School Committee Meeting - September 10, 2026

Good evening. Tonight's meeting of the Arlington School Committee is being conducted in person and through the use of Zoom. This meeting is being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI and the meeting is being recorded. I'm going to remind everybody in the room who's speaking to make sure you speak into the mic into the mics as close as possible because of the fan noise. Um, our ACMI uh person said we need to be very careful about that. And because we have members participating remotely, all votes are required to be taken by roll call. Persons wishing to access the meeting using Zoom may find on find information on how to do so on the town's website. The posted agenda and supporting materials for this meeting are also available on the town's website. Due to open meeting law restrictions, the committee cannot participate in or access Zoom's chat function. While everyone is welcome to observe this meeting, active remote participation requires advanced notice. All participants are asked to activate their camera and shall provide their full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. We're going to start um we're going to start the meeting uh with a moment of silence in a in in a moment. We are saddened to start the school year with one fewer student gracing the halls of Arlington High School. Over the summer, rising junior Ian Satello Newh Hall passed away unexpectedly, leaving an empty seat in our classrooms and an empty jersey on the fields of Arlington High School. Ian has been remembered by his friends and teachers as charismatic, kind, and enthusiastic. He attended Hardy Elementary School, Gibbs School, Addison Middle School, all before coming to Arlington High School as a member of the class of 2028. His classmates, teachers, friends, and teammates will miss him very much, and our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time. Please join me in a moment of silence in honor of Ian. Thank you. We are going to move on to public comment. For members of the public who wish to address the committee, there will be 20 minutes of public comment. If you would like to sign up to speak either remotely via Zoom or in person, you must email Elizabeth Diggins by the 6 PM Thursday, the date of the meeting. Depending on how many people sign up, time aotments may be reduced but will not exceed three minutes each. If the number of people who sign up exceeds what can be reasonably done in 20 minutes, the number of speakers may be capped or speaking times may be reduced at the discretion of the chair. All requests to speak received after the date and time indicated will be invited to speak at the next school committee regular meeting. We have one person here for public comment tonight, Cheryl Miller. Can you hear me? Okay. >> A little louder. >> Okay. I couldn't barely hear you either, so maybe it's just >> Go ahead. But give your name and address. >> My name is Cheryl Miller. I live at 10. I'm an autistic parent. I would like to read a poem by the disability activist Myers called the language of us. We like things. They fixate on objects. We try to make friends. They display attention-seeking behaviors. We take a break. They display offtask behavior. We stand up for ourselves. They are non-compliant. We have hobbies. They self- stem. We choose our friends wisely. They display poor peer socialization. We persevere. They peververate. We love people. They have dependencies on people. We go for walks. They run away. We insist. They tantrum. We change our minds. They are disoriented and have short attention spans. We are talented. They have splinter skills. We are human. They are. This poem was written in 1987, 39 years ago. Hardly anything has changed. Superficially, this may appear to be a poem about language. It's not. If you changed every single term to be the same for both us and them, but still targeted for intervention, the self- advocacy, social preferences, and refusal to consent of people with disabilities the way Arlington does to this day. Everything would remain the same. It's not about language. It's about the underlying biases and dehumanizing beliefs that the language reveals. APS claims to stand for equity and belonging. I have banged my head against the wall for years to try to get APS to see what this poem lays out so clearly. Despite all their pretty claims, no one is willing to hear. As long as that's the case, some APS students will continue to be us, to be human, while others are them, not quite as human. Thank you. Um, next up we have Aea Representative Jenna Maderos, who is remote this evening. Hey everybody. Nice to be here. Nice to be back with kids. So the start of the year is always a lot chaotic, but we're uh excited to settle in and get going. Did you have anything else? >> Nope. >> Thank you. Um Arlington High School representatives Sophia Dphanus and Elliot Lane, the newest member to our table. Welcome. >> Hi. Thank you. Um we had school party this Tuesday. It was very fun, very successful. Has three Dells. We also are holding elections for the freshman on the 23rd and we'll have fill-in positions for the other grades. And uh hi everyone. Uh my name is Elliot. I'm a new member here. It's very nice to uh meet all of you, see some new faces. I am a senior. I'm the senior class vice president. I also stand on student council. and I'm here today to uh help out Sophia. We recently had our senior sunrise on the morning of Tuesday, September 8th. We got about uh 300 members of the senior class, I would say, to all wake up at 5:30 a.m. and see the sunrise at Robins Farm Park. Sort of a uh a sendoff, good uh start to the last year. And it was great. We had some free Dunkin Donuts courtesy of the the class. And it went really well again. Nice to meet all of you. Thank you and welcome. >> Yeah. So, we're just getting back into the swing of things and planning the pep rally soon. >> Great. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Of course. >> So, next up we have an introduction to administrative new hires of which there are seven, a mix of inperson and remote. I will hand it off to Superintendent Homeman. >> Okay. I am going to ask our our folks who are here in the room. Um, and Michael, why don't you come on up here so they can see you and I will I'm going to say who everybody is and then I'm going to take the screen down so that you can see the folks who are online and they can have an opportunity to introduce themselves. Um, we have new assistant principles at Gibbs, Mrs. disease um bracket uh Miss Dumas uh Pierce, Miss Ellis and Don, Miss Loro, and we have a new um elementary special education coordinator, Emily Plant, and a new staff daycare manager for the first time in a very long time because our former daycare manager uh recently retired, Anne Peron, who is here, and of course, Mr. Vanderane Emerald, you have met um and he is in a new role this year as Pierce principal. So, thank you both for coming in person. While I bring this down, why don't you say a quick hello, maybe a word or two about how your year's gone so far. >> Uh, hi, I'm Ann Peron and um I previously worked in the daycare program at Pierce um when we had a room there for seven years and it was honestly my favorite job I ever had. So, I was really excited when I heard that Susan was retiring and um knew I had to at least try for the position and I'm really excited to dig in and get started and it's just been a great two weeks so far back with the kids. >> Welcome. >> Good evening. I'm Michael Vanderlane. I am proud to introduce myself as the um new principal of Pierce Elementary. It's a great place to be. I'm excited to continue the work in this new capacity of the Arlington public schools and uh getting to know Pierce it students and its fabulous staff and uh parent and caregiver community has been excellent. >> Thank you for joining us and online um let's actually let's start I'm just going to go in the order I can see you all um because that's a little easier. Let's start with Miss Plant Emily. >> Thank you Dr. Hullman. Um my name is Dr. Emily Plant. I join you from the Worcester public schools where I served as the at elementary school principal and instructional coach and a special educator. I'm really excited to be a part of the Arlington team. Um I started in July and everyone has welcomed me with um open arms and a lot of support and I'm excited to have the school year underway. >> Thank you. And Danielle Lorac. >> Hi, good evening everyone. My name is Danielle Lorac and I am super excited to say that I am the assistant principal at Dalon Elementary School. I'm entering year 14 in education, year six as an assistant principal, first year in Arlington. I come from the Dambridge public school district and looking forward to to really learning and growing here in Arlington and love the community thus far and students and staff are wonderful here at Don. >> Thank you, Danielle. We can hear folks sort of um so everybody in the room and everybody online like I sorry but grab the teacher voice and like project for us because we have fans in here because it's quite quite warm. Um Miss Aziz Sia go ahead. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Sadia Aziz. I'm so excited to be here at Arlington and at the Gibbs School. I was actually Dr. Janganger's principal intern a year ago. So, it feels very full circle to be here in this capacity. And I've just seen so many incredible educators both um within the district and at the Gibbs and I'm happy to be here. >> Welcome. And Jess Ellis. >> Good evening everyone. Um so nice to meet you. Thank you for having me. My name is Jess Ellis. I'm joining uh Michael as his assistant principal at the Pierce. um after 20 years serving the students of Boston public schools. So really excited to be part of the team and um really refreshed and revitalized with the work you all have started. So thank you for having me. >> Welcome. And Megan Dumas. >> Hi everyone. I'm Megan Dumas and I'm the new assistant principal at Bracket. I um come from Winchester where I was the assistant principal and special education supervisor for three years and I'm just so excited to be part of the Arlington community. Um everyone has been so welcoming at Bracket so far and I've really loved getting to know the students, the staff, and the caregivers. So, it's been a really great start to the school year >> and I can't agree more. It's been a wonderful start for our new leadership and we're very glad that you're all here. Um, thank you for coming tonight. Uh, if the committee has any questions for anybody or wants to say welcome, I hand it off to you. >> Any committee members want to say anything? >> Miss Xton, >> I just want to say um, welcome uh, to everybody. We're really glad that you chose the Arlington public schools uh, for your next steps in your career. Um, and I will echo that. Welcome. Uh, >> Chris will raise your hand. Sorry. >> Oh, uh, Miss P. Cop. >> Okay, I'm gonna lean into the Okay, >> I know I leaned into the mic too far. Uh, I had actually had the pleasure of um meeting Danielle uh when we did the um walkthrough with the Mechco parents and her enthusiasm was just so um exciting to witness. So, I know that they're going to be super super privileged to have you on the staff there and welcome to everyone else. I'm sure you all are excellent. You um so we're just glad. Welcome to Arlington. >> Thank you all. I hope uh the year continues to go as well as it has started. