 This program is brought to you by cable franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you Call to order this meeting of the regional school committee at 6 30 p.m. And we'll begin with a world-call attendance and Mr. Demling Demling present Mr. Harrington Harrington present Miss Kenny any present miss Lord Lord present miss Miss Spitzer Spitzer present miss dancer Santa present mr. Sullivan Sullivan present and Donald present so the region is in order chair Demling Seeing the presence of a quorum. I'll call this meeting of Union 26 to order and we'll start with the same roll call vote miss Hall Hall present this dancer Santa present Okay, I just heard miss dancer. So I had a little video delay there. Mr. Menino Menino present miss Spitzer Spitzer present. I miss McDonald McDonald present and Demling present and we are called to order Okay And now I will make a motion for the region that we move into executive session to conduct strategy Sessions in preparation for contract negotiations with non-union personnel Superintendent Michael Morris with no intention of returning to open session. Is there a second second Move by McDonald's second vice dancer, and we'll take a roll call vote. Mr. Demling Demling. I mr. Harrington Here and can I miss Kenny? Hey, I Miss Lord Lord I Miss Seeker Seeker I miss Spitzer Spitzer I miss dancer Stanser I mr. Sullivan Sullivan I and McDonald I the region will now move into executive session chair Demling And I will move that the Union 26 school committee enter into executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for contract Negotiations with non-union personnel superintendent Michael Morris with no intention of returning to open session Is there a second? Oh Move by Demling seconded by McDonald that all Okay, sorry I'll take a roll call vote miss Hall. Paul. I miss dancer Stanser I mr. Menino I know why miss Spitzer Spitzer I miss McDonald McDonald I And Demling I vote as you name miss 6-0 and we are in executive session Seeing a presence of a quorum and calling to order the meeting of the Amherst school committee at 651 p.m And let's start with roll call attendance. Mr. Demling Mr. Harrington Harrington present miss Lord Lord present miss Spitzer Spitzer present and McDonald present And we have miss Charcus and dr. Morris with us and we will start with public comment and we have One voice message as well as a written comment. So I will start with the voice message Amy Martin. I have a student at Wildwood and a student at Amherst regional high school I'm submitting this public comment on behalf of several families and it is also in the written comment Last week in the school committee meeting We heard clearly the impact of commissioner Riley's unexpected decisions on our superintendent Educators and administrators and are concerned about the very difficult positions that they are in as a result We hope that the school committee will address the following questions this week One how is the school committee supporting the superintendent Morris and school principals in the development of a new plan? Based on Riley's guidelines Will the school district support the superintendents and principals in requesting waivers to adapt the state guidance? In order to implement the best possible models in the most effective ways for our district Including timelines that they see would best serve their students and staff To can the school committee guarantee that quality remote education will continue for the arts families that choose remote education? We hear that preliminary data indicates that about a third of families are choosing to remain remote in some grades We cannot leave a third of families without robust education for the remainder of the year Will the school committee ensure that the excellent remote learning that teachers work so hard to put in place? Will continue to be offered to those families? Three we have ongoing concerns for our fantastic Educators and staff in particular those who will not be vaccinated before the mandated school reopening deadlines And those who have medical exemptions that make it impossible for them to return to in-person school Our remote placements being honored what will happen to our beloved teachers and staff who find themselves in these Situations, thank you for all the work that you are doing Folks seeing the other written comment now on screen. I will also say that this document is Posted on our website on the agendas page This letter is Posted included on the document online, and it's a Transcript of the voice message that we just heard so I'm going to scroll quickly to get to the names The remaining comments are for the budget hearing which is later in our agenda Next on our agenda is approving minutes, and we don't have any minutes from Amherst school committee meetings to approve tonight So we will move on to the Superintendents update I'll turn over to you dr. Morris. Thank you a couple quick ones tonight first Fort River principal search updates. So Applications were due we have a really good number of applications and a high quality of them So thanks to HR team for all the outreach that they do. It's also a diverse pool of candidates Coming in so next week the screening the group that's been gathered Volunteered to screen the applications were received will Do their work and then shortly after the interview committee will do their work and think about a month from now We should be at the place where we're You know getting towards the finalist stage where the community gets to meet a couple folks again virtually and This is get made and get someone in place for July 1st But things are humming along and got the applications in and now teams are going to take a look at those applications And make some decisions about who to interview a semi-finalist. So Thanks everyone working on that. I want to thank the town manager of Amherst the mayor of North Hampton and the boards of health of both communities as the committee knows the Hampshire County vaccine group, which is Predominantly in North Hampton, I think two-thirds of three-quarters of the vaccines go to North Hampton group and then the rest to Amherst They're dedicating the most they can allow for it to educate to vaccinate educators in Hampshire County With dates coming up starting next week and then a following couple weeks after that So, you know huge appreciation for the efforts to make sure that educators in Hampshire County have more access I also have to say that I want to thank the informal networks of educators who have mastered the CVS system And really worked collaboratively. It's been incredibly impressive work collaboratively to With colleagues for you know, people wake up really early, you know, getting the information getting as many people appointments and vice versa for people The night owls, they've really organized wonderfully. And again, this isn't something that that I'm taking any credit I wasn't a part of this at all. It's really about the educators and staff members have been working on that I've tried to share accurate information with our staff about where they can access shots Vaccines, you know the mass clinic for instance when you can sign up There's a Franklin County group that was this week with when people can sign up But you know, it's really been these informal networks of colleagues who have been critical to getting as many people vaccinated as we've seen so far So, you know, thank you all the staff members who a lot of early morning hours a lot of late hours a lot of middle-night check-ins on the phone to try to help with that but You know, that's it's really a testament to our staff of not just looking out for each other but looking out for themselves but looking out for each other and trying to do the best we can and this sort of Unusual situation of Trying to find vaccines and Commonwealth Massachusetts I also want to, you know, give a shout out that, you know, the CVS piece was only because the president said that You know, and I think with the urging of his family and his team of advisors that educators should be accessible have access across the country And then CVS opened up before the rest of Massachusetts did for educators So, you know, it's made a huge difference for us that federal pharmacy program in terms of how many of our staff have access to vaccines And continues to grow frankly quicker than the state level, you know more more Pharmacies are opening up and there's more seats. So, you know, really appreciate all that's Contributed to an imperfect situation Being a little bit better Tomorrow as most folks know as a curriculum day and we're starting with a keynote speaker Who's Kimmy Carlos is the CEO and founder of Kimmy Carlos motivational consulting She's the co-founder of the sister wellness retreats healing spaces for black women and the founder of the urban mental health Alliance Advocating for healthy minds and urban communities. So she's going to be our keynote. I've not met her yet I'm looking forward to that tomorrow morning before the keynote But that'll be our keynote and then we'll have breakout groups of sort of job-alike folks So great level bands to be able to talk about the equity work in the afternoon The primary focus of the elementary level would be on returning the return to in person So, you know, we'll talk about that a little bit later But it's a full day, but the morning is focused on our equity diversity and inclusion work in the afternoon on the Kind of transitions to in person even for staff. We're not returning in person. There's transitions about So that'll be our curriculum day tomorrow One thing I want to note and this was in my notes before I saw the public comments But I think it is worth noting Because I've gotten a number of feedback a number of pieces of feedback about this separate from the public comment but desi's been really clear that all of the synchronous time on learning requirements for virtual schooling On on April 5th at the elementary level go away. In other words the minimum requirements Starting on April 5th for students in remote who are learning remotely is simply that they receive asynchronous assignments I want to be really clear with the community. That is not what we are doing. It's not what we're planning We're not planning on changing schedules or any of the pieces That we've had in place for remote learning. We'll get into those details later But I thought it was sort of worth addressing now because that's not at the heart of what I'm Going to speak to a bit later tonight But but just to be clear the desi requirement is simply that Asynchronous assignments are given there is no synchronous requirement as of April 5th for students in in virtual On that theme, you know, I saw an interview and heard you know in one of my conference calls with the commissioner I think there's really a lot of open question whether districts will be Permitted to have remote learning academies next year He an interview that came out this week. He was pretty clear that he didn't think so Without special kind of like getting special rights as a distinct virtual school So, you know, we'll have to see what that what comes with that But I know that's a question I've gotten a lot is about the fall and right now We don't know but certainly from the commissioner. It seems like that is, you know, not an option He's certainly talking openly about preserving as we had to fall. So we'll have to wait and see Two other things as we talk about in these I could have waited till later But I'm gonna choose to say them now as we head towards the April 5th in person return at a broader level than our volunteer return A couple things we're gonna have to shift. We won't be able to provide transportation for the small group of students Who may stay in or this learning center? That is, you know through Amherst recreation or through Mark's Meadow And for some of those students, there's a gap because they're they're in person schooling may not start till April 12th. So we have communicated that to families But it's just our buses need to be focused on getting the students we have to school So I think it's relative. It's not a huge numerical impact But we just wanted to make sure we're communicating with families Well ahead of time this wouldn't affect the special education intensive needs this And finally, it will also impact The food service program that we've been doing All of our buses are going to need to be driving as we'll talk about later We're going to be driving students to and from school And that involves van service that involves preschool, which you'll hear about later So our last day where we will have the 13 pickup sites will be Thursday, April 1st There's no school on Friday the second and at that point We will still have a pickup location at the high school, which is it's been there We've had a pickup location at the high school But we'll so we'll still be able to provide meals, but we won't be able to do the transportation out to the sites So we'll we'll retain that one site for any family member who wants to come and do the pickup But this only worked because we had van drivers and bus drivers going out into the community doing all the sites They did three sites per driver So they would start at one be there for 15 20 minutes go to two more But at that time they're going to be driving our preschoolers home And doing other routes that they need to do and so There's we're going to have to Sunset that program and really maintain it at the high school Which is one of our most popular sites a lot of people do come to the high school For the food pickup, but there's some limitations around transportation not so much on the food service side A little bit, but it's much more on the transportation side of People can only drive one van at a time one bus at a time And so we have limitations there that are going to impact it So, you know, we will communicate that out in newsletter to make sure people know We know the high school site will become more popular But as you'll see later with three quarters of our kids returning or roughly in the neighborhood of three quarters of the kids returning They'll still have access to their free lunches and breakfast In school during the day And we'll preserve that site for anyone in the group that doesn't want to return To still have access to the free meals throughout the week. That's, you know, again It's related to what we're going to share later, but I thought it would be better to place here I'm just based on our human resource limitations And there's only so many things our drivers only so many drivers and bands we have And our focus is really going to shifting to transporting students safely to and from school And that's sort of where we are with it But I'm open to any questions or comments from anyone on the committee I have a quick question on that last topic. So, um, well, if folks are not returning to If their student is not returning to in-person school in one of the elementary schools Can they is is their only option to pick it up at the high school or may they also pick it up at their at their school? So we looked into trying to be able to pick it up at their school. Um But we are struggling how to staff that Because it's it's it's not it's not really a grab and go if any of you have been as I have, you know They're fully staffed and there's only so many food service staff members and the way lunches are going to work at the elementary schools where they're Not only preparing the food but dropping it outside the classrooms in the eggshell going back to like the fall when we talked about lunches But in the clam shell creates Students eat and they bring it back out in the hallway They then take it and have additional cleaning responsibilities because those clam shells are reusable It's a lot of human human Capacity that needs to be spent for our program. So we did look into that and if our staffing We don't know until we get there is the honest answer to your question So right now we're going to do what we know we can do Which is one site and then if we feel like after the first week or two We have a good handle and our food service staff can manage both Then we'd love to do it at each of the elementary schools But right now we're we're not convinced and we won't as I said We won't know until we have 200 some odd students in the building In 16 classrooms and then see how that actually works I miss bit sir I guess If two questions less comments the first is on this issue with The desi guidelines and the instruction that would be I mean In the fall looking forward I'm hoping that with Changes that are like the decline in case rates increase in vaccination will have a higher percentage of families Who are really excited to be back in in school? But I guess I'm having a little bit of a worry that we could face a reverse issue With parents who are really dedicated to remote learning like a second wave of loss of enrollment If these parents choose to go home school or maybe there are private virtual schools or private virtual You know pods like that families for one reason or another feel more comfortable with I I don't know what we can do about that But I just want to state this worry that we couldn't get a double whammy of like losing Kids who are searching for in-person options this year and then in the next year searching a loss of Families who are looking for remote options. Um, Terry, could I comment on that? Yeah, I know you're another one, but Yeah, but if I could comment on that one, so that's the reason I brought it up tonight Um, you know, I'll be honest that we are stretching every strand of our budget to make this spring work and I'll speak in in detail on that later And so, you know, there is there is an existing pre-covid policy desi has Perhaps applying for, you know independent school not an independent school because that's something An independent. Yeah, I'm just going to say it that way. It's an independent public school within a district to be a remote school That requires an administrator, you know a prince like a whole team. And so, you know, uh I think when we talk about the budget leader that may be a conversation we want to have so, you know The timing of me making that comment was explicit at the beginning of the meeting because I think it'll play out in Additional topics throughout the rest of the meeting right now We are, you know, shoestring everything as fast as we can as much as we can But if you're talking about a full we can do that for a couple months, but if you're talking about a full program Uh for next year, I think we there's financial implications or some other implications as well And I have the same concern you do, you know, um Because I don't think well of elementary kids. I know it's awesome. Good news today that Moderna is starting a trial on students as young as six months or children as young as six months Um, but the likelihood that that's in place by fall for families who feel like they need that to feel comfortable They need their child vaccinated seems very very low. So, uh, we'll come back to that But I just I'm glad you highlighted it because I was Trying not to foreshadow too much, but I think it is something for the committee to wrestle with Thanks, and then my other question will hopefully be easier to answer Um, I know that our food service program has been serving, you know, it's it's been amazing I think it's been one of the I've been so impressed by the way the districts responded and I think it's come at a time when There's been an increased need in our community like hunger is an issue everywhere. I'm not just in Amherst right now it's So Here's my question. We had first, um offered meals for weekends I believe so that we would be offering