[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:13] Of the Dover School Committee, today is September 22nd, 2026, and we are meeting in the, sorry,
[0:22] Dover School Library, the time is now 631. So, personal agenda is community comments. We have
[0:32] provided a virtual link for those who wish to make a comment, but for whom it is not possible or
[0:36] prefer to attend in person. Are there any community comments? Okay, before I, before you go,
[0:45] I want to read something. Please remember that community comments are an opportunity for members
[0:51] of the school committee to listen to members of the community. As chair of this meeting, it is my
[0:55] responsibility to facilitate this communication between the public and the committee present this
[1:01] evening. I personally believe the communication is a critical element to assist the members
[1:06] of this elected body. To effectively facilitate this discussion, I encourage anyone providing
[1:14] comments to consider that the volunteers that comprise this committee are your neighbors,
[1:18] friends, and fellow community members. We welcome all points of view, but I would respectfully
[1:22] ask that all you treat these committee members in a manner consistent with that in mind.
[1:27] Collectively, we are here to support the administration who in turn assist our educators and support
[1:31] staff to educate, care for, and invest in, and it's a fire of children.
[1:35] Community comments are not a forum for answering questions or engaging in debate.
[1:39] We respectfully request that you please make your comments brief no more than three minutes
[1:43] and that you move the discussion forward by adding new information.
[1:46] Please try to avoid repeating points that have already been made.
[1:49] One of the public, once the public comment section of the meeting has concluded, we'll move
[1:53] to other business and unsolicited comments for the community will no longer be permitted.
[1:58] this is standard operating procedure in school committee meetings across the
[2:01] three school districts. If you desire more information or have specific questions
[2:05] contact information for committee members on the district websites and I will
[2:10] note that generally we limit these to Dober residents and understand you're
[2:15] not a resident but we will welcome your comments. I appreciate you.
[2:19] We're ever you feel comfortable maybe just so we can sort of see you.
[2:24] I'm sorry to put the phone down.
[2:27] So, good evening.
[2:28] My name's Joey Ford.
[2:30] I'm an independent educational watchdog
[2:32] and reformist.
[2:33] I call myself Parent Data Force.
[2:35] So, I go district to district throughout the state
[2:38] and I try to find patterns
[2:39] and just bring some helpful information
[2:42] from what I'm discovering in different places
[2:45] and bring it back to the committees
[2:46] and hopefully giving you guys some valuable information
[2:49] to work with, and only better yourselves.
[2:52] So, my latest project, I've submitted so far forty-three different public records requests
[2:59] in different districts asking them for their settlement agreements.
[3:03] So, this is for like special education, regular education, stuff that involves educated
[3:07] up students, not the educators themselves.
[3:11] I don't want anything to do with staff or anything like that, that's something else.
[3:15] So, this would be like memorandums of understanding, memorandum of agreement, mediation agreements,
[3:19] and stipulations, consent agreements, side agreements,
[3:22] side letters, similar ethnic agreements,
[3:24] that sort of stuff.
[3:26] Superintendent McCoy, I sent it to you,
[3:28] to be in your box.
[3:29] I just want to let you guys know,
[3:31] this isn't meant to be something hostile.
[3:33] I'm doing this simply for research purposes,
[3:35] and to be able to compare the different districts.
[3:37] Dover Sherwin has a very well-known reputation
[3:40] for being one of the best districts in the country.
[3:43] So I really want to see how you guys compare
[3:45] to some of the less wealthy districts
[3:48] and seeing how things operate behind closed doors.
[3:52] And as a special education parent myself,
[3:55] I understand that a lot of these contracts,
[3:56] you know, they're not something that's done maliciously
[3:59] or in that phase a lot of the time
[4:00] and these things are done to get children what they need.
[4:03] But just to help other parents
[4:04] and not really get an understanding
[4:06] of how these things work, that's why I'm doing this.
[4:09] So I just wanted to let you know,
[4:10] say you're not my god, you know,
[4:12] we're under attack, I swear I got a piece.
[4:14] Thank you, thank you so much.
[4:16] Thank you.
[4:19] Any other comments in the other online comments?
[4:24] Thank you so much.
[4:28] Okay.
[4:29] That is a cool close community comments.
[4:34] Next on the agenda are the superintendent comments.
[4:36] Thank you.
[4:37] I only just want to have a specific thank you this evening to our
[4:41] tickering community for a smooth opening of school.
[4:44] So thank you to our parents, our bus drivers, our leaders,
[4:48] our educators, of course, and our students.
[4:50] It's been a great positive opening of school of have an opportunity as this
[4:54] Heather to get into some classes to attend the all school assembly. So lots of
[4:58] positive great start and we're going to keep that momentum going. So thank you
[5:02] Dr. Reineman. I'm thinking this at consent for all of your hard work. And other than
[5:07] that just a reminder that open house is on Thursday at 5.30. So it's your turn to
[5:11] read your time to return to school and meet the teachers that we look forward to
[5:15] seeing you then. Otherwise, happy to take questions, comments, feedback about
[5:19] anything. We got great update in joint support many many times. Oh thank you. Yeah well you're up to date
[5:27] up to date on all the happenings and I agree with all the smooth opening. All right,
[5:31] now I want to thank you for the weekly why. I think this is a great initiative and I saw you have a
[5:37] lot of hearts on it and I hope people read it and like it and submit questions and we'll have
[5:43] suggestions of course later but I think it was a great way to have a targeted
[5:49] information like a small snippet of something that people are asking about.
[5:52] Thank you. I usually don't get a lot of positive feedback but I did get a lot
[5:56] of positive feedback from staff and from families. Great. And a lot of hearts you know
[6:00] it's just a thing. It's not about the heart. I only have so many hearts.
[6:04] No I think it was a great initiative. Thank you. The Moose was popular.
[6:11] No one's
[6:12] I remember the first, when we first launched Parent Square, there was this self-consciousness
[6:18] about people not liking the post.
[6:20] I think we've gotten over that.
[6:23] We're getting there.
[6:23] Yeah.
[6:24] There probably is not a lot of activity at any point.
[6:28] It's a great form though.
[6:32] Thank you.
[6:33] All right.
[6:34] Next on the agenda are financial reports, starting with the work report.
[6:39] Yes.
[6:39] Thank you.
[6:39] Good evening, everyone.
[6:40] one in your packet tonight are your approved boards closing up fiscal year
[6:46] 26 and then what we've done to date to fiscal year 27 and I will continue to
[6:51] thank Jesse for stopping by town hall and signing. It's actually being passed
[6:56] wanted to go. So yeah, next time I get the email to sign, I will sort of loop
[7:04] going into the process and we will have a smooth hand. Perfect. Thank you for
[7:09] me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
[7:13] And moving on to your budget close out. So this is the sort of where
[7:19] we ended fiscal year 26. She had a pretty good synopsis when we last met in June, but things
[7:24] happen over the summer and we close the books. And so tonight in your packet I provided sort of a
[7:30] summary of each of the budget category salaries, expenditures and out of district. As you can see,
[7:37] salaries. We were right at budget. There are some variations that I explain at a high level.
