Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
May 8, 2024 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
Good. All right. Welcome, everyone. I'd like to call to order the Andover Board of Education regular meeting for Wednesday, May 8. It is 07:00. I'd like to start us off with the Pledge of Allegiance. So we have Jenny on for comments for the public. Any comments, Jenny? Nothing from me, Celeste. Thank you. You're welcome. Do we have miss Frazier here? Anything from you? Nothing. Okay. Thank you. Any communications? Did you hear anything back with regard to a request from MEP? I'm gonna get to that. My chairperson's all over. Thank you, Shannon. Any other communications? No. Nothing? Okay. Alright. Student celebrations.
So we yeah. We you might not recognize any students in the library right now. It is a very, very busy time of year. So while we wanted to bring you some third graders, sports and everything is is in full swing. So missus Fraser volunteered to still, we wanted to give you a little taste of what we're going to show, which is part of our math program. So she is gonna take it from here. Share the screen for us for a moment.
So just to give you an overview right now, we are piloting in grade two and three illustrative mathematics. And as program, it's all online, and it is free source, so it is nice in that manner. And everything which you can see in just a moment is already prepared for us, which is great to be able to present to the students, and then any materials we need are online. That is for grades two and three, piloting that right now. For next year, we plan to move forward and be able to expand that to grades two through five. And then, in sixth grade, we'll be doing big ideas, which is the program that they use at the middle school. So we make that transition during that sixth grade. So they go, it also illustrative. All math programs kinda end at fifth grade, and then sixth grade picks up with the middle school program. So in order to keep that continuity,
we transition to sixth grade. And then our k and one are, we teach the standards. We have, a very experienced group of teachers down there who have developed a great curriculum, and it really has the kids less active in a workbook, but more active out and using numbers and, working with math in realistic ways. So what we wanted to do is demonstrate for you a third grade number talk. Number talks happen at the beginning of your math class. They are five to seven minutes long depending on what the topic is. It might be a fluency. It might have, a five plus ten, five plus fifteen, five plus ten, five plus 30. What is the pattern you see? How can your answer from the first problem help you with the second problem? That type of fluency. And then we also have some that are more of a discourse and asking the students to think and explore.
So the one that we're going to do today is going to be
I'm gonna be asking you to tell me which one doesn't belong. I just wanna give you a moment to think. Celeste? D. Alright. And why? Because a, b, and c have 90 degree angles.
Okay. Great. So I would be writing this down. It's a 90 degree angles on a, b, and c. Alright? She doesn't see nine that would be maybe perhaps a discussion about what that means. I could take a piece of paper, line it up, and we'll see the paper. Okay? Anybody else?
Okay. B. Why? Because it has five sides and not four sides. Oh, and what are the four sided shapes called? Do you remember? Good.
Anybody remember what a five sided shape is called? Pentagon. Yes. Very good. Okay. So we have he's a pentagon.
Right? I think Well, I have turn it toward d. Alright. Tell my y, dude. Headset.
That angle that goes in. Ah, yes. Okay. And the other ones will have was it con Con Con conte. Mhmm. Conte.
Alright. Okay. Good. Think about yes. A. It's on its side. What shape is that? A is what? It's square. It's crooked. It's crooked. You'll you'll be amazed. We have the discussion on what shape a is because it's way. But diamond? But Yeah. Not yes.
A little bit. A little bit. One of the kids says, move your head like this. Yes. No. No. Alright. Anything else? D. Why? It doesn't have any right angles.
Which letter? B? D. D. D. K. No right angles and d. Anything else? Do you remember our discussion a couple days ago? We talked about the word parallel and what those meant. Could anybody take a look at this and see if there was a connection to parallel?
My Yee. Why? It doesn't have any sets of, opposite sides in parallel. Very nice. Okay.
So Okay. You kids are so smart. So this is how the discussion would go. Alright? But you see what the kids are doing. They're getting in discourse. You give them some time to think about it on their own, give them some time to discuss with their peers, be able to have that math discussion. Then Multiple right answers. Oh, yeah. There is no right answer. Well, I know. For those of you who are stressing over this just intact.
So we also call that low floor high ceiling. So one of the best parts of opening with math is that every student in the room can answer even if they just say it's crooked. They've contributed, and so they feel successful in math. Whereas some kids might go right to angles and parallel. And, like, they could be you know? And and the teacher can engage in all of those ways. And then there's a couple of kiddos who aren't gonna raise their hand, but they're, again, they're hearing all those different pieces.
Awesome. Provides a continual review of topics that you discussed before, just to show you.
Our launch card would be what kinds of words do we use to describe shapes. So you can hear this discourse that we just had and how we describe those shapes. Our activity for this one is that the students would be working with a partner, and they were given these cards. I actually did this lesson today with third grade, and they have the, 24 cards that they had to then sort. And as you can see, we've got some that are obvious sort, black, white. Okay? Great. Low floor. We've got everybody can sort them that way. Then we start looking at some other, attributes, and it was interesting. One of the kids had, they sorted them in multiple categories. And I said, what did you do? And they had three, three there three sides that were white, three sides that were black, four sides that were white, four sides that were black, and so forth. We looked at they had some that were the concave ones versus the, it was just awesome, the different ways that they did it, sorting them, being able to explain their reasoning. Then the lesson would go back to, giving the teacher some the synthesis, which is the conclusion of the lesson and how you're bringing it all together. You could bring up two cards, like letter o well, here it is right here, a and s. And you could say, what are some things that you would be able to sort these alike, and how would you be able to sort them differently? So then you can hear some of those things that the students were able to come up with throughout their,
discussion time. And then our last one is always what we call a cool down. It's that exit ticket to be able to understand that your students, were able to grasp the concept that you were trying to model that day. And if you'll notice, like, all the statements that are true about the shapes, we you know, also works off of, test back testing where there's always more than one answer, making sure to look. It says all of them. That means there's more than one right answer, making sure to read all of the problems there. So
The teachers in that middle piece where they're kind of synthesizing, they might, at the last ten minutes, identified which kiddos they're gonna call on who have different ideas to share. So there's a lot of intentionality just even in the pieces that they're working with students to highlight different ways of thinking. So, we've been very excited with Illustrative and our progress. I know the board knows we we had tried out I Ready and felt it wasn't a good fit for us, and this, seems to be much more of the direction we wanna go. So great. Does this have workbooks that go with it for the kids? Yeah. Or is it all We, it's because it's open source, there are practice pages. They're all online. You can purchase them as workbooks. We don't find value in that because we would never use all the pages. So we just print printing. Yep. And that's, I think, as you remember, a little bit higher in our printed cost. But
it's honestly saved us because, again, how often do you get to every single worksheet in a workbook? Yeah. Whatever. The other thing is that we've taken, Jen McBoldrick's, the other second grade teacher, piloting it along with me. And if we use Seesaw, we can take this statement, cut it out, put it right in their Seesaw account, and then students just go to their Seesaw, answer the problem. We're able to look at it that night and say, yep. You know, put a comment on there, that type of a thing. Parents are then able to see what it is that we're learning about in math. Saving a ton of paper as well. Yeah. Yay. So thank you to missus Fraser. Thank
you. Thank you. You. Like a student. I'm better than I one now.
