[0:03] All right. Good evening. Welcome to the Oxford Public Schools Regular School Committee meeting for Wednesday, September 16th. This meeting is being videotaped by Oxford Cable Access and broadcast live on the town's public access educational cable channel 194, which is also streamed live on the cable access web page on the Town of Oxford website. The video recording may be viewed subsequent to the live broadcast via the educational channel on the town's video on demand website, which may be accessed via a link from either the Town of Oxford website or the Oxford Public Schools website. The meeting agenda and complete informational meeting packet and subsequent meeting minutes may be viewed on the Oxford Public School's website. And with that I will call to order and we'll do a roll call here, miss. Here, Miss Griffin. Here, Mr. Burke here. And I am also here. All right. Uh, first item is special presentation. School building, school opening, building reports, and introduction of new faculty members. So who wants which school would like to go first? The flagship, I think, would like to go first.

[1:17] Has to be the flagship.

[1:18] So you didn't know that.

[1:19] She was the first one to smile, so you had to go. Sorry. Thank you.

[1:25] All right. So do you want me to start with the opening? How the opening went so far? Okay, excellent. So we started strong at OHS with the new schedule and many new staff, staff and students are starting to get used to the new schedule. And in conversations with students, they find positives in having the schedule rotate and having one drop. So it's a brand new schedule this year that we're running and so far, so good. I still have to figure out what period it is given the time of day, but we're getting there. Um, the building looks beautiful for the start of the year. A big shout out to our custodial staff over the summer, who worked hard to make our school one to be proud of. The nine over 11 food drive went well and we donated a lot of food to the bank with the DPW help. We've been connecting with Nichols College recently to offer our students a leadership opportunity and an advanced class offered through the college. So be on the lookout for that. That will be coming in October. Um, and that is our connection also through the innovative career pathway and sports are underway. There's a lot of excitement around it. You can hear them down in the gym now. And homecoming is coming up the first weekend of October. So please be sure to get there and enjoy some food at some of the booths and see some good games.

[2:47] Now, do you? Do you have any questions before I introduce our new staff? S1:

[2:51] All right. Excellent. So here right now currently is Abigail Kelly. She drives to us daily from South Dartmouth. And she stepped into our history position in a moment's notice. Um, she's a first year teacher and she's doing a great job.

[3:04] Abigail, welcome. Hi.

[3:06] Thank you all. Welcome. Hello.

[3:08] Yeah.

[3:10] Um, Alyssa is coming to us from Marblehead, where she had taught math for 12 years. She's excited about helping us grow our AP pre-calc and our calculus program. I don't know if she made it here yet.

[3:24] Victoria LeMay. She is currently sick, so that's probably why she's not here. But she was teaching today with a mask on. Um, she is an Oxford High School graduate and is excited about being back and teaching English. She is a first year teacher and she's off to a great start. Brendan May. Brendan was one of our interventionists last year at Clara Barton, and he is now with us here at OHS teaching biology and chemistry, and he's also coaching volleyball and indoor track, and that's why he's not currently here. He is our JV volleyball coach and he's down in the gym.

[3:56] Right.

[3:57] Same thing with Kathy Danner. She comes to us from Shepherd Hill, where she has been a special ed teacher for 12 years. She is the lead teacher for our Ace program and has a lot of great ideas and is really making connections with our students. And she is our varsity volleyball coach. So she is currently in the gym as well, coaching as we speak. Then we have William Crebbin who could not be with us tonight. He comes to us from Stamford, Connecticut and will be taking the reins of our chorus and musical program. Phil Stankovich came to us from OMS where he has been teaching math for a few years. He's doing a great job and the freshmen were really excited to see him in our halls. We also have a new SRO officer, Andrew Gray. He's been making connections with all of our students district wide and is a welcome face at the door every morning. And Chris Pietro is here with us. He is our new assistant principal at OHS, and he has been a vital and dedicated part of our Oxford community and special education for the past 18 years, and he's been a joy to work with with me for the past four. So we're really excited that he's taking the reins as Assistant principal. Chris.

[5:07] Welcome.

[5:10] And that is everyone. And this is Alyssa right here.

[5:15] How are.

[5:15] You?

[5:17] So what we'll do is just for everyone, see, after we go through the buildings, we'll take a brief intermission. We'll come out, we'll meet you guys, chat with you for a little bit and we'll go. So thank you. Is that.

[5:28] Thank.

[5:29] You. All right. Thank you very much.

[5:33] Let's go to the middle school. Sure.

[5:35] We'll go in.

[5:36] Reverse. We'll go in reverse.

[5:44] Good evening everybody. Good evening. Oxford Middle School also had a great opening. We are very thankful and appreciative to our custodial staff, who also did a phenomenal job keeping our 1968 building looking sharp. Um, though we're older, we still look fashionable. So we thank Mr. Libby and his custodial staff. They did a great job. I also want a special thank you to our main office staff, Karen Dupuis, who handles much of the Po ordering over the summer to make sure that our teachers are well prepared and have all the materials they need and provision for their classroom. So thank you to her. Our students and our staff were off to a great start. We have implemented our open side curriculum. It's been a good undertaking in terms of the amount of work prep planning involved, but I invite you at any time that you are able to, to walk through and see what's taking place there, because it really is shaping our science classes differently. And we're hoping that that will continue to spread out through the rest of our, our educational communities as we focus on discourse, because that is a large part of what the curriculum looks at with their scientists circle. Um, it's phenomenal seeing those things in action. I want to thank my science department, who spent a week training over the summer, as well as putting the materials together. Um, we, uh, what we bought for shipments came in and we had to put everything together ourselves. They didn't come that way. So they've spent the beginning of the school year making luxurious bath bombs that then get smashed into a million pieces and dissolved in all those things. But they're doing that, making boxes to see how you look through two way mirrors and lots of different things from perspective. So that's been amazing to watch and see. Um, and so we have that taking place. Our sports are well underway and we, our cross country kids, are on their way back now. Girls have had their first win for soccer and boys unfortunately fell in that first match. Both of them played Blackstone-millville. We are all scheduled and ready for our big, exciting first dance. October 23rd. It is our annual Halloween dance. Can't miss that. Um. Later to come this fall will also be other things like the dinner theater. Um, coming in November, November 5th is the date for that and of course other fun things. On to our staff. If you don't have any questions on that, I'm happy to move on to staff introductions.

[8:11] All right. Let's do it.

[8:12] Okay, so I won't repeat because Becky and I do share OHS and OMS do share the choral director. So we are happy to also welcome William Cribbins to OMS. It's been great. And just to plug, uh, OMS course will be singing the America the Beautiful at the home opener for the Worcester Railers, which is also Oxford Town Takeover Day. That information was disseminated to our students and fliers are arriving to go to OMS students as well as Barton students and tracks. Their mascot will be visiting during lunches as well beforehand to promote. So we're excited for that. Uh, in addition to William Cribbins, I welcome tonight more, um, back here, we have more Hannigan. Uh, she is, we're welcoming her in our mathematics department. This is her first teaching placement. She graduated from UMass, but has spent the last year or so since her graduation subbing in other districts such as Wachusett, as well, as well as working for the nonprofit called tenacity, which brings tennis to urban, underdeveloped areas. Um, you know, with regard to tennis. So she's been doing that as well. Um, got the bug for working with kids even more. And here we are. We're very happy to have her join our grade seven and eight team. We also welcome, though not here tonight for teachers. Joe Grady. Joe Grady is an Oxford graduate himself. Joe has been working with us at OMS for the last two years in the in the role of substitute. He's done a number of long term substitute roles and has done a phenomenal job. And last spring he did coach JV baseball as well. And so Joe joins us in our sixth grade team where he is teaching Ela and social studies. Also not here tonight is Jen Townley. Jen Townley joins our seventh and eighth grade split team in science. She is a seasoned teacher who joins us from Palmer um with close to 20 years experience. Uh, and she's been a great addition as she also had familiarity, um, though not completely immersed, but familiarity with openside. And it's been great to see that team come together with her. Um, and finally tonight, we also welcome Maureen Remington as our assistant principal, whom we share with Barton. Maureen lives here in Oxford. Her her children have gone through Oxford. Um, and so she's very dedicated to this community. She's been a great addition to us so far. I apologize to the high school because we're very happy that we stole her, but they are not. Um, Maureen most recently was at OHS, but prior to, to that and raising her family, she started off her career as an elementary grade level teacher, um, as well as an assistant principal at the elementary level. Um, and she joins us and we're happy to have her.

[11:10] All right. Welcome, welcome. All right. Any questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So.

[11:25] Take your time.

[11:29] Good things come to those who wait.

[11:31] Uh.

[11:32] So for Barton, the opening of the 2627 school year has been dedicated to establishing relationships, routines, and expectations to set students up for a very successful year of building at Barton. That's our theme this year. Over the summer, there was some building going on. We installed a brand new walk in refrigerator and freezer and also five new propane tanks. So in addition to getting the building ready by our staff and our custodians, they were working around big projects like that all summer. So our work began building at Barton with our third graders back in the spring when they were second graders. Some of our key staff members visited the second grade lunches to start helping kids feel comfortable before their transition to this new building. Second graders then visited and toured in June, and we continued that work with families as they visited over the summer during our popsicles with the principal event with all of those supports in place. Grade three from day one has blended right into our Barton community and continued the tradition of being the three, which they started at Chaffey. Grades four and five picked up right where they left off in the spring and have begun taking on the role of leaders as they model for our new third graders how to be successful in the hallways, in the cafeteria, in class, at lunch, etc.. Our student council will be up and running in the next week or two, and our fall clubs will kick off as October approaches. The foundation has been laid, and now we're getting into the hard work of developing academic skills that will serve these kiddos throughout their school careers. We're building at Barton, and to do so, we have some great new staff. You've already heard about Miss Remington in our assistant principal shared role. In addition, in grade three, we have Miss Emily Andrade. She has blended right into the fold of our third grade team and has been working hard to build a community of Learners while establishing clear routines and expectations to set all up for success. She earned her teaching degree from Assumption College and completed her student teaching in a grade three classroom in Shrewsbury. We're very.

[13:36] Glad to have her on our third grade team.

