School Committee: February 1, 2024

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 So we should be able to hear it, but, okay. Um, all right. So we can go live whenever you want. Okay, we’re good. Okay, great. Welcome everyone. Sarah, can you hear us? Absolutely. Okay, Welcome. All right. I’m gonna call us to order seven oh one. Welcome everyone. Jen Schaffner, vice Chair of Marblehead School Committee. I’ll be chairing the meeting tonight. Chair, uh, Sarah Fox is zooming in, and why don’t we go right to commendations? Anyone have any commendations? Um, I just wanted, again, um, I think I, I know it’s been said before, but I think it, uh, should be said again to commend our teachers.

0:46 I don’t think that we realize enough how amazing they are. And regardless of the turmoil happening in the district, um, happening in the community, they show up. Um, and they provide our children with the best possible education that they can. And I, I just want to thank them again. I mean, I’ll do it every week if I have to. Um, sometimes that’s all you can do. And, um, but I think it’s important and I want them to, I want to be heard. So thank you again. Thanks, Allison. Anyone else? Sarah, did you have any accommodation?

1:26 Yes. Um, I’ll get into this a little bit more when we get to subcommittee and liaison updates, but last night, um, Jen and I had the pleasure of joining the METCO PCO monthly meetings. It was my first one. I had never been a liaison before to that. And as we decided this year, we wouldn’t have liaisons. Um, we would, we would instead open it to everybody. Um, I was just, first of all, I was so impressed by their turnout. Um, although it, you know, might have not felt like a big number, I had a great conversation with Kaia about it today. What it really represented was almost 20% of our METCO families, which, when you think about parent participation, we don’t see that, um, in other, in other areas of our district. So I am, I was really impressed

2:11 and wanna commend all those parents for taking the time. We had some really great, thoughtful conversations. Um, and we’ll get into that more. But, you know, I just, you know, they’re not getting outta the park with their parent participation, so kudos to them. Thanks. And just so you know, it wasn’t this year, actually, we just decided that a couple weeks ago when Megan Taylor stepped off the board, that we would all be the liaison. So hopefully we’ll get a, we’re gonna talk about it a little later, but we’ll get a chance to rotate as you know, that we don’t meet a quorum. But that’d be great. Um, it’ll be Good later to explain that to why we can’t all go to, so Understand. Yes, actually, that’s a good point. I will do that later. Um, okay. Any other accommodations? Okay, great. Moving on to, uh, public comment. Why don’t we start here in person, anyone looking

2:58 to do offer public comment? Hello? Did you sign in? Yes, ma’am. Ms. mc Garrison. Thank you. Yep, thank you. Welcome, Welcome. You already know who I am, Mary McCarrison, 46 Pine Cliff Drive. So I happen to go on the computer today, and I just saw that Michelle Crest’s job was just posted three days ago. I’m looking to see if the job for interim or permanent superintendent has been posted. It’s not there. Have you not decided who’s gonna be the search committee? If that’s hanging you up, I can help you pick somebody from Meco. Learn from your past mistakes. Pick somebody from Meco. Pick somebody from CPAC. Don’t choose one of your friends.

3:45 We got a town full of awesome teachers and have somebody from the high school, one of the kids to meet Him.

3:57 Sorry about that. Someone, it must be talking. Oh, someone who’s zooming in. I think Frank Will mute there and have, um, sorry about that. Sorry for the interruption. And have the, um, one of the kids from the high school. And if all else bails, I’ll be glad to donate my time, which I know you guys don’t want. But you know what? This committee really needs to learn how to engage with your critics and not just to the people who are telling you what you want to hear. You have to listen to the rest of the community. Okay? You know, the community’s not happy with you at all. You know, they wanna support their teachers and everything, but it was more or less you that threw us into this chaos. So, you know, Jen, you were a big proponent

4:44 of having an open forum with the citizens in this town. We haven’t seen that happening. I know you can’t answer these questions, but, you know, again, I never thought I’d be fighting for kids’ rights all over again. We fought all these years. So, you know what? You need to worry about the budget right now. ‘cause last year I tried to warn you, but you wouldn’t let me talk. So maybe you need to table the flag thing right now and get your act together about the budget. ‘cause if you don’t, Michelle’s leaving at the end, what? March 25th. She’s starting a new job that’s just right around the corner.

5:28 And then the teachers are going for, they’re working with you guys for a budget and a new contract. Does Model Head wanna be Newton? We, we don’t have the money and the teachers deserve a raise. They’re, most of the teachers that I’ve ever had to deal with have been awesome.

5:47 So I think what we only need to do is really, really start listening to the town. I hear it going down a Panier in Swamp Squad. I hear it in Lynn. I hear it in in Marble Head. And there’s a lot of people that’s probably on this Zoom that’s not even from Marble Head, but they’re hearing what’s going, the chaos going on here, and they’re zooming in to see what’s going on. So you better listen to the teachers. You better involve Meco and CPAC. And granted somebody, a couple of you have kids that have special needs. You don’t have to represent them.

6:27 I’ve had two kids with special needs. So let somebody else from CA Meco and, you know, do a thorough job. I don’t know who’s gonna wanna come here, but that’s what I think you should do. Thank you. Thank you.

6:47 Anyone else here? Okay, anyone online? I don’t see anybody. I don’t see anybody’s hand up. Let me just do a quick scroll through. Okay, great. Okay, thanks. Um, Kat Piper, our student representative, welcome. Thank you here for an update. The second half of the school year started with the end of midterms, which ran from Tuesday through Friday Last week, sophomores had an in-school presentation yesterday about the after dark program at Essex Tech, which partners with students from construction, craft, labor health assisting, and sustainable horticulture. The window for submitting senior project application applications is open and approved. Seniors will be sent out on their projects at the end of quarter three. Over the weekend, the high school acapella groups traveled

7:33 to Plymouth to sing in the E Voices Showcase, and they’re preparing for their upcoming I-C-H-S-A competition early this month. The Peer Mentor Program is hosting information sessions for current sophomores and juniors to apply for mentorship positions Next school year, high school students have access to the Student Job board resource, which is a website that displays local job opportunities, as well as tips on resume building, application preparation, and the interview process. The freshman class of 2027 is partnering with S Stowaway. So sto Away Suites for a Valentine’s Day fundraiser. Juniors have been looking for items to sell for the annual junior auction, which is one of the most important fundraising events for the class. The senior class of 2024 held their senior show last Sunday

8:20 in the pack at Vets, which was followed by a fundraiser at Morris in Village Square. Winter Sports Senior nights have started, and the last Home games signal the start of championship season. The indoor track team held their senior night yesterday in the gym, and the basketball senior night will happen tomorrow. Thanks, you. Thank you. Thanks for the update. Great job. Thanks, KA. Good night. Thank you. Okay, so we’re moving on to district updates. Um, Dr. McGinnis. Great, thank you. Good evening. Um, well, some really good news For us sitting here is that the district offices have now moved back to Widger, so that’s very nice. We’re together instead of spread out, um, somewhat across the district. So we’re happy to be there. So come visit there.

9:07 Um, and also, um, Marblehead, um, high school just announced today that we have a new assistant principal starting on Monday. And Frank Klowski comes with over 20 years as an administrator, um, which includes many as the assistant principal at Swamp Scott High School. Um, so we welcome Frank, um, to the team on Monday next week. Frank, K-O-W-A-L-S-K-I. Okay. Yeah. Great. Um, and also, as was mentioned, we have posted for the Director of Finance and Operations, um, and the search committee is gonna be run by the assistant superintendent. Um, also mentioned today we had the, um, interviews for the interim director of Student services.

9:55 Brian, thank you for serving on those, uh, on the committee. And, um, so the next steps are interviews with me, um, and then we will select someone. And again, this is interim from February through June 30th. We will be posting for a permanent, um, in short time too, just to let folks know. Um, and then on a more serious note,

10:20 I wanna share, uh, a letter with you about an incident that happened at, um, Marblehead Veterans Middle School this week. Um, so I have a letter here that I’d like to, to read, and it’s a, a very serious situation. So, um, it reads, dear Marblehead community, um, I’m reporting to you tonight regarding a disturbing and hateful incident that occurred at the Vet school. This week, a drawing of a SWA sticker was found on the wall of the school library and immediately removed. And I want to unequivocally and publicly condemn this act. And I also wanna reaffirm our commitment, um, as being an anti-racist school district. Um, the swastika, as we know, is a symbol of pure hate.

11:07 And there’s no excuse for any ignorance around that. We know that our most important job as leaders and educators is to provide a safe, um, and secure environment where our students are free to be. They’re free to learn, and they’re free to engage with each other in their education, while maintaining a strong sense of their own identity, um, and their belonging. We pledge to call these incidents out and address them whenever they happen. And I wanna be clear that hate has no home in Marblehead public schools. Um, we do need to work together on this as a community, um, to strengthen what’s happening. So I’m asking parents to and families to talk with your children about these types

11:52 of acts to help us help them, and educate all of the students around this. Um, I’m also inviting parents and going to send sat to our staff this evening to read the Principal Fox’s message that he sent out today to his school community. He cites some of the many ways that we are building historical background knowledge, so students will be more aware of the genocide that occurred during the Holocaust and more recent events, and the pure hate and antisemitism that the swastika portrays. And I’d like to read Principal Fox’s letter as well. It gives a little bit more detail. Um, good morning, better in families. I am reaching out to you with a heavy heart full of disappointment, sadness, and anger.

12:39 Unfortunately, on a wall near the floor in the library, we discovered a drawing of a swastika. The drawing was immediately removed from the wall, and we have notified the police of this incident and are conducting our own investigation to determine the origin of this symbol of hate. This graffiti is especially disheartening given the current globally impactful events in the Middle East. We have taken tremendous steps at Veteran School and across the district to ensure that our students learn about the Holocaust and the world altering impact that event has had on our worldwide community. For example, in the eighth grade, our students actively read and discuss the memoir Knight by Ellie Weisel.

13:27 Additionally, we have had numerous guest speakers, some of whom are parent parents or relatives of our teachers, um, who have survived the Holocaust and speak to our students about what they have gone through as a family, um, and how that symbol of hate impacts to this day. We also have plans to provide professional development to support this eighth grade unit by sending a staff member to an A DL conference this spring here at Marblehead Veterans Middle School. We have truly invested in ensuring that when students leave our campus to head to the high school, they fully understand the Holocaust and the impact it still has on the world. Today. I would like to thank the students

14:14 who reported the graffiti to the teacher as soon as they found it, and I implore you to speak with your children about this incident to ensure that they fully grasp the hateful meaning of this symbol.

14:29 And that’s all I have on that. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. McGinnis. Sarah has my hand up. I know. Hang on one second. I just, oh, Sarah.

14:40 Hi. I, I wanted to thank Dr. McGinnis for reading that, and just, just say that, you know, hate of any kind has no place anywhere. It’s not just in Marblehead, it’s not just in our schools. It’s anywhere. It, it cannot be tolerated. It cannot be normalized. It cannot be, um, not talked about. It’s really important. Um, the piece of, um, that Mr. Fox had put out, you know, asking parents to talk to their students, I think is so important. And it’s not just specific to bets. I think families should be having conversations about not just what these symbols mean, but what the, what’s the history behind them,

15:27 how impactful all this is, um, because it’s just, there’s zero room for any type of tolerance on this. And very proud of the students that came forward when they saw it. Um, and just, you know, encourage any other students if you see something, to continue to speak up and say something. Thank you. Any, anyone else?

15:51 So I just wanted to say, uh, thank you Dr. McGinnis for that. And also, um, you know, the school committee was made Recording in progress.

16:01 Okay. Um, the school committee was made aware of this earlier today. And, you know, given the open meeting laws, we all, you know, we all live under, it is not possible for us to talk to each other as a, as a committee throughout the day. This is the place where we can speak about this. So, um, I talked to Dr. McGinnis earlier today, and she was giving me her thoughts on how she was gonna com communicate this. And I just wanna say, I’ll speak for myself, and I don’t wanna speak for the other members that your message and Dr. Uh, doc, Dr. Mr. Fox’s, um, message is, um, I stand behind that a hundred percent. You know, I was thinking, do we wanna make a statement as a school committee? But I feel that, I feel myself that this message reflects exactly how I feel. Um, and, you know, Mr. Fox has had to deal with this,

16:49 um, in, in other times as well. And it’s particularly, um, disappointing to me, especially knowing you haven’t, you know, you have a teacher in your school, Ms. Ens, who’s, um, has a background in this. She’s a, she’s been trained and has worked and as a holocaust, uh, educator. And I know, um, sure we’ll continue to work with the students in the school around this latest incident. But, um, it’s just, it, it is just so disheartening and disappointing, and we just have to stay together and Mm-Hmm. As administrators and elected officials and faculty and staff to continue to try to educate around this and stop this continued science. Signs of hate, of hate. So, thank you.

