that I wasn't happy with the fact I didn't speak up at

that meeting that's my personal choice I can criticize myself and nobody should be offended by that what I also said was that I didn't have an issue with it necessarily going to the special education subcommittee what I said is that we should first put something that belongs there there first and not bounce things back and forth and then the second piece the fact that the director

wasn't here which is why it seemed like it was pushed out I just think does it make sense because yes you're right it should have happened sooner but it didn't and so at this point in my opinion the best thing for our students and for our Educators was to pass these two things last month which apparently we're going to pass today and if other people didn't agree that's fine that's

why we have six seven people here that's why we vote so if you don't agree that's no problem you can vote no and it's that simple all I'm saying is that the bouncing back and forth in my opinion wasn't the right choice regardless of how it started I'm not going to Monday Morning Quarterback you're right it should have been done sooner it wasn't this is the situation we were in and I

don't think we made the best choice it turned out fine because they were able to order everything and able to get PDS going and so that's fantastic but the reality is we're not all going to agree with each other on everything if that was the case we just have one person sitting up here so I'm not criticizing anyone and I've never once in any of my time sitting here thrown anyone under

the bus I was criticizing myself because I don't think it was the way forward and in the future all I'm asking is that we look at where these things are referred to to begin with so that we're not bouncing them back and forth if it should be in special education first I don't disagree with that then that's where it should have went but to bounce back and forth to me is a waste of everybody's time

with that I yield thank you Mr I have a motion a second Miss rodericks I don't think it was a waste of time to send it back to the special ed subcommittee and you're right I think it should have landed in there in the first place but I don't think it was a waste of time because that conversation was not had publicly for families to be able to hear what some of those answers were so I

don't think it was a waste of time I think yeah we're talking about a process issue and the process itself did not go well right and so in the future yeah it needs to land where it where it belongs right and and if we know that we are working on something from the message that I had received for about two years then I would think that two weeks before the school year ends is not the best

time to bring it up for the first time and so I'm not going to rush to make a decision because it was presented that quickly because that wouldn't be okay for me and I don't think that's fair for other parents either related to the ESL discussion I made the motion to table that because when we are paying a director 125 000 to present to this school committee a curriculum change that person needs to be here that

person wasn't here and we knew nothing about why she wasn't here and who was going to present so my expectations as one member of this committee other when we're paying somebody that kind of money to run the thing they either show up or they let us know a school committee ahead of time why they're not here and who's going to present that didn't happen so that's why that got referred

and that's also going to be voted on today but we need to have some expectations for what people come in present to us and that's why I made the motion to table that without a yield okay let's go to the vote uh Deb please yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Miss Laramie yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Roderick oh very good yes 11.2 is a discussion and vote to approve the ESL curriculum is

referred by the instructional subcommittee and presented by Maria Ponce superintendent of schools can I get a motion in a second or is there a discussion motion approved I have a motion a second any discussion Deb please call the roll yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Miss Laramie yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Roger yes mayor kogan yes 11.3 is discussion and vote to approve additional special education positions

two teachers and five Paras as presented by Michael losch assistant superintendent of special education Mr losh good evening everyone uh so one um you know we unfortunately do hate to do this after the budget process however you know we make our projections in January through maybe the beginning of February uh we got hit with a a tremendous amount of initial and reavals throughout the months uh we'll say like

end of February through really the end of the school year which really just shot our numbers um through the roof our schools really did their their you know what they needed to do through the RTI process we were seeing a lot of Fallout from the covet time period of when we had students either out of school completely having remote learning or hybrid and I think we're just starting to see a

lot of the The Fallout of those effects as well so that is really one of the reasons we're coming here tonight to make this request which really equates to two classrooms and uh thirdly We've also experienced you know another high volume move-in of students with autism spectrum disorder with some separate placements which many of those you know there are are very high needs students

when you justify that that classroom placement any questions for Mr losh Mr agya I couldn't hear you at the beginning but I was thinking that you said it was based on the new enrollments and the enrollments are higher than what was projected that's why they went in the budget that's a piece of it and the other piece is really just the initial and reevaluations that occurred through let's say like the end of February