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. We know you have busy lives. You >> feel you do not need to stay. >> Have a good night. Um we are going to move on to the first of many presentations tonight. Um the first one being fundraising at MS. This is a a bit of a continuation of a conversation that we started in the spring. Dr. Hman. >> Okay. I would like to invite our student friends Sona and Matilda who are here to come up to the microphone. And before we get into the policy, do you two just want to introduce or reintroduce yourselves and and what grade you're in and where you're going to school and all of that? >> Um, I'm Sona Mchuan. I'm in um eighth grade at Audison Middle School. >> Um, I'm Matilda McGrath and I'm also in eighth grade at Middle School. >> All right, welcome back. Um, so you met um I know Sona Matilda, were you here too? Yes, >> for that. Okay, both of these um students last spring when they came to talk about a project that they wanted to do for a fundraiser and we had a policy obstacle related to that and so um they kind of knew I think that getting it together and figuring out the policy exception was going to be a lot to do in the final month of school. And so we tabled that and brought it back here and uh they reached out at the start of the school year to ask is this something that we can get started this fall? So, um, kudos to you. You kept it right on that front burner. And so, what I'm asking for tonight is that is an exception to a portion of policy JJ. So, last year, um, these two came and there's a little bit of a description of the fundraiser that they wanted to hold. It would, um, the money raised would go to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and they had ideas about how to organize and structure what would essentially be a competition. And one of the things that I had shared with them when they initially reached out about this is that policy JJ has um a a a line that basically states that fundraising activities may not involve competitions among students and doesn't have an accept the ability for me to make an exception to that. So I wanted to bring it to the committee. Um there is a policy uh there's a copy of the full policy below for the ref for your reference but this one clause is the one that I didn't want to like make an exception too without the committees making exception because it doesn't allow for me to make a decision around. Um, the policy is making a good point in that competitions have the potential of being exploitative and the goal of the policy, if you read the first paragraph, is to avoid that. And competitions when they're rewarding an individual student and the comp and the sort of competition is hinged upon the one student raising a large amount of funds can be problematic. And so I'm in agreement about that. And I think that if we were to revise the policy after we try this um because we think it went well that we would maybe want to put language in that would allow for uh group or LCbased things that all students can contribute to and maybe add some language that talks about the ability of students to contribute being a key priority. Um because I also don't want students and we talked about this a little bit to feel bad if they're not able to like in be participatory in some way um with donations or with raising funds or whatever. The goal is for this to be fun for a good cause and they were very clear about that when they reached out to me. So um if you read what they articulated how this would go uh there would be it's sort of a penny wars model if any of you are familiar with that. My children's school does a penny wars event to raise money for the fifth grade events. So, this is a common thing that schools do. I don't know that we would do pennies just because there's fewer and fewer pennies I hear in the world. Um, but something along those lines is what they are imagining. Um, and this would be a one-time exception that would grant me the authority to approve the initiative after we talk with the students about any concerns the committee might have and how to alleviate those. I'm also recommending that the committee would refer the policy to the policy subcommittee. Um, and the students who are here would like to participate in that policy revision process and have volunteered their time to come and join us and help us with that. So, which is fantastic and a great learning opportunity for the two of you. Um, and we would love to have your input on that. So, I welcome discussion any questions that you all have about this. Um, and I'm hopeful that we can h have them move forward with their initiative uh in a way that makes sense and is compliant with policy. >> Any comments or questions from the committee? >> Miss Xton. >> Um, thank thank you for your uh advocacy and coming coming back. I think it's important. Um I um I would like to support the one-time exception. I my one concern that I'd like to just bring up in terms of the reward is um that we make sure that the teachers and staff and administration at the building are in support of whatever it is. >> Yes. um so that they can make sure that that that it is delivered um in compliance with other policies that >> yeah one thing to keep in mind and we'll have to talk about this um some more is that foodbased rewards have a lot of rules around them and so we'll have to really think about what the reward is and how we do that in a way that matches other policies which might be part of what you're thinking about but yeah >> thank you anyone else Mr. Schlman. >> Thank you. Thank you for coming forward. I move that the school committee authorize the superintendent to grant an exception to policy uh to permit the out fundraising for data fiber and to refer the policy to um the u policies and procedure subcommittee. >> Second. >> Um we will do a roll call vote. Uh Dr. Mr. Alison Ampy >> yes. >> Mrs. Hans Capathorn >> yes. >> Mr. Thelman >> yes. >> Mr. Selectman >> yes. >> Miss Xton >> yes. >> And the chair votes yes. So that is a 60 vote. Thank you and good luck. We can't wait >> to I hope you'll come back and tell us all about your success. >> Thank you. So >> we'll schedule time to talk a little bit about details with Miss Rubina. Okay. All right. >> Okay. Up next are the is the AHS field trip to Italy. Uh Dr. Hman, do you want to I don't know who's speaking. >> Um I believe that Mr. Dino and Miss Wei and Dr. Jener are here to weigh in or present this. Um Jingu, are you starting? >> Hello everyone. Um I I'm gonna invite Mr. Dagustinino to start to uh share the project that he's been working on. I think it's saved in a lot of time and effort to try to bring our students to have this excellent experience in Italy in Portugal. So, I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Dagas. >> Good evening everyone. Thanks for having me. Um, basically we um with the jazz band with our program, we send a a recording to uh Italy for a program that they do during the Carnival Venice. and the jazz bands jazz band was chosen among the only three in the world to participate at the uh this event. So we built uh um an idea for the field trip to Italy uh Switzerland and Portugal and um we have an idea we have done in the past uh we collaborate with the Lisbon conser conservatory uh the comra university the oldest university in Europe uh we also uh do a presentation slashc collaboration with the music high school in Leo and in in Luganos Switzerland as well um the idea is only to learn on how to travel, how to fund raise, how to uh collaborate on learning from students that they're uh around the world and with their with their peers that they're here. Uh the um also to learn about history, culture because in fact we don't just perform in this places and collaborate. We do uh trips. We basically we travel and we do see amazing places like the Milan DMO Sanco. Uh and uh the the other idea is to really find the perfect balance of fun uh learning and stressfree and the process basically starting from now on uh if this trip gets approved. I think it's the best experience to to for all of us and especially for the students. >> I don't have any. >> Thank you. Does anybody any committee members have any questions? >> I I can just say that it's a great trip. My oldest son went on it and it's a fabulous trip. So, I wholeheartedly support I I move approval, but there's no other discussion. >> I have I just want to um I don't know if Mr. Jenger is speaking otherwise. >> Dr. Jener um Dr. Jingger, sorry came in part because we also have and this is but it's in the consent agenda and this is part of an ongoing conversation about some of the ones that we've done every year on repeat that the Japan trip to Nano Kako is in the consent agenda and he was planning I think on being here in case there were questions about the Italy trip in case there were questions about um the Japan trip. Uh but we didn't anticipate questions about the Japan trip. I think and we were going back and forth on whether that gets in where that gets included. So I think he's just here. >> Well, I I just wanted to and this isn't uh specific to the motion in front of us, but I had uh I had forwarded this question to Dr. H. Home. Homeman. I I'm wondering I don't know if you have this tonight or if we can ask for this in the future. I know that every time we have one of these um international trips with a fairly hefty price tag, we ask about financial aid and we um are told that it exists. And I I'm asking if we can have some more specific information about the aid and the process and who's access, you know, sort of percentage of students accessing it or and and how that's working. >> Dr. Jener, >> yeah, I can speak to that. So, um, we have there's in in regard to this particular crypt, there's a specific answer and then there's a more general. >> Hold on. Wait, I need you to lean in. There's a You're like muffled. >> Can you hear me better if I just get way closer to my computer? >> Yes. Yeah, a little bit better. >> My face is a little scarier now. That's all. Um, so I there's a specific answer regarding this trip and then there's a more general answer. So, um, we have for a number of years now set aside $10,000 a year in a general