 Hereby call the meeting to order. This is Thursday, September 10th, regular meeting of the Arlington School Committee. We have relocated to the beautiful media room of the Odyssey Middle School due to the fact that with the disabled elevator at the Arlington High, the usual meeting room is not handicap accessible and in order to comply with accessibility rules we have moved to an alternate location. That's why if you're watching this on television you're watching it on tape and not live because we don't have live broadcast capacity from this room but you will be around for everybody to watch on cable for the next couple of weeks. It's with a heavy heart that I mentioned that we've lost several members of the Arlington School community and the community at large over the summer including Catherine Wall, Catherine Malatesta, Jeremy Kramer McNeil, a student of the High School, Christopher Planet, 40, son of Susan who works at AHS and Nancy de Loretto, mother of Rob de Loretto. We offer a moment of silence in their memory. Thank you very much. We begin with public participation. Do we have a list? We're not in our usual configuration so things might be a little awkward for tonight as we bring a list from the other side of the room. I remind folks that there's a three-minute limit on public participation. Revity is a wonderful thing and the committee will not act upon things brought to our attention during public participation. First speaker is Ted Wilson at Barbara Brandon will follow. I am Ted Wilson. I'm president of schools for children. We operate the Lesley Ellis School in the Gibbs Building. We operate Dearborn Academy in the Kroski Building and another short-term program in the Central School. Tonight in the interest of respecting your time I was asked to represent Linda Shoemaker from the Arlington Center for the Arts, Marianne Richoppe and Nicole Lowry from Undergrowth, and Deanne Benson from our Lesley Ellis School. We've all been operating important programs and services out of the Gibbs Building since it was shuttered in 1989. That's 26 years serving thousands of children, families, and adults. In the middle of August we were each alerted that the Arlington School Committee is facing a very large enrollment challenge. We were shocked to learn that you were considering solving this problem in part by taking back the Gibbs School when our leases end in June 2017. That was a surprise for all of us because it was totally different than what we had been hearing as recently as when we signed the most recently since 2014. We recognize that things can change and we readily acknowledge the pressure you are under in trying to figure out what to do with your new set of facts. We want to help you find the best possible solution for the children of Arlington and we want you to know how important it is that families and the children that we serve be considered as you deliberate. After almost 30 years we feel we are part of the fabric of this community. Learn to Grow serves almost 100 Arlington families helping to prepare their children scholastically for our Arlington Schools. Lesley Ellis School has a number of Arlington families enrolled in the Arlington Center for the Arts provides programming in all of the arts, runs camps for hundreds of Arlington children and families every year, and touches thousands of lives annually. The representatives from the Kelleher Center are not here tonight, but they provide day habilitation and employment services to almost a hundred very fragile adults, many of whom call Arlington home. The possibility that we could lose the building we call home is obviously very concerning. So for that reason we would respectfully request that the school committee put us on an agenda at the soonest possible day so we can share with you a who we are and b how we contribute to making Arlington so attractive to those young families you now see moving into town. We are part of the fabric of this town and believe the best solution to address in the enrollment surge may be one which meets the needs of Arlington's children and which keeps the Gibbs community strong and vibrant. We appreciate the work you're doing and thank you for considering our request. Thank you. Barbara Brandon. My name is Barbara Brandon and I'm the proud parent of twin first graders at the Dallin Elementary School. I've come here tonight along with some other parents from the first grade of first graders as well as on behalf of fifty three first grade parents who have signed a letter that we have sent to Dr. Mojodi. I've come here tonight to discuss the class size challenges that the current Dallin first grade continues to face and ask that the administration and school committee commit to solving this problem as soon as possible. Last year's Dallin's kindergarten class now first graders had 77 students but only three full-time classroom teachers resulting in an inexcusable average class of 26 students. The May 2015 district enrollment figures show that the three full-time teachers for our 77 students was have kids or more had four full-time classroom teachers. In fact the report shows that one grade with fewer kids 74 children also have four full-time classroom teachers. Our Dallin first grade and the Bishop second grade both the 77 students last year were the only two grades with more than 75 students with only three full-time teachers. This is clearly unequal treatment. As our children begin first grade our total grade level number has grown to 80 potentially making us the only class in Arlington with 80 students but not four full-time teachers. The solution that was put in place was a half solution using a K-1 classroom. While this may have lowered the numbers but from an appalling 26 students per classroom the current class sizes remain above recommended figures for early education for elementary education as well as over first grade classrooms across the district. And what about next year when the K-1 Band-Aid is ripped off our children will be second graders with an average class side of 27 students. This is clearly not acceptable for second grade or beyond so something has to be done. As parents we are not asking for special treatment for our children we are only asking for equal treatment for our children. We're asking that the class size be equals to others and why is it that every grade level with 75 or more students had four full-time teachers but ours does not. And why is it that the other class is stuck with multi-year early education childhood uncertainty and the threat of 27 kids per classroom. All we are asking is that our children have the same educational security and quality as the other children in Arlington. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else under public participation hearing none we will now go to the opening day report Dr. Boaties. Thank you. Many of the many aspects of the opening of school will defer until after a presentation this evening but in general I just want to say that across the district students are very excited to be back as well as teachers and that was said to me multiple multiple times as I went around and met with students and unfortunately we did begin school year with a lot of sadness at the high school as well as down and there was at the high school we prepared for that for all of the potential number of students who may want to have counseling we prepared for that eventuality by having and I think that both students and teachers alike felt very comforted by knowing that that that support was there. We also had counselors at Down on opening day and again the feedback I had from the Down principle is that that also was quite appreciated. So despite the sadness I will say that people students and teachers alike really rose to the occasion and were teaching getting organized at the beginning of school and I particularly want to say that it was a strong appreciation to all of them because they did this in very difficult circumstances. All of our schools were very hot. First day wasn't that bad because we it was it the buildings actually stayed relatively cool I was surprisingly so over the weekend and elementary had a had an early release day but I have to say by Wednesday the buildings were very hot and we had fans going fortunately last spring the school department bought quite a few fans for the high school in the middle school but they were going everywhere and and people were adjusting to the heat but but we did discuss with the possibility whether we would do an early release but in discussion about that the consensus among administration was let's just go for because we are we are going to be able to do it and teachers themselves said that actually the students weren't the ones who were feeling the the hottest it was the teachers but they did a great job and fortunately everything is starting to cool down. The buildings this year were in better shape than they have been in many many years and I want to give a lot of credit to our custodians maintenance and our new director of facilities with Ibenet because they were they were they were sparkling floors and very clean and I have to say this is particularly challenging because every year we increase the number of summer programs that we have which makes the scheduling of the cleaning more challenging every year. Both the middle school and the high school gave particular attention to the students who were transitioning at the at the high school ninth graders met with together in the auditorium and they weren't expected to go immediately to their home room their home room teachers met them there and it was actually very cute watching the teachers having all the students follow them to home room sort of a similar a similar kind of arrangement happened where students were slowly introduced to the rhythms of the middle school on Tuesday. So it was a very it was a very smooth opening by all accounts in all buildings which is really a test to not only the the staff of the school but to the preparation that went into having the schools open smoothly and that's there's people don't realize how busy school departments are during the summer but if you lived on the sixth floor this time you'd realize how busy it was and so a lot went into into this and but I'm very pleased to report that all as well there's more to report that we'll get to that a little bit later in the if DRA is not here yet they are here okay we're ready to rock it okay DRA report go ahead introduction I saw Mr. Wooden oh there he is hi I want you to introduce Scott Wooden who's one of the principals of DRA who is who is working on the Stratton project is that might be better to have it come up here let me just give you a little bit of background as to where we are with the project right now as I think many people are aware we we've gone through a quite a process in in bringing Stratton to the to a level of equity parodies the word we're using with the other elementary schools we have done some redesign of the building to increase office space nursing cafeteria cafeteria and the library space I think you're all very much aware of that process when we were last year thinking about where the students were going to go during relocation our analysis at that point was that we would have modular classrooms at several of our schools in part the choice of those schools was based on a couple of factors one the the how well a modular classroom could be connected to the school as well as the potential for those modular classrooms to remain after Stratton students move back in order to deal with some of the enrollment growth that we're seeing at those schools but as we've gone through the process particularly this summer and we'll and we'll have much more discussion about this going forward it became very clear as we looked at our enrollment growth and what the options might be for how to handle enrollment growth at all of the elementary schools including oddison that to make a decision about where to place modules next year for relocation with the with the idea that they would be remain there probably could preempt other decisions that might be better long-term interests of the school district so it was with that realization that we decided to bring a recommendation to the facility subcommittee in late August by decoupling the dealing with dealing with relocation issues for the for the Stratton elementary with how to solve some of our enrollment growth challenges that was that presentation was made to the facilities committee and the recommendation was to keep all of Stratton students and faculty and the Stratton site during construction and we talked with our two architects from DRA Scott wooden and call it Francesca was down here this evening about the pot that possibility central to being able to do that they were going to have to change how they were going to do the work in the building so that the cafeteria and the gym would remain available to the school department during the course of the year with the work to be done there reserved the following summer and thank you very much for being so accommodating to make this work but then once we could do that then the next issue with how do we actually cite these modules to meet all the needs of the whole community and this is I think where I turn it over to Scott so he can talk about you don't bring it there so you're gonna take the whole thing you're on explaining exactly how this will be situated how the modules be situated at Stratton and what the project will be like the timeline beyond that sure good evening thank you again for having us we're happy to be here tonight I'm Scott wooden with the RA architects the the the plan in all honesty it's kind of in its infancy it's a solid plan and it's well thought out but we develop this plan pretty quickly when there was sort of a paradigm shift a few weeks ago from locating modulars at different schools to locating them all on the Stratton site so we're still sort of catching up with the plan and doing a lot of investigation on site we've had somebody on site for the last two days kind of scoping out exactly what all the conditions are here along the edge of the existing building where we would be making the connections but we still do need to go through our local review with the fire department and the building inspector we're working closely with the companies that manufacture the modulars because these things just to give you a little bit of a little bit of a background here with modular construction there's sort of a design build type of a type of a commodity so when you're when you're doing modulars you don't put together a bid specification like we do for a building where we detail every little aspect of it we give them a diagram that shows the layout that wouldn't be much further developed than this we would show them some sections through some of the connectors which are