2026-10-26 - School Committee

Recording in progress. >> All right, it is 6:01 and the School Committee is coming to order. So, pursuant to Governor Healey's directive extending temporary open meeting law provisions until June

30th, 2027, the School Committee will be meeting uh in a hybrid format and will be recorded. Any person in attendance making an audio or video recording of this meeting must notify the chair at this

time. Recordings will be accessible on the town's website and YouTube channel. Please be aware that participants attending via Zoom will have their video and audio disabled. If you wish to engage in

discussion, raise your hand and if acknowledged by the chair, you will receive a pop-up message allowing you to unmute yourself. For the agenda, YouTube, and Zoom links, visit www.suttonmass.gov. Um

and we should do a roll call vote, I think, because we have a member um on Zoom. So, we'll start there. >> Jennifer Dyerling, in person. >> >> Jill, state that you're remote. >> Jill Kazaska, remote.

>> Chris Montarra, in person. >> Patrick Royce, in person. >> Erin Reed Erickson, in person. >> Okay, let's do the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of

America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Great. Okay, public forum. Public forum is limited to 3 minutes per person and the

max time for public forum is 15 minutes. Is there anyone here for public forum? Howdy. Good, remember to state your name. >> Eileen Barba. Sutton, Mass. Do I have to say the street or no? >> No. >>

No. Okay. We can find you. >> >> Okay. Sorry, I just walked in. Okay. Um I wanted to comment on something on the agenda this week, which is the school committee operating guide. And I wanted to start

off by saying I can appreciate the sentiment and I don't think it's inherently wrong or bad. Um I do, however, think that the greater community would really appreciate it if the committee considered

not implementing this guide because it's really unnecessary and pretty redundant to what the Massachusetts Association of School Committees provides. And I just don't think it's time well spent. Um

from what I understand this operating guide was originally generated through AI. And from what I know about AI, which is admittedly not much, that means this information is already available. Um

Massachusetts Association of School Committees has a website and that website has the following resources available. Useful links, roles and responsibilities, member handbook, protocols. The list goes

on. It's so easy to find that I was able to find it from a quick Google search and found the same information in your draft operating guide as is on that website in less than a minute. >> >> I just

really question the necessity and redundancy of this document and its subsequent hours of discussion, which I have no doubt you all will engage in debating a word here or a comment there comma there,

when what I think the public would just really appreciate is you all focusing on your very important role in a very scary budget season ahead. Um and if it's not a meeting that's budget focused or

policy focused, then not creating this operating guide will allow for shorter meetings. So that school employees can either spend time doing work that actually benefits the school and our kids or

maybe they can get some time with their family and friends. I selfishly as a concerned citizen and consistent viewer of school committee meetings would would also appreciate not having to sit through

this. And I'm sure you all would like to get home and do other things, too. These meetings are very long, and often they need to be long. But, I'm not sure spending time creating this guide is really

serving anyone right now, and I ask that this committee move and vote to cease its implementation. Um next I'm going to comment on um cuz I know I have some administration here representing I'm now

representing the SEPAC, the Sutton Special Ed Advisory Council. Um we as the SEPAC are just asking that our fine middle and high school administration please include SEPAC meeting notices in your

communication to families. Um Mrs. Bashaw at the elementary school consistently puts these notices in her communication to families, and we're hoping that the middle school and high school can help

with this as well. Students with disabilities make up almost 20% of our district population, so I would hope you would consider advertising these meetings as a way to teach to reach these families and

provide support. The PTO's consistently noted, clubs and athletics are noted, so we would just ask that you include us, too. Thank you. >> Thank you. Great. >> Hello. >> Hi. Erica Osborne. Here in

Sutton. So, two comments. I'll start with PTO cuz that's the easiest. Um so, trying to run a PTO event was a little bit hard this past weekend. Um we didn't get a lot of volunteers. And one of the

parents reached out, and the main concern was getting the CORI's done. Better do this without reading glasses. Um getting the CORI's done is hard. The hours right now are 9:00 to 1:00, I think. Um is

there a better way to do this? Can we reach out to the police department or the town hall? Can we have it Can our parents go elsewhere to get this done? So, I think if we can streamline this in a

different fashion, if we can look to our other areas in town, I think that would be better or at least for our for our working parents cuz 9:00 to 1:00 is a really hard time, especially if our parents

have 8:00 to 5:00 jobs or whatever it is they're doing, right? We would love to have parent involvement. We would love to have our parents there. But if they are working parents and a lot of our

parents are working parents, um it's really, really tough to get to the school in those hours. Or we can if our teach if our parents are teachers and they're created in another district, can those

queries cross over? And they probably can't, but can we is that something we can look at? Can we make an exception for that? Cuz I've had a lot of teachers who are parents in other districts saying,

"Well, I'm created over here and I'm figured out for today over here." My response is I'm sorry, I don't know and probably not. Um so, how can we look at this differently? How how can we make this an

easier process? Um moving on to my other topic. As we look to to the '27-'28 school year, I want to make sure that we have a clear path forward. I've been watching the select board. I tried to watch

the um SLG meetings, but the latest one is not loaded despite me going to Austin saying, "Hey, where is it?" Um apparently they're having trouble loading it. Um I recognize the town is not looking at

going for an override right now. Um but I want to make sure that we have a clear path forward for our students. We looked at reductions last year. I would I don't want to make I don't want to see

reductions this year. That was really hard last year for our students. I want to make sure that we don't have it this year. And if it's something we do have to look at, can it can we look at something

in the budget book where it's a flow diagram of if we do this, this is how it's going to look. The budget book was really good last year, but I want to see a flow diagram if we're going to cut this

service, this is how it's going to impact so the parents have a clear understanding of this is how it's going to look today, this is how it's going to look tomorrow, this is how it's going to look in

4 years, 5 years, 6 years, 10 years. I think our parents deserve it, our students deserve it. It's not just our students today, but our students tomorrow, our students in 4 years, our students in 5

years, right? We're not just trying to build it for today, we're trying to build a 5-year plan, a 6-year plan, a 10-year plan, a state especially as you're looking for the district plan, right? That

5-year district plan. We need something, right? So, especially as you're going into budget planning, I know you have the budget subcommittee. I haven't been able to attend those meetings. I haven't

been able to look at those minutes, but we really need to do something. Especially, I know they're looking at cuts, they're looking at building at they're looking at the reserve funding. If we're not

going for a budget over a budget override or 2 and 1/2 prop, whatever it is, we really need to do something with the budget. Thanks. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone on Zoom? Okay. Great. What's

next? All right, the consent agenda and um we'll need a motion. >> Um I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Darling, second. >> [cough] >> Okay. Do I have any questions? >> Um I just

hopefully have two quick ones. Harrison, I apologize cuz I normally try and get these over to you in advance, so if you don't have the answers, that's okay. But um on the 10:15 bill schedule, there

were um two items. There was Higgins' office, it was about $1,000 for a card reader. Um what what was that? >> So, that's the software for our badge uh printers. So, we have two badge printers. We

just purchased one uh one I think the last committee had that bill cycle in front of you guys. Um but this is the software that enables the badges to work with our RFID um you know, key swipes on

every door, so we renewed that contract with Higgins again. Um >> Okay. Um and then the second was um under technology Brightly software asset essential core concession 1600. Is that Is that related

to the >> Yep. So, um this past July when we renewed um for the asset um management system, right? Brightly uh has three platforms or historically we had three. Um IncidentIQ took over for the

ticketing for IT, so we no longer use Brightly for that platform. And then we have um SchoolDude and Facilities Direct of which Brightly was bought out by uh Siemens um which just happened. So, you

might see an invoice that says Brightly, you might see one that says Siemens. Um we paid an initial 3500 or around there uh on July 1 which was to continue the current version. Um then the facilities

department um decided to upgrade that platform for the asset management tool, so that is that remaining 1600. So, original 35, now we have the 16 to uh pay off that full subscription. >> Thank you. >>

Question. Are we still using SchoolDude? >> Um it's a new ticketing platform, so it's it's not SchoolDude anymore. Um >> And just wondering, is that that's how we like reserve >> Yep. So, the

Facilities Direct for for room rentals, you won't really see a difference there, but uh maybe some of the teaching staff internally when they go to put [cough] a ticket in for uh repair within their

own classroom, might see a different um type of platform. Still a ticketing system, so there's a queue and it goes to the facilities department, but not the um same ticketing system that we

historically have had. >> Can I ask a quick follow-up? So, the the old ticketing system is it's Do we still under contract with it or is it expired? >> They're contracts. Okay. So, they expire on July

1. So, it wasn't like we moved off of one platform, but still paid for a full year type of deal. >> Got it. Any more questions? >> Okay. I have a couple questions. Um MD Stetson, it looks like we

spent around $9,000 across the October invoices with them. Do we have a maintenance contract with them? >> So, Stetson's um there are a number of vendors that participate with French River for

custodial supplies. I'm trying to remember if MD Stetson's one of those, but they the primary purchase for MD Stetson is custodial supplies across the entire district. So, I'm sure that the September

and October invoices are heavier because the facilities team is purchasing more of their supplies for the entire year up front. >> Got it. And because we don't because they're on the the other

contract, the French River contract, we don't need to do like a RFP or whatever. >> So, uh I I can double-check to make sure that they're on the French River collaborative, but um there are specific

state pre-approved contracts of which Stetson's um on that list, and then I can also confirm um the district was looking at going away from some of our historical providers for custodial supplies to

have an auto delivery system. Um there were a few vendors that were reviewed last year, but ultimately um there just wasn't enough time to to go to an auto delivery model. So, they're they're

continuing with day-to-day supplies. >> Cool. Thank you. And then um on the Amazon stuff, I mean again, across all the invoices, it looks like we're we're around 4,000, a little less in October. Um

again, I would just it just seems like we we spend a lot on Amazon. >> Yep. I mean, most school districts in the state are are going through that route. Um you know, as we're all well aware, Amazon is

not the sole provider on Amazon. There are many vendors that use it as a platform to to sell goods and services. So, even if you see an Amazon invoice, it might not be Amazon directly that the

district is purchasing with. Um but we do our best to try to solicit competitive pricing, whether that's going through the French River Collaborative or just utilizing Amazon. Awesome. >> And when all

purchases are made under that Amazon capital line, it we get the better >> Yeah, Amazon has a business uh you know perk uh for utilizing them. Um they're going through the state contract list in many

cases as well. So, there's a you know, just like anyone's Amazon Prime account, there's benefits and credits applied to the account for for utilizing that. Um and they're cross-referencing prices. >>

the terms are different for municipalities. I know um for instance, like the state university system shies away from Amazon for for certain reasons for terms and conditions. Um but it it it might be

different for us. >> Yeah, municipalities and public schools do have different procurement thresholds, but again, we do our best to make these purchases as competitive as possible, but ultimately,

we're a very small district with very few staff. >> And then my one final question is it looks like we had in October a transportation charge for 94,000. Was Is that part of our out-of-district

transportation? >> That was what we agreed last month. >> Oh, it was a >> That's the only purchase that was left. >> Oh, that was the car. Thank you. Sorry. >> Bus. >> Cool. Thanks, Harrison. >> Mhm.

>> Cool. Okay. Uh let's take a vote then. Jen, do you want to start? >> Yeah. Darling, I. >> Mater, I. >> Royce, I. >> Redericks and I. >> Koczaj, >> All right, great. Motion passes 5-0. >> All right.

Next up on the agenda is trying to get my briefing sheet up here. Student representative, we don't have that. So, education portion. The high school update with special education. >> Good evening,

everyone. Thank you for having us. Matt Orcutt. >> Jessica Ladue. >> Jessica Ladue. >> Um so, I promise I won't be long, but there are six pages of notes to highlight and reflect all the great things

the high school has been doing uh since the start of school. I promise you I won't read them verbatim, but there are a lot of great things that have um started happening since the start of school. So,

here we go. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Um going department by department, I asked them to all provide some, you know, detailed highlights from the start of school. So, the

counseling department um we have a new counselor, Jesse Fish, who works with students alphabetized uh last names L through Z. Um we have spent most of the up the early months focusing on post-

secondary and college planning for our kids. Um we've done senior application workshops. Um counselors have gone into their English classes, talked about like what it looks like for the process to

apply for both uh you know, college and career technical schools, uh post-secondary. They have talked about scholarship navigation, like how to apply for, websites to go to. Something new that we've

done this year is something called Future Fridays. This is an opportunity for seniors to sign up and during the advisory block and to sit with uh the counseling department in the cafeteria to look at,

you know, to go through the common applications, to actually write letters of recommendation requests for their teachers, making sure that they're formalizing the process for them, making sure they're

reaching out to the teachers, you know, certain teachers that might hit certain targets for them. Um it's been highly successful. Kids do sign up. It's busy every Friday. Um and it's actually been um

the kids have talked about how much it's been very beneficial to them. Uh we held a MEFA Pathways night last week uh for 11th and 12th grade parents. Uh there were about 40 parents there. Um that was

significantly greater than last year's MEFA night. Um we had asked them to come back and maybe do more of a interactive uh activity with the families. I think that when you're showing and broadcasting

like all of the potential options for the kids, whether you're doing I think it's a CSS profile, it's easy to go through a website or a PowerPoint to have them do it, but I think that a lot of the

parents commented on how they would really like the support of a counselor kind of going through it with them. Uh some of the questions are a little bit challenging. For families that have dual

households, I think it's a little bit more challenging. That's what some of the families have said because they're not sure whose, you know, information uh parentally to put on the applications. Um so

it's one thing that Mike, Jesse, and I are looking at doing is inviting them back to kind of go over that with the senior folks. Um because I think that we want to make sure that they're prepared for

what's to come for them in the next uh couple months. Um we actually held our first in a while. I'm not sure exactly when the last one was, but we held a college and career and military fair on

