good evening i'd like to call the meeting to order at seven o five pm this is the april eleventh two thousand and seventeen meeting of the school committee environment and we're going to start with some organizational matters as we do every april meeting after election day so congratulations to our two realized it and newly elected school committee members they go in and tom computer our first order of business that's not necessarily opening a business is to have a nomination for both the chair position and the secretary position and we've had some offline discussion about it and i think we've got a couple of nominations and agreeable individuals to take on these roles so we just need to have an excuse me some formal nominations and votes in any discussion if necessary there's no discussion and all those in favor  excellent time is fabulous reason right along so we will then adjourn this organizational piece and the only thing i will say before we officially transition into our own a regularly scheduled meeting formally is be as flexible as we want to be in terms of shifting roles on the various subcommittees and liaison positions and i actually was just informed that the search committee for a new town administrator he would like a representative from the school committee or designate so we can discuss that as well all right so then we can transition into our formal meeting with the cultural order three minutes later seven o eight and the first i will be to pledge of allegiance so we always have an opportunity for citizens to come and join our meetings and express any concerns or ask any questions of the school committee and i don't see any hopes that you think caps concerns so we will move adjustments there are none so the chairpersons report just have a couple of items that i would like to note we've had some pretty packed meetings the last few times so i want to just touch on a few happenings and think a couple of different organizations in a couple of minutes the first item in terms of an event happening tomorrow there is the parent teacher band concert at seven pm in the cherry middle school auditorium for anyone interested that's an event that i know always draws a lot of attention from the community service wanted to note that then working our way through in terms of other events there's the second annual becca pitzi fun run sunday april thirtieth and it's for children as well as adults the proceeds to will benefit the back up it's the scholarship fund and the belmont boosters so registration is available through the school department website and just a special thank you to belmont savings bank for their help coordinating and supporting the event  nine am there's a kid's one mile race that begins on the thirtieth and at nine thirty is the five k so that should be a fun event for the community there is then some thank yous and acknowledgments the city side subaru and foundation for government education this is the share the love partnership that has this is the third year i believe that we share the love partnership has benefited belmont although it's the fifth year that city side super and subaru of america have invested in government education so there's been an eleven thousand dollars donation through the share the love partnership and from what i understand during the promotional period subaru of america and city said subaru specifically designated the foundation for bowman education as one of their charities of choice the nonprofit organization so teachers and staff were offer discounts on vehicle lease and purchases and for every special purchase i suppose outside of that two hundred fifty dollars went into the donation pool so eleven thousand dollars represents a lot of wonderful happenings then with those two organizations and again we're always so thankful to the foundation for bellman education for it work in the communities work because so much of the efforts then result in benefits for the children and the families in our district so i wanted to note that i just think that's a wonderful opportunity for us and also just to note in my notes that the tally is over sixty five thousand dollars that's come to the foundation for belmont education over the years which is just again tremendous so thank you so much to everyone involved there and then my last note is that we have received as a district recognition again this is i think a pleasant recurrence for one of the best communities for music education and it's recognition from the national association of music merchants and this reflects a lot of wonderful things and there's a list on the website for anyone who wishes to peruse it but to me that one of the loveliest parts is that it really recognizes the k to twelve commitment to music in our district as well as the performances by the ensembles that we offer for the older grades and the talented staff that we have working with our students and families so i wanted to mention that and then the last piece for me is just to note that our next meeting which is scheduled for april twenty fifth will feature our formal budget hearing we'll be talking about the budget and that's an opportunity for citizens to come and ask questions and hear from us we do this every year it's our formal budget hearing and this will be an opportunity we often because we have limited time during citizens concerns we don't engage in some q and a but this will be an opportunity if people do have specific questions to the form allows for that kind of discussion during a limited time so that's all i mean for sure so on the same note with the music we had a huge band and strings event more high school field house just about two weeks ago and we almost had a kid slow because the snow in right now it's eighty three degrees outside so very very strange how our weather works so we congratulate all the musicians k to twelve that participate farm formed forms on resiliency on monday night and wednesday of last week we had over one hundred sixty parents come seventy of the