 6 0 5 on Tuesday January 21st And I'd like to call the meeting to order a meeting of the Amherst school committee to order This meeting is being recorded on live broadcast by Amherst media. Thank you Amherst media So I'm superintendent Mike Morris and the reason that I'm starting the meeting and chairing the meeting is there was a recent election in the town of Amherst and The first order of business tonight is to reorganize My role in this is pretty limited. It's just to facilitate the committee to select a chair Once that chair is selected they will then lead the other elections for the vice chair and the secretary of the Amherst school committee The way this typically works is that I'll ask for nominations Well, we don't have to by Robert's rules of order I typically ask if someone's willing to accept the nomination to avoid a more cumbersome process later on And we'll I'll wait till all nominations are in and accepted before For chair before I ask for a vote and then I'll gladly give the gavel to whoever is the victor So to speak Any questions from a process perspective on the selection of a chair of the Amherst school committee? Okay, do I have any nominations for chair? Mr. Demling? I nominate Allison McDonald That agreeable to you Creable is the word I'm starting to use these days, so There are other nominations for chair. I'm just practicing my wait time, but Seeing none. Is there any discussion on that? And I'll move the committee to a vote all those in favor of miss McDonald becoming the chair of the Amherst school committee Can you raise your hand and say aye? Okay, I count for any opposed Any abstentions one abstention congratulations I did ask the committee to leave that chair seat Vacant because a chair seat in this room as a pair to other rooms has a different microphone buttons So you're welcome to stay or move whatever you like It's actually on by the way the microphone is it's still lit I was testing and clearly I'm a poor chair because I forgot to turn it off So thankfully my job here is done. I'll pass it over miss McDonald. So it's on So having never done this before I'm taking a page out of mr. Nekajima's book, which is looking to this committee for support and I'll Promise I'll be asking questions as we go along And and won't always get it right, but our next order of business is to Nominate and elect a vice chair for this committee. Do we have nominations? miss Spitzer Did you ever know oh? I'll nominate Peter Demling. Do you are you agreeable to this? Yes, any discussion all those in favor. Oh, yeah. Yes Are additional nominations? Yeah So all those in favor of Peter Demling as vice chair Signify yes by voting freezing your hand. No Abstain So it's four zero one And now we need nominations for secretary of the committee and just as a reminder the secretary Is is not responsible for taking minutes, but is a member of the union 26 committee Any nominations for secretary mr. Nekajima I nominate Kerry Spitzer the secretary This agreeable. Yes Any other nominations Okay, all those in favor of Kerry Spitzer as secretary of the committee, please signify I by raising your hand For no abstain 401 so our First order of business tonight is to review and approve minutes. However Given a lot of discussion on sort of the status of these minutes We're going to table that and not look at not review minutes tonight, but save that for our next meeting Do we have any submitting on to point number three committee announcements in public comment? Do we have any committee announcements? Seeing none move to Public comment are there any yes, and just as a reminder to state your name and You have three minutes for your comments Thank you, my name is Tony Cunningham and Thank you for commissioning the exploration of early childhood education in Amherst I'm looking forward to hearing Miss Hayes's presentation as I found her report very informative Some information contained in the report confirmed what I already knew for example that the current partial day hours of The preschool do not meet the needs of working families and that the preschool is under enrolled I didn't know that the need is greater for infant and toddler care than for additional preschool slots and That in order for our district to partner with community action Pioneer Valley in providing care for babies toddlers or preschoolers From mixed socioeconomic backgrounds it would require the district to significantly increase the hours of care Both proposals outlined by Miss Hayes would also necessitate the district providing increased classroom space teachers and transportation I look forward to learning more about how that could be funded The fact that the birth rate has been going up was a surprising data point and will be relevant to the enrollment projections for the new school building project I Was also interested in the concerns articulated by district staff about the current preschool location Including that there is inadequate space for children to engage in therapy or have a quiet calming space and Limited or non-accessible parking for families This presumably will open up a conversation about locating infant toddler or preschool care at some other location And we'll need to be considered in the Crocker farm expansion study that will hopefully begin soon. I Hope you will take miss Hayes up on her suggestion to do a facilities assessment to determine the feasibility of locating early childhood classrooms on district grounds and To assess the current preschool program outcomes and potential impacts of reducing the number of slots in favor of expanding the hours of care Thank you Thank you. Are there any other public comments? And as a reminder where the public is always welcome to email email the committee at school committee at arps.org and We're always listening and reading Moving on to new and continuing business Our first order of business is the budget guidance review early childhood report and this is a discussion. Oh Sorry superintendent's update. Thank you. I need I need support Thank you. So the next board is superintendent's update dr. Morris sure it's is in your packet right after the minutes and I'm not going to read all of these just in the interest of time But if this questions I can answer any you'll hear from the family center in a couple minutes But one thing that they do of many is organized into a sweet play, which is a organized Structure by which we engage with the community at their site And so this Saturday January 25th will be at butternut farms community room and they do at a different housing Areas across the town. So thank you all for the family center for the work that you do and and Seeing our staff in in the neighborhood in the communities feels really different than what we have meetings in our offices I Think I will I'll just go through them quickly So a crocodile farm held a long-standing tradition of having a Martin Luther King Day celebration And they held it last week And it starts with a whole school and whole community breakfast as well as assemblies and service projects And one of the neat things is it really brings back many Former staff members former students and former community members connected to that school Wildwood's Seventh annual African-American read-in is likely confirming as we speak actually Tuesday February 4th The text gives a little bit of history, but it's been a great celebration in the past and I know it will be this year Something we haven't talked about here, but there was press release and news stories about it was that we worked with ever source to have $55,000 essentially of a lighting project complete, which is going to increase the energy efficiency Of Corker farm and the lights and that will pay off bars for us in terms of the sustainability of the building But also financially as well Also a number five bilingual education grant which has already been shared with you in the community that we were the fortunate recipients of a Competitive grant around that's specifically earmarked for what's called alternative English language education programs But you know what we think of as ELL programs and While not explicitly only focused on ELL students dual language programs are considered in that category So we're very fortunate to have the support and very fortunate to be partnering again with Holyoke Which is they've been wonderful partners. We've a conference call on Thursday I think of this week as they're opening their second or have opened their second dual language school They had one that was started before ours and We're sandwiched in the middle from a timeline perspective But learning from each other's curriculum and program development has been really helpful. So we appreciate our colleagues a little bit south of here Also for Fort River there was a community meeting on the very end of the last day of school before the December break And it's just a wonderful experience. They've Renamed there what's formerly called assemblies community meetings and they're trying to structure it quite differently So it's not just a semantic change But that even with a large group of students and staff members the community is invited you see many many parents Guardians and caretakers who attended the event and there's a lot of bilingual Music but also in speech and so it's not just the common entes program It's really you know pervasive across the school, which is really great to see We're having our elementary registration event event on March 18th, and we're advertising that widely We're hosting it in the Fort River school library But it's for all the schools and we'll then have breakouts that was kind of learning from last year's experience Which was positive, but some of the feedback we received will have the whole group Registration event which is really a celebration of all the things that are wonderful going on in Amherst in our elementary schools Then have breakout sessions for families who are interested in common entes as well as if if the school committee decides to stay a school choice district Families who are interested in school choice? So we when you try to do everything all in the same setting, you know one of the feedback one piece of feedback We received last year had us rethink a little bit of the structure of that So we'll do that the great span advisory group concluded its meetings on January 13th All the subgroups are intending to get me their reports by February 1st Which means by early March we'll have the full compiled report with an executive summary Slide so when we get to the end of thinking about future meetings, that's roughly the timeline for that Report cards most families will receive revised standards based report cards this year There's a couple grade levels teachers staff are given a choice of jumping into them or Staying with the former report cards for one more year and most vast majority of teachers across grade levels at all schools Have jumped into work on the new ones It's a nine-month process that thanks to mr. Sheehan for facilitating that that it's really Aligning what we grade with what we teach seems like a logical thing that we should be doing and the standards guide what we teach So the standards are also going to guide What reports families receive? We'll be gathering data So this is sort of a beta version of this and we'll gather feedback as we kind of finalize them and by next year Every but all staff and all families will be on the new report card template and the last one the Crocker farm studies So the contract is with the vendor we're waiting to hear back because I know we've talked about that at prior meetings And once that receives that that study can go on but right now it's sort of with the vendor and we're just on hold till they return it to us And that's the update Yeah, dr. Morse I was wondering I I can't remember seeing a presentation about the revision on report cards and so if we had one I just missed it, which it could have happened obviously But I was wondering if you could maybe share with The committee either in a future update or even just by email a copy of The previous one the standard one and then of the beta one that you're that we're moving towards just for our own curiosity Absolutely, sorry Haven't been in room in a while. So getting back to the press in the button Absolutely, and this is something we intended this spring to bring An update for the committee and the community with with both more we can the answers. Yes, and We'd like to to show the community and as well as share the feedback we receive from all stakeholders Forgive me. I mean if it's forthcoming, that's totally cool I the way you were describing it. It sounded like the end of a project and so I was sitting or thinking to myself Darn I've been on the committee for three years. I don't remember a presentation on a subject But it's my bad, but otherwise I look forward to it Mr. Deming So one one topic I don't see here and I'm just reminded that I haven't seen it in a while is a breakfast breakfast after the bell It occurred to me Having seen the news recently that the state is about to pass a requirement For breakfast after the bell for districts that have 60% Ed here above, you know, we're not near that work, but we still have substantial percent, you know, about a third of our Kids and we had some discussions. I'm just forgetting where it fell off in terms of the The radar and I wanted seeing that we don't have an agenda planning item later on. I just wanted to Catch up on that and and what what the next steps are in your mind I know that there were challenges in terms of facilities maintenance and whatnot when we're doing some issues at the start of the school year last year but Yep, so that's on our agenda for march and and since we were Chairless, um, so we you know, I figure I'll get together with the chair after this meeting the new chair And map out the rest of the year, but it is tentatively on my list slated to be reported on in march the march 17th meeting Thank you Any other questions or comments? No, no, mr. Deming. I'm sorry. I just forgot. Um, so the the grants that we got Um, and the co-grants with polio public schools are great We do you see this kind of investment as like an extra bonus or is this a Something we would have had to invest in anyway at the startup period or is this or option c Is this a level of expense that we might expect? Going forward where if we don't have it as a grant we might need to to invest in Right so, uh, I think a significant portion of the grant it will go to supporting teachers to get the bilingual endorsement which wasn't a thing Until it wasn't developed at the time we approached and the school committee the amber school committee approved Us moving forward. So it's really a supportive staff to get that and we're trying to get as many cohorts of staff through on the front end so that To your point, we can't we don't rely on these grant funds much like any other licensure issue. It's um It is technically the staff members responsibility and yet we what we know is staffing dual language programs is the number one challenge Uh, you know nationally about Implementing them. So uh working with holy oak as well as higher education partners has been a primary focus There are other pieces that have been really helpful with the startup Uh, but that is the bulk of the focus and I think it's really helpful as we're trying We have wonderful staff in and trying to help them to get an endorsement that just came out last year You know last year we were starting. I think there were two vendors in the state two universities Um that even were able had the approval to offer the endorsement So it's a very quickly evolving field and as more people go there's more competition in the marketplace and that'll be a good thing for our staff members Any other comments questions So now moving on to the next agenda item Um We are moving to the budget guidance review early childhood report and this is a discussion So we're I'm going to try to phone christin in and then I'll put it on speaker Because it's how to never use this phone before to see how this works I don't know if to do nine one. Hey christin, it's mike. How you doing? So we are ready for you. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put you on speaker Hopefully this works and I will sit where the presenter usually sits. So I'll push your slides forward So I'll just wait for you for direction on that Okay, you still with us christin I can hear you Yes, please So, um This topic came up out of a joint project, uh, working with the town of amherst So we co-funded this exploration study To happen because we know early childhood education is is a critically important thing not just for the education of students But for the the whole town as it is And so we worked with christin. She was planning to be here if remember we were snowed out in december So that's why we're doing this part of the meeting in in january because the make update didn't work for her schedule And then there was a meeting that ran long. There's been a number of of barriers for us But what what miss haze did is she came in and and both as she did details in her report She looked and met with our preschool staff met with head start, which is in a building right next to wildwood community action She looked at a tremendous amount of data about the town and the community and the evolving community that amherst is And came up with a couple options for the school committee and the district to consider And so um, she is you know, it's obviously calling in remotely, but I'll work on the slides And so I'll just ask the committee if you have a question at some point, you know to voice that But I think uh, you know if we if we can wait a little bit. It's not that many slides Wait till the end full and I think it's also important to note this was not and I think this is underlined In page three of the report I believed or early in the report This was not an evaluation of our preschool program. It's not an evaluation of the carca farm preschool program It was clear what it was trying to be clear what it was and it wasn't it valued the comments that Miss haze heard from our preschool And but was not Miss haze was never here while students were in the preschool setting. It was on a friday when students don't attend So it's just an important note that if we're doing a program evaluation We're very clear and transparent about it and when we're not we will we want to be equally clear and transparent And this is really looking about zero to five and what are the needs in the community? And what might be some ways to fill them particularly as our community evolves So with that I'll turn it over to christen remotely. Um to walk us through the summary of her report on the slides Okay, great. Thanks mike. Can you just confirm for me that folks can hear me? Yes Great, okay. Hi everyone. I'm sorry. We're not getting to meet in person. I'm about two hours away from you So thank you for having me via remote connection Very brief power point presentation that he is going to purpose of the power point It's just to give you in broad strokes how it was that I approached to this project I'm done with the power point. I'm happy to respond to questions or Um, you know offer any additional guidance that you may want at this time. Does that work for everyone? Yep, it's about the report that I submitted to mike Mike is in possession of a 20 page report from me Which I've diluted into eventually five power point slides to consider what the opportunities might be For expansion of early education services in the community Should be seen on the slide right now are the report components It includes basic community demographic which were obtained via the us census bureau As well as some local resources As well as some phone calls to folks in your community to gather data The report also contains an overview of eligibility head start and early head start programs The national head start program serves children from three years until kindergarten entry And the national program serves children from birth until their third birthday An overview of three different funding opportunities and possible models that I think would be worth exploring Some of the models I think are more feasible than others that I did want to lay out for the district Options going forward And then finally some ideas about next steps for the district Specifically around some actions that I think the district should take to evaluate Items that were not included in my report notice is not included in the report as mike alluded to I did not engage means current quality as mike said I was there on a friday I did not see children in session and I was there to more or less assess The feasibility of creating more preschool opportunities for vulnerable kids I was not there to assess whether or not the children who are in your programming right now are Making the advances and our kindergarten ready per the expectations of the district and per the expectations of their IEPs So I was not there to do that as the project went on that I was unable to make an assessment of facility space And the reason I'm making that statement is that in general I found there was a lot of discussion about facilities in the community I know there are Decisions to be made about how existing facility space is used And so given there's not a clear road map that was presented to me in the fall of 2019 I determined that I could not really consider facilities as part of this project at this time And then finally the report also does not include an assessment of what I would consider organizational structure And supports for the staff around the current programming The line of questioning that I pursued with staff was to understand strengths and challenges of families And to pair that information that qualitative information with what I could ascertain quantitatively As far as things like census data and other headcount data in the community was to pair the two So with not to assess whether or not the current org structure and supports are working well for staff Could ask you to advance the slide I'll set Great. Thank you. So the slide you're looking at right now I just want to share with you some key demographics that I considered when thinking about what might be feasible for the district moving forward And what I relied on was the american community survey five year estimates That is a data set that is widely used to determine eligibility for both state and federal funding in Work with how it is we would have to apply for such funds And essentially found that there are approximately 8 826 children under the age of five in amherst And perhaps most importantly for my work about 23 percent of them Are expected to be living in poverty and Just to put that in perspective what that means per the current 2020 federal poverty guidelines is that essentially a family of four is earning just over $26,000 a year if they are to be considered in poverty so Nearly one quarter of your population With all parents working And by all parents that means a two-parent household where both parents are working as well as a single parent household Where that single parent is working But again, it's it's more than half of the children in your community have parents working outside the home Licensed child care slots and that's a relevant data point for us in considering the need for early education Those child care slots do accept subsidy payment Which is a payment that a lower income family can secure from the state Costs of child care. So what that tells you is there's quite a gap We have about 826 children under the age of five and we have 313 licensed child care slots Those licensed child care slots include some school age children So what i'm saying to you is that the relative amount of care that's available likely does not meet the need of the community And that's especially true of the zero to three population Where there are very few dedicated slots for infants and toddlers in your community I considered were the rate of English language learners in your district, which absolutely outpaces the state Children students with disabilities, which again definitely outpaces the state Saying you'll see on this slide is that what I heard loud and clear from staff And i'm using that term very broadly to include any administrators as well as teaching staff that I had a chance to talk with With that there are challenges with the current programming hours of service because it's a park day program And that there is a strong need a strong reported need for more supports to address trauma and better connecting what's happening at home With the supports that are provided at school And i'll share with you. I mean that trend is nationwide This issue of responding to early childhood trauma I think that as our knowledge of the impact of trauma grows We're seeing more and more of our workforce reporting feeling as though They need additional supports to address those early adverse experiences that children are facing right now So these are just some of the demographics that I consider there are more outlined in the report But I think these are sort of the high level important ones to stay to you tonight stands the slide Yep, all set Thank you The next slide you're looking at I wanted to give you a sense of how head start and early head start would look at the Amherst community The reason I wanted to consider head start and early head start is is really twofold One is that you do have relatively high numbers of children living in poverty at almost a quarter of your your child population And there is a existing head start an early head start program in your community operated by community action pioneer valley In in full disclosure. I do consult with them I know quite a bit about their community and have visited their sites And so I'm very knowledgeable with their actual services and I've seen their services in action But what you're seeing here is our best gas of the estimated number of children in poverty by age In the head start an early head start program. So for