17:35 I would add, uh, fully agree, um, wonderful statements by Dr. Muni as well as you, uh, principal Fox and I appreciate it. I think we should add on to that, that we should be role models, uh, when you are thinking of hate has no home here, and, you know, it means any kind of hate, uh, I think making sure we’re emulating that, uh, in our daily lives, in our meetings, um, in our, in our family homes. I think that’s one of the better ways to show the community and our, our children who are the most important. Um, and enforce that with them. Thank you. I wanna thank Jen. I, if I may, I’d like to make a motion. Wait, Sarah, hang on one second. Sarah. Brian wanted to make, was gonna make a statement.

18:22 No, I just wanted to thank Mr. Fox and, uh, Dr. McGinnis for the quick response to this and the most well thought out method of handling it. So, I, I condemn hatred of any kind. And I know in the elementary schools, we, we have those models choose kindness and be respectful, and all of those core values we really want to emulate. And so I want to thank the two of you for your leadership on this. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah, go ahead. Sorry. I just wanted to make a motion for the committee to co-sign the letter with Dr. McGinnis. Seconded. Seconded.

19:04 Any, any discussion? Any discussion? Sorry. Sorry.

19:14 Hang on one second. Sarah, do you have your, um, No, you just turned it off. Goes off. No, but your, um, There we go. Mic is, there we go. Better. Okay. Sorry about that. Um, sorry. We have a motion on the table to, um, co-sign the letter from Dr. McGinnis. It’s been seconded. Um, any comments or no deliberation? Okay. I’ll call for a vote, um, in fa roll call. I’ll do a roll call vote roll call. Yep. Um, Sarah Fox In favor? Allison Taylor in favor? Brian. Oda in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor, Sur passes four to zero. So that’ll come from us. Okay. Or all of us. Thank you. Okay. Um, school calendar. Yes. Thank you. Um, I, I want to introduce this is superintendent Julia Herrera,

20:03 who’s been working closely with the MEA and the administration on the second draft of the school year calendar. And again, it’s a draft this evening. And then the, um, MEA is going to, um, share it with more broadly, and we’ll bring it back to you at the next school committee meeting. Yeah, good evening. Um, so the last time we talked about the, um, 24 25 school year calendar, um, the committee decided to, um, to that we were looking at specifically December of 2024. So after that, uh, the committee looked at that. We took it to a calendar committee of school leaders, um, and, and MEA, uh, union representation, uh, leadership. And we work through, um, different iterations. And we feel that this evening what we’re presenting to you is a really great, uh, draft of the calendar.

20:51 Uh, what we have to do at this point. Um, because we are proposing a half day for Good Friday, and we are also proposing that the last day of school fall at the same day as the student’s last day. So that would mean moving that day to the beginning, that has to be voted in. So I wanted to share this draft with you. A lot of time and effort’s been put into this and I wanted to share with you. So then we can take it to our MEA leadership and they will, um, have to have two motions for considerations with the MEA. Um, moving that last day, following the student’s last day and the scheduled school day on Good Friday with an early dismissal, those all both come from the teacher’s contract. Article seven, section B. So those will need to be voted.

21:37 So as I’ve outlined in the draft that you’re looking at, the Good Friday would be April 18th. That would be an early release, um, as, um, that would need to be voted on. And then the June 20th, the last day of students and staff, that would be, um, uh, usually there’s a day that after it comes after and we’re moving that to the last day, everybody, the same with an early release for the students. Um, per, uh, that was grandfathered in from our, or I guess it was, um, may of 2022 was, um, put into motion through the school committee that that would be a half day moving forward for students. So, and a full day for staff there.

22:20 So is that, that’s new that the teachers would get out on the same day? We did it last year. You did? Okay. As well. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. Okay. And then it’s just, it’s back at the beginning. Exactly. So it would be one of the August 28th or 29th, but that just does need the E’S vote. Yeah. The, and yeah, the tea, they, the teachers have to vote. Mm-Hmm. Okay. And is that a half day for teachers and they still have to clear out their rooms? I mean, is that it? It Would be A full day. So they would have a half day to clear out Mm-Hmm. Their rooms. Okay. Great. Um, okay. So we’re just waiting for the, um, the ratification by the union on this. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. So it’s possible that this may be back at the next meeting Yes. To approve. Okay. That’s the hope. And any feedback, let me know, please. I’d love for feedback as well. Any questions? Sarah, do you have any questions?

23:06 Nope. Um, just to note, for anybody that doesn’t have that draft in front of them, um, good Friday, uh, for the 25 24 25 calendar, um, starts the week of school vacation week. So that would extend school vacation week by a half day. Uh, we don’t always line up. And so it’s a, it’s one of those and once every blue moon type of things. So something for people just to be aware of. Thank you. Um, thank you. Okay. Moving on. FY 25, budget status update. Yeah. Um, before I, uh, assistant superintendent Cresta gives some more Detail, I wanted to share that, um, both she and I met today with the town administrator and the CFO

23:51 and had a very productive and enlightening conversation for about 90 minutes. Um, one of the things that, to come out of that is that we’re going to offer, um, as was mentioned earlier, um, a forum that we’re calling the finance forum on February 27th. And we will message this widely, um, with both the town and the schools at it. So we can talk through a little bit, um, you know, more broadly and, um, share some of our, uh, decision making and, and all of that. And, um, assistant superintendent Cresta, could you give us a little bit more detail? Sure. We have a small short presentation, um, that Frank will put up now.

24:37 So as we reviewed, um, last school committee meeting, we are working on three budgets. We have our level services budget, our needs based budget, and our reduced services budget. Our level services budget basically is no new changes. Um, you can go to the next page. There we go. Um, yep. No new services, but it has been fine tuned as we are going through, compiling all the budget requests, fine tuning them, getting questions answered, um, getting more solid quotes. We have pretty much, um, determined our level services budget is 47,935,000. Um, as I mentioned, that does not include any changes, but that does collude a increase

25:24 of approximately 3.1 million. Um, which I’ll detail that on the next slide, not the it a little bit later. Um, but it does have an increase of 3.1 million. There’s no new initiatives in here, um, or return of, you know, previously eliminated positions from last year. And it does include a minimal COLA for all bargaining units, um, which currently have contracts expiring at the end of June. Needs-based budget. We’re still compiling those costs. Um, these are above and beyond our level services at this point. Really it’s going to be what can we eliminate in order to add some additional needs. It’s, it’s certainly not going to be a matter of just adding things at this point, given the financial situation. Um, and lastly, it’s the reduced services budget, which is close to or equal to the current funding level.

26:11 And really that’s what we’re focusing on now. We are, um, have a directive from the town to come up with a reduced services budget, given the state of the town information that came out. Uh, the new revenues to the entire town are roughly, you know, 1.2 to 1.5 million anticipated for the new year. Roughly half of that, um, would be allocated to the schools. So we’re looking at an increase of about $700,000 in our budget over the current funding level. So the reduced services budget of 44 million, the current budget, 44 million plus the 700,000 gets us to 45,537,000. Um, that means that we will have to realize cuts of $2.3 million.

26:58 Um, this is last, last school committee meeting, I believe I was talking 2.1 million to 2 million. So we’re right in that ballpark. We will be struggling with how we can implement cuts of 2.3 million if, um, we do not seek any additional funding. Just wanna remind everyone that last year we eliminated 33 staffing positions for a reduction of 1.5 million. We’re looking at 2.3 million this year. So it is certainly significant. Um, next slide please.

27:32 So just a little bit of the, um, level services budget, as I mentioned, we’re looking at 47,935,000, represents an increase of just over $3 million in our current funding level. And the main buckets of this increase is wages. The steps in the cola just over a million dollars. Tuitions have an increase of $536,000 over the current level. Transportation has an increase of 424,000. Utilities have an increase of 487,000. And I do wanna mention that the Marblehead schools department is the single largest utility consumer in the town. So the school department is paying for the most

28:18 of the utilities, you know, higher than any other company or group in the town. So we are seeing an increase of 487,000 in that area. Um, it hardware replacement, this is, um, an amount of 420,000. It’s to get into a replacement cycle of all the devices that we started putting into place back in 2020 with all the covid funds. Unfortunately, we would like to think it’s a one-time thing, but given the lifespan of it equipment is typically four or five, six years, we do need to be on a constant replacement cycle for all our devices. Um, so really this is one of the biggest chunks to absorb of the 420,000. And then every year it will then remain consistent, um,

29:05 once we build that into the budget. So it’s really not a one-time cost. It may be one time purchasing these specific devices, but it’s going to be a recurring cost in the budgets going forward. And then the, the rest of it really is 191,000 to come up with that $3 million increase. That’s just various increases in legal fees, copier fees, um, all kinds of service contracts. Basically the cost of doing goods. But primarily that’s, those are the increases we’re looking at. So most of these increases are items that we really have no control over the cost. So unless we’re going to do away with a service, there’s not much we can cost here. And certainly we cannot get rid of tuitions, we cannot get rid of our transportation, and we cannot get rid of our utilities.

29:51 So, um, that really leaves us with some hard decisions to be made. So that brings me to my next slide. Um, our next steps. So our next step is, um, we have preliminary decided on some workshop dates for the school committee. One is being two weeks from tonight, February 15th. And then the second one is February 26th. Um, to go through two nights of our, our proposed budgets. Our leadership team will begin to collaborate, um, this coming Monday, February 5th, and then continue on the eighth and 13th to decide, um, or to recommend what the cuts are going to be comprised of for that $2.3 million number to arrive at that reduced services budget. And I do wanna mention, again, I mentioned this two weeks ago, cuts will be significant.

30:38 They will absolutely impact the classrooms and they will include a significant number of staff positions. Our staff represents 84% of our budget, and the rest of our budget is 16%, which you saw what most of those increases are, and they’re not staffing. Um, and then as Dr. McGinnis mentioned, we were talking about a possible finance forum session with, um, being led by myself and Alicia Benjamin Town Finance director, basically to just answer questions on the facts. You know, how do we come up with the budget? How do we come up with the additional revenue funding? Um, how do the assessments that are really a controversial issue right now in this town, how does that impact our budget? And you know, even though some taxpayers are paying exorbitant increased amounts, that does not necessarily give money, additional money to the town and schools.

31:25 So we think it’s really important that, um, the general community understand that. So it’s not just specifically for schools, not just specifically for town residents. Um, it’s for anyone really who’s interested in the budget and seeing how that impacts us. Um, it probably will get a little bit into the cuts and the impacts of what we’re looking at reduced services budget. Um, but hopefully we’ll be able to really give the public the opportunity to have some questions answered at that forum. And that’s tentatively set for February 27th. Michelle, is that just the two of you? So it wouldn’t be any of the enterprise funds or water sewer light? Not at this time. So it’s just, we’re just talking finance Director and and schools. Great. And that’s, um, gonna be hybrid or

32:10 We haven’t worked out those details yet. Literally, we just started thinking about it early this mor I mean, earlier today, this morning. Awesome. So that is our next step. Um, and yeah, if there are any questions from the committee,

32:27 Well I had, I would like to see more information on, for us to understand the budget a little clearer. Oops. Excuse me. Let me get this down.

32:42 Frank. There’s a slide in there, says for in Frank there’s a slide in there. No, it’s not in there. The slide For, It says for information, budget requirements. No. Did you? Yeah, it’s in the Dropbox. Alright. Anyway, what we’re looking for is the basis for the budget for us to understand the budget and potential cuts that are gonna come up. Mm-Hmm. So what we’re looking for is, um, projection of the student population for school year 24, 25 mm-hmm. 25, 26, and 26, 27. So it’s a three year forecast. Yep. The population breakdown will further be analyzed by school, by grade. So the principals will break this into forecast for their own schools.

