[0:00] To order the Ludlow School Committee meeting
[0:02] of Tuesday, September 22nd.
[0:05] I would like to remind everybody
[0:06] that we are live on, being recorded on Ludlow Public Television.
[0:11] Our first order of business is
[0:12] going to be the Pledge of Allegiance.
[0:20] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
[0:24] and to the republic for which it stands,
[0:30] with liberty and justice.
[0:43] We
[0:43] don't have anybody signed up for public
[0:44] comment today, which would've
[0:45] been next. So under routine matters.
[0:48] We have [inaudible] there is the approval of the minutes
[0:52] for our policy subcommittee meeting of September 1st
[0:55] and the school committee meeting of September 8th.
[1:00] Everyone has had an opportunity to [inaudible] that over.
[1:10] Make a motion to approve the consent agenda.
[1:14] [inaudible] to approve
[1:16] the consent agenda.
[1:19] September 1st [inaudible] Second. All in favor?
[1:24] Aye. Aye. [inaudible] and then our meeting date is we have a
[1:29] school committee meeting scheduled
[1:30] for October 13th, 2026 here at six o'clock.
[1:35] Our next order of business is visitation.
[1:37] We are welcoming Dr.
[1:39] Kelleher back to discuss the closeout plan for the,
[1:42] of the Harris Brook Building Committee.
[1:44] Where do you want me? Anywhere you want to be. Yeah.
[1:48] Alright. Promise I won't take too long,
[1:51] [inaudible] hope you're aware.
[1:54] Now, we finally did close out the,
[1:57] the school building project.
[1:59] It has been a long time.
[2:00] We literally met the first time like 10
[2:03] years ago this month.
[2:04] So it's been, it's been a while going.
[2:06] But we finally did get the,
[2:07] the final payment came from MSBA, just about July.
[2:11] So we are now fully closed out with MSBA
[2:14] and so we are, we are done.
[2:16] Just to show you how things ended up, this is the, the slide
[2:19] that we were showing initially for the, for the budget.
[2:21] So the budget on this project was 59 million
[3:07] [inaudible]
[3:09] And we're, when we were presenting this project
[3:11] to the public, we were talking about this being about a
[3:13] $30 million ask for, for the town to pick up.
[3:16] So we're, we're well under that.
[3:18] We were very, very lucky with this.
[3:21] You know, our timing was excellent.
[3:23] [inaudible] literally building this building just
[3:25] before COVID hit.
[3:27] And in fact, we were constructing while
[3:29] we were in the middle of COVID.
[3:30] [inaudible] very lucky in that a lot of our materials, you know,
[3:34] big stuff like the steel windows,
[3:36] all the really expensive stuff had been ordered, bought
[3:38] and done before the pandemic hit.
[3:40] And we were also extremely lucky in that the building
[3:43] at the point of construction,
[3:44] we were still open in steel when the pandemic was at its
[3:48] height back in, you know, March of 2020 and, and so on.
[3:52] So we were able to continue to,
[3:53] to do construction throughout the pandemic.
[3:56] So we didn't have a delay,
[3:57] which would've, would've of course cost more.
[3:59] We had some small increase in cost just to deal with PPE
[4:03] and stuff for, for the construction workers.
[4:05] But really we, we couldn't have [inaudible] any better on this.
[4:09] And if, if this had gone another year
[4:11] or two, the cost would've gone up
[4:14] dramatically, really dramatically.
[4:16] You saw that with the, the project to, to do the,
[4:19] the fields up at the high school
[4:20] that originally we had looked at that
[4:22] as about a $2 million project back in 2018 or 19.
[4:27] And it was ended [inaudible] about 5 million, I think, as I recall.
[4:29] And the same scope of work was done.
[4:31] So, so we were very fortunate that this all just kind
[4:34] of came together at the time.
[4:36] It did, you know, again, 10, you know,
[4:38] 10% or so under budget.
[4:40] The project opened up on time.
[4:42] I think [inaudible] all of the, the smaller kinks
[4:44] and things have been worked out.
[4:45] The biggest part was just the traffic flow around here,
[4:48] which we knew was gonna be challenging.
[4:50] But yeah, so that, that was, that was how things ended up
[4:54] with, with, with everything.
[4:55] So this was a, a good project.
[4:57] I mean, everybody working together,
[4:58] all the different town departments, you know,
[5:00] school committee, finance committee, select board,
[5:02] conservation committee, planning, all,
[5:04] all those folks working together to get this done.
[5:07] And then I, I really wanna thank all the
[5:10] building committee members that served over the years.
[5:12] [inaudible] quite a few over 10 years
[5:15] and I just want to give a special thanks to Sue Santos.
[5:17] I mean Sue, as you guys know, is just a rock star.
[5:21] She was the one that, even this week I'm trying
[5:24] to find minutes to make sure that we,
[5:26] you were taking the right vote tonight
[5:27] to dissolve the committee and she was able
[5:29] to go dig up 10-year-old minutes for us to, to be able
[5:32] to be sure that we were on target.
[5:34] Also, Mickey, the first time I met
[5:37] Mickey, I dumped this on him.
[5:38] He had, I don't even think he would officially started in
[5:40] Ludlow when I met you the first time
[5:48] started with, and he, he's been fantastic [inaudible] so this was a,
[5:52] you know, everybody working together.
[5:55] Really [inaudible] all that's left at this point is
[6:00] for this committee to take a vote tonight.
[6:02] It's on your agenda to dissolve
[6:03] the, the core building committee.
[6:06] The town, the select board will, will, the town
[6:09] and the select board will need to issue the final bonds.
[6:10] Right now the borrowings
[6:12] that the town had done were in short term we call bands
[6:16] [inaudible] notes, a little higher interest rate where now,
[6:20] because everything's closed out, they can start issuing the,
[6:22] the final bond on the building, which I saw
[6:24] that they had their bond council in
[6:26] last meeting or two meetings ago.
[6:28] So they're [inaudible] with that process as well.
[6:30] So we are about to completely wrap everything up here.
[6:33] So just wanted to give you guys just a, a, a final,
[6:36] you know, kind of overview on where things ended
[6:38] and if any [inaudible] questions, happy to answer them.
[6:41] But like I said the, the big thing I need from you guys tonight
[6:43] is just to, to vote to dissolve the [inaudible]
[6:46] and we'll finally be done.
[6:48] And I can, one more thing off my list
[6:50] of things I'm responsible for.
[6:53] Does anybody have any questions?
[6:55] No. Thank you. No, very good.
[7:01] I can't imagine the beginning [inaudible]
[7:02] picked up when you left as a [inaudible] committee member on
[7:05] that board and I was at the very end.
[7:08] I can't imagine going through that whole process.
[7:09] I learned a lot just at the end of it. Yeah, but just,
[7:12] it was, it was a lot.
[7:13] I mean, we, we were lucky too.
[7:14] We also, a great OPM [inaudible] for,
[7:18] for the, for the longest time.
[7:20] And then, you know, the design folks that did a fantastic,
[7:23] Chris and the design group did, did a fantastic job.
[7:25] And I remember walking through this building
[7:27] and seeing, kind of come to life with stuff
[7:30] that we had looked at in schematics and elevations.
[7:33] I mean, just the little things like in these hallways,
[7:35] how they're, they're not just straight shots.
[7:36] There's little jogs and stuff. So there's little spaces.
[7:39] You can do small group stuff
[7:40] and you know, it, it's, it was a good project and glad [inaudible]
[7:44] So thank you everybody
[7:45] and you can take a vote to, to put us to end.
