good evening everyone going to start the foxboro school committee meeting to order being april seventh two thousand and fourteen seven o'clock the agenda is as follows for this evening seven o'clock this it airs seven ten approval of minutes seven fifteen teaching and learning highlights at h s french exchange program from is frazier seven thirty five coordinated program review update burroughs seven fifty cent special education programs update a ten by county collaborative quarterly update spinelli a twenty school committee vote to approve the foxboro public school's policy manual eight thirty school committee vote on school choice participation is banally eight forty f y fourteen budget update is to believe forty five other matters we will be going into executive session for the purpose of discussing negotiating strategies with non union personnel superintendents contract the committee will not return to open session we're going to start first with visitors are there any visitors that wish to be recognized approving our regular meeting minutes dated march seventeenth just while you're looking at the minutes is confusing to our guests because it says visitors and they are visitors right but that's not you have your own portion of the need friends from france so this is about our french exchange program and it's a wonderful opportunity for us to welcome them because while we often have a reception they don't usually arrive on a week we're having a school committee night so it's a really public opportunity for us to learn a little bit about the french exchange program and the wonderful opportunities it gives both our students and our wonderful friends from france so i'm going to dismiss karen fraser who we all know is a world language department head and should give you a little bit of background very successful program our students typically travel to france over february vacation and stay in the homes of students and launch and then we were super kate usually in the fall actually but this year we got to do it a little bit late our source units are already been there and now they're hosting on this and i'll let you hear from them but i think the impact that it's had on so many of our students has just been indescribable really they've really gained a lot from the experience so i'll let them talk to an answer any questions but thank you so much for your support of the program we appreciate could you introduce the two chaperone yes please so we have two teachers who have a card to our french colleagues we have  name who are here accompanying their students and they're both return visit or their return friends with us as i've met both of them in the house so welcome again so any of the students who want to speak about if they could just bring their chair to a you are and then we'd love to hear from them family our correspondents are super nice and when they came to friends it was really cool because we got to do to get to know them and that it well but it's my favorite language and my favorite place in the world really you know so you're a to mazing how well you know how well you all speak i again and i know it's very near and dear to the heart of beverly lord here because she was originally part of that when she was a teacher here that she went all the time so it's near and dear to her heart a good condition to use and i'm wondering if one of at and i don't know whether you want to speak about what you've been doing while you've been here or whether we want to have some of the students your friends students that would nice and i thought that they could see something because here we don't have a lot of those types of names in our area like when i went to france i saw a lot of shadows and older monuments so  yours all i know is that you know any opportunity to travel is absolutely incredible because you know it's something may shows you a completely different way of life and i just i couldn't get enough of it it was yeah yeah i would say unforgettable the bonds that you form with these people you know you only know them for ten days but you form these incredibly strong students today asked that yes yes well we had a great day we were i was fortunate enough to have french students in all of my classes today so what they did is is the american students had prepared questions ahead of time in french that they asked the french students and they responded in english and what was what i really enjoyed was that they got through the questions they'd written and then came up with more on on their own without working on it before that and i would like to thank the school committee for their support and miss frazer who has been incredibly supportive and helpful and just in just to be able to provide this experience invaluable what they learn i can't i can teach them i can show them videos it's nothing like living in someone's home in really experiencing it and i've been fortunate myself to be able to experience it that way i had never and i our friends  french friends i get to stay with them and have a wonderful time they treat me very well and i think that they do and it's new now it's family over there and i found my french improved when i was over there because  because like being because i mean we don't naturally have a french like the right french accent like it's hard to speak in french and it's a hard language and like their accents much different from ours so of going over there and just like you have to just jumped right lot and like coming back like i definitely improved in french like speaking and listening lines that graham what i really love that it is that you stay with these families it's not like you're staying in a so how many days ten days ten days ok for the rest of their stay that today's race well they were with families yesterday today they followed their students came to the reception they're here for world language and culture night tonight tomorrow they're going to the kennedy library and to harvard university when say they're going to new york city thursday they're going to