33:30 I use Glover as an example because I’m so familiar with it. Glover’s school is a pre-K to third grade school. So how many students will be in each grade per classroom? So we need to know, we can’t just go like 185 students, you have to break it down as 20 or 20 there so that we know the bounced. Um, if Glover’s projecting four pre-K classrooms, class sizes and staff makeup, which would include the classroom teacher or any sports staff. I’ll send you a copy if you don’t have it. Um, the K classrooms, there are four classrooms currently there. Class size and makeup is important. Grades one to three, same thing. Then we’re looking at the number of allied arts teachers for each school. The number of literacy and math tutors

34:16 and the number of students that they support by grade, how many secretaries there are in each building. And that includes the special education secretaries. Mm-Hmm. Uh, lunch aids fall into the schools. So I’m not sure if we’re not filling ‘em. So I don’t think that’s a big deal. And special education. We need to understand the number of inclusion teachers in their classroom assignments and the number of IEP students they support. And any inclusion, uh, support staff, the number of special education teachers and special education classrooms such as the therapeutic and access classrooms, the number of BCBAs and how many students that they will support and adjustment counselors, how many adjustment counselors per building. So, um, that would help us.

35:02 ot, speech language, I’m not sure where they fall anymore. I know there was a move for some people on the unit, a contract, but the OTPT and speech and language usually had their own contracts that were signed by the, uh, chair, the director of super, uh, student services. So I’m not sure where that number is anymore. You know, is that still the case? That It’s still the case, but there, I mean, there’s still staff within the schools, but yes, they’re not in the unit A yes. But we need to understand what they are. Mm-Hmm. And that’s basically what I had. Okay. Yep. Absolutely. We are working on the staffing piece. Um, we are diving into that then the, the numbers finally have come together in terms of dollars and now our focus is on the staffing. Absolutely. Great, Great, great. We look forward to seeing it. Thank you. Thank you for doing that, Brian. ‘cause that was basically

35:48 what, you know, I had been asking for. Mm-Hmm. And just to make sure to go to the next step to make sure that every staff member’s accounted for Mm-Hmm. I mean that’s, that’s obviously the case here, So Yes. But if you could share that with me, that’d be super helpful. I will. I’ll send it to you right away. Thank you. Allison, did you have any? No questions. Alright. Sarah, did you have any, um, questions? You’re Muted. Oh, you’re muted.

36:15 All right, perfect. I actually had quite a few. Um, so Michelle, is the transportation cost that you had in there pretty firm? I know we’ll getting, be getting our budget books, so everything will be more firm. But transportation is one of our most volatile points. And so I didn’t know if this was a relative placeholder or if we had received estimates out from some of our contracted providers. They’re not specific estimates, but they do have, um, an increased escalation cost in there based on what we’ve been seeing year after year. Okay. And then for the number, the the number you carried for our tuition increases, are you using the newest projection that came out about what the various, um, consortiums and things will be raising it at

37:01 or just for so people understand, last year we saw 14%, which was an astronomical jump. We had never seen that prior. Prior to that been about 3%. And so we’re seeing, while not the 14, we’re still seeing a pretty astronomical jump. Um, and the state last year, um, had stated the reason they were doing this was it was really hard for some of those institutions to attract staff and they needed to increase all the tuition so that they could increase rates of pay and attract staff. The problem is that’s coming out of what is essentially a fixed budget, um, from the towns and municipalities and not allowing us then to do the same for our staff. So it’s, it, it is really hard. Um, I encourage people reach out to your representatives,

37:50 um, you know, email them, call them, ask them, you know, to, to continue to work on this piece because, um, as that number grows, we’re really getting crippled here at the local level and unable to provide for our local teachers in the same way. Um, so the other, the other thing I’ll ask, I, so it looks like from what I had, it’s, it’s close to like 2.4. Um, ‘cause I that we’ll be having to cut. Um, do you anticipate that number increasing even further as more projections come in? Or do you think that we’re safe to move forward with that number as we look at the cut list? So, to go back to the, um, previous question about the

38:35 tuitions, we are using the projected, um, tuition rates for next year, which the OSD set at 4.6899999999999995% for FY 25. So that’s what we’re using. Um, there is also our collaboratives going slightly higher ‘cause it’s a higher assessment being charged there. So we have those built in. Um, in terms of the number, which is it, it’s, it’s 2.3 something, um, that we need to cut. And that is, that is pretty much the high mark unless we notif. Okay. You know, notice something or something comes in that, that is a pretty solid number at this point. Um, And that’s still is carrying a 2% COLA increase, correct? Michelle? Correct. And we came up with that. How did we come up with that number? Um, that was guidance from the town. Okay. They, they, they told us. Susan. Yes.

39:22 Perfect. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Thanks Michelle. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, okay, moving on to consent action and agenda items. We have schedule of bills that we need to approve. I am looking for a motion to approve the schedule of bills for a total of $762,430 and 73 cents. So moved. Uh, moved by Allison second, seconded second by Sarah. Um, I’ll do a roll call. Sarah Fox

39:55 Approved Allison Taylor approved. Brian OTA approved. Jen Schaffner in favor. So that passes five four, I’m sorry, four to zero. Uh, we also have one set of minutes, uh, which are the minutes of the school committee meeting dated November 16th, 2023. Those should have been in your Dropbox. Um, I’m gonna ask for a motion and then if there are any questions or um, changes, we can do that. Uh, we can deliberate that. So I’d like a motion to approve minutes. November 16th, 2023. So Moved. So moved. Moved by Brian. Second, second, second by Allison. Um, any questions, issues? There was, go ahead, Sarah. There are a couple edits, but I’ll work with, um, Allison on those.

40:41 There’s just a few spelling things, um, minor, minor things. Not substan not substantive, but more just, um, names and things like that. So I’ll just work with her to correct those. Okay. Yeah, I, my name is spelled on too, by the way, which is not the end of the world, but probably should be in there properly. So I’ll go, I’ll get that over to Sarah. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. I’m gonna ask for a roll call. Sarah Fox Approved Allison Taylor approved by ODA approved. Jen Schaffner in favor. Four to zero for the minutes passing. Thank you. School committee communication and discussion items. We have a presentation tonight on the Marblehead turf, uh, field replacement at Piper Field. Welcome. We have folks from, I believe, Marblehead Boosters

41:27 and athletic director Greg Ky. I can never, um, welcome. Thank you so much. And I think there’s a presentation, Frank should be in there. Thank you. How’s the director? Different than the assistants. You could answer. Okay.

41:47 Give it one second.

41:51 Yeah, you guys can go ahead and start. He’ll Get it up. Alright, great. So, uh, with us, uh, we have Muffy Puckett welcome, who is, uh, part of our boosters program here that I know a lot of, you know very well. And to my left over here is Meg Budzinski. She is with Activ. She’s a civil engineer. Um, and the architect we’ve been working with for, uh, the resurfacing of the Piper field, uh, here at the high school. Um, so if we could just pull up the agenda quickly. We’ll talk about the current existing conditions that we have here at the, at the high school, and then we’ll discuss the proposed conditions that we have, including the field layout, system components, uh, the costs, the schedule that we have, that we’re in, where we’re at. And then, uh, open up for questions and discussion. Thank You.

42:36 Go to the next slide there. One more please. Yep. One More, one more slide, Frank. Thanks. Oh, sorry, two, two more. Sorry. One More. Great. So this is currently what we have, um, here at the high school. This is the exact layout that we have, uh, obviously from an aerial view. Um, just to kind of go through the information that we have, um, from late August to late November is our fall season. We have, uh, high school athletics that use, uh, a bulk of the time. Um, we also have community users here, including youth soccer, flag football and adult men’s soccer who use it. Uh, and some weekday evenings, but mostly on the weekends. Um, from late March to mid-June. Again, M-H-S-M-H-S athletics uses it for boys and girls lacrosse.

43:23 Um, in late March, we sometimes have our baseball and softball programs on there before their fields are open just to kind of get throwing and to do some hitting out there. And again, for the community users is youth soccer, youth lacrosse, and adult men’s soccer, mostly on the weekends, again, and also some evenings during the week. And then during the summer months, it’s really just kind of open field time for our fall teams that they have the soccer team, football team, field hockey team and cheer program. And then our community users is, is majority, uh, rec and park that they use, uh, for specific clinics. And also some of our morning workouts that a lot of our, uh, student athletes are part of. Um, We do occasionally have PE classes that go out there when it’s nice enough out there. Um, they’ll do some different activities out there and, uh, utilize that, that great space.

44:09 Um, and that’s really who uses it. We don’t rent it out to people outside of here. We try to keep it in town. And, uh, the schedule is completely controlled by, uh, my office with a little bit of park and Rex help as well. Let, should go to the next slide, please, Frank.

44:27 So as, as Greg mentioned, you have had great life out of this field. Um, the field, you know, had about an eight year warranty. We’re well beyond that and there’s been a lot of use. Um, and so that 10 year, you know, 11 year cycle for synthetic turf is about right for replacement. Now, when we talk about replacement, we’re talking about that top surface. Everything below is in great condition. We tested the drainage capabilities, all those kinds of things and things look really good. Um, so what you have right now, we almost really wanna mimic going forward. We wanna give you another great life out of your next field. Um, and so what you have now is a monofilament, uh, carpet. And that gets filled in with the infill materials. And it’s a sand and rubber that you have in the now. Um, right now there’s a lot more rubber in there because it has to provide that cushion. Um, and we’ll talk a little bit about how we’re gonna change

45:14 that up a little bit in terms of safety, um, for your athletes. Um, you know, the field right now is sprint turf. This will be a public bid. So when we do go out to bid, we’ll make sure that, um, you know, the companies that bid on it have experience, um, provide quality installations and are gonna be around for the long haul to make sure that they can cover their eight year warranty with you folks. Um, for the next life of this field, um, as Greg mentioned, all those users, you know, your field right now has pretty much every line that you can think of on there. We have football, field hockey, girls, lacrosse, boys, lacrosse and soccer. So five lines, um, which we are gonna continue with. Um, but what we’re thinking about doing, and if we can go to the next slide, please, when we think about those proposed conditions, um, is to implement a little bit more branding at the field.

45:59 So right now, um, your end zone areas, you know, don’t have, um, the graphics, but what we are planning to do is add those graphics to, um, the end zone areas. Kind of maintain that center logo that you have right now, um, and mimic the alternating panels that you have right now. Uh, all the same lines will be in the field, similar colors. So for the athletes on those fields now, um, it’s gonna feel great under their feet, but they’re gonna know exactly where to play to. Um, some additional kind of scope items that we’re looking at in addition to the turf, um, are some perimeter, um, improvements. Right now. There’s some difficulty getting soccer nets off the field. Um, and so we’re actually looking for a few gate locations to improve that and make that a little bit easier. Mm-Hmm. Um, for sports, um, when it’s not soccer in use, uh, we’re looking at some fencing, upgrades, fencing over time.

46:47 Um, it gets used, you know, you see kids throwing lacrosse balls at it, kicking soccer balls at it, standing on the end lines and kicking it, right? Mm-Hmm. Um, so that fence fabric that they’re, that’s there, we’re planning to, um, replace that as well. But all the posts that you see will remain, uh, a little bit of the netting, um, on the school end, we’re just going to, um, replace that netting. The poles will stay, um, but right now it’s a very long net that gets caught up in the fence. So we’ll improve that to keep that right at the top of the fence. And then we’re also looking at adding netting, um, on the wooded end, um, to help keep soccer balls feel lucky balls in lacrosse balls and football, um, within the field of play, rather than chasing those down that, that steep slope that’s over there. All right. Uh, next slide please.

47:29 So in terms of your system, as I mentioned, changing this up a little bit, like I said, on the left hand side, you see the existing turf system and that’s carpet, and then that gets filled in with your infill materials. What a system like that. And that was, you know, very typical, um, for your last field when that was put in. Um, but what that does is that your infill materials, your rubber and your sand have to provide playability and it has to provide safety. Alright? Um, and to provide that safety, you usually have a much softer field. And then over time, that field tends to, to firm up. And the issue with that, um, is it has to do with, um, impact attenuation. So if a kid falls, hits their head, you know, the amount of energy that goes back and causing concussions, things like that. So what we’re proposing on this time around is to actually add a resilient underlayment.