stick built they're not modular construction and we tell them that they need to connect to power and these are the power requirements they need to connect to plumbing and to sanitary sewer and it's more of a performance spec where we're kind of giving them what our end product goal is and then they put together the nuts and bolts as to how to do it they would design the structural systems for it they would you know they would they construct obviously and they remove everything at the end they restore it back to its original condition so we're working with the modular company we actually have a meeting next week scheduled with one of the modular companies triumph to review the conditions on the site to review our preliminary plans we also have a meeting next week scheduled with the building inspector to review our plans with him as well to show him how we're addressing egress fire separation things that will make this fully code compliant and safe so our the plan right now is we came upon a quantity of classrooms a quantity of offices and we've come up with this configuration we've also designed this configuration based on the need for toilet facilities within the modular so that the only thing that we would be relying on the existing building for is for cafeteria for student dining and the gymnasium for a gymnasium space during the winter months okay so what we're looking at here is this is kind of an aerial view of the it's a floor plan an aerial view of the existing building with the modulars so what we see here is this is the outline the shaded area here is the outline now use your imagination you gotta use your imagination here so this this is the existing building here so these are the kindergarten classrooms up toward mountain avenue and these are the these are the this is the current configuration of the parking area and driveway and this is where it loops in a little bit to the entryway to the to the existing building so I want to make sure everybody has their orientation so right now these are this is the hard surface play area and then the grass beyond that slopes down this is the existing swing set area and the playground beyond so you can see the way that this is nestled on the site is is pretty tight to pheasant street it's pretty tight to our existing parking area so we just have enough room to get a sidewalk in here and a ramp and a stair up into the new modulars and this is sort of an alleyway between between the two modular construction wings so each one of these is a wing of classrooms so what we have is we have classroom classroom classroom classroom so it starts with the kindergarten here and the first grade and then the second third fourth and fifth grades in the opposite wing it connects here and it also connects back here by an outside connector okay so most of your this is an interior an interior connection so if you're going from one of the special education classrooms over to one of these classrooms or into the existing building the intent is to have that a full enclosure it wouldn't be heated necessarily but it would be a full enclosure and protect you from the elements rain snow and and you wouldn't have to traverse outside to get what from one wing to the other this connection back here is primarily made for just to make a more efficient means of egress that end of the modulars is quite high off the ground because of the way that the existing site slopes so again by these two connections into the gymnasium here and into the corridor that connects to the cafeteria we'll be able to service the entire school's existing program requirements within that space so the rest of the space would be shut off and would be available to the contractor for their construction during September of 2016 through June of 2017 while we're doing the construction any questions on that the chair will entertain questions from the members Mr. Hainer the first grade and the fifth grade the two rooms at the end how much square footage is different from the regular classrooms I'm assume no difference okay so it's the same area it just looks different correct it's a little bit different configuration so that we can get that quarter connection through the end but they'll but this is the same square footage same square footage okay thank you um dr. Seuss so I just have a question the bathrooms I see more located near the building because they're hooking into the existing plumbing is that right I'm sorry I didn't point that out but the existing the end of these modular and it comes just like that right they just bring they have trailers prepared like that set up for there's utility space a janitor's closet and then a girl's in a boy's toilet rooms they are they could be located at either end of the wing we did want to have them located at the same location on both of the modular wings so that we could get a clean line of the sanitary pipes the plumbing and all of that and the connection out to the street and I think it's a little bit more convenient having them at this end because a lot of times they service the cafeteria in the gymnasium too so if they're someone's in gym they need to use the facilities it's a short walk they don't have to walk all the way down to the end of the wing seem to make sense so I just just a concern about kindergartners being able to use if there's a appropriately sized toilet or appropriate sized toilet for a kindergartner available if that's possible it may not be possible well I you know it's a good question I'm not sure I'm not sure if it's possible or not there is a couple inches difference you know when you get down the pre kindergarten kindergarten according to the plumbing code there are these really really low fixtures that are you know very different than what they are training on at home that's always kind of a philosophical argument is that if they're if they get that at home how do they manage when they if they if they're using a 17 inch at home and they're using a 12 inch at school a little bit of confusion there but I'll take a look at that and see if that would be available well I don't understand what's happening with the food service will there be hot food service will the so that's good because I don't see that being shaded in no it's not we would want to there's a lot of renovations being done in this area where the current food services is being delivered so we haven't exactly worked out the details of that but we believe that there's sufficient space within that to segregate an area for the food service area so you do a temporary right I think the intent is that we would still have the services that we have there now that would basically be a warming kitchen and that things would be warm there and we would have a serving line but that could all be organized within the space without any special ventilation requirements Miss Starks I'm wondering if there is or what we're going to do about a library we talked about that a little bit in terms of maybe even having part of the cafeteria have a little space and it may be that we will have to move the library books into classrooms that is that is one thing that will be planned this year in fact Mr. Hannah's here this evening and I don't know if you've had some more discussions with your your staff on that very issue Mr. Hannah if you'd like to come to the microphone I'm Michael Hannah principal strat in school you know we've discussed both having that programming mobile carving out some space in the cafeteria especially on the stage period that can function sometimes as a instructional space too so those are a couple of ideas that we've had so far Mr. Heiner going along with that part music will be on carts and going into the room so I assume okay for one year mr. Pierce the covered walkway or waterproof enclosure any concerns about its it is narrowness for basically the entire two modules to be using it all at the same time say they're going into the cafeteria or any crowding expected no I don't think so what one of the exercises that will go through is kind of right sizing everything from an egress code standpoint but given that this is the common quarter width within their module which I believe is eight feet and we're at least eight feet for these there may be some doors out of here some emergency doors out of here so that you can discharge the grade you don't have to necessarily go back into this building and go out one of these exits so it still needs to comply with all the building code requirements in terms of the quarter widths door widths travel distances from each location to an exterior door so we'll do all those calculations we haven't quite done it yet but we'll do all those calculations and make sure that's all compliant thank you Mr. Thielmick have you have we had any preliminary commerce preliminary conversations with the fire department or anyone about citing this and any issues that they want us to be conscious of as we go about this the meetings will be planned next next week I know that's what the building inspector and and then we'll have to set up a meeting with that chief Jefferson as well so we haven't got any feedback no we're at the we need to have something more you just something to show them this is already been presented a permanent town building committee and chief Jefferson is a member of that okay so he's seen this so we see him fine with it so far okay I'm sure if he sees problem he'll say something yeah I know Mr. Hanard you're gonna say the exact same thing okay Dr. Allison Ampey could you talk about how you would keep students from being exposed to construction dust in general okay we we do this frequently we there's controls in place we carry a lot of requirements in the specification for dust control and indoor air quality management there's specifications that mandate that they have to have benchmark levels before they start any construction they need to maintain those during construction in the occupied areas where the students are going to be there'll be very very well detailed and well controlled construction barriers at each of the points where we're where we're separating the two so with with lots of plastic enclosures wood frame plastic enclosures but also keeping this area negatively pressurized so that it's not pushing dust into the other areas so those requirements will cover within the specification that we that we typically carry within these renovation type scenarios there also be it's going to be very detailed sort of phasing diagrams but showing exactly what areas the contractor needs to keep clear and maintained for egress because one of the issues that we'll have here is that this will be a contractor area over here where they're renovating within the kindergarten classrooms and this will be part of their continuous enclosement area but they've got to maintain this area clear because we need to have a secondary emergency arrest we can't accommodate that on that end of the cafeteria so they'll have to keep a corridor here clear 100% of the time and we'll monitor that on a daily basis to make sure that they have safe egress from that from that area we'll also show we started to show here there'll be careful consideration and dates given that the contractor can can gain access to these is that doing something funny is gaining gaining access to this facade to do renovations window replacement things of that nature on that facade but then we want to move the fence in tighter to the building and maintain as much clearance around the building that we can for schools functions and school use and circulation Dr. Seuss I just want to do we have money in the budget to restore the fields when we're all done or is that something separate that we'd have to look at that's definitely part of project Dr. Allison. Sorry one more just and I think this one's more for Dr. Buddy. So how would student safety in terms of construction workers going in and out or keeping them from coming in and out be maintained the construction workers going into the occupied space by students. How are we keeping the construction workers from from just walking in or someone who's not construction but pretends to be one. Okay. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Well, first of all, there's not going to be access from the construction area into the school area when Mr. Wooden is talking about the egress out of the cafeteria that is egress out not in so that'd be like just a crash emergency emergency out won't be opened at any other time. None of the none of the doors or in fact, that'd probably be the only door I think maybe there'll be one other much the contractors will be using the front circular drive. They'll be coming and going through that door. Right. Becoming and going on the modular side of the building. So really they'll be fencing. So the only door is that and that's an emergency door only opening from that side. That's it. And then everything else is divided off. I'll I'll ask a question now. I'm sure the parents, teachers and other members of the Stratton community and neighbors will have questions. What forms and venues will we have to give them the opportunity to ask questions and gain answers? Great question. Well, last night, I sent an email out to Stratton parents. First of all, I'm forming them about the presentation tonight. But I believe that we've we've set up a meeting in which Mr. Wooden is coming to meet with parents who want to come as a regular PTO meeting in October 7th. There will also be a meeting with staff at some point. I would expect that as we move through the project, there will be regular meetings that are set up. We don't have a time time frame yet. But that is going to happen. But in addition to that, you might want to talk about your advisory committees. Yes, it actually with the faculty will be able to do the day prior October 6th that our faculty meeting will be able to have Scott as well as present questions and concerns. And even in advance of the shift to this scenario, we had a parent advisory group meeting with me monthly to share questions and concerns. We actually had a meeting here at the Odyssey when we were anticipating this being a host facility. And so we're going to reconvene that group and this time actually with faculty as well. So it's going to be a faculty parent advisory group who can then bring questions and concerns to me. And then I'll be able to work with obviously Dr. Volody and Diane and the working group and also as a temporary member of the permanent town building committee as well. So I'll be attending those and I'll be able to bring then the input from that body to those meetings. Yeah, I just want to emphasize that school committee meetings are formal meetings of the committee. And we generally don't engage in conversation with members of public at informal meeting. We're much more informal and subcommittee meetings, but we also want to ensure