School Committee: February 27, 2025

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

0:17 stop us back into Open Session R school committee open meeting welcome everyone Jen shaffner chair i’ like to welcome everyone the first thing we’re going to do is Pledge of Allegiance why if you mind leading

0:31 us all right pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which stand stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you um our student representative Ella is not here tonight um so we’re going to go on to the next item on our agenda which is a facility naming request we have a request from a family here in Marblehead Hood to name our sports complex Marblehead to name our sports complex um and their dad so the K Joe Joe and umman and are gonna up and make a presentation we’re gonna hear from them and some other folks on their request to the scho thank you welcome thank you very

1:17 much um I’ll start uh first um good evening my name is Joe Mary kman and beside me is my brother Tom kich both Tom and I are two are

1:34 thanks uh both Tom and I are two of the eight children of Barbara and Alex pulish we’re here this evening along with other family members behind us to respectfully request naming the marble Hood High School Athletic Complex the Alexander W kulovich Jor Athletic Complex the reason we are submitting this request is because we believe that our father embodies not only marble Hood High School athletics but also marble Hood Public Schools its student students and its athletes as well as the entire town of Marblehead Hood I’ll give you a town of Marblehead I’ll give you a little background on my father he graduated from M at High School in 1953 and subsequently put himself through Wester Academy where he graduated in 54 he went to Boston College on a football scholarship where he played football for

2:20 four years and graduated in 58 he served as a first lieutenant in the United States infantry from 59 to 61 he received his masters of education from Salem State University in 1964 and from 1970 to 2000 earned 80 credits from Salem State University for his Doctorate tying this all back to Marblehead my father was a teacher head football coach and athletic director of Bishop Fenwick from 1961 until 1970 it was in 1970 that he took a job at marble Hood high school as a history teacher and kid football coach he had moved his family uh to Marblehead head a few years family uh to Marblehead a few years before and he was absolutely thrill thrilled to be able to work from Marblehead Public Schools Alex served as a Hood Public Schools Alex served as a

3:06 history teacher and head football coach from 1970 to 1980 and in 1978 the current athletic director fell ill and Alex was asked to step in as interim athletic director subsequently he became the permanent full-time athletic director later that year and served as athletic director from Marblehead Hood athletic director from Marblehead public schools from 1978 to 2000 when he retired he returned as interim athletic director back in 2002 and 2003 due to the illness of the car and athletic director at that time and then once again he returned in 2015 for four months uh due to a brief illness with the current athletic director at that time as well Alex and his wife Barber had eight children all of who attended Marblehead Hood public schools and all eight Marblehead public schools and all eight children graduated from Marblehead Hood high

3:51 children graduated from Marblehead high school and all went on to graduate from college in addition he has two son-in-laws and a daughter-in-law who also attended Marblehead Hood Public School also attended Marblehead Public School also graduated from Marblehead pit High School Alex and his wife Barbara serve as incredible role models and still do to their children into their 20 grandchildren nine of their grandchildren attended Marblehead Hood grandchildren attended Marblehead public schools and one still currently attends one of his grandsons currently volunteers his time after playing four years of college hockey with coaching the marble Hood High School varsity hockey team who had a nice room last night all of his children and grandchildren who attended Marblehead at high school with student athletes and all were actively involved with volunteering in high school and well

4:38 beyond as well um my father’s honors and affiliations are too numerous and would be here all night to uh to mention but I’ll give you a few highlights uh though busy with his job raising a children it was important for him to give back to the community and volunteer his time to many causes some of the volunteering that he did he served on the executive committee for the Massachusetts city and town administrators of physical education from 1980 to 1995 he served as the secretary and Treasurer to Northeast City and town administrators of physical education from 1978 to 2000 he’s a member of the Marblehead Brit iron Club from 1970 to present he’s a very active member with our lady stard the SE Parish Council he’s also has served on the board of directors for Marblehead head Dollars for directors for Marblehead Dollars for

5:26 Scholars from 1982 to present where he still serves he served as vice president in 2002 and three and president from 2004 and five he also was very active with the m Marblehead head Council on AJ um with the m Marblehead Council on AJ um as far as some um Awards he’s received just to highlight maybe a half a dozen um he received the association New England football official um call coaches Memorial award back in 1977 he was a first recipient of the recognition award back in 1988 of the mam Lumber Northshore student athlete program he’s in the Massachusetts Football Hall of Fame he received the Commonwealth of Massachusetts governor William weld recognition award for physical education and health at Marblehead Hood High School in and health at Marblehead High School in 1992 he also received the mar Massachusetts athletic director

6:13 Association president Award of Meritt in 2000 and lastly he received the sheev award from the Das of Boston in 2012 which is the highest honor given by the Cardinal for service to the Catholic church in so all these accolades um you know are very nice um but what my father really um was proud of was the student in the athletes that he interacted with um my father was actually instrumental with the building of the athletic complex as well he served on the steering committee where he visited several area high school sports complexes and provided input and feedback for the new Marblehead head sports feedback for the new Marblehead sports complex at that time my father had much success as a teacher football coach and athletic

6:58 director but most importantly he was a positive influence in so many student athletes he was so proud to work for marble Hood public schools and he was also proud of the marble Hood student athletes as well as his teachers and coaches for their positive contribution to those student athletes before I turn the mic over to Tom I would just like to read the inscription on the back of this picture that my father that hung in our living room uh that was given to my father when he retired from coaching Marblehead football to become the athletic director the picture was taken in 19 the last year of this

7:36 coaching this nice frame by Arnold Gallery um to Alex by your example you’ve taught so much more than football with gratitude for a decade of Excellence both on and off the field signed the Marblehead H school committee in 1980

8:03 um yeah good evening thank you for giving us this opportunity tonight uh my name is Tom kovich I’m Alex’s oldest son most likely his favorite um it’s a little uncomfortable to be here and sit before you and objectively speak about my dad his 30 plus years of dedication commitment and passion at marelin high school as a teacher coach and athletic director certainly speaks of itself for those who who aren’t familiar with them as a son I’ll try to provide a little bit of a background while my father’s honors and accomplishments which Joe just reiterated deserve to be recognized what stands out about him is his character and his commitment he is humble selfish and always willing to help to give to others this was evident when he served as a teacher coach and

8:49 athletic director while at marel in high school his student athletes came first and he would help them in any way he could to be successful my dad had a profound impact with in the town of SW although he was busy working and raising a family of eight children he was a strong advocate of giving back to Marblehead and volunteered in many different capacities in several organizations he Not only was proud of his student athletes he cared for them he supported them whether it was listening to a problem they had writing a letter of recommendation or giving them a RVE home after practice often his practices after school would run late and for those of you played for him can attest to that unfortunately the Meto

9:34 students would pay a price because they would miss the bus home but my dad didn’t want to take them to the MBTA bus he would drive them into Wonderland so they could catch a train and get home quickly and at certain times when the weather was really bad he would drive them directly to their homes in inter in an interview done on my father when he was an athletic director by a local magazine it clearly illustrates his humility he rarely took credit for his success and instead directed the success toward the student athletes he was quoted as saying Marblehead may not have too many blue chip athletes but they know that they must work hard in everything that they set out to do then they go and do everything with great inent the student athletes are the ones

10:20 responsible for my success and later on in the article another quote which make him really the most proud was not about wins and losses he said said I deal with a great number of student athletes I’m in direct contact with them I’ve seen them grow as both athletes and as people it makes me quite happy and proud that I may have some influence on the student athletes climb up the ladder the passion my dad exhibited to his profession in education and Athletics has impacted many students who have passed through the halls and on the fields of marel in high school I’ve had the opportunity to experience it firsthand throughout my years of attending Marblehead at highy there was no special treatment for anyone

11:06 unfortunately not even for me because he was fair to everyone and treated everybody with respect and decency no matter who they were um I wanted to end my piece with um re with reading a thank you to the community that my father sent to the editor of the local paper at the time when he retired from Marblehead Hood public when he retired from Marblehead public schools and it illustrates not only the support he received in his job but also how successful he was with integrating and collaborating with not only members of the Marblehead Hood public school but of the Marblehead public school but with Community groups parents teachers coaches and student athletes as well this is um quote unquote as I leave the Marblehead Hood public school system I would Marblehead public school system I would like to offer thanks and appreciation to the many wonderful people who have supported me during my tenure as teacher

11:53 coach curriculum director and athletic director I am so fortunate to have such a rewarding experience first I would like to thank the present and past school committee members and the present and past School administrators for their guidance and support I would like to thank the School faculty secretaries head coaches and assistant coaches their commitment and dedication to the students in this town deserve to be recognized I would like to thank the number of support groups including the marble Hood boosters the grid iron Club friends of marble Hood hockey and all the youth organizations and their coaches our school system and athletic programs are enhanced by their support I would like to thank the parents of our student athletes whove been supportive of all the athletic programs I would also like to thank our student athletes

12:40 who have excelled both in the classroom and on the athletic fields their competitiveness dedication and sportsmanship is evident I am very proud of the high percentage of marble at high school students who continue on to college lastly I would like to thank the Marblehead H Community for the support you have given me into our student atlet I ask for your continued support of our excellent school system and I hope you will continue to support my successor in the athletic programs in the Marblehead H Hub of school system as I mentioned earlier our father was so proud to be able to work for the Marblehead head Public able to work for the Marblehead Public Schools as a teacher coach and athletic director and he was grateful for the support that he received from so many people and most importantly he was so proud of the student athl that that he had the honor to teach coach and mentor

13:31 I’ll just finish up with saying you my dad is one of the most unselfish people I know little biased there but he’s always looking to help others deflecting any credit or recognition and wishing the best for everyone even today at age 89 he still volunteers his time he’s active with the Dollars for Scholars the Council on agent with the Star of the Sea church my dad has had a tremendous impact on the town of Marblehead Marblehead public schools and Marblehead Athletics as I previously met mentioned his legacy clearly speaks for itself we look forward to celebrating my father’s commitment and contributions to maret high school over the course of his 30 plus years which is why we’re requesting his name to be placed on the Marlet High School Athletic Complex along with the

14:17 dedication plaque inside the Eng trully appreciate both of your time and

14:24 considerations thank you did you have anyone else speak yes okay we G to have Mark

14:43 okay good evening everyone my name is Mark sharo maret High School class of 72 I first tried out for BX football my junior year MHS 1970 which just so happened to be Coach K livage and not inaugura season guiding The Magicians I use the verb guide with great respect and admiration as in Guiding Light as in a teacher or coach lighting the path of those we’ve had many good ones some great ones and perhaps a few exceptional ones however I’m willing to bet hardly a One Compares to Mr

