This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom.

Attendance by board members will be remote, and remote attendance shall count towards the quorum.

This meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by Sharon TV. If you elect to enable your webcam, your image and background may be broadcast with or without sound.

So I see that we have a full house tonight, and I would like to invite everybody to obviously make a public comment.

However, since we do have a packed agenda, I would appreciate it very much if commenters could not duplicate things that other commenters had said. I would really, I would appreciate that very much.

So with that, I think we will go to public comments.

Okay.

Okay.

I'd like to actually defer to the STA folks to go first.

Okay.

That's not a thing.

That's literally not a thing. You want me to go, okay, that's fine.

I want you, like I called on you because your hand was up first, and we were not like deferring.

Okay. Okay.

So I have two things I'd like to talk about tonight. One is a request for every member of the school committee and central administration to pull the tape of the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee meeting from October 10th. And fast forward to our 110 in the meeting.

So it's an hour and 10 minutes in and watch the very poignant comments and discussion that take place when Serena Bien-Ami, and I forgive, forgive me if I've said the name wrong, shares about a incredibly troubling racial bias incident that happened at the high school.

The absolute lack of support that students feel at the high school, their sense that these things are normalized and that there's nobody for them to talk to, and that the administration is doing nothing about it. I'd also like to note that there was no school committee liaison there, and there was no school committee liaison at the November meeting.

I understand the assigned school committee liaison had strong feelings at the September meeting, which led to what I characterize as a tantrum that he was not going to be allowed to be a voting member.

The select board and the police department are perfectly fine having liaisons.

They were there.

School committee needs to have a liaison.

If Avi doesn't want to do it, please assign someone else.

The other topic I wanted to mention was budget.

At the last meeting, you all voted a tremendous number of transfers without looking at or talking about any of them. One of them included a final budget for contracted transportation of $826,000 when the original budgeted amount was $93,000.

That's an 800-plus percent increase in the cost, and none of you noticed.

The year before, in fiscal year 23, that cost landed at $701,000.

And for fiscal year 25, that same cost center is budgeted at $225,650.

I don't believe in fantastical budgeting.

Please look at it. It's cost center 52.

Look at what you spent the past two years. Ms. Crosby, you've gotten like an extra 15 seconds.

Thank you.

Ms.

Davis was next.

Thank you.

Can everybody hear me?

Okay.

So we had several members that were going to read a letter that was sent to the school committee regarding the meeting that took place on October 30th.

Unfortunately, many people had conflicts today and were unable to do that.

I'm going to summarize that letter. You can read it in full. There are over 90 signatures on that letter. The letter is basically in response to the tenor and tone of the meeting of October 30th in regards to the school improvement plan and in regards to AP testing increases.

The tone and tenor that was given towards Principal Keenan and towards Bob Palmer was completely unacceptable.

And we were appalled and we denounced the behavior of that particular committee member.

We also denounced the idea that a parental dispute and staff bullying information situation was brought before the committee and discussed outside of the parent complaint that was brought and discussed in the public forum.

That this particular committee member chose to bring it back up during a reference to the school improvement plan was completely unacceptable.

And it should have been discussed in an executive session as it deals with a staffing issue.

In addition to that, we are unhappy and we are unpleased with the tone and tenor towards Mr. Palmer, which has been a consistent issue moving forward.

And we are looking for a public apology and a public denunciation of this particular tenor and tone.

We are looking to move forward in a collegial and professional manner.

And we are hoping that personal animosity in a public role will be removed when addressing what is in the best interest of public chair and public school students.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for staying on.

Ms.

Fuller.

Good evening to the school committee and the community members.

My name is Rebecca Fuller. I teach at East Elementary School and I'm one of the co-presidents of the Sharon Teachers Association.

And I'm speaking tonight to express my unwavering support for our instructional assistants who play a vital role in the education landscape of our schools and particularly for our special education students.

These dedicated professionals provide essential services that are crucial to the academic and emotional support and development of our students, ensuring they receive the support they need to thrive. They don't only support our special needs students, but they also support all learners in the classroom, fostering an inclusive environment that benefits everyone.