[13:38] In grade four. Also present we have Brooklyn Jubert. Brooklyn has actually rejoined the Barton community, having attended as a student here while growing up in Oxford. She too is off to the races, building relationships with the students in her class and setting them up for a successful fourth grade year. She earned her teaching degree from Worcester State in 2025 with a minor in sociology, and spent last year serving as a long term sub in Auburn. She will complete her master's of elementary education this fall also but unable to attend tonight. We have a new staff member leading our ILC program. Cameron Del Silva. Um, she is currently in her seventh year of teaching students with severe disabilities. Over those seven years of experience, she has developed extensive experience providing individualized instruction, supporting student communication and independence, addressing behavioral and social emotional needs, and collaborating with families, colleagues, and related service providers. She approaches the work with compassion, patience, and high expectations for every student. She earned her moderate and severe disabilities teaching license from Rhode Island College and is currently pursuing a master's degree in special education. And that is the new or the new changes to our team. New members of our team for this year. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

[15:01] Any questions? Welcome. Welcome. All right. Thank you.

[15:05] Yes.

[15:05] Thank you. And.

[15:11] I just say.

[15:14] Good evening everyone.

[15:16] Um, the.

[15:17] Opening at Chafee has been busy. We're going to just go with busy. It's been good, but it's been busy. As you know, we have the youngest pirates and, um, many of them are still learning how to what I like to say do school. Um, so it's been busy. All hands on deck, like we like to say around here. Um, we also held kindergarten orientation on the 26th. We had about 80% of our families attend that. So that was really well attended. Um, we currently have 307 students enrolled at our school. Um, let's see, we've already done quite a bit. We had our first fire drill, which happened to be on the second day of school for kindergarten. So you can imagine what that was like. However, we evacuated in a minute and 42 seconds. And, um, I forget the name of the new fire.

[16:11] Ken Sellers.

[16:11] It's not Ken anymore that does the fire drills with us. I can't remember, but anyways.

[16:16] I can't remember either.

[16:17] He was so impressed. We held our first all school meeting or assembly, where the whole school gathered in the gym. When we reviewed our be the three expectations. And this was a big deal. Those of you that had students at Chaffey last year know this. We had. Last Friday, they had the opportunity to cash in coupons for the first time. So they received things such as the opportunity to color with our cops, which took place on Monday, building Legos with our custodians and of course, selecting prizes from the treasure chest. That was a big deal. We had our first PTO meeting last night, and although I couldn't attend, I heard that it was well attended, which is a great sign of the support and partnership that we have with our families in town. Next Wednesday we have our first round of learning walks internally, building based, so this is a great opportunity for staff to visit other classrooms, celebrate effective instructional practices, and just simply learn from one another. Um, and like I think Anna said, in many ways, it feels like we never left. New staff. We have, um, Emily Glynn, who I think on record is still Emily Fresh. Oh, perfect. Okay. She's quickly become a great addition to our staff. She's embraced our school community. Um, she earned her bachelor's and her master's from Framingham State University. This is her fifth year, um, teaching. And she has a lot of history teaching and working with multilingual learners. Um, Emily likes to practice yoga and she loves fantasy novels. We have Anna Roberts who's also present with us. She joined our second grade team and has hit the ground running. She's working high to set, working hard. Sorry to set high expectations for our eldest students, whose job it is to be role models for the younger students. She received a bachelor's from Worcester State. She did her teaching, her student teaching, as well as a long term sub position in grade two, which has prepared her for this role. And Anna herself attended Chaffey. Um, I don't know how long ago, but she did. Um. We welcome. Who? Uh, Gillian McMenemy. She couldn't be here tonight because she's currently taking classes and has one that happens to begin at 6:00 on Wednesday. She is our new Ielc teacher. Um, she was hired very late in the summer, and she really wowed us with the way that she was able to prepare herself and the classroom in such a short amount of time. She received a degree from Worcester State, and she came to us with previous experience as a therapeutic teacher in a collaborative. She ran track in college, and she is often seen running around the roads of Chaffey after school hours. Um, on behalf of Kate Vokes, who was who couldn't be here tonight, she asked me to introduce a couple staff members on her behalf. So we have Lisa Phillips who is present. She is the new team chair or evaluation team leader for Chaffee and Barton for grades one through five. Lisa has a bachelor's from assumption, a master's from northeastern and a cags from the University of New England. She spent most of her career as a speech pathologist. Uh, little fun fact she plays the guitar and once flew all the way to California to see guns N roses.

[19:50] And not present tonight. Um, also shared between Chaffee and Barton is a new school psychologist, Madeleine Endriga. She earned a bachelor's from Nichols College and a master's from Worcester State University. And while working on her master's, she was fortunate to work at Bay Path Regional Vocational High School as well as Mill Pond School in Westborough. She was born in California and moved to Massachusetts at age 12.

[20:20] Any questions? S1:

[20:20] Questions. Welcome.

[20:22] Welcome. Thank you. All right. So I think what we'll do now is we'll take a brief recess and we'll go out and we'll meet meet the new staff. So we'll take a recess now, I guess.

[34:05] We're going to pick the meeting back up. We would. Uh.

[34:10] You guys are more than welcome to stay, but you probably want to go. You're welcome to stay, but no obligation to do so. So good to see you. Thank you. Welcome, welcome. Have a great year.

[34:23] For you very much. Thank you.

[34:26] Take care guys.

[34:28] Thank you.

[34:30] All right.

[34:32] That was awesome.

[34:34] That was outstanding. All right. Next next up is the, uh student representative report. So Keegan do you want to.

[34:44] Yeah. So as Miss Joseph was saying for the Oxford Middle School, their sports had started off and the girls soccer team is currently one and zero and the boys lost. Owen won. The first country meet was today and we wanted to congratulate the eighth graders. The eighth grader Mia Saint Peter, who stepped up to the challenge of playing goalie at the high school level. And at her first game, she had a shutout. And from what I saw today, too, she had another shutout. Wow, that was great.

[35:14] Awesome.

[35:15] And, uh, the OMS choir will sing America the Beautiful at Worcester Railers on October 17th, home opener and Oxford Takeover Day and new business for Oxford Middle School. All the clubs have began. Drama club held its audition for the murder mystery dinner uh theater performance, which is scheduled for November 5th. The Student Council, Njhs Book Club and Art club have all already started, but drone Club Coding and the Gaming Club will begin sometime this week. FMS has opened its Pirate Pride Spiritwear shop, and it will also be kicking off a pie and cookie dough fundraiser in weeks to come, which will arrive for the holidays. The high school marketing classes the students are working on creating their own Super Bowl commercials, and they are working in small groups to create storyboards of their commercials that they will present. Actually should have presented today. And they've been working very hard on their commercials. And the end results will be awesome for the Oxford Student Council at the end of June. We sent seven students to the National Student Council conference in New Hampshire, and we had an amazing time participating in workshops and networking events and student. And we were able to connect with so many people across the country. It was amazing. And at the start of the school year, professional development. Our student Council board presented a workshop with staff on belonging and connection in the classroom. We had a great time collaborating with staff and having conversations on how students and staff can work together to make school a more welcoming place for everyone. All of our homecoming committees are currently coming together to finish the final details on the Dance Spirit Week, as well as the pep rally. Our beautification committee has been working very hard on decorating the school hallways and classrooms to make our school a better place and make everyone feel a little bit more comfortable in the building. And finally, the student council and the food service are back to working together to make the weekend backpacks. We packed the bags right after school on Wednesdays in the library, and the first day after day was to that. And we are preparing for haunted hallway and trunk or treat as well.

[37:35] What are the dates for the trunk or treat? The 23rd.

[37:40] I'm pretty sure.

[37:41] Shirts.

[37:41] It's either I think it's it's the 23rd.

[37:44] 22nd or.

[37:45] Something.

[37:45] It's the 17th. Okay. Sorry, it's.

[37:48] Early this year. Yeah, I think it's the 17th.

[37:51] Okay. I think you're right. It is the. I just wanted to write it down. I'm sorry.

[37:54] No. It's okay. I'll find it.

[37:58] All right. Any other questions? I have one for Lucas.

[38:05] How do we do varsity? S8:

[38:09] All right, we'll take it. All right. Awesome. Welcome back. Any.

[38:13] So I just had one question. Do you have you guys always helped prepare the snack backpacks or is that something new this year.

[38:20] We did it last year. Oh you did? Okay.

[38:23] I think that's great. Yeah. Thank you so much, guys.

[38:27] Any other questions?

[38:28] Mr. Keegan forgot to mention the football team. He had a couple of great plays himself being humbled.

[38:35] I did. He did.

[38:40] That's awesome. Well, now you've got to get a couple great grades, right? Because you've got to study, study, get to go off and study. So, um, thank you for being here. Appreciate the report. Have a good night. Yeah.

[38:50] Thank you guys.

[38:51] Lucas, if you want to stay, you're welcome to stay. But if you have study you.

[38:54] Need to do. I don't have to leave until like 715.

[38:57] Well, when you.

[38:57] Need to leave.

[38:58] Just go ahead. Cool. All right. Awesome. Thank you.

[39:01] Good luck. Good luck on your tests.

[39:02] Good luck.

[39:02] Thank you.

[39:04] All right. Next item is the approval of minutes with minutes in our packet. Uh, from the August 19th meeting. I will take a motion to approve.

[39:14] I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from August 19th.

[39:17] I'll second that.

[39:18] Motion. And a second. Any discussion? You will call for the vote? Yes, miss.

[39:24] Yes.

[39:27] Yes.

[39:29] Mr. Park? Yes. And I'm also a yes. All right. I know who you are. Next. Uh, Um. Warrant. Warrant. Report by Miss Borbo.

[39:41] It's my favorite time of the meeting. I signed accounts payable August 25th, 2026 of $82,633.92.

[39:52] Um. Payroll of August 27th, 2026 of $734,901.44.

[40:01] Payroll of August 28th 2026. Yeah, that should be 2026 of $4,726.79.

[40:11] Payroll of August 28th, 2026. Of a credit of $10,978.51.

[40:19] Um. Accounts payable September 1st, 2026 of $112,024.21.

[40:26] Account payable of September 8th, 2026. $71,821.80.

[40:34] Payroll on September 10th, 2026 of $698,516.47.

[40:42] Accounts payable of September 15th, 2026 of $74,861.22.

[40:50] All right. Thank you. Up next, the fiscal year 27 monthly budget update. How are you? All right.

[40:59] Um, so you do have a memo I wrote up in front of you. I'm going to I'm going to paraphrase that in summary that and then also allow for you to ask some questions and see and see what you guys would like to know. Um, since we've been closing out the old year, I've submitted that final year end entry over to the town. We've been looking at the new year and really what we've been looking at is, is what is the budget really look like and does it make sense? Are there lines that are underfunded? Are there lines that don't accurately, accurately reflect what is needed? And are there things that are missing from the budget? Um, and while we can't give you that full picture today, that is under process and I wanted to be able to provide some information that tells you where we are at. There are two areas that we do see that are deficient, and that would be our out of district tuition. And then another area that was identified is that the title one grants in the salaries. That was that was over budgeted. And so we've had to take about 45,000 of that, and that will have to go into the general fund as of this time. Um, we continue to look at the lines and strategically analyze all the lines within the budget. And as we move through this, there will be more information and specific findings are going to come and you will get a full picture of what the budget looks like and how it compares to what it should look like to run operationally. Okay.

