Concord Carlisle Joint School Committee Meeting October 22, 2024

I'm gonna uh call the conquered school committee to order it is six o'clock um we are if you look at our agenda we are um shaking things up in all the ways today we first of all are starting with conquered we are going to try um as much as possible to try to get as many presenters um to the towards the front of the agenda so that people can leave and then the ones who are stuck here late at night since We're here no matter what um so we're going to start with um CPS this

morning or this this morning this evening first and then we will move to the um the region and uh go into Angel's update on special education whatnot and then we will do a lot of our business towards the end so like the consent agenda correspondence Liaisons all of that will come later on in the agenda yeah so um that is what we're going to try we are open to feedback if people like it or Don't like it it so we're gonna um start off with um Mr Sparks on from thorow on the thorow playground committee

Lori you want to yeah I'll just queue it up so we've been meeting with the playground committee and the playground designer and uh Justin's here to give you some updates they're about ready to hit the ground running on fundraising so we wanted to be sure you previewed some of the changes some are bigger than others but um just didn't want you to not know What was happening is this really becomes a public conversation um and I know the group is really excited to start fundraising and seems to have some leads already so I'll turn over

to Justin from there thanks Lori and thank you Carrie for uh rearranging the agenda much appreciated my kids thank you from the other room and I want to thank the committee for giving me a few minutes to talk um Tonight about our playground project uh theose backyard um I know you have a full agenda with some budget and sped updates so I'll try to be brief um so as you know this uh project is part of a larger uh campus Improvement plan um that was created last year that includes Green Space which we are prised

you of um at an earlier meeting um recck space erosion control and parking so um I do want to highlight that under uh Lor's leadership and guidance we've been able To explore some creative uh funding Avenues and sources um and uh fingers crossed that we get some of the um CPC money for the Green Space uh and soccer fields so it's really exciting to be a part of uh all this great work I think uh in you know three to five years or so the campus will look very different and um it's fun to it's

fun to build something so um the playground will be funded uh in part by an estate gift um in the amount of 200,000 and then the Rest will be um hopefully funded through a robust um Campaign which we're poed to start um so uh the design which I'll I'll I'll run through in a second I have a few uh just really simple brief slides so you have a visual um these were all based on student feedback we did some surveys last year um and uh we Ed that to uh create with our vendor Joe McMahon

from Alta playay um an initial design and it's gone through several iterations to Make sure we get it right um but the team was uh really committed to making sure we we have a strong design uh something that the that our kids and Community will love so uh what you see there's certainly room for adjustments as we get um as we get feedback uh and uh I should say to Joe's been very patient with us and and is currently working uh for free for us so is more than willing to um to adjust as we

move forward do have to give a a huge thank You to uh the folks on the committee uh Carrie included who sits with us every week on Friday morning um you know and and all of the other folks who have given up their time to make sure that this project moves forward as uh their dedication has been key to getting us to this point um so let me see if I can screen share here and I can show you some of our um I'll show you some of the designs some of the images from Multiplay

um and then share with you a very exciting um some of the work that our student playground group has been doing and then give just a brief fundraising update if that works for the committee so I'm going to see if I can screen share here can you see my screen yep yes great okay there are a lot of tabs so just uh I apologize there's a whole personality study on how many tabs you have oh my God I can only handle about four before I have to shut down so I don't know what this dos

about Mr it's a huge problem I understand like to see that [Laughter] study so um just to start here's our our logo um the project the rose backyard grounds for play um everything from the the logo to the um motto to the title um colors were all intentionally chosen collaboratively with our group um and I think really what's meaningful for me And for the community are the you know the sort of the rock looking things stacked up um you know emphasizing nature with the color um and and and the power of connectedness you notice that

the rocks are actually connected to each other um at thoro we really believe deeply that our students uh you know Community our families need to feel connected to uh to thorough in as many ways as possible and we hope that um this backyard project will be one of Those ways so here you uh you you have an over an overview I think we see all of the different elements on the play Space uh some of the feedback we got from our kids was they wanted um they wanted space to be able to run as well

so we kind of spaced out all of the equipment in different uh pods so just so you so you know the the feedback from our um our thorough students last year was they wanted to be Able to run they wanted um places to uh hide um I'm not sure how Lori felt about that one but um so the um to hide uh uh imaginative play they wanted to be able to climb to swing to slide to jump and to spin and to quote one of our fourth graders from last year to spin real fast if

possible so I think with this design we've achieved most of that um and uh uh like I said it is you know this is iterative and uh you know these pieces as our Vendor says can be changed out um as we need as the feedback comes in that's smart too yeah and you you'll notice the surfacing um we have a a combination of grass of um rubberized surfacing and those provide paths to the different elements um that rubber surfacing is very expensive we could have spent a quarter of a million dollars on that alone given

the space we have so we needed to be mindful of that um and always considering the play value That each element brings to the to the project and then we have um mulch um mulch there in the mulch we're using here um you know the volume of it is is I'd say fa fairly comparable to um what we have to do if not a little bit more to the current Upper Playground so it might be uh in terms of Maintenance a little bit of a higher cost but not much the pict slid and climbing elements

here the place to hide a cargo net um in the Background you see some rocks there with with netting to allow kids to climb and jump and um and play yeah can I just stop you for one second the tan area because Bob kind of alluded to it is that mulch or is that rubberized surface it's the mulch mulch the picture isn't quite yeah yeah so the rubberized is that the white and then the green is grass or is the green also rubberized okay y oh yeah good thank You they were big on swings so

we got a set of 10 swings and you'll notice that two of them are um accessible we want to um make sure that all of our students are able to enjoy so the passs allow um access to each element and the swings allow um our kids to enjoy too regardless of um mobility and here you you see uh kind of the center piece is an element I'm really excited about it's a large um rope climbing uh structure you see to The left there that is um a zip line off to the back monkey bars some

musical Elements which um our student committee is working on right now spinning elements and then some um additional climbing structures then a little bit closer here um these playhouses are are slightly more expensive than we initially thought so those um those may be traded out at some point um depending um so they they serve as a placeholder right now but They they certainly look like fun especially for some of our younger uh students and there's a closeup of the rope climbing structure so not not too high just high enough for them for to bring in

some element of risk but um if they fall they have a a relatively soft padded Landing with the mulch chips and then you see a little bit closer the um the zip line and the monkey Bars we added two spinning elements um our vender tells us they do go pretty fast um so I think it'll be a well received by air by our students um and before I go to the next part any questions about the design thus far as I I think as I as I said these elements can be um traded in or

out but you get the idea for of the concept and um some of the thought process behind um the different uh play areas we chose I have a quick question slash Comment um just more so on the uh little spaces of grass in between all the mulch I just like that's really hard to maintain and to grow grass like that and then you get a lot of mix mixed like Mulch and grass and then crab grass and then throw has a problem with a lot of sun and no water so I'm just wondering why not

make it I mean the pods look great in the picture but to keep it aesthetically pleasing would you want to just do one big mulch area or am I Overthinking at it maybe no that's good feedback question yeah I and I and I you know we ran this by our facilities director uh he indicated that as long as the grassy areas weren't under anything that it could be fairly easily mowed or weed whacked um but I would think to answer your question I would think that those could just be replaced by either the rubberized surface

or the or the wood ships that's a I got pretty ambitious in My yard and it like it doesn't look good pretty quickly and then it's just really hard to maintain so just uh and then my other question um personal experience is you know driven to every single playground and conquered act in especially during Co and there's a lot of cool you know play structures so sounds like the kids had some input on what structures you wanted but to me it's kind of cool as a parent driving around like getting some Unique Kind of Elements

that you can't find in other parks and conquered and I know we have a zipline for example and I know we had one of those giant climbing um pyramids or whatever at um sandborn but I think that was taken down it's there it's still there okay we put it back up we just Mo so again maybe a ramble question slash comment is just I think it's cool if you have some unique elements that draw people in on the weekends to throw that you that wouldn't come to other Parks but um it's good feedback just a

question yeah great feedback and if you see something um you know that that looks interesting I've actually through this process I've taken my daughter she's the playground expert to a number of playgrounds including the Carl one which kind of served as our inspiration car is everything Lally yeah it's amazing I have a question the way that I love seeing how this is expansive and and spaced out sort of Separately is part of that rationale a financial one in so far as you can then replace these things at hoc they're not all one big structure could

that be like an unintended it might be an unintended benefit most of this is because of the vision of the committee yeah in the and some of the student feedback but this committee's had a lot of um aspirational ideas and some of it was to create this open space that really melded into the campus and the woods and The natural environment around it so there's another phase to this which we aren't sharing tonight which is really about the landscaping and the walking areas and some other things that the committee's also hoped will be able to

do as part of the rest of the campus project so there's a they called it thow backyard which really was meant to be like this really active environment that um that is all intentional from and I look at this and think you know these Playground projects whether in conquer or Carl or anywhere are so challenging to fund and a lot of it is because the structures are so expansive and large and this is a Cong like a conglomeration of many smaller structures I would think there could be some benefit to this so yeah you may

be right I mean the price tag right now is still up in the half a million dollar range um no I know but I'm saying like to replace one of these in five years if it breaks so yeah we Won't they're not all intertwined the way other playgrounds are sometimes that's important yeah no that wasn't the reason it happened that way but it might be a benefit great so just some feedback on the repared I think there will be significant Community concerns about past them containing past being close to the wetlands and the River um

deia K is coming out uh Thursday to walk the site with us and hear the plans and because it's close to the Natural Resource Commission so I think we're on top of that because there's peer research that shows that there's no safe rber eyes it's all has pasas in it so deia's coming out so we aren't working right I think it would be good to socialize this with a greater Community the design yeah and maybe approach the climate action board because I know they will have concerns and just yeah and unfortunately the isn't another option

for the accessibility needs that we have so We're going to have to make decisions based on certain priorities I actually had a question on accessibility when you look at the swings so you have those two accessible swings is there any thought to rubberizing that area just to give better access there and looking at some of the elements you know specifically if you're in a wheelchair which elements can you actually access yeah the was to be able to get Around and and get close close enough to each um okay you know uh but that no you

that that is a good point yeah this like is is a schematic totally there's lots of input to be had for sure and I think also Cynthia on the like socialization of it rubber all of the different aspects of it everything that's exactly what we're doing and this is the first step in doing that so they are launching a Blog the committee is working on they're going to be doing a Big fundraising effort which I know Justin is going to get into but this is the launch of that socialization process correct yeah I think it's

really cool huge Improvement yeah definitely is that last question is one of these little is are these replica of throw's cabin or they yeah you got it yes it kind of is well we do have so part of the estate that the donation is to include West conquered history so I something there will have some thematic Attachments to the history of the town which we're actually we've gotten really excited about that yeah that's cool yeah you know as Lai mentioned we're hoping to do some Landscaping um you know moving forward and as we brought the

uh CPC in to look at some of the Green Space enhancements including um potentially a soccer field up on where the current Upper Playground is you know they had asked about tying into the um the trails and and all of that so really Exciting opportunities you know in the future but um we're focused on on this right now and moving forward with this design awesome great all right um so I hope this works um we were struggling with how we get students involved in the process beyond the survey um that they took initially uh to

give us feedback on what they wanted So we have placeholders built in right now for um some musical Elements which was which was um which was big uh and we decided that this group of well they were then third graders we selected them last year uh they're fourth graders now we've got a group of uh I believe eight of them who are uh helping us in in a number of different ways they're kind of a goet between the committee and their peers giving us feedback on the design U which they've done already they're very Vocal

which is great uh and they're helping us specifically uh decide on some of the musical elements so they'll have some uh control over what what what actually gets built into their playground and we chose third graders intentionally so that they could see the project to its completion hopefully um and be fifth graders and enjoy it so they have a brief uh minute and a half long um uh introductory video which I'd love to Share with you right now that's okay go for it this works the audio oh darn is the audio working no no if

you optimize it for the video sometimes if you check that box it helps too many tabs open I think it's a the M thing too that we struggle with this sometimes I wonder if I if I drop the Link in the chat would that work L the chat isn't on so well done okay be happy to I'll send this to you could try it might be better but it might not um because I've played videos here and I've had to remember you came up with the music I'll play you maybe I'll just play it in

if the volume doesn't come then is that any better I'm Simon and I'm we're good I'm Robin I'm the class I'm you can hear That okay now yes oh great okay perfect all right I'll start it over then here we go I'm Simon and I'm from Miss class I'm Robbie and I'm from Mr gor's class I'm G and I'm from Mrs bur's class I'm St and I'm from M's class I'm Madison and I'm from Mrs Burn's class I'm Archie and I'm from Mrs Burn's class I'm Leo and I'm from Mrs Dylan's class I'm Eli and