salem to the salem witch museum the house of seven gables and on the historical walk that's right that's thursday friday they're going to plymouth plantation they'll be with the families on the weekend again monday they're going to do the freedom trail in boston and tuesday they'll be shadowing students again here and they will have a tour of the police and fire before you leave we want to thank foreign language department for supporting these two programs because it's a lot of your own time that is extra and we really really appreciate it well it's going to lead to more diplomatic wonderful things understanding sharing and kudos for your first ever excessively successful already culture i mean i to have the success tonight on the first one it usually takes at least two to three years i mean i'm i'm bald over i think it's wonderful and before you leave the room i don't know if the camera much thank you guys coming in and sharing with you ice is so amazing to see you know we talk about it we approve these trips for our students to go on and we hear about it but to actually see all of you come here and hear all the positive experiences that our students have and all of you have that's i mean i think this is this is in real time it's so meaningful in riches their education in a way that we could never provide oh absolutely skin never provide well in the world that our kids are going to go into is going to be so increasingly global yeah so mr frazier a little homework assignment for you so you need to come back to us and thinking about the global world our kids are going to graduate into we need to know what you need for next  appreciated and just so people of people watching at home world language and culture nights going on still in the cafeteria it is absolutely standing room only it is packed what an unbelievable turnout and so many booths and so many cultures represented it's just you get out o park really on the first time there were one hundred fifty crepes and they were all gone in twenty minutes that would come any and i all i want to ask the french students what they thought of them where department of elementary and secondary education that happens every six years and into tween that we have a three year in cycle for special education and what this entails is to begin with the self assessment process in the area of civil rights and special education and it and has us go through all of our policies and procedures related to civil rights and special let in any other regulatory requirements from the department of elementary and secondary education and after we spend a lot of time looking through all those policies and procedures and seeing where are we have to take that information and it's different this time it's the first time for our myself as well as foxboro that it's all web based monitoring and so we have to take everything and upload it to a particular portal so for example for civil rights we have over twenty six criteria and that's multiple things that we upload to meet the requirements to show for example our code of conduct in our hymn books and what we do with teachers and we students students we're meeting all of the regulations and that training in confidentiality those kinds of things and we have to show proof of all of those documents policies that you approve we have to take those policies and make sure that they meet the requirements regulations and upload those as well in special education there's more than fifty six i think pretty area we can talk about in a second so we go through this very lengthy self process and really look at you know how are we doing and that same time we look that for the mid cycle only look back six years ago to see if we were sighted on any of these criteria we either find that we are committed to vote in any of these areas which we have been in some in the past and that's difficult to achieve that we've fully implemented what is expected or if we partially implemented and then if we have not implemented we have a corrective action plan that we have to put into place and say how we're going to fix what is not in compliance and then we have a duration of to get that into compliance so that is all before may the fifteenth of this year then we will expect visits from the department of bed and sometime next year we don't know exactly when that will take place but depending on the size of your school district two to eight members from the department they look at the documents they look at things that you've uploaded in addition to that many other documents to make sure that what you have actually uploaded are what you have in practice they will then do a round of multiple interviews they will do observations to really try and get their data to see that we are in compliance with not just civil rights and special education but then all of our other programs come into play the english language learner program and all of the criteria that follow along with the english language education and then in addition to that title one which is for providing services at need for most in need and  reading and this time we have title one for the i go well and treat school so there's a lot of information that they look at it really is a lot of work on staff here to put that information together and to really look to see that we're meeting the requirements and if we're not why not and to put into place whatever corrective things that we need to put the place in addition to the site visits afterwards they will provide us with a full report and we have amount of time to respond to that and then it will become kind of final at that point if we have actions that we need to meet them we'll have to get to work on those things but the special education part of it civil rights to go to that for a minute those are things like policies and make sure of equity and that we're looking at comparability and special education it's really taking student records of whether their initial or revaluations or in your views and pooling all of these files to make sure all of the procedures