return from February break uh through the end of the school year we just really got hit with a large influx our school psychologists were working extremely hard through March April in the beginning of May to get through that massive amount but we did really end up with an increased amount of placements through that do you know do you have the data on how many uh in the the one pager it shows you the

what was projected but what compared to what we have now for these specific amounts off the top of my head in terms of evaluations that were conducted I don't have that in front of me at the moment but our lead school psychologist could definitely put that together and get it to you but it's just new the volume is more of students exactly yeah thank you anything further can I get a motion in a second

truth I have a motion I have a second Shelly did that please call the roll let's try again can I ask a one follow-up sure where is it I don't see and hear where the funding's coming from but I'm assuming it's just in like a combined thing or as their funds one-time funds okay all I would ask is that in the future Madam superintendent if uh when we get a request like this after the

budget that we get something related to the where the money's coming from because it sounds good to just say Esser but yep there's more to that story so I vote Yes yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes yes please yes Ms Roderick yes yes 11.4 is a discussion vote to approve the usage of toffee High School the building for the induction ceremony event of the Durfee athletic Hall of Fame as presented by Ken Pacheco Chief

Operating Officer mayor Coogan um Miss laravey I just want to say uh something to you Mr losh Mr losh I just want to wish you good luck thank you for all your service to us um and thank you

work here thank you thank you good luck to you good luck sorry about that that's okay you're right um Mr Pacheco good afternoon Mr uh Madam superintendent members of the school committee my name is Dina Swanson I'm actually from the Hall of Fame committee and I was the lucky winner of the contest to appear tonight yes I'm very happy to be here and I I did cut off Mr Pacheco he's given me the

opportunity to make the presentation we're here tonight to ask for the use of Durfee High School the north entrance the foyer area in Granite Grill for the induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame the plan is that the induction would be on October 22nd with the induction ceremony being done here in the auditorium and then a basically drinks and appetizers and a dinner to follow in the Granite Grill and foyer area the

reason being is that we basically want to show off the school to alumni and their families and we're hoping to basically reinvigorate the interest in the school bringing people back here instead of bringing them into whites the plan is as of right now we're inducting six individuals into the Hall of Fame so they would have the opportunity to invite family and friends we are meeting

with the fire department to determine the capacity upon approval of those areas for the number of people that we could have there there is also the opportunity to introduce and induct another team I can't disclose it yet if the capacity is there to induct that team we would like to do that if we can fit them and their families here if not that induction would wait till next year to make sure

that we are always remaining under capacity the plan would be to have the granite grills Food Service prepare the food for the families again give people the opportunity to utilize the Granite Grill we've already discussed the bartending services with a Primo bartending they are a Massachusetts licensed catering service under 12C they do have the the opportunity excuse me the ability to serve alcohol at a

facility they have two million dollars of liability insurance which we would be covered under a rider at that time so if anybody has any legal questions I can't answer them um I do Mr Mayor what's that sorry I thought you said you have any questions no no and I'm just to finish up we have already spoken with the necessary individuals we would be providing a police detail and uh services from the

custodial staff we're prepared to involve them also for any cleanup necessary at the end and that's basically where we're at we'd love to do it here instead of doing it in whites outside of the city and not give people the opportunity to see the facility any questions Mr Bailey um no questions just uh statement just want to notify the committee that I am a member member of the committee um so I

would have to abstain from the vote of the uh anything else anybody have any questions yes but that was my question was about the security detail uh I think moving forward um whenever there's alcohol involved that there should always be a police details so I didn't have that in the one pager that we had so that what was coming forward to ask you that um but I am excited about this I mean

it's it's about time that that we do we are able to do it in in a facility like this um we had Primo for the uh the last event at the first one but at the old building and they did a remarkable job job but uh I'm I'm excited for everything moving forward just to go off of that um Ms larvy we do have a plan for the police detail also um because

we've used Primo before members of the committee were also part of that previous um event um and they are have had discussions with Primo the the liability really passes to them they have to undertake to check IDs and and it would be under their guys to take care of that and then there would be the police detail for any security issues that arise perfect I yield thank you I have one I have a

question uh beer and wine or everything um everything everything okay well we have we have done this in the past so we did it at some old shows up in the auditorium uh and we did it for the what was called last days of uh Pompeii or something when we were out there school but okay we we um I'm gonna go to Mr hot then to Mr agya um just a couple

