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good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for Wednesday October 9th 2024 this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this time don't see any um secretary Jive would you please call the role member Goodwin here member Childs here member ston here chair Johnson mad here Vice chair Martini she is present on the zoom me member Martini can you try to come off mute and say that you are here um looks like member I don't know how to Mark member Martini at this is she visually present can you see she visually present but um we're unable to hear her if she's trying to say something is uh mayor dorer present mayor is not on the zoom okay um all right me I'm here secretary jeve and also present is superintendent patot assistant superintendent Sullivan and shant toi we're all mostly present in accounted for we have a quorum and the meeting is called to order at 6:04 p.m.
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good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for Wednesday October 9th 20124 this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any any other persons present are doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this time don't see any um secretary Jive would you please call the role member Goodwin here member Childs here member seon here chair Johnson mad here Vice chair Martini she is present on the zoom me member Martini can you try to come off mute and say that you are here um looks like member I don't know how to Mark member Martini at this is she visually present can you see her visually present but um we're unable to hear her if she's trying to say something is uh mayor dorer present mayor is not on the zoom okay um all right me I'm here secretary Jif and also present is superintendent patot assistant superintendent Sullivan and Sean to me we're all mostly present in a accounted for we have a quorum and the meeting is called to order at 6:04 PM um folks who are joining us online um I wonder if they to come on mute so they can hear us uh folks who are online can you hear us now yes excellent um we're moving into public comment um we're going to start with the people who are here in person and then um add the people who are here virtually uh the mayor just joined the zoom um let's see member Martini are you able to hear us now and are you here I am here and I can hear you but it's very quiet okay thanks I don't think that will help um we can work on our Tech um and mayor um disor are you here yes excellent okay then we are all present and accounted for at 6:03 p.m um so mayor why can't we see each other why can't you see each other uh why can't we see each other I don't know but you can see some of us right I don't know what you're seeing what you're not seeing May okay I don't know I can't I don't know uh yeah great so on Zoom you do have an option uh to choose how many people you see at a time you can also go through the attendance list and you can click pin and that way you keep one person on screen at least in the past I've been able to do that with zoom another Zoom trick is turning on closed captioning and getting realtime subtitles thank you Ann so I was saying before we're going to start with the public comment with people who are here in the room and then we will move on to the folks who are joining by Zoom so uh Susan Farber oh and um everyone will have three minutes just so folks know our policy is officially two minutes but our practice recently has been three so we're going to keep with three for tonight and starting next month resume our um our policy of two minutes for um for public comment so um the secretary will time you thank you my name is Paul jablon and I live here in Greenfield I hope you have all read the studies and stories that demonstrate that having school resource officers do not stop mass shootings when my children were in public school all their 12 years I expected them to be safe and I knew that having an SRO was not the way to keep them safe from harm as some some of you know I was a high school teacher for decades the first High School I taught in had a school resource officer and that was the method used to stop fights where a fight did occur the other students would cheer it on students were suspended regularly when I transferred to the second High School I taught in within the first few days I was there two students were starting to get into it in the hallway and within seconds five or six of their peers grabbed them pulled them apart and said we don't do that here I was astounded the teachers students and administration had worked together to create a school culture that they all bought into every student in the school had an adult a teacher who was responsible for them for four years this was their advisory teacher we we called it house it met Deli and the other students in the advisory also became responsible for one another if you create a school culture where students are empowered through ongoing conflict resolution anti-bullying programs then fights and bullying basically don't occur in that second high school we had two suspensions in 13 years we also had a High attendance rate especially with students who are previously Trent if Greenfield has the money to pay a police officer to be in the schools let's take that same money and hire one or two social workers who can work together with teachers on giving students these conflict resolution and anti-bullying skills and other skills while also working one-on-one counseling the most needy students and their families sro's are not the answer and in actuality many times get in the way of solutions I just quickly also want to support that this District join I can't hear we are having problems with an echo in the room related to the audio we're going to fix it after the speaker please bear with us thank you right one last sentence for that I just also support joining the other districts and asking for the state to pay for the charter and school choice students thank you thank you um and we're going to take a few minutes to try to address our audio issues the folks on Zoom AR aren't able to hear hear us it creates this so I don't know how the sound is normally see I [Music] set can you do it yeah still an echo hello microphone test all right thank you a friend of mine who I considered to be my cousin got into an incident at school one day uh his little brother was being teased and he stood up he stood up for him and the next day he was attacked at lunch by the kid he stood up to and it let them concuss and the kid that punched him hit him so hard that he broke his hand which is insane uh my cousin is not a violent person never gets into any fights or anything so the fact that he was left with the concussion and is still suffering some some issues from it both uh healthwise and mentally is very frustrating and as far as I know the kid was suspended uh I but that's from word to mouth I'm not sure if he had any other consequences and uh if he hasn't there needs to be more consequences um other other than just like a day or week suspension um if all it takes for kids at if all it takes for someone at school to become violent is someone standing up for the little brother being teased I think they could be considered a danger to the to other students at the school and there needs to be something done about it I just graduated from Greenfield High School this year and I I have certainly seen some things at the school that have uh just made me unsettled and uh I'd say unsafe to a certain degree um I i' never liked using the the the stall bathrooms I've always used the singular gender neutral bathrooms because they're more private and I just I I never feel safe going into the bathrooms and after uh this incident that my cousin had he doesn't feel comfortable going into the the public stall bathrooms which is totally understandable especially after what just happened to him and I think we need more we need more um we need more supervision to prevent to prevent these things from happening and to make sure that students feel safe reporting other students if an incident happens and making sure that if they make a report and the other student finds out that they don't come after them or attack them for it so uh that's that's all I got to say thank you thank you please uh state your name yes mayor school committee uh thank you for letting me speak today I'm actually a Dearfield resident my name is Dana LaVine and I was asked to come here to speak with you about some of my experiences in the school system I'm a retired state trooper uh I was a trooper for 27 years and I actually taught the D program if any of you remember that that was back in the early 2000s and um I got to tell you my experience being in the school system was a wonderful experience now it I taught anywhere from kindergarten all the way up to high school and they gave me time to talk about all kinds of things you know in the early programs like teaching the kids their address and their mother's phone number and where a safe place to be would would go and at the high school level we did things like the pre-prom event uh which I will tell you every high school that we went to that we did the pre-prom event um we got reported back zero incidences of problems in the school um in terms of fighting or anything happening after school where everybody drove away so we're really proud of um the interaction that we had uh with all the students um but I want to remind you something that uh when we went into the elementary school there this is a first opportunity for a lot of these children to meet a police officer um for the first time and it's a really positive environment it's a really positive uh interaction that you have it's a safe place for them to see you and they're not afraid of you anymore you know once they get to know you and you get to share with them um some of the stories that's happened to you you know on the state police or as a police officer um they were very encouraged to want to share some of their own things with them um I have to tell you that there were uh a couple of incidences where children have shared with me some things that I had to uh go to the principal and call uh Social Services on and they felt safe enough to tell me these things remember I was with them a long time I was at I was at the school anywhere between one and twice a week and just that little amount was enough um to to get them close to me we even solved some cases um involving School destruction just all the kids wanted to be an investigator and they wanted to find out who is the the one that did all the damage to the school um because I got them to come together um this is really to have now not every police officer is designed that's time thank you just one statement not every police officer is designed to do this job so when you're thinking about who's going to go in the school I suggest that you think very carefully about who is going to be going in there okay thank you all set hello I just Shar your name I'm Don Moren um so I've changed my direction of what I'm going to say I don't know how many times today I've added 50 morean things it's been an emo week for me so my brain is all over the place I did make some notes so just bear with me while I try to keep my emotions in check and not freak out um so first I wanted um my original plan was to come publicly so that the everybody knew about the assault that happened this this to the student that was in school in the middle of the day in the cafeteria but I know there's people here that um are going to be speaking to that actual scenario so um I'm going to change it but I am kind of curious to know how many of you guys who are expected to vote on this question about sro's tonight actually knew that there was a brutal attack in the middle of the schools in the afternoon at the cafeteria because I think you should have all the information for the students when you're in charge of making some of these decisions um so that being said for those of you who don't know I own a dance studio I've been teaching kids in our community and for 38 years so that's a lot of families and kids through the door um and I can tell you I hear the stories from my teen sometimes when my own son wouldn't tell me stuff that's going on I'd hear it from the teen girls that come to class families that come in and they're discussing it in the waiting area when in between classes and you know I just couldn't wait for my son Jaden who just spoke earlier to get out of the school to be honest I kept counting down just three more years two more years just one more year he's out it's not my problem anymore I don't care well that's not true the reality is I now have friends that have kids in school I have family I have kids in school and I have dance students who go to the public schools and so now I'm here today as an additional voice for an SRO and if anybody thinks that having an SRO is a negative thing they certainly have not spoken to an SRO or been in a school and followed a one along for the day I actually reached out to Michael officer savine who is the SRO for the tech school and that's 700 students he's been there the SRO for 11 years so you guys can post all your little articles on Facebook about how the social emotional learning and sro's are bad things but the reality is it's working at the tech school and it's working at other schools and uh officer svine did say he'd be willing to come speak but I waited till the last last minute because it didn't even occur to me and so we need to open up the discussion we need to invite the people that are actually sro's we need to invite the schools that are implementing it three years ago you guys had a chance to vote Yes for an SRO and you voted it down three years later we're revisiting it you know why because your way is not working so we need to give this a chance and at the very least we need to open up the discussion for the victim that's s the family is sitting here today you owe him that hello I can hear you just say your name uh Jesus SLA 88 Deerfield Street Greenfield um I'm just going to speak really briefly because there's a lot of other people who want to speak and I've already spoken on this um I sent um by email um a copy of all of the signature signatories for the petition that um is before the school committee tonight on uh advocating for additional school funding from the state regarding the charter school issue so I hope you will consider that as you consider the resolution and um also um Northampton city council just you know did vote in favor of the resolution last week um thank you bye thank you Dave MOS Caro Country Club Road Greenfield I am the uh chair of the public safety Commission in Greenfield and usually when I come to meetings and I speak I say I'm speaking as an individual Public Safety commissioner but I've spoken with all the public five Public Safety Commissioners and we're all in agreeance here so I will will speak for all of us I I know over the years there's been contention about having a police presence at our schools um as a public safety commissioner I understand folks don't some folks don't trust the police they may not like the police or they may be afraid of the police I know that's real across our country and some some areas but I don't think it justifies having not having a plan in place to protect our kids and our teachers over the years we know how much school violence there has been across the country and we know that there's been horrible gun violence um as a public safety com uh servant um when the S situation is brought to my attention I look at the whole story I look at many sides and I would encourage you to look at all sides of uh the story here and interview um uh offices that are safety offices across Franklin County um I know that uh the resource officer at Frontier High School officer ravish I don't know the officer personal but I've heard great stories um I hear he's outstanding he's kind he's compassionate um he's committed uh to getting to know the students and the teachers and the problems that are there so I encourage you to reach out when you have these discussions and invite these folks in and really see the whole picture um I mean what better way to mend relationships is uh to to have someone like that at our school so um they can learn from the students and the teachers about their feelings in the office that can learn about um you know they can learn from each other um as a public safety commissioner I don't always agree with the chief uh in our departments um on every issue but in this case I strongly agree with his plan um we need to protect our kids and our students we need to be proactive if something tragic happened um at one of our schools I as a resident and the public safety commissioner wouldn't be able to sleep at night if we uh didn't have some type of plan in in place this these plans don't have to last forever things change over time you know we have bigger problems with our nation but you know we need to be proactive and have a plan we need to listen to the parents I know there's a financial cost to this but how much are our kids worth you know we can start somewhere we can see if it works we can move forward we can change it but something has to be done and we have to have some proactive planning in place I appreciate your time thank you so much and I thank you for what you do for the city just to save time between speakers if the person who's on Deck can come a little closer maybe in the chair in the front row um then we can get to the next speaker more quickly Michael Master tataro Greenfield um two things I think that need transparency when it comes to school department is how it spends his money how it spends its money and Public Safety and when things happen in public school system the residents of the city should know about it it shouldn't be attempted to be buried it shouldn't be attempted to uh resolve itself within the the school um without parents being notified um there is a place for a school resource officer I think people are burying their heads in the sand when it comes to this um David brought it up previously this is Nationwide issue um gun violence and it happens in small town smaller than Greenfield um a school resource officer is only as good as who the the chief puts in place certain personalities are not for that job but there are personalities that are you shelter in place you guys practice shelter in place for a reason um I think the schools would be much safer with a police officer that um is looking out for the kids um I don't know might have much else to say about it but uh I do know that I know at least three teachers in this High School in the high school that want an SRO so I don't know if you're speaking to the staff as well about this issue but if the teachers want it I would think there's a reason for it but that's all I have to say about this but I I hope you uh consider uh rethinking the whole issue thank you hello Melissa web I live here in Greenfield I was looking over some of the stuff on the agenda tonight and I noticed that we are starting to move forward with redistricting possibly and then I also decided to listen to last month's school committee you know today because that's you know great but what I did notice was something some talk about the discussion about the 45 families at the hotel and how that numbers are forever constantly changing and I know in the beginning of redistricting or redrawing the lines those families were not taken into account um I also did send an email with my street notice sayings that it looks like we're doing the same thing we already did which was circl that one group and just moved that group um to a different school so I have like concerns about how we're drawing the lines if we're keeping our school's neighborhood um because there there is a another complex right next to Oak courts that's also connected to Oak courts that's part of the same housing complex that now we're going to two separate schools um and again back to the 45 revolving families at days in that I don't see that situation changing I know that those numbers were not necessarily in the original plan because at the time it was a place where people could go and spend a night or two not sadly live there for a year or two I also did hear something about the mayor had mentioned there might possibly be some money and my next question is is the money going to the schools is it going to where the kids are going from the hotels is it going to the I'm I'm gonna say almost a whole classroom I watch get off the bus at AEL you know is it going to a adequately is it going to the elementary schools adequately is it going to GMS adequately like if we have that few extra dollars are we really going there and showing up for the kids in that context not just emotional and social but also financially and making sure they have extra things last year at newon we had a bunch of different things up that had different Touches for things because not all kids speak English um I've been in the building a lot this year and I haven't noticed that I haven't noticed like you know the picture of the toilet I know know it sounds silly but things like that that we're really making sure are there for our students who do come from situations where English is not the primary language so oh um I'd love to share some positive news PTO had a lot of fun walking in the parade we had a lot of fun making and building a flat we are currently working on something for Scarecrow in the park and there is possible talk about the district PTO doing um either something for the light parade the light there's a three sorry I know I'm over time now the light parade the light up the fairgrounds or the Christmas the Festival of the trees so we have a group discussion about one of those three options thank you thank you good evening Doug selwin Greenfield um I've written to you so I'm going to keep this really short around the police issue I I'm I very much appreciate police wanting to prevent violence um I think we all do um the research suggests that it's not the most effective way to go to make make the changes we're we're hoping for um I would rather see as Paul said earlier uh work at the front end to to work with the kids in the community before things happen rather than have somebody on hand who can come in when needed um there's no one solution that's going to prevent all violence certainly but um more we can do to have the students and teachers and and community in the school um work together for the benefit of each other I think the better and so um so I would urge us to spend whatever money we have on social work ERS and family support workers and supporting folks in the community so anything we can do in that direction seems to me more effective um I mean I know that there is now a group in the state challenging the the limits on on guns in the state as a society we have a we have a lot to work on it's not just in our schools and and again I don't think police are the answer um and so switching to a different issue I would really urge you to um support the resolution that's before you tonight related to uh the state picking up money that um follows kids to other schools including Charter Schools thank you very much thank you hi I am Camry um I have two students that go to the Greenfield High School school um my son was one of them that was involved in the incident on September 17th he was in the lunchroom he's never been in altercation ever in his life he's never had any issues um the kid came up behind him and he took a blow to the back of the head fell his jaw on a table and a chair and he kept getting multiple blows to the back of his head um and it finally got broken up by the principal and the assistant principal um this kid broke his hand on the back of my son's head my son suffered with three lacerations he was soaked in blood his sweatshirt was soaked in blood when I got to the school it was very scary um sorry I'm shaking now so I'm up here to kind of speak to everybody and I think that people should know what going on and it's been really difficult trying to figure out a plan and what we can do and I've also reached out to superintendent a couple times never received a single phone call back from her um my son has still to this day not been able to do a full day in school um due to his concussion and other things that is going on because of this incident and [Music] um I just keep hearing that like police officers aren't going to work aren't going to work then what is going to work because whatever is now happening in the school is not working so why not try to do what we can to change this and see if this would work I don't understand that this should have never even happened this is my son's senior year and he's barely been able to go to school now um I've lost track of where I am now this it just really frustrates me this really frustrates me because prior to this happening because he had stuck up for his little brother I had warned the school that I've been hearing things I've warned the school that something else might be taking place and multiple kids knew something was going to happen and nobody ever spoke up about it this was was brewing for a week [Music] um I just don't know why people wouldn't want our kids to be protected at all costs why not try something new like again an SRO officer in our schools I went to Turner's high school I had an SRO in my high school it worked out wonderfully nobody was scared like there was not many problems there so it just mind blowings me that this has happened [Music] um my son yeah he just can't even finish the day of school so all right thank you I'm Susan denofrio and I'm going to pretty much repeat what my daughter just said I have two grand children in the Greenfield school system 3 weeks ago one of my grandsons was physically attacked by another student who repeatedly punched him in the back of the head this assault took place during lunch in the high school cafeteria principal Browning and the associate principal were both in there at the time of the assault and broke up the incident my daughter was called by the school to inform her that her son was injured my daughter immediately brought him to the emergency room for a head injury since that day three weeks ago my grandson suffers from headaches nausea and blurred vision he is unable to make it through with school day I am here today to make sure that all the parents are aware of the violence that has taken place in our schools and ask that we all do the right thing for the safety of our children and demand a resource officer in all our schools thank you hi Don Denio 10 Michael manav Greenfield um my grandson was the one that was involved in the altercation at the school um I guess my reason for being here today is more about what transpired after the altercation um Landon was brought to the emergency room as was the other student um this was not called upon by the school at all it was by his mother and by the other students mother um they both received injuries we went to the school to get an incident report to find out what happened this went on over a two we period of time counselors teachers principal assistant principal superintendent crickets nothing no response from anybody we didn't know whether we should report it to the police department we waited three weeks yesterday finally made a decision last Friday we better go to the police and just make to had no idea nobody was talking to each other it was almost like they wanted this to go away there was an injury at that school two injuries both kids could have been a lot more serious but but they were serious enough as far as I was concerned um my grandson's still out of school because of it um they talk about school resource officers and not being the fix to all this I have to disagree with that and I think everybody's missing the opportunity because this is a real opportunity to get a school resource officer in here build a foundation for these young kids at this school and let them grow on that and I guarantee you a lot a lot of problems will go away we're in the days of cell phone social media I can't tell you how many different people had pictures of my grandson uh on their phones and everybody sending text messages and nobody ever addressed the problem these problems don't go away for all anybody knows in this whole room right here right now my grandson could have a screw loose the other kid could have a screw loose nobody addressed it nobody brought those two kids into the principal's office and said sit down sit down we're going to talk this out we're going to find out how this happened nothing and you wonder why people wander into schools after being bullied and things go on and terrible things happen it's because there's no communication at all and a school resource officer in this school is educated to look out for things that are coming down the road and and he he assessed scenes make sure that there he can mitigate something bring it to the police's attention if he thinks it's bigger than what he can handle but you got eyes and ears out there and nobody's using them nobody's communicating and far as I'm concerned we're heading for disaster so we ought to do something about it thank you good evening everybody my name is empress and I'm chair of the Greenfield Human Rights Commission um I just want to say to this young man and this young man's family over there I feel that as a school committee as a city that we did not protect him or his human rights and that's a problem um we need to do better it happened to him this time it could be your son or your daughter next time A lot of times when we see these school shootings in in in these schools what's the first thing we hear people say oh it can't happen here it can happen right here in Greenfield and then what are you going to tell us what are you going to tell because I have a son in high school I have a son in middle school if something was to happen in Mass Shootin and my son got injured what could anybody on this school committee tell me sorry that's not going to work especially when we're here today pleading with you to protect our children you have a right to protect our children and our children deserve to be protected um there's so much to jump around but anyway there was two studies that was given out in the email that I seen I also want to say when we're talking about school safety this is not a left issue this is not a right issue this is a human rights this is a basic this is our kids safety issue if you're sending out documentation for reference material it should not be based on one side's political views that's wrong so that was study to study one however did say that um some of these situations where they did have issues with the police officers it's because the teachers their could not tolerate the disruption of the young people and it also said a lot of it had to do with the students relationship with the teacher and the number of interruptions in class so therefore when these SRO officers did get involved with disciplinary actions it was the teachers who brought them into the situation this is a whole different and another thing I want to say I'm so tired of hearing this data black about black and brown families can we just stop that you're taking a national figure this is not National this is Greenfield and I don't know how many black and brown families in Greenfield would surveyed how we feel about it and I'll tell you right now I want cro cro officers in school to protect my kids so can we just stop saying that as far as a black and brown issue because I don't think that nobody has the right to say that especially if you're not asking us black and brown people in Greenfield how we feel about it and the black and brown people I talk to they want their kids protected they want C they want SRO officers there was also another study that was um sent out in the email um as far as um uh some other data um as far as you know no need for the SRO officers now that was before2 and that was done in July 24th in 2023 do you realize the same year that they published that there was 340 school shootings last year that's the highest on record since 1966 I'm begging y'all to please do your job and protect our kids thank you hi Crystal Cleaver 45 Russell Street here in Greenfield um I am a parent of a six-year-old who goes to Federal Street School I'm also a social worker in the community who works with families and children and so um I feel pretty well equipped equipped to talk about this um I want to say I have heard about the incident that happened at the high school um I work with teens who go to the high school and I know that if something like that happened to my child I would be I would not be as calm and controlled as the family in in this room was I can say that however uh my child is itic and has ADHD and just as that family spoke to their child's needs I have to speak to my child's needs um I'm concerned about the possibility of putting an SRO in our schools um I've worked with SRO in other school districts as a social worker I know that there's a particular kind of SRO that can be quote unquote successful but the truth for me is that my kid has behaviors that don't always make sense to adults he gets anxious anxious he has trouble processing information and following directions when he's overwhelmed people believe at times adults believe that my child's being rude or ignoring them that's not true and that's not what's happening for him he needs more time and he needs different methods to understand what's happening and for him to be understood um my child stems when he's nervous he and that includes movements with his hands and his face um and we've all heard stories in the news about autistic people being harmed by police who make assumptions about their behavior who get frustrated by their non-compliance who see their stems and other body movements as uh threatening and uh I sent a email earlier I linked to some articles about that and um I just want to say that my kids's life is just as valuable as anybody else's if this passes I hope that it doesn't I think that we can do way better than this as a community I think there was a lot missing in this incident that happened and that there's a lot missing in the high school that we could look at to keep our kids safe I don't think being reactionary and throwing police into our schools is the answer um and um I believe that if an s is put into this school district for my child that would mean finding an out of District placement because my kid can't be safe autistic kids are seven times more likely to be interacting with police and their um behaviors are often read and misunderstood and so um I'd ask you to please vote against the request for police and public schools and for us to have a community conversation about what actually works thank you thank you that ends the public comment for people um in the room we'll now move to people on Zoom who wish to make public comment if you are capable of um clicking on reactions and clicking raise hand that will make it easier to see who would like to make a public comment um and we will start with Ursa Ursa if you could say your full name good evening my name is UR s year I live on Madison Circle here in Greenfield I have a son at Federal Street school and I wanted to come and speak um namely to voice um uh my uh strong belief that SRO uh from the data do not seem to overwhelmingly make schools safer that we see this increase year-over-year in the number of math shootings in schools which is incredibly distressing but we also see increases in SRO and so um it doesn't seem like the solution there but I also wanted to um take this opportunity having heard about the incident which I am just hearing about tonight of how incredibly sorry I am to everybody that was involved the the students parents the you know the entire school system gets traumatized by events like that and it sounds like there were a lot of missed opportunities in the week leading up to the incident then you had the two most senior leaders in the school in the cafeteria when it happened um which which did not prevent something and it sounds like a a a lot of missed opportunities since the incident has happened um and I just I I don't feel like introducing an SRO necessarily changes the course of of what transpired um I don't know that there's a perfect solution but uh in my mind the more we are able to work Upstream through additional supports like guidance counselors Arts music ways for kids to be able to move their bodies um the type of engaging curriculum that you need all of these things conspire to help us build really healthy school environments and that's where I would want our attention and resources focused and I also just wanted to speak very personally that um my son who's in Greenfield Public Schools uh is a black student in the classroom he's not someone who feels safer when he sees a police officer he hasn't individually had a negative experience but he is surround Ed by media messages um that show what happens to kids who look like him and and kids that are older than him and what can happen over the course of his life so I just want to also give voice um that at least in this one instance uh there is a black student in Greenfield Public Schools he's my kid who is not um made to feel safer when he's in police presence and I wanted to make sure that that was part of the discourse as well thank you so much if you're on zoom and you want to speak please uh raise your hand I don't know how to do that Kelly were you saying you wanted to speak yes I'm not sure sure if it's unmuted or not I have a kid in the high school and I have a seven-year-old daughter in the Federal Street school and I feel an SRO would be best in the high school and I feel that there needs to be something done at the Federal Street school as I'm feeling my child is very unsafe there with there being like four exits in the back and kids not being well watched in the morning on top of a level three sex offender coming to the school to pick up their child child and that's okay um something needs to be done though cuz I've heard about a lot of uh sexual assaults with my friends children happen at that Federal Street School Kelly you suddenly went quiet oh I'm done sorry you're done okay can you say your last name please Kelly Jackman thank you mhm here baby is it anyone else on Zoom who'd like to speak oh please join just share your your name when you come up to the microphone hi my name is Pamela Goodwin I live at 54 High Street um I'm going to speak in support of the SRO um I taught school for probably close to 30 years in a lot of that was in the Greenfield school system I agree about the Dare officers when I was teaching in the seventh and eighth grade the high school boys were chewing uh tobacco and we had people come in um who had mouth cancer as a presentation for example I also know that there's only a nurse or two in a building the guidance counselors are busy and I agree with officer LaVine and a few of the other people about it builds a relationship ship I want to bring to mind I think it was a year or two ago a member of the school committee outwardly called out a high school girl who had written an opinion page and said that was not true so I also think that things that happen in the school system need to be talked about dealt with not swept under the rug and we were all pretty appalled that a girl who was courageous enough the age of this young man would talk about what it's like in the high school that was a particular High School thing I think a lot of stuff goes on in the restrooms I certainly saw it um we brought in a huge bulling program when I was teaching in the middle school over here in town everybody learned that there's no such thing as an innocent bystander that you have to hold people accountable and I know the teachers do a good job but I also never allowed any bullying in my classroom I saw it everywhere else in the hallway I used to break up fights between kids but once they came into my classroom everybody was treated with kindness decency I expected the same kind of behavior and they Rose to my level of exploitations so I just really think it's important to establish other people around where they can also feel like they can go and have a conversation and again a long time ago I I was to tutoring oneon-one I guess a kid pulled a knife on the superintendent's son he was suspended expelled actually for the year I worked with him in the superintendent's office next door and um it turned out that Jeremy was protecting little kids of color and he was a little bit older and um and that's what that was about so people just need to learn how to behave kids are at a very tender age I don't care if they're preschool but they're especially at a tender age as they approach Middle School all the way through to have a kid that has to have that kind of trauma in his senior year what about the kids who witness the whole thing that's traumatizing for everybody in the room I appreciate your time thank you is there anyone else in the room or on Zoom who would like to speak okay thank you all for the public comment now move to the student report to the school committee all right um so starting with student council um last week the student council hosted a successful homecoming event with about 300 students in attend sorry um in attendance that same day 20 students council members helped with the Green River cleanup and our group was taxed with the bike path students cleared many bags of trash tires and shopping carts throughout the day this Friday um 18 students will be heading to the regional fall conference which will be held at minog our keynote speaker is Rob seret who is an artist from Disney and will give an inspirational speech while speed painting on the stage students will also have the opportunity to attendu two student Le workshops while networking with leaders across Western Massachusetts Friday October 18th ghs will participate in pink out for breast cancer awareness the student council is going to donate 25 cents for every student and staff member wearing pink and donate the money to the raise of Hope Foundation um in regard to Athletics Mesa ver is sponsoring an athlete of the week for Greenfield Athletics we want to thank Amy for her commitment to the Youth of Greenfield High School um the first to be honored um were volleyball players Stella verander and football player Jonathan Bor um both of which are seniors so go seniors um schedules for all sports games are on arbiterlive.com um French Club recently hosted a French film movie night where the students watched a French movie and enjoyed fall treats together um over a dozen students have signed up for the France trip in April 2026 and French Club looks forward to fundraisers and other preparations for that trip drama club continues to meet bi-weekly to bond with one another and prepare for auditions in November the library Club is hosting the fifth annual comic conon on Wednesday October 30th from 3:00 to 6:15 p.m.
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oh post read that arms allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indice order arms house right Face Forward March okay see roll call I'm president Teresa pres here ke here glis here Dr Lauren here Anita here Rich here Julie here okay thank you public participation the board welcomes the board welcomes public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to 3 minutes speakers May either offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of person person complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the Danbury public school system I need a motion to accept the consent C I make the motion motion made by ask you read the consent count you read the entire motion make the that the Board of Education approve the consent calendar exhib exhibits 24-1 169 through 24173 as recommended second motion made by Al second by Kate all those in favor of the motion can I hear I oppose motion so Carri do we have um educational staff here to represent good evening everyone I'm here tonight to provide an update on some of the positive initiatives taking place across our district highlighting the incredible work our principles and staff are doing to Foster welcoming and supportive School environments promoting a positive school clate has been a key priority at all levels and I'm excited to share some of the ways our schools are celebrating student achievements enhancing collaboration and creating inclusive spaces for Learning and growth from elementary to high school we are seeing meaningful efforts to ensure every student feels recognized and supported at all levels across the district principles have been working hard to create positive School climates through a variety of initiatives many schools are focusing on celebrating students who demonstrate strong attendance embodying core values and contribute to a positive School environment these celebrations whether through recognition ceremonies student of the month programs or fun activities like breakfast of champions are helping to build a culture of achievement and belonging in addition to student recognition schools are engaging staff through collaborative activities spotlighting the experience and skills of betterer teachers and fostering teamwork among newer Educators restorative practices such as morning circles are being implemented to strengthen relationships and address conf benefiting both students and staff at the K8 level we're putting into practice all the great strategies we learned and planned for in our PBIS teams training during last year at the high school level we're seeing a continued focus on promoting sportsmanship tolerance and respect among students with recognition from external organizations for these efforts the use of core values PBIS strategies and restorative practices has led to noce schable improvements in student Behavior engagement and overall morality across the district these efforts show a deep commitment to creating an inclusive supportive and celebratory atmosphere for both students and staff at every school in the district led by the dedicated administrators in collaboration with teachers and SCH staff thank you so much thank you thank you do we have an our students here tonight yes good evening Board of x members cabinet and community members thank you for allowing me to represent and speak on behalf of the Alternative Center for exellence on Friday September 27th it's held its annual beginning of the year Community Building day at the day started in a whole school Circle led by John and Anthony next guidance groups engaged in team building activities and challenges like the human KN the hulao pass the ski walk the Tower of Power and gance pyramid pictures lunch was hamburgers and hot dogs from the gr and after lunch students had time to inter with each other meet dream patchs and our a scarecrow the city center Danberry or play in a kickball game it was a great day to build our community and Forge New friendship Ace he Humanities Department gr level Benchmark on Wednesday October 2nd the ace Humanities department has created a benchmark schoy classroom that the entire student body participates in based on your highest grade level in English and social studies thank you face Humanity department for all your diligent work on this schoolwide learning Activity The Benchmark process takes place during a 4our block and students will have an opportunity to demonstrate their skill level with regards to their tasks after the benchmarks are completed Ace offered enrichment flexes for students and staff it was a great day filled with both hard work and team Mo the first Ace parents night was held on Tuesday October 1st at 6:00 p.m.
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um folks who are joining us online um I wonder if they probably need to come on mute so they can hear us uh folks who online can you hear us now yes excellent um we're moving into public comment um we're going to start with the people who are here in person and then um add the people who are here virtually uh the mayor just joined the zoom um let's see member Martini are you able to hear us now and are you here I am here and I can hear you but it's very quiet okay thanks I don't think that will help um we can work on our Tech um and mayor um disorder are you here yes excellent okay then we are all present in counted for at 6:03 PM um so mayor why can't we see each other why can't you see each other uh why can't we see each other I don't know but you can see some of us right I don't know what you're seeing what you're not seeing May okay I don't know I can't I don't know what uh yeah great so on Zoom you do have an option uh to choose how many people you see at a time you can also go through the attendance list and you can click pin and that way you keep one person on screen at least in the past I've been able to do that with zoom another Zoom trick is turning on closed captioning and getting real-time subtitles thank you an so I was saying before we're gonna start with the public comment with people who are here in the room and then we will move on to the folks who are joining by Zoom so uh Susan Farber oh and um everyone will have three minutes just so folks know our policy is officially two minutes but our practice recently has been three so we're going to keep with three for tonight and starting next month resume our um our policy of two minutes for um for public comment so um the secretary will time you thank you my name is Paul jablon and I live here in Greenfield I hope you have all read the studies and stories that demonstrate that having school resource officers do not stop mass shootings when my children were in public school all their 12 years I expected them to be safe and I knew that having an SRO was not the way to keep them safe from harm as some of you know I was a high school teacher for decades the first High School I taught in had a school resource officer and that was the method used to stop fights where a fight did occur the other students would cheer it on students were suspended regularly when I transferred to the second High School I taught in within the first few days I was there two students were starting to get into it in the hallway and within seconds five or six of their peers grabbed them pulled them apart and said we don't do that here I was astounded the teachers students and administration had worked together to create a school culture that they all bought into every student in the school had an adult a teacher who was responsible for them for four years this was their advisory teacher we we called it house at met daily and the other students in the advisory also became responsible for one another if you create create a school culture where students are empowered through ongoing conflict resolution anti-bullying programs then fights and bullying basically don't occur in that second high school we had two suspensions in 13 years we also had a High attendance rate especially with students who are previously Trent if Greenfield has the money to pay a police officer to be in the schools let's take that same money and hire one or two social workers who can work together with teachers on giving students these conflict resolution and antibullying skills and other skills while also working one-on-one counseling the most needy students and their families sro's are not the answer and in actuality many times get in the way of solutions I just quickly also want to support that this District join I can't hear we are having problems with an echo in the room related to the audio we're going to fix it after the speaker please bear with us thank you right one last sentence for that I just also support joining the other districts and asking for the state to pay for the charter and school choice students thank you thank you um and we're gonna take a few minutes to try to address our audio issues the folks on Zoom aren't able to hear us it creates this so I don't know how the sound is normally see [Music] mil set can you do it yeah still an echo hello microphone test all right thank you a friend of mine who I considered to be my cousin got into an incident at school one day uh his little brother was being teased and he stood up he stood up for him and the next day he was attacked at lunch by the kid he stood up to and it let him concuss and the kid that punched him hit him so hard that he broke his hand which is insane uh my cousin is not a violent person never gets into any fights or anything so the fact that he was left with the concussion and is still suffering some some issues from it both uh healthwise and mentally is very frustrating and as far as I know the kid was suspended uh I but that's from Word of Mouth I'm not sure if he had any other consequences and uh if he hasn't there needs to be more consequences um other other than just like a day or week suspension um if all it takes for kids at if all it takes for someone at school to become violent is someone standing up for the little brother being teased I think they could be considered a danger to the to other students at the school and there needs to be something done about it I just graduated from Greenfield High School this year and I have certainly seen some things at the school that have uh just made me unsettled and uh I'd say unsafe to a certain degree um I i' never liked using the the the stall bathrooms I've always used the singular gender neutral bathrooms because they're more private and I just I I never feel safe going into the bathrooms and after uh this incident that my cousin had he doesn't feel comfortable going into the the public stall bathrooms which is totally understandable especially after what just happened to him and and I think we need more we need more um we need more supervision to prevent to prevent these things from happening and to make sure that students feel safe reporting other students if an incident happens and making sure that if they make a report and the other student finds out that they don't come after them or attack them for it so uh uh that's that's all I got to say thank you thank you please uh state your name yes uh mayor school committee uh thank you for letting me speak today I'm actually a Deerfield resident my name is Dana LaVine and I was asked to come here to speak with you about some of my experiences in the school system I'm a retired state trooper uh I was a trooper for 27 years and I actually taught the Dare program if any of you remember that that was back in the early 2000s and um I got to tell you my experience being in the school system was a wonderful experience now it I taught anywhere from kindergarten all the way up to high school and they gave me time to talk about all kinds of things you know in the early programs like teaching the kids their address and their mother's phone number and we a safe place to be would would go and at the high school level we did things like the pre-prom event uh which I will tell you every high school that we went to that we did the pre-prom event um we got reported back zero incidences of problems in the school uh in terms of fighting or anything happening after school where everybody drove away so we're really proud of um the interaction that we had uh with all the students um but I want to remind you something that uh when we went into the elementary school there this is a first opportunity for a lot of these children to meet a police officer um for the first time and it's a really positive environment it's a really positive uh interaction that you have it's a safe place for them to see you and they're not afraid of you anymore you know once they get to know you and you get to share with them um some of the stories that's happened to you you know on the state police or as a police officer um they were very encouraged to want to share some of their own things with them um I have to tell you that there were uh a couple of incidences where children have shared with me some things that I had to uh go to the principal and call uh Social Services on and they felt safe enough to tell me these things remember I was with them a long time I was I was at the school anywhere between one and twice a a week and just that little amount was enough um to to get them close to me we even solved some cases um involving School destruction just all the kids wanted to be an investigator and they wanted to find out who is the one that did all the damage to the school um because I got them to come together um this is really to have now not every police officer designed that's time thank you just one statement not every police officer is designed to do this job so when you're thinking about who is going to go in the school I suggest that you think very carefully about who is going to be going in there okay thank you I don't have to push anything do I it's all set hello I just share your name I'm Don Moren um so I've changed my direction on what I'm GNA say I don't know how many times today I've added 50 morean things it's been an emotional week for me so my brain is all over the place I did make some notes so just bear with me while I try to keep my emotions in check and not freak out um so first I wanted um my original plan was to come publicly so that the everybody knew about the assault that happened this this to the student that was in school in the middle of the day in the cafeteria but I know there's people here that um are going to be speaking to that actual scenario so um I'm G to change it but I am kind of curious to know how many of you guys who are expected to vote on this question about sro's tonight actually knew that there was a brutal attack in the middle of the schools in the afternoon at the cafeteria because I think you should have all the information for the students when you're in charge of making some of these decisions um so that being said for those of you who don't know I own a dance studio I've been teaching kids in our community and families for 38 years so that's a lot of families and kids through the door um and I can tell you I hear the stories from my teen sometimes when my own son wouldn't tell me stuff that's going on I'd hear it from the teen girls that come to class families that come in and they're discussing it in the waiting area when in between classes and you know I just couldn't wait for my son Jaden who just spoke earlier to get out of the school to be honest I kept counting down just three more years two more years just one more year he's out no it's not my problem anymore I don't care well that's not true the reality is I now have friends that have kids in school I have family that have kids in school and I have dance students who go to the public schools and so now I'm here today as an additional voice for an SRO and if anybody thinks that having an SRO is a negative thing they certainly have not spoken to an SRO or been in a school and followed a one along for the day I actually reached out to Michael officer savine who is the SRO for the tech school and that's 7 students he's been there the SRO for 11 years so you guys can post all your little articles on Facebook about how the social emotional learning and sro's are bad things but the reality is it's working at the tech school and it's working at other schools and uh officer sine did say he'd be willing to come speak but I waited till the last minute because it didn't even occur to me and so we need to open up the discussion we need to invite the people that are actually sro's we need to invite the schools that are implementing it three years ago you guys had a chance to vote Yes for an SRO and you voted it down three years later we're revisiting it you know why because your way is not working so we need to give this a chance and at the very least we need to open up the discussion for the victim that s the family is sitting here today you owe him that hello we can hear you just say your name uh Jesus SLA 88 Deerfield Street Greenfield um I'm just going to speak really briefly because there's a lot of other people who want to speak and I've already spoken on this um I sent um by email um a copy of all of the signature signatories for the petition that um is before the school committee tonight on uh advocating for additional school funding from the state regarding the charter school issue so I hope you will consider that as you consider the resolution and um also um Northampton city council just you know did vote in favor of the resolution last week um thank you bye thank you Dave MOS Caro Country Club Road Greenfield I am the uh chair of the public safety Commission in Greenfield and usually when I come to meetings and I speak I say I'm speaking as an individual Public Safety commissioner but I've spoken with all the public five Public Safety Commissioners and we're all in agreeance here so I will speak for all of us I I know over the years there's been contention about having a police presence at our schools um as a public safety commissioner I understand folks don't some folks don't trust the police they may not like the police or they may be afraid of the police I know that's real across our country in some some areas but I don't think it justifies having not having a plan in place to protect our kids and our teachers over the years we know how much school violence there has been across the country and we know that there's been horrible gun violence um as a public safety com uh servant um when a s situation has brought to my attention I look at the whole story I look at many sides and I would encourage you to look at all sides of uh the story here in interview um uh offices that are safety offices across Franklin County um I know that uh the resource officer at Frontier High School officer ravish I don't know the officer personally but I've heard great stories um I hear he's outstanding he's kind he's compassionate um he's committed uh to getting to know the students and the teachers and the problems that there so I encourage you to reach out when you have these discussions and invite these folks in and really see the whole picture um I mean what better way to men relationships is uh to to have someone like that at our school so um they can learn from the students and the teachers about their feelings and the office that can learn about um you know they can learn from each other um as a public safety commissioner I don't always agree with the chief uh in our departments um on every issue but in this case I strongly agree with his plan um we need to protect our kids and our students we need to be proactive if something tragic happened um at one of our schools I as a resident and a public safety commissioner wouldn't be able to sleep at night if we uh didn't have some type of plan in place this these plans don't have to last forever things change over time you know we have bigger problems with our nation but you know we need to be proactive and have a plan we need to listen to the parent parents I know there's a financial cost to this but how much are our kids worth you know we can start somewhere we can see if it works we can move forward we can change it but something has to be done and we have to have some proactive planning in place I appreciate your time thank you so much and I thank you for what you do for the city Michael just to save time between speakers if the person who's on Deck can come a little closer maybe in the chair in the front row um then we can get to the next speaker more quickly Michael Master Taro Greenfield um two things I think that need transparency when it comes to school department is how it spends his money how it spends its money and Public Safety and when things happen in Public School System the residents of the city should know about it it shouldn't be attempted to be buried it shouldn't be attempted to uh resolve itself within the the school um without parents being notified um there is a place for a school resource officer I think people are burying their heads in the sand when it comes to this um David brought it up previously this is Nationwide issue um gun violence and it happens in small towns smaller than Greenfield um a school resource officer is only as good as who the the chief puts in place certain personalities are not for that job but there are personalities that are you shelter in place you guys practice shelter in place for a reason um I think the schools would be much safer with a police officer that um is looking out for the kids um I don't might have much else to say about it but uh I do know that I know at least three teachers in this High School in the high school that want an SRO so I don't know if you're speaking to the staff as well about this issue but if the teachers want it I would think there's a reason for it but that's all I have to say about this I I hope you uh consider uh rethinking the whole issue thank you hello Melissa Webb I live here in Greenfield I was looking over some of the stuff on the agenda tonight and I noticed that we are starting to move forward with redistricting possibly and then I also decided to listen to last month's school committee you know today cuz that's you know great but what I did notice was something some talk about the discussion about the 45 families at the hotel and how that numbers are forever constantly changing and I know in the beginning of redistricting or redrawing the lines those families were not taken into account um I also did send an email with my street notice sayings that it looks like we're doing the same thing we already did which was circled out one group and just moved that group um to a different school so I have like concerns about how we're drawing the lines if we're keeping our school's neighborhood um because there is another complex right next to Oak courts that's also connected to Oak courts that's part of the same housing complex that now we're going to two separate schools um and again back to the 45 revolving families at days in that I don't see that situation changing I know that those numbers were not necessarily in the original plan because at the time it was a place where people could go and spend a night or two not sadly live there for a year or two I also did hear something about the mayor had mentioned there might possibly be some money and my next question is is the money going to the schools is it going to where the kids are going from the hotels is it going to the I'm I'm going to say almost a whole classroom I watch get off the bus at a you know is it going to a adequately is it going to the elementary schools adequately is it going to GMS adequately like if we have that few extra dollars are we really going there and showing up for the kids in that context not just emotional and social but also financially and making sure they have extra things last year at Newton we had a bunch of different things up that had different Touches for things because not all kids speak English um I've been in the building a lot this year and I haven't noticed that I haven't noticed like you know the picture of the toilet I know it sounds silly but things like that that we're really making sure are there for our students who do come from situations where English is not the primary language so oh um I'd love to share some positive news PTO had a lot of fun walking in the parade we had a lot of fun making and building a float we are currently working on something for Scarecrow in the park and there is possible talk about the district PTO doing um either something for the light parade the light there's a 3 sorry I know I'm over time now the light parade the light up the fairgrounds or the Christmas the Festival of the trees so we have a group discussion about one of those three options thank you thank you good evening Doug swin Greenfield um I've written to you so I'm going to keep this really short around the police issue I I'm I very much appreciate police wanting to prevent violence um I think we all do um the research suggests that it's not the most effective way to go to make make the changes we're we're hoping for um I would rather see as Paul said earlier uh work at the front end to to work with the kids in the community before things happen rather than have somebody on hand who can come in when needed um there's no one solution that's going to prevent all violence certainly but um more we can do to have the students and teachers and and community in the school um work together for the benefit of each other I think the better and so um so I would urge us to spend whatever money we have on social workers and family support workers and supporting folks in the community so anything we can do in that direction seems to me more effective um I mean I knowe that there is now a group in the state challenging the the limits on on guns in the state as a society we have a we have a lot to work on it's not just in our schools and and again I don't think police are the answer um and so switching to a different issue I would really urge you to um support the resolution that's before you tonight related to uh the state picking up money that um follows kids to other schools including Charter Schools thank you very much thank you Susan hi I am Cambry um I have two students that go to the Greenfield High School um my son was one of them that was involved in the incident on September 17th he was in the lunchroom he never been in altercation ever in his life he's never had any issues um the kid came up behind him and he took a blow to the back of the head fell his jaw on a table and a chair and he kept getting multiple blows to the back of his head um and it finally got broken up by the principal and the assistant principal um this kid broke his hand on the back of my son's head my son suffered with three lacerations he was soaked in blood his sweatshirt was soaked in blood when I got to the school it was very scary um sorry I'm shaking now so I'm up here to kind of speak to everybody and I think that people should know what's going on and it's been really difficult trying to figure out a plan and what we can do and I've also reached out to superintendent a couple times never received a single phone call back from her um my son has still to this day not been able to do a full day in school um due to his concussion and other things that is going on because of this incident and um I just keep hearing that like police officers aren't going to work aren't going to work than what is going to work cuz whatever is now happening in the school is not working so why not try to do what we can to change this and see if this would work I don't understand that this should have never even happened this is my son senior year and he's barely been able to go to school now um I've lost track of where I am now this it just really frustrates me this really frustrates me because prior to this happening because he had stuck up for his little brother I had warned the school that I've been hearing things I've warned the school that something else might be taking place and multiple kids knew something was going to happen and nobody ever spoke up about it this was brewing for a week [Music] um I just don't know why people wouldn't want our kids to be protected at all cost why not try something new like getting an SRO officer in our schools I went to Turner's high school I had an SRO in my high school it worked out wonderfully nobody was scared like there was not many problems there so it just mind blowings me that this has happened [Music] um my son yeah he just can't even finish day of school so all right thank you I'm Susan denel and I'm going to pretty much repeat what my daughter just said I have two grandchildren in the Greenfield school system three weeks ago one of my grandsons was physically attacked by another student who repeatedly punched him in in the back of the head this assault took place during lunch in the high school cafeteria principal Browning and the associate principal were both in there at the time of the assault and broke up the incident my daughter was called by the school to inform her that her son was injured my daughter immediately brought him to the emergency room for a head injury since that day three weeks ago my grandson suffers from headaches nausea and blurred vision he is unable to make it through a school day I am here today to make sure that all the parents are aware of the violence that has taken place in our schools and ask that we all do the right thing for the safety of our children and demand a resource officer in all our schools thank you ESS hi Don denofo 10 Michael manav Greenfield um my grandson was the one that was involved in the altercation at the school um I guess my reason for being here today is more about what transpired after the altercation um Landon was brought to the emergency room as was the other student um this was not called upon by school at all it was by his mother and by the other students mother um they both received injuries we went to the school to get an incident report to find out what happened this went on over a two week period of time counselors teachers principal assistant principal superintendent crickets nothing no response from anybody we didn't know whether we should report it to the police department we waited 3 weeks yesterday finally made the decision last Friday we better go to the police and just make it known about this incident because everybody that we were talking to had no idea nobody was talking to each other it was almost like they wanted this to go away there was an injury at that school two injuries both kids could have been a lot more serious but they were serious enough as far as I was concerned um my grandson's still out of school because of it um they talk about school resource officers and not being the fix to all this I have to disagree with that and I think everybody's missing the opportunity this this is a real opportunity to get a school resource officer in here build a foundation for these young kids at this school and let them grow on that and I guarantee you a lot of problems will go away we're in the days of cell phone social media I can't tell you how many different people had pictures of my grandson uh on their phones and everybody sending text messages and nobody ever addressed the problem these problems don't go away for all anybody knows in this whole room right here right now my grandson could have a screw loose the other kid could have a screw loose nobody addressed it nobody brought those two kids into the principal's office and said sit down sit down we're going to talk this out we're going to find out how this happened nothing and you wonder why people wander into schools after being bullied and things go on and terrible things happen it's because there's no communication at all and a school resource officer in this school is educated to look out for things that are coming down the road and and he he assessed scenes make sure that there he can mitigate something bring it to the police's attention if he thinks it's bigger than what he can handle but you got eyes and ears out there and nobody's using them nobody's communicating and far as I'm concerned we're heading for disaster so we ought to do something about it thank you good evening everybody my name is empress and I'm chair of the Greenfield human rights commit Mission um I just want to say to this young man and this young man's family over there I feel that as a school committee as a city that we did not protect him or his human rights and that's a problem um we need to do better it happened to him this time it could be your son or your daughter next time A lot of times when we see these school shootings and and in these schools what's the first thing we hear people say oh it can't happen here it can happen right here in Greenfield and then what are you going to tell us what are you going to tell because I have a son in high school I have a son in middle school if something was to happen in mass shooting and my son got injured what could anybody on this school committee tell me sorry that's not going to work especially when we're here today pleading with you to protect our children you have a right to protect our children and our children deserve to be protected um there's so much to jump around but anyway there was two studies that was given out in the email that I seen I also want to say when we're talking about school safety this is not a left issue this is not a right issue this is a human rights this is a basic this is our kids safety issue if you're sending out documentation for reference material it should not be based on one side's political views that's wrong so that was study two study one however did say that um some of these situations where they did have issues with the police officers it's because the teachers theirself could not tolerate the disruption of the young people and it also said a lot of it had to do with the students's relationship with the teacher and the number of interruptions in class so therefore when these SRO officers did get involved with disciplinary actions it was the teachers who brought them into the situation this is a whole difference and another thing I want to say I'm so tired of hearing this data black about black and brown families can we just stop that you're taking a national figure this is not National this is Greenfield and I don't know how many black and brown families in Greenfield would survey how we feel about it and I'll tell you right now I want C cro officers in school to protect my kids so can we just stop saying that as far as a black and brown issue because I don't think that nobody has the right to say that especially if you're not asking us black and brown people in Greenfield how we feel about it and the black and brown people I talk to they want their kids protected they want C they want SRO officers there was also another study that was um sent out in the email um as far as um uh some other data um as far as you know no need for the SRO officers now that was before 20 and that was done in July 24th in 2023 do you realize the same year that they published that there was 340 school shootings last year that's the highest on record since 1966 I'm begging y'all to please do your job and protect our kids thank you hi Crystal Cleaver 45 Russell Street here in Greenfield um I am a parent of a six-year-old who goes to Federal Street School I'm also a social worker in the community who works with families and children and so um I feel pretty well equpped equipped to talk about this um I want to say I have heard about the incident that happened at the high school um I work with teens who go to the high school and I know that if something like that happened to my child I would be I would not be as common controlled as the family in in this room was I can say that however uh my child is autistic and has ADHD and just as that family spoke to their child's needs I have to speak to my child 's needs um I'm concerned about the possibility of putting an SRO in our schools um I've worked with SRO in other school districts as a social worker I know that there's a particular kind of SRO that can be quote unquote successful but the truth for me is that my kid has behaviors that don't always make sense to adults he gets anxious anxious he has trouble processing information and following directions when he's overwhelmed people believe at times adults believe that my child's being rude or ignoring them that's not true and that's not what's happening for him he needs more time and he needs different methods to understand what's happening and for him to be understood uh my child stems when he's nervous he and that includes movements with his hands and his face um and we've all heard stories in the news about autistic people being harmed by police who make assumptions about their behavior who get frustrated by their non-compliance who see their stems and other body movements as uh threatening and uh I sent a email earlier I linked to some articles about that and um I just want to say that my kids's life is just as valuable as anybody else's if this classes I hope that it doesn't I think that we can do way better than this as a community I think there was a lot missing in this incident that happened and that there's a lot missing in the high school that we could look at to keep our kids safe I don't think being reactionary and throwing police into our schools is the answer um and um I believe that if an SRO is put into this school district for my child that would mean finding an out of District placement because my kid can't be safe autistic kids are seven times more likely to be interacting with police and their um behaviors are often read and misunderstood and so um I'd ask you to please vote against the request for police and public schools and for us to have a community conversation about what actually works thank you thank you that ends the public comment for people um in the room we'll now move to people on Zoom who wish to make public comment if you are capable of um clicking on reactions and clicking raise hand that will make it easier to see who would like to make a public comment um and we will start with Ursa Ursa if you could say your full name good evening my name is Ursa sheer I live on Madison Circle here in Greenfield I have a son at Federal Street School and I wanted to come and speak um namely to voice um uh my uh strong belief that sro's uh from the data do not seem to overwhelmingly make schools safer that we see this increase year-over-year in the number of math shootings in schools which is incredibly distressing but we also see increases in SRO and so um it doesn't seem like the solution there but I also wanted to um take this opportunity having heard about the incident which I am just hearing about tonight of how incredibly sorry I am to everybody that was involved the the students parents the you know the entire school system gets traumatized by events like that and it sounds like there were a lot of missed opportunities in the week leading up to the incident then you had the two most senior leaders in the school in the cafeteria when it happened um which which did not prevent something and it sound SS like a a a lot of missed opportunities since the incident has happened um and I just I I don't feel like introducing an SRO necessarily changes the course of of what transpired um I don't know that there's a perfect solution but uh in my mind the more we are able to work Upstream through additional supports like guidance counselors Arts music ways for kids to be able to move their bodies um the type of engaging curriculum that you need all of these things conspire to help us build really healthy school environments and that's where I would want our attention and resources focused and I also just wanted to speak very personally that um my son who's in Greenfield Public Schools uh is a black student in the classroom he's not someone who feels safer when he sees a police officer he hasn't individually had a negative experience but he is surrounded by media messages um that show what happens to kids who look like him and and kids that are older than him and what can happen over the course of his life so I just want to also give voice um that at least in this one instance uh there is a black student in Greenfield Public Schools he's my kid who is not um made to feel safer when he's in police presence and I wanted to make sure that that was part of the discourse as well thank you so much if you're on zoom and you want to speak please uh raise your hand I don't know how to do that Kelly were you saying you wanted to speak yes I'm not sure if it's unmuted or not I have a kid in the high school and I have a seven-year-old daughter in the Federal Street school and I feel an SRO would be best in the high school and I feel that there needs to be something done at the Federal Street school as I'm feeling my child is very unsafe there with there being like four exits in the back and kids not being well watched in the morning on top of a level three sex offender coming to the school to pick up their child and that's okay um something needs to be done though cuz I've heard about a lot of uh sexual assault with my friend's children happened at that Federal Street School Kelly you suddenly went quiet oh I'm done sorry you're done okay can you say your last name please Kelly Jackman thank you yeah baby is there anyone else on Zoom who'd like to speak excuse me I just left Zoom because I got thrown so oh please join just share your your name when you come up to the microphone hi my name is Pamela Goodwin I live at 54 High Street um I'm going to speak in support of the SRO um I taught school for probably close to 30 years in a lot of it was in the Greenfield school system I agree about the Dare officers when I was teaching in the 7 and eighth grade the high school boys were chewing uh tobacco and we had people come in um who had mouth cancer as a presentation for example I also know that there's only a nurse or two in the building the guidance counselors are busy and I agree with officer LaVine and a few of the other people about it builds a relationship I want to bring to mind I think it was a year or two ago a member of the school committee outwardly called out a high school girl who had written an opinion page and said that was not true so I also think that things that happened in the school system need to be talked about dealt with not swept under the rug and we were all pretty appalled that a girl who was courageous enough the age of this young man would talk about what it's like in the high school that was a particular High School thing I think a lot of stuff goes on in the restrooms I certainly saw it um we brought in a huge bulling program when I was teaching in the middle school over here in town everybody learned that there's no such thing as an innocent bystander that you have to hold people accountable and I know the teachers do a good job but I also never allowed any B in my classroom I saw it everywhere else in the hallway I used to break up fights between kids but once they came into my classroom everybody was treated with kindness decency I expected the same kind of behavior and they Rose to my level of expectations so I just really think it's important to establish other people around where they can also feel like they can go and have a conversation and again a long time ago I I was T tutoring oneon-one I guess a kid pulled a knife on a superintendent's son he was suspended expelled actually for the year I worked with him in the superintendent's office next door and um it turned out that Jeremy was protecting little kids of color and he was a little bit older and um and that's what that was about so people just need to learn how to behave kids are at a very tender age I don't care if they're preschool but they're especially at a tender age as they approach Middle School all the way through to have a kid that has to have that kind of trauma in his senior year what about the kids who witness the whole thing that's traumatizing for everybody in the room I appreciate your time thank you is there anyone else in the room or on Zoom who would like to speak okay thank you all for the public comment we'll now move to the student report to the school committee all right um so starting with student council um last week the student council hosted a successful homecoming event with about 300 students in attend sorry um in attendance that same day 20 student council members helped with the Green River cleanup and our group was tasked with the bike path students cleared many bags of trash tires and shopping carts throughout the day this Friday um 18 students will be heading to the regional fall conference which will be held at minog our keynote speaker is Rob seret who is an artist from Disney and will give an inspirational speech while speed painting on the stage students will also have the opportunity to attend two student Le workshops while networking with leaders across Western Massachusetts Friday October 18th ghs will participate in pink out for breast cancer awareness the student council is going to donate 25 cents for every student and staff member wearing pink and donate the money to the raise of Hope Foundation um in regard to Athletics Mesa ver is sponsoring an athlete of the week for Greenfield Athletics we want to thank Amy for her commitment to the Youth of Greenfield High School um the first to be honored um were volleyball players Stella Verlander and football player Jonathan Bor um both of which are seniors so go seniors um schedules for all sports games are on arbiterlive.com um French Club recently hosted a French film movie night where the students watched a French movie and enjoyed fall treats together um over a dozen students have signed up for the France trip in April 2026 and French Club looks forward to fundraisers and other preparations for that trip drama club continues to meet bi-weekly to bond with one another and prepare for auditions in November the library Club is hosting the fifth annual comic conon on Wednesday October 30th from 3:00 to 6:15 p.m.
