School Committee - Regular Meeting

e e and our first order of business is to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please join us if you're able Al to the flag of the United States of America the republ for which it stands one nation under God invisible with liy and justice for all I like your little Mark up L of people so um first up is a our usual consent agenda we have meeting minutes as well as special education Reserve fund transfers those documents are in the packet um if there's any questions about that okay I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second Mari thank you all in favor thank you okay come on in we don't bite um next up is our public comment um this for tonight our public comment at

the front of the meeting is really for non-budget related topics um budget related public comment will be part of the budget hearing um so this this public comment my usual Spiel doesn't apply much of it but um a reminder for most items or topics on or off the agenda is always available near the top of the agenda for individuals to share their thoughts speakers will be limited to two minutes per person in this portion um please use public comment even if you refer to something later on the agenda that doesn't apply tonight virtual public comment is available through Zoom raise your hand and you'll be promoted to panelists and unmuted or iners at the microphone in Millennium room Millennium Building conference room B so just to reiterate this is for non-budget items at this point in the agenda so we'll give a minute to see let me check I don't nothing on Zoom either that mying okay okay great we'll move on to informational updates and start with the students okay so we have uh advisory number four tomorrow right tomorrow January 7th um and then so that's just you know exciting shorter classes I'm sure students are excited um we have on January 10th the career exploration breakfast for the juniors and the sophomores I believe yeah Juniors and sophomores um so that's something to look forward to you get to like eat some good food from the cafeteria and like I think it's like warm like cinnamon stuff and then you get to talk with some really cool people different careers and you get to pick it's really exciting um obviously we have no school MLK day which is coming up it's kind of like a like right in the middle of midterms which is exciting we've got midterms the Friday before bre for that little long weekend then we have it Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday um so it's a nice break for kids to study I think and then um one more comment I know school start times might the committee might comment but we did

sound out a survey to the student population before break before winter break um we got 430 responses um we got a lot of feedback which is really good I would say we definitely like skimming through it all there's a lot of different responses I would say a majority is for a later start time however um the minority definitely has some really um valid concerns that I think we're still kind of combing over um so we're we're chugging through it uh yeah so Deca has their District uh competition and conference on Wednesday and Thursday uh January 8th and 9th uh there will be approximately 250 competitors from wa just competing in different areas of business like Finance business administration hospitality and all sorts of things and also on Friday um the 24th uh there will be a freshman in sophomore only semi-formal hosted by sad and stuco that's all thank you guys superintendent update sure I want to First draw your attention to in the packet there's informational well there's uh documents from Valley collaborative we are a member of Valley collaborative and as a superintendent I'm a member of the board uh at Valley and so they've asked that we share different documents with you their annual report is in there um fy2 FY 24 financial statements and fy2 quarterly statements are in there they're they're one of our responsibilities is to make sure that we're sharing all that information um and this Thursday will be our next meeting where we'll actually be voting on their uh FY 26 budget so that's just informational um for all of you if you have any questions you can certainly um reach out to me or reach out to um Chris Scott the director there as well too and then at our last meeting I'd mentioned or I think it was the last meeting it was one

of the last two meetings when we were talking about um different policies I'd mentioned that I might there was a possibility that I was going to be appointed to the mass uh commission for LGB btq youth that has happened so I will be um representing the superintendent Association and of course Westford and the first meeting is well our orientation meeting is Thursday night so that's exciting so I just think that'll be a a great new thing that I'll be able to share information with you about and and I think hopefully provide information um to the commission from the school perspective that be amazing thank you school committee nothing Tom bill um school start times um update uh we're going to look at a uh public hearing uh just like we're doing tonight uh for the 21st which will be our next school committee meeting uh to hear from residents and community members uh just like this forum we were talking about having a separate night from um our regular school committee meetings but I think this is a better Forum potentially bringing in some um maybe a few principles to also talk as well and uh just have a good discussion uh that will better inform all of us you know CU not every school Committee Member can be present um or may not be present for a different Forum aside from these scheduled meetings so that's going to be our plan for the 21st just to clarify we're we're thinking that we'll be like a short business meeting and then the Forum starts at 8m that'll be hybrid with the usual Zoom link so it's very accessible for people we're hoping the 800 PM is a little bit even better for like to get through bedtimes to through dinner Time Sports schedules all that stuff um and I think Bill covered the rest of it so what date was that again that's 21 yeah it's our next schedule meeting instead of like adding another date right like it's going to be on top of our usual meeting but it's a Tuesday but it is a Tuesday it is a

Tuesday uh Community survey is going to go out as well um it's live it's live live so yep cut off the press that's okay no we we worked Catherine work today to put a landing page on the district website um so underneath if you go to the district website um about us and then school committee page there's now a a fresh landing page on the left um that brings you right to all of the starttime information we're going to keep updating it it was kind of a push to get it ready to announce tonight that the survey was ready and that the Forum is scheduled um but there's a frequently Asked document up there as well well and we're going to look take a look oh that that this is you'll you'll see you'll hear a little bit more about this during the goals but there's been a little bit of a refresh of our website thank you to Kathy moci and and if you click right on start times on the bar here we go here's a landing page because we're hoping that there's going to be a blurb in principal newsletters on Fridays pointing everybody to the survey and showing the the proposed change and then other ways to share feedback so our email is right up there and the Forum is up there and the survey there we go okay good thank you for taking yeah happy to that's great and we'll have the results of the survey for the 21st we're planning to close the survey on did we say the 20th y so we'll have preliminary results first yeah all right but also not a very big survey like we've really tried to keep it succinct y it's it's brief yeah good to get engagement so I I interrupted on updates anything else nope okay any

other updates along the line yeah um superintendent evl next Monday 12:00 it is a exclusively video conference um there will be an agenda posted uh if anyone wants a link feel free to join us but uh we'll check with Dr Chu and his yearly goals and his progress and see if things need to be tweaked and um go from there thanks War anything yep Catherine uh just a quick policy update um because I know we put a policy on pause for the final vote Before Christmas um the the winter break um the policy committee are going to meet next week January 15th um and to kind of review that uh policy and where it's at now based on the feedback we got and then we'll have an update for you on the 21st um yes okay yeah okay okay thank you our first um our first item under business tonight is a midyear progress update on the committee's goals and there is a brief presentation in our packet I followed um the uh format that we've been using like last year when our goals were brand new um you can just jump right in oh okay as a reminder we approved these goals at the start of the school year after discussion in our summer Retreat um goal number one is really a couple action items related to the organization and accessibility of our commit committee information um so I alluded to the second bullet earlier which was to give some updates to our school committee website um some of it was housekeeping

reorganization clearing out some sort of um outdated links and stuff like that um Kathy has been really helpful to get that done and um obviously a big push for that was to make it very clear and easy for people to find the starttime information um with that with that proposal um the another uh bullet here is as you all are well aware our of our backlog in executive session minutes um for the public that might not be aware anytime we're in executive session which is protected for confidentiality reasons those minutes need to be reviewed within another executive session and um we can approve them for like accuracy first but then we take another vote at a later time when we can either make redactions or the reason for privacy has expired um and then they're they're uh approved for public release and it's actually a a bit of a process like there's redactions the Google Google highlight of a black line does not count as a redaction so there's like another step in Adobe Acrobat that needs to take place we have a Tracker it's all it's a bit of a um tedious work but we're catching up we're almost done with fy20 so that's good um and then there's like 16 more in fy21 so you know we'll keep slogging through um but I'm really proud that in the last couple months we've done 21 sessions have been released so marked the both of those as significant progress there you go for goal two we had um we committed ourselves to a review of financial related policies one of uh the first bullet should be very familiar to everybody with that non-general fund guide book

that we talked about in November the finance subcommittee worked all fall to create a do a a new document a new work product that hadn't existed before with Consolidated location for information and recommended balances on all 19 of our revolving SL non-general accounts um I didn't mark it as complete yet because it says approve and we haven't voted on it yet so if you remember what we had talked about before was um finance subcommittee will kind of meet this is almost like a pilot and sub finance subcommittee will meet in a couple weeks have some Reflections on inputs that have come in and how it went through the fincom hearings and the budget process um and then we'll bring it back to the committee for a final vote to say this is the process this is the format we liked this worked well any questions on that um and then the next one is review policies in the series 3000 section so all of our policies are organized by sections and those are the ones related to finance and so we plan to in the spring hopefully get some a review of um the a lot of the policies in that section policy subcommittee is smiling at me because they're grateful enjoy our gift to you guys so that that um is no progress because we took a little well-deserved break over the budget period right now um so we'll pick that up in late February early March and goal three was to support um the work alongside the master plan initiatives um the first bullet is about the starttime subcommittee will present a recommendation um it's got a longer goal which is the only reason why I didn't complete mark it as Complete because it talks about the Outreach plan and

everything so you know it's on its way to completion but I marked it as significant progress um the next one is to collaborate with the Robinson building committee so I think we gave an update in the last December meeting but in case you hadn't known in case you didn't know that committee has formed and has started meeting um so just I'm the liaz onto that and so that's the collaboration we see happening and the last one is to support the creation of a building utilization report um Dr Chu um Jeff Goodwin director of facilities and I have been touring all of the buildings we look at like the floor plans from the smma which rated each classroom as adequate sized for um upto-date educational needs or smaller or larger and so we're looking at that information to see how many sections can really fit how do you account for um special education services intervention services what kind of rooms can be shared and so we're hoping to work that towards um a final like report that would be shared with you all so we're about halfway through our chours and less than halfway through a report so far okay so those are our three goals we're midpoint and I think we're in good good shape any reactions questions I think it's pretty clear I really like that we're we're doing this it just kind of as in the midar review it's kind of nice to see what other you know what everyone's been working on and where we're all as a as a group that's and in one place because sometimes there's like an agenda update here and here and here but this is like one place that shows the work on going on thanks for all the hard work I know keep it up great okay um the next order of business is

the mail Courier and custodial supervisor job description update dates yes so in the packet we've included the two different job descriptions um a little context so we've there's been as H the custodial supervisory position was created a couple of years ago the primary focus was um overseeing all of the school custodial um staff and supporting the facilities office in that regard um in reality what we've seen is there's actually a need for for him to also be supporting the town um custodians as well too and so one of the things that we had actually uh discussed with our town partners earlier in the fall is that that he has a more responsibilities and that they should actually be contributing um also to his uh to to this to this role salary as well too um and uh as similar to a way just for the committee's memory like our the director facility is a shared position we pay a certain percentage of the salary the town pays another percentage of the salary that didn't exist that shared um percentage breakdown didn't exist with the custodial supervisor and so that's what we um talked to them about we looked at increasing it because it was increased um responsibilities and the town picked up the additional increase so it didn't we didn't increase the salary the town um increased the salary from their side and and now started contributing to it and so what you'll see the the only real change in the custodial supervisor's job description is the the articulation of these responsibilities for the town so you'll now see school in town buildings you'll see supporting the school in town custodians and so that's

what those are really the changes that exist there were no other major um changes to the roles and respons responsibilities except we were just looking at really the bandwidth he's he's he's really just supporting more people um and so that was something that we wanted to articulate now uh in connection with that originally some of his or some of this this individuals responsibilities were actually making sure that the Millennium was being cleaned every single day and so what you'll see as a change in the mail carriers job description the only change there is adding the responsibility for 2 hours a day to clean the Millennium building and so that's the only change with that job and so that's why we're bringing them to you together that's the purpose of this um and so we you know typically you would have these for a couple meetings before you vote on them so I'm sharing that information with you you have them of course if you have any questions you can either if you have any right now certainly uh happy to answer them but if after you take a look at them if you if anything comes up just let us know but that's really the context behind the whole um recommendation to to make the adjustments yes yep any questions from the committee I would just comment that um it's another deficiency also to have it a a shared position yeah rather than having two bodies doing the same work so I'm just curious how long it takes to do The Courier part of the job um it it was fewer hours so adding the two hours a day actually increases his hours yeah yeah okay that's actually an additional responsibility for him so that that but he it's something that one of the things that we've also found is that the individual who has been who serves the role of The Courier um also fills in quite a bit as a sub custodian