quick uh thoughts or questions but I am too glad it's very it's going to be at the new Durfee I think it's a perfect venue for it um I also so you can't disclose the uh the inductees that have been we cannot yet because they have not themselves been notified we just had our uh meeting last week and they had the families and themselves have not been I've been notified okay and just another maybe a

recommendation but uh maybe after or before the event when everybody gets here and maybe in here they could do a little walk through to the new uh athletic facilities and and look at that absolutely if we were authorized just an idea I think that would be a great idea uh Mr Hart I think that it would be a great opportunity to show the families also where the plaques will be and where

the names the plan is as of now to have the plaques prepared and up for the newest inductees and some previous inductees that do not yet have their names up there I was inducted in 2012 well and I think I'm the I'm the last plaque up there so we're going to update everything to date and everyone oh no kidding yeah the hope is that we'll get some other people that have been

inducted since that time to come back and see their name up there as well yep okay very good thank you thank you Mr agya just uh yeah I think it's a good idea the I'm wondering about the policy protocol of how we do this um so I think moving forward we as a superintendent Mr Chico should put together a policy and just we shouldn't have to deal with these things one at a

time it should be if we're going to have alcohol this is what we have there's if there's 200 people you need an offer whatever the regulations are so that we're not approving something just on wanting to be supportive of the different Hall of Fame committee rather than if somebody else wanted to come in here's what the protocol is like use of the facility for X this is what you have

to do so I would I'll be voting yes for this but I'd also ask the superintendent to come up with some sort of policy where we know everything's covered so when we say like this Primo bartending takes the Deep liability I take your word for it but I'd rather take the superintendent's word for looking at legal counsel looking at the legal in the City do we need anything additional you know all of those things

so I thank you for coming tonight and I will be supporting it but Madam superintendent I would request that we get some kind of policy okay anything further on this yes Mr Bailey yes yes Carrera yes Miss Roderick yes yes mayor kogan yes thank you all for your time thank you thanks Tina 11-5 is a discussion on Pre-K expansion as presented by Ken Pacheco the chief operating officer

so um it's been an interesting couple of months on the uh the Pre-K front we um we were prepared to start moving in um sometime in the middle of this month at a facility a lease facility and we ran into a little bit of a problem with uh the bid process um the sole better um the form was not filled out correctly and the financial sheet to be specific and therefore we couldn't use the bid

that was the only bidder and it basically put us back to the Starting Gate so if the bid is out that bill will be opened up on the 17th of August and um we're hoping that we have a couple of other bids when that time comes up including the one that you know that we did have if that person so chooses to um you know to put in an additional bid uh

this uh put a bit in this time so that's where we stand on the lease portion of uh the bid of the Pre-K on the uh acquisition side of the Pre-K we have a bid that will be opened up on August 1st if I'm not mistaken July 29th and um that bid after we take a look at it for um obviously the way we caught this one and and that bid will be much more entailed

um than we can uh report back to you as to where we stand um on the acquisition piece uh the acquisition piece is a lot more complicated and will involve the city um in certain aspects but that's where we stand on those two portions of the Pre-K we also are looking at modular units and that is right now in the uh in the concept stage but module units to be put at the globe

Street location the former stone school um a a short and long-term possibility there so we're working on those numbers right now again there's a the the Esso money everybody wants to use it for the same things and when everyone's using it for the same things there's not a lot of vendors out there that are you know available all the time and and the modular system is is one of those so they're looking for um assets

uh to be sure that they could deliver if we ask them to deliver our rental units or units to purchase and that's where we stand on that other option our backup option questions for Mr pachico this is just an update on where we stand uh Mr aggia what's uh the document that's behind here in this paperwork is the its portions so what it is is it's the it's the heart of the uh 2rf piece so

one yep that's but this is related to the lease too right this two right the first the first section there was the least one the two different uh documents this is the least one with with the um basically the criteria that we had asked for and then the second one is the acquisition one I'm just trying to figure out and I haven't seen the documents yes how somebody could be off that that much

we've got the notices said that the person thought it was monthly yes that's exactly what it was like 300 000 yes that's on monthly and at least basically the document at which is why at first glance um as we looked at it there was no issue because the paperwork was filled out correctly the the issue is is that it was filled out the person filling it out put the monthly number in and not the yearly