international travel scholarship program. Uh, and um, so when trips are, we had this theory that we would be able to do it sort of at a set time, but the trips timelines are all a little different. So basically as trips are approved um there's a process when students are expressing an interest where they can submit um scholarship requests say how much they would need to attend. Um a committee then convenes that usually involves me a few teachers and staff as well as usually um leaders from the trips involved. We figure out how much of the money we have available to a portion towards this trip um based in part on the students who were requested and then we go through a hierarchy where need is pretty pretty high on the top but we're also looking at students other opportunities students opport other opportunities in their lives. Um their specific relationship to the trip um you know because trips again are different. Some of them they're going because it's fun. someone they're going because they're the lead trumpeter in the ensemble. Um and so we go through that and figure out how much we can aortion for that. Um with the Papa trips in particular, each year Papa has raised a fairly substantial amount of money to subsidize the trip. This year they've committed um to raise $25,000 for this trip. Half of that will go to lowering the price overall and half of that would be additional scholarships. For example, last year with the um trip to Canada, we awarded eight scholarships to students. And at this point with the music trips, um students have generally been able to be supported so that all the students who have a defined need are able to go. Um that's not true all the time, right? is about 6% of the trips that went to Montreal went. That works out for most trips, but that's one or two kids that get to go with a scholarship. We had um two students who were on scholarship to the Japan trip last summer. Um I would love to be able to raise more money for this and that's an ongoing conversation as we've gotten this to be more. >> Thank you. And I also wanted to say I appreciated in the materials the chart that was presented with laying out past trips and the trips in the pipeline. That was really I I think that's the first time we've seen that like so laid out so clearly and um it's very helpful in thinking about like what the opportunities are going to be. Dr. Alice Hampy, >> thank you. Um, in terms of also asking for additional information, I think I'd like us to revise the form to have specific information both for parents, students, and and school committee about what the supervision um is and especially how many chevrons per that and the total number of students expected um because I think that's an important thing for parents to understand as they're deciding whether or not their children child should be going on the trip. I didn't see it in the information that we were given. So our general policy, different trip providers provide different numbers, but in general we try to have um in the smaller trips one to six at least three um which is the biggest sort of break for me because regardless of how small the trip is, if you don't have three um chaperons, you're one accident away from the whole trip being shut down. um with these larger trips that are more established to sort of more established parts of the world, we often go to about one in 10. Um and that's what what I would think we'd be targeting. >> We can put it says APS requires a minimum of two teacher chaperones for all international three preferred. We could add a something in here that's like a projected or anticipated number of chaperones. And I think like we do this before we have kids sign up so that it it may shift depending on the trip and the range of kids who can go how many exactly we would bring but we could give a range that we anticipate on the form can adjust it for that >> and that is there's a number of planning documents which we could actually share with you that maybe in this separate meeting when someone's not here for their trip just that are all the questions that we go through in the planning of the trip so that you have some idea of the background Yeah, >> be happy to present on that at another time. >> I have my paranoia sheet which is about three pages long sort of all the little things that we go through to make sure >> Thank you. Does anyone uh want to second Mr. Theelman's motion? >> Second. >> Uh roll call vote to approve the AHS field trip to Italy. Uh Dr. Allison Ampy. Yes. >> Miss Hayes Papathorn. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thielman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Schlickman. Yes. Miss Xton. >> Yes. >> And the chair votes yes. So that is a 60 approval. Thank you. >> Um and now we are moving on to the ACE summer fund report. Okay. Um I think these are the right slides. >> Okay. >> That I'm pulling up. And if they're not >> that matters the most. >> Yeah. If if if it's not, tell me and hopefully the video will work just fine. Is this right? >> Yeah. >> Oh, are you guys Mr. Dagustinino? >> I think it's the >> Yeah, it's the Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um, so we asked um our Arlington Community Education folks to join us for this first meeting because my goodness did they have a busy summer. Um, summer fund has not been this booming since I've been here, I don't think. Um, and they had some record numbers as well as some really awesome collaborations with members of our team who were running other summer programs which I know that they're going to share with you. Uh, so I will steer. Hopefully video will work just fine and people will be able to hear it, but it's a bit of a wind tunnel. So if not, they have copies and I can send videos along afterwards and I'll leave it to you. >> And hopefully you can hear us. This I'll get close. >> Stay close to the mic. >> Okay. I'm Jen Rothenberg. I'm the director of Arlington Community Education >> and I'm Andrea Loe. I'm the associate director >> and we're excited to be here tonight to pres present to you on our summer fund program. Um we recognize that there are a few new school committee members. Um, so we figured we would start with a quick overview of our program. Um, so Arlington Community Education was established in 1914, uh, which coincided with the opening of the new high school that was at this location that was we used to refer to as Busco House. Um, the when the program was established, it was to promote training and adult education for the community. Um, ACE has continued that. We offer classes for kindergarteners through adult seniors year round. Uh our program is a self- sustaining program of the public schools. We are funded solely by the tuition that we receive. We don't really get any funding from the public schools or from any of the government funding sources. Okay. So today, ACE offers over 2,000 classes with over 20,000 enrollments annually for both youth and adults. Uh we have four terms as you can see here. Uh they are these percentages include enrollments for both youth and adults. Tonight we're going to focus on the biggest piece of the pie, which as you can see is the summer fund program. Summer fund was established in 2009. We ran the program at the Ottison Middle School until 2023 and then we moved here to the high school in 2024. Um we run six oneweek terms for grades uh 1 through 12. And if you take a look at page four in the cataloges that you have um in front of you, you can see the wide variety of classes that we offer. Our families seem to really appreciate the flexibility of our programming because we offer um both three-hour classes in the morning and three-hour classes in the afternoon. Um families can sort of combine those to create a full day. We also offer a a supervised lunch break with no additional fee to families as well as extended day in the morning and afternoon. So, it does allow folks to string along a a full day of care from 8:00 am to 5:30 p.m. As you can see, uh the majority of our classes are taught by Arlington Public School teachers. In addition to that staff, we also have all of our our community education staff as well as on-site directors, a full-time nurse, behavior specialist, uh and tons of team counselors. Um, before we get too deep into the numbers, we thought we'd show you a quick video um that sort of gives you a little day in the life. I have to give credit to our IT guru here at the high school, Francis Deera, who created the song for us as a gift at the end of our program. So, we decided to put videos to the song that he created. So, if you don't mind playing that, I think you can make it full screen. >> I don't Hold on. Let me see if I can figure out I don't know how to make it play through the zoom >> the in the bottom right there. It should make >> this part. >> Next one. >> The squares. >> The square. >> Yep. >> Yeah, but that's not the issue. It's >> not the volume. >> It's that it's playing through my computer speakers, not the rooms speakers. >> Got it. And I can't >> take it off of this and put it on the room because it would take it off the Zoom. >> Oh. >> So I can't >> Can you hear it? >> The Zoom folks would probably hear it. I can hear it, but you guys can hear it. >> Stick your mic. >> If Zoom can hear it, then maybe you can just send it to us. >> Yeah. >> How long is it? Maybe do it twice. >> It's gonna echo. I can't. There's >> I'm breaking the internet. Hold on. Um >> Okay. I'm not going to be able to play it with all the sound. >> It's on our home page. >> That come with this. >> Even though we can't hear it. >> You can watch it without the sound. >> I will. >> Yeah. Watch it without sound. >> Please watch it at home because Francis did a wonderful job. >> We can show the pictures. >> Oh, I know that. I love that one. >> Yes. So, I do encourage you to watch it at home because the music is fab fabulous and it's a great video. But hopefully you get a little sense of how much fun our students had here with us this summer. Since 2022, our enrollments have create have increased 77%. We had just over 2,000 unique students with us this summer. 