I've worked with Massachusetts in uh data wise cycles and empowering teachers in order to be able to look at how data is used across um schools and across the district. My experience is with looking at horizontal alignment. Um obviously Chabby is a much bigger district but they have a lot of sim we have a lot of similar demographics. we have a lot of similar um aspirations and goals for really giving a strong instructional core for high quality material. And so I've had a lot of work with that in the high school as a principal. And now for my third year in um in central office I've also worked on doing vertical alignment prek tok uh with curriculum with systems and with structures. other experiences that I think would be beneficial for Greenfield and what I bring is I'm the assistant superintendent for support services um for Chipe and that's about 7,000 students 15 schools we do prek all the way to um 12th grade and so now I directly oversee anything that is not directly curriculum so um all the social emotional supports counseling transportation nursing behavior discipline, food service, athletics.
Any questions on this policy? In that case, I'm looking for a motion to recommend Cade policy 5124 reporting to par reporting to parents to the board for first read. Make a motion. >> Thank you, Anita. Is there a second on that motion, please? >> Sorry. Go ahead, Minnie. >> Okay, we'll give that to Minnie. All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I >> I.
They don't receive them as frequently. >> So somebody actually goes into the classroom and observe them for how long? >> Correct. Um I have to check on the duration of the observation but there is a required observation for an evaluation. There is also a mentor teacher who is working with the teacher. So they also observe them and provide coaching. Okay. questions. You know there's a question ultimately >> hold on Senator. >> Thank you. So um is there a way that you guys can assess what districts have the most um unlicensed teachers >> and how can you make it easier for them to get license? For instance, rather than them all having to drive to the university or wherever, can there be a school that they congre congregate at to get their license and get their education? Has that been looked at? >> So, um so yes, so we can um provide information about where we have more of our emergency hired teachers on a uh on a county on a complex area basis.
>> So any questions about that? >> You're welcome. And I think I'm I'm good unless there are other questions. >> Are we are we targeting certain degrees teachers or is just like any student teacher that wants to come? >> Any student teacher that wants to come or an area in which we have certified teachers, right? So obviously if they're trying to get a CTE certification in wood shop, Kraton is not going to be where they come. They'll go to Scottsdale for that. I think I'm all set. >> All right. Again, if you have a question that comes to mind, please put it on your post-it note and stick it on the parking lot. Vanessa's going to do just about a five, six minute uh finance intro >> and then um and then we'll take a break and come back and let her finish up. So, it's all you Um, I was going to ask, did you want to go ahead and put up the link for for the um maybe that information that um >> the one with the the headlines I don't know what it's called on here.
The team together has an amazing energy. It's it's really fantastic to watch. There's this compassion and care and it's top-notch. The team knows the names and the faces of our residents and the team knows which direction to point the residents in when they need assistance. Our volunteers, this is a major hub at the center for volunteers. A lot of our volunteers work not only for the senior service or volunteer for the senior services department, but they also volunteer for our food pantry. It's okay. Um, we feel um these improvements are going to allow us to expand our capacity to serve even more residents. We consistently hear that the community wants more programming, more opportunities for both children and seniors, and these changes directly respond to those requests. They will enhance the diverse programming we already offer and improve the quality of care, services, and support we provide.
I'm going to miss something. Um, but I work very closely with the superintendent and the assistant superintendent for instruction. We work together. So, but anything that's not curriculum, um, I do also work with the summer school and title one and the title one coordinator. So I believe that my experience is putting structures in place, putting safety features in place, looking at making sure that um there is the right structures in case anyone feels that they are being bullied. Um as a title N coordinator, I work with civil rights, I work with Title N. So, I've put a lot of procedures in place to make sure that all the reporting of any sort of issues is dealt with swiftly and that there's procedures and policies in place. Um, I've worked with a lot of the discipline and behavior expectations all the way from all the schools and put some place some uh guidelines to help teachers manage behavior expectations.
Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. We've got two policies left. Okay, the next one is policy 5145.12 and it's search and seizure. Um, essentially the essence of this policy is talking about a school administrator's ability to conduct a search and potentially obtain an item that is not permitted in school. Um, and so this I the language to me sounds very um law enforcement, but this is really talking about our ability of the school administration um who is you know the acting official and kind of local parent when the student is at school and it is under very specific circumstances. So you will see here there's really three times that this is permissible. You have to have reasonable suspicion. So, we can't just go rumaging through kids lockers or desks or whatnot just because we feel like it. Um, there has to be a reason. It has to be reasonable in scope, meaning um that, you know, if we're told that that a student has something in their backpack, we might be searching their backpack and their, you know, their person, asking if they have anything in their pockets, but we're not going to go all out and search the entire school.