The role of an IA has changed significantly over the years.

And they are not simply an extra set of hands and eyes in the classroom.

They hold degrees and have specialized training to provide accommodations to our most vulnerable learners.

Many of our IAs work multiple jobs to provide for their families, a further testament to the dedication to our students and resilience in the face of financial challenges.

It is concerning to note that many of them also qualify for public assistance, such as SNAP benefits, to afford basic necessities like groceries, because the town of Sharon does not offer a living wage in their contract.

This situation underscores the urgent need for our school to recognize and adequately compensate these invaluable team members.

And by investing in our structural assistance, we are investing in the future of our students and enhancing the quality of education we provide.

We have gathered signatures from a majority of our members urging the school committee to work with us in looking at these negotiations as an opportunity to better invest in our students and become a leader in what a town can do when it prioritizes fully funded schools so that students can receive the education they deserve.

Thank you for your time and listening.

Thank you, Ms. Fuller.

Jay O'Connor.

Jay O'Connor.

Jay O'Connor.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Hold on. Let me. Sorry.

There we go. Hi, good evening.

I'm going to read a prepared statement. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Good evening, members of the school committee, parents and community members. My name is Jane Conley. I have been an instructional assistant for 16 years and currently work at the Cottage Street School.

I'd like to shed light on the disrespect shown to the instructional assistants by the school committee in their refusal to work towards a fair contract for instructional assistance.

We are the backbone of classrooms in Sharon.

We work tirelessly among teachers helping both children on IEPs and students who aren't on IEPs. In short, we help all the students in the Sharon school system.

We help to ensure that every student has the attention, care, and quality education that parents expect.

Despite this, we are undervalued and quite frankly disrespected by the school committee.

During the negotiation process, we have been demeaned and ignored.

We entered the negotiation process looking forward to an open and fair dialogue only to be told by the school committee representative two minutes into the meeting.

Don't come back for more money.

This isn't an open negotiation.

This is an ultimatum.

This set the tone for all future negotiations.

We have bargained in good faith. The town has not.

The school committee then claimed we were at an impasse.

We believe there was room to continue to work together.

The Department of Labor agreed and ordered us back to the table to continue negotiations.

We were met with the same unwillingness to engage in meaningful, respectful conversations and bargaining.

Taxpayers and Sharon also need to be aware that the lawyer who was paid to be at every negotiation meeting is being paid thousands and thousands of dollars to sit with the school committee and not negotiate.

The firm this lawyer works with is also the firm that represents Beverly, Marblehead, Andover, and Newton among others.

Ms. O'Connell, I'm sorry, 15 seconds over time.

I have six sentences left.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time. Thank you for allowing me to go over. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. thank you for allowing me to go over. Thank you.

Ms. D. Batista, I'm so sorry if I said your name wrong.

Thank you for allowing me to go over.

Ms. D. Batista, I'm so sorry if I said your name wrong. Thank you.

I'm sorry.

Ms. D. Batista, I'm sorry if I said your name wrong. I'm so sorry if I said your name wrong.

That's okay.

Hi, my name is Diana DeBatista.

I am an instructional assistant at East.

I work in the Learning Center, so my day consists of pushing into anywhere from four to six classrooms per day to help children with math, phonics, writing, and more.

I do my job because I love to teach children.

Every IA that I have met and or worked with in this district is incredibly talented, intelligent, and dedicated.

We are currently working without a contract, yet we show up to work every day to help shape the leaders of tomorrow.

However, none of us should have to do it for less than a living wage.

Being an IA is not a part-time job.

It is not a job done by high school students who still live at home with their parents.

We are adults with bills to pay, rent, and mortgages to make.

None of us should have to work a second full-time job simply to put food on the table, yet so many of us do. None of us should have to worry that we won't make our rent or be able to pay our mortgage because the school committee refuses to negotiate with us.

