8.19.2026 Fall River School Committee

I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Faribault School Committee for August 19th.

Deb, would you please call the roll?

Mr. Agnew?

Here.

Mr. Diaz?

Here.

Mr. Corey?

Mr. Moniz?

Here.

Miss Riley?

Here.

Miss Stewart?

Here.

Mayor Coogan?

Here.

Salute to the flag.

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

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

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made, whether perceived or unperceived by those present, and are deemed knowledge and permissible.

We have one, uh, speaker tonight on citizens input, Pamela Nickerson, Harvard Street.

3 minutes, please, Pamela.

All right, thanks.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm here.

I was here in April, to the surprise of many, even some of you here, when I revealed that open swim and public lessons had come to an end at the Durfee's Jarabek Memorial Pool.

I'm an SNON employee.

I'm without a contract, and I'm here tonight solo.

I don't have union backing.

I never did.

But I do have the backing of parents and grandparents, and I will get their emails and their texts to you.

I also spoke in May, and I honestly believed that over the summer the admins would consider the critical importance of reopening our pool.

It's been closed to the public since December 2025.

I explained to you 4 months ago that drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, according to the American Red Cross.

Children with autism tragically drown at far higher rates than the general pediatric population.

The $8 million Jarabek Memorial Pool was approved by taxpayers and underwent massive upgrades, filtration systems.

It's state of the art, it's clean, it's well maintained, but it's locked to the public.

Sports and other afterschool activities, those schedules are being announced for fall 2026.

How about we hire back some lifeguards?

How about we announce a swim schedule?

There may be plans that I'm unaware of, but that lack of communication is emblematic of what I've experienced for most of my career here at FRPS.

I sure wish I had good news to share with the parents and grandparents and families who approach me when I'm out and about in the city.

I heard here just an hour ago, it's our last meeting before school starts.

Can we please show up for our aquatic families?

The ending of the public swim program really baffles me.

I would think that it would operate under or within the athletics or the FRPS budget.

Please take a proactive approach.

Allow our skilled aquatics team to teach everyone of all abilities how to be safe in and around the summer— the water.

I hope you all enjoyed the summer.

Thank you.

I was lifeguarding and I was teaching swim at facilities outside of the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, first item after Mr. Oh, I didn't see you, Mr. Diaz.

Just very brief.

I was also under the impression that this was going to be worked out as well, and I haven't received any update this summer on the pool.

So if we can get something in the Friday memo, and then if— and then hopefully we can have a subcommittee meeting on this and go from there, because I would like to see an aquatics program working there as well.

Thank you.

Mr. Aguirre.

Yeah, I just want to ask the administration for, uh, whatever they can tell us now.

So we brought this up, uh, I don't even know when, but in the spring.

Uh, the young lady that came up mentioned that the pool was closed since December.

I don't necessarily think that's accurate from what the information that I've gotten from folks, but we also have lack of information to the public even about what existed in the past.

So we had a program, in my opinion— no one's proven to me that the school committee ever approved the program that the speaker was even speaking of.

So we have to try to at least get some groundwork here of what, what did we have, what didn't we have, and how are we going to improve it.

To her point, We spent $8 million on the pool.

At the time of doing that, I asked the people running the project, is there a cost-benefit analysis done on the $8 million pool?

And the guy running the project said, no, nobody's ever asked for that, but we spent $8 million on a pool.

Needless to say, I wasn't so happy about it, but we have now spent $8 million on a pool.

We've got to figure out what are we going to do with it and how are we going to utilize it in a safe way, in an efficient way.

I think there was— I don't even know that that organization that was doing it, I thought they— somebody told me that they didn't want to do it anymore.

So that contradicts what the speaker is saying.

But can somebody update us at least a little bit or give us a timeline on something?

Yeah.

So I did speak to Chris Polisseno, who runs the aquatic program and is at the pool.

We spoke in the spring.

I also spoke to Pam in the spring about this program, and at that time I'm still learning the district, and Chris and I had this conversation.

There were some issues that I saw financially with the program and how we probably should set up a revolving account to run the program.

We need to get— we needed certified lifeguards for the program.

The way they— the The way they're running the program was not adequate for the district.

It would be something that I would not support in that way.

However, I did speak to Chris the other day when this— when the messages— when that message came in and I was asked about the swim program.

And so I have a meeting, setting up a meeting with Chris.

We are just looking at Fall River residents.

Before it used to go out outside of Fall River.

Apparently it was Fall River and the surrounding areas.

We can't upkeep on that.

I think, I think the, the big issue here is making sure that we have certified lifeguards, that we can pay the certified lifeguards what the daily rate would be, or the daily hourly rate would be.

Make sure that we have a morning swim program, because that's what I talked about, having an adult swim.

In the morning for our residents, then our swim program during the day that we teach swimming to high school students.

I actually went to one of the classes in the spring.

I took a walk over just to see what the pool— and they run the pool all day long.

I saw people, saw the students using them.

Chris is looking at running just for Fall River students.

I think he needs help.

And the management, um, of the program, not of managing the facility and not managing, um, the program itself.

It's managing the financials and making sure that we have the workers to work, or the lifeguards to work.

So that's where we are right now.

Um, you know, when I first came here, I didn't understand why we didn't have a morning program, why, why we weren't using the pool as much as we are.

It doesn't go— I didn't sweep it under the rug.

There's been a lot going on over the summer and catching up into understanding.

Hopefully when I meet with Chris, I believe it's next week, we went back and forth.

Hopefully I can set that up and find out how many lifeguards he can get here and then maybe open the morning program.

I'd like to see the pool open at 5:30 in the morning for adult swim.

And, you know, 5:30 to 6:30 or 5:30 to 7.

We got to find out what time students start coming in, uh, because the locker rooms would need to be cleaned out— cleared out.

Understood.

I, I appreciate it.

I do think that it was a lot of time.

It's been busy.

I understand that.

But if in the course of the next whatever week or whatever, as you're talking about it, can you please get us a memo saying whether the program was ever approved by the school committee as a school-run program?

Because I think that is a big difference.

If it's a private person running it, there's certain regulations to it, but if it's a sort of, everybody thought it was the Fall River School Committee, School Department running it, and we weren't, then we, it just makes some questions that need to be answered, so moving forward we'll know if we're gonna run it, if somebody else is gonna run it, they have the liability, if they're gonna do it, you know, those are the questions I have.

And I agree with that.

On the management side, I think that When successful programs start, like it was 5 years ago, it was a very successful program.

Kids getting lessons, you had morning program, or you had an adult swim program, you had after-school, you had weekend swim.

It got too big, it got too popular, and they couldn't manage it.

And I think that that's, that's the truth.

They couldn't manage it.

It got a little bit out of hand at one end.

Now that we know about it, get involved in it, we'll support it, but we'll look at, like you said, is there a vendor that can come in and help us with this?

Is there a swim program that can come in and look at this?

Or do we have the tools and the people and the mechanics to get it to work?

Because I don't think we have.

So if you've coached swimming, you have, you know, your salaries in there, like whatever you get paid.

I don't recall ever seeing anything relative to a community swim run by us because we would have saw What was the money?

This is what the payroll is.

When they're signing the schedules, they would have seen it.

We never saw any of that.

So it was sort of a— I think it was sort of a hodgepodge.

I do too.

And I think people were handling money, cash.

Yeah.

And so I think when you do that, um, and no, I— and I don't blame anybody because people are trying to give back and letting people use and, and use the resources that we have.

And, and the— and you have a great pool and people and our taxpayers in the city of Fall River want to get swim lessons and do that.

And then there was— and then this is what happens.

Uh, this isn't— this is an anomaly among school districts.

Years ago, you know, they do cash, you know, even for the interscholastic league.

Kid would come in with $20.

Um, here's my pay for the, you know, the injury fund.

I'm just glad that it's going to not be buried, you know.

We're going to do something with it, so that's good news.

No, so we can look at it and then it would be allocated for next year.

Thank you.

Yep.

Thank you.

First item up is item number 3, subcommittee update.

Mr. Aguiar on facilities and operations.

Yeah, so this is a simple one.

We had 3 items that all got referred.

So 2 job descriptions were forwarded to the full committee.

They were vetted.

We had a lot of questions and they got forwarded to the full committee tonight.

The school resource officer MOU is also forwarded.

We did ask a lot of questions.

I don't know if you were able to watch the meeting.

We vetted the process with the chief, with the deputy.

The superintendent.

So I think we've asked a lot of good questions and I think we're at a point where that should be approved today.

And also a service agreement for improvements to the Green Elementary.

We had many questions.

I think the gentleman's here tonight to talk about that as well.

Successful meeting.

Those 3 items are all forwarded tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number 4 is the superintendent's report.

We have 5 items there.

Thank you, Mayor.

Actually, you have more than that because some on the other page.

Yes, right.

There are a couple of items that I'll save for the end.

Dr. Godino will speak on the hiring update.

Dr. Bronhard will speak on 2090 Rock.

And I believe I have Cindy Couto here and Brian Michael Laczak who will speak on the enrollment.

So let me go over the update.

So we've had a lot happening in the district.

First thing I'd like to talk about is the Administrators Institute.

Last week, all our district administrators came together for the 2026 Administrators Institute at the high school, uh, to regroup, collaborate, prepare for a successful start to the new school year.

Over the course of the, uh, institute, we had principals, vice principals, directors, department heads, school counselors, deans, supervisors, and other district leaders participated in our, uh, professional development.

We focused on instructional improvement, strategic planning, curriculum and assessment, student support, data, school improvement planning, safety, and mandatory trainings.

We had— and it actually continued into this week, we haven't— we're just about completing it.

We had our attorney Sarah Spadafore present yesterday going over all the legal aspects of investigations, whether it includes bullying, Title IX, many of the ways we have to make sure we're supporting our students and following our legal mandates.

So I felt it was again very successful, almost 2 weeks of training.

So it provides an opportunity for our administrators to learn from one another, to collaborate and align their work around a shared vision for strong teaching and student success.

And I will tell you, one of the things when I spoke to them about were our school councils, our school improvement planning.

So as I mentioned to the school committee throughout, the past couple of months, we will make sure that we're not just meeting compliance with our school councils, we're also working to make sure that we have a school council that includes not only what is mandated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, but also to get community partners involved, business partners involved, our parents involved in a meaningful way, not just at the end of a PTO meeting, but making sure there are meetings scheduled, that we're looking at data, We're looking at what we're looking to improve, because each of our schools is very individual, to set a calendar, to have expectations that people will attend and have voice.

And that voice should resonate among, again, this large urban district.

We'll let you know how we're doing, but I want to make sure I'm bringing back strong councils, strong support for our schools, especially during a year of strategic planning.

The other thing that I am creating is what I call principal cohorts.

So what I'm doing throughout the district is putting principals together in groups of about 4, I think one has 5, I believe it was 4 groups, and they're going to meet, I give them a problem of practice, I'd like them to meet almost every month, they can meet at different schools.

The idea behind it is many times you bring an elementary principal with a middle school, with the high school, I can only do so much with the high school, but that they start to talk about some of the things without the superintendent there, that they have a problem of practice, they can share, they can talk about investigations.

And what I do is have a district leader from each of those cohorts that meets with me individually.

That also allows for, for free sharing of ideas, bringing to the superintendent, and doing problem solving throughout the year.

So I'll be able to report on that.

As far as our opening of school update, so the '26-'27 school year, believe it or not, is what, 2 weeks from today?

For our children, we have a great tradition here in Fall River of community members greeting our students.

I love this as they arrive at school on the first day.

So our district leaders will also be visiting schools throughout the morning to welcome our students, offer a high five, and help kick off the school year with some excitement and positivity.

And I know there is information out there looking for more people to join in the high five.

So there is a member I know from your, um, from the Fall River community, and, and I think when we looked at the last numbers, they're looking exponentially for that number to increase.

So those of you out there that can join us at the schools and provide that high five, we really look forward to, you know, connecting you to make sure that we have that on opening day.

So just a reminder that our students in grades 1 through 12, opening day is Wednesday, September 2nd.

I believe our preschool students begin after Labor Day on the 8th of September, and our kindergartners will begin— how exciting— on September 11th.

And what they're doing is our kindergarten students are participating in screenings before their first day of school.

And families, please check ParentSquare for messages from your child's school regarding kindergarten screening appointments.

So something we're doing a little bit differently is opening day for our staff, which is on September 1st.

So this is important to me as an interim superintendent coming into a district for a short time.

We also have a lot of new faces, and I know with the pandemic and with COVID many of us resorted to, you know, virtual openings of schools.

So we're going to do it a little bit differently.

So we are in the planning stages on September 1st of actually bringing opening day and asking everyone to come.

We're coming to the football field here at Durfee So I'm working with our facilities team as far as how we're going to set that up.

We didn't really have a space where everybody could be present in one place, and we felt it was important this year for the kickoff to be— and we're doing it outside.

We're taking a real chance.

So we're hoping for good weather.

We have— when they come in, there'll be different stations for people to get a cup of coffee, a glass of juice, a muffin, you know, to be able to converse with, again, people throughout the district.

We're also inviting our— obviously our school committee.

Will be front and center, but we're inviting the City Council, who we're going to be working with in many different ways this year.

We're inviting our elected officials.

We're inviting our partners, the police chief, the fire chief, you know, people that are important in the community and are such important partners for our teachers to see that we're coming together as a community.

What I will tell you is my message will, you know, and I know I have superintendents sitting here, down there, many times we take the time to talk about the year ahead, to talk about our strategic plans, our goals.

And while that is important, and I will certainly make mention, our goal is to talk about a lot of work that's been going on to support our schools, building a strong culture, work we've been doing as a school committee, working with our partners again in City Hall, and, you know, talking about building that culture.

But the one message that I will tell you I want to make sure that we hear loud and clear is our staff matters.

That's what matters in this district.

All the things we're talking about today helps us to obviously run a very large district, but also it matters that we have teachers in the classrooms, paras there to support, custodians that are working to make those buildings able to open up to a shiny building for that child's first day of school.

So I'm hoping it is a real culture builder.

I'm presently out there looking for support.

We came up with with, and I had a picture of it, it's somewhere in my notes, but we were getting excited about being outside doing something different, and we were looking to have a t-shirt for all our staff and for our Fall River Public Schools.

I loved it.

It was a picture of the bridge in color, our Fall River insignia, and it really, it talks about our students and our community coming together to support.

So I am actively trying to come up with a way to fund these t-shirts, so we can talk about it a little bit.

But, you know, we're, we're looking to make this a really special welcoming back, you know, for our staff.

So, uh, let me get on.

I want to talk also about the strategic planning update, and part of that is we had a block party.

It had to be one of the hottest days of the summer, and I was absolutely amazed.

We had school committee members there with your family members.

You know, parents.

I was amazed.

I want to say, and I'm probably wrong, but it was like every school was represented with their leadership teams, with their teachers giving out whether it was bubbles or the PACE Center there with their beautiful van, you know, registering students or talking about transportation in a very comfortable atmosphere where if you didn't feel a part of certainly, you know, something in the Fall River community, I don't know, that day was just very special.

So I want to thank everybody for that.

We also had— bringing up our strategic planning committee— we had Leah and Melanie here, and we're trying to collect data, and we're trying to make sure that we're getting parents.

And it was a hot day to collect that data.

We're going to have many other opportunities as we do our strategic planning, but you know how important it is in getting that data as we are developing our goals.

So I want to thank everybody for taking part in that.

Your voices matter.

We'll continue to be out there getting that information We also had our 3rd retreat of our school committee senior leadership team, so it's truly been about 12 hours.

I really want to thank Sean Costello from MASC.

He has been to 2 of those retreats talking about the evaluation process, evaluating the superintendent, certainly one of the mandates of the school committee.

We also had Eva Thompson, who I've known for many years.

She does facilities facilitation of, of many of these types of things.

She was with us for all 3 retreats.

We talked about roles and responsibilities.

We talked about— it was actually hard to get through the retreats, we had so much professional development, and we'll certainly talk about that going forward.

So thank you to everybody that spent a lot of their time in coming together to try to develop a high-functioning leadership team, and they are opportunities that allow us to build a strong partnership between our committee and our district leadership.

Some work update.

I'm sorry, just on the retreats.

So I know you talked about the retreats being 12 hours.

I don't want to get into a big long conversation about it, but at the end of the day, I think it's good for any organization as a whole body to have the entire body present for such retreats to build rapport with each other, to go over expectations, everyone together.

Unfortunately, over the 3 retreats, we haven't had everyone there.

And most importantly, the chairman wasn't there for 2/3 of it.

And I— that bothers me.

And before we have any more retreats with this school committee— the school committee members were there for 12 hours mostly.

If we're not— if we're going to have retreats in the future, we either have to all be there together to do it together, just like you would do at a school or at an organization.

You can't have the head of an organization not be present for retreats where you're supposed to be coming together to do what you need to do.

So I'm just saying for the record, before we have any more retreats, Madam Superintendent, if everyone's not going to be there, we shouldn't have them.

I yield.

I agree.

Any other questions?

Oh, Mr. Moniz has one.

I'm sorry.

What are we doing for the staff that can't be there on open opening day and stuff like that?

I'm sorry, what are we doing for the staff that can't be there on the opening day?

And meaning staff that can't leave their post, they need to be in a certain position.

That's a good point.

Now I really struggle with that a little bit.

You'd almost like to have everybody there, but again, at Pace Center I have to have people, you know, registering students, you know, buildings obviously coming together.

I hadn't really thought that through.

I'm happy, obviously, I want to look out there.

Is it taped, you know, where people can look?

I'm happy to go meet people separately if there's another time to welcome people.

Superintendent, my understanding, as you and I spoke and with everybody else, is that the entire community of Fall River Public Schools would be with us.

You are— you will start at 8:15, and the Pace Center will push it back till a 9:00 AM start.

We're right at Durfee Football Field.

That is my understanding, and as we've been moving around the buildings, it is that everybody will be invited, and then that letter will go out on Monday inviting everybody down for an 8:15 start.

Yeah, I would, I would hope that if there, you know, is, or if there are people that can't attend, I'd love to be able to connect with them in some way.

OK, thank you.

Okay, all right, so, uh, let me almost finish up here.