Any other questions for her? I think everybody knows missus Frazier. I should have introduced her better, but she is our math interventionist, technology integrationist, and all around curriculum support.
So we appreciate the work that she does in there. Thank you. Thank you very much for staying. Appreciate it. Thank you. Alright. Okay. On to the approval of the, minutes regular meeting of 04/17/2024. Did everybody have a opportunity to take a look at them? Yep. Alright. Any
I move for their approval with one change. We just need to add that, miss Lionberger was present, other than the others. She did the presentation, so I think that's why it was left out that she was present. So we just need to add that in. Okay. I think it's a revised
page from you to to chat one about the, budget transfer form. Originally, they were standing up, but Yes. They know they're revived on that. Yep. Yep. So
I'm sorry, Shannon. Just I mean, I'll take your Okay. An amendment to the, minutes. I can second. Go ahead. Alright. All in favor? Aye. Okay.
So the regular, minutes of the 04/17/2024, meeting have been approved. Thank you. All right. Any does anybody wanna add or delete any agenda items? No? Okay. All right. All right. Moving on to the reports. I'll start off with mine. Just wanted to wish all the moms here a happy Mother's Day. It's coming up this weekend, so happy Mother's Day. I went to the town budget meeting on May 1. It went very well. We had no questions asked about our budget, which I thought was great. There was a couple questions just about enrollment, but but that was really it. And there was probably only about maybe 50 people, 38 or yeah. And that included us. So it was about 50. 38 plus seven. Thank you. 38 plus seven. Right. Who voted yet. Yeah. So it was it went well. So the budget referendum is next Tuesday, May 14. So please put that on your calendar. We have teacher appreciation week. We're in full swing with that. I hope everybody got my email. If you already sent an email to Val, please do so so she can send that out to our teachers thanking them.
I did send at at at our last meeting, I did work with Val, and we sent off two letters, one to the board of selectman and one to the board of finance for the board of selectman regarding the MEP. I did speak with Jeff McGuire today, just looking to kinda get an update on where we stand with that. And he spoke with Eric Anderson, and then Val and I had received an email from Eric. He's looking at retaining a company to come in here, hopefully, maybe sometime next week to to do a walk through. So, hopefully, we'll get that going. And Jeff McGuire did say that the Board of Selectmen is gonna have it on their agenda for Monday to discuss how to fund it. So we're we're moving forward with that. The Board of Finance meeting is on May 22. I did speak with Mark Brinker and Joanne Hiebert quickly before the the town budget meeting started, just to make sure that, we're on the agenda, for that just to allocate the 103,000 surplus. So, so we're moving forward with both of those things, and, we can get the MEP contractor in here sometime next week. So That's great. Yeah. Thank you. That's that that's all I have.
Val, take it away. Okay. I don't have that much either online. We're coming to the end of the year. So we are we mentioned it last month. We've come to the end of the the after school grant, and there were areas that I could reallocate. So I did get permission to reallocate. So the families on the 20, when they come for our our family ninth, on the twenty third, night of the arts, I'll send something home ahead of time, but they'll be able to, create their own backpacks. I had done them with my 100 kids and the other where we decided and made them. We have a lot more kids here.