as well too um okay over you know when when when that's necessary okay so is it typically 40 hours a week or it has been less than 40 hours oh okay yeah yeah yeah thank you and Chris the split of salary that will start now or yes next year okay start it started now all right yeah well in addition really again what happened is the town the town made an addition to the salary because of the increased responsibilities and the additional buildings and and they were providing that so moving forward we'll see more of a you'll see it in more in a similar way than which we saw the dire dor facilities salary but what this really was was increasing the salary and they were paying for that increase so it's we're not seeing a split necessarily currently if that makes sense yeah is that is that the accurate way to explain that Jenny would you say yeah thanks always love it she's like yes okay keep TR she does I like I just want to make sure I said it correctly so um as part of our usual practice that'll come back to us on the next um yes meeting agenda thank you for to vote it's too early for my brain to stop working um okay all good there great so we're we are a little ahead of schedule but I'm not worried if somebody was aiming for 7:45 because I don't think we're going to finish this conversation by 7:45 so we'll start a little ahead of schedule for our FY 26 budget public hearing um this is in accordance with our Massachusetts General law section 38n of chapter 71 um and I'll take a motion to open the public hearing for the FY 26 school budget so moved second thank you all in favor great thank you so this will be an opportunity for the public to ask FY 26

budget related questions um please limit comments to 3 minutes just to try to make sure we get through everybody but I'm not going to um cut you off if you have fresh questions to add to um the committee and administration will respond to questions and we do have some in the emails to um bring up if you're on Zoom please raise your hand and as we maybe swap back and forth from iners to zoom we'll unmute um people that way and and uh give everybody a chance can I go ahead and invite Director of Finance Jenny Lynn to join me here at the table so that it's people I'm assuming some people in the room would like to ask questions and this way Jenny won't need to be using that microphone if she's answering it great and um I want to mention that if you're in person um we do write down uh if if you can start by introducing yourself and um your ad sharing your address because we write that down for public records and there's a signin sheet to make sure we get it right for the um minutes okay we're ready always take somebody take somebody right good evening I'm Elizabeth Almeida I live at 41 West Street so thank you for having the hearing tonight and for opening opening it up for questions I confess I have not read every line of the budget um but come tonight with one question and that has to do with the wa music budget I know it looks like a an 18% reduction from what was budgeted in the current fiscal year to what's budgeted for next year and um my understanding of that is there were last year I understand you had two FTE that you proposed reducing each to 7 and then the community said can we keep at least one FTE in that music department so Mr

Shackleton the band director is still with us full-time and my question is what happened to that other 04 FTE that was budgeted for the current year and is that what did that get filled if not is that why we're seeing an 18% reduction and if it wasn't filled why not so excellent question so um the first piece is that the what you're seeing is not a new reduction right so the way in which you um explained that was very helpful for people because you're right we ended up with um initially there was a recommendation to make a different reduction than what ended up happening when um when an individual um ended up resign ended up resigning they ended up absorbing one of the SE the curriculum coordinator picked up a section in um in in music and then which left a point4 which is accurate um a following the scheduling and following the course uh the course request and the scheduling they realized that they didn't need to use that point4 there they were able to um schedule classes in another way and they used that point4 to help support um some of the world language courses so what we're seeing what you see in the change in the line item as an 18% decrease is not a change in what is actually happening in fy2 so FY 26 we're in we're proposing that we continue to do the same thing that we're doing in fy2 what you what it is is it's an accurate accounting of where that ft ended up the FTE the point4 ended up in a different department and so it it didn't say that in the line item if um if that makes sense that does make sense and I'm surprised to hear that there wasn't demand for more music classes that would have Justified keeping more Staffing in the music department just

knowing the we have passionate musicians in our community and that surprises me to hear that we formerly needed two FTE to meet the demand of the music music students and then we only needed one FTE to meet that demand in the current year one one of the things that we were talking about and looking at was the number of students in each section and so while there had been more sections in the past the numbers of the students in those sections didn't warrant continuing to run them as separate sections so they were combined so that's it it wasn't that there was a decrease in the number of students who were interested in taking the sections it's that the number of students that requested the sections they were able to put them into they were able to reduce the sections and put them put the ensembles together okay and I think one of the students here is going going to speak to that combining and what that impact has been I don't I don't want to talk about the PE graduation requirements but in terms of demand for the music classes my concern is one of my concerns is how the PE graduation requirement stands now requiring kids to take one semester per year impacts their ability to take music classes as well not even allowing them to combine those you know two classes in one year to open up a full year for a music class that has an impact that may look like students aren't signing up for music but it may be because there's something else going on in the schedule that's preventing them from taking those classes so I know you're not discussing graduation requirements tonight but want to put that on the table um for when you get to that conversation later in the year so thank you did you sign in elizeth than you thank you do we want to switch to somebody on Zoom no anyone on Zoom yet with hands up they're all very quiet on Zoom tonight

there might be a few more people that want to talk about music so if you if you want to continue on the music yeah if you want to continue on the music for a little while you me to leave them in um just a quick question when we're talking about those two positions are we talking about band and Orchestra at the high school as in the ensembles that those uh two teachers ran so someone can come up to the table while we're right so I I that b in Orchestra is that the position We There are two those were the two positions that's why I just wanted to be clear about that and so and and and when what Elizabeth was talking about when there was a the possibility of reducing both of them to part-time positions and as opposed to ending up keeping one shlon is doing both Orchestra and so there there's still two music teachers at wa yes but where there were three yes that's what I I would just want to clarify that thank you yeah thank you but is is there a an addition in the personel update that's great yeah do that sign on the paper okay do you want to go to the students no I was going to say sometimes we switch back and forth but if if you're a continuation of the last um let's stick in person all right um thank you so much for providing us with this opportunity my name is moica sivakumar I'm a sophomore at westf Academy um and I'm here I play violin I'm here on behalf of wa's Orchestra program um so going off of what Elizabeth previously mentioned band and Orchestra are completely different ensembles with different disciplines mentalities different teaching styles styles of music um Mr shekleton our current director is incredibly skilled and he's incredible teacher but he is primarily a band teacher and we as Orchestra have been struggling to adapt to some of these structural changes um stylistically just m mental wise it's it's definitely been quite a shift for us and we have been struggling with that um furthermore Miss Mr shlon also runs

several additional clubs and ensembles outside of school which um it supports the students but ultimately it isn't fair to him nor to us to have a teacher that is spread out so thin it's it's really difficult um and because of these reductions in the music department um some of the opportunities that we've had have also decreased in the sense that um we used to have three different orchestras last year where we had um honors Orchestra Symphony Orchestra and then we had chamber for the Freshman um this year however Symphony and honors have been combined and symphony is a lower level than honors um which ultimately has decreased the number of pieces that we're learning with repertoire and it's also like reduced the amount of time that we're spending on stage um and ultimately it's also difficult for the honors students because they aren't able to challenge themselves as much with more difficult pieces um with all this in mind this is just the surface of some of the uh struggles that we've been facing since the budget cuts um my peers and I are super duper passionate about music we really do want to pursue this and um with this in mind I urge you to bothe uh try to uh reconsider the allocations of the budget for the uh for Westford music at Westford Academy and to also both fund and fill the 1.4 FTE again thank you thank you thank you thank you Mo my name is Elena Almeida and I'm in 8th grade at Blanchard Middle School the three of us and the students behind us feel feel the same way about the budget issues regarding music at wa I've been playing music since I was 3 I had hopes of pursuing a profession involving music but with all the changes and custom music programs I don't know if that is still possible we have come here tonight to show the leaders of our schools that the students in Westford care about having quality music programs thank you thanks for

support thank you thank you okay so we'll take somebody from zoom while you guys sign in we go if you're unmuted on Zoom can you introduce yourself and give your address Prine Provine apologies if I'm getting the name pronunciation wrong Prine that's what it looks like yeah pine pine pine can you hear us okay oh sorry did you say Prine yes yes oh sorry I couldn't I was I'm actually in the car so I I couldn't hear it properly uh thanks for giving me opportunity to speak um I had a question um regarding the um the way we cut the budgets um if I understand it correctly looks like uh there is not there are not many changes done to the physical education budget while there were more cuts on the early intervention and you know some of the you know AP classes and other other other classes so I was just curious on why we are not balancing the budget across all subjects including physical education and have we looked into you know saving some uh money from physical education and diverting it to other more severely affected uh uh subjects okay thank you going to speak

to um the PE yeah I would say in one point I I also want to make sure that it's that there's a difference between the the the significant number of reductions that we needed to make for fy2 so we made them last year for this school year versus the proposed budget that we're looking at for FY 26 we're not looking to make additional Cuts like you had just mentioned AP classes for example there are some AP classes that are not running this year I just want to be clear to people that we're not making recommendations that additional AP class classes would be cut for FY 26 he did mention um early intervention so talking in terms of the mtss model things like that that's something that we are continuing to evaluate this year but um in that's really like the the impact of the cuts last year that are that that we made last year that are impacting us this year knowing that even hearing you know some of the the questions and comments people hoping that we might be able to restore some of those positions I understand that I just want to be clear that we're not recommending additional cuts um for FY 26 for that uh in that vein um in terms of physical education uh you last year this came up quite a bit and um uh based on that information we looked we did start looking at the graduation requirements as a whole at westf Academy and so one of the reasons in in in terms of why PE wasn't impacted in the same way that other departments were was primarily because of the number of students who are enrolled in the classes and so the class sizes alone didn't warrant making any changes there now then philosophically the questions that many people are asking is okay well then why are those classes so so enrolled and it's because of the requirements that we have in place so that's the that's the

other part of that conversation that we're having and um even when the the graduation um requirement working group the committee when they looked at the um you know making a proposal to the school committee which they which they have now done that didn't include um anything that would would have a a a significant impact on the budget specifically it they did make a recommendation that there would be a reduction of 2.5 credits um in PE um but the recommendation at this time is that that wouldn't take place until the following school year so that the staff would be able to start to prepare for the changes um that this would require uh but that's the rationale for why the proposed budget that you see for FY 26 does not include um reductions to the PE department and can I follow that up with uh one question that I believe we got in email uh was why the PE and Health Department budget increase is more than other departments y so if you could just yeah I can answer that that question came up as well too um the increase that anybody would see right now um for FY 26 is contractual in terms of it's not an increase in Staffing at all but we did have um a larger number of uh teachers in well first of all it's it's also the the proportion of the number of people in that department right right so um a couple of members of the PE Department um received master's degrees Andor additional cours work beyond their master's degree so our contract allows for we call them Lane changes so step

changes take place as as teachers um you know with with uh as with longevity as teachers are working with us each year you know they'll move up a step um Lane changes take place if somebody goes from a bachelor's degree to say a master's degree it would be a new um a new column in which uh they would be able to well for their salary and so what you're seeing is an increase because you know there are individuals who are receiving the the negotiated increase to the teacher salary and in addition they have done the work to advance their degree to advance their um their uh credentials if you will um that qualifies them for additional salary so it's not a change in the in budgeting I mean it's not a change in Staffing it's a contractual obligation change in supporting the salaries of the staff that we have yeah and then on the other side you might have someone who is in a high step that might be retiring yep and be replaced by somebody who is not necessarily doesn't have as much experience who wouldn't have the same salary scale so that'll happen you'll see that across all departments um but I think because people are are concerned and people are looking at it I understand why if somebody then looks at the PE line item and sees an increase they would think oh they've increased the Staffing there but that's not what this is and you you could see that same type of change in in many of the line items is in terms of the the ways in which the salaries are broken down um across the entire District okay we'll take you guys next did you sign in yes thanks okay so I'm Isabella hessie I live at 38 Chamberlain Road and I'm a senior at Westford Academy and I

want to talk about music um so I have been in the orchestra since my freshman year so I'm now on my fourth year of being involved in the orchestra program at Westford Academy I'm the president of the orchestra I've been very involved with music at wa for all my four years and I want to talk about kind of the reasons why I wanted to kind of ask about the reasons why bringing up again that the that the Staffing was brought from 2.0 to 1.0 because um so I know there's been talk about like demand for the class um and I kind of want to shed some light onto why there may not have been as much demand in recent years so I came into Orchestra at a very bad time um coming into my freshman year we were coming out of covid and talking to to many students more than I can count a lot of them did quit being involved in music and that's not just orchestra band and chorus too because of having to take classes over Zoom because of only being able to do it once every couple weeks so you know I'm one of five seniors in the orchestra right now but our younger classes who aren't coming in to the music department with this kind of experience are much bigger um I think we have somewhere around 20 sophomores and I think the number for freshmen is closer to 30 and I mean personally I can only see that number increasing as we continue to come out of covid so I think in the future there's going to be a lot more demand for those music classes and I think it's unsustainable to be only thinking about enrollment now when there's a very likely chance that enrollment is going to increase um as of right now I did some research I believe I presented these numbers last year when I spoke about the budget uh 2 and a half override um but around 20% of students