October 9th, which was in my opinion highly successful. Uh we had uh over 30 colleges there. Unfortunately, some of our career technical programs were not able to make it. Um but uh Ms. Reedel from

guidance have has assured us that they she's reached out and making sure that they attend. We are looking to the future. I think I mentioned to Mr. Matera earlier that we're looking to add another 30

to 40 schools for next year. Uh we did have the juniors and the seniors go. We felt it was important that the juniors start to look ahead um not wait till the last year before they really start

thinking about career and college pathways. I think actually we might even look to having the sophomores exposed a little bit too. It's never too late. Um the way in which the guidance counselors did

it this year, I thought it was quite creative. Um in order to engage the students, sometimes they don't know what critical questions to ask. So, what the counseling department did was they actually

had the each student uh took a form with them. Um >> >> we had them do a scavenger hunt that they had to hit a certain number of schools, whether it was in New England or whatever geographical area,

but making sure that they were hitting certain parts of it. Um it was a raffle. Uh several students won cuz they actually went through and followed um you know, the process. On the back of the form

that we gave out to the kids, we actually had thought-provoking questions because when you're asking a high school student to go and talk to someone or engage in uh in a conversation that they're

unfamiliar, we want to kind of give them the tools to be able to be successful. And I I thought it was really great and I'm looking forward to maybe partnering with some local schools if they want to

come to our college and career fair next year, whether it be Millbury, Grafton, or Douglas. We're certainly welcome to inviting others. Um again, I thought it was highly successful. Um we're actually

looking at career exploration field trips through guidance. Tomorrow, we're actually going to Gillette Stadium for the manufacturing match up uh mash up with the BB Hub. There was about 89

partnerships uh that can be developed and relationships uh and businesses that are going to be there. There's activities and events and competitions. There's actually a really good meal, too, I have

to say. Um but uh I think it's an opportunity for our engineering um and robotics students to go. In addition, we're going to be heading out to Porter and Chester in the next couple of months for

students uh who are looking for a career pathway. Um actually on Wednesday of this week, we have PSATs offered for the sophomores and the juniors. We as a district decided to cover the costs uh to

help families to encourage more participants to take the exam. As of today, I think we've only had a handful of opt-outs for the exam, but we do have some ideas and activities for them. We can't force

anyone to take the exam, but it's another opportunity that we felt was beneficial to our kids as they're planning for post-secondary life. Um let's see. We're also talking and Jess might be able to

talk to this and I don't want to I'm not sure. We're going to be doing Biomass uh mental health We're going to be offering the Biomass in November. It's a mental health screener. Um we've talked about

um with Jess and with the counseling department. Uh typically it was done with one or two grades in the high school. Based on what, you know, we're seeing with the kids, it could benefit all of our

students. So, we are looking to offer it through grades 9 through 12. And once they, you know, it's a scoring rubric and if there are any students who um I don't know what the proper terminology is,

but like kind of flag or there are areas of concern, they have immediate meetings with their their counselors so that we can, you know, you know, go through what they've shown on the test or the

administration the administrative test and then provide them supports making sure that we're communicating with households as well if there are any concerns with students. So, that's going to be

coming up in November. I don't know if we picked a date for the high school yet, but it's going to be during advisory. >> and um information will be going out to parents along with opt-out letters if

they choose not to have their students involved. >> >> And again, uh one of the goals I I actually think this year has been much much better for myself at least and I've noticed that we're doing more

and I will add that by the way the CPAC to our notifications. So, I apologize in advance or actually it's not in advance cuz I'm doing it after the fact. Um but one of the things that we're doing is

we've encouraged as a district-wide high school goal is doing more um outreach to families. So, I've noticed that every, you know, they all have goals, professional practice, and student learning

goals and most of their professional practice goals have been doing newsletters per department. That's not every department, but I've noticed the counseling department has one. I have one. And as we

get to social studies they're also sending one out as well. Um English department, again we're introducing a new teacher Becky Hahn. She's got over 20 years of experience. Actually the kids actually

adore her. She does a great job. She's a good fit. Um I was it was reported that all the students completed their summer reading projects and which I think is great. Um So it's great to see the kids

choosing independent reading during the summer. Um ELA electives are off to a great start. The the school newspaper, uh sharpening their public speaking skills and what I learned was that a lot of

kids have never seen the movie Rocky before. So they actually got a chance to see that this year. Surprise herb, shock herb. >> Should be required. >> Right. So our seniors have started the process.

Again, this was again a little bit as we started school uh talk about cover letters, resumes, like what to add, making sure that they're getting ready for their internships in the in the spring. But

now is a good time to start networking for the kids if they have family friends or businesses that they want to pursue or go into. It's making sure that they're making connections verbally and then

following up with a written correspondence to get those internships. Fine arts is new to us this year. It's a combination of music and art. The art department, our we have a new department chair uh

Mr. Falvo. Um What I can tell you about the art department this year, there's not a lot with the music just yet because we haven't started our Christmas or holiday performances. Um but with the art

department they're collaborating with the Spanish department for the Dia Dia de los Muertos altars. That's the Day of the Dead, which is coming up soon. Um when we have our showcase night on November

5th, there's going to be all of the Day of the Dead skulls, the sugar uh skulls that we the kids have made and everything will be on display for the families right when they walk in the building. Um

and the kids have done a a tremendous job with that. They're exploring world cultures, artistic traditions, um and adding their own creativity to them. Uh the drama club did hold their first play this

uh this year, Deadline. Uh what I hear from Mr. Lawes and the kids that performed, it was highly successful. Um actually uh Superintendent Paget did admit that she didn't think she would have laughed

that hard, but apparently she did. >> It was really good. >> So, the kids did a great job. Um we are running our first ceramics class in over uh in a in over a dozen years, and I can tell you that the

kids are absolutely loving ceramics. Um they're allowed to be creative um and and things like that. We're also working on pumpkin painting for the Fall Fest, which is um also on Wednesday, too. It's a

part of the PSAT program. Sophomores and juniors take the exam. Seniors, freshmen go through a litany of up you know, activities. Um it's writing letters. It's it's donating their time for the CLS L

team to the community center. So, we're doing some pumpkin uh decorating as well. Health and wellness, uh students are participating and staff are participating in wellness challenges. It's called

Optimistic October. Uh anytime you start to look at the belts uh the belt loops kind of like you're having to carve your own, it's time for you to start looking at uh wellness opportunities. Um so,

they're doing a bunch of activities and challenges, whether it's in or out of school. Um Ms. Trudeau is kind of like having giving them parameters around it. And then each one, it's an honesty policy.

If you're doing things, if you're having a bad cheat day with food, like making sure you're reporting it. Um and there are um opportunities to win prizes. So, a number of students and a staff person

have won prizes with their uh their winning of their weekly challenges. Um this week they've been uh focusing on uh mental health and substance abuse disorders. So, they're really kind of looking at

vaping and the impacts of vaping. It is a challenge that we have um in schools across, you know, the state and I'm sure across the US. Stores are selling to kids uh shamely uh shamefully, but with

something that we're dealing with. Um and Ms. Trudeau has done a really good job with explaining what the negatives are if you choose if a student a student chooses to do that. So, that's what they're

doing in health. And they're using something called smokers lung specimens, which I've seen it and it's hard to look away from. But it's actually a good idea. PE, um, this semester they've officially,

uh, begun to use the new PE equipment or the donated equipment. Um, students are already integrating like the new machines into their regular routines, um, and focusing on new strength and

conditioning exercises with them. Um, it comes with an expanded focus on overall wellness encouraging students to monitor their cardiovascular performance and proper techniques. So, they've started to

do that. Math department, um, teachers are guiding students in developing, uh, strategy for, you know, how to take tests, um, you know, understanding that math might be challenging for some kids. It's

using or creating, uh, tools to strategically, uh, do well on exams. Uh, they're recognizing structures and the patterns of tests and then concepts within the classrooms. And all of this is applicable

to real world situations. It's like our financial wellness class making sure and I think that you're hearing a theme is that we're really trying to focus on how the current skills translate to life

after high school, not just in college, just how they can all everything's applicable to post secondary life. Science department, we are introducing a new, uh, teacher engineering or robotics teacher

Jackson Boyd. Uh, Jackson is one of our younger teachers, but boy, he's he's doing a great job. So, he's working in both the middle and the high school. He's doing robotics in 6 through 8 and Shawn

Rickon will touch upon him that when he presents. Um, but with the robotics kids at the high school, they're going to the mash up tomorrow. There's a lot of challenges. The kids are really enjoying

his teaching and what they're learning in the class. Um, one of the the best parts about Sutton is that you have a lot of kids in our district that actually want to go and be above and beyond and

they'll always offer opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. We had two students, uh, Myra Bhatnagar and Lee Lean Melam who offered or asked to create a new club called Med Path and I can

tell you I've been to the first I went to the first one. They've invited medical professionals and the walk of life or the different variations of medical professionals that have come here are

providing the kids who have that career pathway as an option a wealth of knowledge. So those two young people Kathleen Fleming is the unofficial advisor but um it's something that is really they hit a

home run with this one because it's heavily attended when the presenters do come. Social Studies Department we had a new member Kristen Wolsick. Kristen actually was kind of made her way around the

district starting out as an IAA. She then you know earned her licensure. She was the best candidate for the Social Studies position. She brings fresh perspectives having both serving in both roles and

being a newer teacher. She is acclimated well to the department and I think that she's getting mentored by Tim Anderson and an experienced teacher. If you go into her classroom it's very regimented.

It's very clean. It's very organized. It's actually a great place to learn and she brings a lot of unique strategies into the classroom that are refreshing for Social Studies. I know some kids will

say Social Studies is dates and times but she's making I will say history come alive. They are offering new AP World History class AP course taught by Mr. Perrin. Again this is for ninth graders which

I think is a great opportunity for them. They're also doing a quarterly newsletter which is new for the department. It's a way for parents to connect with what's happening in the Social Studies

Department and I think that's a good thing for them. The Spanish Department literally is all brand new. So I think that they have done a really nice job of acclimating. They we have a new department

chair Amanda Borges who works in the middle school. I think she's done a tremendous job of kind of getting the department together um, they're all walking into Sutton not knowing what they don't know

and not knowing each other. So, I think she's done a really good job from a leadership standpoint. They have been collaborating with the art department for the Day of the Dead skulls. They're talking

about Heritage Month, uh, working on project to learn about, uh, muralistas in Mexico. They're And again, uh, forgive me for my pronunciations. I'm trying. Uh, it's really kind of talking about like

what it's the other cultures experiences, not just the religious aspect of it, but the language or the nuances to it. Uh, Ms. Tuleen, uh, is a newer teacher as well. She's teaching a Hispanic culture

class, uh, focusing on Heritage Month by creating posters highlighting Spanish-speaking countries and showcasing, uh, that why it might be a must-be destination or destinations. Uh, Spanish two kids

are also doing biographies of span- uh, famous Hispanic figures. And again, they're doing museum walks and doing more creative things in the foreign language department. Ms. Di Gennaro, final

department member, is honors teacher and AP. Um, just discussions about making the community strong even with our own community, not just outside of Sutton, but within it. Um, and they're they're

really having conversations about predicting what their lives might be looking like in 2036, way down the road. Uh, special education new teacher Sher Gervais, Sher teaches tutorials and is co-

teaching science and math courses. Um, one of the things that, um, I thought is a great highlight is our the bocce program. Um, I think that, uh, and the unified sports is a great addition to our

school. I know we talked about it last year. Um, uh, Quinny is, uh, I think still here, yep. Um, watching her coach the kids in the hallway after school has been quite amazing. Um, and I think that

the kids are truly, truly enjoying this opportunity and I think that I think, um, Barbara Burwick sent us a date in November and I forg- uh, it's the and 4th that they're going to be, uh, playing and

I think that the more people we get there the better off we'll be. Um I think one of the best highlights is Jess and I met recently with Hannah Mitchell, the behavior specialist, in talking about how

we can increase some of the vocational opportunities for the kids within the building. It's like looking having them work within the school store, not just doing menial tasks, but really like really

focusing on how they can become or have more transitional skills to post-secondary life. And there are a lot of great ideas how they can be acclimating within our building and helping us um improve.