sake of argument I estimate there are approximately 127 children from birth to three Living in poverty in your community And you only have 16 early head start slots, which tells me that you're serving about 12 percent of the eligible population in Amherst Um, and then estimated number of children who are preschool age those three to five year olds Your service rate is considerably higher on the head start side at 44 percent Duly enrolled in your district programming where they receive services Armed for part of the day and then they are transported over to the head start program for the remainder of the day So some of those 77 children who I estimate are living in poverty Likely are getting services both through the district preschool program as well as the head start program And so there's some degree of double counting there The purpose in sharing this slide is really to say two things to you one is that Given the few Number of slots in the community for low income zero to three year olds Both through the early head start program as well as through those subsidized child care slots There's a real acute need to service children younger in that zero to three population Um on the preschool side of the house the head start service rate at 44 Is essentially at the low end of the national averages So if I were to travel across the country, I would see anywhere from about 40 To 60 percent of head start eligible kids being served in individual communities So at 44 percent the Amherst community is on the lower side of that range And the reason that's so important is because the head start and early head start programs They're one of those two generation models where you're supporting families and simultaneously supporting children And this whole family approach has really been shown through research to Lead to really positive outcomes as far as school readiness for kids But also as far as a number of physical and mental health Outcomes for families So I think the head start and early head start program is an important player in your community Particularly when we consider what we're hearing from teaching staff that they need more support responding to trauma I'm going to make the argument that large percentages of these early head start and head start eligible children have experience trauma in the home Um, and these are the kids that are ultimately transitioning to your district for kindergarten and beyond Can I ask you to advance the slide? All set So the model that strikes me as is essentially for the district in town to partner with the local head start program Which again is operated through community action pioneer valley And the reason I think this is compelling is that there's a real opportunity gap in the community You know, essentially I have 800 children living at or below federal poverty In your community from birth to five And you have an incredible income range in your community as i'm sure you're aware And while I have that count of over 800 children, I also have relatively high median income I have relatively high home prices, etc And so your community on paper Definitely comes across as one where there's a real opportunity gap in that an absolute definable subset of your population is probably not accessing high quality care in those first five years There's relatively few head start and early head start slots There's relatively few district preschool slots And when you put those two together it what it tells me is that there's very uneven entry into kindergarten And I think that's why I was engaged in the first place was to try to put some thought around What actions could the district in town take to sort of better, you know, level the playing fields for kindergarten entry The the challenge with thinking about head start and early head start Is not so much on the funding side as it is on the programming side um, the current head start model requires 1020 hours of Early education services to be provided to a head start child So 1020 hours And right now Amherst park day programming is going to clock in at anywhere from four to five hundred hours for a child Depending on how many days they attend and depending on whether it's a, you know, three hour day or a longer day Um, and the real challenge would be in order to execute that partnership It would absolutely require the district to look at the current park day programming In that that park day programming is not going to be viable with head start Is that I think the district in town bring a lot of assets and resources to the table that would be very attractive to a head start Program such as community action pioneer valley in that you you do have facilities and transportation and you do have highly qualified teachers Um, so, you know, I think that there's a lot to be said for the assets and resources that the district would bring As well as the assets and resources that a head start program would bring I think it's worth partying out pointing out that the us department of health and human services Which funds the national head start program? Has since 2014 put out hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive grant funds To expand services to the zero to three population They have not put out any new money for the three to five population And so if you were to pursue Further collaboration with community action pioneer valley I think it would likely involve going for competitive money to serve a zero to three year old And then asking them to strategically work with you to allocate some of their existing preschool resources over to your three to five year old population Final slide if you could just briefly lays out what I see as some of the strengths and assets That the district would bring to this work as well as the head start program would bring to this work Um, I do think the report tries to highlight each of these items As well as provide you with a lot of context by which to think about the head start program So I would definitely encourage if you haven't had a chance already to take a look at the report to sort of You know grow your understanding of head start if that's not a program that you're familiar with And then to consider the strengths and assets that the district might bring to that equation to better service more vulnerable three to five year old What looking around for Questions we could go down the down the road like we like to do Do you want to add anything? I think the committee can ask questions I might have some thoughts at the end But I think we use this time well for the committee to ask questions or offer comments Based on the report Mr. Demley So yeah, thank you very much for this report. It's something our community our schools have wanted to look at for a long time That there's a lot of questions I have so I don't want to dominate the conversation I'll just ask sort of the two biggest ones that jump out at me one is You know unless i'm mistaken and dr. Morris you can correct me if i'm wrong, but it's it's never been in the Primary mission at least up up until now For our public schools to service students less than two years and nine months The the reason why we have a preschool program at all is because there's a state mandate to service children with identified Disability who are on an IEP and so that those are the the students and so Uh, you know, so that's the first like big sort of philosophical Um mission question. I sort of grapple with is Um, you know, obviously there's a need For for the population Um, and and yet is it is it something like I guess my question for that would be is this something you've you've seen Done and done successfully at scale In other public school districts either in massachusetts or in other other states Sure, so I can answer the question I mean, I I agree with your assessment of historically where have the public school sat on this issue When I first started working at the u.s. Department of ed in 2002 Me frankly public schools wanted nothing to do with early education earlier than age three period What I would say to you is as the brain Development research has become so clear and so robust much of which is coming out of harvard university As to the need to intervene with children before age three particularly Low-income children children who are experiencing homelessness Are engaged in the child welfare system and kids with disabilities when you take those four groups of vulnerable kids there's very strong evidence that intervening before three is necessary and as that evidence has started to become more part of Sort of the mainstream conversation If you were to attend strategic planning sessions with large districts You would hear them talking about sort of a birth to 22 view of the world And it is not uncommon to find school districts competing for zero to three services Um, I I work with a large school district in texas. They serve 14 000 kids a year at college stations Where texas a and m is located And the district directly served 120 zero to three year olds each year And then served about 300 preschoolers using a blended funding approach of both federal head start money as well as state money And the reason they serve those 120 zero to three is because they found that those children who got services before age three when coupled with services from three to five Made far greater gains in certain areas of kindergarten readiness that they were looking for specifically mathematics skills social emotional development and early literacy So I think there are many examples that we could point out where school districts have moved in this direction But you're absolutely right. I mean to me it's a major philosophical shift It requires a really hard look and conversation about resource allocation And it it takes time. It's not a quick. It's not a quick movement Thank thank you for that answer that that that is helpful. Um, I think that lays a groundwork for some good future discussions with the school in the town So so what you what you just mentioned at the end there that it requires talking about resource allocation So you had a phrase there would require the town and schools to bring assets to the table So so this is the other sort of brass tacks pragmatic Uh reaction I have to all this is that um You know, I mean not to bore you with with the details, but um, I mean our schools are running on a tight budget as it is even in even in this good economy and It's not to say that we we have the budgets of some other Cities and towns in the state that are really hurting because we don't we're very fortunate to have the support that we do And yet we we don't have reams and reams of resources that we're just looking for a purpose for and our town Is also resource constrained Has its own challenges and and the state has yet At least for our district and the challenges that we face financially has yet to indicate that there's going to be some new order of magnitude Of funding coming coming down the pike. You know, therefore It's it's great to think about um, you know grants that could help us But for for something that we where we would be really Moving in a major way to shift the mission of our Of our services to younger children Um, I think I would find it challenging to to invest in that not knowing that that grants Would definitely be there for a long time to cover that given that we don't have a lot of resources. So I don't know if you have any thoughts just in terms of the practical implementation resource finding Sure. So with something like early head start for the zero to three population So say the existing head start provider in the community again community action pioneer valley Decided that they wanted to work with you to have you know, 16 or 32 slots for that zero to three population They would be applying for funds from the u.s. Department of Health and Human Services to operate those slots And they would go in at a cost per child basis of somewhere between 14 and 17 thousand dollars per student The annual and it would be a five-year grant eligible for renewal at the end of five years So what i'm saying to you is that head start programming is pretty stable as far as the money is concerned Um, as as you probably know, it's a program that dates back to the 1960s And there are agencies that have received funding every single year since 1965 for head start But the grants are five-year grants and they're performance based and so provided there's no deficiencies The grants are fully renewable for another five years. It's a very stable funding source It's also received increases from congress in both republican and democratic congresses Thank you Sorry, i'm a little It's it's weird not having a face to address. So apologies, but thank you very much for for this report. Um I have a couple comments some are very small and then I some are really big picture. Um One is that I think And I apologize. I would have liked to have gotten you some of these figures earlier, but I just aware. I know you You were limited to places that were centers and so we're missing all the the family based programs here But I think we're also missing a few Centers that are available in amherst like a ham shirt earn early learning center. So Um, I'm wondering if maybe I could sense an email with some of the other places that could be added to the tables in the future the other really kind of Detail oriented and then I'll get up to the big picture Is just that when we're using the american community survey data I think it's really important to share with the public that it's It's got a really big margin of error So I just went on a fact finder and that figure we keep going back to of 192 ages birth to Five years living in poverty that that's their estimate, but it has a margin of error plus or minus 130 People so that could mean that we're really over or underestimating and I think when we're talking about this It's important to keep that in mind because the need could be a lot greater Actually Or it could be a lot smaller and I think it's just really important with the five-year estimate data to emphasize that it's also Over such a long time period. It's over five years. It's the average and it's it's it's a it's a big estimate So this is a plug for everybody to complete the census that's coming up in 2020 because hopefully we'll get some better numbers then And I know you're working with the best data you have. I just think when we're presenting it It's important to to keep that in mind So I guess kind of following on what mr. Dumbling was saying I'm curious about you know Who else should be at the table when we're having this conversation because I think he's right that it's it's a lot to put on On on the school committee and I think everybody you know, I'm a I'm a mom I've got three kids seven and under and so I have tried to find Infant slots have tried to find preschool slots and you are absolutely right. There is not enough opportunity for anybody of any income in this town in terms of finding those infant slots and in terms of finding Slots that meet the schedule of a working parent right now the schedules are just I'm always piecing things together And I'm sure that people with fewer resources are having a much harder time of it than I am So I I think the need is really really Acute in this town for for quality child care And for all of the reasons that it improves people's ability to You know exceed in when they get to school But also for the the parents who are economically struggling I don't know how you can find work when you don't have child care That'll let you work at least an eight hour a day and that's a really big problem So I think we you know, it's not just about the kids. It's about the whole family So I'm wondering in your experience like who else should be in the room when we're talking about this And because it sounds like you're saying that there is funding for the head start And I think we're feeling a little bit like it's a really big burden to put this all on the school committee even even through this partnership So I'm just curious about how other communities have gone about it and trying to address this type of need Sure, so I mean what I would say is from my perspective and the experience I've seen In general, you know school committee the ask of school committee is really that school committee Create the vision and and buy into where it is we're going The the work of you know, sort of convening stakeholders You know in general there's a number of stakeholder groups that we would want to convene to explore this So first and foremost you guys can't move forward with securing this money without community action pioneer valley, right? So, I mean clearly they need to be at the table Um, I reached out to the two early intervention providers for children zero to three with special needs in your community Um, I suspect they have quite a bit to say about what kinds of services they perceive families and children to need And the type of work that they're doing to ready kids to transition to your preschool right now So early intervention to me as a provider who needs to be fully engaged You know, what I would consider to be sort of the stellar early education Programming that are highly desired in the community Um, larger community is have entire child care planning commissions that are pulled together You guys will not have that but in general there's a high value place on hearing from sort of those private pay Child care providers about what they're experiencing in their classrooms You need parent feedback, you know one of the limitations of this report is that because I'm looking at really like systems and not services I don't have any parent feedback to go off of and in the end parents create the demand for the service, right? so You know oftentimes there there are mothers groups or other parent groups in the community who are sought after for their insight into need I think public health is an important partner in this, you know, if we're going to talk about serving kids younger Knowing what some of those early health indicators are Around immunizations and well child exams and screening and assessment and referral is incredibly important Public health can be a conduit to physicians in the community dentists in the community mental health providers in the community who are doing this work with young families So I think in general it's you know, it's a real collaboration between sort of public and private stakeholders Those who are likely to benefit directly from the services as well as those who frankly are not likely to benefit But who've experienced that you as you've suggested You know going through looking for care going through shopping around for preschool Those families have a lot of value here in this conversation So I agree with what christen said. I think the thing I'd add and saw a presentation on this a couple years ago Cincinnati, uh, which is a very different community in a whole host of ways In 2016 Had a bond issue And I'm not suggesting that we that amherst goes this way, but I think there's a relevant End to the story and it was around early childhood access. I mean you look it up It's pretty easy to find And one of the things that was notable when I saw the presentation was the number of civic organizations that were also involved So in addition to everything that that christen said the united way was a huge supporter of this Effort and was so, um, you know what that looks like an amherst. I think would take some dialogue Uh, but what I noticed and what I saw because I saw this presentation on the About two weeks before the vote, uh, which was successful in Cincinnati. It was on the presidential election ballot In Ohio in Cincinnati, Ohio Was really that it was a community dialogue and community conversation because if we're talking about the demographics of students that are on these slides that Kristen and the committee and myself have expressed a real interest in supporting Where are the voices, you know, how can how can we all show leadership and by we I don't mean just a collective we on this Here tonight, but how's the community show leadership that this is a community value? And I think Cincinnati and other communities have gotten that right and I think There's some symbolic, you know in terms of what's the role of school committee Or what role do I feel about highlighting this as a being a primary issue in the community And seeing who's willing to partner with us. There's certainly no shortage of interested folks in issues of social justice and poverty in the community And whether this is an issue that you know strikes fire and the community jumps on board of or not I think we'll determine a lot of uh, how successful we can make it because I think the more partners we have in the work The better off we are Thank you, uh, I guess first I just want to thank, uh, miss Hayes for the report and Dr. Morris for Putting this work forward and really launching it I remember when I first got on the school committee a few years ago We talked about preschool. We talked about the need in the community and the conversation Turned in ways that felt A little hopeless and also a little Uh, non actionable meaning we couldn't figure out what the resources were the information the first steps And even when we have if you want somebody goes back and looks at the The tapes of it But I'll see we couldn't even really figure out how to launch the conversation in a way that didn't feel like we're immediately suggesting That we were going to have to raid other accounts or line items If we wanted to try to move this forward and then The constant worry about if we did it where would we even put it and that kind of thing And so the one thing I really appreciate about the work A is just the effort and stick toitiveness to use a phrase that that the superintendent shown In this case and then also the fact that there is information in the report That allows you to start thinking about where you could focus Um, because again, it's that when I read this it wasn't a report that said we figured out A pathway towards solving the entire problem for the whole community, which is I think whatever one would love to do It's even just pointing out an acute need at whatever scale And saying look, there are actually models or pathways to to that could be worked on So I think a I applaud you for that Uh, and then the the two questions that arise for me out of that are one Since you mentioned doing work this room says since you mentioned doing work in college station near Texas A&M I guess one question I had there was um, was the university a Partner in the process of um investing in Hosting or solving that program at a need in the community And we're like similar to what people would perceive is probably true in Amherst. Was it also a population? In need that there were there were in fact grad students or undergraduates who had kids who could benefit from the programs From an early education zero three to three to five Expansion so that's a question and then the second the second question. I've been always asked both of them now is um You know, I don't know if you've talked about the dr. Morris, but what would be The next steps Because I think other members of the committee have hinted at questions They need more definition around or things they'd want to know more about or even who you like who you do partner with To me the question sort of organically is you know, have you thought about or has dr. Morris talked or talked about with you What would in order for the committee to do something useful with this it seems to me we have to have um Even sort of a sketch pad of what things we would want to be doing Next even to explore if we wanted to go further. Those are the two questions. Thank you very much Sure, so let me take this the college station question so college stations Head start an early head start program As well as their state funding programming is all co-located An essential office essential administrative office much like yours approximately half a mile from the month Texas A&M university which has an undergrad population of 50,000 So yes, they partner very strongly. Um, Texas A&M provides You know teacher training teachers in training to the program Any number of interns and volunteers are recruited by the district from Texas A&M Obviously all of their teachers have a graduated or master's degree from Texas A&M because it's right there They also have a lot of graduate students not a secure community a lot of international graduate students And a lot of their students income is quite low on paper And so the reality is those students qualify for heavily subsidized care or or fully Our student population as far as your five can look a bit like At your community notified population could look And you know while I offer Texas A&M and college station examples all over the country um San Francisco used to have san francisco state university providing early education and care through head start Through cla southern california. So, I mean there are definitely large institutions of higher Indities and those higher ed partners are a major player Especially around staffing and workforce and then secondly around the criminal families So that I hope gives you some sort of idea on that and then So I very briefly at the end of the report say I think there are two things that need to be done relatively soon one is You know something along the lines of a facilities assessment to consider how feasible it would be to Locate, you know additional clown because right now for example the head start early head start program is Located near one of your elementary schools, but it's not actually on your district grounds um And I think you know part of the Wonder if you will of having or programming on district grounds is that these kids Of that school community from a really young age um And so when they transition just like a crocker farm when they transition from preschool to kinder It's all under the same roof and so like it's a very comfortable transition for kids and for their families So and I know facilities is definitely a larger