[42:21] Do you have any questions?

[42:27] Yes, but probably not for for Alicia.

[42:30] Yeah.

[42:31] Right.

[42:32] What he said.

[42:33] Okay.

[42:34] Um, I guess as you go through this, prepare this, um, and eventually are able to present all your findings, um, would we expect also you'll be presenting options at that point or is that going to take a much longer time or I don't know who wants to answer that.

[42:54] Are you talking about options for FY 27 budget for current.

[42:58] Yes, yes. Sorry.

[42:59] Hopefully, if you're talking about potential options that may have a negative impact on staffing or services, we're hoping that that will not be the case. I think the implications that we are finding are going to affect the FY 28 budget. You have in your packet as some additional information I gave you this evening. And you can see already that for us to balance that will be looking at FY 27 circuit breaker, which typically we reserve to roll over FY 28. We're already looking at a potential. We have a potential of 500,000 that we're going to need, because I have one more out of district placement that we don't have a final number on yet. So we already know where we are and that we do not have the funds this year because it was underfunded, and primarily because no one accurately developed a list of the out of district placements, which is typical of what you do when you're developing a spread budget. But that didn't happen. So thankfully, Alicia Kate scurried around when I asked the question. I'd like to see the cost. The impact. Uh, we didn't have the backup. It wasn't there. So we have this is as accurate as of today. So that's where we are. And hopefully.

[44:28] At this point, I think we are will be, uh, not looking to come back to make recommendations around this year's budget. I think the hard questions will be as we face next year's budget. So that pretty much what we have found.

[44:48] Yeah. Because we're going to we're going to be using unearned revenue. Yeah. That would typically be reserved.

[44:53] So the impact.

[44:54] For FY 28 and we won't.

[44:55] Have. The only other thing that we do not have I will say with respect to out of district we don't have any placeholders. So typically a budget may have a placeholder or you could revert to unused circuit breaker, um, or even anticipated, but we're already using anticipated. So I hope that we're not going to have to go deeper into anticipated circuit breaker. That's my, my hope. So but the town also has a reserve and could be a time when, depending on where the real budget for FY 28 falls out that we say, this is the time, this is the year for us to address and see if the town you know will take and vote. It really does depend on what our FY 28 budget, our biggest my biggest concern is I can't trust the figures that I'm looking at now. I can't trust that. So that means we're really building a real budget going forward. We have accounts where the funds will not exist next year. So we know we have to bring those into general funds, you know. So but this is a this is a major. Yes. And salaries too. So um, this is the major right now driver that I, I'm worried about, you know, as we move forward, but hopefully we won't have to make any major shifts this year in programs, resources, staffing, any of that. It's never what you want to do.

[46:25] So through chair.

[46:28] Do we expect the state to be able to give us some extraordinary relief because of.

[46:33] So we are waiting for the FY 27 circuit breaker numbers. They're not out yet. It's a little late. I've been looking. Lisa's been looking at them. Uh, if you look at last year's numbers, we were at 313 for the first three quarters, 313,000. And then the last quarter was about 338. And that's why you you had a pretty good rollover. I don't know what to anticipate. I don't I wasn't here, so I don't know what they filed as. And of course the threshold has increased. I think it's around 55,000 now. So we'll see. That should be coming out. I mean any day typically your payment first payment comes out the end of September. So but it's still not posted on the website as of yesterday we looked.

[47:19] And is there.

[47:20] A way that we could call and say this is what was Is discovered and can we kind of reconcile what what are your figures? What are your numbers? What did you have submitted? This is what we have.

[47:35] Well, the I'm assuming the circuit breaker figures that were you talking about that submitted last year were accurate. Okay. I think it's the underestimating and not having real cost and real numbers that's the issue. Yeah. What we didn't have was this back up page that when you're building your budget in the winter, that's the first thing you sit down with when you're talking with your student services director, but you may not have had one at that time. So that could have been an issue. So you ask for this because, you know, that's a that's a, it's a real driver in the budget. So you want to get those numbers as accurately as possible, at least to estimate some of those figures for private don't come out till late. And some are set by the state. So, um, we didn't have that. And honestly, we didn't even have the list of the numbers. Your budget of 318, 26 reflected 30. We were initially at 25 and now we're at 28. Okay. Which one is paid by the state? So. So if you don't have that, that's that's the big thing that we were missing. We had other figures, but we didn't have this.

[48:42] So we just didn't have current figures.

[48:44] For, I think your circuit breaker was we didn't have accurate figures. Right. And we didn't have any figures, honestly wasn't even that they were inaccurate. We didn't have them. We didn't have the backup, which is a sheet like this, that that gets into your budget document that you would have received. Yeah.

[49:05] And this is going to be a silly question, but I feel like I need to ask it. Would you see in your professional role a need for a forensic audit or any type of audit to see, I mean, anything else? I mean, I know you know so many things, right?

[49:23] So I would say I would say no only because when I started in May, there was a a lot of stones left unturned. And I've spent a lot of time turning them over myself. Um, like, say, grants that weren't drawn down or things just that weren't accounted for. So I've spent a ton of time going through things with like a fine tooth comb. And I don't feel like there's a concern beyond that. Because when you go, say into the gem site, I can see all the grants and I can see like what's accounted for and what's not. Um, at this point, all the salaries have been gone through and what was budgeted and what is correct. Um, and I've, I've gone over utilities some and I'm working on more accurate numbers with that. So what, what I've really been doing and meeting with Doctor Nash every week is as we prepare to build a budget for FY 28, what is the true projection look like for FY 27. So everything is evaluated and everything is looked at and we making sure that we. There is nothing that we're missing and that everything that should have existed does now exist. So I wouldn't worry from that perspective.

[50:32] That's good. I'm sorry you've had so much work.

[50:35] Well, you will have a real budget. You will know exactly what the cost is to operate the school district just in the level of services budget. So what does that really look like? And, you know, again, I don't really know. We we have added up, you know, as we meet on a weekly basis. And sometimes more than that, we've looked at every single account and every single area. And we know moving forward which ones we are going to have to move into general fund because the funds don't exist anymore. You know, I can give you a good example. A good example is the coffee account that is used. What used to be coffee had funds in it, and that was used to offset positions. Well, that no longer exist as of this year. So those will have to be put into general. General funds in order to support those positions. If we're going to move forward and continue with those positions. We've got the same thing with tuition account. We had a student who was paying tuition. The problem was that no one bothered to look at his age, the person's age and they aged out as of August 8th of this year. So the money that is being used this year to pay for salary doesn't exist, because we're not getting the tuition so that we've had to move. So, you know, we take all of this and while it doesn't seem like too much, it all starts to add up. And then you add that on top about a district cost that we're shot, if you will, under-budgeted and you add all that up and you start to look at it and say, well, you know, remember too, we have a gen ed general transportation contract that has to go out. I've asked Alicia to go out early in January in case it comes back high, because we know we've got diesel. So if we go out early on that and it comes back maybe, maybe or maybe not the second time out, we've got that. And of course, we're also going to look at probably some other things with respect to transportation around Sped. When we go out for our gen Ed bid, as you know, they've been two separate companies. Sometimes you might be able to find a provider who can do both. So we'll see. But so those are things that, you know, the unknowns that we're going to have to budget for in this not knowing at that point unless we have a number back on that. But yeah, so like I said, you'll get a real budget. I just don't know when we give you the budget book, at least what that we anticipate that number will look like for you. And then we'll see what happens.

[53:02] So just for clarification, we were basically spending down revolving accounts and old accounts because we didn't have enough money coming in to begin with to like.

[53:13] Well, in some instances, it wasn't so much that as it might have been that no one looked to see that you didn't have you wouldn't have those funds because that student would age out while you had them last year. They just didn't do the level of detail. I think what we have found is was missing in the budget. Yeah, it was, you know, at the high level and not the deep level. And you have to do a budget that way. So when you ask for the most expensive part of your budget, of course, the salaries. And so when you ask your business manager, your director of finance, provide the backup for me, for everybody. So I know where they are in FY 27. And the answer is, well, it's not really here. I have to build it.

[53:59] It's not what you want to hear. But moving forward, like I said, you'll have a an actual budget with a cost. You know that in there. Then we'll see where we are, you know, so.

[54:11] Of.

[54:11] Course.

[54:12] You guys need to help me remember, but I think we presented a town meeting last spring. We were aware there were at least two accounts that we were using to pay salaries that we knew were going to disappear. We've been telling the town for a couple of years now that we can't sustain that practice and that those positions. So I don't remember which accounts, but it does explain at least.

[54:35] Maybe it was.

[54:36] Two different. Coffee definitely was one of the two.

[54:39] You had coffee, coffee slash aces, the same. They call that the same. And then the other piece was that I was reminded by the town manager that, um, school choice was an account that we never used in the years past to pay for positions. It had $3 million in it when I left in 2021. Now you're, you're living from year to year. And we know that that's one account that if you take six positions out of it, the current six positions we take next year will increase, and I will. This year I'm underfunded maybe by 20,000, 19,000 when we did the math. So that has to come out of general fund. So it's all these little things next year. Again, it's about positions. The question is, can we afford to fund all of those? You know and you know, our title, our entitlement grants were down. They were calculated at a higher rate. Uh, so we had to pull money, as I think you alluded to, Alicia, we had to pull some money out of general fund for our title one teachers. You know, their salaries were calculated at last year's rate and not next year's current rate. So therefore, we were about 47, I think, and some change in that account. So all that adds up. And that's this year's budget. So when we go forward, if we're going to keep all of that dual level services, then we're going to show you what that number really looks like. Okay. All right.

[56:00] Any other questions?

[56:02] I just wanted to say thank you for the last minute information I asked for today, and I really appreciate it because I, I know how much you do and I just want to say thank you. Thank you.

[56:14] All right.

[56:15] I think you're still up. We have the FY 28 capital plan submission.