that are in place are necessarily provide you with all the details of all the criteria and what that means and and all of that so as to give you an overview see a little bit heads up the spring and then we'll come back in the fall with a very detailed overview of the process and the timelines because there are many for yes so just to give kind of a concrete example one of the things we have to make sure that we have time on learning at the elementary level versus at the secondary level nine hundred hours of instruction versus ninety hours of instruction at high school and we have to back out in the early release days we have to back out lunch and recess and then we have different forms that every principal has to calculate that time they have to sign off and then we have to upload one of those for every school and that's just one part of one criteria right through so a lot of documents preparation right and so that we can see so you get to see for yourself as you're preparing the documentation think you need what areas you think in your own mind could be potentially be the cushion intentionally not meet the criteria so that's what that's what the self assessment involve it doesn't involve us collecting data at this point it's providing documentation of what procedures we have a place and how the district is in compliance with a large variety of of rules and regulations and in state and federal law what's the usual timeframe that it will probably be for you to kind of submit your cap after after the after they come in th now for the self assessment will know you're going to submit that right and then you're going to get information back once after they come in they do the site visit yes look at them with the time frame after they submit the rip the rip actual report that you have to correct those oh it depends particular criteria yes and then special education particularly they come back into usually two to three years and looking at what progress you've made so they don't let the whole time go by and most of the other criteria haven't been through it three times myself in district most of the criteria if you submit a plan on your corrective action and then when you submit it what's called a mid cycle progress report if you can show that you've already corrected them then they will then submit a mid cycle report that lists that if you've corrected it so it depends ok just trying to get an overview of the process did you want to i was just going to add that in special education we're doing a self assessment at each level so the preschool the elementary and middle school and high school we're meeting as a faculty for about a two hour a block and going through the special ed criteria to figure out where where we think we are in terms of meeting the regulations so it's are we are we holding the team meetings on a properly timeline are we making sure that the parents are informed and they're participating in their meetings are we doing child find so that their it's really regulation specific but that we really are having the faculty really participat so they understand why it's so important that we need to follow the regulations across our teasing so that's been really good we've had preschool elementary was today and we did the high school last week and then and so we just have the middle timelines are met and i think so far we look pretty good so that's really encouraging so i can see the need to do it from an audit perspective or an operational perspective but i was waiting to hear the value and it sounded like background so maybe allusion a little bit when you said it helps reinforce with the staff why some of the regulations are important so one of the things that makes us say yes i don't think up front we think that you know that's not our first thought is like let's get a lot of value out of this because it's so much work that you're basically just trying to start repairing but i would say yes that it's a good time especially for special education so it's a good time when the staff engages in that activity get to a draw it's leading with them it's a reminder of what the regulations are and why we follow them and why it's important for families for students and then it's not enough though what we do because when they come back to look at the actual records usually they look at quite a few and they'll interview staff so if there's a discrepancy between what we said happens what staff are saying their understanding is and what the records say actually happened then if any one of those three data points are off then that something they look at we didn't actually pretty well last time we only had two areas in special education and into the dressing which i think is at the time it was forty eight may be different criteria so that was that was quite we and for us it's more i would say when i say it's the central office functions that are reviewed by title one english language cation civil rights career technology creation for us it's a lot of  so for us it's a review of the procedures that we have in place and how we go about our business so do we have somebody in a hymn book that says if you feel that you were harassed who do you report it to do we have all of those think those structures outlin verses special education and english learn education they look at student records as well special education is very driven by student records so it's the different year not just sometimes so procedural the offer you any best practice when they come back or anything like that know i think more than anything if you see those commendable so every once in a while yes and just having them just reiterate the things that we know that are really good in place place this is the this is the procedure by which they lightened us that we weren't offering physical education every year of schooling this is that's one of the the laws that they ask us to provide documentation that in place so this is this is the procedure we were referencing where we had to file a corrective action report which was to hand count