15:29 kich he was born a natural mentor and in and out of the classroom on and off the playing field and such a man of faith my teenage compatriots and I used to joke that coach was not real how could someone lead such an exemplary life he proved us wrong then and continues to do so now we remain in awe one doesn’t have too many opportunities to start at the top with the same remarkable individual and undertaking a new sport and simultaneously witnessing firsthand and soaking in the true meaning of class and dignity well I did and I consider it a

16:18 lifetime gift it took me forever being comfortable calling him Alex and if you can hear me now isn’t that right coach what can be a more fitting tribute Than This Town naming part of a place of learning and growing that’s unmovable unshakable and will be Everlasting for his family his colleagues his former players and his entire Community Alex is an individual all should aspire to be believe me Tom what an honor to be asked to say a few words about your dad Alex so many people love you and are proud of your zillion accomplishments I take Liberty speaking

17:06 for the whole hulic family and for all those lives you’ve touched along the way it is we who piit the jackpot

17:17 thank good evening thank you very much for allowing me to speak with you all of you this evening my name is Mark Tomy and I reside at 53 Maverick Street in Marblehead Head I am a former educator Marblehead I am a former educator former Varity coach and former director of Athletics at Marblehead and high school I have been very much involved in the MHS Athletic program and school Community for the last quarter of century additionally I have 42 years experience as a high school as a prep school as a college coach educator and athletic administrator 54 years ago as a middle school student athlete in Lynn I became very well aware of an outstanding gentleman from Marblehead by the name of Alex kulich for a multitude of people

18:02 like me who have successfully climbed the educational ladder as teachers coaches and administrators our individual and Collective successes have all been built on the broad shoulders of outstanding Role Models like Alex schoolish I have had the great Fortune to directly coach five of Alex’s grandsons at MHS and I’ve been lucky enough to serve as an athletic administrator to nine grandchildren in 2014 as an 80y old retiree 80 80y old reti Alex selflessly and enthusiastically came back to serve as acting athletic director while I was

18:47 recovering sudden cardiac arrest and multiple open heart surgeries Alex is my and our role model as an athletic director Alex is my and our role model mod as a classroom teacher Alex is my and our role model as a high school Coach Alex is my and our role model as a husband Alex is my and our role model as a father and there’s definitely no doubt that Alex is our ultimate role model as a grandfather I can only Echo what has been said here by others before me tonight and I cannot think of a more fitting and appropriate way to honor honor a man who has given so much to the

19:34 Marblehead Community I truly hope that you will seriously consider and enthusiastically approve this naming opportunity on behalf of Alex and his family thank you all so very much for listening thank you for your time and

19:59 consideration joh consideration joh 4 B Street Marblehead Mr kovich and who will always be Mr kovich and my husband Steve who were C refer to Mr kovich as coach kovich is the reason why 25 years ago I S and it all goes back to the fact that I took a class called state and local government and he required Ed it was a Civic class and he required that we all attended Tom meeting at and we sat on the stage in the

20:45 pack at that time there was no high school where we sit right now and there was an older member in the community who stood up if whose name won’t be mentioned but the F go be and stood up and said we will never have a new High School in this town because it was to have baloney sandwiches at the old high school it’s good enough we don’t need a new one first school committee meeting that I attended as an elected official I said that same scenario and I said it’s time we have an opportunity

21:31 and this building was F but that’s not about Mr kulich that class exemplified what you taught we taught about Community responsibility and privilege to live in this town and those are the three key words to everything I have done in my life and I turned to my husband on that stage and I said if I ever had the opportunity and the privilege to live in this town as an adult I am going to run this SP commit and that is the reason

22:17 did it and that’s because of the B words Community Community responsibility of every member of this town and a privilege to be in this town and I strongly urge you to give that recognition to Mr page thank you thank you

22:43 Jim is there anyone else who gonna speak all right well thank you very much very first of all for for coming forward with the request um I won’t add on to the accolades which I could I guess Danel de know Mr fich um my whole life and through the school through the church and um I really appreciate coming forward and asking for this and making this request um I did share the um policy with the school committee uh we do have a policy just so everyone knows it’s our policy FF which is the naming of new facilities and spaces it does talk about naming existing facilities it’s a bit of a page here but I will say um I’m G to read a couple things here um it says that the submission of a name for a school space may be made by any Resident or by the

23:28 superintendent um in writing to this should be made to the school committee chairperson um the written request should specify the intent of the requestor and the reasons why this particular name would fit the facility which I think we we’ve certainly um heard here um and then it says at the end following the submission of a naming request the school committee chairperson will specify a consideration period that allows for public comment following which the committee will deliberate and vote on the name so I think what makes sense we had the request which we really appreciate and um I’m going to ask that we consider um voting this um at a future meeting I’m going to suggest our next meeting um if that is the will of committee we can think about that I think in the meantime we would invite anybody from the community that wants to

24:14 email us Paul what have you um we’re you know certainly open to you know hearing obviously from the committee I have a feeling we will get some folks um reaching out to us and then we will entertain this U vote at the likely at the next meeting so I’ll be back in in touch with you okay there should be um I think samples of of what the suggested lettering would look like in the plaque everyone should have that um press you guys should should get copies of that so that maybe that can go in the press as well and we’ll talk about the next steps so we appreciate that we appreciate you coming forward thank you thank you much and also thanks to Mrs can’t forget her this um thanks everyone um okay so I’m going to move us

24:59 on in our agenda to um the public hearing so I think I need to take a motion to close our Open Session motion to open the hear a motion to open the hearing for the budget here

25:17 so don’t so I’m sorry for was Sarah Sarah was first and seconded okay I’ll do a call in favor um ran Sarah Fox Alison in favor in favor thank you all for coming thanks everyone have a good night go ahead um 5 to Zer so we’re gonna now open our budget hearing so um just for the folks that are here and online um uh our last school committee meeting we had a budget Workshop uh where we had initial presentation of our proposed school budget from the superintendent is everything okay yeah I’m just gonna have to put we had a presentation um for his superintend initial proposal

26:02 having worked through that with budget subcommittee um we had some good discussion there’s been some uh discussion with individual members and the superintendent since then and tonight is an opportunity for the superintendent to present proposed budget um as it is as it were and for the community to provide feedback um on this on this proposal so that’s what really what this hearing is for um so we will go forward with the presentation how many slides there are not many like seven or eight number slides and then uh we will uh welcome anyone from the public to come in come up and speak make comments ask questions um talk about you know what you think you like what you don’t like um and the also for folks

26:49 online as well um what I would probably do is go back and depending on how many folks we have I tend to try to go back and forth so we give a handful of folks here in person and then we’ll go to online and then back and forth so not one group is favored over another um so with that I would like to turn it over to superintendent robon thank you m sha I appreciate that um so good evening uh we’re here to um hear the budget superintendent 20 FY 26 uh proposed budget um on February 13th we presented the proposed uh FY 26 School District budget we shared the overarching goals of the budget requested funding and how we arrived at the numbers it’s been posted online since that since that night uh for Republic consumption um it was a collaborative process for which I’m extremely proud especially given the

27:35 fact that 60% of our administrative team were not employed in Marblehead prior to July one um after presenting our budget I did some reflection and I felt that there were several areas for which I could have presented information in a clearer fashion which is that’s what I’m going to do tonight in tonight’s brief presentation I believe that I’ve encapsulated the uh areas for which I may have fallen a bit short on the 13th and I’m confident that as I go through the slides that the process we followed and how we arrived at a level service budget into sharper Focus so thank you Frank the first first slid just uh you know myself mik ping Julie fer Lisa Maro who were instrumental in creating the budget we can go to the next slide Frank great can I interrupt for one second John I’m sorry I wanted to mention I know there was someone brought to my attention was looking for the close

28:21 caption so I actually went with the live stream which I had been live streamed the live stream got shut off so we recorded but I moved to live stream so we’re now live stream and I did enable close caption so I’m not able to respond in the um answer I I can’t take that oh you can okay so I think it’s just wonder if she’ll answer back um that she’s able to see it I did she may need to view it on the live stream platform versus this platform the clst caption to come through which I think you would go live stream on the YouTube channel YouTube channel so if you go to the YouTube channel it’ll be online and she can also re so right right now you’re saying she on live screen on and I should have been able so if you can talk to her if it’s not there tell her back and I’ll try to

29:07 Fig out I think I I think I’ve got it close catch in English so sorry about that just want to make sure everyone has accessibility sorry that’s okay ring next slide please um so our fiscal year FY 26 proposed budget we’ve requested what I consider a fiscally responsible budget which is level Services of 49,1 120,00 $1 12,285 this represents an increase of 2,

29:40 361,000 5% over our current operational budget of 46,7 159,160

30:00 budget SL operational goals uh this these are some of things I felt I needed to enhance a little bit so I wanted to share uh these next few slides I think they important to share uh we develop a fiscally responsible level Services budget incorporating feedback input from administrative stakeholders providing a clear understanding of what is required to educate Marblehead head students we to educate Marblehead students we ensure all students have appropriate Staffing and resources in place to meet the needs of all Learners we utilize individual School Improvement plans to align fiscally and operationally with the uh what we currently have in place which is the district plan for Success um I’m in the process of creating the future District Improvement plan that we’ll talk more about that um that plan is going to be much more robust than it currently sits but all of our school school Improvement plans fiscally and

30:46 operationally will align with the current District plan for success I thought that was important to share uh we collaborate clearly communicate our goals with staff parents and Community stakeholders provide a budget based upon data informed decisions that focuses on academic rigor and High student achievement next slide please um 26 budget process collecting and reviewing data which informs util utilization of Staff this data will be used to determine efficiencies as we move through 2526 school year into the 26 27 school year we uh there’s a review of our vacant positions to ensure we are working diligently to fill with permanent employees and or to determine the need for reallocation or

31:31 discontinuation of positions we currently have this’s one position that’s open um outside of all the um esy the extend school year positions and the coaching positions that are currently posted and that’s for an HR Director all the other positions have are have filled at this this moment um addition of Staff within this level Services budget requires reduction of other staff and for zero Net game so for instance if we if we were looking for um a position or two positions we made the principal said well where are you going to get that position from so we can make that happen so we weren’t adding staff to this budget um so that’s where the zero net gain comes from we moved the custodial positions um they were all outlined in the central Administration line item so it looked like it was very um escalated in that area of the budget uh and Mike

32:18 ping did a nice job of moving those to the schools within which they work so it they spread the uh those that actually line item um to where they needed to be uh we work to maximize Staffing and resources insured rigor and student achievement are are our priority within the backdrop of social emotional learning slide please our budget assumptions for FY 26 during the FY 26 budget development the following assumptions were made with regard to salaries supplies contracted Services utilities curriculum and special education on of District obligations we increase all salary steps Lanes as indicated by our settled collective bargaining agreements for FY 26 which is the CL school year 25 26 we increased all non-represented employees