[56:20] So in front of you you have that capital project recommendation. Um, I did move some of the places where these were, I did a full evaluation and I, and I went over it with Doctor Nash as well and kind of where we thought things should land. Um, and I did change some numbers as you see in for the next year for FY 28, you see the O. S auditorium upgrades. Um, this is something I've worked extensively with Miriam Sasson and at the, at the high school auditorium, she put a lot of details in there. I didn't write that she did because she knows that stuff so well. Um, and because of how big the price was, I talked with her and asked if something we could split over two years. Um, because what's happening at the auditorium is. Some of the stuff is. Once it breaks, its. We're going to have to rent equipment, um, or have to purchase new equipment. It's coming to that end of life stage. So that was something that we felt very important to put in there for next year. Um, I went back and looked at last year's and I noticed the van replacement was something that was mentioned to be very important. So I made sure to include that for FY 28. I did it as one of the nine passenger mini busses like we already have. It meets the 70 requirements. Um, and it's very heavily used right now. We have the mini bus, the white van, and we have a tan van. The tan van has 121,000 miles on it. This would replace that. And then the white van would become the oldest van. Um, if it was to your appetite, I do think the van could wait another year. Um, with the usage that I reviewed and who's using what for, for different transportation usages. Um the chief, I put the Chaffee flooring replacement in there? Oh, sorry.

[58:08] No, I just. So you're you're recommending replacing the one of the vans with the bus and then keeping the second van.

[58:16] Keeping the second van. Yeah.

[58:18] Yeah.

[58:20] Right now all three get used to transport students. The tan van is the least. But the also, the tan van gets used by like food service and other departments.

[58:29] They actually use. I asked today because I had a meeting with her. Why do you use the tan van? I wanted to make sure we weren't bringing food like we used to do years ago.

[58:39] Yeah.

[58:39] And what happens is the central draw point, oftentimes for certain products is in one location because you don't order enough and then you have to distribute it. So they use it for that. So at least they didn't feel that badly.

[58:53] And then the tan van. So it would be replacing the tan van you said. And then what do we do with the tan van? Do we sell it or is it retired? Like what happens?

[59:01] We could sell.

[59:02] It. Okay.

[59:03] We could sell.

[59:03] It. Okay. I was just curious.

[59:05] So the proposal. And I'd have to just see what the town protocol is.

[59:09] Yeah. And if I remember correctly, the money, the funds are not ours.

[59:14] It goes back to the general fund.

[59:16] So yeah.

[59:17] Okay.

[59:18] Um, I also have on here Chaffee flooring replacement. Um, originally when we had talked, we were, we were looking at both schools, but due to the increase in pricing, um, I had talked to the person who gave us the quote last time and he had said prices increased about 30%. So we keep seeing those prices go up. So I put Chaffee in FY 28 with Barton in FY 29. We saw those when we did the building walk. So those are those classrooms with the carpet where they're looking to get tile, the VCT, VCT tile in place of that. And then here you see the district access points and that I work with Kristen on. And she also split that over two years. That's the replacing of the Wi-Fi access points throughout the district. And that is they are beyond their end of life for service. And so eventually you're going to end up we're going to run into problems with those because they're not going to be supported anymore. Um, and so it would be replacing those over two years if you would like me to go into all these other years too, I can as well. Some of these I really moved out because we're, you know, we met with MSBA. We don't know what's going to happen. So some of this stuff is seemed better to push out and see what happens with that before investing money into things that we may not need to. And then I did change the refinish of the gym floors at Barton and Chaffee. Those floors are rubber right now, and the replacement of a rubber is less expensive than wood. But your life of a wood floor is significantly longer, like 4 or 5 times longer than a rubber floor. And you're not going to get those cracks and the deterioration that you see now. So I had done the price for if those floors would be replaced with wood instead of rubber.

[1:01:05] So what you're proposing is to submit to the to the the four items on this page here, the auditorium upgrades the van replacement, the flooring replacement, and the district access points. That's the recommendation. That's what we're being asked to vote on here tonight.

[1:01:20] We actually I asked her if those numbers were the order of priority, and I don't think they're. They.

[1:01:28] Because when you submit to the town, there's tabs. Okay. And so they tie to my tab. Yeah.

[1:01:32] Okay. So obviously you can submit as many as you like to the town. We'll present those probably in some time in October. But, uh, I was, uh, actually in my discussion with Alicia. I really wanted to push the flooring to be done, uh, all in one over a summer. Um, you know, and that's the best time to probably come in and do it. And you had over two years. But she said the pricing keeps continuing to grow. So the auditorium is one that's used by the town. The sound system is minor compared to all the lighting and everything else. And so Miriam Sasse worked on that, and she has a great deal of knowledge and experience. And I really see that as something that's beneficial because also with rentals, in essence, anyone who comes in to rent this, even though the stage is being repaid and the floor, they have to bring their own sound system in, sometimes in their own lights.

[1:02:30] And so why rent it when you can go somewhere else? S7:

[1:02:31] So it's really a benefit to the town. They have their town meetings and other events here and to us as a school district. So so whatever the committee wishes, obviously is your decision to do.

[1:02:47] The Chair You have a question? Yes, please.

[1:02:49] Um, just as you go through the individualized pages for each of these projects, there's two for Chafee.

[1:02:56] Yeah, that was my mistake. One's Barton and once Chafee for the floor.

[1:02:59] Labeled wrong one. The higher one is. So the.

[1:03:03] Yeah. The 124 which matches the list.

[1:03:05] That's the. That's. They're not looking to do.

[1:03:07] Barton.

[1:03:08] Barton is a the year after that.

[1:03:10] 15156 okay. Thank you. I don't know if it was like two stages of. We do. 12 this year and 15 the next year.

[1:03:19] That would.

[1:03:19] Give us. 12 that are left in the school. And once those are done, that school is.

[1:03:23] That.

[1:03:23] Would replace all of the carpeting in the classroom.

[1:03:26] Gotcha.

[1:03:27] Thank you. Schools over the period of two years.

[1:03:30] Okay.

[1:03:31] Any questions? Um, I, I like the order that they've been presented here in the memo. Um, I agree that the auditorium is probably because of the heavy use it gets. It's probably an important thing. And I think we keep talking about the vans for a couple of years now, we've been talking about the vans and the transportation costs. Having having reliable vans is, is going to only be more important. Increasingly important to us. So I'm certainly comfortable with the order in which these were presented here. If anybody has any thoughts input does a vote. Yeah. I think we have to vote on I think we vote on the order of this.

[1:04:11] I'll make a motion to approve the list as presented.

[1:04:15] I second.

[1:04:16] Motion second. Any comments? Discussion. Okay. We'll call for the vote, Miss Peppa. Yes, miss.

[1:04:21] Yes.

[1:04:22] Mr. Griffin.

[1:04:22] Yes.

[1:04:24] Yes. And I'm a yes as well. Thank you.

[1:04:28] Thank you so much.

[1:04:30] Thank you for all the work that you did. I know. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[1:04:35] What? S1:

[1:05:02] Okay. All right. We will close public comments.

[1:05:09] Uh, up next, Doctor Nash, you have a personnel report? S14:

[1:05:10] So you can see we've been busy and a lot of hirings in early September. Uh, we still have two open professional positions. Uh, one is the high school SPD position that Mr. Pietro vacated. Uh, we are close. I believe we're, uh, actually, the individual we're looking at is certified and in some areas, but working on the SPD certification. So we're working through that and to see about a critical shortage waiver. Uh, and then the Njrotc program program still we're looking, but we do do have the ability, we believe, to.

[1:05:55] We can ask and we have asked for a waiver which will allow us to potentially hire, if we needed to, in a listed position, a person or staffing. However, our numbers are pretty low. Um, they're a little under 40 students. So I remember when Commander Moseley was here, we were well in the hundreds and then over the period of time. So, uh, but we have, I believe we still have that ad, the ad is out. So we'll see what happens with that position. Uh, we just hired. You heard the music teacher, the chorus choral. He has a very strong background in that. So I was excited when I met with Mr. Crebbin. And we are constantly. I just hired someone today about 530. Uh, hiring IAS uh, it is a large bank. 52 positions are IaaS.

[1:06:56] It's an area that's very difficult to fill because, quite honestly, the hourly rate is not as competitive as some other schools now. So that's something that down the road, given the fact that we these are all special ed and we need them and we may have to revisit. And that very well could have a significant impact on your budget. Uh, you know, right now we're probably about 1,000,005 in cost for our special ed IaaS. But in my conversation today with this young lady, I needed to move the, the window, the hourly rate because she was well qualified for the position. And you can work in other places and certainly make almost as much just as a starting hourly rate. So, so that's something as I've been looking at this and hiring IAS, I cringe a little because I'm hopeful that they're going to take the position. I have the latitude in your language to be able to. But again, everything has a budget impact, so I have to be mindful of that too. So but that's where we are in staffing. We do have some support staff positions still open. They are all most of them are IAS. We've gotten a few resignations. So continue to work to try to fill those.

[1:08:22] Okay.

[1:08:23] That's it on staffing.

[1:08:26] Okay. Any questions on staffing. Doctor Nash.

[1:08:31] Oh yes. The next one. Okay. Next one is miscellaneous. I would say one thing I do want to make the committee aware of. And you're probably already aware of it. Uh, my discussions and meeting with educator director September Forbes.

[1:08:46] Tomorrow afternoon.

[1:08:47] At 4 p.m. the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Chaffee Playground. If you have not seen it, it is spectacular. There are some kinks that she and I have talked about that need to be ironed out with the Pip. Floor with sponge floor. And we've had a little bit of vandalism.

[1:09:11] No. No. Yes.

[1:09:13] They made a they made a post.

[1:09:14] Today meeting with her this morning. We had some vandalism. Uh, they had put a keypad lock on the shed and that was destroyed. Uh, she is upset about all of this that's happened. There's been some vandalism we've talked about, and we certainly have lighting, and we're talking about getting the night cameras.

[1:09:42] And she drives by there a lot because she lives. She's at a mile and a quarter. But I know when I met with September today for our regular meeting, I could tell that she was upset, obviously, by the fact that you've spent all of this money. This is a substantial, as you people know, investment from Educare substantial. I was shocked when she told me what the prices are for equipment for a playground. Shocked? Inevitable? Yes. I was thinking a whole different figure. So we have been. She's been vigilant with the company that put the, uh. I call it a flooring. It's not. It's a rubberized, as you know, surface down because it is not up to our quality. She and I have walked it and determined what the error was, and we were correct. So we're going to see how they're going to repair it. The error was discoloring. That looks like it's beige. And I said it's olive green. Dark olive green. And that's why it looks dirty. Indeed, the gentleman was out today and said, that's the case. And we know the cause was because the company ran out of the stock. Evidently, when they were throwing it down and they must have gone somewhere and bought the stock. And the stock wasn't exactly the same. The red is the same, but the black component where you look at about one third of it, looks like someone has sprinkled dirt. So when I got down on my hands and knees and looked, I said, that's a different color. It's a different than it was. It is. So it's so. So we're going to see what they're going to do about that because it is a very expensive surface and.