[7:44] Remember you can go back into your monthly report if you want to dig into more of the specifics,
[7:50] but I tried just to hit the highlights. On the expenditure side, I think that the driving
[7:55] force there was, if you go back up to salaries, we actually took outside services for our SLP,
[8:01] are speech language pathologists and turn that into a position in the contract so that when
[8:08] we built the budget we thought it was going to be outside services so you see the savings there
[8:13] of about 50,000 that helps take care of the $48,000 negative. So you've got to look at that as we
[8:19] had it in the budget we just didn't we had it in different places now. Other than that everything
[8:23] else was here and there when we did transportation services last year remember we did a contract and
[8:29] And so we had a higher number in the budget than where we settled.
[8:33] We've left that in there and it really helped you not have as big of an increase in fiscal
[8:37] year 27.
[8:39] So when you see the $20,000 in transportation, it was really because we had a reserve that
[8:45] we didn't have to use of all.
[8:48] Looking at out of district, so that's where a lot of our volatility was.
[8:52] And as you know, the way that the town budgets, we have all a circuit breaker to fall back
[8:58] on when we have the unexpected happen. So we did dig into that a little bit but also keep in mind
[9:05] we made a conscious decision last year not to increase the budget for all the placements because we
[9:10] knew there was going to be a placement that was going to age out. It was a larger placement so we
[9:16] didn't want to gross the town's budget up too much knowing that we would have circuit breaker to cover it.
[9:20] So we knew and going into this if nothing else changed we were going to be negative almost a half
[9:26] million dollars for that one placement. So take that into consideration when
[9:30] you look where I say we're over $800,000. We already knew we were going to be
[9:34] almost $500,000 over. So we did have a little bit of unexpected but it was also
[9:39] offset by a little bit, some negative unexpected and some positive unexpected. So at
[9:43] the end of the day, we are still turning back to the town $778,000. Keep in mind
[9:51] And that's also even net of almost the $400,000 and $37,000
[9:57] that we kept at the region to start building the circuit
[10:00] breaker preserve for those students that are aged six
[10:05] through, or six grades, or 22, who reside in those who's
[10:09] now in account of the region.
[10:12] So all in all, it was a good year.
[10:15] And that we didn't, some years, we have very little circuit
[10:17] breaker that we turn back to the town.
[10:20] So that will be the last year you see numbers like this your numbers are going to be much smaller when we start
[10:26] start talking about fiscal year 27 and budgeting for 28 because you're only responsible now for
[10:31] the pre-K35 and we have very few placements at that age group because of the wonderful
[10:36] special ed programs that we have already built into. That's a great sign.
[10:40] Don, don't just for the newer people at the table or for those of us who might need to refresh our
[10:44] can you explain how do over budgets for this and that I turned back of $700,000? Exactly.
[10:48] So as you know, you won't get a million nine, so $1.9 million in circuit breaker reimbursement.
[10:55] When the town does their budget, they assume you're getting zero circuit breaker.
[10:59] So they're budgeting for everything.
[11:01] And it's always been a conservative methodology that they use because if you've been over long enough,
[11:06] you'll realize that the town always uses some free cash towards the budget every year to sort of offset
[11:13] that's what they're being taxed to the taxpayers.
[11:17] And a lot of that was that comfort level of knowing
[11:20] that the circuit breaker was there.
[11:21] So we always have these big turnbacks.
[11:24] And when you used to look at the numbers
[11:26] when they would present like in the blue book,
[11:29] it would say, okay, dover's budget is 12 million.
[11:33] But last year's actual, it was 9.5.
[11:37] And it's because that budget number is always grossed up,
[11:40] assuming there's no circuit breaker.
[11:42] But your actual that report is reported is taking that circuit breaker into account.
[11:47] So there's always that delta there that always bothered me, both on school committee and
[11:52] where I sat because I felt like it was misleading to the public so we were always pressuring them
[12:00] to put an asterisk next to it and say this is not circuit breaker, this is not net circuit
[12:04] breaker.
[12:05] So now that will actually sort of go away because Dover, if you remember this year when
[12:10] they've resigned, it looks like they had like a million dollar adoption. And that's because
[12:14] the circuit breaker thing is now gone. We can't budget that way anymore. You said it's
[12:19] like gone, but it actually is gone. There's no circuit breaker, right? No, there is circuit
[12:22] breaker, but it's not. Everything is net now. So the way that we had to budget at the region
[12:29] is like, we said, okay, you owe us $2 million for out of district, but we know we're going
[12:35] get $1.2 million in circuit breaker. From the state. From the state. So we're only going to assess
[12:43] over for $800,000 and that's the assessment. Whereas before we would put the whole $2 million
[12:48] in the budget. Got it. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So the money's still there. It's just it's just
[12:53] it's clear in a way. Right. It's cleaner. Yeah. It's a little bit cleaner. Yeah. And as long as I
[12:59] have enough money on the region to pay for everything. But yeah, so it's it actually cleans up the accounting
[13:03] a little bit and it then what happens is that and we had, you know, we had been telling
[13:09] the towns this was going to happen, especially at Dover because that was a guaranteed turnback
[13:15] in free cash that they always then turned around and applied that free cash to the budget.
[13:20] So now they don't have as much flexibility to do that, but the budget is lower.
[13:26] So it's sort of...
[13:27] So it all sort of...
[13:28] Yeah, it sort of washes out.
[13:29] So this will be a transition year for 27 to see how it all plays out.
[13:35] It was important to us at the region to at least have some additional circuit breaker other
[13:41] than what we expected to get this year, which is why we had worked with those towns in the town of
[13:46] Sugar and retained the circuit breaker reimbursement in the fourth quarter. That was, that comes to remember,
[13:54] the circuit breaker always came to the region and we had to turn around and give it back to the towns
[13:58] because they were accounting for the out of district and that's when the Department of
[14:03] Ed said, what are you doing? You need to account for the regionage kids at the region.
[14:10] So now we still get circuit breaker and we identify by the scistovers and the scissorburns
[14:15] and we have different accounts in our general ledger now for dover circuit breaker and sherboard
[14:19] circuit breaker. But we don't have the methodology that dover used to have where we had all that
[14:27] that fall back in case things, the unexpected happened.
[14:30] So that's why we try to hold some.
[14:32] So we have, like I said, it feels comforting to know
[14:35] that in Dover, we're starting with what we assessed Dover
[14:39] plus this extra $437,000.