at Westford Academy were enrolled in music and another 20% enrolled in theater um according to uh the town website and so I think it's especially cutting more from our budget this year I think is a disservice to all of the music students that have been committed and all of the music students who are going to be newly enrolling in music programs as they move up into the high school school um so I just like personally I don't really understand why that's being cut um I think music is incredibly important it's taught me more than any class I've taken at wa I can say that with full certainty so um I did just want to kind of ask that we reconsider where our budget is going and consider you know the future of the music department um yeah thank you thank you thank you very much um hi hi I'm Maria Ruther I live on 83 Parkers drive and I'm a sophomore at wa um similar to Isabella I've been involved with music my entire life um started Orchestra third grade and was hooked couldn't quit um I agree with the reason that it's been so low I mean my experience in middle school with Orchestra was so not normal like I did not know a lot of the members of my Orchestra until 8th grade considering I only saw their faces on zoom and as you can imagine playing in an on song Umble when we're all in Little Boxes doesn't quite work correctly so that causes so much discouragement in your future for music when the whole point in music is to bring people together and you're not together um I agree with Isabella we're doing a lot of things in Orchestra board I'm involved in Orchestra board as well to try to lift up the younger Generations we have something planned in February for where us high school students are going down to the middle schools going down to the elementary schools to kind of show them what they can be a part of just because it's hasn't been what it should be

um and I agree that keeping just one person in charge of all these people especially cuz we're seeing growth in the freshman class is not fair to him he does so much considering like marching band salsa band there's like a million different bands and then which is amazing and it's hard when us Orchestra students we used to have troubadors we couldn't start that for months this year because of marching band just little it's not his fault and it's one person with a million things on his plate um and I think that if we had another person we could achieve the level of Excellence that we have in our academics and music because those things do Co coexist perfectly like it's shown that students who are involved in music are also very academically driven and I believe that if we do put more effort into our music it'll show up in our academics and likewise the children who are doing well in academics also do well music wise so thank you thank you thank you passion is clear I did have somebody but they've put their hand down so we I don't think we oh we do yeah okay they just put their hand up I don't know why don't we go with you James right um my name is James wer I live in seven somal Drive um firstly i' just like to say this question comes in good faith and with gratitude to the people who work in the school system especially um those of you who volunteer your time um recognizing that constant budget cutting rapidly erodes morale professional commment and general confidence I'm interested to know what the sort of five-year or more longer term strategy is to make Westwood schools both effective and sustainable um for example a strategy might be you know we believe that the early grades are most critical to laying an academic foundation so we'll do everything we can to fund a 20 to1 child to teacher ratio

in lower grades even if that means not offering certain High School electives or on the flip side you might decide the most important external measure of a school system is the number of electives offered to high school um students so we will fund those even if it means a higher child teacher ratio in lower grades I don't have a clear view of what the 2030 vision for the school system is and right now it feels like everything is under threat um this gives the sense of a general degradation of today's school system rather than a refocusing of resources to where they matter most with prop to and half in place the town has a good idea of what budgets will be for the foreseeable future um from what I understand that's basically the purpose of it however with the school system uh however the school system cannot afford to operate as did historically including being unable to perform routine maintenance and running up against fisal fiscal cliffs given that we already know this to be the case could you please articulate the strategy that guides resource allocation uh within the school system um and you know uh how should we expect uh Westwood schools to look in for example 5 years time thank you I think those are yeah um sorry I thought you were gonna say something um those are weighty convers waight weighty discussions that we wrestle with as a committee all the time feel free to jump in um I think it seems like we have tried to balance and look for efficiencies but I feel like what I'm hearing in general and under your question too is that what I I think you said something about like it feels like everything is under threat and I really like that wording resonated with me because that's what I think we're hearing in our emails and in tonight is everybody is aware that the budget continues to be sort of less than level service for the last couple years and so

it feels like a thousand paper cuts and at some point how do you keep going with with that and at what point do you um I mean I think the override last year was our attempt to try to write this write the track and right size the revenue and the community spoke with their votes um unfortunately and so what we have faced this year is the means that we have to um find efficiencies and and right size by enrollment and stuff but the competing priorities thrat K to 12 I think is um I don't have an answer to to clearly balance or to clearly prioritize something over another and just that number that we always talk about this all seven of us is that like 80% of our budget is people yeah and so you know the M if if we don't impact the music department and other the interventionist or the Middle School support like somebody gets somebody takes a somewhere so it's like trying to what like you said Val that balance so when we're talking about 80% and that 20% I mean I'll admit when I first came on school committee I was like they must be spending a fortune on paper where is this you know these budget lines the the simple supplies it's just not happening you know it really is the majority of it is is people um I think what I I think what I hear you saying is um you're you're saying like we're focusing even in this meeting on the micro details right like there's a point4 here and there's you know there's imbalance over here and what you're asking is like what is our broader philosophy yeah and the problem is that last year when the override didn't pass I think there was uh a very there was a very big surprise I think because I think there was an expectation that the community was going

to support it and so I think unfortunately what happened was it kind of um pushed us all to work together to balance a b a budget um that that and in every meeting that we discussed was really um the most undesirable outcome um and I think that even though that happened and we're trying to Grapple with it even in the Overflow into this year there's a very strong commitment of all the volunteers on this committee and all the folks in the school to continue to deliver a quality education that advances um Justice and equity and really holds up like the Arts as well as serves our both our special needs students as well as our honor students it's just that right now we're kind of grappling with more of an urgent situation and we're we're expecting the um inauguration for an individual who may even eliminate the Department of Education so it does feel like a lot of things are under threat right now um and I think that we are both trying to um improve outcomes for kids by having a school start time committee I think that that's a way to think about how can we maximize things for both our um high schoolers and what we know about brain signs and so I think there still is planning that's happening with our committee on trying to make sure that we're delivering the best um Services even in terms of like how do we transport the the amount of time that these folks are spending on like just bus routes so I think they we are our overarching mission is still to deliver a quality education for all of our students um and so that hasn't changed it's just that unfortunately you're right that we are in a in a climate where Financial Rel um Financial um realities are are a little bit Stark right now yeah absolutely I mean I just feel like there's I you know

I get that we sort of faced an an emergency and kind of it seems like across the whole system everyone had to take a bit of a hit and sort of absorb that um but I you know you you get everyone expressing an angle and everyone you know we just heard a lot about music you heard a lot about sports everyone has their point of view of what's important yes I just feel like it would be easier for you guys to make hard calls with a uh with the with the trade-offs clearly expressed so if for example you say we're going to we can't find the music department because we believe that you know um uh you know reading intervention is is critical to the health of our students in the lower grades it would be a bit of pull to swallow but it made be easier you know over the longer term right but I think to be to be frank though like last the even the question that Elizabeth asked about like where did these numbers go and you know there we had these meetings last year like there they weren't really popularly attended but we had meetings where people went through every last student that was seated in those classes and like why those decisions were made I think that unfortunately a lot of folks when those meetings were happening were expecting that the override was going to pass but they're all on YouTube and you can watch them now yeah um you know like so I think there was a lot of conversation about um a lot of thoughtful conversation about why those decisions were made I just think folks didn't think that it was really going to happen that way no no I don't want to make that I think the decisions taken lightly I there only what I'm saying I just sometimes it's hard to like like I said to have imag down and imag like what we're trading off over like I said 5 years right no I completely to that to that oh sorry go ahead Sean I this has been raised a few times at

least in my tenure of the on the school committee is is well shouldn't we have a hierarchy as to what we're willing to sacrifice over something else and the problem with that I I think that that line of thinking works in the Private Industry right here's what um we're willing to eliminate first when you do it in the school context it um there's people associated with this certain people are passionate about certain departments certain people are passionate about certain electives so for us to and and I'm not saying this is what you're asking for but I guess my fear would be if we're making a hierarchy as to you know this department is most important to us over this department it's just it's just strange slippery slope that we can't go down uh and the reality of it is is that we're seven individuals um and it's the administration's job to say okay well here's what the town's allocating for us and to meet that allocation here's what we need to do so they're making those calls behind the scene and it's our job to articulate is this right is this wrong is this something that we're willing to agree with the administ on that it can go next year um so I guess that would be my concern I I think you're you're absolutely right there should be some sort of vision and I I mean unfortunately this is democracy the reality of it is is that each one of us could be elected or recalled at any point you know like it's every the the the there's Peaks and droves to an elected board like this so each one of us comes in with something that we're passionate about for me that's been class siiz and I think that the Administration has stayed true to that um in keeping the class sizes within um pretty close to to what we've we've been successful with but that's just my view

on it just to note on what you said Sean to articulate it I think you know to be mindful of is that if we kind of come around with this vision of like that hierarchy MH it means essentially people are working in departments feeling like and it at any point their job could be cut like oh I know this department is the next on The Chopping Block if XYZ happens and that's a really hard condition to put on any of our staff members to think that at any moment in time if the if the budget goes in anyway wrong that they're that they're next I mean and that's it so it it would be a hard thing if you feel like if we've articulated what our kind of hierarchy is that we would have staff members who don't necessarily feel as valued as other apartments or as because I think they're all as valued I mean they're all equal to be honest and and I don't know what you were going to say next and I'll but I just want to jump in and say that I I want to almost zoom out zoom out too because what I what I what I took away from your comments was a little bit of like if it's this thousand paper cuts what what goes next year and what goes the year after that and at what point have we looked back and we don't even recognize the school system anymore the orchestra like all and you could pick um multi-age right like you could pick all these things that that you can remember existing and we're just keep living under the prop two and a half constraints I guess I would say too that I think we are doing a really good job at trying to use our balances right in in strategic ways um and I would encourage people to pay attention to the larger Town budget um there are conversations happening about pay as you throw which would help

subsidize the town funds that go towards waste disposal um there's conversations about uh there have been previous conversations about other ways for new Revenue MBTA Community zoning all of those help funnel more funds towards the school school department or in general that can be divvied up in different ways so I I don't think it's when I think to the future I worry about this the school budget but I it's not just only within our control of the seven of us in administration right it is a bigger um conversation with the town partners I want to second that sorry the U the spending the balances um you know finance and administration have kind of essentially formulated that Five-Year Plan right that we can kind of weather some of this storm take some hits but still minimizing those but the problem is at the end of that fiveyear is when we hit a fiscal cliff again um I think by by responsibly spending those down it does position us a little bit better to then turn around and ask um but I I think the the idea of all of a sudden looking back and saying this isn't the school district we uh we remember or want is definitely a concern um full transparent you know I was at that table last year um speaking very passionately about the music I'm very glad to hear that it's still being passionately dis discussed um you know and then after the override failed we had AP students and parents here passionately discussing and pleading for those so so it it is

unfortunately um that reality of we do have to pin we we we have to weigh the options and and it's um as I understand it the decisions at the Academy specifically uh are based on data of enrollment and um you know similar to some of the the concerns that were raised about um you know enrollment being based on covid years you know that was also raised last year so that is something we have to keep an eye on going forward right um yeah but yes so it is it's based on what student choices are um as far as giving a priority um and I think that that's a good start to a a formula um but yes it can't be the full formula and I did I want to Second the fact that we are it's not just a school budget it is police fire you know um roadways all of that while it's not discussed in this particular meeting it is part of the whole formula so did you want to add anything I did I was just going to say I think and again those are some really great great questions and yes yes heavy and Meaty right um but one of the things I also wanted to remind everybody of is that we do have our strategic plan right so we have a very very well articulated strategic plan while it does not specifically discuss the budget because that's something that we we decided to not include in the Strategic plan was the actual development of the budget but we did we we do continue to look at our plan what our goals are and when we are developing our budget which I think is one of those reasons why it's important that we don't just pit one thing against the other or that hierarchy because it's similar to a lot of what Marisol said as well the things that we're committed to we continue to be committed to within all of the classroom environments that

we're creating even if some of those environments need to get a little bit larger right than what we would like we're commed to keeping them and one of the things that we looked at last year and we're still continuing to look at is can we manage to develop a budget where we are still providing as many opportunities for students as possible because one of the things we could have done would be eliminate programs eliminate programs to then keep your resources in another program and at this point we think that that's not the right thing to do now I the paper cut part is is is um is disturbing because you could get to your point where where you don't recognize these programs anymore which would be that would be very bad but we are continuing to pay attention to that the other thing I just wanted to add was and you both spoke to it with which is the the um the nfg the non-general fund guide one of the things that I I tried to articulate in my presentation I need to be mindful of continuing to articulate it which is the offsets that we are proposing that the school committee consider Jenny has done a phenomenal Job saying okay you could sustain these offsets for three to four years which is putting us at between FY 28 and FY 29 which means then it's gone which also what I said and I said it in the presentation so if somebody just reads it they'll also see it other funding sources must be identified at that time time now I don't know of any other funding sources outside of changing the tax base and and considering an override again but there might be additional Revenue so that maybe when we get to FY 28 and FY 29 we don't need to go that route but I want to make sure that we are clearly communicating that now because I thought we did a good job communicating a year