question Again, I felt like I kind of had to shy away from it just given the number of things that seem like they're being discussed But I think understanding how early education would fit into any future facility project is a pretty immediate need The other thing I'm suggesting is I did not look at the program quality The current program basically serves children with special needs With some additional cost for what we might term model children or typically developing children I think it's important to understand whether or not the current programming is meeting their pre-academic needs their social emotional needs, etc Um, and I'm sure some degree of that happens relative to children with IEP's where we're measuring You know their progress towards meeting their IEP goals I'm less sure whether that's happening for model or typically developing children It strikes me that the way the programming is set up right now It sounds as though it's really meant to service the special needs population And so I'm not sure whether or not non-special needs children are obtaining the outcomes that are desired by their families First and foremost and that secondarily are desired by the district for kindergarten readiness So understanding that is important for thinking about what future programming might look like because it would influence things like Curricula choices it would influence things like individualization Of services to children and their families So I think you know in summary both the facility side and sort of the existing outcome side are important questions that I think the district should seek to provide some answers to as you move this project forward Yeah, I just had a real quick question regarding um dcf I was wondering if you had any data on an increase or Yeah, I guess an increase of contact with dcf with head start families and uh, whether or not you could Define that as positive or negative contact I think it's an excellent question and mike has heard me lament the fact that The challenge that we're having is that the dcf data is not available Disaggregated by community So what happens is dcf reports out quarterly based on where their dcf office is located And so I can pull things like the number of children who are on the dcf caseload I can pull things like whether it's abused or neglect I can pull information about what the reunification plan is But I cannot pull that information just for your community the the data is not available at that sort of sub level All I can pull is for example the greenfield office, which encompasses, you know, a dozen communities in the area I think part of that is because in general massachusetts data is not available when the count is 10 and under They only report things at 11 and over Um, I made multiple phone calls to dcf representatives both at the Like sort of local office as well as the state to try to see if I could put in Essentially a public information request just for the amherst community And no one has been able to answer that question So that is part of why you don't see that information in the report. I agree. It is valuable information I tracked that information in western mass for community action pioneer valley But I'm not able to get it at the community level But I think would be most impactful for your school committee and for the town Lots were were well beyond time. So I'm not going to add very much. We've had a really Rich discussion lots of questions. I'm looking mr. Deming just really briefly. Um, so one I I don't think we should draw any conclusions about Whether families For kids not on IEPs in our current preschool program or driving benefit or not I think as we saw at the top of the report that's this wasn't part of that scope But I did want to say briefly and I don't know if dr. Morris can comment on there was some references to trauma and feedback from From teachers about uh resources to to help kids with trauma and I know this is related to expanding preschool and early childhood access But I I do I do also see it as a separate issue. You know, there's it's one thing to say Let's have a trauma informed classroom or curriculum. It's yet another thing to have professional level intervention to to treat and and to provide intervention for For, you know traumatic experience of uh with with young children. Um Uh, you know, which is I think a separate conversation about how we how we meet needs. Um, so I just wanted to put a point on that Um, so, uh I think there were all set. Yeah, I think the only thing I'll add is I think on that the last point on On the report, you know, I do intend to work with miss Fetterman Who is Julie has been the conduit from the town to be working on this? Um And follow up with with Kristen to see what our next steps and what additional data sources can we And report. Um, I don't know. Maybe at this scale Can we gather from the funding that we you know partnered on the and established last year? So I would expect this to come back. Um, and we'll loop back with some more information Probably later this spring Great You're motioning like you need you wanted to see No, so, um, thank you. Um Kristen for your, uh, presentation and I think that's we can say goodbye. I don't know how to hang up this phone Press the speaker button. I think you'd be right. Thank you Um, so moving on we're a little bit behind. Um, but we're going to move on to our next, um, topic Which is dual language enrollment. Um, and this is a presentation on enrollment guide I'll do I'll do a very quick introduction as miss Richardson comes up, which is uh last month in december Uh, we shared some initial thoughts with with the committee and got feedback from the committee And we kind of scoped it out as that would be the initial exploration that we would have miss Richardson come back and present, uh, adjustments to the formal document that was, um You created last year And received feedback from the committee to come with the final document to be voted in the february meeting So it'd be in advance of the registration period and we can be very clear with families And staff in the community families in the community and staff about what our registration process Will look like this year. Um, so there were some minor adjustments made particularly You'll notice and i'm not trying to steal miss Richardson thunder but That the creation if if ends up being that there are school choice students admitted There was a suggestion that there would be a group 2a. We like that. So we put that in And there were some other minor changes that we experienced based on staff experience last year But I would say the majority of the document Sits unchanged. Um, but really your feedback last meeting was there was an attempt to integrate it I'll leave miss Richardson if you'd like to add to that Sure. Um, so Thanks for having this conversation back and I think um as dr. Marr said there's not a whole lot of change But we did just try to mostly integrate the Option for school choice students who were already accepted via school choice Who happened to be from spanish speaking homes? To be able to take unfilled seats Just within that group If we still had remaining seats by august 15th So we did want to really push that to the very end of the process to make sure that we're accommodating the students that are Coming into the district And so I think um, I'm happy to answer questions about any part of the document But that's really the biggest piece was just updating the You know the dates for this year and then clarifying the role that that School choice group could have Any questions? Mr. Deming So thank you for this. I like the change. Um, my one question is Is on the number of slots that would be Made kept available until august 15th, so Um, so reading from one of the paragraphs if fewer than 20 students enroll in the spanish-speaking Bilingual group at this time the remainder of 20 unfilled seats will be kept available for late enrollment Of spanish bilingual students students through august 15th So if if the program from a bilingual effectiveness perspective Still operates as effectively with 24 and our primary goal is is to reach um spanish Not english language learners spanish-speaking english language learners Then why wouldn't we have that be 24 instead of 20 and then just notify everybody Else of their status on august 15th So I think that was somewhat of a compromise to There are different ways of looking at it, right? There's one approach which is to say it's a really um half and half Spanish speaking and english speaking, but because of the complexity of the community We know it's more complicated, right? So those were kind of just the numbers we negotiated where last year when we thought about well If we had more than 20 we absolutely would want to make sure that they were given a seat And yet it does feel like based on the makeup of our community that having 20 seats for english speakers You know if we don't have the spanish or bilingual students in the community to fill that space does feel appropriate So it's kind of within that range that we feel like it's educationally sound It's kind of where we're coming from is that sound fair? Yeah, and we've had active conversations on this very question And honestly differences of opinion within our group and this is sort of where we landed as a proposal But certainly you've opened the committee feedback on that question as well So I had a question um, I thank you for bringing this back and thank you What I really appreciated was the examples that you gave at the on the second page because I found that really helpful to sort of Um map through the various sort of snakey ways that you could make your way through this Lottery, but I did have one question and maybe Um Maybe I'm just reading it wrong, but that that same paragraph that mr. Demling was cited the next um section um, I found confusing so I was wondering if you could Explain it, which is if more than 24 students enroll in groups one and two So the the spanish speaking groups those who are not offered a seat based on the lottery drawing on may 4th Will be entered into the pool for the next lottery group based on their enrollment zone so that does that Do I read that to understand that a Spanish speaking So somebody who'd be in group one or group two would then Be in the lottery with the english speaking or non spanish speaking In enrollment groups is that that is how it was yeah crafted last year So it's really we put it there as a contingency We think it's highly unlikely that that would ever happen We're trying very much to avoid that, but who knows you know in a couple years It was sort of thinking longer range like what if we do have a you know more Spanish speakers coming into our community for this program And what if that ends up being that there are 30 of them and that only leaves 10 seats and how do we think about that? So This was sort of a way to say well We really want to prioritize that group, but then there is a point at which we would say well We'll draw a line and then we would enter them into the other lottery. So So yeah, thank you Any other questions Miss spitzer And I apologize if we've already talked about this, but I have a question about the sibling confusing so No, it's okay. So and I'm trying to remember back to the last meeting and I don't have minutes in me But the question about siblings. Did we have the sibling preference? Last year as well Well, we didn't have any siblings coming in right yet But this was how the policy was written last year and there was some conversation among this committee about different options where we could change that but Dr. Mars and I didn't feel like there was any resolution or sort of actionable step to take on that conversation So we left it for now And that makes sense and I'm starting to just think about As we're moving forward and the Timeline that we're at right now. It's potentially that like a kindergarten or I could see having A sibling a sibling who wouldn't you know five years from now where we're in a new situation with potentially fewer schools and I guess I I'm just thinking I think we really want to be care. I think this Is good for now, but thinking forward to are we creating? Preferences that might be shifting as we move towards a new Geographic reality. I don't want to get into too many details, but it seems like These will have consequences Policies will have consequences as we move forward towards a new potential building situation So I'll take that one if it's okay. So, uh, we have loosely talked about that. I think we're a little ways away from Knowing exactly what that looks like, but I think in this scenario as I'm Intuiting that you're referencing if there was two elementary schools in Amherst at some point in the future Instead of three elementary schools at some point in the future I could understand where the sibling piece could get A little awkward and yet our commitment for the time being would be to follow through on the commitment when students One family said that they wanted this for their children So I think as the building project moves on and gets Closer to decision points And then we are going to have to revisit this policy because I there's a whole number of ways and these I spend more time than I'd like thinking about these iterations Um, but I think it's hard to predict that at the moment And an argument would be that in the sibling preference for the for the students who are in there now that we would maintain that Even if under a different scenario We want to maintain that because that's the sort of The contract essentially that was signed when families did it And so I think it would have to we'd have to have a transition plan for what that looked like over time Because you're going to have some families who have siblings next year And then you're going to have some families that are six or seven years apart And one is they're going to be very different scenarios. Hopefully i'm optimistic, right? There'll be very different scenarios for each of those situations So it's something that we actively have to keep in mind as we we go into the building project But know that we are thinking about it, but it's hard to plan for explicitly plan for that now Not knowing exactly how the building project will turn out I guess I just bring it up because I feel like this is kind of a contract And then it will whatever we say here we're going to have to honor And now we have new information that we didn't have last year At least with regards to the building project knowing that We are in the pipeline in a way and we've made a commitment towards a certain type of Not a commitment, but uh We've stated our preference through that statement of interest. Yeah, so um So anyways, I just think that we want to keep that in mind as we're making this public commitment Um of the consequences and how it's going to play out and Make things deeper more. No, absolutely. It's it is uh on on my mind. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah And we did you know as part of this process We said we would review this yearly because as it does grow each year We're going to learn new things our community may change the program may have different needs So we will continue to revisit it also as we as we go Mr. Deming So, um, I might be out on a uh on an island here, but um, I'd be interested if anyone else on the committee agrees or disagrees I'm kind of hung up on this this this may 4th to august 15th 20 to 24 Slots and it's and it's really based on on what's I think really well articulated Later on in the FAQ about why is language considered a factor and it talks about Many other considerations taken into account the district commitment to social justice our goal to close the opportunity gap for historically underserved students and that Well, you know while we've talked at length Why this has been official to both Spanish speakers and non Spanish speakers the primary driver is to address the The achievement gap for lack of a better term for spanish-speaking english-language learners and Under this model if if you have 20 or fewer spanish-speaking students on may 4th and then Either from forever or crocker or wildwood or school joys You get up to 24 Then those kids can't get into the program after 20 if they've if we've since Allowed 20 english speakers in I don't I don't like that. I don't like that the fact That that that could happen to those those four slots and I know that's a value judgment I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but I just think that at the end of the day If we're going to meet the most kids Who are spanish-speaking english-language learners with this approach that That we ought to hold that number out For for those students, but you know, I'm hoping to other perspective perspectives as well Yeah, I'd be interested to hear from the committee. I don't I would be Open to that Absolutely because of the same reasons that we've discussed I think it was just kind of based on what we know the numbers average have been in the last five years What we expected to see and who was in the community that we're trying to balance that But I absolutely agree with the point that Um that we do want to maintain that space. So I'd be open to hearing what everyone else thinks I for one would um would agree I I Maybe not quite as as deeply but I struggled to understand sort of if we're If we're saying as little as as few as 20 and as as many as 24 to say that that's our target range 24 is is our target, right? So that's so I would say, you know, at least until august 15th holding up to 24 seats for Spanish speaking with for groups one and group two seems logical to me but um and then fill and then Flipping it the other way that the additional seats if we're if we're low then go to the groups three and four after august 15th, but Dr. March Oh miss spitzer I guess my only fear would be the uncertainty it would place on families who were hoping to get those lots and the probability that we might I'm just imagining a monolingual english-speaking Parent who might make a choice to opt out of the emmer schools all take You know choose the other only other immersion program in the area and we Um or you know might get really excited about going to crocker or wildwood and start Building bridges there and then have to move um after august 15th It just just from a parent planning perspective. I I could see the reasoning for Not holding that level of uncertainty out for those parents Any thoughts Yeah Mr. Dr. Morris. Yeah, so I mean I think I could think of another model which I think Takes the feedback we've heard so far into account. Um Would be a little more graduated so I can imagine us um Having kind of if you think of the difference of the four slots from 24 to 20 um Opening two up on something like june 1st and or july 1st and then another two on august 1st to assist with that august 15th Does feel late and you know next year our school year starts late But in some years that would be like a week and a half before School starts and I understand the family planning piece So I think we could think of maybe coming back with a proposal that tries to achieve Opening or keeping open maintaining more open slots for spanish-speaking students While having kind of a little bit of an earlier timeline for families It may not be perfect, but I think we can try to approximate what that would look like Um because I think all the points I've heard so far are incredibly valid and we can we can work on something The committee would like us to Sounds good Any additional thoughts I guess just a clarifying question would be if we did that that we would still Just had a school of choice play into that number and would we keep that We would only allow school choice spanish speakers if We were under 20, but not if we were under 24 Does that make sense so would you keep? Right because the way it's written currently is that we would be allowing school choice spanish speakers if we had fewer than 20 Um district based spanish-speaking families So how do you feel about that question? Mr. Demley, I mean, I'll just say briefly through all these discussions. I really don't see I I know there's different perspectives on this My perspective is that we shouldn't be making that Heart of a distinction for spanish-speaking english language learners that are zoned to crocker or fort river or school choice Once you're in the district you're in the district in my point of view And if you know if the real value driver is to meet the needs of these students And we have these students that that they should be the priority And it's it's great that there is benefit for others, but I think that's that's just how I feel I think I have to disagree just having um Had conversations with the parents who are in our district With monolingual speaking kids who are extremely interested in this program and were Strongly disappointed last year that they didn't have slots. I think I'm not sure I hear what you're saying, but I I want to keep this program having broad support in the community and I think I don't think we should go below the what's recommended in terms of getting the outcomes We need for kids in our district and doing the english language learning piece and Everything he said I agree with but I I don't know. I'm just I'm just concerned about that reality Mr. Nakajima I feel like some more school committee members need to weigh in now Uh I uh, I mean although to be honest with that I miss I missed the last meeting with the in-depth conversation of this and so I feel like I don't know if anyone's ever taken the LSATs or something I feel like I'm trying to figure out of Sally sitting next to Peter How many you know, where's where's Tina? And so I I'm trying to catch up to exactly. Um, what what all of this means Uh, and I I love admitting my ignorance on camera. It's always so much fun Um, so two things one, I like the current policy that we fill in with school Spanish speaking school choice students After august 15th up to the number of 20 I think the point is I think the committee weighed in previously on that but there was a value to ensuring that the um the balance in the educational Program could in fact be implemented in a way that be beneficial to all the students as as we've studied So I think that makes total sense I also think I think a graduated model as the superintendent was describing Makes some sense because I can I can see this one both ways I think holding out till august 15th and creating more uncertainty among Families in the district doesn't make a lot of sense Um, and it's it is a funny conversation because our conversation last summer about this From beginning to end was all about we really hope the numbers of Spanish speaking models comes up Not the reverse, but it's so I appreciate The intensity of the conversation because we may get there soon in which case it's important to have these things worked out but I also think that I mean, this is a tough conversation. I'm I'm I know our former member And chair constantly asked questions like where are our outreach sessions? How aggressively are we marketing the program? Are we getting the word out again? Are we getting the word out about first grade? This is where I go with A little bit of the the vibe that miss spitzer was describing Are unwanted the community the entire community to engage celebrate and know about this program Because hey, we're not even through our first year. We want our first year to end well We want our second year to kick off well We want first grade to kick off well So this is an extremely important discussion, so don't get me wrong But i'm actually as interested in knowing that we're really Learning what we need to learn out of this first year Preparing educationally for the next year with two grades and that we're ensuring that whatever the rules of the road are We're doing everything we can to engage the community to get these enrollments anything more Nope, that's nice. I think just on the last point I know miss richardson and mrs. Moreland have a bunch of outreach sessions being scheduled that the local preschools including some of the ones that The primary one that has the majority of spanish-speaking students that come to our district And I think this gives us food for thought and we'll come back next month with More information and a kind of more concrete proposal for your consideration And I think the the dialogue is helpful even when there's not agreement And sometimes i'm like, you know superintendents tend to be like just how much you want But this this one's a complicated set of issues and so the dialogue actually is enriching for us because we have Our dialogue which is not in public. Thankfully probably for us We don't have cameras there But but I think it really mirrors a lot of the dialogue that we've we talked about 20 and 24 We talked about august 1st or 15th. These are all Conversations that we've had internally so that feedback is really helpful for us and we'll put something together for you in february Okay, thank you. Thank you So moving on to the next item we have again budget guidance review the family center This is a discussion presentation by family center staff about the work of that department Hi, so I'll do a brief introduction. I'll let dr. Guevara introduce her team But this was one of the requests from the amherst school committee on budget guidance and we are trying to both Share all the things that the committee might be interested in in a short amount of time So you're not going to hear about everything the family center does because we'd be here all night because they do A tremendous amount of incredibly essential work for our families and and thus our students But you know, one of the focuses that was also around homelessness That there was an interest on so they're going to touch on on multiple things, but that's one to make sure that you're Listening out for and certainly the group is ready for questions with that. I'll turn over to dr. Guevara. Thank you Hi, I'm Marta yurada and director of student and family engagement for all