48:15 And you can see that on the right hand side, that pad that goes below the carpet, um, it’s a little bit of an offset, um, in terms of the carpet gets a little bit shorter, so a little bit less infill in there. Um, which actually helps out with the playability right at the start. Um, when you have a, a system like your old one that had a lot of rubber on that first year or two, it’s, it’s very bouncy, right? You’re, it’s like you’re on a trampoline. Um, this will actually firm it up from the start. So the kids are gonna like to play on that a lot more, right? You know, right off the bat, um, as they go. And then even over the long term in the life of your field, that pad doesn’t lose its resiliency. So even if the infill material firm’s up a little bit, you still have that safety if a kid falls, um, and hits their head or something like that. And the other part is that pad is probably usable

49:01 for at least two life cycles, um, maybe even three. Um, so it’s a reusable piece, so you’re always decreasing kind of the height of that carpet, um, which saves a little bit on the next time around, um, in another, I dunno, 20 years, whatever that end up being. Yeah. Um, next slide please.

49:21 Um, Muffy, do you wanna talk about budget or do you want me to talk about, Why don’t you talk about where, where we are there? Sure. And I can talk about where we are in the Bank. Perfect. Okay. So what you have here is, um, an estimate of cost. So this will go out to bid and these costs will be solidified after we get bids back. Um, but this is looking at the construction climate this time and for the upcoming summer, um, where, where we feel this will fall. And so you can see kind of, um, this is a summary, but items, you know, one and two mobilization site prep and then earth work, um, is getting that field ready. Okay. Taking everything, you know, off recycling, removing things like that. Um, and then item three is actually bringing in that brand new turf, um, with the pad underneath it. And then item four is that fencing and netting work that we have along the side, um,

50:07 as we move down general conditions and contractors, overhead and profit, kind of standard numbers, um, to add on top. And then I like to go into a project with a contingency because you just ever out. Um, I’m hopeful that this is a little bit on the conservative side. Um, and then our bid numbers will come back hopefully a little bit less than this, you know, as we move forward. Awesome. So I’m, I’m thrilled to say that once again, this community has stepped up and we have gotten ourselves very close to the number that we need. As you can see on her presentation, it’s, it’s, you know, nine, almost $954,000 date boosters. Um, with the help of the generous people in this community has raised $792,193.

50:52 So we are short $161,807. So we, we need to know that we can reach that number before, well, not necessarily before we go out to bid. We can go out to bid with the hope that we can get that number before we have to accept a contract, right? Did I say that right? Yes. Um, so my hope is that the community can help get us to the finish line or the town can help us get to the finish line, but we need another almost $162,000 to get there. But, you know, we’ve run, we’ve had about 135 very generous donors in different varying levels. We’ve run three great events. We’ve had multiple donations through PayPal and, and Venmo, which has gotten us to almost $800,000, which is incredible impressed.

51:39 Um, it’s amazing to me how prices have changed because we spent just a little bit more to completely build the thing 10 years ago, but now prices are higher. So we do hope that when the, you know, when it comes back that it’s less than we anticipate, but we obviously need to have the money that we anticipate. So I’m thankful to the people in this town to help us get there. And I believe that we will. Yeah, I’m also very thankful as well, but we are gonna ask the a town for the $200,000, uh, placeholder, um, for the, for the town warrant come, come June or or town meeting. Mm-Hmm. So that’s what we’re, we’re hoping for. The town could contribute that, uh, as well. I should say that even though his number is higher than the number I told you we needed, what should be taken into account is that boosters has put in a hundred thousand dollars.

52:25 And if that money doesn’t have to go to this specific project, then it’s money that’s left in the bank for other projects of which there are endless ones at Marblehead High School. So yeah. So there’s that. Great. Can you go, uh, one more slide please. Thanks. Uh, just a quick overview of schedule. Um, the goal is to, um, finish up our, our, and get ready to go out to bid, um, end of February, um, bid’s back kind of third to fourth week of March. Um, and then we’ll have those hard numbers so we’ll know what that final, you know, number to actually complete the project is. Um, and then the goal is that we can award a contract and then a contractor, um, would mobilize the site right after school, kind of finishes up mid-June, um, and be ready to go, you know, the field ready to go, um, for preseason August 20th.

53:13 Is that around? Yeah, right around there. So, um, a very achievable project schedule. I’m hoping that it’ll be done even maybe a little bit earlier. Um, I don’t anticipate, you know, when we talk about that contingency, I don’t anticipate a lot. You know, we have taken up a few areas and do, done, um, uh, tests, drainage tests, things like that. Um, so really where we don’t have to dig, um, there shouldn’t be too much that pops up on us. So hopefully that that contingency, you know, doesn’t have to be realized either. So, uh, but happy to answer any questions that you folks have, um, going forward. Thank you. Okay. From the committee, Allison, Brian, I think you guys did a great job. That’s pretty amazing how much you’ve already raised. It’s all Meg phenomenal. She’s incredible to work with, so it’s absolutely fortunate to have her.

53:58 Amazing. Congratulations so far. Phenomenal, Sarah.

54:05 So thank you again, not just to boosters, but Muffy, what you can do never ceases to amaze me as far as it’s Just me, but thank you Sarah. No, I know there was a lot of people that came together to support our town, but I listen, you are amazing. So I have to, we have to acknowledge that. Um, have you approached the town for ARPA money? ‘cause one thing I I think we all can agree is Piper Fields is, is used by every member of our community. It’s a school field, but it’s a community field. Um, our youth programs, our park and rec, um, some of our adult rec leagues. It’s just, it really is a community space. So I think where it’s infrastructure, it’s used by the whole town, um, it really would

54:53 click all the top boxes for ARPA funding and rank pretty high, I would hope. Um, I know there’s some money left, it’s, it’s dwindling, but there’s definitely would be enough to cover this. Have you had any success there? I’ve had none, and I am so disappointed in that because I, like you just mentioned, I really believed that we would be high on the list specifically because I know that that safety is a huge concern. But I was told that we do not rank high enough. And when I inquired as to why or where we ranked, I got no response. So I was very disappointed that they wouldn’t give us anything, not a penny. Um, do you mind if I ask when you went to them I, a year ago, it might be worth,

55:40 was it at the very beginning of the process? Because I, you know, I, it may be helpful if, you know, if I reapply, we can go together the support of the school committee asking for this, because you’re right. If it’s safety, if it’s infrastructure, that should be the top ranked thing through the ranking system. Mm-Hmm. Um, and $6 million, um, in ARPA funds. And what you’re looking for is 161, maybe even 150. Can you, once you get a few more donors, I, I think that’s a really reasonable request and an excellent use of that arc of money. I couldn’t agree more. I’ll, I’ll make some calls on my own too and see where I get with that, but, um, I think we definitely start, continue to look that,

56:25 that way as well. Okay, great. Um, one, one question is how confident are we with the timeline as far as it getting pretty close or actually a little bit into when we start those fall sports? Greg, do you think you’ll be able to manage your scheduling with this? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. We, we’ve looked through what we would do even if we were a week or even 10 days past where our anticipated finish date is. Um, there’s other fields in town that we use if we have, um, our double sessions in the fall, you know, after, after a few days of, of practice. But, um, there’s certainly enough fields in town to make it, to make it usable. Okay. And then as far as sustainability goes, we’ve had some outreach from Sustainable Marblehead. Um, their, their original request was not to do a turf.

57:13 Um, I think, you know, at least my research shows the safety on the turf versus the natural fields. Um, and to me, safety has to be our utmost priority, that you just can’t produce the same level of safety on a natural field as you can on a turf. If the consultant can just speak to that a little bit. Sure. It really comes down to hours of use. So as Greg mentioned before, this field is almost constantly used. You guys have lights there, it extends the use when you look at like a great natural grass field is, is amazing, but you cannot use it as long as a synthetic turf field. It can’t stand up to the compaction. Then all of a sudden your drainage goes and then all of a sudden you have no grass. And so when you do that comparison of natural grass to synthetic turf, if you’re going to use this field as much as you do, you’re not gonna be able

57:58 to uphold a natural grass field. Now what I like to kind of balance that with is because you have this field, you’re actually able to give your grass fields a little bit more rest, you know, after, you know, a big rain event, things like that, you can get right on well during the rain event and you know, depending on how rainy it is. But, um, you can get on that synthetic turf field right away. You can move some of that natural grass plate over there so you’re able to save those fields as well. So when we think about synthetic turf, we’d like to, oh, sorry Greg, you’re on the spot. No, you’re fine. Thank you. Um, um, but when you think about that balance between your synthetic turf fields in town and your natural grass, it’s good to have both. So you can relieve that use of, of natural grass

58:43 to maintain those fields in good condition as well. Okay. And is there a more sustainable turf option, synthetic turf option? And if so, just rough, really round numbers, you know, is cost in, in lifespan, how do they compare? Is the lifespan equal? Is it less, is the cost, you know, twice three, whatever it is. If you can just give us some round ideas. Sure. So when you think about, um, kind of those sustainable options, you get into more of the organic infills and things like that. What’s tough in the New England area is those shoulder seasons where you guys are still playing a lot. Um, you’re either starting your spring seasons or ending your fall seasons, and they can be challenging in that way. Um, what we’re able to do here as well for a nice cost savings is to reuse a good portion of

59:29 that rubber that’s on your field now. Um, so when we think about that cost difference, we’re probably talking about somewhere around a dollar a square foot, which adds up pretty quick when you have 85,000 plus square feet, you know, of turf. Well, I’m happy to hear we’ll be able to reuse some of that. That’s actually really wonderful to hear, so thank you for that. Yeah, and Sarah, one thing to add to that too is that we will be calling for that carpet to be repurposed to the extent that it can be. So it’s not gonna end up in a landfill. And we’ll get, you know, chain of custody information, things like that to make sure that as it leaves, you know, Marblehead High School, um, it is going to go to recycling’s not the right word, it’s more repurposing. Um, but at a minimum we’re trying to not send it to a landfill.

1:00:14 Alright. That information would be really wonderful to have, um, to, to share with people. Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Um, just sort of piggybacking on Sarah’s, um, comments. I had spoken also to the folks from Sustainable Marblehead, uh, a number of months back. Um, I believe they had a conversation with you, With me, with you. I had conversation with some of them. Okay. Mm-Hmm. Um, one of the concerns that I heard also was, so you talk about safety of the, um, around concussions, uh, but one of the concerns that they had ex, uh, explained to me was around the off-gassing or the, some of the issues around the actual synthetic material itself. Mm-Hmm. Can be, um, potentially harmful or cancer causing to, um, humans, let alone young humans.

1:01:00 Um, so I don’t know if you had, you know, what sort of conversation you had, but that was a concern. Um, I mean, I, Meg can talk to that much better than I am. I mean, I had conversations with them and I know I’ll let Meg answers and I, and I know, you know, I know that they have concerns and they would rather not have grass. But to me, and I’m gonna let Meg talk to it, one outweighs the other and I’ll let You speak to that. Sure. So in terms of, um, environmental and human health and safety, those are kind of the, the big ticket items, um, that I think they’re alluding to. And so, you know, the EPA has done, um, the EPA has has set up a study and they have kind of two parts to it. And the first part has been completed and it’s been, it was around, um, rubber infill from rubber infill. And based on that study, the EPA said they, they didn’t find anything, um, that was of concern.

1:01:48 So there was not a big stop on using, you know, crumb rubber infill or anything like that. Um, in terms we work with a, um, a toxicologist a lot, you know, specifically to address these things. So we look at heavy metals, the ability for heavy metals to leach out of cru rubber, um, and the data is showing that it does not leach out. Um, it’s actually not to go into two specifics, but you know, obviously there are metals in crumb rubber, you know, um, these are recycled tires, um, but the materials that are in there are encapsulated and that means that it takes a lot to get them out. And uvs not doing it, rain’s not doing it. We’d have to be in a VA acid to, to break this down. So, um, you know, the studies are showing that there’s not that ability for the metals to leach out or from like dermal, dermal abrasions, things like that

1:02:35 for it to get into kids’ skin or, you know, anything like that. So, um, that’s heavy metals. There’s PS which goes into the offgassing, and the studies are showing that that’s not an issue. Um, there are, uh, pfas is the, the hot button topic right now. Um, and the manufacturers will require them to, um, provide information that they’re not using pfas in their manufacturing of their carpets. Um, so we hit on that. Um, heat is always a, a discussion point. You know, heat, um, in the south is a lot more of an issue than the heat up where we are. Um, and that’s a kind of a, a kind of a balance, right? Because you actually want, um, a little bit of that warmth. It doesn’t cause heat island, the field does not actually hold on to heat. Um, but it is something, you know, uh, especially use in the summer that you just keep an eye on. And that’s the same for natural grass fields.

