welcome to the regular meeting of the school committee the town of foxborough today september fifteenth two thousand and fourteen we have a relatively light agenda and we're back to school and busy with lots of stuff going on but our plates not too full for night we have visitors recognition is always approval of minutes that a very exciting teaching and learning highlight we're going to talk to a finalist for the massachusetts teacher of the year we're going to ask the superintendent to provide  back to school update for then going to focus on our athletic facilities here foxboro high school we get an update on them we have a d e s c coordinated program review timelines and process topic that we're going to cover we need to do our school committee appointment for the delegate to the m a s c convention we have some specific acceptance of donations and discussions we've been requested that do our agenda and then we'll take other matters so nice to see everybody welcome back saying i haven't seen so my colleagues and while the hope for not a good summer and apologies to the public for starting a few minutes late we just had to get some things together which we think we have now together yes august eighteenth regular meeting which we love and so the committee members were introduced themselves to you and then we'll give you a little bit of just a tiny bit of instruction about how the committee meetings work and then if you and i connect some time at school and we can  know i'm debbie more but you know me because second of all your concerts i'm mrs delane ger and i have a son who's a freshman at the high school and also a seventh grade son and this is my third year on the committee so welcome and we met earlier  participate in this is really important so thank you katie dear welcome i have three students three students three children that have been students have gone through might have known my son neck and there he was just graduated last year and the superintendent so yes we've actually so how this works and how is it you're welcome to comment on if they're having if the committee is having a discussion and you would like to offer some thoughts on the perspective you're welcome to they are the five voting members so this is their  meeting and they vote dr and i don't vote students don't vote but we do participate in the conversations and so whatever you have to offer you put your hand up in the chair will recognize you and we do like to hear from students so  and also the president of the drama club and i play volleyball track and field and play softball and you know that's pretty much it participate in and certainly reflective on her reputation and performance here and how the students view her especially never mind her colleagues is that christian was one of the finalists for the massachusetts teacher of the year this past spring and we were for a lot of both of you so tell us a little bit about what you do and what that experience was like what i do well this is the start of my fifteenth year in foxborough i got hired right out of college and i've always taught the world history and then in two thousand and three i had felt the a p u s history program and i've been teaching that ever since so i've had a combination of the world and the american history and mostly i've i've always taught in the basics objects as far as this process the teacher of the year process i was notified in january that i was nominated by tamari he actually he nominated me for mass teacher of the air and history teacher of the year as  well overfed her vacation i spent my week writing the application and i was asked to write several essays about my perspectives about my work my philosophy on teaching my philosophy on communicating with parents and students  there was several there was about seven come well and added several components to that and then in march i found out that i was a semifinalist and was asked to continue on with the process and from there automatically we were part of the they honored eighteen teachers from massachusetts in june and i was one of the eighteen that was able to go to the state house and have that ceremony in honor of those that were selected as part of the teacher of the year program and some of the other eighteen were for other things like presidential wards for excellence in mathematics and science teaching and open family foundation national educator ward so in terms of the teacher of the year there were actually ten correct ten's semi i was certainly surprised and and humbled by it so as it was very very exciting for me and i don't know of us were surprised that you made the finalists so i thought that maybe don't you know might want to come up teaching staff a wonderful faculty as well as support staff and kristen is certainly a prime example of what we're doing in the classroom and what our teachers are really giving to our students and in turn to the community so just a couple of things about kristen i'll just pull this from the letter but one of the things that i had said is that entering history goes room is truly an experience her passion and her love of history is evident her lessons and gauge her students from the moment they enter the door until they depart at the end of the period she works to make history come alive for the young men and women in her classroom and the class period is not enough just students who often come out during lunch and others stopping by after school she is innovative in her  to curriculum instruction and assessment and then just a couple of other sentences that going out kristen's love of history is contagious she has been instrumental in modeling for students what it means to study history and what it means  perhaps most importantly mystery go help guide student passions christian is a teacher to whom students gravitate toward for all the right reasons i would be remiss not to mention it as part of her impact on the school community but what kristen does beyond just the classroom she is an advisor to the class which was an advisor to the class business i was in the class twenty fifteen that's graduating the share she has presented workshops on professional development days serves and various school and district committees as an example the history social studies review team has the new teacher mentoring program was a vital part of the nia ask process at foxborough high school and is a positive leader in the building and given all that she does to the school she still manages to find time for her children and her family i don't know where but you do squeeze them and in summer a christian to rico is passionate about her subject has high expectations which her students always rise to meet and often exceed believes in her students his compassionate cares always looks for ways to improve herself professionally is a role model for others teaches of love and is an educator and actually does if you have the letter because i think my voice is going here there's a piece on the back page which i think in the second page which is actually taken from one of the students one of the many students at the n h s induction the fast here who wrote about her one of the things that the students do is that they honor a teacher or person in their life it doesn't interest in had several students who actually spoke about her and so i did go forward and i did ask if i could grab this quote and so i did so i don't know if you want to share that i'm some so thrilled us money because i was there and i was really of all the comments that i made it was really touched by this and it really does speak to who you are so bad thanks that thanks and ok this is one of our high school students statement at the national honor society induction about an individual they greatly admire who serves as a role model me many of us in a p us history has not only been a