[0:00] And a change is actually before I do that, I have to say that this meeting is being recorded. And if anyone else is recording the meeting, you will please notify the chair. I'm glad it's being recorded. And there will be access to that meeting, hopefully, on the town website and also on the school website, not the website. This is meeting ID number 8689544.

[0:29] four, seven, three, four. The passcode is five, six, four, seven, six, seven. And now do

[0:38] we have any agenda changes? No, no, not this evening. Okay, great. And public comment

[0:47] is there anyone who would like to speak through the chair? I see no hands raised. We're all

[0:57] that. Okay. We're all here anyway. Great. And the first thing under priority business inexplicably

[1:08] is the new date for the retreat. And oh well, I see two people who are maybe, maybe thinking of

[1:16] someday being on the school committee. Welcome, Ricky and Arlene.

[1:22] We are needing to schedule a new date

[1:25] for the retreat and I know that Katie requests that we do it sometime in April or any time after

[1:34] April she will be back as a flatlander then back in Massachusetts and it would be lovely to have

[1:43] her able to come in person as well. So how do people feel about that doing it early? Sometimes the first

[1:52] half of April.

[1:56] I will send out a form and just ask you to tell me what your favorite days are

[2:05] and that kind of thing and we can reschedule it and I guess have it at the school so it's publicly

[2:11] accessible.

[2:14] And that's that I will get that taken care of and we can go right to the administrators

[2:23] reports, Jones. I just for yeah for our public the retreat is the time that we

[2:29] get together and we get to dig deeper into one or two issues. Thank you for

[2:37] that. Yes and usually it's things that we don't really we can't take time for

[2:43] during our business meetings and we like to do them in person and really let

[2:51] our brains flow with ideas. It's really a lot of fun in their public. So people can come and visit

[2:59] those as well. And I will share my chair's report, which should be you. It's not highlighted. Uh-oh.

[3:10] That's my fault because I didn't send it into anyone. Here it is. Okay. Well, good evening and welcome. Welcome.

[3:18] especially to our two visitors, we almost never have visitors. So this is very exciting.

[3:25] And well, Felicia's pat yourselves on the back. We've made it through what appeared to be the

[3:30] coldest, newest January in a long time. Hopefully we are on the other side already approaching what

[3:38] is usually a disappointing well-fleet spring. This has been a really busy month. I am happy to say

[3:47] that given the weather that most of my own commitments have been virtual, enabling me to simmer

[3:53] soups and sport slippers and heavy ragged sweaters.

[3:58] And now we find ourselves right in the middle of budget season.

[4:02] Last week, our school committee had a quorum of four attend the second annual budget conference

[4:09] produced and directed by our very own superintendent brand and his amazing administrative assistant

[4:16] after a tour of the Magnificent High School, school committees, select board members,

[4:23] finance committee members, and town administrators gathered for Superintendent Brown's Regional

[4:29] Budget overview, which was informative, clearly articulated, and transparent.

[4:35] It included information on the Regional Budget and a progress update on the Superintendents

[4:40] entry plan. We also were treated to a preview of the middle school and the high school budget

[4:51] by the principals of those schools and again they were very clear very easy to understand even

[4:58] for those of us who don't have our brains very high on the financial spectrum. After a dinner

[5:05] In our expertly prepared vices in Murray, we regrouped into four smaller groups organized

[5:10] by town and a regional school committee group.

[5:15] Unfortunately, well-fleet town officials were not on hand to meet with the well-fleet

[5:20] school committee in our principal Atomo Shea.

[5:23] Given that we had a quorum of dedicated school committee members who were volunteers, we were

[5:28] disappointed to find that we had no one to discuss anything with but each other.

[5:34] Hopefully, select board members, finance committee members and the town administrator will join

[5:40] interested members of the public at the public hearing on our budget on March 3rd, our

[5:46] next school committee meeting at 5 p.m.

[5:51] On another note or two, after a couple of forwarded attempts to have in-person school committee meetings,

[5:57] I've decided to continue to have virtual meetings through the school year.

[6:01] It seems that some clarity is in order.

[6:03] I have also decided to pull papers for one term on the school committee in order for one more term on the school committee in order to establish a healthy succession plan and to continue to co-chair the superintendent evaluations of committee.

[6:19] However, if there is another candidate for my seat, I will most likely end with gratitude with draw my papers I can do so by April 1st.

[6:30] So I'm wishing everybody a wonderful short February.

[6:34] Stay warm and keep those flippers handy, respectfully submitted, Martha Gordon.

[6:41] And I wondered if people had additions or comments or anything to say on that.

[6:53] I just wanted to thank you for running again, Martha.

[6:57] We are lucky that you are on the school committee.

[6:59] Well, Katie, I could not do it without you, so it would not, so I'm very, thank you for that, and I thank you.

[7:07] Everybody else, I've had a lot of support for you guys, it's been, it's really an honor to be able to work with you.

[7:15] And we'll see what happens.

[7:21] Okay. Any other questions or comments?

[7:25] hearing, non-seeing, non-principles report.

[7:30] That was me.

[7:31] Forgot, no, that's out of them.

[7:34] Not the principal here.

[7:35] Go ahead.

[7:36] Thank you, Martha.

[7:38] That was wonderful.

[7:39] And yes, I feel so fortunate that you are the chair

[7:43] and will remain the chair.

[7:46] And you can talk more about that after April 2nd.

[7:50] April 1st.

[7:51] their guests. Just the retreat piece, just to keep in mind, I know that will jump up on us.

[8:00] April 13th to 17th is the need academy, which is a good thing to talk about a good time,

[8:06] potentially. I know Lauren as well as Melissa have fifth graders, so they might be freed up that week.

[8:14] The need academy, as you remember, is our week-long trip that our fifth graders take to Churro

[8:19] and experiential learning and that means you're kid-free for that week so maybe

[8:26] a good time to have a meeting. So I just want to mention that before I jump into the

[8:29] principal's report. I just wanted to start. February is a time I often reflect or

[8:36] end of January, beginning if I were to often reflect about just how students are

[8:42] feeling, how staff is feeling, what the outlook looks like as far as mental

[8:48] help. And just to get a vibe on weather and I look at one of the key pieces I look at

[8:55] is student attendance and staff attendance really. And I've just been blown away by how

[9:02] wonderful our attendance has been and specifically whether students and staff this year. I'm excited

[9:11] just when I look at it and like, oh my gosh, we have 100% attendance in the middle of January.

[9:16] It's just a wonderful site to see that kids want to come to our school, and the staff want to be here on a daily basis.

[9:26] And during my tenure here, like I've really wanted the school day to extend.

[9:34] And so it's more than just kids arrive at 7.45 and lead right at 2 o'clock, like a lot of elementary schools.

[9:41] In, you know, a day like today, I've been so fortunate to watch the day kind of progress

[9:48] from after school and have the Lorax training and play practice go on, having clubs go

[9:57] on in the afternoon, and having staff working on social and emotional strategies with specific

[10:03] students, having speech services after school, having before school, band and course lessons.

[10:08] the day starts truly at five after seven and still there are kids right now in our gymnasium having a blast.

[10:16] And that's the vision of what a community school can be and should be.

[10:22] So it's just wonderful to see and I just wanted to note that.

[10:25] Like often you can kind of phase a phrase a principal's report and talk about the district attorney's office and having to call them in.

[10:34] And that was a lot of the notes that I used to write when I was in middle school and how our attendance and what we were doing to solve it.

[10:41] Well, the best solution to it is having just amazing dynamic educators wanting to be here and it just creates students that want to be here as well.

[10:51] So I just wanted to touch upon that.

[10:55] The other piece that I wanted to mention was just a recent connection that we had with Natasha INUZ.

[11:02] I'm sure I just butchered her name, but through the farm to school, she's the farm to school coordinator.

[11:10] And just the potential that she brings to our district as far as developing lesson plans

[11:17] to touch upon what I've identified as goal number five within this school improvement plan.

[11:24] And that's that partnership to increase nutrition awareness and education related to the foods

[11:31] that we take in. When I think of Jeff Liam and when he visited our school and just consulted

[11:41] with us in years past, he's like, the perfect medicine is good food and making sure it's

[11:48] nutritious food and putting that in front of our kids and having kids understand healthy choices.

[11:54] So, here's another step that the district is taking, and in this one, it's more of a collaborative approach, which I love in working with our staff access to lesson plans.

[12:06] And I shared something out in the recent newsletter just related to this so that families can also, so we can also collaborate with families.

[12:17] Finally, as mentioned by Madam Chair Gordon, just the budget in the budget season is upon us,

[12:25] and I don't want to sugar code anything, but we're sitting at a little over 10% increase,

[12:33] which I think is a bit alarming for a principal, and I think it was taken in with okay thank goodness,

[12:41] it's not February and certainly not March or April or May and we're voting on this. So it is

[12:49] something where we'll have many conversations in the upcoming weeks and months and you know some

[12:56] there's some areas that certainly we recognize that will need to be reviewed and see where cuts can

[13:02] be made. But you know a big part of the meeting that we had was just talking about some of those

[13:09] budget drivers that we have, and I've noted those within the principal's report, so you have access to it.

[13:16] Shifts that have been rather monumental specific to Wellfleet Elementary's, you know, shifts in, you know, pre-K or special education, and how we're educating and

[13:27] instructing those students and making sure that when possible, and ideally, that education takes place here at Wellfleet Elementary School.

[13:37] And also, I've, you know, spoke with a lot of administrative Tom Garino at length, just about the building and the needs of our building.

[13:47] And I think we'll have, you know, a great deal more information in the weeks and months to come.

[13:53] I think part of it related to the efficiency and regionalization study will provide a lot of insight on directionally where, you know,

[14:02] we should or need to go at Welfare just to make sure we continue to have a safe environment

[14:08] for our students.

[14:11] And again, I just mentioned in the just upcoming school events, there's

[14:17] a lot of, lot to be excited about. And I wanted to plug one of the greatest things we've done

[14:23] in the last two years. You might not be aware of this one, superintendent brand, but we had a Spaghetti

[14:29] contest where we raised hundreds of pounds of spaghetti, and that was even before it was cooked.