three districts Tonight though i'm really excited to be sharing The work that we do in the family center for the amherst district for our amherst community And we will try to be brief We'll try to do, you know, give you a snapshot of some of the work we do And as well as give you some we'd love to hear your questions So i'm here with my dynamic team some of them We have a dwen chamble who is our out of school time coordinator. You'll hear from everybody. We have two minutes each. We're gonna be quick We have anastasia morton who's our fabulous Youth leadership coordinator. We have emma steiner Also, um, michelle rudry. This is not here But both of them are our steps to success tier three, which you'll hear what it is case managers We also have, um, a once a week person a great intervention for Outreach for our cambodian families that seha crotch who works at both crocker farm and fort river And we have um, milder martinez who is our registrar and also our assistants So my strategy is to read some of my comments because otherwise I will speak all night and we don't have time for that So the family center was established, um, eight years ago and it was um As a response to our diverse community We are an informational hub for all families and offer tiered support as needed Our passion is the academic achievement of our students and our commitment is to help them and their families navigate our educational programming for their academic success Our center is a very busy place all day long weekends evenings Um, as you will hear we offer support for all students and families such as with registration for all elementary schools information about before after school programs and many other topics As well as a programming designed for specific needs such as first generation families families fleeing from violence families experiencing homelessness and many other situations In terms of um, of families experiencing home homelessness, which was one of the priorities We have an average of 30 families at any given time in our three amherst elementary schools experiencing this It's not a number we We can predict But they come to us for many different reasons, um throughout the year We work very closely with jesse's house as a shelter For families and transition in town. We work with the department of children and families and many other agencies To support our families through the mckinney vento act, which is a federal mandate We also support families That are brought to us By relatives who have sheltered them because they have lost their permanent housing due to many different reasons When that happens the main focus is having students in school Um and identifying what they need in order for them to be safe and for their well-being Oftentimes transportation is one of the main challenges And when this happens, uh families have the choice of staying in their home school So wherever they were living and or Coming to school in amherst when that happens we work with ascending district to coordinate transportation and other supports um We work with school staff. We work with agencies. We work with families and And supporting community agencies to meet to make sure that our families and students have what they need When they need it to be successful Our work is to support all students have access be fully able to participate and benefit from my educational programming While partnering with family school staff and everyone contributing to that end And then we'll have dwayne How you doing my name is dwayne chamble. Um, I am the out of school time coordinator for the district My job primarily has me I'm responsible for before school after school in summertime programming The amherst pellum regional school district or amherst in particular We have before school care program at all three elementary schools Which now services over a hundred families in the in the community As well as the after school care program Which I oversee the three after school care providers that are at all three elementary schools Along with that with the collaboration that comes with these programs. Um, for example, we have the district buses that take this children home tuesday wednesdays and thursdays and one of my Responsibilities is to ensure that all kids get home safely. So I receive the all clear text Three nights out the week making sure everybody's there um, and apart from that going into the Summertime programming we have the summer academy which runs three weeks out of the month in july where we provide Reading and writing intervention for four hours a day through the summer And my job is primarily to oversee that entire program make sure Enrollment registration transportation is all there and accounted for My job It has a lot of different facets parts that I really love about it is the communication the collaboration Literally touching all different all literally all all all aspects of the of the amherst school district from transportation to teachers to classroom teachers and parents and As far as the role and um with the leadership of dr. Givada Um, you know, I really think back to some of the Words that I got when I first started the job of treating all children like they're my Like they're my child my child and soon to be children We'll be attending the district and all of many changes that are going on. So You know, we thank you for having us here I thank you for having us here and look forward to the continued Work that we have ahead of us for all of our kids. Thank you All right, good evening. I can speak a lot. So I'm going to stick to my script Good evening everyone I'm anastasia morton and I'm the youth leadership coordinator for the district tonight I'm just going to share about two projects. Although I can share about many the two I'm going to share about all that they made it So can I project and working with teachers in the second year of their time in the school district Both initiative aims to teach students and teachers about the vast different Pathways to success success because it's not only one for all the students in the district as well as the teachers understanding that for the students So since um the 2016's kind of the 2017 academic year that they made it So can our project started working in the amherst and pelham districts for this project? All of the sixth graders get a chance to hear from speakers that could be community partners students from the high schools that um went to the different elementary schools as well as professionals in the district and college students that are in this area Throughout this time many speakers have got a chance to share about their sixth grade experience and how the things that they learned And middle school helped them be the professionals They are today as well as the teachers get a chance to hear from people who didn't have the best experience in middle school Because for a lot of the sixth graders that is their experience is middle school So teachers and students get to say that the time that you have now really doesn't dictate Will you'll be in the future? But this is a part of your life Throughout that students get to do hands-on activity as well as engage with dialogue with the speakers and other students in their grade Throughout this project. I'm able to get feedback from the teachers and students on ways to improve it as well As was going on correctly Along with that they made it so can our project I've also got to facilitate workshops and professional development for staff and administrators in the district Recently i've got to work with durian cunningham and facilitating workshops for second-year teachers Each training has about 15 teachers from the various elementary schools And over the past two years students from the high school in particular have assisted with co-facilitating some of these workshops Most recently. I got the chance to have Teachers and high school students ranging from ninth grade to 12th grade get to share about Times that they felt most supported and times that they wish they were more supported Teachers really got a chance to hear from the students and engage with them On a range of listening to them in a fishbowl But also getting to speak with them one on one I like to always in the workshops was hearing from the teachers about one thing that they took from the workshop That they didn't think about before they came in with that They'll get to leave with and it's always good for like the students to get to hear that As well as the teachers to get to know things that they're doing that they should continue And maybe things that they should pocket for later Well with the time that I have left I would just like to say that this work cannot be done alone And I am blessed with the chance to be invested with a team that encourages growth mindset Critical thinking and self-reflection and thank you for your time tonight Good evening everybody. My name is Emma Steiner As it was mentioned, I'm one of two steps to success case managers Michelle Rodriguez my counterpart is unfortunately home with a sick child. So she wishes she could be here, but sorry I will also stick to my script As a sts case manager, we work directly with families students teachers administrators counselors mental health teams and staff at all three elementary schools We work flexibly to meet each family's individual needs Our goal is to remove barriers to student academic success For their elementary school years and beyond what makes us unique is that we have the opportunity to continue partnering with a particular family Pardon me until their youngest child graduates from high school We support our families in numerous ways, but a priority is helping them navigate our school systems While also supporting the understanding of our families for our school staff We get referrals from school administrators and mental health teams for our sts program And parents and guardians or students are always welcome to walk into our center to get one-time help or more long-term support As they would like we work closely with various community partners including but not limited to it by any means lsse big brothers big sisters chd family outreach of amherst head start center for new americans Service net reach programming cso and service net counseling services and many others If we don't have an answer or solution we find it Find a community resource or fill the need ourselves as a temporary stop gap This year as a center we've made it a priority to invite community partners every friday to keep up with current information about the services Offered and maintain our great community relationships More specifically at each of the three elementary schools. We have weekly lunch groups of fourth fifth and sixth grade students We love seeing the students in these meetings. It's so much fun We host discussions and mini lessons, which the kids say the most incredible things. It's absolutely fascinating Some topics include strengths and differences and how differences are important in our larger community We cover growth mindset navigating social media, which is so important these days Dealing with situations in and out of school organizations self-care mental health and more Like all of us in the arbs family center. Michelle and I wear multiple hats We make sure that our students and families get to benefit from all of the wonderful programming We offer within our district and our center and our community while supporting anybody who walks in Especially since now we house the elementary school registrar We're able to more directly communicate with those families who need more support either navigating our community Those who might be dealing with a dv situation or those who are considered McKinney-Vento or homeless We have developed a local resource guide to provide families in these cases We've also already provided it to the counselors at each elementary school to share there as well Because we recognize that sometimes they get to the schools and they might not always get to us Um so in some in the last eight years We have and continue to accumulate knowledge resources connections and community partners To benefit all district families in addition to our caseload of steps to success families Thanks And so I'll close by saying that this is just a snapshot, but we we work We want to stress that we work with all families. We consider all families as our part of our Caseload and we're very thankful to the principals other administrators staff All staff in the schools that partner really well and of course the families because they're the base of the strength You have questions Thank you, mr. Harrington Yeah, um just very briefly I was wondering if you could uh kind of give like a distilled synopsis of your approach to dealing with uh homeless families So we when families come to us and again, they come to us in many different ways, right? So we just get to know people so people come in to register or people come in through one of our agencies or DCF contacts us and says We're placing a student as a in a foster home in Amherst. So the many different realities It's all about, you know, we want to get the student in school as soon as possible We want to see what their needs are, but it's from a strength base. We don't ask questions Other than You know, they fill out the paperwork everybody else feels and if they share with us some information. That's our leeway in So we we're you know very very in In terms of confidentiality and in terms of support and respect and honoring people as they come in We we work with families. I think that's what I would say but We do an intake that to determine what kinds of needs they have number one priority is for students to get into school But are they safe? We have You know, there are many different kinds of you know realities for for our Homeless families many different categories. We have unsheltered families who have no shelter living We have had People that we've discovered living in cars. We have doubled and tripled up families. We have unaccompanied youth We have families who come to us Like I said with DCF and other agencies So it all varies but for us, it's welcoming supporting respectful environment And we meet we try to meet their needs working with a lot of other people with that. Is that Is that Anything else with that? But again, we we build relationships And that's our most important thing Dr. Morris So I think dr. Var is also quite modest So I think the other thing to note that's critical in my opinion is that they often act as a they being the family center staff Can act as a conduit to support the family in a transition and that might be a transition That's happening a family that's in the Amherst that becomes homeless It might be a family that's not living in Amherst that comes to has the Homeless status and then becomes a student in the Amherst public schools and like any organization And that's one of the reasons we moved registration to the family center To be enveloped with support care and also to understand if families do identify needs They can help work to help that transition and what we know for any student transitioning to a new district or new Housing situation can be a challenge particularly when you add on the layers of the challenges of having a homeless status or being homeless That significantly raises the stakes of the level of trauma that many of our students and families experience And so having that additional support to ease that that kind of the runway into starting the school year Starting the year whenever it is not always in the fall It's it's all year quite literally Is incredibly valuable and working in partnership with the schools really supports that entry for students now What happens after the entry is so case specific But I do think that transition and having that smoothing and having registration being having been moved to the family center Has really opened a lot of doors for families to feel supported when they first come in in a particularly Unfortunate situation for many of them who really need these resources on the list and then beyond and and I think As Emma stated, it's you know, what are the resources? What are the community agencies that can support families? And how do we Connect the two because it's not always obvious for families particularly families who are having a difficult difficult difficult experience Sorry, yeah, and we have families who become homeless who who just lose their jobs lose their housing, right and just and trauma was mentioned before so have experiencing homelessness experiencing other kinds of realities such as Fleeing from violence fleeing from domestic violence and for more from war-torn countries undocumented families We have a large number of documented families who are Homeless and again, there's they're doubled and tripled up and how to navigate that reality Mr. Dell um, I just want to thank all of you for for sharing your experience, you know, it's it's uh It's it's really great that you know, we're we're having this meeting you know a day after martin luther king day Yes, you know he talks about the network of mutuality and I mean y'all are like living that truth Those community values we sometimes just talk abstractly about on the committee You know and it's just it's so great to hear how we have a part of our school that supports Students and families and teachers. I can't think of another component of our schools that that intersects all three so I just want to say briefly if there are you know things budget-wise that come up to you later on You know feel free to send them to us we can always consider it We're in budget season. You don't have to send to this guy Just direct to us. We'll think about thank you so much because in our vision from when we started to where we are So when we set out our initial goals and our long-term goals It's interesting that part of our long-term goals was a zero to three population having Our families provide that so we were we wanted to provide our parents, you know On guardians with the training with the support. So there's many different ways of going but I appreciate that It's also good to think and to dream Yeah, like one question that that occurred to me as you were describing some of those I mean some really intense experiences right fleeing from violence homelessness not knowing Where your next shelter is um, I would imagine that the students and families might struggle with the stigma of of that And uh, is is that part of of the of the sort of teacher training and or and their student peer training like What's what's the family center center's role in helping students? Yeah, so we provide support and guidance But we are so lucky to have just incredible leadership and staff in our schools That part of the training that we do is about welcoming all families and what that means I will tell you that I'm a graduate of Amherst Regional high school. I won't say from when But what I will share is that my experience my terrible experience when I first came here as an immigrant um Help design the family center vision and the work I did in at the high school for many years because there was a stigma You had to go to the lunch room and give a number I mean give your last name and it was give out You better believe that every day I had to say it three times And you know, so the reality is that we we have to fight continuously and for us I mean, we are not allowed to To not have a strength base reality with students families and with our staff But I I agree with you. I think most of the work that we do is building that relationship and trying to Identify what are some of those needs that families have and you know, they welcome it Snacks What it's very important I want to explain why it's important for several reasons Middle schoolers. It's a transition. They're changing from the elementary school. Oh, sorry Amherst Snacks And I would just also like to add quickly as far as when you talk about the Seamless transition and the collaboration and having to register there in my position as the out of school time coordinator It's been many times. I get a call duane, you know, we have a family before school after school transportation You know get it all set up so that it's you know one two three and we're giving back the family the whole package You know, they're they're registered in after school. I forgot to mention as well the district subsidies I oversee the district subsidies for where we supply subsidies for families to attend after school to make sure that We make sure that all families have the the equal and Level opportunities to have the same experiences that all other students are having So when you talk about the seamless transition in our different roles, you know That's something that we we work with right together and the family doesn't even have to you know Worry about where's my kid gonna go or what kind of service gonna have we're already, you know be there to provide it So that's just one example of that seamless transition with the work and something as simple as backpacks We provide backpacks We now have a backpack fund because we started many years ago But we have them in our office. So when we have homeless families We're able to say what color do you like, you know And we offer backpacks with supplies. It's that are just just something as simple as that just It's incredible what families say make them feel Miss spitzer I just wanted to say thank you as well for all of the work you're doing and as somebody who's Worked a lot on homelessness from our research perspective. I think we are often When we think about homelessness and I mean we like Those of us who haven't experienced it, um, we often envision Folks, um, who we might see on the street. So the single older Adult and I think it's really often People don't see family homelessness and I know you guys see it and because you just told us 30 families and amorous and I think anybody tuning in tonight would be kind of shocked and Dismayed by that number that it's so high um So I guess my question is it Is there a um Do we count that at all right now like I and if so I feel like we should be putting this in our budget Since this is a budget meeting like one of the relevant numbers for I think our school district gets to know that Not only do we serve this many students, but we serve this many students who are experiencing homelessness and I Imagine like the services you're providing but also services throughout our budget that are going to support those students are not necessarily um recognized By folks who might be reading our budget are thinking about um The cost to our district for doing so this is also just the need. I mean, I think we need to Um bring attention to this issue just because it it's too high And if we can't start getting attention to change, you know, more affordable How I mean there are so many things that are totally beyond our control But I think we need to be talking about it in order to start um Seeing policy changes that we need to this issue. Yes, so we do have to track it This is information that we track again. We try to predict but it's very hard But um, this is information that we keep for the state clearly There's and we do have a budget line for mckinney vento But it's one that again we predict. I mean last year was an incredible year. I mean we have to add because again Students who it's a great mckinney vento is to support and provide for those those students and make sure that there's Try to have a seamless reality for them in term. I mean of transition So that students continue to get their education families can continue to thrive and that we work on, you know Interrupting that cycle of poverty, etc Um, but the reality is that mckinney students under mckinney vento can choose the school They go to which is great so they can choose to stay where they were So these are you know if students that we get from other places Or students who come to housing in amherst can choose to stay wherever they are the majority of them want to be with us because of our schools Um, but we pay we cost share for transportation with sending districts in that regard There there's another category of students who are under the uh custody of the department of children and families That we just this is a new reality We're just signed on to be able to get some money back because up until now It's been an unfunded mandate that we you know, we have a best interest hearing by child And we determine what's you know, what placement is best for that for that student and that has been on the districts We've had to pick up that whole uh transportation and because we uh, we have to contract out with a transportation service It's about $150 per child per day So it's $75 each way even in a family of four we have to pay for each student We clearly work with our great transportation department to try to keep it in house, but you know, it's really complicated So Mr. Nakajima Well first off, thanks so much for your presentation. I think what you're doing is absolutely wonderful I'm repeating what others have said. I also would say that you're Even though the questions are going on for a long time You're a model. You know how you said earlier you helped do workshops and modeling different things for You could do the same thing for staff and doing presentations for the school committee Because you're really well organized. Yeah, you were clearly modeled how you're a team So I think it was wonderful But I mean I don't want to go into it But I thought there were a number of points you made around what you're doing That we could have an entire meeting on itself and I think it's really wonderful I would just echo something that was said a moment ago Not when I think of how I think we have a narrative at the beginning of our budget book And I think rather than putting this there's like two different sections of the narrative one narrative section would say You know, we have x number of charter school students and the tuition is costing us this money That's not where I think of this going we have another section of the narrative that