[14:43] But it will make your budget a little easier to understand
[14:48] because that was always a big number on top of your industry
[14:51] than it was confusing to the public.
[14:54] because I was like, oh, why is the Dover School budget so big, right?
[14:58] So now it really will represent.
[15:00] It's sort of your population, your population. And the true cost. And the true cost on both sides now. Yeah, at the region and at the dover. What percentage of our special education needs are actually met by circuit breaker versus our own taxpayer funds. So it is a formula that is based on each individual student. So it is calculated by each out of district student. And the needs in this part, in this position.
[15:28] So there's a threshold, so you have to, the town has to pay the first, say, $54,000, right?
[15:36] So whatever costs that we have for an out of district student, the first $54,000 is the town's
[15:42] responsibility. After that, the state reimburses you 75%. And then on top of that, about four years ago,
[15:53] they added transportation into that formula and that's been the unknown as to what the reimbursement
[16:00] it should be 75 but they don't always have funding for the 75 but that was a huge benefit
[16:06] to all districts because even in Dover our out of district transportation could be somewhere up
[16:12] to like 400-500 thousand so the fact that we were getting any reimbursement now is huge and if you
[16:19] had a student who say was at $50,000, you add transportation that gets them over the
[16:25] 54, then you qualify for some circuit breaker reimbursement.
[16:29] And we're and you say we're aging, there's a student that has a higher than expect or higher
[16:35] than normal funding requirement that will be aging out and so the expectations are low.
[16:42] Yeah, that the student did age out in fiscal year 26.
[16:46] So we'll give you your sort of this is what we budgeted, this is where we stand when we need an October and we'll do the same for the region, but now you'll just be seeing a much smaller piece of the population because the Dover residents who are 6th grade and older, now the regional school committee meeting or so committee will be talking about them.
[17:09] This is um, this is a big change and sounds complicated.
[17:14] Yeah.
[17:14] Do you think there needs to be a method of communication to the general public to sort
[17:22] of?
[17:23] I don't, I don't think so.
[17:24] I don't.
[17:25] If you look at it in comparison to that total budget for the dope powder, it's, it's not.
[17:30] It seems big.
[17:32] There's not going to be a sticker shock and like in a good way, but like they've already
[17:36] seen it.
[17:36] They've already seen an action when they approved the fiscal year 27 budget.
[17:40] So that's already rolled out. We didn't get any questions.
[17:45] And I think they did provide, if you remember, Michael Blancher, the town administrator,
[17:50] said they're going to change their accounting. This is a number you're going to see.
[17:53] And it really, from the, from the, at the end of the day, it doesn't, the money is still the money.
[17:59] It's not changing. It's just where it's being accounted for.
[18:02] And there's a little bit of a change in that it's not gross stuff.
[18:04] see can we give the presentation together as with the
[18:08] region okay so it's over I think the hard part's over with now we did that
[18:11] fiscal year 27 so now we'll just be ready to roll and the the issue we're
[18:17] going to have is what happens when we don't have enough money from it that the
[18:21] towns have already given us at their region when we when we exhaust all of
[18:26] that we're going to have to figure out how we go back to the towns to ask for
[18:31] what we still need. They're not keepers served. Yeah, we'll probably have to
[18:36] like we'll have to fund it and then add an additional assessment when the
[18:40] region does their budget for $28, saying we didn't quite give us enough. Now you've
[18:44] got to give it to us in the $28 budget. So cross that bridge when we come to it, but
[18:52] that is what you know we've been counseled by the Department of Ed who asked us to
[18:56] please change our accounting that we really should build up a year's worth of
[19:00] circuit breaker for each town at the region level. So we have that safety net. So we'll try to
[19:06] strive towards that. But as you know, the towns are under financial pressure. So to have extra money
[19:13] that is just sitting there for, I'm going to say a rainy day fund, but we might have other needs for
[19:19] that. So it'll just be sort of a building. I mean, I felt really good. I do agree to give us
[19:30] as much as they did. We should be hopefully in a good spot, but you can see how much you can be over.
[19:36] So ignore the one placement that we knew. We were still hundreds of thousand dollars over.
[19:44] That's where we were going to be, so that's where it gets a little scary.
[19:47] This is a residual cough from a cold last week, I promise.
[19:53] All right, that's it. And then so we'll start talking about 27 in October,
[19:59] and then you'll actually get your fiscal year 28 budget in a matter.
[20:03] Great. Thank you. I don't know a bunch of questions.
[20:08] How do we, or do we plan like long-term planning for building maintenance and like facility
[20:14] improvements that might be necessary like at some point we'll need to do elementary school?
[20:20] I don't know when. Well, I think it will not be. So it's actually fairly new.
[20:25] Right. In the world of schools. Yeah.
[20:27] So we have a long-range capital plan, and we do a five-year.
[20:31] So when you get your budget book, there'll actually be a five-year outlook of capital.
[20:36] OK.
[20:36] So I think what we had on, potentially, for fiscal year, to ask for 28.
[20:41] So we're in that sweet spot right now at Chick-Ring, where it's over a little over 20,
[20:46] you know, it was open in 21.
[20:49] So we're like 25 years.
[20:51] We haven't had to do major capital.
[20:54] So the biggest thing we did was we replaced all the floors.
[20:56] and we did that in segments, right?
[21:00] One is, you can't do it all in one year,
[21:02] but it also helps sort of give a more constant request.
[21:06] So we've had, we've had one or two years here
[21:09] where we don't have anything that we, is critical
[21:11] because if you listen to the town talk right now,
[21:15] they are in a huge capital crunch right now
[21:18] with everything else they're doing.
[21:20] So Chikrem was able to not add to that plate
[21:23] because the region has to add to that plate.
[21:25] So we've made a conscious decision to say,
[21:27] what can we do to sort of help this process
[21:30] and put some of our stuff off,
[21:32] and we're not doing any harm to the building at all.
[21:36] There's still life in everything that we have.
[21:38] So I forecast one more year
[21:41] where we're going to have one small project,
[21:43] I think, we'll bring it forward.
[21:44] And then we will start doing the larger replacements
[21:47] of your HVAC.
[21:49] But there is a 20-year long-range capital plan
[21:52] that we have in place, that gives us a roadmap to what's forecasted to be as a useful
[22:01] life.
[22:04] Great question.
[22:06] Yeah, it's really well done.
[22:07] It's really helpful to see all the things coming up.
[22:11] Yeah.
[22:12] Right.
[22:12] Yeah.
[22:13] You're fortunate that we haven't had.
[22:15] I'm not going to say anything.
[22:17] I'm not going to say anything.
[22:18] I'm not going to say anything.
[22:19] I'm not going to say anything.
[22:19] I'm not going to say anything.