And with multiples in a family, you don't want the same thing coming home. And so instead, what we're doing is there'll be a table. It'll be in Caraboni's room. You can come in. We'll sign off your name, and you'll have just little tickets to go to the tables and pick five things to put in your bag. So we've been ordering, you know, quite a bit because if you think about it, five times the number of kids here, we need a thousand items. And so there's some books. There are some activities for families if you're on a trip, in a car or in a plane that can keep you and the kids busy. There are some physical activity things. There's lots of math stuff, reading books, and there will be some gift cards. If they choose gift cards, they'll use up two of their five. There'll be gift cards to places that families can use as well. So, you know, I thought it was a really good way for us to spend the rest of that money, and the state approved and said absolutely. So if we come to the end of that and, you know, making sure we don't waste a penny of it as we get to the end. So and then this summer, we are working with
Jenna Goldrick will be overseeing the cool summer program this summer, one of our teachers and and another cool staff member. So, we're gonna be meeting next week to see you guys know every year we've gotten that grant that we work with them. So we'll be making sure that that's planned out, knowing where that money goes for the kids so we get that paperwork in motion. So there should be a lot of good things that will overlap with coming during the course of the summer for services with mental health and with preschool boot camp. So there'll be a lot of activity here during the course of the summer, a lot of family stuff, lot of things for kids. So we're so we're doing well with that. And, you know, Tierra and I have made sure too that the stuff that we need to put together for the pre k room has been ordered as well because that'll be the first step. Pre k k rooms,
get those set and done since we're gonna be using those rooms later in the summer. So we talked just today. I'm sure it's by her finance that, next month, we'll have exact numbers then. Remember, we said we didn't know where we would fall with adding the third one. It's looking really, really good Mhmm. That we won't go over. And so, we'll be able to what? Next year for this year. This year. Because Oh, for right now. Yeah. Yeah. Remember when we said we really felt that at the end of the year because it hadn't been budgeted for Yeah. That we should be okay. And we're pretty confident, actually, that we're gonna be pretty close. Yeah. So the stove and the fridge through food service has already been delivered. That was the rest of the during COVID extra money that they had received that, you know, we get a say in, but not really
because it has to go for the stuff in the kitchen. So that's here. So that'll be up and running, and they'll have a nice new new setup for next year. And the FOIs went out to Eric today, so the rest of those are done. So Okay. So that's one. Yep. I forgot all about that. So I just looked down at my notes. Thank you. I told the FOI they Yeah. He has them all now. He signed for it. Thank you very much. So and it was on my notes. I forgot. Sorry. You. So, yeah, so that's where we're sitting with those things. And Taylor will talk about it, I'm sure, but don't, you know, let her fool you in into thinking it was just staff. The teachers and Taylor did a fantastic job getting us through the NIAC accreditation. It was it it couldn't have gone better. When we say everybody who's a part of this teaching staff, this support staff, they were ready, and they had to be. And it was so nice to see. It was we're in such a good place. I'm so proud of them. So and and putting together even their portfolio, that was a huge undertaking for them. And even though they can't say much while they're here, it was the same lady that I had the week earlier doing my other school. And you could just tell when she walked through that she was quite impressed with things that were going on within the building. So I'm very proud of them. And we've told you before that when families have come in for the screenings, regardless of if they're Andover or out of town, they've made comments about, wow. This is great. We've heard it. We've seen it. And now to have an expert come through, and there was not a single safety
violation, which everybody else say, well, there shouldn't be. Sure. There shouldn't be, but things slip through sometimes. And that's, you know, always something that you're and there was they went on with their business as they always do, and every single one of you guys would have been so proud that day to be here. I've been like, this is great. So and I think the best thing is that no kid says, like, something's done differently. And so whether we walk into the room as administrators, if you walked in as a board member, if that person who came through the accreditation walked through, there isn't gonna be a kid that says, we don't normally do it that way. They they And they would tell you. They would tell you. You know? Yes. They would tell you. But they're just you know, it's just a very, very well run. And I've I've I've said this before. We have the best program in the region, hands down. And when those results come in, you know, we'll obviously, Taylor will share them with you, but you guys will see them. And at that time, to the next meeting, I would like her to bring the the book, you know, the portfolio so that you could see the amount of work that's put in there. When when do you think we'll get it? That's exactly what was gonna ask up to three months, let's say, but I'm sure it'll be done by the end of the school year. I think the other thing that would be good just in terms of community knowledge of that when we do get it back would be to maybe contact River East and see Oh, don't worry. We will.
Because that I mean, that's I am really proud of article.
Really, really proud of them. Really proud of them. They just and keep in mind, if you look at our current three preschool teachers, only one of them was here the last time they accredited. If you look at our two kindergarten teachers, we weren't accredited for kindergarten last time, so they were new to the process. So I mean, most of the people involved, even though they might have been in this building, were not part of that process. And they pick rooms randomly, and you find out that morning, the room that had the veteran teacher didn't get picked. Mhmm. So, you know and they were the teachers, the staff, all of them, they were excited. They were like, alright. Let's get this done. You know the teacher that was here last month? Yes. Yeah. Miss Lineberger? Her room got picked, and she was excited. She was like, we're doing this. And and you would've been really proud. You really would. It was it was great. So she'll tell you a little more, but I know she wouldn't tell you just, you know, how impressive it is that they that they that they got through this. So Awesome. Great. That's it. Alright,
Taylor. Take it away.
Yes. Well, we did have a fantastic visit. We all joked that, you know, it's not our we're not putting a show on. The only performance here is my high heels. I definitely don't wear those on a daily basis. But so, yes, the teachers and kids might have called me out on that one. Good. She doesn't reveal. You you probably look like that usually. But it's I definitely echo Val. We did a great job. The portfolios that the staff work on are nearly 500 pages together. So we're talking a really significant lift that they don't get additional,
you know, time and and subs to do. They just do. And they really reflect and make the rooms a true reflection. You know, we do a lot in education. There's a big piece of compliance work, but this isn't that. I mean, we really, I I think, embody the the NIAC or NAIC, we're supposed to say now. It's what we're most pronouncing. NAIC standards here, and I think that's genuine, and that's made our program better and why we wanted to accredit in kindergarten. So I think the staff would share the same. Well, yeah, it's not something we'd like to go through every year because of that lift. It certainly is, is real learning and real work that we do day to day. So very excited. Of course, everyone today is like, did we pass? I'm like, yeah. Only, like, a month now. Okay. So that's, like, hard because you just you're just dying for that person to say, you did it. Right. But like Dallas said, we we did not have any safety violations or anything like that. So at that point, it scored much like an assessment. You get percentages in different areas, and there's minimum percentages to pass. So,
yeah, we'll definitely keep you posted on that. But we are excited to have that as we can now turn our focus to our end of the year other end of year events. So we have also on the same day that Macy decided to grace us with their presence was our launch of SBAC. Why not? So, yeah, this this is good. I said I'd be dying to be a second grade teacher right now. So SBAC started really went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful start. No technology issues, which is always an exciting day. And, really, just we've just our couple of days now, gotten so much feedback from teachers on just how this sounds funny, but how happy the kids are right now during testing. I feel like we really have done a good job of setting up the environments well where there's not a a stress, like, you know, we as adults in a board might feel, but yet there's this, like, pride and seriousness that they are ready to attack it because they want it to go well, because they wanna show off their work, not because they're worried, you know, if they don't do well something.
And we we did a couple new things just kind of in a way we support kids and around the building with our testing environments, and so that's been really successful. So that will be the next three weeks ish. Two weeks for most, but fifth grade, as you know, takes science. So they'll kind of bring up the rear for us at the end of May. That window closes on May 31. So that's going on. We wanna congratulate Lily Godwin. So you guys got to meet her when we took the inventors, the final four came. She had the cleats covered, if you recall. Genius. Yes. So she moved was chosen and selected to move to the finals, which is very exciting. So that's in June, and she will go in person. So she'll have her whole board and do her presentation. So we're really proud of her and excited. She's very excited to do that. We have lots of exciting events coming up, as you know. So our evening of the arts happens on May 23. We'll also have our book fair then. Anyone interested in volunteering to help with that is always welcome.