what it to these kids were in so that was our corrective action it wasn't considered  and a structure that compliance with the law was just a corrective action method so i mean it's basically a method to provide oversight that we are complying with what the law basically says that's right and so it's you know hospitals have that in schools have it in it also i'm sure it would help drive certain districts that might not be allocating maybe farms in certain areas and they need to do that for us it sounds like really you know there's like you said you just part of one example of one area by sort of maybe for other districts you know might be different to south some but it sounds like a lot of work everything that you are all doing to ensure that we are compliant and  special ed director before i arrived and did with they all mentor principals and susan suzanne some fancy the team chair at the elementary level and this was really to review each of the programs we have at the elementary level and those are  learning program a language based programming a new program that will be discussing and the team based program the alternative learning program is a program that serves students that are diagnosed with autism or have characteristics of autism and so we reviewed the student profiles that are students currently in the program and that students that are coming up through the system and at this point in time we're not changing the program at all it will can continue to be housed at school and i go and it's existing resources will be supporting it and we're going to be reviewing the current curriculum and looking at technology program because we have some students that really will be needing to technology for augmented communication are alternative ways of communicating as well as looking at academics the second program which is the learning based programming and this was a little more intense because we looked at not only the students in the program their profiles of the current district program which is housed at the taylor but also the students with this kind of diagnosis throughout the elementary buildings that are in inclusive models meaning that they are kind of pushed in they are pulled out for certain things but they attend their neighborhood schools and what we found was that most of the students with this diagnosis are served in their community schools or their neighborhood schools and not served in the district program so next year we're serving all these students with this kind of diagnosis or disk and these kind of disabilities in their neighborhood schools and and at this point in time i think that people are pretty comfortable with that so that we continue with this conversation of looking at students at the elementary level their profiles and what came about was that the there was a cohort of students with pretty significant challenges in cognitive and in the areas primarily language communication social pragmatics math and l a and we decided at that point in time to pull this cohort together and provide them with a program that specifically designed for them and that would include a teacher with a licensure of severe special needs would be preferred but we're really looking for the best fit or the best teacher to work with the students we plan on this program being house that i go elementary and the reason for this is i go has a room that the students can access as well as they have a really great speech and language not that we have great speech and language people throughout the system but the person that is currently at i go is really has the expertise in assistive technology and particularly working with students that need augmentative communication so we really felt that was a good fit this will be a cost neutral program i just want you to know this because it's not that the special ed population has increased or decrease but the students needs have shifted and they really require the specific design of a program so given this new program we move on to the team based program and this program serves students with social emotional and behavioral concerns it's currently go elementary it is being relocated to the taylor school and the reason for its relocation is that really not only do we believe that there should be a program for students with  special education students in each of the buildings but the department of elementary and secondary education really and frowns on having one school being the special ed school so this would give each of the elementary elementary buildings a special ed program again the taylor school will be supporting this program just as i go do it right now as we've changed things in the first students in their programming we have made sure that we sit down with the parents and the staff that are affected by by these changes both to the relocation and the development of the new program and hadn't have conversation i'm in most of these conversations have already taken place in the parents and have been good about this and understanding if they're being relocated why they're being relocated for example when we explained that for the language based programming the reason that it's going to be a neighborhood schools that most half of the students are already going up to the herne next year and their language based program and that the rest of the students that are remaining are really tailor students anyway so there really isn't really  a relocation in the or in the issue there other than that it's just going to be for a neighborhood schools so the thing that we currently are doing we when we are talking to the parents and the staff is that we're going to be developing  transition plans for the students and we'll be implementing those and in june making sure that it's a nice seamless change for either coming into our program or the program being relocated to a different building to support the program as i go but then you said so is it still at the i go and what we're talking about three different programs not a team based on the team based program which