 Seeing the presence of the corner, I'm going to call the order of this meeting of the Amherst Polymer Regional School Committee. As a note, this meeting is being recorded for future broadcast in Amherst Media and availability online. The first item in business, we have some fun and important business to get to in a second, but before we do. The first order of business is approving the minutes of June 26th and August 15th, 2018 of the committees had the opportunity to look at those minutes and have any corrections? Yes, as you're doing this. Just two minor corrections. So one, under the first June 26th minutes, item number one, I actually came in just a few minutes after the technical session had been called. And so, number two, it's a little second of the motion for approval. Okay. But I just want to make sure that it somehow reflects and I'll come in on a little bit late. Okay. And then the, well, I'm just going to not there yet, the August 15th, that's fine. You can bring it up, you know. Okay. So, my name is listed as Anastasia Mellton. I'm August 15th. I've been on a confusion on that subject. Anastasia, I don't want to do that. We'll do the figure. Are there other edits? I'll take a motion. We'll do it sequentially. I'll take a motion to approve the meeting minutes of June 26th, 2018. I'm so moved. Is there a second? One second. One second, a little quizzical. I'm just noticing the absence of microphones. Yeah, right. No, exactly. There's an absence of microphones and we're being recorded by that little camera over there, so. No, it's just we have to speak up. Good point. Do I have a second? I'm in minutes. Thank you. You did, okay, thanks. I got distracted, I apologize. Okay, any further discussion on the meeting minutes of June 25th? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the minutes as amended, raise your hand. It carries unanimously. Now on to August 15th, 2018. Do we have a motion to approve those minutes? So moved. Then moved. Is there a second? Second. So moved and second. Any comments or notes on this? Other than Morton versus Hergillianus. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving those minutes as amended, raise your hand, second by none. Carries unanimously again. Cool, now on to the front step. In my history in the town of Amherst, in my opinion, one of the best civic and academic programs I know of is a better chance. I actually lived up the street for a while, not that anyone cares by the way, but I did live up the street on North Prospect Street for a while from the ABC House. And so for that reason, both through school activities and walking home, just hanging out with the kids who are there, I had a chance to get to know that program while a certain number of ABC walks. And just thought, it seemed that in my mind, it's something that had been around forever and been an extraordinary, valuable program for our community and for our schools. But as it turns out, it hasn't been around forever. And we're celebrating this year, the 50th anniversary of this program, being part of our community. And then of course that means generations of students being part of our community and contributing to the richness of our academic and social environment. So it's a wonderful thing. And we thought it was a great moment to take the time to acknowledge, celebrate, appreciate, and recommit ourselves to that relationship as a school district and as a school community. So I just would say that normally our ritual is we talk about things in one meeting and then we vote about it in another meeting. And with the permission of the committee, we would love it if we could both talk about it and vote about it and celebrate it in one meeting. And if there's disagreement of that like everything, we work democratically, if you don't like that idea, then you'll have to come back in October. But with your discretion, I would like now to turn this over to the superintendent who will then further, I think, have a discussion by Principal Jackson as well as also the president of the ABC Board, Ms. Kohler. Yes, I just want to thank Ms. Kohler and others who inform me about this being the 50th anniversary. And one of the neat things I was able to do was we're fortunate to have the Jones Library and they have the special collections. And I called someone I knew at Special Collections and I said, you know, I'd really love to know more about the history of the ABC Walk, have been connected to the program, but I wasn't frankly alive when it started on the ground of that age yet. And so I went to Special Collections and found a tremendous, I mean, within half an hour, she said, oh, come on up, I've got a treasure trove. Get a part of the special gloves to take the pictures because they were original pictures from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I want to thank Debbie Small for putting together this slideshow. We picked some of the highlights from the scholars from years past. But one of the most interesting things too was reading, I think it was the old Amherst record before there was the Amherst Bulletin articles about some of the debate and discussion in the town when they were talking about the ABC House and the program getting started was I believe the third public school program that was started. And so much of the discussion was on the impact on the students and what I hear and experience in the district is the benefits of the students bring to the school. And I think that's an important shift for people to recognize that 1968, the focus was not really on the benefits of school. And when we have this conversation right now, that's the focus of what the students bring and how they enrich the experience of our high school and our schooling experience for all students. So we really thank all of you who are students and those of you who continue to work and make the program vibrant. I mean, some good conversations about how to stay connected and maybe enhance the connections not just for the scholars, but actually for the program and some of the ABC Walk and enhance our connections at a district level to the great work that's happening. And I really thank everybody for being here tonight and coming to this celebration. I could go on and on about old Amherst record articles and pictures, but I'll turn it to Mark Jackson, the high school principal who's gonna share a couple of things and then introduce Ms. Kohler. Should I still come up here or can I stay? Please come up here because then the camera can get it. So actually my role is a fairly limited one. What happens is that Wendy and Sidon has built, they recruit students from around and they use the C-C board and they bring it for a weekend to the high school. And I always have a meeting with them. And so parents, guardians are in the room along with the students. And my really focus is on the family because this is a big decision for the family to bring their, send their child off away at the tender age of 13 or 14. And so I got myself into a rhythm where I say that when people came to see me 15 years ago, I knew nothing about ABC and I was just kind of reading off the cheat sheet on the table, right? I didn't have any first-hand experience as a basis to sell the program to these legitimately skeptical or suspicious parents. But today, I'm in a position to tell a very different story, right? And I look the parents in their eye and I say the best thing I can say to you is that I have first-hand experience, 15 years worth of experience that the program works. And what I mean by that, just about everybody, and I think there's probably been over two exceptions over the years. This is about everybody who comes in, goes to class, gets involved in activities, enriches the school, and at the back end, they walk away with an Amish Regional High School diploma and they get on to a four-year college and the rest of their lives. I've watched it, I've seen it with kids from all up and down these posts and all manner of backgrounds, the program works. And that's my contribution, right? But this is an unadulterated, this is something that's made a material difference in the local life of the school, most importantly, in the lives of the kids at Columbia. So I'm very happy that we're here tonight in housing one of the signature features of what the town has accomplished. Thanks. Ms. Kohler. Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson. I can't step up, just like you captured on the camera, I have to say. So you're not a disembodied voice. So thank you very much. Before I just make a few remarks, I want to recognize some of the people of the ABC community who've joined us tonight. First and foremost, Sid and Isabel Farera are resident directors. We have current and former board members present, well, Easton, back here, Keith Nesbitt, who's actually president-elect, Meg Hart, treasurer, Kirsten Hollerberg, who's a very important, our walk-run coordinator. And I know there were other supporters in the room, but I would like each of our scholars to take a moment if it's okay with the committee to introduce themselves. Starting with you, Pierre. How are you? I'm Pierre Tilles, I'm a junior on my group on Bridgeport Connecticut. Are you? I just got off the football field. Yo. Good evening. My name is Matthew Tindell. I am also from Bridgeport, Connecticut. And yeah. I'm a sophomore. Oh, I'm a sophomore, too. Hi, my name is Daniel Molina. I'm a sophomore, and I'm from North New Jersey, ABC. Really enjoy ABC. I enjoy the opportunities and the community. Hi, my name is Amir. I'm a freshman. I'm from Ambro, Cleveland. My name's Rashad Jacobs. I'm a junior, I'm from Patterson, New Jersey. Okay, thank you guys. These young men, our scholars, obviously represent themselves, the program, and the proud tradition of the program and the scholars that you see on the screen. Of course, you know, this is a community commitment. And that takes the full community. But at the core of it is the partnership with the regional schools, and particularly the high school. I want to particularly acknowledge Mark and Mary Custer, Liz. Everybody who's part of the staff here has given so much for so long and continues to promise to do so. And without that, we wouldn't have a program without the support of the regional school committee. There would be no Amir's to better chance. So as we celebrate this year, we are planning, besides the walk run, pitch pitch, you can pick up information about that in the back, and the gala at the end of the year. There's gonna be a community gospel choir concert again that brings music of the community and different generations. And people and groups from the community together. We want to acknowledge the partnership that has been so important with Amir's College for all these years, providing tutorial support. But I would say first and foremost, we want to acknowledge the partnership with the schools. And we have some thoughts about how to do that, but we really want the school committee to know in particular how much we value and appreciate and understand not only the financial support, which is obviously extraordinary, but and the academic and the extracurricular support and the leadership and the love and guidance, but that this is truly a partnership. Mark is always very good at pointing out, as Mike just said tonight too, that we get as much as we give, if not more. I certainly can speak for that personally. I know all the adults here who've had the experience of working with these young men feel the same way. And thanks to you, we can look to the next 50 years. And I think I could just end by saying we certainly know that this crossing communities, bringing people together, learning from each other and sharing is the future of our country, the better chance we all deserve. Thank you very much. Thank you. So I'll entertain a motion. So I guess should we read this then? Yeah. All right. Sure. A resolution in support of the Amherst Regional High School and Amherst, a better chance partnership. Whereas the Amherst Pellum Regional School Committee voted on January 8th, 1968 to approve a partnership between Amherst Regional High School and the newly proposed Amherst, a better chance program. Whereas the first eight, a better chance scholars enrolled at Amherst Regional High School in 1968, 1969 school year. Whereas more than 120 a better chance scholars have graduated from Amherst Regional High School in the ensuing 50 years. Whereas these scholars are highly valued members of the Amherst Regional High School student body who have enriched the Amherst Regional High School and the broader communities through their numerous contributions. Therefore be it resolved that the Amherst Pellum Regional School Committee reaffirms the continuing commitment to and partnership with Amherst, a better chance. Is there a motion to approve the proclamation? Moved? I don't know if to approve the resolution as read by Mr. Dunne. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Dunne. Is there further discussion on the item? He'd be even saying he just agree with it and are excited about it. I agree with it, and I'm excited about it. It's a wonderful thing. How many opportunities do we have just to affirm this like outpouring of love and support? It's fantastic. Is it on this? Well, I just want to give a special shout out to the young man from Nork, New Jersey, where I spent my teenage years as well. It's just great to have a fellow Norker here in New York, not in New York, right? I know that. So yes, I just wanted to say thank you so much for this program. It's fantastic to learn more about it and to have the opportunity to support yet another 50 years. So question, which may have an obvious answer, is it an old men's program? There are women's programs as well. And actually, about soon after this program was established, one was established in South Padley for young women. A lot of the community-based programs struggle financially. Actually, I'll do, because we get no support from ABC National. So it is actually the funding that comes from this community that keeps this program going. So we're happy to say that we're thriving, but we know of others that haven't. And six to eight young men is probably where we should stop. Who can? Coal program would have its own, you know, that's where else we're. Well, I hope you keep in prize as well as engage the committee on any future celebrations you're doing at the course of the year. I think I'm sure the community would love to participate. I'm not from Newark, but I actually have a native New Jersey in myself in New York, New Jersey. Some sort of New Jersey Amherst connection, which is very positive. We will give you each your very own Save the Day cards for the gala. I think that would be wonderful. And I don't know if you're going to get alumni up, but with Judy Brooks' service, there were ABC alumni up, including some people from my generation. They're very much looking forward to coming back. Absolutely wonderful. Any further comments? I'll just say thank you to the program, because I was a student here as well. And I'm the fond memories of the students that were here on ABC. I could just say, I'm glad that you and Eric brought that up. And we hear over and over, and we talk about the alums from the program coming back to celebrate. But many wedding announcements with Usher's name, who, you know, and baseball, fancy baseball teams that have first established when young men who are in the eighth grade, and they give their money to ABC when they earn it. So there's just so many ways that lives have intersected and have been touched and made better. So girls, too. Just very briefly, it's going to scroll through if it's on that. But just because you mentioned Judy Brooks, one of the favorite pictures I found, and people may or may not have seen it, it's just Judy and Barry and Barry Jr. Many years ago, as being so directly connected and supportive and kind of the heart of the program and its inception, I just want to publicly acknowledge that. And then this book is passing. As we put a sad note on this, for me, it's a celebratory note. It's not even, in terms of her legacy, it's not even sad. I mean, I remember it was her and Barry that got me involved in the ABC walks first. And I mean, not that I would have, but you don't say no. I mean, it's like she inspires you and she lifts you up. It's a wonderful legacy. Anything for them? Because also, we've got to sign this, and then we need to let them on their way. Because it's actually, each of us gets to sign this thing. Anything further? Seeing none, all those in favor? Raise your hand, signifying aye. It carries unanimous light. Pass these down. Feel the, do you need a pen? Can we use that for pen? Yeah. Thank you. Find your, they're duplicates, so just sign each of them. And in study hour time. Oh, is it? I'm sorry, for the part, but I'd like to thank everybody. Thank you for coming, everyone. Sadly, we need to move on. It's the nature of the business. Announcements in public comment. Are there any announcements in the community? Two brief announcements. So one, right across the hallway, there's a presentation on drilling and vaping and practical information that parents and caregivers can learn about this relatively new public health issue with our students. And on a related note, slightly longer comment, on the topic of high potency, easily concealable drugs, I went to a community outreach meeting last night for one of the Recreational Marijuana Shops being proposed for Amherst. There's about a half a dozen of these. This is, this one was particularly interesting to me because it's right in the heart of downtown. It's a 3739 Bultwood Walk, which is, you know, Bang Center, Bueno, Parking Lot area. And it was, so this is the mandatory community outreach meeting. I bring it up because we've spoken about this on committee before. It was very sparsely attended, other than myself, a select board member in St. Town. Employees that were maybe two or three members of the public. So the operator seemed nice. I shared my concern, my generalized concern, which was, and we've heard this spoken before from some of our administrators, which is, does the town want to welcome and promote easy access to this kind of a product? Which is high potency, easily concealable. In the same area, same locations where the town welcomes and encourages children to congregate. And from our perspective, we're talking about middle school and high school students going downtown, being independent. It's, this is one of the reasons why there's zoning bylaws. And if you look at the zoning map of downtown, it's almost completely covered because the Jones creates a buffer zone, the church has created a buffer zone and there's this little swatch that is just out of the reach of the buffer zone. And that's where this location is. So I was offering the point of view that it's kind of not in the spirit of those laws. So in terms of process, the committee wanted to take this up as an agenda item to discuss to whatever end. That's the sort of main possibility of public input was yesterday. From this point, the town goes back to some further analysis, makes a recommendation to the town manager, the town manager then will either approve or not. And at that point, it's relatively finished unless there's a zoning board of appeals outlay. So the opportunity for the committee, I think, is to, if we wanted to provide input, would be to provide to the town manager and go from there. So it's a good dressed up agenda, future agenda. Okay. We can't debate it, so we're not gonna discuss this. That's a long announcement. Yes. Any further announcements for the committee? Yes, Ms. Hernandez. Just a quick one. I actually attended the Collaborative for Educational Services meeting last night, which was a great meeting. There's a few