[14:39] And all that spaghetti contest, it was just like a great community event in which we had

[14:47] students bring in spaghetti for our spaghetti supper, that is an annual event for 42 years running

[14:53] now that our PTO puts on. In that event, I'll...

[15:00] A lot of the proceeds, because we graced way more than we could handle, ended up helping out the food pantry. But we had enough spaghetti for the spaghetti supper, as well as the next year's spaghetti supper. And then boxes and boxes, I think it was like a truckload of spaghetti went to the Wellfleet food pantry. But it's just a great opportunity to kind of show off our community. And with a nice giving spaghetti contest.

[15:29] Yes, so I'll open it up for questions at this time.

[15:32] I wonder if there is a date, maybe Lauren knows, for the spaghetti supper.

[15:39] There is a date.

[15:40] I was going to say it in the reports, but it is March 20th and 5 to 7 30th in the West

[15:47] cafeteria.

[15:49] Perfect.

[15:49] Thank you.

[15:50] Thanks so much.

[15:53] Thank you for that report.

[15:55] It's certainly incredibly energizing for me to hear about the things going on in that school.

[16:03] It's incredible, and you are really creating a community school there, which is what we want.

[16:09] Thank you for that.

[16:11] Thanks so much.

[16:13] Okay, and I think next up is Superintendent Brand, yes.

[16:17] Thank you. Good evening everyone. March the 20th. Is there meatballs or is it just spaghetti and will there be garlic bread too? I mean, what does this look like?

[16:29] There's garlic bread. There's homemade meatballs and homemade white clam sauce.

[16:34] And dessert. And dessert. Wonderful. Okay. March the 20th you said. All right. I did not know about that. Thank you.

[16:43] It's below shame for sharing that.

[16:45] Thank you both for your great reports.

[16:47] Mine is much briefer tonight than the previous two,

[16:50] but thank you for just the opportunity to share.

[16:55] The report was added through the agenda

[16:57] just a short time ago,

[16:58] sort of working feverishly to get a lot of things out the door

[17:02] right now, so my apologies for it being

[17:04] a little bit late to the packet, but it's here.

[17:06] And there are three things just briefly to touch upon.

[17:08] First off, as I think you're well aware,

[17:11] I think all of our, I'm sure, all of our four towns produce an annual town report and I know that these requests have already started to come forth from the, you know, from my office here and will, I think as I believe it's the case across the four communities, something from the respective chairs.

[17:28] I included a link to the document that I put together, it's always tricky being in this place of being new to a district and of course not working here or being here for the year previous, but I did what I could try and put together things that I thought were important to note and to highlight on behalf of the NASA public schools.

[17:47] And this submission that I've included, it's linked here in the superintendent's report, is that which I'll share with the towns when we're asked to pass that along.

[17:55] so I thought it would be good for our school committees to see that.

[18:01] Next, as the efficiency and regionalization study, which is ongoing,

[18:06] and there continues to be a lot of work for that.

[18:08] As a friendly reminder, I'm the co-chair with Peter Lombardi,

[18:13] a chair administrator and Brewster, but there is a larger steering group

[18:16] as I think folks are aware that is meeting regularly,

[18:19] and the next meeting is coming up rather quickly.

[18:21] As the co-chair, I'm meeting regularly with Peter and the consultants really to kind of plot the next stages of their study and facilitating information gathering, for example, serving as the clearinghouse for our student enrollment data to help facilitate the consultants who are working on forecasting enrollment for the future.

[18:45] But tonight I just wanted to take an opportunity to highlight three upcoming outreach efforts

[18:52] that are ongoing.

[18:52] In fact, a couple of this week and then another little bit later in the month.

[18:58] The consultants recognize that we really needed to gather more input from stakeholders through

[19:04] other communities, that the interest has waned, it depends on the community that you're in.

[19:09] Some have seen some great turnout when they held public meetings, others not necessarily

[19:13] really as much, but through conversation with them, I really stress the fact that we

[19:19] really want to have staff voice as part of this, school leader voice as part of this,

[19:24] and again another effort to invite members of the community.

[19:27] And so on the report, you'll see those three that are starting with tomorrow Wednesday,

[19:31] February 4th, we've sent an invitation to all of our staff at the elementary and middle

[19:36] school level.

[19:37] Again, that's what the study is specifically focused on.

[19:41] A virtual meeting will be held by our consultant group.

[19:45] And you can see there the list of those that thankfully

[19:48] set forward and are going to participate.

[19:51] Three teachers from Wellfleet, along with a number of teachers

[19:54] from our other schools, including Orleans, Eastam, Eddie,

[19:57] and the Middle School.

[19:59] Later this week, Friday, February the 6th,

[20:01] we have a specific focused working session

[20:03] with our school and district leaders.

[20:05] So our school principals, and I'll show you, of course, be there, along with his colleagues will be meeting at the high school with a consultants and go through the information gathering with that group.

[20:15] And then on Tuesday, February the 10th, this was a fairly focused outreach for community members and the specific focus or target was extending a specific invitation to our school council members and our PTO members.

[20:28] We gathered with the help of all of our schools, the contacts for those groups, and then

[20:34] the consultant group sent out a specific tailored invitation to them.

[20:39] This meeting is being held virtually on Tuesday, February 10th.

[20:42] I'm not sure exactly how many members of our communities have stepped forward to participate,

[20:47] but I'll certainly, you know, share that as we move forward.

[20:51] And then the last is just a brief update.

[20:53] And, you know, a topic that obviously is getting a lot of attention, seemingly more and

[20:59] more every week, every month, and that's artificial intelligence, or AI, please be able to

[21:04] share with the committee that we had a small team that attended a two-day conference

[21:08] last Thursday and Friday, and in NADIC, greater Boston area, specifically focused for district

[21:14] and school leaders, called the AI District Leaders Action Summit, and really a targeted effort

[21:20] to bring together leadership teams from K to 12 organizations and schools. And you can see the

[21:27] list of names that attended that shout out and thank you to Vicki Seldana, our Assistant Superintendent

[21:32] of Teaching and Learning, Taylor Rye, our Director of Technology, Bo Gagnon from Eddie Elementary,

[21:40] Lisa Orlando, Matthew Gunn, and Jennifer Mullen from the Regional High School. So certainly they will

[21:47] be very helpful in charting our course and our next steps as a school community around

[21:55] AI and embracing both the safe use of it, but also, of course, how to effectively teach

[22:02] and educate children about its use in schools.

[22:05] So much more to come on that, and I also suspect that some of that will find its way undoubtedly

[22:10] into the new strategic plan that's taking shape as well as we move forward.

[22:13] So, that's my report tonight, and I'm happy to take any questions if members of the committee have this evening.

[22:29] You're muted Martha.

[22:31] I know my dog was playing with a very loud squeaky toy.

[22:37] I did read your town report report, and it fits right, at least in the town reports that I've seen since I've been around.

[22:47] it fits right in. It was well done, perfectly done. So it's good. At least it works here,

[22:57] which may not be a good thing, I don't know, but it was really well written. So I thank you for

[23:03] that, for sure. And I wrote mine and actually handed it in and did not include it in my report

[23:10] tonight. I'll share it with you at our next meeting just in the interest of time and how much time

[23:19] people want to listen to my voice reading. There's no need. Any send it to us? Right now.

[23:26] I can. Yes, I can. Yeah. Good idea. Thank you. If I forget would you remind me, John? Just send

[23:32] me a text. Katie. Thank you, Superintendent Brandon. I would love to hear more. I don't know if

[23:41] Assistant Superintendent Saldana was planning on talking about it at the next meeting,

[23:45] but I would love to hear more about the generative AI conference and just overview sort of of what

[23:52] the topics discussed were. It sounds really interesting, and I don't know. You said

[23:56] there will be more coming, but I would love to hear. Yeah, we, you know, they're literally obviously

[24:01] just got back and are debriefing and decompressing from the two days. It was last Thursday Friday, so

[24:06] So more to come, I'm not sure exactly when, but I know that they'll be working on a plan,

[24:12] a plan of action and kind of move forward.

[24:14] And so as that becomes more clear and defined, certainly would be entirely appropriate and

[24:20] very happy to share that as it should be, I think with our staff and our school committees

[24:24] in terms of where we think we're headed in the near term around this topic.

[24:29] So happy to do that.

[24:30] Thank you.

[24:31] Did that, Katie?

[24:33] Did that answer your question?

[24:35] Yeah.

[24:35] I just want to hear more about the content.

[24:38] I just want a more detailed report

[24:40] sort of when it's convenient for everyone

[24:43] because I think it sounds,

[24:45] it's something that really interests me

[24:47] and I think is going to be a great influence

[24:52] on our kids moving forward

[24:54] and I'd love to hear how it was discussed at this conference

[24:56] and I wasn't a fly on the wall

[24:58] so I'd just love to hear more in the future

[25:00] about what Vicki learned.

[25:05] I agree with you, Katie, because when I went to a meeting, the Massachusetts School Committee

[25:13] meeting, I took a class on AI, a workshop on AI, where it was compared to like what

[25:21] math teachers had to deal with when the calculator came in, how do you teach math when there's

[25:27] calculator. And now I'm not convinced that the analogy is as good as I thought it was.

[25:34] I think AI is very tricky. And I watch it be tricky on Facebook. What's true? What's

[25:41] not true? And also how do we use it as a learning tool without it being a crutch? So I have

[25:48] I'm very interested.

[25:51] I wonder, then, given that, and I agree with both of you,

[25:56] given that, would it make sense maybe at our next meeting

[26:01] or in April when we're kind of done with the budget, I hope,

[26:08] to have, perhaps, have Vicki come in,

[26:12] assistance superintendent, Saldana come in,

[26:14] and just report on what she learned, you know, just the way we would at any meeting, just report out on it.

[26:27] Yeah, if I can, I'll talk with her.