In the past four years, inflation in mass has increased upwards of 17 to 18%. That works out to more than 4% a year.

Yet you refuse to offer us anything higher than a 2% increase.

I have to say, 2% of next to nothing is still next to nothing.

You refuse to offer us paid lunch breaks or parental leave, both of which the teachers have.

You want to institute a 180-day probation period and not even a regular 180 days, but a worked 180 days, which means that if a new IA has to take a sick day or chooses to take a personal day, their probation period continues into the next school year.

I'll end with this.

This year began with many programs understaffed and with many IAs providing services that would normally fall to between 2 to 3 people. As a result, students whose IEPs called for one-to-one services were being shared amongst staff.

If Sharon were offering a living wage, these positions would have been much more likely to be filled, and these services would have been provided as originally prescribed.

IAs and Sharon are the backbone of the educational facilities in which we work.

It's time we were recognized as such.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay.

So thanks to all who commented this evening.

The next item on the agenda is correspondence, and I'm going to turn it over to Alan since Shauna is not here. Can everybody hear me okay?

So the school committee has received 20 pieces of correspondence between October 30, 2024 at 9 a.m.

and November 20, 2024 at 9 a.m.

The school committee received information on the SHS PTSO Color Run fundraiser being held on November 27, and were asked to consider volunteering to help support the event. We received the SHS Library newsletter for November that highlights new acquisitions and October library statistics.

A parent wrote to share their school experiences and concerns regarding student support and the environment and culture within some classrooms.

We received several updates from METCO.

Highlights included an announcement of the racial equity grants with applications due by November 22, announcements of METCO's new social media presence, and a summary of the success of the METCO showcase.

In addition, METCO provided a front page feature that highlighted the event that was held to dedicate the SHS METCO space to Evelyn McMullen.

We received a couple of letters in regard to free full-day kindergarten, one to support free full-day kindergarten, and one that did not support it.

A parent wrote to share their feedback on the discussions at the October 30, 2024 school committee meeting, particularly focused on the discussions regarding the high school. We received several letters from the community regarding the AP fee discussion that was held during the October 30th meeting.

Most of these letters asked for additional follow-up information on the AP fees.

We received a letter regarding the suicide prevention program being held at the high school.

A community member inquired about the cancellation of the November 6th school committee meeting.

A parent wrote to request a change to the early dismissal policy at some of the schools.

The request asked that parents be allowed to enter the main offices for dismissal. The school committee received an invitation to a Diwali event being held at the high school and sponsored by the Indian American Association of Sharon.

A community member wrote to inquire about the student capacity at the schools.

A few parents wrote to share their concerns regarding the special education supports within the school district.

These letters were primarily focused on staffing levels of particular specialized programs in the schools and the impacts that staffing issues had on their students. And lastly, we received a letter expressing concern regarding the state of literacy in the Sharon Public Schools.

The letter focused on the lack of adequate reading support, insufficient and weak tier one and tier two interventions, forward and slow programmatic adaptations or adoptions, excuse me, and a need to more critically evaluate the focus on these areas.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

And we have now our student representative update.

And where are you?

Can you raise your hand? So I can, there's so many, there's so many little squares.

Oh, thank you, Emily. I appreciate it.

All right.

Thanks.

Welcome, Emily.

Okay.

So on a more positive note, clubs and sports are still going great.

Unified Basketball hosted a jamboree on November 7th with an enthusiastic crowd.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support our unified athletes.

Today, the team is playing the Sharon Police.

Model UN also had a fantastic conference at Brown University over Veterans Day weekend. Remembers Rohit, Dante, Aaron, and Soham won outstanding delegate, honorable mentions, and verbal condemnations in their respective committees.

The SHF's math team hosted other schools in the league for an SMML meet where they put up a strong performance.

On November 7th, Science Olympiad also competed at Oliver Ames for the first mini tournament this year, placing an event as well. After a strong fight and exciting entrance into the playoffs, the varsity girls' soccer progressed until the second game of the playoffs before a loss against Neshoba.