>> Yeah, we we talked about maybe starting a small business, a mobile cart, and having kids pick the inventory as well as going around and taking orders. We've also talked about adding monthly

community outings to make sure kids are getting out and learning new skills and realistic life situations. Quinny as well as a few other teachers attended a conference on Friday for Special Olympics

Unified Sports. Um Ignite. So, we're trying to ignite the passion and bring Unified Sports and Special Olympics to Sutton. And we've been in talks with Grafton to participate in the Grafton Games this

spring. So, you will see me show up next to each building principal in the next couple of meetings and I just want to share why I really want to represent that special education is an integral part of

each level, each grade, every part of Sutton from pre-K to 12. And I don't think special education is an island in and of itself, so I want to represent that by showing up with the principals and

showing the work that we're doing together. So, thank you. >> Short story long, that's what's happening or has been happening at the high school and there is a lot more coming in the upcoming months

of school. But the kids are doing a great job. I think this year has been for me and for Andy Netzwicky, the vice principal, I think it's been a much better year. I think that year one was a challenge

for us learning everything in real time. Um but I think that the kids again, I think the kids are doing a really good job um and have welcomed us and continue to do so. Um and I will always say uh

partner with all of you. We want to make sure at the high school uh we hear from the parents and I'm a big believer of welcoming parents in for all aspects. It's not uh it's not us against them. It's

it truly is a partnership um for the four years that I have them at least. So thank you for any questions, comments, concerns. >> You go ahead. >> Sure. Go with this way. I just want to um thank you

both uh for coming tonight. I appreciate the actually the very comprehensive and lengthy update because I don't know. I want that very sincerely. Um it feels like sometimes uh too much of our meetings

are on you know, budget and not Harrison that we don't love hearing from you. But it it's really, really important to hear all of the events that are happening and um you know, traditions that are

perhaps already being carried on but then new things, the college fair. I got to attend the very end of it um and you could see the energy and the excitement of all the kids walking out. Um I already

starred November 4th uh because I just think that's fantastic to see the unified sports program launch um ignite all the passions. And um really just want to thank you both for for um the energy

you're bringing uh and I there's lots of good things to talk about. >> There are. >> [cough] >> I ditto to what Aaron said and yeah, the college fair was a wonderful. I saved that little cheat sheet

cuz I used it. >> They did a nice job. They really the guidance department did a really nice job organizing it. >> Yeah, it was wonderful. I was so impressed. Um >> Yeah. Shoot, I lost Oh, can you

speak a little bit more about the showcase night? >> Sure. So, um showcase night, so I learned last year that showcase night was the big show stopper and that that was the sales pitch or the way to um

show what the high school or how the high school is different from the middle school. Um with the new administration last year, we kind of felt as though if we had done it last year, I didn't want to

put a cart before the horse and rush it. I wanted to know kind of like what logistically it looked like. So, this year in our summer planning um meeting, we kind of talked about really doing it before

um other programs and other maybe other schools may have that have an open house in November. Uh we wanted to kind of like do it before that so that our current eighth grade students can really see

that there are a lot of good happenings, that we are even having preliminary talks about like doing more hands-on things within the building. Um sure, they may not be vocational programs per se, but

there's a lot of things on the horizon that we're looking to that maybe can be getting them out of their chairs. Like I can honestly say I know a lot of our kids are not standing and delivering to

kids isn't necessarily a great model for everyone. So, I feel like in hearing from the kids, their feedback truly is I think the most important is that if they're they need movement, then I think the

hands-on class opportunities, electives, or like things like that I think will benefit them so that they can focus for a 52 stand and deliver, so to speak. That is going to be on the fifth. We're

still having discussions about what it's going to look like. We are having the BB Hub come as well because they are a partner with us now. We are having and asking all of the departments to kind of

find creative ways to showcase their their curriculum and I know in in talking to them, they recognize that eighth graders and their parents aren't going to be wowed by sitting and reading a novel.

They want to make it more interactive, so the science department is going to do mini labs with the kids. This isn't one of those um dog and pony shows where it looks like this on the fifth, but then

they get in there in eighth grade and it's automatically different. We want it to be consistent with what is offered in the classroom. So, it's going to be from 6:00 to 8:00. We are going to send out

a flyer. I've asked the guidance department to make a creative flyer. There are going to be stations. We are going to do some raffles. We are going to do some hands-on work for the kids. But, it is

encouraged to get as many eighth grade students there with their parents because ultimately the parents are the are big in the decision-making. So, 6:00 to 8:00 on November 5th. On November 3rd, we

have a PD day. That is the day where we've asked the departments to really focus and finalize all of their bells and whistles or their activity so that it goes off without a hitch. Um so, there'll be

a short opening by me and I mean short, not like this. But, it will really be getting them out and moving around the building. There's going to be We're asking a lot of our students. It doesn't have

to be just student athletes. It's kids who are interested in robotics and engineering. Every club we want kids talking to kids. No offense to the adults in this room or at school. Kids listen more to

other kids and that's what we are looking for them to do. We We've got some really high-end you know, really well-spoken students ready to talk to the kids about why they chose to stay in Sutton and

it's a good opportunity for them. >> I have a follow-up. >> Sure. >> So, love that. Um I know this year we didn't do the high school didn't do an open house or and but they're doing this. So, next

year if you switch to an open house instead of a showcase, I don't know what you're going to do. I'm just wondering if the seventh graders should be invited. >> So, that's something that we have

talked about is involving both grade levels. So, contractually, I have to always be mindful of the contract is that we only have them for a certain number of night or evening events. One of the things

that is also happening is in the same time frame is on November 5th, we have showcase night. But then on November 10th, we also have parent-teacher conferences. So, because there's two sessions, the

afternoon session and then the evening one, we just want to be mindful. So, the seventh graders, we are considered >> That's Yeah, I have >> Yes, but we are looking for both the seventh and eighth

graders to go. We just haven't finalized that yet. >> Yes, I think just get that marketing out there. >> I know. I I I feel it and coming from a a former district that, you know, does have an open

house that is robust and about 5,000 people, I do want the kids to see the good things that are here. And I want them to I guess I guess I can say it this way, I want them to stay home. Yes, it's

there's a lot of great things out there, but also to the grass isn't always greener. >> Mhm. Yeah, and I'm just I just wanted to make sure that we got that target. >> Yep. So, I think next year, I

think again, I it's like it's similar to the the college fair. Like, we've seen what this is. I and it's always growth from here. Like, what does next year look like? Because we could do a mix of like

an open house kind of having a combination of both, too. It's not set in stone that the open house is only one way. We can alter and modify it as we see is the best thing for our kids and for the

parents. So, all options are on the table. >> It sounds great. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh Joe, before I go, do you have any questions? >> Um no, I was really impressed with all the amazing

things happening at the high high school. And yeah, I just want to also agree that the college showcase is amazing and I'm sure it's really benefiting those students. So, um lots of great things

happening and yeah, I'm super excited about the unified sports as well. >> Yeah, I just echo the the sentiment. Thanks for coming out and talking about the great stuff that's happening. Can you talk a

little bit about National Honor Society because I had heard through a few folks that >> >> we didn't have an advisor and might not have an advisor now. >> So, we do. So, Miss Han, who is the new

English teacher, has volunteered to be the NHS advisor. So, what I again love about the kids here is that when they want to be heard, they speak. And so, I know that there were some concerns, you

know, with starting out the year not having an advisor. We met last week for the current students enrolled in in National Honor Society that we can modify and adjust. I know that there are set hours

in the handbook, but I also don't want to punish or penalize those students when it says, let's say, and I don't have it memorized, let's say it's a requirement of 20 hours by X date. Well, it's not

there. They didn't do anything to not have an advisor or be able to fulfill that. So, I told them that Miss Han and I will meet again to kind of talk about how we can progress moving forward. And if

we need to modify or adjust, we can do that, certainly. So, we are actually, Miss Han and I, with Mr. Nedzweski, are meeting next week to kind of finalize the rollout for new inductees going forward.

And and even something as how is the ceremony going to look last year versus this year. Like, there are a lot of nuances to it that I would like to modify or adjust. And you know, it's it is ongoing,

but we do have an advisor. >> Great. Thanks. >> [cough] >> Question, might I ask a few? >> No, go go for it. >> Thanks. Sorry to take up this as long, I know. Sorry. So, thank you for the >> >> Thank

you for the presentation from the both of you. Um So, just a couple clarifying questions. Um just related to the the manufacturing mashup at Gillette in the Porter and Chester visit. Do we do we I'm

assuming we don't, but do we cap numbers on any of those? >> So, with I'll use the mash up for example. So, it it when we went last year was actually our first invite. So, it was the engineering

students or kids who had engineering or robotics as classes. Most of the companies are in there's a lot of engineering companies that are there. We just kind of felt that no, there's really no cap,

but we kind of one we're trying to figure out one transportation uh that we always have to be mindful of. Two, who's going to benefit the most from that? Uh yes, I would love to expose all of our

students to that, but I don't know think that's a feasible thing to do right now. Um so, this year we chose all of the high school uh robotics classes and engineering classes to go this year. We did

talk about bringing the eighth grade So, we have the robotics also being offered 6, 7, and 8 this year. We always have to be leery about the mash up is high school kids. We always want to be mindful

like yes, do we want to expose eighth graders to that? Sure, but I also have to be mindful that if it's a high school program, that we have high schoolers attend. Um so, we just stuck this year with

the robotics and engineering students along with Mr. Boyd and um Jesse Fish is our um uh uh chaperones. Um >> And what about like the uh Porter and Chester? >> So, Porter and Chester uh I I don't want

to speak to something that I don't have a 100% accuracy on, but I know that um Mike Zigami and I have talked about it's the students who may not be following the traditional pathway of going to a two-

or four-year college, and it's just a field a field trip to there to see what they have to offer for post-secondary schooling. I can get more information for you if you'd like. Okay, I'm happy to do

that. >> Thanks. Um And did I hear you right? So, when you were uh I think you were talking world language and you were mentioning um you know, certain classes being taught maybe, um, you know,

related to culture and history. >> Yep. >> Um, are those Do those constitute as world language credits or is that Does that fall under a different >> Probably. >> Yep. Oh, it does. >> Yep. >> Okay. >>

Yep. >> Um, >> And I I I actually recommend, uh, if you have a time during the day to come and see some of the things they're doing in foreign language. It's actually quite impressive. >> Um, and then

one last one, uh, maybe this touches on the National Honor Society a little bit, um, but [cough] myself, um, Aaron and Chris had all sat in on the, um, there was a listening session last week at the,

uh, senior center. And I think one of the one one of the pieces of feedback that came, um, was, you know, related to, you know, I I think how gratifying it is when students come and volunteer and

visit. Um, so I I guess can you just kind of touch on what our culture is with respect to volunteerism within the the high school in particular. >> Actually, uh, when we were having that meeting,

myself and Miss Honda talked about hours, like what what does it look like truly, um, you can do hours within the school or the school district. We actually talked about going to the community center

and doing more work within the community. Christina Gamble is our math department chair. She also is the advisor for the CLSL team. Well, she actually came down and presented offer anyone and everyone

that wants to go to the senior center to do whatever they're looking for us to do. If it's actually sitting with them and playing cards or like doing something like that, that's still is volunteering

for the community or doing I guess I would say manual labor or beautifying activities. Um, we're all for it. It's just trying to get everyone like organizing it to get people there. The one of the

things that I have to be mindful of, and again, I don't want to keep going back to transportation, but as you know as a committee, transportation costs are through the roof. It's trying to find ways

to get as many students over there without having them drive over. I know it's a short distance, but I always look at the liability of us having kids drive to and from school. But, Mr. Royce, I'm all

for us involving the community or being involved with the community. I think that they need to see what great things that is happening in the school that they not may not be aware of. One of the

things we actually talked about, and this isn't me just saying this during this conversation was held last week. I would love to do a community uh a community breakfast for them. We actually have a

half day on the 23rd of December. >> [cough and clears throat] >> And what would say, you know, you think about like the giving of the holidays or like community within the holidays. And I hate to say

it's only pigeonholed to 2 months. It should be 12. But, inviting some of our community members in for a luncheon or a breakfast on the 23rd, it's a half day for us. It's a great way for our National

Honor Society or or our athletic teams to kind of get a chance to mingle with them. Um but, we did talk about that. I think it was actually on Thursday of last week. So, we're all for it. It's just

it's actually finding ways to do it and not That's still an opportunity to learn. I I I know that we always talk about what traditional education looks like in a classroom. But, I think creatively,

learning can actually happen outside the classroom with community members. They're gaining experience from life, from people who've lived a pretty long life. So, we're happy to do it. And if you have

suggestions or ways we can do it, I'm all for it. Cuz we do have several half days or early release days that we can I don't call them burn days in the way of that they're not important, but myself

and the department chairs have talked about ways to use those days as unifying days for the school culture. Um it doesn't have to be fun it like game-ish, but it can be community building with our own

school. Because I think that's necessary. Happy to do it. >> That's great. That's great. And if you need assistance kind of brokering that, please let me know. I'd be happy to >> I will. I'm doing it

right now. I will be happy to take you up on that. >> Awesome. >> I do want to add one more thing before I get off and I know this is long-winded, so I apologize. I do want to tell you I think that

Jess was a steal. I think that she will do so much for our special education department. Um I think that she has a wealth of knowledge both in the general ed classroom and with special ed and I'm not

selfishly talking about it cuz I worked with her for like 20 years prior to this, but she is the right person for the job. She's got the right sentiment and she cares about kids. And I'm not just

talking about special ed kids, all kids. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, guys. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Oh, no. >> >> Follow that. >> Yeah, it's a hard tough act to follow. >> Oh, goody. >> Well,

next up is that >> >> that PowerPoint called the MCAS overview. >> Yep. So, that there is a PowerPoint within the packet, but >> Okay. >> I'm just giving an overview of what's in that PowerPoint. I'm

not going through 48 slides. We don't need to sit here for an hour and go through all of that stuff. And if we want to dive in deeper, that's something that we now have a teaching and learning

subcommittee for. Um so, I'm just going to give the general overview um of what is in that 48 slide-ish PowerPoint. Um So, like I said, rather than walk through every single slide and data point, I

want to focus more so on the larger picture, so three different areas. Where we're seeing progress, where do we still have concerns, and what are we planning to do about it or what are we currently

doing about it? Um and whenever I talk about MCAS, I always want to make sure that I emphasize that MCAS is just one measure of student learning. It is one day. It is a two-session test for each of

the different content areas. So, it is a very limited view and you don't know what those kids were dealing with that day when they took the test. Um so, it's just important to realize that we have

other things that we're also using to look at student achievement. We have our own classroom assessments, benchmark assessments, we look at student work, we progress monitor. So, yes, it is a good

measure that is a statewide measure, but it is not the only measure that we're using in Sutton. Um and another thing that I wanted to just touch on before we start, too, is the difference between

achievement and growth. So, achievement tells us where students are whether students are meeting grade level expectations. Whereas growth tells us how much progress the students are making compared

with students who have performed similarly in the past. Both are important and we're seeing differences in those two things right now, which I'll get into. Um overall district results. So, when we

look across the district, I will say our results are mixed. There are areas of meaningful improvement, areas where achievement has remained relatively flat, and areas that require our attention. Um

one encouraging indicator is in student growth in grades 4 through 8. Our district-wide student growth percentiles were 54 in ELA and 53 in mathematics, which were both above the statewide reference

point of 50. Um however, now when we talk about achievement, this varies considerably across our grade levels from this past MCAS assessment. We saw improvements in grade 6 and grade 8 mathematics,

pretty significant improvements, it was wonderful. Um while ELA achievement declined in grades 3, 4, 8, and 10. Um so, this is something that we need to continue to look at um and examining what is

happening at each individual grade level and among different groups of students. So, I'm going to break down some results now just by building. So, Sutton Elementary School. So, we saw encouraging

improvements in our accountability results. So, if you look at that PowerPoint, there is a link to what we call the accountability report, and that tells us how our students are performing to targets

that are set by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Ed. So, our annual progress towards targets increased at the elementary school from 51% to 65%. Particularly encouraging is the performance

of our lowest performing students who exceeded achievement targets in both ELA and mathematics. We also saw academic gains among our low-income students and improvements in attendance for that group.