33:04 by 2% cost of living adjustment we increased Supply and con contracted lines contracted Services line by 2% L they’re otherwise specified so there was a little bit of adjustment but we what we did was we made sure the principles directors and department heads were permitted to increase or decrease individual lines as long as they did not exceed the 2% some of their overall allocation we increased utilities by 4% knowing what we know about the high cost of uh all the utilities electric gas Etc we in indicated that uh $200,000 investment in curriculum refresh cycle was necessary so we added that and then there was increased special education out of district tuitions and transportation to align with the known expenses and Desy approved increases for all of our budget assumptions as creating The

33:51 Bu a level Services budget made possible so based upon ongoing collaboration the uh the town accountant the Town Administrator finance committee and select board have indicated the town will provide funding increase of 2,361 se4 which will allow the district to ensure provision of an appropriate of appropriate Staffing and resources to meet our students need or provide High Caliber education for the 25 26 school year within a level Services budget I know that that had been in question and I thought it would be helpful to kind of further explain that um how we were able to create a level Services budget it was through a lot of collaboration communication conversations with the town um and what they’re able to do to help us get to where we needed to uh the

34:39 FY 27 and 28 budget consideration so uh that I mentioned the CBA the um settled contract moment ago and so the contractual obligations for the FY 27 and 28 are outlined here where the FY 27 there will be a 3% increase in salaries and FY 28 there’s a 3.5% increase which will drive much of this discussion as we move forward um and will likely result in staff reductions Andor the need for a proposition two and half override in order to meet those fiscal year obligations so I just want to repeat that again FY 27 3% increase based upon contractual obligations FY 28 is a 3 and a half% increase based upon contractual obligations and when we get to those discussions we’re going to have

35:25 to look long and hard at Staffing going to look long and hard at with the town in the collaboration and and determine early on whether or not it’s there will be a proposition to an override necessary so those are conversations we’ll continue to have um we continue to review and revision um and revisioning of special education programming to assist with Staffing efficiencies resource allocation and reduction in the need for out addition programming for students so Lisa maren and Victoria Ryan have done a really nice job of really looking at where our special need students are what the programming needs are are what Staffing uh reallocations and resource reallocations we can do to make sure that the Staffing is necessary to provide um students the uh what they need to meet the individual um

36:12 educational social emotional needs and what we’re hoping is as we move forward and start Shoring up some of that special programming it will allow us to start bringing some of our out of District students back into programs in District where we can be educated with our like HPS which is always the um you know what we want to do any school district and especially here in Marblehead I think be very important it’s my Head I think be very important it’s my philosophy to try to educate all students with their like HPS when and where um applicable and when where we were able to do that so that’s that’s a really big um push that we’re doing across the district and I thought it’s was helpful to share that information because that’s really one of our biggest budget drivers in consideration as we move forward um and then the last slide is our Capital Improvement request we shared we shared uh this last time we

36:58 broke it down a little bit um so the the top one two three four five are were the priority items so um lover cafeteria atack lover playground prosing the pack seating and painting the pack special education 70 van which is a Rolling Stock you can see the numbers on the side um those those are what request from the town for the warrant and then we talked a little bit about a feasibility study um you know we’re looking at potentially seeing if this feasible for us to operate a operate an Early Childhood Center and or other use for evth school um you know obviously we just you know we talked about the coffin School recently and we want to make sure that the EV school um if it’s feasible for us to utilize in another way for the school district we want to make sure we’re we’re looking at that now so we

37:44 can plan for the future that 125,000 um is an estimated cost we we have to do our DU diligence in in securing that number but I feel pretty confident that with land and then the final thing is the debt exclusion for the uh the roof project here of the high school which um has been um we we’ve talked about this at length another form but it’s 8,610 62 um in addition to the current uh what’s it 5.3 um million that was already allocated for the project and that roof project um is to make sure that any of the areas of the roof that are leaking it all has to be replaced inclusive of the each fact system we’ve had this conversation many times we’ve had it that um facil sub commmittee meetings and and some school committee meeting and that’s uh that’s something

38:30 that is just it’s on the dock needs to get done um so we’re been able to move forward that regard I think that’s all I have there the copy of the actual Budget on L it was posted the day after the last meeting yes so if anybody wants to actually take a look at the actual budget um that is on yes so the whole the whole PowerPoint um that we did in conjunction with the principles on there and the whole budget for is also it’s been on since the poos on Valentine’s Day I believe y so at this point I’d like to open it up to the public if anyone would like to make any comments or questions or else let’s start with folks here in

39:23 person are you coming up to as aor or as a president both okay so sit here yeah name West um so I’m interested to hear Ro to talk about starting to look ahead at the um at 27 budget and a potential over you’re saying start to look at that sooner than later when do you think those discussions will begin and do you have any sense at this point of what kind of an override the amount that so what I would say is um my priority right now is get this budget voted on and passed and through town meeting and then probably the day after the town meeting we’ll have those start having those conversations in Earnest to be honest with you I mean we have to start

40:09 planning appropriately um and and start looking at what is because we know that we know what the obligations are R it’s outline on the contract 23% so we start looking at those kinds of things we start looking at Staffing ratios uh have a better idea from Lisa Maro and the student services office where will be at that point in terms of all the things I talked about special education wise um I don’t have that information right now and I I don’t want to speculate I or whatever I mean to work as diligently as we can um to create as many efficiencies as we can um to move forward so we can engine our student SLE primary focus so just to confirm the whatever override you asked for an FY 27 would be in addition to

40:57 the8 year for 15 years Capital um that that you’re asking for this so what I would say is um we’re not there yet so I don’t that’s why I said um that’s that’s I I wouldn’t be asking for the override that’s a conversation the committee in the public um and we don’t know that we’re there yet so we may manage this budget with efficiencies and not need an override we may need in the efficiencies it’s it’s to be determin where very far we’re in February right now so it’s a little too early to make those speculations I I think I would Miss great and there were no changes from the budget from the last meeting good with work yes the only thing I’ve mentioned to Lee just this is good for everyone to know which um you know inside baseball here we’re kind of

41:43 understand kind of the Cs of this but from a from a uh sort of scheduling or calendar timeline we as we get into budget season which we’re in right now you know one of the things we’re dependent on is on the town side between the you know the finance director and the finance department and the finance committee we work in conjunction with them to determine what the projected revenues would be so we would be you know we can’t we we work for forward on our FY 27 budget as we get into next school year but we also work with the town and they have to do their projections um and that’s usually right around January February that’s where you found out

42:28 this I wanted to point that out that um until we had that state of the town we didn’t know that there was2 million of um additional funding available by by well no the additional the additional money is available simply by the treasurer moving our accounts out of the existing Bank in in getting a higher yield on the interest so what we we were told at the projections was it December 11th I want to say um the December 11th projection I I don’t know if I’m getting that date right but there was there were projections that were given the first round at the select board meeting they

43:14 they uh greatly improved by the state of the

43:19 Town Town well yes answer that there was essentially $2 million that was not planned on being available for the f y 26 budget that’s that wasn’t all that was yes yes but that’s a big deal we didn’t get an additional TR million on top of what they Orin talked about thank you thank you um I is there anyone else in here okay welcome and then Erin I’ll get to you right after I Gore and then I’ll talk to you Dian 24 Nicholson Street and also a Glover teacher um this question is for the superintendent I saw there was 120,000 requested for U new structure for the playground at

44:05 Glover um do you know what that structure would be um like do you have any further information this is one of those things where it needs to be replaced and we started that um started looking at that but might may have a little B better information say our structure right now needs to be replaced so in in the capital approval from last year there was uh a rubber surface yes that was funded um and there was also understood that there was a need for a replacement playground I understand you have two playgrounds over there uh I’m I’m not familiar enough familiar enough to know exactly which one but we did price out a playground structure that was more uh appropriate for the age level of the

44:52 students that are there and um that number came in a little lower than 120 but we know we need to have it installed and we felt why would you pour a rubber surface rip out the playground that’s there to put a new one in after you just put in a rubber surface it’s almost like why would you put a roof on a building and then rip you know the AC off and put AC back on we’re trying to get ahead of it right now so um the idea is if we were if that it’s it’s bundled with a with the all of the town meeting warrants uh or Capital plans it’s not an individual debt exclusion it’s just part of the town’s Capital plan uh if that gets approved as a bundle then we would do a structure and the port boort surface uh in conjunction at the same time but there yeah there’s more discussions to be had again this is you know kind of get the funding in place and then we’ll um sure we’ll have meetings with the community with the

45:38 school um the staff the principal to identify um what features of a playground are most appropriate for that that school age okay um I just want to give you a little of History um I was on the U BL School building committee and um the first time we went to the town for the override it did not pass for uh 20 9 million we had to cut another 5 million de out of that so we actually did not have enough money to build a proper playground so um I’m not sure if a p needs to be replaced but are in need of additional structure something um and I highly recommend that you um consult with the teachers that work there um

46:25 before you make the final decision I appreciate that certainly thank you I’m gonna move to Erin n and Erin uh Zoom Erin we should be able to speak now thank you he good evening members of the school committee and our superintendent uh Robo um my name is aarin Nunan I’m the parent of three students in The District Two of whom have diagnosed uh language-based dyslexia learning disabilities my comments relate to the funding in next year’s level funded budget for our language-based programming and the hope that the student services director Miss iolo’s intention to overhaul and improve in this area is accounted for as well as

47:11 superintendent robo’s district Improvement plan and special education review that he just spoke of um according to NIH dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities affect 15 to 20% of the population this is a widely accept this is widely accepted as the rate of prevalence of Dyslexia in fact dyslexia is the most common neurocognitive disorder and children with dyslexia make up 80% of all of those with learning disabilities what this means is that one in five students struggle with some degree of language-based learning difficulties if you think about a class of 20 students that’s four students you could also think about the 188 students that are currently enrolled in Marblehead second grade therefore we

47:58 can assume that roughly 38 students in second grade could be struggling with dyslexia and related language-based learning difficulties it would be interesting to know if Marblehead Public Schools is catching and recognizing students to this degree of what we know is the rate of prevalence are we recognizing somewhere between 380 and 500 students which is 15 to 20% with of our total population as requiring differentiated instruction this would be a nice place to start to look at the problem especially when you consider we fall 11% below the state average for student growth in ela according to the recent desie report card that was sent out um to me by the high school principal and I was encouraged to read in the newsletter from student services