meals that the kids could take home with them and and have food over the weekends if they needed it Um, also my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong is that there was no cost at all. So Um, one question I have is are we as we phase out Or I think you use the term sunset this program. Are we going to be? Um, I know we always have free and reduced lunch kids, but this was kind of a knee blind program Are we going to be changing that aspect of it in terms of the cost to the families and then is there any way? or what's going to happen to the weekend meals and um If we're not able to offer those things I think we should find a way to try to direct families who have come to rely on it to other good sources in our community Yeah, so I have good news on both of those pieces the meals will be free all year long in person or remote Um, so we were part of the because we were part of the summer food program We and because of our demographics we applied and we're accepted so no matter where students are eating meals this year They're free So there's no cost for pick up at any of our sites. There's no cost for students who are in person either Um On the second part of your question the high school site would still remain in terms of the monday wednesday friday Including the friday with the weekend meals. Um, and and we can do the same for the in person So we do have some capacity, you know the limitation On the weekend meals for the in person is if anyone's ever picked up on a friday Like I don't know how the young child would carry that much food It's like you know, like when I pick up my family loves this and so, you know, we participate, you know, it's a box I'm a fairly medium sized adult and it's it's not Like I don't think my either of my children would be able to do that and bring it on our bus nor do I think the bus drivers would Love the idea of that much food going on their bus So I think there's some logistical limitations But in terms of the food pickup we are planning to continue that and I know michael Gallow upon all is is trying to be creative about how to maintain that and some of that's like even the breakfast piece Could the breakfast go home at the end of the day as another meal whether it's literally eaten its breakfast or You know people eat it as dinner and like like I often like to frankly So that um, we're able to supply more meals in some creative ways that way Any other questions? Nothing any Okay, so, uh, thank you dr. Marsh for that update Um, and we'll move on to uh chairs update. Um, I don't have anything I'm really to add other than um, this past weekend I participated in day one of the two-day dismantling white supremacy culture in public schools workshop with Over 150 educators from around the country. Um, including I want to say about 25 from from amherst Regional public schools not just elementary schools. Um, and it was um, it was fantastic and it continues next week So I look forward to sort of sharing more um with the group as we go forward um Any uh next up is school committee announcements. Are there any uh, announced? Oh, um, miss lord Thank you chair mcdonalds Ben and I would like to invite You all to the school equity task force which we have tomorrow wednesday evening march 17th from 6 to 7 30 it is um, the link is on our district page We've been working on gathering families from data from the families and the restorative justice project There's a lot of things we're passionate about and I've never extended this invitation But equity work is endless. So if there's things that you know Well, obviously there's a thing that we know we need to work on equitably But we invite the students families staff teachers to Give us the input ben and I are always available and we welcome you. Thank you tomorrow night 6 to 7 30 school equity task force Thank you chair mcdonalds Thank you Any other announcements from the committee miss spitzer? I just want to highlight that um, mr. Demling and I continue to participate on the joint capital planning committee It's meeting tomorrow night. Um, and we're we've just kind of moved out of the phase where we're hearing from all of the towns Agencies and departments about their needs for the upcoming year and it's going to start We'll be starting to form our recommendations and talking about the process moving forward. So, um, it it's really relevant to The school committee just because we're potentially looking at Because of the capital needs which I believe are all valid and we're looking at a long term potentially having some issues with Less money available for operating budgets. So that's something we're kind of tuning into and trying to pay attention to When I invite everybody here and anybody in the community who wants to tune in it's starting tomorrow night Or continuing on tomorrow night. I'm just starting Is it um tomorrow wednesday or yes it is. So actually it's thursday. I'm sorry I don't mean It's only tuesday, but it's been a long wait. Yes. It's thursday nights seven to nine o'clock. We go to amherst Um government website for details on the full All of the meeting packets are there too Thank you for that update any other updates announcements from the committee saying that we'll move on to our new and continuing business and tonight we have our um budget hearing for the f y 22 proposed budget And we do have some Just to go through sort of how we're going to do this We'll start with the the public comment for the budget hearing And then we'll move into the presentation from uh, dr. Slaughter and dr. Morris and then have a discussion after that So we do have A voice comment and some written comments. So i'll start with the voice comment It's budget hearing the f y 22 elementary school budget And this is tony cunningham and i live in amherst I'm calling to ask that you do not cut technology and art teachers to four days per week at each elementary school I've learned that this proposed reduction is due to the technology and art teachers at crock of harm leaving And that you intend to ask the tech and art teachers at wildwood and port river to work one day per week each at crock of harm This move short changes the children at crock of harm and the children at wildwood and port river My children are both at wildwood and have class with the tech teacher pattern runyon and our teacher carry on once per week By reducing pattern and current schedules of four days at wildwood It will substantially cut down on the involvement they can have at the school and the number of extra projects They will have time to take on they will lose a lot of prep time And be less available to support the other teachers and support project-based learning Something we're supposed to be moving toward and not away from In addition these proposed changes would presumably Shift a greater burden onto the other three special teachers since they may have to take on the extra duties like lunch duty Both duty parents pick up to compensate for the reduction And i presume these extra responsibilities are not compensated Please reconsider these costs and look elsewhere for budgetary savings. Thank you Are you seeing the uh the comment now? And again, this document is in in the same document as the other public comment And available on our website Okay um as mentioned that um the written comment is all available on um or if it's not yet It will be available on our website posted on the agendas page I believe it's on the regional school committee agendas page because we started as a joint meeting um earlier on this evening And now I will turn it over to dr. Mars and dr. Slaughter for the presentation Yep, and now i'm going to be very brief. I'll turn to dr. Slaughter and then i'll come back to talk about uh ads and cuts But I think but the first thing to note is this is not a balanced budget So for the second year in a row, we're planning to use more choice funds than we're bringing in um You know much to dr. Slaughter chagrin in some ways because it's better to have a balanced budget But we felt like this year was not a year to go deeper in terms of cuts given the uncertainties that will come Uh as students return to the and build uh to being back in buildings But I want to start from a place that often you you talk a lot about balanced budget And this is a you know, really it's a balanced budget because we're you know We're going to be fine that way But it's not a sustainable budget if we're using more choice funds than we are bringing in So I think it's just as a framing document. What we're trying to do is is get through and get over, you know, perhaps this COVID hump a bit That we're facing financially and then we'll see what the future holds But I just wanted to start and frame that that you know If we were really talking about a truly balanced budget and balancing our choice funding We'd be our budget would look worse and we'd have more cuts on our list But that's a decision. We're at least proposing to the committee tonight With that sort of ominous introduction, I'll turn it over to you Dr. Slaughter to maybe get in some of the details of it and then when we get into add-in cuts I'll try to do a thorough explanation of How we're thinking about this Thank you So part of these slides you've seen before what I've done is gone through and edited them a little bit for You know for the changes that have happened since we last met and talked about this topic To some extent I actually in reviewing these slides for tonight's presentation I realized I had an error in one of them, so I'll point that out. I have it corrected in the one I'll present to you tonight And so Let me further move to the next slide So just as a little bit of a framing For you all as far as the timelines you're operating under not that you don't know this but for the public at large you have to submit a proposed budget to the To the town manager by April 1st so that he can then gather a fully proposed budget and and Share that with the town council by May 1st Then by the end of May they will The finance committee and the council will have you know a review and public hearings about that in in their realm In much the same way we're doing this tonight, and then they'll take action by June 30th That the latest they'll probably take action well before that To be perfectly honest That's just the the structure of the town government act and and what their Strict guidelines are as far as what the dates are they'll probably Take action before the the June 30th day Uh, so the next slide key factors in in the budget for this coming year So what i've done on this slide is you know most of the slide is is the same as you saw Previously what i've done is line through the things that have changed since we last met And so originally we thought the support from the town was going to come in With a with an increase from the current year of about 320,000 that's actually now $475,000 in your slide deck that says 466 because when I did it the first time through very quickly I transposed two numbers and then I realized the error and had corrected both the slide But that particular number didn't get corrected So the increase from from the current year budget is about $475,000 And this takes into account You know the charter and choice Because the town gets assessed that directly Our increase relative to other departments within the town is is a little less than the Than the percentage that they the rest of departments get so if the if the town is generally in its departments Like police and fire and those going up 2.1 percent in our case this year with the charter and choice Sort of impact of assessments is 1.99 percent Which is still better than where we were a few weeks ago when we last spoke about this um, the other thing that I'll I'll point out is that as a result of that increase the the amount of reductions we will need to make To to sort of meet the the resources that we have available to us is now down to 372,000 or so Which is a decidedly better number Than the half a million and change that we were talking about last time we spoke so that that's encouraging news There's still you know, no doubt that the the changes we're we're seeking to make our our ones we'd rather not make And obviously we're trying to do all we can to impact the students as as Little as possible as we move ahead in that regard and the superintendent will speak to that in a few minutes But you know, it's it's a bit better place than we were the last time we spoke And so, you know We're hopeful that this will will sustain us this year and that and that once the uh pandemic Uh, you know, abates a bit we will be back to more appropriate and and you know Steady budgets that that don't require us to to cut to this level Um, so this this next slide and I'm hoping that that's large enough I can zoom in a little bit if people want me to zoom a little bit more. I will um because you know the header at the top is not as as Useful perhaps as the detail here Most of this does not change very much from what you looked at The last time we we spoke The primary thing that has changed is the town budget target there and the kind of lower right Side of the screen has gone up from what it was And so now the increase is closer to 475,000 and the you see the 1.99 increase over the pre over the current year Uh, but what you see in our projected budget is is roughly the same numbers which Would require about 371 372 thousand dollars worth of of reductions in order to Stay within the the resources that are available to us from the town of amherst The rest of this slide has uh, you know all the assumptions in the lower left corner in you know into the mix So the steps and coals for the coming year. We've made estimates around that Even though we're in in conversation with our all of our unions relative to their contracts because they all end at the end of June this year Um, we've used 700 000 dollars in in school choice to make this happen And that's you know as the superintendent spoke of earlier Uh, a fairly hefty number relative to the to the income that we're going to receive Um, it's as he pointed out. It's not a sustainable number as we as we go through a year over year Uh, and hopefully we'll be able to return to a more modest use of of school choice and get ourselves back into a more balanced Uh and sustainable circumstance the future years Uh, but the other pieces there the insurance health increase the uh, the premium holiday that we've spoken of at the regional school meeting But but also here has a benefit to our to our bottom line at some costs Savings that are one-time savings. Uh, you know, we're leveraging you know, the known amount of circuit breaker support for our special education programs We know that we have no sabbatical requests for the coming year And so that which we typically budget can can be uh used to help support our budget as well again at a cost avoidance Uh, and so as a result, you know, those were all in place before just mentioning them again for For refreshing our memories in that but but this uh projection of expenses through the for the next year Is pretty much identical to what you saw previously And so, uh, what you didn't see before is what's what is on our next slide Uh, which will be the the ads and cuts That are that are proposed for the coming year and I think at this point I'll let the superintendent sort of take you through that list and and talk to those those different items that you've seen on on that and Get into the detail of how the decisions were made Before I do I didn't know if there was any questions the committee had just as a pause moment on any of the Other financial information that dr. Slaughter presented before we get into ads and cuts I just had a question on the um health insurance premium holiday. Is that Noticing the terminology on that spreadsheet is a little different than ones we've seen for other districts. Is it in that? Is that in risk and benefits? Line that the two hundred thousand Dollars. Yes, that's that's part of why that's not the exact number of what that estimate is for for how much it reduces Our our risk and benefits, but the risk and benefit line is the one that Where that gets applied? so we have some you know increases in costs because of you know the 1.1 increase in insurance and then we have the estimate of what one month of of health insurance premium holiday is but that is actually tech is in that line whereas in in In other budgets it has been held separate because of the timing of when we found the news app quite frankly So in this one we could incorporate it more directly into the into the expense line, but that is you are correct That is the line that shows up on Thank you. Nice, uh Mr. Demond did with your hand up or It was um, I'm good though Any other question? Okay, sorry the slide dr. Slaughter so, um The couple of things before we get into the specifics of what's on this proposed budget list in terms of cuts You know, we start this process early and we spent a lot of time this year thinking about It's a different year Uh, and next year is going to be a different year than we've ever had before too in a different way And so one of the things that we made, you know, we as principal directors Who meet on this and we're back and forth many times and really struggle with this What you will see on here. There are no reductions or cuts to mental health staff I'll talk about the bilingual psychologists in a little bit, but that's not a cut to a role That's a shifting of of who's going to do that work, but there's no counselors on this list There's no school adjustment counselor reductions Or guidance counselor reductions or therapeutic Paraeducator reductions because we know that the trauma that students have been through Trauma that's that people students have been through Over the last 12 months and beyond and we felt like that was going to be our line in the sand that we weren't going to cross into Second thing you're not going to see on this list is intervention staff academic intervention staff We know students have Missed a lot of instruction, you know, if they're no one's fault our staff's done a great job But the context that we've been in has been very real and we were deeply concerned about Students who enjoyed more support at home during distance learning or continue to enjoy more support at home Have more extracurricular activities that they've been able to maintain And we know the role of interventionist next year is going to be critical as we get closer to a sense Knock on wood of normalcy in our schools So there were no reductions to intervention staff Third thing I want to share is that there's no reductions to instrumental music and you might not see those that third one is connected But for us we know the staff done as all of our staff have tremendous job trying to connect And you know, we sort of didn't want to eliminate an option and for for instrumental music It's once you don't take an instrument and you hit middle school Your options become very very limited And so we know that we've had some good Outstanding effort our educators and many students have tried but we know that some students really need that in-person support And that's a life option for some some kids and and at this point with the budget cuts we have while steep We made a decision that that wasn't something that we were going to be interested in shaving off or reducing given given the impacts Um, and finally we did look to You know, you see 5.45 positions in terms of actual reductions of Involving riffs so reduction in force notices that would have to go to staff We're at a one Out of that and so we were very interested in maintaining as many of our talented staff members as possible While trying to maintain all