The summer work update, uh, as I mentioned last month, the summer months are extremely busy across the district.

We had actually 17 capital improvement projects taking place in 10 of our school buildings.

Most of the work is, I'm going to say, 80% completion, and any work taking place in instructional areas will obviously be the priority as we start to complete before the school year.

That work has included renovations to the second floor of our Early Learning Center at Bishop Conley which included technology updates, bathroom renovations, clearing out the former Wiley School, updating the playground at Henry Lord Community School, upgrading lighting in 18 classrooms at Talbot, and converting existing spaces into classrooms at several of our schools.

I think Doran and Viveros.

You'll also see some of our students in these photos.

Over the summer, we employed 14 Fall River Public School students who worked alongside our facility team on a variety of projects.

Their work included moving the furniture at Bishop Conley, packing and moving boxes, helping with other jobs throughout the district.

Each student worked 20 hours a week for 6 weeks.

They did a great job, and we were very proud of the work they accomplished.

And I'm sure you would join me in hoping that we can continue that type of employment.

I was told some mornings they were there early, they left late.

They offered to help in any way they could, and it's not a surprise surprise to any of us if those are the expectations you have for students.

And many of them were students from, I think, 290 Rock.

So we're really excited to— I really want to congratulate them on a job well done.

Again, they offered our students meaningful summer employment while also allowing them to gain valuable work experience, develop new skills, take pride in giving back to their district and community.

While our summer programs ended early, Can I just ask a quick question on the, the, the students?

The students, yes.

Do we have a partnership with the— I think this is a city-run organization, the Bristol County Training Consortium.

Do we?

That's higher.

I, I believe, I believe we do.

Was it involved in these projects though for what they did?

Not in 290 Rock.

Yeah, most of the students were taking that are in the program that you're discussing came right from Durfee High School.

The students at 290 and Brock were not involved in that.

And I actually spearheaded that and wanted them to, to become social, to get out and work, and to possibly look at what they want to do, if that's something that they want to do, to work.

And we had one student say, this may be where I would like to work.

Once I graduate.

So I think it was a meaningful program.

We had girls, we had boys, young men, young women.

We had, we had 2, one young woman work in human resources out in front for Dr. Godino as welcoming, and then, then they taught her how to put folders away.

So I mean, I think that anything that we can do to get students involved in a social and business-like atmosphere, I think it's really good.

There's nobody that believes more.

You did an excellent job, Deputy Superintendent.

And as far as we plan for next summer, you know, we'll take a look at the mass hires.

I'm not sure if there are other collaborators that work with us and making sure, you know, our kids have opportunities.

I think it's so important, whether it's something we budget, you know, as we talk about a budget, we're talking about school-to-work programs for our kids.

And I think that was a comment even as we were watching the graduation.

I know standing on this very stage and we had 26 students.

And what I really wanted to hear as we go into a new year is not just that they graduated from high school, but where are these students going?

Is there an opportunity for them for employment?

And I would think that's what the Fall River community wants also.

So we'll try to continue to work with the organizations to make sure we get more kids employed and use the funding that we can.

And that being said out there, as we start to develop partners, I keep saying this to people.

I'm told people from all over Fall River watch our school committee meetings.

That's a good thing.

And if there are people out there that are willing to employ, that are willing to work with us in a school-to-work type program, you heard the great success we had.

We'd love to have you contact us, and, and certainly we'll start to talk to these different groups.

One more request.

So, uh, I'm in support of what the program— but I'm also in support of making it a bigger program.

So I'd like a report from the superintendent, from Ms. Petroni to the superintendent, with some data on what happened.

How much did it cost?

What was the kids— not the kids' names, but, you know, was 10 kids from Durfee, 2 from Diamond, you know, whatever, some kind of, uh, numbers.

And then what line item that money came from.

Because once again, we're talking about line items, we're talking about budgeting.

We can't increase a line item that we don't know what that exists.

So whatever it costs this past year, at a minimum, when we start taking that money that we were just talking about, should be a line item that says this is for kids to come in and this is the process.

So I know it was put together quick by the deputy superintendent and the others.

Probably in the future it'll be rolled out in a little bit of a different, more comprehensive way.

Who's going to be eligible, this and that.

So I'm not being critical of that other than if you don't put the line item and we don't have it at the next meeting, we can't increase that line item.

So that if we said on, let's say for instance, uh, Christmas vacation, February vacation, and April vacation, if we don't have a mechanism to do such a program, we can't do the program.

So all I'm asking is by the next meeting, let's get it out to us.

Yeah, thank you.

And I will.

And I just want to say, I, I— there are other superintendents in the room, and I, I can say as a high school principal And as a superintendent, that when it comes to clearing out lockers during the summer and it comes to doing a lot of like the stuff that takes a lot of time and energy away from the waxing and moving furniture and things from custodians and facilities, that's what these kids did and they did a terrific job.

And I've always had that.

And, you know, shame on me because Those are types of things I just think happen in every school district.

So now that I know, I'll make sure that you— we get that and where it came from and set it up for next year even better.

If I could, I've always in my budgets had a temporary seasonal line item that was again for hiring high school kids, college kids during the winter break, during the summer break.

And that's where we would budget those funds, and then we'd have a proposal of what it's going to be used for.

So that's what I'll build into the next budget.

Great, thank you.

And I want to finish up.

I had a school committee member approach me and say, Superintendent, we have recognition and, and it doesn't seem like, you know, we've been using it.

And I couldn't agree more.

There's so many things to be recognized, you know, in this district.

And I know we have busy work to do, but it always feels good for the community to see the successes, the things our students are doing, you know.

But the little recognition I'd like to do right now is just And please, I'm not calling names, but I want to say people, staff members that worked throughout the summer to keep our schools, our programs, our facilities, everything moving forward.

The doors didn't close.

You had kids sailing, we could look out the window.

You had kids involved in, you know, 21st Century programs.

You had kids involved in extended-year programs.

But, you know, there were many things happening in the district, and it takes a lot of work, a lot of things happening behind the scenes to plan for the summer, to support our students.

It seemed very successful, you know, from, from certainly my vantage point.

So we're grateful to all those that took part.

There was again a summer lunch program, and I know we assist in that program and making sure our kids in our community gets fed.

Our nutrition team, I think, distributes the meals at our park programs each day, and I think it runs for about 40 days.

So again, I want to thank everybody that was involved in any of the summer programs.

That would be the recognition this evening.

And that being said, I now want to invite up— I think we'll start with our enrollment update.

So Cindy Couto, and I have to tell you, I had a chance to visit your PACE Center.

And I know years ago, and I said this to Cindy, you came and looked at a Brockton Parent Registration Center, which we set up years ago when we had to kind of, uh, look at our, uh, diversity in our schools.

And I'm talking back in the '90s, and that was to get 90 cents on the dollar to build schools.

I know those days are gone, but that being said, we were proud of our Parent Information Center.

I knew you came to visit, but you knocked it out of the park.

I loved going in there and seeing what you have for your families.

You know, there's clothing, there's backpacks, there's, you know, whatever your families need.

So when they come, it's not only registering the student, but the support that you are offering to your community.

It's a welcoming center.

You're able to screen your students.

It was just really an excellent experience, and I want to thank Cindy for the tour and the time I got to spend there.

So, sorry.

Could you update us on the enrollment?

Yes.

So you probably have this in your packet as well.

It's a presentation.

It's about 6 or 7 slides.

Beginning of August, we were able to roll over Aspen, our information system, to activate all new registrations to date, transfer kids to the next grade level, and transfer kids to their next school as needed.

Um, using August 15th as a benchmark, uh, looking back at the last few years, right now around 10,924, which is about the same as 2 years ago and about 350 less than last year.

But I want to preface last year's 350 with This year we did a much better job of identifying kids that are withdrawing from the district sooner and withdrawing them sooner rather than later.

A lot of times they lag it around to Labor Day, so a lot of those 11,282 from last year were kids that withdrew.

We had about 400 kids that were identified as withdrawing over the summer.

We want to make sure we got them out as quickly as possible to the next school district so that way we could free up the seat.

For classes.

And that's one of the things that we did.

And my computer went— so, um, continuing with that, we are about the same as the last 3 years in many ways.

Um, our sub-separate populations— special ed, uh, ELL, and, um, SPED overall— is about the same as the last 3 years.

Um, ELL is starting to see a dip.

I know, I don't know my password.

I actually do what I can to swear.

Um, you notice that the ELL has dipped a little bit, and that's mainly because we're seeing a lot less kids registering with ELL needs, um, in the last, uh, 18 months.

Um, sub-separate SPED is 7.4, which is the same as last year, um, a little less than the previous 2 years, but we also have not Many of the new registrations, the IEPs are still being worked on, so they're not technically classified yet as sub-separate.

But I expect this to be around that same 8 to 9% for this year.

That is one of our growing needs for, um, in the district with sub-populations.

All right, thank you, Cindy.

So, um, on the last day of school, uh, we were about 100 less than last year and about 100 more than 2 years ago.

So it's consistently in that same boat.

I'm trying to get to the point that we're not really losing a lot of population yet, but I think we have to start preparing for that.

We've made the— to the top of the hill, and now I think we're going to start going down the other way now and start losing population.

This is the first time in the last 3 or 4 years we've actually had less enrollments than withdrawals of new registrations, so we are seeing that trend.

Um, yeah, so using February 1st to August 1st as a one period, you know, we had 371 less kids.

Uh, the number of withdrawals versus enrollment is a negative 371.

In previous years, it was a positive number.

Um, however, I will preface that school starts in a few weeks.

We are going to see several hundred more students register at the end in waves over the next 2 weeks, 3 weeks into September.

A lot more More pre-Ks will be identified, more Ks and kids of other grade levels.

They just sort of come in at the end.

Like, a lot of people do it in the beginning and like we ask them to, but people have different situations, so they come in and the pay center will be hopping in place over the next few weeks.

So leading that, the projection for next year on October 1st, I'm projecting at least about 100 less kids than it was last year.

We've grown up by almost 1,200, uh, kids on October 1 numbers over the last COVID year.

We actually peaked within the last 2 years at about 11,500 at one point of kids, but those aren't reflected in October 1 or end of the year numbers.

But we actually hit that number of active kids, and now you can see we're going down a little bit.

And 100 less kids is not a lot, but it is, you know, obviously lost funding for FY28 and But we have to be mindful that expect population to possibly continue downward if the trend with enrollments and withdrawals stays the same.

That being said, I will— any questions or any other comments from Dr. Smith or Ms. Legault?

Mr. Aguirre, just thank you for the presentation.

So the, the one we have to be aware of, uh, is the 100 students is a couple million dollars.

In funding.

So when we've been talking over here about— since March about projections and the like, I know Mr. Petronio is aware, Superintendent Deputy, everybody understands this, but the public needs to be understanding this.

This is just— when you say we might be at 100 less and we get $25,000 as a number for a stu— for each student, 22, yeah, so that's $2.2 million.

So that's $2.2 million in money that we're not going to get.

And then when this committee kept asking for 3, 4, 5 months under the prior administration to say, what is the projection?

That data, when it finally came out at the end, tells us that if we don't do something different with our budget, we have a structural deficit moving forward.

So it's not to be an alarmist, but proper planning is that you would have to prepare for what's coming.

This slide is concerning financially more than anything as far as I'm concerned, but I do appreciate the— I think the Pace Center, you all know what you have.

You said it's going to be busy in the next couple weeks.

Do all staff work?

All the Pace Center staff are back?

The Pace Center?

Yeah, the Pace Center pretty much.

We— I think we have like a no vacation hold unless it's like an emergency thing for most staff in the district anyways.

So, and does the district support the Pace Center when in busy times with extra overtime, things like that?

Because that happens in— yes, obviously we want to make sure it is critical by October 1st.

And I'm speaking from previous superintendencies.

That's the most important thing, is to get our students registered, get them into class as early as possible.

So we will do whatever we have to do, not only get them registered, we've got to get those registrations in.

And I will talk about demographically all across the state.

It doesn't— you look at some of your colleges and you look at, you know, this particular group of students coming up and going through, you know, the numbers had decreased.

So I think districts were preparing for this.

What we might not have prepared for was when you talk about immigration, especially when you're talking about large cities, there are less students coming, and that's always hard to project.

But you're, you know, you're right, we're going to have to, you know, watch the budget and make sure you did such a good job this year, uh, Many of your surrounding towns were laying off staff because of the loss of students or the budget that wasn't supporting what they, what they needed.

So that is something we're going to have to continue to watch.

I'm not surprised by the numbers, though.

I'm actually surprised how quickly you grew.

If I may piggyback on what Dr. Smith just said, in calendar year 2024, we had almost 1,000 students register from outside the country.

In calendar year 2025 is about a third of that, so it's about 300 or so.

It was not as many.

We're still getting them coming in.

However, that sort of was a big source of our increase in the last few years, was people from outside the country, as well as, you know, other parts of the country in the U.S.

So my last comment is on that.

I take what you said was whatever you have to do, which would mean if the pay center needs— in the summer, the people aren't working and they need overtime, it's they get it.

Yes.

Along with that, the Collins Center report from a few years ago indicates across the whole system that we need to cross-train people in all of these roles.

And I don't think that's ever been taken serious across the district, but we have to cross-train people so that we— if Payson needs people at a certain busy time, great.

Then if there's downtime, maybe they can help somebody else.

We don't— we're not even taking the advice of the reports that we get and people pay for.

But I just read it today.

It said about cross-training, and we need to cross-train more of our people.

So we've cross-trained our community facilitators.

So we tend to hire the same facilitators who are off in the summer to support PACE so that we have trained personnel that do that— this work every summer.

So we've started doing that in the last few years, and that's definitely been positive, but we certainly could add to that with cross-training maybe clerks throughout the district.

We have trained clerks at Durfee to support with permits, job permits for students.

So even like this week and last week, we've been sending families to Durfee to help support with that work.

Thank you.

I would just— if I can just add to that, um, Dr. Godino will speak to that.

Um, she has what we— uh, Dr. Godino and I have been talking about, um, working with, uh, being able to make sure that other people can do— go and work in other areas of the district to support, especially during the summer, uh, when clerks are out in schools.

Uh, human resources, very busy place in and, and PACE.

So I think she's got— you're gonna address that, Chris, tonight?

Well, I wasn't gonna address that tonight, but I'm happy to.

I mean, we in fact have a meeting at the PACE Center on Thursday morning, which is tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, to talk about just those types of things with Miss Cuto and our MLL director.

So we are going to start to look at that, and I am looking at that internally within my own department, the Human Resources Department.

So we have actually begun— we have actually begun that cross-training there.

Thank you.

Okay, I guess— oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Diaz.

Thank you.

Should we just quickly go back to the last slide?

Um, so I had to step out for a minute, so I missed the beginning of the, um, the presentation, but looking at that My question is actually a financial one.

Are we projecting— did we include this projection in our 5-year forecast?

Or the one from the previous?

I'm not sure what the previous CFO included.

My guess is that he would have probably kept it level going forward.

But I don't know if he— I don't think he included an increase.

A lot of times what you do when you're figuring out your budget is you go and you talk to the city to find out the number of vacant apartments or the vacant homes, and if you, you know, have quite a few and the rents are pretty decent, you will assume that there'll be more people moving in.

But if you're told by the city or the town that your apartment base is full, then you leave your estimates level as far as the number of students.

There's no more people moving in.

So my guess is that the prior CFO probably kept it level.

Mr. Aguiar is correct that we would be looking at a possible deficit in the next budget of $2 million.

But at the same time, we don't know how much Chapter 70 is going to go up.

So for school business officers, we have October 1st, which is our big date, and then the 3rd week of January when the governor's budget comes out.

And then you'll find out whether you got a 2% increase or a 4% increase in Chapter 70.

You know, overall, and that kind of puts you in your— basically in your playing field of where you're going to be.

So by between January and February is when you actually, you know, fine-tune your budget to say if you have a deficit, whether you're going to need to do RIFs, whether you need to do, um, you know, don't fill vacant positions.

You're going to look at your number of retirees and estimate if you can move staff around to, you know, fill those to fill those vacancies but not replace.

So it hinges on, for me, for 2 dates: October 1st and 3rd week of January.

Thank you.

Can I just— Mayor, before Cindy sits down, Cindy, could you just make sure that everybody knows about the transfers that you're doing, the redistricting, and how that looks?

As we've been— you and I have been in constant contact pretty much every day or every other day about making sure that parents are hearing from us?

Absolutely.

So space is very tight in many of our grade levels, especially in elementary.

So we're going day to day looking through the transfer requests and communicating on which ones we can accept or approve or those that we can't deny, that we deny.

We're hoping to have that done by the end of the week.

I've been meeting with families, calling families.

I think we have about 100 that we still haven't made a final decision on because we're trying to accommodate as many families as possible.

Okay, thank you guys.

Okay, I want to bring Dr. Godino up to talk about our hiring update.

Sure, so We've had 101 new hires since our last meeting.

We've had 43 transfers, 9 rehires, 33 resignations, and 1 retirement.

So I have to say, our Human Resources Department is, I would say, uh, small but mighty.

They've been working very, very hard.

I would like to recognize them: Lori Madura, Kathy Batista, Anna and DeMello, they have been putting in a tremendous amount of effort to make sure that we have everyone onboarded, everyone ready to go as the school year starts.

We have appointments for onboarding new people all through this week, as every other department.

This is our crunch time.

We're getting everyone up and running.

We are continuing to look for dedicated professionals, caring individuals who would like to join the Fall River Public School team.

We have openings in a wide variety of areas, from teachers to administrators to custodial.

Anybody in the Fall River community, you can look at these positions that are on our webpage, and we encourage people to in our community to apply.

So the department continues to work tirelessly to make sure we are all set for the opening of school.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Hearing none, what's your last item there, Doc?

Um, well, I want to bring Dr. Bronhard to come up and talk about 290 Rock Street, but one of the things I want to mention— I know the school committee is aware— Dr. Stacy Monet had come to the district last year, and her background had been a middle school principal.

She took on the role of your principal at RPA last year.

She was excited to be part of the task force.

She had a lot of great ideas.

In my meeting her quickly when I came here in May, we had an opening at Morton Middle School.