48:45 director Missy PLO that the district is undertaking a comprehensive revamp of its language-based programming including enhancements to the curriculum and professional development on behalf of the one in five students affected I applaud this effort it is widely acknowledged that our language-based programming has room for improvement when you grasp the prevalence of reading disabilities among the student population it is a worthy investment of time energy and funding these approximately 20% of students require a differentiated different instructional approach compared to their peers due to their difficulty processing phenomic sounds and relating them to letters on the page they need an Orton Gillingham method of explicit phonics instruction multisensory Learning System

49:31 systematic and highly structured approach and frequent repetition and practice in sometimes assisted te assisted technology a standard Masters in Education Program generally does not cover specific knowledge or training related to dyslexia how many teachers do we have with specialized training in Orton Gillingham and dyslexia related methods I believe it’s not enough and my question and hope is that the funding to address these deficiencies in our language based programs is reflected in this fy2 budget and furthermore I believe that it would be valuable for our student services director to have the opportunity to speak about her efforts and the plan changes at a future school committee

50:18 meeting thank meeting thank you I can do thank you so I can just say thank you for that uh input I think um a lot of the conversations I’ve had with in regards to language based classroom um and language based programming for all the reasons you just you just mentioned miss new so I I’m very confident that that’s one of the areas of focus along with our therapeutic programs and our ABA programs um all of which are very important I think you know as far as uh Staffing and training for staff that’s also a priority uh that’s something misso and I have uh discussed at length uh going into next school Year’s budget and the following School Year’s budget that’s those all those areas are priorities and a language based program being one of them I think it’s my

51:04 understanding that previously our language based programs are really robust here in in Marblehead they became less robust and a lot of students ended up um going uh to um programming outside of the district and I want to work as hard as I can with the student services office to bring those students back again like I said at the beginning uh to be educative at the like HP and we will do that when we know that our programing program is robust and is um appropriate to bring those students back which I’m hoping is within you know it’s a planful year and a half kind of um process so it’s going to take a little bit of time but because we want to do it right you want to do it appropriately for all we you dis men the students so thank you bless you thank you I appreciate that

51:50 thoughtful answer and I I do feel that you know we have it appears what appears to me a team an Administration in place now that with our finance director our student service director and superintendent that just may be up to the task of taking this on I just um Lisa Marie is on is online I don’t know Lisa do you want to speak to that at all or you have an opportunity hang

52:21 on yes she’s yeah very we go can you hear me yes okay uh first of all um Miss Nunan thank you very much for those kind words uh from myself and my department uh we’ve been working extremely hard um since we started in July with our staff and our team chairs throughout the district i’ be more than happy um to do a presentation but I also want to let our community know that as we’re enhancing uh the various programs uh the language-based therapeutic and our ABA program we’re going to be having parent open houses uh where we’re going to be inviting parents in so we can like dig right in in the learning space um to talk about you know the changes that

53:07 have been made the things that stayed the same that are consistent and great and highlighting uh the amazing staff that we have um in terms of professional development there are six of us actually starting uh Orton Gillingham training next week um on top of um I don’t have the number off the top of my head because I’m not at my desk on top of those that are already uh certified Orton Gillingham or Wilson uh trained staff so we’ll continue to grow that capacity um as like you said it is important to have the right curriculum tools and the right Staffing in those um different program environments thank you thank you Lisa Mary you’re welcome and I do believe

53:53 what M had talked about having um later in the spring kind of a robust presentation the plan is that’s been a major Focus I think the plan is once once we know kind of more specifically all the program enhancements Mar her team will call her share y thank um okay I do not see any other hands up online if somebody online on Zoom would like to make a comment or speak you should have a small icon at the bottom that says raise hand would you click on that give us a little hand there knowing that you would like to speak so hopefully you can see that and you do that is there anyone here um at the library that would like

54:41 to speak from the public except one clarification no one else yeah no I don’t see anybody else okay well thanks so Mike I just wanted to make sure you in this slide it says that you found $2.3 million or the town found this money and not found but it’s from the the um Investments um and do the schools get the 2.3 or you guys get half of that so I’m going to go back to like November time frame when we had original conversations with um Town Administrator Thatcher um keer I’m sorry keer um originally I think the town’s revenues and I I’m just going to put numbers out they were somewhere around 2.4 million which would be split equally between the town and the school so the the schools

55:27 were expecting to get about 1.2 million um I think when they closed out free cash they realized that the school department had returned approximately $1 million at the end of fiscal year 23 that I actually got pushed into 24 and got certified at the end of fiscal year 24 and I believe this was some other funds that became available so they said you know we can take that money that was returned and I I don’t know all the ins and outs of it but it it waed to about an additional $2 million two2 and A5 million and then they further split that between the town and the school so the town the school we were expecting get 1.2 we’re actually getting 2.3 uh the town was probably expecting to get 1.2 my assumption is that they’re probably getting 2.3 also but I can’t speak to the town

56:18 side yes there is there is yes I just follow thing you just said so there was a million dollarss left over in the fy2 school budget that you gave back to the town is that what you said um I from what I understand there were incumbrances that were made and um when Miss Benjamin arrived in town she said those incumbrances are not acceptable to move into the next year so with the school department had anticipated to spend at the end of fiscal year 23 in June of 23 um those purchases I believe were made but they were not made through the encumbered funds from FY 23 they were made with FY 24 funds I wasn’t here but I’ve heard um but that that money at the end of 23 ended up in free cash and was recently certified so that’s where that money

57:05 recently became and just for the late people what’s incumber mean so incumber me we put on a purchase order we send a purchase order to a vendor or multiple vendors and we say we intend to purchase this you ship it we will pay when it arrives by mass law we cannot pay in advance so we have to put it on a purchase order which is a binding obligation putting it on a purchase order is another word for encumbering and last question is for you John maybe for UMO um the when you’re talking about building these L based special education programs that will keep F of our kids in the district where in I think Aon kind of hinted at it but what percent increase of the budget is going to building that program in so so initially

57:51 and again I can’t speak specifically to that yet because we need to look at the numbers we need to look at how many kids are still out of District how many kids could recently come back um but what I what we look to do is it’s not necessarily all sorts of addition stuff it’s it’s what do we have in District right now how do we cons initially look at how do we consolidate those programs so for instance if there’s three language based classrooms in one school and we can make that two language based classrooms and reallocate the staff um and make sure they have the resources there then that’s how you can build better capacity right so those are things we look at first and foremost and then then we’ll then we look at the you know the numbers how many kiddos in a certain cash area might be out of District when does it make it when is it appropriate to come back a that’s a a process right and we have to have conversations with parents have

58:36 conversations with the schools that they’re in um with that program that you have what’s it appropriate what points of the school year you come back usually at a natural break so it’s not just just decide on October 12th or coming back it’s like a you know holiday break or dinner at school year so there’s all those conversations so um I won’t I won’t have those actual numbers until we we do that exercise after we get into the next SC than you I just want to point out too that when we were if you look back to when we were going through the hiring process last year for the superintendent and um Lis

59:17 Maro some primary things we looked at was their track record and their ability where they were with bringing students that were out a district improving their in District programs and allowing those those students to come back um because that it’s always better for our students but that brings the funding with them as well that you can then reinvest so you might not be seeing an increase in the special education allocation but instead of saying sending $70,000 to an outplacement you’re now investing in your staff inhouse and when we went through that hiring process that was something we talked about in public meetings that was um what they made these two candidates very attract that they had a proven track record with this if we look at a a presentation we did

1:00:05 about a month so ago um about how mcast results did um with students in this risk group um Mr bito P District was the top of the chart so these were all things that we looked at and now we’re seeing those benefits read Marblehead thank you for saying that I appreciate that have myself in the background stff like I appreciate you sharing that because it it is important to know I have a very large background of special education you know that’s that’s part of why so I’m I’m actually really

1:00:42 excited okay um again anyone online oh Paul um go ahead Paul you should be able to speak now you should be

1:00:56 unmuted now good yeah go ahead great okay Paul Baker Overlook Road Marblehead um thanks for doing this appreciate it um my question um is regarding the everth school um Mr robero mentioned that in 27 and 28 we’re looking at 3 million plus uh for an override I think to cover the teacher contracts where do you envision money coming from to turn the everth into an Early Learning Center so um I’m was your only question well yeah where where’s that money going to come from given that ESS is deemed um not not usable as a school anymore the much surely the money to um make that into a into a you know a

1:01:43 worthy setting for for teaching is going to be in the millions so we must be talking in know more of an override than three million per year to cover that yeah so um first firstly I didn’t say we had three I said we had a 3% increase so that’s that that’s do necessar mean $3 million 3% increase in FY 27 for the contractual obligations and 3.5% increase for contractual obligations in 2028 I just want to make sure I’m clear on that the discussion about evth and what what it may be used for potentially in early um Childhood Center is is the reason for requesting the feasibility study money so what has to happen first or foremost any kind of major project renovation building thing you have to do a feasibility

1:02:29 to make sure that it’s feasible right so they could we you have to spend some money up front to determine what can and can’t be done and then at that point the feasibility study would say this is what can be done uh you know you know refurbish of the building or rent of the building uh knock it down a new building that’s why we do a feasibility study so then that gives us accurate information so then we can then start having conversations about next next steps that’s that’s not a in this fiscal budget um discussion this is this is we’re planning for this so that we can plan down the road um as we’ve seen with a lot of other um building projects um you know you have to go through you know the uh feasibility studies you have to go through the bid process you have to get vendors in place it’s any kind of major project is is a several generally

1:03:18 a seever several year um process so we want to start that now so we don’t have to wait you know three four five years before we start the process I don’t if that helps clarify I Me Maybe I didn’t wasn’t clear when I mentioned earlier no okay that’s great thanks a lot

1:03:36 sure again a couple people that walked in I don’t know if anybody else yeah so I just gonna say anyone um here in the library would like to come forward and again or anyone online you just need to press your raised hand button at the bottom of your screen okay on all right so I’m make take a motion to close the public hearing Sarah

1:04:07 second and I’ll do a roll call um Al Williams in favor in Sarah fo in favor tayor Jen shaer in favor 5 to Z close budget hearing thank you everyone thanks for your participation great questions appreciate it thank you John for the presentation M Marie and J Who’s out there um okay so let’s move on to uh opening business continued um

1:04:35 commendations good um I just want to congratulate the bo hockey team they won last night and they’re moving on um tomorrow night I believe 28 at 7M the S State Alena I know normally our student representative would talk about these things so I just thought I’d mention that but also uh the St Lamberts hockey tournament I think um it’s the 60th year and kiddos from Marblehead went up there um in the giant snowstorm not this past weekend but before um so I think it was the first weekend of February break if you will um and you know had an amazing time some unprecedented weather I’m told and and terrible driving conditions um but everybody had a wonderful time and