[26:30] And that would get you off the hook for superintendent report if you like.

[26:34] I'll talk with her about what their next steps look like and what that report should entail from their perspective to share with all of our committees.

[26:44] So I'll get back to you on that after I've a chance to talk with her about that.

[26:47] Maybe we can make it April and give you more time and let's get the budget done.

[26:52] It's so much me. It's really about them and not just having the chance as I stand here, you know,

[26:56] before you tonight to get a sense of what's next from their perspective and their takeaways.

[27:02] So that's just the thing I'm not sure about from their timing but I'll certainly let you know what they're

[27:08] And not necessarily what's next, more their takeaways from the

[27:13] conference, not where they're going with it yet, for sure.

[27:19] It's just a really interesting topic, I think.

[27:25] Yeah.

[27:25] Absolutely.

[27:26] Okay.

[27:27] Thank you.

[27:30] And the recap of the budget workshop,

[27:35] would anybody else like to recap?

[27:46] We had a good time at the Wicked Oyster on our way home.

[27:56] Okay. Then, Superintendent Brown, you did get to go to some of the town, the town-based meetings.

[28:06] Did you feel they were productive?

[28:12] You know, yeah, I did. I did have a chance to drop into and kind of rotate it around the three that we're meeting.

[28:20] So certainly wasn't there for wasn't able to be there for all of the discussion, of course, in each of them.

[28:26] Those that were president of the central office team, we sort of divided and conquered and and and and popped around as well too.

[28:33] So my general sense was that they were helpful to provide just the chance for more informally

[28:40] for the most part, informally telling the story of the budget and some of the challenges

[28:45] respectfully in each of those budgets.

[28:48] So I think I don't know exactly how folks felt in comparison or contrasting last year to

[28:54] this year.

[28:55] But we definitely tried to pull a little bit more information together in a holistic package

[29:01] if you will, I'll pack it for folks, which seems to have been well received, and I think that,

[29:07] you know, there was high attendance, really, a large number of turn-up for all of them,

[29:15] booster being the largest or lean second East Ham third in that order, you know, in terms of

[29:19] total number of folks in the room, but there was good representation there, and I think some lively

[29:24] discussion that went and helpful discussion, you know, for the principals to be able to share

[29:31] share more information around their programs and the budgetary needs so good

[29:35] conversation and I think for all of them went at least an hour after dinner maybe a

[29:40] little more so yeah I think the general sense was people found them

[29:45] helpful which is what I had heard from last year's you know workshop although I'm

[29:50] not present. I felt I felt ours was certainly last year

[29:53] Um, worthwhile doing again, yeah.

[30:01] Let the record show that there were four school committee members there. We had a quorum, and I never, ever adjourned the meeting. So we've been meeting ever since. I didn't realize I had to do that until it was way too late. Moving on to the FY27 budget review. And I'm wondering, is that principal O'Shae?

[30:30] your superintendent brand, who would like to speak?

[30:35] Probably a little bit of both.

[30:38] I think, first off, just to bring to your attention

[30:42] in your packet, link to this agenda

[30:44] is where the current budget stands,

[30:49] aligning with that amount, a little bit over 10%

[30:52] that Adam was mentioning earlier.

[30:55] Just to draw everyone's attention, and this is true

[30:58] across the board not just for for wealthy, but as I have come to learn and understand

[31:03] at least in recent times, March is an important month for all of these budgets, all of our

[31:09] multiple budgets, in that they need to be formally approved and through the process is I'm sure

[31:18] most are aware of the public hearing. And that's an important difference from sort of just a general

[31:24] update like this or having you as a committee vote to approve because there are some specific

[31:28] guidelines under, under Mass General Law that we have to comply to, you have to as public entities and so

[31:35] for example that includes and we will do this of course, make sure that we are

[31:41] not broadcasting but posting the fact that there will be a hearing in this case for the

[31:47] Wellesley School Committee and your budget for Wellesley Elementary School. Right now we have that

[31:53] tentatively scheduled for your date in March, which is March the third, I believe, at

[31:57] the next meeting. But I think that where that brings us to is where we are tonight, effectively,

[32:04] right, a month away. And as Adam and I were talking earlier, you know, really trying to

[32:11] get a sense of what things that we can, we think, you know, propose or recommend to you as a

[32:17] school committee that can bring this overall budget increase down.

[32:23] And we don't have specifics written down to each of you to share tonight but I know

[32:29] that Adam has been thinking and certainly not just starting today but has been thinking

[32:34] about what those might be but it also to me brings into the you know into the forefront

[32:40] around the comfort that you have as a school committee around where you ideally would like

[32:45] this budget to get to and align and how close to align that you would like to do if it's possible

[32:53] to do without significantly impacting programs and services to to align to what the town

[32:59] manager's request has been for the departments across Wellesley. Wellesley. Wellesley. Wellesley.

[33:05] Wellesley. Looking at my other Gordon news, we're not in Wellesley. And so I think that that's an

[33:09] important, that's an important sort of marker in the sand here in terms of where we go from

[33:16] tonight and how we get there. And one thought is perhaps, and obviously Martha and I have an

[33:23] chance to talk about this, but is there perhaps another meaning that's scheduled later in the month

[33:29] of February so that there's more time to consider what any kind of proposed reductions might include

[33:37] And having a chance for the school committee to think more about those before going into

[33:45] the public hearing.

[33:47] At the end of the day, I know members know, and I fully regard this, that this comes

[33:54] down to recommendations from the administration to you as the Wellthead school committee, but

[34:00] it is your budget and it is your budget ultimately to hopefully approve.

[34:06] And so we want to we want to come forward with recommendations that you can support and then in turn, you know, pass that public hearing seek the whole full support of the citizens of wealthy. So I'll pause there and turn it over probably to Adam who may want to add some more to that.

[34:31] Yeah, I think the only thing I would add to that is just certainly preliminary discussions

[34:37] have taken place.

[34:38] Like, is there places that we can, you know, you know, looking at our school improvement

[34:43] plan and making sure everything continues to align with our school improvement plan, are

[34:48] there areas that we can cut back on and still offer the dynamic design that we've created

[34:58] here at Welfly and want to sustain and moving forward.

[35:04] And, you know, conversations with like the PTO on what are the opportunities to like potentially,

[35:12] you want to keep things like the need academy and you want to keep things like play performance

[35:16] and things that we built in that are slowly or quickly, however you look at it,

[35:21] and becoming staples within our school system.

[35:26] And those are also entities that people will come together

[35:33] if they see the potential that they might be lost.

[35:36] So it may be that opportunity to lean on our BTO a little bit

[35:41] for some of those extras that we've kind of built into our budget.

[35:48] And and I think also it's taking a closer look we have to be honest with ourselves and say you know we have 82 students in our school system we would need to make sure that like those 82 students have the we have teachers that have those skillsets and in that might mean that teachers look to expand their skillsets to accommodate all those like as I've said before.

[36:16] for many teachers at Welfly Elementary School

[36:19] where many different hats to make our school successful

[36:25] for all of our students.

[36:26] And we play within the guidelines

[36:28] of the Department of Education while we do that.

[36:32] So it's getting a little more creative.

[36:36] And it is, like I said earlier, it's that time of year

[36:40] where it's like, okay, this isn't gonna work as it is.

[36:43] Let's collectively come together.

[36:46] This is a decision that I see is made in isolation as far as, you know, things that may need to

[36:52] be pulled back a little bit, but it's a great time to lean on others and have discussions

[36:57] related to it.

[37:01] Understood.

[37:04] Thank you.

[37:05] Thank you, Principal O'Shea, and thank you, Superintendent.

[37:07] And, Brandon, I do have a question whenever anybody mentions another meeting, I feel the

[37:18] need to protect my colleagues on the school committee because we're not nearly as flat

[37:29] out as you are superintendent brand or you principal O'Shea but we are pretty pretty busy with meetings

[37:38] and I don't want I just feel so I don't feel guilty myself but I I've disappointed on everybody's

[37:50] behalf because of what happened on Thursday and I don't want to ask people to come to another

[37:57] meeting or force them to and what I'm wondering is if we is there a way that we can have a meeting that

[38:07] is more of a voluntary meeting that is not doesn't have to be a quorum. So if two of us want to get

[38:14] together with you to work on this and then bring it back as part of the public hearing on the third,

[38:22] can we do it that way without forcing the issue of a quorum?

[38:32] Well, I think that the answer to that really is, and part of this, is how you've approached

[38:41] this time of the year in the past as it relates to, you know, hosting and making available your

[38:47] final budget, or what would be the final budget that you'd be going into the public caring for. So,

[38:52] So I admittedly haven't had the opportunity to dig up sort of what that has looked like

[38:59] in the past, the idea though, in an ideal situation, I think it is best for a school committee

[39:08] and I can check on this, I do think that there's an obligation for a certain period of time

[39:14] to also make the budget, the budget that's going to be considered in the public hearing available.

[39:20] And so it's how do we get right from get to that final and I think it's a week, I think, but I have to double check that.

[39:29] So, you know, that's the can we meet without a full quorum and identify some possible adjustments.

[39:38] We can, sure, but it's about how do we, from my perspective, I believe, how do we get them to the full committee to consider.

[39:47] So I respect, though, you know,

[39:51] Arthur the whole notion or idea of adding another meeting.

[39:54] People are giving up so much of their time.

[39:57] As I quickly learned throughout all of our school committee members.

[40:01] There's a lot on everyone's plate.

[40:04] And I think that one of the things to be fully honest that I'm learning about

[40:08] is some of the challenges as well when we have for our elementary districts.

[40:13] When there is just one scheduled meeting each month, and I'm not proposing that we add

[40:19] more each month, but when you do, for example, at the region have two, there's a little bit

[40:24] more flexibility to be able to know that you've got that second meeting, and as I'm learning,

[40:32] we don't have that.

[40:33] And so sometimes, especially this time of year, it's a little trickier.