number in and as that form got filled out when you got to the bottom line um obviously he wasn't able to fulfill that obligation because that number is extremely small but I'm looking at it here and it says yes price proposal for three year lease right year one October one through August 31st it has a dollar amount then year two the same thing total cost like you're telling me that the guy wrote on here

thirty thousand and he meant 300 000. he wrote yes exactly based on the square footage based on the square footage and what his square footage price was he put the monthly fee in there instead of the yearly fee even though it says year one yes and when it totaled he totaled the three years under the three years so in the total where it says total for three years he had put the three slots from up above

here one year two and year three into that slot and he had no better explanation other than that none because that's impossible for me and it was in in the um the situation was brought to light when I was ready to send the contract to him and was going over the numbers and he said absolutely not that's not what I meant that's not that that's crazy that's a crazy number

that's not what I meant I said that's what you wrote and that's the document that I can go by I can't sit here and negotiate this document with you it's because it happens I mean I'm I don't want to say it happens all the time but it does happen quite a bit with contractors that they will they will look at bids and it happens more in construction but they will look

at bids and say I'm a hundred thousand dollars cheaper than the next person what did I forget so they at that point say a financial error where we're throwing up it and that's what this guy wrote a financial ever he went through yeah it just when I heard this I it made zero sense uh that's exactly what it means we had mentioned that one of the other meetings about the why we need three

years instead of one I don't know if there's options you know if we rent a modular for instance do we sometimes they they cost a lot of money to take them out as well so yeah the module of Peace was is it's a it's a tricky way to do things however it could be a short-term solution if this doesn't work out for us it's quick not as quick as as this would have been

if we would have been able to sign a contract two weeks ago but it is a quick way for us to get module uh classrooms in place and it has Room to Grow now two different things there so for leasing modulus that's one thing because we're using most of the time use modulus so they'll piece them together Cobble it all together make it look like what we want six classrooms some office space um bathrooms obviously for

students and and adults so all of that stuff will be built into these into these modules on a lease process if we were buying these modules they would look a little bit different then we would want bathrooms in every classroom we would we would make it so that it would suit our needs for long term but as a short-term answer we will take a um for a lack of a better turn a stock a a

boilerplate trailer and make it work for what we need to work with with 12 students in a classroom and all the appropriate amenities along with the safety yeah and life safety I don't think we should have got to this point I'm not blaming anybody just I really want the Pre-K to expand as I think it's been clear so whatever you have to do I would say do it and the

only thing I would caution is is let's keep our eye on the long-term plane that's okay absolutely that I yield anything further on Pre-K expansion thank you for the update Chico 11.6 is the discussion and vote to approve a part-time seasonal work or job description as presented by Ken Pacheco Chief Operating Officer so um this job description would basically cover um some help uh vacations we currently

don't have any job description that we use we we normally would take an open FTE position for instance a part-time custodian part-time cafeteria person use that as a whole placeholder in the budget but will this will allow us to do is to leave those positions alone the job duties that that we think is appropriate for a person to do in this seasonal work and it would also allow us to hire um

people who are under 18 years old and have not graduated so it would allow us to bring some students in summer help to uh to work in our buildings doing different tasks as listed in that um draft job description I'm asking for six to be shared between facilities and operations and Technology promotional approve of the question I have a motion do I have a second the only question is on the salary 15 an

hour and up it I'm assuming that that is you got to pay minimum wage anyway right so as that goes yes it would move it's not locking it's when you say up that's what you mean yes it's basically going to be a minimum wage position yes it's not just whatever either any of those departments want to do right so I I would think at that point we should just call it minimum wage

instead of fifteen dollars an hour and up as we're if we approve this like this I think if you if you felt I'm not saying you're going to do this but you wanted to give somebody uh thirty dollars an hour to do the work you could technically without the vote of this committee do thirty dollars an hour whereas if we said minimum wage it'll obviously be whatever that is okay does that make sense or it's fine

it's fine I I think that we it put that there because you may have someone with a skill set skills yeah so I I don't know you know if uh I I can tell you that it you know there are times when a student walks on the door uh and um has a skill set that that's valuable and and um it's a lot different than someone who has uh who doesn't have that