I'm from Miss Burns class and we're I'm really excited to help build this New and amazing play I'm excited to filter through designs for the committee everyone in the school has an input to design a new playground our main focus is beautiful instruments so we need a fundraiser to raise lots of money one of our fundraisers that we came up with was the coins challenge which allows students to vote for for which musical instrument they want to use and whichever one gets the most Coins gets to be like the one that are going to be

get to be the one that we're going to ask the new [Music] play clever great why would I try to explain it when the kids can do it much better all right um so I'm going to stop so you can see why where the students are we meet with them every Friday AR which has um helped me put this uh actually she did the video um uh herself took the kids uh footage and and put Together a really good product so we meet together every Friday uh hear their feedback and um you know we get

to plan next steps in terms of the musical equipment which is fun so I'll just stop there and then really just um briefly uh with the fundraising and it's getting dark here in my back backyard so um I'm losing some weight um so as you know signagen recognition can be a powerful motivator for um you know people considering large Gifts um so having some sort of long lasting Vis visible acknowledgement of their generosity um kind of enhances their sense of Pride and connection to the project so we're thinking about that um as we talk through

different ways to um acknowledge them uh so I just wanted to give you an overview um ultimately uh we'll want your feedback um on these things so similar to the Carlile project we hope that we can do uh donor names on Fence posts if you've seen that project at all um this fence post would be sort of a barrier between the new um expanded parking and where the uh playground is um and so so their names would be on there and that would be um in for the 500 dollar donation and then for larger donations

in the 5,000 to 50,000 range um giving the option of naming a particular um element or or bench or slide or piece of equipment and then we're discussing um the the the the Notion of a plaque that lists all of the donors for the project so um those are some things we we're thinking of here and then the last thing that we'll need to think through and and and talk further with uh with Carri and you all on is is how we uh if we get donations from organizations how we um you know potentially recognize

their support as well we've been advising a lot on advertising and the fine lines between how we manage signage and things like That so we know this committee's got to stay close to that maybe even on the naming of a piece on those large scale ones have to come back here so but we didn't want to slow them down while we sort some of that out so they know to especially on Advertising they know not to promise anything I wouldn't I wouldn't limit the um recognition plaques to just Financial donors I would include those kids

and then maybe the parent committee that's Putting in time good idea kind of cool yeah great idea that's a good idea right any um questions how much you looking to raise in total well we we have the 200 the total cost of the project right now is estimated at 530 so the difference the difference between uh we're really fortunate that we have two expert um experts who work in that field charitable giving so um they're excited and and and they we Think it's uh it's it's realistic to raise that much that's great but of course

we'll have to adjust given um you know we can actually start start the project until the donations start rolling in um and we'll have to see where we at we're at um and things can be adjusted with the with the project as we um as the donations exceed or or or don't and when are you going to start advertising that um the giving and is There a link online where people can give or is it check I can actually if I can it is already up all of it I can I feel like people are

more to give if they don't have to write a check the online giving I think huge and the 530k does that include both phases of the project or just what we saw tonight just what you saw tonight I think part of the hope with This the the second phase is because there's like a much larger project happening is that the Landscaping would not be isolated to playground Landscaping like larger project Landscaping it would be a landscaping project right exactly but I know the committee feels very strongly about Landscaping so they want to have a say

and how that yeah so you can go to Theos backyard.com um and there's some information here you Can actually see an aial view of the school and where the project would um would take place and then you can get updates and very simple you just click on donate and then you can can you can you see my screen again yeah and then you can you have um you can donate online 1, 500 250 Etc or uh unique amount and I believe some donations have already been coming in add a note or comment continue very easy

Or you could donate by um completing the form and sending a check to um Ben kin's address thank you any other any other questions no thank you thanks Justin great yeah thank you Justin and we will um be having you back I'm sure to talk about this and then we'll be providing updates on fundraising and whatnot through the months as this moves on so thanks sounds great thanks for the time thank you um so the next agenda item is the CPS Capital plan and then I think for the guidelines letter response we will just move

that down into the Regional conversation and we'll just tackle both um simultaneously um okay so Lori and Bob do you want to take us through the capital plan yeah I think I'll let Bob pull up the overview he sent to you so this is all coming out of the facility study um for the most part that you've already seen Bob and a number of us uh Took the very detailed list of things that were provided to us and not only prioritize but categorized the study had already done some prioritization so it was a really great

starting point for us this time um to lay that out Bob's done some summarizing here because the details would overwhelm the document but he can give you back up to anything you have questions on for sure um just to remind you this is a starting point to a conversation we're going to take this Feedback and then Bob and I are meeting with Town manager Carrie leflour and CFO Anthony and saldi um to work towards a combined Capital plan so that's that's the next step after this all leading to a joint meeting that you have with

select board and fincom on the 18th of November so this is the early phase of where we are with what we're suggesting should be um prioritized and in what order and we just wanted you to see what we were coming up with before we brought It to them to start to try to come up with a master plan and just as a reminder for anyone paying attention I know we're all aware of this but this is a follow up on the like massive overview of all of the CPS buildings um review of all of our

facilities and a 10-year view if not more of all of the needs that need to happen and then thank you to you too and your teams for then going through all of that and prioritizing it into you know One year two years three all the way up to 10 years so that's a ton of work so thank you and and it was uh done by a third party right yes the third party was the starting point so it was a g g yeah Gorman Richardson Lewis Architects um and um they did a study of four

buildings Alcott thorough Ward and this building Ripley there was no need to do sandboard and py they um came up with a 100 plus page reports for each building outlining things they segmented it into Sections they looked at the architecture the building envelope electricity fire protection hazardous materials HVAC plumbing and then site related things site would include Paving um and so um in each of those categories they came up with different things they had subcategories um I've tried to use some of their categories here to summarize this and um on this report you'll see that

we've um we've bucketed things into five years and for the years six through 10 we've we've put them all together um we're going to need more time time to categorize things in years six through 10 and some of those needs will emerge clearly as time passes too like what what we need um earlier than others so um we did not spend the time to prioritize what should be in for example year seven versus year eight um another thing that we thought was important to do um was to shade um things highlight things so we've shaded

them here in Green uh for things that are energy related um there's uh been discussion at the town for um a uh Performance Management contract vendor and uh they U have an arrangement we can procure with a vendor this would be for school and Town Projects um it hasn't happened yet but um I'm just going to make up an example where you come up with an energy savings initiative and you're going to outlay um a half a million dollars and you're going to save um say $100,000 a Year for five years the way the can

be funded is to is to basically pay the vendor a certain amount over the years that you're saving the money so that you don't need to fund the capital project and they guarantee savings um so the green projects they're not necessarily 100% guaranteed to to fit into that category but they're the types of things that would fit into it we still might need to outlay some capital for some of these but we did want to highlight that Um you know these are the types of things we'd hope to not have to have to pay for

great um but they were also highlighted you know in our plans from the consultant you know we've B we we've stayed consistent with the consultant's recommendations if they felt they were important and they thought they should occur in year one we've left them here um so um I have totals in here by building and by category I I do have detail um and I And I will spend um just some high level information on um what we have in here for FY 26 um we have some adaa accessibility paneling that we should have at alot

that we do not have that we would want to put in place to be compliant um it's paneling um that um for um vision impaired um there are throughout this some smaller things I'm not just going to comment on all the smaller uh ones but there are building exterior needs That we have to facade where there's some damage that been highlighted by the consultants and they provided us with actual pictures of some of them so we know which spaces to to look at um the heating control systems at alcot are 20 years old this is

something that will have some um benefit To Us by having a more efficient system um you know would this is the type of thing you know if it can be funded through a Performance Management contract U we Would like to do that it might be something uh that we look to do at anyways if it's not um the system is nearing its end of life um and a portion of this is for a split system in a computer classroom that uh we would need to replace to protect the equipment that's in that classroom um all

of our lighting we have fluorescent lighting throughout alcot um it's estimated to across uh approximately half a million dollars to Replace this is one that we Pro we feel we would want it to be funded by some type of project and not have to necessarily outlay that half a million dollars on our own but that's what the cost would be um and we moveed to energy efficient lighting we would save some money if we did that can I ask a question B if you use the Performance Management contract route which sounds spectacular does that mean

because you're not Putting out um a significant outlay into a single year that then you would transfer those cost to our operating budget or or would you put smaller chunks in a capital plan like how does that work it would it would be an operating budget expense um so we're shifting so we would essentially shift potentially some of these expenses in the green out of the capital into an operating budget conceptually we still have to work out The details with the town they still have to elect to go forward with it um who's the they

the the company the town we met with the town we were invited to a meeting with all the town leaders the professional leaders say this would have to be about this yeah I would like this would have to be agreed on to your point agreed on by the macro community so that guideline recommendations for example wouldn't be adversely affected by depending on the project the savings Might pay for itself of course and the third party just the third party may just take the sa you know take the savings and then it pays for itself so

to your point it's really just offsetting those savings which is just a different way of budgeting and it's just again like to use word Cynthia ear just socializing it to the community that this is a different approach so so we left that meeting really excited and to have a townwide view of some of the Sustainability um efforts was really exciting so yeah and we also thought it was important to highlight like these are things that are hard to fund if we don't have a different way to do it so um anyway um when you left

that meeting did you have a sense from the town on what their like ideal timeline is or because I mean these are these numbers that you have in here are FY 26 um I I don't I think they were initially asking what our feedback was And we we thought it was a great idea idea um they would need to procure they'd have to um do a I think in request for qualifications select a vendor y um and then the funding part I think you can make independent decisions on which projects you're going to do they

could say well this project it's not going to really pay for itself so they might say we have to contribute Capital another one like let's just say that 517,000 saved us $100,000 in Electricity then we're going to reduce our electricity budget and we're gonna I mean I'm making up in a simple example but um so we this is really early stages I know some other districts who've done it really good idea and um it works with some projects it might not work with others and I don't know right now which one of these projects will

will qualify but I've highlighted things that might qualify can I ask one other question on that while we're on that topic on the The um 517,000 for the lighting for example at elcot if this doesn't kind of come into fruition in this FY 26 is there an urgent need to do that or could we delay that to another year when that just if the town needs more time to get that up and running there's there's we have things that are more pressing than that okay um but if there's a way to fund it without it

absolutely impacting other things sure okay thanks Um and then we you're going to see some small Roofing things in here in year one um we do have some significant Roofing needs that'll happen in future Years and we're actually um when I get to thorough I'll talk more about Roofing but we have some small Roofing uh sections that we need to replace at alcot um the the next one we have for the middle school is irrigation for the new athletic fields this was something that was um not included or out of never Included never included in

the building plan and we're going to have athletic fields that will deteriorate if we don't have an irrigation system so the good news is there's already a well there so we're really just building out the system itself whereas some of the other like Willard we had to put the well in first and then put the irrigation system in so that's a big help that that number hopefully won't be too big too much bigger than it is and we also thought it Was important to put it in now to synchronize it with the timing of when

the um fields are being developed correct otherwise it'll be more expensive after they're built um the district level we find ourselves um without a way to fund copiers um so this is kind of a routine item where we'll have items cycling in for replacement we have copers throughout the elementary buildings in middle school and we need to be able to fund Them um it's more efficient to buy them than to lease them so um they're unit price cost is about 15,000 um and then the uh so for each of these years I thought The copier

was just for the FY 26 each of those line items is a copier we have uh we've done an analysis of what we have and we we have units that um we have five copers that aren't supported by the vendor they will gotten behind yeah okay I have three principls emailing me when we're Going to get copers uh so we would fund two in 26 two in 27 and then we would get to fund one a year and and then we have one a year from um we really need to build a solid replacement yep

okay the uh noox Trail has um pneumatic lifts when they repair the buses um and lift them there's um pneumatic lifts that um basically hoist them up in the air for them to do the repairs they're old and um not in great condition um so we need To replace them for two reasons one is safety related um but the other is we we're just not going to be able to maintain our buses if we can't lift them for the mechanics to do work um so they're at a point where we don't want to take a

risk and wait for it to fail um because we won't be able to maintain our Fleet so this is something we felt um kind of surfaced as a need this was not something the Consultants looked at Vehicles weren't really part of their Scope um we added this to the plan for next year before you start at Ripley um if that's all right you know this building's just its own big picture discussion the study was very clear that almost all of it's at end of life there's no other place to go for this those of us

who are here none of us want to put a ton of money into it um carile needs to be at the table for certain portions of the discussion that are Central office connected that has its own thing to it um so these are in my opinion placeholders to keep the discussion going I don't think we're perfectly sure on how much and what timing but there's a lot of needs here and if we just keep ignoring all of it we're going to spend more money down the road do you have in this office or in this

building not withstanding students but your staff oh I mean It's 40ish 40ish probably 40 adults incling the preschool and then case leases from us and then five preschool classrooms and launch so I just want to preclude this I don't want anyone to panic that this is you know know that's a lot of money over these course of these years and there's a lot of discussion to be had over what we do in this site we've already tried some different approaches and the infrastructure itself Is so dated that it's just limiting and at what point is

it good money after bad and we just don't have answers to all of that so there just discussion to be had before we do a whole lot so there's a placeholder you know a couple here to tackle a few things that seem really obvious the facade is needing some urgent fairly urgent repairs in certain places so that seems like a starting point and then if we could get the um it room HVAC appropriate so we aren't Putting our highgrade systems of networking at risk that would be another benefit um we've really struggled in there as

of late with freezing systems and things so yeah a lot more to talk about that was in our plan last year too we ended up getting cut so we just wanted to restore that right and there's there's more the Consultants had other recommendations that we we didn't include in the capital plan we felt like they were nice you know additions that They proposed but um again there's limits to what we have for Capital funding and we really wanted to prioritize the elementary schools I think CIA yeah I hate to raise the prospect but I think

with rip riple another study is in order to try to come up with Creative Solutions and either maybe a complete reconfiguration ation of the building lopping off the pods utilizing baces better and more efficiently um I just think it's so Important before we pour millions of dollars into it to really you know a 100,000 would be good money spent I think and trying to come up with some Alternatives because I know the systems are partly here and partly there and it's very challenging to to fix them and replace them in a in a sustainable financially

sustainable way so um we have is a good inventory but I think we need to come up with options in terms of addressing the issues here because I Think the other schools are pretty clearcut they are what they are I don't think we're going to completely reconfigure them or change them or um Willard alott and thorough but I think Ripley is is multi-use various uses I you know the that space seems underutilized where you know those pods seem like I don't think we should fix them and rebuilding them is going to be very expensive so