[7:51] And so back at that time, that was a lot of work for you
[7:54] to do, but I remember you had to go, had, you had
[7:56] to have public meetings where everyone came out
[7:58] and asked you all the questions.
[7:59] It was, oh yeah. It was tough, you know, to have,
[8:02] to have everyone in the town actually vote on it.
[8:05] Well, we weren't positive they were going to,
[8:08] and yeah, we had every school,
[8:10] there was a meeting in the gym
[8:11] and all the parents would show up
[8:12] and ask, ask you all the questions.
[8:14] So I was relatively new back then as well.
[8:16] But yeah, it was impressive to watch you do that. You know,
[8:19] it was a lot.
[8:20] I mean that, you know, that we, we, we, we wanted
[8:22] to make sure we get everything out to [inaudible]
[8:24] that slide was from the presentation
[8:26] that we gave at those same forums that we did.
[8:29] You know, we did one at every school
[8:32] and yeah, we had to get a vote through town meetings.
[8:34] The town meeting had to vote for this.
[8:36] And then we had to get the vote from the,
[8:38] from the town to do the override.
[8:41] And yeah, you never know how that's gonna work out,
[8:44] that you're, you're asking people to volunteer
[8:45] to raise their, their property taxes.
[8:47] But had we not done this, we would've been sitting on,
[8:50] you know, Chapin Street School and Veterans Park right now.
[8:53] We would've been dumping money
[8:54] after money into those buildings to try
[8:56] to fix up the systems and some of those things.
[8:59] I don't know how well, how well they could be fixed
[9:01] 'cause some of like the electric, I think remember the
[9:03] electrical system either here
[9:04] or vets, they couldn't get parts for it
[9:07] because it was so old. I mean, it was one of the,
[9:08] the company got out, gone out of business.
[9:10] [inaudible] It was, it would've been a big mess.
[9:12] So yeah, luckily we got it done
[9:15] and it came in on time [inaudible]
[9:18] One more question. What about the air conditioning?
[9:20] Is it, is it, is it going well
[9:22] or? Ask the teachers.
[9:25] I, I, I remember coming in here right
[9:28] before we were gonna open and they didn't have all the
[9:30] things tuned up and it was hot.
[9:31] It was like in the [inaudible]
[9:33] and just walked, you know [inaudible] with, with somebody.
[9:36] It was nice in here. I was like,
[9:37] it was, you know, comfortable.
[9:39] And I don't,
[9:40] I haven't heard any complaints about anybody saying that,
[9:42] that they're, you know, it's probably the most comfortable
[9:44] [inaudible] we have in town, quite honestly.
[9:46] Certainly, certainly for the schools
[9:47] [inaudible] we saved a lot of money by not going, oh yeah,
[9:51] there was a lot of decisions to get made.
[9:52] And, and [inaudible] we had really good, you know, guidance from,
[9:56] from professionals that were, were guiding us.
[9:59] MSBA also, I mean they're, they're,
[10:00] they're a challenge to deal with.
[10:02] There's a lot of paperwork that has to be done.
[10:03] But they do kind of give you some guardrails in terms of,
[10:08] you know, how much you're spending,
[10:09] how big the project's gonna be.
[10:11] Like this project, I remember one of the, the debates we had
[10:14] with some of the members
[10:15] of select board at the time was about the size.
[10:17] And they were convinced this building was too small.
[10:20] They wanted to add four more classrooms to the building
[10:22] and that would've all been on the town's cost
[10:25] because MSBA was only gonna reimburse up
[10:27] to like certain thing
[10:28] and said, no, no, we're gonna trust them.
[10:30] And I've been watching the enrollment
[10:32] and looking at what, where the projections were
[10:35] from, from [inaudible]
[10:36] and they were, they were, they were almost dead, dead on.
[10:38] I mean, not to the exact number,
[10:40] but within, you know, a couple percent.
[10:41] They, they, well they, they went
[10:43] and they look at birth rate, ages [inaudible] all that stuff.
[10:47] It all goes into the, and it, it's been right.
[10:49] We had the first year it was open, it was a little tight.
[10:51] But then after that it's been fine.
[10:53] Which is exactly what they told us was gonna happen.
[10:55] So, you know [inaudible] just listen to the people
[10:58] who know more than you, I think.
[10:59] Yeah. I think is what, what, what we all did
[11:01] and you know, yeah, it really is.
[11:03] And you know, when you have a building committee,
[11:05] you have people from kind of all different parts, you know,
[11:07] select board, finance committee.
[11:09] So we had all kinds of people
[11:10] to give input from different perspectives.
[11:12] So it was, it was really helpful. Alright, anything else?
[11:15] Good? Thank you guys. Thank you so much.
[11:16] Alright, very good. No, I just wanted
[11:18] to comment that I think there have been some awards.
[11:23] Yes, the, the building got, has gotten a couple
[11:25] of awards on the design
[11:27] and for, you know, the energy efficiency and stuff too.
[11:29] So yeah, we were, I think it was, I forget the exact thing,
[11:32] but this was being kind of used I think as a model
[11:35] for other, other districts now as well.
[11:37] So yeah, we had a,
[11:39] a really good Mount Vernon Group did a really nice job on
[11:42] the design with this, this building as [inaudible] kind
[11:44] of the shocking thing is remember looking at the elevations
[11:46] they gave us, which all like computer generated, you know,
[11:49] graphics and to see those in comparison to
[11:51] what it all looks like it, it was dead on.
[11:55] I mean really, really, really good.
[11:56] So anyway [inaudible] anything else, I will leave you
[12:00] to your meeting and I will get outta here because. Thank you.
[12:03] Have to do this anymore. You do.
[12:07] But I'll see you guys all at budget time.
[12:11] Thanks. Have a good night.
[12:13] Thank you. Alright, so then we'll move on to new business.
[12:16] And that is the Chapin Street Core Building Committee
[12:20] dissolving the committee, which we just talked about.
[12:23] And I know Sue did go into old records
[12:27] because we were questioning whether
[12:29] or not this was something we could do.
[12:32] And I think it has appeared
[12:34] that this is something we did create
[12:35] after all, we were questioning whether or not we created it
[12:38] or the select board had created it.
[12:40] But if they created it's not something we could dissolve.
[12:43] But since we as a school committee years ago created it 10
[12:47] years ago to be exact, we do,
[12:49] are the ones responsible for dissolving it.
[12:51] Does anybody have any questions with regard to that? No.
[12:55] Thank you Sue for doing all that research
[12:57] because I'm sure it was timely.
[12:58] It took a lot of time. [inaudible]
[13:01] So with that, do I have a motion to dissolve the
[13:05] Chapin Street Core Building Committee?
[13:09] Madam Chair, make a motion
[13:10] to dissolve the Chapin Street Core Building Committee.
[13:14] Second it. You, a second down there? Yes. Okay. All in favor?
[13:18] Aye. And the ayes have it. Five nothing.
[13:20] It is dissolved. Is dissolved. One less committee
[13:22] I'm on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[13:27] Alright, so we're gonna move on
[13:29] to the Harvard Model Congress trip
[13:31] request approval. I know this was [inaudible]
[13:36] postponed it.
[13:38] Now we have the information that is needed.
[13:39] So [inaudible] Shannon Anderson.
[13:44] Yes, here today. I know you're here with a friend.
[13:48] Are you ready to speak? I brought you to give a speech.
[13:51] Are you ready? Oh boy.
[13:56] So the past three years we've gone
[13:58] to Harvard Model Congress over February break.