that members of the community have a chance to ask questions as well in other venues or to forward questions to the committee when we consider the topic again. So that's the structure of the meeting. I'm just sort of explaining, you know, what we do, how we do it, why we do it. Mr. Pierce. Oh, no. Okay. Mr. Heiner, I just like to make a comment that I'm very happy that this plan is going this way, keeping the Stratton community together. It's going to be a little tough on the teachers and stuff crowded and things on the cart. But I think it's much better than having Stratton dispersed over the town of Allenton. I'm really happy with this. Any other comments or questions on this topic? Hearing none, thank you very much for coming. We look forward to seeing you again soon. Next comes the superintendent report. Dr. Boudie. Let me begin with enrollment, which is the first on that list. You received earlier this week, our current enrollment, and this is even changing as we speak. There's been a number of registrations in the last couple of days and more scheduled. What you will see here is that there are a number, not many, but a few places where the class sizes are larger than we would like. I think the particular place is at Thompson. We also have a Bishop at fourth grade and a Downland at fourth grade. Those are the those are the three, three class sites, and we're working with the principals to provide support for all three of those areas. Now, what we could go, I wasn't sure that we would be coming close to Dr. McKibben's projection for this year, but that that thought has passed this week. We are we are very much on track to with his projections and I would point out that what's important for you to note in that it's pre K to 12. And there's a constancy of 57 for the pre K. In fact, I think we're might be a little bit more than that right now, but we're expecting actually that number to grow even this year. So our as of the as of what is the data is 98. So that was a couple of days ago. Our total increase over October one last year is 162 students, including, pardon, including, not including, not including pre K. This this chart that you received is a K through 12. And I think it's important to sort of note this because if you look at that, Dr. McKibben's, you'll see their number, which I think was 5,399 for this year. But that included pre K. Right now, we're at 5,339. And then if you add in, well, that would be if I took the preschool away, what our actual number is 5,313. And that is of a couple of days ago. But what it was a little bit surprising is that it's really across the whole district. We, we thought that our kindergarten was going to go over 500, it might still approach 500. We kindergarten doesn't start to next week. And there have been a number of registrations this week. But it has been across the board. Overall, the average increase is slightly over 3%, 3.1% increase. It's important to note that we're always going to be comparing to October to October, because there's fluctuations that go on all the time. And in fact, that's actually one of the challenges that we face in determining a number of classrooms. Even though we have buffer zones to help even things off, what happens is that what might appear to be perfectly even class sizes can change. And then it becomes it gets to a certain point when it there are options really are not to add another classroom. And in fact, in some buildings, Thompson being one, there isn't another classroom to create another space. And that is true, really in in quite a few of our quite a few of our buildings. The schools that have an extra classroom are the schools that are not necessarily have experienced the same the same growth. Of course, Stratton has extra classrooms. But at the at this right now, that's not isn't going to be very helpful in terms of the buildings that do need the extra classrooms. So as I'm looking at first grade, because there was comments about first grade, pretty much across the district, our range for first grade classrooms are in the 20 to 25, with an average of about 22.5. So it's it's a fairly tight range as compared to some other grades, which have a little bit wider range. Fifth grade probably being having the most disparity. Fifth grade can range from 19 to 29. And at this point, the best we can do is provide additional support for those large size classrooms. The other thing in terms of just some patterns here, we have finally had a milestone here at oddison. This year is the first year we I think in a long time that we are having a class over 400. The class the current sixth grade is 424. And the current seventh grade is 389. And then if I go move into the high school, the high school grade 11 is 281. So we still have one class at the high school, which is below 300. And our first grade this year is 521. So you can see what the the range is here. But all of the class sizes in the high school are under 350. And eighth grade is as well. But then that's when it stops. The last class under 400 is this year's seventh grade. Other than that, we're all in the 400s. And as I said, first grades hitting five is over 500. And that was one of the big surprises this summer is the is the growth in the first grade. I think I think I probably had the most volatility throughout the whole summer was first grade. So we are growing, we are growing at the projected rate. And at on the somebody has mentioned, I think mentioned on the 24th, our school committee media is going to be held in town hall, which we're going to invite town committees, the selectmen to come and hear the presentation from Dr. McKibbin about his methodology for making the projections that he has, which is a very different methodology than what the school system has employed over the years. We use a straight mathematical formula. Basically, we look at the cohort of children that were born and and what percentage of those children actually enter kindergarten. That percent has usually been over 80%. It's not the same students, it's just the numbers. And then after that, the the retention rate is always been high 80s, 90s, most of the grades in the 90s. And sometimes if you look looked at last year's, there were over 100%, which means that we're actually gaining students of that grade level. But the methodology is is is just looking at is that basically is what we're looking at with having some weighted averages projecting out. Dr. McKibbin's way that he has looked at enrollment growth is entirely different. He's not that he just counting birth, but he's looking at trends in terms of housing. A lot of assumptions about what happens to housing when interest rates are at a certain level, the economy and trends that he sees nationally. I think what all of these documents, by the way, for those people who will be listing, they are on the school department's website, you can you can look at them. But there are some interesting things in his enrollment projections, which we'll talk more about in the 24th. And that is the age ranges in 10 year groupings in all of the school districts. And while we're seeing growth right now in the East Arlington part of town, what you can see in other parts of town is that the group in the in the late 50s, 60s is large. And what they find nationally is that in the 70s is when people start turning in moving moving out of their homes and for for a host of reasons. So I think it'll be very good for the community and the school committee to hear the report to hear the assumptions. Some members of the school committee have already heard his presentation. And I think it it answered a lot of questions in terms of the methodology, because we're going to be making decisions based on this. Yeah, let me stop right now because we've got the enrollment report on the table and I know that members want to talk about it. Mr. Heiner regarding the class size at Thompson is would you consider please the idea of letting parents voluntarily opting to go to another school condition that they handle the transportation to bring try to bring it may not happen. But I mean class sizes of 29, even with an aid, the teacher then has the responsibility to prepare for the aid as well. I'm looking at the other schools discounting Pierce. I mean, if you had just three parents, three families for me that both classes willing to do that, it might help. I would be happy to make that offer to parents. I suspect it may not happen. But I mean, I'm just just the idea that we're concerned about it. Again, conditional that they be responsible for the transportation. I'm not looking for us to have that added thing. I think you may have some parents that take it they may not. Thank you. I'm happy to make that offer to this great parents, Dr. Allison Ampe. No, I was just I agree with Mr. Heiner. I think it would be I understand it's late to be doing this and stuff. But it seems like something some people might it might be important to them and and let's give them a chance. Dr. Seuss. Yeah, I third that are especially for families who are new to the district so that if they're new to fifth grade and hardy's a very walkable school from the Thompson, most of the Thompson neighborhoods, that might be an option they want. Actually, I just have a question. I've heard through the great crime. This may be false that we now have at least one classroom that's at 30. I was wondering if that is that true and our both classrooms at 30 now or because of somebody moving in? I haven't heard that I talked to principal Donato's just earlier today and she didn't mention there's a change. That's what a parent told me. And then and I know you're aware of this issue. I wonder if we should reconsider our policy of allowing families who've been in the district but have moved out of the area of staying through fifth grade and I understand why families want to do that. And most of the time it works, you know, we have 20, you know, we have three to four families who are no longer living in the district or in that Thompson fifth grade and three. And one of them actually is a friend of mine. So it's nothing against any particular, you know, individual families. You know, I had a son who moved in fifth grade and it was tough for a few weeks, but it was actually ultimately really valuable for him. So I just wonder, it's a great policy. It makes a lot of sense. But when we get numbers like this, we might want to reconsider it. It's been a very, like many of the grades, it has been volatile this summer. At one point, it was not that high. And of course, what happens is once you, once you acknowledge and offer that, well, at the request, and then you then a month later get another one is pretty hard to say no at that point. So that is something that I think that we could reconsider. But I will say that it's still a tricky thing because the numbers could change and they did change. They just of all the schools enrollments are the most volatile at Thompson in terms of ups and downs. So they now it's up and now it's up and now it's up. And we're trying to do the very best we can. One of the things so that we've also put in, which I think might be event that you should know about this year, we received more title one money than we have in past years. And we have taken the title one money and put it into offering extra math and reading support at Thompson. So there is going to be more support there this year than there have been in past years. We've actually already hired these tutors. Dr. Seusser, are you asking the policies and procedures committee to look into that policy? Yeah, actually, I think it's a good idea. Mr. Mr. Pierce, would you put that on your agenda for the future? Absolutely. Thank you. Mr. The only side, two questions. One is that we received an email from a parent who asked us asked if it's if it's appropriate for us to revisit the buffer zones, especially as the impact of Thompson school. So I'm going to ask you that question. That's, do you think it's a time to do that given the pressures on Thompson? He's starting to general. There's sort of in a contest is which classrooms get larger and so I don't know the answer that I think that down the road the answer is going to be yes. And it's going to involve it's going to be dependent upon related to I should say, the decision about what we do in terms of module is a permanent construction at one of the one or both the schools. So yes, and I think down the road, honestly, we're going to have to think about buffer zones everywhere to increase them in order to create more flexibility. That what that was the history was in Brookline and Newton after a few years. Okay, we can we get a report on that in October, if I recall that's right. So that's that's the time to see if it's okay. Because the thing to think about is, okay, if we're going to if we're going to begin to take a look at the buffer zones again, what's the timeline for doing that? It takes a while. It's not at least last time it took a while. It wasn't a simple process. Hopefully we have new people this year, hopefully that they will be able to be ready for probably the last meeting in October. Okay, no, I'm talking about the overall conversation about changing the zones. Oh, yes. Yes. That that that certainly will be challenging. Yeah, okay. So, okay. And then the second question I have is, as you look at the fourth, fifth, in third grades, all the way down in the elementary school, we're seeing that eventually we're going to have more than 400 students per grade at the Addison Middle School. And so you're looking at a school that's going to have 1200, 1250 students. And we know that's coming. So when what's the what's the framework for the conversation about how to address the space challenges at this school at the Addison? Well, that's part of the planning. We know that maybe next year we can probably manage one more year. But beyond that, we need additional class space at Addison. So the question is, what is that going to be? When you look multiple years out, in seven years, we expect class side the total enrollment there to be approaching 1500. That's a lot. And in order to be able to accommodate that, we probably need probably 20 modular classrooms. And can we do we have the space for that? So this is all part of this bigger conversation. But would they like them next year? Yes. I think we can get one more year beyond this year. And then we definitely need modular classrooms. And then the other question is a request that Mr. Wilson made have a conversation about the Gibbs. Did you I don't know if this is the appropriate time that we're talking about space or there might be the appropriate time to do we wanted it? How do we want to do you want to address that just sort of go to a subcommittee is that you want to put on the agenda? You're the chair. So I think it's my intent to maintain communication with the tenants of the