[22:20] Okay, we have no discussion items tonight.
[22:22] So we're going to move into action items and the first on the agenda is the checkering
[22:25] school improvement plan.
[22:27] It's the second read.
[22:35] Actually, I want to note that I forgot to put the school's name in the header, it really
[22:38] is ours.
[22:39] My version has a correct answer.
[22:41] I assume that it could be.
[22:42] I know we fixed it.
[22:44] Oh, you did fix it for me.
[22:44] Thank you.
[22:48] We start working on our improvement plan last spring with the help of our school advisory
[22:52] council.
[22:53] So Kudos and thanks to that group that helped us work on that.
[22:55] And then over the summer, Alison Gellingsrude, who's the principal at Pine Hill, and I work
[23:02] to make sure that our goals are very similar, because I think it's very important that the
[23:06] schools are similar when it makes sense, and yet each maintain our uniqueness.
[23:13] I jumped right in, I wanted to give you an update, for instance, we started, I know that gave
[23:16] us a welcome, but I think it's kind of interesting to look at some of the new, because this has
[23:22] been a very new year for us.
[23:25] We have 473 students, which we had about 458 last year, so we're up a little bit, which
[23:31] is exciting.
[23:33] As Don will recall, when we opened the building, we had over 600 students, so it's just
[23:38] interesting to look at the ebb and flow of the population.
[23:40] But we have two new specialist teachers, one new special educator, five new classroom
[23:47] teachers. A new preschool special ed coordinator, who we share with Payneal. A new assistant principal,
[23:55] a new office person whose name conveniently is Kelly, makes it a little bit easier when you call in,
[23:59] so it's the same name as our previous office admin. Eight new educational assistants and 20 new
[24:07] students, all the kindergartners are new, so they don't count. But 20 new students that moved in
[24:11] and two registrations that came in this morning. So we are just, we are flying houses,
[24:17] are selling and people are enrolling and thank you for your generosity in supporting us as we look
[24:23] to add classrooms last spring. Remember this is a long discussion. We hit back and forth. We had
[24:28] seven new first graders and six new second graders move in over the course of last spring and into
[24:35] the summer. So we are grateful to have that extra space in those rooms. So thank you.
[24:39] Do you expect that we can make that permanent? That was the biggest hit decision. I think that we made
[24:44] It has a school community so far.
[24:46] People loved it.
[24:47] We start the dance in November.
[24:51] The place with, yeah, so we will look at how many students in each grade,
[24:55] what makes sense, how many, you know, if we've got four now, do we roll the four?
[24:59] Do we change to three?
[25:00] Yeah, we'll get that.
[25:02] Think about what you talk about in migration, not migration.
[25:04] So if we took 20 new students and that's going to make your numbers project,
[25:10] right, higher, assuming that that might be the trend.
[25:13] So that's all worked into the formula when we look at, we look at, we use the numbers
[25:18] that are in the school right now to run the numbers.
[25:22] But what patterns is going to make those, so those numbers are going to look different
[25:26] than what we have.
[25:27] We don't just roll up second to third.
[25:29] We look at the projections and the three-year history and the one-year history, and then
[25:34] we take the highest, and that's how we build the budget.
[25:37] So if we are, yeah, if we draw, if it's great, then actually an accident with growth.
[25:41] It's kind of excellent.
[25:42] Yeah.
[25:42] It's very much.
[25:44] They have five classrooms, right?
[25:49] Yeah.
[25:50] That's great.
[25:51] I would have to solve that one tonight, but I know that.
[25:54] That's on our October meeting.
[25:56] Yeah.
[25:56] The study.
[25:57] Okay.
[25:57] I'll work first.
[25:59] All right.
[25:59] Thank you.
[26:00] So with those.
[26:03] Lots of new.
[26:04] It's given us a great opportunity in the building to think about how we do things and what opportunities
[26:08] we have.
[26:09] The simplest example I can give is that in the office, one of the things we do is still
[26:13] keep paper folders for every student and they are sorted by class.
[26:19] So all of the kindergartners are in with the kindergarten teachers and the first graded
[26:22] with the first grade teachers and our new admin was coming in.
[26:25] I said, well, one of the things you need to do is you'll have to graduate everyone.
[26:28] So you can take all the kindergartners out and put them into all the first grade folders.
[26:32] And Marie Merkel says our nurse sister principal said, why?
[26:36] Because that's how we do it.
[26:37] And she said, well, why don't you just go A to Z for the whole grade?
[26:41] And then next year, you have to use the change to the label on the front of the drawer.
[26:48] So it's little things like that.
[26:50] And it's big things looking at curriculum, Chris and Christine's grade level team meeting today.
[26:55] And it's such an opportunity, it has so many new staff and new adults in the building to look at what we're doing in, is that a best practice.
[27:02] So it's been very exciting, as we get started.
[27:05] Now, the reason for my weekly why?
[27:06] Yes.
[27:07] Questioning why we do things that we do.
[27:12] So back to the school improvement plan in my excitement.
[27:16] The first goal near and dear to Heather's heart is our ELA curriculum review.
[27:22] Many of you have lived through the math curriculum review, so a lot of this is familiar.
[27:27] We are piloting two programs, as you know.
[27:29] We're piloting a fish tank and emerge and across the two schools.
[27:35] So, for example, in first grade, if we are doing fish tank, pine hill is doing a merge.
[27:42] All the way across, so that way we get lots of data across, both schools and lots of student results.
[27:50] So, many grades we have two, we always have at least one, but often two teachers who are piloting as well.
[27:55] So, we're getting lots of data and looking at that.
[27:57] So, that whole first goal is the work that we will do, which will the structure will match very much what we do with the math pilot.
[28:04] So you'll get updates from us and we'll have the teacher input and student results.
[28:08] The big question I heard from parents was the worry that if I was in a pilot classroom,
[28:13] my student would get a different experience than everyone else.
[28:18] And we go back to, everyone is taught the standards.
[28:22] So whether you get them through, emerge or whether you get them through our current ELA program,
[28:27] everyone will have the same instruction and experience by the time we get to the end of the year.
[28:32] So, and all of the pilot teachers are being supported by Priscilla Steffan, our literacy
[28:38] coach.
[28:39] So, it's been very exciting.
[28:42] I think so.
[28:43] Yep.
[28:43] Do we comment by goal?
[28:46] The CRE?
[28:47] Sure.
[28:49] I think that is a question that comes down for the question that has come back a lot, too,
[28:53] is, are we fixing something that's broken and like, why are we changing?
[28:59] We just changed math.