but I I uh it is summer it is seasonal help and it is a school vacation so I can live with the minimum wage I've always seen these positions as like a high school student going to help out on vacations or in the summer you know I bring this up only because I don't think it would be fair to you pull in a part-time with your notification get paid more than the actual full-time

worker well that's that's the tricky part we don't want it to exceed what a full-timer makes we had had that discussion minimum of uh having a um minimum wage we agree it's someone who might work during vacations during breaks from school Etc we didn't have we wanted to put a good system in place so minimum wage is a fair wage to bring a part-timer in to help thank you

so we're going to put it in at minimum wage any more discussion on the part-time position we don't need to amend it do we just because we talked about it we can change that because I'm saying we can change it without emotion I think so Irish yes we can yes can you just do a small range if if we're saying that 15 to 18.

yeah like if we're saying that you may have somebody that's gonna that's not your skill set and then we want to honor that you're a returning person or a returning person if we would and maybe we just need to say below um any of our right part-time or full-time employees how about minimum wage plus two dollars and give you a little bit of flexibility somebody comes in one year at minimum

wage and does your service the next year maybe to get a they can get up to a two dollar raise up without the vote of the committee okay so minimum plus two if warranted okay how about how about a vote that Mr right now yes Mr Bailey yes yes Miss Roderick yes mayor Kruger yes eleven seven is an update on the turkey High School athletic fields again that's presented by Mr Pacheco so um the the

memo basically was to give you a snapshot of where we are currently uh with the project that just went out to bid which will be the varsity baseball field the practice football field and the uh Varsity softball field and um those are on the street as we speak we're hoping for a mid-august reply we've got to walk through very shortly on on those projects they are we think that the timing is very good as

far as work wise it should hit when people need work we should be able along with a good winter maybe work our way at least past Thanksgiving you know into Christmas on these fields which will give us a nice start for next year no guarantees weather-wise but hopefully we'll get a good jump on this on the second page uh it's basically a financial layout of where we're at when and where we need to move forward

it's um a few dollars but I think that we've done quite a bit so far with what little we've had um and then some nice uh contributions from this committee to uh to keep the project moving there's an assumption in there and I've got it highlighted um from the Durfee project six hundred thousand of residual funds I may have printed this one day and had a little conversation the next day with

the contractors and the OPM and designer and we have a a little uh hiccup at the high school with some ledge formation so we found an area a large area about 45 feet by a little under 100 feet of solid mass that we're trying to figure out um what my next move will be so we've got a couple of things on the on the table with that raising the field the touch

um as Miss dagia knows who sits on that the ad hoc committee we had a um a design of some field events happening in the um on the same Plateau as the Varsity Softball field however if we raise the field that Plateau gets smaller and smaller because we need to move the field around in order to avoid that ledge so it's a work in progress right now our Geo people are working

diligently to get us the information that we need we've had some borings done on this property some of the areas that we're dealing with the school was on top of so we weren't able to do the borings while the school was still up after the demolition of the school and the and the removal of all of the debris is when most of these items start to show their ugly face so

this is where we're at on the construction the tennis courts are just about completed and the the remainder of the original project will slowly come to a close sometime in September roads access roads for Durfee High school will be open to allow us some major relief in the traffic situation that we had last year and that's a welcome present at this time any discussion on the fields MS laravey

hi Mr pachico hi um just one question uh what What's the timetable on phase two I know we're not but do you have an idea so depending on the dollars of phase one and how much we can roll into phase two my goal would be to do the varsity uh to the stadium okay with the residuals so that if we could put the if we could put if you notice I have a contingency

of 1.2 which is the last dollar amount that the committee had voted um if that is not needed in the upper section and if everything goes well with this reconfiguration of the girls Varsity Softball field at 600 000 may also be able to move and maybe purchase lights or things like that because it's part of the project we'll buy things with it so my go my gut feeling is that

part of phase two will happen right away Could Happen simultaneously in March or April of next year and then uh the remainder of it will have to take a hard look at how we want to fund that okay I yield thank you anything further Mr aguiar thank you for the presentation so when I'm looking at this and I've sat on those meetings as you know it really isn't an option so phase two of the