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students teachers and guest speakers will present on topics ranging from tabletop role playing games to origami making to the history of jazz drumming our keynote speaker is this year is Luen bantes which I'm very sorry for mispronouncing um a local Puerto Rican you young adult author who just published a spooky romance called till the last beat of my heart and the trivia club team continues to meet weekly during lunch to study we've been focused on literature simple machines geography and Science and Math um we've had four regulars routinely showing up and are making a lot of strong progress and finally new club at ghs is the students of Color Club um they Sorry students continue to work on the lesson plan to address racialized language in the school for eighth grade advisories um the group will be presenting to Administration and then the whole faculty in a couple of weeks and they wanted to spend send a special thanks to the recent activities Fair which helped gain um new membership if you have any questions for me or about the report I'd be happy to answer any questions for Shane thank you very much uh because of the public interest in the school resource officer question I'd like to hear a motion to move um item 7A School res office school resource officer in schools from where it is to uh to now so moved is there a second second all right can we have a uh roll call vote on that please I'm sorry who made the motion uh an and then seconded by Melody okay all right so the motion is to bring the topic up for now yep okay uh roll call vote uh member Goodwin yes member Childs yes member seon yes chair Johnson musan yes Vice chair Martini yes mayor dorer yes and I'm a yes so that passes unanimously to move it up to now okay um so the item listed on the agenda is school resource officer in schools um there was a motion made by um mayor dorer and seconded by Melody Goodwin that the school committee began a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate the potential addition of a of a school resource officer to our school district um that that motion was made and discussed at the last meeting um the vote on it was 33 um my summary and I'd welcome others to fill in context or share your perspective but was that um because the school committee has very recently deliberated about whether or not to have school resource officers in schools um the motion was essentially whether the school committee wants to take this up as a a com comprehens ensive uh study and deliberation process um the discussion as described in our minutes was previous school committee has discussed and voted not to have SRO in schools caution to members not to openly discuss school security systems does police presence in schools prevent School prevent shooting tragedies and police in schools can be triggering to some students so with that um I guess since the motion was about whether or not we should take up a major deliberation and study process um I just would encourage members to um uh I guess to keep the focus on that the question is whether or not we should really study it and bring it back up again um and so we're taking that up I guess uh could I have a I mean I I think we can just maybe the mayor knows a little more about Robert's Rules of Order how do we take up an item that was tabled is does just having it on the agenda sufficient mayor do you know no you have to take it from the table okay so I'd like to have a motion to take that um take that motion uh from the table um motion from Member Goodwin is there a second motion from Member child's and I uh can we have a roll call vote on that please please member Den whether to take up that motion again okay uh mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member Childs yes member ston yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair Martini yes and I'm a yes okay so it's unanimous to be taken off the T all right it is on the table um or it's off the table we're looking at it uh so any uh additional discussion on this item member Childs so I did a little bit of digging because I needed the contextual background for myself so what I found is that uh the on basically I went back to 2020 where uh the there was a budgetary issue for the SRO position where previously it had been half funded Police Department half funded school department police department was saying it was no longer in their budget and uh pretty much what ended up happening was December 31st 2020 then Governor Baker uh signed a police Reform Bill that eliminated the SRO requirement in schools which kind of gave Greenfield uh the leeway to be like okay let's not have it in the budget then um uh jump to fall of 2021 uh there's more talk about behavioral difficulties safety challenges in school and the resolution that unanimously passed November 22nd 2021 was and this is quoting directly from the minutes of that meeting Casey moved as part of a multi-tiered support system sensitive to equity issues in our schools that the school committee direct the superintendent to begin discussions with the chief of police on Safety and Security Support options from his department for our schools and report back to the school committee uh jumped to Spring 2022 January there was just a very short update and the bigger update came in the February 9th 2022 meeting timestamp uh 3514 if you want to jump right to it that the summary was that the school would need to support any uh position financially this Police Department could not support that Staffing I went through four years of meeting minutes and meetings um I did not watch all those meetings I'm not that insane turns out YouTube has a lovely transcript you can search for terms the searches that I did just so that if anyone wants to replicate them they can were for SRO and for police that was the last I found of this um of this report that we were expecting back from the superintendent for Safety and Security Options uh from the police department for the schools so so Karen do you happen to remember anything that uh Dr DeBarge managed to come up with past that or was the financial issue the roadblock to my recollection it was the financial issue okay so yes history lesson over thank you for that context appreciate your research other yes remember ston it turns out that Anna and I were sort of doing similar Research In Parallel um and this is why scientists should talk to each other um um I went back a little bit further to 2018 this was when Greenfield still did have an SRO they had one at the time and the question on the table was whether to go from one to three and there was quite a bit of at one of the school committee meetings which I did watch because I'm a glutton for punishment sometimes um I did watch that and there was additional testimony given at the city council meeting around that same time and the comments from the public then were an against in broadening the um the numbers of sros that we had and that had nothing to do with whether or not it was a budgetary matter and that had everything to do with what people were advocating for in our schools um and I I do want to say that I do deeply sympathize with what the family and particularly those students are going through and I can't know none of us can know for certain if having an SRO would have prevented that incident and it certainly wouldn't have done anything around the issue of communication with our administrators that is being reported to us um I also I would personally like to hear more from I believe that there were some members of our current committee who were part of the previous formation of the committee that was that did some of that study um when this question was being taken up in 2021 2022 Etc um so I would like to hear more about you know are any of those questions that were undertaken are any of those unsettled um or have we heard anything that was not previously addressed that was addressed in that prior um study that was done um every time that this issue has come up it has been somewhat divisive for our community and every time it's come up we've also heard I would say the majority and all of the vast majority of the emails that I have received about this issue have been not to have an SRO in our schools so I just want to be clear that we are hearing from many many we are hearing from lots of sides all sides lots of perspective but the vast majority that I have heard are not to reopen this discussion remember goodwi there's a piece of the history because I lived it which was not just about SRO but attendance officers and one of the the key issues is for children who aren't attending school if you call a DCF worker or a social worker they can knock on the door but it takes a a police officer to find out what's going on behind the door for many of our children and so I know in my school budget I offered to cut things to get a school attendance officer because I felt strongly there were over 40 children who were chronically absent in my school and I needed help and that was the only person I thought who could give us the help we needed so I know that that was SP spoken because I spoke to it at different meetings so that wouldn't have shown up under your police search it would have showed up under in attendance thank you remember Den I recall a little bit of this history when we discussed this last time we were flooded with students who came to speak to us so many students came and spoke and they were all against it and you might think well of course the children don't want this going on but they had very compelling reasons and they came to us with trauma from police encounters and fear that things would only get worse if there was an SRO on campus so my initial thought is I want to hear what the students have to say and my first priority is always the success of our student body and then the second priority in my mind was what did the teachers have to say and they came and were very present and said that they did not want this so that's where we were with the public comment last time that we visited this the other part there are three parts to it that I really recall the public comment the second part was that financially it wasn't something that we could do we couldn't even keep Spanish in the Middle School like we were having real budgetary problems um so it wasn't really feasible to do it um the other issue was that we weren't provided data that this would be worthwhile so if we're going to discuss this I'd like to know specific dates when in the last 10 years the response time for having an SRO on site versus dispatch has made a difference I'd like to know actual data about that because we have not been given data by our police chief or by anyone from the GPD nobody's given us actual data I've been sent articles you know that I can easily go and find on my own that's it no actual data about our community specifically so that would be the place to even start so those are the three points the students didn't want it the teachers didn't want it we couldn't afford it and there was no data so those are three boxes that are going to have to be seriously checked and uh researched before I think we go through with this and I understand that when people think about protection and safety for some communities that looks like sro's that looks like policing like some communities want that I understand it works in some places maybe I don't know but from what I've seen here that's not what that's not what people want and I I hope that um I hope that we can strengthen our relationships with our student body and I hope that we can empower the administration to reach out to the greater student body and improve communication and I hope that we can hire more behavioral specialists guidance counselors that's what I'd like to do with that money thank you a reminder that the motion we're speaking to is whether to take up this uh begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate the potential of an SRO in our school district member child's would it be possible mayor would it be possible to alter the resolution to make a little bit of a friendly Amendment so it's not quite so SRO specific and uh gear it more towards uh investigating what we could do to improve safety and also studying where the safety concerns are because I didn't know about that attack that happened at the high school so I I do think we need more information and I think this resolution as is is far too limiting and inflexible especially when we don't know we're voting without knowing what the specific program in mind would be and what alterations like okay I'm biased towards the Comfort dog anything that gets kids able to pet a puppy I'm gonna want to figure out how to and sorry aside from that I'm being very ineloquent here um my issue here is where I know you wanted us to be focusing on this narrowly but we do need a broader approach approach to what are all of the variables at play How could we make the schools safe what will work for Green Field specifically and what are Greenfield's needs and just a simple yes down should we discuss SRO is so limiting and it closes down a discussion that I'm worried we won't reopen to look at other things that can be done to improve safety or other areas where the kids are vulnerable where we can help them sorry if that made m to answer your question members can um ask the person who made the motion whether they would accept a friendly Amendment and then that could be um accepted by them and this and the person who seconded you just need to be completely clear about what the um amendment is that you're requesting and now to the mayor so um Ian thank you for all the research that you did on that um that was rather impressive iive um so I think it it's important for us as school committee members that we actually have all of the information uh to make up to to make up our minds about about something I think it was interesting to note I heard what Ann said I don't think most of us knew that that this event occurred that there were injuries and that two people went to the hospital and I think that's that's an important step for us to start with how can we make up our minds if we don't know why there's a real important thing here in a Hospitality of HIPPA there's different things that we have in the school about what we should know or shouldn't know but as school committee members um knowing that there's an altercation with injuries is something I think we should be informed about um that would help us make up a make up our minds I would accept a friendly Amendment I think that listening to the stories tonight um I I I think it we want our police to to have a presence even if it was at the beginning and the end of school with the with the their um with Frank but um we should be taking a look at this and um it it sounds to me if we needed somebody somewhere it it it might be at the high school so I would be in favor of taking a look at that and taking a look at it in a different format before and after school or or in school but I think we owe the the the children that to take a look at that and protect their safety and I also think that as school committee members um we should take a look at what we would ask to be informed about not details but um injuries thank you I'm just gonna say that um what the public can come and speak to us about in public comment is very broad you can come and tell us anything you want tell stories but as school committee members we just need to continue to be careful about um restoring the the boundaries between our role in terms of setting B policy and budget and not getting involved in the day-to-day operations and um it's really the superintendent's purview to um oversee the uh response to situations that like the ones that were mentioned in public comment it's not our job to kind of get into the details of a particular incident at a particular school are there any other comments member den and then um I have a comment after first please go ahead oh okay um well I wanted to say thank you to member child for doing that research and also for your um s your suggestion of a friendly amendment to this motion because I also think that it's um not comprehensive to entertain a study that is only of the possibility of bringing back an SRO or SRO to Greenfield um if that's the only thing that's being studied then that's very limiting um in terms of what the district can do to increase safety and uh I would I would be um interested in a much broader truly comprehensive discussion about that um I do want to say that um Renfield does have safety plans and necessarily talk about them in a public forum because that would reduce security for the district so that's something that the committee has addressed um regularly in um our executive sessions and something that our former superintendent I haven't had a chance yet with our our new superintendent but um but that our former superintendent made herself very available to me personally to um ask lots of specific questions about so that I could feel um like I really understood where we stand with the comprehensiveness of our security practices um I have heard a lot of um folks talking about essentially two things one is um School beh behavior um and the other one being gun violence and in terms of school behavior um I member Childs I can um share my Recollections about our previous discussions on this committee about that because what's most memorable for me is our um discussion in 2021 because um like many other schools we were experiencing a very high level of very challenging behaviors um in school and uh so there was there was quite a vociferous public discussion about that and uh my recollection aligns with member geneves uh we had a lot of students in particular come and speak to us and uh I my my Recollections that the majority of them probably the overwhelming majority did not want to have a police officer in their school um and in terms of gun violence um that's something that I think we have to rely on data about and um and actual real um things that we have learned uh hopefully from others experiences uh it is not forgotten for me that having an SRO in Parkland did not help uh having an entire school police department in ubdi did not help um to prevent those tragedies from occurring so um I am not at all convinced that having an SRO would prevent something like that here or anywhere else um and I would also like us to remember a couple of things um that are really important uh and for me this comes from my experience um partly as a social worker um like one of our public commenters tonight I spent a lot of my career working with um children and families for whom um interactions with the police are very threatening and anxiety-provoking and um I would be really worried about the impact on vulnerable um students in some of our populations because of that and I would also just like to respond to one comment um from another member about um making calls to DCF and uh having that not be effective to have a social worker knock at the door and needing a police officer to get in and find out what is wrong um having been a DCF social worker for a very long time um and having responded to many reports of um students not attending school I would just like to say that I never once had the need to involve a police officer in order to address that problem and uh so I would I just wanted to note that um now I would like us to remember in light of those experiences of mine that Greenfield Public Schools has a history and a very recent history of engaging in disproportionate exclusionary discipline against students of color and disabled students we only just got um out from under scrutiny from the state about that and uh I would like us to be very mindful that we're not far away from those issues and in fact we still have largely segregated schools in Greenfield and we just heard our student representative talking about uh the need to address racialized language at ghs um we have to be really cognizant of how um those students will be how certain students will be affected um potentially by having an SRO and lastly um I have previously asked this committee to view every decision through a lens of how DEC disabled students will be affected and that's because I come from the perspective of being a parent of two children with disabilities uh and from the perspective of having um uh two beloved nephews who like one of our public commenters are autistic and would um very likely have some of their mannerisms and behaviors be misinterpreted by uh a person who could harm them in interactions with police so uh I would really um I would really like the committee to please Center students with disabilities when they're considering this decision um who according to um research that I am aware of are more likely to face uh punitive and negative uh interactions with an SRO so uh those would be my comments um I would not support the motion as is thank you thank you member um I wanted to speak to the amendment um I agree with member child's that we should have a comprehensive discussion about uh what's going on because I I didn't know about um what occurred at the high school either um I also know that there are a number of things around that that are not and our purview but I'd like to know uh the details of how and when and um we will be informed of things that rise to a certain threshold and the problem that I have is with the amendment I think that the original motion of bringing up discussion of whether or not to add an SRO into the school if we've brought that off the table then we need to have a vote about that specific motion and then I'd like to see another motion made about having a comprehensive discussion of security measures revisiting them and seeing if there are new things that we can apply um but having them smooshed together I think is just a way to also just open the door to whatever so I think that we should just take independent votes on that um but I could not support the motion as is any other discussion just to be clear there has not been a request for an amendment to the motion so the motion we're we've taken up from the table still stands um so let's if people are ready we can go ahead and vote on that okay um so the motion was that the school committee begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process to eval valuate the potential addition of an SRO school resource officer to our school district so a yes vote would say that the school committee will begin the comprehensive study and deliberation process and a no vote would mean that we would essentially not take that up and not begin working on that in depth any questions before we vote so sorry I'm trying to figure out the way because I had my question a moment ago um so so the sorry we will be able to make a new Amendment right after this vote then not Amendment sorry New Motion right after this vote then uh we could hear motions related to the topic of school resource officer in schools um we can also you know under new business members can make motions that we take up other items such as you know something else okay I think it will be related enough to SRO that there will be a new motion after okay okay all right right so we'll now vote on the motion that is currently uh uh that we're currently looking at um member Den would you please call a roll call vote of course um Vice chair Martini no member Goodwin yes member Childs no member seon no chair Johnson mad no uh mayor dorer yes and I am a no so the motion fails thank you member Childs you have another motion okay I would like to move that the school committee begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process of what our safety needs are and evaluate what potential Solutions will improve our safety measures is there a second second discussion mayor did you say something oh you second okay no I just seconded in motion okay is there any discussion I have a question uh the secret recording secretary has a question yes Susan Barber I would like member child's please to repeat that motion slowly sorry um because I was partially cribbing it so school committee begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate safety needs and what solutions would work in Greenfield to address those needs so that way everything's on the table okay discussion and I think member Martini I just had a question um which relates to what I said earlier about the need for the committee to keep our uh safety procedures uh especially certain parts of them um out of a public forum in order to maintain security uh in the district and I don't I don't really know how um how that would work so I wondered if the superintendent would have any input on that I would think all of those conversations would have to be executive session thank you and member ston I I want to tease apart for a moment a couple of I think notes that are getting all jumbled up in this conversation now the shift from from SRO in particular to safety which is an as yet actually undefined term that we're using we have not set for ourselves what we mean by safety yes physical safety is a certain part of that um absolutely making sure that students are not needing to go to the emergency room as a result of a thing that has occurred on school grounds that is like bare minimum um but I think we're also talking about safety emotionally safety among peers um safety of expression and and being able to learn about themselves as human beings um there there are a number of different things and I I wonder I am curious as if part of the motion as you're intending it to be having a conversation among the broader community that is defining safety that that that points to an even wider rate because I also want to point out that um when the school district chose not to fund a school resource office officer they did have two other positions that were created one of which I don't believe still exists but we did have a racial pra like or restorative practices facilitator position that was created and we did have a community connections coordinator or Community Advocate I forget exactly the title but those positions were also intended to serve in this sort of role and I would love to hear more about how that went if they don't still exist or if they do still exist like what's going on with that um and I also just want to lay out that you know that that was only two years ago that we did that and it takes a lot longer than two years for those kinds of programs to have immediate impact um but I can I can tell you that while it does take more than two years for systemic impact I'm also in the school three days a week I'm at Federal Street I volunteer there and even just me being with those kids for the few couple of weeks that we've actually been in school um you know I've got some regular kids that now come up up to me and we we chat every time I'm there like we're Buds and they can tell me things and it provides them like I'm not a not a police officer I've never trained in that way but I'm still now someone that they feel close to Safe they can trust we talk about emotions we help put feel we put name like words to the feelings they're experiencing when they're peeved off by a peer that sort of thing and I feel like when we're talking about safety those kinds of interactions are ones we need to talk about as well and I'll just wrap up real quick as a plug if you in the community or you are a parent and you have even an hour or two in your week come be with the kids even if they're not your own kid and and that is part of how we keep each other safe as well that's how we keep our kids safe other discussion um can you repeat the motion please that the school committee begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate safety needs and what solutions would work in Greenfield to address those needs I did have a direct question to the maker of the motion and I wanted to give them an opportunity to respond I think it would be impossible to look and see what all of the safety concerns are you aren't opening the discussion to allow the public the teachers the students to tell you what those concerns are so I do believe there would be a public part of the discussion though of course there would be some specifics that would have to be in executive session for legal reasons but we do need to allow the community to give their opinions to give their experiences we can't shut people down especially not on a topic that concerns their kids safety physical or emotional because they're tied together I'm gonna comment um I'm not supportive of the motion as presented it just it it's such it's a very broad uh discussion um safety just cover so many different things I also feel like part of what we we are running into tonight is um some of the questions and challenges for us as a school committee in terms of deliberation on the topic what items get discussed in full committee what items get discussed in executive session um I think that it probably will take more time and thought to craft a motion that will be specific enough to really give us what are charges as a school committee and if we're taking this on um I guess separate from that I do have questions about whether we should be taking this on it seems to me that the primary reasons this has come up is because there was a disturbing and upsetting school shooting that took place in one community and then since the last um meeting there people are reporting on an incident that happened in a school and I'm not sure that necessarily represents that this is a strategic question that the committee should be taking up I don't know relative to other school districts how um unusual it is for physical fights to break out in schools um I uh so in in high schools I I'm assuming that's quite a common experience so um I guess I one thought I have is whether we might um direct an if she's willing to do it to spend the month kind of studying the question and coming up with a proposal for the committee about um what that work would be and what would look like and how it would be done and um we could evaluate whether that discussion needed to happen in an open session or an executive session um so I guess my question is um whether you might consider withdrawing your motion for the moment and accepting that charge over the next month I would be willing to do the work um and I would be willing to withdraw the motion in order to give the time to do the work unless I have a fellow Committee Member who strongly feels that we need more action sooner in which case I would like them to have the chance to state that before I withdraw it just to be fair for anyone else anyone want to speak to that I'm not seeing any objection okay so I will withdraw the motion and spend the next month putting together what this could look like Community please email me do my work for me sorry just kidding can I make a request member Martini yes I would just like to ask that um part of that information include what other school committees have actually done um in uh similar studies if you can find that and uh because I I always want to know where does precedent lie with other school committees and I would also appreciate um some input from the Massachusetts Association of school committees if you wouldn't mind uh requesting that from uh I'm not sure who would be the best person Liz leond or um someone else at masc who could please advise I'll work my way down the contact tree until I hit the right person okay thank you okay thank you for a wonderful and constructive conversation um we're not responding to the chat in the zoom unfortunately we just aren't capable of doing that right now um we'll move on to reports of the administration and I'm not oh there's Andy okay Andy can you come off mute and make your uh yes Andy pette business manager good evening can you hear me yes we can hear you excellent so you have in there as I mentioned at the last meeting we've got a a different report that we've included for consideration and honestly recommendation going forward uh but the first part the first page of the report is the standard revolving account gift account and scholarship account information as of October 7th then the next pages are the school capital accounts uh that had been requested that we provide to you monthly uh then starting on after the sixth page of that first report you have the original monthly update format that was used and we've used prior um when you scroll through Andy I'm sorry to interrupt could you give a little more orientation rather than saying the first second or third one okay sure so the first page is the standard revolving account gift account scholarship account report do you see that that's a standard that has the school launch Athletics all the revolving Accounts at the top section at least when I got it through the school material packet that's how it's coming up okay and for people in the room this is kind of what it what it looks like yes correct one page that's correct okay then the next pages are the capital accounts that the next page one two 3 four five we're just looking at hard copies that I don't think are the same that you're looking at so you need to describe what's at the top of the page so so the top of the sorry okay the top of the page has fy07 borrowing order it's Elementary School windows Yep and then fy21 Capital outlay order so on and so forth M and that that next report is six pages so those are all the capital articles that in capital expenditure budgets that were requested that we provide to you monthly yep then the next 14 pages are the I'm going to say the old way of reporting the monthly update so the first page looks like the uh it has the north parish and it's NP teaching staff you know cut off I'd say as far as the description goes with the total North Parish of the 1210 348 yep we got it okay so that is the normal report that we provide to you and it's 13 pages I apologize so just for discussion purposes this was and our recommendation based on the workshop that we did as far as potentially exploring changing the way that we look at it I'm giving this to you as like a reference as to this is the way that we've done it but then when you look at the next section Yep this is our recommended approach to how we would like to go forward because if you look this actually breaks it out by cost center by salaries and wages contracted services and supplies and materials this in my opinion in our opinion is easier to digest because it's segregated by personnel and non-personnel expenses and we've gone a little further and gone personnel and contracted services and supplies and materials thank you so as to so that's the I'm G to say the the layout and I I I guess our recommendation would be to go forward with that this this version that has the salary wages contract and services and supplies and materials so I can now if you will I would want to I can get into giving you the update as to financially where we stand um if you look and see I mean we're proceeding along um this again I want to refer back to the workshop where uh uh the hats off to the payroll we've got salaries encumbered we have most of our known contractual obligations encumbered where when you get to the bottom you see that we have you know a remaining balance of $ 54,2 68 but we've got just over $20 million fully encumbered that's good practice that's good practice to have our known expenses encumbered for at this point in the year now the next step as we've always talked about and with uh we've just hired a replacement in the payroll to help out we are now going through in doing as I've said the the realigning of the Personnel because we are we know our grants now grants have been written and approved and so we're going through and then going to be re reallocating positions and realigning with all the hirings that have occurred through the summer so this is all I'm going to say good news as to far as operationally how we are proceeding uh with uh the status of the budget and the management of it as as we stand right now and again I always want to say I tip my hat because this is the way that Greenfield has always done it uh and so with that I can answer any questions you might have as to any of the specifics member deneve hi Andy thanks for coming on doing your budget uh update virtually um you are a member of our admin team right I would be considered as one I guess I would say yes we're no different than the traditional business manager position so we received W written excuse me we receive receive written reports from our superintendent and our assistant superintendent we receive budget lists from you why don't we receive a written report from you I I don't know what's happening and I don't have any way to go back and acquaint myself with what has happened in the past because there's nothing in written form it's just line items that's my first question I think that's not a question for Andy I think that's a question for us as a committee we've never directed the business manager to uh provide that and so I think Andy has given to us what we have accepted in the past um for budget so we can deliberate and decide whether we want to request some type of narrative from the business manager but okay that's that's totally fair I definitely I'm ready to make a motion about that when the time comes um my other question is there are some things in the warrants that I have questions about um what is mtrs filing mtrs filing that is the filing are you talking about the the invoice from TMS for that yeah there's a number of invoices from TMS for mtrs filing yes that's because there it was brought to the attention of the district that the mtrs filing was about two years in AAR prior to us getting there and the district didn't have the Personnel to do that and we have that uh capacity so that was not that is not in our standard contract that we have with the district so that falls under the special projects Clause of our contract so we have staff people that are helping the district get caught up with its mtrs filing um does it require any sort of special certification to perform mtrs filing no so it's a data entry position no it's more than data entry it's reconciling information uh doing research on variances from what it is that would be listed as contractual and retial earnings versus non- retial and making sure that what is being categorized as mtrs eligible is indeed mtrs eligible and if there are variances then there are research that's required as to why there would be a variance of you know whether or not not it's a stien for something and was that stien listed in a contract and therefore eligible for mtrs or not I just I ask because it's $141 an hour job and so I just want to find out the details behind it so I can understand it so I appreciate you answering those questions I have two more questions sure go ahead then we'll move to member Goodwin um there was some significant warrants for bills for graphic design and I'm wondering what it was for there is a football ad that I'm wondering if the graphic design was for that um you're asking about the invoices from TMS yeah so the focus of this agenda item is on the business manager report the the we do have a contract with the agency that Andy happens to work with for work that is directed by the superintendent but it is a contract that was signed off on by the school committee so I just ask members to keep your questions focused on the report from the business manager on the business of the schools so how do we get how do we discuss these because we're expected to put our signatures to them and I have questions because I don't feel comfortable putting a signature to warrants that are written this way I as we've discussed many times before at these meetings anytime a member has any question about any invoice that they're signing off on on the warrant this superintendent is highly accessible to answer those questions as is Andy so I say that would be probably the place to start if you if the if the problem Rises to a level of something that affects the school district policy um budget so on that would be an appropriate item for the school committee so let me make sure I understand so if I have a question about an invoice I'm to ask him but not now well it's that right yes that's correct it would be a one-on-one question I think because what we have before us is an agenda for the school committee which our role on the full school committee is to set policy to set budget and to evaluate the superintendent so getting into the details of invoices and what is this for and what's that for I think would be more L handled in a one-on-one question if something came out of those questions that really became a uh in the purview of the school committee I think that would be appropriate okay I I have to respectfully disagree with you because I'm having a one-on-one conversation with him and there are things and this is budgetary and there are things that are not I think what I have questions about so um if you want me to write my questions down and call him I mean it wouldn't be any different than this but I'll respect that but I disagree with it but and he just happens to work for a vendor that the school committee has a contract with to provide services to so the questions about graphic design are really not related to the agenda item that we're discussing right now which is the business manager's report not not the it's not a report of the contractor it's a report of him in his role as business manager on the business of the schools okay any other questions relevant to that I'm not hearing any and uh member good one so I I just attended chartering the course on Saturday so this is very much in my head and one of the statements um that that I took to my heart was we are responsible for approving warrants and if we have questions we should get questions answered because it's our job for oversight of this I just feel like every time I see warrants they've already been approved but my name is on things I have questions about so I guess I'm trying to figure out if we're not having com conversations here the next month is going to come they're going to get signed and these are things that keep showing up every month they're not something that just shows up once so I guess I'm I'm trying to put transparency in my questions and I am not comfortable with my name on some of these warrants and so I'm being told I'm legally when somebody you're all signing my name when you sign so that is making me uncomfortable so um I think this is a topic for uh recommendations for future agenda items so I would suggest that we bring it up then um and uh we can we can discuss those concerns at that time um I'm I'm just conscious also of wanting to respect open meeting law and what we did was create an agenda and told people what we're going to be discussing and we are moving into discussions that haven't the public hasn't had a chance to be made aware of um for example our policies and procedures around warrants and such so yeah member ston um I had a a question about the Federal Street elevator and just where that process is at um speaking of school safety I I don't want our cafeteria workers to have to keep carting the milk upstairs the RFQ or I should say the RFP has been uh turned over to the interim CPO on a city Side and he's reviewing for publishing uh he understands the urgency of getting that done thanks any other questions on the report of the business manager okay's see agenda guess on to assistant superintendent good evening I'm gonna just try to share my screen on the zoom okay thank you for your patience so in terms of my report I the report I submitted I'll take in reverse order um because I listed the recruitment second and the accountability first but um we're going to talk a little bit more about the accountability just wanted to notify the committee that I attended Mass hires fall multi-industry job fair last Thursday at Hampshire mall in an effort to fill vacant positions um it was a good opportunity to engage in prospective candidates uh we had generated some interest in from everything from custodial positions that are open to IAS lots of questions um so certainly checking in with principles about names that we collected there U Mass hire does a good job of opening it up and getting a wide variety of Industries to these job fairs and they're planning another one in early November at Greenfield Community College so my hope is that it is in our backyard that might generate some other interest if all our positions aren't full by then in terms of District accountability uh I just have it really is at a glance I think the data that comes out from desie in terms of accountability um you can go to pretty significant depths um this presentation does not do that but I am certainly happy to have the conversation um I think it's important it was an important opportunity to preview the accountability findings to the committee um ultimately these are the ratings that determine um what supports or interventions a district or School may require from Dy or um you know on the other end schools of recognition also through the accountability we touched on this a little bit last last month when we talked about neas but I I think this is a pretty comprehensive report that desie does and the information the data was just released publicly about two and a half weeks ago so um I'll go through the presentation happy to answer questions there's a lot of information but I I do admit it is scratching the surface but I figured it was a good place to start so in terms of the accountability system itself is it's bringing together a number of measures in order or in an effort to provide clear and actionable information to districts and schools about performance in a number of areas um and not just those areas but how are your subgroups how are all students doing in those areas and it really breaks down those details um to the granular level ultimately the accountability results answer two questions how is the school or District doing and what kind of supports um does that school or District need in terms of our relationship with the accountability system in terms of our strategic plan this is a a a brief I would say crosswalk I think the development of the Strategic plan clearly had some of these data points in mind because it touches on a number of issues from in curriculum instruction instructional supports um and Communications and Outreach um I think if pushed I could have connected the operations portion of it as well but um you know I do think there is it is well aligned with our strategic plan and the work that we're trying to do here I listed some resources this um image on the left while it's not in it's probably not visible to many people right now this is at the bottom of every schools and I'll click on our accountability report right now if you scroll to the bottom here it is really just a glossery of details about what that report says what it does I also included links to the interpretive materials and the glossery of accountability terms just for reference points if you look through at the top here it does this is where you can see our overall results you can get into student group results oops excuse me right so as you scroll down here this is high need students but you can list go into any one of these indicators and get a more in-depth look I will make note that there are a number of subgroup populations that we might not have data for because we're not hitting the typically desie is using 20 is the number before you get a rating on it um so there are some subgroups that we wouldn't have data on I'm sorry this is the district yes this is the district you can go to this far right Tab and this goes into the schools and then you can click on any one of the schools to get that more indepth look at each of our schools a lot more on my screen that I'm trying to maneuver around to avoid the that to my presentation um this is this link here will just take you to des's um district and school accountability web page right so again more information about how in depth this this data can get and then the glossery of accountability terms I included here as well so this is a snapshot um this takes a look this is our accountability percentiles essentially um looking at all the information in the indicators of the school's overall performance relative to other schools other like schools I should say similar grades it's not perfect match but um they do take and as you get into those data reports you'll see High School versus non- High School even in a place like Greenfield High School right now because 8th grade lives there you get non- high school ratings because of that one grade being there um so in 2023 there is right some some good news and there's some data that's probably hard to look at but you know we had we had four schools requiring Assistance or intervention in the account in the accountability system in one year the district went from four schools to two schools requiring or needing intervention um again looking at just the pure numbers people might say like where can we do better how can we improve here and those are the questions we're asking ourselves but I ALS also think it's important to stop and recognize the growth that has been made there's some pretty significant growth on this sheet um in one in one school year um and sometimes that's about a certain a curriculum that's been implemented or that's about a group of students again this is schoolwide though so it's typically not about one grade sometime you'll see it one grade makes a jump um and as you dig into that it it could beg some more questions you might ask also what does this mean for our Statewide system of support work with our OS friends um they are they will remain in Greenfield if people remember back to when schools were rated as a one two three four five they've shifted things a little bit but the the ratings still do mean that you essentially go by the lowest rated School in a in any given District so as long as there is one school requiring Assistance or intervention I anticipate ssos would be here um our meeting tonight is preceding a meeting with ssos this week that we're going to dig into this a little bit more with that team um and get feedback from them about what they're seeing with it as well so again this is because of the timing I want to make sure we shared something but um we'll continue to get more in depth in this data moving forward so some highlights a 10% increase if you go back to um that main page age you get rated based on are you making progress towards your targets your targets are assigned based on how you've did in the previous year really the previous two years um in 2023 Greenfield made uh moderate progress um exceeded or met 43% of their targets last year it's 53% substantial progress but I want to be clear when they give you that rating of 53 that's two years of data um so again year one in 2023 it was four um I'm sorry this year we made 61% towards targets either meeting or exceeding targets last year the district hit 61% of their targets so it's again these are things that we should be highlighting right celebrating those taking the small winds while recognizing there's work to be done um we met or exceeded Targets in all of these categories here um and here I tried to go through and say where it was um all students are lowest performing students non- High School grades just to give a little bit of context um these bottom two just want to note these are focus subgroups in the district um this school year but English learn English Learners and former English Learners in our non- high school grades met or exceeded 68% of their targets last year so it's that Focus right comes from a place where we looked at the data but clearly some of that Focus started well before last year and the um instructional priori prioritization plan got put into effect and um that shows here and same with Hispanic Latino non- high school students met or exceeded 68% um of targets and it is not the same group to be very very clear it's not just because Hispanic Latino and English Learners it is two different groups just happen to meet the same number of targets areas in need of improvement so just again when you get into the data page that you'll start to see like you we got a zero points it's basically a zero through four rating this is what the those numbers mean zero means we declined four means you exceed did the Target and then um you know there's the the one twos and threes are no change or low growth that's when you look at the student growth percentile um improv below your target so some improvement but maybe not significant and then you met your target is a three so you'll see chronic absenteeism another Focus area in the district in the um instructional prioritization plan all students and our lowest performing students Z to four um and again those next three are all zero to four and just again highlights not the right word but I did say like that zero means that those chronic absenteeism did increase in those groups from 23 to 24 um students with disabilities student subgroup in our non- high school grades only met or exceeded 7% um of their targets so so I think one thing that the superintendent and I have talked about we've talked about with our leadership team is part of the reason that we have some of these focus groups is not all students are having the same experience in the Greenfield Public Schools and I think some shifts need to be considered to to make that happen and some shifts are small some shifts might be bigger Advanced coursework is only a high school um rating and it only considers 11th and 12th grade um students so if we have students who are taking AP courses in 9th or 10th grade or taking dual enrollment courses those students aren't hitting this Target because they're not in the measurement um and then four-year graduation rate um we declined and then extended engagement rate that just means essentially if you didn't graduate in four years you persisted you remained connected to the schools so the work ahead is continue to follow the strategic plan I think like I said at the beginning it's well aligned um as is the instructional prioritization plan developed in collaboration with the ssos team um you know all students with a specific focus on students with disabilities English Learners and our Hispanic Latino subgroups um high quality grade level culturally responsive practices um that are rooted in best practices for literacy professional development with Partners through teaching lab both for educators and for district and school leaders not just in the classroom um and then a focus on attendance really promoting the benefits of good attendance in stronger communication um schools are having weekly attendance meetings and then trying to build in those WRA wraparound supports where possible so um I'm one that likes to focus on the highlights because I think there's a lot to highlight and it's a CR to um the administration the teachers the counselors the instructional assistants over the past few years to really dive into this work um so kudos to all of them and then certainly recognize like there's still work to be done but um My Hope Is that we can continue that momentum so happy to answer some questions and I know again even though this is at a glance there is a lot to digest question questions for Mr Sullivan yep we have a new language in our district have we found El people to help our Haitian population so we have resources to support that population but the the SE the sheltered English and the endorsement is not about Spanish or English it's about good practices in language development um so I think we're trying to focus on those especially with our earliest Learners and I know as students get older some of that becomes more challenging but um we we have our L teachers and I think sometimes the students acclimate a little bit better sometimes than parents and families so the language bridge that we now have available um I think it's helping with some of those communication efforts other questions oh remember Eve I have a question um one of the wonderful highlights that Karen used to give us when she was assistant superintendent was information about all the grants that she was writing and so I was just curious if you are also doing that work and if so are there any new ones that you're excited for or any that are on your target list for the future yeah I I think the one I think we announced it two meetings ago maybe it was August the Innovation career pathway work I think that's one that um that team met actually yesterday and there's some excitement around that and building out what Pathways could look for look like for our students and you know some of the co the the founding principles or tenants around that is about Equitable access removing barriers for students so that they have access to Advanced coursework and those types of things so I think those types of opportunities start to marry some of the things that we're seeing here that might be challenges and open it up to uh more students um or more diverse subset of students that's just one um there's certainly others I know we're working on an Grant right now and but I can certainly um add some more information to Future um I know we wrote one for the career counseling at the high school as well that we're waiting to hear back on so happy to include some more information on that other questions or comments I have a question about um the accountability percentile slide um is what are the factors that go into these numbers I I I was wondering if it's um well I guess that's just the question I was wondering if it there's more kind of process um data that goes into it versus just outcomes or is it purely an outcome based uh metric okay so in terms of achievement this is where it gets into so here and you'll see you'll see that carries AAL and then grow 22 these C schools you'll they oh Stephen C can you please turn on your microphone sorry I can repeat that if need be um so for the high school that's weight everything's weighted the achievements at this 47 and a half% the um growth is 22 and a half% you have 20% of high school completion and then 10% of your score is based on chronic absenteeism and at the high school level the advanced coursework to get your 100% for non- high school they're weighted a little bit differently because you don't have the factors like Advanced course work graduation rate extended engagement okay I see so essentially like you just looked strictly at mcast numbers you wouldn't see as deep a picture as you do here because it measures other factors besides just grades I guess absolutely yes and right achievement and growth are very much based on mcast results the other factors involve a lot more information thank you of course and then not that you asked but down here it kind of goes through how wait High School versus non- high school and um you know the total percentage of the points thank you all right thank you for your report um I have a question oh question sorry member Martini yes and then I see member denie okay uh so I wanted to know if could you please is elaborate on what specifically um is going into that frankly dismal score for students with disabilities in the district and um what is being planned in terms of immediate and longer term next steps for them um I know I'm asking for something that probably could be its own presentation and I would be very happy to have one of those um specifically in regards to students with disabilities and special education at a near future meeting of course so I did call it up here on the screen so it is all the same factors um I did double check on the high school they did not have the number to qualify so they didn't have that number 20 um so you don't get the weight for that subgroup so just so everyone's on the same page this is all really um grades one through seven three through seven um because of mcast so it is all the same factors from chronic absenteeism to the student growth percentile to achievement on mcast so because it's non High School it is a bit more limiting but those are the factors that come into it and then I'll just show you all so you can see it if you go into the detailed indicator for each you can go in here it's going to tell you English language Arch achievement for non- high school and then you can see students with disabilities and part of the reason um the target was this e e e number Den we are scheduled for a 5 minute break at 8:00 p.m.