She applied for that job— excuse me, Yep, for the job, interviewed with the group that was interviewing for Morton last Friday.

She was the selected candidate, so she has accepted that role.

Obviously, you know, she'll be transitioning to Morton.

What I'm looking at right now, one thing I found was we need to develop a really strong job ad for that site, and I'm not finding one.

So we need to take a look at not just advertising for a principal, There's got to be a specific skill set that you want to hire for that job.

I'm not gonna say it's easy.

I'm pleased that I have a couple of interim ideas, people that actually have had some background.

I'm gonna be meeting with, through the end of this week, one, maybe two ideas to actually start and be the interim principal, you know, working with Dr. Schweitzer and the team at 290 Rock Street.

So I just want to let you know that going forward that we hope to have somebody in place.

And if not, you know, we'll support whether it's Dr. Bronhard, again, Ms.

Le Gall, myself, we'll make sure there is a team there supporting those students as we begin the school year.

So, Dr. Bronhard.

Mr.

Chair, if I can address the superintendent's comments.

And I've made this clear before, I think from a communication standpoint, the school committee shouldn't be formally notified of these changes today.

This is something that the administration sent out a memo to parents and families, something that has been known for over a week, and the school committee is finally getting notified of this today in this public meeting.

I think on a communication standpoint, I think we need to do a little bit better at notifying the school committee on major changes such as that.

I yield.

Well, I'd like to respond to that, uh, as far as— and you're referring to, I believe, a conversation I had with Mr. Aguiar on Friday.

He and I had a separate conversation about something I was reminding him of, uh, about our binders.

And in that, it had just ended.

So as a courtesy, I said to Mr. Aguiar that Dr. Monet was the selected candidate.

There hadn't been a contract yet.

I believe she signed it yesterday.

I'm probably losing track of time, but I think yesterday I finalized the contract with her.

We were working very quickly because we wanted to get a message out to Morton.

So again, I will try to get that information to you, but if you're referring to Friday, that's what happened in the conversation.

Partially, but I was mainly referring to a parents' communication that went out to the general public And that the school committee, I guess formally, just never had any idea.

That's what I was referring to.

I should have had that out to you yesterday.

That would have been the earliest I could have.

So I'll continue to try to communicate as quickly as I can.

Okay.

Okay, and a 290 Rock update.

The Innovation Education Task Force launched on August 6th at 290 Rock.

We had over 33 community participants there in attendance and engaging in our work.

The Innovation Education Task Force has been established to guide the transformation at 290 Rock and is now actively working through 4 specialized subcommittees, each focused on specific aspects of the redesign.

The Pathways Subcommittee is developing workforce opportunities and post-secondary education and training connections.

The Belonging and Community Subcommittee is building climate and culture through community building events, student voice initiatives, and developing our school councils.

The Student and Family Services Subcommittee will be mapping out community resources and looking to strengthen parent engagement and access to resources as well.

The Instruction Subcommittee will be exploring alternative programming models for the '27-'28 school year, including competency-based learning approaches, big picture learning, and others yet to be identified.

In addition to that, it should be noted that the 5th pillar is the identity pillar, and that will be represented by the task force at large once we get underway.

These subcommittees have actually launched in early August, as I mentioned, and are now actively engaging in task-specific work with the belonging— I just mentioned all those pieces And all of these committees right now are gonna be up and running in the coming weeks at different times because there are different members attached to different subcommittees.

The master schedule is set for Evolve, and the RPA schedule is being finalized as we speak.

We continue to hire certified staff as we prepare to welcome our new teachers next week for professional development as part of new teacher orientation.

Additionally, our administrators returned last week for our administrator institute.

And during their summer workdays, they are currently engaging in direct outreach with students and families to discuss final scheduling needs and workforce plans of students.

RPA is planning for individualized meetings with these students and parents to review prior to the start of the school year.

Similarly, it should be noted that Evolve will be hosting an early open house on August 26th between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock.

So all of you are welcome at 290 Rock to be able to see the new space and to reconnect with staff and for families to be able to have any questions answered that they might have.

We are also grateful for our custodial crew at 290 Rock for their unwavering support to navigate all of the moving and all of the relocation that is happening across the building.

And so with that, just a quick hiring update.

We have 6 total positions we are still hiring at RPA.

4 positions with the virtual school, all of which— many of which we have interviews upcoming, and 1 position in the Evolve Academy.

And so that's our update for now.

Mr.

Chair.

Mr. Dias.

Can we please, um, just for the public's edification, announce the start and end times for RPA?

So presently we're having the same start times we had previously.

So we are going to have to— one of the things we realized was that there had been outreach, and certainly I have conversation with Keith Michan all the time, but we realized we thought we were working within the contract, and I don't want to really talk about that at this point, but it looks like we're going to have to probably bargain with not just one union, 3 unions.

So it involves not only our teachers union, also our administrators union.

We've got to look at the custodial union.

So that'll be a work in progress.

Brought it to the attention of our attorney, Sarah Spadafore, and we'll continue to work in good faith to try to get where we're looking to have a flexible schedule for our students.

So we're able to actually work in, in the early mornings, our common planning time, you know, for our teachers, if I'm talking about RPA, their opportunities for their, you know, free period, so to say.

And all the while understand that many of the students in RPA work better with a later start time.

I think our— similar with our Evolve students, that first period they have an opportunity to actually go up to Durfee High School to have a selected course up there.

So it is a work in progress, but I believe— I want to be careful— is it 8:30 to 3?

Yep, 8:30 to 3:11 is what it's currently looking like.

Yep.

Yeah, I think, um, my issue is, and I know members of this committee have given warning to the administration that this is something we should have started to work out and should have worked out by this time.

So I guess either in this meeting or internally, we need to figure out what happened because we, we knew we wanted to do— to make this change, to have this after-school program or extended hours program, and I just don't think we took the right steps to make it happen when we could have.

Just my opinion as one member.

I'm not sure if there's something— is this something that's— I don't know if something's going to get worked out through the year, if we're going to change the hours during the year.

However, I know there was some infrastructure investments, I believe 2 vans or something to help with after-school pickup.

So it's a lot of things we need to figure out here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Item number 5, we have 7 sets of minutes.

Anybody have any holds on any of those?

Motion to approve all with a question.

I have a motion.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion.

Second.

Mr. Diaz.

Thank you.

So, and I've raised this, this item before, and from looking at the minutes, it doesn't look like I know Attorney Spadafore isn't here, but just looking at it, it does not look like we're in compliance with the, um, 3 meetings, having 3 regular meetings.

I know we— there's a certain time frame to approve minutes.

So, and I've asked this before, so my question is to the administration, what do you need from, from us to get into compliance with the law?

Thank you.

Uh, you know, I want to say that Again, our— your— our administrative assistant, Deb Cabral, sitting beside me here, has been working tirelessly.

I'm sure you would all agree, whether it has been meetings, subcommittee meetings, retreats, preparation.

So she and I have had conversation.

I've certainly offered support.

You know very well that I had tried to put a job ad out for some of those times, and we have a number of meetings during a particular month to have some assistance.

But I'm told by Ms. Cabral, to her credit, that by September 2nd, which I believe is our next school committee meeting, we should be caught up.

I think there are 8 committees or minutes that are outstanding at this point.

You see quite a few of them on the agenda for this evening.

So we'll continue to work to try to get that done.

The only thing I'll say, and I think my colleague brought up this point for a different issue, I think this is something that we don't need a new position to do.

I think if there is some sort of backlog, we should be— we have other clerks and assistants that can assist with this.

So it could be cross-training, it could be something in that regards to— I couldn't agree more.

I believe when I had looked at— when I first got here and I looked at, um, you know, supporting, making sure those minutes were done in a timely manner, as, as you mention, it was to train because it's not something that's easy.

I know there are all kinds of programs out there now that can summarize or do this or that, but it's something that has to obviously have eyes on.

And we have, again, quite a few meetings.

So the goal was to do just that, to provide whatever training we needed.

We were— we've got MASC here this evening.

I know they have provided, I think, sometimes, you know, trainings for, you know, how to how to take minutes, etc.

So we are looking to, from your job ad that you'll discuss this evening, I know one of the executive assistant job ads is going to be able to, I think, support Deb Cabral if she takes a day off, you know, if she isn't here to take the minutes at a meeting.

So we're, we're looking to do that and we'll continue to get better at this.

Mr. Aguiar, are we— which of these meetings are we not in compliance with, with the Open Meeting Law?

Do you want the dates, Mr. Aguiar?

Because I'll have to— is that what you're saying, the dates?

Yeah, like out of these here.

So look, we have— they start— they're in chronological order.

Are we approving the— like, I think so.

Just March, I would think.

I'm not 100% sure.

Just March, she said.

So I think some of the problem is, uh, I agree with Mr. Diaz, I agree with you.

I think at some point We just have to do the minutes more as the priority so that we're not doing other things no matter who it's for, no matter what it's for.

This has to be the priority.

But at least the one in March, we're out of compliance, so we're going to get an open meeting law complaint probably.

But at the same time, when we, when we look at these minutes, my question is, we've been going over this now for months about the minutes being available to the public online.

Is that all set?

I believe it had to do with Diligent, or we had to— I know, uh, Deb Sardina is out there.

And correct, so Diligent is now public.

Once these minutes are, um, are approved this evening, they will be going on Diligent and along with the others.

I have to just publish the agenda.

It'll be the minutes and along with the link.

So anybody who wants to view our minutes, you can go on to our school committee website School Committee tab.

So, correct, if you go on to our— the school website, School Committee tab, it'll bring you right to the diligent page.

And our meetings, all our meetings are listed on the side.

If you click a tab, it'll bring you to the, um, page and it'll have the agenda, minutes, and link for the video.

Thank you.

We're going to talk about— I guess when we talk about this these reports that they criticize us for, you know, wrongfully.

But this is like low-hanging fruit.

This is— the minutes are out there.

So that's why I just want to make sure I don't have to ask the question later.

These are going to be there, and in the future it has to be the priority, in my opinion.

Thank you.

All right, so I have a motion, second on the minutes.

Further discussion?

Hearing none, all in favor?

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Motion to approve the travel request.

Second.

I have a motion, second on travel.

Any discussion?

Hearing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

We have, uh, 7.1.

We have an acknowledgement of donations.

Mr.

Chair, can we take, um, the second one separately?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mr. Diaz, give me that again.

Can we take the second donation, um, as a separate vote?

The first and third.

Motion to approve the first and third.

Second.

Second.

I have a motion, a second.

Any discussion on 1 and 3?

The 3rd one doesn't identify Diamond Regional as the thing on here, but it is.

So reads it to make sure they give credit to Diamond.

When you read it, uh, Cath, make sure you talk about Diamond on 3.

That's the auditorium seats for sure.

I don't know about the other stuff.

All right, so, um, all in favor on 1 and 3?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Item number 2.

Motion approved.

Number 2.

With a roll call.

I have a motion to approve item number 2 with a roll call.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion, a second.

Discussion?

Deb, call the roll.

Mr. Atkins?

Yes.

Mr. Diaz?

Epstein.

Mr. Corey?

Mr. Morris?

Yes.

Miss Riley?

Yes.

Stewart?

Yes.

Mayor Cook?

Yes, item 8 is the Committee of the Whole.

This is a discussion.

Glenn Kuchar, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

I don't know.

He is here.

Glenn is here.

Yes.

Yeah, come on down, Glenn.

Glenn, you want to sit over here?

You want to sit?

Wherever you want.

Can you stand up?

You can sit down if you want to sit down, Glenn.

They got a mic right there, buddy.

Yeah, welcome.

Thank you.

You called me, so— well, that's what I want to know.

What are we talking about, guys?

Who's— who had some questions for Mr. Kuchar, can I start?

Mr. Diaz, Miss Riley first.

Miss Riley first, go ahead, Miss Riley.

I, I just want to say congratulations, Mr. Kuchar.

We were told that you're retiring.

You have given just, I feel like, your entire life to service at MASC, so thank you so much for all your years of service.

Well, pleasant things will come and go, unpleasant things refuse to leave, so I'll be there until December.

Again, Mr. Diaz.

Thank you, and congratulations on your retirement, Mr. Poocher, and for your service to the many different school districts in our Commonwealth.

The question I have here, and I've asked this before, I did send my emails to you in advance so you're aware of what would be asked.

So just to get to the bottom line, my question is, We as a school district pay, I believe, a $9,000 and change fee every single year.

What is— what does that cover?

That's not what it is.

It's less than that.

But I can tell you what your overall dues does cover.

There are a lot of membership services for which there are no fees.

That includes training.

That includes orientation.

You get the resources of the National School Boards Association, which has a policy database and other legal resources.

We do workshops for member districts with no additional fee.

We have special programs for administrators to work with aspiring superintendents and aspiring administrators.

We provide Phone consultation and facilitation to members.

We take calls all day long from school committee members who will come in with any kind of question that they may have, a problem they may have.

Sometimes it's brainstorming, sometimes it's therapeutic.

Whatever it might be, we, we are on the phone.

Our, our staff meeting— our staff members and I are available at any time on any day that people are looking for us with any issue they may have.

We lobby on behalf of our members.

We lobby, I would say, effectively and aggressively, but not obnoxiously.

We try to be persistent without being obnoxious.

I'll get into that in a little bit.

We do learning lunches on many Fridays, which are free trainings available on topics, strategies, issues.

We provide technical assistance for those districts that are looking to manage their own superintendent searches or want to do their own policy work by themselves.

I believe that's— I don't mean to cut you off, Mr. Kuchar, but I believe the superintendent search is something that's not covered in the— I'm sorry, but you're not coming across.

I apologize.

Um, I don't believe the superintendent search is something that's covered within our dues.

That's a separate No, technical assistance is covered within your dues, and there is a substantial amount of technical assistance that is available.

Many districts do their own searches with help from us, for which there's no additional fee.

And as I said, we do a lot of specialized training and provide technical help.

That's sort of a quick roster of some of our services.

We have a lot of customized material that we produce at the request of districts, and we do respond to school committee members and superintendents when they call.

So that's a sort of a general spectrum of what you get for dues.

Can you speak briefly about, um, because I think, and I don't know if this is covered within the dues or not, however, I believe we've had missed opportunities in the past to kind of climbed through the ranks of the leadership of MASC.

Like, I know the president and the vice president, things of those.

Those are members of a school committee in other cities and towns.

I— maybe it's somewhere buried in the emails.

I'm sure it's sent out.

However, what's the mechanism for the Fall River Public Schools, the Fall River School Committee, to have a seat at the table?

Table in terms of advocating?

Anybody who wanted to attend a division meeting or the division meetings at the convention is welcome to come and submit their names for election to division chair or division officer.

We often have a hard time recruiting people to fill those positions, but the division chairs are members of the board, so So that's one way that people can do it, by working their way up through the, through just participating in divisions.

And sometimes we will be out looking for a secretary treasurer or a vice chair of the board.

We also have an urban division where members of the Fall River community are superintendent, excuse me, the Fall River School Committee are eligible to participate in.

And if there's an interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion, there is also that constituency which has a seat on the board.

Thank you.

One question to the superintendent.

So these retreats that we've had over the last few months where we've had a representative from MAAC come forward, that's been covered through our dues?

Yes, I don't think there was any cost for that.

First, you're talking about Sean Costello who came to 2 of our retreats.

Thank you.

No cost.

I yield.

Anything further?

Not only, uh, Sean coming, the one thing that I will say, even with the facilitation, and I had reached out at one point, all the materials are available for you, all of the work, all of that.

They are willing to share whatever they have for materials.

So we were very thankful to have, you know, that for us.

One, one final question.

I apologize.

Um, hypothetical for you, Mr. Kuchar.

If the school committee ever decided we want to— we're not happy with the services, we're yanking our dues, we no longer want to be a member.

However, we still have the contract for policy services.

That wouldn't affect our policy services at all?

Technically it would.

That's only happened once in my 27 years.

But if it were to happen again, we do provide services to non-member districts.

If their non-member status is a function of inability to pay.

If you just don't like us and you don't want to associate with us, you're generally not eligible for the services that you have, although I believe— I don't know whether you have a signed contract, but we did contract with you for the policy service, so I suspect that we would continue to fulfill the terms of the contract.

That was my question.

Thank you.

I yield.

Anything further from Mr. Aguirre?

Oh, I'm sorry, just, uh, just want to let you know that so we had the, uh, retreats and we had Sean Costello come down multiple times.

I just want to give him props.

I think he did an excellent job.

Some of the conversations were not necessarily easy conversations amongst our team, but he handled it, in my opinion, professionally, straight down the line.

Was, uh, didn't take sides, uh, was honest and open.

So for whatever it's worth, as his boss, I guess he did a heck of a job when he came down and he put, uh, MASC in a different light, at least for me, than we've had in the past.

So to me, that's refreshing.

We got a new person going to be our representative.

He's answered several emails that I've sent.

So I think in the past it hasn't been as— I haven't felt as confident, but having Sean come down and his The way he operated, the way he interacted, and the way he responds is much better than what we've had in the past.

So for whatever you're doing, you hired the right guy.

Keep up the good work with that, and good luck in retirement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything further for Mr. Kuchar?

That was easy, Glenn.

Thank you.

Congratulations, Glenn.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Next item is 8.2, which is discussion and vote to approve the school resource officers memorandum of understanding.

Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion on this?

Was laid out in the subcommittee pretty well.

Does anybody have anything to say?

Mr. Aguirre.

Just the— I wanted to let everybody know, as I said before, the chief was there present.

The deputy has met with the chief and his staff.

This has been vetted pretty intensely, I would say.

We also discussed some of the ways that we did overtime in the past.

There will be cost savings in the overall package, and overtime is going to be on an as-needed basis.

With the agreement of the deputy and the chief.

So I think it worked out well.

Asking questions is not a bad thing, as I always say.

We asked several, and I think it made the process better so that we have the document before us is better.

It's the purpose of the subcommittee.

So I just want everybody to know, if you vote for this, it's with— that we did vet it.

The only question I would have is for the deputy and the chief, or what— did we come to an agreement on that time?

I know we would— we were talking about 7 to 3, but then the school starts at 7:15 or something.

