[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.

School Committee

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