The complex area with the largest number of emergency hired teachers is Baldwin Kalik Ken Hako Maui with 179. Um we we do see a lot of issues with shortages and with housing challenges for Maui County uh in particular. So we have that information. Um the other is we are um beginning discussions with some of the teacher preparation programs about if if this program uh if this law passed could we restructure how the programs are timed so that it fits better with a teaching schedule uh with a teacher schedule for these particular group of teachers. Does DOE assist these emergency hires in any way to get their license or to overcome some of the obstacles? >> So the the most significant obstacle or the what's required to to complete the teacher license within the uh 3 years is primarily to complete the state approved teacher education program.
Oh, okay. [laughter] Okay. Um, so you know, obviously when I come in early, I talk about the doom and gloom of the budget because we are in declining enrollment. Um, I think we've said declining enrollment so many times that it becomes like just a nothing um reaction, right? Oh, declining enrollment. We always have declining enrollment. So, uh, this year it'll be really important to kind of dig into those declining enrollment stats and the cliffs that occur. uh these cliffs are occurring throughout the state and um you'll see the the headlines um are talking about cuts, they're talking about uh closing schools, they're talking about layoffs. Um what's interesting is uh who gets in the news and who doesn't because I'll tell you that in declining enrollment, we navigate uh decreased staff through attrition. um Chandler just put their whole um information out there. It's a I feel like a really negative public lens to talk about things that we do on a regular basis and these are just the administrative working things.
On any given week, more than 60 volunteers are active in this building, at least 60. These updates uh will ensure the facility is accessible to all residents and provide a safe, functional working environment for both staff and volunteers. We feel the community impact is great. Um we are incredibly proud and of the work our team does every day. Our community is fortunate to have a facility that brings together so many programs, events, and essential services under one roof, supporting residents at every stage of life. Our staff works collaborative collaboratively in this shared space and it's essential that the building continues to function safely and efficiently. This plan builds on what we already have, a safe, welcoming community center while strengthening connections and reinforcing our commitment to delivering highquality municipal services. Taken as a whole, this project reflects our commitment to investing in spaces that bring people together, strengthen community connections, and support residents of all ages in meaningful ways.
And I also think I've been a great support to administrators and principles on how to deal with some of those in the classroom. So I really between being a a health teacher and being very uh strong in social emotional support and then being a vice principal for a school of about thousand for quite a few years I believe six years seven years and then a principal for that same school. I really saw a lot of the instruction. I saw a lot of what needed to be done. And now being at central office was just vital to understand the budgeting, the the politics, what what everyone was going through from all ages and all grades and being able to to attack the different problems with with teams, sometimes on my own, mostly with teams, in order to make sure that schools and students had the best education, that we were looking at the whole child.
Um, and the reason that we're doing it is that there is an emergency or dangerous situation. So for example, the two probably um more common uh you know times in which it is absolutely essential would be is if there is a contraband item um could be anything from you know drugs, alcohol, things like that that are not allowed in school. Um or it could be um if it's dangerous could be something um like a weapon. Um and this really allows us to take the matter into our hand. This is all about um making sure that the larger school community, right, we would not be doing our job if we heard that a student had an item that was not okay for school that could cause, you know, serious bodily injury or harm to another individual, student or adult um if we did not follow through on this.
So they have to earn a they're have a bachelor's degree. So they have to earn their post complete a postbalorate certificate or they need to do the master's program and so for different um high need areas there might be programs to assist like grow your own programs for certain but it's uh but it's not across the board for every type of teacher. >> Okay. So DOE itself does not help some of these because I've had a couple of calls on people saying that they did the degrees and so forth but they're having trouble getting their license with with teacher standard board that a lot of technical issues that make them go through the process again and again I don't know if again and again but again um and so that has been so do folks don't assist them in any way. So I I would say that I my the examples that I'm aware of the for example a case I know of a principal was advocating for their teacher to get through the process um with the standards board and and and then eventually called me because um so I'd tell you a specific case I do know that the administrators will try to support their teachers in meeting licensing requirements about it.
