School Committee Meeting — October 8, 2026
0:03 Good evening.0:04 I'd like to call the meeting of the Swansea School Committee to order.0:07 This meeting is being held in accordance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law and is being broadcast and recorded by Swansea Cable Access.0:15 For the record, today is Thursday, October 8th, 2026, and the time is 6 o'clock PM.0:21 We will be going into an executive session this evening.0:24 Ms. Barbosa, could you please salute the flags?0:29 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.0:47 I'd like to ask for a moment of silence out of respect of all those members of the U.S. Armed Forces that have paid with the ultimate sacrifice in order to keep us all safe and free.1:05 Thank you.1:06 Okay, item D is enter open session with a roll call vote, starting with Mr. Cavallo.1:11 Mr. Cavallo is an aye.1:12 Mrs. Barbosa is an aye.1:14 Miss Petty is an aye.1:15 Miss Pontecordo is an aye.1:16 Mr. Rodericks is an aye.1:18 Um, tonight we have consent agenda for items 9 and 10.1:22 I'm going to ask that we pull pull item 9 off the agenda, the consent agenda.1:29 Any objections?1:30 No.1:30 No.1:31 No.1:31 Okay.1:33 Item 2 is public input, up to 3 minutes per policy file, BEDB.1:37 There's nobody here tonight with us this evening.1:40 There are no presentations this evening.1:42 So item 4 is the discussion of the, uh, super— superintendent's report, which is an update on the Massachusetts School Building Authority Joseph Case Junior High School building project.1:52 Thank you, Chairman.1:54 So we had a successful meeting that we just went to at the Council on Aging the other day.1:59 Um, I want to thank the members that were able to attend.2:02 We had about 20 people that showed up from our town, and we had representatives from Feingold's Alexander, PMA.2:10 Our OPM was there as well.2:12 We had a great showing.2:14 I had people call me up afterwards and they were just pleasantly surprised by the a positive tenor in the room that even though we had many people that were on fixed incomes, they understood the gravity of the situation and the need that the town has for a school.2:28 So I want to thank people for that support, for, you know, looking to me like people were nodding their head yes, and we're definitely saying we need to do this for us, for our kids.2:37 And they truly, as we say here, students come first.2:41 It wasn't just a school thing.2:44 Liz was there for the presentation as well, and I don't know if you wanna say a couple words about it, but you could tell it was beyond just the schools that students come first.2:51 You could see that the people, you know, that were present in the Council on Aging that day also put students' needs first above their own, because we understand that this comes at a tax cost.3:01 So I wanna thank everyone that showed up there, and thanks, Liz.3:03 I don't know if you felt the same tenor of that, but— I was so surprised at how supportive and understanding they were.3:12 They realized that their personal budget was going to be impacted.3:18 And they understood the reasoning behind why it was so important to them, as well as the kids in the town.3:26 Yeah, I was just almost overwhelmed with how supportive they were.3:31 It was very positive, very welcoming.3:36 And whole— the whole culture of the building.3:38 Yes.3:39 That's something we felt, just so you know too, and the people listening know, is no matter what circles we've traveled to to bring the presentation forward to people, that is the feeling, the sentiment we've gotten from all the different groups that we've presented to.3:52 You know, whether it be the Advisory and Finance Board with their vote of 8-1-1, whether it be the Board of Selectmen with their vote 3-0 of support, whether it be our vote of 5-0 support of the project, or any of these outside meetings we're going to.4:06 It's a real good feeling.4:08 Leads us to this whole piece of that.4:09 We have 2 more sort of legs to our journey.4:11 The next leg is on the 14th of October.4:14 You know, we have the— we recommend anyone in town who hasn't done this yet come and check it out.4:19 On the 14th at 5 o'clock at the junior high school, we have a tour of that junior high school.4:23 All right.4:24 And I've helped Nick do it.4:26 Sean's helped Nick do this.4:28 And Principal Nick Overy runs that tour.4:31 But I recommend getting in there and seeing it firsthand if you haven't already.4:34 And then we follow that up by a 6 o'clock meeting that we do another presentation at.4:38 That's our last kind of hurrah before we go into the town meeting on the 19th.4:43 And the 19th, um, a lot of things are set up on the 19th.4:46 We should probably go through them right now.4:48 Um, just on the 19th, uh, the— there's daycare being provided.4:52 I saw some posts online about that.4:54 The YMCA has donated their time, energy, and efforts, so thank you to our local YMCA for doing that.5:00 The daycare is being provided at the Venus de Milo.5:03 It does