teacher but a mentor and friend for three years she teachers for subject with flair and passion and creates an engaging and positive learning environment but what i think is most special about mystery go is that she teaches with love so much love in fact that our a p us history class feels like a family and whether you have a question on the korean more or just want to talk about how you're feeling that day her door is always open so thank you katie thanks for the compassion you emulate every single day because there is nothing better than knowing that you have a teacher who truly loves and cares about you thank you that was an amazing quote and i know so many students who feel that way about you thank you and i think that so many of the things that diana wrote about everything about you contagious really is i've told my students actually told that group i think they had asked me once you know how did i become a history teacher and part of it was somewhat by accident i i did confess to them that i didn't enjoy high school i didn't love it and they said well how come you came back to tie school on how come you came to be a high school teacher and i said well i always think about the fact that i didn't connect or i went home and i wasn't sure what my teachers want to for me and i didn't have teachers who necessarily put in that i had teachers w walk straight by me in the hallway and what if i had a lot and i always remember feeling that and so i said i i hope in part i remember that always and i can make it better for you and that's sort of i guess the perspective that i take when i think about my high school is like and what high school can be for certain kids and so that's sort of the philosophy where i stand that it should be enjoyable it should be something that they all feel a part of when they come into the room  are you going to offer a prize or something for you on monday at your tuesday morning the first student who tells you whether or not there is a time capsule you know the unicorn the golden the silver unicorn and the golden lion have just been taken from faneuil hall today for a major renovation and it's going to it's going to take six to eight weeks it will be restored  and there is rumor that in one thousand nine hundred one they put several things as the time capsule in there so they going to take all kinds of photos first and then they'll open it carefully so that they're hyping it up all week on t lives that you're at you're doing what you didn't get so i think that's awesome thanks again you know there are maybe some of your students will have an idea they're asking for suggestions about what should go into the time had was or if you're an economist was you don't do that alone right i mean you there's a lot of collaborative teamwork and the principal just mentioned how you know you lead seminars but you also have to play off each other and it seems like you're part of a team that helps everybody get there whether you can all get there is individuals are not ready to lay and that was one of the questions actually was you know how do you make the community get involved in what you're doing and how do you make the school get involved in what you're doing and and it's certainly some of the things that i've been able to do is certainly because of permission because i can go to the office and say i'm thinking about running this program how does that work and i get the green light go and it's also because i had fantastic mentors when i got here who are constantly giving me good advice and i have a group of wonderful department members who we laugh every day and just enjoy what we do all the time sometimes at each other's expenses but you definitely always have shut in the day that you are about ourselves and about what we do and we just really we love the subject but we also just really we share constantly  which i think is definitely at play i think i feel very fortunate to be here i feel very lucky you know every day i love coming here every day said dream come true thank you so much thank you  help support your efforts and those of your fellow teachers and you can come back to help today i really can't think of anything right now i really  i feel that we have opportunities you know to bring our ideas forward i feel that we have a very open and call age old system right now so that if you have something that comes to mind that you feel  so i don't really have anything that comes to mind that's ok i always ask that question because we're always interested in getting better but you know we think we do have a pretty special environment here and it's thanks to people like you my first reaction besides wow know i had the opportunity to go through open houses the other day with a lot of the parents and you walk into kristen's classroom and she talks about her i have her high expectations she uses the eight minutes that the principal allows or for a rotation affectively and you can tell when you walk out of there i told him as part of the meeting that this is going to be a pretty neat classroom so i do want to add my thank you and when we talk about these teaching and learning highlights that we do the superintendent often high school if i recall them a little correct we had to come to their nominees so i think for most people who will nominate you know of it most schools or at least school districts will nominate somebody every year that really stands out in their you know collegial mind so the fact that i'm sure a lot of districts nominate someone to get down to the top ten in the state in because that could be any subject any subject any level it could be anywhere from preschool all the way up to you know teaching seniors so when you think about the number of teachers across the state the number of outstanding teachers who could potentially be nominated every year yes that's very unusual to make the top ten and she certainly deserves it  back to school a place yes so i've made a commitment to myself to try to go a little more paperless so all of our mr team meetings now are the documents going into a shared drive which i just did today and i have my back to school update on my phone  so the first thing i'd like to talk about everything went really really smoothly we had another smooth start i feel like every year this my fourth year opening as the superintendent and every year when i check with the schools i go around to schools for everybody says this is the smoothest open you have are and it seems to become a theme so either we are getting more and more smooth or they're all small but we have great people here so no surprise we had the typical first day of school bus which are acutely involves a lot of photography and you know a little some delays with that and we had a little one bus of the three that leave the charter that i'll just say went off the the the route for a little bit and then by the time you take a left and right you might find yourself back in traffic again so other than that delay which did delay one of the three elementary schools routes it solved by the next day and we had really no transportation issues to speak of so that was great let's see we had to personal chef so i'd just like to give you a little bit of a heads up on what's happened over the summer with personnel especially late summer and then when we get into the budget season later this fall you'll see much more specifics involved with the shifts  staffing issues so we always wait until the beginning of august to make decisions about our late july early august about kindergarten numbers because we tend to have a lot of kids in rolling sometimes in kindergarten over the summer particularly one of more schools as opposed to all three so surprisingly to us we had a reduction in the number of kindergartens registering at the barrel we have more registering at the i go which has filled