[14:00] We're hoping to get approval for that.
[14:02] I did submit the itinerary
[14:04] and all the information that you folks need.
[14:07] I'm hoping to take students again.
[14:09] The last time I was here, we formed a bank account so
[14:12] that we could raise funds
[14:13] 'cause we're not getting the money
[14:15] that we had gotten previously.
[14:17] But students are going to go through the process
[14:20] of applying for scholarship.
[14:21] Their deadline is 9/30 at the end of this month,
[14:25] not the time, the date.
[14:27] And so hopefully we'll find out
[14:29] how much money they're granted from Harvard
[14:31] and then we can work from there to, to fund
[14:33] and make sure that those students get those opportunities.
[14:35] So I hope that you'll grant us the opportunity
[14:38] to go again in February.
[14:40] It's a great experience
[14:41] and yeah, students have a great, great time.
[14:46] Yeah, it sounds like the last couple years sounds like
[14:48] it's been a wonderful experience.
[14:50] Fantastic. Does anybody have any questions for Ms. Anderson?
[14:56] What would be the price per student,
[14:58] what, is, is it in?
[15:00] So Harvard has told us that they base it depending upon
[15:03] how many students sign up.
[15:05] So the answer to that question is still
[15:08] not totally clear to me.
[15:10] I've been told
[15:11] to estimate about a thousand dollars per student pay for
[15:15] hotel stay, food.
[15:17] The conference, in the past, they had paid for
[15:22] clothing allowance like they had, you know,
[15:23] given all the students, all the opportunities.
[15:25] So all of those things considered,
[15:26] I'm estimating about a thousand dollars a student. Is that
[15:29] how much it's ultimately gonna cost?
[15:31] I won't know until the scholarship
[15:32] applications get processed.
[15:34] And again, they're due at the end of this month.
[15:36] And then Harvard's supposed to release
[15:38] the scholarship applications
[15:39] and let us know at the beginning of October.
[15:43] So I should know and have an idea
[15:45] and then we can work from there.
[15:49] My, my daughter attended
[15:51] and she [inaudible] about it and still does.
[15:53] So it's, it's definitely an excellent
[15:55] opportunity for the students.
[15:57] It sounds like it gives you guys plenty of time
[15:59] to fundraise if
[16:00] needed.
[16:01] Yeah, we're hoping, I mean they kind of told us
[16:03] that, you know, they would be generous to us.
[16:06] That's what I'm hoping. So I hope that we won't have a lot
[16:08] of money to raise and I wish again
[16:10] that I had a more clear picture of how much we need.
[16:12] But, and it's also student to student dependent.
[16:15] So they have to fill out, when they fill out their form,
[16:17] they say how much their, you know,
[16:18] household income is that, and that kind of thing.
[16:20] So it's also dependent upon the student.
[16:22] So we're gonna work from there.
[16:24] Once we get that information back, we'll do what we can.
[16:27] We had a bake sale at open house
[16:29] and we raised a little bit of money there.
[16:30] You know, we're doing little things like that to try
[16:32] and raise money in the meantime until we can figure out
[16:34] what exactly it's going to cost.
[16:37] Great. So
[16:43] if there's no more questions, then I will [inaudible] a motion,
[16:46] if someone would like to give me one. I make a motion to
[16:52] approve the field trip request
[16:54] for Harvard Model Congress on February 18th through 21st
[16:57] of 2027.
[16:59] Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. [inaudible] Thank you.
[17:03] You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you for coming in.
[17:09] Alright, moving on. Policy updates.
[17:12] So I will [inaudible] Ms.
[17:14] Cournoyer or. Yeah. Talk about this.
[17:18] So [inaudible] Sure.
[17:19] So I'm sure you've all been waiting for this
[17:22] because the governor had put the, passed the protect act a day
[17:26] or two before the start of school with
[17:28] and charged all school districts with passing a policy
[17:32] immediately in regards to this.
[17:36] They also put out model guidance
[17:39] for schools at that time.
[17:41] So Attorney Bouchard,
[17:46] thankfully in short order, used that guidance
[17:51] to put together
[17:53] our policy for the Protect Act.
[17:56] So if you've had an opportunity to take a look,
[17:58] the real meat of the act is in paragraph two.
[18:03] That really is the substance, which basically states
[18:08] that civil, civil arrests
[18:12] are not allowed on school grounds during school hours
[18:16] and without a judicial warrant or judicial order.
[18:20] And that schools are charged with creating, using,
[18:24] using the guidance from the state,
[18:26] the model guidance from the state, from the governor
[18:29] to put together procedures
[18:30] and to implement procedures in preparation should
[18:34] any, anything like that occur.
[18:37] And, you know, so, and that everyone knows what should, what
[18:40] to do [inaudible] show up on
[18:42] campus and then what to do.
[18:45] So, and all of those
[18:48] are in place at this time.
[18:50] And we're in process of, we met
[18:53] with our admin staff last week to take them through
[18:58] what those procedures are
[18:59] and additional information's gonna be shared
[19:02] with them once the policy's passed so
[19:04] that they can share it with their full staff.
[19:08] Does anybody have any questions?
[19:10] I know I just have one question.
[19:12] So I'm just curious, knowing
[19:18] that, I'm sure this pertains probably mostly to
[19:23] ICE right now in that we know that they're going on
[19:26] to school campuses given that it's a federal agency compared
[19:30] to this being a state, does that impede like impact at all?
[19:36] [inaudible] they're a federal agency,
[19:39] ICE is a federal agency.
[19:40] Correct? And this is a state law, so does it, right?
[19:44] I, I, so that's why I'm just curious if it, like, does it,
[19:47] does a federal agency supersede a state
[19:52] law or? So the,
[19:53] the law really is for us, right.
[19:55] It tells us that we need to adopt a policy and procedures.
[20:00] So the law is governing our behavior. Just our.
[20:02] Okay.
[20:03] Right. So they're gonna do whatever they're gonna do,
[20:04] but we're gonna pretend we're just
[20:05] gonna follow, we're gonna follow the law.
[20:07] That's, I just wanted to get it to make sense in my mind.
[20:10] Good question. Thank you.
[20:15] Are, are we being asked
[20:18] to pass this tonight? Which
[20:21] is. Yes. We generally,
[20:23] that's not in our [inaudible]
[20:24] Right. You're, you're, because of the urgency and the,
[20:28] and the, I'm trying to,
[20:33] this was put forward by the governor very, very quickly
[20:36] with very little time for schools to go through the,
[20:39] through our, the procedures, our normal procedures
[20:42] for passing a policy or asking the school committee
[20:45] to waive the distribution of first reading.
[20:48] So that would have to happen first
[20:49] and then we would ask you to approve it.
[20:51] So this would be considered the second reading
[20:53] and the vote, vote [inaudible]
[20:55] Yes. And I'm not a big
[21:00] fan of that, but it does seem
[21:03] to be a special circumstance.
[21:06] Technically this was supposed to be in place what?
[21:09] September 1st, September first, right. Order of the state.
[21:11] But because we didn't have enough time to get it in place,
[21:15] we already had a, a policy that was very similar
[21:18] because what we are proactive, it just wasn't
[21:23] the protect act, the procedures
[21:25] that were in place were very similar
[21:27] to what the Protect Act was asking us to do.
[21:30] So it covered us until we actually
[21:32] put the policy in place, is the way I understood it.
[21:38] I mean we can talk this out
[21:41] because this is a, we're a committee, we, you know, it's
[21:45] the committee's will is what we're going to do.