of our programming as close to we could as possible And so we're not totally successful in the programming and I'll speak to that Uh, but given a cut of 372 thousand dollar or 300 thousand dollars Well, 372 thousand total Reduction of budget that that's sort of how we thought about it. And that's what the calculus was and so I don't want to pit, you know potential cuts against potential cuts And that's not my goal, but I do think it's important to know the philosophy which is really How do we preserve, you know, the academic? and counseling intervention services For students, uh, and then where what what are the trade-offs that we had to had to look at And how do we retain as many of our staff in the district as possible? And 372 thousand dollars with with really one with not really with one riff Is is I think A testament to the fact that we were trying to retain as many of our staff members as we could So I'll go through the cuts now. So there's no one applied for sabbatical. So that's built into our budget. So, um, That's there. Um, turnover savings. So we do have retirements and you know, we'll hire at A differential rate from where our retirements were. So you see that In terms of adjustments, we get to cuts, you know, it does look like we'll have a classroom teacher reduction based on enrollment Again, it's really hard to predict based on what we don't know about enrollment Uh, but even looking at our primary grades across the schools, it does look like there's Likely going to be a classroom teacher reduction. Um, we're not labeling it by school because I think there's too many unknown variables We do have a classroom teacher in the back of the budget each year Knowing that we may Have a surge in enrollment. So if we're not able to realize that, you know, we don't want to access that But it's not like we would just push young students into classes of 26 or anything that should make sure we would do that Uh, special education teacher at fort river. So a couple years ago We added a special education teacher because of the common entes program And um, that was always known to be a temporary ad that once the program was reached a couple grade levels We wouldn't need that additional special ed teacher, you know, the problem was when we had kindergartners just kindergarten We still needed a bilingual special educator to support them even though that person had more capacity than just working with one grade level Now that we're at k2 next year We'll return to six special educators, which is a really, you know, consistent number with our other schools Because that that special educator is covering three grade levels right now most of three grade levels And so, you know, this is we added it and then we also financially have to reduce it when The need uh, the need shifts and at this point That person can take a full caseload of kids based on three grade levels of the school being incumbent on this Uh, there's some public comments. So, uh, about the next two, which is technology and art You know, and you know, this is we it's a hard reduction. So I'm glad that people are advocating around it the reality is per, you know Class we do have a declining enrollment and we do have to look for Where we can make efficiencies when the budgets get hard and this budget is a difficult budget again It's not even balanced to begin with So the good news is it doesn't involve a reduction in force notice to anyone It would involve that our staff members are reworking only four days at a school in five It will reduce the level of integration I don't want to sugarcoat that only that'd be fair to the community or staff to suggest that there's no impact What we can say is that students will still we've received their specials instruction the 40 minutes a week On a rotation as they typically have it's the other kind of projects That are really special that we won't be able to maintain And do but in terms of the specialist schedules We'll be able to maintain them. Um, and it will involve some coordination across schools But you know with the budget we have and the declining enrollment. These are the difficult decisions we have to face And and certainly open to dialogue on that one later None of that should be seen as a knock on the technology or art teachers or any of the specialists You know it so happened this year that we were able to do that without affecting an individual staff member in terms of rift notice And and as I said before that was a factor in our decision-making is we want to hold on to the staff members We have because they do a fabulous job Some of these other ones will sound familiar Because they're split between the region and here in terms of facilities specialists We have a number of roles that we haven't been able to fill We've been finding other ways that are a little more efficient to be able to fill those roles Uh, not filling a food service assistant role. The bilingual psychologist is filling it again Unfilled vacancy. We've had it for two years and contracting out the work to do evaluations This isn't a direct service role. So I know there's some public comments around that. So I just want to clarify this is about For bilingual students making sure that if they have special needs or they're Thought to and are being evaluated that we have a bilingual psychologist to do it But it was no impact on direct service to students Um You know the reception session we already talked about the regional level and ELL Actually, we talked about the regional level too. As you know, there was an ELL program report that suggested We had a many many more interpreters or tutors and we held on to them longer than other Comparison districts and the current CERN express was that as students are receiving material translated by Very talented interpreters that's still a little different than being taught by a teacher So the idea is to not just trim our budget, but actually push our tier one instruction to be more inclusive of Students who are English language learners and have them be more integrated into the curriculum Sooner and that's based on the outside review that we had done Last year that certainly wasn't advocating for cost cutting in general, but on this particular regard Uh, we were really out of um We were not not comparable to our similar size districts in terms of what we're doing for interpretation The concern was not just financial but pedagogical in nature So that's how we got to our budget uh reduction number. Um, you know, but I'm open any questions or comments from the committee um About how we got there and and what our potential implications questions Mr. Demlin so, uh, you know first off it's great it's great to see the increased operational budget support from the town of Amherst So, um, and I don't know if you could comment on why that is if it was just a generic We have more revenue than we thought um, but Um, based on what we were looking at at the beginning of this year, uh, that's it's greatly appreciated. Um And yet these cuts are very painful um as as you just identified and You know, and this is uh, this is a 2.1 budget, you know, adjusted down for the charter accounting um, but it it makes me quite concerned, um for operational budgets of our public schools in town And whether what we are doing With regards to our commitment to the service levels, um of what we provide across the whole You know array of services that we talk about special ed and social and racial justice and all academic performance levels and the arts and and everything, um It makes me concerned that that we are not on a sustainable path given what We did last year, uh with with with the kovat level funding. Um And um, so and and given what operational budgets are looking like in the town of Amherst um, so it's It's it's improving over over what it it seemed to have been a few weeks ago. Um, apparently there was a finance committee meeting today and um Based on conservative estimates next year's operational budget Is is tentatively, uh, apparently looking at one to one and a half percent Um, but then returning to normal levels after that presuming the economy improves, um, which is better than um Some x number of years at one to one and a half percent. However, if this if what we're looking at right now is a two percent budget A one to one and a half percent budget for the schools next year Is not sustainable and it's not in my feeling And this is just for you know, I feel like I have to say this as an elected official It's not consistent with our town's values and I feel like this raises the question Of should the town be funding our schools at a minimum operational level? Should the town commit to funding our public school budgets at a minimum operational level? Um, regardless of of of what of what we have to do and it's it's a question. I'm not it's not a demand But but it's a question because if our community is telling us strongly We heard some of it in public comments tonight, but we've we've heard, you know other advocacy on other levels Um from from other sources throughout this year um You know, uh, then then it's it becomes a question You know is is a for example is a minimum two percent Budget is is making that commitment to the public schools Which might not be a commitment that can be made to other town services Is that something that we should be discussing right now? I I think I think it is I think I think we have arrived at that point where we should as a town be having this conversation Um, and it's it's not to take away from the reality the very harsh zero-sum budget reality that that um That our town is faced with when you have a limited amount of funds and the pain Has to be experienced. It has to be spread around. Um, you know, so I don't mean to minimize What what what a a low operational budget means for? You know other town services at all and I certainly don't um suggest that that I have a A detailed understanding of that either, you know, I don't I don't pay attention to other services at that detailed level I can't speak to that Um, but I can only speak to what I see right here, which is I'm very grateful that we are under four hundred thousand dollar cuts And yet these cuts are really painful. Um, even before the public comment my mind instantly went to those To the reduction in the in the in the art in the tech services and in it I think you've done The best job that you can in terms of, you know, toggling down the fte and not losing the riff and um, and keeping those those minutes per week, but You know that that kind of arts integration is one of the key differentiators of an amorous public school education it's why people come to the come to the Um move here for this when people say I move here for the schools. It's not for any one thing It's for this whole range of things and this is one of those things Right that we value it that we don't just add it on the end in a perfunctory manner that we really have passionate Teachers who who drive that kind of integration and then and I'm just talking about the arts, you know, we could Go go on that riff, you know on several other avenues And so I just now I'll stop there But I do think it is kind of an existential moment. I think and I hope that um town officials And and decision makers and administrators and the public really take a moment to pause and think about What do we want the future service level of our schools to be because with the current budget Scenarios that we're looking at it. It's it seems very much at risk of being sustainable miss fit sir, so um, I want to Second almost everything that Peter or mr. Dumbling just said and and he stole a lot of what I was going to say Which is a good thing. I'm glad that we're in agreement on these really important issues. Um I am I think I foreshadowed this a little bit in my comment about the jcpc, but I mean we've been seeing some of those How all of these things in our town are connected and I do think I you know I'm a school committee member so again I I look at this from that lens and I just really am Concerned about the level of cuts we're facing and that is not going to Immediately be fixed in a year or two like we're going to these cuts are going to be Like I think we've said this again and again You you don't see them easily added back in and and the fact is that next year I don't have any reason to believe based on what we're What Peter just mentioned that we're going to see um A big change and like a big 5% increase in our operating budget We'll be lucky if we see a two or a three percent increase in our operating budget so um I don't have a solution to this, but I I wanted to ask a specific question too and that is um So one of the things I just feel like we're going to get a question about this and you alluded to it in the um In the earlier slides about the The federal funding that has become available and I understand that it's it's covid specific But we did mention um, you know in your Um prologue or lack of a better term to these cuts that we do have a large Staff that does provide mental health services during typical years And I'm wondering I know in the past sometimes we've seen like new funding streams. Um being able to kind of lessen the You know putting new funding streams in for existing positions could help lessen the burden of some of the cuts so I'm wondering if there's Any glimmer of hope that some of that federal funding might be available to support the existing mental health services that we have Or is it really only going to be if we were to add in say a new adjustment counselor to help deal Um with the transition next year that we could use that and I know this is all like We don't have a crystal ball. We don't know how much we're going to get it's contingent on All of the things about applying and getting reimbursement and all of that But I think it's one of the things that we're likely to hear From the public is why aren't you using the federal funds for some of this? So if you could just speak to that a bit Yeah, I could start and Doug definitely can jump in so I think most recently is the bill that passed congress and was Signed by the president. I think last week. Um, so, you know, we've seen some sketchy dollar amounts of how much is coming in and I think the one of the key Principles for me, and I think I share this with Doug is that you know My understanding is that's for use up until f y 24 and so um In a year where we have unbalanced budget. Do we want to unbalance it more? We are it's unbalanced in two ways. We have a health insurance holiday That is helping us with multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings Right, and then we also are using more choice than we're bringing in So we're already sort of subsidizing the budget to be at this level Um, and we don't have all the particulars on that exactly how that those funds that are coming in can be used So I think when we talk about remote academy and the earlier conversation during superintendent update You know that it's clear that that's the kind of thing I think it's clear to me that that's the kind of thing that certainly it could be used for but um at some point When we start plugging Kind of unsustainable deficits with even more unsustainable funds Uh, we worry about the cliff effect of what that'll mean in a year or two So, you know, certainly we could be more aggressive. I mean, we don't have the funds So that's the hard thing is we don't exactly know what they're going to be used for We don't exactly and we don't have the money Um, but but even if we did I think, you know, we could certainly have a conversation with the committee about that as we go but You know with what you said and mr. Demling said about potential operating budgets next year As well as the increased cost that you brought up counselors That's absolutely part of it and I have been in touch with our local representative who's working You know towards something around this and whether that that person successful or not it remains to be seen But we're emailing today about that As well as last week Um, I do think sustainability what sustainability wise, you know sustainability is on our mind financial sustainability and If we set up a scenario where we're relying on soft money at such a large extent of our budget You know, I think we're going to really pay a price for that a year or two from now And and see a pretty catastrophic situation. So we're really trying to balance What's maybe available to us this year versus What the cliff might be in a year or two Doug, I don't know if you have any additional thoughts on that Not really. I mean, I think that's a general philosophy we take, you know across the board I mean if we you know, it's it's similar to circumstances you have with you get Your grant funding, uh, you know, uh, you know sort of out of the blue. I mean you have to Think about well, what's the transition plan if you want to sustain some sort of program like that? After the grant runs out and so, um, you know, you want to try to have any You want to avoid any sort of As the superintendent said any sort of cliff type of circumstances and try to make those transitions as smooth as we can dampen the effects and and and try to stretch those those You know one-time monies as far as we can to To help mitigate the the biggest and most egregious sort of problems and and then try to Continue to problem solve as we move forward as to how to best You know keep our schools, you know the way we want them to be and and to and to sustainably fund them at that same time So it's it's it's not an easy, you know bit of fun and they're a lot unknown still I mean, you know, how much is going to be available how soon what restrictions are on it? etc all open questions and and We want to also be conscientious of that and and and not You know plan for using money in In way, you know in a certain way and then not be able to and then we really put ourselves in a bind In such a way that it's it makes for a very very difficult set of, you know changes on short notice, which is a really difficult You know exercise to go through Yeah, and the last thing i'll say is we've been through this before right 2008 2009 2010 with the stimulus funds and I think You know, I think we as a district we did pretty well with that. I was in it for old dr. Slaughter was in different roles. So, you know And I think there's also some lessons learned about how to gradually Uh utilize those funds to deal with the the current emergency without forgetting that it's not going to be a short term Fix and and I would argue in terms of the covet and the impact of our students Next year is not the only year that we're going to be working with students on recovery and I'm not going to get into the I know there's a lot of debate about whether you can talk about academic loss and all that But here's the reality is our kids have had many of our kids have had a really tough year They've had a tough year emotionally and they've had a tough year academically And then none of that is because of our educators have been fabulous this year. It's because of a pandemic And so I don't think uh, we're having this cash conversation a year I hope that we're not having conversation a year from now and and not talking about the impact That that covet and the pandemic have had on kids because it's not going to be done in a year And it's probably not going to be done in two years This is going to be part of kids lives and I think it's it's a really going to have to develop a multi-year Approach of how to support students through this. So I hate to be I'm not trying to be a downer tonight, but I also just feel like that's the honest answer and anyone who thinks a year from now We're not talking about impact of the pandemic on kids I