up for classrooms there the borough is down to two classrooms and the tailor has two so we are down one kindergarten section at the borough school and what happened there was one of our fourth grade teachers moved to the southwest not a new hire as a result for example so that's what happened there and at the taylor they had two full day kindergarten and a half day section so they're half day numbers were very very low so what we ended up doing was combining a handful of students in to say two or three or four of the burl who still want to have today with the same handful at taylor and a group at the i go we only have we're only running one half day section this year at the  for all three schools that seems to be working out pretty well transportation wise so that just goes to show you what the demand is for full day kindergarten so i know that every year we think about offering free universal full day kindergarten without tuition that still would be surprising no i don't think in this day and age when you have families who are both parents are typically working and you want the full experience once full day becomes what most of the kids in town are doing and parents see the benefits and share the benefits with their neighbors and friends who tend to want more people who want it so we'll see we'll have a discussion about that some point what happened with that position is that the person was teaching have taken it aren't also sort of tied in special education and had been a special education teacher for us years ago so she shifted into a half special education position at the taylor school because she's point five spare yes so she's at the tail school in the same half capacity that she was before so that was  neutral shift that also didn't result in a higher we had a reading teacher at the i go who is half the time is staying home with her children now so she resigned to do full time care for her children and so rather than replace that half we took a teacher who was point seven five reading teacher moved up to full so where mr stands been wonderful the i go so we actually feel we can accommodate all of that with a reduction of the point two five so we're going to leave it that way for this year and see how it works out so that's so that's a reduction of point two five at the eye goes we traded a family filled to a quarter of her half position or half of ram if you if you will we did add doesn't really happen but when explain what's happened other districts as well sure the title what allocation is based on the six estate and it changes every year and so there are like a couple years of two thousand and twelve data and there are different pieces to the grant we've always had just the basic because if you fall below a five percent poverty you have just the basic rant and we've always been around four point eight per cent if you go above the five percent then you get these two other pieces that are called targeted in effect and from the two thousand and twelve data it went above that were at like six point one percent which in that increasing our allocation which was nice but we also know that we're teetering on that line so it needs to be a support that's in place that we also know that might not be there the following year because it's vulnerable from year to year but we're so close on that line and that's how they measure poverty which is different from our is a higher percentage so we're thrilled and so we discussed toward the end of august with the elementary principals because there has to be spent according to title one regulations and we have one title one school actually which does the qualifying school one of our elementary schools which is the i go is the qualifying school so it has to be an elementary title one type of support so we haven't we've typically because our allocations been fairly low we've been running a title one literacy program for many many years like at least fifteen years and not a math program so given that we had discussed with the committee that one of our goals is elementary math specialist one in each school we currently have to share by three schools we thought this is a good opportunity to add some math support through the title one funding please for this year and see where we are with that so we had zero point five math specialists so we have two point five shared among three schools so we're getting there every every step i wouldn't call it a step i call it a full step so every step i think is important so as just to explain how that shift happened we posted the position we had an internal candidate who was working in another capacity also certified in mathematics really showing some leadership in that area expressed interest and in transferring did and then the point five special education position at that school has been filled by one of our educational systems and became certified in special ed and filled in for us last year in the same capacity and did a nice job so this isn't a lot of shifting around but all for the good of students and so actually with all of that in terms of what we consider our staffing sort with all of that the pluses in the minuses we're actually only up point two five in f t a quarter so everything's sort of came out in the wash so we're pretty close to or before and then the met go branch also went up so we haven't had a met go to it or which is to help students especially as they enter the herne from other school systems to enter an apple made academically we  dylan choices that's our personnel update so there's there were a lot so all of that is really some wonderful opportunities over the summer to really look at our staffing and say what how could we make all the programs we're working on work a little bit better and shift people around that would be beneficial to students and any questions about the personnel say so for peace so all of that juggling while also bringing in as we talked about the last meeting with fourteen new we end up with eighteen new  said eighteen no position we had eighteen or sixteen sixteen so i was sixteen i'm sorry sixty new teachers to new educational system that's that's what i'm getting so sixteen new teachers yes a lot of new energy and ideas most right at the middle of my school you know and it tends to fluctuate a little bit depending where the retirements are but this year most of our shifting was at the middle in the high school and i know it's been covered before in our prior meetings and also frank and  they had a great trip around town and yes of course that was then followed by some professional development that we did right before the doors opened he was been just like so we talk about the t that the new teachers had we have two full days of your intuition i'm responsible for the entertainment portions we give them a little bit break in the middle of the first day and we take them on a lovely bus tour foxborough and then we end up the c b s scene and have a nice lunch  n really quite a nice partnership is the people from the craft group come over and give them a little tour of whatever it is we can see so last year we saw the country fest stage this year we were able to go out in the field the new teachers get to walk the feel a little bit and we were actually watching how the race to the painted lines for one sport actually like scrub it and soap it up and vacuum it up and lay down the lines for the next sport coming that was interesting and then for the first time we get to go up in the press to see what it looks like from where the press is watching the game so there really generous partners and just to me i feel like there our new teachers feel welcomed by the school committee on the day that they arrive for the new teacher orientation to your role and then they feel welcomed by their mentors their administrator is by a central office staff and then i think by