[40:37] So, you know, I could be off phase, I haven't talked to the other committee members and they may all feel, and rightly so, perhaps, you know, no, we want to be part of this and we want to be part of this discussion.

[40:51] And but I'm also trying to pay attention to their needs too and the rest of their lives.

[41:00] some people are working full-time, some people are working full-time and have kids and you know it's

[41:10] just a that kind of thing but if we have in the past had extra meetings usually around budget time

[41:16] you know I remember having a meeting somehow it was posted to happen at the end of a

[41:24] select board meeting I don't I just remember sitting in the back of the room there and it was posted

[41:30] and so we did have it and we had to vote on something. I cannot remember why it was quite a while ago

[41:38] which is why I'm really glad Ricky and Arlene are here.

[41:44] So, you know, I can certainly put it out

[41:47] to them if people think it's a good idea. Four of three of you are sitting here right now.

[41:54] Would you be okay with another meeting? And then there's a matter of scheduling it with everybody else's

[42:01] schedules too. I mean, you know what I always say, Martha. I know what you say. I do. And you've proven it.

[42:12] Katie. Um, I'm okay with another meeting. Um, I'm going to, I'm the new guy. So I'm going to

[42:18] reveal my ignorance a little bit. But I, Martha and I met, uh, just a two of us, which is kosher, um,

[42:25] to talk about the budget because I just wanted to understand more how to look over it. I,

[42:30] this is new to me and why like so wouldn't we discuss now like the things so we

[42:38] vote on this to me everything we discuss I know there's like the special

[42:43] ed went up a lot that's the biggest thing that new custodian which makes sense to

[42:49] me there was a librarian thing I was going to ask about but I think that's because

[42:54] we didn't get a grant or something maybe this year but wouldn't it be

[42:59] appropriate to discuss this stuff now or we and then because like I I can I can

[43:07] understand it I think like I these expenses seem like appropriate to me but I

[43:14] see we go to the town and then like 10% doesn't sound very good you know but I

[43:19] don't want to pull like plays and things like that so anyway this is like the

[43:23] discussion that I was kind of excited to have but is this not we're not gonna have

[43:28] this discussion right now. We're going to have another meeting to discuss these things.

[43:32] That's a good question. Yeah. It's certainly appropriate.

[43:39] One hundred percent of the question. Sorry. No, I was going to say it's entirely appropriate

[43:45] and to discuss if there's a comfort and I know I'm doing some thinking of this to work through

[43:54] some of these things. You know if I guess there's two thoughts and they'll turn around. I mean you

[44:00] know one is if there was a will to you know to identify a couple of possible areas to incorporate

[44:08] as a reduction into this budget we can leave this meeting and certainly work with you know our

[44:14] finance department to do just that and then consider it perhaps done you know and and and that's okay

[44:21] if as a school committee you're comfortable then not seeing it again before it comes to the public

[44:25] hearing. I did double check it's 48 hours in advance of the public hearing that you if we're

[44:30] following the law which we should be is making that final budget you're going to consider available

[44:36] to the public. So we can leave here tonight with you know with what you're comfortable with and

[44:41] some ideas that Adam has that he might walk through here and then and if there's a collective

[44:47] sense of comfort with that, and we can move forward with Adam. You're going to add a couple

[44:55] things. John, go ahead. I want to know what you're coming.

[45:00] to rule with Alan, because I don't want to force this discussion if it's premature for you, even by days. And if it is, then I say, let's have another meeting when you're set to put things on the table. And if it is a good tonight, do tonight. I mean, there's some things I feel comfortable talking about. There's other things that, you know, like this is, you know, a budget is

[45:30] A great deal that's made up of staff salaries and when you're talking about staff salaries,

[45:36] you're talking about people and you really have to be cautious as far as how much you

[45:42] talk about that before I'm able to have conversations with employees and what that entails

[45:49] for next year.

[45:50] I think if people are, you know, have a close eye on this, then it's pretty transparent

[45:57] that, you know, some cuts will need to be made.

[46:02] And I can certainly walk through line items and just discuss those if you want.

[46:09] And just to give perspective, I think Katie, you talked about it a little bit.

[46:14] So I feel comfortable doing that.

[46:16] Super tenant brand, do you find with that?

[46:24] So if you're looking at the document, I'll assume that you are and I'm, let's see, should

[46:31] I share?

[46:31] Is that the best way to do this?

[46:39] It's been a while.

[46:41] Give me a second.

[46:57] Is this right?

[46:58] And on the right document?

[47:00] Mm-hmm.

[47:02] All right.

[47:04] I've created, to be honest, we have created a second one that I'm not looking at right now that

[47:08] has my notes on it, but I didn't want to share that one just because it has some other information on it.

[47:13] So I'll try to kind of pull from this.

[47:18] So in a quick glance, what

[47:31] I'm looking at is basically

[47:32] the shift or increase percentages or decreases from, so line or in column H, that's the one I'm kind

[47:39] kind of queued into to see if there's great disparity from the previous year.

[47:45] And why is that if it's an addition?

[47:48] So if I just kind of go down, like if I see something that's significantly more, for

[47:56] example, other principal expenses, like this is one, like there had been, and which been

[48:02] a common practice across NASA, is other principal expenses sometimes, and in this case in previous

[48:08] years has included expenses where there's professional development related to district

[48:13] wide initiatives. So it's not just necessarily my principle, my being principle, but expenses

[48:20] from the admin that are shared costs across the district. That's why there's an increase

[48:24] related to that. And it's consistent with what happened in the previous years.

[48:35] I can't see the line item on that but I would love to know what it is if I can do this.

[48:43] Now I can.

[48:44] Yeah.

[48:44] Thanks.

[48:45] Hold on.

[48:45] Let me see if I can make, if I do this,

[48:52] is that good?

[48:54] Can you see the number?

[48:56] Yep.

[48:58] All right.

[48:59] So special.

[48:59] So it's for all one.

[49:00] No, yeah, thank you.

[49:02] So if you're looking at, okay, understood.

[49:04] 4064, if you're looking at that, you know,

[49:07] this is, you know, at the beginning of this year,

[49:09] past the budget season, you know,

[49:11] influx of special education need

[49:15] caused increase in salary position.

[49:17] So that's one that's increased.

[49:20] Similar level of need moving forward.

[49:23] So I would be like cautious

[49:25] and as we look at that one to say, okay.

[49:27] And this is also just keeping our eyes open to with our students, one of the goals here

[49:38] at Welfly is to make sure the students that reside in Welfly are educated at Welfly.

[49:42] That's the ideal goal whenever possible.

[49:45] So it's looking at that and keeping consistent with that.

[49:48] That this year created an additional 0.566 position.

[49:52] So it kind of threw the budget off kind of at the beginning of the budget season.

[49:56] Yeah.

[49:56] And it's related to special, SE is special education.

[50:01] What particular subcategory of special education?

[50:05] What's the disability?

[50:09] Yeah, I don't feel like going into specifics related to that.

[50:13] I don't want to put identifying markers on a student, you know, I'm not asking for identifying

[50:18] markers.

[50:19] What I want to know is, and I keep asking this and maybe not remembering the answer.

[50:26] but if we have a halftime special ed teacher,

[50:30] is there an opportunity to bring any of our children

[50:33] that are placed outside of well-fleet back in

[50:37] and use that teacher?

[50:40] Moderate disabilities, I didn't realize a good question,

[50:42] it's moderate disabilities.

[50:46] And yes, and that would look at,

[50:49] you would look at just what the certification areas

[50:52] are of the educator, but yeah.

[50:54] Yeah.

[50:54] Yes.

[50:55] Joan, to your question.

[50:56] Like that definitely warrants more of a closer look at students than that's my.

[51:02] Yeah.

[51:02] I mean, that's where I, I, I want the kids back that should be in our school if it's financially

[51:08] feasible.

[51:09] It's certainly a social, emotionally feasible for the kids.

[51:14] So I'd love that to be looked at more.

[51:17] Yeah.

[51:18] It is part of our practice and has been last year as well as this year.

[51:25] Teachers, so there's two major factors that would create this increase, maybe Dr.

[51:36] Brand can tell me, tells why it's 14, I can't go to that specific, I know there's

[51:41] three-and-a-half percent raise. I also know there's been some lane changes that create,

[51:48] you know, when there's a lane stain for a teacher, it's well above that three-and-a-half percent.

[51:53] Is there another factor I'm missing? No, no, I mean, we talk a lot about, you know, with the contract,

[51:59] the Cola or cost of living increases, and it's 3.25 percent for the NOSIT contract,

[52:05] back going into the third year, next year is the third and final year, but as Adam was

[52:11] just mentioning, for a lot of staff, depending on their experience and age, it's not just

[52:18] 3.25% because they're moving steps into where they're moving lanes.

[52:23] So I don't have an exact number to share with you, but those that have looked more closely

[52:30] at this can, you know, and I'm not, you know, it could be upwards of seven or eight percent

[52:34] for particular staff members increase when you combine both the cost of living increase,

[52:40] 3.25 percent plus moving a step or lane. So we would, you know, we would have to do a much more

[52:46] thorough analysis of well-fleet staff to actually identify that. But we use that 3.25 percent as a general

[52:52] marker of what the increase is, but there is a lot more happening and I suspect that that's

[52:57] That's accounting for these increases here.

[53:00] Can I ask something?

[53:03] I lost the line at it.

[53:05] It was at 14, and what I hear is seven or eight percent

[53:09] with lane changes and steps.

[53:12] So how does that, that's seven, that's double that.

[53:16] Why is it double?

[53:20] He just explained that, Joan.

[53:22] I don't get it. That's what I'm saying.

[53:23] I don't understand.

[53:24] I understand that it will increase 3.2.

[53:27] I understand that lane changes and step changes.

[53:31] So yeah, and I would argue the only other factor that's different is and that I'm aware of is last year because this is the actual,

[53:42] that's the approved FY26 actual expenditures.

[53:48] The only other shift to it would be that last year for a good portion of the year, we didn't fill one of the positions that we ended up filling at the end of the year, which would definitely create that increase.