1:03:22 Um, so in terms of safety as a consultant, I feel very comfortable recommending sand and rubber still to my clients. Um, I haven’t read anything yet that really causes me pause to say absolutely not. I won’t recommend that. Um, and so with that, I, I don’t have an issue reusing, you know, the rubber that you guys have had here for 10 years. Thank you. Thanks for addressing that. Thanks. Thanks, Matthew. Thanks for having that conversation. So, um, so great. So thank you for the update, really appreciate that. Um, I think maybe we’ll f the, the to-dos afterwards. We’ll follow up with Muffy on maybe how we can consider going forward. Okay. Um, talking to the town, Greg, you mentioned something about putting in a placeholder. Has, has that already been done that the warrant had closed?

1:04:08 So have you, I’m not sure how that exactly would work. I mean, we can talk about it offline, I guess, but Yeah, I guess we talk about it offline. But when I had emailed Sarah about getting onto the agenda, um, she had mentioned to let, let you guys know about, uh, a placeholder for what we would want. And then I met with, uh, assistant superintendent Cresta, um, superintendent. So that would be in the capital. Yeah, that would be in the capital, including in all. I just wanna make sure we didn’t miss the deadline for a separate thing. Okay, got it. All right. No, No, no. We have a placeholder for that. Okay. Um, I do think we need a motion to approve. Um, so I wanna make a motion to approve the boosters to fundraise for the replacement of the turf at Piper Field. It’s a little retroactive, but for our policy, we’re supposed to approve any fundraising efforts.

1:04:54 Um, so I’ll make that motion. Okay. Second, second. Brian. Um, Sarah Fox

1:05:03 In Favor? Oh, actually, did anybody have, I’m sorry. Hang on one second. Any deliberation? No. Okay. Sarah Fox In favor? Allison Taylor in favor? Brian. Oda in favor. Jen Schaffner in favor. So four to one. Great. Thank you. And we’ll follow up afterwards on Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thanks for taking time tonight to come out. Appreciate it. Okay. Uh, moving on. We have two, uh, Marwood High School overnight field trip approvals. The, um, I’m not sure who wants to go first. We have Jen Billings for Greece and the DECA Club, so unless you all wanna come up together, whatever you want, join the fun.

1:05:46 Hey, Dr. Carlson. Hello. Welcome. Um, Mrs. Gallin should be joining us on Zoom, and she is requesting the DECA Field trip. Oh, okay. I didn’t realize that. Um,

1:06:00 What is the last name? G Caliban.

1:06:04 I’m here. Oh, Nope. There, she’s great. Welcome. Okay. Okay. So we’re here tonight to request two field trips. The first one, um, is, um, with Miss Gallahan and she, uh, oversees the DECA club and has had, um, success again this year with students, oh, sorry. With students. Um, doing well and moving on to Boston to the Decker career, um, conference and, and competition that will take place from Thursday, March 7th through Saturday, March 9th. Um, this has been done over the last few years. 34 students are competing in this event this year. And winners, um, that are coming out of Boston, we’ll, uh,

1:06:51 move on to go to Anaheim, California. So Can you just give us a quick update on what DECA is? Sure. Do you wanna do it, Janice? Or you want me to? In my other life I was a DECA advisor too, so. Cool. Uh, DECA is an international business club that is in 50, all 50 states and several of their countries. And there are three levels of competition. Students compete in entrepreneurship, marketing, management, and finance, and hospitality and tourism. And so they all have events. Some are written events, some are role play events where they have to read a scenario and act it out with the judge and think on their feet.

1:07:39 And others are research reports that students will do, even though they’re not getting a grade, they’ll do a whole research report and a presentation and present their work to a judge. And so we had 34 students move on from the district competition, which was in January at and NCAR College, and 30 of them are able to compete. The other four couldn’t come for various reasons. So we have 30 students that are competing at stake from the two overnights are the seventh and the eighth. So we leave after school on the seventh, and we’ll be back on noon time on Saturday on the ninth,

1:08:26 right on March 9th. And we’ve been doing this since, um, 2017. And so this is the seventh year. There were seven kids in the beginning, and, um, we built it up to about 52, I believe were Oh, great. For this year. What does DECA stand for? Well, it used to way back when distributive Education Clubs of America, but now it’s just an acronym that’s used and it’s in a lot of different types of business. Okay. Great categories. Um, so let me ask for a motion and we can have any questions or deliberate, can I ask a motion to approve the, um, DECA overnight field trip for the dates of March 7th

1:09:12 through March 9th, 2024? Moved. Moved by Brian, second. Second Allison. Um, questions, concerns?

1:09:27 She says always that, you know, any student that needs additional funding that’s provided. Is that at the school level or you had mentioned from the friends?

1:09:38 We have their, they can apply for if they are going to the state and they have participated in fundraising. And so I haven’t had anybody do that. If they need funding for the district level, we usually will ask, ask the, um, parent council. But we haven’t had anybody do that this year either. So we do fundraising, we have a friends grant. We have $3,500 left for the friends grant. It’s very, the conference itself is extremely expensive. It is $300 per person for the registration fee.

1:10:28 And that includes for the advisor and chaperones. So there are, there is one chaperone for every 10 members who are attending. And so they also, the students have to, um, pay, you know, we subtract the fundraising, obviously, and then they have to divide that up. And so it’s just, it’s very expensive because they’re renting out the entire Marriott Hopley in Boston and the Times auditor. And there are other students too from Massachusetts staying at the, uh, Sheridan. And so it’s the whole place and it’s just, it, you know, includes all the food and the entertainment and the food for the judges

1:11:17 and all of those things. The, um, presenters, the guest speakers, and they have different things for the activities for the students to do.

1:11:31 So Allison, they ended up with write that down after I subtracted the,

1:11:42 uh, the friend’s money, then they, it went by, whatever was left, they divided it up. And I had that for a while back.

1:11:56 So it came, the hotel is, uh, $534 per room. Well, for the two nights per room for the two nights. And so each, um, each of the students, they in the end owed $396 for a student. But then I subtracted the,

1:12:21 the profit that each of them made, that each of them personally made through fundraising through another fundraiser that we had. So that reduced the cost more. And so we ended up, the, the students have already paid their share with 30 that are attending. Okay. I think, um, Allison? Yeah, I just, uh, remember going into Boston for things like drama festival and we would go back and forth on a bus. We never got to stay in Boston together. Imagine That’d be far more fun. Uh, what you mentioned they, that the students, most of them are staying at the Marriott and some are staying at the Sheridan. What I Think at the Marriott. Okay. Um, yeah, go ahead. I’m sorry. No, no

1:13:08 Worries. They tell us where we are staying, so we are all staying at the Marriott. Gotcha. Um, this might be, um, naive or maybe strange question, and perhaps I should have asked it for other, um, overnight trips. How, how do the sleeping arrangements work? The only overnight trip I had in my school experience was Dale, and that was wildly different than a high school trip into Boston. So how does that, or room assignments, you know, how does that all, is it elected by the, they get to stay with their friends, I would imagine or something? Is there any process or policy around that?

1:13:53 Yes. The students are asked on a, I have a Decker Google Classroom who they would like to learn with, and so they answer and they name a few people. And then the, the student officers get together. And we did that actually today to figure out, uh, the room situation. And then we go back to everybody really got who they wanted, unless they said no preference. Um, but then we’ll go back and let them know who they are rooming with and make sure that everybody’s fine with it. Um, so one other follow up. Uh, so I, I’m presuming these are standard hotel rooms with, you know, a queen or two queens, what have you.

1:14:40 There’s one child to a bed, one student, so There are queen. So all the students are required to stay in either a triple or a quad. And so the quads have two clean sized beds and the triples have a king bed. Well, they’ll have either two clean or they’ll have a king bed with a rollaway bed or a pullout sofa. And the kids usually, I mean, they’re pretty big beds and they know the kids that they’re really good friends with the kids that are sharing the beds and everybody is from just a,

1:15:27 you know, from Marblehead. Sure. So sometimes if you have an odd number, then you end up with, you try to get two kids through sharing with a different, uh, district. But there’ll be yeah, two good friends in one bed and two kids from another district in another bed. So we, we Okay. Um, I have a little heart failure going on, but so you, um, we do not have anyone from another district. No, we don’t. And so there’s one thing we have,

1:16:01 so we have, it’s very, um, the gender is divided, obviously. I mean, I dunno, it’s obvious, but, um, we have the girls, you know, together and obviously the boys together. Yeah, I, I was more concern, concern. This is been, you know, going on, it’s, it may happen entire a hundred percent Understand that. Yeah. I guess my concern was just bed sharing period. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Um, obviously We, I mean, I asked just to be clear if somebody could pay and stay in a separate bed in a single or a double, and I found, you know, I found out, um, absolutely today they said no,

1:16:47 because we do not have that kind of room there. There’s just no room to be spreading because out that much, and it would just cost that much every room cost and Right. It’s a exorbitant, I I understand. Absolutely. Um, that’s still the bed sharing, um, I guess worries me, but obviously everything is great until it isn’t. So, um, that’s interesting. Okay. Nobody ever had a problem with it. I mean, in, in my right. Um, as far as in Deca, since I’ve been doing it, so I’m saying, yeah, I think

1:17:33 I, I understand. I Mean, I think the, the, um, parents all, they all realize that they all sign on the, there’s a big packet the parents all have to fill out with the health information and everything else, and they know that the kids are in that situation. Yeah. And, and, and that, and that’s, I didn’t even ask that. So that’s a super important piece of it. So thank you for sharing that. I’m happy to hear that it should be a parent’s choice. Um, that doesn’t mean as a parent myself, it doesn’t, um, give me pause.

1:18:10 Well, it’s usually the kids that share, we make sure that they’re pretty much very good friends that have been friends for years. And that’s why the kids choose which rooms they’re going to be in. And then if they’re, if we have to have a triple, then we’ll take some, put another kid in that has requested to be with those kids. But it pretty much, those kids already know that they’re really good friends and they’ve done it before. And it’s the same kids that are sharing, again, a lot of a big majority are, uh, juniors. So they’ve been doing it, not necessarily all of them haven’t been in it for three years,

1:18:57 but they’ve been in it for maybe three years or two years. Hmm. I I can also say what, back when I was a Decker advisor in 2000, um, this, this is how it was run back then too. So very little has changed. I’m not suggesting that it has Until this point. Yeah, no. Just Am here and able to ask the questions now. Mm-Hmm. Can be disliked as much as you want. Oh, no, I mean, just, um, yes. Anyone else? They kind of dictate how it, the, the state It goes rules. I understand. Yeah. If they’re not allowed to go back and forth either, unless the school is, I thought it was 10, but I actually looked it up, it’s five miles.

1:19:43 You have to, the school has to be within five miles of the hotel for them to be able to commute. Yeah. Well, I’m a hundred, so I’m sure the rules were different back then when, when I did it. Probably were allowed to travel, you know, an hour each way. So The problem is because they have to rent all that property and they have to pay for it. And so they have to be sure that they can get the money right from the people that are staying. So they can’t have everybody say, okay, well, we’re not, you know, this district isn’t going to stay. So then they’ve already committed to that money, and that’s the problem. Okay. I think that’s, Does any anyone else have any other, um, questions?