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parents and students began the evening together to hear about upcoming events and school goals for the 2024 2025 school year after the parents and students had the opportunity to follow their student schedule and meet with a staff on Monday October 7th a small group ofa's environmental science classes visited conversation center to attend rare and remarkable program aimed at teaching students about endangered or threaten species local to Connecticut and those that are a special concern students participated in games and activities geared to identified species as well as working with small teams to stimulate what would happen if a few species can or numbers decline a letter to govern go lont was drafted to ask to keep local species in mind making policies in our state especially in regarding those which are already in students and staff have the option to sign if they wanted to on Friday on Friday October 18th Melissa Pella and DJ will be taking eight students to a Dodge poetry clest students will have the opportunity to experience live spoken word as well as participate in writing workshops and meet with great well-known Co wrers H will be administrating our our schoolwide PSAT for 9th 10th and 11th graders on Wednesday October 16th a special thanks to Kyle and Diana for their hard work and plan of the day on our com day our seniors will be transported to DHS to participate in senior activities uring on that day after senior activities at DHS seniors will welome to a for guest speaker Scott bar for from n Valley Community College who will be speaking for the to the administration process of 2025 graduating seniors and our last one is during our time led by danela Diana Anda the students at Ace are creating for dream catchers to bring the C here the cancer center at Amber this is the fifth Ace school project with have kind and encouraging s written messages for the cancer patients caregivers and staff to read we plan to deliver these dream catchers on Thursday October 31st once delivered they will decorate the waiting room at F thank you for allowing us to share what is going on at our a family and have a nice evening stay healthy and remain a strong thank you for coming here and and giving us your for a uh first of all before you leave I would like for you to identify yourself so we could all hear your names okay and I know it's not easy getting up and you want to just say what you want to say and sit down but we want to be able to know your name when you come up before so okay my name is Ariana West and I am a senior ATO nice to meet you it's nice to meet you as well my name is Al and I am a junior at nice to meet you and thank you again uh before we move on in the agenda and um we had a donation here and it was part of the uh consent calendar and I would just like for that donation to be read out loudly and we we accepted that donation but I think it's very uh wellbeing that we acknowledge someone when they send some and do something for our children in our school system so Louisa would you read the U donation yes um accept we accepted a donation of $14,000 for the rich from the Richard J Moore family for the installation of a new scoreboard at Dam High School okay thank we move on down the agenda oh I'm we have um public participation uh Michelle Michael Michael sorry good evening good evening thank you for taking the time today so my name is michaelo and my wife Danielo um lifelong attic residency in denbur for the last 13 years um I have two daughters that go to uh that go to the danur school system I old this uh is a softare in high school high honors top 20 and I just have to commend the job that Dy High School does um and very appreciate about that um but for today I just wanted to bring for some concerns I had for my daughter Chloe hero she's in the seventh grade at Broadview Middle School cluster 4 um just to give you some background on my daughter she's driven she is a high honor student um and I'll give you the example that what she did last year she did a project on natural disasters for fire I when I was in probably wait till the last minute to do it she started working on it the first day she started working on the first day spent 3 hours a day probably 15 hours total to the fantastic job earn 100 science clo um where my concerns lie is we're about 40 days into the school year plus her minus and she's without a science teacher so she's had Subs mix and imch heading in documents you know kids playing your phone things like that um we brought forth our concerns to the administration we met both virtually in person open house uh most recently I sent an email um with my recommendations because I'm not getting Solutions um related to um so I said that to vice principal the superintendent and the mayor about 10 days to go not expecting an immediate response but still waiting for that response um but I just want to bring forth my concerns um because I don't want to fail my daughter and I do appear feel that if I don't take action um it could be a failure of my daughter as Administration we're failing her and everybody else in those classes um so I just wanted to that uh we just like to say we don't dialogue back and forth with you but we appreciate you bringing uh your concerns for your child to the board so um the superintendent will have someone contact you okay and and get get the information that she needs to um sort of work out this problem thank no just try to do our best you thank you thank you anyone else uh want to address the board see yes um in connection with the uh we didn't have a representative from the D High School um I learned I think one week no they don't they come second oh the second have the second there isn't there a week coming uh like a restaurant week uh where the money is going to part of the was it PTO or the where the high school gr yes it's it's like restaurant month or something like that one night a week is it this week yeah sorry it's this whole week so like it's different restaurants you can eat at and they donate back to the high school I thought that was important oh okay thank you thank you all right okay good evening let's go here you okay um okay uh this evening we'd like to welcome Melissa hanquin uh up you want to come on up and and get situated canel get your mic going Melissa is uh the executive director of the dbre collective this has been a really important work group for our school system members of our school system but also local organizations around town who are um building sort of a coalition of the willing to help chip away at some um some big issues that are kind of persistent uh for the school community and also community at large so uh I will turn it over to Melissa and she'll go over the work that the collective is engaging in thank you thank [Music] you let me just test this out okay great well good evening everyone board and community members um I'm so happy to be here again um at Dr C state name is Hanan I'm executive director of the D Collective um we are a new wish organization as of the last year that has launched here in danburry um and I want to just share a little about the work we've been doing and also extend an invitation to the board members as well as community members to get involved in work we're doing so if I can have you direct your attention to the screen I have a presentation um that will help give some visuals for some of the work that we're doing so I'm going to uh get through the material uh pretty concisely so I just want to start at the beginning if there's anything that I'm going through too quickly or that you have questions about you can definitely reach out to me we also have this presentation um included in the agenda and we also have it on our website okay so what is the D Collective we are a nonprofit Cradle to Career Collective impact organization that means that we are focusing on improving outcomes for young people from fredal when they're born and really before um in the prenal stage supporting families all the way up to career and whatever um young people are doing when they are done with high school um and moving on to the next stage in their life we are a collective impact organization which means that we follow a model for Community organization called Collective contest which means that we believe in bringing together stakeholders from our community and allowing community members to co-create solutions to the challenges we see in our community um Collective impact means as you can um probably tell from the the words it means that we're working collaboratively and collectively to make a difference we fall under the United Way of coastal Western Connecticut they serve as our backbone organization and support with many backend operations we believe that having them as our backbone is really helpful because they are a trusted organization here in Dany and across Coastal and Western Connecticut we are also a new member of the national strive together Cradle to Career Network this is a network of over 70 or ganizations across the country who are doing similar work to what we're doing here at D Collective and we are new members as of about two weeks ago so that has been uh several months in the make but we're really excited to join the community of five Cradle to Career Collective impact organizations here in Connecticut and the five of us do represent um some of the largest uh cities here in Connecticut we are um independent of the public schools and the City of Danbury but I always mention that we are in very close partnership with those institutions as well as with other nonprofit organizations and our community members here in danburry we know that it is so important for any Grassroots uh effort to have a good relationship with those institutions so we're really thrilled that over the last year we've been able to build that relationship um and with many of the folks here sitting in this room today and finally we are all about advancing Equity by learning together aligning and integrating our actions to achieve systems change so we are really looking at the big picture of why our young people face challenges and what we can do to take a systems level approach to solve them so just to State our mission um something that's really exciting about our mission and vision is that these were co-created with our community members so this was part of the multi-month process where our community members who were engaged in colletive came together and thought really um hard about what we wanted to stand for and what our goals would be so our mission is led by the community we work collectively to Foster positive measurable and sustainable life outcomes for dried children families and young adults and our vision of a perfect world is one in which all danur children the families and young adults have full and Equitable access to opportunities to be successful and thrive in life so during um so we launched officially in November of 2023 but prior to that there was a group of folks here in Danberry who came together and were doing a lot of the work on the back end to get us off the ground and something that happened in that initial year was doing focus groups with parents young people and community members we did A needs assessment to identify what the biggest priorities would be for our work because as you can imagine Cradle to Career Continuum is very large and we can FOC our efforts in many different places but the three priorities you see up on the screen right now were selected by our community and those are chronic absenteeism and learner engagement early childhood education and youth mental health these are particularly um important coming out of the co pandemic that's something we heard a lot from parents and so um we just want to you know make sure that these are the three that we are prioritizing right now that doesn't mean that we will always prze those but we are all about being responsive to our community and um changing as we need to um I'm going to skip through a little bit of the history and future um but this is all available again on our website and in the packet that you received as part of the agenda I will pause here for just um a highlight of some of the Milestones that we have accomplished together so right now we have over 50 individuals in janary who have signed our membership agreement that means that they are publicly committed to the work we're doing and that membership agreement is a way that um to outline really what our priorities are and how we will work together as a community so 50 people have signed on to that and we also have over 130 individuals who are engaging with the dam collective in some way whether it be as um a working group member which are focused on those three topics I mentioned or if they're receiving our newsletter and wanting to learn more so some of the Milestones I want to call out because again um I'm here speaking on behalf of our Collective there are many voices there we have our nonprofit Partners our city Partners schools partners and most importantly I would say is our community member and parent Partners who are coming and showing up every month in our working groups they are telling us what they think and so the Milestones I'm sharing today are really on behalf of the good work that everyone has done together I think it also demonstrates what's possible when we do work in using and Collective impact model so I'll run through these pretty quickly and then I want to open up four questions so first of all back in March of this year we hosted a winter convening for all of our members bringing together over 60 individuals um to one night where we were learning about what Collective impact is we heard from some of our elected officials joined working groups and parents were able to voice their opinions in breakout groups in May and leading into the summer we were able ble to secure some additional funding from um private and corporate family foundations that is an ongoing um effort that we are engaging in as you can imagine with nonprofit organizations that's part of the work every day supporting uh finding those support systems we also have joined the Connecticut Cradle to Career Coalition which um means we join our sister organizations bridor prospers Norwalk act Stanford Cradle to career and Water Bar Bri to success and in that coalition we are very much focused on um advocating for state level policy and Civic infrastructure that will benefit not just danburry um families but also families across the state we're also fortunate to be able to learn from those folks who have been doing this for 5 10 15 years while we are very new to it in August our chronic absenteeism and learner engagement working group published an attendance toolkit and parent brochure to support education on the importance of regular School attendance one of our goals for that group is to um contribute to reducing the percentage of students who are chronically absent in Den public schools and our goal within the next two years is to reduce to the pre-co rates of 7 8% of students chronically absent of course with the goal of getting to as low and Upp as possible that toolkit is now out in the world and there are a lot of ways that you as board members and our community members can share the information to ensure that all families feel supported in helping their their children get to school every day and feel like they're going to a place that is Welling and exciting to be at and then finally we um you know moving forward we are really looking at building our infrastructure getting more community and parent voice eventually want to get more youth voices we had a really great opportunity in the last two months to host some youth conversations with about 20 young people in Danbury who shared with one of our foundation Partners The Importance of Being connected and what their hopes and dreams are we hope that the voices that our D students shared will be elevated to the state level as the 19k commission on disconnected youth um just today released their report on what strategies we can take as a state to reconnect young people and so um we really are excited that D very young voices will be included in that conversation so with that my call to action for the group is um to really spread the word about work we're doing to parents and community members and to young people your students we really want to make sure that we have a representative body of folks who are coming in sharing their concerns we know that people who are facing challenges um often times know the best way to solve those and so we just really want to make sure we're bringing those people into our space um we strive for it to be a welcoming and inclusive space a safe space so um that is my call to action I also would um encourage you all to take a look at our attendance toolkit so that you can also um get very well versed in the language we're using around attendance so with that I'll stop but I welcome any questions and thank you again for the um opportunity to speak today uh where did we get the attendance tool kick information yes so I can share that we also um have it up on our website our website is hosted under the way of must Connecticut's webite but I can certainly share the link so that everyone has access to it we do have the toolkit in three languages as well English uh Spanish and Portuguese Mr yes hi how do you get the message out to the general public as to what you're doing uh so that the the work that you've done uh relative to at least one of the categories the absenteeism how is that given out to the public with the parents educating thank you educating the parents that it's important to send the uh the children to school as well as uh the the cultural differences that we have in Den how do you meet those challenges yes so we are building on the networks of trusted Messengers here in the community so some of the communities that we have tapped into are the community Messengers program out of United Way we are also tapping into some of the um d Public Schools offerings to parents including parent c um and pep so really tapping into what already exists we know that the way that people get their information is from trusted neighbors and community members so we as a collective really are reaching out through those Avenues um in terms of The Chronic asent as a toolkit we are doing targeted trainings with different groups so over the summer we did a group um training with our full Collective we are also targeting um um coaches for sports leagues and activities we are going to be doing a training with Early Childhood providers in two weeks so if there is a group that you feel would benefit from receiving a direct training we would be happy to come out and do that we're also utilizing the Train the trainer model where we are equipping our members to go out and train their communities as well in terms of our broader Outreach with the collective um I'm excited to share that we are building our marketing so we um are just now on social media so that we know that will be um a place that we can leverage relationships and get the word out um and also with our Global News organizations as well thank you I have a a few questions um and it's based on um what are the expectations that we should have um based on the colle grow I mean when can we expect tangible results from the collective that's one main question I'm going to say them all so um that's one when you say um um you guys are being partnered with different organizations and you get this um feedback from them and you said you guys are training um how exactly what is that base training that you guys are giving away Bas apps in face because I think that everybody has clear within um d Public Schools or um within um what you guys provide from the initial um Point um starting point because I believe that this was something brought out last year right and we never got pretty much much about I know this is like a pretty much overview of everything but I mean I know that is a lot of information and a lot of questioning but when can we expect results from this and I mean only like um get to train I mean um those individuals within their Collective when parents would actually understand that this is important or how you guys are contributing to that part um for the Denver public school system sure thank you and I'm sorry for no please no it's helpful so I'm actually going to oh sorry I think my presentation not sure if it's still available um I just wanted to show everyone what the brochure is that we put out around around chronic absenteeism um because I do think that is one example of a tangible result that we have accomplished in that working group so I will start by saying in our three working groups we are really focused on first diagnosing what the issues are surrounding those topics that includes those parent and youth focus groups um it includes discussion and bringing people into the conversation to make sure that we have everyone who's part of the ecosystem in D so that's kind of the first step our early childhood and mental health um groups are in that stage right now and so they are identifying what tangible results that they would like to see as a group one thing with the youth mental health group that we are working on is producing an asset map which would show um anyone who's looking at it in damate all of the different s resources that exist for different topics um that was something we heard from a lot of our members that it was really hard for parents and uh community members to navigate the many different resources that exist um I I should say we 100% believe that there are aming things happening in danburry and so our role is to really tap in and um make sure that we're leveraging those things and bringing people together to make sure they're aware of them in terms of chronic absenteeism um up on the screen right now is the brochure that we the first page of the brochure that we have published as a group so just imagine it folded three times um the goal of this trifold and it has been going out to to students and families through the schools and through our partner organizations the goal really is to First increase awareness we want to make sure we're all speaking the same language around attendant because um like you mentioned Rich there are many different reasons why students might be chronically absent and so we did um you know we wanted to make sure everyone's speaking the same language so you'll see here in the middle we have some language around who can support families and students it might be obvious to some people who are reading it but maybe not so obvious to others so it really is like you said starting from a baseline on the second page we have some um definitions around what chronic absenteeism is we know that if um a student is missing you know one day or two days per month it might not seem like a lot they're missing but it adds up to what chronic absenteeism is 18 days 126 instructional hours so this is just really putting it on paper what the problem is and how we can support that the final um comment that I'll say we are building our um data infrastructure which means we're working with our other partners in bridport and Stanford to make sure that we are both collecting and analyzing data everything we do as it was um mentioned in our missioning vision needs to be data driven so we are looking into ways that we can build that infrastructure so we can actually track our outcomes this group for example um set very definitive goals around what we would like chronic aesm to look like in the next two years so that group does have their um numerical goals but again those other two working groups are defining what they'll do yes I'm sorry I have two more questions my apologies um when you approach um when you said that you have are been creating awareness to organizations um I think that brought this um to the bo members and um last year um I have kids also uh Middle School age um organizations such as dentists doctors they plan ahead on um kids um scheduling in the mornings so these create apps and as well so that's one question if you have been um able to address those issues with within the organizations that provide the services to the community that's one and the other one is um how can parents know the differences maybe this is something more for you Dr how will they know the difference about chronic ABM if they go ahead and they say um listen I have like a family emergency or I'm going on vacation or something came up and I'm going to be out for a week and I cannot leave my child LEL so will that fall in the same category or because I know is that even though parents might call ahead would you get also um the on the um report card absent so I don't know if there a difference on in there thank you that be all it's a good question um so so all an absence is an absence is an absence so if you're missing school you're missing hours you're missing content um not only is it challenging for the student to make that up it's also challenging for the teacher to try to catch that student up as well and it's it's disruptive for the classroom so so you know one of the the goals and if you remember this is one of our proposed goals for the board and the district as well um together that we would promote um the ideals of the collective and what's so powerful about it is that so it's not so much that Melissa herself is doing that that work she's creating the conditions for Community agencies and groups to come together to talk about ways that we can strategize how do we tap our assets that we already have in the dist in the in the community um and how do we align our messaging so The Chronic absenteeism group was kind of first out of the gate so that group moved fairly quickly they often and they were able to to get together and U create the messaging The Branding and the common definition so when we say chronic absenteeism what does that mean it doesn't count I'm not intentionally keeping my child out of school I I have I'm going on a vacation and that's important to my family or I have to go visit family or I have to go out of the country because the the the time of year that that I need to do that so the goal is to increase the awareness about the effects of that in the hopes that maybe we make some different choices now also there could be some mitigating situations that a family's going through maybe they're having transportation issues maybe there's a there's something going on at home um part of our leap grant that we have right now what's so CR crucial about that is that folks are making contact with so if Teresa is has been out already uh it's the first month of school and she's been missing for 2 or 3 days we're we're going to make contact with Teresa's parents and hopefully Teresa to make sure that there's nothing going on to explain why this is so important and that we really would like to see Teresa back in school as soon as possible because we don't want that to affect her learning so it's really about creating the a the the the Forum and the conditions for the community agencies to get together to align where and when we can Target um this messaging when I had the superintendent meet the superintendent event on the 21st um if you recall I stuck a few of the slides from the toolkit in there to keep the common message uh you know going and to make sure that whenever we have an opportunity to get in front of parents we're bringing in those those messages and that's consistent over and over again so um hopefully the results for us will be that through this Collective work that we're doing uh between the phone calls the messaging um hearing it in the school system hearing it on the ball field from your coach because he knows that you've been out and we saying the same thing um or other work groups um that that eventually those numbers will come down because there's there shared understanding about the impact of that to re um have you also uh thought about the cellone use in schools we have not but I will say that in the youth mental health working group um the topic of social media bullying and increased anxiety and depression has come up many times from bul parents and community members in the group so it's not been something we have talked about specifically but that's been um social media certainly has come up as a concern okay Richard has a question on then I just want to say that I been part of this group since it's Inception working with the the absente group the awareness is one of the key things that we were focusing on uh the the key concept here was we put in a lot work as to find out what created this and why it was created and until you point about the various medical appointments we have it is a a an issue that they're done principally in the morning um the the other thing that played an important part was the cultural differences I remember Emmanuel coming in and explaining the the the culture that when people come here from different countries what they're accustomed to not necessarily ours so there was a lot of time that was spent going into to the different causes that would do this so that they could identify them and then essentially go out and I want to say attack them but then to to make the awareness as to what you should do and how you can prevent this I remember one of the sessions we had was to try to to uh engage in conversation with the medical providers so that they could be a little bit more flexible and make these appointments you know outside of School uh School District but there was a lot of research work that went into the particularly when I was involved was the absentee group and I'm sure the other two categories were done as much but it's awareness and that's why I asked before to explain how we get this message out and and then work with it was important that the board of education at that time prior to car uh Kevin wson uh had attended these meetings uh and it was important that we had the representations of the district as well as the mayor from the city representing so that we had a Buy in to this particular program um and it it's apparently successful but it's going to take some time thank you commissioner I just want to comment too I'm on the committee Lissa and and Rich and uh it's been really a great experience uh the only thing I don't see that was mentioned that we did actually spend a lot of time on is in incorporating the student and getting the student to be excited about being in school so that has to do with that character that Emanuel help to design and the different stages that the character goes through and I know you're looking to kind of reinforce that through social media um but also what was exciting was bringing in the Board of Ed to try to help with that communication or trying to assist in what we were talking about medical um concerns or you know trying to get to and from school and how possibly you know we can use um students that maybe are doing uh have a lot of doctor's appointments as part of their you know um life and um how we can reinforce that how we can help with that communication so it it's really been a great great program I know we were I think at 24% absenteeism after Co last I heard we were around 17 so um I just obviously feel that this is a great program and it's going to get out community so thank you another question basically dat D um can we tell probably from next year can we tell the difference on um what is um sickness for the kids right cuz I know that prior to now everybody did not send their kids either they have cold or so it was based on that data that most so that we took abs and now those St should be C down are we going to be able to see the difference because I know that now say oh no my kid just have two I want understand anything so can we compare those to what used to be pre pandemic and post pandemic um based on a specific signs without the pic yeah I'll put it over to theend yes definitely so part of the messaging and in the training in the toolkit is a recognition that you know there was a point in time when the child had a sniffle in the co during the p and birth no keep him home and so we're trying to now break that cycle of the you know with the opposite like come on get your get your shoes in we go to school you're fine uh unless there's a fever or there's something very definitive so it's really about the mindset and sort of the retraining around um the School attendance and also we you know we have some some hot spots kindergarten right some people uh parents don't always see that as a mandatory thing but it does have an effect on on children uh nth grade is another Hot Zone 12th graders um tend to tend to also be out a lot so um you know we're working on that and we certainly have pre and post pandemic data and a lot of the work that we're doing now is is getting back to pre-pandemic levels that's the goal let's at least get back there and then set some new goals once we get there thank you yeah and I I would just say I would love to look at um to segregated data as well around the reason for individual absences because we have been targeting our work based on um the age groups that superintendent mentioned as well as different schools that have different Trends and so one thing that the group is really interested in is looking how many absences are due to Ill versus some other reason so that's something that we love to consider in the future thank you any other questions meliss on behalf of the board I certainly appreciate you coming and doing your presentation thank you very much have a good night thank you for standing committee I'm going to start with sites and Facilities we're scheduled to have our first uh sites and Facilities meeting on October 17th um it'll be on site at danor high school and we will be having a kind of interactive meeting we're going to take a tour of all the improvements that have been done over the summer and talk about uh plans moving forward and uh what's on the agenda so hope to see everybody there thank you community relations um so I don't have any update from the last meeting um but our next meeting is tomorrow evening at 6m thank you can I something to the just for little um I was ask to the chair just to see if we can meet on some of the housing of just to give you an update they are looking into some of their facilities to see when we as a board might be able to go and introduce yourself like a say um get to know each other mingle up and get to know the community so once I have theate I will pass it on to Katie and from there on she will be able to give you more information thank you um so we had a meeting uh last week at we um and we talked about a couple policies that we will see on tonight's action uh items our next meeting will be November 6th okay thank you br oh it's the next finance committee meeting is October 16th at 6: p.m.
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students teachers and guest speakers will present on topics ranging from tabletop role playing games to origami making to the history of jazz drumming our keynote speaker is this year is Leni bantes which I'm very sorry for mispronouncing um a local Puerto Rican you young adult author who just published a spooky romance called till the last beat of my heart and the trivia club team continues to meet weekly during lunch to study we've been focused on literature simple machines geography and Science and Math um we've had four regulars routinely showing up and are making a lot of strong progress and finally a new club at GS is the students of Color Club um they Sorry students continue to work on the lesson plan to address racial ized language in the school for eighth grade advisories um the group will be presenting to Administration and then the whole faculty in a couple of weeks and they wanted to spend send a special thanks to the recent activities Fair which helped gain um new membership if you have any questions for me or about the report I'd be happy to answer any questions for Shane thank you very much uh because of the public interest in the school resource officer question I'd like to hear a motion to move um item 7A School res office school resource officer in schools from where it is to uh to now so moved is there a second second all right can we have a a roll call vote on that please I'm sorry who made the motion uh an and then seconded by Melody okay all right so the motion is to bring the topic up for now yep okay uh roll call vote uh member Goodwin yes member Childs yes member seon yes chair Johnson musan yes Vice chair Martini yes mayor dorer yes and I'm a yes so that passes unanimously to move it up to now okay um so the item list Ed on the agenda is school resource officer in schools um there was a motion made by um mayor dorer and seconded by Melody Goodwin that the school committee began a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate the potential addition of a of a school resource officer to our school district um that motion was made and discussed at the last meeting um the vote on it was 3 three um my summary and I'd welcome others to fill in context or share your perspective but was that um because the school committee has very recently deliberated about whether or not to have school resource officers in schools um the motion was essentially whether the school committee wants to take this up as a a com comprehensive uh study and deliberation process um the discussion as described in our minutes was previous school committee has discussed and voted not to have SRO in schools cautioned to members not to openly discuss school security systems does police presence in schools prevent School prevent shooting tragedies and police in schools can be triggering to some students so with that um I guess since the motion was about whether or not we should take up a major deliberation and study process um I just would encourage members to um uh I guess to keep the focus on that the the question is whether or not we should really study it and bring it back up again um and so we're taking that up I guess uh could I have a I mean I I think we can just maybe the mayor knows a little more about Robert's Rules of Order how do we take up an item that was tabled is does just having it on the agenda sufficient may do you know no you have to take it from the table okay so I'd like to have a motion to take that um take that motion uh from the table um motion from Member Goodwin is there a second motion from Member child's and I uh can we have a roll call vote on that please member Den whether to take up that motion again okay uh mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member Childs yes member seon yes chair John sad yes Vice chair Martini yes and I'm a yes okay so it's unanimous to be taken off the table all right it is on the table um or it's off the table we're looking at it uh so any uh additional discussion on this item member Childs so I did a little bit of digging because I needed the contextual background for myself so what I found is that uh the on basically I went back to 2020 where uh the there was a budgetary issue for the SRO position where previously it had been half funed Police Department half funded school department police Department was saying it was no longer in their budget and uh pretty much what ended up happening was December 31st 2020 then Governor Baker uh signed a police Reform Bill that eliminated the SRO requirement in schools which kind of gave Greenfield uh the leeway to be like okay let's not have it in the budget then uh jump to fall of 2021 uh there's more talk about Behavioral difficulties safety challenges in school and the resolution that unanimously passed November 22nd 2021 was and this is quoting directly from the minutes of that meeting Casey moved as part of a multi-tiered support system sensitive to equity issues in our schools that the school committee direct the superintendent to begin discussions with the chief of police on Safety and Security Support options from his department for our schools and report back to the school committee uh jump to Spring 202 2 January there was just a very short update and the bigger update came in the February 9th 2022 meeting time stamp uh 35:14 if you want to jump right to it that the summary was that the school would need to support any uh position financially as police department could not support that Staffing I went through four years of meeting minutes and meetings um I did not watch all those meetings I'm not that insane turns out YouTube has a lovely transcript you can search for terms the searches that I did just so that if anyone wants to replicate them they can were for SRO and for police that was the last I found of this um of this report that we were expecting back from the superintendent for Safety and Security Options uh from the police department for the schools so Karen do you happen to remember anything that uh Dr Dr DeBarge managed to come up with past that or was the financial issue the roadblock to my recollection it was the financial issue okay so yes history lesson over thank you for that context appreciate your research other yes remember ston it turns out that Anna and I were sort of doing similar Research In Parallel um um and this is why scientists should talk to each other um um I went back a little bit further to 2018 this was when greenfields still did have an SRO they had one at the time and the question on the table was whether to go from 1 to three and there was quite a bit of at one of the school committee meetings which I did watch because I'm a glutton for punishment sometimes um I did watch that and there was a additional testimony given at the city council meeting around that same time and the ments from the public then were an against in broadening the um the numbers of sros that we had and that had nothing to do with whether or not it was a budgetary matter and that had everything to do with what people were advocating for in our schools um and I I do want to say that I do deeply sympathize with what the family and particularly those students are going through and I can't know none of us can know for certain if having an Sr would have prevented that incident and it certainly wouldn't have done anything around the issue of communication with our administrators that is being reported to us um I also I would personally like to hear more from I believe that there were some members of our current committee who were part of the previous formation of the committee that was that did some of that study um when this question was being taken up in 2021 2022 Etc um so I would like to hear more about you know are any of those questions that were undertaken are any of those unsettled um or have we heard anything that was not previously addressed that was addressed in that prior um study that was done um every time that this issue has come up it has been somewhat divisive for our community and every time it's come up we've also heard I would say the majority and all of the vast majority of the emails that I have received about this issue have been not to have an SRO in our schools so I just want to be clear that we are hearing from many many we are hearing from lots of sides all sides lots of perspectives but the vast majority that I have heard are not to reopen this discussion remember goodwi there's a piece of the history because I lived it which was not just about SRO but attendance officers and one of the the key issues is for children who aren't attending school if you call a DCF worker or a social worker they can knock on the door but it takes a a police officer to find out what's going on behind the door for many of our children and so I know in my school budget I offered to cut things to get a a school attendance officer because I felt strongly there were over 40 children who were chronically absent in my school and I needed help and that was the only person I thought who could give us the help we needed so I know that that was spoken because I spoke to it at different meetings so that wouldn't have shown up under your police search it would have showed up under an attend thank you member deneve I recall a little bit of this history when we discussed this last time we were flooded with students who came to speak to us so many students came and spoke and they were all against it and you might think well of course the children don't want this going on but they had very compelling reasons and they came to us with trauma from police encounters and fear that things would only get worse if there was an SRO on campus so my initial thought is I want to hear what the students have to say and my first priority is always the success of our student body and then the second priority in my mind was what did the teachers have to say and they came and were very present and said that they did not want this so that's where we were with the public comment last time that we visited this the other part there are three parts to it that I really recall the public comment the second part was that financially it wasn't something that we could do we couldn't even keep Spanish in the Middle School like we were having real budgetary problems um so it wasn't really feasible to do it um the other issue was that we weren't provided data that this would be worthwhile so if we're going to discuss this I'd like to know specific dates when in the last 10 years the response time for having an SRO on site versus dispatch has made a difference I'd like to know actual data about that because we have not been given data by our police chief or by anyone from the GPD nobody's given us actual data I've been sent articles you know that I can easily go and find on my own that's it no actual data about our community specifically so that would be the place to even start so those are the three points the students didn't want it the teachers didn't want it we couldn't afford it and there was no data so those are three boxes that are going to have to be seriously checked and uh researched before I think we go through with this and I understand that when people think about protection and safety for some communities ities that looks like sro's that looks like policing like some communities want that I understand it works in some places maybe I don't know but from what I've seen here that's not what that's not what people want and I I hope that um I hope that we can strengthen our relationships with our student body and I hope that we can empower the administration to reach out to the greater student body and improve communication and I hope that we can hire more behavioral specialists guidance counselors that's what I'd like to do with that money thank you a reminder that the motion we're speaking to is whether to take up this uh begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate the potential of an SRO in our school district member childs would it be possible mayor would it be possible to alter the resolution to make a little bit of a friendly Amendment so it's not quite so SRO specific and uh gear it more towards uh investigating what we could do to improve safety and also studying where the safety concerns are because I didn't know about that attack that happened at the high school so I I do think we need more information and I think this resolution as is is far too limiting and inflexible especially when we don't know we're voting without knowing what the specific program in mind would be and what alterations like okay I'm biased towards the Comfort dog anything that gets kids able to pet a puppy I'm gonna want to figure out how to and sorry aside from that I'm being very ineloquent here um my issue here is where I know you wanted us to be focusing on this narrowly but we do need a broader approach to what are all of the variables at play How could we make the schools safe what will work for Greenfield specifically and what are greenfields needs and just a simple yes down should we discuss SRO is so limiting and it closes down a discussion that I'm worried we won't reopen to look at other things that can be done to improve safety or other areas where the kids are vulnerable where we can help them sorry if that made no sense to answer your question members can um ask the person who made the motion whether they would accept a friendly Amendment and then that could be um accepted by them and this and the person who seconded you just need to be completely clear about what the um amendment is that you're requesting and now to the mayor so um Ian thank you for all the research that you did on that um that was rather impressive um so I think it it's important for us as school committee members that that we actually have all of the information uh to make up to to make up our minds about about something I think it was interesting to note I heard what iann said I don't think most of us knew that that this event occurred that there were in injuries and that two people went to the hospital and I think that's an important step for us to start with how can we make up our minds if we don't know why there's a real imp important thing here in a Hospitality of HIPPA there's different things that we have in the school about what we should know or shouldn't know but as school committee members um knowing that there's an altercation with injuries is something I think we should be informed about um that would help us make up a make up our minds I would accept a friendly amendment I think that listening to the stories tonight um I I I think get we want our police to to have a presence even if it was at the beginning and the end of school with the with the there um with Frank but um we should be taking a look at this and um it it sounds to me if we needed somebody somewhere it it it might be at the high school so I would be in favor of taking a look at that and taking a look at it in a different format before and after school or or in school but I think we owe the the the children that to take a look at that and protect their safety and I also think that as school committee members um we should take a look at what we would ask to be informed about not details but um injuries thank you I'm just gonna say that um what the public can come and speak to us about in public comment is very broad you can come and tell us anything you want tell stories but as school committee members we just need to continue to be careful about um restoring the the boundaries between our role in terms of setting B policy and budget and not getting involved in the day-to-day operations and um it's really the superintendent's purview to um oversee the uh response to situations that like the ones that were mentioned in public comment it's not our job to kind of get into the details of a particular incident at a particular school are there any other comments member den and then um I have a comment after Martini first please go ahead oh okay um well I wanted to say thank you to member child for doing that research and also for your um s you're a suggestion of a friendly amendment to this motion because I also think that it's um not comprehensive to entertain a study that is only of the possibility of bringing back an SRO or sro's to Greenfield um if that's the only thing that's being studied then that's very limiting um in terms of of what the district can do to increase safety and uh I would I would be um interested in a much broader truly comprehensive discussion about that um I do want to say that um Greenfield does have safety plans in place but we don't necessarily talk about them in a public forum because that would reduce security for the district so that's something that the committee has addressed um regularly in um our executive sessions and something that are former superintendent I haven't had a chance yet with our our new superintendent but um but that our former superintendent made herself very available to me personally to um ask lots of specific questions about so that I could feel uh like I really understood where we stand with the comprehensiveness of our security practices um I have heard a lot of um folks talking about essentially two things one is um School behavior um and the other one being gun violence and in terms of school behavior um I member Childs I can um share my Recollections about our previous discussions on this committee about that because what's most memorable for me is our um discussion in 2021 because um like many other schools we were experiencing a very high level of very challenging behaviors um in school and uh so there was there was quite a cerous public discussion about that and uh my recollection aligns with member geneves uh we had a lot of students in particular come and speak to us and uh I my my Recollections that the majority of them probably the overwhelming majority did not want to have a police officer in their school um and in terms of gun violence and that's something that I think we have to rely on data about and um and actual real um things that we have learned uh hopefully from others experiences uh I it is not forgotten for me that having an SRO in Parkland did not help uh having an entire school police department in U valdi did not help um to prevent those tragedies from occurring so um I am not at all convinced that having an SRO would prevent something like that uh here or anywhere else um and I would also like us to remember a couple of things um that are really important uh and for me this comes from my experience um partly as a social worker um like one of our public commenters tonight I spent a lot of my career working with um children and families for whom um interactions with the police are very threatening and anxiety-provoking and um I would be really worried about the impact on vulnerable um students in some of our populations because of that and I would also just like to respond to one comment um from another member about um making calls to DCF and uh having that not be effective to have a social worker knock at the door and needing a police officer to get in and find out what is wrong um having been a DCF social worker for a very long time um and having responded to many reports of um students not attending school I would just like to say that I never once had the need to involve a police officer in order to address that problem and uh so I would I just wanted to note that um now I would like us to remember in light of those experiences of mine that Greenfield Public Schools has a history and a very recent history of engaging in disproportionate exclusionary discipline against students of color and disabled students we only just got um out from under scrutiny from the state about that and uh I would like us to be very mindful that we're not far away from those issues and in fact we still have largely segregated schools in Greenfield and we just heard our student representative talking about uh the need to address racialized language at ghs um we have to be really cognizant of how um those students will be how certain students will be affected um potentially by having an SRO and lastly um I have previously asked this committee to view every decision through a lens of how disabled students will be affected and that's because I come from the perspective of being a parent of two children with disabilities uh and from the perspective of having um uh two beloved nephews who like one of our public commenters are autistic and would um very likely have some of their mannerisms and behaviors be misinterpreted by uh a person who could harm them in interactions with police so uh I would really um I would really like the committee to please Center students with disabilities when they're considering this decision um who according to um research that I am aware of are more likely to face U punitive and negative uh interactions with an SRO so uh those would be my comments um I would not support the motion as is thank you thank you member Neve um I wanted to speak to the amendment um I agree with member Childs that we should have a comprehensive discussion about uh what's going on because I I didn't know about um what occurred at the high school either um I also know that there are a number of things around that that are not in our purview but I'd like to know uh the details of how and when and um we will be informed of things that rise to a certain threshold and the problem that I have is with the amendment I think that the original motion of bringing up discussion of whether or not to add an SRO into the school if we've brought that off the table then we need to have a vote about that specific motion and then I'd like to see another motion made about having a comprehensive discussion of security measures revisiting them and seeing if there are new things that we can apply um but having them smushed together I think is just a way to also just open the door to whatever so I think that we should just take independent votes on that um but I could not support the motion as is any other discussion just to be clear there has not been a request for an amendment to the motion so the motion we're we've taken up from the table still stands um so let's if people are ready we can go ahead and vote on that okay um so the motion was that the school committee begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate the potential addition of an SRO school resource officer to our school district District so a yes vote would say that the school committee will begin the comprehensive study and deliberation process and a no vote would mean that we would essentially not take that up and not begin working on that in depth any questions before we vote so sorry I'm trying to figure out the way because I had my question a moment ago um so the sorry we will be able to make a new Amendment right after this vote then not Amendment sorry New Motion right after this vote then uh we could hear motions related to the topic of school resource officer in schools um we can also you know under new business members can make motions that we take up other items such as you know something else okay I think it will be related enough to SRO that there will be a new motion after okay okay all right so we'll now vote on the motion that is currently on uh that we're currently looking at um member denif would you please call a roll call vote of course um Vice chair Martini no member Goodwin yes member Childs no member seon no chair Johnson mad no uh mayor dorer yes and I am a no so the motion fails thank you member Charles you have another motion okay I would like to move that the school committee begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process of what our safety needs are and evaluate what potential Solutions will improve our safety measures is there a second second discussion mayor did you say something oh you second okay no I just seconded in motion okay is there any discussion I have a question uh the secret recording secretary has a question yes Susan Barber I would like member child's please to repeat that motion slowly sorry um because I was partially cribbing it so school committee began a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate safety needs and what solutions would work in Greenfield to address those needs so that way everything's on the table okay discussion and I think member Martini I just had a question um which relates to what I said earlier about the need for the committee to keep our uh safety procedures uh especially certain parts of them um out of a public forum in order to maintain security uh in the district and I don't I don't really know how um how that would work so I wondered if the superintendent would have any input on that I would think all of those convers ations would have to be executive session thank you and member ston I I want to tease apart for a moment a couple of I think notes that are getting all jumbled up in this conversation now the shift from from SRO in particular to safety which is an as yet actually undefined term that we're using we have not set for ourselves what we mean by safety yes physical safety is a certain part of that um absolutely making sure that students are not needing to go to the emergency room as a result of a thing that has occurred on school grounds that is like bare minimum um but I think we're also talking about safety emotionally safety among peers um safety of expression and and being able to learn about themselves as human beings um there there are a number of different things and I I wonder I am curious as if part of the motion as you're intending it to be having a conversation among the broader community that is defining safety that that that points to an even wider rate because I also want to point out that um when the school district chose not to fund a school resource officer they did have two other positions that were created one of which I don't believe still exists but we did have a racial pra like a restorative practices facilitator position that was created and we did have a community connections coordinator or Community Advocate I forget exactly the title but those positions were also intended to serve in this sort of role and I would love to hear more about how that went if they don't still exist or if they do still exist like what's going on with that um and I also just want to lay out that you know that that was only two years ago that we did that and it takes a lot longer than two years for those kinds of programs to have immediate impact um but I can I can tell you that while it does take more than two years for systemic impact I'm also in the school three days a week I'm at Federal Street I volunteer there and even just me being with those kids for the few couple of weeks that we've actually been in school um you know I've got some regular kids that now come up to me and we we chat every time I'm there like we're Buds and they can tell me things and it provides them like I'm not a not a police officer I've never trained in that way but I'm still now someone that they feel close to Safe they can trust we talk about emotions we help put in feel we put name like words to the feelings they're experiencing when they're peeved off by a peer that sort of thing and I feel like when we're talking about safety those kinds of interactions are ones we need to talk about as well and I'll just wrap up real quick as a plug if you're in the community or you are a parent and you have even an hour hour or two in your week come be with the kids even if they're not your own kid and and that is part of how we keep each other safe as well that's how we keep our kids safe other discussion um can you repeat the motion please that the school committee begin a comprehensive study and deliberation process to evaluate safety needs and what solutions would work in Greenfield to address those needs oh sorry I did have a direct question to the maker of the motion and I wanted to give them an opportunity to respond I think it would be impossible to look and see what all of the safety concerns are if you aren't opening the discussion to allow the public the teachers the students to tell you what the those concerns are so I do believe there would be a public part of the discussion though of course there would be some specifics that would have to be an executive session for legal reasons but we do need to allow the community to give their opinions to give their experiences we can't shut people down especially not on a topic that concerns their kids safety physical or emotional because they're tied together I'm going to comment um I'm not supportive of the motion as presented it just it it's such it's a very broad uh discussion um safety just covers so many different things I also feel like part of what we we are running into tonight is um some of the questions and challenges for us as a school committee in terms of deliberation on the topic what items get discussed in full committee what items get discussed in executive session and um I think that it probably will take more time and thought to craft a motion that will be specific enough to really give us what our charges as a school committee and if we're taking this on um I guess separate from that I do have questions about whether we should be taking this on it seems to me that the primary reasons this has come up is because there was a disturbing and upsetting school shooting that took place in one community and then since the last um meeting there people are reporting on an incident that happened in a school and I'm not sure that necessarily represents that this is a strategic question that the committee should be taking up I don't know relative to other school districts how um unusual it is for physical fights to break out in schools um I uh so in in high schools I I'm assuming that's quite a common experience so um I guess I one thought I have is whether we might um direct an if she's willing to do it to spend the month kind of studying the question and coming up with a proposal for the committee about um what that work would be and what it would look like and how it would be done and um we could evaluate whether that discussion needed to happen in an open session or an executive session um so I guess my question is um whether you might consider withdrawing your motion for the moment and accepting that charge over the next month I would be willing to do the work um and I would be willing to withdraw the motion to in order to give the time to do the work unless I have a fellow Committee Member who who strongly feels that we need more action sooner in which case I would like them to have the chance to state that before I withdraw it just to be fair for anyone else anyone want to speak to that I'm not seeing any objection okay so I will withdraw the motion and spend the next month putting together what this could look like Community please email me do my work for me sorry just kidding can I make a request member Martini yes I would just like to ask that um part of that information include what other school committees have actually done um in uh similar studies if you can find that and uh because I I always want to know where does precedent lie with other school committees and I would also appreciate um um some input from the Massachusetts Association of school committees if you wouldn't mind requesting that from uh I'm not sure who would be the best person Liz leond or um someone else at masc who could please advise I'll work my way down the contact tree until I hit the right person okay thank you okay thank you for a wonderful and constructive conversation um we're not responding to the chat in the zoom unfortunately we just aren't capable of doing that right now um we'll move on to reports of the administration and I'm not oh there's Andy okay Andy can you come off mute and make your uh yes Andy pette business manager good evening can you hear me yes we can hear you excellent so you have in there as I mentioned at the last meeting we've got a a different report that we've included for consideration and honestly recommendation going forward uh but the first part the first page of the report is the standard revolving account gift account and scholarship account information as of October 7th then the next pages are the school capital accounts uh that had been requested that we provide to you monthly uh then starting on after the sixth page of that first report you have the original monthly update format that was used and we've used prior um when you scroll through Andy I'm sorry to interrupt could you give a little more orientation rather than saying the first second or third one okay sure so the first page is the standard revolving account gift account scholarship account report do you see that that's a stand standard that has the school launch Athletics all the revolving Accounts at the top section at least when I got it through the school material packet that's how it's coming up okay and for people in the room this is kind of what it what it looks like yes correct one page that's correct okay then the next pages are the capital accounts the next page one two three four five we're just looking at hard copies that I don't think are the same that you're looking at so you need to describe what's at the top of the page so we so the top of the sorry okay the top of the page has fy07 borrowing order it's Elementary School windows Yep and then fy21 Capital outlay order so on and so forth and that that next report is is six pages so those are all the capital articles that in capital expenditure budgets that were requested that we provide to you monthly yep then the next 14 pages are the I'm going to say the old way of reporting the monthly update so the first page looks like the uh it has the north parish and it's NP teaching staff you know cut off I'd say as far as the description goes with the total North Parish of the 1210 348 yep we got it okay so that is the normal report that we provide to you and it's 13 pages I apologize so just for discussion purposes this was in our recommendation based on the workshop that we did as far as potentially exploring changing the way that we look at it I'm giving this to you as like a reference as to this is the way that we've done it but then when you look at the next section Yep this is our recommended approach to how we would like to go forward because if you look this actually breaks it out by cost center by salaries and wages contracted services and supplies and materials this in my opinion in our opinion is easier to digest because it's segregated by personnel and non-personnel expenses and we've gone a little further and on personnel and contracted services and supplies and materials thank you so as to so that's the I'm GNA say the the layout and I I I guess our recommendation would be to go forward with that this this version that has the salary wages contracted services and supplies and materials so I can now if you will I would want to I can get into giving you the update as to financially where we stand um if you look and see I mean we're proceeding along um this again I want to refer back to the workshop where uh the hats off to the payroll we've got salaries encumbered we have most of our known contractual obligations encumbered where when you get to the bottom you see that we have you know a remaining balance of 54,2 68 but we've got just over $20 million fully encumbered that's good practice that's good practice to have our known expenses encumbered for at this point in the year now the next step as we've always talked about and with uh we've just hired a replacement in the payroll to help out we are now going through in doing as I've said the the realigning of the Personnel because we are we know our grants now grants have been written and approved and so we're going through and then going to be re reallocating positions and realigning with all the hirings that have occurred through the summer so this is all I'm going to say good news as to far as operationally how we are proceeding uh with uh the status of the budget and the management of it as as we stand right now and again I always want to say I tip my hat because this is the way that Greenfield has always done it uh and so with that I can answer any questions you might have as to any of the specifics member deneve hi Andy thanks for coming on doing your budget uh update virtually um you are a member of our admin team right I would be considered as one I guess I would say yes we're no different than a traditional business manager position so we receed W written excuse me we receive written reports from our superintendent and our assistant superintendent we receive budget lists from you why don't we receive a written report from you I I don't know what's happening and I don't have any way to go back and acquaint myself with what has happened in the past because there's nothing in written form it's just line items that's my first question I think that's not a question for Andy I think that's a question for us as a committee we've never directed the business manager to uh provide that and so I think Andy has given to us what we have accepted in the past um for budget so we can deliberate and decide whether we want to request some type of narrative from the business manager but okay that's that's totally fair I definitely am ready to make a motion about that when the time comes um my other question is there are some things in the warrants that I have questions about um what is mtrs filing mtrs filing that is the filing are you talking about the the invoice from TMS for that yeah there's a number of invoices from TMS for mtrs filing yes that's because there it was brought to the attention of the district that the mtrs filing was about two years in a re prior to us getting there and the district didn't have the personnel to do that and we have that uh capacity so that was not that is not in our standard contract that we have with the district so that falls under the special projects Clause of our contract so we have staff people that are helping the district get caught up with its mtrs filing um does it require any sort of special certification to perform mtrs filing nope so it's a data entry position no it's more than data entry it's it's reconciling information uh doing research on variances from what it is that would be listed as contractual and retial earnings versus non- retial and making sure that what is being categorized as mtrs eligible is indeed mtrs eligible and if there are variances then there are research that's required as to why there would be a variance of you know whether or not it's a stien for something and was that stien listed in a contract and therefore eligible for mtrs or not I just I ask because it's $141 an hour job and so I just want to find out the details behind it so I can understand it so I appreciate you answering those questions I have two more questions sure go ahead then we'll move to member Goodwin um there was some significant warrants for bills for graphic design and I'm wondering what it was for there is a football ad that I'm wondering if the graphic design was for that um you're asking about the invoices from TMS yeah so the focus of this agenda item is on the business manager report the the we do have a contract with the agency that Andy happens to work with for work that is directed by the superintendent but it is a contract that was signed off on by the school committee so I just ask members to keep your questions focused on the report from the business manager on the business of the schools so how do we get how do we discuss these because we're expected to put our signatures to them and I have questions because I don't feel comfortable putting a signature to warrants that are written this way I as