going up to the two patriots place patriot place and having the tour of the stadium i think they feel really part of the community they're joining  community so it's really it really puts the three faces on on who's welcoming them so thank you to the kraft group and to just stephenson in particular who always comes and finds us and takes them on a little tour wonderful and last but not least in back to school update just to give parents a little preview you know i do and monthly parent leaders group which is usually tuesday mornings and part of the feedback that we've gotten last couple years is that a lot of people might like and have the opportunity informally to find out what's going on in the schools so this year i'm balancing it between every other month we'll have the tuesday morning meeting and then for working families who want to come in the evening i'm going to host every other month a super intense coughing conversation at the boyden public library every other month and that's just open forum anybody who wants to come can come in chat about whatever they like to chat about so we'll be posting that in fact if i could get frank to write up the superintendent's evening coughing conversation dates that would be really great because then people who don't watch the meeting will be aware that those open to the public and anybody can come do you have one was that out there and give him on just as a reminder short starting with new teachers that's one of the things we have two days with them and they were immersed and p d that was writing across the curriculum and that was led by  v sessions it was really well received and a lot of the credit goes to julia greenstein and darlene reed are two technology integration specialists they work so long to really make sure to meet the needs of different varying user levels for technology to where not only where we were rolling out office three sixty five and all the collaboration tools that came along with it but in a way that really met their needs where they could work at their own pace we had members from our technology steering committee and those that served on the mask evaluation report the facilitators and they worked in not just at their own pace to different things but with their colleagues just the platform itself where they could see what they're going to be able to do with it as far as collaborating with colleagues and with students when we roll that out with students it was really exciting so that was that was huge in addition to that we had a number of sessions that focused on the results that came out of the k twelve social studies review that you heard about last spring and really looking at how are using primary sources and database questioning and that goes across all of english and social studies especially the content letters you standards to those were the the biggies so many other things that took place and a lot of it's continuation that will roll right in october tenth the fact i don't have i don't know if i had darlene read before the committee last year so she joined just last year as the elementary tech integration special julie green sends you to us this year as a secondary i think i'm going to make them a teacher hell if you can find out what they do with teachers that's been a great addition the two of them together are wonderful and i will say we also at the beginning of the officer sixty five training we spent the early part as a whole group each session so every staff member whether elementary middle high throughout the two days started in an auditorium in a large group setting with amy erin higher tech director and myself and what did was we we highlighted the tech planned what are some pieces of the tech plan that we wanted to them to really focus on and to that we could communicate that better because that was one of the things we found out was that it hadn't been well communicated last year because we had just rolled it out then decided to map ourselves according to the indicators so we'd have a clear road map and we went over the technology program evaluation report with them and what the highlights were there and what we wanted them to take away about those two things so that we had communicated both what we know about our current status and where we're trying to go through the tech plan and that was really important for us as a as a start to the school years and then the only last thing is that for the brand new teachers they also had their two hour darkness to light training in how to recognise the signs and of child sexual abuse and work on prevention and intervention so and for those two hours we had anyone else new to us who could join where they were coaches so we had an influx of other people joining for that two hours because we have committed to when we come back every year training new staff and that so that we keep up with with new hires is that the only trainee we have in the year will be able to know the one that's really training we're having because each year now  that we've trained everyone it's easy for us in august i doubt if i who's new and then or who's new ben who in the last year and they go to that the town however through our child safety committee is offering trainings actually the end of september on a friday and saturday night for anyone in the community i know there's some town site employees that will be going so there are the town will be running some as a community the y m c a also runs it periodically but for our in terms of the building our commitment to have everyone trained we do every we're going to be doing every bill do anything from facility standpoint i know you took us through last meeting a lot of what the guys did over the summer but in terms of back to school opening schools are buildings yeah i mean from a facilities point of view i think you know we had a number of projects that were started obviously ten weeks isn't always enough time to finish everything but so they're still working they've actually been working for the last couple weeks and probably well through the end of september to finish off you know the data room is has is pretty much live and going at this point air and is working with his crew to do this the technology side of it but the facility side is up and running and the only thing left on that one is the new generator which literally will be here any day now it's all wired ready to go just need to be dropped in place so from that side of it we're pretty good shape we have you know we we've got around now that we are open again and both the tony and i built a list of any of the odds and ends that you know are much smaller on the  list still need to be accomplished so that's his goal for the fall is to kind of clean up those and erin and i are working on the security and you know phone side of things aaron's actually put together a couple of new vendors to look at things for so  it's all it's all starting to really judge together so i think we're we're good on that the only other thing that obviously is the facility side of stuff with is with the athletic side we've been working on so the the best the baseball about ninety days after they seed it to you know maintain the fields fertilizer and whatever and because we we couldn't do it in the fall we did in the spring faced on the timing of when the money was available they aren't happy or unhappy with the results either so they've actually committed to not only take us through the rest of the season but in this process to save quite a bit of money because they're going to go out and beret and split seed receive the entire field set up and do two more fertilization is in the process as well as maintain them  for the whole fall so as far as a partner i would say they've been probably one of the best vendors that we've dealt with in this rain and i think the fields in the spring