[21:48] It's, we're being asked to
[21:53] waive the first two.
[21:56] But if people don't feel comfortable, I mean.
[22:02] Perfectly comfortable with the policy, it's just
[22:07] the actual, just here it is and we're passing it.
[22:09] That's just, people do take
[22:11] that the wrong way when we do things like that, you know,
[22:14] we seem to create more of controversy by doing that instead
[22:17] of, you know, just following our procedures
[22:21] because they'll say, if you could do it for this one
[22:24] then why didn't you do it for the, this other one
[22:26] and just, I, I know the importance of it. So.
[22:31] Is there, is there any penalty for going
[22:34] through our regular procedure?
[22:36] Do they, will somebody be checking
[22:39] to see if we've passed things by now?
[22:44] I don't know the answer to that. So we already have
[22:47] procedures in place prior to this.
[22:50] There are the procedures that were put in place
[22:58] without protect act being in place that are very similar.
[23:02] But without the, the actual policy being in place
[23:07] that are covered by the Protect Act, I don't know
[23:10] what liability that puts the school in. I, I don't know.
[23:13] I mean the, the, we're, we're out of compliance right now.
[23:17] So that's not through any fault of our own.
[23:21] It, it, the timing of it is the timing of it
[23:24] over which we had no control.
[23:25] The legislature passed the law
[23:29] and we have to follow it.
[23:31] So that's the set.
[23:33] The urgency is coming from the timing
[23:36] of the legislative action.
[23:38] Not anything that, that you did as a school committee.
[23:42] And every other school district in the Commonwealth has been
[23:47] in the same boat scrambling
[23:51] to try to get into compliance.
[23:53] So we're, you know, that's,
[23:56] that's the urgency is just being in compliance with the law.
[24:01] Alright, I'm good with it. Thank you.
[24:11] So we can, I guess if we have two
[24:14] options, we vote on it tonight.
[24:17] I mean technically supposed to be three times, right?
[24:19] Which is we say we have a policy, we come back, we discuss,
[24:24] we discuss the policy and then come back.
[24:27] Can we vote on the policy? Right?
[24:29] That's the three times
[24:30] well we're discussing the policy today.
[24:33] So technically you already skipped the first time.
[24:35] If people don't feel comfortable
[24:36] and they want this to kind of stew for two weeks
[24:40] until our next meeting that's up.
[24:43] You, that's again at the will of the committee.
[24:46] I could go either way.
[24:48] I'm not, I don't want to force anybody
[24:51] to do something they don't want to do.
[24:53] It's about compliance at this point.
[24:56] I understand what everybody is saying about, you know,
[24:59] you know, policy [inaudible] reason
[25:01] and if we don't follow our policy, it does.
[25:03] We do have had people not be happy about
[25:05] pushing things through in the past.
[25:10] No, I think the law says September 1st
[25:12] or the first day of school.
[25:14] So I think I would hold my [inaudible]
[25:21] Alright.
[25:22] And hope we don't have a deadline like that again.
[25:24] Where it's like September 1st we,
[25:26] because there is a, there is a process and.
[25:29] We've had it before and we've had
[25:31] to rush in, right, during summertime.
[25:32] Right. But this was just like literally maybe a week
[25:34] before school started, I think.
[25:35] Sure. Like it was that fast this time.
[25:37] Would it be worth contacting Jake Oliveira
[25:41] and Aaron Saunders and just ask the, probably not.
[25:46] No, because they're, I, most times they're like,
[25:48] their sessions are light in the summer anyways,
[25:50] so they come back and they get everything going again.
[25:55] Experience. But.
[25:58] Every other district has it too,
[25:59] right?
[26:00] Yeah, they all have, everyone has to do it. Okay.
[26:03] Or some, you know.
[26:05] Let's vote. Legislation.
[26:11] All right, if there's no more
[26:13] questions, I'll entertain a motion.
[26:16] Madam Chairwoman, I make a motion
[26:17] to adopt the policy filed ACL interacting
[26:20] with law enforcement officers engaged in civil law
[26:22] enforcement to protect [inaudible]
[26:24] I'm sorry, you have to waive. You have to waive. Oh, sorry.
[26:26] I'll take a motion to waive the first
[26:29] and second
[26:32] policy protocol.
[26:36] So moved. Got a second? Second. All in favor? Aye.
[26:40] Aye. Okay, five
[26:41] nothing and then I'll make, I'll take a motion to enact
[26:47] the protect act.
[26:49] Madam Chairwoman, I'll make a motion to
[26:53] adopt file ACL interacting
[26:55] with law enforcement police officers engaged civil law
[26:58] enforcement the protect act as presented this evening.
[27:02] Do I have a second? I'll second that. All in favor? Aye.
[27:05] Aye. Okay. Five to nothing. Alright.
[27:11] Thank you for being here. Appreciate it.
[27:22] Now we're gonna move on to old business
[27:27] and this is going to be the policy update
[27:30] with regard to the fee schedule.
[27:45] So I know that I'm not,
[27:49] policy committee hasn't met on this again.
[27:51] Right? Okay.
[27:53] I know that we spoke about this during
[27:56] Sharon [inaudible] last week.
[28:00] So here's what we,
[28:04] what we presented is a proposed revision.
[28:10] So I initially,
[28:12] after the previous school committee meeting captured this is
[28:15] the, what the recommendation of the policy subcommittee was
[28:20] in the several weeks since then,
[28:23] or in two weeks since the school committee meeting,
[28:25] Tim Brillo and I dove in a little more deeply to
[28:30] the revenue streams and where the revenue comes in.
[28:33] So we do collect quite a bit of revenue
[28:37] and Tim
[28:39] and I had thought that that was coming in from organizations
[28:42] that would've been in that for-profit column,
[28:45] but it's actually not true.
[28:47] So great majority
[28:48] of the revenue we do collect is coming in in the
[28:50] not-for-profit column.
[28:54] So, and as, as Tim said, it's over 30,000 in revenue.
[28:58] So a significant amount that is significant enough to help
[29:01] with rebuild a field
[29:04] or refurbishment of facilities.
[29:07] And so the recommendation, the proposal
[29:12] that we have is not the same as
[29:15] what was discussed in the policy subcommittee
[29:17] because our recognition of where the different
[29:24] users who, who rent the facilities fall into this, which
[29:27] of these columns they fall into.
[29:29] And so the great majority fall into the not-for-profit
[29:33] column, but it does, we would be forgoing quite a bit
[29:37] of revenue that would be valuable to,
[29:42] and we didn't see from the youth sports organizations that
[29:47] as we define them, not much.
[29:50] So the proposals
[29:53] is following the policy subcommittee's recommendations
[29:56] for the youth sports to reduce
[30:00] or eliminate the fees except for the use of electricity
[30:03] with stadium lights for the youth sports organizations.
[30:08] Then in keeping with several of the conversations
[30:12] that have been happening to say the classrooms
[30:14] and library space is free to not-for-profits from Ludlow,
[30:21] so that several of the circumstances
[30:23] that we had discussed would provide this space
[30:26] and all the other libraries
[30:27] and classrooms across the district would be available
[30:29] for normal [inaudible]
[30:32] But that the athletics facilities, including the interior,
[30:36] the gyms and the house exterior complex [inaudible] is
[30:41] what generates most of the revenue
[30:43] and would also be the stuff that needs
[30:45] to be replaced and refurbished.
[30:47] We would still have those fees,
[30:49] which none of those are changed.
[30:50] So the red is the only places that we would propose
[30:55] changes and everything else is the existing policy.
