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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-01-21-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, January 21, 2025 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:04 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Eileen Jay, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice -Chair Sara Cuthbertson, Clerk Kathleen Lenihan Larry Freeman Student Representative Adlan joined the meeting at 6:45 PM SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. The School Committee convened at the School Committee Meeting Room at Central Office and remotely. Members of the public can view and participate in person or in the meeting webinar from their computer or tablet by clicking on the link provided with the meeting agenda. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees are participating by video conference. This evening's meeting is being broadcast live and also taped by LexMedia for future on -demand viewing. All supporting materials that have been provided to members of this body are available on the Town's website unless otherwise noted. CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: • Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. January 10, 2025 - Payroll in the amount of $4,907,499.62 b. January 17, 2025 - BMO Warrant in the amount of $17,316.44 c. January 17, 2025 -AP Warrant in the amount of $596,868.03 Ms. Cuthbertson read the following consent agenda items: • Donations a. $5,952.00 Donation from Mark Lawrence for the LHS Class of 2025 Yearbook b. $1,000 Donation from Mark Lawrence for the annual Mark Lawrence Photographer Scholarship Mr. Freeman moved to approve the entire consent agenda, Ms. Cuthbertson seconded. Passed, 5-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Mr. Freeman stated that all of his announcements will be covered in the Superintendent's Report. Ms. Cuthbertson said, "Same for me. I think we're all at the same events, so I'm sure Dr. Hackett's going to cover that in more detail. But we appreciate everyone who organized all of the wonderful events that we've attended since our last meeting." Ms. Lenihan said, "Same." Ms. Sawhney attended the quarterly SEPAC meeting and gave a shout -out to the three co-chairs. She also mentioned that she would be sending the rest of their documents to the School Committee and requested that this information be sent to the candidates running for School Committee as well. Ms. Jay was also at the quarterly SEPAC meeting, and she will be attending their monthly meeting tomorrow. Ms. Jay also announced the following Lunar New Year events; • January 26th CALex is having their Lunar New Year event at LHS from 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM. • January 29th CAAL Youth team is organizing a food festival at LHS from 4:00 PM - 7:30 PM. • February 8th, the New Legacy Cultural Center will have a lantern festival at First Parish Church. COMMUNITY SPEAK Robin Strizhak - President of the Lexington Education Association (LEA) (on Zoom): "We are in the midst of Unit C negotiations, and we need the community to understand what the reality is for our paraprofessionals. We are asking for a living wage for our Unit C members because one job should really be enough. Almost everyone in Unit C is juggling multiple jobs and responsibilities because they do not get a paycheck that allows them to survive on the income of just one job. While it isn't paid like it, that one job is vital to the day-to-day lives of all educators. I was recently in a Kindergarten classroom wherein four students had a 1:1. Without those one -to -ones, the classroom would have been chaos, the students would be grouped inappropriately for survival's sake, behavior plans would not be implemented, data would not be reliable, and no one would be getting what they need— general ed students, special ed students, teachers, no one. As it is, our staff are routinely stretched thin and asked to cover staffing shortages. Our Unit C members work with our most vulnerable students and are often treated, as many have said to me, "like the help." Our Unit C members are often asked when they're going to move to a teaching role, as though the Unit C job is not professional enough or worthy of a career. While many of their colleagues know how invaluable their work is, there is often still a stigma that Unit C staff are temporary or only doing the job because it is a "stepping stone" to a "real job" These paraprofessionals work closely with students, and yet are never invited to IEP meetings, may or may not have consult time with the educators they work with, and are assumed to be shirking their duties if they take any downtime. These educators are getting hurt at various levels because behaviors are still challenging. And yet, they are still dedicated to "our kids." When we say that we want tangible appreciation during ESP and Teacher Weeks, we are talking about this exact point: If we pay our paraprofessionals a living wage so this is the one job they can focus on, if we show them that we respect them and their work by consistently evaluating their performance throughout the year, if we dig deep and listen to what these paraprofessionals are saying— that this is not an entry level job and that this is a career in its own right and should be treated as such, we will truly be showing our appreciation. We know that there is a budget freeze or slow down. Dr. Hackett and Mr. Coehlo