1:05:22 made it back safe which is important um and our Village School is putting on the play of Ayan King Jr next weekend um so March 6th 7th and 8th are the dates the six is wrote down the times the 6 at 6 PM Friday at 6 PM Saturday at 2m and Saturday at 6 PM I just want to wish them all really good luck um tonight okay I think we’re do John no no anyone mention I just I just take it out no no um there’s one tonight at the high school put on that Ella are

1:06:11 represented I I wanted to make accommodation to our custodial staff um and our meance crews during the last few hellish weeks of weather that we’ve had uh particularly the day where everything melted and then froze anywhere you drove in town people sidewalks their driveways everything was a complete sheet of ice as you know thick enough to take do except for our buildings um I have to say our buildings were super clear our sidewalks were super clear they glowed with whatever the blue material um but they did a really really good job about making sure um their fellow colleagues in the staff side and the students could get in and out of the building safely so I just want to commend them for everything they did because not great weather to be out working and they did a wonderful

1:07:04 J I do one recommendation question um I’d like to commend CHR Mel assistant Finance director um she won’t she won’t take credit but she’s been super um important super helpful you know through the budget process but since the budget process um for those that don’t know we technically don’t have an H Department right now um and she’s really stepped up in a huge way um helping uh our our assistant of second assistant here with all things that are in Char right now and she’s been really doing a super job of that she’s been uh helping to train our new payroll coordinator uh she’s she’s being like a little bit of everything she’s working really well with the folks upstairs on the town side she’s work well with Mike um and I just want to take a moment to thank her because you know um it’s sometimes it’s

1:07:51 a thank her’s job and make public spectacle of that thank you and she does it with a really positive I’m telling you not have gotten this budget pulled together without she took care of everything else on the back burner or not on the front burner everything that was burning on the other side of the house she was he that but I was focused on this so she she just held us up and we’re in the middle of am munist implementation so she has been Hands-On 100% invested in that she’s just a rockar um and I just want to say um thank you to the folks who turned out last night for a community Forum we had a forum last night here at the library um for with the policy subcommittee um and we had great turnout of folks um

1:08:38 here and and online and um had some great and robust discussion um there were students here um should be very proud of themselves um as should our their parents and our and our staff and teachers um because they they spoke very well and spoke from my heart and we appreciate that um and so I want you know I want to say thank you um I do think there were you know there were a couple of bumps along the road there I think we’re we’re all trying to work real hard on um civil discourse and um I think it was a good example of it as we go forward predominantly um that we can talk through our differences and work through our differences and recognize um people people can be heard um all voices can be heard and then um the decision will be

1:09:25 made after that and I to appreciate that I think also that you your words your words and your actions um matter and I think we there’s some improvement that we can see we really appreciate it um okay um any okay let’s move on to H public comment so un like the budget heing this is just our regular run-of-the-mill public comment

1:10:00 would like to urge you to um approve the request for meeting the um athletic complex at the Marblehead head high school complex at the Marblehead high school after Alis kich um I’ve been teaching in um Marblehead head for over 30 years and uh um Marblehead for over 30 years and uh he was the athletic director um very successful I um read all the articles about him and the team team that um he helped um also I I had the um privilege of working with um several of his grandchildren and knowing um Tom um who was the father of the the children that I worked with and his children um I can

1:10:45 attest to Alex’s character because of the character of Tom and his children um they couldn’t be more kind giving um helpful hardworking um 100% effort and I know that that has to come down to so I hope you do approve that request thanks apprciate that much

1:11:10 thank anyone else here okay let me see anybody online again just need to click your raised hand button at the bottom and I can call on you anybody online good I don’t see anybody all right I’m gonna move on then to District update John hiet for me again um thank you uh so good I have I have a few things so I’ll try to be quick but um um Sarah stole a little bit of my thunder but I’m gonna say it again because it’s worth repeating um I need to once again thank our maintenance and F phili department for the snow removal and cleanup over the past few weeks most of the snowfall has occurred over the weekends and our crews have worked tirelessly to make sure that our schools are cleared and ready to receive staff and student

1:11:56 students that’s not always an easy task and I want to recognize their efforts now I do want to also recognize I know um we we do a really good job of clearing everything else there’s always some spots here and there there have been a couple of folks that you know have slipped a little bit so obviously even though the weather’s 44 50 degrees out we have to be diligent about the the IC spots for on all sides so anyway um February’s been a trying month for all flu covid and other illnesses are running rampant here and elsewhere which creates extra challenges in educ our students consistently I am hopeful as the weather gets warmer we can start opening Windows and getting outside more frequently we’ll see decline in the illnesses that have playing us probably the best choice so um there have uh there have been questions as to the expectations that we

1:12:42 in place for both staff and students over the week that was originally February break so I’m going to take a minute just to kind of share that had a lot of uh input from uh parents and staff and stuff so for staff unless there were extraordinary circumstances for which time was requested for me directly the expectation was to be in school any absence that was granted was unpaid unless staff had personal day or days available um there were I reported this out I think it was in the Cent at some point there were 15 teachers who had who had extraordinary circumstances range for medical procedures weddings specific unavoidable situations that I granted um permission uh given the A4 mentioned illnesses there were that um sorry there were staff that ended up being incapacitate capacitated in unplanned ways that created more unavoidable

1:13:29 absences that were anticipated um work with Megan a lot on some there been a lot of notifications and stuff going on about um you how do we address some those illnesses as for the expectation for students the school committee absolved absences from the school for those students whose parents called them out this was discussed at length at an earlier school committee meeting it was determined that student absences would not count against them for the 10 makeup days due to the strike the expectation while in school was to continue with academics will not having any major assessments or new topics being presented so that students not in attendance wouldn’t get too far behind the teaching and learning that occurred uh was in alignment with our curriculum and allowed for some extra um attention for students given the reduction overall student attendance I saw this firsthand I saw I was in many of the schools over

1:14:15 that February break um I saw kids that were engaged with um with smaller numbers in the classroom I saw from high school all the way down the club some good teaching learning going on so um I just want to that last week in the days um over the original April break are a typical and we are doing our best to balance academics and adherence to the curriculum while knowing that many students would and will be uh not attendance I wanted to be clear that none of this is ideal it is a direct result of the strike and will among other things cause Marblehead head’s other things cause Marblehead’s accountability with the state to be adversely affected however we will continue to work towards finishing the school year as strong as possible and work to ensure that the next school year and subsequent school years are focused on increase academic rigor and expected attendance in school by both Educators and students so that we can get back to

1:15:02 being the strong District re capable um our prek just few things I want to share our prek enrollment is currently down a little bit than what it has been in the previous year so I want to mention that the registration process is outlined on our District web page and you go on there and look it says prek registration screenings it had a different title that maybe was confusing the folks so we we switched that a little bit um any questions you may have we director our student services office and I’m confident that we will see a numbers Rise um but I felt it important to mention that uh we did have msba the massachus school building authority um in District last Friday and this past Monday they were here for two separate reasons two separate crues of folks um so one group um came through all the buildings on Friday and Monday they looked at every single School building

1:15:47 um Mike Mike walked through along with our stings and stuff um and they what they’re trying to do is look at all the um it’s my understand they’re looking at all the schools in the in the commw tring to create a database of facilities so they can have a better understanding of what needs are I think that’s overarching thing but they came through and and know everything was looked at from Soup To Nuts and all the buildings um the second group was at brownall day on Monday um I met with the team virtually prior to the visit to outline the day whose purpose was a post occupancy evaluation so anytime we build a school once it’s built it’s closed out we we’re using it msba will come and do an evalu they came in reserve drop off pickup lunch changeovers they looked at classrooms and other learning environments and went through the facilities like the boilers mechanics

1:16:33 Etc and inquired as to ways we use Brown in conjunction with our community this is a typical Endeavor after build you know a building is built and has been in use for a period of time a report will be forthcoming is my understanding uh thanks to Mary Maxville and sta staff along with Mike piffling and ensuring the visit went well uh Mr R had asked where I am in the process of updating the district’s plan for Success um I will be doing an update my evaluation goals at our next meeting which will Encompass the process that I have embarked upon regarding migrating the district plan for Success into a much more robust District Improvement plan I can share that it’s multi-step process and I have completed the initial task of expanding the plan for success but I would like to take a necessary time at the next meeting to outl the whole process that’s okay I think this makes more sense that’s okay Mr orderer um W

1:17:20 wisdom guided observation took place uh yesterday the 26th no on the 26 yeah um at Village blover round partaking the day where our assistant super of teaching and learning um Julia Ferrera our principal Scott William Frank wski and Mary Maxfield our assistant principal Jenny em Conrad along with our instructional coaches Andie Graziano Rebecca bran Emily Perez and Mary leblan we received Stellar feedback on a visit where Whitten wisdom staff came and observed the program in action they were highly impressed with our teachers engagement of students in our administrative teams Kudos Juliet all involved this is positive student programming in action we’ve heard a lot about wisdom and uh we get some really good feedback so I’ll share that um we talked about the boys hockey but I’m going to say it again they won over Blackstone Valley Tech with seconds to

1:18:06 spare last night so three three to2 win and they go to round 16 of the division playoffs um tomorrow versus Drake it team Boro congrats to the Boys Hockey I didn’t get a full athletic update I know a lot of times the student rep does that so I apologize I celebrate the hockey and finally I

1:18:27 I’ve been asked a few times to share my overarching leadership philosophy as a backdrop to how I operate as an educational leader and how I intend to lead the district moving forward this is important to share as people are getting to know me and where my focus lies as we move forward in the process towards hopefully more permanent superintendency My Philosophy is simple to ensure that all students staff and Community Partners are treated with dignity respect and have a sense of belonging as a part of our educational commun Community I strive to be a collaborative leader who’s reflective and allows stakeholders to have a voice at the table as it’s important to running the district successfully this does not mean that every voice will get what they want it means that when collaborative decisions need to be made I try to ensure that pertinent stakeholders have

1:19:14 input and are able to provide feedback in the decision-making process another important aspect of a collaborative leadership approach is establishing relational trust with students staff Community Partners and with the school committee this takes time but is based on active listening having an open door policy establishing clear communication and ensuring ongoing collaboration in this in place part of establishing relational trust also includes empowering our administrators to take risks to make decisions that are in line with our overarching district Vision all of these values and beliefs encapsulate who I am as an educational leader and how I will strive to operate as superintendent near Marblehead so that our students can be successful in all areas of their education thank you nice