promptly is for children with behavioral to right challenges yes motional dysregulation that program which is currently at the i go is going to shift to the taylor because we need the new program to have the space at the go where they also have access to the therapeutic spaces in the large water room ok i think it's just a little deceiving when it says resources that taylor will continue to support the program as at i go because it's not going to be at the right but i guess when it's all right right there in other words the way i support right with the resources the i go the same thing should be expected by parents and students and staff in those programs the same level of support if i could say the same level of support that they have that go well in president taylor so that means that if a child who is at the i go area is going to be going that need for right now is a district magnet program where you will and most of the kids in that program will relocate right yes there are a few they're not they're large program is that the way most communities do this how are the yes because if they're not house but they you know this resources are at one specific elementary school versus another well one of the schools because we don't have enough of a population to have  program replicated three times ok so it's for efficiency of staffing in expertise actually so i had a group of teachers can become an expert on what it takes to have students that is really successful and we provide all of our resources in an intense wa one location so that's true that's why the preschools in one building you know that's why the the only program that we're should change our mind about that is the language based program we have had a district wide magnet if you will but  resources so we always want kids to see their home school you know we can't so it's been disciplined done that way for quite a number of years and it's an opportunity for us to rethink that particular type of service and whether we can we can provide that now the new program that doesn't have a name you know is is really for a cohort of students that we haven't had a cluster of students like that so we haven't had to provide the program and now we do because the while as sandra said while the enrollment special education is fairly stable th e types of groupings of the needs of children have shifted so we're actually taking it position that we don't need to provide the magnet and in reallocating it to the students who now are in a cluster with the program ok i got it thank you first if you have a question you're just going to assume you're one of the issues that are parents typically are most interested in when we have changes like this would it be the staffing that their child will her face with the transportation actually it's just making sure that it's seen you know how are they how we're going to do it this what's the plan we had both principals like for those that are relocating to taylor we had pete regan there as well as stanton there suzanne was there i was there in terms of talking to them about what was happening and why it was happening and they were very under they understood why it was doing it they wanted help in trying to explain it to their children and we said we were definitely going to be helping them doing that because this is a team effort and the the parents that students that are in this cohort were actually very surprised and relieved that we were really looking at their specific needs and how to best provide for those needs and i would say that they were really happy and they whatever you want to do let us know so again we said that we were going to develop a plan a transition plan make sure that the students that weren't already in the building could come and visit as well as the other students that would be relocating to taylor's visit days and will be really walking the parents through it because we have to really work closely with them so that there is no anxiety with them or for their children so just play that back make sure her right so if you show them that it seamless and if you show the benefit of the services design typically just tickle issues or any other concerns tend to go away when we've like goody chills when they heard the word neutral and but i'm going to ask do you have the tools that you need to best serve the students not doubting your expertise but if we need to  job in as necessary or how does it work or is it regionalized i've been blind ok ok go ahead and get started no no it's not a problem i would say seen or talked about this again today if it could it could be a teacher who holds a severe special needs license or moderate special needs license kind of in between so we're as senior said we're going to look for the best person we don't really to speak up we speak about the needs of the program and the expertise that the teacher must have we don't speak about people whether they're working here now whether it be somebody new is it's a little bit early for that ok we're structuring the program to meet the students needs and then we will go down the line of finding the right person you know the spirit of the question was do you have in your toolbox what you need for and we like that yes we do know what we need and now we're just going to have to go out and find it thank you i want to follow up i know what you mean you're so you're saying does she have all the resources that she needs to construct this new program oh yeah yeah but i was you know focusing in on this licensure because i'm probably butchering the word license sure sure but if somebody needs training poor two to go up one level from where they are existing step that's what i was getting at in case it's just so that particular license it's not necessarily you know the skill set i think we know it's just we can probably have some flexibility in choosing the license so for example you know there are different types of science licenses or just one types a map you know why senses in different levels so we'll know a little bit more you know