[29:00] and so so I this is just a conversation that questions that are asked so I think in a future
[29:05] weekly why that could be a good a good topic which is explaining because we had all these
[29:11] presentations that then you did and not everybody so that's Sherburnt TV. Do we're Sherburnt TV as
[29:17] much as I do so I'm not sure that everybody's time but a quick tip just to explain that and then
[29:23] And my other question is when I read the, I guess I'm just wanting more clarity on how
[29:33] I don't see like how you, I see observed classroom, a lot of observation, but is there
[29:41] like a standard test that gets passed to all three and we see, again, who does better?
[29:46] Like how do we evaluate which one I'm assuming student engagement?
[29:51] I'm just wondering.
[29:52] I'd like more detail on that if possible.
[29:55] Yep, so I can do short answers to just feed your curiosity a bit.
[30:00] We can come back with more. So the first is the why is we have been working in with ELA programs
[30:08] referred to as Lucy Hawkins or the units of study, which was a strong ELA program when it came
[30:14] out and it has great advantages to it and many disadvantages to it. It also happens to be a program
[30:21] that's no longer approved by the Massachusetts Department of Education, which would be a really
[30:25] a reason not to use it anymore. I am personally very excited that we're going to look at this
[30:31] more comprehensive way of teaching, which is called Science of Reading. So it's a whole philosophy,
[30:35] which we can go back to slide decks which Danny presented, but basically it's a much more holistic
[30:40] look at how we read, write, use our speaking and language skills, which are all part of the Department
[30:46] of Ed. And so these two programs are approved by the Department of Ed and ways to get to that.
[30:51] Yeah.
[30:52] I miss anything.
[30:53] Do you want to throw anything on that?
[30:54] What I guess, I mean, I read through the lines from Laurence's questions like, how do
[30:59] we determine which is more successful?
[31:01] So we have a few different measures for that.
[31:04] We are using some common assessments that we have for that assess fluency and comprehension.
[31:12] And then we also have some, the teachers that are piloting the program.
[31:21] We have both some quantitative and qualitative data from them as well as far as the rubric that is being used about what needs to go into high quality instructional material.
[31:34] And so it is, they have to kind of talk about the engagement of students, the supports that
[31:41] are given, the usability of the materials, the pace.
[31:45] So there's all those kinds of criteria that we will be assessing as well, kind of ongoing
[31:52] as frequent as a weekly basis.
[31:55] And then we have meetings to try and talk about those points with the teachers that are
[32:02] pioneering across the district.
[32:03] So we have some of that quantitative data that we are using, but some of that qualitative as well.
[32:15] It's about the how the teacher can implement and how the ease of teaching it or the ease of understanding for the children.
[32:23] If we are asking both, you know, how were the students engaged?
[32:27] What was the learning that the students got out of it?
[32:29] So we have questions that are talking about the implementation, but also the learning
[32:35] that's taking place.
[32:36] And we ask it regularly for both programs at each care bubble.
[32:42] But there's no testing.
[32:44] Is there, do you test, because my question, I guess, where I'm trying to get to, is what
[32:49] is that program that we have right now that is not acceptable by the state anymore?
[32:57] What if they get better grades with that program and that turns out that how do we see if it's a better program?
[33:05] So during our pilot we have baseline assessment in divils which assesses their fluency and their comprehension.
[33:18] And so everyone takes that whether they are pilot classroom or non-pilot classroom.
[33:22] And then they are, we will look at those results again at the end of the pilot as well.
[33:29] So that would be one measure that we're looking at as far as how each of the emerge classrooms
[33:37] do, the visiting classrooms do and the classrooms that are not piloting this year.
[33:44] There's a whole rubric that we go through that looks at student performance, engagement
[33:52] teacher engagement and so there's a whole metric from the state that helps us
[33:56] to figure out which curriculum will best meet the needs of our students so it's
[34:01] it's elaborate. It's the same rubric that we use with the math program.
[34:06] I don't know. Stay tuned. I know. I think that student data is part of it. I just wanted to
[34:12] think we're introducing something else not broken but it is broken because the
[34:16] program's not acceptable. Well fortunately because of politics the program has
[34:21] evolved to include science reading, but because there are certain companies with agendas
[34:26] and there's a wait list to be audited to determine if you meet the state criteria, Lucy
[34:30] Caucus has not been audited yet, so it's not on the list.
[34:33] That's where we have to choose something else.
[34:35] Work that we've been doing with kids, thanks to the teachers bending over backwards and adapting
[34:39] the program and catching up with the new materials is meeting the needs of kids, but because
[34:44] it's not on the state list of acceptable programs yet, or if ever, because of politics.
[34:53] So we've started with that and then we've pieced on empowering writer, we've pieced
[34:57] on foundations, right?
[34:58] We've added all these pieces that we felt were missing from the core program.
[35:01] So we have this multi-armed L.A. program that is based here in Lucy Caucus, but those other
[35:08] programs as well.
[35:09] So wouldn't it be nice if you had just one big clear program with a really clear vertical
[35:14] alignment?
[35:14] I think that, to me, the piece that's missing is that really clear piece about, this is
[35:18] what happens at each grade level.
[35:19] So that's the goal.
[35:21] That image really helped me.
[35:27] I understand better where she did.
[35:30] Thank you.
[35:32] My question on goal one.
[35:34] Ready for goal two?
[35:37] I don't have a question.
[35:40] Goal two is one.
[35:44] Goal tool is the one that is our chance to look at all of the changes we made in the schedule.
[35:51] We did a lot of work last year, teachers did a ton of work last year to make changes,
[35:56] look at time on learning, look at minutes and classrooms and on content,
[36:00] and we've added in our health and wellness, we're adding in music workshop, we've cut back on Spanish,
[36:06] We've done, there's a lot that's happened and we're expanding library and technology.
[36:11] So we really want to give ourselves the grace and time to, this is a goal for this
[36:17] year is to live the schedule and look at what's working, what isn't working.
[36:20] We've already made some tweaks and changes.
[36:23] We're looking at, you know, half day Wednesdays and how do we use those and how do we look at
[36:29] professional development as matched to the needs of the school.
[36:32] So this is just a big piece to do like let's just live it for the year and then as we go along what changes do we need to make we've already started with changes for the schedule for next year.
[36:42] Oh, that's going to change too. Let's live music workshop right so that opportunities just do that work. Live that work from last year.
[36:51] This might be coming up with a curriculum night, knowing how big of a community discussion
[36:59] the Spanish decision was, is there an opportunity to sort of refresh what parents should expect
[37:05] the overall curriculum to look like to say, like this is-
[37:08] For Spanish?
[37:09] No, holistically, because we were to Spanish in favor of adding other things, and it'd
[37:13] be nice to kind of give that nod to what is being added and why we're so excited for it.
[37:20] I agree. It might require it. It might require it. Yeah, I lied. I actually had question on my second page.
