 ACMI Productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help. Hi, I'm Kirsten Allison Ampe. I'm calling to order this regular school committee meeting of Thursday, March 14th. And we are in hybrid form as allowed by provisions of the open meeting law or suspending provisions of the open meeting law. I've already checked that our remote people can hear and speak to us. I do remind them that anything they show on their computer screens could be seen by others. And at this, oh, so the first thing we're going to do is begin with the public hearing on the superintendent's proposed school budget for fiscal 25. And I didn't actually ask if speakers were speaking to that or if they're here for public comment. So, Ms. Troha, were you here for the public hearing, budget hearing or for public comment? Public comment. Okay, okay. So is anyone here to speak to the proposed budget for fiscal 13, fiscal 25? Sorry, yeah, yeah, I kind of flipped. Okay, seeing none, I called the hearing. So the hearing is something that we're required to do by law. It's not technically any different than any of our other public comment sessions. We just have to put a notice in the paper and then have the session and stuff. So we have done that. We are now closing our public hearing and we are now moving on to public comment. So before I begin with public comment, I'd like to review certain sections of our policy, BEDH, which during public comment session of regular school meetings, individuals or group representatives may address the committee on items of school business. The length of public participation shall normally be no more than 20 minutes, but may be extended by the chair. Speakers must identify themselves by name and address and will be allowed up to three minutes to present their material. The chairperson may reduce speaking time of need and or may permit extension of this time limit. Improper context and remarks, including the use of obscenity or abusive language will not be allowed. Defamatory or abusive remarks are always out of order. If a speaker persists in improper conduct or remarks, the chairperson may terminate that individual's privilege of address. All remarks will be addressed through the chairperson of the meeting. Speakers may offer such objective criticisms of school operations and programs as concerned them, but in public session, the committee will not hear personal complaints about school personnel, nor against any member of the school community, except for the school committee or the superintendent in their capacity as the operational leader of the Arlington Public Schools. Under most circumstances, administrative channels are the proper means for disposition of legitimate complaints involving staff members. The public is reminded that the school committee does not hold jurisdiction over the performance of school personnel other than the superintendent. And I'd also like to note that we don't respond to public comment. We just hear it and we think about it. So we have four people. First is Ms. Troha, who is remote. Ms. Troha, you have four, three minutes. Hi, my name is Amanda Troha. I live at Sixth Marathon Street in Arlington. I'm an Arlington resident and soon to have a kindergartener at Thompson Elementary School. Thank you for having me, School Board and Dr. Coleman and everyone else who is here today. I am just here to comment that I think that all of our elementary schools need to have full-time librarians. Currently, three of the schools have full-time librarians and four of the schools are at a disadvantage by having to split their librarians, including Thompson, which is the biggest elementary school and currently has the lowest MCAF scores and studies have shown that students have the higher test scores and reading and writing. When schools have certified full-time librarians, these studies have also shown that economically disadvantaged Black, Hispanic and students with disabilities are even more helped by having these certified librarians and that this is a really critical time in our history where people need to understand media literacy and understand really gain the benefit of having these certified librarians. These are the only classes at those schools that are taught by PARAs in our elementary school on a regular basis and that we need to have certified teachers in all of our classes for all of our elementary schools. And I just wanna put my, just say that I think it's really important and that I hope that we can have that happen in the near future at all the Arlington Public Schools. Great, thank you very much. Next is Ms. Kelleher. Thank you so much. I'm Krista Kelleher. I'm at 153 Medford Street. I'm an Arlington high school parent. I'm very concerned about the current Arlington High School attendance policy. The existing policy is unreasonable and punitive. It may have unintended effects on students including negatively affecting their motivation, physical or mental health and capacity to engage in opportunities that support their personal, educational and career development. Further I am concerned about the resources and time it might take to implement this policy, particularly in the case of efforts to avoid implementing an FA which is a failure due to attendance. Finally I'm troubled by the potential of inequities in both the policy itself and