Gibbs. And I think that my reaction is that they are entitled to have a hearing and a conversation with the full committee. I mean, obviously, we're all going to have a presentation in two weeks about our space need and everybody will be educated from that. So I would anticipate inviting the Gibbs tenants to a meeting in October, October, not a not a facilities. Okay, I just wanted to clarify that. So if you're here, they can tell me. Okay. Mr. Heiner, that meeting on the 24th is a public meeting for everyone. Yes. And I'm just reiterating, we should also invite them as well to that. I mean, they're, they're, they're a private business and sound, but at the same time, it will affect will have an effect on them. But they put the quiet requesters to make a presentation. No, no, I'm and be on the agenda. So yeah, the chair just said that the 24th meeting is going to give us some direction. So I'd like them, I guess, for them to be there to help with their presentation as well. Yeah, I would hope that they would come or at least watch the video. I like the videos. When I was off the committee, I enjoyed the videos, I never came to a meeting. It's a much more comfortable atmosphere. The the thing is, is that I want everyone to have the same set of information before we start engaging in a conversation, which is why I think it's important that we do the presentation on the 24th, and then engage folks in a conversation after everybody is seeing all the details. Dr. Allison Ampe. Two questions. One, my understanding with the fifth grade is, I wasn't sure it's an actual policy. I thought it was more of an informal practice that we have continued. And so I'm wondering if it's appropriate for policy to be bringing it up, or what's the right. It's always appropriate for policy to look at that because it's the set of ground rules that we operate by. And if we choose not to make a declaration, informal arrangements can be made. But if we wish to have influence over the decisions that are being made by the administration, we need to give that direction. Okay. My second question is more, it's partly for facilities, but we've in the past few meetings been tossing around modules a lot. And I for one would really like to actually be able to go see one that's been on the ground for a while. So we can see, you know, we know how they used to age. I'd like to see if they're actually aging. And I understand you want to get everyone to have the same information. But I really would like to see something. So if we can figure that out. Yeah, I've also asked that we have the opportunity to take a tour of the Gibbs at some point in the near future so that if the superintendent can arrange for one taking a look at a couple of modular classrooms that have been existence for a couple of years, I think that's your request. Yeah. And then to have a date maybe on a Saturday to go through the Gibbs, we can do both of those things as we're thinking about the future. Mr. Heiner, just for clarification on the last thing, the modular units that we're looking at right now for the for Stratton, I temper. Yes. But the modular units you just mentioned for a multi year would we're looking at that's what you're asking about. Yeah. Thank you. Any other discussion under the topic of the enrollment? Dr. Seuss just one more point. Sorry. So similarly, I think to Jeff's point or Mr. Thielen's point, I think we want to be able to have a open discussion with the rest of the community as well and create some sort of forum for that. And I know we're not quite sure what that's going to take. But I hope we do October looks like the timing. I think that after we hear the presentation on the 24th, we can then sort of set a course. And I know that this committee wants to hear from everybody and provide plenty of opportunities for folks to think about this. We gain knowledge from talking to two others. Continue on hiring report. All right. Let's just be able to join us. Thank you. So it's been a busy summer. It's been a busy, especially the last few weeks with a lot of new hires. Although it started in the spring with new people who were going to be hired for this year. So some of the highlights that you have the report. For our administrators, we have a new social studies director, a new early childhood coordinator and a new high school special education coordinator. We're still looking to hire a middle school special education coordinator. The teachers, I think I left a number blank. I think as of today, we have 42 individuals who have been hired as new teachers to the district. That's not 42 FTEs because several of those are part time, mostly in art and music and phys ed and fax to attack here at the middle school to sort of fill in schedules based on the new elementary schedule change. And because of the enrollment increases in the middle school and elementary schools just to be able to schedule enough sections of classes. One highlight is we brought a position in house as an employee that used to be in a contracted service is the teacher that visually impaired orientation and mobility specialists. We were able to hire an experienced person for that position. Like in past years, we continue to hire from within and hire teaching assistants who are in teaching preparation programs in graduate schools and who have worked in buildings to become teachers in our district. We have 11 people that are newly hired have been teaching assistants or building subs. We also have people who we've hired who have done long term suppositions or student teaching here. We also have at least one person who is returning to Arlington after having worked in another district for a few years. We meet with everybody. I mean, what I've instituted for a few years is basically individual meetings with each new hire with HR to go over all the information on the salary, insurance options, ethics law, fingerprinting, orientation schedule, and meet with them to get them acquainted with the district that way. I have a breakdown by schools and district wide. We also have been really active in hiring teaching assistants, especially recently, because this is a position that tends to be very volatile toward the end of the summer at the beginning of the school year. There's a lot of movement when teaching positions may open up in other districts and teaching assistants who are licensed might be able to get those positions at that time. That opens up slots here. As of today, this is an update. We have 44 new teaching assistants, and we still have a few unfilled positions to hire. So that is something that we are continuing to look for. As usual, we have a range of education levels of our teaching assistants, but we do have several six, at least with master's degrees. Many are in master's programs, and really a lot are interested in becoming teachers in a classroom or whatever. We also have the after school programs that continue to expand very strong district run programs at Hardy, Thompson and Audison. We have five new staff members there. Actually, we now have six since this recording. I think we just hired someone and they work 25 to 26 hours per week. The schedule for Thompson and Hardy changed a little bit this year because of the early schedule and the elementary schedule, but they're going to average about 26 hours per week at those schools. I did a breakdown a few days ago on our total number of applicants for all the positions we posted for 2015-16 positions. A few days ago was 2488 applicants through school spring data, and that's just on school spring. That doesn't count people have sent in resumes individually or directly to principals. And that's probably grown in the past few days because we've had other postings, we've had other applicants, but we school spring tends to be the number one source, at least in Massachusetts for for teachers who are looking for positions, although there are others and we sometimes post on other sites as well. We as always this is a busy time for the whole district administration teachers. And I just want to acknowledge that these hireings wouldn't happen without the principals, the teachers serving on interview committees at the buildings or in special ed department, the teachers have come in all summer to serve on interview committees. We've had all our administrators have been busy doing hiring all summer. Once it gets to the hiring stage, it comes to HR and payroll and the superintendent's office to generate letters. And our data specialist to enter information into our data systems. And our retirement administrator for the town, the people who are in town retirement. There's a lot of levels of people who work really hard to make sure that everyone gets into the systems they need to get into, and get on the payroll. Mr. Heiner, on in the hiring, does the when you get to the point, you're interested in the person they salary, do we give? Is that negotiable? So that's comes in when they meet with me on the teacher's scale, if they're coming in as a teacher in unit in the Arlington Education Association unit a they tend to come in at the based on our salary scale, gives credit for education level, bachelor's, master's, master's plus doctorate and years of experience. So I tend to give credit we give credit our history in Arlington as a credit for comparable public school teaching experience. And then we have discretion on private school teaching experience. So the variance the number I see a point two is one number and then I say point two somewhere else is a different number. It's because of where they came in point to a T a position instead of being a full time position like point two. I've noticed the ticket was point one was 66,364 and then down below OT PT was 5,248 that I'm looking at the wrong. I'm not looking at your report. I'm looking at yours. You're looking at financial I apologize. So yeah, so people will come in and it will vary based on positions, some positions that are harder to fill. We can hire and tend to hire people with more experience who might come in higher on the salary schedule. Yeah, thank you. Mr. Pierce. How did we do on our diversity hiring? So I'll have the diversity report in October. I don't think it's as as good as I would have expected. We do have a few hires who are people of color, but with the numbers that we've hired, it's not as it's not been as strong as I would have hoped. Mr. Heiner, just quick response. If you notice a couple weeks ago in the city of Boston's having trouble getting maintaining the diversity. So I mean, they get to draw a little bit bigger pool than we do. I'm not defending it or anything one way or the other. But it's just an understanding that it's a challenge. And there are times when I mean, there's so many factors that go into it when sometimes the timing works out. I know there was a position that opened up later in the summer and had to we had to move quickly to do get interview teams together. And it was, you know, bumped up against vacation schedules of principals and and core and administrators and trying to get it together. We've lost some candidates in the process just because that's the way it is. I mean, people are in multiple searches and they may get offer somewhere else and they're going to take an offer that's sure rather than wait for something that might be a little more uncertain. Any other questions hearing none? Next will be some more professional development. Meanwhile, as she's setting up, I want to acknowledge the flowers in our places. These are locally grown by the monotomy preschoolers. And it's wonderful that they sent them to us and welcome to another wonderful year of preschool. One of my colleagues in Lowell is enrolling her daughter in our preschool this year. And she reports just how wonderful the folks at the preschool were in turn and all the preparation for entry. And they're very excited. Yeah, one other little bit of good news. Oh, and the pictures we have pictures of all preschoolers will run aside. And another little bit of good news is that I was talking to another person in Lowell who's active in in the sports programs. And they commented that they were at the Bishop field and one of the other fields off of Summer Street. And that they said how nice the fields were and they were appreciative of the work our length and did to host them. So just full of good news tonight. I don't know. Dr. Cheson, you ready? Yeah, sure. We're going to just talk a little bit about what happened this summer and give you just a brief preview of what's going to happen during the school year. So we'll talk a little bit about the professional development, some expansion of technology, which is putting it mildly. Just tell you a little bit about the professional development that we plan this year. And Dr. already already touched on this a little bit, but just talk about the staff supports that we're going to be giving to our professional staff this year. So we had a lot of professional development this summer. I actually have slightly more than this because some just came the green sheets just came in at the last minute. We funded those primarily through two sources, two major grants, an AF grant and the success grant and then also through our operational budget. Pretty much evenly, although slightly more on the operational budget and Teacher Day spent more about 786 Teacher Days. You'll see there the variety of professional development that we offered this summer. I want to really emphasize that this year we surveyed teachers in the spring. Ms. Hansen and I also did focus groups with grade four and we really selected for professional development those things that teachers responded back to us that they needed the most in order to prepare for the next school year. One of the number one things that keeps coming up is social emotional needs of students and helping teachers to be prepared for that. And so you'll see a number of the programs that we offered there. The second one is being able to meet the needs of all students, the diverse learners in the classroom. And so we offered a number of professional development areas around that. And then we would be remiss if we kept spending money on technology but didn't provide training for our teachers. So there was a technology ed camp that happened at the Thompson School. And what that is is that teachers will be asked what topics that they're interested in. And then when they come in that day, they get to sign up for that. And it's run by as as most of this I would say 90% of this professional development is run and provided for by Arlington teachers and teacher leader capacities. We had a teacher a couple teachers that went to Google boot camp and we had additional training on power school. Some special events that happened this summer we had our teacher leadership program kickoff we discussed with the committee last year about how we had received a grant