[30:58] It's just [inaudible] one sheet instead
[31:00] of the two different packets they, they used that exist.
[31:04] And then Sharon and Tim and,
[31:11] and others have discussed the procedures that we would,
[31:14] the administrative procedures that Sharon would be in charge
[31:18] of to revise that handbook on how we would use it.
[31:22] And some that would be more clearly defined.
[31:26] Who is the Ludlow Youth sports program?
[31:28] We would define the actual programs is the proposal
[31:32] that we are thinking you would go with administratively.
[31:35] Say these are the entities that are
[31:37] youth sports organizations focused on serving
[31:41] younger children that are not charging a lot of money
[31:43] for participation and you
[31:48] know, trying to cast a wide net to create access for young
[31:51] for, for, for youth to participate in activities.
[31:57] And then a little bit just clarification around access
[32:00] to bathrooms, access
[32:01] to the stadium when a site supervisor would be involved.
[32:05] And just trying to clarify things that are in there
[32:07] but not as crystal clear.
[32:09] But I think that we had a pretty good start from this on
[32:12] how this could be clarified that
[32:18] Tim Brillo would be a big part of the,
[32:21] the athletic processes, but then we'd also try
[32:24] and streamline some of
[32:25] how these things get accessed to people.
[32:29] Does that capture most of what we talked about?
[32:31] Yeah, I think it was, it actually was good to push pause
[32:35] on the process, to take some time to really take a look at
[32:38] who is using the facility prior to making the decision
[32:43] and really be thoughtful
[32:45] and you know, understanding the, you know, the intent of,
[32:49] you know, wanting to make sure that
[32:51] the facilities are being, you know, that they're accessible
[32:54] to the community, but at the same time understand
[32:58] that the wear and tear on, you know, on the facility we need
[33:02] to be fiscally responsible and,
[33:04] and making sure that we're contributing
[33:06] to its upkeep, you know, over time.
[33:08] And so I think that was really time well spent.
[33:11] Thank you to Mickey and to, and to Tim for taking the time
[33:14] to do a deep dive into its actual use to figure out,
[33:18] you know, who is actually using the facility
[33:21] and what particular category they fall into.
[33:30] Does anybody have any questions on that?
[33:36] I just have one, which was last week.
[33:38] I think we, it was thrown about pretty
[33:41] casually there at the end,
[33:42] but there was a mention of maybe discussing a,
[33:47] a, like a seasonal use fee or something like that [inaudible]
[33:51] decide that wasn't the way to go or? We,
[33:57] we discussed it, we didn't put it on the proposal,
[34:02] but we did know that there was enough conversation about it
[34:05] that we were hoping it would be a conversation here
[34:08] and see what the interest was.
[34:14] I think there was quite a bit of positive thought on it
[34:17] and we debated whether to add in this proposal or not.
[34:21] So it wasn't a clear like, no,
[34:22] we don't think that's a good idea.
[34:25] We were just trying to streamline as the, the changes.
[34:27] So yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
[34:32] Tim had originally thought that that was like a, you know,
[34:35] an access like hey [inaudible] minor amount
[34:39] of money [inaudible] you know, you want to kind
[34:44] of use our facilities one annual fee.
[34:47] That was his idea. I hadn't really heard that
[34:51] until the conversation started here with him.
[34:54] So we could have put that in here as a proposal.
[34:57] We decided not to put it on,
[34:59] but it wasn't an explicit decision not to.
[35:02] And that would be a, a, a shift that would be a change
[35:07] for the Ludlow youth
[35:08] and scouting program column would be adding a,
[35:12] that would be adding a fee
[35:13] where prior there would be [inaudible]
[35:16] So that is a, that's a significant conversation to have.
[35:19] It wouldn't be a huge fee.
[35:20] I mean it, and it does talk to the, you know, skin
[35:22] in the game conversation, but it would be a difference to
[35:25] what they've previously been responsible for.
[35:29] I, I'm glad you guys had the conversation because,
[35:32] and I'm glad that then we didn't
[35:34] or we, we kept pushing us to have this conversation
[35:37] because the fact that we think that the not-for-profits
[35:41] are the ones making you know,
[35:43] some money when really we had thought mostly it was
[35:47] from the pioneers.
[35:49] That is a big shift in that
[35:50] thought.
[35:51] Well I think it's a question of how you define
[35:52] not-for-profit and for profit
[35:54] way more the organization's fallen into not-for-profit than
[35:57] you would think, than we think.
[35:58] Right. So, and we, I would like
[36:00] to use an example having coached a lot of baseball.
[36:03] There's youth baseball organizations
[36:06] that are trying to create wide access.
[36:07] They have very low fees as many kids as possible
[36:09] and there's like travel baseball teams that
[36:11] as you get older, but some,
[36:14] they charge a whole lot of money, right.
[36:16] But those travel and baseball organizations are not
[36:18] necessarily for profit.
[36:20] They could qualify not for profit.
[36:22] And we discussed, Sharon and I discussed quite a bit,
[36:25] how would we decide who's a not-for-profit for profit?
[36:28] It'd be really, really difficult as the, as the district
[36:33] to confirm. Right.
[36:35] That, and so really
[36:37] as we look back on
[36:38] who was renting it was mostly in the not-for-profit world.
[36:43] I, I always assumed you had to have a certificate
[36:45] of being not-for-profit when you are a not for profit.
[36:49] Some actually do have the not-for-profit
[36:55] 5013C,
[36:56] but most are kind of just more generally
[37:00] they're not for-profit entities
[37:02] and so [inaudible] multiple categories.
[37:04] Yeah. So the great category
[37:06] and so we even looked at some of the dance groups
[37:08] that come in and yeah, it's not clear
[37:13] where they would fall and it would be really difficult if we
[37:16] had to really determine do you fall into
[37:20] this category or not?
[37:21] That would be a very difficult.
[37:23] Yeah.
[37:24] Process. I don't know enough to
[37:25] speak on.
[37:26] So, so when we looked at where the money, you know
[37:28] who was using it that was generating money.
[37:31] Okay. It was people
[37:32] that would pretty easily fall into
[37:34] the not-for-profit column.
[37:36] But these are organizations that charge a lot of money
[37:39] to participate and it's, they're, they're sort
[37:42] of big dollar organizations even if they're
[37:43] not explicitly for-profit.
[37:46] Got it. So I'm glad that Tim helped do that dive to. Yeah,
[37:51] I'm glad you guys looked, say, okay, let's really decide
[37:53] where are these, right,
[37:54] where are these different organizations
[37:56] where their revenue is coming in,
[37:57] where do they fall within our language?
[38:00] And that everyone is why we take the time
[38:02] to relook at things and, and make sure.
[38:05] So I think that [inaudible]
[38:06] We talked about the different examples, right.
[38:10] Several of the not-for-profits
[38:12] that are just like groups looking for space to meet
[38:16] the free use of classrooms
[38:18] and libraries would create
[38:21] that access. The specialized spaces
[38:25] like the kitchen cafeteria,
[38:29] a little more specialized and usually bigger groups,
[38:32] but the real generator of activities, the athletics,
[38:36] any auditorium and the majority of the,
[38:41] of the groups that were, that were paying quite a bit
[38:44] to use the space
[38:45] were in, would fall into the not-for-profit
[38:48] either Ludlow or non Ludlow.
[38:50] And what we would do in the administrative guidelines is
[38:53] keep the same language.
[38:54] So there's 80% of participants have to be Ludlow residents.