don't see that for many of our students and particularly many of our students that are consistent with our values who are underserved in our community I think I um I share all of the um sort of observations and and Worry expressed by miss spitzer and mr. Demling about this I do want to actually also note that Um, I feel like you've done Really worked hard to Make these cuts in ways that minimize as much as possible the impact on our students You know you detailed all the all the things that you did not touch As you introduce this and I think that's that's really important to keep in mind um And from unless I'm misunderstanding it It's really those those two specials Positions that are having driving the most impact and it's significant. I'm not minimizing it, but we're talking about $75,000 um Is is what's really driving that impact and I share that sentiment of It it feels like I mean it's it's not small But it's not huge in the scope of sort of the amount that we're cutting at the same time That's sort of the special sauce that really makes our elementary schools Truly truly special. Um, and I you know just any of us with kids in in the elementary school You know how much they look forward to and really Derives such joy in learning from those those integrated projects and programs and it really is It's amazing to see and and it's really Disappointing to see those go away um That's it. I I do commend you and sort of trying to sort of skin this really really carefully and sort of walk that timeline in terms of impact on students I guess one of the questions that I have um And it before I ask my question is just thinking forward is as miss spitzer pointed out We cut this year. Um, or we grow by 1.9 percent next year. It's going to be a lot less Which means that coming, you know, it's great that that might only be one year But we're going to be down to the bone at that point and you know, I think miss spitzer pointed out We're not going to get a five six seven percent increase in in subsequent years So if this kind of programming comes back It's going to be way down. It's going to be years and years from now It's not sort of just buckle up for for a year or two and then and then all will be sunny and happy again So I you know, we lose this now It's going to be Multiple years before we see the kind of programming that these these positions enabled us right now And so I ask the question. I mean, I understand that the You use a really good Analogy of the cliff. Um, so I don't want to push us over a cliff, but I do want to ask the question of Is there opportunity to push that risk a little bit further this year to sort of save that and give us another year to Sort of look and make those cuts next year As need be and I I'm not saying that because I'm advocating it I just want to sort of understand a little bit more like how close have you pushed us to that? with this use of choice funds and In the health benefits The health premium holiday So, uh, here's my quick response. Dr. Sotter will jump in perhaps with more thoughts on the choice and how much You were sort of quote-unquote overspending on the choice front But you know, as I mentioned earlier, we do have a classroom teacher in the back of the budget, you know And that that cost isn't wildly different than those two positions or part-time positions The challenge is if we get a bunch of kids back next year Then we're making a decision that we're going to have really large class size, you know And again, these students won't be immunized. I don't who knows what the number of feet Desks will need to be away right all that is hard to predict and obviously the point of or not obviously But it's clearly the point of lots of public interest at this moment Nationally and locally So I think that's where it gets it gets tough for us is, you know I don't think we can take more of a risk within the current confines of the budget Doug can talk a little bit about the choice piece, but you know I another district I work for Went down a lot of roads that Have been very painful to to start to undo in terms of use of choice and Overaligned some choice and using more choice than it was bringing in and it's um, it's addicting, right? I mean because you know, and I mean that not a negative way It's addicting because we love the things that we're potentially cutting as did Pelham And they got to a place and they're still reeling a bit from it candidly where they're, you know, it's hard to As it's hard to undo budget cuts. It's also really hard to Sort of get off the addicting train of just pulling more and more from choice to prevent budget cuts So I'm not advocating either way, but I just I have this lived experience of a in another district and and Their budget hearing which was last week, you know We're continuing to make cuts and we're not still, you know, we got level for a year And then we're we're now not level again and it can be very challenging So I'm not trying to be unempathetic towards the impact. I agree with every single word that everyone said In terms of commentary, but I think that's where, you know, perhaps We collectively get really concerned about These one-year pieces particularly if we don't think it'll get better next year Right. It's one thing if we're like, yeah, it's a one-year One-year bubble it burst the next year would be better and then we won't have to rely as much on choice I'm not hearing that at all. Actually, I'm hearing the opposite From members of the committee who are closer to some of the town discussions that things will get only harder And at what point then do we create such a structural imbalance where we're making You know These cuts look positive compared to what we'd be considering in the future. That's my concern Doug, do you have more to add on the choice piece? The only thing I would add there is is that, you know, um We don't have an infinite balance in the school choice fund. So when we, you know, spend more than we take in You know, we're diminishing that, you know each and every year And so there's a there's a finite time horizon that we can do that The other thing I would mention relative to that is, you know, the overall school age population is declining In in the state of Massachusetts generally but in western Massachusetts It's I mean we had a precipitous drop this year by virtue of the the pandemic but in general, uh, you know the sort of Competition for those kind of choice students is generally and we've we've done fairly well with regard to that I don't want to diminish that we've been, you know Doing quite well in sort of preserving our our level of choice and the revenue we generate from that But you know, it it is a competitive market and and there are only so many of those students around and You know, so it's it's that also becomes a bit of a balancing act as well Is that if you if you make yourself not attractive enough then you don't attract this school Is this sort of you know death spiral as it were? So that's also, you know, sort of a piece in the puzzle but But you know the number of years we can overspend our budget and I mean overspend our our sort of school choice revenue relative to our our income, uh, you know is is This is a small number. It's not, you know, 15. It's like three or four is kind of the the sort of, you know, neighborhood So, you know, we're we're hoping it's a long enough horizon that we're sort of out of the current crisis and able to start uh, you know, really, you know rebuilding the balance and and and thinking in terms of projecting forward with a sort of positive arrangement there, but but it's a It's a it's a tricky balance to strike. But but nonetheless, uh, you know, we want to be conscientious. It it's It's much much worse later on if we don't kind of Mind it a bit in the in the short term And the one thing I'll add I'm sorry if I could I know there's another hand up is the other challenge That we have for choice next year is we don't know how many seats we don't know what our enrollment's going to be We'll talk about this is another agenda in tonight's meeting. We don't know what our amherst based enrollment will be next year We also don't know how many open slots we have because our typical class size may not be What our typical class size is So, you know, there also is some I have some concerns about the level to which we'll be able to accept choice Students because of the uncertainty Of who's going to join us next year who lives in the town of amherst as well as uh What we used to feel to in class size may not be what we feel to next year because of coven Miss lord Um, thank you. Dr. Morris. You just said uncertainty and that's what I was like. There's so many different variables To these calculations. I'm wondering it just came to my brain And it might not be something we can do but I found specials In my school experience and in my teaching experience to be extremely like therapeutic and great for mental health If I don't know if we could get the $75,000 from the cares act even though we need to make it Last till 2024 It might be something and I'm not asking our special teachers to like relearn art therapy and stuff But maybe working with the behavioral health team and having more ability Or something therapeutic things that just happen naturally in specials that would be something we could do But maybe not I'm not talking about going into the school training. I guess I'm just asking Just ladder if we could uh do some of the grant money for the specials Yeah, I think we don't know is the the honest answer right now Because we've not received any guidance from the state or the federal government on the details And that's something we could certainly bring back to you and If there is uh, if we are able to utilize it we could have a future conversation Um, but as it just passed and you know, we're seeing You know estimates of numbers not real numbers, uh for each district I think there'll be some adjusting for instance. This won't affect the Amherst public schools, but um, It's all based on title one. So this title non title one districts right now are slated to receive zero Dollars and you know, as you might imagine That's not making a lot of non title one districts feel comfortable that they're completely out of it I happen to work for one and not this one, but another one of my districts And so I think there's still a lot of advocacy of how this will actually shake out in the end both in terms of dollar amount and also in terms of What I think what use it can have and I think as we get more clarity You know, I don't want to speak for dr. Slaughter, but I think I can we'd be happy to bring that back to the committee Uh and and continue that conversation But I think it's hard for us right now to bank on things that we don't know That's your point and it's restating what you said at the beginning of your comments, miss lord But I think an argument certainly could be made on the front that you've described on that It's just uh, we don't there's no one to make the argument to right now because we don't have any guidance on on its use and and How that even could be interpreted or really, you know, I've seen numbers flying around about You know, how much the districts are slated to get and then I've also heard from more official folks that don't bank on those numbers because It's not not quite settled at this point. So Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to the idea. I appreciate it. And I think dr. Slaughter was going to jump in on that as well Just just one other thing I'll point out and that is is that and I had a brief conversation today with with my predecessor hero Now we're the town of Amherst and he was talking about supports directly to towns And I think they're in exactly the same boat. We are in it's like You know, they're trying to evaluate well, is there you know, there's money coming how much what kind what restrictions How can we support our various departments? You know through money that they receive directly They're in the exact same boat. We're in as far as the uncertainty and unknowns Because it's you know, it's an ever-evolving circumstance that they're they're dealing with just like we are so That also will be a part of the of the Other work that we do as far as moving forward Is how those funds that go directly to the town May end up helping support our schools as well or not because they need to be supporting other, you know, other departments within You know within the town, but it may be a choice that the council or or You know the the town makes in in regard to providing support to schools that that you know Other towns may not make with their Direct money to the town itself. So there's a lot of you know, beyond our own, you know, uncertainty and unknowns There's the similar us, you know parallels at the at the town level But we're you know, we're working closely with them and and we'll be in in regular and you know consistent and communication regarding that and so, you know They're interested in supporting us as much as as you know, there are any other departments. So It'll be helpful as they as we move along to be in communication with them on those On their unknowns as well as ours when you mentioned class sizes dr. Morris that brought to mind um, so And at port river and wildwood the the haveses will Be continuing Um, does that also mean that the use of the cafeteria and other spaces in those buildings will still need to be used for Regular classroom space Yeah, space is going to be very tight in those. I mean, we're reducing the number of Classroom spaces now class size probably has a little more flexibility in those spaces As opposed to cracker farm Because they're really large, but it does mean, you know, some of the specials area, which happens I mean, we haven't had this in Amherst, but certainly a lot of districts who have had population growth If you look at like suburban Boston districts, like, you know, Brookline's been Building or renovating a school every year for like 20 years because they're their school age population Cut up so much, um, you know that that we may have specialists on Uh coming to classrooms instead of kids going to specialist areas even post-covid Because the haveses, you know reduced the number of classrooms available, you know, essentially we went, you know, there's There's six quads So there's now 12 classrooms there plus the three in the kindergarten wing So you're talking about 15 typical classrooms. We're gonna have more than 15 sections So we are going to need to utilize other spaces in the future As classrooms to make that work and there's no way to undo haveses and as I said I hope i'm proven wrong, but I don't think we're going to be not talking about covet in some way shape or form For a while And the ventilation pieces are still going to continue to be important for a while and thanks to our facilities department for their quick work there But you know, I don't see us going back to quote unquote normal In all of the ways that we think of as normal in the fall We may go back to more normal, but I don't see it being You know, completely normalized where we're not worried about air changes and air quality and you know Things like that and we were worried about them before frankly, right? It wasn't the first conversation about ventilation and air quality and our schools was not covet, right? It predated covet by Decades So yeah, I think space will be will be a challenge at those two sites Mr. Deming, did you have your hand up? yeah, just you know final comment about like Next steps and moving forward. So I believe that you know, so we have two weeks to think about this, right? So we vote on the 30th as I'm looking just looking to Yeah, it's okay so so And then going back to the the idea that miss mcdonald brought up about And immense and miss spitzer about cuts being forever and and even though this is You know only 75 thousand dollars for example for the um the specials reduction to decrease the the arts integration core community value Is you know, is is this the time to to make a principled stand for it? and So if we voted a budget in two weeks with that 75 thousand restored and all the other numbers the same it would be If my math is correct a 2.25 percent increase So that would not be in line with the 2.1 guidance um But you know, it's it's it's convention and it's it's a good convention typically in normal times that That the budget that our committee proposes is in line with the guidance from the town and then it gets accepted by the town It's kind of a perfunctory approval um I we have two weeks to think about this. I think this is something our committee should think about about whether we as a committee um propose a budget that is Very little above guidance Um still has painful cuts Um, and and we make the case, you know, we just make the case to To the town, um, but that for this particular year, especially given what's happened last year and what is probably going to happen next year That this that this is something that we need to preserve so um Given given the discussion we've just had i'm i'm not in a position right now to like make that call But I do think it's something that we should consider It's an interesting proposal because I also when you think about it the the town council can't Give us more money than what we pass on a budget, but they can take money away from a budget that we pass so um Something to think about any other uh comments or thoughts Not going to put anybody on the spot. Um, but if you haven't spoken and would like to speak, um I will pause Mr. Harrington Yeah, I do kind of have a couple things just uh just a clarifying question. So the the facility specialists we're talking about that is HVAC or electrical Other were the two vacant position But I think dr. Slaughter can answer that better than me Yes, is the short answer. It's uh, because they're both shared positions. I believe so, you know, we talk Uh, essentially each other's in and you know, they're because we have to contract out the work It's not the full salary by any stretch. Uh, there's we have to reserve, you know, some of that Uh resource for the hiring of of those professionals to come in and do the work we need So there it's it's not a full reduction what the full cost of those people are Is those positions you spoke of yes So I don't want to add any like gloom and doom To the current situation, but I mean that that's been like a major area that we've had to work on throughout the year. So Not saying that that's something we can save this year and in contracting it out actually kind of Short up some of that work, but just to kind of paint the picture That's something that we're going to need to consider in the future and then also as far as the uh The art and technology specials. I'm kind of on board with peter there like the I kind of feel like you never get anything that you don't ask for So I in all things considered I think it's worth asking for or you know, hopefully there's I don't know a more creative solution or whatever, but I think if worse comes to worse I'm okay with the idea of just asking for it If that makes sense Thank you any other There's no other uh comments. Um, then uh, we will move on to our next item Okay, uh school choice vote is uh at next No, I don't like to introduce that And I'll be We may have some some open slots. We don't know that. We're not looking maybe in the primary grades, you know Based on enrollment and census data Uh, we may have some some open slots. We don't know that We're not looking to fill classes in this time and era But we just finished a conversation the importance of school choice funding for operator budget So that's something we would come back to in the late spring and summer Be able to describe where we are with but my recommendation So that we can start receiving applications is that Amherst the Amherst public schools accept school choice students in the 2021-2021 school year I will make a motion that we approve school choice for Amherst public schools for the 21-22 school year Is there a second? I think that's McDonald's second by Harrington. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, can we move to a vote? Mr. Demling Demling aye Mr. Harrington Harrington aye Ms. Lourd Lord aye Ms. Spitzer Spitzer aye And McDonald's aye the motion passes unanimously 5-0 And now we move on to our next item, which is the capital and joint capital planning committee update And I Believe that that would be From Mr. Demling or Ms. Spitzer as our representatives on that committee I'm sorry, Peter. I didn't realize what I spoke on a committee update We need to coordinate on Is there anything else you want to go on that I'll follow you No, I I feel like I I shared my pertinent updates during the subcommittee update. So I will hand I will happily Provide the update Excuse me. Um Um, what am I just going to have to cough for a second? All right, perfect timing. Um So yeah, so joint committee Capital planning committee and capitals. So we're meeting on thursday. We have not had our meaty recommendation Discussion yet. We've we've had basically presentations From from the various service departments including schools We tried to give mr. Slaughter as hard of a time as we possibly could hope we succeeded Yeah, so so the basic theme so this is you know, if you haven't watched these meetings. This is like, um Sean Mungano who's the finest director for the town Presenting what is actually a good structure. It's a lot. Um A lot more comprehensive than it used to be a five-year capital plan for the town That shows the percent capital increase for each year and then a plan for each of the Service area departments and then in how much money that is and and also with an estimate for the The major four major capital projects and and if you have been living under a rock and embers for the last several years You know, we got the library the dw the fire department and of course the school building Large capital projects that need to be funded along with the rest of the capital and the operational budgets as we just discussed in And during the budget item so You know, the the main theme that that's been presented is uh, is that they're sort of ramping up the percentage of capital That's being allocated. Uh, it was very low last year It's not quite I think it's eight. Oh, is it is it eight and a half percent this year? Um, just thinking off the top of my head Mr. Spitzer, um Yeah, um, and then going up to 10 next year and then 10 and a half in order to sustain um To sustain not just the capital Regular capital expenditures and the borrowing for some of these capital projects, but also to reduce the eventual Size of what will be needed for a dead exclusion override Which if you're following the bouncing ball at home, um, the school building project will require us going out to The public and saying please affirmatively raise your own property taxes most Residents of whom won't directly benefit from the school building in order to pay for the school building. So, um, that's a big ask And we wanted to succeed and so that's that's one of the motivators for For wanting to increase that that capital percent. Um, so, you know, um, we've we've been through the various items that have been presented I'll be honest. I haven't been Purchased just me speaking bold over by the sense of urgency and pain expressed, um By the presenters like there's not to pick on the police department But there was there was one example that just stuck out of my head of a working room in the police department building, um That was definitely run down and definitely in need of of upgrade Uh, I thought it was a perfectly reasonable request well presented Um, but the room was safe It was functional and I compare that to a lot of the other spaces in our school buildings, particularly Fort River and Wildwood Um, and I was not getting the The the real sense of urgency and um, and I tried to ask You know, of course several meetings. Well, what if we knocked this down 20% and the the big Item in capital planning is roads and sidewalks So there's 864 thousand dollars In the current capital plan, which is like 20 of a free cash capital So it's the biggest Uh single item in order to repave roads and fill potholes and stuff and you get 50 a 50% match at the state Which is another reason incentive to to spend up and it's true that we have not Spent as much as we normally would like to But again when when pushed on that I I did not and this is just my own personal sense get a sense of like Wow, if we knocked that down to 700,000, you know, we'll have impassable roads and um, and you know We live in a section of the state. We don't have to drive very far to to to drive through some some poorer towns to be perfectly blunt and um It can be no fun. Sometimes driving on those roads, but but you get by You know and so anyway, um, I get most of the questions. Um, that we that we hear at jcpc are about um sustainability and hybrid vehicles and batteries and That's good, but I do sometimes get the sense that We have these two really really high capital priorities that we're constantly hearing about with with roads and potholes and Electric vehicles and everything else is is sort of off to the side and and and what we're we're not talking about Which is fine because jcpc. It's not the town council is its impact the operational budget, right and so, um Yeah, so all that being said, I thought the school's presentation was fine I thought Doug was pretty honest that if we had to not do the high school copier But that might be something we could um We could put off just because we haven't used it. I don't know if dr. Morris feels differently um But uh, but yeah, I mean we it's it's it's been it's been a little hard since we haven't gotten to the main meat of the um opinionated discussion yet, which isn't until thursday, so That was probably a little too long-winded, but I hope I gave you a little bit of sense for a rat Just a quick because you just mentioned that is that for the um central administration copier or for the region I'm just wondering why it would be in the amherst capital Back to dr. Slater So the the copy that we're talking about is is there's um There are a number of copiers that we replaced throughout the throughout the district, but there's also a very large, uh You know high production scale machine that is at the high school building Uh that is nearing the end of its life as they often use the phrase in in capital planning Uh, and so it's it's a question of do we need to Is that you know, do we have to replace that now? Can it wait a year? Is it also a circumstance where we want to shift our model because we don't do quite the level of production? Uh, uh photocopying that we used to do Um, so there's there's options there relative to that so that that allows some flexibility I think for the embers, you know the town of embers as far as capital planning in in the Copier photocopier realm But it's big production machine kind of like you see it a kinkos or one of those that's you know the size of a room on its own He's used by the emmer school district It is so when we you know like we were to do Uh, you know handbooks for every kid at port river You know we go through that production machine because it can print and bind and Different color paper and all that sort of stuff. So they're they're pretty sophisticated in large scale machines We don't do as much of that kind of printing as we used to Uh, but the emmer school has definitely leveraged that at times. So it's why they contribute to purchasing that machine Right There's no other update Um capital then we can move on For any questions? Sorry Thank you um Great, so we'll move on to our next item. Um, which is the coming onto sibling enrollment policy And I notice that we have a few Guests that just joined us Um Just as a as a background for folks That are wondering why we're talking about this. Um, this was brought up a few months ago actually Um at the request of some families that with students in the current common dentist program I'm asking us to reconsider how we How we think about and prioritize siblings Of current students within the lottery for upcoming enrollment And so we've talked about this. Um, I think at two prior meetings and Want to discuss it again and ideally hopefully come to some Be able to provide some direction To miss richardson and the the common dentist team Yeah, if I could just add I think the the core question, you know, when I just displayed the groups is um The existing policy which was approved last april has Siblings going to the front of their group And I think the core question, you know for you to consider As you look at the groups and hopefully that's let's see if I can zoom in a bit To make that A little bit larger That I think you're discussing or have discussed is Um is really about groups three and four, you know groups one and two and three You know, I'd love it someday if those groups were we're so big that we were doing a lottery With our current demographic the current number of students, you know, we were just going to preserve And all those students in the past two years and we would anticipate moving forward this year We'll get into the common dentist program. So I think the question that we received some public comment about is Um Whether siblings in group four in particular um, would they go to the front of group four or would they um, essentially be in Uh included in group three Um, like a sibling group that was included Uh, so adjusting the groups that way. I think as we expressed as I expressed last time we talked about this Mr. Richardson and I are relatively agnostic on this. Um, that our primary focus is maintaining the linguistic diversity in the classrooms, um in the common dentist program And we understand both sides of this issue. Usually we do come with a more clear recommendation But we feel like this is really in the school committee Court so to speak in terms of enrollment zones and some complicated And I don't mean bad, you know, so you say political factors and people sometimes have a negative impact But I think it is a political issue that, you know, how to weigh these competing demands of having Fort River zone students modeling low English speakers Have greater access or to maintain sibling bonds Through attending the common dentist program and then in the home And so, uh, you're our elected officials you get to make these political decisions. Um But I want to be clear from our perspective. It's not necessarily, uh, truly a, you know, academic or instructional Uh Decision because we appreciate the committee's support to maintain the linguistic diversity as intended Um, but you know, Katie, thank you for being here just in case there's specific questions folks would have Um, but I think this this falls in your court and we're happy to help however we can help Thank you Uh questions or comments Oh, I should say I'm sorry There's one other thing to give a little more thought time is the reason we really do need a decision tonight It's like last night. I should have met a superintendent updates with a lovely, um Orientation for incoming kindergarten families that was across the three elementary schools in Amherst including Palom And then we did a follow-up session after that for coming on dates And there was a lot of questions on enrollment and Where do I sit with enrollment and and we do need to particularly Katie needs to get back to those families Um, so that they have clarity on on what the process will be and how the lottery will work And and so, you know kids that we started enrollment today kindergarten Registration started rather uh today. So we have some of our newest students class of 34 very exciting um who registered for Uh for joining us in the fall But you know, it is a major variable for them and uh about common aunties It was almost everybody stayed on which I was surprised about even more than past years Almost everyone on the virtual call hung out for the common aunties discussion And certainly there was a lot of questions on registration So we do need to you know get back to folks with whatever you choose But that that the reason we're looking for a real decision tonight is that we're now in the registration period and um That's where we are Mr. Deming So I'll just share my two cents. Um, you know, it's funny with these decisions that go multiple meetings Sometimes they just sort of work themselves out and you have a clear and obvious solution This isn't one of those cases Um, so I I'll just say to begin I I totally respect if people have come to different conclusions and that's fine and uh reasonable and I totally respect that so I'll just share how how I've come to To to what I think um, so I I would um support a change Amending the policy where we prioritize siblings within their language group regardless of enrollment zone um, I I do find the arguments about uh retention and program quality to be compelling in terms of um Uh families with multiple children in the district in the program more likely to see it all the way through Um, and also strengthens that family connection to the program So we we want that kind of reciprocal the program supporting families, but families are also supporting Uh the program and and the the you know the um the the group of families within it um and in the program quality the having two Students in the same household in the same program seem just like a natural um accelerator there For the benefits for those students You know as far as the impact to to fort river zoned families and in the impact of that lottery um You know as as our Enrollment zone policy currently is we don't guarantee coming on these enrollment to english uh to non-spanish speaking Families enrolled in fort river. It's they're they're top the list for that group. Um Currently, but you know, it's not a guarantee and so um, I don't feel like And and we also haven't designed it such that one of the primary drivers is to try and incentivize People moving into their their residents into the fort river enrollment zone. Um, so I don't I don't feel like it contradicts that um and and uh or counters any kind of um Expectation that that we set up um And and given that the small number that this would potentially impact, you know, maybe one or or two per year um and then and and then only if um If if the number of siblings plus the number of fort river families who wanted to be un-exceeded Would would a fort river zoned family not be able to attend. So I feel like the the impact would be fairly minimal. Um You know that it's not a fundamental redesign and you know, there was a good analogy brought up of well Would this be appropriate to do given that we don't do this for? um, some of our other programs that are building specific uh like uh aims and building blocks and ilc I think that's a good point. Um As as having experienced that, you know, so I had two kids in crocker and one student in ilc And it is hard being apparent in two buildings Um, and I wish I wish that I had I had that um that that that choice. Um, and I don't think that We would be prevented as a committee From reconsidering what our policy is on that And I don't want to get too far afield on the agenda item and start expressing an opinion and what that should be I'll leave that to future agenda items. Um, but I think that there are Um, I think that there there would be ways to allow To revisit our policy of do we allow siblings to follow their students to follow their siblings to? to either wild water or fort river if they're Um, if their sibling is in one of those programs. So, um, that's where I'm at I I totally respect if people draw different conclusions, but um That's that's where I condone I um I share Share your observation the beginning of mr. Demling about you think sometimes it will resolve itself and and I You know getting ready for today's meeting. I was I was struck by the fact that I still really Struggle and I mean and not that it's a it's um Struggle is probably too strong a reward, but just really I doubt it's really difficult for me to to think through sort of where I might land um, and I think What I when I sort of analyze my My original objection to this, um to this notion of giving priority to siblings outside of group three um It really it really does go more philosophically to the question that you just raised about are we treating these siblings Any differently than other siblings that? um, that are sent to buildings outside of their zone and so um, and then you know just thinking pragmatically the numbers aren't large um that we're talking about being um Uh, you know taking up space if you will and or preventing a fort river zoned student kindergarten or from From um accessing this program um So I I think you know, we do have future agenda planning on on our agenda tonight um I do think that if this is a philosophy that we want to hold for this program then I would like to see us You know examine that philosophy and think about it more broadly about siblings um Because if the reason why we're supporting this is because we we believe that it's important for siblings and families to be together and that that builds bonds with their with their uh school and school building as well as um and um enhances the learning and bonding um with the siblings Then that should hold true for all siblings and all students in our district and not just the ones that happen to be enrolled and win the lottery so to speak um for coming on to so um I'm prepared to support this like I said and I want to see us have this discussion again for other programs any other thoughts um And thinking that we have voted on enrollment policy before um So that this would need a motion and a vote tonight. Is that correct? I'm seeing some not in heads. Okay Mr. Deming Uh, I move that the common auntie's enrollment policy be amended To prioritize siblings within their language group regardless of enrollment zone Can you restate please restate your motion sure? I move that the common auntie's enrollment policy be amended To prioritize siblings within their language group regardless of enrollment zone Thank you Uh, uh second that I move by demling seconded by mcdonalds. Is there a further discussion? miss spitzer Can I ask a clarifying question? Um, so when we say It's very clear to me with the enrollment zone of Fort river cracker farm It's school choice We're only accepting students into the program if they're spanish-speaking So is this school choice not considered an enrollment zone and is it irrelevant because at the moment It's very unlikely in english-speaking school choice student would be Um potentially enrolling that's Yes Thanks Any further discussion Seeing none, we'll move to a roll call vote. Mr. Demling Hi demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I miss lord Lord I miss spitzer What's our eye? And mcdonalds I The motion passes unanimously five to zero Okay, thank you. So the next step is miss richardson. We'll we'll make that adjustment onto the policy And probably in the next week or so we can send that final policy You know both the families but also to the committee so you can see it reflected the vote reflected in the Adjusted policy Thank you for the guidance appreciate it Thank you. Thanks for joining us And I will move on to um preschool return to in person Sure well Presentation was sent separately Mr. Demling Uh, give him my wife is a paraprofessional educator employed in the