from the Arlington educational foundation to have a develop a teacher leadership program and to really formalize that and to provide our teacher leaders because we had gotten feedback from our mentors again in the spring that there were certain skills and experiences that they wanted to have to become more effective. And so we had that teacher leadership kickoff for two days in August. We actually have six teachers that are actually taking a course for graduate credit. And so they have continued to collaborate online since the the two days. And so have other teachers who are not taking it for graduate credit. But specifically for those teachers, it's been really exciting to see the kind of comments that they have going back and forth. All our new teachers receive a mentor. So we had a mentor training this summer. We had new teacher professional development and there was an administrative retreat. So again, the focus for our areas is not only just professional development in the summertime, but also curriculum work to prepare for the year. We did a lot of work at the elementary level and literacy and math. FOSS, which is our new science program that we're implementing this year in grades one, two and three. We had professional development on that and also on the teacher sort of documenting what they were going to do with that. There was a lot of work in the middle school math curriculum, a lot, a very lot of work in world languages. We have some outstanding documented curriculum units in world language. They did an exceptional job. The ELL team worked this summer. There is very difficult to find documented curriculum for ELL students. And so our ELL teachers decided that they were just going to write it themselves. And so they worked this summer. And there was a number of work at the high school. I think one is the most significantly is that across subject areas, they updated the research handbook that we provide to our students at the high school level. Technology expansion, these guys, the window is very short because we don't generally don't place any purchase orders because of the fiscal year until July one. And then we have to be ready for school. So basically they have about six and a half weeks to get 900 new devices implemented in and place. We have expanded our one to one pilot that you heard about twice over the last couple years in the 610 cluster to now include all of the sixth grade and the one cluster that's half sixth grade, half seventh grade. Not only will the sixth grade students be participating, but the seventh grade cluster will also that seventh grade part will be participating. We have our initial implementation of bring your own device. We have 51 parents approximately who have chosen to have their student bring their own iPad. We had three days two weeks ago and then three days just past week and we still have one to two busy people that we have to add to the system and they are actually getting on our network. So those students follow the same procedures and rules and regulations as a school iPad during the day, but then they get to take their iPad home at night. And we'll see how that works. But right now it looks like it's going to work pretty well. We have eight teachers at the high school that have a classroom set of devices to keep in their school to use through a competitive grant application program. Teachers had to talk about what they would do differently, how it would change their practice and how it would change student learning. We are replacing about a hundred aging sped student devices across the district. We're replacing the oldest iPads. It's hard to believe, but we have iPads now that are five years old in the district and Apple will tell you their useful life is three years. I want you to be assured that if we can get anything out of them whatsoever, we are continuing to use them. We just keep pushing them down to kindergarten, first grade where the higher level of functionality is not always necessary. We're going to be replacing aging teacher machines at Stratton and at Dallin. We've expanded because of the increased enrollment, the Tech and Engineering labs at Audison from two to three. So we have a new full-time Tech and Engineering teacher and through a grant from AEF, we were able to expand that lab. We're expanding the CAD program at the high school to go from a simple CAD program to now what we call two and three D STEAM. So through the grant we've received from AEF, there are eight very high functioning and high powered digital photography video stations in that room and so students will be able to do both two D and 3D because we have the CAD, we have a 3D printer. And finally we'll have an additional science laptop cart with probes that we'll be able to utilize from our science department. So professional development for the fall. This is just to give you a little sneak preview. We have about 150 teachers and administrators that will participate in retail training in the fall or spring. We will have five of those courses and one administrative course that will be offered here at Arlington and then we have people, sometimes people chose to take a course that was closer to where they lived. Our teacher leadership program will have professional development sessions at least four times during the school year. Our literacy lab, which you heard about last year, our lab site program will be expanded. We're going to be offering blended learning book study groups and those will be book study groups where teachers would meet two or three times face-to-face and then would have online discussions. And some of the areas that we're going to be doing, Margaret Thomas is going to be doing a cultural competency book study group. We have a discourse in math group for elementary and middle school and one that's in peer coaching. I know that we have people that are choosing their books and also considering how they're going to structure their courses. So they'll be probably at least two more of those added. And then after school and early release PD will be offered to prepare teachers at the elementary level for the fuller implementation, I shouldn't say full, but the fuller implementation of FOSS for next year. To let you know, we feel like the demands on our teachers are great in our administrators. And so we want to provide them with more support. We are so blessed to have two new data specialists on board, Gene Silowitz, who came to us from the Department of Education and Mike Remi, who came to us from a school in Boston. Gene will focus on state reporting as well as professional development for secretaries and principals around power school. And Mike will focus on registration, enrollment, another state report that's about school safety and discipline, student achievement data and professional development for teachers. Our elementary report card this will be integrated this year into power school. Currently, it's kind of jury rigged and we really want to get it integrated in there. And this will also allow our elementary specialist to enter their own grades, which is something that our teachers have been asking for for a long time. What was happening is the music teacher, the art teacher, the PE teacher would all turn their grades over to the classroom teacher and that teacher would have to put all those grades in. So we're going to be setting it up so that those teachers will all be able to put their own grades in and it will really, it will certainly put a little bit more work on them, but it will take off a little work on the regular classroom teacher. We're pleased to have Tammy McBride join us as a literacy specialist. She's going to actually be team teaching with several fourth grade teachers in the Literacy Lab PD program. And that's something that we're trying out for the first time this year. And we're really excited about that. And also in order to really cut down on the amount of time that students are pulled out of classes as much as possible, our ELL teachers will be incorporating push in this year for the first time, as well as pull out services so that students get language development assistance in the content area and also will allow those teachers to model ELL support strategies within general education classrooms. And I think that's it. Questions. Questions. Mr. Thielman. So a couple of questions. Where are we on the retail? All the teachers getting taken the retail certification. Is it going to be done by the end of this school year? Is that that's our that's our hope. You know, the Department of Education has this erroneous point of view that retail is between the teacher and the Department of Education. I'd like to cure them of that thought. So we try to help our teachers as much as possible. And we, you know, we really have communicated quite a bit. We offered to house two classes here and full classes here in the fall and two in the spring. The Department of Education did allow me to offer more classes and did allow more teachers to go to classes than we have in the past. The first two years we only were allowed to have 60 student teachers in both of those years. So 60 in each year. This year, if we have teachers that need the class they're letting us let them register. They're not, there's no regulation on how many people can take the class. So refresh my memory. The state said we had to have everyone take retail by the end of 2016. Yes. Okay. So we're worried. Well, everybody who has to take it, that would be a core core class. So someone who teaches math, science, social studies, language arts. Blended learning. Are we, I mean, are we doing that in the district? We're starting it in the classrooms with the students and we're definitely doing it with teachers. We have a lot of what grade levels you're starting at. I know they're doing it in the middle school and I know that there are some teachers that may not be doing it what you would call blended learning, but they are posting videos, et cetera, for their students to watch at home at the younger grades. Dr. Seuss. Oh, two questions. I was wondering what sort of professional development and I know it's probably in here, but is around sort of this new push to have more active learning, have more sort of problem, but project based learning. Sorry, I forgot the words at this point. So that's one question. And then my second question is about the iPads in the sixth grade and whether it's our intention. I know, of course, we don't have control over the money all these to move that into the seventh grade and have that follow those students. Okay, so I'll answer that one. Okay, because that's pretty straightforward. In the sense that yes, I mean there, I know I had a parent who said something about, you know, trying to save money. If we were to save money because there are parents that would save money is kind of a misnomer. But if we were to be able to repurpose some of the devices that we have allocated for sixth grade because we have parents that want their students to have their own device in sixth grade, then we would move that up to seventh grade. If we have sufficient enough people at sixth and seventh grade who are willing to because we have a limited amount of resources within the district, we might want to spread the word about that. I think maybe parents might be more willing to buy it if they knew they're really, I think that's a good point and I have no problem doing that. In terms of project-based learning within content areas, teachers are having that professional development because project-based learning in social studies could look very different than project-based learning in math. So depending on the subject area, there's more or less depending at this point. I know that in world language, they have spent a lot of time this summer talking about that. We have a new social studies director that I know is really into working with people on that and there's certainly pockets of that within the social studies, perhaps less so in areas such as math. It's science at the high school, we certainly do and at the middle school, we certainly do that and the new FOSS curriculum will also foster that at the elementary school. Mr. Pierce, just a brief request that I would very much like to meet our social studies director at a future meeting. Oh, sure. It's impossible. Absolutely. Yeah, we can definitely do that. Yeah. Okay, great. Dr. Allison Ampe. I was looking through the pages and pages of PD offerings and I came across what's the difference between a literacy mentor and an ELA mentor? Literacy, a literacy mentor is probably a person who I'm not sure how that was listed there. So off the top of my head, there are mentors at the elementary school for reading. There are mentors at the elementary school for writing at the middle school and high school levels where the teachers teach ELA, there would be a mentor for ELA for that teacher and ELA. So I'm not sure exactly which item on the professional development thing that you're looking for, but that would kind of be clarified that. Mr. Heiner. The issue of providing your own device, I know when we provide it, we have the ability to monitor the usage and stuff. And do we have that ability with bring your own device? If you're talking about what websites they go on? Okay, they cannot, the web, the, the, the Wi-Fi that they access is our Wi-Fi. And so therefore it has the same filters. When we configure it, it limits it to just whatever we'd have in the school as well. Yes. So if they went home, they couldn't go off and do their homework. At home, they can do whatever they want because they're on their home network. But when they're here, they're on our network. Is there any possibility that some of the home can come into the school with them? No, it's sort of like if you have your, if you have an iPad and you're at home, you're using your router and your thing at home, and then you go down to Starbucks, you're on Starbucks, you can't access your home at Starbucks. But I can save something from home and bring it to Starbucks. Can they do that? Can you save something? Sure, you can save something. Okay. I mean, we don't... Absolutely, I understand. Right, however... I'm just concerned the possibility of somebody doing something inappropriate. I'm inappropriate with stuff that they bring to school. Right, it would have to be like pictures or a file. You couldn't access a website that you had. Right, okay. They're limited because it's true and someone could bring a hard copy photograph to school as well. Well, do we have the ability to monitor the usage? Do we have the ability? Yes. Do we have the time and the personnel to watch every single thing a student does? But the answer to that question is no. An inkling. They could... Thank you. However, no, I actually want to clarify that one of the first things... I had an email from a parent that said their child bought their