[1:11:21] Yeah.

[1:11:22] And but you can better believe that September will make sure.

[1:11:26] Yes, yes she will.

[1:11:27] She will make sure we haven't paid the second half of that bill. So we will not be paying that either. Oh yes. So but I'm worried about the vandalism. So they.

[1:11:39] They did write a message on the Oxford Forum and there was a lot of people now, there was a lot of people saying it was kids on bikes and then and then. So my whole thing is right. But my whole thing is there's we have a large majority of students, good kids that ride bikes. So I told my son today, I said, don't you dare go anywhere near Chaffey because I don't want you to be accused of anything. But I said, I said, but if you go by and you see something, you need to say something so damage the.

[1:12:08] They had just installed. Instead of a regular locking mechanism on the. They installed a new door on the shed and along with it. Because it didn't have a handle or a way to lock it with a padlock, it had a keypad mechanism while they destroyed that. Okay. And they also, the sandbox had just gotten filled. And there were some young people in the bar with, with their vehicles, but not cars.

[1:12:36] Yeah. I heard something with a swing.

[1:12:38] So anyway, in the swing. Yes. So that's, it's just that it's when you put all the hard work and effort and everything into it and money and then, you know, we're trying to figure out how do we what can we do, you know? So we'll, we'll try to solve that and see what happens.

[1:12:56] So okay.

[1:12:58] Okay.

[1:12:59] All right. Uh. New business.

[1:13:02] Yes.

[1:13:03] Acceptance of the request from the state of Mexico.

[1:13:08] Uh, I did a little research. This is from the estate of Mark Thibodeau. I was curious as to his connection to Oxford. He's an Oxford resident, but he worked for his entire career as an educator in the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut. But he came he lived here, evidently, over a period of time. He's a longtime Oxford resident. And so as part of his estate, he has determined he determined to leave $25,000 for scholarship to be awarded annually in installments of $2,500 to the class valedictorian. So I think this is wonderful. You can see we've provided a letter thanking the attorneys on behalf. So I think we're asking for you to accept this as a donation to vote to accept this.

[1:14:01] Ellen.

[1:14:03] Is that correct? S11:

[1:14:05] Make a motion that the Oxford School Committee vote to accept the bequest from the estate of Mark, a Thibodaux designated for the establishment of a scholarship for the benefit of Oxford Public School students, and to authorize the interim superintendent and or her designee to take all necessary actions to complete the acceptance and administration of the bequest.

[1:14:24] Motion a second.

[1:14:26] Second.

[1:14:26] Second. All right. We will.

[1:14:30] Any discussion? S13:

[1:14:31] Yes, it really is. It's outstanding. I want to thank the. Thank the estate for that.

[1:14:34] He never forgot his roots.

[1:14:36] No. It's Incredible. Okay, we'll call for the vote. Miss Peppa? Yes, miss.

[1:14:42] Yes.

[1:14:43] Mr. Griffin. Yes, Mr. Burke. Yes. And I'm a yes. Thank you. To the estate of Mark Thibodeaux.

[1:14:48] Yes.

[1:14:49] Very generous.

[1:14:51] Also in your packet is an acceptance of community donations for the Pirate Pantry backpack program. Try saying that fast three times. Fast. Uh, so we would ask you to vote to accept those donations.

[1:15:08] Make a motion to accept the donations for.

[1:15:10] The backpack program. Second.

[1:15:12] Second. All right. Any. Any comment? Discussion. We'll call for the vote, Miss Peppa. Yes. Yes. Miss Griffin? Yes. Mr. Burke. Yes. And I'm a yes.

[1:15:24] Okay. Next in your packet is the nonresident tuition agreement for Leicester High School Career and Technical Education program. So I provided you with a memorandum with respect to what I was made aware of when a student sent me there, a nonresident tuition application, and I wondered, what was this about? Because you know, that we have you are a member of Bay path and our students, uh, will will normally attend Bay path. So I wasn't aware that Lester even had a chapter 74 career technical program. Uh, so we did some research. I provided you with some information, and I also had a discussion with the attorney because in addition to, uh, getting the application in my conversations with my executive assistant and with the school business administrator, try to understand the background of this one to see whether or not this was in your budget. Two to understand was, did we have some type of a new agreement with Lester? Uh, I provided for you. Uh, what I found what? I think Helen, you found it in what Helen found, which is an agreement that was signed between the two superintendents of Lester and the former superintendent of Oxford Public Schools. And I would point out to you that, as you are aware, probably after reading this, that the law does not provide for a superintendent to enter an agreement. Chapter 76, section 12, which you have a copy of, provides that only a school committee can vote. So we have three students, two students who are currently ninth grade students in the Lester program. Right now, we have one student. The reason that this came to light was because I received an application which requires the superintendent to sign off on another student. That student is currently enrolled as a ninth grade student at Oxford High School. So we have two ninth grade students attending the program and one who is here. All three students. I did a little bit more digging. Spoke with the principal of Bay path. All three students did apply for Bay path and were waitlisted. One is a little bit higher than the others, but they're all waitlisted. Okay, the the chapter 74 regulations say that a student can attend another chapter 74 school. If the school that's in your membership does not offer the program. If a school offers at least five programs, they must in grade nine, offer an exploratory program. Bay path offers an exploratory. So does Lester. We have in our budget One tuition for a Norfolk Aggie student. Because there is no agricultural program at any of the. Chapter 74. Bay path being one. So your budget contains that. I went to the budget to see if there was a placeholder for Lester. Uh, I saw the Norfolk Aggie. It's listed under the high school budget under other tuitions, and listed is the Norfolk Aggie. And then I saw on the 31826 budget, one student for Lester for $13,000 and some change. However, when I met with the business manager to ask her, is this accurate? It was not. The budget only contains the Norfolk Aggie tuition and transportation. So any vote that you take this evening will have a financial Nancial impact. As you see, the current tuition at Leicester is 16,000 and some change, so we do not have any funds in our budgets. To be very clear, the FY 27 budget does not currently show any funds set aside for those tuitions for any student, any number of students. So. So this evening, the reason I needed to bring it to you, after speaking with the attorney, he made it very clear. I spoke with him on nine one that from a legal perspective, only a school committee has authorized to vote yes or no on tuitions. Only a school committee can enter into an agreement. So from a legal perspective, uh, this signature is non-binding, but you have to look at the very real issue is that we have two students attending Leicester Vo-tech school.

[1:20:33] So I don't know what else Mr.

[1:20:37] Chair, you'd like me to talk about? S1:

[1:21:22] That was going to be my question. So we don't have a legal. So your binding document currently you have to vote no. Or do we just.

[1:21:30] Not from a legal perspective, unless the school committee voted to authorize it. It did not happen. That's your attorney's direct words to me.

[1:21:41] The challenge here is there are two students from Oxford that are currently enrolled.

[1:21:46] And my question is, I think I spoke with the chair the other day about this is do we do we punish two students because of an adult's decision, you know? And that's one question that I think you have to. But on the other hand, you have obviously a fiscal responsibility to the town and, and to, to our budget.

[1:22:08] And I also just.

[1:22:11] Wanted to put out here too, that it might be 16,000 and some change per student right now, but that doesn't include if transportation is needed for these students, which can happen at any point in the four years. Oxford is responsible for the transportation. It's in the contract. So right now it's 16000 and change. But if transportation is needed, that's another cost added to the already accruing over $32,000 per year.

[1:22:42] Yeah, you are right. The the statutes and the regulations say that transportation is included in my our discussion with the school business manager and Lester, when we also spoke with him when we were made aware of this. Uh, it appears that they don't bring that up. So but that does not preclude that over. Of course, as you brought out that over a course of time, it is in the regulations. It is in the regs that you would be asked some future date because you pay for transportation now for the Norfolk Aggie, and you are assessed for it as a town when Bay path presents its budget. That's all part of the budget.

[1:23:27] So is there a um should. If the committee voted tonight to honor the agreement for those two students, is there is there any recourse or does that put us in a tough spot with Bay path?

[1:23:44] Well, they were waitlisted. So I mean, you know, I can understand from their lens why you here you live in this area. Typically, you only have one vocational technical school that would be close enough that you would think about. So the student sees and the family that they didn't get accepted here. Oh, there's one right down the street that doesn't happen normally. You know, that just doesn't happen. So they probably just went ahead. Obviously didn't know. No one studies and reads these these regs unless you have to. So and uh, Lester, according to what we were told, uh, Does not accept a student unless they know that they were either waitlisted or not, you know, did not get in. To bay path because of the fact that there's a quota for.

[1:24:35] So I just also.

[1:24:37] Just wanted to say that, you know, I, I, I've spoken to, um, the chair about this, um, because I had some concerns and.

[1:24:51] I just think as a school committee board, what we offer for one student, we should offer it for all. We're supposed to be like a fair public school, giving everyone the opportunities that they can get. And I just feel as though if we were to move forward with just these two, I just don't think it's fair for everyone else in our district that was possibly waitlisted or didn't have the opportunity to apply for Bay path, um, versus other kids who didn't get into a path. They maybe have applied for school choice, which is like a flat standard rate across, you know, the surrounding towns. So that's just my whole thing. And it's not to punish anyone. Maybe I would have a different feeling if we found this six months in. Um, but it's the third week of school and it was a catch. And I just think we have to be mindful because when I see $34,000, I see two part time kindergarten aides that could go full time for our kindergarten students that would benefit more than two students, it would benefit probably 70. So I just that's the lens I look at it at for the district. And I just wanted everyone else to be mindful of that. Um, it's nothing personal because you can't, we can't, we didn't know about it. It was never brought to our attention. So now all we can do is try to make it right for the district. That's our job.

[1:26:13] Yeah.

[1:26:14] I couldn't agree more. This is a horrible situation that we have been put in. And I feel for these two students and their families. But it's a financial impact that affects more than two students. Should we go ahead and pay for something that we did not contract to do and nor I knowing this board, I'm not sure we would have given that argument.

[1:26:47] Does that mean 30 of our students could then apply to go to Leicester and fill seats and cost us millions of thousands of dollars? S14:

[1:26:47] On that note, you are under no obligation. Um, if someone if a student does not get into your member. Chapter 74 school Bay path, you are under no obligation to then say, okay, you applied to Leicester and that you were accepted there. You are under no obligation. No school district is because Bay path offers the same program. Just because you got waitlisted or rejected or whatever you want to call It does not mean that you are now entitled to go into this program. So that's one thing. The second thing someone had asked about, could they stay? If Leicester had school choice, they could try to school choice in obviously. But.