Is it— has that worked out, whatever you guys have to do, or is it still just 7 to 3?

We're going to work with the 7 to 3 to start because we have a couple new SROs that are coming in.

So I think just from a purpose of information sharing and making sure everyone's on the same page, and then as we discussed in the subcommittee, after 30 days we'll discuss and assess from there.

Obviously, I took your feedback and brought it to my command staff, and they're open for some flexibility on that.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Thank you for your work on this, and I recommend everybody approve.

Thanks.

Thanks for coming, Chief.

My pleasure.

Any further discussion?

Got a motion and second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

8.3 is discussion and vote to approve the service agreement for the Green Elementary School energy as reserved As I'm sorry, as referred by the facilities and operations and presented by Ken Pacheco, Chief Operating Officer.

Make a motion to approve with the same comments.

We fully vetted this.

Second.

I have a motion, a second to approve the green energy school energy policy.

Mr. Diaz, just actually a quick comment.

If we can, and I agree with the vice chair, we did have a very robust.

Discussion and vetting process for this.

The only thing I think is when we, we're going to approve this contract and this, this company is going to come in and do work on some of the systems in the school.

However, there's still work that's not covered in this contract that needs to be done.

So we can get a one-pager at some point, just an update on work that's not covered in this contract that needs to be done, so we can have that discussion.

Maybe it could just be at the subcommittee level.

However, just— I think it'll be prudent to add that.

But other than that, I'll support the agreement.

Mr. Pacheco.

Mr. Chairman, if it's OK, Mr. Smith, who did the presentation at the subcommittee meeting, he's here.

He could give us a brief overview real quick of what the role is and what the agreement's about.

But also the work that's, um, that's going on.

You have an update?

Thank you, Mr. Smith.

Go ahead.

Uh, good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, uh, Dr. Smith, and, uh, the, the Fall River, you know, executive team.

Uh, my name is Dan Smith.

I'm a business executive with Ameresco that's— we've had the privilege of working with the city and the schools for a number of years, uh, and we've done approximately $30 million worth of work over multiple phases of a project.

But we take a great deal of pride in collaboration, and I want to give, you know, Mr. Pacheco a shout out for, you know, bringing the team together when an opportunity came up to pursue a grant where we wouldn't have to go before anybody, uh, you know, the taxpayers of Fall River, to deliver value, right?

So we, um, we targeted with, with National Grid as a great collaborator and doer, uh, the, the Green School.

So it was a highly competitive grant process.

You know, Fall River was one of 18 awardees statewide with well over 100 applications.

So it's a great win.

It's a, it's a great way to show how collaboration and public-private partnerships work and deliver value where we're not going before the taxpayer day in and day out to ask for project delivery.

So We're extremely grateful for this partnership.

We're a tool in the city and the school's tool belt to deliver projects.

This project is going to lower— we talked about, or I heard the discussion around energy costs earlier in the budget meeting.

This project itself is going to lower the energy spend for the Green School by 60% with no cost to the taxpayers of Fall River.

It's solely funded by a grant.

So that's a great win for us.

Carbon reduction of 40% overall.

But yeah, no, I don't want to take up too much time, but we're grateful for the partnership.

Dr. Smith and Dr. McGaugh, you have me all fired up when you were talking about enrichment opportunities, utilizing partnerships to employ young people.

There's a tremendous amount of opportunity in energy, in infrastructure, whether it's the boots on the ground that are turning the screws or the folks that are working in government.

To try to identify those funding opportunities, or the administrators to— and the leaders to help pursue.

So there is an opportunity for us here, and I'm going to work closely with, with Mr. Pacheco and Superintendent— Deputy Superintendent McGull to find a few students to work with us on this project.

And the ones that we can't bring to the project, we need to do a better job— Amoresco, myself particularly, and our team— to come to the classroom.

And meet with these students and talk about the great opportunities that are available to them in multiple career paths, whether you go to a 2-year college, 4-year college, or go right into the trades.

The opportunities are endless.

There's talent everywhere, but opportunities are not.

Partnerships like this that we have with Fall River Public Schools gives us the opportunity to start to expand and enrich educational opportunities.

I'll get off my soapbox, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here tonight.

Ken Pacheco, thank you for your leadership.

Partners at National Grid, if it weren't for them, this wouldn't happen.

We're just a conduit to help get it done.

So appreciate all the questions we had at the previous, you know, subcommittee meeting going through the details of the project.

But if anybody has any questions, happy to answer them.

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to starting the project very soon in the, in the fall, actually, for the controls.

And then there are some longer lead time items that are going to, you know, get delivered and this project will be completed by this time next year for the actual equipment that's going to be installed as a part of it.

So thank you.

Any questions for Mr. Smith?

No.

Thank you for coming down.

We appreciate it and good luck at Green.

Thank you very much.

Having a motion and second on item number 3.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Item 4 is discussion and vote to approve the selection and appointment of the following nurses district-wide for the Far Rockaway Schools, as presented by Mary Gustafson.

Motion to approve with a quick question.

I have a motion and a second on the 3 candidates.

Mr. Diaz.

Thank you, and I just want to preface, I don't know any one of the candidates from a hole in the wall or any of the people who applied My only question is, and I've mentioned this to the superintendent, is this going forward, we should get the backup for all candidates who applied just for transparency and due process.

I don't think that's something that's much to ask for, but I just ask as one member we can get that backup going forward.

Other than that, I yield.

To answer— your question, a couple of things.

I want you to know that the third candidate rescinded the offer.

So again, we're going to have to, you know, hire another nurse.

But that being said, your request— we cannot give you personal information.

We can give you aggregate information.

Like, in other words, were they licensed?

You know, information like that, right?

Whatever the information is that we received for the winning candidate who was chosen, we should get to get that same information?

We're unable to give you that.

So we can get— for the people that are chosen, you can have the resumes, etc.

For the people that were not, we can give you aggregate information.

Like, in other words, we could talk about, you know, whether they're licensed, or— I'd have to work with the attorney to see what we can give you.

So we're happy to give you whatever we can.

I can speak to that, actually.

We are working on exactly what you are saying, aggregate.

How many applicants, how how many were certified.

We can give that information, however, we cannot give that personal information.

So the school committee has a vote to, and whether it's archaic or not, I think it shouldn't even be the law, but we have a vote to approve certain positions, including the one that's before us today.

How are we able, and I'm not suggesting anything happen, but How are we able to, I guess, know that we're making choices that are prudent when we don't have all the relevant backup?

So I think what the candidates put forth to you are candidates that meet all the qualifications of the job.

So they're certified by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

They meet all the nursing qualifications, and they meet the standards that we are asking for.

Right.

But how would we know that?

Well, you have their resumes, correct?

No, that's the whole point.

We don't have that.

Not for all candidates.

Not for all the candidates, no.

You have those for the people that are selected.

Right.

Again, I don't have any— Well, you're not on the hiring committee, correct?

So these are candidates that that are put forth to you.

It's on recommendations.

Right.

So, and again, we— there's no— I don't have any issues with the candidates that came before us, but there's definitely been issues in the past.

So I guess what the administration is asking us is to put the blinders on and basically trust the recommendation that is coming before us.

I just think there needs to be a little bit more information what any candidate comes before.

So, and I'm just choosing these today because it's a position that we have.

However, I, I think whatever can be provided, and I think it's more than what's being said today, should, um, be provided.

Just my opinion as one member.

I yield.

Mr. Aguilar.

So which one is not, um, the last one?

The last one says Erica.

Yes.

When was that rescinded?

I was just notified.

And you don't have a second at this point?

We do not.

Nobody else that was sitting?

Because now we just got to wait another— like, school year starting, correct?

Um, here comes— so here comes Mary.

So, um, I received notification this morning she rescinded, um, her the job offering last night at 10:15, and it was sent to Human Resources.

And you don't have a second?

I do have other applicants, but I have to go through the whole interview process with them.

They didn't interview before?

I didn't interview anyone else.

So nobody— we had 3 openings and we only had these 3 people apply?

Nobody else was certified, able to work, that was in any of these interviews?

Those were the only 3 certified individuals that applied.

I have other individuals that applied, however they weren't certified.

So we don't have a number 2 and we have a school year starting in 2 weeks?

Correct.

I'd like to make a motion that we approve— well, the first one's got to go because we didn't make it, so I— yeah, we'll start from scratch.

Uh, Mr., Mr. Raga is going to make an amended motion.

My amendment motion is that we hire, uh, the 2 listed here, Emmy Brett and Tiffany Concina, along with the authorization for the superintendent to hire whoever's certified for the position ASAP because school year is starting, without a vote of this committee.

Second.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Question?

I have a motion and second, Mr. Diaz.

Because this is something that we have authority under the law, is this something that we can delegate under the law?

Yeah, we're doing it now.

My opinion would be yes.

Because— so in essence, the issue that you raise, and I agree with you, Mr. Dyer, is that these things show up on our agenda like as if we have a say as a school committee.

So if you're watching at home, you say that the school committee has to vote to approve the appointment of these nurses.

You would think that we have a say.

So therefore, you make sense of what Mr. Dyer says.

If we have a say to pick these 3, we should see the other 8.

We just found out that these were the only 3 certified people, like it would have been simple, we would have only been able to pick these 3.

But let's say we had 6 certified people, we still as school committee, under the law, do not have a right to say, no, Madam Superintendent, I like candidate number 4 better than candidate 1, 2, and 3.

There's a flaw in the law.

So when we have the legislative breakfast, please tell the legislators to get rid of this nonsense in the thing that says we have to assess Every other person the superintendent hires, we don't have a say.

Teachers, counselors, everybody else.

Why the hell are we approving school nurses and attendance officers when we don't have a say to pick?

We have no role in it other than to sit here and rubber stamp it.

So the reason why I'm doing this is because functionally, functionally, school starts in 2 weeks.

So if she now has certified people and she can interview them tomorrow morning and pick the person and do the background check and the superintendent can say, I want to hire him, we may have a person close to the start of the school year.

If she has to wait until come back September 2nd, then that person gets notice, then they give notice to their job, we're not going to have a person for another month at a school.

Hence the reason why I'm trying to just be functional here.

We're going to basically rubber stamp it anyway.

Let's rubber stamp it right now the way it goes.

Well, thank you for that authority for this position for that reason.

And one thing, another thing I will tell you Um, other districts give that authority because of the very reason, the flaw, to the superintendent.

So that is something.

All right, so we have a motion and second.

Any further discussion on this one?

You should call the roll, Deb, because it was the amendment.

Mr. Aguiar?

Yes.

Mr. Dyer?

Yes.

Mr. Corey?

Mr. Moniz?

Yes.

Ms. Riley?

Yes.

Yes.

Mayor Coogan?

Yes.

I'm going to ask the committee's indulgence to go to page 5 on the agenda.

Because we do have some community partners sitting here if there was a need for a question.

Under grants, we have 4 on that page.

Um, anybody have any concerns about— I like to hold the OPA grant.

Uh, which one?

Which one, Mr. Diaz?

No, no, I'm sorry, it says grants on page 5.

Oh, grant contracts.

So it's Justice Resource, Katie Brown, Motion.

Second.

Second.

Okay, I have a motion and second on page 5.

Any discussion?

Hearing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Back to the regular agenda.

The next item up is 8.5, which is discussion and vote to approve the deputy superintendent.

Motion to approve with a question.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Mr. Diaz.

Yes, thank you.

So I guess looking at this, and the committee took a vote 5 to 2 the last time to give the deputy superintendent the oversight of alternative education.

That is the vote of the committee, and I believe our attorney agreed with us because there was question the last time this came up.

However, it's here today with the changes that the school committee agreed to.

My question is, if we are going to approve this, we should give the deputy superintendent— assure the deputy superintendent has all the tools she needs to be successful with implementing this.

So my question is to the superintendent, the positions that come with that, with alternative education, there's many positions in this district that have a big role in alternative education.

With approving this, do the— does the org chart change?

Did you ask me if the org chart changes?

Yes.

So we're going to approve a job description which gives the deputy superintendent oversight over alternative education.

There's principals, there's different department head positions that have a big role in alternative education.

And my question is, will that— would they report to the deputy if we approve this tonight?

Well, you know, as far as reporting, everybody— all principals report to the deputy and myself.

Is that what you're asking?

I'm not sure.

Director of guidance, SEL liaison, one of the SAC positions.

Are you talking what, for alternative education?

Nothing will change in the org chart.

What you're saying here is is that the deputy superintendent will oversee the alternative school program in the district.

So I think you're asking if I have an assistant superintendent who presently is overseeing that.

She will report to the deputy superintendent as she presently does, and they'll work together to make sure staff is evaluated or hired.

So she will have a big role in that, as she did— meaning, excuse me, uh, Deputy Superintendent Legault.

The assistant superintendent's report to you, am I Am I mistaken?

Well, they— well, they report.

I know everyone reports to— well, they report to the deputy who reports to me.

That— you asked just about an org chart.

Any clarification?

I think in the— we don't have it because we hadn't done the deputy's position when we had the org chart, you know, in the budget.

But the way I'm understanding it is superintendent and deputy, and then the 3 assistants are under.

So I think that's what you're asking, but it doesn't show up because we created the deputy's position after the budget with the org.

So when we get the new org charts that I think they're working on, it's going to show the deputy is in charge of basically all of them.

This is just saying there's also going to be a focus on the alternative pathway.

I yield.

That's just trying to clarify, that's all.

I, I think I, I'll just be very blunt with my concern.

I, I just have fears that there's going to be internal issues And I just want to make sure if we're making this change, it's not just a ceremonial change, that the deputy superintendent will have the ability to implement changes and there won't be any roadblocks.

By who?

Anyone.

The administration.

Just— we are very hopeful.

You know, I can't say it enough.

I came on board, actually the first meeting I watched, it was obviously a lot of concern at this committee to make sure these students receive the education that they deserve.

I will, as superintendent, make sure whether it's through the deputy, my assistant superintendents, the principals that we hire, the teachers, that we're doing everything that we can to make sure we're supporting RPA, Evolve, the virtual school.

Hopefully when we come back, you know, as this task force works to create these opportunities, and alternative education is is not easy.

I've done this in other districts.

We'll probably continue to make changes in the best interest of our students.

So that much I can assure you of, Mr. Diaz.

Now, keep you updated.

We'll put 290 Rock on here at every school committee meeting, and hopefully we, we see some, some real, uh, success going forward.

Um, I, I appreciate that, and I guess that's a step in the right direction.

However, there are certain positions that have a big say over how alternative education is going to function in this district.

So I'd like to make an amendment that the director of guidance will report to the deputy superintendent.

I, I believe she already does.

You mean solely?

Is there a second?

Yes.

Is there a second on that thing?

I'll second that.

Roll call.

Any discussion?

Deb called the roll.

Hold on, Miss Riley.

Didn't the superintendent just say all those positions report to the deputy?

So we're just reiterating that position reports to the deputy?

I believe currently, though, my understanding is the assistant superintendents report to the deputy.

I'm sure you would agree that the Director of Guidance, who is officially the Director of Guidance and Alternative Pathways, currently reports to the Assistant Superintendent who reports to the Deputy.

I was trying to have that person who has a big role in alternative education have a one-on-one reporting with the Deputy Superintendent.

Deb, call the roll.

Deb?

Mr. Agin?

No.

Mr. Diaz?

Yes.

Mr. Corey?

Mr. Moniz?

Yes.

Miss Riley?

No.

Miss Stewart?

No.

Mayor Coogan?

No.

Now on the, um, on the job description, Deb, give me— we have a motion and a second, right?

I'm— I didn't— I think Mr. Diaz seconded.

You made the Motion.

Okay, that's right.

Motion.

Call the roll on the deputy.

Mr. Igen?

Yes.

Mr. Diaz?

Yes.

Mr. Corey?

Mr. Moniz?

Yes.

Ms. Riley?

Yes.

Ms. Stewart?

Yes.

Mayor Coogan?

Yes.

8.6 is a discussion and vote to approve the following job descriptions as referred by the Facilities and Operations.

Motion to approve both job descriptions.

Second.

Quick question.

I have a motion and second of both job descriptions.

Mr. Diaz?

Thank you.

I did make some comments at the— I did have some hesitation at the subcommittee, and that wasn't necessarily over this position.

However, how we use clerical positions in general, and I'm going to vote to support this today.

I just ask that the administration just take a hard look at how this goes going forward, because it's not— My opinion, it doesn't look very balanced on who reports to who in the, um, in the org chart.

However, I know this position is needed.

Finance is, um, very crucial in this district, and have someone to report solely or mostly solely to them at that executive level position, I know, is crucial.

So in order to support the new administration, I'll support it.

However, we do definitely need to take a look on reporting mechanisms.

I yield.

Thank you.

Anything further?

Mr. Aguirre?

Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Stewart.

I don't look over there enough.

Is he talking about 8.7?

He's talking about 8.6.

Supervisor and the executive confidential assistant.

My comments were on the executive confidential assistant.

Thank you.

I had mentioned this.

I know it was before you were both here, but if we could include in all the job descriptions and all other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Second that amendment.

Just an oversight.

All other duties as assigned.

It's supposed to be in all the job descriptions, so I seconded Ms. Riley's motion.

I have a motion and second on amending the job description.

Discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Um, I have— yeah, back to the job descriptions.

Anything further?

Deb, call the roll.

Mr. Agam.

Yes.

Mr. Diaz.

Yes.

Mr. Corey.

Mr. Moniz.

Yes.

Miss Riley.

Yes.

Miss Stewart.

Yes.

Mayor Coogan.

Yes.

8-7.

Discussion and vote to approve the job coach job description for the Robert Medeiros, 290 Rock Street, as presented by Deputy Superintendent.

Motion to approve.

I have a motion.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion, a second on the job description.

Any discussion?

Miss Riley, same amendment.

Same amendment.

Second.

Oh, never mind, it's in this one.

Other duties as assigned.

We just missed it on the last one.

I take that.

She withdraws her motion.

I have a motion, a second.

On the motion and second, Mr. Aguirre.