and a half in advance that we needed the override in the first place last year so now we heard clearly from people that they had concerns about the the reserve accounts that we had there were questions around it we didn't have specific guidance as to the best way to use them so we've now done that we've developed that and now the next time that we go to the town with an Ask we're going to have very clear information that's going to show that we have had this specific plan so it's not the same type of you know plan that you're suggesting which is saying you know the 20 to1 or do you hold your your high school as the you know as the um all of the electives that that are there but I think we have a clear strategy that I think we've remained committed we've remained committed to as a district and as we look at all of these things and we are looking at the changes and the things that are being impacted which is one of the reasons why we've looked at the data around the mtss model which is why we are now having a different recommendation for it but we don't have other recommendations in the budget to make other reductions right so we're not looking to um CH uh to increase class sizes any place else we're not looking to um make any other cuts at the at at the Academy or any of those impacts and we're going to see okay what can we do can we can we maintain this for a while we don't think that this is what we want our future to be um but we're trying to make sure that we can still provide opportunities for students and as many opportunities that we've been providing prek through 12 thank you than thank you thank you thank you thank you very much whoever is next can come and sign in but we're going to take the switch to someone on Zoom I think it's vigia you're being unmuted if your hand

is raised and please feel free to um introduce yourself when you're able there we go can you see like the mic turning does it say VI I think it's viia VI yeah Vidia can you hear us yeah they're on me yes I can hear uh can you hear me yep yes just introduce yourself and your address thank you for taking my call I'm ranga GTI and VI and I live at Le Woodbury Drive um so first of all I wanted to first you know thank you all for all your efforts and I appreciate that uh you know working with the budget in a constrained environment is is very challenging and we completely appreciate all the challenges you're doing in the in The Balancing Act it is um I just wanted to um to to go back to the earlier comments that were made around the uh the PE budget and and I understand from Dr Chu the reasons for the the the changes or the no reductions in the PE or no efficiencies there and why they had to increase the budget there but I also wanted to go back to the earlier I think it was Michelle U who brought up the the restrictive requirement of the 2.5 credits every year so that's something that I just wanted to reiterate my concern as well and I think um what it has done is for many students who are you know were the past were able to double up you know two of the pees in in a year so that they could open up a slot for taking on additional courses that they may have wanted to uh that option not being there is restrictive and so just wanted to request that again to see if there is any possibility of of changing that or you know I think Michelle said that there was going to be a discussion on the graduation requirements for PE I don't know that was already mentioned I

may have missed that but again just trying to see you know do we need that or are there any discussions in in uh in trying to um modify the graduation Department thanks yeah thank you um I think we could give a quick update on our where what's the next steps are for the gradu so because I heard two questions one is about the PE budget and one is about the sort of PE graduation requirements so they are getting blurry but I think they are separate um and just one my opinion um but I think that uh the path for the graduation requirements review and is a is a policy so the policy subcommittee will be um evaluating that with some with input from this the full committee over the next couple weeks weeks I think you guys said maybe February right or what's your timeline you think well I suppose kind of maybe to start the discussion when we have time on the so probably comes back to this full Committee in February and then gets the policy review and comes back um so over the next couple months that is when we would welcome um additional input on on that change um then there was a question about the PE budget did anyone catch it just just said it wasn't unchanged I think I I believe it was that he understood what he understood what I said yeah I think that he was really the question to me I was hearing that it was our the idea that there used to be flexibility where they could um oh my gosh the word just as thank you defer um a credit which allowed them to do something so I think his question was is would we ever consider that again like as we're talking about the requirements that was the way that I interpreted okay that I hope that update on the process for the graduation requirements speaks to that anyone I want to add anything

no we switch to the microphone in the room go ahead hi my name is Aang I'm live at 176 gron Road um I play violin for the orchestra and I play piano for the band um I am part of Orchestra board and I wanted to start off by saying how grateful I am that Orchestra even still exists as a program even after like what the budget cut has taken from us but if they continue to like take our money change our teachers and I'm saying on that fact about changing our teachers because I've heard from one of my peers that the reason why people have been leaving music ensembles is because there's too many like changes of teachers specifically to Orchestra because this is our fourth teacher that we've had in like four years and like if we keep and like if they keep taking and taking and taking eventually there is going to be like a decrease in students in like Orchestra specifically and if we and then we won't have enough people to run the program and then the program will eventually shut down and Orchestra and just music in general is a very big passion for me I'm very committed and as someone who has heard from a lot of other students they're they're pretty upset about how our other Orchestra teacher has gotten like reassigned and it's just really upsetting to me and to other students about how this change is going and again while I'm grateful that it still exists it's really hard to accommodate for the students who see Orchestra as a very different thing from band and Mr shlon does have like a life

outside of the music ensembles he's a dad and he has a daughter and like Thursday is his only free day usually where he can like hang out with like his family and like spend time outside of school in the music ensembles and I would really like it if we had another teacher to share those responsibilities with him so that he can have like more off his plate rather than on his plate I'm not a good speaker job I just wanted to like voice my opinion and maybe possibly make a change towards this decision thank you thank you much for sharing your concerns go ahead yep we have anybody no hi my name is Mna I'm from 15 blak Hill again thank you for everybody for everything you do I became interested in school M last year with all the decisive how we made time very decisive some of the points have already been raised here um just listening to the thoughts of what people have been saying here like one of the biggest things have we done the biggest fear for me or change or the threat whatever you're talking about is how is it going to impact the school you know graduating students and the impact with finding colleges or or what they do next in their career right whether they go to college or nothing have you done um I have you know my mind that everybody has different opinions if I speak to people in the community but have has the school committee done like sort of like a evaluation to see how thee but the budget cuts which happened last year have impacted and is it really true that hey the class sizes you know AP classes all the things that we' spoken about I'm hearing music is a big one right here so are there anything

else that we have heard we have done to so I can I can wanted to hear from you folks one of the biggest things I came was also PE right like the 2.5 credit which not for this fiscal year but for the next it puts it in such a way we'll have like three semesters and you'll have 7.5 credits then it makes very difficult for folks to do the graduating requirements I think that's going to be we can talk about it in February but that will also help reduce the PE budgeting right so that's another thing I was was going to ask so there's so many things that I'm sure I just wanted to hear back from school like hey have you done any evaluation and feedback and then based on that we can go back and look at all the other efficiency across all the different departments and rework yes so I'm I'm hearing like what's our review reflection process for Budget impacts I think some of that happens at the leadership level too right and I I think some um some updates have come to us right is there anything else um I mean I would say like you you've heard anecdotally you've heard you people have emailed you and you've heard different things you've you've been able to see some of the different impacts um in we've visited buildings as well too we talk about it at the leadership level right so when we looking at the and it stems from even data team meetings that we'll have to the the as the schools are talking about how they're best supporting the students and it that looks different at every single grade level too but as we're talking about it as we were talking about the FY 26 budget we were very clearly reflecting on the fy2 budget as well too and looking to see okay well what those impacts have been um in terms of whether it was a change in class sizes or just even a change in the way in which some of the resources were were um distributed to various classes as well too um but in in terms of like a formal

evaluation typically the development of the FY 26 budget is looking at where we're at with the fy2 budget um but I can't say that there was a you know we've done a survey or or anything specifically um to to get I guess a wider sense we've just been checking in with the buildings and you know teachers are very vocal at at the building level and with their with their Administration as well too so I would I would say that that would be the the the most specific feedback that we've received I I wouldn't mind just it's actually something that had been kind of on my mind over the last couple of weeks um you know getting feedback through the stack group and feedback through parents you know I kind of Wonder as we get towards the end of this of this school year that we do have a more kind of formal conversation on um maybe some like impacts that have you know worked somewhat or you know we and some that maybe we need to review and again it might be worth that that conversation um kind of before you start building the FY 27 budget right um because I think it would be helpful for everybody to kind of just reassess where we're at you know almost to James's Point as well earlier to kind of at least kind of see you know put us all on the same page of take stock and kind of see okay how does this lead us into fy2 because I don't doubt for the next few years we're in a yearby year um you know basis and I I think part of what's like un unsaid is that um we don't especially with the fy2 budget and I think Administration does a good job

of of having the slides with a predict a a projection for what they are saying the impact will be not many of these are are without impact right like I mean even when we talked about last year with the wa adjustments you predicted about how different levels in language would be combined we had I thought we had conversations about what that what how a teacher does that what does that mean what what um are some trade-offs that come with that type of learning environment so um I I think it's it's happened a little bit peace meal but um it hasn't been like a um formal it was part of the root cause analysis as well though too like now that I think about because you're right like we didn't have a specific evaluation about the budget but even as we're doing the equity audit qu they're looking at our budget and the budget allocations and we've had questions there was one of the tables was specifically you know looking at at that type of information so that's additional pieces that help inform that and will help even what you're talking about Catherine right so then it'll be a question of okay as we get all that information as we and move from the district level to then the building level that might put us in a better position to say okay well what questions don't we have information about and should we be asking you know more specific questions about um budget related things in the spring yeah and it's also hard because we make a decision a town meeting in March yeah on a budget that's going to start in July MH yeah school doesn't start so we don't actually start seeing these impacts until September and now we're back here in December and and you're in some cases the classes are just really getting into it right now so um so it it's it's definitely important and it's something that I have said all along is tracking

those unintended consequences right um but we won't know for a year and a half really know until we're already we've already approved next year's budget so it's you know so yeah it is we we need to know before we get into 27 discussions how students experience was how teachers experience was with the multi-tiered language let's say you know I can speak to that um and I'm sure the students in the room right now will agree with me budget conversations have been have surfaced more than I've ever seen them like I mean obviously I've only been in high school for four years but um they in the past six five months that we've been in school it's a conversation and almost daily um even so like I have conversations in my classes with my teachers too it's it definitely weighs down on the student environment and I think all of us have seen budget changes in the past year whether it's orchestra band whether it's math like languages Sciences like it's everywhere unfortunately and obviously I I've kind of been some of these conversations and I see it and I understand that this this like chronic dilemma like truly um but I definitely know that if you were to do some sort of SE survey or um questionnaire for teachers and students alike I can tell you that you'd get immense feedback there are very passionate people and like people showing up here tonight if you put out something that was even more General like you would have so much so many responses um and I think it would be really beneficial too I mean obviously we had this school um starttime survey and I think we learned a lot and I think that's just like the tip of the iceberg for what students are passionate about um I think you'd be surprised at how much the budget is is talked about and how in the opinions of students and and I mean I know it's why I sit on this committee I love to give feedback and there's plenty of other students that do too on like what the experience is with

combined language levels and with all kinds of budget cuts and I'm just saying that like it would definitely be beneficial I think to do something like that this um spring for FY 27 if that's in the cards but sounded like Tom you were making a case for a later town meeting I don't know there's challenges with later Town meetings too just so you know it used to be in May the weather was so nice it is a hard um timeline thank you for your question thank you sorry um what does anyone have something that they've seen in an email that we haven't touched on yet I know we're trying to triage yeah um and and speak to and represent those so while we give people a chance to decide who wants to speak next if there's something okay I'll give you another minute that was on the spot I mean since we were discussing it maybe now is a good time to talk about what the next steps are after tonight and what the community can expect from us that's a good point yep so um uh so tonight is our budget hearing we are scheduled for a vote on the school budget on January Tuesday January 21st that is scheduled that way in advance of our first um budget Department review with fincom that H so for anyone that that doesn't know the town finance committee reviews um each Town Department each Town Department Budget on Thursday nights throughout January those they're virtual or hybrid they're very um publicly accessible meetings and um we It's been a all part part of our practice to attend that with an approved budget so that's why our