[54:05] So if you recall, Collette D'Amusey, you know, ended up going from the interventionist position to second grade in that interventionist position, there's a long stretch of time it wasn't filled in that might.

[54:18] Again, I'd have to check on who these individuals are, the breakdown of each of the employees in order to know that specifically.

[54:31] I have a question.

[54:35] I'm not concerned about teachers' salaries at all, but as far as this special education,

[54:41] which I think is great to have that in house as well, I was just wondering, does any of

[54:45] these increases, I understand we had to hire someone, so that would obviously be an increase,

[54:51] but does anything have to do with like losing federal grants that would help with paying for

[54:56] some of this or a thinking of like the librarian number, which again is critical, but I'm just

[55:04] wondering why that number goes up. And if any of that has to do with like something federally

[55:08] just thinking like I had to explain it to the townspeople, like does it have anything to do with that?

[55:15] The librarian component does not. The librarian component is strictly the percentage that

[55:21] the librarian was doing that position versus part of another position.

[55:26] So that shifted from 10% to whatever was from one year to 30% the next year.

[55:33] So that's just where the money went, the actual overall for that,

[55:39] the percentage of salary was part of and so it was a 60% employee last year.

[55:48] and of that 20% was library and 10% or 20%

[55:52] I don't have the exact number in front of me.

[55:55] And then this year that 60% employee became a full time employee

[56:01] and so as a full time employee,

[56:04] a greater portion of that was in the library

[56:08] and it just happens to be in this document isolated to that bike.

[56:14] I want to say that makes sense.

[56:16] This is isolated.

[56:18] To the grants funding.

[56:21] Dr. Brandy, do you want to tackle that one?

[56:24] Yeah, I don't believe within the

[56:26] Well fleet that there's any offsets that were applied for grants for teachers.

[56:31] I do want to just want to go back as I think a little bit of a closer look.

[56:35] If you take a look at.

[56:38] So 29, of course, that's the line we're talking about.

[56:41] the reflects the rule up. And if you go a little bit deeper into that, what I see there happening

[56:49] is that you've got an increase of teacher salary of 6.13% or a little over $60,000. That's line

[57:01] 24. And then if you take a look, and I believe you know better, you've got a special education teacher

[57:09] increase that was reflective of a new position added. Is that right after the budget, after

[57:15] fiscal year 26 budget? Yes, that's correct. And so that would be captured in line 26. So the overall

[57:23] increase back to what we were talking about about steps and lanes and so on, you know, reflective

[57:29] in that $60,000 or 6.13% increase. But when you add on to that the special education cost,

[57:36] That's what's driving, appears to me, that's what's driving up that to a much higher increase, right?

[57:42] Does health insurance play into that increase too?

[57:46] Health insurance is, the region, we include health insurance for our middle school and high school staff and other central office employees.

[57:55] The elementary health insurance costs are picked up by the town, so those are not factored into these budgets.

[58:03] I have a question and I don't know if there's an answer, but we have a stabilization fund

[58:15] now for anticipated or very costly special education costs that come in, I've always thought

[58:28] of it as a student whose needs cannot be served in our own school who would have to go out

[58:34] of district or to the collaborative. Is the stabilization fund only for that or can we use some

[58:43] of the stabilization fund funds to help offset some of our other special education rises, especially

[58:53] hiring a new teacher for a student, or half a teacher for a student?

[59:03] I mean, no, the answer is that within this fiscal year, like, and that's what we're,

[59:10] when we know it's happening, like, then we should budget for it, is how I look at it.

[59:15] Like, if we know, like, there's a need for, you know, for FY27, we should be budgeting

[59:22] for it.

[59:23] if it happens within this year and we couldn't satisfy it with our current budget,

[59:28] then I would completely agree with you that it would be inappropriate use upon it.

[59:33] So if it were happened once the school year started or the budget was taken and we find out

[59:40] about a new student, is that what you mean? Then we can use the stabilization fund?

[59:45] Yeah, just based on the definition of stabilization. You're looking to stabilize something that has

[59:51] already you know was you're not gonna you're not gonna prepare your budget with

[59:57] instability like so it just seems like

[1:00:00] It would be most appropriate to have it like only as needed.

[1:00:06] So it's a restabilization fund, actually. Kind of. Thank you. That's clear. Thank you. But I will look into that with. I'm just looking at some other records. I don't show. It certainly does not appear like you used any of the. And I don't even know exactly as we talk here tonight. How much is in that fund? I don't know.

[1:00:29] Adam, if you do, but it does not.

[1:00:32] Well, that's another thing.

[1:00:34] I know that we want an article in our warrant

[1:00:39] about transferring some funds into that stabilization fund.

[1:00:44] And I guess my understanding, Adam,

[1:00:48] is that Tom Guerrino will write that for us, that article?

[1:00:58] I don't have a hundred percent clarity on that. I did reach out to Rebecca Eldridge,

[1:01:04] and she's going to get back to me on it, which is his admin assistant.

[1:01:08] Well, that's an important area to certainly drill down and further understand,

[1:01:11] because that certainly can be if you've got funds in there, and I'm not seeing,

[1:01:16] you know, that could be applied for some of your out of district costs.

[1:01:21] Yes.

[1:01:22] Would that include Brewster say for the pre-K?

[1:01:27] Yes.

[1:01:31] For the substantially separate program.

[1:01:34] Yes.

[1:01:36] So we'll check into that.

[1:01:38] Okay.

[1:01:39] That might help us a bit, anyway.

[1:01:45] Where are we?

[1:01:48] So librarian we talked about.

[1:01:49] I'm looking down here.

[1:01:50] A lot of these you can look what they are.

[1:01:52] They're mostly in the negative there.

[1:01:54] I'm not going to talk about them unless you want to, which

[1:02:03] this one contracted

[1:02:09] services.

[1:02:12] In here somewhere, I'm not sure if I'm highlighting it correctly.

[1:02:16] We've changed our model recently.

[1:02:19] So our speech language pathologist was at 40%, like we didn't have a need past about 20%.

[1:02:29] So, we tried to keep that employee on board, but they ended up needing 100% and now has found work elsewhere.

[1:02:38] That happened a year ago.

[1:02:40] So, throughout this year, our speech-to-language pathologist has been designed in two ways.

[1:02:47] We have, which I kind of like, we're servicing students after school, but it's through contracted services.

[1:02:55] which honestly it doesn't cost the town a heck of a lot less just based on the design.

[1:03:01] So three, four of our students are served that way in the after school.

[1:03:05] And then one of our students is through technology just like a virtual design with supervision by an adult.

[1:03:13] So that's contracted services that we have in place, which is pretty normal in rural settings.

[1:03:22] it's not like to have it set up that way, as far as the virtual services, the after-school

[1:03:30] services is unique, but we've received parent permission to do so, to do it outside of

[1:03:36] the school day.

[1:03:37] And it's a great model because they're school day-end so early, and the kids can transition

[1:03:42] right into our after-school program.

[1:03:51] I just have a question about that is if there's consultation on the ed plan for the speech

[1:03:57] and language, does the contracted service person consult with the classroom teacher and

[1:04:03] have any integration into the school day?

[1:04:05] consultation with the provider as well as doing assessments and attending IEPs as part

[1:04:18] of the services.

[1:04:22] Other activities I mentioned that earlier, like, you know, there's a potential,

[1:04:27] that's need academy, that's our play performance, those other student activities, that's one

[1:04:33] I want to make sure we're keeping and one that, yes, I'm very guilty of, you know, that

[1:04:39] money right there and wanting one to establish it and two keep it.

[1:04:45] This is also an area in the past.

[1:04:47] You talk about grants that have kind of dried up.

[1:04:50] This is where we had been utilizing our REAP grant up until FY 25.

[1:05:00] So that we just have to find another funding source from my perspective.

[1:05:07] Custodians Katie mentioned this is somewhere where I've added it here where the ideal the idea is.

[1:05:18] And this is an area potentially for for for caught is there shouldn't be a continued need.

[1:05:26] need as much for overtime services with those staff being at 1.0 so there's a potential

[1:05:32] that I can shift that slightly and there's also when we're talking about contracted services

[1:05:39] below when we talk about extraordinary maintenance or services to our grounds and things like

[1:05:48] that.

[1:05:48] The desire and kind of working with David Samuels, if you're not familiar with him, he is a

[1:05:54] Jack of all trades and he's willing, you know, many discussions kind of took place.

[1:05:59] He's willing to work on some of these projects and he would be the best deal in town.

[1:06:04] So this is another one where potentially instead of that being an increase, it's either

[1:06:09] a level or decrease into next year.

[1:06:12] So there's some potential savings there.

[1:06:15] I mean tuition, other districts, this is another, I would say this is a lot of money, like

[1:06:33] this is the one where, you know, depending on the number of students, they kind of identify

[1:06:39] a per pupil rate and this is students attending Brewster and in this case so tuition out of

[1:06:48] district is Brewster and we don't have students attending other schools.

[1:06:57] So that's one that's

[1:06:59] challenging because it's not necessarily something and going back to what Joan said is there

[1:07:04] is there any way we can look at those students rejoining us in

[1:07:08] wealthy and do we have the capacity for that? So, you know, when making

[1:07:15] decisions like that, one, what's in the best interest of the student? You know,

[1:07:19] how can we make sure that there's like peers for a student and do we have the

[1:07:23] capacity to serve all the needs of the student in our school system? So all of

[1:07:28] those questions kind of run through our minds as we try to determine

[1:07:33] to where to go next and how to best serve the student.

[1:07:38] But at the end of the video, go ahead, John.

[1:07:41] I just, you know, you talked about contracted services

[1:07:45] being an efficient and positive way

[1:07:49] to service the speech and language.

[1:07:52] So if there's something that we don't have,

[1:07:59] can that model be used to add to what the student needs

[1:08:07] in addition to the halftime special ed teacher that's already been hired?

[1:08:15] Yeah, it's hard.