new members from some of our other districts and they've recently updated their course offerings. And I think the superintendent's probably been aware of that. But for the school committee members, if you'd like to see more, you can either come to me or you can actually go to their website, also the collaborative.org, that provides a lot of information. There's things there, but you know, professional development courses, there's special education courses, there's a lot of different offerings or districts across the area that they serve. So very quick for a little answer about that. Great. Thank you very much. Any further announcements, seeing no further announcements? Public comments? There are comments from the public. This is no microphone to come forward to, so just come forward generally to approach the committee, identify yourself. You'll have three minutes for your comment. I don't think we have a little clock that we have before. Which I wish we did, but. Okay, we'll see if we have any comments. Yes, sorry. If you have a public comment about an agenda item, should we wait till the agenda comes up? Absolutely not. You should come forward now, because we didn't organize ourselves to have public comment within the agenda. So the time to speak would be now. I recognize that's challenging sometimes if you'd prefer to have heard it and have some back and forth in it. So I apologize for that. No problem. I guess we're ready. All right, you guys. That's the spot here. Super. We're good. Are you good? Thanks, my name is Nate Buddington. I'm a parent of a recent graduate who's a sophomore in college and a junior in the high school. I think you have a letter from me that I had written to the committee about requesting a professional audit of handicapped accessibility for BMR school system. I entered into this world, not voluntarily, in 2015. February day, my daughter suffered a pretty severe autoimmune attack at the middle school and then in a couple of hours she was a paraplegic. And so there's this whole world that my wife and I and my daughter are now a part of. The schools have been remarkably supportive in many, many ways. I think I mentioned the letter that the return to school plan that was designed by Mary O'Brien, nurse in middle school and Ron Bahonowitz, the people at Spalding Rehab Hospital are the best they've ever seen. And continuing up until now from the superintendent to both principals, guidance office, the peers, the teachers, just tremendous support that we're very grateful for. It's had a big impact on my daughter's development. She's in good shape emotionally and physically as much as she can be. And some of that has come from the good support we've had from the schools. The trick is the degree to which I think accessibility is not folded into the sort of social justice paradigm at the school in a way that I think it should be. And there's physical manifestations for that. There's things that are really inaccessible to kids who are handicapped that kind of should have been fixed a long time ago. The steps to the gymnasium we made a request a couple of years ago to have a lift put in there. It was just installed a couple of weeks ago, ready to go a couple of weeks ago. The stage isn't accessible. Other things that I know that in my letter. So really I think what we're asking for is certainly an audit so that we know what we're up against. What are the problems that we have in these buildings with excess, we're probably never going to be able to bring these buildings to ADA standard. Some of these things maybe just cost prohibitive, but we don't even know what the issues are. And I think that's been clear to me. Ron Bahonis was a great ally for us. And I think he was embarrassed by parts of the school that were inaccessible. And he was just completely on top of things. And his departure, we noticed that. I mean, I'm very thankful for Ron's presence in our life for the last few years. So just to do an audit so we know what we're up against. So as monies become available, as grants may become available, maybe we can knock some of these things off to make this school more friendly and more inclusive, which is different than accessible for kids, teachers, parents who are mobility challenged. And also to think about ways in terms of just kind of the consciousness of how we operate as a community in the schools, to figure out how we're gonna place accessibility and inclusion for the handicapped within the social justice paradigm. So thanks for considering it, I appreciate it. And as a reminder, this is an item that's on our agenda for discussion. We'll have that discussion. Are there further public comments? Seeing none, we'll close the public comment period. Do we have any subcommittee updates? I guess we kind of got one from the representative of the club here, club member of the Education School of Services. Anything else? Seeing nothing else, we'll move on. Superintendent's update. I wanna start by saying I wanna appreciate that the agenda, you got two copies of the agenda, and that's, I'm not feeling well, and so my goal is to make it to Part D of the meeting and see how that goes. But the reason for the changes to the topics beyond Part D under doing continuing business, there's other staff members who can facilitate those sections. Although I suppose that means if there's, if you're trying to shoehorn any questions for the superintendent, the superintendent's update is the right time to say, this reminds me of a related topic. Can you answer this question? Do it now, because he's gonna disappear soon. That is true. And so I'm just gonna highlight a couple of these. I apologize, some of the members heard these, but I think it's still worthy for the regional members to hear some of those updates as well. And one that was not on here was kind of jumbled out as well. It's been a really nice convocation for all staff at this, for making comments at the half of the committee in our first day of celebration while hot was very well attended. There were 954 slices of pizza donated by area businesses and all of them are eaten by the end of the evening. So I like having some markers that way. Our lot of cabinet, which we've talked about at this committee the last couple of years organized a kickoff event for all a lot of staff members particularly with the staff members who are new to the district. It's really a successful welcome event. It was here, but Mr. George Malcom, the staff member was central in organizing that, so I'll mention her name regardless along with others. We're gonna talk about any of the building audit later, so I'm gonna skip this part, because I'll describe it in a much greater detail in a couple of minutes. Our open house schedule, so at the middle school, the open house is happening right now. And for the high school, it's October 11th, the day after the Indigenous Week of Staff. Jessica Menehan, who's an author, she was here last year to work with staff and then she did a lot of work both with Summit Academy right at the beginning of the school year and then the high school and middle school as well. She's an expert on anxiety and how it manifests in students and how it manifests very differently in different students. And so we had a family event, parent guardian event, with one of the 80 attendees. I want to thank CPAC and our SSO office for putting that on. The feedback was very positive. We had a RIAC, provisional and balance advisory committee that I serve on at the DESI committee. So they met Monday. And the topics are listed below that we've talked about, but Ms. Menehan was able to come into the meeting with Ms. Solomon, who you signed on, led our support last year for the Amherst Futures program, which Ms. Menehan will talk a little bit, to talk about what we're doing in Amherst as well as in the area of increasing the percentage of staff of color within our schools. We've all received a really good topical conversation for that group. We'll skip social media so I can turn to Ms. Menehan for the district wide updates and then I'll provide some regional specific updates. So on Saturday, this past Saturday at 22nd, we had our first summit for the paradigm shift, which is the partnership program for Amherst and the diverse teacher workshop with five colleges. We have currently four paris who are attending the program and have enrolled at Holyoke. And in this summit, we had high-right institutions. We had our partner schools such as Holyoke schools and Springfield schools. And what we looked at was what can we, whether as a district or as an institution, do to support our paris who are looking to become teachers. And what do we currently do that may hinder them from moving on to those roles. So it was well attended. We have found almost 70 people from, like as a higher ed in the model school districts, parents, teachers, district administrators, all of them. So it was a great program. And we look forward to having our second summit in the early part of next year, where we'll also talk to principals and work with them on how to hire and minimize the implicit bias that they have in their hiring. I'll move on to regional updates. Some of the academies. So this morning, I've spent quite a bit of time over at some of the academy. Making sure the students were well situated at the beginning of the school year. And many thanks to our facilities team and for the staff at summit for getting that ball rolling very well. And this case looks great. It's very welcoming. And I think Mr. McPherson's plans are the right amount of its own school or identity, but also having the flexibility for when students or staff members want to be connected to the high school. And if you remember all the way back, we looked at four plans up on the screen. There was an exterior sort of shed off that, and it existed before this move. But we're working on scheduling its removal, which will help also in terms of outdoor access. Justin, we talked a little bit about this I think at the end of the year, but oh, I'm skipping. Let me stick with the second one. So at the end of the fiscal year, the state ended with a $1 billion roughly surplus. The governor filed a supplemental budget to how that money should be spent. Some was put into, was intended to be put into the rainy day fund. You know the technical name for that. It was the rainy day fund. But there was a significant amount of funds that were put into education, both in terms of school safety, school safety broadly, so it's not just about school resources or something like that, that many schools have, but not the health professionals. It was also an increase in the regional transportation and special ed circuit breaker. And the governor filed that and there's not been action taken by the legislature. And so it just is one of these things hanging out there that we don't know if that money's coming in or not, particularly at the regional level, as opposed to the other elementary districts. Regional transportation for sure, but circuit breaker has a much larger impact on the regional schools than it does at the elementary level. This is no small amount of change. That's at stake, so I think I'll leave it to other members who may want to comment about advocacy at some point, but right now there's a lot of uncertainty of where that sits. A couple weeks ago, the high school community today, so this is something that was started a couple of years ago in an effort to bring students together and to start the school year in a way where students are connecting with their peers and staff members in ways to build community within the school, talk about the school norms, which you can see there below, but the activities include fun things like dunk tank, Mr. Jackson's a very good sport about that, and games, to really get out of the academic mindset that our high school has, like many high schools, and really to remind ourselves about the human aspect that we have roughly 1,100 people spending most of their day in one site, and we should build those human connections that's highly successful. Luckily the weather worked out well for us. We did receive about $20,000 of emergency impact aid for displaced students, mostly in our case from Puerto Rico, not exclusively, but mostly from Puerto Rico based on the hurricanes from last year from the federal government. Previously we talked about the funds that were slated to come from the state government on that. And lastly, just wanted to share some of the key work that the work streams finish here. Certainly as we talked about last year, there's the capital item of the master planning study and looking forward on that so we know how it bids in and we're in the process of getting towards being able to select someone to help us think about what are we doing with our spaces at the secondary level. Similarly, we'll be focusing on the math curriculum and instruction program review and looking for some external folks to help us think about that and take a look at what we're doing with 7 through 12. Really 6 through 12 because our math curriculum is a 6 through 8 math curriculum. Some more on that coming and when we look at the future agenda items, you can see that these things are all slotted. Another one's the support of students' well-being and that maybe sounds general, but for us it's really not that the implications of how to approach well-being are many, but they all have the same focus. So things that we are all thinking about is what we hear, so we've heard about anxiety about kids like I talked about earlier, that's one response. Some of the vaping, so what's happening on the other side of the hall right now, that's another response. But we consistently continue to gather feedback about start time and how can that be thought about. So we're really taking a holistic look at well-being and that's going to be something that we'll continue to talk about throughout the year. The strategic planning process which we'll talk about later tonight, and then invariably, budgets and assessments will be a topic that comes up throughout this year. We've been slotted that multiple times as we look at the draft agendas coming up. So I thought it was just worthwhile to share, you know, we're obviously doing more than these things, but in terms of where the workflows are in work streams, this is where a lot of our attention's headed. Any other questions? We're good. I just have a comment as far as the support of students' well-being have heard from three or four shoot-break parents who are concerned that their children or their students will not use the bathrooms because of the fear of being tapped for vaping or juuling. And they're just, they're not going to the bathroom all day. Thank you. That's the first time hearing of that, but we're trying to set up a meeting anyway. So I'd love to hear more about that and share that with Mr. Jackson. Thank you. Any other questions for the superintendent before this item is closed? Seeing none. There's no real children report. I think the thing for me, actually the last item on the superintendent's update was one of the things that Mike and I talked about is that we want, I mean, it just follows on from the retreat, is trying to organize things and organize our conversation in ways that both are strategic but also the work of our community month to month and meeting and meeting we can see what the roadmap is and where we're going from September to December and March because it'll sneak up on us before we know it. We're going to be in the middle of regional assessment and budget conversations and then seemingly everything else gets obliterated by that and then anything else that we cared about is, I mean, you'll still be doing your work, the team will be doing your work, staff will be doing your work, but in terms of the committee's engagement we can easily get waylaid by that and I'm hoping we can keep on top of this stuff but also as a committee all hands on deck and making sure we do that. It's part of the, it's why there was a tiny little teaser at the end but it's going to be bigger in the future agendas and we don't have the attachment, we don't have the hand up for meeting topics, do we? That was distributed, there was one distributed for the Amherst School Committee. Did we distribute electronic that to the committee? We got to do that because one of the goals to go from the retreat of having a list of the topics that either, either the topical things that we figured when they were likely to come up with meetings but also sort of the ordinary we always have our budget meetings at this time things. We actually have, see there it is. We'll hand it around. I mean, there's the draft calendar that has those things on it. So I apologize I wasn't circulated and make sure the full committee has it. You can make copies as a copy. Okay, that would be wonderful. And seeing that is done Just one quick question. Maybe we can introduce some of this member of the committee. We're about to do that. If you notice the next item on the, if you notice the next item A is student school committee representative. And so I was literally about to say with that, you may have noticed we have someone sitting here with us who has not previously been sitting here with us. Do you want to make an introduction? Sure, so Zebulan is a student who's been involved in the government and I was connected to other students like the student last year who was the student rep on the school committee. And Miss Haygood talked about a process at the high school to identify someone who would be an excellent representative of a high school student body who had strong opinions who would be trying to share them. But also as a listener and could connect with a large group of people who are elected officials and staff. And we're thrilled you're here. We've heard wonderful things about you from Mr. Jackson and Miss Haygood. And I just want to thank you for your service as it starts. Welcome. Do you have anything you want to say? I mean, not really. And don't be shy though. If anything comes up you want to talk about, ask questions. I hadn't thought about this but if we'd done that at the beginning one of the coolest things is you can actually ask questions to the superintendent during his update and grill him if you want. Seems like you might be encouraged. Why not? So welcome. On to item B, physical disability access discussion which also encompasses the question of whether we're going to do some sort of a survey. I want to thank Mr. Bonington for his kind comments earlier and sharing his experience and his family's experience in our school district. And I think the idea is a great one and I've talked to, Dr. Brady is also sick so she's not here otherwise she'd be here to share a little more maybe spending too much time with Dr. Brady for the first time, I don't know. But what we've done since we got the communication from Mr. Bonington is we reached out to a couple of vendors who specialize in completing ADA audits in schools. We did that in a couple of ways just talking to other, Dr. Brady talked to other student service directors in the area. One of them actually did an ADA audit in an elementary school that's part of our region it's not part of a district but it's in the four regional schools, four regional towns. And so we got a pretty good sense of the cost and what we could come out of that and I think as Mr. Bonington said some things are pretty obvious and we know are problematic and other things are less visible unless you are experiencing them through a lens that not many of us have about looking about mobility and how that works and we think it completely makes sense to follow through with Mr. Bonington's suggestion and we feel like through our facilities involving account that the cost is something that we'd be able to manage without affecting