1:20:30 Okay. Um, Allison, thank you to your point. I think, I think it is a point to at least be thinking about, not, I, I’m not saying I’m not gonna approve this, but I, I think that, um, I think it’s important to know it. I think it is important to know, um, the only thing I think about is that, and I respect this, that, you know, kids are, uh, students are, uh, self-selecting to, um, with friends. But, you know, not every student has, you know, obviously a cohort and a student could be in a position where they, they may not have, um, uh, someone that they’re comfortable with. And I just sharing a bed about sharing a bed is, you know, I don’t know. I just, that’s where I think, I think we are a lot more sensitive, um, to

1:21:14 students’ needs maybe than we were a generation ago or what have you. And that’s, I think that’s, you know, I, I, I hear, I hear your point there. Um, obviously, you know, there’s costs and logistics and all of that that dictate this, but, and I don’t, to my knowledge know that we have any policy on this. We do have an overnight policy, but I don’t know that I’ll have to go back and look at it. I don’t, I know if there’s anything in there. I think it’s helpful To know that parents are aware. So Yeah, for sure. I think that’s one of the most important pieces. Okay. We have, for girls, there are three triples and two quads. And for boys there are three triples and two quads.

1:21:54 Okay. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? All right. We need to vote this. I believe we need to approve it. Yeah. Right. Did I do, did we do the first and second? Yeah, we’re deliberate. You did? Okay. So I’m gonna call for the vote. Sarah Fox. In favor. Alison Taylor in favor. Brianda in favor. Jen sch in favor. So four to zero. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Janis. Good. Thank you too. Be really disappointed if they couldn’t go up. Oh, no. Oh God, no. Good luck. No, but we just, you know, we have to Good luck. Ask these questions. All right. Deca responsibility. Okay. Alright. Um, The next request is the Greece trip. And we have our two wonderful English teachers, Jen and Rebecca Blumberg,

1:22:40 who can talk about their vision for this. Um, hi, I’m Rebecca Blumberg. Um, we are proposing that we would like to take an English department trip over April break of 2025, um, to Greece. So we are very excited to offer this opportunity, hopefully, um, for students to do a real deep dive into a text. So we’ll read an ancient Greek tragedy. Um, and then you, you have this opportunity to do this experiential learning where they’ll actually visit the locations from the play and we’ll learn about ancient Greek culture. Um, and it’s, yeah, we’re very excited. Um, we’re thinking we’re going to offer this to grades 10, 11, and 12. Um, and we’re hoping to have about 30 to 36 students.

1:23:25 Um, and yeah, it’s something that we’re very excited about. We did look into the, this field trip’s a little shorter in terms of distance. We did look into the school calendar for next year. We did put the dates down to, I know the calendar’s not approved, but we, we looked at the date for the Boston Marathon for 2025 and decided that that seems to be when Marblehead has, its has its, um, April vacation. So we’re so excited in our experience. Marblehead Hass not gone to Greece before. Um, we know that Mr. Scalia is going to Ireland next year with a group for a coral group, which, um, even more excited about Greece ‘cause we were contemplating Ireland. Um, and it’s just something that we’re thrilled to be a part of and hope that you, um,

1:24:13 share our enthusiasm for this. Oh God. Alright. We drove back And forth to Boston After any, um, any questions? We all win. Let me move actually, Sarah, you know, let me ask for the vote and then we can, or the motion, the, I’m sorry. The motion. And then we can, um, we can ask questions and deliberate. So can I get a motion to approve the, um, Robert High School trip to Greece for April of 2025? So moved second. So moved. Uh, moved by Allison second. Brian. Brian, sorry, Brian second. Um, okay. Uh, uh, Sarah, question. Yeah. So I believe I heard you say this was for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. Um, is there, you know, so

1:24:58 there’s a text that’s paired with this. I love that it’s experiential learning. Um, how would students be signing up for this specific class to be eligible to go? Would this be a text or reading independently? And then we’ll be engaging more with it, you know, on the trip? How, explain to me a little bit how that works. And then also if there was a ninth grader that really wanted to appeal to be part of this, um, what that process would be. So let’s be, let’s, can I ask the question about the ninth grader, Sarah? ‘cause we’re, we would upon approval pitch it this year. So ninth graders, we don’t even know them yet ‘cause they’re currently eighth graders. So our current ninth graders would be part of it. They’d be, um, able to go on the trip next year.

1:25:44 So rising 10 11. Yeah. So it’d be rising, um, 10, 11, and 12 for next year.

1:25:51 And you, um, you, would you consider including that the, those rising ninth graders in it, um, as they go through the course selection process?

1:26:03 I, I don’t think so. ‘cause it’s, it’s not, it’s not course dependent because it’s not, it’s not like a French class where you’re tied to the language or Spanish. It’s tied to classic lit exploring Greek literature. And to be honest with you, it’s, it would also be doing the major hits of Greece as well, you know, like the Parthenon and doing a little island tour and, um, visiting ruins and those sorts of things in Athens, spending EFS plan as a couple days in Athens as well. Um, we were the ones who came up with the idea for the text. Mm-Hmm. Um, based on the spots that we visit, but maybe we can speak to your question about would you read on your own? Yeah. So to answer that question, um, so we have a text and we will students who are interested, um,

1:26:50 in exploring this text further. So they’ll read it. Um, and we will do it sort of kinda like a book club. Yeah. Um, so we’ll meet and we’ll discuss it and um, and then sort of further the experience with this travel opportunity in Greece. We have that really nice magic block at the high school. So for instance, I’m going on the Spain trip in February and um, miss Liney is building community and so she’s holding a couple magic blocks where all the kids go to her classroom and today was one of them. So I went down there and we were, so I got to meet all the kids going on the trip and, ‘cause I don’t teach Spanish, so I do know some of them though from teaching them other classes. And it was just us chatting about how the trip was gonna go. I magic block is such a perfect time to be able to meet with kids who sign up for the trip and see them in the daytime during the school day,

1:27:37 not trying to find a time to talk about the text at night or, you know, it’s just already in our school day to have that happen. Um, there are two spots on the itinerary. One is the Oracle at Delphi and Corinth, which are two cities and locations that are in either both Antigone and Oedipus wrecks that we’ve thought about. And then of course, the Odyssey, which you can’t escape if you go to Greece. Oh, I got you. So I hope that ans answers your question about that. Yes, thank you. I just wanna make sure it is paired with, um, an academic piece. Mm-Hmm. Because, you know, our, all of our policies on field trip is, there has to be, it has to touch back to our curriculum in some way. Yeah. And I would imagine maybe we’d have

1:28:26 students on the trip who were Latin students as well, so they might be able to help us, um, with information that, you know, that we encounter there as well. So it, um, we’re just really excited about it. And so is our tour guide the guy that we’ve been talking to for, um, a lot actually. Um, what other questions can we answer Anyone else? I’m assuming same rules about how, like what the sleeping arrangements are there. Yeah. So we looked into this. She’s asking about sleeping arrangements. Oh yeah. We looked into this. Um, yeah, so we have, um, there, it’s pretty standard that they would be in rooms of three to four. Um, if they are interested in upgrading, there is an opportunity for them to pay just an extra $70 per night to be guaranteed

1:29:13 to be in a double room with two individual beds. So that’s another option for them. And they, same like self-selecting who they wanna be in a room with. Yep. So we’d ask them for input and then, um, yeah. Group them based on that. Yeah. We’ve asked the Spanish teacher, so Candace and Mary Francois, who have taken kids and Andrew Ollio about rooming and getting, it’s sort of like as teachers, you sometimes will say to a, if you’re gonna create a group, it’s like, gimme the name of one person that you would be comfortable sharing a room with. Mm-Hmm. And obviously, um, we’re definitely going to be divided, um, in your room. And then, then we hopefully can match that up. They, Candace and Mary, um, Candace Liney

1:29:59 and Mary Francois have said it has not been an issue over the years. They, they just have been able to make. Yeah. I mean, it never until, Until it is. Yeah. Right. I think that the opportunity, ‘cause we called our, um, rep yesterday about the, if a student wanted to be in a room, um, and be in a double only, is that possible? And he, so he got back to us and told us Money, but Yes. Yes. What an amazing trip. Yeah, I think so. Right. So I just had a couple questions. Um, there’s not a ton of detail in the writeup, so I think at some point we would need to have a pretty, um, I, I didn’t get that. I got like a

1:30:45 Yes. You got sort of a paragraph, correct. Yes. Have a more detail In depth breakdown of the cost in insurance information and all of that. If you, Second thing is, it’s quite pricey at $4,200 for a student, let alone anymore. So that is a little bit of a concern. Um, in terms of, um, accessibility, if that’s the right word, um, at that price point, you know, I just, I don’t know. I don’t know what the finances are. Um, does this become

1:31:14 exclusive or exclusionary? I don’t know. Exclusionary, exclusionary, um, from a, from a financial standpoint. So we do have several opportunities for, um, fundraising and for financial aid. Okay. So EF we’re working with EF Tours. Um, they would provide every student with their own fundraising page, kind of like a GoFundMe so they can do some fundraising on their own for that. Um, and then they also, um, have an opportunity to break the payments down into monthly payments over the course of a year. Um, and then students who sign up within the first 48 hours of registration would receive a $200 discount. And then lastly, EF does actually offer some additional and financial aid scholarships that students can apply for. Yes. They have a merit slash financial aid scholarship.

1:32:00 That’s great. I mean, just ‘cause in general, our field trips wherever they are, whether they’re to Boston or down the street, we generally have a policy where students are not excluded from a field trip for financial purposes. I, I, we can’t say that here. We can’t guarantee this. So that’s, that’s just, and it is, I mean, just given obviously the economic environment we’re in, I think trips in the past. I mean, it’s just the inflation has cut up. I mean, and it’s a pretty, you know, it’s a pretty significant price point that it wasn’t at, you know, pre covid when I think the last trip was, or, or, you know, in the past. So that was just sort of what jumped out at me. And I would just not like to see a student not be able to go exclusively because of finances. And I don’t know what the school can do to ensure that.

1:32:49 Yeah. I mean we, we do have some, some money that we set aside for scholarship. We don’t have $4,200, but we definitely, if there are students that need some help, we, we could help with some of that. And we can also look at other options too for that And help I, if we could get that message out. I wouldn’t want a student to just be turned. That’s the other thing. A student could look at this and say, forget it. I mean, that’s what I also wanna avoid. You know, that, that there’s somehow a message goes out that says, you know, if you want to come to this trip, this is something that you think you wanna do, don’t let the finance, you know, please come at least come to the teachers, come to the administration. Let’s put a plan, you know, let’s help help you and the fa your family put a plan together. Mm-Hmm. To Help. And we actually, this year, there’s the trip that’s going over to, to, um, Spain plans Yeah. To Spain. Um, and they’re gonna Montreal now too.

1:33:36 But, um, there are some families that I did work with. Okay. And, and helped and helped out with Some financial sistance. That’s great to know. Um, then the final thing, I know we’re beating a dead horse, you know, so to speak. But, um, the insurance, so we had an incident in the past, um, which is a absolute tragedy on a trip that took place internationally. Um, and I have asked in the past, and I’ll ask, I have asked in the past, and I would like to make sure that we have documentation that there is medical insurance and medical evacuation insurance in significant amounts to cover any medical issue or any evacuation that would need to take place from Greece. Which would be a lot, the evacuation would be a lot. The insurance usually actually is often quite affordable and probably through the provider.

1:34:22 But we need to make sure of that. I personally would like to see it, to be honest with you. So that Comfortable. So I think Jen, that based on talking to the, their, our levels of protection and also we, we modeled this, I’m happy to give you a copy. We modeled this after Mary Francoise’s handout for France. ‘cause she, we were sharing information and, um, first a year ago, just for the record, the France trip was 5,100. Okay. So this is 42. This is 41 29. And, um, the, can I give you these? You have these, yeah. So the man from EF said that there are two, um, global protection plans and the higher one gives you the better coverage for cancellation. And I was looking at Mary Francoise and hers said that the highest level of insurance, of course, provides parents with the most protection.

1:35:09 Um, as far as the evacuation piece, I’d have to look at that closely. I I don’t know if that would fall onto a family to get on their own. I, let’s put it this way, I, and I’m only one vote will not approve a plan a trip that doesn’t have evacuation. It’s that it’s that imperative given what we went through or what the family went through in the past. So I, I don’t Know. So I’m assuming Mary’s trip has evacuation insurance. I, I’m just, that’s just, I don’t, I don’t know that I saw the word evacuation on the, the, we didn’t ask for that. I literally looked, what we added to this today was that we built in the global travel protection plan into everyone’s cost. We added to added it to the cost of the trip.