I think at the, um, I'm just looking at what we have here, uh I think there were some amendments that we talked about that are not listed here, um, on this, uh, whereas, uh, the hours were supposed to be a full-time job, uh, the salary was actually listed under the, um, uh, agenda setting that we talked about, and it's not showing up here on the, um, what we're seeing before us.

I don't know if it was just an older version was attached, but Does anyone have whether that's— see where at the bottom it says 25 hours a week?

We talked about it being a 1-year pilot of a real job so that you could actually recruit somebody that, you know, might be leaving a job or something like that.

So we wanted to give— at least I wanted to give the opportunity to hire a full person, benefited, you know, like this is a legit job.

And we can't do that if it says 25 hours.

And I want to say there was a question on salary.

So I think we needed to put a salary range because that's what duty is.

In more than 25 hours.

Right, like it will be like a regular job, 35 hours a week, 40 hours a week.

So can we motion— I'm going to make a motion that we table this until the end of the meeting.

The job coach.

Oh, job coach.

I'm sorry.

So I'm going to make a motion that we just revisit this at the end.

Giving the folks up in front of us time to figure it out and get back to us.

All right, well, come on, just remind me.

I'm definitely gonna— 8.8, is it?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Motion to table to the end.

Aye.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Discussion?

Vote to approve the usage of the Durfee High School Race Street parking lot for the trunk-or-treat.

Motion to approve with a question.

Second.

I have a motion and second.

Mr. Diaz.

Thank you.

I asked some questions to the superintendent in the meeting.

I'm not sure if there's just an answer.

So the city will be paying for the overtime for any custodian security?

Yes.

Thank you.

And last question, not sure if I mentioned this before, however, because this was an issue at last year's event, The use of political signs, there's no use of political signs on school property.

That's the rules of the school department?

It's the rules on all public property.

Thank you.

Just if, just want to make sure they're either enforced or followed this year because that was, there was political signs at last year's trunk or treat, so I just don't, and I know we have a policy for public schools, no, any city building, No political signs.

So that should also follow with that.

I yield.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr.

Egg, yeah, I actually disagree.

Not with the trunk or treat.

I love Halloween and trunk or treats.

But the issue that I have is that this is a city event.

And I've said this, you know, in the past when some of these things come to us last minute or whatever else, the school department, if we have people there, you know, security guard, custodian to clean up, a maintenance guy to clean up, and it's costing us overtime, we should pay that bill.

The mayor wants to have a trunk-or-treat, a movie night, and the mayor has 4 SROs, or the chief has his special ops come in, he's paying the bill for those folks to make sure it's safe for the kids.

So he's gonna have an expense of— I'm not speaking for you, but you're gonna make sure the place is safe for Halloween.

You've got expenses on the city side.

We're a part of the city.

We are here.

They're going to use our facility.

Why in the hell are we going to charge the city $375 for custodians to clean up?

So I, for one, think we should pay it.

And if we need a motion, so be it.

But I don't think we do.

I just think it's, it's under Kenny.

Like, do you need direction, Madam Superintendent, or do you take what we said?

My understanding was it was outside and we don't have custodians, or I thought we just had groundskeepers and there was there was a $500 fee assessed to that.

Is that what you're talking about?

That was last year.

Correct.

So we may open the building for restrooms.

Normally we would use portable restrooms outside, so we're not doing that particular work.

But there are some items that we do on an outside event.

We're going to clean that parking lot up, so there will be a custodial, a grounds expense of overtime.

Yes, yes.

Right, so all I'm saying is, and I mean, it's short money, but even this thing about a $500 expense.

So you're telling me that we charge the city $500 to have a trunk-or-treat for the kids?

Yes, we do.

The city?

Yes.

But we let other nonprofits use our facilities for free?

Not everybody uses it for free.

And depending on when we have a custodian on and a neighborhood is having a meeting in a building, we're not charging that neighborhood the custodian because the custodians are already on duty.

This event, the custodians are not on duty.

No, no, I— the groundskeepers are not.

So we would have— I guess my question is, I just heard about a $500 fee.

What is the $500 fee for?

To pay those guys overtime?

It would cover overtime, correct?

What I'm saying is, instead of it being a $500 fee, it's truth in advertising.

You pay $372.57 for expenses due to that event.

That's what their bill would be.

But we shouldn't be charging them, in my opinion.

And I'm one that makes sure that we have money in the account or whatever, but I just don't think we have money where— like, why are we charging them to— like, I don't think it's my call to give things away.

So, um, again, that's the— it's going— I make a motion that we waive the $500 fee for the trunk-or-treat or a movie night, and we pay only the actual money that we have to pay out of our budget to make sure the place is clean, have a custodian, or anything like that.

Make a motion.

Second.

I have a motion and second on waiving the fees for the Trunk or Treat.

Wait a minute, are you saying to only charge them the $373?

Or not charge them at all?

Right now they're charging them a blanket $500.

Okay.

So we don't do that.

Mr. Pacheco and the superintendent say we had an event here run by the city and it cost us whatever.

Like, we're not charging— we're not asking the city to pick up the— somebody in DPW had to pick up the trash from the backpack event that benefited the schools.

So we're not telling them, well, uh, you know, charge— like, we just want to make sure we're voting to not charge the city anything.

No, only what we expend.

So if we have to spend— but we're saying charge them nothing.

But what I'm saying is that's either a consistent thing Because now it would come out that, Mr. Pacheco, we have policies on like, okay, what do we do for use of schools?

Now he says to us at a separate, because that's what the policy is, now we can waive on an individual basis.

It's gonna cost us $300, do you wanna waive it?

That's in the policy for them to do.

I think we're saying the same thing, it's just in a kind of a different way.

The superintendent has the authority to waive the fee.

She just tells us, can we waive it?

Now he says, okay, it's going to cost $372.

I don't know what I'm making that number up.

That's what we're waiving.

At that point he says to us, would you like to waive it?

We waive it.

But as of right now, he's sending a bill to the city for $500 and has, I guess, in the past.

So I'm just trying to like stop that.

And then each individual time— am I wrong, Mr. Patrico?

Is that the policy?

No, we come here each individual time to ask for use of the facility.

And if it was an expense and it's to be waived, you just ask us in the policy.

Exactly.

We waive it.

Yep.

So what are we voting on?

To stop them from sending the $500.

So to waive the fee for this event, for the trunk or treat?

We don't know what it is yet, is I guess the question.

So are we doing $373?

Are we doing zero?

No, I think what happens is based on this vote, yes, on September 2nd, the next time we meet, Mr. Pacheco is going to say this event's going to cost us X amount of dollars via the superintendent.

We say we'd like to waive the fee.

If we said nothing and it comes up that it's gonna cost $5,000 for something, that's different than $373.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

Just a quick comment.

Mr. Diaz.

The only reason I'm voting for this is because this is for, this event's for children, so I'm not gonna vote no, but the principals in me would say, come April, I hope we get 101% net school spending if we're gonna— Yeah, I think that's a fair trade for the trunk or treat.

No, I mean, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you like Halloween?

You're on it.

Yeah, I know, I know.

Do you like movie nights?

God help me.

God help me.

Do we have a motion and do we have a second?

Yes.

Okay, Deb.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Now on using the lot for the show.

That was on waiving the fees.

We already have it, I think.

Did we vote?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Okay, 8.9 is discussion and review the school committee meeting calendar for the '26-'27 year as presented by superintendent.

Motion to approve with a question.

We would change it.

We needed to change it because next month it's on the 2nd, and then the next month half of us won't be here.

Well, in November half of us won't be here, right?

That was my question.

Oh, do I have a second on this?

I have a motion to approve and I have a second.

We gotta amend it.

We need to pick dates.

You need to pick the dates.

Oh, I, I'm sorry.

I, I understand now.

I withdraw my motion.

Oh, you withdraw your motion?

So the discussion is basically what dates?

Yeah, we have a few items here.

I suggested upon looking at this that September 2nd is the first day of school and our administrative team is going to be busy all day.

Doing whatever you do as an administrator the first day of school.

So coming to a meeting, I don't think, is going to be very efficient or productive.

So we need to determine, do we move it to, you know, the, the next week or the week after?

You know, like, what do we do for a number?

That's what we're looking for today.

And I believe November 4th is, uh, MASC, uh, conference, where 2 members are not going to be here.

So we should move it from that day.

And now I think we should just either discuss it or say we're not approving the calendar, but we're going to have the secretary poll us to change it.

But we can officially say those 2 dates are going to be changed somewhere and then work it out.

What 2 dates?

Does that make sense?

September 2nd and November 4th.

Change the— I make a motion that we just, uh, change the date, uh, subject to the, uh, secretary checking with everybody to make sure it's a date that everyone can make it.

September and November.

September 2nd and November 4th is The only two.

Okay, so are we approving the entire rest of the calendar?

It is.

The rest of the calendar has been approved.

Okay, so it's just those dates.

Modifying those two.

So he made a motion to poll on those two dates.

Do I have a second?

I have a second.

All in favor?

Quick question.

It's just so on the locations.

So I don't know if we can just have this conversation a couple months in the future.

However, yes, I think.

There's an appetite from the committee to move the meeting location, I think maybe even 2027.

So not sure that has to be reflected in the meeting times because I know it has the location.

However, if we move to Bishop Conley, I'd just like to get an update at some point from the committee on— I make a motion that we refer the issue of where the meetings are held to the Technology Subcommittee.

Second.

'Cause it involves the— Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.

It's a lot to move all this stuff over there.

Technology Subcommittee will be meeting soon.

Let them make the determination.

All right, I got a motion and a second on looking for alternative sites for the meetings.

Any further discussion?

I mean, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

Discussion and vote to approve the 4th quarter transfers as presented by Aldo.

I make a motion we approve 8.10, 8.11, 8.12 because we already addressed those in the Subcommittee on Finance.

Second.

And, uh, Mr. Petronio did an excellent job of explaining where he's at.

He's new and, uh, we're going to be moving forward, I think, in a positive way, but we don't need to rehash it.

So 3 items: 8.10, 8.11, 8.12.

I have a motion and a second.

Any discussion on those 3 items?

Hearing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Unanimous.

813 is the Fall River Public Schools Targeted District Review report issued by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, November of '24.

Can I ask a point of clarification while again ready?

Yep.

Uh, is anyone out there ready for the, uh, job coach, uh, the info?

If not, we can hold it till after this, but if we could get it through quick.

So Aldo and I did work on that, and we had— we, we had— I think it was, uh, under a certified teacher, first step, second step that you did, and above a para, because we're not sure— we want qualifications.

So what does that mean, educator?

So at— I think it was 31 36.

It was like 31, 36.

He's looking for it in his emails.

That's what we're looking for.

$30,000 to $50,000?

No, per hour.

So we— because it was part-time, so that's what he was looking at.

So now he's just going to look at and give it— we're just— I'm looking for what is it because full-time.

So if it's between those 2 annual salaries, when this item gets brought back up, we just need to know, is it from $30,000 to $50,000?

Is it $35,000 to $60,000?

And it's going to be a full-time position.

I think your first step is $55,000, and so I would say $30,000.

Just as long as you're ready after they get done.

I don't want to forget about it.

Yep.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's what we're doing.

All right, so this— who's leading the discussion on the targeted district review from November 24th by BESC?

Miss Riley.

This is a point of information.

This is a— I'm sorry.

The comprehensive— He said Miss Riley.

Hold on, she's got the floor.

He called on Mrs. Riley first.

Sorry, Mrs. Riley.

I just want to be clear for anyone who's looking for the report on the DESE site, it was not published till May of 2025.

So I, I know our presentation says November of '24, but when you're looking for it on the website, it's under May of '25 because that's when it was published by DESE.

Okay.

I just want to point out this isn't the targeted review, this is the comprehensive ones?

Yes.

So I'm happy to start and then, um, Superintendent or other folks can jump in as needed.

Um, so I really just compiled, uh, in the backup, it's just a set of slides.

It's basically the same information, a summary of what was provided in the backup.

Um, this particular comprehensive review, as Ms. Riley mentioned, um, began in November '24, um, but there was no report generated, um, and published until May, uh, 2025.

And it looked at, you know, all areas across the district.

My understanding is that this is a typical comprehensive review that happens in districts in Massachusetts.

And so the way we sort of just organize the information, which we discussed briefly at the retreat, was just looked at the specific areas for growth.

And then you'll see notes in the backup around what's in progress and then potential next steps.

I'm happy to go through slide by slide, and then, you know, we can sort of take questions or have discussion as we go.

So this first area for growth was around strengthening transparency, relationships, shared decision-making, strategic planning.

The in-progress indicators right now, there were comments around diligent.

We know that that was discussed earlier.

The diligent implementation is meant to improve access to school committee meeting materials and published minutes.

My understanding was at the time of this report, and I believe the other report, when there was an attempt to see those minutes, they weren't necessarily accessible at that time.

But I know that, you know, Ms. Cabral referenced that that's in progress right now and in place as soon as those are uploaded.

We've had district leader and school committee retreats.

So far we've had 3 of those retreats.

With regard to school councils, there were some comments there.

We pre— in the prior report, the first report, school councils were embedded in principal improvement goals, and all school leaders were required to have a goal related to school councils.

Since then, Superintendent Smith on August 14th, I believe on Friday, actually provided some additional professional development to principals around the development of school councils discuss, you know, potential timelines and how to gain, you know, community input, which was also referenced during the update today.

With regard to strategic planning, we know that we have a strategic planning steering committee.

Currently, that committee is focused on data collection in, in the form of surveys and focus groups that are underway.

There's a target date of June 2027 for completion of that project.

And then there were some comments around family engagement and input.

We know that we utilize ParentSquare surveys, CPAC, LPAC.

I also think we really want to take a look at those PTO structures and school councils as an opportunity.

And then the superintendent has also really indicated that she would like to plan to hold throughout the year maybe a quarterly forum for families at a school, different schools in the city.

There's an opportunity for her to just gain some input directly from families at various points throughout the year.

Um, so our next steps really pertain to the school council piece, um, quarterly family community engagement, and then, um, supporting the completion of that strategic plan so that we're on target for June 2027.

Question, Mr., Mr. Diaz.

Thank you.

So I think this school committee, this administration, is taking the proper steps to address that specific area of growth from DESE.

So just the way I'm reading this from what you just presented, from what I'm seeing on the screen, from May of 2025 when this report came out until March of 2026, April of 2026, we basically, the administration did nothing.

That's the way I'm reading that.

Am I mistaken?

No, I wouldn't say that we did nothing.

Um, in, um, I want to say it was March or April, we actually met as a team.

I know this was discussed here.

We started to look at the things that we had already put in place.

Now, had we addressed all areas?

Absolutely not.

But I think that there was work happening in pockets, and we needed to sit and say, okay, this addresses this particular area of the report.

I definitely think we're on track better track now and more focused around the areas that we have to address.

Absolutely agree with you there.

Um, but I think there were some things in place.

It's just that we hadn't reduced that to actually sitting and saying, how does this align to this specific recommendation?

So we started that, but we're certainly more focused now than we were before.

So, um, when, when this, when this came out, so this report came out May of 2025.

So I'm just trying to understand what took place from May of 2025 from the administration standpoint?

I know you weren't— you, you, you weren't— no one, no one was here like in— well, you were here in your role, but sure.

Yeah, I know.

So I, I will say just from my perspective in, in my role, we had access to the report and I was able to, in my position as a chief academic officer, start to look at those areas that would pertain to my, uh, what I had control over Right?

And so I, I had access to it.

I was able to unpack that and think about the work I'm doing with my specific department.

And so some of those areas might have been, for instance, higher education partnerships or work with a district instructional leadership team.

Those were the things, you know, I started to put in place that I had control over in my specific department.

As an example.

Did you want to continue on?

Sure.

Yep.

District leadership pipeline and culture.

So there were some areas for growth around recruiting, onboarding, developing, retaining strong district and school leaders.

What's in progress right now?

We do have partnerships in place with Lynch Leadership Academy, Teach for America.

We do have leadership coaching which has been supported by the superintendent.

We have communities of practice for our school leaders.

We have new— we have mentoring for new principles, and we're continuing to build a professional culture centered on leadership growth and development.

We know that that will make people want to come here, right, and stay here.

I think our next steps so far, so we have met with UMass Dartmouth.

You may know that they have a fairly new doctorate program, and so I actually met with them.

We have several folks that are in that program, but we're exploring right now what would it look like to have like a 15-credit administrator certificate or pathway that could potentially lead towards the doctorate?

And so they've been great about starting those conversations with us because we want to build our bench of potential administrators.

And then the superintendent has also expressed, you know, an interest in really designing an administrative apprentice pathway for aspiring leaders and has referenced the work that she did in, in a former district around that work.

Thank you.

And I will tell you, I know Dr. Godino is meeting with the assistant superintendent from Brockton talking about a program that's been embedded there for years.

It's truly a leadership pipeline.

It is at a cost, but a cost that's worthwhile to look at leaders in our district.

It's a program that takes place from the— right after April vacation through June.

And I'll be happy at another time to really kind of put some content to it.

But it is an opportunity for starting probably January, our different departments to see if there are projects that they are looking at accomplishing, and also making sure that people that are aspiring to be district leaders are in schools supporting our principals, our assistant principals, our students.

And it gives you that pipeline as you're, you know, creating opportunities to move along.

So it's something I actually did in Brockton.

You'll be so happy, Mr. Diaz.

I had just gotten out of law school.

I was an administrative intern in 1999, and they stuck me with the policy manual.

I know you.

I remember you told me.

So again, it really is a great opportunity for the district, and I hope it's something that we can embrace, even if it's with a small amount this year, but maybe an intention to grow if it's successful.

That's a very, very quick question.

President Diaz, the Lynch leadership and the Teach for America— when did we enter into those contracts?

We've had those for a few years now.

They've come here before the committee.

I know that we just approved, I think, the most recent Lynch leadership contract, um, you know, in, in July, I believe.

I want to say we've partnered with Lynch in some capacity for about 5 years or so now, um, and we've had— we've partnered with Teach for America for a long time.

I, um, we utilized them when I was a school leader.

I can't remember exactly how years, but there's been some sort of partnership with them for a while.

Did— when, um, DESE did this report and they came down, did we highlight those to them so they could note, like, reference it?

I'm not sure this was referenced in their 2025 report.