the process of working to avoid an FA implementation. I'm especially concerned about students with disabilities, students who may not be able to easily access healthcare or medical documentation, students for whom religious observances for non-major religious holidays require missed classes and students without caregivers or parents who have the time and resources to correct an FA situation. My greatest concern about the policy is what counts as unexcused. First, health related absences without medical documentation. These absences may disadvantage students with chronic or persistent health conditions or those without easy access to healthcare providers. Two, performing arts activities such as field trips, school sponsor travel and rehearsals or performances at another Arlington public school. Unlike some school sponsored athletic obligations that are excused, it seems that many performing arts opportunities, some of which require earning a spot to participate are not excused. For example, the upcoming Carnegie Hall Festival, a school sponsor trip will mean that participating students will be penalized for classes missed over the course of two days. And finally, college visits, leaving students without an opportunity to visit schools in session during the weekday may be a problem and less students can ensure that such visits will not adversely affect their attendance status. I'm also concerned about the penalties for unexcused absences, including both the loss of credit and grade. I submit to a spreadsheet with 13 high school attendance policies demonstrating how comparatively our attendance policy is punitive and unreasonable. I kindly request that you encourage Arlington High to establish a working group to address the following and appropriate timeline for attendance policy revision using comparative data, collection of comparative data to understand existing policies, also a collection of internal data by race ethnicity and other demographic factors as well as IEP 504 status. Student and caregiver and parent experiences of the policy as well as their efforts to avoid an FA and finally analysis of policy implementation by school administrators, teachers, and staff, including the percentage of implemented FAs and FAs avoided with discretionary decisions by student demographics, also resources and time required to minimize FA implementation across the student population. Many thanks for your consideration of this request and I really appreciate your leadership on behalf of the students and the community here. Okay, thank you. Ms. Perez. Good evening, my name is Eliza Perez on Oakland Avenue. Tonight I wanna tell you about how CO2 or carbon dioxide relates to the increases in sickness and absences from schools. CO2 gas makes up the majority of the air we breathe out. The more people there are in an indoor space, the higher the CO2 levels get and they will stay high in a room until the window opens or event sucks it out. CO2 levels are a good proxy for chance of sickness because they tell us how much of the air we breathe in has already been breathed out by others. Levels measuring over 800 PPM negatively impact cognition and make you sleepy. Keeping CO2 levels low with fresh air keeps our kids sharp and they'll be breathing in fewer germs, which means lower absence rates, fewer substitutes and better cognition in higher test scores. This is all well proven, well established science. So here's the problem. We have a ventilation problem in our schools. There have been multiple indoor air quality studies performed recently at APS. In 2019 an independent firm performed a thorough air quality assessment at Ottison and found that three quarters of the classroom had CO2 levels nearly three times higher than acceptable levels, some well over 2000 PPM. No wonder so many kids are sick repeatedly. Absence rates have more than doubled in Arlington since 2018 and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that illness is a massive contributor. As families, we are doing our very best to address to decrease illness and resulting absences, but we cannot control how clean or dirty the air in our kids classrooms is. That's job is yours as district leaders. Any remediation that was done since 2019 is not enough because CO2 measurements submitted by parents across town show continued high levels of CO2 classrooms, including one room reaching nearly 3000 PPM back in October. So on behalf of both families and teachers who are tired of being sick all the time, we need you to do two things to help meet the big goal of improving health and education. Number one, establish an indoor air quality team with members of facilities, admin, teachers, parents, students to identify concerns and find solutions using industry standards for every school, every classroom to ensure health equity. And number two, use the remaining ESSER funding earmarked for building upgrades plus the chronic absenteeism desi funding to upgrade the air handling systems. And once you do this, mountains of research shows that absenteeism will decrease, risk of disability from illness will decrease, test scores will increase, and it will do that far more effectively than sending threatening letters to families of absent sick children. Making indoor air quality a priority in this district is about setting a positive culture by sending a clear message to the APS community that you are committed to removing learning barriers and optimizing staff and student potential by protecting their bodies and their minds. We cleaned the water we drink and now it's past time that we clean the air. Assemble an air quality team and use your rescue act and desi funding to fix the serious problems that are making our kids and teachers constantly sick. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Torres. Good evening. My name is Amy Torres Best, 12 Pond Lane in Arlington. I'm an Arlington parent and a volunteer for the national nonprofit Long COVID Families. Tomorrow is International Long COVID Awareness Day. Recently, the superintendent's newsletter focused on attendance with the tagline, attendance matters. Arlington Public Schools is committed to supporting all families with their students attendance to school. Families in school collaboration can boost students attendance significantly. End quote. The March issue of the Journal Pediatrics published a review of research that estimated 5.8 million children in the United States have been impacted by Long COVID. This translates to 10 to 20% of children in our country. The nature of illnesses like Long COVID are symptoms that ebb and flow and are often unpredictable. Children do not say to their parent or caregiver, I have Long COVID. Older children in adolescence could have chronic absenteeism or a drop in school performance. Younger children, it's even harder. Fatigue and sensory issues might be communicated by a child as irritability. Behavioral issues that are not typical for the child could be a sign of pain or feeling unwell. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in an op-ed on January 26th, 2024, quote, I am more than aware that many Americans are tired of hearing about COVID-19 and would like to sweep it under the rug. Unfortunately, the virus is not done with us. There is a hidden public health crisis in America that we can no longer ignore. And that is the crisis of Long COVID. Furthermore, although you may not have Long COVID after your first infection, each reinfection can increase the risk of developing it. This escalating danger, particularly for those who have suffered repeated infections, poses a severe threat to public health that demands our immediate and focused attention, end quote. In closing, trying to address attendance without addressing illnesses like COVID is futile. SARS-CoV-2 is airborne. Researchers are learning more every day about the impact of this virus. We can no longer ignore the impact of repeated COVID infections and long COVID. We can pivot now and protect all our children. It is up to us. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, this ends public comment. At this point we have our AHS student representative. Ms. Cole, are you? Hi. I have a lot of updates for upcoming events that everyone should check out. First of all, at the 12th night, the music call that the AHS drama guild is putting on is March 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, three different showtimes. Everyone should have a chance to go check it out. Next is the music tech concert, which is on March 28th. Following that is Social Worker Appreciation Day on March 16th, which is this Saturday. I think AHS has gotten a lot closer to their social workers, especially this year, and we're all very, very grateful for them. In April, we have inclusion workshops, which are workshops that happen every Thursday in April during advisory that focus on healthy masculinity, joy in the LGBTQ community, international dance classes. There's a keynote speaker coming in. We're all really looking forward to it. And this is kind of personal news, but the student council just went to their annual Massachusetts Association of Student Councils Conference, and we've won the highest award we've ever won in all of our history. So we're very happy about that. That's great. Thank you. Great. Thank you. If you have something you want to say, Mr. Schluck. I was walking through the high school and noticed the flyer for Pi Day. Oh, of course. That's something the class of 2026 is using as a fundraiser. So you can buy a raffle ticket for just $1 and put it in any of the nine teacher slots who volunteer to get pied, and the three teachers with the most raffle tickets by next Tuesday will get pied in the main lobby in front of a crowd. Nine volunteers, three victims. Yes. Hold on, when is this happening? What is this? Tuesday at 2.15 in the lobby. 2.15 in the lobby on Tuesday. That might be a must-see event. We could get ACMI down there. It's pretty good. They set up a tarp behind them, fill up the pie with as much whipped cream as possible. I want to thank the teachers profoundly for volunteering to do this. I think what you're hearing is Mr. Schluckman would like to volunteer. I'm pretty sure. I wouldn't make any money if they say I don't know who I am. Someone volunteered to get pied twice. Fantastic. Well, once you're pied at this second time, I don't think it really matters. You don't really feel it anymore, yeah. OK. Wonderful. Thank you. Moving on, we have the discussion of the fiscal 2025 superintendent's proposed budget, which does include a pie chart. It does. There is a pie chart. I have a pie chart. All right, I have a few updates from the previous