will be phenomenal i know there's still a community effort to build the dugouts  for those fields they were you know everything was done except for the actual physical structure that goes over the dugouts scoreboards up and running obviously we have our own wells out there so we can water and keep the watering going i think that's important people know we're not using town water in the general sense to do as much water as we are but when you're building feels like this you really need quite a water do it so that's worked out real well on the turf field everybody seeing that the scoreboard is up there's actually the final connection will be done  i think either tomorrow or or the next day you segue into our next agenda item you know it's perfect and that you know on that score board it's a it's a radio controlled scoreboard so it's remote anywhere they want to wade said it was supposed to have been on both sides and i had noticed it was just him when we had it made you don't really know exactly where the pillars are going to be so until you actually set it up in place you don't want to put anything on the back side we did have a painted so that it would look appropriate the back side so the sign companies are actually working on that so we should have that up and rail against say the same burns community feel from the backside so as you approach the school and come up the parking lot you can have full recognition of what that field is to the level i think everybody committed to do so i think that's that's really good the next obviously the next phase is i think you know deb and i discussed this and one of the issues is to kind of push forward and just to have people recognize what we had talked about when we first developed the turf field and that was that it was multi phase process so i supplied you with kind of a checklist of what we've done so far and what we've talked about previously as being open items going forward again it's all funding you know related items and it's all based on when the community feels it's it can afford to do it or you know if the community is as a whole comes up on a you know another way of funding it you know that's also a possibility the synthetic field in the baseball fields we had originally estimated it would cost us  a million three hundred forty thousand came in a million three hundred ninety thousand but only because we did stuff that we didn't originally have in the plant so that we would timing wise do it appropriately one of the things we didn't have a wellness frankly system in the original design but obviously these fields were not going to grow if we couldn't do that at the time so we did do that we also did not have in the plan originally to do all the underground conduit for cablevision to be able to do remote  telecasting having to drive vehicles out near the fields and stuff which we did do obviously all of the conduit that way as well so when you add those things up basically that brings up to three ninety we would have been under budget slightly had it not been for doing those items but again i felt from a timing point of view you don't rip something up later to you know when you can do it right the first time so as you all know the spinny family was very generous on the twenty five thousand dollar donation so that was going to be part of the next phase or one of the next phases on the turf field so we've benefited from from their generous donation and that was from the scoreboard and it was for the school board and then the next is really the balance of what can be done there can be broken down into multiple phases it would appear th most obvious next phase in my mind would be the lighting and that is to be able to give extend extended use time on how it can be you know obviously as a fall comes on our darker much quicker so the ability to use it for sports and and that would be more community sports to be honest with you youth sports that use the fields when our high schools not in session they do see the high school use it all afternoon and they're you know into different sports band everybody else is on it but at night when  sports like soccer and lacrosse and stuff could be playing without the lighting stuff so and that has some real ranges and there's from the really very basic lighting systems to now the new must go lighting systems which are fully control systems  very efficient in how they operate and you know so those can range anywhere from that hundred fifty two hundred fifty thousand dollars range just for the installation of it and obviously you'd have similar additional electrical work that needs to be done  engineering the second phase could be broken down into two areas under the bleachers and track and that is we could do the track and then do the bleachers later or you can do the bleachers and do the track later so it really depends on again you know what's available and how it's how the community perceives it and these all these numbers that you're seeing on this list were numbers that were originally developed when we developed the turf budget numbers most of this hasn't changed over the last couple years because the industry is pretty stable it's not like a building industry like the you know construction side of things you don't have material costs very much so and then the final piece obviously and actually what you do the bleachers to be honest with you have to do the concessions in bathrooms because legally you'd have to have the bathroom facilities within x amount feet base that amount of people that could be on a on a complex so and we would be just out of reach i think with a high school bathrooms for that size crowd to do it so and obviously i think the concessions in and bathrooms being in the area also keeps that the activity confined to the space much it would be hard to have the high school open unlocked every time the communities using the field to add more if not impossible so as we develop it as a community field it's really going to be self sufficient and i actually wondered if that would come for lighting if you would say you know there's a reason to do bathrooms next  not really from the u s point of view because at this point you know with the smaller cube again because you don't have large crowds as far as parents and spectators and stuff i mean we do have the ability with portable bathrooms and stuff like that to at least manage the issue but we have a couple of you know in the lacrosse area specifically that really you know i felt strongly that the lighting you know needs to be pushed next and i got to be honest with you just based on the way the structures are that you have to build  you know it and you know they've the range still isn't the same dollar numbers i mean we're talking to do all of this oh you're still a couple million dollar range we always said it was about three and a half million dollar total proposition if you want to go after this and that's exactly what had a row spent on the s they did it in one shot obviously we didn't have the resources to do it that way but again i think if you get this done in any way you know pieces are already format still in the end will be a project that we're all hoping to be as a single community single location for the high he said he willing even to reach out to them so i think if we if we be transparent about one of the next things that still have to be off to completed you never know you know what how we're going to be able to move the plan forward at least we can start by this well i think that you know tonight after trying to make him think about whether you want to put any piece of this forward is a capital project for you which we would do as we do december january and so that you could vote that if you wanted to put that's i guess obvious idea right to do the next one i think you think it's good to put the next idea forward