main field is not really an option as far as the kick it down the road we need to do that in the time when it the seasons and all that stuff come out yes yes we can't have Durfee High School without the ability to practice and play sports like that just can't happen so in my mind I think we should um maybe put a phase two and a phase three so like that that should be um

more of a priority for instance than the Talbot fields at the bottom and I think that's what you kind of did as you ran down yes but I think for this committee to understand what it is before we keep spending money on other things we have to figure out a way and a mechanism to do this sooner than later and I think by putting it in phase two it makes it look like as if it's

something we can deal with later but I really don't think that we can that would be my opinion the last one the funding saw us remaining front from phase one obviously that's under the school committee's purview City bonding I can't imagine that the city is going to want and the city council is going to want to bond any of these projects I've said that for a long time now and I don't think that's changing if it

is then please tell us that the council and the mayor want to fund more of these projects I think they have to fund the school and Diamond so the urgency of why I keep on pushing for this is so that we get to the table and say how are we going to fund it whether we Bond it whether we portion it out of our money every year to pay the bond or something as we talked about

I know we're supposed to be negotiating the agreements with the city I'm assuming that's in progress absolutely yes so yes I just don't see them being able to fund it so I appreciate the presentation I think we should in the future like maybe between meetings pull out what you feel and what the Durfee High School folks feel is the absolute necessary and maybe make that phase 1B and then phase two so that we

can know if we have some time but I'm 100 in support of uh the projects I appreciate your work and the consultants and it's not an easy thing but really this should have been part of the project so I can go on and on about that but we're finally getting there and I do appreciate your support thank you very much anything further guys thank you Mr pachico 11 8 is a discussion and vote to approve

sustainability of the nutrition account as presented by Kevin Almeida the Chief Financial Officer so at this time I'm recommending that um we fund all expenses out of the nutrition account beginning for FY 23.

foreign

a little bit of money but uh after you explain to me the situation um it makes sense it's something we should do going forward so I'm glad you've given us time to find the money and uh and work with this uh the city council on taking this over but um I appreciate your efforts thanks motion tool proof second Motion in a second any further discussion Mr aggia yes thank you for uh

for bringing this up so the only question that I would have and I think it's something that needs to be a requested of powers that be in the state is this has been the law and that Tony Assad had sent us a um recommendation that I requested to say what is the law I read the law it's pretty clear the law has been in existence for a long time we haven't been following

State Law related to this issue in this account so I would like to get an answer from Jay Sullivan or somebody in the state that the person who tells us whether we met net School spending where we didn't where we spend money in X Y and Z I don't think that they've known that we've been doing this maybe they do but I'd like I'd feel much more comfortable with them giving us a letter to say yes

we're aware that this is going on and starting July 1 is okay otherwise we have to look at and figure out what would happen because if we did this with the title One funds that we don't count we wouldn't have got in trouble something would have had to have been so if I I'll just comment so what I can tell you Mr aguiar is that we the school lunch fund is audited every year

by the by the outside Auditors and they are well aware of us not charging any benefits and to date I have not received the finding or anything to state that you know we should be charging the benefits they are aware that um you know because because our balance is pretty high in the account now they are aware that we will be charging the benefits going forward and I communicated that to

them and they were fine with that so there was no to my knowledge when you say they who is they the outside Auditors from CLA from Clifton Larson Allen you so what I would request is uh something to the dese that looks at net School spending and get the answer from them so that we can know going forward I mean this has been an issue for years I brought up a document that I had from

2018 where we asked for this so we're talking about a pretty substantial amount of money I also asked for today it was just today but I'm assuming that we're going to get it a copy of all of the expenses that have been taken out of that account for the last two years so I'll be looking for that moving forward in the future I do appreciate this recommendation I yield anything further Deb please call the roll yes