we've discussed many times before at these meetings anytime a member has any question about any invoice that they're signing off on on the warrant this superintendent is high accessible to answer those questions as is Andy so I say that would be probably the place to start if you if the if the problem Rises to a level of something that affects the school district policy um budget so on that would be an appropriate item for the school committee so let me make sure I understand so if I have a question about an invoice I'm to ask him but not now well it's that right yes that's correct it would be a one-on-one question I think because what we have before us is an agenda for the school committee which our role on the full school committee is to set policy to set budget and to evaluate the superintendent so getting into the details of invoices and what is this for and what's that for I think would be more appropriately handled in a one-on-one question if something came out of those questions that really became a uh in the purview of the school committee I think that would be appropriate okay I I have to respectfully disagree with you because I'm having a one-on-one conversation with them and there are things and this is budgetary and there are things that are not I think well I have questions about so um if you want me to write my questions down and call him I mean it wouldn't be any different than this but I'll respect that but I disagree with it but happens to work for a vendor that the school committee has a contract with to provide services to so the questions about graphic design are really not related to the agenda item that we're discussing right now which is the business manager report not not the it's not a report of the contractor it's a report of him in his role as business manager on the business of the schools okay any other questions relevant to that I'm not hearing any and uh member Goodwin so I I just attended chartering the course on Saturday so this is very much in my head and one of the statements um that that I took to my heart was we are responsible for approving warrants and if we have questions we should get questions answered because it's our job for oversight of this I just feel like every time I see warrants they've already been approved but my name is on things I have questions about so I guess I'm trying to figure out if we're not having com conversations here the next month is going to come they're going to get signed and these are things that keep showing up every month they're not something that just shows up once so I guess I'm I'm trying to put transparency in my questions and I am not comfortable with my name on some of these warrants and so I'm being told I'm legally when somebody you're all signing my name when you sign so that is making me uncomfortable so um I think this is a topic for uh recommendations for future agenda items so I would suggest that we bring it up then um and uh we can we can discuss those concerns at that time um I'm just conscious o wanting to respect open meeting law and what we did was create an agenda and told people what we're going to be discussing and we are moving into discussions that haven't the public hasn't had a chance to be made aware of um for example our policies and procedures around warrants and such so yeah member ston um I had a a question about the Federal Street elevator and just where that process is at um speaking of school safety I I don't want our cafeteria workers to have to keep carting the milk upstairs the RFQ or I should say the RFP has been uh turned over to the interim CPO on a city Side and he's reviewing for publishing uh he understands the urgency of getting that done thanks any other questions on the report of the business manager okay let's see my agenda I guess we're moving on to assistant superintendent good evening I'm gonna just try to share my screen in the zoom okay thank you for your patience so in terms of my report I the report I submitted I'll take in reverse verse order um because I listed the recruitment second and the accountability first but um we're going to talk a little bit more about the accountability just wanted to notify the committee that I attended Mass hires fall multi-industry job fair last Thursday at Hampshire mall in an effort to fill vacant positions um it was a good opportunity to engage in prospective candidates uh we had generated some interest from everything from custodial positions that are open to IAS lots of questions um so certainly checking in with principles about names that we collected there U Mass hire does a good job of opening it up and getting a wide variety of Industries to these job fairs and they're planning another one in early November at Greenfield Community College so my hope is that it is in our backyard that might generate some other interest if all our position aren't full by then in terms of District accountability uh I just have it really is at a glance I think the data that comes out from desie in terms of accountability um you can go to pretty significant depths um this presentation does not do that but I am certainly happy to have the conversation um I think it's important it was an important opportunity to preview the accountability findings to the committee um ultimately these are the ratings that determine um what supports or interventions a district or a school may require from desie or um you know on the other end schools of recognition also through the accountability we touched on this a little bit last last month when we talked about neas but I think this is a pretty comprehensive report that desie does and the information the data was just released publicly about two and a half weeks ago so um I'll go through the presentation happy to answer questions there is a lot of information but I I do admit it is scratching the surface but I figured it was a good place to start so in terms of the accountability system itself is it's bringing together a number of measures in order or in an effort to provide clear and actionable information to dist and schools about performance in a number of areas um and not just those areas but how are your subgroups how are all students doing in those areas and it really breaks down those details um to the granular level ultimately the accountability results answer two questions how is the school or District doing and what kind of supports um does that school or District need in terms of our Rel relationship with the accountability system in terms of our strategic plan this is a a a brief I would say crosswalk I think the development of the Strategic plan clearly had some of these data points in mind because it touches on a number of issues from in curriculum instruction instructional supports um and Communications and Outreach um I think if pushed I could have connected the operations portion of it as well but um you know I do think there is it is well aligned with our strategic plan and the work that we're trying to do here I listed some resources this um image on the left well it's not in it's probably not visible to many people right now this is at the bottom of every schools and I'll click on our accountability report right now if you scroll to the bottom here it is really just a glossery of details about what that report says what it does I also included links to the interpretive materials in the glossery of accountability terms just for reference points if you look through at the top here it does this is where you can see our overall results you can get into student group results oops excuse me right so as you scroll down here this is high need students but you can list go into any one of these indicators and get a more in-depth look I will make note that there are a number of subgroup populations that we might not have data for because we're not hitting the typically Des is using 20 as the number before you get a rating on it um so there are some subgroups that we wouldn't have data on I'm sorry this is the district yes this is the district you can go to this far right Tab and this goes into the schools and then you can click on any one of the schools to get that more indepth look at each of our schools I have a lot more on my screen that I'm trying to maneuver around to avoid the zoom back to my presentation um this is this link here will just take you to Desi's um district and school accountability web page right so again more information about how in depth this this data can get and then the glossery of accountability terms I included here as well so this is a snapshot um this takes a look this is our accountability percentiles essentially um looking at all the information in the indicators of the school's overall performance relative to other schools other like schools I should say similar grades it's not perfect match but um they do take and as you get into those data reports you'll see High School versus non- High School even in a place like Greenfield High School right now because 8th grade lives there you get non- high school ratings because of that one grade being there um so in 2023 there is right some some good news and there's some data that's probably hard to look at but you know we had we had four schools requiring Assistance or intervention in the account in the accountability system in one year the district went from four schools to two schools requiring or needing intervention um again looking at just the pure numbers people might say like where can we do better how can we improve here and those are the questions we're asking ourselves but I Al also think it's important to stop and recognize the growth that has been made there's some pretty significant growth on this sheet um in one in one school year um and sometimes that's about a certain a curriculum that's been implemented or that's about a group of students again this is schoolwide though so it's typically not about one grade sometime you'll see it one grade makes a jump um and as you dig into that it it could beg some more questions you might ask also what does this mean for our Statewide system of support work with our ssos friends um they are they will remain in green field if people remember back to when schools were rated as a 1 two 3 4 five they've shifted things a little bit but the the ratings still do mean that you essentially go by the lowest rated School in a in any given District so as long as there is one school requiring Assistance or intervention I anticipate ssos would be here um our meeting tonight is preceding a meeting with ssos this week that that we're going to dig into this a little bit more with that team um and get feedback from them about what they're seeing with it as well so again this is because of the timing I want to make sure we shared something but um we'll continue to get more in depth in this data moving forward so some highlights a 10% increase if you go back to um that main page you get rated based on you are you making progress towards your targets your targets are assigned based on how you've did in the previous year really the previous two years um in 2023 Greenfield made uh moderate progress um exceeded or met 43% of their targets last year it's 53% substantial progress but I want to be clear when they give you that rating of 53 that's two years of data um so again year one in 2023 it was um I'm sorry this year we made 61% towards targets either meeting or exceeding targets last year the district hit 61% of their targets so it's again these are things that we should be highlighting right celebrating those taking the small wins while recognizing there's work to be done um we met or exceeded Targets in all of these categories here um and here I tried to go through through and say where it was um all students are lowest performing students non- High School grades just to give a little bit of context um these bottom two just want to note these are focused subgroups in the district um this school year but English learn English Learners and former English Learners in our non- high school grades met or exceeded 68% of their targets last year so it's that Focus right Right comes from a place where we looked at the data but clearly some of that Focus started well before last year and the um instructional prioriti prioritization plan got put into effect and um that shows here and same with Hispanic Latino non- high school students met or exceeded 68% um of targets and it is not the same group to be very clear it's not just because Hispanic Latino and English learners it is two different groups just happen to meet the same number of targets areas in need of improvement so just again when you get into the data page that you'll start to see like you we got a zero points it's basically a zero through four rating this is what the those numbers mean zero means we declined four means you exceeded the Target and then um you know there's the the one twos and threes are no change or low growth that's when you look at the student growth percentile um improve below your target so some improvement but maybe not significant and then you met your target is a three so you'll see chronic absenteeism another Focus area in the district in the um instructional prioritization plan all students and our lowest performing students Zer out to four um and again those next three are all zero to four and just again highlights not the right word but I did say like that zero means that those chronic absenteeism did increase in those groups from 23 to 24 um students with disability student subgroup in our non- high school grades only met or exceeded 7% um of their targets so I think one thing that the superintendent and I have talked about and we've talked about with our leadership team is part of the reason that we have some of these focus groups is not all students are having the same experience in the Greenfield Public Schools and I think some shifts need to be considered to to make that happen and some shifts are small some shifts might be bigger Advanced coursework is only a high school um rating and it only considers 11th and 12th grade um students so if we have students who are taking AP courses in ninth or 10th grade or taking dual enrollment courses those students aren't hitting this Target because they're not in the measurement um and then fouryear graduation rate um we declined and then extended engagement rate that just means essentially if you didn't graduate in four years you persisted you remained connected to the schools so the work ahead is continue to follow the Strategic plan I think like I said at the beginning it's well aligned um as is the instruction prioritization plan developed in collaboration with the ssos team um you know all students with a specific focus on students with disabilities English Learners and our Hispanic Latino subgroups um high quality grade level culturally responsive practices um that are rooted in best practices for literacy professional development with Partners through teaching lab both for educators and for district and school leaders not just in the classroom um and then a focus on attendance really promoting the benefits of good attendance in stronger communication um schools are having weekly attendance meetings and then trying to build in those W wraparound supports where possible so um I one that likes to focus on the highlights because I think there's a lot to highlight and it's a credit to um the administration the teachers the counselors the instructional assistant over the past few years to really dive into this work um so kudos to all of them and then certainly recognize like there's still work to be done but um My Hope Is that we can continue that momentum so happy to answer some questions and I know again even though this is at a glance there is a lot to digest questions for Mr Sullivan yep we have a new language in our district have we found elll people to help our Haitian population so we have resources to support that population but the the SE the sheltered English and the endorsement is not about Spanish or English it's about good practices in language development um so I think we're trying to focus on those especially with our earliest Learners and I know as students get older some of that becomes more challenging but um we we have our L teachers and I think sometimes the students acclimate a little bit better sometimes than parents and families so the language bridge that we now have available um I think it's helping with some of those communication efforts other questions oh M and Eve I have a question um one of the wonderful highlights that Karen used to give us when she was assistant superintendent was information about all the grants that she was writing and so I was just curious if you are also doing that work and if so are there any new ones that you're excited for or any that are on your target list for the future yeah I I think the one I think we announced it two meetings ago maybe it was August the Innovation career pathway work I think that's one that um that team met actually yesterday and there's some excitement around that and building out what Pathways could look for look like for our students and you know some of the co the the founding principles or tenants around that is about Equitable access removing barriers for students so that they have access to Advanced coursework and those types of things so I think the those types of opportunities start to marry some of the things that we're seeing here that might be challenges and open it up to uh more students um or a more diverse subset of students that's just one um there's certainly others I know we're working on anal Grant right now and but I can certainly um add some more information to Su future reports um I know we wrote one for the career counseling at the high school as well that we're waiting to hear back on so happy to include some more information on that other questions or comments I have a question about um the accountability percentile slide um is what are the factors that go into these numbers I I I was wondering if it's um well I guess that's just the question I was wondering if it there's more kind of process um data that goes into it versus just outcomes or is it purely an outcome based uh metric okay at screen justs there so in terms of achievement this is where it gets into mcast so here and you'll see sorry you'll see that this carries a weight of 47 and a half% so you're going to get that total here and then growth is that student growth percentile so how are students growing on MC Bas Lake Pi that gets that 22 and a half these three categories are only in the high school ratings so you'll see over here 60 and 20 because they don't have the gr oh Stephen C can you please turn on your microphone sorry I can repeat that if need be um so for the high school that's weight everything's weighted the achievements at this 47.5% the um growth is 22.5% you have have 20% of high school completion and then 10% of your score is based on chronic absenteeism and at the high school level the advanced coursework to get your 100% for non- high school they're weighted a little bit differently because you don't have the factors like Advanced course work graduation rate extended engagement okay I see so essentially like if you just looked strictly at mcast numbers you wouldn't see as deep a picture as you do here because it measures other factors besides just grades I guess absolutely yes and right achievement and growth are very much based on mcast results the other factors involve a lot more information thank you of course and then not that you asked but down here it kind of goes through how you wait High School versus non- high school and um you know the total percentage of the points so thank you all right thank you for your report um thank you I have a question oh question sorry member Martini yes and then I see member denif okay uh so I wanted to know if could you please elaborate on what specifically um um is going into that frankly dismal score for students with disabilities in the district and um what is being planned in terms of immediate and longer term next steps for them um I know I'm asking for something that probably could be its own presentation and I would be very happy to have one of those um specifically in regards to students with disabilities and special education at a near future meeting of course so I did call it up here on the screen so it is all the same factors um I did double check on the high school they did not have the number to qualify so they didn't have that number 20 um so you don't get the weight for that subgroup so just so everyone's on the same page this is all really um grades 1 through seven 3 through seven um because of mcast so it is all the same factors from chronic absenteeism to the student growth percentile to achievement on mcast so because it's non High School it is a bit more limiting but those are the factors that come into it and then I'll just show you all so you can see it if you go into the detailed indicator for each you can go in here it's going to tell you English language Arch achievement for non- high school and then you can see students with disabilities and part of the reason um the target was this e e e remember Den we are scheduled for a five minute break at 8:00 p.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and it's 8:20 yeah the um the top of the meeting says should the meeting extend beyond 8:00 P.M a five minute break for members will be observed it doesn't say it will be observed at APM but it does say there will be a five minute break so thank you um any other discussion questions for the assistant superintendent all right great let us take a five minute break [Music] he [Music] n [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] can the um folks on Zoom still hear us let us know if not I can hear you okay superintendent report thank you um we were talking about some of our subgroups and our elll population being one of them but we do have some highlighted good news today um the access scores that we just received for our El students our U Middle School had tremendous growth growth 56% of our El students increased toward their learning goals in grades six through eight so I wanted to share that but it was so remarkable that the desie office of language Act quisition actually asked our Administration along with our elll teacher from the Middle School to present today to a conference on a webinar about what we are doing for our L population and how um it's actually showing some positive uh growth for our students so I wanted to share you'll notice in um the reports that we share now though we are uh continually linking any of these items to our strategic plan work so that you can uh distinctly see what we're doing and how it's really supporting the 5-year plan that we have in place and um not just uh the topic but I've tried to also put in parentheses a little extra info about what part of that topic they were supporting so you'll see that in blue moving forward in my reports um some staffing updates our director of Technology John galdi is leaving us on on Friday um for some personal reasons and we do wish him a fond farewell um we have had a great response though for the posting and we've interviewed uh numerous qualified candidates and we have two more on Friday that we will be interviewing so hopefully we will have a replacement fairly quickly in that department um member suon asked earlier we used to have it was one position it was the combined Community Connection slso Justice jce coordinator I don't remember the whole title but um it was eer 2 funded and when eer 2 ended the position ended but prior to Easter 2 ending the Personnel person departed from Greenfield and we just never found a replacement for the past year um we had a director of Behavior Services who took on a lot of that work and then that person um retired so we have had the director of Behavior Services position in our general budget it has been open and we have finally filled it we hired Katie Miller Murphy she started with us on Monday hit the ground running um really glad to have her on board because she will be doing a lot of the oversight of not only our attendance meetings in all of our buildings but working with our counselors our bcbas we also have rbts that we will be putting at our elementary schools to help Monitor and um really help with some of the behaviors that they're seeing that are challenging at that level they will be working together um also to talk about restorative practices we've been working closely with for Cog and how to roll out a a solid uh zero to five plan as I call it because we do need to Pilot and to think about the planning process I think everyone thinks you can just be restorative practice uh communities and don't understand really the investment that you have to put in place and if you don't do it with purpose and intent it falls to Pieces so um we will be working with them closely and we have two counselors at the high school that are um trained through um Boston um we sent them to suffk University two years ago and they are very interested in continuing this work so um I do um really want to remind though you know that with regards to behaviors in schools um we have tried to really support the EM social and emotional needs of our students and at the same time um we were in a rethinking discipline initiative as member Martini uh previously stated and we finally have um been grown out of that as they say and we no longer under that umbrella with desie but many of uh folks don't understand that desie also change the regulations around suspension and there are um requiring schools provide alternative measures and you have to document these alternative measures and the success or non-success of those alternative measures and then actually move to a suspension so um what folks uh think can happen with regards to removing students from school really is not as um easily possible as in many years ago some of those include uh alternative measures include you know parent meetings lessons with coun on their behaviors safety plans um after school detentions um but you really do have to monitor and document all of that so I just wanted to share that because having someone like the director of Behavioral Services is pivotal in actually Meeting those requirements under desie regs um I also want to remind folks that I I along with the rest of all members of our school district are um obligated to follow furpa and we have to keep the privacy of student information um and protect that privacy for all students under all circumstances so that also um often puts a snafu in what people um think we can speak about and not speak about so I just um really want to just remind folks of that we also um uh had a first grade opening at Newton Elementary and I really am excited that we will be welcoming a new teacher Danielle Italiano is coming to us um with teaching experience in Holio and ammer she will be starting in about a week and a half at Newton um and really want to thank Stacy McDon the IIA at Newton who's been covering the classroom working with the other first grade teacher and teaching lessons for us uh Rockstar IIA and we really appreciate her support and uh patience during this time and look forward to having a first grade teacher on board um many other staff have been welcome but we are still struggling as Steph alluded to earlier to fill some IA positions some custodial positions we certainly are doing as much out Outreach as possible um there will be another recorder ad in the paper so there will be another marketing invoice for that because sometimes the best uh bang for our buck is local people who read the paper and maybe not be on school spring so we're hoping that that will Garner some interest and I just also want to to restate member seon's um shout out to the community that if you even have an hour and want to come um cover lunch or recess we would love to have you sign up as a volunteer and get you on boarded so that you could help us in those areas and we appreciate your efforts at Federal Street I know principal halin loves having you um a lot of the work that we're doing with instructional strategies is also tied to District learning walks we have some formal learning walks that are happening with our professional development teaching lab partner um we are using this with a focus on literacy this year so in all classrooms we will be looking at the um engagement of students student discourse um students ability not to opt out and engage in the lesson and uh how they are accessing grade level standards but six walkthroughs year um for Stephen and I just isn't acceptable so he and I have begun our own site visit walkthroughs so one week I'm at middle and high he's at elementary and a and then we flip and we're using components of the same um rubric that we have been using with the teaching lab we've done it on a smaller scale so that we can also be in classrooms more often um I linked the Strategic plan there but um for us really monitoring how we are collecting student data what we're doing to look at student data and how folks in classrooms know what students need is our priority and then I had uh mentioned earlier that we have been randomly and I put air quotes randomly selected by Jessie for a full comprehensive Jessie District site review um we met with the research team it's called the American Institute for research who does all of des's work on site and and comes to visit uh we had our introductory call we've gotten uh signed up for the portal in which we have to produce pounds of information um and then they will collect data they will be on site and they say they will an analyze and integrate the information they collect to provide a snapshot of what the district looks like and then um push out a final report three to four months after that I just remind folks though because they are coming the week of November 18th and part of that is going to be uh interviews with school committee members um interviews with the mayor interviews with parents and families um so we have some form letters that they've provided us and we will be pushing out more information so that folks know where to sign up if they want to be part of these groups and I also be sharing information with all of you if you want to be one that they interview they will also be in our classrooms in our building things and um they will be meeting with all administrators our director of pupil Services um and we will continue to schedule all of that as I get more information um each week um just an added update because the mayor had asked for updated um enrollment statistics and I had given those overall ones each month um we are at 1376 which is about uh 30 student uh less than we were um as of September 9th um I do caution though we have a Ever Changing EB and flow with our uh migrant families who are at the hotel many of them have secured housing in Deerfield at Cliffside and are uh slowly moving out but we are slowly moving other folks in so the enrollment fluctuation is constant um I did um attend a Franklin County Superintendent meeting today and there were six other schools and five out of the six also said their enrollment was down about 30 kids so we all thought that that was odd and um interesting all at the same time so for us um it it really does seem to be a constant moving uh Target with some of the transiency so and that is my report and I'm happy to answer questions questions for the superintendent not seeing any thank you very much oh yes I'm sorry I wasn't quick on the raising hand part pardon me um and Karen this would be fine later not tonight but just by school at some point but and thank you so much for doing that I appreciate you I have if you want to jot down the numbers I did bring the numbers by school okay great I'm writing all right AEL 87 Federal Street 195 yep Discovery School 186 M Newton 175 okay Middle School 325 High School 407 thanks a lot thank you so much I can I can send that in an email too if you needed it nope I I wrote it down thank you very much you're welcome other questions for the superintendent i' just like really appreciate your follow through in terms of organizing a report with those connections to our strategic plan I think that's both valuable in the month and also will be valuable to us you know as we're looking at evaluation of you and you know you how well you're responding to the things that we've asked you to do so I really appreciate that um okay now we move on to the con consent agenda um are there any items any school Committee Member would like to consider separately member child's I would like to consider the school catchment separately and pull that out of the consent agenda okay it is uh number F approve the catchment street school assignment list for 2025 26 any other items that folks would like to okay so I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented with the exception of item F so Move Motion for member Den is there a second second second from Member Childs I heard first um any discussion member genive would you please call the vote by roll call uh secretary genive I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes it's unanimous okay um then uh we'll start with a motion to approve the catchment street school assignment list for 2025 so moved okay there's a motion is there a second second okay discussion I just wanted to uh give the superintendent a chance to provide a little bit more context on this especially for the public because they're not really going to know it so the big question is where do these numbers come from how was the decision made sure um the tment list that you have was actually the draft of the street assignments that began the redistricting process years ago um and the bus company the former superintendent and um the principles of Elementary at the time had to decide on um availability of classrooms in the building in order for fifth grade to move back down because you have to have space for those students to be in rooms and um while I appreciate some of the concerns around uh some of the other streets that may be close to Oak courts not making it in the new catchment list um the Quick Glance that I did look at um without getting too into the weeds it was about 32 additional students that would have to move to um Federal Street so um that alone just at a k through 4 run would put us probably in um a situation with needing a potential extra bus or it would put Federal Street in potential for needing three sections of a grade level um just by adding the numbers and I didn't go deep into the weeds to see you know what grade levels or how we would manipulate all of that um but then after Communications with the transportation company um as well as Elementary principles before for our last redistricting ad hoc meeting um we talked about the catchment areas and the numbers and um can hopefully um follow through and have all of the fifth grades uh be two sections in each building moving forward with the exception of a potential third section needed in a school but uh we've been looking at space and trying to configure that um I also later in the agenda there is a timeline just that came out of that ad hoc redistricting meeting and um time is of the essence which is why we had talked about uh needing this assigned list to actually be voted on and approved because then the communications with families that are affected by the list actually have to begin sooner rather than later because the policy says that they can choose to age out or they can choose to go to their new home school and we would need to communicate with families on when their choice needed to be made and why in order to secure transportation and have space available in the buildings um I had originally had it on for our November meeting and thankfully um member Childs and member seon were like we should do this sooner rather than later so we moved it to October um and I think once we actually get this solidified a lot of the next steps can happen other questions or comments I just want to clarify can opt out of this only in the highlighted streets so those that affected here if you're home right now their home school is where they go to school right next year their home school will be different right so in our discussions we gave families the option if you're a third grader at Federal Street but your school has changed you want to probably spend fourth and fifth grade at Federal Street it's the school your family's known and love but maybe you don't maybe you want your family to move to the new home school for ease of Transportation pick up drop off busing um we are still providing Transportation regardless of their decision for the families that are affected and that's why it's key to um really be certain about which highlighted streets we're agreeing upon so that and I saw your shake of the head member uh Goodwin so yes um it is a lot but we are going to do this yes we are any other discussion all right U member Den would you call a vote you're on secretary Den I'm yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad mayor d yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes passes unanimously thanks everybody um so you might notice that our school committee reports item on our agenda um looks a little different than it has in the past uh this is because on Monday um weed notice from the clerk's office that um they would like has to have um uh specific items under each subcommittee um so that the public can reasonably know what will be discussed so in the future I think if your um committee wants to report at the meeting um please email me um a week before so we can make sure to get the items you'll be discussing into the agenda um so with that um budget and finance subcommittee um remember Mar okay yes hello so uh budget and finance did meet in September and uh we covered several topics including the dissemination of the school committee's new budget development calendar for FY 26 as well as implementation of school committee policy dbd which is in part about public engagement in the budget development process as well as upcoming Capital Improvements necessary and a brief presentation from Andy regarding our fy2 24 end ofe accounting so as you know the school committee recently approved our first annual budget development calendar um and our next step in carrying out our policies in this area is for the committee to determine How We Gather input in the budget development process um so just to make it easy for everyone our policy dbd states the first priority in the development of an annual budget will be the educational welfare of the children in our schools however the district will also attempt to balance the valid interests of the taxpayers budget decisions reflect the attitude and philosophy of those charged with the responsibility for educational decision-making therefore a sound budget development process must be established to ensure that the annual operating budget accurately reflects the school district's goals and objectives in the budget planning process for the school district the school committee will strive to one engage in thorough Advanced planning with staff and Community involvement in order to develop budgets and guide expenditures in a manner that will achieve the greatest educational returns and contributions to the educational program in relation to Dollar expended two establish levels of funding that will provide high quality education for all our students three you use the best available techniques for budget development and management the superintendent will have overall responsibility for Budget preparation including the construction of and adherence to a budget calendar so with that policy in mind we reviewed the ways in which the committee uh in which the community already has opportunities for involvement in our budget development process which are also laid out within our annual budget development calendar uh that we just put out there for everyone and those ways include um emailing the superintendent via our staff directory emailing the school committee making public comment at a school committee meeting especially at pertinent times which are outlined for people in the budget development calendar such as September and October about Capital Improvements during November and December about the development of the next year's operating budget and during February in early March about the proposed operating budget and also uh if folks have an interest in a certain Department within the school then um they may contact the school principal or the department head for that department through the staff directory to let them know their ideas especially when individual Department budget proposals are under development in the fall for the next year's operating budget uh participating in school councils is a great way to do this and people can check the district calendar for upcoming meetings of the council for each School uh those being the existing ways that we could identify that uh the public already has uh opportunities for engagement in the budget development we then discussed whether these means are adequate and uh we agreed that we would like to make ourselves more available um in order to provide more opportunities for engagement so uh toward that end we discussed several options and created a proposal which I have made into a motion for approval as follows I move that the committee approve the budget and finance subcommittee plan for implementation of policy dbd Section 1 for FY 26 budget development as follows each subcommittee member will attend at least one meeting of a parent organization PTO CPAC lpac or school council prior to the December school committee meeting for the purpose of making themselves available in addition to normal means for public input in the budget development process for FY 26 would anyone like to second that motion I'd second that thank you discussion all sorry I should leave that to the chair I have a question Sloss friendly Amendment do you mean each member of the the budget um and finance subcommittee yes each subcommittee member okay budget and finance subcommittee member okay great if we can include that in the motion that would be great um any other [Music] discussion uh we have a question from Susan Farber I'm hoping that you would email that motion yes I'll be happy to do that sorry it was kind of long thank you so much sure any other discussion M SE if okay go ahead um I'm I'm assuming this will be part of how this gets implemented but I also want to be sure that on the that there's proper notice given of those dates that you will be attending those meetings so that people know to go to them yes so uh we will definitely incorporate that make sure it gets out there we discussed in the budget and finance subcommittee meeting um means of disseminating our annual budget calendar um and I imagine we can use those same means uh to notify folks of which meetings either member child or member jie for myself will be at for folks member Den I have the calendar of those parent meetings sent to me by Karen so I'm going to be adding them to our school committee calendar so if you would like to attend one even if you're not on the budget and finance subcommittee you can go and represent and that will be up next week no later than next week I promise promise thank you so much for doing that um the subcommittee members are committed to doing at least one um we are only humans and are extremely busy in our our own um personal lives so uh we were not we decided to commit to one um if other but we don't want to necessarily make that something on the plate of other members as well um we take our responsibility on budget and finance seriously so if other members would like to voluntarily go and and make themselves present um then by all means um mayor dorer um thank you so much for all your work on this this is wonderful um would you like me to send to you before you get started too much what guidelines that I'd be sending to like the city I'm looking over the the entire budget or you know yeah yes please I'm I would be very interested in that um information I would just like to be clear that the purpose of um us going in making ourselves available um in this way is to listen and gather input from people and not you know necessarily to delivery we're not g be able do that in our open meetings thank you thanks so much any other comments or questions I'll just say uh it's really wonderful it's a great model I think um to both put the work into developing this calendar and then get right to work figuring out how to engage the public in the process and I like your realistic approach of one one meeting per member and kind of focusing on what we can do um and not overstretching ourselves I I think that's that's great shall we vote member Den uh secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member ston yes member CHS yes vote is unanimous thank you so much for that I really um am heartened to see and be involved and U budget development becoming a more organized and uh engaged process here so thank you uh the second thing uh that we also discussed is current capital Improvement needs the most pressing of which include upgrading the GMS fire panel and making improvements to the fourth grade wing and nurses office at Four Corners that are required under the Ada in resolution of a previous complaint uh the Four Corners improvements still require additional information though in order to provide an estimated cost so I will be offering a motion tonight only for the fire panel and we will discuss an additional request for the Ada improvements on another date once we have that information we also discussed additional Capital Improvements that are needed but less urgent um including a GMS awning roof replacement by the gym Doors ghs Light in control system updates ghs track maintenance and painting and a exterior painting because these will uh because we already have a significant amount in Urgent Capital Improvement requests and because these other items are needed but it would be acceptable if they were funded later we determined that they would be suitable for earmark funding requests and to that end I will have a separate motion for them so uh before I get on to motions though I will um let the superintendent please describe those needs in brief for the committee if you could sure with the capital request um with the GMS fire panel um our facilities director has a meeting set up with Chief Strahan as well to go over um there is some um outdated parts that are no longer available so um when you replace a fire panel you have to also replace all of the detectors in every room which obviously you need so that you can have the panel in working functional order um so that was really uh important to us to put that at the highlight of our list this year the ADA compliance issues at Discovery School um I think for those of you that have been on the committee for a while realize that this is a OCR complaint that I believe is um at least a decade old if not longer and the last two items on the list um are the nurse's office and the door accessibility that needs to be widened for uh wheelchair accessibility as well as the fourth grade Wing um is only stair access to exit so um there does need to be an ADA Compliant exit outside that of the building we did have the facilities director uh meet a contractor to see um if there could be some estimates and quotes when this originally was uh on tap and then after um that we also met with the building inspector and after that conversation it looks like there may need to be an architect and some future planning um so there is uh much more um Deep dive needed into actually what it's going to take to fix both of those so what we originally thought um probably was a little bit too low in the estimation process so I put TBD back on there and spoke with member Martini just so that she was aware of where we were in that process for Capital um with regards to earmark I've talked to our legislators talked to member denev um over the past year about having projects on a list readily available just in case and you know you never know when they could find some money so uh in speaking with the facilities manage um uh director we had come up with a list and uh prioritized these for really if um you know they can wait as member Martini indicated but if someone did find money and wanted to uh give it to Greenfield so that we could get these projects done we would happily accept it for these items thank you okay so uh with that information in mind I move that the committee approve approve an FY 26 Capital Improvement request in the amount of $150,000 for upgrading the fire panel at Greenfield Middle School I'll second okay discussion member Den will you call a vote uh secretary Den I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seant yes member CHS yes motion carries unanimously thank you and lastly I have one more motion I move that the committee authorize our legislative representative to communicate with our legislative delegation to advance earmark funding requests as follows $30,000 for GMS awning roof replacement $50,000 for ghs lighting system system updates $50,000 for ghs track maintenance and painting and $30,000 for a exterior painting is there a second I'll second that second for member child's discussion member Denise and then uh mayor um I just want to say that I've never done this before so I'm going to this is my homework I'm excited that we're going to try it but this is a try and see so uh if anyone has ideas or wants to work with me on this homework or happens to interact with any of the legislators and has thoughts and ideas I would welcome them um we did talk to uh several people at the day on the hill about how to do this and got a little bit of a road map but it's kind of something that it seems that once you start it you get an idea for how to do it and you learn how to put pressure at the right times and so that's what I'm going to try and I will ask for help uh in hyanis also of the people who do this regularly because this is something that happens all the time for other people so let's have it happen for us thanks for taking it on and I think you'll find that we're lucky to have our legislative delegation will actually help you uh talk you know you can ask them what should I be doing if I want to advocate for this and they will tell you so thank you so much for taking it on other comments or questions okay oh mayor please sorry get my up um I'm working off my iPad tonight I'm apologize not getting my hand up first of all member martini thank you so much for doing that I know it's a long night tonight but um could you send that to my jenny.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
curriculum so we just had a curriculum committee um committee meeting tonight we learned about the district accountability index and we will be going over that as more information comes out from the state and thank you for the presentation for the committee tonight well done um GL I don't know if this is the appropriate time or further down but um Kate and I are both PTO Reps for more Street school and they sent us some information good okay um so moris Street schools sent an email to Kate and I um and they're having their annual Halloween festivities Harvest sorry thank you on October 18th and they're having a trunk or treat that same night in the parking lot at 7:30 to 7:45 and they're looking for people to come and do their trunk and hand out candy cuz they don't have enough volunteers for that so they would like us to pass it on to the board of that if any anyone is available um October 18th from 7:30 to 7:45 let us know we can get you in touch with the folks 15 minutes 15 minutes until yeah um that's the trunk retreat part theet yeah um we can get you in touch with the folks at more street thank you this is not a standing committee but we both serve on the committee instead of putting it at the end I want to um we are PTO representative um Juanita and myself so we have decided that one month she's going to do the report and I'm going to do the report so why need to issue your turn and I thought for the first meeting that it would be our chairperson but that was changed the Citywide PTO um met on Monday October 7th um we had the honor of hearing the [Music] presentation uh hearing the presentation on the Dy Collective so um it was great to hear it again this evening at the board meeting um um many of the schools reported out D High School uh brw Middle School um AIS Shelter Rock uh Westside Middle School all reported out the events that they are having in their upcoming events and um the superintendent reported also to cypto and we want to when we talk about keeping um or speaking the same language delivering the same message um every time I get a chance I try to use our theme which is the best Urban District in the state of can County um and so that was put out there at citywi P also also one of the things that the superintendent mentioned which I think um was very important for the parents to hear is that we are beginning to move into a reset mode and so that's districtwide and where pandemic is passed and how do we move forward um the uh citywi p is looking for suggestions for guest speakers to speak at their meetings if you have any suggestions please that myself or chair person Cooper not and we will pass that on we did report um regarding the board that we are um participating in trainings weind them about the upcoming um budget season and also emphasizing as we have in our board meetings is to have our parents and students review The District's code of conduct it's just really important again that same message continues to go out um and U our chairperson thank the D parents and of course the school pto's for continuing to engage in the success of our students thank [Music] you anyone have any questions how do you get an invite to it used to be anybody I when they the work done on the zoom any any board member uh could attend the meeting in addition to the superintendent and the designated board person who was assigned to it but times have changed and may it was Co and they restricted it with Zoom uh as my understanding just the PTO members or or heads uh as well as chair so I had other board members who want to participate in take advantage of uh the information relative to I also discussed that with Tim and uh he said that he was right there he was directing his um uh as far as opening it up the people that are on the say to invited people that's who he was inviting on the meeting day off he does not open his meetings up even though you I will give him a call and and see has things change but the people that are there that sits around the table are people that b and I was selected by this board to sit on that committee okay so if outside people want to uh if you want to t a call give him a call okay I can't I can't undo what he has in M action items action item B A I make the motion that the Board of Education pursuant to Public Act 2445 authorize the establishment of a non-aps account where a year-end budget surplus may be deposited not to exceed 2% of the the operating budget with your superintendent and the Chief Financial Officer has authorized signers to the account in accordance to the Public Law Public Act motion made by Al could I hear a second second uh any questions any comments yes yes I obviously in favor of this one of two questions I have one should there be a policy on this issue I'm not sure whether you should or shouldn't but I do suggest strongly that there' be a procedure relative to the operation of this particular bank account its internal controls and also my suggestion would be that the sums of money that we're talking about should be invested not in speculative stuff but you have fairly safe investment of money market CDs um so that they be uh invested and you don't lose the money on it but very important to have a procedure relative to the accountability the accounting on this Etc K uh I just want to Echo the idea that we have um sort of an internal mechanism for monitoring those funds um you I want to make sure we have I want to Echo Mr U janell's comments that we have an internal mechanism to monitor those funds and how they're they're going to how be ear marked um if that if that money is going to be used in a particular budget cycle thank you um Mike did you have anything additional Teresa Teresa I'm concerned about you uh the gentleman the last uh board meeting he said to earmark the funds which I find correctly uh that's a good idea but I don't want to see open uh purchase requisitions going into the next fiscal year that's what I'm concerned about uh that those funds say it comes from last year's budget that and we have left over and you put it into to the account does that go under the new budget or is it still under the old budget PR or po that's my concern I don't want to see I I would like to see the books closed in a timely fashion not something uh dragging on through the year Michael you want to answer that yeah so um it is uh I guess not practical to have all the POS closed at year end just because um there are certain items that are open that we might not have received an invoice for um those typically do get closed out um in a timely fashion but the the Surplus that we're talking about would be above and beyond any of the POS um or encumbrances that are that are there should be above that um and in a perfect world we wouldn't have U the Surplus at all every thank you okay I think just so that I'm correcting my understanding though this that that amount once it goes into a non-aps me non-expiring account that it's not necessarily part of of of the budget coming up for the year it's it's an account that that money can sit in that account and be used in subsequent budget years so it's not necessarily tied to this budget year you can use it during this budget year if you need to but if you don't and you use it three years down the road that that's that's okay as well I S I'm looking for Mike's headshake on thank you so so in other words we have a dollar left over from last year and you could put it in the account up to 2% so it doesn't go back to the city correct thank you one um having sat in a um Financial workshop with C just a couple of days ago this actual topic came up and a couple of the suggestions that they have was to um make a decision whether it's going to be a separate account or an existing account just it seems like it's going to be separate onto the um they also suggested that you have a um something in your policies to align with that that actually outlines what kind of what Rich was saying accountability who sign that sort of thing and they also suggested that so that um we are transparent and upfront that we also make sure that we let our city council understand that this this is not extra money so when we ask for funding and so when we talk about earmarking it some of the suggestions that some of the um presenters gave was have have some kind of um examples of how that money might be used and one of the suggestions was is every district is struggling with um the amount of money that we use for out placing some of our special students and they thought that's a wonderful idea that you have that backup fund you never know when that expense which is sometimes very high and unexpected might come up yes we had uh was it $700,000 left over in this last budget is that money going to go into yes do we have ear marks or anything not the 715 thank you yes Mr my suggestion would be is was part of this write up procedures is that would be presented with monthly financial statements uh to include this so your financial statements would include your operational accounting your Grant accounting and then another accounting for this particular fund so all of the monies that come under our perview are segregated uh highlighted segregated by by by its type and you have the reporting un accountability for it um and it it just makes it clean presentation for that but that could be done in the descriptions of the process the procedure how you can do this well I'm sure our financial Financial person in charge have already thought about that and the superintendent yes I just want to make sure understand that 2% can Choice up or down depending on how much will be the budget right or not because if we say like 2 years from now the budget is goes up let's say we use that 2% for any reason we put that money back but doesn't necessarily have to be the same amount that was Prior right it will be 2% based on the Surplus that we have of the budget number of the budget for that year that's right that and that will change for me yes thank you can those funds be used those I don't want to say extra because everybody just think that the extra is just hanging [Music] around if we need additional people in certain places can we use that money to put people in those places to the best of my knowledge it's not limited okay okay can I just mention just one thing you know we do have part of the you know the expense of moving into the new Academy is still yet a bit unknown right you have whatever doesn't get accounted for in an FF package you know we'll we'll know what gets k kick back when it gets accepted through the state we're going to have to fund that Library get that Media Center um filled with books and so there's going to be some expenses um as we move in there so you know there's a lot of probably great reasons and things that we can spend the money on but um my guess is that some of that will go to helping us get that the doors open on the high school w Teresa can we move that money that the city's been holding for us for the last few years that extra money that was spent or was not spent and we returned it to the city can we move that into that yeah any other questions motion on the floor has been moved in second all in favor I motion so Carri action item B St of Connecticut Inc student transportation agreement motion that the Board of Education approved the agreement with sta of Connecticut Inc to provide student transportation from the first day of school in the school year 2025 through 202 26 through and including the last day of school in the school year 2 2029 through 2030 in accordance with 24-1 176 motion made got M sh second second second La any question concerning the motion yes Mr J again I'd like to State a a well job done by by ad and Mike in the data that was presented several meetings ago supporting this particular contract um the financial data when I went through it the cumulative effect of these increases if I remember correctly was like 3 $3.3 million over the course of the 5 years and the cost of those 10 additional buses was $786,000 it was also interesting in the array of 18 different districts that were provided there were only four districts and when I looked at them there were very small districts that had rates that were better than ours so it was an excellent job in negotiation for this particular contract so again congratulations to the negotiating team whoever they were uh to to get this contract done any other question motion made by um Michelle second second second by all in favor could I hear I I all opposed I so car to rec action I see policy 3542 de point 43- food service charging policy motion that the Board of Education accept for first reading policy 3542 decimal 43- food service charging policy as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 24- 177 motion made by Teresa could I hear a second second second by Kate any question concerning that policy seeing n all in favor can I hear I I oppose I so have it is Mr janelli Richard uh action item D compensation central office exempt staff non bargaining unit employees a motion that the Board of Education except for the first reading policy 2/42 40.2 compens ation central office exempt staff brackets non bargaining unit employees close brackets as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 24- 178 motion made by Mr jelli could I hear second second second advis any question concerning this policy yes one um I would like to um state that I will be submitting um wording and recommending a change in this policy I will have that at the next policy meeting on November 6 if there's any board member um who is interested in that area please point to attend Kate so procedurally um what has happened is that the policy passed out of committee and was recommended for first read to the board and now this evening is up for a vote for first read by the board um the only way at this point to make adjustments would be if the consensus on at the board here was to withdraw the motion and then kick this policy back to the committee level my understanding is is it's a first reading so the board can accept this for a first reading you still have a policy committee at no whenever you have it but what I'm saying is any board member can they have an idea or something they want to change they still have the priv Privileges to do so correct so they can do it at the committee meeting or bring it at the board meeting so I guess my question is if um board member Harris wants to bring it to the policy committee which I'm totally amenable to we have to make sure that that appears on the agenda for that policy committee meeting is that correct yes yes okay I just wanted to make sure I understood because honestly this is this is the first time on the word that we've actually um talked about having a change up the first read to a policy so I just want to make sure I'm F we right we're here to accept this motion as a first reading my my clear understanding at any time the policy and any policy brought before the board member it's not the final reading there can be adjustments made am I right here so we're here tonight to accept the the recommendation from the policy committee to accept this as a first reading only yes I attended the the policy meeting on this although I wasn't a Committee Member but part of the conversation was and I think at the end was if there there was questions relative to language um I I think it was asked that they voted to to the chairperson which I did so with that consideration would that those variations on the theme of language changes uh would that be discussed at your next policy meeting based on the information you got from the different members if I I did not get anything in writing from anybody on this particular policy so if I do then I'm happy to add it to the agenda but I need to have ADV shows up on agenda in order to follow that same night I sent you my word on that I already said it that's okay okay I don't know if I received it okay F I was just wondering about the process on when it would be the the wording and then how do you resolve something like that I mean if I could have a different wording or different language or different different thought process than any The Other Board member 18 or anybody else who wants to make a change so is that then discussed in the committee meeting amongst committee members to then decide what you want to select so if it appears on the agenda and and folks have submitted um stuff to me then I will absolutely bring forward all the the variations that are are given so that we can have a conversation about it and sort of discuss you know who the consensus of the committee is um and then move forward from there okay thank you yes M I just wanted to mention this is one of the policies that wasn't required right this is something as proposed correction so than motion very clear to accept the first reading okay and then it goes back to committee M so typically and and this is just my own experience here so if I'm if I'm incorrect um please correct me but after it goes for first read it does not go back to the committee unless somebody requests specifically to BR back well they're doing that so so I'm trying to get through the first reading so there's a motion on the floor to accept this as the first reading right so I think if it has to go back to them then we can can't approve it right no no it can it can be approved I just want to clarify just so that I the motion correct the motion's on the table it's been seconded if we approve the first read for this it will not necessarily be discussed and this is just a general just a general conversation it would not necessarily go back to the policy committee unless like Miss era said she would like to bring it up for conversation policy meeting and we'll certainly do so we can bring those but we can bring those concerns back at the next board meeting and discuss them because it's going to be the second reading where we're going to approve um I'm profess to think I'm I'm just sitting here thinking about when we've had this situation before and it's been quite a while um so what I would recommend is that you can certainly accept for the reading today um the policy as written and then you may um at the second reading entertain further discussion about changes to that policy that may come up in the policy committing meeting I think what you're struggling to figure out is where is the Forum in which you're going to have that discussion so you could have it here in this Forum on the second reading um which I think would take the form of a motion to amend it or a motion not to approve it at all um to to go to your point about whether it's a mandatory policy or not but that I think would happen after this first reading so if you want to go back to the policy committee for guidance on that and have them make a recommendation at the second reading I think you can do that but I also think it would be appropriate for you to make a motion to amend it at the S meeting as well so perhaps the easiest way to do this is for me to make a motion to actually remove um this motion to put before the to remove it and send it back to the committee at first for first reading you could I think it might be more expeditious though to read it the first time here then send it back to policy come otherwise if you do the way you're suggesting withraw it go back going to go back to that policy committee hopefully it makes it on this agenda maybe not and then you've got another first read and another second read I think it might just be more expeditious to just want to make sure that we don't run into anything um procedure wise that says oh sorry you accepted the first reading therefore you got to move along with the first reading that you accepted it's official official we have not the second and I understand that it slows the process down but if I'm not mistaken that we have until the budget the presentation of the budget to make sure that we have all of our ducks with this policy so if we're if we're in Orin to accept this as a first we I'd like to just tell me if I'm out of order I'd like to U make a motion to remove this first motion of a first reading and send it back to policy committee review and resubmit as a first reading I I don't know that there is a motion to withraw I think you would vote right right there's a motion for a first read you vote all those in favor of the first read say I all those not say n and the motion would then fail but I don't think there would be a motion are we I'm sorry M yeah I don't want to believe this like and I apologize if I'm if I'm approaching this the wrong way I just want to make sure I understand just hypothetical this let's say that the motion carries this evening we look at the first read my intention based on what you said this evening around is to bring it back to the policy committeee for for conversation do I understand correctly Kim that if that happens and we go back to a conversation with policy committee level and there are changes made either we withdraw the policy or make adjustments to the policy if it was to come back to the board would it be for first gred that time or I think it depends if you're going to completely eliminate it I that's issue if you're going to change a sentence then I think what you would do is come back and when it comes up for the second read someone move to amend policy with the following language upon recommendation of the policy committee or not recommendation of the policy committee you know your your role I think is a policy committee's advisory um and that once you get that motion here that part of the problems of the whole board would be to tweak the content of it if you don't pass it as Amendment okay am thank you so if we vote on it to do the first read but do we need another vote then to send it back to the am [Music] it have to bring it have to bring it back to to and I have that request to be add to the agenda yeah but when's the second read isn't that usually at the next meeting the next next meeting yeah and the policies in nov so it's after there's nothing saying that has to be on that next agenda so given given what we need to said this evening I'm ined to just say we're not going to put it on that next agenda have our policy meeting and talk about okay know laori and thank you Kim you know I sit on enough committes to sort you know we've had this happen before and I think the most thing the most way to to follow this is to accept the first reading and then committ can take up the extra other things that's going into so the motion was made by Richard second by who jul jul sh all in favor I hear I I oppose as okay thank you superintendent report okay I'm try to move through sense in their room here okay um so we already had a d reflective presentation again thank you um very much Alissa for that and um I'd like to I'm going to skip around a little bit and I'm going to ask Kim to talk about the Connecticut Innovation cohort partnership um as you know we've been been part it's part of the board goals um and our goals collectively is to you know think about and make improvements in our retention efforts and our staffing um it's been an ongoing discussion that we've been having um we had an opportunity to join um an innovation cohort partnership and I would like for Kim to talk a little bit about what that entails and I might benefit by that one sure so um Sor here um so we have um joined a an Innova What's called the Connecticut Innovation cohort our partner in this is the Center for Public research and Leadership and that's a group that comes out of Columbia um and they're in charge this Center for leadership and and basically strategic Consulting is to work they work with public Boards of Education um on different kinds of leadership challenges leadership goals and they have drafted this 2-year program a 2-year cohort um and we are part of the second cohort um called the Connecticut