However, if they're gonna give us an area for growth, we should be able to respond because this isn't anything new that we're doing.

Yes, something that we've had.

Exactly.

And if there's data to show the improvements, that's something we should be showing DESE, in my opinion.

So good for you all.

Yes, that's a valid point.

Yeah, we've, we've certainly had some of these items in place.

Other ones are newer in the last year or two, but, um, those, those pieces were in place.

Yes, thank you.

Mr. Aguirre, I apologize, I, I thought you were going through the whole thing, and I guess at the beginning you did leadership and governance.

Yes, that's the one that to me, uh, when this report came out, it looked like, oh, we're going to beat up the school committee because they're You know, not doing anything.

So this is the one that, to me, out of this entire first report, I would say less than 5% of the entire report dealt with the school committee and any kind of issues at all.

Less than 5%, and that's being generous.

When I look at the leadership and governance in this report, it talked about the needs for growth, posting school committee notes on the district's website in a timely manner.

5 of 2025 when this report came out until tonight, we still never addressed the posting school committee notes on the district's website in a timely manner.

And I want to state for the record, there is no member of this school committee, the current one or the one that was here from May of 2025 until January of 2026, that that issue falls on their plate.

Not one school committee member does that fall on that we got criticized for.

Building rapport between the district leaders and school committee.

Okay, we've been trying to do that with retreats, but people elect us to do a job, and sometimes you gotta hold people accountable when they're not getting it done.

We got criticized for that.

Improving working relations between the Teachers Association and school committee.

So they came down to visit and talk to people, guess when?

In the middle of contentious bargaining sessions that lasted over a year with the teachers union.

You tell me what school committee in Massachusetts is going through a contentious situation with their teachers union on a contract, threatening to strike and coming to the meetings.

Which school committee around the state isn't going to have a strained relationship with their teachers association or unions when you're in the middle of that?

But we got criticized for that.

Having active school councils at all schools, from May of 2025.

So we got it in May.

I guess to Mr.

Dice's point, nobody other than till right now in August of 2026 told the school principals you need to have a school council and they need to do something.

Because quite frankly, I asked the last superintendent, can you tell me a list of the school councils?

Not what they're doing, just a list.

Guess what I'd never received to this day, August 19th, 2026, over a year and a half has gone by and I still could not tell you the list of school councils at our schools.

Developing a strategic plan— school committee, the prior one and this one, has been saying that for, for years.

How is that a leadership and governance criticism of the school committee?

Establishing strategies for recruiting, onboarding, and retaining district leaders.

This— the prior school committee, for 2 years ago, and you were all sitting here, I made the recommendation that we spend $75,000, give it to the HR department because it was a low-functioning HR department, and said, we want you to get a recruiter, hire a recruiter.

The superintendent and the HR director said, no thank you, we have a high-functioning team, we're all set.

The committee said, hey, take the $75 grand, we're willing to give you $75 grand, you do whatever you want with it, create 2 clerical positions, whatever you want.

That administration said to this school committee, no, we're all set, we don't need it.

But the school committee gets criticized in this report unfairly.

That's why I'm aggravated about it, because this school committee got unfairly targeted.

And basically this was a witch hunt on the school committee to try to say that we didn't do what we needed to do.

And this is the first one.

This has nothing to do with the second one that's coming up, which is even more ridiculous.

But in this first one, how is the school committee on leadership and governance when the superintendent has to try to get a strategic plan done?

We as a school committee said, you know what, we're gonna put it in the goal.

The new superintendent's gonna have it as one of her goals that you've gotta do a strategic plan.

A year later, she never even started the strategic plan.

We had to say with this new committee, we're gonna put the money forward to make sure that we can get this plan done because obviously It couldn't get done otherwise.

So when you look at this entire report, less than 5%— and I challenge anybody to tell me otherwise— was about the school committee.

We have a lot of work to do.

I think you're doing a good job with it.

You're trying.

But we have to call it out when we see it.

This report wasn't fair to the school committee.

And we— this school committee and the prior one got unfairly targeted, in my opinion, by a witch hunt.

With that, I yield.

Anything further on the first report, November of '24?

Is there more slides?

Yeah, I can keep going.

Oh yeah, go ahead.

Yep.

So around curriculum, there were some areas for growth around creating consistent instructional vision and strengthening implementation of high-quality curriculum.

What's in progress right now, there's a district instructional leadership team that was established 2 years ago with school and district representatives.

There was a vision of excellent instruction that was co-created and refined.

School leaders were required to complete some needs assessments for each of their schools to inform school improvement planning.

There's a joint labor-management team that focuses on curriculum and assessment, which I sit on, and is an opportunity to provide teacher voice around curriculum adaptation, pacing, assessment.

Then we've done work on professional development.

Professional learning, coaching, PLCs, walkthroughs, observations.

I think our next step, most importantly, is really to think about, you know, we're sort of in this place where we have some things in place, but in the absence of a strategic plan, it's important that we're aligning the work that we're doing instructionally with the outcome of that strategic plan.

So that's, that's really our next step.

Equitable practices and access, expand equitable access for English learners and students with disabilities and improve communication about opportunities.

This area for growth was really specific to high school students and is about student voice.

And so we've focused on adding budget priorities, added staffing and professional learning to support students with disabilities in general education settings.

You know that we're in year 2 of implementation with a district focus on inclusive practices.

That's been lots of professional development for last year and this year.

We want to increase opportunities for students with disabilities to learn alongside their peers.

And, you know, we've— Ms. Obenchine has done a lot of work around partial inclusion, expanding inclusive, you know, access for students.

We've continued our partnerships with local colleges, and we've really targeted certain pathways towards special education certification.

One of the most recent ones, we have about 10 paraprofessionals that are actually in a program right now on a track from an associate's to a bachelor's.

They'll leave with a bachelor's in special education in the next 2 years, which is great, or probably a year and a half.

And so I met with Dr. Godino today just around what is our mechanism for really tracking and supporting those folks to make sure that they continue the program, because those are potential 10 special educators, you know, in 2 years for us.

Durfee has established a strong model for a student advisory council right now.

Which we want to really replicate at our other schools as well.

I think there's opportunities for student voice, but their student advisory council they developed really has a say in some of the decision-making that happens at the high school.

And then right now we have, you know, Parent Square, we have tours for 8th graders, we do CTE night, we have early college information sessions, senior showcase, and then we've expanded the number of kids who have earned the Seal of Biliteracy in the last 2 years, and that's something we want to continue to focus on so that kids are aware of all the opportunities they have.

Can I ask, um, very briefly, Mr. Diaz?

By, uh, Superintendent, um, correct me if I'm wrong, by law the school district's supposed to have an ELL PAC?

Yes, yes, we do.

We do.

Sorry if I missed it.

Um, and it's functioning?

And a CPAC, yes.

Right, I'm aware of the CPAC.

But Jody, um, are they supposed to— I know, like, um, by Mass General Law, one of the things your CPAC is supposed to do is come before the school committee before a budget is approved and basically share their insight as to some of the things that they would like to see happen for, for their students.

I will tell you, you know, previously in jobs— interesting, we had the presentation presentation tonight about the pool.

One of the things was because of what we just said with swimming and making sure students, you know, have that skill set.

We came up with a special program.

It's called SNAP, Special Needs Aquatics Program, and it was highly successful, involved families.

So those are the kind of recommendations, and it would be incumbent upon us to, you know, to see if we could incorporate that into our offerings for kids and families.

But that's to happen.

And when we populate our school committee calendar, which we have not finished yet, but I want to make sure those things are in there so we're not— you know, school choice is there before May 1st, and you have the school improvement plans have to be approved.

So I want to make sure we're hitting those, uh, marks, one being CPAC, right?

I guess I'll just ask him personally, like, um, for CPAC, I know where— who to reach out to for that.

But, um, for the ELL PAC, I wasn't even sure that they were, um, they existed or functioning.

So I guess, um, if sharing, um, if you maybe share their meeting dates, absolutely, I can make a personal report.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um, another area for growth around assessment, improving quality, pacing, alignment of benchmark assessments so data better drives instruction.

Um, again, we have this Joint Labor Management Committee which is focused on curriculum and assessment.

That is a structure that we use to surface some teacher feedback and problems.

Solve.

One of the things we did as an example where we've been studying this, we were supported at instructional subcommittee and then eventually at this full committee around an iReady ELA assessment pilot.

You know, it was conducted and then we use that in math.

And so this was a great opportunity where we spent time really thinking about, are we using the data that we're getting from our assessments or do we need to look at something else?

So that's an example of the support that we've received.

From this committee to be able to work on this area.

And then right now we're really focused on looking at all of our district data systems and try to support triangulation of academic and non-academic data.

So we use Renaissance DNA as a portal, and so it has the opportunity to sort of triangulate data for kids.

So you see how they're doing in math and ELA.

You can look at SEL data all in one specific place.

HR, I'll start and then feel free to jump in.

Okay, so strengthen HR systems while improving recruitment, onboarding, credentials, retention, and differentiated professional learning.

So currently the HR standard operating procedure manual is being revised.

As I referenced, we have higher education partnerships to support educator pipelines, including free MTEL preparation, SEI endorsement courses we've offered for teachers.

We have tuition reimbursement, in-service credit, and then Dr. Godino, I think, referenced briefly earlier some HR cross-training that we're looking to do, database review, and then coordinating with technology so that all the systems are speaking to each other.

During our PD days, we do offer some self-selected options, but it's important to note that we also want to make sure that we have PD that's aligned to district priorities.

So it's not sort of just a choose-your-own-adventure, but we'll have offerings that are aligned to the direction that we, we need to move the district.

And then currently our Trailblazer PD, that's our work with inclusive practices.

We're in year 2 of our cohort model, which will provide improved practice for students with disabilities.

Mr.

Chair?

Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Diaz.

Thank you.

I think once Dr. Godino gets a few months into her position, I think it will be important just to have a follow-up update to see what plans and strategies we have with recruitment, with retaining our staff, and doing all the things that we need for an HR department.

I know there's like— I'm sure Dr. Godino has a lot of different ideas and strategies, and I know it's too early to pretty much talk about some of those, but I think eventually in the fall or early winter having that update I think would be crucial.

I yield.

Thank you.

I think that was actually referenced in the other report as well with some comments around finance and then HR.

There was a comment in there around, you know, given that we have a new CFO, a new HR director, them really having an opportunity to study the system and come back in 60 days or something and make some clear recommendations.

Can I say something?

Mr. Raghea.

So one of my frustrations, you might not be able to tell, is about the human resource recruiter.

So my frustration is because I've been sitting on this board watching and seeing the district spend money on audits and recommendations from outside entities that come into the district.

And it pains me to sit here and watch and read these documents that when we have turnover, somebody doesn't even present this to the new administration or the CFO.

I, as a school committee member, presented it to them and said, in 2018, we did a human resource audit.

One of the major recommendations from that, even if you don't agree with anything else, is that we have a problem recruiting people to work here and to stay here and the like.

2018.

Yes, well, I can tell you, in fact, actually this afternoon I did share the Collins Report with the HR staff.

They had not seen it before, so we went over the findings in that report.

I am working on addressing those findings, and I will come back to you.

I hope to come back to you with needed positions within the department.

Department, because as I did mention to you earlier, it is a very small department that needs to expand if we're going to accomplish all the goals we want to accomplish.

I would say recruiting is certainly an issue, but I would say the bigger issue is retention.

And I think a lot of the things Mr. Raposa has brought up in terms of providing continuing education, for our paraprofessionals to become teachers, you know, with our professional development for our education, our educators looking to develop additional leadership roles.

We really have to work on the retention piece, I would say, would be the strongest.

So hopefully when I come back to you, I will have recommendations about how we have— make that happen.

Yeah, most, most troubling thing that you said and it's not a problem with you, I think you did it right, is the Collins Center report for the public certification was done 2 years ago, and it was a review of the Human Resource Department.

Yes.

It pains me to have you as an administrator here today tell us that even when that report came out, it was never shared with the department where the people are the same.

So how the hell does this happen?

If we have real leadership.

And I appreciate that you did it because that's what real leadership does.

But how the hell did we operate here without that?

I just don't understand how we wouldn't get the report that was done, and we paid for it, $40 grand I think.

Wasn't what we asked for, but they gave recommendations.

To not have gone over that with the departments is just a lack of leadership under the department at that time.

So I, for one, understand the need for HR, how important it is.

We have to make priorities because we have budget issues coming up.

So that's what I'm saying.

Don't spend all this money because we're going to know we're going to get— that has to be the priority if it comes down.

So I'm all for adding positions as long as they're needed and they're vetted and all that stuff.

But literally those reports say the same thing, 2 or 3 reports.

So I think it's— don't wait too long, I would say, because I'm not waiting long.

Well, it is, it is one of the priorities we discussed at the retreat the other day, so I just want to remind everybody.

I thank the school committee.

We talked about that being, I think, number 2.

Also, I don't want to lose track when you, when you hear something like opening day or talk about the professional development.

All of that is building a culture where people want to come and stay here, that they matter, that we're going to invest in them, that we're going to make sure we're supporting them in a very strong human resource office because that does matter.

So I— you know what else helps with recruiting?

I'm sorry, do you know what else helps with recruiting?

What?

Giving a 21% raise to the teachers that they deserved.

And that's what this school committee, you know, did.

As the criticism come in and everything else, say what you want, the other— the last school committee and the administration and the mayor voted to give, I think, a 21% raise that was very much due.

We're paying very well.

That's going to just naturally help you with your recruiting, but, uh, retainment of people.

We got to continue that process.

But it just bothers me that it makes it look like school committee members did nothing to help this district and we're the bad guys and girls.

That's not the case.

We supported the administration 21% at least, all this other stuff.

So, uh, I really just feel bad for some of the people that are new because you just keep getting criticized and nobody ever says, hey, that school committee is doing a pretty good job.

I think they are, so credit to them.

Thank you.

I yield.

Okay, um, student support family partnerships increase authentic student voice and strengthen CPAC, LPAC as useful family supports.

Student representatives have been identified with leadership at Durfee and RPA.

This is something that I've discussed with the superintendent, really the idea of having students participate in the school committee meetings.

And I know the superintendent has some ideas around what that could look like potentially.

We do have a CPAC and an LPAC that are established.

They meet monthly.

They use agendas that are shaped by parents really and their requests.

Both of those advisory groups have standing memberships and district leadership support.

We also have You know, community liaisons and different district partnerships that continue to connect families to resources.

Our next steps: consider— the superintendent made a recommendation that we consider a student representative and an alternate, and really think about having that alternate so that we can improve attendance of the student at those meetings.

And then also to continue to strengthen recognition and participation in parent advisory councils.

So an idea might be that if parents are participating in a group, when are they recognized for that participation, right?

Is there a certificate?

Is there some sort of something that comes with that membership of that group?

And so I think that is something that we'll also explore as well.

Financial asset management.

So as I mentioned earlier, the area for growth here, build the finance office capacity, deepen budget management, and strengthen operational systems.

Certainly Mr. Petronio can chime in.

I'll just go over a few of the bullets.

New CFO obviously will assess our finance office expertise and identify potential staffing or capacity recommendations or training recommendations.

We know that the district is exploring some different user-friendly budget communication and has expanded the budget book with school presentations and committee information.

School councils and CPAC should be offering feedback.

Um, pertaining to the budget.

And my understanding is that the city and school CFO will begin meeting, um, so that there are some budget discussions that are happening really early on in the process.

There was a comment around preventative maintenance.

I know right now there is a preventative HVAC maintenance plan that's in place, um, and that there's some inventory and tracking that's being expanded through IncidentIQ.

And currently we have a capital improvement plan for '26 to '31.

Our potential next steps: continue improving accounts payable processes to support timely vendor payments.

And obviously, Mr. Petrone, if there's anything else you want to add there.

I, matter of fact, have a meeting tomorrow with the city CFO, and we're going to continue to do this hopefully bimonthly, and also meeting with the, you know, the other financial officials on the city side.

We're having an outside consultant mentor coming in to work with us on running such a large budget, large city that I've worked with in the past.

I think you'll see some great successes in moving forward, collaboration on our budgets as opposed to having 2 separate silos.

I think you'll see it'll blend very well.

Okay, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, Mr. Diaz.

Thank you.

And I am— I do feel optimistic about— I want to say about the forecast, the fiscal forecast, but I feel optimistic about, um, what's gonna come out of your department.

So, um, and just from the brief conversations I've had with you and the plans that are in place for fiscal controls, um, I don't see any update on this on the agenda, so I think this is the appropriate time to ask.

One of the, um, biggest, um, parts of budget engagement, which was recently initiated by the City Council, was an ad hoc transportation committee.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't believe there's an update on that.

However, we, in the order that was provided by the City Council, the school committee has the ability to appoint 2 members to that ad hoc committee.

We— and it's a lot of it's around— it's a financial matter and a lot of it's around facilities as well.

I know we had a discussion with the Facilities Subcommittee.

I know 2 of our— one of our members isn't able to participate.

I know 2 of us can.

So I'd like to make a motion we appoint myself and Mr. Aguiar to the ad hoc Transportation Committee.

Second.

I'm pretty sure I appoint the committees, Mr. Dias.

I'll be honest, Mr. Mayor, and I knew this issue would come up.

I did have a conversation with our school committee attorney who advised me, and I did share the city charter.

I also shared the order of the city council.

This is a situation where this is not a school committee subcommittee, and this is a situation where we don't really have any procedures on books for appointments to an ad hoc City Council committee.

So it was the advice, and correct me if I'm wrong, Attorney Spadafore, it was the advice of the attorney that we should take a vote.

I mean, I have no— Roll call.

Oh, can I talk?

Yeah.

You're going to interrupt me?

No, I'm just asking for a roll call when you're ready.

That's all.

I will call the roll.

Thank you.

I gave you my word.

Thank you.

I just want to say that's not how I read it, but again, we can look at it tomorrow morning.

I have no problem.

With, uh, with you guys calling the roll tonight, but I will look at it tomorrow with the attorneys to make sure they're all on the same page.

Because as I know, every issue I've ever been in, there's been an attorney on one side and there's been an attorney on the other.

So I'm sure there'll be a consensus and we'll all be happy.