other budget items that we have. So we're actively pursuing support for getting this done in the current year and one of the reasons we feel such urgency in addition to what Mr. Bonington shared is we would like to see if we can get this done before we get to a budget season in the capital request. One of the frustrating things and I think it played out actually in one of the stories that Mr. Bonington shared was that the capital process can exceedingly slow when there are things that need to be fixed that are high cost because it's a process that involves depending on time of year request that's made, discussion of this body then it goes to all four towns it goes to the town meetings historically went to four town meetings through past the money then became available July 1st. Many of these projects can't be done except for students aren't present for long periods of time so the money becomes available we try to get it done in the summer that money becomes available sometimes that's not possible for a whole host of readings so we'd really like to have the audits done on the sooner side so that when we get into capital season it can be part of that consideration discussion about what the needs of the district are. So I think we'll have more to share at the next meeting in October about where we are but we have three estimates from three different organizations we've already checked references on our number on them. I want to thank Dr. Ray who couldn't be here she's done most of this work and I can definitely refer it quite often on it and I really want to appreciate the public comment and the idea about how do we think about the accessibility of buildings and the first way is understanding where our buildings are accessible and whether or not just as a little background I should have started with the ADA code and not that I'm an expert in this but one of the challenges that our buildings were all at the regional level were all built many many years ago in high school and their last major but change in 1998 and code the ADA code continues to change and provide more and more access and mobility for students and families and staff members but unless you're doing a major update things aren't so visible because these buildings were built before that thinking went into the design of buildings and so we know that there are many areas of these buildings that are not accessible and having a better grasp of where those are specific with ideas of what it would take to fix it it would be a really positive outcome for us as we get back to the committee and discuss as we look to capital for the future. So a couple of things before we have a broader discussion one the answer to the question of are we going to do an ADA survey to use a short hand for it of our schools is yes and the answer to whether we're going to do it ideally in a time frame that allows us to build in at least some of that work and do this coming year as capital budget is yes just as a matter of scope and you might have said it's the beginning so I apologize and I've zoned out on this what buildings does this include? So at this point since we're at a regional meeting we're looking at the regional buildings but we are looking at the buildings in our other Dr. Frediam Can I ask you a funny question? Yeah If you forgot where you were and you answered like just an ordinary person on the street what buildings are going to be included? We're looking at all the buildings that I'm super sorry I apologize but it's sort of like No I just try to be cautious No I know I promise we won't discuss the elementary school buildings in this meeting but the answer to the question is that they're part of it cool so the committee have comments or questions kind of then I just wanted to read a letter that our C-PAC chair had asked C-PAC ladies on to be part of this this is from Nancy Stewart our chair at C-PAC she was going to read it but she wasn't able C-PAC would like to express our appreciation to the Bunington family the Bunington family has reached out to C-PAC and made us aware of accessibility barriers facing our students these accessibility barriers have prevented some students from participating in a true inclusive learning environment our students, families and staff deserve that today I am writing on behalf of C-PAC C-PAC is requesting that the district conduct a formal review of our school's buildings compliance with the ADA standards and design requirements this review should be completed by an outside consultant this consultant should be familiar with ADA standards for accessible design reviewers should seek to understand from community members currently in our buildings how these accessibility issues are affecting staff students and families we are requesting that the results and findings of this review are shared with C-PAC the district has a legal obligation to provide our students with an inclusive learning environment in every facet of school space our students have a legal right to participate fully to their ability in all school activities and school-sponsored events please consider C-PAC's request as a district priority and look forward to partnering with the district in creating plans to accomplish fixes to ensure our schools are inclusive learning environment that's the end of the letter and I just wanted to thank Mr. Bunnington for raising this issue with C-PAC and emailing us and coming up to speak I think it's always good for us to get objective information and hear it personally and I really want to point out I really appreciate the mode in which he engaged both C-PAC and the committee wasn't accusatory and yet he was very clear a matter of fact and particularly since most of these changes are going to be helping students that come afterwards it was really in the service of continuous improvement of our district so it's a model of interacting with our committee I thought so I really appreciate that one of the things that came to mind in the discussion in the public comment and also your explanation I think the ADA compliance study will probably tell us a lot about our building in terms of how we meet the regulatory requirements I'm assuming that's sort of their general concentration area I think it would also be interesting to know if they have experience in the broader issues that got brought up because entering a classroom or entering a stage as one thing but to really not have the building put up boundaries is a little bit more of a stretch goal than the law necessarily is going to provide and so I'm wondering where we can get that sort of input if that will be coming from an ADA study or whether there's some other resources we could reach out to in addition to the family's experiences that might help us kind of craft a long term plan for our buildings so my sense from all the different vendors that we spoke to is that they're highly conscious of some of this is about code and some of this is not about code and it's about that feeling of inclusion and I think you should think about that I heard also from Mr. Bonington and the good news that I've come to understand is that the code is getting a little bit broader so some of this I mean I want to take a step back so when we think about building being up to code code changes to be up to the current code unless you major renovation in the building so I think I just want to make sure everybody has that common set so when we think up to code it's up to code as if we were doing if this is building was built in 2018 and not when it was built but the upsets of the code are getting a little less technical they're still the technical school buildings I think the comparison I'm making it's not the best analogy but if you look at rebuilding codes or lead code there's an awful lot that's not actually about literally like the energy efficiency that's about how close is it to a bus stop can people get there without driving the car and ADA code is getting similar to that where it's not actually just technically about the quote where it surrounds of what is the experience of someone who may have mobility challenges entering the school being stasis in the school assuming the school is empty assuming the school is full and that the range of experiences so with every version I think it's getting not less technical but it's being more inclusive of the technical and the less technical aspects there may be barriers to entry then part of the code so I think all the firms we spoke to I think similar to the point that that raised they're looking at both the things that are in the code but also the lived experiences of individuals other comments or questions seeing none thanks we look forward to let's keep this on the agenda in the near term so we can keep on talking what's happening and provide the public also with that great thank you thank you excuse me item C he's a planning update so we're actually running ahead of time shh they happened last two years ago that's what happened we were on time and then we blew it up just like that I apologize I apologize I apologize I wasn't saying I wasn't saying that out of any undies superstition thereof it's actually one apart from the fact that it's utterly astonishing it's also just because you know I'm hoping at some point in the near future we don't get to an item of people which you know they couldn't get here until 750 and they really wanted to wear it so I hope that's not the case and it is being taped so hopefully they can catch up a little bit yeah and so in the packet this was toward the very end it's like the third and the second till last page so if you're looking at this out it's backing up it's like this let's see if I can keep up the pace of the meeting so I could do some brief description and I'd like to come back with more detail after next meeting either after or after I'm done with it so we we can get to work with Dr. Musad who many of you met last year when he came to school so many of you could certainly come back I think it would be worthwhile at some point to have him come back yeah what you see is that there's two we're using the planning for success template which is in process which is a desi supported process around strategic planning and excuse me it um if you look at the page before it has some you know an FAQ about strategic planning in amber as well that Dr. Musad has put together I think actually the middle school principals are going over this at the middle school open house and listening participation from folks we developed with Dr. Musad a sort of more condensed document to describe what strategic plan about why are we doing this what's the process look like so a lot for a little easier access because strategic planning can get a little cumbersome to talk about so we asked Dr. Musad to look at us what we're all about so there's two teams that are working currently so there's a leadership team which involves principals assistant principals and myself and then there's also a planning team the planning team is what we're going to be forming in the next month or so and that's a 30 35 person broader group that involves many of the people in the leadership team but also include parent guardians folks from representative agencies like CPAC school equity task force that would be invited to be part of it and the reason that there's the rationale of having two groups doing in some way similar tasks important for the educational leaders to be able to have conversations it's also really important for them to hear from the larger community and so it's the one challenging thing about the chart is that timeline it's not chronological like if we look at where we are on the leadership team we've had two meetings we have another one next Wednesday whereas the first planning team meeting doesn't happen till Halloween so you have to orient yourself a little bit that way but in general the process on both get folks to be open and ask open-ended questions about what we want for the future of the district what we want that to look like was it feel like five years from now in the district what would one imagine that to look like to engage the community to have a broad stakeholder group of folks doing that and so that's to be recorded and Dr. Moussad one of the key roles he plays is he records everything at every meeting and it's incredibly important that we come up with this treasure trove of what different people said so that we can come back to it and become an artifact particularly on a planning team of the work that occurs after that happens we get into data to better understand so we thought about the future we then go back to the present to understand what's currently happening what data do we have that describes our experience and by data we can look at achievement data climate data perception data and the group will define the data it wants to look at this information core we have so much data and this is actually saying what do we really want to look at and dig deep on to tell us where we are currently at that point you use that data to come up with a root cause analysis in essence why do we think these trends are emerging in our schools what might be factored and developed hypothesized and that process is really important because you want that process of identifying the present what led us to the present in the future and the gap between where we are and what we want to be that really leads to thinking about outcomes what outcomes we want to track what outcomes we want to stay with over time and how does that drive initiatives we want to think about the outcomes being five years from now what do we want for our students what do we want for our school to look like the initiatives come from where and what's the path where I'm being a little verbose I apologize but I think it's just worth taking the time to walk through this at that point you can get to a vision statement of defining that both the process and the outcomes we want the quality time review and essentially what that means is even if you have 35 40 people working on something you actually want to get broader stakeholder in part than just those 35 or 40 you don't want to bank on the fact that they are that would be it's impossible to create that scenario so we want to make sure that we're sharing that whatever the draft is that with the broader community as well as the committee to get a feedback along the way in an iterative fashion and then the process we have some place holder dates there because we know in some communities that process can go a little more quickly in some communities that process takes a little more so we working with Albert we want to have place holders to say as four or five meetings that can happen and maybe we need five or six meetings that can happen the second page really gets on developing the action plan so if you have that long-range vision you've got initiatives that you want to have moving forward then you want to break it down into where we actually how do we get from where we are not to the five-year plan but what does that look like in year one year two and getting a little more fine grain and the decanals because at the end of the green section here creating the plan you're still at that you know somewhat broad level of what are the initiatives going to get us what are the outcomes we want and then you have to say how do we get there and so that's that second phase of developing the action plans is getting very specific very detailed both on the action processes as well as the outcome we look for as interim outcomes even if we have five-year outcomes we don't want to wait five years to say oh my goodness there's a lot of measures built in and the last thing that I didn't say for the planning team is we're looking that'll be I didn't mention staff as well staff are a key component of the plan parents guardian larger community but staff members and both principals the principals all three of our secondary schools have already spoken about this with their staffs on orientation day and I did a convocation at a general level that would be the primary some of the primary work of our district this year we're going to ask at a school committee meeting what's the role of the school committee in any of this so we're going to ask for school committee representatives on the planning team and that our plan is to bring this back frequently to school committees so that you're getting not just kept the rest of the process but actually some of the products excuse me that are being developed and that's part of the iterative loop and the benefit is two-fold one is that you're the elected but also this is a public meeting so it's important that we're sharing this information with the public people can come to make public comments and offer their opinions in public ways which we want to engender the kind of transparency that that would create I mean the thing we've talked about as an objective is to have three to five years music plan annual action plans and then have that tied not only to budgeting decisions the prioritization how we sort of organize our work your annual calls and the evaluation of those goals so I think that there are very practical reasons to have the school committee involved so I would hope that we'd have at least a couple members of the school committee that would be involved in the planning team I recognize that would probably take a lot of work for time on their part so at some point maybe the next meeting we have there should be if we could get some sort of description around what the commitment would look like for that it'd be ideal and then what you know based on the sizing of the planning team what the what the right number of that is we can talk about that later and then try to figure out how to have the committee engaged in an iterative manner with sort of the deliverables that come out of that because it would be a disaster if there was some sort of gap between the way the committee was understanding and thinking about this work and what the actual product was that would basically mean this didn't this is a failed process that can't happen it has to be something where there's a felt title like so first very small comment on the FAQ if you're going to use this for public distribution you want to make it real clear as well the region that's true if you're not totally in the weeds on this that's pretty easy to use so my bigger question was interesting in this whole process of coming up with the district plan which I mean according to the plan for success model should really be driving every plan I mean when we do superintendent goals it should be in line with that we do school committee goals they should be in line with that and it you know ends with an action plan which we'll tie right into what our focus is so the lack of mention of the school committee is notable in that and I realize this is just talking about I know you mentioned I'll come back for update of how it's going and here's what the deliverables are but it leads me a little confused as to what the role of the planning team should be and what the role of the school committee should be in defining the five year strategy because it's on the one hand it's great to have that big of a community it's willing to engage for that long and we want to take full advantage of that level of community input on the other hand you know it's Wednesday mornings so anybody who has a job can't do it and I'm sure that if time wasn't a factor we would all love to be you know talking about strategic planning for hours and so I feel like the school committee's role in this should be a little bit more in the definition phase and and have a little bit more say in the in where it's going I guess I mean I don't want to sound too you know negative about it but it the other thing is I wouldn't want to set people's expectations up wrongly