[1:08:17] I just from, you know, I spent a great deal of the summer days trying to solidify SLP,

[1:08:25] a speech language pathologist, you know, and that's pretty consistent with OTPT services.

[1:08:31] It's really difficult, but yes, it's definitely worth exploration.

[1:08:41] Thank you.

[1:08:42] I have a question placed through the chair.

[1:08:46] To Adam, thank you so much. This is really helpful in helping me understand

[1:08:51] Um, these numbers, I, the preschool tuition, could you, I should know, but what, what is that for?

[1:09:05] Glenn, I see your hand up. Is that you wanting to answer the question?

[1:09:09] Or do you want me to take that away? Sure. So, um, preschool is a program that school districts,

[1:09:17] public school districts are obligated to provide. And not so it's no exception.

[1:09:23] There's a obligation under the law to provide programming for students that are those with special needs.

[1:09:31] That's not universal pre-K, and that doesn't necessarily warrant or require, sorry, not warrant.

[1:09:36] Require a school district to expand and open seats to non-special education students.

[1:09:43] But I would say from my experience, most school districts do, to some extent.

[1:09:48] Yeah. A hot topic is growing around universal pre-K, meaning making pre-K available for all students. My understanding is

[1:09:55] modemoi went in that direction recently. I'm not sure of others on the Cape. And there is some sense that this is going to be coming from the state at some point that's going to be required, but not tomorrow, not next year.

[1:10:09] So, as I've come to learn, the district, the regional school district, the district is,

[1:10:17] in essence, operating the preschool program because neither one of the elementary districts

[1:10:22] own it or directly operate it.

[1:10:25] It's housed at Brewster because there was sp- I'm not sure all that went into the thinking

[1:10:31] about the placement of the program and to be quite honest, I'm not even sure how long back

[1:10:36] we're going here. But what I have come to learn is it's been housed at Brewster for some time now,

[1:10:41] and any preschool students from any of the four towns go there. And if they are special needs,

[1:10:49] we're meeting that requirement under the law. There's also the opportunity for students to

[1:10:54] tuition in there. And there's a relatively modest cost, modest in comparison to private

[1:11:04] pre-school programs. But the tricky part about this, not tricky, but the complicated part

[1:11:11] about this program is that because not one of our, no one owns a program, but the district

[1:11:17] does, the regional school district does, we roll up these costs together and then we come

[1:11:27] up with an assessment for each of the towns. And if it doesn't get more complicated than

[1:11:32] that, well, it will, and it does because what I've learned has been done recently, and

[1:11:36] I think this was more recent, we use what's called a three year rolling average.

[1:11:45] And so what that does is it takes the, it takes a view of snapshot of the total number

[1:11:50] of students per elementary town, wealth, leed and leans and so on, and then divides these

[1:11:57] costs across that average over three years it's it's it's somewhat complicated so

[1:12:04] if you if you lost me a few moments ago I can understand why and I'm happy to

[1:12:08] roll this out more but it's a big it's a big cost costs are going the expenses

[1:12:14] are going up like it for all of our salaries you can see that across the board

[1:12:18] and at the same time not necessarily are we educating the same are we paying for

[1:12:24] the same number of students this year as opposed to three years ago because it's

[1:12:27] that three year rolling average. Pre-school is a whole program unto itself. And I

[1:12:35] shared this with the budget workshop last Thursday. We have to dig into it because

[1:12:41] there's a lot to it both financially as well as where we want to go with this

[1:12:46] programmatically for our four communities.

[1:12:50] And our Montessori Pre-School is private.

[1:12:58] And in my correct, therefore, we can't tuition those children into the Montessori school that is located in Welfly.

[1:13:12] So the monster is just sorry to respond to Joan. The Montessori Program yes is private. We have no

[1:13:24] affiliation with them other than the fact that they are typically our community members that end

[1:13:31] up going to Welfare Elementary School so the students are like so it behooves us to have a you know

[1:13:39] sound relationship and a good working relationship with Montessori, but they could, you know, yes,

[1:13:50] they are completely private and take up space in the school. And pay for that space?

[1:13:57] Good. Don't right now.

[1:14:01] They haven't. So it's a private preschool that doesn't pay rent.

[1:14:09] Correct.

[1:14:10] Okay, so I think that so this is not the integrated preschool we're talking about. Is that right? Is that what it's called the preschool? Oh, no, okay, so because my understanding just as a parent is there's

[1:14:25] Montessori and then there's like Cape Cod Children's Place and different places and you get a voucher from the town to go to these preschools, fortunately, and you have most people go to Cape Cod Children's Place or Montessori, which is an awesome

[1:14:40] program. So when we're talking about this $34,000, is there anyone in

[1:14:48] Wellfleet who has used the preschool and Brewster, or historically do people

[1:14:54] in Wellfleet tend to use it because I don't think I've ever heard of it.

[1:14:58] And...

[1:15:00] But then we just split the costs equally because that's just how it works. But I guess that's my question. Is what is the name of the preschool and Brewster and do people in welfare use it? Generally, or this year? Special ed kids do. But I'm sorry, yes. But the community partners, the kids who are not on ed plans, don't tend to choose their families, don't tend to choose them.

[1:15:29] to send them there because there's no transportation for them and it's a long way for them to go.

[1:15:37] When it was housed in Wellfleet with Nancy O'Connell, yeah, we did have.

[1:15:45] Oh, that's what, and that's what Nancy integrated was.

[1:15:48] Okay. Yeah.

[1:15:50] Yeah.

[1:15:51] So to answer your question, Katie, over the last three years, we've had, I believe, two

[1:15:57] in one or two one in one students attending like each year.

[1:16:04] So on, yeah, with specific educational plans.

[1:16:09] So I have a question.

[1:16:11] So is the formula for reimbursement, does it make sense?

[1:16:18] Is it the most accurate, I guess I'm asking why, if we have one, let's say, why can't we pay for one, if we have two, why can't we pay for two?

[1:16:30] Why does it have to be a three-year average situation? Is that the best that we can do for billing?

[1:16:39] And it's certainly that question's been thrown about and mentioned and like is this the because

[1:16:47] I think what we're all looking for is something that's equitable and where you know in this conversation

[1:16:53] honestly since I've started this has been a conversation you know a lot of conversations with

[1:16:58] then principal Keith Gully and Brewster was just related to this like there's there is an active

[1:17:04] concern that it's not fair, I guess, for lack of a better term, from one school to the next,

[1:17:14] and to answer your other question. There are formulas that have been shared with us of what's

[1:17:20] the one-year cost, and what you're really looking at is what's the one-year cost, and it would be more,

[1:17:26] In fact, then the 94,000 in the iteration that was recently reviewed would be so so it

[1:17:41] is difficult to look at that number and think there's not something there's and just think okay what's wrong with this but because it just from the from the numbers they've certainly skyrocketed over the last couple of years.

[1:17:53] I think part of it is also the benefits piece of this is incorporated into this number

[1:18:01] by, you know, where it hadn't been in the past.

[1:18:06] So when you look at the 34 and the 59, like you can take, if you just look at that as

[1:18:12] a teacher salary, say 60,000 as a teacher salary, with the benefits, that's right around 90.

[1:18:18] And so now you're looking at it this year and saying the benefits are included.

[1:18:21] So the cost to the town doesn't shift a lot because the towns are picking up the benefits.

[1:18:30] Now they're just on the schools rather than on the towns.

[1:18:36] And before that, I think the region was paying, I think the region was paying for the

[1:18:43] benefits, possibly even the salaries, but definitely the benefits.

[1:18:48] and that's why we don't, we see that for the previous two fiscal years, the amounts were much lower because we weren't including, we weren't paying the benefits and now we are.

[1:19:01] It left the region budget, it shouldn't have been in the region budget to begin with.

[1:19:09] And just the last note if I can add on that that makes it all this this is a very it's a

[1:19:14] difficult program and again this is not just a commentary on NASA anywhere but that I

[1:19:20] I'm like you know we can reasonably predict how many students we're going to have in seats

[1:19:25] from one year to the next right if you've got 20 kids in third grade reasonably speaking you're

[1:19:30] going to guess that approximately preschool is very different and it can and does shift from year to

[1:19:36] year and it can and does shift even from when you start the school year because

[1:19:41] there's some probably no and there are kids that do come in after they

[1:19:47] term three. That could be in November, December, January, every single month and

[1:19:53] so that's what makes sort of planning for the program and assigning costs

[1:19:58] challenging because you know we're building a budget now but we have no idea as

[1:20:02] we build this budget today. How many kids might enter this program in the next four weeks?

[1:20:09] Let alone, you know, next year. So it's tricky. There's a lot to this and there are a lot of costs.

[1:20:14] And like I said, we have to, we have to dig into this and figure out what the best path forward is.

[1:20:20] Right now we're sort of where we're at.

[1:20:23] And then if I can just end if we're okay with that, with this next, the ask district director salary,

[1:20:31] that position, I've you know worked with Superintendent Brown, Superintendent

[1:20:39] Proclensche as well as the town administrator just to communicate in this

[1:20:44] group should be aware of how much I value the after-school programming and I

[1:20:51] want it to be two things. I want it to be a social emotional haven for our

[1:20:55] students and I want it to be an academic opportunity for our students like until

[1:21:00] our school day is longer like our kids can build their capacity to learn more and you know in

[1:21:08] working last year with Becky Rosenberg and in the REC department we have ourselves you know

[1:21:16] a van that we can consistently use on a daily basis part of our school improvement plan is making

[1:21:22] sure we're out in our community and what better time than to do it right after the end of the school

[1:21:27] that and build that in like as our enrollment has gone down our our after-school child care

[1:21:37] program has sustained itself and increased actually over the last year and a half so I want

[1:21:43] that to continue there's a lot of you know and I recognize it that's really what I value in even as

[1:21:51] you know expenses you know you can see there's potential cuts in other places but this is one that I

[1:21:57] I just think it's really good money for us

[1:22:00] if we can educate more students from two to four.

[1:22:06] The degree.

[1:22:10] Thank you.