preschool. I'm going to uh in order to Avoid the uh any appearance of a conflict of interest. I'm going to completely disconnect from the meeting Uh, and I will await the chair's notification when we are complete So you will be returning. Yes. Okay. Thank you Thanks, mr. Demling Thanks. So with us is preschool coordinator Elizabeth Burns of Elizabeth. Thanks. I'll do a quick intro and Walk you through a couple slides that are on our website. They're they're added to the packet The short story is preschool is sitting in an odd place. It is not Did not involved In either the desi vote, which was really focused on k-12 Or the school committee vote, which was this school committee was k-6 And so it's situated in a slightly awkward way statewide This was raised in a recent conference call with The commissioner who said you're right, you know, and it's it's it's situated awkwardly because it's shared between desi and the ec Which is a separate agency that deals with early childhood education So preschool sits in its own place and we're so appreciative of the staff there and elizabeth's leadership Coming into a new role in the midst of a pandemic is not the easiest thing And she's done it wonderfully. So really appreciate that. So as you know preschool was part of the Voluntary return and opening which is now expanded to kindergarten first grade at crocker farm fourth grade at crocker farm A couple building blocks students at fort river next week at wildwood. So it's part of that voluntary return as the volunteer return period is Closing that we have a mandatory return period Coming up. We did want to think about what's happening in preschool and particularly what we'd want to think about As we get to the you know into april So what elizabeth would like to share is our proposal for your consideration That I want to say up front that I endorse and appreciate her thinking on this have had to meet More more young students needs in the most appropriate way developmentally appropriately way possible So with that i'm going to turn it over to coordinator burns I have the slides up and it's probably easier for you because I have multiple screens elizabeth Would you like me to be in charge of the slides and you can be in charge of the description? Yeah, that would be great. Thank you. Okay, so Take it away And so I thought it would be most helpful. I actually um Ah, there we go. Now I can see them. Thank you Um, I thought it would be most helpful to sort of just give you a quick overview of the current status in the preschool Um, so Mike, can you just turn it to the thank you So currently we've been really lucky to have um Quite a few staff members who are in a position Personally to volunteer to return So we have four morning in-person classrooms that are running from 8 30 to 10 30 monday through thursday So for eight hours of provision a week We have one afternoon classroom that's running in person from 12 30 to 230 Um, we also have four remote classrooms that are running at a variety of times in the afternoons And then um, we do have some students who are seen to one to one depending on their level of needs So children with some more um complicated needs that really um in order to make progress need that one-to-one support virtually So at the moment, we have 18 students that are being served. Um in person At the cracker farm preschool. Um, and that's a combination of students whose parents made the choice in august September to Return them in person So that was from the original survey as well as um about six students that have transitioned into the program throughout the year Turned three through early intervention or community concerns That have also been prioritized for in-person return You go to the next one Um, and then we also have obviously our related service providers or therapists are providing a combination of in-person and remote services to their students Um, depending on their schedules and just um programming and timetables and then um, we've like I said We were lucky enough that quite a few of our staff were in a position not all of our staff could voluntarily return for a variety of reasons Um, but um, we were lucky to have 17 staff members who were able to return voluntarily Um, so that's everything from paris to teachers to um therapists or related service providers Um, and then the afternoon sessions are run by some of the same people from the morning as well as our amazing um remote team Um, so I did want to just propose some next steps For expanding the program to more in-person or in-person options for more, um students um We'd like to reopen the in-person option to all families of children with IEPs so to um put out a survey I would think something similar to what's been sent out to the rest of the families in the district Just asking if they'd now be um interested in returning in-person or for students who weren't here in august september if they would like to come in person I think that there'll probably be some changes in the community for a variety of different reasons from Everything from feeling more comfortable and confident With the current situation to um child care needs all sorts of things or virtual not working well for their children anymore Um, and then we'd like to extend our morning hours for another hour a day I'm taking it to 11 30 so there'd be four more hours of in-person contact time for the children Obviously, um, we need time as well because they'll I'm I'm sure Like the rest of the year uh grade levels that there'll be children who their parents want them to remain remote so um, we'd like to end at 11 30 in order to have time to um To also provide their remote provision for those children in the classroom Um, of course, we would then need to um in order to make this successful We need to bring back all preschool staff unless they have a remote accommodation through hr, of course Um, and just to give you some more information our program currently has 45 students with ieps and we're in the process of Assessing 13 other students within the community to determine their eligibility for special education services I think that was my last timeline um, so Just sort of guessing on a timeline. Um Hoping that we would be able to send home a survey soon um giving parents Perhaps a week to think about it. Um, think parents will need to Talk and decide um based on their current situation If they'd like their child to return in person and then just sort of the planning stages in terms of sort of my consultation with The other pieces to the puzzle and the other people that work in the district that would need to help me with reopening One of the key ones being transportation. We would need a few weeks to plan And then of course we do have the april break. So um with the thought of Bringing back as many students as their parents. We're happy to have them back on april 26 following the april break I think that was That was it Thank you. That was a really succinct summary of a whole lot of information And um, so I appreciate your work on that and your thinking and creativity I think it's worth noting Um, just that that preschool uh again and and miss, you know, coordinator burns mentioned this But that really appreciate the staff who volunteered to come in so that we are sort of, you know We do have an on-ramp to what this might look like and that was really only because the preschool staff volunteered to do it Right? There was at this point. There was no obligation for them to do that So we want to thank the staff and you know, I'm excited about our youngest students and how we can best serve them and you know I think in my opinion this plan balances Kind of the health and safety needs that we have when working with their younger students, but also Um, making sure that we're providing, you know, the best possible education Given the circumstances to a greater number of students So that's sort of where we are with it, but we do want to check in with the school committee to see your thoughts feelings questions concerns before before The program would move forward with serving families or caregivers and anything else that you might want to know Yeah, thank you Any questions from the committee? Miss fitzer First thanks so much for the presentation and for the you know, to all the staff who've been working in person and remote as well um I have just a couple clarifying questions and and I guess I want to preface this all by saying I think One of the things that's been really difficult about this pandemic is that I know that we've had a loss of early childhood education programs have closed and and parents are particularly, you know, I I think there's more of a need for preschool education than there has been It's never that there wasn't any but but the providers have been contracting somewhat. So um I just want to clarify. So we're currently Have 45 students with IEP's does that include the students who are being served in person and those who are being served for remote? And so currently we have 18 who are 18 or 17 or in person to 18 or going to get the numbers mixed up in and write them um But just sounded like there's a very high staff to child ratio at the moment so I guess one of my questions is I know um with the Elementary education, we've been talking about potentially having to hire additional staff in order to keep classes as small and to make sure that We can practice social distancing and I know that's different in a preschool situation but I'm just wondering is there any anticipated need um for that type of um Hiring to take place at the preschool level or do we anticipate that we'll be able to meet the needs of the parents who are interested within the current staffing levels that we have While still honoring those who who need to work remote Yeah, so um, we anticipate that we'll be able to meet their needs of the staffing that we have um once um Once we have a return of all staff not just the voluntary staff any other questions I appreciate the um foreigners and and how swiftly you went through the presentation to packed a lot of information in some Really really well done. So thank you for that. Um I think um My my only question was very similar if not identical to miss spitzer's questions. So I think I'm Also yeah so, I don't think I need to vote but I just want to um Make sure that the committee is comfortable with um The program moving forward in the ways that miss bernand's Identified I'm sensing it is but I just because I'm from everyone just want to make sure and I'm seeing lots of nodding heads Yes Good. Yeah, I I take that as a as a yes And support for this um plan. So thank you Great. Thank you. Thanks so much elizabeth. Have a good evening. Sorry to keep you up late Okay, I will take mr. Demling while we get ready for um our next item, which is K to six spring in person return. Um, I guess an update for them Yeah, I'm gonna note that we are one minute early Uh on our agenda, which is remarkably accurate. Uh, given the complexity of talent tonight We may this one may lose the the steam of being on time. I'm gonna do my best There's not many slides, but I'll wait for mr. Demling to return before I move forward Well, we can read the uh items 11 and 12 on our agenda very quickly Not sure I can do 10 minutes on this, but I'm gonna I kept it to a the minimum of slides. So And mr. Demling's back. So, um, this is summary of where we are with in person return I'm gonna share my screen again very short slide deck again um There we go. Okay, so hopefully that's visible to folks. Um and Just go over the first I want to really start with acknowledgments Uh, you know between ambers and I'm not including palmon the rest of the report but palmon too Uh, you know, you send out a survey and and to get 100 responses It means you're you're not just sending out a survey and passively waiting for responses Our clerical staff in each of our elementary schools Where it was calling families well before the survey was due Uh, it was contacting families filling out the survey for families who needed support Our family center reached out to folks. Um, who Based on either language literacy level, you know anything needed support to complete the survey and none of that was done in a coercive way It was all just here's the information. Here's the survey Uh, and how do we move forward? So, you know, I really do want to give a shout out to the clerical staff in our buildings for doing just an incredible amount of What maybe to the general public quiet work, but but a critical work for us to be able to move forward Families we had really good success to sponsor it. We had some town halls great questions conversations It was just last week. Although the time is feeling funny this way Debbie and sasha field did a plethora of emails phone calls clarifications on the survey Their inbox was one day. They were like, I think we can't do anything else except respond to questions that we're receiving And and yet they did many more things. So they deserve it, you know, our staff who You know are managing lots of change All around them, um, you know, I want to that's really critical Human resources team trying to manage how do we how do we staff for the different parallel models of in-person remote is no Easy feat and that's ongoing and then of course our building leadership for managing all these things at their site and being the Instructional leaders at the same time So short story a lot of people have done a tremendous amount of work And are continuing to do so to make this all work for our kids So here's a summary of the data and the planning Most kids are coming back right And I just put one slide of data on the next slide and she's available in our packet online too From the lowest the highest school a lowest school had 71 percent of students returning lowest number of percent of students returning To in-person and our the highest number was 78 percent Interestingly, that was the same range of a grade level. So we weren't seeing for instance fifth grade Oh, everyone came back in fifth grade, but very few kids coming back in second grade You know with the end size we have here. These are not statistically significant differences about three quarters of students are coming back Regardless of the school and about three quarters of students are coming back to in-person Regardless of what grade level they were in and there was no rhyme or reasons like our lowest number Was adjacent in grade level span to our highest number, right? It wasn't like younger kids They're mostly coming back and upper kids aren't it was really all over the place that way But but but pretty consistent by school and by grade level All of our schools have between 200 250 kids You see the total number of students returning there across our three schools The average class size of in-person is 15.1 students Um, so that's significantly lower than our typical size and we achieve that in some ways we did Make one higher. Um, we did need to hire one more classroom teacher temporary position for the rest of the school year Fortunately, it's a familiar face. Someone who's worked in our district before and can jump right in But we also have people who weren't typically classroom teachers taking on those roles. We have A power educator whose license is taking on that role. We have Intervention staff in all of our schools are taking on classroom roles So, um, it really is a team effort and that's true on both the in-person side and the remote side In short, we have more people More of our staff acting as classroom teachers Then we would typically have and and we needed to do that to keep the class sizes In a place that we felt comfortable with And as a result, we can have the the students in desks and the students being six feet apart Which from a contact tracing perspective is is is a really helpful thing I'm not trying to engage in dialogue about six feet versus three feet and all that But the reality is that the current contact tracing not having close contacts Where students are seated is a helpful thing. It also really helps with meal times As meals will be in the classroom. So if students are six feet apart, we don't need to reorganize ourselves for meal times In the same way and frankly to come to the community right now At least some people in the community are more comfortable with the six foot number than they are with less than six feet, you know A little less than half of our students requested transportation This is going to be a significant this helps in terms of our bus routes What it doesn't help with is that it means that we'll have a lot of cars at the school and Our principals are working on different models for entry and exit It may be a sort of staggered drop-off time with really specific 10 minute blocks depending on last name or something like that because If everybody came at the same time, that'd be the cars would be out into the road Especially at fort river if you could think about that sort of narrow entryway And wildwood onto especially at fort river major roads So we're still working on details on that rupert got his uh, and randy our transportation folks They got the list of uh, folks, uh, riding buses yesterday And so they're in the midst of creating bus routes and then, uh, getting some numbers on how many buses we're going to need Uh, as well as how many cars are coming into different times That's really a critical component and i'll get to this in a second of why We feel so strongly that we'd like to phase in the k to two one week earlier than three to six We can map this out as as best we can We have the experience from the fall as well as at crocker farm right now of having some students in and how many cars come Um, this is a lot more cars than we've had at any point this year or any point in our history dropping off So having that week to work out details and to plan for that three to six is going to be really helpful to us on the logistics end On the remote, uh, which is just as important as the in person. It worked out really well, um, like Almost like there were plants in terms of how they were Acknowled what they wanted for in person remote We worked out really well to have two remote classrooms per grade level as well as remote coming on days Which are very small cohorts, which you know are within that program um So those two remote classrooms per grade level are across the four elementary schools the three plus pelham Uh, the pelham is a very low percentage of participation in that in remote And so, um, the average class size there is 18.5 students per class Uh for folks who might see a disparity between the in person and the remote Some of that's just be based on the safety needs of in person But 18.5 is less than our typical last couple years. We've been over 19 less than 20, but over 19 Students per class. So this is a pretty nice number There are zero classes on the remote side or certainly in person that are over the class size guidelines That you all have for us in the emmer school committee So I feel like we're doing really right by our remote students Keeping their class sizes very reasonable and dedicated significant amount of human resources To supporting them at each grade level You know, there are some inefficiencies in our parallel systems So it has resulted in a couple three multi-age classrooms Not all of those are on, you know, there's one on the remote side and two on the in person side Um, but actually one of those is is currently operating as a multi-age class And and our perspective is this year is a perfect year if we're going to have a multi-age classroom This is a good year to do it and we aired on the side of having multi-age class instead of having Frankly, really large classes at a couple grade levels From the remote side