who are going to volunteer a lot of time their own time for the planning team and saying you know you're going to be defining the vision and then get to the end and have the school committee maybe have a different point of view on it so you know I'm just trying to say I don't understand yet where those two pieces come in Can I respond to that briefly? Sure So and I apologize about that so I think at the end of the plan what's not explicit on here is that plan would have been brought to the school committee for a vote which is a little different than what you're saying but I think it's an important piece because I'm not talking it doesn't totally address your question but I think I wanted to say that out loud at this meeting the involvement piece and how the iterative piece would work but I think it's worth noting So I think we've been talking about the process here for over a year or close to and I think one of the things that I found notable about it was that the process was one that was trying to get a broad community input into the process and at first when I talked to Dr. Moussade how do you know there's a lot of people how do you filter that down into actionable things designing a strategic plan by committee sounds like a nightmare right in terms of trying to manage everybody's expectations and inputs and I think this process allows a pretty large group to get some input in at various stages and the whole community to have some input at various stages and from my perspective sitting here at the school committee I think it's wise for it not to be a strategic plan based on the nine of us at this table that the school serves a much broader community than we necessarily represent at the table and so I think we'll have opportunity in the process to provide some input especially I think if there's somebody who is able to be a member of the planning team and that I kind of would like from my perspective like to see the process turn out I think there were some good examples of the process gone through at other schools and the outcomes seemed very people were very positive about the strategic plan that was generated out of them so I guess my similar point is I think I'm confident that the process that we've chosen it's going to be one that we'll get us a result that the the four towns can support the strategic plan from a broad sense I actually I think I would agree with that for the most part that I think that what I'm looking for more than anything else I think is input from staff and from administrators and from the community to help shape the direction of our schools I think both from expertise perspective also just from direct impact that seems to be the right approach and it seems to make the most sense to me I do think though that you know incorporating at least articulating the points where the school committee will be involved in this grid will be helpful because it seems for us to work towards and also to be mindful of as we build another agendas to move forward to think that you know yes we want to have this points done with the committee for input and feedback and all that I would also add that I think adding in I see a couple of places where it's explicitly said community engagement and I think again just to help people understand what we're working towards and when we're ready to you know even though those might shift a little bit but at least seeing multiple points throughout this grid and to be aware that we are planning for that community engagement in very big ways the process that requires and demands their feedback and their input aside from that I mean I think that most of this timeline makes a lot of sense I'm really glad that we're doing this I think it's vitally important and I hear a lot of the frustration that's you know been going through the community I think for some time now that we haven't had something like this so it's great to say that we finally have a plan in action that's rolled out so I'm looking forward to seeing this develop little talents guess who's that um and I think one thing that might also be nice is that um I might you know I assume this would be an ongoing effort that right now this is the begin the first step to have a team to develop a three year plan then there's you know they'll be following up on that um and so and that's you know one place where we overlap with the school community or into the peer evaluation um but just maybe making that clear like how that process would go would continue on in the coming years so I I mean I think I think all the points that have been made resonate with me I mean obviously you I mean in my view the leadership team logically is comprised of the educational leadership of the district and that's appropriate and that's the way it should be um and you want to engage the community and you want to know that they're helping to define the product and the output and the shared vision I actually agree with Mr. Demling on the other hand that this looks like the the chart looks like something written by somebody who didn't really think of didn't sit down and they thought about the role of the community and they thought about the role of the educational leadership but they didn't particularly conceptualize what the role of the school community is and I don't think it's a world but I think it needs to be called out more specifically both in terms of having I mean I think it's appropriate if we're going to have school community representation on a planning team to identify them as a specific stakeholder because from a sort of legal and statutory perspective if you have the educational leadership of the district you also have you know the elected board that's overseeing them and I think they they're different than just other community people who might be choose to be involved I think they have a formal role we they conceptually we have a formal role in the process that I think should be called out but I think that's also important because sort of as a normative element what it does is it organizes and structures at a time so that we're thinking about how this reflects annual goals for the committee for the superintendent budgeting and prioritization the fact that at the end of this product there actually is going to be a vote and I think it also gives even clarity to the committee because if there's a couple of people in the committee who are able to volunteer their time to work on this it's not like I mean this in the nicest way I don't mean this negatively but we have subcommittees where it's sort of like go off to the audit committee do you know harm give nice feedback listen to interesting audit but you know no one really thinks that anything's happening in that subcommittee but necessarily is rocking the world and changing the world necessarily and you kind of hope there isn't there isn't this is a real problem this is sort of the opposite of that this is something where whoever is working on behalf of the school committee is going to have a real obligation to reflect back and then the committee itself not that any of you would or I would but we can't check out right because at the end of this process there's going to be something coming forward that's going to then guide all the work we do so I would just say I think I agree with everything that was said here but you got to call out the school committee more and just in layout where we're fitting in the process to people I completely agree and what I did bring this time was a document from last spring which talked about different stakeholder groups and the school committee was on that stakeholder group that would be part of the planning team so I apologize for not being more explicit about that here and I'm talking to Dr. Musa tomorrow so I'll talk through and bring back more specifics around the touch points and where not just the committee members who may join the planning team but the full committee gets to interview and this is one of those things where I think if the vice chair is willing I would feel that to hear myself in the vice chair we didn't say no right but I mean there's no time or whatever but if it's possible I think both of us could should actually talk to either as you're going through that iterative process talk to us and sit down so that we can help reflect back what we're hearing and help just so that the next time there's a draft that comes forward it'll probably be entirely baked makes total sense yeah so I like what Mr. Nakajima spelled out about the school committee understanding what those touch points are and hopefully we have available time on the committee people who have been to be there sort of report back I think in addition to sort of calling the school committee's roll out calling out major points of opportunities for community input at all stages would also be good because there's going to really want to do this who absolutely can't because it's on Wednesday morning and so they're going to be like okay I want to be able to provide input in more than just email the team whenever you want kind of way and before the vision is baked right and all the other things flow down so having that as kind of the header timeline I think will be important for people to feel like if you weren't able to get on that large so it's nice to get that many voices to get a little bit of the benefit of the wisdom of the crowd but it's not necessarily 100% representative of everybody and all their concerns so just you know it's good to hear that that's a primary focus of that team very briefly and one of the reasons one of the primary topics in the first day of the planning team's community engagement is you know we we met down and talked about it and the doctor decided to continue with them is it's great for a small group of people coming from different towns communities micro communities and then talk about how to engage the larger communities and smaller communities within our towns and so that topic is an engaging that group that topic is actually gathering a plan that the planning team can work on to how the process can be very inclusive so it's intentionally not on here because it's designed to be part of the process where the planning team are there any other questions or comments or those we'll move on from this item right now the same the next item on our agenda is superintendent goals discussion do we have anything to reflect to or are we going to talk do you want to start talking I would so what's worked well by the way this means we'll be listening somebody clarified that so it's apparently that's what it's about mostly I'll talk briefly now I'm actually looking forward to listening so you know Sharon I spoke and I think what's worked well in the other districts is hearing from the committee about some of their not looking for anyone here to draft goals but some priorities you have I shared about some of the work streams that the administrative side will be spending a lot of time on but what I did want to do was draft goals prior to committee members about some thoughts and priorities so what I'd like to do is just I wonder if you can just go one by one if people want to share that meeting with some goals drafted that includes some of the things that I hear from from the committee and is it possible that so how many meetings do we have in October one so we're going to try to talk and vote at the same time I think I left that out as well I apologize it's okay you know I'm feeling that so my hope was I'd take this in and I'd share it electronically with the committee and could take individual feedback before we get to the so that it well would be collective feedback I could take that individual feedback to make edits before the meeting just sort of putting that people in the front I guess your mind but also everyone this is mine that we'd be voting on this because obviously the years were already into the year so here's what we can do we can start on one end go around each committee member if you want to pass and think about it for the moment pass okay well I'd just like to say it sounds like we should really be trying to just trying to go back find my committee but that was the superintendent's update but it seems like you laid out some very reasonable bullets under N-5 on your update for a key work for a 2018-2019 so I guess the one thing that's not on here that definitely was an issue last year and I think should continue to be on our radar and your goals would be kind of continuing that work to make sure that the hiring process is transparent inclusive that we're continuing to try to really increase the diversity of our staff and educators and all of it I will also reserve the right to come back and then I think this ADA work seems like that could fall under the broader idea of inclusivity that this hiring could also be a supplement on but I I guess I just don't see that explicitly laid out in those bullets so I'd like to say something related to that and where we can I mean I just think we should try to given this strategic planning process and all of these things going on at the same time it would be great so it's there are intersections for you it's not five different masters you have to answer okay I'll give you three as quick as I can just ideas to think about and not fully formulated you mentioned early start time so I'm not saying a goal should be to change the early start time but I would like to be able to know what are the barriers right now to us even thinking about it is it just because our plate is too full okay then because our plate get less full that we could start thinking about it and then if we did we have plan we could take off the shelf what does that even look like another thing is promoting or somehow raising the profile or expanding the integration of our arts I constantly feel like our arts in both the middle school and high school are so amazing they're like so over the top if you could if we were known arts up on and emphasize what an amazing job I think it's because we do so many other things well and we have so many other priorities that it doesn't necessarily get all the attention when you look at it it's amazing and so this is kind of related to marketing and promotion kind of related to arts integration but it's it's programming it's the staff we have some incredible staff and teachers that are of a reason why the delivery is so amazing just I would love to have a specific goal that leveraged that resource right I guess the third thing it was just a really less formed thought when I saw the attendees at the anxiety presentation that's pretty huge for a start of the year a topic like that and so this kind of goes on to the general heading of supported students well being and maybe think of a question I had asked you during the during the hiring process and you know if money was no object or what concerns you and we're talking about student preparedness at the very earliest ages and what we can do and you know we see this in preschool a little bit it's just that there's you know life is changing and kids are coming into our schools with a different set of needs and it's kind of hard to articulate exactly what that is sometimes because it there's it crosses three or four different streams there's some kids who have trauma there's emotional issues there's preeducation issues there's there's attention issues you know we talked about a couple days ago the technology and its influence and what is that going to be like in 20 years and how does that affect our learners and it also leads to this what should schools be doing more to empower our students to survive and have the sort of self-sufficiency it's really hard to articulate into a goal but because you put support of students well being as a top bullet point I would just I think the attention effective attention on modern technology has been an issue of concern for me today I don't have too much to add I think certainly supporting this ADA audit process I think that's not just in the does it benefit just students with physical disabilities but and everybody in school and then the support of students well being is certainly very broad topics and we could find some ways we could narrow that down whether it's early start times but that's a great piece to start with I'm going to pass it on so I think one of the goals should be around successfully completing the strategic planning process and the first-year annual goal and the frameworks laid out but if I'm looking at the end of the year I think it's really important that we actually just to echo this I think it was the dominant source of our conversation and our retreat and it's it's kind of funny because it's something that a lot of us expressed that that's not only important for you and for what goes on for the school but honestly in terms of organizing the work we do and trying to be as helpful as possible so I think that so it's a funny thing to lay on you but since you're the educational leader of the district such as life that's one we previously had a four towns and dealing with budget and prioritizing you know the quality of support for our staff and teachers and things like that and I think that's probably a recurrent need you know I think a third thing which can be called out a number of ways but an explicit annual goal around our racial and social justice commitment whether that's continuing professional development support for diversity of hiring goals for the line of cabinet or whether that's restorative justice and continuous improvement and learning around issues of discipline and things like that I mean it could go in a number of directions it could even frankly be and I'm just making this up but it could even sort of a meta level it could be about providing leadership around advancing I think we have six or seven topics that were of various points of development that was kind of presented on last year it could even be about trying to advance some element of those things in the context of what's achievable at the moment I'm not what my point is I'm throwing a couple ideas on there my point is we should one of the goals should be calling out specifically some continued commitment and advancement and I think I still I said this earlier in the spring in the summer that if there was I don't know what the methodology or the goal would be of trying to ensure continuous improvement around review of administrative or managerial practices in the district but I still consider that to be important without meaning to call it out at the beginning of our year there was a discussion and a reworking around how we handle athletic fees and student schedules and that was one of those things where it didn't really conform with the values that were set by I think the district as a whole didn't really conform with the values and more immediate policies that had been set by the committee certainly around good service collection policy and yet you know we sort of discovered there was a problem after the problem blew up as opposed to in advance of it blowing up and I'm just trying to I mean this is one of those things where I'm just trying to I'm trying to help like I'd like I'd like us to get ahead of those things and find some way to more systematically figure out how to get over them I don't know what that looks like is a goal because it ends up sounding bureaucratic like the view of the existing process which is to ensure that they conform with best practices or some garbage like that and I'm not sure that captures the zeitgeist of what I'm trying to get at okay, correct so I think mine will echo a lot of what you've already heard but I think diversity inclusion and there's various ways that can go but I'd like to see part of that for student impact part of it for our staff for social justice so maybe that's measured in a few a few ways budget and long term