and then you know see how timely given the resources with the town which you know we do keep up with that and we're collaborative with them to see if it's possible if it could be funded but this is actually very helpful rex it gives us the sons how much we've got to bite off right so a couple hundred thousand for mining hundred seventy plus thousand for concessions matthew and i think we're we're putting it out here now it's september and gives the community time to respond right away and rest in feedback from them as well so good point and i think we you know  when we proposed the turf almost two years ago at this point i think that we made a commitment to not go to the very next town meeting or the next special one after that with all the other pieces and to sit and wait for the next phases and i think we've done that and now that the community feel just really up and being used by a lot of water munity type groups and i get wonderful emails saying awesome first time of the field this is wonderful and and so i think that now that it is truly starting to  sking how the next phase is even a couple to like so you know kind of realising that they don't really have the ability to just you know easily put out warren articles and stuff like that but so they i think just getting this information you know maybe you know you'll probably start to get support calls from some of them as well as to what their you know what their interests are but at least again that's part of the community that's what they're there choices and all we're doing is trying to take this for just like we did with the entire community feel to start with that i mean as you know it was in ours as a baby that that began we have run it through ourselves as far as once it was handed to us so you know again i think if the if the community is interested in more i think they're going to speak you know where the right form as far as  include something like a shed or a hot or if they could be used as like a first aid center or multipurpose or something like that and you know i can imagine i can imagine a concession stand they can imagine lavatories right and what a bubble is and bleaches but do we need any other structures on or about the area for trash receptacle dumpster ish stuff that sort of thing i just don't see it here and just didn't know if that was part of another part of what we like we do in the in the entire town as far as all the fields and even all the school property there are trash containers and stuff like that around that the  w handles if not our own staff as far as getting rid of things as far as a first aid station you typically build that into the concession stand so if you know if you have a special need issue there would be basically that would be the right structure we probably with any luck if i were able to with the within the operations budget we will definitely probably put something up there that that we can put our quit many keep it outside it is one of the things that we used to have for baseball and other sports where they when they were using the fields out there because where they are they could lock stuff up inside a container there will do something similar because we also have all the grooming equipment and it's actually having to run it back and forth in and out of buildings not just those are the ideal think so we'll probably take care of that this year celso again it could be as simple as a you know rental container if we can find a decent morning but other than that i think the you know the process itself will be pretty much self contained within the structures that we do here we should do everything you need for that facility we've been very very fortunate even in the year in the design layouts that jim developed and his  chris huhne trist developed we actually have layouts for how the track layout plays out already and how the bleachers layout and so we're we're actually ahead of the game it's not like we're starting trying to figure out how this is all go look i actually have full plans and layouts as to where it would go and how it would go so really it's more of a funding issue than anything to me at this point it's not really a process or again i wasn't trying to design it like i said just trying to see if there was a number that needed to go on this list for for the met co tutor and this is my naivete so excuse me if we give them it go to where using some of the extra funds for the mit go tutor from the mit go grant to faculty member where we have to meet state requirements that sort of thing is that a requirement of the met cohen no ok it's not a requirement i think it's a good practice and agreed ok so is such a position with or without medical money something that would be good for our school system to have in place either in whatever half or full time positions that that may be required we don't we i don't i don't drive north early things to say i'm going to think more about it ok i can get back to you but my first instinct is to say no because the whole purpose of a medical grant we already partially pay for medical board meter which we have to have to make a point that's what it's traditionally done and if possible to provide academic support as the students acclimate to our school so i think that's part of what the grant funding is for for us to do things that are right by students but it's not typically a position we have in our district because without the michael grant we don't know if we'd have a medical program but it's certainly to our benefit to to keep one to keep the medical program going to make it as it provides tutoring for ellie and math to anyone of the high school so that's also an hourly type of tutor position so it's similar to those grant funded positions not full time in fact all to the two english to us here are retired english teachers so they come back with all of their expertise and richness and tutor for roughly before i was a day thanks between the two of them yes well i think the we're about ninety nine percent there we have a little bit of signage and some painting that will be done on the the track area to make it look like a track in on the football that's the logo underneath the swing say is it's actually good to see it as a you know from my perspective from a facility side because the the mulch areas that we do on all the other schools a lot of upkeep a lot of you know issues it's not a soft even though it's rated to be a soft is what we've got there in that rubber it's not i mean this this this material is even it's a constant you know so we're no matter where they walk or they are set same kind of sponge you know so it's well protected i go there you know obviously our when we leave you know the kids are obviously out of school but there's there is a community parents are up there with their younger kids and if you drive by at night there are still up there enjoying it so it's it's really turned out to be the playground that everybody was hoping it would be it's not just for the kindergarten and here i go school itself but a lot of community members have really enjoyed it have we sent pictures or had people come from the craft group to to check it out where we i mean we have had they just came over about a week ago to look at the rest and so that they could work out with bill what's the risk would be remaining signs that we want up there that they want to their own so that i think those are on order most me already we're waiting for a dedication day  and we're waiting for a day for mr kraft schedule because he'll represent both the n f l play sixty grand a program in the craft charitable foundation which doubles grants so we're waiting for confirmation of the date so i don't want to been two groups that have come over here very positive about it and we're just waiting for the official dedication so that all the i go to school