when a short period but the license of the teacher is certainly something that we are so it's not it's not that  it's not necessarily related to providing for the rest of the program that we do have some flexibility there with the license but what we're trying to signal with you here is the needs of the population that is unique and has arrived if you will there they're all quite young at this point to sort of differentiate between other programs you might be more familiar with because this one doesn't exist yet at the elementary level thank you class many years ago but he was also the special director in boston and chicago and then he worked under clinton in the and the administration there at the federal level in terms of special education and this is a quote from him in the book and i really believe and i  see it already in foxborough our success is the result of collaborative effort and since the short time that i've been here i have to tell you people have been unbelievably great welcoming me here meeting with me at any point in time and i really feel that collaborative effort the other thing i wanted to announce to just let people know that the special ed pac had given me a wonderful reset and i felt very welcomed and it's just been a really great experience in the very short time i've been time it's a believe me a lot of that work had started already and again it was a very collaborative the elementary principals and suzanne and everyone i've talked with have been really so easy to work by i'm glad you said though it is a lot of work in a short period of time because when i mean we talked in the fall and then she was ready to come on board that is that the one thing i said is that we have these two programs we're not sure we have a program we don't have yet wonder if we need one based on this new population and this other program we're not sure if we're providing services in the optimal way and that was actually these this is the most important thing is looking at these two programs and helping us figure it out in the time that sandra and the principals and the special educators and sister put in to really studying that issue and doing what's best for kids is huge they've spent a lot of time and i think that's why i think when you go to meet with families it's certainly clear that they've been very thoughtful about not only the program magic needs of all of our children but the individual needs of their child and how we believe the shift is going to be good for their child because we don't just say these the programs we offer try to fit in we really in this new program is a great example of a new population coming to our tension saying pike county clapperton orderly yes as you know from a few months ago there's a new regulation in the state regarding collapse a special education collaborative that each member school committee will be provided with a quarterly update on the business of the climate so you've had one already this is your second day and this update i'll just highlight a few things without reading that the enrollment of the bike by county collaborative school programs is slightly down from last year from one ninety to one hundred three and if you look at the second bullet the survey conducted of all the member districts showed that ninety percent of the respondents said that the school district for the most part considered by go when a student requires more restrictive programming that we don't offer or can't offer in some way and i think that certainly to folks who don't send that many kids to buy co but they have pretty vibrant programs that are available if we need them and we can provide or they have as school districts do they apply for various grants of one of the things i'd like to highlight because it's such a big thing now in special education is that they are going to be working across the collaborative which will be a great benefit to us as a member on transition planning for students age fourteen and older so that's a new part of the special education regulations that the school districts must start planning for the transition to a high school pretty early on certainly by freshman year and they're using grant funds to develop a collaborative wide resource guide and appropriate assessment tiriel in the area of transition for students with disabilities and that's probably the largest growing area in special education jo he goes by the age not the greed or what a few are in like seventh grade and i have another question about you know the one to five year period go on the i get a long term point parents your parent would likely go  long term employment after high school or yes they would that start so you put that in at the age of thirteen so those goals start at the age of fourteen right yes what if you just turned thirteen then you're going to be fourteen at your next annual review doctor  p again there's there are new regulations around licensure where teachers have to have that shelves an english immersion endorsement where they are prepared fully to teach second language learners in their classroom regardless of what they teach so it's been a me will tell you a little bit of a challenge because they'll tell us which teachers and how many teachers have to undergo the training this is the first year and if by pope could host those trainings in the future which has been discussed in our by go board meetings with the superintendent that would be great for us because right now they're they're kind of scattered so this would be you know a local no location that our teachers going to go that training so that's an example of the services that  special education collaborative can provide that one might think is outside the world of special education but important to the member districts in terms of the services they can offer us so we're very happy that they're moving in that direction to see if they can become a trai year it is to ensure the fact that anybody appoint a committee has got over the policies if they are in still in fine standing and don't need any