elementary night and almost ninety at the high school night teachers came out to support both grants thirty six thousand nine hundred forty dollars will be expended on grants submitted by teachers just this year this two cycles per academic year the grants have been awarded maybe over seven hundred i think over the last several years totaling three point four million dollars in grants from the a f p so thanks to them as always a food service director doesn't o'bryant who we have had in front of the board before to talk about his food service program was the t he's doing and incorporating local partners in the work that he's providing his staff in feeding our children in an excellent way every single day so we encourage you to go on the website and check all th season is now in full swing so if you ever want to see any sports action just head down to the turf field or softball field or baseball field and you will almost be guaranteed to see a game or practice and action it's it's pretty cool to see everything going on there and just an update i know i've talked to guys before about the survey that student is doing it's for those few of you who don't know it's a survey that's meant to compare the amount of homework that students the things they're receiving from their teachers and the amount of homework that teachers think they're giving to their students as well as some other comments that teachers and students might have as to how to decrease students for us at the high school and so we've been it's true that survey we got over two hundred sixty responded responses which is pretty fantastic and as well some pretty passionate comments and it's it's been interesting to look through the data and compare grades class  poll for a few years and the andrea press which has kindly offered to serve in that capacity representing us at those reps from other area districts and you know we do learn a lot of really interesting information and practices questions and cetera so thank you very really people who were proposing projects that were going to their community preservation association c p a so we had a parade of wonderful projects said for discussed and approved etc and very little time i mean literally a few minutes left for minimal discussion about funds and so forth so the next meeting april twenty sixth would be more related to budget issues and town meeting issues as well how about the high school  n after a subcommittee set of interviews they were officially voted in by the i must be a on monday the third and presented to the public on thursday night at the to be treated center we had over for this project presented their company as well they had several employees with them there were some questions and discussion about the background in high around the enrollment and around configurations and i was able to present similar information that i have presented here in school committee and at all the staff meetings that each of the six schools in it some of our p t o s what we outlined our roman concerns and the space configuration discussion  in a general way for folks who understand and digest who have not seen that yet and it was a very positive night a lot of good energy in the room people excited about the process moving forward second to that we sent out the request or invitation to community members and parents participate in the frank locker education facilitation meetings that will take place on me for me five we have received i believe enough requests to take place for a full session both days i will be sending an email out to parents thanking them for considering being involved and to those who are involved and also write to the parents that there were some conversations or i think i got about three or four emails parents  guardians asking or requesting could these meetings in the future be done at night or on saturdays that they felt that there was an exclusion of folks because some folks had to work and couldn't commit to do date two days and we fully understand that was a barrier for some folks and we're we're working around a schedule with the facilitator in being able to present that night on thursday may fourth to the building committee and to the school committee but we do fully recognize that we want community input we'll have time for that in into that conversation on an ongoing basis and i think we're trying to figure out ways to make sure that the school committee is involved in that over the next couple months because the you know the year ahead is going to be a lot of work to evaluate through the feasibility study the various different options and then i think you know this body will be one of the key groups ultimately driving a decision on what building gets built in what the configuration looks like and maybe as importantly what the educational plan that will govern that actually looks like so i think it's just important when they're going to be aware of that and i think of this responsibility that we're going to have to have as a group in the coming months we don't want you to stick the kid away so quick to add on that i did have parents voice to me that feeling excluded from that music in their time frame simply because it went past dismissal where we have a lot of elementary school parents who anticipate being able to put their kids through this new high school be there will be a meeting of the community have jeffrey will as housing department heads who weigh in on the options in the past he had done that once before just to get feedback from the internal department heads with and want town hall so schools and police and fire and so that will be thursday when we have leadership on thursday so we're trying to find someone to attend actually everybody that we have a leadership position to that we would probably send  he and i met after the other i have already met in person with the the vendor who is doing the study individually and then went to a similar meeting of department heads back in december so i have been call those in favor