[38:58] It's also not easiest to police, but,
[39:03] but we would at least have that standard for that [inaudible]
[39:05] But if we, it's
[39:08] because it's not so greasy to police, it would also,
[39:10] if we had a massive difference in that column for Ludlow
[39:14] not-for-profits were no fees we would need [inaudible]
[39:18] a bit of revenue enough that would be significant for,
[39:22] for long-term help for the field.
[39:24] Okay.
[39:27] Does anybody have any other questions?
[39:30] Alright, well if there's no other questions than I
[39:34] will take a motion to finally put this to bed
[39:38] and to accept the revised fee schedule
[39:42] that has been proposed.
[39:49] If someone would like to give me one.
[39:51] All right, Madam Chairwoman, I make a motion to
[39:54] approve file KG dash E the Ludlow Public School's use
[39:57] of facilities, the fee schedule that was
[40:00] included in our packet.
[40:02] Change the file name to KF dash E.
[40:06] Do I have a second? Somebody seconded.
[40:08] All in favor? Yes. Aye.
[40:10] Alright, so five [inaudible] fee schedule,
[40:15] I'm hoping that this makes more happy.
[40:18] Yeah.
[40:24] And now we'll send this back
[40:25] to Mickey again for a budget update.
[40:30] Budget update is
[40:34] fairly straightforward.
[40:37] The, the complicated part is always in the Munis report,
[40:43] but nothing terribly unusual in terms
[40:47] of overall trends [inaudible]
[40:53] Maybe just open up for questions so I don't
[40:56] go into my nerdy budget world.
[41:01] Does anybody have any questions? Are,
[41:03] are we surviving? That's
[41:04] the question.
[41:05] We're, everything is
[41:10] going as expected
[41:11] and getting to see the budget
[41:16] for a third year.
[41:18] I, I understand it a whole lot better every time, you know,
[41:21] each extra month that goes on.
[41:22] So I'm feeling pretty good with, with where we're at.
[41:27] So you're not worried at the moment?
[41:29] No, I'm not worried for this year. Alright then I'm not worried.
[41:32] Thank you. You know, it's too early
[41:33] to feel confident about next year.
[41:35] But, but for this year things are, things are in good shape.
[41:40] Mickey question, are all positions filled
[41:42] or are we still looking to hire certain spots?
[41:44] No, there's the hiring is
[41:47] fundamentally different than it used to be.
[41:49] Sure. And now there, there is
[41:52] a continual flow of postings
[41:55] and hirings that going
[42:00] back not that far in our careers you just didn't see [inaudible]
[42:06] there was sometimes stuff in the middle of the year
[42:08] but not a continuous continuous set of changes.
[42:13] So we still have open positions quite a few
[42:17] and sort of accepting that's gonna be a reality
[42:22] for, for us and I think four school districts.
[42:25] Yeah.
[42:29] My question is, if we had to do what we did
[42:33] for transportation last year, just looking as a
[42:38] what if, do we have that possibility within our budget?
[42:43] If that, if.
[42:45] So, if it was, if it was a need,
[42:48] I'll, I'll, I'll sort of re-ask the question a slightly different way.
[42:55] If we felt like we needed to go
[42:59] with an external transportation [inaudible]
[43:00] it was more expensive than what we had budgeted
[43:02] because we budget it based on the LPVEC rates.
[43:07] It wouldn't be within the budget.
[43:10] But would we have the ability to do so if we felt the need?
[43:15] Yes. Without question. Whether
[43:19] that additional cost could be contained within the general
[43:22] fund budget too early to know, you know,
[43:25] which estimates are gonna be higher than we thought.
[43:28] Lower than we thought. Right. That kind of thing.
[43:29] Just curious. But we, you know, as we went
[43:33] through the budget development process over the past couple
[43:35] years, you know, we talked about how, how Frank and I
[43:39] and Sharon have started talking about this,
[43:41] but it's too early to really get in deep. We've tried
[43:44] to make sure that we have the ability
[43:47] to cushion unexpected expenses.
[43:49] And so we definitely would be able to handle that is one
[43:53] of the reasons why we decided last year we'd be okay.
[43:55] And so if we had to, we could.
[43:57] Okay. I'm only asking
[43:58] because I know that we're, you know,
[43:59] we've had some bumps in the road.
[44:00] I know that we're not the only district
[44:02] that sets some bumps in the road from, I'll be back
[44:07] and we're not the, they're not the only bus company
[44:09] that has had some bump bumps in the road this year.
[44:11] So it seems to be a very common theme this year,
[44:16] but be ride for our, for transportation to school
[44:18] to and from school this year.
[44:20] So I'm just, it's frustrating since this is your number.
[44:25] I'll say two even though I think it's been longer than that.
[44:27] But you know, our kids deserve, like we said last year
[44:30] to get to school and we were assured that
[44:34] that was gonna happen this year.
[44:35] So I wanna be proactive, but I was just curious.
[44:40] I have a comment to that as well.
[44:42] So you could say that about the teachers
[44:44] that you can't find as well.
[44:45] So say my daughter's in a class
[44:47] where there isn't a professional licensed teacher.
[44:51] I could come here and say,
[44:52] you're not providing the services that you should.
[44:55] Right. So you it's all the same.
[44:59] I would just say the shortages, the shortage
[45:01] of drivers is not everywhere, is not teachers.
[45:04] The cause of the woes is exacerbates the woes, the causes
[45:09] of the woves are
[45:14] are there even without the shortage of drivers.
[45:18] And they're significant, very significant.
[45:21] And, and then the driver shortage really makes it,
[45:25] it exacerbates it and raise it.
[45:28] Well I can tell you that what's gonna happen is
[45:31] that students are no longer probably gonna go to Ctec,
[45:34] they're gonna be going pathfinder as well.
[45:35] So you, you better plan both at that same time.
[45:38] You know what I mean? It's not gonna be a split from
[45:40] transportation and all be all right, come on over to Ctec.
[45:44] It's gonna be where our kids gonna take
[45:46] vocational education to.
[45:48] So playing it both at the same time, you know
[45:50] what I mean? That would be what I
[45:52] Would do.
[45:53] You mean afraid of not using transportation for
[45:55] Yes, there it is.
[45:56] Definitely. We're gonna be, we're gonna be penalized
[45:59] so heavily that it makes no sense to send our kids to ctec.
[46:01] Do you know what I mean? When they could go
[46:03] to downtown there probably be cheaper
[46:06] because we wouldn't, we wouldn't be giving,
[46:09] we're getting like the discount of being one
[46:12] of the seven member districts.
[46:14] So I know that they would take action to make sure
[46:17] that we're not a seven if we're not participating in it
[46:21] and if we were to go to outside transportation.
[46:24] So just plan on doing both if
[46:25] that's the way we're gonna do it.
[46:27] You know, like just clean split, not just transportation.
[46:30] I would, I would plan
[46:31] for the whole thing if you guys are thinking of that.
[46:36] So we're still in conversation with
[46:40] Director Morton and
[46:42] with the other superintendents we met last week.
[46:46] There's, I wouldn't say daily conversation,
[46:49] but there's frequent communication in regards
[46:52] to, you know, what's going on.
[46:56] We had, we met and they made some commitments,
[47:01] I made a commitment to let them know every time there's
[47:04] something wrong, it, it was our commitment
[47:08] and you know, I don't know, it's been,
[47:12] it's been quiet in my
[47:13] office and I don't know if it's because
[47:15] A couple days of quiet.
[47:16] So Yeah, good thing.
[47:18] So, So there's that.