iPad to school all this week and they haven't used it yet. Well, today was the first day that they started talking about appropriate usage and they spent three or four days talking about appropriate usage and what happens if you don't use it appropriately before they even start the kids using it. So I think that's the important point. I think the other important point is that we're now getting students who come up through the district from K through 5 and they're very clear about what our appropriate youth policies are. Thank you. Okay, does that include our technology report? I think so, yeah. Okay, so we now have the summer capital projects. Diane Johnson. Diane Johnson. And I'd say the first item on the agenda is probably the elevator. Yes, the elevator is dated back to the renovation of the high school, which was in the late 70s. And when it basically failed, it's a pressurized piston system and the containment that held the pressure of the lubricant failed. The metal just crumbled. And so no matter how much we poured in, it just leaked out again. So the parts are not available anymore. This is too old a device. And so they are remachining the parts for us. And then they will make the repair. We were able to receive an emergency waiver from DCAM so we didn't have to go out to bid. And so it's moving forward as fast as humanly possible. But given the fact they have to machine the parts, there's no finite timeline. Mr. Thielman. The money, the $88,000 to repair this or $80,000, where is that coming from? Well, if we have a good snow year, I'll squeeze it out of the general fund. If we have a bad snow year, it'll come out of our building rental reserves. Got it. Thank you. Just going on that, I noticed I was going to ask in the tracking report, we had already budgeted $40,000 for repairs. No, those are for ongoing maintenance and contract services for all the elevators in the district. Oh, thank you. I was hoping. Well, I mean, there's some money in there for repairs. But when you blow a piston. No, no, I understand. I didn't know if we could offset. I forget we have other elevators besides the one in the high school. Correct. Thank you. I know we spent a lot of money on duct tape to keep the high school running. But I think this is extraordinary. This is extraordinary. And, you know, when in my previous district, when we blew elevators, it tended to run around $40,000. So I was pretty shocked. But then when you think about it, most elementary schools aren't six stories tall. So you know, you're just a different piece of equipment. The cost of replacing the whole thing. I mean, this is just going to be parts. It's going to be just as ugly and groany as ever. Hopefully not as groany, but certainly as ugly. It is about $250,000 to $300,000 to do a whole new one, which if we're going to change out the building, it makes no sense. On more positive notes, we did accomplish some things this summer to move us towards a good start to the school year. Dr. Bodhi already talked about the fact that, you know, with our new management team for maintenance and custodial, that things are going really well. We finished the Harding Building repairs, the water mitigation project that's been going on for several summers. That is now complete. And so we should have a reasonably watertight building for the next 10 years. Apparently brick becomes more porous with time and it needs something. OK, I'm at the end of my technical knowledge, like a laminate that goes over the outside to keep the water from seeping in. And that has to be renewed. That had not been done from the time the hardy was refurbished. And so there was damage. And so this wasn't just it wasn't as simple as putting a coating on it. It was fixing all the things that it rotted. So the bricks were repointed. The grouting was redone. And then it was laminated. But now we know that it'll be in our maintenance cycle. And so in 10 years before there's damage, we can re-laminate it. I'm sure that's not the word I'm going to find out tomorrow. What's the real word? Steel. We opened up a new tech lab. There was some mild construction work that was done to get that online. It was a little last minute, but we got there. We've put in new floor mats at the entrances to each school in the district. Now, this doesn't sound like a big deal, but it actually is a big deal because it really cuts down on the tracking filth in the building and the wear on the floors. So since many of our buildings are recently redone, these new floor mats are going to go a long way to help keep the floors good for a longer time and certainly making it much easier on the custodial staff to keep them clean. The Thompson School has some unfortunate drainage problems that you may or may not have been aware of, and that involve tearing up the floor and the lobby to get at the drainage system. There's been a repair done, but unfortunately it was done over the summer when we didn't have the full contingent of students in the building using the plumbing to really test it thoroughly. I mean, everything could be flushed simultaneously, but it's just not the same thing. So we need to see. So we haven't re-finished the floor topping yet because we want to see that this fix holds. If it doesn't hold, we'll be back at it next summer and digging up a much bigger hole. But if it does hold, then we'll repair the floor. At some point, we will get it fixed, however, whatever we need to do. And then we'll finish off the floor again. Mr. Pierce, this is new. Any warranty? We just missed it. Well, it doesn't, you know, it's one of those, you know, you hear that knock in your car and then you don't hear it and they bring it to the garage and they don't hear it. It was one of those problems. It would back up and then it would work fine. And, you know, somebody threw something down there and then it would be fine for a while and then it would back up. And so it was just not. It didn't fail every single time. That's easy to out. It was kind of intermittent. But then it developed a consistent intermittent pattern. And so at that point, it was like, OK, wait a minute, something's amiss. Well, is there a coverage for new building creation? It's a year. It's just a year. Yeah. But I mean, the contractors is playing ball. You know, they don't want this kind of a record of de-cam saying, you know, yeah, they put in a system that backed up and then they didn't do anything about it. So they're working with us. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, they've affected the initial repair. We've had not one second opinion, but two second opinions on it. And it's basically one of those things. I mean, definitely the repair that was done helped the situation. But whether it's the total cure, if in fact it. The pipe is supposed to run at an angle with gravity. And there was a there was a dent in it that they think was an accident that heavy equipment rolled over it in between when gravel went down before the floor was poured. And so they dug a hole here and straighten that out. If that's the problem, we should be all set. If, however, this angle wasn't installed properly, if the angle really needed to be like that and that's the problem, we're going to be back at it. We're going to have to dig a much bigger hole to change that whole pitch of that pipe. So that's what we're waiting to see. And that's Dr. Allison Ampe. Sorry, that's just a year of warranty because that's. Clearly defective. I mean, if it is that problem, that's defective construction. Yes, I mean, and the contractor is working with us so far. So we'll see how that goes. And we're all holding our fingers crossed that that that was the problem, not that. But there's no way to know until we know. So that was good work. It was done. We built a new registration office in the central lobby of the high school. And one of the big problems with parents coming into register is very difficult to find the old registration office. And so now you can come. You can direct people to the pillars. You walk in and you'll see it immediately to your right-hand side. This is creating a little excess traffic for them at the moment. They're kind of becoming a lobby. And that's not really what we want. But we'll work out the kinks. And I think it's a much better location. It's not quite finished yet. There's going to be a counter and some other construction work. But at least they have cubicles now and we're getting there. There was painting done at the high school, the Dowan and the Otteson over the summer. The high school locker rooms were partially painted. The Pierce Field turf was replaced. And that was a very good thing. All the schools now have carbon dioxide detectors. That was a new requirement in code. And that was done over the summer. Carbon monoxide? Carbon monoxide, you're right. I put dioxide. They'll be going off it. My bad. Sorry. Yeah, we have plants everywhere. New public address system was installed at the Hardy, which now has some interesting features. I guess formally at the Hardy when they made an announcement, everybody outside heard it as well as inside. And so now that's cured that it can be differentiated. The gymnasium floors at the bracket and the Otteson were refurbished. Electric power distribution was added to the freshman building of the high school to support the new technology rollout. You may not think about this, but when we roll out these devices, there's a ripple effect. And many schools were not designed to support this kind of electronic drain. And so we had to do some infrastructure work at the high school to make that work. We've completed the mounting of projectors to the ceilings in the classrooms at the Bishop School, and we're still in process at the Otteson and the Brackett schools. The solar arrays are in the process of being installed at the high school. Otteson, Thompson, Pierce, Stratton, and Dallin schools. And the energy credit we receive will come back to our budget. And so it will be an offset against our electric bills. So that may pay for our elevator, if all goes well. I'm curious, you went to the unveiling? Yeah, with Mr. Hanner. Cool. We wore hard hats. He got to wear the hat. Oh, I wore the hard hat in the vest. And it was really amazing how they do it. They explained what goes into it and the big boxes that came with all the arrays. And it was a nice morning. Excellent. Bishop has a new energy management system, which is new to the Bishop. At some point, we hope to be able to have all of the schools in the district on an EMS system that can be controlled from one of the director's computers. So that, for example, today, when we were trying to get the air conditioner higher in this room, I was on the phone to the superintendent of buildings, Mark Miano, and he was able to adjust the temperature from the comfort of his home. And if you go to that part of the library, you can feel that he really did. It's just not quite filtering over here, but it's nice and cool over there. Then we want to be able to do that for the whole district because at some point, there are systems that already exist that you can integrate a scheduling system with the energy management system. So you could literally turn the heat on in a room for the rental period and then turn it off as they walk out. Same thing with lights that could all be handled, that there's no question that it'd be left on. People can check it from a computer and shut it down or turn it up. Domestic hot water at the Odyssey is being replaced with a more energy efficient model. Exterior lights at the high school are being replaced with LED lights, high efficiency LED lights. The IT department has a brand new cooling system and was able to consolidate all their servers down in the basement of the high school. They were unable to do that previously because servers throw off a ton of heat and without appropriate cooling, they can go funky and then we all be very sad. So they have the cooling system in place and they've completed that switch. And down on bracket in high school, exterior grounds were given quite a bit of attention with some tree pruning and some other heavy work. That's a lot. And just like the IT department has to flip out the new inventory, the maintenance department pretty much has from the day the kids walk out until they're walking back in to get all of this done and they're working around summer programming. So they've just done a tremendous job. And I'm really grateful to the work they've done. Hardie. Mr. Hainer? Hardie? Mr. Hainer? Well, you may be asked and anticipating my question, the Hardie playground. She was indeed. The bids have come in and we have selected a low bidder and the contract will be hopefully going out tomorrow. But I need to talk to the contractor about what the construction schedule will be. And so once that information is known, I'll disseminate that. I'd just like to, just a couple of quick fixes. Those benches, they're composite and when they break through all three of them, there's very sharp edges on them. We had caution tape around them. Wasn't there this afternoon when I went by? It's disappeared again. Well, I mean, okay. And two of the, for a better phrase, cargo nets, the kids climb up on, they're broken and either the fix may not be appropriate and I take it down. It could be dangerous. I'm just concerned about that. There's a swing that's flipped over the top but if you can get up there, you're already in trouble. The delay, part of the delay in the Hardie playground was that this summer when we were looking at relocating the strat into various sites and we were considering the possibility of permanent modules rather than temporary modules, one of the likely sites for a permanent modular was at the Hardie and in fact, smack in the middle of that place, structure playground was a likely location in which case I didn't wanna spend what was estimated to be a $60,000 for something that was going into a dumpster. And so we delayed until that became more clear that we weren't going in that direction and then it went out to bid and now we're moving forward again. When you determine the schedule and stuff, could you get that out to the Hardie parents and stuff? Absolutely, yeah. I've been in contact with the Principal DeFrancisco about this. Thank you. We'll keep that moving. Ms. Tharks. I was wondering if you have an update on the track. I know that there was a possibility of fixing that as well. I know it was a timing issue. We did get the bids in. We have one bidder. The bid came in for $20,000 more than we have left in the capital budget from doing the turf. The other concern about moving forward with it at this time other than the money, which given the elevator is a concern, is the fact that the Pierce field seems to be a magnet for usage. When we were trying to install the turf and we had signs up saying stay off the field, we couldn't keep people