financial plans to stay affordable for our towns this last budget cycle certainly highlights how most of our towns are don't have a lot of levy limit left and we need to think about how our school fits into that affordably and efficiently and still providing the education we've come to expect strategic planning complete is a must have professional development of staff we've talked a lot about there's a few initiatives that have been going on in the last few years and I think we can't expect to have really great education for our students if we're not investing in our staff and then student supports for social emotional emotional learning and some of those initiatives that we've started but I'd like to see them and then to echo this last one is some way of measuring or keeping on top of what other areas whether it's I think the school community is trying to review our processes but that we have that the school has a similar continuing review cycle of practices within the school to make sure that they're in alignment with the district goals and maybe that's maybe the district goals are first but I think we have so I think this is the hard part going last always we're going to be repeating all of this that's okay go ahead and do the final we'll put a final point on this so I would absolutely agree I think in terms of racial justice and equity we have already gone and taken several very important steps in the past year I think with this Cunningham's leadership and also with yours Dr. Morris but we have to do more we have to do better and the school equity task force is actually in the process right now recommending some goals for the school committee's consideration I won't go into them now because we're not on the agenda but they will be here at the next meeting hopefully but I will say that I think to reflect back what has already been said by other committee members especially focused on the diversity of educators and staff understanding how incredibly important it is for our staff to actually reflect our student bodies and to really think about how we are retaining recruiting and retaining educators of color across our regional district is incredibly important the other thing I would also say is I would echo the strategic planning process I think having an effective kickoff even if it's a three to five year plan but making sure that this next year is really well done and buttoned up and that we have robust engagement plans that people understand the school committee understands the community understands that there's all of that has been very well articulated and that also frankly has buy-in from the town I think that there's a lot of that that will involve the community and our town leaders to be successful along that last line too I think we've had this discussion at both the Emmer School Committee and also the region our capital improvement plan we continuously keep talking about the trouble that our parking lots are in our school infrastructures in we really need someone to take a hard look at what those budgets actually represent and engage them effectively so that we have a clear and concise plan not something I think that we can continuously put off because every year frankly is a hard budget year but we need to address these problems and we need to address them very soon so I'm hopeful that we can incorporate that into goals this year as well even if we have to make room for some other things so that we can make that happen so I think those are probably my three top goals at this point that I do think that like I said this worker task force will be sharing some other ideas and I'll pass it on to you and to the committee as soon as they're available Is there anything else from the committee? Do you have anything I want to ask before we move on? I just want to thank you it was incredibly helpful to to hear where people were coming from so I'm glad we had this process and I didn't comment on it today because the next round would be much more informative with the comments that I heard from them so thank you Awesome, that's great that's nice to hear I don't know what positive feedback we'll take it when we can get it Are you done? I think I'm going to leave you with the very capable hands in this cutting-hand Mr. Magano who's Palmer for the rest of the I think that is a beautiful committee with this high capacity I think it's fine Well, have a lovely day Thank you And we're getting it out of here by the way a couple minutes early Shh Absolutely but no, this is why we created the extra minutes Without objection a five-minute recess No objection Thank you We're all here It's my little collection Calling the meeting back to order with the I apologize but with the committee's indulgence this day no folks have been waiting I'd love to flip the order of the next two items E&F and move the resolution and support of the education funding campaign if that's okay with the committee as so therefore indulged and anyone else to speak on behalf of the Ms. Fay Hi, Jean Fay president of the Amherst Pnell Education Association and usually we come once a year twice a year and we face the same budget crisis every year and as you're all very well aware the foundation budget review hasn't been done in 25 years so if the recommendations of the 2015 budget review commission are implemented then Amherst and this would be through the year 2023 Amherst would receive $264,950 the region would receive $358,000 and Pellum would receive $86,978 now I know what the schools can do with that kind of money you know what the schools can do with that kind of money what we'd like you to do is consider this resolution I'm here at the regional committee meeting so that I can talk to all of the representatives from the towns to join the Amherst Pellum Education Association as well as the Mass Teacher's Association and a lot of coalitions around the state and forcing the legislators to fully fund public education so that our kids get the schools and the education that they deserve it's way past time and then we're talking about this this is 2015 so we're already behind another two years and it's just going to be increasing and the things are just going to be getting worse and worse so for your consideration I would hope that you would join us in asking the legislature by May 1st to pass a budget that is good for public education and provides the kids with the education that all of them deserve not just students that live in wealthier wealthier towns and communities thank you are there they should by the way the draft resolution is in your packets and it could obviously be adapted readily to insert the name of the district and the amount and the closing therefore be it resolved that the Amherst Hall and Regional School Committee versus the legislature those would be easy edits to make I guess for the purposes of the public it says resolution and support for funding for our public schools whereas free public schools available to all students without exception are foundational to our democracy and are required by the state constitution and whereas all of our students no matter where we provide them with a rich school experience that addresses their academic social and emotional needs whereas the state's foundation budget formula which determines state aid to each district has been woefully updated for years therefore underfunding our districts by more than $1 billion a year for essential educational services and whereas an updated foundation budget formula would bring the Amherst Regional School District up to $385,000 additional dollars as residents of the Commonwealth and whereas the legislature failed to pass any foundation budget legislation in the last session leaving districts educators and students without the funds necessary support the schools our students deserve in every district in the state therefore be resolved that the Amherst Regional School District urges the legislature to approve a fully funded new foundation budget formula by May 1st 2019 we could adopt this now I'm open with the committee's decision on that depending on how I'm going to say controversial what's your what's your opinions of me? What's to be gained by a delay? Nothing I'm just I'm saying you're the committee I'm not an autocrat it's like the entire point I could say everyone's who wants to vote yes right I mean I'm not going to do that somebody can move it on the other hand okay thank you Mr. Minino I apologize you asked a simple question and you deserve a simple answer it's only this I move to approve the resolution as read by Mr. Nakajima and with the edits that we would put in afterwards to clarify which region and school committee is involved is there a second? second it's been moved by Ima Zidoni a second by Mr. Demling are there further Mr. Demling we talked about this topic a lot so we need to belabor all the details but I would say for the public's edification they hear us talk about advocacy all the time there could be a little bit of advocacy fatigue we're always talking about underfunded we're always talking about this and that this is a particularly focused moment I think for state level advocacy Ms. Faye talked about working with other Mass Ed Justice Alliance which is a grassroots organization across the state that's been working with teachers and school committees and parents and concerned communities is really activating on this at the same time Mass Association and school committees is trying to get on board and by the way we all should have gotten an email from MANC asking us what their Friday should be this is certainly a good answer to give them so it's an opportunity to come together and like Ms. Faye not in a rude way but in a this has been studied very comprehensively we know what the underfunding is and it's that classic retort from the state rep well if you want me to pass something then make me do it it's that political pressure that we need to create and it really is coming into a moment here I think and the last thing I'd say about it is that we know the money from these amounts that our district would receive but I think it's really about getting it coming together this is about everybody there are towns that are much less fortunate than us in terms of resources who are hurting far worse than we are because of this underfunding so this is it's not just the financially advantage thing for us to do it's the morally right thing to do it's the ethically right thing to do to make this a priority for the state and to communicate out to the public that this is the year to find publications just wanted to add a comment that I think certainly in office has expressed support for this issue previously but I think could probably be reminded that this is important and this is something for us to continue pounding on and I think any new elected officials also should absolutely make this a priority because I think in order for it to continue to command the kind of importance that it requires in Boston that we really need to be able to push people to do that so to Mr. Denling's point and I think a lot of work that we've done already on this committee to help advocate on behalf of these issues we should continue doing that but continue to bring in some of our statewide electives to do that as well yeah and I think some of the other select boards finance committees and things like that I mean we're heading into another budget season for the regional committee and I don't think I'm telling any secrets to say it's probably good to be another lousy season of arguments amongst the four towns and if you really some of those arguments are becoming really pointed around educational philosophy and how it affects our budget and support for our schools but the reality is if you pull back for a second and then you look at the underfunding of Chapter 70 the underfunding of regional accounts and the diversion of money for charter schools you can actually see where the pressure is coming from right it's underfunded accounts and then a philosophy of joining money from our school districts I actually think weirdly enough this is a propitious moment to organize because I think there's going to be a prairie fire rebellion in this state that matches like Prop 2.5 and Prop 13 soon around the ways in which our municipal accounts or taxpayers in our schools are getting screwed right now and but the point is it won't happen by accident it'll happen if we organize so I think we should organize on this I think we should organize on charter schools and I think we should organize on our regional accounts all three of them we should do it vocally and we should do it in organized fashion any other discussion on this though seeing none all those in favor do it again cool passes unanimously we can wrap this up thanks for bringing it you can do something pretty with us the letterhead and signatures and stuff like that cool yes I think in terms of visibility and getting the word out and getting it activated we also send it out to look for us absolutely we should I mean let's follow up on this later but we should get it out in general as well as obviously CC Elections but also local officials as well state officials great yes licensure update imagine what at one point this would have been the talk of the town the hit the thing that dealt you up with ice cream and you know popcorn well I have good news to share and that is that all of our principals and assistant principals at the secondary level are fully licensed with their 9-12 assistant principal principal license so David Sloven has his professional license Mickey Romaki has her professional license Mark Jackson has his professional license Talib Sadi who's the assistant principal at the high school now he has his initial license Rebecca Sweetman and Joseph Smith they have their initial license at the 5-8 level so they're all licensed great are there any follow-up questions certainly Dana are there any other licensed positions unlicensed well any positions held by unlicensed people at the regional level I'm doing an audit right now and so in my November presentation I'll be better able to share that and that would include teaching positions so just on the administration on the administration thank you ok anything else seeing that thank you very much thank you ok so the next item is food food services update I don't see any trays of food out there you want to come this is not going to be a show it's just going to be a tell mostly a tell I've been I've been pestering him for financial details that's like shoe and he was like can you wait we're going to put together so I so I I apologize Mr. Kosenski they have put meat on the bones more powerful than any tray of treats could ever be as a true statement so has everyone met Sasha Palmer our new food service director Sasha Palmer our new food service director doing a great job so far so the way we're going to organize this update is I'm going to go through the slides sort of briefly just like briefly and then with Sasha she's going to talk about the program and what's coming up so microphone no ok which actually this means because the microphones way back there for purposes of that they're just like at least this way you know what was the cone the cone exactly so the first thing I wanted to do is thank everyone who helped make the food sort of program success last year we had Christian staff our sustainability coordinator Jen Reese school garden coordinators maintenance staff everybody basically who's involved in the program really came together last year to make the program do really well some background just quickly some context we had Whitsons for about ten years then we had troubles before that so we were outsourced and this committee decided to bring the program back in-house so last year was our first year having the program completely run by the district so does that mean basically all the functions of the management operation came in-house to our staff here so menu planning food purchasing hiring firing dietetic work state reports compliance all that came to the district staff so we were in charge of everything that we had done frankly in quite a while and so last year's program was really focused on trying to achieve or at least make progress on the goals that the community visioning group set here these were the 12, 11-ish goals that the community had set and so we intentionally made progress in each of these so the first one Taste so we focused on using higher quality ingredients quite frankly and you'll see that in the cost or food cost of going which was intentional a lot of it was Project Red so we'll talk more about that grant in a little bit but we were able and one of the things just for example that he did was he got a feedback on some of those items and tried to get a sense of what are kids like it between schools what are kids like it so this is an example survey that they did a hand survey that they then compiled into this graph but essentially the green are the yums the blue are the mint mint mint okay it's okay or that emoji movie was one of the goals you know Crocker Farm really liked the green monster pizza which had vegetables that were grown in our school gardens and whatever that's nice and awesome other goals so scratch cooking so again a lot of chef Sam's new menu concepts were from scratch cooking items you can see those over on the right there's basically a list of all the new things that we introduced last year the quality food the shirts were on period of 50 and then we started working with some more local vendors when for example Arnold's meat that's what we served in our hamburg's meat products from and the good thing about a lot of our new menu options is that the model that Project Red uses is that they come in they taste test with kids first they kind of build excitement and then put on the menu there's picture chef Sam if you guys haven't met him yet he was going to try to be here tonight with some other Project Red people but it just couldn't work out that's our spicy flatbread something spicy chicken flatbread spicy chicken flatbread right there it's catchy names a popular item despite the fact it's mystery meat apparently but it's very successful other program areas so innovation so we did a lot of new things this year we created a new website we were able to come which is nobody had it sounds great very easy to remember more collaboration with the sustainability coordinator Jen Reese helped bring school garden what do you call it the food from the school garden it's the product or the the harvest the harvest to bring the harvest into the product widget oh that's right you can tell I am not the loser we started using a new software called mosaic which is sort of the next most current software product for managing basically the back end of your food program so you can put in all the inputs you can get the nutritional values the menus we're still working on building it out because it does take quite a bit of time but it's something we're continuing this year we added some staff to tell them to help improve their process we used the electronic notifications where we do balances improved menus to know local and vegan options which was one of the things we sort of knew in the contractor staff was we created incentives around participation so if schools hit participation marks or the district as a whole hit participation marks they got bonuses and so we were actually happy because we were able to get a separate amount this year because participation went up quite a bit plant to animal ratio so we wanted to increase the plant to animal ratio so three of the 10 new items that Chef Sam had so I think the best thing that we did last year to help with wait times is just keep a full workforce that wasn't the case for many years where we had open positions for quite a while some