[37:28] But I was wondering because a lot was said to about the changes in the schedule to accommodate
[37:35] transition times and that time was wasted and this survey was passed on to the teacher where they were
[37:42] telling you what their ideals would be and the things are we going to compare in your evaluation
[37:49] of it, are you going to reissue that same survey and see if that effectively met their
[37:54] needs?
[37:55] Is that part of that?
[37:56] We'll do a similar survey, I think there were some flaws in the way that we gathered
[37:59] all the data in that one, but we'll be looking at those pieces.
[38:02] So there's an example of these transitions, which is because there weren't many, but it seems
[38:07] to be a piece that people are hanging out to, is you might, in the old schedule, have come
[38:12] out of the lunch and you had this weird 10 minutes before you had to go to Spanish, right?
[38:16] and it's just kind of the way the whole blocks are author because most of the items in the schedule
[38:20] going 45 minute blocks, except lunch didn't exactly, and now it does, so there's like, so
[38:26] those weird 10 minute pieces are like moving them in. Well, if it's winter time in your first grade,
[38:32] you're getting your snow pants off and on, right? But in other grades, so there's like those little,
[38:35] some of those little weird 10, 15 minute pieces have been absorbed other ways by moving pieces around.
[38:43] changing like when specials start in end.
[38:45] I think it stayed in people's mind because that was the argument used during your presentation.
[38:51] It was real.
[38:55] Okay.
[38:55] And the other thing.
[38:56] I know you said at the end of the year, you're going to live.
[38:59] I think it just seems like a lot to wait till the end.
[39:02] Will you update us using quarterly or half the year?
[39:06] Or does this.
[39:07] Yes.
[39:07] So we'll need to have a lot of our responses and reactions to this sooner.
[39:14] We start rebuilding the schedule in March, so we, like when we start doing placement
[39:18] and then we start, there's also a peril scheduling committee, so a lot of that work starts
[39:22] up in the spring.
[39:23] Okay.
[39:23] Okay.
[39:24] And there might be small shifts to the schedule, but I think when we were discussing this,
[39:28] we all agreed that we're going to have to live with the new contents and content areas
[39:31] and specials being what they offer at least a year.
[39:33] I don't think it's fair and to decide now that we need less technology that we
[39:38] anticipated, with not even having met the standards through June yet.
[39:41] Oh no, totally.
[39:42] How did you do it?
[39:44] Always good to communicate if it works well.
[39:46] So, yeah.
[39:46] Oh yeah.
[39:47] So I think there'll be a different pieces of different times.
[39:49] And has the health and wellness has that launched?
[39:53] So, how many times a week are the different, like roughly how many times a week are the
[39:57] different, or months are the different grades, getting, I just, I miss Mr. Karnes, I didn't
[40:07] So, two parts of that. So, everyone has six specials now. So, everyone has one day
[40:12] a week where they have a double special, all the students. Health and wellness sits on
[40:16] top of that and Jim splits between Pine Hill and Checkering. So, roughly he's at Pine Hill
[40:23] Monday Tuesdays and with us Thursday Fridays. And then his whole schedule is broken into nine
[40:29] week chunks, so he'll be with K2 and I'm going to get this grades wrong.
[40:36] Three of the grades, K2 4 would say for now. He'll do nine weeks with them,
[40:40] so he'll go in and do a half an hour lesson in those classrooms, and then the
[40:45] next nine weeks he'll do the other three grades, so he flips like that through
[40:49] the year. So if you don't have health now you will in nine weeks have half an
[40:57] health lesson once a week. Okay. That makes sense. Thank you. And then I have to fill the
[41:02] dollar stuff now. Yes. Yeah. It's in the classroom time. Yeah. And this is just curiosity. What is
[41:06] character strong?
[41:09] So good one. It is. So character strong is the SEL curriculum that we adopted. I'm sorry
[41:14] to put you right back. That we adopted last spring. Okay. It's Pine Hill and Chickering. Use it as
[41:22] well as the middle school and high school. It is a social emotional curriculum which we heard
[41:29] from teachers and parents alike that we needed to bring something in responsive classroom is
[41:34] a way of framing your day and framing your classroom and how you respond and react to your peers
[41:41] and others. Character strong is that piece that like the unit for September is kindness.
[41:52] It's all
[41:52] kids, and so they're very engaging, and there's lessons and games, and it feels very
[41:57] much like a responsive cluster, but is that very specific piece about like someone is
[42:01] saying at a table by themselves, how do you go over and say hi, right? So it's like
[42:05] that really basic, how to be a kind person. Next one, all October is respect. So it's
[42:10] we're slowly rolling it out. It's set up, so you do a few pieces in September, and
[42:26] then
[42:26] I hit it yet. They have not signed. They've not started yet.
[42:30] They haven't started, but they haven't started.
[42:33] So we, not, it's sort of low, I'll be honest.
[42:36] It's like, so it's what?
[42:37] Flow.
[42:38] Flow.
[42:38] Yeah, but we're running on Spanish.
[42:42] We're running on one on one, two during time on Spanish.
[42:44] No, not quite.
[42:45] So they'll run a class with at least eight,
[42:47] and we've asked them to run a class with at least six.
[42:50] Okay.
[42:50] So we are doing K2 French, K2 Spanish.
[42:56] Spanish and in 35 French and 35 Spanish. So we're running all of them but we
[43:03] definitely have still space. I think that Christine Deely is sending out I think
[43:08] Friday she's on out at are you you know we're still looking people want to sign
[43:13] up and so we're running everything that we published. I will say I think at
[43:20] pineal was the only place we had to we had to collapse too because we didn't have
[43:25] enough, but we are running everything that was. Now, it could be that we'll still run
[43:31] them in the winter, because we'll be able to either continue and also add new sections
[43:36] so we'll be able to sit back and see. I know that part of Community Ed's drive to is to
[43:42] bring other new things to you. So I think she's worked really hard to add some new classes
[43:48] And we're, you know, seeing great response to who's weightless for a couple of the classes.
[43:55] So I think it's variety, but we're definitely, um, have offered that for those who want
[44:00] to participate.
[44:01] And then I think the information went out through Parent Square, uh, if you don't want to
[44:05] do it after school.
[44:06] Here's some other options that parents have if you want to sort of fill that in.
[44:11] I think it's an important initiative.
[44:13] I'm disappointing that attendance is low.
[44:15] I suspect it'll grow.
[44:16] Yeah.
[44:17] but it was a very difficult decision and I know we promised this to the community and it's really
[44:23] it's like I'm really impressed that when I when I saw come through I was really pleased that it had
[44:28] and yeah well global global child was here before we had yeah in school as much as I was
[44:35] a relationship that we had and they predominantly then administer classes through public school so
[44:45] Native has I think a pretty big global child program. They have lots of
[44:49] languages. That's why we did the survey to see what people wanted. I will say
[44:53] the results back from Chickering were like 73% when it's Spanish. And then the
[45:08] So, that meant that was great that we could do the same languages in both because that was sort of a desire of the clients of the community. So, I'd be curious to see, hopefully, I mean, it's a well established program. They have their own curriculum. I think it's really good.