Innovation cohort last year's cohort um focused on some um some issues around Improvement of school design like um full year school for example or how to deal with retention Improvement Problems by certification changes so they were advisory on things like how could we ease some of the certification rules to do short areas so they focused in that first Innovation cohort on those topics um they have put us into their second cohort now with nine nine other districts um and part of our challenge what we want to really work on with them are is the Recruitment and Retention strategies and their focus is try to help all of us in the coldo to identify obstacles to recruiting and um finding teachers particularly in shortage areas and to try to craft meaningful um solutions to those problems so we've met with them for the first time already to kind of sketch out where we are um where we see ourselves as a district and the next steps with them and I've been working with their director is to identify people in the district to um go ahead and start talking about some of the challenges and obstacles we found particularly to recruitment of teachers um it is a really nice fit for us in our priorities with our increasing educator diversity plan it is also um a really nice um Synergy for us on trying to find more special ed and Par educator special teachers and parent Educators in particular so um what we're going to do now is we're going to use them in the first step which is our gathering artifacts you heard me talk a couple weeks ago about um we're going out into our schools and we are gathering artifacts and hiring what kinds of things do you do when you interview is there a demo lesson what do you do in the Dems and what kinds of um questions you ask who sits on the Committees how do you screen applicants all of those artifacts are starting to come in now into my office where they're being warehoused by um my newest member I think I mentioned to you Alex P um who came to replace um Chelsea rig who left us a while ago he is starting to gather a lot of these materials we're then going to use the partners that we have in Columbia to not only look at um what we've retained what we've gathered but also how can we Infuse those with some other materials that will help us to build um not only a stronger in process that focuses attention on shortage areas and and diversity but also how can we um kind of work with the other members of the cport to identify what some of the obstacles are that we all been having so um that we're in the real infancy stages of this we're getting to no you stage um and we have um managed to connect the the um Columbia folks with some District leaders in our group and they're now starting to talk with how can we support how can we best help support this work so um you'll hear I think regular upat for us periodically and how we're doing with that but it's going to be a right now audit and assessment stage they're looking at our structures they're looking at our staff look at our numbers um and they're helping us to add bu obstacles thank you any questions uh do we have other districts using this um Cort yeah so there there was a I think we're like Stratford I don't know if more work is in it New Haven was involved in it I'd have to get the I have to go back and get the list but um we had an interview for it so I had to interview and go through a process uh to see what our level of investment is in this type of work um and so you really kind of uh self self-imposed right you go it's they're helping us scrutinize our own processes and then in return we'll you know be able to offer our suggestions where we're struggling that Collective information um gets used in an advis advisory capacity to departments that deal with the certification at the state level teacher preparation programs um so they're they're helping us but we're also feeding them sort of the big ticket items that we need moved at the state level to make some changes so it's going to a mutually beneficial partnership okay moving right on um the next one to pull up my notes uh Mike is could not be here tonight had family matter um but we uh through you know we've been working and he's been establishing some strong relationships with B ringer I think the last time that he was here he mentioned um about the stem days that have been organized in addition to that uh through Bo ringer uh We've onboarded big brothers or will be on boarding big brothers and big sisters um that they have uh they'll be helping us with approximately 10 students so it's not a big capacity initiative um but they're mentors from boow ringer who will come in and work with our kids uh during the week um through Mentor Flex we'll be oneon-one we'll do some career initiatives and they'll get kids excited about um careers in in science and stem field so we're excited about that it's kind of a small step um to Growing it out but it's a big brother big big sister partnership using boow ringer um professionals as mentors so um next time Mike comes in maybe we'll have them talk a little bit more about that those are my notes um from him and then the last piece tonight is really just to give this group a little bit of a status update on the audit um so I will turn that over to Mike to just give us a brief summary of where we're at please yes thank you I'll try to be as concise as possible um the 2022 AIT um we have been working on uh last year when I started I'm excited to say we've completed um as far as uh DPS is concerned there was only one um note I guess you'd say that the Auditors had and that was just acknowledging the fact that there was a a breach um that impacted the district but other than that there was no findings of any significance uh the 2023 audit is currently underway there are three parts to the audit um one is the uh audit of the EFS for the old1 uh there is the single audit and then there is the audit of the Ci's financials the EFS audit for 2023 was actually already performed so that that's already been done um the audit of the the single audit the state single audit is currently underway we met with the Auditors today um between um it's a joint effort between DPS and the city uh DPS has approximately 61% of of that audit submitted completed uh and we're working with the audit Auditors for those uh last items that they're going to ask for so they they can test many of them are um salary items that are outstanding which take a little bit of time to to pull it's a little bit cumbersome um the other two audits uh or the other audit I should say kind of broken up into two sections the first is the planning section and then the next is the field work and while a lot of the work can be done contemporaneously most of the work is done planning and then is moved into the field work so for planning as of today we have just about 70% of of uh of the requests in uh some of those requests come back with um subsequent requests uh that we fill on an as need a basis um and then once that's complete we'll start on on the field work we actually have already started on the field work and fulfilled about 20% of it um the city was gracious enough to give us uh some assistance joean who's here with us uh last month uh from the city who's been um doing a fantastic job there getting getting their audit stuff done has been helping us um just about every afternoon here um to try to catch up since um we were a little bit down staff in the beginning of the year in July uh didn't the city appropriate $200,000 to help us get uh more help for you yeah so we are um we are use uh utilizing CLA um CLA is an audit firm that audits any other districts um we're using them in a consultancy capacity to help us along um there uh there was talk about um perhaps some temp work um but everyone uh at the table didn't feel like that was the best because temps take very long time to get them up to speed we thought that the best approach um including the the mayor thought the best approach would be to utilize CLA and more of their assets which we currently offer and that's part of the the additional appropriation oh Julie then I come back okay um when you think that would be we have like a time frame to be done with all the audits that we have outstanding audit and moving forward how can we I me I know that you have a shortage on out or how we can prevent from falling behind a how can we prevent this from happening again yeah two great questions so uh the first one the 2023 B um is slated for um December time frame um and that was um it's talked about and agreed upon by RSM who is the actual aitor um and a in the city um once that uh audit is complete um they go into the the third portion of the TIC which is their reporting so they issue us a report with any significant finding um once that's completed we'll move into the 2024 one um based upon um this year um I would say that uh it's going to be about 5 months would be my my estimate for the 2024 once uh once we begin it um the second part to your question is how do we avoid this going forward um I think now that RSM has been in our auditor for quite sometime U I will have two audit well actually three years of audit under my belt for DPS and we are now currently um staff with two additional people that we didn't have in the beginning um but in many places that I've worked um part of the role that I sit in now is making sure that as we perform the work as the year goes on we've identified things that we know the Auditors are going to look for this is you know not going to be our first rodeo so starting to um prepare that documentation before the audit is even discussed having that ready for the audit so that when they do have these requests we're not scrambling around and trying to run reports and back into numbers they've already been uh saved in place waiting so that we need to hand it to the ERS um that's a significant Time Savings are we are they still doing Zoom for these uh readings requests yeah and a lot of the audit firms it's not just RSM but a lot of them are um similar to us um the the accounting industry the a industry is finding it very hard to find staff um so one of the things that um is attractive is being able to work remotely so they do have staff uh RSM specifically but other firms as well um all around America so it's very hard to get them them in uh I know last year um that was one of the things that John commented on and RSM said that they would be happy to try to accommodate and get someone here if we were willing to um to pay the expense so um it's kind of a a move thank you okay just uh one last tidbit here so we did mention about the donation for the scoreboard but uh Denbury High School will have the dedication to the SC scoreboard um at for the homecoming game on October 25th and so the dedication will be at 650 before the game and so you'll be getting an invitation for that for from either Dan or car pompan we're still working that out and um there'll be a reception for the family who donated at 5:30 I'm not quite sure if we're all going to that or not um so I'll get some clarity but but most certainly the dedication uh at 650 okay I believe so the scoreboard yes sorry dedication to the scoreboard I think that's the game against West no are you serious won be there I won't be here because I'll be in Kentucky with 42 k and I wanted to do the tailgate he's not going to be here I'm good we need U uh we need a board member uh for an exposion hearing tomorrow and you know we need one if one can't do it the other can do I need two people to sort of you know we catching me in my traffic so we have a maybe and maybe one other if the Maybe Can't sh yeah I I would go with somebody else I will be the backup of the backup if I I have to I'm at work so it's going to be tough for me I'm not going to be able to 4:00 you can do it by phone just to help out we have two people I just can't I go from doctor's office at 3:30 get I'm me do my best GL to to do that okay that one is with a translator right yeah and that one that he you need a translator right so that one might extend a little bit more have something what was that tonight no that was no we is going to be done by 6 okay yeah so just if Michelle can't do just yeah thank you thank you and Louis my report is very brief remember next week October the 15th at 6:00 okay as we um get together as board members please check your emails please check your emails okay read the material and I know sometimes we all are working and we have other duties uh try to glance over your material like I do sometime 230 at the morning and and go over your material okay and um again I'm going to stress that it's very important that we work together as a unit we're not here to bash anyone make anyone look um like they don't know what they're doing we are a team to work together and to make this District the best District it can be okay that's all I have to say and make a motion to ader so
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and it's 8:20 yeah they um they top of the meeting says should the meeting extend beyond 8:00 p.m. a 5-minute break for members will be observed it doesn't say it will be observed at 800 p.m.
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disor one tonight you're not too tired absolutely tonight I am meeting tomorrow with the delegation and I'm getting better and better at this is weeks go by um asking for specific money and if you could put if you had an idea of which you would like the most I will push for that because they've actually been great and I know that that the superintendent and the assistant superintendent that you're doing that also but I just thought I have a meeting tomorrow so I could put in a plug if you let me know dollar amounts and and your one two three fours of those and thank you again so much okay I will certainly send you that by email and um member genive I was going to suggest that um the mayor has some experience now with um the process around earmark funding and communicating with legislators on this so uh I imagine that the two of you would make a good team on that front I'd be honored to work with any of you thank you any other discussion comments questions all right member Den will you call the vote all right once again secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes mayor member Goodwin yes member seon yes member child's yes and it's unanimous okay thank you um let's see moving on um we have the um indigenous Regal review we have it in two places on the agenda so we'll just discuss that under the new business item I'll just also mention that we did not have an executive subcommittee so no report from that for me um so moving on to the uh Community engagement subcommittee any topics not reasonably anticipated by the chairperson nope just that I've got an email out to schedule our first meeting nice um great uh re redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee I believe that the substantive work of that committee has already been discussed tonight would encourage members of the public to look at the timeline that our superintendent created for what the next steps in the process are thank you uh school committee handbook we have a draft in your materials it is just the final draft there are some things that need to be filled in just little things like email addresses and some formatting and uh there's a few small bodies of text that member seon is going to insert um but there is nothing there will be nothing new added to this so if you've looked through it that's that's it anything that's going to be filled in has been identified the only thing that will change is it will be formatted nicely and all of the fonts will be one font it will look nice and it will also have a similar theme to uh Vice chair Martini's budget calendar so we will have some greenwave logo some greenwave nice design and hopefully when you look at it online it will be cohesive and beautiful but um the time for letting us know if you want to add something at this moment has passed but in the handbook you'll see that there's an annual review section so when we do our school committee self- evaluation we will also review this and then if any body has anything they want to add or any new things they have learned that should be added to the handbook then we can do that great so I'd hear a motion to approve the school Committee Member and community resource handbook uh as presented understanding that uh some details and formatting may change I will make that motion all right is there a second second second from member Martini uh discussion member seon just one real quick when you read off the title of it in in your in the statement of the motion you said member and community resource in my I think I'm remembering that when we originally brought this topic up we sort of separated those two and said that this was really for members and is relevant to them so I just want to be clear on what it is that this handbook is doing because otherwise there might be additional things that should go in there if it's also for the community um the hbook as presented call is called the school Committee Member and community resource handbook I personally would be for um keeping it focused on being a school Committee Member handbook but I wasn't uh I didn't feel strongly enough about it to make the case I guess so I think that was just honestly I think that was just a typo we've been in out of the document so many times adjusting things that I think that is just that we forgot to take it off so it's being taken off right now but that doesn't mean that in the future we might not want to also do a community resource handbook yeah that might be wonderful okay so then uh since it uh who made the motion I think it was I did could um would you accept a friendly amendment to approve it as the school Committee Member hand handbook um with uh poor Susan with the information added formatting and changing the title to school Committee Member handbook instead of school Committee Member and community resource Handbook of course and member Martini you seconded that are you okay with that Amendment yes okay any other discussion well I am so pleased uh with this we're really building infrastructure as a school committee thanks to your hard work and the budget committee's hard work um it's a lot to go from zero to one and it's a lot easier to make a change from version one to version two um and I love that you've included a process in here for um revising the handbook on annually um so people can it could be a living document and grow and become more and more useful to us over time so thank you you so much you're very welcome so with that would you call for the vote okay um secretary Den I'm yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes passes unanimously congratulations thank you where happened in my on my agenda got buried by the handbook so I think we're on CES is that right where are we yes uh any items not reasonably anticipated remember good one no no I I didn't make it I got a flu shot and was down for three days sorry was that the meeting or the banquet or both it was there it was the first meeting the next one is in December did they have a like minutes annivers they had like the anniversary party did you get to go to that no it was in Worcester oh yeah too far for me too bad okay all right City Planning and construction rep so we met yesterday and you did sort of anticipate it because we did talk about the elementary schools so I figure I should probably wait till new business F or do you want Cliff Notes right now uh Cliff Notes now I don't think I could have anticipated what you discussed yesterday because the was posted on Monday so but you're psychic no I'm kidding so basically we we talked uh we're looking at least 10 years out because we want it to be planned and strategic and not just slap Dash and especially because especially for you know these municipal buildings we want grants we want the state to pick up as much of the bill as possible and to do those it's a long process and the more groundwork you put in in advance the more say you have over the final project really um and so we did talk the the committee is split about um the elementary school situation where there's the financial side of things where eventually taking care of only one building that is built to Modern standards especially modern HVAC especially modern cooling with modern weather I feel like I'm using the word modern way too much anyway that there definitely could be a financial case for but then there's also the uh Community case of the neighborhood schools and the walking to school as opposed to buses so it is something that the building committee is actively wanting to think about how where Greenfield schools are going to be in 15 20 years as opposed to right now it is a forward-looking topic that yeah so that's where it is thank you questions or comments okay oh I have a question yeah uh are they using the nezda study because that one had far-reaching projections have they looked at that is that something they're using I am not sure it I should bring that to them directly just to make sure because part of it this was tacked onto a discussion of a different future study of sorry of buildings and so my brain is jello mayor dorer I love that NASDAQ study um actually the discussion was multifaceted because there were it's sort of like the priority of what buildings one would need um and I I think it deserves a lot more you know talking about and thinking about something came forward about maybe we should be looking at this and and you know what we should be doing with this or that or many municipal buildings city hall or police St schools and you'd have to have all the department heads in there looking at it and then projected enrollment of course would be important I I I didn't feel and correct me if I'm wrong um member CH I didn't feel like we reached a decision about that but it was a great discussion to have that is accurate it was a split committee without a consensus about Elementary School building's physical future okay thank you um let's see legislative representative not this month but next month I will have a report and a motion and mask division five representative not this month but next month I will have a report and a motion we missed you last time when we we congratulated you on your your um award from mask for your incredible work um as a rep for us and really taking on this role that this committee decided to fill after a long time and really going with it and going and doing great work so thank you so much for representing us so well you're very welcome thank you for nominating me who I honestly I wish I had I don't know how you didn't n you didn't nominate how it got I didn't know that there was a chance to nominate you must be someone out there that's the only way you're so stunning that somebody somehow did it I'm going to get to the bottom of this but I feel very uh I feel very proud and I'm looking forward to all of us winning it there's a future predent here yes you're a great advocate for us all getting involved in mask that's wonderful please so we went to Saturday we went to chartering the course and our mayor was recognized as only one of two Mayors who's ever attended chartering of course by Glen coocher so wow thank you mayor for making the time to go we really appreciate it that's great um and thank you for attending as well so are we now at a full uh everybody has been to charting the course we've all charted this is great good news all right District Wellness committee representative we should be well okay should all be well all right that means moving on um we have discussed item 78 school resource officer and schools the finance committee items item 7 be handled under the um Finance subcommittee report we'll move on to policy we're not I don't do we need a are either of these times sensitive that we need to vote tonight I don't think so okay so our new policy on policies calls for distribution of our draft policies you receive them then um discussion of them and then at um preferably I think at a future date um voting on them so uh tonight guess the idea is policy has such far-reaching implications that it helps to slow the process down a little bit if we can um so reviewing this student dress code policy this was described under the policy item as indigenous regalia that's because this came to us originally as a request that we review our policies to make sure that for example someone who wished to graduate in indigenous regalia wasn't um prevented by our um policies or procedures from being able to do that um so the superintendent worked with our attorney on this any comment no um our legal council advis though uh if you read the last line in red that the legally protected status would cover and then you wouldn't have to revise the policy if other legally protected status uh incidents came up where they wanted to wear such regalia if it was a different culture or um otherwise so um we did the general addition so that it would cover that as well as future incidents that may occur um any other questions or comments or discussion about the student dress code item member child's so the first line in red um is there a typo in that line ah good question all right because I I think that sentence has had uh too many edits and some of them contradicted each other that might be true let me read it as it should as it would be as presented they have the right to determine how the student will dress providing that attire is not destructive complies with requirements for health and safety and which Administration reasonably and anticipates Andor cause disorder or disruption that does sound at least minimally awkward and if not I'm not sure so I guess this is a good reason for having a discussion what's funny is it's like it's saying okay so the dress is not destructive it complies with the requirements and it causes disorder and disruption so uh we need to get our negatives consistent well and I think what will because May and does not are very different so I'm just going to run it by legal counsil one more time and then resend so that we have it accurately depicted okay but the intent of it essentially is to make sure that dress doesn't cause disorder disruption or destruction I guess so the lawyers will work it out and we'll have a new um draft for you next month um any other discussion uh I'll just say that I'm glad that um although we wouldn't think in the current environment that um a young person would have difficulty wearing that type of regalia at graduation it is really good to provide the protection in policy um uh so that um if the environment changes um that protection is still there via the policy so we will take that up again at our next meeting and next um we can review the foreign exchange student policy um superintendent would you cue this up for us sure if you recall we had two families who were interested in enrolling uh to exchange students from foreign countries uh we currently did not have a policy in place um masc does not have an actual policy in place um but uh Liz leond uh found some other school districts Who currently had a policy shared some drafts with me and then um I worked alongside our attorney for the draft you see in front of you this evening um because there is monetary um compensation with some students regarding what visa they come over or what exchange program they are enrolled in um we did put some language in there so that uh folks were aware um we limited to up to two each um year the majority were under J1 visas and the district does not receive compensation for students that are enrolled with a J1 visa and then some other uh requirements that just align really with our registration process um moving forward um I think at the end um we uh do need to develop some appropriate procedures uh moving forward after the policy is in place um but we first wanted to get a policy implemented so that uh when we have future requests which we do um have for uh potential January enrollment uh the two families unfortunately that were interested in having them early I guess there's very time sensitive uh requirements around getting someone into a household and um to vote uh for them to be accepted it was uh too delayed when we took it up at our last meeting so those families though are looking to uh find different students who may want to come to Greenfield and one I think has been successful for a January registration so um Council just said if we could get a policy in place and approved and then that we could streamline the process internally which would be helpful for future experiences thank you discussion not hearing any okay we'll take that up for a vote at our next meeting um I'd like to hear a motion to move the E item e tuition underwriting petition up uh to the next item so that we can try and get um member Den to be able to vote on this before she has to disappear from us she's leaving at 9:30 so moved is there a second second uh remember genive will you call the vote uh member Jive yes uh Vice chair mintini yes chair johnon musan yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member child yes passes unanimously okay um let's see Jesus is here if you want to come up um I'd like to hear a motion to um endorse the let me see I have written down the motion I move that the Greenfield I'd like to hear a motion that the Greenfield school committee Endor the petition as presented the tuition underwriting petition so moved so moved by um motion by member Charles is there a second second second from Member Den um Jesus do you want to just share a little overview for us and then we can discuss uh sure um I think it's important to understand that um most districts are facing the same Challenge and most districts are discussing this same challenge but they're discussing it within their own district and not really outreaching to other districts about trying to challenge this particular funding dilemma because they don't really believe that it's possible to um I think that the more um districts that are on record as wanting this to change the more likely it is that we'll be able to actually have a conversation that'll result in a movement to change the legislature on this particular issue thank you any questions or discussion I just want to thank you for all of the work you've put into this and commend you for your endurance in hanging in with us so long tonight thank you um with uh any luck this will also be on the agenda of two other school committees within the next couple of weeks mayor dis arre I wanted to Echo what member child said because Jesus has actually been here through a couple of meetings on this and I am quite impressed with his dedication and persistence it's folks like him that get things past thank you Jus laa thank you all right with that me you want to speak or you want to vote oh go ahead both yeah please um this is one of the three issues that we discussed when we went to Dan the hill and it really resonated to the legislators when we had so many members from different committees I mean we had like six or seven committees that we mobilized so we can do that again and it means a lot when we all come in and say we all have the same issue these are our three top issues and this is one of the things that has to change so there's like three real concrete ways that we've identified of getting more money from the state and this is one of the ways so I think it's I think it's great if we can throw our support behind this and it will signal to other school committees that are you know considerably smaller and have much smaller student populations and don't have as much weight to throw around that we can throw around weight with them so I'm excited and thank you Jesus for all of your work thank you um I actually you brought it up I think it's worth saying um I think part of the issue here is that we tend to think about which districts we should be allied with legislatively in very narrow terms um this is an issue that affects Boston and they're not seeing the funding as a result of this they get 228 million in Chapter 70 funding and then they have 20 $80 million in assessments against them for Charter School Public Funding um the mayor of New Bedford six years ago wrote an article to the mass Municipal Association about how charter school funding Public Funding negatively impacts public school districts and you know only a couple of months ago there was an editorial in the Berkshire Eagle from Pittsfield talking about how school choice impacts them as a low-income Community um I think it's just really important that we start having these conversations as a group and um recognizing that we do all in fact have a very similar issue and again it's not about whether charter schools are good or whether school choice are good as policy it's who should pay for it the municipality or the state thank you mayor are you asking to speak again I'll take that as a no no I just forgot to put my hand down sorry okay um SEC secretary Den will you call the vote Yes secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes passes unanimously passes unanimously thank you are you taking off now secretary Den um well according to technology the kid is jamming out to the Cure in the kitchen so um I can stay for just a little okay well all righty um let's see where are we now structure of business manager employment or contract I feel like I I'm not sure how I did my best to be clear about what this item is about I guess a little context So currently we get our business manager Services through a contract um the previously we had hired someone as a staff member to fill that role so um the item um that we are discussing is whether the committee wishes to uh continue to contract with the vendor for that or to um structure the work as the work of an employee and do a employment search to find someone so um there are a couple different issues about this that we just need to be thoughtful about um one is that in our discussions we can't at all focus on um our evaluation of the contractor in terms of whether their work is satisfactory or non-satisfactory or any complaints about them because they have they have rights under open meeting law to be notified and to have those items uh in a um executive session we also you know there are also items related to discussing compensation or strategic things involved in hiring I believe believe that might be covered under executive session so we're not having either of those discussions this is purely a discussion about how the work is structured whether it's an whether we want to um continue with a contract or switch to have it be an employee uh role um so the current contract goes through June 2025 um for context and um it's 9:35 so I guess oh one thing I I was interested in learning more about that I think before I could really vote I would really want to have this context and maybe you all would as well is what is the environment like out there for uh hiring business managers because I feel like that you know I'm a uh someone who cares a lot about workers and I kind of believe in hiring locally and having people with benefits and people you know embedded in the school district so all those arguments are great for me but I know there are also many positions in the district that we contract out because it's just difficult to find Qualified people for those roles so I don't actually know um enough about that um uh so I was wondering if the distri if the committee might consider uh asking the um superintendent to kind of um give us create a presentation for us on her um gather some information and share with us a presentation about the hiring kind of environment for this types of role and present it to us in November I say in November just because uh as superintendent presented to us there's going to be a huge amount of work required of the administration with the reviews that Desi is doing um so that's oh in December in December that's right because mid November is when all of our one-on ones are happening so it's going to be busy basically between now and then so what do folks think about that remember good one so I had the same question did you had yeah when I was at chartering of course I asked Liz and Glenn and the people there if it was impossible to find a business director and they said they they find them pretty regularly for districts okay thank you other comments or questions yeah if that's the case is it possible to have masc come up and talk to us about how that would look if we moved from a vendor to a staff position and what we'd need to do and what the search would be about is that a search that we would have to pay for for example or is it just something that we would put out I as a description or would we we'd have to go to bid right if we chose a vendor so I guess I just have a lot of like logistical questions about it that I need answered and I'm wondering if masc is just the resource to to do that especially if uh the superintendent is so very very very busy absolutely I'd be happy to talk to them and see if they can come to our November meeting and um talk to us about that remember good one I've been on committees that have hired um directors of business and we must have a a job description because we've had them yeah we do I think the last one was Steve nimow um and if you don't mind moving your microphone so that people can I just want to make sure so we picked up the last one was Steve um I think the the move to hiring a company was supposed to be a temporary solution um because the superintendent was leaving and I think it's it's time now we're talking about things about building schools we're talking about investing a lot of time in different things and we have a lot of questions um and having somebody on the ground in Greenfield really I think will help us get questions answered um so I think I know I support the idea of a director of business that belongs to Greenfield Public Schools okay uh I think what I'd like to hear is a motion to direct the chair to discuss with mask uh coming to our November meeting and making a presentation related to the business manager hiring environment and the logistics I'd make that motion okay a motion from a member Den is there a second second from Who seconded ah remember good one great um any further discussion and uh I have a comment additional question um I would need information about the um potential and probable cost impact of either proceeding in our current structure or changing it to a employee yep that makes sense and I guess some of that um could be estimated and predictable um another thing that could be um non-predictable if we did do a search and it wasn't successful like what do we do then that kind of thing so those are the kinds I will definitely bring that question to um to mask and uh for the presentation in November okay thank you can turn your mic on I think we would review policy GC BB as well because it discusses um the hiring of us School business administrator um it looks like the appointment uh the superintendent manages the hiring process and then keeps the school committee informed the committee votes on the appointment based upon superintendent's recommendation great thank you okay uh any other discussion the the motion to um to ask m to come and work with us on this in November okay um am Den will you call a vote secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes passes unanimously okay great um so um there I got a email from Member Martini requesting this item on new elementary school subcommittee um and I'm hoping that I will uh create uh I've created a good motion here member Martini but if it isn't what you were hoping for please let me know but the motion would be to create an ad hoc subcommittee to research and present a proposal on whether to set a goal of constructing a new element School how does that sound sounds good to me okay great I'd like to hear that motion so moved motion from Member Martini is there a second I'll second it um let's just any discussion okay I think the idea was you know we started to come up tonight with um member child's uh representing us on that uh construction committee but um I think it would be good for us as a school committee to have a picture of whether this is something we think needs to happen and and then we can look at the feasibility of it um so I thought perhaps having a subcommittee ad hoc subcommittee um who's role was to research it and make a proposal to us on what our stance should be as a school committee would be good um mayor um I before I voted on this um the makeup of the ad hoc committee is like how how is that going to be determined um chair uh the way our our policy um describes the Staffing of committees and subcommittees as for the uh the chair to put forward um a slate basically and then the school committee can vote up or down um on the uh on the members to be assigned to the subcommittee thank you and um so if you if we do vote to go forward with this I would love to hear from people if you would like to be on it and I I guess I'd make the appointment of the members at the next meeting member Martini I just wanted to um provide a little context so uh while we have been going through the process of discussing redistricting and uh integrating our schools uh in the recent past we really had to wrestle with um some difficulties that could not be addressed within our current buildings for example we made this concerted effort to um not only integrate but also move our fifth grade back to elementary school but um there was an ual wish to move sixth grade back to elementary school and that was not um it was kind of a non-starter given our our current buildings and availability and um also we have had discussions in regards to the spaces and Facilities we have available for students with disabilities in our current schools uh which I would like to discuss more um and uh of of course we have confronted a number of physical issues with our existing uh elementary school buildings which are um aging and uh present some really significant um concerns uh the original Newton School building having been built in 1915 and uh for example and uh the configuration of Federal Street school and the difficulties that presents in making it physically accessible for um disabled students and other concerns um has just uh led to this topic coming up multiple times um over my experience on the committee the last few years as to the wish to consider pursuing a new uniform Elementary School and um we keep talking about it but unless there is a structure put into place to have a codified um well researched conversation about it we'll just keep talking about it and and I would like to move the conversation forward so I would um I would very much support having an adoc committee to get this going May s um so I think that's a very good idea to have a you know to have a a committee that's looking at this but um it needs to be a diversified committee committee that has diversity of thought that's all I would say so I I don't know I I um I am thinking about whether or not I'll V I'll vote in favor of that well uh so I'm going to ask the chair uh this is my question to the chair before I vote will the folks be appointed to the ad hoc committee that have a diversity of thought on this um well I I think it's a tricky trickier question than you might expect because if I ped people for their opinions on the topic before assigning them to the committee they'd essentially be potentially deliberating outside of a public session so I don't actually know where people stand on it and that I guess my intent would be to choose people for the committee based on their interest and their willingness to work hard on the issue in a good faith manner without doing a litmus test for what their views were in advance of assigning them and hope that you know that if we have three people on the committee um that that would be enough of diversity but I hear your concern I'm just not sure exactly how to address it m Goodwin there's a lot to think about with this um and it's almost 10 o'clock so could we make the motion to vote next the next meeting on this because I think I know I'd like to really think about this a little more and my brain is shuts down at 9ine sure you could do a motion to lay them lay the lay the motion on the table I move that we table this till our next meeting is there a second second it's um not debatable so I will um call the vot v a member Goodwin yes member child's yes member Sexton yes I'm a yes mayor dorer yes all right the motion is okay sorry member Martini yes motion to table passes unanimously uh that's when we're on to requests for future agenda items member ston um it seemed like there was a desire to have an agenda item discussing the process by which warrants are approved okay great we can add a process by which warrants are approved to the next um agenda any other requests not hearing any I would take a motion to adjourn so moved motion by the mayor is there a second second second by member Goodwin um any discussion okay I'll call the vote mayor mayor disorder yes yes mayor um member Goodwin yes oh um member Martini yes uh member Childs yes member seon yes uh member Johnson mad I am a yes we are adjourned at 9:52 p.m.
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but it does say there will be a f minute break so thank you um any other discussion questions for the assistant superintendent all right great let us take a five minute break [Music] n [Music] a [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] ah [Music] a [Music] he [Music] n [Music] a [Music] can the um folks on Zoom still hear us let us know if not I can hear you okay superintendent report thank you um we were talking about some of our subgroups and our elll population being one of them but we do have some highlighted good news today um the access scores that we just received for our L students our uh Middle School had tremendous growth growth 56% of our L students increased toward their learning goals in grades 6 through eight so I wanted to share that but it was so remarkable that the desie office of language acquisition actually asked our Administration along with our elll teacher from The Middle school to present today to a conference on a webinar about what we are doing for our L population and how um it's actually showing some positive uh growth for our students so I wanted to share you'll notice in um the reports that we share now though we are uh continually linking any of these items to our strategic plan work so that you can uh distinctly see what we're doing and how it's really supporting the 5-year plan that we have in place and um not just uh the topic but I've tried to also put in parenthesis a little extra info about what part of that topic they were supporting so you'll see that in blue moving forward in my reports um some staffing updates our director of Technology John galdi is leaving us on Friday um for some personal reasons and we do wish him a fond farewell um we have had a great response though for the posting and we've interviewed uh numerous qualified candidates and we have two more on Friday that we will be interviewing so hopefully we will have a replacement fairly quickly in that department um member seon asked earlier we used to have it was one position it was the combined Community Connection social justice coordinator I don't remember the whole title but um it was eer 2 funded and when eer 2 ended the position ended but prior to eer 2 ending the Personnel person departed from Greenfield and we just never found a replacement for the past year um we had a director of Behavior Services who took on a lot of that work and then that person um retired so we have had the director of Behavior Services position in our general budget it has been open and we have finally filled it we hired Katie Miller Murphy she started with us on Monday hit the ground running um really glad to have her on board because she will be doing a lot of the oversight of not only our attendance meetings in all of our buildings but working with our counselors our bcbas we also have rbts that we will be putting at our elementary schools to help Monitor and um really help with some of the behaviors that they're seeing that are challenging at that level they will be working together um also to talk about sort of practices we've been working closely with frog and how to roll out a solid uh zero to five plan as I call it because we do need to Pilot and to think about the planning process I think everyone thinks you can just be restorative practice uh communities and don't understand really the investment that you have to put in place and if you don't do it with purpose and intent it falls to Pieces so um we will be working with them closely and we have two counselors at the high school that are um trained through um Boston um we sent them to suffk University two years ago and they are very interested in continuing this work so um I do um really want to remind though you know that with regards to behaviors in schools um we have tried to really support the EM social and emotional needs of our students and at the same time um we were in a rethinking discipline initiative as member Martini uh previously stated and we finally have um been grown out of that as they say and we no longer under that umbrella with desie but many of uh folks don't understand that Desi also changed the regulations around suspension and there are um requiring schools provide alternative measures and you have to document these alternative measures and the success or non-success of those alternative measures and then actually move to a suspension so um what folks uh think can happen with regards to removing students from school really is not as um easily possible as in many years ago some of those includ uh alternative measures include you know parent meetings lessons with counselors on their behaviors safety plans um after school detentions um but you really do have to monitor and document all of that so I just wanted to share that because having someone like the director of Behavioral Services is pivotal in actually Meeting those requirements under desie regs um I also want to remind folks that I I along with the rest of all members of our school district are um obligated to follow furpa and we have to keep the privacy of student information um and protect that privacy for all students under all circumstances so that also um often puts a snafu in what people um think we can speak about and not speak about so I just um really want to just remind folks of that we also um uh had a first grade opening at Newton Elementary and I really am excited that we will be welcoming a new teacher Danielle Italiano is coming to us um with teaching experience in Holio and ammer she will be starting in about a week and a half at Newton um and really want to thank Stacy McDon the IIA at Newton who's been covering the classroom working with the other first grade teacher and teaching lessons for us uh Rockstar IIA and we really appreciate her support and uh patience during this time and look forward to having a first grade teacher on board um many other staff have been welcomed but we are still struggling as Stephen alluded to earlier to fill some IA positions some custodial positions we certainly are doing as much out Outreach as possible um there will be another recorder ad in the paper so there will be another marketing invoice for that because sometimes the best uh bang for our buck is local people who read the paper and maybe not Beyond School spring so we're hoping that that will Garner some interest and I just also want to restate member seon's um shout out to the community that if you even have an hour and want to come um cover lunch or recess we would love to have you sign up as a volunteer and get you on boarded so that you could help us in those areas and we appreciate your efforts at Federal Street I know principal halin loves having you um a lot of the work that we're doing with instructional strategies is also tied to District learning walks we have some formal learning walks that are happening with our professional development teaching lab partner um we are using this with a focus on literacy this year so in all classrooms we will be looking at the um engagement of students student discourse um students ability not to opt out and engage in the lesson and uh how they are accessing grade level standards but six walkthroughs a year um for Stephen and I just isn't acceptable so he and I have begun our own site visit walkthroughs so one week I'm at middle and high he's at elementary and a and then we flip and we're using components of the same um rubric that we have been using with the teaching lab we've done it on a smaller scale so that we can also be in classrooms more often um I linked the Strategic plan there but um for us really monitoring how we are collecting student data what we're doing to look at student data and how folks in classrooms know what students need is our priority and then I had uh mentioned earlier that we have been randomly and I put air quotes randomly selected by Jessie for a full comprehensive Jessie District site review um we met with the research team it's called the American Institute for research who does all of des's work on site and comes to visit uh we had our introductory call we've gotten uh signed up for the portal in which we have to produce pounds of information um and then they will collect data they will be on site and they say they will an analyze and integrate the information they collect to provide a snapshot of what the district looks like and then um push out a final report three to four months after that I just remind folks though because they are coming the week of November 18th and part of that is going to be uh interview with school committee members um interviews with the mayor interviews with parents and families um so we have some form letters that they've provided us and we will be pushing out more information so that folks know where to sign up if they want to be part of these groups and I will also be sharing information with all of you if you want to be one that they interview they will also be in our classrooms in our buildings and um they will be meeting with all administrators our director of pupil Services um and we will continue to schedule all of that as I get more information um each week um just an added update because the mayor had asked for updated um enrollment statistics and I had given those overall ones each month um we are at 1376 which is about uh 30 student uh less than we were um as of September 9th um I do caution though we have a everchanging EB in flow with our uh migrant families who are at the hotel many of them have secured housing in Deerfield at Cliffside and are uh slowly moving out but we are slowly moving other folks in so the enrollment fluctuation is constant um I did um attend a Franklin County superintendence meeting today and there were six other schools and five out of the six also said their enrollment was down about 30 kids so we all thought that that was odd and um interesting all at the same time so for us um it it really does seem to be a constant moving uh Target with some of the transiency so and that is my report and I'm happy to answer questions questions for the superintendent not seeing any thank you very much oh yes I'm sorry I wasn't quick on the raising hand part pardon me um and Karen this would be fine later not tonight but just by school at some point but and thank you so much for doing that I appreciate you I if you want to jot down the numbers I did bring the numbers by school okay great I'm writing all right AEL 87 Federal Street 195 yep Discovery School 186 Newton 175 okay Middle School 325 High School 407 thanks a lot thank you so much I can I can send that in an email too if you needed it nope I I wrote it down thank you very much you're welcome other questions for the superintendent I just let really appreciate your follow through in terms of organizing your report with those connections to our strategic plan I think that's both valuable in the month and also will be valuable to us you know as we're looking at evaluation of you and you know how well you're responding to the things that we've asked you to do so I really appreciate that um okay now we move on to the conent consent agenda um are there any items any school Committee Member would like to consider separately member child's I would like to consider the school catchment separately and pull that out of the consent agenda okay it is uh number F approve the catchment street school assignment list for 2025 26 any other items that folks would like to okay so I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented with the exception of item F so moved motion from Member Den is there a second second second from Member child's I heard first um any discussion member Den would you please call the vote by roll call uh secretary genive I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member chobs yes it's unanimous okay um then uh we'll start with a motion to approve the catchment street school assignment list for 2025 26 so moved okay there's a motion is there a second second okay discussion I just wanted to uh give the superintendent a chance to provide a little bit more context on this especially for the public because they're not really going to know it so the big question is where do these numbers come from how was the decision made sure um the catchment list that you have was actually the draft of the street assigned ments that began the redistricting process years ago um and the bus company the former superintendent and um the principles of the elementary at the time had to decide on um availability of classrooms in the building in order for fifth grade to move back down because you have to have space for those students to be in rooms and um while I appreciate some of the concerns around uh some of the other streets that may be close to Oak courts not making it in the new catchment list um the Quick Glance that I did look at um without getting too into the weeds it was about 32 additional students that would have to move to um Federal Street so um that alone just at a k through four run would put us probably in um a situation with needing a potential extra bus or it would put Federal Street in potential for needing three sections of a grade level um just by adding the numbers and I didn't go deep into the weeds to see you know what grade levels or how we would manipulate all of that um but then after Communications with the transportation company um as well as Elementary principles before our last redistricting ad hoc meeting um we talked about the catch areas and the numbers and um can hopefully um follow through and have all of the fifth grades uh be two sections in each building moving forward with the exception of a potential third section needed in a school but uh we've been looking at space and trying to configure that um I also later in the agenda there is a timeline just that came out of that ad hoc redistricting meeting and um time is of the essence which is why we had talked about uh needing this assigned list to actually be voted on and approved because then the communications with families that are affected by the list actually have to begin sooner rather than later because the policy says that they can choose to age out or they can choose to go to their new home school and we would need to communicate with families on when their choice needed to be made and why in order to secure transportation and have space available in the buildings um I had originally had it on for our November meeting and thankfully um member Childs and member seon were like we should do this sooner rather than later so we moved it to October um and I think once we actually get this solidified a lot of the next steps can happen other questions or comments I just want to clarify can opt out of this only in the highlighted streets so those that affected here if you're homes right now their home school is where they go to school right next year their home school will be different right so in our discussions we gave families the option if you're a third grader at Federal Street but your school has changed you want to probably spend fourth and fifth grade at Federal Street it's the school your family's known and love but maybe you don't maybe you want your family to move to the new home school for ease of Transportation pickup drop off busing um we are still providing Transportation regardless of their decision for the families that are affected and that's why it's key to um really be certain about which highlighted streets we're agreeing upon so that and I saw your shake of the head member uh Goodwin so yes um it is a lot but we are are going to do this yes we [Laughter] are any other discussion all right um member Den would you call a vote you're on um secretary genive I'm yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes passes unanimously thanks everybody um so you might notice that our school committee reports item on our agenda um looks a little different than it has in the past uh this is because on Monday um we received notice from the clerk's office that um they would like us to have um uh specific items under each subcommittee um so that the public can reasonably know what will be discussed so in the future I think if your um committee wants to report at the meeting um please email me um a week before so we can make sure to get the items you'll be discussing into the agenda um so with that um budget and finance subcommittee um remember my team okay yes hello so uh budget and finance did meet in September and uh we covered several topics including the dissemination of the school committee's new budget development calendar for FY 26 as well as implementation of school committee policy dbd which is in part about public engagement in the budget development process as well as upcoming capital improvements necessary and a brief presentation from Andy regarding our fy2 24 end of year accounting so as you know the school committee recently approved our first annual budget development calendar um and our next step in carrying out our policies in this area is for the committee to determine How We Gather input in the budget development process um so just to make it easy for everyone our policy DVD States the first priority in the development of an annual budget will be the educational welfare of the children in our schools however the district will also attempt to balance the valid interests of the taxpayers budget decisions reflect the attitude and philosophy of those charged with the responsibility for educational decision-making therefore a sound budget development process must be established to ensure that the annual operating budget accurately reflects the school district's goals and objectives in the budget planning process for the school district the school committee will strive to one engage in thorough Advanced planning with staff and Community involvement in order to develop budgets and guide expenditures in a manner that will achieve the greatest educational returns and contributions to the educational program in relation to Dollar expended two establish levels of funding that will provide high quality education for all our students three use the best available techniques for budget development and management the superintendent will have overall respons posibility for Budget preparation including the construction of and adherence to a budget calendar so with that policy in mind we reviewed the ways in which the committee uh in which the community already has opportunities for involvement in our budget development process which are also laid out within our annual budget development calendar uh that we just put out there for everyone and those ways include um emailing the superintendent via our staff directory emailing the school committee making public comment at a school committee meeting especially at pertinent times which are outlined for people in the budget development calendar such as September and October about Capital Improvements during November and December about the development of the next year's operating budget and during February and early March about the proposed operating budget and also uh if folks have an interest in a certain Department within the school then um they may contact contct the school principal or the department head for that department through the staff directory to let them know their ideas especially when individual Department budget proposals are under development in the fall for the next year's operating budget uh participating in school councils is a great way to do this and people can check the district calendar for upcoming meetings of the council for each School uh those being the existing ways that we could identify that uh the public already has uh opportunities for engagement in the budget development we then discussed whether these means are adequate and uh we agreed that we would like to make ourselves more available um in order to provide more opportunities for engagement so uh toward that end we discussed several options and created a proposal which I have made into a motion for approval as follows I move that the committee approve the budget and finance subcommittee plan for implementation of policy dbd Section 1 for FY 26 budget development as follows each subcommittee member will attend at least one meeting of a parent organization PTO CPAC lpac or school council prior to the December school committee meeting for the purpose of making themselves available in addition to normal means for public input in the budget development process for FY 26 would anyone like to second that motion I'd second that thank you discussion all sorry I should leave that to the chair I have a question Sloss friendly Amendment do you mean each member of the the budget um and finance subcommittee yes each subcommittee member okay budget and finance subcommittee member okay great if we can include that in the motion that would be great um any other [Music] discussion uh we have a question from Susan Farber I'm hoping that you would email that motion yes I be happy to do that sorry it was kind of long thank you so much sure any other [Music] discussion member seon okay go ahead um I'm I'm assuming this will be part of how this gets implemented but I also want to be sure that on the that there's proper notice given of those dates that you will be attending those meetings so that people know to go to them yes so uh we will definitely incorporate that make sure it gets out there we discussed in the budget and finance subcommittee meeting um means of disseminating our annual budget calendar um and I imagine we can use those same means um to notify folks of which meetings either member child or member jie for myself will be at for folks member Den I have the calendar of those parent meetings sent to me by Karen so I'm going to be adding them to our school committee C calend so if you would like to attend one even if you're not on the budget and finance subcommittee you can go and represent and that will be up next week no later than next week I promise promise thank you so much for doing that um the subcommittee members are committed to doing at least one um we are only humans and are extremely busy in our own U personal lives so uh we were not we decided to commit to one um if other but we don't want to necessarily make that something on the plate of other members as well um we take our responsibility on budget and finance seriously so if other members would like to voluntarily go and and make themselves present um then by all me um mayor dorer um thank you so much for all your work on this this is wonderful um would you like me to send to you before you get started too much what guidelines that I'd be sending to like the city on looking over the the entire budget or you know yeah yes please I'm I would be very interested in that um information I would just like to be clear that the purpose of um us going and making ourselves available um in this way is to listen and gather input from people and not you know necessarily to deliberate we're not we will do that in our open meetings thank you thank so much any other comments or questions I'll just say uh it's really wonderful it's a great model I think um to both put the work into developing this calendar and then get right to work figuring out how to engage the public in the process and I like your realistic approach of one one meeting per member and kind of focusing on what we can do um and not overstretching ourselves I I think that's that's great shall we vote member deneve uh secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson musan yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Chads yes vote is unanimous thank you so much for that I really um am heartened to see and be involved in um budget development becoming um more organized and uh engaged process here so thank you uh the second thing uh that we also discussed is current capital Improvement needs the most pressing of which include upgrading the GMS fire panel and making improvements to the fourth grade wing and nurse's office at Four Corners that are required under the Ada in resolution of a previous complaint uh the Four Corners improvements still require additional information though in order to provide an estimate cost so I will be offering a motion tonight only for the fire panel and we will discuss an additional request for the Ada improvements on another date once we have that information we also discussed additional Capital Improvements that are needed but less urgent um including a GMS awning roof replacement by the gym doors ghs lighting control system updates ghs track maintenance and painting and a exterior ior painting because these will uh because we already have a significant amount in Urgent Capital Improvement requests and because these other items are needed but it would be acceptable if they were funded later we determined that they would be suitable for earmark funding requests and to that end I will have a separate motion for them so uh before I get on to motions though I will um let the superintendent please describe those needs in brief for the committee if you could sure with the capital request um with the GMS fire panel um our facilities director has a meeting set up with Chief stran as well to go over um there is some um outdated parts that are no longer available so um when you replace a fire panel you have to also replace all of the detectors in every room which obviously you need so that you can have the panel in working functional order um so that was really uh important to us to put that at the highlight of our list this year the ADA compliance issues at Discovery School um I think for those of you that have been on the committee for a while realize that this is a OCR complaint that I believe is um at least a decade old if not longer and the last two items on the list list um are the nurse's office and the door accessibility that needs to be widened for a wheelchair accessibility as well as the fourth grade Wing um is only stair access to exit so um there does need to be an ADA Compliant exit outside that of the building we did have the facilities director uh meet a contractor to see um if there could be some estimates and quotes when this originally was uh on tap and then after um that we also met with the building inspector and after that conversation it looks like there may need to be an architect in some future planning um so there is uh much more um Deep dive needed into actually what it's going to take to fix both of those so what we originally thought um probably was a little bit too low in the estimation process so I put TBD back on there and spoke with member Martini just so that she was aware of where we were in that process for Capital um with regards to earmark I've talked to our legislators talked to member deneve um over the past year about having projects on a list readily available just in case and you know you never know when they could find some money so uh in speaking with the facilities man uh director we had come up with a list and uh prioritized these four really if um you know they can wait as member Martini indicated but if someone did find money and wanted to uh give it to Greenfield so that we could get these projects done we would happily accept it for these items thank you okay so uh with that information in mind I move that the committee approve an FY 26 Capital Improvement request in the amount of 150,00 for upgrading the fire panel at Greenfield Middle School I'll second that okay discussion member Den will you call a vote uh secretary Den I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seant yes member CHS yes motion carries unanimously thank you and lastly I have one more motion I move that the committee authorize our legislative representative to communicate with our legislative delegation to advance earmark funding requests as follows $30,000 for GMS awning roof replacement $50,000 for ghs lighting system updates $50,000 for ghs track maintenance and painting and $30,000 for a exterior painting is there a second I'll second that second for member child's discussion member D and then uh the mayor um I just want to say that I've never done this before so I'm going to this is my homework I'm excited that we're going to try it but this is a try and see so uh if anyone has ideas or wants to work with me on this homework or happens to interact with any of the legislators and has thoughts and ideas I would welcome them um we did talk to uh several people at the day on the hill about how to do this and got a little bit of a road map but it's kind of something that it seems that once you start it you get an idea for how to do it and you learn how to put pressure at the right times and so that's what I'm going to try and I will ask for help uh in hyanis also of the people who do this regularly because this is something that happens all the time for other people so let's have it happen for us thanks for taking it on and I think you'll find uh that we're lucky to have our legislative delegation will actually help you uh talk you know you can ask them what should I be doing if I want to advocate for this and they will tell you so thank you so much for taking it on other comments or questions okay oh mayor please sorry up um I'm working off my iPad tonight I'm apologize not getting my hand up first of all member martini thank you so much for doing that I know it's a long night tonight but um could you send that to my jenny.
