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we will take a five minute break for members at 8:00 pm and at this point we'll do a a roll call and call to order please secretary extrom let's wait until I get Kate on the phone okay is that all right we yeah we do have uh one possibly two members as per our uh president in the joining us by phone this evening um they are at a school committee conference uh on the cape and um we'll be trying to get them on the phone for just a second let's Hi how are you sounds great I'm gonna put you guys somewhere so the microphone can hear you and I'll have you on speaker yep hello can you hear me yes can you hear us try it again one more time can you hear us hello kind I'm working on hold on maybe it's me try again hello testing that's much better thank you it was it was my fault I had my volume turned down apologies let's do a roll call please um and just want to let everyone know Susan Farber is not here this evening she typically takes minutes and notes and so I'm going to be doing that and I'm sure I will drive everyone insane with my clicking so member Den here secretary Exum I am here member Johnson mad here Vice chair Martini here chair pretti here member wall here mayor W Gartner and is not going to be joining us this evening we have a quum okay thank you we are called to order at 6:03 p.m.

so you think about how much growth that is that's a tremendous amount um and then in math 70 out of 161 students with more than 110% uh growth and 35 students with an actual growth percentage over 150 Max 329 okay so this is whole school math growth data so that light green is the percentage the average percentage of growth made so you can see we started at 62% and now 79% is the average percent of uh growth made like towards that Target the green is our growth rate so last year 56% of students met their growth Target Ela we've gone from 63% to 74% students making it towards that growth Target and then 57 % have met that Target yeah with that truncation of the at the upper end at 110% you have the actual data so you could calculate these growth rates without trun right correct and because this may be a seiling you know 72 73% trun 11% might prev commitment so do you have have you done that like we might actually be continuing to impr AC 19 yeah that would be interesting to see yeah part of it which is really interesting so to eliminate outliers they they cap the they don't have a negative growth um so if say a student backslid they stop them at zero and of a student y yeah on both so it's definitely something that I can I can take a look at and and looking um further back to try and look at some of that growth data take a close look at I also do have the the Box the for thank you appreciate that I apologize I have to fail I that's okay go for it all right all right down by uh by great okay by great so some of the highlights to take from here is grade four 92% % is the average um to their target and grade six 90% so 67% met their actual Target in sixth grade but the average um towards that Target was 90% so almost there and then Ela um we're averaging around that 70 70% range 75% range for um towards their growth Target um and then by grade we're really around that 60% range you're next all right I'm up okay sorry all right so one of the things to think about we talked about this a little bit earlier is when we look at um when we look at our data we want to look at longitudinally across cohorts right and so previous viously you might ask yourself like how are your third grade scores doing and that's great except that like every year we get a different version of third graders and so what we want to take a look at is we want to see how are those cohorts progressing across um and so um in that way we can see how students are doing from year to year to year um and so this is our Ela data um and so you'll see we've got a nice upward trend for that class of 2022 um and you'll see that there's there's some bars that are missing and ultimately that's where we have that that 20 uh that 2020 um iteration of the smarter balance that's not there um and so we're working to try and ensure that we've got that upward Trend um it's not as consistent as we would like um but we're also looking and that's a lot of the work that we're trying to do both at a younger age really looking at that science of reading work that we're doing across our K you know k6 across but really really trying to get that solid foundation what we've been finding and what's been happening is a lot with that reading work um is that we're finding that kids are doing really well into fifth grade because a lot of kids are really good at memorizing things and so they're just memorizing words just site words they've just got thousands of words memorized and at some point they just top out and so what we're really trying to do is make sure that they've got an Exceptional Foundation so that they can be able to really decode new and novel words as they move forward um and we can ensure that Trend moving up um math has been a little less consistent um and so we're really trying to take a look at and ask those questions like why is that right we can't be afraid of the data we'll share it when it's good we'll share it when it's got some areas to grow and so part of that that we want to take a look at and you'll see we tend to get that drop into fifth we've recouped it into sixth but it'd be really great if we weren't recouping into sixth then we were continuing on and so part of our next steps is to really think about how do we eliminate that drop um so inevitably somebody's going to ask well how you doing compared to your friends glad you asked so um we will constantly be compared to our boa and I think that that's really important we're going to lean into that um but it's also really important to think about going to our typical peers right so when you look at the state of Connecticut they have what are called District reference groups or durs and so those dgs are um there's several different factors um to create those durs but it's really trying to think about how can you compare town to town um that are similar to each other so across those 169 towns durs are split from a dur a all the way to a dur I um and we are in dur SE should be noted uh that all of um our other boa peers would Bridge orange and Amity are in dur B when we think about dur B you can think of towns like Avon Greenwich Guilford West Harford and Fairfield when you think about dur sea towns included in dur sea are towns like Andover tand Hein Suffield and Summers and can because I'm from can we got a chip on our shoulder with Avon just saying uh so comparing to the state of Connecticut so um another thing that we can do um is thinking about um not only how we're doing against our bow appears but also like when we look at the 186 and 187 it's slightly different because of the sample sizes that I have and so on Ed site there's only so much public data that you can get um how do we compare to those other districts across the state uh and so when we look at Ela we ranked 31st out of 186 or we were in 84th percentile um when we look at math we were 27th out of 187 reporting districts um in the 86th percentile um and so are those are those to k6 numbers or to K8 those are going to be 38 numbers so I didn't extrapolate out yeah so I didn't extrapolate out just average for the of what grades are included in that and the challenge with some of that and this is where when I go to the when I really try and look at it through dur um the challenge is that some districts like Amity is just 78 right whereas other districts like us are only 36 and some are even lower than that because they go to a reg you know they're going their sixth grade is up in a region and they stop at 5 all right um so uh I took a look so it to think in terms of comparisons to where we um landed out for our overall achievement scores uh we were within a point or two one way or the other uh for El or math of towns like glenberry Fairfield Guilford Ellington Essex um and reading which was a dur game uh so this is how we compared against uh boa uh so you'll see we're um we're right line with our peers um that's in math this is in ela and this is achievement by the way this is growth um so when you look at it um we're we're really holding steady against our peers um for growth and then that's Ela growth as well so en Amity in those numbers really just create correct that's all y so one of the things that I I wanted to take a look at was well we can compare to B all day long but also like how are we doing against dur C and so this was pre- pandemic this is 2019 data dur C and this is only towns that I could get um publicly sharable data for grades 3 four five and six so if you had a district that was 3 to8 we went and took out seven and eight and only compared ourselves against their 3 to six students so pre- pandemic we were 66% for um math right even with um those uh with those districts in dur SE we were 10th post pandemic um we've gone to 68 we're fourth in our dur against comparable peers and outpacing the average by six percentile points for ELA uh we were eighth at 72% um we were slightly above the average pre- pandemic and then post pandemic uh we were 7 percentile points above that average for dirt SE um ranking fourth in that dur against uh towns that I could find comparable data something I want to point out about these data our numbers have gone up a little our ranking has gone up a lot yep that's because the average has substantial pandemic loss we hav't and so I just want to call out that you know as the success of our school and thank the staff for insulating our kids against that loss keeping them right on we've seen that in several of the slides you've shown keeping them right on course despite the buffeting of 2020 and 2021 yeah and and I think that that's something that we've been you know it's something that we were really mindful of to try and think about what can we put in place to make sure that we're doing the best for every kid to be prepared as we're moving forward um all right uh so one other thing and and and so we've just taken all this time to share all of this smart or balance data it's really important to recognize that it's one example of data a child is not defined by one score on one test that they took over 3 days in the middle of May when they were looking outside and they were going God it's a beautiful day outside right so we need to be really mindful that we're dealing with children we're dealing with children's achievement and that it's only one way that we look at data and we can't really just look at it only that way which is why when we come back in the winter we'll be taking a look at several other aspects of data that we use to really look at children on a whole basis some of that is our I ready we have Dibbles DSA patent core we have our interim assessment benchmarks from the smarter bals our fact fluency unit quizzes and tests um projects and class assignments um and it's really important that we think about not only looking at smarter balance and these but really triangulating those and looking at how we get a trend for children and really thinking about that whole child okay some of our takeaways from the data so Ela continues to see strong results in both achievement and growth um our math data shows um achievement and growth surpassing pre-pandemic levels and averse to the state Trend which is going uh which has gone down pre pandemic uh since pre pandemic there continues to be a drop off in fifth grade math which we are going to address in our next steps in a moment um the subgroup data based on race gender and high needs um show an area of focus for us in the future and then compared to our dur and booa town peers Bethany's results show the positive impacts of all the work done by staff during and since the pandemic so like everybody has said it's been a true team effort here at BCS um so you can go ahead sorry sorry no so we took a look at it and we wanted to try and think about our next steps in in sort of two ways right the first way is to really think about well this is really good I feel like we've been doing a pretty good job why have we been doing a good job what has been working right what do we want to keep and so several things that we're going to continue to do is we're going to focus on that srbi that mtss process really thinking about students that need additional support or intervention um we've got our boost Academy we have data teams where teachers are really getting together and talking about data and having instructional outcomes from that and then our case review is to really look not just at data on an overall school or a grade or a class but on a kid level how is this child doing um we're going to continue to identify students who met or exceeded in previous grade but did not in their most recent assessment and how we can get them back to where they were um we're also going to take a look and have um staff implementing those iabs from the smarter balance um they really help support um success and really now at this point we're getting a lot more specific in those assessments and we're getting a lot more data from them um and then finally we're not just going to focus on student achievement but the social emotional well-being of children right so happy kids do well academically well- cared for kids do well academically and so that's a really important part of the work that we do okay some more next steps so um what we did was we updated the summit schedule this year to include a significantly more time in math um 80 minutes versus 40 minutes last year we did not invent time um we revamped our schedule so um previously there was a Wind Block we combined the Wind Block with um all of the other blocks across the um schedule and science and social studies are being switched every other day so we got some feedback from staff who asked um like for a science for example to be a longer block of time which would be nice for them to do experiments and really dive into things um versus the 40-minute block where you're setting everything up and then it's time to wrap up so we we worked it out to switch every other day we also departmentalize data teams so we have Summit Ela meeting weekly and Summit math um teachers and science teachers meeting weekly so that means they're more focused and they're meeting more often um in their subject area we're working with our curriculum Department to discuss ways in which we can provide additional professional learning um support to teachers in the area of math um specifically in the area of problem solving um we have a steering committee focus on high quality instruction and then uh professional learning with Margie gills who was here yesterday for a full day um and her team to support small group instruction that implements science of reading at BCS they were also here today um working with our teachers right and so one of the things right so so we're really proud of the achievement that we've got but when we look at those right when we look at those graphs right we're we're chasing Woodbridge right it's not a surprise and so spoiler everyone in the state is chasing Woodbridge right they ranked second in ela and third in math right they're 99th percentile across the board so like tip of cap right so we reached out right we don't have enough Pride to say well we're not going to do what they're doing right we reached out and we said well what's the special sauce what are you doing and they said two really big things that they were focusing on one they were think they were really trying to look at not just computational math but looking at problem solving how we're applying that math to real world problems and getting kids thinking about and working through and using that computation in problem solving and the second thing that they were doing was they were looking at departmentalizing their data teams so their data teams in the upper grades were focusing on Ela and focusing on math so you'll notice we have two stat right so right if it's working it can work for us right so we're really proud of the work that we've got but we're also really looking and thinking how can we continue to do better and that's two ways that we're trying to implement some of that from you know some of the folks who are doing it best across the state um that being said wanted to share uh two other slides um and so uh Smarter Balance isn't um the only way that we can be evaluated right we talked about lots of different data um and so what the state of Connecticut does is they have what's called a Next Generation accountability index it's a whole host of stuff if you want to look up all the data and the percentages it's a whole formula it's super complicated at the end of the day you look and you say how many expected points are you supposed to get what percentage of those points did you get and then they give you a score it's kind of like a school report card right and so when you look at it we got 82.4% of those points it's based on things like our Smarter Balance performance our Smarter Balance growth our science performance and growth our attendance our English proficiency our physical fitness all of those things right so um this is one of those things and I I tell people this like I knew this right like there's some of those things you just know as a human being right so I come in every day and I go to bed every night I know that we're doing a good job I know that the people here are working hard I know that they are putting in countless hours I know that they are doing the absolute best they are bleeding for the kids here every single day right I know it I don't need a a score to tell me I know it but it's really great to see that that can actually come through in some way to be able to show and codify the hard work and the amazing work that teachers are doing on behalf of kids that our community is doing on behalf of kids for their growth and achievement and so what's really great is that the state thinks so too um and so we've been honored as a school of Distinction which is a really big deal um and it's really hard um so especially for the way in which we got recognized so um based on our performance and having 82.4% of those um points on the Next Generation accountability index boy that's a mouthful um they recognized us as a school of Distinction for high performance right and so there were I believe 135 schools that were recognized as schools of Distinction but only 67 out of the 935 were recognized for high performance and so to do so you have to be in the top 10% based on that accountability index that's the score and then you can't be ruled out right so there's ways that you could be ruled out like if you're not in a category one two or three like you've been struggling before in your a turnaround school but all of a sudden you figured it out you're still in that category and they're not necessarily trusting your data so you have to have had a strong Trend along the way you also can't have an achievement Gap you can't just have some of your kids doing really well but some of your kids they're just getting left behind um and then the last bit is that you have to have um you have to have participation so you can't just have some of your kids taking it and then others not taking it they want to make sure that every kid is is as many kids as possible are included in that um and so when we look at it we're really looking at um at a school that's achieving something that only 7% of the schools in the entire state were given as a distinction so um we're pretty proud of that we get a banner apparently uh we're not waiting for that Banner we made our own Banner but apparently they're going to give us a nicer Banner but like we already have our own Banner it's hanging in the office y um so this is one of those things like again I knew this right and I said this to the staff right were we doing really lousy last year and all of a sudden miraculously we doing better this year no are we doing a little bit better in a bunch of different ways I'm sure but we were doing really well last year and I'm sure we're going to be doing really well next year this year we happen to get labeled as a school of Distinction and trust me as a hyper competitive human we're going to be holding on to that label but it's really something like we were doing well before we're going to be continuing to do that but it's a way to be able to honor all the hard work of everybody in this room right all the people who live in this building all the kids who are coming in every day right and they're seeing me on Monday and dragging in right but they're here and they're working hard um and it's really a testament to all that hard work so um it's a huge shout out to our staff and our kids and our families and our community so that's what we've got yeah thank you any board members have uh further questions I could probably come up a few more but I'll we back uh any questions about the DAT I've seen this twice now so I'm I've seen this twice now so I'm I just wanted to comment on one more thing that I think so the outlier score is the B The Fifth Grade B yes it has been we've known this we're working on it continue to work on it that's good I love the steps you're taking to address that and I want to note that we consistently recover in grade right so that means yes there's room for improvement in fifth grade and also when we send send our kids on out of here that there's no there's no persisting trouble at he so so yes we need to keep working on it you're doing so I applaud that and also in that context when when our kids leave here they're they're well prepared so that's good to see in the data would be more concerning if there were droping fit that wasn't coming all the way back that would be differ concerned for sure all right thank you very much thank [Applause] you it's always nice to review that date each fall thank you for that presentation moving on in our agenda we will uh review and approve a minutes of our October 11th regular meeting I'll entertain a motion to approve those minutes thank you Angelo in a second thank you Amy uh I trust people have had a chance to review any questions Corrections concerns about the minutes as presented in your packet I just make a comment you know there was a lot of discussion on the procedure for the teacher contract and the minutes don't get into that type of detail but I hope in the future that we can uh do something with a u policy or bylaw procedure and uh it use legal counsel to have those recommendations made specifically because I'm not quite sure how different teacher contracts are from other contracts but there's seem to be a lot of sensitivity to seeing the contract before we voted on it so it gets irregular and uh I think we could do better for the board to inform everyone so that we're making votes we're confident of sure and to summarize for people who weren't here for that discussion thank you for for raising that we approved our teachers contract at our last meeting and that was done in the same way it has been since I've been on the board which is that um K it was the negotiations committee had already approved the contract and then K presented the changes in the contract language and then we voted on that and there was a feeling on the board that it would be nice to see the full language of the contract not just a summary of the changes and that it would be nice to have a little more time to digest those before being asked to vote I thought those were reasonable points this was raised in the last policy committee didn't get to the point of you know we need to do some research and as you said but between now and when the next contracts come forward I'm sure that can be done so uh we can you know either change the process so there is more time or have a very very clear understanding of why this process is the way it is so thank you for raising that the policy committee has already begun to discuss and I trust we'll continue to do so though I won't be here to try not to forget any uh further uh comments on the minutes hearing that I'll call for a vote all those in favor please indicate by saying I I any opposed any extensions motion passes the minutes are approved and will be posted on our website we come on to our various committee reports beginning with Asus okay's uh Asus had a regular board meeting October 12th and we heard the typical series of reports uh most notable to me was a report on the construction managers for their project at 88 Basset in North Haven uh the group had just done this big presentation September meeting with an updated cost estimate certification that was approved by the board but in the October meeting the same Architectural Group suddenly resigned uh breaking the contract with ases uh the explanation for them quitting was that it was a large company that was downsizing the consequences of their resignation has contract penalties uh but no detail on that was provided at the time so was just rather unusual uh there were also uh two policies offered for first reading titled uh chess feeding and affirmative AC on the chest feeding I did ask if that terminology that includes expression of milk is really necessary and suggested that I thought breastfeeding of any kind would pretty much cover all the bases on the affirmative action there were concerns raised that the former language had not been presented with a proposed language and I'm concerned for contradicting language in that policy but uh there wasn't any time left before the end of the meeting to really cover that closely so that pretty much sums it up thank you any questions for Mrs Bradford about the Asus report that she's okay moving on to curriculum um I have don't have much to say because we just basically heard the whole presentation um and then miss Kel in her report will give us an update on PD and uh GR updates I applaud you on an exceptionally efficient final curriculum report oh thank you I actually had like all these notes because I wasn't sure if it would be the whole presentation so all right uh facilities John Paul had had step out has there been a facilities meeting since our last board meeting yes facilities met on uh last week and we discussed some of the uh recent Roofing projects and started to make some plans for how we can proceed with addressing any issues with ro in uh put together a plan for hbac um and explore some of the grants that'll be out there for that okay any questions about facilities okay H not I'll move on to finance which I will present finance committee met uh last night by Zoom um I took beautiful notes so uh you have a finance report in your packet which I will briefly review there are a few changes so in general education the projections remain status quo no changes from the preceding month um and that leaves us with an unchanged surplus of $4,560 which comes almost entirely from uh Savings in uh salaries because uh and that's because of new staff who who you know came staff who came in different from the ones who originally budgeted on your PR um I will note one thing on this so you all uh will recall that late in the day after our budget was passed we needed to um add a fourth a second grade section because the census had increased and so there was a we added a teacher who wasn't in the original budget and that teacher was paid for out of our non-recurring uh savings account with the town um which sort of our rame kindergarten section kindergarten section as I said sorry my mistake it wasn't second which was already at four rather kindergarten that went up to four um so that added the cost of that added teacher wasn't added to the budget which had already been passed but rather was taken from our rainy day fund our non-recurring or non- lapsing fund that goes um that that's held by the town um and that is not reflected on this budget so neither the cost like the the income that's coming in from the non-aps fund nor the expense is reflected in this budget I've asked that in future budget reports that be here as a separate line so that the so that the report reflects the full uh the the full app so just that just to be aware fully covered by the plan that we all agreed on last May um special ed um so if you uh look at the special ed blah BL the special ed benefits is showing a surplus of $23,000 that's due to Insurance adjustments where uh staff are not taking the full Ben full insurance benefits um that were budgeted um the the special ed services line is showing a deficit of $4,190 that's new and that is because um of two students who moved into The District in August and enrolled in magnet schools in New Haven and we did not know about this uh until uh just a week ago um so uh we are responsible because they are our students they're students in our district we're responsible for their magnet school tuition so that wasn't reflected previously because we didn't know about it and now we do and so it's reflected as a new uh balance against us in the special ed um put all put this all together we end up with a uh special ed of uh surplus of 70 of $7,888,000 in uh in custodial staff uh benefits shows a surplus of $22,600 that's due to adjustments made insurance coverage also primarily in the custodial Department Services is status quo other line budget line item is also status quo these are um uh deficits of a couple hundred dollars and put it all together the operations and overhead um account shows a A marketly reduced deficit uh of $4,055 um add it all up and we have a balance in our favor at the end of August of $443 180 and that puts us in a good position to manage any unexpected expenses that emerge over the course of the year for example uh the roof project which was not originally budgeted but you know it became clear that that was something we needed to do urgently um the total costs I don't think are are clear yet but they're much less than 44,000 and so we're well covered for things like that as they come up over the remainder of the year um on the report you see uh you don't see a lot of percentage changes and that's just because this early in the year remains you will start to see those in in January probably because it remains uh difficult to compare to when we're this early in the year um any questions about this report that's presented I'm sorry a couple other notes we we are still waiting on reimbursements from ases for Paris salaries as well as prek funds which will uh be in our favor but we don't know the exact amount that's not reflected in this report um and uh that is it any questions about that uh report before we move to accept all right I will make a motion to accept the budget report um as of October 2023 as presented can I have a second let meita thank you um any further questions discussion before we move on to a vote hearing none I'll ask for the vote all those in favor please indicate by saying I I any opposed any exensions all right also in the finance committee we talked briefly about the audit which is still underway it's going along firmly going along nicely nothing to report but also no problems uh have emerged um finally we talked a little bit about the budget and I'll take just a moment uh to describe that to remind people of the budget process so for the last couple months you know basically as soon as this year starts uh Kay and Brandy and the rest of the staff begin working on next year's budget and um the starting point that we always ask that in has been our process for some years now we asked them to compute a status quo budget the status quo budget is if nothing changed if we kept the same Staffing that we do now if we with you know maybe if there are changes that are you know baked in or that have already happened uh and then take into account contractual increases and so forth and also if we don't include Grant offsets because offsets May fluctuate year to year what would the cost be and that's our Baseline number um last year to REM you the Baseline number was 7.96 increase and then after we went through the adjustments for you know various in the various departments and so forth added in the grant offsets the final budget was 3.58% so this um status quo budget is a high number that's kind of the starting point for the work that happens over the next couple months um I and I know others were anxious about the status quo budget because of the uh salary increasing salary costs and inflation but when uh when when um Brandy put all the numbers in the status quo starting point is 8.11% or 0.15% higher than last year so it's puts us in really a very similar place to where we started last year um the um so anyway so so we'll see so now so we'll see where that land over the did I get that right or did I read this wrong because it says 4.4 start this is our status quo and that this is no that was okay I misspoke and actually the numbers aren't quite as good so I want to make very clear so I'm not giving a misleading thing so our Peak last year after adding stuff was 7.96 our status quo our starting point was 4.49% so we are a few points higher than our starting point though not than our Peak when things were added I will say that that 8.11% in addition to to including the um contractual increases in salaries and in par salaries certified salaries and other things also includes that one teacher remember I said that that there's that one teacher who we're paying for out of the non-aps account not out of the budget that teacher is included in this 8.11% so it's a true starting point um and we'll see where that goes so what's happening now is Kay and her staff are meeting with all of the different department heads and they're saying what do you need from next year not what was your number this year we'll give it to you again but rather what do you need for next year let's build that up from zero and have a true number of what you need next year and some of the Departments will need a little more than last year and some of the Departments will need a little less than last year and those will all go into the um the budget number um which over the next two months K will get those numbers and put them together and I guarantee she'll be ask hard questions about you really need that and did you think of this to make sure that those get us to realistic numbers um then we'll go to other things that may impact budget especially Grant offsets so we make estimates of the very conservative estimates of Grant funds that are uh that we can reasonably expect to come in and those will knock a couple perent off the budget and then at the end of the day we'll come to a number of what the uh request for next year is likely to be we'll have a pretty good sense of that in December and a firm request from K in January then between the January board meeting and the February board meeting the board has an opportunity to ask further questions and you know poke and PR on the numbers and say did you think of this and what about this do you really need that um before the budget comes to the board in February for vote and approval so in January we have the superintendent's proposed budget and in February we have the approv uh we the board votes to approve the budget so at the very beginning of that process our number is a bit higher than it was last year they're not they're barely higher than our Peak last year um and we will know a lot more over the next two months about how the rest of the um the rest of the anticipated expenses go and how the grants go and where we're going to land so so that is something we discussed um the goal is to present a final budget to the finance committee in December then there's room between then and January for feedback and further discussion and then present a superintendent request in January 12 years ago we then had multiple meetings between January and February before we finally got to our budget but in the last eight years the January you there's been enough input in back and forth in questions that the January numbers have been pretty much wor but that's something to be considered at that time questions about the numbers and I again I apologize for my misstatement of the numbers I was going more from my memory than the notes before me and that was an error uh so I apologize for that but uh questions either about the numbers I presented or about the process okay that concludes the financial report we move on to policy policy we did meet um but because of the change with the board members um Amy side to side ahead of time we usually go over numerous policies at once and we we talked about it further within the the meeting that we would um just re we would review the mandated policy so that the new board member sitting could then just take on those um because they're mandated and and they're more time sensitive than the recommended revisions and the technical revisions um which weren't as time sensitive so we we touched on a couple which we kind of spoke about who gave her uh was her report um I'm sorry about the meeting minutes approval meeting minutes um so we we won't get into detail this meeting but um they'll I guess review them more detail in December meeting and then the the new board members will have a more of a chance to to review those policies and before they have to make a vote right so there'll be some policies for first reading in December but they are policies that are mandated in which there's relatively little scope for discussion and then anything that was scope for discussion was pushed off further so that the new board will have time to come out to speak thank you L questions about policy yeah I just wanted to to bring to your attention um I'm sorry Sue is not here because she might offer some insight but I was looking over the the uh mandates in the policy agenda and I went to try to cross check what was mandated with uh what's represented at C as mandated policies and it it's not matching up so I'm not quite sure why um some of the policies that were in your agendas are titled as mandated but if I go to cab they're only recommended I don't know if maybe Sue got different advice from the attorneys or if it's we do get input both from C and from the attorneys okay on what's mandated but it we could one could certainly ask for details on like where that where the Mandate comes from but a lot of the mandated the mandated language does does come from our attorneys okay so maybe Shipman and Goodwin has a list like cave that would be handy if they do have such a thing it would be nice to have so that I'm not confused about what's mandated and what's recommended and to be clear often the mandates like they need to be changed to align with language in the statute but that doesn't necessarily mean that every single word like it's not like the statute has the whole policy it says You must do this the statute just change a certain language and then the policy needs to be Rewritten to align with that language but I understand that but um yeah but but yeah it's always the it's always the policy committee's uh prerogative to ask for more information the I'm just trying to reconcile what's mandated and what's not and couldn't do it with P anym um thank you any further questions uh about policy and then we move on to transportation appication is not met uh and that concludes our committee reports we have no unfinished business to return to De we move on to new business uh and we have a discussion of the school calendar yes so all right so this evening you're going to see two proposed calendars for your consideration um I've shared with you previously that um some of the rationale for why I'm presenting two different calendars but the first calendar you will see essentially mirrors the dates and times we currently have for this school year and that we've had for years past with the extended weekend in February where we have uh President's Day plus one additional day the second calendar that I'm presenting to you this evening includes a full week off during the month of February and I'm presenting this calendar for two reasons um one was a request from The Amity superintendent to add at least three additional days to the calendar to help extend the school year in order to accommodate the senior internship program at Amity so that many of our any students uh that have benefited from that and I know will benefit from that as they transition up to Ami over the years that this program can continue to exist they're currently experiencing a challenge um where it's becoming more difficult to offer students these meaningful internship experiences because of the shortened school year um just so you're aware Amity has to navigate around AP exams which are mandated by the college boards to be within that first two weeks in uh May then they have Memorial Day then they can't do things too far into June because they have to have the students back before graduation to do all of their senior activities and so the internships which used to be about 3 weeks long are now about 8 or n days so um she did indicate that they could look at other options for them to consider ways to get more time for the students but I did let her know that in the spirit of collaboration I would present it to you for your consideration as it is your your decision uh the second reason to consider making the adjustment to the calendar um is that our earlier end time in June causes an adverse impact for my special ed program our special ed program um because it increases the amount of time that our students that are identified to receive services are out of school so right now if we were to end on June 9th there were no snow days and you all know I love a good snow day if we were to end on June 9th we're looking at almost three and a half weeks of those students being out of school and not having any services and then we have our program and then it's potentially another three and a half weeks three to three and a half weeks on the other end um for those students so that's one of those things where even if we choose not to add the additional days um I just want to be totally forthright and say that might mean we'd have to extend our esy program for our special education students so that they're not out of school as long as they are on either end uh of that programming which obviously has a budgetary impact so uh I also want to just share in full disclosure uh well there was one additional thing that came out uh there are a group of students from Amity who I believe sent you all a proposal um with regards to wanting to add additional religious holidays uh to the calendar if not for this proposed calendar the 24 25 year but maybe in the 25 26 year they're looking to have uh the boards of Education in all of the districts within the boa region to consider adding e Al fur and Dali uh which are two Muslim holidays to the calendar Muslim and Hindu Muslim and Hindu holidays thank you for that um so those are some of the reasons uh some other things that have come up since then and I just want to be fully transparent and let you know that orange has not committed to supporting any additional time off February I don't know exactly how that conversation is going to go when Dr scarpetti meets with his board um I have had conversation with bonda tensa who's the superintendent in Woodbridge um she's only going to present the kind of I'll call it the traditional calendar the first version of the calendar but is providing all the same background information that I've just shared with you to her board for their consideration um in the calendar and you know as much as we try to align ourselves as the four districts often times we are not aligned right so when I think back to last year we had a later end date because we had a burst pipe we didn't have any school you know Amity Woodbridge and Bethany had one additional snow day orange chose not to have that snow day because there was no snow on the shoreline so even though we try to be as aligned as we possibly can sometimes it just doesn't work so that is all the information that I have for you uh regarding my calendar proposal so when he do you need the calendar approve so typically I would present it now and then you all would have to think about approving it in December there's nothing to say that it must be done in December so this board because I realize that this is one of those things that straddles between you know outgoing board members incoming board members it's here now for your consideration you can certainly have me present it again in December and then the board can decide to either vote on it in December if they feel like they have enough information or they can take action on it in January okay because it's unusual this year that we don't have more alignment and agreement between the administrations if the administrations are the line and coming saying hey this makes sense we should do it everyone agrees right then it's it's a it's a virtual you know it's a non-decision whereas what you're telling us right now is there isn't alignment and we may we may get there we may not which is a little more complicated so that that's my question so okay does the Bea have an opinion um the when I met with the Bea they supported the second option of the calendar I mean obviously they're they're comfortable and they they've always had the other um calendar but they had no issue and actually thought that people would enjoy having that full time off uh in February and you know get some of the coties out of the building which te are you know having that break because once we go back into it there's no other time off until April vacation between the what we I I lovingly call fake Break fake Break in February till April vacation do do you feel like experientially there's a dip in absenteeism following a vacation so we looked at the data and it's actually we do have some Peaks you know that might be outliers we're averaging about an extra 6% uh in terms of absenteeism but it's actually that Friday before so it's not always even the week of the break people take the days before so like the Thursday Friday they take instead of coming back and taking the Tuesday the Wednesday Thursday they'll take the Thursday Friday before and then they're out Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday and they may come back to school on Wednesday okay so I looking at this and I being at Amity I am aware of the internship issues um if we say that we need to extend the calendar for a variety of reasons my concern is a small group of people just picking that it's February break that we add back in because I think that has potential to have a large impact on families having to take off weeks if we're not going to align with our districts older siblings watching younger siblings and things like that um I think that there should be a little bit personally think there should be a little bit more exploration on where some of these can go if we're looking looking to add three you let's say anywhere between two to 4 days to the end of the calendar if the addition of holidays is something that's considered and is going to add two more days to the school year there's two right there so if we adopt February break plus those two now we're looking at 5 days out um I would you know trying to look at the calendar and come up with some other ideas like just to throw out there for parents to we go aate week later maybe we come back a week later there's different school districts I Tred to look into a little bit of research to see how many schools were doing a full February break um I just I grabbed 30 schools that were semi similar to us in our area there are four that are doing regular February break um there were two that go back after Labor Day um other things that Poss these are just other ideas that I'm looking at and just throwing out there if we're worried about absenteeism how's that Wednesday before Thanksgiving look for our attendants probably not all that great as my guess if people are looking we're thinking about families I don't personally travel and jump on a plane but I know there are a lot of people that do jump on planes and usually that Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one that maybe staff members family members could use um the day before Christmas Eve that's two days if you did something like that plus if we add the two holidays there's four right there so I think it has those things should be considered before just jumping on let's just throw February break back in there there's an 80% of people that want February break back back in the community that by all means do it yeah I think it has to be asked and I think that that data has to be gathered for more than just a small group of board members from each town and four superintendents from each Town yeah we did look at a lot of those and I suspect that this conversation is taking place across the state because we received a caps survey on it and usually caps doesn't send a survey to superintendent say hey do you currently have any of the Muslim holidays or have you considered going back to February break unless there's something else going on so yes it was brought to us because of um the question posed by Amity but I suspect that it's it's even bigger than that and certainly I can go back and and try to work out lots of different other options um to the calendar but at the end of the day we'll have to figure out you know do we want to add days number one to the calendar do we want to all do we want to add any of these other holidays if we add the holidays to your point Angelo then we're already extending the day we don't need to necessarily touch the February break but the challenge with some of those holidays is that they don't always land on the same day in any calendar year so it might be that those holidays all in one particular year fall on a weekend then it doesn't help us with extending the calendar unless we come up with some sort of policy or practice that says if it falls on the weekend it's a Saturday we'll give we'll have off on the Friday if it falls on the Sunday we'll have off on the Monday so there's I think exploring exploring the options and putting them all on the table and slowly weeding them out would be I think the more prudent action than just jumping right into yes or no next month February break back in or out okay okay one question I had in terms of the districts not being aligned yet for the for emity that's necessary correct I mean it's made up of all of our districts so I mean ideally everybody would be the same thing so that the internship if that's one of the main issues yeah it's it's better for them if we're all aligned and it's actually it's more the the the reason that Angelo brought up is that for families that have kids in the different schools it makes it a little bit easier to know that if my third grader is out my seventh grader my high school they're all going to be home at the same time yet it's when we are out and Amity isn't then that creates problems for families we're relying on older children to um little bit of History we had until about 10 years ago the full February break and that was in a period when we were having a lot of snow days several several uh years in a row and we were getting pushed well into June and so we cut back on the February break at that time because of uh you know to so that we didn't run the risk of going into late June uh because of snow days it's been a long time since we've had lots of snow days so uh you know that that so from that historical perspective one could go back to uh to the full BRD and then another question I asked K about this so the two holidays um if I remember correctly I think it's a is in the fall in they they both move they're both holidays that move it's usually lunar it's usually follows the lunar calendar and one of them I no I think it's D diali is in the fall Dali is like in a week from now in November in November and I is in March next year though again it may move around March is a great time to take off an additional day because the the um you know there's a gap there um but anyway so that but that's that's kind of where they would fall but they they do move around as K pointed out um and the argument is that you we're taking Good Friday off as a Christian holiday we're taking um y Kapur and rashash off as Jewish holidays and to to you know take one day off for um for Islam and Hinduism with that's that's motivating the students request so things to discuss very it's it's challenging being in a conjoin District here right because we can't you know it' be complicated for us just to decide without having a clear idea with the is to do okay any further questions or conversation about the calendar hearing none we move on to the superintendent sure that would be me all right so as usual in your packets you'll find the enrollment summaries for 2122 and 22 23 um this year we started uh off with 445 students and as of October 31st uh our enrollment is currently at 44 six so we're holding pretty steady um I don't know that we'll we'll experience a bump in enrollment until if anything in the spring you don't usually have a lot of families moving in in the November to January time frame uh by way of a Personnel update Valerie kman has joined our team as the new BCS office Clerk and lunch Aid Brook F has joined us as a special education par professional and uh with mixed REM motions I share that Miss Abby Slater a special education par professional will be leaving her position at BCS because she's continuing her journey to become a teacher Abby will be going into full-time student teaching and so she'll be transitioning onto that and we wish her all the very best as she does that she's been a remarkable uh employee here at BCS any questions on Personnel before I go into my abbreviated version of the budget report because you've already kind of shared it can I go back to the enrollment I may have misunderstood but there's two kids that went to n Haven to a magnet school is that correct so they moved into Bethany the family moved to Bethany and then they registered with a magnet school in New Haven New Haven notified us at the end of last week that they had two Bethany students there and they sent us the bill for tuition okay so the students never came and sat in seats here in Bethany that's what I was trying to figure out that didn't minus your numbers okay yeah so they they're not in our our numbers there so thank you for that um and by way of the budget development process as Dr piter said we are well underway tomorrow is actually uh budget Thursday where Brandy and I will sit down and have a marathon of meetings uh with maybe that should be a new holiday and it's one day for just me doesn't matter for everybody else um so uh we will be working on all of that again with the hopes of having something to present to the board um sooner rather than later so it'll be our our week of project Brandy night been a lot of time together coming up and then lastly but not technically listed in my report I would like to thank Dr piter Mrs White Dr we we just a c Nita for all their years of service to the children The Faculty the staff uh here at Beth Community School you've shared your time your talents and sometimes your sanity showing to meetings as a cow um to ensure that we're providing a quality education for the kids in our community and we are enally grateful for that have something for forward and I'm going to ask the audience to indulge us just a round of applause for [Applause] all now that you'll have so much time so so Rob we return your wife back to you I know your husband isn't here we return the back to you and Jenny he's and [Music] that all right we move on to the the direct thank you so much that's the last time you'll hear that I don't know you never know cretive okay so I want to talk today about professional development on November 7th um our classroom teachers worked with Margie Gillis from literacy how and that's to further our work in science of reading the focus was on comprehension which is something we can all learn more about par professionals worked with a Special Education team and they were reviewing individual education plans student programming and working closely to learn as much as they possibly can about the students and Specialists receive professional development in their own areas or they followed my pathway which is a new professional learning series that we have and um it's an online resource with on demand professional learning opportunities and a number of topics and in the area of curriculum you'll be glad to know the science of reading waiver um kird Andrea hover and I met with the state department of Ed and we met to discuss our waiver they had a few questions for us so we were able to provide some samples from our resources as well as our curriculum and we are supposed to hear back with everything crossed on December 1st so then we might be able to know how to move forward in next steps that's a good step forward it is a good step forward so we'll see we'll see how it goes show them the little thing that says you're a school of Distinction I I trust me anytime I can tell them and share some good data I do great big h p for that we should have had shirts made or something I mean I did want to wear one to my boa meeting because we got the results on that Wednesday I believe you now that you can put on your oh we can put it on our letterheads do you have that I I think you get that eventually you get the right to use that for the year on your letterheads and stuff like that and we're waiting on our Banner we want all the things all the things all the things yeah all right thank you thank you any questions for Mrs Keel or comments on anything report other than the schools all right Mr re what's going on in the school a lot so uh we have been busy uh and it's always one of those things that's kind of interesting uh you know I reached back and all the stuff that we've done since we we were last here uh Friday right after board meeting was was really eventful we started in the morning with the Lions Club doing their uh their annual dictionary uh presentation to the third graders uh we had the boo bash in the evening uh fire prevention came on the 19th was really wonderful um we had pink walk to school day on the 20th it was a little bit of rain we made it we're tough um it was a bit of rain um the book fair of the week of the 23rd uh was wonderbly successful um and that um as Melissa shared coincided with conferences we had our evening conferences on the um the evening of the 25th and then the afternoon of the 26th thank you to the P for the food Mar lives on his stomach um and plenty of pizza to eat um before and after school music lessons have started been really great uh I showed up to the instrumental music lessons and there were actual like musical sounds coming out of the instruments I was really excited I I was I was mildly terrified at first and like they sounded really good um so it's been going really well uh we got quite a bit of participation so we're really excited about that and we're working towards uh both the winter and the fall the winter and the spring for some of our performances uh second grade went to Clover Nook uh and then they just had their pumpkin Pop Shop uh last Friday which was wonderful our community meeting celebrated growth mindset um and PTO wonderfully donated a whole bunch of posters they get uh one copy of every poster from the book fair so we were using those uh for our um our ruffle Prize winners uh which the kids were really excited about um Halloween parade was on uh the 31st was great went through the town hall um kids were elated about doing that that was super fun um and then we had our family literacy night uh on the 1 uh which was really wonderful able to come here um Andrea Hub Jamie Bowen really l a wonderful presentation here we gave parents little a chance to kind of decouple from the kids they went and had a story had some pizza they got to adult for a little bit um and then we run around and had different stations and really took a look at like what does this look like when we're talking about science of reading like what's that look like in practice what can you do with your kids at home like what are some really great games that are both wonderfully fun a little competitive and also will help them with um learning to read uh and then we had vision and hearing screens on the 1 uh and if you didn't hear uh we also found out that we were a school of Distinction um I it's new news uh and uh and we had 11 of our gentlemen who were uh who are un9 champions and they're going to Boston and you don't need to give me another excuse to drive on up to Boston so um looking forward we've got Seth cus and Adam Carbone uh we're really grateful for them they're coming in on Friday to do a presentation to our kids uh on Veterans Day so we're really excited they've both really been uh here and helping us with that for the past few years so it's wonderful to have them in American Education week is next week so we're really excited to both have families and community members coming in we're also going to be having the kids celebrate different members of our uh School Community there as well uh computer science for all uh is an after school club Focus focusing on uh coding uh and computer science for kids and it was actually an idea that was brought forth by a sixth grade student um so we had a wonderful student who was like Hey this would be really cool if we had a coding club and we were like hey correct and so she led the way and Mr defasio has jumped on and he's taking he's taking that on it's going to meet for about 15 16 weeks um every Tuesday afternoon I believe so uh really excited that that's getting going um awesome when are leave away uh our community meeting this month is focusing on gratitude uh as your heard picture retake is on the 28th snowflake shop starting in early December and report cards will be going out on the 8th so that's what we got going on okay thank you any questions for Mr Reed and comments on any of the matters he use discussed how many people came to the parent uh families came to the parent literacy night sounds really interesting and I'm going to go about something yeah it was really great um and it was nice because you you know then we had a we had a bunch as they rotated through we're able to kind of have a session proper here you know just kind of thinking about the the research and and the Brain science behind it you know and then traveling around different stations around the building um and we had I think eight or nine staff who were here leading the way on that um so it was really just great to have that participation and for them to kind of you know not hear it from some like like an outside consultant or some random person on the zoom but like our people you know like Miss sniff showing you how to do it you know Mrs lasser's here helping out so really great to have those and to be in person and sounds very interactive sounds really yeah good very effective yeah got botle it was super fun any other questions or comments okay move on to uh chair's report uh we had a board open Forum in late o what October 20 something uh on Zoom it was well attended number of board members were there thank you uh we had a good discussion of a number of topics nothing uh you know terribly surprising or controversial but some good you know some good input um from parents uh and so so I thought it was useful uh and I want to thank both board members and community members including teachers who came to that event uh the cape conference is next Friday spilling over into Saturday uh in Mystic and that's a great opportunity for current and future board members to to go can future board members AR sworn in yet can they attend so may maybe next year okay but it's a great opportunity to go and meet other board members and then you know get attend workshops on various topics um get swag from vendors you know lots of little Racers St uh so that's uh I think that's worthwhile the um our board will be uh receiving for the eth year in a row uh Board of Distinction award from uh or Board of Excellence Board of something really good like good adjective um so uh I'll be able to um to receive that award um and then uh on November 28th since we will have several new board members joining us um Amy and I with Kay have uh have scheduled a uh uh meeting on November 28th from 5:30 to 7:30 in the evening and we hope that though the they won't be sworn in yet that future board members will be able to attend and that's an opportunity uh to um you know on board people and talk about uh how the board works some of the things that are obvious some of the things that are really counterintuitive like open meetings laws and and Freedom of Information and confidentiality and all that stuff um we're scheduling this because be since the elections were moved the new board members really are are going to have to jump right in the middle um right in the middle of budget season new policies coming up there was you know it's it's it's going to be very much on the the job training and so uh we thought that it would be uh useful for the new board members to have that opportunity to to jump in and I will attend that um is this an orientation yes is that is that yeah orientation and early training yeah um so that again is scheduled for November 28th from 5:30 to 7:30 where Bo of office Board of bed office okay um that's it for upcoming items um this is my last uh board meeting um I've been on the board of ed for about 14 and a half years I've been chair for eight and if you'll indulge me I want to say just a couple things couple things about the past a couple things about the future um about the past so I've been here as I said 14 years four superintendents four principles although Once Upon a Time We called them house masters and there were two of them at the same time and it was very confusing um and so there's been a lot of change on those over those years and I think that it has really been remarkably good in a lot of ways and I want to highlight a couple one is when I joined the board there was a lot of tension and distrust between the Board of Ed and the board of finance and the broader Community communication wasn't very clear and that led to people second guessing and you know thinking that things were be that budgeting decisions were being done for you know improper malicious reasons and so forth and it was it was poisonous and it wasn't good for anyone and over the course of several superintendents uh We've streamlined that process we've improved communication and openness um and uh improved the budgeting process made it more transparent and I think it shows in the relative ease with of our budget process over the last at least eight years if not more where the board of Finance can see what we're doing they have confidence and so our conversations with them are easy if we're asking for money they know we need it if we don't need it we don't ask for it and we go in with low budgets and and that's been a remarkable change over the time that I've been on the board um there have been a lot of changes in the way we teach kids in in curriculum um some of these are just changes in the way Education Works in general but but really I've been impressed with the leadership that this school has shown so so I remember Everyday Math any you remember Everyday Math oh I know so you know just an example of a you know math curriculum that I personally not a fan that's been dramatically revised and so um I've been impressed with you know the way the math curriculum has evolved the way that uh this the school has taken advantage of the teachers College reading program and then moving on to other other reading resources and really staying a breast of the you know current thinking about the best way to to teach our kids and we saw scores today you know we saw that we're doing things right there always room for improvement we will always strive for that but we did you know we saw that and that's been a that's been a real change uh over the time that I've been here I feel that the um the climate and um how we work together as a as a as a community within the school working with our teachers has has been through strains the pandemic was was just disastrously difficult for everyone but overall as I look at the over the years um I I feel that there's been Improvement there um we've always people are always talking about teacher turnover and and you know teachers leaving we've been talking about that for 14 years and I'm sure for much longer than that we're a small District um we aren't the richest District in in the school and I mean in the state and so we've always had you know great teachers come they train here um and then they move on however I think with the last couple contracts and especially the last one we've really done a lot to to uh make this a place where people will want to stay by reducing the number of steps in our contract and making our higher level uh teachers our entry level teachers were already competitive making our higher level teachers competitive and I look forward to seeing in future years a return to uh teachers staying here longer because they know that they're valued and that they're compensated appropriately and it doesn't take them forever to move through the step scale so um and also with with changes that have been made over the last two superintendents about participatory leadership within the school where teachers have been given ample opport opportunities to work together on you know the steering committee and other opportunities to really make a difference and feel empowered um I think that's something that really makes people love the place that they're at and we do see teachers who could move for more money elsewhere lots of them and choose not to because this is a great place to work so again there always room to improve to continue to you know work together but the the feeling of working together as a community of transparency and fairness and accountability of showing people that they're valued um I really think has been something that's improved over the the time I've been with ups and downs and again the pandemic was a disaster and it was hard for everybody but um but the the general trajectory I think uh I think he good so I want to highlight that and finally um and this will transition into a few comments I want to make looking to the Future um the board itself when I uh when I uh joined the board was was a difficult and tense place um there was a lot of partisan ranker on the board at that time um there was a lot of distrust uh it wasn't always Pleasant um we had a few individual board members who are long long since gone but who sort of you know stirred the pot lot and and made it uh made it less Pleasant to work on and that's changed dramatically over the time I've been here um I I think that we as a board have worked uh very collaboratively together I think it's telling that the vast majority of our votes are unanimous uh that show you know we we talk about things and I think that because we treat each other with respect we don't come to things from a partisan angle um and uh we we keep kids first uh first first and foremost in our mind it usually becomes pretty clear you know what what the right answer is when it doesn't when we do have things like again during the pandemic like the issues of masking like other issues where we don't have alignment where we do have disagreement we're able to talk about those things in a way where the disagreements can be fairly sharp and the votes are not unanimous and we move on we we work through those difficulties together they're rare but because of the investment that we as a board have made in you know in uh mutual respect and collegiality we were're able to move uh forward through those rare challenging things when they do come up and that's been a pleasure to see over the time on the board and I do want to say um I take some pride in that change uh over the years um and in how we've functioned over the last eight years I take some pride that we've gotten the cave award for the eight years um the for for the last eight years I take some pride in the fact that for the last four years this has been a republican majority board and yet the board has chosen to keep me a Democrat on as chair I think that's a nice symbol of the uh the way that we have been able to work um collaboratively and so thinking about the future we are going to have a um a dramatic change in board compos in in board composition three new members um we're going to change to a m large majority six to 63 Republican majority board actually that's what it was when I joined um and uh I think that it's uh really and you know there'll be different personalities people coming with with different backgrounds and different views that's fine that's as it should be um but I want the board to keep in mind both the you know the members who are staying on as well as the new members to keep in mind the things that I just said about what has made us successful over the last decade what has made us successful is keeping Kids First in our minds what has made us successful is respecting our administrators understanding what their job and what's ours not micromanaging and not getting in their way um seeking consensus and collaboration whenever we can recognizing when we don't know something and seeking to educate ourselves on that before moving forward taking the time that we need to do things and always seeking collaboration respect and keeping kids first and foremost in our minds above any personal ideas we may have come to the table with above any political or partisan concerns that we may have had above of what we may be hearing from others in the community keeping the kids first because that's what we're here for so I hope looking to the future we can take lessons from I think a very successful last decade continue that momentum partnering with a wonderful administrative team let them do their job and uh keep doing what we're doing for the kids because we're doing the right thing we just need to stay the course thank you all for the faith you put in me allowing me to be chair thank you all for being willing to sit here during the last 11 minutes as I on on I've never done this before so um and um I wish you all the best thanks Chris that ends my Chairman's report do we have any correspondents we do not alas this brings us to our second and final opportunity for visitors public comment I'll ask if anyone is here uh wishes to address the board here at the end of um I'd like to you back Chris Chris could could you please state your name oh I'm sorry for the record I can't I can't relax the rules at the end Chris on behalf of the CCS Community you deserve thank you for all you've done as chair of this board for almost a decade and a member for almost a decade and a half just shy whoever takes your place big boots to with new board members coming in next month and you stepping down I just wanted to encourage all the board members present and incoming that when you vote for a replacement chair that you choose someone who has similar values professionalism and neutrality capabilities Chris you have been able to see every side of any situation and predicament way the pros and the cons and guide the board through discussions to the ideal move for what is best for the entire School community and always putting our kids first I encourage you all to choose someone who values and understands education the system as a whole as well as the roles and responsibilities within it a chair who seats the need for equity and inclusion for all of our students who speaks calmly collectively and rationally who attends full board meetings as well as their committed assignments and who has a full grasp of all of our policies and procedures we have been so very fortunate to have you pres in that seat and we should be ever so fortunate to have someone with similar characteristics equable Dem to thank you anyone else wish to address the board before we close for the evening hearing none we are Jour don't get [Music] keep just shift it around [Music] I just came actually just came from conferences of the Middle School oh middle schol yeahor one conference and it's at the worst time 5:00 when I'm like even if I Mo the 510 make my life so easier for 5 sleep there thought