have a definite end time to that daycare, so everyone knows about it.5:07 So if you're worried about the meeting lasting over that time, you might want to make arrangements to have somebody pick up your children, because I believe the end time is probably— I thought I saw the time of 10 PM on it, so I saw online.5:19 But you can sign up.5:20 You have to sign up for it first.5:21 We did that.5:22 We've got information coming out soon about buses.5:24 I heard that the lot is going to open for people to park at like 5 o'clock at the Venus de Milo.5:31 The doors are going to open to the Venus de Milo to come in at 6 o'clock, and I'm hearing talk of the lot shutting down at 6:15.5:40 So that means if the lot shut at 6:15, one, get there early.5:43 It's a big event, you know, make plans accordingly.5:46 I know some people are going to have like, you know, not really tailgate, but they jokingly said tailgate.5:50 They're going to get there early, get checked in, get in their seats There's going to be ample parking for people with placards, handicap placards.5:58 They're adjusting it to make sure they can have plenty of parking for that.6:01 And then once that lot shuts down, I heard and I know that Amarillo Transportation has donated 5 buses and 5 drivers.6:09 Starting at 5 o'clock, they're going to be at the high school, and you can park at the high school, and those buses will just continue to run, you know, all night long to drop people off who park at the high school over at the Venus de Milo.6:20 And if someone has to leave for an emergency reason at the Venus de Milo, those buses can also drive them back, you know, because life happens sometimes.6:27 Sometimes people don't make it through the whole meeting and they have to leave.6:30 Take the bus, you can get back on it and get dropped off there.6:33 So more details are going to come.6:34 I'm working with our town administrator to kind of blast that out to the whole town so everyone gets a chance to, uh, to deal with this and kind of roll with that.6:43 No pun intended with the wheels on the bus go round and round.6:46 But thanks to Ameril for doing that for the town of Swansea.6:49 Thanks to the YMCA.6:50 And thanks to all those people who are in support of the project.6:52 Again, largest municipal project price-wise.6:57 And I think it's imperative people understand the next piece.6:59 And Tommy and I talked about this.7:01 We've all talked about this, people to my left.7:03 This is one bite at the apple.7:06 We've got $61.5 million being given to us by the school building authority.7:12 And some incentives that are coming back, $61.5 million to offset the cost of this project.7:17 If this gets voted down, no, that money flows right through our hands.7:21 There's no going back.7:22 There's no going back to the well.7:24 There's no second chance.7:25 You know, it's like Monopoly.7:27 Go directly to jail.7:28 Do not pass go.7:29 Do not collect the $200.7:30 You don't get another chance at this.7:32 I want to make sure people understand that you can apply again down the road.7:36 They might pick you in 10 years if you're lucky.7:38 It takes 5 more years once you get picked to get where we are today, like It won't be in my lifetime that I see this happen for Swansea.7:45 So I just need to make sure we impress on everybody, this is the one bite at the apple you get.7:51 There is no other bite of this apple that you get.7:53 If it gets voted down October 19th, it's over.7:56 And it's a 2/3 majority vote.7:58 So I ask people to do their civic duty and get out there to those— to the polls or to the special town meeting and to make sure their voices are heard.8:07 So that's it for my report.8:09 Um, if, if you guys want to ask questions or talk about anything with this, because it's such a— the only reason we had this on the agenda was one thing, because it's so monumental.8:18 $150 million project.8:20 We're going to get to offset the cost.8:21 We're going to get $61.5 million to lower that price down, you know.8:26 So anything else you want to throw out there for the public to hear about right now?8:29 I have a question.8:31 Yeah.8:32 Um, what about the Saturday going to see Thank you.8:35 You're welcome.8:36 So, um, you know, someone had a great idea of, of checking out, um, what a new middle school slash junior high school would look like, and, um, Dr. Jeffrey Schoonover has graciously volunteered his time to open the doors up.8:53 Yes, it's early, it's 8 o'clock this Saturday.8:55 He wants to open the doors up to his middle school and personally bring people on a tour of his middle school to show people what a brand new contemporary facility looks like.9:04 I've asked— I talked to Dr. Schoonover today about this.9:07 Um, you know, he understands it when he's talking to people too, that that's unique and built around the needs of, of Somerset, and that ours is going to be just as nice, if not nicer— wink wink, Jeff— um, and it— but it's unique to Swansea, you get what I mean?9:24 But this gives people a chance