sort of describes demographic trends and just sort of Profiles our community profiles who we are and I think I think this is A very valuable thing to put in there in the same way that Economically distressed kids would you know the percentage would be worthwhile putting in there too. You know what I mean? We're not we are not I don't want to ever put it in a place where it looks like we're questioning The dollars in value out sort of the question because that's Hideous and wrong and I know no one was suggesting that But I'm just I'm just I'm just clarifying because you mentioned like the bikini vento line And I'm I'm I'm think I think the the request which I fully support is to have more of a description Of just a profile of our community, but then including that Um that segment of our population And also the other key thing is it's it's not really a segment of our population Because people go in and out of homelessness and then other people who are not homeless go into homelessness and You also talked earlier about this, but there's a huge percentage of of People who are homeless or families who are homeless who are doubling up in other homes or apartments? And so they're not properly sheltered There's a huge psychological burden that kids carry families carry through that process even though they're being Maybe even lovingly supported and cared for by other relatives It places an amazing burden on those families. And so I think getting an opportunity to talk about that In a way that allows us year to year to carry that conversation forward Is a great thing to do, but also would kind of support your work Like it signs attention on the kinds of things you're doing, which is great And we appreciate from a strength base. So, you know, that's always a tricky conversation to have You know when I've been called to talk about for example our undocumented families, right? It's I just want to reiterate we're better because of our diversity. We're better because of who we are But we're also better Because we're supporting all these causes and families and you know We continue having conversations about you know, when there's no public transportation what happens to these families We've done a lot with getting food to our students, you know now, you know universal breakfast and You know and and being able to provide for them. So there's there's a lot We'd love to come back with more information And with questions So thank you. I won't I won't add anything other than thank you very much. It was really really interesting and I'm just blown away by the amount of air traffic control that you do and I think connecting the dots for Families in our community is is is wonderful. So I and I echo everything the sentiment that everybody else in the committee has said So thank you. Thank you so much So we're about 45 minutes behind at this point um And moving on to our next topic is the crocker farm school improvement plan update a discussion and presentation from crocker farm about the implementation of your improvement plan from last week Hi So I can very briefly introduce assistant principal smith and principal shay from crocker farm I think they will follow the tradition or the path that was set with relatively brief number of slides That's trying to encapsulate a tremendous amount of work and information And just just again to talk about the purpose of this is that last year all three elementary schools Presented school improvement plans to the school committee last spring and what we've committed to is is each school will provide an annual update To the committee of how's the work going? What course corrections? Our adjustments need to be made and and a summary of the work. So in the packet you can see the slides and In the school committee packet in particular because there was a lot of pages. So we did Trying to also be sustainable There was additional information that the school provided about some of the work particularly as it relates to social justice So with that I'll turn it over to the administrator's crock farm sorry, good evening Let's just air clock. I'm actually Much better at five o'clock in the morning Again, you're fifties. You can go to bed at eight thirty. Um, so I apologize if Anyway, first thing I want to say was um, I want to say hello to mr. Harrington and uh Thank you. Welcome. Good to see you ben Uh, can I say that you're a crocker farm parent? I'm allowed to say that. I just say it absolutely So, uh, thank you ben. Good to see you. Um, uh, I'll just say a couple of quick words and and then we'll get rolling so, um, I just Wanted to say something that was hoping we wouldn't talk about tonight You certainly can ask us if you want, but I was just hoping we could talk about it some other time I think I was watching on tv a little while ago And I think one of the things that come up uh in reference to our lovely little school with some dialogue A bit mcast stuff and so, um, Jen and I were actually talking about that and we'd be More than happy to come back some other time and talk about mcast We're not actually here to present a bit mcast tonight. We're here to present it with the school improvement plan But we'll see what happens if you ask us about that stuff. Um, I just think it's a complex conversation that probably comes some other time Um, uh, just quickly and I think I spoke about this before so I've been here This is my 23rd year here working in the Amherst schools, and I'm very proud of that that number Over the course of the the the time that I've been here 22 and a half years or so I've uh worked through a variety of iterations of school improvement plans and I think School improvement plans are these sort of documents that often gather Dust type things and it's usually because what happens in the beginning It's a small number of people that get involved and there's a usually a principal and sometimes an assistant principal Small number of other folks and it never really gets the traction or the energy that it deserves And so we've tried our best and I think we are actually doing something a little bit different this time In the the plan itself involved all of our staff and the plan itself involved a large number of our community members And then what we'll talk about in a minute is the plan Actually involves the leadership in the direction of all of our teachers So it's not just like a principal or an assistant principal or some other person who's telling people what to do We'll talk about it in a second the way that we've tried to structure this work Is that everyone in our school and particularly probably about 25 or 30 teachers who help leading the work in this Are actually the ones that are responsible for for the implementation We do like to get Money and support and people coming From outside to assist us But I think one of the things that we've realized and learned is that Inside our building and inside our community lies a lot of the answers to the questions that we have because we've got a lot Of very talented bright people So that's what we'll talk about in a second is what the sort of talented bright people in our school are doing To help us with the implementation of our plan Okay, so as we shared last spring our school improvement plan is really driven by three major goal areas One around equitable engaged learning One around building stronger relationships and two one about just supporting healthy happy resilient kids And so in august we formed three committees that really are driving the implementation of these goals One committee is the engaged learning committee one being the well-being committee and then one the social justice committee And tonight we're just going to briefly share with you what those committees are doing to help drive the collective goals forward So the first committee is the engaged learning committee and To date they have facilitated four Staff meetings around the tenets of universal design for learning So teachers have learned about what are the barriers to instruction. They brainstorm different barriers They've looked at an examined grade level data They've thought about Different ways that kids can show what they know and they've also thought about new strategies to help Support kids to set their own learning targets So in every staff meeting teachers have Learned new strategies and action They've had opportunities for small group discussion And they've been able to give the committee feedback about their learning and what they want to know so that they're driving What the committee is engaging the staff with So these are just two of many examples of what staff After staff meetings what teachers have done to apply what they're learning from Just the teachers talking about what they've done and tried So these are two examples of teachers doing goal setting with students one around writing and then one around Reading and decoding I think I'm just going to say a quick couple of words about our well-being committee So last summer three of our staff members Went to a training that was I think held by perhaps Suffolk Law School Through the collaborative don't really remember the exact specifics But they went to a training that really was looking at the tenets of restorative practices restorative justice These are all words that have been sort of hanging around for a number of years We've actually been using them in our school for a number of years And we were really the people went to the training brought back the work and and what we've been doing I think perhaps four or five different staff meetings. Actually, that's one of the books That's up there. I got a number of other books that we're utilizing is that what we've been doing is actually saying This whole notion of like what happened to was harmed. How are we going to make it better? This is a Way of sort of trying to to deal with when challenging situations arise in school And one of the things that we realized is that teachers themselves And that's a photograph of some of our lovely teachers up there Teachers themselves need to be well versed in the notion about what restorative practices and restorative circles are And so we've actually been sitting with the teacher leadership group and actually practicing how to do restorative circles We're almost in a circle here right now So right so you get this idea that everyone can see each other and everyone can sort of speak one another and sort of get Feeling for for how people are experiencing the situation. And so it's not an easy task Some fantastic learning and many more. I think meetings to come in that work Okay, and so the social justice committee has met seven times since august It will be eight after tomorrow because we're meeting tomorrow after school And really what we've been able to do is really learn about teaching tolerance Antibias framework and an equity literacy framework. We've also had two full day workshops with the former senior manager of teaching and learning at teaching tolerance And there really are two main essential questions that are guiding our work together One is about how do we affirm identity? Celebrate diversity teach justice and inspire action The other one is what is our equity vision for our kids in classrooms and our school? so really the The social justice standards from teaching tolerance have really like propelled and launched us into the learning that we're doing Around supporting students identities and helping them to be their full selves when they come to crocker farm Creating classroom environments that reflect diversity equity injustice engaging families and culturally sustaining ways And how do we as staff speak up and encourage students to speak up against injustice and bias? We had a great opportunity in december on our early release day To really as a staff focus our learning around supporting students identities and making them feel safe at school and hillary monagu from Safe schools at the stonewall center Engaged our teachers and paras in grades kindergarten through third around Best practices to serve to serve our lgbtq students And then meanwhile teachers were working in And pairs in fourth through six around the same topic but through the lens of our health and wellness curriculum That's targeted at those upper grades And it was a pretty amazing time for everybody to actually really be Our teachers our pairs our staff everybody in the building be like taking the time to work on this stuff So next steps for the committee is really to continue to meet regularly discuss apply what we're learning But really begin to start action planning around how are we going to replicate this work with staff? Our families and the community moving forward I'll just add two quick things. So here's a couple of just examples Those are some of our lovely people again There's two quick examples of something that just even because it's hard to actually Sit here and talk to you about school when and I've said this a number of times You're more than welcome to come sometime to a staff meeting or to come and just walk around with us for an hour Or with other people for an hour You get a little bit more of the sense of the culture and the energy and the buzz and the the atmosphere But just two things I'll mention briefly. So today's Tuesday. So on Thursday night We're hosting an event in our library Miss Santiago is our librarian our third year librarian and she's getting amazing website I meant to send it to you all and I forgot but I'll send you your website And so what we're trying to do on Thursday night, for example, is we're inviting families to come in To look at this sort of massive variety of books that we have in our library that sort of tackle Like all sorts of incredible pieces about who we are as as individuals in this world This is a pgo sort of sponsored event through our social justice group And then we're trying to again bring families and take a look at what the books that we have and actually use our library as a library So that people can come and pick up books So that's just a little a little snippet of something. I'll just tell you something else quickly Here's a good example. You probably all approved this a few weeks ago Someone who's a former teacher in a school said i'm going to give you 800 bucks Right and the teacher said here's what I want you to do with the 100 bucks I want you to spend the money and I want you to go around and make sure that a whole bunch of kids That in your school who I used to work with or perhaps populations I work with Make sure that they we get them registered and enrolled in some activities that are taking place in town, right? So over the last couple weeks One of my counselors and one of my teachers and then someone who works in the office If you go on a Saturday morning or Sunday morning You go for now went this Saturday morning to the middle school to watch like the sonic bobcats versus the sonic versus the bobcats Right as a 1015 kickoff or tip off or whatever you want to call it basketball And so the goal was to spend the money right to go in our school and to make sure that we get as many kids as possible Who don't ordinarily sign up and go and participate in events to go and actually sign up and participate right And to work on getting car rides and practice and various things So when you come to school on a monday morning or a tuesday morning, right? You can get involved in the dialogue and the conversation with those pieces just a small little piece there, right? But it means a huge piece and ben knows what i'm talking about right because you're running in that circle, right? Where you're constantly sort of involving kids I went saturday morning. I was watching crocker farm after crocker farm and all sorts of different teams Just a little piece, but that's the sort of energy and the sort of feeling that we're trying to get is a sort of collaboration and connection We're happy, um I know you all get talked at a lot at night, but we're happy I don't know how you'll do it, but um Maybe if there's a question or two Any questions Mr. Deming So I like the the uh what you described structurally about how Involving as many people as possible on the input and the output so that you're not just Uh, doesn't just doesn't just collect dust, you know, I back in my crocker days I worked on some things that may be eventually collected dust, so I know what you're talking about So I like the approach. It's good. Um I love the description a lot of the stuff you're doing one thing I found intriguing When you're talking about uh teaching tolerance and working with uh kata 3 for lgp dq Lifestyle and values and and supporting students It's it's funny like I almost think like it's inverse when we talk about teaching tolerance that the younger they are the more they already are there And it's just a matter of encouraging the values. They already have it's like the adults that really need the to be taught So like what does that look like? In a like a real like experience kind of way when you're when you're engaging Children that young on on values, um, that adults get wrong, but young children seem to often, you know, intuitively Have that that tolerance. Yeah, so what is really helpful is that teaching tolerance has the social justice standards are broken up by Grade level ban. So kindergarten through second and three through five So it helps guide teachers to make sure that we're teaching in more of like a systematic developmentally appropriate way So in kindergarten through second grade, it would be about just supporting kids identity understanding that It's okay to have multiple perspectives and come from different places and asking Um appropriate questions for differences right and teaching kids how to ask ask questions Ask also while affirming their own individuality Yeah, I think one of the things that uh so we've Done some interesting work on on on matters related to sort of transgender Members of our community and and so hillary montague who came to us from the stonewall center She actually is I think hired by desi to come and it wasn't costing any money It should be essentially what's for desi So so on a practical level you've got a Person called hillary who comes in and actually trying to educate the adults in her building the staff A bit matters that sometimes my fourth well not 14 any more but my younger daughter You know knows more a bit matters than sometimes adults do so here's an example of a conversation when we were in In our in the meeting that hillary came with with staff members where people were debating the merits of whether or not teachers should have Gender specific groups for lunch with their students So should a teacher be saying there's a third there was a Dialogue discussion saying should I invite all the quote boys to come and have lunch with me Because what does that mean and who identifies and who gets left out? And what does that mean for someone who's perhaps not? So fascinating conversations taking place with adults to try and help our learning curve get sharper and stronger Mr. Nakajima Thank you. I love hearing about it. I love you guys are doing I think it's wonderful um one question I have is Whether you're hearing what you've heard back or whether it's I don't know if it's too early for what you've heard back from The staff around how This work is affecting practice And also just how you're thinking about that because I mean to me when you're doing something That's Sort of this organically directed and I remember last year we were talking about the fact that there's a huge correspondence between where you were going and what the identity and what the The work of crocker already was and that this is in sort of a natural outgrowth of it and so one of the questions that comes up to me is that before one talks about sort of broad structural or programmatic impacts and things that look really great when you're breaking it out with headers and subheadings on an outline is just what you're learning and what you're gathering from from That practice from the staff and your colleagues and you're in both of you yourselves Yeah, so I think that's a great question one I think you have a an example of a staff survey in your Packet of materials that I think I sent in which was from november Which is just kind of taking the pulse of where teachers are at But I just you know could just speak to what I see is that I see a lot of teachers being like oh, right Google like using google apps like google read and write and when we're projecting something video images Always put the subtitles on it's just like these Little shifts to instruction that are more inclusive And when we were able to like think about just like what are potential barriers to instruction The dialogue around staff and then staff going and doing and then we have 8am meetings that are structured So when we do problem solve around kids in cases The what's teachers are bringing to the table what what they're trying and what they're doing is Ideas that they've gotten from staff meetings. So anecdotally I can say that I I have seen Teachers just do these minor shifts. I think it would be interesting to kind of collect some more information about impact Yeah, and I think the thing I would say that and I'm just looking at some faces up there in the picture who've actually Two people are sitting next next didn't one of them is a fourth grade teacher and the other was a first grade teacher And the fourth grade teacher had actually presented some work in the staff meeting And then the next day the first grade teacher was in the classroom Trying her best to implement it with her first graders, right? And so there's this hunger for people to learn from one another and I think the What they were working on in the in the meeting was a fourth grade writing goals, right? How do you help students set appropriate goals and targets for their writing? And so then the first grade teacher getting this long conversation with the fourth grade teacher after the meeting About how I could try something different tomorrow in class, right? And so I think there is this sort of hunger and desire and willingness and an openness for people to To work with one another and learn from one another, right? We all have strengths weaknesses, you know, whatever it may be everyone worth one more thing I'm developing and so thinking about this Are you how are you thinking about identifying? I mean sort of there's two different levels of thinking of outcomes I remember one of the things we talked about last year was, you know, how are you going to measure Change whatever your goals and benchmarks and things like that And I think that's valuable. So I'm not trying to just punt and put that aside But I'm also trying to think that if you have a strong broad participation Whole staff sort of participation in this work That's really draining you can feel endless And which means you also have to have moments where you can identify Some level of success and without necessarily singling at individuals I'm not thinking and something like group activity because I'm not thinking of it in terms of saying like you give One individual an award for improvement or something because that sounds like totally opposite of what you're trying to do but but There's there's got to be some way To celebrate and acknowledge and identify that if you're doing this work and you're having something like 21 or 24 meetings Or 30 over the course of a year Um What feels good and what feels successful in a way that also resonates with your staff So instead of it being like getting like, you know A sticker for an accomplishment There's actually some translation between what you've been trying to accomplish What you've been talking about and things that people can feel that they've Experienced in their change work environment success. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about that Well, you know when I was in the classroom and being in the reading specialist for a number of years I think what was really motivating and what I see is most motivating for teachers is when they try something and it works and they see that like oh for kids that like access point and I see a lot of that happening right now And I think we've the the committee and Derek and I've really tried to support a manageable amount of of things that teachers are learning so instead of 30 meetings with all new things it's like 30 meetings getting deep in talking about three or four things right and so I think Providing the space and time for teachers to celebrate successes is really important and we do it before every staff meeting and I think what's motivating teachers to try it is because they see success with it And the thing I was just saying and you perhaps you know You get this yourselves if you're feeling like you've got unity in your in your group here Is that is that again? I'm just reflecting and looking at because again when I look at the photograph up there I know the story behind lots of The photograph up there is that people have this hunger and desire to learn But they also have a hunger and desire to learn together and with other people And I think there's a sort of energy that you see from people Again, we're not I'm not getting the nuts and bolts here. We're not paying people Extra money occasionally you may get a day to do some work in the summer for this But we're not paying people large chunks of money to actually do this work people are doing it because they see that it's actually Part of what our school is about and and and and it's a so there's a drive to that So I think again, it's someone who comes from like a team background I I feel like there's a there's a piece of this that is sort of team driven for the right reasons Dr. Morris. Yeah, just to add two things I think it's a great question and I appreciate the responses at abroad. No, it's right on at a broader level The current commissioner of education has talked every his stump speech Which I'll hear again Thursday. I'm sure it will be that we've gotten as far as we can get collectively with the standards movement And there's a there's a group of teachers in our state Who is looking for someone to unleash the collaborative learning that's going to bring them to the next level And that for too long and I'm not saying this is true necessarily in Amherst, but too long statewide The focus has been on standard mcast standards mcast standards mcast and There was some reason in his opinion. There's some good reason for that And It's taken away from some of this other critical work. That's really affirming The other thing and I can send this out if anyone's interested. There's pdk is an organization They do an annual survey of teachers and communities. It's often known Most famously for that everyone ranks their school really well in terms of parents They rank their district schools lower and they rank the nation schools terribly But like that happens everywhere. So they have this really weird national data set where People in general are really happy with their schools. No matter where they live No matter the achievement scores of their schools They're slightly less happy with the other schools in their district and just horrified at the nation schools So it gets a lot and that it's like it's been going on. It's a longitudinal survey It's been going on for like 30 40 years. And so one of the things that They talked about in this year's themes 2019 I should say because it came out in the fall was about What teachers leaving the workforce? And so there's some predictable things particularly in certain areas of the country south midwest with salaries Which is it's certainly it's not that it's not true in the northeast in the west, but it's less prevalent But one of the big things is is the ability to collaborate and feel like they're part of a collective enterprise that it's not Independent contractors are sharing a parking lot and and that really matters for morale It really matters for a stability of staff and staff members staying in the position And transiency of teachers either with it between schools or districts, but also within the field So I think I think it's a great question. I appreciate the answers But I wanted to support the response is that there's there's both national data as well as statewide emphasis right now On doing the critical work that they're describing Miss spitzer I just Couldn't not say thank you very much. I think I predate everybody here and that I was actually a student at cracker farm Before the MCAS and I think it's nice to see that we are You know when I was there there was this tradition still of You know as they're under pack when paul wiley was the principal and I still remember like the mlk day celebration. So, um Just thank you for continuing the good work So, um, thank you Thank you very much. I won't add to it. We were already so far behind. Thank you so much. It was I'm feeling handicapped at my very first meeting that we're so far behind agenda We've been trying To Thank you We'll see if we can get through the others there is one vote tonight, but the rest are truly updates Okay, great. Um, so moving along we're moving to capital plan discussion Um, and again, it's a discussion revised capital plan document So, uh, thank you. Mr. Roy Clark, and I'll just do a very brief introduction. There's two pages One is focused on capital requests and work that's currently being completed and um Has been completed or will be completed And the second is the draft capital plan requests Uh, the agenda topic really focused on the request, but um, I talked to Mr. Roy Clark And felt really strongly that both for the committee but also the community when we talk about things in the future We don't often talk enough about things that we're currently doing and so Sort of however, the chair would like us to approach that whether it's a document that just briefly went over because we'll try to be brief We can do that But that that was an inclusion of my request because I thought it was really important to honor the work that's happening In terms of the capital requests for the Amherst public schools The process is that there is no vote taken, uh, as as of compared to the regional schools There's feedback offered and revisions can be made And then at an upcoming meeting, which we'll get to at the very end of the agenda There'll be two representatives of this body that serve on the joint capital planning committee That is a townwide committee that includes representatives from other town departments And they make a collective feedback and collective decisions to bring to in this case a town manager in the town council On which projects can be funded So I just want to lay that out because it's really different from the regional process where this formal vote's taken this is really Where we are and our recommendations we can take questions and feedback and anything in the list or anything not on the list And and come back with any revisions But the goal since jcpc will start meeting next month is In relatively short order Making sure that the committee and particularly those two members who sit on jcpc have the information they need To to go with their to go to jcpc and advocate on behalf of the schools Longer introduction that was planning. Sorry mr. Roy Clark But maybe if you could just briefly go over Some of the highlights of their quest but mostly focus on the on the projects that are being completed But mostly focus on the request for fri 21. Sure. Let me see if I can do this in three sentences But first I want to say it's really amazing to sit here and see all the Incredible work that has been shared with you before my time here and it's really It's really thrilling to be part of the district. I'm coming up on my one-year anniversary now It seems like it's been a lot longer, but it's just time is flying by so In your in your documents, you've got a rough list of some of the bigger projects that are in the works or have happened This document here, and I'm trying to Not make it be complete and all inclusive, but to give you a flavor of what's going on You'll see that the second half of the list is Thing mostly things that we're gearing up to try to have take place this summer Where is the first half the list is stuff that's already happened or Is a repeat item that's going to be happening seasonally or is ongoing And I'm happy to answer questions about any of these or anything else on the other side With the draft capital requests, I want to emphasize this is a draft This is still a work in progress and I apologize for the typos We really tried to pare down our capital requests this year We know that that the school system is looking to have some big expenses with with the msba project and a bunch of other things So this is really slimmed down and you'll see that Most of the stuff the all-amor schools is spread out across all three schools Um And there are a couple of things that are specific to transportation or or to some individual schools But mostly it's it's district-wide for the Amherst schools And um Some of it is uh project specific a lot of it is ongoing kind of Capital needs that we have and that you see every year and with that I'll respond to questions I'm gonna add two or three pieces of detail if that's absolutely Mr. Roy Clark So, uh, I want to um highlight even though it's and I have to appreciate your description because I think it would really clarified It used to be like one thin line if you remember the old capital plan So I appreciate the the the additional description you put into the document Um, but one of the pieces that we know and literally msba commented on when they were Visiting in the fall was the fort river roof and and what we would do so This $70,000 quest Is beyond patching. Um, it's really looking at at roof replacements That can get us to the five to seven years five to eight years there I think we've gotten to where we can get to with patching and it's uh, it's sort of complicated because there's brittle Aspects of the roof But we feel like the additional money will will get by us the time that we need for this msba project to play out Without having the full replacement, which is over, you know, it's in the seven-digit range For the roof I think the only other thing I wanted to comment on And again, it is in the text is both the asbestos management and the interior upgrades One of the things when we talked about air quality In our schools that we're attempting to do and did success for the last summer At the at wildwood was ripping up carpet and putting in tile or putting down a different surface that doesn't have carpet And anytime we do that we have to be conscious of asbestos management So when people see the word asbestos people go to a different In the public can go to a different place and I've been very clear that my knowledge base on this is very low though increasing And so what that is is if we're going to in the summer Rip up carpeting and take apart rooms and then put them back together with either tile or some other surface We we will likely to have some asbestos management to be that needs to accompany that So it's not in response to an emergency right now with asbestos It's that if we want to do the critical work that we feel like has the Highest yield and improving air quality in our schools that that has to go along with it So I just I figure I might get some questions about that one. So I figured I'd try to head that one off Hi, hello Thanks for the update on the current I appreciate the inclusion of the current projects not as well as anyone's A couple things one Is the 70 000 for the fort river roof All that we think we need to do In addition to the roof to fix it to make it usable For the next five to eight years, or is that Like the first tranche of of a couple of repairs So um a couple of years ago. I think we got Something like 30 000 in a capital article request to do some repairs to the roof And the responsible bids were all up around 80 000 For that work that Jim McPherson had specced out My Current plan subject to change is to focus on Two of the major problem areas that we have in those roofs One is where the roof drains sit and getting having leakage around the drains going down into the rooms And the other is the multiple valleys and where the seams are in the multiple valleys when snow and slush collect so The intention is to focus on those two components redoing the the collection system and and the Spreading out as wide as we can. I think it's 10 feet wide in each valley a new layer it As dr. Morrison suggested there are some issues with how you bond the new layer to the old layer underneath without ripping it up Um, but most of the splits and damage that we have is in those in those two areas. So This isn't I mean there's no such thing as a roof guarantee You're gonna have a roof that could leak. This is addressing the major problem issues And it's my belief that we'll still have some leaks and still have some patching where those New versus old seams fail But this should make the roof way more reliable and last Five to eight years. So it's the major item and the second question I had for you was um on the on the plow truck Yes, I guess do I mean, I guess the way it works is the trucks are That we're all part of the town so technically they're probably all the town's truck, but um, is is the plow truck exclusively used by The elementary schools or the schools Or is it a shared resource with the rest of the town? The um All of our most of our vehicles are owned by Amherst and shared. There are some vehicles that have been bought by uh, the district And the one that we're replacing I don't remember I hesitate to say which one that is I think it was an Amherst vehicle I'd love to mean let me give you the advice for whoever from the Amherst school committee including possibly myself Who's sitting up sitting on jcpc? You'll want to know the answer to that question Yep, because you can't advocate for the truck unless you understand how it fits in with the rest of the Rest of the fleet that the town uses and what the replacement schedule is for those vehicles So I'm just I I didn't know we I mean if we had one I didn't know we had a plow truck for the Amherst schools That's kind of cool. We do so Sorry. Yeah, it took up enough time Can I can I give you a little bit more information? So this is one of our many pickup trucks. We use it year-round. We throw a plow on it in the in the winter time We sometimes throw sander on one of the trucks, but our sander has died as well So these vehicles are all used by school personnel as opposed to town personnel So the the driving is all done the main maintaining is all done Within the school system It's not a heavy duty plow truck like you think of with the town with the great big plow trucks that do two lanes at once It's not that kind of a truck Mr. Demling So first I uh per our recently adopted school meeting policy. I moved to Extend our scheduled meeting time a half an hour from 835 to 905 Is there a second second All those in favor Tell me thank you. Can I continue? Yes. Have I earned a question? Thank you for the asbestos comment. I am still wondering the light says this includes essential emergency repairs So if you could explain what that is and and also So I understand that you know given the msba Hope that we get this building Five or six years from now or or more That that this has slimmed down. I'm interested to know like what has slimmed down You know like we talked before about you know, we're now in this era We're good. We're going to have no easy choice about do we invest in a building for current student experience? That we hope is gone in five or six years and so i'm wondering what's dropped off the list for those When I answer the second one or I can start the second one And certainly mr. Roy Clark will have to answer the first one so We're continuing renting the chiller instead of replacing the chillers that In the systems at Fort River and at Wildwood some of the ADA upgrades. We're still going to do There's still going to be children and staff there for the next five to seven years But I think we're trying to think about what are the highest yield? Fixes we can make Given that we don't imagine these schools to be operational long term and even if there's a renovation chosen Um, you might say oh well things will still be in place, but they may not right the fix you make may not survive a renovation So you can't bank on kind of that model as well Those are the two that came most acutely to mind. I don't know if there's others that You can take up so we've been planning to Replace the Wildwood and the Fort River chillers with modern chillers and that's been kicked down the road so Like you say we're trying to limp along with Uh supporting the the one chiller we have same is true with with generators, uh, we had been planning to upgrade our generator systems for those elementary schools and we're Trying to limp along with those without a big a big upgrade on those I think and I parking lots go ahead parking lot was the other one Yes, and the Fort River roof. Those are the big ticket seven digit items that Six or seven digit items that we're going to try to For stall if we can Sorry, that was fine. I was parking lots was next on my list So I had a quick question that kind of builds on what mr. Demling was was Asking about which is what would be helpful is to understand how this compares to our current Current capital and so we list the projects but not the total dollar amount and then getting at exactly this question is sort of Looking at the go-forward the projection out in the next five years. What does that look like so that We can understand and then also build this story for jcpc conversation about how this Request compares to to future years and how so we're you know, it sounds like we're tackling the big ones now and and sort of Expecting sort of a significant drip off after after this year But I think painting that picture and having that for this discussion would be helpful Just one other piece and then we can loop back to the first question that mr. Deming had is That I think the other reason that we opted to include the prior page of capital requests is Mr. Roy Clark has made a very complex chart for me about At my request, so thank you for humoring me and that The last five or six years capital requests what's been spent what's left because the thing with capital requests And we had time period without a two-prime periods where we didn't have a facilities director is that Some of us deferred maintenance based on capacity and human power and some of it Which is making sure that we're catching up on all the requests that were granted over the last couple years and there were a couple years back there were some projects that Hadn't all been spent so we're also trying to be good stewards from the town perspective Of making sure that the money we have either goes back to the town or get spent And so some of what you see on the capital requests and the facilities report Isn't just last year's requests. It's it goes back A little beyond there and I think it's just important to note that some of the catch up is needed And that's that's typical. That's not atypical for both school districts and it'd be the same on the town side That you request something and sometimes things happen and they don't always happen in the fiscal year the next fiscal year But we're doing a lot of catch up and work on that and I just applaud mr Roy Clark for being his structure and organization For that and that's also part of the equation as well Yeah, just to amplify that if I may that I think it's fair to say that You know, there are areas where we're behind on spending and so I didn't want to Ask for the same amounts this year. So some of those lines are omitted this year Would have been an annual and some of them have been reduced. So that's a another component Had a question that we didn't answer yet about asbestos removal. So Right, so If there were an asbestos emergency, we would want to be able to attack it right away and not Go through a lengthy process of of getting the money together. So it's critical to have A pot of money that's there available for such an emergency We haven't had any since I've been here We've had some urgent needs. There was a Some piping in one of the elementary schools that we needed to fix the valve on but we couldn't until it was abated It was above the ceiling where it was not affecting anybody but But at any rate so that was something that wasn't necessarily planned but it wasn't an emergency It wasn't a project per se But it came up and we needed to deal with it right then and there Does that sort of give you a sense? Yeah Did you One question Going back to the truck. Oh, sorry. I just for the for the sake of those who worry about asbestos in the schools By state law we have a three-year review of all of our schools That have asbestos containing materials in every six months We have an outside firm come in and check for any issues that are there So it's something that's always being looked at it's being looked at by outside independent experts So, uh, hopefully people will feel reassured that we are taking it seriously Excuse me. Thank you. Um, so just going back to the truck. Um I know there's been a lot of conversations in the community and also the town council just, um Approved measures to reduce our carbon footprint. So I'm just wondering kind of in in anticipation of feedback on on on this from the community Have we looked at any? um Electric vehicles, I know that the dpw just got a grant to get one and this kind of makes me think about what Eric was mentioning if it's an amorous truck or if it's a schools truck it might I Influence how how it plays out in the long term so far as I know there aren't Electric pickup trucks that it would be useful for this purpose But I'm happy to be educated and I'll reach out to gilford and see what he can tell me You know, we could look at a hybrid to reduce Some of that carbon footprint More and more companies are coming out But we're likely going to get something that's the first the first year of of of a model Which is always a little bit of a risk for maintenance But we could certainly look at that. I think it would end up costing more money And so that's something we would need to discuss further And I do think getting then Just anticipating that folks are going to be Asking these questions. It's helpful to have those numbers in our back pocket and have an answer. Um Even if we're not officially asking for the higher figure Absolutely great feedback. Thank you I totally agree and I think that and I think your point about hybrid as well as electric Look at both get in I mean get answers for all of that So that we you know, we can look at it basically and figure out what we think Um, that wasn't what I was going to ask you though. Um, wasn't there something we I remember like last year Now listen, I remember this a chair in my room with us We had like an endless conversation about certifying our electrical systems And then at the end of that certification, we were going to get back response of all the stuff we needed a Potentially fix to make it last a long time and all that kind of stuff and be safe and wonderful I'm compacting it and simplifying the language because I feel like it. Um, I don't see that on the list So I'm just wondering did that get dropped off at some point around December 11th or what's going on I thought I had it in the list on the other page We had And it looks like it's one of the things I left off. So yes, that's one of the things where we are about to sign the contract for that work And they we're already working on scheduling preliminary investigation through elementary schools We need to do it They'll be able to come one school is in session One day per school and then we'll have to shut down the power for the rest of the investigation. We're scheduling that one school February vacation one school in April vacation and one school on a weekend But I don't have the exact dates yet, but that is coming. I don't have the data for you yet Thank you because also that's there's an example of something that when the question is asked by my colleagues earlier How are you thinking down the road and what recommendations are making the future? This like seems like one of those ones that sits in this is a center point of that in which You know since the buildings If we think of two buildings in particular Even if one of them ended up being demolished the other one wouldn't be right And so it's not a bad thing necessarily to know that your electrical systems are in good shape What you needed to keep the building in a state of good repair in order But but but the question of what we would actually fund Right to implement that and what burden is on the town I mean cognitively in terms of like Like whose request is this or the school is really going to request quote unquote to put in a lot of money To you know what I mean, I lay that out there, but just there's that seems like a great example of that kind of I agree and I expect that we will get a long laundry list From at least two schools of things that should be replaced and some assistance in Thinking about the costs and the priorities for those Thank you very much So I Expect that I will try to follow up on some of these questions I don't know if you'll have me back. Maybe I can just send an email through dr. Morris to To let folks know I think I think that'll need to happen because we this body won't meet before JCPC will have its first meeting before this body meets again. So And I definitely like having you guys know what it is that we're going to jcpc for ahead of time Thank you Thanks Okay, so now we have uh moving on to our warrant review and vote to approve the outstanding warrants I have handouts So just as he's as mr. Slar's doing that, um This amer school committee chose to uh, look review warrants And take a vote at a meeting. Um, and so the challenge for us is that often on warrants There's student information on there, uh, particularly as it relates to added district placements or special education so it's not something that we feel incredibly comfortable sending by email and so Kind of it's up to the committee whether they want to Take five ten minutes to review these and vote or you know kind of more Our old system which was um didn't take as much time But you know what we thought we'd do is we would provide copies for everyone on the committee And however you want to manage it is fine with us So if I could just orient you a little bit to what you have in front of you So the very first the top sheet of paper is a payroll warrant which uh traditionally and I think still in place as a policy Is that the the chair can sign that? Uh, that's the most recent one I have a number of those for the chair to sign tonight and we'll do signatures after the meeting because there's a Um a number of signatures that we need um, the second one is a is another uh sort of Things school committee needs to do which is in this case. It's a it's a transfer of of monies from um From a control account to the student activity account that requires actual action by you guys Again, this could fall under a policy where a single member could could sign and then report back to the committee and then the following There are three warrants um requiring action Uh and the gory details of all the spending that's going on is in those warrants But uh the amounts are on the front page and we will need Action by you all relatives of those three warrants and the transfer of funds for the for the uh Control account to the to the student activities account so four motions in total and Having to answer any questions you have about any of that but mostly it's a little review on your part And then appropriate series of motions And then we'll get i'll do signatures after the meeting you can all i've got a pen and Away you go So do we want to take uh mr. Deming? Uh just three quick notes uh one um As i've stated multiple times before my wife is uh employee of the district uh paraprofessional Uh in the apea union And so i'm i'm gonna abstain from the um payroll