of that was given another contract in place I think to attract more staff but we were able to keep a full compliment of staff for most of the year last year so once participation is another goal so this is sort of a you can see Amherst's as high as it's been in the last 10, 11 years but all three districts went up last year and we hope to see that continue this is just total lunch counts so it's not a percentage but just total lunch counts and so every single school went up last year in terms of the actual lunch counting from the year before to last year which is great and even better considering our enrollments generally going down at the school community is another program goal so we did a lot more catering last year than we had in the prior years we tried to connect with some of those really well-known events that happened in Amherst and work with them part of them so for stay celebration it was the first time they had a real strong presence at it open houses Martin Luther King breakfast the ultimate tournament was a really big one provided a lot of food for the house so these ones we worked with catering last year local and organic purchasing so we added 10 new local regional vendors and we started serving organic items 4 to 5 times a week in some other environment nutrition education so chef Sam who was in the chef and schools program so part of it was just interacting with students in the cafeteria and he was doing a taste test finding out what their likes and dislikes also the collaboration was also tested and the students basically helped harvest the products that was going to be used in the cafeteria two menu items that used that harvest was the school garden soup day so there are a couple other areas that I think were important to know from last year so workforce development we had about 50% of our staff turnover which isn't totally unusual but I think the staff we did hire have to continue to make really strong contributions to the workforce so we went from about 5% staff of color to 35% and for our cook positions which was like the middle position went from 20% to 60% we had more professional development built in as part of the contract that we negotiated and we tried to make the PD accessible to everyone we had a few staff that was be expanded primarily so we had presentations accessible kind of in real time and the ongoing professional development that Chef Sam provided he was in schools 10 months a year he would give a school each month and he would provide culinary training while he was doing the meals to each of the staff in the building we got an employment grant last year so project grad was an in kind grant that was valued about $26,000 and Sasha talked a little bit more about later is the USDA farm to school planning grant Sasha had to go to Detroit last year obviously to Detroit to basically meet with all the other people that got the grant and talk about what that's going to look like this year our collection policy which Eric mentioned earlier we think it's going pretty well in terms of definitely going on in terms of communication with our overdue balances sort of at times when we check it so basically when we go into the check you can't go back to the previous date so you can only get it by time that day so we've got to do their job sort of having regular check-ins that have equal intervals but these are the different intervals that we've checked over the past several years so you can see it kind of bottom out around January of 2018 and we've seen it start to come back so it's making progress to go back up the big drop happened when we were sort of absent in the collection policy at all that's that time period we see a drop from mid 30s to like 50 that was when we had a policy that sort of dropped but then it sort of paused for a while and there was sort of there's nothing to go with it but we're seeing positive progress with that as well expanded summer program so and the light blue is the breakfast and the yellow is snack so you can see our lunches have grown significantly from the first year we did in 2015 to last year and last year we also implemented snacks so that's why that's there for the first time and our breakfast have gone away up so we had a bunch of new sites Fort River was new this year we did all the LSE sports camps Jones Library was new and we expanded by school meals so that was really good to the financials that's been brought so this slides the first slide the first comparison there is meal sales so the blue bars aren't meal sales last year and the red bars aren't meal sales this year so we want the red bar to be higher and it is but when we brought in from sales went up the next one is our labor costs from a point of 17 type 18 we went down but down on which is great one after that is food costs those went up and so we had a we had a study done by Masborough which is a school business official they brought in a couple food service directors and they said really the target that you want is 50-50 in terms of your labor and your food costs and so we're making progress to get to that place when we went up by 17 we were about 30% food and 70% labor after last year we're about 60% labor and 40% food so we're getting closer to that 50-50 mark of spending equally on your food where did they come up with such a guideline 50-50 if you're spending much more on labor than you're on your food your food quality is really low or you're spending a lot on your labor so they they want to see sort of an even balance of what you're spending on your food versus the staff that are preparing that food I could really report that's what they recommend I mean the gold is quality of the service what if it just costs a lot of money for food yeah quality of service but also quality of the food management fee which went from $60,000 to zero which is one of the financial benefits of bringing the program back in so these are sort of numbers so in general just the bottom line we went from having a $224,000 deficit an FY17 down to $150,000 deficit an FY18 and what we've got a lot of us to do too is put away a little extra money in the food service revolving fund to help replace some of the equipment that's good and really for capital needs there's some capital needs for equipment with a lot of good place so Rhys is excited for next year there's the employment grant some classroom I don't spend too much time because Sasha's going to talk about this but we're really excited to have Sasha here she brings a lot of experience from the business she's worked in before the first day she was spotting things like literally the first day of her job in schools and she was like that fridge doesn't look like that she went in to work so we're really excited Sasha how are you? how are you? thanks for being here alright thanks for having me I'm excited to be here the USDA planning grant we are in that was like excited to be in Detroit I had a little of the water and came out sick I'm just saying yeah but we are in the beginning stage of getting together committee to implement that planning grant we have three objectives that we're working with we have food service portion where we concentrate on the menu and purchasing local introducing diversity into our menus we also have the curriculum development making sure educational portion of the grant where our curriculum development specialist would be integral in getting farm to school into classrooms and getting kids excited about where their food is coming from and how it is grown we also have the farm portion where we we lay on with farmers and our local supporters our local community to make sure that using and utilizing the resources that we have in the community I was excited to come into a community where there are so many farms I started in the summer and we had that farm to school showcase and a number of farmers turned up and was excited to be a part of our initiative so we are in the stages of gathering that team we would like to have as many people as we can on that team is dedicated to the cause getting fresh local produce in schools one thing that I heard when I just came in was what are you doing about having healthy fresh clean food in our unprocessed food and being in this era where there is so much resources we should strive to have most of those local produce to our school breakfast in the classroom I am a champion of breakfast in the classroom I have implemented it in other districts and I see the benefits of breakfast in the classroom one thing I was excited to hear sitting in other committees is starting school the school time starting school a little earlier and that would be to serve breakfast after the instructional period right now it's before and kids are not sure that they're there they would not and we shouldn't be asking our kids to give up breakfast or recess so having it a model that is after the instructional day starts would be good we could do breakfast in the classroom option and that's what we are hoping to pilot in some of our schools in the region we see opportunities in the middle school to pilot that grab and go option their students can grab that breakfast walk to their class and say to them have it so hopefully we can start that as we are working with Project Brand they've done a lot of research in this it's just getting into or selling into those principals and get parents to buy them to know that there's a fresh healthy breakfast that they can send their kids to have it in their meals beyond the we I'm excited to also work with the Summit Academy and we are planning to open what is called a Summit Cafe before they were getting their meals their high school kids who were getting their meals from the the elementary menu so they weren't given the opportunity to participate in the variety that the other high school kids do so right now we're hoping to open that cafe in their newly created space during maybe the last week of October the students can participate they'll be the ones to create the logo and name their cafe they'll have choices they'll have a number of specials per day on Mondays they may have Taco Night on Tuesday make your own salad day so that's an opportunity for the Summit Academy and this is I this is based on the students feedback I went there and I saw to to be involved in what they are and how they want to so that's what we're excited about we've made a lot of progress so happy to answer questions yeah I'd love to open it up to the committee as well as our student member if they have any interest as a direct customer I'm not trying to put pressure on you I think the committee either now or in the future we're welcoming what percentage of high school kids eat on campus or bring their own lunch what's the question eat on campus or bring them how many do less than half or more than half high schools buy their lunch less than half yeah about the high school level it's like 42% of students buy their lunch to the lunch program and I mentioned that earlier meeting $3 sounds like you'd get a garbage plate for lunch I mean $3 have you been to a restaurant lately why why the $3 why not $5 so some of it's keeping it affordable for families you know since it is a public school setting I think the more you go the more it becomes inaccessible or you might might not be able to afford it so again our prices are comparable to all our surrounding neighbors they're all in the $3 range maybe that's why some students feel the meal is I'm sorry it just seems whatever that's okay do you have another question well I no just you okay okay okay we'll have a B discussion later yeah I just wanted to say I don't know who put this presentation together but you did an amazing job I love the presentation I thought it was very clear you shared a lot of the most important salient information I think that we've been looking for over the past year to understand the success of this program or you know where the weaknesses were or anything like that I also you know so I have to say that it's great to see the increase in the take up of lunches and I think you know hearing even from community members the excitement about finding good food that their kids can actually purchase is huge especially for this community I think that values you know quality organic food you know they really they want to see the difference in their kids and see that excitement there it's also great to see the grants that have come through I think we've talked a lot on this committee and other you know settings about the importance of trying to get additional grants for you know for this service because we've recognized how expensive it is and so it's wonderful to see that one comment that I just wanted to make I think we've done again you know it's I do have to say that I think that we still have a long way to go in terms of promoting the school program that you know the in-school program I think that you know there's things that we've seen done previously like the smoothie bike that have been really exciting and fun and you know people get really you know into it I think Chef Sam is a great program kids are really into that as well but I think there's still a lot more you know having some of the numerous street fairs that we have here in Amherst and surrounding towns both during the summer and fall and spring even in the winter the farmers market that's you know that takes place here just being a presence on a regular basis is incredibly important for people to be reminded of this service and the fact that we've made a change because not everyone may be aware of that so learning about that will be really important but then also just to help parents and caregivers a more valuable option because you know at the end of the day even three dollars a day if you have multiple kids ends up adding up and so you know there has to be that shift in thinking that this is really important and therefore we're going to make that sacrifice and that's indeed actually what it is I think for a lot of families even families who don't qualify for your reduced lunch that they still it's a sacrifice you know you're making a decision to probably not pay for one thing if you're paying for this family you know we often have those conversations with our kids we negotiate with them like we'll do school lunch for you today and you know we'll take care of something else and I think that the more that we can inspire families and caregivers to understand why this is good and why this is important worth doing the more they would want to do it and also because not just because we want to get more money for the program but the students in this district are actually benefiting from that they're getting good healthy meals you know prepare for them by people who know what they're doing in-house and that was a whole point of this program to begin with to make sure that they're getting nutritional needs met so that even if they're not outside of the home they're getting one or two good meals a day so all of that said and hopefully we'll continue to see those numbers increase okay it's exactly right and one of the things that we're looking at for next summer and Project Red has expressed a strong interest in helping us do it is to have a group that tastes of Amherst I think it's over the summer that's what gets up and they said that they would be more than happy to help our staff too go there and choose some menu items and see you know move to this I certainly said this might cost us a little more this first year right there's a lot of learning curve there's a lot to do there's a lot of things we haven't done in over a decade and to see the numbers come out that not only did we get the student participation up and we got healthy meals to kids which were our main goals we actually did it for less money which I think is absolutely amazing and beat my expectations of where we would be on this program just a huge shout out to everybody who was involved in that and I saw you know on my Facebook feed this summer lots of people taking pictures of the signs that said free lunch you know under 18 come get free lunch and people really reacting to that so you know to your point about promoting it that's something when you see you know a lot of people recognizing the school communities it just was like that's I'm so glad we did that Spitzer that's the sound of demo well I'm also really excited about this change at the school thank you for coming on this great presentation I have a couple of questions and I'm concerned about elementary schools in the in the region because the presentation yeah the presentation had a lot of stuff about the elementary school so I'll try to I'll try to be precise if I'm asking something that goes outside of the region let me know so I'm excited about the diversity of options I guess I'm curious if there's a plan to try to increase some of the vegetarian options as a vegetarian family that's the one thing that often keeps me from so I might get into fatigue there aren't as many options and then I had a question about this sustainability position and I'm wondering how that interests for things about the waste that's produced when we eat our lunches in terms of I don't know if we're using plastic utensils or if we're using tray I'm just wondering if there's any movement on trying to reduce any of that waste it sounds like this sustainability talk has gone so far about growing our own food and not so much about what we produce in consuming it so I had a question about that and then I just think it's great that we're trying to the meals and trying to get more kids to eat because I mean it's a way we build community I mean I think coming around a table and sharing a meal is one really excellent way of getting to know people so the more we can do that in our schools I think that's really great and then I just have one follow up question when we saw the big spike in the number of meals provided over the summer how much of that is we're meeting the demand that was there and how much is the demand that we think of I mean to me that's really good news that we're feeding more people but it also causes me concern does this mean that we're you know we weren't meeting the demand I mean I guess I just I'm curious is it supply or is it demand or is it a little bit of both and is there any way I'd be concerned that hunger is going up in our community and we should maybe be trying to do more to address it I think it's I mean we're going over so I think it's mostly meeting the demand programs that existed before that weren't being provided to free lunches we now provide free lunches to those programs so I'm not sure what they did before that to get lunch if they was bring your own lunch or if those individual programs did something but most of that expansion those those search for other programs and our kids and these were the one we tried to hit all the big ones I mean some of the small ones and then terms of the waste part I think it's mostly some schools groups of kids get really excited doing certain things we do compost at some of the schools but I don't think there's like a concerted effort but it's something to look into as we go forward I can add one then Sean so right now so I I love that Sean called me the sustainability coordinator and he said it three times so I'm going to maybe adopt just one of my titles I'm the one that comes into the district that's sustainability related Mike's like Jen loves that and so I end up talking to a lot of folks about it and we are working right now with a student and a faculty member at UMass in the MS3 program the masters of science in sustainability science to do basically like a case study report and seeing like what does it look like when districts attempt to go zero waste you know what's the timeline what are the challenges what are the different stages along the way and so