presentation from our last meeting. And I'll move through these somewhat quickly. You have a revised budget document in your materials for this evening. Then I'm happy to answer questions about. I updated a few of the charts because we identified a few errors in the data that we had brought over on our demographics, so I just wanted to note that we corrected some data in 2023. We are still in a position where our focal groups are steadily increasing across APS, and our high needs population is increasing across APS over the past several years. I've revised some language in the budget book surrounding Chapter 70 to be very clear that Chapter 70 funding is received by the town. It contributes to the town's contribution to the APS budget. It has always been the case that the town uses that as one of many revenue streams, including property taxes to contribute to what they allocate to the schools using the funding formula that comes from a long-range plan. So I adjusted some language in the budget book to reflect some of that feedback as well as this graph, which makes it clear that the combination of the town revenue and property taxes plus Chapter 70 contributes to the town's contribution and the other funding sources are on top of that. Here's our pie chart. It's the same as the last pie chart that I've showed you. And these pieces are the same, but I wanted to go back over the summary of budget changes. We have made sure that the position schedule at the back of the budget book matches the summary of budget changes that's on page somewhere between 19 and 21 of the book. And the efficiencies also account for some corrections to some of our data in position control. And we've clarified some of the additions and included all of the additions that came after budget in FY24 in what is in both the position table and in the summary table. So I'll go through those here quickly. FY25 budget efficiencies, these are positions that were filled in FY24 will not be filled in FY25, include some classroom teacher positions because of decreasing enrollment, 1.0 total PE specialist because of decreasing enrollment at the elementary level, a curriculum specialist at the district level, instructional coach at the middle school level, and a library paraprofessional at the elementary level at 0.2. We also have made some budget corrections. You'll notice all of these are part-time budget corrections. These are corrections either because we were carrying in the case of the classroom teacher at Brackett, we were carrying a position from previous budget years that had not been filled in multiple years. It was literally a data duplication in position control. So we're correcting for that and eliminating that from the position control. It's not sort of a real reflected position. Teaching assistants are the teaching assistant roles, building substitute roles are roles that were filled at part-time and we anticipate keeping them filled at the level that they are currently filled. And so it's reflecting that we budgeted at a higher level than we filled and we're keeping it filled at the level that's currently filled. So these are what we're calling corrections of the budget, but it's a change from FY24 budget to FY25 budget. And apologies for the small print, but I wanted to make sure that we correctly reflected everything in the additions category. Everything with a double asterisk is something that is currently in the system that we are keeping as a resource for the following year. You'll notice that there are a number of specialized support paraprofessionals to support our students with disabilities in various settings, number of teaching assistants, special education teaching assistants, one-to-one teaching assistants, those were added as the result of changes to IEPs over the course of the year for students to get that specialized level of support that they needed. I do wanna note that there are, in a couple places, particularly at Stratton, we have included more staff to support the SLC at Stratton over the course of this year and they are currently looking at the model for that program and considering whether they want to add more certified staff and eliminate some of the paraprofessional additions that we added this year just to kind of make coverage and planning work. So they're looking at the program model, they're now considering how they wanna place students across the multiple classrooms in the SLC next year. So it's possible there will be some after-budget adjustments that net the same number of FTEs but that switch some teaching assistants for some certified special education teachers in the SLC classroom. So they're considering that right now but they're not done building that out and working with the special education department, Ms. Elmer, quite yet and so we didn't reflect it in the budget yet. So that's a possibility. There are also some custodians that those positions are posted but not yet filled. There were additions after the budget, the allocations from the ESSER grant that we've discussed. And I'm happy to take any questions about these. And those are the changes as noted if we hit a point where additions, where funds are going to allow for additions, we're going to take a look at service provision and where that might be needed particularly at the secondary level as enrollments