Thank you to the team and coaches for an amazing season.

The cross-country team participated in the MIAA Divisional with a great result on November 9th. Both teams did exceptionally well and showed great improvement despite running at the most difficult cross-country course in mass. We also had a very successful NHS induction and members also participated in a fall day of service last Saturday, raking leaves for senior citizens.

Elections also gave opportunity for students to participate as volunteers at the polls and there was a watch party with pizza.

Check out the SHS Talent online newspaper for coverage and other great stories.

Junior Marcus Myers took first place in two speech competitions and sophomore Tia Sorker came in fourth in the November 2nd Riviere Fall Festival.

Keep note, debate and speech has a dozen of upcoming events lined up.

The juniors also attended the Financial Reality Fair on the 15th and spent the afternoon seeing life through the eyes of the possible professions as well as potential expenses.

So as you can see, clubs are in full swing and eager to participate in the PTSO Color Run Fundraiser on Wednesday, November 21st.

This is a great opportunity to support our PTSO who do so much for our school through grants and celebrations.

We hope all our clubs and students will pay a small fee to participate with proceeds supporting PTSO as well as potential earnings for their individual clubs.

Students must be registered by parents online and then will be put into their groups to earn a raffle prize and some funds for their clubs. The day before Thanksgiving, so upcoming Wednesday, we'll also have Fall Sports Pep Rally with music by the school's radio club, a student-teacher volleyball game and special activities as we celebrate our Fall Sports athletes.

And there's lots of excitement for Powder Puff tomorrow under the lights.

Eagle Stadium will be rocking at 530 with junior and senior girls squaring off for the traditional flag football game.

Hope to have a great crowd for this fan favorite. The members of Student Advisory Committee are grateful for the opportunity to share the great things we are involved in at Sharon High.

We have a lot of pride in our school committee and in our school.

We look to our school committee members, teachers, and admin as role models for the behaviors we seek to emulate and the service we hope to give back to our community, whether in Sharon or in other communities.

Our hearts were heavy and many of us were dismayed and disappointed by what appeared to be disrespectful treatment on October 30th in this public forum by the people we admire and respect, who play key roles in our everyday lives.

We are watching you, the adult leaders for a school system we are so lucky to have, and that we notice what you say and how you act.

We appreciate that we are entrusted with this opportunity to respectfully share our views here.

Thank you for hearing our voices. Thank you very much, Emily.

And we always love hearing from our students.

So we're going to go into our superintendent updates right now.

Okay.

I'm going to keep this pretty short because we have a heavy agenda today, but just a couple things. First of all, thanks to Sarah Clem, our elementary literacy coordinator.

We've been doing some visits to both Easton and Quincy to view Whitman Wisdom in Easton and content knowledge, language arts, and literacy, which are often also called CKLA, the two literacy groups.

We've been doing some programs that we have programs that we have been piloting, seeing them in schools that have been enacting them for a couple of years. And it was very, very useful.

It was a great group with Sarah, myself, Dr. Jocelyn, and a great group of teachers from all the elementary schools, teachers that have been piloting as well. So that we could really view the programs in action and also ask questions to teachers and literacy specialists and administrators about their selection process, but also their process of implementation and what the strengths and weaknesses of various programs are.

So it was a very, very useful visit.

And we thank Sarah. We're also doing a visit to our pilot classes, a learning walkthrough, our pilot classes at Cottage on Monday to have a view of some of the programs in action here in Sharon this time. We met with Kate, Dr. Jocelyn and I met with K-12 Insight, which is a group that puts together school climate surveys that can be really kind of sliced and diced in very sophisticated ways.

And it was a very good initial meeting, and we're going to be following up with them again in December.

I also have been attending regularly my roundtable with fellow superintendents in the area.

And I've also, for the first year, I've joined the MASS Legislative Committee to really follow what's going on at the state level, especially some of the advocacy for greater funding for schools.

As was mentioned by our student rep, Emily, we had unified basketball against the Sharon police today. We have a culture fair at the high school coming up and a cultural festival at the middle school.