that is the proposals written and that case study research is being done right now so we're actively pursuing and actively interested in ways that the district can green its practices and kind of come more into alignment with a greener philosophy can we flag that as something that when it's ready to be brought back you guys bring it back to the committee and present and talk to that yeah that'd be awesome we are for most of the entrees that we do we're always trying to find a vegetarian option and once we are able to do that we label those on our menu as much as possible we try to include a vegetarian option in all of our menus daily so that the region level that seems it's more common at the so I'm glad to see that at the region level it's great Mr. Cassinson yes I just had a couple of quick questions I mean sorry I had a quick response partly to some of Mr. Menino's comments what I think important thing to remember is that we're not trying to we're not making a profit on this so we can provide a really good meal I think affordably when we have strong and creative leadership working with a lot of invested stakeholders in the community we can do a lot to provide quality and affordable food so I mean from what I've heard I know personally my kids are really excited a lot more excited about the school lunches this year they've been more happy so I think there's a lot to be really positive about and I was going to ask if there's time the school committee members can come and try that we have we have school lunch week that's coming up in October that would be a good time to have the committee members come in and sit and eat and once we we roll out the breakfast in the classroom we would also like some stakeholders to come and participate in that breakfast in the classroom it's always good to show that you are eating or parents and other stakeholders and they want to take care of you too I'm going to we sometimes do breakfast for dinner as a treat so I say breakfast at the committee meeting what we should be doing the point I want to bring up was Kacenski actually brought up both of them I think he buried the lead in this presentation a smaller deficit and increased participation it's not all about the numbers I know that I know that but there was a lot of thought and I think anyway we're going to take a hit and if that happens that's okay because it's an investment so it just again speaks to the leadership and all the hard work I'm sure of all the staff so it's it's great in terms of like communicating this to the community man the free summer lunches that was the easiest thing to share in social media as soon as I like share like this this people get so excited about it what the opportunity is and they're like are you serious you could just show up and you don't have to show ID or prove anything just get a free lunch and people feel so good about sharing that and so when I think about you know what are the things that people feel like such a sense of pride in because the town does invest a lot in the schools so we want to show them that it's reflective of our community values that's like we've got to be right near the top you know similar thing for the locally sourced farm school people are really excited about that obviously there's anything the committee can do to support possibly getting that six-figure grant please come and talk to us about that and the breakfast in the classroom is another amazing thing that if I just mention the possibility that we're piloting it sparks three or four different conversations there's just the initial vote to move the food services and house but I'm so glad that we did and it's so great that we have such creative engaged leadership in this kind of position it's kind of an uncommon thing from districts I've spoken to to have it be such an elevated important role and it's so great in our community so thank you for all the work so oh I'm going to speak after you get a chance to speak alright one of the main concerns I had was with the breakfast in the classroom program actually looking at you are trying to roll it out in the middle and high school as well yes the middle and high school yes but so with that there are just like a few obstacles I noticed one of which is that in certain classrooms and subjects food isn't allowed in the classroom for you know sanitary reasons or what have you and so giving that option but not having it be an option to all because maybe their first class is like a science or an art class another thing is just that the food in the classroom in general is a thing that is up to the teacher's discretion and so having this service while it looks like a great idea and I'm in full support of it I worry about that like relationship of the teachers once the students get into the classroom with food so the for the middle and high school the breakfast model that would best work and that's something that we have to look into is breakfast after the instructional period doesn't necessarily mean breakfast in the classroom we have the grab and go and other models that we can do but for for when we do if we do have breakfast in the classroom there are always we have to work with facilities to make sure that it's sanitary we have to make sure that we start the schools off properly so it's always something that we have to meet with all the stakeholders and teachers facilities and students and make sure that we are all working together because we can see the benefits of having breakfast in the classroom one thing that I notice and it's prominent is and teachers visit any schools with those kinds of models is that when students come in and there's food available or breakfast available it comes then it gets the instructional day started right it also limits the number of time kids will leave the classroom and need to go visit the nurse or so on so that's something that once we show them the research so the teachers the research and put all the things in place through facilities the staff food service staff and have a plan of how we do that I think everyone will buy into it after they see the benefits of it so anything anything I'd go back to something that's been said a couple of times I think it's wonderful first off by this is all wonderful I should just think I hate the whole business of repeating what everyone else but this is an awesome presentation it's been really tremendous over the past year it's obviously years getting off to a great start this is everything we were looking for and the key thing is to keep at it and so I think one thing that the committee is really excited about doing is in our role if there's anything we can be doing to help support the program so I think as we've said there's a strong interest in breakfast after the bell or whatever in the classroom anything I think we could do to be supportive including are they going to margin a little budgetarily if that's needed I don't know if it is needed that's the kind of thing we want to I think know and have it come forward I think if there's I mean it's certainly true for the grant we should be supportive but I also think finding creative ways to increase the visibility of the program of the foods of local farmers and producers who are engaging if we're able to do innovative things around composting and waste reduction I think that whole picture holistically including also you talk about the diversity of the staff professional development of the staff you know we tend to talk I mean I don't mean it's in a funny way but I mean we tend to talk sometimes about staff as there's sort of like objects of discussion as opposed to people who are in fact leaders in their work and I think it's a wonderful thing to do to get a chance to do that as well especially because I think the work which I've heard positive things about only really succeeds if then the recipes are adopted, incorporated and involved in the daily menu right and so I think finding a way for us to be engaged in celebrating that work and giving greater visibility to it would be a really neat thing there's a lot of things that probably would involve us but I'm just saying if there's anything we can do to be helpful in that I think we would encourage it and one of the things we're looking at in the coming years where we can first off what you continue to hear from students that's something incredibly important and just knowing that there's a continual feedback mechanism appearing from students about what they like what they don't like and what can be improved same thing from staff but also looking at the diversity of menu items and so the richness in terms of vegetarian local but also just different cultures being touched on in terms of their food it may sound dumb but when I saw tofu stir fry on there I was like personally kind of excited to see tofu on and it's more cultural than it is vegetarian for me but it was neat and it's like see look at me you're like chicken biryani and you know teriyaki stir fry with tofu and you know tacos al pastor I mean Jamaican jerk coming up Jamaican jerk coming up I mean but I think that's actually the kind of stuff that's just it's incredibly exciting I'm hoping that as students are I hope students like that a lot of stuff and we are working with Chef Sam just to also do training for the cooks to make sure that these menus are these items are these recipes are included in the menu and it's done the right way because it doesn't make sense we have this fancy recipe that's getting the simple methods across and have it done properly I mean this is something I already know we've heard tonight but I think I came on the committee when the working group that Mr. Mangana was working on was was coming into a landing on some of its work and starting to present its initial results this has to be one of the topics of greatest enthusiasm greatest care and greatest concern that I could even think of and it's one that has also the capability of unlike most of the other things we talk about we care deeply about of instead of being like joyless and sort of semi-negative to actually being utterly joyful and what we're really doing and what the end result is for kids and for the staff and for our community and so it's just you know we want you I mean we wanted this presentation in like March and we wanted excitedly we wanted it in July and we waited until September and we were excited I mean I just I'm saying this personally because I don't mean it's as affirmative and as affirming a way as I can like we're all like every day we're right behind you and we know so many members of the community are too just bring it in I want to make clear my original comment is only to support you you're doing a remarkable within the existing constraints but why does it have to be a self-sustaining program why do we want to eliminate the deficit we don't take low enrollment classes and say they don't pay their way and don't offer low enrollment classes why does lunch have to support itself you can keep $3 but increase the general funding just a suggestion you know it's over I just want to thank Mr. Mengana Mr. Hart and I'm sorry I don't remember your last name Palmer for the hard work you've done especially on the the summer programs where you've increased it to 10 sites and I just want to say I think we missed an opportunity this summer to get the word out because when I saw the article about the baby burp truck serving teenagers which was excellent and it was moving around I was yelling at the article you know I haven't been part of the visioning group I was yelling I was like what about the schools I know it's like we were serving 10 10 different locations and I think we missed that but we did work somewhat in partnership with the Mass there was communication between the Mass and the schools but we ran an article an article with them we should have next year so how do you thank you how do you like the food oh it's super and I believe that as the program can use to roll out that as more middle schoolers are introduced to that food and finally do get to the high school they'll continue to eat the school food instead of bringing their lunches that's fascinating over the summer when I was talking to Mr. Mangana and Mr. Harb they were hypothesizing around these trends and they said by the time you get to high school I remember you guys said this by the time you get you're already in your junior senior year you're sort of locked into a pattern of how you're eating and I remember you both said you were hoping what you said so hope you're all three right is there anything further I mean so we want to let you go and then move on with our agenda we will do that thank you so much for coming here and as we said on to more cheerful topics the FY18 fourth quarter budget update that's I'm teasing you slowly Sean but misleadingly in every category I said oh my goodness so under budget and projection isn't this amazing until you get to the end and it's like oh yeah that's right and then there's this $148,000 overrun in healthcare and benefits yeah yeah that's right everything adds up to zero I gave away the head I'm sorry Sean so the budget actually ended pretty well considering what we dealt with last year despite the large increase in health insurance really saved us as the out of issue tuition and the students fewer students going out and some students coming back really saved the region last year given the hour I probably won't spend I won't read it my study wants me to I'm going to focus mainly on the pictures from the charts and the graphs because I think they're informative that's what my mind can handle it yeah so I will read the headlines they came to Amherst Congress just published a budget under 2.16% under budget due to savings and payroll tuition so that's sort of the main takeaway we're on the second page so one area that we just we need to keep some closer tabs I think moving forward is our substitute costs I see those have generally been growing over the past few years it's also one of those things that has sort of impacted by when the wage increases going on because we try to keep our self-perience at least so during the budget season it's something we may see an adjustment being made to reflect our actual costs but it's not really discretionary and it's as needed for the subs on the next page you'll also see negative trends are contracted special transportation costs so those have grown from about 50,000 in 2012 to about 270,000 in 2018 you may remember signing a voting a three-year contract with VanPool which is designed to help kids those costs down a little bit and they will but we are having on-kits by the district that require transportation and some of them are going far away so the transportation costs are pretty significant so that's another trend that we're going to keep track of as we go forward one of the unfortunate things is we don't get circuit breaker reimbursement for special transportation which is a huge cost for it regional transportation reimbursement circuit breaker reimbursement for those costs the good news is the chart like below it so it's sort of broken into three phases here so the first one is vocational tuition on the district so the first bar is what we have for at West 17 actual students going out of the district and the next is what we budgeted for at West 18 based on that actual and then the third is what we actually had in that fight so you can see our from what we have at West 17 that we budgeted for at West 18 same thing for Charter you can see our actual Charter that went down from at West 17 actual and it reversed a trend of many years going out like 10 to 12 kids at a time and our at West 17 choice at the district went down as well so across the board all sort of the non-special on the tuition programs we saw students up on the lunch participation presentation on lunch participation and then the last thing so our revenues our revenues came in a little bit under budget meaning we thought we would get more revenue the main reason that they came under that was due to the Charter tuition coming in under so our Charter tuition revenue based on our out of the out of the out of the out of the out of the out of the out of the out of our где out of the out of the out of the kind of kind of out of the out of the student and out of the and we have So that's sort of the highlights of the FY18 Q4 budget update. Happy to answer any questions or revisit any topics that you skipped over. Ms. Creml? First of all, excellent job of setting all your y-axis to zero. Thank you. I still remember that from Tommy. Thank you. Right. So one short question, and then we'll make one more general one. Maybe I'll just start reading it right, and I probably should give the number of presentations you've done on this. So the 569th left over at the end. How does that relate to the first number of 940, 950, essentially? I'm basically trying to understand how they all connect. Well, big picture like, oh, what did we save? And then of what we saved, where is it going? So if you go to the first page of 949, we don't really, so that's after you take up 280. If you look right above that number, you see the 280. So that 280 is a contingency, basically the school committee votes every year. We never touch it, so it comes out of BND. We have it in the budget just in case there's an emergency, and then we don't use it, and it goes back into BND. So ignore that number and look at the one right above it, which is the 669. That's really what we came in under budget from operations for the year. And so we came in under budget by 669, but our revenues were short by 100,000. So the sum of those two numbers is the 569, and what goes back into BND. Do we ever use that emergency? How often does that occur? We haven't used this since I've been here, and the main reason we don't use this is because if you use it, then it's basically taken directly from BND because we're not putting it back in at the end of the year. But we have it used, so we almost used it when we had the gym issue, the flood, but we were able to figure it out during the year without tapping into that. But basically it's just 280 coming straight out of BND that if we didn't have it there and there was an emergency, we'd have to revisit the whole budget, essentially, and have it revoked. Can you follow something on that? Since you said we voted to take 500,000 out of BND with this fiscal year to use, and we ended up putting in 569 in BND, which means there's a net plus of 69. What that essentially means is the savings that were sort of enforced last year because we knew we were in bad times and we have managed to catch us up to the point that some of the more challenging things we had to do for this year, like taking half a million out of BND, we're essentially able to net out and make ourselves whole for that decision. At least for FY18. Well, I mean forever. Yeah, I mean, the main reason we were able to come out to do it for FY18 is because we did restrict the budget about halfway through the year because we didn't know where the health insurance premiums were coming from. So the tuition, so the restricted budget, we have some staff turnover savings, I don't know if part of this is in a good place. We wanted to come in, but at least what we were using for FY19. So do you think the answer to what you're saying is yes? Well, the reason I'm saying that just is because a reasonable person could sit back and say, last year we ended up having to make a lot of emergency decisions to cut back spending that was unpalatable and undesirable. We also had to make cuts for this coming fiscal year. You send then see a half million dollars sitting around and a reasonable person could say, wouldn't it be great to have spent it? And you could make that case perfectly fine to make that case. But an alternative case to be made