[45:29] think that the issue I struggle with is how that's going to work in with what our kids
[45:35] already know with Spanish and how it incorporates with what our Spanish program is still doing.
[45:43] So it's not conflicting to a student, so that time will tell for that,
[45:51] and they know that
[45:52] they have to adapt in the older grades that you've got students that already have some
[45:57] basis. So I think their first sessions will be just like, let's find out what we need and
[46:03] they will amend their curriculum appropriately. And French could is going to be all known because
[46:09] that's going to happen. Exactly. French is all known. And really it's the art of learning the language
[46:15] is what brings to the up. So your brain development, right? That's why we brought
[46:21] class back, or any world language into the school is the benefits that you're
[46:26] supposed to see in that, the ELA, just making your brain sort of learn that for
[46:32] it. So any of it's beneficial.
[46:37] So yeah, I'm sure we'll be, I'm sure community
[46:39] ed, we'll look at, you know, get a survey and just see if people like it and I'm
[46:43] sure the numbers will tell us that too. But yeah, everything's running and looking
[46:49] for space. I think just to take you back on the enrollment and everything, but I think
[46:57] just like we're testing this in the schedule for us this year, we should not take these
[47:01] numbers as an indicator. Oh absolutely. No, we're not. And we were ready for more. So we were
[47:07] nervous. So there is capacity and then there's capacity, you know, to even double. So we're
[47:16] very good thing. And then my other question on that topic is who runs the community yet? Is it us?
[47:24] It's the region. The region? Because the comment that we hear and we totally agree with is I
[47:32] didn't want to get paid. Like this stuff that they have is so hard. So it's a brand new system. Oh,
[47:38] is that it? Yes. So we moved to Arbiter scheduling, which is where you sign up and then the payment is
[47:44] going into unipay, which we use for so much, which is time we do taxes. So it is like it's
[47:52] two systems now, but we lost our old payments system, which was embedded in the registration.
[48:01] So we, this is both to brand new, well, brand new system for Arbiter. So we've had to build
[48:06] the schedule, and then we added it to unipay. So any feedback you have, let me know.
[48:12] Okay, I'll write here an email with how hard it was because you could register.
[48:15] Yeah.
[48:16] Then when I was just trying to pay, it took me like, yeah, I was just going to pay a lot
[48:20] of money.
[48:20] But it shouldn't be that hard.
[48:22] But it shouldn't be that hard though because you just go to unipane and there's a good and
[48:26] fine.
[48:27] You had to put D for it to pop, but if you put D over, you had to put D over dash or for it to
[48:34] pop up.
[48:34] No, not even.
[48:35] It's the only deal.
[48:36] Like we had to find a trick, like it was, yeah, I know because you can't make the place
[48:40] should take to you know pay and you have to come but it says I copy this and put it there or
[48:44] if you did that you could have paid so anyway I'll send you an email so yeah but I know I
[48:49] know I've done Christine's hearing you as well oh yeah but you know one by the time you figure it
[48:55] out though you'll be great because everything here at the region we pay I need to pay I need to pay
[48:58] there's no way I can go back okay I'm just gonna press that I haven't gotten a point from my
[49:03] soul and that because I'm normally the form guy maybe you have a pain it's possible to be a register it's
[49:08] finding the link, because you can't go to town at Dover, but I pay my excise tax, I need to pay for a town at Dover.
[49:18] So thank God Dawn pays attention to every detail because she realized that my family pay for parking twice.
[49:23] You can get a reimbursement.
[49:25] Here you go.
[49:26] I still have a pay school parking.
[49:29] I have to park in the room.
[49:30] We didn't know.
[49:31] I just wanted the print to go through.
[49:34] So we press send.
[49:37] So we will work, we'll try to work out those kinks, but it unipay is something that we use every day here at the region.
[49:44] So you'll be, you'll be ready to roll. But I know it's confusing because even when I go sometimes to see what the site looks like from.
[49:51] The user ends, you have to type weirdly to get to overshurbering to show up.
[49:56] It sounds about as a husband.
[49:58] That's true. It's a perspective there.
[50:11] So go through is looking at increasing student engagement through active responsive learning.
[50:17] So that is looking at how our students engage in the learning.
[50:22] It actually ties nicely the work we've been doing at the leadership meetings.
[50:25] All of the school leaders are working, have been working, I think every Wednesday since we started the school year at looking at how we align our observations and look at student engagement, what does that look like in the classroom?
[50:38] Are we engaged or are we compliant? Is really one of those big questions. So we're doing that work at our level.
[50:44] It's also including a screen time audit, which I'm very excited for.
[50:48] Yeah, that's wonderful because I've got any number of kiddos to go home and tell their parents that they were on their iPad all day
[50:53] And I can 100% guarantee that they were not on their iPad all day
[50:58] Partly because they haven't been out in some classrooms yet
[51:00] But it's just that piece of like how much are we using and are we using the screens purposefully right is it what's what's the purpose of that
[51:07] So Heather's leading up that group of Heather Brandon or leading that one up. So I'm looking forward to that one
[51:12] And then looking at all of the ways that we do instruction
[51:14] So it's using pieces from perhaps a pilot lesson, how do we use that in the classroom?
[51:19] Use a strategy across.
[51:20] So a lot more interprofessional development, we found that when we did that as a district
[51:25] when you have a local expert or a local person within speak and train, it's very powerful.
[51:31] So we'll be looking at project-based learning and looking at engagement across the school.
[51:37] We'll be sharing that with you.
[51:39] We will continue our learning walks if you recall that was one of the goals from last year.
[51:43] I'm sorry, but you just tell us a little about what is a learning walk?
[51:46] Absolutely.
[51:47] So learning walks can take different forms.
[51:52] Generally, it's an opportunity when a coach or a Marine or I will lead a group of people
[51:59] who are interested in looking at what does engagement look like in a kindergarten classroom?
[52:02] Or how do I, what's engagement look like in a book club in third grade?
[52:08] And you have three or four teachers who are interested.
[52:10] It might be the other third grade teachers.
[52:12] and we as a group decide what we're looking for,
[52:15] we go in and we watch a classroom
[52:16] and then we talk about it and discuss
[52:18] and perhaps that teacher who is teaching joins us.
[52:21] Or it may be, what does grammar instruction look like
[52:25] in fifth grade if I'm in kindergarten?
[52:27] So it's finding all these pieces
[52:28] that people are interested in, gathering groups
[52:30] and going in to observe and watch classrooms,
[52:33] usually a couple of classrooms.