So with that being said, any further discussion?

One, one comment.

Oh, okay, go ahead.

My money's on Attorney Spadafore's opinion.

She represents the school committee, and that's the school committee that's voting.

4 votes wins, and that's— you don't have a say, Mr. Mayor, in this one.

It is what it is, Mr. Aglio.

Thank you.

Follow the rules.

Go ahead, Deb, call the roll.

Mr. Aglio?

Yes.

Mr. Diaz?

Yes.

Mr. Corey?

Mr. Moniz?

Yes.

Ms. Riley?

Yes.

Ms. Stewart?

Yes.

Mayor Cogan?

No.

Mr.

Chair, Mr. Diaz, through you to our, um, clerk, can I— would like to ask that the, um, our clerk notify the city council and the city council president of the school committee's vote tonight.

Any, any, um, Mr., uh, Raposa, where do you stand on your report, buddy?

So, uh, we're done with this first one.

I think the next is to go to the other one.

This is really just the last slide.

And, you know, I had this in here before, Mr. Aguiar's points around taking action.

But the idea is really that we are looking at what the areas are for growth.

We actually want to take action on these areas, monitor it, and then adjust and improve as needed.

So that's it for this.

I think the other report is a separate agenda item.

I believe that would be the May 26th report.

That's item number 14, another discussion item.

Before we do that, can we just get quarter reports on this, on the updates as they're going?

Okay.

Yes, Mr. Rapoport, is that okay with you?

Quarterly reports on where we're making progress on those things?

Yeah, I think that's fine.

We can— I'm sure with the superintendent, through the superintendent, we can do that.

Just mention to, uh, Miss Cabral too, as we populate our school agendas, uh, school committee agendas, uh, we'll do that.

Thank you.

So 8:14 is discussion Uh, the Fargo Public Schools Targeted District Review Report issued by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Yep.

So, uh, this report was the most recent one, um, that was published, I, I believe, May or June 2026, I think.

June.

June.

Okay.

Um, and this just focused on the first, uh, leadership and governance.

Um, I can go over the areas for growth and then same process, talk about what's in progress so far.

So creating a more efficient process for preparing materials and questions for school committee meetings, creating a more efficient means of warrant review and approval, clarifying roles and responsibilities around the level and nature of fiscal oversight, conducting more regular budget and finance subcommittee meetings, implementing a superintendent evaluation process aligned with DESE guidance and codifying the timeline and procedure for the evaluation, more clearly delineating and adhering to protocols for communication between school committee members and district staff, clarifying areas of school committee oversight and areas of responsibility belonging to district professional staff, making meeting minutes publicly available, and strengthening the district's approach to parent engagement so school councils can function as consistent representative partners in school-level decision-making.

Some of these were addressed in my previous comments.

In progress so far, we've attended 3 school committee retreats.

Much of the content in that— in those retreats, the professional development has included superintendent evaluation, roles and responsibilities of school committee members and district management oversight duties and communication protocols between school committee members, district leaders, and schools.

There's a finance meeting that we had this evening with a plan for more frequent finance meetings throughout the school year.

Superintendent Smith provided professional development to leaders around the development and role of school councils and shared decision-making.

The new CFO is assessing the finance office operations and will make recommendations.

And school administration proposed use in terms of communication, use of a school committee email address.

My understanding is Attorney Spadafore outlined suggestions around communication using that email address in, in a letter on August 12th.

Mr. Aguirre.

So just to try to be brief, this report in May of 2026 came about from what I understand, and strictly as simple as the mayor as chairman wrote a letter to the commissioner and said that the school committee is doing unethical things and whatever else, and all of a sudden the deputy commissioner came down and then we got this targeted review.

Am I wrong in that, or is that how we think it went?

That's my understanding.

I believe that there was some sort of communication and then there was a review that happened, I believe.

So it wasn't like that there was any conversation other than the impetus for this was the mayor sent a letter to the commissioner.

Am I wrong on that?

That's my understanding.

I don't know if the mayor— I just don't know.

I don't think I said unethical.

Whatever it was, you said unethical.

I didn't think I said that.

No, you did accuse us of being unethical, but separate from It was just the one letter that you sent to the commissioner?

That's how this worked?

Okay.

So one of my— some of my concerns are basically the same as I mentioned before, but one of the things I just want to highlight is some of the work that the committee does on financial policy.

And on page 12 of— I think it's page 12.

No, it's page 13.

They came down and reviewed and they interviewed people They don't identify a lot of the details, which I've asked the administration for months now to get us the details of.

When they say we don't do X, Y, and Z, please get the details so we can try to correct it.

So that's still an outstanding issue across this entire report that I'm waiting for the administration to get us some lists of things so we can try to correct them.

But this one really got to me because one of the strengths of this committee is that we actually do fiscal oversight.

So the item says one school committee member even defended the practice, saying, we in Fall River have more oversight on financial things than what MASC probably would recommend, but it's not illegal, and it's, it's not illegal, it's within our purview.

We have more stringent financial policies here as far as what the school committee does in oversight.

And they list this as a negative.

I'll say to the ref— for the record, this was me that said this when they were asking us what do we do as a committee.

I said we meet, we have internal fiscal controls, we have authority to do this and that.

We've created these policies so that we don't get in trouble with a budget because we have quarterly automatic transfers and the like.

So we have systems in place as a school committee that we should be credited with.

This actual report came down and was critical of us having those such policies.

So they forgot to put the second sentence of what I wrote here, what I said to the commissioner, whoever was down here asking the question.

But they forgot to ask me, and I said to them, we have these policies in place because that's why we're not going to be a Brockton that has a $14 million deficit.

And that's a fact.

That's exactly what I said to them.

And they looked at me like as if, how dare you say that.

It's offensive to this committee that we have good policies in place so that we didn't.

If Brockton had the policies in place that this Fall River School Committee has— and I don't know all the details, but I can guarantee you one thing— they would have never made it by a quarterly projected deficit because they have to report to the school committee.

We will never in this district, whether Mr. Petronio is here or anybody's here that doesn't know what they're doing, Because they have to report to us the documents that show if you're projected to be $1 in the negative, you have to present us a transfer each quarter.

To me, that's like feather in the cap for the school committee, that we've done this over the years.

And the CFO— we probably wouldn't need to do that with Mr. Petronio, but at the end of the day, we have them in place so there's fiscal controls.

And it goes throughout this report, some of those things that we get criticized for So I just want to focus on, you know, that particular one, but also to the superintendent, to Mr. Raposo, anybody that looks at this stuff.

As I go through some of these things, we really need to just get the list of what are they talking about, not who said it.

We said at one of the meetings they criticized the school committee for going to visit schools unannounced, and I asked the administration, please go to them and ask them, who are you referring to?

Whoever told them that Because we took a poll here and the mayor's the only one that admitted that he went to schools unannounced.

But somebody told this group, 26 hours of interviews, they said the school committee does that.

So if you or superintendent can get to them and say, we don't want to know who said it.

If they said Kevin Aguiar did, then you can come to me and say, hey, they said that you go visit schools.

What's going on?

I know I didn't do that unannounced, but let's just say We just have to try to get some clarity.

So as we move forward, there is some things in here that I can list, you know, at some point to say we would just like to get the list so that we can correct the thing.

Just like if you were in a school, somebody says, uh, whatever happened.

Yeah, just tell me what happened so that we can correct it.

And we don't do that.

Point I'm making here, it says on page 11— this is my last comment— We adapt non-standard practices in executing the roles of the school committee, it says here.

I just don't understand what that means.

Even if it's within our purview, they're going to be critical of this.

So my question to Mr. Raposo, because he was the acting person at the time, superintendent now, is please get us the list of those non-standard practices so that we as a body, when we start analyzing our own behaviors, our own actions, and our own goals can say these are what they were referring to.

Some of them might be, yes, that's within the purview of the school committee as long as 4 members vote for it.

So I'm not going to go through this line by line, which it would take forever, but please, Madam Superintendent, just try to get us the list of, uh, you know, so that we can try to correct.

You know, I will make a phone call to Jesse I'm not sure how open they're going to be with giving me.

Hopefully, if it's information that, that helps us understand, you know, we feel like we're moving forward, but I'll get the information that I can.

All you can do is ask.

That's all I ask.

Correct.

And you had asked a question about the cost.

It was $35,000 and it was just a rounded number.

For this number, for this one.

Thank you for that.

$35,000.

And the only other question I asked relative to that same thing was how many other districts around Massachusetts— and I asked this to Glenn Kooch's people at MASC— how many other districts around Massachusetts have had a targeted review in one year and then the following year had a $35,000 targeted review?

So if you can just ask that as well, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

I yield.

You know what, I really did not want to get into a back and forth with Kevin at all, at all, but since he wanted to go over this, I think he did not take from the report support the gist of it.

The, the constant referrals to an adversarial school committee, the fear people feel having come, come down here, the inquisition, the, the idea that we treat people with a lack of respect is the part that bothers me.

And if you remember earlier in the meeting when Kevin said, um, if the chairman doesn't go to the meetings, I'm not going, that's when I said I agree, because I am not going to go to the meeting.

We went the other day and all of a sudden the meeting spun into who didn't fix the teacher evaluation in the contract, which helped zero.

Let me repeat, it helped zero students in the city of Fall River.

We spent too much time on that, and it's way— and, and I want to move the district forward.

I don't care if we throw this report in the barrel, if someone takes a lesson from it, but it's not the way it is.

When we tried the other night at the at the retreat to say we're going forward, we're looking forward, Kevin got mad.

He did not want to hear that anymore.

He want— we want to hold people accountable for things that were done in 2012 or 2013 or 2015.

We're not going to move.

We got 10,000-plus kids coming through the door in 2 weeks.

I'm not really worried about, um, the reports and all these negative things to the district.

We have to treat people with respect.

We have to treat people— if I have a question, I'm calling Liz or I'm calling the superintendent before the meeting.

I'm not trying to play gotcha.

I don't care.

Fix it.

It doesn't even have to come up here.

If it's something simple, let's fix it and move on.

And at the same time, I think far too many people in this report, and as Kevin said, he doesn't want the names, so I don't want them either, but they describe the role as adversarial, with a lack of respect.

Fear.

We have people talking about fear coming to a school committee meeting.

What is this, the House on Haunted Hill or something?

We're coming down to ask them if they can help us.

We're asking them to help us, and what can we do, as Kevin just said, to help them?

That's what this should be.

I don't know where it went sideways, and as I've always said, I'll take all the share of the blame you want to give me.

I don't care.

But we got to start looking forward.

We're going to go back and you know, who said what, when, and where.

I don't care.

Let's talk about the future.

We got a new team here.

Kath's with us for a year.

We'll see how long Liz hangs in, but let's go.

We got work to do, and it's way, way, way— it's way, way, way too negative sometimes.

We can do better.

And again, like, just like you said, if you're not going, I'm not going.

Well, don't— I don't, I don't tell When Manny left the other night, Manny's got to go.

Tommy wasn't there.

Tommy didn't show.

I don't care.

I told the superintendent I'd go, but I couldn't stay because it was too negative.

I'm not looking for that.

I got my own fights with different people in the city and disagreements that I have to do, but those meetings cannot be, you know, I want a list of who was on the negotiating committee in 2012 or 2015 or 2018 that didn't change this, who cares?

I gave Brian props, and I really meant it.

I could give him the back of this paper and he could go in a room and tell me if the teacher can teach.

And I mean that.

We don't need to worry about stupid things that technically bog us down.

We gotta go with a hell of a lot more respect, and if this thing never comes up again, I could care less.

Let's go forward, let's build a committee, and all we're gonna do is help these kids.

And I will never address it again as far as I'm concerned, but we got to do something positive for our staff, our families, and these kids.

And I just say we get to work, but if we got to go round and around, I'll go all night.

I don't care.

I yield.

Mr. Aguilar.

Yeah, so, uh, the retreat— when we had the retreat, open public meeting, no one attended.

I'm not afraid to explain exactly what I was upset about.

The problem that we have here in this district, Mr. Mayor, is that for far too long, no one has been held accountable to make sure that they're doing what they need to do.

Under the prior administrations, no one was held accountable.

There is no systems in place across many different areas.

We hired 3 people that have been superintendents to come here.

3 experienced superintendents.

They have witnessed since they've been here for several months exactly what I'm saying.

And that's what we said at that retreat, was the fact that how in the heck did we have no systems in place in this district?

It blows their minds whether they admit it or not.

That's what was said in a public meeting.

That we had no systems in place.

So we can't just keep saying let's move forward until we figure out how the heck did we have no systems in place.

What you're talking about is an evaluation tool.

Is the DESE has changed 3 versions of the teacher rubric, 3, in the last 8 years or 10 years.

We are one of the only districts that are using something that's 3 versions old.

Now, It might not make a great big difference in how a person teaches, but you are gonna defend in a public meeting that we're using a 3-time-old version of a rubric, and you don't think that we should ask the administration and those that were sitting here, how did this not come up before us in an evaluation?

This is the kind of thing that we have to figure out.

And when you sit down and go to a retreat, where we go through it.

People need to be present.

I said what I said earlier about not going to the retreat because the mayor chose not to go.

The mayor told the superintendent early on, I'm not going to a retreat.

And I said to the superintendent, if he's not going to go, just have him admit it so that we can move on without him.

But it's disheartening to have other members donate all of their time to come and the mayor just not show up as the chairman.

That is not acceptable.

He mentions Mr. Moniz.

Mr. Moniz has a business doing HVAC.

He got up and went to the meeting halfway through and said he got an emergency call to the person in charge and said, I have to run to this call because the person has no air conditioning and it's 90 degrees outside.

He should not be criticized for that.

But then guess what happened?

He walks out.

The mayor just picks up his stuff and just walks out the door, says nothing to nobody.

Same thing happened with the first retreat.

He was here for only an hour and a half and got up and left and said nothing to nobody.

Nobody can defend the fact that we had 3 retreats and the chairman showed up for 3 hours of it.

But I'm not going to sit here and allow somebody to be critical.

Listen, we have to move forward.

Okay, we are going to move forward.

But at the same time, we can't forget about all of the deficiencies that we've had.

And if we're not going to admit the deficiencies, we're not going to correct them for the future.

I give credit to the new people that they're seeing what we've all saw over the last couple months, and they're making the necessary changes to put those systems in place.

Credit to all of you for doing that.

There's nothing negative about this whatsoever.

And since January, when this new committee came on, they've been nothing but supportive to the superintendent, the deputy, and everyone else in this room.

Nobody can say that about this particular committee.

They've done a heck of a job.

Supporting all the initiatives that the superintendent brings and the ones that we bring forward with them.

So I'm not going to apologize for anything that I said at that meeting.

I wish there was more people in the public that could see it, but it wasn't— it was— nobody was there.

When we get the minutes, we can look at them.

Yeah, I yield.

I think you should yield.

My position is that when you go to a retreat, you're trying to build something for the future, not tear down the past and hold people accountable.

Give us a list of people you want to fire, Kevin.

I've been in this district a hell of a lot longer than you, in the trenches.

I know plenty of people that lost their jobs in this district that were held accountable.

And I don't know the people that have been here long, like Kenny or Brian or Amy.

People lose their jobs in this district when they don't perform to standards.

I don't want him letting the public think that no one's ever lost their job.

That's just not accurate.

And I just don't want to sit at a meeting and go around and around about who did what, when, and where, when all I want to do is talk about what can we do better and what are we building for the future.

That's why I left the meeting.

I don't want to hear it.

I do not want to hear it.

I won't hear it.

I hear it here because this is my legal obligation to come, but I don't have to hear it when I'm trying to help build a better district.

And I called the superintendent, and I was disappointed I left, but I couldn't listen to it anymore.

There's far more important things than what's the date on a teacher evaluation.

I looked at the new ones, I looked at the old ones.

It wasn't even that different, Kevin.

It wasn't even that different.

It wasn't anything catastrophic.

But again, I'm done.

We move forward.

Mr.

Chair.

Mr. Diaz.

Through you to the superintendent, I think, and I'm not even in full disagreement with what you're saying, I agree with Mike, colleague, the vice chair.

I think it's important we take this opportunity to let the public know what the issues are.

But again, I— as we have to move forward, I'm not in disagreement.

However, the public needs, in my opinion, needs to understand there's been criticism of the school committee, members of the school committees, for votes and actions that have been taken over the last few months.

And we owe it to the public to give an explanation as to why we've made some decisions that we made.

So with that being said, and this is the one time I'm going to ask it through you to the superintendent— Superintendent, when you walked into this district, can you please explain to the public what issues you walked into?

I think I've been very clear, and the one thing that I will say, and I'm happy to do it publicly here, This will be off the top of my head, but I came in and I came up with, I think, 7 priorities, which any superintendent sitting here knows that that's way too many.

But as far as what I would accomplish in this year, I think we'll say it all.

First of all, it was strengthening the relationship, and it doesn't mean that everybody agrees, but that we collaborate, that there is respect, that we work as hard as we can to do the job every single day that benefits kids, our teachers, us, staff.

So people want to come here, we want to support them.

So, so that was number one, that was the governance piece.

We did the retreats, we've done 12 hours.

I had said to you, and again, not being critical, but just I think it will help us if we continue.

I don't know how many, and I know it's a lot of time, and I appreciate the time you're giving.

I hope you appreciate the time that it went to get a facilitator, to sit and develop agendas, to work with MASC, to provide materials.

We worked really hard to do that, and we'll continue to do that.

That was number one.

Number 2 was all about the human resource office.

You're right, I guess I will be critical, because that to me is one of the most important things that you're going to do in this district, and we're not there.

Dr. Godino is doing an excellent job.

She's supporting her staff.

They have worked so hard.

There's a lot, you know, a deputy superintendent came in.

Superintendent, let's take— and again, this isn't something that I haven't seen with the licensure, with the waivers, making sure that we have highly qualified teachers in front of our students.

And that's going to be difficult because it's a challenge getting people to want to come into education and do these jobs.

So that HR office, when I leave here in June, I hope that we look at it, that it's a real success for us, that you're supporting it.

And I thank you for your support for right away getting an executive director in there.

And I said to you previously, we're not done.