would be that since we don't know what could possibly pop up this year that would put our budget at risk, we would at least put ourselves on a better or more even keel. Yeah, absolutely. And again, for immediate future challenges. Yeah, absolutely. And if we did spend it and we still took the $500,000 off the EPLINICAN budget then our E&D fund just goes down about $500,000 and that's essentially half of our E&D fund. And so, what we pull out of E&D every year is not necessarily recurring revenue, right? It's basically, if we had my left over there before, it's what we're applying to the next year's budget. So that's why we're always careful about whatever we vote for EPLINICAN the following year if we want to put back at the end of this year because if not, we're basically just spending our reserves. If you're able to. Yeah. If we had been there, then we wouldn't have been able to. I mean, we knew when we were taking the vote this past spring that if there was a lousy enough budget to have to vote that if we were having to cut the margins of E&D a little bit, we were just doing that. I mean, I'm not saying it wouldn't have been anything back, but instead of being 569, it could have been 360. Yeah, to some extent. But also, when we present the budget, we have to make an assumption over what E&D number we use to meet the budget and essentially that could lead to more cuts or less cuts. So when we set that number, we look at what we think we're going to end up with at the end of the year. So the 500,000 sort of the ballpark that we thought we might end up with that. Although there was a lot of uncertainty last year with the health insurance. We talked about it. I mean, I started to believe in this. I apologize. There's no microphone. I'm grabbing the microphone. But I mean, we literally talked about this at the end of the budget type. Like, well, what's the level of uncertainty and the numbers coming in worse than they were? And what you're reporting is that they came in fine relative to those expectations. Yeah, because of the tuition. Yeah, started the labor, for instance. We all went through hell. Basically, last year with the budget, it's not an important topic. Anyone else? So any early signs that health insurance is going to be lower than ever again? So we're in the Maya trust now. So the good news is that we know our rates for this year. They're not going to change. Unless there's something that happens that's never happened in Maya's history, which is the rates changing during their year. So for this year, we're set. For the next year, we know our increase is going to be no worse than the average increase in Maya. So when they do the increases, they get a low, a medium, and a high, basically, and they band communities together based on their experience. And so we're going to be no worse than the average. It's going to be the promises they made to the group when we sign up with Maya. So past history, that's like around 4% or 5%, potentially, which is much better than what we had prior year. So we're really going to know about health insurance this year's enrollment. And we'll get firm numbers on that next month, October's when all the new employees go on and the recovery's go off. So I'll have them update for the first quarter budget. But we have seen, which is sort of good and bad, we've seen a pretty large increase in opt-outs, which, you know, it's unfortunate that people are choosing to go to other insurance because either better or the cost was too high here. But financially, for the district, every time there's an opt-out, we save about, depending upon our single plan, somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 to as much as 13,000 per opt-out. So we've seen the opt-out numbers go up. Thank you. Anything else? Yes, so because we put a freeze on expenses last year to try to mitigate some of our issues, what was the impact of that and our budget this year is even tighter? So if we put off buying things that we really needed, it's not really in the budget this year. How is that kind of lining up for things that our school is needing? There's a lot of early spending, I think, as a result of that. I think as soon as the budget turned over, they were like, let's get our businesses in and pull up something happen. So I mean, the major impact is that we're going to see a lot more earlier spending this year as a result to make up the last six months where things were restricted. There wasn't no spending. Critical things were purchased, but a lot of the nice-to-haves are things that can be put off or put off. I just had a follow-up question on this. You mentioned the subsidy cost for one area concerned. So I'm sure part of it is the total wages going up and other pieces, improved leaves of absences. So I guess I'm just curious, is that anything that we have control over or the district has control over, or is that something that... I guess just if we were to address this, what would be your recommendations or what should we know about the people and factors behind these? Yeah, and most of these costs... We sort of have two sub-buckets. This sub-bucket is sick, personal, time, primarily. So in terms of approved, it's really things that are not up for approval. Essentially, there's a lot of spikes here now because there's a lot of long-term leaves that year due to medical reasons, and the sub-costs are higher that year. We have a separate bucket, which is a much smaller bucket for professional development leaves, subs for those professional development leaves. That we have more control over with the budget piece of how much we want to set that out. This bucket, which would be seen as a trend, is more sickness in general or more long-term leaves due to medical things during the year. Except budget, right? More wellness programs than some of the medical ones. Eat the healthy school lunch. Eat the healthiest school lunch. I was just on that comment because I think it is kind of interesting. Wellness programs, and I think there was definitely research coming back about the investment that is made by employers around the country in all sorts of different sectors to help employees feel better and just get over illness more quickly, take better care of themselves, all those kinds of things, which of course benefits their morale and benefits their health, which is a plus for everyone, including students, and then also has the added benefit of our bottom line. So maybe something to think about and just explore in the year coming up because I do remember during the negotiations, I was talking a little bit about some of the substitutes cost-related to this. And to me this doesn't feel long. I think it's not like you're seeing this gigantic spike, but we're definitely seeing a trend that seems to be moving up. So maybe there's something there that we can address to help our employees feel better and cut some of these costs. In my presentations I've been at, mine has a pretty good wellness program. I'm getting a survey right now that I fill out twice a month. I can talk about a gift card, a healthy survey, like you know, like you would miss out on your health or something. So they have a lot of little things like that and discounts for the healthy buying. So they have a pretty good wellness program. So I think they know that for them, it saves them money too. I remember when I was 19 seconds and I was in health insurance, it saves them a lot of money. So I think that's something we'll look into more and how to communicate the wellness program for employees. Just to follow up on that, I think in California, where I lived for a while, Kaiser Permanente has this enormous program with all of their staff, but also their members. The focus really is on reducing costs and improving people's overall health. So there's a lot of really great models, whether it's Maya or others, that we could potentially be using to help us do that. Thank you. And I think we've lost our computer AV capabilities. I don't know if you don't need it, right? I don't need it for this one. Okay, that's all right. All right. Thank you very much. Charter Ex-School Expansion on Quest Discussion. It seems perennial, like whack-a-mole, but we're at it again, so it means we've got to get active again. It's relevant. Yes, so the broken record item that never ends. So as you all know, once again, the Charter School in Hadley is proposing to expand and the same process as last year, if you weren't here. Last year for it, basically the commissioner accepts input up to a certain date. The published date is going to be the deadline and note earlier than November 1st. The superintendent mentioned a couple of days ago that he expects that date to hold. So it should be November 1st, where the committee can send letters, the public can send emails to CharterSchools at doe.mass.edu, which is available on places. Commissioner makes a decision. If it's approved, it goes to the board for a final vote. If it's approved, then we would want to ask the board to overturn that ruling, which has happened in the past. And if the commissioner does not approve, the school is very likely to appeal, which it has done the last couple of years. And then we go to the board and make the case again. So I think our standard path is pretty straightforward in terms of we should write the same letter last year, which I think should be fairly similar to last year. It's essentially updating the data, because the arguments haven't really changed, because the proposal hasn't really changed. Except to say that, and we all got this very long document of the proposal to say that the way that it's characterized this year is particularly, I don't know what the word is for us. I'll just read a couple of sentences off the first page here. It says, the PVCICS Board of Trustees wishes to make this change, to satisfy unmet demand for kindergarten seats, expand opportunity and choice for urban, suburban, and rural students to attend desegregated, integrated public schools, and increase the integration of staffing and public education. PVCICS has proven to be an engine of integration in Hampshire County. So, you know, when I read that, I was like, oh, well, I should go and look at the updated data, because they're doing this constant accusation against our board and other boards that we are producing an opposition mythology that we are somehow misconstruing what the data is. So, the Department of Ed has their own enrollment numbers for all sorts of different groups, and it looks at all the high-need, achievement gap subgroups, low-income, Hispanic, et cetera. And so, when you look at all of these groups and you compare the school's enrollment to the region of towns that it serves, they are woefully under-enrolled in nearly every one of these categories. You know, just one example, their surface region is 35% Hispanic, they're 5.5%. The surface region is 20% special ed. They're at 5.9%. In fact, if you look at all 197 individual schools in the 31 towns, they're 196th in percent of special ed students. It just, it's, you can't state the point for the same thing with low-income, high-needs, ELL. So, why do I bring that up? I bring that up because to sort of relate it to one of our earlier agenda items that the MCA president was bringing up, you know, this is an attack on public schools. It's completely erroneous, juxtaposed with the data that the Department of Ed provides, and it's something that's worth, I think, pushing strongly against back. And in this year in which a lot of different towns are going to be coming together to advocate for state funding of education, certainly the charter drain is a big part of that. And so, I've already heard from other towns and we've seen some things in the media of people pretty angry at not just the repeated request, but the nature of the accusation. And so, yes, we should do our letter, but I think we should sort of keep our eyes out this month because it's going to be a fairly contracted time period and it's 11-1 is the deadline for opportunities to stand together with other schools and the MTA and other groups that are advocating on this issue. So, I think our next step is probably to draft a letter and our October meeting review it. Vote on it. Yeah, vote on it. That'll be our only opportunity. So we have to review and vote, so we'll have to get the draft in advance of it. I think the other thing is, because this is a regional committee meeting, the representatives here of all the individual elementary committees or town committees, and I think what we'd love to see is for you to go back to your regular town committee. And if you weren't, or maybe you were to be doing this and if you are, then this meeting with people will be saying, that's awesome, they're so happy to know that. And if you haven't gotten around to it yet, knowing this November 1st deadline and it's thinking of your calendar to try to take a look at providing a letter of your own on the subject would be really, really critical, because the classic mistake here could be, it turns out your committee meeting just happens to meet at a time that makes it inconvenient to draft and approve a letter. And so now's the time to look. And then I think beyond that, one of the things that we'd love to see is if we can reach out to our local school committees and finance committees as well to possibly also provide some formal support from each of our towns. I think beyond that, by the way, I apologize, we talked about this on Tuesday at an Amherst School Committee meeting. So if it sounds like what I'm saying sounds even more declarative, it's because we were part of a longer other discussion and I forgive the regional members for the fact that I'm doing that. But the other thing too is the extent that I think that we take accountability for our own local committees, like boards and finance committees, that's extremely helpful. And then I assume Mr. Demling and those Adonis are going to keep at outreach to other committees in the area. And if you need any help... I'm seeing four thumbs up. No, no, no. If you need any help, well, I can help, we can help. But I'm assuming you were doing that before, so I'm continuing to do that. Anyway, so that's where we're at on that. It's... And actually it's funny because we were talking about this on Tuesday and this approval will come after the gubernatorial re-election, which we're to be blunt. I think the point of the board turning over is a good one that was made most of Demling in a previous meeting. But I think the fact that this is coming after the gubernatorial election is even more pointed because I could imagine putting a lens on decision-making around public and community opinion that could be potentially different after November 6th than it is before November 6th. I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't want to take that chance at all. So, cool. Anything else on this? Yes. Just one note. I don't know if it's valuable to add to your letter, but I thought that the other noted difference when I read their application was that this time not only are they maybe asking for approval to expand, but that, well, if not, you need to give us a number of students for which you are willing to let us expand to, which I don't think is the job of that board. That would just be another... The other thing that makes crafting the tone somewhat challenging, and I remember Ms. Nakajima bringing up this point, is that part of it is kind of reminding the board of Ed what they've said in the past. Yeah. And so it's... And in one sense, it seems a little bit brow-beating to do that. On the other sense, you know, they have... Commissioner of Ed has a billion things he's paying attention to. He's like, what is it? Charter school, and so he's relying on the Charter School Office that relies on there. And so we sort of have to say, well, we've been paying attention to the history. Copy, paste, copy, paste. Here's what we've told them to do the last two years. You told them to go away for two or three years and they haven't. I mean, the funny part is toneally is just, you know, sort of just being like matter of fact. Like we've been reviewing your responses and we noted... Because we did the same thing. Anyways, whatever. Good. Okay. We have our to-do list. Accept gifts. I think we have gifts. We have gifts. We have many gifts. This is going to be a chore. Volunteers? It's a happy chore. Of course it's a happy chore. So then this... Thank you. So I move to accept the gifts to the Interstellar Regional School Committee as follows. Valley Gift Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. Check number 227-8524 to support the athletic program in the total of $2,456.31. Check from Margaret Lefter and Margo Mace. Check number 11664 in memory of Philip Mitchell-Ted Madden Scholarship in the amount of $20. Donor of Pamela Moser. Check number 2193 in memory of Philip Mitchell-Ted Madden Scholarship, $25. Donor Terry Ray of Margo Mace. Number 13557 in memory of Philip Mitchell-Ted Madden Scholarship in the amount of $100. Donor Thomas Lafler Jr. Check number 1800 in memory of Philip Mitchell-Ted Madden Scholarship in the amount of $50. Donor class of 2018. Check number 6409 to support the class of 2018 for class of 2019 scholarship in the amount of $500. Donor James Marjorie Michael Christopher Abel to support LaCrosse fees for in need students in memory of Judy Brooks in the amount of $250. Donor Drawer Shirley Schmerling and the check number is 3285 to support the Ames program in the amount of $500. Donor Patricia Bodie and Mark Moriarty in the check is 77929 in memory of Ryan at Amherst Regional High School Art & Library Split $3,000 each in a total amount of $6,000. Donor Amherst Education Foundation check number 1529 to support the Amherst Regional High School Light Board performing arts in the amount of $3,347.50 Donor Amherst Education Foundation check number 1529 to support the Amherst Regional High School Restorative Justice Team to improve relationships in the amount of $5,000. Donor Amherst Education Foundation check number 1529 to support coding robotics course for all eighth grade students in the amount of $4,000. Donor Society for Science and the Public check number 110559 to support 2018 Regeneron Science Award OMACS microscope purchase in the amount of $2,000. And Donor the William Penn Foundation check number 45141 to support girls ultimate team donation May 30th, 2018 $250 two-to-one matching gift in the total amount of $500 for a total of $24,748.81 Is there a second? Oh, second. We've moved in a second. Well, she did all the work. You know, we're speaking to a second. They were odd. Is there any discussion? I mean, this is obviously amazing. Well spoken, Mr. Donor. I meant the gifts, but she was great too. Sorry. Anything else? Seeing none. All those in favor of the motion is read. Carries unanimously. Thank you very much. That really is remarkable. Very remarkable. I don't remember a list this long last year. So this is really something else. The last item we have is school committee planning upcoming topics. And unfortunately, I don't think we have the list of upcoming topics that we just take an action to email out the list to the regional group and then we can... Yeah, why don't we do that? And then why don't you... I was kind of... I was getting... I was reading the room that people would like to get that email to them and then they would like to... If they wanted to add something. And then they would like to go home. I mean, I'm not sure I'd stop anyone if anyone... Yes, Mr. Dunlop. Just to add the charter letter and if the committee would like a recreational pot for next... Yeah, okay. Okay, great. Is there a motion to adjourn? Go ahead. Let's adjourn. Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Carries unanimously. We are adjourned. Thank you. Good you.