expand. Elementary librarians which someone discussed tonight, we agree that's a major priority. We're also gonna take a look at the staffing model currently in digital learning and libraries and see if there's a way for us to put 1.0 support at the buildings either in digital learning or in libraries this year to make sure that there is a certified someone in the library. So we're taking a look at that right now to see what might be possible. We're certainly keeping an eye on custodial support and hoping that those 2.0 ads make a big difference and keeping an eye on a couple other areas as well. So happy to take any questions about adjustments to the 24, 25 budget and Mr. Farias is here as well to answer any questions. Okay, does anyone have any questions? Can you share a little bit more about the curriculum specialist reductions Yeah, so we have currently 1.0 previous to last year. So in FY 23, we had one social studies specialist, curriculum specialist and one science specialist. It was a consideration in the budget last year was a proposal to get both of those areas up to 2.0. I can certainly understand and respect the idea that it's going to be easier for us to roll curriculum adjustments in those curriculum areas forward. If they have a partner, they can do curriculum work with in that area. This is not a resource that a lot of districts our size have in place. And getting us to a place where we're sustaining 2.0 curriculum specialist in both of those subject areas. I'm concerned about the sustainability of a model like that. I do think it is important for those two curricular areas to have additional curricular support from an expert in the elementary level standards for that area. I think them working directly with a K-12 director on adjustments to curriculum in that area is very important. But before thinking about where we need to focus our attention for next year, it is on the rollout of EL. And if we're looking for additional support, it's on professional development to support the rollout for EL. And it may, we may reach a point where we're looking at our resources and thinking about how we integrate these curriculum areas and make sure that the kids can see connections across them at some point in the future. But for right now, we tried it for a year having two. If we're thinking about impact on student learning, I think there are other areas where we can have pretty significant impact. And we've had a lot of student needs come up that have needed additional staffing as well. And that's reflected in the budget this year. You can see it. And we wanna make sure we keep that there. So in considering where we could make adjustments, that was one of the areas we could make adjustments. So are there currently, so in this, so in FY24, there are two science specialists. There's two social studies. There's not two science, only one science. They will still, they will both be at one. Okay, thank you. And then the other thing is more of a comment. And I think it's mostly for the public, but I just, I think a lot about how our goal is to increase diversity in our staff. And then I look at reducing the staff by four classroom teachers. And it's sort of a hard truth that we're, that's something we've been working on recently. So I'm imagining that some of these people, these positions that are being let go are potentially staff that we were looking to have and keep to diversify our staff. And unfortunately, just based on enrollment, we can't do that. And so I hope that we can, I think it's important for the community to understand that it is something that the district is working on and the way that the schools work when there are decreases in enrollment and we need to reduce staffing. Those who are hired most recently are those that are let go first. I did send a message to staff about the budget not too long ago. And one of the key messages there that I want to just highlight is we really hope everyone who wants to stay in Arlington can stay in Arlington. We know there's always turnover. This is not so many positions that we can't hope that everyone who wants to stay will be able to stay. But yes, it is the nature of our contracts and the system that those are the folks most vulnerable to losing a role. Thanks. Any more questions? Comments? Mr. Clifford. So what you're saying is anybody who's receiving a notice at this point, this is sort of precautionary on our part to uphold the language of the contract that we have to provide notice that there might not be a position next year. But given the parameters that we're looking at in terms of a relatively small number of staffing reductions and teaching positions at the elementary level, there should be attrition so that we can end up retaining folks. So at the moment, nobody's receiving sort of reduction in force notice because of the number of, so NPTS teachers who have not been with us for more than three years don't receive a reduction in force notice. It ends up being a non-renewal. So right now we're hoping that through attrition we can retain some of our teachers who might be in that position. And we're having the conversation with folks so that they can proactively plan, but we're not, and we're looking at who we might be able to transfer. So we're also looking at the involuntary transfer language that's in the contract