And we're all looking forward to Thanksgiving break next week. We will have a half day on Wednesday and then really spend time with our families being thankful for what we have in our schools and in our community.

Okay.

Are there any questions or comments from the committee?

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Any questions or comments? Any questions or comments?

On this?

Well, I have a very quick comment before I turn it over to the next item on the agenda, which is I spoke to some brownies this weekend.

and they were extremely knowledgeable about the literacy tests that they're doing and the types of literacy.

So I think it's really exciting because they seem to be really excited to help us pick.

So, all right.

Well, moving right along, we are now going to have an update on the advanced placement test fee issue, and this is by Avi.

Thanks, Julie.

Jane, can you go ahead and put that up on the screen?

Oh, perfect.

All right.

So as we discovered during the last meeting, the advanced placement tests, there's a fee associated with those that's in addition to what is charged by the College Board.

This fee had traditionally, over the period of something like 10 years, been $1 above.

Starting last year, there, in fact, had been an increase last year by $6 to a $7 fee on top of what the College Board were charging.

So at that point, it was $98 and became $105. This year, parents were being, or students, I should say, were being charged $6 above the now $99. So that remained $105.

The school committee and central admin were alerted of this concern by parents.

Last year, at that point, it was discussed internally by administration that it would have to go in front of the school committee the following year by the end of September.

It did not. And this year, again, parents this time went directly to school committee.

It was discovered that these fees were already being charged.

And just a few days before the deadline for these fees to be charged, there was a presentation made to school committee.

That presentation led to a conversation at the table about process as well as a few concerns.

My colleague Dan Newman raised an issue of a $9 rebate.

At least in public in that meeting, the members of administration who were there to discuss that represented that that was something they were unaware of, and assured our committee that they would look into it. The committee voted at my request, after I made a motion, to vote to approve the fee conditioned on the result of that $9 reimbursement being figured out and tracked down.

The following day, both Dan Newman and myself, if we can go back just real quick to the last slide. Sorry, just trying to provide some background here. Actually, yes. So let me just cover one more thing. There were numbers provided both in an email, internally between administration, the previous year at the time that the concern was brought forward.

And then again, in a formal presentation in public last meeting to the school committee of a number of costs.

It was at least intimated, if not expressly stated that the fee was required, the fee that was increased was required in order to cover those costs.

Those costs were for proctors, for rentals, for supplies.

It was explained that those things had been had increased.

Also, there was a set of revenues that were that were provided to the committee.

We can go to the next slide now. So the first step that I think both myself and Dan Newman took separately were to reach out to the college board the next day and try to understand the rebate. On my end, it was immediately made clear to me by the college board that those rebates are automatic and actually never would have had to be applied for. At that point, I asked for a copy of the invoice from Central Admin. They were incredibly helpful.

I do want to thank Ellen Whittemore, Peter Patel, Dr. Patel, and Dr. Jocelyn for their cooperation and help in getting some of the information that the committee would need. I was provided with an invoice from the college board. The invoice stated very clearly on it. There were five charges.

One of the charges was the tests. The test were billed at $89 a piece, which is the $98 fee less $9 as the rebate.

So as the college board stated, these $9 were automatic.

You know, there's a concern there because the revenue, sorry, the expense side that was shown to the school committee was shown at a $98 amount when in fact that was not the expense.

So we have a couple issues that came to light during this audit or look back. So first of all, there were incorrect dollar amounts.

I think it's worth noting that actually not a single expense that was provided in either presentation, including the one here in public, were accurate.

So the total cost of the proctors were off by $1,373.

It's also worth noting for any folks that ever are involved in audits on either side of an audit that the number that was provided was an exact dollar amount, not a rounded dollar amount.

And that exact dollar amount cannot be reconstructed by any combination that I find. I had in my possession the munis reports, which cover every single proctor that was paid. And no amount, no combinations of those equaled the number to the best of my ability that we were presented.

And again, the proctor cost was off by $1,373.