[1:22:14] One of my questions in looking at it

[1:22:18] after our budget workshop last week was,

[1:22:21] and I can't find it now, of course, because I don't like.

[1:22:28] I don't like it.

[1:22:28] Here I am.

[1:22:28] Oh, because I'm trying to do your screen instead of mine.

[1:22:31] Yeah, you can't move mine, so I'll do this.

[1:22:33] don't have that power. Where is all the technical stuff? It just looked like there

[1:22:43] were a whole lot of expenses on technical instructional supplies, like lots and

[1:22:52] lots of apps or whatever they are, packages that kids are using or not

[1:22:58] using and I'm wondering how much of that is actually being used in the school. Do we need all of that?

[1:23:07] Is that a signal?

[1:23:13] It's a good question.

[1:23:14] And with, you know, Warren's a closer look, I agree with you.

[1:23:21] So, you know, in collaboration with the Director of Technology, Taylor Rye, we, you know,

[1:23:28] a draft is formed, and I think a good opportunity at this point, just now that there's clarity

[1:23:34] on where our budget is overall, a good place to look at potential areas to kind of cut back

[1:23:42] a little bit.

[1:23:42] Yeah.

[1:23:46] Yeah. Yeah, we, we, I'm just if I can add to that, there's, we currently across

[1:23:53] all of our schools, expend quite a bit of money on technology, hardware and software.

[1:24:00] And it seems to me that, um, that we started this process, but we have much more to go in

[1:24:07] terms of what's happening here is, I think, and this is not meant to be a criticism against

[1:24:13] against anyone or any school or individual,

[1:24:15] but we have a lot of software creep happening, right?

[1:24:17] We have a lot of, I use that term,

[1:24:19] there's lots of new and innovative programs

[1:24:21] that are coming out all the time.

[1:24:23] Teachers are looking to be innovative and creative

[1:24:27] and provide the best experiences for their students

[1:24:30] and their children, and we have a lot of programs

[1:24:33] that don't necessarily have a lot of users.

[1:24:38] And it seems to me like what we really need to think

[1:24:42] carefully about how we better align the program so that we can maximize, say, the number of,

[1:24:48] you know, the more people you have using a program, the better cost it will be.

[1:24:52] But not surprisingly, we also have a lot of teachers using different programs in different schools.

[1:25:00] And so trying to come together with more uniformity, I think is clearly going to take us a little time,

[1:25:06] You know, so that no matter what time you're in, maybe there's a great third grade program for math, but right now we might be using making this up. We might be using eight different programs in the third grade for math.

[1:25:19] And I think there's definitely some work that we need to do as instructional leaders going forward to kind of hone this in and figure out how we can

[1:25:30] economy, economy is here a little bit more. And again, this is not just a challenge

[1:25:35] at a wealthy, and I'd say it's across all of our schools.

[1:25:40] I'm wondering if it can be honed sometime between now and March 3rd.

[1:25:47] Well, it can and what it really requires is working, you know, with Adam as

[1:25:51] a principal to take a clue, in this case, to take a closer look at those programs

[1:25:55] that maybe we can reduce, go though and working on the hardware front, which I'm looking at this,

[1:26:06] you know, I think roughly speaking, we've got, you know, we've got, there's a lot, and you know,

[1:26:13] it's all the time, this, this combined, you've got roughly $30,000 in instructional software

[1:26:21] at Wellfleet. And then you've got about $30,000, almost $30,000 in non-instructional software

[1:26:29] that includes things like Aspen. There's a whole bunch of different programs that are

[1:26:35] in that. So, you know, software combined right there, you're talking about $60,000, almost $60,000.

[1:26:44] And then hardware is an additional on top of that Chromebooks for students and a couple of laptops

[1:26:51] for staff and so on. So it mounts up quickly, but we can certainly take a closer look at that.

[1:26:59] No, it'd be good.

[1:27:05] Any other questions or comments about the budget? Katie, do you feel satisfied?

[1:27:14] Yes, I really appreciate Adam and Glenn taking the time to go through these things,

[1:27:24] and I'd be happy to have, I'm available for another reading, but thank you for taking the time tonight.

[1:27:34] Thank you. And thank you both. Is there a way that we could be provided probably through Jen with a list of dates times where we could jump on, where you could jump on Glenn and Adam.

[1:27:58] Just a suggestion to provide the group with the opportunity to see the revisions that

[1:28:06] take place.

[1:28:07] I honestly, I don't think that should take a long time to do.

[1:28:12] Like I've done a lot of work related to that.

[1:28:16] I just want to consult with people related to it.

[1:28:19] But to get that information and the shifts and the changes, now that you've had an opportunity

[1:28:24] to kind of look this over a line item at a time. Then you can see like the changes, subsequent

[1:28:30] changes that have been made. And then it might not be necessary to meet until that March day,

[1:28:37] if you're content with what you're seeing, or if not, then schedule a meeting.

[1:28:43] Would that make sense?

[1:28:47] Super intended brand, does that make sense to you?

[1:28:51] It's fine, if you're comfortable with that, I think producing this and I think the tricky

[1:29:02] part is how we convey this, right, how we share this information.

[1:29:10] And you mean sure it among the school committee members or we

[1:29:17] can't get it as an attachment?

[1:29:24] Does it become a meeting if we all get the same document?

[1:29:29] I mean, we can share, but it's the question of seeking.

[1:29:35] I mean, we can put something together, certainly, and share it out to inform.

[1:29:40] But the challenge is how to engage if there's a desire to do so, right?

[1:29:45] In terms of open meeting law, and, you know, what do you want to discuss?

[1:29:50] if you do it all. So that's the tricky part, but we can come at this however you wish. I just...

[1:30:00] I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to make sure that if there's to be further discussion and deliberation on it, that it should be really enough. I hate to say it. It should be at a meeting. Yeah,

[1:30:17] it

[1:30:30] should be.

[1:30:39] What if we just meet March 3rd and plan to meet for like longer than normal if we have tons to talk about?

[1:30:45] I don't know if that's what is the March 3rd like it's so close to the other deadlines that I mean I don't know I'm new so I don't know if I'm fine with another meeting but if the more experienced members and administrators don't think it's necessary like if March 3rd is going to be enough and we might just have a long meeting.

[1:31:09] that's fine with me. What's what? Sorry. I don't know if we could do that have a public hearing

[1:31:18] meeting at the same meeting that we're having a discussion about whether we want to discuss this

[1:31:25] at the public mirror hearing or not. It seems to me that we have to sort of look at it again and then

[1:31:33] and before the public hearing meeting, I think.

[1:31:40] Well, different.

[1:31:41] Superintendent Brown, yeah.

[1:31:42] Yeah, but Joan, were you gonna say something?

[1:31:45] Oh, okay.

[1:31:46] No.

[1:31:47] As I think a little bit more about this,

[1:31:48] and I think a suggestion would be this.

[1:31:53] That Adam and I and others,

[1:31:56] the finance department can work to identify some adjustments

[1:31:59] that would push down this budget.

[1:32:03] We could put those together as a very focused item

[1:32:07] on a possible agenda.

[1:32:11] And then it could be as simple as, hopefully,

[1:32:16] there are not that many items that are controversial

[1:32:21] or they seem straightforward.

[1:32:24] A reduction in technology a little bit here and that there,

[1:32:27] We could schedule, you know, a pop-up meeting with this, obviously Martha, your decisions

[1:32:32] chair, but, you know, with this as the only item.

[1:32:36] And then it could be as straightforward as if there's nothing really that if everyone's

[1:32:40] comfortable with what is being proposed by, you know, by Adam as the principal, then you

[1:32:46] can weigh in on that and then we could be good to go.

[1:32:49] So I know that sounds easy, but that I think that that keeps you in line with public meeting

[1:32:56] If there's any further discussion and it could be a simple, it could be a very short

[1:33:00] meeting if there's a, you know, a rather focused list that helps bring this budget down

[1:33:05] to a level that you're comfortable with.

[1:33:07] I think the other thing that I also might suggest that we didn't do here for tonight, but

[1:33:13] certainly could, is separate the costs, the increases from special education in comparison

[1:33:21] into regular education. And to be able to give you as a school committee a view of what's

[1:33:28] happening in those two buckets, if you will, of the budget. One of your communities

[1:33:36] opted to, one of your neighboring communities, one of the other elementary's kind of went

[1:33:39] in that direction as well. And once they did that, could see that the tension, the rising tension,

[1:33:46] in the increase on the overall budget

[1:33:48] was really largely rooted in special education.

[1:33:53] We've found that in the past we have,

[1:33:55] and it has been helpful,

[1:33:57] and it's been helpful to defend the budget

[1:34:00] at town meeting too.

[1:34:02] That's exactly why I think that as a person.

[1:34:04] That's how it's restricted, yeah.

[1:34:05] That's why, and that's exactly why that approach was taken,

[1:34:08] and that seemed to have helped greatly

[1:34:11] for another community has a lot of folks involved

[1:34:14] in heavily, you know, kind of walking through these budgets. And that helped greatly.

[1:34:19] I suspect we can we can certainly do that here and it's not please don't get me wrong.

[1:34:24] It's not to pit one against the other at all, but it's just to put into context where the

[1:34:29] driving increases coming from largely which at the end of the day these are required services

[1:34:36] and programs, right, for students for for wealthy students that you need to provide.

[1:34:41] That could provide some more comfort in terms of the overall increase, whatever we land at.

[1:34:46] We can do that as well too.

[1:34:51] It's a good suggestion, Jim.

[1:34:54] The special ed costs are, to some extent, reimbursable both federally and on a state level.

[1:35:03] Does the cost that we will see reflect what we have to pay before or after those reimbursements?

[1:35:17] The reimbursements would come after, right, and in less than I have to work with our

[1:35:22] Director of Student Sports Service to see if you are as wealthy on the door of any kind

[1:35:28] of emergency relief which is an option, circuit breaker is an option too.