83% of them were from Arlington. Based on last year's school enrollment numbers, that means that 30% of the students in our program were from the Arlington public schools. I think I said that wrong. that it means that 30% uh of Arlington public school students attended our summer fund program. I needed to get that right. Um so if you look over at week three, these are our unique students. We had over 700 students walking in the doors of Arlington High School every single day. Um there's definitely demand for our program. I just want to brag a little bit. We like to chuckle. We open our registration on January 29th. Um that we have uh over 50% of our enrollments for the entire summer come in in the first hour of our opening our registration. Um our tuition assistance applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year. They are valid for the entire year. We received close to a hundred applications from families and adults in Arlington. And with the exception of just two or three or four that were incomplete applications, all of those applications actually received some level of assistance. Um, we will get into this a little bit later, but overall these numbers reflect an unexpected but very exciting growth trend over the last four years. Right. Um to meet the growing demand, we offered 180 classes with more than 375 sections to choose from. Uh which was a 66% increase since 2022. So big growth. If again, if you turn to page four, you can see the laundry list of classes. And we work carefully to offer a balance uh of interests and grade levels. And we think families appreciate uh being able to customize their week. A lot of people a lot of students will do a quiet art class in the morning like glass art or maybe um co drawing comics and then in the afternoon something a little more active like field hockey or ultimate frisbee. Um, and then in addition to the teacher-led classes, we have some vendor classes and we hire vendors in areas that are specialized or if they need specialized equipment. So things like parkour or Lego robotics. Um, I also want to talk about uh mention LAR. Uh, LAR is uh has a very large and loyal following in our district. And if you don't know what LAR is, it stands for liveaction roleplay. Uh, so thank Dungeons and Dragons with costumes and live action. Um, but I think being at Arlington High has been just huge for this program. Uh, mainly because it gives these children the privilege to have access to these amazing spaces. So, they are doing pottery, they're doing metal smithing, uh, they're doing rock climbing. Uh we also had a two-week summer theater intensive in the beautiful theater and they staged a great production of Little Mermaid and that culminated in a a performance for the public uh on a Friday night. Uh the the kids loved it. Um I think but maybe more than anything else and you can probably appreciate this here. Uh we'd say the biggest fuss has been air conditioning. >> Um >> we had it out there. Good thing we didn't classes here. >> Yeah. >> Um this has been a huge plus for students, staff, and teachers after more than a decade at Oison. Um and it was also nice to be centrally located in the high school and um and I think uh also affordable. You can go to the next slide. Um, we think one of the other reasons for our increased enrollment is the value of our program. Uh, you can take a look at this chart and you'll see that we're competitive with other local programs. Um, we haven't raised our base rates on teacherled classes since 2021. Um, if you if you flip through our catalog, you'll see many of the classes are about 185 195. And the higher price classes are usually vendor classes who set their own rates. Um so we have a little less flexibility there. Uh we keep our classes small. Uh average 14 students with one lead teacher plus a teen counselor and we feel families are responding well to this model. A has been working really hard to sort of embed ourselves in the APS community. We're making connections um by uh increasing the types of programs and the number of programs that we offer to middle school and high school students. We've created incentive for teachers to work in during the summertime in all of the summer programs that are being offered by APS. We also have collaborations with the MECO ESY and Title One programs to help engage more families by offering afternoon options and busing to the high school. So students can participate in those programs in the afternoon. We're excited to have just wrapped up our fifth year uh with our METCO collaboration. Uh community ed provides the busing and a bus monitor uh for students uh who are our APS students who are living in Boston. Um but they it is an opportunity for them to take part in our summer fund program and be with their peers um during the day in the summertime. Uh we had 15 students who participated in three full weeks uh and it's wonderful. ESY and Title One are also um wonderful collaborations. Title One, as you likely know, has changed their schedule, which actually aligns better with our programming. We worked with both of these programs to try to get the word out to families about coming to Summerfund in the afternoons. Um, and we hope that this helped increase participation in those programs and increase engagement um, during their mornings and having them come to us in the afternoons. We worked closely with the special education department as well to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our students, especially any who needed extra support during the summer. Uh our lab program, they're our neighbors there. We share a wing in the high school with them. And um those students were super helpful throughout the summer. They were hanging up signs and taking down signs. Uh they helped clean up after after lunch every single day. uh and we loved working with them and hoped that it provided some basic life skills opportunities for their students. Uh ACE also runs the uh Trailblazers Guide to Gibbs, which is an orientation program for rising sixth graders. It's an opportunity for them to get to know their building, some of their teachers, as well as their classmates during the summer. This year we did four half-day programs. Um, and it's just an opportunity again for the administration um, to support their mission at the school. Um, we were pleased to offer summer jobs to 77 Arlington public school teachers and staff. And teachers enjoy the chance to share skills and hobbies outside the regular classroom. And I think a lot of the kids were thrilled to see their teachers in a different capacity. Um and for the third year we offered staff who worked for any APS summer program. So summer fund ESY title title one uh discounted tuition for their children and this served as a good recruitment tool to tool for all three programs. Um we also hired uh nearly 80 students from Arlington High School to serve as counselors who help the teachers in the classroom and the students. Uh this program has become very popular and competitive. Uh for the first time we had to turn away quite a few students. We had over 110 applications. We hate to turn them away. We just ah but um it was a real record for us. Uh the job is a first one for a lot of these students. Um and we included formal training, mentoring, and we also do a formal interview. So a little practice adultting there for those kids. And uh a lot of the counselors are summer fund alum, so they really enjoy coming back to the program. They know the building. They know a lot of the teachers, and I think they they love giving back to the program. It's a blast having them. Okay, so here are financials. We're still closing out the books for summer fund 26, but these are our numbers as of September 1. It takes a lot of staff and a lot of money to keep this program running smoothly. uh program of this size for sure. Um as you can see, a significant portion of our expenses is for instructor payroll and our administrative payroll. So our staff um as well as the teens. Um of course when we open registration in January, we're never quite sure what the enrollments are going to look like come summertime. Um but they are certainly growing faster than we had anticipated. But this puts us in a really good spot to evaluate our program. uh it gives us time to uh sort of look at the the current rates. Our hope is to keep our rates the same moving into 27. We hope to also keep our class sizes small as they were as they have been. Uh we want to make sure that we look at our instructor rates to make sure that we're competitive during the summer time so that we can continue to encourage teachers to teach with us. Um, but as we mentioned earlier, we did provide 42 students with tuition assistance this summer, but we think that we can work uh more closely with our principles and our social workers as well as the other program summer programs to try to find more families to support throughout the summer. And um I will end on uh we had a wonderful summer. We would not be nearly as successful as we are without the help of so many people in the district. Um really the assistance of our custodial staff who worked so many extra hours for us. They were always there to to help us as well as the administration here at the school. Um Matthew, Bill, but also um all of the admin staff who were here every single day supporting our program. Um we're really grateful and um it was a great summer. It was super fun. So, thank you so much. Now, we can move into Q&A. >> Um, did you want to say >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Um, so I was one of the people who was sitting on their computer at on registration day hitting go on classes. Um, and I think I like double booked him for one class. So, my son was here for three weeks this summer. It's the first time we've done ACE. Um, I was so impressed. He cannot wait to come back next year. He's already picked out his classes. So, I hope you run some of the same ones because otherwise I'm going to have to have a tough conversation with my own child um about what's not available or what is. But he really enjoyed it and it gave me an opportunity to see from a parents point of view just how much value there is in some of the flexibility that you offer, some of the additional care that you're offering. Um, and I you didn't talk about it a lot. you didn't like sort of rest there, but I know you've also expanded the sort of support staff that are helping out like some of it is students and teaching assistants, but you've also had um some social emotional support available to students and that is what is allowing us to have the partnerships um with some of our other programs in the district and make sure that the kids have a comprehensive set of services available. So, um, those things that you're doing are reasons why so many people are choosing this as a summer option in town and really appreciating it. And so, thank you so much for the work you've done and your responsiveness to what families are looking for and your help getting some of our other program participation up and more compatible with famil family's lives because it's really having a huge impact for folks. >> Great. Thank you. I wanted to say um I was uh thank you for saying what you said about how you are looking to do even more in terms of the outreach and support because while 42 families is is not nothing when you look at that the the number that of the chart you showed where your peak is close to 800 I think. Yeah. Um, and I in in future times I would love some more information about who those families are about I