spoke about the reality of the shortfall at the last meeting. We thank them for getting this conversation started, and want the community to know that we need your help. Your town is only as good as your schools, and Lexington specifically prides itself on being a national role model for Special Education. Help us get the funding we need by writing to Governor Healey, reading the FY26 budget book to see what is being proposed in the name of cost-saving measures, and asking the town to help us make up the difference. Thank you" Rajeshwari Godbole - 6 Tewksbury St (on Zoom): "I come here today as a practicing Hindu who is very concerned with the material relating to Indian history, culture and my Hindu faith that is taught in our middle and high schools. The material that is taught from caste to Kashmir is not only highly biased, but also wrong in several places. The sources of this material are neither academic, nor are they from experts who have deeply studied these topics using primary sources when talking about the faith or history. News articles and opinion pieces that lack adequate historical depth and scholarly rigor cannot be part of the education that is imparted to our children. This incorrect and biased material leads to a severe loss of pride in the identity of Hindu children and a sense of disdain in non Hindu children as they learn a heavily negative narrative about Hindus and India. A recent academic publication shows that the psychosocial consequences that Indian American children face after they are exposed to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism In Ancient India. The current toxic discourse in textbooks and teaching material produces in the Indian American child a psychological impact quite similar to what racism is known to produce; that of shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity, confusion and a phenomenon similar to racelessness, where the children disassociate from the tradition and culture of their ancestors. It is sad that a community that prays for and actively contributes to the growth and progress of America as engineers, doctors, scientists, professors and more, a community that has very low crime rates is thus being maligned and spoken of in very derogatory language. This is both with respect to its Hindu faith and India, a country that is the largest democracy and has been a strong US ally for many decades. No other faith or country is spoken of in such low terms. It is better not to teach these subjects at all instead of this negative, biased, incorrect material. There are several of us right here in Lexington who can help with creating the correct material. Please, let us work together and stop the damage being done to our children. Thank you very much." Matthew Small - (on Zoom): "I'm the school counselor at Fiske Elementary School, and also the district -wide foster care contact. Today, I came across significant mental health budget cuts for the counseling department, which is a committed group of more than 50 counselors, social workers and support staff. The Superintendent's proposed budget eliminates the District's Director of Counseling position and our administrative assistant position. These positions were created over a decade ago to bring leadership, coordination and support to frontline counselors and social workers across all 10 schools. Lexington Public Schools lacked horizontal and vertical alignment of counseling services and made a wise decision to hire a leader to unite the department. The counseling director currently oversees staff recruitment, hiring, training, supervision and evaluation for our department of mental health providers. We rely on the expert skill set of the counseling director, who has a background as a school psychologist and a school counselor, as well as clinical counseling credentials. Along with coordinating the staff's work with all students in general education, the counseling director also oversees an exhausting list of other district wide duties. Too many name here, but they do include the suicidal ideation and self injury response protocol, section 504, Accommodation Plans, homeless education, foster education, home hospital, tutoring, Title IX investigations, the district -wide Child Protection Team and threat assessment management for our schools. The budget book references the counseling department being absorbed by a new student services department, but there's no other reference to this particular department in the budget book. Which other departments will be included? Will there be a counseling leader in this new department with the clinical expertise in mental health to guide us. These questions are important. Our counselors and social workers stay in Lexington because the School Committee and the families we serve take mental health needs seriously. With the increasing social -emotional needs of students in our schools, I ask that you maintain the appropriate and vital level of leadership that counselors and social workers need to support the mental health and emotional needs of our students in Lexington. Thank you." The Superintendent's Report was moved to after the budget presentation. SUPERINTENDENT'S E E DED FY 2026 BUDGET Dave Coelho, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations, and Dr. Hackett reviewed the below slideshow. • FY 2026 Budet Presentation o Slide 2: Links to Resources o Slide 3: Strategic Goals ■ Goal 1 - Address and Narrow Equity Gaps ■ Goal 2 - Redefine Success ■ Goal 3 - Cultivate Student Agency ■ Goal 4 - Innovate for Sustainable Change o Slides 4 & 5: LPS Budget Process and Timeline ■ 4 Summits o Slide 6: FY 2026 Revenue Allocation Process ■ $311,154,210 represents the Town's total amount of revenue available for allocation for school and municipal accounts, plus the incremental revenue balance for FY 2026. ■ $303,690,291 is allocated across municipal, shared and school accounts. ■ The FY2026 Incremental Revenue Balance for both schools and municipal side is $7,463,919. Next, Lexington's Revenue Allocation Model is applied, with 74% to schools ($5,524,966) and 26% to the municipal side. o Slide 7: LPS Budget Increases Over Time ■ The FY2026 budget increased by 3.83%. o Slide 8: FY2026 Superintendent's Recommended Budget ■ $146,033,333 is the Superintendent's recommended budget. ■ $3.5M in reductions is needed to present a balanced budget. ■ Reduction suggestions include: • Further reductions to the "high risk" list after a similar reduction in FY2025 ($1.2M) • Reduce professional development lines ($200,000) • Reduce expense lines by approximately 10-25% ($800,000) • Consolidate administrative jobs to free up 2 FTE ($220,000): The Director of Counseling and the admin assistant are the two positions, the Director of Counseling is retiring, and the admin assistant will be moved into a new position. • Consolidate elementary and middle school classrooms to free up 12 FTE ($1,049,500) • Increase the use of the transportation revolving account (up to +$150,000) o Slide 9: LPS FY2026 Salaries & Wages Recommendation ■ The amount change is $$6,330,874 or 5.24%. o Slide 10: LPS FY2026 Salary & Expense Overview ■ We went from $140,508,367 million to $146,033,333 million, a $5.4 million increase or a 3.86% change. o Slide 11: Basis of FY26 Expense Changes ■ All expense accounts reviewed for historical spending patterns ■ Expense accounts adjusted for FY25 one-time costs ■ Per Pupil Expense amounts increased by 0% inflation factor for FY26 ■ Additional adjustments based on FY26 enrollment projections ■ FY26 will require managing a leaner expense budget ■ For FY26, expense accounts for Finance and Operations, Superintendent, Human Resources, and K-12 Curriculum were reduced from 10 - 27% ■ Other Building and Department expense accounts were reduced by 10% ■ Out -of -District Tuition • Account reduced by a total of 3.87% based on strategic reduction in high-risk student • Students not currently in out -placements • Increased use in offsets from Circuit Breaker, prepays, and grant accounts ■ Special Education Transportation recalculated based on students transported and recent expense history ■ The district has approximately $1.95M in SpEd Reserve and Stabilization if needed. o Slide 12: FY 2025: Projections vs. Actual Enrollment ■ Overall enrollment was projected to decline by approximately 21 students and decreased in 2024-2025 by 6 students. ■ K - 8: Actual K-8 enrollment exceeded projections by 14 students. ■ HS enrollment was expected to be relatively flat but exceeded the projection by 78 students. o Slide 13: FY 2008 - FY 2023 Enrollment Adjusted Cost Growth for School Systems in Similiar Communities ■ The chart shows Lexington's enrollment growth places it 4th among 8 comparable districts, while its per -pupil expenditure growth ranks 7th. Newton, with significantly lower enrollment growth, has similar expenditure growth, while Brookline, with similar enrollment growth, has higher expenditure growth. This suggests Lexington is being more efficient in its per -pupil spending. o Slide 14: Special Thanks ■ Dave Coelho, Assistant Supt. of Finance & Operations ■ Adrian Leone, Executive Administrative Assistant ■ Kathleen Kim, Financial Analyst ■ Tracy Macmillan, Accounting Manager ■ Deb Harvey, Procurement Operations Manager ■ Mike Donegan & Bruce Ryder, ■ Print Center Technicians ■ Our Fabulous LPS Student Artists! o Slide 15: Student Artwork ■ Thank you to our incredibly talented LPS student artists for their amazing artwork! School Committee Questions/Comments: Slide 8 Questions: • Ms. Lenihan asked about the high-risk list. She wants to know what would happen if we reduced the list but then more children ended up needing services. Dr. Hackett responded, "Our approach and the budgeting process has been to follow the School Committee budget guidelines, which direct us to make sure that our students with disabilities needs are met. And so that means that when staff need to be added, we add staff, and that then creates challenges in terms of how we solve those gaps that potentially get created" Dr. Hackett added that this is when we would tap into our safety nets, such as the Special Ed Stabilization Fund, the Special Ed Reserve Fund, and the Circuit Breaker Fund. Another safety net would be to take on budget freeze measures. • Ms. Cuthbertson asked about the OSD rates, to which Mr. Coelho replied that the rates are set for FY26 and that the percentage increase was 3.67%. [OSD is the state Operational Services Division which sets tuition rates for private special education programs used by cities and towns for out -of -district placements] She also mentioned Dr. Hackett's idea to do a District -wide audit on expenses. • Ms. Jay added that the audit is actually a program review. Dr. Hackett replied, "We are looking at everything related to programming for students with special needs" and "The message I'm trying to send is that it's a comprehensive look