We do have Memorial Day, so our other no school day, sixth grade step up. As you all know, that's at 10:30. Diane did finish the informal invitations today, so you should get a copy so you have it for your fridge very soon. And then our last day of school, the snow days, is June 13, and that's a half day with the teachers completing professional development the following day on June 14. If you recall, one of our snow days was actually a PD day. Alright. So it just says you note that on the calendar. The only other thing I had, I just wanted to keep the board aware that just yesterday, almost very suddenly, a bunch of our pavement is, unfortunately, in the park, both upper and lower lot, having some difficulties where it was sealed has, in some cases, just popped out. I don't know how else to explain it. It's it's not like it's gone. It's just sitting on the side, and so those holes are now deep. I do have some pictures that I can show you. I mean, it's light out, so you can see. You might have seen a cone when you came in. We're trying to cone off the really deep ones, but it's concerning as you can imagine, safety wise, especially upstairs as it's on the path of, like, the buses and the cars. So I did reach out to Eric. He came to look at them and is hoping that Public Works can take a look and maybe refill. I did not have a timeline on that, and, hopefully, it's a very fast one, or we will have to reconsider again what we're gonna do about the last. I know there's only twenty five days, but we can't have a safety hazard
as staff was even concerned about tripping as they got out of their car. So Mhmm. I'm not really sure. Eric mentioned perhaps with water there's a lot of water, a lot of rain or something that pavement expands. I don't I don't know why. It's not my job to know why, but it is I am concerned about the piece. So, again, I do have some pictures that you can see.
But if the board wants to take any other action, you can see it's kinda falling out.
Is that in the upper That one, the one in the upper one. Yeah. Where the that really deep section was.
Yeah. And then there's just some random holes forming again. And it didn't seem to happen gradually, honestly. It was very, like All of a sudden. Got it. Like, all of sudden, there's a lot of Did Eric say when he was gonna get back to you? Or He did. He came over, like I said, today to look at them, and I said he'll talk to Public Works and see what. So, you know, I can certainly obviously, I'll keep keep in contact.
Okay. If you just let me know or just let us know. If we don't Just scroll. Yeah. Okay. Any questions for me? On Taylor. Yes. Just to
count ourselves as well. I think you said last time that we would be the only school in the state to have NACE accredited
kindergarten. The only one in the state, but we're one of very few. I believe there's under five, honestly. Scotland does as well. I don't wanna say the wrong town. I can't remember if it's it starts with a b. There's another one around There's four. Yeah. I think I think it's under five. So I mean And this is and once you get it, how often? Like Every five years. Every five years. Okay. Yeah. And they're actually changing the process a bit, of course, right, how that works. Thank you. So including more of, like, surprise visits, which to me is even like it's fun, but it's also like, come on in now, you know, and see what we do. So Right. Yeah.
Awesome. Does anybody I'm are you all do have anything already? I think I got it all. Can I add one more date to her upcoming dates? I know it's this person. What do I miss? The Ram Arts celebration night is May 30. We do have students that have art at that. Yep. And then there's, like, a concert for all of the middle school and high school. It's actually really fun to attend if you guys have not been to it. That's 05:30, May 30? The so the the formal concert starts at seven. I believe the doors open at either 04:45 or five for, like, a art show and stuff and a dinner beforehand, and they have, like,
like, a coffee shop hour kind of performances before the, like, big performances. So they have, like, individual performers. Nice. And that's May 30. Yeah. And then the talent show is the Twenty ninth. Twenty ninth.
Yes. Here. Yes. I didn't put field day, but I know it's not a day you might wanna miss. But June 7, field day, in case anyone's just dying to do some running. And then that same evening will be our sixth grade party. And this year, they have chosen to go off-site, so we're excitedly planning for that. So where are they going? I think they're going to spare time is where they voted, which is in Vernon. For Bowling. Yeah. Nice. Cool. So
Thank you, Taylor. Does anybody have any questions for Taylor?
Alright, Terry. You are up. Okay. If everybody would just turn for their, financials in the packet. Hoping you had a chance to review a little bit before the meeting. Do we have any specific questions
regarding the financials this month? Or I had a couple. I just there was a couple that were overextended, and I didn't know if those were captured in the transfers or what was Are you on the objects or on the summary? Well, on the summary, I have the ELA supplies, and I guess that equates to They go to Yes. On the detail. It looks like it Yes. Is the repair of
outdoor equipment. Is no. No. No. Is that a different one? ELL supplies went over because we had to provide because our the grant didn't provide for the grades four through six reading program, we had to take the reading materials out of that. Okay. Okay. And then, yes, there was another place that In the repair? Under repair. Yes. That we had an overage of $54.94 48, and that arose from, we had a repair on the playgrounds that was unexpected. And, unfortunately, that's the cost of the materials and the repairs. Which one upper or lower? Lower. Lower. Okay. Yes.
Anybody need anybody else have any questions? And thank you for sending over the the transfer information over to the. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any does anybody have any questions for Terry? Terry, do you have anything else?
Nope. Everything's going now. Just End of the year. One question. Are you still meeting with the other I don't remember what her name was. Yes. I'm I'm pretty much in touch with her on a weekly basis. Okay. But I had a meeting with her last month or the month before. Now it's just basically she'll be reviewing all my end of the year processes and anything that needs to be you know, any grant submissions that need to be made, and and we're really I feel like we're in good shape. Oh, she's double check like, double checking. Yes. She is. Okay. Yes. And she's still waiting for your meeting with the treasurer.
The meeting of the treasurer, that's not gonna happen till the summer. It's for end of year. Right.