[1:35:33] So we've got some other things that we have to also still hone in on and we can do that coming

[1:35:37] into the next meeting so we can lay that out for you so you get a sense of what that would

[1:35:41] look like.

[1:35:44] So the numbers that we would see would be our actual cause.

[1:35:48] Yeah, they would and they would have to be because and the other piece of course incorporating

[1:35:54] this is the special education stabilization fund and and how that could. If it all play

[1:35:59] into into all of this. Yeah. Okay. Not to make it more complicated. Katie and. And I do often if I

[1:36:09] to say I often do think of folks like yourself, Katie, who are new to all of this and there's

[1:36:15] a lot of jargon, there's a lot of, there's a lot to try and learn and understand in school

[1:36:20] fine. It's not, it's not always the most straightforward. And just for you, Katie, or anybody else,

[1:36:27] if you want to ever sit down and walk through more of this even after the budget, I'm happy

[1:36:33] to do so because it's it's not the most easy to grasp at times it's really it's really hard

[1:36:42] and but you had a glossary at the end of your presentation

[1:36:47] at the last meeting of I don't know if you saw it Katie but it has

[1:36:51] I gave her a copy of it so that glossary is helpful yeah I appreciate that thank you and now

[1:37:00] This has been very informative and fun.

[1:37:05] Fun, Oakwood.

[1:37:07] Well, fun to hear.

[1:37:09] Vote for her for Vice Chair.

[1:37:12] So if I can just to close this piece up, Martha,

[1:37:16] would you like me to work with Jen and of course Adam

[1:37:18] to generate a few possible dates that could work for us

[1:37:21] and then get those to you and go from there?

[1:37:24] Yes, yeah, that would be great.

[1:37:26] And if you can separate the special Ed

[1:37:28] and regular and pieces of the budget.

[1:37:33] Maybe there's some computer program

[1:37:35] who can do that for you.

[1:37:38] Maybe AI, you never know.

[1:37:44] Do you have a time frame?

[1:37:46] I'm gonna be unavailable for like 20 days,

[1:37:51] unless I can zoom from a far away place.

[1:37:54] would this be before the 17th of February? Probably not. No, people shaking right now. Probably not. I don't, I don't see how it could.

[1:38:07] And after March 10th, probably somewhere in there, right? It would happen. March 3rd is our public hearing. Right.

[1:38:17] So it has to be before that. I don't know what Adam and Glenn can have ready for us.

[1:38:26] Well, not to make this more complicated, so forgive me. The other thing that I do

[1:38:32] and perhaps Martha, you already know this, I know that there is a deadline for your

[1:38:39] town meeting in which we need to have this public hearing to get this number to the

[1:38:43] weren't and I don't know if we have leeway bill on the third so another suggestion or thought

[1:38:50] we if we don't okay I was going to say perhaps well I don't know that but then that would be

[1:38:54] at another meeting but we could focus we could focus on the third for this next pass of the budget

[1:39:03] and then it would still be another meeting I understand that but just just maybe about that I'll put

[1:39:14] is Katie, Lauren, are either of you finding that you're not going to be available?

[1:39:20] The meetings are zoomed anyway.

[1:39:25] The only day, I'm going on vacation, but the only days that I couldn't meet would be

[1:39:31] travel days, which is February 10th and February 25th, I am going to a small island, so Internet

[1:39:40] is not always super reliable, but it's it's usually pretty good. You may hear roosters in the background,

[1:39:48] but how are their monkeys here? Yeah, I can I can be on zoom. It's just that February 10th.

[1:39:56] I guess February 10th, February 11th, and February 25th. I would absolutely not be available.

[1:40:04] not February 25th. Okay.

[1:40:09] I'm available the hours totally I stop forever so I have nothing to do.

[1:40:16] Okay. He want more meetings.

[1:40:20] Yeah. Okay. And I have Melissa's way so I guess she's not

[1:40:31] not getting any messages at this point, but she should be backed by them in any case.

[1:40:41] Okay, well, I'll look forward to getting those meeting dates and times and I'll send them out to the committee,

[1:40:52] for sure.

[1:40:57] All right, moving along. Oh God, capital plan.

[1:41:01] This is the longest meeting I have ever shared in my whole life just so, you know, go ahead.

[1:41:07] I think that's you Adam, yeah.

[1:41:09] Yeah, if it's okay, can we skip capital plan tonight?

[1:41:14] Yeah.

[1:41:16] Any objections, Skank?

[1:41:18] Thank you.

[1:41:20] All right.

[1:41:21] Thank you.

[1:41:24] And just tell me when you're ready, when you'd like it.

[1:41:31] reports and information.

[1:41:36] No reports.

[1:41:39] Okay.

[1:41:43] I have a superintendent evaluation report but you'll

[1:41:47] hear it tomorrow night, so it's not really a report. As you know, superintendent Fran will be

[1:41:55] presenting his goals and we will be voting to approve them. We need a quorum and it sounds like we

[1:42:03] have one I checked with you guys earlier.

[1:42:09] You've heard about the efficiency and

[1:42:12] regionalization grant we met at the end of January just last week on

[1:42:21] Zoom and we will be meeting again this week I think on Thursday in person to

[1:42:30] to look at some of the, some more data, but also look at some of the possible scenarios

[1:42:39] that the consultants will give us.

[1:42:41] I think there were six that I saw on an email today, although two of them look suspiciously

[1:42:46] like what we're doing here.

[1:42:50] And that's all I have.

[1:42:52] No other reports.

[1:42:54] I couldn't.

[1:42:55] We, um, the strategic plan that for the first time that was exciting, it was via Zoom because of weather.

[1:43:04] I guess we're going to meet monthly until June.

[1:43:07] The dates were sent out. I don't have there in my calendar.

[1:43:10] I don't, it's basically the end of the month until June.

[1:43:14] I cannot be at the next one because I will be, I mean, I can be there if it's on Zoom,

[1:43:19] but I hope it's not on Zoom.

[1:43:21] So I won't be able to attend the next one.

[1:43:26] It was a productive Zoom meeting.

[1:43:28] It was interesting, you know, Zoom meetings aren't my favorite, but we got a lot done.

[1:43:37] I mean, we looked over the mission statements, looked over what the core values of NOSIT region

[1:43:44] looked at a little bit compared to the old to, you know, do we want to keep it, do we want

[1:43:50] I changed it and they probably about 30 people total. I don't know Glenn. I mean, I would

[1:43:56] say about 30, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I would agree with you. I thought

[1:44:01] it was, I thought it was quite productive on Zoom too. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. And yeah,

[1:44:09] I mean, I, I'm sad that I can't be at the next one. Like I said, I'll be there if it's

[1:44:13] zoom, but it was good. I was a little discouraged because I'm the only person from

[1:44:21] Welfly. There were a few people that couldn't attend the first meeting, but I don't know

[1:44:27] if they were representing Welfly in any way. The names didn't seem super familiar to me.

[1:44:32] But I mean, it's fine. It's fine. There was a lot from Brewster, but that's a bigger place.

[1:44:40] Yeah, so no, no teachers, no community members, no building principal, or not that I don't

[1:44:47] know how.

[1:44:48] Like I said, there were a few names missing, but I didn't recognize the names, which

[1:44:53] I don't know everyone in Welflates, so I mean, they could be Welflate people, but I didn't,

[1:44:58] I mean, uh,

[1:45:00] So, but it was good. It was good. It was good meeting. No. I hope they find somebody. So you're not so. At times we've sent in substitute school committee members when someone can't attend a meeting that seems important. Do you want a substitute? I mean, it's, it's up to you guys. I don't know. I mean, sure, but.

[1:45:29] I mean, Martha, do you think it's a good idea to send in another set of years?

[1:45:35] I don't know because I'm not part of that committee.

[1:45:39] I wouldn't answer that, you know, it's a thought, if you want me to substitute.

[1:45:50] When is the meeting?

[1:45:52] The 24th of February.

[1:45:54] Good.

[1:45:54] I can't.

[1:45:55] So, never mind.

[1:45:55] the office and non-offer. Sorry.

[1:46:01] Moving on, are there any other reports at all?

[1:46:06] Okay. Then, future agenda items. We know what some of them are, but please, anything

[1:46:15] that you think should be on the agenda, don't make me do this alone or don't make super

[1:46:22] intended to it alone, either. It's not fair. But if there's anything you guys want to talk about,

[1:46:28] we'll just send them along to us. We generally meet during the last week of the month.

[1:46:37] So,

[1:46:38] if you have them in the next couple of weeks.

[1:46:41] Sorry. If you want to put the capital plan on there, you can just

[1:46:47] Okay.

[1:46:48] All right.

[1:46:51] Okay.

[1:46:54] All right.

[1:46:55] And did we we did have a report?

[1:47:01] Yes.

[1:47:01] Next meeting.

[1:47:02] Do we have meeting minutes?

[1:47:05] And do we want to approve them?

[1:47:10] Anybody make a motion to approve the meeting minutes?

[1:47:13] I can't for the life of me find.

[1:47:15] You should know that there are some of your nights in January 6th.

[1:47:19] I don't see that they were linked in the agenda, however.

[1:47:22] No, they're not.

[1:47:24] My goodness.

[1:47:27] Okay, well, they're not in the packet.

[1:47:31] No, I didn't say I can do.

[1:47:33] So, okay, they are ready.

[1:47:35] I guess we'll be approved for next meeting.

[1:47:37] Thank you.

[1:47:37] All right.

[1:47:38] Okay, just make sure I remember to do that.

[1:47:41] I'll send Jenna note reminding me.

[1:47:44] Okay.

[1:47:44] Thank you.

[1:47:45] All right.

[1:47:46] and a motion to adjourn.

[1:47:49] Motion to adjourn.

[1:47:50] Thank you, Lauren.

[1:47:52] Second, thanks, Joan.

[1:47:54] Okay.

[1:47:55] Well, goodbye.

[1:47:57] Bye.

[1:47:58] Thank you.

[1:47:59] See you all. See you.

[1:48:00] Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Wellfleet School Committee 2-3-2026

Transcript