and the in person side We we found that a multi-age class setup kept class sizes low and was a better use of human resources For us and That's where we landed on the data and the planning side This is just an example again I could have bored you with a tremendous number of bar charts of our graphs But you can see that really disparities between the schools in terms of the response rates Of in person or remote are very minimal They're certainly within a small band of margin of error. I would guess with the end size we have here Um, and so and that's true again across grade level as well Um, so the last slide I have is about next steps But I wonder if maybe I should pause and see if there's any questions about the data being presented Before I talk about the next steps moving forward Sorry, I had to unmute myself any questions Mr. Demling um, so having a week that to work out the the cars um issue The drop off makes total sense to me. Can you just talk a little bit more about the other factors you considered when I know that um, it's interesting at the elementary level here. Um, the state Dictate has has a much less impact because we already decided Elementary in terms of um The grades coming back. Um, but could you just talk about the the different variables you considered when when thinking about? phasing I mean, I know it works out with what we said in terms of uh, uh, April 5th and April 12th Um, but you know, were there any other factors you considered, you know to to either go lower or or longer Yeah, so there's two other factors. One is just the staffing piece Uh, it gives us a little bit more time to work out and I'll speak to this when we talk about planning All the the distinctions particularly around special education ELL. Um There's a tremendous amount of scheduling and rescheduling that has to take place as we have two classrooms of remote and then Usually six seven or eight classes of in person Uh, and then shifting staff members that way So at the key to two at least we have some experience kato one We've done that before and so if if there were no students with special needs and no english language learners I think our world would be a worse place But it would be a lot easier to schedule Right because you wouldn't be managing all those components of in person and remote For for all those pieces. Um, so that's one that we think we we're going to do better With the upper grades if we we have a week more to plan and manage the staffing On those two fronts. I think the last one is a less tangible one But the Fort River School, which will have three students in it from now until April 5th to go from three students to over 200 students overnight Is a little jarring and I think there's there's an emotional component Especially when the young kids come in and I've seen a cracker farm I saw it in october that they they have a lot of space in the school and they're able to learn their routines and You know, I think for some of those students second grade hasn't been in And for k-1 they haven't been in a really long time Especially if you think about the lifespan of a child who's five six seven and eight Um, and it allows them that space to learn the routines again to to to learn the safety routines to learn What a one-way hallway looks like things that aren't quite natural for young students Um, and then when the older students come in It it's not that everyone has to do everything all at once and our young students Have a little more higher comfort level being in a space themselves for a week So again, that's not a tangible response. I may not be satisfying I know people are really excited about and many people are excited about in person But we feel like actually that intangible piece both for staff students and families Is going to be really good for for everyone And I think make us better in terms of managing the complexities of having a couple hundred students in a school for the first time in a long time So those are the two other variables other than the transportation But I got to say that the transportation is is is right here on all of our minds Especially the the principles who are managing the logistics and safety of having, you know upwards of, you know, potentially a hundred cars Come in their site in the morning when we're used to having 30 or 40, you know At post In the morning and plenty of those are tardies, right? That's why they're coming in cars versus the bus So, um, it's going to be a really different environment against some schools have Sort of each school has actually has its unique challenges as it relates to the entry and exit None of them we would never design a school Entrance the same way these any of these three school entrances are designed from a safety perspective So whatever happens to the building project, it will not look like it does now, but that's where we are right now and The safety piece is really huge Yes, lord Thank you. Um, I hope I'm not asking you to duplicate or repeat yourself I just want a little more information about the multi-age classroom I was in one and I know as a student it can work out like What are what's the grade ranges? Is it going to be more than two and as your support for the teachers that are going to be doing this? Yeah, so it would only be two in terms of the multi-age. So it would be, you know, and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself because You know that people yeah go to yeah We'll talk about placement and next up soon enough, but it would only be a the grade range would be two And I think absolutely we think about staff support I think this year again is a good year because we're not necessarily all not that we ever are perfect on this or really aspirational But we're not on page 57 on Tuesday world, right? That's not our reality Right now. So, you know, what we would be trying to think about is what our, you know Supports we can put in place for staff members and families But I think, you know an odd And I'm you know me. I'm always looking for silver linings But some of those kind of arbitrary we put kids in grade bands based on their birth date And if you're born on october august 31st And your your neighbor is born on september 2nd We arbitrarily say you'll never be in class together When developmentally it doesn't make a whole lot of sense It allows us to experiment. There's some really interesting this school at Salem There's some schools that really do interesting work sands pandemic On looking at developmental levels instead of on a biological birth date level So it allows us to dabble in that a little bit and and really a lot of our focus in the return not that we're Playing the academics is on kind of emotional well-being building community building relationships Um, and I think everybody's in really different places on that So I know our principles are being very thoughtful. It also allows us to reduce the number of students who will be in Classes with others that are it allows us to increase the number of students who stay within their quote unquote school community So the ability to do multi-age means that on the virtual side, we have fewer students attending a school Outside their home school or with more mixing other students from other schools and I don't think that's a bad thing But we do see some value in when it worked out trying to promote more students staying within their quote unquote home school Because we've heard a lot of feedback on that throughout the year Miss lark did you I did. I'm sorry that I didn't start off with a Gratitude to all you and everyone else who has done this Huge huge huge thing. So I just wanted to make sure I didn't not say thank you Thanks Appreciate it um Yes, thank you. There's like Hard to believe that it's been only a week since we since we got the the directive from from desi. So Thank you to your team in the across the district for all of this work um, I guess I have one question and sort of echoing some questions that came up in the in the public comment about staffing and teachers about remote placement I think you've already addressed that the the remote Teaching the remote instruction is going to remain unchanged despite sort of the change in desi Directive or expectation. We're not changing our remote education plan. Um, but if you could And it's probably too early because I think you you started off by saying that you're just Just looking at sort of the classes. But in terms of the staffing Do we have enough teachers That are not that have not already been granted remote placements that that were Those that need them will still be able to remain in remote Yeah, so I'll speak to classroom teachers because I think as I alluded to el l and special ed or that's our next phase of work But from a classroom teacher perspective. Yes We it worked out Uh Well where anyone with a personal health condition? Uh, who wasn't able to personal health need who uh is not Has no decision make they have a remote assignment. And so this kind of three quarters to one quarter split worked out Pretty well and worked out pretty well by grade level. In other words, we don't have a first year first grade teacher Who all of a sudden is now teaching sixth grade, you know, we do have some some changes, right? It's not it's not perfect. And as I mentioned, we have some intervention staff and some other folks Who are taking on different roles, but it's no one's making, you know, the first to sixth grade leave and we tried to keep As many students with their classroom teacher. So in other words, if students are Chosen person and their teacher is coming back in person They'll be in that same teacher's class and likewise if a student shows our family chose remote and the teacher's remote And there's a match we made all the matches where the day logically could be made But any time you're expanding the number of sections That means someone's changing the roles, right? And in order to make Our remote class sizes to be consistent with our what we would normally have as well as our in person Even smaller because of covid it means we needed to increase the number of sections and that did impact and some people will be Playing a different role than they're playing Have played throughout the year last year and staff as I mentioned tomorrow afternoon are going to get much more information on an individual level In terms of classroom teachers anyway about what their assignment will be Thank you for stating that Any other questions Thing then okay All right, I'll go ahead to the the next the last slide next the last slide So our timeline is you know, we'd like to keep to that same timeline You know what that would mean this week we'd apply for a waiver from desi I did informal conversation with someone at desi and suggested, you know, we're coming from remote and And this was what we were thinking about and this isn't anything official But I think there was some acknowledgement that this is a reasonable waiver request. I think what they're worried about waivers is Yeah, we're going to start with Hybrid and we'll get to five days in person sometime this spring. Like that's the thing or like may 31st When I suggested this there was no shock that I experienced in terms of the response So we would be doing this. This is also consistent with Pellum Which actually does matter because there's some shared staffing and students there Um, and they met about this last week. Um on thursday, so the voluntary turn as I mentioned earlier In a different context continues. So this week we saw three students start at fort river in the building blocks program And fourth grade start at crocker farm Next week, we'll see a couple grade levels start at wildwood. So that'll continue and expand While we're planning for this which is making things a little complicated so to speak but but um You still think it's a good thing Placement is just about done. Um, so all you know 900 some odd students or however many works out to a thousand students We're just about done with placement and we'll share that with teachers good Tomorrow and we'll have that out to families once it's fully finalized. I think the date is a week from tomorrow. So the 23rd or 24th, I think that'd be the 24th We'll send out placement For all families. So they're aware of who the classroom teacher will be I want to be really clear that the survey was binding Right, I've got a number of questions saying is it really binding and so anyone who's watching this that survey is really binding about in person or remote It's not something that we are going to change And so We've this took the most intricate planning and I want to think the principles the system principles were huge in this as well as many others We're moving forward with the plan And you know went as far as to get legal guidance in this question because we knew it was bound to come up And and what people chose for in person or remote and their placement is the option that they have you know for the rest of the school year And we're not you're not going to hear us about changes in placement or You know things like that In the future for the next couple months We're doing spending a lot of time in transition planning a number of our school leaders as well as district leader attended The bright program which we talked about it's it's now a national program And they had a great workshop today about how to support adults through that transition So a lot of tomorrow also will be about how to support our our staff Through the transition because if they feel supported they're going to be much more apt and able To support our students through that transition because this is a lot for students and families as we've talked about It's a tremendous amount for staff So we want to make sure that we're taking care of their needs answering their questions Gets the schedule. It's a little adjusted from our original schedule which we voted but based on the desi requirements of time On learning we do need to start a little bit earlier Not a huge difference, but 15 I think 20 minute difference 20 minutes earlier Than in the original plan, which is 9 50 I believe but with the time on learning requirements that desi has and you know peter reference We are needing to adjust that to a 9 30 start As I mentioned earlier rupert and randy are hard at work on bus routes We're going to try to keep as consistent bus routes as we can From what typically was there so that kids who typically rode the bus together will at least see each other On the bus there'll be fewer students obviously on the bus than typical but 43 percent of kids taking the bus and it's 43 percent of 78 percent of kids returning or 76 percent of kids returning We feel pretty good that our buses won't be overfilled and that we'll be able to space them appropriately but that's what um the folks in transportation and sally who Runs all the routes and the versa trans are working All the time on since I gave them that list yesterday afternoon They're already making progress and we'll try to get those out to families as soon as we can But there's a lot of work that goes into that Um special ed ELL schedules. This is again one of the most complicated aspects of running parallel programs It's incredibly daunting of how to meet all students educational needs Within the confines of school days that are happening on parallel tracks. So Dr. Brady Joanne Smith and the special ed side and kitty richardson and the ELL side are doing tremendous amount of work on that HR is Gathering lists of substitutes and our plan is that permanent subs two to three a school So that they're consistent. They know the safety protocols. They can kind of walk into the situation and be able to fill in You know, we'll have a pool of subs in general But we're trying to get people who can commit five days a week full time To us and we're just about all the way there to have permanent subs in our buildings for us a year Thankfully, we haven't spent much of our sub budget. So this is not going to impact, you know, financially Where we where we would be and from a health and safety perspective, we feel like it's a non-negotiable that we have this in place We also the the principals are leading family and student training on in-person protocols So before students return in person, they'll have an opportunity to be trained on, you know, what it's like And our principals doing a great job trying to organize this with our nursing staff our nursing staff also next Wednesday During an early release day We'll be doing training for all the in-person staff on safety protocols and they're finishing up a document for them tomorrow But they're going to do some some training for everybody and that leads to staff training and support Which is going to be the critical piece of all this and that's why we're doing that We are going to have an asynchronous day Before the in-person return and there's two purposes for that for people returning in person That's so they can get their room ready and meet and work with their fellow teachers And also work with remote folks. We have a significant number of students I don't have a percentage because we literally finished this up this afternoon But uh in terms of placement We have a significant percentage of students who are going to be working with a different educator or different set of educators They were in the past and we do need to give our educators time to be able to talk about those students to smooth that transition And it can't all happen off the clock just very bluntly like we do need to give people time To be able to do that So the way it's being organized right now by the principles is that Grade levels would have the same asynchronous day before The return so that all the fourth grade teachers Yes, some of them are going to be in person some of them the remote folks in particular have the largest amount of Change in their classes that may be coming from other schools But they have an opportunity to read IEPs read ELL plans read student profiles and then be able to talk to counselors And teachers who have worked with these students all year And I know it's hard to think of an asynchronous day now, but I think that's going to really be beneficial On day one two and beyond when this transition happens for students, you know, I'm hearkening back Some of you don't go back this far But when we redistricted and how critical it was that there were conversations between educators About students as that transition was occurring Um, so, you know, I can't put enough stock into our nursing staff Who have been fantastic and fabulous and been great supports But also giving staff time to be able to coordinate on the most important thing, which is our students You know, if we were having this conversation in january It might feel a little different because you'd be like, oh, well, they've got Six months left to make those new connections and get to know these students, but we don't, you know We're starting in april, you know, we really have to get this right very very quickly to support our students In that transition because there's not there's not much time for recovery mode to to happen So that's that's sort of our next steps. Um, it's a daunting list. I'll be honest with you I want to publicly thank all the staff members all the staff members supporting but you know People I work with the most of the leadership team and you know countless, you know, couldn't sleep about this one last night I'm thinking about this and how many times we've went back and and revisited decisions that we thought we made two days ago You know and now we're at it's like a pretty settled place Which feels like a good thing, but just when you're settled one thing then you go on to the next thing Okay, now that we have placement done how