vote is the 21st in advance of that review on the 23rd um that's the school budget and then that all that goes to town meeting with all the other Town budgets which is March 22nd somebody have that handy Mar 22nd Saturday March 22nd thank you town meeting is Saturday March 22nd at wa starts at 9:00 a.m. that is is where the whole complete town and school budget gets approved um and that's hopefully speaks to the process great steps so welcome introduce yourself signed in my name is Emily Smith and I live at 35 burn a um I'm a product of high school of a high school band and band had an incredible impact on who I am today like the music teachers at wa I too had an incredible teacher but my school lost him when too many demands were placed on him I fear that without providing more support to the orchestra we may burn out our wa music educator who's a valuable educator in this community my daughter's in sixth grade and she already talks about playing for him in the wa band and these extracurricular music groups that you heard a lot of the wa students talk about earlier can't typically be picked up by a science teacher or a school counselor these music educators have training they know how I'm an educator myself and I C while I can play the clarinet I can't stand up in front of some students after school and conduct a jazz band or a pit Orchestra or the troubadors um and so I just ask that when you think about the budget and you think about the the future that you

think about what we're doing to our staff and that while it might seem like just a point for position that um you know it it is somebody and we definitely don't want to lose this person thank you thank you thank you very much uh we have we have one question just I spotted on um that came through to us um a parent who said how their middle schooler Stony Brook only has PE once a week but their wa high schooler has PE four times a week don't know if sorry this is this is an in an email yeah and the question is Middle School is four times a week and high school is no they're saying the the other way that middle school is on is PE only once a week but at the high school it's four times a week but that runs full year based on schedule right it's based on the the the schedule um the PE classes at the middle school level are part of the specialist rot ation and so they meet at once every six days um the PE classes at the Academy will be one of your semester classes and so it would meet more times within their rotating schedule but only for half only for that semester not for the full year um there are more it is true that the the class sections if you count up the number of times in which a student is has a PE class class um at Westford Academy um it's less than what um the they have at the middle school and that's a question that's come up um just recently a parent actually asked that question and I will say as a formal Middle School principal knowing that it was one of our um rotations I can't say that I ever counted it to see how it compared to the other grade levels um but I think it's an it is an interesting

question but at the same time the PE classes the high school regardless of the discussion around the graduation requirements are following the same schedule that other classes are following so to me it's it's a matter of a difference in the schedules it's not necessarily a difference in prioritizing one over the other um but I think it's an interesting question and um again having spent a lot of time with middle schoolers I would advocate for them to have more opportunities days a week for for activity there nobody on line okay y go ahead Pat for birwood um even though I have all these papers I actually really wasn't planning on talking today but um I I feel like I should um so I remember talking speaking with you guys last year about the budget um took us on a lot of tangents a lot of reasons I think why we're meshing the graduation requirements with the budget is because probably of me because of the the conversations that we've had in this in this setting um and I just want to just talk about how I feel like it makes sense why we didn't make the changes last year um but I feel like we know a lot more now um we've done a lot of research and when I say we it's the graduation requirements committee it's myself and as I try to educate myself about what other schools do and it's obvious that other schools are a with very with the same graduation requirements as wa can deliver a PE with half the budget and half the staff um I don't get the sense that we've explored that route thoroughly um I think there are options that exist where um we can deliver PE to all the students but deliver it and follow uh

and without without modifying our existing uh uh block schedule and also keep graduation requirements the same and so I kind of wanted to talk about something I've been thinking about I know this it's it's a proposal that I'm not sure if the school is considered and I I hope they do consider so um just to give some background I know a lot of you actually don't have experience with students at wa I'm sure you've heard about the block schedule it essentially has there's seven blocks right and every day they have five um of the seven blocks and um based on the enrollment and class data that was sh shared last year and this is an email that I sent all of you guys so if you wanted to look the data it's there um based on the enrollments um from last year most of the blocks um actually have four concurrent PE classes and um each class is taught by one teacher the cap they're capped at around I think 31 students it looked like and two classes actually meet in the auxiliary gym and two of them meet in the main gym those are large spaces just FYI um so my proposal that I'd like you to kind of think about is uh increasing the PE class size to 31 from 31 students to 62 and split the classes into two groups A and B now this class would then only have one teacher just to be clear so it's now one teacher for 62 students um you're splitting the the class into two groups and on PE day one you've got one group who's actively working with the instructor and on whatever they would like to work on some sort of instructional PE and while group a is doing that group b is participating in self-guided physical activity in the same space so we already have that today we've got 60 students in a classroom in the gym today 30 students are working with one teacher 30 students are working with another but what I'm suggesting is now we've got one teacher still two groups one group is doing their own self-directed they're in high school they can self-direct their own PE they can stretch they can run they can play basketball they can do all sorts of

things on their own with a teacher in that vicinity and then the other the other students are actually engaging with the teacher um this approach is very similar I think to what we've done to the rest of this to the rest of the uh departments we're basically asking a department to combine sections were asking them to potentially do something different than they they hadn't done before this is in my opinion a little less complicated than what we've asked the other departments to do and they were asked to do it in less than six months time um I think that's pretty much the does anyone have any questions because I know I know again that you guys don't have wa students I don't know if our wa um I've had students I had sorry wa students I apologize W students two kids graduate no I apologize wa students that have gone through the school system with the current PE policy that would be the seniors the seniors this year the first the first class that was impacted by the removal of deferrals removal of waivers um and requiring them to take PE every single year um so I'm just curious what your perspect actually if you guys don't mind me asking them directly and putting you on the spot I'm sorry should um what you think of this because yeah and I don't want to add my own I'll let you I guess I'll go first um so like you mentioned how you would have like two groups like an A and A B where one teacher is uh focusing with like the first 30 uh 31 students while the other 31 are 62 62 you said one section under proposal 62 students yeah I'm sorry I shouldn't have interrupted you why don't I let you finish I students would be under one group and then 62 under sorry 31 31 one teacher 62 yes got it understood got it yes yeah okay thank you thank you so 62 with one teacher

where you have 31 that are working directly with the teacher and you have the other 31 in the same space but either I mean they can do a DLT they can uh do any sort of activity that is you know whatever wa decides is a is a suitable self-directed PE activity that they can do on their own it's a curious idea I've never heard that before and I I like I that's very interesting um I definitely I kind of like the idea um I definitely find myself some days where I'm like I do not want to play tennis or I do not want to like play a certain activity that's that's being taught by a teacher and I definitely think that um 62 kids I mean I am not a gym teacher and I'm not like trying to assume what a gym teacher has but I mean I don't get homework in gym so I'm not sure again I don't know what the PE teachers do as for grading or like what that responsibility is um but I definitely see like 62 kids as being potentially manageable maybe from a student perspective um and I like the idea that you kind of have like Flex that you could have flexibility for whatever you want to do physically but then also on Sundays have a curriculum like a structured I think that really kind of um satisfies people who like the structured curriculum but some who obviously want kind of flexibility and what they can do and what physically physically um like levels I guess physical levels during a class um it's yeah I definitely the gym requirement has has been tough for me over the four years um I definitely have found myself restricted by it and and not always happy with it because I I do participate in in a I did participate in two Varsity Sports at one point um and having the gym requirement was definitely like like um a slight burden with my curriculum and wanting to take other classes um that sounds like an interesting idea and I'd be be curious to see what else like what can come of that and if that's

something that would be could be done um but I definitely do the only problem I would see with it is this the 31 kids that wouldn't be with the um the curriculum area like the the Free PE or the the you know more Freer area of PE um I would be curious to see like how that teacher could kind of manage supervising all 62 kids like whether the kids are sitting down are they actually doing what they're supposed to be doing I mean teenagers are not a big fan of being told what to do um and so I'd be curious to see how that could be sustained um but I definitely think that conversation is interesting because there are 60 there are like you said 62 kids in the main gym at once and sometimes the activities do blend so I'm curious to see what that would look like to have kind of two different areas and more Flex ability thank you so while I haven't had Daniel didn't get a chance your turn uh she did kind of mention what I was going to say about like kind of managing the both like both all sexy St to students at once and there's kind of the issue of safety um there's a lot of like I I know my personally my current PE teacher right now she really emphasizes safety and that's like really important to her and that and that's how it should be and so if you have like 31 students with one teacher while the 31 maybe aren't necessarily not supervised but don't have as much intent uh attention as the rest of the 31 students um you know there could be other things going on that the teacher might not be aware of and that could potentially be like a safety concern as well as just maybe I'm just speaking for myself here but a lot of students aren't really focused for like if they're left unattended for an hour they're not probably not going to be doing what they're supposed to be doing they're going to wander off like Walk The Halls do a bunch of stuff that they just shouldn't be doing and so that kind of raises an issue there I think that's a

really good point um I guess when I think about this as a um as a option that allows the class to grow and and Shrink as it needs to um I think if it is has if it has grown to 62 let's say um there are less expensive resources that can provide that that level of supervision that we're concerned about um it's something I hadn't thought of because well I should have thought of it because I know I have a teenager too and would I yeah so it's a very good point um but I think that that is uh addressable um with a different type of resource um so like I said I mean these this is something that other schools are already doing it is something that um it's an option that wouldn't require a change to the current PE requirement because it would remain the same um and it would work within the existing block schedule um the other thing I did want to ask um well actually I'll just is there any I mean anyone else have comments about that yeah sounded like do you know of any other districts that are employing this so half and half model right now so Acton boxboro teaches 1,600 students with half the staff of wa and then half the budget of course um their schedule their program of studies is a quarter it's a it's a semester schedule every other day so this is essentially that but within the workings of our graduation policy um I don't have theirs in front of me directly but I believe that they still say that they have a one semester PE class it's just within their program of studies that you when you dig you're like which is what I did because I saw their FTE count I saw their um student count and I just was like how are they delivering division

this many students with this few resources and it's because that Nuance of how they deliver it is in their program of studies it meets every other day Y and I wonder if they have the same number of FTE serving those that time just divided in different areas so an actual teach somebody have 62 students in a classroom or not right whether it's you know they're at a a DLT with a different teacher um my concern with that type of model would be what message does it send to PE teachers that um we don't want any other teacher to have 25 kids but you're now responsible for 62 well there's a huge difference between PE curriculum and other classrooms specifically even just the class size itself I would just challenge uh it's it's fizet and health now the standards have been a 25e update since 1999 so fizet Blends into that whole domain and I think the fizzed department at wa much like all of our schools in Westford are pouring into those standards right now and trying to figure it out it's a huge charge yeah um so not only the standards I think about students on IEPs and 504s how do they have their needs met when you have 31 students getting instructed ction and 31 guiding on their own some of those are attention based some of those are uh timing and response and the list goes on so as as a educator I've got a lot of concerns with that model but I appreciate bringing something new to the table and something for us to pour over yeah I think um and I don't want to bring in the possibility of graduation requirement changes because I know that pivots the conversation um

I do however want to remind the group that the policies that did change for wa when deferrals and waivers were removed never came in front of the school committee it was not a graduation policy change it was a program of studies change um similarly if you look at all the schools that do actually offer alternative options to PE that is also not a graduation policy change it is in their program of studies it is not on their graduation requirements if you look at their graduation requirements it doesn't talk about sports substitution it just says four semesters or whatever their graduation requirements are so this idea that we can't permit waivers deferrals or um any sort of substitution without changing the graduation policy is actually not how other schools have done it because it's not in their graduation policy um but um I appreciate you guys listening to that Valerie it sounded like Mari had a point too I was going to say I I hear the hesitations and the concerns what what I appreciate though is that I think this is an area of our budget that is getting a lot of scrutiny and concern and we've heard different conversation but related we heard that how hard it is to sort of make a scheduling change which embedded in the graduation requirements recommendation was like a phase in right like over a couple of years so it's not there there doesn't seem to be a feasible way to um turn something make a switch for FY 26 that would address some concerns in this budget in that in that department so what appeals to me is that it that the proposal is within our within our systems our existing systems I share the same concerns but about 62

kids but I just want to acknowledge that there this is an area of concern that has been brought up our emails reflect that um and that I think the flexibility or creativity within the existing systems you know is there just I would also caution that you know right now that that and again it's great to have New Perspectives brought it um that's the only way we grow but my concern would be that we make this a potential model change for PE today and now next year oh well maybe we need to address the math department and same thing and then we're we're back into basically Co model is is what that ends up being you know an A and B group so um I I would just caution on setting any kind of precedent that might come back to bite us um one thing I didn't mention and it's just more for since we are talking about money um Acton has been doing this for what appears to be 15 years um so 15 times like let's say $200,000 our current the new the new budget for PE is $550,000 but let's go with $200,000 that's $3 million over the course of 15 years um so it's not it's just I mean that number startling and it's um you've heard from a lot of students today and um about how they are not feeling heard they're not um getting the classes that they have always wanted to take or are looking forward to taking um so I just I'll leave it that at that