wasn't clear. Did you say you didn't have to turn anybody down for financial aid? Is that >> That's correct. At any So, because our uh our application is rolling, it it we can't really identify who applied just for summer fun, right? So many families apply in the fall and then take classes in the fall, the winter, the spring, vacation fund and summer >> and then their eligibility just >> it lasts for the year. They do have to reapply each year, but we didn't turn anybody away. Okay. >> Um and you know, our hope is that by outreaching more to the principles, we did hear from some social workers late in the summer who asked us to support families. Some of those families actually never applied for summer to for tuition assistance. We just actually put them in the program to support them because we were hearing directly from a social worker that this is a family in need. Um so we did have some students like that who aren't recorded anywhere here, but we're providing that, you know, extra support because we're hearing directly from folks and we're we're absolutely open to that as well. So yeah, that that will be a goal. I will say that my own children um no longer attend summer fun for reasons completely unrelated to summer fun and still are frustrated that their last summer in summer fun was the last summer at the Otis and they they they never got to make the transition here but um participate in classes during the year. So you guys offer so and I also hear regularly from parents in other towns. I was actually surprised the percentage of people from other towns was as low as you said it just because anecdotally I feel like our surrounding towns like people know to look at ACE for programming for partly I think in particular because of the flexibility that you offer. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? Oh, Dr. Alice Nampy. >> Thanks. Um, I'm gonna I had the same point that Laura just made. um that I'd like I'm glad that you're going to look into trying to find trying harder to find families because when you look at our low income APS's low income rate is around 11% and if you have 2,000 family 2,000 students that should be somewhere in the area of 200 students who would potentially qualify for reduced tuitions. So I mean if assuming everything you everyone's going at the same proportion as they are in school which may not be the case but still um I think it's good to be looking harder and and doing more outreach to to get people to apply or to just directly qualify them as you did with the ones who are referred by social work. Thank you. I will also just add if I can that that outreach will be for the for the full school year not just for summer fun. So you know the hope is that if we can reach more families through the principles that we we can offer after school programming and vacation programming as well. So um that is a goal of ours for the year. was excellent. >> Thank Thank you. Thank you um for sharing this and I also um was among the group that was there and the first hour signing kids up. But um what I I actually wanted to thank you. I have pushed on this side for a while to um have this collaboration so that students in ESY and Title One could have some kind of full day programming because I do think that that's a barrier. Um, so I just wanted to thank you um for your collaboration and and participating in that community partnership so that we can offer a full day program to students and also provide them um what they need educationally. So thanks. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Next up we move to Mr. Schweitzer for the APS capital plan report. >> Good evening, school committee. Thank you for your time tonight. Uh I'll be providing an update on the Can you hear me? >> Volume up. >> Is this better? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Uh so just providing an update on the district's capital plan, which uh includes what was approved at town meeting back in the spring for FY27 as part of the 5-year capital improvement plan. uh brief overview of what the capital process kind of looks like here over the next couple months and what the activities are and expectations are of the school department and others within the town here with capital committee uh summary of the priorities and commitments of our current and future projects and then we'll finish off by highlighting some of the areas of focus within our upcoming asks with the capital committee. So you have attached in the agenda the current 5-year capital improvement plan that covers the years of FY27 through 31 that's for the entire town. So you have two attachments in your book and those are from the um capital committee's report to town meeting back in the spring. When you look through that report and this is at least consistent back to about co as far as I went you'll see that the school department asks that are facilities or IT related can sometimes be lumped in with other town departments. Um and those asks do come from IT or facilities. Uh I worked with both Jay and Patricia, heads of those departments, and then Julie Weman, deputy town manager, that for our asks this upcoming year and going ahead that schools will kind of be pulled out from the other town departments in respect to facilities and IT, which all but maybe two or three of our projects are under facilities and IT. So we will have in this upcoming project report and committee report uh schools facility, schools IT, and then schools other. So a little bit be a little bit easier to have conversations such as this going forward. So, we're here for the upcoming capital process for FY28 and through 32. Uh, this process launched a couple weeks ago from Julie Weman and her office. Uh, really proud of the work that her and her team and Lauren and others at town hall uh have worked on to update a new platform, a new software for um reviewing these capital requests for us to submit information such as quotes, um, additional rationale materials and updating financial asks uh within the software. It's extremely user friendly, more so than the last software. But the other piece of it too is that this will be a software that engages with the capital committee. So if we have an ask that we've rationalized that x amount of dollars, a project in 28 and going forward as it goes through capital subcommittees, capital committee and two town uh town meeting, we'll actually have some notes and updated financial numbers from those meetings. So in the current year, we'll be able to see from our ask that we rationalized and supported and presented within those subcommittee meetings to capital committee. We'll be able to see what things were not being met or satisfied at our ask. And then from there, we'd be able to plan appropriately of what maybe needs to be absorbed and operationalized on the general fund, where can we look at revolving accounts, how do we refine and revise our asks going forward. So, I just want to thank Julie and her office for that work to upgrade to the new software, but I'm also excited that it's kind of a reporting tool uh and a budgeting tool for us and this committee going forward. To highlight uh just a couple areas within the upcoming year that uh we are either introducing to the capital project or uh enhancing significantly a capital project. They're in the areas of air conditioning for schools. And then secondly is to uh kind of build a sustainable and predictable school transportation vehicle replenishment process. So for AC, not all of our schools have fully air conditioned uh buildings. Some the others that aren't fully air conditioned do have some air conditioning primarily in main offices covering the nursing wing. uh maybe some of the common spaces, but certainly in a lot of classrooms and other areas do not have air conditioning at this time. To support the best learning and working environment um practical uh for students and for staff going forward, we are working with Jay and the facilities team for sustainable ask to address at least one school a year outward um to address some sort of air conditioning need. So this could be putting a a rooftop unit that could do heating and cooling within a school. This could be significantly improving the electrical capacity within a school um within classrooms or hallways to have air conditioning units. It could be like at Stratton and Thompson where we have those outside larger commercial um air conditioning ones that can sneak into various parts of schools. Um so it is a all-in ask for the capital project from Jay and his team um to address a school in each of the upcoming years within the capital plan. And then in respect to transportation, um about half or almost half of our fleet of buses, the 7D vans and the SUVs are about to approach or are are approaching kind of their age of expectancy or are getting to a point where repairs and maintenance needs are are continuing to rise. Um we don't have a current capital project for any school transportation reimbursement or uh replacement past 28. So, our next project has in the upcoming year being reviewed $200,000, which just about covers a diesel bus and is only about half the cost of an electric bus. And we don't currently have an ask on the books to the capital committee for the outward years. So, we have worked uh with Talia Fox, the sustainability manager for the town, Steve Angelo, our transportation director, to build out a sustainable model for in the upcoming years to replace about two to three, maybe four buses or vans a year in the upcoming years. And then from there, we'd be able to build out a more sustainable model to really be replenishing and replacing these vehicles as they're getting to the end of warranty and expected life. Um, so really proud of the work that we've been able to do there. And then maybe just to get ahead of a question, we are submitting the financials for this in line with the town's electric vehicle first policy. Um, I can certainly update the committee as we're going through the process, but we are going with electric first in our proposal in alignment with that policy, but due to either lack of federal funding, uh, grants, either a lack of, uh, charging infrastructure within the town, it might be reasonable and operational that some of our vehicles were replenishing in the future still are diesel and there's reason for those. Um, but as those are addressed, you know, we'll certainly update our ask here. And then just to wrap it up, I expect in the next week or so that we'll start being engaged with the subcommittees to uh kind of argue and advance some of our different projects. So I'll be working closely with Patricia and Jay and Steve Angelo to advance some of those. Um I just want to thank them and their teams for building these projects. But a lot of these also came from the principles and school-based leaders that are