However, overall achievement remains relatively flat at the elementary school and we have concerns regarding students with disabilities, science achievement, and chronic absenteeism. One area where we

are seeing promising results is writing. So, over the past several years, our elementary educators have invested considerable time and effort in implementing the SRSD framework. So, that was the self-

regulated strategy development framework. It is not a curriculum, it is just a framework teachers can use to help focus their writing instruction. We're using common language now between K and 5. When

I did an analysis of our MCAS writing results, particularly in grades 3 and 4, we're seeing encouraging improvements. If you look at the slides, you will see that in some areas we have gone from being

eight points below the state to just one point below the state and in some grade levels we are actually now below above the state, whereas in years past we had been considerably below the state in all

of our writing um scores. So, one thing I want to recognize about that is our staff and their commitment to this work. It's not hard to engage in the work and to try new things, but they have done a

fabulous job over now this will be year three for some of our teachers in K to 2, this is year three, and our teachers in 3 to 5, this is year two of implementing the framework. So, the meaningful

instructional changes that we're seeing, they take time, but we're beginning to see evidence that our efforts are moving us in the right direction. At the same time, um when I did a further analysis

of our ELA scores in particular at the elementary school, we are seeing continued challenges in reading comprehension, particularly in grades 3 and 4. Students are struggling with skills such as

making inferences, understanding text structure, and using evidence to demonstrate comprehension. So, if you look at some of the slides within that slide deck, we are sometimes more than 20 points

below the state in these areas of reading instruction, particularly in grades 3 and 4. Um this is part of the rationale behind our implementation of our core knowledge program this year. It is a trend

that we have seen consistently over the past few years each MCAS cycle. Uh we believe that if we have a more intentionally sequenced knowledge-rich curriculum, we will help strengthen students'

background knowledge, their vocabulary, and their reading comprehension. So, just as with SRSD, we will need to monitor implementation and outcomes over time. I'm not saying it will fix it, but I'm

hoping that we will see similar results um that we are now seeing in writing. Uh Sutton Middle School. So, the middle school's results are particularly encouraging. Um annual progress towards

accountability targets increased from 50% in 2025 to 76%. Um reflecting meaningful academic improvement. Uh mathematics achievement increased by 2.4 scaled score points, while science increased by 5.2

points. Um high-need students and our lowest-need students also had remarkable gains. Uh these results deserve recognition because the middle school staff is doing some incredible things for all of

our students because we are seeing gains not just with our typically developing kids, but our low-income kids, our high-need kids, and our students with disabilities. Um while ELA achievement does

still remain an area for improvement, as well as chronic absenteeism continues to be a concern, the overall results demonstrate positive academic momentum. Um an important step for us next will be to

identify the instructional practices that are contributing to the great progress we've seen so that we can replicate those in other content areas and classrooms, and then also considering how we can

share and build upon um instructional practices in areas where we want to see more improvement. The high school. Um this is a tricky um narrative for many reasons. As you all know, this was the year

that the MCAS no longer needed to count for graduation and statewide we were curious what we would see with that um when there's really no buy-in for students to take it. Um We continue to demonstrate

strength in a few key areas that are measured on our accountability reports. Graduation outcomes, advanced coursework completion. We had great mathematical growth, but we did experience declines in

grade 10 achievement across ELA and science. Um annual progress towards accountability targets declined from 64% to 21% between 2025 and 2026. So, what that means is we're not meeting the targets that

DESE is setting for us consistently. However, those targets that DESE is setting for us are are high because we have been achieving high at the high school level in ELA, math, and science. So, what

they're really looking for us to do is you have all of these students that are in the meeting expectations area. They want all of those students to be moved to the exceeding expectations area in order

for us to get the points necessary to get our accountability points. Students don't really have the um desire to, let's say, put in that extra effort, it appears, to go above and beyond on the test.

Do I know that for a fact? No, but do I think that has something to do with it to see such a crazy decline in 1 year? Yes. Um so, we'll continue to examine these results carefully, including

differences between student cohorts. Um and this is why at the high school we are also taking on some curriculum alignment and mapping this year. So, one of the goals of the teaching and learning

subcommittee is to kind of do an inventory of all of the curriculum that we do have within the district. So, we are gathering all that information. We're seeing what we're teaching, how we're teaching

it, and if there are any modifications that we need to make. Um we're also going to be looking at whether we can incorporate an additional assessment for 9th and 10th graders um, in the winter and the

spring. We're looking to possibly pilot the star reading and math just so that we have another data point on these kiddos that isn't MCAS. Um, so we can truly see how they are actually performing in

real time. Um, so if I had to think of a few themes, I guess, from the data, uh Student growth and student achievement obviously don't always tell the same story. We have students making meaningful

academic progress who are still not meeting grade level expectations. They're getting there, but the gap was so big that in order to close that gap, it's taking time. Um, if you look at our data, we

have a uh especially at the younger grades, we have a significant amount of kids that are in that partially meeting expectations column. When I looked at third grade, for example, we had uh 15

students that were less than three points away from meeting expectations. So, they're almost there. We just have to get them over that last hurdle so that they're in that category. We do not have a

significant amount of students at any grade level that are at that lower end of partially meeting expectations when you dive into each individual student data. They're gain They're making the gains.

It's just taking them a while to close it because they gaps were so significant. Um, second, I would say our instructional practices matter. Can I tell you that the increase in writing scores at the

elementary school was solely because of SRSD? No. But, can I make a reasonable inference that that has something to do with it? Yes. Um, because we have seen the increases in scores consistently since

this has been implemented. Um We're hoping that we'll see the same uh with the Core Knowledge program. And I also want to put something out there that at the middle school, we saw increasing scores in

both mathematics and science. We have curriculum for math at the middle school. We have curriculum in place for science in the middle school. We have OpenSciEd and envisions. So, can I say that that's

the reason? Again, no, not with 100% certainty, but it seems in areas that we have curriculum and we have frameworks, our instructional practices are giving students that advantage when we're doing

the assessments. Um Third, I think we need greater consistency across grade levels and buildings. Our results vary considerably um from grade to grade, reinforcing the importance of curriculum

alignment, common expectations, and opportunities for our educators to collaborate. We want them to learn from each other. We want to create a culture and a climate where teachers feel comfortable

learning from one another because good teaching practices, like we said last year when we did our cross district visits, what you're doing in third grade can also be a good teaching practice for

someone who's teaching 10th graders. You just might do it a little bit differently. So, we want to continue to encourage that. Um Finally, we need to continue examining how well we are meeting the

needs of all of our students. It's a reality that we are not meeting the needs of all of our student subgroup populations and we need to put a plan in place to make sure that we're doing that. Uh the

results for high need students, students with disabilities, and our lowest performing students are not consistent across schools. They performed very well at the middle school level. They did not our

students with disabilities did not perform well at the elementary level or at the high school level. So, we need to really dig down with Jess Ledoux and the special education department and our

special education team to see why that might be happening and what we're missing and what we need to put in place so that all of our students can be successful together. Um So, what are we going to

continue to do? We're continuing the implementation of arts and letters in grades K to 5. And we will explore a knowledge rich ELA curriculum for grade 6 through 8, a pilot. Um we'll continue to

strengthen our use of benchmark assessments, common assessments, and progress monitoring um so educators have timely information to guide their instruction rather than relying on MCAS results that

only come once a year. And not to mention you don't get the results for about 5 to 6 months after the test. Um we will also continue reviewing curriculum alignment across grade levels and buildings,

including beginning conversations about our longer-term K-8 mathematics curriculum needs. Um, as I have mentioned, I think prior meetings and also in teaching and learning, we we need to really take a

look at our K-5, especially, uh, math curriculum in the next 3 to 5 years, um, and we can hopefully loop that in with our 6 through 8. Um, at the high school, we will be hoping to pilot the STAR

assessment in grades 9 and 10 in the winter and spring of this year in order to provide additional information about student progress and instructional needs. I don't think we have a clear picture of

where our kiddos are in the high school because we don't have many common assessments at this point in time. Um, and just as importantly, we need to support our teachers in this work. So, we need to

find opportunities and time for them to examine student work, share effective instructional practices, and learn from one another through professional development. Um, my long-term goal is learning

labs where you're able to go into each other's classrooms and see the wonderful things that everyone is doing. Um, and also instructional walkthroughs with the admin team. Um, I think although the

results are mixed, there are so many pockets of things within these MCAS results that we need to celebrate. Um, and I don't want any one teacher to think that these results are a reflection of just

themselves or a classroom or a school. They represent how we're performing as a district, and we all need to work together to continue to make the progress that we know these students deserve to be

able to make. Um, some of the results, like I said, I'm not going to deny that, especially the declines in high school achievement, are concerning to me. I'm hoping that it is due to MCAS not being

required, um, but it's also our job and our responsibility to dig further into that over the next couple of weeks with the high school team to make sure that that actually is the case. And if it's

not, we need to put some things in place to make sure that we are allowing those students to make the progress that they deserve to make. Um we can't expect meaningful instructional improvement

overnight. It takes time. Um and I'm hopeful that we'll continue to see the progress that we are seeing in small pockets on a larger scale over the next few years. Um I think that's pretty much it. Um

we can dive further into it at teaching and learning. Um like I said, I think it's I don't even remember, 48-ish slides. People are interested or have questions, I'm happy to answer them if people not

just you, but members of the community have questions, they can certainly email me. Um within the PowerPoint, I've linked all of the accountability reports and kind of just gave an overview of what

that showed. I also linked all of the Blackstone Valley districts um in comparisons and where we're falling compared to those peers. And then I also had a slide on student subgroup SGPs and how we're

comparing um to the state. One thing that I do want people to realize about student subgroup um >> >> growth potentials is that because we are such a small district, often times we do not get report

uh we do not have reports on SGP for some of our subgroups cuz you have to have a minimum of 20 students that fall into that category. So if you don't have 20 students that are in that category, you

will not get an SGP for that subgroup. So there is a table in there where I do have the SGPs. We do get SGPs for high need students. We do have more than 20 students in every grade level that are

considered to be high need. So that means they're in two or more of those categories. Um where you're never really going to get an SGP I don't anticipate in Sutton is for our English language

learners. I don't see us having a grade level with 20 English language learners anytime soon cuz most of our grade levels right now are like two, three, four. Um we are getting up there with low

income. We had a few grade levels that had 19 students that are characterized as low income. So by next school year we may actually get SGPs for those student subgroups. Um we will just have to wait

and see. Um and I think that's it. like I said, there's diagrams there where I've had clipped all of the um item analysis and what you'll notice is if people go and look when you're looking at the

writing composition charts that are in there, the number on the far right is how many points below the state we are. So, for example, if you look slide uh 29 um grade three 2025 MCAS, when it came to

idea development, which was essay 12 writing, we were eight points below the state. Um and nine points below in convention. So, those numbers on the far right are where we fall compared to the state

average. Um if people are looking at that. >> And uh >> Yeah, go ahead, sorry. >> Can you speak to chronic absenteeism and like what >> So, we see it a lot um in our student subgroups. Um I think at

the middle school this year, I'd have to go back and look. I don't have it in front of me. It was our um students with disabilities that were chronically absent. Um that can be a bit tricky in the way

that's reported because students can be absent for a variety of reasons and that could be some sort of medical absence that could in fact be related to their disability. Um but if they're out more

than 10% of the school year, they're considered to be chronically absent. >> 10%. Okay. >> So. >> And being the more time you're in school, the more >> Of course, the more time you're in school, the

more you're going to learn. Um I always say I think last year I included a couple times in the superintendent update is that when you couple say your student's out 18 times, okay, but then there also

may be the case where over the course of the year, the student's teacher for some reason or another may also be out five, six, seven times. So, when you put all of those absences together, you could

be looking at like a whole month of lost instruction. I do think the cascading schedule has helped with this a little bit because before if you had to be dismissed for some sort of appointment and say

that appointment was consistently So we have students that might be dismissed for therapy and they just have to miss once a month last period. They were always consistently missing the same classes,

whereas now that's not happening as much, which is good. >> Yeah, that's great. >> But we want them in school. >> Yeah. >> >> To learn you have to be in school. >> >> I think would be the overarching

idea there. >> Okay. And then I would say just as the schedule starts to be built, the calendar I guess, and maybe dive into if there are days or that we notice we have the lower attendance or >>