but I but I do have a couple of other questions um if you guys don't mind my other question is about e-learning um you know you've heard students talk about orchestra band I mean there definitely have been classes that have been reduced this year um students that have been told no I don't know how often you guys get a report of all the NOS that students have been to told at wa um some NOS come because of obviously the elimination of classes because of the override some because of enrollment issues and I think that it's important for this committee to know how many NOS students are hearing um and to consider what you mean like is it so I know for example I'm sorry I probably have elaborated more from a scheduling perspective right students in you know February or so I forget the timeline they start putting in their course requests and then around May June they're told whether or not the schedules actually work themselves out or not a lot more students I'm sure than um previously previous years were told no they could not take any of the electives that they wanted they couldn't take this AP class that they wanted they were told a lot of news you heard a lot from the AP stats sophomores and but there's a lot of ones you don't hear about um AP music theory suddenly became like I just learned recently that AP music theory was not offered this year because of enrollment issues um students were told no but instead of being given Alternatives like an Eder seat to take AP music theory um or the concept of independent study being actually introduced to them they were just told no and in this environment that we're in now where we have so many we're not looking at floods of money coming in we're only looking at additional Cuts happening at this point um I feel like we need to start looking at how we say yes to them and this AP music theory thing really bothered me um

so because there is an edust your class for AP music theory I understand that it is not ideal it is not um it's better to have inperson classes but these students were seniors they did not have an alternative option they couldn't wait another year and so they were told no and some of them were majoring music and it just bothers me that that option was not given to them or even discussed yeah um and so I guess when we think about budgets I'm wondering if there is what are the line items for e-learning I don't I don't I didn't never through I don't know if the if you guys are aware of what what dollar AMS there are I I don't necessarily know what the budget is for it but I would just say like there are students who are taking online classes so I don't necessarily know why the no was there I don't honestly think that it's that's a management thing I don't necessarily think it'd be something that would be coming to but there might have actually been a very good reason why somebody was said no whether there wasn't additional funds available because all of the seats had been filled or whether there could have been another complicating Factor but I I appreciate that and I respect that I think Westford Academy has done and it continues to do a great job trying to think creatively can we all continue to push those bounds and and ask good questions and make sure that we're looking to for the best ways I love the way that you said that are we finding more ways to say yes I I think they are still finding a lot of ways to say yes and they're finding a lot of opportunities for students so I don't want to I don't want to paint the picture that they're not um but I think your point is is well taken like are they looking to see are they looking to find you know the the the most creative ways to provide these options for students and so goes back to even if we think about one of the things that we're hearing now more and more is that there were a number of classes that were

offered when we look even at the languages right and so we we combined levels of classes so that kids could still take those those those classes from my perspective at this moment in time the answer should have been no and they should have just not done it because now what we're seeing is we're having now that isn't working and this isn't this isn't the way that that should have been done and so they tried to they tried to solve a problem by providing an opportunity for a student that now is finding that that wasn't the best opt option and now it's impacting maybe all of the students in the class they would have been better off if they didn't look for that that alternative and so I feel feel like it's just something that we have to remember that yes we're in a difficult budget scenario and I think somebody said it earlier which I I kind of want to go back and and just remind everybody that we didn't really paint any of the solutions as optimal and we're still not we're still not um but I think to um I think to James question earlier like well okay what is our long range plan what we're seeing right now is we're looking at FY 26 and I know that hurts because sometimes well we have seniors right who will be leaving us and people where they only have certain opportunities but we are looking at a plan that's going to say okay if this is what we've heard from the town so we're going to try to reassess and strategically develop budgets that then they'll be more inclined to support the ask later down the road I want to Pivot to um a a question we got an email about cuz just based on how you ended there about what we heard from the community and based on what we are allocated um there was a question in our email about well should we be creating a budget that is is above the

allocation and posing that as an option to the community and I was just wondering if any other members had feelings on that um on whether or not they're you know why we're not creating an an override budget I guess for FY 26 so it it's interesting because so I work in Municipal budgets all the time you know I I had I just submitted mine the other day um and I know the constraints of the Town budget but I still proposed here's what I say we need um and then allowed in that case selectboard and and fincom they're still and discuss it um whether or not to support that uh I think the challenge with the school budget is it's uh yes or no right so it's almost a gamble if we get to town meeting with yeah oh I guess there could be an amendment uper uh with but they can't Target specific things um so I think there is some validity to to doing that to saying this is what we actually need to within reason right to to operate uh and to provide our residents with the education that we feel is appropriate um I think it may undo some of the collaboration between Town Partners uh if we then say well you tell us you know 10,000 we're going to say well we need 20,000 you know um but you know I I think that's part of our our charge too so I I just want to

jump in so from my my day work which is you know working on um large budgets with the state government I think that there are enormous concerns this year fiscal concerns this year that this year is going to be more Stark last year on a state level there are some concerns about what will happen with the new Administration coming in whether or not their contributions for Medicaid will remain the same whether or not there will be blue states that are targeted for Less allocations from the federal government if those things happen then that will impact the state government which will eventually impact our our allocations I understand the concerns that folks are raising about a lot of different things but I think that we are moving into a a fiscal year that's going to be even more challenging at the state level than last year and that the following year may look May resemble something of any so I think that there um to to the point earlier like saying that a lot of things are at risk and that it feels like a lot of things are under attack and that is true because we're treading into a reality this year that may have been different than the one that we expected to be walking into and though even though this fiscal year was predicted to be worse than last year months and months and months ago so I think that um I don't I don't think that that approach is is the is the right approach for fiscal year um 26 26 yeah 26 um and also as well on that Mari we also heard I think from a lot of members of the community last year about um specifically our revolving funds and they really wanted that Focus to be there first and I think we have a duty as a school committee to do that this year I mean I would definitely be open to that idea of

looking at sorry Jenny two budgets essentially for FY 27 to kind of start that conversation of but for FY 26 I just I kind of I agree with Mari like it's I mean I'm not I'm these are conversations I'm having you know at the state level um with a lot of folks that are in I think we should move on to folks who are on Zoom because they've been patiently waiting yeah do you mind if we circle around and then if you have morec that's right just to make sure we get to everybody and it is 9 o'clock keeping an eye on the clock so if um Megan looks like you have your hand raised we'll unmute you she should be coming in there hi can you guys hear me we can thanks just introduce yourself and your address I'm Megan off um 8 Timberly Lane um much like Patty I wasn't anticipating speaking tonight and I apologize because I did miss the very beginning of the meeting and it sounds like some of the questions that I had or conversation I wanted to hear regarding um the PE budget from Dr Chu were answered so um rather than kind of going back to that um I just wanted to say that I've listened to most of the meeting and it's sort of resonating with me that um these discussions about efficiencies and what's best for our students are discussion that should be happening all the time right and not just at the time when we have no money to spread around it's it's you know much like your own home budget right when things are good you're like yeah let's go out to dinner and when when things get harder you think like oh what can we cut what can we live without what should we not be doing um I'm listening to these discussions and and the PE budget does strike me as one place where um there may be some creativity and efficiencies that um could have enormous gains in terms of um benefiting other parts of our budget that serve our students well

so one of the things that I sort of take issue with that was said was um like what will the gym teachers think and how will they feel um I'm here speaking as a parent I do have a senior as a and a sophomore but I know you all know as well that I'm an educator um in Westford and um I sent you an email earlier quite frankly um last over the last year uh teachers across our district have been asked to make enormous changes and pivots um on dime with moment's notice changing their roles changing their buildings changing their grade levels um changing how many students they have in front of them all of those things I think the question that we really need to be asking is um how do our students feel and what are we doing for them um one of you referenced a question that I brought up in my email I think or maybe somebody else did as well about um taking PE one time per week as Elementary students and then ramping that up to I have a senior this year who's um in her first semester PE and she has it sometimes four times per week based on the Block scheduling rotation um I appreciate Dr Chu that you shared that at the middle school even though because of the way the schedule works that the middle schoolers actually have it more through the course of the year in terms of the amount but I challenged that idea a little bit only because I think um as our students progress and they grow we're asking different things of them and as students nearing the end of their K through 12 educations and thinking about their life post wa whether that is um going on to college or a career we as I said in my email we ask our Juniors to attend career breakfasts and job shadow days we ask our seniors to embark on Capstone projects hopefully gaining exposure to a future career interest and yet we do all of those things knowing that our budget supports that the activity that they are exposed to the most during their college

or rather high school years outside of their core classes is physical education not the extra stem classes they want to take not the art classes that they choose to take not the music or theater or orchestra or Performing Arts that they're interested in um not the additional math classes or creative writing or journalism so we promote this and it's something that I think is kind of special about Westford Academy and about our district in general that we really try and Foster the interests and talents of our students as they get to those grade levels and then we take them away and say well you don't have time in your schedule to take that because you're doing this instead four times per week as a senior um so I I just challenge that and ask that there's some great consideration given to um again all the things Patty said she they've done all the research but Act is a great example they've been doing this for years um they have a very similar student body how can we better achieve the goals of our diverse student body um and perhaps have some great efficiencies in our budget to spread to other areas that we think would most benefit our students so I don't really have a question but I sincerely hope that there's discussion given to this um the part that I missed at the beginning was obviously about the timing and Val I know you said the lines are getting blurry the graduation requirements versus this discussion but when I listened to principal tumi's um presentation and talked about impacting the class of 2030 again I I just was struck as an educator thinking how many changes huge changes were asked to make almost immediately based on whether the override didn't pass or different budgets or year toe things that change in our curriculum in um where we teach

what we teach all of those things things um that it seems a little bit ridiculous that it would take so long to make a change in this Arena thank you very much for your consideration thank you Megan thank you Megan um okay sorry zoned out for a minute there thanks guys good night good luck with midterms y please go ahead um Christy Bates 23 Pierce Avenue um thank you for having this hearing and I really appreciate the back and forth and I appreciate that you're listening to questions and providing feedback um I'd love to see that in all school committee meetings but I really appreciate this now um what I want to ask is what is the budget amount to get to Optimal do we know it I know you haven't I know this is what we did last year was an alternate budget but I would like to know what the amount is to get to Optimal what is optimal we've heard it would be great to have a point4 music mus teacher maybe 10 additional interventionists at the schools I don't know what else definitely def another Spanish teacher perhaps so we don't have to combine uh Spanish and I think German to to CP honors and AP that's my my only one experience with with a budget impact in my family but what is that dollar amount because I was out there with several of you last year holding yes to the override and was very disappointed that didn't pass as we were all but the impact to the school is real as you've all just talked about and it's moving forward forward it's going to be so as a resident I would like to be involved in making that decision as to whether or not I want to support an override and last year nope it failed but this year how much is it and I know that the school committee does not decide whether or not we have an override but you do present it to the select board and then the select board can make that decision and if they know well this is our budget as you we've

stated in the guidelines or the the dollar amount that you've suggested but really to be optimal to be where we want to be as a school committee to improve maintain or potentially improve the school which is your objective we need this amount of money and maybe it's not the god I should remember exact amount but the Six Million that we asked for last year maybe it's less and I know the town has issues too and maybe you know why not go back to the residents and ask for that money that you need and yep they might say no absolutely absolutely but if you don't give the chance they can't say yes so I just ask that you consider doing that even if the state and the federal government are not going to give us as much money or we're not going to have a Department of Education we have no idea what's going to happen in the future but right now we can control what's local and we can ask the residents of our town to step up and fund what you as a school committee believe is optimal and I just hope that you would consider doing that and let the residents make that decision or convince the select board to go out the residents to make that decision thank you thank you do we have anybody online no can I come back y I'm sorry I promise I'll be quick I just want to address just want to make sure I checked on on zoom and stuff so I appreciate it yep um so I just want to address the conversation that we were having earlier about language and the the very valid point where um we took a risk um with language and I think that the students regardless of what the outcome is now I think they at least appreciated that the opportunity was given to them I feel I that's what I would think I mean the AP students are grateful probably that they were able to still take for that exam and sit for it um it was you can almost

just call it a pilot and I guess my my my question is whether or not like I don't think that you should regret having done that and you you won't know until you try whether or not a approach is not going to work or if it will work um and so that would be what I would ask that you consider doing for PE you don't have to call it a pilot call it some just it does it's it's it's an idea it's something worth looking into I feel um especially if it means you can it will it will help the budget I mean um you know interventionists like maybe you do next year I guess my other question was now that you know this situation with Spanish What What In This budget has has money been moved in the budget so that Spanish is now three classes next year is that part of now that we know and now that we've heard from students in the in that Spanish class are we trying to fix that next year um this budget does not have us restoring any of the positions that we reduced from last year but it could if an different approach was taken so that there was funds available to address some of the larger challenges that were created by the override failing um that was it thank I just want to clarify one point in response to what Christie said um the only reason why I'm raising the issues about what might happen at the state budget level is because we um prognosticate based on an amount that we believe we are going to be getting from the state and so that number which is not actually the number that ends up happening in July almost ever right we don't know what at what percentage are they going to actually reimburse the things that they say that they're going to reimburse number is going to be allocated by the ultimate budget because the first budget is the