[1:27:34] But would that does that school choice apply to the chapter 74?

[1:27:40] I do not know if they even yeah, I. Yeah.

[1:27:43] Do we have any students that are school choice into Leicester right now from our district.

[1:27:48] Yeah we do.

[1:27:49] We do. Okay.

[1:27:50] Yeah. Not many.

[1:27:52] Okay. But just so it is a thing. Okay.

[1:27:54] I do think we have a few. Okay. Yes. I know we do. Okay. I know, yes, we have at least one that I know of.

[1:28:01] Yeah. Okay.

[1:28:03] Do we know how?

[1:28:04] Through the chair.

[1:28:05] Sorry.

[1:28:06] Yeah, this is.

[1:28:06] A silly question. I would assume that, um, there must be a recourse for the person that signed the document for a school committee to take. If you go and do something like that outside of consulting with your school committee, shouldn't there be ramifications where the person that decided to sign a document without disclosing it to the School committee would be liable to pay for these tuitions?

[1:28:33] It seems that. Well, I don't know.

[1:28:36] I mean.

[1:28:36] I'm just thinking, I don't know. Yeah.

[1:28:38] Yeah. I mean.

[1:28:41] So people let me um, just at this point I'm looking at the three applications, the two that are currently enrolled. Uh, the application was signed on the 23rd of April. Uh, so by the former superintendent, it, this particular application does not check off. You have to check off the box of approved or not approved. It does not have a check, but I can tell you that the student is attending. The second one was the.

[1:29:21] The second page, but it was approved and I'm.

[1:29:25] Sorry, could you just. You said that was approved in April.

[1:29:28] Yeah. They were both approved in April.

[1:29:30] Oh I'm looking at is signed in June.

[1:29:33] No, I'm talking about the actual application. The student application.

[1:29:36] Okay. So this is when the student.

[1:29:38] How does the student apply before they've even signed this contract that they shouldn't have signed.

[1:29:42] That.

[1:29:42] For you. Well, you know what I'm saying? Like the whole thing seems like it's.

[1:29:46] The date though, is only signed by the Leicester superintendent on 611. But above that it says both parties agree to the terms on the 17th day of March.

[1:29:54] Right. So April comes over right.

[1:29:57] No question. That's bizarre.

[1:29:59] So but but for purposes of both applications were received. You know, obviously the students were aware of the program and everything else. You'll see that's one of the things that DC now requires we have to do. And in April and they were signed. These two were signed by the former superintendent in April. I received the one that of the young man, and that's what started everything. So I have not taken any action on that, obviously.

[1:30:28] So so my so am I correct that no action is a. Is the action to take to not approve or disapprove? Is that. Yeah.

[1:30:38] Yeah. That's how I interpret it.

[1:30:40] Or do we need to actually vote?

[1:30:45] So as the your attorney said, you know, only a school committee can vote to authorize, according to the law a tuition to be paid. And that is really two school committees that must, if you read that one school committee to another and superintendents cannot enter into that agreement. So from a legal perspective, if your attorney was sitting here. I'm reading what he said. It is. It is not a valid. But you have bodies in that building who think it is. And rightfully because the superintendent of schools signed off on it.

[1:31:23] So why would you think any different if you were? S1:

[1:31:26] Not to think any differently.

[1:31:28] I struggle with that.

[1:31:29] It's really. I struggle with that too.

[1:31:32] Um, you.

[1:31:32] Know.

[1:31:33] My other my other concern is how many other school committees entered an agreement like this, or I should say superintendents without the knowledge of other school committees. I don't know, because it seems like this has been done by. So I think with both superintendents.

[1:31:52] Part of that answer might be that they have not formed. Leicester has not formed an agreement with all of the towns that they would like as part of this. So they're coming up with these individual. That would be my guess only because I think I saw I asked for a sample and what I have in my packet is one that was sent to Shrewsbury, similar to our Bay path agreement. I wanted to see if they were sending those out. Just out of curiosity. And the one that was sent to me was a sample of what might be happening in the future with Shrewsbury, because evidently they do not have a chapter 74 school in that area. So but they're there aren't there isn't a agreement similar to what you have with Bay path. They don't it doesn't exist yet a district agreement.

[1:32:44] All right. Are there any other thoughts comments from the committee on this.

[1:32:53] I guess, Doctor Nash the question I have is, is if we don't vote to do anything with this, what is the next what would be the next step for the Oxford Public Schools to notify That this agreement is not valid.

[1:33:09] Probably go back to the attorney. Ask the attorney to draw up a letter that indicates, you know, that this was an invalid agreement. And the question at that point in time would be up to them. The ball's now in your court. You have two students who are attending this school. We're telling you basically as a school committee that this is an invalid agreement and. Right. And that, um, yeah.

[1:33:34] Um, I do want to make sure to then the attorney, obviously the entire contract would be null and void, but it does state that if the students don't, if they unenroll before the end of the school year, that we have to prorate the tuition. But again, this is not a valid contract. I feel like nothing matters here, right? Right. This is just words on a paper with no real teeth. Signed and dated by the superintendent after the students were already applied and approved.

[1:33:59] Attorney um, Terry Terry said when we were talking on the first that.

[1:34:10] The response is that it has to go before the School Committee to be approved or not approved by them, or.

[1:34:16] Not.

[1:34:17] Approved.

[1:34:20] Or not approved. That seems to make a motion to not approve this contract.

[1:34:27] I second that.

[1:34:28] Okay. Motion and a second. Any discussion? We'll call for the vote. Miss Peppa.

[1:34:36] I'm voting yes to not approve.

[1:34:39] Yes to not approve. Yes. Okay.

[1:34:41] Yes. To not approve.

[1:34:42] Yes, miss. Yes. I'm also a yes to not approve.

[1:34:47] Okay. So what? We will. I will speak with Attorney Terry to the next steps. I'm guessing, and I didn't talk about it ahead of time, that the next steps will include putting together a letter that will be signed by the chair of the School Committee. Um, and communicating this information. And that happened this evening. And then see what the what is going to happen after that. At this point.

[1:35:20] If I could just state this, as Corey said, we've been put in incredibly like just awful position to have to do this. And we've we heard earlier tonight about the budget challenges that we're uncovering. We know that we're coming into a difficult budget season. Um, and we have, we're already struggling with our budget this year. And this is a terrible decision to have to make. But, um, yeah, that's all, that's all I wanted to say. Okay.

[1:35:51] Okay. Thank you.

[1:35:53] Mr. Chair. Yes. I would like to ask the committee and I don't know if this is even appropriate, so please correct me being on the subcommittee for Policies and Procedures. I would like our subcommittee to look at making a policy going forward so that something like this never happens again to any of our students. All right.

[1:36:11] And I think, Doctor Nash, we had discussed that.

[1:36:14] We did. And I need to do a little bit of research because I think as I read the regs, you can create a policy that talks about a preferred, uh, chapter 74 school. My only question in understanding that is, is that if you do not have an agreement already. So that's what I need to investigate. They use the word policy. Right. And they call it preferred. So I don't know. So once I find out whether that's the case you do have an agreement. You are a member of Bay path along with a lot of other communities. And therefore that's where we send our students who want to go into a career oriented or, um, area. Academic area and Vo tech area. Uh, and I think it will continue to be an issue because you have a, another school so close by that as until the population increases in the new school, the new chapter 74, I think you're going to see that in the way they've handled it, and I understand it would make sense, is we're not going to steal from you. We're not. We only will look at you if you've shown us or told us. And that's what we've been told. And I would think that they're not telling us a lie that you did not get in because you're paying. This town is paying an assessment as being a member of Bay Path Vocational Technical and that and we are not obligated. The town is not obligated. You as a school committee, we are not obligated to send a student anywhere else just because they didn't get in. That's a that's the law. I mean, that's those are the regs. Only if that school does not offer the program, or if that school runs fewer than five programs and therefore does not have an exploratory program. So let's say that, you know, Bay path did not have an exploratory, but Lester did in grade nine, then that child would have that right to apply to that school. So that's how I read it. It's spending a lot of time trying to decipher all of this.

[1:38:32] I think just to be clear, there is a policy that this should not have happened without coming to us. There's a law. There's a law. But I think there was some discussion with the lawyers about putting a pause, potentially drafting a policy.

[1:38:47] And that was.

[1:38:48] When that's where. Right.

[1:38:49] And I just need to do a little bit more research on that.

[1:38:52] But there is there is and I'm not exactly sure what the parameters of the policy are. And maybe that's something Doctor Nash can.

[1:38:59] It's actually under the DC guidelines regulations that talks about a preferred. You can create a policy for a preferred. And I just need to find out if that. If that means only if you do not have.

[1:39:10] Okay.

[1:39:10] Right.

[1:39:11] Okay.

[1:39:11] That's. So I need.

[1:39:12] And we also never want to do anything that would put us in jeopardy.

[1:39:15] It actually says, well, students may apply to any school which accepts applications for nonresident students. The district may, through its school committee, adopt a policy designating specific vocational schools as preferred vocational schools for the purposes of a chapter 74 nonresident student tuition program. This means that the district may direct students to apply to preferred schools. But what I don't know is whether or not it makes any difference if you already have an agreement. Right. Okay. I'll find the answer to that.

[1:39:50] Okay.

[1:39:51] Aaron, does that meet your okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Next up.

[1:39:57] All right. Now, along the same lines, but not the same.

[1:40:02] Very different. Yeah, but not the same.

[1:40:04] Uh, so when the law laws came out with respect to the system, the lottery system, the vocational technical schools used as part of, uh, 603 CMR for.

[1:40:24] The state DSE developed guidelines for both the Vo tech schools and their lottery system. And what that needed to look like. And don't ask me to explain it because I've listened and I still don't totally understand it. But also they developed, um, regulations, if you will, uh, that requires a public school district to develop and ensure that middle school students and families are clearly informed about their opportunities. I can relate to years ago, so it's not just, okay, we'll let you come over and have a nice little visit, or you can visit their school. There's a whole list of things and we have to document that and you have to approve that. So what you have on the second page is what the principal at OMS, Lee Joseph, who is extremely knowledgeable about these regs because she and I have had a lengthy discussion and she's really educated me a little bit about what this needs to be and look like. And so all of those boxes and areas are things that we must do. Interestingly enough, and I believe this needed to be approved before I want to say October 9th, but I'm October 15th And we have to specifically, districts must provide this information to middle school students through email and on the district's website by October 15th of each year. So we would have to post this on the website. Yes. In addition to everything else. But you can see, uh, some of the things, the outreach that needs to happen, the on campus presentations. Years ago, I can remember that there were some public school districts that would not let Vo tech schools make appearances and do a presentation.