We have visited other urban districts, maybe a little larger than ours, even at New Bedford next door, that have 2 or 3 professionals looking at educator evaluation, making sure it's updated, making sure our principals are held accountable, you know, for meeting those timelines, which your attorney will tell you are critical when you are making sure the teacher in front of a student is the teacher that should be there.

So that was number 2.

Number 3 was the strategic plan.

That absolutely should have been done.

So I know you've again contracted with a group coming in here, because that strategic plan is the overall piece that guides your superintendent evaluation, what you're holding your superintendent accountable.

Those are the goals.

I've kind of made up some— not made up, but after 90 days said, I think this is critical for what we need to look at for this year.

The big rock.

I'm sorry?

The big rock.

Thank you, Colin.

I'm glad you said that with a smile.

So the strategic plan was on there.

I'm trying to think.

Help me out here.

Oh, communication.

Communication.

You know, you have so many good things happening in this district, and I have been in the Newtons, I've been in the Brocktons, I've been in Adova Sherborn.

Coming here every day has been wonderful.

You have staff working hard and you have kids that need us to do the job that you were elected to do and that we're hired to do.

And, and we are going to do that because that is the most important thing.

You heard me talk about it even for, you know, opening school and talking about that.

So I hope to come up with a district communication plan.

I said to Deb Sardina today, I want to be in front of the Chamber of Commerce.

I want to be talking about making sure I talked to, I think, one of your administrators.

I think it was Bay Coast Bank, you know, and got the name of, you know, again, the Chamber of Commerce.

I'm hoping to be invited.

I want to be out there to Rotary.

I want to be out there talking with my elevator speech about what's happening in this district.

And those are good things.

So again, I've shared those so-called— and you're asking me, Colin, you know, what I saw coming in here.

So I, I can't be critical.

I just at this point have to say, let's get these systems in place.

We talked about looking at our principals and saying, these are our operating protocols, this is our training that we did.

You just had an excellent principal institute.

I had principals coming up there and saying to me, this felt good, this felt good, we, we are supported.

And I'm not saying that's not what was happening.

I don't know what happened previously.

I will tell you I have a team in place that is going to come every day willing to work, and we're obviously going to work together to make sure that happens.

I don't know if that answers your question.

No, it does.

I, I think you— and I, and I think you did a good job in answering the question, as in maybe the way I framed it.

I don't want the narrative to be you walked in and everything here was just terrible.

However, there is a narrative out there, and I've seen it, I've heard it, that everything is going smoothly and the school committee made bad decisions, which just wasn't the case either.

So I think you explaining to the public the, I think, systemic issues that have happened, and I think that your team is working all together to, to fix some of those systemic issues at the district, we can move forward.

However, as my colleague said, it's important that we acknowledge the issues that have taken place.

And with that, I yield.

Any further discussion on item 14?

Hearing none, I'd like to move to approval of grants on page 4 of 32.

Like to hold the opioid grant, and I make a motion to approve the other one.

Um, okay, the opioid grant.

Okay.

Um, There's only what, one other one, Colin?

Because then we approve the next page.

Do I have a motion, a second on the continuation and enhancement?

Motion so made.

Second.

I have a motion to say— any discussion on that one?

Hearing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Approved.

Colin, the opioid grant.

Thank you.

I mean, Mr. Diaz, I'm sorry.

It's okay.

Um, just a questions.

Can we first just get just a brief presentation?

I know a few members of the committee have inquired about the PASS program, but just get an update on where we're at first.

Sure thing.

So a couple years ago, we had an opportunity to apply for the opioid settlement funds to replicate a program called the PASS program, which is a Positive Alternative to School Suspension program replicated from Upper North Shore, Claudia Costa, who works within our department, our SEL coordinator, and at the time Cynthia Cudo were involved with exploring the program up the North Shore.

And ultimately what the program intended to do was to provide a safe space for students who would otherwise have been sent home from school for a short-term suspension related to a number of different incidents.

As we built the program here in Fall River, because our funding stream was directly connected to the opioid settlement funds, we needed to stay within the lanes of looking at reduction and prevention of access to drugs for our kids in schools and really trying to educate our kids about the harmful effects of them partaking in drugs and/or substances within the community as a coping skill, as a response to stress, and really needed to educate our kids on the long-term impact.

And so over the last 2 years, we have really worked collaboratively with the Opioid Fund, but also a range of community partners.

And from year 1 to year 2, like any pilot program, you'll learn about your strengths, you'll learn about what worked for you, but also to learn about other partners that we could bring into the program so that when our kids leave, they're also aware of where are the resources within the community that I can access.

And so from the very beginning, STAR has been a partner to provide psychoeducational groups.

As we have evolved, we have really been gracious to also be supported by South Coast Health.

They also run a group with us in the program to look at the physical health conditions and the impact with our children, as well as the Family Resource Center, looking to connect students and families with resources.

And in addition to that, Balanced Learning came on board in year 2, where we were able to bring in another layer of clinical support to the program.

And that was really in response to a staffing struggle that we had within the program.

The original budget for the program included both a school adjustment counselor, as well as 2 SEL liaisons and a paraprofessional.

We were never really able to fully staff the program consistently.

Then we had some vacancies, which then drew on the resources within our department.

And by partnering with Balanced Learning Center last year, we really saw the presence and the product improve for all of the staff and for our students involved.

And so with that, we are proposing again this year for SY27, with the graciousness of the committee, the opioid committee, that we will be able to bring back the PASS program.

It should be noted that we are working with all of the schools within the Fall River Public Schools, but in addition to that, Diamond Regional has been involved with us from the very beginning.

Last year, Atlantis Charter came on board, and I was also able to connect this summer with Argosy, and I believe Argosy will be coming on board.

It should also be noted that we've received outreach from some of our local communities, Somerset and Westport specifically, looking to know how they could send some of their students on a tuition basis.

Again, in lieu of kids going home suspended, unmonitored, bringing them into our program, building community, providing some assessments to make sure that kids' mental health needs are also being met, and then also strong collaboration as kids go back to school.

The length of stay in the program is 5 days.

So kids stay for upwards of 5 days.

Parents have to agree to send their students.

And as part of the exit plan, there is also a reentry plan that is developed between the student, the staff at PASS, and then that is transferred back to the school environment so that any referrals that are made and any follow-up that needs to be done can be done by the school staff with which the student is coming from.

And so tonight you'll see, you know, we're requesting to accept the grant so that we can continue programming this school year.

And we're looking forward to another great year and hopefully to be able to serve as many students as we possibly can.

Thank you.

So a few questions.

One of these is actually a facilities-related question.

So I went through the backup.

I saw that we pay a $3,000 a month rental for the facilities for the Boys and Girls Club.

Wasn't sure if, um, seeing we just purchased Bishop Conley, we have the Pace Building, if there was, um, any— if there was any, like, appetite to move the location to— Yeah, not at this time, um, and mainly because one of our intentions with the Boys and Girls Club is also to connect kids to the Boys and Girls Club.

Many of our students— I mean, and again, right, as we know, we don't have very good transportation in this city after hours.

And if you live in the South End, you may not know what's in the East Side, and you may not have ever been to the Boys and Girls Club.

If you're familiar with the Boys and Girls Club, they do have the youth center upstairs.

And just in case anyone's not familiar, they've also just done a major renovation, and so that youth center is also now expanded.

The youth center is open in the evening hours.

There is recreation, there is youth programming, and so another element of our program is to connect kids to the club and be able to support kids with finding themselves and hopefully to see themselves at the club for future experiences.

We are also the only program in the club, so we're not competing with any other students or any other programs at the club.

I think they've got one play and learn group that's downstairs in a different room, but we literally have almost the whole complex to ourselves.

Our kids have recreation time, they get some physical activity, We also have the CAC who comes in and runs a group.

I don't want to forget any partners off the top of my head.

And so the Boys and Girls Club has been a great partner, and it serves much more beyond just a location.

It truly is for us an intention to connect kids for a longer-term commitment and having a safe space to be if they are trying to avoid some of the peer pressure that might have come with you know, what they're at the PASS program for.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um, so let's try and, uh, I looked through the backup and I'm trying to find the number.

There was like, um, I believe there was a 96%— if I think like a follow-up rate, there was like a 96% success rate.

92.

Yep, 92%.

Um, do we have numbers on how many students that would entail, like that 90?

92%.

I can get you the specific, but for the community just to know that there were 162 students served by the PASS program last year.

Um, so off the quick math, top of my head, I'm not a math major, but yeah, 84% completion rate, and then it would be 9— I'm assuming it would be 96% off that, right?

And completion rate, just to clarify that for you, there are some students that have been assigned to the PASS program program and for whatever reason cannot complete the 5 days.

Um, and so that's the difference between the completion rate and the participation rate.

Thank you.

Um, so the services that are being provided, is it— I'm assuming it's obviously substance use.

Um, is it SEL groups, psychoed groups?

Yes.

Um, as well as screening, SO screening.

Yep, SEL screening.

There's also academic time that should be noted.

So when our students are at the PASS they are not completely disconnected from their academic demands in school, because what we do know is when kids are removed from school and they don't have access to complete academic work and the help to complete academic work, they fall off track.

That increases anxiety going back to school, which would put them back in the cycle.

And so also as part of the daily schedule, students are given time to complete academic work, and we have staff at the PASS program who directly connect with school-based staff so that students are not sitting idle without having work to do in the PASS program that is directly connected to their absence in school.

That was going to be my next question.

So it's not just PASS, the PASS team just doing some of these, some of these like functions like the screening and things like that and reentry?

No, that is directly from our school adjustment counselor, and when there is overflow needed, it is from the clinical staff that we have worked with through the Balanced Learning Center.

Okay.

If we have a high enrollment, that's really when that is needed.

12 students per day is what our goal and number is also.

I didn't mention that.

But being able to serve upwards of 12 students in a group cycle.

Is there— I guess the question, who is the licensed clinician that's doing doing the clinician— the clinical decision-making, is that on the PAF side?

Yes, Derek Rosendies, yep.

Last question, in going through the backup, so I read the Balanced Learning Center, they have— oops, sorry.

They have like a summary, like a long summary, detailed summary on their proposal.

It says something about— well, it says at the top, this is a version 3, Can you just explain a little bit how we— I'm assuming there were prior proposals, and just looking at that, I'm assuming there's prior proposals that were— Yep, trying to be fiscally responsible.

And so I was in negotiation with the executive director of Balanced Learning to make sure I was fiscally responsible.

We were living within a budgeted limit.

We didn't have all the funds in the world to be able to go back to opioid grant to request, and so we needed to stay within the that fiscal limit.

And so graciously, we were able to look at a schedule for Balanced Learning to be able to continue to be a part of the work because they are a valued partner.

But looking within our budget, we needed to make some adjustments to that, right?

That's my question.

And I asked the superintendent for this information today.

What was the version 1 just to propose to the version 3?

Because this is obviously very important work that we're doing with our students.

So I just want to make sure, even if it's something— if it's a service that's not even within the entire budget, If it's something that can be covered elsewhere, I think it's worth taking a look at.

So I guess my question would be, what's different from this revised proposal from the first version?

What's like the limitation, I guess, on this version than the first one?

It ended up being about an hour's worth of direct service.

And when we looked at the schedule in the end, looking at arrival, looking at dismissal, and really what is the direct service to students, students.

We fell within a timeframe of 4 hours a day that we truly feel will be beneficial for both balanced learning but also for the PASS program so that we're also not overstaffed.

And so this is going to, I think, meet both the needs of our program as well as the needs of the students most specifically.

Do you know, like, off the top of your head what the cost was for the proposal?

$70,000 was the original proposal.

The first proposal.

This one's $30 million?

No, this one's $55 million.

$55 million, sorry.

Yep, $55 million.

Thank you.

I yield for now.

Yeah, I, you know, as someone that sat in on those grant requests, that's coming out of the opioid money, which is from that SACLA fund because of the opioids that ruined the country.

So we listened to all the proposals, and this is a very valid proposal, and We'd like to see, uh, we'd like to see it grow a little bit.

But, uh, we had a number of people looking for that money, and, uh, the school department did a great presentation.

So they, uh, that awarding them that was well deserved.

And I did visit the program last year, which I thought, uh, seemed like it had a great group of kids that just needed some help.

That's how I'll leave it.

Um, anything else on this, Mr. Ang?

How much is in the account?

Like you said, we had to apply for a grant Right.

Is it millions?

Yeah, $1.5 million.

I think over the whole time we're gonna get like $8 million, but it's gonna come over the next 30 years.

So I'm only looking at it as fiscal sustainability.

We know we're hiring these folks here on a grant.

I don't know if we're telling them it's on a grant.

Like, if the grant goes away, what do we do with a person who is probably an HR issue, but like, we hired you as a school counselor and then the grant goes away, do you now have rights to do the thing, or is it on a yearly basis?

I think that that program has great potential if their numbers grow, if they keep servicing the kids.

It's one of those ones that we've dropped a few others off to keep that one, but we're not that tight on money.

I think we are going to be getting like, I don't know, I already want to say $500,000, $600,000 a year.

We'll see.

I would just like some, maybe work with Mr. Petronio and the Cityside, he's just saying he's meeting with them because we need some sustainability.

For instance, if we could go in and say we're going to have instead of $330,000, we have a $900,000 commitment for 3 years, knowing that you're going to get $330,000 each year, it allows us to say, well, we have the, the money.

Like, I just think it's, it's, it's risky.

I mean, what if that money, you know, you became— somebody else became mayor, if you have a say, or whoever, and then they said, well, we're going to use it for X.

That's right.

That's what do we do for like— now we're stuck with $300,000 of, uh, you know, staff commitment.

You know, I think Mr.

Dice's point about the location should be looked at, not a month before school starts, but maybe for the future years.

What do we— do we have any facilities that are not in a school?

Like, I know the rationale for why it's not at a school, but maybe there's some things that we can look at combining some of our resources to do in other places.

But I think our goal too, just so you know too, we as a school department, because of the way that we had the access to the funds, we've applied for this.

But where this operates in other communities, the YMCA is the main agent running the grant.

They operate and they work in collaboration with the school department.

As I previously mentioned, we do have some surrounding neighborhoods and communities that do not have enough incidences of this in their school department to run their own program, but they would like to be to be able to tuition in their students.

So the more successful that we become and the more that we're able to market the program, I think there will be an appetite from some of the local communities.

And we have been talking about some sustainability funding and what that would look like.

I had even already brought it up to question around, hey, how would this work if we tuition kids in to be able to have a cost per day?

So I'm feeling confident that we are currently supported.

I agree with what you're saying about a longer-term commitment.

And we can work with the city on that piece in the next grant cycle, certainly.

But I know that we're ready to go for this school year internally as exposure liability, like as we hire people, whether we're telling them, what do they know?

So currently right now on the appointment letters, it does say for the past program for the school year '26-'27, because we had run into a situation where it wasn't clearly specified that it was a grant program.

And so we have been very clear coming into this fiscal year.

That the folks hired in this program are specifically to the program.

Okay, and then if they had to get laid off, we pay unemployment out of the school budget.

We have plenty of openings across the school district that many of these folks would qualify for, and I feel very confident we'd be able to help place them in some of our open positions even currently.

Right, but if we didn't, you have to look at exposure.

So if we said we're paying this on a grant and then people got laid off, for whatever reason, we change in the job, they don't have a light, whatever it is, you— we— it is exposure, financial exposure of the district, even though we're paying that for a grant.

So I think Mr. Petronio can work with the city to figure it out.

Thank you.

Okay, do we— Stuart, can you only go into this program if you got in trouble for something to do with drugs?

Thank you for bringing that up.

You can self-refer.

Right now we do not have it open for students for physical altercations or for other other suspensionable— suspendable, rather, incidences.

But that's also not to say that it is vice principal discretion.

So if they have a student that may have— may be getting themselves in a short-term suspension situation for something that may not be directly related, but there is concern, it is student— it is parent and student choice to attend for those students in those moments of the hearing and being given due process where more comes out.

In those conversations with students and families, and families are able to recommend their students attend.

Is it all ages?

9 through 12, high school.

How do they get there?

They use the Certabus.

Our kids take the Certabus because there is a spot, a transportation spot directly across the street from the Boys and Girls Club.

It should be noted the first year we did get a second grant to provide transportation.

It was woefully underutilized.

Last year we used our own internal transportation for the Durfee students, and, and really for the Durfee students because we've used attendance cars at the other locations.

Last year we only had 6 Durfee students take advantage of the courier service that we provided.

And so as we were looking at what it took for us to hold that time in that morning schedule with our director of transportation, it didn't make financial sense for us to do that.

And so we will continue to use attendance cars if and when transportation is needed.

And that has really worked successfully to get all kids there.

But having the CERTA transportation bus stop directly across the street from the Boys and Girls Club has truly made it universally accessible for most of the kids across the city, across all of our— and not just ours, but like all of the Fall River high schools and high school students.

Are we ready to vote?

Do I have a motion and second?

Can I get a motion and second?

Second.

Uh, call the roll, Deborah, on that one.

Mr. Agam.

Yes.

Mr. Diaz.

Yes.

Mr. Corey.

Mr. Moniz.

Yes.

Miss Riley.

Yes.

Miss Stewart.

Yes.

Mayor Coogan.

Yes.

Thank you.

On— we, we already did page 5 earlier, so on page 6— no, we got one on the bottom.

You include— which one?

I thought we did the whole page.

New England Sports Promotion on the bottom.

Motion to approve with a question.

Second.

I have a motion to approve New England Sports Promotion on the bottom of page 5.

Mr. Diaz.

Thank you.

So this is just, just a quick question.

This is— we're just approving the community partners.

We didn't approve all contracts, right?

This is just— this is the last community partner one.

This is the community.

Okay, um, the— and I brought this up to the superintendent in, um, an email and in a meeting with the superintendent.

The difference I noticed, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, from this contract this year from the last year, I don't believe they're including the summer program.

I don't know if I'm mistaken, if I read the contract wrong.

However, I don't know if it was an underutilized summer program if we're not continuing with it.

However, I don't know if we were able to get an answer on that.

Yeah, I, I believe there was a summer program.

There's a summer program in this year's— in this year's contract.

This is futsal, correct?

Yep.

Yes.