1:20:02 little all right um any comments and questions okay I’m gonna move on to our consent agenda and sorry um do you have an update on when the special education review as well as the um anti-Semitism yes investigation I was hoping and I need to talk to some sha about this I was hoping to have both of them for next school committee um both ran into some slight snags I talked to Alison Kirker yesterday again she will have she’s working on the um on the full report and she has to finish up on the um the executive summary which is what’s going to get shared so she wants to make sure that her diligence is done properly because that’s that’s the piece it’s going to get shared so um I don’t know that it’s going to be at the next meeting I’m hoping it is if not I’ll

1:20:49 definitely be at the following meeting um academic discoveries has been give me a headache thinking about they’ve been um Lisa Marie and her team have been giving them piles and piles and piles of information documentation over and over and over again since the Inception of this um ask the same question when can we get the report we’re looking at the SCH wants at ASAP um their response was we still are waiting on XY andz which Lisa Marie has given them thousand times so I don’t want to speak for Lis Marine but I know she’s way more frustrated than she’s been living it um but again hoping if it’s not here for the six Med six it w’t be here one way or the other I’m for the ker pageant

1:21:35 investigation she’s completed her report and her her full report and now is working on I can’t say certain with the whole thing everything but what she told me yesterday was she’s developing the full report and then she’s doing and then she also has to fit to finish up or compl the the executive summary so um she want make sure that this again there’s a couple things some of the staff that left you had lawyers there’s been a lot of legal stuff going back and public the exacerbated timeline in addition to not being able to start the staff with 47 days before the strike so those three weeks we kind of lost uh to some degree so it’s it’s just taking long we’re all frustrated by it but this

1:22:22 scope if I recall the scope of the um contract she’ll she’ll provide both correct correct but but the problem is that what I mean by full report full report is of information that can’t be shared with the public it’s going to have it’s G to have very specific personality so um the executive summary is what share something we be be shared at the speed form but we have to run to just make sure whatever is shared is to be shared um so when people do public records request the fall of the full thing they’re not going to get anything except for maybe it’s going like the water G they’re actually request because will be R so it’s useless time waste of money to do

1:23:09 that just say that out loud just in case anyone yeah more questions on that um that I’m happy to dis to okay thanks thanks that answer your question I’m sorry or some yes okay um so we’re going to move on to the consent action and agenda items we have two items here which are our scheduled bills and our meeting minutes of January 9th 2025 and January 23rd 2025 um and I if this is consent agenda um item I can take this as a motion to approve both at the same time so I’m G to ask for a motion to approve the consented action and agenda items by Sarah a second by Al Williams I do roll call Al Williams

1:23:55 in favor ran Oda in favor ter Fox Alison Taylor in favor favor 520 um school committee Comm communication discussion items um the next um item on the agenda is the Marlet high school program of studies for the school year 25 20 2025 2026 and I don’t know if Dr

1:24:32 welcome um thank you um we supped to do this a few weeks ago and we had a snow day so here we are again uh we are entering our scheduling uh season and our elective window will open up tomorrow or 3:30 for students to start this so um I had plent a memo with kind of a summary of the changes for the program studies and I just want to go over them and ask any questions um the first one is we are looking to add an additional graduation requirement of financial literacy to the students starting with the incoming Freshman Class we’ve already started doing College and Career planners um with the

1:25:19 students and so this would be effective for the class of 2029 uh we will not be um adding any any additional credits required as we have a a bucket of St credits available for electives that this uh will be a on semester course we have identified currently three courses that we have been running for um years um Banking and personal finance entrepreneurship and Real World skills which kind of gives some teers of um rigor in those courses that will meet this requirement um I do know that in the future I will two years out um AP is

1:26:05 actually looking to bring in a business and personal finance for so we will continue to look at what’s out there and what we can add to um offer students with this but um we feel that this is um going to be a nice ad for students to really equip them for College and Career Readiness when they leave us um we removing the a Essex Tech after DART program from the program studies this was something that was um eliminated by du budget cuts and this current graduating class is the final class to go through that program we um are looking to remove grammar and nature writing courses from English elective just for the reason

1:26:51 that is never ever run since we put it in we have not had um enrollment in there for the interest to do it um we are also looking as part of a multi roll out to remove cp2 level for Algebra 1 in physics general education course um this is the third year of the elimination of that in those departments we have already eliminated CP General Ed courses from um The English Department previously and social also does not um the fifth is we’re looking to change the prerequisite for art Serio three currently it’s three semesters of

1:27:38 art to go into that we’re looking to change that to two this should increase access and remove potential barriers for students that want to in upper level art fors and the final one is to add AP photography um this will expand our a course offerings it will provide U upper level elective options for students that are interested in expanding their phography skills in the so those are our proposed changes and have to answer any questions F can you explain a little when I say this a little bit more about the I love that we’re going to do um personal finance I think that’s um something

1:28:24 that be very beneficial to student um it looks like it primarily is going to happen through the national Grant bank and the office downstairs okay no Banking and personal finance the kids go down to there um a few times during the semester but they’re they’re promly in the classroom and then there’ll be a couple kids that will go down and work so this would not this would be a separate um kind of unit or that in there about fin okay so there could be some supplements that the bank that they see in the bank you know if they’re talking about credit stores and things like that you know okay so when they go down there would they be they would be the

1:29:11 customer learning no they could be customer and they could be working behind because I thought the idea was kind of to teach these kids H how to manage their Finance uh it is so just can I just make a quick so this um idea I don’t I credit for it but I had asked about this um and felt strongly that um just I I had requested the administration to consider this as a requirement um because I too agree that this is as much as you know writing and and reading comprehension and math skills are important in science Welling history and social um having a working knowledge of of the basics of Finance um in this complex world that we’re in is really important for a high school

1:29:57 graduate and so I appreciate this I do feel and I was going to make this comment that um this is great that we’re doing this but I do think that there as we go forward there may be some room for increased rigor um or it could even be two semesters but um a year of course or even it’s once me a more rigorous focus on and there are plenty of curcums out there um that we can take a look at um that involve you know personal finance debt credit borrowing tax doing your basically your you know adulting of uh Finance because I think that’s important so I don’t know if that helps but I think that’s what I wanted to I’m I’m super excited to see it starting to evolve but I I wanted to

1:30:44 make sure that our end goal is that these kids leave this course with the skill of you know what does it mean to run up a credit card what does it mean to take out a car loan what does it mean to take on this debt and how much what was that student Lo student loans like all of this that they understand the E and flow of finance and how that can affects them um because Ian when we look at you know a lot of the the kids that that have come out in the last 10 15 years um I’m not sure the adults I mean back in the day those of us in the older days you know had used to be called man believe it or not but one of the things we used to do was like you made a budget you figured out a household budget I mean know it sounds

1:31:30 it was whatever but it there was value to that you know that you had to recognize how to sort of manage you know your your life in that respect and finance so that I think is purpose of this and I think sorry not not to jump in but um you we talked a little bit about that Michelle Michelle I started talking about that too like within those course where I I would AG we need to say like what’s the riger not we we talked about other supplemental curriculums that we could add in that we that will enhance what’s going on those classrooms I love the idea adding in AP business financial literacy that’s great um that upper level um for the folks that need that but yeah I think as we evolve this discussing look at that regular teachers in course is part part

1:32:15 what we need to do yeah I would agree if it’s a semester course now maybe we say hey we still not seeing so this is why we do program studies every year so this is something we need to change and move for shift and I think Julia would be also forer she would be parcel working on this I mean it’s everything Financial scams I it’s so with the technology everything is just so

1:32:43 complex that was I would assume this would be a business teacher or someone of that that’s what would be teaching us yes okay thank you yeah all right um think there’s no other questions I need to this is a vote right I need to call yes okay so I need a motion to approve the marble high school program of studies for school year 2526 the and a second second Alison I’m going do a um we’ll

1:33:17 callam in favoris Taylor in favor in favor thank you thank you thanks for um moving on to school year calendar school year 5 26 Calendar should have been in your Google Drive yes I placed it in there so um we had this we had the calendar was um put uh put up for discussion under our last minute I believe uh and based upon further discussion you have further input and further discussion from parents um I received um input from parents both in favor of the uh before Labor Day start and some in favor of after the Labor Day start um and what I just want to share further is um one most school districts start before Labor Day for a multitude

1:34:02 of reasons not the leas of witches so they don’t end up going to school until the end of June two um it’s my understanding until fairly recently Mar also did before before Labor this is not new three um Labor Day is is the first of September this coming year but it’s going to be I believe the 7th the following year so I’m looking to hopefully established a pattern of getting back to the before the Labor Day because what’s going to happen is we start after Labor Day this year we start after Labor Day next year then we’re start until the eth or people say well now we need to start before Labor Day so I’d rather get some consistency here because I think it’s one of those one things to say here’s we know we’re going to start here people can plan accordingly the point is not lost on me in any way shape or form that this year

1:34:49 is a typical year between the April and February breaks and and the one snor we had that on and everything else where the end of the school year the beginning of the start of the next school year is a little shrunk down but I would contend that um starting in this manner allows us to get the PD days in in the front end which is very important because um we need to do staff training a lot of specializ training that we talked about has to happen something that hasn’t been able to happen and then those two days where kids start um it’s I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s makes sense to have that soft start um especially for kids that are in the transition years you know when they’re com into a new school kindergarten or whatever uh uh seventh grade 10th nth grade um it’s really good for students to be able to come in and say okay

1:35:35 what’s the land of land where am you know where am I what’s the school look like um without the really um um huge expectations over got I get a whole week of school to kind of figure stuff out it’s a soft start it allows um teachers to really do the get to know your activities in a way that um they can get those Get to Know You activities get to understand the kids in front of them so that when they come back from Labor Day they can hit the ground running and and go forward I know you know it is a starting a stop it’s a little bit choppy with some of the other you know the with the holidays that we have in the in the um calendar uh I feel strongly administratively this is uh all of our administrators feel strong this way to go um that’s why I’m proposing it uh and I think um I would like the committee to to uh support this calendar I think it’s

1:36:21 it puts us in a good place starting next year and it sets the stage for the f thank you I have some questions CH y um I went back to the first draft you gave us on January 8th um and that first draft you gave us had students starting on the 2 and it only extended the school year by one day so they still finished before the juneth holiday um and the only thing at the end of that meeting that I thought we were looking at was that November um h day to see if you originally you proposed that it would be an election day and then um we went back and talked about that changing so um it seems like and you know at our last