Again, worth noting that the number that was provided to us was an understated number.

So it actually, the district paid $8,535 to proctors.

It was represented $1,373 less than that in that presentation.

The equipment rentals were off by a lot less than that. They were off by $156 and some change.

Again, worth noting that the number that was provided to us there was a rounded number. It was a flat $1,900 when in reality, the invoice that was provided to me was $2,056 and some change.

So that was a lot closer, but again, an accurate number.

Also worth noting that when we did a look back here twice, we found that there were payments made once for equipment, which should have been billed to the AP revolving account was actually accidentally or inadvertently paid for out of the revolving account that the guidance department maintains for the funds that they bring in for transcripts and fees like that. And then separately, there was a supplies cost that was provided in the presentation, which it doesn't appear exists as a line item actually as part of AP. It appears that it's being represented at the moment that there were no supplies.

And in fact, those supplies were PSATs, which should have been paid for out of the PSAT revolving account.

All right. There's some inaccurate representation of fees. So although the presentation stated that as a revenue source, the fee that they were proposing times the number of students that took the test, what they failed to acknowledge to us in their math, but also just as a choice, which this body is really the body charged with making is that there are 51 students last year who took the test, who qualify for free and reduced lunch and therefore qualify for free or reduced testing costs. Whether they are free or reduced, they are not charged the fee that was being proposed.

In fact, they, on the invoice provided by the college board, there is the full price test billed for the total number of kids who take the tests or the total number of exams taken. Then there's a reimbursement structure.

So they provide a flat $36 reimbursement for all 51 students.

And then they provide a separate $38 fee, but there are three different line items. So it appears there's 30, there's three different $38 reimbursement fees. Those apparently come from the state or are state mandated or whatnot.

So either way they're listed as from the state. And so if you actually do the math, the district does incur a $15 cost still to the college board for any of those exams. I was told that something like 17 or 18 students, that $15 is not billed to, whereas the delta there is, pays the 15, but again, does not pay the fee. So in the revenue structure that was presented to us, it is, it is made to seem, it is actually expressly stated that the fees is this number that's being imposed times the number of students.

All right. So then also what becomes very clear when you dig through all the math is that the fees being billed to paying students and their families are subsidizing and covering the costs for students who are not billed. That should have been a school committee decision.

It was, it's within our purview to decide to use operating expenses, to use a different funding source like that guidance revolving account. We'd have to find out if that was legal.

Regardless, this fee is in fact being charged to paying students and being used to cover the students who are free or reduced. And there's also missing information.

So there's been no supplies expense accounted for. One of two things is true then either there were no supplies, which is very possible, or there are supplies where there's an expense that's not being presented.

It was presented to us that there are needed supplies.

There's just, there is no, no track, no, there is no trail of an expense for that. Also, there's no available information about the number of exams proctored given.

And I say this with all the respect that, that I can muster given that every dollar issue that was looked into here showed a new inexact or at times egregiously wrong accounting.

It feels appropriate to want to know that the number of hours that we paid out for were in fact, the number of hours used to proctor exams. Not sure if that's accurate.

Um, and then also the $9 rebate, which was automatically credited to the district was never shown in either version of the accounting, not the, not what was represented internally from, from admin at the building level to admin at central the year before, or what was presented to us, uh, in the revenue structure again, where, where it is explained how they cover these costs. Never does that $9 revenue source, which is somewhere between seven and $9,000.

Again, depending on how many students we actually charge for that. Uh, it's, it just, it doesn't appear anywhere.

All right, next slide.

So where does that leave us as a committee?

Uh, I can share with you my view, which is the audit indicated that families were overcharged.

Um, so with, if the accounting had done proper, been done properly, the committee would have had a few decisions to make. Um, here we are retroactive to that now. So by my math, the fee would have been between a dollar and $3 closer to a dollar.

If certainly less than $2, but closer to a dollar, if the district, if we chose not to cover the costs for the students who were free or reduced with the fee, uh, and instead do that with a different funding source, whether that be through operation or some form of donation or some other revenue source, uh, certainly no more than three, even if the fee payers are in fact covering the cost of the non-fee payers.