warrant Two um as we're going through this i do think even though we've discussed it before at this committee It probably no pun intended warrants for the discussion about how we want to Dispense with warrants and of course a legal way, but also a time efficient way There may be some opportunities for improvement And then three in terms of the motions mr. Slaughter uh dr. Slaughter. Um, what what are the um Is there specific language that we need for each each individual not not terrifically I think that on the on the first one actually the the payroll warrant You don't actually have to vote that one. I think by virtue of policy already have in place It's just a matter of making you aware of it and then the chair can sign What I would do on the on the second one, which is the student activities accounts I would take where it says the wildwood principal hereby request I would say the school committee uh Approves the transfer of and then the rest of that sentence should do it As far as a motion and then for the others I think the key thing is that you're approving the warrant with the date and the amount which is on the front page At the regional school committee, I think we break it out With the with the spending by by sort of category It isn't really broken out that way here, and I don't think it's absolutely necessary to do that I was going to add that as opposed to at the region where there's one member reporting out everyone All the committee members here have the same information. So my understanding is it needs less formality in terms of The vote piece because it's not informing the committee every the committee all has the same information So that'd be the difference of why there's um When the committee is taking a vote, um, I think can be less formal than when one member is reporting out and there's not a vote taken Miss picture I just wanted to ask a clarifying question because I I recall, um, mr. Mangano used to email us the warrants so I I knew earlier you stated you don't want to circulate them via email and I Just wanted some clarification on that so it we've Had some caution about doing that because of the student information included in warrants and well, it's not that We don't trust the committee about that. It's putting that out electronically has created some FERPA pieces for us about what's being communicated electronically About students because generally if a student student's name or student initials are on a warrant as it needs to be to track that it's pretty identifying In ways that we want to protect privacy. So that's I think Caused us caution is certainly something that we could talk about and I'm happy to engage with mr. Slaughter in the chair And one other remember the committee if we want to talk through that But I think it's out of abundance of caution about student information that we've Created that and we could certainly try to take the time to Kind of Whatever the opposite of highlight is It'd be a significant amount of time for business office staff to take on So I think it's looking at our systems. And how do we maintain student privacy? I'm sorry, Dr Redact as the word you're looking redact. Thank you. Sorry. I don't know why that one was going the other way with it So I must I'm also reacting to the the volume of paper and copies that that we just passed around whereas our former process we just had one One set that we just sort of passed down the line and I don't know if there's a there's a happy medium if we had you know one one set and Um, if If we you know start our meetings five minutes later and to give all each of us time to To sort of look through the the one central set And then when we get to it, we we just vote on it and sign it Or Some process like that just so that we're not Killing this many trees. Mr. Nakajima. I want to be acknowledged twice The first time acknowledged. I just want to say I agree we need to clean this up and we probably ought to do something like set If we can't have them distributed in advance We need to do something like you just mentioned the chair mentioned like we got a set Beside 10 minutes at the beginning people go through these things and then Then have a cleaner vote and we get to it I also think it'd be great again if we could get motion sheets attached to this so that there's a clear motion to read for each one Yes, I move that the amherst school committee Approve the following transfer from the town master account the school account for the wildwood principal in the amount of $1,200 So second second Any discussion? All those in favor See unanimous unanimous Mr. Nakajima I move that the amherst school committee approve the warrant dated 124 2020 warrant s 012420 In the amount of 147,895 dollars and 98 cents Moved in second Oh second Any discussion All those in favor unanimous Mr. Nakajima I move that the amherst school committee approve the warrant dated January 10th 2020 warrant s 011020 in the amount of 121,574 dollars and 13 cents So second Seconded Moved in seconded any discussion Seeing none all those in favor Uh four Sorry All those in favor Four No Abstain Four in favor one abstain Mr. Nakajima I move that the amherst school committee approve the warrant dated December 27th 2019 s 122719 in the amount of 44,400 dollars and four cents Second Any discussion Okay, all those in favor Four Any against Abstain 401 That's it. So one other thing I'll just offer for as a as a piece as you think about You know whether you want a slightly different process or not is that Warranty to be signed in order for us to release checks where that runs into an operational difficulty is over the summer when you don't meet as often So I just I want you to consider that as you think ahead about ways in which you might move ahead and do this With payroll accounts, we've set it up such that the and you voted as a committee to Adopt a policy where the chair can sign for those and release those without issue But but the other accounts payable are are dependent upon this vote and and signature Okay Sounds good So we'll have a signing party at the end of this exactly and you can sign the most they get assigned four things and so you can assign like 15 things So we'll talk about this at the very end of the meeting when we talk about next meeting, but um The other thing was this was a bit of catch up We had a pretty big gap in time between our last meeting and this meeting and we'll have to add Another meeting in between just for this express purpose. So um, so it won't be this many warrants Each time So I recall that we had in the past we had had a 10 minute 15 minute meeting right before Region committee. I don't know. Is that something that we should be planning as a regular basis? Yes, okay Okay moving on to Item g the fee report. This is a discussion to review and offer feedback on FY 21 fee proposals In advance of our February vote. Yep. So um, I'll start with this. That's okay So, um, this is also in the packet one thing you'll notice is the meal price will go up Or as is recommended to go up from three dollars to three dollars and 25 cents I think I mentioned the region that's the same as in the amherst schools that there is a Lowest, you know, we have a requirement based on the price of food and participating in the food use lunch program But eligible costs and so instead of adding it up incrementally by seven or eight cents a year What we've done in the past and that's work been pretty effective It was moving it up by a quarter and then waiting having three or four years before it needs to go up again So that is the kind of sizable increase that you see in terms of lunch prices breakfast as well But it's it's that we plan to make this change and then have it stay unchanged for consecutive years in the future The only other thing I would add is the other the other changes to the rates are Intentionally trying to be slightly incremental And so you'll see the percentages are fairly small by and large and the intention there is again to make small regular increments to those To keep pace with inflation, but not to to make a significant shift all at once on on on folks Any questions? No moving on to Item h fi 21 budget presentation, and this is our first presentation Again Let me just give I know the hour is late, but I think I would do want to spend two minutes to preview this So this is our initial budget presentation We'll have a budget hearing next month where the Data will be much more full have a full bullet budget book for you within two weeks The reason we didn't have that this time around much like last year is since we're presenting this in advance of the governor's budget In advance of health insurance being known Those are two pretty significant variables that we'd want to have complete before a budget book is done Both of those will be known quantities at the end of the week Both the we'll get the information from my our insurance company of our percentage And we have some preliminary numbers, but the governor's budget. I think comes out tomorrow. I'm not correct And I'll be with the commissioner on thursday with other superintendents where he kind of is going to bring a little more detail out to that So we'll update that information and send the budget book out well in advance And come back in february with much more detail on all of these Pieces, but this is where we're sort of sitting at the moment And I think it's important note that a budget is an estimate that things change over the course of the year We've had we'll reference this later We've had an unusual number of students who move into the district with significant needs And so that's you'll see sort of a loose number that we'll have much more specific next time But when students move in from other districts and iEP meeting is held to transition them and we have some unknown Unknown dollar amounts don't have to be assigned Folks who've been doing this a long time in the district said this is the highest number of Move-ins we've had after the beginning of an academic year that they can recall And so this is our first first take at it and we'll be back again in february with much more detail and and to receive much more Feedback from both the committee and the community With that I'll turn it over to mr. Dr. Slaughter All right, so I will I'll take you through a few things. There'll be a few specifics or As best we can that that the superintendent will will probably expound upon a little bit more Starting with this first slide on budget highlights as it stands now knowing what we know or don't know Engaging in our crystal ball Proposed budgets about 2.7 percent Above what the current year is which is kind of in keeping with what the Expectations from the from the town were relative to that One thing you'll notice is you know zero dollars from reductions. So the the the adjustments of 383,000 is is Other savings changes to our budget that help Us fit within the dollars that are available But there are no no items that are mentioned as as actual reductions are cut since in staff So it's really a level services budget in the true sense As you can see the proposed budget maintains Things we expect to have in our schools and what we've got become used to become used to And what you'll see in the in the in the new year You know as you well know we heard it earlier tonight the expanding dual language program curriculum sports some some training relative you were talking earlier regarding Uh, you know some of the the kids coming with trauma and higher level needs have Related to that and so some some supports for our pair pair educators to understand and Work with those kids and work in the school In around those those higher level needs Is there Some preschool supports and and some of that has to do with with supports in in special education and then You know the reducing the educational debt mathematics and a lot mr or or Dr. Morris talked about in in more detail As far as what that is, but it's it's a continuation of the work that's going on this year relative to the changes in curriculum and then taking that forward into into next year Just a quick little outline of of the calendar going ahead. We've got tonight what we're talking about and then You know this introduction the next public hearing in february. We you'll see later in there that we identify the 25th of february Um, which you know dr. Morris will not be here And so we'll have to pick a different day and he'll talk about that later But then the budget adoption will will take place in march In on the 17th the reason for that is to hit the deadlines that the town has relative to its You know budgeting process through april may and and by the end of june And this parallels strongly with with the regal schools and what they have to do They'll also you know, you'll also vote that budget in in march as well And that's to meet some deadlines for town meetings in the other other communities Um, so as you May all know or not I'll just touch base quickly on the budget process We start in october to december and start sort of shaping things as as best we can For the last couple months. We've been getting a little more specific Uh, and and you know getting a sense of you know, what are the things we need to do and what's the The dollars really start to look like Um And again, we continue, you know, these meetings with with school based personnel and other groups to get information out to folks Uh, I believe mr. Mongano met with the the cpac and with the lpac groups Just to to sort of frame the conversation the budget with them Um, that next last bullet point about the budget hearing is for the 25th. It will not be the 25th It'll be some other to to be determined date and of course we'll we'll come back on the 17th to vote In march, but that that outlines a little bit of sort of the arc of work that we do and and Give and take that goes on over the course of the months from october through Through march This is a quick snapshot of where we're at right now relative to our expense budget You know the salary increases You know the expectations around substitutes is that you know, the minimum wage has gone up this year That has a cascading effect Some of our substitutes operate right at that that the bound of our our Minimum wage, um, you know, technically we're not required to meet that municipalities and and schools are are absolved from having to do that but you guys have a policy and and I think rightly so and the town does as well to to you know Provide at least the minimum wage and so that has a cascading effect on our substitute Costs and so that will be an impact there The salaries are mostly around steps and colas As they generally always are And other expense accounts are anticipated Costs that we have going on And so if you take the level service about a four percent increase off the base We have additions and reductions and i'll i'll let the superintendent talk to those in a bit more detail But as you see there at the bottom of the chart about 2.7 2.8 percent is kind of right in the neighborhood of of what we're looking at for An increase in the budget from last year this year I think i've mentioned this in salaries We have all our collective bargaining here in place 2 percent is the cola for everybody The only collective bargaining group that is not and they're getting ready to start negotiations literally tomorrow is our food service group I've already mentioned the substitutes And then there's a couple items there relative to to expense accounts health insurance. We've projected at 6 percent We're hoping that that that will be the case You know, we're actually hopeful it might be a little less You know one of the reasons for changing health insurance structure was to help mitigate that but even at 6 percent It's a pretty that's a pretty for health insurance. That's a fairly modest Increase, but it still contributes as I as I note here. It's about a third of the increase in expenses That we have is is related to a six percent increase in health insurance. That's how big a piece of the pie it is So I just wanted to note that for you Our next slide is additions and reductions and so I think I'll let the superintendent sort of take that on unless there's Questions up to this point. Mr. Deming. I'm sorry for the interruption, but by policy Move to extend our scheduled ending meeting time to 10 0 5. I'm sorry to 9 35 Is there a second second? Thank you All those in favor Against Abstain, would you like I would like a bathroom? Yeah Move to recess for recess for five minutes two minutes Yep, okay, so So Back to where we were which was about additions and reductions And so I'm going to defer to the superintendent to sort of paint the picture here a little bit for you And go through those in a bit more Detail the cc spit. Yep, and I'll be brief partially because it's late But partially because this is the first cut and not all these things are fully defined yet This is where we are on january 21st So well looks like we'll have one fewer classroom than we did last year That's just based on how many six-way classrooms we have and how many kindergarten classes were expecting We did not have any sabbatical requests this year. So we did have one sabbatical last year So that we do budget for that and so that comes off We did have a stabilization fund contribution That that was for special education stabilization that we funded that we being the district has funded that twice now We feel like there's a hundred fifty thousand dollars in that stabilization fund and that's an a sufficient amount to not continue to add to We feel like we'll be in a position to prepay retirement incentives, which will help our budget This shift school committee stipend payments to the town so that It's a shell game because we'll get less funding from the town But we wanted to publicly show that The funding as per the town charter that school committee members receive That budget line will be shifted to the town account So it won't be in the school's budget and hence it looks like there's a sixteen thousand adjustment But it won't really be realized because the town will then take that off on what gets appropriated for the schools But we didn't want to Someone might ask where is that line? It used to be there So we want to be very public and transparent about that Alternative funding source is something i'll get into much more detail in february about math curricula implementation So that is the position that was assisting sixth through twelfth grade new curricula implementation and For our sixth grade we feel very Confident that that support's been incredibly valuable and our sixth grade teachers will be ready to run without that support going into next year And a preschool is a small dollar amount But we are looking at shifting some of the models of leadership and support Based on some of the feedback, you know Even that you've heard in the past and was reflected in the report tonight We'll come back with a lot more detail because it's It's not so much the financial amount that will be changed But it is a structural change that we're considering for the preschool program For additions we're requesting five thousand dollars for an msba steering group This was loosely talked about in the last meeting got a lot of feedback from the staff meetings We had around msba of having a steering committee of teachers who wouldn't have to fully commit to being on the building committee But could be a second source of information feedback and support for the building committee moving forward And we would stipend staff members to participate in that there was some really positive feedback received from staff on that idea and Particularly having an expectation that they when would be the resources in the schools for other staff members There's only so many places myself and and you all can be that there's a regular communication between the larger staff And who better to do it than staff members in our three schools So that's not my idea. It's came from a staff member, but i'm stealing it I told her I was going to steal it and say it publicly because I think it makes a lot of sense around communication There's a recurrent request Based on the end of the great span advisory group to have a group look at Six way to the middle school and to concretize a plan over the summer months for the consideration of the community That's based on the work of the great span advisory the feedback we received this spring Taking that which is again, what I would call sort of a 10,000 foot level and getting down to the ground on something that people can respond to that specific More than where we are right now and that was by design That's no critique of the great span advisory, but folks have to be compensated for working the summer as they should be The next one again, I'll come back in February with a lot more detail But one of the topics at the regional level as you all know that's come up is what is the participation of underrepresented groups in honors and AP classes particularly in mathematics And the more conversations I have with staff the more I'm in the belief that we have to think about what we're doing at the elementary level and particularly On the heels of middle school. So there's a whole lot you could do instructionally, but what are we doing? That's dynamic that promotes students who For whatever reason have been underrepresented in those classes to have full access and so there's some content pieces but there's also some kind of motivational pieces that we want to put into place again more specifics to come but I'm convinced that If we're only looking at as a seven through 12 issue, we're really missing the boat Second to last one para educator training came up tonight and it's come up multiple times We are doing more training it was around trauma and trauma informed practice and The staff members that we experience being on the front lines of that who need more support and training frankly Because their contract, you know, doesn't have things like as much staff meeting and professional development our para educators We've done that last month. There was a training for all staff at the preschool level sort of interestingly I was in a meeting with preschool staff in november and I said can you raise your hand if you've had trauma-based training and we did have a fair number of people And they were exclusively at that point in time and that's been, you know, the hands would be different now But it was professional staff and counseling staff or kind of ABA Behavior specialists with that training and the para educators all had their hands down and they are the ones working Most closely with students in need. So what we're recognizing is we need to build in financial support So that para educators can receive training they need. It's also Tends to be a more transient element of our workforce. So our turnover rate of para educators And this is not specific to Amherst This is across schools in general tends to be higher and so we need to build in a more routine level So in other words, this isn't like a one-stop gap. Hey, we need this training It's actually we need to build a practice and a structure for para educators over time Knowing that, you know, a good 20 or 30 percent of our para educators moves on to other other careers Some of them stay with us and become teachers. Some of them move on to other places But it's trying to earmark a dollar amount to support that structure And the last one I alluded to earlier, which is contingency control accounts Again, we have a number of new students to our district and as they're coming We're developing their IEPs and by the time we get together in late February We'll have much more clarity on what that number really looks like But at this point we put built in about $50,000 Not knowing exactly whether it's staffing or placements that we'll have to be considering And as you can see, thankfully, it's not doesn't this doesn't happen very often to me in my time in the district We do not have any listed reductions Turn it back to well, we pause for questions before we turn it back to Dr. Slaughter actually or comments if there are any Any questions at this point? Mr. Demery Um, so I'm probably not the only one who's Understandably naturally curious about alternative funding source um not because of the hour but because uh I'm guessing you have appropriate, um District good reasons for not elaborating on that at the moment. Um, I'm okay with that But if you know if there's anything else you want to share great if not I will look forward to February that that should be an interesting discussion What was the other thing um, so just what because we're in addition to reductions at this level of money, you know one thing I've been Thinking about in general in terms of when I was reviewing the budget and the money that goes out You know, we've spoken about charter school tuition funding And the impact of those millions of dollars that come out of our district ad nauseam um, and um, you know, and so I think about how to prevent some of that Loss, you know, which is if we lose one kid at for seven years can be, you know, that's a six-figure Easily a six-figure plus a cost And and what what resources perspective families have when they evaluate their options for for schools and I think our website does a great job In terms of a number of functions. It's it's maybe not the best in terms of showcasing Dare I say marketing to perspective families in terms of everything that we have to offer There's been so many examples. I've lost track of things that I've seen presented here and in other district meetings about amazing things going on that are just Not on top of everyone's mind, you know in terms of the resources we have and the we continue to have While we're still at a relatively manageable percentage of our tuition going out to Charter so There could be a smaller dollar investment possibly for some kind of a Website that and even if it over the years retained one one student Would sort of pay for itself. So I don't know if you've thought about those kinds of things or those