advocates for some of these projects really argued for the you know the benefit to present a safe and secure and u you know a positive learning environment, a working environment. and and so I appreciate the work that they've had and again Talia and Steve for presenting a sustainable and predictable transportation plan going forward. So um thank you for your time tonight and welcome any questions. >> Thank you. Any questions from the committee? >> Dr. Allison. >> Thank you. Um Mr. Mr. Schwitzer, is it possible to get used diesel buses and would that have any I'm thinking >> if we don't think we're going to need diesel for a long period to get us through um the next few years until we build up build towards electric more electric capacity. Just just to clarify that it was it asked if we could purchase used vehicles >> to get us through a shorter >> Yeah. So we we Yeah, we certainly could if we need to. So like right now we have um so we have two uh 70 vans if you will and then we have 14 buses, three are electric, 11 are diesel, but about half of those are about at their age. Uh we do have a plan here with some earmark funding and then upcoming grants where we might be able to replace one of our oldest diesel to get our fourth uh electric van. But as things come up, um, we certainly have that ability to to to purchase used if necessary. In the past, there has been purchases of U7DS. I don't know how recently there's been purchases of larger. Um, I think the other thing, too, is once you get to a certain age, I don't know if we'd be buying a 9-year diesel bus. Um, just because that'd be well beyond warranty and such, but it's certainly something to consider, >> right? No, I don't mean to get something that's that's too used just assuming it's like cars where they lose a lot of their value off as soon as they're off the >> No, I I I know from talking with Steve that the vans, the 70D vans can be uplifted for $5 to $8,000. So sometimes you can get an electric used van that was for whatever purpose and you can uplift it and that's certainly something that's been done in the past and could be, you know, considered. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Schwitzer. Um before we move on, I did skip over on the agenda the opening events and summer activities report. Um Dr. Hman and I discussed this before the meeting and we are going to move that to our next meeting. Did you want to speak to why? >> So I don't know if parliamentary procedurally wise you all need a vote to table this but um I did want to note that uh Dr. Ford Walker and Miss Elmer of Kids Events at their own kids schools tonight aren't here and can speak much better than I can to some of the summer programming partnerships that they did last year because they did so many revisions to the programs. I actually would love for them to be here to answer questions. I could speak to some of the opening events. Um, but we do have some room in the next agenda at the next meeting and maybe it'll be a little cooler in here then. So, my suggestion was perhaps we table that presentation, do it at the next meeting. Mr. Schlickman, do we have to vote on that? >> Um, no. This is the discretion of the chair. We can keep >> Okay, we will table that till next time. Um, so we will go ahead with the protect act policy. >> Okay, let me pull this up. So, I submitted a memo to all of you and then uh in your materials and then there is also some um additional documentation that we added I believe today. The memo lays out some changes that happened at the state level. On August 5th, Governor Healey um signed the Protect Act into law. And this carries requirements related to school district engagement with federal law enforcement, including immigration enforcement. Um the expectations are very aligned with guidance that we have had in place in Arlington since 2024. um and really didn't have any new requirements for us that were that weren't included in what we had already done with the sole exception of the fact that it expects us to post um our procedures on our website. So, our procedures are publicly included in the materials um are is our internal procedures and our the sort of procedures we've um adjusted to make them a little maybe easier for a public audience to read because they're a little long. Um, so we have a version that we'd like to send out to families, post on the website that that summarizes our procedures and the pieces that we know families will want to know about how we go about working with APD and responding um to federal enforcement should we need to. Um, I do want to emphasize that we have very um well understood security policies in place in our schools that we are not going to allow individuals into the schools who are disrupting a learning environment. uh that we have been very clear with staff that they are to defer any determinations about credentiing or warrants or anything like that to administration as well as to um legal counsel which is who we would immediately call. Um and APD has voiced their dedication to making sure that our schools remain safe places for our kids. Um and that includes on their way here all the way door to door from home to school and back. So um nothing in here was misaligned with the approach that we have taken all along. Um as we have been dealing with some of the immigration enforcement in the state and we didn't really need to adjust much. We went back through our protocols made sure that they were current and that we had adjusted for some of the new security protocols we put in place last year updated the date um and created a family-friendly version that we think would be a little easier for the public to understand. But we will be posting everything online. Um, and it's all in your materials. So, I'm happy to take any questions about this. Uh, and we, uh, I've also submitted a model policy that's coming from the governor with very small adjustments to the model that she provided. Um, and would suggest that the committee uh, vote that tonight just because the governor's expectation was that we have policies and procedures in place by September 1st. We definitely have the procedures in place. Um, but to make sure we're compliant with that, I think we should go ahead and pass a protect Act policy. Um, and then refer it to subcommittee in case there are changes we want to make or adjustments we want to make to it. >> Mr. Schliffman, >> I move that we suspend the rules to permit a second reading of policy AC. This will be ACL. >> Second. Thank you. Does anybody have anything they want to say? Uh we will take a roll call vote. Um Dr. Allison Ampy. >> Yes, Mr. Carden has joined us. >> And then I abstain. I'm not sure what we're voting on. Sorry. >> Oh, we um it was the protect protect act. >> Suspend the rules. >> We're just voting to suspend the rules. >> Oh, yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Miss Kings Florida. Yes, >> Mr. Thielman. >> Yes, >> Mr. Schlickman. >> Yes, >> Miss Xton. >> Yes. >> And the chair votes yes. That is 70. >> Do you have another motion, Mr. Schlman? >> Move approval of ACL. >> Second. >> Roll call vote. Dr. Allison Ampy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carden, >> yes. >> Miss Haynes Capathorn, >> yes. >> Mr. Theelman, >> yes. >> Mr. Schlickman, >> yes. >> Miss Xton, >> yes. >> And the chair votes yes. Thank you, >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> Move to refer ACL to the policy sub. >> Second. >> Uh, roll call vote. Dr. Allison Ampy, >> yes. >> Mr. Carden, >> yes. >> Miss Hans Cathorn, >> yes. >> Mr. Thielman, >> yes. >> Mr. Schlicker, >> yes. >> Miss X, >> yes. >> And the chair votes yes. Thank you. And we are moving on to the uh approval of the physician contract. Dr. Hman. >> So this is a school committee appointment. It has not changed. We don't have a new school position. Um but we wanted to make sure that the committee authorized um Chair Gson to sign the contract for the year. >> Motion is exit. >> Move approval of the physician contract for 2026 2027. Can I get a second? >> A second. >> Thank you. Um, Dr. Alison Ampy, >> yes. >> Mr. Carden, >> yes. >> Miss Havor, >> yes. >> Mr. Thailand, >> yes. >> Mr. Schlickman, >> yes. >> Miss Exon, >> yes. >> And the chair votes yes. Thank you. >> Um, and the next on the agenda is our MASC delegate approval. >> Believe we need to have one delegate and one alternate. Um, does anybody have a nomination for our delegate? >> Mr. Thielman, would you like to make a nomination? >> I nominate Mr. Schlick. >> Second. >> Uh, roll call vote. Dr. Allison Ampy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carden, >> yes. >> Miss Havthorn, >> yes. >> Mr. Thalman, >> yes. >> Mr. Schlickman, >> yes. >> Miss Xton, >> yes. >> And the chair votes yes. Uh, we now need a nomination for an alternate. Mr. Schlip, >> I nominate Dr. Curtsy Allison Ampy. >> Second. >> Thank you. Um, Dr. Alison Ampy, >> yes. I've been calling on you first all night. Mr. Carden, >> yes. >> Miss Hans Copicorn, >> yes. >> Mr. Thielman, >> yes. >> Mr. Slickman, >> yes. >> Miss Xton, >> yes. >> And the chair votes yes. Thank you all. Um, moving on to the finance report. We are back to Mr. Schwitzer. >> It's on the agenda or on this particulars. Is that not >> There's not a finance report. >> Okay. Sorry. This is on my list. I don't know. >> Okay. We'll move to the superintendent update. Dr. Hman >> moment. So, I would like to welcome everybody back to school. Um, we've had a wonderful start to the school year. first day for grades 1 through 12 was on the second first day for kindergarten um was the second and the third half and half. Um and then the next week we had a prek join us. Um I guess that was this week. The the days are already the time is already a little bit warped but we're getting through it and it's been a wonderful start to the year. Um this was our first start before Labor Day for the first time since I really honestly don't know when. Um I don't know if anybody remembers. Have we done a start before Labor Day since anyone been here? Nope. Nobody remembers this. So, um maybe the first time ever. Uh with spectacular student attendance in our first week of school. So, thank you to families for sending everybody for our first day and a half for elementary and two days for um secondary. And it was actually I've heard a lot of staff reflect that it was kind of nice to get in. I've heard families say this to get in and sort of get started and then have a long weekend um and come back and jump on in. So, uh, we did I want to thank Chair Gdlesson as well for, um, her remarks at the beginning of the of the school year. We started with one fewer student and, uh, we have been working through the summer and into the fall to make sure that our colleagues, um, Ian's teachers and his classmates have the supports that they need. Uh, so we've been making