1:35:56 And that was $190. And then Sean earlier rep said, families can opt to upgrade to have a more expensive insurance plan. And that’s the one at the bottom, which adds $400 additional. If someone wanted the higher level, to be honest, it seemed to be focused around could you cancel at any moment and get all your money back. I understand that, and I know that’s important, but so is the coverage that you think will never happen. Um, so I, I’d like to, you know, I know we’ll call, we’re gonna have a vote, but I would like to get this information myself offline afterwards. Sure, absolutely. I guess that the other thing that the rep was so adamant about saying was that, you know, EF carries $50 million, but he likened that it’s not, that it is a,

1:36:43 I mean, help me here, Rebecca, like under insurance that this is release of liability for a group leader school and school board that he said, you wanna think about us, like your school ring company coming into your building to offer a trip. It’s not a school. No, I understand that, but I just Do you mean for peace of mind? Because that was so, I mean, I was here when that happened. Mm-Hmm. Yep. I just vowed I would like, if I had any say in anything, I wouldn’t let a happen again that it or let it happen that any student would go internationally and not have them. I just pulled up both plans for global travel protection and global travel protection. Plus they both have emergency evacuation coverage. Okay. Oh, Nice. Does it give the amount Both levels? It does not give the amount specifically.

1:37:29 So even the lesser one, Michelle has it. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s Just find out how much that medical Expense, pardon me. If we could just find out how much it is, how much the coverage, how much coverage it gives you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s Important. Okay. Yeah. Thank you else. Thank you. Appreciate that. All right, I’m gonna call for the, oh, Sarah, sorry, go ahead. I Didn’t have my hand up. Um, so one other question I had, when, when traveling abroad, obviously there are laws and their rules are different. Um, particularly the drinking rule. Uh, I’m assuming we have our students sign some type of documentation and honor code that even though it’s allowable there, they they won’t be, that’s a pretty big liability to take on. And that there’d be some type of, I don’t know, repercu repercussion of some facts

1:38:16 if they, if they break it. Is there, is this addressed at all? So meeting with Candace slimy today, I asked her about that. ‘cause I’m going on the Spain trip and she shared with me a behavior contract and then the, the town release of reliability, I believe as well. Or like, let’s see, she gave me two documents today. So one is the permission slip for students engaging in school sponsored travel, and then Candace’s, no. Do I not have it here? It’s, she, it was a behavior contract. It was a behavior contract. Um, about just like really to be how you prepare. Yeah. Well, it should be the same conduct as if you’re in school. I would think the the, the handbook would prevail. We would prevail hold the students to the same conduct requirements that we have in this building.

1:39:03 So even if the drinking age is less, they would still not be able to drink no alcohol drugs. It, it’s there. So not only are they still being held to all of the, um, Marblehead High school handbook rules, it also explicitly says it is strictly forbidden to consume alcohol, to smoke, vape, and buy used drugs, um, to get tattoos and or piercing tattoo piercings. Yeah. And then like, things like, yeah, things like saying just that you are, when you are with your American friends, please speak quietly. Remember to be polite and if you can remember the formal Ted, you know, in Spanish. So they have all these like, please don’t be looking at your phone when the tour guides are addressing us and helping us sorts of things as well. Um, she, they have, I will not participate in inappropriate physical

1:39:50 contact while on this trip. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah, thank You. Okay. All set. I’m gonna call for vote. Sarah Fox. In favor. Alison Taylor in favor. Brian. Oda in favor. Jen Schaffner in favor. So it’s great. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. You taking the time late at night? Got an early morning. Thanks. Thanks, Jen. Thank you everybody. An amazing job. Yeah, that’d be great. Have fun in Spain. I’ll see you. Um, okay. Michelle Kra and your civic. Um, so the next item we have is the high school program of studies, I believe has been withdrawn. Yeah, That’s postponed. That’s postponed. Okay. Um, we now have a call to approve the director of finance and operations position.

1:40:36 This is to post for the position, correct? Yeah. It’s actually changing it from the assistant superintendent of finance and operations to the director of finance and operations. Um, which will also reduce a salary I have associated with that. Um, Why would we wanna do that? Or we need to, lemme give an example of the difference. So this is your recommendation? Yeah. Dr. Deez to Mm-Hmm. Um, go to the, uh, director, director of finance and operations position to, um, um, replace the assistant superintendent of finance and operations who is moving on. And this would be to, and then I guess post this? Yes. Okay. That’s the Go ahead. Yeah. No, to give a little bit of the background, um,

1:41:23 I initially was hired as the director of finance, um, shortly before I began here, the director of operations. And it had resigned. And when I was hired, they realized that I also had all the operational experience. So my position was, while we do not like to make positions for people and their skills, it kind of was uniquely tailored to my skillset. Um, so I was hired, you know, I was hired as the director of finance and operations. My job was then expanded. I assumed all these additional roles. Um, shortly thereafter, I was then, um, transferred into the position of assistant superintendent for finance and operations at the time.

1:42:09 So, and that was just due to my additional licensure, my desire to get into the superintendent role a little bit more. So that was my logical next step. But it, I don’t think it was ever a plan for this district to have two assistant superintendents. Um, the, really the difference between the assistant superintendent and the director. There are some additional, you know, additional situations where an assistant superintendent can step into an assist, to an assist, assist the superintendent in certain situations. Or if the superintendent’s out for a day, you can make certain decisions and react. Um, that, and it does take an additional level of licensure, which I had obtained. So due to that not really being a requirement, and we have a wonderful assistant superintendent

1:42:55 of teaching and learning here. Um, you know, we, we have discussed as a leadership team that it probably makes sense to make this a director role. Uh, you probably will be able to attract a little more candidates, maybe save a little bit of money Mm-Hmm. Um, even though salaries are a little crazy these days. But, um, I, I think that’s probably the, the most logical move for the district at this time is to put it back to a director role. Are there specific tasks or responsibilities that you, that that role would no longer do? And do we have someone or a place for them? Not specifically. Um, pretty much all of my responsibilities would transfer into a director role. Um, you know, it depends really on the leadership team,

1:43:41 on certain other leadership type items. How, how involved strategy involved do you get Mm-Hmm, exactly. With the strategy. And I was trying to branch into more of teaching and learning Mm-Hmm. Student facing services. Um, that was just my, my trajectory. Yeah. Which I had wanted. But, um, really that’s not essential for your director of finance, but, um, it’s, it’s always good for them to have a better understanding of that. Wow. And also as we’re planning our budget, thank you. It was an area to have a small, but, you know, we’re starting. So. Absolutely. Sarah, you had a question? Yeah. So I know in your current role you oversee, um, the director of, uh, facilities, the director of technology, um, the HR manager who will,

1:44:30 who will oversee these roles moving forward. Um, I do not oversee the director of it. So that, that is the direct report of the superintendent. Um, right now, I believe HR and it will report directly to the superintendent. Um, the director of finance and operations will still oversee school lunch facilities, um, Transportation And transportation. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. Now, HR being, being a manager position, why would that not still fall under the director of operations? It could, it could go either way. Um, we’ve gone back and forth since we’ve created this position and really, right now with all, with all the needs going on, it, it really needs to have that, that hand in hand conversation with the superintendent

1:45:17 and that working relationship. Yeah. And Sarah, um, I, my other suggestion, I don’t have it on the table at the, the moment tonight, is to make the HR manager a director of hr, um, because that is the role that she’s doing. Um, and that is the role that is needed and warranted in Marblehead. Um, and the other part is, um, in my last seven and a half years in Watertown, the director of HR did report directly to the superintendent because you work very closely, um, with our union, with our, all of our hires, um, in, in many, many ways. So it makes more sense to have it report to the superintendent. Okay. Any other questions? No. So anytime that we have basically a new position,

1:46:04 I guess is really what it is that requires school committee approval. So I’m gonna call for a motion to approve the position of director of finance and Operations. So moved, moved by Brian. Yes. Second.

1:46:19 Um, is that Allison? Yep. Okay. Um, okay. Any other, um, questions or Delivery? Are we voting, um, the salary range separately?

1:46:29 Because per policy we vote the salary range as well.

1:46:34 Do you, do you have that? You can, I mean, I recommend a salary range anywhere from one 20 to one 50. Um, one 50 is certainly the higher end, but I would hate for you to vote a salary that then handcuffs the superintendent. Mm-Hmm. When she has a fabulous experience candidate with 30 years experience. Um, and that fits into your, generally your budget. Yes. Yeah. Proposal. Okay. Yep. Um, do you want, do we need to amend that motion? Okay. Yeah. So I’m gonna call to amend the motion to include approving the director of finance and operations position and with an associated salary range of 120,000 to 150,000.

1:47:16 Do, Do we wanna make sure that we’re just, to your point, is one 50 enough to not

1:47:24 Possibly salary is out of control. Important to remember, this comes before the school committee and we’re actually the ultimate hire on this position. And while it’s a recommendation of the superintendent, we are the one that does the hire. And we are the, and, and the, um, contract is with us. So if it, we’re not really handcuffing anybody, if when we vote to, um, hire an individual, we would also at that time vote to approve their contract. So we really wouldn’t be, I know it’s gonna require vote no matter what. I just, When I’m applying for jobs, there are some I won’t even look at if I know the range is not right near where I am. I, I’m not even gonna try. Um, but I’m in the corporate world and not education.

1:48:10 So that’s fair too. But I just think it’s, I’m just trying to hear what you said. No, it, it, it’s a valid point, but we also need to look at all the salaries of our other administrators as well, which are lower than they should be, unfortunately. Mm-Hmm. So we have an amended motion on the table to be moved. Would someone move the amendment? Uh, yeah. So moved. Sorry, Alison. Second. Second by Sarah, I’m gonna call for roll call. Sarah Fox. Approved. Alison Taylor approved. Brian OTA approved. Jen Schaffner approved. So that’s four zero. Okay. Um, chair, sorry. Are we also discussing, I’d like to have two school committee representatives and I, Sarah said that might be part of the discussion tonight,

1:48:56 um, as part of our interview committee. So I wondered if you wanted to do that now or later. Oh, okay. So the, for the committee, for the search committee? Yes. For the director of finance and operations. Okay. Um, okay. That Will be under, that will be later in the agenda. That would be under subcommittee liaison. How is that a subcommittee? It’s a liaison. It would be appointed to that search. Thank you. Okay. Um, okay. Um, super, uh, school committee vacancy update. I don’t have, Sarah, do you have any update or where Are we? So, um, we, the selectmen voted, or the select board voted, um, uh, last Wednesday, a little over a week ago, uh, to, to accept our letter proposal to ask for submittals. Um, we put out a press release.

1:49:43 The all submittals are due by 3:00 PM tomorrow. Um, so, so far I have, I, I correct myself, 3:00 PM on Monday. Um, definitely wanna correct myself on that. 3:00 PM on Monday. Um, so far we have received, I believe three we’ll be following the same procedures last time, where when they come in, we’ll be putting together a packet, um, to, to, according to the submittal process. Um, we’ll have to have submitted to both Kyle and I. So I have ones that are coming to me. Kyle is ones that are going to her, we’ll coordinate, Kyle will put together a packet, and then we’ll make sure all members of the select board and all members, members of the school committee have that. And we’ll be conducting interviews at, uh, the selectman’s room at Abbott Hall on Wednesday,

1:50:30 February 7th, I believe right now at 6:00 PM start is our tentative start time.