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disor one tonight you're not too tired tonight I am meeting tomorrow with the delegation and I'm getting better and better at this as weeks go by um asking for specific money and if you could put if you had an idea of which you would like the most I will push for that because they've actually been great and I know that that the superintendent and the assistant superintendent that you're doing that also but I just thought I have a meeting tomorrow so I could put in a plug if you let me know dollar amounts and and your one two three fours of those and thank you again so much okay I will certainly send you that by email and um member genive I was going to suggest that um the mayor has some experience now with um the process around earmark funding and communicating with legislators on this so uh I imagine that the two of you would make a good team on that front I'd be honored to work with any of you thank you thank you any other discussion comments questions all right member Den will you call the vote all right once again secretary genive yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes mayor member Goodwin yes member ston yes member Childs yes and it's unanimous okay thank you um let's see moving on um we have the um indigenous regalia review we have it in two places on the agenda so we'll just discuss that under the new business item I'll just also mention that we did not have an executive subcommittee so no report from that for me um so moving on to the uh Community engagement subcommittee any topics not reasonably anticipated by the chairperson nope just that I've got an email out to schedule our first meeting nice um great uh re redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee I believe that the substantive work of that committee has already been discussed tonight would encourage members of the public to look at the Timeline that our superintendent created for what the next steps in the process are thank you uh school committee handbook we have a draft in your materials it is just the final draft there are some things that need to be filled in just little things like email addresses and some formatting and uh there's a few small bodies of text that member seon is going to insert um but there is nothing there will be nothing new added to this so if you've looked through it that's that's it anything that's going to be filled in has been identified the only thing that will change is it will be formatted nicely and all of the fonts will be one font it will look nice and it will also have a similar theme to uh Vice chair Martini's budget calendar so we will have some Green Wave logo some greenwave nice design and hopefully when you look at it online it will be cohesive and beautiful but um the time for letting us know if you want to add something at this moment has passed but in the handbook you'll see that there's an annual review section so when we do our school committee self- evaluation we will also review this and then if anybody has anything they want to add or any new things they have learned that should be added to the handbook then we can do that great so I'd hear a motion to approve the school Committee Member and community resource handbook uh as presented understanding that uh some details and formatting may change I will make that motion all right is there a second second second from Member Martini uh discussion m seon just one real quick when you read off the title of it in in your in the statement of the motion you said member and community resource in my I think I'm remembering that when we originally brought this topic up we sort of separated those two and said that this was really for members and is relevant to them and so I just want to be clear on what it is that this handbook is doing because otherwise there might be additional things that should go in there if it's also for the community um the handbook as presented call is called the school Committee Member and community resource handbook I personally would be for um keeping it focused on being a school Committee Member handbook but I wasn't uh I didn't feel strongly enough about it to make the case I guess so I think that was just honestly I think that was just a typo we've been in and out of the document so many times adjusting things that I think that is just that we forgot to take it off so it's being taken off right now but that doesn't mean that in the future we might not want to also do a community resource handbook yeah that might be wonderful okay so then uh since it uh who made the motion I think it was I did could um would you accept a friendly amendment to approve it as the school Committee Member handbook um with uh poor Susan with the information added formatting and changing the title to school Committee Member handbook instead of school Committee Member and community resource Handbook of course and member Martini you seconded that are you okay with that Amendment yes okay any other discussion well I am so pleased uh with this we're really building infrastructure as a school committee thanks to your hard work and the budget committee's hard work um it's a lot to go from zero to one and it's a lot easier to make a change from version one to version two um and I love that you've included a a process in here for um revising the handbook on annually um so people can it could be a living document and grow and become more and more useful to us over time so thank you so much you're very welcome so with that would you call for the vote okay um secretary Den I'm yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes passes unanimously congratulations thank you uh where happened to my my agenda got buried by the handbook so I think we're on CES is that right where yes uh any items not reasonably anticipated remember good one no no I I didn't make it I got a flu shot and was down for three days so sorry was that the meeting or the banquet or both it was there it was the first meeting the next one is in December did they have a like their minutes annivers they had like the anniversary party did you get to go to that no it was in Worcester oh yeah too far for me too bad okay all right City Planning and construction rep so we met yesterday and you did sort of anticipate it because we did talk about the elementary schools so I figure I should probably wait till new business F or do you want Cliff Notes right now uh Cliff Notes now I don't think I could have anticipated what you discussed yesterday because the meeting was posted on Monday so but you're psychic no I'm kidding so basically we we talked uh we're looking at least 10 years out because we want it to be planned and strategic and not just slap Dash and especially because especially for you know these municipal buildings we want grants we want the state to pick up as much of the bill as possible and to do those it's a long process and the more groundwork you put in in advance the more say you have over the final project really um and so we did talk the the committee is split about um the elementary school situation where there's the financial side of things where eventually taking care of only one building that is built to Modern standards especially modern HVAC especially modern cooling with modern weather I feel like I'm using the word modern way too much anyways that there definitely could be a financial case for but then there's also the uh Community case of the neighborhood schools and the walking to school as opposed to buses so it is something that the building committee is actively wanting to think about how where Greenfield schools are going to be in 15 20 years as opposed to right now it is a forward-looking topic that yeah so that's where it is um thank you any questions or comments okay oh I have a question yeah uh are they using the nzda study cuz that one had far-reaching projections have they looked at that is that something they're using I am not sure it I should bring that to them directly just to make sure because part of it this was tacked onto a discussion of a different future study of O sorry of buildings and so my brain is jell okay mayores orer I love that mesda um actually the discussion was multifaceted because there were it's sort of like the priority of what buildings one would need um and I I think it deserves a lot more you know talking about and thinking about something came forward about maybe we should be looking at this and and you know what we should be doing with this or that or many municipal buildings City Hall or police St schools and you'd have to have all the department heads in there looking at it and then projected enrollment of course would be important I I did I didn't feel and correct me if I'm wrong um member CH I didn't feel like we reached a decision about that but it was a great discussion to have that is accurate it was a split committee without a consensus about the elementary school building's physical future okay thank you um let's see legislative representative not this month but next month I will have a report and a motion and mask division five representative not this month but next month I'll have a report and a motion we missed you last time when we we congratulated you on your your um award from mask for your incredible award work um as a rep for us and really taking on this role that this committee decided to fill after a long time and really going with it and going and doing great work so thank you so much for representing us so well you're very welcome thank you for nominating me who I honestly I wish I had I don't know how you didn't you didn't Nom I don't know how it got I didn't know that there was a chance to nominate you must be someone out there only way you're so stunning that somebody somehow did it I'm going to get to the bottom of this but I feel very uh I feel very proud and I'm looking forward to all of us winning it there's a future president here yes you're have a great advocate for us all getting involved in mask that's wonderful please so we went to Saturday we went to chartering the course and our mayor was recognized as only one of two Mayors who's ever attended chartering the course by Glenn coocher so that wow thank you mayor for making the time to go we really appreciate it that's great um and thank you for attending as well so are we now at the full uh everybody has been to charting the course we've all charted this is great good news all right District Wellness committee representative we should be well okay should all be well all right that means moving [Music] on um we have discussed item 7A school resource officer in schools the finance committee items item 7B have already been handled under the um Finance subcommittee report we'll move on to policy we're not I don't do we need a are either of these times sensitive that we need to vote tonight I don't think so okay so our new policy on policies calls for distribution of our draft policies you receive them then um discussion of them and then at um preferably I think at a future date um voting on them so uh tonight it guess the idea is policy has such far-reaching implications that it helps to slow the process down a little bit if we can um so reviewing this student dress code policy this was described under the policy item as indigenous regalia that's because this came to us originally as a request that we review our policies to make sure that for example someone who wished to graduate in indigenous regalia wasn't um prevented by our um policies or procedures from being able to do that um so the superintendent worked with our attorney on this any comment no um our legal council advised though uh if you read the last line in red that the legally protected status would cover and then you wouldn't have to revise the policy if other legally protected status uh incidents came up where they wanted to wear such regalia if it was a different culture or um otherwise so um we did the general addition so that it would cover that as well as future incidents that may occur um any other questions or comments or discussion about the student dress code item member child's so the first line in red um is there a typo in that line ah good question all right because I I think that sentence has had uh too many edits and some of them contradicted each other that might be true let me read it as it should as it would be as presented they have the right to determine how the student will dress providing that attire is not destructive complies with requirements for health and safety and which Administration reasonably and anticipates Andor cause disorder or disruption does that does sound at least minimally awkward and if not I'm not sure so I guess this is a good re for having a discussion what's funny is it's like it's saying okay so the dress is not destructive it complies with the requirements and it causes disorder and disruption so uh we need to get our negatives consistent well and I think what will do because May and does not are very different so I'm just going to run it by legal counsel one more time and then resend so that we have it accurately depicted okay but the intent of it essentially is to make sure that dress doesn't cause disorder disruption or destruction I guess so the lawyers will work it out and we'll have a new um draft for you next month um any other discussion uh I'll just say that I'm glad that um although we wouldn't think in the current environment that um a young person would have difficulty wearing that type of regalia at graduation it is really good to provide the protection in policy um uh so that um if the environment changes um the protection is still there via the policy so we will take that up again at our next meeting and next um we can review the foreign exchange student policy um superintendent would you cue this up for us sure if you recall we had two families who were interested in enrolling uh to exchange students from foreign countries uh we currently did not have a policy in place um masc does not have an actual policy in place um but uh Liz leond uh found some other school districts Who currently had a policy shared some drafts with me and then um I worked alongside our attorney for the draft you see in front of you this evening um because there is monetary um compensation with some students regarding what visa they come over or what exchange program they are enrolled in um we did put some language in there so that uh folks were aware um we limited to up to two each um year the majority were under J1 visas and the district does not receive compensation for students that are enrolled with a J1 visa and then some other uh requirements that just align really with our registration process um moving forward um I think at the end um we uh do need to develop some appropriate procedures uh moving forward after the policy is in place um but we first wanted to get a policy implemented so that uh when we have future requests which we do um have for uh potential January enrollment uh the two families unfortunately that were interested in having them early I guess there's very time sensitive uh requirements around getting someone into a household and um to vote uh for them to be accepted it was uh too delayed when we took it up at our last meeting so those families though are looking to uh find different students who may want to come to Greenfield and one I think has been successful for a January registration so um Council just said if we could get a policy in place and approved and then that we could streamline the process internally which would be helpful for future experiences thank you discussion not hearing any okay we'll take that up for a vote at our next meeting um I'd like to hear a motion to move the item e tuition underwriting petition up uh to the next item so that we can try and get um um member Den to be able to vote on this before she has to disappear from us she's leaving at 9:30 so moved is there a second second uh member Den will you call the vote uh member Den yes uh Vice chair mintini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member child yes passes unanimously okay um let's see Jesus is here if you want to come up um I'd like to hear a motion to um endorse the let me see I have written down the motion I move that the Greenfield oh I'd like to hear a motion that the Greenfield school committee endorse the petition as presented the tuition underwriting petition so moved so moved by um motion by M Charles is there a second second second from Member Den um Jesus do you want to just share a little overview for us and then we can discuss uh sure um I think it's important to understand that um most districts are facing the same Challenge and most districts are discussing the same challenge but they're discussing it within their own district and not really outreaching to other districts about trying to challenge this particular funding dilemma because they don't really believe that it's possible to um I think that the more um districts that are on record as wanting this to change the more likely it is that we'll be able to actually have a conversation that'll result in a movement to change the legislature on this particular issue thank you any questions or discussion I just want to thank you for all of the work you've put into this and commend you for your endurance and hanging in with us so long tonight thank you um with uh any luck this will also be on the agenda of two other school committees within the next couple of weeks mayor dorer I wanted to Echo what member child said because Jesus has actually been here through a couple of meetings on this and I am quite impressed with his dedication and persistence it's folks like him that get things past thank you Jesus laa thank you all right with that me you want to speak or you want to vote oh go ahead both yeah please um this is one of the three issues that we discussed when we went to Dan in the hill and it really resonated to the legislators when we had so many members from different committees I mean we had like six or seven committees that we mobilized so we can do that again and it means a lot when we all come in and say we all have the same issue these are our three top issues and this is one of the things that has to change so there's like three real concrete ways that we've identified of getting more money from the state and this is one of the ways so I think it's it's I think it's great if we can throw our support behind this and it will signal to other school committees that are you know considerably smaller and have much smaller student populations and don't have as much weight to throw around that we can throw around weight with them so I'm excited and thank you Jesus for all of your work thank you um I actually since you brought it up I think it's worth saying um I think part of the issue here is that we tend to think about which districts we should be allied with legislatively in very narrow terms um this is an issue that affects Boston and they're not seeing the funding as a result of this they get 228 million in Chapter 70 funding and then they have $280 million in assessments against them for Charter School Public Funding um the mayor of New Bedford six years ago wrote an article to the mass Municipal Association about how charter school funding Public Funding negatively impacts public school districts and you know only a couple of months ago there was an editorial in the birkshire eagle from Pittsfield talking about how school choice impacts them as a low-income Community um I think it's just really important that we start having these conversations as a group and um recognizing that we do all in fact have a very similar issue and again it's not about whether charter schools are good or whether school choice are good as policy it's who should pay for it the municipality or the state thank you mayor are you asking to speak again I'll take that as a no no I just for got to put my hand down sorry okay um SEC secretary Den will you call the vote Yes secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member child's yes passes unanimously motion passages unanimously thank you are you taking off now secretary Den um well according to technology the kid is jamming out to the Cure in the kitchen so um I can stay for just a little okay well all righty um let's see where are we now structure of business manager employment or contract I feel like I I'm not sure how I did my best to be clear about what this item is about I guess a little context so So currently we get our business manager Services through a contract um the previously we had hired someone as a staff member to fill that role so um the item um that we are discussing is whether the committee wishes to uh continue to contract with the vendor for that or to um structure the work as the work of an employee and do a employment search to find someone so um there are a couple different issues about this that we just need to be thoughtful about um one is that in our discussions we can't at all focus on um our evaluation of the contractor in terms of whether their work is satis satisfactory or non-satisfactory or any complaints about them because they have they have rights under open meeting law to be notified and to have those items uh in a um executive session we also you know there are also items related to discussing compensation or strategic things involved in hiring I believe that might be covered under executive session so we're not having either of those discussions this is purely a discussion about how the work is structured whether it's an whether we want to um continue with that contract or switch to have it be an employee uh role um so the current contract goes through June 2025 um for context and um it's 9:35 so I guess one thing I I was interested in learning more about that I think before I could really vote I would really want to have this context and maybe you all would as well is what is the environment like out there for uh hiring business managers because I feel like that you know I'm a uh someone who cares a lot about workers and I kind of believe in hiring locally and having people with benefits and people you know embedded in the school district so all those arguments are great for me but I know there are also many positions in the district that we contract out because it's just difficult to find Qualified people for those roles so I don't actually know um enough about that um uh so I was wondering if the dist if the committee might consider uh asking the um superintendent to kind of um give us create a presentation for us on or um gather some information and share with us a presentation about the hiring kind of environment for this types of role and present it to us in November I say November just because uh as the superintendent presented to us there's going to be a huge amount of work required of the administration with the reviews that Desi is doing um so that's oh and December in December that's right because mid November is when all of our one-on ones are happening so it's going to be busy basically between now and then so what do folks think about that remember good one so I had the same question that you had and when I was at chartering of course I asked Liz and Glenn and the the people there if it was impossible to find a business director and they said they they find them pretty regularly for districts okay thank you other comments or questions yeah if that's the case is it possible to have masc come up and talk to us about how that would look if we moved from a vendor to a staff position and what we'd need to do and what the search would be about is that a search that we would have to pay for for example or is it just something that we would put out I as a description or would we we'd have to go to bid right if we chose a vendor so I guess I just have a lot of like logistical questions about it that I need answered and I'm wondering if masc is just the resource to to do that especially if uh the superintendent is so very very very busy absolutely I'd be happy to talk to them and see if they can come to our November meeting and um talk to us about that remember Goodwin I've been on committees that have hired um directors of business and we must have a a job description because we've had them yeah we do I think the last one was Steve nimow um and if you don't mind moving your microphone so that people can I just want to make sure it's getting picked up the last one was Steve um I think the the the move to hiring a company was supposed to be a temporary solution um because the superintendent was leaving and I think it's it's time now we're talking about things about building schools we're talking about investing a lot of time in different things and we have a lot of questions um and having somebody on the ground in Greenfield really I think will help us get questions answered um so I think I know I support the idea of a director of business that belongs to Greenfield Public Schools okay I think what I'd like to hear is a motion to direct the chair to discuss with mask uh coming to our November meeting and making a presentation related to the business manager hiring environment and the logistics I'd make that motion okay a motion from Member Den is there a second second from who seconded uh remember good one great um any further discussion and uh I have a comment additional question um I would need information about the um potential and probable cost impact of either proceeding in our current structure or changing it to a employee yep that makes sense and I guess some of that um could be estimated and predictable um another thing that could be um non-predictable if we did do a search and it wasn't successful like what do we do then that kind of thing so those are the kinds I will definitely bring that question to um to mask and uh for the presentation in November okay thank you can you turn your mic on I think we would review policy GCB as well because it discusses um the hiring of a school business administrator um it looks like the appointment uh the superintendent manages the hiring process and then keeps the school committee informed the committee votes on the appointment based upon superintendent's recommendation great thank you okay uh any other discussion the motion to um to ask mask to come and work with us on this in November okay um member Den will you call a vote secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes passes unanimously okay great um so um there I got a email from member Martini requesting this item on new elementary school subcommittee um and I'm hoping that I will uh create uh I've created a good motion here member Martini but if it isn't what you were hoping for please let me know but the motion would be to create an ad hoc subcommittee to research and present a proposal on whether to set a goal of constructing a new Elementary School how does that sound sounds good to me okay great I'd like to hear that motion so moved motion from Member Martini is there a second I'll second it um let's dis any discussion okay I think the idea was you know we started to come up tonight with um member Childs uh uh for presenting us on that uh construction committee but um I think it would be good for us as a school committee to have a picture of whether this is something we think needs to happen and and then we can look at the feasibility of it um so I thought perhaps having a subcommittee ad hoc subcommittee um whose role was to research it and make a proposal to us on what our stance should be as a school committee would be good um mayor um I before I voted on this um the makeup of the ad hoc committee is like u h how is that going to be determined um chair uh the way our our policy um describes the Staffing of committees and committees is for the uh the chair to put forward um a slate basically and then the school committee can vote up or down um on the uh on the members to be assigned to the subcommittee thank you and um so if you if we do vote to go forward with this I would love to hear from people if you would like to be on it and I I guess I'd make the appointment of the members at the next meeting um member Martini I just wanted to um provide a little context so uh while we have been going through the process of discussing redistricting and uh integrating our schools uh in recent past we really had to wrestle with um some difficulties that could not be addressed within our current buildings for example we made this concerted effort to um not only integrate but also move our fifth grade back to elementary school but um there was an actual wish to move sixth grade back to elementary school and that was not um it was kind of a non-starter given our our current buildings and availability and um also we have had discussions in regards to the spaces and Facilities we have available for students with disabilities in our current schools uh which I would like to discuss more um and uh of course we have confronted uh a number of physical issues with our existing uh elementary school buildings which are um aging and uh present some really significant um concerns uh the original Newton School building having been built in 1915 and uh for example and uh the configuration of Federal Street school and the difficulties that presents in making it physically accessible for um disabled students and other concerns um has just uh led to this topic coming up multiple times um over my experience on the committee the last few years as to the wish to consider pursuing a new unified Elementary School and um we keep talking about it but unless there is a structure put into place to have a codified um well researched conversation about it we'll just keep talking about it and and I would like to move the conversation forward so I would um I would very much support having an ad hoc committee to get this going mayor dorer um so I think that's a very good idea to have a you know to have a a committee that's looking at this but um it needs to be a diversified committee a committee that has diversity of thought that's all I would say so I I don't know I I um I am thinking about whether or not I'll V I'll vote in favor of that well uh so I'm going to ask the chair uh this is my question to the chair before I vote will the folks be appointed to the ad hoc committee that have a diversity of thought on this um well I I think it's a tricky trickier question than you might expect because if I pulled people for their opinions on the topic before assigning them to the committee they' ENT be potentially deliberating outside of a public session so I don't actually know where people stand on it and that I guess my intent would be to choose people for the committee based on their interest and their willingness to work hard on the issue in a good faith manner without doing a litmus test for what their views were in advance of assigning them and hope that you know that if we have three people on the committee um that that would be enough of diversity but I hear your concern I'm just not sure exactly how to address it member Goodwin there's a lot to think about with this um and it's almost 10 o'clock so could we make the motion to vote next the next meeting on this because I think I know I'd like to really think about this a little more and my brain is shuts down at 9 sure you could do a motion to lay them lay the lay the motion on the table I move that we table this till our next meeting is there a second second it's um not debatable so I will um call the vote a member Goodwin yes member child's yes member ston yes I a yes mayor dorer yes all right the motion is okay sorry member Martini yes motion to table passes unanimously uh that's when we're on to requests for future agenda items M ston um it seemed like there was a desire to to have a an agenda item discussing the process by which warrants are approved okay great we can add a process by which warrants are approved to the next um agenda any other requests not hearing any I would take a motion to adjourn so moved motion by the mayor is there a second second second by member Goodwin um any discussion okay I'll call the vote mayor mayor dorer yes yes mayor member Goodwin yes oh um member Martini yes uh member Childs yes member seon yes uh member Johnson mad I am a yes we are adjourned at 9:52 p.m. [Music]
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
[Music] he [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] I'm I'm going to call the Workshop to order at 5:30 roll call President Melinda saski Charlene Diaz here Fred Rushton here Barb Z ziki here tonight we're going to go over about 15 different policies this is our first reading of them so if we have any questions we really need to to do this I think I'm the only one here tonight um 1.3 uh evaluation of school board self or School Board self evaluation has this changed any um yeah Cass will get it up um the only things that have changed are anything that's underlined or crossed off and so for many of these there are very few things changed uh but so you see the the board may meet should it choose to do so for the purpose of appraising its function is so it took away the requirement of a self AOW an annual self AOW yeah but we're still requiring it from ourselves for ourselves right well and you can choose to do that it's just you know and then you notice that the legal reference apparently it was removed from the legal reference or from the law or something so um so that's what you're going to see on each of these where there are changes in some cases uh it may just be a legal reference in other cases it's changing the wording uh but what asba does with these is make sure that any existing policies um reflect any changes that have happened in the last legislative you know session so uh some of them as I say are very minor changes and then there are some that have either lots of additions or lots of deletions so you'll kind of see that uh item one point4 policy bbba board member qualifications let's see if I'm still qualified yeah we are oh they don't have an age lemit on it so we're still qualifi okay and I think I think yeah I think that's the only CH well and then you see underlined the the new legal reference that uh that matches that well shoot I guess I'm still legal all right any questions no Fred are you still legal yes ma'am okay y all right yes I am 1.5 policy DJ bidding purchase purchasing procedures uh so you can see District purchase yeah these are uh that one happens to be a federal uh they regulations that we have to state regulations we have to follow in procurement and there are federal ones so sometime back when we were first talking about uh like replacing the air the HVAC units and building the den and whatever and I I mentioned to you all I'm sure you don't remember but something like the Edgar rules and Edgar EDG stands for some you know it's an acronym U but those are federal regulations that we have to follow and in that case it particularly has to do with u making sure as I recall that one has to do with making sure that we are paying prevailing wages um and if it's not if that's not what Edgar is there's another set that has to do with that but they this one right no uh but it uh but it it relates to that because in this case it's just referencing the FED those federal regulations and making sure we're following them um and I think it just said think that was it it just said requested three requested it didn't say they had to turn them into it right right we we have to we have especially U uh okay so between 0 and $110,000 uh we can pretty much purchase whatever we want now it's not just one item 10,000 it means collectively for the year from one vendor between 10,000 and 100,000 we have to have verbal quotes uh from at least three vendors and or at least indicate that we have tried to get verbal quotes from three and we have to document you know what it is we sent for and that they didn't didn't they declined or whatever over 100,000 we have to have written quotes uh and we have to have uh very specific criteria for selecting um and it's not one set of specific it's specific for whatever it is we've put out to bid um and and we follow all of those rules very closely okay so this is nothing really very new nothing new for us item uh 1.6 regulation dj- bidding purchasing procedures so this is the regulation that goes with that go uh and it won't be down on the agenda tonight because remember we don't usually put regulations and Exhibits on the night in the actual agenda for the first reading we only put them in when we come to the second reading and so you're seeing the same kind of legal references here uh to make sure that we are um uh doing all the procurement uh regulations that we're supposed to okay any questions on any of these so far no okay no and you can see that's a very lengthy yeah that one's huge regulation so it probably should be yes and the state regulations themselves uh if we published it or printed it in a book would be about this thick um uh the state regulations now there's another whole uh there's another whole section that's new um oh this is Jen was there's the word Jen was asking me about today we don't I we don't know what I don't find the word debarment now it will be in our policy we she and I were searching through the policies today because she got something uh since she handles all the grants she got a notice that uh if they audit our grant spending that they're going to be looking for and they had a whole list of things they were looking for one of which was suspension and dear debarment verification and of course we're both searching through policy bridge to find the word debarment because I've never heard that in relationship to education and we couldn't find it so well now we will be able to find it so it is um yeah and what does it mean well since we didn't find it Barb I don't know let's see oh probably means something about excluded or suped sure if it's in that same sentence yeah excluding them from uh from it says legally preventing a person organization or non-government organization from participating in certain activities or enjoying certain rights privileges or possessions thank you isn't it wonderful to be able to Google those things quickly I love Google um and I guess informally informally we kind of do that if if if we put out a request for quotes or a request for bids um uh we have a list you know of local vendors and whatever that we send those out to um um rather informally in that process when we set up the rubric for consideration of uh of the subsequent quotes or bids one of the items is always um uh us ranking uh or giving a a a point value uh to a to companies if we've had previous business with them and if they have not been good vendors if they've not been good uh you know suppliers for us they had a pretty low rating on that and so sometimes it could be just enough to debar them from it goes on it gives an example it says a company may be debarred from government contracts due to allegations of fraud or mismanagement there you go so if they that would make sense yes it is sounds like a legal term doesn't it yeah so um but we we can you know we can it's it's nice to know that there's a a specific regulation to back that up but we also know from our procurement training that um uh that you know that we are allowed and in fact encouraged to have that in our list of items that one item that says uh you know what kind of what kind of business have you had with these people before because the truth is I don't want to give business back to a vendor who has you know maybe they haven't defrauded us but maybe they're work was low quality or poor quality or their products were poor um uh we don't you know we don't need to continue to do business with somebody that's not reputable okay thank you item 1.7 policy GCF professional staff hiring uh this is it's interesting that this is added because it is in already in our application I was going to say isn't it that they have to tell us if they've been yeah they have to tell us if yeah this says whether they've pled guilt oh I see yep you're right we don't have it in there Yep this is new well it would be nice to know so that we yeah know they nice to know they're waiting trial so that and it doesn't mean exactly so it doesn't mean that eventually we might not hire them if they wen't if they were you know exonerated U but at least we might not hire them before they were convicted so okay and result in its own set of problems any question no no okay 1.8 policy gcfc professional staff certification and credentialing requirements this is fingerprinting yeah those are all the same this one has something simil there we go y z AA and a are all new um in another state or territory okay check will those make yeah we have these are covered in another policy but it's probably good to have them here too yeah okay there some more to that is there more cast on down no no just the legal reference legal reference um item 1.9 exhibit GCF c-e professional staff certification credentialing requirements this is so this is the exhibit the exhibit that goes with it that they have to ass and it's very similar to what we already have they've just added those last four items okay got it item 1.0 one0 policy gdf supporting staff hiring and this just uh applies the same item to support staff from professional okay so the next one is uh just a regulation that goes with it too yes item 1.11 policy gdfa support St qualification requirements yeah this is similar as to the one uh for professional it's not a regulation but it's another policy so it's going to have a yeah I was going to say okay so it has those four things on the end okay and those make a lot of sense yes 1.12 exhibit gdf F A- support staff qualification requirements this is the regulation then well this is the exhibit that they sign it's the same is the other one but it's for support staff these have to be notorized no oh well it says they do I don't remember that they have been in the past yeah that's what I we just have them sign them we've not had them not notorized them but we do have a notary on staff so in our business office so and it's not the HR person so uh we can have that done okay I just saw that that that was was interesting item 1.13 policy IGA curriculum development uh all cert cert certificated Personnel have professional obligations to the school program Beyond regular classroom duties and these obligations will include work on curriculum committees uh I don't quite know why that one has been removed uh Cass you scroll it down a little bit yes we do yeah so the the legal reference hasn't changed and we clearly expect our our certificated people who are on contract uh to serve on some committees without pay and you know as part of their job uh we pay as much as we can when we can but uh it's interesting to me that um I I suspect this has to do this is pure speculation um there are some districts in the state where uh meet and confer uh between Administration and the teachers organization where their teachers are much more organized uh you know in a like aea than we are um and that they essentially negotiate even though it should just be meet and confer under the law but they do that I suspect this came about because uh in some District uh it's very much your work hours are these and anything beyond that we're going to pay you for and as always um you know you could seek legal advice about leaving it in if you wanted to I'm wondering whether you know a certif certificated person could just come by and say hey it's in policy we don't have to do this well if you take if you take that sentence out yeah they could say it that doesn't I mean we can interpret it that for you want me to check the legal yeah I I really think that certificated Personnel should have some input into that okay so check with uh talk with certif or talk with the attorney how do you want me to handle that see if we can leave it in okay Cass this is what IGA thank you okay thank you absolutely item 1.14 policy Iha basic instruction program uh this one just uh has some very has some more specific language relative to instruction about the Holocaust and other genocides and we do teach that at Junior High Level yeah okay 7 to 12 okay got it 1.15 policy IMG animals in school um we've had rules for a long time in our district that uh uh we don't transport animals live animals on school buses yeah um and all they all they've done is switch this language around a little bit uh and then you see a whole new section on uh relative to Ada um and puts some restrictions and and some expectations relative to service animals yeah Kate's noticing this do you need a little bigger Kate yeah there you go well I wouldn't be able to see from out there either I do like it that if there are issues though that the animal can be removed yes however this is much more specific than anything we've had than anything we've had um so it's nice to have something well it's nice to have it in there yes that's what I'm saying it's nice to have something in there that we did not have before hasn't been an issue for a couple of years but we have had issues in the past yes it's been a few years how many uh students in our population do have service animals zero yeah as far as I know none at this time but we have had issues in the past had we've had them in the past and then we've had requests in the past for service animals that were not necessarily dogs and um and not H and not had uh verification say from a physician or you know so it it creates issues when there are no when there's nothing in policy to help us with it so this is at least a step in the right direction item 1.16 regulation img-r animals in school okay this is just the same thing isn't it well this is the regulation so it's going to be U much more specific about what we can can't do cor vaccination of the animal uh pretty specific information about the animal oh interesting okay and then there you go see so for instance If This Were a student who uh this would apply to regular buses too but if we had a student who rode one of the special ed buses um you know they're not going to just the first time get on and have the animal they need to arrange it with us in advance um e gives us some uh some wiggle room also so so we're putting more pressure on the teacher now the teacher has to clean up dog uh well it makes it I mean it's kind of indirectly saying that yep yeah which is what says if animals are to be kept in a classroom on days when classes are not in session should be with the stud you know this this is not talking that that it doesn't have to do this is like a classroom pet oh oh cuz remember this thing has to do with all animals not just animals not service animal I'm going to school that's what's the point of having a service animal I know so take care of take care of your reptiles or your snakes bunnies or whatever like snakes yeah kind of eliminates pet elephants too pet elephants can't keep those horses I don't think we have a room big enough for a pet elephant you can't ride your horse to school there anymore makes sense yeah they're all logical yeah Mak sensible okay got it questions anybody no okay um 1.17 policy jfb open enrollment this one just adds uh the item about um uh children of members of the Armed Forces um there are schools in schools and school districts in the state that are called Purple schools and and um that has to do with enrollment of children of U military families is there something crossed off yeah up on top oh there we go oh a subsection yeah posted by specialist good catch if a school has any other separate capacity by specialized program the information required pursuant to AR15 d81 16.01 shall also be posted by the special specialized program so it just means we have to keep people informed which we do about most things in en we do that anyway well they're supposed to I mean we've been we've been enforcing it on the state on the main one I I haven't been checking the site ones but so okay well shame on me so we will make sure there no changes you don't have to worry about reporting it then no but we still try to follow that okay item 1.18 regulation jbf dasr open enrollment um I will tell you that this is one that I would like to run by the attorney uh I'm not real excited about it being so uh in one sense being so Broad and in the other sense being so specific so saying there should be an equitable process in place and we have an equitable process um but saying such as a randomized lottery uh kind of makes people believe that that's the only acceptable one and uh uh that makes me a little nervous because it precludes things such as we have in our process that um uh uh children of employees we will grant open enrollment um you know to whatever whichever site uh and then we have uh next in the in the process uh consideration of those children who were on open enrollment last year the previous year um and uh and and then we move down to um uh we move to usually a first a first submitted first approved list first come first serve okay yeah kind of and so this makes me nervous because if somebody interprets that as being randomized Lottery is maybe the only thing even though it's such as but somebody interprets that as being the only one I don't think it's right to say to employees kids for instance or even to students who were allowed open enrollment the previous year oh you're now in the lottery and then force them back to another school you know that they're only in the open enrollment for one year at a time I that's not in any student's best interest um so uh you know I fully intend to run this one by Ben and and see if we are violating anything by leaving it alone good idea because the bigger description gives us gives us a little more a little more uh you know to approve what we're doing yeah okay is there anything below this Cass nope nope thank you and it's a regulation so you know regulations are procedures uh and we can pretty much you know as long as it's within the law we can have usually whatever procedures we want it's just that the regulation defines what those procedures are item 1.19 policy jdh or jhd exclusion exemptions from School attendance uh this one really the only thing that's changed throughout the whole thing is that they have changed the word certified to licensed okay and it's true uh Cass will show you the regulation and it's the same in the regulation okay item 1.2 zero regulation jdhr exclusion exemptions for school from School attendance just change and so that changes through the entire document license certified the license okay okay item 1.21 exhibit JD hd- EA exclusions and exemptions from School attendance and this is simply the uh ex this is the form that is used and once again you see the the same changes I can understand why they say they're changing certified license because you can pretty much get certified by anything you get on the right interet Internet site yeah true true where licensing is implies something is done well in some agency you know you've been Li you've been licensed by some agency or some uh yeah institution as opposed to pulling a certificate EXA um 1.22 exhibit h j hdb exclusions and exemptions from School attendance and there you go with and it's the same just another change from certified license okay item 1.23 regulation jlc d-r medicines administrating medicines to students shouldn't there be an or there either either or just saying yeah there should be an or in there before Item B yeah so I think we can add that ourselves good catch okay is there and are there any other changes on this one cast any questions on any of these that we oops whoops I guess there's more current changes okay my there any more down toward the bottom K bottom yeah we go here we go yeah another unfunded mandate do we have a uh stipulation backing up if you would please Cass yeah back up a little bit stop right there it says training must be renewed right at as prescribed by the school board do we have that um I think this I think this is what authorizes you to do that as a board to say uh you know what those regular inter intervals are unless we have and I didn't see a regulation or anything attached to this so um it makes it not very clear oh this is a this is a regulation mhm well but still it's not very clear about when I mean you that it doesn't say that it implies that you all can uh can decide okay this training must be renewed at every year or must be renewed every two years um which then means that what we would do is we' just calendar it on a calendar that on uh our board Cal you know board meeting calendars um has a you know a calendar of the the things we are required to discuss each month and it would just get calendared is there a way we can add that stipulation to this yes it's a regulation you can add whatever you want so if you all want to say when we actually address this next month but you can say it right now it right now well but you can say right now what you want it to be because you're not going to approve it until next month but you could say you know uh training must be renewed once a year once a year or once every two years however you want what ever you want to say there um because this is just guidance you know um as prescribed by the school board so you could change that regular intervals to be annually or biannually whatever you wanted to put there why don't we just say training must be renewed annually yeah for it should be annually because of the change over and stuff of employees and stuff they say we should renew it every year okay is there any other change on this one some on the next page I saw yeah there yeah right there consquences that's a good liability statement for the district okay do we have any more down there so must be able to practice proper safety precautions and and this is also the regulation whereby we uh uh do not allow students to carry around over the-counter medications you know if they if they are to have any of those as authorized by the parent they must be kept in the health office and administered by the health attendant lots of pages there y'all oh yeah okay item 1.24 adjourning the workshop do I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion we adjourn the workshop I'll second at that all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Das I Fred Rush IB ziki it's 6 o'clock can you go all immediately into the can I call to order whoops I have a piece of paper I'm supposed to read I call to order the regular meeting of the Bullhead City School Board on Thursday October 10th 2024 at 6 p.m it's 606 on your if you look on your pict on the screen it's 606 at 606 pm.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e e e good evening at this time we'll begin the meeting and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance thank you and we'll start with the uh item B1 recognitions and celebrations Dr croo thank you Madame President good evening tonight we have a special performance and Mr muy will introduce our guests thank you madam president members of the board Dr CTO a guests tonight we have from Will and Canyon High School under direction of Mr Logan McDonald their choir is here to perform so take it away sir thank you so he kids Legends and gods give them Applause we made it against [Music] but don't you let it bring you down breaking out of your small town show them what you're all about for the people in the contemplating hereo the atmosphere laugh me through your crocodile tears as your moment disaar hey kids leg and gods app OD choose yourap [Music] ofice louder louder you're not [Music] alone you're [Music] alone when the S comes on turn it up turn it up all choose yourap of [Music] choice say it louder for the people in the back [Applause] thank you so much for having excellent job thank you so much good J great job thank you have a great night also after the meeting Val concer is across the street go support the next up we have item C1 audience with individuals we do have two this evening I'll go ahead and read the statement this is a time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.01 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of 3 minutes will be imposed for each individual or group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record and first we have Veronica Ramirez good evening uh board members my name is Veronica Ramirez and I'm speaking as a representative for surprise volleyball Academy also known as as SVA SVA has been present in the daart Unified School District for over 15 years and we've been very grateful for the dist for the district providing afford affordable facility usage for our small Sports Club adiana Ramirez the club director was notified by email on June 18th about the new fiscal year agreements and rates which originally did not seem out of the ordinary since the rates they've been paying are 25 an hour for a k through e gym rental and the doc still showed the same fees when we went to pay for our October facility JY rental we noticed that there was an extra $35 charge being applied per hour this 35 extra fee is under site specialist utility and custodial fee form States the utility and custodial fee applies during all events that include Patron viewing in addition to current fee structure um side note ours is not a patron viewing um more than half of sba's participants attend schools within the diart school district and we have been so grateful for the $25 an hour fee which has helped keep our fees low and has benefited many of the dice heart school athletes and families with with this 35 an hour charge in addition the hourly fee of 25 it has more than doubled that what we would be paying it is understandable if the price does not does need to be increased due to the utility but in regards to maintenance our club never leaves a mess or requires setup or takedown and we always pick up after ourselves again there's no mess that we create since we are there to use the courts for practice only this does not include Patron viewing as indicated above also the majority of the girls bring their own reusable water bottles so no trash is Left Behind prior to leaving our coaches do double check to make sure that everything the girls brought back is taken we are seeking to understand this additional fee and charge if and if it does apply to us in addition it also States 4 hours minimum which can be interpreted in many ways since the fee increases are passed by the board we were hoping to get clarification and understanding if this is a fee that we are required to pay can this be be decreased or even put on a slighting scale of degree of use for the site specialist utility and custodial fee again we are a small club that would like to keep our prices as affordable as possible to help provide provide the youth volleyball skills and to help the athletes grow not only in volleyball but also character and bring that skill and character back to the daart Unified School District Athletics thank you for your time uh she will be sending a follow-up email thank you next we have Steve Gilliam good evening resident of el marage 20 21 years and taxpayer uh it's a little constructive criticism tonight I take exception to the uh this thing that was put out uh dealing with the bond issue and I it's my personal opinion that the Kevin soter situation what he put in there is offensive to me and the people in El Mirage it talks about the surprise people what about the six schools in El Mirage what about the one down in Glendale Luke nothing about that it's only he's doing stuff uh for surprise you know PE kids and stuff that's offensive to me and it's all of us that are paying we pay the same percentage of taxes over there that everybody in Surprise pays so I take exception to that it seems funny that there was seven pros and one con to this situation and uh uh you know you it's talking about he's talking about uh increased security well I've got pictures I can show and there's a gentleman to my left in here that took care of the situation Surprise Elementary School unless none of you have been there it backs up to a wash that's not protected deviates transits all kinds of activity takes place in that wash right on the back side of that school elementary school I took three uh security people for a little walk of the school and showed them there was a tree and I have pictures of it I can show you there was a tree that was overgrown from the private property over to the school property and there was people living underneath there all they had to do is reach over and grab Susie or Bobby and pull them over the fence and have their way with them that tree shouldn't have been there it was eliminated there's a block fence that is right outside the little chain link G as you send the kids South to our neighborhood the block fence is 10 10 or 15 ft of has been tore down drug activity has been happening there and that's either HOA property or city of Elmore rise property and today tonight on the way over nobody's taken care of it it's still there the the blocks were removed but the vacant place the hole is still there on the way here also I looked at about 100 ft of solar panels that back up to the wash it's littered with rocks on it because the deviants go down there and Chuck The Rocks right on it who put a solar panels back there on that I know it was nobody in here I don't think but whoever put them there for whatever reason 100 yards away from the school was stupid the kids don't go inne there for shade but the Deviant throw rocks on top of it and they're breaking it that's uh it's not acceptable that you want more money to do what you can't do in the first place if you can't take care of a you don't move on to to Z and start doing a new thing new projects new new this new that if you don't maintain what you got don't start any new stuff thank you Mr Gilliam thank you that's all we have okay thank you and Dr curo can you um follow up with the two speakers tonight as well as the board uh yes Madam president I will be glad to do that great thank you so much all right moving to D2 superintendent update thank you madam president well we've had a great week and some great times um in our district and so um beginning of this week we had uh a huge celebration in Shadow Ridge High School for the National Blue Ribbon um and I know we many of you joined and and also saw the news coverage on that and our state superintendent was out there to celebrate the school and and the kids had a huge um event on campus and did a great job celebrating their success and and we're proud of them so congratulations to them uh just yesterday our principal of Mountain View Elementary Miss Debbie Cruz she was awarded the GCU principal the month award from Grand Canyon University so they came to the principal meeting and award her that um so congratulations to Debbie and she was nominated by her faculty and staff so um it's a great great thing there and uh next week coming up um is fall break the much awaited fall break so we hope the temperatures start to drop and everybody can enjoy their fall break and come back to finish out the year so that's all I have thank you next we have governing board update let's see um I attended the turf dedication at Valley Vista High School so that now all the high schools have a a beautiful Turf now for the for all of their activities um I also went to the Golden Rule Interfaith breakfast and attended one of the informational hearings on the bond and thank you Dr Cotto and your cabinet for the presentation and education about the bond and answering all the residents questions um I also attend attended the Blue Ribbon honor celebration at Shadow Ridge High School and thank you to Mr horn for coming and presenting the plaque and October is principal's month so we have some several amazing principles in the audience tonight and for those that aren't here but regardless thank you to all of you for what you do every single day and congratulations to Miss Cruz um I have quite the list so be prepared um on the 20th of September I also attended the Valley Vista field dedication um beautiful field congratulations to Valley Vista and shout out to the culinary team the food that they that they served was it was outstanding and so was their service so congratulations to them um I attended the um um governing board candidate meeting so good luck to our candidates that are running um then I went to a couple School visits um our first one was on the 25th with uh Kingswood and I just want to say thank you um for the great discussions and uh visiting with all the staff and the kids so we had a good time um also did a school visit with Valley Vista um that was that was wonderful too had great discussions with everybody and then that evening I attended a drug presentation um also at Valley Vista um and thank you to the SRO that attended um it's it was it was nice to see um their participation their knowledge um information that they that they gave to the community so thank you um and then I also attended the Shadow Ridge Blue Ribbon ceremony and am so excited for them that that is a great honor um so congratulations to the students staff and parents so good job for your your hard work and dedication so it paid off thank you I would also like to say congratulations to Shadow on achieving Blue Ribbon School status that's quite quite an honor so congratulations to your staff and your students very nice um I also attended the candidate meeting the board candidate meeting a couple weeks ago right been a couple weeks um very informational thank you to cabinet and to Dr Coto for sharing that information with our candidates I feel like it's it's always good for candidates to know kind of what they're stepping into and I would just encourage everybody just to get out and vote um it's very important that you vote so please vote thank you apologize for the repetition but I also attended the Valley Vista field dedication um want to Echo M Drake's