we do in el how we do in special education Uh, all those pieces are really critical but I think that the the thing I'd leave you with with the presentation and open up for questions is Um, that we have to really think through and what we are really thinking through is how do we make this transition? Which is massive work For the adults and the kids, you know, so there's all the like nitty-gritty logistics But all those really implement if we can be orderly on arrival in dismissal That's going to have an impact on how students and families and staff experience the whole school day and the whole transition So it's not just for the sake of being orderly. I know I can get critiqued of that probably fairly So that I always like things to be organized and structured Uh, but this isn't that this is about there's a lot of um anxiety Whether it's in people staying in person people staying, you know people going in person people staying remote and the more we can be structured organized and Coordinated that's going to be the best outcome for students. So that's really the attention on the focus and You know principal assistant principals. I apologize for how much I'm pulling them for meetings It's every day all the time it feels like but this is the work that we need to do for our staff and our students so I'll I'll stop there and see if there's comments or questions that anyone Questions mr. Demley Yeah, I mean, I just want to echo I guess what mr. Lord said earlier, which is just gratitude for such a thoughtful Plan that is faithfully implementing What is a very tall order? from Well from the school committee really um to implement this and um, you know, I just it's it's been interesting Watching things unfold around the state this past week. Um both on school committee listservs and In the news and whatnot and you know, it's we're we're asking you to do A lot and to hold certain attributes As a priority and not lose sight of any of them in terms of the pace So that you don't slip the deadline the the safety obviously the support for for staff And and not to deprioritize Our smaller student groups particularly EOL and special Need students and um You know, um, the reality is that some districts aren't doing so well on one or more of those and are either slipping the dates or they have Not a lot of support for for staff for the transition or Or the they're really aren't putting front of mind EOL and special needs students. I really I really appreciate the thoughtfulness and and the pace um, uh, and and the structure of the of this plan. It's um You know, this is exactly what I wanted to have happen a couple weeks ago So I I really appreciate then, you know, I gratitude also extends to your team and to district leadership and of course all the staff because this this literally takes a village from From the the lowest level Uh, uh frontline educator, you know, all the way up. So um, just a lot of appreciation Dr. Morris, thank you. Thank you so much for saying that and I really just want to stress the assistant principals and principals of the schools I mean literally I want the community to know they're looking when we were doing placement They're looking at I mean, we were thousand kids. The reason it's taking so long. We're looking at every individual kid You know and every individual student and every individual staff member And how to balance all the variables as best we could so when we finish this afternoon, you know, and by finish It's kind of our initial Uh placement piece, you know, we were like, you know, it's getting the point where I feel like Derek Shea can just start describing, you know, some kids at Fort River now because we're getting at that level of granularity About, you know, in particular focus just transparently on the remote students today And how do we balance those 12 classrooms and and how do we retain as many of those? You know, um in person, you know The supports that those remote teachers have had What's the right grouping of students if there is going to be a mixed group where there's Students from Crocker Farm and Fort River in the same class You know, how do we balance those? What are the special schedule look like? Uh for students in remote classrooms and they've just been doing just incredible amounts of work And it's just it's my honor to facilitate the meetings, which is primarily what I do But um, it's a really strong team, but I do want the community to know we we're at that level of granularity And how the principal approached it and assistant principals have been critical as well Wow, thank you miss fitzer Yeah, I I will I won't go on about it, but I would also like to Think everyone involved in this process. I'm highly impressed by the The amount of Work that must have gone into this and how quickly everything seems to be coming together. Um I guess One question I have is so I see the timing changed a little bit from 9 30 to 3 10 and when we originally Way back when we're planning this we had Asynchronous learning potentially taking place in the morning or at some other time of day Is that still going to be something we're going to need to offer our students in order to meet? Desi requirements are we going to be able to Just have those be the hours and not have the expectation of students engaging in other learning outside of the The time I know that our remote students will still be starting the day at 8 45 I'm thinking right now just about our in-person students Now this would meet the desi requirements of five hours of instruction a day, you know It we're structuring our schedules a little differently. It's something I didn't mention here Is our principals assistant principals working on the schedule of the day? Um, and it looks a little different in some ways because we're not using the cafeteria So even some of the lunchtime, you know, we can do a lot of social emotional learning and structured social time, you know, which is part of A part of structured learning time and it gets the hours because it's not sort of Going to the cat for cafeteria without a professional staff member there Um, so there are some some differences with it But this is to accommodate so we're not doing asynchronous time because we're really worried in reality We worried a lot about the buses, right? So, you know, if a student's getting on a bus we can expect them to do asynchronous work While they're on a bus and if if that's not true, then they're starting to do their work pretty early In the morning, so this would fit it And the number of our instruction hours, you know Roughly matches because if you think about the asynchronous or the excuse me the remote schedule You have that long block middle block of the day So it sort of shifts the time so it sort of ends up being a bit of a wash So I think everyone is getting kind of sufficient amount of high quality instruction Can I ask just two follow-ups? So the the other question I have is just thinking I think even the Clarify me if I'm wrong on this Provide a clarification if I'm wrong so for For those students who are in person, they may still be receiving some remote instruction while they're in the school So, you know, for example, I'm thinking my son's taking cello lessons I'm assuming that the cello teacher if those are to continue I mean, I don't need to go to music in depth But he might still continue to receive those that level of instruction remotely The other follow-up question I have is just going So the survey had two pieces one was all about in person or remote and That was finding the other piece was about the bus option. So I'm just wondering could you clarify if Wants to drop off in the morning pick up in the afternoon Is that an option if they need to on a day when they have a A need to pick up their child in person after school Is that's still going to be an option the way it was pre Pandemic to kind of pick up occasionally use the bus occasionally and just some clarification on that Yeah, and I meant to mention that we talked about this. I apologize miss spitzer So absolutely what I would encourage folks to do we're going to be in that I'll take the bus sometimes and and pick up sometimes is get in touch with the school and the principal or the office staff Because they will have a number system which helps things flow more efficiently Where families we had this in the fall where families were assigned a number that went in their fresh dash board and it made for staff matching students and Families just go a lot smoother and then we were more assured in terms of you know, not everyone working at dismissal might know every single child So it just it made things There was it made things go a lot easier But we know that some families and we did get that question after the survey Should I fill out transportation if I need it in the mornings, but not the afternoon and the answer was yes Because from a safety perspective, we want to know the maximum amount of students They would ever be on a bus, but that doesn't mandate you to Like send your child in the bus or else you can't come to school. We certainly are flexible with that But because there's a different protocol and this will come up in this the family and student trainings that the principals are going to lead We just want to make sure that that every family who's interested in that gets assigned a number and knows the protocols because it Is going to feel really different than it did in the past Any other questions? Did you have one more slide or was that it was at it? That is it actually Um We are meeting again in two weeks. Oh, so we'll segue right into the next agenda. I know much is future agenda planning So I would imagine that we'll We probably would want another update on that at the At that meeting in two weeks because it'll be a week before the youngest youngest grades return um I think I'm gonna pull up Define the document. Um, so right now all we have uh on the 30th. Um, and I'm Not saying that we need to add more. Um, is our FY 22 budget vote and discussion. Um, and so based on our earlier discussion Um, I think we will have continued discussion on that at that point not just A vote as well as then Um, I just added in person return update Mr. Deming Uh, whenever it is appropriate Given that the district is a little busy right now. Um, the uh, sibling policy for our specialized specialized programs at forever in Wildwood would seem to be a timely opportunity to review Looks like uh, dr. Morris is tentatively adding that to our may meeting That works. I think that one Could you share the link to that in the chat so we could have a visual on it? Yes Oh Oh, sorry So, um, just with regard to I've been hearing a lot about the middle school grade span report and next steps related to that that may impact the Emmer school committee as much as the regional school committee. I see it's on the agenda for the April 6th for the regional school committee. I'm one just wondering if we could Make that a joint meeting potentially to discuss it. And if not, could we create a time when the we could talk about its effects on Yeah, this is the um Yeah, we can Talk about sort of the the reporting of it. Um, the initiative Was initiated by the regional school committee and the region school committee will need to vote to Welcome sixth grade into that Program into their building Before this committee can have a discussion about whether we choose to Move our sixth grade to the middle school. So it is that is it's not a joint decision. It's a Region decision and assuming the region approves that then it would come to the individual member districts elementary districts Um, so I don't know um Because there isn't a vote being taken on that at the April meeting it Could make sense to and invites the Amherst and Pelham Dr. Morris, sorry No, no, I didn't mean to interrupt you you can finish with that Oh, I is going to say. Um, I think it could um Uh Be helpful to have um other elementary schools there A joint meeting that said because it's four towns. I'm not sure we want we're inviting also Leverett and shoots very so it may become I don't know maybe we we'd take that offline about whether we Do that separately or not dr. Morris. Yeah, so here's what I'd recommend is that Um I do think it makes sense to the region. So what's weird What's awkward is that you're all in the region and that's not the case for any of the other towns, right? So, you know for another town is one member of the region They can then bring it back to their membership whereas you're all of you sit in both both groups So my recommendation would be let the region have their discussion and then The representatives from all four towns can at that meeting discuss what next steps would happen at their relevant Elementary school committees whether it's a joint meeting or whether it's a separate topic But I think that way it keeps everybody all four committees on level footing Um, and I think in this particular situation Having the region discuss, you know, because the region's not going to make a decision as miss mcdonald said, right? It's just it's probably going to be an organizational conversation of like where do we want to go from here? So I think after that regional discussion all four communities can then figure out what the next steps would be on their elementary municipal school committee level if that makes sense Yes, much better said than I could at 9 30 Any other um thoughts mr. Harrington Yeah, I'm not entirely sure how to frame the the discussion, but um We talked about like like needs for crocker like capital needs for crocker farm I'm just thinking like as far as informing the conversations that are going to be happening about, you know Building a new school building thing like that should happen at some point. I'm not sure exactly the when or the how though I don't have a Fixed idea just just that we should at some point discuss the There are significant needs there. So Those are my thoughts Dr. Morris So, uh, I think at this point my recommendation would be, you know That would be good feedback for the folks in jcpc in the short term um You know, I mean good feedback is in a good discussion to have to inform their role on jcpc I think the building project Is its own thing and we will talk about that the next couple meetings. Uh, i'm benosomist mcdonnell. Maybe I just added that Right, there's not that much new to share as mr. Harrington knows other than you know, where we are at opm And we get but I think that's I shouldn't say there's nothing But there's nothing like that's huge about crocker farm to share about where we are on the building project There's a lot of work that's gone into it wasn't minimizing But I think to your relative your particular point I wonder if you know At the next meeting in two weeks if we can come back if there is some discussion about jcpc because it is In my opinion, it is relevant discussion For the relevant for the members who are on the joint capital planning group I don't know how if people be a mean able to that agenda item being added You know Mr. Demi Yeah, I mean I mean, I guess I kind of throw it back in your court dr. Morrison to a lesser degree mr. Roy Clarkson Doug mr. Slaughter's and but You know the what our committee wants to do vis-a-vis capital investment in crocker is part of All the other capital leads across our district right and so um Which then feeds into the capital budget every year and so it's this is good timing But but it's the timing is happening right now And so like if we look at that the line items at jcpc for the schools. We do have Certain money allocated in different fiscal years for at crocker farm for for different things and one would one would presume that When you and dr. Slaughter put that together and mr. Roy Clark That you were considering not only the needs of crocker, but the needs of the district and So are we focusing on crocker enough? I mean that is we could we could certainly have um A discussion here about that and then have that inform what we propose for our um for for the capital Portion of the budget proposal this year But I would I would imagine that that would have to happen pretty quick if we were going to make any changes To what you've already presented for for this year So, you know, I think that's a really good point. I don't know how mr. Harrington feels of Separating out the current capital year from what I understood in your comment to be long-term capital investments needed at crocker farm Is that an accurate read of your comments mr. Harrington? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so maybe we could slot that later in the spring So that it'll inform because our capital plan work actually starts in the summer when we start thinking about the next year But that'd be amenable to you mr. Harrington Okay And thank you for raising that because it's definitely on our minds. So appreciate that Miss spitzer I think given the um preschool update we got today, which was great because it was covering This year, um, we've had a really big change in the way Delivered preschool this year because I think we're only focusing currently and for the plan for the students with ip's at some point I'm not anytime soon, but it would probably be good to return to We had a conversation about preschool and potentially reaching out to the town to expand it And I just know from personal experience with other parents who are trying to secure preschool for their kids in the fall that there's a Seems to be a shortage of open preschool slots for typically developing kids um in our community right now, so it may be worthwhile to to talk about it And what it means for the 2021-2022 school year Yep, we can add that that's a great idea. Thank you, miss spitzer. Um, so I will move on but um, if anything if anything occurs to you afterward or Over the weekend and you can always send an email doesn't have to be just at the meeting um I think we have one gift in the Um The deck so I will Okay, um, I'll make a motion that uh, we accept a gift from um, a rps pgo incorporated number 995070 to support macauliffe virtual space program at wildwood in the amount of 100 dollars second Move by mcdonald a second by spitzer any discussion Seeing none. We'll move to a roll call vote. Mr. Demling. Demling. Aye. Mr. Harrington Harrington. Aye Miss lord Lord. Aye Miss spitzer Miss spitzer. Aye And mcdonald's. Aye The motion passes unanimously five zero um, I do have three warrants um that I will Read Oh, there it is second page. Okay. Uh, I off I also mcdonald authorized by my signature to payables The amount of 51,666 dollars and 73 cents for a warrant dated march 5th 2021 This included general fund expenses of 18,534 dollars and 19 cents revolving fund expenses of 23,122 dollars and four cents Grant fund expenses of 3,253 dollars and 44 cents behavioral mental Good thing. That's a grant for funding. Um, in the amount of 6,690 dollars and 89 cents and a gift to the schools of 66 dollars and 17 cents And I signed that on march 11th I also Authorized by my signature payroll in the amount of 640,901 dollars and 90 cents dated um March 10th 2021 and I signed that on march 11th and I signed um a By my signature pay out two payables in the amount of 54,518 dollars and 90 cents for a warrant dated march 12th 2021 This included general fund expenses of 54,018 dollars and 90 cents and grant fund expenses of 400 dollars And a gift to the school of 100 dollars and I authorized that Um, I signed that on march 14th 2021 and with that I will move that we adjourn second Move by mcdonald second by spencer. There's no discussion mr. Demling Demling I We're gonna lock you in the google meet if you've Mr. Harrington Harrington. I miss lord Lord I Miss spitzer spitzer. I And mcdonald. I we are adjourned. Thank you