at all the things that we've been talking about that we don't have answers to, questions for now and then. Once we have that tool in place, or that report in place, we can talk about what we want to act on, what we don't want to act on" • Mr. Freeman asked about the bullet point "Consolidate elementary and middle school classrooms to free up 12 FTE ($1,049,500)." Dr. Hackett explained that administrators meet every year to review enrollment and determine class sizes; this year, we will need to be more conservative. Dr. Hackett also added that out of the 12 FTEs, about 8 will be from the middle schools. Slide 9 Questions: • Ms. Jay asked Mr. Coelho about the staffing chart and the net reduction of 3.67 FTE. They discussed moving staff around to meet student needs. Ms. Jay also added, "I think in all of the discussions we've been having recently about why budgets are increasing and what's driving that; and I think Dr. Hackett and you have explained in numerous ways that these pressures are coming from many different drivers." • Ms. Sawhney mentioned that she sent her questions on the budget book to Dr. Hackett and Mr. Coelho, and she will also share them with the School Committee. She added that she asked for the 4th quarter report from last year, but she still has not received it. She is requesting this report so she can see what has happened in the recent past, "I, in good conscience, cannot vote on the budget till I see that report." Dr. Hackett addressed her comment about not getting the report, saying, "In the past, we took a look at what we've produced, and my understanding is we haven't always produced the fourth quarter report." Mr. Coelho added that we did it once during the pandemic and that we are working on a more involved end -of -year report. He also mentioned that the numbers from the past few years are in the budget book, and he explained the importance of having context for the numbers. Dr. Hackett added that there are two audits that happen every year, "We have people checking all of our numbers" Dr. Hackett asked Mr. Coelho about the audit reports, he replied that we don't get those reports until the following spring. Ms. Sawhney added that the auditors don't ask "the why." She wants the quarter -end report so she "can look into it and ask questions of the why; Why was this spent this way?" Ms. Jay suggested Mr. Coelho get just the numbers to Ms. Sawnhey and then have a Finance Subcommittee meeting to go over them. Ms. Cuthbertson pointed out that the Finance Subcommittee is subject to Open Meeting Law, which means anything provided to the Finance Subcommittee is public record. She added, "Without the narratives, we're at great risk of having people misconstrue the information. And because when we have gotten together to look at trends, we've had questions, and we need Mr. Coelho to explain to us when things have been like, it might look like we're over in this line, but it's really coming from this over here, because of the way we have, like, per diem people versus contract people and things like that, that would be my concern. And we are knee-deep in negotiations, which takes a large amount of Mr. Coelho's time. And with all of that, I'm concerned because are we saying that this one thing is a Finance Subcommittee would not take long, but I do have concerns that that numbers only document is what then is public, and without those explanations, it would be really hard for people to understand, and it might be really easy for people to misunderstand, which can make it harder when we're going to Town Meeting and advocating because people might have other narratives out there, but at the same time, for Mr. Coelho to go and put all those explanations is to the detriment of other things that we also really need to do" Ms. Jay addressed Ms. Cuthbertson concern of the document's being public, "My understanding is that these numbers are public anyway" and that she is also concerned about Mr. Coelho's time. Ms. Sawhney asked if she could meet with Mr. Coelho, not a subcommittee meeting. Ms. Cuthbertson reiterated her concerns over Mr. Coelho's time. Ms. Sawhney then added, "In May of this past year, I had called a special School Committee meeting because I had concerns around our spending and where our expenses were going. At that time, I was given significant pushback by then Chair, Sara Cuthbertson, and significant pushback post that by Dr. Hackett. I continue to be concerned of and now, six months later, this is where we are at. You're at a spending freeze, even though six months ago, I was trying to tell people we are spending things in a way that we may get into trouble." Ms. Jay helped settle the discussion by agreeing that Mr. Coelho will produce the numbers that Ms. Sawhney is asking for. Dr. Hackett added, "Regarding the comment around, we can get you anything that you need, and like Mr. Coelho said, it's in the budget book. What we're trying to do is focus our time and energy and be efficient. Regarding what happened last May, any pushback that came from me, I'll speak for myself (you also mentioned Ms. Cuthbertson) had to do with the fact that you called a meeting of this body on your own as a School Committee member and said, "I'm going to do a presentation on finance or the budget." You had inaccurate information in your presentation. You asked for staff, and that was a quote, to "not attend the meeting." I am staff. So yes, we had significant concerns about your approach, which is not how it's done in any School Committee that I'm familiar with. So, if you felt resistance, it probably has something to do with your approach. So I'll just leave it at that." There will be two public hearings on January 28th for the public to ask questions, and then the budget will be voted on on February 4th. Ms. Lenihan asked if the amount of money we get from the federal government could be clearly reported at the budget hearings. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • First Reading of Policy RRA - School Committee Powers and Duties ■ CRI - School Committee Evaluation of Superintendent ■ MASC Guide: Evaluating the Superintendent o Regarding BBA item #6: Superintendent's Evaluation: The Superintendent's performance will be evaluated each February by the entire School Committee. The School Committee suggested changing the February date to the last meeting in May so that the policy matches the practice. o Ms. Jay reached out to MASC to find out what the common practice is for when a School Committee member departs after being around for a good part of the year, and then a new member comes in and has to evaluate. They responded, "The practice should be that the member who has been through the majority of the year should be one of the, in our case, five members contributing to the superintendent evaluation at the end of the year. So even though they're not a sitting School Committee member anymore, the way they described it, they said it goes by the seat, not the person." Ms. Sawhney agreed to submit an evaluation for Dr. Hackett at the end of the school year. Mr. Freeman requested that there be some language in the policy included about this. • First Reading of the Revised Policy IJNDBA - Student Standards for the Acceptable Use of Technology ■ IJNDBA Polio wl Accepted Track Changes o Ms. Jay explained that principals from each level met with the Policy Subcommittee and Mr. Martellone to review the policy. Ms. Sawhney went over the changes that were made to the policy. o Under the Cell Phones and Personal Devices section, under Grades 9- 12, Ms. Lenihan disagrees with using the word "must": "All personal electronic devices must be placed in teacher -designated holding areas during class time." She is concerned about teachers' discretion. Ms. Jay recommends a Policy Subcommittee meeting to discuss this further. Ms. Lenihan also mentioned another part in the section; "Non-academic periods may be designated as a time for Personal Electronic Device use at the discretion of the building administrator." She asks if a study period is an academic time or nonacademic time, "the last thing we want to do is create a policy that becomes unenforceable." o Mr. Freeman asked about the sentence, "Students are prohibited from accessing school and district networks with personal cell phones or personal devices." He would like to know if this includes Aspen and Google Classroom. Ms. Cuthbertson added that this is for cybersecurity reasons. Mr. Freeman, "I want to make sure the policy allows for students, and I'm thinking specifically about Special Ed students who will take a picture of something that the teacher has posted. Is that still going to be allowed in this policy?" Ms. Jay read the sentence under "Exceptions": " Exemptions will be made for students who require personal electronic devices for accessibility or as an accommodation, as set forth in a document created in accordance with applicable federal and state special education and nondiscrimination laws." Mr. Freeman understands that if this is in the student's plan, they won't have any trouble. o Dr. Hackett will review the policy herself and check in with Principals at Admin. Council tomorrow. o Mr. Freeman brought up that the policy sometimes says building administrator, and then sometimes it says the principal. The School Committee discussed using the term designee. Ms. Lenihan added, "It's really important that classroom teachers have the ability to manage their classrooms the way it works best for them." o Ms. Jay asked if Ms. Sawhney could collect any additional questions on this policy. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed her Superintendent's Report with the School Committee. The highlights from her report include: 2025 MLK Day Celebration & ABCL Annual Scholarship Concert o Loretta J. Ross talked about her new book Calling In: How to Make Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel. She has also created a "Calling In Course" for $5. o The Association of Black Citizens of Lexington (ABCL) also held its annual scholarship concert this weekend. Mr. Freeman added that this year's event was "especially moving" and that the highlight was when Jonathan Hsu, a Middle School student, recited parts of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, "Give Us the Ballot." 2. 2025 Lunar New Year Gala o It was on Saturday, January 18, 2025, and our Director of Elementary Education, Andrea So, was in the red lion! Angela Carpenter, the Director of Performing Arts, was also there leading the Lexington Children's Chorus. 3. YoungArts Award in Voice/Popular o Shriya Jha, a junior at Lexington High School, has received the 2025 YoungArts Award in Voice/Popular. This is Shriya's second year in a row winning this award. 4. LHS Senior Published Author o LHS Senior Tara Pai is now a published author who co -wrote a one -act play called To Click or Not to Click: The Final Decision with Jennifer Degenhardt. 