But Okay. What was the date Yep. So for Celeste because they remember they suggested or requested, I should say, that Monthly meeting. There'd be the monthly meeting. And I know that you have reached out to the treasurer Right. To get that meeting, and there hasn't been one yet, but not because Mary hasn't reached out. It just hadn't happened yet. Okay. But after the meeting that we had,
Terry is going to have, like, a standing monthly meeting with the town treasurer just to go over things and talk, so just to keep those lines of communication open. So thank you for that. That's good. That'll be great. Okay. Alright.
Okay. Liaison reports us. Is there a school readiness So there was a meeting on the eighteenth, but I was not able to attend. Okay. And there is one tomorrow at 10:45 that I should be making some. I do have the minutes from the last one if anybody is interested. And can you just briefly just discuss what happened? Or No. I can
do you want me to Or I can read it. Or mean, but Tara I mean, I can give you a brief update if it's just easier. Yeah. So we meet with Hey, Brin, when we do those. And so we give an update on tuition, on the kind of smart start school readiness grants, and we are in perfect condition in terms of money expended and tuition collected. We are on track. And then we talked about incorporating literacy this time a little bit and how we do that into the classrooms. And then we talked about next year for us on our end and how we're expanding and kind of getting a few. We we talked with Hebron. Now we have a few Hebron applicants at that that time. And then this month, tomorrow, we start to talk about making sure all of our school readiness spots are filled or slots. So we have 16 slot grant slots,
and making sure we have families that fit within that income bracket. And then we are talking about connections with families as well tomorrow, how we connect with, community and families. So I'll share a little bit about our after school grant and how we've done that, as well as how we connect with to support our preschool families. And
then this summer yep. Good point. Also with the public library. So we are partnering with them to sponsor some summer events, specifically some cultural events related to diversity and equity. So that'll be a nice piece to add to our lower school.
Not that they might not be open to all kids, but specifically our younger kiddos. The campus.
Jenny you guys know Jenny Morell, our early childhood specialist. She is just got a green thumb that I don't have. And so she's still going to be starting composting Oh, you got it. With our youngest kiddos, and she's been supporting with the community garden. Okay. And so weekly kind of having some kiddos go and help with the fencing, with the re it's, you know, it's moved locations. Yeah. With Jeff and then doing a new sign, they're painting. So Great. Doing some kind of beautification.
We had a we have a couple of clubs this month on that. So Awesome. Yeah. Well, thank you, Jenny. Thank you for doing that. You're very welcome.
Thank you. PT has been very busy. We had our pasta dinner last month, which was great. It was definitely well attended. It was another good fundraiser for us. We have our talent show coming up on May 29, and so we're looking forward to that. And I would definitely you know, Shannon and Jerry, if you wanna come and, watch some great AES talent, I would highly I would highly recommend you come. It's, always a good time and a good night. We'll be selling some, some concessions, so so please come. We'd love to have you. And raffle tickets. And right. And we are selling raffle tickets. We still have our raffle, prizes available, which we will be picking names at, evening of the arts. So if you're interested in purchasing some raffle tickets, let me know. Did forget anything? I think that's it, right, for the PTA? Oh, you have your contest for the kids to design a Yes. Go ahead, Brie. You can talk a little bit it. Yeah. Yes, partnered with Christina Fraser. Thank you. And she
let the school know that there is a contest to design the next AES shirt for a campaign. We do the school spirit wear through a fundraising platform called Bonfire, and we're allowed to basically upload any design we want. So but it'll be fun to get the kids involved, and so the winning design will get uploaded and be featured in a campaign, and they will win a t shirt with their design on it. Yep. So
yeah. So that's hope yeah. And I I know of one student who came up to me and said that she submitted an entry. So hope hopefully hopefully, we're getting some more. So good. So thank you for organizing that, and thank you, missus Trager, for for doing that. Does anybody else have any other liaison reports?
Any CIP or anything with curriculum? Meeting next week. We do have to consider not recalling what we have to consider, but we're going to be next Thursday. Okay. So I'll have a report next month. Okay. Any curriculum?
No? Alright. Okay. So that brings us to the items for discussion to so item a, to vote on the new IED policy to approve the new IED policy. And we we talked about it at our last meeting. I
move to approve the new IED increasing educator diversity plan policy four one one point three. I'll second.
Okay. Are there any discussion? No. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. So that policy is adopted, six zero zero. All right. And then moving on to the next one, item B, the kindergarten policy, the second reading of that. I vote to approve the new kindergarten policy.
I vote to approve the new admission to the public schools, added before age five, policy 5112.
I'll second it. Okay, Jerry. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. That is now adopted. 600. Okay. And then the next item up is item c, the capital policy. Yep.
So I passed that out, and I wanted to tell you the following. So I hope I've come up with what I believe is a good solution to all of the stuff we've been going through the last many months. What I decided to do was to ask for the creation of a triboard committee. Because as we've gone back and forth and back and forth, as we talked about last meeting, what it comes down to is what's the definition of a capital project, and who's gonna oversee it, and how is the money gonna be expended. Right? Mhmm. So I'll I'll just kinda read through what the policy actually says just to give you a sense. So the town of Andover has established the fund. The reason I think it should be called 34 School Road is so there's a distinction between this is all 35 School Road. It's not just the building. It's not just Andover Elementary School. So I think it should refer to the entire property, which is why I said that. Then I recognize that, once the proposed budget is passed, they put a $100,000 that would then be deposited into the account, and they can thereafter do it. I don't think we can expect that they're gonna put in a 100,000 a year. That would be great if we could. But it's gonna be up to the town and up to the board of finance and board of selectmen as to what they choose to put into our account on behalf of the town. Then the handover board of education can also choose to put money in.