Yeah, and I think we did that last year a little bit and we realized that there really wasn't and we'll do it again, but there really wasn't a significant discrepancy in the amount of kids that were

out on half days or holidays or any of that >> Okay. >> sort of stuff. I remember we looked at that for some of the holidays last year. >> Yeah, I seem to recall that. >> And I think it was always

consistently above 94%. >> Okay. >> But yeah, we can look again to see if any of that has changed. >> I just that's something I get asked about. Who developed this calendar? And >> >> I've had people

tell me they want more time off. I'm like, wow. >> >> Around the holidays. Full two weeks. It's like not happening. >> We could go to that April schedule you showed me once. >> >> I mean you did ask

for that, Jen, so. >> Other questions? So um I appreciate the presentation. I know there's there's always so much data that comes out of this and I think you do a nice job presenting it. Um I would

just like to state I I think this is sort of a case in point example of why I think having a teaching and learning subcommittee is going to be important because it it's much more than what can be

covered with us just here. Um and I agree. I mean, we definitely, you know, it's not about, you know, who's doing who's doing what. I mean, there's a variety of different factors that go into it. So,

you need to sell, you know, I think celebrate the uh successes as well. Um I don't have any questions on the, you know, certainly not on the 10th grade just given the environment um in the lower

grades. I, you know, feel like I understand what's happening. Um but I think it would be good to maybe explore the teaching and learning. Um just to maybe take a little bit of a deeper dive into the

grade seven, the math in particular. I mean, this is obviously, you know, a bit of a trend yep here. Uh it doesn't necessarily appear to be, you know, cohort related. So, um you know, I guess that's

my my only comment. But, you know, and then after that, it'd be good to get some get some get some feedback. >> I agree. And I think part of that, too, is looking at how we're implementing the math

curriculum. Are we implementing it in different ways and different grade levels? And have some teachers been provided more PD than others? And I think that's some of the stuff that we're trying to

dive into this year so we can make sure that everybody's on a level playing field. Um because I think what happens sometimes is new teachers come to the district and and we don't necessarily catch

them up to what everyone else has been provided and we just expect them to um figure it out on their own. Um so, we've tried to be intentional and thoughtful about now when we provide PD, keeping a

record of that PD so that we can get that to new people um when they enter the district. But, I agree, the grade seven math is something that I also had my eye on. >> Go ahead. >> I will repeat some

just to say that it's um you can see how much went into this. There's a wealth of information. So, thank you um because it gives a lot and I think the subcommittee is a great time to to dig in. I am

particularly struck by your writing example. Um right, 3 years in of of that standards and to see particularly cuz you give a bunch of slides that give the specifics and how far we might deviate from

the state standard. I think another piece you might have shared out is but yet our students can on a sentence by sentence, you know, the diagramming of a sentence we're way way above state. Is that

correct? And it it does seem like a lot, you know, that that that is one piece of curriculum or instruction that Sutton has down pat. But now it's the reading comprehension. How do you both understand

a passage and then write about it? Those go to me hand in hand. So anyway, so so seeing that concentrated curriculum, standardized language across grades, focus where we are all speaking the same way,

it can really have an impact. Suggest that and you know, again, we see that on the sentence level instruction. Kids got that but now we've we've got a zero in on that. And then the other this is my on

the MCAS in the high school I agree, you know, with Pat there's not much we can say about it other than I I wish there were a way to to share with kids that beyond you know, to pick up from Mr.

Urquhart's example of thinking about what life is like post-secondary. There actually are a lot of opportunities in lots of different professions where they're going to be tested and they're going to

have to you know, so taking the foot off the pedal because it's not a graduation requirement is not really going to prepare our students best for life after high school because that will continue to

be a part of their college life and it will be continue to be a part of a professional whatever path they might take. You have to learn how to take a test. You have to learn how to do it in a in a

tight time frame where there's the stress of I want to focus on this question but I know I have to get through. So to me what the MCAS does is it it's the practice of that. And so I wish we could

impress upon that it's Yeah, it might not matter for graduation, but learning those skills >> It's still important. >> It's still important. Um so that was my >> we can encourage our teachers to

continue to have conversations like that with kids. >> Yeah. >> Um >> Yeah. I was not a test taker. >> Me either. >> I did stressed me to the max and if I hadn't, you know, figured out certain

strategies along the way, I don't think I could have, you know, >> And one thing that I think I don't remember who I had the conversation with. Um I'm very interested in the grade three cohort results

moving forward. Um so they're now grade four because I think and I could be wrong. I'm trying to think back to COVID times. I believe that is the cohort of students that never had hybrid learning or

any sort of un non-traditional learning path. Um and I'm very curious because our our third grade cohort last year, only 32% of them were meeting expectations in ELA. That should not be happening in

science. Um and I am very curious as to whether or not the narrative that has been going around the state that much of this decrease in achievement levels statewide was due to COVID is actually going

to end up being true or not. Um because if that's the cohort we're now tracking and we want to see what their achievement is and they had a traditional schooling experience, is it truly what was left

over from COVID or is it instructional practices and curriculum or is it a combination of both? So that was just one thing that I was curious and looking at moving forward. >> Yeah, I've read

definitely some articles that will show that it was starting to die before COVID. >> Yeah. >> Um and is that, you know, a sign of kids not reading as much, being on devices, you know, I mean there's

there can be a whole host of factors that are outside even the school's control too as well. So just would add that. >> effect, but did it have as much of an effect as has been communicated in some

circumstances? I'll be curious to see over the next couple years what those populations of kids do. And the state acknowledges that, too. So, they just um passed the I forget the name of the law off

the top of my head, but starting next year every single school district within the Commonwealth has to have in K to 3 at least a core knowledge program in place similar to ours and others. So, yes,

we're doing it this year, but we would have been required by law to do it next year had we not started it this year. >> We know how much money went into that and how much focus is going on. Is it So,

>> Um and so, with that, too, it's in my superintendent update, but Courtney is coming in December to do her building update, and she I think I had originally in the past meeting say we'll try to give

you an update on the pilot in October, but we said it just makes sense for her to do all of that when she comes in December, her building update and the pilot update. So, it is happening, but that

just jogged my memory that I think we originally said October, but she's going to do it December 7th or whatever that meeting is. Oh, sorry, Chris. Did you have questions? >> Uh did they not go to

jail if she had questions? Jill, do you have questions? >> Oh, sorry. No, it took me a minute to click over. Um no, I don't have any questions. I'd like further um we'll do a deep dive when we do our

teaching and learning, but um I definitely agree with Caitlin. I heard um there was some good things going on, and I definitely know at the elementary level having the frameworks for writing. I think

like Caitlin said, it's going to take some time, but I think that's wonderful. And I guess just in the teaching and learning um and again, we'll look to our administrators and Caitlin um to advise,

but I do want to um take a look at some of our curriculum, particularly our investigations math, and want to make sure that it is aligned with the state standards. >> Yeah, I just um the seventh grade

math kind of stuck out to me as well. We wanted to dig into that in the teaching and learning subcommittee. And even the sixth grade math, I I know you mentioned we had like a math framework and we

have a math curriculum. >> a math curriculum, but I it's not they were never provided. This is the thing that I was they never were provided PD. They were just given the materials and said, "Here you

go." Um so we did them a disservice as a district by doing that, but that's one of the things that we need to dive further into. >> Yep. Yeah, so looking forward to doing that. So, thank you for

presenting this. Any other questions? Okay. So, moving on to the finance update. >> Um I I can speak to them if you want or >> What was it? The grants? >> Yeah, we have to accept some grants. >> Yeah,

they're just our entitled So, 240 and what is it? 242? >> 262. >> 262. I always do that. And my cap. >> Um they are the entitlement grants for special education. So, we use those to pay tuitions and

transportation. Um and then the My Cap planning grant is just um funding for the teachers that work on My Cap implementation across the middle and high school after school hours. Um so, it's paying

them stipends for their work. >> One thing I want to highlight is all of these grants are less funding than prior years. So, those costs didn't go away. They were absorbed into the general operating

budget. Um especially with 240 and 262 to have the lowest amount of funding shared within the at least my my tenure um as business manager was very surprising. >> And the 240 and 262 are federal

grants, right? So, lowest >> a decrease in about I think it was $7,000 um in the title grants, which were also federal grants this year, too. So, we had to cover those costs with >> And these are just

passed These are just passed through down to the state and then passed through to us and we get them based on what a certain certain criteria we get. >> Yep. >> The Yeah, all the entitlement grants

are federal and then passed to the state. State does the application process and the awarding. But surprising and you know difficult to absorb those costs. >> Just just from a relative uh you know

viewpoint to to the 240 and 262, I mean how how much how much are they off year over year? >> Um I would say from from 240's peak it was close to the 390 something thousand. So you know we're it's

over $10,000 for that grant alone. Um and then 262 is a smaller grant. I mean it's only $18,353 total, but you know that one's down by closer to $1,000. And then like Caitlyn was mentioning the three

title grants was probably a collective 7,000. Um so all all said, you know it's probably hovering around that $40,000 range over when you're comparing it to peak funding levels. So >> And you would

probably expect to see it going higher. >> Right. >> in terms of >> have certainly only rose, but unfortunately expenses aren't a direct correlation to how these grants are awarded. And seeing how

these grants are funding key aspects of district operations, I mean $40,000 is is is an IA, right? So >> Is there a way when you're doing the budget presentation to kind of show the lot like >> Yeah,

I I mean I I also I can share it with the entire committee, but I added 240 in to my circuit breaker historical review. Um uh presentation that I I had at the last SLG meeting. So I can even show the

historicals on on that slide as well, but you know even a grant not increasing in its its revenue allotment is is enough to to cause impact, right? Just because a grant stays flat doesn't mean that

it's not proportionally um impacting the general operating budget. >> If it stays flat, it's not covering cost of inflation. >> Correct. Yeah, right. >> of the Yeah, services are more. >> Okay. Jen,

you want to make a motion? >> I move to accept the FC240 grant, the FC262 grant, and the MyCap grant as presented. >> Reed Erickson second. >> Any more discussion? Okay, let's take it to a vote, Jen.

>> Darling, I. >> Matera, I. >> Royce, I. >> Reed Erickson, I. >> Gazzola, I. >> Great. >> It's 5-0. [cough] All right, on to facilities. And policy review. >> Under um policy review in the packet is

a requirement based on uh state law. Um this one does not need our waving of our three standard readings, so we can do that. Um the reason for it is it has to do with how uh library book will um or

other resources provided by the library could be challenged. And um Di was very helpful in following up that the Massachusetts or no, I think it was the Maybe it was the Massachusetts Library

Association does have a document that will need to um will need to be prepared to have ready once this policy is formally adopted. And um it also involves rescinding IJ-R because it needs to be

replaced with the redline versions of what you have for you in the packet. So happy to answer any particular questions as a subcommittee. We went through line by line. Um I will just raise it. It It

is a concern cuz in a couple of places it does rest um some responsibilities on a library professional. I believe we don't not sure our library assistant would feel >> There's a lot of responsibility

on that one role. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. It's kind of concerning. >> I think we Did we choose to possibly put in librarian or designate? I don't remember if we did or not. And that was the only change that

was made. >> Yeah. That was the only change that we made to the standard. So, if you look at IJL which is the library material selection and adoption. Um again, really appreciative of dye. This can be

reflected is that when you see blue underlining that means that is our suggestion to change it. And as Caitlin just suggested, we said the librarian or designate will select materials to be included

in the school library. So, IJL deals with how you select materials to be added. Um IJLA talks about library resources and the criteria that is behind the selection of library resources. And IJLA-R is

reconsideration of library materials, which will deal with what I said is if there is a challenge. Other questions that any folks have? >> I have questions, but I I will defer. To just for context, so

can you just kind of share again what the you know, where this is where this is coming from? >> Mhm. >> Right to read. >> Thank you. There's There was a law that was passed in August. >> August 10th.

>> August 10th. >> Yep. >> Um and I I my guess would be the the law is based upon >> freedom to read, not right to read. Freedom to read. >> Yeah, freedom to read. >> Freedom to read. >> Um you know,

there are challenges to library materials that have kind of been school committees are being asked to handle them across the board. >> Yep. >> And so, Massachusetts State House decided that they

wanted to standardize how Massachusetts public schools would address these issues. It does put um >> Mhm. >> a very detailed procedure that will have to go in place if there is a challenge. >> Okay.

So, so the dissension here is that um is that this sort of runs a foul or just falls short of addressing everything in that law. >> Yeah, what was currently there um was not as detailed. >> Okay. >>

So, it a lot of it is I mean or substituting. I would say I J L was more There were all six bullet points were removed and new six bullet points were put in. Um library resources it some changes to

what how you the criteria for selection and then really the big change is that you must resend I J dash R which is how you would deal with a challenge and you now need to um put in I J Sorry, I J L A

dash R is there, but what we need to now have is this document that Di has shared. Um and we could put that in the next packet. >> Yeah, I can tell it's from the American Library >> document that like

quasi judicial panel that needs to get set up or is that Yeah, okay. >> Yep. Yep. And the form that the that Di was able to find from the Massachusetts Library Association uh it it is basically what

the challenge form will look like for any public. >> Someone to submit a request >> Yeah. >> for the challenge, they have to fill out all this information that is then goes to the committee that you

assemble. Um and then it goes before the school committee. >> Yes. And then once that committee deals with it, um you can't redo a same complaint on the same chat like if on the same book for a period

of 3 years. And that that piece is always kind of That's I J L A {dash} R. Which wait a minute, this one is completely new. That's why it's not red-lined. Sorry. I J L A {dash} R is completely new and

what we're taking out is I J {dash} R. Mhm. >> Um Does anyone have I can go. >> You can go. I'm I was on the policy subcommittee, so >> Um >> [cough] >> Can you help me to understand this statement?

So this is um I have it in my notes. Please hold. >> [cough] >> Um This is from I J L A. Some materials and it's a bullet. Some materials contain factual material that is no longer accurate nor

current. What is a factual material that is no longer accurate or current? >> Marry it to Aaron under reevaluation. Oh, yeah. >> Mhm. Pluto. >> It's a good example. >> that changed >> Okay. >> I was

devastated by that. But >> >> Um >> Okay. It's just oddly It's just oddly worded, but Thank you, Aaron. >> That's a great example. >> I didn't even care. I didn't even care. That was a great example.