1:50:39 6:00 PM Okay. The select board is gonna be meeting for their normal business meeting afterwards, and I believe has a consultant. So that’s why we wanted to do the 6:00 PM start time. So then we have time for them to still have their business meeting after. Does it take just an hour, is it No, no, no. They’re, they’re, we’re anticipating two hours. Okay. Okay. Um, okay. Um, great. Any questions? Okay, moving on, superintendent search process discussion. Um, this has came up the, we talked about this the last time. This is to determine the, I guess the,

1:51:19 well the search committee and then any details around the superintendent search. So we need to, I guess the point is that we need to determine who, um, from this committee will sit on the superintendent’s screening committee. I’m calling it a screening committee. Um, and then move forward, um, also with some dates and some other things on focus groups, et cetera, which doesn’t affect the screening committee, but we gotta do both of those things. I do also wanna let the committee know, I could bring this up under new business, but I, I have, um, contacted a, I was

1:51:59 referred, I was given, I came across, um, a recruiter or consultant who has done recruiting work for superintendent searches. Um, had a conversation with him, just reached out. Um, so I’m going to, um, submit to the committee. I’m gonna ask him to submit a proposal to us if he is interested in helping us. And if so, I will submit that to the committee, um, for us to consider whether we might wanna use, um, that person for the purpose of really sort of executive, not executives, but recruiting specifically for trying to recruit candidates, the right person. I think that’s great idea. Yeah. Mm-Hmm. So I just wanna let the committee know that. So I will have that so you can get that done. I get it. This will be in addition to, we’ll still be putting it out at, at legally and all the other publications. This would be in addition

1:52:45 to submittals we receive as well, correct? Right. Correct. Yes, absolutely. So what if, so For the search committee, like a motion to have Jen and Brian be the school committee representatives for the superintendent search? Okay. So we have a policy that was in our drop boxes last week on this. And I think it’s really important. We keep talking about following policy and adhering to it. And the policy states that, um, the chair will make a recommendation to then be approved by the committee. So, um, I don’t know how you wanna handle this. Jen, I you’re chairing this meeting. I if you wanna make the recommendation or, well,

1:53:31 You have already made the recommendation, did you not? Uh, yes. I made the recommendation that it be the chair and vice Chair Jen Schaffner and myself. Okay. So, okay. So that was your recommendation. That is subject to approval by the school committee? Yes. Okay.

1:53:53 So that would necessitate a motion. Yes. So I’ll ask for a motion, or I’ll make the motion to approve, uh, the recommendation by the chair.

1:54:06 Is there a second?

1:54:11 Alright, well I am not comfortable seconding as I’m chairing it, so, um, I don’t know how we wanna proceed. So, um, per the policy then we’ll just wait to waive a fifth member. Um, and ‘cause it has, it’s the approval of the recommendation, so of the chair. So, um, if We don’t wanna vote to approve that we’re at a stalemate until, you know, we can, we can address that. All right. I will second the motion. That’s what it takes. We need to move this along.

1:54:51 Questions, deliberation. Do you want me to call for a vote? You can call. Okay. Sarah Fox.

1:54:59 Two favor, Allison. Not in favor, Brian. Not in favor. Jen. Schaffner in favor. So it does not pass four, two, uh, two to two. So we will wait until, I guess we have a fifth member. Okay. Um, okay. In the meantime, I am gonna get the, I will get that submitted to the committee for the next meeting. Yeah. Including the fifth member. Um, which is I think will be important once we get that, if we decide to go ahead with that. Um, okay. School committee. Um, sorry. Subcommittee and liaison updates and discussion. Sorry. Um, let’s see who, uh, any updates? Ryan?

1:55:45 I intended the superintendent safety committee meeting. It was, well, I mean, it’s very clear to me that everybody’s focused on safety now, uh, to the right degree. And I’m very pleased with, uh, the way the whole committee works together. Great. Thank you. And just for the record, it is pretty much confidential in terms of a lot of the stuff that you cover. Yeah. Um, that we’re not sharing a lot of our No. Our, our safety plans. We can’t. Okay. Um, let’s see. Sarah, did you have any updates? I did. So last night, um, was the METCO PCO meeting. Um, I attended it as well as Jen did at our last meeting. We had talked about leaving it open to all members, and then once we hit two, um,

1:56:31 we were kinda locked down because the quorum. So I know that Allison and Brian were also, um, looking forward to being part of that. And indefinitely we’ll get you those dates, um, for the next one and everyone will be able to, um, first of all, I, Sarah, can you just share how today it really to Sarah, Can you just share how we can’t all go at the same, I I just wanna make sure every the community here, It would be a school committee meeting then, and it would, we would hijack. I just wanna make sure People understand that, you know. Yeah, no, so we are open meeting law. We can’t, um, well Actually, So not Keisha today. And, um, what really, I, I have to just apologize to the whole community. We have had met liaisons all the way along. Um, it, you know, going back it was Emily Baron

1:57:18 and then it was Megan Taylor. I was unaware no one was attending these meetings. I had thought our, um, liaisons had been attending every meeting. Uh, I had a wonderful conversation with Keisha today. She said, I think her words were, she was so excited to come in school today, um, knowing that she finally had, you know, engagement from the school committee. So I, you know, as chair was, was, um, remiss for not following up on was our liaisons actually attending their meeting. So I do owe that community that apology. But it was a really, really wonderful meeting. Um, they opened up talking about the flag policy. Um, they, they talked about an email that was sent by, um, Lee Lander reporter for the current.

1:58:04 Um, they later shared, shared the email with us. ‘cause we just didn’t know the context. One thing I will say is the email that went to, um, the METCO families, they were really happy to get a clarification on that. Um, stated that, uh, we’re looking at a policy to ban the Black Lives Matter flag that is absolutely unequivocally wrong. We are not looking to do that. Um, we’re looking for a mechanism to approve flags, not a mechanism to ban anything. So I think that was really important. We had some good conversations about that. And what really touched me the most about, um, the PCO meeting was, you know, well talking about that, the flag discussion. There was one mom who spoke really wonderfully and said how she supports the students that had organized a rally. And then there was another gentleman, a dad that spoke up

1:58:49 and said he was really against flags in school. He felt they were polarizing and that they had no place and he wanted to just focus on education. And what I thought was so wonderful was here two people were completely polarized saying opposite things. And they were so cordial and so respectful and had a really, you know, and everyone just was in the spirit of, we want what’s best for our kids. Maybe we go back out in a different way. And when I, I actually followed up with Casey today and I said, you know, that’s what’s been missing from a lot of our, um, meetings in town. And, and so I was just, I I thought that was exemplary. I thought it was amazing. And I was, you know, I, I loved it. It was, it was great to be a part of. Um, they talked about how they’ve been working

1:59:36 with our school-based pcos, um, to try to provide the METCO parents and our Boston commuting parents with links so that they can zoom into those PTO meetings, PCO meetings. Um, I think all schools, except for the Village school have been able to do that so far. And, um, Keisha said she was pretty confident she could continue to try to work with Reese to, to provide the village school link as well. Um, it was just, you know, PA parents were talking about the wonderful things that were happening. Uh, they gave, kept giving kudos. There’s a wonderful tutor at Vets that’s working with their kids. They all spoke really, really highly of, um, Matt Fox got a lot of shout outs. Um, just, it was really great to hear Mary Maxfield, um,

2:00:24 or was there as well, uh, talking about, you know, some of the younger grades and just there to listen. Uh, Dutch McGinness was there, and, um, really great meeting. They have them once a month. We’ll make sure that someone’s there to listen. And, um, Keisha and I are, are touching base on how her, um, Millie and I can maybe sit down and, and hopefully Dr. McGinnis can join us and really just talk about, um, what their thoughts are, what their needs are. And again, I we made sure all the parents had contact information because I had no idea that did I, I had no representation. Um, did I hear you right. I really do apologize for that. Did I hear you right that we’ve had assigned liaisons from our committees

2:01:09 and they weren’t attending the meetings? Uh, no. They, uh, um, that’s what was, Emily Garen was in the beginning. She had said, um, a meeting with her, but I believe we, this was the first time, um, school committee had attended the PCO meeting. So I encourage all of you guys, when I get you those dates, just let me know so we make sure we stay on top of that forum piece. But it really was a great meeting. Yeah, thank you. Um, okay. Um, policy subcommittee, we have not met as a subcommittee. Um, so a couple things. We still have a couple of outstanding policy items that we need to work on with Steve Ek. So I need to follow up with him on that. Um, Julia and I, and I, maybe Dr. Carlson, I’m not sure.

2:01:55 Um, we’ll be, uh, meeting tomorrow to debrief, um, regarding the listening sessions we have with the students at Marble High School regarding the, um, flag and banner policy that has been, um, discussed. Um, the students presented a series of proposals to us, um, because, um, we, our two of us is a quorum and we can’t deliberate offline. I’ve shared that document with Allison tonight. Uh, we obviously won’t discuss it until we come to a meeting and then we, we can do that. But I will get the debrief tomorrow. Um, so we’ll be moving forward with that. And again, to Sarah’s point, um, make it very clear that the point of this and what we’re trying to work towards is a way to make it possible for students and members of the community to have their symbols

2:02:42 and flags, um, approved in a way that is fair to everyone. And I wanna make that clear. That’s the point of this. Um, and we will be moving forward, um, as you know, as we yeah. As I finish up the debrief. Um, and we have a lot of other items that are important in pressing our time as well. Um, any other subcommittees? I think that’s it. Sarah has, oh, sorry. Go ahead. Sarah. Is your hand still up or, yeah, she just waved up again. You’re muted. Muted. I should be used to this. Four years later, um, Julia Ferrera, our assistant superintendent, had reached out to me. She will be coordinating and chairing, um, the interview committee for the director of finance and operations. Alright. Um, the committee is set to convene.

2:03:31 She said, I, um, I got this email yesterday on Tuesday, February 13th from three to seven. So if there’s members of our committee that wanna be involved with that, um, one, one thing I was hoping for is that a representative from facilities and a representative for budget could be on that because it’s finance and operations. So I think that those are specialty, specialty areas. So I don’t know if Allison and Jen, if you guys are interested in that at all.

2:03:58 I’m sorry. I’m happy to do it. I, I don’t need, yeah, I don’t whatever. If you wanna do it. No, she said two. So you want Sarah? Oh, you wants two school, Someone from finance. Well, who wants to be honest? It, why don’t we ask? That doesn’t Work. That’s okay. But it’s February, uh, Tuesday, February 13th from three to 7:00 PM Just One is fine. Just one. I think be sure we Yeah, you’re saying one is fine. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I think one is probably fine. Um, I think, I think it should, I think it should be open to whoever, anyone of us that wants to do it. Yep. A hundred percent. Is there anyone who wants to do this? I mean, if no one else wants, I’ll do it then I’m happy to do. I thought you just said you Wanted to. I’ve served on, I’m fine facilit. I’ll do it in finance for a while, so I’m happy to,

2:04:44 but it’s, I’m also happy to allow someone to do it if they are interested. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. Great. Okay. Thanks. Jen. Is that, yeah. Time wise. What is, what was the date on that Tuesday, February 13th? It was February 13th from three to 7:00 PM

2:05:04 That’s for interviewing. We’re gonna have it in 11 days. We think we’ll have candidates. Okay. Very hopeful. Okay, great. Manifest it. That’s right. Yes, that’s right. Exactly. Thank you, Jen. Anything else? Thank you, Sarah. Okay. I’m gonna move on to new business school committee announcements and requests. Um, I’d like to know where we are with the, uh, special ed survey, the R frp. Did that go out yet? Yep. No, I received your feedback and whatnot. I want to get the draft out to all you guys, which I will do in the next few days. I’ve been trying to wrap up the budget like a crazy person. Okay. Um, but yeah, you, you’ll get that within the next week. Definitely. And we will send that out. Didn’t We see that already? Or You saw a draft of it? There was some feedback, some additional comments, requirements you guys wanted to put in there. Okay. So I received some written comments from Brian.

2:05:52 Okay. So we will tweak it, send it out to you. It doesn’t need to be discussed at the next meeting, but I do want to make sure you guys see a draft before it goes out. Thank You. Sarah, Where are we on the special education? Um, on the independent investigation that would, in, that Dr. Guinness had, um, had, was putting out or, or Yeah. Or had ordered, I Dunno how to say that. I, um, Contacted Attorney Bennett today actually, and he stated the final report will be completed prior to February break. Um, and so we’re awaiting that. Oh, which is next? No, two weeks I guess, right? No. Yep. Well before then. So they, they extended that out another two weeks

2:06:39 At the most. Yes, it was an estimate. Sarah, I Okay. Any other new business? Okay. Any correspondence? None that I’m aware of. Sarah, any correspondence you’re aware of? Um, the submissions I would kind count as correspondence, but we’ve already touched on that and how those will be received in our packet after the, uh, three o’clock on Monday. Okay. Thank you. Oh, for the, okay, good. Alright. I am going to call for an adjournment. Do I need a motion to adjourn? Yes. Motion to adjourn. Sure. Move. Second. Second. My Computer’s dying. Sarah Fox

2:07:22 In favor. Alison Taylor In favor. Brian Oda in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. We are adjourned at 9 0 8.