61 61.1 selection and evaluation of instructional materials policy first paragraph I almost to go on but there's more but this is in the regulation anyway you come down on the first page under criteria and selection and Adoption of instructional materials and item two says do not reflect adversely upon persons because of Any characteristics specified in law and board policy 0410 non-discrimination and District programs and activities nor contain any sectarian or denominational Doctrine or propaganda contrary to law the implication is that we have lawful propaganda and so that I think that should be re worded give a little more thought I think what's what's meant there is to not have propaganda involved and and not to to imply that there's lawful propaganda [Music] okay okay I'm just trying to like look at the part where because it's sectarian or denominational Doctrine or propaganda I was trying to see if maybe there should be some other like comma or maybe they I don't know saying not to have any of yeah I was like trying to read it like nor contain any sectarian to law legal propaganda I don't disagree with what you're saying I'm just trying to make you know understand it a little bit better Le to be rewarded what is your recommendation just believe out contrary law because the propaganda is propaganda that should be e and what did was that one of the things that was changed me from the that's why I like looking at that changed one no it was not changed it wasn't anything Chang it was original yeah that we had from 20 in 2010 originally I mean that was my background was doing a public so I don't know the difference so I I'm I'm I'm sorry I'm just trying understand so the propaganda contrary to law so your thought is all propaganda is no no no if you're only not going to do propaganda that's contrary to law that means you can still do propaganda that is accordance to law that is accordance to law the whole concept well according to the definition it's not because propaganda is defined as information especially of a bias or misleading nature used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view and is further defined as the spreading of ideas information or Rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution a cause or person so if it's helping or injuring then there is that's defin it's good or bad that's just the point of view well that's the definition again we can all think about it and decide next month as a board if we think it's important for us to change the verage okay well there was my input for what it's wor all right those are just information items [Music] um anyone else want to talk about those all right all right how about presentation and discussion of student achievement data cppp High ready and California school dashboard report uh Michelle and I chatted about this one this afternoon and um we're going to request that we push this to the December meeting um our staff has just recently gone through a training uh with folks from IR ready on our achievement data and how to analyze that disseminate that and then apply it to daily lessons um so they're working on that right now grade level team so they're still having those discussions uh we're probably about 80% there uh the other piece to this that um we thought would be out there's of Califoria dashboard um has not been populated yet but by the time we get to the next meeting most of it will so it will be record um and so it would some of the data that we will have hasn't been released and we can't share with with the public at this time um so um I'm going to ask that we table this to the December meeting so that we have a thorough discussion and not look like well we're withholding information which kind of we are because it's not been released for public consumption yet um so if if we can just table this to the next meeting then you'll have a thorough thorough presentation for you I have a question so we did I already last year too right so what's new that we're learning in these that we didn't know before to to agregate this data I don't think there's necessarily anything new there's some new teachers and new assignments um so they're still trying to look at that and with RTI with the kids that are being placed in the RTI and how they're how they're kind of like grouping kids is um new for for some staff members okay so and it's really refining process of taking that data um because last year was really the introduction of it and we we have not I don't know that we will ever perfect it but we haven't gotten as proficient yet as we need to be and that's why we did another round of train just in the last couple weeks and they're following up in grade level teams to have those discussions so it's really about refining our practices as opposed to bringing something new okay I just feel like in December and and I understand the data is not there but by December the school year is halfway over and we don't really have any idea how our kids are doing actually we do because they have we don't right right we have the results and that's what our staff is working with right now okay and then so we'll be able to compare that data to how our students performed back in the spring on the cast that okay yeah thank you what is the will of the board do we want to postpone it well we don't have a choice we need to postpone we don't have we don't have material to present to the public okay we can't still in but okay so that's essentially table dur month okay um enrollment report so just like the previous month it had gone up a little and again we had some good gains to more students a few at each site so that's awesome to see that especially halfway through the year you know we had one family move in a few kids at one of the districts um people moving [Music] around I don't know if any of that's shown in the inter District transfer court but very good to see that number going back up closer to it was last year which was 8:46 so we're at [Music] 8:23 okay no comments on that okay inter District transfer report as you can see on the agenda it in The quick summary we've had one inter District transfer out of our district to Clovis Unified and two transfers into the district one from Raymond nlls and one from uni since our last report very good okay I have a question where's Mrs Peterson on the list she's not on wasuma thank you Rhonda you're missing from the list I have for some time R you're in RTI but she's still should be at the bottom but your name could still be there like you know anyway I TR report for to plug in the numbers but I do need to add her there Miss T and at the bottom she's doing a great job she they say the best for last I'm already on my spret okay okay thank you apologize okay how about number nine accomplishments and other reasons to celebrate from throughout the district o c Elementary School take it away Madam do I am I getting up and just talking it will be easier for Genie to hear or you could bring it to you so we have a lot things to celebrate here that microphone not loading mine's loading [Music] restart okay still too short okay um so Trish haek and her family they had um Corbin and so they welcome Corbin into the world he was born on October 15th we have uh our classes taking off of great field trips kindergarten took a field trip to the sugar pane Railroad on October 25th fourth grade um went to the cor schol Historical Museum they learned about acorns gold brush whole variety of things and they they really enjoyed that we have a lot of had a lot of fun Halloween activities on campus a staff costume was Disney theme we had a K2 Halloween parade classes did um all kinds of fun Halloween activities that day um really exciting we have Tam D now coming to OES and uh teaching music to our students um it's really fun the kids stand up and are singing and dancing they're learning all kinds of music vocabulary [Music] um learning how to count music notes beat versus Rhythm and everybody loves it our teachers and students are thrilled uh we have first of that's for K2 and then in grades 3 through five we have um Miss Donna coming and doing art with our students and so um that began last week I believe so that was really fun um grade five we also just like Mrs Peterson said we also have Caroline hoer coming and doing um the classroom Iris project with us and so the graders love that they pled all kinds of irises in the front of campus and so that's really exciting everybody's enjoying that can't wait to see in blue um Miss gin's class this year learned all about um that or this month um they made these really cool bat diaramas at the end and put them on display on Halloween so we got to check that out uh in the second grade classrooms they did all kinds of fun science experiments candy corn dissolving they built these cool ramps and did um like exploring surface friction with pumpkins and so that was fun um checking and graphing fromin speed um they got to take a virtual reality field trip in the library put on by um Miss Kelly and Miss Barnes they visited Alaska Maine and Germany oh and South America and they learned about fall leaves um Miss Kelly is doing wonderful things in our library this month the theme was digital citizenship I guess I should say last month October was um our yhs big buddies have come we paired 43 students with high school big buddies and that happens on Thursdays and Fridays so that's most excellent um yeah so lots of per good things happening [Applause] here okay let's hear from wasuma Tim asking me to stutter and stumble and fall so he better do my best thanks so I can piggy back what cat was talking about with the high school buddies coming my daughter gets to be one of them and she totally loved the VR field trip so it's very cool it uh so conference week was well attended we have about an average of 85% of parent teure conference attendance always seems like a good idea to have Spirit Week dress up days the same week as conference week uh everybody got into it the new uh ones that the kidss wanted to do was have monochromatic Monday they got to wear a new order and everybody dressed all in red or all in Blue on purple most of them were on black but that was fine uh Mrs Frank Mrs sales classes uh one greatest percentage participation Mrs Frank second third graders c a 9 96% participation rate and Mrs Seal's fifth graders were 83% participation so it was really fun to see everybody get excited and all their wacky here uh we awarded 12 new pause character awards to our wild cats and GRS page rate who exemplify mum's PA expectations of having a positive attitude acting responsibly working hard and showing respect thanks to the new owners of The Hitching Post uh they were each provided with a certificate for a free ice cream Sund a couple of big um we have a couple of businesses in aani so so we're happy to partner with them whenever we can uh our annual Color Run was last week now or two weeks ago participation was higher than ever before even our Junior High kids were not too cool this year to run and get their very last color R shirts spray uh but dear thank goodness for our volunteers and our PTA because there was no way we could have done that all day long running almost 300 kids through and spraying them it was it was awesome I was worried it was going to be cold and it's absolutely perfect it's amazing it's one of my favorite events for sure uh our Middle School boys soccer and B basketball teams run away with coaches Frank mcmein and messenger and then a grand old time the weather is perfect for those Sports our other partnership with the Easter madere County SPCA has been going really well we have a couple of readers who aren't really dog people and so the SP Janette was amazing and she opened up the ctio been but they have an outdoor space where the cats can Sun themselves and lay on their little perches so we had our two cat lovers get to read to the cats while they were in the ctio space and they were over the sun themselves they were in heaven um our Littles had a chance to tour our fourth and fifth grade classrooms to VI the fourth graders they had been writing fables uh their their morals were great like swim in shark invested Waters and things like that and they made it was awesome they made diaramas uh showing their settings as well as some of the themes that were in there and then fifth graders had 3D book reports so the litts got to tour and according to one first grader they were epic word to describe them uh our leadership students have thank you grams available on campus for the next week this is something that we do every year it's a pre opportunity for any wild cat to write a note to another wild cat on campus and we pass them out the week before Thanksgiving it's awesome because the kids will write notes to their teachers and the bus drivers and everything it's just really fun or to their fig and little buddies uh our academic pentacon students are studying artificial intelligence which is super cool with a great topic for this year under the guidance of Mrs amatti and Mrs Springer uh I believe Mr Seal's attached Miss Kyle's November PBIS newsletter great topic this month I really appreciate she sends that out to um students and staff every month uh and gives a focus of what she's working on uh Mrs star and Mrs D after school choir club welcomed a brand new to us piano which was a huge hit as soon as Mrs star saw that thing go in the classroom she was running over there to spend her lunch checking it out playing told her leave the door open so we could all listen uh she's been in a few of her L pict the piano oh yeah oh she's super excited uh they show the kids how it all works how you know everything how different it is from the old one which was probably older than all of this in all of us in this room uh but this is star whoever there recess and at lunch and play so it's super fun um and Mr Pan's fourth graders and Mrs Seal's fifth graders spent the last warm Friday right in sugarpine Railroad and learning a little bit about local history last week and um one other thing that I need to let you know uh John conington from the cor school resource Conservation District uh we've been in touch and our pollinator garden plants have arrived the weather however is not cooperating because he wants to get them in the ground next week and there's on the forecast so we'll see that's going be fun thank you and is that that's um what do we have we had um homecoming week with the high school and did they did that stuff with everyone and then the week of 27th through November 3rd we had a spirit week at oci that Miss o our um PBIS coordinator I believe we're calling now um helped us set set up and that was really fun we had silly sock day Halloween costume day crazy hair day sports Jersey day school spirit day we had a pie eating contest um with whipped cream and kids chaming their face and that kind of stuff um and then we had a competition between the team uh the home rooms to see who participated the most um and I gotta say a shout out to Eric CS over at uh at Round Table thank you um for hooking up up so well with the with the pizza so thoughtful um I realized at the last moment that I had ordered probably less than we really needed and within 10 minutes I was driving back with more pizzas those guys are awesome I mean I love his his weather here but he continues to be a great asset to to our schools in the community he and his wife both um and I dressed up as several people here did but Stephan recognized me as him so that was a success where's the picture I know the picture should be up here um let's see we have o aclon team starting me prepare for competition later the year jennif B Jackie and Laura Jeff are leading that up we just had first quarter um Awards oh we got okay see I'm act like I was really hurt by this but I was invited for that picture talk about [Music] that um that's very I've got down to it but we had U we have about 175 students we had 114 of them on academic honoral so 3.0 above and that we have 37 straight A and that's significant so that very cool to see lots of parents showed up um we've been we've changed our methodology to if you're going to get a um an award for whatever it might be it might be um for kindness or for for those types of things um personality tra kind of stuff or character award or grades whatever it is we're sending home parent squares to let people know to let parents know and we're getting them a much greater return and that's really been nice um and the parents really appreciate it um California California CET led by jennif bod Ron Baker and Terry Baker competed against other C quarterville recently uh we didn't bring him any prizes this time last time we got a couple first places this time not so much but it's have a great time they they met here at 4:00 I want to say in the morning outside of our school took off down to quarterville and computed all day and came home and it be um so that was good um the yoyo Club just started Mr Peterson's leading that up and Katie Thompson who's been highlighted before are working with that in after school program and we've been rearranging some of the other sports practices and things like that to allow for people to be involved in more want than students and that's been good girls basketball and boys soccer seasons are underway we have Mr pet coaching basketball and longcore coaching soccer um Mr Peterson's currently running a three versus three basketball tournament um at lunch recess and intermal sports like that so the kids have been enjoying that how many how many courts you going up right now time oh we have 11 teams right now 11 teams all right I think you said that we're going to get it down to the top four here shortly and then have a tournament and then he always uh provide some kind of uh price for the winners some kind of candy ice cream something like that that's enjoyable uh last time I believe it was a $10 what was that for that wasy gisy he gave the winter 10 bucks they thought they that was cool um let's see students have been uh been buying um different experiences with their PBIS rewards points that they've been earning um in fact Mr Peters just took 12 students again over to um round table and they got to enjoy the all Buffet over there uh one of the students told me both eatting 16 slices of P um there his reason was you know he spent 200 points on [Laughter] it we're going to we're going to have other experiences that we're selling R going to be helping us at the store tomorrow and we'll be selling those experiences as well as other objects you know things Sports balls stuffed animals which are surprisingly popular for middle schoolers um but they're cool um that kind of stuff and then we'll have our trip to John's Incredible Pizza also which be very that um and finally tomorrow we have I just went over with Heather to Wasim last week to listen to her give her parent talk on P motives and kind of get some wirers on I'm learning more how that's all working and we're going to have our introduction parents tomorrow at oci and let everybody know what's going on with that answer parent questions go through that kind of stuff take paperwork and get ready for that do you have a date for Camp green medic I need that right now well I mean if you want me to volunteer I will but I got to get it in sorry okay it's in March March 18th through the 21 okay well I mean you yes I'll put in request all right and you're going to be here tomorrow yeah yes awesome all right thank [Applause] you thank you superintendent report just briefly tonight and to follow up really on what we've heard from our principles in the last 15 minutes or so um it has been a blast to be out on campuses uh in the district the last few weeks with spirit week and homecoming week and all the dress up days and I will just share a quick anecdote but something that principal mcgree just mentioned uh on Spirit Week with the pie eating contest um it was a gorgeous weather day um as principal Archer stated it was the last war Friday um I'm in my office and I'm in a meeting I don't remember if it was a zoom or an inperson but we had all the doors and windows of the district office open enjoying the weather and all of a sudden I hear screams and people's yelling and I was like w hang on okay those are positive screams we're okay but there was a moment of panic from from me as to what and the heck just happened outside and U I was able to get up and go out on the on the the deor of the district office and uh had a had a straight shot view of the pting contest so it was a lot of fun a lot of student engagement um and the buzz on our campuses is unlike anything that we've seen since at least the pandemic before a lot of positivity a lot of all the events that they talked about um hosting those are by Design to um improve and build upon School culture and and all all three sites have their distinct culture and yet there's a lot of similarities as well and it's been it's been a blast to see that an action under the leadership of these C sitting over here um it's been Dynamic and it's it's a lot of fun to uh to watch um and to see the Buy in of our staff to so willingly jump in and volunteer and be a big part of that and um we'd be completely remiss if we don't mention all the positive aspects of our after school program uh and the partnership that we have with my club and what that has done and um you know other groups that predate that like Good News Club that we heard about earlier tonight um these These are activities that kids get up in the morning and they're excited to come to school because they get to participate in athletics or they're going to go to the choir club or whatever the other the activities might be and um we are cashing checks on those um each interview every day and and it shows it shows in our improved attendance rates because kids are genuinely excited to get to school and uh and being able to host the after school programming has actually helped our families particularly you have both parents who are working outside of the home then the kids are engaged with something that is worth well it's making a difference so a lot of positive a lot of positive reports and I just want to for those sentiments thank you that's my report for okay thank you I just need to make one correction I don't know if it was on our paperwork but the seeds that were donated were from Tractor Supply not true value so I don't know got mess it was boxes and boxes and boxes and did you bring some over the flowers veggies fruit so much thank you that did you hear that serve donation for it is but it says True Value that's what was attached okay thank you okay thank you board member comments um I'm just thankful thank you guys the principles I know you have a lot to do and then you prepared a little presentation for us but it's really cool for us to hear what's going on to schools and that like gives my heart Joy thank you very much so um that's all I have to say tonight and I will see you tomorrow okay thank you good um I had the opportunity to visit o at the end of October and I got to go into Christine's classroom and Michelle Burton's classroom thank you so much Michelle and also Stacy hin thank you for having me in and to R Ward's classroom so it was just great to meet teachers that I Haven met and see what's going on in classes and see the wonderful learning all about pumpkins and spiders and a lot of Halloween things but um but I continue when I go on campuses to see a pretty good behavior um overall and so I'm always thankful for that and just to see how well our teachers are are preparing lessons for these kids engaging lessons and how well the kids are responding so thank you to all staff thank you for coming yeah it's our pleasure thank you and so with uh Thanksgiving coming up in only two weeks can you believe that I wanted to share an email I received it's on gratitude and this says gratitude will shield you from negativity make you at least 25% happier rewires your brain eliminates stress heals improv sleep boost self-esteem and performance enhances the Law of Attraction and improves relationships so just want to share that attitude and [Music] gratitude for me okay I just want to thank everyone for coming been um a little different than last month's me you know so anyway just thank you for all the input from everybody and I don't have any further comments for tonight um okay future agenda items we' already talked about how we move the data discussion to next month okay other than that next month will also be our annual installation meeting with the change of officers all of that transpire okay first inter room is next month very good all right at the next meeting date is December 14 13 and we do not have to change the date right I don't know why I have it wrong on my calendar so we were good we had we Chang it and then we Chang it back or something okay I got change I think we all got that all right are there any public comment regarding our Clos session items before we go into okay not I'll call this P the public portion of our meeting Clos thank you all for coming

three that's important because we have one major B market rate development that will hit in the next few years it's a brand new one which we discuss in a minute I've only listed SRO on there as an FYI occasionally the B market rate developments are these tiny little 325 squ foot um kitchenet type units and they don't have kids but none of those are projected here next slide please okay what I'm projecting is overwhelmingly in the Northwood and moral attendance area at first and then in the later years becomes Vincy Park and pedmont but really the for the short term the whole stories Northwood and moral uh other than um uh Vincy Park and moral for a below market rate development um that is on the north side of beresa um Road uh by the flea market and that was a mainly market rate development in the past it just shifted three months ago two months ago to being 195 um Regular B market rate units plus 100 market rate units um so that is going to generate more kids than we're expecting to pass for Vincy Park uh when we get past up to 2027 I actually think you have some growth in viny park as a result of that um you'll see the some other developments in Vincy Park as well so if I didn't show you the numbers by attendance area going out five years but five years out both Northwood and viny park could have more kids than now which means the declining numbers I showed you at the start are that much more concentrated in the rest of the district does that make sense to everybody next slide please just one second Tom on that slide with that um because I know there was a recent article regarding the plan sh shifting as well to uh the units from 3,000 being reduced down to a th000 I was I was it's 940 I was projecting 400 of that would be occur in 2027 and 2028 um which you're seeing there under Vincy Park pedmont and I think that number actually will still hold for the new okay plan if anything you might get a few more units not a lot more but a few more units because it's going be easier for them to build tow houses in this market than high-rise um buildings um because um when you build a high-rise building you're taking a loan out for multiple years and and the current interest rates that's just not economically feasible anymore so I think about 400 is still the right call obviously as we get Beyond 2028 there aren't there's only another 500 units left as opposed to 3,000 units left so in the long run we have far less units there but for the fiveyear forecast I don't think it makes a difference okay next slide please questions did I go too fast okay so so with the excuse me so with the uh current uh growth projected at Vincy Park and the addition of the new new units uh are we potentially looking at redistrict in that school also in the future or can you go back the slide that shows the schools it's table two one more okay Vincy Park actually has fewer students now than a couple years ago so you got some room to backfill from that growth I don't remember how what the number was a couple years ago but it it was a little bit higher than than 568 um so you have some room for growth and you'll see that in the short I'm actually projecting further decline because they have a big fifth grade graduating out um and small kindergart numers but there could be a point still probably not within three years but within in four to five years we need be looking at that but it's not an immediate issue and this um the the increase I mean the birth you your prediction is based on birth rates and things like that birth rates Trends through the grades and where the new housing is located and but but we don't consider um influx of immigrants or anything like that in this thing because that's not a that's a variable uh that we cannot control I only would consider that if I had a reason to believe the trend of the recent past would change uh or in this case the trend from 2016 to 2019 with some modification so unless there's a reason to say that that pattern is going to stop or greatly accelerate the bill and grade to grade rates already include that nuisance with some you know small deviation up or down over time um you know I had a case long ago in the El Grove School District near Sacramento where um a big lean group decided to relocate from Fresno Del Grove and apartments went from having like 10 kids to 200 kids overnight so there are times when you have that hit but and again in the almost 40 years I've been doing this there's only a half dozen times I've seen anything like that happen so the big issue is just the birth data it's just scary and it's not just scary here it's scary everywhere I think it's just the price of housing is making it impossible for families to live here in the numbers that they were living here 10 years ago right young families in particular and the students that are uh the children that are um in that in that chart that you showed the birth rates and the enrollment um so the students are moving out of state is is the is the idea do we know where we obviously cannot track them but uh is there do we have like the data from other states uh well yeah but it's hard to know if it's ours I will say that some Parkers like Sacramento still have growing numbers and I think that's relocating families that's where they're probably yeah yeah and I I can share just looking at our own barasa data because we do look at all of our exits and uh try to see you know what what's C what's that Mobility where are they headed and so for this current school year as we looked at who left us from last school year and didn't continue what we found was uh an aate movement um the most popular relocation state was Texas this year that was the the highest number was going to Texas last year it was Arizona Utah so it varies you know um this year it was Texas if they were leaving outside the Bay Area it was Tracy that's where we saw a lot of our families go and then uh within the Bay Area uh we saw a movement just next door to mil pus interesting because mil Pedas isn't cheap either so yeah thank you so much for the presentation I actually do um housing policy in my day job so this is actually very Illuminating to see how uh housing developments will affect our um enrollment I have a couple of questions for um the last slide I noticed that Brook tree had a significant um resident shift negative 51 but then isn't brooktree in that area usually single family homes is that I I'm just wondering like why that shift would be well again part of it is the difference between the graduating fifth grade amount and the incoming kindergarten amount um and there's a a significant share of middle inome detached homes on a tenance area and um although that is a stabilizing kindergarten population relative to the more affordable housing of the district it still has a much larger amount gradually on a fifth grade and that got uh one more side please back um go back to table two the first table two um but it does have some apartments as well in fact some of the stuff we shifted out of Northwood into Brook tree was apartments at the North edge of the attendance area so there's there's a mix of housing that attendance area but uh the biggest cause that minus 51 is a big fifth grade one out I see around the so whenever a student leaves or a family leaves that affordable housing unit you're noticing that people are not moving back into that unit like they're no it's gonna stay bacon or what is your well as I showed in that one slide it's down something like 22% in the last three years I mean that's basically more than one in every five kids in net was gone in K2 in three years now obviously when you're talking about affordable Apartments um and the recession caused by the pandemic that's an income level that's got the least amount of money saved to be able to to deal with the hit of losing a job and so um a lot of them were just simply had to leave because of economics in the pandemic if you're if you own your home you're more likely to be able to hopefully squeeze it out for a few years but if you're in a very affordable apartment and you're on a marginal income level you know losing a job for six months you have to leave so it's common in that category and all districts in the during the pandemic ultimately in your um analysis of all of our schools which schools would you say is top concern for you for their declining enrollment in your opinion well if you just look at the rightmost column and again this is probably based on the graduating fifth grade numbers you have 65 going out of Majestic Way that's it's falling from 436 to 371 that's just a you know that's a Monumental drop in two years uh Ruskin is percentage wise is losing more losing so these are these are dramatic drop offs again because they have big populations now in fourth and fifth grade and based on the birth date I'm expecting much lower incoming kindergarten amounts or or even if they stabilized the current level that's still a much smaller amount than is graduating from fourth and fifth grade in those attendance Series so it's it's basically just based on where your kids distri distribution is in terms of um percentage um I guess it's going to be Ruskin that's the biggest hit but uh all all those numbers in Orange in the right column are pretty significant drop offs in two years thank you okay thank you for the presentation Mr Williams thank you thank you all right let's move on to uh report 10B Dr quenes can you introduce this thank you at this time I would like to invite Mr Tom Carroll our coordinator of students Services who will give a presentation regarding positive behavioral intervention support PBX PBIS and our District's efforts around addressing chronic absenteeism and our differentiated assistance path thank you Mr Carol all right good evening um so tonight I just want to update you with some of the things that we're doing thank you on the student services side of ed services um so oh what do I do I just hit the button oh no down arrow down arrow got it thank you um so first since the the pandemic we've seen an increase in the need for mental health services for our students we've seen increased treny chronic absenteeism more Behavior Uh concerns arising less self-regulation as well as higher needs uh for our students and families to be connected with Community Resources the graph on the right there is the mtss chart that was pretty standard prior to the pandemic where with high quality instruction with clear positive behavior expectations and support Mental Health Services Approximately 80% of the students in our in our classrooms are going to be in that green category where they're successful they're able to achieve um and they're receiving the the the tier one support that they need um prior to the pandemic approximately 10 to 15% of our students did not necessarily respond to those initial tier one uh supports and so they needed a little more intervention and so that's going to be the students who are in the yellow and with those additional supports approximately 5 to 10% of our students still needed additional resources on top of that since the pandemic we've almost seen this pyramid flip um and so it is pretty concerning what we're seeing and part of what we're doing with head Services is trying to address these concerns as a district we're very invested in positive behavior interventions and supports as well as multi-tiered systems systems of support we currently have 10 schools that are engaged in PBIS training five of those schools were went through tier one um PBS training at the County Office of Education before the pandemic hit however because of the pandemic and closing schools they did not necessarily get off the ground in running with implementation of their PBIS programs uh so therefore this year they're working with um Dr mola and Collective impact solutions to refresh their PBIS systems and structures and to get those implemented uh throughout the course of this year those five schools are Majestic Noble Rusk and Toyon and pedmont we also have four schools that are um involved with their initial tier one PBS training they're going through that with the County Office of Education right now Cherrywood Lane View North Northwood and Mill we have one school Summerdale who was part of that initial Cort who got trained up prior to the pandemic however they really have flourished with their PBIS implementation and they're actually on tier two so they're working with the county office right now uh on a grant to continue with their implementation and then the three schools that we don't have currently involved with PBIS training will most likely be going through that training next year and that is Brook tree sieron and Vincy Park some of the things that we've implemented this year that we found to so far be successful is the adoption of a district Behavior Matrix this was collaborated on with um several stakeholders within our district it was piloted last year at a handful of our schools I believe Ruskin and pedmont middle school and we're going for initial implementation this year although we're implen it it is still a work in progress and we are still going to be getting feedback on how we can continue to develop this Matrix to make sure that it is relevant and meaningful for our um administrators but ultimately the intention is to provide clear and consistent guidelines for addressing student discipline um taking a restorative approach to discipline and making clear the different tiered Behavior interventions that we have available to address Behavior as it arises something else we we've implemented is suet 360 at our middle schools it's an online module program that basically allows our administrators to assign or and our counselors social workers to assign online modules that are directly related to certain issues that may come up so for example if a student is chronically tardy to school or if they're absent often they can be assigned a module on the importance of of attending school regularly um if a student is doing you know various Behavior concerns then there are different modules that can be assigned we've seen that I believe there's been over a hundred of these modules that have been assigned to our students this year and it's a great um alternative to suspension so just a quick snapshot of where we are might not surprise you but the majority of our suspensions in the district typically happen at the middle school level and so the data that I have here is specifically from our middle schools but as of October 28th last year we had 32 suspensions across our three middle schools as of this year on the same date we've had 18 so it's approximately 44% decrease and I believe that is attributed to several of the um several of the interventions that we've put in place chronic gaps in TM continues to be a concern and something that we're trying to address um chronic absenteeism is defined by having missed 10% or more of the school year regardless of whether or not it's an excused or unexcused absence some of the causes for chronic absenteeism that we've discovered is that you know there's still the coid and coid symptoms and then just a true lack of understanding about chronic absenteeism many of our parents understand that if the student is sick they should call in when we look at the number of students who were chronically absent last year specifically at our elementary schools the majority of the absences were excused so the parents are calling in they're letting us know that their kids aren't at school but the students still might miss more than you know 18 or more days in the school year and so that's where right now we're really trying to push hard to educate our families on the difference between chronic absenteeism and treny we have a lot of students who are Trent missing three you know three or more days unexcused but they're not chronically absent on the flip side we have a lot of students who are not Trent but they are chronically absent and as of right now from the state's standpoint we're being looked at for our absenteeism not necessarily our treny so we're continuing to try to educate our our families on when they should be sending their kids to school and keeping that line of communication open this is a snapshot of the data comparing the 2122 school year and last school year with chronic absenteeism um what you'll see on the far right is the difference between the two years and I have to give a huge shout out to brooktree Vincy Park and Toyon who saw significant decreases in their chronic absenteeism rates um as a as a whole beresa decreased by 3.5% which when compared to the county uh which increased I think that's a huge success and which I did not include on here but the California rate of chronic absenteeism for 2223 was 25% so when compared to the county and to the state we are doing much better because of this data um I'll get into it here in a few minutes it did cause us to get into differentiated assistance and I believe that's on the next slide but some of the things that we're doing to address caric absenteeism is leveraging our school social workers um we did just receive the school Link services Grant which is offered by the behavioral health um department and that will allow us to hire an additional social worker to specific spefically support our tier three students around um absenteeism and mental health needs and our social workers are continuing also to utilize car Solace to link our families with outside resources as they need it we've also recently um are in the process of hiring community lisons and while the community layons are tied to our Cay plan and really are designed to support our success Scholars many of our success Scholars are also students who chronically absent and so they will continue to build that positive home homeschool interaction um and what's nice too is that they're invested members of the community they their majority of them are staff members who are already working in our schools whether as clerks uh mediate techs per Educators um and so they they are invested and already know how our systems work home visits are huge we've been really trying to make an effort with getting to to fam's homes when we feel that's appropriate and actually on November 29th we're going to be having a um a training here at the district office hosted by the county office specifically on it's an introduction on how to do effective home visits we'll be having all of our principls assistant principles counselors social workers and psychologists join us for that home visit training and then also just like everything else we're trying to do is take that restorative approach take a restorative approach to addressing uh attendance you know while there is need to take it to sarts and sarbs and if needed take it to the district attorney um we really do want to make the conversations positive and reinforce that we want your students at school we um are trying to create that welcoming and affirming environment so as I stated earlier we are in differentiated assistance we just had our last differentiated assistance meeting we were identified by the state for for this because um our students with disabilities the rate of absenteeism for our students with disabilities approximately 30% of our students with disabilities were chronically absent I believe that actually should be the 2122 school year I apologize um so we've been working with the county office to engage in cycles of inquiry to see what we could do to possibly make a shift with the students um one of the things that we did we we identified four students with disability who were chronically absent last year and who we started this about 11 weeks ago who at that time had already been chronically absent this year and seeing what we could do to maybe intervene and and make a change we talked about having the case managers for those students make positive phone calls home try to engage the parents understand the root cause of the students absence um and just really again build that homeschool connection so what we did notice is that over the course of 11 weeks three of the four students with those attempts did not miss another day of school and one of those students had only missed one day of school in the 11 weeks so with that we're going to be ex you know even though we will hopefully be out of differentiate assistance when the data comes out in January um we are going to be working with our principles our case managers to try to expand this pool to see what we could do on a greater scale do you have any questions um I have a question so the previous presentation we just heard um it was uh suspected that a lot of students have been moving out of the area so does this data take to account um students that have been moving out of the area but they haven't been uh removed from our system yet and so essentially the students that uh are still considered our students but they haven't been moved out but they just don't live in our district that's why they're not attending schools so so I would say no uh well I mean in terms of the data from last year I I don't know how many of those students have moved out but in terms of the data that we're pulling for this year and looking at which students you know are accounting for these numbers they're all of our all of them are our students currently and I'll add to that and so one of the things that we've done is we have um going into this school year spoken with our principles and are working with our our office staff team to make sure that we are being very quick to contact families when we notice a consistent drop off or they haven't returned back from uh wherever they are we do have families that travel you know to another country for a time period we let them know we're not holding seats because it goes into this chronic absenteeism cycle and that uh they will be dropped but when they return we will reenroll because they were still on the books in the past and that accounted for some of that data but uh we're trying to be more proactive about that this year so um we're just cleaning that up as quickly as we can and and actually now that I think about we do actually have one student that I can think of um at one of our middle schools who has missed I think she only attended the first day of school we've been trying to make efforts to get her we found out that she's actually living in another District at this point we are trying to work with the family and Franklin McKinley to get her enrolled over there however we don't want to just drop her from our system because if we drop her and it's she's not picked up at another school then it counts as a Dropout for our district so we also want to be careful to avoid that right because every school district is accountable to ensure continuity of education for that student even when they leave so that's why when we um when a parent exits our district we we ask where are they moving to where are they're enrolling uh so there's an exchange of educational information and we know that that learning plan continues for them okay thank you yeah that's just one of my my concerns because I know there are a lot of families that move out of the district and then they keep their students at home because they just are either too busy or they're not familiar with the process of re-enrolling re-enrolling their students into their new home District so as long as we have some sort of a resource available uh to assist those families I think uh there was some social workers that would do Outreach to them y there's social workers the community layons um if it is a student with special you know with disabilities case managers School psychologists side administrators yeah okay thank you yeah are there any other questions yes uh just some clarifying questions on the behavior metrics and the student discipline part of the so um can you uh expand maybe clarify a little bit more on the uh where it says clear and consistent guide clear and consistent guidelines for addressing student discipline um how uh how is it being handled because some of the uh feedback um that we've received as as if a student is uh is being um disruptive or uh disrespectful in the in the classroom causing disruption for learning for everybody um the teacher uh you know the teacher the uh teacher in the classroom refers the student but some of the student comes back um and there is no transparency between as to what's happening in that uh inm uh the teacher doesn't seem to know uh what transpired on the other side so I I'm just trying to understand whether that process has Buy in from all the uh teaching staff and what is being done uh by the administrator or whoever is handling the case uh to rectify the student Behavior because the feedback we're getting is uh student comes back with the same kind of behavior right it's it's not nothing has changed yeah and the causing uh it could potentially cause learning loss for not just that student but for everybody everybody else in the classroom uh cause stress for the teachers and and things it has a cascading effect as we know so I'm just trying to understand if if you have any additional data to expand on that how that process is and how how we are U ensuring that our teachers are buying into that process and also being trained on um you know what the expectation should be and and things like that well so the idea of the behavior Matrix is that it does outline all of the different education code violations it provides a variety of responses that could be taken um you know much of the discipline is at the discretion of the administrators ideally we want tier one interventions to be happening in the classroom um you know we understand that there's times where student needs to be removed but really every student needs to be in the classroom they need to be getting their education and so with the um I think it's important to also realize that behavior is is a direct result of a student need and so sometimes the traditional approach dis discipline is not necessarily what that student needs at that time um you know we see that suspending the students removing them from the class is not necessarily effective and does not work for students it's not going to change behavior and so that's where our administrators are still continuing to work with our teachers on how we can address behaviors within the classroom um you know and in terms of buyin again you know this is something that's constantly developing I said it's a work in progress so we are moving to seek feedback on how we can continue to develop this and and make it as effective as possible and I'll add to that as well because I think in addition to buyin the other thing you're alluding to is communication right that feedback loop of what's occurring so that way the classroom teacher uh knows that what whatever the strategy was implemented happened during that in between time and that's what we're we're working on as Mr Carol shared it's a work in progress we currently have our mtss district executive leadership team and those are the issues that we're discussing we have some of our members here in the off in the audience uh that are part of those conversations um and we acknowledge that there's still a lot of communic ation that needs to happen districtwide to share uh this work and the path that we're on in terms of trying to address uh not just academic needs of students but these behavioral needs as well and uh just this past week we had uh on Monday we had our executive leadership team meeting and the focus was communication and how do we put all of these um plans that we've been working on uh together so that it can be EXP exess to everyone not just our teachers but we have support staff in the classrooms as well with our teachers so everyone knows like what's our mission and what are we what's driving us and what are the resources that everyone has or will have at their fingertips to try to support these situations um it is a shift uh there's a lot of communication we need to do and uh we're we're building that and actually our next meeting in December we're we're bringing that communication package back so then we can share it districtwide so that was what we just discussed this week and that's part of that building in that ownership for everyone and explaining the rationale behind it too because there's been uh as we mentioned in our previous board meeting lots of recent legislation that is changing how discipline is being addressed with students that we also need to be sure we're we're meeting those regulations and uh and all the research that's out there that shows you know what is uh where do students make the most gain and and that's what's being looked at also you know through these initiatives right so so my all my concern is uh is about the entirety of the of the classroom or the entirety of the school so if if a student uh behavior is not changing after repeated attempts uh what what is a mitigation plan because at at that at that point uh there's learning loss for pretty much everybody right and then that causes stress on the on the educator on the support staff who is handling the situation and that kind of uh demoralizes uh you know kind of takes away that kind of excitement of coming coming to work to teach saying that I'm not being effective the the student doesn't seem to uh make any any Improvement so it's causing U me problems with my other students that are wanting to learn but I'm not able to provide that and so and this process is a progressive process and so with mtss there's multiple tiers there's tier one tier two and tier three depending on where the student needs go so as you said if Behavior continues uh that's part of what this Matrix is about in in addition to more so for those that might need more right depending on what's going on if it's counseling intervention if it's um at home services you know if it's a change of placement in the classroom environment what's important is that from the initial event whatever that looks like is that documentation and those conversations with the family so that way we're ensuring that the student is moving from the different levels of support from one two to three um but we always make sure we try to uh keep them in the most most um least restrictive environment with as much support as possible but there that's not always going to be what they need right but we have to have lots of data that shows what is that right path for that student and um and you know so that documentation is key in each of these incidents as we're working with each student and their family thank you I just quickly want to say thank you so much PBIS is so important and as you know I always ask our principles how are they implementing PBIS like what are you working on and I really loved what you said that you know when a student is acting out we want to figure out what the root cause is and I really believe that to be true they just need additional interventions so just thank you so much for your work and your presentation you're welcome thank you okay thank you for the presentation Mr Carl um let's move on to uh 10 C now Dr bues thank you at this time I'd like to invite Tony kisto our director of bond facilities to provide his monthly Bond update on measure L and measure U hello everyone again we'll give you an update on measure L and measure U again our first picture is our new gym at pedmont it's almost there um we'll go through measure L I'll give you an update of kind of what we're going to do and then measure U again for measure L we've actually completed all our projects so at the next board meeting we'll give you how we're going to spend I think we have about remaining $150,000 I mean we've already kind of have projects for another 150 but there's about 150 left that we'll figure out what we're going to do with measure U again we completed this last month the rusken doors the um the ornamental doors at the front there's three sets of doors I have a picture of those um the exhaust fan project phase one for the exterior we've done Majestic Way Summerdale Vincy Park seront also Brook tree Noble Northwood and pedmont have all been completed um the exterior door numbers projects Noble has been completed uh progress we're working on right now is again the gym as of today it looks like I was told the gym will they they think the gym is going to be done the 21st of December so I know last week they told us power was going to we were going to have permanent power on the 15th of this month and I was told today now it's going to be the 29th so that's two weeks so somewhere in December we'll be done the good news is we actually did get the mechanical unit that's actually going to be sit on the roof on Monday and they're actually Paving the fire access road to on Friday when school's off so that those are two big things um the morel exterior door project they're actually complete they're just trying to finish all the punch list things they're going to be working Friday and then if they have anything left to do they'll do that over Thanksgiving again the exhaust fan project the only school that we actually have left is Morell and we have one fan to finish fire alarm replacement Brook tree Majestic Way Noble Summerdale those are all moving around along Majestic Way is actually almost complete and in the the play area or the Playfield at rusin that was seated and I think we're just waiting to see how it turns out at this point um and next is exterior door numbers we have all these projects the biggest hold up with these is now the vendor can't get materials so they're having hard times getting the reflective materials for the numbers um things we're going to bid this month I think everything bids on the 28th of November the um Pont district office the roofing and HC replacement exhaust fan replacement phase two which is the remaining four schools which is Cherrywood Lane view Cherrywood Lane view I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget Cherry Lane view um rusin and Toyon and then lighting LED lighting replacement at rusin in the M MPR and Lan View and the MPR and then also we have an alternate for the lights in the classrooms at Cherrywood again in design we still have Toyon Vincy Park Northwood that's moving forward the warehouse replacement project we're moving forward on that again exterior signs we're working on that the next set of PA and security projects are again seven schools and then the exterior window replacement at pedmont and then pictures again this is the latest picture of the gym about two weeks ago so it's looking pretty good inside again they really what they have to do inside is um finished the main hoops and then put in the floor and they were working on some of the low voltage things but the good thing is that I didn't mention we actually have everything we're not waiting for anything anymore now we're just waiting for labor to actually put it in um again this is the opposite view of the gym again kind of the side view again this is the main access road to the for the fire lane and then these are the doors at rusin so again on the left hand side where the old doors red doors and the right hand side we put in ornamental one basically big ornamental gate and then the following is just a schedule of how we are going to complete everything and then this is just the opposite side of the gym do we have any questions good so on the 150k you have for measure L they be bringing up some suggestions or are you looking for us to bring up suggestion well no we'll have some suggestions on how to spend the money okay anything else great thank you thank you for your report thank you uh we'll move on to your report uh Dr fences uh first I would just like to say um our schools across the district have really kicked off the fall and all of the uh wonderful holidays we have to come with fantastic community events um these past few weeks everything's been celebrated with uh fall festivals Halloween parades uh Theos moros celebration at Noble the dwali celebration today at Summerdale it's really um wonderful to see you know our schools celebrate uh the diversity that we have across the berasa community and nice to just have that good um good spirit you know back it's been a long long time since we've had full scale you know events with our community and we have certainly seen that uh this school year so just a lot of fun uh to attend these past few weeks and I just wanted my hats off to you know our school staff uh the site principls and their ptas and all of the uh parents that are involved volunteering uh being part of you know all of the family fund for the students it's it's been a great joy to be a part of that um the other thing I wanted to share was a congratulations to Vincy Park uh Elementary um they were recognized this past month as the best public school in the online Metro Silicon Valley publication so that's a a great thing you know um that's really by uh poll voting right just so whether it was their Vincy Park Community their parents at large whoever went online and said yes we love our school um Vince Park you know surfaced as number one so a great recognition uh for them and and the pride that their Community has for you know what their what their school offers so that was really um exciting also just um to share you know we do have an upcoming holiday so there will be no school this Friday in honor of our veterans so I just want to give my thanks to all of our veterans here in the audience our veterans within our community we thank them for their for their dedicated service to our country and uh certainly we have our Thanksgiving holiday that's around the corner and just want to give my gratitude to our trustees and your leadership and to uh our community at large uh we have a wonderful place here in beresa and so uh my thanks to all of them and wishing everyone a wonderful holiday upcoming holiday with with their families you thank you for your presentation and Report um are there any comments or announcements from the board yes I have something um just wanted to quickly I won't take too much time just want to quickly uh uh uh let everybody know that this month or the past month we kicked off The Slowdown San Jose campaign at our schools so I wanted to request uh uh the district to I mean the Dr point is to Cascade that information to all schools and uh what what what to expect and uh how to implement it uh we're looking for support from our ptas um to try to have a table at any of their events um to get some pledges going to have a parents pledge to slow down around schools um so uh just as a little bit of a background even when I was not on the board as a community member I always wanted to have have um safety around the perimeter of the schools not just the school itself as part of the school site plan uh but for obvious reasons it cannot be implemented because it's resource intensive so we're glad to have partners with the partnership with San Jose City uh do uh we had Walkin roll we have walk we are a walk androll School District so we depend on these Partnerships to implement some of those ideas uh to make our school sites safer and slowdown campaign is is a is a very important one so uh we should have that um information cascaded to all our U uh sites so they they all know what to expect and definitely they can contact uh you or uh our contacted the city to uh understand what needs to be done and uh and just as a to let everybody know please slow down I work as a volunteer um crossing guard at Cherrywood please don't run me over I know you [Laughter] know you may not like what I say but you know I'm just trying to get get kids crossing the road that's all I'm trying to do so uh slow down uh you know look for kids like I tell my parents at Cherrywood our job doesn't end as soon as our kid gets out of the of our cars it doesn't give us the freedom to just take off or you know just pick up the phone want to start texting away uh safety is all of our responsibility and you know drive as if your child is in the crosswalk is what I what I say if if your child is crossing the crosswalk would you be speeding down the street uh you wouldn't so that's what I tell my U all the parents at sherrywood and i' appreciate that message going to all the sites yeah absolutely and just as a reminder to our families and anyone that's watching us because uh we did put uh the link in our last newsletter and we've been putting it out in social media and we'll continue to do that and as a friendly incentive of what we're asking all of our parents and staff to do is sign that pledge that you will slow down when you're around a school and the city in Partnership will be doing monthly Raffles So based on your pledge signup so they've got great prizes so if you want to have a chance be sure to sign that pledge and commit to slowing down are there any other comments or announcements from other board members all right if there's none uh we'll move on to our first review and action item A1 Dr for can you introduce this item yes it is recommended the Board review and approve board policy non-discrimination in District programs and activities for a first reading this is an update to our policy based on a new law AB 1078 2023 This was um put in place by uh recently by Governor Nome to ensure uh that the district's policy prohibits any discrimination harassment intimidation and bullying when it comes to applying um or enacting any policies and procedures in adoption of instructional material requirements so uh we are again are bringing this forth as a first reading based on current uh legislation requirements all right thank you for that is there any discussion or motion as item I so move second go ah okay it's been moved and seconded all in favor of this motion say I I I okay that's 5 to zero motion passes uh we'll move on to B1 Dr FR can you introduce this it is recommended the board approve the compreh ensive school safety plans for all of our elementary and B1 oh I'm sorry yes oh here we go sorry B1 measure a uh we it is recommended the board appoint Community member yanet seura Hera to the measure a committee I know she was here uh earlier did she have to leave okay so um should is it best that we bring this item back or can we move forward do we have a statement from her in terms of her application do we have a copy or is it attached okay well I will I will say if the board is open to moving forward with this item it is recommended that we appoint Miss seura to this committee can share uh on on her behalf her level of involvement and commitment to our district she's a a very active parent of ours she has children uh at brooktree as well as at marel middle school she's an active uh PTA parent has held uh president positions is currently on the North Valley Council PTA executive board um she's involved in our budget stabilization committee uh she has participated in our district advisory Council in the past so certainly keeps uh herself well informed of District issues and uh you know and seeks clarification when needed so I would strongly encourage you know her uh ability to be able to be part of this committee uh as she desires yanet is a well-known U uh community member I've worked with her uh also she's she's a very passionate parent so I emphatically moved to approve her um appointment I'll second that okay it's been moved in second any other questions if not um let's go ahead and take a vote all in favor of this say I I I okay motion carries um five is zero we'll now move on to uh B2 Dr quences thank you it is recommended the board approve the comprehensive School safety plans for our elementary and middle schools as well as our district office I know we have uh provided those comprehensive safety plans to you to review we have uh Dan here who takes the lead in ensuring that those plans meet all of the compliance components one of the things that I will share with the board is we will be bringing these plans back again most likely in the month of January because 's another new law that recently passed this past month uh and uh but we need to meet the October requirements or the umch March requirements we're going to do this initial review which is based on our past regulations but the new law which goes into effect in January 2024 we need to add additional language on how we would address potential um uh overdose or drug use situations of students we need to have a plan of action I would like to share with the board we're ahead of the game um just last month we had all of our district leadership team all of management were trained in being able to disseminate uh Narcan in the ad event we also have that uh medication on site in all of our AE AED lock boxes so um that will definitely be part of a component to um that implementation process Dan all right good evening everybody I just want to give you guys a a quick uh overview of the safety plan purpose and requirements so the California Education Code outlines the requirements of all K through 12 schools with regards to writing and developing a school safety plan relevant to the needs and resources of the particular school is the intent of the district to develop a an a mandated comprehensive safety plan detailing the systematic planning process including strategies aimed at the pre prevention of the education about potential incidents involving crime and violence on school campuses so the comprehensive school safety plans must include the following elements assessment of school crime committed on school campuses and at school related functions child abuse reporting procedures disaster procedures suspension and expulsion policies procedures to notify teachers of dangerous pupils discrimination and harassment policies schoolwide dress code policies procedures for safe Ingress and egress policies enacting to M enacted to maintain a safe and orderly environment rules and reg procedures on school discipline and the last hate crime reporting procedures so a brief timeline of how our school safety plans were developed this year um included me updating the initial plan and and sending those out to principles on September 11th um basically I sent them out uh all of our our our safety plans are on a Google doc so it's a living document we could make updates and adj adjustments as as we need um from there principles were able to share the 2324 School sa School site safety plan with their site Council uh in order to update the sections they're responsible for um the this includes um safety concerns that have that have brought up um for example damaged fencing or issues with traffic patterns before and after school drop off this slowdown event all that good stuff um physical and social climate goals are are developed and and documented by each school and then shared with their respective commun communities most common physical goals concentrate on emergency preparedness um earthquake drills fire drills Etc most common uh social climate goals uh detailed around emotional uh social emotion leads of students um updated documents then came back to me for for approval from the buusd Safety Committee as well as signatures from the San Jose fire department and the San Jose police department so I meet with them they come to theot conference room I lay them all out we read through them um and uh I've developed those relationships with the fire department and the police department to so they understand these um what they're signing um and then the last step is to present at the board and get Dr FR fren's signature and the board president signature so with that said on behalf of the B buusd Safety Committee I present you the safety plans for 22 20 23 24 any questions anything from the board no thank you for um putting this together I know it's a lot of work every year um it takes a lot of stakeholders input so thank you again thank you uh now is there a motion to approve uh or motion for this item I move for approval okay second it's been moved and seconded all in favor of this item say I I I any motion carries 5 to zero we'll now move on to item B3 Dr fris can you introduce this it is recommended the board approve the use of the Apple Inc P PPM contract number 5358 0 1 -001 piggyback agreement for the purchase of Apple Inc computers tablets accessories and services for initial term of three years any questions or motions on this item sorry is it coming from the uh Bond program this one or U the funding for this so this is the contract that allows us to buy Apple products at standard price over the next three years okay right so when we go in we actually purchase from the e-commerce site and this just sets the price according to this contract for the next three years okay and the funds uh Dr pointus so those funds could come from a variety of sources they could bond that could come from the general fund it's all dependent upon the use of that computer within the district oh I see where where the computer is actually placed okay that makes sense okay uh I move to approve uh the contract agreement I second okay it's been moved in second all in favor of this motion say I I okay it's five zero motion carries uh we'll move on to B4 now it is recommended the board first conduct a public hearing on the disclosure of the Teamsters Local 150 collective bargaining agreement and second accept and certify the disclosure of the Teamsters Local 150 collective bargaining agreement from the Santa Clara County Office of Education okay so at this time um the board will now open up to a public hearing uh are there any comments in regards to this item from the public if there's none we'll go ahead and close the public hearing now is there a motion to accept and certify uh the disclosure of the Teamsters Local 150 collective bargaining agreement from the S Clair County Office of Education so moved second okay it's been moved in second all in favor say I I I okay motion carries 5 to zero we'll move on to C1 now it is recommended the board approve the contract language changes in the tenative agreements with Teamsters Local 150 I would also just like to express on behalf of the the district our uh thanks for the collaboration with Teamsters leadership Alan der and Johnny Salgado and Melinda who were all part of working with us to come to um this positive closure okay I just also want to EO the the partnership that the team s Union Local 150 had with us um they were the first um bargaining group that uh came to an agreement with us uh uh this year so again I would like to thank them for that uh now is there a motion for this item move to approve second okay it's been moved and seconded on in favor say I I okay that's five is zero motion carries we'll now move on to D1 it is recommended the board approve the measure U Bond implementation plan project list update dated November 8 2023 okay any uh questions or discussion on this item do we go through the list of priorties or we do not have a presentation um but you do have the listing there ahe of you um it is not uh it's all of our existing projects from the past that continue to be moving forward and then in the red are areas of projects that are moving forward from Project two list that can advance because now we have um some additional savings that we can put towards those efforts um so there's not too many uh a lot of them are are structural in nature additional fencing additional security measures things of that nature the most significant project on that list is the warehouse rebuild as a result of the fire that disseminated um that entire workspace I actually wanted to ask um is the restroom signage for all gender restrooms going to be coming this school year or are we going to be following the state law where it can roll out I think two years I just wanted to ask how that is going actually as part of the signage projects where the schools were trying to add those at the same time okay great sounds good all right is any other questions or discussion or motion on this item I'll move to approve all right second it's been moved in seconded if there's no other questions or discussion U let's take a vote all in favor of this motion say I I I okay that's five to zero motion carries we'll now move on to uh D2 Dr for just it is recommended the board approved the it Management Corporation Inc request to use Cass contract 32302 1038 with verata Inc for security alarm equipment and Cass contracts 31870 0019 q and number 31870 0019 r with it Management Corporation Inc for low voltage cabling and security alarm equipment installation at pedmont and Mill Middle Schools all right any questions from the board or a motion from the board I'll move to approve I'll second okay it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I motion carries five to zero we now move on to D3 it is recommended the board approved the it Management Corporation Inc request to use C mask contract 32302 1028 with single wire Inc for public address system software license licensing supplies and equipment and Cass contracts number 9 number 0019 q and number 31870 0019 r with it Management Corporation Inc foret work programming Services low voltage cabling and it equipment installation is this across all Sites uh doesn't show specific site uh so the network optim optimization is across all Sites but it's also adding the PA systems at Morel and pedmont so this will allow us in the future to actually go from school to school and do it during the year oh so we don't have to do it over the summer okay um move to approve I'll second that I been moved and seconded all in favor of this motion say I I I okay motion carries 5 to zero now are there any requests for staff followup or items for future agendas from board members okay is there a motion to adjourn them move to ajour okay all in favor adjournment say I I okay meetings turned at 9:07 p.m.