>> You're perfect. >> I'm still looking for the bullet. >> >> Page 12 under reevaluation reading of library resources, the second bullet down. >> Okay. >> Oh, contain factual material that is no

longer accurate. >> Sorry, I didn't read it. >> Yeah, Pluto. >> Pluto. There we go. Thank you. Um It does put a lot of burden on the library librarian or designee to make these kind of sub- somewhat

potentially subjective determinations. Like another thing that was going through my head, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, right? Harriet Beecher Stowe, anti-slavery novel, right? Controversial at the time. >>

[cough] >> You know, so >> in our library? >> I don't know, but I mean some some people might find it offensive, but like what what are other examples of books that like Like who makes that call? >>

Right. I just I mean we could talk about any book. I just don't know what is in our libraries and what is not. I mean >> understand. I'm just saying it's like it there's a lot of sort of like you have

to really trust this designee to that that they're going to implement this kind of in a real unbiased way. And it's a lot It's just a lot to put on that person. >> I mean again, that's why somebody

who has the library >> nice >> license has been trained in all of this and we had to get rid of that position, so budget-wise. So, I mean I >> >> You want somebody who's trained You want somebody

who's trained. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And I mean I'm we can always have our library assistants reach out to the town library director, but he also has a lot on his plate, too, that he has to manage

there. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to help, but for right now, that is our plan is to ask >> the town. >> him. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> For his guidance. >> And I think one of the

concerns when we discussed with the you know will the library go stale, meaning not purchasing new things because we don't have somebody who's overseeing the purchasing of new resources. >> What is

the What's the appeal process after this panel? So, let's say you appeal this and then you lose. Like where do you go from there? >> The court of appeals. >> You go to court of appeals. >> Yeah. >>

Yep. >> Which is a new one. >> All right. >> At least in my mind, I was like, "Oh, yeah, no, I'll read that for you cuz I remember seeing it. Where is it? The decision of the school committee to

remove materials from a school library may be challenged by a student, parent, or guardian of the school in Supreme or Superior Court. So, somebody challenges it. We put together a quasi committee.

They reach a decision. The school committee then has to um >> Well, they present you with what they think. The school committee has to is solely responsible for removing the book by law. >> removal

only may take place by majority vote of the school committee. And then we will be named in a lawsuit, the school committee. >> Wow. Awesome. I'm glad we have a good lawyer. And has there been any case

law around this yet? Or these are new relatively new policies? >> the law on August 10th. So, I don't >> But but um No, I mean challenges can I mean that's how one got to Scotus or the Supreme Court.

So. Yeah. There are examples of all this. >> [cough] >> Any other questions? Pat? >> Just a general question in terms of the classrooms versus library. Do these same standards sort of apply to the

classrooms? I mean there's reference to age-appropriate material. Um >> Like a classroom library versus >> present all points of view. And I know that we I mean I think that was even a policy we had

discussed last year maybe, you know, in terms of you know, whether it was you know, controversial subjects or what. But I guess I'm just wondering I mean if if if this, you know, is or should be you

know, if it's the standard in the library, it should be standard for classrooms. I mean we're talking students. >> I think the difficult thing with the classroom libraries is it's the teachers'

personal property in a lot of cases cuz the the school libraries the school committee property, right? It's the district's but in the classrooms often times those teachers bring those books and

themselves, so I I'm no >> Probably both, like PTO sometimes purchases or >> The book fair. >> But book fair, parents purchase like from a wish list. >> And the district buys all the books in the

library, right? They're not donated or anything like that. >> No, there's a lot >> There are some that are donated like through sales at the book fair. You get money. >> Yeah, but then at least when

the PTO was involved, they then took the money that had been created from the book fair to pur- to make the decision, so it was, you know, a library person there, but we heard at the senior center

that they have donated um with huge thanks. I think whenever community gets involved. >> Yep. >> Um I don't know the answer and I don't know that anybody Yeah. Um in a well- functioning, you know,

with lot the where there were a lots of people, you know, you could kind of say, "Well, librarian, we'd also like you to take on this task of you know, just meeting with teachers and and overseeing

what might be in their classroom, but I just don't think we A >> the individual classrooms, I don't know how realistic it would be for >> No. >> I feel like classroom library is up to the teacher. My

Harrison had said it's like their personal >> They're they're doing a lot to put those books >> We're entrusting them. They're professionals. They're They have a background. I don't >> Just a process-

related question. Um So, should we or do we have to vote to rescind this policy before adopting the others? >> I think we should because that one is wholly incorrect at this point, So, it might just

behoove us to just rescind the one that we know is no longer >> Okay. It's just we're going to be operating without a formal policy for a period. That's all. >> Um well, remember it's a {dash} R. So,

it should be more like this is I see your point, Pat. You would like to go to our meetings before we adopt >> I mean I'm I'm fine with rescinding if it's if this is sort of once flagrant foul. It's

just we're not adopting the others for another two readings. So. >> Yeah. I see your point. I'm willing to >> So, you have something in place >> say it's better to have a policy than not have a

policy. From like a risk perspective, I guess. >> Nobody will claim that we're not letting them challenge in the next >> >> Yep. I agree. I say we hold on. Okay. >> Jill, did you have any questions?

>> That's a great point, Pat. >> Sorry, can you hear me on the phone? >> Yep. >> No, not at this time. Thank you. >> There will be two more readings. We don't need to talk about them for the next two

unless there are discussion points, but they should remain on the agenda. And um Sorry, Di. I put out She had already stamped it as rescinding cuz >> And I think if you come >> a new date. >> or have

more questions, it would just be helpful for Pat, Chris, or Jill to email those questions >> Yep. >> to who's the chair of the policy? >> Uh that is me. >> So, email it to Aaron and just CC Di on it,

too. Um cuz she handles a lot of that if you have questions in the meantime beforehand that you want them to look into. >> Yeah, so we can come prepared and use our next meeting. We will have another

policy sub committee before the third adoption. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So if there's any questions that come from the full committee, we can address it in that sub committee meeting. >> Okay. >>

Yep. >> Great. So we're going to table table the resend for now. >> The resending. >> >> Do we need a motion to do that? Right? >> We never had a motion on the table so >> Never mind. >> Perfect. >>

Okay. >> All right. >> Did we want to talk about It said policy review. Did we or do we not? >> Well, we're next up on agenda sub committee report so we could share. >> Okay. >> We did discuss other

pieces. >> Yep. >> That sub committee but >> All right. Go ahead Jen. >> Yeah, you're the only sub committee that's met since the last meeting. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Jen, why don't you report out? I mean

do you want to or just I mean other than we dealt we literally went line by line for the policies that you have before us. Um and we talked about our meal charging >> meal charging procedures and >>

Even though it's not a policy. >> Yeah, it won't need to come for an official vote but we thought it was important that you have eyes on the procedure. So we reviewed the procedure for the food

services director and provided feedback. >> Yes. >> Because she had done a fantastic job of indicating what changes kind of some things that she wanted and so we just brought a couple questions back.

Um >> And then that's going to go to the wellness committee. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah, did you guys catch that piece that meal charging should also has to run through the wellness committee. Which has

that? >> No. >> >> We are having trouble getting everyone together. Um >> I wonder if you do it virtually if it would be easier. >> That or I was wondering morning. >> Or putting it out there to see

if there are other people that now want to be on it that weren't on it previously. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, I feel kind of bad too for you, Jen, cuz it's This is not a school committee role. You just are

were on this previously. You've continued to be a volunteer, but where does the like But it had it has to happen. >> like Yeah, it's a regulation. Um they have to meet quarterly. Um What was it? 3

years ago? I was still principal. >> Yeah. >> when the health teacher was Wasn't that the same timeline? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, I think this is year three for me of this wellness. I took a class. >> Yeah,

I think maybe what we need to do is >> State. >> have Christina reach out to people to see if there are new people that want to be involved in the committee. >> for it? >> Oh, I got this free at the

moment. >> I don't know. >> But yeah, I think if we >> Yep. >> Yeah, thank you. So yeah, we covered that. So yeah, so wellness >> or Christina's. Christina has tried. She has sent out countless emails

to get this group together and they just >> Some are very involved and have after-school commitments with other either coaching or so I think if Yeah, we could >> Advertise for new members and or a

virtual option. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um we mostly talked about more of the structure of like reaching out and grouping like when we'd want Harrison to come. >> Mhm. >> Any other um admins so we don't

like bring them in willy-nilly. >> Yeah, we know the demands on all admin time and and all a lot of folks' time. Um so yeah, wanted to be And so we had already shared this out, but I think I'll just

repeat it here is our next task um at the at at at this the next meeting will be really to to go into the student the J policies the student policies so that the we're not going to hamper or hinder

the middle school high school in their work and reporting back to their school councils um the the handbook work. >> Right, because they need those policies to be yeah. >> to be. >> Okay. >> That

makes sense. >> Yep. So, yeah. >> How did the um I mean have we adopted all the finance policies or how are those going to get handled? Are they going to come up through the finance subcommittee or

are they going to come up through policy? Or both? >> Yeah, last year they got put on our agenda a couple times at the budget subcommittee and then we would always run out of time for policies. Um so,

I do think they're going to have to I I think the right place is to you know, raise the ones that have a budget financial impact. Um and probably bring them back to budget subcommittee. >> Do you see

that happening kind of this cycle? >> Uh after we get through J probably. Oh, do you think this budget cycle? >> this year this like school committee year. >> I I have hope. I hope. >> Yeah, and we I

mean we had kind of we were sensitive and aware of >> >> Yeah. >> Adding to >> Yeah, we're not going to call poor Harrison to the budget sorry, the policy subcommittee. You're already at the budget

subcommittee, so. We won't call you too many times, but >> It's a one person show right now. >> >> He's doing a phenomenal job. >> Yes, he is. >> It's not even a show. Kind of like a nightmare. >> >>

Don't get too excited. >> That was Do you have a stand-up comedian gig on the side Harrison? Something you need to tell us about? That was just perfectly timed and stated. So. >> I'm going to be

posting him on the sudden Facebook comedy hour with Harrison. >> There you go. >> Maybe that was some material from your mask or your you were that the speaker? >> Oh, the panelists. >> Yeah. All

right, let's keep this moving. >> Um >> Subcommittee reports, we're good. >> So >> Out of policy. >> Now we're at the SWAC quarterly report. >> Yeah. So I'm just going to give you the five executive

summary bullet points for the first quarter. So this is SWAC's quarterly report that Arnold um the executive director has to release. We have to then present it to school committee so that it is in

the >> minutes. >> On the minutes. So first quarter highlights, basically it's just all about preparing for the opening of school over at SWAC including programming, staffing, and faculty readiness.

They have tables in there if you would like to see them as to what their current enrollment is, what their faculty enrollment is, what positions they still have open, and what the financial

implications are. Um they have advanced the Grow career development program and expanded access to dedicated vocational and independent living learning spaces. They have adjusted some classroom

configurations and staffing assignments to align resources with student needs. One of the biggest things that we've heard as a board is they've actually supported a leadership transition at Grow

Elementary School. The principal of the program did resign over the summer and they have yet to fill that position. They have someone doing both positions um for the time being um just due to lower

enrollment. Eventually they probably will need to hire an additional administrator um and they are continuing to monitor enrollment trends and their implications for the 2027 operating budget because

I can tell you that as a board when we've been looking at it, we are below in all categories what we have budgeted for for student enrollment. Um so for example, we budgeted for 35 at Grow right now,

we only have 27 enrolled and what the financial implications are associated with that if we do not get that enrollment number up. So that's what we're working on as a board. It's about five pages long

if you would like to go through it. It just has more detailed information about that stuff. And then I just have a quick couple things for the superintendent report. Um so like Matt said, the high

school play was fantastic. I ran into Aaron there yesterday. Um it was really funny. The set was amazing. The costumes were amazing. We had two parents um who actually were responsible for creating

the set and the costumes. So a huge thank you um to them um and to Mr. Loss. So Mr. Loss is the play director and all of the time and energy he put into that play. Um it was it was evident. It was

great. It was a murder mystery. Um there were 13 student actors and three student crew members that participated in that play and they will be doing another one um in the spring. So they'll be doing

two plays this year. They don't always do two. Uh Facebook is up and running. We have zero followers as of right now. I don't know how to actually get it out there. Um but we did make one post today.

It is Sutton Public Schools. What I've come to find out after talking with the help department via Facebook is that when you do your first post, when you do a search, sometimes it can take 24 to 72

hours for them to vet your page to make sure it's okay before it will actually pop up. So if you go into the search bar and you type in Sutton Public Schools, it now will pop up, but it won't pop up

quite yet if you hit pages. So if anyone's interested, it is there and I'm going to figure out a way to get it out there so that people can see it, but it is now operational. Um >> Maybe the athletics

like Sutton athletics or the booster. Maybe they can >> to pop popping up in the search. I spent way too much time dealing with that and so I'm I'm hopeful it will be fixed by the end of the week. Um

We also had trunk or treat on Saturday. Uh that was wonderful. It was incredibly busy. Um my kids had a wonderful time, had lots of candy. Um I want to give a big shout out to Doug Matthews. He is the

coordinator for trunk or treat in uh the first trunk or treat was my first year here in Sutton and to see wasn't it? >> No, no. >> No. >> First under Doug. >> Okay, under Doug maybe. >> No, no, no. >>

It hasn't been >> >> Okay. >> It was the first under Doug, but it had we had starting it. Doug took it to a whole new level. >> It is amazing how much it has changed in just the four years that I've

been able to go. It was spectacular. >> Who won? >> So Jess Clement Yes, so that one won. Yes, so and thank you again to the elementary PTO and all the student and parent volunteers. It took a village

to set all that up and to clean it up and I can tell you that the place was spotless and for the amount of people and the amount of foot traffic that was there like I want to give them a huge shout

out for taking the time to make sure that they returned also the parking lot in the surrounding areas to a condition that would work for us. So that was wonderful. This week is a big week at the

elementary school. They have their fun run on Friday. So Boosterthon is going on. This is one of their biggest fundraisers. So if you have a kiddo in pre-K to five, please if you are able donate. We

use these funds to pay for a buses for field trips and the PTO uses it to fund mini grants for our teachers. >> If you don't have a kid pre-K >> Even if you don't have a kid you can donate of course.