I think it would be a really good idea for us to invest some Money in a consultant coming in just giving us three or four options two options maybe um and addressing this over the next you know having something that is useful for another 20 years and not just fix fixing something for 20 years with you know what I'm saying so um yeah definitely need a plan we'll have to figure out you're right it's more than day job depend on that and so yeah to that point I mean our plan for this year was to

just do Things that we felt like we needed we had to do and and recognizing that the longer term plan is hard a little harder to get our arms around right now um theow the row um so a couple things on thorough so most of the money there we allocated well actually it looks like all of it this year is for um Roofing um those are um sections of the roof that Consultants recommended we repair um we are still digesting this we had a Deadline to get our plan issued today um we had a consultant

here today that walked the roof with us and um there's we're really um there's there's shingled sections that are sloped roofs with shingles and then there's flat sections which which have membrane the shingled sections are in uh better condition than the flat sections with membrane um we've had leaks um this past year um that appear to be some of them at least related to to the Roof um the condition of the roof on if you're facing the front of the building um the right side towards the 94 Wing um that section seems to be in

worse condition um on the roof the membrane the section um if you're looking at the building a little bit more to the left on top that membrane seems to be in a little bit better condition um so the consultant is going to we have some prior year Capital funds we're going to um do a uh have them provide us um Options on and do some testing to determine what they think whether um they think we need to do a full replacement of those roof sections um whether we could replace in Parts um and there's a

a different a newer technology where they can apply a fluid over the membrane roofs um that um they need to they need to sometimes do some patching but they apply fluid over that that coats over on top of it and um prevents any leaks and you can get about 15 years Out of that um the options that they present um they would do a thermal inspection first and based on their findings they might opt towards one solution or another but we're going to get those Solutions and um I don't I know the $216,000 is not

going to be enough for like replacing a full section it might enable us to do some patchwor um as we revise the plan we may um we're still digesting That we may want to reconsider um what we what we prioritize um but again that roof we had buckets catching um draining water at one point this year so and just it's worth noting that we're keeping an eye msba offers a program on accelerated repairs and if some any of these projects qualify we would certainly consider applying and taking a chance to wait to see if we

could get some subsidy from the state yeah so the brown shaded Ones could be eligible for that msba funding I forgot to mention that the brown shaded ones could be eligible for other funding um and it would depend on the age of the part of the roof and many other applicants there are um so that's the thorough priority um for FY 26 um we do have some uh vehicles that are uh very old um we have a pickup truck for the mechanic that goes out and does service calls when the buses um have an issue

on the road um that vehicle is Over 15 years old um needs to be replaced that's our priority for FY 26 um for FY 27 it's a maintenance vehicle um they oldest vehicle was 20 I believe we're replacing that one this year this is the next oldest that's U between 15 and 20 years old um and then an additional maintenance vehicle uh two years later um so um these are for non buses buses we still have in our we're keeping those with consistent with what we had before to keep them in our Operating budget um

at some point you know we're going to continue have discussions with the town over whether those flip to Capital or not but um that is not something that we can flip this year and you know we'll we'll look at it for future years um you just buy these straight out these vehicles you wouldn't lease them yes we'd buy them straight out yeah um we do lease the buses because of their ticket price um pickup trucks are so Expensive now too yeah um and then the um at um Willard there's some there's some Roofing sections in

the building facade in Mason re that needs to be repointed uh and the total for the building exterior is 34650 um in in total for FY 26 uh it's aillon 5354 if you deduct the energy management funded projects um we're at 98,000 um we've had historical funding it's changed the last two years of about 900,000 but um that kind of gives us a sense of of where we are um some of those green green items we may want to pursue whether we get a um Performance Management contract or not some of the smaller ones but

um you know I thought it was important to show you the total uh and then show it deducting the the green projects and some of those green Projects we um again might want to pursue but so the the capital needs are I would say fairly um contained in the next three years if you don't include the green energy projects and then um we really start to see a bump in um FY 29 and fy3 where the the roof costs start to come in um you know different it's a different challenge for funding those so again

this is early on and first pass um and we'll be bringing back To you updates prior probably even at the next meeting before the joint meeting as to how things are evolving so did you um ask Mr Sims about Green community grants we have not at this point we certainly will again first pass was to get this in front of all of you before we shared with them but he was at the table with the third party discussion and certainly Ken be going forward that's about 250k for the town per year available to us we

match has Been matched yeah so and the consultant the Performance Management Consultant that when we talked with them Eric was there said that the consultant can work with the green energy grants as well yeah and one other thing I know that they discussed uh at some point at the climate action committee meeting as that for us to stay to keep our status as a green Community we need to do an electrification study of all municipal buildings so I'm not sure the timeline Of that so it's another good question for him and and I'm not sure

how deep or what that means exactly but okay great well thank you I know a lot of work went into this so thank you to both of you um we'll continue the conversation I guess the next joint meeting for this is November 15th with um fincom and 18 18th yeah okay we have another meeting the sixth yeah we're meeting the Sixth great so I think that's it for conquered we are going to just like I said move um item C into the regional discussion so we'll do that together so welcome carile thank you get set

up here not missing anything thanks to those who are waiting to talk with us on other things we flipped the agenda in that needed to have its due time so yeah appreciate the patience all right it's 653 I'm going to call to Order the conquer Carlile Regional School District order so um without further Ado I think we move right into our student update from cchs so the kids notified me this afternoon they are over booked tonight and are not attending okay for them not our formal reps we have other students here to talk with us

though so that Partners in Ryme yeah okay great so we'll invite Partners in Ryme to come up for your recognition um Patty Russo has been our lead on this For years she comes to us outside of the schools and this is her project with us Shelley Hull is um English teacher at the high school and it's through her classes that we um Host this amazing dual experience and has how many years now Patty 14 14 years um so it's a paired experience where Patty helps by bringing in poems and students and senior citizens read The

Poetry together and they're here to give you some highlights of that work And tell you firsthand how amazing it is so we'll let you take it from there make your introductions I've got the slides patty just cue me and I'll move slides along for you perfect thank you uh I'm Patty Russo thank you so much for inviting us what are the mics does this work perfect okay thank you so much for inviting us to talk about Partners in rhyme we're really excited to share um our experiences with you all and um so I'm Patty this

is I'm shell Hall I teach English at high school I'm Elliot I'm Mark I'm an and you you are going to hear from all of us and we're going to try to keep it to 10 minutes we've all been practicing so so get ready and we'll start um okay U could we advance please great okay so what is Partners in Ryme it's an intergenerational poetry program where older adults join a ninth grade English class to read discuss and write poetry together and we work in Small groups groups for six weeks and we do this six

week series three times at at cchs and this is my 14th year doing it and my 10th year with shell Hull she is my personal partner in Ryme and we've been at this for um yeah for 14 years next slide please okay so let me walk through a typical class with you each class has a theme themes include gratitude mindfulness personal Refuges um the importance of community we uh read two theme related poems from both contemporary and classic poets and we discuss them in small groups like like you see on the on the on the

board okay um when we're discussing them we focus on sharing our emotional response to the work so what what does this poem bring up for you what do you notice in the poem and that can lead to a personal connection with the poem and in turn that can help demystify poetry when you Can relate to it in a personal way we don't analyze the style or the message of the poem in in this group so much um and then we end our time together by um doing a reflective writing um exercise and sharing that writing

with within the small group and here you can see the this was last week and and today when we met several of the students got up and shared it in front of the whole class which is super Brave and we applaud them for that um okay next slide please um Some of the benefits it um enhances the way Generations view each other and we'll hear more firsthand on that um from from the rest of the group here um it improves students perception of poetry for both one and two bullet item we have data to support

that which is on your handout um it lessens social isolation for all ages you know we're coming together we're having fun we're doing something different uh cultivate social emotional learning and academic Skills social emotional learning for all of us not just the students we're always working on those soft skills and um finally it allows older adults to experience cchs in action live and and will say more about that okay on to mix hole um so when we have students coming into the classroom they come um uh our older adults come in once a week for

six weeks so it's just a complete break from the typical what we're doing in class it's a novel experience they're in small Groups so they're really sort of um accountable and a really firsthand way to be present um and you know that's hard to do for teenagers have so much distraction and um so much on their mind but students tend to just really rise to the occasion they often are bringing their best selves and sometimes a different self to the group um for example have you know self-described shy students um participating actively becoming leaders within

the small groups And even participating in Reading in front of the small group and in sometimes the whole entire class it's pretty remarkable to see those those kinds of um character characteristic shine in this environment um so goes next one it provides a way to shine when um sorry don't go to the next one the next bullet point I'm so sorry provides a way to shine when may otherwise be quiet so some students who might feel like not so engaged or excited about Academics this is a way for them to sort of really connect uh

socially there's no grade attached to this assign this this program there's no homework related to it really truly is about the present moment and the present experience Patty picks great poems the uh older adults who come in are fantastic so engaged and interested in meeting our teenagers at the high school students like and many of them love the program it's uh a break from the regular routine as I said um They practice skills like eye contact I mean we don't we don't teach this we just know their practicing because we seeing them do it um

modulating their voices and speaking front of groups so modulating some of our quiet students have to speak up and especially our older adults might need a little more volume in order to hear effectively so they have to adjust um friendships do develop and maybe Pat you can help me here but we we had one student who uh Forged a connection and that student's now writing for the Carlile um newspaper that's right um so that those kinds of outside connections can happen and Foster things that happening beyond the classroom um that's not always the case and

we never force that but it's sort of a wonderful outcome some of the time that you can't sort of anticipate so um I think we go to the next slide now and we're going to an oh I'm reading a poem I'm going to read a Poem it's great can I take it here uh this is actually a poem from today I I personally love it um and it's good for all of us I think right now not just our ninth graders um the poem is entitled yes and it's by William Stafford it could happen anytime

tornado earthquake Armageddon it could happen or Sunshine Love salvation it could you know that's why we wake and look out no guarantees in this life but some bonuses like morning like right now like noon like Evening oh I'm glad you did that we we on our group today we hung on right now all the kids said but and we've got right now and this was amazing this was just just happened and that's just great um I'm an forer and I've been with the program for I think three or four years and I look forward to

it every every week that we have it I enjoy being the part well we all enjoy being a part of the throbbing life of cchs being in the hallway when Classes change it's amazing all those faces just streaming by we really like that a lot I think some of us some of us older people really enjoy meeting with each other some of the elders are actual poets themselves and everyone like me just loves being with students as they connect with something in the Poetry poetry seems to be a bridge for some people and a student

came into my group this year he in his biography said I don't like school and I don't like Poetry so he came in and looked away and I thought well this is going to be interesting and the poem that Patty chose for this there were two poems about what we prefer and Patty and we read through them as we do this guy started leaning in and he actually contributed did something I didn't expect anything I think sometimes when we give someone a new way of looking at things it can kind of Give Them Wings and

today he wrote an OD to football that was something wonderful he talked about soaring passes and brutal tackles and he wouldn't stand in front of the class but he W he was really terrific so this changed some Behavior immediately which was very interesting another Shai student did lead the the class which lead the group which was wonderful and another found poetry in things that you don't usually find Poetry he wrote about mechanical things and the joy of of solving a technical problem pretty neat we seniors encourage the kids we are we sometimes give our reflections

of what what we think about a poem and sometimes it's negative too the students we find are really are deep and creative and thoughtful um The Poetry the brilliant poetry that we have that just it it inspires them and um I think it shows us older people that there's a lot of Hope For the world uh because of what we learned from from the kids so I thank you for this it gives us older folks a good a good good feeling Mark you want to be first or you GNA go together I'm Mark Johnson um

I'm a 10th grader at cchs um I'm Elliot Goodman I'm also a 10th grader um we both did Partners in rhyme like last year with mix hole and I don't know I I really like it um I Thought it was a cool way to like sort of like build on I don't know I feel like a lot of kids in my age group um they have like stereotypes about like older folks and like I feel like like a lot of it like isn't true or if it is true it's like not always true um and

um I don't know I feel like just getting to sit down and talk and find something in like in common just to find a way to like start building conversation was a nice way to sort of Change the stereotypes and I don't know like engaging conversation like bond with people and I thought that was just really cool I can sh what I liked about it um I don't know I didn't I went into it not really um caring much about poetry I didn't I wasn't excited when she announced the unit because I had like no

idea but when we started um the first day I met Miss forier who's my friend's um grandmother my best friend yeah and Um we were in the same group together and we started sharing FS together and I actually started to have a lot more fun and I also it's really hard for me like speak in groups with groups of people but I also shared poems and I felt like comfortable in the room it was like a very comfortable setting um but it was really great I don't know I I also did um I used to

do professional acting before Co so I really like it was full circle like the art just like the poetry And like it just brought me back to like theater and my love for art so um I think that pretty much sums up everything I had to say um I do want to thank Patty and mixall and everyone here for letting us both come here I think both me and Mark can um say we really appreciate it so yeah it's awesome thank you all that was amazing thank you what a wonderful program does anybody have any

questions I think Patty has a slide or two more oh oh no I I I don't I Just I mean I'm happy to share them but that was just if all of a sudden we had just before we two questions I just think we should shout out the grant funding we continually receive yes I'll let you take it from their P yes uh thank you for reminding me a huge shout out to conquered Carlile foundation for funding this program um for 13 I think of the 14 years or maybe 12 the parents Association did it

one year yeah so this is another program we're not putting Into the budget they cover a small stien for Patty because she does a lot of behind scenes work and otherwise she would just be a volunteer and we need a little bit more help than that and uh just to note that we're really grateful for that grant funding and that they continue to provide it exactly and we think every student should have this I couldn't I completely agree with you it takes a lot of courage to not just come here tonight and speak About this

but also to kind of open yourself up to different opportunities like poetry and building relationships with people you might think aren't so cool um and so well well done thanks for coming it's really nice I want to say I think um I know we do it in Carell we spend a lot of time talking about multigenerational initiatives and I think this is a wonderful one um and I think you know Elliot I think you said it there's stereotypes for every Generation and I think these are the kinds of programs that can take those stereotypes down

um and I would say just my personal opinion that I think teenagers and the Aging population probably get the are probably the most misunderstood in the community and I'm I just love seeing the bridge between you two yeah thank you thank you thank you so much okay thanks again for having us okay [Music] Bye that's great can we ask one question because Mrs Anderson has a question how do you involved if you're a senior like some of us have parents in town that it would actually be really great for them to get involved asking for