[47:23] I do have to say, you know, his office
[47:26] and Crystal have been
[47:29] phenomenal in mitigating some of the issues
[47:33] that have, that have happened.
[47:36] And I do agree, I mean there are driver shortages
[47:40] but there are logistical issues within the organization
[47:44] that have made, you know, that, that are, you know,
[47:49] a bigger part of, of the issue above
[47:52] and beyond the driver shortage piece and,
[47:54] and the communication side that we're trying to,
[47:57] to really work around and you know,
[47:59] there's some other transitional pieces that needs
[48:02] to be happening that I think we're trying to work with,
[48:05] you know, with LP VEC taking over the communication side.
[48:10] And we've talked about this that, you know, for the good
[48:13] of our families and for the communication side for,
[48:16] for our families, that families might be getting double
[48:20] communication for, for a while to make sure
[48:23] that the communication loop is completely closed
[48:27] and that they're getting timely communication.
[48:29] So we might be double duty on that for a little bit.
[48:32] But you know, we,
[48:34] I I know Mickey's office is working really hard.
[48:37] We are trying to bombard communication
[48:42] and you know, to see what we can do
[48:44] and you know, as someone who's kind of new to the game
[48:49] communicating with the other area superintendents around,
[48:52] you know, what's going on, Ludlow
[48:57] and Abraham seemed to do the schools that are short
[49:03] on drivers, largely short on drivers.
[49:07] So when they had drivers in the pipeline, they had
[49:09] or allegedly have drivers in the pipeline.
[49:11] But it takes time. But again, that's not,
[49:14] that's not the only factor here.
[49:16] There's, there's other issues that are going on
[49:18] and this is gonna be part of my report so
[49:22] I'm skipping ahead a little bit.
[49:23] Skip you. But they are, you know, according to
[49:28] Director Morton, it's, it's interesting that
[49:32] they're looking at subcontracting out for drivers
[49:36] and looking to work with the union, with their union
[49:39] to subcontract for drivers to see if that will help
[49:42] with mitigating some of the issues as well.
[49:44] So they are looking and they are trying,
[49:46] but again, that's one piece of puzzle.
[49:48] So we will continue to move our way at it.
[49:54] Thank you.
[49:59] I had a question on the units.
[50:00] Yeah, Just that there's a lot of the line items
[50:04] that are a hundred percent spent
[50:06] and I assume those are like SA salary.
[50:09] Yeah, they, they would be a hundred percent committed.
[50:11] Right. So the encumbered plus spent what,
[50:15] I'm actually kind of thrilled to see more salary lines like
[50:19] that because big personal endeavors to try
[50:24] to get money to hit the accounts that it was budgeted in
[50:27] and you know, a lot of work that's
[50:31] to getting from the paper processes into a electronic
[50:35] management process.
[50:37] So when I see that a hundred percent like yes,
[50:38] that's exactly what it should be, right?
[50:40] So we have that does a salary account, position salary
[50:44] and we got the right amount in budgeted
[50:49] and it all around cu So I was very happy to see that
[50:51] much more than last year.
[50:53] Okay. My only other question had to do with
[50:59] line item for c and i
[51:02] I was gonna instruction, I was gonna talk about that.
[51:05] Oh and, but then I always say just wait, see,
[51:09] so there's a big line for curriculum instruction.
[51:16] I just have it there it is. It's on page two.
[51:22] So there's the c and i department, it's right in the middle
[51:24] and the, the words say school purchase, oh no, I'm sorry,
[51:30] Just The line school supplies the very last
[51:32] line, very last line.
[51:34] So there's a negative 279,000, 2 75 that is a
[51:39] temporary holding place account.
[51:43] So the titled grants title 1, 2, 3,
[51:46] and four total, something in the 480,000 each.
[51:53] We're technically not supposed to be spending
[51:57] in those accounts until the grant is approved.
[52:00] Grant just got approved week ago or so.
[52:06] So, but in our budget
[52:11] we have 408,000
[52:13] or so budgeted that is going
[52:15] to be assigned to the top grants.
[52:17] So until those grants get approved, what we decided
[52:21] to do this year was put them into a holding place account
[52:24] that we're only using for this holding place.
[52:26] So that account's gonna go away
[52:28] after we get everything approved,
[52:31] get the new budgets loaded,
[52:33] transfer the spending into their appropriate grant accounts.
[52:42] Much easier to track it this way than it was last year.
[52:46] So I'm kind of happy with how it's going,
[52:48] but it does look odd on the budget right now.
[52:51] Thank you. That's all I have.
[52:56] Anyone else? Alright.
[53:01] Thank you. Thank you. We move on.
[53:05] So sorry to steal one of your topics.
[53:08] No, I'm glad it's out of the way.
[53:11] So then I can talk about half of things.
[53:13] I just wanna give a, a shout out to Christina Moj
[53:17] for her first day of kindergarten.
[53:19] She, she had a, an event for her
[53:24] kindergarten parents on the first day.
[53:26] It was kind of like a, a boohoo kind of breakfast
[53:29] where families were invited in for breakfast and coffee
[53:34] and it was really lovely.
[53:37] Did a great job and you know, families took advantage of it.
[53:40] I wanna say there were probably, you know, 20, 25 folks
[53:43] who came in and afterwards, some of them really, you know,
[53:47] took advantage of the tissues
[53:48] that were the cutest little tissues that were on the table
[53:51] and really developed a really nice sense of community
[53:55] and you know, they were all talking with each other.
[53:56] They had an opportunity to meet her, you know,
[53:59] and it was, she just, she did a really nice job
[54:02] and it was a really nice, I think start to just building
[54:07] that school family connection and relationship.
[54:11] Very nicely done. High school,
[54:12] had a nice open house, great job.
[54:15] Our staff and Lisa and her staff and administration
[54:19] and student guides.
[54:21] You know, they were out there doing their thing,
[54:24] really doing a nice job.
[54:26] And I had my first set of three hour meetings.
[54:31] I had my second set this coming Monday.
[54:33] But you know, yesterday I met for three hours in the morning
[54:36] with Nikki at, at Harrisburg
[54:40] and then three hours in the afternoon with Christina at East
[54:44] where we met for, for a little bit.
[54:46] I got to do a grade level meeting with Nikki here
[54:50] and then we were out and about in classrooms going in
[54:53] and watching the magic happen and teaching and learning
[54:57] and then getting to have
[54:58] conversations about what we were seeing.
[54:59] And it was just, it was an exhausting day.
[55:01] It was an exhilarating day.
[55:04] Kids were fabulous, lots of who are you?
[55:10] But it was really great. It was really nice to see,
[55:12] you know, what was going on in the classroom, starting
[55:14] to see the implementation of the new math program.
[55:16] Kids were really excited about it.
[55:18] Like what I ready, it was really,
[55:20] it was really kind of neat.
[55:21] So just good things, good things that were going on.
[55:24] So it's a nice start. Busy week so far.
[55:29] Busy last week.
[55:39] Sorry, pronou down to you. I don't have much to say.
[55:42] Getting back into the new school year, Chris,
[55:46] you clued me in that I should be probably talking about like
[55:52] not talking about like nice feedback I got, I got some nice,
[55:57] I got some nice feedback that I should probably be
[56:00] reaching out to the administration of each school
[56:01] and kind of going over what's happening.
[56:05] So that will, I'll be, I'll provide that in the future.
[56:09] But, but yeah, my,
[56:13] my school is going well and,
[56:16] and I think many, many of my peers
[56:19] and yeah could say it's the same.
[56:24] I don't know, I don't have much, sorry.