It is a uh you know that you have something approved by your board either a staffing ratio um in some fashion. So discussing the inner workings um and not the end results, I'm just not not sure why. Uh because Chandler was able to handle all of the cuts that they were talking about uh just through attrition. They didn't cut anybody. Um just like we do every year we lose a certain amount of staff and we make decisions in this room about you know what type of funding and how much we're going to put where. That then is a a budget calculation. It's numbers. Um and then through attrition we just don't open up those positions when we have less kits. So um the headlines are interesting. If we go to the the next one um the next slide there is talking about the district closures and staff reductions.
So, some of the cost savings, sustainability, and the long-term cost savings through preventative maintenance. Um, so we're doing the weatherization project that will improve the efficiency of the heating and cooling. We'll use a more efficient and sustainable way to heat and cool the new spaces. Um, we'll also be replacing any lighting that is not LED lighting. um including the new spaces will have LED lighting which will also have a long-term um cost savings to us. And so making these changes at the community center aligns directly with our comprehensive plan strategies. So to name a few, the expansion of our senior and recreation services and promoting aging in place. I know we've talked about this a couple times, but we really do have a great team. You can see um that we have some new faces up there. I don't know if you can see the picture, but I'll start with the person standing in the win with the winter hat.
um that we were looking at how the community could help and I've done a lot of work with that with wraparound services. So I do have a lot of strong experience and a lot of um different areas and a lot of multitasking and I've been able to stay laser focused on helping all students um get what they need. And I'm also very honest and straightforward about gaps and other issues that still need to be addressed no matter where I am. And I would do the same for Greenfield. Um I would look at data. I would ask a lot of questions. I would talk to a lot of people and make sure that everyone feels comfortable with the the direction and the vision of all of you and of myself and of the commu the greater community in in Greenfield. Thank you. >> Good evening and thank you for being here.
So, this really talks about yes, we have, you know, if there is um reasonable suspicion, our administrators are allowed to conduct the search. Um, and that could be um anything on, you know, that could be items that they've brought to school, a backpack, it could be um a locker, it could be a desk, so on and so forth to make sure that we're maintaining the safety and security for the larger school community. There is an alternative language section here and I'll just call it out before um we go into discussion. Um and again this is Cabe recommended uh as something to consider regarding um strip searches. That is not something that we are recommending to be considered in this policy. um that is not something that is in current practice um and would not be a section of this policy that we feel is needed.
No, I I worked with the school and tried to help the teacher get the evidence that they needed to be or provide guidance to them on how to get the evidence standard board in any way. >> We in that case contacted the teacher standards board. Yes. >> Okay. >> Senator Hashima. >> So at the at the end of the day, the the teachers the the principal has the ability to not rehire the the teacher, right? The emergency hire after that they don't feel like they're meeting their needs, right? Correct. And um if there is a teacher in emergency hire position this year, that position will be advertised for next year for a fully licensed teacher. And >> so really it is truly a band-aid. >> Yes, it's a band-aid. And so the if the position is filled by a licensed teacher, the emergency hired teacher wouldn't be hired.
Again you know just trying to bring some of this into perspective. There's a lot of sensationalism when this goes out um on the news. It gets people talking. So you say, "Oh, we closed a school and you know all the poor staff there." No, maybe like depends depends on their enrollment. About 10% maybe a cut to uh the teacher FTEES when you close a school. Um maybe a little higher depending on their declining enrollment. But what happens when you close a school? There's still a bunch of kids in that school. They go to another school that you're keeping open and they take the staffing with them. So when you close a school, you're looking at the savings in a staffing lens of about 10% of uh certified teaching staff, but you got 100% for a principal, an AP. Um maybe a little less, 95% when it talks about the office support staff because you may need to uh if you make a a school bigger, you may need a little bit more front office uh staff support.
Um that's Yushi. And then we have Hannah, Mary, Kelly, Devin, Susan, Jill, Dena, Area, and Candy. And missing is Berlin, who's here in our audience tonight. And our social work intern is also not pictured there. Morgan [laughter] >> having fun. >> [snorts] >> Um, >> we have some of our community center staff represented here in the audience tonight, all of which have some fairly new staff um and have worked tirelessly to build a cohesive team and they've done just that. Uh, with some of the new and long-standing employees, we have a good mix of energy. Our newer employees are definitely bringing a new sort of excitement and fresh perspective and it's working and we are so proud of the work that's taking place. Lastly, we'd like to thank Doug Scott for assisting us with getting our plan to paper. Diane Mortonson for helping us put together our funding strategy to have the least financial impact on the taxpayer and our staff and volunteers for their hard work on prepping their space for the upcoming project and assisting in the temporary relocation of the food pantry.