Cynthia well I do a lot of Outreach to you know Council on Aging and Council on Aging yeah she has me push it out all the time through my newsletters and social media we just recruit widely okay conquered carile Residents very cour yeah and shelle you're the only teacher that does this correct currently yes more older adults involved okay more could more yeah that's a great PSA right here my um email address is here if you I thank you yeah thank you thank you thank you all right um so we're gonna move on to section

four of of our agenda um like Carrie mentioned during the CSC we move Things around so we can get folks like these uh the the kids here um home at a reasonable hour so we're moving into discussion and action items first one is our special education update from Angel Charles do we have her online yeah she is online okay you want to tea her up there she is all right hi Angel hi can you hear me okay we can thanks for coming thank you for having me and thank you for also allowing me to do

this meeting remotely I have to start by Saying that is a really tough act to follow that was such an impressive program you know we talk about um inclusion what's a better example I mean it was unbelievable um so I know that I had shared all of my slides with you ahead of time um before I just you know engage you all in a conversation sort of about the State of the Union goals um and sort of you know how my office is approaching the year um with regards to the data that I had shared

there are a Couple pieces that I wanted to point out to you which I think require a little bit more of an explanation or conversation um the first thing that I want to note is that um what the slides looking at the trends over time include students who are um who were being served within our districts who were being served in out of District placements and also who who were being served in institutional settings so you might see some difference between the Numbers and that's because we wanted to look at the students who were serving

in District but also sort of the bigger picture because um our out of District students and our students who are being served in institutional settings um are just as important to uh my office and all of you thank you um another piece oh yeah great um that I wanted to point out and and just sort of a a curiosity that I have um is that um the disability categories When you look at them by the numbers for um both districts it will be very interesting to see uh moving forward how desie report that in information

because as you know this year we're adopting the new IEP form and one of the Hallmarks of the new IEP form is that you no longer uh we're no longer asking teams to have a primary area of disability so if you have a student who um is impacted by multiple disabilities those will be listed in no sequential order um so It'll be very interesting as we move forward to the new IEP how um how we're going to be served that data back to look at it's just a point that I'm very curious about as we

move forward so angel can I can I ask you a quick question to that end so does that mean that each of the numbers here represent individual students there's no overlap so someone these are all individuals got it okay just making sure yep so currently When we have IEP meetings and this is sometimes um you know I think when you have a student who has multiple disabilities often times you know a significant amount of time spent in the team meetings or debating and going over like which is the primary disability you know which is is

the most impactful um and the new IEP form allows us to move forward with the conversation taking them all um sort of at equal weight so um stay tuned for an update on that next Year as we um get our first year behind us with using the new IEP for okay um another piece of note um that was interesting to me um I have again a very unique um Vantage Point having this being my 10th year in the district um and I was really surprised because I remember back in 2015 um we had uh our

number was in the hundreds of students who were being served in out of District placements and the fact that we're here today um and we Are serving 49 students total and out of District settings just um was something that I thought was noteworthy and you know something to reflect on and you know we talk about later about um you know things that we're proud of um that's going to be something that I Circle back to because I would say the decrease in that number of students over time is is pretty dramatic and significant yeah another

piece that I want to Highlight is um the slide that does an overview of our Continuum of services um I want to just also give a little shout out to uh the conert integrated preschool um because while you look that each school you know is serving uh various programmatic needs um everything starts at the preschool um that's where we first meet these uh Learners this is where um you know we they do everything um and they do everything really well And it really sets up um our students for the rest of their time in the

district knowing that they're coming out of that high quality program so we're really proud of um the work that they do at the preschool in teeing us up to take it from there when we get to um the elementary school's middle high school and then beyond um another piece of information that I wanted to point out um which is not always necessarily self-evident um When we talk about the related service providers that um we are accessing and using to support our students in the district um occasionally we will have students with needs that don't necessarily

justify a 1.0 with regards to um service providers um particularly of Note One area I wanted to highlight is that um over the past three years we've seen an increase in students with need for um Vision Services specifically orientation and Mobility Specialists um And teachers of the visually impaired and at the moment we're Contracting uh to meet those needs um but that's just something that is has been on my radar and um those services are not always easy to find I feel like oftentimes you know our districts are um buying for a small number of

service providers in that area so I was very fortunate that my predecessor had set up um really nice longstanding relationships with providers so we have not found ourselves Um this year in a situation where many of our um neighboring districts have found of a really desperately trying to find folks to fill that role so um that was just one piece that um I I wanted to highlight because it's not you don't see those folks reflected on our FTE anywhere but they are critically important for us to meet um those unique uh student needs um questions

about any of that with regards to the programs before I engage you in more of a Conversation um just one thing Angel for cchs you know you have the continu of services I mean they're much like the preschool where we have all of our programs at cchs so so on both ends we kind of and that with those two programs having everything there correct yes absolutely the one difference you know at cchs they're not all in the same room together that's that's the only difference I mean the preschool is just such a wonderful place and

if you don't Know about it definitely check it out correct it's all Under One Roof both at CMS and CC well almost at CMS in February uh and then at cchs yeah actually bringing me to a perfect transition when we thinking about goals for this year great um you know as I started my my second year I was really at at no shortage of things to choose to prioritize this year it's I feel like in my office you know things can change on A dime pretty quickly um but a couple of uh areas that I've

chosen and my team has chosen to focus on this year um obviously number one um is rolling out the new IEP form um we started the process last year by having all of our coordinators and administrators at each level who really um Take the Lead especially around initial in threee reevaluations of making sure that they had the training and support that they needed to lead This work um and we were fortunate to be able to take uh advantage of a grant that desie had put out to support the roll out of the implementation of the

new IEP form um we have used those Grant funds to um partner with um three different organizations to help support us and rolling us out to our our uh large amount of fac you are going to need the training um tomorrow is actually the first of three dates where we are offering the districtwide Professional development in-person training with a wonderful facilitator um from a collaborative in western Mass named Laurel peler who's going to be doing three on-site two-hour trainings of all special for all special Educators across both districts so that happens tomorrow afternoon is our

first session um in concert with that um case collaborative has started uh Consultation Services and professional development services and we're Partnering with them to provide um two parent trainings in addition to the high level overview that I was able to provide last year to parents um there'll be two options the first one's on November 13th which is a virtual online training for parents on the new IEP and the following is a week later which is the in-person opportunity so there's two um OPP opportunities for parents to uh receive additional training on the new IEP forum

and the third which I'm really Excited about um is if you may recall if you've been here for a while um a few years ago we had Alan Bloom come out to um give us a training on just quality IEP writing 101 and he has developed something called the balloom method app which is a fantastic um tool that we can use to it it does three things first it um provides asynchronous training opportunities for um for educators on both the new IEP itself but also you know for any folks who weren't able to Take advantage

of the inperson training that Allan did on um you know writing a really strong IEP um all of those videos are also available and they partnered with desie so that teachers can receive pvps for um completing the modules it also serves as a data collection tool um which teachers can use because you know as as you may know the new IEP form is far more data driven than we've used in the past so it's a tool that uh teachers can use um on their on their tablets on Their phones on their desktops to collect data

and to develop strong goals um and it also has various templates for supporting folks in writing the new IEP so we're really excited that's a huge goal that my office has for this year um the second goal that I have um is and it's also something I'm I'm very excited about um as you know um with the current status of the conquer Middle School um we have um we're trying to replicate programs across two buildings which can Sometimes be a challenge so another goal that I have is to really work closely and partner with a

team at conquer Middle School to make sure that they feel supported and prepared to merge students who have been in the same program but in two different buildings and to really um make sure that the students when they come together feel a strong sense of cohort which with their um so if I'm a sixth grader and I happen to be in the connections program um Having the seventh and eighth graders come together as a full uh cohort is going to be amazing um especially for some of those students you know who are coming up from

programs for example coming up from Theo it's going to be like you know a a reunion of sorts having the students all come together um so very excited about that work and supporting that team as they um really it's I'm so excited for the students it's going to be such a relief to have That transition over and to have those cohorts fully um flushed out um the the third um goal that I have for this year and my team has for this year and I have to thank you um deeply for um supporting us with

our expansion ition of launch um it has been a dream come true um that we are going to be able to provide a communitybased highly visible authentic opportunity for students um to be in our community and you know be be working in our community And have a space where we can uh welcome members of the community in to um purchase uh goods from our students they're very excited um and I just am deeply grateful it's I never thought it it would happen honestly in in my my time um so thank you and it's it's a

huge goal questions about my goals our goals just really super helpful to to hear them and we're excited about goal number three as well obviously that's fresh in our minds um I think I'm pretty Pretty clear and I thought the presentation you sent was was wonderful is there anything that you need our support on that we can help you with obviously we've a good amount of time on special education we will continue to do so um is there anything else that you need that we can help you with you've already been above and beyond as

far as supportive goes again like I said just this the fact that we're we're launching a launch retail Space is is huge um you know and I think about other areas to support you know I've said this before but I would love to um give the members a tour of some of our uh programs in the district I think it's it's one thing to you know look at the uh populations of students on paper that we're serving but to see it in action is there's nothing that can compare to it um which also sort of

goes to you know something I'm proud about but something you know that we're going To continue to need your support with you know we develop these programs um but that's not it you don't just develop the programs and you don't just have students come together and call it a program they need constant um tending to um nurturing um and and one thing that I'm I'm proud about is I think that you know my team and all of the Educators across both districts are so committed to expanding refining getting better um and Just making those tweaks

on a I mean we have constant conversation about you know what does this program need what does what do we need at at this level um so that work is something that's not going to go away um but you know when I talk to my colleagues in in other districts um given the District of that's our SI districts our size it's very impressive and we're so fortunate to be able to offer such a wide range of of programs And really have that full Continuum um for preschool all the way up it's it's not um I

mean it's it's not lost at all on me when another District reaches out and says you know I have a student with a complicated profile I heard you have this program you know would you consider reviewing the students profile to see if they might be a good match because we're struggling to find a fit and when we are able to provide that fit and welcome students from other districts um into Our schools that's incredible so again I would say your your um continue support as we continue to refine tweak and and tend to those programs

and keep them healthy and strong um I would also say um you know something else that I'm very proud of and and fortunate again it's not like this in other pieces um we have such a collaborative positive and just healthy relationship with faculty with staff with our CPAC um with our administrative team it it really makes The hard work that we do um so much more rewarding um and it really does greatly benefit uh the students when we're all working together to um to give students what they need and so I'm very proud of that

because that's not been the case in other places that I've worked um and I'm also fortunate to have a a really strong team it's only been a year that we've all been together um but I I feel fortunate and and proud of the team that we've assembled and feel like we have The right people in the right places and you know I think when I'm out and visiting the programs it's you can feel it so thank you thank you any other just this comment to that because this group would be interested we met yesterday with

the CTA um committee that was formed following the bargaining sessions we had last year one of the agreements we made was that there'd be follow-up convers we didn't really bargain anything about special education per se It was more of an ask that we get a structure in place for input feedback questions concerns and um we had the first meeting in may we kicked off the year yesterday Angela and I and actually Mr Sparks and there were about 10 Educators here they've they've recruited as many as 15 to 17 so they all come when they can

and we're meeting monthly and it's just going to be a think tank of what's working what's hard what do we need all of that so that There's a really direct Loop um not just with the building levels but with the central office as well so it was a really great start to the point of like we're all in it together and what a difference that makes yeah awesome so great angel I'm definitely going to take you up on your offer to visit yeah we'll get that organized invite let me get organized and invite you all

so we're not one offing on interview but to have you just a real Credit to you know the staff I mean just one small example of people haven't been to unified basketball I highly recommend it last week there was a game it's just like such a model of inclusion with the students with the faculty you had both principles there you had your department shair there in special education like it was just there were probably 10 teachers there they didn't have to be there everybody wanted to be there the athletic directors the ref like you Really

don't have a better example of inclusion than that and I'm happy to see it coming to the Middle School you five basketball will start then and then track in the spring so just what great programming we have to offer and a lot of this has happened under your leadership so just thank you so much for your time and we're really looking forward to the launch space yeah and thank you to the bridge they ran a great article last week about unified Basketball and the last home game is the 29th yes so don't miss it four

o'clock thank you I I have two questions um first one is I'm just looking so this is you know Co we have somewhat of declining enrollment and our special education is you know pretty constant which means percentage of students is kind of gradually increasing receiving special services and I guess my questions are is this common across our other schools and is This a trend we think will continue um just from I know you can't predict the future but I'm just curious and if there's any you know um differences and how you're diagnosing some of the

students too since coming out of covid so I guess really three questions and sorry throwing them questions no don't be sorry um don't be sorry so the first question is sort of you know I I think that you know the special education needs uh you know regardless of of Enrollment changing um they they are sort of they're constant I think um that efforts that were started pre pandemic and were revved up and continued post pandemic around um more earlier and more robust screening of students um were able to help us identify students faster maybe than

we had before 2020 um so I would say that is definitely a factor our screening and TSS system and um you know just the type of screeners that we were using were able able to allow us to Identify students earlier who you know may have slipped or just not necessarily especially it's so hard when we had so many kids who were home and remote learning um I would also say that um you know and I I felt this tremendously when I was at the row um it what now that we have these programs established they

they're they're known farther and wider than I had anticipated um it's not it has not been uncommon for uh families out of state to reach out and say we Heard about this program we're considering to moving to conquer so that we can you know have our student in this program that was a phenomenon that I had not seen prior to 2019 um and I have been seeing quite a bit of it so I I would say that's something that's interesting um and what was the third question um if you see this trend continuing into the

future I don't see it slowing down to be honest um I don't and you know it's Something that we talk a lot about at the admin level when we you know it's it's really hard and you know actually Dr Hunter and I had just had this conversation because you know we we've got these programs and and some of them are very very popular um so we're going to need to just keep that in mind as we you know go through the years and we have you know more and more students who are either a specifically

moving to conquer for our programs um or just you Know taking advantage of it because we have them um or kids deciding you know it's might be we'd like to to discuss our child's candidacy for potentially returning from out of District um so all of those things I don't see slowing the numbers down the only thing I'd add to that the other work we're doing which shelle's going to talk more about in the coming months um we're doing a lot of tier one aggregate work at the especially at the elementary schools and I think as

we firm that up in literacy especially um as regular ad gets stronger and stronger both tier one Aggregate and the interventions that's where I'm hoping to see some some offsets where we're going to be able to service kids under the regular umbrella and they potentially won't need special education because we'll catch things early and close gaps that way that's part of the work we're doing you've heard some of you have been here know We've built the structures in the systems now we're really working on the content of all of that so I think that's the