Mr Bailey yes Mr harp yes Miss Laramie yes Miss Pereira yes thank you Roger yes mayor Kruger yes eleven nine is a discussion of voter approve the fourth quarter revolving fund as presented by Kevin Almeida the Chief Financial Officer so in front of you is the uh the fourth quarter revolving fund report that we give to you on a quarterly basis because you can see the balance in the uh

revolving funds total just over 12 million dollars uh the the balance have gone up about almost three million dollars from this past year uh so we have all positive balances in the account and I look for your support to approve the report any questions of Mr Almeda on the fourth quarter revolving fund can I get a motion in a second motion to approve second I have a motion in second uh Deb please call the roll

yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Harper yes Miss Laramie yes Miss Carrara yes Miss Roberts yes yes 11 10 is a discussion of vote to approve a budget transfer as presented by Kevin Almeida Chief Financial Officer so this here is just the cleanup of our year-end balances happy to report that the full budget has been spent down to follow after uh the next next item is the Day Report with all the different reports in there um

so this is just the cleanup that we do every year this is the final transfer for the year and I'm looking for your support any discussion on the budget transfers can I get a motion um motion a second second I have a motion a second Dad please call the roll let's try again yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Miss Larry yes yes Miss Robert yes America yes 11 11 is discussion in vote to to vote

to approve the year-to-date budget report as presented by Kevin I have a motion second I have motion second any discussion I'm here today Mr aguio yeah just uh I know that we talked about the new policy related to the uh call centers so in the and I'm assuming that's what this vote is now for the month that we've been in yes this is the end of the year this is the end of the year

so the monthly is just the end of the year when are we going to discuss the so my plan should we do that now right my plan is to bring forward a quarterly report to you in September that breaks down all the cost centers yep so the only request uh question would be is I'm assuming that that in September that report is going to reflect the new policy yes sir by Quest center or

whatever also yes sir thank you I yields can I get a roll call forward Tim Mister again yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes yes yes Miss Roderick yes yes item 12 12 1 12 2 his resignations 12-3 is appointment and 12-4 regretfully his members that have passed away can I get a motion to approve those notices motion approved I have a motion second Deb call the roll please Mr Right again yes Mr Bailey yes yes

13 is a new business anybody have any new business to come before the committee but we're going to take this up after executive session for the request to superintendent um request for executive session Mr Assad do we have a reason to go into executive session there would be a need for executive session Ms Smith Mass General Lords chapter 38 section 2187 to review and approve executive session minutes

for June 13 2022 regular school committee meeting Mass general laws chapter 38 section 21a1 to review the open meeting law complaint dated June 23 2022.

filed by Colin dies regarding the June 2022 response to an open meeting law complaint which is alleges that the response received there were false statements made national laws chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to Cloud tobogganing relative to all paraprofessional employees the former school system represented by the former Federation of paraprofessionals as the

chair is determined that an open session may have a detrimental impact on a bargaining position of the committee on National voice chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to Clinton bargaining relative to all cafeteria employees in the former school system represented by the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees Council 93 Local 11 18 as a chair is determined that no

possession may have a detrimental impact on the bognitive positions of the committee National laws chapter 38 section 2183 discuss strategy with respect to clinical providing relatives were all maintenance employees the forward school system represented by the American Federation of state county the Municipal Employees Council 93 Local 11 18 is a chair is determined no possession may have a detrimental impact

on a bargaining position on the committee National laws chapter 38 section 21a2 to conduct strategy session and preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and or to conduct contract negotiations with non-union Personnel including Sandra Silva payroll manager we would reconvene the mayor may not be statements at that time can I get a motion a second to go into effective session so moved second I have

a motion second tab please call the roll Mr yes yes Miss Roderick yes yes recess for executive session

back in regular session Deb please call the roll let's try again here Mr Bailey here Mr Hart here here 's Roderick yeah mayor Coogan yes uh anything else to come before the committee Mr Hunt Mr Mayor I make a motion to approve executive session minutes for June 13 2022 regular school committee meeting need a second second I have a motion a second Deb call the roll please yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes

yes Mrs Pereira yes Miss Roderick yes mayor Coogan yes Amir make a motion to approve contract that has negotiated with Sandra Silva motion proof that police call the roll let's drive yeah yes Mr Bailey yes yes Miss Roderick yes yes motion to adjourn second I have a motion a second to adjourn um I do have one more thing just hold up one second anything we did say we go back to new businesses anybody have

anything to come before the committee on the new business hearing none Mr Hunt made a motion to adjourn I have a second that would you please call the roll let's drag yeah yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes yes Herrera yes Roderick yes yes mayor Coogan yes adjourned