okay we will call the meeting to order first item is approval of the agenda motion by Chad second second by Allison all those in favor say I I oppos same motion pass all right and with that I will give the floor to you Gary okay thank thank you very much I appreciate it I had a fun day today so thank you for allowing me in the district to visit with uh think we had 21 people between the two groups so it was good and fun fun conversation what I would like to do the first thing is to review with you the online survey you had 141 responses so congratulations to you as a board so I'd like to hand this to uh board members and our new board can our she's going to need to know this stuff so all right thank you and we'll go through this page by Page okay these questions to the best of our ability we try to match the questions from the online survey to the four questions we ask face to face it's obviously a little bit different simply because I can't respond to people online as can I hear but uh let's go through this page by page so you can see question one is simply which group best describes you so you can see if you're 141 uh individuals that completed this almost 40% of them claim to be a Community member all right so Community member means a member of your school district not necessarily Wilson Claflin Hollywood the second question uh very similar 38 and a half% claim to be a parent or guardian of a student and you can only respond to one of these you know you can't have two different responses so that's really good and then you can see a little over 11% claim to be a teacher uh 7 and a half% are an employee which would be a a classified employee and then you had two administrators complete this and you had two students that took the time to go through that question two and if I go through this too fast please I was going to say yell at me but I prefer you just politely ask me to slow down U we will go through a little bit slower after we get through these first questions so question two is how long have you been associated with the community or the school district so it's interesting this is almost always the way it works you had a little bit of a mixup usually as you can see 57% have been in your community 20 plus years you a large percent of the District it goes exactly by the length in the community is from the most it's very close as you can see 11 to 10 uh 20 to 4 to 10 but nothing to be concerned about so those numbers are are pretty pretty close so now when we get to question three I want you to remember we had 141 people responded that does not mean 101 141 people answered the hard questions so if you look up there you can see how many people answered the question so question three as you can see because it's an online we have given the respondents eight opportunities or eight items to prioritize one through eight now remember this is the identified personal qualities of your next superintendent so this would come close to matching question one of which I'll review that we did face to face today so I want you to look on the far right where you see where it says score I'm going to call that a power score this one I highlighted the first two if you see a power score of six or higher I'm not a statistician but I don't see a whole lot of times I've done 140 of these where there's six or more not that there aren't but when I see a six or more to me it's pretty it's pretty statistically important because I don't see a whole lot of sixes but a 5.7 is still very important so I want you to understand that so as you can see of those eight different things that personal strength to do what's right regardless of circumstance has the highest power score so to understand that of the people that responded 48.5% of the people responded had that prioritized that as number one you kind of see how that's working that particular group on question number eight which is being flexible four people that had that rated last of their eight on that particular so I don't know how the computer does it but it works with those different ranges and comes up with that power score so I highlighted the first two that does not mean 3 through eight are not important but I highlighted the first two because there seemed to be a little bit bigger uh gap between number two and three and you know three and four so number two is a kids's first personality now I'm not going to take the time to go through all eight of these but I sure hope hope you're looking at those because at some point I'm going to ask you what you as a board's opinion is of this do you feel like this is what you're looking for because ultimately you folks get to make the decision so I need to know what you want me to prioritize also I'd like you to in mind be thinking about what you're seeing and hearing from me because when I go over the characteristics that we identified today I'm hoping you'll see there might be a connection or you may think there's not a connection but that's a determination well want talk about also all right so any questions on question three we go to question four this is the identified leadership qualities the question that I asked today number one and two was put into the same as personal and Leadership qualities just kind of breaks it down a little bit more specifically so efficient manager of resources and budget was number one and you can see once again that was also over six number two is proactive forward thinker and you can see that dropped down to 5 and a half per.

up Mrs cot we have a very nice certificate for [Applause] her quality first first things first for achieving a quality first star rating five stars highest quality R exceeds quality standard just give a big awful [Applause] welcome like to to our staff our viewers watching and oh come on up here I know you're not shy they know you're not shy what would you like to say um for uh for the five star read it's definitely a team effort I mean I could not have done it without my pair of Pros Miss Bethany Miss shine Amber and of course um the supervision and guidance and support of the current Administration Dr so um and most especially my colleagues who we felt the the love support throughout the thank you next we like to recognize and from where you guys are you can stand up that that's that's fine whatever you feel comfortable with our um Elementary School ka8 made an incredible jump from um 64.8 points to 77.9 13.03 which is an incredibly significant increase the research normally shows that uh anywhere from 5 six 78 points is is a significant increase they doubled that 77.9 one points for a b an a is 84.6 so we're only a little over six points away from an A but I'd like for all of our Elementary staff will you please stand up where's our Elementary staff please stand up W your hand raise your hand [Applause] sh raise your hand anyone of you want to say a few words for your Elementary would like to be the designated speaker I won't call on nobody come on up here you're not shying you speak very well good evening your administrators so board the our board members thanks and I want to say um it's a group effort it's a teamwork and we can't do this without the help of each and everyone and of course our administrators did a great job also because they gave us their full support to whatever we need in the academics thank you so much and um we want to give a special recognition our high school was at 4 six points um they improved from 46.2 to 62.4 that's an incre that is M Rodriguez right you you're out there in in the field and that's that is incredibly difficult and that is impressive if you think about it too all of our staff and parents and community members and people listening at home we want to a major roof renovation project last year so a lot of these classrooms rooms where this High School where this jump was 16.2 points was happening right Dr sh when people were moving classrooms during January and February and March right before testing work was going on the roof it was loud Mr Mano was trying to teach one time and he had to raise his voice level because of the noise on the roof that was for a few months 62.4 65 is a b our high school almost made two letter grad jumps which is incredibly difficult and almost never happens we're 2.6 points I believe from a be I'd like to ask if if one of our high school people can come up here [Applause] and Beall and okay but before you come up here he didn't know that we were going to recognize a very a very uh you might know him his name is Dr Lance Shotz Arizona Department of Education this is to principal shabal congratulations the Arizona Department of Education School Improvement unit was excited to hear that AO high school has earned a c letter grade for the 2223 school year we applaud your success the hard work and dedication of your faculty and staff to improve academic outcomes for students is commendable as you know the state school Improvement Team Works alongside schools with a or F letter grade in an effort to facilitate the development of Foundations and strategies for success although we will no longer be working strategically with your school I know he's very sad about that as a sincere as a service organization we will continue to be a resource to you for your continued success please feel free to reach out to your specialist anytime with needs you may have this is from Michelle Udall associate superintendent School Improvement Adam Schwarz Deputy associate superintendent school Improvement Allison Barber director State School Improvement Dr sh let you who wants to hear from our from our principal who would like to hear from Miss Dr sholz also right Dr Sto said the the jump that was made um is not just amazing but again with the movement that we had the constant noise the construction the trucks um changing of classes and and it just uh it made it even more difficult so it's it's um just just incredible that our teachers were able to to fight through that to keep the kids focused and engaged through all the all that kind of conflict and outside outside noise that was continuously happening and uh Mr Mr Casey Miss Mercy they were having to do schedule changes constantly um work with teachers on on changing classrooms and getting them set up from elementary desks and tables so a lot of things were happening behind the scenes that you don't know and the fact that they were able to make that increase and really just were so close to to a b and not that far from an A which would have been incredible jump but to make that first step and then this year to to increase that and just keep moving forward no time at all the high school will be an a again as it was years ago and no doubt in my mind one of our read teachers and Veteran teachers of the High School Mr V Senor if you could just say hello and maybe tell else he um this a work with everybody was involved it's Mercy Mr Casey and you know Mr Nick and all the teachers right and the Go I mean this is not enough the goal for the next year is to become that's the goal and uh we we have a video to share with all of you and also with our governing board members this is a video we shared October 13th as a staff just to try and keep working together building our relationships our foundation year two of moving forward of our transformation of heart pride and relationships this is Duke women's head coach Carol Lawson it's a short three minute video but I believe the message it's it's still with me every day when after I heard it a few months ago I know it's with our staff we want to share with our governing board and our people listening from home Angelina talking with SH a couple days ago and one of the things we talked about was um how we all wait in life for things to get easier in your own life if you waited for something to get easier I just this I just gotta get through preseason be okay I just gotta get through my junior year high school and then the classes are going to get easier I just got to get to my spring my senior year college it's going to be easier it's what we do we wait for stuff to get easier it will never get easier what happens is you handle hard better that's what happens most people think that it it's going to get easier life is going to get easier basketball's going to get easier school's going to get easier it never gets easier when happens is you become someone that handles hard stuff there so that's a mental shift that has to occur in each of your brains it has to because if you go around waiting for stuff to get easier in life it's never going to happen and then what happens all it's so hard oh I can't do it oh this I don't know when when is it going to be easy for me oh it's easy for other people it's not it's hard and the second we see you handling stuff handling hard better what are we going to do we're goingon to make it hard we're going to make it harder because we're preparing for you for when you leave here not just basketball and life and if you think life when you leave college is going to be all of a sudden get easy because you graduated and you got a new degree it's not going to get easy it's going to get harder so make yourself a person that handles hard well not someone that's waiting for the easy because if you have a meaningful pursuit in life it will never be easy you're trying to win a championship you're trying to have a family ask your parents do you think it was ever easy for them to raise kids Ken is it easy it's not any meaningful pursuit in life if you want to be successful at it goes It goes to the people that handle hard well go are the people that get the stuff they want people that wait around for easy you probably see my bus out they're waiting for easy the easy bus to come around easy bus never comes around got to handle hard okay so don't get discouraged through this time if it's hard don't get discouraged it's supposed to be and don't wait for it to be e oh I just got to get through the summer and then it'll all a sudden get easy in the fall no won't it won't it won't get easy in the fall so make yourself someone that handles hard well and then whatever comes at you you're going to okay we wanted to share with you that's what we shared at our with our staff October at 13th so that's uh Mr President members of the board that's our superintendent report we wanted to really make sure to just recognize all of our staff our hardworking staff led by our principal Dr shabot um and we're not waiting for the easy bus to come around we're just going to keep working hard and handling hard better so thank thank you very much uh next item on the agenda is Awards and recognition Mr President members of the board we have um our monthly superintendent student of the month Awards and we'll start off with our fourth grade teacher Mr cesno come on up here Mr seeso gonna present his stud of the month you go sir good evening everyone I take this as a privilege to speak and share some of my thoughts and observations about this month's and an achiever in my class ever new new superintended student of the month certainly the thir fits to her like a gold driven it reflects how hardworking and Brilliant she is inside and outside the classroom she possesses positive behavior towards every task assigned to her and has the potential to become a leader a is this mantra be respect be respectful responsible and every is the event of the school's core values the consistency in demonstrating these values shapes her personality and how she interacts people especially to her classmates and teachers I believe that this award would not only apply for students who always get a in the report card it's when you perceive how hardworking and motivated the child towards great development towards great development goals both in personal and academic SP um before I end the speech let me share to you a famous slide and I Cote success isn't just about what you what you accomplish in life it's about what Inspire others to do Everly come on up come come on up [Music] [Applause] guys next we have Miss Christine Miss fifth grade teacher come on and the camera getting better here or over there over there over here um good evening everyone may I present to you the um superintendent student of the month for fifth grade um we have Brian number Garcia he is an enthusiastic learner who seems to enjoy school he shows initiative and looks for new ways to get involved in tasks he is cous and shows good manners in the classroom he shows respect not just to the teachers but also to his co- um learner he persevere when faced with difficulty by asking question and trying his best he is very very hardworking and always completes all of his work he sets an example of excellence in behavior and cooperation he W he welcomes leadership roles in groups and he helps to keep the the work group focus on task once again congratulation congratulations Brian naret Garcia [Music] let's go first to Angelina over there next we have a t Team Mr espa and Miss for their student of the month Miss come on come on come on board members administrators parents colleagues students good evening um I am very privileged to present to you our uh superintendent student of the month of sixth grade who is Roman Leon um from the first day of class Roman Leon impressed me with his ability he demonstrates with high excellence in academic performance Roman is a responsible compassionate Cal kind hardworking student who consistently demonstrates a positive attitude towards learning follows classroom rules very respectful of teachers and peers and exceeds expectation Roman definitely shows characteristics of a role model Roman has shown over a lot of dedication in class he is very driven to understand how things work his personal strengths are impressive as his intellectual achievements I'm very proud to call him the superintendent student of the month of sixth grade class so to you Roman Leon congratulations and keep doing an amazing job Angelina awesome thank you over here guys over here all right good we're gonna get a whole gr picture we always like to includ the board with the family Pur of the month so we can have the board fourth grade where's fourth grade all right Mr Casey you're the photographer we'll look at you first all right Angelina we'll look at you Angelina now nice all right good job good job guys fifth grade where grade grade where's your student and family that everyone here got it all right Mr Casey you're on first nice Miss Fernandez Angelina now Angelina Mr Nick in the back over there let sixth grade MRE yeah come on up guys come on up come on up very great job great job Casey ready all right okay let us know what done Mr Nick all right students of the month um and um families 're very we're proud of you we want to continue this tradition every month uh we really feel it's important recogniz children and also you you feel welcome and that you really value your partnership thank you so much okay you're all welcome to stay I know Mr maningo is looking at me like he wants to stay here I know you you guys can stay for the rest of the me or you can go have your dinner and uh we'll be with your family so we'll wait a few minutes if you guys want to go home or you're welcome to stay for the rest it might be a long meeting you're welcome to stay at we don't have my sle the ones that were in charge that were doing nice hour they usually they average like and you're right you know after the first hour and a half or so nothing else g a half hour bre you're non productive at that point you're non productive nothing wait nobody nobody wants to stay for the exciting congratulations nobody wanteded to stay nobody wanted to stay for the EXC that offer s us too oh never mind I mean one of us I guess we someone gets a [Music] vacation have a good night okay yeah very nice next item on the agenda is adoption of the consent agenda may I have a motion to adopt I'll second Mr Pon is I miss olon i m Rodriguez i m Ro I passes 4 Z kind school's doing weird things okay uh first item under Personnel is certified employment of substitute teacher Ronda Watkins Mr President members of the board Ronda Watkins has been interviewed for the position of substance teacher I recommend the approval of the employment of Ronda Watkins as a substitute teacher okay she hasn't gotten her substitute yet but as soon as she does start next day okay thank you man' and we need a motion I shall move I'll second Mr Ken rich is I Mr Hopkins I Mr Rodriguez hi Miss Olsson hi approved 4 z uh next item is a certified employment of part-time substitute teacher Oscar cisk Mr President members of the board Oscar CIS has been interviewed for the position of part-time substitute teacher I recommend the approval of the employment of Oscar cisk as a part-time substitute teacher okay may I have a motion I happily make the motion I'll seconded Mr ker is I Mr Hopkins hi Miss Olsson hi Miss Rodriguez hi approved forer next item is the reassignment of extra pay positions for girls basketball Mr President members of the board orlo espinela fifth sixth grade teacher and REI Nunes school secretary are willing to share responsibilities as co-head coaches for the girls basketball team mrpa and Miss Nunes will add the two coaches salaries and split it between them amount Below in the admin section I recommend the approval of wo espa and grey Nunes as co-head girls basketball coaches for the 23 24 winner season I really believe they're going to do a great job in work for walk together okay may I have a motion on that I so move call second Mr Curtis I miss Olson hi Mr Hopkins hi M Rodriguez I approved forer next item up is extra pay volunteer positions Mr President members of the board the individuals listed below are asking to be considered as volunteer coaches for The corresponding positions Donnie alvz volunteer girls basketball Carol Anon volunteer cheer coach recommend the approval of the above individuals for the corresponding positions okay may I have a motion on that I make the motion to approve Mr Alvarez with his own vote there it looks like we have speak speak so I made the most to approve Mr Alvarez I'll second Mr K is I Mr Hopkins I miss Olson M Rodriguez I approved 4 Z and may I have a motion on Miss Carol and I will make that motion also I'll second Mr Kur rich is I miss Olen I Mr Hopkins I Mr rgz I approved 4 to zero and next item up is primary teacher to additional primary tutor Rona cot Mr President members of the board uh Rona cot prek director is willing to provide after school tutoring to Primary students three days a week funding will come from Title One funds recommend the approval of Mrs Rona cotay as an after school tutor in gra K to do a great job I'll make that motion and I'll have we make a second Mr Hopkins Mr Kur is i m Rodriguez hi Miss Olson hi approved for deser uh next up we have the classified resignation of maintenance worker Andrew gr Mr President members of the board Andrew girls has submitted his letter of resignation as a maintenance worker at a schools his last day of work was Tuesday October 31st I recommend the approval of the resignation of Andrew Groves as a maintenance worker at a schools and I have a motion on that I'll make the motion I'll second it Mr Ken riches a i Mr Hopkins I Mr Rodriguez Miss Olen I approved four to Zer okay on to business where the first item is the approval of the revised 2324 coun Mr President members of the board the administration and the transportation department are requesting the revision of the 3 24 calendar half days early release days have been added to every day before a holiday additional early release days proposed are November 9th and 22nd 2 21st 22 um say it's the 20 21st I believe right 21st yes okay December 22nd January 12th February 16th and April 4 four recommend the approval of the attached revised calendar for the 2324 school year I'll make a motion second who wants it I don't care okay Mr Kur is I miss Olson hi Mr Hopkins hi uh Mr Rodriguez approved 4 to Zer okay next item up is the request for termination of the association between a USD and asba I'd like to make a motion to table this till the December meeting I'll second that Mr K is I Mr Hopkins i m p i Miss Rodriguez I tabling is approved four to zero okay next item up is the possible new agenda items for next meeting does anybody have any to propose do we know do we know the basketball games are the basketball games going to be on weekdays do we know yes still don't have they're almost all on week pre-schedule that I've seen so far um what time are they generally are they generally at like 7 o'clock that's a good question more than likely if they're going to be it's like usually it's 5:30 and or 6:30 and then 7 or like 5:30 they're usually an hour and a half between each other if we have them on the same on the same day does this connect have them on the same day Okay C I want to revisit the um where we put in effect something where there is an eight hour window by the when the time they get home they step foot off the bus between the time that they come to school the next day I know I've already talked to you about that but it's like I know we don't have school Friday but if we had school Friday the kids wouldn't be getting home till 2 or 3: a.m.

good evening welcome to Greenfield Public School school committee meeting it's Wednesday November 8 2023 6 PM we are at the johnon community center 35 Pleasant Street per the open meeting law any member of the public may make an audio or video recording of this meeting and just a reminder we do have a slightly new policy that if the meeting extends Beyond 8:00 p.m.

uh I will take a motion at this point to approve the minutes from the October 11th meeting can I have a motion please so move that was member wall and a second second member Johnson mad thank you and is there any discussion of the minutes okay hearing none we'll move to a vote anyone abstaining from approving the minutes don't you have to dooll call oh I'm sorry yes we have to do a roll call vote so let's do a roll call please member Den yes secretary exam I Imes member Johns manad yes Vice chair Martini yes sure priy yes member wall yes they are approved okay thank you and I should have noted also we've changed the order of our uh usual agenda just slightly to accommodate the folks that are at the conference they'll be with us probably for about the first hour of the meeting um and then we'll be logging off and um I think probably many of you are here for the discussion on reenvisioning the district the redistricting process um and we're going to have our report from the student representatives and then have the discussion of the the redistricting process after that and then public comments which just a slightly different order than you might be used to um and uh at this point we would take my favorite part of the meeting the Tumi Brothers report from the student Representatives please guys thank you um so to begin with student council um November brings such stuco Staples as lip syncs pep rallies and partnering with the Boy Scouts to scout for food um scouting was a huge success in the last few weeks together we helped collect over 2,000 pounds of food and next week several students will attend the regional state conference at Long Meadow High School uh planning for pep rally is coming up along or it's coming along well this year and we will be hosting a scavenger hunt in Leo of the annual turkey Bingo students are planning their Spirit Week costumes and collecting their pennies for Penny Wars all M all money raised from penny wars will be donated to the Special Olympics via our annual Polar Plunge Key Club participated in the first annual trunk retreat at Stone Burnham school on October 29th great costumes and dancing great Halloween decorations and yummy treats were provided for over a 100 trick-or-treaters we are preparing for the traditional Green Wave Turkey Trot which will be held on Wednesday November 22nd at 8:15 fun walk run DJ hot cocoa and Thanksgiving themed games and memory making along the way Spanish club celebrated dios moros with face painting before school on the Day of the Dead and they continue to play uh to plan and fundraise for their upcoming trip to Spain Italy and France in April they're currently selling holiday wreaths and planning for a fudge fundraiser their school meetings have included practicing ordering food in a restaurant and of course dancing to prepare for their performance in the Thanksgiving pep rally fall Sports have come to a close with a great success field hockey and boy soccer made the state tournament soccer traveled to Salem Academy in the perlim round and lost 4 to zero they put up a good fight as it was 1 and zero at half field hockey won their round of 32 game 2 to one in overtime versus Northbridge High School in the round of 16 game the girls lost a nailbiter two to1 in overtime at Su and high congratulations on the miaaa state tournament we want to wish all the senior fall athletes good luck in their future endeavors winter sports start Monday November 27th look for basketball ice hockey and indoor track schedules on AR live go wave French Club H hosted a well attended movie night on October 23rd where they enjoyed a light-hearted French animated film un monre which I'm sure I butchered um they continue to fundraise for their trip to France in April and have begun preparations for coffee house the coffee house talent show event which will be on Thursday December 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

flag United States and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I I'd like to make a motion to change the order of the meeting agenda to allow for the first opportunity of public comment to occur before the PT report um and the reason why I'm requesting this is because I'd like to uh give our first select woman an opportunity to come up to the podium before she has to run to a meeting she has a presentation for our output and order that members okay motion's been made to change the order of our agenda today do I have a second so move second John pa uh any questions or discussion before we proceed to a vote caring none I'll call for the vote all those in favor of changing the agenda as proposed please indicate by saying I move any opposed any extensions motion passes the agenda has been changed thank you so uh we come to our first opportunity for visitors public comment um if you could please state your name for the record PA 27 Connecticut first the town um I thank you for this opportunity to amend the meeting to because I have to run to my B meeting um there are three members that are stepping down tonight this is their last meeting and just wanted to kind of recognize them and thank them for their service um I'm going to start with Lynette you've been on the board for six years these are CER certificates of appreciation that they're homemade I made them it's not something you buy office office stap website I made them so artistic ability is not the best but it's it comes from the heart with appreciation for your service so if you want to come on know if your husband did the graphics would have been perfect 12 years that was my understanding times of a child PCS um but thank you once again for your service that's dedication for everybody that's on the board um you know you're volunteers it's time it's dedication and we appreciate it so if you'd like to come up I don't know how artistic you are but bear with my ability [Applause] soow thank you make me feel good thank you Chris we saved the best for last the chair we all the best you are all best that is true but as the head of of the board you know you kind of guide how things sort of flow and that's a dedication and of responsibility I know um you take The Good the Bad and the Ugly and but you you muddle through and you make it over so thank you for your 12 years I believe 14 14 gave wrong number it's I'll have words with her later I'll be at my meeting but if you come and certificate so for your 14 years so I did go by 14 and a half isn't it 14 and a half 14 so thank you thank you thank youate thank you thank you everybody your service and your dedication to the children and the town it's appreciated it's it's an important important job so uh enjoy the rest of your meeting I know enjoying mine so have a good night good you good night thank you right we continue with uh further opportunity for public comment I see we have at least one so I'll note the usual generals we'll ask you to come to the podium uh state your name for the record ask you to limit your comments to 3 minutes and I reserve the right to limit uh discussion on any particular topic to uh 15 we've never got I I also came tonight to thank the three departing members U for their service to the town um that do I don't know that well but the and uh Chris for your service particularly uh these have been a tumultuous 12 years with the pandemic uh remote learning and uh coming back together to rebuild the schools um when I served in this board 14 years ago and I resigned to join the 's board uh someone said who should replace uh me and it was suggested that Chris P and I put his name forward and the head of the Democratic town committee at that time said is he even a Democrat and I said I don't know he's very qualified and uh so uh thank you for your service andette as well and also uh congratulations to uh the new members of the board and the recent election uh and I'm sure you'll all be in good hands so thanks so much thank you did I sayling from you did not I'll have words with you later you have a lot of words thank you so I was actually um prepared to make these statements after the PTO report so kind of use a football term with an audible here so with me Melissa 191 Ro I you guys be very proud of these um football team consists of 11 that's half of the team of boys from Beth fourth and fifth graders n 10 they won champ team have made this part we going to regs the boys are if you drove by the field C right now otherwise he'd be here wearing this um but I do want to um at the game I prior to the game I reached out to M and Mrs bir um to let them know that the boys were playing and they showed up for these boys they were at that game as well as three teachers Mrs dear M Mr G and Mrs he that meant the world to those boys that meant the world to parents to see the support from their Community while they played their hearts out I emailed them support but I wanted to publicly acknowledge in this forum thank you for coming out to support our boys not just my boy bethan boys orange boys Bri Bo and then them go thank you anyone else wish to address the board here at our first public okay hearing none will move on there will be another opportunity for visitors public comment at the end of our agenda we return to our usual order with the PTO report could you please state your name and of the p and like I just said ith grader and um class so of 63 we were truly impressed with all the creativity of the home so thank you everybody for participating in that um our P sale is over um we are able to donate a total of 31 Li pies this year 12 are being donated to school uh 10 are being donated to um Beth seniors and nine are being donated to the nagat edal Outreach Network for free Thanksgiving Community din so thank you to everybody who purchased pies and donated pies um the pi distribution is scheduled for November 21st we're still working out the logistics of how that's going to work so once we get that all nailed down we'll be mailing out um how to pick up Pi if you purchase uh other thing that just ended was the book fair um we did record breaking sales um I'm still doing the financials but it was every year we it I just want to thank everybody from all volunteers the teachers our set up um our parents who work the fair who broke down the fair is amazing um and because of gener the generosity of all the parents um every teacher that U made a wish list we were able to fulfill and purchase all the books that the teachers have made in wish L for so thank you very much for that um and also during uh book fair week was also future conferences we were able for teachers on their late night conferences so thank you to everybody who donated um the desserts Don money what we have going forward is on November 14th we are hosting a free internet uh safety webinar for children well for parents saf their children uh if you're interested in doing that um log on to our PT board we're asking for you to register about 24 hours before the event Zoom link so you can participate in that our next meeting uh is next Thursday at 6 o' here in the library we do have light refreshments and child care available and um we're getting ready to start our snowflake shop which is going to be in December we are asking for donations of um wrapping paper holiday wrapping paper holiday gift bags my understanding is that there's a box set up in the main office to get those Collections and we'll take that because um make their purchases we want to be able to wrap them to help keep help the kids keep those presents PR purchas that um picture retake day is going to be November 28th and after the busy couple months we've had this actually seems like not a lot so we're all just kind of Tak a rebreather and resetting so thank you everybody for your support thank you thank you and thank you for everything you do for this right we move on to our presentation of a report on student achievement Mr Reed Swale and other BCS staff thank you for being here today probably it's really bright walk every stff sorry it's big screen all right so um we're going to go through uh a bunch of data as as we typically do every um every fall we go through um we go through our results from the smarter balance assessment um we're going to go through some of that I want to share this with a caveat that this is um this is always a chance for us to be able to share that with you but it's really a chance for us to be able to share the shine and the hard work um that the teachers are doing on behalf of the kids on behalf of the community um and so every time you see a graph it's really representing and I think it's really important to think about it's really representing kids and it's representing their hard work and it's representing their learning and the hard work of the teachers that got them there so um all right so uh to just kind of set the stage for previously um we used to have uh the Connecticut Mastery test I was a kid of the first gen Connecticut Mastery test I mean it was Norm reference data right so it was always it was all the way you would get a percentile Rank and so you were a kid in third or fourth grade and you'd be told wow you're doing great you're in the 90th percentile or you're not doing so great you're in the fifth percentile and it really was sort of gut-wrenching for kids to kind of get that and think like I'm not doing good enough and so um what they did as we shifted was to now what we have for the smarter balance which is Criterion reference that the state sets an expectation if the kids meet that expectation then they're saying to have met that expectation at a three or going beyond that expectation at a four um and it really kind of gets away from that idea that if you're Norm referencing somebody's always going to be in the first percentile no matter how good the entire state of Connecticut does right um so uh the other thing that's really beneficial for um the work that we're doing on smarter balance is that it happens uh year over um and the state sets growth targets for every child and so we're able to be able to take a look and get that growth data as well so the first thing that we're going to look at is achievement data so when we talk about Smarter Balance scores this is what you think of you think of the achievement data how well did kids do right and so for the state they set an expectation for all third fourth fifth sixth seventh and eth we only go up to sixth um for all those students um and that's what we think of when you see the smarter balance scores that are reported out were given out through Ed site from the state what you want to think is did they get a high enough score to meet St meet expectations and so the state measures that at being at a level three or a level four the kids get a raw score but it comes out as either a level one two three or four and so when we say meeting that expectation it's a level three or four right and so um this is our um math achievement scores so it's taking a look at the last two years prior to the pandemic you'll notice there's no data in 2020 we didn't take smarter balance in 2020 um and then the state didn't report out for 2021 in the typical way that they do um so that's why the state data isn't there um what we'll see is that um as we're going longitudinally across um from 2018 up to 2023 we've got a slightly upward trend for our um for our math data and you'll notice that the trend across the state is actually losing ground pre pandemic um and so this is one of those things that we've been talking about where a lot of districts are trying to figure out how do we get back to we're trying to think about how we're continuing on so when we look at it this is a breakdown um by grade so our grade three four um five and six scores so the blue um is the percentage that are meeting expectations uh and the yellow is the percent that are approaching or not met um what we've seen both last year and this year is that we have that drop off from fourth to fifth um but what we are seeing is positive Trends so if you look at um our grade three data in 22 you'll see that our grade four data has gone up 5 percentile points right when we go um from our grade five to our grade six they picked up um they picked up 15 perenti of points the challenge that we have is those students going grade four to grade five and we'll talk about some of that in terms of our Reflections on the data and our next steps that we're going to be taking all right everybody I've got the ELA um so just taking a look at our Ela data our whole scho um data over the past um 5 six years what you'll notice is that we are holding strong um we're at 72% meeting expectations while the state is um trending downwards going down about 6% um so we again as M Reed said we're thinking about how we can take our school further and grow those scores even more um while people in the state are focusing on that learning loss so just taking a look at by grade so this is just a really great way to look at the cohorts so if you take a look at fourth grade and then take a look at fifth grade uh I'm sorry third grade to fourth grade the following year so third grade went from 73% to 82% the following year um and then taking a look at that fifth grade cohort to sixth grade the following year 66% to 67% so they're holding strong that sixth grade while it looks like it got it went down if you follow the cohorts they're just Holdings wrong they're staying the same and then taking a look at our ngss achievement score so we're really proud of our success the reasons why you might see those numbers fluctuate is it's a different cohort every single year so it's only tested in fifth and eighth grade um but we're really proud of these scores um really great scores coming out of um fifth grade every single year using our amplify science curriculum and one of the things to consider when we look at that science data is it's a small Cort right in any case so it's always looking out of a sample size your our n size is 55 you know so three kids could have an off day and we look terrible or they have the greatest day of their lives and we look broken so when we look at some of these things and that gets to when we talk about subgroups right we're going to take a look at some subgroup comparisons and for us as a small District there's lots of advantages right we know everybody we we can drill down to specific students very easily one of the challenges is that our sample sizes are really small so sometimes that can be misleading for our dating um so uh when we look at our school right we can really look deeper um there's several different ways that the State um extrapolates out our data for us into different subgroups one of them is uh a group called our high needs um and that's uh that's a designation created by the state um in that high need subgroup uh is students who are um who are receiving English language learner um Services students who are receiving special education programming or um students who are deemed low socioeconomic status um those are students who qualify for free or reduced uh price cions um the other things that we can look at are um subgroups like race and ethnicity and gender for further information um one of the challenges is that we get really small sample sizes when we drill down for specificity um and so what we can look at is that we want to ensure that we're being able to report out responsibly but we don't want to be able to we don't want to be reporting out and then compromising the confidentiality of children we only have three students who might fit one particular category which we report out on their on their scores we're reporting out their scores um so we want to really mindful on that so um one of the categories um we combine um students uh who are considered black or African-American Native American Alaskan native and two or more races have been combined into uh a category of um other unra and ethnicity to ensure that we're not reaching confidentiality for those students so this is our um this is our math achievement by race and ethnicity um one thing to notice when we look at our students uh who um who are in the category of Hispanic um and Latino um we have been able now that um that group has a larger sample size um of the 19 students who are um considered in that section we have 10 of those 19 students are receiving um English language learner Services um and not as an excuse but to think about the fact that language acquisition is approximately a sevene um a seven-year Endeavor and so if those students are receiving that service it's something for us to consider when we look at that data and think about what are the ways in which we can support these students to help and grow and do better uh this is uh Ela achievement results by race and ethnicity um this is our uh math achievement by gender um and then um our Ela achievement by gender and then this is our math achievement um for our uh High needs subgroup and our non- high needs subgroup and so um again this is one of those where we see a significant disparity and so we're really trying to think about what can we do to support those students who are falling into that high needs category doing the best that we can for those students to help them achieve with their non High needs views that's our pla for subgroups right growth data okay stay with me everybody because growth data gets a little confusing for me all right so first thing we're going to do is growth rate so the state what what they do is they take each student and they take their sumita of score so that's their SBA score and they set a target for each student so if they reach that Target then they are counted into our growth rate so that's going to be the dark green on the uh graph there so if they meet that Target they're included our growth rate and that's that's our dark rate all right then we have percentage of Target grow this is going to be your light green on the graph so this basically means it's the average percentage of how much growth was achieved so they set that growth Target for every kid and then how much did they achieve of that growth Target so if even if they didn't make it they're still going to tell you oh they've made 75% of the way or 80% of the way okay so some considerations to think about so for percentage of Target growth averages it's it should be noted that the state of Connecticut caps our growth at 110% so it will not include those kids if they made more than 100 110% growth so they cap us there so it means when we have a student with a lot of growth that growth is truncated at 110% which eliminates outliers but also isn't a full picture of our growth so just some other data for you in ela we had 70 out of 161 students um with 110% growth or more um so and then we had 44 students with an actual growth percentage over 150% and a Max of 410 per.