regular Ed side that might have some impact over time but it's hard to say how it'll all play out exactly yeah um angel can I mention one other sorry can I mention one other thing because you just reminded me uh Dr huncher um so in the upcoming in November at an upcoming uh faculty meeting I'm so excited to be uh co-presenting with Shelley a roll out Of our new um student support team process and our district accommodation plan um I think think that for she and I to get up there and present side by side

and offer professional development is going to um be very powerful and I think it's also going to send a really strong and clear message that um special education and general education uh folks are are coming together um and we're presenting as a united front I'm very excited for that Opportunity so thanks Shell if you're there she's here than angel go BR yeah Angel um just a question as carile students are rising from eth grade up to cchs what's the collaboration like with Lori Bruce and her team and you know supporting those students as a as

their transitioning to a new school so we are so we follow a similar transition processes we use from coming up from the Middle School um but I would Have to say that you know um it's critically important earlier than later that um we have students from Carlile on our radar um and Lori has been uh wonderful in you know sort of keeping me close and keeping my office close with regards to students who are coming up I think it's something that you know in my short tenure here I have I've significantly prioritized um and I

see that as something that's going to get stronger and stronger because I've made it a really intentional priority excellent good to hear thanks all right there's no more questions we can Mo on or you have a question go ahead just more of a comment that something that stood out to me was this your your mentioning of the fact that there are only 49 out of District placements compared to over a 100 when you were here I just like that just I I knew that conceptually but I feel like hearing those numbers really is Remarkable on

so many levels from like students who are in their Community Schools to also the programs that we have in place to support those students and then also like we are responsible for the budget that has huge budget implications so I just feel like on so many levels that's worth calling out that that's pretty incredible absolutely thank you it is and I think um you've all named it's not just even about the specialed students and what they're Benefiting from by staying but it's benefiting the entire student population and the schools at large and being inclusionary and

you can watch the shift that's happened in the last seven eight years it's been really great it's huge and and can be challenging we might going to pretend it's perfect and I think as a thorough family who was had kids under Angels when she was the principal of thorough you know you built out so many programs At that school and that really launched such an opportunity for the district so it really is very um it's really nice to just hear that data point yeah that's great thank you well thank you angel hopeing thank you tonight

thank you thanks Angel thanks all right we're going to move to the next one um I know the guidelines letter for CPS we're going to cover that with CCSD as a as a as an aggregate so Bob do you want to take us through that from Hunter I'll just sort of preface you know we gave you a lot of information that the Finn finance committee is committees are receiving for their first discussion on Thursday night with us um the intention of this discussion is want it shouldn't have had too many surprises most of it was

information you had seen but we're happy to talk on any of the details but it's also about the meeting we're going to have Thursday with the finance committee um our Practice has always been to talk with the school committee before we meet with the finance committee and often this two-day Cadence that we have this week um so that you all feel like you had a chance to really talk with us on things we're going to be talking on with them so Bob obviously did an enormous amount of work to compile uh the response the precipitous

to the documentation you received is the memo we received from the conquered finance committee um Annually typically it's similar I don't think there were a lot of changes this year um Bob did a good job of trying to use resources that had already been compiled so we weren't recreating Wheels but then to consolidate into a place that is easier to digest and manage um the biggest thing that that's different tonight that you haven't seen and he'll get to that in a minute is the fiveyear projections which is a unique finance committee ask it's very atypical

in the Educational world to be asked for that and I guess this is where I just name mannually the struggle that it is for us to put those numbers together um when we did the fiveyear projections a year ago if we had done if if we' had a crystal ball we would have put another $500,000 into fy2 which is the current Delta at the high school for out of District so they're as good as the moment of time you make them and not really a lot beyond that and I just want to keep Saying that

everywhere um I think sometimes they been weighed pretty heavily in the budgeting discussions that go on with between town and schools and um we're not a business that can sit here and predict that quite the way we might wish we could so they're our best estimate and of course with three-year contracts by the time you get to years four and five they're really bigger and bigger questions um so and I guess my final comment we're Giving you those before we've built the budget so even FY 26 is Bob you know doing some really high llevel

analysis at assumptions so that's my preamble to those fiveyear projections worry me every year so but I'll let you take it from there um so I'm just going to scroll through parts of it just so that you until I get to the section but the beginning the memo is really just Highlighting things that we've already presented to the school committee so I'm going to just jump through those I'm not laughing at you Bob I'm just staring through Alexa that's are you looking I'm gonna look over here I will just highlight that we did include um

and people can reach out to me separately if they have questions I I know that we pres presented this to the school committee before a circuit breaker example of how it's calculated We used to model student Jane Doe here um um but the finance committee was interested in this as well so I just included it in the packet it's not something we provided before but it always raises questions and how do they calculate that I do want to just point out though that you know $134,000 combined transportation and tuition um are we we reimburse uh

we absorb U more than half of that 78,000 so circuit breaker is not a Panacea it's Helpful but um you still have to absorb a substantial among ourselves another thing I wanted to highlight related to circuit breaker um so the state publishes uh circuit breaker reimbursement rates um these are at the macro level and so in FY they started reimbursing for transportation in fy21 this is part of the student Opportunity Act um and they were facing it in and then by um the goal was that by FY 23 They would fully fund uh transportation in

FY 23 they they funded 57% of eligible Transportation costs um and when I say fully fund uh 75% is the most that bill Rec uh reimburse for uh circuit breaker uh this year's reimbursement rate is 44% um we were hopeful and we're expecting um not expecting but we're hopeful for 75% to give you a sense of magnitude um we have about half a million dollars in each district a little bit more than that uh In transportation costs if that 4 4% was 75% we'd have 150,000 to $200,000 more in circuit breaker relief that we would

be able to apply and help offset some of these tuition costs that we didn't budget so we don't have that um we still have I would say healthy circuit breaker you know funding but um not as healthy as it could be if it was fully funded by the state just just not fully funding the student opportunities act what they do is they they do a budget line item For circuit breaker it's certain amount and then when all the districts apply they see oh we have more in claims than you know they have a certain dollar

amount and they apply these percentages and they back into the transportation percentage because there were more claims than anticipated got it yeah I think it's good to to note that we're going to work to share something um Bob's done a great job of obviously explaining this um especially looking at The percentages we're we're looking at State Trends um and we're going to come up with a one pag or so to speak for this committee to see with really headwinds and Tailwinds um as you can imagine from just listening to Bob for about 2 minutes there's

more headwinds than Tailwinds um but having a view on that and I think understanding the the state Trends um and also some of the policy that's driving that like like the student Opportunity Act um these are Huge implications to the to the budget and you can see from the chart here I mean it changes year-over-year if I'm reading that correct Y and can I just ask a question on that chart FY 24 and fy2 where it's 57% and 44% is that of 100% of eligible cost or 75% or it's of 100% of of the eligible

costs are only after you've you've gone four times higher than above four times the typical uh amount of funding per student so it's like above $52,000 they they'll reimburse 75% above that above that of tuition and 44% of Transportation um and I the detailed example walks it through pretty well it's oh sorry I'm sorry look at the transportation sorry what you had circled on the transportation cost yeah the they are funding 75% of the tuition of tuition but on the transportation 57% 44% this year 57 last year correct okay Um I for the year end

reports I provided those to the school committee last meeting I attach those to they have information on that the grant reports are year end general fund reports for both districts um so I'm not going to go through that now I talked about opab last time um we are kind of proud of the competitive grant funding that we were able to get and so we did highlight that and shared that with the finance Committee I mean I guess just to follow up on that note just as you listened tonight the theough playground we're privately fundraising for

partners in rhyme is a grant fund Angel got a grant funding for the iip training and she's bringing in tuitions from other districts so I just want to keep I don't know if we're doing a good enough job of communicating all the work we're doing to not ask for money um but but it's there so maybe that can be part of our Discussion Thursday night yeah absolutely yeah fully agree yeah do we have a breakdown and not not for right this second but maybe just for Thursday of like you know percentage of money that comes

from the state percent that comes from the town from Grants or other it might be some of that in here but there's I mean if there's specific data points that we par rhyme doesn't show up on your grants um on like the stuff you prepare for us from a budget I Think it's something we need to keep thinking about as we get into this budget disc that would be a really interesting not again not for immediately but that might be an interesting just P we've had a lot of asks for go find alternate founding and

I think we're being fairly successful so I just want to be sure we're sharing it and I think it's knowing like the conquer dead fund grants that command that the Foundation grants that come in I mean it is important to just keep saying that that absolutely there are there are there's grant money coming in here well and besides grants are there things that we're asking the parents excuse me to pay for as well I me I'm more famili with those fees on car side like kindergarten but those that's another piece of the story what else

is being offset by because you've got athletic fees and parking fees at cchs specifically so correct and then there's More money in addition to the fees that parents are actually paying right correct MH yeah it's yeah then you're buying your uniform and you're this and that yeah good point so the presentation we have for fincom uh here uh the first slides are things that the school committee seen before but there might be new fincom members there we we we basically included the key strategic plan initiatives from our five-year Strategic plan um and I'll jump over

those um but they're there just for folks who might not be familiar with them um so our Five-Year Plan again this is not our budget um for anybody who's listening this is our our projections as of today um and what we're uh projecting is at a high level um just if this slide is is new to anybody um all funds at the top includes general fund grants for Revolving circuit breaker I then identify funding sources this was something that the fincom had requested so we get funding from Grants revolving circuit breaker really the key things

um and the remainder is the general fund impact so our we're anticipating that our total expenditures will go up about 2.7% um some and then in FY 26 and we'll talk more about why that is um in in a second and then 3.4 3.3 32 32 um our our Cola for teachers is 3% um a lot of our Other bargaining units have have landed there um and just for the sake of planning purposes we've assumed that out um going forward for five years um we did have some U well I'll talk more about some of

the key drivers on the next slide big picture what's in the grants for CPS um is uh Food Service um the homeless Grant uh provides us pretty robust funding um we could get up to $800,000 this year and then the Meco Grant so those are the three big grants we get some smaller grants as well um the revolve ing funds is primarily school lunch and preschool uh for CPS and circuit breaker you know what circuit breaker is so those grants are not the competitive grants we were referencing a minute ago they're the more entitlement grants

that come with certain enrollments or legislation either way um so we're we're um forecasting um Some consistency in those three categories but not a lot of growth and um we show the um the general fund increase is actually slightly higher because the um the expenditure growth overall is slightly exceeding the revenue growth but it's not off by much in this District can we talk about CMS for a minute B sure and that's highlighted a little bit on the next slide okay go to the next slide Then I'm anxious to talk yeah so if you want

to um L L's going to talk a little bit about yeah I think my my name is on this so five years ago we made commitment that we would consolidate um have opportunities for consolidation and reduce costs at the middle school and we were in one building because of the redundancies that we have had to carry for a long time um so we're going to fulfill that commitment it's a half a million dollar commitment um we've Started to identify where that will come from already with Mr Cameron and make some of those lists I'm going

to say out loud you know and I need to talk with the CTA that probably will be some reduction in force unless attrition naturally takes care of it so we're going to have to navigate all of that um so that we feel good about the commitment we made to the community is going to happen it's a onetime lower number so that's half a Percent is um five no it's a it's a percent it's a full percent of increase on the you know decrease on the operating budget that you would have otherwise had to have so

for us to project today that at CPS we can come in three is only because of the $500,000 commitment at the middle school and then it goes back up to that 34 32 3 yeah and it will reset the base so that's worth noting and I think that was some of the discussions that Happened five years ago when the middle school was being financed and that does have an impact um but it's not really indicative of our annual growth it's it's a one-time adjustment sure so and can I just ask a utilities question in terms

of you know the school is obviously an enormous school um fully elect ified so we expect our electrical costs are going to go up so is it really going to be a $500,000 cost savings do you think so go ahead we're not going to Pay for gas so we will pay for more electricity that I feel like we did get an estimate from the consultant that it was going to be relatively you know we'll decarbonize but it'll be relatively cost neutral um I projected three% increases for rate increases even if our usage doesn't go up

I I until we see it I'll be more confident after a year after some time in the building after a full year in the building so you know while we're Building the 27 budget we'll still only have been in the building for a short period of time so um but it's supposed to um be an energy efficient building and the projection that they shared with me we did factor into our 25 budget for the last three and a half months of the year that's going to be more of a risk as we go into FY

26 because we aren't going to be sure we're going to budget based on the best that we know we're going to show the 500 ,000 reduction and We're going to have to wait and see how that all plays out so yeah and I have the same question I as we get deeper into the real budget I'd like to see the projections and will there be additional costs for the new sanitation plant versus the sewage that we currently have yeah we've started to build that we actually started to build in this year knowing we would be

in the building February through June um so yes there'll be some some need to adjust for that as Well that's yeah that's built in for on a pro-rated basis for 25 okay um so we could just see the whole picture of yeah I don't need to see what is happening now but the costs and we know where the the costs are so that yeah the the tricky part is we're going to build 26 without actually living it yet so we'll still be working off the projections we can say what we B we can say what

we did to budget I mean at Willard when they turned it on the lights were on 247 and Everybody started you know I drove byy at 2 a.m. and it was just like a Christmas huge Christmas tree so they finally got that under control so just seem like there'll be some there'll be some bumps for sure there's a school district on the North Shore that had it a lot longer problem on that too so um just to for presentation purposes uh we didn't feel it was appropriate we we the yellow shaded Areas up here are

where we um projected the $500,000 and savings or where we where we've shown them that's not necessarily where they're going to come from right and we did not want to get into specifying specifically where they're coming from now we felt like that would be more appropriate to do with the budget more appropriate if we were making decisions to talk to any uh impacted areas again we're going to hope to Mo do most of this through attrition But we don't know if that's going to be possible yet or not so the the um the CTA we

forecast a little bit higher this year there a 3% Cola we we've had a decent number of retirements so um they're really the key driver on the teachers is um you know you have a balance between 3% Cola then you have steps and Lanes you could have teachers with seven 8% increases depending on whether they Advanced a degree or or got some additional um combination of a step And a degree uh offset by we've had a $60,000 savings on a teacher um retiring who is very experienced and um educated versus a new hire so um

that swings the salary numbers and we get get a better picture of that as we move forward we do get some notifications we did put a a small incentive in the contracts for both they did and I think it's mattered we've had more information in the month of October than we've had in years that's great so thank you right um and Then the the cost projections for future years are based on that you know the escalations and inflation rates are mostly based on what we're experiencing um we do project some moderation in the inflation Contract