sure that as folks come back to school that we're honoring his memory as well. So, thank you for the remarks and moment of silence um at the start of the meeting. I also want to celebrate that our AHS choirs kicked off teacher night at Fenway with an absolutely outstanding performance of the national anthem, which I was totally going to play for you, >> but the sound is not working and it's really this video really doesn't work without the sound. So, I will send it out and um I'm gonna also see if we can't get a a video of this posted on our website because it was just gorgeous. And as I understand it, I >> Yeah, I was there and it was a terrible, terrible baseball game, but a truly wonderful performance. Um, it was so moving and there were so many families and teachers there to celebrate it. Um, and it was I I think a really proud moment for our performing arts program. >> I would agree. And we've been asked back, I'm told. So, more to come on that. Maybe you'll have another chance to go watch them sing at Fenway. Maybe the Red Sox won't will actually appear >> to play baseball, >> which they did not. >> Maybe they'll get this thing for a winning game. A few more back to school items to celebrate. Um we're very proud that uh our some of our work to improve sustainability efforts in the schools is being featured in the recycling works Massachusetts newsletter as a spot spotlight case study of our reuse and composting initiatives. Um, and we want to say thank you to Rachel Ali, our sustainability project manager, and our food services and school teams for their efforts in this area. The case study that they published um, in the newsletter is available in your materials for tonight's meeting and I recommend taking a look at that. Um, our AHS magical singers also in, you know, in addition to going to Fenway and showing off how incredible they are, our magical singers, which is a part of that larger choir that you saw, have been selected to be featured during the concert hour at the 2027 NAFME Eastern Division Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. That is a major honor. It's a very distinguished honor that recognizes exceptional musical achievement and musicianship for an ensemble and is a testament to uh Miss Walker's extraordinary leadership and dedication and the hard work and commitment of the APS performing arts team. Um and then finally, we are still waiting for final accountability results to be public. We've had some preliminary results we're taking a look at and cannot yet share with you, but we are pleased to share that the student attendance results have been made public. Um and our attendance last year uh was um even better than the year before has continued to improve after the pandemic. We are pleased to report continued reduction of chronic absenteeism by one and a half% um and improved overall attendance uh well above that 95% mark that the state sets for us. Both our students and our fabulous staff who support them every day achieved attendance goals for the 202526 school year. And we're really excited about that because students who don't come to school don't have the opportunity to learn. And so we're very glad that our kids are coming every day. Um we also have some policy and procedural updates. We are implementing a school bus traffic violation um bylaw that was passed uh with Mr. Schlickman's advocacy. Thank you. Um not too long ago. And we have also added some language to the handbook about um some of our practices around cameras on school buses just to make sure that families are aware of the recording devices that are available on our school buses. These are for student safety. They allow us to look into anything um that parents may say happened on the bus that they're concerned about. It allows us to keep an eye on um safe driving habits uh for our drivers as well as for folks around town. So, what these uh cameras do, we have internal and external ones. the ones that are looking at the outside of the bus have the capability to capture um traffic violations in town. If somebody were to violate the law uh when it comes to moving around a school bus when the arm is out, when the stop sign is out, when the lights are flashing, you are not supposed to go around a bus. And so if someone were to do so or violate any other traffic laws related to school bus safety, then the bus driver has the ability now to hit a button um in the bus that sends that specific footage to APD um alert them and then a a specific officer who's doing this detail is able to take a look at that footage, determine whether or not there was a violation and issue a traffic ticket in the event it's warranted. So, we're very grateful to our partners at APD for working with us on this and figuring out an enforcement um approach that wouldn't result in too much needing to sort of comb through lots and lots of hours of video that's not necessary, but allow our drivers to flag footage um where they think that a violation may have occurred. They're very dedicated to keeping our kids safe every day, and we're grateful that we're able to find a way to enact this bylaw. So that's the language there that we've added to the uh district handbook so that families are aware of the video and recording equipment. And of course if families have any questions they're welcome to reach out to us. Um we also have some updates related to disciplinary um procedures and policies, timeout seclusion procedures and policies and bullying procedures and policies. Some of these related to um statewide changes in regulation. some of them just because this is part of our regular maintenance that we need to do trainings for uh these things as we have new administrators come on board and need to understand our approach. So uh we have sent a memo to administration related to disciplinary procedures just to make sure everybody understands what our expectations are where the templates are um and we have a handbook that comes from our attorney that we share with all of our administrators so that they are aware of what the law says as well as what best practice is. We've placed a lot of emphasis as we started the year on the importance of alternative uh methods to discipline. Um things like restorative practice, doing collaborative problem solving conversations, um apologizing when things go a little sideways with a friend and there's a disagreement as a and trying to do as much of that as we can in order to limit exclusionary discipline. um and really emphasizing that there needs to be a limitation of exclusionary me measures of any kind, not just disciplinary in alignment with new regulations, new timeout regulations that we've talked about before. Um the bullying policy is also under review by council and um by myself and Mr. Schlickman. We went through it yesterday to make sure that it's consistent with our current procedures. Uh because what we give all of our staff are the is the bullying prevention plan. And so we want to make sure that our school committee policy is aligned with that. There are a couple of things that have led to some some misunderstandings between us and families because they're not consistent between the two and we are grateful to families for raising that because it allows us to bring revisions to you all. Um and then we've talked with uh staff as well about legal and best practice trainings that we're going to be holding in September and October and throughout the year on some of these updated policies and procedures. We have our council come in and do training for the administration. and we're starting with discipline training um in I think a couple weeks. So, we'll be doing that. Um and finally, uh some of you may have seen in the news uh or in on your networks that there have been municipalities and school districts that have had to close because of cyber attacks this week. Um it's happened in multiple communities. Um sometimes it's affecting uh if towns have a network that is schoolside and one that's town or city side, one or the other. and in some places it's affecting both. Uh we today sent out a message that is that we're going to be requiring multiffactor authentication for our staff and we have checked in with our IT teams about our vulnerability to such attacks. The good news is um they have been very on top of this that we have a cyber security expert that we've hired um for both town and schools who has a lot of um things in place that allows us to check or intervene if there were to be somebody's account um compromised or device compromised. Uh but there are increasingly escalated and sophisticated cyber attacks happening in the world right now and we're doing everything we can to make sure it doesn't disrupt learning for our students. So, we we will be working on the multiffactor authentication. We'll be making sure that staff has have as much support on that as um we can. And we're also going to be sending an update out to families very soon, talking about some of the measures that we've taken and why we're not super worried that this is going to be something that we have to deal with in this round. But of course, we need to keep an eye on emerging trends and and what's going on. So, we are on top of that though. Um parent square, I wanted to update you on the parent square roll out. So, we have sent out invitations to families to join the app and set up their accounts. Um, we did that last week. Our school and district leaders have started using some of the newsletter features in Parents Square over the summer. We're working with staff to to help them explore the platform, do some training modules or have um some of well our one communications person come and do some training at their schools if necessary. We'll slowly make use of the platform and some of its features which are listed here. Obviously, you can see that like the direct messaging and the posting, which is sort of the newsletter feature, that's what we're using at the moment. Um, and this was as of two days of school. These were some of the stats that we can see about use of the platform. Um, on the back end, staff will also keep using things like Gmail, um, Google Classroom, other APS licensed platforms. What we have asked of staff is that they're not using third-party platforms that we do not have a subscription to and we do not have a data agreement with for primary platforms for communicating with families. And really the only primary platform for communicating with families um that we have are email and parent square. That's how families should be primarily reaching out to share information. Teachers may have other applications that they also use and that they may encourage families to take a look at, but the primary method of communication and information sharing needs to come through those two platforms. And we've been very clear um about that with everybody