going to space so it's going to be sometime during the school day ninth so i really i mean i know you know there was a there was three components to how the i think i built obviously the p t o which started the whole proposition and and you know foot in about twenty eight thousand dollars towards it but that's a lot of fund raising but they did very well with it obviously is that just said with the kraft organization the place sixty you know sixty thousand dollars and then you know the amount that we put it into the year to make the balances up and it's it's it's interesting but basically between the p t o in the craft organization the equipment and the rubber surface were covered and it really what we did was the retaining walls and in the degrading itself so i think overall we accomplished the end goal it was a three way partnership one minute they were go very well so i haven't heard anything negative work that goes on and the reason i knew to ask bill about the i go is because i saw i was working with him a few days prior to the opening of school and he said this is the last one i'm sweating over and and you made it by a day or maybe my hundred days you're right now the other comm i'll just make is the steve the baseball field remain closed and i think it's important the public know that we've had some people going on there that look so nice it's wide open space and i can't tell you how often i've been back on the hersey field with a soccer team and i see a black truck come along and i swear he's just there to help make sure the people are hearing to that to try to protect the fields and i don't think that's written in his contract that he should be doing not quite as often as he does so thank you with thank you bill for helping us in all those respects we were for department of elementary and secondary according to program review timelines and process so as you may remember the department of education does a coordinated program view of the school district once every five years or so and it's our turn so i'm going to turn over to a mean she can explain what's happened already and what's going to be happening this fall so last spring this work began in the area of civil rights and special education where we had to go through a self assessment and provide the department of elementary and secondary education many many documents of how we do business basically and we did that in may and then  since that time we've continued to gather other information to be prepared and not knowing exactly when they would be coming to visit us but we knew it would be sometime this school year so we learned that they would be visiting us in the fall and since then we've had a meeting with our person from the department of ed myself dr i'm so and talked about records for review they go through and look at our records of our students they look at our special education they look at  our processes they let us know who they want to interview how long they will be in the district and all of the things that they will be doing as part of their observation and their program evaluation this fall so since that time when we met with them on september the tenth we are now in process pulling together information in the areas of title one in the area of english language learners and so that's not just records of making sure all that information it's like thirty three different standards and what is our program look like and how do we meet the needs of all of our students and making sure that we're following the guidelines that are set forth by the department of that so a lot of paperwork has to be put in pla e really for them to have that ready i mean it should be any surprises to us after we've gone through the self assessment and knowing really where our strengths lie and the areas that we would want to address you know just as an example where a low incidence district for english language learners our population what she waits for me year to year and looking at the languages of all of our students we do not have in language we have so many different languages so really addressing the needs of our students and families etc so we have to have all of our records ready for them on november third and fourth for them to look at that the law so let us know if there's things that we miss from the self assessment last may and then they will come back and be onsite with us conducting observations it's not evaluations of teachers it's observations of spaces and looking at our physical locations in buildings looking at our programs looking at what we are for for students and how we triangulate data to see just because we say it's a practice is it really do they see it in his reporting universally that people understand it so that's a really full week they're here five days that week for a full week   instruction same type of thing so you know we usually do find it informative i guess on a positive note both amy and sandra i have been through this probably four times each so it's not new to any of the three of us so it's the kind of thing that if they do identify hereis the site is that needed improvement that a corrective action i mean you can respond to that before they actually issue the reports of that you can address those areas if we think there's a mistake or that they didn't see a particular thing that is actually happening we have an opportunity to correct misinformation and then once the report is finalized then we submit corrective action plan which they accept and then we have a two year in you know usually it's about at the two year mark we have to they review whether we make progress do they come back and you know we're going to yours or it is they don't want him back it's just more of the information exchange it think we're happy that it's in the fall you know that way because we're in the mindset from the self assessment from the spring and that way we can just continue on and then sho border up something like that it's good thank you to amy and sandra who really prepared all the documentation for the self study in the spring because really davies right by the end of that point we kind of know so we found it informative in the past just we submit everything to them as an example whether it's a student handbook a staff in book all of our policies procedures that relate to certain areas so if we were submitting everything in there or something that we had that we didn't submit it and they come back and say you do not have this oh yes we do we just didn't love that piece of evidence write it quite thorough which is why they will come for two full days for record if you're going to review about forty special education records and about a dozen english language learner records so they were fully through all of them so it sounds like a joint commission kind of equivalence is a hospital  ok i don't know if the public knows but every year we get to attend the massachusetts association of school committees in your convention which is an opportunity for us to learn and attend  information sessions on some of the hot topics which is always great and every year we appoint a delegate i believe to represent us and vote on any required actions that the massachusetts association of school committees wants to take and we've been very fortunate in the past years to have a member of our committee willing to invest that time and represent us and i don't know if her plans are this fall and if she'd like to do that again but i'll open the floor for discussion on that topic while i am at present signed up for the full convention because i am the only one who really has the time to be able to do that  said this is another job that may have maybe opened some year we'll see you down there all right today or tonight and i will check i will be sure to check to see who comes in which i can't imagine what the reaction down there