sentiment in regard to the wonderful job that they did um Mr Frasier and his team it was just beautifully set up um The Culinary team or um class and and Club um Not only was a food great but just their presentation I mean the tables were decorated beautifully it just definitely above and beyond um so it was a great evening and it was nice to dedicate that field um long awaited um also want to congratulate principal Hester and her whole team at Shadow Ridge for being named National Blue Ribbon School that's such a huge accomplishment and it's exciting that we have a Blue Ribbon School in our district so congratulations to them as well as to Mountain View's principal Debbie Cruz for being named uh Grand Canon University's principal of the month so lots of things to celebrate and I hope you all have a relaxing and fun fall break thank you I'm probably going to be a little bit out of order here um I also attended uh one of the bond presentations uh this one was at the Assante Library it was great information presented and very well received lots of questions um and our cabinet was was there and ready to to answer them I don't why am I echoing so much um I also attended the shadow rid Blue Ribbon uh award ceremony and big thank you to superintendent horn for being present there to present um Mrs huster with that award and and Shadow Ridge with that award congratulations to all of our students and staff and parents uh I also attended two of the um two of the four drug awareness presentations uh these were at Willow Canyon and Valley Vista great information presented by our safety team as well as several SCH resource officers that were present and just great information for any parents there's still one coming up I believe at diart high school and that is just after the fall break so if you are interested it's it's great information I also attended the Valley Vista um Turf ribbon cutting uh ceremony that was excellent and as you can tell the food was great um this morning I attended the freedom TR quarterly recognition for students and it was just such a great uh morning spending spent with our students that have worked really hard for that uh and that is all I have thank you all right uh moving to the consent agenda item item E1 I will entertain a motion I move the governing board approv consent agenda items as presented motion carries moving to item G1 Dr Coto thank you madam president uh tonight we continue on with our continuous Improvement reports um and Dr asai will introduce our guests good evening Madame President members of the board it is my pleasure to introduce Miss Ginger Richards the proud principal of simaran Springs hi everyone good evening Madam president governing board Dr Coto and cabinet my name is ginger Richards and I am the very proud principal of Simon Springs Middle School I would like to share with you the latest news coming out of simron Springs from our last year so these are our aasa and AI proficiency data academics overall increase School average for ELA was 7% and that is 14% over over the state average we had a very small decrease in math by 2% but we still maintained a 6% over the state average we had a small even smaller decrease in science by 1% but a still an 8% over the state average our aasa growth data we are proud of our Ela growth data with two of our teachers being ranked the second highest in the district district for their growth at their respective grade levels in math we were very close to the 1.0 growth goal with a 0.93 we continue to focus on math improvement with our students which we will talk about later in more detail I do want to mention that two of my math teachers kind of like Ela were number two and number three respectively um in their grade levels um in the district and as for growth we really really want to celebrate um my e8th grade math who had a growth score average of 1.48 for our aella um the aella test um is tests our English language Learners and monitors their growth in areas of speaking Reading Writing and listening we are tremendously proud of our success last year yes we only had 13 students who qualified to take the aella but 46% of those students showed Proficiency in English and tested out of the aella so we're very proud of that we do have three um Improvement goals of course we have academic um safety and culture all of these enhance our um school and make our school um an environment in which students can learn and grow every day for the entire year we do have challenges though um we are listing um opening of a new school and realigned to more High School like structure and most of those challenges were taken care of last summer before the school even opened so we worked very hard over the summer to ensure that we had the new opening of our true six through eight Middle School um as for the academic goals we plan to grow proficiency of course in math and science um we are implementing the collaborative team structures in addition to working on best practices during our principal meetings thanks to Shelly and her team and we also have coaching from Solutions tree and we really want to thank the district for providing the solutions Street coaching it's been a great help for intervention in math we work to focus students um for Math and Ela in what we call our Derby Day intervention we use many different data points to focus on students who need intervention and schedule them into Derby Day uh Derby Day is like um stormat at Valley Vista or uh what is the one at Shadow called stride thank you stride at at shadow um additionally we have increased our walkthroughs and discussions with science teachers and we utilize our science curriculum Specialists to assist with planning and test prep as for celebrations I could talk the rest of the evening about my school because I think that everything that we're doing there is continuing the growth of our samron Springs Middle School into a model middle school but some of the biggest celebrations that we have are the Derby Day um once you hit the Middle School level it is difficult to schedule in great intervention time and I think we did a fantastic job of that and our teachers are really getting used to choosing kids and making sure that we are looking at by standard by student who needs to be in which intervention class for Derby Day and then rewarding those who um are doing very well with um enrichment strategies so that is going excellent of course we um integrated approximately 300 new students into our school this year and about 36 new staff members which is half of our staff is brand new to our our our school campus this year um also we have as our Ela success is over the one point growth data and aella almost tripled the number of students in reclassifying so both of those are huge celebrations for us as well um and as I always say at the end of the announcements at Simon that's the news and go stallions I will stand for questions at this time thank you I I I think it's incredible growth on especially with the aella the kids are testing out that's that's amazing um I do have a question sure um how how are the students embracing the true Middle School model like how how is that I is it seems to be a very positive thing is that what you're seeing from I perspective would invite you to come walk my campus at any time during any day and especially hang out at lunches and talk with the students I do that every day myself so I think I'm a little bit biased but every time I ask how they like the Middle School model they're like it it's great it's really different um the hallways are pretty crowded but but they're like we get to eat cheeseburgers every day like they you know and they're all over the building now um instead of just you know one hallway or the younger kids in the bottom hallway and the older kids in the upper hallway they are all over that building and they're really getting used to what it's going to be like in high school so they're really enjoying it it I can tell you I was so stressed about opening this school year and um it has been the most positive smooth this opening in my seven years of being a principal at simron Springs so it's been really fantastic that's wonderful to hear thank you just want to say congratulations on your great scores and I think you should you should share the names of these wonderful teachers you second in the district did you say and for growth uh yes the ELA is two teachers that were um second for growth that would be um Lara Douglas and one teacher who is now at Valley Vista that was Amanda Grady so both of those um and then in math is our eighth grade math Mr Kirchner and our sixth grade math teacher um Michael Church wow well congratulations to them you're very lucky to have them as I'm sure you know and I'm very thankful to have them in our district as well they're definitely driving positive change academically and probably more than just academically I'm sure they're just making a great impact so thank you for sharing their names and um for all the great work that you're doing sure absolutely thank you congratulations as everyone has said um I really love that you have as a celebration the integration of the 300 new students and you didn't make that a challenge so I'm so impressed with that um I I'm loving to see the numbers um you know with with positive growth and um well above the state average so thank you so much for all of you all that you're doing well thank you it's a pleasure I love it every day thank you yeah I also want to just piggyback fantastic job the numbers are wonderful keep up the good work your staff's doing wonderful thank you thank you and next we have the feeder school to simron Springs the incredible St Brown principal of Western Peaks Elementary good evening Madame President board members Dr Coto and cabinet I am very uh proud to be here today and uh talk to you about our uh School Improvement that we've been going through at Western Peaks our continued Improvement um let's see here okay there we go I know how to work it um on our aasa this year uh in or this past year in ela and math we did go down slightly from the year before that um 3% in ela and 1% in math however we still remain um 20% above the state average in ela and 27% above average in math so while we don't want to go down we are happy we are staying well above and have a goal to increase that much more we do not have ai for last year because we were just a K4 school last year um but we're excited because now we have fifth grade and so um we will be able to include that data for next year for our growth on the asasa we did have the medium average growth um slightly above the state average 1.09 for ELA and 1.1 for math so we were um happy with that growth and on our aella we had just under 30 kids um who qualify for El and we are incredibly proud of the growth that we made with the aella uh 27% of our students um were immediate were intermediate and we went on proficient from 11% in the 2022 23 year to to 38% proficient last year and so we are just tremendously proud of that growth in Proficiency in language some of our celebrations are that we are well above State average in ela and math we continue to push ourselves to improve ourselves we know we're doing better than the state average but we want to do better than we've done each year before that uh we also have made growth in both Ela and math and the celebration with the zel proficiency um that it's just phenomenal um I remember when Dr asai called me and told me of our proficiency level and I was like Wow and she said what are you guys doing and and truly we have just honed in on that targeted El instruction or English instruction and the integrated instruction in every classroom and it has paid off because our students are definitely benefiting from that we also I didn't think about it but as I listened to Ginger share about uh Simon We with the addition of fifth grade it feels like we really don't have different people it's our same kids that were from fourth grade just as fifth graders now but we did increase with um teachers so we have some new teachers and it's the K5 model is going very well and we love having everyone it's it it just feels like they've always been there even our teachers um in thinking of challenges I wanted to be able to talk about really what our biggest challenge is that I think is affecting us overall as a school and that is that um we have continued to have a large number of students needing tier 2 instruction um tier 2 intervention and so we had to really get down and look at the why of that why do so many kids need intervention why is that tier one that should work for the majority of students not working for enough and so this year to support that we are doing professional development for um using the Strategic instructional design that we've learned through spark teaching them um how to in the middle of their lesson use ramp which stands for reteach abandon move on or practice and really getting into being able to pull small groups make adjustments on the fly during tier one instruction and um extend for those kids who already have it so that we can really catch more kids during tier one before we move on to tier two also um having all teachers align their instructional objective learning activities and formative assessments to the standards we've been very heavily focused on that and having the teachers pull small groups during tier one our teachers have been phenomenal with tier 2 small groups um but not all doing it during tier one so we've been looking at how to structure their tier one time how to lesson plan to create that time for small groups during tier one so that's how we've we are addressing it uh for our goal we have um a few different academic goals because we don't want to just focus on our third through fifth graders who are taking the assessments but we want to focus on the K2 kids also because we know that we have to build the foundation for them to do better when they get to third and fourth and fifth grade so we want to have 1% or 1.0 or greater growth uh for ELA and math for fourth and fifth grades for ELA and math proficiency we want to increase by 3% or more we also wanted to look at our third grade minimally proficient Ela students and we want to decrease that number by 10% this year because we did not gain those points last year from the aasa um all also we want uh at least 55% of fifth grade students to be proficient in science this is our Baseline year and um so of course we want to increase that but we want to start to make sure at least 55% do that and then we want 20% of our yell students to reclassify to a higher proficiency level and we want our Kinder through third grade students to increase the percent of students at or above Benchmark by 5% by the end of the year uh some things that we're doing to make sure that that happens is through tier one small groups intervention groups during tier 2 our PLC teams are creating smart goals for each unit that they um plan for Math and Ela and then each PLC team is also identifying a specific teaching strategy that they will all employ during that unit to um help improve instruction as well and then our teachers and students are tracked Mastery of the essential standards so students have their own tracking sheets and then teachers are tracking that as well so that we can make sure all of our students uh reach that Mastery level this is some examples of how they track so this is like um first and second grade students tracking their own data and then this is higher level this is fourth grade students tracking their own data and they also set their own goals too so for goal two we want to um decrease behaviors in the classroom and increase student engagement and so last year when we were examining our student discipline uh we saw that most of the behaviors most of the referrals were the incidents were occurring in the classroom and that alarmed us because we know with really good classroom management we should not have that high of behaviors and so we we are focusing by increasing student engagement to keep kids very engaged and busy in class but also doing work with our teachers on healthy classrooms and then last summer um at the PLC Summit we learned about using the PLC at work process to teach essential behaviors and then to provide interventions for students and so we are also implementing that this year and then goal three is to increase our percent of parents and staff who would likely or very likely recommend our school from 84% to 87% and in addition to all of the wonderful things we do at at the uh Western Peaks Elementary School we also are doing things like really trying our best no matter who they're working with who a parent a visitor works with that they're having excellent customer service um that we are supporting our staff because sometimes they feel very overwhelmed and stressed and so as administ ation myself and my assistant principal we work really hard to make sure they feel supported and we can do whatever we can to help them and then also we um have multiple student extracurricular clubs at the K5 school to get our kids very involved in their school because we think if we can build that foundation in K5 then as they go into middle school and into high school they will be set up to be active participants of their school community and and so we are going to continue doing that with multiple types of clubs and with that I'll stand for questions that was amazing is that was that our last CIP of the year no okay I gonna say well you said the bar high I'll tell you great job than um the way that you I love all of your measurable goal I mean how you made each goal very measurable by your percentages throughout um the fact you took so much time to really do a deep dive into why there's a larger number of students in need of tier 2 intervention and then my goodness that aella proficiency that's just amazing thank you great job thanks for everything that you're doing thank you I will also say thank you for all your hard work I mean 60% average proficiency for laa and math is a lot higher than we see you know across the state in different areas um and especially with what we learned through the study session that the test is kind of rigged to where you don't get to be proficient so I you know and I I feel like maybe we should do an information item on that for everybody because looking at and seeing that 60% of your students demon demonstrated proficiency on this test doesn't mean that that more students weren't proficient in their objectives in their state standards but this this is a very significant achievement especially for a test that's designed to I don't know I feel like it's basically rigged itself kind of um but that's that's incredible and thank you for accepting our fifth grade students and our K5 school so we can actually have a true Middle School I I feel like there's just such a big difference between fifth grade and sixth grade yes and if if you've ever taught freshman if you've ever taught freshman who come from a K8 school they're just they're just fun because they don't know how to be at high school they just don't you know they've been babied from this classroom to this classroom to this classroom and they they haven't been taught okay this is how you behave in the Halls you walk by yourself and this is what you do you know so I really appreciate you and Miss Richards for I guess kind of pioneering or piloting that in our district I know that's kind of a big undertaking for you both but I just thank you thank you for doing that it's all it's my pleasure we love having our kids another year longer we we always hate to say goodbye to them um but and we're doing everything that we can to kind of start preparing them for that middle school so they kind of have their own hallway fifth grade does away from everyone else and uh they're switching classes and things like that so we're trying to ease them into that Middle School model thank you and I just wanted to say this is this is wonderful your your numbers your goals everything is there anything else that we can do to help you with the tier two is there anything else that you know the district can help you with I know you guys kind of have this handled but if if you have a lot of students that are are needing this if there's anything else we can help you with you know um I'll have to think about that and and follow up with you if I can yeah um I know you know our teachers work so hard every single one of them um and and we have you know we follow that District scope and sequence and we we have a it's a pretty rigorous schedule um sometimes I think if we were able to have a few more days you know on certain Concepts um we might be able to reach some more kids but overall each teachers doing everything in their power to work with the kids before school after school during intervention time um so I think it's just a matter of helping you know not everything has to be taught whole group and and I think that's it's just kind of an an understanding and moving into that with all of our teachers some of our teachers Do It um but not all and so you know they're they're doing a great job of making those adjustments this year I have fantastic teachers I was going to suggest before or after school but if they're already working at that that's awesome yeah great absolutely thank you thank you thank you so much everything that everyone has already said but I just also want to ress you know I really appreciate the level of detail that you put into this thank you thank you okay okay moving to item G2 Dr croo thank you madam president uh tonight uh Miss pel will bring to you um the expenditure analysis of our M override so not to be confused with the bond but we currently have an override this is is required by law that we do this every year and she report out so M Mel it is yours thank you Dr CTO Madam president members of the board cabinet and Community um as Dr CTO mentioned tonight I have the information related to our M override it is a voter approved initiative um and it provides additional supports for our students so first of all I do want to thank the take the opportunity to thank our community and our taxpayers for their support in providing this additional funding source so why the meeting um we are uh required by Statute 15481 to share this information a public meeting between those dates of September 1st and October 31st at which um we provide an update on the programs that are being funded through the override and so it allows an opportunity for our community to be informed on this initiative so daar as mentioned it currently has an override in place it is uh approved for 15% of our Revenue control limit um for fiscal year 24 that that amount is noted there about $24.5 million is what is funded and added to the maintenance and operations budget capacity limit it is approved for a total of s years um however as noted there it is funded for the First full five years so it was implemented in um fiscal year 2122 was year 1 we are currently in year four of that override on that timeline and so um it's approved for full funding through 2526 if not approved for continuation it does start phasing out by a third every year uh with it being fully phased out after fiscal year 2728 so the purpose of our approved maintenance and operation override is noted there um it supports our current programs as well as it focuses on expenses such as t uh teacher salaries and benefits and so um these are the items that were noted in the voter pamphlet at the time um and so we'll go over in a little bit more detail of the funding um supporting those those areas so as a reminder the override is funded through maintenance and operations so it cannot be used for any Capital items this is solely um teacher salaries benefit benefits staff salaries and benefits as well as any program costs that are non- capital items um so in fiscal year 2425 the override was spent in those areas identified here in the pamphlet and we see about 2.2 million provided for compensation for uh funding for teachers class siiz reduction was about uh 9.6 million of the override and it's really to maintain the current levels that are in place right now that are funded um through the override knowing that if it wasn't in place we would potentially have to look at those ratios and those class sizes um as was no is it would no longer be supported um by this additional almost $10 million the reading and math supports as well as Music Arts and Athletics are provided um account for about 10.2 million of the override amount and full day K so um that portion that's supported by the override accounts for half the FTE of our kindergarten teachers and so that totals $2.5 million so in total we see those outlined expenses is a $24.5 million for the fiscal year 2324 and as noted the override is supported through a secondary tax rate and so this slide provides a history over the last nine years you see um in in fiscal year TW sorry 20156 is when it was starting to get phased out and so that's why you see that lower amount it was renewed and so now in 2324 is at 24.5 for a126 per 100 assessed valuation and so um in fiscal year 2425 um just for context currently it's a $25.5 million for do8 um and so at this point that's just a brief update on our override but I'd be more than happy to answer any questions I don't know if you can answer this but with the um the 9.6 million portion that goes towards the class size reduction can you give us a comparison of what that would look like with and without the override maybe like an [Music] average I'd have to because in general that amount is about 130 teachers or so and so to go through we'd really have to analyze what that ratio would look like um okay really kind of revisiting what that classroom size structure would be um so I don't want to necessarily provide one at this level because it would vary also based on grade levels and a K8 versus a high school level too okay but it would have an impact since it funds a pretty significant amount of teachers in there it's about 10 she said 30 maybe a little bit more up to 160 teachers that's what that 9.6 is equivalent to right but we couldn't say like okay right now I'm just going to throw out numbers these are not real right now we have a average classroom size of 28 it might go up to X we don't we don't have that figure Madam president uh off the top of our heads we don't uh we'd have to go through and and see where the reductions would be in those hund and we'll just call it 50ish teachers um they would go up significantly I can tell you that I mean just by sheer numbers but we can figure that out yeah just curious okay any other questions okay thank you so much for the presentation I haven't moved yet um in regard to revisiting that the the override as far as um discussing whether or not that would go on a ballot again when would those conversations start happening Madam president um member brard um well the next year is the last year of that so it would have to it's going to actually start pretty soon um and we need to have that discussion of whether we are going going to put that committee back if you remember the committee that we had discuss both and they did discuss that so um we need to decide if we want to reconvene that committee or we want to start with a whole new one uh the nice thing is uh that committee that looked at the two issues they know a lot of background on it already so um that that will be coming in the next few months okay because we need to be ready to go into the cycle for obviously the following election cycle okay thank you love call for questions all right thank you moving to action discussion H2 Dr Coto H1 I so sorry H1 thank you madam president um tonight you might have seen the smile on Mary Dell's face because she gets to do the annual financial report tonight and that's like the Super Bowl of her year so um with that um we have Miss Bidell again doing our AFR thank you Dr Cotto again Madam president members of the board cabinet and Community tonight yes I am very pleased to be presenting um our financial summary information for the 2324 fiscal year it is a very long process um I do before I get started really want to um give a shout out to a few of our finance staff back there one of our budget analysts and accounting coordinator they do the heavy lifting so I've really got to give them um commend them for all their hard work it's a very detailed process all of this while last week we had our external Auditors here too so it's a simultaneously working on on reports it just really compiles all of the general ledger for the fiscal year so we'll briefly go over that but would be remiss if I did not thank them for all their hard work so again our annual financial report it provides information on all the district's finan cial activity for this past fiscal year uh we compile it as required by the board to um to be approved by the board by October 15th and so after the board's review we will then be submitting it to ad by that deadline um at that point once it's submitted to ad it then starts being reviewed reviewed by a number of of agencies really the auditor general then starts reviewing it to be sure that we're um in financial compliance they look to make sure the coding is accurate they then start calculating their dollars in the classroom report so and then a lot of the information on we we use to compile our annual comprehensive financial report statements which is what we then submit for Awards as well so this is really just the the starting point for all of the financial uh reports that come from that point on so we'll Begin by reviewing just high level um some of our our main funds so maintenance and operations as you know that is our largest fund so it accounts for our salaries and benefits it accounts for um supplies purchase Services utilities Transportation costs really this is the operating um backbone for the entire district and so here we see the breakdown by program area so regular education accounted for 67.8% of the budget um expenditures special ad was 25.5 Transportation accounted for 6.2 and the K3 reading program was 0.5 um% of the of the total expenditures so in total you see the budget that had been approved for fiscal year 2324 was at 22.7 million with actual expenditures of 183.2 so it did leave approximately a 19 and a half million budget balance but I do want to um just kind of remind on the board as you previously remember we did approve or the government board approved that retention stien to be paid out later this fall so there is a big uh portion of that that is earmarked specifically for that retention stien so that'll be paid out um later next month as well as um a few months ago a fund balance policy was approved by the governing board and that was in order for us to start increasing and targeting a reserve amount from our budget in order to ensure that we are well poised for just any changes in in funding and so this is definitely targeting towards that goal that we've that we've set our unrestricted Capital fund that is um what is also known as District additional assistance this is the main piece that we receive from um the state we usually receive about $13 million um that budget amount of 19.8 accounted for the prior years's carry forward so that's what you see um total expenditures was 14 million so we are carrying over about 5.8 million just to continue to support that fund's capital projects and ensure that we also leave a healthy Reserve just in case of any unanticipated expenses in capital the emergency building renewal grant program that's the funding that we receive through applying to the state um to the school facilities board um this had 7.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
check one two one two oh my goodness oh [Music] yeah okay e e e on get up are you guys [Music] ready I'm goingon to call the meeting to order please roll call M mcris present Mr halt present Mr Willard I'm here Dr Lopez and Mr Carlson are absent um can I get a motion to adopt the agenda I move that we adopt the agenda second any discussion okay all in favor I let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence please flag the United States of America to the stands na indivisible andice thank you um Dr streer presentations and recognitions yes okay we have a we have a fun recognition this evening we get to uh celebrate our Ron leaders and education award finalists so before I jump into this I am gonna ask Tony petiti uh Lindsay Laura and Danielle schroer to join me up front [Applause] the first time I told you what to do you the other way so this evening we would like to recognize three outstanding Educators who have been named rathon leaders and education award finalists joining me up front are T petiti prek teacher at pal preschool Lindsay Laura prek teacher at pal preschool and Danielle schroer anatomy and physiology and biology teacher at Mountain View High School you can give them a round of [Applause] applause so the Ron annual leaders and education award is designed to recognize the contributions of pumac County Teachers the program honors exceptionally skilled and dedicated teachers in prek through 12 in all content areas nominees are teachers who have gained the respect and admiration of students parents and colleagues and who Inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn they distinguish themselves as leaders and play an active and useful role in their communities and in their schools of the 12 rathon finalists four winners will be selected through a comprehensive review process and announced at a Tucson values teachers stand up for teachers ceremony on November 7th winners will receive $2,500 each plus an additional $2,500 in matching gifts to each of the teachers respective schools I'm going to say congratulations to each of you but before I say that again they could not have picked a better group of finalists these are some outstanding Educators in Mirana part of some power couples in Morana I have to I they told me to say that um I really uh some outstanding Educators I wanted to just wish a a heartfelt congratulations to each of [Applause] you and now we're gonna put you over there for a picture time [Music] go ahead I love Miranda thank you [Applause] board Communications Mr Willard would you like to speak yes thank you Miss micronus I had an amazing day um with the MD's partnership with the mirand Chamber of Commerce I got to participate in Impact Morana where we take about 20 to 25 Community leaders Business Leaders and we do it on the second Thursday for the next eight months and we get to tour Morana facilities what makes our town tick the nuts and bolts of why we live in such an amazing town uh it was a great start we started today with education so we started at Coyote Trails then Morana high school with lunch by the Morana culinary group at Morana high school and then to gladen Farms just had an outstanding day meeting all of our community leaders and their commitment to our town and our school district and uh it was just great and then I just want to give a shout out to Morana High School number one in the State football team number one in the State girls flag football and I'm sure there are other amazing sports teams that I probably can't listen to all but I'm just really proud of our schools thank you Mr Hol would you like to speak yes thank you I just want to give a shout out to Butterfield for opening up their doors for us um and having a wonderful day planned sorry it was late I had a thing I could not get out of in the morning um it was fantastic we got to see Kids In Action we got to see teachers in actions we got to see new facilities it was a great visit uh board Summit was fantastic thank you Dr sh planning that and setting that up as well as all of our town members for doing that as well um that was great we got to see leaders from different high schools different student events and we got to hear a lot of students talk about their vision from Marena as well so it was great thank you then um as a proud member of the school board I am deeply honored to share highlights from several significant events that demonstrate our District's commitment to Unity community and inclusion recently I had the pleasure of attending the Torita versus Mirana Middle School uh football game the energy and enthusiasm and sportsmanship exhibited by our students reminded me of the powerful sense of community we have built within our schools events like this not only showcase talent but also bring us together in celebration of our students achievements during my visit to Field Elementary with Mr Holt and Dr streer I saw firsthand the incredible work being done to foster a nurturing and inclusive environment our educators are dedicated to every child's success ensuring that all students feel valued and supported which is at the heart of our District's Mission I also have the privilege of participating in the governing board Summit which where nearly 150 stakeholders came together to begin to develop a strong strategic plan for our District's future this collaborative effort reflects our District's dedication to listening to diverse voices to create a plan that reflects the needs and aspirations of our entire Community our district is moving forward with prop 411 and I want to extend my gratitude to the Mirana Education Association the Arizona education Arizona Education Association and the political action committee for their sponsorship of all canvasing efforts this initi itive reflects our Collective responsibility to ensure our schools have the resources they need to thrive finally I have the honor to attend the school board candidate Forum sponsored by our parent partnership it was an inspiring display of our community's commitment to shaping the future of our schools where candidates came together to share their perspectives these events exemplify the strength of our district Unity community and inclusion together we will continue to work toward ensuring that every student has the opportunity to succeed in a supportive and welcoming environment thank you for being a part of this journey and as we strive to build a brighter future for all thank you um we're going to have remarks from the public um know that you're limited to three minutes Mr Willard will be timing you he will give you a one minute warning and at the end of your three minutes I will thank thank you for your um comments uh first up is roxan zegler hi councilwoman how are you good thank you good evening school board members Dr streer and audience thank you for allowing to speak tonight on this very important subject not as a Mirana council member but as a private citizen of Morana for 35 years both roles are mutually exclusive of each other and I'll say that again both roles are mutually exclusive of each other I'm also a grandmother whose grandson attended kindergarten through 12th grade at musd and had a great experience I've known Mr Carlson since 2010 when he was first elected to the Morana School Board his performance as a school board member has been exemplary for many of us he has been our guy goto guy with the questions or concerns regarding musd the time I've known Tom I have gained immeasurable respect for how much he cares about Morana school district and the community his passion over the years about ensuring Morana is moving forward to become the premier School District in the community is a statistic people look for when buying a home in Morana Tom deliberations are thoughtful fair and comprehensive his institutional knowledge and vision have contributed to MD's many successes over the years is of grave concern I have learned that Mr Carlson was served with a restraining order of current Morana School Board member campaign it seems they are using a campaign strategy that is unappealing distasteful and offensive to most VI voters it's called intimidation the board members campaign is using the legal system to censor any opposition they feel interferes with their message major board members uh mure board members understand that votes mean something and that board members should stand by their votes when opposing information is presented to the voters that speech shouldn't be silenced as been as has been happening in this Schoolboard election for example of silencing speech is the cease and desist order that I received last week as a private Mor citizen from this same board member it is very unfortunate and unprecedented to see this kind of a deliberate behavior in Morana School race and frankly as a private citizen is an embarrassment to the town of Morana should Mr Carlson be removed from his seat as Morana School Board member for baseless charges as set forth in the restraining order you will not only disenfranchise thousands of votes but also remove one of the most exceptional thoughtful prepared and deliberate School member along with his invaluable institutional knowledge over the last 14 years thank you for your time this evening thank you for allowing me to go over a few minutes thank you Miss Walker good good evening thank you for letting me be here I am a new member of the uh membership of the community I've been here a year and a half I do not have any children having come through this system but I am familiar with school systems and that I work in California for a number of years and retired through uh through the school district I was at um I learned the importance of everybody having a voice to be able to speak and to uh give their opinion whether it was agreed with or not and I do have to say that I am really Disturbed that uh allegations have been brought against uh Tom Carlson who is an exemplary member of our community it bothers me greatly that uh unsubstantiated allegations have been brought against him which have made it impossible for him to attend these meetings and to do the job that he was called and elected to do uh it we talk a lot about inclusion but it seems that there is a great bit of exclusion in this matter and it seems extremely unfair and I personally am very against what's gone on and I just wanted to express my feelings that if we're going to be inclusive then everybody's voice matters and everybody should be able to express their opinion whether we agree with it or not I we need to have the respect to allow somebody to State their feelings and their position without having the the concern that somebody is going to go after them for stating an opposite up an opposing opinion so I am in in favor of this board please helping to bring this matter to a close if you are able to help in any regards and I stand as a proponent of free speech and the right for anybody and everybody to express their opinion without being brought in front of a legal matter a legal Court one minute thank you okay thank you mrar Mr Spears excuse me Mrs Spears I didn't have my glasses on I didn't I thought it said Mark I didn't have my glasses on sorry about that Mrs Spears thank you very much good evening president and respectable members of the board I appreciate your time time I am Marta Spears I'm a resident of Morana and I have come before you to bring a concern to some of your constituents I thank you for your time and your service to this community my concern is coming and seeing the empt SE that is supposed to be held by a school board member mainly Tom Carlson it concerns me because he represents my thoughts my opinions and my votes for the business conducted here now my question is is anything going to be done to include Mr Carlson in the discussions business and votes taken by this board um if not then those who feel he represents us have been gagged and no longer have a voice as to how our educational tax dollars are being spent and in the education of our children and the progress of our growing community now could a zoom conference call or similar mode of communication be set up to include Mr Carlson and that was my only concern is inclusion thank you very much for your time Mrs Carlson good evening Madame vice president and members of the board my name is Brenda Carlson and Tom Carlson is my husband he would have been here tonight and I would have been at home except for the unlawful actions of a childish young adult my husband was elected to this board in 2010 and has served for more than 13 years in the last few years he's often been alone as he tirelessly advocated for the best interest of students and parents doesn't take much searching to see that the positions he's held have been validated and proven to be true tens of thousands of parents have voted for him over the years and I'm amazed at how much he has loved and respected in this community I can't tell you how many times people has come up to me and said oh you're Tom Carlson's wife we love Tom he has helped so many people in this community including one of you sitting right in front of me however due to one person using law for his personal gain my husband is prevented from serving the people who have elected him to this office he can't even visit his grandsons at school one of you should have been using your life experience and wisdom to Mentor others we have one person who's sitting on the board board who's throwing a temper tantrum because his mother was caught and admitted to stealing a political sign his desire for Retribution and go to illegally silent speech has created this mess tonight this is called laware I'm very disappointed that the administration just threw up their hands and did nothing to reconstitute the board and to do everything possible to get your most experienced and loyal board member here tonight with prop 411 you are asking me to voluntarily raise my own property taxes and you want me to give more money to an organization that functions like this I am seriously reconsidering voted for this and don't be surprised if many others don't feel the same way I'm almost finished okay it doesn't matter how many a schools you have when people sitting up here tonight are such an embarrassment my question to you is where's the adult in the room oh he's not here thank you so much Mrs Fritz good evening good evening I am Gail Fritz I've been a resident of Morana for over 20 years I am a retiree of the University of Arizona recently I have learned that one of the Morana school board members currently sitting behind the podium has put a restraining order on Mr Tom Carlson this school board member has used bogus and unproven allegations to place this restraining order bogus and unproven allegations as a result Mr Tom Carlson has been forbidden to attend the school board meetings as you can see he's not on the school board tonight this is very disturbing to me as a Morana resident is this a game I thought the school board had a very important job I know our schools are very important I know our students are very important doesn't this mean the school board has a very important job does the member of the school board who placed this restraining order on Mr Tom Carlson with bogus and unproven allegations not see the importance of the school board my request is that this Administration would do would do all they can to have this restraining order on Mr Tom Carlson a retired Colonel resented the straining restraining order resented Mr Tom Carlson has been elected to do this job and currently he can't the hope is that the board can move forward in Pro problem solving I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for the time you have already invested in serving on this board knowing fully well that it probably requires many volunteer hours thank you thank you Jennifer Garcia hello hello good evening my name is Jennifer Garcia I live at 7400 North Blanco wash Trail Morana Arizona I've lived in the Mirana school district for 22 years I have two adult children that graduated from Morana High School I currently have a child that attends at Morano high school as a senior this year I have two of my grandchildren at Dove Mountain cem K through so as you can see I have invested a lot of time and energy in the mirand schools and I plan to continue to do so my concern and reason for asking to address the board here tonight is that an important member of this board is not here tonight not able to do the job that he was elected to do not able to be the voice for the people that elected him Mr Tom Carlson has been a voice for our children for 13 years and I appreciate all his time and effort serving our children so why is he not here tonight not because he doesn't want to be but because of unsubstantiated accusations brought against him by a member of this board resulting in a restraining order that prevents Mr Carlson from being here tonight I am asking the members of this board to please consider the implications of not having the voice of the Mirana people heard through the man that they have elected to be their voice please put petty disagreements aside stop reasoning like a child work together to get this restraining order terminated we have we the people of Morana Unified School District want our voices heard through our electorate representative Tom Carlson thank you for your time and attention to this matter thank you to the rest of the board here that lovingly serve our children next up is Miss Bravo and Miss Bravo has laryngitis so she's written a statement that another teacher will re read in her uh stad good evening Dr streer board memb senior staff and members of the audience my name is Corey Bravo and I am a special education teacher at Morana Unified School District serving students with low incident disabilities I've worked in the district for 15 years I have uh student taught here and graduated from Mountain View High School and I attended musd schools for all 13 of my pre college education I hold a master's degree in teaching and teaching education and I've lived in the Miranda district for the past 40 years I would like to get my point out that I have attended the majority of board meetings over the past six years while I normally don't speak I am someone who pays attention and is actively involved unlike some people here tonight who have never attended before or only here to stir the pot on the behest of a board member I am here because I deeply care about our district and its future I stand here today disappointed and utterly disgusted by the actions of current board members who have chosen to place political signs that attempt to debase another board member running to be reelected for a second term on this board this type of behavior has no place in our school board which should be focused on the welfare of students teachers and families not political gamesmanship it is childish unnecessary and frankly embarrassing I'm equally appalled at the same board member that saw fit to send out an email rallying people to attend this meeting tonight to publicly disparage the candidate even going so far as to provide them with this uh preferred talking points and tell them that and I quote you are outraged at this this is the board member uh does this board member not trust their supporters to think for themselves this kind of manipulation and orchestrated attack is beneath the Dignity of our board and is that is supposed to be nonpartisan and committed to serving our community I do have copies of this email to provide any members who would like a copy board members should be working together for the benefit of all rather than allow allowing some political ideology to create division as civilized results we are able to disagree respectfully and allow different perspectives to be voiced without resorting to tactics that undermine the Democratic processes a well-rounded School Board is essential to ensure that all diverse ideologies and perspectives of all parents students and Educators were represented what is particularly underhanded at the work effort to attack the candidate for their voting record during the pandemic a time when they represented views of over 50% of the families in our district and followed the guidelines of the Puma County Health Department these actions aimed at stacking the board with only conservative members are inappropriate and not in the best interest of our students I urge this board the board this board to put a stop to this embarrassing nonsense and to allow voters for think for themselves candidates should be allowed to stand by their own Merit voting record and qualifications and we must stop trying to sway votes with scare tactics it's time to or a return to working for the betterment of our schools not for ptical political gain thank you [Applause] Lily Tate I'm short all right good evening MSD board members senior staff members Educators families and community members I'm Lily Tate I teach ceramics at Toral middle school and I am a special education parent in the district I am a tvt teacher Advisory Board member a former Ron leader and education finalist uh TMS teacher leadership team dep Department lead and an musd resident let me start by saying that musd is home and family to me I've consistently felt a sense of collaboration and Community as part of musd for seven years I am deep ly concerned about the intentional attacks and attempts at sewing division in our community a board member has created signs attacking Mr Hulk for advocating for our families and students who are at the highest risk during covid claiming that our students are still suffering due to school closures and masks my colleague Miss Hawks will share how students have excelled at TMs in the time since Co I would like to share how my kindergartner with special needs has been impacted the negative impact for him was not from school closures but rather a postco delay and diagnosis because service providers like these signs blamed his delay on masks rather than on his very real disability however there are two board members who have consistently shown up for me as a teacher and personally as a parent in the district miss m cronis and Mr halt I am deeply grateful to you both the attacks against Mr Holt are divisive based on false claims and detrimental to our community the board member is sewing this division in our district is violating not only the law but board code of conduct he has lost my remaining respect for him and faith in him as an elected official he does not represent me my students or my family thank thank [Applause] you Megan this Megan sorry too many megans um thank you so much for allowing me to speak um those of you who don't know me I'm a parent of five two of whom are still currently enrolled in mus right now um and I'd like to address actually two topics that were brought up at the summit the other night the candidate Summit um you talked about school safety and about student retention after eth grade going into the high schools um and I wanted to tell you from my perspective here the schools aren't losing students because of academics or sports like some of the candidates suggested but it's because parents like myself Spar fear for their children's well-being in an environment where bullying and aggression go unchecked I know this firsthand over the past 5 years we removed our three older children at three separate occasions from Morana high due to three VAR three different safety concerns and last year I stood before this board after my fourth child was assaulted in their classroom at Mountain View High while other students watched and a teacher was present this isn't just bullying it's systemic failure to create a safe and inclusive space for all students that is resulting in serious emotional and physical harm and this needs to change each candidate and I'm sure those of you who also aren't running and who are on the board agree that we want this to be a destination district and right now parents are actually choosing to send their children to safer and more supportive environments elsewhere and if we want to reverse this trend we must Implement programs to better educate students on tolerating and accepting diversity establishing stronger support systems for students vulnerable to bullying and enforce stricter more consistent consequences for violence that said as I stand here tonight it's almost ironic how the divisive and AG aggressive campaigning in this election is such a clear reflection of the toxic culture in our schools a sitting board member along with a town council member who claims she's not heared on her behalf has resorted to such bullying hatred and even rallied random people here to start trouble with one-sided allegations let's be very clear Tom started this I'll say it again Tom started this with his signs and now he's mad that Mr Mr Hol Rose above if Tom were a student in our district I'd report him to the speakup hotline and he'd be expelled what kind of example does this set for our children when they see an adult in a leadership role engaging in this type of behavior Tom Carlson I'm sure you're watching you should be embarrassed and ashamed of yourself we need to fix our schools from within by fostering unity and safety through better policies and by electing leaders who embody those values I appreciate the candidates and board members who have risen Above This Behavior we know who you are and we as voters will do the right thing on Election Day thank [Applause] you Chelsea a good evening governing board members senior staff and mirand community members my name is Chelsea AE I am the vice president of the Mirana Education Association as well as a proud music educator at Miranda middle school with the election so close I am here tonight to speak in support of prop 411 the musd budget override public schools in Arizona are some of the worst funded in the country for decades our state legislators have prioritized budget cuts and tax credits over increasing funding for public education or even restoring cuts that had to be made during the 2008 recession because our legislators will not do it the burden of K12 funding has been placed on local taxpayers via Bond and override elections some districts are now ex school districts are now extremely reliant on bonds and overrides the Mirana Community has a strong history of supporting bonds and overrides for our schools in fact prop 411 will renew an existing override that has been in place since 2007 and Mirana voters have renewed it mult mle times with the extra funding musd has been able to offer full-time kindergarten counselors thriving Fine Arts programs smaller class sizes and increased salaries for our Educators and support staff in addition to renewing the 10% override prop 411 would increase the override to 15% this will bring much needed funds in and keep musd competitive since every other District in the Tucson area is operating at 13 to 15% overrides amazingly due to the rapid growth in Miranda in Mirana future tax rates are actually expected to decrease slightly even with the increase 15% this is the perfect time to take advantage of our booming growth and renew funding for the school programs we love and the Educators and support staff that are leading our students in their educational Journeys every single day if we fail to pass this override MD would great be greatly impacted and the district would ultimately have to cut programs and or positions this would be heartbreaking Mirana schools are in my opinion the heart of our community in these schools we educate our children and prepare them to become responsible citizens in these schools families come together for concerts dances stem nights and open house nights strong schools also attract businesses and new residents and they increase property values for everyone mea would like to say a huge thank you to all the administrators teachers parents senior staff and board members who came out last Saturday to canvas for prop 411 this is truly a community effort we need all hands on deck to tell people what prop 411 is and why our community needs it please remember to vote on November 5th and to vote Yes on Prop 411 thank you Megan haw good evening governing board members superintendent trador senior staff Educators family and community members thank you for giving me this time to speak tonight I want to start off by thanking everyone who helped last week into canvas for prop 411 it was a great turnout with a lot of good conversations with our voters and I hope that all of our future campuses for this prop go dressed as well I'd like to address messages and signs that have been seeing that I've been seeing around the area that don't seem to truly repres represent our district and how well we and our students are doing many of them mentioned how one member voted on the issue of masks and school shutdowns from several years ago and say that our students are still suffering struggling because of that this doesn't track with the achievements of our students in their schools or in competitions that they've won for example just this year several gem students from across the district placed in the yearly kidstruction competition uh with the this year's them being let's get social last year I spoke to you guys about it as well with other winners uh this year we had a team from Torita get first place and a team from qu run get third place in the category places to think a team from ironwood got second place in places to help a Dove Mountain team got second and degia team got third in places to move and finally two teams from Twin Peaks got first and second place in the category places to entertain this shows how much our students are continuing to grow and Achieve and challenge themselves in various aspects of engineering and design in addition to this if we look at the state test scores and state letter grades we see these stride the strides that our students have been making in the last several years in 2018 2019 we had three a schools 7 B schools four C schools 2 D schools and one F school and though we don't have the 2023 2024 data yet as we're still waiting for the State uh we do know that based on the 2022 2023 data that our students are not still suffering they are thriving we went up to 5 a schools 10 B's and only one C and the school that was F is now one of the B rated schools and that's my school torly to middle school this shows that our kids are thriving growing succeeding despite what some may say we need to remember that this election is not a partisan issue it's not liberals not conservative not Republican not Democrat and that we need to focus on the who is the best people who are the best people for our entire district and all of our students not those just not just those who fit into specific molds because of our own individual beliefs this board is to serve all and we need to remember that as November the November's election comes up thank you for your time and have a great night [Applause] good evening governing board members Dr streer senior leadership and of course community members thank you for having us all here tonight U my name is BR stum and I am a parent of two kind of great kids in M USD I'm also a kind of there I think my daughter's listening so I didn't you know um I'm also a former teacher in the district and the current president of the pack for morand schools I wanted to personally thank our governing board for unanimously voting to support prop 411 we all know how critical these funs are to our schools it was exciting to see so many people putting the words into action last Saturday during our canvasing kickoff so many of our school administrators leadership team were present as well as Mr Holt and candidate Roy Alexander I also wanted to thank the board tonight for remembering that you are representatives of the people in this community and just like I don't agree with everyone in the room I'm sure not everybody on our board agrees either thank you for focusing on the matter at hand which is supporting our students our teachers in the very best way possible and pushing past the noise as leaders in our community you are your civil discourse is very much appreciated and needed thank [Applause] you Sunny hearnen hello uh I am Sunny heren thank you for your time Dr streer Vice President mcris board senior staff and guests um those of you who come to Schoolboard meetings know that every couple months I get up and I talk about something going on in the district that you guys might not know about um sometimes it's stuff you do know about like music and sometimes it's just not so that's what I chose to do today and I picked quite the day to do it um I normally have a speech written out and I don't today because I have been canvasing in my neighborhood for 411 picture Ox is not a neighborhood that gets a lot of canvas canvases uh going and not the big ones but I do want to thank Mr Holt for doing the big one on Saturday and Mr Willard I did notice that you were the first one at the board candidate meeting or the board Forum to bring it up so I wanted to appreciate that both of you for speaking up for proposition 411 going door Todo um in picture Ox has been made a little bit more difficult by a email voting guide that was sent out by a different board member that did not include it I find that very unfortunate however I have got to spend a lot of time with different people um in the school district lately uh particularly parent partnership meetings and I wanted to thank the parent partnership for what they're doing I wanted to thank Dr streer for being available to us on that personal basis where parents could just come and talk to him that's not a thing that's in every District um and the parent partnership also through the wonderful board member Forum we also got to do a community Cafe which you guys don't know about because you weren't here weren't there um but Dr streer was and we got to meet as community members and I represented my school picture Ox as a parent and talk about um we we we worked oh I'll talk fast with Faith leaders and other folks um to about um making our schools better and then we got to have the board retreat which you