[56:28] Well whatever I can do to help out kids,
[56:30] that's what I'm all saying.
[56:32] Thank you. I really, I really don't have much
[56:34] to say except I do appreciate Sharon visiting the buildings
[56:37] and being visible.
[56:39] I think that's what the staff in Ludlow crave and, and want.
[56:43] And so I look forward to hearing more stories
[56:45] of your adventures into the schools.
[56:48] Thank you though. Appreciate that.
[56:50] You know what I do, I do wanna say in response
[56:53] to our conversation at the,
[56:54] at the last meeting we have had some conversations
[56:56] about attendance committees.
[56:58] So you've had another princip principal level
[57:00] and at the, at the cabinet level and so,
[57:05] and you know, and we took a look at, you know,
[57:07] how many students have attend, have,
[57:09] have not attended school yet this year at the high school
[57:11] and the middle school and have talked about organizing that.
[57:14] So I really appreciate that feedback.
[57:16] Kind of solidifier and it's very exciting.
[57:20] Great. Good job.
[57:23] I don't have much to say either other than good job at
[57:26] the cross country meet today.
[57:28] She must have run straight to her car after the I did
[57:31] and to get here
[57:33] but so I've, I've gone to a couple of meets now.
[57:37] Haven't seen many of the other sports yet
[57:39] but there's a lot going on so that's exciting to see.
[57:43] And that's all I have.
[57:46] Alright. I don't have much, just the attendance part
[57:49] reminded me of something that the collaborative has partner
[57:53] partnered with the Hammond County Correctional
[57:55] Sheriff's Department
[57:57] and they now have two attendance officers.
[58:01] One is paid for by the sheriff's department
[58:04] and the other is paid for by the collaborative
[58:07] and they are going to all the districts
[58:09] and getting list of lists of kids who
[58:13] have already obsessive absences mostly in the middle school
[58:17] range and try to get, trying to make relations with them
[58:21] in the early part of the year
[58:23] and create relationships
[58:25] to hopefully get those kids back to school.
[58:28] That's all I reminded me of that.
[58:30] Sorry, I should have my notes. That's it.
[58:32] Jeff, if I could add something on the attendance.
[58:35] I just had a district meeting
[58:37] and one of the things is if students have been out two days
[58:40] already, they're already chronically absent right now as
[58:44] of, but it's early. There's,
[58:46] My Daughter's been sick, leave me alone.
[58:48] No, I know, but two, no 18%
[58:54] or 10% of the school
[58:55] Year, 18 days,
[59:00] Amanda, we don't blame.
[59:05] There's a lot of things going on.
[59:06] My god, everything's going around, everything's going.
[59:09] It is the plague as I'm also very excited to hear about,
[59:13] you know, going to the buildings.
[59:15] I think that's the, that's the nitty gritty is seeing the
[59:18] daily, you know, instruction and just the planning
[59:22] and everything that goes into it.
[59:23] And we've talked about it when we see it on the,
[59:25] the slideshows, you know, about the plans
[59:27] that really this is everything
[59:30] and everything happens in a school day is a lot.
[59:33] Everything that happens in a year is a lot.
[59:36] Personally the only thing I've done is, aside from lots
[59:38] of work is I did get to go to the Hope stroll.
[59:41] It was very nice on the first day that they had it
[59:44] before it rained the next day.
[59:46] But on those Saturdays it's been nice.
[59:47] So I did get to go out there on the first day
[59:49] and see the great work of all the, the signs
[59:52] that were put up, you know, on the river walk
[59:54] and they put a lot of time and effort into that
[59:57] and I saw tons of people stopping looking at it
[1:00:01] and taking pictures.
[1:00:02] And so if you haven't got to go down there,
[1:00:04] I think it's still up till next week maybe,
[1:00:07] I believe maybe one more week.
[1:00:08] I think they do it for two weeks, two or three weeks.
[1:00:11] I have it written down. I think it's still up but I,
[1:00:14] and I know some people went through the event
[1:00:16] that next rain, but it was very nice
[1:00:19] and so just wanted to have a shout out to them for,
[1:00:23] you know, bringing some awareness and so thank you.
[1:00:28] Alright. As like everyone else, it's been
[1:00:32] pretty quiet on this so committee front.
[1:00:35] I know that Harrisburg also had their open house
[1:00:37] since our last meeting.
[1:00:40] I completely forgot about it,
[1:00:42] but I missed my first open house
[1:00:43] 'cause I was babysitting my grandchildren.
[1:00:46] But I hear it was amazing event as well that,
[1:00:49] that the families that went to it enjoyed it.
[1:00:53] Let's see, I tomorrow night
[1:00:58] is the Boys and Girls Club dinner.
[1:01:03] I think that is the only other thing
[1:01:06] that is going on at this point.
[1:01:08] Thursday? Thursday. Thursday, sorry, yeah, Thursday I'm,
[1:01:11] I'm a week a day behind everything.
[1:01:13] Went to the big E this weekend.
[1:01:15] Enjoyed a little Alice Cooper.
[1:01:18] I don't like an Alice Cooper fan I'm sure.
[1:01:21] But yeah, other than that it was, it's been pretty quiet.
[1:01:24] Kids are enjoying school and kudos to teachers.
[1:01:27] They'll go in every day
[1:01:28] and educating that's get some more Lysol spray down those
[1:01:31] stool because my daughter's caught everything that she's,
[1:01:34] since she's got in there and the antibiotics hopefully
[1:01:39] will kill everything this time.
[1:01:41] But other than that, yeah.
[1:01:44] The only other thing I do wanna mention,
[1:01:46] 'cause I've had a couple parents mention it
[1:01:48] to me was nine 11.
[1:01:52] So apparently on nine 11 our schools have all did
[1:01:55] all things different.
[1:01:58] From what I've heard, nothing was done in one school.
[1:02:06] Comments were made from
[1:02:08] by teachers in some classrooms about not needing to do very,
[1:02:13] to do any moments of silence.
[1:02:15] And I think that we really need to,
[1:02:20] given this year was a, a big anniversary of it,
[1:02:23] I think we need to do better
[1:02:26] because it's kinda like Pledge of Allegiance.
[1:02:30] If you don't do the Pledge of Allegiance,
[1:02:32] you least stand there quietly
[1:02:33] and you just, you, you respect it.
[1:02:35] You sit in your chair quietly.
[1:02:39] But again, it's a big piece of our nation's history
[1:02:44] and I, you know, maybe it was just a one year accident
[1:02:48] that a school didn't, didn't do it
[1:02:51] that day, accidents happened.
[1:02:54] But if, if it wasn't an accident, then I think that it,
[1:03:00] I think we need to do better.
[1:03:02] 'cause a couple parents had come,
[1:03:05] had made mention of it to me.
[1:03:06] So I said I will make mention of it,
[1:03:08] but as a, I come from a military family
[1:03:13] and for my family it's a big thing.
[1:03:14] I know I have, I sit next to the military person
[1:03:18] and you know, it's,
[1:03:21] I can tell you exactly what I was doing that morning.
[1:03:22] So listen, I'm sure many people can, so same. Yeah.
[1:03:27] So just for what it's worth, it's
[1:03:32] resonates for a lot of our local people.
[1:03:35] Welcome. So, with that,
[1:03:37] I believe we do not have the need for executive session.
[1:03:40] Nope. Perfect. Alright, so I'll,
[1:03:42] I'll entertain a meeting to adjourn.
[1:03:44] So second. Second. All in favor? Aye for adjourn.
[1:03:49] Thank you everyone.