governor's budget and then it's the house budget and then the Senate budget and then they have to combine this year the $3 per student versus the $100 per student versus the yeah so that's the reason why I I raised that because we do base our projections on other numbers if we can't rely on the state rely on the town or they get to decide yes thank you than sorry I I have another thing to say um it was just just another email that I sent you guys and it was related to the um we're talking about you know not knowing necessarily what well not that we not know what what students want I mean I think a lot of emphasis is being put on the student survey that um that's going out that went out for start times and um we did do a graduation requirement survey for students related to which requirements they like to increase or decrease and I think it does speak volumes when we think about oh you know how are the students going to feel about PE getting combined um the student survey that was that was given out in the fall um I thought spoke volumes um the questions they were asked were there were two major questions below is the listed graduation requirements if you had a choice which requirements would you increase which requirements would you decrease they were able to choose more than one they were able to choose no change um the most telling result from this is that when they were asked which requirements they wanted they would decrease um 15.7% said no change and 50% said they would want to change they would want to increase the PE requirement so that was 178 students out of 356 that were surveyed um which I think is a very telling amount when they were given the option to choose as many as they wanted so they could have checked each one um

some of them just chose no change and some of them chose English at 18% but PE was 50% which to me is is is is saying a lot it's the students speaking for themselves the students that weren't here to speak for themselves it's the survey spoke for for them um I think that was the thanks Patty appreciate it all right thank you are there any other hands on Zoom NOP could I pivot to a different topic that yeah uh is of Interest we've spoken a lot about the academy um I am interested in knowing how and we talked about impacts and so how are we going to know if the shift to the U multi-tier is is successful or um if we need to revert and at what point can we make that you know if we cut positions you know we're we're obviously losing a resource and losing access to the resource so so I I just I I'd like to know in advance how we're going to measure that to know if we need to come back to it in the future so that's a good question I think part of it is the the regular data teams that are the data meetings that are taking place anyway right that are actually sort of fueling those interventions in the first place right um so those will continue to happen even right now one of the things I was meeting with um with the two uh curriculum coordinators um the the K to5 curriculum coordinators today um and we established the uh I think it's the first week in February after they've

collected all of their midyear data and after they have a chance to have a data the data teams um the the meetings with the at the school level we've gone ahead and scheduled a meeting to then have to specifically look at this cohort of grade five right um to say okay let's look at their mid-year assessment meeting with but also bringing um the oh it's getting late I'm sorry the 6 through 12 the 6 through 12 Ela and and stem curriculum coordinator together to say okay let's look at at the data that we've that that people have been talking about with specifically with grade five right and say okay as we're we we know that grade four they'll still be in the elementary level so they'd still be meeting the they'd still be getting the the the support from the interventions that we would still already have there but then as we're looking at these three other positions the three other intervention positions would they would any of that need to be reallocated to the Middle School level either on a temporary basis or throughout the year or are there things that we can be doing this spring specifically based on the data that they're going to look at in January that they should be focusing on this spring before even transitioning to middle school but having that con conversation together and I think we'll continue to remain committed to looking at it one of the reasons why we have the the information that we shared with you this year is because we've been looking more closely at it following all the conversations that we had last year right so that is going to continue to happen so that if we see that there's a if we see that there's a growing need we'll have time to address it that's kind of a long-winded answer to your question but can I just jump in on the just while you're speaking on that data um I love that idea of the group coming together both um the elementary and and

middle school staff um I know you're talking or probably referring to that Dibbles um review that happens start mid and end of year I would also maybe encourage because I know based on what Courtney's also um presented before on the mcast that you can I think also get a breakdown within the mcast data of what areas um cuz cuz like I've I've mentioned before the Dibbles only looks at um kind of reading accuracy and reading fluency and um comprehension at a at a very like basic sentence level as opposed to the mcast which is a bit more Fuller on the literacy so and you have that data already it means you can dive into it with the dibles aside beside you and kind of look at it more holistically because the the one thing we don't do in the district is is assess writing and but that was part of our conversation today right as well in terms of talking because one of the questions when we were looking at that data point I asked the question okay did something change in the in in the test right or in if if all of a sudden we've seen a a there is been a decrease for that entire cohort right Statewide there's a decrease ours was more sign ific than than some others right so that's why we're looking at it carefully and I said well what was the change well as we're rolling out the El curriculum the E curriculum does have that writing embedded into it and they're doing more of it this year so that's one of the things they were talking about is even talking about the difference last year it was a slower roll out of that and not as much of it was being done and one of the things that we we don't know if this is a piece to it or not but one of the questions that we had was well historically there was some mcast prep type activities that took place at the elementary level that

didn't didn't universally take place last year um some people still did it but others didn't because they were rolling out the El curriculum and it's embedded in the El curriculum except the differences is that instead of doing this one activity where we're reading this one thing and we're responding to this one thing it's now actually part of this weekl long piece in E where we're doing the we're talk we're collecting the data today and so over time they're very optimistic that it's going to be more embedded but that was one of the things that they said well we're moving through the E curriculum faster this year because last year and so I was like oh that actually could be a piece yeah to understand it but that's part of the I think the conversation that they were having it as they were explaining it to me as well too because again it's not my background yeah um but that was part of our conversation was to say okay well then what does this mean should we be looking at are there EO resources that could actually expand to six sixth grade in the Middle School as their curriculum does those are things that we talked about awesome and you mentioned some a marker in a schedule in February could we ask that at some point some feedback from that comes to us yeah let me uh we scheduled it today it's the first week of February so in in a February meeting I'll give you we'll provide you with an update okay yeah thanks thanks for raising that yeah I just I just want to make sure that we have something that we're benchmarking against um if we're again cutting a Sur or reducing a service not cutting reducing the resources available that we know the impact yeah like do we keep like even something along the lines of you know and I'm not expecting you to know this Dr to but maybe it's something to bear in mind when we're having those conversations with staff like do we keep data of the number of kids that come through the various interventions for the last few years so that well yeah you will see in connected to the questions

that we've provided back to you with the in the PDF okay we did link some longitudinal data it's not complete because there's some time where people are no longer with us that can give us that information but we found where it was being tracked previously okay and so you'll see that we have that all the way back to let go year 19 thank you 17 Jenny how do you do it Jenny so that's in our package yes all of the no that's okay there's some missing there's some missing there's some missing dat in the first couple of years you don't we don't have the specifics by school but we have the Aggregate and then then there's like fy22 FY 23 it's a little spotty but then we have the FY 24 and fy2 data as well too but I feel like it's going to at least give you an idea okay actually there's been a kind of consistence consistent for the most part you can see where there there was some there was some decline in Reading intervention or math intervention um support but then you'll see a drastic decline in the numbers in fway 25 because we changed the way in which we were identifying students I'm going to take a quick second here and just point out that um the school committee does uh uh collate our own individual questions as members um and sends those to Administration they answer them and this there was sort of two rounds to that based on this year's schedule that PDF is in our packet and it's like nine pages of questions that came from our our members ourselves so if if we're reacting to questions from the public and emails tonight I want the public to also know that there were generated questions internally that um were also answered and that's public yeah yeah go ahead sorry um christinaa Lanova Drive um I'm a mother of two high school students as well as a math

interventionist at Abbott um I just want to clarify when we talk about numbers of intervention students that I don't know if rules is the right word there but the rules of the students we were allowed to pick up this year is different from the past yeah that's what I was just talking so although it maybe looks like we're seeing less students it's because that's what we were allowed to do well it's it's well I I'm going to push back a little bit it's not a question of as to what you were allowed to do it was a question of when we looked at what the criteria was there was a much larger window in which students who were as opposed to the 20 percentile which is what we explained in that and we we kind of broke down what the adjustments were to the MTS model and to what you're saying that it used to be students who were in the 30th to 40th percentile but now we're looking at students in the 20th to 30th so so it was the the the students who were being identified that those numbers did change which is what I was just trying to say so those numbers did drop because we were identifying a different number of students so last year the i in math I can't speak to reading in math I ready screens the entire school last year we looked at the lowest 20th per of each grade in each School this year we're looking at the lowest 30th percentile of the nation so comparing us to the entire nation and that is a very small amount of children now we're busy we're pushing into rooms we're not just sitting doing nothing we are seeing students in other ways but it doesn't have the same effect and in grades 3 through five that is non instructional time it's a their Wind Block they don't receive instruction so they're not missing classes when they meet with us right I also can't speak through kids and that came from us implementing already and learning how to use this data and the point being is

that we were just taking our bottom students regardless of where they were to based towards the standards which is why this now is looking at I ready and saying okay where are they at in progressing towards their Mastery of the standards which is really what should be what's triggering whether somebody needs intervention or not well versus standards is a little bit different to me than versus the nation right and I almost want to know what how different that data is versus Massachusetts because we know education in Massachusetts is different than elsewhere in the right and I ready doesn't allow doesn't filter by Massachusetts okay because that would be an interesting data point to me to say you know is does that bar change a little bit based on um because my understanding was we were kind of just taking looking at that 20 to 30% of each grade level not necessarily of who was against the state standards and we were reassessing them we weren't just taking them right we were reassessing and seeing does this student really need it we were talking to the teachers and now we're hearing from teachers why can't you pick the student up we're hearing from parents why can't you pick pick the student up um there are students who we felt like and then when we were meeting in the classroom with the entire class in small groups we were feeling like we should have picked that student up but they didn't meet the requirement so it didn't it didn't feel like the requirement was quite on Mark this year to to the math interventionist and I think that speaks to some like success criteria that and reflection that we should be embedding in this process so thank you for sharing Christina and I think someone behind you was about to come up um sorry next no that's okay if if you do just to follow up on that and Dr J if if there is any sort of kind of review or conversation regarding those well I think it'll be great to have Aaron and Julie come back and talk

about it because would that impact then the numbers I mean I know you've budgeted for 15 interventionist um and I always talk it's quality over quantity as well is so I I don't want intervention for the sake of it I do appreciate the support my own student my own kids have benefited from it Y and but yeah I think would be helpful hi uh my name is Sharon and I'm at 202 Westford Hills Ro um I think uh I appreciate every one of in here basically we try to achieve the goal of like reaching the optimal uh efficiency right but the problem is how um and we've seen a lot of changes right we just talk about a lot of changes right to the students and definitely um it affect them negatively honestly right and um however I don't really see the flexibility well at the same time if the flexibility provided by the school can allow the student um have this try to get the same opportunity that they can um get what they should get for example the AP class right so we talk about uh yes um you know they can still take it in a junior or senior a year but um we also talk about planning um one of you know my my kids already planned um he's taking one um AP class in sophomore year but no but he has the expectation and we have expectation however at the very end boom nope you got nothing and also instead because it's the last minute so he doesn't I mean yeah he he doesn't get what what he should and then and um of course we all have kind of disappointed but at the same time we still think we thought that um the school will provide some flexibility that we can probably I encourage him I'll could do something online and then

you can take the AP later or you know things like that but it turned out what happened was um like the beginning of the year uh this year when we try to enroll for the AP test um we could take it however wa doesn't allow us because they set the deadline already passed but we were not informed that oh actually ninth and 10th grader they can take the AP we didn't know until my son told me because he said some of his classmates are doing that so we asked wa but they said oh the deadline was done I mean gone so I try to enroll him still and I had to go through different towns and ask them one call after another would you be able to let my you know son sitting there finally I found one but um they charged double for taking that okay so but the whole thing was like honestly we are we are R follower so when the r saying that is not cannot do it then we we just being silent right but not until someone talk about it then my son knows it and he told me and I'm like okay let's do it now but then the school just saying I mean I mean they trying to help I know that but at the same time rule is r and I'm like okay so what can we do that's why I move on to call all these you know places to to get AP AP class I mean AP test so to me I feel like it's kind of like penalized for those who try to try to get what they supposed to get and especially for those students they are capable of taking more right and then now they're saying that we are saying that we're doing on our own however because the rules are there we we we can't right so that is one thing and then the other thing is um like how much the school would really listen to the students and parents