Services and supplies as time uh moves forward but we've seen vendors um we've had to fight hard to try to keep them keep their increases um at moderate levels the tuitions reflects um that the state will approve um an inflationary increase for private Schools it also reflects one to two students additional out of District right now we have um three above what we budgeted three students will age up to the high school um but we feel like based really early yeah discussions that were still so so we're forecasting 10% which would equate to about one

one and a half um additional students so when we come to the budget we have to make you know our philosophy has been zerob based we don't typically put these Placeholders in we'll have to have that discussion during the budget process and we'll be transparent about what we um I feel like we're we're all over that yeah right now so I'm yeah that's that's a good place to feel um and then the sickly retirement benefits those are small amounts those are those are winning out um and uh so that's it on CPS okay move on

to the region unless there's any questions no I think just in in the Interest of time just maybe call out some of the the key Parts I don't want to rush you but at the same time I want to be mindful of everyone's time great so um the region um same follows a similar format um the only you know difference I'd say here in the revolving we have some um significant revenues for Adult Ed and Athletics here that we don't have in CPS um that contribute to the revolving numbers um what we're projecting is 3.4%

General fund increase um this year uh 2.9 next year and then 31 22 and 29 the reason for the 22 is um the pension system at conquered retirement um has catch-up catchup uh contributions to get them um funded uh fully funded um those should stop in FY 29 um and that's a significant savings um a couple hundred thousand at least um can you talk about the debt impact yeah the second so this the same this is The same slide again but um showing if we don't factor in debt what those increases are I will say

that conquered fincom typically sets their guideline exclusive of debt so FY 26 will be a challenging year for us um we're projecting right now we would be at about 4.2% um we'd have to think of ways to strategize and you know what we could do to to address that or mitigate that um maybe we leverage some circuit breaker But just keeping all things equal and projecting what costs are and what our Revenue sources are and not getting into borrowing reserves this is what we would project our numbers to be um so again you can see

the general fund increase which is what um would get assessed um to the towns is um I'm sorry the um you well you can see the difference is about 0 eight% so um in the guidelin setting process that's something um yeah I just Wanted to remind ourselves that the guideline in for the town of conquer doesn't include insurance benefits workers comp some things that we do have included in the guideline so those numbers are are higher but that's partly because we're absorbing some of the non you know almost fixed costs you know whatever health insurance

goes up is going to be in this workers comp we're having some ongoing increases there it is offset by some of the decline um in OPB or or or or you're going to have to as a committee to talk about whether you're going to leave that stable or not but that's in this operating budget unlike CPS where the town carries all the opep costs um the debt itself you're on the decline for the high school project so that's why it's beneficial when it's included to make the number feel smaller but um we understand the guideline

process at least in conquer usually does not include that because They're focused on operational costs so all these moving factors and then the assessment on top of it all um which we have good news I think to share that the October 1 numbers are essentially static so there's no swing to either Community really very minor to conquered but very minor um the numbers have essentially not changed so um that's always a relief to not have that additional variable going into the budget process because it adds a layer Of Challenge and confusion both sometimes any other

things you want to highlight um just on that cost driver slide I will just highlight the O the OPB here so you can see the retirement FY 29 goes down from a million to 757,50 at some point if that's supposed to be funded by employer contributions um so that's something we need to do a little bit more research on um with the conquered Retirement Board um opep you can see we're contributing 425,000 that's a item for discussion we'll bring up during the budget process we have we have over $10 million on our OPB trust that's

a lot um could be viewed as a luxury um and um so those are things we have now in our planning um 425 that we we may think about doing differently um and then the last one um looks at what the debt assessments uh what the overall I'm sorry the overall Town assessments would be um I've held uh The um percentage share of each Town flat I think we were within about 0.1% and we were investigating a couple students to see um there was the preliminary data we have comes from school administrative assistance we want

to get the official data that gets um submitted to Desi so we need to do some research but it's going to be very close it might shift a tiny bit um but we we are uh looking at assessment increases that we're projecting of 3.6% in conquered and carile for um FY 26 um again this is a projection not a budget and then 3.2 uh 3.3 23 and 3.0 and these breakdowns are there's a rate by number of students or this is just a fixed in the agreement it's based on number of students okay so it's

based on the October one number of the budget you're building so it's a pretty unique agreement to have it that cleanly of a formula in real time like that there's Other ways to do it that we won't get into so for sure um so that October one number is really important what I will do is work to update what we got pretty good at was um putting together the enrollments for the k8s in both communities and starting to help foreshadow what could happen down the road to the assessments and I think it's time to update

that so you all have a fiveyear view of if there swings coming to either direction um it's nice to see Them coming Carl some big ones the last couple last few years we just saw the U the numbers recently and I think for the most part they're Prett class size is really small with the exception of one maybe two but really and we've got some declined enrollment here too but we also have a big apartment complex coming online in a couple years and a big housing complex so yeah well so anyway we'll we'll at least

get the current numbers together Because this committee's benefited the towns have benefited by at least knowing where they are sure ahead of time and I think two years ago Carlile did a really good job at that when they had that big swing and they were like no we knew it was coming I mean they were really on top of that so prepared for it absolutely so rum all right let's move on to I do have some feedback I went through the um memo and I do see some misses in our part um so and I

wish we Discuss this as a committee because I don't think some of them are reasonable requests okay from the finance committee so the one the first one is um the five your projections on a per student basis that's nearly impossible it's a memo here from the finance committee got it so to do that on a p student basis for five years forward means we'd have to have great crystal ball with enrollments up and down that's just not reasonable so I I think that's Okay that we do not do that um they did ask for the

past five years per student I think we can do that we can have it ready for Thursday but I think we should have it ready once you know going forward I think we should provide that so 5 years back per student spending that's easy math right um the other thing they asked for was student enrollment so I went back and looked at the NASDAQ projections from 2014 and they projected Conquer Carla high school would be at 1491 so I don't think that they really are that reliable I think the much more important thing to do

is for us to get together with the planners of both towns and figure out what the impact when we think these new buildings are coming online and what we think the projected impact was because the Muse Prescott was a big Miss on our part um we projected very little enrollment impact and was easily a hundred students um so I think We know it's it is going to have an impact both of those um by we you mean the town the town didn't predict that we'd have as many students in the The District in the district

yeah they said nah don't worry about it that was but 10 years ago yeah 10 years ago yeah it was definitely a spike not all I think there was other factors as well um I do think there will be some movement in real estate in conquered in Carlile but um but I also like to see enrollment Projections for not only conquer Carla but Boston because that's gone down significantly which has also impacted our enrollment and not in even a worse way so um the other thing is they asked for metrics success and actual performance on

those metrics so if we choose not to do that I think we should just decide not to provide those I think there was a section in there that talked about um I just going to say I think that's in there our strategic plan and How we have a lot of metrics invol in that right but I think they want to see specifics right I mean we talk about metrics all the time I no I know but I'm just saying we you know yeah that's good enough we just we didn't do any specific like data you

know here's this this this and this the changes in in our presentation to you tonight so I think if I'm hearing you right because I'm just making some notes we the fiveyear retrospective yes St we can do that Right right this is I'm just reiterating what you said year projection is difficult I think when it comes to the success metrics just um again I think my my knee-jerk reaction is we are going through that and especially when it comes to metrics with the goals we've done for this year the goal is to try to hyperlink

as much as we possibly can otherwise the document will be like 50 pages just for that I'm Not saying we no no no just giving you my my two cents um and then I think for enrollment I think what Dr Hunter said in in what they just covered is we do get with the two towns um as well as look at the Meco numbers and just come up with kind of a a truth um in the next one because I know we've seen numbers like I said from a carile perspective um and they're not increasing

greatly and they're not predicted to be like our incoming kindergarten I think is 52 kids Our coming our existing kindergarten um which is smaller than it was a couple years ago now and that's even with housing coming in now we also have the MBTA itive coming so um I think there's a lot of moving pieces I I think we just we can look at that as as a separate thing and we can maybe look at that um you know as an agenda item at some point in the in the next few meetings we would like

to see also fiveyear the trends from five years to this year on our you Know because I do think we have some room because our en rment is down right in our schools not a ton and then how much space do we have at CMS blah blah blah you know just I think people are like starting to get anxious that sure do we have any extra space and you know how much and that's in some of the studies correct I mean isn't that in what Bob just kind of went through I obviously can't participate in

the CPS one but I think I listened I think I Heard so um and then for cchs the same thing we just want to do a study on the space and that's built in I think right so the enrollments are down some from even in my tenure um you will have some room to absorb to a point and I guess the question is where's the point right um yeah okay you know and what kind of class sizes do you want to have is going to end up being part of that discussion because that's where you're

going to absorb kids is not Necessarily adding teachers lots and lots of teachers especially at the high school don't have rooms to put them we don't necessarily have rooms um we we might have a little space at the elementaries but I'm talking like a classroom not not extraordinary because you're down two or three sections at each Elementary no at thorow and Alcott not at Willard yeah um so some of it's about class size some of it's about other things like there isn't a thing to Talk about there it's a big picture thing to talk about

there so get actuals to enrollments and some projections of I'm not even going to say the word we can show you actuals of the kids that are in the seats now and as we roll them up what it looks like um over the coming years but projecting what those numbers are I don't know that we're in a good space maybe yeah exactly so I think for the lens that you're asking about for um Capital planning and everything I think If I heard from Bob and others we have studies in in motion or at least planned

we can do the three-year projections and I think that's what all of us are saying around here is the fiveyear is a stretch for us on on a number of different metrics not just enrollment um but is that the consensus that everyone else has heard we really three years we feel like we have a good handle on five is a stretch I just think we could yeah if we could just get more information of What's coming online that we know about which we do know about and how many many units and how many projected I

mean Elizabeth us that's her job yeah I'm actually on an I had an email from her yesterday with some of that information yeah yep okay and the thing with the threeyear projections this year it's quite easy to do the threeyear projections because we're at the beginning of a contract correct the conclusion of the contract doing even a Three-year projection becomes exceedingly complicated when we are entering a bargaining year I think that has been the main um point of tension yeah um that for whatever reason we just it's it's challenging to communicate that why um it's

detrimental for us to share that information agreed I think a lot of us are today this year's great gave you the three years yeah I think history is almost as important to find out what's been happening yeah I mean I Think we're all on the table saying very similar things about having a good handle on three years five years is hard um I think to your point I mean I think some of this is all of us probably want a little bit of a different lens on on metrics and numbers what you want maybe a

little bit different from what I want a little different from what Tracy wants etc etc but I think in the end our goal is to paint a clear picture without Overwhelming um the audience and I think the approach this year of doing a hyperlink to kind of best cases um is going to I honestly think it's going to put us in a better place because the information is going to be more digestible um but it's good feedback we and we should keep on revisiting that I think the enrollment and the studies are are good to

consider okay did I capture that yes yeah okay anyway no that's and we we do typically share the one of the Things was the per people expenditures we do typically share that in our budget presentation um so it hasn't changed since we last presented it but we can include that in the budget presentation and share that with the finance committee it'll be a fiveyear trend yeah exactly all right where we are we at the capital plan yep yep Capital plan items so just you know this is different than what we went through with CPS those

of you who are Part of that are listening in on it uh you know we're at a inflection point at the high school the building's just reaching 10 years old so we are not in a place where we need that big comprehensive view of the building it's coming in a couple of years probably but right now you're really just focused on the large projects that have been on the radar here for a bit um so Bob did a nice job of outlining those projects and just putting you know updates as to Where we are in

them and I think that's for you to discuss now and what and how you want to share that I think my other ask is a little guidance in what I'm taking to the conquered Town manager discussion I'm going to have on Capital because I would name one thing we didn't do a great job we like all of us didn't do a great job of um we went to too many finance committee meetings without talking about the amenities building for example while we talked about CPS Capital and we'd leave the room and not have it come

up and then late in the budget and warrant process um we were kind of all scrambling so I I need feedback on what you want me to share with her as part of the big picture because it is a and and frankly not just to the conquer Town manager but to the car leadership too for for sure all right do want need to present anything I me lineing out there I don't know how Much maybe we could just I mean we've all seen it do we want to just see if there are any questions or