But you won't get the information. So I wonder how you can go about doing that. >> Maybe on our Facebook >> Maybe I can find the link. So that is on Friday. They will be participating in their fun

runs all day Friday and teachers / administrators have all signed up to we are having inflatable races with the administrators. That is part of like if you raise this amount of money this is what

you're going to get. So for example grades one and two, Courtney myself and a few administrators will be dressed in inflatable costumes and we will race each other for the kids. So >> How much do we

have to raise for Harrison to get in one? >> >> Harrison do you want to join us? >> You can do the gun. >> I'll make sure we take some videos of that. A huge shout out to all of the staff members who

have willingly signed up to do this. The kids are going to love it. Like they love nothing more than to see their teachers and administrators engaging and stuff like that. We also have our Halloween

parade on Friday. so that is our pre-K 5 parade. Um, it is a tradition. I'm not sure dating how far back, but the middle school and the high school students come over during advisory. They line the

walkway, and then all of our pre-K to 5 kiddos walk through, and they feel like celebrities, um, and they get to wear their costumes. So, Courtney has sent out to families in pre-K to 5 kind of what

the parameters are around costumes, so just make sure you look at that. Like the big thing, like don't send in toy weapons, um, or any sort of scary masks, and to make sure that you send a change of

clothes because they will be engaging in the fun run, and we don't want them necessarily running in their costumes for 40 minutes. Uh, like Matt also mentioned, tomorrow is the mashup at Gillette

Stadium, um, with the BV Hub. So, I will be there tomorrow for part of the day to be a part of that. I'm really excited to see that, and our 8th graders also went to the Basketball Hall of Fame last

week. That was coordinated by the BV Hub, um, in partnership with the Mass Makes Innovation Challenge. It was an applied AI showcase, so I just want to make sure that we're thanking the BV Hub for

workforce development because they are really making sure to provide these opportunities for Sutton kiddos. Uh, Matt already talked about high school showcase night. Um, there should be more to come.

Um, we're looking to get some information out there, um, about our partnership with BV Hub and how we are interconnecting Sutton Academy innovation career pathways and general studies, and we hope to

be able to share some of that information at the showcase night next week as well. And as Matt said, BV Hub will be there, um, as part of the night. ELA pilot update. I already said Courtney will do

that in December. And then I do also have, it's very long. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I did have a parent, and she's actually in the audience tonight, who over the summer shared, um,

an opportunity that her daughter was able to engage in in Washington, D.C. over the summer, um, and she was unable to participate in the Envision Middle School Summer Program. So, within the

superintendent report, I included the whole email just so that you can learn more about it, um, but it was a great opportunity for Molly to participate. She got to spend the week in Washington D.C.

and practice some of her leadership skills. And then also I wanted to make sure that we're shouting out and this was also the purpose of um her mom's email that Ms. Pollock is the reason that she was

able to go to this conference because she took the time to nominate her and send her there. Um so I have a bunch of photos and there's a whole write about write up about everything she did, but I did

want to say thank you to Ms. Pollock for taking the time to do that because it obviously had a huge impact on Molly. >> Awesome. >> That's great. >> Fantastic. >> I think that's it. >> Any questions?

>> Any Any facilities related updates at all? >> Yep. Okay, so you first part I didn't say apparently open positions. High school special education teacher, we're still making that work. Um full-time

AP clerk. Um that's in Harrison's office and that is why he is now down and by himself. We're working on filling that. It has been posted and then we are also looking for a facilities director. >> Any

Any prospects? >> So we did post the position um just to garner interest. We're still working on what that's going to look like. Um we have seven applicants right now. >> Oh. >> Um which is good. But

it's a big job. >> It's a very important role. >> It's a very important job. And it really is something that requires someone to be on campus when students are in the buildings from 6:30 to 3:00 every

single day because they are troubleshooting lots of things all day long. >> Is there like a time frame for >> we usually will leave it up for 2 weeks. Um so it was posted last Tues- Monday? Monday. I

think it was posted the day of town meeting. Um so it's been up a week. We'll see where we're at by the end of this week. Um and we'll go from there. >> And will there And And in the best of all

possible worlds, will there be any overlap? Well, they >> But, um our current facilities director has said that if we would like him to come by or do something like that, he would be more than willing

to do that. >> And that he's always available by phone. That's what he told me. >> That's a very nice offer cuz we know how much uh information >> Mhm. >> he holds. >> And And it has brought up the

idea of we really need to be looking into um whether it's it's a a school position or a town school position of cross-training a possible mechanic at some point as well because that's another critical

position within our district. Um and if that person were to leave, we would be in the same boat cuz no one else knows how to do that job currently. >> I mean, I think as, you know, to the extent

pretty much all of us, I think, had had gone on the, you know, one form of a tour or another of the facilities, you know, whether this year or in prior years. It's just the this is a behemoth of a

campus and just, you know, all a lot of you know, there's a lot of institutional knowledge with the people that are here, but also a lot of systems that require, you know, a lot of money, resources,

skill. >> It's a big one. >> And time. >> On the the SWAC question, if if for some reason your enrollment declines even more, what does that mean to the like the members the members of SWAC? >> So,

when you're looking at your projected tuition increases, so usually you'll see like a 1% increase for member districts and a 3% increase for non-member districts, you're probably going to see an

increase in your tuitions if we can't recover. We were in the same position last year where enrollment was down and we actually budgeted for less than we had the prior prior year because of that. Um

and what Arnold keeps saying to at least all of us at the table is like the the not so good thing for me is is it's becoming apparent that the districts themselves are creating their own in-house

programs that they're not needing to send kids out to me because they're able to keep them in district. Um and I know that's something that we've even talked about exploring the next couple years here

in Sutton as well. Um and it would be the program that we would look to develop and that Jess Ledoux and I have had conversations about would be a direct competitor with SWEC. >> Is that Are there any

conflict of interests or anything? >> Um but yeah, it would it would probably result in higher tuitions, most likely. >> What When would we Would we know? >> Uh usually we get the tuitions not until

like March, April-ish. Yeah. >> There's been years where SWEC has had an overabundance of funds that they collect and then they send it back to us. >> or they give it as a credit. So >> So are we

baking like an increase in our budget this year or not? >> Yep. And we also had an application for a non-member district to become a member district and one of our concerns was how many students did

that district currently have at SWEC and what the implications to the budget would be if they then were paying the member rate and the non-member rate given what our enrollment currently is. So we as

a board recommended a phased-in approach where they would still be a member for the first year, but they would not get the full rate reduction just so that we're able to plan for that financial

implication. >> Any other questions? Jill, do you have any questions? >> No, thank you. >> Okay. >> [cough] >> Great. Um so next is that school committee operating guide. So my thought process on this

was to kind of chunk it up into smaller sections, literally four pages of a section. Um however, I am happy um if folks want to discuss um the suggestion from Elaine. If folks want to talk about that,

we can. I'm not I'm open to feedback. Um I know we do have a lot of goals on our um that we set for ourselves this year. So, I did want to open that up for folks. >> Whose comments were in green? >>

Those are my edits. >> Okay. >> So, was it the last meeting that we had discussed this somewhat? >> Mhm. >> Or two meetings ago. I I forgot, but um I mean, I I think the big takeaway and Ardent maybe

sort of called it out. Just the, you know, making sure that we're dealing with accurate information within this. Um I don't think you need to cover every single aspect of what we do. And I think I

made the comment previously and I see still see a lot of references to the Mass General Law, but >> Yeah, but they're green now, so I added those. Yeah. >> So, um I mean, I I'm okay with it. I think

it's a good guiding document. I think it probably incorporates, you know, from a couple different resources, not just um MASC. >> Right, that's correct. >> Um so, I mean, I'm I'm personally not in

opposition to it. It's just how do how do we you know, how deep do we want to go with with some of it? And I would probably just recommend to you know, hit the hit the salient points and and you know,

sort of move this off our agenda. >> Just Elaine's point of like, you know, one of our not goals goals was to have shorter meetings and I mean, I am a frequent visitor to the MASC website anytime I

need like more info. That's where I go. I don't know if I would go to this if maybe if I needed the Mass General Laws. Like you I know it might be you know, I just I don't know. Is it redundant? Would

it be helpful for someone in that short time before they take the class? >> Would it be helpful to a person who has taken the class but maybe wants to know how the Sutton version of the school

committee operates, right? Because it's not all, you know, MASC is sort of the blanket, right? But it's not necessarily tailored to us. That's kind of the thought, at least my thought. >> Okay. So, I

don't know if this document is there yet. Like one example I could think of would be like the bill schedules, you know, >> Yeah, that's something we might want to add, right? >> Yeah. So, yes. I just

how much time, you know, >> Yep, which is why >> Yeah. >> I wanted to talk to >> I like putting Yes. >> I think it's I you know, in terms of staff resources and the comment was you know, made and

noted I think um I'm not sure entirely sure that you know, staff has to be in attendance for this. I mean, or if it's something that we can you know, you know, sort of do on the back end of our

meeting the five of us, you know, for an extra 20 minutes or 30 minutes, whatever it may take to kind of push through. So, um >> Yes, could it Yeah, could our meeting end and at with like a working

session on the tail end or something? Not saying executive session. >> No, it wouldn't be executive session. >> Right. No, >> I know that. I'm just so we're not wasting other people's time. >> We

could even set up a work session as a separate. >> I just meant like we're all here. We're you know, we're like okay, we're going to go through these four pages of this section or whatever. But yeah,

I think I guess making >> fitting it in is the kind of a Is that kind of where you're going? Like how do you how do you want to fit this in to the get broader agenda? >> I mean, I like what you're

saying about making like Sutton focused and maybe if we took out all the redundancy, you know what I mean? Like you go here, here, here, and here to MASC or take the class, but the difference is, you

know, and even there could be value in maybe in that. I just the first one and like Aaron had pointed out that after what page 10 or 14 at >> Yeah, and that's why we're going to chop it up into

smaller like more bite-size things, but >> >> And Aaron, what do you think? >> I am definitely concerned by the length of the our meetings overall and you know, I mean I I did come prepared with with

comments. I think one thing would be uh right now this is a PDF. So like we can't redline it. >> Uh share it out like a Google Doc or something. >> don't we run into Yeah, I know. I And so that's what

I'm saying, but like I don't want to take and you know, but I know it has to be done in a deliberation. It's an It has to be done openly, so a working meeting could could could do that. Um >> I think

just to be clear, I mean I I don't think there's anything controversial in here. I I I mean >> No, it's just a matter of how to fit it in. >> Right. >> Yeah, how how to fit it in when we have lots of

other responsibilities. So, I'm not against them. >> Joe, what do you think? You're out there on the Mass Pike. >> I'm safely home now. Um I I do think it's a good idea to have a working session. I'm

also aware and agree that you know you don't want to take up people's time if they don't need to be here. Um but I do think it is worthwhile to get a document in place. Um so, I'm I'm for having a

working session. >> When do we do that then? So, we're talking about a separate >> We'll make a working session. Yeah, we'll probably use one of our >> in order to hammer the entire document. >> it

out. We can figure out maybe >> Like I said, I just I just like to get it done and move on. >> Yeah. Yeah, so we maybe we'll work work with Caitlyn to figure out when you know, we can use one of the

as neededs to figure out what's a light. >> December 21st, I think it's going to be available, right, Caitlyn? >> >> December 21st or probably the second November one. You're going to need all your as

needed in January and February. Like that's just not >> Well, have a good holiday break. >> >> All right. Um >> I don't have to come, right? >> You don't have to come. >> That was the whole point.