before they Implement all this I know last year was kind of like just a a shock right it just um we didn't know until the end of the year and we know it's so hard for every one of us in here try to change the plan or whatever but um that's why I'm here today CU I have one that coming to high school now um we need to do a better planning I think and um probably the students or parents should get you know more information or get a chance to talk about what they want um that is very important because another example is like um we know in in Middle School um they they give this each student um I think a case to lock their phone um so that they won't use it in um in a classroom okay my daughter she doesn't have a phone so what happened is they still give her the phone saying that it's already been paid okay so when my daughter hear that the word she was like oh we don't have money to go the field trip but we have money to spend on the phone case so for things like that I you know I'm a parent I I Tred to explain it to her however I don't even know this until she told me then I feel uhuh okay so does the school really like send out information I mean send out um a questionnaire or something to ask a student or parents you know what do you think about having this um do you think that's you know good or or what but now we're talking about money right because we are really we with this limit resources we need to spend every time carefully and I would I would think that should be fairly too right so um that is another thing and um the last thing I would like to talk about is the the PE I think many of them talk about the PE already and one thing I'm thinking cuz we move from out of state

to here because of the good reputation of westf I mean Westford schools um but one thing um I was a little bit disappointed was that the school they don't allow to take like outside credit like um because my children they are um like very actively participate in National level um competition for um for a sport um but the school wouldn't allow to take that credit I'm thinking if for Budget cut if like if you allow those student to take it outside then the class can be you know smaller amount of students and then can help for Budget cut I don't know but um this is one of the suggestion that I'm thinking and which I think it has to be like um yeah get approval from the school level or the district level see if that would would be something can you know can be ConEd well first welcome to Westford it sounds like you you join um moved to town recently um and I I know it's not always accessible um or pushed out but we do talk about a lot of those topics in these meetings and they are they are publicized on um westf cat and you can sign up for the agenda so I can I know you sent us an email so I can give you some tips on how to stay included in the agendas and stuff like that um so that you know when a topic is coming up if that will help um I I was so focused on seing that because we did talk about the cell phone cases so it wasn't um there was conversations in these school committee meetings about the cell phone case I'm interested in what field trip your daughter said that she wasn't able to go on I think for 8th grade they cut all the field trips there's basically none like for example the most recent one I knew because I volunteer there is from

Discovery Museum um they could only allow one presenter um go to the school because it's fund I think it's funded by the PT uh the PTO as well that's different those are the Arts and enrichment programs that are and then they can't afford to have one more or they are they are still going on field trips the the eighth graders still have field trips and some they've already matter of fact can't remember they were at the state house already but only did that L didn't do that right lanard didn't go there okay yeah no that was reported in this meeting okay that was only one of them but don't they typically also do kind of end of year field trips as well they still have yeah yeah across I planning on I would actually just say the next thing would be are you signed up for the principal emails that would be in other pieces to make sure that you you're getting the the weekly information that's coming out from the principls MH yeah because um yeah for that that field trip instead of a field trip then they have someone sent from Discovery uh Museum to hear and then they said because of the budget they can't afford to send another person and they asked for par the budget had no impact on on budget a different was it was a different budget is what they're trying to say because they asked for volunteer and that's why I was there and then I've been hearing okay because it's not enough money I'm like oh no yeah the the PTO at each building um drives theacher the parent teacher organization sorry thank you drives the in-house inhouse field trips which are like arts and enrichment presentations that assemblies and stuff that fundraisers from the families fund those throughout the year for each grade level it varies by building um what what kind of things they do to try to give that um enrichment throughout the year for the students but that's that's not our District budget about the operating bu

cuz I've been hearing like a lot of other towns they for eighth graders they they go to different places museums in Boston or you know all that but I don't hear anything in in Blanchet yet so yeah that's why I I think some of that was also driven by the teachers the curriculum what they're working on like we don't have like District um dictated like field trips and stuff because it's really down to the autonomy of the the teachers as to what they're working on what's available what's appropriate as well to you know but I wonder if the teacher have the budget to do it no I I would I think it's a great question I would actually encourage you to write the principal I think you should email principal Islip and ask him that question because he's going to be in the best position to say these are the things that our eighth graders are doing this year but also you know because it might be a team thing it might be one team's doing something another team's doing something else but there could be things that are that are going on and I think that would that would be that that would just be the most that would be the most most beneficial thing I think for you to just get the at least the eighth grade information okay but also we don't like we don't pay for field trips out of our operating budet like we don't fund field trips right okay yeah from the yeah from the operating operting budget yeah okay but we did pay for the phone cases but we don't pay for sorry which we're funded by a grant we're funded by a grant I don't want to like leave you in bad information like we did we did we did pay for the phone cases we don't pay for field trips and in past years there were other field trips in the eth grade that don't exist now yes field trips I genuinely understand your confusion because I'm like there's actually your you're you're talking about a lot of things so I get that but I'm like but they they're not all connected so that's why it's like oh wait a second yeah field trips are generally funded by the families F or like fundraising there's a cost for each student I'm going to circle to budget yeah I just want to I want to keep us a little bit on the rails at the late hour um okay thank you

so much app um there's I know there's one more that stood out to me in the emails that I want to make sure we touch on which is um there was a question about you know that there's the proposal includes an expansion of like the medically fragile program um I'm blinking on um the sale program thank you um program the question was are there were there any other programs like that that were explored to expand specifically like a language based classroom so the short answer is no um those are those three in itself are a lot um but I think in terms of language-based programs one of the one of the because I I received another email from somebody asking specifically about Orton Gillingham and about Orton Gillingham trained staff and um that's actually we we have we we've tend to try try to um hire Specialists who have different backgrounds to to support the needs of our students um and the one of the differences I think with a language-based program is as the content as students are getting older and as the content is and we have more and more content Specialists that really to have a I I think and this would be a better question for Gerard coughin to answer but I will try from my perspective to answer my understanding would be that in order for us to develop a language-based program especially for our older students we would we would need Orton Gillingham type Specialists within the content areas so it would require a different level of

either co- teing and or Staffing Staffing and skill set um that would I I actually think is it could be a wonderful idea but I think it would be a very different cost of investment than what we're proposing so it's not something that it's a good question and it's it's not that we wouldn't explore it right I mean I think it's something that we could look at but I think it's also that's because the question came to me somebody was asking you know in terms of like comparing what we're what we're creating and and knowing that there are times in which we've we've had students who have left the district and have have received different placements to be in a a language-based program at the high school level or at the middle school level specifically and and I think that that was kind of the difference their question was wouldn't we wouldn't it be a greater savings to us if we invested in something like that and that to me it's just it's it requires so much more Staffing yeah to support it that it's not the same that of what we're of what we're proposing right now it's not that we would never explore it it's that it's those that's why it's very different think you conf finding those people yeah yeah yeah um anybody else seems like things are kind of winding down which is um appropriate based on I'm just really happy that we had so many people engaged with a public hearing y because there it's been great questions it's sometimes it's helped for clarification sometimes it's helped to add additional perspective but even last year we didn't have a lot of people and that was and we know we know what last year was looking like we didn't have this type of public um input during the hearing and we never did before I have a quick question sure um related to the two programs that you

were talking about expanding right one of which was the reach program into neb acid school yeah right was there any discussion as to whether or not the district should be be exploring getting another uh pcbaa um that conversation comes up with just the existing programs whether or not an additional teacher is something that we'd be looking at or whether we'd be looking at a bcba at different times and we keep asking that question um it I I think um right now that is not part of that is not part of the proposal um we have increased the number of bcpa that we do have right now um but uh part time right yeah yeah we only have one full-time bcba right I don't think that that's true okay I don't I'll get those numbers to you but it but I'm just curious if if we're going to expand a program I'm just saying was there was there any it's been part of the conversation specialist right it's been part of the conversation and one of the things that we were looking at specifically with with with the reach program knowing that it was going to NAB is that we're looking at trying to expand where those programs are for those neighborhood schools the numbers of those students the numbers of students that were servicing wouldn't be changing significantly um and so some of the resources that we have we would still be able to use to support the number of students that we have in theory in theory and so we're looking we are talking about and we it is part the the the the bcba is part of the conversation all the time great that's that's my question and my take home that I hope we're having a discussion about that the geography is a real thing too we have to Miller's not bad but there's some others yeah which stands for board certified behavioral

um thank you I know you know like we talk about class sizes and trying to keep them to kind of our ideals do we have similar conversations or guidelines regarding the likes of our bcbas our speech language therapists like what is like an appropriate number of case load like numbers for the staff members because that's actually something I don't think I've ever heard we do talk about it we talk we I don't know the answer to that question um but we it is something that we are that we're talking about and the interesting piece is that because again special education itself is so fluid we actually have that conversation multiple times during the year right um similar to elll if you remember a couple of years ago we needed to hire an ell teacher in the middle of the year because the numbers had changed so significantly that we made a midyear higher and then needed to reflect it in the in the upcoming budget um we look at that with special education teachers and bcba and all of the support in general um to that regard but um but also because the grid is the grid right so you have a person who is delivering a service and it's like 4 time 30 or whatever it is so there are only that many and even though and even though our number of students don't change during the year the number of students who are receiving Services could based on their evaluations service that they receive so I think like it's it's kind of different in terms of the fact that because they have to deliver the service in those blocks then you at some point you do have to add someone yeah yeah y anybody else online I think closing thoughts C coming back to the idea of the ideal budget ideal budget is obviously

restoring everything we lost last year but is there something in between that you would prefer to be living with going into next year than what you're proposing at this point and whether or not that's something the select board would even entertain the idea of a significantly smaller override this year school specific that maybe it would have a better chance of of passing U if it didn't have the the the uh doubters of town budget yeah just I I'm just curious I will say if I can this is my concern my concern with any type of additional asset this year is that yes yes we have our our we have concerns with our with our operating budget no doubt and we're looking at that I think we are developing a we we've developed a plan that is the way in which we can say okay how can we how can we do our best to maintain what it is that we have at this moment knowing that we had to make these drastic reductions but trying not to need to make more drastic reductions we also have resource issues we have we have issues and concerns with our buildings and we are going to be in a position where we are going to have very large asks of our entire town so I think we have to be very um strategic in how we are showing our partners our the voters in town Our Town Partners everybody how we are being responsible with the resources that we have access to and I fear that if we are not working and doing everything that we can to try to bring a balanced budget to town meeting

and then also at the same time ask for support from our community to go into a feasibility study for a potential new building that could help all of our it could actually help all of our elementary schools then I just I I feel like I I feel like people are going to get lost in what our needs are and so we need to be very clear as to this is what this is what this need is and this is what that need is okay um yeah I was just thinking as as we were talking about the the multi-tiered classrooms that um you know I think there was a there may have been a ghost writer article that nothing had changed after right right which kind of went against and and it it's not real it's not the reality that we are realizing um so I just and there might be but there also might be ways for us to listen to what people's concerns are and listen to what the what what we tried that might not necessarily be the best solution and to see okay is there a different solution or maybe and again sometimes it might be maybe maybe maybe a level of a class doesn't run you know or something to that effect and those are different things that we knew would be a possible side effect of um the the failed override but I think I just think we need to be very careful as to as to how we approach um coming together with all of our partners I think that review would be very helpful of like you know CU I know we we cut a lot of Staff unfortunately um this last year but it sounds like you know maybe there's some way of alleviating you know a little bit bit of the languages a little bit of the orchestra issue and actually something that I hadn't heard before until this

evening um with our stack meeting was one of the students shared with us that he has seen a difference in his labs in that there he he's they're doing less um because there's more kids in the class so they're not as Hands-On and and practical in those lab Lab settings so um you know I I I think it would be helpful to kind of start getting an idea of okay as we prepare FY 27 not just what can we do within what our current what we are forecasted but what's our wants list to even just alleviate some of us and and I think that's a form of advocacy in itself which is like capturing these experiences and communicating them to the community or in our town partners of not not necessarily here a number that we need but we want you to fully understand even if you're not watching all of our meetings y these this these are the results and the impacts of the discussions that in in our department right and and so I think that's that reflection piece of the budget impacts yeah could could turn into a communication um Outreach yeah so well there's a lots of process um so we have an open budget hearing which is only closed with a motion true sure I'm so proud of myself for remembering that um so I'll take a motion to close the bud public hearing for the FY 26 school budget so moved second Mari and Sean all in favor okay so we'll be back here in about two weeks um with a planned budget vote um um on our agenda um and we I think we had some really good

discussions tonight heard some really great perspectives a lot to think about um and we will have a brief business meeting on that night and then shift to our um start Times Forum at 8 o'clock that night so just a reminder I'll take a motion to adjourn so moved all right thank you all in favor good night e for