And again, it's important to remember the fee payers are paying $9 plus the fee that we were, that we are charging.

So last year families that paid for, that were expected to pay for their exams paid $16, uh, each. It is, it is not as simple as to say that they paid $7. Uh, the college board has the foresight of understanding that there is costs to facilitate the taking of these exams and builds in what appears to be a somewhat healthy fee of $9, which is charged to the family and never paid to the college board. Uh, so from my perspective, I understand that refunding the fees, although I believe ethically it, it would be right to refund the fees from last year. I understand that that would create a complication, um, as far as where that money comes from. At the very least, it's my position that we should refund all or a portion of this year's fee. My math says that we overcharged families by at least four and possibly five or $6 last year, that money should be enough to cover the delta between the $9 and the cost of running the exam this year. And going forward, it would be my expectation that administration provide a clear accounting of the AP test procedures and come to us with projected expenses and needs for revenue.

We can figure out the fee going forward. Thank you so much, Avi.

And I know you put, um, an incredible amount of time, um, into collecting this, uh, to present to us. So I want to thank you for, um, putting that much effort into it. Are there any comments or questions from the school committee?

Um, Adam?

Adam?

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Adam? Adam?

Adam? Thanks, Julie. So, so I just have one question around the fee structure, um, that maybe Eleanor Dr. Patello can answer, which is, in general, right, and there are a lot of fees charged for a lot of different things within the district.

Um, and often if you are, uh, in need of assistance or are on free and reduced lunch, there is a reduced fee or no fee in those cases.

Where, kind of, what is covering the, the cost of those fees? Are those fees coming from the operating budget generally?

Are they kind of state reimbursements?

Um, I'm just trying to, so that we can understand within the context of the AP test and what we want to do with those fees would be helpful to know how other, uh, kind of fees are handled.

Javi?

I'm trying to think. Oh, sorry, Peter. Sorry.

I think it's very much dependent upon the particular case.

Um, I need to look into that.

Because I'm sure it varies. But I, so I need to, I would need to collect that to kind of tell you which ones, you know, kind of work to subsidize and which ones don't.

Is it, and maybe to, to ask the question slightly differently, if we chose in this case to utilize the fees paid by some parents to help subsidize those of, of students who, uh, are in need of assistance, is that atypical or does that sometimes happen within our fee structure?

Yeah, I think it sometimes happens within our fee structure and within fee structures of, uh, other districts as well, but not always.

Thank you.

Thanks, Adam. Dan?

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate all the time and effort that went into this audit, um, that applies both to Avi, who I know has been pursuing this and document gathering and having conversations.

And it applies to our staff as well. I know it's a lot of work to put all this together.

And this is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to receive. So very much appreciated.

And I think it empowers us to make some deliberate decisions about how we're structuring our AP program and, um, and, uh, how we can approach this topic in the future. I think it lays good groundwork, not just this year, but for future years as well. Very much appreciated.

Uh, from my perspective, it sounds like we did receive that $9 rebate from the college board automatically.

Um, that fee, as I understand it, is set up to cover a large portion of these administrative costs. Maybe it doesn't cover all of it, but it covers a lot of it. Um, given that we did receive it, um, I would like to treat that as covering, um, as much of our our administrative costs as we can. Um, and maybe the rest comes from our operating budget or whatever the right, um, part of the budget is, um, as something we want to invest in, um, so that families don't have to pay a fee this year. Um, it sounds like the amounts after that $9 fee is applied are not going to be too high. Maybe, maybe a few thousand dollars or, or at most five or $10,000.

Um, to me, AP tests are something we should be investing in. When you look at how our school rankings factor, it's actually two categories in there. It's if you took an AP class and if you pass the test. So I, I, you know, when we put fees on things, it discourages participation, even marginally.