kinds of advance return on investment opportunity Yeah, I have and I think we're We're in the midst of creating A separate site that's exclusively for we actually had a meeting about this morning for perspective families because One of the challenges that all public school districts have is they have to catalog a tremendous amount of information That very little of which is particularly interesting for the vast majority of perspective families, right? It's just that's just our challenge, right? If we're if we were a private school and really the focus was on recruitment recruitment recruitment We could have like I've looked at one private school in the area's website It's beautiful, right and and you can't find much information if I was a current student or parent But that seems to not be the focus of that school and that's not where public school We don't have that Flexibility so to speak so we are in the process of creating I think in the next two months. You'll see a prototype of Something that you could link from our website, but is a distinct website with a very different focus I mean if you think also like our prototype for it essentially is the MSPA site, which I know all of you have been on Which looks functionally different It's not it's not attending to perspective families but it's a distinct site that one can get to from our website easily but It doesn't try to emulate the cataloging feature that our current website has it's much more about Promoting all the wonderful things our staff do So I think that's something we're going to attempt to do locally and a without a cost And I think we have the capacity to be able to do that Mr. Knack, do you I don't know the right time to bring this up. So I'm just going to mention it quickly now um I think at some point This spring or summer We need to revisit Our budget calendar and process because I think this year Because the school committee turned over And there were elections and that sort of just framed How the fall was executed? administratively or I mean in terms of this body We didn't really if you look back a year ago We organized our budget process differently in ways that Substantively engaged in this process as early as like October And even though a lot of the information was thin because you're just going through your processes you describe it It just it gave more bites at the apple an opportunity for the committee to get familiarized With what we're what where the budget's at what the trends are what we're learning what the town guidance is and all that kind of stuff And so I'm just saying out loud that it's not anyone's fault But I'm just saying out loud that this process from where we are today The where we're going to be to the point we vote on the budget feels By comparison very sort of cognitively rushed which is probably only compounded by the hour of the evening So I'm just saying that out loud because I think as as the chair is planning with you Dr. Morris you're both planning our next coming meetings Anything you can do to think about ways to insert Conversations we should be having or presentations we should be having I think would be welcome not only for us But actually for the public probably as well And then at some point after that we should we should probably talk about how we want to do next year And then on top of that how we should handle the election years So we can give advice for going on how to do that better Dr. Morris so I agree with uh, mr. Dr. Jimis feedback and comments and I think the other thing that I'd like to if we're going to have a conversation on budget process in the future um I would really enjoy having this meeting Like the the type of presentation you see now Even if you meant having two meetings in february are doing something different after the governor's budget come out And after we have health insurance information It feels really odd that tomorrow afternoon we could have different information and by friday We could have really different information like Like within 72 hours of talking about this feels really odd at the region There's sort of no way to avoid it because of the structure of the four towns Much to sort of my chagrin because I really would prefer not to put out budget information That has a potential change pretty dramatically And if it's avoidable, I mean I look at my colleague in north hampton and their budget schedule Which granted they're under a different town charter. They've Later process and and they're not having they're having the types of dialogue that mr. Nakajima described in december and january because the This part's not coming out till february and it's a lot more time for dialogue in the front end So because we do have more flexibility with the amherst budget than we do at the regional level Um, I think that'd be something that as we move forward. Um, I'd enjoy a conversation about Okay I think mr. Slaughter just can breeze through the last couple slides because I am conscious of the hour Yes, absolutely. So and and these again given the the nature of what the submarine just said these these trend You know charts are are really Not truly indicative of what what's likely to happen Matter of fact, I was looking at this one in particular today and it it struck me that it was a fairly steep increase Surprisingly so and so I was looking at that and there's one school in particular out of the three I won't name names, but it was Significantly driving this and so that makes a series of questions. And so I I will investigate that a little more deeply but And the when you look at the projection for 22 and 23 those are you know sort of base percentages there, so they just It compounds, uh, which if you're trying to save money is a great thing But not so much when you're trying to Mitigate your spending, uh, but nonetheless, this this is a bit of an aberration as far as I think showing how significantly It would go up for next year. Can I ask a question? Yeah, absolutely So this is regular education classroom instruction spending How do I link that back to the the table on the previous page where it's salad? Is this all salaries for instruction spending or is it a combination of salaries and And expenses it's both it's it's predominantly salaries, but it's not exclusively so And so as we go into the next slide, which is english language learning spending This is own category of stuff. You'll notice the the numbers on the left are are a much smaller number, obviously And that seems to drop off and that's actually, you know, uh largely driven by some staff turnover And so although we're investing into this area pretty significantly and you know So we're holding steady with some of the staffing we have just by virtue of the changes and how we predict those changes Is causing that sort of leveling of of of spending in that area Um special education preschool spending, you know fairly modest incline there Um insurance benefits again, you know, we put six percent on the chart. It doesn't have this crazy spike If you looked at ones from other years where we had uh, you know more significant swings in in insurance costs It would be more noticeable Um, but that should and the goal of of changing insurances is to have that be more level like that um In this area around grants summary and revolving funds. I think the really critical one to look at here most most things are saying the same or Are expected to stay without change or very little change the one change is around school choice Using more school choice funds to help our budget We have a revolving fund which holds the the receipts that we've received for the school choice kids that we bring in in house and so You want to hold a certain amount of that but not so much that uh, you're not benefiting the the kids today And so the idea with a with a larger increase in in use of school choice funds Is that we'll still be able to maintain a healthy balance in the revolving fund But yet use that money to help support our kids Kind of across the board One of the things that comes up is is uh, you know, sort of You know how how Many and and to what extent our kids Leaving our district for Other options in in charter and choice Um, and what we see here and it's a little hard to tell in some respects We're the dashed line there and it's across all four towns in the region. So it's a little it's not just amorous in this regard Uh, we've had a real flattening of what we're having. So we're sort of staying in a steady state Um, you know, it's good and bad We don't get a lot of additional state aid because it's about the difference in in uh kids that you have But we're holding pretty steady You still see some schools like east Hampton Uh, Belcher town that are still having growth in in this area And so they're getting more and more of their their resources sort of pulled out to to fund those charter and choice Choices that kids are making One of the big decisions you'll need to make over the you know in in suing uh months is is is about school choice and whether or not to Um Continue with school choice how much what kind that sort of thing I didn't know if you wanted to add some specific things relative to that This is sort of the mechanics of how it works and and so I I don't know Dr. Morse wants to weigh in on this a little bit And the school choice hearing is next month and we'll talk more about that We're not seeing a lot of grade levels with spaces for school choice for next year And so, um, I think we'll be able to share that more specifically at the school choice hearing That's it'll happen in february, but if you could scroll go forward two slides Yeah, right there. So when mr. Slaughter is talking about evening out, um Increasing the amount of choice revenue we're spending so the green line is the fund balance The blue line is the expenditures and the red line or the orange peach line is the revenues And so our balance has gotten to the point where we feel like it's it's in really good shape And so we're trying to even out those Purple line and the orange line Our experience in pelham is you really don't want to go too far below that Even when you think you have a healthy balance because then you create a structural imbalance in your budget It's also the case that we don't know exactly how things are going to play out with the building project And how that's going to affect our ability to take choice and choice seats So we're being pretty conservative and and not wanting to it's tempting to say we have that much money We should be spending more except then you create the structural deficit and what we experience in pelham And we've talked about this in public meetings in pelham. I know it's a different committee, but I think the same thing's true Um, that's a really small. I mean, it's it's probably 15 percent the size of the amherst public schools Uh, they had a balance over half a million dollars and and now it's it's it's dipped right near 300 000 and a little below And it's getting to the point around sustainability where that's why pelham's questioning those pieces So I think it's easy to say Oh, we you know You've got the reserve there and you have the reserve there for a good reason because you may not we may not maintain The same level of a choice in the future and we want to be really cautious about our use So we feel like we are finally at a place where we do want to increase our use because we don't want to build To build your balance and just have it sitting there, but we we don't want to go much beyond where we're where we're how we're using it right now So I think primarily what you'll hear Next time is pretty limited use recommendation around choice for perhaps one, you know, no more than two grade levels As we look to next year I think that's it and that's it in case any other questions you might have i'm happy to answer those and Questions come Miss bitter I guess I just want to go back to the slide With the So the budget trend slide regular education classroom instruction spending so primarily just based on the colon increases and the wage There's an increase in the minimum wage would like the substitute salaries be in that piece too. Um I'm trying to recall Uh I want to say no, but it might be I don't think so. I think it's largely um Uh Again, it's largely salaries and so it is you know sort of steps and colas primary driver in regard this regard There are some uh other, you know educational expenses most of those we Fairly flat fund so they don't have a strong impact on the overall budget um But what was really odd to me was that it To be perfectly honest the the sort of uh staffing Cost was projected to go slightly down or stay flat essentially in two of the schools But one of the schools had a pretty significant increase And so I just haven't dug into why that's showing up that way and it may just be a quirk of you know Who is at a given building? You know it could really be oh this particular buildings hired some fairly new staff. They're all getting steps and colas They're all you know sort of mid salary scale And so that's you know when you do a step and a colas a pretty significant chunk And if you have you know 10 people out of your 30 Professional staff or whenever you know that those are sort of profound differences in in the structure of the school and how it impacts the budget Um, I think you know, I would discount looking at 22 and 23 on this Because I think it's just a sort of compounding of that rather large increase that's showing there in in the 20 to 21 But but uh, I'll definitely get some some more detail on that and again it might As we look at it more closely and get a little better information. We'll probably moderate that a little bit Anything else? No? Thank you um And now our final item before moving on to the Of our continuing business is msba update discussion Mr. Demling you have to do it again We're obligated Yes, thank you Uh further requirement of our policy and move to extend the scheduled end of our meeting from 9 35 a half an hour to 10 0 5 second Second second All those in favor for uh against one We'll continue So i'll be brief. Um, please is that msba update. Um, just there was a Discussion last about what feedback should be shared with the town manager and town council on the selection um Not of individuals on the school building committee, but on the school building committee composition So one thing I did is I attached. Um, not that I'm suggesting That's the template exactly that anyone should follow But the previous school building committee to the back of the agenda And I also reached out to the wildwood school building committee the prior school building committee to get their feedback I got three responses and I'll just summarize that for you tonight so One response focused that the school building committee should not be put in the position of making decision That might be construed as political or a decision that should be made by the town by its elected Is there a public vote for instance grade level span? one or two schools That this individual felt like that should be made by elected officials not appointed officials and So just creating a really clear boundary and expectation for who's on a school building committee And what the role is which I am working with a charge with mr. Bachman The second piece of information was that and this is Feedback I heard from multiple people during the process and right after is that the Needs to be a reasonable size and the perception of many on the prior school building project was that the last skill building building committee felt a bit too big and I think the Last I'm summarizing certainly could share the the exact Language but the last one also talked about Making sure that individuals are comfortable communicating and being comfortable providing Community outreach events and publications that a part of being on the building committee is communicating with others And that should be a core expectation of someone who joins not just that they Show up at meetings and do the work in between but they also can communicate with different constituents in town So those were the themes that I heard and that's all I have to share tonight questions or comments Mr. Spitzer, I just want to clarify that um you interviewed three people out of the 20 who are on the school building committee, so and I it just seems like It would be stretched to call them themes in essence It's a good summary, but I'm I'm wondering if you I mean, especially given the first one suggesting that we take away Pretty big decisions from those the scope of the school building committee. It seems like We'd want to know whether or not there was broader support for that kind of So I reached out to everyone who was on the building committee who had contact information for which was almost everyone but not quite everyone and I can't compel responses, you know So I think it's a point well taken about themes It was the themes of the responses that I received the size was definitely a theme that I came up throughout the I mean that that one I feel confident in saying Was I did we did gather with the group after the building project had failed? I think I reported back on this and this is a couple years ago But I believe before you're on the committee And and there was some thoughts around the size being a bit too large But I can only report what people shared with me And I'm not suggesting that this committee needs to agree with anything I shared But I just figured that was reasonable homework to be done Mr. Nakajima So this certainly looks like a lot of people so I could understand the argument That it should be a smaller number and also And this this echoes the theme that we've talked about in the past Looking at alternative mechanisms of engaging different stakeholder constituencies So that the the the circumstances and setups being binary that either you have an absolutely massive As school building committee that involves everyone you can think of or if you take a leak think of Or you don't have them and that means they're completely excluded or unduly excluded except for sort of like, you know Broad public forums or something so that totally makes sense I have a sort of a funny question and again because I missed the discussion in the last meeting I may be missing something What are you looking for out of this conversation or what is the committee looking for out of this conversation? Like what what guidance are you looking for from us? So the I'm going to see if I summarize accurately at last meeting But your colleagues can certainly correct me So there was a discussion about the school committee wanting to have some input since this decision is ends up being recommended by the town manager and Approved by the town council That there there was a thought that the school committee should have some opinions to share with Either the town manager or the council or both About composition of the building committee So i'm in the role of providing information I think town managers Encouraging me to be part of or somehow connected to the interview process. I don't know what that looks like yet But we talked about that the town council in january Earlier in january when we went and so it's really for if the committee would like to Either take a position or assign someone to Gather feedback and come and share that with the town council. I think it's it's really whatever role you'd like the committee would like to play Sorry for not saying the beginning. My apologies Mr. Deming Yeah, I so that was my general recollection as well When I was at the meeting where dr. Morrison the town manager presented this to the town council town manager mentioned that As they're kicking off drafting the charge and interviewing for the committee they would Value and welcome the school committee's feedback And I think some of the town council were also like well This is their first rodeo in terms of trying to construct a workable building committee And so, you know lessons learned from past experience would be would be helpful So I don't know if it was the same people, but I mean over the last couple of years I've probably spoken to half the previous building committee and And I reach out to a few of them Recently, you know, so I heard some of this same feedback I heard a lot of The fact that this is a massive time commitment And so in just in terms of what should the composition be and what focus should there be in terms of interviewing and selection Emphasizing that point That this is really something that you're are committing a a lot of your life to is it's pretty important You know in terms of you know, what will you support? What won't you support? I do think that um You know, it's a bit of a tricky thing to to say on the on the one hand It seems a bit draconian to say, you know come into the interview room and do you support the one building or nothing? On the other hand, we've talked at very much length here about the Superintendent has said, you know that he doesn't see a solution past five or seven years for For you know to do a two MSBA projects in a row So I think at least sort of getting a gauge on whether there is openness and support to the Solution that's already been, you know, so part of the statement of interest I think would be helpful One one specific bit of feedback I got from an educator was that The in his experience the educational vision really drove the building design and so getting teacher input Multiple teacher input from both Fort River and Wildwood Especially from staff that could speak to the specific programming that's going on in those schools So like the dual language program the project based learning focus that's emerging Would be would be pretty important because that's going to that's going to drive that As well as teachers and or staff involved in the three specialized special ed programs So, you know the more things you talk about, you know Now bumping up against the other principle of trying to keep the committee smaller So that that is a challenge, but that was one big theme about having that really strong teacher educator view and the other Theme that I I've heard pretty consistently is having people that are just experienced with designing and building things in a process And knowing that if you make a certain decision at a certain point what ramifications it has later on If you've never been through that that can be a learning experience And so if that aspect of it is not a learning experience that could be very valuable. So You know not any one person has all these skills But if there are you know, if there's a parent or a staff member or a teacher that has some of those Because I think that it could be that would be valuable I think the one one thing that I would personally add is is Echoing that one of the Themes or ideas that you heard from your conversations is that it's really important to have somebody It's not outlined as sort of one of the msba requirements of the committee But I do think that having somebody that can Having people on within the building committee that have experience and have expertise and sort of outreach and and Engagement is going to be really really important and that's one of the biggest lessons that we learned in the first project So it's not specified, but I think that that should be a criteria for at least one member of the of the committee Did you have something to No, Dr. Morris So my process suggestion to user lose would be perhaps if there's two members of the committee that want to draft up some Kind of themes or bulleted points for the committee to review in february Because I think it's still the timeline should still work That might kind of engender more dialogue and and be an active Next step in this process Sounds good any volunteers I I'd be happy to draft the bullets with input from all these ben Mr. Harrington sorry And and and I can either be as involved or not involved as as that you both want I'll leave it to you to make that determination. I'm happy to meet with you Happy for you all just to work on this son without my presence whatever whatever you'd like Okay, sounds good Any other thoughts? No, okay So we'll move on to We don't have agenda planning on here. I don't know It's not on the agenda to agenda plan future meetings Right, so decisions can be made but I can in the lieu of not having a chair to walk into this me I can just give a quick update on things to look for and then you and I can get together to more fully do that But we can do the gifts first if you'd like, okay I make a motion. Yep I move to accept the following donations From alliance energy llc. Number two eight zero seven two to support wildwood elementary math science And the amount of five hundred dollars Is there a second? Second Second, any questions? All those in favor? It's unanimous five And I think we're on to our last. Yeah, I'll just mention that I think you'll get an email tomorrow We're hoping to have a meeting next monday before the regional meeting just to do Two things three things warrant review because there'll be another warrant ready We can try to figure out how to streamline that process as compared to tonight to identify two jcpc reps And I think there's actually two gifts that are rather timely. They didn't get on for tonight But I think that's a 15 20 minute meeting For the february meeting i'll work with the chair to have an alternate date because the 25th won't work But we'll have a budget hearing Capital plan will come back with that even though jcps will have formed Well, we're planning out the wildwood school improvement plan update for you all second quarter budget fee vote School choice forum warrant review And if there's in this msba topic Just getting a little head just to give you the committee heads up We're planning for food services in a garden program to do a joint presentation in march also coming back for the report cards For that as well This is not an agenda that's probably where we should leave it. Yeah Okay, do we have a motion And move to adjourn second It's not for discussion. So all those in favor It's unanimous Thank you all