I'm going to ask a simple question before because I know the many of these building is not as easy the track is on there but is that another one that we are seeking Public Funding no no we're hoping to privately fund fund that correct is what are we going to say on Thursday night that's my question yep that's that's my question Easier um and Brian Al and I we'll give you an upate on our perfect okay we can do that or we can do it now if that seems more yeah you know that might make

sense so I think on the if we look at item D under discussion and actions it's school committee goals tracking we really only had one that was due between now and the next meeting which was actually the um appoint school committee leads Alexa Tracy and Brian to identify grant opportunities and waste offs at The cost of the building uh the meni building and honestly other projects Happening by end of October 2024 and start reporting out monthly so this would be your your first report out it does kind of intersect so why don't we do that

together sure so we met on Friday uh we essentially accomplished everything we sort of set out to do and I I can go through those things with you um the track is obviously more simple so um we are reaching out to Simon catalo Carmine Gentile and Mike Barrett to talk about if there are any um grants I've already reached out to Simon um he and I connected this morning for quite a bit um so we're looking at any sort of like recreational grants that can be championed by any of those guys at the state level

um then we talked about um sort of resurrecting CC at play the um we each agreed that we were going to get five sort of names of people we thought could either Spearhead that initiative as um the previous board seeks to pass the Baton uh I actually have three commitments already she was very successful today and I have to say Julie's tracking document has really helped us all lit fire like it um and the selectboard likes it too they reported on that this week um so so we're working with that and then we're going to

shortly set up a meeting with um the Previous um head of CC at play who's just um having a little bit of a family um sure stuff going on right now um and then with respect to the amenities building we were going to also talk with those same Representatives about ADA Municipal grants I talked to Simon this morning there are many they are currently open he is trying to ascertain um sometimes they might exclude new construction so his Aid Kyle is working on um identifying which grants we would Be eligible for and I did take

a look back and some of the things are like I think about you know your outcut situation there like there they're things like Curbing and ramps they're smaller scale projects so they typically give to about I don't know like 15 to 20 towns every year but it's worth it conquer is not on the list for the past like five years carile is I'm not sure what they got it for it didn't say what they got it for but they received a Grant in 2024 I think yeah I have an idea but okay not for today

so um so that's sort of those were our sort of deliverables um and uh when CPC and conquered opens in February of 2025 and stays open till September and then carel I think it opens in January did we talk about January I think that sounds about right and I've got the sort of started the question just in terms of how does this work work with carile and The high school so right there's research being done but no answers yet so I think as you're finding this information out and we're hearing about the capital plans and

even just the guidelines um but more through the capital lens why don't we take the information that you're Gathering get an update on um what we think is actually things that we're going to put our put our name in the Hat for um and then also we at the timeline and the contingencies That Bob's laid out and maybe we can revisit this either at the 19th meeting or even before that the one we have on Seventh or so sixth sixth yeah I mean just a quick update on Bob talked today to Gail Associates who's doing

the design of the amenities building they'll be ready to bring you three four options four options on the 19th of November of November um which will have estimated costs associated with them wouldn't you be the good news fa um we we pretty what We're hearing is going to be less than $2 million it's great news um we thought so definitely plumbing code changed in January of last year and requires less bathrooms uh for different athletic fac specific specific to athletic facilities there's College there's High School level and so and professional so specifically bathrooms we would

need the variance for the sinks it seems like they didn't change the so you're going from 23 to 17 it's January 24 yes last year this year 24 right I'm sorry I'm thinking like we're almost at 25 in his world it's 20 next year right so you're going from 23 bathrooms 17 17 yeah and we still need a waiver for the sinks so we still have a plumbing board exercise to do yeah can I ask you guys a followup question on the see first of all that's awesome great great news um on the grants the

CPC grants for both towns is your proposal that we would apply like January at some Point in the next cycle and then for for amenities or just for track or for both the track the track is going to take some time to fund raise I mean we're so I do not see a track um Coming online for years I think this is going to take multiple years to fund raise and as the fundraising once there are professionals out there that I've worked with in the past with with fundraising where they'll tell you like once you

hit a certain Number you know the project is going to come to fruition if you can raise whatever percentages is and it's some formula once I think you get to that level of fundraising that's when you would trigger like looking for Grants and actually applying for them because then you know you're there and it's going to work um so I you know you have and you want to close the gap right you know you might say you do it earlier than that I think is the idea um what so What about the amenities building would

you I think I mean I to to me if if costs are going down um and there's you know we we've had multiple um meetings with the disability Coalition we you know Simon seems to think that there's some money out there world I think you know depending on what that looks like and hopefully we'll have some more information before the 19th I think it will be dependent on that yeah okay Because iine getting back to what do we need to do tomorrow on Thursday night yeah can we we can leave it as a I think

it's a little highlight of what you've done here you know what we've talked about here but also Thursday isn't focused on no it's not on Capital not on capital capital November 18th I'm saying so we don't need to have a long we don't need to have a no this is I think this is getting closer to the 19th my my suggestion Alexa that I briefly spoke and um I think what would be really helpful based on what you just mentioned is having like a timeline view of when the grants are coming um like even including

what like we're going to get a proposal or some estimates so to speak um all the in not I want to say internal sorry it's my corporate jargon um but the conversations that we're having between all the different committees I think think we need to see Those things on the timeline and what the dependencies are to meet the different fiscal years CU I think that would be helpful um obviously like I idea of like when grants are due and then um you know even the like the capital look back that we've talked about of things

that just understanding what we've done in the past so um that way we can have one view I think that was that worked well with fincom with doing um having getting ready for the Guideline conversation with headwinds and Tailwinds I think similar approach with this but I think the timeline with this it's like hard to keep track of everything so I think that would be great because even what you just mentioned with the track I'm like it's a great Point might be three four years out given what you're talking about let's go two to two

years yeah don't we have another me right so much of why this was on the agenda for tonight isn't About Thursday night it's about the conversation that we have to have with the town manager and CFO so we'll we'll take what you talked about and share that is that scheduled at this time um we emailed them today to set that up you think it'll be before after our next meeting they from what we understand they're collecting from their department heads until the 31st so I don't know if it'll be before your next okay good to

know um I I just also want to point out The capital stabilization Fund in the memo um for I'm just going to say my observation is that our Capital process seems like nails on a chalkboard um right now and um that it g would give um Dr Hunter and I some flexibility if we had a capital stabilization fund of course we we bring things to the committee it also give us some flexibility not have to go to the towns for small projects like we're going to have HVAC units that are going to die on The

roof and it's going to be 40 50,000 that we can't fit into the operating budget we we need some flexibility we need to think of a way to do it we need to work with the towns on how do we fund it um and there's different ways so we'll talk about that during the budget process but I think it would be um a mistake not to pursue that we did have one with the old cchs yeah we do have it we just don't have any money money a way to money into It I suggest you

go to Partners in rhyme with these moving forward Bob it's great all right so we'll definitely have to we'll cover this at the at the next meeting for sure even if it's just an update um is everyone okay if I move on to the goals tracking I think we just just covered it but just to wrap it up with the bow um I'm glad everyone liked the tracking I think it's just helpful to understand like what's coming do um so I Know we talked about before but we don't need to pull up the actual document

that was the only one but next month we can just go through it and see if there's anything that we still have concerned about or if something's off track um and we'll do that next at the next meeting all right conference masc conference you want to cover this one oh yeah sure gladly take volunteers going to pretend to get busy we need a Representative going or no well that's what the went last year no one wants to go so the masc annual conference is on November 6th to 9th on the cape um it's actually a

really as much as we're all like looking not making eye contact it's a really it once you're there it's just coordinating it's the right um so it's Wednesday it says till Saturday but really it ends on Friday afternoon um this the agenda has posted I was just Looking through it and it's really some really good presenters some really good panels um so we're I don't think we're required to send a delegate but we can send a delegate we have in the past and um so if anybody wants to go one thing we have done in

the past is just go there's like a Friday is like a full day conference that's what I know Cynthia and I went to that last year it was I really learned a lot um I think I took like half a notebook of notes but um Yeah I don't know is anybody interested in going I'm interested in going I I I have work committ that make it near impossible when it's on the cape um if there's a virtual component I can maybe do something on Friday are looking I think it's going to move year they are

putting I know last year they put their panels online after the fact so you could watch them but that's yeah it's a biger commitment honestly well if There's nobody going we don't need to vote so yeah okay if anyone schedule changes yeah there is a big vote coming up that's at this conference about mcass so yep well they actually have taken a position on it as well um no no this conference is voting to eliminate mcass and have a inter to try something else masc yes at the conference oh that's what oh okay that's that's

interesting because that's where last year they voted to have this ballot initiative Since essentially yeah okay Mariano and I forget the other person are already pushing back to say that they're not going to adhere to the ballot if it passes question too yeah I saw some of that all right well I'm going to keep to this who does anyone want to go and anyone can go I think you can still get the early bird pricing too if you really want to go but I can't go okay the district would cover the cost so it's not

y I mean it's carile has a day and a half off that week already yep well so yeah that's the other challeng vacation to the game oh well it's not required yeah it's fine it's well if anyone schedule changes let us know when we're we're happy to sign anyone up yeah we've had extraordinary participation in the past need to be perfect every year okay all right all right well that's That's that all right so now we can move to public comment um as a reminder our public comment period will be a period of 20 minutes

uh this is a meeting in the public and not with the public so the school committee will not be responding to any comments if you're in the room and you would like to speak you can submit a blue form to me and you will be called to speak that's not it this is it um if you are on Zoom you can use the raised hand feature when called To speak please state your name and address before you speak we will go every other starting with a comment in the room and then taking a comment on

zoom and you'll have a time limit of three minutes I have one sheet up here does anyone else have a comment sheet that they want to bring up all right right Mike Williams thank you let me begin with the story characterizes my experience as a black person in this country if I stand In front of my property most everyone from sanitation worker to public official views me as a Workman now being a Workman is perfectly honorable but what is it about this culture that can only see me as a Workman but not as a homeowner

I think this is a consequence of the corrosive effect of our nation's perspective on RS conquer likes to think that this doesn't happen here but I can Assure you that it does this Corr corrosive effect permeates nearly everything in our society consider our October 8th school committee meeting I saw innocent courageous students unable to Grant the same acknowledgement to one person of color particip ipating in the evening's exercise as the only black person in the audience is it not my right is it not my responsibility to point out this Perception to those people that are

in charge of forming the hearts and minds of the Next Generation how can I possibly expect things to improve if I don't impart my perspective our superintendent scolded me for discreetly imparting My Views I would remind remind you all that informative critique is quite different from criticism I then watched the just concerns of our Boston families as Voiced by the Medco ptg chair regarding the program's management structure its director turnover Medco student census and achievement I watched all of their concerns be ignored then I witnessed a discussion on the 2024 youth risk benefit youth youth

risk behavior survey the the data on the students deemed higher risk the transgener students nonb binary non-heterosexual students brought our regional chair chair to to tears Only subsequently did I find that the assembled Educators omitted discussion on similarly troubling data covering Hawaii and Pacific Islanders Middle Eastern American students black and African-American students with only two student cohorts identified in their data as higher risk why would the data on this one cohort of students be omitted from display or discussion I was Appalled I witnessed all of this in just one meeting so I ask you how

can I trust you to do the right thing by me and people like me in this community when you've clearly demonstrated that you don't acknowledge wide swaths of this community I along with others in our community are willing to work with you to improve but we challenge you to do better and I demand that you do better thank You thank you any comments any questions on Zoom that hand I think that hands been up the whole meeting so you could ask Kate I can promote if she declines we'll know she's got interested she's not responding

so I'm okay not sure there any other comments in the room all right all right we have the consent agenda Next uh the Surplus cchs science department printer uh warrants you can see those outlined under one two three and four miss anything no that's it all the warrants pay roll I'll take a motion I move that we approve the um consent agenda as written on the October 22nd agenda second thank I'll second sorry you're welcome how wonderful uh any Discussion all in favor I great uh moving on to correspondence anything from the CPS side I

think it was all there was only a couple into the region I don't think there was anything into CPS this week and I don't think I I'm losing track of the the weeks you got a letter into um that the superintendent took care of about lanyards for the correct n students who are visiting correct right I think that was it I don't Remember and a response from just the one um from the metco ptg about um her public comment that's correct and I did respond to that all right great anything else any other correspondence okay

um all right at this time we have the superintendent chair Leon's update um and a request for our goals you posted oh yeah so that is sry I was thinking that was the week before so I will say Yeah in a lot of instances some of the questions that we've been receiving I'll just say this at a more of a macro level um a lot of the things are covered in the goals so for example we have a lot of questions that have come through on metrics and making sure that we're we're going through those

yrbs was one of the first examples of that where're going through it um so why we also share the information so there's I think the ybs is 88 Pages some of the information that We're going to go through even with special education we covered some of that tonight so this is going to be an ongoing benchmarking that is why we're going to go through the goals every every time we meet um even if like tonight is fairly quick um just to make sure we're on track and we're doing what we said we were going to

do so those are there um and then yeah I think a couple of the League of Women Voters and a few others asked for the goals so we've sent Those out in either PDF or jpeg form um and we posted them online as well correct posted agenda yep um okay so those that's correspondents thank you for pushing me I was thinking that was the week before um superintendent chairs in liaison update do you want to go and rever reverse order for the liaison Tracy want sure start sure okay um Dei commission is supposed to meet

tomorrow I reached out to the chairs because it looks like They didn't post for tomorrow they posted for Thursday so their meeting is on Thursday at 5: and it is just to elect their uh I think just to elect their chairs it doesn't look like anything else is on the agenda so I'll provide Clarity after that meeting um select board meeting last night the capital requests are due on October 26th I think I have that date right and then on November 18th um the recommendations will go to select board December 16 They're going to follow

up with the select board fincom and school committee so that will be like a joint meeting of all of us on December 16th there was some discussion about cell coverage which I know we always find exciting here um the and what's happening now at Emerson umbrella and it does impact specifically I think it would be Alcott and maybe a portion of the high school which is the only reason I really talk about cell coverage um it is not moving Forward in Emerson umbrella right now I guess they put the RFP out and they had to

um it didn't meet the minimum requirements so they have to put it out again and then the RFP for the cellar at the landfill has been posted and hopefully that might help the high school um they were looking for feedback from all the chairs on the liaison rolls and how those are going so if you have any feedback give that to Andrea Fountain is it fountain or Fontaine I'm Not sure I think it's Fountain I think it's Fountain okay Andrea Fountain um I know Wendy's online tonight uh she she presented to select board about her

goal in our tracking they all really loved our tracking document so I think we're going to see that from the select board at some point um and the town meeting study committee that was the other thing I think I'd sent you an email about that um there are two forms coming up and I'm not sure that parents are always aware Of that I know in Carlile you're on the town meeting study committee isn't it tonight uh one of them is tonight right now in person and it's not being recorded so the only other option you

have is on zoom and so that's kind of a bummer that they had the same night as our meeting but that's okay um so if there's any way we can get information to parents to fill up the survey I think they're really looking for feedback and I'm not sure that they're getting a lot Of feedback from parents I don't know we'll find I was say one one suggestion and Brian I know you were part of it so I might lean on you but we had that they came to our meeting last week I watched it

it was excellent it was really helpful because that's how you're going to get more parents to participate and they were specifically looking for how do we engage parents more so I don't know if it's the two of you reach out to the T meting study committee or you see Him at the um chair's breakfast we can that might be help don't you have your own meeting study committee well in car they have a repres schol committee representative they have a school committee committee but they have representation from the select board the school committee and the

fincom on their Town meting study committee which we don't have that here so um I think it's important for us to kind of give some feedback so that's Just my feedback yeah that would be great I know that the Town committee studying meeting uh town meeting study committee has visited the Dei commission requesting their feedback so I know they are doing that here in conquer great yeah I mean you I mean I don't know if you want to invite them to a meeting to get our feedback I know it's G out in some of the

ptg like newsletters um because I've seen it in like my kids um which is good I mean that's a I think Parents read that but there are certainly more things we can do and I Think It's Tricky like it's cchs I know that like on the PA side because it's a conquered to me study committee they don't post just conquered specific unless it impacts both towns but I'm just getting it out there to the world participate in the town meeting do you know when it closes uh it's in November it's in November sometime I think

they have over 700 Responses so far so they're getting some good responses I just couldn't believe that the number in conquered of people who attend town meeting is like 10 or 11% of the population when the state a it's actually not because we we discovered this at our meeting on Friday say that sounded like no huge number okay way below that so we have and our we have 14,000 registered voters in conquer roughly correct me if I'm wrong Cynthia about 14,000 and at most maybe we had a thousand at town meeting if you look at

the averages it's but it's not 12% or I heard that number and I was like that is car must have misspoke at the meeting I think Carrie reported that or somebody yeah so that was wrong I know how you do your math we're likeing at 3% so that's why it's a little bit more of a concern normal night it's way below that well sometimes it's 300 people right right the final night yeah Need a they actually have it if you're interested in looking for it they have it on the town website for the past 10

years they have the numbers of people that have attended town meeting Y and the last like huge attended one um was like back in 2013 with water bottles and the Doug White Field so yeah so when there's High interest items you get a large number and then then it crashes yeah still it's interesting that engagement was More was more yeah yeah yeah who else has a Le on update thank you I was going to ask you brought up last about the t uh the uh MCI conquered task force does not have any school committee members