because it's possible we can transfer someone and then have them move back into a position that they might wanna be in through attrition over the next few years. So that's where we're at right now. And then once we have a clear assessment of who might transfer into other positions, we can think about who might need to receive a notice. If we get that far, it's possible we won't have to. And just a word of encouragement for younger teachers. First of all, it always pays to have multiple licenses. True. Any other questions? Ms. Gettison, any questions? No, okay. Okay, so I just wanna remind folks that we will be taking up the budget again next week to pass it. If you notice any questions or errors or anything in between now and then send them to the superintendent and otherwise we're on track to do that, okay? So next we have the monthly finance report, Mr. Ferrius. Sure. So we attach, you'll see the quarterly finance reports as of March 13. We broke it up into three parts. The first part will be the general fund report followed by the revolving and then lastly we'll have the grant expenditures. What you'll notice is the object codes on the first couple of pages, page three and four, are mostly contained salaries. You go to page four and five, it starts turning into contracted services followed by supplies of materials. And then lastly some categories we consider other expenses which would be some things such as computer equipment and some facility charges like gas and oil, electricity, things of that sort. Then on page nine we start showing the revolving accounts. You'll notice that we start with athletic fees just alphabetized followed by monotony preschool and then building rentals, Pierce Field, our tuition payments and foreign exchange and then followed by the Bishop bus revolving. And then on the last couple of pages, starting page 12 is when we start displaying the grants, starting with title one and then it'll go down up to some of our special education grants and then MECCO. And you'll notice at the end we have an S or three but we anticipate to spend that by the end of this year. If you have any questions, I know what kind of fast but if you have any questions feel free to let me know. Any questions? No, I mean we just got it. So there may be questions. Yeah, I think we could bring it up at budget while we meet next week. Or send along before then if you have any questions. Yeah, if you have any questions feel free to email me as well and I can try to have a small, at least nice for you for the next meeting. Great, thank you. Okay, and next we have the superintendent something. Yep. Okay, so I wanted to start, good evening. I wanted to start by providing a little bit of an update on the OMS bus. If you recall earlier this winter, I believe in early February we might have been late January. We launched an Autism Middle School bus run from East Arlington in the mornings. That was when we were experiencing the most challenges with MBTA and students being able to get to school on time and catch a bus from East Arlington to the Autism. So we began one bus run. We have right now from reports of who's actually riding the bus. 29 spots filled on that bus but the bus has the capacity to seat 45. So right now we're looking into whether there are folks who were admitted onto the bus but aren't using it. We have some folks who got a bus spot but aren't necessarily actually using the bus spot or it's not working out to be convenient enough for their family. We got some feedback on potentially wanting another stop. So we can look into whether or not we can manage that. The challenge with that is that the bus already is arriving at Autisten either right on time or a little bit late. So adding another stop is gonna make it more late which kind of defeats the purpose of us having the bus in the first place. So we're gonna take a look at what our options are. The reason why the bus is tight on time is because we're doing a double run of one of our buses that comes from Boston. So depending on the traffic out of Boston then it needs to go to East Arlington depending on the traffic in Arlington sometimes it can be really tight on that 830 time. We do have 24 students on the wait list. We're working on allocating some of those unfilled seats to these students now and we first have to make sure that people who had preserved a spot are giving up that spot because it's not being used. Students who are riding generally ride fairly consistently they might not ride every single day but they're riding most days. And like I said, we've gotten some requests for a second stop. We've gotten some requests as well for an afternoon bus. That's not at the top of our priority list as the weather gets warmer in the spring but it is something we can take a look at whether we have the ability to do next year. I wanted to celebrate that we got a DK4 Sports of All Swords grant of $10,000 from the, it's the DK4 Foundation, the Dan Kelly Foundation to support after school sports programming for our multi-lingual learners. This program is gonna meet some goals linked to our family involvement goals in the community and the spring season will start on 425. It's basically an after school all sports camp for multi-lingual learners to practice their language and to have fun with friends. So we're really excited and