off the field. We couldn't keep people off the field. People would take the signs down and use the field. We would lock the gates and they would unlock the gates. We would have signs up everywhere and people would walk right past the signs and use the field. And so I'm very concerned. When you lay down a new track, you need five days for it to cure where there can be nothing on it. And it's very difficult to imagine at this point how we could possibly keep that track clear so it could solidify. We are planning to implement a series of positions of field managers. The people who will be hired by the school department to monitor activities on the field for tenants that come and go. And just like we have a custodian in the building when we have a detail, we will have this person or percents because there's a lot of hours of fields in use. I doubt one person would want all those hours to monitor the field. I think it would be very beneficial to hold up on the track until we have that in place to help shoe people off the field because based on what we saw over the summer with the turf, I'm really concerned. To spend $100,000 on a track, only to have it gummed up. People were still using it. We couldn't stop them. It was amazing. I mean, Mark was seeing people scaling the fence. It was just like, I don't know what it is about the field, but people just cannot stay away. So that's a real concern about the track. So we're also rapidly losing our window. It has to be done by the end of this month if we're gonna do it. And there's no way we're gonna have those positions in place to monitor the field. And plus the fall is one of the most busy times for the Pierce field. And trying to explain to everybody who comes to watch a football game that you can't touch the track, I worry. So. We did some patching of it back in the spring. So there's been patching on the track. It's not clearly just a band-aid in the most worn areas. But we, you know, it's not, I think we pretty much decided to defer this, but we're not 100% there. I still have another, but I think that that's worry. We're coming down. It has been submitted into the capital budget. So that we will, you know, we will return the balance of the Pierce field, of the turf, and then request. And the differential would be pretty much all they'd be adding on it. Right, right, right. So we're set to go forward for next year. In which case we would put the track down in July, hopefully with people to babysit it at a time when it's less used. Right. And my last question is spy pond field. I found out today that that is the property of the park and rec department. Oh, here's the whole thing. Yes. Even the stands and the locker rooms and all that. All that. The DPW director has done some research on it and the initial estimates for repairing those bleachers are extremely high. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 to $800,000. And yes. They got to do something because they got a beautiful set of tennis courts across the way now. I know, that was pretty sweet. So there, you know, what's ultimately going to happen? It's certainly part of the capital discussion. I mean, there has been some ambiguity, about who exactly owned the field. But it is. But now we know. But now we know. So, you know, that's where that stands. Cool, thank you. Do we use Thorndike at all for athletics? That belongs to park and rec. But do we use it? We could do some practices there, but that's about it. Not that I think goes down there. Dr. Allison Ampe. Going back to spy pond, if we're still using it as a field, I understand it belongs to the rec department. But if we're using it, can we direct any spectators? Like if we're using it for a game, direct spectators, not to use the bleachers. So that I think if we don't, we're potentially liable if there is any injuries, even though it's not our field because it's our game. And we're having people there. But I think if we just have signs up saying, don't use the bleachers, they're unsafe. That that might be enough to do, at least that would help. Well, capital starts convening a week from tonight. So I'll certainly bring those concerns up. Well, I mean, that we should be doing, if we're going to a game, if they're having a game on site, we need to see that there is some sort of sign on the bleachers saying, don't use these. Mr. Heiner. The liability goes to the town, even though it might come through us, I appreciate that. And direct belongs to the town as well. The town, maybe through the superintendent, just asking town council to put some sort of, to prevent that issue, just to have a sign put up or something by whomever to cover us, cover us all. One last question. The Erlington High exterior lighting. Is this being installed in compliance with the town dark skies by law? That's a good question. I don't know, but Ruthie Bennett, who was the energy manager, who did the grant to get this lighting done, and is now the facilities director, worked for both town and school. So I'd be very surprised that she was, we should be unaware of that, but I will inquire. Yeah, Mr. Heiner. I'd like to piggyback on that. I've had quite a few conversations with tenants in the apartment house, the lighting of the basketball court. Prior to the apartment house being there, went off at 11 o'clock, it had no effect on anybody. Kids would stay out there, and they stay out there at 11 o'clock. The lights need to go out at a reasonable time. During school, nine o'clock, weekends maybe a little bit later. But the language and stuff that kids, they've told a couple of senior citizens to stick it in their ear and they went that polite. It's really bad. And the seniors have gone to the police, the police says we own it, talk to the school department. So that basketball court has undergone a change because of its proximity to the new apartment facility right there. I would ask us to consider shutting them off at nine o'clock. Well, this is a conversation I need to have with the police department because together, we agreed that this would be a place that students could come, the police would be monitoring it. And, but of course, there's also the issue, do we really want students lingering by the high school period? So it's a conversation that we need to have and we will that involves certainly the tenants there, but also just a bigger issue of kids being behind the high school. Several of the people there approached the owner to ask him if they could buy that piece of land. And I said, I doubt if we're gonna sell any land right now until we get the high school done. So yeah, there's a history here. We worked with the police department years ago to get the lights on later. But there was no apartment house there at that time. I know, but the purpose, the intention was to have a place for young people to go and it's a safe place and play basketball and do something healthy and police are gonna monitor it. So there was, I think it's not black and white. Yeah, and the folks who live in the apartments moved next door to a active high school with a basketball court. But one does not assume that basketball courts are gonna be available until 11 o'clock at night. They're not saying shut it down, they're saying nine o'clock. No, well, that was our plan. Several years ago, we put this plan in place working with the police department to have it open until 11 o'clock in the summer so that students, high school students, young people have a place to go that was safe. We're having cross conversation, which is not appropriate at this time. And I think that we've wandered through that part of the agenda. Why don't we get the monthly financials? Could I just, just a couple of quick things weren't on there because they weren't big reports, just a couple of things. What it has to do with the last day of school, I know who we are at the very beginning. But it wasn't the advocate today talking about snow preparation. So it's important for people to understand that the last day of school right now in our calendar is June 29th. It could back up if we don't have five snow days, but it is June 29th, which means that the expectation for parents, and this will go out to parents in an email fairly soon, is that they're in school until the 29th. And that means they have to be planning it on camp accordingly. And the other is just really just more common for the school committee. We've opened up the files in Novus on all the evidence on the goals from last year. So I just want you to know that there's over 600 pages at the moment and more to come. So happy reading. They've seen a lot of it anyway. So it's just in now in categories that we talked about. That's all. Monthly financial reports. Okay. Well, I'm happy to say that we got the kindergarten grant, which we were completely not expecting last spring, and that was a lovely plus. We also saw a much higher title one. In fact, most of our grants went up this year. The little bit of bad news is that the DESC changed the way we can bill for tuition to end students, and our ability to collect has been greatly reduced. And accordingly, I've reduced our expectation for collections to match what I think is a more conservative estimate. But even with that, we're coming out ahead of where we were. And that's great. You didn't get a grant report this month because the grants don't really start till September 1st for the most part. And so that'll come back next month. If you look at encumbrances, you'll see some of them are very high. Expenses like electricity and gas and other large items we encumber for the whole year. We do an estimate at this time of year. So it may look disproportionate. Also, instructional materials tend to be heavily purchased over the summer in advance of school. And so unlike other kinds of organizations, we don't spend in a steady way. We kind of bulge in the summer and then it tapers off. But I think we look good so far. Mr. Heiner, I have only one line item, 81302. Okay, let me get that one open. And that would be in the general fund. Okay. It's snow and ice. 81302. That is also- I'm just curious, did I miss a storm? It's also storm stuff. That's the code we use if there's like a microburst and there's a tree that comes down. I just saw it. So we use it for emergency. Yeah, snow and ice in the middle of July makes no sense. I saw $200 expenditures and I thought I missed the storm. Yeah, when we have other stuff, we also use it for that. That's my only question. Dr. Seuss. So I know that our enrollment numbers are slightly higher than what we had anticipated. And I'm wondering if there were any extra spending as a result of those higher numbers. I apologize for the late presentation of this report, but it is the last item of the ones under my financial reports. It's called added positions, not detailed in the budget. Okay, got it. So these are all the positions that we've added over the summer. Now 11 FTEs totaling $726,000 were set aside in the budget explicitly for players to be named later. That was the eight general reserve positions, the one at the high school and the two cluster expansion at the middle school. And so while we have exceeded that, in many cases when these add-on positions come in, they're relatively more junior people and less expensive. And when I budget, I use an average teacher salary and they generally are below that. So even though we've added more positions, and not all of the positions on this list are teachers. Some of them are teaching assistants, as you can see. When all of that is factored in, we're actually right there when you consider the additional grant funds we've brought in. So we're in touching wood, we're in great shape for this year. If we don't have any more elevator fiascos or a really, really, really bad winter. Well, we made it through last winter, okay. So hopefully, no jinxing, but hopefully it looks good. Consent agenda. The magic text, all items listed with an asterisk are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There's no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the committee so requests and in which the item will be considered in its normal sequence. Approval of minutes, school committee regular meeting, May 28th, June 11th, 2015. Warrant for approval, June 11th, 2015, warrant 15179 amount, $730,397.75. Warrant for approval, June 25th, 2015. Warrant 15186, total warrant amount $1,203,011.28. Warrant for approval, July 16th, 2015. Effective, June 30th. Warrant 16009, total amount $192,500 and 15 cents. And warrant for approval, August 8th, 2015. Warrant number 16020, total warrant amount, $450,181.34. Warrant for approval, August 27th, 2015. Warrant 16034, total warrant amount, $735,347.69. Trip for approval, NAFME, Tennessee National In-Service Conference, October 25th through 28th at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. And thank you to all members who came in over the summer to sign those warrants. So moved. Mr. Thielman. I got to pull the 11th. I left early that meeting, the minutes of the 11th. Pulling absent the minutes of June 11th. Anything else, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Now a motion for approval of the minutes of June 11th, 2015 move from Mr. Hayner, seconded by Dr. Allison Ampe, y'all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained, Mr. Thielman. That concludes the consent agenda. Subcommittee in liaison reports and announcements, policies and procedures, Mr. Pierce. I'll be scheduling a meeting with the members of that subcommittee to discuss what we talked about tonight, as well as those other things that we were gonna plan to do for this year. Very soon. A budget, Dr. Allison Ampe. Budget met on June 22nd. We discussed the last year's budget summary report book with an eye to improve next year's. And we came up with a number of suggestions. The one which I wanna bring up right now is that we, after considerable discussion, the subcommittee felt that it would be good to have a new section put in the book, which is for the school committee to have a budget message. And we would include things like the calendar, information about the visual budget and open checkbook, information about the foundation budget and how it would affect things, the impact of cutting grants. Just a place where we can talk about all these things that we think is important to the public and get this word out. I don't think we really need a motion for it, but we wanted to tell you that's what we were thinking of and we're expecting the current budget subcommittee to write it and then it'll be passed on as we go to the next year. Excellent. Facilities, Ms. Darks. Facilities met twice in August. Sorry, I'm gonna try to move this closer. I'm gonna go that far. Met twice in August, first on August 12th, where we met to discuss the Stratton and you can see the outcome of that, which is that the architects have laid out and placed all of Stratton