I would like to see s leas with that committee yeah my list to talk about I um was going to mention that we I would like to reach out to Mary and request that but I wanted to bring that to this group U before we did that I already requested It yes Alexa did after a select board meeting especially if there's housing involved as well so well it was actually after a finance committee meeting the finance committee and Eric wrote a letter to the editor um this a week or two ago um and so given

that so much of it could impact the schools I was very shocked that we don't have a representative so is everyone okay if Carrie were to talk to Mary about that and we Can because even if it doesn't it impacts the growth it impacts so many faes of our community and very complicated to say the least abut so anyway okay we had a cmbc meeting on Thursday I guess on budget on schedule which is good yeah the uh student committee um there's a student Middle School schol committee that is advi advising and they came to

our meeting so it's was pretty cool to see and they had a walk through of the building so that Was the best walking them through the building yeah those pictures awesome any from you Brian U I guess just a quick one on the Carlile select board side coming off of a meeting two weeks ago where they got a fiveyear sort of financial forecast and the headline was basically you either have to find a way of decreasing cost are increasing Revenue no huge surprise there know easy um but this Thursday morning I think it's on the

agenda for 8:45 a.m. they will actually be meeting to set uh fiscal year 26 goals so I will be um joining that one on Zoom to to listen in and that's Thursday morning so ahead of um the meeting planned for Thursday night perfect um okay well that's that's great and I think just from aison standpoint I think one of the things just to check in on we're not we don't have to necessarily talk about it tonight but maybe to bring to the the next meeting Um all of us obviously have different commitments outside of this

group um whether they're personal professional or other volunteer um commitments if if the weight is too great for what you're working on please bring it to our attention because we don't want anyone um over over liaisoning um you shouldn't whatever a word for that um cuz I mean I know like I know for me chairing is one is is is a lot of work which is fine um but then I know Brian and I both serve On Carlile not looking for pity but we serve like I serve on the seac there and have other um

subcommittee commitments um in addition to what we do here um so it's going be a little bit daunting at times um so I know like Tracy you have four meetings this week so let's just try to some weeks they just all line up at the same and so I think it's perfectly fine like to call call your backup call your back I am your backup for those some for a couple of those and Like on those weeks like I'm happy to jump in usually I realize it when the week's upon me and like oh wow

that was a three-hour meeting last night followed by another one tonight yeah followed by another one Thursday night yeah that's why I say just want to say it publicly and out loud like if that's happening a lot um and it's not just a oneoff let's maybe take a closer look at it or maybe flipping the back up to the primary Etc we just rotating I'm happy to rotate With you too totally um okay great um Dr Hunter great thank you just a few highlights that I think are worth sharing tonight um tomorrow we're in the

conference season so uh cchs has already had their parent conference date the Middle Schools is coming up we're embarking on a new um activity of student L parent conferences at grade 8 so the kids will be hosting their parent parents with their home base advisor during the course of the day reporting Out on all their different classes and really taking ownership of of that discussion with their family so we're really excited this was a teacher-led initiative from the eth grade team at CMS and we're just excited to hear how this goes it's been well received

it's very different as parent to sign up for a conference they're not going to travel and try to get to so many different teachers they're going to have one conference um logistically that allows The schedule to accommodate every family where when we booked sixth and seventh grade in the typical format we have 35 families who got boxed out of the schedule already so we're excited to report back to you about how that goes it's been um been an exciting preparation process uh tomorrow and kudos to Shell tomorrow is a districtwide PD afternoon so we have

a really rich set of opportunities for faculty um there are choices there but There are a little more contained in terms of scope as to much more focused on some of our initiatives and goals um whether it be at the building level the department level or the district level so very content focused in some cases whether it be math at the high school or early literacy trauma on and on so I've shared that list with all of you we're excited to get that day going tomorrow and get the feedback on um whether some of our

goals for professional Development are starting to actualize in terms of just being a lot more more targeted and Co correlated with what the efforts are that we're trying to impact in classrooms um I was able to attend the Meco leadership conference a couple not about 10 days ago um all the districts were primarily represented I attended along with Katie stall Matt Lucy and um the current Meco leaders Molen Andre and Solange um it was a really great day we Spent a lot of time as a collective Meco Community um updating ourselves on where we are

in Meco 2.0 there's a blueprint and a set of uh commitments is the choice word which I think is fantastic um the Consultants were there those 13 commitments really align with our deib strategic plan it was really telling at how closely aligned they are I was asked to serve on a panel so that I could share out um the two things that we were asked to share was the derogatory Language policy which I realize maybe not all of you are familiar with two years ago is we built a really robust policy as to expectations for

what words would be used in our schools and what wouldn't and then also supported teachers as they brought in diverse texts and needed support and how to manage those words when they showed up in primary sources or certain literature um and we've come a really long way in both um and then I also shared out the Bias reporting system and the Google form and all of that and had a I didn't know when Millie asked me to do the panel that I would then host two breakout groups afterwards um but they were well attended as

well where other districts came over and were able to ask questions and um take our resources back with them so it was a great really rich day we were Gillette Stadium which is a nice little perk um great photo out on the field yeah um and then lastly just Wanted to update you on the shelter situation um again I think you know we're going to be one of the long-term shelters here that just feels really obvious to me we're one of the biggest ones at 85 active rooms and because we're doing a great job um

both as a community and including a wide range of diverse families many Haitian immigrants supporting those families and and welcoming them I'll you know be really proud of the work the schools have done In terms of that same work um we have now enrolled about we're at 51 kids today that have enrolled and we're transporting another 10 back to school of origin um 37 of those don't hold me to 37 high 30s are at Willard um in those classrooms primarily grades K and one um and what is happening now is the rooms are starting to

turn over which is what the state's asked for is to well it isn't great the families are getting housing So that's that's fantastic um and it's adding to a little bit of what we're doing um the kids have rights under Kento if they get housing in another District to stay here for the rest of the year if they choose and we then bust co- share um cost to bust them back so those numbers are only going to go up for the rest of this year until the reset happens as the school year closes um so

we're thrilled for the kids that they get to stay and it's adding a Little bit more to our um spokes to keep track of with more Transportation needs and things like that so and none of that transportation is um why can't I think of the word covered covered oh it'll all be subsidized will 100% will be subsidized District it's got the lag time to it but we now have money in the budget to front it so we're in fine shape there um and all the kids that are enrolled are still the $104 per day um

with the caveat that I should Mention that the legislators has only approved that through December 31st so I ALS also uh reached out to Simon and asked how that was going and Kyle wrote nice note back saying they were certainly talking about it so I would be stunned if it's not going to be furthered and they just haven't done it yet um but we definitely want to keep an eye on that but you know the labor of love continues with the shelter um population that we've been able to Really welcome here and um just kudos

to the community there's all sorts of things that go on to support these families and whether it's the thrift shop or foods that go in or the um whatever the families are needing or being well cared for and we're excited to have them so um I'll keep you posted but the numbers are you know that's we're up to almost 70 kids that were serving one way shape or form and will you also let us know if that volunteer Preschool kicks in again yeah we're needing a few more volunteers to get it off the ground and

um part of what's happened our family coordinators bandwidth has stretched with all the numbers of kids and she was really the lead there so we're having to re-evaluate at the moment to figure out how to get that up and running it's feeling like a stretch at the time being so those are my updates thank you go ahead yeah I think the the biggest Update um that I have is we had the ptg's uh meeting which is always really helpful just understand uh we already socialize what our goals were but then also just hearing what their

goals were um and then just continuing to to socialize what what the needs are so we did that um the chair is breakfast so we also heard about um uh town meeting study um and a few other uh key areas being being able to just update people on what we we're focused on uh getting The time with uh Eric from fincom Mary from select board and others around the community is really helpful um and then again I just I keep coming back to the goals for for two reasons one it's accountability and and two um

just from the data standpoint um so I know we had yrbs a couple weeks ago that's like that's going to keep on going even hearing from Angel um looking at the numbers that she's pulling from that um and if there's areas that we want to Dive into I mean it's on our goals for a reason we can keep on visiting if there's specific points um in the data that we want to cover we just have to get it on the agenda and go through it um uh but then also we're going to start looking at

other information so for me it's just about working with Carrie working with Dr Hunter and all of you to just make sure that we're staying on track to what we committed to and not going too far off track um and getting You know set up for success for the for the next year sh's about to bring you all the academic data at your next meeting correct cast sat Dibbles all yeah so that's that's kind of the focus like I said we have a lot of things happening through the different uh subcommittees and Liaisons but I

think I I see it as like our role is to really just make sure that we're focused on the right right things have student achievement first and foremost and um And get the agenda with the the topics we want to cover so if we're not doing that please let's uh you know bring it up Carrie yeah you covered most of my updates too but the one One update is um we had a really productive meeting Alexa Dr Hunter Bob Julie and I with fincom um members last week about the guideline and it was a really

really productive conversation um it was really just about it was really about process and understanding um special education costs And formulas and how it all works um cuz obviously that is there's a lot of nuance there a lot of details too um so anyway we it was a really productive conversation that I think hopefully will um set the stage for a really good meeting on Thursday yeah um and then two just housekeeping updates one is that we B we posted our meeting for Thursday so um I know I texted about this but the meeting has

been posted so if you are able to come um terrific we would love Everyone to be there um as able and um we can all participate in that conversation given that it's public we can zoom yeah yes it is on Zoom that's true good point yeah can I just ask a question on that because I think our agenda says 7 to eight and the car fincom says 7:30 to 8:30 so so we we posted a half an hour early because well we're going to do CPS as well but also just to make sure we're there

on time and then there is it will adjourn early Ier than ours um we ours will they J earlier because they're having a carile conquered fincom joint meeting to discuss the idea of a joint guideline um and that is not with us so we wouldn't be invited to that last portion of it does that make sense that's why to participate so you probably 7:30 would be fine conquered conquered is likely to be a little bit earlier yeah Carlile fom's posted for 7:30 so I think that's your okay Mark It's the car I mean all of

this is like this is all like an is like 7 to 7:30 is probably conquered 7:30 to 80 okay I'll L for 7:30 then car and then 8 to 8:30 The Joint conversation but again who knows how it will actually play out all right oh wait one other note is that um our next meeting is on Wednesday not Tuesday because of election day right and then one other note oh we scheduled a policy subcommittee meeting Cynthia Hunter uh and Julie and myself but I'm not going to say the date because I'm actually hoping we can

change it working on scheduling a policy in November last we have to travel that day so okay so good I changed something around so I will change it back well let's talk if we could just stay back for like two minutes after the meeting and talk about it that's fine it's not a big deal okay at all M pieces um sorry about that That's great thank you that's it I can't believe I forgot the fincom one that was a really good one um all right so is every so maybe just before I ask for a

motion to adjourn did everyone like the format for tonight so we could get the students upfront sure and everything or is it okay if we I actually had a couple thoughts yeah go ahead I think we should move public shocking um public comment up a little bit and move Lea's like the superintendent Cher and Le's on I think Especially like what Lor's updates are really good for the community we lose people so I would move those two up and everything else down we don't like the expression split the baby but I would recommend we put

Dr Hunter and then all of us later Lance later I'm fine with that sure we can split those yeah no problem I like that that's great okay any other feedback I don't know how much they really interact no it's just everyone kind of sharing out yeah but I Think then people don't feel so pressured to rush their liaison reports because it's not blocking something else sure yeah and the public comment I know in car we have it later in the meeting so people can listen to more of the meeting and then ask questions used to

way back in the day but we can before and after okay not way back but our policy no no I know I'm saying no yeah no I think our meetings are long enough I Know but does it say when it just says one what says I think it just say in the policy there's like a suggested agenda too but that it's suggested so correct but I like moving the uh a lot of school committees to the consent agenda at the end yeah it just makes more sense should public comment like yes like I I would

still keep students and presenters first to the extent possible like we could have still kept Justin for first yes I whatever anyway We're all saying the same thing yeah yeah let's leave okay can I have a motion to adjourn so moved thank you just aour so yeah Alexa doesn't believe adjournment motions I thought I I thought I had to ask for it I know right oh there you go