utation Authority board of directors authorize education Outreach programs for the entire County providing factual information about the improvements that is delivered to Road streets and highways across County from here in Foothills all the way back to the valley um and uh at this time we're currently in the process of B measure development for a potential measure in 2024 our current Outreach effort is focused on providing pure information to uh uh to Residents and Community organizations we're not here to advocate for passage of a measure but we are here to provide data and information about what Mr T has done over the last 15 20 years people understand its impact here on across mad County um just as a little bit of background for the scale and scope of this measure um is generated $156 million in tax revenue to date to support our roads and transportation infrastructure um it has allowed our region to leverage additional an additional $319 million from state and federal grants um to improve Transportation infrastructure whether it's Road roads highways Transit um and uh by the time it sun actually formally sunsets it's expect to generate another $217 million in revenue for the county um as some of you might be aware in 2022 there was an attempt to pass an extension of measure T at fail and so now we're working on a new measure ENT for 2024 in November um one of the big factors in 2022 uh was that it did not contain a Sunset date it was consider a Perpetual tax would never expire um the uh renewal effort for 2024 will specify a Sunset date um and uh one of the big elements of our Outreach currently is putting together and we recently completed the formation of a steering or close to completing the formation of a steering committee led by citizens not you know elected officials but actual citizens from across all fives oral districts to guide the determination of the Sunset date but also the expenditure plan to benefit at all communities across County um currently we're going through and reaching out to organizations and and agencies like this school district um the next step for us is is building out our steering committee and finishing it off um four of the five districts we have full membership including this supervisorial District district five has a Full Slate of of Representatives uh that you can contact and we'll be providing information as far as meetings as they go along um and not only do we have a full wait we also have two alterat that are serving in their place they can't make a meeting so we're very excited about the level of participation here in the foots um being able to to get a a real good Mount representation on ouring committee for met team moving forward because there is a lot of impact for this community um our first meetings are set to start this month um we'll have two first two for the the Final close out of the year in person L some digitally or virtually um we will have one mobile meeting that will not be held in you know on the valley floor but will be elsewhere in County um I will know just for you know you guys are to deal with this a lot this is not a is not considered um inherent public meetings in terms of round out compliance um but the committee members are going to be hearing from uh the local agencies that service the incorpor cities but also the county as a whole to get a feel for the regional impact of measure T and the benefits it's drawn currently and how it can move forward um the the big Focus long range for this committee before the summer of 2024 is figuring out where to pull money and where to divert to direct money uh for uh you know the next potentially 20 to 30 years in terms of how tax revenue is brought in to improve our roads and improve our our transportation infrastructure um after the conclusion of uh their work um we'll have some workshops around the county including up here in oers uh to provide um a public review of the expens your plan potentially tweaking it a little bit is to be responsive to the public as much as humanly possible um and then the proposed measure with this expenditure plan will be pole tested um through a scientifically about Po and then presented to the mctc uh board and then each member agencies of the the Incorporated cities and the board supervisors um and then just the last item I have for you all is our initial polling update which is just anide kind of a blueprint of where the pulse of the county is in terms of measure te um and a little bit of update further update on our education efforts will be held on November 29th at the mctc board meeting Ina um it'll be at 3 P.M it's their uh in person and also available on Zoom if you'd like to tune in I highly recommend it the future M county is really built on its roads and it Pathways forward and so we really you know encourage as much participation as humanly possible and and so I thank you guys so much for giving me the time to make a presentation and I'm available for questions if you have any um I know this is usually a time where we make presentations not a lot of feedback but if you have questions on no questions no questions plank question is do you have written what you spoke about yes so included on included on today's agenda packet is a fact sheet about our current the current process in terms of what we've been doing a little bit of background on the past measure T additionally we can uh there the bottom of that uh back sheet is a contact for Kendall flun who is the Project Lead from me if folks are watching online or here in the if have additional questions please feel free to reach out to her directly or reach out to Patricia Taylor who is the executive director of mad County M County okay I guess I have to ask the question so what specifically does the Bass Lake School District out well I mean there's a lot actually the biggest one obviously is a road they get to the schools themselves but also supports for uh your transportation infrastructure through school buses and and regional Bus programs Transit programs and even the bigger one is is the preparedness for evacuation RS in the event of wildfires here in the region it's more of a regional impact but for us the biggest thing is ensuring that you there's an understanding that every piece of the man County tree of government so to speak all branches have a piece to play in terms of our transportation infrastructure yeah so do we have any local say on our portion of it not us but this community up here yeah absolutely you so you have you have uh four fledged members on the uh steering committee you also have two additional alternates who are really there to so to speak carry the torch for the needs of this community you know in the past a lot of times us expenditure plans in M County and other what we of self-help counties they're done by you know elected officials who may not be as in tune with what individual constituent needs are and so the Viewpoint in our plan and and pushing a citizen eling committee is the people themselves have Representatives who are people they are you know they're neighbors of yours who are able to actually provide real insight into what they feel are the needs of their neighborhood or their Community um in terms of improving the roads or improving transit or whatever elements of infrastructure is needed for the next 20 to 30 years well we um are as our place to find out who those people representing our area so I can't actually I asked before I came here because I did not have our initial roster I was able to ask was representing you guys in District and it is scroll here membership for your uh district is uh Jennifer Simmons Russell Shaw Mark Reed Bruce gray and then you have I think actually three alternates was incorrect I'm sorry one is Ron the Salisbury um Dan Mets and there is a third who name I don't have actually but I was told there's a third alternate on top of that so you have quite a few members this is I will say in term of participation of the five supervisorial districts District Five is very engaged very responsive and we're very excited to work with them to come up with a blueprint that'll help the county as a whole but also be responsive to the needs up here okay there is an issue with our roads you know there's a lot of potholes and problems and a very important evacuation road which is 425b which is just sprad up to the road uh that becomes a one lane Winding Road and there's a lot of poles trees that still have not been removed so so it's very dangerous that that can be accessed no absolutely that's a priority it is and it's ensuring that we presently have for evacuation R like that you know is is a top priority of mctc and and partnering with you know a number of other agencies that handle the total tonnage of of managing those these roads is incred very very important but also making sure that we have additional infrastructure rure in the long term to ensure that as the this area grows which it it will we have additional routes and and Pathways to get people evacuated in the event of natural disaster so that's kind of our twofold you know work is what are we doing currently in terms of making sure that those WS are clear making sure it's not you know a complete Hazard trying to get out of the disaster itself but also making sure we have additional RS to make to get people evacuated in case of La fire any other questions how how are you guys collecting data on what the citizens are curious about like you know Diane just yeah expressed concern is it incumbent upon us to reach out to the people that are on the board to express like what we know like the routes we're driving every day and if we have concerns or is there a hotline so there's there's a number of methods for a you know we have we have these steering committee meetings which are an opportunity for members of the public to chime in on what they may see the steering committee just don't which happens is you know as you guys are well aware it happens here at Schoolboard level too a lot happens and parents are raising concerns um another piece of is is us coming to you which is why I'm here today and I'm very grateful you know to truste clity for telling me because that's a tomorrow I'm going to have a phone call with mctc staff and say what are we currently doing in this area what's the you know what's the current plans what are we going to do longterm to address that um so part of is is us actually coming to you that's why I'm here today ordinarily in the past we we've sought out an extension on me te we've never been here we've never been in the school board meeting and talk to people because we just you know we're like you as Bo pres I said it's sometimes hard to see the connectivity conect isssue between the school board and transportation measure but it's pretty deep because if you know we're not able to drive on the roads you can't get to school we have bigger problems if our kids aren't you know in school and aren't in class so um that's kind of one part of this is getting a little bit of feedback as we present you know what the you know long range vision is for meas te hearing some of the concerns and being able to bring them back to the steering committee on our own as the Consulting team is a very important part of it but also being able to participate in those meetings I highly you know recommend you do so if you have real concerns there's no better person to hear from than your neighbor that's kind of my VI did you say Mark Reed was on one of those correct he's one of he'll be all [Laughter] over all right can you I saw Jennifer S Mark Reed Rhonda Salsbury I missed the others it was she was anate I [Music] yeah okay thanks and when was that next meeting uh November 29th is the uh is our next mctc board meeting which will kind of provide the other rout for soliciting feedback is also you know public opinion following you know it's no better way to get a snapshot of all County through a poll which we've done just to get an assessment an initial assessment of what people think of measure T what they think of this performance what they think about a future measure and so we'll be presenting some of that polling data then um I will confirm our first during committee meeting date um and then future ones I'll be able I'll kind of make sure we are keeping all VI priz of those dates as they come forward so you're able to attend share it with your neighbors and and constituents as well will you be coming back and like updating us or is that going to be like email or written yes I'll have some email updates to the to the district as far as some preliminary and can sort of inter room updates as far as meetings go um once we have kind of a set framework of the of the uh measure principally the Sunset date which again is there will be a firm Sunset date we just don't know what it's going to find us following on um and then uh the bigger one is once we are have a preliminary expenditure plan that's really the next big opportunity which again the the span between now and then is the Cher of the public will they weigh in on what are the spending priorities for the next 20 to 30 years um after that point we we will be coming back with workshops but also probably again supplemental presentations to you know boards like like this one just to provide a little bit of an out an outline of what's going to impact here specifically not so much the county as a whole um but it allows you to get kind of a snapshot of work Crow so that is that is kind of our plan after we have aure plan to circulate anything else perfect thank you guys so much it's been a pleasure and I'm looking forward to working with you all as we develop this measure for November 24th okay um well next moving on to the consent agenda as we consider the consent agenda I would like to pull item 4D from the consent agenda tonight um the the item dealing with the school psychologist salary schedule it would not be good practice to look at any adjustments to the salary schedule until the collective bargaining process with our labor groups has been completed and U and and also look at the impact that that would have on other positions within the district so I'd like to pull that from the consider agenda tonight that going to be you wanting to pull it indefinitely Or just till next month no pending the outcome of arain collective bargaining uh it'll come back when when the collective bargaining process has been completed um it could be in a different U with different figures in all likelihood as a result of the collective bargaining process but because we have not engaged our labor groups yet we need to pull this until that process is complete do we need a motion on that we just okay I I think that's that's a good idea um as far as the consent agenda goes other than fing item D do we have a motion to approve I make a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll I'll second okay all right any discussion well I just had to question about I I was reading of the the disposition of the Surplus items and you know the all the water bottle filling stations I guess they can't use them anymore or something the ones that we bought they um with the minerals and the chemicals in the water up here they are not able to filter that out um which we weren't aware of and then when we contacted the plumbing company about getting them installed we found that it wasn't going to work um so if we dispose of them we can auction them off like we've done with other items and we can probably um make back the revenue we spend on them and we're going to put that towards the vehicle we got to the student that's awesome that was my main thing was like we're not just gonna get rid of it we're g to try and sell it because it's usable even things we've sold on the auction website that are very um ancient let's go for good value because people use the parts and so I Robert and I are very confident that you recapture what to spend on those and we were disappointed we really wanted to be able to put them but you couldn't put them outside um and then it wasn't going to work inside with the plumbing so we got ahead of ourselves getting them hoping that we could use them so what are we going to use for water refill stations can we just well right now everybody all the classrooms have we get water delivered from sparklets and there's water dispensers we were just trying to cut back on that um just with the unique chemicals and minerals we have up here in the water it doesn't work okay and just to clarify that the board approval of the disposition of surplus items has to occur before can list the items for sell so this is a critical step for us to get to that point okay oh and my only other question was the um so the Phoenix and I I looks like some of these universities were bought out or sold or are these people were so there was a whole thing with the um well you your little okay can hear me now thank you okay um well I was reading about the university iix like partnership with I mean it's like Utah or Idaho I don't the the items listed I and J those are are typical uh contracts between universities and a district because in the past we have had student teach teers come from those programs and we have to have these contracts in place before we can allow them to come on to our campus in our classrooms to perform their their clinical experiences um and so these get renewed annually right okay so it's people who've been doing business with even though yes they are under didn't you read that too yeah it's University of Phoenix and it sounds like University of idah purchased them and it's a nonprofit and so I was like is this in result to the purchase or is this somebody we've already been doing business with and that's all separate yeah we we have done bus we've had student teachers come through US prior to this year from the University of f as well as we currently have a student teacher from Western Governors in our working in our district AR credential those my other questions uh I just wanted to publicly acknowledge the donations that we got oh some great donations this month it's okay um yeah we got $265 from the Brendan gation and ,000 from True Value for the garden so you I just wanted to mention those that we're very fortunate that we have such a a giving Community good and u i remember asking in the past if I if I needed where I should because I was thinking maybe I should just send a thank you card for these peopley told me can you put your mic closer now do something that very good okay send thank you for all donations all donations that are accepted by the board we send thank Youk so that's what I thought so any [Music] discussion technical difficul we're having some technal we could share light on that is true I have no more questions okay okay um we need to vote on that have a motion agenda and second all right roll call vote I I I I and I all [Music] right moving on to monthly items and financial reports we need the warrants [Music] warrants coming okay anyone have any on the I do U I was happy to see that we are replacing the ad batteries I think I us of course and then I had a question about the Catalina trip deposit is that for oci only or is was also participating last I heard it was O was looking into openings for dates so and then um I'm happy for the district office to get their roof and windows it's exciting a stand up desk that's all I and I'd submit a question to Tara who always extremely prompt and post about page two the 2023 it's a casbo CBO Symposium that was yes that's an annual conference that I attend with all different colleagues from around the state that I look forward to but I actually due to a family issue I'm not able to attend so it's already been cancelled and refunded but that's the one comment and then I mentioned about the code stat conference yes and that's for our space our special ed uh software that we use for all our Student Records I um that that conference we had Genie and Taran and Nicole attend because they are the ones who are using space the most and they learn a lot of tips and tricks and updates to the software um I know it's pretty helpful people use St sure it's for St and for Ed join and they do several programs I also emailed terara um on page6 um about you'll love this one it was a 2023 24 GPB PS PTP to MC SOS what was what is that that was on page six six or page six um it's payment ID 4726 it's just our regular internet line that runs from the county turns out it's just an internet line but that's a lot of acon it's always on there every month it's actually if you look at the bottom it's page five I know sorry no there it's always different from computer Compu on the paper the paper page is like as all because of the cover okay yeah then I also asked about the Ruckus renewal which uh was on page 10 at least on the computer was on page 10 um but that is our Wi-Fi access yeah so if you ever go to one of the sites and go to join the network it will have a little login box that says Ruckus so that's what manages our users with a Wi-Fi so those were my questions okay um my question do I have to do this my question was um well the district nurse Consulting there was two one on page three and then one on page well three at the bottom um and then there was another one [Music] on yeah we have a weekly invoice um we have a a credential school nurse that we contract with due to Anita retiring and Jordan is um just starting on a preliminary credential so when we started out the school year we were working with this agency because you have to have a credential school nurse on staff um to sign help plans and other between these other things so now Jordan is going to be up and running but we're contracted um this school nurse through December um and she just works part-time usually about 10 to 15 hours a week but so there's a weekly invoice for that and she's been at mumas on Fridays and she kind of goes around Sight to site but um as backup which has been good too when um Jordan has been out or had clinical hours we have a nurse on so that 27,000 or $2,700 is a ter which one are you looking well if you look at page 8 of 12 and also the same for page 3 of 12 well 3 of 12 is [Music] $2,926 and then um page eight of 12 says $2,764 for Consulting so I wasn't sure if that always the same amount of no it isn't and sometimes it'll be two invoices it just depends when it was processed so it could have been six days instead of three days they just kind of lump it together and they send us an invoice but I could I could send you invoices if you would like I was I was just curious to I thought maybe it was a monthly bill the same amount yeah and and like the FED one that I asked about which is there's about five of those in here they all seem to be the same like $5,080 um but there's one on page 42 there's one there's five I think in here for that same amount spech person has a consistent amount of hours so we and the the nurse isn't like sometimes sometimes right so the $5,080 is for the consultant for the speech pathologist for like the weekly they invoice US Weekly as well and it just depends how many hours it'll fluu but we had two people contracted last year and um this year we just have the line of each mythologist because one of ours came back to half time okay so are we going to is that going to be a plan I mean do we think will be about like $20,000 a month it's going to be throughout the year because of the case okay that's all I have okay any other questions move to approve I'll second okay roll call vote I I I and I okay moving on to the hearing of persons wishing to address the board we have two I don't believe it's on any agenda item um you have three minutes Nancy har [Music] my name is Nancy Harlin and I've had seven students children come through and M that was one of the things that was going to thing um anyway seven kids come through the the school School assistant here this high school and all my grandchildren 17 so that's the reason why I'm standing up at the board meetings now and I would like to thank whoever was responsible for providing the M because I'm hard of hearing and according to the Disability Act thank you so much for providing me um the microphones for yourselves that I can he you and for me my voice too and November's a one of of Thanksgiving and so I would like to thank Steve high for being very professional wearing a suit and I'd also like to thank Heather Archer because um on Thursdays I come to W school to teach Good News Club and I see her in action on those days and uh she's very professional she handles emergency situations and crises on a daily basis and I think that uh she should we congratulated for um loving on the children and protecting them and she does a very good job thank you um I want you to know that um I pray for you and for wisdom and making a lot of decisions because there's a lot of responsibilities that you have and so not only I'm praying for you that there's a group called moms in prayer that meets every Monday and we also pray for you for wisdom and for help and facing all the difficult decisions that you need to make I would like to be notified um when the um that we had last week where so many people were here about the parental rights of notification if that should I know it was ped because there's a lot of other lawsuits that throughout the whole state that address this very same issue notifying parents and so I'm hoping that you will be able to revisit that and um let other people know that it's still under consideration so thank you very much for your time and God bless you all thank you okay and Lesley Peterson [Music] hi guys I'm just here to um say hello and to invite you to our next week's Garden lessons super exciting we have the master food preserves Earth people that came this week and um they are teaching students about food and where it comes from and how you like they do a lot more of the like the Canon and things like that that so I have some pictures I'll I'll post on on our appearance for um for you guys to see too but the 14th and 15th we have classes again they start at 8:30 to 11:30 I'd like to invite you all to come out and help it's with our um fourth and fifth graders in our sixth and eth grade which is kind of a big group so I'm sure Belinda would love if you can come um and then um the fourth and fifth graders are continuing to work with our um learn about irises and Carolyn Hoover is like the iris Queen and she's been doing a fantastic job with them and we were able to find some new uh recycling an Old Stage we just turned it upside down and it's built really well so now we have about four five more raised beds so our garden is growing so come on out can you send us an email on that yes thank you I'm going to apologize because those are my work days I can't make [Music] it okay I would okay all right thank you you're welcome um okay we have one action item resolution 247 delegating authori to entering enter into contract subject boic this is a a new resolu resolution excuse me for our board um but it really is a resolution that um doesn't bestow new powers we do an annual resolution at our either the last meeting in June or the first meeting in August of each year delegating authorities similar to these to both Tara and myself to conduct the business of the district um but we've learned in recent weeks that this puts us in even better position um legally to enter into the types of contracts that are listed in the middle of this resolution um so really the resolution is is one that I'm putting before you tonight that will become part of the annual resolution process that will be coming to the board every June or every August with the other resolution um it just there have been issues in other districts in the state who didn't have this resolution that specifically stated superintendent has these these Powers um every contract that we enter into still comes before the board for approval um sometimes it's after the fact just like what you approved a little while ago with the um the contracts for um services with our University partners for student teachers um that I sign send back and then bring it to you for approval after so that's the standard practice it's just we haven't had this resolution uh prior to now and it came up through discussion with cdos in M County which then spurred or brought a discussion with terara myself hey does are other resolution actually cover these items does it not and in some districts it's been questioned whether it does or doesn't so this just seals it yes it does um so it it will become an annual one that comes like I said when the other one does after to conduct the business of the District of start of each fiscal year when I went through it I thought well Randy's already doing all this what are we doing pretty much it just removes any legal doubt so we're just officially giving you the authority to do what you're doing pretty much pretty much all right approval of resolution 247 delegating authority to enter into contracts subject to board ratification I'll second okay roll call vote I I I I and I all right you may continue doing what you're doing thank you I think uh a lot of information items first one first reading of proposed board policy administrative regulations board bylaw and exhibit revisions uh September this is our September batch um in a typical year we wouldn't receive a September batch but this year we did uh we typically would receive an October batch which this year we did so we have two months in a row of new batches that have come as a result of and as you read through these a result of a lot of new legislation that has been signed to law as part of the education Omnibus Bill which is always part of the new fiscal year budget um and so U this one that is we're considering right now is first reading um what we have attached for you um spent a lot of time providing summaries for each of the board policies U or regulations bylaws and Exhibits gave that in the summary we have given you the um the proposed items with the corrections where you can see what's been lined out what's highlighted is new and then also the final draft once you remove all of that the final draft is left so you have all of that information for all of the September items and then and the next item will be for the October batch as well um we haven't uh been going through these item by item I'm happy to answer questions you had them before you um this is for first reading and discussion only so I'm happy to answer any question that you may have on any of these and just to be clear when csba sends these out these are coming from the attorneys representing csba so these have been legally scrubed right I don't some of them say final draft yes and some don't correct okay um you have what is with the changes proposed and then you have the final draft version for each one and we're examining the final draft if we only included the final draft you'd be sitting go okay what's changed and that's why I gave you the version that shows all of the changes as well and those have the notes from the attorneys as to citing what law it is specific to it's a lot but I feel like they're telling us to do it for a reason so I mean they're citing the law and the Ed code and yeah so it seems to be like a no-brainer I for the most part they got more things taken out than added this for this any other questions comments and I don't have any questions I just want to make a comment on the October batch uh policy 61 61.1 it has to do there okay so wait yeah we're still on [Music] September okay else talking okay so the October batch I just want to make a comment policy 6161 point11 uh which has to do supplementary instructional materials and it says here I'll read the first real quick the governing board encourages the use of supplementary instruction materials to enrich the curriculum and enhance student learning such materials should be aligned with District goals curriculum objectives and academic standards and shall supplement and not supplant the use of Bo adopted basic instruction materials that serve as the primary learning resources and so as I was reading through that it makes reference to uh these additional supplemental items being uh under education code 243 which I thought was wonderful and I wanted to read that and I hope everything is an alignment with this statement uh so California Education Code 2335 read is just coule short paragraphs that each teacher shall Endeavor to impress upon the minds of the peoples the principles of morality truth justice patriotism and true comprehension of the rights duties and dignity of American citizenship and the meaning of equality and human dignity including the promotion of harmonious relations kindness towards domestic pets and the Humane treatment of living creatures to teach them to avoid idleness profanity and falsehood and to instruct them in manners and morals and the principles of a free government and then B one sentence here says each teacher is Al also encouraged to create and Foster an environment that encourages peoples to realize their full potential and then is free from discriminatory attitudes practices events or activities in order to prevent acts of hate violence as defined in sub division E of section 233 so I just love this statement and U I think it's it's impressive and it's it's wonderful and all of our curriculum and Library materials and such were according to these uh rules it would be all of our children would have the very most excellent education so want to read that thank you yeah someone did their school work on that when I read that I I was struck by the the sequence of words actually the encourage en Rich enhance almost one sentence and then some supplement and some plant in another language I thought boy someone college student and give this assignment use these words in the paragraph it was good thank you Dian anyone else okay I have something [Music] um courses of study um item on on 6143 um item six talks about health principles and practices of the individual Steve are you in the policy or the regulation 61 I'm in the regulation she said yes item six this comes up throughout the whole thing then the sentence on E says the effects of alcohol narcotics drugs and tobacco upon the human body and I wondered why didn't they include marijuana and I think that should be included and when I when I checked it out legally they said that marijuana is considered for legislative purposes and legal purposes on narcotic but there's still a lot of people that disagree with that and so I think it should be included separately in there if I have direct and imperal experience that marijuana is addictive and hurts people do you think that's covered under drugs I in my mind I think it's but based on its its designation by the state of California it is included under the term narcotics what narcotics as you just said it's considered narcotics said that and I know that but anyone else reading that that wouldn't know that would think oh well marijuana is cool then you know that's that's fine and so it's I think it should be a little more I think I understand what you're saying because marijuana is now become legal like alcohol is legal and it's not identifying it in this you know I hear you on that yeah it's not that I disagree on Monday going up and getting my daughter out of a a clinic with the bo time for the same thing marijuana psychosis it's not disagree with you at all should be it's just as these pass legal because it's included in the class of Narcotics by the state that's why they've left it under that title of Narcotics yeah well if these aren't subject to revision by the board why are we even looking at that's why they're here like I said I'm not disagreeing with you will the board is to include is we can include yeah that's what I'm wondering so are you wanting us to put marijana I would like it to read something instead of the effects of alcohol narcotics drugs and tobacco upon the human body to say like this the effects of alcohol narcotics including marijuana drugs and tobacco on the human body yeah I think it' be an easy inclusion parenthetically right behind the worde fine but that that same sentence shows up throughout this in several different spots and so we could just re look at that a little bit that's my I guess my input on that right and I know there's people that disagree with [Music] um yeah that's all I have the marial disease how old is that what would you change that STI trans infection infection now not disease STI is what they call maybe is that a class protected class of legal language we could be more explicit yeah if we could just put in parentheses behind that I'm think [Music] thinking Pi we can make we can make any of the changes that that an think about it and if I want to I'm GNA bring it up next month yeah I can include it in the final final dra next month and the way I understand it it's it's we can add language like that because we're not taking away we're adding to so we're not taking away the advice of what the advis we're clarifying under under Mars because they want to make a statement and that's understandable and they think doable okay so I have something else but that's a little bit minor on policy 61 61.1 policy policy yeah [Music] and the the exhibits are great on that but there's there's like I think four or five sheets on this one anyway the very first paragraph is everyone sort of there is it the final draft or the final draft yeah that's all I'm looking at okay the governing board desires that District instructural materials as a whole present a broad spectrum of knowledge and view points accurate accurately reflect and value society's diversity stimulate thought the exploration of ideas and intellectual exchanges and enhance instructor's ability to educate all students through the use of multiple teaching strategies and Technologies in reading through that I realized that the word Technologies was misused there and it should be either modalities or methodologies instead of that word I'm not on the same I'm not I can't find what you're reading Sor 61.1 selection and evaluation of instruction materials first paragraph yeah it's below the blue box it's the first paragraph outside of the blue box oh I was on looking at the final draft because that's where we're at with the process I'm on the I'm on the the one that shows the changes it's still word for word yeah so that's that's just the only thing I I picked up on that because it's your your the strategies and modalities is what you're using to determine what technology you're using you're not teaching through a technology it's just an informatic whole thing almost tell me more about that you're not teaching through a technology tell me more about what you mean about that well you got to listen to it I'll read it again and um the governing board desires that District instructional materials as a whole present a broad spectrum of knowledge and viewpoints accurately reflect and value society's diversity stimulate thought the exploration of ideas and intellectual exchanges and enhance instructor's ability to educate all students through the use of multiple teaching strategies and modalities not the word Technologies as it's written there that's that's just the The Logical flow of that and the word Technologies is actually used later on the same paragraph So it's it's not the right word in now that's all that's all saying well and I would move change that to either the word modalities or methodology looking at the definition of Technology thanks to Mariam Webster technology is the application of conceptual knowledge for achieving practical goals especially in a reproducible way the word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts including both tangible tools such as utensil or machines and intangible ones such as software so it's it's become a term that captures everything not just the mechanical technology like these that we have in front of us but also uh the product that comes of it well I know what you're saying so in that use it is used correctly but rather than redefining the word technology the right word which is the modality but we're not redefining it def as it's currently defined we're using it as Curr what does method what do you mean by methodologies or modalities how different methods it goes with the strategies strategies and methods of teaching but then as the Technologies later on in the same but if we use if we change to use those words then we're leaving out we're leaving out the product of that word it comes up later it's just it's just the wrong word that Contex that's my point seems like there's a lot of lawyers that thought it was [Laughter] okay well tonight's a discussion and we can all think about it and then next month we can decide if it's important for us to change it right or let you know between now being an on this it's okay like it is but since it's going to be in writing and in our policies just like to see correct so would that be something that we would have to address next meeting and we would vote on that correct okay so we'll think about it this month and then okay so I think I finally found the one and it in 6.

Bo board member sh boson and myself board member NN are present uh during close session we'll be discussing uh student discipline issues um related to student suspension student exposion or student exposion readmits we'll also be having a conference with our negotiator in regards to CCA ctab teamour Local 150 and management we'll also be discussing any Public Employee discipline dismissal or release issues um there are no public comments on Clos session items so at this time we will now adjourn to close session at six o'clock pm thank you uh we will now rejourn back to uh Open session at 7:39 p.m. trustee stre voson can you lead us in the flag salute please sure thank you for that and uh trusty Bo can you lead us in the district mission statement yes berasa Union School District provides all students the skills to become lifelong Learners and successful 20 first century Global Citizens thank you and trustee jenez can you lead us in the Norms of the Board of Trustees yes uh the Norms of the board uh the bars Union School District Board of Trustees agree to focus on the best interest of students at all times be respectful listen openly address problems and process not persons keep each other informed maintain confidentiality work toward the future learn from the past equal participation from all members stay on task thank you for that and uh there was no action taken during Clos session now is there a motion to adopt the agenda I move to adopt the agenda second it's been moved and seconded all in favor of this motion say I I I motion passes that's 5 to zero uh we will now move on to uh item seven are there any public comments on consent calendar agenda items if there's none we'll move on to the consent calendar is there a motion on the consent calendar move to adopt second it's been moved and adopted I'm sorry it's been moved and seconded all in favor of this motion say I I I okay motion carries 5 to zero we will now move on to uh comments from the public on non-agenda items if there are no comments we'll go ahead and move on to our first report of the night uh Dr frenes can you introduce 10 yes thank you uh this evening I would like to welcome welcome Tom Williams of enrollment projection Consultants EPC he uh comes each year to provide us an update regarding our enrollment projections and all the movement that's happening around the barasa community thank you Tom we welcome you to our meeting this evening Tom I'm going to stop you for one second I'm not sure if your mic is working absolutely every time there you go thank you work now good good okay for grad is going to focus on on this table before I get to the bottom line numbers and that's TK and K but first of all Fifth and eighth back from 2016 to 2018 you had amounts on the 800s in 8th grade and amounts in the 700s in fifth grade so just graduating those eighth grade amounts out and those fifth grade amounts in caused significant Middle School decline then by the time we got to 2019 to 2021 you had amounts in the 700s in eighth grade but you started getting amounts in the 600s in fifth grade so again just the rolling out of those numbers 700's going out 600's coming in was causing a middle school Decline and that's why from 2016 to 2019 there down at the bottom you'll see that you lost more students at the middle school level than actually the elementary level despite having only half as many grades 229 versus 210 um at the same time the reason the elementary numbers were going down is because in kindergarten you had had amounts in the 700s that then fell in the 600s the same time amounts that were slightly larger were graduating from fifth grade so that caused both grade levels to be going down but more significantly on a per grade basis at the middle school level since 2019 both grade levels have lost significant student numbers much more so in the past you'll notice that the elementary amount increased by essentially 2 and a half times whereas the Middle School amount less than doubled none less nonetheless on a per grade basis it was more significant the Middle School level again if you look at 8th grade you're seeing amounts in 700s versus amounts in 600s in the fifth grade what changed last year was for the first time we had a smaller amount in e8th grade than we had in fifth grade and that's a significant factor and that's the uh yellow highlighted 688 and 653 that's the first time in a long long time you actually had more kids in fifth grade than 8th grade and so just rolling those amounts forward gave you 697 in sixth grade this year and that's a significant chunk of why you grew at the middle school level you notice for next year we got another small eighth grade and that's why I don't have a decline for next year at the middle school level what also happened uniquely at the middle school level this year is you gained from 5ifth to sixth and from sixth to 7th and from 7th to 8th which you hadn't done also in quite a long time so there was trends that really changed the Middle School level um compared to the recent past and even compared to my projections that I wasn't expecting however at the elementary level if you look at the gray the uh beige highlighted kindergarten figures you went from the 700s from 2016 to 2019 the 600s in 2020 and 21 to the 500s since then that's a huge plummet at the same time TK prior to this year went from the 140s to the 110 so you were having significantly lower numbers coming at at the bottom end and uh the reason you had any gain at the elementary level this year was because the big increase in TK a big chunk of reason reason for was because you went from five months of Eligibility birth eligibility to nine months of birth eligibility obviously that's not gonna be repeated you're not gonna be able to gain another four months because you already have nine months eligible so going forward we have uh you'll see later smaller birth numbers and smaller kindergarten numbers which means also on a per month basis birth month basis the TK numbers will go down as well so even though we'll expand to 12 months of birth eligibility after next year we also have smaller numbers of kids coming up in that amount so the reasons that you gained at the elementary level this year are essentially erased after this year does that make sense to everybody next slide please okay going forward top row you'll see we got 665 again in 5ifth and 637th in eth so that's why for next year I've got a 21 student gain you see down there in the bottom yellow at the middle school level simply because we got a bigger amount coming in from fifth that's the last time we have that happen in one year 2026 we have essentially the same amount in all other forecast years we have a much larger amount graduating from e8th and coming in from fifth um I shouldn't say much larger slightly larger amount but the trends to the grades now appear to be picking up some kids from fifth to sixth and sixth to seventh seventh eth that's why I have a very small loss at the middle school level going forward despite having some larger amounts the only real significant loss of Middle School level is when the current sixth graders graduate from eth in two years three years excuse me um the big difference what's happening in these numbers is what's down in K this is based on Trends in your neighborhoods and especially the birth data you'll see that whereas before we were talking about kindergarten numbers in the 700s a few years ago I'm now projecting amounts in the 400s that is a Monumental shift so as low as the current numbers are after next year they're going to be even lower and TK grows a little bit because you expand to 12 months but also with smaller numbers coming in at the kindergarten level that means there's always obviously less TK students on a per month basis at the TK level does that make sense to everybody bottom line is I'm projecting significant losses at the elementary level totaling about 700 kids in five years and only about 77 kids in the Middle School level in five years the shift is toy the element and it's all based on what's going on in kindergarten in particular next slide please okay as you've heard me say before well maybe Jah hasn't but everybody else has heard me say a million times before um all my analyses are based on where your students live by housing type by general price range Etc not because I care if a kid is Rich or poor but because I'm trying to understand where the changes are happening or not happening and then evaluate the likelihood for those Trends to continue and in your District the places that had new housing going on not only in the last year but in the previous three or four years still some trends of gaining kids that's Vincy Park and Northwood the entire rest of the district is in Decline and in the areas as you'll see slide in a minute the areas that have the more affordable housing are in the more severe decline because of that in the last year on that column on the left you'll see Northwood added 39 K5 this excludes TK added 39 kids living in its attendance area in the Elementary grades um Vincy Park added 36 but we had Brook tree lose 51 or more than 10 % we had Majestic Way lose 33 and toyan I highlighted in 20 even though it's not officially 25 amount because that's almost 10% of the kids in Toyon as well so we had some significant losses going in particularly in the most affordable parts of the district but also an existing housing as a whole in the district um and the only place you're gaining at all was where the new housing has been located in the last couple years going forward again we still have more new housing going in Northwood we have a little bit going on in Summerdale the next couple years so Summerdale has essentially no no loss Northwood has more of a gain and the rest all losses and some of those losses based on what I'm expecting in kindergarten compared to what it's graduating from fifth grade living in those attendance years of your kids we got losses of 40 for Brook Tree 47 for Lan view 65 Majestic Way 58 for Ruskin um and 34 for Noble just in the next two years again that's big fifth grades going out and small kindergartens coming in I want to point out one thing about North wood because the attendance boundary changed uh three years ago between Northwood Brook tree and Lan view you had a lot of kids grandfathered at Northwood many of those kids have graduated out now we're down to just a net gain of 27 kids at Northwood from the grandfather kids well those will be those will be graduating out in the next two years so even though I'm projecting a resident student gain of 41 kids in terms of the attendance at Northwood it may be a wash with the loss of the net gain of kids graduating out does that make sense to everybody you following me okay right now in grades four and five in particular we have kids grandfather and I think everyone knows what grandfather means still at Northwood because they were already enrolled at Northwood when we made the attendance boundary change the next two years that net gain at 27 is going to go away so even though I'm having 41 more kids living in the Northwood attendance area in two years it's almost a wash from what might be the enrollment at Northwood everybody F on that so I'm not worried about that gain at Northwood I'm more worried about the losses and some of the other attendance areas one last thing to comment which you all know you've got some magnet programs particularly cherrywoods Mandarin dual Merion program so its numbers are actually majority of its kids come from outside its attendance area and because those kids come from outside its attendance area obviously attendance areas that those kids came out of show a net loss in the intradistrict patterns next slide please okay at the middle school level again the only new housing recent has been in the moral attendance area so it had growth this year by 59 kids got some more projected growth in the next two years the other two attendance areas have a modest amount of decline forecast in the next two years again this is a huge shift from the trend in the past last year from two years ago to last year for example all three of those attendance lost significant student numbers but that's bounding me out now next slide please okay again I do all my analyses based on where your kids live could I have records of your kids going back to 2 one by each of these housing types and general income levels and this table's been split into three parts but I'll just summarize real quickly the more affordable attached housing meaning apartments condos town houses and plexes has had the more significant losses especially at the lowest grades and the next most affordable category the the more affordable detached homes also had significant losses especially in lowest grades the places where you where you were basically stabilized in K2 this year were the more expensive housing categories and to display that in this first category you'll see that in the last three years in K2 um these units lost 61 kids out of a total that's only in the 260s that's a significant percentage loss in K2 and in the last year alone it lost 25 so it went down by 11% in the last year and 22% in the last three years of kids in K2 in just these this housing category that's a significant loss in three years's time and a significant loss in one year's time when I get into the upgrade attached are mainly tow houses and some Duets more expensive housing that lost 97 over the last three years but only one of that 97 occurred in the last year in K2 does everybody see where I am on the table so the net difference in the last year is actually 0% at K2 it's stabilizing at a lower level but nonetheless stabilizing unlike in the more affordable units next slide please when we get into the more affordable detached homes again you lost 146 but out of a much larger number than the apartments um you fell from 920 to 619 over the last seven years but most of that fall from 920 actually occurred before the pandemic hit and that was again I think as I've said before related to the price of housing it's just hard for the more affordable housing types had um moderate income families and it's very hard now for moderate income families to move into those units at the current prices so you already had a significant decline going on before the pandemic hit but it got really bad since then too you dropped from 76 825 to 765 and in the last year you lost another uh 79 students in K2 or again 11% so the more affordable housing in the district is where you're getting the bigger hit in K2 both recently and going forward in the forecast when I get into what I call the middle income detached housing it lost 72 kids in K2 in the last three years but only seven of that was in the last year next slide please and when I get to more expensive housing you actually had a nominal net gain in K2 in the most expensive housing in the last year so it's basically in the LA in the the last couple years you've had the declines going on in tk8 across the board but in K2 it's been concentrated in your most affordable housing and that has comparable impacts on the attendance areas where that housing is concentrated next slide please okay these are what I call communitive advancement rates you've heard me discuss this before um this is evaluating the grade to grade Trends as they cumulate how many kids in kindergarten from the existing house neighborhood we in first grade the next year in second grade the year after that third grade the year after that and I evaluate how they Evol evolve through the pattern and what has happened in all the districts I did data four 20 plus is everybody had the rates go just plummet during the pandemic for obvious reasons and we went if you look in the rightmost colored column you're relatively affordable and IM attached from 2016 to 2019 actually gained kids as they graduated up from from first grade to eth grade nominally but they gained kids and they were actually higher than was happening in other districts in general during the pandemic it went from 1.03 to 0.58 and 0.55 it halfed in other words half those kids were going to be gone between first grade and eighth grade if those rates continued over a seven-year period this year it bounced all way back up to 1.14 it's just an anomaly I think based on you lost so many kids during the pandemic that a few of them coming back caused an abnormal rate this year I point this out because it tells me really the most accurate rates to consider going forward are actually ones all the way back from 2016 to 2019 the rates that happened in the years since then were so erratic that they're unlikely to to be repeated in the future same thing goes for upgrade attached it went from 74 down to 042 bounced it back up to 08 you'll see the um when I get down into the even the middle income sfd it fell from 1.0 to 081 and back up to 1.2 so again I think the rates from 2016 to 2019 with some modification of what happened last year are the more accurate rates to apply to the forecast does that make sense to everybody again that's a judgment call I've never done this in I've been doing this since 85 and I've never been dealing with a rate that I had to go back four years in time with to get but the rates are just so erratic during the pandemic that they're really meaningless for the forecast and that's a big judgment Co next slide please okay this is probably the most important table other than the projected numbers that I'm presenting it's a complex table that compares the burst in zip code 95132 which is the only zip code enti in this District um with what showed up in kindergarten five years later from that zip code and the assumption is that the trend that happened within that zip code part of your District probably applies to the rest of the district as well um and if you look back in when I say 2011 bursts that's actually prated from the last three months of 2010 the first nine months of excuse me the last four months of 2010 first uh eight months of 2011 to better correlate to kindergarten five years later you'll see that there was 421 births in 2011 and 5 years later you had 394 BD kindergarteners from that zip code that's a 94% corative ratio that's a really strong ratio especially when you consider some kids go after private schools that's an amazingly High ratio actually in 2012 uh you had 462 61 bursts in 2013 you had 479 so all the bursts up there are in the 400s all the way from 2011 to 2017 so the burst didn't change that much what did change was the correlative ratio five years later it went from 94 to 89 to 88 to 81 to 76 down to 63 last year and just 60% this year that means 40% of the kids that were born that zip code five years ago did not show up in kindergarten this year and there's no way that's privates that's people that moved out of the district and hopefully we'll get some back but I think we're a lot back so as you look down below in the column in Orange you'll see that all the birth numbers are in the 300s we went from a bunch of birth numbers in the up upper to in Middle 400s to 336 347 and 332 in the three most recent birth years for 95132 that's down over 20% it's actually much more significantly than 20% and that that's hard numbers that's not a forecast that's what actually was born in that zip code according to the county health department so when you go from 479 461 down to 332 and 336 it's a pretty scary drop off and that's really what drives all the Garden forecast here if the current ratio of 60% was repeated with those birth numbers and I don't think it will I think it be above 60% you would have totals in in that zip code in the next five years in the low 200s compared to over 400 in the past you follow me on that everybody see where I am okay that's that's how dangerous those numbers are I don't think they'll go that low but they could next slide please okay new housing um the only developments that are suitable to analyze going forward in the forecast within your District are the mainly market rate developments you really didn't have any below market rate developments built in recent years in the district and out of almost 2,000 housing units that were built in this District in the last decade almost all of which are attached only something like 30 are detached your averaging only seven students in every hundred units that sounds incredibly low and it is incredibly low but I'm finding that all over Silicon Valley what's happening is they're no longer building three and four bedroom apartments intended for families they're building Studios and one-bedrooms and Tiny two-bedroom units intended for singles and childless couples and it's in in other districts actually lower in the Santa Clair District it's one in every 50 units in the orchard district is one in every 50 units so you're actually getting seven in every 100 units you're getting a little bit better ratio but still very low the only slight positive here is with 57 in TK and 51 and 35 and only 35 and 68 it implies they are young families so it may that rate may come up over the first few years of occupation everybody following me on that but still it's probably not get over 0.1 or one student in every 10 units and that's just what's happening because what they're building nowadays you're getting a better result out of in this County out of below market rate housing but still not what many people would think um in two developments i s i mean in four developments I sampled in the Sunnyville Oak glob districts those 460 regular blow market rate units we're averaging essentially um uh two kids in every uh 10 units or one student every five units uh with a distribution again 44 and TK and just 27 68 implies that the unit the student numbers will come up over time but probably will never get a above up.

thank you everyone have a good evening thank you

we will take a five minute break for members at 8:00 pm and at this point we'll do a a roll call and call to order please secretary extrom let's wait until I get Kate on the phone okay is that all right we yeah we do have uh one possibly two members as per our uh president in the joining us by phone this evening um they are at a school committee conference uh on the cape and um we'll be trying to get them on the phone for just a second let's Hi how are you sounds great I'm gonna put you guys somewhere so the microphone can hear you and I'll have you on speaker yep hello can you hear me yes can you hear us try it again one more time can you hear us hello kind I'm working on hold on maybe it's me try again hello testing that's much better thank you it was it was my fault I had my volume turned down apologies let's do a roll call please um and just want to let everyone know Susan Farber is not here this evening she typically takes minutes and notes and so I'm going to be doing that and I'm sure I will drive everyone insane with my clicking so member Den here secretary Exum I am here member Johnson mad here Vice chair Martini here chair pretti here member wall here mayor W Gartner and is not going to be joining us this evening we have a quum okay thank you we are called to order at 6:03 p.m.