At the end of our fiscal year after the end of the fiscal year, we could choose to transfer unspent money into that account also, and that gives us a sense of what we're knowing is coming down the pipe for capital projects. We already voted to have the 103,000, to be deposited into that account, so this policy just directs that. And this is a policy that will go on and on. The only reason I referred to the two different fiscal years is so that they're right in the policy, and it's a onetime thing for each one of those. I wanna say with regard to that. The reason that I did not put in, any kind of monetary, kick in so that that would define what a capital project is is because, for example, we have curricula that, clearly, the board of education is responsible for that may cost as much as $50,000. So we can't just put in a a threshold of a monetary value that's gonna automatically call it a capital project. I think the better way to do it is what I defined in two c down here, which basically says, look. We're gonna the board of ed is gonna determine what a capital project is that's gonna be different from
repairs and maintenance. We're then going to ask the triboard committee that will be made up of two members of each of the board of education, board of finance, and board of selection, to make expenditures out of the capital the 35, School Road Capital Fund, and then they would make those expenditures. They would allocate the money from that. The reason that I put in that all the money from that capital fund should be spent on school projects or projects for 35 School Road is that we're gonna be putting our own money into that account. And, therefore, because it's already been budgeted to us, it should be spent on the school, on the 35 School Road, I should better say. And similarly, I think but it's up to the board. This is our first reading that we should be managing those projects because they affect property for which we're responsible for. But that's up to the board to determine. The other thing I wanna mention, it's totally different from the policy is, I believe today that they passed the education bill today, the senate did. I don't I didn't I didn't look it up today, but it it it pass. It'll pass. There's an omnibus education
bill that has a really good provision that's going to be very helpful for us and also affects the policy, which I knew about when I did this. And that is that we will no longer have to ask permission from the board of finance to put money into the 2% nonlapsing account. We will automatically be allowed to determine what we wanna put into that account. So what I can foresee up to 2%. What I could foresee happening is we might make a determination that we put a certain amount into the 2% non lapsing, which will take care of future emergencies and another amount into the capital fund, which would prepare for future capital expenditures. And then I don't know how we're gonna work it. I mean, you've got a six person board.
I believe that because it's something going on at 35 School Road that the board of ed the two members of the board of ed might be the tiebreaker, however they choose. But if anybody else has any other ideas, let's let's put it out there. I just rapidly I see. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So we're gonna get down to way a vote occurs. We may end up in a three three tie. So that's the case kind of like when the board of education brings on a new member. We have a second vote. If after the second vote, there's still a tie, how would you break that tie? And I think the the beliefs of the board of education should take priority given that it's happening here. But however anybody else would wanna recommend it, I'd be happy to hear that. Dave, one thing I do wanna say with regard to capital projects,
I've spent hours and hours and hours talking to Cave, talking to lawyers about how capital is defined. And the bottom line is it it's not. Right. It's defined any different way you wanna define it. And Mhmm. The bottom line that gets down to for Andover's purposes that we've also talked about is it gets down to relationships. If there's a good working relationship, there shouldn't be any problem with really recognizing that whatever we deem to be a capital project should be a capital project. There are towns that are in litigation right now over what's a capital project, and there are also towns, for example, where the the board or the town council simply said, hey. We're gonna give you a $100,000 for Chromebooks. We see that that might be a capital account or a capital project, but we don't even care. Here's the money for the capital project. So I figured the best way to do it rather than are asking permission to the board of finance, then asking permission to the board of selectmen is to just create a board, that has two people from from every board to determine how capital funds are gonna be spent,
and that was my resolution. But first reading, and I'm interested in any ideas, but I hope this is a good solution.
Thank you. Thank you for working on this. I know this this is it did is this with Rob too? Or okay. I spoke with Robert about it. Okay. I wanted to bring it to the board of Ed first. Right. Okay. See what we wanna do with it, then he'll take it to the board of finance. Okay.
But So this is the both of you coming. This okay. Yeah. He didn't he didn't sign off. He he he remarked on some things that he thought might not necessarily fly Okay. With with the other boards. And I think we're gonna need approval by the board of selectmen also. Okay. Yeah. So, obviously, if the board of education thinks that we should have the primary vote in the case of a tie, that might not sit well with them. But Right. I told you why I believe that's important. Yep. Yep. Alright. So let's open it up for for discussion. Yeah.
I have a few comments. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I really like your definition of major improvement of a nonrecurring nature. I I I think that's nicely put and defines what a capital improvement or capital expenditure would be for this facility and property. I like that it doesn't specify a dollar amount because it's Okay. It's true. It can't I personally think where you put in section two b that capital projects will be managed by the board of ed, I think that's going to be a problem. Okay. Yeah. I I personally think that if we're gonna create this triboard thing,
that the project should be managed by that tri board thing. Yeah. I try to come up with a way to do that because I think it would be, unwieldy
to have six people managing a a project. But if you say that that board is going to manage it Yep. Then, like, they would appoint a a person
Like, what I thought would that put to manage it. Yep. And thought I would put that in. And I went to the handy dandy blue work Yep. Because I was
like, oh, I don't know enough about this. And I did. I And think when you get into capital, you can probably overlap it with some of, like, the construction on the school building projects section. Uh-huh. And it does say the responsibility for overseeing a school's construction project is typically delegated to a school building committee appointed by the municipality. So I'm taking that's the town, and so I don't think that that is going to fly. Typically, the board of ed has appointed our own
board to oversee capital projects. So for example, when we did the roof, which was a major, we had, it was actually chaired by Mike Russo, who was on the board of education, and then we involved both members from the town administration
as well as members just from the town. And then I guess my other concern was that it says such committees act as a agent from the municipality and do not have a separate standing to assert legal claim. So just we can't, like, sue over this. And I I did read the committee of town of Fairfield versus Placo too, so it's pretty clear. Sue the town. That's not Not for not not for construction, though. Right. Yeah. Right. So and I'm just saying what's defined as construction. If you have to rip out the bathrooms up, is that constructive? Are there are there are definitions in there for construction.
Yes. There are definitions for construction. If you go through, Mooney, you'll see definitions for construction, and that's because oftentimes with new construction of schools, for example, involves federal and or state dollars. Mhmm. And just like we have one grant that has to be signed off by the town, it's our school readiness grant. When we write that, it has to have my signature as well as Jeff's because of where the money comes from. And so that particular
there are already state guidelines on that. Mhmm. And it has to do with the monies. Is there would there be a problem with us saying that the project should be managed by this triboard that's created as opposed to the New construct right. New construction is a different Yeah. Right. I'm saying that for this policy, there's no issue with it. Right? I just think that I mean No. That's about I think it I think it shows good faith that we're showing support to the other two boards and that we're trying to all work together. Yeah. I agree. Mike, I see some some red ink on your Oh, I'm just I'm just making my notes. Alright. Trying to process it. Okay.