and a lot of folks have gotten their their uh their app set up and where families are slowly joining um as we remind them. This was shortly after we sent the push for the application. So, my bet is that some of these stats have shifted and we'll keep sharing some of that with you all and how it's going. Okay, I'm almost done. Um, we have some upcoming events. Back to school nights are right around the corner. Uh, MS's back to school night and AHS's will be next week on Wednesday and Thursday the 16th and 17th. All of our elementary schools will have back to school night on Wednesday, September 23rd. And thank you to Gibbs families who were patient with us as we sorted out. A little bit of a a date misunderstanding um for the Gibbs and AHS were which were initially scheduled on the same night but now no longer are. And the Gibbs back to school night was moved to Wednesday, October 7th. They looked at the first week of October, but that's nature's classroom week. So they're going to have it after everybody comes back from nature's classroom. Um and there is no school on September 21st. Uh I also shared enrollments um with all of you. So, our indistrict enrollments are relatively level with FY26. That changed a little bit between um when I initially pulled enrollments in an update that had us at -20, but as you can see, the in district enrollments when you don't factor in some of the out of district reduction um are fairly stable with what they were last year. So, and Monottomy is on track to surpass last year's enrollments given where they're starting out. Uh we have a reduction of about 90 students in our K to5 grades and increases in our secondary enrollments which fits with trends that we were expecting for the school year. Um we are expecting some adjustments. We usually get a drop after we finalize the October one submission. So I do expect that that minus 20 might be a little closer to about minus 40 when we finalize October 1. We're still in this like fifth or sixth day of school. So sometimes we don't know that somebody has moved until we are locking in the enrollments and making sure that we know where they've gone and that they're not coming back. Um so those are the enrollments and I'm happy to take any questions. That's all >> questions. Can I see the >> Yeah, sorry. >> Dr. Alison, >> thanks. just in terms of the um parent square. So there isn't anything on the website in the family section or on the district page or on the homepage about it. And if you search if you search for parent square al together it comes up. But if you search it as two words it does not. And I'm just thinking since you're asking parents to download an app and start using something that we want to be sure that they understand it's real and that we're doing this and that we should have backup information easily accessible on the website um for families to see. >> I completely agree and there is a parent square page somewhere on this website but I could not tell you where it is or how to find it. So, >> you can you can find it if you if you Google >> I mean if if you search with the correct term, but I think you want to figure out how to make it search if you put a space in between because I think that's what I mean if you don't know how it's supposed to be written, people may not >> who it is one word. >> I will talk to folks about that first day tomorrow. make a front. >> Miss Caporn, >> I just I just had a question on the um the disciplinary um update in that policy. Will that will teachers also be getting any additional professional development so that they are aware of these new rules and structures and things like that and how are we tracking that? >> Yeah. So um we so some of the mechanisms that we use as alternative methods to discipline are front and center of our um of our PTE options that we offer. So safety care is been very widely um attended by staff. We're very proud of that. Uh that is not it's it's restraint training because that's a portion of it but the whole first tap of that training is about deescalation. Um and so that is in an effort to avoid the need for any seclusion whether it's disciplinary or not but any seclusion of any kind. We also are doing CPS training and ex and over the next few years should have all of our secondary staff have the opportunity to take some of the collaborative problem solving um training that we're doing. So that is one of the measures that we use as an alternative to discipline. Uh we also had to like it was required that we include in our mandated training that we do at the beginning of the year the adjustments to the timeout and seclusion regulations. Um so that was included in the modules that staff complete at the beginning of the year as part of their mandated training. So they're part of it too. Um, and a lot of what we're doing with the administration is making sure that they know where to find letter templates when they are in a situation where they need to build out a letter for um, a disciplinary measure that we're talking to them about, you know, what the approach could be that would get you to a better result if you're using an alternative method. Um, I spoke with an administrator today about an approach that they could take to help some students make amends with one another and as opposed to sort of exploring whether or not we need to do exclusionary. It's uncomfortable for sure, uh, but it's a much better learning experience for the students. So, um, I think we'll we're looking forward to having some sessions with the attorney and we're trying to emphasize that like not all of this is about law. It's a lot of it's about the feeling the human feelings in the room and that's some of what we've heard from families too is that when we emphasize the legal letter it it doesn't get to the human component and so we're trying to be in front of that this year. Um so we're starting with the administration but teachers have gotten a lot of this as well and a lot of opportunities ahead to engage >> and um are we tracking like if there ends up being a difference in how many inschool suspensions or things like that that because I know Desi tracks some of that in school discipline numbers but I'm curious if we track it so then we can compare year-over-year if it changes. >> Yeah. So yes um and I have already talked with uh Chair Gdlesson about doing a presentation on some of the broader overarching trends. We used to do a discipline presentation every year and we would do it by school and when those numbers got low enough it actually got problematic for us to do that because we were only talking about a few students. So, um, re I think retooling that and doing a broader look at sort of district level trends over multiple years is a great idea and we dug into some of that this summer. So, I'm hoping to bring that back. We just have to find the right date for it. >> Awesome. Thanks. >> Anyone else? Okay. Um, we are moving on to the consent agenda. All items listed with an asterk are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the committee so requests in which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence. Warrant number 26320 June 30th 2026 766,41855. Warrant number 27036 August 11th 2026 491 491,52.94 warrant number 27038 August 25th 2026 $851,486 warrant number 27054 September 8th 2026 $766,317 $1746. Japan field trip 2027 draft school committee minutes June 23rd 2026 and draft school committee school committee minutes July 27th 2026. Can I have a motion? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> Uh Dr. Allison Aby. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carden. >> Yes. Miss Hins Copathorn, >> yes. >> Mr. Thelman, >> yes. >> Mr. Schlickman, >> yes. >> Miss Xton, >> yes. >> And the chair votes yes. That is 70. We are now on to subcommittee liaison reports and announcements. Budget, Dr. Allison Ampy, >> nothing to report. >> Community relations, Mr. Thealman, >> no report. >> CIAA, Miss Xig, >> no report. >> Facilities, Mr. Theman, >> no report, but I seem to remember I'm supposed to talk to Dr. Hman about something. We meet on Monday. >> Dr. Policy and Procedures. Mr. Schlickman, >> no report. >> Arlington High School Building Committee. Mr. Theman, >> uh, no report. >> Uh, Addison Middle School building committee. Miss Exon, congratulations on your election to chair. >> Thank you. Um, and I do I do have a report. Um we had our first um building committee meeting on I think it was August 19th. Um and so um uh Mr. Rabbino presented the um sorry I prepared for the second part of this and I moved my documents for this. Um Mr. Vino um presented the um vision and goals for the school and asked for feedback from the committee. Um and then Dr. Hman presented um the outline of the um MSBA process and talked about the um the eligibility period and moving into feasibility. um and we discussed some different enrollment models and um the MSBA has to come back with their enrollment numbers based on our um models and so the committee endorsed enrollment models for a single sixth through 8 school and a seventh and eighth grade school. Um and we are currently on schedule for a December 2026 um board decision by the MSBA to move into the feasibility process. >> Thank you. Uh liaison reports announcements future agenda items. Okay, we are now moving into exe I need a motion motion to move into executive session to discuss and potentially vote on the release of revised minutes meeting minutes from an executive session that occurred on May 1st, 2025 pursuant to GLC 30A section 21 A7 and GLC 20 30A section 22G. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Dr. Mr. Alison Ampi, >> yes. >> Mr. Carden, >> yes. >> Miss Haynes Papathorn, >> yes. >> Mr. Theman, >> yes. >> Mr. Schlickman, >> yes. >> Miss Xton, >> yes. >> And I vote yes. And we will be returning hopefully very briefly to do a public vote on these minutes, but nothing else. Thank you. So, we have returned from executive session. Um, we discussed and approved an amendment of the executive session meetings from May 1st, 2025. Um, we are now going to vote in public. So, we are voting on the amended minutes and to publish them. >> I move approval and release of the minutes. >> Second. >> Uh, Dr. Allison Ampy, >> yes. >> Mr. Carden, >> yes. >> Miss Hopthornne, >> yes. >> Miss Mr. Steelman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Schlickman. >> Yes. >> Miss Exit. >> Yes. >> And the chair votes yes. Thank you. I am now looking for a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Dr. Allison Ampy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cardan. >> Yes. >> Miss Haynes Capathorn. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thelman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Schlickman. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> And the chair votes yes. Thank you all very much.