in the ghs auditorium their next meeting will be after school on Monday December 4th and all are welcome to join drama club is excited to announce their spring play myth Adventures by Eric kobal a comedy drama retelling of five classic Greek myths auditions will be held after school on Monday November 13th and Tuesday November 14th in the auditorium and are open to all ghs students Library Club hosted the fourth annual ghs Comic-Con after school on October 25th um they welcome students and Librarians from Mohawk Trail Regional School and the Pioneer Valley Regional School uh we want to thank Greenfield Public the Greenfield Public Library for collaborating uh as well as the guest presenters from liy here the imaginary Bookshop tumble science media and podcast and game designer Chris Foster of hidden door the advanced European history class has been working in the library researching Renaissance artists while they culminate um which will culminate in the students giving 12 to 14-minute presentations on the artists they researched as part of their learning they are excited to be taking a field trip tomorrow to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see a special exhibit on strong women of the Renaissance and to visit the Museum's other Medieval Renaissance and classic Greek and Roman art on display band celebrated their six seniors at a football game for the years dedicated to the music department they will be Marching In the Veterans Day Parade members of the community have asked why the band is so small it is challenging to have a thriving music department when the program keeps being impacted at the elementary and middle school level they hope that this will be a priority in the future to help rebuild the program NHS officers have begun a campaign to seek to speak to underclassmen about the current situation in the hallways in the bathrooms at ghs the students leaders presented to both the eighth graders and the 10th graders at their class meetings last week and are preparing to talk to the 9th 11th and 12th graders at the future meetings the topics of the presentations included showing respect to teachers and other students not congregating in the bathrooms vandalizing and preventing others from using them not wering the Halls during classes and other ideas about making the building better for all students we continue to plan for our adopt the family project in December and volunteer work with the ghs tutoring in a possible nursing home visit uh student anxiety was rather high as grades recently closed for quarter 1 and students began to shift Focus towards the incoming term and the scheduled changes that are going to come in the following few weeks at the same time many students are now baning together to prepare for the lip sync performances that will occur on Wednesday the 22nd uh just before we leave for break the year's theme is artists and each grade is met numerous times already to throw together their act generally Spirits are stable as we are approaching the break and the academic load can be forgotten for a few days while the situation has seemed to improve a little bit students still feel qualms in regards to the situation of the bathrooms um some have begun to open yet the ability to conveniently access restrooms conveniently has been challenged the restrooms that are not open are closed due to repairs that are needed this makes it difficult for to find an open space and beyond that for those that are open they are facing overcrowding as students flock to them to occupy the space during class time these factors all culminate to hinder the accessibility of these facilities for students seeking to use them for their intended purpose administrators have had to be stationed outside of certain locations and times of passing to ensure that people leave and move to their oncoming class um that concludes everything we have written out but if you have any questions we would be happy to answer them thank you guys other questions from the committee not hearing any questions thank you both for being here appreciate it we'll see you next month okay so we're we're going to do um a walk through in in in a discussion uh within the committee of uh the reenvisioning the school facility project and um I want to give the superintendent an opportunity um to first talk about uh how what the overview she's put together um as well as what we've learned anything else she wants to add there and then going to also have Jean wall as the chair of the committee um that facilitated the work um also give have an opportunity um to speak and then the members of the subcommittee are uh member Den um and member Johnson mad and if they want to speak after member wall um we'll do that and then we'll have a general discussion um at that point um we are not planning to vote on anything this evening uh because we've really gotten a lot of feedback in in in the past month or so that shows that folks uh I think everyone needs to be a little bit more up to speed on what exactly is being proposed and why and what we've learned as a part of this process for the last 2 years um but we will um take an opportunity during the discussion to actually talk about the votes that um I would propose we take and I say it that way because um often to help us organize the work of the committee um as the chair I will propose the Motions that we put forward and motions are always up for not only debate but also revision you may have heard if you have ever attended a meeting or you attend regularly that will ask for friendly amendments to motions or something like that um in order to give us a starting point um I've had a couple of motions prepared that if we want to and it feels like it's a logical part of the discussion tonight we would walk through uh those and perhaps um either take some more time to think and plan to come back as a committee with different motions in December um or we would um kind of plan on those and see if our thinking evolves between now and the next meeting um so that's a little bit about what we're going to do and then I think it'll be interesting to see having public comment after our discussion that's not the normal way that we do things um and so we'll uh certainly see how that works and what we might glean from doing it in that order um and so at this point I would ask that uh Christine give us an overview um if you have the materials if you're following at home you have the materials on your phone or your device or what have you um there is a not only a write up of the history of this reenvisioning project but also a draft of um the redistricting plan as it relates to the transportation details so I'll stop there go head thank you okay thank you so as you mentioned um I put together a little history just of from the beginning the first uh first action that sort of prompted the conversation because not long after I started in Greenfield um Jean had reached out and said can we talk about what you might think we could do with Green River so we went for a tour so that that was really the first um step in this conversation and then um the orientation to the subcommittees and the work that was being done around um Equity specifically at that time um talking about Equity across the three elementary schools and I do remember th those were some of the questions that were asked during even my interview about curriculum across elementaries and resources things like that so that was sort of the impetus for the conversation with the committee around all of these items seem to be connected to some degree and it made sense that we somewhat begin at the beginning and figure out how many students we might be talking about in The District because it was challenging to talk about how to potentially reconfigure and reuse Green River if we didn't know what our anticipated population was going to be so committee members may remember at that point um we had a contract with nesdc to do um excuse me I'm not sick I just want to make sure everybody knows not spreading germs up here um that we uh the committee we had a contract with NASDAQ to do enrollment projections and then to do what was called a best use of educational facilities study that involved D um surveys from our building administrators um information from them about demographics and space our facilities director Eric um did a lot of work with nzda around all of the configurations of the building providing documents um and then members of that committee from NASDAQ came toward all of the buildings and wrote up a summary which has been on the district website since it was presented um spring of 22 so that was um that was the beginning and then there was conversation about the options nezda presented four options for the committee just looking at here are some things you could do um I'm summarizing obviously we're speeding up the timeline here um two of them seemed to come off the table um due to cost one of them involved reopening Green River um people may remember that there's a heating um system that needs to be upgraded the cost when I got here was over 700,000 I'm sure it has um increased dramatically since then and given the fact that Green River hasn't been used for a number of years there are other upgrades technology being one um depending on the use of the playground could be another so we're talking well over a million dollars just to get into the inside of it um the other option that was taken off the table somewhat um early on was an option that would require construction at all three of the elementary schools um that would have required engineering studies and then um the cost of any construction on top of that so the committee seemed to eliminate those somewhat quickly so that left two options the First Option One was that we would reconfigure the district with three schools having grade bands so one school would have had K1 another school 23 and the third School 45 so that was um that was moved forward to have the administration do some of the logistical work um part of that included some of the transportation information there was going to be some need need to make some fairly um involved changes we thought in the transportation because getting students from across the whole city to three different elementary schools within the same time frame was going to be challenging would have involved potentially changing hours for the schools changing drop off pickup times and likely involve the addition of one if not more buses with a financial impact so variety of impacts of that there was convers ation about um from the community members from staff that that was not necessarily an appealing option and um could we consider something else option two involves having three elementary schools and re and moving the lines for each school's catchment area um so through public comment through emails staff feedback what evolved was what we lovingly call option 2B which involved a little bit of moving the catchment areas and creating three K through five elementary schools that option seemed to be somewhat appealing so the subcommittee asked the administration to move forward get some information do some of the leg work to see if it was feasible the first thing we did was to look at well how many students could we be talking about in each school that involved looking at the current enrollments the breakdowns from each School based on Transportation where they would go uh keeping in mind one of the primary goals of this effort was to create a more balanced distribution of students across the city um and you know to look at how we were Distributing our student population into our elementary schools another priority that came out of it was um a very strong desire by I think everyone to get fifth grade out of the middle school and to get eighth grade out of the high school um so looking at those as priorities um we were able to look at redrawing some lines across the city to uh more evenly B balance the demographic enrollment balance the city into each of the elementary schools and then we sat with maps of each building and the potential enrollment in each building and said wow we have we might have space this could work um so that's where the conversation about Choice the impact of intradistrict choice the impact of not intradistrict Choice um came up looking at enrollment so we calculated enrollment projected enrollment um in two ways so that we could look at actual space we looked at transportation and um then came down to the fact that this was feasible um in terms of having the physical space and um so that's that's kind of where we are for you folks to decide which configuration you're interested in moving to um I'm not aware although I could be wrong that option one was ever officially taken off the table I know it's not you know everyone's preference but um option two is still on the table which would just have me redrawing lines every year the challenge with that would be potentially that would affect um a fairly small area of the city annually or every couple of years based on enrollment in different schools that it would shift back and forth um which I think you know that's that is challenging people have raised concerns about having students change schools in any of the models that we've talked about and so this you know the option two if the committee chooses to go that way could potentially result in students moving um you know based on enrollments option 2B there are there are pros and cons for sure um the the pros are that whichever um decision is made um regarding the intradistrict choice scenario regardless of that um we can get K to five in all three of our elementary schools based on the projections that we have um we can get 8th grade into the middle school we um have the ability to provide all of the special education services in all of the buildings all of our related Services the interventions um so they're you know from a programmatic standpoint it does appear that it is able to be done which meets at least two of the goals of the committee um I think all three because the reconfiguration of the city in terms of which um areas of the city would um be assigned to different schools um does make some changes from the way it is now the challenge is that we could end up with some space issues um primarily that occurs at Four Corners and if this is where the the the conversation about what the population looks like in the building um would do if the students who are currently attending schools that are not their neighborhood schools remain in their non- neighborhood School schools um it it is anticipated that four corners would need an extra third grade fourth grade fifth grade we can house an extra third grade fourth grade fifth grade but what that would do is put um some of our specials teachers would have to use a cart and move between classes um period by period because their space would be moved and then due to space there is a substantially separate special education program at Newton and there is one at Four Corners and we would need to move swap the two schools um due to the space available in both buildings we can do that we have the space to do that um if we don't have the students who are intradistrict choice in their choice in school there would be two grade levels of grade three grade four grade five at Four Corners and we would have space for art and music and we would not need to switch um the location of the special ed programs so that's the general overview but I can go through a little bit of the information in here I'm not going to go through all of the dates and everything that you have you can see that um the next pages are just a summary with the pros and cons the bulk of these summaries you can see it was from Fall of 2022 this was compiled um based on our community meetings I'm looking at Glenn he was at those um so this is feedback and then um after after these meetings we also added feedback in um from staff when we went to the elementary and the secondary levels to get staff feedback so that this is a compilation of the general feedback Pros cons and outstanding questions and at the top I put a summary a very brief summary of what that option would look like because I'm sure everybody isn't as um immersed in this but so then there was an update provided I updated this in October of 2023 to show any um updates obviously so this shows the addition of option 2B um the pros and cons are somewhat um I had done a summary which is on the website of it's just summary of options updated October of 2023 has two separate summaries one intradistrict choice phased out the other one is leaving intradistrict Choice as is so you could see advantages challenges and questions remaining um separated out but this is a summary um option 2B oh no I lied I put them both on here look at that look how comprehensive I was um option three we eliminated due to cost this is a summary of that option four as well eliminated due to costs that's the construction so this was a this is a summary of the review of our current in it was current last year and projected for next year enrollments um I want to make sure that folks are clear when they look at the numbers with this this reflects what would be the newly Drawn Lines and then um whether we had the students from intradistrict choice in the building or not so what Jake our transportation coordinator did was manually go through all the students because he has the transportation information for all of them whether they Access Transportation or not and identified numbers of students who would be in each School in either scenario as a district we do not have a field in our student database to indicate whether students are intradistrict choice or not so I cannot easily query that number um but this is basically the differentiation it is not just straight Choice numbers of students from Choice one way or the other um this also reflects um the projected newly Drawn Lines so um so you can see what the population numbers might look like with or without intradistrict Choice um and the newly drawn um attendance areas Four Corners has the most significant change with about 35 um Federal Street has a variance of about 20 and Newton has a variance of about 15 um and it goes in different directions so if choice is in effect um feder a Four Corners goes up if we do not have intradistrict Choice Federal Street and Newton go up just from their current enrollment so again these are estimated we know students move in and move out we knew we know people move within the city so these are estimated but at any point we're always using estimated enrollment um for our decisionmaking so we looked at the enrollments we rolled them up as we say we used a standard of reasonableness for class size there was no school committee policy about class size there are no finite numbers included in the unit a collective bargaining we certainly recognize there are a variety of factors that we need to consider when looking at class size um so you know that that is a piece of what we looked at administratively so there's a breakdown of what we estimate project class sizes to be where we have a somewhat noticeable increase I included that um whether we have in District choice in place or not for Newton and Federal Street we have two we expect we would have two of every grade level either way just because of enrollment changes um regardless so the that aspect does not change for either of those buildings um we could have a couple of class sizes that are a little bit higher but um you know we're we're able to talk about the needs when we get to actual enrollment at that time to see if we need to do anything differently um Federal Street would still have um you know ability to reconfigure things if we needed to add another classroom at Federal Street um but at this point all of the spaces anticipated to be used so Four Corners this is where the um space challenges come in you can see if we have the original numbers leaving everyone where they are so to speak um we project there would be three classes of grades 3 four five um you can see some class siiz numbers for the upper grades at Four Corners would be a little bit High higher than they are um again that would be a conversation when we get closer to the actual start of the school year um having conversations about potentially the need to add supports into those classrooms um but that's what we're expect we anticipate class sizes could look like so you can see we look at space I broke that down for Newton for federal one of the positives of um the redistricting is as we're looking at reconfiguring we realized that we can move things around to address an issue at Federal where the nurse's office is it is not in a good space it is not in a handicapped accessible space um so with the reconfiguring we've identified a space where they can be that is handicapped accessible has a bathroom so that that would be wonderful to take care of that need um I go through a summary of what we believe the space situation would be at Four Corners like I just um outlined middle school and high school we don't expect any space issues middle school is almost replacing the exact enrollment so Michelle doesn't expect that to be an issue and high school obviously we would be um not using some classes so um there would be no space issue there then we needed to look at the schedules for our staff for next year projecting again all of this is projected estimated anticipated right now at the elementary level we have um a situation where our art music and PE teachers at the elementary have come to an agreement with us that their contractually required preparation time can be reconfigured because we have two of each art music and PE that serve all of the elementary schools and every elementary school classroom gets all three specials um the way to do that involved some creative use of time and space and they have been exceptionally flexible for the past two years agreeing um to a non-traditional way to use to have their prep time allocated um if we have two classrooms of every grade level in all three elementary schools the current art music and PE teachers would be able to provide service at all three elementary schools and have their preparation period as it is outlined in the contract if we have additional sections of any grade levels we would have to add portions of art music and PE so if we had three extra sections of a grade level we would have to have basically a art music and PE teachers working about three periods a day so that's less than a halftime person in each of those subject areas um so that's just a challenge you know that we'd have to figure out um at the middle school to add to the complication for next year we need to add full-time social studies and full-time science right now they have half year of each because mcass is going to be um there's mcast implications Civics is being piloted so that's going to be added so we really need to provide our middle school students with a full year of instruction so that we're really able to provide instruction on all the standards so that they're in a better place given the added testing so we have to add teachers at the middle school to do this because of the schedule so while we do expect there would be the reduction in some sections at the elementary school some of which may happen anyway because of um population Bubbles and changes in that um some of that staff who might not have a position at the elementary often elementary teachers are licensed from grade kindergarten through grade six so there's opportunity that they may be able to take some of those additional positions um and space you know changes happen people retire they move some teachers may elect to take higher level Middle School positions so um but we do expect overall that there would be a reduction in I believe it is four positions at the end of all of the reconfigurations sorry I'm not seeing it right now I'm I know it's in here um we would we do expect that a health teacher position will need to be shifted because they're providing service to the eth grade so we expect that would need to be shifted down um so there are there are some staff shifts that would need to happen um I have Karen and I have met with the president vice president GAA several times to talk about how this could work um and we are scheduling meetings with the fifth grade teachers and the eighth grade teachers to talk about the impact I have a date um that was just scheduled for the fifth grade and we're working on the eth grade date so that we can meet with them explain the process and um answer any questions that we could have so so we do expect that there would be some additional electives available at the high school right now we have teachers at the high school who teach some sections of High School courses and some sections of eighth grade courses so with the eth grade moved um some teachers such as Chef yafi in our culinary program um he does teach sections of 8th grade so that opens up the opportunity for him to provide some additional elective courses we're not you know our students access his courses they seem to enjoy them we're going to um we've already asked him to propose some additional electives that could move some students um into some new and exciting options um so we do have some potential to um offer additional electives um at the high school so that we are moving up the course selection process um so that we have what are called the tallies you know students go through they choose the courses that they would prefer to take the guidance department does tallies so then we have total numbers of students who are interested in in whatever course um so we're moving that up to prior to um the budget season this year so that we can not only look to have a schedule solidified earlier but also address any potential budget impact if there is any in that regard um sorry it's a lot and transportation so this is just a list of sort of other things that we need to consider that we are considering um we are out to bid for a transportation contract because that's perfect timing when we're looking at redoing Transportation factors so as soon as there is a Excuse me yes member Martini yes I'm sorry to interrupt but member J and I have to go at this point oh I'm sorry thank you thank you thank you enjoy the conference thank you have a good rest of the evening bye bye bye bye so can you just note in the minutes that we're at Quorum at 6:41 thanks okay sorry okay no that's fine um so as soon as a contract is awarded um Jake and I will meet with whatever transportation company we work with to provide the routing information that he has configured um there is some possibility we would need another bus but we'll have to see um one of the pieces that again is connected to all of this that came up in the conversation is the school committee has a policy about Riders and Walkers and distance from each school um we aren't actually really following it right now um there were some practices that were changed prior to my arrival that are still in place so um that'll be hopefully at December's meeting that we can talk about that we need to Jake and I need to walk some routes um where potentially students would have to walk versus take a bus so we're going to walk those routes to see if they fall within the policy criteria of unsafe or um because obviously that will factor into the decisions about Transportation but if we need to make changes to the policy that would be the time the other piece is we need to consider any of our collective bargaining agreements in this um we already know that we need to meet with our um unit a excuse me folks to talk with with them about the change from fifth grade teachers teaching two subjects a piece so right now one teacher would teach Math and Science the other would teach English language arts and history so that would be a change um significant change for them so we have already initiated um to schedule a meeting to have that conversation to figure out how we can support those teachers in making a change like that um we also need to look at any impact that this could have on our custodial staff um for example if we need to hire movers or potentially additional summer help that could have an impact so we need to look at that and then we also need to look at the final decision by the committee and what if any impact that could have on our lunch rotations and therefore um our cafeteria staff so those are just places we might need to um have some further discussion to see if there is impact act on any of these folks um that we need to address we also would need to buy or collect boxes packing tape um we need to have the time frame addressed for staff that would need to pack up and unpack their things so we need to take care of figuring that out um anything that might need to be purchased for the move primarily from 8th grade um to the middle school we need to just think about that I'm you know I don't know that this would be but an example of do we have lab tables for Sciences at the middle school if we don't can we move the ones from the high school or do we need to get other supplies it's just an example of things um we will have fifth grade teachers teaching a subject that they have not so we will have to buy additional teacher um copies of instructional materials so we need to know all of that sort of before the budget because that has an impact and the other um things that I think would not be necessarily right on the top of anyone's mind we need to talk with um Christy Mo the director of the rec department to see if this has any impact on the after school programming and how her students um have access to programs in any of the schools or um we also need to talk about about um excuse me any impact on Athletics I don't know that there would be but we have middle school students who participate in our JV and even Advanced athletic programs so we need to make sure that if there is an impact we think about that the elementary schools last year had a five lunch wave structure um they don't have it this year but we would need to go back to that next year if we're K to 5 at the elementary schools so that's also things that we need to think about and it's possible that we would need to hire more before school staff for the program that the district funds because with the addition of fifth grade and an elementary I don't know if families would want their fifth graders at before school programming but it is possible so we may need to factor in Staffing there so those are all the things that we thought about and I think when we look at the contractual uh obligations we look at the scheduling issues the budgeting issues the transportation I think the committee can understand why would we why we would want um this to not be a decision that we make late in the year oh I say are there any questions I'm sure there's a thousand um I I I think it makes sense for committee questions of the superintendent now rather than waiting until after the committee um um talks but I'm flexible like do do you all want to ask questions now I know I wrote a few thing down things down well Christine was talking um do folks have questions now okay so why don't we do that um whoever who wants to go first remember extra I saw you nodding your head first so why don't you go ahead okay so um I don't Karen I'm going to need you to help me with this a little bit um prior to this is sort of related and unrelated I guess to um redistricting or restructuring um prior to co the high school days were set up differently correct me if I'm wrong right now they have hour and a half classes they do a Tuesday T and but prior to closing for coid they had the schedule was different they had shorter class times but more classes in a single day yes no it was long before that think I'm looking to my no that's that's why I'm asking cuz no I think we changed the schedule in 17 I think it was 17 we changed it so it's been like this since then it has yeah okay yeah never mind then was that your only question yes how about member johnsonon or member wall no okay I just have a couple of things that I want to make sure I understand um so when you talked about the lines specifically the district lines for you know whether it's Transportation or or who goes to what school I guess uh it's one and the same um you said annually we would look at that you're talking about if we have option two two 2 B I think or two maybe it's two um well we really look at it annually anyway okay um but things that would affect it substantively would be things like a new development being built that could have a bigger impact normally just normal movement of students has not had a huge impact to this point I don't know if in the past it ever has or if it will in the future but there is some you know margin of error so to speak for the transportation but if we are looking to um better um represent the city in all three of our elementary schools we would need to be mindful of how just that's something we would need to be mindful of with that goal in mind but we do look at it every year we just haven't had to make any adjustments to this point okay okay that I know of okay um I'm going to save I think that question because I don't even know if it's totally Rel one of the things I forgot to mention yeah is we did draft the new Street and assigned schools um it's on the website the changes are highlighted in yellow it says really really big on the top in Orange it's a draft I I know that this is a lot and it's a subject that has some strong emotion for people but I want to make sure everybody's hearing that all of this is projected and estimated and draft so um it does say draft at the top this is what it looks like it is on the bottom of the front page of the website there's a fair list growing now of all the resources connected to this discussion and this is one of them that's available there so you can look um I don't want to minimize the potential impact on any family the list of streets is not long um that doesn't mean people don't have you know concerns about it but I just want to point out there's not a ton of yellow so if you look at the front page and you don't see anything immediately you do need to scroll through to see the yellow um highlights so that's the projected new distribution of streets to each school I have one last thing I believe can you because this is always a hard concept for me um and I don't ever mind saying that I don't get it over and over again um can the the3 FTE and the specials explain that in a way I would understand it and I'm going to love and I'm not trying to be as you would say fresh I'm I'm just trying to understand it and I say not being fresh I'm gonna phone a friend and let Mrs patod speak to that because she and Mr Browning have been working on the elementary Special schedule for two or three years so I'm going to let her speak to that I even when my kids talk about it I don't understand when they go to specials or what yeah so right and and I'm not sure I'll adequately explain it either um but when you add that extra third fourth and fifth grade the specials are the teachers that cover the classroom teacher for their prep so in order for the classroom teacher to get their contractually obligated prep you need a specials teacher to cover that class and teach teach that class so they can have their prep so when you add those extra in order to also provide your specials teachers with prep but also so that you have people to cover classroom teachers for prep we have too many classes for the people that we have hired so you need additional adults then in art PE and music to cover the additional classes because those six already hired have maxed out what they could potentially teach in a class a full day they'd have to stay so it's okay that I don't understand this is what you're saying okay um okay no I I do get it now but it's like it builds on yeah okay and one of the things that was in place when um Karen started in her role and I started in mine is not all of the elementary schools had the same specials and that's something that got rectified that that Karen worked on even as I was um onboarding she was already working on that with Dr H who was the interim at the time and we've managed to make it consistent with the incredible flexibility of our current teachers to do that so we really feel like it would defeat the conversation about Equity across all three elementary schools if we were to have a different special that got hired just to provide the prep at at a school with like we wouldn't want to had a different class only Newton School would get basket weaving because that would be weird right so it really would be maintain for a number of reasons it would be weird well it would be I'm not aware we have standards for that class correct but it would mean some students would get for your example basket weaving but they would not get art music or PE and then other students would not have the benefit of basket weaving right so it would sort of contribute to the issue I think that you're trying to solve so we really would need art music comp that's like a really bad Rubik's Cube problem I don't like it which is why I defer the elementary schedules um Special schedule to Karen yes okay thank you and I remembered I did have one more question I think is a lot easier K mcus and our buses we have like a dedicated number of buses with them right is it eight I think so okay and what you're saying as a part of this is that might need to increase like we might need to tell K mcus you know we actually are going to need nine or 10 buses in if because we've chosen this scenario yes it's possible okay and we're hoping the possibility maybe would be nine not 10 but yes we need to look at the actual children right it might just be one bus but yeah okay it's still that's I wasn't sure of how it works I guess I don't really need to know that other than it's kind of helpful to understanding how how the whole thing would come together is that we would say to kcus hey we need another bus or two one of the challenges to yes another issue is um people will talk about and it's accurate that some of our buses are half empty which is very true but within our policy it speaks to all all students within a certain distance from the schools are entitled to busing so we need to make sure we have seats on buses available for those children some of those children don't access the bus but it is it is their it is their benefit of attending our schools and within our policy that they have access to that busing so I do recognize some of our buses look pretty bare but if we have the day where those students say I need I need to take the bus home today and there's no seat for them um you know that would be a challenge for the district so that is part of why some of the buses look a little bit bare and our policy mirrors what's required of Mass General law for transportation it's not that we just made up that we have to provide this it's that the the state tells us that we have to provide transportation for like three different scenarios and that's why the buses might look empty yes that's such a government thing right we are you know the government yeah yeah um the other piece is you know if you folks decide to change any of your policy for example I think it's up through grade six there's a a cut off mile and a half anything over a mile and a half for up through grade six yeah which would mean in practicality you potentially could be providing it's grade seven yeah thank you you would be providing Transportation theoretically for two-thirds of the Middle School yes you could or you could decide to make a revision there which again would impact how many buses right but thank you again why we'd want to do that earlier on well and so that leads to that's a nice segue and I did not intend my question to happen that way it just did um that as we move through the process what we have learned is that we have policies the school committee has policies that deal with basic pieces of this Walkers and Riders and how the Mass General law treats that our attendance areas is a a second one and then how we assign students to schools is also um a policy that we have and when we decide how we're going to address any changes we're going to tie them to our policy and we have learned as a part of this process that and this happens in organizations it happens in education it happens when you have hundreds of policies that need to be followed that sometimes practice in policy come apart a little bit and have to be pushed back together and you don't just necessarily push them back together but you might um adjust on both sides to make it work uh the way that we feel is best for the students so okay that piece aside any more questions for the superintendent and thank you okay um so the next thing was I want to give the committee time I'm sorry that member Den isn't on the line anymore um give the committee time to give their thoughts um and and member while I would just pass over to you and if you wanted to go first or you want Glenn to go first however you want to do it you want me to go first okay I'm going to sort of start from the beginning the committee to reinv Vision our schools was formed about four years ago when some parents complained that their children were not being treated fairly they felt that for Corners was allocated more funding more experienced teachers and more access to extracurricular activities uh the superintendent has worked very hard to correct this problem and to ensure that every child receives the same level of funding and the same level of educational Excellence so that part of it we have uh collaborated and we hope solved the problem then the public also criticized the schools for having the fifth grade in Middle School and the eighth grade in high school these children were considered to be far too young to make that transition as you heard from the superintendent's report much work has gone into finding a solution for this problem the committee felt that having banded schools with the k Garten in first grade in one school and second and third grade in another school and the fourth and fifth grade in the third school would be the most fair and Equitable solution to all these problems this would enable teacher collaboration and give us enough flexibility to allow classrooms that work for every child each grade would have at least six classrooms in that scenario however we were told by the public that children could not be expected to move every 2 years and neighborhood schools were the only possible solution the schools have the space to accommodate moving the grades back into the original spaces if the schools returned to the original intent of having neighborhood elementary schools the committee learned that the students who lived in Leen Woods were moved out of Four Corners to allow more P parents to Choice their children into four corners which was considered to offer a superior educational experience to truly have neighborhood schools the children who live in Len Woods will have to be moved back to Four Corners this will also help achieve the diversity and Equity that is the goal of all schools the complaints from from the parents about this option that they demanded is astounding to me as someone who grew up in the South during segregation this is reminiscent of that era during that period of my life the majority of white parents only wanted to preserve the comfortable status of their child it probably didn't even occur to them that other children were suffering to achieve their child Comfort the absence of equity was not a consideration that seems to be what is happening here in Greenfield to preserve the Comfort comfortable status of some children's children others must suffer as a member of the school committee I cannot adhere to that concept my primary objection to allowing the parents at Four Corners who choiced into the school to keep their children in that school is that the special needs students will have to be moved elsewhere there these are the most vulnerable vulnerable children in our schools and they don't have the ability to come to school committee and tell us about whether they want that to happen to them um they don't have the ability to organize groups to tell us how important classrooms with bathrooms and a private playground are to them it also isn't fair to the teaching staff to ask them to give up their negotiated benefits to accommodate children who feel entitled to stay in the schools outside their neighborhoods I understand that change is difficult but the school committee has to make sure every student has the best Poss possible education and making the necessary change for everyone it wants is the only fair way for this to happen many will have to change so your child won't be alone and the staff is spending the time to learn how to make sure your child feels comfortable and gets a superior education wherever they are in all cases if the children remain in their current School the school will have changed from its current configuration and four corners will be quite crowded thank you do you thank you um I guess one comment I wanted to make is that um I I think we deserve a pretty good grade in one level and and maybe a a bad grade in another level which is that I think that if you look at the handout um it lists the session side options that we had for meetings to discuss the report and to discuss the uh options that we were considering together and I was really um really appreciative of um you member wall and the superintendent for working so hard to have these six different or five or six different um meetings out in the community at different sites and there were people who came and participated in that and your feedback really informed the options that the superintendent's been talking to us about tonight so thank you so much for attending and thank you member wall and the superintendent for your leadership and hard work to make that happen there was Transportation available I think that interpretation would have been available if it was needed um so that's great and I think it's a model for um the way public bodies like ours should be getting out in the community and listening to people people but uh just judging from some of the comments that I've heard recently I think that we maybe deserve a slightly less good grade for our ability to get that information out and let people know that those meetings were actually happening because I'm still hearing from people who didn't know about them and so that communication is our job we feel like we did it we thought we sent out the emails or did the broadcasts or whatever but clearly some people didn't get the information and we just need to learn more about how to communicate in a way that the public can hear and understand what we're doing and what we're offering and I just wanted to say that I think that um there are many many parents and families in Greenfield who are deeply concerned about equity and uh do know and understand that there are changes that need to happen in Greenfield for better Equity across our neighborhoods um and and I think that uh at the same time of course parents must look at all of this through the lens of how it will it affect my child and and what will it be like for them and I just wanted to say that uh we hear you and we care and it's you know when we're making decisions as a committee it will be looking at what's collectively going to be best for the students of Greenfield and I I don't think we can guarantee that every student will be 100% happy with with the changes change is going to be difficult and and and it may not work as well for some students as for others for some students the changes will be an improvement um but uh we will be here um listening to you and and caring about you and your children and respecting you and your feedback to us about um about this process thank you um other General comments or discussion at this point from the committee about moving forward does it make sense for me to talk through the motions that I would propose and we could go from there we don't want the Motions to be a surprise for anyone um and I would hope that if if what I think we need to do isn't what we need to do that we would do something different so you know we have a month to kind of figure it out um so the the way I have envisioned it is that we would actually need um to do two motions related to um the redistricting process and so the first one would be um that we would adopt a specific option as I say in the motion I've written that we would adopt option 2B redrawing boundaries for the elementary schools to better reflect the makeup of the city and allow for three elementary schools housing G grades K through five and moving grade eight to Greenfield Middle School so that would be the one that I would put forward um and certainly if the committee moves in a direction that it feels like we're moving away from 2B that hasn't been the case we've been moving if I think towards it pretty consistently um that we would look at at changing that um you know for example I really liked option one personally the banded grades and I think more than anything we heard from the GAA that's our teachers in their Union please know um and we have to respect that we have to work together on on those pieces so um that would be the first motion and that's just one example of how it might change if we were to change how the discussion is going and then I alluded to the fact that we have policies that we're not following so um you know specifically of course I had them out and then I shuffled and put them away um but specifically it's uh JC a and all the policies are on a website if you go to school committee and you go to policies um they're alphabetical by the first letter and they're in sections um related to certain parts of school operations so jca specifically is about the assignment of students to schools and had we been following this policy um the way it is written we really would not have intradistrict choice and this is the policy that's on the books so we've got to come to some sort of reconciliation between practice and policy um as a part of this and so the motion the second motion that I would propose to get at what um we are hoping to do is that beginning with the 2425 Academic Year uh school committee policies JC jca and EAA which is assignments of students to schools um the Walkers and Riders policy and then the other one is the attendance areas or like the transportation piece that those would be closely followed elementary students would attend the schools to which they're assigned based on District boundaries even if they currently attend a different elementary school so we might need time to talk we might need the time to think about it but as the person charged with getting us through the problem solving piece and landing at a solution that's kind of how I see that it would go but if I'm missing the mark Or there's a different way we want to approach it I would want to talk about that and of course anything else you'd want to discuss related to this now would be the the time can I just please I just want to remind everybody that in terms of the administration's work we can do the K to five regardless you know there's logistical issues but these can be separate conversations so I just want to make sure that there's Clarity that one um one can exist they can exist together or they can exist separately but if the vote is to do option 2B for example um we can do that I just want to make sure everybody is understanding that there um yes okay thank you discussion yeah I'm just wondering you know we just had an election we'll have effectively three new school committee members on here starting in January these are Big in weighty choices I'm just curious how the timeline that the superintendent needs coincides with the possibility of putting off any weighty decisions until January it we certainly would be looking at some budgetary impact um the transportation contract um will have just been awarded I believe early December Andy if I'm right early to mid okay um I think the biggest issue is is the budget impact um so um I say this very respectfully to any departing or incoming members um the longer that there is a decision delayed the less time we have to actually Implement anything and the thing I want least is to repeat what I have been told was the impact on people when this changes from of grade levels from one building to another occurred previously where it was done you know almost overnight and staff had very little time that's something we've you know we're trying to not have happen especially if we need to talk about training options for some of our fifth grade teachers um if we need to arrange to have tours of buildings for families I'm just you know all of these logistical issues and given the amount of time that it takes to do these things because you you all know we're not um um you know just this isn't the only task on our plates um should new members come in on in January and feel that they are not ready to vote we are then pushing it out and pushing it out if this vote is happening in April I it's I'm not sure how well we could Implement for September so that my fear is that we're well it feels like we're really early in the year given what we need to do it's not really that early in the year so sorry other questions or comments I'm not hearing any others so I think what I would propose is that um we obviously hear from the public we have another month at least to hear from the public on this um we're going to hear from some folks this evening um and I will come back in December with the Motions that I've just uh put forward um and I would encourage members to work on any alternative motions um to also bring forward so that we have the best problem solving um available when we're actually uh going to vote all right well can you'll email those um can you email those motions I will I will absolutely yes um and I want to thank both of you uh askp and uh Christine for uh the work on just getting all of this comprehensively put together and all the meetings with staff and the logistical pieces and I know Christine you've actually been doing like walking and driving through the district with Jake right littleit more yeah so there is a lot that goes into it um and I think everyone for um being a part of of the discussion and as soon as I find my agenda in my pile here it is all right so we'll move on to public comment oh thank you is there anyone that still needs to sign up for public comment okay we know who you are we can just call we can just call you last how about that all right all right um I'll do the timer so uh Miss ranor is first and we have addresses here but if you could just State your um name and this the town or city that you live in and you have 3 minutes but let me get my timer feel like I'm a roadie when I say my name that shouldn't count Margaret ranc cour Greenfield Mass go ahead um I happen to be a teacher at Four Corners and you can roll your eyes but I'm not here to speak as a teacher from four corners for 27 years I've worked for this town a great majority of it I was at Federal Street I did not leave Federal Street to go to greener pastures once upon a time I was the only fourth grade left at elementary and Dr Holland wrote A Blog and I saw the writing on the wall and said I got to go because I belong in elementary school no offense Middle School not my gig so I left a piece of my heart at Federal Street I still miss it I love that Community I'm in a new community I love it also but there's something left out of all these conversations and Jean wall you're breaking my heart because there there's a misconception every school in this District all six of them I assure you have the most talented dedicated hardworking resilient and resourceful teachers I have ever met at all of the schools all of them and what's happening is you're we're belittling some of the other schools we're demeaning them it's horrible it feels awful on all sides so please know it is impossible to work for Christine and Karen and be Slackers and not provide a fair education to all kids we are held to the highest level of accountability responsibility and behavior and I am hurting for my teachers in the other schools when you say their children are suffering they take that personally it sounds like they are not good teachers and that it's just not true so I'm asking everyone on both sides of the table when you're speaking passionately about what you think is best can you do it in such a way that you do not be mean delittle belittle demoralize the teachers in this town teaching is hard in 2023 no matter where you are it is challenging it's exhausting I'm tired I'm shaking because I'm I'm upset please think before you speak that if we're trying to do the best thing do it in a way that does not pit one school against another because I'm telling you at Four Corners we will take any children that come in front of us and educate them and I believe that's the same for all six schools everybody please hear me we need to work together and we need to do what's best but not in a way that just puts more strain on people people that are working themselves to death we are exhausted and I am very proud of all of my colleagues all of them in every building thank you thank you Rose you're next you already knew you were next you have three minutes thank you um so first um I want to say two sentences about redistricting and that's it um one you're going to upset people no matter what you do and I'm sure that you know that um but two the question you need to ask yourselves is who you're willing to upset either the people in our community with immense privilege um who won't get what they want or the underserved people in our community who deserve to have an equitable education um but that's not the main reason why I'm here um I'm actually I guess in an off topic way here to talk about assistant superintendent Karen patod um because before I came to Greenfield I was a math interventionist for 6 weeks at a different district and it was six weeks long and only six weeks long because I did not have the support that I needed to be successful there I'm now on week 63 as a title one math interventionist in Greenfield because of Karen patod uh I have a unique perspective because Karen is the supervisor of the title one program so we work together often Karen gave me a chance and intentionally created a community of interventionists in all of our schools to help us build ideas and offer support and it means the world to me I have no doubt that she would continue this community work in our district as superintendent um I could take all three minutes raving about how wonderful Karen is but that wouldn't be enough time um I do want to highlight the fact that Karen doesn't have to drive 50 minutes to lead our district it's no no like offense or anything but um but she lives here and she was a principal here right and she's the closest working employee to Christine um we will not find any other candidate with those credentials Karen has the trust of teachers behind her and choosing not to appoint her would be negligent and catastrophic to our school Community the only reason I would say not to is because that might mean she won't be my supervisor anymore and that would make me sad so thank you thank you oh now we don't know who's next it's Joy Whitbeck please hi Joy just um State the town or city you live in and your full name and you have three minutes sure um I'm Joy Whitbeck from Greenfield Massachusetts um I first want to thank you all for your commitment I don't know you all personally but I know the vital role you've chosen to take in our community so thank you for taking the time to do that um I also understand appreciate all the years of work and commitment that have gone to this point and I want to make sure that we're not rushing to a conclusion in the end um I think that redrawing the school assignments ending INRI interdistrict choice and moving the fifth and eighth grades all at once is a whole lot of change that seem to make the pieces fall into place but also create a lot of change for a lot of students um I don't know why we can't allow the current students at whatever school they're at if they'd like to stay to stay and age out and then move the fifth and eighth grades if we do that they'll age out quicker obvious viously if they're not staying in elementary school through 5ifth they'll be out quicker and then we could move them you know then move everybody back down and then you won't have that problem at Four Corners of three grades up until fifth um I greatly appreciate you want to correct the mistakes of the past by allowing the intrisic choice and moving a segment of population out of four corners and moving Fifth and eighth grade out of their Elementary and Middle School status um but I don't think that doing all of those three at once is going to impact the students the best way possible I think if you slow down and make a couple of the changes and then move Fifth and eighth it'll have less impact on the students overall um yeah uh I just also have to say as a resident of Greenfield for 42 years a product of Greenfield Public Schools and now with my own children in Greenfield Public Schools it's rather insulting to suggest I don't care about the Greater Community obviously my kids are first in my world but this is my community my entire life so to suggest that I don't care about someone else's children is ridiculous because those children will be sitting as the school committee in 25 years so we all have a role to play I guess thank you Luke Martin please you know the drill I think so Luke Martin uh Haywood Street I have two children in the schools and I also teach at the high school um for the most part I I support the direction you're taking with reenvisioning our schools uh from very early in the process I've been in favor of what has become option to be uh what I've come to address tonight is the process of making these changes as you move forward it's important to remember that Greenfield has made laudable efforts in recent years to become more trauma informed in our approach to educating children we're not talking about trauma just in the traditional sense of major life-altering events but also the various stressors and disruptions that can negatively impact our children's ability to learn bullying food insecurity transience a lack of acceptance or inclusion for certain groups uh recently our staff at the high school was asked to listen to a podcast to dig deeper into this topic it was called unpacking trauma-informed education and it explained that trauma-informed schools are not only sensitive to kids external trauma but must also quote disrupt things that cause trauma inside of schools that schools need to look carefully at how might someone experience trauma there and how do we disrupt that from happening this is something I think you need to take into account when you consider immediately shuffling kids around based on new boundaries and ending interdistrict choice that dozens and dozens of children will be uprooted from the safe and stable environments that they've come to know not just intradistrict Choice kids but those from Leiden Woods Oak courts or anywhere else that's suddenly found in a new school zone these are children who have had their education already disrupted by a global pandemic and many of whom continue to face a variety of other stressors and challenges we should not further disrupt their school experience by uprooting them breaking the bonds they've developed with peers and trusted adults in their buildings and asking them to start over in a new and unfamiliar place the same podcast noted that predictability is one of the core tenants of a trauma-informed approach quote predictability is one of those core safety needs because trauma really disrupts our sense that the world's a predictable place so when we can create predictability it helps create a sense of routine and structure that we can settle into to feel safe I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that tearing kids away from their friends and trusted adults is hardly a trauma-informed approach I don't think this is a surprise or new to you in the survey sent out to staff last June option 2B included a quote phasing out of that choice uh it seems we understood the damage that could be done by making such changes too abruptly but somehow now we're considering pulling the rug out from under kids who entered an elementary School believing they'd be there until middle school somehow now it's Being Framed as a choice between moving in District Choice kids or the Asus program but it never should have come to this false choice we should have foreseen the space issues that complicate this option and not have committed to making these changes by next year now we're stuck with a logistical Nightmare and a false choice of moving some kids versus other kids why can we not wait until enough students have phased out to allow for the fifth grade to comfortably move back how long would that actually take uh this is easy for me to say because my children aren't going into fifth grade next year and those parents may have a different perspective but to me this should not be a hard choice about which groups of kids unfortunately have to move next year instead you should be asking what kind of timeline for this restructuring would minimize or eliminate the disruption for all kids kids are resilient they adapt they adjust they grow I'm not suggesting that kid forcing kids to change schools will traumatize them in the traditional sense of the word but we claim that we're adopting a trauma-informed approach to education saying so is easy but the way these changes are made will say a lot about whether we actually walk the walk um lastly I want to say that uh to member wall that being put on par with Southern segregationists in the Jim Crow era is astounding and entirely inappropriate and I can only assume that you don't understand the feedback you're getting from parents I hope that's the case thank you thank you Sarah Chase um I had prepared a statement but I feel that I have to if you could move the microphone a little bit closer but I feel that I have to say something else before I begin um I'm feeling in this community and now straight from the school committee itself a lot of finger pointing about racism and things like that and I think that people need to not always judge a book by its cover I'm white my husband is black my children are mixed race and they are choice to Four Corners and I am extremely insulted at what Gan wall had to say about people that might be choicing their children there my children go through a lot living in this area um with racism and people calling them certain words and I am called certain words by having a black husband and I just think it's a disgusting way to talk about people this is my statement my children are six and nine in grades K and four at Four Corners my 9-year-old has been there since she was in kindergarten we sent her there because I knew some of the teachers I'm an educator myself and I was more comfortable with a one Lev School than the giant school that Federal Street seemed to me with my precious baby girl we are very involved in the school Community there and have been for years now so not only my daughter but my son who is just starting out his Elementary School experience there are extremely comfortable and happy there it is an incredible school to despite all the public schools face these days I have always thought that having the fifth grade in elementary school is appropriate and am happy this committee is considering this however until recently the information that this mve would displace my children along with many other children in the district was not clear at all so unclear in fact that when we filled the paperwork out for my son to join his sister at for Corners there was Zero mention of the fact that this could be temporary and I have lots of emails between myself and central office where this could have been mentioned to me and there was no mention of that that change was looming on the forms we filled out the children of the Greenfield Public Schools are not numbers they are little people with developing brains that need to feel safe and secure to have the capacity to learn there are also little people who have emotional needs and struggles that need to be taken into consideration including my son removing my children from the only school they know would be devastating to them I implore you to please consider my concerns along with all of the concerns of the others here tonight advocating for their children to have consistency in their schooling and be allowed to finish their ele Elementary experience where they started it I also hope in the future when you do vote that you do vote to do what is right by the children of Greenfield including those that are inter District Choice who have done nothing to deserve being uprooted and that you vote to let them phase out of their schools thank you thank you and Rebecca is it right out Rebecca did I say that right write out okay and just your name and uh the city you live in and uh you have three minutes okay my name is Rebecca R out I've lived in Greenfield for 14 years at Four Corners the fifth grade solution has not at all been arrived at it's an incomplete plan don't put that on inter Choice families as if they created that problem or stand in the way neither the inter Choice families nor the special needs program at Four Corners called Aces should be threatened to have to move or pitted against each other due to the addition of a new grade level there the inter Choice families are a population with not a lot in common we are from a range of soci economic levels types of families reasons we chose this program Gan your comments are misinformed off Bas and insulting interdistrict Choice was provided by the school district although you allowed kindergarteners to come in this year which was again your choice you're making it seem like now the people who want to keep their kids in the school they started in are being intractable communication before July was fine this option 2B was fleshed out fully for the first first time only in July subcommittee meeting the first time the inter Choice Community was put at risk of upheaval and we've never been notified in August the superintendent briefly spoke about this emerging plan to the school committee discussing as a solution that quote fits everyone but she failed to mention that it does not now those families are being called out as the problem you need to go find a solution that works for everyone at Four Corners and keep everyone who's already there instead of disadvantaging one or another group here's one idea have you considered mobile units for the three three fifth grade classrooms next year they seem to be quick to get on site I attended several classes in Mobile units in high school it worked or perhaps the three classes of fifth grade from Four Corners could be placed in another school for the next year or two regarding redistricting this plan and the corresponding documents have created a bizarre narrative in which inter Choice families seem to stand in the way of redistricting this could not be less true and is certainly causing divisions the opposite of what we need to build community one of my my requests for clarification is can districting and Inter Choice coexist it seems that fifth grade stands in the way of all that whenever factions of a population are pitted against each other you can bet there's a bureaucratic entity that has created this division well this is happening to parents here in Greenfield and invite you all to look no further than those seated before us today for the reason we can do better as a community I acknowledge my privilege to have even known about the inter Choice program I think it is Antiquated and should not exist in the future I know all the town schools are equal in their quality I think bringing light and woods students into four corners makes all the sense in the world if there is consent from those families Equity is giving resources and especially agency to the people who need it and to let them Define equity for themselves I care very much about this these affected communities Laden woods and Oak courts deserve the right to choose if their children age out of their current schools figure out the busing Nightmare and the funding issues that comes from that that's called equity as the current proposal State States I just do not believe that uprooting th uh roughly 100 children across all soci economic neurode Divergent and racial lines without their families consent creates any Equity at all but I'm proud of our town for having so much caring about this issue rational Minds have thus far treated our children like lines on a spreadsheet but we need to create stability for all of our students if making that happen requires a little more Logistics I have the confidence that the same rational Minds can figure it out thank you in advance thank you Melissa is there anyone else who wants to speak this evening okay I feel like I should talk about redistricting for some unknown reason give us your name and where live web I live in Greenfield um I attended every single meeting from virtu ual with Jean and Glenn and Susan Holland I listened at school committee when it was remote back in September during coid when it finally came back to life again um I'm very lucky to have the knowledge to be able to follow the school committee on lots of topics um my first school committee I know I'm changing subjects here Kia Burton King dragged me here to talk about transportation and to always offer the um courtesy if anyone would like to walk with me from my house to Newton they are always more than welcome to see the unsafe fruit um that exists in that area um especially during winter time but back to redistricting I live less than 500 feet from a low-income housing you know I talk to these people I interact with them every day some of them are not comfortable coming up here and talking to you about the importance of getting fifth grade back into Elementary getting eighth grade back into Middle School um as Amy knows we went to Greenfield Gardens for a meeting and we were locked out of a building and those are just some of the daily things that things are promised to them and then they don't happen so coming forward isn't always so easy um I will say I did take a quick look at the bus the changes in the sheets and I did notice that Sullivan Lane which is also part of the Greenfield housing complex and part of Oak Court was left out of the geological um thing so that I would encourage that to be looked at a little bit better or even that area you know we're talk about making Green Field making the lines make more sense not having off streets off Li and road going to Newton having the community I will say at a lot of our topics people said how important neighborhood schools were and some of the people who were at the meetings School of Choice to other schools and then said yes neighborhood schools are what we want and now I'm seeing them say today well I mean I want neighborhood schools but I want the neighborhood I'm already in the community I'm already invested in not the one I actually physically live in um I remember the playground chatter when my daughter went off to Newton how I how could I possibly send her there and and that was real that happened at a I had moms coming up to me and a few other people saying are you sure you don't want a school of choice and I was like no we're we're good we're going to our neighborhood it's going to be great um at that point I had already been volunteering at Newton for four years through the last days in housing crisis so I'm just going to say thank thank you for showing up and thank you for listening to everyone even the people whose voices don't always project as loud thank you is there anyone else you may come on up just real quick for the record I live on Lincoln Street which currently goes to Four Corners where my children go so it's not my kids that would move it's everybody around them and everybody in other other schools so not everybody that appears to be on that side of the room versus this side of the room which is kind of disturbing but not everybody is us against them thank you Joy anyone else who hasn't already spoken would like a opportunity okay I I thank you all yeah go ahead please we just need your name you're going to have a hard last name that I won't be able to spell right no go ahead what what's your name Tera oh I didn't recognize you with the hat on sorry Tara yeah turn them ohz and you live in Greenfield right I live in Greenfield um I just wanted to make a quick comment when we talk about neighborhoods schools um we live on a corner and one if our mailbox was actually on the other side of our house like we would be Four Corners so our direct two neighbors are actually in my daughter's class and that is our neighborhood um and it would it feels random and alienating to her to see her two classmates who are in her class who are her neighbors who she looks out the window and sees going to um a different school so I just wanted to mention that this sense of neighborhood it is defined by the superintendent school committee it's not necessarily this innate thing so I just wanted to clarify that that I feel like even though we choice in I feel like we are in our neighborhood school we are closer to Four Corners our neighbors go to Four Corners our property is half on four corners territory thank you thank you I'll keep asking until there's no one so anyone else want to speak again I thank you all for being here and uh especially for the comments and we will at this point move on oh it's Andy Mr pette with his budget update for us thank you Andy for being patient not a problem so you have the update in your packets um we are proceeding along as um best as we can regarding uh with some of the transitions that we're experiencing um you'll notice again some of the I just want to highlight some of the things as far as some of the big deficits that are showing up if you look at the revolving account report there are very little expenses that are charged of the revolving accounts are encumbered so we're going through the process of uh moving those encumbrances out of the local budget into those revolving counts specifically in the tuition area circuit breaker and then the transportation as well um I can answer any questions you might have regarding the local report and any of the revolving accounts any questions from the committee I just would say that I work in College financial aid and when I start talking people leave the room as well so don't take it personally thank yeah that would be awesome I we're going to put you on the spot a little bit um especially for our folks who um on the committee who are probably aware that we are working on uh Transportation bid with other um towns and uh it's come up because we've had to um go to city council related to the length of the bid being 5 years and the standard is 3 years if you could just talk briefly about how the the timeline how it's going what we're doing sure uh this is the second year I believe that we have taken part in a joint Collective bid of several school districts in Franklin County and the last time it was done was was five years ago so five years is up so we're now going out for the second bidding for those districts that choose to participate the law for the governs procurement in Massachusetts says that if you go beyond 3 years if you are entertaining the desire to go beyond 3 years you need to get the approval of the appropriating authority to extend to go even Explore for Beyond three we're looking for five so we have to go to the city council as the appropriating authority to get the authorization to do a five-year bid the the process is it might sound like it's the cart before the horse but we just we need the authoriz ization first before we can even in a sense bring it to you to have the school committee ultimately vote to accept a contract from a vendor so the way Transportation Works in Massachusetts is the community has to fund Transportation the school committee and the administration manage the actual operations of the transportation so we've got a bid out now that was coordinated with nine districts in Franklin County uh it's being coordinated by the Frank Council of governments um the bidding as Dr DeBarge mentioned is going to be opened in December with the hopeful awarding of a contract by then um once we do the bid opening we then will go to city council with the fact that it's a five-year contract which we found we were able to find in a pass that that was actually what was done was it was presented to the city council that it was a 5-year contract and then ultimately school committee chair signed with the the awarded contract um regarding this discussion here the the it's a cost per bus per day contract so even if there's any potential impact financially regarding this redistricting discussion how it goes we will be very easy it'll be very easy to determine any cost savings and or potential additional cost because it is a cost per bus per day contract thank you are there please secretary EXT Go ahead I just want to ask a very direct question that I think will encapsulate what you just said so the longer it takes for these steps to be gone through because city council needs to do something and we're on the street as the city is trying to get involved the longer it will take for us to work on a budget which means the longer it will take for uh not work on a budget but to get more accurate numbers the longer it will take to present things um I could be wrong I guess I'd say the the discussion regarding the transportation as it relates to the discussion that you just had I would say it is gerain to the topic but it wouldn't be a driving force in a topic because you would make whatever is best sense educationally and then we would have to determine the the funding of said decision as it relates to Transportation they you know the the delay in the process I think and when we chair pretti and I were at a city council meeting where we were talking about that and even the chair of the city council said he's not sure that anyone remembers whether or not it was brought to them beforehand so um we provided them documentation from legal councel as to the reason why we are doing the process this way um and so the ultimate result is we have time like let's play the worst case scenario that the city council decided not to authorize a five-year contract we would just have to issue an addendum to the bid that's currently out there saying that Greenfield chooses not to be a five-year uh contract awarding so and if I could just can I add in um if all of the details if the school committee chooses to move forward with a plan or or whatever configuration of that the decision is if there is an impact on transportation and the decision isn't made before the budget has to be submitted we can have an estimate and figure out if it's one bus it would be x amount of money because it's bus per day so we could say you know I make up an amount but if it's one bus it's 10,000 if it's two buses it's 20,000 and we could estimate from a budgetary standpoint I think we did that during Co right we have to add and it's a scalable formula in the contract for that okay oh no no I I don't know I don't have off the you really don't know he he knows I'd love if it was $10,000 but I was using easy map um one last thing I want to mention since I have been here for so long is that I vividly recall the executive session where the chair at the time Adrian yunes uh we all went into executive session to discuss the contract because there were some complications and the committee as a whole Glenn were you do you remember this at all I'm just worried because you're talking about executive session like sounds like you're just about to the minutes have been released it oh okay okay I think I think it was early 2019 when you guys talked about it um and ultimately it was the chair that executed the contract but it was in consultation with the full school committee and I asked all the ridiculous questions that I like to ask about it other comments or questions I just I just want so the reason we would want to do a five-year bid is because it might save us money that's I mean it's I would say yes and I'll say just because my company has done joint Transportation bids for clients uh of ours we did it for three communities we put in the specifications to quote a price for three as one or three individual ones and the we've done this now for four bid cycles and each time that we've done it the price per bus was less expensive for the collective bid than it was for the individual ones and the procurement you know it kind of logic dictates that the more united the more volume you get the less price Better Price It's like a union for buses yeah okay and the other thing I wanted to just say allow just because this was part of my own education on this um is that there is literally a Mass General law that says if you're doing a bus contract for public schools it can't be more than three years unless you have the permission of your funding Authority which I just find to be so micromanaging I can't even stand it yeah that's the law it's explicit yeah yes and because transportation is a unique uh thing that's required and uh but just for clarification I'll put on my mcppo hat is like any contract over three years requires it but it does explicitly sayate State Transportation yes yes yes yeah thank you Andy are yes another question go ahead so the other thing that I wanted to mention is that it's not like there's other games in town this is there's essentially one service provider who can do these things unless we want to pay a whole lot more for someone from farther away unless I'm mistaken I'm going to ni that because that's the whole purpose of bidding is that you hope and hope for an open market for participants retract that thank you all kinds ofers anything else thank you Andy um now to the most exciting part of the agenda which is item number seven a vote to declare the ice machine Surplus um and there is a document in the materials if you're following along that is literally says just exactly what I said uh we are declaring an ice machine Surplus I move to declare the ice machine [Music] Surplus that was a motion from Member Johnson mad I will second any discussion and our members are off the phone so we can just go through our votes for uh verbally um any sorry I'm sorry who was the second was it was me uh any extensions any no votes that passes unanimously thank [Applause] you that's how we feel better too right um and then items uh eight and nine are policy uh items and I'm going to pass it over as I do with these uh to to member Johnson mad as chair of the policy subcommittee take it away thanks for that chair um Christine would you set up the number eight second reading and vote for Section B board governance and operations for us you mean why are we doing this now yes yeah um questions came up about a couple of the individual policies and as um Susan had asked the question we located the fact we we searched records and actually saw the fact that it appears that there were two first readings but no second reading on Section B so we just need to have a second reading on the books so that we can finally move to the end of the policy manual which we are getting close to so this is a housekeeping item in in essence thank you and my um records indicate that those first readings happened in 2019 so I'm glad we're getting to this let's see so now I I have to get those little glasses but I don't have them so let me see if I can do this I've got some please please help how strong they need to be I don't know this will probably be good I almost put them on upside now I don't think oh that does help okay so we're looking for second readings of an existing set of policy uh see and these are good okay I move that we adopt policy section B board governance and operations as presented on second reading is there a second second that is there any [Music] discussion hearing none are there any no votes any extensions that passes [Music] unanimously great and um we waited so long to approve the second reading in section uh for Section B that in the meantime we have actually found one of those one of the policies that we just revised we're now going to propose revising ing again so um we had discussion early in the year about the uh process by which we do our organizational meetings and um I think our policy currently calls for things like having it at our first meeting in January um and having the superintendent uh kind of supervise the process until a chair is appointed so we have this whole policy the other thing that came up was an interest in having uh from some of the members of the committee in having public comment be part of precede the organizational meeting um and so through it was referred back to the policy committee to take a fresh look at the organizational meeting and through the diligence of member denie we discovered that there is actually language in the town Charter that covers how um the um organizational meetings should go um and so which is very different from what our current policy is so our current policy is in in contradiction to the what's in the town Charter or the city Charter so um we have a proposed Revision in front of you that both um attempts to bring our practice in line with what the charter calls for as well well as adding the provision of a public comment period and um I don't think it made it into your packet but I am happy to read to you all the parts of the charter that are referred to in this uh revised policy if folks would like that if not that's okay and I'll just say that the policy the revised policy as presented was voted forward to you from the policy subcommittee but not unanimously U member deneve and I voted for it uh chair priority uh voted against it so so I guess I'll start with a motion and then we can discuss yeah do the motion first okay and then discuss yeah great I got to get the glasses back get the I got them from Target they're called okay I need thin Optics and they fit in this little thing in my pocket they fold up nice and thin I'm not on commission for them either I get mine from Walmart okay um I move that we approve the first reading of amendments to policy BDA school committee organizational meeting as presented is there a second uh I'll second for discussion okay and is there any discussion I guess so we have adopt or this policy would adopt a organizational meeting structure that is similar to the one in the city Charter does the one in the city Charter contain a public comment period it does not okay I guess I would just um my oppos I I I've opposed this from the time it was uh presented I mean we just watched uh the house there US House of Representatives try for uh three weeks to elect a new leader they didn't take public comment because they're electing a leader within themselves um and I just find it really interesting that there's this need to change the policy I think mostly to include this piece and it it doesn't seem I just don't understand why I don't understand what what there is about this that needs to be a part of the process I will be voting against it I just wanted to say my peace I can say that um the the I think really there are two honest intents here I mean I don't think it makes sense for us as a school committee to have an organizational meeting process approved as a as a policy which contradicts what it says in the city Charter I really think the city Charter takes precedence over our over our uh policy and um to speak to the question of why I have a public comment period before the election of officers I I realize it isn't something that is done um in many B different public bodies uh these meetings often will happen in the late afternoon in early January and uh if there is any discussion it's amongst the M members and very few of any public members of the public are even present and if they are present there isn't a public comment period for them to speak um but I think that um the election of officers is actually among one of the most um important decisions the school committee would make in a year I think the school committee chair has a huge amount of influence over what is on agendas how agendas are handled uh how the interaction with the school committee with the public goes and so I think that the public has a um an interest in it and I don't think it results in um in what happened in the House of Representatives if the um the members of the public who are present each have three minutes to share their opinion before school committee me members uh vote I don't see that descending in into chaos so that is the the reasoning behind having the public comment period um included I forgot I'm facilitating yes M extr you're still in Char ex um I so I'm of two minds I mean I don't so I don't really necessarily have much of a concern regarding public comment or not it's really excuse me neither here nor there for me um however following the city Charters and doing as the city council does is is a model of running the meetings as as you know in parallel and so my inclination is to not um include a public comment period and and also part of it is and and I this may get it the way that I think about being on school committee when you get elected to school committee you are there you have been elected because people trust you to represent the best interests of you know whatever situation it is that comes up with school committee um in the schools and things like that so um I I wouldn't vote for a public comment I I guess I'll I'll add that um the charter also doesn't talk about the voting of a secretary but as a school committee we can choose to have a secretary and elect one and have a a means of electing one and and similarly if we chose we could have a public comment period it it doesn't contradict what's in the charter which is um what we actually have currently so any other discussion so uh let's take a vote um any who who um what how do you do this Amy uh who any members abstaining from this vote any members voting no on this three okay and members voting for I'm a one so the motion fails um 3 to one and I guess with the chair's permission I'd like to put forward a um a new motion um which would be to um approve the school committee organizational meeting um uh revision on first reading uh with the um omission of the public comment period uh that is the third paragraph of the um proposed uh revised policy um so I'll move that is there a second I'll second that okay uh any discussion I appreciate your willingness to compromise it's probably short-lived but I I appreciate it anyway thank you uh yes I think it would be really good if we could get this policy into alignment um with the charter before our organizational meeting in January so um I I think that we can um have have a meeting in January without a public comment but I certainly would encourage the public uh to take advantage of the other ways you have of communicating with us if you care about um the who leads the school committee we would love to hear I would love to hear from you and so any other comments on this would you forward your motions to me please uh yeah I gave yeah I will thank you yep um so let's vote any um uh any no votes on this um New Motion any abstentions all those in favor I passes unanimously thank you thank you if I could kindly ask for my glasses back it would be awesome I think that we're I don't know what number it is but we're going into the job descriptions oh we're at the 8:00 break oh yeah um oh we're at 8 so we uh we can uh move for a five minute break if that works for folks we can power through but let's okay we'll move for a five minute break so um 88:13 we'll give you to 8:15 we'll come back than thank [Music] you [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a the table and we're going to get started again and we are on uh agenda item number 10 approval of two job descriptions assistant business manager and accounting assistant and they are in the packet and uh Christine if you could just give like an overview of how we got here that would be great and actually I'm going to ask Andy to actually identify those sure uh what this is is like I'd say several years ago it was discussed about the fact that whether or not it's I'm going to say the current business manager model of a company being your business manager or what we call the traditional business manager uh it was discussed that we need to create a little more structure to the business office and what we ended up doing is looked at the two job descriptions in the business office per se and just realign some of the responsibilities to create uh we'll say the quotequote the assistant business manager that would oversee both the business office and actually have some support and oversight of the payroll HR office as well that's always been the design that had been discussed and it's also we'll say effective so what we did is looked at the two Des job descriptions of the positions and just did some realigning of the roles and responsibilities to we'll say create some heightened level of authority to the assistant business manager position and re align and change the accounting assistant position per se creating some structure which hopefully will also not hopefully I can say will create some efficiencies and some clear lines of communication regarding the roles and responsibilities in the office as well as additional oversight of the payroll HR and I just add this was an opportune time because we unfortunately had Kristen in the business office resigned she you know moved moved on to a different position a different company um but given the fact that she um you know she left that was a good time to make any changes because it had less impact and as we move forward to post the position it made sense to ask you to approve a job description before we post it so um and we thank you for that well and I should also add for context that um we have a collegial relationship with the administration as the school committee in terms of job descriptions where it does not say anywhere that the superintendent uh is is required to bring job descriptions to us um there are a handful of positions that we hire as the school committee um superintendent being one of them and the rest are actually left to the superintendent but because of the I think mostly the immensity of the number of job descriptions is immensity a word I don't know the number of them um and just wanting to also know what is happening in terms of um administrative responsibilities we do this process where we um provide uh overview and an approval of the job descriptions although the hiring is entirely done on the operation side so um with all of that said uh motion I would ask for a motion to approve oh geez I move to approve the job descriptions as presented thank thank you member Johnson mad and the second was uh from Member wall and any discussion and that's secretary Exum please we should do these separately in the event that one of them changes later and because then we'll have to approve both of them no we can bring them back separately they need to be revised separately yeah yeah um as anyone have any discussion questions suggestions on the job descriptions hearing none any extensions from approving any no votes those both pass unanimously thank you and requests from the committee for new agenda items are there any I'm not hearing any we'll move on it's not closed if you wanted to come back to that if anyone has something um and then report from the administration we have an askp report right um I thought yes yes something in here yes let me just get to it yes the heat is off the AC is now on perfect Thom I'll be quick they're just asking us to move swiftly through the agenda yeah um just really wanted to update the committee on the huge professional development day we had districtwide yesterday so I just wanted to share some of the um PD that happened the uh think right pair share our instructional strategy work continued teaching lab was on site for our K22 teachers um really looking at our instructional practices and uh using the data aggregate data from the learning walks that we've been doing with ssos and the teaching lab and really just focusing on improving um instructional practices so that was a huge chunk of our staff participated in that um we are still in the midst of investigating history so educurious was on site to work with our fifth uh through seventh grade history teachers yesterday and the roll out of that new curriculum that desie has launched um again we're trying to really promote College and Career Readiness at our middle and high school really getting uh kids interested in learning more about uh their strengths and what they might like to do in uh study and maybe promote uh future electives that we could create so we did adopt navian and really want to roll out some of those College and Career surveys with our 7eventh through 10th graders and really try to align some of the new electives that are offered next year with those career survey results to peque the interest of our kids so looking forward to seeing how that all unfolds um as Mr Martin did allude to in his public comment we are really still committed to um professional development that deals with being trauma informed and really working with our students on an asset-based approach our district-wide instructional assistance um engaged with uh lordis Alvarez Ortiz who we've worked with for years and her partner Gabriella lachari was with us as well yesterday and worked with our IAS on on uh identifying students strengths and really how they could support them better and lead to better outcomes in the work that they do with our kids um I do have to add though that I did get some personal feedback got some texts last night from our IAS that quotee unquote said it was the best PD that they've ever had and how rejuvenated and energized so I really appreciate folks reaching out to me just to let me know that it's really um makes you feel good about what you've provided for folks for for the day and that they really got something out of it um our a staff have been working um year long with uh the director maril melli on guided play strategies and really uh using play to teach whole language get that language development really a uh an increase so they had a successful day and then we had a lot of other sessions many ones here and there we had CPI training we had second step training with our guidance counselors at the k seven level we had School nurses working online on building family relationships we had curriculum mapping and we also um uh Dave messing led a special education daylong professional development for our special ed staff in our uh service providers so it was really a a a very well uh energized and productive day I hope uh everyone got something out of it and really um embraced whatever session that they were in uh for Grants uh I just wanted to commend and I wish Luke had stayed because I wanted to give him a shout out our Civic Grant this year really was um focused on us providing relevant Civic learning experiences for our students AKA more field trips more um off-site experiences for them school committee interns perhaps that would be a wonderful cic engage wonderful we have to put that on an agenda right um we used to do that too Angie Mass used to have him do it with city council when Isaac was on the city council so we'll have to bring that back um but one of the things that Luke already uh came out of the gate and did with his uh US history class um they went to Lexington conquered in Charleston already and 50 kids were able to go explore and really have a a Civic learning experience so he has some other ones planned as well and U Miss Zimmerman in eth grade is engaging our high schoolers with the recorder so we've uh used the grant to get them online subscriptions to our local newspaper and she said uh kids are really intrigued with um having a paper to read and I read it every day so I forget how often people don't physically read a newspaper um but to hear that feedback was really neat and so I'm glad that we have the grant to really give our kids those opportunities and then lastly just wanted to update you it's the first year on the mentor program for our unit c folks and uh we have four instructional assistants who are leading the mentor program this year um and uh Christine met with them last month I had to miss the meeting but they are really working hard to provide the guidance and support that our new IAS need and anytime we have a new hire we link them with one of these season mentors and really have someone to be a go-to person and I think it's really helping out in that area so thank you awesome any questions for askp I just have a quick one about the navian are you going to work with GCC I think they have a career person we have a couple they have a couple of career people would love to yeah um who's who is it still it's uh Shannon Doran yeah yeah who yeah who's been in the area doing this work for a long time she's now at GCC yeah yeah so we should get you hooked up and potentially there's some capacity building there yeah what did she used to work with us when she was at Mass higher was she at mass mass higher for a long time yeah no that would be great awesome cool thank you any questions I didn't see any okay we're good we're moving on um uh Christine do you have more to tell us tonight go ahead really I yes I do um a couple of things we had first of all uh I looked at my phone a couple times because I had about nine 9,000 text messages about the forecast so this is just a reminder that it is win it is time to start talking about snow and ice and potential impact on school and there is some potential for freezing rain or ice for the morning so um Mr Warner from the DPW and I have um wonderful productive early morning chats about the status of things so um you know no news is good news but there it's time um we um I'm sorry that Judy Bennett wasn't able to stay because um you folks will remember she came to the school committee earlier in the year to um talk about the tree planting in honor of Donna Woodcock and we I have ordered the bench um unfortunately the delivery date is a little far out in potentially February but it we believe it matches the other benches that are at the high school it will have a memorial plaque on it um Karen and Judy have both offered suggestions for the inscription and the DPW is donating the materials and the labor to pour this cement pad that the bench will be um on so I'm very pleased that we're able to move on and and get this in place um to honor Donna's memory at the high school we have um a couple of Staffing changes upcoming um some not so great some great so the not so great um Jen relli one of the aps from the Middle School um will be moving on so that position is posted and Lynn Pard our assistant special ed director is also moving us uh leaving us um that position has been posted and Karen and Dave um started some interviews today but on the positive note we have a new director of facilities that is starting Monday we have had a very fortunate quick turnaround with him um so Michael budro will be joining us on Monday and um I want to thank Ben Murphy and Joe pugs I can't say his whole last name Joe pugs on the city Side they've really been doing an amazing job working together and filling in on things that I couldn't possibly know about facilities um in the two-e interim and then um Mike was already able to come in and meet with Ben today and start the transition so it's been you know as much as um we're sad that Eric moved on there have been some nice nice working together um in the middle and we'll have Mike with us on Monday excellent is that everything I don't know I think okay questions for the superintendent all right we will move on because the temperature is dropping winter is coming um I a report from the chair is next and I just have um two quick things I wanted to make sure that we mentioned here that we have uh scheduled for next Tuesday the 14th uh the appoint interview with askp for the superintendent role in The District um that is at 6: p.m. on Tuesday and it will begin actually with a meet and greet session at 5:30 p.m.