[52:35] The hardest piece of it is a ranging coverage.
[52:37] Later on, it's just the logistics of getting it set up
[52:39] so that I can steal two teachers
[52:40] to go watch a third teacher without any people with those, you know,
[52:44] it's one of those pieces of suspense. If we did the last year and got great acclaim,
[52:48] let's get people ready to jump in. So it's good. Thank you.
[52:54] The last questions on that one? No. The last goal is different from Pine Health.
[53:01] This is a checkering only goal right now. Think of who are the people in your neighborhood?
[53:05] Is really what this comes from. So we're going to use our school advisor counsel who asked
[53:09] for homework, so they'll have homework. And it's looking at making those connections across
[53:14] the community who are the people in Dover and Sherburn and Boston who want to come into the schools
[53:20] or might be interested in coming to share what their professional and personal experience would be.
[53:25] You might have some tinkerers in third grade and we have an inventor in town. It wouldn't be nice if
[53:30] we could set up a time for them to meet and share ideas and make connections. We might have a retired
[53:36] teacher in town who wants to come back and read to a classroom. Perhaps there's someone
[53:39] who said they should have been a teacher and they want to come back and read to a classroom.
[53:43] So this is looking at those connections for who's in the community and what desires do
[53:48] we have in the school to connect or reach out to. So we'll see how that plays out and what
[53:56] opportunities arise from that. So looking at that and looking at that.
[53:59] Sounds like something that maybe would have fostered something like girls in the run,
[54:04] which was a massive success.
[54:06] Yes, it was.
[54:07] Really, it was a really special program.
[54:10] And the stroke, like the integration,
[54:12] not with the woman who is the CEO living in Dover
[54:15] was like such a serendipitous street.
[54:17] It was really cool.
[54:18] Yeah, yeah, it was a great piece.
[54:23] There we are.
[54:24] I think we'll be busy.
[54:25] Yeah.
[54:26] So we're speculating your request to approval
[54:29] of our school performance.
[54:31] All right.
[54:38] action then so may I have my motion to approve the checkering school
[54:47] program plan second read take up the move we have a second and we're gonna take
[54:53] a roll call because goalie is first of all so goalie separate goalie
[55:00] is
[55:00] So there you are.
[55:02] Kevin?
[55:03] Kevin Bill.
[55:04] Yes.
[55:05] Okay.
[55:05] Cook.
[55:06] Yes.
[55:06] We're asking us.
[55:07] Yes.
[55:08] And Jesse.
[55:08] Oh, yes.
[55:09] The action item is approved unanimously.
[55:14] Yes.
[55:16] Thanks.
[55:16] Thanks.
[55:17] So the second action item tonight is the appointment of the meco liaison to the school committee
[55:23] who is Sally Princeton, who is joining us virtually.
[55:28] anything that you'd like to add. Now, I would just like to thank Sally for coming back
[55:34] and Sally, I don't know if there's anything you'd like to share.
[55:37] So, I just wanted to thank you again for placing me in the MECO liaison.
[55:42] I really appreciate this opportunity to continue again to share as a MECO family and also a member
[55:50] of the MECO parent council, which is our group of parents that mean once a month.
[55:54] I feel it's very important that we're able to have this role and be able to go back
[56:00] to our families and confirm them or all the decisions that are being made in our schools
[56:05] because I'm not sure they would have the opportunity to, you know, get this information
[56:11] otherwise.
[56:12] So we really appreciate the role and thank you for pointing me on the chair.
[56:16] We appreciate your time.
[56:19] All right, may I have a motion to approve Sally, for instance, as the Met Coli is on to the school committee?
[56:27] Kevin Belky, motion to approve.
[56:30] Do we have a second?
[56:32] The wrongs for Gelsky's second.
[56:34] Now we're going to do roll call starting with Goli.
[56:38] Goli is a very yes.
[56:40] Kevin?
[56:40] Kevin Belky's yes.
[56:41] Hey, take a guess.
[56:43] The wrongs for Gelsky's?
[56:44] And Jesse Hall, yes, the motion to appoint Sally Fernstein as the Matt Collieson is approved unanimously.
[56:53] All right.
[56:53] Thank you.
[56:56] Next on the agenda is consent items, which is the approval of building rental fees, the
[57:02] approval of FY 2027 non-resident tuition and the approval of DSC Minutes June 22nd, 2026.
[57:10] June 22nd, 2026.
[57:11] It makes sense. It's far down to give you a little bit of context about the first two.
[57:17] So we looked across all three districts at our building rental rates. We've
[57:24] tried to do it like every three to four years. We also one of the main drivers was
[57:28] the new turf. We wanted to make sure the rates that we were charging at the region
[57:33] made sense. So when we open up that can of worms you want to look at everything. We
[57:37] We also took some time to look at our neighboring communities to see where we stood with what
[57:42] we're charging.
[57:44] And we also realized that there probably was a benefit mainly at the region.
[57:49] We don't see that many non-town groups using Chigren or Pine Hill, but we did segregate
[57:55] and have two sets of rates.
[57:57] So if you're an in-town group, you pay a lower rate than if you're an out-of-town group.
[58:01] We are also one of our biggest renters is the basketball, the youth basketball program
[58:08] and you know we realize that there was some handshake agreements at some of the schools
[58:13] and the rates weren't really what we posted so we wanted to clean all that up so we also
[58:18] took time to make sure what is the fair rate to charge per hour at all of our gyms so that
[58:24] was also another piece that we wanted to sort of clear out.
[58:27] the last piece is that on weekends when schools not open you cannot rent the school without a custodian being on staff and obviously we just did a new contract for the custodian so we need to keep pace with their pay rates of what we're charging so that was the other piece that's which so we're asking each of the committees to approve the rates your rates are exactly the same as pine hills.
[58:51] The only difference is there's some spaces they have that you don't have vice versa, so it looks a little different
[58:56] but we kept the rates the same across both communities. On the non-resident tuition annually because you are
[59:04] running the connections program and we have students from
[59:08] Sherburn
[59:09] tuitioning in you have to at the school committee. So what that tuition rate is we follow our protocols. We follow the
[59:17] of per pupil expenditure based on the desi reported.
[59:23] It's actually coming from our end of the year report,
[59:25] but based on their website,
[59:27] what are most recent fiscal year 25
[59:30] is right, they're still trying to do the 26,
[59:32] we're actually doing 26 now.
[59:34] And so that is the base rate.
[59:36] Keep in mind that if there are additional services
[59:38] that those students obtain in addition to
[59:42] if they have a specified educational system support that is added to this
[59:49] base rate. So this is the base and then we add to that based on each individual
[59:54] students IEP. Well I have familiar with that program but it is a connection