students in the modulars on the Stratton land. So mostly what we did was we got an update on that, on the renovation. And we also had our first look at the information from the enrollment study. From this, we had decided that we needed to have a meeting in September, hence the September 24th meeting with all stakeholders and kind of everyone in town. And so as everyone knows, on September 24th, we'll have Dr. McKibbin, I believe, and Lorie also will be there to talk about the different options for how we might deal with that. We also, at that time, got an update on a lot of the things that you also heard tonight, the Hardy Playground and a spy pond field and the track, but we got all the answers tonight. So they were all questions at that time. On the 27th, we also had a facilities subcommittee meeting. This meeting was specifically to meet with Dr. McKibbin about, we had questions about the numbers in the enrollment study, not how we were going to solve any of the enrollment problems, but kind of just our internal questions on how did you come up with the numbers, what are they telling you, what's gonna happen after 10 years, your numbers end after 10 years? And so mostly it was just so that we could get our head around the numbers and really understand his theory behind how we came up with them. And so that was great, that was held at the high school. And I think most people saw today in the advocate, the information there, at least in my first reading was pretty accurate. Brackett, Hardy and Thompson are really the ones that are gonna take the biggest hit according to Dr. McKibbin, which will be followed closely by Audison and high school as all of those go through. I think that the really interesting part about the meeting was that Dr. McKibbin also said that it is very likely that his numbers are low. Oftentimes he comes in a little low and that one of the things that he took into consideration, although we didn't see it in these numbers because it'll kind of happen after the 10 years, is that in about 10 years, we're gonna start seeing housing stock turnover. And that's also gonna cause what tends to happen in Arlington is older people sell their homes, younger people buy them, the younger people have children or bring children. And that starts another boom of children. So he did admit that they're not in his numbers because his numbers only go out for 10 years, but that was when that was gonna happen, was like the 10 years after the report. So just something to keep in mind, although in the bearer of horrible news, it's not horrible news, that's the other thing. It was interesting in the advocate today because they not only had the story on the report itself and what we were seeing, but another complete story where he interviewed a bunch of people, realtors in town, who are like, yeah, this doesn't shock us at all. We knew exactly what was going on. You guys are, we are the, this is what happens when you build a great town and the schools are strong and the town is great and people wanna live here. People are not surprised that this is happening. So I just feel like we just have to keep it in our minds that although it seems like right now it's a big problem, I don't think it's actually gonna go away. So I just wanna make sure that we're kind of continuing to think about that. And we do not currently have a meeting planned. We're waiting, as Mr. Schlickerman said, after the 24th, see what happens. I have a feeling that from that meeting there will be lots more facilities subcommittee meetings. So, but we don't currently have a date for the next one. Thank you. Dr. Seuss, community relations. Yes, we had a meeting on Tuesday and we sent some time this summer sort of sorting through the survey results. Huge, huge volumes of survey results. And you know, the information is all over the place. It's very hard to figure out what's going on, but it's mostly positive. And we hope to present something to the school committee in October. Excellent. Okay. Executive session minute review subcommittee special study group on superintendent evaluation and warrant committee, Mr. Heiner. I have, thanks to Mr. Charles, she gave us a form. I don't know if you two gentlemen have seen it. She gave me a pile of executive session minutes that we have not released yet. I got to spend some wonderful minutes going through it. I filled out the form with it, determining those, by my opinion, should be released, should not be released in questions that may have to go. As soon as you two gentlemen get to it, we'll set up a meeting and then talk to council with the ones that we have question on and then bring them forward to the rest of the body. Excellent. Okay. Announcements from any members? Oh, go ahead. We've got a couple more. The superintendent evaluation, the survey, cover letter and email addresses were delivered to Mr. Good. He and his team have worked very hard to try to get this out. He's, he's hit some walls up and down. He still believes and hopefully he'll get it back to us to the group by mid-September, no later than the end of September. With that done, warrant committee, everyone get paid during the summer, as far as I know. I signed all of warrants. CPAC met on Tuesday this week. Allison introduced her staff to parents, and especially the new staff and answered a lot of questions. She did an excellent job. Their upcoming calendar on September 22nd at the Jefferson Cutter House will be the next meeting at 8.30 in the morning. There will be a program for parents whose children will be turning 22 on October 7th. Location will to be announced. And let's see, parents, basic rights meeting will be on October 13th. And that location is to be announced at a later date. Heidi PTO will be meeting next Tuesday, September 15th at 6.30 in the evening. Thompson PTO, welcome back breakfast next Tuesday, September 15th at 8.15 p.m. Thank you. I'd like to ask if there's some provision for CPAC to hold some meetings that are not during work hours for parents who might be interested? They have tried, they've asked, they've set them up and nobody came. I will be happy to bring it to them again. We've talked about it annually. And I think we'll give it a shot. I always ask that question by a special apparent to the district. Absolutely. Mr. Thielman. Just one quick question. What you were talking about the evaluation is, what's the timeline for reviewing your stuff? All the other items. November in November. It's in November, I just want to refresh that. Dr. Allison Ampe. I just have a question. When are we going to discuss the calendar and next year's start? That's a very good question. That question was raised by correspondents today that folks are already wondering if we're going to make significant adjustments to the calendar next year. And I think that we, in my response to, in the correspondence, was that we would do everything we can to make sure that notice was as far in advance as possible. So the question then becomes, when are we going to discuss this? Mr. Heiner. We also have some contractual obligations to deal with. I'd recommend the superintendent, maybe the AEA and whoever else, the AAA deal with that first and then give us free latitude for discussing it. I'd say that we should have an idea of what our latitude is before we make any conversation. And I'd say that for us, the window to make any adjustments next year would close pretty quickly because people want to know to make plans for next year. The chair would like to respond to some of the correspondents and that we've received notification from a group that's proposing a Great River Community Charter School which would be a proposed 436 student kid at eight school a regional district containing Medford Everett, Arlington, Cambridge and Winchester. Reading through the original correspondence from the group which is not the full application to the board so your initial offering is that they want to establish a Waldorf School. We have a Waldorf School less than a mile from the Arlington town line in Lexington. The Waldorf School in Lexington charges a tuition of $20,561 plus a $495 materials fee. The proposed Charter Waldorf School would be paid for by the taxpayers of the communities that send children so that if a child were to theoretically go from the Waldorf School in Lexington to the Waldorf School, the Charter Waldorf School if it is established the tuition would be taken right off the top of our chapter 78. Currently in fiscal 16, we have 11 Arlington students who are reported as preliminary enrollees in charter schools, three to the Benjamin Banneker case six, six to the Community Charter School of Cambridge which is a six through 12 and two to Prospect Hill Academy which is a K12. If any of those students were former Arlington students or if the Charter School did not exist were to be in Arlington, the chances are that it would have absolutely no impact on the budget and certainly sending 11 children to these charter schools is not reducing the cost of operating the Arlington public schools although it is costing us 158,378 dollars to send them taken off the top of our chapter 78. That's $14,398 for each student. I think it is incumbent upon us as a committee to contact the school committees in Medford, Everett, Cambridge and Winchester which are impacted by this region expressing our concerns about the proposal and offering to work with them to comment and hopefully persuade the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education not to approve it. With the consent of the Board, I would draft a letter to present to this committee at the next meeting for your approval and then would send it to the four school committees with a copy to the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Mr. Heiner. So moved. Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Ms. Stark, substains. But that's what I intend to do. I'll present it to you at the next meeting. Mr. Heiner. Just ask the question. There was some talk, I don't know if it's going to, are we going to have a regular meeting on the 17th? Do we have any need for a regular meeting on the 17th? Because we won't have one until the first week in October. Right. Intensive any reports? No, but if there are some business items what we could do on the 24th is to have a short business meeting before the time of the other meeting. I don't think there's a problem with that. If there's some warrant you wanted to, you needed to approve. So I don't think there's any reports on my part that we would need to have a meeting on the 17th. I don't think there's anything actionable. If there is, we can do some business at the end of the meeting as well. So we're not meeting on the 17th. So we will not meet next into Thursday. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Bodie. One question though is the time. I haven't sent out the invitation because I want to know the time. And I think that that is really an issue for the committee to decide. Most of the Permanent Town Building Committee and this selectmen don't meet till 7.30 on a regular basis. Selectmen start at 7.15. 7.15. The Permanent Town Building Committee is at 7.30. I don't know when capital usually meets. I think at the end it's 7. Then they have a meeting that night from 5 to 7. Ah, okay. Ms. Starks. I would suggest that we start no later than 7 and that it goes from 7 to 9. In that way, if we have any business, we can meet 6.30 or more. I would take that as a motion to begin the meeting at 7. Yes. That sounds good. Motion by Ms. Starks, second by Dr. Seuss. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We will be meeting at Town Hall. Yes. So that means it's 7 o'clock at Town Hall? 7 o'clock at Town Hall and we will... But we might be meeting at 6.30. No, we will start the meeting at 7. So 6.30, we're not meeting. No, we're not meeting at 6.30. We're not meeting. We'll start at 7 in any business we want to conduct. We'll do it at the conclusion of the meeting. Okay, great. 7 is perfect for parents, I think. The thing is, is that if we start meeting earlier to have people assembling while we're meeting, I think it's problematic. I'd rather let them clear the hall for us to do routine business rather than have them assemble while we're meeting. Okay. We have a need for executive session after which we will adjourn, so we will not be coming back into open... Will we be coming back to open session? We have to vote. We will have to make a vote in open session. It's a conclusion to the executive session. So the motion will be executive session, motion to conduct an executive session, motion to conduct an executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with union and or non-union personnel, or contract negotiations with union and or non-union personnel in which have held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect than to conduct strategy with respect to collective barring of litigation in which if held in open meeting may have a detrimental effect collective bargaining may also be conducted. Motion by Mr. Pierce, second by Dr. Seuss. Mr. Hayner. Aye. Mr. Pierce. Aye. Dr. Allison Ampe, Ms. Starks, Ms. Thielman, Dr. Seuss. Yes. The chair votes aye. We are in executive session. Thank you, everyone, for coming. We are back in session after an executive session. For the record, it is also the 10th of September is nine o'clock and the membership is leaving here to go to the Patriots' game at the conclusion of this meeting. So Mr. Hayner, first motion. And Mr. Shelix, Ms. Karra. I move that the, I don't like the public school committee accept the approve the memorandum of agreement with the ASTM, for the bus drivers. ASTM, local bus drivers. ASTM, local, 680, 680, 680. Motion by Mr. Hayner, second by Ms. Starks, roll call, Mr. Hayner. Aye. Mr. Pierce. Aye. Ms. Allison Ampe, Dr. Allison Ampe, Ms. Starks. Aye. Mr. Thielman. Aye. And Dr. Seuss. I'm gonna stay in, I missed some of the discussion. I wasn't able to see it earlier. The chair votes in the affirmative. It's six nothing, one vote. The motion is adopted. Mr. Hayner, next motion. I move that the, I don't like the school committee accept the approve. Thank you. The memorandum of agreement with the cafeteria workers, members ask me 680. Motion by Mr. Hayner, second by Ms. Starks, roll call, Mr. Hayner. Aye. Mr. Pierce. Aye. Dr. Allison Ampe, Ms. Starks. Yes. Mr. Thielman, Dr. Seuss. Yes. And the chairs voting in the affirmative. This is a seven to nothing vote. It is adopted, Mr. Hayner. I would like to publicly commend Mr. Spiegel for doing the phenomenal work he did this summer. And I wonder how do you have it. Motion by Mr. Hayner, second by Ms. Starks, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, that's a unanimous vote. Mr. Hayner. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn, second by Ms. Starks, all in favor. Aye. Opposed, it's unanimous, we are adjourned. Go Pats.