three that's important because we have one major B market rate development that will hit in the next few years it's a brand new one which we discuss in a minute I've only listed SRO on there as an FYI occasionally the B market rate developments are these tiny little 325 squ foot um kitchenet type units and they don't have kids but none of those are projected here next slide please okay what I'm projecting is overwhelmingly in the Northwood and moral attendance area at first and then in the later years becomes Vincy Park and pedmont but really the for the short term the whole stories Northwood and moral uh other than um uh Vincy Park and moral for a below market rate development um that is on the north side of beresa um Road uh by the flea market and that was a mainly market rate development in the past it just shifted three months ago two months ago to being 195 um Regular B market rate units plus 100 market rate units um so that is going to generate more kids than we're expecting to pass for Vincy Park uh when we get past up to 2027 I actually think you have some growth in viny park as a result of that um you'll see the some other developments in Vincy Park as well so if I didn't show you the numbers by attendance area going out five years but five years out both Northwood and viny park could have more kids than now which means the declining numbers I showed you at the start are that much more concentrated in the rest of the district does that make sense to everybody next slide please just one second Tom on that slide with that um because I know there was a recent article regarding the plan sh shifting as well to uh the units from 3,000 being reduced down to a th000 I was I was it's 940 I was projecting 400 of that would be occur in 2027 and 2028 um which you're seeing there under Vincy Park pedmont and I think that number actually will still hold for the new okay plan if anything you might get a few more units not a lot more but a few more units because it's going be easier for them to build tow houses in this market than high-rise um buildings um because um when you build a high-rise building you're taking a loan out for multiple years and and the current interest rates that's just not economically feasible anymore so I think about 400 is still the right call obviously as we get Beyond 2028 there aren't there's only another 500 units left as opposed to 3,000 units left so in the long run we have far less units there but for the fiveyear forecast I don't think it makes a difference okay next slide please questions did I go too fast okay so so with the excuse me so with the uh current uh growth projected at Vincy Park and the addition of the new new units uh are we potentially looking at redistrict in that school also in the future or can you go back the slide that shows the schools it's table two one more okay Vincy Park actually has fewer students now than a couple years ago so you got some room to backfill from that growth I don't remember how what the number was a couple years ago but it it was a little bit higher than than 568 um so you have some room for growth and you'll see that in the short I'm actually projecting further decline because they have a big fifth grade graduating out um and small kindergart numers but there could be a point still probably not within three years but within in four to five years we need be looking at that but it's not an immediate issue and this um the the increase I mean the birth you your prediction is based on birth rates and things like that birth rates Trends through the grades and where the new housing is located and but but we don't consider um influx of immigrants or anything like that in this thing because that's not a that's a variable uh that we cannot control I only would consider that if I had a reason to believe the trend of the recent past would change uh or in this case the trend from 2016 to 2019 with some modification so unless there's a reason to say that that pattern is going to stop or greatly accelerate the bill and grade to grade rates already include that nuisance with some you know small deviation up or down over time um you know I had a case long ago in the El Grove School District near Sacramento where um a big lean group decided to relocate from Fresno Del Grove and apartments went from having like 10 kids to 200 kids overnight so there are times when you have that hit but and again in the almost 40 years I've been doing this there's only a half dozen times I've seen anything like that happen so the big issue is just the birth data it's just scary and it's not just scary here it's scary everywhere I think it's just the price of housing is making it impossible for families to live here in the numbers that they were living here 10 years ago right young families in particular and the students that are uh the children that are um in that in that chart that you showed the birth rates and the enrollment um so the students are moving out of state is is the is the idea do we know where we obviously cannot track them but uh is there do we have like the data from other states uh well yeah but it's hard to know if it's ours I will say that some Parkers like Sacramento still have growing numbers and I think that's relocating families that's where they're probably yeah yeah and I I can share just looking at our own barasa data because we do look at all of our exits and uh try to see you know what what's C what's that Mobility where are they headed and so for this current school year as we looked at who left us from last school year and didn't continue what we found was uh an aate movement um the most popular relocation state was Texas this year that was the the highest number was going to Texas last year it was Arizona Utah so it varies you know um this year it was Texas if they were leaving outside the Bay Area it was Tracy that's where we saw a lot of our families go and then uh within the Bay Area uh we saw a movement just next door to mil pus interesting because mil Pedas isn't cheap either so yeah thank you so much for the presentation I actually do um housing policy in my day job so this is actually very Illuminating to see how uh housing developments will affect our um enrollment I have a couple of questions for um the last slide I noticed that Brook tree had a significant um resident shift negative 51 but then isn't brooktree in that area usually single family homes is that I I'm just wondering like why that shift would be well again part of it is the difference between the graduating fifth grade amount and the incoming kindergarten amount um and there's a a significant share of middle inome detached homes on a tenance area and um although that is a stabilizing kindergarten population relative to the more affordable housing of the district it still has a much larger amount gradually on a fifth grade and that got uh one more side please back um go back to table two the first table two um but it does have some apartments as well in fact some of the stuff we shifted out of Northwood into Brook tree was apartments at the North edge of the attendance area so there's there's a mix of housing that attendance area but uh the biggest cause that minus 51 is a big fifth grade one out I see around the so whenever a student leaves or a family leaves that affordable housing unit you're noticing that people are not moving back into that unit like they're no it's gonna stay bacon or what is your well as I showed in that one slide it's down something like 22% in the last three years I mean that's basically more than one in every five kids in net was gone in K2 in three years now obviously when you're talking about affordable Apartments um and the recession caused by the pandemic that's an income level that's got the least amount of money saved to be able to to deal with the hit of losing a job and so um a lot of them were just simply had to leave because of economics in the pandemic if you're if you own your home you're more likely to be able to hopefully squeeze it out for a few years but if you're in a very affordable apartment and you're on a marginal income level you know losing a job for six months you have to leave so it's common in that category and all districts in the during the pandemic ultimately in your um analysis of all of our schools which schools would you say is top concern for you for their declining enrollment in your opinion well if you just look at the rightmost column and again this is probably based on the graduating fifth grade numbers you have 65 going out of Majestic Way that's it's falling from 436 to 371 that's just a you know that's a Monumental drop in two years uh Ruskin is percentage wise is losing more losing so these are these are dramatic drop offs again because they have big populations now in fourth and fifth grade and based on the birth date I'm expecting much lower incoming kindergarten amounts or or even if they stabilized the current level that's still a much smaller amount than is graduating from fourth and fifth grade in those attendance Series so it's it's basically just based on where your kids distri distribution is in terms of um percentage um I guess it's going to be Ruskin that's the biggest hit but uh all all those numbers in Orange in the right column are pretty significant drop offs in two years thank you okay thank you for the presentation Mr Williams thank you thank you all right let's move on to uh report 10B Dr quenes can you introduce this thank you at this time I would like to invite Mr Tom Carroll our coordinator of students Services who will give a presentation regarding positive behavioral intervention support PBX PBIS and our District's efforts around addressing chronic absenteeism and our differentiated assistance path thank you Mr Carol all right good evening um so tonight I just want to update you with some of the things that we're doing thank you on the student services side of ed services um so oh what do I do I just hit the button oh no down arrow down arrow got it thank you um so first since the the pandemic we've seen an increase in the need for mental health services for our students we've seen increased treny chronic absenteeism more Behavior Uh concerns arising less self-regulation as well as higher needs uh for our students and families to be connected with Community Resources the graph on the right there is the mtss chart that was pretty standard prior to the pandemic where with high quality instruction with clear positive behavior expectations and support Mental Health Services Approximately 80% of the students in our in our classrooms are going to be in that green category where they're successful they're able to achieve um and they're receiving the the the tier one support that they need um prior to the pandemic approximately 10 to 15% of our students did not necessarily respond to those initial tier one uh supports and so they needed a little more intervention and so that's going to be the students who are in the yellow and with those additional supports approximately 5 to 10% of our students still needed additional resources on top of that since the pandemic we've almost seen this pyramid flip um and so it is pretty concerning what we're seeing and part of what we're doing with head Services is trying to address these concerns as a district we're very invested in positive behavior interventions and supports as well as multi-tiered systems systems of support we currently have 10 schools that are engaged in PBIS training five of those schools were went through tier one um PBS training at the County Office of Education before the pandemic hit however because of the pandemic and closing schools they did not necessarily get off the ground in running with implementation of their PBIS programs uh so therefore this year they're working with um Dr mola and Collective impact solutions to refresh their PBIS systems and structures and to get those implemented uh throughout the course of this year those five schools are Majestic Noble Rusk and Toyon and pedmont we also have four schools that are um involved with their initial tier one PBS training they're going through that with the County Office of Education right now Cherrywood Lane View North Northwood and Mill we have one school Summerdale who was part of that initial Cort who got trained up prior to the pandemic however they really have flourished with their PBIS implementation and they're actually on tier two so they're working with the county office right now uh on a grant to continue with their implementation and then the three schools that we don't have currently involved with PBIS training will most likely be going through that training next year and that is Brook tree sieron and Vincy Park some of the things that we've implemented this year that we found to so far be successful is the adoption of a district Behavior Matrix this was collaborated on with um several stakeholders within our district it was piloted last year at a handful of our schools I believe Ruskin and pedmont middle school and we're going for initial implementation this year although we're implen it it is still a work in progress and we are still going to be getting feedback on how we can continue to develop this Matrix to make sure that it is relevant and meaningful for our um administrators but ultimately the intention is to provide clear and consistent guidelines for addressing student discipline um taking a restorative approach to discipline and making clear the different tiered Behavior interventions that we have available to address Behavior as it arises something else we we've implemented is suet 360 at our middle schools it's an online module program that basically allows our administrators to assign or and our counselors social workers to assign online modules that are directly related to certain issues that may come up so for example if a student is chronically tardy to school or if they're absent often they can be assigned a module on the importance of of attending school regularly um if a student is doing you know various Behavior concerns then there are different modules that can be assigned we've seen that I believe there's been over a hundred of these modules that have been assigned to our students this year and it's a great um alternative to suspension so just a quick snapshot of where we are might not surprise you but the majority of our suspensions in the district typically happen at the middle school level and so the data that I have here is specifically from our middle schools but as of October 28th last year we had 32 suspensions across our three middle schools as of this year on the same date we've had 18 so it's approximately 44% decrease and I believe that is attributed to several of the um several of the interventions that we've put in place chronic gaps in TM continues to be a concern and something that we're trying to address um chronic absenteeism is defined by having missed 10% or more of the school year regardless of whether or not it's an excused or unexcused absence some of the causes for chronic absenteeism that we've discovered is that you know there's still the coid and coid symptoms and then just a true lack of understanding about chronic absenteeism many of our parents understand that if the student is sick they should call in when we look at the number of students who were chronically absent last year specifically at our elementary schools the majority of the absences were excused so the parents are calling in they're letting us know that their kids aren't at school but the students still might miss more than you know 18 or more days in the school year and so that's where right now we're really trying to push hard to educate our families on the difference between chronic absenteeism and treny we have a lot of students who are Trent missing three you know three or more days unexcused but they're not chronically absent on the flip side we have a lot of students who are not Trent but they are chronically absent and as of right now from the state's standpoint we're being looked at for our absenteeism not necessarily our treny so we're continuing to try to educate our our families on when they should be sending their kids to school and keeping that line of communication open this is a snapshot of the data comparing the 2122 school year and last school year with chronic absenteeism um what you'll see on the far right is the difference between the two years and I have to give a huge shout out to brooktree Vincy Park and Toyon who saw significant decreases in their chronic absenteeism rates um as a as a whole beresa decreased by 3.5% which when compared to the county uh which increased I think that's a huge success and which I did not include on here but the California rate of chronic absenteeism for 2223 was 25% so when compared to the county and to the state we are doing much better because of this data um I'll get into it here in a few minutes it did cause us to get into differentiated assistance and I believe that's on the next slide but some of the things that we're doing to address caric absenteeism is leveraging our school social workers um we did just receive the school Link services Grant which is offered by the behavioral health um department and that will allow us to hire an additional social worker to specific spefically support our tier three students around um absenteeism and mental health needs and our social workers are continuing also to utilize car Solace to link our families with outside resources as they need it we've also recently um are in the process of hiring community lisons and while the community layons are tied to our Cay plan and really are designed to support our success Scholars many of our success Scholars are also students who chronically absent and so they will continue to build that positive home homeschool interaction um and what's nice too is that they're invested members of the community they their majority of them are staff members who are already working in our schools whether as clerks uh mediate techs per Educators um and so they they are invested and already know how our systems work home visits are huge we've been really trying to make an effort with getting to to fam's homes when we feel that's appropriate and actually on November 29th we're going to be having a um a training here at the district office hosted by the county office specifically on it's an introduction on how to do effective home visits we'll be having all of our principls assistant principles counselors social workers and psychologists join us for that home visit training and then also just like everything else we're trying to do is take that restorative approach take a restorative approach to addressing uh attendance you know while there is need to take it to sarts and sarbs and if needed take it to the district attorney um we really do want to make the conversations positive and reinforce that we want your students at school we um are trying to create that welcoming and affirming environment so as I stated earlier we are in differentiated assistance we just had our last differentiated assistance meeting we were identified by the state for for this because um our students with disabilities the rate of absenteeism for our students with disabilities approximately 30% of our students with disabilities were chronically absent I believe that actually should be the 2122 school year I apologize um so we've been working with the county office to engage in cycles of inquiry to see what we could do to possibly make a shift with the students um one of the things that we did we we identified four students with disability who were chronically absent last year and who we started this about 11 weeks ago who at that time had already been chronically absent this year and seeing what we could do to maybe intervene and and make a change we talked about having the case managers for those students make positive phone calls home try to engage the parents understand the root cause of the students absence um and just really again build that homeschool connection so what we did notice is that over the course of 11 weeks three of the four students with those attempts did not miss another day of school and one of those students had only missed one day of school in the 11 weeks so with that we're going to be ex you know even though we will hopefully be out of differentiate assistance when the data comes out in January um we are going to be working with our principles our case managers to try to expand this pool to see what we could do on a greater scale do you have any questions um I have a question so the previous presentation we just heard um it was uh suspected that a lot of students have been moving out of the area so does this data take to account um students that have been moving out of the area but they haven't been uh removed from our system yet and so essentially the students that uh are still considered our students but they haven't been moved out but they just don't live in our district that's why they're not attending schools so so I would say no uh well I mean in terms of the data from last year I I don't know how many of those students have moved out but in terms of the data that we're pulling for this year and looking at which students you know are accounting for these numbers they're all of our all of them are our students currently and I'll add to that and so one of the things that we've done is we have um going into this school year spoken with our principles and are working with our our office staff team to make sure that we are being very quick to contact families when we notice a consistent drop off or they haven't returned back from uh wherever they are we do have families that travel you know to another country for a time period we let them know we're not holding seats because it goes into this chronic absenteeism cycle and that uh they will be dropped but when they return we will reenroll because they were still on the books in the past and that accounted for some of that data but uh we're trying to be more proactive about that this year so um we're just cleaning that up as quickly as we can and and actually now that I think about we do actually have one student that I can think of um at one of our middle schools who has missed I think she only attended the first day of school we've been trying to make efforts to get her we found out that she's actually living in another District at this point we are trying to work with the family and Franklin McKinley to get her enrolled over there however we don't want to just drop her from our system because if we drop her and it's she's not picked up at another school then it counts as a Dropout for our district so we also want to be careful to avoid that right because every school district is accountable to ensure continuity of education for that student even when they leave so that's why when we um when a parent exits our district we we ask where are they moving to where are they're enrolling uh so there's an exchange of educational information and we know that that learning plan continues for them okay thank you yeah that's just one of my my concerns because I know there are a lot of families that move out of the district and then they keep their students at home because they just are either too busy or they're not familiar with the process of re-enrolling re-enrolling their students into their new home District so as long as we have some sort of a resource available uh to assist those families I think uh there was some social workers that would do Outreach to them y there's social workers the community layons um if it is a student with special you know with disabilities case managers School psychologists side administrators yeah okay thank you yeah are there any other questions yes uh just some clarifying questions on the behavior metrics and the student discipline part of the so um can you uh expand maybe clarify a little bit more on the uh where it says clear and consistent guide clear and consistent guidelines for addressing student discipline um how uh how is it being handled because some of the uh feedback um that we've received as as if a student is uh is being um disruptive or uh disrespectful in the in the classroom causing disruption for learning for everybody um the teacher uh you know the teacher the uh teacher in the classroom refers the student but some of the student comes back um and there is no transparency between as to what's happening in that uh inm uh the teacher doesn't seem to know uh what transpired on the other side so I I'm just trying to understand whether that process has Buy in from all the uh teaching staff and what is being done uh by the administrator or whoever is handling the case uh to rectify the student Behavior because the feedback we're getting is uh student comes back with the same kind of behavior right it's it's not nothing has changed yeah and the causing uh it could potentially cause learning loss for not just that student but for everybody everybody else in the classroom uh cause stress for the teachers and and things it has a cascading effect as we know so I'm just trying to understand if if you have any additional data to expand on that how that process is and how how we are U ensuring that our teachers are buying into that process and also being trained on um you know what the expectation should be and and things like that well so the idea of the behavior Matrix is that it does outline all of the different education code violations it provides a variety of responses that could be taken um you know much of the discipline is at the discretion of the administrators ideally we want tier one interventions to be happening in the classroom um you know we understand that there's times where student needs to be removed but really every student needs to be in the classroom they need to be getting their education and so with the um I think it's important to also realize that behavior is is a direct result of a student need and so sometimes the traditional approach dis discipline is not necessarily what that student needs at that time um you know we see that suspending the students removing them from the class is not necessarily effective and does not work for students it's not going to change behavior and so that's where our administrators are still continuing to work with our teachers on how we can address behaviors within the classroom um you know and in terms of buyin again you know this is something that's constantly developing I said it's a work in progress so we are moving to seek feedback on how we can continue to develop this and and make it as effective as possible and I'll add to that as well because I think in addition to buyin the other thing you're alluding to is communication right that feedback loop of what's occurring so that way the classroom teacher uh knows that what whatever the strategy was implemented happened during that in between time and that's what we're we're working on as Mr Carol shared it's a work in progress we currently have our mtss district executive leadership team and those are the issues that we're discussing we have some of our members here in the off in the audience uh that are part of those conversations um and we acknowledge that there's still a lot of communic ation that needs to happen districtwide to share uh this work and the path that we're on in terms of trying to address uh not just academic needs of students but these behavioral needs as well and uh just this past week we had uh on Monday we had our executive leadership team meeting and the focus was communication and how do we put all of these um plans that we've been working on uh together so that it can be EXP exess to everyone not just our teachers but we have support staff in the classrooms as well with our teachers so everyone knows like what's our mission and what are we what's driving us and what are the resources that everyone has or will have at their fingertips to try to support these situations um it is a shift uh there's a lot of communication we need to do and uh we're we're building that and actually our next meeting in December we're we're bringing that communication package back so then we can share it districtwide so that was what we just discussed this week and that's part of that building in that ownership for everyone and explaining the rationale behind it too because there's been uh as we mentioned in our previous board meeting lots of recent legislation that is changing how discipline is being addressed with students that we also need to be sure we're we're meeting those regulations and uh and all the research that's out there that shows you know what is uh where do students make the most gain and and that's what's being looked at also you know through these initiatives right so so my all my concern is uh is about the entirety of the of the classroom or the entirety of the school so if if a student uh behavior is not changing after repeated attempts uh what what is a mitigation plan because at at that at that point uh there's learning loss for pretty much everybody right and then that causes stress on the on the educator on the support staff who is handling the situation and that kind of uh demoralizes uh you know kind of takes away that kind of excitement of coming coming to work to teach saying that I'm not being effective the the student doesn't seem to uh make any any Improvement so it's causing U me problems with my other students that are wanting to learn but I'm not able to provide that and so and this process is a progressive process and so with mtss there's multiple tiers there's tier one tier two and tier three depending on where the student needs go so as you said if Behavior continues uh that's part of what this Matrix is about in in addition to more so for those that might need more right depending on what's going on if it's counseling intervention if it's um at home services you know if it's a change of placement in the classroom environment what's important is that from the initial event whatever that looks like is that documentation and those conversations with the family so that way we're ensuring that the student is moving from the different levels of support from one two to three um but we always make sure we try to uh keep them in the most most um least restrictive environment with as much support as possible but there that's not always going to be what they need right but we have to have lots of data that shows what is that right path for that student and um and you know so that documentation is key in each of these incidents as we're working with each student and their family thank you I just quickly want to say thank you so much PBIS is so important and as you know I always ask our principles how are they implementing PBIS like what are you working on and I really loved what you said that you know when a student is acting out we want to figure out what the root cause is and I really believe that to be true they just need additional interventions so just thank you so much for your work and your presentation you're welcome thank you okay thank you for the presentation Mr Carl um let's move on to uh 10 C now Dr bues thank you at this time I'd like to invite Tony kisto our director of bond facilities to provide his monthly Bond update on measure L and measure U hello everyone again we'll give you an update on measure L and measure U again our first picture is our new gym at pedmont it's almost there um we'll go through measure L I'll give you an update of kind of what we're going to do and then measure U again for measure L we've actually completed all our projects so at the next board meeting we'll give you how we're going to spend I think we have about remaining $150,000 I mean we've already kind of have projects for another 150 but there's about 150 left that we'll figure out what we're going to do with measure U again we completed this last month the rusken doors the um the ornamental doors at the front there's three sets of doors I have a picture of those um the exhaust fan project phase one for the exterior we've done Majestic Way Summerdale Vincy Park seront also Brook tree Noble Northwood and pedmont have all been completed um the exterior door numbers projects Noble has been completed uh progress we're working on right now is again the gym as of today it looks like I was told the gym will they they think the gym is going to be done the 21st of December so I know last week they told us power was going to we were going to have permanent power on the 15th of this month and I was told today now it's going to be the 29th so that's two weeks so somewhere in December we'll be done the good news is we actually did get the mechanical unit that's actually going to be sit on the roof on Monday and they're actually Paving the fire access road to on Friday when school's off so that those are two big things um the morel exterior door project they're actually complete they're just trying to finish all the punch list things they're going to be working Friday and then if they have anything left to do they'll do that over Thanksgiving again the exhaust fan project the only school that we actually have left is Morell and we have one fan to finish fire alarm replacement Brook tree Majestic Way Noble Summerdale those are all moving around along Majestic Way is actually almost complete and in the the play area or the Playfield at rusin that was seated and I think we're just waiting to see how it turns out at this point um and next is exterior door numbers we have all these projects the biggest hold up with these is now the vendor can't get materials so they're having hard times getting the reflective materials for the numbers um things we're going to bid this month I think everything bids on the 28th of November the um Pont district office the roofing and HC replacement exhaust fan replacement phase two which is the remaining four schools which is Cherrywood Lane view Cherrywood Lane view I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget Cherry Lane view um rusin and Toyon and then lighting LED lighting replacement at rusin in the M MPR and Lan View and the MPR and then also we have an alternate for the lights in the classrooms at Cherrywood again in design we still have Toyon Vincy Park Northwood that's moving forward the warehouse replacement project we're moving forward on that again exterior signs we're working on that the next set of PA and security projects are again seven schools and then the exterior window replacement at pedmont and then pictures again this is the latest picture of the gym about two weeks ago so it's looking pretty good inside again they really what they have to do inside is um finished the main hoops and then put in the floor and they were working on some of the low voltage things but the good thing is that I didn't mention we actually have everything we're not waiting for anything anymore now we're just waiting for labor to actually put it in um again this is the opposite view of the gym again kind of the side view again this is the main access road to the for the fire lane and then these are the doors at rusin so again on the left hand side where the old doors red doors and the right hand side we put in ornamental one basically big ornamental gate and then the following is just a schedule of how we are going to complete everything and then this is just the opposite side of the gym do we have any questions good so on the 150k you have for measure L they be bringing up some suggestions or are you looking for us to bring up suggestion well no we'll have some suggestions on how to spend the money okay anything else great thank you thank you for your report thank you uh we'll move on to your report uh Dr fences uh first I would just like to say um our schools across the district have really kicked off the fall and all of the uh wonderful holidays we have to come with fantastic community events um these past few weeks everything's been celebrated with uh fall festivals Halloween parades uh Theos moros celebration at Noble the dwali celebration today at Summerdale it's really um wonderful to see you know our schools celebrate uh the diversity that we have across the berasa community and nice to just have that good um good spirit you know back it's been a long long time since we've had full scale you know events with our community and we have certainly seen that uh this school year so just a lot of fun uh to attend these past few weeks and I just wanted my hats off to you know our school staff uh the site principls and their ptas and all of the uh parents that are involved volunteering uh being part of you know all of the family fund for the students it's it's been a great joy to be a part of that um the other thing I wanted to share was a congratulations to Vincy Park uh Elementary um they were recognized this past month as the best public school in the online Metro Silicon Valley publication so that's a a great thing you know um that's really by uh poll voting right just so whether it was their Vincy Park Community their parents at large whoever went online and said yes we love our school um Vince Park you know surfaced as number one so a great recognition uh for them and and the pride that their Community has for you know what their what their school offers so that was really um exciting also just um to share you know we do have an upcoming holiday so there will be no school this Friday in honor of our veterans so I just want to give my thanks to all of our veterans here in the audience our veterans within our community we thank them for their for their dedicated service to our country and uh certainly we have our Thanksgiving holiday that's around the corner and just want to give my gratitude to our trustees and your leadership and to uh our community at large uh we have a wonderful place here in beresa and so uh my thanks to all of them and wishing everyone a wonderful holiday upcoming holiday with with their families you thank you for your presentation and Report um are there any comments or announcements from the board yes I have something um just wanted to quickly I won't take too much time just want to quickly uh uh uh let everybody know that this month or the past month we kicked off The Slowdown San Jose campaign at our schools so I wanted to request uh uh the district to I mean the Dr point is to Cascade that information to all schools and uh what what what to expect and uh how to implement it uh we're looking for support from our ptas um to try to have a table at any of their events um to get some pledges going to have a parents pledge to slow down around schools um so uh just as a little bit of a background even when I was not on the board as a community member I always wanted to have have um safety around the perimeter of the schools not just the school itself as part of the school site plan uh but for obvious reasons it cannot be implemented because it's resource intensive so we're glad to have partners with the partnership with San Jose City uh do uh we had Walkin roll we have walk we are a walk androll School District so we depend on these Partnerships to implement some of those ideas uh to make our school sites safer and slowdown campaign is is a is a very important one so uh we should have that um information cascaded to all our U uh sites so they they all know what to expect and definitely they can contact uh you or uh our contacted the city to uh understand what needs to be done and uh and just as a to let everybody know please slow down I work as a volunteer um crossing guard at Cherrywood please don't run me over I know you [Laughter] know you may not like what I say but you know I'm just trying to get get kids crossing the road that's all I'm trying to do so uh slow down uh you know look for kids like I tell my parents at Cherrywood our job doesn't end as soon as our kid gets out of the of our cars it doesn't give us the freedom to just take off or you know just pick up the phone want to start texting away uh safety is all of our responsibility and you know drive as if your child is in the crosswalk is what I what I say if if your child is crossing the crosswalk would you be speeding down the street uh you wouldn't so that's what I tell my U all the parents at sherrywood and i' appreciate that message going to all the sites yeah absolutely and just as a reminder to our families and anyone that's watching us because uh we did put uh the link in our last newsletter and we've been putting it out in social media and we'll continue to do that and as a friendly incentive of what we're asking all of our parents and staff to do is sign that pledge that you will slow down when you're around a school and the city in Partnership will be doing monthly Raffles So based on your pledge signup so they've got great prizes so if you want to have a chance be sure to sign that pledge and commit to slowing down are there any other comments or announcements from other board members all right if there's none uh we'll move on to our first review and action item A1 Dr for can you introduce this item yes it is recommended the Board review and approve board policy non-discrimination in District programs and activities for a first reading this is an update to our policy based on a new law AB 1078 2023 This was um put in place by uh recently by Governor Nome to ensure uh that the district's policy prohibits any discrimination harassment intimidation and bullying when it comes to applying um or enacting any policies and procedures in adoption of instructional material requirements so uh we are again are bringing this forth as a first reading based on current uh legislation requirements all right thank you for that is there any discussion or motion as item I so move second go ah okay it's been moved and seconded all in favor of this motion say I I I okay that's 5 to zero motion passes uh we'll move on to B1 Dr FR can you introduce this it is recommended the board approve the compreh ensive school safety plans for all of our elementary and B1 oh I'm sorry yes oh here we go sorry B1 measure a uh we it is recommended the board appoint Community member yanet seura Hera to the measure a committee I know she was here uh earlier did she have to leave okay so um should is it best that we bring this item back or can we move forward do we have a statement from her in terms of her application do we have a copy or is it attached okay well I will I will say if the board is open to moving forward with this item it is recommended that we appoint Miss seura to this committee can share uh on on her behalf her level of involvement and commitment to our district she's a a very active parent of ours she has children uh at brooktree as well as at marel middle school she's an active uh PTA parent has held uh president positions is currently on the North Valley Council PTA executive board um she's involved in our budget stabilization committee uh she has participated in our district advisory Council in the past so certainly keeps uh herself well informed of District issues and uh you know and seeks clarification when needed so I would strongly encourage you know her uh ability to be able to be part of this committee uh as she desires yanet is a well-known U uh community member I've worked with her uh also she's she's a very passionate parent so I emphatically moved to approve her um appointment I'll second that okay it's been moved in second any other questions if not um let's go ahead and take a vote all in favor of this say I I I okay motion carries um five is zero we'll now move on to uh B2 Dr quences thank you it is recommended the board approve the comprehensive School safety plans for our elementary and middle schools as well as our district office I know we have uh provided those comprehensive safety plans to you to review we have uh Dan here who takes the lead in ensuring that those plans meet all of the compliance components one of the things that I will share with the board is we will be bringing these plans back again most likely in the month of January because 's another new law that recently passed this past month uh and uh but we need to meet the October requirements or the umch March requirements we're going to do this initial review which is based on our past regulations but the new law which goes into effect in January 2024 we need to add additional language on how we would address potential um uh overdose or drug use situations of students we need to have a plan of action I would like to share with the board we're ahead of the game um just last month we had all of our district leadership team all of management were trained in being able to disseminate uh Narcan in the ad event we also have that uh medication on site in all of our AE AED lock boxes so um that will definitely be part of a component to um that implementation process Dan all right good evening everybody I just want to give you guys a a quick uh overview of the safety plan purpose and requirements so the California Education Code outlines the requirements of all K through 12 schools with regards to writing and developing a school safety plan relevant to the needs and resources of the particular school is the intent of the district to develop a an a mandated comprehensive safety plan detailing the systematic planning process including strategies aimed at the pre prevention of the education about potential incidents involving crime and violence on school campuses so the comprehensive school safety plans must include the following elements assessment of school crime committed on school campuses and at school related functions child abuse reporting procedures disaster procedures suspension and expulsion policies procedures to notify teachers of dangerous pupils discrimination and harassment policies schoolwide dress code policies procedures for safe Ingress and egress policies enacting to M enacted to maintain a safe and orderly environment rules and reg procedures on school discipline and the last hate crime reporting procedures so a brief timeline of how our school safety plans were developed this year um included me updating the initial plan and and sending those out to principles on September 11th um basically I sent them out uh all of our our our safety plans are on a Google doc so it's a living document we could make updates and adj adjustments as as we need um from there principles were able to share the 2324 School sa School site safety plan with their site Council uh in order to update the sections they're responsible for um the this includes um safety concerns that have that have brought up um for example damaged fencing or issues with traffic patterns before and after school drop off this slowdown event all that good stuff um physical and social climate goals are are developed and and documented by each school and then shared with their respective commun communities most common physical goals concentrate on emergency preparedness um earthquake drills fire drills Etc most common uh social climate goals uh detailed around emotional uh social emotion leads of students um updated documents then came back to me for for approval from the buusd Safety Committee as well as signatures from the San Jose fire department and the San Jose police department so I meet with them they come to theot conference room I lay them all out we read through them um and uh I've developed those relationships with the fire department and the police department to so they understand these um what they're signing um and then the last step is to present at the board and get Dr FR fren's signature and the board president signature so with that said on behalf of the B buusd Safety Committee I present you the safety plans for 22 20 23 24 any questions anything from the board no thank you for um putting this together I know it's a lot of work every year um it takes a lot of stakeholders input so thank you again thank you uh now is there a motion to approve uh or motion for this item I move for approval okay second it's been moved and seconded all in favor of this item say I I I any motion carries 5 to zero we'll now move on to item B3 Dr fris can you introduce this it is recommended the board approve the use of the Apple Inc P PPM contract number 5358 0 1 -001 piggyback agreement for the purchase of Apple Inc computers tablets accessories and services for initial term of three years any questions or motions on this item sorry is it coming from the uh Bond program this one or U the funding for this so this is the contract that allows us to buy Apple products at standard price over the next three years okay right so when we go in we actually purchase from the e-commerce site and this just sets the price according to this contract for the next three years okay and the funds uh Dr pointus so those funds could come from a variety of sources they could bond that could come from the general fund it's all dependent upon the use of that computer within the district oh I see where where the computer is actually placed okay that makes sense okay uh I move to approve uh the contract agreement I second okay it's been moved in second all in favor of this motion say I I okay it's five zero motion carries uh we'll move on to B4 now it is recommended the board first conduct a public hearing on the disclosure of the Teamsters Local 150 collective bargaining agreement and second accept and certify the disclosure of the Teamsters Local 150 collective bargaining agreement from the Santa Clara County Office of Education okay so at this time um the board will now open up to a public hearing uh are there any comments in regards to this item from the public if there's none we'll go ahead and close the public hearing now is there a motion to accept and certify uh the disclosure of the Teamsters Local 150 collective bargaining agreement from the S Clair County Office of Education so moved second okay it's been moved in second all in favor say I I I okay motion carries 5 to zero we'll move on to C1 now it is recommended the board approve the contract language changes in the tenative agreements with Teamsters Local 150 I would also just like to express on behalf of the the district our uh thanks for the collaboration with Teamsters leadership Alan der and Johnny Salgado and Melinda who were all part of working with us to come to um this positive closure okay I just also want to EO the the partnership that the team s Union Local 150 had with us um they were the first um bargaining group that uh came to an agreement with us uh uh this year so again I would like to thank them for that uh now is there a motion for this item move to approve second okay it's been moved and seconded on in favor say I I okay that's five is zero motion carries we'll now move on to D1 it is recommended the board approve the measure U Bond implementation plan project list update dated November 8 2023 okay any uh questions or discussion on this item do we go through the list of priorties or we do not have a presentation um but you do have the listing there ahe of you um it is not uh it's all of our existing projects from the past that continue to be moving forward and then in the red are areas of projects that are moving forward from Project two list that can advance because now we have um some additional savings that we can put towards those efforts um so there's not too many uh a lot of them are are structural in nature additional fencing additional security measures things of that nature the most significant project on that list is the warehouse rebuild as a result of the fire that disseminated um that entire workspace I actually wanted to ask um is the restroom signage for all gender restrooms going to be coming this school year or are we going to be following the state law where it can roll out I think two years I just wanted to ask how that is going actually as part of the signage projects where the schools were trying to add those at the same time okay great sounds good all right is any other questions or discussion or motion on this item I'll move to approve all right second it's been moved in seconded if there's no other questions or discussion U let's take a vote all in favor of this motion say I I I okay that's five to zero motion carries we'll now move on to uh D2 Dr for just it is recommended the board approved the it Management Corporation Inc request to use Cass contract 32302 1038 with verata Inc for security alarm equipment and Cass contracts 31870 0019 q and number 31870 0019 r with it Management Corporation Inc for low voltage cabling and security alarm equipment installation at pedmont and Mill Middle Schools all right any questions from the board or a motion from the board I'll move to approve I'll second okay it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I motion carries five to zero we now move on to D3 it is recommended the board approved the it Management Corporation Inc request to use C mask contract 32302 1028 with single wire Inc for public address system software license licensing supplies and equipment and Cass contracts number 9 number 0019 q and number 31870 0019 r with it Management Corporation Inc foret work programming Services low voltage cabling and it equipment installation is this across all Sites uh doesn't show specific site uh so the network optim optimization is across all Sites but it's also adding the PA systems at Morel and pedmont so this will allow us in the future to actually go from school to school and do it during the year oh so we don't have to do it over the summer okay um move to approve I'll second that I been moved and seconded all in favor of this motion say I I I okay motion carries 5 to zero now are there any requests for staff followup or items for future agendas from board members okay is there a motion to adjourn them move to ajour okay all in favor adjournment say I I okay meetings turned at 9:07 p.m.