Just discussed. >> All right. So, that if everyone's okay, let's move on to new business. >> [cough] >> New business? >> Um the only thing I have and um I I think I think you're maybe attending to was

um Matt was mentioning the uh BB Hub. And so, um as a still a new school committee member, I'm trying to do my best to get out, you know, you know, to see some of these partnerships. So, we reached

out to the BB Hub and they'd invited us, you know, to open open uh listening session they're having on next Thursday, I think, November 5th. >> With um the uh Secretary of Education for the

Commonwealth and Congressman Auchincloss. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but um so it's a listening session from 10:00 to 10:00 to 11:30. So, looks like it's open. >> I had already

RSVP'd, but I I think it's a public >> It's public, so it's fine. >> You're welcome to come. >> We will. >> We'll want to talk to you. >> Yeah. >> I'm just checking. >> Okay. >> Oh, that's funny. >>

You got to make sure Jocelyn said she'd give you guys a tour so you can see something like the manufacturer. >> No, it's it's exciting. >> It's really nice. >> Um Jen, new business? >> New? >> Old? >>

Old. The play was amazing. Um trying to think what else. >> I embarrassed my kids cuz I was laughing. I was not sitting with them. >> You were laughing. >> I know, because it was funny. It was

hilarious. And yeah, I mean, the roles for the play like it was just perfect. >> Like yes. >> I shared out that um when you What is it? I'm not tired. Um right when when you can't when the when the

roles seem to fit the character so well, is that really good casting? Is that really good acting? But um there were there were some amazing uh accents of two of the two of two of the performers that

were just so spot on. They did great. >> Yeah, I was super impressed and glad I got to uh attend. Um and I think the middle school >> They are going to be doing a play, we believe. Nothing set in

stone completely, but yes. >> The advisors met with me last Friday. >> advisors that are willing to do it. And Harrison might be in it? >> >> The Sad Life of a business manager is the title. >> I that

I got really excited when >> myself. >> Um I think the fall sports season's wrapping up and I think was registration opened today for the winter. I think the meet coach night will be November 18th. I

don't know. >> Cool. Um I had the opportunity to go to a citizen's legislative seminar on Beacon Hill for two days last week. Um and really got to meet a lot of the state legislators who decide things

like local aid, chapter 70 and Um after several pressing questions, I think they're all well aware that local aid is a a major issue and and towns are sort of bleeding out. Um So, that was encouraging

actually. Not You know, it's a depressing budget year, but it's encouraging to hear that at least people are are thinking about it and trying to use creative ways to solve these problems. Um and then

Waters Farm was fun. I got to see some of the robotics club folks and that was pretty stinking cool. Um Got to help Erin move her car out. Which is great. Parking cars and >> You were very helpful. >>

Thank you. >> Swings around dropping kids off and picking kids up. >> Um and then Pat and I and Erin attended just a listening session at the senior center, which was really really great. Um Often

times, you know, maybe the folks out there watch these meetings, but you don't necessarily get to hear from them and it was good to to kind of get that feedback. Um And again, just echoing Pat's

sentiment about volunteering and kind of increasing the connectivity between the school and the senior center and the broader town, I think will be a a would be a big win for everyone involved, so um

it's good. >> Can I just give everyone the Unified Bocce information? I know we talked about it, but I have now the date and the time and the location. So, it's November 4th from 3:00 to about 5:00,

and it's taking place at Hopkinton Middle School, if anybody is interested in going. I unfortunately will be away at a conference that day, um but I hope people turn out because those kids have been

practicing a lot, and they're very excited. They're very excited. So. >> Hopkinton Did you say high school? >> Hopkinton Middle School. >> Middle School. Okay. >> On the same grounds, anyways. >>

After party at your house? >> Yeah, >> >> no after party at Harrison's. Yep. Oh, and then trunk or treat. Trunk or treat was awesome. Greatly enjoyed that. I know my guard as well. So. >> Would you

entertain a motion or you >> No, sorry. I've going to keep us >> We're going to go with Erin, then we're going to go with Jill. >> Okay. All right. >> Oh, boy. >> I wrote something, guys. You're going

to want to I know. Okay. >> Sure you speak into the microphone. >> Also willing for die if I mean I know before whenever I've written a statement, it sometimes helps I then present it so it can be

appended. Um but I will start by saying Chris, thank you for setting up the that listening session. I found it and thank you to um the individuals at the Sutton Senior Center who attended. Um very It

was wonderful to meet and talk. So, uh I want to take a few minutes tonight to share some context uh from the Sutton Leadership Group uh cuz I think it is important for residents and families to

understand both the pressures behind the school budget and how the conversation around FY28 um is evolving. The leadership group has met three times so far for hours at a time with representatives

sharing perspectives from both the town and school sides. Uh at our last meeting, the town gave a very helpful presentation on town department cost drivers and priorities. Uh and Harrison in

particular led a very helpful conversation, I thought, um on some a major budget pressure facing the schools, which is out-of-district special education placements. Uh because that meeting is not yet

publicly available on YouTube, I just wanted to share a few pieces of that discussion. Um first on out-of-district costs An out-of-district placement is necessary when a student's educational needs

cannot appropriately be met through programs available within the district. These services are costly and are very difficult to predict. This is repetition for some. Uh the state provides some relief

through a program called circuit breaker, but there are three important things that were really important and impactful on me, and I'm trying to share it out here. First is that out-of-district costs

are unpredictable. We cannot know exactly how many students will require an out-of-district placement in a future year, and reimbursement through circuit breaker comes a year in arrears, or a year

later. Second, transportation has not always been reimbursed at the level it is today. Uh for years, it was actually not eligible, and when the state started to provide for reimbursement, it was only

a small percentage that was initially covered. It's now up to 75%. Then, let's talk about this third part, which is you keep hearing about a 75% reimbursement. Um so, circuit breaker really doesn't

reimburse 75% of everything that Sutton spends on out-of-district placements. Uh there is a per-student claim threshold. This is kind of what was new to me, so I'm underlining it here. So, there's a

per-student claim threshold, which is similar to what I think most of us would think of as like a deductible. You've got to meet that. And that So, that means the district has to absorb that before

any reimbursement applies. And that distinction really matters. So, Harrison did a 10-year um look from FY17 to FY27. Sutton had approximately in total $21 million in what you would consider eligible

expenses. In that same time span though, circuit breaker reimbursements was about 8.3 million. So, that means reimbursement equaled about 39% of costs, not the 75% that we hear a lot. Um that left

approximately $2.8 million as a district we had to absorb. Um and then of course there is a separate federal grant that FC240 that we did today that we learned came down at a lower amount. It does

pick up a portion, but it's still a very substantial portion to sit on a small district budget. I share that because it helps explain the larger financial picture. When millions of dollars go toward

required and necessary special education services, as well as the money we've also talked about as a full committee here, um for example maintaining our facilities, there is just less money available

for the day-to-day education happening inside our classroom. So, that brings me uh to the main second main point, which is about FY28. >> >> So, my understanding from the Sutton September Sutton

Leadership Group meeting was that FY28 would essentially be a bridge year. The goal was to preserve the status quo on both the school and the town sides, avoid significant reductions for this one

year, and give all of us time to determine responsibly what level of funding the school and the town need going forward. I supported that approach. But I was also clear that my support for holding

steady in fiscal year 28, or keep treating it as a bridge year, was contingent upon the school's receiving at least the same level of municipal funding. In other words, no significant cut. I supported

giving ourselves more time because if this community ultimately considers an override, I don't think we should simply pick a number because we just need one. We should determine the right number. We

should work together and that means hearing from seniors about what they need at the senior center. It means understanding the town needs such as staffing and deferred maintenance. It means

considering Sutton's overall financial position. And it means being honest about what our schools need after years in which unavoidable costs have consumed more and more of that available budget. So

at the time of the September Sutton Leadership Group, we were discussing a gap of approximately 1.5 million. The approach agreed upon at the Sutton Leadership Group was to hold steady for fiscal year

28 using reserves on the town side as a one-year bridge while we developed a longer-term solution including the possibility of an override for FY29. When this issue went before the Select Board for

their early September meeting, that projected gap of 1.5 million shared by Austin had increased to about 2.2 million. And the Select Board chose a different path or a different approach. At the Select

Board's September meeting, they decided that approximately half of the deficit or 1.1 million would be addressed through a combination of the Special Education Stabilization Fund, Health Insurance

Stabilization Fund, and free cash. For the remaining approximately 1.1 million, the discussion contemplated allocating a larger share of that reduction to the schools with possible discussions of a

60/40 split. So, only using the numbers that were discussed at that Select Board meeting, 60% of 1.1 million would mean cutting approximately $660,000 from the schools. And that number, I don't want

to suggest is a final number or a set number. It could go even higher. It could change. It's what has been discussed openly uh, in recorded public, publicly available meetings. And that is where I

think we need to pause. The approach I supported through the leadership, uh, the sudden leadership group was a one-year bridge, hold steady, avoid significant cuts, and use that time to have an honest

community conversation. A potential reduction of 660,000 or anything of that magnitude is not holding steady. This dict- district has already spent years absorbing costs that leave fewer resources

available for educating students. At this point, a reduction this high cannot simply be achieved through efficiency or adjustments around the edges. It will affect staffing. It will affect our

schools, and ultimately it's going to affect what we are able to provide to students. People have said for years that there is nothing left to cut but bone. And looking at what is being discussed for

FY28, we now have to confront what that will look like. Perhaps the town is going to be able to use cash reserves to address some of the gaps on their side. Perhaps on the school side, we will meet in

budget subcommittee and talk about, again, our revolving accounts. But however we get there, we are no longer talking about maintaining the status quo or holding steady for FY28. We are talking about

significant reductions to the school's budget. And because the decisions about next year's budget are being made now, I think we need to be very transparent with residents and families in our school

district about what is happening. I recognize that the select board has difficult decisions to make. But it is also important to be clear about that where this particular decision lies. The select

board is the one that determines the municipal funding that will be allocated to the schools. We as a school committee then have to build a budget around that number, and we have to deal with the

consequences of it. Based on what is being discussed right now, the funding available to the schools would be significantly different from what I understood holding steady for FY28 to mean. It's not

about assigning blame. It is about making sure residents and families understand the choices being made, who is responsible for making those choices, and the consequences are going to come with them.

And I want to be clear tonight about my own position on this, which is significant cuts to the schools in FY28 are not what I agreed to as part of this sudden leadership group's bridge year approach.

The purpose of a bridge year was to give us the time to find a sustainable path forward, not to significantly weaken our schools before we get there. >> >> Thank you for taking the time. >> When are

more meetings? >> The next leadership group is the 3rd of November. >> Yep. >> Yep. >> At 8:30. >> Is that only on Teams or >> It's on Google Meet. >> Google Meet. >> Yep. If you go to the town

website, there's a SLG tab similar to where the select board posts their um agendas. >> And there's no way to watch. >> You can watch it. >> No, I know on November 3rd, but the previous one. I've

watched the other one, the or the other two. >> out to Austin today and he said that Google was still having trouble processing it and that he was going to see if there was an alternative available

and that he would let me know. >> Would we have the opportunities to will folks be able to see the minutes out from that meeting? >> I don't think the minutes have been published. >> I do think the

minutes are in that like folder on the website. On the town. They're not. Oh, okay. >> But they won't be the minutes won't be published until the >> Until the video. >> That's fine. >> Is there a way

we can post like our sub-committee like up like publish when we're having all our like policy subcommittee >> I think Ty does that on the website. Yeah. >> Chris does it on the Facebook and then we do

it on the town website. >> Yeah. I think it's all upcoming meetings. I think once the agenda is and certified and handed to the town, you post it immediately. It's giving >> We could do like a month

at a glance type thing. >> Advance notice. >> superintendent update too for the month ahead. >> Or maybe like a calendar or something. >> So, right. I mean, so just speaking for the budget

subcommittee, we decided I think at the last meeting. We knew roughly where it was going to fall, but I think it was at our last meeting that we had picked Is it the Is it the 20th? >> The 30th and

then we picked >> The 30th, yeah. >> It's Friday and then we picked another date too in November already. And we did the same for policy. >> I know. I'm just we got Do we get an email? >> Yeah, a

communication. >> Yeah. I mean, part of the challenge I think is just people's schedules. I mean, we can do these meetings, you know, schedule them out a full year because it's monthly night. >> I'm

just trying to be >> Yeah, sure. >> helpful. So, budget subcommittee is this Friday >> at 1:00. >> 1:00. >> Teaching and learning is this week as well. >> 9:15 on Wednesday. >> Yep. Um >> Okay. >> Can

I add on? >> Yeah. >> So, um I'm certainly interested in in you know, getting either the minutes and or you know, you know, the full the full meeting from the last um leadership group. Um and I do

think getting you know, the more communication that we can have the better um you know, across parties. Um I you know, I I think you know, making sure that all of the information's out there um you

know, and that we're transparent about it. Talked about the um you know, the out of district placement cost. It's a huge driver and something that we've kind of, you know, really started exploring

more and more at the budget subcommittee. Um you know, to to to hopefully be able to share that story more. Um And so, you know, I I just want to be fair though too in terms of this is my

understanding and I guess we're going to have our first look at budget on on Friday. That the proposed cuts that are you know, the share of cuts that the school district is going to be asked to take

on. I'm not saying good or bad. Um but does factor in a certain percentage increase to last year's school budget in terms of the contribution from the town. So, I think when we're looking at these

numbers, we should be looking at the you know, you know, the big picture. Yes, I mean, we're going from A to B, but then, you know, having to backtrack some, right? To the tune of, you know, 600 some

odd thousand. >> Yeah, I believe >> It's important to note that, but I I I guess just you know, in terms of, you know, what that increase is, how much can be afforded. I mean, again, we're we're sort

of left with you know, what we're left with and we're going to have our first pass at it on Friday. Um but like I said, just for my part, I think, you know, full, you know, as much transparency as we

can have in this process um and being up front. Um Again, I'm I'm not I've said before, I mean, I'm not closing the door on any options. Um you know, and you know, I think we need to follow the data

and see where that actually takes us with some of these conversations. So. >> Yeah, I think um you know, it's important that we work together, right? With our colleagues in the town um to make the

best situation here. Um And I think kind of what you said Pat too, it's it's a reduction and that we were not our budget was supposed to increase I think by a over a little over a million. So our

budget's not going to increase by a million. It's going to increase by 500 little over 500,000 I think. If I if my math is correct. Um but it's it nets out to potential cuts. I mean, is anyone happy

about that? No. But we have to work together to move forward here. Cuz we are one town, one budget, one district. So. Jill, do you have any comments on that? >> Um you know, I was I've been looking um

for that meeting to try to, you know, get caught up with the um tri-board meeting. I know for me personally watching the select board meeting and I don't remember the date of it, but watching um the

budget presentation just from the select board meeting um was really eye-opening for me as far as a town and its school system and just, you know, we talk about overrides and we talk about our budget

and just even hearing that, you know, we could pass a major override and we're still going to find ourselves in trouble a few years later. So, I just think it's really, you know, we can talk about

getting through this year, but we got to really think outside the box as far as as a school system and as a town what we what we need to do. Um and I guess I would just ask the budget subcommittee to

go through and look at the positions that we do have and salaries and make sure that we are in line with other districts our size. Um I think that's something that we can also consider. Um and of

course, you know, nobody wants to see any cuts in positions. Um we want to do the best that we can for our students, but we are in a tough time. So, there are going to be some critical decisions, but

um we need to work together as a school committee uh with the town. >> All right. Well, I guess I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. >> I'll make the motion to adjourn. >> Read Erickson second. >>

Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> All opposed? >> I thought we were doing a collective I.