Jerry, do you have any update you wanna say? Yeah. I'd like to say thank you to Shannon. I know this was a long and tedious process. I just wanna make sure we so if we have a pot of money left over at the end of the year Yep. We can choose to put something in 2%. Yep. And the parameters of the 2% is still
The parameters still percent are still there. We just don't need board of finance approval to put it in there. We put it in up to the 2%. Mhmm. Anything over that, we can put in the Right. Capital or bond. Okay. We could choose to. And then, obviously, our other choice always is just to return it to the town.
Right. And this would specify that we wouldn't need border finance approval to put money into this as well. Correct? It just says The way that it's written, it just says we can do that. Yes, ma'am. No one else can take it out.
Well, that's why I'm saying all Well, there's this tribe board tribe board community recommends how the expenditures are gonna be made or actually does the expenditures. And then it must be spent on capital projects for 35 School Road. Got it. So that affected what Eric said at the three board meeting where he said he can invade all the different Right. Accounts. And I thought that was problematic because if we put our budget money in budgeted money into that account, there's no way to pre you know, realize what what came from the school, what came from the town after all the interest that's earned on that money and whatnot. So it just seem we need to do it this way.
Do we wanna put in in section c, do we wanna put that a capital project will be in the nature of a major improvement and or repair?
No. Because we're in charge of maintenance and repairs of 35 School Road, so I didn't wanna get fuzzy there.
It I think that if you if you put the word in there, then then it makes it more fuzzy. If the word isn't there, you could still say that anything Right. Is that, but you don't have to. Right? Like, the plumbing. Like, you could say that it is, but you don't, right Okay. Have to if you didn't want to. Okay. Great. Or, like, the floors that we had to have redone at the end of the year last year. Yep.
K. I think it's forward looking, putting money away Yep. That you may need. I mean, you you need a well.
Well, it's like the 2% nonlapsing account. Right. Right. That's for, like Another one. You know, in operational emergencies or special, right, special ed needs or whatnot.
This would be capital emergencies or capital projects. Yeah. Savings. Yeah. That's a that's another rainy day fund. Yep. But this is but it's earmarked for from, you know, capital and project. Yep. Mike, do you wanna share anything, or you're done for right now? For right now, I think I'm good. Okay. Alright. So
so anybody get changes to me, that would need to go, then we will have it, the final draft at our next meeting for hopeful
So So Rob is gonna present this to Well, I'm gonna make the change we discussed. Okay. Get it. Okay. So so far, we offensive. So we so so so far, we have an on in b, all capital projects at 35 School Road shall be managed by the triboard committee. That's what we have. Okay. Any does anybody else have any Substantive changes, guess. Brie, do you have anything? Mike,
go ahead. No. I start. So just to clarify. So in section d, it says a simple majority vote of the triboard committee shall determine how the money on the 35 Screw Road capital fund shall be spent. Mhmm. But the request or recommendation or suggestion on how to spend money would originate with the board of ed. Correct. No other board could have something that they suggest to you. They they could propose that. Yeah. So, like, is the board of ed the only board That's a good point. That can present and recommend how to use this funds? Because it was a private workman. Could the BLF bring one? Could the could the could the Boris Leppen bring a request? It could be appropriate
for anyone to bring a request. Right? Because it's specified that it's for this property.
Well, I I I just wanna clarify. So so, like No. That's a good point. It's a school's capital fund. Right. The tribe board is the one who determines how to spend the money. Right. But is it specific enough to say who is able to
bring something up for discussion and message use in that tribal. So that's important to to detail. No. I know. And c, I had it only coming from the board of ed. Right. But if we wanna make that very clear, it's then up to the board
as to what we want our policy to be, then we would put only the board of education. I just don't know why we would wanna limit that because they you know, there might be people who are experts over there on stuff that we are not and may recognize a safety issue or something and bring it forward. I don't think we would want to limit that type of dialogue.
Except the only way we might that that becomes invasive of what our statutory rights and responsibilities are here real quick before I forget it, is if some let let's say there's a recommendation comes in even from somebody who's not on the boards, and it comes from the board of finance who says, we believe that such and such a capital project should occur at 35 School Road. And then the majority of the triboard committee or people says, yeah. We think that should happen too, but it's not necessarily something that the board of ed thinks should happen. But
I think you have both of them here already because it says under c, by a majority vote of the board of ed, the board of ed will submit requests for expenditures. If there's a member of the community or a member of the board of selectmen or board of finance, they should be bringing it to a board of ed the board because you have to vote anyways. So that's my question. Is that is but is that sentence clear enough? Because by a majority of be a board testing out. By a majority vote of the board of ed at a board of ed meeting, the board of ed will submit requests. So you're absolutely right. If if if a stranger on the street saw something, they can log on to a board meeting Mhmm. And they can either make a comment or ask for you to put it on the agenda, this is where you're voting anyways. So this is where the decision to submit a request would be made is at this meeting. It shouldn't be made at a board of select meeting or a board of finance meeting because the discussion should happen here where you can Or it could be, but then they would bring it Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think you have. Honestly, Brie, I think you have both right here. Good point. So
but you think I should add at a board of ed meeting, right, by majority vote of the BOE at a BOE meeting? Well, you don't have to, but, I mean, if it makes it clear slide. Yeah. It clear. Yeah. If I put it a slide. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. But this would absolutely be where somebody,
you know, would come. It could be somebody who just uses our facility to play basketball,
you know, who says, hey. I happen to see what Taylor saw out there today. And then do we need to specify that it's a e s b o e? Or No. I have to look at it. I defined it up above in b, but the and over border that you Oh, thank you. Sorry. Yep. Mike, then any other?
I think that's it. You sure? Yeah. Okay. Alright. Good then.
Okay. So Mike. So if you think of anything else, Mike, get it to Shane or anybody or anybody else. Right? And then you're going to make the changes. Yep. Give it to Rob. Yep. Rob's gonna present it, I'm assuming, at their next meeting on 05/22. I hope so. Yep. Alright. And then we'll hopefully we'll
hear back. Okay. Alright. Do we need to also give it to the board of selection as well at the same time? Sure. Yeah.