uh I will take a motion at this point to approve the minutes from the October 11th meeting can I have a motion please so move that was member wall and a second second member Johnson mad thank you and is there any discussion of the minutes okay hearing none we'll move to a vote anyone abstaining from approving the minutes don't you have to dooll call oh I'm sorry yes we have to do a roll call vote so let's do a roll call please member Den yes secretary exam I Imes member Johns manad yes Vice chair Martini yes sure priy yes member wall yes they are approved okay thank you and I should have noted also we've changed the order of our uh usual agenda just slightly to accommodate the folks that are at the conference they'll be with us probably for about the first hour of the meeting um and then we'll be logging off and um I think probably many of you are here for the discussion on reenvisioning the district the redistricting process um and we're going to have our report from the student representatives and then have the discussion of the the redistricting process after that and then public comments which just a slightly different order than you might be used to um and uh at this point we would take my favorite part of the meeting the Tumi Brothers report from the student Representatives please guys thank you um so to begin with student council um November brings such stuco Staples as lip syncs pep rallies and partnering with the Boy Scouts to scout for food um scouting was a huge success in the last few weeks together we helped collect over 2,000 pounds of food and next week several students will attend the regional state conference at Long Meadow High School uh planning for pep rally is coming up along or it's coming along well this year and we will be hosting a scavenger hunt in Leo of the annual turkey Bingo students are planning their Spirit Week costumes and collecting their pennies for Penny Wars all M all money raised from penny wars will be donated to the Special Olympics via our annual Polar Plunge Key Club participated in the first annual trunk retreat at Stone Burnham school on October 29th great costumes and dancing great Halloween decorations and yummy treats were provided for over a 100 trick-or-treaters we are preparing for the traditional Green Wave Turkey Trot which will be held on Wednesday November 22nd at 8:15 fun walk run DJ hot cocoa and Thanksgiving themed games and memory making along the way Spanish club celebrated dios moros with face painting before school on the Day of the Dead and they continue to play uh to plan and fundraise for their upcoming trip to Spain Italy and France in April they're currently selling holiday wreaths and planning for a fudge fundraiser their school meetings have included practicing ordering food in a restaurant and of course dancing to prepare for their performance in the Thanksgiving pep rally fall Sports have come to a close with a great success field hockey and boy soccer made the state tournament soccer traveled to Salem Academy in the perlim round and lost 4 to zero they put up a good fight as it was 1 and zero at half field hockey won their round of 32 game 2 to one in overtime versus Northbridge High School in the round of 16 game the girls lost a nailbiter two to1 in overtime at Su and high congratulations on the miaaa state tournament we want to wish all the senior fall athletes good luck in their future endeavors winter sports start Monday November 27th look for basketball ice hockey and indoor track schedules on AR live go wave French Club H hosted a well attended movie night on October 23rd where they enjoyed a light-hearted French animated film un monre which I'm sure I butchered um they continue to fundraise for their trip to France in April and have begun preparations for coffee house the coffee house talent show event which will be on Thursday December 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

um for any member of the public that might want to ask casual questions before we actually have the interview in public uh by the school committee um and the other thing I wanted to uh just acknowledge is is um actually Stacy sexon is still here uh Anne child's was here earlier and has left um and yesterday they were both elected to the school committee to begin serving their four-year term uh uh in January so congratulations to you congratulations to Ann um and we uh keep moving forward and that is my report and um subcommittee reports do we need to do anything with redistricting and then uh Glenn anything from policy at this point I just wanted to add that um mayor Jenny dorer will also be a school Committee Member too so congratulations to her and congratulations to Mayor WEA Gardner on a hard hardfought race I thought it was wonderful to see the demonstration of Civic engagement in the town very well said uh I don't know if do we need to try to get in a meeting before dece before the next meeting we do apparently we do okay so could um maybe you me and Amy could compare calendars before we leave tonight and then we can check with Elizabeth thank you sure and that's for policy in case people weren't following what we were talking about any you're good with policy I'm good okay and budget any report we are still attempting to set a budget meeting our our schedules all have very this conflict so we're working on it no one's letting it drop I'll say that awesome thank you and then um collaborative for Educational Services is another one but uh a member Den is not here right now she is our representative there um and then District Wellness committee is me I do not have a report at this time I did report briefly um last uh last meeting and just to bring to everyone's attention the materials also contains School newsletters and uh commodation letters is correspondence that we don't discuss but they are there uh for for folks reference and I would entertain a motion to adjourn don't all speak at once that was member wall and a second second and uh any uh discussion any extensions any no votes we are adjourned at 8:33 p.m.