to take a peek at what is it like to look at a brand new contemporary building where kids are going to be educated in for the next potentially 100 years.9:32 So I want to thank, you know, people involved in making that happen.9:36 Again, Saturday, 8 o'clock, Somerset Middle School.9:41 The flyer's out there on Facebook.9:43 I believe I sent that email.9:45 It should have went out to all the public.9:48 So thank you to Dr. Schoonover for graciously, you know, affording us that opportunity to go through there.9:56 Anything else?9:57 Mr. Cavallo?10:00 No.10:01 Um, just to mention that the daycare is a pre-registration that has to be done ahead of time, and it's for ages 4 to 11.10:09 Ages 4 to 11.10:10 Okay, thank you.10:10 Yeah.10:11 Miss Petty, anything else?10:13 No, thank you.10:14 Um, I guess I'll just, uh, emphasize, um, Scott's point about everyone getting out there and voting.10:22 Um, there are, or there have been, a lot of questions about why not a new high school.10:30 Um, and we've talked about this, I think, a lot, but just to kind of emphasize the point that we applied for it to be a junior high school, we didn't qualify.10:42 Um, this is the opportunity that we have on the table, and we just have to take it.10:48 If not now, we will need a new building eventually.10:53 And then we will have to pay all of it out of pocket without the help of the MSBA.10:58 So I just think that it's a no-brainer to take the money now and get it done now.11:04 Thank you.11:05 Thank you.11:06 Before the meeting, typed up a little blurb.11:08 You want to read it?11:09 No, you, you threw it out there.11:13 Oh, I don't know if we were on the same wavelength or you just looked over my shoulder.11:20 I feel like I'm back in high school again.11:22 I, having been the chair of the School Building Committee since it was established and being on it with Mr. Cavallo, there's been an incredible amount of work that's been put into the project.11:33 And it really is that important that the town really recognizes that this is the building that these students, staff, and community need.11:43 So I encourage everybody to do what they need to do to get to the Venus de Milo on Monday, October 19th.11:49 Listen to that presentation that's going to take place and the questions that I'm sure, sure will be asked and make that vote.11:56 So thank you.11:59 Ms. White, anything?12:02 Nope, there's nothing more that I could add to enhance what has been said.12:06 Thank you.12:07 Ms. Rubello, Ms. Scanlon, anything?12:09 Thank you.12:11 Okay, moving on.12:13 Item 5, there is no correspondence.12:15 Item 6, action item, vote to approve a plexiglass donation from Somerset Glass to frame a map at Joseph Case Junior High School with a value of $125.12:26 Do I have a motion?12:27 So moved.12:28 Do I have a second?12:29 Second.12:30 Any discussion?12:32 All those in favor?12:32 Aye.12:34 Opposed?12:34 That carries unanimously.12:37 Item 7, personnel, there is none at this time.12:39 Item 8, new business.12:41 Mr. Cavallo, anything?12:42 No.12:43 Miss Barboza?12:44 No.12:44 Miss Petty?12:45 No, thank you.12:46 Miss Pontaporto?12:47 No, thank you.12:47 I don't have anything.12:49 Um, item 9 is the approval of minutes.12:51 The only item, uh, I pulled it off the consent agenda for just a friendly correction on the September 21st and September 24th, um, minutes.13:01 It lists Miss Pontaporto as attending the meeting at the top of the page.13:05 She was not in attendance for those meetings.13:07 That was just a friendly correction.13:12 Do we need to vote?13:13 So do I have a motion to approve all of those minutes as amended?13:17 So made.13:18 Do we have a second?13:19 Second.13:20 All those in favor?13:21 Aye.13:21 Opposed?13:23 That passes unanimously.13:25 Item 10, approval of bills.13:26 There was none.13:27 That was by consent.13:29 Um, item 11, executive session.13:30 I'm going to make the declaration that pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A Section 21A, Purpose 2, to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel or to conduct contract negotiations with non-union personnel, specifically to discuss the terms and conditions of the contracts for the Director of Student Services, Sean Scanlon, the Director of Finance and Operations, Joanne Rapello, and the Assistant Superintendent, Elizabeth White, and the return to open session As the chair so declares, we will return to open session for the purpose of adjournment.14:06 We will not be coming back to a broadcast tonight.14:09 So with that, can I have a motion to exit the open session and enter into executive session?14:15 So made.14:15 We have a motion.14:16 Do we have a second?14:17 Second.14:18 Can I have a roll call vote?14:19 Mr. Cavallo is an aye.14:21 Mrs. Barbosa is an aye.14:22 Miss Petty is an aye.14:23 Miss Pontaporta is an aye.14:24 Mr. Rodriguez is an aye.14:25 Thank you.14:26 We have an executive session.14:28 Thanks.14:28 So we'll wait a few minutes.
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