[1:42:24] And there was a reason for that years ago. But I think there was.

[1:42:28] Uh, on campus tours, admission support, communications, all of that. So this is what, uh, the middle school principal has drafted, um, that in accordance with the regulations and what we must. So we need a school committee vote on this.

[1:42:44] Uh, before we do that, I just want to, before we go to my pal Value. The policy subcommittee is is aware of this policy.

[1:42:53] We talked about the fact that there were these new regulations for the state that you had to have, like pathways and students were going to. And we did talk about this to being in the handbook. Okay. And, you know, it was it was last. Yes. It was like, like right before the summer. So it was in the spring was.

[1:43:10] I think we didn't know the date, how soon they were going to do this because we public schools have a quicker return on what we need to do and publish, as opposed to the vocational vocational technical school. They have a little bit longer, I think, to do what they have to do. So our deadline is that we need to do this and get it approved. And on a yearly basis, you could be looking at something a little different or this could be the same. Yeah.

[1:43:42] My only question is in regards to the off campus tours. Um, I know having two students who went to Bay path. They do have an evening event that is open to all prospective students.

[1:44:02] Do we? Is this a requirement that that we include the school day visit? So students leave our school during the school day? S11:

[1:44:03] And I assume it is now that they do a true lottery. I know that was one of the sticking points when they were taking all our top students, that we didn't want to send our students to visit them during the school day. Um, so I just, I was curious if that is now an actual requirement.

[1:44:17] I believe it is. And that's why it's in bold.

[1:44:19] Okay.

[1:44:20] Yeah.

[1:44:20] Silly question. Who pays for the transportation?

[1:44:24] Yeah they do. I asked that to.

[1:44:26] Bay path provides transportation.

[1:44:28] They pay for it. Yes.

[1:44:29] Okay.

[1:44:30] I saw that too.

[1:44:30] But there is some discussion. I will say this around the mailing and the, um, the labels. And I have given my opinion to the middle school principal.

[1:44:44] Can't this be sent through our parent square.

[1:44:49] So it needs to be here.

[1:44:51] Through Parent Square communications for all families.

[1:44:54] And in our handbook.

[1:44:54] We have to provide for Bay path, uh, a list of student roster mailing lists, attendance records, all of that stuff. And I think there was some discussion about who was going, were you going to pay for the labels or were we going to pay for the labels? Oh.

[1:45:10] Legit labels.

[1:45:11] Yeah.

[1:45:13] I think they have a print shop. They can just. Yeah.

[1:45:15] So I think, I think that was a little bit of discussion when they had these.

[1:45:20] Every penny counts right.

[1:45:22] Mhm.

[1:45:22] Yep. It does.

[1:45:23] Yeah. But it'll also go through parents. Okay.

[1:45:27] There was a recommended motion text. If.

[1:45:34] It's on the.

[1:45:37] Front.

[1:45:37] Page.

[1:45:38] I'll make the motion.

[1:45:39] Of the memo.

[1:45:39] Oh. The Oxford School Committee approved the middle school pathway exploration policy and authorize the superintendent or designee to take all necessary administrative action to implement the policy in accordance with 603 CMR 4.00 and applicable Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requirements.

[1:46:01] A second.

[1:46:02] I'm sorry.

[1:46:04] Did you have any discussion? No. Would you like to discuss it? No. Okay. We'll call for the vote. Yes, miss. Yes, miss Griffin. Yes. Mr. Burke. Yes. And I'm a yes.

[1:46:18] All right, superintendent, search next steps.

[1:46:23] So in your packet are the two, uh, information regarding the two groups, both Nasdaq and Mask, who typically, uh, do conduct, uh, superintendent searches. So what you have is really some preliminary information that's gathered. Uh, I would suggest or recommend that you invite each of these to, to come in and do a presentation where you can ask very specific questions regarding cost and what you get for that. Timelines, you know, going out once, going out twice. What would happen if you didn't find a superintend the first time? What are those? What costs repeat themselves if you went out again. Uh, so we just provided you with really some preliminary background information because it probably is something that you want to begin to consider.

[1:47:23] I love that suggestion. Yeah, I do too. So, you know, I certainly have not been through a superintendent search. Um, so I think I guess the question is, do we, I guess we would have to vote. Right. So what are we voting to, uh, ask that we reach out to Nasdaq and ask to come out to a future School Committee meeting.

[1:47:43] Do you have a preference as to what meeting, what month, when you would like to look at that? I'm assuming you may want to do it before we get into the budget process.

[1:47:53] Yes, please.

[1:47:53] Yeah.

[1:47:54] Would you like us to try for a meeting in October? Yes, please. One of those two. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. So we'll reach out to see which 1st May. We may be able to get two on the same night. Okay. Or we may have to spread them out over the.

[1:48:10] So do we need to vote on that? We need to make a motion to to.

[1:48:13] To bring it.

[1:48:14] Yes. Okay. I'll take a motion.

[1:48:17] I'll make a motion to invite both Bezdek and Mack to present to us what they offer for superintendent search.

[1:48:24] Okay, I'll second that. Any discussion? I assume there's no cost for having.

[1:48:29] Them come.

[1:48:29] In? No. No.

[1:48:32] Motion and a second discussion. No discussion. Okay. Miss.

[1:48:38] Yes yes.

[1:48:41] Yes.

[1:48:42] Yes yes yes yes as well. Okay. All right. And I think we're up to our last yep. Policy. So you've got a policy here for.

[1:48:57] Yes we do. Yes. And I think we reached out to the policy subcommittee chair. Excellent, folks. I think she was already aware anyway, that, as you are aware, that the governor signed August 5th, I believe, uh, Maura Healey signed the Protect Act. And there was a and is a very quick turnaround in conversations with some of the area superintendents at one of our meetings last week, you know, people asked, have you brought your eyes before the School Committee yet? We were all looking at deadlines of September 1st, and I don't know how many of us met those deadlines, but what you see is the basically the model policy that Jesse put forward, knowing that districts were all going to be in the same condition with respect to trying to develop their own or having legal develop them or whatever. So you and probably many other school committees have approved the same will be hopefully approving the same policy and procedures for the Protect Act. I wouldn't doubt that sometime during the year there will be more information and maybe a redesigned policy in the future. But this initially is what we're asking for the School Committee to approve.

[1:50:17] So I definitely want to make a motion to accept this, but for discussion. You know, I see all these requirements of of different people that have to kind of be notified and whatnot. And I guess my silly question is. Do you have the staff in place and have you already designated that? And does it go to like the DC website? Like other things say like this is the point of contact for this and this.

[1:50:47] I think it's more internal. We are waiting for the school committee to approve it, and then I will share this and go over it. And we'll make those decisions similar to what we do with emergency plans and that. Who is the contact person? Some are pretty obvious as to who they would recommend. In many instances. But once you. If you approve it this evening, then the procedures will be something I'll sit down with when I have my regular meetings with the EC to go over and discuss and make determinations.

[1:51:16] And then this is going to be another silly question, maybe does this come with any like unfunded, new mandated, you know, because of this law, there might be a cost to the district for certain things that like, haven't been thought of by our governor that she's now requiring us to do.

[1:51:36] Well at this point in time. I can't answer long range. Certainly things could change and we could have a sitting here saying, well, there's a cost to all of these, and there's certainly a time commitment and obviously, um, making sure that, uh, you know, we have an understand what procedures we're going to use to notify parents and in many instances, their procedures that typically an administrative team already knows and is comfortable with. It's more, I think, some of the issues of what you say, they give you simple language of, you know, what you would say, uh, to, uh, an officer who might appear on grounds. I think it's more of that because technically, the first person who may see that individual may be the secretary. And so there's some training that and some discussions that need to take place. And the idea of video recording. What happens? Uh, the immediate response of who you call first, you know, you call the superintendent first, maybe then the superintendent calls the attorney, the school attorney. So in this document, it goes into a lot more detail about that. So there is I don't know that there's a cost to that. It's just a time to make sure people are comfortable with understanding the process at this point.

[1:53:01] I'm just wondering.

[1:53:03] Yes, Mr. Burke. Prior to this, were we allowing law enforcement officers into the building to arrest students without warrants?

[1:53:13] I can't answer that. I wasn't here.

[1:53:15] The answer is no.

[1:53:16] Policy in place for it.

[1:53:18] I guess my.

[1:53:19] Issue is this is clearly politically motivated, and I hate when they use the schools to make political statements. We would not allow a law enforcement officer in to arrest any child without a warrant. Prior to this, we would always contact a senior administrator when law enforcement was involved. We would clearly contact a student's parents if the law enforcement officer came in to arrest a student. This just frustrates me. No matter what side you come down on it politically, that the schools are being used as political pawns. I just I don't think I can approve this policy even though we have to.

[1:54:00] I was going to say, I don't think we have a choice.

[1:54:02] It's a choice. But I can vote no.

[1:54:05] Say no.

[1:54:06] You know. I also when I was reading this too, thinking of the terms of, let's say that the first person that you that the federal officer comes in contact with is the secretary. And you know, what training do you have to say? Could I see the judicial warrant that you have and look at it? How do you know that.

[1:54:25] It's.

[1:54:25] Right? But just the intimidation of having a federal officer in front of you with a gun and so forth is enough to create, you know, obviously a real sense of uncomfortable feeling. So there is going to be and obviously it has happened. We know that in areas. But, you know, I can see that certain individuals who may not on a daily basis or a weekly basis or are used to dealing with troubling situations to use that term may be impacted by it. If it ever happens. So but it is the law and we are obligated to create a policy. Well, you are obligated to.

[1:55:14] But the policy.

[1:55:14] Is more about ensuring that we have these procedures in place. Right. That's really what this is. And it's that we have documentation for how to handle this. And I don't know if we have that today, But I think Corey is right. This would not have happened regardless of whether this law was passed or not.

[1:55:35] This was not a problem and these were things we would have always done. It seems like all this policy is now doing is putting documentation that we do have these procedures.

[1:55:47] And it's ensuring that your 351 school districts.

[1:55:50] Yeah, I'll do that.

[1:55:51] Yeah. So I know a year ago, I had spoken to all four of the schools front staff and asked them if there was a policy for something like this, and something was verbalized to them of what the policy was, but we never had it written. So it doesn't I mean, it doesn't hurt to put it in writing because it's required, but there was a verbal policy that came from the central office for all of the staff, because I had asked a year ago, when I had concerns, when there were scare tactics going on. I just wanted.

[1:56:23] Those.