But I think this is something we should be investing in rather than nickel and diming our parents. So, um, I would be supportive of eliminating the fee or at least reducing it as much as we can. And, um, I also think it's, um, a goal of ours could be maybe an informal goal to be, uh, encourage new students to take AP courses.

And to the extent we can help people do that, uh, I would be supportive.

So thank you everyone.

Thank you, Dan. Um, did I see Jeremy, did you have your hand up? Do you want to talk?

Yeah. I mean, I just want to, I would ask the administration to carry out a similar audit just so that we can have a little deeper view into it. Um, I appreciate the work that obvious done, but I think Jeremy, Jeremy, just, just so you will understand that audit was done.

I don't have access to this information, if not through administration, Dr. Botello and myself sat and reviewed his audit. This information, which now is being presented as information that Dr. Botello, Dr. Jocelyn and certainly Ellen Whittemore who did, who provided all the financials, dug all of this and reconstructed all of this did. So this isn't, I mean, I don't have access to our, to, to any of this information, if not with, through admin doing this audit.

Got it. Okay.

Uh, thanks, Avi and Jeremy.

So I think, um, um, my comment is number one, I think that I'm sure people paying fees would be, uh, understanding if they were subsidizing people.

But I think the fact that parents weren't told that is, is, uh, I, I just, I don't like that. Um, people should know what they're paying for. Um, I think I share, obviously, you about the, um, terrible accounting that's been going on and it makes me wonder what else we don't know about other things.

And, um, finally, I want to return to Avi's recommendation and, um, you know, try and get a sense of, um, how much should we refund any fees this year and how much should we refund.

Um, but now I see Alan's hand is up. Alan Wilson, That's okay. Julie, we're, we're asking, I think somewhat of a similar question, but I think there's a question to Avi's point about the impact of refunding prior year fees. And then there's a question of the mechanism or process for, um, waiving or refunding fees for this year. And certainly would welcome Dr. Patel or Dr. Jocelyn's advice about it's a practical matter how that happens. Please.

Ellen, do you want to describe that? Cause you probably have the best, uh, Sure.

So, sure.

So because it is a revolving account, we do have the ability to, um, to access the funds, um, for bills that were incurred last year. However, um, really what I would like to be able to do is really get an understanding from the committee of, um, how much of last year's fee they would, um, they'd be interested in refunding as well as any refunds for this year to see what the, how much we would be able to sustain coming out of that account from this year, because there is a definitive balance in that account, um, right now. And then also, um, looking towards, you know, how if it's last year that wants to, that, um, should, has a priority or this year has a priority.

Okay.

Uh, Avi. Um, so again, I just want to reiterate for me and I'm not, if, if, if there's an appetite from this committee to discuss refunding the previous year's fee, uh, after digging into this, this, I'm not, I'm not a hard no there, but I would like to be clear. Like I didn't come forward here with the ask of my colleagues to refund last year's.

Um, there is a, a sum of money.

And I know that this sounds strange to the public and, uh, I, because I think it is strange, uh, when I say there's an amount somewhere between a thousand and 3000 and change in that revolving account.

The reason I say that is because there was a, there was a large amount, there was the PSAT paid for out of that account when they shouldn't have been. So that money now has to be rectified from the, from the account that it was supposed to be paid for. That being said, uh, you know, so, so again, like that being said, it has been explained to me privately by admin that there, that that's an amount that they would become, that they're typically comfortable keeping as a threshold for if things go sideways.

To me, the fees from this year, at the very least, we should start by acknowledging that we should refund. I actually really liked what Dan had to say, which is that the $9 being paid does come pretty close to covering.

Now, again, because the, because the expenses were a little bit unclear and hard to track and, and Dr. Patel and I tried really hard, um, to make sense of it because of that, I can't tell exactly to the penny how close we come with that $9, but I can tell you this, we do, we do charge for transcripts.

Uh, we charge for other things, apparently in guidance, and there is a guidance, uh, revolving account with somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 in it. Um, and again, that, that account was used inadvertently to pay for the, um, to pay for the rental equipment, which I was assured by administration is an acceptable use of that account.