5. Upcoming Joy in Learning Celebrations o Lexington Children's Place: Thursday, January 30th, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. o Harrington: Thursday, February 27th, from 9:30-11:00 a.m. o Hastings: Friday, February 28th, from 9:00-10:00 a.m. o Bowman: Wednesday, March 26th, from 9:00-10:30 p.m. o Clarke: Friday, June 6th, from 9:00-10:00 a.m. 6. Kindergarten Registration Opening Soon o Monday, February 10, 2025, at 8 a.m 7. High School Building Project Updates o The School Building Committee (SBC) met on January 13, 2025. Overcrowding and the potential of moving into a portion of the new building were discussed. o The schematic design decision matrix and the scope of the addition/renovation of the field house, and the size of the track were also discussed. o On January 15th, Dr. Hackett, Mr. Cronin, and the project team presented to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and the Facilities Assessment Subcommittee. About 70 MSBA people were in attendance, and they said "wonderful things about Lexington and about our educational system, which is a credit to the entire community." 8. We All Belong o Middle School Active Bystander Training will happen at Central Office. o Douglass Day is on February 14th, in partnership with the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington, the Lexington Lyceum Advocates, and the Lexington Historical Society. The Diamond students will celebrate Fredrick Douglass's work through a document transcribing project called "Reading is a Revolutionary Act," organized by staff Kelly Lawlor, Remy Coombs, and Hope Freidman. The event will be at the Masonic Hall from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. o L! coming Holidays Observances COMMUNITY SPEAK Sarah Carter - 5 Spencer St (in person): "I am here speaking on behalf of the Special Education Student Advisory Council, and my statements are in relation to the budget. One note, the support of this group outside review of our special education programs. We worry that how our system currently addresses these issues doesn't meet the needs of our community. We encourage the administration to continue the process of reviewing data and examining the use of our resources. Based on the budget presented, we would see a net reduction of 3.12 staff in our special education services. I call on the School Committee to ensure that we have the adequate staff that provides the services and support of our students. This is also following a reduction in special education staff last year. Finally, I also wanted to highlight concerns that we are not creating enough placeholders for our high-risk students. As noted by Ms. Lenihan, we have seen a pattern of more high-risk students entering the district and then the administration having to scramble to fund their programming. We are seeing the problems today for this in our budget freeze and would hate to see this happen again in future years. Thank you." Olga Guttag - 273 Emerson Rd (on Zoom): "I agree with the previous speakers about the insufficient or very tight placeholders for cost overruns, not necessarily only for special education, though those might be the most necessary. But we are also seeing students who have left during COVID returning into the public schools. And one of the hopes I have is that Dr. Kavanaugh, who is a superb data cruncher, is actually doing a careful analysis of making sure that we do better projections than we did in the past about this, in my opinion, Lexington problem. The other comment I have about the budget is that, as a parent, I have always looked for equity among schools, and given how the budget is organized at the moment, this is very hard to figure out from the whole budget. And let me tell you what my example was when our kids were in school, and I hope that you can better address it, or better present the budget in such a way that we can see that these issues are taken care of. So when my kids were at Fiske, I had four children at Fiske, and the youngest to oldest were eight years apart. And my oldest child went through Fiske, and his cohort of neighborhood kids led to class sizes which were always either at max or even at sometimes over max. So that was 24 or 25 kids, and at the same time, there were other schools in the system where their class sizes were 16 to 17 kids. And that makes a tremendous difference in the level of education that once children get, and we all know that four years later, my other child went through a much smaller cohort, and so he benefited from having the 16 to 17 class sizes while there were other schools which had the large cohorts, And I know that Dr. Hackett is aware of various strategies that might be able to help in terms of how we assign certain students to classrooms to help ensure equity among schools and again, one of the things that I as a parent, always wanted to know that this was part of the budget consideration, and as a School Committee, I looked for it, and right now, there is nothing in the budget which make it easy to see that such equity exists. Thank you for adding this to the budget so that those of us who are on the outside and won't have access to what Deepika has requested." POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS Items added during this meeting: • Immigration concerns - Biden's policy revoked by new administration ADJOURNMENT/Calendar for the year Ms. Cuthbertson made a motion to adjourn at 8:41 PM, Mr. Freeman seconded. Passed, 5-0.