guys were there for where I got to learn um that my daughter is not afraid of public speaking like I am because she got picked for to be to represent picture ox and she stood up in front of everybody and talked about her vision for the schools so I wanted to thank you for all that you're doing bringing the communication from the board and Dr streer to to the everyone involved thank you for your time thank you I want to thank everybody for your comments okay next uh Dr streer Vice President maconis governing board members and members of the audience it has certainly been a busy uh first quarter of the school year and I think that we are all looking forward to fall break which is one half half day away three hours Cory Bravo um but certainly fall break will no doubt provide an opportunity for all of us to have some reflection some rest and some Rejuvenation and I think like many communities around the country We have dealt with some conflict we've dealt with some division uh really over these last few years and it seems that during election season we're once again navigating uh some of this but with that said I'd also be remiss if we didn't take a step back and recognize that despite some of those challenges when needed we have been successful in coming together as a community with a collective focus on the success of our children this ability to Rally around a common cause has led to some fantastic outcomes for our students you've heard that just this past Friday we welcomed over 150 I think that number might be closer to 170 170 stakeholders representing students and parents staff business Partners faith-based leaders and elected officials that came together to celebrate our successes uh or the successes of musd as well as to begin to look at and identify what our next steps should be as we look to the Future and I want to thank those of you that joined us in the engaging discussions around our future and reflecting back and again Guided by a common understanding that each of us wants what's best for our kids we have succeeded on many fronts the literacy Focus that began a couple of years ago has continued through this first quarter and continues to provide early successes and continues to be the talk of Southern Arizona our student achievement gains from prepandemic to today continue to be a model in fact we are one of the few school systems in the country that can boast that we have met or exceeded our student achievement scores in 93% of our schools our graduates from last year earned over $20 million in scholarship money and our students earned 449 industry certifications through their CTE classes and we are not too far removed from this community coming together to support the passage of proposition 491 which has allowed us to improve and update learning spaces and learning conditions for our students I am hopeful that when we all return from fall break that this community will once again be ready to Rally around our kids and focus on doing what's best for our students and this concludes my comments for tonight thank you con consent agenda can I get a motion I move that we approve the consent agenda second any discussion all those in favor I I the consent agenda is passed okay unfinished business none new business uh Mr canoro thank you um ARS 15481 um um section why requires an update of the community and board on our maintenance and operation override to include the amount expended the previous year and then also tell you what's in our budget for the current year in fiscal year TW 2024 the district did receive nine um 9 million 565 and $700 um of which we expended those dollars um for the designated uses that were detailed in the voter pamphlet which was which included items such as full day kindergarten retention and recruitment of Staff the current year budget that was adopted in July um was just over10 million was the levy for the override um ars1 15491 um section K requires that we um talk about the current Bond proceeds and the use of these dollars um the table um that is in the board packet and I'll go through it um for the for the audience was was this these numbers are reflective as of September 16th when we submitted this agenda item and they've since changed just a little bit but the voter pamphlet um authorized $90 million to the um um to the school district and we had basically four different categories with various amounts in them um campus improvements and renovations to existing um new school and facility construction um technology and security upgrades and enhancements and then also student transportation vehicles um of that we of the $90 million we currently have a balance of about 30 36 just over 36.1 million left to expend we do not have all those proceeds we will be coming in um probably February or March to issue the last 20 million do of That So currently we really only have $16 million is I guess my point Point um and we're balanced um we're staying within the line items that were designated in the voter pamphlet as I don't know if you're aware or I'll remind the board um in the community you're allowed to have a 10% over overage in any line item we're not near any of those um thresholds this is an informational item and um I can ask answer questions um but it there's no vote that needs to happen for this does any anybody have any questions um I just have one um I heard this might be Dan canno's last board meeting as he uh steps into retirement so if that's the case Dan we love you and we're going to miss you greatly I got four more items to go so oh all right so just pretend pretend I didn't say anything and I'm GNA say that because this was informational so I figured I'd say it now thank you I'll hug you later thanks my wife said Don't Cry I was like I'll be okay okay this item was an information only item so no action is needed so Mr canoro uh J2 yes um this is an agenda item and I'll go through a presentation once it comes up on the gladen farms K8 School the new school that's being um constructed as you as you can see probably through as you drive by uh oh okay um I just start with and this was this was um taken from we've presented this so if you if it looks familiar it was at the study session if it looks familiar if you were at the community center I just changed a few slides so um the mission statement is we I mean and the key is is collaboration with parents and Community um and that was very important while setting boundaries we don't try to do this in a silo oh keep um the committee that came together um and this is been months ago that really started looking at our options when setting this When developing these boundaries um is before you it was it it had um Mr Willard myself um the principles from each of the schools that probably were that most likely would be impacted Ali Mark G Mark alosi Mark G and um Kristen and Alicia Mesa who is our transportation director oh well this is not working uh oh okay so the factors that we use when we consider um making um boundaries was that we wanted to maximize the the concept of neighborhood school so that obviously that means we need to consider of the proximity to the new school and we wanted to make use of natural boundaries that and to think of that is um I think of my best example is I live in um um in Continental Ranch the big washes we don't want kids that literally you don't want to use a a road as your boundary where the a student maybe here and then across the street as you go to a different school so we want to use use of Big M natural boundaries we also consider safety of getting to school when um when um developing boundaries and we wanted to look at the impact to the existing schools um we also really consider I mean as you know we drive 12,500 miles um impact to transportation is very um in at top of our mind when we were considering cons um factors um and then we wanted to look and this one became very prevalent in this case was the planning for future housing developments um obviously the the worst thing somebody can do is draw boundaries and then come back a few years later and go we need to redraw boundaries because we didn't anticipate future house housing this is the current boundaries the I'm going to call it purple it's probably fuchsia or something um is gladin that's gladden's little island of it's really boundar by gladen Farms it was there everything surrounded it in that aqua green um was Estus and then yellow was I just put on there is Dub Mountain we were looking at that we did not have to change those boundaries these are those um the when the committee got together and we spoke um we looked at these B um all these future home growths and where they're going to go and where they're going to when they're going to come and what what school they would impact in the future oh God so this is how we developed the um this is a good map of what we would propose as the um gladen Farms one and gladen Farm K8 um schools boundaries to be used the tricky part and I wish I had a pointer but the Clark Farm Road the north the North Boundary was our most difficult part of the discussion um we were we were using roads that do not currently exist so we were worked closely with the town of Morana um to get some of their future plans and go all right we know this is just a farm right now but what's it going to be and that Clark Farms Road ended up being pretty important um um we also used as an East Bounder you can see that that's one of those natural paths it's a big walking path so that fit fit our need so this is a blow up of the current what we're suggesting as gladen Farms boundary for the one I believe oh maybe if I don't this is um gladen Farms 2 and this if you could could put your mind back to that what we really considered was that New Growth there's mandarina and I think it's called Stonegate that's going on the other side of I 10 that you see a lot of dirt being moved right now that's going to be the future of this school and this is with all of the boundaries Estus um one of the there was and I don't believe I put there was a community U meeting that um and one of the concerns was Miranda one of the questions came up was Morana Middle School um Morana Middle School we're we're treating it just like Twin Peaks um K8 where they still reside in Morana Middle School's attendance boundary so we're not changing Morana attendance they have the choice to go to either of those schools so this if this was approved by the governing board tonight this is my projection the best um educated guess of where the schools would reside and I think it fits the model we have all talked about we want to keep gladen Farms is the current existing school is is pretty much landl I mean they're developed and there's only I think there's two small communities that are going in that will that will fill um that will come after this after in the next in the near future Estus will be at 402 which will lead a lot of room for um for um for growth for the coming of the neighborhoods that are coming kind of out out to the West um random mle school will lose 51 um students because now they'll be attending most likely the K8 but gladen farms and that number is scary 285 and we we talked about it quite a bit I was when we opened Dove Mountain I predicted 450 students that would because it's all I can circle is the current students that I current that are currently attending one of these in this case three schools we actually open that scho what 835 students I put an interesting number and it and it was it's a discussion I don't know I mean you know unless we surveyed and I that'll be one of the next steps um there's 141 students that currently reside in the K8 area boundary area that attend either Twin Peaks or Dove Mountain so if they're choosing to go to Twin Peaks or Dove Mountain because of the K8 model I would think we would add the 41 to the 285 I guess that's the point of that that so if approved the next steps which I know Zach singer is very excited about would be that they would start to involve um parents and staff to make the selection of of school name colors mascot Etc are our um are um we meet weekly at the construction meetings they're waiting for the colors and the mascot and um there's things like the gym like can we order you know there's things they were they're waiting on um we also want to make sure and and we'll have well we already have a meeting scheduled to start discussing like how to ensure that all of these families in these impacted areas actually know that they're being moved to a different you know school so we're going to work with through that process that's what I see in the near future for the next steps at this point I'd be ready to ask answer questions if I can can I get a motion yeah I moved at the governing board approve the boundaries for new K8 located in gladen farms this is Elementary School in gladen farm is elementary school as presented second any questions I have just one the one the 141 are they opened en rolled into Twin Peaks yes they would have to go through the open a that was it I I have a question Dan I know that we're going to have some more Community Action and and talk with the community but can you tell us a little bit more I know there was those of us in that room but we've had some other meetings talking to stakeholders correct can you talk about that a little bit yeah I mean we we've met um multiple times on the the development of the school from years ago I mean when we went with through the architect design process there was multiple meetings there um we've met a few times um senior staff met before that to kind of eyeball it went to the study session then the the by law I'm required to have a committee uh or we're we are to notify every household in the in the um impacted area of a of a both this board meeting and of a community meeting of which part was last Thursday yeah last Thursday um was that community meeting um and then tonight still the final what was the feedback from the community meeting I would have to ask Zack or I was not there yeah I I can address that it um there there wasn't there was not a lot of feedback around the boundaries right the boundaries are fairly intuitive I think people had a pretty good grasp of the boundaries one of the benefits that community meeting was not just to share those boundaries answer a couple of questions related to that but what we were able to do is really start to collect some of the other questions that folks had looking ahead to the fall of 2025 what was Transportation going to look like what was open enrollment process is going to look like what was the timeline things like that so we were able to kind of parking lot that we weren't necessarily prepared to answer all of those questions um but as far as the boundaries go very few questions like I said pretty pretty intuitive um transportation currently how we work in open enrollment is students and families who would be respons responsible for getting their students to a bus stop in that attendance area in order to Access Transportation that would start from year one that wouldn't be a transition phase um and then again we talked about some of the opportunities that we have with regards to open enrollment because of a lot of the boundaries of this school cover future developments so we do have space to where we are not going to necessarily have to ask families to make a change if they're not wanting to make a change so it was a little bit of informative a lot of question Gathering as we continue with our community meetings thank you Dr streer thank you de all right we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I motion carries okay uh j3 Mr Cana yes thank you um each year um we're required to submit a detailed annual financial report to the Arizona Department of Education this report is obvious it's subject to annual um audit review from our in our case hfield and meech Arizona Department of Education uses this data to um in the in the document to prepare many of their own reports for comparative analysis amongst districts the annual financial report includes following submissions districtwide annual financial report which is all of our funds every um Revenue expenditure balances um Food Service they break out on their own not sure why it used to be part but they actually have their own AFR um results based funding report and classroom site fund narrative results um the report analyzes all of the district's balances budgets revenues and expenditures and I I've listed some of the highlights um out it for this year to me it's amazing from where we came to where we're at um maintenance and operations I listed out expenditures by funds we were $15.7 million was was our budget in in expenditures and maintenance and operation fund classroom site fund a million over just over a million unrestricted 4.4 million auxiliary and Student Activities just over $2.6 million those are student fees and student dollars um and then there's a large the large payment was a bond payment for that's $1 million 11.4 million if you add up all of the our expenditures and I get this question every year so I'm going to answer it before I get to it the if you add up all of our expenditures it's it's eight 1995.
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wild cats we're about to embark on the best week of the school year homecoming 2024 is finally here let's talk to some of our students to find out what they're looking forward to and reminders on what our schedule looks like Wildcats I'm here with Wen Alana all right what year in school are you guys freshman freshman fresh freshman hopefully freshman year is going well this is perfect are you guys excited for your first High School homecoming week yeah but I'm not even going for sure no I'm kind of we're excited for the first homecoming week for the most part there's lots of activ going on all week we got movie Nights we got dodgeball we got the parade and Powderpuff and pep assembly the theme this year is Once Upon a Time so looking back what was your favorite Disney movie kids movie growing up Moana Tangled Tangled too as well like Tangled as well not Tangled 2 I was like I wasn't familiar with tangle 2 Tangled as well have a great homecoming week your first Homecoming in high school all right it's Tuesday to kick off the week am I seeing double here what's our theme on Tuesday You Got a Friend in Me twin day You Got a Friend in Me twin day so find a friend find two friends make triplets dress up alike with your friends and then what do we have going on on Tuesday night for our homecoming week event we have the movie movie on the football field we're showing Tangled out in the stadium 7:00 p.m.
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all right good evening we're going to call the regular board meeting for Thursday October 10th 2024 to order and I'll have Mrs Gant come up and introduce who's going to talk about or do our Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay up next next we have the adoption of the agenda do I have a motion Madame President I move we adopt the agenda as presented thank you Mr Daniels do I have a second I second thank you James all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed okay motion passes for zero and we have Mrs Gant again right well thank you for having Walnut Grove as your Spotlight school this evening um we'll start off with our student is that work for you okay all right so Finley Binks if you want to come back up here and stand like I said Finley is a fifth grader so this is his last year at Walnut Grove and um we sent out a Google form to all staff and said you know please nominate a wild cat that you feel represents all that we stand for at Walnut Grove and all the character traits and Finley's name came up more than one time um and so I think it was only fitting that Finley our fifth grader get this recognition tonight um what was said about him despite things being hard sometimes Finley has a can do attitude I've never seen him give up on anything just because it's hard he perseveres through it he is a leader with an amazing mindset that shows with a little grit and determination anything is possible so those are the words said about Finley so so congratulations Finley we're very proud of you he is our little Sportsman and I just found out that he's been uh he received the sportsmanship award multiple times so I think it goes to his [Applause] character group photo at the end thank you okay don't go anywhere finle we'll get a picture here and a minute our support staff member this evening that we'd like to recognize is Caitlyn Atwell come on up and stand in the center so Kate this is Caitlyn's first year with us at Walnut Grove um and we are so fortunate to have her as a kindergarten instructional assistant we are piloting kind of a co- te model at Walnut Grove um smaller class sizes fewer um students but a lot more maybe needs um to help them kind of close those preschool kindergarten gaps and she is one of the most amazing assistants with those kiddos um her staff member said she is great with our struggl Behavior students she asked questions she has completed additional training on her own will she supports students and their plans she has also been involved with building level initiatives such as reading club and social committee she always jumps in to help wherever needed in the classroom she is always two steps ahead and has supplies ready to go for us so thank you Caitlyn we appreciate all you do for us and then Lisa Fisk was nominated as our teacher she has a senior in college that is a killer tennis player and in a tournament this weekend so she could not be with us but I'm going to read a little bit about what our um colleague Said So Lisa is an integral part of our team she is the glue that keeps the special ed Department together she was able to help absorb Mrs the laap schedule at the beginning of the year to make schedules for second and fifth grade all while dealing with her own students and their needs she will is always willing to take time and answer questions and help wherever needed and that is so true she has been our teacher of the year and definitely a very big part in why we are finding such success in our co- teing model in kindergarten first grade So Lisa congratulations hopefully she's watching now the now picture [Applause] come great up next we have the Johnson County presentation of read Across America hello yes hi everybody I'm I'm Susan chrisa Foy I run Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Johnson County and we are here to give a big thank you to Cent Grove schools for participating in our read Across America event back in March for that event we asked all six School corporations in Johnson County to just help us raise a little bit of funds um our program is free for children for families we provide free books that are mailed to families from the time a child is born until they turn five um although the program is free for families we do have a little bit of a cost that we incur and so we do fundraising to help with that and we asked during fre Across America week if there could be um one day during that week that schools particularly our elementary schools might have something fun to do uh to wear school colors or silly socks or dress as your favorite book character and bring in a small donation a dollar maybe for the Imagination Library um and we are so thrilled to announce that we had uh we had a um a bit of a competition for which school rais the most money per um per child according to their school population and then which school corporation raised the most money this year we were fortunate that this fundraiser um helped us raise $8,500 and almost half of that came from Center Grove schools Center Grove schools contributed $4,090 and um there were there were other elementary schools that were hot on the the heels of Walnut Grove but Walnut Grove pulled it out they averaged a15 per student in their donations and we are just utterly thrilled for that please join me in thanking them before I give this trophy to Mrs Gant um I just want to give you a an understanding of impact it costs us right now um over almost $6,000 per month to be able to send the books to Johnson County Children because we are pushing 5,000 kids enrolled in our program which is wonderful our mission is to get as many books into the hands of as many children as possible and we particularly want to put an effort towards families whose kids towards kids whose families can't afford to purchase books um the money that we received because of Center Grove's contributions means means that we will be able to send um a whole lot of books in fact I I double checked my calculation 300 Because of You 320 children in Johnson County uh will receive books this year and at 12 books per child that calculates out to 3,840 books into our community these are high quality books that are chosen by a panel of Early Childhood literacy experts and they are tailored to the child's developmental age so a one-year-old gets a different book from a four-year-old everything is set up so that that child is ready to succeed when they get to kindergarten so thank you so much for that wonderful gift of of participation and of success for our program we are so grateful we have a trophy to give Walnut Grove and C Center Grove actually won last year as a school corporation and so um you still have the trophy we we just brought you a new little plate to add to it so that you can confirm that Center Grove is two years in the two years in a [Applause] row uh just a little note of history back in the day when there was just the Center Grove Elementary that's no longer there the only way we had books come to us was through a bookmobile that's and it came out of Franklin I won't say how long ago that was but Jack did you hear Dr Long want to know if those were horses or if that was an actual motorized vehicle it was a big wooden wheel that they just pushed along [Laughter] was okay all right up next we have the um can oh public comments I'm sorry I almost skipped over you charity I'm sorry um charity Flores Okay charity Flores 2927 Coventry Lane thanks for letting me share a few additional points this evening Beyond some of my initial feedback um I know there's a couple of things that are being navigated both this evening and in future meetings as well and for the budget specifically I would like the board to consider how the budget will provide support for educators in some of the upcoming conversations um knowing that there's another meeting scheduled for tomorrow with some of the current discipline and morale CH challenges that have been noted for the workforce I want to be sure that Educators Find value you in the budgeting process and I know that this has been considered ultimately in the final budget approved tonight I worry that if this isn't represented or considered that there could be additional F frustration on their part thank you okay up next we have the consent items does anybody have any questions discussion do I have a motion Madam president I move we accept the consent item as presented thank you Mr Russell do I have a second a second thank you J all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 4 Z and next up we have Dr Taylor to talk about the budget thank you Miss counts um the budget was presented the budget was presented to the board at their regularly scheduled meeting on September 19th 2024 um at this time we've made no changes to the budg budget in which was presented that evening um we are recommending approval of the budget as presented and we have the corresponding resolutions that include a budget approval tax rate information approval which we do always estimate high and we will settle that up to the Target tax rates that we part of the budget presentation um and then it also includes approval of the capital projects fund and the bus replacement plan um all those are the statutory resolutions that we're asking the board to approve this evening thank you any questions or discussion now I think Dr Taylor covered in his presentation last board meeting and I appreciate you showing some of the changes some of the challenges that we go through every year um I am you know I I always referred to 6,000 a student now I have to refer to seven uh you know times change not quite seven getting there get wishful thinking um but I but I thank you and your team because I know this is not an overnight thing you know I really do need to give credit Miss stats are our Corporation Treasurer plays an integral part of this and helping us prepare the budget each year so whoos to her work I would just like to add I want to assure the public it may look like like we may not discuss much of it tonight there has been a lot of one-on-one discussion a lot of questions to Dr Taylor uh to Dr long u because every year it does present more of a challenge yeah uh so every year we have to ask different questions I attack on to that real quick um yes uh I guess it was just yesterday morning time flies um we held a coffee chat with the community it was virtual but it was recorded Miss Conrad has that available um we shared a larger presentation on the budget for the whole Community great it's not new information we've been doing that with PTO and and different Community groups over the past really 18 months um but it's refreshed it's focused on the 25 budget it's it's fun if you got a cup of coffee and you want to read it or watch it I would say fun it's not as good as Dolly's books but Scott did you have anything you want to add or no no okay all right do I have a motion uh Madame President I move that we approve the 2025 budgets for all funds as presented along with the following resolutions resolution to adopt the 2025 capital projects fund plan resolution to adopt the 2025 bus replacement plan resolution for Appropriations and tax rates resolution for blanket appropriation modification and resolution to transfer amounts from education fund to the operations fund thank you Mr Russell do I have a second I'll second thank you Mr Daniels all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 z um action item 7.2 issuance of the 2024 uh General obligation bonds Dr Taylor thank you um this one's just slightly different this year because we actually advertised these bonds back in December and January of last year um that's when the 1028 hearings were held um it's at the same time that we did the uh guaranteed Energy savings what we're doing is bringing that back now so we can actually issue those bonds these do um these do continue the practice of issuing bonds to help us with our maintenance and Technology projects it's a practice that we've been um um really utilizing since 2009 um this provides us some relief in our operations fund um and allows us to continue maintaining our buildings and our technology um to the level that we need it to to support education um this Bond will be paid off in in a two-year period to minimize that interest hit as much as possible um and we this action tonight will be followed by an appropriation action next um but tonight we're just asking that you approve the issuance of these bonds and the related matters for them thank you anybody have any questions discussion do I have a motion Madame President I move that we approve the bonds as presented thank you Mr Daniels do I have a second second thank you Jane all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes 5 z um action item 7.3 is additional Appropriations for the educ education fund operations fund and 2024 General obligation Bond proceeds Dr Taylor um Madam president this is a hearing have the script yeah y give me a second y apologize everyone no no problem here we go okay I now open this public hearing and now I would like to call on Dr Taylor to provide more information on the additional appropriation don't want to miss that formality also uh key to note this uh this Appropriations hearing has been appropriately advertised um this is um for Appropriations that we just discussed with the 2025 budget so it appropriates all that money Appropriations is the process where the board formally gives the administration the approval to spend the money where they have talked about spending the money in the budget and so that's what you will see um it also includes then some additional Appropriations for the current school year um and in this current school year for receiving some more revenue and also having more expenses um we're asking for the additional appropriation approval in the operations fund of $400,000 and that's going to go to um Personnel cost in that fund along with the transition from the SR cares and ARP funds um into the operations funds for those support staff positions that we talked a little bit about in the budget presentation um the other part is in the education fund um $200,000 to be appropriated for the teacher appreciation Grant stien once we know that um final amount in November we'll bring that back for Action to the board but good to just get that appropriation out of the way now um and then $2 million to be appropriated in additional Personnel cost for the last six months of 2024 and this includes new staff that were hired in this current calendar year and would continue on into the next year's budget um it also it includes three teaching 13 teaching positions and some positions these are mainly support staff IAS um that were transitioned from the SR cares and ARP funds um for a grant total of 2.2 million part two of tonight's hearing is to appropriate the matters that we just took action on which is issuing the General Obligations bonds for the technology maintenance projects and so there's a second resolution attached to this had decided to have it all in one hearing this year um and it worked out pretty well timing wise so we're asking for approval of that I will turn it back over to Mrs count to conduct the rest of the hear great uh this is the appropriate time for members of the public to comment on additional Appropriations or information presented this evening are there members of the public present who would like to comment Mr P I um Keith poror uh just a Community member uh I have a couple qu or one question mainly uh I see we're borrowing more money now for uh the operations fund and and uh we just uh I'd like to know where the $81,000 that we got for security grant money why it's not in the revenue part of our budget but where is this money going to you know what why why won't that money help this out here thank you um the the school safety Grant this year was used for digital mapping it does contain a a matching component and that's what you would see in our budget is that we've approved the matching cost of that and it's our typical safety expenses um but they will actually they're going to digitally map all of our schools and help us with our safety plans um and response time and and it gives access to um the First Responders to have maps of of all of our buildings the fire department will be able to see that in their trucks as they're in route and the same with the uh the police department uh just one thing about our match is we're fortunately the way the Department of Homeland Security writes the grant is we can use our traditional expenses towards as part of our match and so we use the salaries of our sro's as as our match and we way more than match what we're required to match so that's where that is okay anybody else okay I now close the the public hearing are there any board members who have any questions or comments well this is going to seem like a silly question to Mr TL DR Taylor if we didn't do approve their Appropriations tonight what has to happen uh I'd have to come back in a future meeting because they would need to be approved at some point or we cannot spend that money so we would have to stop spending and and all of these being for personnel or every time you had leak out not leak out money but spin money you would have to pull us together which means board meting are you advocating a Centro government shutdown Mr Mr Russell I'm just saying Y no that's true y we have to do that and then there's always the end of the year deadline where it's got to be done by you know early in December so it's always a fun game to play so appreciate the question and I apologize for the humor are we anticipating the teacher appreciation Grant number to be the exact same it did not change in the banian budget okay because I know sometimes we don't get all that would change is our uh student population has gone up but the actual amount will not change okay um schools that aren't growing would get slightly less and I assume that's because there was not enough ADM to go no ours will grow just a little just because of our enough to really right grow that well they they established that last year really right so right I sometimes we don't good question always here until like de we have to pay it by yep we have to pay it in two weeks so two weeks so you mean the government's delay on information there any other questions comments no I have a motion mad president I move that we approve the additional Appropriations for the Ed fund the operations fund and the 2024 General Obligations Bond proceeds and interest earnings and related manners matters thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second second thank you Mr Russell all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 5 Z action item 7.4 is to accept donations for the Robotics and tech department Dr Taylor is a Sho as well yep okay yeah we actually it's two donations um but going towards the same um item so we've had an anonymous donor approach our high school and um the two different donations ones in the amount of $1,000 and the other ones in the amount of 16,500 and it will be used to purchase a unit tree G1 robot and at first I thought well that's one of the uh it looks like a dog almost like robot but it's actually the humanoid version and so um it's going to give our students at the high school and in our robotics program program a chance to learn from that robot program control um work with it um it's it's I think like one of the first or second units in the in the states um it was really pretty pretty big deal and and um we're so excited to have this Anonymous donation and happy to make it happen for our students so great great to have a Community member that can make that happen for our for our kids I love this my my daughter is currently sitting over at robotics at Central currently and she's in sixth grade and I think it's great that we offer this to all of our kids so this is exciting I think it's a I would say not great Next Step but it is kind of a next step for the kids to see over the one they built that does something exactly this one will have technology that they can really learn from yeah once we get it here get it up and running we'll make sure the board gets an invite to check it out I think it should be attendance one it's a great IDE well thank you obviously to the anonymous donor whoever they are if they're watching if they're hearing this thank you on behalf of of all of us sure awesome sign of strong Community yes okay just Pro more than sport do I have a motion Madam president I move that we accept the donations for the robotics tech department in the amount of $17,500 thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second a second J all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 Z okay um our next executive session regular board meeting and good for the Grove uh is November 21st um and then Thanksgiving break no school the 25th through the 29th um do we have any um board comments Jack do you want to start yes this past week a a longtime friend of mine and of the board um went to meter maker and it was people probably thought it was an odd relationship because uh I came into contact with Carol in Del Tumi uh in 1968 Carol came to crove in 1963 the fall of 1963 she actually got the job as Carol Summers got married over the summer and she had to correct Mr when he she he introduced her so but I want you to think about that that basically for 60 years Carol was involved with C gr because this is the only place that she taught uh coached and U was very instrumental in starting girls Sports in cro but also the state which earned her a Basketball Hall of Fame honor then it also earned her for us naming the track after her what was really mov was when I had to put out the information that she had passed I mean in overnight I had four or 500 responses with stories of how she helped both her and Dell but Carol mainly uh girls Carol and Dell were not able to have their own children so as I always kind of joke with them you had thousands of children because there were many girls they helped and these stories really brought that to light u in different ways back in the day you could take kids to the movies you could take them they took them skiing on their boat and did other things uh to help these girls U sometimes from challenging homes she was not only on the board here she was also on the the board at uh Franklin College which was her Al Mo there so um just um a good example for the rest of us she loves in Gro very much and she will be sorely missed and please keep Dale he's he's really having a hard time with it which would be expected thank you Jame now I don't want to top what Jack said I think it was beautiful but you know I I was pleasure to see her when I was here as a student and then sered with her for four years and the tumis are wonderful people they're all Center Grove I mean we've lost two icons this year between Gary Robinson and darl and and Carol Tumi so keep them in and your thoughts um apologies for being late tonight I was pulling double duty over at central 9 we actually Carol was on the central n board as well so we we spent a few minutes talking about Carol at the CN meeting tonight everybody over at Central love kind of yeah just um because this was a late edition but it's been advertised we have a preformal bargaining hearing tomorrow at 4:15 here in the boardroom just want to make sure everybody knew that so that's that okay right are we are ex directly after meeting aded
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all board members and administrators are present at this time I would invite everyone to join the Pledge of Allegiance FL flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all know literally right first item on agenda is a consent agenda to approve the previous meeting minutes and various other documents are there any additions or Corrections than second all in favor I I all right moving on to Old business we have a policy 4322 V Kart yeah so this is a second reading um on this policy on um defining habitual treny and also outlining um participation in extracurricular um for co-curricular events um if a student is defined as habitually Trent so there were no changes from the first reading um so as you see in in there that policy there defining Trent and then saying that students would be allowed to participate or continue in extracurricular activities or co-curricular per administrative approval so flexibility is there to still work with um students knowing each situation may be different so happy to take any questions otherwise I would um recommend approval of policy 4322 all right any discussion heing I would entertain a motion to approve for approval second all in favor moving on the new business first item is to consider a choir trip and we have ladies to make a request good evening my name is Zoe Abbott and I'm the president of dynamic EXP R and a junior at CHS I'm Ana Barnes the vice president of seil seniors and a sophomore at CHS we are here to request approval for our annual music in the Parks trip this is a trip that all audition choirs have the opportunity to attend the choirs participating are the CMS Golding gions the CHS seal singers and dynamic expression we will participate in a competition on sun Saturday May 10th in attend the awards ceremony at Kings Island historically our choirs have done very well at this competition this year we will stay at greatwolf lodge on Saturday evening and spend the following day in the water park at Great Wolf Lodge Miss week and Lisa Warren have provided us with some materials so you can see the breakdowns of the trip cost the trip is not required however all students will have the opportunity to fundraise for the trip and also request financial assistance our fundraiser for this trip will be the C fundraiser and many students have been able to pay off their entire trip with this fundraiser got to see while you're looking over those documents I would like to take this time to share my favorite memories and parts about this CP going on this trip as a freshman in sophomore provided me opportunity to make stronger bonds with other choir members regardless of grade or previous friendship not only does this trip help to bond the choir it also gives us a chance to run our show set again giving us more practice and experience performing in front of an audience also being able to spend a day in the Kings Island Park feels like a reward through for for our hard work throughout the year some of my strongest friendships have been made through this trip and I would love to be able to provide this experience an opportunity for younger members of our choir we are looking forward to hopefully getting another opportunity to compete with other choirs and make memories with our fellow choir members thank you for your consideration of this trip saying that's one of the best presentations we' seen all right any uh any questions from the board [Music] Saturday Sunday not missing school yeah not missing school because it's Saturday Sunday right I would make a motion to approve second all in favor I all right thank you can stay you're absolutely welcome you may leave thank you than's go thank you all right the next item is public hearing for the 2025 budget that uh yes so this this one is just to approve our two plans uh the first one is the capital projects plan um this plan lists out our Capital expenditures that we're expecting over the next threeyear period um you'll see that we have everything listed that was in our three-year plan that we presented for you um in doing the bond issuance as well as some other miscellaneous items that are normal expenditures throughout the normal course bar operations I would recommend that you approve this resolution to adopt this plan with this the final step in making that happen so are there any questions for Andrew regarding cap projects plan heing none I would entertain a motion to approve motion to approve second all in favor I all right next is the bus replacement plan uh yes so this lists the buses that are planned for replacement over the next 5 years um we are not held to this plan to do it in the order in which it states on there um we do have some other ideas with having the electric buses coming and our current Fleet that we had purchased two years ago finally arriving um that's kind of pushed us back a little bit on some Replacements um so this is just what is planned for the next 5 years it's just another requirement for us to get our budget approved by the dgs so I recommend that you approve this resolution for the bus replacement plan any extra questions here I would entertain a motion to approve the bus replacement plan so move second all in favor next item is to consider a memor memorandum of understanding Corporation doer yeah um like earlier we had approved a a different um doctor for the corporation doctor um Dr Douglas we had reached out to him um in the spring and he had worked some things out and since he was retired he had to figure out some insurance and he was able to work finally get to a point where he could come back and tell us yes and then so we did communicate with the doctor through proactive MD who was helping us out um and was willing to step aside from that role obviously having Dr was um makes him more accessible and Amber's relationship with working with him over the years also helps and when we're in immediate need of situations where we need to talk to the doctor so I would recommend that the board approve the memory understanding between profille Community Schools and Dr Scott Douglas that's a that's a big one for us yes any discussion I would make a motion to approve that's second all in favor hi hi all right next is consider a Cara mccf Grant application yeah so in your packet um you will see the the application there for the Montgomery County Community Foundation Grant there um so it is written for two pieces one um overall um just with the program having some growing needs and um which which is a good thing but um with that comes some some extra things and some some maintenance of things so technology in the classroom is one just time to replace some of those things so Smartboard um that's starting to have some issues in there so uh that is one of the items that is there in there would be to replace um the Smartboard that's in the classroom and then the other piece is um El so some growing needs in the English learner um areas so testing requirements that were held to there so um that piece is in there in terms of helping with them getting the the testing materials to to make uh those needs be met as well so we recommend approval of the Cara application for the grant you mentioned the uh Smart Boards I recall in a board meeting years ago a demonstration and uh amazing technology for the classroom and it continues to grow so yeah we were just talking with Doug the other day about some of those things and how quickly they change and come and go and but yeah it's pretty amazing what they can do all right any other discussion hearing that I would entertain a motion to approve the Grant application I motion to approve the Grant application second all in favor I next item is considered the adoption uh tax rates Andre going to walk through that uh yes so this is the last step in our budget process for you as board previous meetings consisted of public hearings for the proposal of the budget and the tax rates that we advertised uh once approved these budget forms will be sent off to the dgf we have five days to submit those after tonight um and then we just wait for them to tweak our numbers and see where they come back to us to tell us where our actual budget will fall uh so I would recommend that the board approved this resolution can you talk us through the two columns with adopted budget adopted tax Lev some some are way different yeah so the adopted budget is what we expect to spend out of those funds um just based up like The Debt Service is very clearcut that's what our debt payments are for the next year um operations and rainy day and education those are our projections with payroll raises raises in utility costs like what we expect to spend the levy is based off of the that third column the tax rate um that is per $100 of assessed valuation so the levy is just a calculation of what we've put in as $500 million for the evaluation times the tax rate um that number will drop in most cases because they will lower our tax rates um but our assessed valuation did come back from the county at 514 Mill so there is some room there to not have it drop as much tax caps you want to mention that uh so we do have tax caps with the circuit breaker um the majority of ours is residential so it's a 1% which says that the taxpayer will not be charged over 1% in total and then we get our portion but the school is the only one that has the cut for the cap so everyone else gets their tax rate first and then the school gets Li essentially yeah libraries townships County City depending on what area you live in that's interesting it's very interesting and when we have an operations budget of 7 million and we may bring in 3.6 million how do we cover that right that's the yeah the majority of it gets covered through the transfers that we do from education operations because we do receive what would be considered an excess of State funding over what is expended in education so that's where we make up for it um but then we also factor in miscellaneous revenues like our interest income that we have and rental costs things like that there's one thing here that may correction is the date of 2023 on here um it's just in your notes for your oh yeah in the action report yes all right thank you all right any additional discussion make a motion to a motion to approve so move second all in favor I next item is to considerate common School Technology fund loan yes so the fall cycle has opened I opened on October 2nd I believe and we would like to apply for this round for the fall cycle um we're still compiling all of the documentation and the numbers needed to finish the application that's due by November 8th so right now we just uh recommend that the board approves management to apply for up to 250,000 for this fall cycle um the majority of the costs are to um buy Fleet of Chrome books for the next school year as well as any cases or software that needs to go with those as well as looking to upgrading the projection um projectors in the Middle School pretty common procedure for us to do that all right any additional discussion would entertain a motion to approve so move second all in favor I moving right along with Personnel yes uh we have three resignations here um two a assistants and one teacher second grade teacher from Nicholson um all for personal reasons and I would recommend the board accept the resignation Jackie 1322 five sheti with us through the whole semester she to quit last January yeah exactly I move approving the resignations second all in favor I okay a recommendation yeah I recommend that we hire Diana Bay as a Wilson preschool Aid is there a motion I approval second all in favor all right business manager rep Andrew yeah just a couple of items um Steve Dr Dr Dr rker and I uh did meet with our Auditors for the next cycle um on Tuesday to get started with that process and to go through their expected schedule uh right now they're expecting to do field work the beginning of December so we do have some time to get some files ready they are looking to do it almost completely virtual just like we had the last time so we're used to that it's just going to take some time to get some scanning done but the business office is ready for it um I hope to be done by Christmas and then have a report uh by February so we will not discuss any of it until probably March or April after it becomes public uh front line is our system that we are using now for absence management and time in attendance uh we moved all of our employees over to it this week we went live with both systems fully operating uh still working out some tweaks but I'll give a shout out to the HR coordinator Heather Ford and Stephanie uh working through the installation of that and working this week through hiccups here and there of getting account set up and people not having the right access so we're going to keep working through that and hopefully it helps us gain some more efficiencies with our payroll process and how we track absences and then last um I did attend the boy systems our financial software vendor their annual conference and participate in their user Council to help them gain more efficiencies and understand how we use their systems and how we want their systems to run for us um we do have some great updates coming down the pipeline that they're not letting us share yet but we are very excited for them and will help make things a lot easier for us as a corporation so looking forward to that and how they can help us run our accting more efficiently nice participate those when your what you want out in front of them that is all I have all right thank you Andrew moving on to assistant superintendent Dr Bart yeah so we were talking about the admin building a little bit ago on the Limestone and brick is going up so yeah West Side there you can you can see that going the windows are all in um it look good look sharp starting to starting to look like a real building from the outside and inside it's doing the same so ceiling insulation is um is probably 99% in um except for a couple areas they're leaving open to be able to access um as they finish a couple things and uh drywall is starting to go up um and they are moving along they've been focusing this week on the uh mechanical room getting that drywall mudded um and dry as they have the the units and Equipment they on site so as soon as that is ready then they can start putting those things in so um it is um shaping up and and like like a build so good asked a lot of times and been told but what is the substantial completion and final completion dates estimated original estimated timeline was um back half of February um but we are a little bit behind um a few weeks behind but and talking with Greg and and Steve what they're able to make up we'll we'll see they believe they can make up some of that time um and yeah as you see some things move along this week I mean even yeah the brick um we'll see what what they're able to to gain but um yeah probably more looking like March or April depending on what what they're able to make up so but did have our final Furniture meeting um as well this past week so pieces are finalized that was scheduled that was kind of the last piece right and that was scheduled like the last week of February after the tenative completion uh like we around February 23rd or something like that I want to say but right around there so um school safety just a couple things there um all the buildings been run through evacuation drills lock down Intruder drills um Amber's been um adding a lot of those things up with the buildings the fire department did just go around and do their um uh checks as well with fire safety month and um Nicholson received uh the award for um uh for for their piece there and so they were presented that just the other day and so they were were excited as they should be and um lot goes into that so um the big piece is accountability um of timing of how quick we get kids out of the building and staff out of the building um so those things are always being looked at discussed um Building Safety teams have debrief discussions afterwards and talk through what um with any drill what went well and worked we continue to improve so um next on the horizon we are um scheduled to do a reunification drill November 12th and um that would be the middle school will be reunifying to the high school so we've definitely taken some things from H at the end of last year in our uh piece there and and have looked at what we can do in our our drills coming up so um so you might start to see some things there with uh with that piece the middle school on November 12th um isarn checkpoints been working through those been getting initial data back in the pilot of that this year um we'll say unfortunately data is not as deep as what we would like to have seen um just compared to maybe what we're used to seeing with ir and NWA so um it is a pilot there are more things to come out so hopefully this St will um you in these pilot groups they're also getting feedback from the schools and that's so you're able to give them that feedback yeah um and they have different areas where they'll be soliciting specific feedback too but um and that seems to be pretty common in the networks and that we've been communicating with and been hearing has been the data um they give reporting categories so like for example one reporting category would be on adding subtracting multip dividing so we know whether they're at proficiency wise there but we don't know is the struggle if they're struggling is it in adding or is it in dividing or is so it's just all in one so being able to get deep into that data um hopefully we'll see some adjustments there and they'll bolster that piece leading to next year when the checkpoints will be uh required so uh PSAT testing also going um on so High School actually was doing uh PSAT testing today and uh the Middle School um was uh doing theirs on the seventh so Middle School is new so that'll be a new one for us so we are doing that 8th grade through 10th grade um and looking at how we can use that data to for a couple couple things in terms of instruction and placement but um but also as we look at the pathways and and those pieces that that come along there um as well so we be get into that piece so you said eth grade is new how long have we been doing nth grade or is it just 8th and 10th well 8th and 9th um are actually both new it's traditionally been going on in 10th Grade because I knew it was usually 10th but I so 8th and N I yeah I should have said nth grade is also new yeah so I was thinking more from the building like sure High School is used to doing PSAT at least in 10th grade middle school is not used to doing it at all so um little leg work there so definitely some kudos to the Middle School lawn um getting set up in college board and that was a bit of a process so and is it all eth cuz it used to do it where only certain 10th graders and then we've expanded it to all 10th graders a while and now is it all e or nth all just everyone's getting exposed everyone's and hopefully we can start you know they take it again in 9th grade we can have some comparative data there too um and it all leads to you know right now all get are taking the sat right and so being able to to ourr and and work with kids through that so um IPL fall seminar uh recently Tammy um Jen and Adam uh all attended that that's the Indiana principal Leadership Institute and um Tam and Jen also have a couple of their teacher leaders that are in a year two with them so um that is a great great program and um definitely appreciate the principles um dedication to their growth and their commitment to to IPL and what that that provides so appreciate them and their growing leadership capacity so that is your assistant superintendent report thank you Dr Bart superent report Dr rer all right I'll start with what the assistant superintendent didn't report is that tomorrow's is our staff development day um and it's focused on effective instruction in every classroom and part of our high liability school system and process um this is a step towards receiving level two certification and Dr Boart is the one who's done all the work to set this up so um definitely think he's done a great job arranging this event also with this event um will be the first time ever like on a professional development day that we are providing child care for our staff um so uh it's Amber re and Stephanie and Heidi plunket worked on Staffing communication and Molly white cotton and Kelly bowling helped arrange for some High School National Honor Society students to help too so we have our infant and toddlers that rooms going that normally work and have that Staffing but then we open it up kind of for prek to grade five so um so yeah it' be a nice thing I think the child care is something caring and wonderful that we're doing but it's takes a lot of people figure out child care so um and communicate it and those type of things so that's right I think that we have the systems in place to do it but I now understand why it's very difficult for some uh institutions to run a child care our new teachers made a point to tell me what what game changer that is yeah here we go good all right uh organizational management uh we have again formal negotiations and they're very close to tenative agreement um both sides primary focus is providers greater salary increase as possible um our student numbers are strong so there is new money for us to negotiate and so we've had very good conversations we have a great relationship um in working through that so I we'll keep you updated as that progresses but we'll probably need to schedule well not we do need to schedule another board meeting we'll have to have one that's 72 hours before our November board meeting so I would ask if everybody could look at your calendars and actually I wanted to say let's look at November 88th that's a Friday I put on here the 18th but I think we we're not going to be ready by next 14th is board meeting so we want to do it sometime the week before we need 72 hours in between but and at least 72 yes or 72 business day hours or whatever gotta yeah I can I can we on and noon are you thinking yes that works for me awesome work get back awesome okay great um Community world we did get our I think last time I told you how well we had done with our United Way giving so we got our little plaque and we were the top um giving a Setter group out of the group so that was excellent just just a hair above [Music] North but but you we had gone up almost about $99,000 in our giving and our participation was up as well so um yes jeans as part of business casual was was a great motivator I guess but no very caring group and proud that we are that caring and giving um had the privilege of speaking to the W bash College Board of Trustees on Saturday spoke along with Kelly Taylor from the Community Foundation and Randy Allen from the city and discuss our positives and challenges that our organization face in our connection to W bash college so it was very nice to have a w bash and make a donation to Crawford schools after the talk so there you go so on Tuesday well thank you excellent I can talk to W folks yeah so those things are there but um it's good thank you for sharing that I'm excited to announce that Congressman Jim Barrett and representative Bo Barett are coming to hose as guest readers for our leaders as readers program last year when I introduced the leaders as readers program at our community council meeting um representative Boer expressed interest and we talked and we finally found a date that'll work and so they'll also be bringing some books um to donate so that be exciting that be next Friday at 8:45 a.m.
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