would be if you weren't our delegate  i actually enjoyed networking with all the different people across the state and there were some crackerjack people in the education and massachusetts have i just want to thank you for representing thank you so amy and representing her class yet you know as we're both so yeah so i i took a little time to put something together and a few of last collaborated and put a little presentation together well it's our twentieth reunion and you know we were talking about the raise and what we should do when the one thing that unfortunately came up is that we've lost several people in our in our high school class a very young age something that you know is difficult and we wanted to kind of take time to kind of remember not only that but with recent events with sam burns and other  classes that have lost people recently we thought that instead of really focusing on just our class we should kind of focus on everybody we were all very fortunate to be able to come here as to where we could put it i took a picture right there of the place that we were possibly thinking of putting something that wasn't too big that flowered we had some nice foliage but wouldn't really disrupt i of tie it in hoping that you know even maybe some sunday along the line another class would donate maybe a bench to go along with it something to that extent you know in the future between all of us that were collaborated and we had actually put together this i know that there may have been some question with the verbiage but it we here named it the fox for high school memorial tree dedicated to the memory of those who have walked these walls before us yet passed too soon and it would be my gift from the class of one thousand nine hundred four basically what we're looking to do is doing the fund raising within ourselves and within our unit  whether it's a go fund me and also i maybe some fund raising events in order to supplement whatever that might be will cover the cost of the tree the planting the plaque everything we're just kind of looking for permission could do in response to that and i would assume maybe location would be something maybe the cillit ease with department would get involved in  there is a group i know you're here tonight by yourself there's a few of us all part of the same graduating class there's like three or four of us but we've put it out we have our own little facebook website that we've kind of been talking about it but didn't know where to go from there a lot of people interested in donating time during their time their services and things like that so i'm just wondering whether that it's a good idea and i like the i love the idea of a memorial tree it's like when something is planted in remembrance of of happy times and people that have been a part of our lives i think that is fantastic and to the wording is something that did to think about it it's lovely but it you know we me it's the remembrance is the important part correct that focus on the passing you know with the students in school  and looking at it every day maybe just focusing on the life and the remember rights and we're definitely open to working with you guys as far as verbiage and things like that and that could be something that when the time comes for that to happen right now we're kind of looking for the go ahead to do some fundraising for it and i like the name morial tree that way i think that the memory and in memory of people you went to school with and right are still friends hours now but i think i think if you work through the the right groups the facilities and i think the fact that you've got mrs myers back all involved i think is important and i think the right time for us to accept a donation only once you've got the fund raising campaign and it sounds like we all like the idea you know local location to be further determined like i like the location but maybe there are other places better i do share tina's thought about the messaging just in terms of all the younger students who are here walking around and so maybe that's something you and your team are definitely open to but i want to commend you and the class for giving back to the schools i think that's a nice idea it's very nice would have to move the school to florida thank you nina thank you very much you know it's interesting you too and i know we have discussion back when you're doing the renovation project about what we want to do with our grounds and landscaping out there and i know we've worked hard to put in a lot more grass which is nice and we were talking previously about the i go we were very fortunate to have a few community members step forward that had you know construction businesses and and really kick start this whole thing with their equipment their labor and their time you know mike the seller was the first one on site and help to do all the demolition he brought in his own dumpster we put everything into and he took that off site and charges anything for his equipment his disguise to do the work so you know that was obviously a great start it happened literally a day after school system got out to get things moving and then we had been talking with mcnamara from c max incorporated which is a cement specialist all the way through the process and he had been involved in the brawl school you know build for the for the park the playground there as well so he actually knew exactly what was going to happen and you know what the issues are going to be around it obviously we made it a little bit more complicated increasing the size i just want to put in the retaining walls and things of that nature but he was really i got to be honest with he was my partners with the entire process donated a significant amount of time significant amount of quitman and in the end you know he did give me a breakdown because we did obviously hire him to do a few of the minor things online that were not really directly related to this project but even manage some of the stuff where he brought it in on his account just gave us the invoices to pay through form so in the end his his time basically him for time equipment was about twenty thousand dollars worth of value that he just donated to us and so i'd like and even chris's guys here to do his staff that basically were at the time every time he was there they would be there and their attitude towards the whole thing was just pretty impressive i mean you know you look at concrete work out of it some people don't get it but you know it could be just big flag they they went hand trawl the entire evening because they wanted the walk to be what news and what's nice is not that you know they were all you know he was volunteer because i was out doubt i have one you must have some i vented to open houses so far they were pretty wonderful on the other three this week so i think the principals are doing a great job with their open houses for ca other other matters yes when we were steve and i were discussing as the meeting started that we have a young man at rice who was named a semifinalist for the national merit scholarship or national merit scholar this committee before it was one of the students who came to want to write yes one of the only family i want to i think we don't like to congratulate him on his achievement that i know i read about it i read dns article in the patch about varun it was great and it's quite an accomplishment to be named and a national merit scholar scholarships are you know has said that it's great then i don't know if we want to discuss it tonight bruce but i know janet mentioned to me that our meeting in november is scheduled for the same night as the special town meeting so perhaps the committee wants to think about when we want to reschedule or if we what's the date on that that is november seventeenth so it's just clear with you that i raise it