[1:56:23] Right.

[1:56:24] Last two years.

[1:56:24] So I just wanted to like, make sure like I'm like, do you know what? Like, is there a thing, you know, and.

[1:56:30] And let me be clear, I don't disagree with any of the steps that are in here.

[1:56:32] I know no, I know.

[1:56:33] It's just.

[1:56:35] Right from, from a lens of someone who does the job on a daily basis. We do that. We wouldn't do any, we wouldn't do it any different.

[1:56:42] It's frustrating to be used in this way. Yeah, I understand it. Like they're telling us we wouldn't have protected our kids in the first place, so they need to make a law for us.

[1:56:50] Through the.

[1:56:50] Chair.

[1:56:51] Yes, I guess this has to. Our governor felt like it had to be said, because maybe there are districts not like ours that need this education, right. And need the policy. But you know, for the sake of everybody being safe, we are all required to do it. Sure. So yeah.

[1:57:12] Okay.

[1:57:12] Unfortunate. So I made a motion to accept it. If anybody wants to second the motion.

[1:57:20] I'll second.

[1:57:21] It. All right.

[1:57:22] Any discussion?

[1:57:25] Yes, in one way. Can we have a vote to waive.

[1:57:29] The second reading?

[1:57:30] Okay, so I make a motion to accept it and waive the second reading. Okay.

[1:57:34] Thank you.

[1:57:36] Do you want a second?

[1:57:37] I'll second.

[1:57:37] It. Okay.

[1:57:38] All right. Any discussion? Call for the vote. Yes.

[1:57:43] Vote no.

[1:57:45] Miss Griffin.

[1:57:46] Yes.

[1:57:49] Mr. Burke? No.

[1:57:53] I'm.

[1:57:53] Yes. Okay.

[1:57:57] All right.

[1:58:02] Recommendations or questions from individual committee members. We'll start with you, miss.

[1:58:10] Anything?

[1:58:11] Um.

[1:58:15] I feel like I'm confused for no reason. Um, so just comments on the meeting? Yeah.

[1:58:19] Just comments on the meeting recommendations. Anything you. This is. Your floor is yours.

[1:58:25] Okay. Um, I actually just wanted to. I want to thank all of the school staff, the custodians for all the work that they did over the summer. It was really nice when we had walked through the schools to see all of the hard work that the students were doing, the custodians, all of the staff were doing. Um, I want to welcome all of the new staff that we got to meet today. Um, and all the hard work that the central office and the principals and admin staff have done to really bring our community back together and foster a warm culture within Oxford. Um, looking forward to having real finite numbers. And thank you to Doctor Nash and Alicia for all of the work that you have done regarding the budget, because I know you have spent countless hours to do that. So thank you for keeping that so seriously and the detailed work that you have put into that. Um. Looking forward to all of the different events that are coming up in our schools. It was nice hearing from the student council, all of the work that they did in the hallways. When we were doing our walkthroughs, we got to see them actually putting all of the bulletin boards up. And it's nice to hear all the work that they're doing with the backpacks as well. So thank you to everybody.

[1:59:47] Um, I wanted to say thank you to the custodial staff, especially, um, Mr. Leatherman and Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Libby for walking through the schools with us yesterday. We had some walkthroughs, and I just wanted to say thank you for preparing the schools and making them what they are. Um, I wanted to welcome the new staff and I wanted to thank, um, Alicia and Doctor Nash for all the presentations and the work you've given us and the numbers and everything that you have done. Thank you.

[2:00:15] Thank you for all the staff for coming out this evening and introducing themselves to us. That was wonderful. And I'm excited too, that we have a school resource officer and we have a new program that's here. I think that having those, um, somebody can correct me or tell me the name of the title of the program. It's like safety. I'm trying to remember with our school resource officers so we don't have our fire safety anymore. That's kind of tabled.

[2:00:42] But we.

[2:00:43] January criminal justice.

[2:00:44] Criminal.

[2:00:44] Justice program. So I think that that's great because we have all those different opportunities for our students to like, um, the CNA program, the criminal justice program, the JROTC that we have all these things that sometimes.

[2:00:58] Program.

[2:00:58] The business program, um, with the partnership with Nichols and I think things like that, we just have to keep speaking about and letting our community know. And I think, you know, that's exciting. Um, there was something else that was on my brain that I wanted to.

[2:01:12] Bring up and I'm like, oh gosh, I can't, it's just like it went so I might.

[2:01:18] We'll give you a go back.

[2:01:19] Yeah, if I can remember. I'm having some timeless moment.

[2:01:23] Yeah.

[2:01:23] That's right. I know it's like I want.

[2:01:25] When you wake up.

[2:01:26] We'll give you a go. We'll let Mr. Burke go.

[2:01:28] And I don't know if it will come back to me. Might not.

[2:01:31] We'll come back at 1 a.m..

[2:01:32] Yeah.

[2:01:33] So. But thanks to everybody, Mr. Burke.

[2:01:36] Awesome. Yeah. I think just hearing the reports tonight, knowing what it takes to open a building, knowing the budget challenges that we have to hear about homecoming, about openside, about chorus singing at the Railers. Barton has a student council that's unheard of. Chaffee's already doing learning walks and kids are making Super Bowl commercials. Like we've got some great stuff going on. Thank you and sorry.

[2:02:03] Sorry.

[2:02:04] You know I came back to.

[2:02:05] Yeah go ahead.

[2:02:06] MSBA. So I know that they were supposed to come out here.

[2:02:10] Yes. I should have said something in my.

[2:02:13] A lot on your plate.

[2:02:14] Yeah, so am my miscellaneous.

[2:02:17] So that's coming. We haven't gotten to yet.

[2:02:20] We'll give her the we'll give her the final word.

[2:02:22] Yeah.

[2:02:23] Um, yeah, I just, I want to echo a lot of that with what was said. I think, um, you know, Alicia, you and Doctor Nash have had a tough, very challenging, you know, start to the school year here. And I very much appreciate the effort that you guys have put in to help us kind of get get our feet, get on our feet here. Um, we're obviously going to head into a really challenging budget season. Our special ed costs are going to continue to, to, to be our biggest challenge. And, um, we'll have to, we'll have to sort through that as we go. But, um, and I, you know, I love seeing the new staff that show up, so it's great to have a bunch of new staff. There's a lot of excitement and energy and, and so, um, some of us spent a little longer than we should have talking to the staff today. Oh, sorry, Mr. Burke, you're you're, you're a, you're clearly a fan of the new staff as well. But no, it was really good to, to see them here. And it was it was it was nice to chat with them. So, um, Doctor Nash, if you wanted to touch on the.

[2:03:21] I should have mentioned it under miscellaneous. So yesterday MSBA came to their senior study. We had what maybe a 13 to 15 people at the meeting, including all of our town officials, town manager, Board of Selectmen. Amanda was there representing school Committee. Uh, Alicia was there. We had facility department represented. Um, I'm trying to think of who else.

[2:03:48] Um, the.

[2:03:48] Business, um.

[2:03:51] Director of finance Katie McKenna was there. Um, and then there were probably seven or so members from representing MSBA. We spent quite a, initially it was a four hour total. And the initial email to me was an hour talking about programs and questions that turned out to be more like 2.5 hours.

[2:04:12] A 2.5 hours.

[2:04:13] I don't think we left to do the building tours until 230, a quarter of three. But the process is such that trying to remember. Now I have my notes, but they're not here. Uh, the number of schools that applied in this cycle. Uh, but the notification back to us. Uh, the board meets to vote early December. We would probably have some notification prior to that sometime in, I think, the end of October, excuse me, end of November. As to where we were in this process, some of the things that they talked about were, uh, the next step, if you get invited into the process, there's a commitment. You have 270 day window to get certain commitments done. There's a whole list of those. One of those is funding for the feasibility study. And they mentioned that that cost now could be anywhere from, say, 750 to $2 million. So once the town votes for that, and they did ask how would that typically be set up? And I think the answer was probably a debt exclusion. So they were looking at the timing. When do you have your town meeting. So May. So you can kind of play out a little bit of what the next steps would be if you do get invited into into that. Certainly we talked about things that were a little different. My fault probably. I think back the initial soy talks about the addition to the high school to move grades six through eight. Well, we had a sounding board of ideas from a lot of different people. I was certainly one of them, uh, talking about different options. Ultimately, however, the soy and this is one of the questions that I wanted to make sure I understood because I know things have changed a little in the MSBA since I built the high school that whatever the soy is asking. The renovation would be what it was either going to be supported or not supported. You know, it's not like they come in and say, well, you want a new high school. We think you could renovate this. So, so we know that renovation costs potentially exceed any kind of new building cost. Uh, so the process really is this is the next step. I think there were 30 or so that they were looking at.

[2:06:37] 29 and 19 or 21 is what they were planning on accepting.

[2:06:43] Okay. All right. So they're close to 30, but they would accept about 19. And typically, you know, I don't want to say I speak for them, but, you know, they usually look at the smattering. Some are elementary, some are Reno, some are additions, some are new schools. And they try to, I think anyway, pick. They know and they knew that you had applied a number of times. Somehow I always think it's like the pecking order, like a doctorate. They only allow so many to get their doctorates each year. I think there's a time frame. So I would, you know, so I, I mean, they, we noted a lot of things that were wrong with the buildings, particularly around education and delivery model services. So we'll see what next steps are. It's a big commitment.

[2:07:27] Yeah.

[2:07:27] The engineer that was asking a lot of the questions had been here prior and remembered a lot of the things. So that made it a little bit easier going through it. And he's like, oh, I remember you have this system totally outdated, can't even find parts for this. So that was like a little bit nice of having someone who was familiar with, especially the middle school. Um, but yeah, I think it went well. It was, it was, it was long, but it was worth it. It was. And to have the support from this, from the town was major too. So that was great to do. All the walkthroughs.

[2:07:59] Had some good questions. Uh, one, the woman who led everything actually was a Hanover High School graduate. The year before I came, I said small things. So I learned that the superintendent of schools in Sutton I hired as a teacher. Yeah, she told me. I thought, oh, boy.

[2:08:19] Then you laid me off.

[2:08:20] Oh, geez.

[2:08:22] And she moved.

[2:08:23] And I said, well, good for you. You moved to Brookline. You made a lot more money.

[2:08:25] A lot more money.

[2:08:28] It's funny.

[2:08:29] I will, I will, I will take a motion.

[2:08:31] Motion to adjourn.

[2:08:33] I second.

[2:08:33] That. Second. All right. We'll just do a vote. All in favor of a. All right. We are adjourned.

School Committee Meeting September 16th, 2026

Transcript