1:37:09 meeting we kind of took a bit of a shift from your first proposal yes to starting buyer um and then we solicited some feedback um if you I I wish I had had a chance for you to share some of the feedback you received that we didn’t because the only formal feedback that we received to school committee was parents um asking it for after Labor Day we received one from a special education parent asking um that it start after and she talked about how that start stop start stop with big gaps was really hard on special education students which was one of the driving forces to why we stopped doing it this way and moved to a different format a few years ago um and then we heard from another parent this

1:37:55 week um didn’t give a reason just that they preferred um the after after Labor Day and then you know additionally to that just anecdotally about town I’ve I’ve heard from people too I’m sure others have on varing things I just haven’t received any of that formalized Outreach to the school committee at all asking well s to me scho um but the other thing I would say I so discussion but um the thing I don’t have the other uh in front of me but I want to say that part of the conversation was that Friday the 2nd during uh the winter break was was uh come back to school day which we know be horrible attendance um both staff and students I would think there was another day that was a similar remember the day

1:38:41 but it start the end of the school year it was a similar conversation so you know in my humble opinion gaining those two days um so that start after Labor date is not it’s not cost um cost cost Effectiveness in the fact that we’ve had horrible student attendance this year based upon all things we talked about earlier and we’re setting it up for certain days that like it’s no kids are going to me here that’s that’s not as an educator I can’t support it so that’s that was part of the reason why I shifted this one so I don’t really have anything more to say than that just reintegrated my stance I last time I think I stick I stick by that reasoning but again it’s something SCH me guys to what

1:39:27 those are My reasonings yeah I don’t really have a question um I just I don’t disagree with a lot of what you said I I just can’t get this being the year to do it our students are going to be in school probably till the end of June with having had zero break not everybody understand um and I guess I just can’t support I know it’s two days or whatever three days whatever it is um I just feel like these children have been through so much and

1:40:15 then this is the year for it but again I apprciate but I understand everything it wasn’t this year if we hadn’t just gone through you know 3 weeks of a strike and losing all these vacations as a result of that I would I I understand the rest of you and I wouldn’t be able supportting I just I want to make sure that’s clear very very yeah I mean I I personally prefer former where we started after and only lost a day now there were some concerns John there’s going to be concerns with all the options I believe at this point I guess where you know but I don’t know if that’s stat you know I’ve only heard from a few people that’s not statistically representative of the town um so I guess where I have to land land is trust as you said you know it’s you and your Administration your staff

1:41:01 putting this together you feel this is the best for the students and the staff that’s what I’ll

1:41:10 support I support I agre as do I so I’m going to call for V to approve the 26 20 2526 school year calendar so move by right and second second no I’m going to call for a vote L Williams in favor bot in favor Sarah Fox opposed J not in favor Jen shaer uh in favor so two set thank you thank you um we’re gonna move on to the FY 26 budget timeline um I just wanted to so have a conversation the bud subcommittee um folks as well as and John as to where we are so so

1:41:56 we’ve completed our budget um hearing tonight um I imagine that the next step is you need to vote um we’re going need to vote our budget and the finance committee needs to vote the budget as well um and you would want to probably do it in that order right so we want to have a school committee um vote before finance committee do you do you know 31st we’re slated um to be fincom slated to vote us on March 31st if what Al told me okay okay March 31st is G Monday so um that would give us the in theory the 6th or the 20th um to to vote our budget

1:42:41 does anyone have any thoughts on that we had the hearing tonight so we obviously want to have time for folks I would say the 20 we actually haven’t had our we haven’t had our bencom liaison meeting um it was supposed to be on Monday the the town website got launched um in a funky way so it’s going to be tomorrow morning so I would just like to have that meeting bring back any feedback from them next week um I I don’t anticipate their being bumps um I think it you know the thing to celebrate here is we were able to um fund all the positions that we uh current we’re not laying off anybody we don’t have staff reductions um and we’re able to meet the new needs at a level service um with

1:43:27 what the town was able to provide so I think that’s something to celebrate um with have a lot of work ahead of us for the next year and so um but I do want to make sure that we are able to have that fincom lon’s meeting tomorrow and then bring back that um information on the six um so I well and also time for the public yeah so I mean it’s time for the public to um hear the hear it tonight obviously respond by email um there’s also public comment at our next meeting um so do we think maybe the March 20th school committee meeting makes sense but I just want to throw in my past experiences I I’ve cut it close before between the school commune vote in the

1:44:13 fcom vote and you get a snow day are we would we be prepared to add an additional meeting on the 26 just to or 27 just to approve the budget in case as long as that’s good yeah if there’s snow day

1:44:31 Mar um he also there also is a safety backup day after that for fincom but we’re hoping not to use that safety day we’d like to use the day as no safety days I think you know if we if we had a regular school committee to me we we’re meting it next week so initi I was like oh next week but it’s a little bit tight so I would in her that on 20th probably Mak sense okay so we’ll shoot for the 20th for improving our budget that’s great then fincom the will approve our budget on March 31st and then it’s just the March town meeting I think s there um the morning hearing but that’s the 31st no oh that’s

1:45:21 okay and do we need are we involved in that or no that’s just well we might be if with the

1:45:30 um could um could be okay all right so that’s the next thing so this so there’s our we vote our budget fincom votes the budget then there’s a warranty area and then there’s town okay we’re missing any no okay all right so that makes sense all right so that’s great so that’s it for FY 26 budget very exciting that done um so the next item we’re going to talk about is the superintendent um scheduling for the superintendent evaluation planning workshop so John quite eloquently talked about his philosophy on leadership earlier um appreciate that and we had talked about moving forward with consideration for moving into permanent status or permanent contract with um superintendent Rob so we talked about

1:46:15 doing um a formative assessment um sometime this spring leading into that um so in order to do that assessment we had decided we would we would do a workshop with with our representative from best association of school committees who is prepared to do that with us so I just I know we don’t normally like to do the scheduling but we’ve had some schedule of snapu so I just thought can we talk about when would make sense to do this I don’t think it would make sense in a regular business meeting I think it would be a separate Workshop um and so I wanted to just get some dates or thoughts um from school commun members and what You’ be looking for I imagine I haven’t talked to Alicia because I didn’t get he back to her but um I think we want to schedule two hours for that that when they do the workshop for this that’s just a workshop school

1:47:02 that’s discussion I mean I know there’s a workshop it’s when it’s a true Workshop

1:47:10 meting um are you thinking um along the lines of what we did Alison what we did in that when we did it all together where we bra that’s what I would want yeah yeah so we all did our own and then came together to yeah and we worked kind of like me the saage if you will and it was it was a really positive did you work ahead of it or you did we had work to do we were all supposed to come with our we were all what we all did is an individual evaluation and then we came to the workshop and then we went through line item by line item and it it was time consuming but what it did was it reflected everyone’s voices in the summative which was very helpful because we tried

1:47:57 other iterations of it and and it just all people’s voices were never included so it was actually I’ll say this too it was a great um team building exercise too because you really had you know very very civil very civil discourse if someone I I have to say it was it by the Comm but it was a wonderful experience with people talking about things they noticed offering evidence yeah I’m confused Rob my plan for this this Workshop was to us to decide what we’re going to do for the formative assessment and then come back and do that assessment in open meeting this was not that at least that was what I how what my takeaway was in

1:48:42 our last discussion maybe I would follow I thought we agreed that we were going to do it the same way done last year but in our our last Workshop that we had but we’re not doing a summi of assessment doing a for which is a lot less involved full rle break and all that right I mean I don’t know I guess we still can do it in somewhat of the same the process yeah but okay so then what you’re saying is that that will be the evaluation I thought we were going to do a planning session and then come out of that say okay everyone go to the corners and do your homework and then come to an open meeting and do the evaluation that was the plan for Workshop come up with criteria f it out again then go

1:49:29 for okay yeah so we aren’t so when you say the criteria we’re not using the desing rubric at any point I don’t my understand be it’s GNA let you guys know like what what is generally involve the formative assessment how how in depth is it what does it technically look like it’s vastly different than the summative the summative is is all those pages of pages of everything uh form R is generally something less than that but it’s more just like hey where are you close to meting Go I mean I’m going to try to do a goals update um at the next meeting anyway so you guys have understanding kind of where I stand which would be good for when we do the do the full formative um but generally the formative isn’t same it’s not the same I do think we will need somewhat of a robust assessment that we can bring

1:50:17 forth to the community if we are going to take the next steps okay so then maybe that but that could be part of our discussion evaluation Workshop does do use for evaluating superintendent formative and summative they use those words yes okay because usually it refers to Student Learning right when you use these terms you when when the school formatively valuates me as a superintendent similar to how we evaluate the administrators and the teachers you go through the whole rri get a ring of you know obviously and then um you know and then uh you go from there right then uh but the formative isn’t isn’t form was that in terms of you not you’re not turning my you’re not turning into desie or like that just just hey John how are you doing are you are you meeting’s expectations are you

1:51:03 meeting whoever’s at the public are you meeting all the expectations how far are you along in your goals what does that look like um so yeah it’s leading towards the summative but it’s the same thing as when we evaluate teachers like in the formative you’re like here’s here’s your goals I see that you’ve done this you know here’s all the stuff that you’re doing and here’s some feedback like hey John I think you need to do a little bit better this area so that we get Summon and hopefully I’ve done some course correction if I that’s that’s more what the form is about so we’re not going to do a summon before we make the decision that’s what I no we can’t there’s not enough time to be able to something what see I look at this as this is a performance room it is right so okay so and and so to me that’s we’re getting

1:51:50 confusing St on the name and I think that’s the problem right and I think this is really we’re GNA evaluate John and and assess whether his performance to this point makes sense for a permanent position now was that too simple but that’s how I that’s I we need to do but yeah but I also I also I’m thinking that and I don’t know this is just spinball that it may be also a Step Beyond just the sub formative where we say okay and then what are some things that we want to do to help us make that decision it might mean doing some community outreach or or asking for Community input or you know whatever I don’t know if it’s a survey what you know what there may be some other things we want to do to help us make this decision I don’t mind if we do both right but again formative is helping John improve right talking about how we

1:52:37 want and that needs to be done right but the summative part is evaluating what he’s done and I think that’s the the important piece for making the decision we’re thinking of making yeah I think we’re getting stuck on on the the terms yeah right now and I so I’m just going to ask up the table of terms for a second well let’s do it valtion Workshop that was my goal I don’t in this Workshop was to help say make it very clear so we want a performance valuation and then we can talk about this as we work through this process more but I personally um and I hope we all feel this way that we want to solicit that community that from our Educators from stud from students as a as appropriate age wise um in our