Alright. So that also applies to them. So I'll send it to both Yeah. Okay. Mark Brinker and to Jeff Require. Alright. Okay. And to wrap. Yeah. Present to the board right in. Okay. Alright. Wonderful. Alright. Does anybody else have any other changes or anything else? Any questions on it or anything? I have one more question. Absolutely. Shannon, she's Yeah. Let's do you more. Do you need a person on the board of Selectmen to present this to the board of Selectmen? I was just going I just thought about that when I said that, and I was gonna offer in my email to Jeff that either myself or Robert England would present it, but I'd be happy to present it and explain the difference. Okay. Yep.
So I go to that board of selectmen meeting. Which is on Monday. Yep. Okay. Alright. Alright. Anybody else have any other comments or changes or anything on here? No? Okay. Great. Of course, everybody. I think it's really good. Yep. Thank you, Shannon. Welcome. Thank you. Alrighty. Alright. Liaison roles. Alrighty. I emailed them all to you, and I also
just printed them out so we could have it, in front of us. Did everybody get a chance to review these? Does anybody have any changes or any any comments or anything? I kinda tried to make them as uniform as as possible. They look. Yeah. Just so the, you know, the wording. But I I think they're clear. I think it'll be helpful that, you know, once you know, there's changes in the board of ed and new people come on and we appoint them that they have a a an understanding of what it is that they're responsible for when they get, you know, kind of appointed to these roles. So any does anybody have any questions or comments or anything? Okay.
The only The only thing I'd comment on is depending on passage of this, we might want to include something in the facilities liaison just as I mentioned to As far oh, as far as what? As Well, they may wanna be, like, one of the members of the committee. Or Right. I don't know if we should necessarily define that, though, because it may not always stay. Or right. But or at least being aware of or maybe communicating the committee's Right. Intentions or something like that just so that they're
Right. If you're the finance liaison, you might be right. You might be facilities.
Oh, facilities. I'm sorry. You're right. The facilities. Okay. But I agree. I don't think we should necessarily No. I'm just saying that let's at least Yeah. Like, the responsibility of reporting out or understanding what's going on, not committing. Okay. Okay.
On the tribal committee? Yes. Yeah. Well, I with the people who were who were actually part of that community, the ones that would report back, they wouldn't be necessarily the liaison. Whoever's the members of that tribal committee will be the ones who report back. So I
mean, under yeah. That's true. I'm just more thinking, like, if they're
if they're acting as the expert in that area. They they would be one of the two board committee members ostensibly.
Yeah. Okay. Alright. Alright. Okay. Can I get a as we both to approve these? Anybody wanna make a vote? I can make a motion. Make a motion to approve. Thanks. Alright. Can I get a second? Second. Great. Alright. All in favor? Aye. Okay. So the liaison roles and the descriptions are are a. Six zero zero. I do. I get it. I'm sorry.
Taylor, can you get them? Can you get, like, updated, added to the website?
Who is on that? Yeah. Sure. I can email them too. Yeah. I yes. Okay. Someone's gonna write too. Alright. Right. Comments from the public. Jenny, you're up.
Hi there. I would like to go talk about our accreditation process. And I know I'm not the only one, but we're very excited that we are starting this pretty big adventure, having kindergarten join into that accreditation process. I think in the twenty three years that I've been in Andover, and I have felt very strongly about having our young kids have a developmental approach towards their learning. State's on board with that now, so I think this is just the start of some really good changes. So thank you for your support with taking this adventure with us.
Mhmm. Thank you, and thank you for all your hard work. Mrs. Fraser, do you have any comments?
Yes. On behalf of the teachers, I would like to thank Jerry and Celeste for your kind words that we have been able to read in our morning email. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.
Alright. Any other action items? What do we have for for next meeting or action? Hopefully, an update on the capital Policy. Capital policy. Okay. Anything else? Hopefully everything. Hopefully, we'll hopefully, we'll have an update. I'll have an update on the on the MEP. Hopefully, by then Mhmm. We'll come in. So I will definitely make an update on the MEP.
Carrie's saying we said it earlier that we'll have a full full complete update on the status of the current pre K expenditures, having added the third because we promised Steve that we would Okay. Definitely have that by then. So update on pre K expenditures. Okay.
Are we still doing that? You know, each person was responsive for a monthly meetings. We believe we can update for the DOF, DOE meetings for that month. Yes. We're still doing that. Yes. And we don't have a a say for
Well, he's in yeah. He's he's in training. He got a new job, and he's in Colorado for the next year. Still something that we're gonna plan on doing going ahead? Absolutely. Yep. Alright. Who's me?
There you go. That's why you asked. Okay? For sure.
Thanks, Mike. Yep. Alright. So update on capital policy, update on MEP, update on pre k expenditures. Am I missing anything? Do you want board evaluation to be the month of July? Think we usually do mine and yours in July after school. Right. And I will not be here for the July meeting. I'm on vacation. We can do August. I can send out the empties again.
Didn't we do when did we did we did CE at some point? CE? Or, like, we did, like, the development Like that retreat. The retreat. The retreat. Retreating thing.
Yes. We do know that was was that Now you have to do the annual self evaluation. Yeah. Right. So do you it was July?
How about on the agenda for June? We'll decide when you're gonna do the eval and if you guys do want
to get together in either July or August. Okay. I am I wrong that we did No. Don't. I thought we did those at the retreat. It was, like, on a different day. We did. It wasn't a regular meeting. Correct. Yes. Okay. So I'm sorry about we're gonna decide on I'll put some options together for you. So board so the board evaluations, how we did in setting goals for the next year. Right. And then your evaluation. Okay. Okay. And we're gonna talk about that in June to set some dates. Yeah. Okay. Right. Because we've got okay. Alright. Okay. Anything else? No? Make a motion to adjourn. Alright. I'll second. Jerry, thank you. All in favor? Aye. Alrighty. We are adjourned at 08:07. Oh. Whoo. Thank you.