in the ghs auditorium their next meeting will be after school on Monday December 4th and all are welcome to join drama club is excited to announce their spring play myth Adventures by Eric kobal a comedy drama retelling of five classic Greek myths auditions will be held after school on Monday November 13th and Tuesday November 14th in the auditorium and are open to all ghs students Library Club hosted the fourth annual ghs Comic-Con after school on October 25th um they welcome students and Librarians from Mohawk Trail Regional School and the Pioneer Valley Regional School uh we want to thank Greenfield Public the Greenfield Public Library for collaborating uh as well as the guest presenters from liy here the imaginary Bookshop tumble science media and podcast and game designer Chris Foster of hidden door the advanced European history class has been working in the library researching Renaissance artists while they culminate um which will culminate in the students giving 12 to 14-minute presentations on the artists they researched as part of their learning they are excited to be taking a field trip tomorrow to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see a special exhibit on strong women of the Renaissance and to visit the Museum's other Medieval Renaissance and classic Greek and Roman art on display band celebrated their six seniors at a football game for the years dedicated to the music department they will be Marching In the Veterans Day Parade members of the community have asked why the band is so small it is challenging to have a thriving music department when the program keeps being impacted at the elementary and middle school level they hope that this will be a priority in the future to help rebuild the program NHS officers have begun a campaign to seek to speak to underclassmen about the current situation in the hallways in the bathrooms at ghs the students leaders presented to both the eighth graders and the 10th graders at their class meetings last week and are preparing to talk to the 9th 11th and 12th graders at the future meetings the topics of the presentations included showing respect to teachers and other students not congregating in the bathrooms vandalizing and preventing others from using them not wering the Halls during classes and other ideas about making the building better for all students we continue to plan for our adopt the family project in December and volunteer work with the ghs tutoring in a possible nursing home visit uh student anxiety was rather high as grades recently closed for quarter 1 and students began to shift Focus towards the incoming term and the scheduled changes that are going to come in the following few weeks at the same time many students are now baning together to prepare for the lip sync performances that will occur on Wednesday the 22nd uh just before we leave for break the year's theme is artists and each grade is met numerous times already to throw together their act generally Spirits are stable as we are approaching the break and the academic load can be forgotten for a few days while the situation has seemed to improve a little bit students still feel qualms in regards to the situation of the bathrooms um some have begun to open yet the ability to conveniently access restrooms conveniently has been challenged the restrooms that are not open are closed due to repairs that are needed this makes it difficult for to find an open space and beyond that for those that are open they are facing overcrowding as students flock to them to occupy the space during class time these factors all culminate to hinder the accessibility of these facilities for students seeking to use them for their intended purpose administrators have had to be stationed outside of certain locations and times of passing to ensure that people leave and move to their oncoming class um that concludes everything we have written out but if you have any questions we would be happy to answer them thank you guys other questions from the committee not hearing any questions thank you both for being here appreciate it we'll see you next month okay so we're we're going to do um a walk through in in in a discussion uh within the committee of uh the reenvisioning the school facility project and um I want to give the superintendent an opportunity um to first talk about uh how what the overview she's put together um as well as what we've learned anything else she wants to add there and then going to also have Jean wall as the chair of the committee um that facilitated the work um also give have an opportunity um to speak and then the members of the subcommittee are uh member Den um and member Johnson mad and if they want to speak after member wall um we'll do that and then we'll have a general discussion um at that point um we are not planning to vote on anything this evening uh because we've really gotten a lot of feedback in in in the past month or so that shows that folks uh I think everyone needs to be a little bit more up to speed on what exactly is being proposed and why and what we've learned as a part of this process for the last 2 years um but we will um take an opportunity during the discussion to actually talk about the votes that um I would propose we take and I say it that way because um often to help us organize the work of the committee um as the chair I will propose the Motions that we put forward and motions are always up for not only debate but also revision you may have heard if you have ever attended a meeting or you attend regularly that will ask for friendly amendments to motions or something like that um in order to give us a starting point um I've had a couple of motions prepared that if we want to and it feels like it's a logical part of the discussion tonight we would walk through uh those and perhaps um either take some more time to think and plan to come back as a committee with different motions in December um or we would um kind of plan on those and see if our thinking evolves between now and the next meeting um so that's a little bit about what we're going to do and then I think it'll be interesting to see having public comment after our discussion that's not the normal way that we do things um and so we'll uh certainly see how that works and what we might glean from doing it in that order um and so at this point I would ask that uh Christine give us an overview um if you have the materials if you're following at home you have the materials on your phone or your device or what have you um there is a not only a write up of the history of this reenvisioning project but also a draft of um the redistricting plan as it relates to the transportation details so I'll stop there go head thank you okay thank you so as you mentioned um I put together a little history just of from the beginning the first uh first action that sort of prompted the conversation because not long after I started in Greenfield um Jean had reached out and said can we talk about what you might think we could do with Green River so we went for a tour so that that was really the first um step in this conversation and then um the orientation to the subcommittees and the work that was being done around um Equity specifically at that time um talking about Equity across the three elementary schools and I do remember th those were some of the questions that were asked during even my interview about curriculum across elementaries and resources things like that so that was sort of the impetus for the conversation with the committee around all of these items seem to be connected to some degree and it made sense that we somewhat begin at the beginning and figure out how many students we might be talking about in The District because it was challenging to talk about how to potentially reconfigure and reuse Green River if we didn't know what our anticipated population was going to be so committee members may remember at that point um we had a contract with nesdc to do um excuse me I'm not sick I just want to make sure everybody knows not spreading germs up here um that we uh the committee we had a contract with NASDAQ to do enrollment projections and then to do what was called a best use of educational facilities study that involved D um surveys from our building administrators um information from them about demographics and space our facilities director Eric um did a lot of work with nzda around all of the configurations of the building providing documents um and then members of that committee from NASDAQ came toward all of the buildings and wrote up a summary which has been on the district website since it was presented um spring of 22 so that was um that was the beginning and then there was conversation about the options nezda presented four options for the committee just looking at here are some things you could do um I'm summarizing obviously we're speeding up the timeline here um two of them seemed to come off the table um due to cost one of them involved reopening Green River um people may remember that there's a heating um system that needs to be upgraded the cost when I got here was over 700,000 I'm sure it has um increased dramatically since then and given the fact that Green River hasn't been used for a number of years there are other upgrades technology being one um depending on the use of the playground could be another so we're talking well over a million dollars just to get into the inside of it um the other option that was taken off the table somewhat um early on was an option that would require construction at all three of the elementary schools um that would have required engineering studies and then um the cost of any construction on top of that so the committee seemed to eliminate those somewhat quickly so that left two options the First Option One was that we would reconfigure the district with three schools having grade bands so one school would have had K1 another school 23 and the third School 45 so that was um that was moved forward to have the administration do some of the logistical work um part of that included some of the transportation information there was going to be some need need to make some fairly um involved changes we thought in the transportation because getting students from across the whole city to three different elementary schools within the same time frame was going to be challenging would have involved potentially changing hours for the schools changing drop off pickup times and likely involve the addition of one if not more buses with a financial impact so variety of impacts of that there was convers ation about um from the community members from staff that that was not necessarily an appealing option and um could we consider something else option two involves having three elementary schools and re and moving the lines for each school's catchment area um so through public comment through emails staff feedback what evolved was what we lovingly call option 2B which involved a little bit of moving the catchment areas and creating three K through five elementary schools that option seemed to be somewhat appealing so the subcommittee asked the administration to move forward get some information do some of the leg work to see if it was feasible the first thing we did was to look at well how many students could we be talking about in each school that involved looking at the current enrollments the breakdowns from each School based on Transportation where they would go uh keeping in mind one of the primary goals of this effort was to create a more balanced distribution of students across the city um and you know to look at how we were Distributing our student population into our elementary schools another priority that came out of it was um a very strong desire by I think everyone to get fifth grade out of the middle school and to get eighth grade out of the high school um so looking at those as priorities um we were able to look at redrawing some lines across the city to uh more evenly B balance the demographic enrollment balance the city into each of the elementary schools and then we sat with maps of each building and the potential enrollment in each building and said wow we have we might have space this could work um so that's where the conversation about Choice the impact of intradistrict choice the impact of not intradistrict Choice um came up looking at enrollment so we calculated enrollment projected enrollment um in two ways so that we could look at actual space we looked at transportation and um then came down to the fact that this was feasible um in terms of having the physical space and um so that's that's kind of where we are for you folks to decide which configuration you're interested in moving to um I'm not aware although I could be wrong that option one was ever officially taken off the table I know it's not you know everyone's preference but um option two is still on the table which would just have me redrawing lines every year the challenge with that would be potentially that would affect um a fairly small area of the city annually or every couple of years based on enrollment in different schools that it would shift back and forth um which I think you know that's that is challenging people have raised concerns about having students change schools in any of the models that we've talked about and so this you know the option two if the committee chooses to go that way could potentially result in students moving um you know based on enrollments option 2B there are there are pros and cons for sure um the the pros are that whichever um decision is made um regarding the intradistrict choice scenario regardless of that um we can get K to five in all three of our elementary schools based on the projections that we have um we can get 8th grade into the middle school we um have the ability to provide all of the special education services in all of the buildings all of our related Services the interventions um so they're you know from a programmatic standpoint it does appear that it is able to be done which meets at least two of the goals of the committee um I think all three because the reconfiguration of the city in terms of which um areas of the city would um be assigned to different schools um does make some changes from the way it is now the challenge is that we could end up with some space issues um primarily that occurs at Four Corners and if this is where the the the conversation about what the population looks like in the building um would do if the students who are currently attending schools that are not their neighborhood schools remain in their non- neighborhood School schools um it it is anticipated that four corners would need an extra third grade fourth grade fifth grade we can house an extra third grade fourth grade fifth grade but what that would do is put um some of our specials teachers would have to use a cart and move between classes um period by period because their space would be moved and then due to space there is a substantially separate special education program at Newton and there is one at Four Corners and we would need to move swap the two schools um due to the space available in both buildings we can do that we have the space to do that um if we don't have the students who are intradistrict choice in their choice in school there would be two grade levels of grade three grade four grade five at Four Corners and we would have space for art and music and we would not need to switch um the location of the special ed programs so that's the general overview but I can go through a little bit of the information in here I'm not going to go through all of the dates and everything that you have you can see that um the next pages are just a summary with the pros and cons the bulk of these summaries you can see it was from Fall of 2022 this was compiled um based on our community meetings I'm looking at Glenn he was at those um so this is feedback and then um after after these meetings we also added feedback in um from staff when we went to the elementary and the secondary levels to get staff feedback so that this is a compilation of the general feedback Pros cons and outstanding questions and at the top I put a summary a very brief summary of what that option would look like because I'm sure everybody isn't as um immersed in this but so then there was an update provided I updated this in October of 2023 to show any um updates obviously so this shows the addition of option 2B um the pros and cons are somewhat um I had done a summary which is on the website of it's just summary of options updated October of 2023 has two separate summaries one intradistrict choice phased out the other one is leaving intradistrict Choice as is so you could see advantages challenges and questions remaining um separated out but this is a summary um option 2B oh no I lied I put them both on here look at that look how comprehensive I was um option three we eliminated due to cost this is a summary of that option four as well eliminated due to costs that's the construction so this was a this is a summary of the review of our current in it was current last year and projected for next year enrollments um I want to make sure that folks are clear when they look at the numbers with this this reflects what would be the newly Drawn Lines and then um whether we had the students from intradistrict choice in the building or not so what Jake our transportation coordinator did was manually go through all the students because he has the transportation information for all of them whether they Access Transportation or not and identified numbers of students who would be in each School in either scenario as a district we do not have a field in our student database to indicate whether students are intradistrict choice or not so I cannot easily query that number um but this is basically the differentiation it is not just straight Choice numbers of students from Choice one way or the other um this also reflects um the projected newly Drawn Lines so um so you can see what the population numbers might look like with or without intradistrict Choice um and the newly drawn um attendance areas Four Corners has the most significant change with about 35 um Federal Street has a variance of about 20 and Newton has a variance of about 15 um and it goes in different directions so if choice is in effect um feder a Four Corners goes up if we do not have intradistrict Choice Federal Street and Newton go up just from their current enrollment so again these are estimated we know students move in and move out we knew we know people move within the city so these are estimated but at any point we're always using estimated enrollment um for our decisionmaking so we looked at the enrollments we rolled them up as we say we used a standard of reasonableness for class size there was no school committee policy about class size there are no finite numbers included in the unit a collective bargaining we certainly recognize there are a variety of factors that we need to consider when looking at class size um so you know that that is a piece of what we looked at administratively so there's a breakdown of what we estimate project class sizes to be where we have a somewhat noticeable increase I included that um whether we have in District choice in place or not for Newton and Federal Street we have two we expect we would have two of every grade level either way just because of enrollment changes um regardless so the that aspect does not change for either of those buildings um we could have a couple of class sizes that are a little bit higher but um you know we're we're able to talk about the needs when we get to actual enrollment at that time to see if we need to do anything differently um Federal Street would still have um you know ability to reconfigure things if we needed to add another classroom at Federal Street um but at this point all of the spaces anticipated to be used so Four Corners this is where the um space challenges come in you can see if we have the original numbers leaving everyone where they are so to speak um we project there would be three classes of grades 3 four five um you can see some class siiz numbers for the upper grades at Four Corners would be a little bit High higher than they are um again that would be a conversation when we get closer to the actual start of the school year um having conversations about potentially the need to add supports into those classrooms um but that's what we're expect we anticipate class sizes could look like so you can see we look at space I broke that down for Newton for federal one of the positives of um the redistricting is as we're looking at reconfiguring we realized that we can move things around to address an issue at Federal where the nurse's office is it is not in a good space it is not in a handicapped accessible space um so with the reconfiguring we've identified a space where they can be that is handicapped accessible has a bathroom so that that would be wonderful to take care of that need um I go through a summary of what we believe the space situation would be at Four Corners like I just um outlined middle school and high school we don't expect any space issues middle school is almost replacing the exact enrollment so Michelle doesn't expect that to be an issue and high school obviously we would be um not using some classes so um there would be no space issue there then we needed to look at the schedules for our staff for next year projecting again all of this is projected estimated anticipated right now at the elementary level we have um a situation where our art music and PE teachers at the elementary have come to an agreement with us that their contractually required preparation time can be reconfigured because we have two of each art music and PE that serve all of the elementary schools and every elementary school classroom gets all three specials um the way to do that involved some creative use of time and space and they have been exceptionally flexible for the past two years agreeing um to a non-traditional way to use to have their prep time allocated um if we have two classrooms of every grade level in all three elementary schools the current art music and PE teachers would be able to provide service at all three elementary schools and have their preparation period as it is outlined in the contract if we have additional sections of any grade levels we would have to add portions of art music and PE so if we had three extra sections of a grade level we would have to have basically a art music and PE teachers working about three periods a day so that's less than a halftime person in each of those subject areas um so that's just a challenge you know that we'd have to figure out um at the middle school to add to the complication for next year we need to add full-time social studies and full-time science right now they have half year of each because mcass is going to be um there's mcast implications Civics is being piloted so that's going to be added so we really need to provide our middle school students with a full year of instruction so that we're really able to provide instruction on all the standards so that they're in a better place given the added testing so we have to add teachers at the middle school to do this because of the schedule so while we do expect there would be the reduction in some sections at the elementary school some of which may happen anyway because of um population Bubbles and changes in that um some of that staff who might not have a position at the elementary often elementary teachers are licensed from grade kindergarten through grade six so there's opportunity that they may be able to take some of those additional positions um and space you know changes happen people retire they move some teachers may elect to take higher level Middle School positions so um but we do expect overall that there would be a reduction in I believe it is four positions at the end of all of the reconfigurations sorry I'm not seeing it right now I'm I know it's in here um we would we do expect that a health teacher position will need to be shifted because they're providing service to the eth grade so we expect that would need to be shifted down um so there are there are some staff shifts that would need to happen um I have Karen and I have met with the president vice president GAA several times to talk about how this could work um and we are scheduling meetings with the fifth grade teachers and the eighth grade teachers to talk about the impact I have a date um that was just scheduled for the fifth grade and we're working on the eth grade date so that we can meet with them explain the process and um answer any questions that we could have so so we do expect that there would be some additional electives available at the high school right now we have teachers at the high school who teach some sections of High School courses and some sections of eighth grade courses so with the eth grade moved um some teachers such as Chef yafi in our culinary program um he does teach sections of 8th grade so that opens up the opportunity for him to provide some additional elective courses we're not you know our students access his courses they seem to enjoy them we're going to um we've already asked him to propose some additional electives that could move some students um into some new and exciting options um so we do have some potential to um offer additional electives um at the high school so that we are moving up the course selection process um so that we have what are called the tallies you know students go through they choose the courses that they would prefer to take the guidance department does tallies so then we have total numbers of students who are interested in in whatever course um so we're moving that up to prior to um the budget season this year so that we can not only look to have a schedule solidified earlier but also address any potential budget impact if there is any in that regard um sorry it's a lot and transportation so this is just a list of sort of other things that we need to consider that we are considering um we are out to bid for a transportation contract because that's perfect timing when we're looking at redoing Transportation factors so as soon as there is a Excuse me yes member Martini yes I'm sorry to interrupt but member J and I have to go at this point oh I'm sorry thank you thank you thank you enjoy the conference thank you have a good rest of the evening bye bye bye bye so can you just note in the minutes that we're at Quorum at 6:41 thanks okay sorry okay no that's fine um so as soon as a contract is awarded um Jake and I will meet with whatever transportation company we work with to provide the routing information that he has configured um there is some possibility we would need another bus but we'll have to see um one of the pieces that again is connected to all of this that came up in the conversation is the school committee has a policy about Riders and Walkers and distance from each school um we aren't actually really following it right now um there were some practices that were changed prior to my arrival that are still in place so um that'll be hopefully at December's meeting that we can talk about that we need to Jake and I need to walk some routes um where potentially students would have to walk versus take a bus so we're going to walk those routes to see if they fall within the policy criteria of unsafe or um because obviously that will factor into the decisions about Transportation but if we need to make changes to the policy that would be the time the other piece is we need to consider any of our collective bargaining agreements in this um we already know that we need to meet with our um unit a excuse me folks to talk with with them about the change from fifth grade teachers teaching two subjects a piece so right now one teacher would teach Math and Science the other would teach English language arts and history so that would be a change um significant change for them so we have already initiated um to schedule a meeting to have that conversation to figure out how we can support those teachers in making a change like that um we also need to look at any impact that this could have on our custodial staff um for example if we need to hire movers or potentially additional summer help that could have an impact so we need to look at that and then we also need to look at the final decision by the committee and what if any impact that could have on our lunch rotations and therefore um our cafeteria staff so those are just places we might need to um have some further discussion to see if there is impact act on any of these folks um that we need to address we also would need to buy or collect boxes packing tape um we need to have the time frame addressed for staff that would need to pack up and unpack their things so we need to take care of figuring that out um anything that might need to be purchased for the move primarily from 8th grade um to the middle school we need to just think about that I'm you know I don't know that this would be but an example of do we have lab tables for Sciences at the middle school if we don't can we move the ones from the high school or do we need to get other supplies it's just an example of things um we will have fifth grade teachers teaching a subject that they have not so we will have to buy additional teacher um copies of instructional materials so we need to know all of that sort of before the budget because that has an impact and the other um things that I think would not be necessarily right on the top of anyone's mind we need to talk with um Christy Mo the director of the rec department to see if this has any impact on the after school programming and how her students um have access to programs in any of the schools or um we also need to talk about about um excuse me any impact on Athletics I don't know that there would be but we have middle school students who participate in our JV and even Advanced athletic programs so we need to make sure that if there is an impact we think about that the elementary schools last year had a five lunch wave structure um they don't have it this year but we would need to go back to that next year if we're K to 5 at the elementary schools so that's also things that we need to think about and it's possible that we would need to hire more before school staff for the program that the district funds because with the addition of fifth grade and an elementary I don't know if families would want their fifth graders at before school programming but it is possible so we may need to factor in Staffing there so those are all the things that we thought about and I think when we look at the contractual uh obligations we look at the scheduling issues the budgeting issues the transportation I think the committee can understand why would we why we would want um this to not be a decision that we make late in the year oh I say are there any questions I'm sure there's a thousand um I I I think it makes sense for committee questions of the superintendent now rather than waiting until after the committee um um talks but I'm flexible like do do you all want to ask questions now I know I wrote a few thing down things down well Christine was talking um do folks have questions now okay so why don't we do that um whoever who wants to go first remember extra I saw you nodding your head first so why don't you go ahead okay so um I don't Karen I'm going to need you to help me with this a little bit um prior to this is sort of related and unrelated I guess to um redistricting or restructuring um prior to co the high school days were set up differently correct me if I'm wrong right now they have hour and a half classes they do a Tuesday T and but prior to closing for coid they had the schedule was different they had shorter class times but more classes in a single day yes no it was long before that think I'm looking to my no that's that's why I'm asking cuz no I think we changed the schedule in 17 I think it was 17 we changed it so it's been like this since then it has yeah okay yeah never mind then was that your only question yes how about member johnsonon or member wall no okay I just have a couple of things that I want to make sure I understand um so when you talked about the lines specifically the district lines for you know whether it's Transportation or or who goes to what school I guess uh it's one and the same um you said annually we would look at that you're talking about if we have option two two 2 B I think or two maybe it's two um well we really look at it annually anyway okay um but things that would affect it substantively would be things like a new development being built that could have a bigger impact normally just normal movement of students has not had a huge impact to this point I don't know if in the past it ever has or if it will in the future but there is some you know margin of error so to speak for the transportation but if we are looking to um better um represent the city in all three of our elementary schools we would need to be mindful of how just that's something we would need to be mindful of with that goal in mind but we do look at it every year we just haven't had to make any adjustments to this point okay okay that I know of okay um I'm going to save I think that question because I don't even know if it's totally Rel one of the things I forgot to mention yeah is we did draft the new Street and assigned schools um it's on the website the changes are highlighted in yellow it says really really big on the top in Orange it's a draft I I know that this is a lot and it's a subject that has some strong emotion for people but I want to make sure everybody's hearing that all of this is projected and estimated and draft so um it does say draft at the top this is what it looks like it is on the bottom of the front page of the website there's a fair list growing now of all the resources connected to this discussion and this is one of them that's available there so you can look um I don't want to minimize the potential impact on any family the list of streets is not long um that doesn't mean people don't have you know concerns about it but I just want to point out there's not a ton of yellow so if you look at the front page and you don't see anything immediately you do need to scroll through to see the yellow um highlights so that's the projected new distribution of streets to each school I have one last thing I believe can you because this is always a hard concept for me um and I don't ever mind saying that I don't get it over and over again um can the the3 FTE and the specials explain that in a way I would understand it and I'm going to love and I'm not trying to be as you would say fresh I'm I'm just trying to understand it and I say not being fresh I'm gonna phone a friend and let Mrs patod speak to that because she and Mr Browning have been working on the elementary Special schedule for two or three years so I'm going to let her speak to that I even when my kids talk about it I don't understand when they go to specials or what yeah so right and and I'm not sure I'll adequately explain it either um but when you add that extra third fourth and fifth grade the specials are the teachers that cover the classroom teacher for their prep so in order for the classroom teacher to get their contractually obligated prep you need a specials teacher to cover that class and teach teach that class so they can have their prep so when you add those extra in order to also provide your specials teachers with prep but also so that you have people to cover classroom teachers for prep we have too many classes for the people that we have hired so you need additional adults then in art PE and music to cover the additional classes because those six already hired have maxed out what they could potentially teach in a class a full day they'd have to stay so it's okay that I don't understand this is what you're saying okay um okay no I I do get it now but it's like it builds on yeah okay and one of the things that was in place when um Karen started in her role and I started in mine is not all of the elementary schools had the same specials and that's something that got rectified that that Karen worked on even as I was um onboarding she was already working on that with Dr H who was the interim at the time and we've managed to make it consistent with the incredible flexibility of our current teachers to do that so we really feel like it would defeat the conversation about Equity across all three elementary schools if we were to have a different special that got hired just to provide the prep at at a school with like we wouldn't want to had a different class only Newton School would get basket weaving because that would be weird right so it really would be maintain for a number of reasons it would be weird well it would be I'm not aware we have standards for that class correct but it would mean some students would get for your example basket weaving but they would not get art music or PE and then other students would not have the benefit of basket weaving right so it would sort of contribute to the issue I think that you're trying to solve so we really would need art music comp that's like a really bad Rubik's Cube problem I don't like it which is why I defer the elementary schedules um Special schedule to Karen yes okay thank you and I remembered I did have one more question I think is a lot easier K mcus and our buses we have like a dedicated number of buses with them right is it eight I think so okay and what you're saying as a part of this is that might need to increase like we might need to tell K mcus you know we actually are going to need nine or 10 buses in if because we've chosen this scenario yes it's possible okay and we're hoping the possibility maybe would be nine not 10 but yes we need to look at the actual children right it might just be one bus but yeah okay it's still that's I wasn't sure of how it works I guess I don't really need to know that other than it's kind of helpful to understanding how how the whole thing would come together is that we would say to kcus hey we need another bus or two one of the challenges to yes another issue is um people will talk about and it's accurate that some of our buses are half empty which is very true but within our policy it speaks to all all students within a certain distance from the schools are entitled to busing so we need to make sure we have seats on buses available for those children some of those children don't access the bus but it is it is their it is their benefit of attending our schools and within our policy that they have access to that busing so I do recognize some of our buses look pretty bare but if we have the day where those students say I need I need to take the bus home today and there's no seat for them um you know that would be a challenge for the district so that is part of why some of the buses look a little bit bare and our policy mirrors what's required of Mass General law for transportation it's not that we just made up that we have to provide this it's that the the state tells us that we have to provide transportation for like three different scenarios and that's why the buses might look empty yes that's such a government thing right we are you know the government yeah yeah um the other piece is you know if you folks decide to change any of your policy for example I think it's up through grade six there's a a cut off mile and a half anything over a mile and a half for up through grade six yeah which would mean in practicality you potentially could be providing it's grade seven yeah thank you you would be providing Transportation theoretically for two-thirds of the Middle School yes you could or you could decide to make a revision there which again would impact how many buses right but thank you again why we'd want to do that earlier on well and so that leads to that's a nice segue and I did not intend my question to happen that way it just did um that as we move through the process what we have learned is that we have policies the school committee has policies that deal with basic pieces of this Walkers and Riders and how the Mass General law treats that our attendance areas is a a second one and then how we assign students to schools is also um a policy that we have and when we decide how we're going to address any changes we're going to tie them to our policy and we have learned as a part of this process that and this happens in organizations it happens in education it happens when you have hundreds of policies that need to be followed that sometimes practice in policy come apart a little bit and have to be pushed back together and you don't just necessarily push them back together but you might um adjust on both sides to make it work uh the way that we feel is best for the students so okay that piece aside any more questions for the superintendent and thank you okay um so the next thing was I want to give the committee time I'm sorry that member Den isn't on the line anymore um give the committee time to give their thoughts um and and member while I would just pass over to you and if you wanted to go first or you want Glenn to go first however you want to do it you want me to go first okay I'm going to sort of start from the beginning the committee to reinv Vision our schools was formed about four years ago when some parents complained that their children were not being treated fairly they felt that for Corners was allocated more funding more experienced teachers and more access to extracurricular activities uh the superintendent has worked very hard to correct this problem and to ensure that every child receives the same level of funding and the same level of educational Excellence so that part of it we have uh collaborated and we hope solved the problem then the public also criticized the schools for having the fifth grade in Middle School and the eighth grade in high school these children were considered to be far too young to make that transition as you heard from the superintendent's report much work has gone into finding a solution for this problem the committee felt that having banded schools with the k Garten in first grade in one school and second and third grade in another school and the fourth and fifth grade in the third school would be the most fair and Equitable solution to all these problems this would enable teacher collaboration and give us enough flexibility to allow classrooms that work for every child each grade would have at least six classrooms in that scenario however we were told by the public that children could not be expected to move every 2 years and neighborhood schools were the only possible solution the schools have the space to accommodate moving the grades back into the original spaces if the schools returned to the original intent of having neighborhood elementary schools the committee learned that the students who lived in Leen Woods were moved out of Four Corners to allow more P parents to Choice their children into four corners which was considered to offer a superior educational experience to truly have neighborhood schools the children who live in Len Woods will have to be moved back to Four Corners this will also help achieve the diversity and Equity that is the goal of all schools the complaints from from the parents about this option that they demanded is astounding to me as someone who grew up in the South during segregation this is reminiscent of that era during that period of my life the majority of white parents only wanted to preserve the comfortable status of their child it probably didn't even occur to them that other children were suffering to achieve their child Comfort the absence of equity was not a consideration that seems to be what is happening here in Greenfield to preserve the Comfort comfortable status of some children's children others must suffer as a member of the school committee I cannot adhere to that concept my primary objection to allowing the parents at Four Corners who choiced into the school to keep their children in that school is that the special needs students will have to be moved elsewhere there these are the most vulnerable vulnerable children in our schools and they don't have the ability to come to school committee and tell us about whether they want that to happen to them um they don't have the ability to organize groups to tell us how important classrooms with bathrooms and a private playground are to them it also isn't fair to the teaching staff to ask them to give up their negotiated benefits to accommodate children who feel entitled to stay in the schools outside their neighborhoods I understand that change is difficult but the school committee has to make sure every student has the best Poss possible education and making the necessary change for everyone it wants is the only fair way for this to happen many will have to change so your child won't be alone and the staff is spending the time to learn how to make sure your child feels comfortable and gets a superior education wherever they are in all cases if the children remain in their current School the school will have changed from its current configuration and four corners will be quite crowded thank you do you thank you um I guess one comment I wanted to make is that um I I think we deserve a pretty good grade in one level and and maybe a a bad grade in another level which is that I think that if you look at the handout um it lists the session side options that we had for meetings to discuss the report and to discuss the uh options that we were considering together and I was really um really appreciative of um you member wall and the superintendent for working so hard to have these six different or five or six different um meetings out in the community at different sites and there were people who came and participated in that and your feedback really informed the options that the superintendent's been talking to us about tonight so thank you so much for attending and thank you member wall and the superintendent for your leadership and hard work to make that happen there was Transportation available I think that interpretation would have been available if it was needed um so that's great and I think it's a model for um the way public bodies like ours should be getting out in the community and listening to people people but uh just judging from some of the comments that I've heard recently I think that we maybe deserve a slightly less good grade for our ability to get that information out and let people know that those meetings were actually happening because I'm still hearing from people who didn't know about them and so that communication is our job we feel like we did it we thought we sent out the emails or did the broadcasts or whatever but clearly some people didn't get the information and we just need to learn more about how to communicate in a way that the public can hear and understand what we're doing and what we're offering and I just wanted to say that I think that um there are many many parents and families in Greenfield who are deeply concerned about equity and uh do know and understand that there are changes that need to happen in Greenfield for better Equity across our neighborhoods um and and I think that uh at the same time of course parents must look at all of this through the lens of how it will it affect my child and and what will it be like for them and I just wanted to say that uh we hear you and we care and it's you know when we're making decisions as a committee it will be looking at what's collectively going to be best for the students of Greenfield and I I don't think we can guarantee that every student will be 100% happy with with the changes change is going to be difficult and and and it may not work as well for some students as for others for some students the changes will be an improvement um but uh we will be here um listening to you and and caring about you and your children and respecting you and your feedback to us about um about this process thank you um other General comments or discussion at this point from the committee about moving forward does it make sense for me to talk through the motions that I would propose and we could go from there we don't want the Motions to be a surprise for anyone um and I would hope that if if what I think we need to do isn't what we need to do that we would do something different so you know we have a month to kind of figure it out um so the the way I have envisioned it is that we would actually need um to do two motions related to um the redistricting process and so the first one would be um that we would adopt a specific option as I say in the motion I've written that we would adopt option 2B redrawing boundaries for the elementary schools to better reflect the makeup of the city and allow for three elementary schools housing G grades K through five and moving grade eight to Greenfield Middle School so that would be the one that I would put forward um and certainly if the committee moves in a direction that it feels like we're moving away from 2B that hasn't been the case we've been moving if I think towards it pretty consistently um that we would look at at changing that um you know for example I really liked option one personally the banded grades and I think more than anything we heard from the GAA that's our teachers in their Union please know um and we have to respect that we have to work together on on those pieces so um that would be the first motion and that's just one example of how it might change if we were to change how the discussion is going and then I alluded to the fact that we have policies that we're not following so um you know specifically of course I had them out and then I shuffled and put them away um but specifically it's uh JC a and all the policies are on a website if you go to school committee and you go to policies um they're alphabetical by the first letter and they're in sections um related to certain parts of school operations so jca specifically is about the assignment of students to schools and had we been following this policy um the way it is written we really would not have intradistrict choice and this is the policy that's on the books so we've got to come to some sort of reconciliation between practice and policy um as a part of this and so the motion the second motion that I would propose to get at what um we are hoping to do is that beginning with the 2425 Academic Year uh school committee policies JC jca and EAA which is assignments of students to schools um the Walkers and Riders policy and then the other one is the attendance areas or like the transportation piece that those would be closely followed elementary students would attend the schools to which they're assigned based on District boundaries even if they currently attend a different elementary school so we might need time to talk we might need the time to think about it but as the person charged with getting us through the problem solving piece and landing at a solution that's kind of how I see that it would go but if I'm missing the mark Or there's a different way we want to approach it I would want to talk about that and of course anything else you'd want to discuss related to this now would be the the time can I just please I just want to remind everybody that in terms of the administration's work we can do the K to five regardless you know there's logistical issues but these can be separate conversations so I just want to make sure that there's Clarity that one um one can exist they can exist together or they can exist separately but if the vote is to do option 2B for example um we can do that I just want to make sure everybody is understanding that there um yes okay thank you discussion yeah I'm just wondering you know we just had an election we'll have effectively three new school committee members on here starting in January these are Big in weighty choices I'm just curious how the timeline that the superintendent needs coincides with the possibility of putting off any weighty decisions until January it we certainly would be looking at some budgetary impact um the transportation contract um will have just been awarded I believe early December Andy if I'm right early to mid okay um I think the biggest issue is is the budget impact um so um I say this very respectfully to any departing or incoming members um the longer that there is a decision delayed the less time we have to actually Implement anything and the thing I want least is to repeat what I have been told was the impact on people when this changes from of grade levels from one building to another occurred previously where it was done you know almost overnight and staff had very little time that's something we've you know we're trying to not have happen especially if we need to talk about training options for some of our fifth grade teachers um if we need to arrange to have tours of buildings for families I'm just you know all of these logistical issues and given the amount of time that it takes to do these things because you you all know we're not um um you know just this isn't the only task on our plates um should new members come in on in January and feel that they are not ready to vote we are then pushing it out and pushing it out if this vote is happening in April I it's I'm not sure how well we could Implement for September so that my fear is that we're well it feels like we're really early in the year given what we need to do it's not really that early in the year so sorry other questions or comments I'm not hearing any others so I think what I would propose is that um we obviously hear from the public we have another month at least to hear from the public on this um we're going to hear from some folks this evening um and I will come back in December with the Motions that I've just uh put forward um and I would encourage members to work on any alternative motions um to also bring forward so that we have the best problem solving um available when we're actually uh going to vote all right well can you'll email those um can you email those motions I will I will absolutely yes um and I want to thank both of you uh askp and uh Christine for uh the work on just getting all of this comprehensively put together and all the meetings with staff and the logistical pieces and I know Christine you've actually been doing like walking and driving through the district with Jake right littleit more yeah so there is a lot that goes into it um and I think everyone for um being a part of of the discussion and as soon as I find my agenda in my pile here it is all right so we'll move on to public comment oh thank you is there anyone that still needs to sign up for public comment okay we know who you are we can just call we can just call you last how about that all right all right um I'll do the timer so uh Miss ranor is first and we have addresses here but if you could just State your um name and this the town or city that you live in and you have 3 minutes but let me get my timer feel like I'm a roadie when I say my name that shouldn't count Margaret ranc cour Greenfield Mass go ahead um I happen to be a teacher at Four Corners and you can roll your eyes but I'm not here to speak as a teacher from four corners for 27 years I've worked for this town a great majority of it I was at Federal Street I did not leave Federal Street to go to greener pastures once upon a time I was the only fourth grade left at elementary and Dr Holland wrote A Blog and I saw the writing on the wall and said I got to go because I belong in elementary school no offense Middle School not my gig so I left a piece of my heart at Federal Street I still miss it I love that Community I'm in a new community I love it also but there's something left out of all these conversations and Jean wall you're breaking my heart because there there's a misconception every school in this District all six of them I assure you have the most talented dedicated hardworking resilient and resourceful teachers I have ever met at all of the schools all of them and what's happening is you're we're belittling some of the other schools we're demeaning them it's horrible it feels awful on all sides so please know it is impossible to work for Christine and Karen and be Slackers and not provide a fair education to all kids we are held to the highest level of accountability responsibility and behavior and I am hurting for my teachers in the other schools when you say their children are suffering they take that personally it sounds like they are not good teachers and that it's just not true so I'm asking everyone on both sides of the table when you're speaking passionately about what you think is best can you do it in such a way that you do not be mean delittle belittle demoralize the teachers in this town teaching is hard in 2023 no matter where you are it is challenging it's exhausting I'm tired I'm shaking because I'm I'm upset please think before you speak that if we're trying to do the best thing do it in a way that does not pit one school against another because I'm telling you at Four Corners we will take any children that come in front of us and educate them and I believe that's the same for all six schools everybody please hear me we need to work together and we need to do what's best but not in a way that just puts more strain on people people that are working themselves to death we are exhausted and I am very proud of all of my colleagues all of them in every building thank you thank you Rose you're next you already knew you were next you have three minutes thank you um so first um I want to say two sentences about redistricting and that's it um one you're going to upset people no matter what you do and I'm sure that you know that um but two the question you need to ask yourselves is who you're willing to upset either the people in our community with immense privilege um who won't get what they want or the underserved people in our community who deserve to have an equitable education um but that's not the main reason why I'm here um I'm actually I guess in an off topic way here to talk about assistant superintendent Karen patod um because before I came to Greenfield I was a math interventionist for 6 weeks at a different district and it was six weeks long and only six weeks long because I did not have the support that I needed to be successful there I'm now on week 63 as a title one math interventionist in Greenfield because of Karen patod uh I have a unique perspective because Karen is the supervisor of the title one program so we work together often Karen gave me a chance and intentionally created a community of interventionists in all of our schools to help us build ideas and offer support and it means the world to me I have no doubt that she would continue this community work in our district as superintendent um I could take all three minutes raving about how wonderful Karen is but that wouldn't be enough time um I do want to highlight the fact that Karen doesn't have to drive 50 minutes to lead our district it's no no like offense or anything but um but she lives here and she was a principal here right and she's the closest working employee to Christine um we will not find any other candidate with those credentials Karen has the trust of teachers behind her and choosing not to appoint her would be negligent and catastrophic to our school Community the only reason I would say not to is because that might mean she won't be my supervisor anymore and that would make me sad so thank you thank you oh now we don't know who's next it's Joy Whitbeck please hi Joy just um State the town or city you live in and your full name and you have three minutes sure um I'm Joy Whitbeck from Greenfield Massachusetts um I first want to thank you all for your commitment I don't know you all personally but I know the vital role you've chosen to take in our community so thank you for taking the time to do that um I also understand appreciate all the years of work and commitment that have gone to this point and I want to make sure that we're not rushing to a conclusion in the end um I think that redrawing the school assignments ending INRI interdistrict choice and moving the fifth and eighth grades all at once is a whole lot of change that seem to make the pieces fall into place but also create a lot of change for a lot of students um I don't know why we can't allow the current students at whatever school they're at if they'd like to stay to stay and age out and then move the fifth and eighth grades if we do that they'll age out quicker obvious viously if they're not staying in elementary school through 5ifth they'll be out quicker and then we could move them you know then move everybody back down and then you won't have that problem at Four Corners of three grades up until fifth um I greatly appreciate you want to correct the mistakes of the past by allowing the intrisic choice and moving a segment of population out of four corners and moving Fifth and eighth grade out of their Elementary and Middle School status um but I don't think that doing all of those three at once is going to impact the students the best way possible I think if you slow down and make a couple of the changes and then move Fifth and eighth it'll have less impact on the students overall um yeah uh I just also have to say as a resident of Greenfield for 42 years a product of Greenfield Public Schools and now with my own children in Greenfield Public Schools it's rather insulting to suggest I don't care about the Greater Community obviously my kids are first in my world but this is my community my entire life so to suggest that I don't care about someone else's children is ridiculous because those children will be sitting as the school committee in 25 years so we all have a role to play I guess thank you Luke Martin please you know the drill I think so Luke Martin uh Haywood Street I have two children in the schools and I also teach at the high school um for the most part I I support the direction you're taking with reenvisioning our schools uh from very early in the process I've been in favor of what has become option to be uh what I've come to address tonight is the process of making these changes as you move forward it's important to remember that Greenfield has made laudable efforts in recent years to become more trauma informed in our approach to educating children we're not talking about trauma just in the traditional sense of major life-altering events but also the various stressors and disruptions that can negatively impact our children's ability to learn bullying food insecurity transience a lack of acceptance or inclusion for certain groups uh recently our staff at the high school was asked to listen to a podcast to dig deeper into this topic it was called unpacking trauma-informed education and it explained that trauma-informed schools are not only sensitive to kids external trauma but must also quote disrupt things that cause trauma inside of schools that schools need to look carefully at how might someone experience trauma there and how do we disrupt that from happening this is something I think you need to take into account when you consider immediately shuffling kids around based on new boundaries and ending interdistrict choice that dozens and dozens of children will be uprooted from the safe and stable environments that they've come to know not just intradistrict Choice kids but those from Leiden Woods Oak courts or anywhere else that's suddenly found in a new school zone these are children who have had their education already disrupted by a global pandemic and many of whom continue to face a variety of other stressors and challenges we should not further disrupt their school experience by uprooting them breaking the bonds they've developed with peers and trusted adults in their buildings and asking them to start over in a new and unfamiliar place the same podcast noted that predictability is one of the core tenants of a trauma-informed approach quote predictability is one of those core safety needs because trauma really disrupts our sense that the world's a predictable place so when we can create predictability it helps create a sense of routine and structure that we can settle into to feel safe I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that tearing kids away from their friends and trusted adults is hardly a trauma-informed approach I don't think this is a surprise or new to you in the survey sent out to staff last June option 2B included a quote phasing out of that choice uh it seems we understood the damage that could be done by making such changes too abruptly but somehow now we're considering pulling the rug out from under kids who entered an elementary School believing they'd be there until middle school somehow now it's Being Framed as a choice between moving in District Choice kids or the Asus program but it never should have come to this false choice we should have foreseen the space issues that complicate this option and not have committed to making these changes by next year now we're stuck with a logistical Nightmare and a false choice of moving some kids versus other kids why can we not wait until enough students have phased out to allow for the fifth grade to comfortably move back how long would that actually take uh this is easy for me to say because my children aren't going into fifth grade next year and those parents may have a different perspective but to me this should not be a hard choice about which groups of kids unfortunately have to move next year instead you should be asking what kind of timeline for this restructuring would minimize or eliminate the disruption for all kids kids are resilient they adapt they adjust they grow I'm not suggesting that kid forcing kids to change schools will traumatize them in the traditional sense of the word but we claim that we're adopting a trauma-informed approach to education saying so is easy but the way these changes are made will say a lot about whether we actually walk the walk um lastly I want to say that uh to member wall that being put on par with Southern segregationists in the Jim Crow era is astounding and entirely inappropriate and I can only assume that you don't understand the feedback you're getting from parents I hope that's the case thank you thank you Sarah Chase um I had prepared a statement but I feel that I have to if you could move the microphone a little bit closer but I feel that I have to say something else before I begin um I'm feeling in this community and now straight from the school committee itself a lot of finger pointing about racism and things like that and I think that people need to not always judge a book by its cover I'm white my husband is black my children are mixed race and they are choice to Four Corners and I am extremely insulted at what Gan wall had to say about people that might be choicing their children there my children go through a lot living in this area um with racism and people calling them certain words and I am called certain words by having a black husband and I just think it's a disgusting way to talk about people this is my statement my children are six and nine in grades K and four at Four Corners my 9-year-old has been there since she was in kindergarten we sent her there because I knew some of the teachers I'm an educator myself and I was more comfortable with a one Lev School than the giant school that Federal Street seemed to me with my precious baby girl we are very involved in the school Community there and have been for years now so not only my daughter but my son who is just starting out his Elementary School experience there are extremely comfortable and happy there it is an incredible school to despite all the public schools face these days I have always thought that having the fifth grade in elementary school is appropriate and am happy this committee is considering this however until recently the information that this mve would displace my children along with many other children in the district was not clear at all so unclear in fact that when we filled the paperwork out for my son to join his sister at for Corners there was Zero mention of the fact that this could be temporary and I have lots of emails between myself and central office where this could have been mentioned to me and there was no mention of that that change was looming on the forms we filled out the children of the Greenfield Public Schools are not numbers they are little people with developing brains that need to feel safe and secure to have the capacity to learn there are also little people who have emotional needs and struggles that need to be taken into consideration including my son removing my children from the only school they know would be devastating to them I implore you to please consider my concerns along with all of the concerns of the others here tonight advocating for their children to have consistency in their schooling and be allowed to finish their ele Elementary experience where they started it I also hope in the future when you do vote that you do vote to do what is right by the children of Greenfield including those that are inter District Choice who have done nothing to deserve being uprooted and that you vote to let them phase out of their schools thank you thank you and Rebecca is it right out Rebecca did I say that right write out okay and just your name and uh the city you live in and uh you have three minutes okay my name is Rebecca R out I've lived in Greenfield for 14 years at Four Corners the fifth grade solution has not at all been arrived at it's an incomplete plan don't put that on inter Choice families as if they created that problem or stand in the way neither the inter Choice families nor the special needs program at Four Corners called Aces should be threatened to have to move or pitted against each other due to the addition of a new grade level there the inter Choice families are a population with not a lot in common we are from a range of soci economic levels types of families reasons we chose this program Gan your comments are misinformed off Bas and insulting interdistrict Choice was provided by the school district although you allowed kindergarteners to come in this year which was again your choice you're making it seem like now the people who want to keep their kids in the school they started in are being intractable communication before July was fine this option 2B was fleshed out fully for the first first time only in July subcommittee meeting the first time the inter Choice Community was put at risk of upheaval and we've never been notified in August the superintendent briefly spoke about this emerging plan to the school committee discussing as a solution that quote fits everyone but she failed to mention that it does not now those families are being called out as the problem you need to go find a solution that works for everyone at Four Corners and keep everyone who's already there instead of disadvantaging one or another group here's one idea have you considered mobile units for the three three fifth grade classrooms next year they seem to be quick to get on site I attended several classes in Mobile units in high school it worked or perhaps the three classes of fifth grade from Four Corners could be placed in another school for the next year or two regarding redistricting this plan and the corresponding documents have created a bizarre narrative in which inter Choice families seem to stand in the way of redistricting this could not be less true and is certainly causing divisions the opposite of what we need to build community one of my my requests for clarification is can districting and Inter Choice coexist it seems that fifth grade stands in the way of all that whenever factions of a population are pitted against each other you can bet there's a bureaucratic entity that has created this division well this is happening to parents here in Greenfield and invite you all to look no further than those seated before us today for the reason we can do better as a community I acknowledge my privilege to have even known about the inter Choice program I think it is Antiquated and should not exist in the future I know all the town schools are equal in their quality I think bringing light and woods students into four corners makes all the sense in the world if there is consent from those families Equity is giving resources and especially agency to the people who need it and to let them Define equity for themselves I care very much about this these affected communities Laden woods and Oak courts deserve the right to choose if their children age out of their current schools figure out the busing Nightmare and the funding issues that comes from that that's called equity as the current proposal State States I just do not believe that uprooting th uh roughly 100 children across all soci economic neurode Divergent and racial lines without their families consent creates any Equity at all but I'm proud of our town for having so much caring about this issue rational Minds have thus far treated our children like lines on a spreadsheet but we need to create stability for all of our students if making that happen requires a little more Logistics I have the confidence that the same rational Minds can figure it out thank you in advance thank you Melissa is there anyone else who wants to speak this evening okay I feel like I should talk about redistricting for some unknown reason give us your name and where live web I live in Greenfield um I attended every single meeting from virtu ual with Jean and Glenn and Susan Holland I listened at school committee when it was remote back in September during coid when it finally came back to life again um I'm very lucky to have the knowledge to be able to follow the school committee on lots of topics um my first school committee I know I'm changing subjects here Kia Burton King dragged me here to talk about transportation and to always offer the um courtesy if anyone would like to walk with me from my house to Newton they are always more than welcome to see the unsafe fruit um that exists in that area um especially during winter time but back to redistricting I live less than 500 feet from a low-income housing you know I talk to these people I interact with them every day some of them are not comfortable coming up here and talking to you about the importance of getting fifth grade back into Elementary getting eighth grade back into Middle School um as Amy knows we went to Greenfield Gardens for a meeting and we were locked out of a building and those are just some of the daily things that things are promised to them and then they don't happen so coming forward isn't always so easy um I will say I did take a quick look at the bus the changes in the sheets and I did notice that Sullivan Lane which is also part of the Greenfield housing complex and part of Oak Court was left out of the geological um thing so that I would encourage that to be looked at a little bit better or even that area you know we're talk about making Green Field making the lines make more sense not having off streets off Li and road going to Newton having the community I will say at a lot of our topics people said how important neighborhood schools were and some of the people who were at the meetings School of Choice to other schools and then said yes neighborhood schools are what we want and now I'm seeing them say today well I mean I want neighborhood schools but I want the neighborhood I'm already in the community I'm already invested in not the one I actually physically live in um I remember the playground chatter when my daughter went off to Newton how I how could I possibly send her there and and that was real that happened at a I had moms coming up to me and a few other people saying are you sure you don't want a school of choice and I was like no we're we're good we're going to our neighborhood it's going to be great um at that point I had already been volunteering at Newton for four years through the last days in housing crisis so I'm just going to say thank thank you for showing up and thank you for listening to everyone even the people whose voices don't always project as loud thank you is there anyone else you may come on up just real quick for the record I live on Lincoln Street which currently goes to Four Corners where my children go so it's not my kids that would move it's everybody around them and everybody in other other schools so not everybody that appears to be on that side of the room versus this side of the room which is kind of disturbing but not everybody is us against them thank you Joy anyone else who hasn't already spoken would like a opportunity okay I I thank you all yeah go ahead please we just need your name you're going to have a hard last name that I won't be able to spell right no go ahead what what's your name Tera oh I didn't recognize you with the hat on sorry Tara yeah turn them ohz and you live in Greenfield right I live in Greenfield um I just wanted to make a quick comment when we talk about neighborhoods schools um we live on a corner and one if our mailbox was actually on the other side of our house like we would be Four Corners so our direct two neighbors are actually in my daughter's class and that is our neighborhood um and it would it feels random and alienating to her to see her two classmates who are in her class who are her neighbors who she looks out the window and sees going to um a different school so I just wanted to mention that this sense of neighborhood it is defined by the superintendent school committee it's not necessarily this innate thing so I just wanted to clarify that that I feel like even though we choice in I feel like we are in our neighborhood school we are closer to Four Corners our neighbors go to Four Corners our property is half on four corners territory thank you thank you I'll keep asking until there's no one so anyone else want to speak again I thank you all for being here and uh especially for the comments and we will at this point move on oh it's Andy Mr pette with his budget update for us thank you Andy for being patient not a problem so you have the update in your packets um we are proceeding along as um best as we can regarding uh with some of the transitions that we're experiencing um you'll notice again some of the I just want to highlight some of the things as far as some of the big deficits that are showing up if you look at the revolving account report there are very little expenses that are charged of the revolving accounts are encumbered so we're going through the process of uh moving those encumbrances out of the local budget into those revolving counts specifically in the tuition area circuit breaker and then the transportation as well um I can answer any questions you might have regarding the local report and any of the revolving accounts any questions from the committee I just would say that I work in College financial aid and when I start talking people leave the room as well so don't take it personally thank yeah that would be awesome I we're going to put you on the spot a little bit um especially for our folks who um on the committee who are probably aware that we are working on uh Transportation bid with other um towns and uh it's come up because we've had to um go to city council related to the length of the bid being 5 years and the standard is 3 years if you could just talk briefly about how the the timeline how it's going what we're doing sure uh this is the second year I believe that we have taken part in a joint Collective bid of several school districts in Franklin County and the last time it was done was was five years ago so five years is up so we're now going out for the second bidding for those districts that choose to participate the law for the governs procurement in Massachusetts says that if you go beyond 3 years if you are entertaining the desire to go beyond 3 years you need to get the approval of the appropriating authority to extend to go even Explore for Beyond three we're looking for five so we have to go to the city council as the appropriating authority to get the authorization to do a five-year bid the the process is it might sound like it's the cart before the horse but we just we need the authoriz ization first before we can even in a sense bring it to you to have the school committee ultimately vote to accept a contract from a vendor so the way Transportation Works in Massachusetts is the community has to fund Transportation the school committee and the administration manage the actual operations of the transportation so we've got a bid out now that was coordinated with nine districts in Franklin County uh it's being coordinated by the Frank Council of governments um the bidding as Dr DeBarge mentioned is going to be opened in December with the hopeful awarding of a contract by then um once we do the bid opening we then will go to city council with the fact that it's a five-year contract which we found we were able to find in a pass that that was actually what was done was it was presented to the city council that it was a 5-year contract and then ultimately school committee chair signed with the the awarded contract um regarding this discussion here the the it's a cost per bus per day contract so even if there's any potential impact financially regarding this redistricting discussion how it goes we will be very easy it'll be very easy to determine any cost savings and or potential additional cost because it is a cost per bus per day contract thank you are there please secretary EXT Go ahead I just want to ask a very direct question that I think will encapsulate what you just said so the longer it takes for these steps to be gone through because city council needs to do something and we're on the street as the city is trying to get involved the longer it will take for us to work on a budget which means the longer it will take for uh not work on a budget but to get more accurate numbers the longer it will take to present things um I could be wrong I guess I'd say the the discussion regarding the transportation as it relates to the discussion that you just had I would say it is gerain to the topic but it wouldn't be a driving force in a topic because you would make whatever is best sense educationally and then we would have to determine the the funding of said decision as it relates to Transportation they you know the the delay in the process I think and when we chair pretti and I were at a city council meeting where we were talking about that and even the chair of the city council said he's not sure that anyone remembers whether or not it was brought to them beforehand so um we provided them documentation from legal councel as to the reason why we are doing the process this way um and so the ultimate result is we have time like let's play the worst case scenario that the city council decided not to authorize a five-year contract we would just have to issue an addendum to the bid that's currently out there saying that Greenfield chooses not to be a five-year uh contract awarding so and if I could just can I add in um if all of the details if the school committee chooses to move forward with a plan or or whatever configuration of that the decision is if there is an impact on transportation and the decision isn't made before the budget has to be submitted we can have an estimate and figure out if it's one bus it would be x amount of money because it's bus per day so we could say you know I make up an amount but if it's one bus it's 10,000 if it's two buses it's 20,000 and we could estimate from a budgetary standpoint I think we did that during Co right we have to add and it's a scalable formula in the contract for that okay oh no no I I don't know I don't have off the you really don't know he he knows I'd love if it was $10,000 but I was using easy map um one last thing I want to mention since I have been here for so long is that I vividly recall the executive session where the chair at the time Adrian yunes uh we all went into executive session to discuss the contract because there were some complications and the committee as a whole Glenn were you do you remember this at all I'm just worried because you're talking about executive session like sounds like you're just about to the minutes have been released it oh okay okay I think I think it was early 2019 when you guys talked about it um and ultimately it was the chair that executed the contract but it was in consultation with the full school committee and I asked all the ridiculous questions that I like to ask about it other comments or questions I just I just want so the reason we would want to do a five-year bid is because it might save us money that's I mean it's I would say yes and I'll say just because my company has done joint Transportation bids for clients uh of ours we did it for three communities we put in the specifications to quote a price for three as one or three individual ones and the we've done this now for four bid cycles and each time that we've done it the price per bus was less expensive for the collective bid than it was for the individual ones and the procurement you know it kind of logic dictates that the more united the more volume you get the less price Better Price It's like a union for buses yeah okay and the other thing I wanted to just say allow just because this was part of my own education on this um is that there is literally a Mass General law that says if you're doing a bus contract for public schools it can't be more than three years unless you have the permission of your funding Authority which I just find to be so micromanaging I can't even stand it yeah that's the law it's explicit yeah yes and because transportation is a unique uh thing that's required and uh but just for clarification I'll put on my mcppo hat is like any contract over three years requires it but it does explicitly sayate State Transportation yes yes yes yeah thank you Andy are yes another question go ahead so the other thing that I wanted to mention is that it's not like there's other games in town this is there's essentially one service provider who can do these things unless we want to pay a whole lot more for someone from farther away unless I'm mistaken I'm going to ni that because that's the whole purpose of bidding is that you hope and hope for an open market for participants retract that thank you all kinds ofers anything else thank you Andy um now to the most exciting part of the agenda which is item number seven a vote to declare the ice machine Surplus um and there is a document in the materials if you're following along that is literally says just exactly what I said uh we are declaring an ice machine Surplus I move to declare the ice machine [Music] Surplus that was a motion from Member Johnson mad I will second any discussion and our members are off the phone so we can just go through our votes for uh verbally um any sorry I'm sorry who was the second was it was me uh any extensions any no votes that passes unanimously thank [Applause] you that's how we feel better too right um and then items uh eight and nine are policy uh items and I'm going to pass it over as I do with these uh to to member Johnson mad as chair of the policy subcommittee take it away thanks for that chair um Christine would you set up the number eight second reading and vote for Section B board governance and operations for us you mean why are we doing this now yes yeah um questions came up about a couple of the individual policies and as um Susan had asked the question we located the fact we we searched records and actually saw the fact that it appears that there were two first readings but no second reading on Section B so we just need to have a second reading on the books so that we can finally move to the end of the policy manual which we are getting close to so this is a housekeeping item in in essence thank you and my um records indicate that those first readings happened in 2019 so I'm glad we're getting to this let's see so now I I have to get those little glasses but I don't have them so let me see if I can do this I've got some please please help how strong they need to be I don't know this will probably be good I almost put them on upside now I don't think oh that does help okay so we're looking for second readings of an existing set of policy uh see and these are good okay I move that we adopt policy section B board governance and operations as presented on second reading is there a second second that is there any [Music] discussion hearing none are there any no votes any extensions that passes [Music] unanimously great and um we waited so long to approve the second reading in section uh for Section B that in the meantime we have actually found one of those one of the policies that we just revised we're now going to propose revising ing again so um we had discussion early in the year about the uh process by which we do our organizational meetings and um I think our policy currently calls for things like having it at our first meeting in January um and having the superintendent uh kind of supervise the process until a chair is appointed so we have this whole policy the other thing that came up was an interest in having uh from some of the members of the committee in having public comment be part of precede the organizational meeting um and so through it was referred back to the policy committee to take a fresh look at the organizational meeting and through the diligence of member denie we discovered that there is actually language in the town Charter that covers how um the um organizational meetings should go um and so which is very different from what our current policy is so our current policy is in in contradiction to the what's in the town Charter or the city Charter so um we have a proposed Revision in front of you that both um attempts to bring our practice in line with what the charter calls for as well well as adding the provision of a public comment period and um I don't think it made it into your packet but I am happy to read to you all the parts of the charter that are referred to in this uh revised policy if folks would like that if not that's okay and I'll just say that the policy the revised policy as presented was voted forward to you from the policy subcommittee but not unanimously U member deneve and I voted for it uh chair priority uh voted against it so so I guess I'll start with a motion and then we can discuss yeah do the motion first okay and then discuss yeah great I got to get the glasses back get the I got them from Target they're called okay I need thin Optics and they fit in this little thing in my pocket they fold up nice and thin I'm not on commission for them either I get mine from Walmart okay um I move that we approve the first reading of amendments to policy BDA school committee organizational meeting as presented is there a second uh I'll second for discussion okay and is there any discussion I guess so we have adopt or this policy would adopt a organizational meeting structure that is similar to the one in the city Charter does the one in the city Charter contain a public comment period it does not okay I guess I would just um my oppos I I I've opposed this from the time it was uh presented I mean we just watched uh the house there US House of Representatives try for uh three weeks to elect a new leader they didn't take public comment because they're electing a leader within themselves um and I just find it really interesting that there's this need to change the policy I think mostly to include this piece and it it doesn't seem I just don't understand why I don't understand what what there is about this that needs to be a part of the process I will be voting against it I just wanted to say my peace I can say that um the the I think really there are two honest intents here I mean I don't think it makes sense for us as a school committee to have an organizational meeting process approved as a as a policy which contradicts what it says in the city Charter I really think the city Charter takes precedence over our over our uh policy and um to speak to the question of why I have a public comment period before the election of officers I I realize it isn't something that is done um in many B different public bodies uh these meetings often will happen in the late afternoon in early January and uh if there is any discussion it's amongst the M members and very few of any public members of the public are even present and if they are present there isn't a public comment period for them to speak um but I think that um the election of officers is actually among one of the most um important decisions the school committee would make in a year I think the school committee chair has a huge amount of influence over what is on agendas how agendas are handled uh how the interaction with the school committee with the public goes and so I think that the public has a um an interest in it and I don't think it results in um in what happened in the House of Representatives if the um the members of the public who are present each have three minutes to share their opinion before school committee me members uh vote I don't see that descending in into chaos so that is the the reasoning behind having the public comment period um included I forgot I'm facilitating yes M extr you're still in Char ex um I so I'm of two minds I mean I don't so I don't really necessarily have much of a concern regarding public comment or not it's really excuse me neither here nor there for me um however following the city Charters and doing as the city council does is is a model of running the meetings as as you know in parallel and so my inclination is to not um include a public comment period and and also part of it is and and I this may get it the way that I think about being on school committee when you get elected to school committee you are there you have been elected because people trust you to represent the best interests of you know whatever situation it is that comes up with school committee um in the schools and things like that so um I I wouldn't vote for a public comment I I guess I'll I'll add that um the charter also doesn't talk about the voting of a secretary but as a school committee we can choose to have a secretary and elect one and have a a means of electing one and and similarly if we chose we could have a public comment period it it doesn't contradict what's in the charter which is um what we actually have currently so any other discussion so uh let's take a vote um any who who um what how do you do this Amy uh who any members abstaining from this vote any members voting no on this three okay and members voting for I'm a one so the motion fails um 3 to one and I guess with the chair's permission I'd like to put forward a um a new motion um which would be to um approve the school committee organizational meeting um uh revision on first reading uh with the um omission of the public comment period uh that is the third paragraph of the um proposed uh revised policy um so I'll move that is there a second I'll second that okay uh any discussion I appreciate your willingness to compromise it's probably short-lived but I I appreciate it anyway thank you uh yes I think it would be really good if we could get this policy into alignment um with the charter before our organizational meeting in January so um I I think that we can um have have a meeting in January without a public comment but I certainly would encourage the public uh to take advantage of the other ways you have of communicating with us if you care about um the who leads the school committee we would love to hear I would love to hear from you and so any other comments on this would you forward your motions to me please uh yeah I gave yeah I will thank you yep um so let's vote any um uh any no votes on this um New Motion any abstentions all those in favor I passes unanimously thank you thank you if I could kindly ask for my glasses back it would be awesome I think that we're I don't know what number it is but we're going into the job descriptions oh we're at the 8:00 break oh yeah um oh we're at 8 so we uh we can uh move for a five minute break if that works for folks we can power through but let's okay we'll move for a five minute break so um 88:13 we'll give you to 8:15 we'll come back than thank [Music] you [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a the table and we're going to get started again and we are on uh agenda item number 10 approval of two job descriptions assistant business manager and accounting assistant and they are in the packet and uh Christine if you could just give like an overview of how we got here that would be great and actually I'm going to ask Andy to actually identify those sure uh what this is is like I'd say several years ago it was discussed about the fact that whether or not it's I'm going to say the current business manager model of a company being your business manager or what we call the traditional business manager uh it was discussed that we need to create a little more structure to the business office and what we ended up doing is looked at the two job descriptions in the business office per se and just realign some of the responsibilities to create uh we'll say the quotequote the assistant business manager that would oversee both the business office and actually have some support and oversight of the payroll HR office as well that's always been the design that had been discussed and it's also we'll say effective so what we did is looked at the two Des job descriptions of the positions and just did some realigning of the roles and responsibilities to we'll say create some heightened level of authority to the assistant business manager position and re align and change the accounting assistant position per se creating some structure which hopefully will also not hopefully I can say will create some efficiencies and some clear lines of communication regarding the roles and responsibilities in the office as well as additional oversight of the payroll HR and I just add this was an opportune time because we unfortunately had Kristen in the business office resigned she you know moved moved on to a different position a different company um but given the fact that she um you know she left that was a good time to make any changes because it had less impact and as we move forward to post the position it made sense to ask you to approve a job description before we post it so um and we thank you for that well and I should also add for context that um we have a collegial relationship with the administration as the school committee in terms of job descriptions where it does not say anywhere that the superintendent uh is is required to bring job descriptions to us um there are a handful of positions that we hire as the school committee um superintendent being one of them and the rest are actually left to the superintendent but because of the I think mostly the immensity of the number of job descriptions is immensity a word I don't know the number of them um and just wanting to also know what is happening in terms of um administrative responsibilities we do this process where we um provide uh overview and an approval of the job descriptions although the hiring is entirely done on the operation side so um with all of that said uh motion I would ask for a motion to approve oh geez I move to approve the job descriptions as presented thank thank you member Johnson mad and the second was uh from Member wall and any discussion and that's secretary Exum please we should do these separately in the event that one of them changes later and because then we'll have to approve both of them no we can bring them back separately they need to be revised separately yeah yeah um as anyone have any discussion questions suggestions on the job descriptions hearing none any extensions from approving any no votes those both pass unanimously thank you and requests from the committee for new agenda items are there any I'm not hearing any we'll move on it's not closed if you wanted to come back to that if anyone has something um and then report from the administration we have an askp report right um I thought yes yes something in here yes let me just get to it yes the heat is off the AC is now on perfect Thom I'll be quick they're just asking us to move swiftly through the agenda yeah um just really wanted to update the committee on the huge professional development day we had districtwide yesterday so I just wanted to share some of the um PD that happened the uh think right pair share our instructional strategy work continued teaching lab was on site for our K22 teachers um really looking at our instructional practices and uh using the data aggregate data from the learning walks that we've been doing with ssos and the teaching lab and really just focusing on improving um instructional practices so that was a huge chunk of our staff participated in that um we are still in the midst of investigating history so educurious was on site to work with our fifth uh through seventh grade history teachers yesterday and the roll out of that new curriculum that desie has launched um again we're trying to really promote College and Career Readiness at our middle and high school really getting uh kids interested in learning more about uh their strengths and what they might like to do in uh study and maybe promote uh future electives that we could create so we did adopt navian and really want to roll out some of those College and Career surveys with our 7eventh through 10th graders and really try to align some of the new electives that are offered next year with those career survey results to peque the interest of our kids so looking forward to seeing how that all unfolds um as Mr Martin did allude to in his public comment we are really still committed to um professional development that deals with being trauma informed and really working with our students on an asset-based approach our district-wide instructional assistance um engaged with uh lordis Alvarez Ortiz who we've worked with for years and her partner Gabriella lachari was with us as well yesterday and worked with our IAS on on uh identifying students strengths and really how they could support them better and lead to better outcomes in the work that they do with our kids um I do have to add though that I did get some personal feedback got some texts last night from our IAS that quotee unquote said it was the best PD that they've ever had and how rejuvenated and energized so I really appreciate folks reaching out to me just to let me know that it's really um makes you feel good about what you've provided for folks for for the day and that they really got something out of it um our a staff have been working um year long with uh the director maril melli on guided play strategies and really uh using play to teach whole language get that language development really a uh an increase so they had a successful day and then we had a lot of other sessions many ones here and there we had CPI training we had second step training with our guidance counselors at the k seven level we had School nurses working online on building family relationships we had curriculum mapping and we also um uh Dave messing led a special education daylong professional development for our special ed staff in our uh service providers so it was really a a a very well uh energized and productive day I hope uh everyone got something out of it and really um embraced whatever session that they were in uh for Grants uh I just wanted to commend and I wish Luke had stayed because I wanted to give him a shout out our Civic Grant this year really was um focused on us providing relevant Civic learning experiences for our students AKA more field trips more um off-site experiences for them school committee interns perhaps that would be a wonderful cic engage wonderful we have to put that on an agenda right um we used to do that too Angie Mass used to have him do it with city council when Isaac was on the city council so we'll have to bring that back um but one of the things that Luke already uh came out of the gate and did with his uh US history class um they went to Lexington conquered in Charleston already and 50 kids were able to go explore and really have a a Civic learning experience so he has some other ones planned as well and U Miss Zimmerman in eth grade is engaging our high schoolers with the recorder so we've uh used the grant to get them online subscriptions to our local newspaper and she said uh kids are really intrigued with um having a paper to read and I read it every day so I forget how often people don't physically read a newspaper um but to hear that feedback was really neat and so I'm glad that we have the grant to really give our kids those opportunities and then lastly just wanted to update you it's the first year on the mentor program for our unit c folks and uh we have four instructional assistants who are leading the mentor program this year um and uh Christine met with them last month I had to miss the meeting but they are really working hard to provide the guidance and support that our new IAS need and anytime we have a new hire we link them with one of these season mentors and really have someone to be a go-to person and I think it's really helping out in that area so thank you awesome any questions for askp I just have a quick one about the navian are you going to work with GCC I think they have a career person we have a couple they have a couple of career people would love to yeah um who's who is it still it's uh Shannon Doran yeah yeah who yeah who's been in the area doing this work for a long time she's now at GCC yeah yeah so we should get you hooked up and potentially there's some capacity building there yeah what did she used to work with us when she was at Mass higher was she at mass mass higher for a long time yeah no that would be great awesome cool thank you any questions I didn't see any okay we're good we're moving on um uh Christine do you have more to tell us tonight go ahead really I yes I do um a couple of things we had first of all uh I looked at my phone a couple times because I had about nine 9,000 text messages about the forecast so this is just a reminder that it is win it is time to start talking about snow and ice and potential impact on school and there is some potential for freezing rain or ice for the morning so um Mr Warner from the DPW and I have um wonderful productive early morning chats about the status of things so um you know no news is good news but there it's time um we um I'm sorry that Judy Bennett wasn't able to stay because um you folks will remember she came to the school committee earlier in the year to um talk about the tree planting in honor of Donna Woodcock and we I have ordered the bench um unfortunately the delivery date is a little far out in potentially February but it we believe it matches the other benches that are at the high school it will have a memorial plaque on it um Karen and Judy have both offered suggestions for the inscription and the DPW is donating the materials and the labor to pour this cement pad that the bench will be um on so I'm very pleased that we're able to move on and and get this in place um to honor Donna's memory at the high school we have um a couple of Staffing changes upcoming um some not so great some great so the not so great um Jen relli one of the aps from the Middle School um will be moving on so that position is posted and Lynn Pard our assistant special ed director is also moving us uh leaving us um that position has been posted and Karen and Dave um started some interviews today but on the positive note we have a new director of facilities that is starting Monday we have had a very fortunate quick turnaround with him um so Michael budro will be joining us on Monday and um I want to thank Ben Murphy and Joe pugs I can't say his whole last name Joe pugs on the city Side they've really been doing an amazing job working together and filling in on things that I couldn't possibly know about facilities um in the two-e interim and then um Mike was already able to come in and meet with Ben today and start the transition so it's been you know as much as um we're sad that Eric moved on there have been some nice nice working together um in the middle and we'll have Mike with us on Monday excellent is that everything I don't know I think okay questions for the superintendent all right we will move on because the temperature is dropping winter is coming um I a report from the chair is next and I just have um two quick things I wanted to make sure that we mentioned here that we have uh scheduled for next Tuesday the 14th uh the appoint interview with askp for the superintendent role in The District um that is at 6: p.m. on Tuesday and it will begin actually with a meet and greet session at 5:30 p.m.

thank you

um for any member of the public that might want to ask casual questions before we actually have the interview in public uh by the school committee um and the other thing I wanted to uh just acknowledge is is um actually Stacy sexon is still here uh Anne child's was here earlier and has left um and yesterday they were both elected to the school committee to begin serving their four-year term uh uh in January so congratulations to you congratulations to Ann um and we uh keep moving forward and that is my report and um subcommittee reports do we need to do anything with redistricting and then uh Glenn anything from policy at this point I just wanted to add that um mayor Jenny dorer will also be a school Committee Member too so congratulations to her and congratulations to Mayor WEA Gardner on a hard hardfought race I thought it was wonderful to see the demonstration of Civic engagement in the town very well said uh I don't know if do we need to try to get in a meeting before dece before the next meeting we do apparently we do okay so could um maybe you me and Amy could compare calendars before we leave tonight and then we can check with Elizabeth thank you sure and that's for policy in case people weren't following what we were talking about any you're good with policy I'm good okay and budget any report we are still attempting to set a budget meeting our our schedules all have very this conflict so we're working on it no one's letting it drop I'll say that awesome thank you and then um collaborative for Educational Services is another one but uh a member Den is not here right now she is our representative there um and then District Wellness committee is me I do not have a report at this time I did report briefly um last uh last meeting and just to bring to everyone's attention the materials also contains School newsletters and uh commodation letters is correspondence that we don't discuss but they are there uh for for folks reference and I would entertain a motion to adjourn don't all speak at once that was member wall and a second second and uh any uh discussion any extensions any no votes we are adjourned at 8:33 p.m.

it cannot be added after okay if you go toex go to drafts go to drafts it's in drafts wonder I couldn't find it okay so now I know where it's at yeah because you have you have administrative access and that gives you a chance to see see things as we add them through the month so um uh yeah and and that's a really because it's a lot of stuff if you don't can't see it until the day before yeah and that's what I've been yeah it's way too much to see right at the end okay so I look at drafts okay do I have a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting I make a motion we adjourn the meeting oh I'm sorry when's the next meeting oh yeah December 14th yes ma'am 5:30 at 5:30 now do I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion we adjourn the meeting I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I barbariki I Sheila Barnett we are [Music] adjourned [Music] that