1:53:22 community I that will be an important yeah I think may we may need to do some homework as we talk it out that hopefully Alicia Al would help us understand what that may look like you know so what um uh so sometime in the month of March is what I was thinking would make sense if anybody has any do you have Alicia availability because that’s going to be the definitive no I don’t I was actually going to throw give her dates because she seems to be very open to be honest with she really does and everyone’s here so I want to get dates from you so um are we talking a day workshop a morning workshop I think daytime but I don’t know what I can make myself available any Tuesday or Wednesday morning okay so we could do it um we could do it an off week like we

1:54:08 could do it the week of March 10th for the week of the

1:54:24 okay sorry um that up the I’m out the 19 are you out that day or okay what about the week of the 24th I know

1:54:41 that’s available that’s available post I can’t do the well you’re not back back

1:54:54 I’m gon to ask a question that may be stup and I apologize in the past our superintendents have not um attended weren’t sure I’m fine with that too so I’m not I don’t want to keep you out but I don’t know if if that is typical if that that could be atypical could be another one I I’ll do whatever you guys want want me there I’ll be there if you don’t want be there that’s fine I think you probably have a more Ro I don’t want robust robust discussion but a lot there potentially so I me I don’t I would not let’s I won’t take offense if you say we’re going to do without jum I think mostly coming from Back to the sth potential potential week yeah yeah that would be good is the 11th work

1:55:40 for folks yeah I will be on Zoom but that’s okay are you you’re not here no I’m I’m not here until the 14th Friday um I I’ll make

1:55:58 um I can the 14th work if that work is what looks

1:56:05 for um I zooming is not above okay really well I’m not I am no I understand I’m saying different dat so we can all be just so you know I’m a a lot I’m not that basically if I don’t do it on the 14th I’m not back until but you’re going to right yeah right April 8th think was I’m away I mean I’m I’m not I’ll be out of okay can’t we do

1:56:37 it yeah I’ll change my schedle on the 14 the best do can all why you don’t I should be why can’t we do on 11 ran feels it

1:56:54 I I don’t think mind I don’t want to push it from the why don’t so the 10th is and is a possibility the 11th and the 14th is everyone great so little okay the 11th or the 14th Alicia this is all based on Alicia um she may be on Zoom for all I know too so doubt it but um

1:57:19 okay question okay I will be back to you FKS hopefully next day or so thank you appreciate that uh sub committee liaison uh um leison updates yeah updates yeah goad we redid the fact page was in the drop box that’s not the most updated one that I had formatted for you though no I formatted Alan I formatted we took care okay there then there will definitely be a lot of I that should be changed on

1:57:59 it just from a visual looking perspective because I thought that was what I was tasked with doing so

1:58:11 I okay so did you you did formatting and you sent it over and I used the same one that was sent to me so it’s the same Google doc yeah well Al and I put it together the last couple meetings yeah if it was sent I I didn’t see it a Google doc so you go to the same Google doc that you created in the first place that you shared with me because we had reviewed the FAQ as a group together and they were formatting and just like making it pretty things that and some wording changes that I had been tasked with do everybody’s looking at me like I’m crazy is that am I the only one that heard that no I don’t know um did you not did you see the I said it as an attachment I know that and then I no yeah sure the if Alison if you could just send me the link to the Google

1:58:58 Don’t drop box pleas yeah that I just didn’t know no thank you okay the newsletter did go out yes right the February newslet February and now as far as January went we had 1,100 viewers just on the school side I have no idea what happened with the current but you know as far as our distribution we 1100 people which is pretty good you figure it biggest Comm we’ve ever had maybe 30 or 40 people so yeah a lot more people read did we just sent the Fe one out yesterday so I haven’t seen the numers yet um I’m wondering if you know obviously not in our meeting but after

1:59:43 this if you can follow up with the media sources that you plac it with and I don’t know if they can give you the demographics on it but it would it would be great to hear you know if if can you guys see how many people are seeing it on your end as well too just to know how what if she could look into that you have it as a l or how the same I it from your and then put it on our no so it’s on their web page so they might they may have yeah I have we should be direct so maybe we can work with okay sure it’s in both yeah okay got it um thank you thanks so newsletter and oh and the

2:00:29 website the website it was also a warm of things we want to just Frank you want to pop that one up the

2:00:59 these are really just more clarification straighten it out taking it out like the subcommittee or curriculum we took that we decided not to do that a couple years ago and it’s still in there so we take and then we corrected to make sure everybody’s titles will correct on the subcommittees what else we do we have the operating protocols F and my name is your name is wrong said one L

2:01:29 Right add goals Great’s as well used to at one point yeah the school committee operating protocols has this odd fun yeah and I can’t change it I don’t know what looks like you’re yelling at read any hard look to it i’ like to make little less uh yelling at you for our protol oh yeah I mean that’s the old style one yelling PDF on there sot the PDF

2:02:09 right send it to you then you can fix it okay I mean I I have Adobe but keeps asking me for movies of Po I bought it myself so like I don’t get it yeah

2:02:25 also Al noticed that our school committee Mission and the one with the district are one and the same and we were beginning to question whether we should look at that and have a separate one for the world the school commit you know it should always be a lock step what the district is but the school committee has different responsibilities yeah and I think that maybe the vision should be the same but you know something we figured let’s get through the budget and then we we’re analyzing just not the look and tyos but just more of the content and just you know better representing what we do what we don’t do and you know things that are the SCH have no it’s if you look at the web page we did have a different one and nope um

2:03:13 the previous com combination of school committee um took a vote to unify

2:03:22 it so that’s something we can prob work yet after maybe after after the we decided but I just want to give you a heads up we want to look at

2:03:38 bit bit okay you just from uh we done there is a on um get my date here correct um on March 20th uh there’s a Meco advocacy day 2025 it is at the state house um and it’s from 9 to 1:30 so if you’re interested in attending please let me know and I’ll send you details thank you all right I I do have one other question on the there’s a on the school committee part of the website there’s a um resources tab

2:04:33 sry on um school committee page is a resources tab resources link on the leftand side that says to visit the Community page for some things and then has other resources and some of them are duplicative I think that that might be a place to put them all in one place um and then probably don’t have that resources section just in the the homepage of the school committee note that you know resources can be found in the community link and then have all of those resources in the community L and maybe hopefully find a logo for the vets in the high school sale just

2:05:19 ugly black box right now they must have right or just use the No No Yeah I’ve never been to that Community page before so no me neither and the resources paid brings you there right but then it has some additional look at it so okay we can look at that thank you all right um um so budget has been explained um facilities we haven’t met against the Ser meeting two weeks ago so it’s not an update there um there was an SAC meeting at Brown this week um we had presentation during that on um I ready results I had some I wanted to bring up under um school committee requests that are on an agenda on that um they gave us

2:06:05 an update about what the student groups are doing there their student council I I guess are coming to present to us at some point in March which very exciting yeah so Glover is the next meeting on the there so we have one someone all five school yeah so um I can’t wait to see what the other schools are doing because I get to see a glimpse at it for the sa at Brown what they’re doing for that student voice there and it’s um really exciting for those students I think a one thing to celebrate was the students actually helped on on that student voice group helped to write a grant for the friends of Marblehead head grant for the friends of Marblehead public school so there would be a grant request coming from um our elementary students which is also really exciting um so lots of lots of stuff going on

2:06:53 there um and then policy we talked about um during combinations we had our Forum last night we two weeks ago at had a forum with students last night we had a community Forum um I’m trying to schedule us um for next week hopefully Wednesday I’m just waiting to hear again from Alicia M and from MC because we have to review the protocols with her so hopefully I’ll get that worked out tomorrow that will get posted for next week ort back um we probably will be coming back at the next school committee meeting hopefully with a draft FL policy um that’s the goal so that’s it for subcomittees right uh new business um I have something I wanted to request on a agenda I would like a um

2:07:40 keep using the word robus um presentation on um the I ready scores we just did I know what midyear assessment that’s what was presented at the sa um I’d like to see them presented at each School level um I believe do them right now at four of our schools one of the things that um I I noticed while we were going through the school level once were um 50% roughly of our students are one grade level or more below um and so I think it’s a little more Nuance than that and so I think it’ be really helpful especially as these reports go home to families in the next week for us to get a uh presentation on that from

2:08:27 Julia and she can explain that more um because it it isn’t my understanding it isn’t necessarily as simplistic as those four headings but I do think it’s really important for the the committee as a whole to get that view so that we can see where we where we are achievement and in what areas the be um as a district one and think even if understanding even that not necessarily as black and white is that 50% hour it’s still an alarming number is that other committee members interested in having that as a presentation y

2:09:09 i i to they all talk to Julia too to see any other things she feels ready and want to to share her and then again it’s to the will of the committee but one thing I was hoping to see when we see that presentation is hopefully to see Lisa maray and Julia and how that special education and general education really weave together um because when when I at first blance when you see that number of 50% you start to ask because statistically we have a higher percentage of students on IEPs in Marblehead head and the state IEPs in Marblehead and the state average are those two things tied together um and how are those two

2:09:54 departments working to because they do work together how are they working together to use not just this testing but other testing sources to get ahead of things and maybe um hopefully we can reduce the need of stud for students yeah I I think you know the 52% I’m not not sure that but that defin be clarified in or you know shared out that’s an accurate thing or if this yeah um I think the overlap with speci is always meaningful needed so reason make that happen okay any other new business and any plans to proove you know what are what are we going to be doing with that how are we going to be

2:10:40 using that data to you know met for for next year for planning for the curriculum managing I I don’t even know all of the areas obviously I think that that’s a big piece of this I want to know about but I’m sure the community does as well because that’s an alarm I mean well and also it it is what was explained to me is it is much more Nuance like they may be testing things now that our math curriculum doesn’t teach till later in the year was what it was explained to me right it is more Nuance but I would like from the committee standpoint to have this presentation to see where our students because this is nationally normed um where we are in and any potential um areas grow areas to celebrate St and even how that you

2:11:26 know sometimes I feel like that’s a little have to be honest like that respon not from you I mean just saying that it’s nuanced or we’re not teaching it till later is you know you see with our mcast scores it kind of is the same we’re not you know getting the best there either we have a lot of students that are below average there and that’s those two things together are concerned so yeah so I I think reporting out on that data be rep be accurate data you know I mean a lot of times people I’m not saying this is the case here all

2:12:12 ACC correct so I think we need to be um so I think you know those are the kind think be careful of so I’d rather make sure that we have a conversation with the actual numbers what is that and if it’s true 50% are grade level below that is concerning is that accurate yes or no what are the um how do we address that I it’s all valid thank you okay anything else yeah um I’m gonna call I’m just you want to talk about next week oh or you want to do that offline do that offl okay I’m going to Jour us at 8 uh 13 thank