revision and fortunately we have the help of mass when something new and more an update hass you know is on the horizon they flank us and that's why we can usually have our subcommittee meetings and then we bring all that forward to you and there are no further updates recently that either teen or i have been made aware of which is why the policy subcommittee is one of the i'll just say at most active so many and it's it's constantly in effect so it's i would say longstanding i mean constantly standing as a policy subcommittee so you don't know when there might be a revision to an existing policy or when there might be a gender identity law that went throughout the policy manual but we haven't received any any notification of any need for any update at this time and if there are any i would say smaller suggestions that come out of the self assessment for the  come up like at that requires from asian and we have you know public great input sometimes from yes people who are concerned about particular policies but that was the other significant change in the name we're into the transportation policy it's about those right and then confessions so as things come up it comes to the attention of the policy subcommittee in the committee but i think that's that's why you voted in the release so that it doesn't get dropped into the opportunity to say was there anything students from you who are not residents of foxborough to come to the schools for a fee when you open up school choice to open up everything you do have a right to decide if you want to bring in students from other eerie communities  continuous west do not participate in school choice so we bring it up every year this committee has never voted on you know to approve school choice but we bring it up every year if you want more discussion and we can not but you cannot  tonight we can bring it back into the meeting so but this is an annual this is by law this must be voted by the committee to not participate otherwise you're subject to the procedures for participating  it's in the long in the past several pages it's in the policy manual and it is of a pages in the law i don't mean to be i don't mean to be obstructing anything but i just i'm just not versed on this matter to vote so i gave  town so there wouldn't be any reciprocity if we did invite other students to come to foxboro for the student couldn't choose to go other places you can only choose to go to a district that is upset that has opted to participate that's why we have to make that choice in terms of whether we want to participate or not or otherwise if we decided to participate then other districts could then yes other students from other districts  come to our district which would obviously have huge you know implications in terms of cost and revenue for the right yes because what you're allowed to charge in school choice is not necessarily how much it might cost you but he said you know i'm going to say this for some districts who need it is a revenue source it it typically is used if you're a school district that may be you think i actually thought of putting this in but then we look back at last year's packet to see if there was a handout in the packet and there was not so i basically mimic what we had done the last several years which is not to put anything in the package i thought of it just to have the discussion but the last budget is about an eight thousand dollars difference in the projected surplus again in all the way through the year the salary accounts tend to move up and down depending on what we get for maternity you know we're kind of like in a little longer right now the only real change from last time on the update to this time is that the gas utility side of things has actually increased a little bit worse than what we had thought and when we look back at this this is really been a very unusual year from the heating side of things i'm sure residents know that themselves but you know we do so many monitoring zone all of our utilities so that we go through this we can actually see it face on degree days and  what's what's forcing us i run a cleat with all the energy efficiency stuff we've been putting into the different schools the with the electric bills are actually dropping so we're about seventeen thousand to the benefit on the electric side but yet we're about forty four thousand off on the again if the more you're running the boilers obviously the more you're pushing out there so that's actually up by about seven thousand from where it was last budget update but shy of that all the other expenses to stay pretty well in place  heavy equipment as they run out three phase what happened to taylor because the way we designed that system the entire building is on this new generator it dropped the entire building down and put it on the generator i walked in a few seconds after the thing that happened in teacher know we don't want power for a few seconds i didn't realize the generator was running the entire building and keep going so oh well that worked out well and we did survive through the both the i go in the high school as well with the generators running to get there but attention and because of my conversation with bruce i decided to put it in the packet and it was from education week study a study examines how school boards contribute to beat the odds districts and it was a study in a report produced by fordham institute a washington based educational research and advocacy group and really the things that came out of it that i thought was worthy of including is that while some school boards it said had a lot of information about their district they didn't know which goals to even more importantly it says and i quote according to the study the most successful districts were those whose board members focused efforts on improving student learning those districts were found more likely to exceed academic expectations given the demographics and finance and so that's point number two and i i do sincerely appreciate that that is exactly what this school