grateful to the Dan Kelly Foundation for this award and I'll say enrollments in a second. We had townwide concerts over the last several weeks. This is a picture from the All Town Band concert this past week. We had orchestral and choral concerts as well. As usual, it was standing room only in the OMS gym and the concerts were absolutely fantastic. It was great to listen to our players and singers from their young choral days all the way up through the high school and to listen to the progression of their skills they moved through. So congratulations to all of our spectacular Arlington musicians on wonderful performances over the past several weeks. We have several administrative searches going right now. We just completed the Hardy principal search and sent out an announcement last night welcoming Gretchen Saunders as our new Hardy principal. Gretchen is currently an assistant principal in Chelsea. She did a spectacular job through her interviews and in the final round and we're really excited about the leadership that she's going to bring to the Hardy school. Upcoming, we have a K-12 math director search that we will be conducting a met co-director search, a search for new assistant superintendent of finance and operations to start on July 1st, all of these and Bishop assistant principal. I also wanted to let the school committee know that Arlington public schools is required every so often to submit an SOA plan, a student opportunity act plan update. We have another one due on April 1st so the administration is working on this and we need to make sure that we've shared what our SOA updates going to be to the state with all of you so that you can vote it. So I'll have that for you at our next meeting so that you can review it and discuss it with us. It is tightly linked to our strategic plan. So we're basically taking components of our strategic plan that are particularly linked to improving outcomes for focal groups which is what the student opportunity act is about and that's our plan for the student opportunity act so it shouldn't be anything new or surprising but if you have thoughts, questions or anything that you'd like to discuss with me about SOA planning, please give me a call in the next couple of days so we can make sure we incorporate that feedback into the plan and your enrollments are in your materials. Happy to take any questions. Any questions? Seeing none, we move on to the consent agenda. All items listed within asterisk are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the committee so requests in which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence. Wellington School Committee minutes draft February 29th, 2024. So moved. Second. All in favor? Roll call. Ms. Gettleson. Yes. Mr. Cardin. Yes. Ms. Morgan. Yes. Mr. Thielman. Yes. Ms. Exton. Yes. Mr. Shulikman. Yes. And me, I also vote yes. So that is unanimous. Next we have planning for the 2020, the 24, 25 school committee and this is a chance for me to remind you that you all have to send in if you're willing or wanting to serve on any as an officer for next year's school committee which commences April, something early April. So you can send it to me and to, I'm sorry. Ms. Dickinson. Sorry, I am not here apparently, all of me. And yeah, so next we have subcommittee reports, budget, Mr. Cardin. So we've been meeting every week or so to review the revisions to the budget. We have a short meeting scheduled for Monday, more of a placeholder in case something came out of the hearing or our discussions tonight. Doesn't seem like anything, but we'll meet and see if there's anything that comes up over the weekend. We have finance committee on the 21st, so. 25th. We vote on the 21st. We vote the budget on the 21st and finance committee is on the 25th. And I think that's all we've been talking about. Correct. Community relations, Ms. Nixon. Nothing to report. Curriculum instruction and accountability, Ms. Morgan. We're meeting on Monday. I think that's the 18th. Hold on. Oh, yes. We're meeting Monday the 18th. We are gonna talk, we're gonna get a professional development update. We're gonna hear some follow up on the literacy screen or legislation and we're hearing from the curriculum directors in foreign language and math. Facilities, Mr. Phelan. We may be scheduling a meeting based on some exchanges, but nothing to point out. Policy, Mr. Chulakman. No report. High school building committee, Mr. Phelan. No report. Any liaison reports? Seeing, oh, did you say anything? No. Announcements, future agenda items. Okay. Now we go into executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with union and or nonunion personnel or contract negotiations with union and or nonunion in which if held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect to conduct strategy with respect to collective bargaining or mitigation in which if held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect. Collective bargaining may also be conducted. This is to discuss AEA negotiations. So can I have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay, and roll call, Ms. Gettleson. Yes. Mr. Cardin. Yes. Ms. Morgan. Yes. Phelan Min. Yes. Ms. Ekston. Yes, Mr. Chulakman. Yes. And I also vote yes. And we are not returning from executive session, so. ACMI productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help.