committee the school board does so that was number one and i thought i have to put that in the pack t number two last within the last few weeks i was at the senior center for coffee and conversation with the superintendent and i had a great meeting with some very wise senior citizens who have so much to offer and we had a great conversation about some things they were wondering about and i went there with this fire that you see invitation to senior system design days in the foxhole public schools and they are signing up at the senior center and so i just wanted to announce to the public so if you don't know about this yet call the senior center if you want to go at foxboro high school next week tuesday april fifteenth from seven forty five in the morning to nine forty five for the early birds you're going to spend some time in the music playing in the orchestra being in chamber singers in the music suite where they are instructed to see how their day goes that first period and what they're actually doing to see how the students learn rather than just be a form of performance and then they're going to tour what i call some of the gems of the high school that is hidden from the public you know we come in the front door we have the authority and we take a left to come to the media center we may go to the cafeteria as we did this the thing but some of the hidden gems is way in the back the are doing the technical education classrooms the cad l for example and the woodworking shop so we're going to go look at those hidden gems of folks with high school and we're going to have a nice light brush and then in june at the hern middle school on june eighteenth from ten am to noon for those people who like the middle of the day or both you can go to both the herne middle school be in course an orchestra are going to perform for the seniors and then we'll have a light lunch and if the seniors want to stay if eighth grade students doing give back to community community service day that day and they are going to take our seniors on a tour of the school if they would like one anywhere they want to go toward by students something that my third and i don't make one comment i love this i just thought this was wonderful idea and i mean it gives seniors the chance to see what we're doing in schools actually see it and hearing the screams out of visiting and during the day work because there's nothing like you gauging with the students when they're in school because they're so lively and i and and that's that would be a lot of fun and i have to say during my coffee in conversation with them and i have another one of the end of april they had a great day one of the one of the guests at that meeting  you know he had this unbelievable idea when i talked about this she had moved here from another state and a few years ago and she said she gave me an idea that i love so much that that's what we're going to do next year and she said it was called bus to the future and they boarded the school bus and they were taken all the schools in the district so they could see the future the kids are the future and i thought what a great idea to combine that idea with technology so as they stop in the five schools they see the different technolog well we had a great conversation about the youth in town and what we have in common interests and serving those youth and in ways that they could partner with the schools as a member of the community and it was really a great start and so we're going to continue that at least you know and really like to open a new event where we keep up the conversation about what's happening with the youth in the town and how do we all work together so it was it was really i appreciate the coming in i think we're off to the top right so this was the first year the first time ever some thank you for having that's great work you're doing so thank you people i love how you're engaging the community in so many different ways it just can only benefit our students and the district so thank you for the good ideas that will be easy to evaluate come time anybody have anything else yes i just have a couple things there's a lot of stuff that's been going on in the was started in memory of rose shot who was killed a few years ago in an automobile accident was a student at the girls school at the time and most of the students in the interact club are now in high school and their junior high school they're friends of hers so for their international project rosie's repeat the sponsors students who go to school in kenya scholarships for them and other things but they wanted to raise money for the international project and they did it  was a great night it was very well attended and kudos to the kids who did this they raise sixteen hundred dollars and then the rotary club donated a matching donation of a thousand dollars so that will be the tuition to send a student to  to congratulate all of the music students i think we had over five hundred of them who participated in the mica festival this past weekend and i think all of our pianos had great success like i wrote it down michael's stands for the it's instrumental in choral conductors association and the fifth grade band took a bronze the sixth grade b end had a silver medal the seventh and eighth grade didn't get a gold medal the seventh and eighth grade orchestra had a bronze medal th e high school orchestra had a goal a high school band head of gold and then they combine choirs and the silverman and the chamber singers singers took a gold medal so that's just phenomenal and all of our  all over the country and did just a phenomenal critique of the kids learn so much that's a great thing i had two other quick things i wanted to wish the ahern middle school students who are participating in the geography fair at bridgewater state university good luck  saturday and also the little mermaid is this friday saturday and sunday at the urns we've got a lot of stuff going on and i'm sure that just scratches the surface what's going on and down and congratulations also to the